Deadly Upgrades part 3

While in Baltimore, Dante Greer had been trying his best to live a normal life. Teachers, family members and classmates stopped asking him questions which he welcomed but he knew conversations would start up each time he left a room. It was easy enough to forget he had powers as long as he didn’t play any contact sports in PE or get bumped by an impatient student in a crowded hallway. It wasn’t so easy to forget about his past. The Upstarts TV show was quietly removed from the PrimeWatch streaming service and cancelled while Craig Levison more or less went into hiding so it was all supposedly over with the exception of Kyle Jackson’s senator father giving the occasional interview regarding “the growing metahuman threat”. Try as he might, Dante couldn’t stop the nightmares or intrusive thoughts about his former teammates and co-stars he saw get slaughtered during the Resurgence. The news that came that morning didn’t help. He didn’t see any news footage but he heard about it and while everyone around him seemed to try to talk about it quietly, he was able to gleam information from whispered statements and quickly-halted conversations when people didn’t know he had just walked into the room: something was happening with the U’ntari ship he took down alongside his team and Alysa Saraki.

****

Near the Potomac River, Second Phase operatives entered the crashed U’ntari vessel in pursuit of half the Commission. The ship had been destroyed from the inside during the Resurgence so, while the outside was mainly intact, the interior had been wracked by massive explosions. Walls were torn down, deep holes were blown through multiple levels and what was left of the floor was covered in piles of debris. Meanwhile, some sections had collapsed entirely and were impossible to navigate.

“This thing is already big enough,” the operative known as Pulse complained, “But there’s no power and most of it is too busted to walk through,” he turned to Casket, “They could be anywhere. Let’s just get the chrome upgrade like Doc told us and leave.”

“I want them found first. They couldn’t have gotten much farther than us,” Casket said as a bird-like drone began to detach from his back, “You’re the one with superspeed, put it to good use,” the drone began to fly through a small opening between collapsed pillars, “I’ll do my part.”

“Fine,” Pulse sighed and raced off in a flash, turning down corridors and hoping over piles of twisted metal as he searched for the Commission at highspeed. Eventually, he turned a corner and, unbeknownst to him, hit an invisible mystic field created by Alysa Saraki. When he bounced off, he slid along the corridor, fully unconscious.

Meanwhile, Astra Machina stood at the edge of a chasm that had been created when the initial explosion ripped through the hangar. The hole was deep enough that a small building could have fit inside and the charred remains of U’ntari Fighter Class ships rested at the bottom. Astra sat on her knees, placed both palms on the metal grating, then began to absorb everything underneath her, the nanobots turning the floor into liquid metal before adding to her mass. She began to grow in size as the material around her vanished.

Elsewhere, the cybernetic assassin Omega rounded a corner and found Pulse unconscious on the floor. “Baka,” she muttered to herself as she looked at her teammate with disdain. Just then, the Cavalier emerged from an adjacent chamber behind her and charged both tasers in his gauntlets before plunging them into the sides of her neck. She fell to the floor alongside her teammate and with two operatives down, Alysa and Cavalier regrouped.

“It was a good idea to lure them inside this thing,” Alysa told him.

“The darkness and cramped quarters let us cut their numbers down,” he said as he checked the area, “Hopefully, it gives Astra all the time she needs.”

Casket and Alpha arrived at another section of the ship which was one of the only interior areas infected by the techno-virus. The floor, ceiling and walls were covered in the silver substance with metal stalagmites and stalactites jutting in different directions, making the area resemble a large, metal cavern. “This was the Science Sector,” Alpha explained, “Doc Serenity sent us here so we could find the virus and release it.” Casket noticed what appeared to be two canisters stuck inside the mass, having already been turned to metal, “Those must have been the two-,” he was cut off when his drone relayed an image to his HUD.

Elsewhere, Astra was now two stories tall and standing at the bottom of the chasm; while she noticed Casket’s drone circling above, there was little she could do in her state. She was still in the process of absorbing the mass of the ship which taxed her abilities to their fullest extent and she knew the virus would be infecting her soon.

Meanwhile, Casket and Alpha raced to her location, making their way through a large storage area. Above, a large, badly damaged catwalk hung limply on one piece of metal. A quick spell from Alysa increased the probability of it falling and it quickly plummeted, sending tons of debris in their path and blocking the way to the next sector. Casket charged his stave, letting it crackle with energy before he fired his widest blast through the rubble. Once they climbed over the twisted metal, they found Alysa and Cavalier standing in their way with a chasm behind them.

“No more distractions,” Casket aimed his stave once more but paused as he saw a figure rising behind the two Commissioners. Astra’s face rose over the edge of the chasm, reaching all the way to the top of the massive ship. What’s more, the bottom of the ship was being absorbed and Astra was now standing on dirt and grass while still getting more mass from the surrounding area. Casket fired a blast at her but it harmlessly bounced off her chest before her echoey voice announced, “You need to leave.”

With Astra taking hold of the entire ship, tendrils erupted from the floor, wrapped around Alpha and Casket, then carried them through the ship in a second. As they reached the inner-hull, a hole opened up and they were shot out like a canon. In another sector, the unconscious bodies of Omega and Pulse were likewise tossed out of the ship.

“Astra, you good?,” Alysa looked her up and down worringly.

“I’m taking more and more of the ship but the virus will soon affect me,” she warned, “I’m not sure how well I can control it at this point. Alysa’s charm seems to work in my favor but you’ll need to leave soon.”

“Come on,” Cavalier motioned for them to leave and they quickly began to race through the ship’s endless corridors.

Astra placed a hand against the ceiling which slowly spread apart until the Sun shown through. As Cavalier and Alysa ran, they felt the floor under them slowly pull back as if someone were yanking a rug out from under them. The walls and ceiling began to close in next. Astra was now outside the ship, pulling more and more of its mass into herself and as she did so, the silver towers began to shrink back and she could see the mercurial mass flowing toward her. Inside, the ship began to implode and Cavalier snatched Alysa up in his arms as they made one final jump out the door and onto the snow outside. The techno-virus swarmed Astra, wrapping itself around her as her nanotechnology fought off its debilitating effects. Alysa’s charm helped to keep Astra’s consciousness while she absorbed everything into herself but something was wrong.

The virus flowed into her system, causing her to grow several times her already enormous size in a matter of seconds. The tall, metal spires dropped, what remained of the ship quickly disappeared and the portion of the park that had once been covered, shrank back in an instant, forming a strange lump for a moment before it once again shifted into a new shape. Astra rose to the sky, towering over the skyscrapers after having absorbed the entire ship and the virus. Metal spikes ran along her limbs and her once sleek form was now twisted and covered in metallic clumps. Her face was now covered as well with a mess of cancerous metal coils in place of her screen. A bizarre alarm echoed through the air that sounded like a scream while Alysa and Cavalier remained on the ground, gaping in horror.

By this time, Hyperion’s Light had arrived on the scene, piloted by Shujai and Intrepid. In the ship’s lab, Ryan Bennings was observing the DNA sample they took from Rampart alongside the virus sample he had acquired earlier. “What was that noise?,” he asked over the PA.

“I think it’s Astra,” Shujai explained, “It seems she has absorbed both the ship and the virus.”

“I’m sending the image now,” Intrepid added, “Not to rush but now would be a good time to come up with a cure.”

Ryan peaked over his shoulder at the hologram displaying Astra’s new, giant form, “Yeah… no rush at all,” he turned back to the two samples in front of him as a series of lasers scanned the two items, “There’s gotta be a connection here.”

As Astra writhed in agony, her giant limb flailed through the air. Shujai and Intrepid had to quickly steer the ship out of the way to avoid getting slapped out of the sky. In the lab, Ryan nearly fell over while observing the samples, “Eyes on the road!,” he called out.

On the ground, Cavalier and Alysa noticed the Second Phase operatives unconscious on the ground with the exception of Casket who was reclaiming his battle stave. “We’re in a bit of a bind down here,” Cavalier said through his helmet’s radio, “I know we’re trying to help Astra but if one of you would like to come even the odds, that’d be great.”

“We have problems of our own,” Intrepid answered, “Bogey on our six!”

The Second Phase aircraft flew in behind Hyperion’s Light, its weapons systems locked on to the massive ship. In the cockpit, Doc Serenity piloted while Rampart stood at the side-hatch, ready for a rematch against the team. A missile was fired and exploded against a forcefield. Inside Hyperion’s Light, Intrepid’s screen displayed a rear-view just before she activated the weapon’s system. “I’m taking evasive maneuvers,” Shujai announced, “Do you have a lock?” She shouted back, “Do it.”

Shujai took the ship down as another missile flew past; Ryan’s lab tilted sideways and he found himself hanging on to the examining table with his feet in the air. As he dangled for a few seconds, he noticed the lab readings on displays above him and came to a final conclusion, “Ah, of course!”

Meanwhile, Intrepid fired, sending a laser beam into the advancing aircraft. The left wing was blasted off and the ship was sent spiraling with Serenity struggling to retrieve an emergency jetpack. “Leave it, Doc,” Rampart snatched the scientist out of the seat, raced back to the side-hatch and leapt. The aircraft spun out of the air and splashed-down in the Potomac River while Rampart dropped several feet with the scientist in his grasp. When he landed, he kicked up a cloud of frozen dirt and shook the ground. Soon, Casket regrouped with Rampart and Doc Serenity.

“This was not what I expected,” Doc Serenity gazed at the pain-wracked Astra above.

“She absorbed everything,” Casket informed him, “The ship, the virus, everything.”

“She might still be useful,” Serenity explained, “Let’s see how this plays out before we call Gate.”

“I agree,” Casket gazed up at her, “I want to see if she can overcome this. She’s… a very unique life form.”

“You didn’t make that last part weird at all,” Rampart chuckled.

In Hyperion’s Light, Ryan leaned over a cylinder mixing a strange chemical compound. As the ship circled around Astra, he spoke through the PA system to Shujai and Intrepid, “Looking at the DNA sample and the physical sample, I realized the virus came in two parts: organic and elemental. It made sense that they wouldn’t want to fly around the galaxy with this stuff pre-made in case there was an accident and they all got tangled up in a big, goopy ball of liquid-metal in space. Best guess is that they transported it in two containers and once the Second Phase got ahold of it, it was a simple matter of-”

“Can we skip to the end?,” Intrepid asked anxiously as the ship continued to circle their gigantic teammate.

“I found a chemical compound that can separate the two elements which should nullify the effects of the virus.”

“Not a moment too soon.”

Astra doubled-over in pain as she grew larger, “The virus… is no longer spreading,” her booming voice echoed over the park, “It’s growing…,” large spikes violently shot out of her back, “…Inside me!”

****

A train ride from Baltimore to Washington DC wouldn’t take long and he knew that. Even if he was caught skipping school, he wouldn’t be punished too harshly; at times, it was beneficial that people felt sorry for him. Dante Greer wasn’t sure what he would do once he reached the Potomac River. His intrusive thoughts told him there would be U’ntari soldiers still hiding inside the ship or that the techno-virus was somehow his fault. He even found himself wondering if the alien who killed the Upstarts was somehow still alive and waiting for him in DC. These thoughts were overwhelming him and he recalled Dr. Ansari once telling him that confronting fears was healthy. Going to Washington DC and helping to destroy the Commander Ship seemed like a good way to confront those fears and while Dr. Ansari also warned against impulsive behaviors, he was sure this didn’t qualify.

Continued…