Truce Ch. 10

From being knocked out by Radio of all people, even unconscious I stirred myself easily awake due to a heavy dose of anxious anger; for the first time in a long while, the heat I felt the strongest was my own. My fists were clenched before my eyes opened, and I found myself strapped to some kind of restricting hand-truck, inside a moving van big enough to fit it. There were at least four armed guards nearby, and Toxic staring me down with a smile as I woke fully.

"And here we thought deprivation chambers would be enough to keep you calm and behaved. Compared to where you're going, you're gonna wish you stayed in yours back at base. You'd better enjoy this little bit of room to breath while you've got it."

Instead of answering him, I simply looked around to assess my surroundings more.

"Worried about your friends? Don't worry; they're part of the convoy. You're all taking a nice little trip. Our processing centers love working with your types, especially the occasional kind that haven't fully harnessed their Hierarch abilities yet. I hear they can be... extremely helpful in getting results out of you."

I didn't struggle as much against the metal bindings, made of something stronger than what I was secured with back at Hierguild. When I met his gaze again, I smiled back, totally unfazed by his words.

"You'll know soon enough."

"Much as I'd love to watch, gotta get back home asap. With Epsilon suddenly lacking a team, now's a great time to finish your little organization off."

"Don't assume you're going to be part of that; they have you booked for accommodations elsewhere. Or didn't they tell you?"

The way his handsome smile faltered enough to need to recover it nearly made me grin devilishly.

"What do you think I found in that science office, results of your annual physical? More like their next plans for you. You already did your job when you brought us to Hierguild. And now you're on escort duty when you could be on your way to taking out Epsilon out once and for all right now? Why? Unless we're not the only Hierarchs they have scheduled for...extreme help."

He really didn't want to believe me, but my theory hit on the right side of believable, with subdued anger upping the confidence needed to sell it. Cautious reasoning replaced all the reasons he had to grin.

"I'm even afraid to say exactly what process lies ahead for both of us; it's pretty fucking graphic, and pretty fucking funny to watch you smile all the way there, thinking you're just the deliver boy. You wanna know what they've got in-store for a poison pretty boy like you?" I crooked my finger his way, and nervousness got him to edge close enough to arms length. At that range, an arm grasped his throat as easily as my Hier-half broke through the stronger-yet-not-strong-enough restraints. He tried hard to spit something venomous at me, but my vice grip on his throat kept anything from coming out. The ease to which I could've crushed his larynx felt so tempting, but rather than upholding the earlier truce I'd made with Maelstrom, I was angry enough to keep him alive, just to make him suffer a bit longer. I tossed him at one of the guards, headbutting another through their helmet as I broke out of confinement altogether, knocking down the other two guards easy.

Before I could easily finish them off too, a flash of a silver silhouette came out of nowhere, followed by a grip nearly as strong as mine, catching me by the neck. Maelstrom used her illusion powers to conceal her presence, ready to restrain me in-case I caused more trouble. Holding me against the wall of the van, looking as angry as I felt inside, red around her fingertips meant she was using her power to keep me from hurting the rest of her team. But I wasn't giving up easy, forcibly pushing against her powers. The tress on her hair went from red to purple, much to the dismay of Toxic who noticed.

"No. He's mine, witch. Back off."

If I wasn't feeling angry enough, I'd almost feel sorry for him with the threatening look Maelstrom gave. Whipping her head in his direction, power radiating as maliciously as her expression. I was impressed yet unsurprised how easily she cut him down to size.

"Fine, he's yours," he tried his damnedest not to cower in-front of us. "Just hit that son of a bitch with the plague. Make him choke on it," he ironically choked out from a compressed throat, knowing the purple effect was supposed to be pestilence of some sort.

I wasn't in any position to put in any theatricality, convincingly playing at being enemies; too pissed for pretending, I grabbed at her throat with nearly the same firmness as she had mine. My grip loosened the second I held it, still not wanting to hurt her, noticing her tress turning purple, but the color radiating elsewhere was still red, visible only to us. Confusion over which power was really activated got answered quickly, blasting me through a hole out of the van, in the middle of speeding highway traffic. Feeling a semi truck zoom past my head in the opposite direction, I bounced off the ground, managing to focus through panic and pain to find my bearings mid-air, boots sliding along the side of the road from the remaining velocity. I took a few seconds to breath, to notice I'd been blasted to the opposite side of the highway, near the traffic going in the wrong direction.

Hier-half still on, and still more motivated than ever, I raced across multiple lanes, catching up to trucks traveling fast enough towards the convoy I got kicked out of. There was some extra oomph in Hier-half this time, enough to easily avoid other cars, and leap along the side of the closest truck to effortlessly get on top. Momentum kept me going, leaping across a few other trucks, luckily making it back to the van I started, marked by the big hole on the side. Had Maelstrom not been still in the van, I would've looked for a way to force it off the road. Instead, I leapt toward the other van ahead with Copula and the B&B twins inside.

Moving towards the front, I could hear what sounded like Toxic trying to scream at the top of his lungs, something like "the twins;" I payed it little attention as I saw the passenger side was empty. Ripping the car door off its hinges, I let it fly right in-front of the van behind, making it brake very unceremoniously, nearly crashing along the ditch in the middle of the highway. Inserting myself inside, I was ready to knockout the driver and give him an ungraceful exit, but the helmet-less guard that caused all my anger was in the driver's seat, equally surprised to see me.

"Radio?!?"

"Half?"

Still wearing Hierguild guard garb, he looked at me, and then the rear-view mirror, watching the rear van shrinking in the distance.

"Okay, that worked out much better than I had hoped."

He spoke like his old self, like he did when he was still operational, under Epsilon; relief joined anger and confusion as I stared at him, bewildered.

"You've got five seconds to explain what's going on before I beat the shit out of you and take your treacherous ass back to Epsilon."

"Gonna need more like thirty seconds man, and another thirty minutes on top of that," Javier looked back again, sighing heavily, very relieved to not see anyone else in pursuit of them. "We're not going back to Epsilon. We're going to Echelon."

"...what the hell is Echelon?"

***

Two decoy vehicles later, and with the still-unconscious trio, we made our way to what looked like an abandoned airport hangar, where this other organization, Echelon, was supposedly holding up. On the way, Radio had laid down a lot of details that helped things make sense. After his hospitalization, reports of his long-term recovery were grossly overestimated. He was actually back to 100% after two weeks, rather than still waiting for signs of improvement months later.

He was in on the ruse, as representatives of Echelon came to visit him days after admission; they were apparently a government-established group meant to oversee organizations like Epsilon, Hierguild, and others, making sure they weren't overstepping bounds that would threaten the country or world at-large. They showed him evidence of a mole being in Epsilon, working on behalf of Hierguild to help further their Megarch endeavors. Apparently the briefings I was giving him lined up right along with Echelon's findings, and so Radio played his part of recovering patient during scheduled visits, and a mole inserted into Hierguild's security forces, using his power to listen in on sensitive communications and report findings.

Everything was running smoothly until a few days prior; once four of the five remaining active Epsilon Hierarchs became prisoners of war, Radio was allowed to act on his own to save us. Taking me down in that office had to look real, in-case of surveillance he was unaware of, and it made so much sense that a former Navy Seal who trained me took me down instead of some random guard. His plan was much more elaborate to get us all out, but my reckless actions proved a faster means, and we'd made it out without a hitch.

His explanation complete, I couldn't help but laugh and comment how lucky he was that I didn't kill him. "I would say sorry for the last time about getting you injured, but considering the way you took me down earlier, now we're even." Javier accepted that without issue, laughing himself. Smooth a ride as it was to the hangar, I couldn't help but still feel the crazy roller coaster I was on wasn't done; it didn't stop as we drove into the empty hangar.

"So we're the first ones here?" I looked around the totally vacant space. "When do they show up?"

"They're already here," a portion of the concrete slid open, creating a downward ramp to a lower level, allowing our untraceable van to disappear underground. The subterranean space was sizable, covering underneath a good portion of the whole airfield, but the space looked sterile and sparsely used. There were a few parked vehicles present, ones I assumed belonging to the Echelon contacts already present. After making sure the others were still safe and sleeping, we exited the van. I admired how well-hidden Echelon kept their facility, but wondered why they lowered the temperature below ground.

From the doorway to another structure, a few figures walked our way, ready to greet us. The closer they got, the more some looked very familiar.

"Dr. Ways, I presume?" I told the blonde with tinted glasses, hiding the powerful green eyes. The former faux medical doctor wore a black pantsuit, looking more like a sexy psychologist to me.

"Not quite. I'm actually Dr. Sway, Julia Sway. Nice to meet you officially, Half." She extended her hand to be shaken, and I cautiously took it, noting her casually-dressed brunette assistant holding a crystal ball.

"And you would be?"

"They call me Sibyl; also nice to meet you officially," the girl held out the hand that wasn't holding the crystal, shaking mine.

"'Experts of long-term recovery?'" I quoted Sway back, sarcastically.

"In a manner of speaking," she responded.

"At the behest of the government, right?"

"One could see it that way." Not only her words, but something about the way Sway said that caught Radio off-guard, as if it betrayed all he'd been told, and told me. Preempting his reaction, Dr. Sway spoke again.

"Radio off."

The words brought Javier to a stand-still, upright but with his head nodding forward, as if waiting for whatever the blonde had to say next.

That obviously put me on the defensive, but neither Sway nor Sibyl made any attempt to provoke me.

"I know all this might come as a shock to you, but before you act prematurely, if you allow, I can explain what's been going on around you, things even our dear Radio isn't aware of."

She looked completely serious, and for the sake of holding on to something sane, I let myself start to believe her. Or at least wanted to.

"And why would you tell me when you're hiding things from your own agent?"

"Because Radio is truly the type to believe in whatever organization he fights for, maybe enough to see it purely for what it could or should be, instead of what it really is. He thinks it's fixable, that it's just one mole compromising Epsilon; you can't fix what's designed to work against you."

Looking over at Radio's vulnerable form, it was saddening to know that the same heartfelt, trusting quality that made Epsilon seem not so bad, could be so thoroughly turned against him.

"While you, on the other hand, are much more an outsider, a pragmatist, and can readily accept hard truths about who you work for. Not to mention, you seem to be at the center of something bigger than you know. Some of this you'll want to sit down for, and I think we should attend to your friends first. Radio, help Half with unloading your friends."

Radio wordlessly moved to obey the command he was given.

"No," I told Sway, even as Radio began moving as told regardless. "Make him stop."

"Why? Your friends will be a lot more comfortable out of those chambers."

"Then take them out of those chambers, but leave them in the vehicle, in case a quick exit is needed."

I had to ask myself why I was giving away a hasty, reactive plan; the look on Sway's spoke to how amused she was by it.

"Look, I can tell you're going to propose something to me. If I don't like what you have to say, you could use those eyes on me, and then Radio and I will both be doing what you say anyway. But unless you object, we should be ready to go, for whatever reason."

That didn't sound any smarter, and appealing to her control over the situation made her smile even more before amending her command.

"Radio, help Half get them out of those chambers, but leave your friends in the van." I nodded her way thankfully, but still eying Sway carefully before moving to help. Physical exertion took off some of the cold I was feeling, but a chill was still present, be it from set cold temps, or just the unsurety of these new players. Deeper into their facility, we were greeted by a Hierarch that looked like a walking teddy bear, dressed as casually as Sibyl, appropriately called Dr. Bear. He joined us in the conference room as we all sat.

"What if they wake up early?" I asked about Copula and B&B.

"They won't," Dr. Bear began explaining. "They're still reeling from the effects of the deprivation chambers. It takes some time to recover from those effects."

"And I'm using my psychic power to help ease them off of it, and remain in a comfortable state of sleep," Sibyl chimed in, gesturing to her crystal.

"Hopefully you can believe us when we say we're not here to harm or keep anyone captive," Sway added.

"If not that, then why are you here? What are you all trying to do? And after everything that's gone on for the past few days, you'll forgive me if I refuse to believe you before the next surprise kicks me in the teeth."

"Fair enough. If you want to take some time to just rest and decompress, we understand."

"No, there might not be time for that; just say what you need to, and try hard not to omit anything," I looked over at the still-out-of-it Radio for an example of where I didn't want to stand with pertinent information.

"Alright. First of all, we are Echelon. But Echelon is not government-run; it's independently run by Hierarchs, primarily Sibyl, Bear, and myself. Well before the likes of Epsilon, Hierguild, and other groups surfaced, things were much simpler. My associates were once part of what was first called Echelon, a well-organized group made up of Hierarchs meant to do good deeds for others of our kind, and defend against those who'd harm us. You're currently sitting in one of the original Echelon's old secret facilities."

I'd wondered if I'd ever heard of Echelon around the growing Hierarch concern or craze in the news; and remembering what that craze was like, I was happy they remained anonymous to the world for their own sake.

"And at the time of the original Echelon's existence, I operated on the other end of things, working for big companies owned by men that deeply hated/were afraid of our kind. You've probably seen or heard of our exploits in the media, while lacking this context."

"You're a Hierarch, and worked for the companies going after Hierarchs and Echelon?"

"What can I say? I wasn't very wholesome when Hierarchs became a worldwide phenomenon, and the pay was excellent, but not worth all the hassle in the end."

"Try working for them with no pay."

Sibyl snickered at that comment for some reason, making Sway smirk indirectly at her, indicating strong relations between them. "Needless to say, after a while, most Hierarchs involved felt all the fighting wasn't worth it, and either quit, or helped the reasons for fighting to go away."

Sibyl smiled at the blonde, seemingly proud of her contribution to their cause.

"All of us here had all but retired, until forming Hierarch groups became fashionable to the point of commercialized as they are today."

"And you're worried about the ones bringing them back?"

"The ones bringing them back are the same ones who wanted Hierarchs as a species gone. Instead of hiring independent contractors like myself, they've tried a different method: recruiting Hierarchs, using them like pawns. Or in their words, private military forces, making Hierarchs aim all their malicious efforts at one another, and only one another."

Sway was right; I was glad I was sitting while hearing that.

"Wait, so...not only are Epsilon and Hierguild run by the same people, those people want us to fight and kill each other?"

"Bad as that is, there is more," Bear chimed in. "Instead of just having you all fight one another, they've been doing more. Research, experimentation..."

"Megarchs?"

"Exactly. Unfortunately, the heads of these organizations that really had it in for us, some of them were willing to adapt beyond blunt goals. Plans for eradication evolved to utilization and control, and then seeing what improvements could be made on their own empowered soldiers. The worst one working against us wasn't any executive, but a scientist named Deakins, who is as dangerous to us as he is motivated and versatile. No one else's singular efforts brought us closer to ruin than him. He reportedly died in a fire some time ago, but his research and methods live on, and have moved to Megarchs."

"Making us stronger is his, or someone's play?"

"You've seen Maelstrom, what she can do. Imagine Maelstrom, or someone like her, coming to finish us all off one by one, or whole groups at a time. How she's been engineered, she could legitimately take us all out, let alone a whole Megarch army if they find a way to replicate the success they've achieved with her. This is mainly why we've had to involve your teammate as much as we have; his injury and powerset was our lucky opportunity, able to access so much invaluable information though his connection to transmissions of all kinds while simply standing and acting like an unwitting guard."

I kept it to myself how ingenious their use of Radio was. "A move that could've gotten him killed."

"Believe me, we understand why he's never done that under Epsilon, but we wouldn't have sent someone unqualified in to a mission like this. And he's helping to save all of us in a tremendous way, a way we hope you will further."

I looked at the trio staring back at me, observing how I was taking in everything; I wonder how they all took my calm expression, one of fully willing to believe that everything I'd been drafted into was bullshit. Maybe they knew my cynicism would want me to think the worst, and gave me a convincing story to use me like Epsilon had, which brought thoughts of what I really feared from them.

"Okay...say I believe everything you've just told me, wholesale. Why are you telling me, and how do you hope I will further anything?"