EB rushed into the room. “Are we gonna go get Dr. Chorad? I wanna piece of him!” He tried to look tough by hitting his tiny paws together.
Nova said, “I want his head. But right now, we have other priorities.”
“I can zap you down to his office. Bring your cool gigantic sword and make him wet his pants. That would make an awesome Facetube video. We could go viral... and I’ll shut up.”
After glaring EB into silence, Nova said, “Ren Tech has technology that blocks transportation, even magic. Right now, I need you to teleport people down to the surface to help Alex and Torrik. I contacted Quark, but he isn’t here yet.”
EB quickly saluted. “I’ll do my duty.”
Nova turned to Chase and Gar. “EB will take you down. Quark will join you later. Secure that sphere. I want her back.”
Chase said, “We will do everything we can. You just make Chorad pay.”
“Ready?” EB asked Chase and Gar.
They stood next to him in the Operations. Chase said, “Get us there.”
“Hold your stomach. This is always dizzying.” EB clapped his paws together, and they all zapped away in a flash.
Nova said, “Get me the United Nations.”
Strange Quark appeared next to him, sipping a tall mixed drink. “You called?”
“We have a situation.”
“As usual,” Quark mused.
“This is no time for jokes. Those damn spheres are consuming people, particularly morphonic people. And one just absorbed Krystal Fae.”
This drew a genuine gasp from Quark. “But she’s so powerful.”
“I know. Get down to Christchurch and see if you can help free her.”
Quark took a big swig of his drink, gave off a bad salute, and then vanished away.
Nova barked, “Where is the U.N.?”
10915 stated, “United Nations not responding.”
“Damnit, Ren Tech controls all the phone lines. Fine. Use BADGE emergency channel black alpha that is not on the cell network. We haven’t used that since the USSR days.”
He waited with silence filling the room.
10915 stated, “United Nations not responding.”
“What? But that is the highest alert channel. That ALWAYS gets through.”
Arx rushed into the room from one of the conference rooms. “Sir, we have a situation.”
“What now?”
Arx said, “I’ve been trying to gather all the ATLAS volunteers among the heroes and only about one-third are responding. I can’t get through to hundreds of heroes.”
“What’s going on?” Nova was about to order one robot when Arx showed him his tablet.
“I received this from Madam Opal in Seoul.” The image on the tablet was a short video of several heroes sitting in a lounge of an HQ, wearing Ren Wear, smiling and looking around in a daze.
“Those glasses. They’re controlling the people. This is serious.”
Arx said, “I noticed one of the staff in the mess hall was sitting at a table, just staring. I thought she was watching a video or something. But I think she had the glasses on.”
“Nova to Mess hall coordinator.”
A woman answered, “Director, what’s the problem?”
“Is there a worker down there using Ren Wear?”
After a moment of silence, she came back. “Yes. Charlie has a pair on. I’m sorry. I told them not to wear them, as per your orders.”
“Remove them, now.”
There was another silence, and then screaming.
“Maple!” Nova called out.
Maple spoke again, “I took them off of her and she started having some kind of attack. A stroke or something. The med team has been called.”
“Get her to the infirmary. Nova out.”
“This is seriously bad,” Arx said.
Nova said, “This is worse than I imagined. We have a planet full of people who are nearly comatose, and if we remove the glasses, millions could die.” He pressed his emergency comm signal, “Nova to all heroes. Those who can hear me, do not put on the Ren Wear and do not remove them from anyone who is currently wearing them. All heroes, we are at full alert status. Move to the Spheres and keep anyone away from them who is not BADGE. Nova out.”
Arx said, “I will go down and join my teams. We will use all of ATLAS to keep people away from the spheres.”
“Move ATLAS to defend the spheres. However, I need your help.”
“With what?”
Nova spoke into his comm, “Agent Justin, come to Ops.” A moment later, Agent Justin came in with two computer tablets in his hands.
“Sir, we finished the analysis of the Ren Wear. Dr. Henderson thinks they take control of the mind of the wearer. Put them in some kind of daze or trance.”
Nova said, “We know.”
“But we just figured that much out.”
Arx said, “My people are reporting this to us. Most of the planet is currently in a trance.”
“Oh, no.”
Nova said, “Right now, your mission is to cut the head off this snake. Justin, Arx, gather a team and get down to Ren Tech. Shut down their operation however you can and bring me Dr. Chorad and any of his scientists. Bring his computers, his lab equipment, everything. We will end this nightmare.”
Just said, “Don’t you want to lead this mission?”
Nova answered, “Yes. But this is a critical situation. My place is where people can find me and I can have my finger on the pulse of what is happening. This is up to you two.”
“We will not fail you.” Arx said.
“I have faith you won’t. End this crisis, now.”
Justin set down the tablets. “Right away, sir.” He turned and hurried away with Arx, both jumping into the lift.
***
Quark appeared near the team around the sphere. He paused as he looked around at all the civilians in a daze.
“Those glasses are nuts.” He commented.
EB said, “Glad you could finally make it. We have to get her outta that thing.”
Alex and Torrik were carefully examining the sphere while Chase and Gar used the equipment to study it. Quark cracked his knuckles and approached it.
“So, this thing acting like pac-man, eating people.” Quark said.
A tear-stained Alex said, “Please, can you do anything?”
Quark walked up to the sphere and tapped it with his hand. “I sense... magic? There is a force field of some kind around this.”
Torrik said, “I wrapped it in a sealing spell. It slows things down inside. I hoped it might help.”
Quark stood back and held out his hand, “Time to turn this ball into a goose... no, I think I want it to be a hippo, and I’ll make that hippo barf up Krystal.”
“EW,” was EB’s comment.
Alex said, “I don’t care what you do. Just bring her back.”
Quark closed his eyes and then snapped his fingers. A blue wave of energy spread across the surface of the orb and then shot back at him and he transformed into a hippo, nearly crushing Chase.
“Aw, nuts. That wasn’t supposed to happen.” Quark flashed and was back to his normal self.
EB asked, “How did it repel your powers? You are like completely abnormally powerful.”
Quark said, “I’m no god, there are things even I struggle against. But... this shouldn’t repel me. It is just human tech. Or is it?” He held out his hand again and this time, a blue light simply glowed in his palm.
“What are you doing?” Torrik asked.
Quark answered, “Trying to understand this thing.”
Gar said, “We have tried everything we have. Magic, technology, hammers.”
EB said, “I tried to zap her out of it, but I couldn’t find her... oh, sorry, Alex.”
Quark’s eyes went wide, and he grabbed a comm unit from Alex’s hand. “Nova!”
Nova’s voice came through, “Report.”
“These spheres... they are... quantum condensed.”
“What does that mean?”
Quark walked around it. “The inside is in a state of quantum flux. Quantum flux has compacted the atomic structure, squishing the space together. Basically, what is inside is far, far greater than it should be. This is so dense, it should have its own gravitational pull. But it is quantum leveled.”
Nova asked, “Can you break it open?”
“No, and I don’t suggest it. If we find some way to break them open and fracture the quantum condensed structure, it could explode like a thousand nuclear bombs. The energy inside this is terrifyingly powerful.”
“This is bad.”
“No, Nova, this is far worse than just bad. I have only ever encountered technology on this level once before. Legion.”
Nova said, “That’s not possible. Legion is gone. We destroyed it.”
“Then we are facing something just as bad, if not worse.”
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