F@nService Diner Chapter 07 The Circle Game

Chapter 07: The Circle Game

Meanwhile down below on Highway 02.

Adam squinted at the formations of Union drones that swarmed overhead.

“Well they don’t seem to be attacking. Maybe they haven’t noticed what we’ve done yet.” Adam suggested.

“Not a chance. They probably have orders to follow United Systems rules of engagement. I just hope they don’t block the road again after we leave. Drones can be very persistent.” Hiro replied.

Leroy’s eyes bulged out of their sockets as he noticed a drone peaking over the highway’s sound barrier wall at Hiro. The other firefighters didn’t seem to notice this and obliviously continued their conversation.

“So what does that mean — United Systems rules of engagement?” The chief asked.

“It means they won't attack civilians unless we shoot first — or unless one of us is a target. But what are the chances of that?” Hiro added.

“So if — hypothetically — we did start shooting we should make sure we all do it at the same time, so we take out as many as possible before they can react.” Adam observed.

“That’s the official plan, but you didn’t hear it from me.” Hiro replied smugly.

“Watch out! That one’s looking at you!” Leroy shouted as he pulled an oversized revolver out of his turnout coat. The group turned to see what had him so excited, took note of the drone and then their eyes widened as they realized what was about to happen. In what felt like slow motion they turned back to Leroy who had already drawn a bead on the drone.

“No wait!” Hiro warned.

There was a deafening boom then all was silent. It was a full second before the drone vomited a tongue of flame and fell out of the sky. The downed robot squealed in a high pitched tone that sounded like a baby goat getting kicked off a cliff.

Unfortunately when the drone fell it revealed that, directly behind it had been a second drone floating in single-file formation waiting to take the firsts place. The second drone’s red eye tracked its comrade’s plummet to the ground before it looked back up at his killer. The drone trumpeted a synthesized war horn and then vented four bursts of flame in an X pattern as it powered up its weapons.

Behind it five more drones that had also been hovering single-file revealed themselves. They floated out to the side and before moving forward, organizing themselves into a wall formation. Once in position they also began powering up their weapons.

“Dammit Leroy!” The chief shouted.

“Sorry Chief.”

The drone directly to the lower right of the leader swooped towards Leroy, screaming like microphone feedback. Leroy brought up the revolver but not quite fast enough.

Hiro snapped up his hand in a claw gesture aimed at the charging drone. It was only ten feet away when suddenly it stopped. It bounced back slightly as though it had run into an invisible net. The furious machine vibrated like an angry bee as it tried to shake free of Hiro’s invisible vectors.

Hiro growled a battle cry as he closed his fist. The drone crumpled like a beer can and the red light coming from its central eye flickered out. Hiro swung his arm back into an underhanded pitch. The dead drone traveled backwards in a downward arc before pin-balling forward into the wall formation, taking out two additional drones.

“Chief I got their attention! Get your men out of here!” Shouted Hiro.

“Like hell! We’re not leaving you here to fight these things alone!” Said the chief.

“The people need you to open up that starport and I have a natural force shield! I’ll be fine.” Hiro insisted.

“Not all the way around you don’t! All they have to do is attack from your blind side. You need somebody to watch your back.”

“Okay you make a valid point. Mind if I borrow your kinetic?”

Chief McGraw considered this. He looked over at Adam who had locked eyes with the three remaining drones.

“Are you okay with this?” The Chief asked him.

The air around Adam crackled with a static charge and the shadows he cast appeared to darken as the whites of his eyes turned obsidian black around neon green irises. The gravel at his feet vibrated in sync with the beat of his heart.

“I was born for this.” Adam’s words seethed with dark emotion.

“Okay.” The Chief raised an eyebrow. “Well I’ll take that as a yes. He’s all yours Nishimoto.”

“I’ll take good care of him Chief.” Hiro replied.

“Just try to bring him back in one piece.” The chief said as he and the other firefighters withdrew to the trucks keeping the two kinetics between them and the drones.

“And don’t feed him after midnight.” Leroy added a Gremlins reference before he shut the truck door.

The trucks turned on their emergency lights and crept passed the drone formation before punching the accelerator and entering the sky-ramp. The drones did not give chase. It appeared Hiro’s theory about having their attention was correct. ‘They must be programmed to go after whatever was the biggest threat.’ He thought.

The floating octahedron to the left of the lead drone trumpeted a machine-language curse before spinning on its central axis.

The spiraling drone advanced slowly towards Hiro. After covering half the distance it suddenly increased its speed. At thirty feet away it juked to the left, trying to get around Hiro’s vectors.

This time Adam swept his right hand in an arc across his body and the drone was swatted into the highway’s sound barrier where it exploded in an orange fireball.

“Adam has joined the party.” Hiro announced.

“Yeah, guess I’m in it now.” Adam agreed.

“Glad to have ya buddy.”

The two kinetics brought up their fists, assuming low boxing stances as they squared off against the pack of hovering, red-eyed death machines.

The lead drone blared something unintelligible in its megaphone voice and the pack fell into formation 50 feet parallel to each other. There was a mechanical click and a hiss of steam as the drones’ octahedron shells split down the middle to expose their power cores to the cool, oxygen rich air. This had the effect of making each drone look like two horizontal pyramids joined at their bases by a metal cage that held a small, orange sun.

Adam noticed these drones lacked the aftermarket spheres that the ones lodged in the hardlight had been equipped with. That might explain why they didn’t just punch another hole in the sky-road. The had a limited number of the hardlight disruptors and didn’t want to use them up while the kinetics were still around.

The drones’ two pyramid-shaped forward and aft sections started to rotate counter to each other, spooling up like a jet turbine. As the jet whine rose in volume and pitch the exposed power cores shifted from an orange glow, to yellow and finally to white hot. An incandescent light glared from the plasma launchers inset into each of the four facets surrounding the drone’s central camera. This forward section’s high speed spin blurred the glow of the four canons into a halo of white light around the drones’ red eye.

“Get ready! They’re going to fire!” Hiro shouted over the noise.

“What? I can’t hear y…” Was as far as Adam got before the drones fired their canons.

Meanwhile on the roof of the water silo overlooking Highway 02.

Senior Spaceman Loyd Jenkins watched the kinetics through his rail-rifle’s scope.

“Alright hold still you beautiful bastard. Woah! — What the? — Sarge!”

“I see it too. What’s going on down there?” Asked Sergeant Hill as an orange stream of light illuminated the gap between the Hiro and the drones.

“Oo — that’s a lot of plasma fire.” Martinez winced.

“The drones went all aggro!” Jenkins shouted.

“Isn’t that part of the plan? They’re supposed to keep him distracted once we’re in position. — Right?” Hill asked Dr. Grau.

“The drones would appear to be a bit overzealous but they are still operating in accordance with the plan.” Grau reassured him.

Jenkins momentarily popped out from behind his scope.

“They just shot a firefighter!” He informed them before ducking back down like a prairie dog.

The entire team looked at Grau who shifted uncomfortably.

“That — was not part of the plan.” He shrugged.

“I did not sign up for this sh…” Martinez added.

Jenkins returned to his scope.

“Or at least I think he’s a firefighter.”

“You think he’s a firefighter?” Hill asked.

“Well his suit changed color so…Oh wait he’s okay.”

At this Grau breathed a sigh of relief. Jenkins continued.

“He just got knocked off balance. — Huh, that’s interesting.”

“What is?” Asked Hill.

“I think the firefighter might be a kinetic.”

“What?” Now Grau looked concerned again.

“Two kinetics?” Hill raised his jump rifle’s scope to try to get a better view.

“Yeah, looks like he’s deflecting the plasma bolts with invisible mime-parries.” Jenkins narrated.

‘A kinetic firefighter, what were the chances?’ Hill thought. ‘Hadn’t his friend Adam joined the fire department. Nah, what were the chances. The universe isn’t that small.’ Hill tried to get a better view of the firefighter’s face but his scope was designed for mid-range distances. He could tell the firefighter had a face, but that was about it. He lowered the scope.

“Well it would appear that we are in fact dealing with two kinetics — so what’s the plan doc?” Hill asked the Thaalarian who now had a far-away look in his eyes.

Grau was muttering to himself in a language Hill though sounded like high Cathuulian.

“Um hello. Is the doctor in?” Hill probed.

Grau blinked a couple times and ceased his muttering before turning to Jenkins.

“You think he’s a firefighter. — Why?”

Well when we first arrived his suit was the same colors as the other firefighters down there.”

“And it isn’t now?” Grau asked.

“No, it changed color while they were unblocking the sky-road.”

Grau stroked his smooth gray chin.

“Well than doesn’t make any sense, unless — wait! The sky-road is open?”

“Must be, the other firefighters just drove off on it.”

“That’s not the plan!” Grau snarled.

“Well tell that to them.” Jenkins pointed to the kinetics.

Grau sighed.

“Very well. The road was taken out to prevent Mr Nishimoto from escaping before we could dart him. If we do that now then it is of no consequence.”

“You heard the man Jenkins.” Hill said. “Dart the kinetic.”

“Sure thing.”

Jenkins looked through his rail-rifle’s scope before blinking in consideration and raising his head again.

“Which one?” He asked.

“The pretty one.”

“Well they’re both kinda pretty — depending on what you’re into.”

Hill was silent for a moment.

“Jenkins — are you sure you don’t want to forfeit Kilroy your dibs on Hiro’s sister?” Hill asked.

Jenkins seemed to consider this.

“Nah — no, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

“No, I’m sure.”

“Nobody’s going to judge you.” Hill reassured him.

“That’s not true!” Freeman shouted from the far side of the roof.

“Nobody besides Freeman is going to judge you.” Hill clarified.

“Mwahaha! Yeah I will! I’m set in my ways!” Freeman laughed.

“Solari — charming.” Grau commented disdainfully.

“I’m just secure in my sexuality and I think out loud when I’m sniping.” Jenkins explained without looking up from his scope.

“Yeah, you should probably do something about that.” Hill suggested.

“Which part? — Uh Sarge, those drones are firing stun blasts, right?” Jenkins asked.

Hill turned to Dr. Grau for a response.

“That is what they’re supposed to be doing. Why do you ask?” Was the Thaalarian’s answer.

Jenkins watched as a plasma blast ricocheted off one of Adam’s fist-shaped, force fields into a discarded mini fridge that then exploded in a ball of neon orange flame and green lightning. The blast ripped the fridge’s door off its hinges and sent it spinning end over end, trailing a streamer of black smoke over 50 feet in the air.

“Uh, it’s just a hunch. Could you double-check with command? I don’t want my shot to throw off his concentration if it turns out the drones are shooting to kill.” Jenkins explained.

Grau sighed and resentfully dialed his pen-phone. He eventually got an answer, but not one he particularly wanted.

“This is official cargo vessel Yuzhao. How may I helping you?” The voice said in scam-call Common.

“This is Mr. Gray. My verification code is X…7…Tango…”

Before he could get any further the voice on the other end cut him off with what sounded like a steady stream of Jade Imperial expletives.

“Watch your tone soldier! Do you know who I am?” Grau shot back.

Clearly whoever was on the other end had no idea who the doctor was because his unintelligible tirade began to take on an unmistakably universal mocking tone.

Growing increasingly agitated, Grau held the phone at arms length and waited for the stream of abusive gibberish to stop.

“Does” Grau coughed. “Does anyone speak Jade Imperial?” He asked the team who responded with blank stares. “My career path did not have many dealings with the Jade Kingdom thus learning Imperial was not high on my list of priorities. — Okay?” Grau explained defensively, clearly overestimating the team’s expectations.

Kilroy smiled and raised his hand.

“My Imperial’s a little rusty but I’ll give it the old college try.” He said stepping forward.

“You never went to college.” Martinez objected.

“Your Mom went to college!” Kilroy fired back as he took the still-squawking pen-phone from Dr. Grau.

‘I didn’t know Kilroy spoke Jade Imperial.’ Sergeant Hill thought. ‘If he didn’t learn it in college then where did he..? — Oh no.’

“¿Donde esta tu cuarto?” Kilroy said with a straight face.

Grau shot Hill a glare. Hill nodded in agreement before signaling to Martinez. Martinez nodded back to indicate he understood before he doffed his cap and used it smack the back of Kilroy’s head.

“Ow!” Kilroy winced.

“Sorry Doc.” Hill apologized. “That’s on me. I should’ve seen it coming.”

Grau shook his head.

“I miss being able to frag minions.” The Thaalarian lamented.

One of the things that had contributed to the Thaalarian’s villainous reputation was their penchant for killing incompetent subordinates as punishment for failure. Thaalarian death was a temporary condition and because of this their society had adopted a somewhat Adam’s Family relationship with it. Since Ursula Regan, the reformer, had usurped the previous Head Master the practice was publicly frowned upon but still viewed as an important part of Thaalarian tradition in certain circles. However, even in these circles, it was considered poor form if the inept minion saw it coming.

Grau turned to Jenkins.

“It looks like we wont be getting any answers from Command. Just try to fire the dart when the drones aren’t shooting. If we are lucky Mr. Nishimoto will quick reflexes and be able to get his shields up in time.”

“Well okay, here goes, uh oh.” Jenkins squinted into the scope.

“What is it now?” Grau asked, growing a little impatient.

“I can’t get a clean shot. The kinetics pulled back and took cover behind a traffic divider.”

Dr. Grau slapped his own forehead.

“Well isn’t this just…”

Meanwhile behind the traffic divider.

“...freakin’ magical!” Hiro voiced his frustration.

“They’re too high up! I mean sure we can block their fire all day long but we can’t hit them either.” Adam added.

“We need a plan.” Hiro stated.

“Or some guns. I should have asked Leroy to leave us his.” Adam lamented.

As Adam was talking he noticed a holster clipped to Hiro’s lower back. It held some kind of futuristic, folding pistol. The gun’s pearlescent white pistol grip and beveled, rectangular barrel folded around a bushed steel ring that made up the guns trigger guard.

“Is that a plasma pistol?” Adam asked.

“Oh this? Yeah I completely forgot I had this.” Hiro drew the pistol from it’s holster. The barrel rotated around the circular trigger guard, opening like a pocket knife. It snapped into place with a click. Its rear-facing display screen illuminated with a green glow that signaled the pistol was primed to fire. “OmniStellar standard issue. What, you guys don’t get these at the fire department?”

Adam furrowed his brow.

“Hey wait a sec. — You wanna shoot it?” Hiro suggested.

“Okay Hiro I get it! OmniStellar has loads of money. OmniStellar is Sexy. OmniStellar gets minkan massages. OmniStellar gives its employees badass plasma pistols because it can. OmniStellar is awesome!”

“That’s true, but I’m not trying to be a jerk here. There’s this move I wanna try. I’m pretty sure I can do it by myself but just to be on the safe side I want to have both hands free. So I need you to operate the plasma pistol.”

“Oh, well now I feel like a jerk.” Said Adam.

“That’s okay.” Hiro patted him on the back.

“Wait, is it okay that I was a jerk? Or is it okay that I feel like a jerk?” Adam asked.

“Um — yes.” Hiro gave an ambiguous answer.

“Okay, I’ll shoot it.” Adam agreed.

“Great! Here, let me set this up so you can fire it. I just need to set up a guest profile so the gun will read you as me.”

The pistol’s screen flashed angry red.

“Ugh! Yes I’m sure.” Hiro grumbled at the pop-up warning. “And scroll through fifty pages of lawyer talk. — Yes I accept the risks and done.”

Hiro removed the pearly white gauntlet that housed the pistol’s power source and firing computer from his wrist.

“Are you right or left handed?” Hiro asked.

Right.”

“Good. Left handed people are evil.” Hiro stated as a matter of fact.

“They are?” Adam raised an eyebrow.

“Everybody knows that. Hold out your hand.”

“You sure? I don’t think they do.”

Adam complied and Hiro clipped the gauntlet to his wrist.

“Yeah, my big sister’s left-handed and she’s been evil since the day she was born.”

“Aurora? She seemed so — friendly.”

“Yeah well you only met her once. Trust me. It’s all an act. She’s got a dark side.”

Hiro connected the dots on a security pattern that lit up beneath the gauntlet’s ceramic skin. It flashed green and chirped pleasantly. There was a locking click and Adam felt the gauntlet’s inflatable cuff tighten around his wrist.

“Sweet! Now as far as the OmniNet is concerned you are officially me.” Hiro informed him.

“I don’t know Man. I still feel five foot six.” Adam joked.

“Haha, well at least you’re not sensitive about your height. — Speaking of which, I gotta say I respect your ambition but — that girl next door you’re so crazy about.”

“Tevera.”

“Yeah. — Do you really think a six foot plus minkan is a practical girlfriend for someone of your stature?”

“I’m not gonna lie. The thought had crossed my mind. There are definitely going to be some ergonomic issues we will have to work around.”

“You know you wouldn’t have to stand on a box if you were dating a girl closer to your own height. Right?”

“Yeah, I know. — But I want Tevera — and the view is incredible.”

Hiro considered this .

“Hmm, you make a valid point.” Hiro handed Adam the unfolded pistol and took a step back. “Alright now pull the trigger half—”

Hiro’s instructions were interrupted when Adam pulled the trigger all the way back, firing the pistol.

“KACHERWOOOOW!”

There was a flash of green light a split second before the two kinetics were pelted with pebbles that used to be part of the highway. The scent of ozone and hot tar lingered in the air. They both stared at the dinner plate sized crater of melted asphalt left by the plasma blast. A single flame flickered, candle-like, at the crater’s center as the pavement cooled from orange to black.

“Woah! — Dude!” Hiro exclaimed.

Adam and Hiro stared at each other for a second before they both started to smile.

“Uh sorry. — This thing is freakin’ awesome!” Adam half-apologized.

“I know right? Now listen to me. I just need you to pull the trigger halfway. ” Hiro explained in greater detail.

Adam eyed the pistol, being very careful to keep it pointed in a safe direction.

“Half a trigger pull — okay that explains a lot. Got it — oh.”

The plasma pistol’s beveled, rectangular barrel extended three inches passed the trigger guard. In addition to the opening at the front of the barrel it also had a thin notch that started at the bottom of the forward opening and stopped a half-inch from the trigger guard. The pistol hummed as the notch filled with a bright, green glow that quickly coalesced into an angular tanto blade style plasma bayonet.

“Now just hold it there. Do not let go of the trigger and DO NOT pull it all the way.” Hiro instructed.

Adam nodded. Hiro then cupped his invisible vector-hands around the green blade as if catching a firefly. He moved his hands and the blade moved with them, leaving a flowing trail of green energy back to the gun barrel.

“Well look at that.” Said Hiro.

“You’re a wizard Hiro.” Adam made a Harry Potter reference.

Hiro chuckled and as he did the blade deformed, losing its sharp edges.

“Whoa, need to concentrate.” Hiro warned.

Like some tai chi exercise he ran his cupped hands around the edges of the plasma, meticulously shaping it into a sphere.

It continued to grow in both size and luminosity the longer he held it.

“Haha! It works just like I hoped it would. Now for a firing test.”

A drone floated around the corner of the truck. It’s red eye burning with simulated bloodlust.

“Hadoken!” Hiro shouted out a Street Fighter move as he thrust his hands forward and the star shot out like a green missile. The drone exploded in a burst of emerald light and orange embers. Bits of composite shell ejected from the explosion, trailing streamers of black smoke. Hiro and Adam look at each other and an infectious grins crossed their faces.

Meanwhile on the rooftop of the backup power station overlooking Highway 02.

“What just happened?” Dr. Grau asked, the orange glow still reflecting off his gray face.

Jenkins looked up from his scope.

“Well — it would appear the kinetics have a plasma canon.” Jenkins said.

“What!” Grau exclaimed. “Why is he carrying a plasma canon? He must know we were coming.” Grau said, thinking out loud.

“We should call it off.” Sergeant Shoeman suggested.

Grau seemed to be considering this. As the Thaalarian silently debated the pros and cons Jenkins zoomed out for a more encompassing view of the action. He did so just in time to see Hiro and Adam break cover and charge towards the last drone.

“Hey, they’re coming out!” Jenkins announced.

“Maybe Jenkins can join them. Haha!” Freeman heckled from across the roof.

“Guess I walked into that one.” Jenkins sighed.

“That you did. — Nice one Freeman.” Sergeant Hill said between bouts of laughter.

“I do what I can.” Freeman smiled.

“So what kind of plasma cannon are we dealing with here?” Hill asked

“Well I guess my initial assessment was wrong. I wouldn’t really call it a cannon.” Jenkins corrected himself.

“What would you call it then?” Hill asked.

“It’s more of a pistol.”

“A pistol — a plasma pistol did that?” Hill pointed at the cloud of smoke that had once been a drone.

“Must have, I don’t see anything else.” Jenkins insisted.

Hill looked at Dr. Grau to see if he knew anything he was willing to share. OmniStellar had a sordid history of collaborating with Thaalarian scientists in order to stay one step ahead of the competition. Stereotypically Thaalarian scientists were some of the most brilliant in the galaxy, but lacked common sense. OmniStellar had common sense to spare and near endless resources. For the most part it was a mutually beneficial arrangement. However there were downsides to accepting Thaalarian help. Thaal was a socialist democracy in name and a totalitarian bureaucracy in practice. Every Thaalarian you met was potentially a government agent and Thaal intelligence was always eager to get their people on the inside of the most powerful corporation in the galaxy.

The puzzled look on Grau’s face said that a freakishly powerful plasma pistol had not been one of those joint ventures.

“Current model plasma pistols have a launchable, magnetically-guided plasma bayonet feature. It’s possible that’s what we just saw. Although I didn’t think it had that kind of power and range. They must have made some improvements we don’t know about.”

Hill did not like the sound of that.

“Stay frosty boys. We’re dealing with professionals here.” He cautioned his team.[BOOKMARK]

Meanwhile back on Highway 02

“Oh yeah! I’m da Jugganaut byatch!” Adam shouted as he jumped out of cover.

The two kinetics rushed towards the last remaining drone. Adam held his left hand out in front, fingers spread to cover the widest area possible with his vector shield. Meanwhile with his right hand he pointed the over-charged pistol back towards Hiro. Hiro followed close behind, careful to keep the shield between him and the drone’s line of fire. He held the plasma star as close as possible to the pistol’s barrel to avoid breaking the stream of energy.

The attacking drone spun on its forward axis like the barrel of a gatling gun as it threw a steady stream of plasma into Adam’s shield where it dispersed harmlessly like orange smoke.

“Hey Juggernaut! Here’s good — stop!” Shouted Hiro.

“I can’t stop! Do you know who I am?” Adam continued with the Juggernaut bit.

“Hey!” Hiro was starting to get annoyed.

“Uh sorry, got lost in the character.” Adam snapped back to serious.

“No worries.”

They stopped about fifty feet from the drone that continued to hurl plasma. Hiro leaned back, winding up the plasma bomb.

“Kamehame! Imma firin’ mah lazor!” Hiro combined two more Dragon Ball Z references as he launched the plasma ball. This time however the drone had extra distance on its side and dodged out of the way before the plasma bomb could connect..

“Crap!” Hiro shouted in frustration.

Meanwhile back on the roof of the backup power station overlooking Highway 02.

“Huh, so that’s how they did it.” Jenkins observed through his scope.

“What did they do?” Sergeant Hill asked.

“They used their kinetic powers to siphon plasma from the pistol’s overcharge feature into a bomb they can throw.” Jenkins explained.

“That makes no sense. Why wouldn’t they just use the pistol like normal? I mean that’s what the overcharge feature is for.” Hill puzzled.

“I’m sure they have their reasons.”

Meanwhile back on Highway 02.

“That looked way less cool than I thought it it would.” Said Hiro.

High above, the drone bobbed up and down, making a mechanical buzzing that sounded eerily similar to laughter.

“The blast just doesn’t travel fast enough.” Commented Adam.

“I wonder if I can steer it mid-flight. — I’ll need another.” Said Hiro.

“On it.”

Adam overcharged the pistol again and Hiro formed the ball of plasma into a bomb. Hiro looked up at the drone, the green light from the plasma bomb giving his face a vaguely villainous countenance.

“Yeah laugh it up you floaty toaster son of a…”

Meanwhile on the roof of the backup power station overlooking Highway 02.

“Bitch!” Freeman said out of nowhere.

“Huh what?” Hill asked for an explanation.

“Oh sorry, I was just thinking about something sexist.” Freeman explained matter of factly.

“Don’t you go changing for nobody Freeman.”

Dr. Grau stood up from a crouch.

“Alright, I think we’ve waited long enough. Tag that Hiro, corporal.” He ordered.

“There’s still a drone shooting at them. I don’t think now is the best time to...” Jenkins objected.

“That’s an order corporal!” Grau insisted.

“Why are you yelling at me like we’re in the marines? — Uh, no offense other Sarge.”

Sergeant Shoeman grunted an apathetic response.

“Well here goes — ooh rah and stuff.” Jenkins sighed as he squinted through his sniper scope.

Meanwhile back on Highway 02.

“Don’t you think you’ve made it big enough?” Adam cautioned, not sure how big you could make a plasma bomb before it popped like a balloon full of burning green death. They weren’t a lot of manuals written about combining kinetic powers with plasma weapons, at least none he had read. They were kind of in uncharted territory here as far as he was concerned. The fact that Hiro had not already tried this move in a lab at work made Adam suspect there may be a reason for it.

“Hell no! He’s not dodging this one!” Hiro shouted back.

It was at that moment Adam noticed a bright green dot buzzing around on Hiro’s chest.

“Hey Hiro there’s something on you.” Adam pointed.

“Is it the ‘OK’ sign?” Hiro grinned mischievously.

“No, it’s a green dot.”

“How about now?” Hiro made the ‘OK’ sign on his thigh, which coincidentally was where the green laser-dot had migrated to. Adam looked at the finger circle without thinking, then winced when he realized his mistake.

“Aw! Dammit!”

“Haha! I can’t believe you still fall for that.” Hiro laughed.

“I can’t believe you’re still playing The Circle Game.” Adam shot back.

“It’s about freedom Baby. We have to reclaim these symbols or the mainstream media wins. Now hold still while I punch you in the arm.”

“Fine — but seriously, there’s actually something on y…”

And then the world exploded.