A form of pure excitement infused and consumed with happiness.

Then a mission a massive improbability defeated by skill knowledge and planning.

Eggs over-easy. Recruitment plans detailed. A punk show. Some crazies.

Pancakes. Soundwave weapons, and community planning. Things started to happen faster.

We built the school. We recruited parents with prospective kids, prospective parents, and teachers building the community.

Adding to it ourselves popping out a boy then a girl. We taught, we fought and sometimes even parented.

* * *

Pitt, he got his name at four or five when he decided to make a pool and dug a giant hole

while we were out reclaiming some plutonium the Army “lost” to one of the remnant factions of the neocons.

He spent all summer digging that hole, more I think because he was trying to live up to his new name, than wanting a pool that bad.

Of course after I got the pool plumbed and self heated using a reflective bottom and a greenhouse canopy.

But Courtney had to spoil things showing him another Pitt to use a s a namesake.

Sethra got her name at about the same age when she beat me for the first time in SC2. She was already familiar with the character

and took it as a great compliment. It took three days for her conscience to win out and confess to hacking.

“Cheating’s ok as long as you accept the repercussions,. noogie time!”

Everything and everyone seemed to accelerate changing to rapidly for me to catch.

The kids covering the biology I learned in college in elementary.

Craig and Jen running the school deciding what info needed to be disseminated to the elite of the next direction.

Ryan and Marc making weapons then creating defenses against them.

I was falling behind. The only times I caught up or pulled ahead were concerts, opps, and doin it.

Time was moving faster than I could handle.

* * *

“The West Wing, Scrubs, Homicide,,, My So Called Life” Courtney “Are you only letting them watch the stuff you grew up with?”

“Yyyeeessssssss”

“Don’t you think you’re depriving them of being a part of modern culture.”

“Modern culture is for rejects and retards. So yes I will “deprive them of that.”

“And the only regular tv you’ll let them watch will be Browns games right?”

* * *

“And the UFC, for educational purposes.”

“Hey Jen! Vers finally lost it!” Craig yelled across the office.

“How’s that?” Jen

“You should have a religion class.” I

“Says the penultimate atheist.” Craig

“Think of it like a vaccination, a dose of the virus without the ability to reproduce.

Tell them all the stories showing them the incompatibilities, impossibilities and internal contradictions, those will be the antibodies.

You already have a mythology class what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal?, the big deal is mythology at least has some good writing.” Craig

“Zing!” Jen

* * *

As I sat in bed kneeled staring at myself chugging a milkjug of coolaid I wondered how I got so sweet.

I went down to get some food and found Trudy and Shade making meatnormises while Courtney was giving

the youngins a run down of what material was being covered according to their teachers’ planners.

“Isn’t that cheating?” I asked.

“It’s called reconnaissance Courtney

“We could intimidate and threaten them instead.” Sethra

“Blackmail?”

“Hold em hostage.” Shade

“Is torture going to far?” Trudy

Nos came from everywhere.

“Are your classes that hard?” I

“No, they’re great, this is just for entertainment purposes.” Sethra

Pitt “I think we should be spending more time discussing issues that are contested rather than

wrote memorization.”

‘Hhmmpf…he wants a class on “What the Browns need to do to win the AFC North.” Sethra

“I like it, maybe we could make it into a practical by terrorizing the Learner family into giving us personnel control.” I

I received stares from all directions.

“What you can do it, but I can’t.”

* * *

We painted a happytree rasturbation in one of the upstairs rooms, planned to take

out a known East African arms dealer and me and Courtney hooked up with the German teacher Mrs. Alexander.

It was a good day.

* * *

For breakfast we had german pancakes with fresh berries, whole and or mashed up into an almost jam.

Later I went to the shop to see if Ryan could whip something up for this ‘party’ I was planning.

“So, Ryan, you know those soundwave weapon dohickeys, do you think we could use them as speakers?”

“So you can kill people with music?”

“I want to put them in the pool, and like there aren’t any pool speakers remotely close to powerful

enough to make you feel the music the same way as you do standing in front of a regular speaker.

And I figure that if the 50 cal only penetrates three feet into water those soundwaves would create something

where the bass would toss you around and the treble blasts through your body vibrating all your small bones the same way regular bass vibrates the long bones.”

“Sounds plausible, when do you need them by?”

“Not for quite sometime. This is like step one of like lots in having a party at the house.”

“I’ll have em ready in two weeks.”

“You just said it was plausible a minute ago.”

“I didn’t care at that point.”

* * *

We put “the monster jumper” rasturbation in another room, planned a raid on a white pride group in Virginia, and I put it to Courtney real good.

It was a good day.

* * *

I reach out and hold her tight, it’s all I need.

And there’s my pet three headed dragon,

we’re out on the beach playing, fucking around and shit and one of the heads steals my hat and acts all retarded.

Then another takes it, does the same, and then the third, but on him it’s fuckin perfect he’s totally a fuckin tard.

And from then on I take them everywhere, and we go to Walmart, and Scott is there and he’s like

“What do you feed them?” and I’m like “Customers, nobody’s ever gonna miss these people.”

“Don’t you worry about their cholesterol

“They burn it off!!!” Hahahahahahhah.,. they’re fucking dragons they don’t have cholesterol.”

“But I might have to start towing away their cars.” I wondered as the dragons tossed back a few fatties

And then we went and played at the park. It was awesome. I loved those dragons,,. I woke up.

Still, they were great pets.

Potato pancakes for breakfast. Talk to the kids about the relationships between lines of fire and zone defense.

Ask Ryan for random ways to store a breath of oxygen. Go to sleep with Courtney.

Just knowing she existed would keep me going forever, but actually touching her, holding her, she felt like home. I sunk into the feeling.

* * *

I woke up with Courtney lying next to me her embrace sa,, Coffee I smell coffee. I scrambled downstairs and found we had unexpected visitors, the very best kind.

I smiled an earth shattering smile hugged them all ran over grabbed some food, the coffee pot, and herded them all into the living room.

Why, because these were people that made not being comfortable impossible.

Von and Vanessa were already engaged with the kids, Allie and Brandon interrogating Trudy on the effects of THC on lammas, on which she surprisingly know enough to

speak authoritatively. By that time I had enough sugar and caffeine to allow me to function.

“You want to put candy all over a lamma and to do this you want to get him stoned?”

“”If everybody shotgunned him he’s have to get high.” Brandon

“I like it.” Shade said a little too seriously.

“Can we try to get him to dance with us?” I

“Of course he’ll dance.” Brandon and Courtney said at the same time but in totally different ways.

At the shop Marc showed us some electron emmisomething something, lightning gun, it was sweet.

I asked Ryan if there was a good way to have an Abyss type entrance from the pool to the house, but he didn’t get what

I was saying so I told him I’d download it and show him. “Meanwhile how bout you work up some super evaporation fabrics.”

“Are you trying to create the next level of exercise apparel

“Fuck no, I love the feel of sweat, I just dislike wet swimsuits sometimes.”

“And you want me, me to work on it?”

“Umhm.”

Courtney and I spent the night snuggling. It was a straight up snuggle fest. I felt the carebears approve, understanding them far better.

* * *

“So we’ve got all these nukes that we don’t need right? I say we shoot em into space and blow em up in like prime numbers to

show anyone out there that might be watching there is intelligence out here.”

“But what if there’s martians and they think we’re trying to attack them.”

“We wouldn’t set them off in the solar system, if it’s possible I’d like em to go off outside the galaxy so there’s

more chance someone could see it. It would probably take like thousands of years, or fuck millions, I don’t know, and millions more for someone to see it,

but wouldn’t it be cool to say to the universe “There was someone out there.”",. “Besides Bugs could kick his ass.”

“I wasn’t talking about Marvin just martians in general.”

“Oh.” “Hey Pitt do you think Bugs could whup any martian or just Marvin?”

“Any martian.”

“Couldn’t aliens pick up our radio signals?” Trudy

“On the scale of things and with all sorts of criss crossing radiation no way any alien is picking up shit.” I

“I mean send a huge radio signal emitter out into nowhere instead of nukes, we could send a lot more information.” Trudy

“Trudy, in your plan nothing, nothing blows up. What’s the point?” I

“He has you there.” Shade

* * *

I woke to a sense of warmth in my stomach. A feeling of deep contentment and growth, possibly bowel cancer.

“Babe if I had bowel cancer do you think, would you be ok with, if I called it Quato.”

We walked downstairs to find mulberry yummyness and coffee that I swore had a hint of cinnamon.

After scarfing some of each I began to listen to what everyone else was sayin, instead of just faking it, while nibbling and sipping seconds.

“I’ve got a debate today with Brittney Burrow in philosophy Sethra

“On what?” Trudy

“Abortion, she’s prochoice.” Sethra

“You’re prolife???” Courtney

“Prorequired. Population control.” Pitt

“And for Lit I wrote a poem about rainbows!” Sethra

“Elitist rainbows that kill people?” Trudy

Later Ryan told us all about something or other.

I was staring at Courtney’s butt the whole time so I didn’t catch any of it, I hope she did.

Then Courtney told us all about capturing some people for some reason but the tank top was too much.

* * *

“How’d the debate go?” Trudy

“I won.” “She accepted my position

“What won the tight ass over?” I

“She was ok with any population control as long as there wouldn’t be any more of me.” Sethra

“No need to worry on that front.” Pitt said causing Trudy to tilt her head and Shade to smile.

“How was practice?” I asked Pitt

“The coach is a tard farmer.” Sethra

* * *

“It was good, we’re installing a spread option offense and running a tampa two.” Pitt

“He’s a tard farmer.” Sethra

* * *

Courtney’s hair. Courtney’s hair in my face. It feels good.

It feels nice. And I’m climbing again. It’s a cliff a thousand feet high.

and I’m there in the middle. And I’m in bed arched back looking out the window and I can’t understand. I’m climbing, climbing with purpose.

I woke up slowly but for realzies with my head mirroring Courtney’s which makes whatever happened insignificant, but still..

“Have I ever gone mountain climbing in South America?”

“You don’t even know how.”

Downstairs eating breakfast. “I want to go to USC next year.” Pitt

“For what?” Courtney

“Chicks.” Pitt

“Hell yeah.” I

“I going to go too.” Sethra

“And you want to go for?” Trudy

“The chicks.” Sethra

* * *

Sethra was failing number theory cause she wrote about how 7′s were happier than 3′s “Did you mention 3′s Look like E’s, and E’s suck?” I asked

“He said it didn’t prove anything, and

I told him ‘That’s why it’s still a theory.’ Then he just got pissed and told me to leave.” Sethra

“I was planning on flunking Latin.” Pitt

“And…” Sethra

“I ended up flunking Microbiology.”

“Because..” Sethra

“I stopped screwing Ms. O. and started screwing Dr. Reuss.”

“And..” Sethra

“They’re sisters.” Pitt

Shade gave him a hi-five while Trudy gave an evil look to both.

Me, Court, Truddloo, and Shade spent the afternoon tripping on shrooms and playing in haystacks.

Losing track of who was what and what was who.

Tunneling and tunneling over under around and through an endless ten foot circle.

* * *

Strength flows through me spreading and multiplying, completing and renewing.

Coffee was being poured in my mouth.

I looked up.

“How do you feel about us raising you to be super intelligent weapons.” Courtney

“It’s pretty fucked up.” Pitt

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Sethra

“Well we may need those skills.” Court

We all gave a wtf look except Sethra smiling and eager with Pitt exclaiming “Yessss”

Courtney nodded towards the opening door where Ryan was entering.

“We need to take out Kim Yong-chun, we need to do it now. He’s given command and control to field officers.” Ryan

“Why?” I

“He can’t win.” Courtney

“The Chinese will crush him.” Trudy

“Cause he’s crazy.” Pitt

“He has the power he’ll use it whatever the results.” Sethra

“Possible casualties?” Shade

“This could start WWIII.” Ryan

“Direct casualties, how many.” I

“100, 150 million.” Sethra

“What happens if we kill him?” said Courtney earning her some looks. “I mean how bad could the repercussions be?” Courtney

“It’s 100 million people it doesn’t matter what the repercussions are.” Pitt

“It would be a group of Americans killing the leader of powerful country that itself could trigger III” Trudy

“III centered and directed at the US.” Shade

They all looked to me. “We just won’t get caught then.”

“So what do we do?” Pitt

“You guys go to school, Ryan back to work, and the rest of us are gonna finish planning the party.” I said which was returned with a blank stares.

“I’m really starting to get paranoid about our movements being watched I don’t want anyone to think we’re about to make a move.”

“How can we plan without any time. This is a major operation it needs major recon and major logistics.”

“We have few days we’ll do it when we should be sleeping. A few modafinil each and we won’t even mind. That and some addys.”

“Drugs during a world crisis? Naughty naughty.” said Pitt smiling

“We’re already on every steroid, hormone, and SCGT just stay in shape. You don’t think that has more of an effect on our mental states than any psychotropic ever could?” Trudy

“Wait till we start jacking shit during the operation. You’ll change your mind.” Shade

Me and Courtney could add nothing more than to smile and nod.

“What about Ryan coming over couldn’t someone have noticed that?” Trudy

“If they know us that well then we were fucked before this even happened.” Sethra “Vlad logic.” she said explaining her statement

“Ok then, so, to summerize we’re going to throw a huge party while planning a globe changing assassination,

trying to pull it all off unnoticed in under three days cause that’s how long it will take to put mass destruction into the hands off crazies. This is gonna be fun.”

“You know we might have been better prepared for this if you’d let us come on operations Sethra

“We haven’t had any opps in three years.” Courtney said. Sethra just stared.

“I’m sorry if I was an overprotective mother not letting my fourteen year old fight against trained killers.”

“So I was thinking on part of the pool bottom we could put that OLED film across the all of it, and I

know the whole point of having the glass is so the people in the basement and the swimmers can see each other, but what if we leave

the film mostly transparent and have wonderful images floating around every once in a while.” I

“Like fish and shit swimming around?” Courtney

“If we add rainbows and stuff I’m in.” Trudy “In” “In”

* * *

That evening instead of me and Courtney scoring the new bagger girl at the grocery store the six of us

gathered, the other four presumably feeling the same minus the bagger girl guilt. So entirely different.

“So we’ll get some Russian gear and pretend to be, ya know, Russian.” I

“We might need a few more details to ‘ya know’ survive.” Courtney

“Pitts has arms connections in Russia.” Courtney gave him an astonished look.

I continued “Sethra is the best strategist, loathes disagreement, let alone compromise.”

Courtney acknowledged the first begrudgingly the second enthusiastically.

“That and the grocery doesn’t close for another ten minutes.”

“The little brunette bagger girl?” Pitt

“Hell yeah!”

“Five bucks says she goes nuts on top.” Pitt “It’s an eight or ninth sense.”

* * *

We woke up, I think simultaneously, Brook tucked into my right arm Courtney’s head

resting on my left pec staring up at me smiling.

“Breakfast.” A like twelve syllable word for me.

We stumbled downstairs to find french toast and coffee. And the others.

“So how’s the planning committee?” Courtney

“The absolute best weapons Russia has to offer are stolen American weapons, and the second tier aren’t so great.

And Russian protection suits don’t exist as the only thing they have enough of to waste is people. But that’s ok cause we’ll just

install a burn mechanism in our suits.” Pitt

“You know Mrs. Butterworths had a breast reduction.” I interposed

“Really?” Sethra

“She used to have some real nice cans.” I “And you could tell she was black.”

“You guys planning to kill somebody in Russia?” Brook

“Korea, made to look like a Russian hit.” Sethra

“It’s kewl, we’re also throwing a party so our karma’s balanced.” Courtney

“He’s evil karma’s on our side there too.” I

“I don’t think karma approves of killing in general.” Trudy

“As long as what you’re doing is good overall you’re fine.” Brook

Courtney replied “For the forseeable future.”

“Ah but who holds vigil on the unforseeable future.” I

“Blind people.” Pitt, lollers.

“How the hell are you two gonna focus during class?” Shade

“It’s neurobiology you don’t need to focus.” Sethra

Shade gave her a look.

“It’s the only discipline where you stress the things you don’t know and why you can’t know them.” Sethra

“It’s galileo prevention.” I “In the past the gods were among the stars, when he showed

the stars were not as they thought he destroyed/altered their vision of god.

Now god is in their minds. They must protect him and keep him from change. The better question is how am I gonna focus?”

* * *

“Vers” “Vers. Are you ready?” Shade

“I’m always fucking ready motherfucker.”

“What were you thinking about.”

“I was trying to permanently burn last night into my mind by reexperiencing it with all my senses.

Of course I’ve already lost nearly all of it besides a few hi-lights and general thoughts and feelings.”

“It’s not lost it just isn’t right in front of you. When you start to have similar sensations it’ll come back.” Courtney “Just take some serotonin

I gave a confused look.

“We attached it to bradykinin molecules to smuggle it across the blood brain barrier, it’s the yellow button.” Shade

I smiled and hit it. A few seconds later I really smiled wideyed.

“What are the other buttons?”

Pointing “Meth, MDMA, serotonin, adrenalin, heroine, morphine, psilocybin, LSD.”

“People do work better when they’re happy.” I

“Makes up for the crap weaponry.” Courtney said with a shit eating grin.

As the compound came into sight three planes few by traveling many times faster leaving something like a sonic explosion.

Our only outside help was gone from view even before the antiaircraft guns erupted into flames.

Ryan and Marc our piolets slowed allowing us to exit, those stationary laying down cover fire for those descending.

My group of Sethra, Jen and Craig alighted the south wing as I lowered a little further to the cut power and communications lines.

The hellis turned and fired as defenses emerged.

I placed mines on obvious feeds along with the hidden ones leaving one extra that I gave to a gnome hoping he’d know where to put it.

The other group Courtney, Trudy, Shade and Pitt were hopefully doing the same on their side. Hopefully as our lives depended on it.

The unmistakable feel of EMPs came from the tower, but the copters were protected from that as well as most everything else.

They were no Russian mass produced crap. The top floors of the central tower ceased to exist as Marc fired a rocket

while presumably Ryan engaged the signal jammer causing static to erupt from our short range communication system.

“With this much distortion we’ll need signal enhancers every thirty.” I

“What!?”

Maybe less I thought to myself.

Flash, and a moment passed as new lenses were replaced to my nightvision.

We raced into the building knowing all was lost if Yong-chun reached the escape tunnels.

The power went completely as the mines sounded.

Craig forced open the elevator doors and Jen shot down through them enough to ensure death to any possible occupants.

We jumped on top, Sethra swinging down for a second to click 5B and set a mine.

Counting the floors we stopped our selves at nine opened the doors descending the stairs as the we felt the boom.

I heard a staticy Pitt give coordinates for a bunkerbuster airstrike.

Then Courtney “How do you know?”

“It’s where I’d dig.”

Apparently it was enough. Both groups entered the sublevel to a blast of concrete and dust, the northerly tunnel collapsing.

“Three minute ETA on air support two minute scram time.” I barely heard Marc say.

Without even a word we separate again each group to one tunnel leaving the fourth open hoping the odds wouldn’t fail us.

A moment later my music cut out interrupted by Courtney “Something feels wrong.”

“This is no measured retreat, they’re on a suicide mission.” Trudy

“Take the fourth tunnel.” Sethra

* * *

My group met weak resistance one that meant they thought we were too late or on the wrong trail.

I drove myself faster sure I was on the right path.

“To me!” I yelled

“We’re coming.” Courtney

“1:30.” Marc

I prepared myself to round a bend and saw Courtney’s group sprinting towards us and smiled.

At opposite angles Craig and I led the way firing short range while Sethra sniped the long as Jen called out high explosion and long range weapons to her.

The sound of engines and a 90 degree turn lie ahead. “Wait there’s five…” Jen

I stridered off the far corner my high friction soles allowing me to jump off the wall shooting down on three guards as they tried to adjust their aim.

Craig swept down pivoting around the corner blindly backhanding a knife up and into the chest of one as he slid the length down the throat of another with a left reverse grip.

Ahead were five vehicles pulling away as the final passengers scrambled in.

All of them wearing nanodefense suits many of them of the same design.

We were essentially out of weapons.

Courtney had them five seconds behind.

I came flying down directly into a sprint drawing my firey katana taking a few well aimed shots from their rear guard.

Sethra let her dagger fly deflecting a grenade from my path.

“Fire forty yards in front of me n..!” The exit collapsed crushing the lead car.

A rocket flew by impacting near Jen.

I struck through their suits the fabric not contracting to the type of attack, they fall but I still take damage.

My sword flies out of my hands leaving me weaponless.

Sethra exchanged weapons with a perimeter guard shooting, reaiming, shooting the rear guard’s launcher to the ground.

Then she turned back throwing the gun back at him apparently not happy with it’s performance.

And we see Courtney’s team round the corner fully loaded.

Courtney shooting out the lights assuming our night lenses would work.

Mine did not.

I watched for muzzle flashes attacking at angles I knew not what.

Brightness and more brightness, the vehicles turned towards us accelerating.

“Me and Trude got the rear.” said Shade

I ran towards the vehicles trying to get past their firing angle bouncing off the impacts till I was through.

Courtney and Pitt take out several of their mounted artilleries.

Shade calls out “I got the lead car.” and two seconds later it explodes.

Sethra picked up my sword glowing brightly from the heat it emitted and stabbed it through the window of the second car killing the driver, losing the sword.

A shot fires from inside the car and someone was gently reminded that bullet proofing works both ways.

Pitt jumped on top of the second car bending down as the door opened snapping a neck.

But Pitt falls as the car lurches forward again.

Courtney takes out the armored car’s sensors blinding it.

The third car far ahead the second behind then the armored following blind scraping along the right wall.

The third is bolting Shade and Trudy the only ones in the way

Shade crouched his minimech suit leaning and thrusting forward up under and into the front transaxel flipping the vehicle.

Two exited from the far side trying to set a perimeter as the other cars came to their defense.

Yong must be a passenger of the flipped car.

Sethra had regained her dagger, I had regained my focus adding the necessary chemicals and blasting NFG.

“And if I stop ever thinking of you”

We all converged.

* * *

A larger more mechanized personnel armament device exited, it must be him.

The second car looks like it’s going to overshoot then applies the rear breaks and spins firing upon us but yielding no results.

I reached down to regain my sword and there was a pause

this tiny fraction of a second, almost a moment, but comparatively forever.

* * *

guards exiting the armored car.

Courtney looking to Shade’s rear checking for reinforcements and seeing none.

Shade on Trudy taking in her positioning.

Trudy on Sethra, Sethra to Pitt. Pitt to Chun.

Racing forward a few steps, several sharp impacts, and we are upon them.

Sethra goes down in front of the main car but gets up savagely stabbing her opponent’s chest driving through lifting and throwing him back.

Those from the armored car occupy Shade.

Trudy and Pitt rush the main Pitt is blown back by a rocket fired by Chun.

I too headed for the main pack specifically at Chun but was waylaid by two elite guards and two of his personal honor guards.

I reluctantly drop my sword drawing my knives.

One honor guard took on Courtney, one went to finish off Pitt.

Two elites engaged with Trudy while Sethra takes three.

Shade crushes his four elites one at a time but takes a rocket to the back as he finishes.

Pitt cranks the honor guard moving on towards Chun.

I struggle with my twos making their differing styles conflict with each other.

The Hg’s looking to make a single finalizing blow, the Elites looking to gain any slight advantage.

Courtney scored an ippon throwing her Hg to the side towards Trudy.

Trudy receives him her Elites still falling her knives spraying blood.

Sethra kills one, two allowing the third to strike. Into her chest he drives it home, she reaches back around finishing him, stumbles.

Pitt slips with Chun’s strikes taking punishment looking for an angle.

I block an Hg to strongly letting an Elite to take my side.

It sinks in deep but he’s given up the Hg’s back and Courtney takes it.

I step forward taking one in each arm pushing forward letting my arms slide.

As my knives slash across each chest I pull back slightly and sharply then plunge them home.

Courtney eviscerates the other my sword pulsing in her hands.

And Pitt goes down.

* * *

Bullrushing Shade attacks but Chun’s mech is stronger and tosses Shade to the side.

I tackle him at the knees knocking him to his back.

And Courtney plunges the sword into his chest nailing him to the ground.

He struggles to move. In anger I tear his helmet off.

And it’s Tran and he smiles, everything explodes.

* * *

Aaaaaaaahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

* * *

Rrrrrraaaaagggggggh

* * *

“We pulled him out too quickly he couldn’t readjust.”

* * *

“His brain activity went off the charts .07 degrees above the temp we used for routine nutrient infusions.”

“And when we tried to ease it back down his mind crashed. All activity stopped.”

“We went back to the planned process hoping to regain him with traditional DBS once he was fully animated again.”

“But he came back where he left off, mind racing. We thought we might get his functions back and deliver neurologic depressants directly into the carotid, but he went blank again just before we got his heart started.”

* * *

“He blew a fuse in his mind. There was too much, too rapid change.”

“Now there’s just random spiking in a few brain centers. The bad ones.”

* * *

“I’m going to be taking over. I’m going to bring him back.”

View Spell-Checked Padding, pt. 4 at Supraterranean

This time all we had to do was write and sell infotech, and be regular cool nerdy folk.

We fit this description already except for the infotech, but we could fake it till we figured it out.

This wasn’t even as hard as it was to act like regular agents.

The three of us pooling our money could afford a small house all by itself a hundred miles from the city,

and with jobs that didn’t require much if any travel there proximity to L.A. wouldn’t matter.

And with an army base close by we could still head out Immediately for emergencies.

Keeping and promoting the rest of our team was Shade’s idea, and it turned out perfectly.

They moved into to three of the nearest neighboring houses.

Naturally Craig and Jen together. Just as naturally Ryan and Marc were together. Trudy was by herself renting.

Shade Courtney and I created our programming company by telling Ryan and Marc

to come up with something sweet so it was easier for us to act interested.

They decided we should pretend to be working on AI through a sort of digital natural selection.

Then they changed it to a digital representation of objects with completely accurate physics including

energy exchange and chemical reactions by

starting at an atomic level but scaling out when working with larger objects to

avoid using a redonk amount of computing power.

But then they changed it back when Jen pointed out that if we created the one it could create the other on its own.

Not that we could do it, but it was something to work for in between

defending our society from forces of evil.

Evil, lollers, more like defend our wealth and power from others wealth and power,

but I guess I did believe in some of the ideals I thought we were upholding, kind of.

After a few weeks of contouring ourselves into our new life positions, we

managed to confuse two private investors enough to give us a cool fifty mill starting funds

for twenty percent of our profits with no actual control of operations.

This was accomplished by abusing their sense of logic.

[i]I am super rich. Rich people are smart. Therefor I must be super smart.

I am super smart. I don’t understand what is being talked about. If someone is talking about something I don’t understand they must be super geniuses.[/i]

All it took was an hour’s conversation peppering in gibberish mixed with technical jargon to overcome their antintellectualism.

A few super computers and a gigantic cooling system spent nearly half the funds.

We might just have to produce some practical applications to keep this going.

*     *     *

On an unrelated note I wanted to make some reusable water bottles kind of like Nalgene,

but with home of poi lighting and effects. Make it a high end product that people would be proud of both for

it’s looks and the resources saved even compared with improbable 100% recycling rates

But Ryan and Marc shot that down pretty quickly so I just left it to them.

We, meaning me and Courtney, decided the only help normally needed for field operations would be Shade’s,

leaving Ryan, Marc, Craig, Jen, and Trudy to work full time on our semifake project.

Shade agreed except for Trudy. He pretended she was indispensable in Bo missions.

I was about to ask why, but Courtney flashed me a look telling me to just accept it and move on.

My group of four began retraining ourselves in acknowledgement of our lack of superiority shown by Blondie.

Our marksmanship needed to improve, along with our communication skills.

We needed to diversify our weapons arsenal, and diversify our own abilities,

meaning we had to crosstrain into other members’ specialties.

That along with adapting to the ever changing world of weapons tech

and adapting to the new era of personal protection suits kept us more than busy.

A few weeks into the assignment Ryan and Marc had finished off the whole water bottle thingy and

licensed it out for a few million plus a percentage of sales.

Those snooty nerd fuckers didn’t even apologize for talking shit about it.

The super quick albeit small return on their investment kept our investors happy.

The bad side of this was it meant we getting no where with our stated purpose.

We all got together to discuss the situation.

*     *     *

After meaningless salutations and bullshiting, I decided

as usual, that what I had to say was the most important and opened up with

“My belief is organic life is the only known way to create choice, and choice multiplied by reason

is the ultimate base of intelligence. So we must create digital life to attain digital intelligence.

To imitate life we must convert life’s attributes both internal and most likely external to an alternating one dimensional process.”

“This may be hard.

I think our efforts should be split in two. Maybe not ourselves splitting two different groups working on separate problems,

but rather separate the perspectives from which we think of this problem.

The first to fully understand how and why life actually is the way it is, both mentally (the complete picture of the decision making process) and the physical processes that create the environment in which the activity can take place, and of course self replication and improvement. Improvement may itself may be the single most important factor but I think we must explore the whole field to understand improvements full necessity.

The second how to translate our reality into a one dimensional format with only on and off to work with.

Think of it. How could we explain anything in one’s and zeros alone with no prior reference.

I hope and expect the two will explain each other, but we must at least recognize these two perspectives.

Let us first consider”

“Holy fucking shit” interrupted Courtney

“Holy shit what?” I replied knowing full well she about to mock the length, and presumed self importance, of my soliloquy.

“Holy shit, do you even know how gone you are?”

“It takes a little craziness to create something new, besides it’s fun, and despite that thoughtful comment, I think we should discuss some basic concepts of life from both angles.

Like the energy process.

In life there’s a complete full scale scavenging and transformation of free energy to its own energy forms and other necessary components.

In the computer world it is fed, or not, a simple standard single unit of energy without effort or the possibility of self control.

The need for consumable energy most likely creates need itself and the possibility of survival I suspect creates want.

Want becomes separate emotions that are moored in physical sensation and compressed memory.

These feelings based upon the desire to continue or prevent them then develop into a decision making process.

The decision making process being a main section and most likely the beginnings of we call thought.

Choice is then made when a majority of thoughts, feelings agree.

Or a different way of saying it is, thoughts are created by the memories, emotions, and sensations.

Past events being memory and emotions being compressed memory.

Each memory created in an effort to thrive or mearly survive, exist.

Existence made possible by energy.

It works both ways, forward and back.

Which in my experience shows the ring of truth”

“Missing like eight million steps and so far away from the level of complexity that it’ll probably mislead us more than it helps, but it’s a start.” Courtney

“Thanks Court.”

“Anytime.” she answered.

“Well what about working from the computers’ perspective. What’s a 1 what’s a 0″

“What if we ran a true dual processor one for input and one for reaction. creating rather simply a non one dimensional being

but something that can handle four possibilities

“What do you mean by true ‘dual processor’”

“One standard processor to interpret information that is dependant upon the reactions to the input

but itself creates the ability for the input to continue. A truly circular interdependent relationship”

“Ok, if I except that where would it lead us.”

“We’ll make the input realistic presenting real situations for the second processor to reprogram and react to and its survival will be determined by whether the reaction would have kept it alive in reality

“Yet again I ask how do you create choice, and if you simply state random chance I must say the ability will forever be limited to an inverse exponential figure of the input given.” Ryan

“How do we turn a guess into choice?” Marc

“We simply make it guess. But give it knowledge. Knowledge of the actions of others and its own past.”
“Giving it more and more complex questions and sometimes with more complex answers.” Court

“The first decision it must make is to reproduce, it’s the most basic life process.” Trudy

“The second is to grow more complex.” Shade

“Too allow complexity in these operations we must start with the simplest of commands, complexity is no where near second.” Marc

“The first should be memory.” Court

“No it can’t be memory that’s too complicated. I agree with reproduce then react, not grow.

Eventually they will need to grow but not next.” Shade

“How can they react when they have nothing to react with?” Court

“We’ll figure that out, but what will we have them react to is my question Marc

“We’ll start off with series of simple survival choices with limited response possibilities.

Those that survive our virtual world move on and will be given more abilities.” Ryan

“Along with memory it is essential to include the ability to at least conceive of the future, to allow for growth in between major choices of survival.” Court

“I believe dreams give us our conception of future. They give us a time where we make decisions forced upon us with no godlike control over

and we must and do respond but the choices have no real consequence just as the future does not directly effect the past yet defines it.

What ever that means.” I added

“I honestly have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Jen

“I don’t either, but I’m thinking that’s a good thing.” Craig said to Jen

I started in again “Another realistic factor is to have the possibility to delay response or even change the question forceably or at least approach it in a different way,

maybe even changing the situation by altering the enivronment.” then more confidently. “Yes, definitely, the ability to effect the environment creates freedom, which I think is a necessity to evolve and most likely to life itself.”

*     *     *

“It’s not getting it do complex things it’s getting it to want to do complex things” Shade

“Should we include a value on speed, I mean if the purpose is to produce

something that thinks faster than us if not better than us, well then I think we should some how inculcate a preference for expediency.” Trudy

“How could we do that,., maybe time alive is inverse to ability to make mistakes to a point, not absolute.” I

“We should allow for rest. Make choices necessary but not a constant pressure, at least not always.” Court

“It would be amusing to make death a removal from a system rather than destruction.” Marc

“And ship them off to computer heaven?” Trude

“Wouldn’t that be sweet?” Shade

“We should make it like reality, physical destruction apparent with the possibility of existence on another plane, however unlikely I

“But certainly a bad decision shouldn’t mean death, maybe multiple bad decisions or major bad decisions.” Shade

“A lesser punishment, the equalivent of pain.” Trude

“Yeah, I hadn’t made that connection yet, but thats totally what I mean.” Shade

“Make zero and one bad and good. A lack of one’s equals death., and maybe too many of them.” Marc

“That’s a good way to translate into one dimension

turn everything into good and bad pain and pleasure

life and death.” Shade

“You can’t boil life down to good vs bad it’s so much more than that.” Trudy

“No you can’t but it’s a good point to build from, and I believe it should start as simple as possible, but I freely admit this idea may be completely wrong and may

be what I see as the first misstep, the initial programming may need to include all the base properties that will exist later.” I

“I don’t see how we make a nonliving thing want something I don’t think it’s possible.” Ryan

“But it is.” “Or I don’t see how we could in the first place. We are purely and simply made of a few basic particles, or possibly strings, and yet we do think, we do want.

And since we do we must assume it’s possible somehow.” I

“So you think there is a natural tendency to or natural imbalance toward ability to want like the imbalance toward matter rather than antimatter.” Marc

“Yes I believe that’s true despite never exploring the thought fully or anywhere near that direction” I

“Meh” Ryan

“We have enough for a start?” I said looking mostly to Ryan, but also taking in others responses.

“Enough to fuck around and feel like we have a focus I guess.” Ryan

*     *     *

We had been given an assignment for the end of the month.

It seemed rather straight forward so we decided the best way to spend our time

till then was to go to the New found Glory concert on the 25th, leaving a few days to recover

before the mission.

Trudy unused to our forms of preparation asked “How the fuck are you going to fuck around at a concert when you should be

preparing for a fucking shootout?”
“Shade…” Court

“Look,.,., a NFG concert is like a thousand times more intense than a firefight, and its an

intensity that breeds more of itself leading you to a point where a shootout is kinda fun.

And that’s when you’re at your best when you’re having fun.”

“What?” Trudy

“It helps ok.” Shade

[i]The wall explodes into a dust cloud she appears crashing through head first as rubble rains down. Look left look right. Fire fire. Fire fire. One two. Three four.

She finally hits the floor looks staring up, currently forward, and fires, fires. Five six they drop, as she rolls to her feet sprinting forward.

At the intersection where the bodies of five and six lie she turns left ever so cutely. She runs on. Pulling out an automatic shotgun, she shoots open a doorway following with a few scattered shots

to clear her path. She throws the gun forward crossing arms and pulling out two grenades with each hand, the pins attached to her vest. She backhands them into the room

as she pulls out her hip sheathed P220s. She enters without slowing, a moment before the grenades explode. Bullets thunk into her suit jarring her yet failing to make her

stumble or lose control. The four guards react to the grenades emulating their behavior as she passes to the next room fire and fear riding at her heels. She pulls her backpack forward

opening it as she slows nearing the next intersection. Without a glance elsewhere she pulls out three mines setting them to five, ten and eighteen seconds. She picks up the ten and eighteen

second mine one in each hand as she starts them all. Taking shelter in a doorway the five second mine explodes with a massive force. She throws the second in

before the fire recedes. Time slows as four seconds melds into eternity as another explosion is felt, but lesser, further away. She waits a second longer and tosses the next. Attached to her vest

by a bungie from the backpack she fires a bolt into the wall, reloads the P220′s, closes her eyes, absorbs the concussion wave and dives into the three floor crater.

She bounces down once, observing. The second she adjusts her angle and aims at the single open area over and over not able to make out individuals through the dust.

The third decent she fires head shooting the remaining guards, detaches, and remotely kills the power as she pulls on night goggles. She pulls her final mine from the pack and places it on the wall.[/i]

Before me the wall erupted and with it my last hope. But the fire receded before it consumed us. A ghost walked in. A clunking thudding sound retreated towards the corner where our assailant waited for us.

They scrambled and screamed afraid of another such explosion. Pause. Pause, nothing. The ghost silhouettes a bowling motion and I hear an all to familiar sound of a C-13 frag rolling. It and they explode.

Courtney turned around and smiled at us. She signed for us to follow her showing that she at least was having some hearing problems. We ran past bodies turned a few corners

and entered an executive office. An executive office with a private access elevator. We entered it and as the doors shut the tension drained away, not because we were safe it was just that Santeria was playing. I mean how can you not be relaxed to Sublime. We went straight to the roof despite Shade wanting to stop at the sixthninth floor and entered the helicopter as Trudy let the copter drift past bodies still twitching and bleeding all across the roof. She did nice work.

*     *     *

A concert a mission and a good meal later we got back to our conversation.

“Going back to good and bad, from the very start I think we should strive to make what we see as good as what they see as good so we have the same goals.

And later when using real world situations we should occasionally check the projections with reality as a form of calibration.” Craig

“Dude you’re jumping ahead like super far.” I said

“I know, I just thought it needed to be said and I though I would get lost in the conversation and forget it.”

“Oh, ok, kewl, sorry”

“Kewl”

“At first I believe they should receive free energy and allow for exponential growth, but eventually they must at least partially convert their own energy to maintain life”

“That’s hardly important now we need to focus on the creation of memory, replication and growth.”

“Look at us we expect constant growth it seems fucking hardwired into us to just expect it, and

it’s quite possibly going to destroy us.”

We have control over its environment

we can limit their growth easily without making the programming more complicated.”

“If we intentionally change the environment it will destroy the evolution,

once we start with rules we must stick with them, otherwise I guarantee the system will crash. In all ways.”

“And I suspect that if we are to create something superior to us we must provide it with at least as accurate representation of its environment as our own preceptions.”

“I believe to be accurate we must allow for free growth initially because it’s there, but later they must choose to lose numbers to grow individually.”

“That would leave an ultimate survival of the fittest mentality.”

“Ooorr to grow more complex. Allowing for internal growth and external.”

“Can we stop now?” Ryan

“Sure., and you’ll be glad to know we have an assignment coming up on the 28th.” Courtney

“Glad you’re adding even more to our workload?” Marc

“No its just us three and Trudy”

“Then why do we care?” Craig

“Vers might get shot.”

Marc “Yes” overlapping with “Sweet” from Jen

“Super sweet” Ryan

“Super sweet times like 17.5.” Craig

I leaned over to Shade whispering “I get the feeling he added that .5 on just for effect.”

*     *     *

“Cofffeeeeeeeee!!” I yelled to Courtney all weak like, after rolling over laboriously and seeing she wasn’t there.

Ten seconds later she came in bearing coffees and danishes.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

We ate for a while slowly coming alive staring at the coffee and each other.

“Do we have to do it on the 28th”

“The smash and grab?., not really we could move it I guess. Why.”

“There’s a Rise Against concert I really wanted us to go to on Thursday.” I

“They’re like three days apart.”

“You’ve obviously never been to a Rise Against concert. We’ll need at least two days to recover and four to be at our best” I

“Are you serious? This from the guy who went through the continuous 72 hour Bo training course that ends in a fight with a

professional mma fighter and ankle locked him?”

“I’m telling you Rise Against is intense.”

*     *     *

[i]The crowd divides down the middle the strongest and fearless taking a spot along the front line.

Tense slight agitations reverberate through the crowds like a pulse, yet no one moves.

The music builds slowly upon itself gathering speed and energy, the feeling grows within.

We grab it and become it, and as the first vibration of the first note of the refrain drops, the crowd drives and is driven together.

The note climaxes, the sides collapse, bodies collide from all directions with their own force plus all those behind him.

The crowd mixes as the second verse is played, but some realize what should and now will happen and begin to separate again reforming as each sees fit.

The verse is sung all around, and it all repeats.

The Red Sea opening to the beat of Rooftops.[/i]

*     *     *

Three days later we descended upon the port of Baltimore.

A medium sized port by most standards but absolutely vital as it’s one of four capable of receiving crude in the US.

“Why don’t I get to have guns again?” I

“Cause any of your errant shots of which I’m sure there will be many, could blow shit up.”

“But they get to have guns?” I

“They’re actually trying to blow the whole place up. So anything exploding is a good thing to them.” Courtney

“And we knew about this weeks ago but didn’t prevent it, because?” Trudy

“We need the info these guys have more than cheap oil, and there wasn’t any safer way to entice them to surface.” Courtney

“It’s a highly valued target for them, with relatively minimal security, leading to a high chance for success Shade

“And I’m going in by myself because you think, they’ll think I’m a diversionary tactic and commit their resources elsewhere.” I

“Yep” Shade

Courtney “Our targets are former military and most likely still are, though not openly,.

These guys are generals in terrorist costumes they won’t commit till we do and we won’t so…”

“Besides if you fail. it’ll drastically reduce greenhouse emissions for like months” Trudy

“Increased coal and ethanol production would negate the environmental gain., and I’d be dead.”

“You should face minimal, 5-10, combatants, and since we won’t be actively involved we can observe and call out any threats.”

“Whatever, lets just do this.”

“We’ve got every imaginable form of surveillance in here you shouldn’t underestimate the value of that knowledge.” Shade

“I’ll be fighting hand to hand I won’t have time to listen to you. Hell I won’t have time to listen to me, just act observe react, rinse repeat.”

“Set me down.”

“You don’t even know where you’re going.” Courtney

“Yeah I do, Marc transferred the layout into a metroid map. I played it all week.

The highjump boots are in the Jahre, spin attack is on dock eight, Craig and Rydly will be in the control tower,

and apparently I’ve already got the varia suit.” I

“You sure could use freeze beam” Shade

“We should be able to do that.” Trudy

“Really?”

“Yeah”

“Well you guys can work on it after I’m dead.” I

“Okay” Trudy

I snarled, slipped on the carbon-nanofiber mask and jumped down onto dock three about a quarter mile from the tower.

The copter though unheard will have been detected and the nearest sentinels should be on their way.,

I needed to stop thinking in Courtney’s detached semiobjective perspective and just let it flow.

Besides being “bullet resistant” my suit had a killer sound system.

I jacked up Catalyst and rounded the corner.

*     *     *

[i]Block left, transfer to right. During switch and slide, step with right thrust kick.

Finish arm break which reverse pivots into back roundhouse of next.

Switch pivot and direction right thrust to lower stomach, finish with knee to head.

Run., taking shots forward, right sweeping right block, slide in, chin crank.

Don’t stop. Enter tower taking shots, double clothesline, relax let slip past forearms slit throats.

Up stairs. Run up stairs. Run up stairs.

Throw knife into stomach of left guard driving up and into front guard using body as shield

thrust onto target one. Turn into shots of target two, block left wrapping around right arm, wrap left tripping from behind with right leg.

As he falls thrust left, break, twist right, break.

Reverse pivot, back fist not landing but setting up perfect right hand into and through target one.

One in shock the other unconscious I grab a headset fallen on the ground “Running might be a good idea.”[/i]

*     *     *

I woke up back at home and mumbled about coffee. Transforming, the mumbling got louder eventually

turning into a creative series of curses till I realized no one was around.

Using all my strength, power and skill I managed to stumble downstairs

to find Trudy, Shade and Courtney sitting on the floor eating breakfast, and YES, drinking coffee.

I stole Courtney’s cup and began the process of becoming human again. “There’s a whole meal for

you right here.” Courtney said talking and sipping what supposed to be my coffee.

I sat down asking “If you had it all set up why didn’t you just call me down?”

“It’s not cool yet and us normal people like hot food.” Trudy said finishing

off her plate and stealing a piece of my bacon.

“Besides you need your beauty rest.” Shade

“That’s for sure” Courtney

“Hunh?”
“You’ve got bruises all over babe.”

“Ah well I guess that explains the pain and soreness better than just being coffee deprived.”

“At least they aren’t puncture wounds.” Trudy said in way that would have been far too cheerful coming from anyone else.

“Eh, whatever. So what were you guys talking about?”

“Shade and Trudy.” Courtney

“Shade and Trude, what?”

“Them, you know, together and stuff.”

“You two are a thing?” I said pointing my fork accusingly.

“How could you not know?”

“It’s not like anyone told me.”

“It’s not like we haven’t been completely obvious.” Shade

“I guess I’m just tarded, ok, lets leave it at that. What specifically were you talking about?”

“Moving in together.” Shade

“Trudy’s moving in? Sweet!”

“Actually I was thinking about moving to her place.”

“But her place is boring, our place is the shiznit.”

“Boring?” Trudy said kind of stunned and maybe a little hurt.

Courtney closed her eyes and nodded.

Shade “We need a little more privacy Vers. Not everyone is comfortable running around having sex with everyone everywhere.”

“Well they should be! But you still should move in here I was planning on building an addition anyway.”

“How are you gonna manage that? The others are getting no where fast and have eaten through

nearly all the seed money securing the site.” Courtney

“Mr. Titov was getting paid 30 mil upon taking out the port.

The transfer had already taken place, probably at the point they could prove they had taken

the control tower, so I just transferred it from his to my account.”

“Money that should have gone directly to the general blackopps budget.” Courtney

“Wait, he was getting paid? I thought he was just a terrorist.” Trudy

“Hardly anyone is that loyal to country or even religion, but nearly everyone is loyal to money, like Vers here.” Shade

“Bullshit I’m in it for the chicks. But if someone’s willing to pay that amount to destroy something I deserve to get paid just as much to protect it.

Anyway I’m not entirely selfish we’re gonna use some of it on weapons tech.” I

“That’s why we needed the secure location?” Trudy

“Yep”

“I think we’ve successfully proven our inability to actually invent, why would weapons be any different from computers.” Shade

“We have access to the patent office, most anything we could want has already been invented we just need to steal and adjust it to our needs.” Shade

“Stealing, what the government does best.” Courtney

“So back to my main point you guys should live here. I’m gonna rock this place out.”

“Sounds fun.” Trudy

“You’re gonna do some crazy shit aren’t you? I’m in.” Shade

“Sweet.” Courtney

“What day is it?” I asked

*     *     *

We all met up at “the shop” as we had taken to calling it. Courtney was filling in the others on the plan to “borrow”

improve and produce patented or government funded weapons tech.

“Why?” Ryan

“You guys aren’t smart enough to design a natural evolution. And we aren’t good enough to take on everybody else.

Not without help, and the government right now is a lot more taken with quantity over quality and won’t be able

to keep us ahead of the game anymore.” Trudy

We all gave her a wtf look.

“But AI through computer evolution will easily take us to and through next gen technology including weapons.” Ryan

“Yeah but you won’t be able to do it. As Trudes said you aren’t smart enough.” I

“Then who is?” Marc

“Nobody. Just as there probably aren’t any better field agents that us, but we can’t beat everyone else all the time

and you can’t create a whole new field of science out of thin air.” Trudy

“So we give up on anything longterm, go for the quick fix, and hope?” Jen

“No. The major threats have been delt severe blows and are in rebuilding mode. We and our allies are strong.

I doubt there will be much activity for several years.” I

“Next gen weapons should keep us far enough ahead for the forseable future, and as a long term solution

we’ll need to train the next generation of BO agents.” Courtney

“Shouldn’t headquarters be training the next group already?” Marc

“They have. The #2 team just finished training, they’re based near New York.” Jen

“The 2 group sucks as is apparent by our knowledge of where they’re located.” Courtney

“In a few years we’ll be past peak, essentially retired, who cares what happens.” Shade

“We’re kinda saving the world here.” I

“And he’ll be sure to short civilization stock.” Trudy

“Just look around no one on this side of the globe is half as good as us and we’re just barely getting by.

Soon our only advantages will be experience.

As far as our own abilities go I believe we’ll need to start utilizing some standard and some nonstandard performance enhancers.

But further down we’ll need a group whose abilities, both mentally and physically, far exceed our own to meet ever more challenging situations.” I

“We were force fed training and knowledge 24 hours a day from the very day we were recruited there’s no way we someone could do much more.” Craig

“Yeah but you could start earlier, and if you started early enough you could create a whole different way of thinking for them to have, where the things we try so hard to accomplish

become natural to them.” I “An existence full of combat scenarios and tactics, economic projections paired with philosophical situations.

Invention into evolution of design, fiction into theory to reality to creation, creation altering society and belief, and”

“How them drugs treatin you Vers?” Shade

“”It’s true. I mean not in the fucked up way he said it, but we could change the way children learn producing what would amount to a human weapon.” Courtney

“They wouldn’t have to be just a weapon. They could still be as human as anyone if you did it right.” Trudy said earning her a questioning look

from both Shade and I but I think for entirely differing reasons.

“We’re not going around stealing five year old phenoms.” Shade

“Five would be too late” I

“The right type of people would beg for the opportunity for their kids.” Courtney

“Hell I would.” said both Trudy and I causing a strange look festival.

“Well that proves my statement.” Courtney

“We could start a school system recruiting from the best prospective parents promising

the best possible education for their kids.” Trudy

“It would need a whole school systems worth of educators.” I

“We can sift through and select the best teachers who happen to have elite children and bring in both.

It’ll add a personal incentive to the teachers to make the school as good as possible.” Trudy

“It’s true, I would have to do a lot of the combat educating, at least the technical stuff anyway, and having added incentive would make me work harder.”

“You just suggested we have a kid so you wouldn’t get bored at work” Courtney “Wow”

*     *     *

We spent the next few weeks training with different bullet and explosion resistant fabrics that might protect us better than our standard issue government model.

Which means I ran around while Trudy, Shade and Courtney shot at me.

We retarded the rounds by using a slightly less explosive powder and used a softer alloy for the slug, but they were still shooting me.

Some of the suits were made at the shop according to spec but the more complicated nano materials we had to go steal directly.

It became readily apparent, as I developed a full body welt, that most of the claims were falsified but a few proved protective and durable while allowing for a free range of motion.

At least it gave us something to do till Coexist came around and then a week later on the 1st we were planning to take out some antiscience

nutjobs in South Africa that were promoting some not good ways to cure certain diseases.

I pointed out that we have plenty of antiscience nutjobs right here in America that were costing just as many lives

to go kill, but I guess preventing the use of cancer vaccinations stifling funding for

stemcell research or not lowering the cost of actual medication didn’t seem as urgent.

*     *     *

So we went to Coexist. Me, Courtney, Shade and Trudy.

We get there and it’s this big three room place with everyone just showing up and things just getting started, but there’s already that buzz.

The one where you can straight up feel something amazing is about to happen. Everyone’s dressed to the nines in one way or another, fully alive.

And we met all these infinitely interesting people, and had the most life changing conversations.

But between me and Courtney, it was amazing. We,. I mean we,, we felt love, love for those around us and everyone else in everyway.

But towards each other we developed something else. Something built of love but more complex more complete and stronger, far stronger.

We could feel each other directly not needing to listen or look for response another sense of my thoughts and sensations mixing and reacting with hers.

Her excitement joining my own spawning more of itself to be met by more of hers and cycling.

Pure unadultered joy from movement to moment. The myriad fantifal sensations of dancing. The beat crashing into and through us.

We felt it all. It can’t be explained any further, it isn’t something words can represent.

*     *     *

I woke up demanding coffee to no avail so I made the journey downstairs to find the others just as before except they had WAFFLES this time.

Blueberry Waffles, jesus. “What are you gibbering on about today?” I said sweetly

“Your ‘addition’.” Shade

“I caught a glimpse of the prints it’s fucking huge.” Courtney

“It’s going to be a school. The school. The one we talked about.” Trudy

“But they started surveying weeks ago, before that.” Courtney

“I already had it planned. I was just talking about it with everyone to gauge their reaction, I do that with a lot of things.”

“So you’re attaching a full blown school system to the house.” Shade

“No.” I began. “It’s going to be a few hundred yards that way”

“How do you consider that an addition?” Shade

“It’s not but here we’re digging out two more basements I’m sure you’ll enjoy.”

“Why basements rather than extending the other floors.” Trudy

“Building down is more environmentally sound. It leaves more green space, and will use less energy for heating, well, cooling.

Also it’s more structurally sound, and will last longer.” Shade

“How are you doing all this for 30 million?” Courtney

“All the workers are mexican.” I

“I thought we supported immigrants, but not paying them less than standard wages?” Courtney

“Those guys all get paid top dollar they just happen to do four or five times as much work as us lazy ass americans.” I

“Oh, cool” Courtney

“So we’re really doing this?” Trudy

“Yep.” “Who made the waffles?”

“I did.” Trudy

Looking at Courtney I said “I think I might start to like her more than you.”

Earning me an orly look “Remember that raver girl Rambo,., She’s coming over tonight.”

To Trudy I said “She wins. Good waffles though.”

*     *     *

Over at the shop Ryan had us test out some sort of heat ray.

He got really upset when I called it that taking about how it was some specially focused radiation.

I forget what else, but I gathered it was like a laser with radiation rather than light.

“But the effect is it makes things very hot?” Courtney

“Yes.” Ryan

“So it’s a heat ray.” Trudy

“No it’s..”

“Let’s go fuck with em.” Shade

It was disturbing to see how easily the suits melted. I guess they’re going to have to become multidemsional integrated defense systems.

Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long to reengineer with the trickle down effect of technology tending to be more like a waterfall in weapons tech.

Besides my fear of being cooked, I was a little concerned with Ryan gutting me when he found out the school would be done in less than a year.

I gathered everyone together hoping they could protect me.

“So umm Ryan uh, the schools gonna be done in about nine months.”

“That’s cool.”

“It means we’ll have to start searching for prospective students, teachers and staff right now.”

“It’s cool.”

“Really?”

“We got a pseudo life system set up. I think if we leave it alone long enough something will evolve. So having something else to do is a good thing.” Marc

“How long till we see results?” Shade

“Well our evolution took a few billion years,. considerably less than that.” Ryan

“K then.” Shade

*     *     *

“The way I see things we’re going to need an entire community to support and populate the school. I’ve got

the buildings and infrastructure mostly worked out for a 1000 person community. It’ll be as green as we can get and

completely self sufficient

“You don’t think this goes beyond our duties?” Craig

“Of course it does. Do you think our duty to the government is more important than our duty to the future?

And since when did it become a bad thing to go beyond.” Jen

“I didn’t mean it like that. I meant more like why are we the ones doing it.” Craig

“Cause no one else is.” Jen

“And no one else is going to. We should be growing in leaps and bounds from generation to generation but we aren’t.

We’re stuck in the slow motion of the middle ages where it took the reign of a king just to

make small political adjustments.

There were few educated intelligent openminded creative to make the changes necessary. Their society was

almost completely based on superstition and religious bullshit, with nearly everyone falling in line expounding the problem.

Just a few individuals sent us forward, and these individuals were harrassed and obfuscated in all

possible manners by society when they should have been trying desperately to help.”

“And today five six hundred years later socially whats changed.

Even with seven billion people we only have a few thousand working on truly new technology and theory,

and most of these will accomplish nothing as creativity has been beaten out of them by our pathetically regimented education system.

And even the top tier scientists have to beg and scrape for funding of even the most Immediately necessary research.

The rest of society still bases their understanding on superstition and oral tradition slash bullshit.

Sometimes I wonder if they’re all scitzo. I mean honestly the only difference I see between a religious person and a scitzo

is the scitzo wants it to stop.”

“We need to move a large portion of society into science 25 maybe even 50%.

And the rest of us need to support them as best we can for our own good. If we did that we’d grow exponentially.

Not in numbers but internally, socially and in quality of life. And a school, a real school, the way school should be is step one. One of hundreds

maybe thousands to transition the world into the brightness of knowledge out of the false warmth of ignorance, step one.

Step One.”

“You think we can really do this?” Jen

“None of us are educators how can you think we can make an ideal school?” Ryan

“Because each of us has a set concept of reality based on fact and we adjust to new information altering our preceptions and readjust.” I

“Meaning we observe something, try to gather more info, adjust and react. This is the base of learning, it’s all we need.” Courtney

“That and I was gonna bring in Deb Harbal. She knows more about learning and how to learn that any ten people.” I

“All that talk and you’re bringing someone else to run the show?” Trudy

“I’m a sex addicted paid killer who throughly endorses drug use do you really think I’d be a good teacher?” I

“Yes.” “Yes.”

“Yeah.” “Unhun.”

View Spell-Checked Padding, pt. 3 at Supraterranean

“I can’t believe we’re like on a date or whatever.” she said

“I know, it’s kinda weird,., in a good way” I nodded

“It’s the first time we’ll get to talk about something nonwork related.”

“Not quite the first.”

She looked a question with a strange eyebrow furrow thingy.

In answer I said “Remember we talked about politics last night”

“Can you shut the TV off. Starving refugees are too ugly to have sex in front of.”

“True”

She shot me an annoyed look.

I gave her my shocked face then smiled.

“We had that conversation on neck cramps and lock jaw.”

“Iah hant muv mai jahha.”

Which earned me a pissed look that slowly morphed into pissed but amused.

Then I got excited shouting and pointing “We talked about Chinese food.”

Trying to find a non-bloody spot in the general tso’s I stuck my finger in the sauce and gave it a taste.

“Mmm, good.”

“I told you so.” Courtney said while grabbing a plate.

“You’re eating again?” I said trying something else.

“I figure we burned off enough calories. The kungpow’s my favorite,., and use the tongs please.” she said offering me a plate as I sampled another dish.

“I’m too excited to eat really,, it just smells so good you know?”

She completely ignored me, ordered a coke, and stared blankly.

Mostly to the waitress I said “Apparently I need to start drinking,. double absolute and redbull.,. and a bud.”

After a long moment she said “Are you actually going to say anything?”

“Umm…mm I don’t know, what do you want me to say?”

She smiled like she was hoping I’d say that and took the statement at face value.

“Oh, just how I’m the prettiest girl in the world. Smartest too. That you’re falling in love with me and you’ll need and want me forever.”

“That’s all?” I said slyly. “You make the second prettiest girl look like a sixty year old mans balls. Your IQ looks like a zipcode.”

I got serious “I need you. I want you. I am hopelessly in love with you.”

“And you’re almost as good a shot as me.” and I lost it.

She brought her head back just a little as she heard the last statment shaking her head “No.”

“I thought I’d try.”

Then we totally made out for a while,

stopping right as the waitress arrived with our drinks giving Courtney hers with a raised eyebrow and some incalculable look.

“I’ll get the fresco grille rare-mediumrare.” I interrupted, I think.

“Surf and turf, baked potato extra butter no salad.” “What, you’re paying.”

“Oh really.”

“You know how hard it was to pretend to be married to Carly “Especially with you around. It was torrible.”

“Pffpt, she didn’t look so terrible.”

“It wasn’t that, it was her, her,, she was just dead inside.” “And that wasn’t a cover personality, you can’t fake waiting for death like it’s your only goal.”

“Golly gee, I never saw it like that, it’s so sad.”

“And I really have to get into a role to be able to pull it off and being married to

her made me feel like I was somehow responsible for how she felt.

Thank the FSM it wasn’t real”

A long pause followed where, I think, both of us just felt bad about Carly.

“I requested not to be assigned with her anymore… it was too dep,., frightening.”

Another long pause. This one was really uncomfortable. Talking about being married to another woman can do that.

I’m not sure what was going on in Courtney’s head just then, even more than usual, but it wasn’t good.

Eventually she said “You know we only have to take this as far as you want to. We can stop where ever, just fuck buddies if you want.”

“Oooo we could be BFFF’s. Best Fuck Friends forever. It’s like 1, 2, 3, steps up from regular fuck buddies.”

“And we could get necklesses that fit together. Mine will have a penis, you get a vagina, and we’ll magnetize the two.

If we wanted to go all the way we could run alternating current.”

“We went to far already.”

“But it would be soo cool, like cool with a k,.,”

“Look it’s no use trying to describe how I want things to be with us cause to do and to be all the things I want with you we’ll have to live forever babe.”

“I can handle that”

“Me too”

“So what’s first on the list?”

“First fizzyfoofoo.” I said

I spotted the waitress coming out of the kitchen with our food. “The second, seventh, eighth, thirteenth, and seventeenth are all the sexors.”

“Do you think we could recruit the waitress?”

It turned out our waitress, Kay, had a boyfriend, the busboy, and she just wasn’t willing to cheat on him.

But that was kool cause Courtney talked to Chris and convinced him to have a four way.

With a body like hers it’s easy to be convincing.

Let’s just say we had fun and leave it at that.

Then some more fun.

And some more.

Over the next few weeks we ended up having fun with most of the waitstaff.

It was good.

* * * * *

One morning I woke up to the first rays of sun shineing through the windows of her bedroom.

Courtney was wearing my dad’s old 68 highschool football jersey. I just stared at her like that.

I could stare all night while she slept, and sometimes I did just that, but last night had been rather athletic, and I ended up drifting back into sleep.

I woke again sometime later and engaged in what I can only describe as intense snuggleing.

It was good, but it could only last so long “I need coffee woman..,.,,.,And Pancakes”

“You keep talking like that and I’ll poison you damn coffee.”

“You don’t scare me woman.”

The next morning I woke up to the sun saying “Hi, I’m back. I told you I’d be back”

Courtney was wearing my second favorite shirt.

A cutoff that said “If you are a young sexually irresponsible young girl call…” a quote from a favorite book Survivor, but with my real phone number.

It had scored me some real good tail a few times, but I liked it better on her. God do I love side boob.

I fell back asleep. We snuggled. I bitched about orange juice and waffles. She threatened to dismember me.

The next morning I woke imagining the suns rays warming my soul, and there they were doing just that.

Courtney was wearing my absolute favorite shirt, a plain old red shirt with a big adidas logo in black on both sides. It was originally bought by my kickass sister at goodwill.

She had worn it for a few years, then thirteen fourteen years ago she gave it to me. It has like a million smallish holes and is so thin it adds a red tint to your upper half rather than covering it.

You can imagine why it was my favorite shirt.

The girl on my other side didn’t have any shirt. I liked it too.

I fell asleep. We all snuggled. I yelled for bacon and eggs and bacon and toast. And coffee. Womans.

They threatened my left nut, and then my right.

It was good.

We had developed a pattern.

It was good.

The next morning I woke up and made breakfast. Omlets without the om. While sporting morning wood, that takes talent.

Courtney stumbled down the stairs giving me a wtf are you doing awake look.

“I made breakfast maybe you cloud stir up a little eighteen year old punker girl.”

I took Courtney out on a jog through the trails at the park that night.

“It’s going to be after dark by the time we finish.” she said as we passed a marker.

“We’re FBI agents I think we can break park rules. Hell like 99.7 percent of the reason I became an agent was so I could break rules and not get in trouble.

Shit for a while I was trying to convince Kevin to let me go “deep” into an x ring.”

“To bust fun loving teens?”
“No, I just wanted to gather information you know, maybe get in a situation where if I didn’t take some my cover would be blown.

But Shade got that gig. And he sure does love it.”

We came to a spot I knew well. Unmarked except in that it was a certain distance from an odd looking tree.

I led her down a nonexistant path.

“What are we doing, this isn’t even a side path.”she said

“Hold on, hold on .” I went into a braveheart impersonation “Hold”

“Braveheart?”she asked

I stopped and stepped out of the way to reveal a rock outcropping overlooking a small grassy river valley.

We stood there and watched the sun go down for I don’t know how long.

It was beautiful.

I moved a rock brushing away some dirt to uncover a package.

I pulled out a tent, sleeping bag, wine and glasses. I set up the tent while Courtney poured us each a glass.

“You’d never think you could find this much natural beauty in the middle of the city,, any city.” Courtney nearly whispered

“It almost hurts to realize it all used to look like this.”

“What’s with the light?” she said killing the mood

“We’re right against the far edge of highland meadows golf course.

It’s just a tiny maintenance shack with a light outside, I’ll shoot it out if you want.”

“No, no”

As the stars slowly came out of hiding we danced.

A we’ve gone crazy and we love it sort of dance.

To what rhythm I know not but as we danced we traveled back. Back and the stars got brighter and more numerous.

Back and the golf course disappeared. Back to nature, back to the beginning we traveled. The trees grew young then shrunk and disappeared.

And sprang back old and frail, but getting stronger, and healthier. We felt the strength of the earth and strength of ourselves.

Growing to understand the necessity of the inevitability and constance of time, but also appreciate our ability to mold and subjectify it.

It was good.

I woke up to the slow glow of dawn, the sun hidden by our hill.

Courtney wore my arm rather well. I tucked my head into her neck returning to dreams of a reality where this lasted forever.

I woke again, demanding coffee.

“Wine or nuthin,. you packed.” she said followed by “Let’s get wasted, then stumble back.” which she adopted before even suggesting it.

I took a swig “There isn’t that much we’ll have to really slam it to get a good buzz.”

She took the bottle gave it a good ten second chug and said “Ok.”

I took a long hard drink finishing the bottle “I totally should have borrowed some evidence, then we could of gotten really fucked up.”

She opened up the other bottle took a slug saying “I can’t believe you packed three bottles. Did you think you’d need to liquor me up to get some action?”

She handed me the bottle, I set it down and began taking down the tent, thinking. Courtney rolled up the bag, waiting.

We finished packing, putting everything back in the outer plastic bag.

I grabbed the bottle and shrugged while taking a drink. “How long do you think this has been here” I said

“Since yesterday”

“Four years.”

“Naaww”

“Notice the wear.”

The bag was covered with dried mud and worn.

Courtney brought back the pattern with enthusiasm then shaking her head “”Wait, what? Four years? Why? What, what were you waiting for?”

“The right girl. The girl that can outdrink me.” I said barely taking a sip and handing it back for her to finish.

She smiled “I’m starting to think you were Way sex starved before me”

“I was skin and bones.”

We put the bag back where it went and walked back towards the trail.

We tried to get back on the trail unnoticed sneaking around,

but gave up deciding it was more fun to act like crazy people

and dance and zig zag by the runners. We made it to the playground and of course stopped and played.

Then we ran back home and had more fun with our neighbor stoner chick.

* * * * *

We went back to work. Where our cover was rather easy to pull off. We were planted into a standard FBI office, our only roll was to do our jobs.

The only time we did blackopps high profile work we were just given on site assignment from above that looked legit to even our local boss.

But there is rarely anything high profile and to maintain cover the teams are rotated semirandomly so most everything was a routine, a pattern we are aware of.

So when the office was broken into and all the personnel files were stolen it gave all of us something important

to work on but only our BO unit Shade, Courtney, and I fully realized the possible ramifications.

Any other time including the Tran mission we just used regular agents that we liked and trusted

giving them as little information as we could and telling them not to think about it too much.

This time we did the exact same thing, but pulled up an all-star team from the ranks.

I gathered my two favorite techies Ryan and Marc. Shade reassigned two field agents that always worked together Craig and Jen.

Courtney recruited a new tiny little doctor named Trudy.

As we started making preliminary plans and projected results and developed motivational theories the first body came in.

We had been slow unprepared and unable to understand the levels our enemy would go.

“We should assume there are multiple targets”said Jen

“Do we assume there are multiple assassins is the question Craig

“Yes, because if there aren’t it won’t effect our actions.” Marc

I ordered Ryan “Have everyone thats outside break their routines and travel to a random location.”

Shade “Lock down the building, and have the nearest field team watch the perimeter

Courtney “Have another field agent investigate, and tell him to be fucking careful.”

“Done” Ryan replied typing away.

We were finally up to gear. Orders went out reports came in.

Our defense grew intensely as the instinct to protect one’s own fully kicked in.

It was scarey for a while. After finding nothing special about the shooting and no evidence other than

an unmarked unknown ubiquitous 9mm it became tiresome. And then tedious.

Then nothing. Nothing.

We waited and either the killer waited or was done. Slowly we decreased the overall preparedness over a few days. The personal protection remained increased,

but there was no other choice than to go back to normal.

In a matter of two hours three agents went down in separate events. All men between twentyfive and thirty, brown hair and shorter than average.

The same way someone might describe me.

It seemed evident the captain had seen Tweedledum’s badge assumed I worked at the local office and given my general description to an assassin.

I sure hoped they paid him a lot.

He was obviously highly skilled, but this job was about to get exponentially harder now that we knew what he was after, and his targets grew fewer.

We decided to do what we always did, set a trap. It comes naturally, what can I say.

Our only other options were to go into hiding or get picked off one by one as any assassin has an enormous advantage.

We leaked enough info about the Tran operation to identify myself to the assassin by way of a Chinese blackopps group that had a mole in the Washington office that we totally didn’t know about.

So now both were focused on me.

Sometimes I don’t really appreciate all the attention.

With all the recent deaths in town we decided to take a trip to Cancun,

a place where another death wouldn’t cause much stir.

And it’s a great place for vacation.

If I were the one trying to kill myself and suddenly I was flying to Mexico,., well I’d probably sit in an emergency exit row and just jump out.

But if I was someone else hired to kill me, well I’d know it was all a trap.

It’s not like I wouldn’t go for it, but I’d be damn careful about it.

So I felt rather confident getting on the plane knowing it was a high risk area and therefor relatively safe.

On the plane there was a redonk brunette that caught my attention,

but both Courtney and I were a little too on edge to go for it. Besides the rest of the team was surveilling us and it would have been awkward.

We got to our sweetass hotel without incident, but as soon as we entered my whole world collapsed.

There in the lobby were Brad and Angelina.

We spent the next three days locked in our room.

There’s no story to tell here.

Look away.

Finally emerging to the open, the sunlight, the air and sky, I felt reborn, strengthened,

ready to take on the world, even the possible sniper drawing a bead on my chest right now.

I retreated back to the room ashamed and scared of my own bravado.

Seeking seemingly better terms for our assassin we headed to the beach along with our team surveilling the area.

Ryan and Marc had the sensors; MMWR, facial recog, satellite, and heat sigs.

Craig and Jen slightly distanced, with 50 cals patrolling the area, had us covered.

Trudy waited around hoping she wouldn’t have to do anything, at least I hope she did.

Shade did something.

Me and Courtney headed down to the beach.

Spent the whole damn day waiting.

Nothin.

We went back to the relative safety of the hotel to relax, but that only lowered our level of alertness a little.

This was starting to get stressful.

During dinner I said “There’s really no good reason to be concerned out here in the restaurant.” after examining the couple sitting next to us.

“What, you don’t think he could be good enough to get past Shade? Cause he could.”

“But we should assume that he isn’t that good.”

“And why not?”

“Because if he’s that good he could do it anywhere, which means I’m a dead man, so let’s assume he’s not that good.”‘

After creating that bit of logic the tension faded away, and we began to enjoy where we were.

The restaurant, Cancun, in the warmth, alive and young.

It was good.

And then it got better.

This smokin hot blonde walked up and sat down.

A conversation occurred that I even took part in, but none of it registered, I just concentrated on her boobs, a lot.

Slowly I came to grasp that she was asking us if we wanted to have a threesome,

but I was too late in regaining consciousness, Courtney had already said no for us.

The blonde walked off breaking my heart.

I shot Courtney the worst meanest look I could.

“I’m ragging it” she said shrugging

“Damn it. Fuck you too mother nature.”

Trying to salvage my dignity I said “You know that could have been the assassin.”

“I know you aren’t used to attractive women hitting on you so you assume some alterior motive,

but I’m fucking hot babe, she wanted this shit, red wings and all.” which pretty much ended the discussion and the night.

I woke to room service bearing coffee and omlets just as dawn approached.

Gosh planning ahead was sweet.

That day I decided to go jet skiing, Courtney remained on the beach furthering the sandiness of her vagina.

Everyone else was hard at work protecting me.

“Dude that hot chick you turned down last night cause you’re gay is like three hundred meters out on a seadoo.” Shade said into my newly waterproofed earpiece

“You should regain your manhood and go get her.” Ryan chimed in

“Oh, and it looks like she just ran out of gas, she’s stopping in the middle of nowhere.” said Marc

“Don’t do it Red, Courtney will be pissed.” Jen said while Shade said something about boobs.

“I can still hear you guys.” Courtney

“DIVE” they all shouted

I was more surprised by those six agreeing on anything

than I was about suddenly diving into the ocean hiding from a sniper.

After the initial rush and reorientation I started to wonder how long I could hold my breath, and how long I’d have to.

Which thought brought back everyone else, I settled down and began listening to my earpiece again.

It was over already.

“No Shade, you can’t fire THROUGH a civilian ship to get at her.” Courtney I think

“But she’s gonna get away” Shade

“That’s ok, she knew when she set this up whether or not she got Vers she’d be able to escape, all that matters is she didn’t.” Jen

“Now that she’s been ID’d she’ll have to try something riskier, we made a lot of progress, without losing anything.” Craig

“Hey where is he?” Shade

That was my que to come up showcasing my ridiculous lung capacity.

I smiled and waved back to shore.

Next we went scuba diving.

It was fun.

Till someone added chum to the water, and all the sharks came.

It was pretty terrifying, but we tried to play it off to the other passengers that things like this happened all the time.

One couple backed us up on this leading me to believe they were either insane or stupid, or a mixture of the two.

We had developed a pattern.

Then we signed up for a walking tour of the tulum ruins, and a bomb went off while we were walking along a cliff,

but there was a delay between the explosion and the rock actually giving way.

The insane couple was all over the situation even before we were.

We let them blather on as we discussed our plan.

The assassin was being too careful for us to catch her and her plans were almost succeeding.

It was time to go home break apart the group cease surveillance and face my enemy on her terms.

The attempt would come soon.

I was back at home with no protection other than myself and Courtney.

There was no good reason for her not to attack, this was as easy as it was going to get,

and the longer she hung around the more likely it was she would be spotted.

No it would come soon.

Two vs one but the one has every other advantage, except maybe skill.

She had no small amount, but it takes a lot more to show me up, and even more to get Court.

It was the first real warm day of spring.

I was with Courtney driving up the mall parking garage

car dancing to hellogoodbye and rolling up the windows while

pulling into a spot when the first shot fired.

The bullet hit the top of the window as it went up.

Instinctually ducking I watched the bullets continue thumping into the bullet proof glass.

Blondie was nearly upon us gun out reaching for the door handle.

I smiled and mouthed “Rapelocks” as she tugged at the door.

I tilted my head to the side in that sad dog face way, while Courtney gave her the tongue.

Courtney and I stared at each other for a moment, gaining confidence in each others’ smile,

deciding in a singular look that I would herd her outside where Courtney would finish her.

We pulled out our weapons. I caught the sight of the assassin backing away into the shadows in my peripheral.

Courtney exited out her door heading in the opposite direction,

while lobbing a flash grenade over the car towards where the assassin lurked.

I looked away when the flash came, and as I dove out Courtney’s already open door, I decided to hit the windows down button and crank the volume.

A few shots fired when the flash went off, I believe they were aimed at my door, figuring I would exit using the flash as a distraction.

And she was completely correct except  using the other door.

I slid over to the next car and then down one row, silently.

I became giddy and almost lost myself as track 10 came on, the sound thumping and reverberating around the garage.

Bouncing to the beat I got in tune with the song, decided to dash for the next column.

The shots followed a split second too late. I threw a bottle in one direction and was about to

dive in the other but no shots were fired on the bottle, guess that trick was old news.

I shot a few expensive looking cars setting off their alarms to cause at

least some distraction for my killer, for me they just blended into the music.

I ran a few cars down my row and luckily turned left to the next column, as shots blasted into the cars between me and her.

Backup would be here soon, we both knew it.

I heard the fast sharp footfall of sprinting, turned and fired, my shots burrowing into the pillar separating us.

I shot to the left and right of the support, leaving only one safe path. Straight ahead of the pillar I could see the glow of an exit sign.

Perfect.

After seeing the edge of the door close and shut I went forward and checked the stairwell to make sure she was staying on that side of the building.

I could hear her taking the steps fast, but there was a precision to the rhythm of the footfall. She certainly wasn’t panicked.

I left the stairwell heading over to the open side of the garage to signal Courtney, and also to try to snipe Blondie.

Not very likely considering all I had left was a 45 but it was worth a shot.  I had to reload.

Courtney was right where I thought she’d be, in the middle of the two exits alternating views.

My assassin exited as Courtney was turning back in that direction.

They saw each other at the same moment.

Courtney tried to get a clean shot but there were just too many pedestrians for her to fire.

Our friendly killer had no such qualms about shooting into a crowd.

She fired off a few rounds in Courtney’s direction, but they stopped short lodging in this and that persons’ body signaled by sprays of blood.

And as I watched blood erupted from a head wound,

to what would normally be considered a middle aged man if he weren’t in the act of dying,

time slowed down or maybe my mind sped up.

In one freeze frame I could see Courtney taking aim with an open shot now that the crowd had hit the deck one way or another,

but Blondie was a step ahead locked on and about to fire.

Time returned, as her right shoulder erupted out of nowhere.

Courtney fired on the target, as did I, as the first shooter continued.

We created something that lies between ground meat and roadkill emptying our clips.

“I got the kill shot.” I yelled down.

“Bullshit, I got her in the heart.” said Courtney

“I got twenty on Courtney. Any takers, we can get ballistics to check it out.” Shade shouted up.

I yelled back “Fifty.” then I ran to the car and raced down the garage skidding to

a halt on the sidewalk just in front of Orangie’s body as I popped the trunk.

Courtney stopped giving orders over the phone long enough to say “Done”.

I got out to help Shade throw the bet winning evidence in the trunk.

Shade grabbed her remaining shoulder and back, I got her feet, both of us trying to avoid getting dirty.

“Ready?” I asked as I looked up at Shade.

And right as we were about to lift it up Courtney walked up, phone

tucked against her shoulder, picked up the body form the waist and threw it in.

“EW” she said as she dropped the phone and backed away.

“What’d you expect?” Shade said.

Courtney replied with a “No shit.” look.

So I asked “What?”

“She peed her pants”

“She was a pro I’m sure it didn’t happen till she died from my shot.” I replied

“That’s not a good excuse. There is nothing that makes peeing yourself ok.”

We got in the normal passenger area and drove off leaving the rest of the cleanup for our minions.

Shade said “That bitch was good, you guys were expecting her and she still almost got you.”

“We need to get better. Like now.”

“Well at least we get to be on offense again.”

We dropped off the body at the office lab for id and to resolve the bet.

Then we disposed of the car seeing as no one would want to drive that one again.

The cleanup went according to plan.

A second female body was returned to the scene in replacement, and a male body was put on the fourth level.

A 5’7″ white male with brown hair. It was me. I was dead.

Well, officially, dead.

It was the only way to be truly done with it.

That and killing the guy who made it all possible.

Dental records and finger prints led us to Bunclady Ireland.

Then we traced her travels back to a small town on the outskirts of Shanghai.

The group, our group, the big group, headed out aboard a C-17 for a seventeen hour flight.

Halfway there feeling the utter boredom of flight Craig blurted out “I’m going to kill him”

Immediately followed by “I’m going to kill him ALOT.” by Courtney

“I’ll kill him the most.” Jen added just to be cute.

He was nearly unguarded in his home, just a lackey who was courageous till he saw a gun and fainted.

The captain fought just as much being attached to a dialysis machine showing signs of waking.

Dr. Tran also had kidney problems. I wondered if they were related.

We took both of them back for interrogation along with physical evidence we thought might help. But all of them turned out useless.

The boy because he didn’t understand anything that was going on around him.

The captain because he was near death, and the capture had broken his mind.

The mind having become feeble due to a deteriorating body.

Physical evidence produced no new links no new leads just old info rediscovered for the nth time.

It was over.

The whole thing had made my career, led to the gathering of an unstoppable Bo team,

made a dynamic friendship, and created a relationship I couldn’t believe.

It was good.

And all of the negative reprecussions had played out with no real negatives except my own death.

Fuck karma, I’m living it up.

* * * * *

My funeral took place as soon a we got home. Total, a little more than three days from my passing.

It was a good service, and just the way I would want it.

I should know, I went, even though we decided only Courtney and Shade should go to limit possible slip ups.

Disguised with a quality wig and three inch lifts no one would notice me.

Everyone there knew that I was dead, they would see what they wanted to see, just another one of Vers’ strange friends.

Except of course Shade and Courtney who would see just as easily through my change in accessories whether or not they thought I was dead.

So I planned on avoiding those two and spending the time seeing my friends for the

last time and taking advantage of my only opportunity I’d ever have to meet Courtney’s family.

When I walked in fashionably late I saw Courtney talking to my family.

Unable to rein in my curiosity I walked towards them to listen in.

I watched Courtney introduce herself to my mom. I could see the disbelief in her face.

She never completely believed my mom was a nun I guess.

After basic pleasantries Courtney took Ben and retreated to a corner for a real conversation.

Good thing I had the place bugged.

A standard procedure,, no. An abnormality that might cause suspicion, no.

“You guys don’t seem all that shook up.” she said to my brother.

Ben said “Vers wouldn’t really mind death, he kind of thought of it as

‘If what I think happens and the Christians are wrong it will be worth it just to gloat even though I won’t be able to,

if what I hope happens dying is just like step two of many, and if heaven and hell exist I’ll enjoy working for devil.’ ”

I giggled as I realized my hope really had come true. My life had ended and a new one was beginning.

But inside of that satisfaction was a core of sadness about what was past and over, and what I would miss.

From weddings and children to disease and failure I wouldn’t a part of their lives to celebrate or help or commiserate.

It sucked.

Ben and Courtney had finished their conversation while I was lost in thought.

Courtney walked over to a group of my friends whom she had met before.

“You should come to the after party with us it’s gonna be sweet!” said my former roommate Josh who showed all the signs of excess prepartying.

Another separate former roommate Natalie said “You totally should, we talked about this all the time. We wanted to start a party funeral service.

The kind of party the dead always wanted to have, and trust me with all the little strippers we rounded up he sure would have been happy, , except they’re all over eighteen, but I think he’d understand.”

The room grew quite. Looking around for the cause I saw my friend Seth The Raver preparing to speak.

And when this man spoke everyone instinctually knew to listen.

It was partially his voice itself. It could be heard throughout a room sounding as if he were standing next to you.

This was true without him ever raising his voice just some intrinsic quality of the sound making it so clear.

But mostly people listened because he had thought about each and every word with every ounce of his focus.

I felt uncomfortable listening in on thoughts I wasn’t meant to hear so I went to the other room and found

Courtney’s parents sitting on a couch looking earnestly upset.

A surprise considering we had never met.

I sat down opposite them and asked “How did you know Vers?”

“I’m James, he was my daughter’s,,..well she would say future husband. Apparently Vers had a pet peeve about french words.

Of course she mentioned that his biggest pet peeve was the phrase ‘pet peeve’. I’m not sure if either one or both were trying to be ironic or if they were serious.

I never actually got to meet him with their schedules and all, but from what everyone has said today and from what Courtney says he was a person who could really be considered unique.

You must have been friends, right?” was his long winded reply.

I nodded my head.

“Well according to what I’ve heard you need to stop talking to an old man and start partying with everyone else”

“Eh, I also know Courtney, it’s tragic to see your daughter lose him so quickly.”

“She deserves more.” Courtney’s mom said more with anger than compassion.

I didn’t know how to respond so I got up and walked off thinking about what she had said.

Our relationship was forcing her to leave her family and friends and lie to them basically forever.

Man I was fucking everything up.

It sucked.

On the way to the afterparty we all stopped and visited the memorial that had for some reason been erected even though the body had been cremated.

All the standard information was on one side, but on the other was a poem with the happytree in the background.

may truth be known

until fantasy unfolds

rebuild the past by exploring the future

definitions change or become obsolete

only you can prevent forest fires

cleveland browns rule

k tks bye roflcopter?

I liked it but was more curious about the author than anything else.

Whatever, it was time to party.

As we settled into our new surroundings, switching mental modes ready to rock, a large group of my college friends gathered around Courtney.

Eventually someone managed to either gather enough courage or do enough drugs, much the same thing, to ask what they all wanted to know

“What actually happened?”

Courtney looked down, paused, and looked up with a fire and began telling the story, starting from the point we got back to town.

She told the story from her perspective. A story full of emotion. A story made from fear, but fear mixed with excitement.

A story with hope and anger. And to my surprise a story of pride.

The story ended with her killing the assassin and I knew she was just a lying bitch.

I turned away to visit the other room to see if it had a lower population of bullshitters.

The same scene was repeating itself with Shade and my other friends.

This version had a lot more emphasis on action and lots more of it.

A true man’s tale. Till the bitch claimed the kill shot.

An interesting conversation broke out over whether I would prefer punk or techno.

My friends seemed to divide over this but the correct conclusion was made that I would

like them both equally considering both the techno room and the punk room had strippers.

Good thing Natalie planned for this.

The gathering remained mostly segregated between those two groups.

The stoners playing drunk tag.

The ravers dancing toward heaven.

But slowly the energy drained.

Tag devolved into a mental battle of the giants, about cherries from Toronto transported by albatross.

Dancing became a cuddle puddle of epic proportions.

I stood up, and looked around, the only man left standing.

Shade was in the middle of the puddle dwarfing two little white chicks someone must have brought in.

Courtney was nearby snuggling with a stripper.

And I walked away.

The clock flipped to 8:00. After a moments hesitation I blinked checking it’s reality and my own as the crusted tears flaked away.

I crawled to my feet wobbling like a boxer who has gone down, adjusted my nuts, and walked to the backroom where we were to meet our ride to our new life and cover.

Courtney and Shade were already there. Asleep, but there.

I crawled in between them for warmth, smiled, and said more to myself “You’re the only people I’ll ever know.” as I fell at last asleep.

Apparently someone picked us up and placed us on an army cargo plane cause that’s where we woke.

I looked around without getting up feeling comfortable where I was, but wanting to know my environment.

There was a platoon with us on some training mission I assumed.

The commander was chewing one of them out, probably what woke me up in the first place.

Staring down the private he pointed in our direction saying

“Each of those three is ten times the man than all of you combined.

They receive no praise no valor public or private, they have no holidays, no parades,

no one will remember them as no one knows who the fuck they are.

You fight for pride. You fight because we tell you to. And for what you know is right.

They fight through doubt in the shadows of right and wrong.

So shut the fuck up and let them sleep.”

I followed his advise and went back to sleep.

View Spell-Checked Padding, pt. 2 at Supraterranean

Cheers . Cheers and shots, shots and cheers, repeat.
Not really celebrating not really happy. No not till we felt the warm embrace
of oblivion did the tension, and pain drain away as we stumbled through the double doors

I turned my head around again as my co-cuddler stirred to life., Shade
“Why the fuck are you spooning me?” came out before I really thought about it.
“Aw you’re just upset cause you’re the little spoon.,.bitch” Shade replied.
“Damn straight I’m upset about being the little spoon” was all I could come up with as I stood up.
More broken memories came as I surveyed the room.

Someone about something about tomorrow.
Some hot chick saying she’ll miss me, but I’m not completely into her,
but I should be cause she’s hot, level 70 night elf hot, and I brush her off, harsh.
A file now. Some Asian dude. Asian like Jason Scott Lee
not Bruce Lee Asian,,, kinda, and beer. And shots.

And beer cans are everywhere in the hotel room stacked all retarded just waiting for the cleaning lady to find and admire the architecture.
Confusion started to overcome my mind but a sharp knock brought the now into focus.
The knock, just one, threw Shade into action, he rolled while drawing a .380.
I looked him a question before checking the peephole.
“It’s just some Asian hitmen.” I said to Shade as if it was a friend of mine at the door named Asian Hitman, except plural of course.
Shade reacted similarly and put his weapon away.
“Drop the gun” “Oh, ah well just take the holster off now I guess.” yelled one of the hitmen through the door.
Probably the one with the millimeter wave radar apparatus, now that I thought about it.
“Also the MK9 and that ridiculous knife”
Shade complied, disarming himself slowly, almost sheepishly removing the Helicledes knife.
“Well, open the door” came through in the same voice.
So I did.

“Gentleman.” I said as I did a pathetic American imitation bow while
Shade managed not to bite through his lip, I think.
The techie quickly walked in running several scans with his personal surveillance system, whose display looked suspiciously like a moded PSP.
“All clear, no immediate threats, no radio, or other communications, no tracking devices” Tad, “techie Asian dude” said.
“Good” said the older Asian dude that had been performing his own visual inspection.
Followed by “He stays.” while pointing at Shade.
“He has to come,., we’re siamese twins” I replied.
He gave me a quarter smile, half of it evil, and shrugged a “whatever”.
We started to leave with them so fast one of them had to remind me to bring my brief case.
The case as I grabbed it, with half my mind saying “of course” and the other wtfing, looked to be of leather, but the feel was all wrong, it felt as hard as metal,
and was heavy enough to make me strain to hide the effort it took to lift it.

Seven of us entered two Lexus 460HL’s, and Tad got in an F series.
Me and Shade were facing two enforcers and Kag “killer Asian guy” with Kag surprisingly riding bitch.
The other enforcers got in the back of the other 460, so I assumed not only were there
drivers waiting on the other side of the reflective glass but also shotguns, possible pun intended.
So there were at least thirteen of them with up to nineteen possible.
I kept cycling between two thoughts “Holy shit what’s in this suitcase?” and
“How the fuck did I forget what’s in this fucking suitcase.”
A third more important thought came along that resonated throughout my conscious
“Fucking Tequila.”

The caravan eased away from the hotel.
“So how’s it going?”I said trying to seem calm and instantly failing
“Precisely as it should” Kag replied with a full evil smile. I wondered if he had any nonevil smiles.
“Sweet” was all I said as I tried to figure out how I got so dumb so fast.
“Our destination is?” asked Shade
“Rather discrete” said Kag.
The response caused Shade to work his jaw so hard I could almost feel his teeth grind.

We drove around for a while, twice literally. Most likely to check for surveillance, but possibly because the drivers were Asian.
Finally we exited at Queensbridge station.
Our initial numbers walked down into the overcrowded subway
while the drivers went elsewhere in their super sweet ecofriendly hardon inspiring vehicles.
I finally got to see Tad’s PSP screen and saw him cycling through five readings.
I was right about the MMWR. There was also a thermal readout, a strange looking screen
I thought might represent incoming and out going radio and other electronic transmissions, and a DBZ episode.
Both the heat and MMWR where in real time 3-D in the form of a third person mobile perspective
meaning there were many preplanted sensors in the area
and that the PSP had one hell of a graphics card. But Tad spent the most time on a screen where the sensors
scanned the faces of the crowd, obtained a forward view and a profile from another
angle, then attempted to match them to a database of similar perspective pictures
of what I assumed were dangerous people.
It hesitated and reexamined this one hot ska chick’s profile trying to obtain a clearer pic to match to.
While it hesitated a poor photograph of the girl from last night remained on the screen.
But then it got a full frontal, found discrepancies and moved on.
At that point I decided to finally quit drinking,., like for real this time.
We walked toward a platform that seemed to be almost blocked off in what would not look intentional if
I wasn’t growing steadily more paranoid and they weren’t anti-stereotypically large Asian guys.
Minding the gap we entered the train car and I noted an even higher concentration of Lags.

Kag motioned toward an older gentleman who looked rather comfortable.
His coolness might have disturbed me, but I forced myself to believe it was
simply because he was the only one actually seated in the car.
As Shade and I approached him he motioned for the briefcase.
I handed it to him and he unlocked it with some sort of smart skeleton key
before I could reach for my regular one.
A cold cloud arose as the he opened the case.
It dissipated revealing a grid of small test tubes on the right, with
the rest dedicated to the internal cooling system and its controls.

He then opened his own briefcase which contained a myriad of
testing equipment, the top holding a 24in LCD display., show off.
He pulled out a tube and syringed a sample in with an or multiple restriction endonucleases
and began an expedited digitized riflip test.
Results slowly appeared on the screen. Signs of recognition and conformation flowed across
his face as the numbers and graphs flashed.
He simply looked at Kag and said “Tests positive”
“Good” said Kag
And everyone just stood there like they were waiting for something, even Shade.
While I was bathed in confusion mixed with fear.

We came to a stop one man stood and turned towards us.
I recognize him. Holy shit I recognize someone.
It’s the guy from the file. He’s the reason this is happening.
My mind jumped into another gear a step ahead of my conscious that left no trail or wake to follow
but made my body jump to attention as endorphins were released creating a sense of certainty throughout.

The man was Dr. TRAN and all I knew was I had to stop this from happening.
He walked in the car and everything got more intense more exciting more real.
Everything slower everything faster at the same time, each moment creating more of the past
and destroying possible futures. Taking what could be and turning it
into to what is leaving a trail of what was.
The first step into the car I realized who Tran was.
During the second I realized who I was.
On the third I put the two together understood everything that
was going on exited my internal thought process and went with it.
Tran took Kag’s gear and placed a sample under the photoscope and watched for only he knew what.
He spoke “Second generation remains fertile. I thank you Mr. Kleman for placing personal gain over the welfare and safety of your nation.
I assume you’ve self administered the vaccine, but if I were you I’d still leave the country. More people will die from general panic than the virus itself.”
“At least I hope they do” he smiled.
Tran took out a vile with his left hand, with his right a syringe
neatly filling the syringe with the sample from the photoscope, removed the needle and pocketed it.
I knew that I was giving someone the ability to destroy our world.
I knew I couldn’t let this happen.
I knew I was hopelessly out manned.

I also knew I planned this shit out.

View Spell-Checked Padding, pt. 1 at Supraterranean