Interlude 1 - Oracle

Oracle steps through the white portal and into the FBI facility. This is the place that they brought her target to.

The young woman is utterly beautiful with a genius mind to match. The perfect combination of body and mind in her opinion.

A black catsuit covers her body. The catsuit has some nifty features such as rendering her invisible to cameras and stopping her emitting any sound unless she actively tries to. But even Oracle has to admit it is a bit clichéd, but it does the job whilst allowing her to show off the new body that came with her powers.

And just like the rest of her, Oracle’s powers are top of the line with her primary ability being able to see the future. It does include the ability to see different futures, but that requires mediation. The most practical field usage is that Oracle can see the most probably outcome of each action.

Oracle’s powers also include a couple of secondary abilities to complement her main one superhuman reflexes and mental processing. The first is basically reaction speeds falling just short of superspeed while the later allows her to speed her mind up.

To Oracle, it feels like time has frozen, including her own body unless she is using her super reflexes, but it gives her the chance to understand what her future-seeing is telling her.

A guard turns the corner and Oracle smiles as she activates her power. Now she just has to find the perfect way to take this guy down.

Luckily for her, Forge has equipped her with a variety of futuristic gadgets to get this job done. These gadgets range from a device to fool the electronic by passively providing fake data to a gun that can destroy molecular bonds of any solids in its target radius. Even people.

But Oracle doesn’t like to disintegrate people like that. The sight of it creeps her out and she finds the whole concept disturbing.

And fortunately for the man, Forge has provided Oracle the prefect tool to stealthily neutralise the threat without being detected. She smiles as she draws a small, stick from her belt of tricks.

Oracle steps out with super reflexes, raising her hand so it, and, by the extant, the device she is holding, are pointed at the man.

A small flash emits from Oracle’s device and the guard’s eyes become unfocused. Oracle casually sidesteps around him and continues on her journey.

The device will daze the man for the next few seconds and erases his memories of the last few seconds. In total, it gives Oracle about ten seconds to get around him and on her way if she times it right.

Nicely done if I do say so myself.

Oracle flash-sticks her way past the next two guards before finally reaching the last obstacle behind her and her objective. Four guards, all with assault rifles, guarding the entrance to the room containing the target.

Oracle activates her power, trying to find ways around this that don’t involve being detected. Nothing seems to work for her and after the effort she has already put into being undiscovered, Oracle really wants to get into the room without being detected.

Wait, one of the other guards is coming back around. If I don’t hide, he’ll find me

Oracle flash-sticks the patrolling guard again before stepping behind him. She is silent and unmoving as he continues on his journey after a moment of confusion.

I love this flash stick. It is so perfect for fooling these idiots.

Oracle sighs internally as she realises her best shot is to rush in and flash-stick the guards. Hopefully her reflexes will be enough to get past the door in what few seconds she will have available to her.

She dashes forward as she flash-sticks the guards. None of them are able to react before they go into the daze.

Oracle opens the door and slips through before gently closing it behind her.

I’ll have to have Forge alter that footage later. He is a genius when it comes to technology.

Oracle pauses as she realises that she is not alone in the small room containing her target. A middle aged woman in a lab coat is sharing this room with Oracle.

Well, I have something for this. It just utterly creeps me out and I was really hoping it wouldn’t need to use it.

Oracle flash-sticks the doctor before drawing a miniature spray can. She aims it at the other woman’s face and spray.

A grey cloud of nanomachines come out and fly up the woman’s nose, mouth and ears. She instinctively jerks her head back, but it is too late for her.

The nanomachines are some of Forge’s greater creations with the ability to restructure the human body. In this case, to reprogram the woman’s brain so she becomes a loyal sleeper agent.

With the doctor dealt with, Oracle bends down over Washdown’s body and pulls out a thin tube.

She activates the tube and it shimmers as silver substance collects in the middle of it. For a lack of a better term, the silver substance appears to be ‘liquid energy’.

“I’m done,” reports Oracle in to her earpiece once the tube is full of the silver substance.

A second white portal opens in front of her and Oracle calmly steps through it.

***

“Father, you should really come and take a look at this.”

1.1 Awake Part 8

Guardian leaves the base and makes sure to stay out of sight.

I don’t need Scott to tell me that my gear will draw unwanted attention.

It is for that same reason that the gangsters Scott is sending her after are only a block away.

I know the plan. Get in stealthily and beat up the gang members inside. Once the building is secure, take their money and destroy their drugs. I should also take their ammo and guns if I can or destroy if I can’t with a priority on ammo over guns. I’m also going to acquire more parts if I can.

Guardian quickly finds the building that Scott described to her. He spent some time scouting undetected. Not many gangsters pay attention to the crippled homeless man, let alone consider him a threat.

Guardian reaches the door and tries the handle.

It’s locked. Let’s try something else.

Guardian puts her hand against the lock and focuses as she can senses the mechanism that is the lock. It’s faint, but it is there.

I guess a mechanism is basic technology so it falls under my powers. Still I have to be touching it to feel it with my power and even than I can barely connect with it.

With a click, the door is unlocked and Guardian pushes open and draws her pipe-gun. She made sure it was loaded before she left and it has a total of ten shots currently in it.

A man is already in the room when Guardian enters. He is a quick draw, but Guardian already had her pipe-gun at ready. The man manages to draw his submachine gun and get to his feet when Guardian’s stun attack topples him over. The weapon falls from his grasp and nosily clatters across the floor.

Guardian is at the door leading into the main room when another ganger opens it up. Guardian quick shots him as well and then drops the guy behind him before he can react.

Unfortunately for Guardian, the element of surprise is no longer with her as she hears footsteps from the floor above her. She cautiously stays back as Guardian spots someone on the stairs.

He sticks his own handgun around the side of railing of the stairs and fires in Guardian’s direction. While the bullets hit the wall next to her with heavy thumps, it still gets Guardian’s adrenaline going as if she had actually been hit.

She takes aim at what she can see of her opponent and fires. Her shot strikes her target in the leg and he falls down the stairs with a cry of pain.

The ganger behind him is much more aggressive and goes down the stairs whilst firing at Guardian. She ducks back into the other room as bullets smash into the walls and ground around her. She isn’t a moment too soon as a pair of bullets fly through the space she was previous occupying.

Six shots left with my pistol as a backup. I can afford to spend a few shots on this foe.

Guardian sticks her pipe-gun around the doorway and fires a trio of shots in rapid succession. She steps back into the doorway as she hears a gurgle and gunfire stops.

One of her shots is lodged in the far wall while another stuck her target in the chest judging by the hole in his shirt. Another appears to have torn through his right shoulder as evidenced by the small pool of blood forming around it as he lies on the floor.

Guardian marches into the middle of the room, waiting for more opponents. None come.

I waited long enough. I do have a schedule to keep if I am to do I need to and get out before more show up.

Just she turns her back to start looting the first lot of gangsters, Guardian hears a noise behind her. She spins around just in time to block as the ganger she shot of the stairs swings a knife at her.

Metal clanks against metal as the blade is intercepted by pipe. Guardian jumps back, but the gangster presses his attacker.

“Who the @$#£ing hell do think you are bitch?” demands the gangster as Guardian blocks again.

“Guardian,” replies Guardian as she backs up and remembers what Scott told her to say.

“Oh yeah you-,” starts the man before being cut off as Guardian gets a shot in.

It misses as it flies over the gangster’s shoulder.

At least it shut him up. But I’m down to my last two shots until I can reload.

“Damn you &%*#er!” yells the gangster, “Goddamn superhero wannabe!”

This would be a lot easier if I had a free hand to get one of my other pipes. Back at the basement, I’m going upgrade my pipe-gun so it only requires one hand to use. But what can I do to get the advantage?

Then the perfect solution hits her. Fending off another attack, Guardian reaches out with her power to find any electronic devices on the man. She is in luck as he has a smart phone on him.

It takes couple of seconds before she is ready, but the gangster is completely unprepared. Guardian smiles.

“What’s so funn-” the man starts to demand, but ends up yelping as his own phone electrocutes him.

He falls unto the ground, writhing in pain.

It’ll only last until the battery runs out and the phone is fried and useless. Only a few minutes at most.

With the building secured, Guardian gets to work.

1.1 Awake Part 7

“Are you ready Legacy?” inquires Scott as night falls.

It has been a week since Legacy woke up in an alley and Scott found her. In that week, they been preparing hard for Legacy’s crimefighting career.

Each morning, Legacy would go out and collect parts before spending the afternoon building devices or improving her old ones while Scott would acquire other resources using the money collected by Legacy. Then they would spend their evenings together as Scott helped teach Legacy about the world.

By now, their basement is pretty well equipped with the ElecMag Extractor in one corner with a whole load of homemade ElecMag power cells stored next to it, each cell half an inch long, while a collection of weaponised pipes lay in another corner of the basement. Two piles of lain out blankets form beds for Legacy and Scott.

A trio of cold storage units made by Legacy and powered by ElecMag cells contain their food and drink supplies. Scott calls them a fridge and a pair of freezers. Legacy personally prefers her name as she feels it more accurately describes their purpose.

The other three main things that Legacy has built is a high-tech computer from old ones she has found lying about, a jammer to keep them undetected by sensors and senses and a temperature control unit which Scott claims is called air con.

The jammer does a variety of functions including rendering internal signals undetectable from the exterior, masking heat signatures within the basement, muffling sound originating from the basement and a whole other stuff that keeps the basement and those within it hidden from outsiders.

The computer is the one Legacy is most impressed with as it can process and store much more data than any other computer. Or least that what Scott says as Legacy has no other computer to compare it to.

Thinking about Scott’s opinion, he was pretty surprised by the coding. I mean, just because I didn’t use English or any other known language on the planet. Or the fact the characters in didn’t match any alphabets on the planet. I understood it all perfectly. Who cares if it was ‘alien’?

With her computer, she can use it to remotely access internet signals and copy data. Basically works like a web browser, but instead it snatches the webpage and downloads it to Legacy’s computer temporarily while remaining undetectable in the process.

Or least Legacy hopes it is undetectable as she is certain that she could build something that could detect it. Either way, Legacy will be able find out if someone is tracing her computer before they can actually finish doing the deed.

Right now Legacy has just finished putting her armour on. Not proper armour, but some cheap alternates that Scott as scraped together. A football helmet, elbow pads and knee pads in addition to some thick leather gloves and hardy walking boots. He has also thrown in some goggles to protect her eyes.

Scott also got her some thick trousers that won’t do much, only providing a tad more protection than the thin legwear Legacy has been using. Her new shirt is also quick thick compared to her old one and has long sleeves and pockets. On top of that, Legacy has a bullet proof vest that Scott brought for her. He says it is only good against handguns that aren’t up close so she still needs to be careful around guns.

And for looting more supplies from her enemies, Scott also got her a belt with multiple pouches to wear around her waist. For than enough for storing electronic parts and money that Legacy will acquire.

Scott says it isn’t the best stuff there out there, but should do well and is definitely better than nothing. He also told her that she ought to get use to fighting with armour as it is only a matter of time before she builds herself a set of power armour with her power.

“I only need to equip myself with weaponry,” replies Legacy, “Then I shall set out.”

“The armour should protect against fists and kicks where you have it,” Scott warns her, “But it won’t protect against guns, knives or other weaponry.”

“I understand Scott,” Legacy reassures him, “I’ll be careful and shall avoid injury.”

“Just make sure you do Legacy,” says Scott, “You got potential and I’ll hate it to be cut short by some ganger.”

Legacy doesn’t reply as she goes about selecting what pipes she is going to take with her. She decides on four pipes. The first two are upgraded versions of her original weapon with ElecMag cells instead of phone batteries providing the power. The extra bulk around the end is also harder than mere phone casing and less likely to break after heavy usage.

The third pipe is her ranged one with an ElecMag cell for stunning capabilities. It uses small solid fragments and uses velocity and kinetic energy as its primary ways of harming people. Legacy as estimated its effective range is up to about twenty metres whilst its effective range when attempting to stun an opponent is about half that.

While Legacy could have improved its range, she instead decided that her greater priority was on short range effectiveness. Her pipe-gun has practically no recoil and almost always hits it target. In her opinion, those are much more important than range as Legacy has no prior experience with guns or other firearms and ranged weaponry.

At least none that I can remember.                              

The fourth is for when Legacy needs access to brute force or to break something. The pipe has been modified so it is basically a hi-tech mace. It has a thick head on the end of dense metal with sharp, serrated spikes of metal around it.

It is also the heaviest of the four and the only reason Legacy hasn’t decide to leave it behind is that other three are all extremely light. Otherwise it would just slow her down too much to be valuable.

On the other hand with all this armour, I am pretty weighted down.

“I’m ready to go now,” says Legacy as she finishes attaching the chosen pipes to her belt.

“Not yet you aren’t girl,” says Scott in a gruff, well gruffer, voice as he holds up another piece of clothing.

This piece of clothing is made of leather strips. On one side it contains an open pouch with the gun Legacy got who the man who tried to kill her earlier in the week. The other side contains another two pouches that have the two spare magazines got from the same man.

“This is a gun holster,” Scott tells her, “Goes on around your shoulders. Your weapons may be good, but you never know when you need a good old gun to get the job done.”

“Thank you Scott,” says Legacy as she takes from him.

It is a couple of moments before Legacy put it on her. Not too heavy and shouldn’t restrict her mobility enough to be noticeable. Still, Legacy doesn’t think she needs her fourth pipe anymore and puts it back it.

Now I have too much weight for it to be useful.

“Now you’re ready Legacy,” says Scott, “And if anyone asks who you are, you are the Guardian.”

1.1 Awake Part 6

“What about Scott?” inquires Legacy.

“First why is that there?” demands Scott as he points at the gun.

“I was getting parts as you told me to and I was shot at by a man,” explains Legacy, “I took cover and built this. I used it to defeat my attacker.”

Legacy shows the pipe-gun to Scott. He just stares at it before he speaks.

“Is that a gun?” asks Scott.

“Yes,” answers Legacy.

“Did you kill him?” asks Scott.

“No,” answers Legacy.

“So what happened to him?” demands Scott.

“I used one of the batteries I found to give the pipe-gun stun capabilities like my other pipe,” explains Legacy, “Then I knock him unconscious with my first pipe. After that, I took his gun, its ammo, his phone and his money before returning here. I then awaited your return as you told me to. During that time, I refined and upgraded my first pipe weapon and built the ElecMag Extractor. I was currently upgrading my pipe-gun when you arrived back here.”

Scott sighs and sits down at the table.

“ElecMag Extractor?” is the first thing out of his mouth.

“Short for electromagnetism extractor,” replies Legacy and gives him a brief explanation on her latest invention.

“Damn girl,” says Scott with a shake of his head, “Less than twenty four hours and you already built a brand new source of power. You could become famous and make billions with that alone.”

“Billions of what?” asks Legacy curiously.

“Money,” answers Scott, “Dollars, Pounds, Euros, whatever form of currency you want.”

“I seek neither fame nor money, only good triumphing over the forces of evil,” declares Legacy.

To Legacy’s surprise, Scott laughs.

“Legacy, you are one of the noblest people I know,” says Scott, “If a bit clichéd.”

“I do not understand what that means,” replies Legacy, “But I assume it’s a good thing.”

“It’s a compliment,” says Scott.

“I still don’t know what that is,” says Legacy.

“A compliment is when someone says good, nice things about someone or something,” explains Scott, “Now we need to discuss our plans. I assume we’re going for vigilante crime fighting.”

“I believe so,” answers Legacy, “But since I don’t know what that is, I going to say that I’m going to battle evil with the resources at my disposal.”

“That would be what we are going to be doing then,” says Scott, “So, I got enough food and water to last the week. I’m going to go out in runs to get medical supplies and clothes in addition to more food and water. We won’t need to buy electronics. It is cheaper to just acquire parts that lying around and have you build stuff. You got weapons and a sustainable and renewable power source. Now what you need is armour and knowledge. The former is extremely useful. Trust me, I know that first hand. The second is vital and we need to make up for what you don’t have as quickly as possible. Try and get a computer to hack the internet. Preferably without it being traceable. Normally I would say it’s impossible to get something untraceable, but after these last couple of weeks and a day with you, I’m not counting out anything as impossible anymore. Do you need to get more parts yet?”

“No,” answers Legacy.

“And did you understand what I just told you?” asks Scott, “Any of it which you didn’t understand?”

“I understood all of it,” replies Legacy, “Technical knowledge is the one thing I’m not lacking by the way. I’m fairly certain I have much more of it than most people do.”

“Excellent,” says Scott with a grin, “Give your power, I think that the reason you would have technical knowledge is so that you can use your power. Or that the knowledge is a side effect of your Technopathy. Either way, I believe the source of your knowledge is your power.”

“I concur,” agrees Legacy, “I also feel that my power is the source of my technical knowledge. May I ask you something Scott?”

“Go ahead kid,” says Scott.

“Why do you wish to fight evil?” asks Legacy, “We both know why I want to and I know why you’re helping me. But I don’t know what your reasoning behind battling evil. I do know that you spent most of your life doing it, but you have been crippled whilst doing so and have suffered greatly because of your choices and injury. So why fight evil again?”

Scott sighs and is silent. Several seconds pass, but Legacy doesn’t bug him. She does start to wonder if he’s going to reply however.

“I always dreamed of being the hero when I was kid,” says Scott, “When I grew up, I join the military and those dreams died as my experiences grew. But by then I had a purpose and I was content with what I was doing. Then I joined the ‘black ops’ as my brother called it. Then I did bad things to stop bad people doing even worse things. For the greater good or the big picture was how I justified it all to myself. Then I was injured in battle and lost my purpose. But here you are, fulfilling my childhood dreams and giving a new purpose I don’t regret.”

Scott pauses.

“So Legacy,” says Scott, “What do you want for lunch today?”

1.1 Awake Part 5

Legacy walks through the ruins of what she assumes was once a busy street. Over half the buildings have been reduced to rubble and there are several flooded craters scattered about.

Legacy has quite a good haul so far. She puts it down to the fact that stuff that is normally useless to people can be turned into usable items if Legacy uses her power on it to retrieve the remaining working parts. At the moment, Legacy has disassembled a few computers, a couple of TVs and a microwave.

Technical knowledge seems to be the one area that Legacy isn’t lacking knowledge in. Legacy already has a few ideas on what she’s going to make with all of the part she has collected.

Legacy has also found several more pipes for her to modify. They’re all in good conditions and easy to wield.

With the bag Scott gave her almost full, Legacy decides it is time to head back to the basement. It has only been a couple of hours, but Legacy has been working quickly.

Duck.

That was the voice speaking and not her, but Legacy ducks none the less. Lucky for her too as a small metal projectile flies over her head.

That was from a gun. Guns are bad. Really bad.

Legacy dashes behind a half fallen wall. Someone is shooting at her and Legacy is has no way of returning fire.

Not yet at least.

Legacy grabs on the longer pipes in her bag to form the frame of her makeshift weapon. Using a variety of parts from her bag and her power as Scott calls it, she forms the inner mechanisms needed to launch projectiles at high speeds from the pipe.

With her pipe-gun ready, Legacy only needs some ammo for it. She grabs some small pieces of rubble off the ground, none of it larger than one of her fingernails, and loads them into the pipe-gun. With that Legacy is ready to fight back as she hears her attacker approaching.

But something feels off about killing to Legacy. After a moment’s decision, Legacy gets one of the two batteries she found and attaches it to her pipe-gun to give it stunning capabilities.

Legacy’s attacker is now only a few steps away. Legacy rolls out of cover and fires her stun pipe-gun at her attacker.

The projectile hits the man dead in the chest and he twitches as the electricity courses through him. Enough time for Legacy to swing her original pipe weapon at his head and knock him out.

Legacy inspects the man who decided to attacker. Despite the state of the area, he seems well off. At the very least, he is healthy and his clothing is in good condition and of high quality. But there is no indication of why he decided to attack her.

Perhaps he wanted my stuff? But I better see what he has got.

Legacy searches the man, taking a phone, a pistol, a handful of coins and a lot of dollars. She also finds and takes a couple of magazines for the pistol. Other than that, Legacy leaves the man be, puts away both of her modded pipes and leaves with her bag.

After making sure she wasn’t followed, Legacy enters the basement. Scott isn’t back yet, but Legacy decides to wait for him rather than go out looking for more parts.

That is what Scott told me after all and I trust Scott.

None the less, Legacy is soon bored and decides to get working on her first project. A sustainable power source is her first priority. All of Legacy’s constructions will need power, but she only has available two batteries at the moment for a power source and doubts she’ll find many more any time soon.

Phones seem to be the best source of working batteries and I need to take them from people to get my hands on them.

Using a fifth of her collected parts, Legacy creates an electromagnetism extractor about the size of a microwave and places it on the table.

It works by extracting electromagnetic energy from the air to be stored as power, hence the name Legacy gave it. As her third piece of work, she is rather proud of it.

How long has it been since sunrise? Just over three hours by my count. I can’t believe it took an hour to create a single device. I didn’t feel like an hour had passed. Perhaps I was too focused on my project.

At least the voice keeps track of time. I don’t need to use a clock as long as I have it keeping the time for me.

Now what should I do? Perhaps I’ll refine my weapons. While they are good, they were both made on the fly and I’m sure with time to spare, I can improve them greatly. After all, I wouldn’t have made the electromagnetism extractor as effective and efficient as it is without all that time working on it.

That’s a good thing to remember about my ‘power’. I can make good devices on the fly, but to do my best work, I need time and focus to get it right.

And I need a better name for the electromagnetism extractor. ElecMag as shorten version of electromagnetism will suffice. ElecMag Extractor. Yes, I like the sound of that.

 Legacy is working on upgrading her stun pipe-gun when Scott arrives back at noon.

“We need to talk about your morning Legacy,” says Scott after he takes one look at the gun and money on the table.