Bobbi Wheaton yawned and looked back at her computer screen. It was late, but she wanted to finish what she was working on. She ran her hand through her newly dyed hair- blonde with dark red streaks- and began typing again. She'd been coding a translation program for several hours now and there was one bug that she was missing. Something minor that wasn't allowing the program to truly be universal as she'd hoped. Although the small translator devices she'd created for her A-Next teammates worked perfectly for Romantic and Cyrillic languages, it was having trouble with Arabic.
"Why?" she muttered, adjusting the sports bra she had on. She was dressed for bed, a sports bra and gym shorts, but she wouldn't be able to sleep until this was done. Her mind wouldn't allow itself to relax <i>that</i> much. She saw a small portion of code that might have been the cause, corrected it, uploaded the updated program to her translator then took the small translator between her fingers.
"Come on baby, you know you want to work," she whispered as she pressed the transmitter portion of the translator into her ear canal. Most people would have mistaken them for hearing aids, and that amused Bobbi. She brought up a small audio file in Arabic. The translation was supposed to say "The eagle flies at midnight." For some reason it was saying "Hot pants fly like
sandstorms." Bobbi didn't even know there was a word for hot pants in Arabic.
She pressed play on the small window and heard clearly "The eagle flies at twelve AM." She grinned. Close enough. She'd work that kink out in the morning. It got the basic gist. That was all that mattered.
As she started to shut down her computer, a received email alert popped up onto her screen.
NEW MAIL HAS ARRIVED, WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ IT?
Bobbi clicked yes.
The message read:
Ever wonder why you're here? Where you came from?Who created you? I know.
There was no originating address, no signature. Bobbi input a series keystrokes, attempting to isolate the source of the message, but no avail.
"Damn, you're good," she muttered. She looked at her bed, then back at the screen. "And you can wait."
With that, she stood, took a couple of steps and dropped onto the mattress. She was out in seconds.
"Wakie wakie..."
Bobbi's eyes cracked open ever so slightly. It was Teddy. She loved her teammate, but his routine wake-up call got annoying after the first time.
"Go away green-jeans," she growled.
"Ouch," he said. "Come on, get up. Jess needs us for something." Bobbi sat up, pulling her blanket around her mostly nude form. Didn't want to give Teddy too much of a rise. Make him suffer.
"Give me ten minutes," she said. "Need a little time to put my face on."
"She wanted you now," Hulkling replied with a grin.
"Damn." Bobbi turned and put her feet on the floor. She leaned over and rubbed her eyes, hoping to wipe the tired away. She looked up at Teddy, who still stood in the doorway, waiting. He smirked.
"Do I need to strip bare-ass naked to get you to give me a little privacy?" she asked.
"Wouldn't hurt," he teased. "Doesn't mean I would though." Bobbi rolled her eyes.
"Let me take a piss and put a shirt on. Good hell." She stood, walked into the bathroom, dropped her shorts and panties to her ankles and sat down. She sighed as the pressure in her bladder slowly reduced. A few moments later she left the bathroom. She walked across the bedroom, being sure to shoot Teddy a glare, then grabbed a grubby white T-shirt from a pile of clothes. She pulled it over her head and looked around, adjusting it.
"Do you see flip-flops?" she asked. Teddy pointed beneath her bed. "Thanks." She grabbed the sandals, slipped them on her feet and stood.
"It's about time," he declared.
"Whatever." She followed him into the corridor. They walked in silence for a few yards. Teddy looked over his shoulder and grinned.
"Productive evening last night?" he asked. Bobbi thought of the email she received as she ran her hand through her hair. She'd have to work on it after Jessica's meeting.
"Yeah, I mostly got the translators working," she said. "Just nit-picky stuff at this point." She took a couple quick steps to catch up to him. "How about you?"
"I got kicked out of the rec room for snoring during some DVD we were watching," he replied. "I think I really pissed everyone off." She laughed.
"Way to go big and green," she joked. He laughed. "You know... you're kind of cute when you're not Hulked up."
"Really?" he asked. "Well... thanks."
"No prob. We're here." Bobbi motioned towards the door and followed Teddy into the room.
Spider-Woman was in full uniform when Bobbi walked in. It was cold in the briefing room of the small complex that the DoD had given the team in the Sierra Nevada's. It made Bobbi wish she'd put on a hoodie instead.
"Nice of you to join us," she grinned. The other members of A-Next already sat watching their mentor with varying degrees of interest. They were all in about the same state of undress she was. Except Redwing. He was already in his full uniform. Bobbi swore that the kid was born with a stick up his ass.
"Well kiddos," Jessica said, "we've got a doozy today. There have been reports of activity from one of the biggest mad scientists on the planet." She pressed a button and a hologram of a mid-size man in a green jumpsuit and scraggly brown hair blinked into existence.
Bobbi recognized him instantly. She didn't know who he was though. She began questioning herself about why he was familiar. Why did she know him?
"This is the Mad Thinker," Jessica continued. "I don't know his real name off the top of my head, but I'm sure we have a file on him somewhere. He has genius level intelligence, nearly equal to Reed Richards. Naturally, he hates Richards, like almost everyone on this planet 'almost' as smart as him." The hologram shifted form, the Thinker's image shrinking and being replaced by a very large humanoid with a rectangular metal box for a head. This time, Bobbi knew the source of her recognition. This was one of the Awesome Androids. They'd fought the Avengers or Fantastic Four or both to a standstill on occasion. They had the ability to absorb the powers of any foe, if she remembered right.
"The Thinker's expertise falls into the field of robotics," Jessica continued. "He's designed hundreds of different types of artificial life forms, usually trying to one-up some hero. His latest is something called a human replacement droid." The images shifted from the Awesome Android to that of a normal looking human. "The bulk of the droids' components are biological in nature, but the skeletal and nervous systems are completely artificial." The hologram dissected the droid, showing the meshing of biological and mechanical. "DoD wants us to go after these replacement droids. Rumor has it a group of them have been inserted into Los Angeles in various positions around financial centers. Our job is to track them and remove them from operation."
"So now we're hunting the blasted Cylons?" Mockingbird quipped. Everyone looked at her, Scorpion in particular curling her lip in bewilderment, trying to prevent a grimace. "Uhm, come on guys? Am I the only one around here that watches TV?" Bobbi rubbed her eyes and shook her head.
"Right..." Thunderstrike said. "But we are hunting these things?" Jessica nodded.
"Kid stuff," Hulkling gloated.
"You should know by now Teddy," Carmilla said, leaning forward to look at him. "It never is."
Bobbi ignored the banter though. All she felt at that moment was a deep knot in her gut. What was wrong here?
"So remember how I said kid stuff?" Hulkling said. "Not so much." It was raining in Los Angeles, and A-Next was collectively soaked. They'd been staking out Los Angeles for three days with no luck. Teddy was bored out of his skull. Scorpion smiled at her teammate.
"Toldja," she said. "How's the thermal imager working?"
"Great," Redwing said from above. He hovered over the street scanning for abnormal thermal signatures. They'd been told that the replacement droids would be colder than human beings. Watching thermal images were their best bets. Mockingbird crouched on the edge of a rooftop nearest Redwing. The team had been split into two-somes, with Spider-Woman patrolling solo. The luck of the draw ended up with Bobbi being stuck with Mister Personality himself.
"Does this seem like searching for a needle in a haystack to y'all?" Mockingbird asked. "I mean, how many million people are in Los Angeles? How big is this group we're looking for?"
"Estimate's thirty-seven," Redwing replied. "It's a couple needles."
"Very funny," Mockingbird scowled, sticking her tongue out at Redwing. "Didn't think you made jokes."
Redwing grinned. "Not usually. I'm in a good mood today." He suddenly stopped his slow rotation. "I've got one. We're pursuing."
"We?" Redwing swooped down and scooped Mockingbird up by her armpits. Bobbi cried out with a short yelp.
"You okay?"
"Warn me next time you do that," she moaned. Redwing smiled.
"Everyone freeze!" he yelled as the duo dove into the crowd. The cry had the opposite effect, breaking the pedestrians into a panic.
"Good job genius," Mockingbird muttered. Redwing glanced down at her.
"I could just let you go," he said. Mockingbird shook her head. She clicked on her thermal imager and saw the object of their pursuit. She was sprinting around the corner. Redwing followed.
"Do it!" she yelled.
"Do what?" Redwing asked.
"Let me go!" Bobbi focused on the blue thermal image. "I can get her!" Redwing set his jaw in disapproval but let go. Bobbi drew up her legs to maximize the distance she'd travel.
She hit the droid hard, sending it flying forward. Bobbi rolled as she hit the sidewalk, and jumped to her feet. The droid was on her almost instantly. Bobbi dodged a blow to the head, then kicked the droid hard in the gut. It stumbled back, then came at Bobbi again. Bobbi ducked, and pulled a device from her belt. It was an electronic surge device she'd designed, hoping the surge would be enough to stop one of the droids. Bobbi jumped over the robot, spun and slammed the device into the small of its back. The robot screeched as electricity coursed through its body, and it fell to the ground, dead.
"A-Next, this is Mockingbird," she said, keying her comm. "We've got a confirmed kill."
"We have a confirmed kill," Bobbi muttered angrily. "Shouldn't have taken the damn robot down." She loved the access she had to the best tech in the world, and the government made sure they had plenty of it. Hell, she loved the opportunity to help their tech guys tear the droid apart. It was a thrill when they discovered a transmission controlling the droid. What came next was what had made her angry.
"It's only natural Bobbi," Mockingbird growled, imitating Spider-Woman. "You're a shape shifter Bobbi." She stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose. "Well why the hell don't you do it Spymaster Drew?" Natural her ass. She'd been practicing with her shape shifting abilities from the moment the team located to the Sierras and it couldn't be further from natural. She rubbed her temple, trying to drive away the growing ache.
"Wonder if she realizes my head's killing me," she grunted. The concentration on keeping her current form wasn't the only thing that bothered her though. In the back of her mind, the email from the other night was still itching. Something about it still bothered her. She hadn't had a chance to work on it to try to figure out what it was. She'd been instantly pulled into the manhunt for the Mad Thinker. As she thought about the Thinker, her feeling of recognition towards him started to bother her also. Was there a connection between the two?
The building they'd traced the signal to, wasn't your typical super villain hangout. It appeared to be a well kept set of apartments on the fringes of the middle class area of LA. She was impressed by the Thinker's taste. The source of the control transmission was coming from the third floor according to the readout on the contact lens she wore over her left eye, so Bobbi took and chance and strode onto the elevator and pressed the button for the correct floor. She then braced herself for whatever she was about to find.
The door opened with a *ding* and Bobbi muffled a gasp. The ceiling was easily tall enough for two separate floors, and the entire space was open. Robot skeletons stalked around the room, moving various pieces of machinery, while other replacement droids were partially dissembled, undergoing maintenance by yet more robots. It was completely frightening to Bobbi.
"Welcome back 15," said one of the other droids as she walked past. "What kept you so long?" Bobbi was grateful that Jessica had anticipated that exact question.
"You know how LA is," she said with a hint of humor. The droid smiled and nodded.
"Indeed," it said. "The Thinker has been waiting on your report." Bobbi nodded and continued to walk towards the signal, guessing that was exactly where the Mad Thinker waited. She was right.
"How's our girl doing?" Scorpion asked Spider-Woman. The remaining members of A-Next were waiting patiently just couple blocks away, monitoring Mockingbird's progressed through a nanocam in the same contact lens that held Mockingbird's HUD.
"Swimmingly," Jessica replied. "Her vitals are steady and the camera's capturing as much as we need to legally shut him down."
"And are we going in after her?" Redwing asked.
"Give her a little time," Spider-Woman replied.
"Think she realizes that we heard every word she muttered under her breath on the way into the building?" Scorpion asked. Spider-Woman smiled and looked at Scorpion.
"She doesn't have a clue."
"Ah 15!" the Thinker exclaimed as he saw Mockingbird. "My favorite industrial spy. Do you have more results from your data skimming from Suprasoft? Any new goodies for me?" Bobbi nodded. She pulled out a mini compact disc that they had found on the droid and handed it to the Thinker. He smiled maliciously and inserted it into a drive in front of him. Data quickly began scrolling across the screen.
"Ah, a new web browser," he said. "That will be helpful. Financial managers, instant messengers..." He turned back to Mockingbird, still smiling. A chill ran down Bobbi's spine. "Whoever you are, I'm grateful you brought this back to me. It's bad enough you killed one of my droids, but losing this data would have made it even worse." Bobbi's jaw dropped. "Oh, don't be surprised. I've known since you walked into the building. Go ahead and drop you facade. It's of no use now." The Thinker turned back to his console, picked up some sort of weapon and turned back to her. "I meant now." He leveled the gun at Bobbi's chest.
"Oh shit."
"We're moving now?" Thunderstrike asked.
"Oh yeah," Spider-Woman replied. "Now."
Bobbi relaxed and her body resumed its normal form, her headache subsiding quickly afterwards. As she shifted back into herself, the Thinker smiled and lowered his gun. That scared Bobbi more than being caught.
"The prodigal returns," he muttered. He turned away from Mockingbird and set his gun down. "I knew it would only be a matter of time before we met again. The government might have taken you, but blood always brings you home."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bobbi asked, not knowing whether to run or to punch the lunatic in front of her. Several other droids began to surround her. The Thinker began chuckling.
"They wiped your memories then, did they?" he asked. "Can't remember anything before the time you were four, right?" He spun back to Bobbi, the jovial expression replaced by rage. "They just can't leave well enough alone, can they?! They think they've got to protect the innocent and impressionable! What about those they take them from?"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Bobbi repeated. "You're talking like I should know you! I've never seen you in person in my life!"
"What's the matter Bobbi?" the Thinker asked. "Don't you recognize your own father?"
Binary flew at top speed towards the building, her energy trail blazing behind her. The team followed closely behind. They had enough to bust the Thinker. Her hands began to glow as she absorbed ambient energy from her surroundings and charged her own body with it. She channeled it into her hands, and extended them in front of her, an aura growing in brightness and intensity.
"Fire in the hole!" she screamed. She blasted the side of the building, ripping a hole open big enough for the entire A-Next team. She landed on the floor of the large room, energy still surrounding her body.
"I'd say something witty right now," she declared, "but I think it'd be less cheesy if I just kicked your ass!"
Bobbi spun to see A-Next storm into the room. Not now. Not after what he just said. She needed to hear more! She needed to know what this deranged scientist meant!
"I know what you're thinking Bobbi," Thinker said. "No worries. I'll find you again, just like I did the other night, and then-" He pressed a key on his console and smiled at her. "-then I'll tell you all you need to know."
Around Bobbi everything began to explode, including the Thinker himself. He had begun a self-destruct sequence, and was an android himself. She turned and sprinted away from the control console.
As Bobbi Wheaton ran, a million different thoughts ran through her head. He had to be lying. But how did he know her name? What does he know about her? What is she really?
"Get out!" she screamed. "The whole place is going to come down!" She ran for the hole and dove out, praying the drop wouldn't kill her. Suddenly, a strong hand caught her own and lifted her into the air. She looked up and saw Thunderstrike. He smiled at her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I don't know Billy," she replied. "I don't know."
Next: Is that it? Is that all there is to it? Well, following our lead story here is some vignettes showcasing some possible future members of A-Next, but for Mockingbird, this is only the beginning. She knows the Mad Thinker is her father, but what does that mean? Were her messages from the beginning of the story from her father, or from someone else entirely? What does this mean for her? Stay tuned to find out!
And what was that about future A-Next members? Well, read on for several short clips showcasing some more young superhumans. One of them will go on to join A-Next. Which one? Well, you decide! After this issue is posted, there will be a poll posted in the Project A-Next section of the Altered Visions message board. The most popular character will join A-Next! So without further ado-
"Mastermind Excello"
Amadeus Cho hated thinking too hard. That didn't mean racking his brain in studying for a test. Neither was it trying to get thoughts down on paper. Those came naturally to Amadeus. When he thought of thinking too hard, it was in situations like this.
He didn't want to calculate his odds. That would merely take up brainpower he needed to get himself out of this mess. Three armed government agents waited for him about ten yards ahead. Coming up behind him was a tractor-trailer full of used cars. If he ran away from the road the agents would follow him. If he stayed there, the truck would kill him.
"Come on son," one of the men coaxed. "We only want to help you. We're not the bad guys here."
"Then why do you have your guns out of their holsters when you're helping a fifteen year-old boy?" Amadeus asked. "Am I that big of a threat?" The trio scowled. He could tell by their posture and expression they were about to make a move.
Amadeus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small compact disc. It was smaller in diameter than most other CD's, a faddish pop single that he was ashamed to have ever owned. His brain instantly kicked into overdrive.
He saw the angle to throw the disc at the lead agent in his mind, calculated the velocity to throw it at and figured the exact point of his body to hit to incapacitate him. He anticipated the other two spooks' reactions, and listened to the roar of the truck approaching them, calculating its speed and the timing of exactly when it would reach them. He then estimated the time it would take to pull the little maneuver he had just plotted in his mind.
The entire thought process took less than a second.
"Amadeus, please," the man pleaded again.
"Yeah right." He flung the small disc the exact speed and force he'd calculated, sending it flying into the lead agent's Adam's apple. He began choking and gagging. The other two men turned towards him, ready to offer aid. Just then, the truck driver turned on his air horn, blaring at the three men. They shoved their incapacitated leader to the side of the road, and then dove to the ground beside him. The truck roared past, and Amadeus Cho was gone. The young man crouched alongside one of the cars on the rack, fiddling with the lock with his pocket knife. The lock popped, and Amadeus opened the door just enough to crawl inside.
He curled up on the seat. He was tired and he was sick of running. He just hoped he wouldn't have to any more soon.