Alphonse had the search to keep himself motivated as well. He lusted after the power of the Great Recipe in a way that he'd never lusted after any woman. He wanted that formula the way a drowning man wanted air, but in this search he had to be patient, and he had to be prepared. Taming that sort of power wasn't easily done.

That's why in the 1960's Alphonse had built a laboratory here in this old coal mine. What had begun as a tiny lab with a few college rejects and dropouts now employed more than a hundred top people. There were apartments here to sleep ten times that number with all the amenities anyone could ask for while being a couple thousand feet under a mountain. These men and women worked to uncover mankind's lost secrets. Alphonse would need that knowledge when he finally had the power in his hand, because only the ancients had known how to tame the power.

Ancient humans had entire libraries worth of knowledge that modern science couldn't begin to understand. Most ancient civilizations are remembered only by the tumbled buildings they've left behind. Their knowledge didn't stop with construction tech. It touched all aspects of life. The secrets were there to be discovered if anyone bothered to look. Modern people often ignored what stared them plainly in the face.

Alphonse's lab was where all of it came together. These wonderful scientists weren't just uncovering what the ancients knew. They were updating and improving on the old technologies. This was where the Aceros had been created. Those monsters had been the culmination of twenty years of hunting and discovery. Watching the first Acero come online had been one of the most wonderful moments of Alphonse's life. It amazed him that their creation had been because of pure chance.

In 1956 he and a friend were admiring a stone lintel that had been found in Iraq, when his friend noticed something that no one else ever had. Where everyone from archeologist to passersby saw pretty doodles carved by primitive people, his friend saw them for what they were, the double helixes of DNA. Alphonse had never even heard of DNA before, but it had all intrigued him so much that he'd convinced his father to buy that lintel. After years of intensive study it was discovered that the DNA carved on the lintel didn't match any creature on Earth. Some of the researchers thought it might be alien, but it wasn't. The DNA sequence laid out on that lintel had been constructed by the ancients. Thousands of years before the first microscope or computer somebody had created life from scratch like a cook made biscuits. It took Alphonse's team years more to isolate and replicate the process for creating DNA, but once they could also make life, they realized that there were no boundaries to what they could create. That was the first step to making the Aceros.

The instructions for making living metal skin were inscribed on a bronze cylinder discovered in a shallow cave inside the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia in 1951. By 1959 that cylinder was in the hands of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh. It hadn't even been on display, just sat in a straw filled box in the back of the building. Alphonse had approached a curator with an offer to buy the piece and the man negotiated a little, but it went nowhere. No amount of money would have lifted that piece from the museum's collection so in 1967 Alphonse had resorted to murder. That museum curator had been the first person Alphonse had killed with his own hands. It had been oddly liberating. It had also been quite sloppy. Alphonse had been forced to hire a mob fixer to clean up and suppress the evidence. That murder haunted Alphonse to the present day. Not because he'd taken a life, but because every so often some enterprising young investigator would take up the cause of the murdered curator. The case had grown awfully cold in recent years, but not before more murders had been committed to keep the case covered up.

In the early 90's an Assistant US Attorney had looked into the murder because evidence from that case had coincided with evidence from a routine racketeering case. The fixer was the link, and if the fixer went down it wouldn't be long before Alphonse went down too. He couldn't even let a whiff of scandal come out since he was a sitting Federal Judge at the time. Her excellent track record of closing cases ended up costing that prosecutor and her family their lives.

It never burdened Alphonse that unlike the curator, he'd known Annalise Johanssen. He'd seen her almost every day at the courthouse. She was smart, very pretty and knew how to tell an off color joke. Alphonse had even met her husband and her oldest child. None of that mattered when he'd ordered the hit. Those murders had been worth it, because they'd allowed Alphonse to continue his work. His reputation was so spotless that even after his son's recent demise, Alphonse wasn't implicated in any crimes.

Things had been more joyous back in 1977. There had been a week-long party after the first Acero had gone operational. The Aceros had been the most frightening and impressive things Alphonse had yet seen. They'd made him so proud, but in their first taste of real battle his mighty beasts had been defeated. There were lots of unforeseen factors, but Alphonse understood how the engineers at Harland & Wolff must have felt with the Titanic sank before she'd crossed the Atlantic once.

According to Robert Joelstine's report, Heather Matthews had destroyed two of his monsters and so damaged a third that a simple anti-tank rocket had killed it. Her cousin Jan Caufield had killed two Aceros in rather quick succession, and her adopted brother Thomas had destroyed one on his own. It was Taylor Matthews though who'd done the lion's share of the killing. She'd single handedly killed at least five Aceros.

There were twenty-nine more Aceros locked up in these caverns, and part of Alphonse wanted to sick them all on Taylor Matthews and allow them to seek retribution for their fallen brethren. He knew better though. There was no room in his plans for anger or revenge, besides given time Taylor would tear through his monsters anyway. There was no use in wasting them on a doomed task. She would get hers one day. Until then Alphonse would keep his eye on the goal.

With that in mind, Alphonse walked towards the communications room. It hadn't really had that purpose in some time, but messages were still routed through there. "Good evening Mr. DeBraya", the young man sitting behind a desk said as the door opened.

"Any messages?", Alphonse asked casually and sat on the corner of the desk.

"No sir, nothing at all."

Alphonse nodded and took another drink. "So you haven't heard anything from Mr. White?"

"No sir. I could try to reach him if you want."

Alphonse shook his head. "No need. Gregg's a big boy. I'm sure he's just fine."

Gregg White had never feared for his life, not directly. There had always been lots of layers between him and any potential harm. Danger had seemed remote, and he'd convinced himself that if forced to, he'd face danger like the man he had built himself up to be. Only he hadn't. With his plan to steal Benny's super soldiers in tatters and his men defeated by Benny's special Femme, Gregg felt like an abandoned baby. Gregg's chief of security had been taken to the hospital by the other guard. That left one man behind to protect Gregg. He was in an impossible position and the man knew it. He was as helpless as Gregg was. They were both at Benny's mercy. Part of Gregg wanted to analyze what had gone wrong this night, but the larger part of him only wanted to live to see another day.

The fact that he was still breathing was a small miracle. Gregg wasn't sure what angle Benny wanted to play, but one look at that special Femme's face told Gregg everything he needed to know. If it was up to her, she'd have ripped his head off just like she had that Series 4 soldier who'd come to his aid. Gregg tried not to look at the grizzly scene in the distance, but curiosity was sometimes morbid. Blood dripped in big globs from the gaping wound in the Series 4's neck where the skin had ripped open. He body was face down in a cratered depression in the concrete with the nearly severed head sitting almost upright between the shoulder blades with dead eyes looking to the large hole in the wall the fight had created.

The beautiful and mysterious X-424 walked in a loose circle at the periphery of Gregg's vision. Her arms hung at her sides, inches from the weapons hidden under her dress, but it was her arms themselves that were dangerous. It was hard to imagine that her muscles could go from gracefully lean to a big and meaty, but Gregg had seen her pumped a few short minutes earlier. She had steel ripping strength, but it was hidden now just like her guns. Her face was impassive but her eyes burned with either hatred for Gregg or the left over emotions of a just fought battle. Gregg couldn't read her at all. She'd already tricked him before, and she could very easily do it again.

"Thank you", Gregg remembered to say as Benny handed him a glass of cool water. He coughed as he tried to swallow. It felt as if X-424's fingers were still wrapped around his throat. He made up his mind as he took a second, more soothing sip of water, to do whatever it took to make sure those fingers didn't return to his throat.

"You were about to explain how you took control of my super soldiers", Benny prompted Gregg to explain how his orders had superseded his own. Gregg couldn't tell the truth though. He'd give away too many secrets, but he hadn't planned on failing so he didn't have a contingency lie prepared. He have to make one up as he went along.

"Back in the late 80's", Gregg began then paused to order his lie and to take a sip of water, "my finance company did some above board work with Jason Mallster's chemical company. Sometime later I found out that he had this crazy idea to make soldiers who were stronger than any human, and who had no feelings or fear. I got in on the ground floor. I helped in the early days with financing and with connecting Jason to people who could help him. I was the one who connected him with Alistair Stanley of the Syndicate council for instance. Jason would never have become a member of the Syndicate if not for me. And in rare gratitude from the man he gave me a special command protocol equal to his own… as a gift. Since I was a silent partner, it was a silent protocol."

Benny looked unconvinced so Gregg knew that he had to explain a little more. "Jason and I lost touch after a time, and there was no way of knowing that my special command survived in the Femme's programming, but I took a chance."

Benny sat silent for a moment then sighed. "That was foolish what you tried", Benny began. "

"I understand I was wrong to attempt to take your soldiers and to belittle you", Gregg said quickly.

Benny's grin held daggers. "You only say that because you failed. I can live with that. If you'd won, I'd be the one trying to find a rock to crawl under. I keep thinking how easy it would be for me to repay you blow for blow what you had planned for me. Make you beg and scrape then I'd get to decide whether you live or die." Sweat formed on Gregg's forehead and his eyes searched for X-424.

"No need to look at her", Benny warned in a soft voice. "She wouldn't have been the one to kill you. I'd have done it myself, but that's not going to happen because I understand some things. See, inside this room I hold the power for the moment, but out there, in the wider world, Mr. White, you hold power. That's more important to me than any temporary victory. Do you understand?"

"I believe I do", Gregg said then took a drink of water. "I think you still want to sell some super soldiers."

Now Benny's smile turned more genuine. "I do. I hope you understand that I'm reducing the number of soldiers for sale."

"But Mr. Harris that will reduce your profits."

"No it won't. The price has gone up."

Gregg and Benny didn't haggle nearly as much as either man had expected. Benny hadn't raised the price to more than Gregg was willing to pay, and in an effort to show good faith Gregg had even agreed to pay the full purchase price for the dead Series 4. It helped to put the rocky start to their meeting behind them for good.

The two stood up and shook hands over the small table. "I owe you one more apology", Gregg admitted. "I pride myself in being able to take the measure of a man, but I completely misread you."

Benny looked over his shoulder at the dead Series 4 behind him then turned back to face Gregg. "A man died here this evening", he began seriously then broke into a broad grin. "Good thing it was neither of us!" Both men shared a hearty laugh that allowed most of the remaining bad feelings to melt away.

"This building was almost ready to rent, but I think it's going to need some more work", Gregg observed with a chuckle. One of his many holding companies would discretely repair the damaged wall and floor once the dead body was gone. "Well, Mr. Harris", Gregg said then clasped his hands together. "If there's nothing else, I believed we're finished here."

It took all of Benny's strength to keep his legs from running towards the front door before the truth could catch him, before Gregg could double cross him again. He had money in an off shore account. He had a client interested in purchasing more super soldiers. He had his life, and most important of all he still had X-424 at his side. It was only that last part that he was wrong about. X-424 didn't move towards him. She walked towards the center of the room, and to everyone astonishment said, "Actually, gentlemen, there is something I would like to discuss."

Benny's eyes widened and Gregg's face went pale with dread. As scared as Benny was of something going wrong, Gregg was doubly scared of X-424. It showed on his face. She stepped between the men, too close for Gregg's comfort.

"Listening to the two of you conduct business has convinced me that this super soldier transaction should be just a beginning to a deep, fruitful relationship between the two of you."

"Excuse me?", Gregg inquired since Benny was too nervous to utter a sound. He'd told Gregg that he couldn't control X-424. He began to understand just how true those words had been. Gregg flinched and the last bodyguard reached for a gun that wasn't there when X-424's gaze turned towards his boss.

She softened her tone as she said, "Mr. White you're one of the world's foremost financiers. Some people call you this generation's J.P. Morgan. That's high praise and very appropriate in my opinion. That's why you'd be the perfect man to facilitate Benny's entrance to the legitimate business world. No one would question a business backed by you, Mr. White."

Gregg's face flushed and he coughed when he opened his mouth to speak. "Let me get this straight! You want to choke the life out of me and now you want to flatter me?"

"I can admit I was wrong if you can", X-424 said. "I'm not dealing with the past. I'm talking about the future, a future where Benny is as big an asset to you as anything in your portfolio. Here's a man with a cool enough head to negotiate with the man who threatened to kill him, because that was the only way for him to get what he wanted."

"We have only just made one small deal. I've already complimented Mr. Harris on besting my expectations by a mile. To be honest, I don't think I could compartmentalize like him, but be that as it may. I think we should leave our dealings here, where they are."

X-424 wasn't deterred. She'd anticipated this. "Earlier in the evening you spoke of how you admired Jason Mallster. You thought so highly of him that you did legitimate business with him even as you also dealt with him in this shadowy underworld. I'm the only person in this room who has actually worked with both Benny and Mallster. I can say in all honesty that Mr. Harris tops Mallster in every way. He's smarter, works harder, and is more loyal to his friends."

"There is a far distance between the deal we did tonight and starting a business, Miss. I obviously have one foot in the dark underworld, but I can't let this life mix with my legitimate businesses."

"I wouldn't think of it", X-424 turned on the charm. Gregg hadn't seen that from her before. "Your good name is exactly what Benny needs to get his business off the ground. If you stood behind him, he'd have instant credibility."

Gregg was quiet for a moment. "You make a compelling case, but why should I go out on this limb?", he asked.

"That circles back to your one foot in the darkness statement. You said when we met that you had problems that needed an army. If I may say so sir, you're wrong. What you need is an ally, an ally who understands the full scope of your power and influence in the regular business world and in the underworld. I'm sure you have plenty of acquaintances and minions, but I ask you, how many true allies do you have?"

Gregg's mind instantly formed a picture of Alphonse DeBraya to answer this Femme's question, but there was no way he would speak his fellow Covent member's name. Besides, while Gregg and Alphonse were friends, Gregg knew that Alphonse was out for his own ends more than anything else. Gregg crossed his arms and sighed. "Ok, I'm listening, but remember you can't make a business out of wishes and dreams. There has to be a real plan."

X-424 smiled. The sincerity of it caught Gregg by surprise yet again. "Benny has a great plan. He'll explain."

It was late in the evening before Gregg and Benny stopped strategizing. Benny had laid out the idea for his company logically and orderly. He didn't have to backtrack and he had answers to every one of Gregg's questions. Benny promised to send a detailed financing proposal to Gregg's New York office by the week's end. X-424's plan ended up working better than she'd imagined it would. Now though she found herself behind the wheel and on the road. The clouds had cleared and the moon shined on the rolling landscape like a weaker sun. To X-424's enhanced eyes, it could have been day.

Benny was a ball of excited energy in the seat next to her. "You were amazing!", he exclaimed. "Absolutely amazing!"

X-424 glanced at Benny then put her eyes back on the road. "You weren't bad either. I'm here to help you."

Benny laughed. "Modesty doesn't fit you well. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead."

"Don't be dramatic. He wasn't even going to kill you", X-424 replied quickly.

Benny put his hand on her thigh and gave the unyielding muscle a squeeze. "He was trying to take you from me. That's the same thing. When he made you kiss him, I wanted to attack him.

"That would have been a bad idea", X-424 deadpanned.

"I know you'd have attacked me to protect him."

"No", X-424 retorted quickly. "I wasn't under his control for more than a few seconds. He didn't make me kiss him, and I certainly wasn't going to attack you."

"You mean kissed him on your own!?!"

"The time wasn't right for resistance, so I played along", X-424 replied then grimaced. "It took every fiber of my being to hold back. I wanted to bite his tongue off when he shoved it in my mouth."

"He was so sure of himself." Anger crept into Benny's voice, but it passed. "You played him like a puppet. The fighting was impressive. I've seen you kill a Series 4 before, but I'd never seen you turn a grown man into putty before… well except perhaps for me", he added with a quick laugh.

"It wasn't hard, in either case." Her grin matched his. Benny suddenly leaned over and kissed X-424 passionately.

"You really are excited", X-424's voice didn't betray how nice that kiss had felt.

"I mean, you already know how sexy you are, but seeing you work Gregg White like that is driving me crazy."

X-424 allowed herself to grin ever so slightly. "Like I said, it wasn't hard. You see, he was lying."

"Huh? Lying about what?"

"About how he got command authority over us super soldiers. That protocol wasn't implemented by Jason Mallster as a favor. White's control over us was… different. It overrode everything", X-424 explained. "The voice from those commands was very powerful."

"It wasn't stronger than you", Benny said and X-424 sighed.

"It was hard to ignore", she replied. Her voice trailed off and her fingers squeezed the wheel hard enough for muffled cracks to sound out. "Anyway, Gregg White suspected correctly that I knew that he was lying to you. I used that to your advantage. I probably could have asked for the moon and he'd have tried to give it to you."

Benny was floored. "I should have killed that asshole", he spit through clenched teeth.

"No you did exactly as you should have." He shook his head as if that would have cleared his emotions. It didn't. "You know, I can never tell when you're telling me the whole truth."

"I can't actually lie to you, Benny, not without a big struggle with my programming. All I can do is choose when to tell you something. Like I said, I am here to help you."

He grabbed her leg again. "I know. There's just a lot to think about." He slumped back in his seat. X-424 had given Benny one more reason not to trust Gregg, and he couldn't help but wonder how he'd gotten special control of the super soldiers. Benny realized that he should have pressed him harder about his connection to the Syndicate. He'd probably missed his chance to do that for a while.

"We need gas", X-424 said to momentarily break Benny out of his trance.

"Umm… okay", he said and stared out of the windshield as X-424 took the next exit and drove up the ramp. She took a right and drove to a very large brightly lit station. X-424 picked an empty slot and stopped the engine and got out quickly. She looked around as she walked to the passenger side to fill up. Big eighteen wheelers were lined up behind and beside them. Some were gassing up, and others were parked so the drivers could catch a little shut-eye before hitting the road again. Sets of eyes both near and far followed the hot chick as she stood there about to gas up. X-424 was always aware of her surroundings, but distant leering wasn't a threat.

The gas had just started to flow when a shiny red Nissan 350z pulled in going a little too fast. It stopped at the pump opposite X-424. Her scientifically enhanced eyes saw two people in that car dancing and jamming to something that was muffled to X-424's ears. The driver killed the Nissan's engine and opened the door. Only then could X-424 make out Pon de Replay by some new artist called Rihanna as it blasted from the car's impressive sound system. From her angle X-424 couldn't see the car's driver, but the reactions of the men who could told X-424 everything she needed to know. The driver of the car had to be hot because some of the men who had been looking at her were now looking at this new girl.

X-424 got to see her for herself in a second because she saw the driver's head appear above the rag top and keep rising and rising and rising. The girl was at least four or five inches taller than X-424's 5'8". From the back and only seeing half of this young woman's body X-424 could tell that it was very impressive. So impressive that X-424 felt a twinge of jealousy seep into her thoughts, which was rare because X-424 was hot enough to hold her own with most. The girl turned around and X-424 realized that her womanly competitiveness was justified.

The new girl was more than pretty enough for X-424 to understand the salivating lustful looks some of the men at the station were giving her. She had an aggressively beautiful face with features and a bone structure that were almost unnatural in their seamless perfection. Even her eyelashes were perfect. Plus she had the bluest eyes X-424 had ever seen. The bright overhead lights made them shine like blue gems floating in a sea of white. X-424 didn't check, but she was sure that Benny had already noticed this girl. He had.

The Nissan driver started the pump then headed towards the store. Her long lean body was even better than X-424 had figured it would be. There wasn't a flaw. Her straight strong shoulders, tapered to a waist that was as small as X-424's on that much taller frame. Her hips were shapely and gave her body a wonderful natural curve. Her legs were without equal, lean sweeping muscular thighs and hard diamond shaped calves showed through her tight jeans with each strutting, confident step. X-424 wasn't lacking in the genetics department, but sometimes, some women just needed to be punched for scoring a genetic touchdown.

"Bring me some Sugar Babies", the girl in the Nissan's passenger seat called out to the tall driver who jumped and spun to a stop.

"Tami! You said that you were going to change your diet", the driver called back.

"I'll start it when we get back to Atlanta!", the passenger declared then laughed. "I promise!"

"Uhh huh", the driver accused.

"Come on Jan, stop making me beg", Tamika Rucker called out to her friend and classmate.

"Okay, but I'm gettin' the smallest bag they have." Tamika puffed her lip out as Jan turned and strutted into the market.

X-424 set the automatic toggle for the filler and tapped on the knuckles against Benny's window. "I need to use the restroom. You should come into the store with me."

Benny blinked a couple of times as he looked up. X-424 thought that he hadn't heard her, but he had. His mind was lost in exploration of her beauty. He'd seen the Nissan driver out of the corner of his eyes. His brain had registered that girl's hotness in great detail, but the animalistic lust that had ruled and ruined Benny's early life never materialized. It just wasn't there. Lust only arose as he looked up at X-424 looking down at him. "I know you don't need me to hold your hand", he quipped.

X-424 didn't smile. "After all that has happened tonight, I'd prefer if you were close to me instead of being separated if something happens."

Benny chuckled. "If Gregg's mad at anybody, he's mad at you not me. You're the one who played him. Maybe I should watch your back."

X-424 smirked without even wanting to. She lifted Benny's face with a finger to his chin and kissed him through the window. 'Lucky bastard', some of the other guys thought. "This won't take long", X-424 said and started towards the store.

"It's too bad they didn't design you soldiers so you wouldn't need to go."

X-424 turned, shocked. "Femme humor now?" Benny let the window up, laughing as if that was the funniest thing she'd ever said.

The oversized market had a varied assortment of humanity inside it. There were some locals hanging out by the fountain drinks and a bunch of truckers inside the little restaurant that stayed open all night. The mixed scents of coffee, body odor, cheap perfume, and microwave burritos filled the air as X-424 made a bee line for her target, the bathroom.

Back out in the store, X-424 decided to buy something. She was looking over the potato chip selection when she saw Jan, the tall Nissan driver, in the next isle over. She was more beautiful up close. She had perfect skin and a nice tan. She'd obviously gone someplace sunny for New Years. Just one more reason to hate that chick. X-424 snickered at her own thoughts and grabbed a can of Pringles from the rack then a large bottle of water from the coolers.

At the checkout Jan was right behind her holding the candy her friend wanted and a bottle of Coke for herself. The tall beauty giggled a bit then typed furiously on her cell phone, only to giggle again and type some more. The guy behind the counter couldn't believe his eyes as two super hot women in a row stood inches from him. They were probably the best looking women he'd ever seen or would ever see again.

X-424 hopped back behind the wheel and tossed the Pringles onto Benny's lap. "Oh you didn't have to get me anything", Benny said a couple seconds before he crunched through the first chip. "Uh huh", X-424 replied as Benny crunched down on a second chip. He was seven more chips in before he thought to ask X-424 if she wanted one. She just smiled in reply.

With her sitting next to him again, Benny's mind went right back to where it had been before they'd stopped for gas. His thoughts revolved around her. He thought back to the fight in Charlotte. He remembered how scared he'd been, and how desperate. He also remembered how awesome X-424 had been. Her body was undamaged and oh so beautiful as she sat next to him like nothing at all had happened. Her mind was clear and unclouded. She wasn't troubled or nervous. She was Benny's little piece of perfect. Unlike X-424 with Gregg, Benny couldn't hold himself back.

He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over to bury his head between her breasts. He gripped the top of her dress and tore the square neckline revealing the bra beneath. He gripped one of her ample breasts in both hands and freed it completely and began to suck her enlarging nipple. X-424 moaned. Benny moved from her right breast to her left. X-424 sucked in a breath. Benny moved completely from his seat and straddled her lap.

"Oh Benny, I can't see!" Benny didn't listen to any of it.

"Just picking up where we left off", Benny said then kissed X-424 again. Her eyes widened and she tried to look past Benny's head to the road. "You are so fucking amazing!", he exclaimed and sucked his way down her neck to the tops of her shoulders and then to middle of her chest. X-424 swerved a little as Benny worked.

"Oh my God, Benny we have to wait! I can't drive. It's not safe!"

Benny was undeterred. He grabbed both sides of X-424's dress and pulled with all of his might. One elbow hit the windshield and the other the passenger window. The dress ripped a jagged line down the middle exposing X-424's wonderful body beneath. He leaned down and gently kissed the very bottom of her six pack abs, right where her panties rested against her soft skin. That caused a breathy moan to escape her moistening lips. Beads of sweat dotted X-424's forehead and her skin started to flush as hormones filled her body.

The car swerved again when Benny slid his hand between X-424's legs. They clenched involuntarily giving Benny a little taste of her power. It only excited him more. He unhooked her bra and now worked his mouth between both breasts before kissing and licking his way up her chest to her neck and finally to her face. "I've got to get the taste of that old man out of your mouth", Benny declared before he kissed her again.

"Do it then", X-424 said as she kissed him back, surrendering to the lust. She was barely able to pull the car to the side of the road. She took one hand off the wheel to run her fingers through Benny's hair while the other one steered. She just managed to put the car into park while Benny's mouth devoured her. She found the seat control and slammed down against the back seat. Benny stared down at X-424's pulsing body and waiting eyes. He fumbled with his pants.

"Now you make me wait!", X-424 growled passionately. She grabbed the crotch of Benny's pants and pulled. Stitches and fabric tore to powder as she completely ripped Benny's pants from his body. He couldn't remember ever being this hard before, and X-424 couldn't remember being this horny before. Benny pulled his hips back and entered her. X-424 wrapped her legs around his waist and pumped her hips in time with his. Usually Benny was sensual, slow, and gentle. Not this night. He fucked her like a demon and she felt like a woman possessed. X-424 bit her bottom lip and looked off to the right before closing her eyes. She unwrapped her legs from around Benny's waist. He wondered why, but then X-424 came. Her hips thrashed and her muscles flexed harder than they had when she'd ripped a super soldier's head off of his body. He'd seen her do that before, but he'd never seen her muscles quite like this before. Veins and muscle fiber mixed under her sweaty skin as her body reacted to her mind numbing orgasm. Her inner muscles pressed in against Benny's dick, but he wasn't afraid. He'd felt this before, just not to this degree. He'd taken X-424 to a place she'd hadn't been in a long time. That was one way to get a man's ego to grow.

"Ohh!!! FUCK YES!!!", X-424 screamed then threw her arms and legs around Benny's sweaty body. "FUCK MEEEEEE!"

Shadow Soldier

January 2006

Norma Carlton sighed softly as she leaned back in the surprisingly comfortable metal chair and put her feet up on the old anchored table. She crossed her ankles causing her massive quads to bulge for a moment before she relaxed them. All Norma wanted to do was relax. She'd just finished an early dinner and had decided to read here in the relative luxury of the cafeteria with its rough concrete walls and steel shrouded windows. Norma stretched her torso backwards, exposing the bottom of her insane abdominal wall. That little movement caused her oblique muscles to flex hard enough to stretch the shirt tight against her sides. Her traps and shoulders stretched the neck of the Army tee, but Norma didn't even think about it. She didn't used to destroy so many clothes, but all this soldiering was having the same effect on her body it had on others. Her muscles were bigger and more defined than ever before. Norma was shocked that her body'd had room to grow in the first place. Norma thought that she'd been huge before, but she was bigger and stronger than ever.

It hadn't gone to her head. She was the same person, a little older, a little wiser, and a lot smarter than before. Norma'd had no idea that her brain was as powerful as it was turning out to be. It was like a muscle than she'd never bothered to flex. She'd barely paid attention in the classroom, graduating from high school in the bottom third of her class because she always figured that she wouldn't go to college and would instead help run her family's store with her mother and brothers. That was exactly what Norma had been doing when two of Jan's friends had showed up. Norma had unknowingly been helping the people who had abducted Jan. That still made Norma fire breathing mad to think about. She couldn't believe that her entire family had been so easily manipulated.

Norma had known Jan since the two of them were about ten. Jan would come down to the shore when she was mad, and that's when Norma and Jan would play. At first they'd played like girls with dolls and the like, but then that puberty thing happened. Norma got massively muscled and Jan had gotten even taller and gorgeouser… if that was a word. Jan had kept some secrets from Norma though, but one day when they were about 14 Jan had decided to reveal some of them. She'd picked Norma up like a stuffed animal, turned the muscled girl upside down and put her down to the ground. The wrestling match commenced right then and there.

By that point, Norma hadn't wrestled with her brothers in years for fear of hurting them with her freakish strength. She found out on the first day that she couldn't hurt Jan even though she'd been frustrated enough to try a couple of times. Norma had hurt Jan in the end though, by helping those who had taken her.

After her fight with Sara and Alisha, Norma had been too torn up with guilt to give serious thought to all the special powers stuff they'd explained to her. In a moment of impulse Norma had joined the Army. Time would tell if that had been one of her best decisions or the most idiotic. Either way, here she sat.

She pulled out historian David McCullough's latest work and started at page one. She was half an hour in when some noisy soldiers came in speaking French. Norma didn't have to look at the uniforms to know where they were from. She didn't speak a word of their language, but she'd learned to recognize their Belgian accents as easily as she did her own mid-Atlantic brogue. These three were from the signals unit. They never saw the field, but every job had its merit, or so Norma had been told. The Belgians kept joking and laughing amongst themselves. She didn't even look up, just turned pages.

"Hey", one of the Belgians called out after a while.

"Yeah?", came Norma's terse reply.

"We had heard rumors that the Americans had allowed a girl to join their Special Forces. Now we meet in the flesh", the guy said while he and his buddies looked at Norma's stacked body.

"Yeah", she said again without looking up from the book. Normally she'd have been more polite, but military life had helped her see the advantages of brevity.

"They didn't say that you were so… so muscular", the Belgian kept at it.

"Well, 'they' don't usually have all the story."

The three Belgians laughed. "You're enormous! You've got more muscle in your arms than I have in my entire body!"

"Probably."

These guys could make out the shape of her upper body although the sweats mostly hid her legs since she wasn't flexing them at the moment. They'd never seen a woman as muscular as her before. It was part turn on and part challenge. It was as if Norma was testing their manhood just by sitting there.

"You must exercise like crazy to have a body like that."

These guys weren't going to stop. She smiled inwardly as she casually curled her left arm while holding the book in her right hand. The fibers of her biceps gathered like soldiers from their hidden barracks. Her triceps was slung beneath and looked like a half moon. One guy's mouth fell open as Norma's forearm got closer to vertical and her biceps kept getting bigger. Her muscle was so thick and hard looking that they could hardly believe it. "Exercise so I can get more size", Norma teased then she grinned. Suddenly she clenched her fist and flexed hard. Everything changed in an instant. Her muscles transformed into a craggy landscape of peaks and valleys, striations, and veins. All three mouths were agape when they realized that Norma hadn't even been flexing before. Her short t-shirt sleeve retreated towards her shoulders as her peak rose like an erupting volcano. Norma could have destroyed the entire shirt if she'd wanted to, but the flex only last for a moment before she relaxed. "Or so I can get more cut?"

The Belgians all swallowed lumps in their collective throats as their brains tried to process what they'd just seen. This time it was Norma's turn to laugh. She threw her head back then looked back to the Belgians. Two of the soldiers blushed while the third had to shift in his seat to adjust for his raging hardon.

"Are… are you as strong as your muscles look like they are."

Norma sighed and set the book down on her lap. "Stronger", she replied with a bit of challenge in her voice. "I gave that flex for free, but anything else will cost you."

"What?"

"I'll beat the three of you at arm wrestling. Fifty euros each."

"I won't pay that much to get my arm ripped off", one soldier exclaimed.

Norma put her legs down and leaned towards them. "I mean the three of you at once. Come on, I'm just a girl after all."

Once again their manhood stood on the brink. They had started this conversation in the first place. Now it seemed as if Norma wanted to finish it. They looked at each other and shrugged. "We will take that bet. Where is your money?"

Norma wiggled her fingers back and forth waiting for the bravest of them to take a grip. "Don't worry boys, I'm good for it."

The Belgian soldiers looked at each other before the bravest of them stood up. He slapped his buddies on the back until they too stood up. They walked over shoulder to shoulder and stood opposite the table. Looking down at Norma, she was both bigger and smaller than she had seemed before. She was short enough to be called petite, but that only made her muscles look all the bigger. From only feet away they could see the veins pumping with the slow beating of her heart. They weren't prominent, but that much muscle kept them just below the surface at all times. Her muscles had a texture to them like woven cloth. Each muscle fiber sat ready to do its mistress' bidding. Norma looked to them like a smiling, freckled bull, but that wouldn't have been fair to bulls. Her muscles were menacing up close like this, and they weren't even pumped. Each man had thoughts to back out, but pride wouldn't allow it.

"How are you going to take us on at the same time?"

Norma grinned, and the men looked past her muscles to see that she actually had a cute, girlish face, that no one ever noticed. For better or worse, she was defined by her body. "You'll figure out a way."

One man ended up sitting opposite Norma and putting his elbow on the table. His hand was much bigger than hers, but as they got a grip he felt her strength. He couldn't stop staring at the top of her biceps. It was so huge and jaggedly round that it had him memorized. The second guy took position to the first man's right. He put his hand against his friend's hand to push. Norma thought that was a good idea. The third guy, the most vocal of the bunch stood to his friend's left. He smiled and put both of his hands over top and behind the other three hands. He planned to pull all the hands towards himself, directly ninety degrees to Norma who raised an eyebrow. "You didn't set rules", he said, widening his smile.

"On three, count it off", Norma ordered.

"D'accord. One, Two, Three."

All three men strained as one. Cheeks trembled as heads vibrated. Hands lost color and curses flew in two languages. Norma leaned against the men, her butt nearly leaving the seat. Her form stayed good though. She rolled her shoulder and kept her elbow firmly planted even as the strength of three men worked against her. Norma's teeth set on edge and her face flushed a cool red, but her quickening heart sent most of the spare blood to her rapidly expanding muscles. Her shirt was almost see through as muscle filled it completely. Norma squinted her eyes and held on as the three men all pulled like one huge force against her. They grunted and groaned and Norma's arm started down. Her forearm looked like live snakes were crawling under her skin as she fought to slow their progress. She was six inches off of vertical when they heard her take a deep breath. The Belgians believed that Norma was massively muscled, but they hadn't seen anything at all.

Her chest expanded, sending the 'a' and 'r' of ARMY further away from the 'm' and the 'y'. The thick neck roll of the shirt ripped open and Norma hadn't flexed at all. She'd just filled her mighty lungs. Muscles like hers needed fuel. They watched her deltoids expand like the rising of a mushroom cloud after a nuclear detonation. Three heads were always prominent, but now her shoulders split and divided into a thousand craggy weathered cliff faces. Her traps were so huge they looked like they might swallow her head whole. The star of the show though was her insanely ripped biceps. It looked like a slab of pulsing, growing cement, but it was harder than concrete, much harder. Four hands started moving in the direction that Norma wanted them too. It felt to the three men like their arms were being dragged forward by a crane's winch.

In a moment of desperation the man who had been seated across from Norma left his seat and moved to stand next to his friend adding his strength to pull directly against Norma's arm. She gasped at the added pressure, but her arm didn't stop moving. She'd made it back to vertical and had started over when the third man jumped on the table. He put his boots on the table top and leaned his entire body against the downward motion of Norma's arm. She wanted to scream, but when she opened her mouth saliva flew out instead of curses. They slowed her progress. The men behind her arm to her right put their boots against the anchored steel pole that held up the table and used it for leverage against Norma. They pulled backward like they were playing tug-a-war. Norma lost ground, but just for a moment. She took another breath. Her shirt tore some more, a real torso flex would have obliterated, but Norma focused on her arms alone. It was time for her to show these guys that she'd been holding back.

A sustained hiss announced flexing like none of the Belgians would see even in a comic book. Her forearm thickened so alarmingly that it should have crowded out her thickening biceps, but nothing at all could have impeded that mighty muscle's growth. Her biceps was mammoth, a gigantic leviathan rising even as it thickened. Veins that would look huge on any normal person seemed too puny and small to provide for that growing mountain. Just as that thought hit the Belgians, the veins thickened, growing angry purple as blood flooded in to feed her still expanding biceps.

Her striations were already too numerous to count. Her biceps looked like weathered granite, with unnamed crags and crevices adding to the unbelievable shape. Her strength grew to match the impressive appearance of her body. The men's hands didn't slowly creep towards the table. They rushed towards it. The man on the table top tried his best to put his body in between the table and her hand while the others actually left the floor completely to use their entire bodies against Norma. None of it worked. Norma gave one girlish grunt and it was all over. The man on the table was forced backwards. He slid off the table top like he'd been thrown by a bouncer. He hit the side of the table next to them. He was the lucky one. The other two had their lower bodies painfully scraped against the hard table top as Norma pulled them up and over with just the power of her right arm. Both men flew over the table landing hard on the floor with their arms stretched painfully to the table top where their hands were trapped beneath Norma's.

Norma jumped up from the table, raised her arms and flexed hard. Her face was still red and her muscles were already enormous, and she flexed them right in their faces. "You guys had no chance!", she screamed. "This is muscle. The Americans let a girl in their special forces", she mocked in a fake Belgian accent. "Cause I got muscles like THIS!", she screamed and flexed her colossal biceps even harder. She dug the tips of her fingers into her palms and pumped her arms slowly causing the men to whimper as the muscles got both thicker and harder. "Whooo", she yelled as the adrenaline worked its way out of her system. Her muscle itched for a bigger challenge, but unless she started bending the steel bars around the windows and doors they weren't going to get it.

"I'm heading to my rack by 1830 hours. So have my money by then", Norma said as she sat down and collected her book.

"No one can be that strong", one Belgian said to another as they got to their feet. They were unsteady and their bodies ached like they'd been in an auto accident. Unlike how they entered, the Belgians were silent as they left. They looked over their shoulders at Norma who was smiling as she put her feet back up on the table. "1830 hours boys", she called to them as she turned the page.

Norma put down her book and glanced at the clock on the wall. The Belgians only had ten minutes left. Somewhere in the back of her mind she'd had an idea that they wouldn't come back. They probably figured that they could avoid Norma inside the sprawling complex with its many restricted zones. They could even have been shipping out soon. They were willing to take their chances. They didn't know Norma very well. She was from Baltimore and they played for keeps in Mobtown.

She headed to her small private room on the second floor of the old cell block. She put her book on the bed then pulled on one of the specially constructed t-shirts she wore on missions. She didn't want to ruin another shirt when her muscles got bigger. Hopefully another show of strength wouldn't be necessary. Perhaps the Belgians would see the error of their ways and pay up.

Norma jogged up two flights of stairs without even thinking about how her training had made her steps in combat boots almost silent even on the concrete. There were no offices or classrooms in this part of the complex and Norma got plenty of looks. No one bothered to ask her why she was heading to a male only dorm. The look on her face told everyone not to bother her to find out.

Norma got angrier with each stair she climbed. She pulled open a door that lead to one of the seemingly endless concrete corridors. The retrofit of the building had tried to soften the prison's look, but only so much could be done about that. Norma looked right then left and saw the guard station that she was looking for.

The Polish soldier manning the checkpoint looked up from his own reading to see Norma approaching. At first his mind wouldn't register that a human with muscles that big and ripped could also be a woman. There were a few women who worked at the secret base, and they were strictly prohibited from entering the male dorms for lots of reasons. This woman reached into the neck of her shirt and pulled out an ID badge that hung from a lanyard around her neck. All other women stationed here had support badges, but this woman was US Army Special Forces. All special forces lived in dorms like this one, and all that was needed for entrance was the proper ID. The Polish guard hadn't received any orders to restrict access to authorized personnel, so he pushed the button under his little desk.

A buzzer sounded and Norma snatched open the heavy steel door like it was weightless. She walked in and was immediately greeted by a naked man walking in shower shoes with a towel draped over his shoulder. He saw Norma, stopped and turned. "Can I help you", he asked with an undeniably sexy Spanish accent that Norma was too focused and upset to take real note of.

"I'm looking for three Belgians who are supposed to live in this dorm."

The Spanish special operator shrugged. "Haven't seen them, sorry", he replied and strutted towards his room. Norma sighed and looked at the half a dozen long corridors wondering where she should start.

"Hey Carlton", a familiar voice called from behind her. She turned to see her team member Mike leaning against a doorway with playing cards in one hand and a local Polish beer in the other.

"Some Belgians stiffed me on a bet. I've come to collect."

"The weenies from signals?"

"Yeah."

"Those assholes are braver than I thought. Hallway on the far right." Norma started that way. "Need some back up?", Mike asked and leaned into his shared room to put down his beer.

"Nah. I think I got this."

"Your call partner. Holler if you need us. Fuckin' Belgians", he muttered.

Norma started down the corridor, passing some guys, but not the ones she was looking for. Some doors were open so she could see the guys inside. Most were chatting amongst themselves and others were reading or sleeping. She saw some French special forces guys that she'd worked with before and decided to try her luck.

"Carlton", a Frenchman called in a thick Parisian accent. "I knew would come here to make love to me someday. I have had all sorts of women from all over the world, but you will become a big feather in my cap."

"Henri, you couldn't handle me on your best day", Norma quipped and smiled, which momentarily lightened her mood.

"So if you are not here to fulfill my every fantasy, why do you find yourself in this dormitory when you have a plush room of your own?"

"Plush, my ass", Norma laughed then got serious again. "I'm looking for three Belgians who stiffed me. French speaking Belgians. Hoped you would know them."

The Frenchmen looked at each other then laughed heartily. "Room 306 or 309. That is where you will find them. If you have to fight them, call me. I want to see it." Norma rolled her eyes and went back into the hall. The rooms she was looking for were near the end. She was almost there when she heard the voices coming from an open door. She picked up her pace. Then she saw two of the men laughing. One of them came into the hallway, but was looking in the other direction. Then a second one came out. He was laughing until he looked to his right and saw Norma. Her muscled body tensed, and she broke into a sprint.

"Merde!", he screamed and rushed back into the room that wasn't even his. His friend saw Norma a split second later. He was almost in reach when he ducked back into the room. He got behind the door and slammed it shut. Norma gabbed the knob and turned it before the men inside could lock it. "No no NOOOO!", a soldier screamed.

"I thought you said that she couldn't come to this area!", another one yelled from inside the room. "Help us push", one said to another Belgian soldier who wasn't involved. "You don't want her to get in here. Trust us!" He jumped from his rack and added his shoulder to the doorstop effort.

Norma wasn't even going to try and reason her way in. These guys wanted it hard. They'd get it hard. She put her palms against the door and pushed. Her upper body was already fairly pumped after overpowering three guys at once. Now her legs got into the act. Thighs, calves, and glutes flexed to stretch her sweatpants. Thick bulbous quad heads and continent sized calf muscles jutted out at all angles. Her thighs throbbed as she pushed the door open inch by inch. The men on the inside gave their all, but Norma's muscles wouldn't be denied. Then she heard something that got her even madder. The first stitch of her sweatpants surrendered to the swelling muscle beneath it. She'd thought about her shirt, but now her pants were ruined. More stitches ripped to pieces as her muscles filled the once loose pants completely. They looked like leggings now, showing the ludicrous cuts and shredded shape of Norma's legs.

This match of woman versus men didn't last as long as her arm wrestling match had. Norma had the door open nearly a foot and a half before she put her chest against the door allowing her arms to bend. The men pushed and pushed with all of their might. She extended her arms. Bench pressing the weight using the strength of her own legs as an anchor. Her triceps felt great as she gave them some love finally. The door opened a few more inches and then Norma shoved, extending her arms completely. The men were thrown back. Norma rushed in as the door banged hard against the wall. Two of the four men were on their asses while the others stood near the far wall looking with open fear.

Norma pointed at the guy on the ground. "You aren't a part of this. So stay out of it unless you want an ass kicking too." Although in the end there wasn't any ass kicking. The Belgians paid up. Norma demanded and received an extra 20 euros for ruining a perfectly good pair of sweats. On her way out of the dorm, she stopped to show Henri and Mike that she'd gotten her money plus a little. She went back to her small room, countered her money, then continued her reading. In an hour she was fast asleep.

The next morning when Norma entered the meeting room, Clay and Brent, two of her teammates were busy pretending to arm wrestle. When they saw Norma, Clay screamed and jumped over the table while Brent slammed his arm down like he'd thrown him. The entire team laughed and Norma blushed. "You guys should go on tour with your act", she joked. The door opened and to her surprise, Norma's commanding colonel walked in with Sebastian Howell on his heels. He'd never been to a team meeting before. The well dressed Brit walked over. "Good morning. So, I heard that some Belgians had a misunderstanding with you, yesterday."

"Man! Word travels fast in this place."

"Secrets are my business, Specialist", he remarked with a wink then traveled to the front of the room. All traces of levity disappeared and Sebastian Howell became all business. "Gentlemen and lady", he began. "You've been on the trail of a band of smugglers who have been greatly aiding the enemy in Afghanistan. We've nicked and scraped them, but now we have an opportunity for a knockout blow. I requested the chance to give the briefing personally. So let us begin…"

It was late in the evening eighteen hours later when Norma and the rest of the team a plane at a friendly airbase and were almost immediately shoved into trucks that drove them into the wilderness. The trucks stopped at a three way intersection. The Americans climbed out with their gear and started walking where the paved roads didn't go. The world was shades of grey and green to the soldiers through their night vision goggles. Norma kept her hand firmly on her weapon and moved her head ever so slightly side to side since the NV goggles slightly reduced a soldier's field of vision.

The Special Forces team came to a spot on the map and right on time a dozen shapes appeared from the team's right. The members of the Latvian Special Tasks Unit approached where they could almost be seen without the night vision goggles, but no one took theirs off. "Welcome to Latvia", said Andris, the tall spare Latvian unit commander. He took time to shake each American's hand before stepping back and continuing in very good English. "The beauty of Riga is more than 100km that way. It is unfortunate that I will not be able to show you the all the wonderful spots there. We have been forced to deal with criminal who think they can operate here without repercussions. We will show them how wrong they are. Are we ready for business?" The Americans gave a thumbs up at the exact same time.

The American unit commander Steve had operational control of the mission even though Andris was a major and Steve was only a captain. Steve showed the proper amount of respect for a senior officer though, and everything was smooth as the group of 20 went deeper into the dense forest. Even in the dead of winter the canopy was so tangled that it was almost impossible to see the sky. The ground was covered in packed snow, but here and there the team made out ruts where heavy trucks had come through the old narrow roads. The trees were so close and big that no one could have seen trucks from any distance. Twenty years earlier though these woods hadn't been nearly as dense, but after the Russian pull out nature had come to claim what had once been hers, but the forest suddenly stopped.

On a flat plain, surrounded by the thick woods sat the expansive ruins of an abandoned Soviet factory town. It looked as if the trees were afraid to grow amongst the hollow husks of the massive factory buildings that had once produced guns and heavy weapons for the Red Army war machine. Latvians by the tens of thousands had toiled here over the decades of occupation. One look at the grim faces of the Latvians around her told Norma everything she needed to know about how they felt about places like this. Norma even got a pit in her stomach looking at it all.

The group crept out of the forest and became exposed for nearly half a mile. The Russians had seen to that. The clearing hadn't been made to keep invaders out, rather to keep the workers in. The stumps of guard towers and sentry posts stuck up from the drifts like hands reaching from icy tombs.

Most of the cheaply built apartment buildings had long ago collapsed, succumbing to the brutal winters. Soviet era posters still hung above empty display cases and counters in shops and stores as if the town expected its workers to return one day and pick up where they had left off. That wasn't going to happen. Latvia was already fielding bids from some of Europe's best companies to tear all these Cold War reminders down. This site had to be cleared of criminals first.

The combined teams passed a bank of smoke stacks more than 35 stories tall with connecting channels large enough to drive busses through. From the tree line they'd looked old and quaint, but here, beneath their shadows, those stacks were monumental in size. They were only a clue to what lay in store. They turned some corners and came to an open square that fronted the factories. The group couldn't help but be in awe. These buildings were massively huge. The ones nearest them were more than 100 feet tall with doors big enough to drive a jumbo jet through with room to spare.

Where the town buildings were crumbling, these factories stood tall and proud, defying both the weather and the people who wanted to demolish them. Norma could remember buildings nearly this size as a child before the old shipyard behind her family's business had been demolished, but some of her team members had never seen anything like these structures. They kept their emotions to themselves even as they crept closer. Icicles twenty feet long and heavy enough to kill a man instantly hung from the roof line adding menace to what was already enough to raise Norma's hackles. The team split up. Two squads of eight entered the first two factories while the remaining four members stayed outside to provide over-watch and coordinate movements.

Norma, Mike, and Brent joined five Latvians to enter building one, the west most factory. The Latvians moved with text book precision, but it was easy for the Americans to see that they lacked experience in real world situations. That wasn't a knock because that would come in time.

The cold crept through all of Norma's layers. The temperature seemed lower inside the buildings. Wind gusting through the broken windows caused the building to groan and creak as the huge roof shifted slightly hundreds of times a night. The floor was almost completely covered in bits of rust, broken glass, and other things that Norma didn't want to think about. The soldiers had to slide their boots more than step for fear of making noise. They passed overturned work tables, deteriorating hand tools, and eventually the massive machines that had once been the heart of this factory. The soldiers were dwarfed by the rusting ruins surrounding them.

Mike and Norma eased their way past a giant rusted die press machine to see an office block built against the eastern wall. Many old factories had office space inside them, but these were the size of a normal office building back in the States. The structure had once been trimmed in wood and painted, but that was all gone. Just stained concrete remained. It had big windows so people inside could see factory floor from high on the fifth story of the office block. The glass in those windows remained and despite the decay all around them, the floor around the office block was clear, even clean. A quick look through the doors saw dust free upright furniture, and while Norma couldn't make out colors with her NV goggles, she knew a modern looking generator sitting inside the first office when she saw one.

The Americans entered first with the Latvians right behind them. Norma, Mike, and Brent found a staircase and raced to the top floor to clear from the top down while the Latvians worked from the bottom up. In a few short minutes the search for people ended. It gave them a chance to look around and what they saw was amazing. There were computers, reams of paper, and dozens of compact disks lying all over the place on each floor.

"Possible intel", Mike understated through the radio to the entire assault team.

"Proceed with caution", came Steve's reply.

Norma grabbed handfuls of documents from neatly stacked boxes and couldn't believe her eyes. It was too good to be true. There were original manifest copies sitting next to doctored ones. There were schedules and routes. There were pay sheets and rosters. Norma and rest of the team were becoming overwhelmed. No one noticed a problem, until it was too late.

Outside, Steve lay behind a retaining wall with Andris to his left. Both men kept a close eye on the buildings that held their men. Steve looked through the NV scope of his rifle while Andris peered through NV binoculars. Everything looked fine until Steve saw a ball of blackness in his green and grey display. He trained his scope on another part of the building and the image was crystal clear. He panned back and the dark spot returned, only it grew bigger. He tapped Andris on the shoulder and pointed to the building's left corner. "What do you make of that?"

Andris frowned as he adjusted his binoculars. "I don't know, but it is getting bigger by the moment." The shadow began to cover the huge factory door. They could no longer see inside at all. The bigger the darkness became the faster it spread. Steve had seen some strange things on this tour, a woman who could teleport from place to place, a man who could control thoughts, and now a building being consumed by a shadow.

"Squad 1 this is control, how copy?" No reply. "Squad 1 this is control, acknowledge." He grimaced when there was no reply, not even static. He stood up and started moving towards building 1. "Squad 2 this is control, how copy?"

"Good copy, control. What in the hell is going on?"

"Unknown", Steve replied coolly. "Return to point 3", he ordered and the squad in the second building started towards the exit at a run. Steve had just pushed the panic button.

Steve took off his goggles as he got closer, but the darkness remained the same. Men shined lights on it, but the shadow was unaffected by light. A soldier pushed the rifle into the shadow, and even when the stock should have hit the side of the building it continued to enter the darkness as if the building was no longer there. Steve didn't know what to do, all he knew was that if his soldiers inside that old factor were still alive, they were completely on their own.

Inside the factory office block, no one knew there was a problem at all. The Latvians were on the first floor organizing while the Americans were moving items from the fourth and fifth floors to the third for a further trip to the ground. Norma was glad that her special memory wouldn't be needed. The helicopters and trucks would come to this site after it was declared safe. They could hall all this stuff out. Norma set down some computer equipment when she heard a thump below them. She turned to see that Mike and Brent had heard it too. Norma grabbed her carbine and followed Mike as he headed towards the stairs. They'd just stepped onto the second floor landing when the roar of gunfire filled the space.

"Situation?", Mike demanded and got frantic Latvian in reply. Bullets ricocheted off the concrete walls and blasted holes in furniture as the Latvians seemed to be firing in all directions at once. The three Americans stopped at the corner of the stairwell and Mike peeped through the doorway. He saw two Latvians firing their weapons on full auto from behind an overturned desk. Mike's first thought was that these Latvians were getting their baptism of fire then he saw their faces. Not even on his first day of live fire training had Mike ever seen such unshackled fear on a man's face. Mike stuck his neck out to see what the Latvians were firing at and his NV screen went black.

He snatched off the goggles thinking they'd malfunctioned, but when he looked the blackness remained. It was blacker than the darkness around it as if it swallowed what little light there was. Bullets flew at the dark shape. Some ricocheted against the walls behind the shadow while others seemed to disappear completely. "Fuck me", Mike breathed when the darkness started moving. It moved towards the two Latvians like an apparition.

Mike jumped out into the hall and raised his weapon. Brent and Norma were right behind him. Mike fired at the blackness. His bullets did nothing. Norma and Brent didn't get a chance to shoot. They saw the shadow for the first time, but now it didn't just move, it zipped across the room, covering the distance to the frantic Latvians faster than any living thing could have. A dark appendage reached out and encircled a Latvian soldier's neck while his friend tried to help. Darkness started creeping up and down the soldier's struggling body. Norma would never forget that man's scream as long as she lived. His voice became distant as the darkness entered his mouth and coated his eyes. Soon the voice and the man disappeared. Only the hazy black shadow remained. Norma opened fire on it, but by the time her bullets reached where it had been, it was gone.

"Move!", Mike ordered and rushed towards the door. The remaining Latvian tried to follow, but got caught. His scream died out quickly enough as he was consumed by darkness. The Americans ran across the factory floor. The shadow followed them, keeping its distance. Brent fired a full magazine of bullets. Then the others stopped and joined him. Bullets sparked against the rusty metal and flattened against old concrete, but the shadow kept coming. The dark shape darted around some shots while letting others pass right through. Then the creature sped up, moving like a blur across NV screens.

"Take cover", Brent yelled.

Norma dove behind an old work table and pushed it over as soon as she landed. She didn't see that it had a bottom rail. It whacked the side of her head knocking her goggles off. She swore under her breath and scrambled to grab them, but looked up when she heard Brent yell and start shooting. The flash from the rifle illuminated everything around her in staccato frames. Mike joined Brent, firing his weapon. The shadow moved around the bullets like someone sped it up while the rest of the world slowed down. Then it started moving towards them. Seeing it with her naked eye, the shadow seemed to seep through the darkness like a stain through a table cloth. It could have moved with that great quickness that she'd seen, but instead the shadow toyed with Brent and Mike, prolonging their eventual demise. Norma didn't know what to do. Her rifle was full of rounds, but those bullets were useless. She stared at the shadow as it moved closer to her team members who'd loaded more ammo to continue their barrage. The shadow moved without regard to the bullets, but Norma noticed that it navigated around debris scattered on the ground. She jumped up as a thought entered her head.

She ran to her left, closer to Mike and Brent. The shadow kept its focus on her two team mates, just as Norma had hoped. She slid to a stop behind the massive die press machine and jammed her shoulder and chest tightly against it. She gathered her legs beneath her and without another thought, pushed. Norma's quads and calves flexed painfully hard. Spit flew from her quivering lips. Her skin flushed fire engine red, and steam rose from her suddenly sweaty skin. The two lower heads of her quad bulged like loaves in an oven, and the upper heads peaked with striated thickness. Raw, brute power gushed from her straining muscles, pushing against tons and tons of dead weight. The old steel sat firm, not moving from the spot it had occupied for decades.

Tears rolled down Norma's trembling cheeks. Frustration and pain mixed in equal parts, but Norma refused to give up. She redoubled her efforts, pushing her muscle size and definition to the extreme. Not even the special material of her uniform could withstand muscle growth this explosive. Tendons and ligaments were at their very limits. Norma had never tried so hard to do one thing in all her life. Finally she felt some movement. It seemed like it had taken a lifetime of struggle, but all the effort had been in the space of a few moments. She shuffled her feet a little keeping constant pressure on the die press machine. She put her hands beneath the widening gap between the bottom of the machine and the concrete. She added the strength of her mighty arms to the effort and after one growling push, gravity took over. The die attached to the top of the machine weighed more than a van full of people, and once it started over, it picked up speed, coming down at nearly 100 miles an hour.

Brent and Mike couldn't believe that even Norma could have moved something so heavy. The shadow was right in its path. Norma had hoped to perhaps block the shadow's path, but she'd done better than that. The machine was coming down right on top of it. The Americans felt a moment of hope, until the dark appendage reached towards the falling machine. A black cloud appeared like a shield between the shadow and the die press. The black cloud enveloped the old machine just like it had the Latvians. Blackness spread from the top even as the the machine kept falling. When it was only millimeters from the shadow, the entire machine disappeared completely. The shadow started towards Mike and Brent again who raised their rifles to fight to the end. They put their fingers on the triggers until they heard Norma scream at the top of her life and run towards the shadow.

"What the fuck!!!", Mike screamed as he watched his partner run through the former location of the die press machine. Norma didn't even touch her gun. It was nothing but a weight around her shoulders at this point. The shadow stopped as she approached. Her face was that of a woman in the battle of her life. Norma didn't slow down when the shadowy arm reached towards her. She had a full head of steam, but that appendage stopped her cold. Her boots left the ground as the shadow suspended her in mid air.

"Come get some, asshole!", Brent screamed and jumped from behind his cover, but the shadow ignored him.

Now it was Norma's turn to scream as a cold emptiness like death itself entered her body. On the outside the blackness already covered Norma's broad shoulders and crept up her neck towards her face, but the feeling of the shadow reaching to the very center of her being was worse. It crashed through her emotions and her mind like the nothingness wanted to consume her very soul. Her heart wanted to stop as the emptiness took away Norma's will to live. Norma fought hard, not with her muscles, but with her mind.  She had to clear it even as her body was being swallowed whole.  She got control of her thoughts and pushed the despair aside.  That was all it took.  Almost instantly the dread, and the emptiness disappeared as if they'd never been inside her.  Norma had control of herself and the shadows surrounding her body faded away. Norma looked down at the shadow holding her up and saw through its inky exterior, to the face of the man beneath.

Norma face was as sinister as the shadow man's was surprised. He opened his hand and let her fall towards the ground while he turned to use the darkness to get away. He was too close. Norma reached out and grabbed his arm. She snatched him towards her as she tensed her pecs. His head hit something as hard as a granite cliff face. The impact knocked him out of Norma's grip. He bounced along the floor for a few feet, but Norma wouldn't let him get far. She ran after him, and as she moved the die press machine suddenly reappeared, still moving towards the ground as if he had been suspended in time by the shadow that had made it disappear. It slammed into the ground with a teeth rattling rumble only inches behind Norma who jumped from the fight of the near miss.

The man was on his hands and knees, his shadow disguise was useless against Norma as she approached and gripped the man by his neck. She held him up just to crash a fist to the center of his face. His eyes water and blood from his nose joined the streams trickling from his mouth. She let go of his neck and put her hands on either side of the man's head. Her chest looked like rubber inflatables as they puffed out, flexing towards the now helpless man. Her hands pressed in like a ratcheting vice. The man emitted a blood curdling scream as Norma hands pushed his skull to the brink of collapse. Suddenly the pressure relented a little.

"You brought that machine back from wherever the hell your shadows take stuff, so bring those soldiers back", Norma's voice was hoarse and breathy from the battle, but the man in her arms heard her clearly enough.

His head throbbed and he was too confused to defy her. No person or thing had ever resisted his power, but this woman had. He knew when he was beat. His eyelids fluttered for half a second, and instantly sounds came from the block of offices.

"It's safe to come out!", Mike yelled even as he and Brent raised their weapons in case what came out of those rooms wasn't that Latvians. It was them though. They were pale, confused, scared, disoriented, but unhurt. They sat down to gather themselves. Norma looked at the man in her hands and saw the realization of failure come over him. She let him his feet touch the ground before she forced him to lie down on the concrete, while she carefully secured his hands. With a knee in the center of his back, she patted him down for weapons finding only a knife with a blood stained blade. She shoved it into her own waistband and finally allowed herself to relax a bit.

"Nice fuckin work, partner", Mike said with a nod. Norma was too tired to smile. Her muscle hurt like she'd been hit by a train. Each movement threatened to make her cramp. She didn't complain, though. She was just happy everyone was alive.

Mike cued his radio. "Squad 1 to control." Nothing.

Norma's face twisted into a snarl as she lifted her prisoner up by the handcuff chain. He barely got a chance to scream before she bashed him against a concrete wall. She kicked the back of his knee and put him to the concrete. "Stop playing games!", Norma demanded then snatched her Beretta from the holster. "Better yet, let me see if bullets work when you're not dressed up like a shadow!"

"Ok, don't shoot! I just forgot!" The prisoner curled his bottom lip in anger, but a moment later everyone in the combined team heard, "Control to squad 1, acknowledge."

"Squad 1 reporting."

"Good to hear your voice. Sit-rep", Steve requested as the shadow melted away from the factory building.

"Contact with Class-S individual. Aggressor apprehended."

"Excellent. We are coming to rendezvous."

"Negative control. We're coming to you", Mike said to everyone's relief. They just wanted to get out of that damned factory. The discussion in the square lasted for less than three minutes before Steve declared the mission over. There were no smugglers at this location, and hadn't been for weeks. He called in the cavalry and a fleet of helicopters flew in over the trees. The noise and commotion was actually welcome in the once eerily silent ghost town.

Norma kept a hand on the prisoner while a helicopter landed about fifty yards from her. To her surprise, Sebastian jumped out of the Blackhawk. While everyone else was in combat gear, he wore a grey suit, a black and silver striped tie and bespoke shoes to match. He rushed over to Norma who stood tall against the propeller wash unlike her prisoner.

"Good work. All of you", he said with a slight smile that fell away when he looked at the prisoner. "Get him into the helli. I want to speak with him straight away."

Seven hours later, Norma was sitting on a hard wooden bench back at the converted prison fighting sleep until the door opened and a smiling Sebastian walked out. "Carlton I'm sure you were issued a bed. You should use it", he joked.

"I'll get to it believe me. I just wanted to ask you how the preliminary interrogation went with the mystery man."

"His name is Mahan Pahokar from Mumbai. Aged 37. He used to work for a local security firm there, but went missing after his boss mysteriously died nine years ago. I surmise that he's been using his special power to kill for money since then."

"Wow. You found all that out fast. You're good", Norma complimented.

Sebastian laughed. "I wish it were my questioning skills. I must confess that I haven't actually spoken to Mr. Pahokar. I obtained this information from his file at Interpol. His fingerprints are in the system."

"Oh", Norma said then yawned. She'd been there when he'd been printed to make he didn't try anything funny. "Still, why do you seem so happy? The smugglers sent this guy to kill us all. And all that info they left was bogus… just bate."

"Because we're on their trail, Norma. Those guys were so scared they paid this guy to make their problem go away!" Sebastian was giddy with excitement, which was rare for the level headed Brit. "We're getting close!"

to be continued....

Recent Chapters

Chapter 1       Chapter 2      Chapter 3      Chapter 4      Chapter 5

There are plenty of others where this story came from.  Please check out the bookshelf for all the past chapters of Power and Fury and my other series.

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