Nova stood over the still smoking old phone box, staring at EB. The residents of Petoskey, Michigan, as well as the news media and the newest inaugurated League looked on from a distance. The voices of the reporters heard in the distance were already talking about EB, he was very famous now.
“What in the blazes are you doing?” Nova contained his bellowing, though the attitude was obvious.
“There was this strange woman thing that attacked us in Carlingford, sapped all the power in me and the area. Was totally rude. Then she attacked the lab. We had to blow the lab and get the heck outta there. Then this box ended up in some strange realm of mean-looking darkness that tried to eat Lily. And then the avatar showed up and sent us here and... well, that brings us to here.”
Nova said, “That made no sense.”
“We don’t have time. The Doctor is in trouble.”
“Doctor... Doctor who?” Nova asked.
“Dr. Fagan, the doctor I went to see. She’s in here and the darkness touched her, and she is out cold. Still breathing, but not moving.”
Nova finally leaned over to see the woman lying against the back of the box. “Okay. We can sort this out on the station.” Nova’s comm unit beeped loudly, and he slapped it. “What?”
Justin’s voice came through. “Sir, we have a massive spike in Morphons in Ireland and your location. And we have another death on our hands, another attack by an unnamed creature.”
“Damn,” Nova whispered. “We will be right there. Tell Doctor Henderson to be ready for a code red.” He clicked off his comm. “Captain!” He pointed at the leader of this new League.
The man rushed over and stood at attention. “Yes, sir?”
“I have to go right away. The media does not need to know more than we are working on a case, and that is all. Your league and all leagues will soon be on alert. Be ready for that. Clear this gathering up asap. And get to your posts at your new HQ. Congratulations on the new post and good luck.”
“We will do our best.” He rushed back, eager to get to work.
Nova said, “EB, zap us all to the infirmary.”
“Uh, well, I don’t know if I can. My powers aren’t working so well. But... I can try.” EB took a few calming breaths and then clapped his paws together.
A great flash surrounded them, and when it died down, they were all in the middle of the floor of the station infirmary.
“I DID IT! YAY! MY POWERS ARE BACK! MY POWERS ARE BACK!” EB hopped around.
Dr. Henderson rushed over, “What on earth?”
“There is a woman in that box, she needs medical attention right away.” Nova stood back.
The doctor and a nurse rushed in and lifted Dr. Fagan out of the blue phone box. Henderson asked, “Can you tell me how this happened?”
Nova quickly reached out and grabbed EB as the excited bunny bounced around. Dangling EB by his ears, Nova asked, “What happened to her?”
EB said, “I really don’t know. Something in the cave of Leprechauns’ old home hit her. The morphon crystals went all nuts and zapped her. She started having powers. Then, this woman showed up...”
“Short version?” Nova demanded.
“Some kind of darkness touched her, and she passed out. That’s all I know.”
Dr. Henderson said, “Okay, that isn’t much to work with. I’ll do all I can.”
While the medical staff went to work, Nova dropped EB and walked out the door. “With me.” EB bounded after him.
Nova walked into the Operations with EB zipping past him to the main floor. Agent Justin and Gar waited for him.
“Report!” Nova barked.
Justin gestured toward the monitor where there was an image of Whirl from her student file. “Earlier today, our system picked up a minor spike in the morphons in Kansas, United States. I alerted the nearest league in Wichita, Kansas. By the time the Plains Riders arrived, they found her body on the ground. She was... dead. No sign of injury, nothing we can find wrong with her, she was just dead. Her body is being sent up for examination along with the body of the young fisherman off the coast of Italy.”
Nova said, “Good thinking to bring the bodies here. There has to be a connection. I also want to have the hick from Georgia examined again by one of our people.”
“I’ll contact our BADGE office in Atlanta and send out someone,” Justin said.
EB asked, “So, how do you know it was some kinda creature? And what other creatures are showing up? I honestly have no idea what you guys are talking about. I’ve already seen some weird crap. This lady showed up who was wild-looking. Had wooden antlers and some incredible powers over nature. She was twisted... though kinda hot.”
Gar said, “We have had three attacks now... maybe four if yours counts... of strange human-like creatures attacking people. Two have taken lives.”
Nova said, “EB has a good point. How do you know what attacked Whirl in Kansas?”
Justin answered, “The only good thing to come out of this. Since the attack was on the open plains, very easy for our satellite monitors to see. I had the computer focus on every spike and record anything of value. Most saw nothing as the spikes were false alarms. But when I reviewed the images taken from the Kansas spike...” He nodded at a robot.
A window opened on the main monitor, and it showed the creature attacking Whirl. It was a series of still shots, but they were clear enough to see. The system highlighted and expanded several of the shots to provide a better look at the creature.
Justin said, “The description of the attack in Georgia fits this thing almost exactly.”
“Send this image to the office in Atlanta. Have the man confirm this is the same creature.”
Gar asked, “What are they?”
“I don’t know. I have seen nothing quite like them,” Nova said.
Justin said, “I have a theory. What if these are some people that Drocha mutated in those spheres? If they are without his control, they could be erratic and dangerous.”
Nova nodded, “That thought had crossed my mind. However, Krystal destroyed the spheres in space. Our sensors detected nothing falling back to Earth this large. Most is still out there or has already burnt up in the atmosphere. It doesn’t mean that this isn’t somehow connected. Yet, something in me feels this is an entirely new problem.”
“OH, OH, OH!” EB hopped around, waving his paw in the air like he wanted to be called on.
“This isn’t elementary school, what is it?” Nova asked.
“That woman thing that attacked us in Ireland kept talking oddly. She spoke as if she were on a mission. She said something about ‘you will become’ and then stuff about this being part of ‘the will’, oh, and inside that strange place we got stuck in, there was something there going after Lily saying she was chosen or something like that. They were all after her. It was as if they were after something, searching for something. I should hide a bunch of eggs and let them go hunting for those instead of people. I wonder what kinda eggs they would look for. Weird eggs? They were really weird.”
Justin said, “Enough, EB.” Then turned to Nova, who had become oddly quiet and wasn’t even showing irritation at EB’s rambling. “Director? Is something the matter?”
Nova nodded, “It’s something the Avatar of Tech was talking to me about. Something dark is coming... it might already be here.”
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