Chapter 27 - Project Selene

Day 21

Noon

As the meeting adjourned and everyone thought about their next moves, Noah spoke up before anyone could leave, "I have a present of sorts for Erin and Eun-ha, but anyone who would like to see it, well, it might reassure you about what I can already do with the right resources."

Erin and Eun-ha were rightfully curious and uncertain, but there was a bit of excitement that permeated the group as well. Noah had everyone get their coats and shoes on to head outside, which added extra mystery to his plans. As they headed a few houses down and across the street, the women noticed he was bringing them in front of their home.

"Erin, Eun-ha, you're good people and you've treated me like family, and gave the same treatment to my mom after she joined us on this side of town"

Eun-ha interrupted during his pause, "You are family, you and your mom."

He smiled at her appreciatively, then continued, "It's because of these reasons that I made this project one of my earliest priorities. So, without further preamble, let's activate Project Selene." Noah sent a mental command through his implant to Sky, as he waved a hand towards their burned down, ruined house.

Within seconds, various types of bots were climbing out of, and flying around, the wreckage as a silvery metallic sheen formed over the surface of the rubble. Pieces shifted, then began to lift while new framing formed on the foundation. Charred pieces were scraped clean and made whole with fresh materials taking shape on them as if the material were growing them back.

Before long, the core of the first story was built, and as the second story began forming, things like the bricks, doors and window frames, wiring, drywall, and other details formed on the first floor.

Up to this point, everyone had been stunned into silence. Noah broke that silence, giving a bit of an explanation, "The various bots assist with the weight of pieces, making sure they don't shift in such a way that could hinder the rebuild, or harm the houses around yours." He pointed at various things as he continued, "That metallic sheen you see, those are nanomachines. They clean off damaged parts, and pull things like the smoke out of any materials that would otherwise be good. Then they effectively 3D print the materials in the rebuild process."

Eun-ha had gentle tears rolling down her cheeks, and a hand over her mouth. It was a bit too much for her to take in all at once. Erin's eyes glistened with unreleased tears, but she still managed to get out some words, "You're somethin' else, kid." She ruffled his hair.

The whole moment was beautiful. Full of joy, happiness, people Erin cared about. Which is probably why the universe had to fuck with her.

The first sign of trouble was the voice of the neighbourhood troublemaker, "Hey! I told ya t' leave! Not rebuild your shithole of a home!"

Erin spun towards the voice, and almost missed the bottle flying through the air. She moved past her mom and caught it inches from impacting Eun-ha's skull, and the realization enraged Erin. Releasing her Ki and activating the 2nd Tail, Erin was in front of the ring leader and his thugs before their brains had a chance to register she had moved. When they did notice her, there were several gasps and shouts of surprise. Then her Ki started boiling the contents of the bottle while she held it out to the side. This garnered more startled responses, followed by a not very tough sounding scream when she squeezed the bottle in her hand and shattered it.

Erin was gritting her teeth so tight they ached as she asked, "Do you know what happened to the last guys that threw bottles at my mother and I?"

"Yeah," The ring leader said, trying to sound tough and defiant, "We got a look at the men you murdered."

That comment caused Erin's anger to burn even hotter. Her eyes went wide, her Ki flared, and the reflective glow of her eyes on the man's face intensified. "Murdered?! He tried to BURN my mother and I alive!!"

The man scoffed in her face, "He offered us protection, and you attacked him!"

"He offered us extortion and slavery, and when I said NO, he attacked me." Erin was vaguely aware at this point that the soldiers were coming up behind her, but she was confident which direction their guns would be pointing.

Before the soldiers got into position though, the ring leader gave a nodding wave of his head, a signal to one of his men. A guy off to her left lunged at her with a knife. It didn't penetrate, or even scratch her skin. It actually started to melt from the heat of her Ki, but before the attacker could register his mistake, Erin's hand shot out, gripping his head. Her new claws had come out, and dug into a couple layers of skin. That alone would have been painful enough, but Erin didn't retract her Ki from the hand, so instead of worrying about the wounds from her claws, he started screaming as his skin sizzled and burned.

A second thug to her right tried to take a swing at her head, but Erin backhanded him hard enough to launch him across the street. This whole time, she never removed her eyes from the ring leader.

As she expected, the soldiers spread out with their rifles up and pointed at the group of guys Erin was arrayed against. One of them, Johnson she thought, said something like, "Give me a reason to end your genetic line, buddy!"

It wasn't until Logan arrived that someone tried to de-escalate the situation, but how he chose to do so pissed Erin off even more.

"God dammit Erin, let him go! You're killing him!" Logan yelled at her. When she didn't respond, he tried to pry the guy from her grip, who had been reduced to weak and muffled cries of agony at this point. Logan wasn't having any luck prying the guy free on his own, so a couple of the guy's friends joined in. They finally pulled him free, but with the addition of five claw marks that lead from the sides of his head, right into the edges of the large burn in the shape of a handprint that now covered most of his face.

Logan checked the man's pulse, "It's weak. I gotta get him to the hospital."

The ring leader finally looked away from Erin and down at the man, a slight smirk on the side of his face only Erin could see.

"You sick sonuva bitch! You attack me with your dog, then smile when he's nearly killed?" Erin was narrowly holding herself back, but she could feel the urge to rip into this man with her claws growing within her.

"You're responsible for the injuries he sustained, not me." He was completely calm, as if they were discussing the weather. Erin had a sinking suspicion this man was more involved with Joey and his men than anyone knew, possibly even a member of DN at some point.

Despite the revelatory thought of this man's possible origins, Erin just wanted to claw out his insides. As her mother calmly called to her, asking, not begging Erin to let these men go, some semblance of control reasserted itself.

"You and your men are no longer welcome in Middletown." Erin managed through gritted teeth.

"Out into the forest? You might as well kill us here." Despite the words, the ring leader didn't sound all that concerned.

"Not my problem, but if you're still here come tomorrow morning, I'll be a bigger problem than the creatures in the forest."

With that, Erin was gone. She didn't walk, she didn't run, at least not at any human speeds. She was there one second, and nowhere in sight the next.

Logan

"I'll talk to her," Logan said, "We're not sending helpless people into the forest."

Gesturing at the injured man, Logan added, "For now, I need help getting this guy into my SUV."

Anderson and his soldiers stepped between the troublemakers and their civilian charges, mean-mugging every last one of them. The look they gave dared those thugs to fuck around and find out. Return glares aside, none took the bait.

Sighing at the lack of help from the soldiers, Logan looked to the ring leader, "He's your man, help me get him in the damn SUV."

The ring leader gestured with a hand, and three men joined Logan, helping to lift the injured man. As they walked by, the soldiers closed ranks around Eun-ha, Noah, Ms. Jackson, and Mrs. McGibbons.

The men helped load the injured guy in the back seat with two of the guys. Logan got in the driver's seat and the third guy in the front passenger seat. As the vehicle came to life, the thug in the front gestured at Logan with a weapon and ordered him out of the vehicle. He tried to warn them the SUV wouldn't work without them, but the guy wouldn't listen.

Putting the vehicle in gear, the thug got fifteen meters before the SUV powered off. No sound of the engine dying, or weird noises. It just powered off.

A series of curses rang out from inside, the sound of hammering, and then more cursing. Stepping out of the vehicle, the thug yelled at Logan, "What did you do? Turn it back on!"

Logan sighed, walking towards the vehicle, "I told you, it won't work without me."

The thug cursed again, grabbed his head in frustration, kicked the tire and cursed at the pain it caused, then finally said, "Fine! Drive us to the goddamn hospital!"

Shaking his head, Logan looked over at Sydney who was in line with the soldiers. She gave him a barely perceptible shake of her head. His look was resigned, as he shrugged and got in the SUV.

A moment later the SUV drove off, screeching tires as Logan flipped on the sirens and gunned it for the hospital.

Anderson ordered a retreat back to the McGibbons residence, and watched as the thugs left just before they entered the house.

Southeast Edge of Middletown

Erin sat atop the Middletown water tower, staring out at a speckling of glowing dots around the city. She had never been up here before, and in better times this might have felt like a beautiful view. Now it just reminded her how weak and vulnerable her hometown was. Which made her feel weak and vulnerable by extension.

There were unknown Domus Nostra roaming around town, thugs on her street that seemed willing to use violence and blame her for injuries incurred while defending herself, and then the military. She was furious at how childish and pathetic humanity could be for no better reason than their own greed.

Then Logan. A friend, or so she thought, trying to stop her. She snorted. As if he could, she thought. No one in this town had the power to stop her. Well, except that stranger. She had no idea what those blades were that he threw at the soldiers, but they went through her clothes effortlessly, and into her body. Before that, she was starting to feel invincible. Hell, she survived a bullet to the head.

Erin fell back on the water tower, letting out a deep sigh. She slammed a fist down on the tower and felt the metal bend a bit, followed by a deep percussive sound ringing through it. Without looking, she felt the dent, and upon confirming there were no cracks, she chastised herself.

"You're supposed to be controlling your anger, not feeding into it, Erin."

"Why control it, when you can harness it?" An unknown voice called out to her, not British but one could argue it sounded posh..

Jumping to her feet, Erin spun around, looking for the source of the voice, "Who's there!?"

"An old friend," The Stranger said, "Well, that's not fair. See, I know you but you, this you, doesn't know me. Not yet, anyway."

"You're the one who tried to kill the soldiers." Erin accused.

"Guilty as charged," He said in a jovial nonchalance, "But they were so rude and uninviting."

"Creepy stalker watching from afar doesn't like when my friends want to question him. Story as old as time." Erin's voice tried to convey mirth and sarcasm, but her heart was racing.

"What makes you think I'm stalking you, Erin?" The man's voice sounded hurt in that fake way people think isn't obvious.

"You're here."

"Oh my, I guess I overplayed my hand, didn't I." While his words suggested he had made a mistake, Erin didn't get that impression from his tone.

"So, tell me why." Erin asked.

The Stranger tsked, and Erin thought she glanced a finger waving in the dark before whatever was there faded away.

"I don't like spoilers, Erin." The Stranger let disappointment show in his tone.

"Then why are you here?" Erin asked, "If you just wanted to watch, you could do that silently like every creepy stalker.

The Stranger added more faux hurt to his tone, "You say such hurtful things, my dear, and here I am trying to offer my help."

"I don't trust people who won't show their faces, and especially not those who lurk in the dark instead of having a face-to-face." Erin retorted.

As she finished that sentence, the man appeared in front of her, mere inches away. Erin's first instinct was to fall into a stance, but he made no move to attack her. Despite this, his face was still covered entirely in a featureless black mask. His clothing was all black, with a hood. A shirt with interlaced straps under a pea coat style of jacket, and pants that might have been a black canvas. Erin couldn't be certain, only because the darkness muddled the material texture.

"As requested, face-to-face, dear Erin." The Stranger said.

Slowly coming out of the stance, Erin said, "Hardly. Your face is still covered."

"Beggars can't be choosers. Remember what I said, no spoilers." The Stranger admonished, "Now, about that help."

Erin didn't let him continue, "What makes you think I need or want your help?"

"Oh, Erin," The Stranger chuckled, "You have enemies out there," He gestured beyond the city, "And enemies within," He gestured at the city itself, "If you don't seek help, you will never be able to protect those you care about."

His statement set her blood boiling, and her danger sense on edge, "Don't threaten those I care about."

Exasperated, he said, "I'm not, I assure you. I have seen what happens when you do not accept help. It always ends poorly."

"Assuming I believe you." Erin contradicted him.

"Try checking my status."

Erin cautiously requested the status of this man…she received status undetectable. "How is that possible?"

"It's a high level capability, something you'll understand eventually." Now he was using an almost instructor-like tone, "When you do, it won't be hard to draw some conclusions as to the truth of what I say."

"You still haven't told me what you want." Erin's voice had a note of frustration.

"To help you, of course."

"No, that's a goal. What do you want?" Erin spat at him.

"To…" He stopped speaking, perhaps considering his words. When he finally spoke, there was a strained sound, and a weird twitch to his words, like two voices were competing to speak, "To…protect those…I…care…about." When he finally got the last word out, The Stranger released an exhausted breath.

"Don't pull a muscle trying to declare your goal or anything." Erin's sarcastic side started to show.

"Apologies," The Stranger said, "I must be going. We will talk again soon."

He didn't wait for her reply, he just disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

"Creepy. Mother. Fucker." Erin said, then winced when she imagined her mother admonishing her for swearing.

"I should get home." Erin launched herself from the tower, heading for home.