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Our Paranormal Chernobyl
Scene 39: Before the Big Ball
Tuesday, 4:40 pm, Outside the Schoolhouse

Three figures stepped into the afternoon light. Maggie recognized Ed and Stranger. The woman next to them had to be Acting Silver Avenger Pender.

"Our two signals would have to be Theo August and that woman they found, then," Maggie said. "Not terribly useful information, and we still have this stone creature unaccounted for… unless it’s a construct of some sort, or the woman inside was inside a shell. Or it could be unrelated."

Maggie took a quick stock of the volume of debris, trying to figure out what size the creature would originally be. It was hard to tell, considering so much of the stone creature was mixed in with the pavement. But on first glance the material would make up a creature shorter than herself.

Maggie, helmet under her arm, approached the incoming trio.

The lone woman of the three only briefly looked over curiously at Maggie and Goo, then made a bee-line for the Agent Jardine; the two immediately fell into conversation.

Ed waited to hear what Maggie had to say, hoping that whatever it was, it would be short. He wanted out of this place before somebody noticed that he was carrying a piece of the leper. They’d probably make him give it back.

That and Theo needed food.

For his part, Stranger did a double take when he fully realized who she was. He had only seen her face from a distance before. Up close he could see her for the woman she was.

It disturbed him that he had hit such a beautiful creature. Though he had not picked the fight, he had had a chance to run and didn’t. He remembered the rage that he felt when Q-Ball and Maggie teamed up against him in the sewers. When he finally did run he had hoped that Maggie would come after him so he could teach her a lesson. He would have ripped the armor from he body if she had followed him. The same had held true for Q-Ball. He had fought most of his life against the doctors and counselors who tried to "help" him, ever secure in the knowledge that their only goal was their own self aggrandizement. He always knew that somewhere in his mind amidst the chaos and destruction there burned the flame of reason. Though obscured by his consciousness, he knew that his inner mind was sound. That simple belief had been his anchor against the years of treatment he had endured.

On this very morning all of the chaos of his past life had been swept clean. After all of the years roaming the wastelands of his own insanity, fate had cleared the way. He had come to know an inner calm that he’d never experienced before. He had always known that it was somewhere inside, just waiting for a chance to shine. So it was that Theo August’s death had been the catalyst for his freedom. And deep in the recesses of Stranger’s mind, Theo’s funeral pyre burned bright, lit by the flame of his sanity.

But now his own self doubt was making that flame flutter. He had been wrong about the Q-Ball, and now that he could see the face of the woman he had struck it made him sick to think that his scarred hands had touched her. The violence he had caused was severe, and could have easily killed her. Perhaps the doctors had been right. Only the basest of souls would have tried to crush a flower like Maggie. He didn’t want her to see him. To those eyes he must have seemed just as horrible the monster he had defeated. He wanted to look away in shame and embarrassment. Although hunger clawed at him, at that moment he could not have eaten a morsel to save his life. His legs began to feel weak, and he could hear a chain saw scraping against the insides of his head. He took a deep breath and was about to speak when out of the corner of his eye he could see something move in the building. The eyes of the rat were on him. The rat had warned him of this weakness. It reminded him to not tip his hand. Grudgingly, Stranger put on the old face that had fooled a hundred doctors before and quietly slipped into a dark place.

"Hey lady," Stranger said to Maggie in a most peculiar tone. "No hard feelings huh?"

Maggie rubbed her chin and glared at him for a few moments before answering. How far can I trust him? He was rather irrational down in the sewers, but maybe he’s had time to think on it. And Ed says he saved their lives, so I guess I should cut him some slack. And he almost sounds like he feels… guilty?

"Seeing as you’re working with us now, thankfully, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones for the time being", she said. Her expression softened a bit. "I still think you need help, though, with the tracking pellet if nothing else. I hope you’ll let us help you." Then she frowned again and clenched her free hand. "But if you hit me again, I swear…"

"Lady, I promise I will never hit you again if you don’t hit me," Stranger said with relief.

Goo muttered softly to itself. "Hi-i-i-it Ma-a-aggie?"

The man in the mask would have to be watched.

"As far as the pellets go," Stranger continued. "I think I turned them off. I got a full-power MRI this morning at Cook County General. If you have a way to check to see if the pellets are still working, then please do it. But I won’t let you examine me."

Well, that’s kind of stupid, Ed thought. If I had some sort of pellet thingie in me, I’d want the fucker out yesterday. And I wonder why they hit each other?

He could feel Maggie’s puzzlement, laced with a touch of concern, but from Theo August? Zip. Zilch. Nada.

"Dude, if you’ve got those thingies in you, it might not hurt to let them take a look, ya know? I don’t know what an MRI is, but unless you got pumped with a million volts or something, you probably should let her take a look at you. It’s not like you can’t just get up and leave if you don’t like what they’re doing," he said, pointing at the big man’s chest.

"I’m really fuckin’ serious about this," Stranger said. "No one is going to examine me. I’ve been poked and prodded my whole life, and now I’m done with all of it. If it puts my life in danger, so be it, but there’s now way that I am gonna let anyone touch me. Call me chicken if you want. Look," he said to Maggie. "We’ve been over this before and I think you know how I feel about it, so let’s drop it."

Ed took a step back from Theo August, his shields flaring along with his fear. "Ok, all right man. Whatever. No need to get pissed about it," he said, flushing.

Yeah, he saved my ass, and Pender’s too, but Jesus Christ… he’s like a bomb. And what happens when those things in the exercise yard find a way back into that tower? Theo goes nutzo, is what happens.

Ed made a little note to keep far away from August. Very far.

Edward! If that man needs you, don’t you be hidin’ from him. That ain’t right, after what he done for you, Gram’s admonishment snapped at him. Ed frowned. He really needed to figure out what the hell was up with him hearing her yelling at him all the time. Maybe he was as nuts as August.

Pender finished with Jardine and walked back to the group. The PRIMUS pilot would continue to stand watch over the pieces of the Jigsaw, and be ready to fly Pender out of there if they needed to scramble quickly.

"Dr. Thorin," Pender said. She’d only caught the tail end of whatever "talk" Maggie, Stranger, and Ed had been having, but she had to wonder what she hadn’t heard about the young scientist that made her think she could take on Stranger. "Acting Silver Avenger Laura Pender."

"Just Maggie, please," Maggie replied. "I’m not a doctor."

Stranger looked from Ed to Maggie to Pender. "Uh, what do those pellet things do, anyway?"

"They track you, is what they do," Ed said. "Least that’s what Red said they do."

He rubbed the back of his neck, eyes narrowed in concentration. "Or at least one of ‘em does, and the other one’s what changed you. I think. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the science stuff."

Stranger nodded. "I thought they did something like that. That’s why I used the MRI. It’s basically a very powerful magnet that is used make a kinda map of your insides. I was hoping that it would be powerful enough to zap whatever electronics were in the pellets."

You did? Maggie thought. Interesting. Quietly she took the tracker from DuChamp’s hands and began watching for the pings to see if Stranger’s treatment had worked. Not that she was going to tell him if it hadn’t; August was being finicky again, and they might end up needing to track him, and besides it’s not like she could extract the thing if he insisted on stupidity. And if it has worked… then there’s a pellet unaccounted for.

"Ye-ea-eah. Tra-a-acking pellet," Goo agreed, wondering who these people were. One of them was probably Ed, the telepath Maggie had referred to earlier.

Which gave Goo a sudden thought.

"Oo! Oo!" Goo exclaimed. "Ed? Which Ed?"

"That’s me, pudding pop," Ed said, wondering at just what part of the thing in front of him he was supposed to be looking at when he talked to it. Like with Theo, he could get no emotional read from the thing at all. There was mental activity there, but it was more like a weather system than any kind of organized structure.

"Ide-e-ea!" the thing said. "Good ide-e-ea. Find pla-a-a-stic. Goo-oo-oo-ood."

Goo turned to look at the news van, then back at the assembled group.

"Some place e-e-else? Private? Tell ide-e-ea?"

"Later, Goo," Maggie promised quietly, gaze moving from August to the machine she held. There were two pings, a few seconds apart, as Heckle and Q-Ball had reported. One was faint, which had to be the one that Q-Ball had said was coming from inside the building. And the second ping was very strong. At first she was sure that it was coming from Stranger, but when she shifted her orientation away from the man, the signal strengthened slightly.

She looked up. It was coming from Ed.

Ed, oblivious to Maggie’s sudden attention, looked at Pender, wondering what she’d say to the pudding pop.

"EXCUSE ME," blared an electronic voice from the hovering sphere. "MAY I OFFER AN ELECTRONICALLY SECURE, AND CONVENIENTLY MOBILE MEETING ROOM? I BELIEVE I CAN OFFER SOME PERTINENT INFORMATION AS WELL, AND THAT MIGHT BE BETTER PRESENTED IN PERSON."

Pender considered this for a moment. "Q-Ball, how many will your ‘meeting room’ accommodate?"

"SEATS EIGHT COMFORTABLY, THOUGH THERE’S STANDING ROOM FOR EIGHT MORE IF WE COLLAPSE THE POOL TABLE. WINKY-SMILEY. SERIOUSLY, SIXTEEN IF WE CLEAR THE DECKS AND HAVE SOME PEOPLE STAND." There was a brief pause. "SA PENDER,COULD YOU ANSWER YOUR PHONE?"

But her phone wasn’t—then she felt the vibration.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Ed tossed out. "And what is he talking about?"

He figured that it had something to do with that huge ball, which he’d thought was connected to Pender’s goon squad.

Guess not.

He felt a spike of interest focused in his direction, and found Maggie looking at him in an interested manner.

"What?" he asked her.

"Did you pick up a pellet by any chance?" Maggie asked.

"A what?" he said. "A pellet? You mean like what’s inside Theo? No. I just got here this morning, and I ain’t run into Barbie and Ken. Least not that I remember."

He rubbed at his nose, feeling the weight of the shell of the leper under his arm.

He looked down at it.

"Maybe it’s in this thing?" he offered, as the chunk of material silently moved out from under his arm and floated in the air before him.

"But you can’t have it. You can look at it, even pull a pellet out of it if it’s got one inside, but I’m burying the fucker so deep that one day it’s gonna fall out of Satan’s ceiling and land in his dinner."

"I’ll certainly look at it," Maggie said. "There’s a pellet in it and I don’t

want you burying something if it might be toxic or dangerous." Sheesh, she thought. Is everyone going to be unreasonable?

The black material floated back down and nestled itself under Ed’s arm.

"Well when you get made Queen God of the Universe, maybe then you’ll be able to tell me what I can and can’t do. Till then, you’ll just have to get by like the rest of us," Ed replied, eyes flashing.

Yeah this chick was hot and all, but she was barely older than he was. And that crap she was wearing was freaking him out. It looked like (don’t think about what it looks like Eddie, nope) what was draped all over the floor upstairs.

"I seen what this thing came from, and I ain’t gonna let nobody take it to some government lab where they’ll just put it back together and try and make it a hitman for Uncle Sam or something. I’m sealing it in concrete and burying it. If you want a piece of it, go get your own. There’s more over there in that hole."

Oh, wow. Rabid anti-government paranoia, how very American. Maggie frowned. "I’m not the government," she pointed out. "And for all you know, burying it might be just what it needs to regenerate, or it might poison the soil or something. That’s what I want to find out. If it doesn’t, you can dig it down to China for all I care. But what the heck, we can talk about this later…"

"Like I said, get your own piece you want to test it," Ed replied stubbornly.

He knew he was being stubborn, but Science Girl was irritating him. And he didn’t really know why that was either. Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen what lay up on that second floor.

Maybe it was because she had it all, and he had nothing. Everyone was deferring to her, calling her doctor and shit. And what had she done? Hell, even this morning with Iggy, he’d been the one to figure out how to get the guy breathing, and did he get any credit for that?

No.

Got tied up though. Yup.

Couldn’t be ‘cause you always shooting your mouth off now, could it? floated Gram’s voice through his mind.

No, he shot back curtly.

"Ye-ea-ah," Goo agreed.

"Ca-a-alm. Fri-i-iends. Ma-a-agie said fri-i-iends. Be fri-i-iends.

"Meeting roo-oo-oom. Talk. Ide-ea-a. Plan.

"Pla-astic.

"Get ‘em."

Stranger looked over at Goo and shook his head. "Jesus, and I thought I had problems."

"Ain’t I seen you on a cartoon?" Ed asked the creature. "I know I have." His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out where he’d seen the jell-o-pop before.

There’d been two of 'em, and it was with some huge monkey and a guy swinging around on tree vines and hitting guys with rocks or something.

"Don’t know. So-o-orry."

Trying to lock onto the thing’s emotional state was like trying to carry eight kittens at the same time, and that was adding to Ed’s irritation. First we’ve got Theo August, big huge zero, and now this thing with its tangle of different emotions all going on at the same time.

And he could feel wisps of disgust and terror floating through the air from the building as the PRIMUS guys tried to handle what was up there.

He squinted as he looked up at the huge golf ball, wondering if they’d all fit in there, and wondering if he should even go in the first place.

Laura flipped open her phone. "SA Pender."

"It’s me," came the electronic voice—though at a much lower volume. "Agent Pender, will you want to be bringing any PRIMUS personnel aboard?"

She took a few reflexive steps away from the others. "Yes."

"Then I have to ask—how well do you know them? Do you trust them completely? You see, I have some information concerning PRIMUS, damaging information, and I don’t know who in the organization I can trust. Besides you, of course."

"Do I trust one of my PRIMUS agents more than I trust a floating white sphere? Or a talking amoeba? Or a mental patient? Yes, I do." She was indignant. "As for this ‘damaging information’ of yours, if it’s truly volatile, then I’d prefer it if only PRIMUS personnel were present."

"Say there big fella," Stranger called up to Q-Ball. "You won’t happen to have a buffet area in there? Or even a snack bar would do at this point."

"ONE MOMENT, PLEASE, STRANGER. BUT I DO HAVE SUPPLIES ONBOARD."

Pender was beginning to feel irritated, of all things. This case was chaotic enough as it was without all the extra metahuman "helpers." She returned her attention to her conversation.

"Let me adjust something," Q-Ball said over the phone. There was a pause, and the faint static on the line grew louder. "Agent Pender, the people we’re all hunting are connected to PRIMUS. I only trust you because you… well, I’m ninety-nine percent confident that you’re a straight shooter. I’m taking measures to mask our conversation, but I can’t give you the details over the air like this. As for the others, I’m going to tell them what I know, because I’m fairly sure they’re not PRIMUS agents. Also, they deserve to know, they can do something about what’s going on, and because—well, because we have a lot in common."

This last bit roused her curiosity, but she let it go for the time being. "If you have something to say about PRIMUS, I want to hear it first, then I’ll decide what gets passed on to the others. I appreciate your assistance here, Q-Ball, but I’m not about to let you spread rumors or lies about my corporation, to these people or to anyone else, unless they have direct bearing on the matter at hand." Pause. "I want your help, but I have other obligations as well. You’ll have to work with me, I’m afraid. Do you understand what I’m saying?"

"Oh, Agent Pender, you never struck me as a company woman…"

Pender blinked. "Company woman?"

A few feet away, the translucent glob gazed upward at the floating sphere.

"Ball?" Goo asked, somewhat quietly.

There was no answer, so Goo repeated. "Ball?"

"YES… GOO?"

"Tell me, Ball, but discree-ee-eet. Me-e-edia not hear this.

"Pellet. Sta-a-ationary pellet. Still there?"

After a few seconds, the big sphere tilted forward, then moved back into its original position.

Goo spoke to the assembled heroes.

"Go-o-o meeting roo-oo-oom. Okay?"

"WATCH OUT BELOW. I’M GOING TO DROP TO JUST ABOVE STREET LEVEL SO I CAN EXTEND THE BOARDING RAMP."

Back on the phone, Q-Ball said, "I’m not a PRIMUS employee, Agent Pender. I’m a vigilante! I hope you’ll come inside and hear what I have to say, though. It bears very directly on the matter at hand. And we can reminisce about Moab." And with that the line cleared of static. The ball had hung up.

She flipped the phone shut and walked to the descending sphere without hesitation, his words having confirmed her suspicions and sent a chill down her spine. "Jardine, keep an eye on things. I’m going in there."

The sphere began to lower slowly, the only sound a slight hiss. When it was ten feet from the ground, a ramp extruded from the shell, just like the one from the Day the Earth Stood Still, and a rectangular door opened at the top of the ramp. Beyond the door was a bright light.

"COME ON IN. I’M MICROWAVING SOME PIZZAS."

Stranger stepped up the ramp and walked through the door. "Let's eat!"

No way.

Ed watched as everyone blindly trooped up the ramp into the giant golf ball, and wondered how many screws they all had loose. Jesus, there could be anything in there!

"Uh, guys? Does anyone but me think this is a bad idea? Who the hell is this guy? What does he want? For all you know, he could be working for the robots!" he called out, stubbornly refusing to follow.

"Either way," Pender said with a shrug, and started up the ramp.

"Ma-a-aggie vouched," Goo stated flatly.

Nonetheless, as it ambled up the ramp Goo took care to remain between Maggie and the ship. Just in case.

Pender stopped on the ramp and turned around. "I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have a good reason, Ed," she assured him. "Nobody’s forcing anyone in there; stay here if you want."

"Fine by me," Ed replied, turning away from the ramp. This is whacked. Totally whacked. ‘Course, they do have Theo in there, and he can probably deal with just about any damn thing they run into.

It was a matter of blind faith, which Ed didn’t have at the moment. He’d used all his up dealing with Pender and her screwed up organization. For all he knew, there was some nutbag in there with another netgun. Better to rely on himself for a little while, get away from the insanity that followed these people around like a starving dog.

"I’ll call ya."

He gathered his talent close and leaped atop the closest building, still holding the piece of the leper under his arm. Thing still had a pellet in it, of course, so they’d be able to track it.

Crap.

Then again, hospitals have those thingies Theo used, and this would be a good test. See if he could fry the tracker, and then let August know if it worked.

He had a plan.

Goo saw that Ed was leaving. It struck Goo as rather strange that it saw anything in that direction, considering that Goo had its back turned toward Ed at the time.

Of course, just whether Goo still had a "back" is something that could be argued. At any rate, Goo saw Ed’s departure and didn’t like what it saw.

"Wait!" Goo yelled.

Ed turned, squinting in the late afternoon sunlight.

Goo stretched upward toward Ed. It stretched to more than 30 feet in length, but fell short of the length necessary to reach Ed on the rooftop.

With a THWACK, Goo struck the wall of the building.

And stuck.

"Hmmm," Goo hummed to itself in a thoughtful fashion.

Gripping the building at the THWACK point, Goo jumped off of the ground and contracted itself into a wad. It found itself clinging to the wall of the building, quite a distance off of the ground.

Then, with long, Slinky-like strides, Goo maneuvered itself up the wall…

SHLORT. SHLORT. SHLORT.

…until it reached the rooftop.

Stranger reached the entrance to the sphere. Inside, it looked like the set of the original Star Trek, which in his previous life Stranger had watched on the hospital’s lounge TV as much as any other program—which is to say, over and over and over again.

The room was round, as he expected, but it was more cramped than it looked from the outside. The white floor dissected the middle of the sphere, and the ceiling domed above him. There were eight high-tech looking swivel chairs arrayed around the edge of the room, facing video screens, keyboards, and in a couple cases, joysticks.

But in the center of the room, instead of Kirk’s chrome-and-vinyl lazy boy, there was a metal structure like a lifeguard’s chair, rising six feet off the deck. At the top of that was a nest of wires and levers, and a tiny chair. And on that tiny chair was a tiny man.

The pilot, wearing a helmet now, waved to Stranger. "Howdy, Stranger," he said, laughing, and the laughter echoed out of speakers that were embedded in the walls. "Sorry, I’ve been waiting to say that. There’s a cabinet to your left with some snacks. And across from you is the refrigerator and microwave—you will find some Freschetta pizzas in the freezer, and a case of Jolt cola in the fridge. I’m sorry I don’t have more—that’s a month’s supply for me. I’m kind of a light eater."

Down on the ramp, Maggie’s eyebrows shot up as she observed Goo’s "climbing."

Much faster then oozing upwards, of course, but I really wonder if he’s just losing density or if he’s really gaining mass. And where does he keep his mind? He can’t have a brain in there.

She considered flying up the building to join Goo and Ed, but recognized that the young man obviously didn’t like her much (he must have been thinking she was a cop, or too close to make a difference), so she shrugged and turned to Pender.

"We badly have to compare notes," she said to the agent. "We’ve found quite a bit of knowledge and I’m sure you have as well."

"Years’ worth," she affirmed, "and it looks like things are finally reaching critical mass."

Pender left Maggie staring up after where Goo and Ed had gone and began walking up the ramp to Q-Ball’s entrance. Stranger had already reached the top of the ramp and disappeared inside.

Then Pender’s phone vibrated.

"Make it fast," she answered.

"This is Mehldau. The EMTs have the subject on the gurney, ready to come out. They say she needs to get to a hospital, and I have to agree." There was the slightest pause. "The subject’s tongue has been cut out. And she’s in labor."

Jesus. "I want one of you in the ambulance to keep an eye on her. Tell the EMTs that she might be dangerous, pregnant and tongueless or not. Pender out."

"Hey," Goo said to Ed. "Plan. Do-o-on’t.

"Please."

"Plan?" Ed asked. "Plan what, man? Those guys are stoned if they think I’m gonna waltz into a giant UFO just ‘cause Pender and that Thorin chick think it’s okay."

He couldn’t believe he was having a conversation with a lump of Jell-O. And its emotions made his skin itch, jumping all over the damn place like they did.

"Let the pajamas figure this one out. I’ll call Pender’s office later and see if she needs anything. I got things I have to do. Things that don’t involve mangled bodies and being shot."

"Not la-a-ater. Stop pla-a-astic NOW!" Goo insisted.

"Later, more mangled. More shot.

"That you wa-a-ant?"

"I can’t believe a giant wad of gum is trying to lay a guilt trip on me," Ed said. This whole conversation was becoming way too surreal for comfort.

And just why are you explaining yourself to this thing, Eddie?

He shook his head, wishing like hell he’d never left Dallas. The crash was coming and it was hitting him hard—he’d ridden too much emotion today, and it was taking its toll on him the way it always did, making him seek shelter away from people until he could get himself centered.

Theo would get his food, or so the UFO said. And if he didn’t Ed was pretty sure he’d tear the place apart until he did.

"Not in ball, then. He-e-ere."

Goo extended an armlike pseudopod and used it to point at its head—or where its head would be if such a concept applied to Goo.

"He-e-ere! Please."

"What? Get inside you? That’s just disgusting man!" He couldn’t figure this one out. It was like talking to a smart dog. Screw it.

Look, whatever-you-are, he sent at the thing, hoping it had enough of a brain for his talent to lock onto. I’m not a super scientist or a cop or anything. I’m just a guy who’s really freaked out by what’s happened to him today, all right? I need time for myself. If I don’t get it soon, I’m gonna go crazy, capiche?

Ed paused, wondering whether Goo would or could respond. He half-expected that a reply wasn’t forthcoming, given the odd mental makeup he detected within Goo.

But, just as Ed’s annoyance was reaching a peak, thoughts traveled back to Ed.

Ed! In head!

The feeling of Goo’s thoughts was odd. It was as if Goo were expending a great deal of effort to pull each thought from its mind but that, having extracted the thought, Goo hurled it at Ed with reckless abandon.

Get 'em!

The barrage of Goo-thoughts slowed. Perhaps Goo sensed that it wasn’t making itself understood.

Help? Goo projected.

Three times? They injected you three times? Ed sent back, dark eyebrows lowering in confusion. Why? I mean, why three times?

His eyes closed, and he sank down on his haunches in front of the translucent glob. Let me look… you won’t even feel it, drifted through Goo’s mind, as Ed focused his talent for a true reading, trying to find the glob’s memories and piece them all together.

He won’t feel it, but I fucking will, he thought to himself bitterly, wondering just how much more of this he could take.

And the mental space he found himself in was… alien. Theo’s brain, while seriously fucked, at least had some structure to it: walls, ramparts, towers. Something you could grab onto and tear down if you needed to. But this…

Goo’s mind was like an ocean, and the thoughts and memories were scattered and darting like goldfish. Ed moved through the space, trying to gather them up, and it was like fishing without a net.

Well then make a fuckin’ net, he told himself. He focused his talent, concentrating on the injections, all three or six or how ever many of them there were, and extended a coppery colored mesh into the mental sea. He already had Iggy’s memories of the attack to draw on, and he could see it clearly: the Barbie and Ken robots, the big guns, the needles…

A swarm of images hit him at once. The female robot grabbing the arm of his thin coat—his thick leather jacket—no! his padded white armor—and yanking him to the ground. It was night, just after dusk, and at the same time just after midnight (yanked awake, out from the doorway), and then again just after three in the morning (telling the plastic fuckers, none of your fucking business, that’s what). He felt the shots go in her arm, no his arm, then into his shoulder (first they pulled the armor off his body, and held his face to the concrete that smelled like some zoo cage), then into his shoulder again (and shit! putting a hole right through it, his favorite leather, man) and in her shoulder (making her scream, No doctor! Me fine! Me fine!)…

Ed drew back, out of the swarm, and the thoughts drifted away from him.

"Ed?" Goo asked aloud. "What fi-i-ind?

"Third?"

"Just a second…" Ed said in a sort of dreamy tone of voice. His eyes were closed, and to Goo it looked like about ten years had dropped off the young man’s face. All the stress and tension that Ed had been under was lost in the vagaries of Goo’s mind, and it reflected in his outward appearance.

"…be out in just a second," he repeated slowly. "…still lookin'."

In an odd sort of way, the landscape of Goo’s mind (minds?) was very soothing to his battered talent. Thoughts drifted around him like balloons, with nothing really pressing, nothing really important dominating the whole.

Of all the things I thought I’d find in here, this ain’t one of em, Ed said into the mindscape, with great relief. Guy could get lost in here if he wasn’t careful.

He considered what he’d found: Three sets of memories, two male and one female. The bit about the armor was confusing. Did it mean the robots had attacked a pajama boy? Who else thought about wearing armor, ‘cept pajamas and… cops?

Oh shit.

Ed frowned as he tried to puzzle it out. There’d definitely been some sort of homeless guy angle here. And there was also the "me so horny, me love you long time" voice. So a whore, a cop, and a homeless guy? Or maybe not a cop, maybe a security guard or maybe one of those paranoid anti-government types.

He cast his talent into the landscape again, coppery filaments of ESP peeling away from him and seeking more information on one particular set of memories: Armored Guy.

With some people, memory-diving was as easy as shop-lifting: go down the right aisle, skim over the junk, and when his eyes lit up on the valuable stuff, grab it quick and walk out. But with Goo, it was like fishing, each filament another line in the water, trolling for a very particular breed of fish.

For almost thirty seconds he came up with nothing: fragments of songs, a vivid image of equations on a blackboard, the smell of motor oil sizzling on a hot exhaust… He threw it all back, casting the filaments out again and again, seeking for that one persona who’d been wearing the white armor. Each time he cast he became more desperate to find something about this man, anything.

When he finally got a bite, it hit the filament then disappeared. Ed was left with a snapshot: his white, armored arms were holding his empty helmet, gazing down at it as the vehicle he was in rumbled and roared. Below the PRIMUS logo on the helmet’s brow, in the shiny surface of the black visor, was the reflection of his face: black, straight hair, brown face, a prominent but thin nose, penetrating dark eyes.

Sweat stung his eyes as he pulled out of the mindscape and tried to focus on the real world. He was confused and tired and he wasn’t sure exactly where he needed to be. The only thing he knew was that he needed to get back to headquarters.

He shook his head as he backed away from the blob in front of him.

"But, but.. I have to…I … " he mumbled, blinking in confusion. He HAD to find out more. He had to check in! People depended on him! He had to know who he was! But, he knew who he was, didn’t he?

He was breathing heavy, soaked in sweat, head hammering, memories clambering for attention and darting away just as he tried to grasp them.

"Who the fuck am I?" he screamed, falling to his knees and beating his hands against the gravelly surface of the rooftop, not noticing that his shields had gone down. Not noticing that he was tearing the hell out of his hands.

Goo was taken aback by Ed’s behavior.

Goo could think of one thing to do: immobilize poor Ed so he’d stop messing up his hands. It threw itself on top of the young man, oozing over his arms and across his chest, surrounding him.

Unfortunately, that was it for ideas from Goo. Goo would need someone else to think of the next thing.

"Ma-a-a-aggie!" Goo yelled at the top of its—well, loudly, anyway.

Pender snapped the phone shut, relieved there was one even one thing which, for the time being, was in someone else’s hands.

Then they heard Goo’s shout. "Ma-a-a-aggie!"

Pender glanced from the rooftop to Maggie. "You want to get that?" she asked, but it wasn’t much of a question; Maggie had already started revving her flight jets, and Pender was backing up the ramp toward the sphere’s entrance.

Maggie put on her helmet and tapped the earpiece. "Keep in touch." Then the biojets’ whine grew strident and she took off.

Inside the sphere, Stranger was trying to sate his hunger with microwaved pizza, but that didn’t hold Pender’s attention for long. Neither did the astounding array of technology covering the inside of the giant golf ball. Her eyes were immediately on the miniature man who controlled it all.

"Q-Ball," she addressed him. "Or should it just be ‘Q’ now? The ‘ball’ hardly seems applicable in here."

The diminutive man laughed, in surround-sound that came from hidden speakers in the room. "Good to see you again, Agent Pender. It’s been a while."

"Four years, Harris. Some of us have been wondering where you got off to." He could tell she had a million questions, but she was playing it cool. Whether he could tell she was practically bursting at the seams was something else altogether.

Stranger stuffed the last piece of pizza into his mouth and dusted the crumbs from his hands. He felt himself beginning to calm down.

"Man, that was the best meal I’ve ever had!" he said with a sigh of relief.

He turned toward Q-Ball. "Thanks, chief. I was less then a minute away from eating my shoes. By the way, nice ride."

"You’re welcome, and thanks, I built some of it myself. If you want—oh, Agent Pender, your phone’s about to ring again. But it’s not from me."

"Stick around and I’ll turn the ringer off altogether," she quipped. Her phone was still in hand. "Pender."

"I really don’t need this right now!" Ed all but shouted at the PRIMUS guy/woman/homeless guy glob that had poured itself on top of him. How was he supposed to understand himself, if he was being slimed by something straight off Saturday morning cartoons?

"Get off me, now, or I’ll make you get off. I know you got problems, but right now I got more."

"No.

"Look hands. Hu-u-urt."

"What are you talking about?" Ed all but shouted. He craned his neck to see his hands and noticed two things:

They were bleeding.

He’d dropped the piece of the leper on the rooftop about five feet away, and he wasn’t sure when that had happened. Or why.

"Oh fuck," he swore viciously.

Ed tried to spot Pender. Maybe she could get her goon off of him.

But she’d vanished. Probably went inside the damned ball. And the chick scientist was flying straight toward. Ed gathered his talent and arrowed it towards her.

Tell Pender to get this thing off of me. It’s got some sort of PRIMUS guy mixed into it, and it’s really pissing me off!

And it was way stronger than he was, that was for sure. And its fucking head was a mess. He did NOT want to go back in there.

I’m coming, Ed, Maggie thought back. She stopped herself before she inadvertently sent anything else to Ed. It wouldn’t be good if… No, better solve this all once she was up there.

She zoomed above the pair then lightly landed a few feet away.

"Ma-a-aggie," Goo explained. "Ed. Head. Third vi-i-ictim. Ed, ju-u-ust minute.

"Hit hands. Blee-ee-eeding. Grabbed."

"Good, Goo. He might have hurt himself badly. Now he looks calmer, I think you can let go of him." It was hard not to talk down to Goo, with his clipped, telegraphic speech and almost childlike attitude, and she wasn’t sure if she succeeded.

"Hell-ooo! I’m right fucking here, for christsakes!" Ed snarled, trying like hell to push Goo off him and failing miserably. "Don’t talk about me like I’m not right in front of you."

He squinted up at the scientist chick, totally humiliated to be tied up again.

"What did Pender say? Do you know who this guy is?"

"Sorry, I haven’t had the time to ask," Maggie said. "I came here as fast as I could."

"Well, don’t you have one of those walkie-talkies in that nasty looking thing you’re wearing?" he asked, his voice sounding just a trifle strained as he struggled at pushing Goo off.

But Goo was more concerned with the conversation than with letting go of Ed.

"Ask? Ask what? Who-o-o?" Goo asked.

"GODDAMIT," he shouted at the blob, "get the hell off of me or I swear to God I’ll scramble what’s left of your brain!" He felt close to tears, alone, tired… and God help him, he couldn’t fucking leave yet. They had to know about the PRIMUS guy inside of Goo.

"Whoo-oo-oops," Goo said as it slithered off of Ed.

Ed skittered away backwards on heels and elbows as soon as the thing was off him. He had never felt anything like that before in his life. Like being almost smothered by a giant warm waterbed. This day just kept on getting more and more fucked up, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if Santa Claus and his goddamned reindeer showed up, offering to sell him some crack.

And his hands were bleeding a little. And it felt like he’d been punching a wall.

Contact with Thorin’s mind had calmed him some though, and that’s really what he needed right now.

"Ask what? Who-o-o?" Goo repeated.

"Ed thinks one of those who became you was a PRIMUS agent," Maggie said. "I’m going to ask Pender if she knows who it is."

"PRI-I-I-MUS?"

Oddly, the thought didn’t surprise Goo. It felt oddly right. For reasons which weren’t directly apparent to Goo, it kinda made sense.

Maggie turned to Ed and extended a hand to help him get up. "Ed, I know you’ve been through a lot, but please try to calm down? We can have a drink on me after this is all over."

"Lady, you have no goddamned idea what I’ve been through today," he replied, getting to his feet. "And this is as calm as I get." He stared at Goo and shuddered.

Three people. Jesus… How the hell…

The thought trailed off. If those robots could do that to anyone they wanted with just a goddamned needle, it was time for the world to be really really scared.

As calm as he can get, eh? That’s a scary concept, Maggie thought. Well, it’s not like I haven’t dealt with tinderboxes before, starting with a certain scientist. At least he and Goo are separated. "I’ll call Pender now."

She tuned the radio to the PRIMUS frequency. "Hello, Maggie Thorin here. I’d like to speak to Pender, could you patch me through to her cell phone?"

The connection was filled with static and an odd warbling that probably signified encryption of some sort. After a long moment, someone finally answered. "Ms. Thorin, this is a PRIMUS-only channel, for secure traffic only." The man’s voice was lightly accented—Korean or perhaps Vietnamese—and studiously neutral. "Please switch to the following frequency, and I’ll patch you to acting Silver Avenger Pender." He gave her a frequency in the digital telephone band.

Goo could only hear Maggie’s side of the conversation.

"Pender?" it asked. "Who-o-o Pender?"

Then Goo added, softly to itself, "Nobody tells me anything."

"Pender. You know, that chick that works with you in PRIMUS," Ed replied quietly. "Or worked with you. Or whatever."

Wind ruffled the esper’s hair and clothes as he studied the creature on the rooftop with him. Goo (that’s how it thought of itself, anyway) was the strangest thing in a strange day.

Then again…

The piece of black carapace that had been part of the Jigsaw Man floated silently over towards him, hovering with no visible support in the air at his side.

Let’s not forget burying you, ya asshole.

He looked out at the hovering sphere, and wondered if Pender was even now being strapped to an examining table, while some skinny alien fucker readied the anal probe. After all that had happened today, that would have been normal.

Goo tried to recall someone named Pender. Obviously, this was the woman whom Goo had met briefly on the street below. But did Goo know Pender from . . . before . . . as it had apparently known Agent Jardine?

Nothing.

"Reme-e-ember Jardine. Some," Goo concluded.

"But not Pender," it continued. "Wo-o-onder why."

"What?" Ed asked. "Who’s Jardine?"

"The agent down there," Maggie replied. She was tuning in the digital telephone band, which required her to switch protocol options on her headset. She’d have to modify the interface to this automatically next time.

"Tell Pender that they remember her, then," Ed told her. "Maybe this Jardine character can help us find out who they were."

"Maybe they can even show him pictures of agents and see if he recognizes himself," Maggie offered. "And there can be only so many missing agents." So Goo’s a PRIMUS agent, at least in part. How ironic.

Maggie finally was able to dial Pender’s number. And there was no ringing. It seemed like the network was overloaded, or there was some problem with the radio patching.

"It’s not a him, it’s a them," Ed replied. "There’s a chick in there too."

"’It’. Plea-ea-ase," Goo requested. "One me.

"But thanks thinking, Ed."

Ed looked across the rooftops, seeking some sort of convenience store signage. He needed bactine and a Band-Aid or three. His hands stung like hell. There was a tiny bit of glass around his index finger, and he picked it out, hissing through his teeth at the pain.

Maggie’s call finally went through, and the phone rang. Pender answered, and Maggie almost shouted from the relieved tension.

"Pender, this is Maggie Thorin. Listen…" She paused and shook her head in disbelief over what she was going to relate to Pender. However tragic it was, Goo’s case was fascinating. "Listen, Goo, the metahuman I came with, is a composite of three people. At least three, anyway. One of them…" She paused again. "Ed went fishing in Goo’s mind and came up with this tidbit. Um, well, one of the people he used to be is a PRIMUS agent of some sort."

"You don’t say." Laura was ready to disbelieve just about anything by now. "He get a name?"

"Lemme ask." She turned to Ed. "Did you get a name? A description maybe?"

"I’m lucky I got what I got. Their mind is like… well," words failed him.

"It’s very confusing in there. I couldn’t get a name on any of ‘em." He looked at them and sighed. "It’s a mess."

"Pender? Ed doesn’t know. But maybe Goo can recognize himself if you show him pictures of missing agents."

Goo attempted to visualize itself in the role that Maggie and Ed were describing.

"Goo. Agent of PRI-I-IMUS," Goo said.

Some times spoken word assisted visualization.

But not this time. Goo was able to form only a hazy image of itself splashing around in white armor, using its globular shape in its never-ending battle against superevil.

Naah. That wasn’t right.

"Agent Goo. And how-ow-owling PRI-I-IMUS commandos," Goo tried.

Now the image showed Goo leaping from a fox hole, its pseudopods clenched around an autofire assault blaster as it rained righteous death upon its enemy.

Better, but still not correct. What was wrong with this picture? Sure, the black eye patch didn’t make any sense. But there was something else.

Ed listened to the thing babbling about PRIMUS and shuddered.

Just get through the next hour, and you can say adios to these people, he told himself. You just gotta tell Pender about this thing, and then you can go.

He waited for Thorin and Pender to finish the phone call, annoyed that this town didn’t have more convenience stores.

While Maggie was wrapping up her conversation, Goo had some questions for Ed.

"Ed?" Goo asked.

"What," the young man replied, still looking out over the city.

"In head. Find?"

"Find what?"

"Find woman? Dre-e-ess?

"Find ‘No Empathy 99’? ‘Mike’s Tavern’?

"Find third?

"Pe-e-ellets?

Ed turned and looked at them, frowning. "Not now. Not here. You are so messed up inside it bleeds into me, and fucks me up too." He held up his hands. "This is what happened last time I got in your head. I’m not going to do it again until I’m in a nice soft chair somewhere safe."

He wasn’t trying to be a prick. For once he was just being honest.

Goo sighed a wet, sticky sigh.

"Hey," he called out to Thorin. "Tell Pender that if she’s too goddamned busy to come down here and help one of her own fucking people that’s fine by me. But she doesn’t write me no checks, and I have shit to do."

"A-a-and ask ball," Goo added. "Ba-a-a-andages?"

Pender, meanwhile, was not happy with Maggie’s suggestion to show Goo pictures of agents. It meant going back to the office, which meant getting out a few file photos, which meant taking more time than any of them had right now. "I don’t have time for that right now," Pender answered. "There are only a few possibilities, but we’ll have to investigate them later." Moab had been like an urgent itch for the past four years, and it seemed talking to Q-Ball would be the only thing that might scratch it. "Keep an eye on them, will you? This shouldn’t take long."

"Okay… Should we join you down there? We need to compare notes, see what sense we can make of all this mess." Then, speaking softly in the mike so that neither Ed nor Goo could pick up her voice, she added, "I don’t think Ed’s very keen on staying around for long."

"Why am I not surprised? You’re right, we need to talk, but I have some urgent business with the ‘Ball here. Stick around if you can— tell Ed that—" What could she possibly say to keep him around? He’d been useful, and Laura had a bad feeling that if he left now, he would disappear into Chicago and none of them would see him again. "Tell him when I’m done in here we’ll take care of his little souvenir. Gotta go— I’ll contact you when I’m done here."

"Um, well, sure." Saint-Caline, that was snippy. Of course, dealing with August plus whatever happened today has GOT to get on someone’s nerves…

"Excuse me, Agent Pender?" asked Q through the speakers in the sphere. Maggie could hear it through Pender’s handset. "Everyone needs to hear this. Ms. Thorin and Ed, certainly, but especially the Stranger and this person Goo."

"Agent Pender?" Maggie’s voice came over the phone. "I think I need to hear this." She lowered her voice again, grateful for the helmet’s insulation. "But I don’t think Ed will want to go inside either. He’s being a little paranoid." And I can’t totally blame him, she didn’t add, though she tried to convey it in her tone.

"Damn," Laura muttered. She’d gotten close—very close—to getting what she’d originally wanted out of DuFord: a private meeting. However, he seemed determined not to give it to her. August was still there, of course, but she doubted if he’d be interested in whatever DuFord had to say about PRIMUS. It was galling, having to bend to the will of a three-inch metahuman. "Do what you can to get him down here. I don’t mean to order you around, Miss Thorin, but we don’t have time to debate this with Ed. If Q-Ball says that he should be here, then I’m inclined to believe him," she said, looking DuFord in the eye.

"Saint-Caline. Well, okay." She muted the phone and turned to Ed and Goo. "She’d like us to join her in that ball. She seems to think it’s important. Ed, I know you don’t want to come… She says that when we’re done you and her’ll take care of your little souvenir."

Ed grimaced. "Probably try and take it away from me."

Jesus his hands stung.

"All right. Whatever. But I’ll mindfry anything that fucks with me in there."

"Be safe. Pro-o-omise," Goo vowed, expanding itself to a rather large size.

"Frie-e-end."

"Okay, let’s go," Maggie said, and without further ado, she leaped off the edge of the building and fired her jets. Goo flowed off the roof after her.

Ed, suddenly alone, tucked the fragment of the leper under his arm, and looked over the edge, gauging the distance. Goo was doing a Slinky walk down the wall (TROLSH. TROLSH. TROLSH) while the armored chick swooped toward the ball. The sphere was still hovering about eight feet in the air with that ramp extended like a steel tongue. Maggie braked gracefully, her belt jets bright in the dimming light, and eased into the entrance. It was maybe five o'clock, and already the sun was going down, throwing deep shadows between the buildings. The temperature seemed to be dropping too. When Ed had stepped off the bus this morning (this morning? Seemed like a year and a half ago) he’d been surprised to find the November weather almost as balmy as Dallas, but it looked like Chicago was going to show its true face tonight.

Ed crouched low and placed his hands flat on the surface of the roof, hissing in pain as his scrapes opened wider, and focused his talent. Then he leaped after them, arcing in a copper flash.

He could feel the attention of the bystanders and cops and PRIMUS agents suddenly focus on him, abrupt as a search light. There were more people arriving every minute, and it wouldn’t take long for the street to be filled up like an outdoor rock concert.

Then he hit the ramp in a flash of light and a metallic twang. Goo came sloshing up behind him. Ed simply shook his head and walked warily into the sphere. Goo followed, its watchful tentacles keenly monitoring the situation.

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