Disclaimer: If you\'ve read this far, you know how this works. If you\'re jumping in the middle, go back and start over--there\'s lot of potential lawsuit material that lawyers wouldn\'t make a dime on.
Ikimashou!
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Chapter 8: What Alice Said
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Annette wasn\'t exactly sure what was going on, but she felt herself moving. She wasn\'t walking; she knew that, as she was laying flat on something relatively soft. Her eyes were closed, but even through her eyelids she saw lights pass above her, so she surmised she was being taken somewhere. If that was the case, then maybe she still was alive. She started to take a mental inventory of herself and her well-being: Breathing was fine; there was no pain; her ears were picking up faint sounds, yet she wasn\'t able to discern them.
Soon the lights stopped passing over her head, and Annette was curious to see to where she had been taken. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw the high ceiling of a room; the walls were white on three sides, but she wasn\'t sure about the fourth. Suddenly a face came into view, and everything else seemed infinitely unimportant.
“Nnnn...Na...ya...Naya...”
Annette saw tears coming from the face of the white-haired girl, and she wanted to wipe them with her hand. It took awhile for her to remember how to do it, though.
“Shhh...just relax for awhile,” Naya said softly, trying hard to keep the absolute shock from showing in her voice. “Look at you! You don\'t have a scratch on you!” She fought the urge to give the blonde a bone-crushing hug, opting instead to pick up one of her hands and cradle it in her own.
Annette felt her hand being raised, and continued lifting it upwards, moving the bang from Naya\'s face and wiping the tear from her black-skinned eye. “Stop. I\'m...fine.”
“I\'ll say you are!” Naya looked her companion over, and stared at the ceiling. “What have you people done to her?” When no answer came, she just became more irate. “I know you\'re up there, Tesla!! Answer me! What did you do?”
“Naya...stop.” Annette tried to take her hand away, but Naya held it firmly, fearing it would be taken away. “I\'m...fine. Glad to...see you too.” She raised her hand a bit more, and this time Naya let her. She extended her arm and tried to put it around the other woman\'s neck. “Missed you. What happened?”
Naya put her head on the reporter\'s shoulder. “We crashed, Annette. It was terrible. I thought...I lost you. They told me you were very badly hurt, but...”
“I was, but...I remember laughing...and being with you. I was with you, and I was very happy.” Naya backed away from Annette\'s shoulder so she could see the blonde\'s face ease into a smile. “I don\'t know what happened next, but I was with you.”
“I can\'t give you all the gory details, Annette, but we crashed...terribly.” Naya saw the smile slide from the reporter\'s face, and it felt like a solar eclipse. “When I woke up, I was in this room, and I was told you were in surgery. I don\'t know how it happened, or what they\'ve done to you, but I\'m so happy you\'re still alive after that!”
Annette\'s face twisted into a question. “I was hurt, but I\'m not hurt now. I feel...different. My body feels...funny.” She removed put her arm down, and tried to remember how to sit up in the gurney. “My arms work, but...they won\'t listen.”
Naya\'s eyes widened. She had uttered a very similar sentence to herself lifetimes ago; the first time she changed from cat to human. The thought that people like Tesla might have done something to her friend re-energized Naya\'s anger. “Damn it, Tesla! I know you\'re listening! What have you done??”
“Why all the yelling, Naya?” Tesla\'s stoic voice asked through the speakers. “I thought you\'d be happy to see your friend again...especially considering her condition.”
“Answer me! What have you done to her??”
“We haven\'t done anyhting to her...not today, anyway. We were just as puzzled as you were about her...recovery. We were hoping she would tell you something about that.”
“Don\'t lie to me, damn you!” Naya was fuming, and in need of something to punch. “Get down here and face me this instant!!”
“I\'m sorry, Naya, that request won\'t be fulfilled,” Tesla said, his voice not wavering at all. “I am looking into her past, and as soon as I find something...well, I\'ll tell you what you need to know. Unless, of course, she can tell us something.”
Annette grabbed Naya\'s hand to get her attention. “I don\'t know anything. But please, stop fighting. Let\'s talk, okay?”
“You would do well to listen to her, Naya. Besides, the more she talks to you, the longer you can stay with her. That sounds like a good deal, doesn\'t it?”
Naya felt Annette tug her arm, and look to see the blonde\'s smile had returned. “Okay, then. We\'ll talk.” She then turned her attention back to the ceiling. “Would you mind giving us some privacy...better yet, can you get us out of here?”
“Sorry,” Tesla said. “You\'re too dangerous. I\'ll stop monitoring you for now, as something else needs my attention. You aren\'t the only thing I\'m keeping my eye on, you know.”
Naya wanted to say something, but waited for Tesla to continue. When the speakers remained silent for ove a minute, she looked back to Annette, who was still smiling.
“Thank you, Naya.”
“For what?”
“For caring so much about me. It might sound stupid, but maybe I\'m alive because of you...because you care.”
Naya put her head down, avoiding eye contact with the reporter. “That\'s...that\'s the dumbest thing I\'ve heard in a long time.”
What a stupid thing to say! I\'m the reason you\'re in here in the first place! You could have been killed...maybe you were killed! And yet, you have the audacity to thank me for caring for you? I nearly cost you your life!! That makes absolutely no sense at all! You should be hating me...at the very least, not wanting to talk to me. Maybe you lost a piece of your brain in that crash, and can\'t remember why we were there in the first place. Or maybe you\'re just plain insane! Either way...I\'m...
“I\'m sorry.” Naya put her head on Annette\'s stomach, facing away form her, and cried.
“No, Naya...I know what you\'re thinking, and you\'re wrong.” Annette concentrated, and both her hands found their way to Naya\'s head. She began to rub the other woman\'s head with one hand, while holding it steady with the other. “I chose to come, and I wanted to help you. It\'s not your fault.”
“But I called you. I knew it was dangerous, and I should have told you to go away...to save yourself from getting involved any further.”
Annette\'s face broke into a wide grin. “Not happening.” She wanted to tap Naya on the head, and was happy that her hand complied. “I will never leave you behind, just as you didn\'t leave me. Don\'t make me get the stun gun.”
Naya couldn\'t help but laugh at that, though tears were still falling from her eyes. “I was right about you...you are insane. That\'s why I love you.” She felt Annette tap her head again.
“I\'m glad I\'m still alive to hear you say that, Naya...and to say that I love you, too.”
“I really have to stop thinking to myself out loud,” Naya thought to herself out loud.
- - - - -
Cortez stared at the images on his laptop. There were quite a few windows opened, but two had the bulk of his attention. The first was a live video feed of an office that seemed to be completely disassembled. A young man in a black military unifom sat in front of the camera.
“We\'ve turned the place upside down and sideways, and went through every piece of data both printed and digital. Whatever information they might have exchanged, there\'s no trace of it here, sir.”
“What about the editor?” Cortez fired back. “Where is he?”
“We\'re interrogating him downstairs, but he\'s not talking...other than to ramble about the First Amendment and the Freedom of Information Act.”
“I hate those types,” the sergeant said with a sigh. “I hate the ones who actually mean it even more. Find something to use against him—infidelity, immigration, drugs, whatever...just get him to talk!”
“Will do, sir. Raptor Unit, out!”
Running his hand through his slick, black hair, Cortez now turned his attention to the second-largest window on his screen; a .pdf file which contained information on Annette Stanhope.
“Thanks for the information, Constanza...but you didn\'t have to physically bring it to me. This is the twenty-first century, after all..we do have technology in place to do such tasks.” Cortez stared at the strikingly cool brunette sitting beside him. “Don\'t get me wrong; It\'s not that I\'m not enjoying your presence, it\'s just that you didn\'t have to come all the way out here yourself.”
“For this,” she said, staring at the photo of Annette, “I did have to come here personally. There are things I have found that I must share with you directly...out of earshot of my subordinates.”
Cortez\' smile seemed to irritate the woman, yet he didn\'t hesitate to flash it at every opportunity. “So, to what do I owe the honor of your accompaniment this evening?”
“This.” Constanza clicked on a section of the file, and up came a close-up view of the “birth name” section, which was blank. “This.” She clicked on a second section, marked “date of birth”; it too was blank. “And this.” She moved to the “place of birth” field, but this was not blank; instead, it read, “Plum Island, NY”.
Cortez\' eyes narrowed at that close-up. “Tell me you\'re kidding.”
“I wish I could, sir, but I\'m not. This birth certificate is authentic; it hasn\'t been altered or copied in any way. What makes that more suspicious is that, while not having a given name on a certificate isn\'t unusual in the least, to have all that information missing is certainly unusual...add the fact that she was allegedly born on Plum Island—a place without a normal hospital, and piles of conspiracy theories—and you have quite the puzzle, sir.”
“What\'s more interesting is the fact that, as we speak, she\'s not far from there...in Camp Hero.” Cortez laughed, catching the brunette by surprise. “What it is that Alice says? Oh yes...curiouser and curiouser.” He turned to Constanza and flashed yet another smile. “Thank you for sharing this information. You were indeed correct in delivering it yourself. Make sure to keep this to yourself, as I have a feeling we\'ll be delving a little more into the past of Miss Stanhope...or whatever her name really is.”
Constanza mentally kicked herself; that wasn\'t exactly the news she wanted to hear.
- - - - -
The Armbrister house was quite noisy this evening, very unlike the quiet nights Ed and his wife Elena normally spent apart, and the twin daughters spent in their shared dorm room. No, tonight was a night of celebration; the family that usually spent so much time apart would soon be on their way to Alaska, all expenses paid. Most of the noise was Jane whooping at the top of her lungs, as she loved the breath-taking beauty the large state had to offer. Jenna was excited about the opportunity to do some downhill skiing, though she was much less vocal about it. For Elena, it was a chance to re-connect with her parents who moved there from Minnesota after the Armbristers got married.
Ed had an entirely different reason for the impromptu getaway, and its name was Cortez. The two men had been bitter rivals long before they ended up working for The Zoo; the fact that their paths crossed again was almost karmic. In order to protect his family, Capt. Armbrister would go to the ends of the earth—or at least, the end of the North American continent.
As the Armbristers prepared for their upcoming trip, a sulking Constanza left a black SUV, slamming the door shut as she left. Inside, Cortez ignored the woman\'s mild tantrum, preferring to stare at the image of Annette on his computer screen.
- - - - -
Annette finally had a chance to take a good look at her surroundings—such as they were—as Naya raised the head of the gurney at an angle. Her head was a lot clearer, not that she had a chance to nap for a bit. “Were are we? I\'m guessing wherever it is, it isn\'t good.”
“Camp Hero, Long Island.” Naya came up from behind the gurney in her cat form, jumped upon the bed and sat next to the reporter. “You\'ve probably heard of it...then again, you probably haven\'t.”
“No,” Annette said, scratching her head and smiling inwardly at the fact that her muscle reactions seemed back to normal. “I haven\'t really been to Long Island all that much, so other than maybe Nassau and Suffolk, that\'s all I really know about it.”
The cat looked at Annette sideways. “Are you sure about that?”
“Pretty much. Like I said, I really didn\'t have a reason to be out here. The paper doesn\'t cover Long Island—they leave that to the Tribune or Newsday—and we cover the Islanders hockey games by way of the Internet, so nobody goes to the Coliseum.”
“Well, they seem to be very excited about having you here...especially after the crash.” Naya looked at the ceiling.
“Yeah, I been getting that vibe from them.” Annette stretched her arms upwards and looked down at herself. “Naya...is it just me, or have I lost weight?”
The cat grinned. “I was going to mention that, but I didn\'t want it to seem like you weren\'t attractive before.” She waited to see if that comment warranted a swipe from her companion, and was happy that none followed. “It could be that, considering your mode of recovery, your body metabolized the excess fat and left you in better physical condition.”
Annette thought for a moment, then laughed. “Could you imagine if I broke this story? \'Crash Diet guarantees instant weight loss!\' The lawsuits alone would be insane!”
Naya lifted a paw and padded one of the reporter\'s breasts. “Then again...I think the metabolism train skipped a couple stops...looks like you actually gained a cup size!” She moved the paw to cover her face. “Oh, woe we of little boobs! I art jealous of thy bountiful bosom!”
“Will you knock it off, already!” The blonde brought her knees up to cover herself, although the sheet was doing a pretty good job on its own. “When are we going to get out of here? Better yet, how?”
Naya moved to the foot of the gurney. “As to the first part of your question, I\'m not sure. It looks like they\'re waiting on the results of tests they\'ve done on you before they decide what to do next. As to the second part, I don\'t think that\'s possible.”
Annette sighed dejectedly. “Well, at least we\'re together; that\'s what matters most.”
“Awww...what beautiful sentiments.” The voice that usually came from the speakers now came from the front of the room. “It\'s a good thing we don\'t leave you two in total darkness, or we\'d have to put a ratings warning on the security cameras.”
Naya saw the man\'s face and nearly fell off the gurney in shock. For someone who was supposed to be over 120 years old, Nikolai Tesla looked almost flash-frozen fresh. “That\'s impossible!”
“In a way,” the man said smugly. “I am Peter Tesla, the son of Nikolai. Yes, the resemblence is uncanny; even I have to admit that I am indeed my father\'s son...albeit without the idiosyncracies dear old Dad had.”
“But you don\'t look a day over 20! Even if, as the rumors state, he traveled through time, you\'d still be well over 40 or so. Unless...”
“...I was a clone or some other experiment? Is that how you wished to finish your sentence, dear cat?” Peter walked closer to the glass opening, coming almost in contact with it. “No, not a clone nor an experiment, I assure you. I am his son, armed with his knowledge and a wealth of advanced technology even he could never dream of.”
Annette had a hard time grasping all of this. “Wait...Nikolai Tesla? The electromagnetic genius? The guy who invented that crazy Frankenstein thingy with the lightning and the supposed \'death ray\'? You can\'t be his son..you\'re way too young!”
Peter found it hard to contain his laughter. “That \'Frankenstein thingy\'! My father would\'ve loved to hear you call it that! Probably would have invented something to disintergrate your head!” He composed himself, then began again. “For your benefit, Miss Stanhope, let\'s just say I have found a way to unlock the mystery to cell aging and death. It\'s all a matter of electrical charges, you know. Rather than fry what gray matter you do have, I\'ll just say I have had this appearance for nearly 40 years now.”
“You would make a lot of women happy,” the reporter said, shaking behind her smile. “So, why become a mad scientist instead? Someone stand you up at the Evil Genius High School Prom back in the day and you want to get revenge?”
“Science is my love,” Peter said firmly. “I love things that interest me. Right now, you interest me a great deal, Miss Stanhope. What you\'ve done has my mind reeling—quite a difficult thing to do, I assure you. Miss Attaturk there tried working on resurrection technique, and I must admit, she came pretty close to duplicating her own natural ability. We succeeded where she failed in a way; we can trick the mind into regenerating body parts efficiently.” He stepped away from the glass, then threw his arms wide, “But you...I would venture to get I can put you in a blender, and you would simply reassemble yourself!” He took out a notepad and scribbled something, then put the pad back in his pocket. “Yes, maybe we should try it! That, I would love to see!”
Naya cursed herself for being in her feline form. Even if she couldn\'t get through the reinforced plexiglass, she could have at least put up a stronger face. She put up as defensive a stance as she could; back arched, ears back and fur standing on end. “You\'ll do no such thing!”
“And you\'ll stop me...how?” Peter laughed and exited the room without saying another word.
“Is...is that what happened to me? Is that how I\'m still alive?”
Naya turned to see Annette examining her hands. She tried to step forward, but stopped when the blonde\'s confused eyes met hers.
“Did you do...something...to me?”
“No, Annette...I wouldn\'t, I couldn\'t!”
“But he said you were working on something...and I, I wasn\'t like this before...” The reporter didn\'t know what to do with herself, so she instinctively curled up, putting the sheet over her head. That move threw Naya off the bed. The force of the tug surprised the cat, who managed to turn her body just in time to avoid slamming her back into one of the walls.
After rebounding to the floor, she got her bearings and then sat under the head of the gurney. “I wouldn\'t do anything to hurt you, Annette...you should know that by now. I couldn\'t even if I wanted to—I\'ve spent almost all the time with you, running away from people. Trust me, I don\'t have my own secret lab...anymore.” She whispered that last word, noting how the Chimera and the good folks from the power plant must have gone through every inch of her former home/lair at Gear Works.
“But...I don\'t understand, Naya,” Annette whimpered, sounding like a little girl. “When did this happen?”
Naya thought for awhile, when a question came to her. “Did you ever get hurt before?”
“No...why?”
“Not at all? Not a cut or a bruise...anything?”
“Well...the stun gun hurt,” Annette giggled at that. “But otherwise, no...”
This made Naya very wary about what to ask next. “Annette...did you ever have a cold before?”
The blonde lifted her head from under the sheet. “Now that you mention it, no. Not even a runny nose. I\'ve never even been vaccinated...at least, I don\'t remember having them.”
Naya wasn\'t liking the sound of this. “You\'re not adopted, are you?”
“Why, yes! My parents were very nice people, but when I turned 10, they told me I was adopted. It didn\'t matter to me, as I loved them and they loved me very much.”
“Do you know who your real parents were? Or where you were born?”
Annette sighed. “No...all I know is that I was raised in Brooklyn, and that I was born in 1985. Since we didn\'t know what my birthday was, my parents chose February 14th, the day I came to them.”
“A Valentine\'s Day gift...a gift of love.” Naya shook her head. “How ironic.”
The reporter was beginning to pick up the same vibe her friend had, and it wasn\'t a good one. “Naya...are you thinking that these people have something to do with my real parents...or that I\'ve been here before?”
“I can\'t be sure, but yeah...it\'s starting to look that way.” She walked out from under the bed, gathered her pajamas, and transformed into her human form. “I can\'t seem to explain it any other way...unless you\'re an alien from another planet.” Naya donned the clothing, and then took a seat at the foot of the gurney. “I seem to remember someone else being in your position. He was adopted by kind parents, just like you...oh, and he\'s a reporter, too! Maybe I should get some kryptonite and see how you react to it...”
“This isn\'t the time for humor, Naya...” Annette tried her best to make that sentence sound serious, but she smiled when she said it.
“If this isn\'t the right time, then when is it?” Naya patted the other girls feet. “Don\'t worry. We\'ll get to the bottom of this somehow. For now, we have to get out of here before they decide what experiment they want to do first on you.”
“Maybe I should just use my super-strength and punch a hole through that glass.” The petite blonde flexed her now-slemder arms. “Though I\'m not packing as much \'oomph\' as I used to.”
Naya gave her companion a curious look. “Can you?”
“Can I...what?”
“Can you punch a hole through that plexiglass?”
It had been quite awhile since Naya heard Annette laugh as much as she did. Not the maniacal laughter she had while driving the SUV to its tragic doom; a hearty fun-filled laugh.
“I think you\'ve transformed one time too many, and you brain is still cat-sized!”
Naya wasn\'t laughing, though. She left the gurney and walked over to the glass, examining the edges where it sank into the surrounding wall. She then followed the wall all the way around the room, coming back to the same spot. She had wondered how the door opened in the first place, and lifted the bang over her right eye—her cat\'s eye—to get a better look at the glass. She noted that there was a thin seam in the center. It was angled in such a way that, unless you caught that angle in the right light, it was invisible to the naked eye...the naked human eye.
“I\'m pretty strong,” she said to Annette, “but I think this would take quite a blow to break. Care to give it a try?”
The blonde\'s laughter subsided when she saw Naya examining the glass. “You can\'t be...you\'re serious, aren\'t you?”
“Why not?” Naya said matter-of-factly. “Come over here, give it a good hard whack right here,” she pointed to the invisible seam, “and we\'ll be free!”
Annette gathered the sheet around her and slid off of the gurney, her balance taking some time to kick in. “I can\'t even stand, and you want me to punch a hole through that? Are you nuts?”
“I\'m serious, Annette.” The taller woman came over and put her arms under the shorter reporter, supporting her. “First, walk around a bit to establish your equilibrium. Once you do that, the rest should be easy.”
“For you, maybe—hey, watch your hands!--maybe you think it\'s easy for me to simply punch a hole through bulletproof glass, but I seriously think you have some screws loose. I mean, look at that! You\'re stronger than I am...if you can\'t punch it, what chance do I have? I just break my hand!”
“It\'ll just fix itself anyway,” Naya chided. “Come on...humor me.” She let the blonde go and watched as the other woman cautiously stepped to the glass.
“It\'s gonna hurt, isn\'t it?”
“I\'m guessing no...I\'m also guessing the one thing you can\'t tolerate is--” Naya looked up at the ceiling, then put her hands to Annette\'s ear. “Forgot they were listening. You\'re kryptonite seems to be electricity. Remember how you reacted when I stunned you?”
Annette\'s eyes widened. “You\'re right!”
And if that\'s true, then it all makes perfect sense, Naya thought. “So, have at it!”
“Where am I supposed to hit it again?”
“Right here.” Naya pointed to the spot, then stood about an arms length behind Annette. She took a quick look at the ceiling, and made a silent wish.
- - - - -
“This should be interesting,” Peter Tesla said from his observation room. A pile of test results sat to his left, the most interesting of these being the blood tests. “High electrolyte counts and an unusual amount of carbon-oxygen bonds. I wonder how that will manifest itself in you...excessive strength is plausible.” He pushed a button on a console next to the computer monitor. “Send a few guards to the holding cell...and equip then with tazers set to maximum. If they manage to get out of that room—and that\'s a very slim possibility—I want to be prepared to put them back in. Understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
- - - - -
Annette looked at the point on the glass and took a deep breath. “Okay. I\'m guessing I should give it all I got, right?”
“Of course...unless you think you can take it out with a love tap,” Naya said with a grin.
“Alright then...here goes...one...”
As the blonde cocked her fist back, the door to the room opened and guards poured in, tazers at the ready.
“...two...”
Naya caught sight of the guards and smiled.
“...threeeyaaaaaaaah!!!”
Just as Annette threw her fist. Naya grabbed Annette\'s other arm and flung her in the opposite direction, taking her into—and through—the rear wall, resulting in a pretty large hole that led into a corridor behind the cell.
“Ha! I was right!” Naya then dragged the gurney behind her and wedged it in the wall, hoping it would stall anyone who tried to come behind her. She then turned her attention to the other woman, who lay in a pile of rubble. “See? You could do it!”
“What the hell!!” Annette got up briskly from the floor, pieces of concrete falling off of her as she stood. “You just threw me through a friggin\' wall!”
“No, you broke the wall—I just gave you some added momentum.” Naya smiled and dusted off her seething companion.
“And how, pray tell, did you know you weren\'t throwing me into a wall of solid rock?”
“Because the room had sliding drawers...they had to come from somewhere, meaning there had to be rooms around the cell, and most likely, a pathway to get to those rooms. Glad to see my assumption was right!”
Annette looked over the white-haired woman\'s shoulders and saw the guards entering the cell. “Remind me to kill you later—a few times!--right now we have to get out of here!” The two women ran down the corridor, as the guards fumbled with the gurney.
- - - - -
Peter watched the events unfold with a surprised grin. “Wasn\'t expecting that! I wonder what else she can do!” He left the console and walked to an elevator. “I had better get to my room. I doubt they know where it is, but it would be had if they found what I have there.”
- - - - -
The corridor led to an underground road which led in two directions; the east road led to the hangar, while the west road led back to the \'staging area\'. The signs marking the destinations were digitally displayed. “I wonder if that\'s so they can re-configure the place at a moment\'s notice.” Naya said as she stood at the intersection.
Annette was already ahead of her companion, trying to figure out where to go next. She was surprised that, considering all the running she had just done, she wasn\'t out of breath at all. “This does have its advantages,” she said with a smile. She then turned to Naya. “So, where to now?”
“I guess that depends on you,” the other woman said. “Do you want to risk being caught again and see if we can find more information, or do you want to leave and fight them on the outside?”
After a second of thought, Annette took off towards the east. “I really don\'t want to be here, Naya!”
“Good enough for me!” Naya ran behind the reporter, then stopped short. “Annette, stop!!”
The blonde did so, then turned and rejoined Naya. “What\'s wrong?”
“Considering we just broke out of a supposedly inescapable holding cell, and the fact that this is a secret base with an untold number of military personnel, don\'t you find it odd that there are no alarms sounding? Or that the guards have stopped chasing us?”
Annette listened to the silence around then, and nodded. “You\'re right...it\'s almost like they want us to escape, or at least try to.”
“They\'ve been watching us in the cell, and I\'m thinking they\'re watching us now. We\'ve become lab rats in their maze, and they want to see how we get out of the trap.”
“Then maybe we shouldn\'t...” Annette ran towards the western end of the underground road, with Naya following her. “If we can find out what Tesla\'s up to, maybe we can shut this place down.” And maybe get to the truth about where I\'m from, she thought to herself.
“Spoken like a superhero, Miss Muscles!”
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End of Chapter 8
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