“Mother f*. When did we find this out?”
“Whisper just told us. She figured it out yesterday.”
“Get your team to the briefing room now.”
“You heard him,” Sakura says to the group. “Let’s go.”
The group heads to the briefing room. On the way, Whisper takes Sakura off to the side, and speaks quietly. “Thank you for being your practical self, as always.”
Sakura is quiet a moment, a bit perplexed. Whisper looks like she’s near tears.
Sakura gives her a one armed hug. “We’re a team. We’re here for each other.”
“I’m just beginning to realize that, very late in the game. I was going to go off by myself. My only plan B was to make sure you all knew where I was going, not – I wasn’t asking for everyone to come with me, or – I don’t know, just everybody, I just realized everybody has a point. This isn’t something I can do by myself, or even us do by ourselves.”
Sakura nods, “That’s true. We’re in training, we’re learning. And you’re learning.”
“I’m not so sure I’m learning enough, I’m not sure this hero thing is for me.”
“Just being in the Initiative does not require you to become a hero if that’s not where your path is.”
“I know.”
“But, it’s good for you to be here and learn. Learn about yourself and your powers.”

They get to the briefing room. Gauntlet is there, with a couple SHIELD agents.
“Alright, Cadets, this is where I expect you to come clean. Sakura, what’s going on?”
“The message stressed Omega Red. So, Whisper Googled it. She found a cave system in Red county in Virginia, called the Omega system.”
One of the agents pinches his nose and shakes his head. “You Googled it?”
Whisper nods.
The two agents look at each other, “So much for our high tech equipment. Alright, go ahead.”
“You mean your search engine isn’t as good as Google?” Hard Rock comments.
“Well, when we search for Omega Red, we get Omega Red.”
“I was looking for other meanings. We’d already established that Omega Red wasn’t anywhere near my father. So, it obviously had to be some sort of a code. And what do you know, it was.”
“So, code for what? What about this cave system?”
“I think that’s where he is.”
“So, you think, based on the visions that you had, you think that your father is with your brother in this cave system in, where did you say? Virginia?”
Whisper affirms this. “I’m also able to target my brother and listen to what’s going on around him. And I heard my father talking to him.”
“So, what is going on around him?”
“He said several times that the whole family would be together again, or that we’d all be one big happy family again.”
“Okay.” One of the agents is asking questions, the other is taking notes.
“Just today he was talking and he said ‘Everyone is hearing what they’re supposed to.’”
“’Just today.’ How long have you been listening to your brother?”
“Off and on since he was abducted.”
At the look on their faces, Whisper goes on, “I didn’t know where he was, there was no way to find him.”
“Would it be possible for a telepath to link with Whisper when she listens, to maybe confirm the location?” Sakura suggests.
“Seems like you’d run into the same limitation she’s running into. Unless someone’s thinking about the location. Someone could piggyback and maybe jump to someone else’s thoughts, but it would still be limited.”
“You’d need a Cerebro like system.”
“What’s Cerebro?” Hard Rock asks.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“So you’ve been listening in on your brother. What have you heard?”
“Mostly just him breathing. And occasionally my dad singing or talking.”
“Just about bringing the family together?”
“Yeah, and then, um, yesterday, there was crying and sounds as if someone was gagged but trying to talk. And it wasn’t my brother.”
“So, multiple victims now.”
“Yeah. And it wasn’t until today that I realized that it was my mom and my uncle.”
“Do you have any other family members that we should be keeping an eye on?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“So, you have your mother and your uncle? Save us some trouble. Where does your mother live?”
Whisper gives the address. The agent calls for someone to go to that address, possible crime scene, associated with this case number.
“So, to the best of your knowledge, it’s your father and three other individuals there.”
“Yes.”
The agent checks some notes, “And your father is a digger and has some sort of light control?”
“As far as I know.”
“Is there anything else your father is capable of that we should know about?”
“He’s unstable. He killed my older brother.”
“That would be Micah?”
She confirms – they keep asking questions. Whisper had thought her father was dead, presumed cause of death was a long fall in the Kipuka Kanohina Cave System.
“Is there any other information to be shared on this case?”
“Umm… there had been some sort of medical personnel he’d brought back to the cave to try to help my brother, but I don’t think it ended well.”
“So, you don’t hear any trace of them?”
“No.”
“So, potential murder victims.” They make a note. “Have you talked with anybody outside of this room about this case?”
Whisper shakes her head.
“Alright. We’ll need the group of you to stay on base. Before we take any action we’ll need to do some more research. We’ll need your recruits,” they look at Gauntlet, “to stay on base until we give the green light. We’ll be in touch.”
“That’s what you said last time, you said you’d be in touch, and I haven’t heard anything in the past week.”
“Well, we haven’t had anything, but, apparently, you have.” They leave and shut the door.
Gauntlet is looking like he’s trying very hard to control himself. The group has all seen him angry, they’ve seen him cursing. He’s almost shaking with anger now. Several times during the conversation, he closed his eyes and was counting to ten.
“Okay, why are we just hearing these things now?”
Whisper doesn’t say anything.
“Uh, ‘cause, well, I was just told.” Hard Rock says.
“Fair enough.”
“’cause I hadn’t told anyone until now.” Whisper says quietly.
“And why didn’t you tell anyone? I’m trying to understand the thought process here. So, please, explain the thought process to me. Why did you not tell anyone until now?”
“’cause I didn’t think it was important. There was no way to do anything with it, no way to know where they were until yesterday.”
“When did your father start talking about bringing your family back together? Before or after he took your mother and uncle?”
“Before.”
“Do you think, perhaps, if we’d had the knowledge, something could have been done to protect your mother and uncle?”
“I didn’t think he was after them, I thought he was after me.”
“Okay. Have you learned anything?”
“That I don’t trust very well. Why should I have reason to trust? All my life, I’ve been trying to find out about what happened, and no one’s ever told me anything. So, why trust now?”
“Because lives are at stake. You’re here to try to be a hero, lives were at stake!” Hard Rock interrupts.
“Hard Rock-“ Gauntlet says.
“Sorry.”
Whisper disappears.
“Oh, great.” Hard Rock comments.
Gauntlet looks at where Whisper was, “So, how am I supposed to interpret this?”
“Shirking of responsibility?” Hard Rock suggests.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
“Sorry.”
Gauntlet continues looking toward where Whisper was. She appears again, still in the chair.
“I guess what I’m looking for here – if you were presented with this exact same situation again, would you handle it the same way? I need an honest answer. And I think your team needs an honest answer.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Okay. So, here’s the situation. I really want to believe you when you say that. I really do. And I understand that situations don’t get much more personal than this. I get that. But, what I need you to understand is that this has obviously become a bigger situation than just you. I don’t know what – did you have a plan?”
“Not a very good one.”
“Please, share. I’m curious as to what your plan was.”
“I was going to go and confront him.”
“By yourself. I’m assuming by yourself since every body’s just learning of things now. Is that still your plan?”
“No. It’s a thirteen year old girl’s plan.”
“Well, I’m glad we’ve grown beyond that now. And thank you for coming forward, eventually. But, if you ever pull this kind of sh* again,” he doesn’t even look like he can finish the thought.
“Hell hath no fury like Gauntlet really pissed.” Hard Rock puts in.
“I’m going to chalk this up as a rookie mistake. Because, let’s face it, you’re all still rookies. Some more so than others. But, it is of vital importance that, when you’re part of a team, this kind of behavior cannot work. This cannot happen within a team. I’m not saying you have to tell each other every mundane detail of your lives, I don’t want you to, I don’t expect you to. It’s important, especially here, that you retain some sense of self, that you remember who you are. I’m sorry that your personal life has become part of everything. I’m sorry the situation has put you into this. Now, we need to figure out how to move forward from this. And that’s only partially my decision.” He looks at Sakura, “You’re the team leader. I need you to talk to your team and see how you can move forward from this. I think this team has the potential for brilliance. But, that’s all it is right now, potential. I’ve seen flashes of brilliance and I’ve seen troughs of, well, I’ll just say I’ve seen troughs. You don’t have to make the decision now. It’s up to you all to decide how and if you can move forward from this. I don’t need an answer right now, but I need you all to talk amongst yourselves, think for yourselves, and figure out if your team still works. Are there any questions? Do we understand each other?”
Whisper whispers “Yes.”
Sakura nods.
“Yes, sir.” Hard Rock replies.
“Alright. Dismissed.”

Sakura looks at the group, “I think Gauntlet’s right. We do need time to think. But, it will be discussed. Tomorrow afternoon. Before we break up for individual training. And, if we need more time to think, maybe some discussion tomorrow afternoon will help.”
Hard Rock nods to Sakura and heads out, and goes to get his guitar.
Sakura looks at Whisper, who’s looking like she’d like to disappear through the floor. She puts her hand on Whisper’s shoulder. “Come on.”
Whisper follows along with Sakura, Gauntlet nods to both of them as they exit.
“Do you think you’re going to want to remain here?”
“For short term, yes, I don’t know about the long term.”
Sakura nods. “You’re looking like you’d prefer to disappear. But, don’t beat yourself up too bad. Like Gauntlet said. Rookie mistakes. You’re learning.”

Whisper still joins Sakura for meditation in the morning. The day’s organized training is runs through the obstacle course. Hard Rock does very well, Sakura does alright. Whisper’s obviously otherwise occupied, she doesn’t do so well. Knight Owl does alright too.
An agent shows up, “Your presence has been requested.”
“Alright, recruits, let’s go. Some folks want to talk to you.”
Tony Stark, War Machine, Gyrich and about five people the group doesn’t recognize are at the briefing room. Gauntlet, of course, arrives with the team. The strangers are all costumed individuals.
“Welcome, recruits,” Tony says, “Have a seat, please. So, I’ve received reports based on the information that has come to light. I’d like to introduce you to Psionex, they’re the Virginia based Initiative team. They’ll be taking point on the investigation. Since you’ve all had a chance to sleep on this, I wanted to check with you all to see if there is any further information for them to be briefed on before this team is sent in to Virginia to take point.” He pauses, to let people speak.
“I had a dream about Whisper’s dad last night.” Knight Owl says.
“Oh?” Stark looks at Knight Owl, then looks off into space. “Oh, okay, got it. You had a dream?”
“In my dream, I heard a female voice, saying ‘Is anyone reading me? In case you’re receiving, I’m returning to the rendez vous point.’ Then I heard her dad chuckle and say ‘I’m afraid your friends are quite unavailable.’ Then I saw a bright light, as an energy whip and I saw that lady. And her dad with a rock in his hand. He side stepped the whip, and the light disappeared, then I heard a crunch and a body hit the floor.”
The woman Knight Owl indicated looks uncomfortable.
“Then, later, I heard him giggling while she was screaming. She kept asking what he wanted, he said he didn’t want anything, but he needs her to deliver a message. She said she’d deliver the message, what did he want her to say? He said, ‘I don’t need you to say anything.’ And she started screaming again.”
The woman is looking quite uncomfortable.
One of the others looks uncomfortable, realizing that something must have happened to them as well.
“Hey, ya’ll, these dreams come true. But, I can change ‘em. That’s why I got into this business.”
“So, just by knowing this might be, we might be able to avoid it.”
“That’s my power in a nut shell.”
“Don’t split up,” Hard Rock says.
“Yeah. It would have been a good way to cover a lot of ground, but we should probably at least stay in pairs.”
They discuss how Whisper’s dad was able to counter the lady’s power – he does have light control.
“Are you going to be going in with pulse rifles?” Hard Rock asks.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t they shoot light?”
“It’s an energy, so light is certainly emitted by them, but it’s not a laser. It’s not impossible, but you’d have to be pretty powerful in order to do it.”
“Might wanna stick with ol’ reliable for this job.” Knight Owl opens his jacket to show his shot gun.
“Given light control in that setting, the advantage is definitely on his side,” Sakura observes.
“He’s gotta have some way to see in the dark.” Hard Rock comments.
“Or doesn’t need to – like super hearing or somethin’.” Knight Owl observes.
One of the Psionex group starts calculating and muttering about kilowatts and kilojoules, and how much he’d have to be able to manipulate. “Again, not impossible, but, yeah…”
“Uh, my dad said something that was weird, speaking of hearing. He said ‘Everyone is hearing what they’re supposed to’. I don’t know if that means that those Styx and The Stones people reported back to him that they delivered the message, or if he some how knows I’m listening, or maybe he can hear us.”
“Have you listened to him lately?” Stark asks.
Whisper listens. She hears several sets of breathing, but nothing really remarkable. No one is talking, there is some whimpering – but it’s almost to the exhausted point to where one can’t cry any more due to physical exhaustion. She doesn’t hear her father. She can’t hear any more people than she previously had – sounds like her brother, her mom and her uncle. There’s no sound of walking that would indicate another presence.
Whisper relays this.
“Well, we have confirmed that there was a break in at your mother’s home. Certainly signs of a struggle, but no signs of particular violence. It sounds to me like the take aways from here are one – pair up, however you need to, but no one should be wandering around by themselves down there. I would suggest taking alternate weapons aside from the pulse rifles for those who intend to carry them.”
“How ‘bout some screechers or something to make a lot of noise.”
“In a cave?”
“If he’s going off of hearing- I don’t know, I’m just a recruit here.”
The brain who calculated the kilojoules mentions how the sound could build up in the cave and cause it to cave in.
“Well, if things are going bad-“
“Things would have to be pretty bad before I’d burry myself in a cave.”
“Well, you heard his dreams.”
The conversation goes on about the caves and the advantages that Whisper’s dad will have – he’ll know the system, the setting is to his advantage. In a parking lot with sunlight, he would get whooped and he knows it.
Stark gives Psionex instructions – don’t assume anything will be easy; assume Whisper’s dad is still there, that he may still be employing Styx and the Stones. Tony continues on, speaking of them using their no light goggles, still speaking to Psionex, not to the team of recruits. They’ll have their standard squad equipment, zero light goggles, communication and tracking equipment and maps. The system is non-trivial, so they could get lost easily. Twenty-five miles of caves that goes over a thousand feet into the ground, with only a couple known external access points and based on the scene that Whisper described, they have a good handle on which one’s being used. There will be SHIELD agents posted at the other known exits. There is mention that Dr Benjamin Schwarz, the primary investigator of the cave system, hasn’t been heard from in over a week, and he normally checks in every couple of days. The assumption is that there is another victim.
“Best of luck, Godspeed, and looking forward to celebrating your return.”

The Psionex team stand to head out – they’re looking a little nervous.

“Assume he is still there, it would be dangerous to assume otherwise. Let’s assume that he has maintained the employment of these individuals that he had employed to rattle Whisper’s cage. These Styx and the Stones. Let’s assume they’re there, I don’t want any surprises. We all know he’s pretty well off his rocker, sorry, so you don’t want to take any chances.” Psionex stands and they start to head out. They don’t look familiar. This was probably an Initiative crew that went through before the group.
After the Psionex group leaves, Stark looks at the team. “We’ll maintain radio contact with them, but you’re welcome to listen, since one of you, at least, has an interest in this case. Otherwise you’re free to continue with your day.”
Whisper stands, looking curious as to where she needs to go to listen in. Knight Owl is sticking around to listen as well.
Hard Rock leaves to go to train.
“Give a call if anything happens.” Sakura tells Whisper.
Whisper nods, and Sakura heads out with Hard Rock. They head off to the dojo for some instruction in martial arts. That training goes fairly well.

The Psionex team goes through checks while they’re flying, nothing overly exciting, then start making their way, hiking on in. They send a man named Asylum into the forest – he has some dark force manipulation, so he’ll be scouting and being stealthy.
As they near the cave, one of the people in the main group says, “Hey, did you hear something-“ and the radio cuts out.
The SHIELD agents try to boost power, switch to other bands for transmitting and don’t seem able to pick them back up.
They get onto another frequency and call for the agents in positions in two and three to report in. They both do.
“We’ve lost radio contact with the Alpha team. Not sure what happened, but apparently somebody heard something, and the radio cut out. Beta team, we don’t know what exactly happened, but, whatever it was, it hit ‘em fast. We’re going to see if we can get an eye in the sky over you to see what happened.”
Eventually a SHIELD agent reports that they should have satellite coverage in 70 minutes.
“Send the agents in. We can’t afford to wait 70 minutes, that’s too long.”
“So, we’re all outa costumed heroes?” Knight Owl asks.
“All we know is that we’ve lost radio contact. Based on what we know, this sudden radio cut off doesn’t match any of the M.O.’s that we have so far.” Stark comments.
“We’re not seeing any trace, no particular signs of a scuffle. At last known check point, no signs of a scuffle. No extra foot prints. Looks like they made it to the cave.” Bravo reports in.
“They did make it to the cave?” Knight Owl asks.
“Looks like they did. One of the grappling hooks that we issued them has been used to lower them into the cave so it looks like the mission is proceeding as planned, aside from our communications still working and their’s are not.”
“Anything jamming it?”
“There does seem to be some sort of counter frequency that’s emanating from the cave, but whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be affecting ours.”
“That means that they knew they were coming. Look out or this whole thing was a set up from jump.”
“Send another squad of cape killers to cover position B. Team B, find a place to hole up and observe. We’ve got 68 minutes until satellite coverage. Presume the plan is going forward.”
Tony takes his head set off after giving the order, “Do you know of any sort of tech in this group?”
“In the Styx and Stones? Mr Roboto? No telling what sorta stuff he’s got. He could be robot through and through.”
“All we know is that he’s very strong. It seems like as good of a guess as any.”
“Renegade might be their gadget guy.”
“What if I were to listen to my brother and move out?” Whisper asks.
“It’s worth a shot.”
She starts in the chamber with her brother and hears the same thing as earlier. She starts spiraling out, but eventually gets to the point where she hears echoing footsteps. She zeroes in on them. It sounds like two sets of footsteps.
“I don’t know about this? Shouldn’t we have aborted when we lost communication with everyone else?”
“There are people’s lives at stake here, we can’t spend the extra time. We’ve tried getting in touch with the other teams. We can’t get in touch with anyone, but we’ve got our maps and tracers. Keep an eye on the bleeps, as long as the bleeps are still moving, we’re okay.”
Stark tries asking Whisper if she can communicate with people remotely, if she can get a message to them.
She sees his mouth moving, but can’t hear him, since she’s listening. “Whatever you’re asking, I can’t hear you, I don’t want to lose them. Can you write it down?”
Tony does so and holds it up for her to read.
“What do you want me to tell them?”
“Radios are down, we may not have eyes but we have ears on you. We can hear what’s going on, so if you need to communicate with us, just speak aloud and we can hear you. It’s not perfect communication, but it’s what we’ve got.”
Whisper throws her voice, and can actually hear herself there in the cave, generated right where she was listening.
“Sweet. Well, that’s handy. We split up. Right now this is Impulse and I’m here with Pretty Persuasions. We lost communications with you shortly before we got to the cave. Coronary is off with Mathamanic and Asylum.”
Whisper relays that to Stark.
“We got into the caves and split off into two groups when we reached the first main branch. Based on the map, there were a bunch of smaller branches, but we’re sticking where we can stand up. From what was going on, it seemed like they were in larger caverns.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Starks comments when that’s relayed.
There’s not a lot of chatter, just them working down into the cave.
“What happened right before you lost radio contact? Someone said you thought you heard something.”
“Yeah, we heard something in the bushes. Turned out it was just a bird. All this spooky talk about guys with rocks. Just got a little spooked, and everything seems to be okay.”
“No it’s not.” There’s a ripping liquidy sound, then a scream, followed by whip sounds.
“We have contact! We have contact! Oh my God. Impulse is hurt bad. He’s still breathing. I don’t know where that guy came from. It happened so fast. There’s so much blood. Hang in there, man. You’re gonna be alright, you’re gonna be alright.”
“No, he’s really not.” There’s a sickening crunch.
“Now, who were you two talking to? I know your radio’s out. Is that you, sweetie? Are you listening? Are you eaves dropping on me? I was going to use this young lady to clarify my message a bit, but, guess I don’t need her any more.” There’s a crunch. “Tattle tale, tattle tale,” He sighs, “I’ll have to carve her up with a nail.” There’s some sickening sounds and giggling.
Whisper’s attention is completely on what’s going on in the cave, she’s no longer relaying information to the people at the base.
“Sweetie, that message was for you, not these people.” There’s the sound of hands clapping, and wiping. “Sticky. Well, maybe I was a little hasty. Maybe you’re not listening. Maybe I should still go ahead and double up my messages. This young lady isn’t going to do me much good any more. Fortunately I got three whole more people to play with.”
“Please, don’t kill them.”
“Is that you?”
“Yes, please, don’t kill anybody.”
“Can we amend that to ‘anybody else’, ‘cause I don’t want to make any promises I’ve already broken.”
“Please, don’t kill anybody else.”
“I suppose I can do that for you if you do something for me.” His voice is sing song.
“What do you want?”
“I just want to see you again, Sweetie.” Giggle. “Scouts honor.”
“I’m sure that we can do that, but I’m worried about Kai. He’s not well.”
“I know. He’s a little trouper, though. If it makes you feel any better, you can bring your friends if you want. Friends are important, after all. Without our friends and family, after all, what are we?”
“Just don’t kill anybody else.”
“Ever?”
“People can become your friends. Those people you killed could have become your friends.”
“Nah, I don’t think they would have been. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. They were way too serious.” He sighs, “I suppose I can promise not to kill anybody. Yeah, I can do that.”
“Then I’ll be making arrangements to meet with you soon.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Cross your heart and” giggle, “hope to not die?”
“Cross my heart and hope to not die.”
“That’s my girl. Well, I’ve got a little mess to clean up.” He starts singing, and she can hear something wet being dragged across the floor. “La la la la la la laaa… I see a black cave and I want it painted red.”
Knight Owl starts shaking Whisper when she becomes unresponsive. “What happened?”
Whisper holds up a hand, still listening.
“Take the body and throw it down the hole. Take another f*ing body and throw it down the hole.” He sings, then says “Bye, bye.” He comments, “ah, I suppose I should clean up the blood, wouldn’t want anyone to slip and fall.” She can hear what sounds like buckets of water sloshing. “Ah, nobody checks the base boards. Okay,” He whistles cheerfully.
Someone walks to him, sounds like Ruby Tuesday, “Sir, we’ve figured out where the other three are? Do you want to handle them?”
“Oh, no. I made a promise, you go ahead.” He sighs. “I suppose I wouldn’t be a good daddy if I just followed the letter of the law. Alright, take care of them, but let them live. For now anyway. After all, a good, strong family relationship is built on trust.” He starts singing, “Domo arigato, Mr Roboto – I love that song.”
Whisper tries to find the other group, trying to make educated guesses instead of just spiraling. It takes a couple minutes, and she hears the static of a radio. “Apparently, you have three coming your way. Boss said to let them live, but, apart from that, have a good time.”
“What’s going on?” Knight Owl asks.

She hears a female voice in response. She sighs, “Ah, okay, well, I guess that’ll just have to do. Jeeze, I just can’t get no satisfaction.”
A young man’s voice says, “What are we doing? What’s supposed to happen? I don’t want to be here anymore.”
“Oh, calm down now.” From the echoes, it sounds like they’re in a larger chamber.
She continues looking for the Psionex team members and finally finds them – they’re pretty close to where she heard the other group.
She whispers to them, “there’s an ambush up ahead in a larger chamber. I don’t know where you are on the map, but, they’re there.”
“There does seem to be a pretty big chamber on the map coming up. Thanks for the heads up.”
Whisper finally tells Stark, “There’s trouble. Two are dead, three are about to walk into an ambush. Should I tell them to abort? There’s more but things are happening too fast.”
“Get them outa there.”
“Mr Stark said to retreat.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
They start going, Whisper listens. “We’re back to the room, where are Impulse and Pretty? Should we wait for them?”
“No…don’t wait for them.”
The three Psionex members head on out of the cave. “We’ll head for the rendez vous points.”
Cape killers report in, “We’ve got three of the team coming out of the cave. No sign of any of the suspected hostages. Please, advise.”
“We’re pulling out, there’s something else going on here, we’re going to delay this operation.”
When the Psionex team meets up with the Cape Killers, Whisper pulls her attention back to the room at the Initiative base.
“Why did we just pull them out?”
Whisper explains about two members already being killed, and that her father had promised not to kill anyone. But, he’d twisted it to where he wouldn’t kill anyone, but someone else might, though he did tell them not to kill, but essentially gave permission for anything else. There seem to be members of Styx and Stones, and maybe some more infected people. There was a kid there.

“You say he agreed not to kill anybody else?” Stark asks.
“I asked him to stop.”
“Well, that’s awful nice of him to just stop.”
“He wants me to-“
“Of course.”
“He wants you to what?” Knight Owl puts in.
“He wants me to go to him, be one big happy family.”
“Like that’s gonna happen.”
“I agree with Knight Owl, that ain’t gonna happen.”
“I don’t know what he’s got in mind, but I don’t think happy’s it.” Knight Owl observes.
“So, he’s been out of the picture for how long?”
“Thirteen years.”
“He shows up after thirteen years and he wants to pull everybody together like this.”
“Do you know what – why he is the way he is? Or why my brother is the way he is?”
“Walk with me.” He looks at Knight Owl, then back at Whisper, “Your call.”
“He can come.”
Stark opens the door and motions for the two of them to go in.
“The crystals you encountered thirteen years ago were a material known as terrigen. It does not qualify as a material of this world. Terrigen is a – it has mutagenic properties that alter physiology. In humans, usually with un-good results. Typical cases with human exposure to terrigen result in madness, pretty horrible mutations, sometimes resulting in pretty near instant death. It generally has not had good effects on humans. However, the In-Human race built much of their culture around it. In fact, it’s a major part of their culture. When they relocated to the moon, they took the terrigen with them. Good riddance as far as I’m concerned. However, as you have learned, the terrigen did not stay with them. And they want it back.”
“Someone stole it?”
“The reports of the theft were rumors at best, until the In-Human royal family arrived and accused the United States government of being complicit in the theft.”
“Was that thirteen years ago.”
“No, it was more recent.”
“That’s why you showed up at the hospital with the In-Humans.”
“That’s correct. I received reports that your brother had been exposed. The In-Humans apparently had knowledge of exposure on the Hawaiian Islands, but they didn’t know who, what, when. When they learned of terrigen contamination, they wanted to take over the treatment.”
“Thank you for protecting him.”
“That’s my job. The problem we’re facing here is that the In-Human’s don’t know anything about your father. They know your brother was exposed, they know he’s missing. They don’t know about your father, they don’t know that you were exposed. They don’t know that you’re connected to Kai Buckley. I’m hoping to keep it that way. However, they insist on being at least part of the investigation. I have no intention of handing him over, however, things are tense. Diplomatic options are beginning to run out. ie, I’m running out of ways to stall them.”
“Is that how you got your powers, exposure to this thing?” Knight Owl wonders.
“That’s what we think.” Whisper answers.
“It seems a safe bet.” Stark confirms.
“Did they ever retrieve those bits in Hawaii? Maybe you could use those to distract them.”
“We didn’t, and they didn’t. I’m assuming they don’t, since they’re still non-plused with us.”
“Probably with my father, since he was very obsessed with them.”
“Were they few and small enough for him to carry around?”
“They were broken off from a bigger piece.” She turns her attention to Stark, “Do you know if there was ever a piece recovered from my brother when he was brought in?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“I didn’t touch them for very long, but I’m wondering if he had a piece in his pocket.”
“I didn’t hear about him having a piece.”
“It was a dream I had.”
“You people and dreams.”
“I had a dream about him, and he can dream travel.”
“So, he might be horribly mutated. So, that might be why he’s doing it this way. He don’t want to be seen walking around.”
“Did he look mutated in your dream?”
“No. But, sometimes things are symbolic in dreams. He looked crazy and dirty, like a homeless man.”
“I think I know how he’d look.”
“This is weird. You know how those home destroyers are, like the men who lose their jobs and think they’ve failed and have to kill everyone. But, this is even more weird. It makes no sense. He’s got your mom and your brother and he’s trying to lure you back into a cave. Why? Does he want to get back at you for something?”
Whisper says they used to go caving together ever since she was a little girl.
“Well, hell, this might be his idea of a fun family outing. Crazy’s hard ta figure.”
Tony gives a wry chuckle, “I’ll agree with you there.”
“Is there any way to detect these terrigen crystals?”
Whisper closes her hand around the vial she wears on her neck.
“Not that I know of, though the In-Humans might have a way.”
They discuss the possibility of tracking the crystal in the cave and how they work.
“I’m certainly no crystal morphologist. To the best of my knowledge is they’re very fine crystals – very defined structures, very fine. They tend to be surrounded by a mist around them. The mist are just fragments of the crystals that have gone airborne. Usually those fragments are what enter the blood stream. That’s my understanding. How they do what they do when they get inside you, I have no idea. I’ve never had a piece to study. Even if I did, that’s really not my thing.”
“Whose thing would it be, if you had it?”
“Christ, Reed has certainly had the most exposure to the In-Humans and their technology and their culture. He has the most knowledge of the In-Humans than anyone else on the planet.”
Whisper hands over her necklace with the vial, “Could you get this to him?”
“What is this that you’re handing me?”
“This is what’s in my blood, only in a form where you can actually study it in a pure form.”
“I can most certainly get it to him. Well, the Psionex are on their way back now. I need to get next of kin notices ready.”
“My father is going to be very upset if I don’t show up soonish.”
“Great.”
“He killed my brother because he didn’t want to touch the crystal.”
“You had another brother?”
“An older brother. Micah.”
“Well, I guess we won’t keep him waiting, then.”