Court

Court eyed Lucy as she leaned back against the metal wall of the transport. He'd have thought that the walls would be some sort of cloth, like the movies, but he'd been disabused of that thought when the transport showed up.

Jebediah had been fascinated that the troops within had been Amazons. Rena was sticking close to him in another transport. The whole dance of getting on it had made Court laugh, something Rena hadn't appreciated, judging from the faint green cloud that had surrounded her for a brief instance before being sucked back into her body. Court doubted that anyone but him and Lucy had noticed it.

He rested his fingers on the laptop in his lap. Court hadn't been able to relax since they'd boarded. Half of him was convinced that this was some sort of elaborate trap to lock them all up in 'protected' custody. He wouldn't have any troubles with the normal powered cells, but from what Aarti had let slip a few times, Amazons worked on old-fashioned muscle power and some type of magic.

If he'd never known Aarti, Court was sure that he would have disdained the whole idea of magic. Even Jebediah was convinced that it existed, though he had no clue how to even begin researching it. If Court had to guess, he'd say that magic was one of the reasons the overlords were still hanging around. The other would be their scattered bioweapons they were trying to recover.

"I hope San is okay," Lucy said with a sigh. "What if they break him before we get there?"

"They're not going to break him," Court said. He glanced around at the Amazons who were trying not to look interested in their conversation. "In order to break San, they'd have to give him what they can't…Not if they want to still use him in some fashion."

"That is true," Lucy agreed. She sat up and glanced around. Those guileless blue eyes blinked. "So, what'cha girls in for?" She asked with a grin.

"Lucy," Court felt the need to say.

"What? They need to lighten up some," Lucy said, turning that brilliant grin his way. "Right, Court?"

Court felt his brain turn to mush. His imagination kicked into high gear, telling him emphatically that if he could garner all Lucy's attention, nothing but good things would happen.

He returned to reality to see half the Amazons staring at him with what looked like exasperated pity while the other half had varying expressions that ran from disbelief to disgust and aimed at Lucy who was shrugging.

"It just works," she was explaining with an innocent look. "Who am I to ask why?"

Court shook his head to clear it of the all too pleasant daydreams. He could almost hear the childish little voices calling him 'Papa.' Knowing Lucy, if he told her, they'd wind up 'liberating' some well-deserving orphans.

He didn't really have the time to train a crew for anything.

"Enough fun," he forced himself to say, opening up the laptop. It purred in his hands, eliciting a faint smile. "From what all the intel everyone gathered, the next target should be Simone St. Cloud."

He remembered Simone. She was a complete normie with no talents whatsoever other than she possessed three different genomes.

Court had been the one who'd spun the genetic roulette for everyone, trying to pick out the more stable parents. Lucy, as she was fond of saying, was a 'natural' and therefore stuck. Everyone knew who her parents were. Her mom had been one of the primary principals during the Liberation. Court considered her mom scarier than Dawnie's mom, if only because the woman was so unpredictable.

Simone had been placed with her grandfather who had made a fortune in something. Court had never bothered to find out what. He just wanted her to have a better life than she would have with the overlords. If not for the Liberation, she'd have been doomed to be a container. One of her biomoms had been marked as high-fertility in her files, but they'd only been able to save her genes, not the container herself. She'd had fought unsuccessfully to get away while pregnant with Simone.

She was the daughter of the man they'd placed Simone with. From all accounts, he doted on the girl. Court had kept an eye on Simone for the first couple years to make sure he hadn't been pretending. From what he could tell, Simone had been happy and spoiled, sometimes baffling her grandfather with her reactions to his over-the-top presents.

They'd pegged her as the next target because she'd become high-profile in the last few days. She was hosting a charity auction on her grandfather's behalf. Her story and pictures were posted everywhere.

They'd all agreed that she was too high-profile for the overlords to resist. At least the adults thought that was why they agreed.

The reason Court and his friends had agreed was the picture of Simone talking to other organizers. In the background behind Simone had stood a boy and a girl. The girl's eyes seemed to be nearly all white while the boy's was nearly all black. Most would think it was a trick of the light while the photo was taken, but they'd recognized the only set of the twins among the creche children.

Sol and Kuro hadn't been gestated. Instead, they'd been created using some sort of magical artifact and science. Court and Jebediah had agreed, after reading the notes they'd stolen from the labs during their escape, that the researchers had been trying for a more controllable form of Aarti. Whatever magic went into making the Amazons wasn't that understandable to the overlords. The same could be said for Sol and Kuro. However, instead of the angry intractableness of Aarti, the twins were quiet and almost co-dependent. If you could control one, you could theoretically control them both.

Court hadn't been able to find any leads for the twins. The home they'd been placed in had 'misplaced' them shortly after the Liberation. He had to wonder just how many of them had run away or been abducted. So many of them had wound up in other places.

"Come on, Court. We're gonna have so much fun," Lucy drawled, but Court could sense her heart wasn't in it. He totally understood. "We'll rescue people, kick butt and get home in time for dinner."

"Yeah, Luce, we will," Court agreed. He straightened up and opened up his laptop.

It was time to get to work.