One in Twelve Thousandth Percent

Chapter 18:

Sim Room - Mars Colony Mission:

"Let's get there and back as quickly as possible." We turn a corner and almost run right into the back of a guard. I stand up, holster my pistol and calmly, but quietly walk up to the guy. As I get closer to him, I snap my fingers, concentrating, which emits that reverb sound again faintly. Behind me, the girls frown and look at each other. He hears the sound and turns around, raising his gun in the process. I grab it with my right hand and transmute it into a rather large, unsightly set of handcuffs that cover his hands completely. I crouch down, then jump-kick the metal cuffs, causing them to bash him in the head, knocking him out.

Misaki finds an empty side room for us to stash him into. Then she turns to me. "Where did that come from?" I shrug. "I dunno, change of pace I guess? Let's go."

Just as we're closing the door, his radio goes off. "This is Sentry 01 on the south side. A while ago, I got ambushed by a bunch of girls on an ATV. I got hit with a stun bullet and just woke up. I think they're looking to infiltrate the compound. Keep your eyes peeled."

"Shit, we need to go." I close the door. We turn another corner and suddenly the lights in the building go from white to yellow. "Attention, facility security. We have intruders. Intercept and apprehend. Only kill if necessary. Repeat, only kill if necessary."

"Well, our element of surprise is gone." Misaki says, looking behind her as we're walking. At the far end of the hall, ahead of us, a guard rounds the corner and sees us.

"Hey! Drop your weapons! Command, I found them. Will move to apprehend."

"Negative, wait for backup."

We all look over at him. I look back at the girls. "Strike!" Shocked, they follow me as we charge the guard. He lifts his gun to shoot. I shout out "Kaz, shield. Belle, blast!" They holster their pistols and charge up their powers. Kazumi holds her hand out and just smiles at the guard as he starts to shoot. Gunshots ricocheting and littering the walls to her left and right as she advances towards him.

Annabelle swirls her arms, her power a purple color and her motions more dance-like. "Ready, sis?" Kaz nods. Through the momentum of her flowing body, Annabelle launches her blast. As it nears the shield, Kaz bends it so her blast zooms past then returns it to normal. The blast hits the guard square in the chest and sends him to the other end of the hallway.

I look at Annabelle. She smiles. "Don't worry. He's still alive, but he's not gonna wake up for a couple days." I give her a thumbs up. "Nice. Let's move."

We hear his radio again. "Scout 25, report! Send someone to Scout 25s last known location." I look at the girls. "Let's go. This area isn't gonna be silent much longer." We dash down another hallway and around a corner.

"Make a left here." Annabelle says, looking at the holographic map on her Custodian.

"Wait!" I whisper. Down the hall somewhere are more guards voices getting closer. "Shit!" I transmute another opening in a wall and we go in. The wall closes just in time. Ten seconds later a mass of footsteps rushes past us.

Misaki, Annabelle and I breathe a sigh of relief. "Hey gals." Kazumi whispers. We all look in her direction and see the room we are now in. It's what looks like an experiment testing room with hundreds of pods lining the walls. It looks like there are human-like creatures inside them.

I look at the others. "Girls, it looks like we've come across one reason why they didn't want us commoners to ever visit the Mars colony." Annabelle puts her hand on one pod and looks at another. "They're all clones. Are they working on some kind of clone army?"

Kazumi chuckles. "You mean like one of those old 1950s movies about beam swords, magic powers and clone armies that they told us about in History class?"