Three years before, he'd attempted to assasinate Leonard McCauley as part of a campaign against the corporate greedmongers who practically ran society these days, of which McCauley was one of the worst examples - even in that rotten set. Ever since, he'd been paying the price for his failure.
At first, McCauley was content simply to have him tortured. But then another option had opened - his fledgling program to create and control metahumans. He'd begun experimentation, but subjects with activatable metagenes were few & far between. Most of the victims simply died slowly and painfully in agony, and many of those with actual metagenes ended up heavily deformed or even killed by their own "power." McCauley didn't hesitate to throw Mano in.
To his shock and horror however, not only did Mano prove metagene-positive, he became the most sucessful subject to date!
He produced small organelles all over his body, which generated a disruption field which surrounded his body. This field absorbed all light, making him appear to crackle with jet-black energy, but it's primary function was to steal energy directly from the atoms of the air, most of which were merely slowed, but some had electrons ripped from their orbits, converted to pure energy which was absorbed by the field, and molecules were broken into their component atoms by the disruption.
As a side-effect of this process, he no longer needed to eat or breathe - the energy provided by the organelles being sufficient to sustain him. Indeed, as his breathing reflex was intact, normal air was moderately dangerous to him, as the oxygen levels improved the efficiency of the organelles' energy uptake enough that the surplus of energy left him in a state resembling drunkenness.
What had given him his current name though, was that the highest concenrations of organelles were in his hands. For an animal or human to touch most of Mano's body left them weak and dizzy. If his left hand, which had a tenfold concentration of the organelles, touched them briefly, it left them unconcsious for hours, with prolonged contact leading to a coma. But his right hand... his right hand had a hundred-fold concentration of the organells. His right hand was Death, disintegrating all it touched bar Inertron, the strongest, most durable substance known.
On seeing these results, McCauley, in his panic, had him sealed in an intertron-lined suit in an intertron-lined cell, with bars of interton, with hyperoxygenated air pumped into the suit to keep him sedated. Lying barely-conscious but never unconscious, always looking at the same section of silver-coloured wall for almost three years. Three long years. Only his thoughts of vengence on McCauley had kept him anywhere near sane. And now, now he knew he could never act upon them.
He looked around his new, opulent cell. At the thin silver, interton-fortified gloves that had replaced the suit through the oxygen-filtered helmet he now wore. At the endless luxuries scattered about the room. Luxuries he swore he would never use. Which was probably why they were there.
He remembered the pain of the brainwashing, the surprise of the techs that he realised he had been brainwashed... and the commands he could no longer disobey.
In despair, the first time he'd been alone he'd attempted to remove the gloves and destroy himself, leaving nothing of himself to be mocked, only to find that he couldn't remove the gloves. He couldn't even make the attempt. Other attempts at suicide failed the same way, and he'd heard McCauley's laughter. He'd watched Mano's whole performance.
Now, he was supposed to be the leader of McCauley's death-squad. His own, true name forgotten at McCauley's command, forever to be known solely by the Spanish word for hand. McCauley's final little revenge on his new pet.
Mano hated what he'd become.
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Laurel was nervous. The team was due to be announced to the waiting public in less than half an hour.
«Leader?! How did I end up in this mess?»
She remembered leaving the orphanage in an attept to find & join the Legion . After hours of flying around, trying to find the team, she'd talked herself out of it. Obviously they'd never accept someone who just... flew in and said "Hi, can I join your team?" It was hopeless.
Then she'd spotted the McCauley recruitment poster, and when she reached the building it mentioned on it, she'd been admitted to a meeting with Mr McCauley himself! Awed, of course she'd joined up straight away. And apart from that one strange incident where they all K.O.ed each other, she'd not had any real cause to regret her choice. Who'd have thought that Laurel Gand, an orphan with no living relatives and no money could make good so quickly?
Trying to relax, she tried to hard and ended up letting down her guard. She had to concentrate a bit at all ties to keep her super-hearing dampened enough so that she didn't end up listening into every conversation in a 10-mile radius (it wasn't even just "white noise" - for some reason she could even comprehend them all. Well, all of them in English anyway - it'd drive anyone mad). Before she managed to rein it back in, the snippet of speech that really caught her attention came from Spark [who, by the sound of the faster-than-normal heartbeat beside her was talking to Polarity].
"...be fine, just try & copy Laurel (or Andromeda - whatever). I sometimes wonder if anything fazes her. Wish I..."
«Heh,» Laurel thought, «If only she knew...»
It was something that came from her time in the orphanage. Super-powers did nothing to stop someone verbally ripping you to shreads. Heck, some of the worst taunting came from people who caught her practising her powers when she thought no-one was around. They could see her trying to restrain herself, and the knowledge that she'd basically have to ignore them or kill them seemed to embolden them rather than the reverse.
So the little orphan girl learned not to react, or to show when she was scared or nervous, putting on an unshakeable veneer of confidence and certainty, no matter what. ____________
Ella had only been in her hotel room for five seconds, having been told she'd be called from there for the conference, when someone knocked at the door.
"Umm... come in?"
A man walked in, carrying a stack of cardboard boxes in his hands. He set them down, picked out the one with "Spark" written on it, and put it on the coffee table beside her settee.
"Right, here's your uniform for the conference. They've tweaked the design a bit." "Ummm... they don't have big gold buttons on them, do they?" The guy looked at her strangely. "Ummm... No. Why would they" "I just had a nightmare last night about someone dressing us in ugly red & blue suits with big, tacky gold buttons on them. They're not?" He rolled his eyes, thinking she was lucky she wasn't meant to be precognitive - she'd be kicked off the team straight away for a mistake this big - "No. From what I was told, they actually tested mostly red suits, and pretty much no-one liked them in the testing. "Big gold buttons" didn't even make it that far." He left with a shake of his head, closing the door behind him.
She looked at the suit she'd been given, let out a sigh of relief, and began to get dressed... _____________
"And finally, McCauley Industries shocked the stock market today by announcing a team of superpowered operatives to be known as the Workforce. Our New York correspondent, Martin Grey reports."
----
"In a suprise announcement today, Leonard McCauley, majority shareholder and CEO of McCauley Industries revealed the formation of a team of metahuman operatives for the company to be known as the Workforce
McCauley announced that the Workforce "would be used to defend McCauley Industries plants against the increasing threat of metahuman criminal behaviour," as well as any other potential targets who sign up to [their] Workforce Plan, and would attend at future McCauley press conferences as added security. He denied that it was a response to the recent founding of the UN-sanctioned "Legion."
The team, clothed in distinctive blue and black outfits bearing individual symbols as well as "McCauley Workforce" logos, put on a brief display for the waiting crowds before descending to talk to waiting reporters:"
[Andromeda:] "Well, it's great to be given the chance to make the world a more secure place, and we've got every intention of doing that job as best we can."
"The Workforce are due to go on duty before the end of the week. Martin Grey, ITV News, New York."
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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Inside the Metropolis Zoo was an ape it was gigantic and kept trying to break out.He growled and suddenly changed into a bald kid."Huh?Where?Oh-no not again!I returned back into human form."The boy looked down."Ahhh!I'm naked again!"The boy slipped through the bars and a man gave him his trenchcoat."Who are you?"the man smiled "I work for a man named McCauley and I think you should join Workforce."the boy looked at this man,was he insane?Eddward Volsar was from Metropolis thinking as usual why him? ----- FLASHBACK:9 months ago.Eddie and his dad Georgie were doing research on Brainiac the real live villian.Georgie died but Eddie was spliced so he could evolve into the human of the future or the human(or ape)of the past.He managed to escape but at a cost he can no longer control his evolving and has often not been able to remember anything.Often he woke up in a cage,but sometimes he woke up in a robe in some kinda church. ------ Three Hours after we left Eddie and the man as they are heading towards the Workforce."So kid wanna be a hero?"Eddie looked at him funny-like now."Well okay but um....Shouldn't I go to an orphanage?"the man was shocked-literally,this kid this evolvo was an orphan? ----- BRING...BRING was the sound of the man's mobile."Yes.Uh yes sir I have a new one and er that is he's an orphan.What's his power?That's rude sir but he can devolve and evolve.Code-Name?Um Evolvo sir yes Evolvo.Heh."Evolvo looked once again at the man and he changed into the future.**"Mister McCauley I am Evolvo...evolved I can read thoughts but I want a suit that helps me control my power."**,swiftly Evolvo changed back.His head hurt.He then devolved into the prehistoric giant ape and he leaped through the roof of the car the ape could slightly speak,"EVOLVO!Ooh-eek!EVOLVO!Ooh,ooh,ooh!"the man grabbed a tranquilizer and yelled,"Evolvo!Stop."Evolvo stopped and changed into the future again he telekinetically flew to McCauley."Hello McCauley."The Workforce then.....
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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"Yes, yes..." McCauley said, pressing a button under his desk.
Instantly, targeting systems in the room identified the figure not in their systems and proceeded to launch multiple traquiliser darts at it. Caught offguard, it dropped to the floor, unconscious.
McCauley laid down the pistol he had grabbed in his other hand, as security guards entered the room, carrying a statis booth and preparing to remove "Evolvo" to the "metahuman bank" of their desert facility, as McCauley left the room, first to bawl out his secretary, then to find a way to prevent the recurrance of such incidents. Despite the need to be selective in the subjects they "banked," the debut of the public team around a month ago had proved an absolute goldmine. In addition to the companies who had rushed to sign up the team as very public "protectors", meaning that the project had moved into profit in less than a month - over five months ahead of schedule - they now had over sixty subjects immediately available, without the need for further recruitment missions. He was considering moving to Phase 2 earlier than he'd anticipated the need for as a result, although that was at least a month away.
Whatever he did though, he snorted, "Evolvo" wouldn't get out of his statis tube for a very, very long time...
[ May 28, 2004, 08:48 AM: Message edited by: Sanity or Madness? ]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Sorry about leaving this for so long - between exams and a mental block, I've left this bit half-finished on my HD for ages. Moving along now... __________________________________________________________________
"I still fail to comprehend..." "Brainy..." "DO. NOT. call me 'Brainy!' Or 'Doc.' Or 'Egghead.' If you must burden me with one of those infernally irritating codenames, refer to me as Brainiac Five." Trinity giggled so hard she triplicated at this. It had become almost a motto of Quentin's. "Why?" her purple-eyed body said, "Like remembering back when you were a lab rat? Maybe they should have..." "SISTER!" Her "Orange" body cut her off before she could finish the sentence. The shyest of the three bodies, all three knew what the others were thinking at any given time. And she certainly didn't enjoy what the "Purple" body did sometimes, like now. Brainy's face had gone the colour of holly leaves. "Fine." T-Purple's voice had the edge of a sulk to it. "I'm just saying that if anyone made me a lab rat, I wouldn't be going round celebrating it."
*Ahem* Cos stepped in to end the spat before it got serious. "Look, Brainy...ac Five," catching himself just in time, "I'm sure Lorna didn't mean anything by it."
As if with a great effort, Quentin Docks calmed himself and said, "I would prefer to go around "celebrating" my real name, Quentin Docks. I'm not the one who insists on these... childish pseudonyms."
"Fine then, we'll just call you 'Dox.' Happy?" T-Purple felt the need to make one last crack "More than before."
"I really don't know why you keep following us when we try & see Paul & Ella, you two," Garth cut in, exasperated.
Trinity-Neutal pulled her other selves in quickly before Purple could start another argument. Everyone knew Brainy went so he could try and meet Andromeda. And she went because she wanted to see Brainy try and meet Andromeda. ________________________
It looked like they were going to be fobbed off again at first - although a cursory scan of the news reports showed that it wasn't all about keeping them away. The Workforce made a point of keeping very high-profile in everything they did, even if they'd only been called into action once. Cos wasn't sure if he was relieved or jealous at this moving the spotlight off the Legion...
"Hi bro." Paul's voice made him turn - his team was entering the reception area, coming back from a PR stunt for one company or another. Before he could continue - or Cos himself could respond, however - a loudspeaker message announced the Workforce's return, and a surfeit of confetti fell from the ceiling, as the workers applauded. The irritation some of the team members showed looked more genuine than most of the applause though. Enrapture and Ultraboy, however, visibly lapped it up.
"HERE - COME ON THROUGH TO THE REC ROOM" Paul had to shout to make himself heard over the canned music that was now playing. As they walked along the corridor, and it began to fade, Cos made a comment about his brother's lack of contact recently. His face showing genuine contrition, he answered "Sorry about that that, really. All the calls into and out of this place are taped, and I didn't want anyone listening in on our calls. And I don't get any time off for another fortnight."
"They tape your calls?" "Everyone's calls. Something about not leaking stuff to the media before the official announcements" Cos weighed this for a moment, then recalled the Workforce's media coverage and the show their press confrences got. Clapping his arm around his brother's shoulder, he replied "Ack, it's okay. As long as you start talking," before adding with a smirk, "And don't hold anything back."
Nearer the back of the column though, a less cordial reunion was taking place...
"Hey, Ella, wait up!" Garth called. "Garth." Ella's voice was so cold, it was a surprise her breath didn't form icicles. Garth gulped. He'd more than half-expected this. "Hi Ella - how've you been doing?" he tried, as they entered the rec room. "I've kept busy." "Come on, you're not still sore about..." "'Still sore!?' Now why would I still be 'sore' about anything?" Agitation began to creep into her voice. "Come on, it's not my fault that..." "That WHAT? That weak-little girl me was in a coma for a week longer than you? That you'd already packed your bags to go when I wake up to look for our deadbeat brother? That you LEFT ME BEHIND maybe!?" Her eyes were glowing now, and blue-white sparks started flying from them now. All it really served to do was to get Garth angry too though. "So what? I was just meant to leave Mark to go off and go do who-knows-what?" His eyes were also glowing now, and the whole room had fallen silent, watching them as the sound of their voices and the crackle of the electrical coronas forming about them left other conversation almost impossible. "I didn't make you come along with me on that boat trip to keep an eye on them."
"Is she always like this?" Cos muttered to his brother. "I've seen her get annoyed, but nothing like this," Polarity replied. "Him?" "Same."
"And I wouldn't have come with you if you'd asked?" "I didn't want to put you in any danger!" He knew he'd said the wrong thing the second he'd said it. She was expending so much energy that looking at her hurt the observers eyes. "DO I LOOK LIKE I CAN'T HANDLE MYSELF?!?!"
The Kline brothers decided to step in at this point before anyone got hurt or anything smashed up.
"Ummm... guys," Paul was the first to interject, "take a look at yourselves for a sec, huh?"
The Raines twins reluctantly began to power down, Ella somewhat more slowly than Garth, but continued to glare at one another.
"Why?" Ella finally added in a hoarse whisper. "Really. Why did you really, truly feel the need to leave your twin sister like that?" Garth paused before replying. Honestly, that week while he'd recovered and she still lay there in that evil sleep was the first week in his life he'd done anything without her. When he left, he told himself it was to stop her getting hurt again, like she'd been when they tagged along with Mark that time, and been zapped by the perimeter defences of that place when they found out Mark had been up to the tricks he'd sworn blind he'd stopped again. Now he wondered if part of him enjoyed this forced seperation. "Honestly?" Garth's reply was in a similar tone. "Honestly, I didn't want you getting hurt again." Ella's face looked like she wanted to give him a thousand replies, very few of them nice. But instead, she turned and walked towards the showers without another word, leaving a crestfallen Garth to stare at where she'd stood. Realising that he'd missed her, and wondering if she'd ever speak to him again. ____________
After the Ella and Garth show, things were a bit strained between everyone except the Kline brothers. Trinity-Orange checked on Garth, while her other selves tried to make small talk, with only moderate success. Brainy sat in a seat the whole time, trying and failing to make himself go over and talk to Andromeda. A fact not lost upon the Trinities for later use
"You'll have to come and visit me when that tyrant gives you a minute off, you realise," Cos smirked as they left. Before Paul replied, he had to bite back the impulse to correct Cos on Mr McCauley, and wondered where that came from... "No problemo bro. See you around," waving goodbye as the Legionnaires walked off to their jet. Ella, on the other hand, was nowhere in sight.
[ May 28, 2004, 09:51 AM: Message edited by: Sanity or Madness? ]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Rebound or Chuck as he preferred had been waiting to do something useful but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to visit the Workforce."McCauley,hmm why only a year ago did he buy a stock percentage of Brande's company?"Chuck had been waiting for Rex to come back.The jet landed.Rex was the first to walk out then all three of Trinity.Garth was the last to come out."Well there all cheery."Chuck went back to his computer."McCauley,rich,powerful and certainly full of himself,I wonder if...nah!" ________ (small interlude) If anyone's wondering why I'm using In-Brainy's(Invisible Brainiac's)characters I'd just like to say I got permission. (end small interlude) Much later Chuck was in his room writing love letters to Trinity.None he ever gave to her but he wrote them all the same."Sigh,I wish I had the nerve to give at least one of these letters to Trinity."he said.Meanwhile Flash and Kinetix had made up their minds they are going to sneak out.Chuck left his room and went to see Rex.Chuck still wasn't comfy with Quislet being a Legionnaire. _______ Much Later again.Jenni had met a boy!Just like Zoe had planned,her boy was a football jock but Jenni's was a runner."Hey Jenni what did I tell you?"said Zoe to her friend,Jenni smiled,"You said we'd meet boys and you were right."but after a while the girls returned to headquarters.Chuck was waiting."Uh-oh"said Jenni."Gene knew you would go out."
[ May 31, 2004, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: Valor the M'Onel ]
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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The age of Monius Ellyius was well remembered yet one man was jealous of the hero's great feats he was Devius Emmaer he was also a great warrior.He was an outlaw and Monius Ellyius was sent to capture him.It was Devius who used lead to sicken Monius Ellyius and since Devius had done that he earned the respect of the Trapper of Times.But betrayel came from the Trapper of Times as Devius is now stuck between times so the Trapper can use him when he decides to rule over mankind
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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It's been altered I thought the whole team went to Workforce headquarters not just those four.Besides I didn't say he saw the Ella versus Garth show
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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Outside of time Rex Kline was once in the future.He was trapped in the timestream 10 years from now."The Legion will not know that if I die they will never exist because somehow I am bonded with Rex and if he wasn't on that plane then Imra and Garth wouldn't have stopped both crooks."the Trapper of Times had done more for the Legion than they know.He convinced Devius Emmaer to try and kill Mon-El so he would be in the Zone of Phantoms.The Trapper had once been famous but in 10 years time he will quit the Legion.The Legion will be different yes with a different line-up and with no support from the United Nations."Chu,wait I can change everything if Chu dies."the Trapper-Rex looks at his hand bandaged.He knows what happens/happened.Dox had created the perfect machine an android.The Trapper watched the death of a Legionnaire.He grabs his old Legion belt and waits for his time to end.It doesn't.
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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Unbeknownst to the Trapper though, he wasn't truly a version of Rex Kline. Though he had fixated on Kline, to the point of following him through one of the myraid alternate futures, and had reached the point where he believed himself to be that Kline, he was actually created in the 41st Century. A tiny piece of the soul of the universe would break off in one possible future, and become unhinged from time, able to observe but, despite what it thought, unable to have any direct effect on reality except in it's own delusions.
[ June 01, 2004, 02:59 AM: Message edited by: Sanity or Madness? ]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
The Workforce were quick, clean and efficient. 5 seconds after entering, the team's telepath had already disoriented everyone in the room, quickly followed up by another member quickly disarming anyone with a weapon, some literally. As if from nowhere, another member appeared, wrecking the computers in the process. Finally, the team leader swiftly assassinated every non-Workforcer in the room, starting from the most important downward. None of them had particularly enjoyed it.
Mano replaced his right glove, sealing the hand that murdered for McCauley in the silver sheath of Inertron. He looked around at "his" team. Micro was already yapping on to no-one in particular and Tellus, the misshapen telepath the size of a large dog slumped into a corner. But Wolf, who looked more lupine every time Mano saw him, seemed to be reacting unevenly. He wondered what demons rattled inside that skull at what this "Covert Workforce," McCauley's 'deniable' team were made to do.
------------------
Nothing seemed quite right in Brian's head. There was a girl, a girl got him into this, he was relatively certain about that, but how and why no amount of headstrain could bring within range of his waking mind. He didn't use to look like this, did he?
One thing was sure, even if he didn't know why, he was enjoying himself now.
______________________
Tikhik's condition had only improved slightly in his time in Australia. While he was as physically fit as his insectoid body would allow, his ability to teleport had been seriously compromised by the immense strain involved in teleporting some thirteen and a half thousand kilometres - around 8400 miles! As things stood, he could only open "gates" wide enough to teleport a garden pea. In his panic to get as far away from McCauley as he possibly could, he had lost any advantage that may have come from immediate exposure.
He would have to think of some way out of this... ______________
The insect problem.
It was no longer an active source of worry for McCauley - it had been over a month since it had escaped, and no trace of it's teleport signature had been picked up by the McCauley Ind. satellites in all that time.
Objectively, it was dead. But Leonard McCauley wouldn't rest until he had it's head above his fireplace...
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Yes, I HAVE actually got back to this Anyone else going to too?
Richard McCauley stood outside his family's ancestral home and looked up at the facade, appreciating yet again the craftsmanship his father's father had obtained to build the residence. The moment was, he reviewed, likely to be one of the last things he would enjoy today. For he no longer resided in the house he looked upon, having retired to the Florida coast some years prior.
That honour belonged, at present, to Leonard, his eldest son, who had inherited both house and chairmanship of McCauley Industries, the company his father and he had built into a multi-million dollar conglomerate. Which, with more than eighty percent of the shares still in the hands of the McCauley family, including his own sizeable stake, was the subject of today's visit - one of his six-monthly dinners with Leonard to review the ostensible "family business." They were a matter to be tolerated, rather than enjoyed, for both of them, yet he continued to make the half-yearly trip, feeling constrained to the cycle.
At least, he reflected, whatever the company, the standards of the kitchen would need to have fallen abominably for the food to be less than excellent.
--------------------
As he walked into the porch, he noted the lack of any apparent security enhancements with distain. One could never be too careful in these uncertain times. This, in apparent karma, was immediately followed by a momentary migraine so severe that his life apparently flashed before his eyes. Before he reached the door, the butler opened it, and ushered him into the drawing room, where his son was waiting for him.
"Mr McCauley Senior, sir"
He had always disliked the "Senior," and in his still slightly disorientated state, was unable to hide his distaste. As far as he was concerned, only the "Junior" term was required (where applicable), he thought as he settled into one of the sumptuous leather armchairs.
"Will that be all, sir?"
"For the moment," his son replied, "but have the kitchen ensure that the meal is ready for seven o'clock."
"Very good, sir," said the butler, exiting backwards and shutting the door. At least one person knew his place.
Several seconds elapsed before McCauley Junior broke the silence. "Hello father."
Richard grunted in acknowledgement, as he closed his eyes, trying to banish the after-effects of the inexplicable headache.
"I see you encountered Heather. It can be quite uncomfortable I suppose, the first few times."
He shot his son a sharp glare and gruffly barked "What?!" through his neatly trimmed white beard.
"My latest addition to the security staff - a telepath who has been trained to verify the identity and intentions of everyone entering the estate.
"WHAT?! You would subject me to this indignity?! Could you not, at the very least, have trained your 'telepath' to recognise me on sight? Or provide me with some token to prove my identity?"
"It's not the world you inhabited, father. Trinkets can be stolen, shapes can be mimicked. Scanning every single person - yes, including myself! - is the only viable option."
Richard didn't like it, but he could see Leonard's point. After all, had he himself not silently berated the apparent lack of security improvements as he was about to enter? What device could prove more secure? Still... "If I understand you correctly, however, this 'Heather' is a person. How can you prove her loyalty? People can be bribed, blackmailed or simply become tired of service. And the power and knowledge she could wield, were she to turn against you... against us!"
Leonard McCauley smiled thinly. "The loyalty of her - and of all my staff - is absolute and demonstrable. Steps have been taken to ensure that betrayal is impossible."
This statement, and the absoluteness of it, gave Richard McCauley pause for thought. He was almost certain he wouldn't like the details behind that statement, and it was not something he wanted to debate on an empty stomach. He moved the subject onto McCauley Industries finances, resolving to return to that statement later...
--------------------
As far as Tikhik was concerned, he'd been stuck in Australia far, far too long. The hospitality of the Kallors had been shocking, when you considered that he looked like some sort of giant cockroach or beetle. But he couldn't impose much longer. Still, while he was recovering, he couldn't quite open a gate wide enough for him to get through - and besides, given what teleporting to Australia had done to him, teleporting back was out of the question.
"What're you thinking about?" Tom, the boy who had found him when he landed & taken him home was walking over to him. "You know what I'm thinking about..." Tikhik said, looking out onto the harbour in the morning sun. "Yeah. I suppose I can kinda understand it, after what he did to you. But, if that's all you ever think about, it'll destroy you quicker than he'd ever be able to." "I'm already destroyed though Tom. I already am..."
--------------------
The bell rang for dinner, and Richard McCauley followed his son through to one of the more moderately-sized dining rooms. Even McCauley extravagance didn't extend to using the Great Hall for a two-person meal. They sat, but at the table, but the elder McCauley was genuinely shocked when he saw that the servant girl attending them had two huge, angel-like, wings extending from her shoulder blades, and even more so when she turned and he quite clearly saw from her exposed back that they were quite clearly not strapped in place, but indeed grown from the waif herself, a girl of age - he judged, if indeed such a specimen aged normally - between 16 and 18 years.
Leonard quite clearly delighted in his father's utter shock. "Yes, father?"
Richard had not quite regained his powers of speech yet, and instead dumbly pointed at the girl.
The son's grin broadened. "Yes, quite a delightful specimen, is she not?"
"Bu-But, wings!?"
"Yes, but they're not so much to look at like this. She looks exceptionally beautiful on the wing. And she can fly, although no-one seems to be able to decide quite how."
"Bu-but..."
"You can accept the idea of a telepath sorting through your thoughts to ensure you're you, and not the idea of a girl with wings?"
Richard finally pulled himself together at that. "Yes, but for God's sake, a telepath doesn't have to be seen. A girl with angel wings? The tabloids would be all over it, then the churches would be proclaiming her the second coming or something! Are you trying to tell me that she grew those overnight and you're the first person to notice those? Notice her?"
Leonard looked the girl over, raising her head slightly with his hand from the bowed position it had been in to look her straight in the face. "Of course not to your first question, but essentially yes to the second. Apparently she's a member of some backwater tribe that's all got them, and somehow stay out of sight. Apparently, one day she decided to fly off, saw a recruitment advertisement for the Workforce and decided to try out. Putting her on the team would have been pointless, since all she can do is fly and those wings are huge targets, and arguably outright dangerous to us, given that we'd have the bible bashers all over us like maggots." He dropped her head and turned to face his father, "Still, there was no value in losing a beautiful specimen like her completely. I... convinced her that a place in my personal household was a good idea, and now she serves me loyally."
"Loyally..." there was that word again, Richard thought. Of course, the McCauleys had always demanded complete loyalty from their servants as a condition of employment, but certain aspects of Leonard's story only made sense if you read a deeper meaning into the way he delivered that word. The girl was still just standing there, head bowed, in her rather revealing blood red female servant's outfit. Not the sort who just ran away. He'd mentioned the Workforce in his story, a subject they hadn't touched on yet but Richard had fully intended to bring up anyway.
"And the active Workforce... they are just as loyal?"
"Of course."
Richard McCauley intended to say more, but the doors opened and the butler and two other servants carried the soup in at that moment. And the custom of these things was never to talk business during a meal.
--------------------
At that moment, several of the Workforce members were appearing on a late-night chat show, as part of the directive to keep the Workforce - and by extension, McCauley Industries, for whom the Workforce had become something of a talisman - in the public eye.
Most of it had consisted of regurgitations of already public backstory [like how Reflecto had discovered his power after falling off a cliff... and bouncing. And that of course he hadn't been unhinged by the experience. And no, (in response to an audience question) he hadn't heard of a character called Deadpool. Why did he ask?] The rest of it was accounts of recent and near-future work, none of which had any particular consequence [Reflecto moaned they hadn't actually had anyone stupid enough to fight them yet, and forced attempts at matching up the members romantically.
Still, it was considered good publicity. So it had to be done.
--------------------
The meal was finished - and had been excellent, as usual - and the two McCauleys had retreated to the Smoking Room. The younger McCauley had port with his cigar, while the elder maintained his preference for brandy after a repast. The winged servant girl had been compelled to follow them in, since she had already proven a curiosity.
The elder McCauley was the first to break the relaxed silence.
"Leonard," he began, "this Workforce thing, and the winged girl, and the telepath... why such a focus on these bloody super-powered people suddenly? And don't give me that cock and bull story from earlier about the girl running away from home. What you said doesn't fit what I've seen of her type. I've tried a few runaways as servants in my time, and the one thing they all had in common is that they wouldn't stand quietly like this girl has done for two and a half hours. Loyalty is one thing, unquestioning obedience is another, pleasant as it is. What is going on?"
Leonard McCauley was surprised by his father's bluntness. And, less forgivably, by his intelligence. One thing his father had never been was stupid. How could he be? He was a McCauley. It might be worth telling him everything, he thought, just to see how he would take it...
"You want the truth, father? It's simple." He paused for a moment, intending to keep it as concise as possible. "First of all, the interest is not 'sudden'. The Metahuman program has been underway, under my own, private, purview for almost three years. At first it was mostly coachloads of foreigners who 'disappeared' being experimented on, people who wouldn't be missed in this country. But the success rate there was pitiful, under one percent. So, while that has been primarily mothballed in the past seven months, the collection of pre-existing metahumans has become the cornerstone of the program. It has been mostly runaways - or metahumans testing their powers in the middle of nowhere, until the Workforce program begun. This girl (gesturing at the winged girl), was caught wondering too far afield."
Richard McCauley had been listening intently, marvelling at his son's audacity, but there were some obvious, blatant risks involved that couldn't be ignored, and he interjected at this point. "Two points - firstly, no-one's noticed all these metahumans vanishing off the face of the planet? Without even including the 'Coachloads' you mentioned earlier. Secondly, how have you been storing them? Is there a gaol out there we're housing them in? Without anyone noticing? Thirdly, just catching them doesn't explain this girl's obedience."
"Points two and three I was about to explain in a moment, if you'll permit me to continue. As to point 1... the numbers involved are low, and isolated. Vans able to assume a number of different registration plates, colour schemes and logos (if any) at the flick of a switch chriscross the country, capture the metahumans, place them in stasis and remove them to one of two detention centres where they remain in stasis until they are required. Only one capture has occurred within a thousand miles of a detention centre, and that involved a metahuman who witnessed a capture and followed the van. The incompetents who permitted this were summarily dealt with, and there is no evidence the subject alerted anyone, nor is there any evidence of any other witnessing of captures.
As to the girl's 'obedience', as you put it, all the metahumans who are used in our service undergo a degree of mental programming, dependent on their personality and what they are intended to do. This girl was judged particularly simpatico to the treatment, and given that there is no need for spontaneity in such a role, and with her proximity to me, she received one of the highest adjustments."
Leonard paused for a moment, and Richard took a few moments to absorb it all. It was brilliant, but risky beyond belief.
"What is the risk of rejecting the 'adjustment?'"
"There is no subject programmed to an extent with a risk greater than one percent."
"And the numbers involved?"
"Currently, one hundred and twenty metahumans are in our possession. Of those, only twenty, including this girl and Heather, have been released to fulfil any purpose."
"Including the Workforce?"
"Yes."
"And how "private" is the subsidiary in question? What is the likelihood of it being traced back to you? Or the Industries?"
"There are two distinct subsidiaries involved. One is the one doing the capturing and, holding and reprogramming. While that is wholly owned by me, it is done so via the usual chain to hide these things. The other is the Workforce recruiting structure, which are wholly owned by the Industries, but again, indirectly and is engaged as if it is an outside contractor."
Richard paused at this point. He had all the answers he needed on this matter... for the moment. What he needed now was time to digest it all. A related matter had entered his head...
"So, with this... obsession.. you seem to have developed over these 'metahumans,' have you ever considered attempting to become a metahuman yourself? Given adequate safety testing and guarantees of course." The tone of voice would have left a deaf man in no doubt that he disapproved of the possibility. But Leonard either chose to pretend he had not caught that, or else simply disregarded that.
"Not as things stand, no. However, pleasant as it is to have such... servants," his eyes involuntarily twitched in the direction of the winged girl here, "the possibilities which may be afforded by personally wielding such power are not to be discounted. Indeed, I have actively examined the possibility in the past of inducing certain, specific, abilities in myself and continue to do so. Does that trouble you?"
In response, Richard merely snorted and swirled the brandy in his glass before taking a deep draught.
--------------------
The Legion's battle raged on the surface. Trinity, as a scout party all by herself, had elected to try and sneak through the sewers to reach their base and shut down the power supply. Suddenly, there was a silent flash of light around the corner. Carefully, Neutral looked around the corner, and straight into a face of solid night.
Shocked, she was easily grabbed by another man, as the helmeted figure spoke; "I am sorry child, truly sorry. Had I but a choice, I would have nothing to do with the corrupt force that drives me to do this." With that, he removed his glove (fortunately for her, his left hand of disruption, not his right hand of destruction), and, as her other selves rushed towards him, touched her lightly. The other two of her suddenly merged with the spasming Neutral, who slid into quiet unconsciousness after a few seconds. "But my will is not my own."
Replacing his glove, Mano hoisted the comatose Trinity over his shoulder, muttered "Damn you McCauley" under his breath, and they slid out quietly the way they'd come in.
--------------------
As Richard McCauley left, he felt an unease at the path his son had taken for the company. While he had no particular moral objections to the brainwashing - he'd done enough in his life that he'd forfeited any claim to a moral high ground - it was deucedly tricky. And dangerous. Whatever assurances he had, it only took one to crack at an unfortuitous time, or one subject to resist ever so slightly and it got out, the company could well be ruined, especially given how high profile this "Workforce" was. The press loved underdogs. He'd have to make enquiries, see what was to be done...
"Aaggghh." That blasted headache again, only ten times worse, probably because of the alcohol. Did they scan everyone on the way out as well? Whatever the headache, at least the meeting had gone better than planned, and, he thought as he entered his chauffeur-driven limousine, he could safely return to his comfortable retirement for six months as long as the figures in the interim report the following week matched what his son had claimed. It was good to know there was nothing to be concerned about...
[ August 11, 2004, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: Sanity or Madness? ]
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Evolvo was angry at McCauly he was useless but then was he he couldn't always control his powers but who needed complete control when all he felt was rage he expected nothing then a bandaged hand grabbed his arm taking him outside time."Devius Emmaer,Evolvo how nice I have two new slaves.I want Mano get him for me now!" Devius and the ape that was Evolvo intercept Mano,"The Trapper of Times wants you" ________ The Trapper reviewed that Quentin Docks will/did create/created C.O.M.P.U.T.O in ten years he was/will be Cosmic Boy the leader of the Legion.He remembered jumping in front of Trinity and feeling his atoms discintergrate."Rex Kline...me.I always hated playing goody two-shoes which is why I shall conquer!MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
[ September 10, 2004, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Valor the M'Onel ]
From: Australia | Registered: May 2004
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