“This place is beautiful.” Alex mused as they drove down the road toward the sprawling city of Christchurch.
Krystal focused intently on her sensor information while she said, “Yes. I love the mountains. Do you think the population density could be part of the reason for the lower morphon reading?”
Alex said, “You aren’t paying attention. Just look at those mountains, and the bay is gorgeous from here.”
Krystal looked up and smiled. “Yes, it is pristine and glorious. But, we have a mission. We can sightsee later.”
Torrik leaned forward from the back seat. “Didn’t you inspect a sphere in the middle of the Australian Backup?”
“Backup?” Alex frowned.
Krystal laughed. “You mean outback?”
“Yeah, that.”
“Yes, we did. It was one of the most remote spheres we inspected and it had a strong morphonic signature. Good point. I just can’t figure this one out.”
Alex said, “Maybe if we scan the one in Christchurch, we can get more data.”
“Doubt it.” Krystal grunted. “Scanning these things is useless. All I can learn is what kind of morphon density is around it.”
“True.” Alex drove into the town, blazing down the road. “Okay, so do we know where the Ren Sphere is here?”
Krystal looked at her cell phone. “The news reports from the local paper say it is in Victoria Square, a city park. I have the GPS ready.”
“Great. Take us there.”
***
Dragonborn squinted in the bright afternoon sun. If there was anyone near him, he would detect it. His sensor kept telling him he was alone for miles.
“It’s a good thing my scaly body can’t sunburn,” He muttered to himself.
His choice to have his superhero costume be nothing but a skimpy pair of briefs, to show off his body, was now showing how foolish that was. It was hot, sunny, and he was practically naked. However, he was also a fire breather and heat wasn’t as much a problem for him as it would be for others.
“ADRIANNE!” He bellowed into the winds, hoping she would call out.
No response.
He grumbled at his luck and kept going. “I can’t go back without finding her. She might not be in trouble, but I was the one who let her get on board without checking. It’s my hide Nova will tan if she’s lost.” He smacked the side of the sensor. “Come on, pick up on something!”
The sensor had a warning on it. Something powerful just spiked the sensor nearby.
“What the what?” He looked at the readings.
His BADGE classes on science were fresh in his mind, and he processed this. It was a morphon spike, an extremely powerful one. The human body cannot contain more than a 60 on the morphon scale before the particles break down the cell walls. This spike hit 3000 for a full minute and then faded.
“Either this sensor is crap or something horrible is happening.”
He clicked on the BADGE comm. “Agent Justin, this is Dragonborn. Come in.”
“This is Agent Justin, report.”
He looked around, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. “I don’t know what I just saw, but my sensor showed a massive flux in morphons near me. It peaked at near 3000. Should I investigate?”
“Have you found any sign of Adrianne?”
“No.”
“Send me the data and I’ll send someone out to check. If you can keep going, find her.”
“I can keep going. Sending the data.”
“Thanks. Please find her. She has been gone long enough. Her health might be in danger.”
“Understood. Over and out.”
“Just say out.”
“Out.”
Dragonborn clicked the comm off and walked in the direction he assumed she would be going. After a few moments, he picked up another ping on his sensor. It wasn’t a morphon spike; it was something else.
“No, it can’t be.” He looked at the chart. If he was reading this correctly, this was picking up something from Antaeus. Possibly his remains.
“Sweet! Justin will be glad I found this.” He ran ahead, that ping still blinking on the map readout.
In the distance there was a glinting of sunlight off of something shiny. At first, he assumed it was a car. However, as he approached, it was obviously not on the ground. The closer he got, the more he realized it was a large metal sphere.
“Dude, is this one of those Ren Tech spheres?” He asked himself.
He slowed down and looked at his reading. The ping and the sphere were in the same place. Approaching it, he saw what looked like a boulder on the ground near the sphere. The sensor device was reading the boulder, not the sphere.
“A single rock? Antaeus was huge. Oh, wait, didn’t he explode or something? Gross. But what is it doing here? What is this sphere doing here? This is like the middle of nowhere.” He turned around, checking the map on the sensor. The nearest inhabited locations were hours away. “This is crazy nuts. What the hell is going on?”
He clicked his comm again.
“Dragonborn to Agent Justin, come in.”
“You don’t have to say ‘come in’. This isn’t a military movie.”
Dragonborn said, “This might sound crazy, but I found some weird shit out here.”
“Language.”
Dragonborn groaned, “If this sensor is working, I found a rock from Antaeus’s body.”
“What? Is it reading on the molecularity morphonic sensor?”
“Yes. And that’s not the craziest part... it’s right next to a Ren Tech Sphere in the middle of nowhere.”
Justin said, “And you still have found no sign of Adrianne?”
“No. Not anything.”
“Okay, you stay there. Our team is on their way. I’ll get in touch with Nova about this.”
***
“I’m not playing a game. I’ll not use those glasses. I have work to do, and so do you.” Nova argued with EB, who was holding up another pair of Ren Wear for him. Both were in Operations for their duty shift.
“Oh, come on. You would be awesome in Hero City. With your tactical mind, you could really stomp some balls. There’s this one guy who keeps knocking me off the mountain. I hate that guy. His mommy must really like her credit card being used by that loser. Did you know he got caught cheating in the last Clan Wars? I mean, I think he was cheating. They took his credits away and all. I got the platinum. And... uh... you really don’t care.”
Nova was glaring a hole into EB’s head with his one good eye. “Get back to WORK!”
EB said, “Oh, fine. You wanted me to monitor the transactions for Ren Tech, right? I have my marketing teams from two of my companies keeping close watch on their stocks and how they are gaining new things. I should get in touch with them and see what they have found.”
“You do that.”
EB held up the glasses, “You know, if you wear these, you can check the internet for...”
The view screen changed as a window opened with Justin on location. “Nova, we have a situation.”
“What is it?”
“We found a bit of Antaeus’s remains. However, they are much further away from the battle zone than expected. Also, the one piece we found is near a sphere that is 240 kilometers away from any settlement. To make it worse, there is no sign of Adrianne at all.”
“I don’t like this,” EB said.
Nova nodded in agreement. “Take your team, secure the area around the sphere. I’ll have our system scan for... stop it... for her... EB NOT NOW!” EB was tugging on his pant leg. Nova finished his thought, “I will have our sensors scan the planet for Adrianne’s BADGE ID chip.”
Arx, who had just arrived and why EB was trying to get Nova’s attention, approached, “What is this about Adrianne? Is she missing?”
Nova said to Justin, “Get to work. I want reports as soon as you have anything.”
“Understood, Justin out.”
The screen went dark and Nova turned to Arx. “She found a way to sneak down to the planet on the last investigation team for her brother’s remains.”
“No.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Where is she? Why are you having to scan for her chip?”
Nova said, “She went missing yesterday and now we can’t find her. She has been in the African wilderness for over 24 hours.”
“Find her!”
“We will.”
Arx said, “I will get ATLAS down there and we will...”
“You can’t.”
“I CAN!”
Nova grabbed his arm. “Losing control will not help. Our sensors can pick her chip up no matter where she is. We implant them for that reason.”
“And you waited until now to use it?”
“We had hoped she would be easy to find. I didn’t want to send the cavalry. I...”
“You made a mistake, and that could cost her life.” Arx said.
EB hopped up, “Hey! That’s not fair!”
Nova said, “I made a choice. Sometimes I make the wrong choice. We hoped she would be found by a friendly face, which could be gentler and easier to get her back here.”
“Find her.” Arx demanded.
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