“For the last time, a kiss will not wake her. This isn’t a fairy tale!” Nova bellowed.
EB pouted while he folded his cute little arms. “You’re talking to the freaking Easter Bunny and you say this isn’t a fairy tale. Chase is out cold and we can’t wake her. What’s the harm in trying?”
Nova stood outside the infirmary on the station with the angry bunny. He let his irritation subside and calmly said, “Think about it. If it doesn’t work and she wakes and is told you were kissing her while she was unconscious, imagine what she’ll do to you.”
EB gained a horrified look on his face. “Good point.”
Investigator Barnaby approached and gave a little head nod to Nova. “Director. I just arrived. The team is still at the prison, going over everything for the tenth time. I doubt we’ll find anything new, but I’ll not rest until we find something of value.”
“I commend your devotion. Now, tell me one more time what Chase said when she came around before she blacked out.”
“It’s like I reported earlier. She said it was just like Jinn and then went cold.”
“How did it happen?” Nova asked.
“I can’t say. All I know is she grabbed the banister, closed her eyes and went silent for a moment. Then she suddenly reared back, held her head and started screaming in pain. She was inconsolable. I yelled for the doctor and when we calmed her down, she said something about Jinn and then was gone.”
EB hopped up and down so far he was eye level with this man. “HOW DARE YOU PUT CHASE IN DANGER! I OUGHT TO POKE YOU RIGHT IN THE...” Nova snatched him mid-hop and dangled him by his ears.
“Cool it. Chase was just using her powers like normal. There was no way we could have predicted this would happen.” He dropped EB and then asked, “Do you think that this could be connected to Jinn?”
EB shook his head. “I doubt it. Jinn’s dead. Like, smoked beyond return. It takes a lot to kill a Vexillian, and he went down hard. You were there, you saw it.”
Nova asked, “Could this be some residual effect of Jinn’s magic?”
EB frowned. “Maybe something left behind, but still doubtful. When we die, all our left-over spells and stuff usually vanish. I mean, during the war with Legion on our world, loads of my people went down and their work was, POOF, gone. A real problem, since we would conjure weapons and shelters and stuff like that. One dude bites the dust and entire fortresses vanish from existence. There was this one lady who created a...”
“I get the picture.” Nova interrupted EB.
Barnaby interjected. “It also wasn’t the modus operandi for Jinn. I read all the reports and witnessed his work personally in the Ireland incident. He would dupe others to help him, but he never relied on minions. There is no reason for him to release the world corps people.”
“Do you think the person behind this prison break has done so to use these soldiers in their own army?” Nova asked.
“Logically, yes. If the culprit behind the break-out wanted to simply cause havoc, there are much more dangerous and powerful villains in other BADGE prisons. Releasing the inmates in Purgatory Pen alone would cause global chaos. Also, if the culprit were just playing around, there was no reason to go to the lengths to release these prisoners rather than any other prison. This was too meticulous for someone simply showing off. Lastly, we know that the World Corps soldiers were devoted followers and good at being henchmen. Thus, logic dictates that the person behind this wanted the henchmen for their own little schemes.”
EB swooned, “Wow, that was all Sherlock Holmesy. And with that Brit accent of yours, it was even cooler. You should write a book or something.”
“Yes, of course.” Barnaby was a little bemused by the excited bunny.
Nova said, “Your logic does make sense. Whoever broke them out is using them. Jinn never used minions. But then why did she say that?”
EB said, “What about the World Corps? Ben Talos is still alive. Maybe he’s up to something evil. He was really nasty, like...a total jerk.”
“And clever.” Nova said. “Barnaby, head to Purgatory Pen and make sure Ben Talos is completely clear from being part of this.”
“I will do my best.” Barnaby gave off another brief nod and then walked off.
EB said, “I had a good idea then, right? Ben is probably behind this. I mean, who else would want the World Corps goons?”
Nova turned and walked away from the infirmary wing. “I’m not sure Ben is part of this. Whoever is doing this had the power to recreate Krampus and then send him all over the planet. They bypassed one of the most advanced security systems BADGE has, and were able to mess with Chase so badly, she is still unconscious. Drochah, yes, but Ben was just another pawn in Drochah’s plans. I...”
“Director Nova to Operations. Incoming transmission.” A robotic voice announced.
Nova hurried with EB through the station back to the Operations center. He found Gar standing at the command, waiting for him.
“Director, we have a transmission from the distress system.” Gar pointed to the blinking window on the screen.
“Yes, I just got the alert. Put it through.”
The screen opened up, and a man in a military uniform was speaking. “We are under attack by Ka’an Dorado forces. They are stronger than expected. Please, BADGE, send help.” It repeated the message again, which was cut short when Nova signaled for the mute.
EB scoffed, “Don’t these little nations know that BADGE isn’t here to settle land disputes?”
Nova pondered this for a moment. “Odd, that’s two distress calls from the same area of the world. Maybe this threat isn’t just petty land disputes between small countries. Robot 10915, do we have any images from Ka’an Dorado within the last two days?”
The robot scanned through millions of bits of data and then said, “Affirmative. We have access to fifty-seven security cameras on the streets of Ka’an Dorado, including bank Automated Teller Machines, Traffic Cameras, Home Security Cameras..”
“Stop. I want images inside their capital.”
EB asked, “Inside? What are you looking for?”
“Just seeing who is behind the little coup that overthrew that government yesterday. If I see a petty warlord, I’ll alert the United Nations. But if I see something unusual, it might be worth investigating.”
10915 reported, “Negative. All recording devices within the capital building of Ka’an Dorado were disabled forty-eight hours ago.”
“Whoever did this coup had it planned.”
10915 said, “Additional information related to request is available. Images of Ka’an Dorado capital building during requested time-frame are available.”
“Good. Put them all on screen. I don’t care how blurry they are.”
Two dozen images appeared, all stills taken from cameras all over the city. Most were extremely blurry, while a few were partially clear.
“Geeze, haven’t these people heard of High Definition?” EB muttered. “OOOh, why don’t you enhance them like they do on those cool Crime Scene shows?”
Nova rolled his one good eye. “This is reality, not science fiction. We can’t take out-of-focus images and make perfect....wait...10915, expand image twelve.”
A blurry image of the street before the capitol building took up most of the screen. Several men were walking into the building, each wearing a tuxedo. They carried something in their hands.
“10915 can we identify that weapon?”
“Affirmative. Image matches known specifications of the Automatic Morphon Atomizer, known as the AMA weapon.”
EB said, “I think we found our missing prisoners...and they’re all dressed up.”
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