Krystal Fae waited while Phantom Among Phantoms opened the special containment box and pulled out the shard he had collected.
“Thanks, Phantom. Where did you retrieve this one from?”
Phantom shrugged, “I went to New Amsterdam to get it and someone else was carrying it off, so I stopped their flight and got it. They were all angry and stuff, but I was just doing my job. I’m sure Nova will smooth things out.”
Krystal let out a soft sigh, “Don’t tell me that this person was a UN official by any chance?”
“Sure. Kinda weird that they made such a stink about me finding it. I mean, it’s my job.”
“They were collecting the shards to protect them at one location.”
“Oh, so….I wasn’t supposed to retrieve that one.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just let Nova know that you scared a diplomat half to death.”
Phantom laughed, “I’ll just take em to the pub and have a drink. It’ll be all good. Gotta go.” He vanished in a blue flash.
Krystal shook her head and took the shard into another room. EB stood by some computers where Dr. Henderson studied the shards collected thus far.
“Here you go, one more.” She set the shard in the containment barrier.
Dr. Henderson ran the sensors over the spectrum again. She held up a vial of blue liquid and then set it on a different sensor.
EB asked, “What’s that?”
Dr. Henderson casually said, “Blood.”
“Ew.” EB hopped off the station and approached Krystal. “I know this energy feels familiar...I just don’t know why.”
“I agree. I can sense something about it that can only be arcane, but I can’t pinpoint it.” Krystal approached the station where the scientist checked the blood sample. “What are you doing? Who’s blood is that?”
Dr. Henderson took the vial out. “I took this from Strange Quark to study the odd illness he has been going through.”
“So? Why are you looking at that in here? This lab isn’t for biological testing.”
Dr. Henderson walked over to another station and punched up some charts. “This blood is exhibiting an energy signature we’ve never seen in Strange Quark before. However, an almost identical energy pattern is deep in the spectrum coming from the ruby shards.”
EB hopped up and stood on the console, looking down at the readings. “Why not put them together?”
“What do you mean?” Dr. Henderson asked.
“Put the blood and the shard together, see if we get a reaction.”
Dr. Henderson said, “That’s not a bad idea.”
“You sound surprised,” EB said.
Krystal laughed, “She isn’t used to you having too many ideas when it comes to these experiments.”
“Ha, ha. Sure, I’m a fluffy bunny, but I got brains too. See...” He jokingly pulled a colorful egg out of his ear.
As Krystal laughed at this, Dr. Henderson set the vial of blood near the ruby shards. She had just turned around to get a few pieces of equipment when they all heard a strange sound.
“What’s happening?” Krystal looked at the vial. It was vibrating faster each second.
EB suddenly yelled, “GET DOWN!”
The blood turned bright red and then the vial exploded, sending blood all over the room.
EB sneered at a large splotch on the wall near him. “Gross!”
Dr. Henderson slowly looked up. “That...is not good.”
Krystal slapped her communicator. “NOVA, WE CAN’T LET QUARK GET NEAR THOSE SHARDS!”
Nova came through, “What?”
“No time to explain. We just can’t let Quark and the shards to come into physical contact.”
Nova answered, “I’d love to tell him, but can’t get through. Something is happening at Fort Knox and I can’t get either Gar or Quark.”
***
Moments before:
Chromatic, Gar, and Quark followed the quick walking pace of the General through Fort Knox. Sirens blared, security rushed to block any exit.
“I doubt she’ll use a door,” Quark said.
The General said, “Trust me, we’ll block any avenue of escape. This is one of the most secured vaults on the planet. She won’t be able to slip out a window or up on the roof. A mouse would have a hard time finding a way out of this place.”
Chromatic said, “Judging by the carnage back there, she has skills.”
“So do my men. She just caught us by surprise.”
Chromatic laughed, “Sure, whatever.”
The General turned the last corner and his pace picked up even more. “There, that room.”
They entered the storage vault where the French Ambassador had directed Chase. A group of soldiers waited at the door, guns ready.
“Report!” Horace barked.
The head of the soldiers said, “Nothing to report, sir. We arrived only moments ago and found the door open, but no one has seen anything out of the ordinary. We were about to do a full search of the room for evidence, but we needed to be certain we covered the door in case the thief arrived.”
“Good thinking. Secure any possible avenue of escape from this room.”
Gar walked into the room. “Where are the shards? We need them.” He held up the containment box.
“Right over here.” General Horace pointed and then looked back at Chromatic, “What’s so funny, son?”
Chromatic had been chuckling since they arrived. He snorted at the general, “Your soldiers are some of the worst I’ve seen.”
“What did you say?” Horace held a tight fist, ready to punch this hero.
Chromatic’s eyes glistened with those colors as he pointed down. “Look, even without using all my powers, I can see signs of a person falling down right here, and footprints. And….wait, let me do this first.” A burst of colorful light filled the area. The soldiers all jumped back but stopped when they realized this wasn’t an attack. Chromatic followed a path. “Right here, footprints...dragging a body. Oh, look over there. Some old dude is stuffed in that corner.” Chromatic’s colorful lights made all the shaded areas of the room bright.
“Good heavens, it’s the French ambassador.” General Horace and several of his men rushed over to the ambassador.
Gar asked, “Where’s the thief?”
“I’m gett’n to that.” Chromatic followed his special vision up the wall and to the ceiling. “Boy, she’s good. Even a cat wouldn’t be able to do all this. It leads across the ceiling toward the back wall. She was heading for the middle of the back wall…but why?”
General Horace nearly jumped up, “The special vault is in the back!”
Just as Gar looked back, he caught sight of a person, nearly upside down, hanging near a large pipe. She grabbed what appeared to be a large, basic valve and pulled on it instead of turning. A door appeared in the side of this fake pipe and opened to reveal a compartment with a small box inside.
“IT’S HER!” Gar ran toward her.
Chromatic and Quark came behind him with several of the soldiers. A soldier brandished his gun and yelled, “STOP!”
“Not today.” She said and headed back up toward the ceiling.
The soldier fired. She leapt off backward, dodging the shot, and landed on the ground with her legs splayed out and a smile on her face.
Gar came to a skidding stop, his eyes as wide as they could be. He said, “Chase?”
Quark nearly fell over when he hit Gar’s wing, and Chromatic slid under the other wing.
Chase paused, confusion on her face as she looked at him. Suddenly she twisted to the side as a bullet whizzed by her. In the same twisting motion, she threw one of her basic knives and hit the soldier in the arm. She then stopped and threw another and lodged it in the barrel of a gun being fired. It exploded instead, and the soldier went down. In their confusion, she raced up a ladder.
“She’s getting away!” Chromatic yelled.
“Nope!” Quark held out his hands and the metal ladder vanished, sending her down in a hard crash. The box with the shards slid across the floor away from her.
Gar jumped for the box just as Chase went for it. Chromatic strummed his guitar in a flat chord that sent a shock wave of sound at her, blasting her away and pushing the box out of Gar’s reach. The box hit a shelf laden with heavy gold bricks. On impact, the box split open.
Chase recovered quickly and threw a blade at Chromatic. Gar quickly responded by holding out a wing and deflecting the weapon. Quark made a dash for the shards. Chase kicked a cart at the hero to distract him and then also jumped for the box. She got the box, but Quark got his hands on the shards.
Red energy blazed all over him. He screamed in two different voices at once, sending wave after wave of energy through the room. Shelves filled with tons of gold rocked and nearly fell over. Soldiers were pressed to the ground. Chromatic held his head. Suddenly, everyone watched the world fade around them. They shifted from the interior of the vault to a grassy field. Quark, still holding those stones, remained a red ball of energy.
“GIVE ME THOSE!” Chase attempted to pull the box from his hands.
Suddenly the box and shards erupted. Red dots of energy flew out, each carrying a shard. Once they were gone, Quark fell back.
Chase, recovering from the explosion, looked up as Chromatic ran toward her. “Not today.” She got up and ran.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!” Chromatic went to strum his guitar again, only this time a blade hit the fingerboard and it cut all six strings. “DAMMIT! NOT AGAIN!” He looked up to see another blade heading directly for his face. It flashed, and he was hit, instead, by an egg. Strange Quark let out a hard groan, after saving his life, and then passed out.
Gar stood there, unable to move. He watched her flee as he whispered, “Chase?”
***
Nova stood before the monitors from the operations center of the BADGE station. On the primary screen were Chromatic and Gar.
“Are you sure it was her?”
Gar gave a sad nod. “Yes. Something is wrong with her.”
Chromatic said, “Obviously. She’s a thief.”
“SHE’S NOT A VILLAIN!” Gar bellowed.
“Cool it, boulder balls. That thief broke into this place, tried to steal the gems, and damaged my baby.” Chromatic held up his guitar.
Nova said, “We don’t have time for this. Our sensors are detecting those shards near you, they spread out across a three hundred-mile radius. Something supercharged them. We can see them clear as day on our monitors now.”
Chromatic said, “Yeah, Quark exploded or something. His powers went nuts, and we transported just outside Fort Knox, and then the shards blasted away like fireworks.”
Nova said, “If we can see them, then Krampus can see them. We have to get them back now. See if you can find Chase, make sure she doesn’t get to them before we do.”
Chromatic scoffed, “There are tons of them, and that crazy woman is insanely skilled.”
“I’ll be sending help. Just move it.” Nova flicked off the screen and then nodded to the robot. The screen displayed the emergency signal system. “Nova to all heroes. We have supercharged jewel shards spread out over a three hundred-mile radius near Fort Knox. Get those shards to BADGE now!”
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