MAU: Infinte Crisis, Part 2

MAU: Infinte Crisis Part 2

A few minutes prior to Noel's impromptu fight with the Iron Patriot, now Iron Hulk buster, he had been chasing a different character who very much resembled one from "Batman Beyond". In fact he was the striking image of that Batman himself. While he looked like Terry McGinnis, his real name was Jeffrey Donald. Not surprisingly, both he and his pursuer had used the strange alien device. Jeffrey had a sizable lead ahead of the guy chasing him, but he doubled back and waited for the Iron Patriot or "Henry" as was his real name, to fly by over and a little further ahead before jumping back up to follow at a discrete distance. A few minutes later Jeffrey noticed that Henry abruptly changed his course heading straight up, he dove for the tree tops in case he noticed him. It wasn't until he saw weapons fire that he was both relieved and then worried. Relieved that he hadn't been spotted and worried about what he was firing on.

"Ah hell!"

Putting aside his own personal concerns, he did his best to catch up and hopefully stop Henry before he did something really bad. Touch his hand to his ear, he activated his radio.

"Hey John, You hear me?"

"Loud and clear, were you able to ditch him finally?" His voice had a tell-tale sign of an English accent. Something he didn't have before he was changed.

"Yeah, but he's shooting at something. I hope it’s just some birds, and if it's not, I'm going to check it out just in case."

"Bloody hell, does that mean I have to come pick you up when you get into it?"

"Hmph, funny! But just in case, yeah."

Jeffrey activated his beacon for John to follow, when he saw tracer rounds striking towards the ground. He could just barely make out a shake of the tree tops. Clearly something hit the ground. Hard. There were a few flashes of light and then they were off into the sky again. Jeffrey had to strain his suits rockets to the limit just to keep up. All the while, the two kept trading shots, although it was heavily one-sided as the Iron Man figure was doing most of the shooting. The first vestige of morning was just poking over the horizon when the chase soon arrived at a small town.

Jeffrey could see a few streaks of light fall to the town, three of the four made it back up. Just as he reached the edge of the town he saw a beam of light erupt from a large object striking the ground. The force of the impact was enough to cause the surrounding trees to shudder around the beam.

"Oh God, John! You're going to have to floor it. He just fired his uni-beam!"

"FUCK!!! I'm still twenty minutes away. Stall him!"

'Fucking radio! All it's good for is telling people stuff when they can't do anything about it!' Thought Jeffrey.

He landed on the roof of a store behind Henry, now in Hulkbuster mode. As Jeffrey was getting ready to throw an exploding batarang, his combatant made a sword come out of her arm and stuck it into the arm he was holding her by. And judging from his very angry outburst it did some damage, just not enough to stop him from shooting her point-blank in the face, much to Jeffrey's horror.

As each shot went, repulsor energy flared out between his fingers like geysers. Smoke crept out like willowy snakes. It seemed that the last shot killed her.

"Aw shit! John, step it up! He just killed her and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let him play with her corpse after what just happened!"

"The bloody prick! 'Kay, I'll be there in ten minutes."

'Well if I'm going to stop him, I'll have to get his attention...’ thought Jeffrey as he jumped and threw some regular batarangs over Henry’s head landing several feet in front.

"Put. Her! Down!" Jeffrey said sternly while readying an explosive batarang.

Jeffrey heard him chuckle which then turned into a laugh as he swung his victim around to grab her legs with his other hand while charging his uni-beam again. As he fired, Jeffrey dove forward to the left to avoid both the body and the beam as they went by. Jeffrey rolled to a stop in the kneeling position and fired his batarang into the hole of Henry's oversized arm. Seconds later the entire hand blew off halfway between the elbow and wrist leaving sparking wires and a very upset Henry. Bothe his helmets opened up revealing an insanely mad face.

"You're DAMN lucky I want you alive! Otherwise I would've torn you to pieces for that!"

With that said he closed up his helmets, grabbed the still twitching hand on the ground with his other. And flew up into the sky and out of sight in seconds.

By this time, a few people began poking their heads around corners from opposite ends of the street. Thankfully, for the moment, they were more interested in the smashed truck. Taking advantage of this Jeffrey walked over and picked up the still form.

"John, Henry took off. I got the girl so tell me where you’re coming from and I'll meet you halfway!" He said as he ran down a side-street, a feat made difficult while carrying about three hundred pounds of an armored woman.

A GPS map appeared on his HUD with a route overlaid on it.

"Take the directions I just sent you. It's the quickest way out and there shouldn't be too many people to spot you if anyone is up. Meet you in two!"

Jeffrey grunted in reply as he ran down back alleys and through side-streets away from built up sections of the town’s main street to the more rural areas on the edge of town. Sure enough in two minutes Jeffrey rounded another corner to see a large moving truck pull to a stop. Jeffrey ran towards the back and jumped in as the doors swung open. John was already in back waiting for them with a first-aid kit. As Jeffrey laid her down and stepped back John passed his sonic screwdriver over and looked at it.

"Well!?" Jeffrey urged as he took his cowl off.

John put on a pair of old style 3-D glasses and redid his scan. "...Amazing!"

"Don't go 'Doctor' on me, is she alright?"

John removed his 3-D glasses.

"Sorry, it’s been easier to slip into character since I regenerated. And what I found isn't important at the moment."

He then brought his screwdriver around her head. The buzzing seemed to make Jeffrey angrier by the second.

"Stop playing with your damn screwdriver and get her out of it!!" He screamed.

"That's what I'm trying to do! Contrary to what I look like, I'm not the actual Doctor! I barely know how to use this thing and I've been running on instinct!" He shouted back.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, they were rewarded with a soft click. John gingerly lifted the helmet up and set it aside. Jeffrey leaned over, turning his ear to her face.

"She's not breathing."

He then sits up and places two fingers to her neck while holding his cowl to his head.

"And I can't get a pulse."

In a sudden renewed fit of anger, Jeffrey flung his cowl to the back of the truck and rested his back to the wall behind him with his head in his hands.

"That's FOUR that he’s killed now!" Jeffrey screamed.

"Well four we know of." Replied John grimly.

Jeffrey glared back. The two exchanged a salom look before looking down at the girl. If it wasn't for the blotchy mess between her eyes from Henry's repulsors she would've been quite pretty. From what they could see, she was predominantly Asian with a mix of Caucasian to give her a pixie look. Further adding to the look was her short sandy blond hair with white frosted tips. As Jeffrey stared, he noticed something about the girls’ armor.

"What the hell?"

John saw it too. Where ever there were cracks in the armor, they started to rise until they looked like exaggerated veins. They kept getting bigger till they were a quarter inch above the rest of the armor, at which point they throbbed and seemed to collapse slightly causing a ripple effect across the armor. As each ripple passed over, the scorch marks and burns would disappear as if it never happened. After the 'ripples' subsided the 'veins' sunk down leaving no trace of the cracks they emerged from. While this was going on, Jeffrey had stood back while John got into the driver’s seat to take them out of town in case something else happens. Just as Jeffrey was sure that whatever just happened was finished, tendrils exploded from under her collar which encompassed her entire head. The tendrils twitched for a minute then began to dissolve into her head, a few receded back under her collar. Jeffrey noticed that they healed the injury on her face, kneeling down; he began to check her pulse and breathing. As he did, the truck ran over a bump, and suddenly the girls’ eyes opened and gasped before sitting upright. Jeffrey jerked backwards startled and hit the back of his head on the wall behind him. The girl, breathing hard, gulped and put a hand to her stomach.

"Ohh, I'm so hungry, should've eaten before I left. Wait... Where am I?"
------------------


At first I didn't even know that I regained consciousness. At first I felt that I was floating, then I was being suffocated, then I finally came to the realization that I wasn't breathing. Opening my eyes I sucked in the much needed air as I sat up. After a few seconds of hyperventilating, I immediately became aware of the hunger pangs in my stomach.

"Oh, I'm so hungry, should've eaten before I left."

When I heard myself talk, I sounded like a whiny girl and I was about to laugh, when I felt the room bounce. It was then I noticed I wasn't outside anymore.

"Wait... Where am I?"

I looked around me as the room continued to bounce at random intervals and saw a man dressed in a black suit with a red Batman symbol splade across his chest.

"Who are you?"

He looked as if he were frozen before shaking his head slightly then extending his hand before replying.

"Jeffrey Donald... Let me guess, you found a little box which grew as big as a phone booth and you used it to change yourself, right?"

He had a crooked smile on his face as if he wanted to share an inside joke.

"...Yeah, a few hours ago I think. My name's Noel by the way."

I shook his hand while I cleared my throat, still not used to my voice. He stared at me before handing me my helmet. The faceplate had a hole big enough that I could probably fit the end of my original pinky finger in it. Cracks radiated out from it. I then felt pins and needles in my finger tips and became transfixed as the cracks seem to swell into little mountain ranges towards the hole. When they converged on it, it seemed to clot or bubble over, covering it completely. After which it all melted into the helmet making it look brand new.

"That's VERY slightly weird!"

I then remembered the 'fight' I was in and reached up to feel my forehead and instantly felt stupid for doing so since I was still mostly in my armour. Jeffrey saw the look on my face and said.

"Don't worry, the rest of you healed up. Both you and your armor."

"Thanks." I replied with a smile.

Feeling more at ease with my surroundings I was kinda surprised when the colour of my armour changed back from the two-tone olive green to its original red and white.

"So what brings you to the grand US of A Noel?"

"...Family." I replied.

"Oh...”

"Yeah...”

The sudden question seemed to put a halt to any further casual conversation, so we ended up just staring awkwardly at each other, till Jeff suddenly got up.

"Well, I'm going to check on our driver. If you’re hungry, we got a mini-fridge to your right and you’re welcome to it." He said hastily before moving up front.

The truck bounced again causing him to trip. He swore under his breath before continuing to the cabin.

"Kay thanks." I said after him. I sighed before turning my attention to the fridge and smiling.

"You're all mine now!" I said with a chuckle.
----------


Jeffrey was still swearing when he sat in the passenger seat.

"Jeez John, are you looking for potholes or something?"

"Just whenever you’re walking about. So, how's our girl?"

"She seems fine. Not sure if that's just because it hasn't hit her yet or if she's absorbed herself into the character she turned herself into."

"So... She's Canadian?"

"Well she hasn't said anything about where she's from. But if you’re going on the maple leaf design on her armor then yeah."

"Hey, I always wondered if they say 'eh' all the time. Or what about 'aboot'?" John asked with a grin.

Jeffrey let out a groan.

"John, if we're going by stereotypes, then you are a hill billy redneck engaged to your sister that can play a banjo." He quipped back with a grin of his own. John laughed.

"So what did you find when you were doing your scans?" Jeffrey asked looking over.

"Like I said, nothing important. She's fine now so there's no need to go into it." He said matter of factly.

"Come on, it must've been something to make you lapse." Jeffrey urged.

"I stand by my previous nonsensical statement." He replied flatly.

"Alright fine... So... Where are we gonna meet up with the rest?" Jeffrey asked changing the subject.

"Well before all this happened...” He waved his hand randomly before continuing. "..I came across a rest stop for campers an hour out of the town we were just in. I thought it'd be a good place."

Jeffrey got out of the passenger seat before saying. "Well I'm going to check up on our guest again and tell her to expect some more joining us."

John just nodded then started humming the Doctor Who theme.

"Hey Noel, just so you know, we're going to pick up some friends and..."

Jeffrey cut himself short as Noel looked back over her shoulder with a half eaten mini-sup sandwich sticking out of her mouth. The sight of this would've looked even more cute if she wasn't in her armor, but damn!

"Hm?" She 'asked' before taking another bite. Jeffrey stopped for a moment.

"Okay, I gotta ask. Who did you turn yourself into? Are you a new person? Or did you just make yourself a suit?"

Noel finished her sandwich before replying.

"No, I'm new all around. You wouldn't even recognize me before now. Not that you would with this being the first time we met. No, but. I based the armour off of an anime called 'Bubblegum Crisis'. To be honest, I was only thinking about how to make the suit. I didn't really think about how I should look under it. Come to think of it, I haven’t looked at myself since the second time I changed. This would be my third change." She said, pointing to herself.

"Well the only mirrors we have are the side views on the truck. If you want to use those, you’re going to have to wait till we stop. The only other thing we have is the laptop we use. It has a built in web cam so... whichever you want to do." He gestured aimlessly.

Noel stood up with one hand to the side for balance in the still moving truck.

"Let’s go with the web cam then."

Jeffrey pulled out a laptop from a cubby hole beside the mini-fridge and turned it on and opened up the webcam. Noel could hardly believe it. He or rather she for awhile now, looks almost exactly like Nene would in real life. Except for the white tipped hair and teal coloured eyes, she was a dead ringer. And thanks to the presumably Caucasian mix, it seemed to widen her almond shaped eyes to look closer to her anime counterpart. All in all, she was cute.

"Wonder what the rest of me looks." She mumbled to herself.

Leaving Noel to her newfound vanity, Jeffrey made his way back to the cab and sat down beside John once more.

"You know, getting up and down and walking around a moving vehicle isn't the best of ideas.” stated John. His grin abated the seriousness of it, showing he was only kidding.

"I'd hate to ask a stereotypical question here, but. Are we there yet?" Jeffrey asked looking out the side window.

"Actually yes. I'm surprised that you didn't see it."

"What? The turn off, or the truck stop?"

"No, I was referring to the twenty foot tall giant in medieval armor by the trees over there." He pointed.

Jeffrey looked out the window and groaned inwardly.

"Dammit Andria!..."

As they pulled up and got out, they walked past the picnic tables and outhouses to the edge of a clearing where they came to meet two individuals. One just finished unsummoning the giant.

"Dammit Andria, I've told you before! We can't do things like this in the daytime!"

She just shrugged in response.
---------------



Meanwhile at a currently undisclosed location.

"I'm a busy man, Mike. What's so important to interrupt my video conference?" Mr. Tonaon asked impatiently.

Mr. Tonaon was the head of the company 'Tonaon Industrials' A company that mainly sold factory equipment and supplies. Mr. Tonaon was toying with the idea of branching out.

"Well, one of our transport truck drivers claims he nearly hit a deer."

"That's it?! If this is what you called me down here for, then I'll charge your pay for the money you lost me. And at your current pay level, your descendants will have to work it off for generations to come." Tonaon said coldly.

Mike nervously taped on the keyboard of the computer bringing up several images.

"This is what the hood cam on his truck shows."

The video was a short two-second clip where something landed then seemed to fly back up with short streams of light behind it.

"As you can see, the video quality is too poor to make out any definite details but you CAN see it is a person."

"...While that is unusual, it's hardly something worth my attention." Tonaon meant to sound annoyed but he had to admit. His curiosity was piqued. Still, business was business, and he couldn't allow himself to be affected by something that didn't affect his company.

Mike enlarged a satellite image on the screen.

"The satellite here was currently set for analyzing energy consumption for environmentalist. These are power lines, these blobs are vehicles, and here are buildings. Now watch as I advance the photos."

A blob marked as the company truck for reference was just leaving city limits. Further down and to the right of the map was a small pinprick of light. If it wasn't so bright, it would have been swallowed up by the other blobs and lines.

"What is that?" Tonaon asked, pointing at the unusual mark.

"That 'dot' is producing twice the energy produced by a nuclear plant. But watch these next few frames."

The next image shows the dot at a greater intensity than before. The next image showed only static.

"What happened on the last one?” asked Tonaon.

"The energy output of whatever that was, caused a conflict in the satellites programming. The entire system had to be rebooted." Mike answered before hastily adding. "And when it came back online, it vanished! Just went back to normal."

Tonaon leaned closer to the screen, cycling back the last three images.

"Keep an eye on this Mike." He then whispered to himself, "I want this!"

The look in his eyes changed from a mild corporate paranoia to absolute greed.

--------------

Noel stepped out of the back of the truck without any problems aside from her 'boots' sinking into the ground a little more than the others. John had already got out and was making his way across a clearing. Jeffrey did a slight nod to gesture Noel to follow.

As they walked, Noel noticed that there wasn’t much snow around and what was there was melted somewhat. "So that's where they get the idea that Canada's always winter," she thought to herself. Her attention was then drawn to a glowing giant that then disappeared in an implosion of light.

"Holy crap!" Noel said looking to Jeff she could see he was more peeved then awed.

"Dammit Andria! I've told you before, we can't do stuff like that during the day!" He yelled when we reached them.

She only shrugged before looking over to Noel, "Oooo... Who's the new guy?" she asked.

Jeffrey sighed and introduced Noel.

"Noel, this is Andria, a constant pain in my neck."

"Ciao," she said with a smile and a wink.

Jeffrey just rolled his eyes. "And.."

John cut him off ".. And this lovely girl's, my girl, Major. A bit of a prude sometimes but I still love her," he said which earned a playful slap from 'Major' before they kissed each other. "I'm John by the way, John Smith! And no, I'm not joking, that is my name. Can't tell you how many times people thought I was joking."

Noel just nodded seeing as how John was the splitting image of David Tennant. She then introduced herself, told them about herself and how she came across the alien machine. She skipped over the part about the fact that she was originally a male, not sure what they'll think.

The others listened and after she was done they told her about themselves.

John was born and raised in New Orleans but he and his family moved shortly after the hurricane flooding to Boston where he moved out a year later. He spent three years in university and managed to graduate early with honors. It was the night after graduation when he found the box embedded in his "new" car his parents bought him. He turned it on that night but was too freaked out to try until two days later. He changed himself into various Doctor Who characters and even some from the spin-offs. He'd just turned himself into the ninth Doctor when the box stopped working. Thankfully his parents and family accepted and supported him and his new self. It was a few months later that he met Jeffrey, and painfully, Henry soon after. Henry and Jeffrey were in a fight and when Henry was about to finish Jeff off with his uni-beam, John pushed him out of the way and got hit instead. Fortunately John was a real Time Lord and regenerated into the tenth Doctor, David Tennant. From that point on, he joined up with Jeffrey to stop Henry.

Andria Sythe didn't have much of an eventful childhood. She grew up in Washington DC and could without a doubt be called a gamer chic. Her parents had her attend a private school where she excelled as the team captain for the school fencing team. Her parents cut her off when they found out about her gaming habits. Not being able to afford school anymore she got a job as a barista for one of the many coffee shops in the city. It was then that she found the box and changed herself into Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII, after which she joined an amateur video game tournament where she eventually won first prize and a job from Sony to beta test their future games. It was after her picture was shown in the paper that agents from the agency that tracks the alien devices contacted her, and gave her a new ID. After some inquiries, she came across several "teams" that the agency employed for tracking and containing the more aggressive changees. In the spur of the moment, she decided to join John and Jeffrey, and has been with them since.

Major was the most mysterious. She had changed into the Ghost in the Shell character Motoko Kasunagi, otherwise known as "Major". At the time she had a friend who'd changed into a Tachikoma. For some reason or another they got into a fight with Henry. About halfway through, Henry was somehow able to hack Major and found a way to erase her history. Henry had almost torn her to pieces if her friend hadn't sacrificed itself by firing a grenade point-blank at Henry forcing him to retreat. Jeffrey, John, and Andria showed up a few minutes later too late to save her friend. John was able to save and fix Major's broken body and stayed by her side till she woke up. When she did, she was distraught when she couldn't even remember her own name. Her entire past and everything linking to it was gone, in fact the only thing she could remember about the Tachikoma was that it was her friend. Her entire life was reduced to whatever facts and figures they were able to dig up and some vague memories. Everything she learned about her past self felt as if it were someone else's life she was looking in on. Needless to say, she fell into a depression for a long time, and if it wasn't for John staying by her side, she would have killed herself. John eventually pulled her out of it and managed to keep her cheerful for the most part. After her depression John told her about what their group was doing and she insisted on joining, to see if Henry still had anything from her past and for revenge for her friend who died.

Jeffrey didn't say much about himself. Only that Henry was his brother and after they used the device, Henry went insane letting the power of the box go to his head. They fought for position over it until their sister got caught in the crossfire. Jeffrey stayed to help his sister while Henry made off with the box. Jeffrey waited till an ambulance arrived, told police what he could, and went with his sister to the hospital. There he found out that she was in what the doctors called a "light" coma. There was plenty of brain activity but for whatever reason she wasn't waking up. He cried himself to sleep next to her still form. It was late in the afternoon when he woke to the sound of knocking on the door. Jeffrey wiped his eyes (he must have been crying in his sleep) and opened the door where two men in black suits asked if they could come in to ask some questions about what really happened. Too tired to lie he told them about the box, the fight, and that Henry had taken the box while he did his best to care for his sister till help arrived. The rest was pretty much self explanatory. Jeffrey was now working for the government under the condition that his sister receives the best medical care available. There have been more than a few times when they thought they finally had Henry, but whenever they managed to corner him, he takes a life to cover his escape.

The group had moved back to the truck to get out of the cold, Major didn't seem to notice, it was more to stop Andria from whining about her legs freezing. It was then that Noel yawned and realized she'd been up for almost a whole day.

"Hey Jeff, would we be able to pull into a hotel or set up camp or something?" she asked.

Jeffrey thought for a moment "Well we have a fold out cot on the side," he answered pulling one down from the side.

John and Major went up to the cab and started the truck and began driving again. The occasional giggle could be heard above the not so quiet whispers. Andria had settled on a chair near the front playing a PSP GO. Jeffrey was in a chair across the cot typing something into the laptop. Normally Noel was never able to sleep in a moving vehicle, usually just settling on sitting with her eyes closed, in any case this time she drifted off without any fuss to speak of.

-----------

Several hours later Noel woke with a sigh to sunlight shining in her face and realized she wasn't in the truck anymore. She sat up and looked around to see that she was now in a large warehouse that was converted into a semblance of a living space. She was now sitting on a cheap convertible couch with the back cushions removed. To her left behind her was Jeff sitting at a table cleaning his batarangs.

"You know Jeff, most would say that it's creepy to spend your time next to someone while they sleep," Noel joked with another yawn.

Startled, Jeffrey looked over, "..Well, it's about time you woke up. Come on, we have someone who wants to talk to you," he said getting up.

Jeffrey led Noel past an open kitchen and a dining hall, again completely open, to a room halfway down a basketball court. If it wasn't for the incredibly high ceiling and series of large doors along the front, Noel would've been happy letting herself believe that this was a hollowed out studio apartment. Although now that she thought about it, it was pretty much is. As they entered the room Noel saw that it resembled a board room. There was a large crescent shaped table with half a dozen chairs lining the side and a huge flat screen TV that took up two-thirds of the outside wall. Jeffrey gestured for Noel to take a seat. As she did so, he sat down beside her and pushed a button on a phone in front of them.

"She's here now. Sorry about the wait," he said letting go of the button.

Immediately the TV lit up showing a man sitting in a desk wearing a dark suit, the size of the TV gave the impression that he was sitting there in front of them.

He took a sip of coffee from his desk before speaking.

"Good morning Mr. Donalds," he checked some notes on his desk, "... And Noel is it? Is that your first or your last name?"

The man had the look of genuinely caring but Noel still hesitated. "Um, Noels my first name. And Arthur is my last name."

"All right Miss Arthur.."

"Don't call me miss okay? It sounds kinda freaky to me."

"..Very well then. Noel. I am Agent G, I am the liaisons between the agency and Mr. Donolds team."

Jeffrey leaned over whispering to Noel, "Congratulations. I've been trying to get him to call me by my first name for years now, and you managed to get him doing it for you in two minutes."

Agent G continued seemingly oblivious of Jeffrey's hushed comment.

"First, I'd like to apologize for what happened to you so shortly after your first encounter with the alien artifact."

"Why are you apologizing for? It's not as if you had anything to do with that psycho," Noel stated.

"True, but the agency is still at least indirectly at fault. You see, it's the agency's primary mandate to recover these artifacts before they end up doing harm to the public well being. Needless to say, we aren't as successful as we'd like to be on that part."

Jeffrey leaned over again, "He's right. More often than not, we're handing out new ID's."

"Mr. Donalds is right; we have several stockpiles of the non-functioning devices that were confiscated from people who are now trapped in another form. Most that change are human but there are a growing percentage of people that turn themselves into something more...'unique'. But right now that's beside the point. Right now we are here to talk about you."

Noel unconsciously sat lower in her chair. " 'Kay. What do you want to know?"

Agent G brought his pen up ready to write. "Well first off, is that body armor you’re wearing or is that a permanent cybernetic body?"

The way he asked the question was the same as if he asked her about the weather. Obviously he's done this more than he cared to admit, or at least enough times to make it boring.

"No, this is just body armour. Although I changed some things about my body so I'm not completely human." Then she added quickly, "But I'd still pass for one obvious."

Agent G wrote it down. "Fair enough. Now, what was your original gender?" He didn't even blink an eye while Noel squirmed in her seat slightly.

"What kind of question is that?" She looked to Jeffrey for an escape; he offered none as he looked off pretending to study something on the wall. He coughed slightly.

Agent G rubbed his eyes before responding. "It's a standard question we ask because there are a noticeable percentage of transformed individuals that have changed their genders. We ask this so we can appoint a suitable councilor or support group to assist in such a fundamental change. So would you please answer the question?"

Noel looked down, fiddling with her hands nervously.

"um... Can I skip that for now? It's just..." She looked up at Agent G's face for something, anything that would let her know she wouldn't have to answer. Answering Agent G's questions was like seeing a doctor, and with Jeff there, it felt like a stranger was watching your physical. Thankfully Agent G got her plea and moved on.

“We’ll return to that later. There are some things I'd like to ask you about your encounter that I'm afraid Mr. Donolds will have to sit out for."

Noel sighed in relief and relaxed a little..

"I’ll also need you to tell me where you currently reside. This is just so we can update your identification papers so you won't be considered an illegal alien by law. And you won't have to start over from scratch with your academic achievements."

"Okay, I live up in Canada in a town.."

Agent G cut her off, "Wait, your saying that you’re a Canadian citizen?" Agent G drops his pen and reached for the phone. "Shit, I hate talking to CSIS!" He dialed and pushed a button on his desk and started talking before the video cut out and was replaced by the word 'mute'.

"What's going on?" Noel asked, turning to Jeff.

"Jurisdiction," he replied.

--------------

Meanwhile at Tonaon Industrials Headquarters Mr. Tonaon was again called down to Mike's computer lab, this time, in a far better mood.

"So, how are we progressing Mike?"

His tone implied he was at ease, but Mike knew better and got to the point rather than begin with chit chat.

"I've sent two teams to the location, a science team and a security team. I have a transport driver standing by in case we can take whatever caused the phenomenon. He's been told that he's going to be transporting defective equipment. And so far, the science team hasn't found anything that caused it."

"So it's been moved," Tonaon said bluntly, impatience creeping back in his voice.

"Well the evidence certainly suggests that. It could be that whoever made this device decided to test it outside first then move it back after maybe?"

Tonaon gave Mike an impatient glare.

"But we have people on the ground and the satellite is fully dedicated to searching now. I've told the researchers that were using it that we had to take it offline because we believe there's a possible flaw in the software. I'm using the anomaly yesterday as the reason," said Mike, sweat beading down his back. He was sure that Mr. Tonaon would fire him for wasting his time.

Tonaon stared at the information on the screens for a moment then turned to leave. Before closing the door he said, "Keep me apprised Mike." And then he was gone.

Mike didn't realize he was holding his breath until he let out a long shuddering hiss. Mike wiped his face with his coat sleeve thankful he dodged a bullet. He'll get to keep his job awhile yet and if he played his cards right, he might get a promotion. Or at least a considerable pay raise.

end chapter 2