The First: EVO Uprising (8 page)

“
What’s the Source?” Rogers asked.
 

His question once again stopped the procession, as Graves grabbed his nose feeling a migraine coming on. Lady Tech spun around on her heel in disbelief.
 

“
You’re joking, right? You don’t know?” Erica turned her disapproving attention to Graves and Dr. Alexander. “Out of curiosity, what exactly did you tell the good Sergeant to get him to join this operation?”
 

“
I’m pretty sure, Ms. Champion, you can, and will, update Sergeant Rogers on all EVO affairs later,” Graves’ said steely. “Especially considering the Source is not an imminent threat at this time to National Security. Now may we continue the tour? I have other appointments to keep.”
 

 
“
I’ll fill you in later,”
Lady Tech’s mental voice came like a whisper in Rogers’ ear.
 

It made the old Marine wince as he narrowed his eyes at her. Clearly not accustom to telepathy, he would have a talk with Ms. Champion later about invading his mind without permission.
 

“
Anyway, to your left are the living quarters,” she continued her tour, “and down this way is the Hurt Locker.”
 

“
Hurt Locker?” Graves raised an eyebrow.
 

“
Training facility for our new recruits to develop their super powers,” Erica answered with her now trademark sarcastic tone.
 

A tone that was visibly wearing the Secretary of Defense’s patience thin.  As they continued to walk through the massive facility, a pack of miniature Doozers the size of small dogs scurried by disregarding them to get to their next project.
 

“
Over there is the mess hall, armament, fabrication, and my lab,” she pointed trying to wrap up her tour, “and over here is the central command.”
 

Before them was a massive circular steel door with the symbol of a metallic eagle with its wings spread out with the letter ‘R’ etched into its chest covered the door. The insignia broke into two as the two halves of the door opened. As they walked in, aside from Lady Tech and Dr. Alexander, the look of awe broke through both Rogers and Graves’ granite exteriors, while Mendes believed he was standing on the main deck of the starship Enterprise. A gargantuan theatre display screen wrapped around half of the room. In the center of the room, flashing pictures and identification of known EVOs around the globe were sorted and catalogued around a holographic globe that rotated as red lights popped up one by one indicating their locations on the planet. The entire room had a sleek clean look to it with its white on black color scheme and steel blue accents. Everything operated by voice command, touch screen, or holographic projection.
 

“
Welcome home,” greeted Maxine.
 

Her voice threw off men as it projected from inside the room as if among them, not over the speaker system like before.  They turned to face the real Maxine not prepared for what was before them.

Her hairstyle was similar to Lady Tech’s, but colored pink with white streaks. The pink lipstick she wore matched her hair along with her large pink glowing eyes, which were clearly not human. They also matched her body, which was also not human. Aside from her head, the upper part of her thighs and shoulders appeared human. The rest of her body from the neck down, along with legs and arms were hard cybernetic metal in a pink and white color scheme. Blue lights glowed silently from different parts of her limbs, body, and neck indicating an unknown power source allowing for her animation. Mendes pinched his arm to ensure he was not dreaming.
 

“
Thank you Maxine,” Erica smiled.
 

“
I thought you said she was a computer?” a fascinated, yet disturbed, Graves snapped.
 

“
The term is A.I.” She rolled her eyes. “This is her cybernetic android form that she uploads into in order to do physical tasks when necessary to assist me.”
 

She walked up to Maxine looking up at her near six-foot form with motherly pride.

“
Cybernetic battle chassis built out of dark metal,” Erica explained.
 

“
And her power source?” asked an inquisitive Graves.
 

“
Ionized liquid mercury, or what I like to call Liquid Ion,” she smirked, “a mixture of mercury, saline water, and a compound gelatin that can generate electricity on the level of a nuclear submarine. Several miniature pulmonary generators circulate the liquid through her circulatory and central nervous system giving her a
constant cycle of power.”
 

“
Like a human,” said a fascinated Mendes, who moved forward to get a better look, “is it a self-sustaining power source?”
 

“
Not yet,” Lady Tech shook her head. “The mercury eventually evaporates requiring a transfusion every eight months, which is great progress considering the first batch I made only lasted for twenty-four hours. Her eyes are constructed with microscopic solar panels providing her with a secondary power source, putting less of a strain on her main power supply. The goal is to make it self-sustaining once I either find a bonding agent to prevent the mercury from turning to vapor, or a replacement for it altogether capable of holding and cycling a charge of that capacity indefinitely. All in all, she cooks, cleans, and is proficient in all forms of combat. She is also an excellent pilot and driver.”
 

“
Why the human parts?” questioned Mendes.
 

“
It looks cool.” Erica looked at him as if he asked a stupid question. “Not to mention, I’d get creped out always talking to something out of a Schwarzenegger movie.”
 

“
So why not make her look completely human?” Mendes asked.
 

“
Because it looks cool!” she responded in a loud and slow tone, acting as if Mendes was either deaf or mentally challenged.
 

Mendes wore a face expressing that he too was tired of her displays of disrespect.  
 

The round metal door parted again, forcing Mendes to spin around and jump backwards bouncing off a wall known as Rogers. The cause of his startle was two more female android creatures similar to Maxine. A bubbly one with long orange hair and big glowing orange eyes had a rustic red and orange color scheme to the metallic parts
of her cybernetic body, while her molded bust was slightly larger than Maxine’s metallic bosom. The female droid adjacent to her wore a cynical look on her face with her arms folded, her hair was cut similar to Erica’s and Maxine’s but dyed purple with black streaks matching her deep glowing purple eyes; her color scheme was a gothic gunmetal gray with light yellow accents. Unlike Maxine and her companion, the glowing lights on her limbs and body were an orange color. She frame was more slender with a smaller chest as opposed to her other two “sisters.”
 

“
You built more than one,” Graves asked with a hint of displeasure.
 

“
Well, I couldn’t just build one,” Lady Tech shrugged. “The one in orange with the fire top is Angie and the brooding one in purple and gray is Jennifer, my lovely dolls.”
 

“
Dolls…” Graves’ tone became more displeased by the second.
 

“
Uh… yeah… I’m a girl.” She gave him the same look that she gave Mendes a minute ago as if he too was slow. “I like dolls. I specifically designed their A.I.s for each of their bodies, but they can also upload into the main system like Maxine or into other bodies. Angie was designed for heavy lifting, while Jennifer was built for speed using lighter armor and ridiculously fast lightning speed processors.”
 

“
Again, using this facility as your personal little playground,” Graves frowned.
 

“
Actually, I built them because I don’t trust normal stupid people to work on my projects with me,” returned Erica with a flat tone. “Considering all of their A.I’s were mapped from my brain, it’s like having three more of me to execute the tasks I need done so I’m not wasting your little 2.5 billion that I could make ten times over if I decide to rejoin the private sector.”
 

The awkward silence returned as new school and old school locked eyes again giving neither an inch nor a quarter.

“
Why don’t you stick your tongue down her throat, you perv?” The android, designated as Jennifer, broke the silence with her raspy voice. “Isn’t that the reason you’re staring her down so hard?”
 

“
Jennifer! That’s rude!” Angie scolded her sister with her high-pitched Valley Girl voice. “He’s the Secretary of Defense!”
 

“
Well, he’s acting like Bill Clinton, damn lolicon!” Jennifer sneered.
 

 
The comment made Rogers grunt, Mendes forced himself to choke on his chuckle, and Dr. Alexander just shook his head. Graves slowly turned to the android who wore a look of disgust as she glared at him, and decided he had his fill, specifically of Lady Tech’s company.
 

“
I believe we’ve seen all we need to see of this facility,” Graves dryly began his exit speech, “and I have more pressing matters to attend.”
 

˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

Eight minutes later everyone, excluding the androids, were topside once again. Dr. Alexander and Mendes boarded the helicopter while the Secretary, now flanked by his agents, addressed Abe and Erica.
 

“
As I stated earlier Rogers, the rest of your team should be arriving tomorrow at 1100 hours,” said Graves. “I’ll take it I don’t have to worry about you getting them squared away in the six months time required.”
 

“
No sir.” Rogers kept it tight and formal with Graves.
 

“
I know we got off to a rocky start.” The Secretary cracked a fake smile. “But I have every faith that I have chosen the right man for this position.”
 

“
I’ll do my job.” Rogers’ granite exterior cracked a fake smirk. “Sir.”
 

Before Graves could extend his hand for a shake, Rogers snapped a crisp salute bidding him farewell. Graves smirked and nodded.

“
Ms. Champion,” Graves addressed Erica without making eye contact with her.
 

“
Secretary,” she returned with a bright cheese grin.
 

 
Graves turned and walked up the steps followed by his entourage with derogatory thoughts about jarheads and today’s youth running through his mind, while Rogers watched him leave with derogatory thoughts of pencil pushing bureaucrats.
 

They observed as the Secretary’s helicopter ascended into the air and took off; neither cared where it went.
 

“
So,” Erica sighed, “Just you and me now.”
 

“
You know that thing where you were whispering in my head,” said Rogers looking up at the sky.
 

“
Don’t do it again,” she answered also still looking up.
 

“
Also, if you think you’re going to run roughshod over me like you did the Secretary,” said Rogers still looking up, “you will lose.”
 

“
Fair enough,” she smiled. “Care to return to the Batcave and get settled in?”
 

He glanced at her before about facing back to the hanger. Erica turned and skipped, following him from behind.
 

˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

Another eight minutes later they returned underground to the main central command accompanied by the android sisters.
 

“
So,” Lady Tech got down to business, “what do you want to know about the Source?”
 

“
Everything,” Abe answered.
 

“
Maxine,” Erica addressed her android form.
 

Upon command, an onscreen image of a prison record appeared on the theatre size screen before Rogers.

“
Sophia Dennison, formerly Sophia Matheson,” introduced Erica, “widow, thirty-nine years old, United States Citizen born in Mount Vernon, New York, originally resided in Houston, Texas. She graduated from Texas Southwestern with honors, formally a licensed doctor and skilled surgeon. Sentenced to death by lethal injection, which was carried out in 2008 for the murder of her husband, a former highly decorated United States Marine veteran.”
 

“
I know her,” nodded Rogers. “The super woman from the incidents in Texas and DC back in 08.”
 

“
Very good,” Erica nodded, “she is also the reason why you and I are the way we are now. She is the Source, the first EVO, or EVO Zero, and the cause of what we now call the Big Bang 2 incident. She was the one who stopped that nuclear warhead from wiping out the West Coast.”
 

“
A General went down for that, Bernard Matheson.” Rogers began putting the pieces together, “He’s…”
 

“
Her father-in-law,” Erica filled in the blanks. “Don’t know any of the stories between the two of them, but I image there was some pretty nasty family history there.”
 

“
How is she the reason we are who we are?” Rogers asked.