บท 56: Future's End, Part 4
It was evening when the four of us reached Chronowerx Tower, but that suited us just fine. We had Janeway and Chakotay wait in a nearby alley while Echo and I slipped into the office building using the Yin Realm to slip past their security system. I did not want to take any risks, so we jumped between the floors searching for the security office.
I was the one to find the office and there were two guards. I knocked out the first using an old fashion Vulcan neck pinch and yanked the second off his feet before he even knew what was happening. The metal that formed my two fingers on my left hand split and wrapped around his wrists under my control, ensuring that he could not press some hidden button.
"Sorry for the rough treatment, but you never can be too careful. How about you save yourself some pain, and just tell me if there are any more of you watching the building?" I asked, stirring my mana to affect his mind to increase his fear which was made easier by Echo appearing behind me out of thin air.
"It… it's just us. The second shift comes in at midnight," the guard stammered.
"Thank you for your co-operation. You and your friend should wake up in the morning," I said before I reached out, and knocked him out just like the first.
"Are you so sure that he told you the truth?" Echo asked.
"No one would throw their life away for a security guard gig, not in this time frame anyways," I replied and then headed over to the camera system. "Hmm... I'm not seeing anything special, but that doesn't make me feel any better after Raven's report."
"Do you want to call her to check out the system?"
"With Katye injured and refusing to leave, I'd rather cut off my right arm," I retorted as I typed away at the computer, setting the cameras on a loop. "We'll just do it our way and keep our guards up."
Echo smirked before shifting into the Yin Realm and vanishing. I chased after her and stepped back out into the real world right by a door that opened into the alley where Janeway and Chakotay were waiting. She opened the door and waved them over.
"We've neutralized the guards and set the cameras on a loop, but that doesn't mean that Starling doesn't have other defenses that we aren't expecting," I explained once they were inside.
"We'll be careful. Do you know where his office would be?" Janeway asked.
"Where else, but the top floor," I retorted. "Elevators are this way."
"Lead on," she replied.
I nodded and showed them the way to the elevators. Thanks to our earlier efforts, the trip up to the top floor was uneventful. When we stepped out, I could sense a shield, comparable to the Voyager's, around something up here, but that fell in line with the episode as Starling should have the time ship hidden away in there. Using a tricorder, I was able to deactivate the locking mechanism on the door and the other minor security systems that were watching the entrance.
"Well, no flashing lights or sirens, so I think we're good," I said, tucking my tricorder back into my pocket.
"Good work, Rebecca," Janeway praised as she followed me into the office.
Janeway and Chakotay spread out throughout the room, scanning with their tricorders while I headed straight for the computer. Echo moved around the room, but I could sense her mana stirring lightly and leaving faint traces on the outside walls. If I was not so used to her mana and what she was doing, I would not have noticed the minor web that she was weaving, but she had delivered a number of tricky and unexpected blows using her Territorial Domain, so I recognized it instantly.
"Our Mister Starling has built himself quite the corporate empire. Looks like he's got wealth, celebrity... and an ego to match," Janeway remarked.
"Just like every other rich and powerful person of this century," I retorted while I used my tricorder to break the password that was protecting the computer.
"I'm detecting a force field; I can't scan beyond this wall," Chakotay said. "I don't see an access port or control panel."
"It's probably controlled here. The database is massive, especially for this timeframe," I suggested.
Both Janeway and Chakotay moved in behind me and looked over my shoulders as the home screen came up.
"Looks like a series of pictographs. They must have used symbols to represent the different functions of the computer," Chakotay commented.
"Icons, they are called icons... Pictographs make it sound like this is Ancient Egypt," I complained, clicking on the search bar.
Janeway chuckled and said, "Let's see what Henry's been up to all these years."
"He introduced the very first isograted circuit in 1969, two years after Braxton's ship crash-landed, and every few years there has been an equally revolutionary advance in computers, all from Chronowerx Industries and all based off of Starling's crude understanding of twenty-ninth century technology," I said as I pulled up different pages of information.
"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Janeway asked.
"I wish I weren't," Chakotay sighed. "The computer age of the late twentieth century shouldn't have happened."
"But it did, and it's part of our history all because of that time ship. Look here," I remarked and pulled up a special page. "Braxton was right. Starling is planning to launch the ship."
"We've got to send these schematics to Voyager for analysis," Janeway said as she took out her comm badge. "Janeway to Voyager."
"Kim here, Captain," he replied through the badge.
"We're in Starling's office. I want you to establish a com-link with Rebecca's tricorder and try to download his computer database."
"Aye, Captain. We'll need a few minutes to reconfigure to their binary system."
"Acknowledged," she replied, tucking her badge back into her pocket. "Let's see if we can find out where the location of that launch pad is."
"Wait... the others were attacked by someone in an exo-suit," I said when I saw a folder labeled 'Vazukuru Exo-Suits'.
Opening it, I found that Starling originally had three different suits, each different, but one had been rendered useless from his tampering. Of the two still intact, one looked similar to Raven's model, though the mana-refiner was leagues above what she could make currently. It would be able to fire multiple mana blasts comparable to the Voyager's phaser banks, use maximum impulse for an hour with its own internal storage, and sustain itself in space with its mana regenerator.
If the first suit was like Iron Man without the paint job, the second would be the Hulkbuster. It was bulky and oversized, over double my size. It was built for strength and durability, yet also had mana pulse cannons and even rockets of Vazukuru designs. Clearly, this was the one that was meant to give me a fight, but before I could read too much about its specifications, my connection to mana sense was abruptly cut off, or more precise, all of the mana in the area around me seemed to be disrupted and consumed. Echo felt it too, if her face was anything to go off of, and then I heard the elevator door chime.
"Shit! Fae, beam Janeway and Chakotay out of here! Fae, answer me!?!" I said, pulling out my comm badge.
"Some kind of dampening field has activated, cutting off our communications with anything outside of the field," Chakotay said.
"It's more than just that," I replied, trying to conjure my Chaos Storm Clouds but unsuccessfully. "We can't use any of our external abilities!"
"Conventional phasers and ours aren't working either, but my storage ring still works," Echo added.
"And my illusion ring... It's a mana disruption field! No forms of external mana, but Items and internal mana can still work," I deduced from my occasional studies of the Endless Firmament.
"Rebecca!" Janeway said alarmed and pointing out the window.
I turned my head and saw the Hulkbuster hovering in the moonlight, looking straight at us. The door opened and the person wearing the smaller exo-suit walked in.
"I see you've made yourself at home. Welcome to the twentieth century," Starling, who was in the smaller suit, said.
{Don't make any sudden movements. There is still a possibility that their weapons could work in the disruption field if they walked in this confidently, and I'm not sure if that shielding bracelet will be able to activate as it should in this. If we have to make a move, Janeway can give the signal, though Echo and I will react defensively to any attack made against us. Echo, you take the one here while I'll take the big boy outside. Janeway, Chakotay, we'll need you two to focus on shutting down the mana disruption field!} I sent telepathically to the other three.
"I know who you are. You're from the future. I knew you'd come back one day. I detected your vessel in orbit and Mister Dunbar outside had a run-in with your friends. You're here to take the time ship," he continued.
"Mister Starling, you're about to cause a terrible disaster that will affect the twenty-ninth century, causing an explosion that will cost billions of lives. We're here to stop you from doing that," Janeway warned.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"If you launch that ship and travel to the future, it will destroy Earth's Solar System," Chakotay added.
"How do you know this?" Starling asked.
"Well, let's just say we talked to the ship's previous owner. He told us that if its temporal matrix isn't precisely calibrated, you'll trigger a temporal explosion. That ship does not belong here. It belongs to another century. We have to take it back!" Janeway said.
"You're very passionate; I almost believed you for a moment. But you're not going to stop me," he replied.
"If you don't give us that ship, we'll take it by force," she threatened, almost making me facepalm.
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm holding the gun," he retorted raising an arm and pointing the barrel of mana pulse cannon at her.
"Not for long. I've got a starship in orbit that could vaporize this entire building in the blink of an eye," she replied calmly.
"And you along with it," he scoffed.
"If necessary; four lives to save billions of lives is an easy choice," Janeway said with full confidence.
"Captain, you've got some cojones, but you aren't going to change my mind when I know that you're bluffing. Do you think I was able to build all of this without being able to pick out obvious lies?!?" He thrusted his raised arm slightly, but then looked at it with obvious confusion.
"Tech genius of the generation! You're an idiot for not testing that suit in a disruption field first," I spat before rushing forward at my fastest speed.
Ever since my Dragon bloodline fully awoke, I had gained the ability to use a partial Dusa form transformation which gave me a sudden boost in my strength and durability. It could cover an arm or leg for a single attack and used less mana and Soul Power than my Lightning-based superspeed, but it packed the full might of my Dusa form. No one saw me move or my silver-scaled fist, smashing into the exo-suit that had just tried to shoot Janeway. It was as if I was behind Janeway then suddenly in front of her while the silver tin man shot backwards out of the window.
"Echo, suit up!" I shouted, summoning out my own exo suit that Raven had modified for me. "We'll try to draw them away. If you can get the shield and mana disruption field down, Fae can act as a booster and get you and Chakotay back onboard the Voyager. She'll accept that command from you without question, and I'll try to tell her to coordinate with you if I can contact her."
Echo did not hesitate at my order and called out her own suit before running and jumping out of the same hole that Starling's body had made. Janeway wanted to argue with me, but Dunbar in the Hulkbuster outfit had launched himself at us. I dashed forward and spun, using my partial transformation to strengthen my leg. My kick deflected his charge, sending him through the corner of the building, but the force of the impact also sent me flying backwards with my foot aching. I slammed into the wall with the force field, which was probably why I did not go through it, then slid down it and groaned.
"Rebecca! Are you...?" Janeway started.
"I'm fine," I said, cutting her off, as I stood up though I winced when I put weight on my foot. "His helmet was just a lot stronger than I was expecting."
"If you're hurt, we can help," Janeway said.
"Bringing down the shields and the disruption field would be the most help that you can give me. The longer we have to fight, the more damage that will be done to us and the timeline!" I warned.
While I walked to the hole that the Hulkbuster created, I scanned the area with the visor of my suit, since a traditional helmet would not work for me. There was static due to the field, but dialing back the various 'vision' enchantments, I could change the world to black and white which made things easier to see in this dark environment. I found him pulling himself out of a nearby office building, having crashed through three floors, and shook my head.
(We went from Star Trek to Marvel real quick. I hope Tori has some plan to clean this up because Janeway is going to kill me without some way to fix all of this.) I thought to myself, then shrugged and jumped out of the hole.
Using the thrusters on my suit, I shot myself at him at high speed. Instead of fighting me head on, he chose to shift out of my way, but I had already left the mana disruption field. So I called out my Chaos Storm as soon as I could, finally feeling free of that restrained zone, and used it to grab him like it was my arm. I still crashed into the building, but I did not go as far and even dragged him down with me.
Slowly, I stood up, shaking the debris off of me, and looked at him as I said, "Look, I'll give you one chance. Starling isn't worth throwing your life away and I can't promise that I'll be able to control myself if I start enjoying this fight. I can't have a real slug fest with many people these days. I probably won't kill you... probably."
"Nice try, asshole, but you don't have a chance," Dunbar said, pounding one fist into the other.
I smirked, cracking my knuckles, and retorted, "Don't forget that I gave you the chance to back out of this, when I make you cry like a little bitch."
I did not wait for him to reply and shifted straight into my Dusa form. He was obviously surprised by my sudden change since he froze in place, but that suited me just fine and I shot myself at him with a flap of my wings. We blasted through the side of the building and hurtled towards the ground, but my wings caught the air and lifted me away a moment before we hit the concrete. Dunbar made a huge crater while I landed on all fours not too far away.
People were obviously drawn by all of the commotion, but I had a wonderfully simple and horrible idea to get rid of them. Using my mana, I started forming a thunderstorm overhead and walked into the streetlight as the Hulkbuster pulled itself out of the crater. I took a deep breath and roared as loudly as I could while calling down bolts of lightning onto the armor. Now, people screamed and took off running, but that was what I had wanted; however, the suit absorbing the lightning bolts had not been part of my plans.
"Thanks for the boost. Let's see if you can handle this," Dunbar said as two barrels lifted out of his shoulder pieces.
With a wave of my hands, I called out my Chaos Storm and used it to form a wall in front of me as he fired two missiles at me. Packing the mana tightly together, I was able to explode them before they got close to me, though the explosion managed to scatter my clouds. I drew the chaotic mana back to me as I raced towards him, and reformed the Chaos Storm Clouds around my body like a thin blanket which drained the mana in the environment, transferring it back to me nearly as fast as meditating would, though it was much more mentally taxing.
I threw a straight punch at Dunbar, and, to my surprise, he met it with a punch of his own. The ground cracked underneath us since our momentum was transferred to it as neither of us refused to step back, but we both had our own tricks. My Chaos Storm Cloud Armor was slowly eating a hole into the fist of his exo-suit and rapidly spreading along his arm, but it did not get far. His trick was that his suit absorbed a portion of that impact and jackhammered his fist into mine a second and even a third time, before I was forced to take a step back, breaking contact with him.
Despite the aching of my hand and forearm, I was grinning. I rarely could go all out in a mostly physical fight, as those on my Council of Chaos that had the ability to fight me like this, would rather mess with my mind instead. Finally, I had a fight where I could let loose and truly see how my strength had grown.
"Round three, fight!" I said with a smirk, charging my body with my Lightning-based superspeed.
I shifted in close, and threw a quick jab at his chest. He was able to block, but I had not fully committed to the attack, and had instead prepared a heavy left hook that I sent straight at his side. Although he was still bigger than me, even in my Dusa form, my fist connected and launched him a dozen or so feet away. As he picked himself up, I teleported myself above him instead of charging him. It confused him since he was not used to fighting someone like me, but that was the point.
My feet stomped on his head, using the thrusters of my exo-suit to speed up my descent, as my wings did not bend that way. He was smashed into the ground, unable to catch himself, but the damage was negligible compared to the other hits that he had shrugged off, more or less. I clawed at his chest plate as I landed on top of him, leaving deep grooves, but he blasted me away with a beam of condensed pure mana that burned away a number of my scales while also throwing me off of him.
I landed on my back, but I was still close enough to grab his foot. My talons, and storm armor, allowed me to dig into the piece before crushing the ankle, though no fleshy bits were included. He fired a shot from his wrist cannon, which stung and singed some of my scales, but I could still ignore the majority of the attack.
I teleported myself, instead of climbing to my feet, which gave me the ability to stomp him into the ground again. Before he could try to get up, I raised both of my hands over my head while channeling my Soul Power to increase my strength to the maximum, and slammed them down as hard as I could on his chest. The chest plate caved in, and the main crystal on the armor, shattered.
"Aww, I broke you that quickly? That's a bit of a letdown," I complained, despite breaking a few bones in my hands with my own attack.
I kicked his head in annoyance, but not too hard, since my excitement in the fight had dimmed significantly. As I leaned over his body, examining the damage more closely, he launched the plate at me with enough force to knock me back a few steps, despite blocking it from hitting my face. Dunbar was in a smaller exo-suit, like the one Starling had been wearing, but I was not threatened by the change.
"Echo to Becca. My target wasn't Starling!" Echo chimed in my ear through the comm system of my exo-suit.
"What?!? Where's Starling?" I asked, confused.
"You didn't think... that he was really the type... to fight his own battles... did you?" Dunbar mocked despite his obvious labored breathing.
"Damn it, you're right," I huffed. "Last chance, surrender and I promise that your injuries will be treated, or I'll kill you right now."
My Chaos Storm Cloud Armor crackled with red lightning, emphasizing my threat. He sighed and slowly pulled off his helmet. He was not Starling either, but that only made me feel more like a fool for not realizing that the man was still the same weasel that he had been in the episode. I had him take off all of the pieces of the exo-suit and contacted Echo to have her prisoner do the same before I had Fae beam us back onboard of our ship.
Our minutes-long battle had likely caused millions of dollars' worth of damage, and exposed my Dusa form to a small portion of the Los Angeles population; all of which was not part of the timeline. Janeway was going to be furious with me, and I had no promises that things would get fixed by Tori and his pantheon. For the first time, I was not looking forward to returning to the Voyager.
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