<Episode 11>

Jack slowly started to wake up. He noticed one thing right away, he wasn’t in his own bed. Propping himself up on his elbows he looked at his surroundings. An off white room hospital room, a way too familiar looking room. Looking at himself he saw he was wearing a grey T-shirt. Now he knew were he was, the World Inc. medical section. Moaning he lay back down and put his hands on his face. “Didn’t I do this once already?”, he grumbled.

He then removed his hands and stared at his right arm. Suddenly he remembered what happened. Allen was a Drakan and he fought him. Allen had latched on to his forearm trying to crush it before spinning in place. Jack’s fist clenched at the memory of the pain that became his right arm. Sitting up he raised a sleeve to get a better look. All of the old scars were there, but there were some new ones. This time they even covered the back of his right hand. “What did they do to me now?”

“Jack?”, a male voice said. He looked up to see Rachel and Freidman standing in the doorway. “You’re ahead of schedule,” the doctor looked pleased as he told him that.

“Never was any good at staying on a schedule.” Slowly he got off the bed. Things weren’t as bad as the first time he woke up in the building. Looking at Rachel he asked, “How long was I under this time?”

“Month and a half,” she informed him.

“That long for an arm? No wonder it took you guys six month the first time.”

“Actually your arm would have only took a couple of weeks.”

“Why so long then?” he said while trying to get the light Freidman was holding out of his eyes. “Do you mind?”

“Just doing my job.” Freidman put the light away and put a blood pressure cuff around his arm.

“It was decided it was time to upgrade your systems slightly,” Rachel told him.

“Did my blood pressure just go up?”

Freidman looked mildly surprised, “I think it did.” Rachel just rolled her eyes.

“So what kind of upgrade did they do?”

“Let’s worry about that later”, Rachel told him. “Is he ready to leave Dr. Freidman?”

“I have to check a couple of thing first but he should be good to go.”

“Fine, I’ll back in a few minutes.”

When they were alone Jack held up his arm and asked, “What did I overload this time?”

“Actually this time wasn’t your fault,” he answered. “It was a flaw in your particular design.”

“Remember, if you’re gonna explain it no cooking analogies. I haven’t looked at a steak the same way after the last time.”

Freidman smiled, “I’ll try. You have to remember your left arm and legs had to be totally reconstructed. The rest of you, basically, had to be augmented to keep up. If Allen tried that with your left arm it would have still been damaged but it wouldn’t have been as bad. But since your right arm was closer to your original state of being the stress shattered the bone. I didn’t think anybody considered you ever be in a situation like this.”

“So my right had to be reconstructed too.”

“Not to the same extent, but yeah.” Great he was more of a freak now than he was before.

***

Rachel waited a half hour before going back. Jack had already changed into the black T-shirt and blue jeans she brought from his apartment. He was staring at his right hand, not really paying attention to anything else. She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Hi there.”

“Hey,” he answered back. He gave her a small smile, “Let me guess, they got a job for me already.”

“You can still joke, I’m guessing that’s a good thing. Here,” she handed him the jean jacket with a sweatshirt hood built in she was carrying. “They had to cut the old one off of you so I got you one just like it.”

“Thanks. How much do I…?” She waved it off. After he put it on she handed him a small bag. “What’s in this one?”

“Motorcycle gloves. I figured if you using the jacket to hide the scars on your arm you want to do the same with your hand.”

“It might be time for me to move on. You’re getting to know me too well.”

“You’re not that deep or complex Jack.”

Jack actually made a hurt sound and put a hand of his chest. “I am hurt, I am shocked, I’ve been pegged.”

“Come on, I’ll treat you to some breakfast. Then Mr. Anderson said he wants to see you as soon as possible. He wants to thank you personally for saving his life.”

“Huh,” he muttered while looking deep in thought. “The head of a major corporation is in my debt. If I was my Uncle I could use this.”

“Jack,” She said in a tone to cut that thought off right then.

“I said if I was my Uncle.”

“Your Uncle influenced you a little too much for my taste.” With that she walked out of the room. Before he followed she heard him say.

“My Mom told me the same thing, what are the odds?”

***

Anderson was talking to Armstrong and one of his assistants when Haily and Davidson entered R&D. Several of the scientist looked in there direction and went back to what they were doing. A few, he noticed, were giving him a disdainful look. Word of Davidson apparent killing of the Drakan teenager traveled fast. He knew better of course, if they weren’t going to tell what really happened than why should he? It would be interesting to see how soon before the situation reached the boiling point. At least it would be a diversion if nothing else.

Excusing himself from Armstrong for the moment he went over to them. “Mr. Davidson, it’s good to see you up and about. I’m assuming everything is in working order.”

“Nothing important fallen off.”

He smiled, “Excellent. Mrs. Haily has been keeping me up to date on your condition ever since you were readmitted to the medical ward. She’s been at your side every day.”

Davidson turned and opened his mouth but didn’t say anything right away, “Nah, way too easy.”

“What?”, Haily looked at him. “You actually decided not to say anything smart.”

“I’m saving it for next time.”

“I knew it was too good to last.”

Anderson sighed then he remembered he wasn’t alone. “Excuse me I’m forgetting my manners. Mr. Davidson I like to introduce you to my new vice president. Walter Taylor,” a red haired man stepped foreword, “This is Jack Davidson.”

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Davidson. I heard a lot about you.” He held out a hand that Davidson stared at with his arms crossed. “Is there something wrong?”

“Just wondering what you’ll turn into.”

“Yes,” Anderson said, “that was an unfortunate incident. Took us all by surprise.”

Davidson gave him an all too familiar look, “You knew the janitor was a Drakan but not your own V.P.?”

“Like I told you before we have identified very few Drakan in the city. This species have been disguising themselves as human for a very long time. I sure Allen did everything possible to hide his true nature. Although it does explain his hostility toward you.”

“I told you animals don’t like me,” he said to Haily. He noticed Taylor stiffen slightly. Davidson then held out a hand to Taylor who quickly took it. “I don’t know what you heard but I’m telling you right now… ,” he gave him a sly grin, “it’s all true.”

Taylor returned the grin, “Then it should be interesting working with you then.”

“So what this I hear about an upgrade?”, Davidson said turning his attention to him.

“Part of my debt to you for saving my life. Seeing a Drakan up close and personal and seeing what happened to you made me think that we under powered you for your assignments. I thought it was best to rectify that.” He gestured toward Armstrong, “Since we’re already here, Dr. Armstrong would you care to update Mr. Davidson about what he can expect?”

“Of course.” Armstrong came forward, “Jack, all I can say is sorry we didn’t foresee what happened.

“Even my Uncle couldn’t think of everything.”

“And what did your Uncle do?”, “Anderson asked. Any information that could help keep Davidson under his thumb was very much appreciated.

“Lock smith,” he answered quickly. “Help with his night job.”

“You don’t want to know,” Haily answered before the question was asked.

“Well then, let’s get started,” Armstrong lead then to the table he was at. “Well the most obvious thing you’re going to notice is you’re going to be stronger and slightly faster when you power up the Fusion system. We also made a slight cosmetic change to your armor.” He motioned to a jar filled with a blueish liquid on the table. The armor’s belt was floating on the inside. Davidson started rubbing his waist. “We replaced it with an updated model. We have a spare here to show you the difference” He picked it up. It looked the same to him, the grey metal belt and the red face gleamed in the light, but then again he didn’t have to worry about wearing it. “We’ve gotten rid of the button that activates the charge kick. You have to twist this part of the pod on your right side down, like this. This also gave us the option to add another weapon.”

“Uh-oh” Davidson muttered.

“We felt it would give you a little more diversity in the field. When you twist the pod up you can do…,”

Davidson lowered his head. With his hearing Anderson heard him whispered, “Don’t say punch.”

“Well I guess you could call it the charge punch.” Davidson smacked his hand against his forehead. “Is something the matter Jack?”

“Quick question Barry, was this Tim’s idea?”

“Who else would it have been?”, Tim answered.

“Tim, seriously, you need a life.” The people around him got a good chuckle. Tim got red-faced and went to do something else.

“I think that pretty much cover it. Do you think you feel up to testing your new weapon?” Davidson looked at his fist.

“Might as well.”

“Good, Miss Haily can show you where we test our weapon systems.”

***

They sat in Mr. Anderson office watching the footage of the testing session. Jack armored form was punching and kicking various targets around him. She still didn’t see how they got dragonfly out of his look. But the readout showed he was stronger, maybe four or five times stronger than a normal human. His image stopped and looked at something off screen, “Meter’s flashing.”

“Ok,” she heard herself say, “send in the target.” A side of beef dropped from the ceiling.

“What the…?” Jack looked up and back off screen. “Can I get an order of ribs out of there after this is over?”

“Just hit the slab of meat.”

“Guess this is tonight’s dinner special.” He reached down and twisted the pod up. He waited a moment, reared back his right hand and pounded it into the slab. It bent almost in half from the impact. After a few moments the slab exploded out covering everything in the immediate area. Jack picked a piece of meat off his chest armor. “Where do I go for a hose down?”

Anderson stopped the tape there, “Interesting.”

“You weren’t the one covered in meat,” Jack told him. “Think I found something worse than smelling like Drakan blood.” Anderson chuckled at that then looked at her.

“The upgrades performed better than expected,” Rachel said. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to test how fast he could run. Even before the upgrades Jack had a tendency to burn out the treadmills before he reached top speed.”

“I know, we’re still waiting for the new one. So Mr. Davidson how does it feel to have the new option they gave you?”

“Well I’ve been kicking these things so long it’s gonna take awhile to wrap my head around this.”

“I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” Anderson leaned on the desk and steeple his fingers. “When do you think you’ll be up for another mission?”

“Not right away,” she answered for him. “I mean he just woke up and he has to absorb a few things.”

“Why does this sound familiar,” Jack said to nobody in particular.

“I guess you’re right. We can do without you for a few days. I talk to the two of you later then.” They left the office and walked toward the elevator.

“Want some lunch?”, Jack asked.

“You’re buying,” she told him.

“Ok we’re going cheap then. Any idea what they’re serving today?”

“Charge punch beef,” she said after a beat.

***

That few days turned into exactly two as he got a call from Heather about a sighting. That afternoon he and Rachel were on a college campus. Jack wondered how Anderson got World Inc.’s camera in there. Not that he figured he would ever find out. “So did this one get in on the Drakan college fund?”, he asked as they walked through the campus.

“Every one has the right to learn. Wait let me guess your Uncle was down on college right?”

“No he was all for it.”

“Surprising.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Haven’t seen the two of you before,” said an old man they passed sitting at a chess table. “Never would have thought I’d be unfortunate enough to smell the scent of Drakan blood again either.”

“Crap,” Jack said as he surveyed the area. A whole lot of people were hanging around. Should he change right now?

“Please relax,” the old man got up and stood before them, “I have no intention of fighting you, here or ever. According to rumor you took out Molly. If that is true than I know I have no chance.”

“Molly? Red head, turns into a rabbit? Really hot human form?” Rachel elbowed him in the side, “What?”

“Stick to business Jack.”

He sighed heavily, “That was her, really a lovely person when you got to know her.” The old man looked at him, “So you’re the Drakan Killer. The stories made you seem taller.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

“No, actually I was expecting you to be a little shorter. I’ve been around long enough to know how these things work.”

“So Mr…?”, Jack looked for a name.

“Call me Max.”

“Max, so what are you doing here?”

“Right now I’m waiting for a chess opponent, but I teach philosophy here. Not much I could do after I left World Inc.”

“Did you know that?”, he asked Rachel.

“It wasn’t in the report I read,” she told him. “But after what happened with Allen can you blame them.”

“Bradley Allen?”, Max asked, a little surprised

“Yeah, turns out he was a Drakan too and attacked Anderson. I had to take him out.” Max looked thoughtful.

“I’m surprised it took so long.”

“So you’re with the rebels now?”, Rachel asked.

“Oh no,” he laughed. “I was too high up in the World Inc. command chain to be fully trusted. Although both sides keep track of me every so often. I’m kind of surprised they sent you to check on me.”

“I guess everything ok then, so see ya.” Max nodded as he walked off, relived something didn’t go to hell for once. They reached the vehicles and he grabbed the helmet off the handle bars. He didn’t want to tell Max he wasn’t that surprised he was sent to “check” on him.

“Wasn’t expecting things to go like that,” Rachel told him.

“I’m cool with it.”

“What do you think Mr. Anderson and Mitchell are going to think about all of this?”

“Not really caring right now. Every mission you guys send me on, no matter how you word it, in fact my life lately boils down to three things. Find ’em, fight ’em and blow ’em up. If Max back there wants to skip the last two I’m not going to argue.”

“I’m not forcing you to. You’re supposed to go after the violent ones and he’s definitely not violent.”

“So let’s leave the old guy alone.” For now he told himself. Jack had a feeling Max had answers he wanted.

***

Anderson and Taylor listened to Haily’s report. To him this wasn’t even close to acceptable. Maxwell was a loose end he wanted eliminated. Obviously he underestimated the man ability to withstand the scent of Drakan blood. Well he had other options at his disposal. “You two made the right decision. I hope you understand why I didn’t say that he used to work with me.”

“Of course, you didn’t want us going in thinking it was going to be Allen all over again.”

“Quite right. I expect to see a written report on my desk in the morning.” She nodded and left the room. “Where’s Davidson?”

“He left about a half hour ago,” Taylor told him. “He’s on his way back to the Campus from the look of things. Mitchell already has a man on the way.”

“Good, maybe the job will get done this time.”

***

The campus looked a lot quieter as he pulled up. Jack walked between the buildings until he found Max again. Surprisingly he was still sitting at the same chess table as earlier. He sat across from him. “I knew you be back before you even left,” he said out of the blue. Max looked up and smiled, “Don’t be so surprised, I’m pretty good at reading people. So what do you want to know?” Jack picked up a pawn and just looked at it. “Oh, do you play… Jack was it?”

“Never learned it,” he put the piece down.

Max looked disappointed, “Pity. It’s a good way to take your mind off things. But you don’t want that do you?”

“Why did you leave World Inc.?”

“I disagreed with some of their policies on certain things.”

“Did that include the rebels?”

“Rebels in some circles, patriots in others,” he said, “but that was on top of the list. What about you son? You think you have reason for leaving too?”

“Let’s say I’ve noticed some things not exactly adding up since I’ve been there.”

“You tell these things to that lady you were with?”

“Look I’ll admit she’s the closest thing I have to a friend in this mess right now. But I don’t know if I can tell her this stuff yet.”

“That’s not the impression I got from seeing the two of you together, but it’s your choice. Although she looked a lot more trustworthy than some of the people I knew when I worked there. But if you think I can be of some help, what’s the most recent thing that didn’t add up? I’m assuming the incident with Allen?”

“You mean outside of him being a Drakan and nobody knowing it? But there was one thing I noticed, when I was going to Anderson’s office there was nobody in the hallways. There is always somebody in those hallways. Even when I was staying there you could hear people in that building. Guards walking the hall, cleaning crews doing their jobs, people in the next room getting some after work nookie.”

“Really?”, Max laughed.

“The walls in the medical section are paper thin.”

“Was there any other time you noticed that?”

“Kinda. When I first woke up in World Inc. and Rachel took me to the cafeteria every hallway had a guard but one. And in that one a janitor turned into a red bull and went nuts. It seemed strange at the time but Anderson explained it away so I didn’t think twice about it. Probably should have.”

“Is there anything else?”

“Yeah I overheard some of the assault team talking once.” The other man suddenly gave out a small cry of pain. “Max?” He pulled something out of his neck as his eyes went bloodshot. Jack got out of the way as he pushed the table over and changed into a green bear. He roared at the sky and looked at him. Jack put up his hands, “Max calm down.” He jumped back as a set of claws came at him. Jack raised his left arm across his chest and the belt materialized round his waist. He swung his left arm to the side and brought his right arm to his face. He paused monetarily before saying, “Henshin!”, and slammed his right hand on top of the belt. As he lowered his arms the belt scanned his body and in moments he was wearing the black body suit and blue insect like armor of the Fusion system. “Max don’t make me do this,” he pleaded. Max swung at him and Jack caught it trying to force him to the ground.

Max growled and in a burst of strength knocked him away. He picked up and threw a table that Jack had to roll away to roll away from to avoid. He didn’t want to hurt Max but he wasn’t getting much of a choice at the moment. Max Growled again and swung at his head as he came in. Jack ducked and punched him in the gut. He bent over from the impact. Jack tried to beat him down. Maybe if he knocked him out whatever happened to him would wear off. Too bad Max wasn’t cooperating. Another fit of rage had Jack backing up. His backed into one of the chess tables. He reached back to grab the sides, picked up both of his legs and forced both of them into Max’s chest. He stumbled back but didn’t fall. Jack ran in and tackled him to the ground. It was taking all of his strength to keep the Max down. “Max listen to me! It’s Jack! You got to fight it!” His eyes seem to clear momentarily.

“Jack?” Rage quickly returned to his eyes and he pushed him off. Max started pounding on him harder then ever before. Jack fought back doing all he could to survive. An uppercut snapped Max’s head back. A side kick to the stomach bent him over again. Max recovered faster than he thought he would. He grabbed Jack by the neck and forced him to his knees. “Max!”, he choked out. The Drakan roared and tossed him over another row of chess tables. As he got to his feet and faced Max again the meter started flashing. Out of instinct he went for the button under the belt. The fact it wasn’t there brought him back to reality. Max stayed were he was at breathing heavily. He couldn’t do it.

They both looked at each other. Max eyes cleared again and in that moment those same eyes pleaded with him. Jack slowly nodded , put his hand on the pod and twisted it down. The twin mini turbines behind the belt’s face plate started spinning and a charge quickly built up and ran down his right leg. Jack knelt down and jumped over the tables. He extended his right leg at Max who left himself exposed to what was happening. His right foot came into contact with the Drakan’s chest. Max flew back and hit the ground before exploding. Jack fell to his knees watching his remains burn.

***

“So it’s done?”, Anderson asked.

“Yes sir,” Mitchell said. “My man saw the kill himself. But there is one small problem.”

He felt the rage start to build, “What small problem?”

“Neither the clean up team or my man can find the dart. They’re searching the area looking for it. Don’t worry we’ll find it in no time.”

“They better find it. The last thing I need is for somebody else to find it.” He looked out the window behind his desk. “Or find a way to attached it to us.”

***

Jack sat on his couch looking at the dart setting on his coffee table. He found it lying on the ground close to where Max was sitting. He didn’t see Max get hit with it but he pulled something out of his neck before he went crazy. And this was the only thing around that could do it. “Max,” he said out loud, “I don’t know why but somebody wanted this to happen to you. I promise you that if it’s the last thing I do I will find out why and make them pay.”