EVO Universe 1: The First (29 page)

Realizing his was getting philosophical while she was almost near the door; he grabbed his radio from his belt to let the outside world know, “She’s coming out with her hands up.”

“What?! You’re not walking her out?!” yelled King over the other end.

“Negative…” Mark answered before turning off his CB at that point, “And we’re gonna see why…”

Sophia pushed the glass doors open walking out into a three-ring circus, there had to be every cop, F.B.I, C.I.A, SWAT, and military personnel in the entire state out there, and probably other neighboring states. All with guns trained on her.

Behind them every camera crew from every news station broadcasting to most likely every state, probably worldwide. Finally behind them was another sea of fellow citizens of the District of Colombia watching curiously to either see her get taken into custody or gunned down in front of their very eyes. Oh, she also remembered the two tanks moving their turrets into position to blow her away if she made any sudden moves.

“Sophia Dennison! Get down on the ground now! Do not make us shoot you!” King roared his command over the bullhorn.

She just rolled her eyes at his orders; she could feel the sniper guns on her. Finally taking her own time to take it all in, she slowly put her hands up placing them behind her head.

King seeing she was complying followed up on his first order, “On the ground now! Now!!”

Slowly she got to one knee, while King gave the signal for a team to move in and bring her down, but before they got within ten feet of her Sophia would make them believe…that a woman could leap buildings with a single bound.

The air left the lungs of every single person who was there watching over every device that had television capability as Sophia exploded with a leap that took her into the skies of Washington D.C. It truly looked as if she was flying as she cleared at least ten skyscrapers before descending back down into the city. She created a sizable pothole in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue on impact, which caused a taxi driver to come to a screeching halt as she pushed off again back to the skies.

Back at the news station, Mark strolled through the doors to see the dumbfounded looked of every single person out there including King.

Dustin was the only one looking at him as he walked out asking, “What the hell happened?”

To which Mark replied with a shrug, “She didn’t want to come in”.

Sophia took off once again with a scream of exhilaration into the air of Washington DC from the streets of New York Avenue where bystanders stood beside themselves watching the unbelievable spectacle before them.

As she soared through the sky of the nation’s capital she got lost in the euphoria of how she was now unbound. She was not really into comic books growing up, her imagination built on playing doctor with her Barbie and Cabbage Pack dolls, but she had seen her fair share of super hero movies and became in awe with the fantastic abilities they displayed on celluloid film. Here she was basking in the dream of a million fan boys and girls around the globe, to be more than human…greater than normal.

On her next descend into the streets she had planned to go higher, soar further, to see if she could actually achieve flight until something shot her violently out of the sky like a sparrow hit by a 12 gauge.

She took the hit on her left side from the unbelievably powerful projectile, which sent her into an unrecoverable tailspin clipping the rooftops of two buildings before crash landing onto the streets of downtown Washington. Taking out two parked vehicles; creating a sizable crater on impact between a local pizzeria and a gym shattering the glass in both storefronts.

“Target is down,” confirmed #1, “Move in quickly to subdue and extract…and remember to put your jammers up…we don’t want this shit on YouTube…”

The high-pitched ringing in her ears finally subsided as the smell of smoke and something burnt filled her nose choking her. Everything was blurry and everything hurt, she had not felt this amount of pain since her escape from Mountain View, not even the bear mace was this bad. For about a second she thought she had cracked several ribs but the fact that she was slowly able to breathe easier meant they either held during the impact, or doing their regenerative healing thing. The ringing in her ear was replaced by multiple voices, the sun that was beaming down on her minutes ago covered by “shadows”. Finally coming to her senses, she realized a crowd had formed around her of DC’s concerned citizens. Well some were concerned while others had their phones up in her face taking pictures and videos.

She could make out someone asking if she was okay, that an ambulance was on its way and not to move. Other questions where if she was an alien, a mutant, stunt double for a movie. In a minute, she was going to tell them all to get the hell out of her face when screaming began to ensue and the crowd scattered like roaches when the lights came on.

Sophia’s vision finally returned to normal to see them descend from the skies above and hover several feet off the city streets kicking up dirt and trash while vibrating the store windows around them.

They were massive, at least thirteen to sixteen feet tall; two legged with a hind leg style like that of a cat or a dog. That along with their three finger appendages that gripped the rifle-like cannons aimed at her made their appearance look alien in origin. The glowing white eyes did not make them appear any less inhuman either.

However, the black urban military style color on their hulking metallic hides was a dead giveaway that this was not any close encounter, and there were just four of them. All the motivation Dennison needed to rise to her feet.

“Wow…she looks pissed…wonder why?” #2 asked casually.

“Could be she remembered us from a party way back,” said #3 brandishing a sadistic smile within her cockpit, “And we weren’t nice to her…”

“Thought I said to cut the shit…,” ordered #1 before switching to external audio to address their target, “Sophia Dennison…you have five seconds to surrender and comply before…”

An enraged Sophia leaped into the air ignoring #1’s request looking for blood, only for #4 to shoot her out of mid-air.

This time it was a shot to the gut sending her through the 10th floor of the building her just crashed into. #2 and #3 joined in concentrating firepower into the tunnel #4 made with Sophia. Screams of terror emitted from inside the building as poor souls ducked for cover, while crowds on the street scrambled trampling over each other to get to safety. Those foolish enough to stay and try to record the events where frustrated over the fact that neither their cameras nor cellphones where working to record what they believe to be an invasion from another planet.

“Cease-fire! Cease goddamn fire!!” yelled #1 at his trigger-happy team, “You want to dead level the entire building?!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several blocks away, on the outside of the military blockade now set up at New York Avenue, Armitage’s car pulled into a screeching halt as both him and Mercer spilled out trying to find out what in God’s name was going on running up to an equally clueless King.

“What the hell is going on Doug?” demanded Mark looking at the smoke rising from echoing gunfire he had never heard in his entire life.

“Apparently there’s a massive fire fight going on between your girl, and something huge!” reported King gritting his teeth, “Four of them!”

A cold sweat washed over Mark at the sound of the word “four,” “So the what hell are we doing?!”

“We” are waiting for back up to show up!” ordered King not wanting to get in the middle of a superhuman fight that could cost human lives, namely him and his agents.

Mark however did not want to wait, “This shit will be over by the time “backup” shows up!”

“Weren’t you the one saying we weren’t equipped to deal with something like this?!” King willingly fired Mark’s own words back at him, “I’m not risking one agent’s life on this madness; not even yours…we’re waiting for military back up! You try and cross that barricade and I will shoot you myself.”

King revealed his sidearm to Mark daring him to test him.

“Can’t we at least get some eyes in the air to tell us what the hell is happening?” a frustrated Mark pleaded.

“We have eyes in the air…but they can’t relay a signal back…something is interfering with communication on a large radius,” informed an Agent coordinating communication between the teams in the vicinity, “Radios, cellphones, cameras, everything is acting screwy, even radar! That’s why the military isn’t coming in yet. They can’t tell what they’re attacking!”

Mark cursed in frustration as he looked at the black smoke rising to the heavens coming from the direction where the chaos was; powerless to do anything, and bothered by the fact he was genuinely scared for a woman he had just met a couple of minutes ago face to face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at McPherson Square which had officially become a battleground, black smoke and flames now bellowed out from the side of the building that was all but obliterated, while people inside either injured or terrified spilled out from the building running for cover, searching for help, or both.

“Intel coming in from command, government, military, and local police both evacuating and blocking off this area within an eight mile radius,” reported #2, “We’ve got a window of less than twenty minutes to wrap this shit up before we see some heavy guns coming here soon…”

“Fine then let’s secure the target or what’s left…,” #1’s words were cut short again.

This time by the sound of a sonic boom, that shattered almost all of the windows within a five-block radius. Actually what cut #1’s words short was a vicious hit from what can only be described as a flying tackle propelling him through the building behind him by a very small and powerful unidentified object; an object moving so fast not even his own teammates saw when he got hit leaving their presence. All they were left with was the near deafening pop of the sonic boom, shards of glass raining down on them from above, and the now muffled hollers (or screams) of #1.

The other side of the building that Sophia drilled #1 through exploded with the sight of a massive machine coming out back first with a small-enraged woman gripping its chest plate with both hands.

The force of her initial charge ended as they sailed across the street crashing into another office building before falling to the streets below taking out whatever was unlucky to be under them on the way down. #1 sat rattled within the cockpit of his mech trying to get himself together.

Sophia already up sprang on top of his machine raining down trip hammer blows as she screamed, “Son of a bitch! I’ll kill ya! I’ll kill all of ya!!”

She concentrated her punches on what appeared to be the head of the mech caving the side of its skull in which shorted out the visual camera on the left side of the machine. #1 in a fit of desperation managed to swat her off landing her on a parked car, and then struggled to right his mech and find his weapon.

“Got to get up! Got to get up, I could use some F (STATIC) help…,” #1’s distress call was sheered in half.

While he was attempting to right his machine Sophia who had already shrugged off his backhand had rolled off the car she landed on, decided to take that very same car, and swing it like a bat taking out #1’s legs from behind landing him on his back again. She then leaped into the air violently clobbering #1’s mech with the 3,565 lb. vehicle as he desperately tried to cover up.

“Goddammit! Somebody get this crazy bitch off of me!!” #1 hollered.

Sophia growled as she took what was left of the Nissan Maxima slamming it again into #1’s downed mech before coming under heavy fire from his teammates finally arriving on the scene.

“Light this bitch up!” howled #4.

This time Sophia stood defiantly against the barrage of firepower reigning down on her, using just her forearm as a shield for her eyes. Vehicles hit nearby exploded sending shrapnel flying all over the place. The trio in the air decided to spread out making it hard for her to pick a target as they concentrated their firepower on her from different angles. Only her clothes became the worst for wear from the vicious volleys that now ricocheted off her impervious form.

“We’re not making a fucking dent in her!” #2 gritted his teeth.

“Switch to plasma heat rounds!” screamed #3, “Remember the ten second capacity recharging delay between shots!”

On command of their operators, the B.A.Ms quickly switched out the magazines to their rifles; the guns automatically locked and loaded by themselves emitting a high humming sound along with a bright orange light. #3 is the first to fire a volley of heated energy, which Sophia took head on with her forearm, except she felt this one down to her spinal column, along with the smell of burning leather and flesh.

“Ow…,”she managed to get out staggering.

Two more volleys from #2 and #4 hitting her in the side and shoulder sending her flying into the Honda Accord behind her. She screamed and gasped at the excruciating pain of her flesh being chard down to the muscle.

“We got her! We fucking got her!” squealed #3

“Getting her doesn’t mean stopping her! Look!” gestured #4 that the fight was in no way over.

True to #4’s word Sophia rose again due to her initial wounds healing in the order she was hit, confidence filled her once again as she knew that once she was fully healed she would be impervious to their energy volleys. She started to advance in the direction of #4 when #2 not engaging in the banter fires another round, which Sophia deflects with her forearm.