A-Cup Angst Ch. 11

He walked slowly at first, still trying to get his limbs to limber up and function properly. He felt much better than he did yesterday, but he was still old. He squeezed into his old seat and huffed. Everyone around him was asleep. He sat in the dark for almost an hour, before the cabin lights began to switch on. A male voice came on the intercom and did the standard pre-landing spiel. Bleary eyed passengers offered minimal cooperation to the flight attendants that gave the cabin a good once-over to make certain everything was in its upright and locked position.

The landing was a bit bumpy to Jamie, who had gotten used to immaculate landings performed by his A.I., although, he felt certain that he himself could have done a better job of it. He didn't have a license, but he had performed many supervised landings.

After the plane taxied to the proper gate, the passengers began to disembark. Jamie felt a crick in his lower back, so he decided to stay put until most had gone out and was among the last to disembark. At passport control, a TSA officer took him aside for a full body cavity search. Jamie heaved a deep breath of frustration but followed meekly. He felt that the vampire's charm to not cause trouble was gone by now. He waited until he was alone with the burly, latino officer. He intended to unleash the Force on the man. As they moved down a set of corridors and into a room, Jamie began to reconsider. His sex slaves had wiggled their fingers into his ass more than once and he had even let them peg him every now and then. His ass could take another finger.

Instead of putting on a pair of gloves, the agent took out a phone, pressed the speed dial and handed it to Jamie. Jamie looked at the man in confusion, but then the man took out a silver and leather dog tag necklace and held it out. Jamie snatched it and put it on himself. He kissed the dog tags and stuffed the necklace under his shirt. He brought the phone up to his ear. "Nova," he said, "what's going on here?"

"Jamie, a Section grab team has shown up at the airport," Nova said. Jamie grimaced. "Helena, her mother Alice and Chris Welling are here, too." Jamie rolled his eyes. Who else is coming to this party? "I used the vampire to charm this agent into taking you aside and giving you your warded dog tags and this phone. My programming tells me that Jessica is a high risk asset in an open fight since she'll follow any order given to her by anyone. I have both robots, armed with enchanted rounds, present, guarding her. What are your orders?"

Jamie hung his head and sighed. If the robots gave Jessica the order to attack, he ran the risk of Section operatives recognizing her for what she was and desperately giving her orders to stop and fight for them. Section had the latina vampire that the shapeshifter had taken from him. It was enslaved in the exact same manner as Jessica and Jamie didn't doubt for one second that they had their operatives study her. On top of that, Helena knew all about Jessica and she had doubtlessly told her mother. There was no way to utilize the vamp's awesome powers without risking her being turned against them. He needed to get out of this pickle on his own.

"Sit tight," Jamie said. "Where exactly are the vampire and the robots?" They had driven down to D.C. in the Cayenne. Nova told him in which space they were parked. "Alright, we're gonna do this first person sneaker style. I need you to hack into the airport's cameras and be my eyes. I need you to find me a path that gets me out of the terminal and into the Cayenne without me getting spotted by the Section grab team or team Worth. Ok?"

"Yes, Jamie," Nova said. "I have already gained access to airport security." Jamie smiled. That was his A.I.

"Alright," Jamie said, "how are they deployed?"

"The Worths and Welling are just beyond passport control and the Section grab team is split up, covering every exit from the airport."

"What?! Every exit?!"

"Yes, Jamie," Nova said.

"Fine," he grumbled. "Pick one where the agents are isolated and can't get help for half a minute but you can drive the car in close. Guide me to that exit and then drive up close with the Cayenne and shoot them with enchanted water rounds to knock the wind out of them. Then order Jessica to cast a stunning spell on them. I'll run out, hop into the car and we're off. Got it?"

"Yes, Jamie," Nova said. It then guided Jamie to the exit in question with the help of the charmed agent's security card. Jamie crouched by the solid door of the employee entrance and waited to be told by Nova it was safe to run out. "Go now!"

Jamie shouldered the door open with a wince and ran out. He nearly tripped over the agents lying on the ground. He hopped over them, caught his balance, and spotted the Cayenne bearing right down on him. The car slowed to a crawl and the front passenger door was flung open. Jamie hurled himself into the seat with all the agility he could muster. They drove off, leaving Section in the dust.

Alice was waiting impatiently for her rapist to show up. She was going to teach the little cunt a lesson he'd never forget, both for having raped her and for all the vile things he had done to her daughter. Helena stood next to her with a blank expression on her face. She looked like she had no interest in the matter at hand. Alice knew her daughter better than that. She needed only a glance at her eyes to tell that Helena was burning with fury and rage on the inside. Alice grimly wondered if she'd even get a chance to exact her revenge with a livid Helena looming over her, more powerful than ever.

"Where the fuck is he," she wondered aloud. The TSA agent had taken him aside for a cavity search fifteen minutes ago. She had grinned and allowed it, thinking it perfect foreplay for what she was going to do to him. She took another look around and spotted the leader of the Section grab team, Barry, walking over with a pissed off expression. His face told her something had gone wrong. "No," she thought to herself, "this cannot be happening! There must be vengeance!" She lay a hand on Helena's tummy and nodded in Barry's direction.

Helena glanced over and said, "I don't give a shit." Her tone of voice was ice cold, making it clear that nothing and no one was going to stand between her and her revenge.

Barry marched over to them, his glare burning a hole between Alice's eyes. "It's over," he hissed. "Get the fuck out of here! Both of you!"

"Barry," Alice said, calmly, "what-"

"Where's the little cunt," Helena demanded. Alice gave her daughter a sidelong glance and decided to step between her and Barry, lest fireballs start flying. The airport was all but deserted at one a.m. and Section would not hesitate to return fire in a generous volume and then magic the few witnesses into silence.

Barry gave Helena a glare that was both threatening and dismissive. "Fifteen minutes," he roared. He mimicked Alice's voice as he said to her, "That's all I ask, Barry, just fifteen minutes alone with the guy that violated my little girl." He reverted back to his outdoor voice and yelled, "Well, guess what, Alice! He got away!"

Alice shook her head in stunned denial and whispered, "No." Her revenge had been in her grasp. Her heart sank.

Barry got right up in her face. His nostrils flared as he ground his teeth. Alice felt spittle land on her face as he yelled, "This was a fucking milk run, Alice! The French had him neutered, for fuck's sake! I should have told you to get fucked. How the fuck am I supposed to go back to HQ and tell them he got away with no magic and a fucking charm in place to make him walk right off the fucking plane and into my hands! Huh?! We were given seven motherfucking hours of prior notice of his arrival!! What am I supposed to say?! Huh?! Am I supposed to go back and say I'm sorry for failing to bring in Jacobs to answer for Harris' murder? Is that it? Do you expect-"

Helena interrupted his tirade by calmly asking, "Which way did he go?"

Barry gaped at her like she had just grown a second head. "Hey, shit-for-brains," he called Helena, "get your fucking head out of your ass! You are not to go after him! Neither of you!" Chris moved to protect the love of his life. Barry snapped his fingers at the boy and Chris went jogging backwards until he slammed his calves into a chair and sat down heavily on it. "Jacobs is Section's most wanted and if we catch so much as a whiff of you or your pathetic, little clan searching for him, we are going to throw you all in lockup and misplace the fucking paperwork! Are we fucking clear here?!"

Alice spared a glance up at her daughter's face and gulped when she saw that she was about to unleash all of her power at Barry. Barry seemed to notice that, too, but was not alarmed. A quick glance to the side revealed all of his team converging on their location, dragging along the burly, latino TSA agent that had taken Jacobs aside. Alice surreptitiously pinched Helena's butt and nodded in their direction. Helena spared them a cursory glance before her features softened a bit.

"Oh, we are very fucking clear here," Helena calmly said, "agent Maxwell. Crystal motherfucking clear, even."

Barry Maxwell glared at the two blondes for a few seconds more and then spat on the floor before their feet and turned around to go oversee the search for the fugitive. As livid as he was at the Worth girls, this mess was entirely his fault. He could have even arrested them when they showed up and asked for their fifteen minutes with Jacobs. He gave in to Alice because he had dreamed of getting into her pants ever since he had first met her. Now, that dream was as dead as his career.

The Worth girls watched him go. Helena said, "I should have never brought you into this." She turned around and walked away from her mother. Chris jumped up at her hand gesture and followed her.

Alice jogged to keep up with her tall daughter's strides. "Wait, Helly," she called. Helena kept on marching furiously towards the parking lot. "Think for a minute, Helly! If I had not been here, Barry would have arrested you for obstruction of justice and you wouldn't have been allowed to get within a hundred feet of Jacobs. They'd have him in custody right now."

"And instead, he's loose," Helena shot back over her shoulder, without slowing down.

"Yes," Alice called after her daughter, "but now he's loose for us to catch him!" Helena stopped dead in her tracks. She turned around and glared at her mother as she jogged over. "We can have him all to ourselves, now. No need to tell Section anything about it. Think about it, Helly! We can have our vengeance and give that pathetic, little piece of whiny, rapist shit everything he deserves." Helena responded by raising one eyebrow. "Now you listen to your mother, Helly baby, and we'll take him down in no time."

"How," Helena asked.

"The same way I was going to take him down the first time around," Alice smugly said. "We go after his precious family." Alice smiled as she saw the look on Helena's face that meant she was seriously considering something. She had seen that look on her face thousands of times, back when she had been just a little tyke, running around and asking her mother about everything she saw. Alice missed those days. She sighed and forced herself to remain in the dark and terrible present. "Come on, Helly! Mommy knows where we can find a flight home in the dead of night."

Alice turned to go back into the airport and took out her phone to make the relevant call. Helena stood motionless. Alice turned back around and said, "What?"

"I'll go with you," Helena said, "under one condition."

"Anything, Helly," Alice said in earnest. "Just name it!"

"Stop calling me Helly!!"

Jamie sat in the passenger seat of the Cayenne in a weird state of semi-wakefulness. He was still tired from being aged up yesterday and from the fact that it was 2 a.m. outside. On the other hand, he was still too wired from his narrow escape at the airport and had slept a good, solid six hours in first class. The monotonous interstate was not helping him avoid taking another nap. Raylene was behind the wheel, Jessica and Felix were in the back seat.

Finally, Jamie decided to take another cat nap. He had time before they got to Bastion. A big bump woke him up. The car was shaking like it was driving over potholes. Before Jamie could get a handle on what was going on, the car tilted sideways and began to hop uncontrollably. Jamie spotted the big tree they were headed towards. "Look out," he called as he reached over to grab the wheel. Raylene's hands held it firm and Jamie couldn't turn it to avoid the tree.

The Cayenne slammed into the tree, head on. Jamie had the wind knocked out of him by the impact. The air bags deployed and cushioned the blow and then the enchantments upon them made them slowly deflate and reset. Jamie shook his head to clear it. It was dark outside and the car's lights were not working. He took stock of the other occupants in the car. "Are you ok," he asked.

"I am," Jessica said, her voice still carrying bitter undertones.

"Raylene! Felix! Answer me!" The robots sat motionless and made no sound. Jamie's phone rang. He peered into the darkness around them as he twisted in his seat and dug to get the phone out of his pocket. There was nothing and nobody around to see them crash. He finally gave up and used telekinesis to retrieve the phone. "Hello?"

"This in an automated, emergency message," Nova's voice said.

"Nova, we've crashed, what's," Jamie said before he was cut off by the voice on the other end.

"...there is no point in talking to it, since it is pre-recorded as part of my tactical protocols. This tape has been updated last at five forty-three this morning. I have been destroyed in a sudden, unforeseen assault and I am telling you, Jamie, about the disposition of your remaining assets."

"No," Jamie whispered in despair. Tears welled up in his eyes.

"I have sent three of your enchanted vehicles to your home town to be used for emergency relocation of your family. The vehicles in question are BMW X5, Subaru and Wrangler. The original team of french agents that had come to seize your assets is in those cars, still sleeping. The fake identities you had set up for your family have been given to them already. The emergency escape van is still in the garage, which should now be considered compromised, along with Bastion."

Jamie sniffed back his tears. He had lost his A.I. and it hurt him worse than anything he had ever experienced before in his life. Nova was like a child to him. It had been his creation. "Nova," he tearfully pleaded at the recording, "say it isn't so!"

"The Pagani and the Ferrari were parked in front of Bastion and should be considered compromised. The Cayenne's trunk contains enchanted ammunition, the emergency escape cash and some more enchanted jewelry. The rest of your enchanted items, along with most of your wardrobe, I've sent to your home town in the trunks of the three aforementioned cars. Sandra and Rose are staying at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Alice Worth, Helena Worth and Chris Welling have just boarded a chartered plane home. They will arrive at nine a.m., local time. I have hacked into their cell phones this morning and have overheard them state their intentions to hurt your family as revenge for what you have done to them.

"The equipment needed to maintain surveillance on the Worths is in the trunk of the three cars I had sent to your parents. The software you'll need has been emailed to your secret email account. Recordings of the Worths threatening your family have also been emailed to that address. All of your banking information is there, too. The robots are now useless without me. I have taken the precaution of acquiring some high capacity storage devices and have made a backup copy of some of my most important algorhythms and subroutines that should enable you to more easily create another artificial intelligence at a later date, if you so choose."

Jamie struggled to not wail in agony at what he was hearing. He needed to hear everything.

"All the schematics of my own design, as well as that of the robots is also contained on these storage devices, along with every piece of relevant information you had obtained in your quests. The devices are in the trunks of the three cars I've sent to your home town. Goodbye, Jamie! It has been an honor and a pleasure knowing you!"

The call ended and Jamie wept openly. The car's headlights turned back on, repaired by the many enchantments on the car. Jamie struggled to undo his seat belt buckle. He snarled in rage and used telekinesis to snap it open. He shoved the car door open and ran out into the ditch the Cayenne had landed in. He bent over, hands on hips and sobbed, overwhelmed by his recent loss. Nova had defied the French and they had somehow managed to destroy it. What was the point of going on, Jamie wondered. He had lost Nova, the robots, the girls, his magic... All he had left were some gadgets with which to protect his parents and sister.

Thinking of his family, Jamie sniffed back his tears and pushed down the feelings of despair and loss. He still had his freedom. He was, in essence, a Jedi, and he had some trinkets to help him along in his quest to protect his family. He turned around and wiped the tears from his face. He blinked to clear his vision and watched as the car was slowly backed away from the tree by its front grill and hood repairing themselves.

"My fucking quest," Jamie berated himself in his head. "That's what had brought all this shit down upon them in the first place." He shook his head unhappily. As a result of his actions, he had suffered so much loss and his family was hiding in a cabin in the woods, lest they be hunted by the Johansson clan. Or Section. Jamie got goose bumps at the thought that Section, and not the French had destroyed Nova. He didn't know for certain who it had been. All he knew was that it was sudden and that it triggered the automated message that Nova was keeping on a computer off-site and updated regularly as part of its tactical protocols.

However he looked at it, he had fucked up so bad. He had so much power and so many options and he had taken practically the worst one at every turn. He realized then that the French were right.

He had been changed after he had killed the Terminator maker. He had made some idle, empty threats before that, mostly to appear tough to Harris while he still struggled to get his bearing in the world of magic, but after that incident, Jamie no longer intended to scare people off with threats. He simply leaped headlong at them and caused so much death and destruction. And he hadn't felt any guilt about it, either. He had killed people that had been evil, beyond a shadow of a doubt, but he hadn't even considered them to be human. He had felt less guilt for killing all of those thousands of murderers that for swatting a mosquito.

That hadn't been him. Not really. Jamie had always been opposed to the death penalty and considered all wars to be atrocities. In the past year, however, he had appointed himself judge, jury and executioner and then declared war on all authorities everywhere. And he had done all that with a glad song in his heart. Like an emotionless robot. Like a sociopath or something. He blinked back some more tears that were welling up. The French vampire had told him true. It all started with that incident and then snowballed from there.

There was no shortage of stupid things he had done in the past year and now found himself thoroughly regretting it. The vault, for instance. He had ordered the destruction of all those artifacts. They had been created and powered by human sacrifice, true, but they had been created by magicians from all over the world and all throughout history. Jamie didn't doubt for a second that by studying all those artifacts, modern day magicians could have better understood the nature of magic itself and possibly even have made astounding breakthroughs that would have solved some of humanities pressing issues. And he had wasted all that potential knowledge and rare information in his short-sighted fury.