Journey to the East part 3 (finale)

Sun Wukong flew over the ocean on his cloud. Despite his aggressiveness and thirst for battle, he found the rushing waves soothing and enjoyed the quiet. He had been asleep for centuries and knew his mortal companions were long gone and it seemed his demon friends were as well. He expected a god to show up to put him to sleep again but there seemed to be no sign of them. He wondered where they were, not that he missed them, but it was concerning that they weren’t present. He even wondered if the other pantheons were still around despite not knowing them well. Loneliness was always a part of his existence but at least there would be some familiarity in seeing a deity or two.

In Hyperion’s Light, the team searched through satellite feeds to see if they could spot any fast-moving objects. They calibrated the sensors to pick up anything flying mach 4 and beyond, but with Wukong being so small, it proved difficult.

Ryan Bennings was distracted as he was still trying to process recent events such as the deaths of the Upstarts and Craig Levison. Wukong beating his team and forcing a retreat did little to lighten his mood. He knew he had been too harsh on Astra Machina due to his frustrations and opted to let her follow-thru with her plan to make up for it.

Shujai was likewise distracted. With the exception of Astra Machina and the occasional appearance of Labrat, he was the only non-human on the ship. The team valued him as a warrior and that should have been enough since he was born and bred to be a super soldier but he couldn’t shake the feeling he was alone. He was once celebrated on his homeworld as a hero but he was now banished to a world that hated and feared him. He began wishing he had friends and not allies.

Seated in front of a planetary chart as opposed to a satellite feed, Alysa Saraki meditated, hoping to find Wukong using het own methods. Astra Machina turned away from a monitor to address her.

“Hey, Alysa,” she called out, “Have you ever played Minecraft?”

“I’m sorry, I gotta concentrate, girl,” she said calmly.

“Oh, sorry.”

Astra was always appreciative of Alysa’s patience. Alysa was clearly busy but didn’t become annoyed the way Ryan Bennings or others would. Emotionally, they were the closest to one another, which gave them a strong bond.

Intrepid, meanwhile, took note of everything. Even when her teammates didn’t speak, she could tell what was bothering them. Being a former Mossad spy and IMD agent gave her special skills, including how to read people. It was why IMD director Sean Pierce tasked her with keeping tabs on the team. For instance, the Cavalier lingered when he saw a satellite feed of New York and she could tell it was due to his concerns over the rebuilding of the city after the Resurgence. On this particular mission, she took interest in Astra Machina.

As an alien AI with no known origin, she had always received a lot of attention from different parties and for a variety of reasons. What was fascinating to Intrepid was that she was on the maturity level of a 5 year old. Having such raw power while also having the mind of a child could have any number of results. Currently, Astra seemed to have an interest in leisure, particularly children’s games, and felt Son Wukong had a similar outlook when it came to fighting opponents. The team wanted to test her theory and Intrepid was interested in the outcome.

She felt some discomfort in spying on a team who proved to be more competent than she expected. Teammates were important to her. As a young agent in Mossad, she witnessed the death of her entire squad due to bad intel, and since that time, when she joining any groups in battle, she always took care of their safety while trying to be emotionally detached from them. It served her well in the Badges but then, she was never ordered to spy on them.

Meanwhile, Astra continued to look at the chart in front of Alysa and curiosity finally got the better of her, “So why are you looking at planets?”

“I’m concentrating on planetary alignments,” Alysa told her, “Venus and Jupiter are in the right houses, which means we have good fortune. I’m channeling that positive energy into a fate spell,” she raised her hands together and multi-colored embers of light danced around her fingertips, “… Just need the right color.” The other lights dissipated, leaving only the pink light. “There,” she said aloud and stood up as the light slipped in and out between her fingers. The team stopped and watched her curiously as she cupped her hands and carried the ball of light toward the satellite screens. “And now, with more than a little bit of luck…,” she opened her hands, releasing the light. “… We let fate work its magic,” she whispered as the light spun around a global map. Finally, the light looped in the air and landed on the screen, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

“And what did that do?,” Ryan asked curiously.

“It pinpointed where we need to be,” Alysa answered, “We got the coordinates?”

“Yeah,” Cavalier zoomed-in on the image and found a small island.

“You sure?,” Ryan asked.

“The planets are sure. I just hope I read them right.”

“I’m a numbers guy. Give it to me in percentages.”

“I’m like 90% sure the Monkey King is on that island.”

“Good enough for me,” Ryan motioned for everyone to return to their seats, “Strap in everyone, we got a second round. Let’s go fight a monkey.”

On an island in the middle of the ocean, Sun Wukong sat on a beach, drawing in the sand with his staff. He was hoping some monkeys would be on the island but there was no such luck. The last time he tried to have subjects, they revolted despite the fact he was sure he knew their names. This modern world was strange. He considered going to Heaven but as there were no gods, there would be no Heaven (at least not one he would be familiar with). He couldn’t find any decent challenges on Earth so would other worlds have to suffice? He pondered leaving the planet all together when something caught his eye.

On the horizon, he noticed a familiar ship swiftly approaching. His smile returned. “I wanted peace and quiet but a rematch is intriguing,” he said aloud before rising to his feet and stretching. In Hyperion’s Light, the team sat on the bridge with the small island in-view. “Does he see us?,” Shujai asked. In an instant, Wukong launched himself from the beach and cleared the distance to the ship; he held on to the front of the craft, his furry face taking up the entire screen. “Come out and meet your fate, cowards!,” he shouted into the camera. Ryan nodded, “Yeah, I think he sees us,” then he turned to Astra Machina, “Okay, kiddo. You’re up.”

Soon, Astra emerged from the top hatch of the ship and walked along the roof in anticipation. A few moments later, she spotted Wukong circling overhead on his cloud, “Behold! With hands that tore down Heaven and feet that crush mountains, I come!… The immortal! The dragon-slayer!… The well-endowed! Gaze upon my manhood and feel inadequate. You have lived this long only because I allow it,” the cloud disappeared as he flipped through the air, “I am the Great Sage, Heaven’s Equal,” he landed atop the ship, not far from Astra, “I. Am. Monkey!”

“And I’m Astra Machina,” she answered back.

Wukong looked around, “Where’s the rest of your group?”

“Inside. They didn’t wanna play.”

“Cowards!,” Wukong growled, “At least you have accepted your fate,” he twirled his staff and it suddenly grew twice as long.

“Hey, I can do that too,” Astra held her hand out and formed a metal pole that matched the same length.

“So what?,” Wukong shrank his staff down to the size of a toothpick and placed it behind his ear, “Can you do this?” He disappeared in a puff of smoke, instantly turning into the form of a pig.

“I can,” Astra shifted into a metallic pig shape in response.

“I suppose that’s impressive,” Wukong returned to his original form, “What about this?” He plucked a hair from the top of his head and blew it off his palm. The wind caught the hair for a moment before it burst into a cloud of smoke. In its place was an exact copy of Wukong. The twin monkeys admired one another happily before turning back to Astra.

“Self-cloning,” Astra snapped her fingers, “Yeah, I think I can do something like that.” A silver tendril stretched out from her body and formed an exact replica next to her.

Wukong’s clone disappeared in a smoke-burst as he stomped his feet in frustration, “I’m stronger!”

“I might be faster,” Astra explained, “I came all the way from across the Universe.”

“What do you mean?,” Wukong tilted his head curiously.

“The signal that created me probably came from the complete other side of the Universe. I crossed all that way before arriving on Earth. Have you done anything like that?”

“No, but I could,” he crossed his arms in defiance.

“No,” she shook her head, “I’m not sure even you could do that. Not as quickly as I did.”

“I will take up this challenge!,” Wukong raised his fist confidently before returning to his cloud, “I will cross the Universe and return to Earth in a day or more. And when I return, I expect you to admit defeat.”

“I’m sure I will,” Astra waved at him as he ascended, “Bye for now.”

“To victory!,” Wukong looped into the air before shooting higher into the sky. Soon, he disappeared behind the clouds and Astra detected something leaving the atmosphere. Moments later, the rest of the team joined her.

“I have to admit, it was a good ploy,” Ryan told her.

“I just needed to play the game the right way,” she said with a wink.

Epilogue…

Intrepid walked down a busy sidewalk, an umbrella over her head to keep the rain away. Up ahead, a car was parked on the side of the street. It flashed its headlights and she quickly got in the backseat. There, Sean Pierce sat waiting for her and once they were both inside, the car drove off quickly.

“It seems there was a problem in Japan,” Pierce began.

“It was handled,” Intrepid explained professionally, “It was a bit unorthodox but it was handled.”

“Missions within the US borders are one thing but international affairs are meant to be handled by the IMD.”

“Dr. Ikari is a friend of Ryan Bennings and asked for the Commission specifically when Sun Wukong attacked Tokyo.”

“I’d rather it not set a precedent.”

“That’s understandable, sir,” she looked out the window at the rain pouring down, “Though to be fair, Astra Machina’s… unique mentality presented a winning strategy to the mission that may not have been achieved by the more rigorous methods employed by the Badges.”

“I’m sure we would’ve sorted everything out eventually,” he quickly changed the subject, “What about the U’ntari lad?”

“Shujai is powerful. He serves his purpose on the team. He isn’t very open about anything but I suspect the lack of trust among the citizens of Earth affects him.”

“Do you feel he might turn on us?”

“It’s unlikely.”

“What about the rest of the team? Anything to be concerned of at the moment?”

“Not that I can tell,” she grew inquisitive, “Do you feel the team might pose a more direct threat?”

Pierce grew somber, “Lately, I’ve realized going head-to-head with the Commission is an inevitability. There was that business in New York where our teams nearly clashed in the streets. Now that they’re performing operations abroad, boundaries will eventually need to be made and I’ve no doubt Ryan Bennings will find that disagreeable.”

“He’s stubborn but I might be able to convince him to stand down when the tine comes. I only need to be subtle.”

“You’re a top-notch spy, Mansoor. I can humbly admit you’re better than I ever was, but I think Bennings could see through you, if you made the attempt. He has a rather nasty combination of intelligence and paranoia.”

“I nearly convinced him to disband the team the day after it was formed. If Rasputin hadn’t attacked -”

“I think that was our only chance at a peaceful resolution, unfortunately. The team was only a day old and they were already bickering. It wouldn’t have taken much to convince them to part ways and avoid any future issues. As you said, Rasputin attacked and a life and death battle with the fate of the world at stake has a way of uniting people.”

“So what now? We have no charges to arrest them on. We’ll need a warrant to bring the team down.”

“Eventually, Bennings and his friends will step out of bounds and it will be our responsibility to bring them in and hopefully do so before any serious harm can be done. There’s already a great deal of animosity for the Commission and with Bennings’ ego, they will eventually butt heads with those in authority. That’s when we’ll have our warrant. All we can do is wait ‘til then.”

The car sped on through the city street as the rain picked up.

Next: The Conglomerate