"More than anything in the world", Morgen moaned.
"Then take me", the programming told her to say.
Morgen didn't care about the programming. He needed her now. He walked behind her watching her ass tighten and her hips sway. She could have filled out any pair of jeans, but these skin tight ones were fully stuffed by her powerful ass and thighs. She took Morgen by the hand and pushed opened the door. A minute later they were in a room. She was on top working him like a tigress. Morgen was in no mood for formalities or foreplay. He wanted her to fuck him raw. She obliged. He watched the hard core muscles dance beneath her skin. Her beautiful dark skin showed off the shapes of her muscles like no uneven tan could ever have done. He ran his hands over her abs and up to her breasts. They bobbed up and down until he took them and squeezed while pinching her stiff nipples between his thumb and forefinger. She arched her back and squeezed her legs around his middle as she rode him. Morgen's skin contrasted with her skin, and that turned him on even more. That was her power, her allure, and her control. She bucked harder as she felt his thrusts growing more urgent.
"Not yet", she told him and clamped down hard on his dick. He felt the enhanced muscles of her body squeeze him. He growled a moan and took her under her arms and pulled her to him. He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her passionately while he had an orgasm without cumming. Once she felt the waves of pleasure go through his body, she started in again. His erection was still rock hard, and X-417 made it even harder. He drank in her sweat as it poured down on him. She was everything a woman could be. She made his eyes roll in his skull and it took a lot to make that happen to him. She was so hot. She was scorching. Finally she couldn't hold him back. He came like he'd never cum before. She rubbed his sweat streaked chest before she laid her body against his. The feel of her body on his was right. He put his arms around her. He'd never thought of a Femme as delicate, but as he put both of his arms around her body he felt that she was every bit a woman. He could feel her heart beating in her chest, nearly as rapidly as his own. He could feel the contours of her feminine body. He traced the lines of her shape with his hands. She excited him so much. He grabbed two handfuls of glutes. Her ass was wonderful beyond words. He wondered how many women in the world had an ass this perfect. Not many. He was content to lay in the bed with her the rest of the night, then his phone rang.
X-417 leaned to the table and reached for the phone. Her left breast slid up to Morgen's chin. He couldn't help but allow her nipple into his lips. She smiled at him and handed him the phone without even glancing at the number. Morgen grinned and took the phone. He only released her nipple at the last moment. "Hello." He frowned as the man on the other side of the line spoke rapidly.
"Slow down, Martin", Morgen ordered. He listened for a couple of minutes while Martin DeBraya tooted his own horn about taking care of business. He was speaking in some sort of impromptu code that was making Morgen angrier by the word or half word. "I'm on my way there. I'll be there in an hour", he told Martin DeBraya.
Morgen stood up, reluctantly removing X-417 from atop him. He turned to look at her before he left. She had propped her head up with her hand. She lay on the sheets as naked as the day she was born, her body was a challenge to any man who saw it. Could they master it? Could they tame it? Morgen smiled internally. He'd given it a pretty good shot tonight, but round two would have to wait for later.
After his shower, Morgen met Benny in the hallway. Benny was the boss of his own North American syndicate, although he had very limited reach. Benny was smart though, that's why Morgen trusted him. "I have to get to Palm Beach", Morgen told Benny as they stood in the hall.
"Has this DeBraya fellow done something you don't like?"
"I don't know yet, but he sounded too proud of himself. He said that someone was snooping around his computer. He has the Formula fragments on that computer, plus some other stuff. I need to get down there before it's too late."
"Are you going to take a private jet?"
Morgen grinned. "I have a much better way to get there. I just need to get a hold of my travel agent."
A little while later a Series 4 stopped at a house in a very nice upper middle class neighborhood in Atlanta. Morgen pulled out his phone and dialed a number. A sleepy voice answered, "Hello."
"I'm sorry for waking you up, but I need a favor."
"Mr. Stern?"
"Yes, I'm in front of your house, could you come down? And please dispense with the Mr. Stern business. We've known each other too long."
Morgen went up to the front door and sent the Series 4 super soldier back to the secret Headquarters south of town. Morgen stood at the door. He didn't hear her steps approaching the door from the other side. She'd been too well trained for that. He heard the locks click when she rolled the bolt back and she pulled the door open. Morgen smiled at the young 19 year old who stood there. Her eyes were barely open. Her long braided hair was pulled back like it usually was, showing off her beautiful soft features and her own flawless chocolate skin.
"What is it, Morgen?", she asked, keeping one arm over the opening.
"I need to travel somewhere. Won't take long, and it's just one place. May I come in?"
The girl shifted weight on her hip and looked past him for a car. "How did you get here?"
"You remember the Series 4s, like the one you killed in New York a few months ago. I had one of the still breathing ones bring me."
That woke her up some more. "You brought one of those things to my parents' house", she nearly yelled. Morgen could see the tension building in her body even beneath the loose pajamas that she was wearing.
"Yes I did, but only after I discretely asked it to forget where it had taken me. You know I wouldn't put you or any of your family in danger. Now can I come in?"
She removed her arm from the door, and he stepped inside. "Who is that, Shaunie!", a female voice called from the upstairs.
"I've got it Momma!", she called back. She closed the door and locked it before turning to Morgen. "Where are we going? I'm tired and I don't want to be gone long."
"I just need you to take me to my penthouse in Florida. Do you remember it?"
She nodded and held out her hand. Morgen took it, and instantly they were in Boca Raton facing the glass wall overlooking the marina. He loved the way her power worked. There was no charging up or delay. She just went wherever she wanted to go. It was awesome when he stopped to think about it, but he didn't do that now.
She let go of his hand and sighed. "Will there be anything else?", she asked while looking around the place. It had been a long time since she'd been there.
"No, Shaunie. That's it. Thank you." Morgen leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. He backed off before she disappeared again, probably straight to her bedroom. "I'll be damned", he said out loud. He'd known that girl since she was eight years old so he'd never really paid attention as she'd grown up from a child to a young woman, but she had a really nice body on her too. It was too bad that he was more like an uncle to her than anything else.
Morgen managed to stop thinking about young women long enough to lift up the phone. The man at the desk answered, "Mr. Stern, I wasn't aware that you were here."
"I just got in", Morgen began. "I need you bring my car around."
"Yes sir. At once."
It took less half an hour for Morgen to make it to the DeBraya house. The sun was starting to rise and men were out cleaning up after the charity event. He jumped out and walked straight into the house. DeBraya's guards didn't bother to try and stop him. "Where's Martin?" Morgen demanded once he got inside.
One of the assistants came over. "He's still in Miami." He motioned for Morgen to enter a room off the main entrance where he continued. "I know Mr. DeBraya gets paranoid, but he was convinced that this girl at the charity event looked at his computer when she was in his office. He had very sensitive information on it concerning the project that you are helping him with."
Morgen had no idea why this man would leave information like that on his computer, but what was done was done. "What did he do with the girl?"
The assistant hesitated and sighed before he spoke. It was his own way of checking to see if he'd lost all humanity while working for Martin DeBraya. Satisfied that he had not, he responded, "She was a beautiful young woman, tall, with wonderful blue eyes, and a body to die for. Such a waste because Mr. DeBraya had the boys push her from a helicopter over the Glades. She's probably alligator food by now. They faked a crash, and had the copter broken into parts to be sold on the black market. He'll get money from the insurance from the helicopter and life insurance for an international crew that doesn't really exist. The only person who could have ID'd the crew is dead and gone now.
"Neat and tidy", Morgen observed.
"Yes sir. He thought you would approve. He's going to go by the girl's family's home personally to offer condolences for her death. He'll probably stop there on his way back from Miami."
Morgen thought that Martin had overreacted, but at least he'd covered his tracks well. "What's the girl's name?", he asked almost as an afterthought.
"Umm. Jan… Jan something."
Morgen raised an eyebrow and his face become more intense. "Was it Jan Caufield? Was that the young woman's name?"
"Yes" the assistant answered. "I believe it was Jan Caufield. You know her?", the assistant asked, hoping the answer was no.
His hopes were dashed when Morgen answered, "Yes. I know her. My partner and I went through a lot of trouble to save her life some months ago." All color drained from the assistant's face. Morgen was getting angry. He pulled out his phone and dialed DeBraya's number, but there was no answer.
"He got rid of his burn phone, sir, and he left his personal phone here."
"That's just great!", Morgen raged and stormed out of the house. Once he was inside his car he calmed himself then called Benny. "We're going to have to push up our timetable. You need to get those recruits now. How long does it take to make them operational?"
"About five weeks, why?"
"Because Martin just dropped Jan Caufield from a helicopter at 3000 feet."
He heard Benny's long exhale on the other end of the line. "Do you think a terminal velocity fall will kill her?", Benny asked.
"Maybe, but would you bet your life on that?"
Later that night, Benny was dressed for business. So was Jean his second in command. They had been scouting this shipment for weeks. They hadn't planned to launch this mission for a while, but Morgen's urging had changed their plans. Benny wasn't a trigger man, but he had a big role to play. He went to his suite of rooms to check on X-424's progress. Unlike the rest of the Femmes and Series 4s, X-424 had sat in on the planning sessions for this operation. She had barely said a word, but when she did, it was poignant. She could point out the flaws in just about anything, but unlike most people she usually had a way to make it better. Benny smiled as he thought about it because now he wasn't the only person who thought of X-424 as more than a Femme. Others had seen that she wasn't just a collection of programming. She was much more than that. Benny didn't know what to call her, except the love of his life. He'd never loved a woman before. He'd lusted after hundreds, but if his heart was in a box, X-424 possessed the key. He just wished that he knew her name. He checked his watch. It was about time to leave.
He opened the door and stepped inside. He was surprised to see that X-424 wasn't dressed in her tactical black. She was in his desk chair wearing only a bra and panties. Her skin was covered in a sheen of cool sweat. Her knees were drawn to her chest. Her face was pained; her hands were clasped round her knees, and she rocked back and forth slightly. Benny approached her from behind. "What's wrong?", he asked and touched her shoulder. He nearly drew back. She was tense, like every single muscle was flexed.
"I… I can't do it", X-424 labored to say. Benny turned her head towards him so that he could look into her bottomless brown eyes. He pushed some of her hair from her face and gently rubbed his thumb across her cheek. She was fighting inside herself, and he could see it play out in her face. "It was so awful. It's little murders every single day. I can't do it. Please don't make me." She took Benny's hand. He could feel her body shaking. He wrapped his arms around her, but with all of his strength he couldn't stop her from shaking. At first he didn't understand, but she managed to say, "I can't help do to someone else what was done to me."
Then Benny understood fully. He took her shoulders and pushed her to arm's length. Tears rolled down her cheeks and her body was turning hot as she defied her programming. She was strong enough to do it, but it was taking a toll. "You don't have to go", Benny said to her. Her shaking stopped immediately as the programming no longer fought against her. "I'll take X-420 as protection. She's reliable", Benny added because he knew what X-424's next concern would have been.
He dried her eyes and looked at her. "I wish I didn't have to do it, but we need the manpower."
She nodded slowly. "I know. I want you to be safe, and I want you to succeed."
"I know you do." He leaned down and kissed her passionately. She returned his passion. He pulled away and went to the door. "Hold down the fort. I'll see you when I get back." He didn't wait for a reply. He couldn't look at her again and leave.
Jean caught him in the hall. "Where's X-424?"
"She's not going", Benny replied simply. Jean didn't argue. They went outside and loaded up in the stolen vans. It was time to go on a recruiting trip.
The United States Army was made up of the finest, usually. Even the best organizations are sometimes infested with bad apples. The Army had a place for the worst of the worst. The criminals coming from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan first flew into a military base in South Carolina before they were processed and sent to various military detention centers around the country. The men being housed on this night were bound for Leavenworth, Kansas. They would never make it.
X-411 walked up to the security fence, her strong legs pulsing with each step. She was ready to use them and her strength. Her blond hair was braided behind her. She was wearing black pants like the rest of the group, but that wouldn't last long. She had gotten bigger and stronger in the last few weeks, but they hadn't gotten new clothes for her. Jean looked on with his rifle in his hand. They had to get through this barrier quickly. While the rest of the group looked on, X-411 put her hands on the concrete and steel barrier. She tested the strength a couple of times, that simple act caused her biceps and shoulders to bulge enough to strain her top. Her programming computed the best way to topple the fence, so she bent her knees and worked her hands on the bottom horizontal steel bar. One foot was behind the other like she was about to start a sprint, but X-411 was barely going to move. It was the fence that was about to go for a ride.
She dug her boots into the cold hard soil and pushed with all of her might. Her powerful thighs tightened and swelled as she applied pressure. Her feet were dug in so she didn't slide. All of her power was transferred into the steel and concrete. Muffled cracks could be heard in the dense forest. The reinforced concrete was losing ground to the powerful super soldier.
Her pants were skin tight now. Every rippling fiber was visible through them. Jean was a professional, but even he lost focus watching X-411's muscles work. Her quads were thick above her knee as her leg straightened, pulsing and bulging with each degree of movement. Her face showed no strain. Instead the effort was written across her broadening back and thickening thighs. Her arms got into the action as she pressed them away from her body adding even more pressure against the weakening barrier. Finally it was too much. The steadily increasing power from X-411 cracked the vertical concrete supports for twenty feet in both directions. The fence went down. She took one breath as it fell, but that was it. She wasn't even winded from that exertion. Jean took a grip on his weapon and gave the order to move on.
A few miles away two under rested members of an undermanned MP staff saw the warning light start to blink. One of them tapped the old analogue console to see if it was just a short. When it kept blinking he called over his superior. The staff sergeant looked at the light and brought up the grid coordinates on his map. "It's probably some animal. There's nothing else out there on that side of the base. We better send some guys to check it out though." He got on the radio and dispatched a team of MP's doing their rounds. Both of them groaned after getting the order. There were no roads back there. It would take them fifteen minutes on foot to reach that section of fence.
It would also keep them from being at their scheduled location near the motor pool. With them not going to show up any time soon, Jean and his group found the two trucks they were looking for. It didn't take him long to get them started. He looked at his watch as they started rolling away from the motor pool. They were right on schedule. He didn't have to tell the Series 4 drivers where to go. They were on their way to the west gate. Now it was time for the boss to do his job.
Benny had no idea how law enforcement guys got used to wearing the uniform. It was itchy and heavy, but he had to fake it. His other make up wasn't helping either. He was wearing a wider nose, bushier eyebrows, and glasses. He was trying to not look uncomfortable in his get up as he drove to the west gate in a stolen sheriff's patrol car. Well, not really stolen, more borrowed. They could have it back when he was finished. The two men on guard at the gate motioned for him to slow as he approached, but Benny acted like he knew the drill.
"Where's Deputy Smith?", one of the guard's asked when he didn't recognize the face of the officer driving the car.
"He's out with a bad stomach thing. I don't know what to call it. They sent me to bring the report this week." Benny reached onto the passenger seat and lifted a folder. It contained all the reports on soldiers from the base who had been arrested or cited in the last week. The unit commanders always requested that information. The delivery was a regular thing.
"You're not from around here", the other guard noted when he heard Benny speak. This part of South Carolina had a pretty discernible accent.
Benny chuckled. "No, I get some grief from the guys about the way I talk. I'm trying to pick up the accent, but it just won't take. I'm from Iowa originally", Benny told the truth about the last part.
"Oh yeah, I'm from Iowa too", the first guard announced.
Benny chuckled. "Did you go grow up on a corn farm?"
"Nah, I'm a city boy from Cedar Rapids. Go on through." Benny gave a slight wave and drove onto the base. The guards at the gate had no way of knowing that the regular deputy that they were used to was really stuffed into the trunk of his own patrol car. X-420 had punched him in the stomach before choking him to unconsciousness. He'd been tied up with some special restraints that X-424 had designed. This part of the plan was all hers and it looked like it was going to work just fine. As soon as the car was out of sight, X-420 rose from the back floor. Like the rest of the Femmes, X-420 was very easy on the eyes. She had raven black hair, soft hazely eyes, and a body as tight as a drum. Benny looked in the rearview and saw her emotionless face staring back at him. He longed to see X-424 back there, but a man couldn't have everything he desired.
She was wearing half of a military uniform, and she was about to put it to use. Benny drove to the guard's station and parked out front. Two guys were coming out as Benny took a handcuffed X-420 into the door. "I was told to bring her here. She was caught drunk in town", Benny told the first soldier he saw once he came inside.
Two MPs came and took the intoxicated looking soldier. The two men would take her to a holding cell before two female MPs came to process her. As soon as X-420 was out of sight, Benny looked at the man behind the desk. "Oh damn, I've got the report out in the car. Be right back." He did go back to the car, but to grab a bag with two changes of clothes inside. He took the bag to the shadows at the side of the building and quickly took off the sheriff's uniform. He got dressed in Army coveralls, but he kept the gun. He might need it. Once he had changed clothes, he just waited.
The two men escorting X-420 had no problems at all getting her into the holding cell. She seemed too drunk to notice what was going on. Highly intoxicated was one of the many personas programmed into the Femmes. Nothing at all was out of order as the MPs hooked X-420's handcuffs through the chain. The female MPs would be there soon to take over. The two men locked the cell and planned to go back to what they were doing before. They made it a few steps away from the cell when they heard a loud noise coming from behind them. They returned to the holding cell door and both of them nearly wet themselves with fright and awe. X-420 had broken the cuffs and the chain, but that wasn't what they were looking at. By the time they saw her, she had taken hold of the bars over the window and put her feet flat against the wall. The hardened steel bars were set deep into the wall, but while the MPs watched, they saw X-420's back and shoulders muscle up. Dirt and concrete dust fell from the wall. It didn't take long to notice that the bars were moving, quickly. Her muscles hadn't even fully flexed when the top third of the wall was pulled a loose. X-420 dropped to the floor without losing her balance, holding a couple hundred pounds worth of window bars in her hand. She threw it to the floor and looked at the damaged wall. She wasn't all the way through the thick jail wall, but she was close. She pulled her fist back, her back muscles flexing in a ballet of definition in the instant before she sent the punch forward. The wall cracked and blew out like from an explosion. The cell was open to the night air now.
The two MPs couldn't even utter a sound to call for help. They didn't need to. By now the rest of the people in the building were already coming their way. They'd heard the commotion and felt the building shake. To the MPs surprise the woman didn't exit. Instead she turned towards them and put her hands on the holding cell door. The men took a step back even though a couple of inches of steel were between them and the woman. She didn't seem concerned with that. She took a firm base before she worked her fingers into the locking mechanism. They finally saw her body strain. Her angular and rock hard muscles defined all across the landscape of her body form her chest to her shoulders and traps and arms. They saw the power in her body as she simply pulled against the door. Before long the entire door was bowing towards her. It was surreal. Her white t-shirt was lightly dusted with destroyed concrete, now it was being covered by more dust as she pulled the entire door and frame from the wall.
Cracks shot out like small lightning bolts in all directions until finally the wall and the door could take no more. Her muscles pulsed with power, a power that simple steel and concrete could not contain. It all happened quickly. The door and the frame and the wall fell to separate pieces. What had looked like a solid wall that could stand for a hundred years had been reduced to ruins by one woman. But was she a woman at all?
The men fell back when part of the ceiling collapsed. The stepped through the dust cloud and stood over them. The two MPs had never been trained for this. They hadn't known that anything like this woman could exist. Her face was blank as she bent at the waist with her arms extending towards them. They were already against the wall. There was nowhere to go. She took them by the throat and lifted them off the ground completely. They scratched and clawed, but there was no hope. In a very few seconds, they were both out. She threw them to the side.
More MPs came into view. Their minds couldn't comprehend exactly what they were seeing. Some attacked and others ran. It didn't matter. X-420 dispatched the entire group in less than a couple of minutes. She broke bones and choked them until none of them could move without great distress. When she was finished, she walked out the hole in the back. Benny was standing here. He looked into the building at the destruction wrought by a single Femme. They were truly awesome creations. While he marveled at her work, X-420 put on a military jumpsuit like Benny's. They stuffed their old clothes into the bag and took off towards a Humvee parked about a quarter of a mile away. They got the Hummer and headed to the north side of the base.
While Benny and X-420 ran off, Sheriff Deputy Smith struggled against the contraption that held him firm. He managed to get his left hand free. He had no idea that the restraints had actually let him go. They were on a timer of sorts. X-424 had designed them to go along with her plan. When a spring unwound, the cuffs loosened allowing the deputy to get his hand free. He used it to grab the emergency trunk release. Most newer cars had them, and so did his patrol car. With the lid open, Deputy Smith quickly got out of the confines of the trunk. He looked around quickly and knew where he was. He ran into the MP building expecting to see people on duty, but the lights were dim on the inside. All manner of things were strewn on the floor and no people were to be seen. His hand went to his hip, but his sidearm was gone. Part of him wanted to go deeper into the building, but the other part said he should go to his car and call for backup. That part of his brain won out. He ran outside and got on the radio. In mere minutes every civilian law enforcement agency in the area was on its way to the MP building on the base.
Not long after the call had gone out, a vehicle pulled up with two female MPs in it. The look on the sheriff's face told the two experienced officers that something was wrong. He ran to them and told what he had seen inside the building. The two MPs pulled their weapons and entered. Deputy Smith was behind them as they went in search of their colleagues. They found the first person about fifty feet from the door. He had crawled, leaving a smear of blood on the floor. The staff sergeant was trying to call for help. They found others nearby. A few seconds later the alarm was sounded. The entire base went on lockdown, and every MP on patrol headed towards the western side of the base.
About a mile away, a soldier guarding the armory door had no idea why a half dressed woman was standing near his station. He stepped forward to ask her a question, but he got clubbed from behind by another Femme before he got a chance. When the man went down, she picked him up over her shoulder like an empty sack and X-418 put her black top back on. She reached out for the door to the armory, and crushed the steel lock without much effort. The two Femmes stepped inside along with three others. They were looking for all the .50 calibre ammo they could find.
Jean was not far away in a paddock of sorts, but this pen didn't keep horses, it held all sorts of armored vehicles. There were M1 Abrams and M2 Bradleys, but he didn't want any of those. He had the hatch open on an old M113 armored personnel carrier. He would have liked to have stolen an M1. Those things were damn near impossible to die in, but he didn't know how to drive one of those very well. He was much more familiar with the trusty M113. He didn't know that anyone was near until he started to turn the diesel engine over.
"Hey, what the hell!", he heard some men call from the building at the end of the covered area. Lights came on and shadows began to move towards the door.
"Keep them in!", Jean ordered and X-417 moved near the door and put her hand on it keeping the door from opening. They needed something more permanent though. X-411 stepped to the front of an M2. She hunched her shoulders and put her boots tight to the ground and pushed. X-411's powerful thighs bulged to their awesome max. The blonde rarely got a chance to use their full strength, but she did now. The vehicle rocked back before the tracks started turning against their will. Her face was beet red from the strain. Every muscle in her body was pumped to bursting now, but her pants couldn't take the power of her thighs. The seams split cleanly making her once tactical black pants look like some sort of costume on her monstrous thighs. Quads bulged with all heads of the muscle being prominent in their completely ripped glory. Veins and arteries burst to the surface as she pushed the mighty fighting vehicle backwards.
Her calves were insanely pumped, protruding to either side and tightening maddeningly with each powerful step. The twin knots of muscle looked hard and strong enough to turn the cement of the floor to powder, but instead they worked to push the big Bradley backwards. Each step produced a new and unstoppable vision of pure female power. Every jutting muscle shape was throbbing and harder than the armor of the M2. Finally X-411 felt the rear of the vehicle touch the wall. That was all she needed. The two Femmes went to join Jean and the rest.
Jean had gotten two M113's started by then. The five Femmes came from the armory with crates worth of rounds. It would have taken a forklift to carry that much maybe two of them, but those super soldiers had run across the way with them. Every now and then the small displays of power got to Jean. He shook it off and kept his mind on business. This was getting serious now. The alarm had sounded. Benny and X-420 must have done their jobs. Jean had done his job too. He had two trucks and two M113's with enough rounds for action. Jean and his little convoy started for the target. It was time to rendezvous with Benny.
Jean drove to the left side of a long rectangular building while the other armored carrier went to the right side. A series 4 trained the gun on the exterior guards. "You gentlemen drop your weapons before you get pumped full of big holes!", Jean called out. The Femme who made the announcement on the other side of the building was less colorful. She just told them to "put their guns down or they would all die." Both methods were effective. The MPs put their hands in the air and faced the wall while several Femmes and Series 4 soldiers stormed the building. There were no shots fired as they had the guards surrounded from the get go. They disarmed the guards before handcuffing them and putting them in a back closet.
It was right then that Benny pulled up in his Humvee. "They're ready for you boss", Jean called as Benny jumped out of the vehicle without even turning off the engine. Benny, with X-420 as an escort went into the barracks.
The prisoners had at first been excited when these people had come in and dispatched the MPs, but that elation turned to confusion as the humorless men and women with guns aimed the muzzles at them. They didn't have much time to contemplate their new situation before a man came in with another one of the emotionless women.
"Oh stand down with the weapons", Benny ordered as soon as he came inside. "These men are soon to be part of our organization." He took a deep breath then and turned to face the men who were either sitting on the sides of their beds or standing very near them. "Good evening gentlemen, I'm here with a proposition for you. I'm the head of an organization that is looking for good strong men like yourselves. Your past doesn't matter to us at all. It's a chance to start over brand new. To wash away what ever piece of shit charge put you here in this predicament. I'm prepared to take you all off of this base to start your new lives. I only want volunteers however."
Across the base, it didn't take long for the powers that be to figure out that the actions at the MP station were a diversion. They weren't sure the target until a soldier reported armored vehicles near the out of service barracks where the prisoners were being held. It was then that they realized that this was some sort of prison break. They rushed units to that location. They just hoped that they weren't too late.
Benny was giving his speech inside. It was taking longer than had been scheduled. Jean looked at his watch. He would have noticed the man nearest the still idling Humvee sweating in the cool night air. He saw the weapons on him, but he couldn't stand there anymore. Visions of his bullet riddled body slumped against the barracks wall wouldn't leave his head. He wasn't going to die like this. He made a run for it. One of his fellow soldiers reached out for him, but didn't utter a sound. He didn't have to.
"Shit", Jean exclaimed as the man ran across his field of view. The Series 4 manning the gun above him turned, but they had orders against the firing just yet. "Go get him", Benny ordered X-417 who standing near the door. She slung her rifle and ran. She moved with sleek efficiently.
The soldier jumped into the driverseat and wasted no time putting the Hummer in gear. He slammed on the gas just as the back tires lifted off the ground slightly. The vehicle lurched like it was going to move, but there wasn't enough power in the front wheels alone to break X-417's grip. The soldier turned around in time to see X-417 holding the back end of the Hummer off the ground. The powerful engine was redlined. It only made her biceps bulge more obscenely. They were rising higher with the rising whine from the engine. Finally the man gave up and jumped out. X-417 let the Hummer down and chased the man. It was a short foot race. She caught him by the back of the neck and choked him until his head flopped to the side. The others saw that he was still breathing when she brought him back and threw him to the ground. She took up her place on guard again as if nothing had happened at all.
Inside Benny had been annoyed by the noise of the engine, but he worked though it. He was making his final push now. "So if any of you men want to join us, then follow me. We have trucks waiting. Any of you who don't want to come can just sit right here. The invitation will still stand, but you'll probably be too old by the time you get out of prison."
Benny walked out of the door and thirty-seven of the thirty-nine men came with him. They loaded up into the back of the trucks quickly. There were smiles on some their faces even if they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. The two men who had stayed inside wondered if they had made the wrong decision. One man changed his mind when he saw the others leave. He rushed up. He was nearly knocked down when one of the armed women had put her hand up to stop him. He looked confused and hopeful at the same time. Benny saw what had happened and he nodded. She let the man join the others in the back of the truck. Benny then stuck his head back into the building. "Are you sure you don't want to come?", he asked the last hold out.
"Screw you dude!", the man yelled. Benny shrugged and left.
X-414 was the last Femme in the building. She slung her rifle and walked up to the man with the menacing motion of the Femmes. He didn't back up. It wouldn't have mattered. Her arm moved faster than he could have reacted. She took him around the neck and broke it with one quick motion. She dropped the body on the floor and walked out. Benny wasn't going to leave any of the convicts behind. Whether they had known it or not, their choices had been to join or die. None of the men on the trucks knew that the last of them had died. They just held on as the trucks started moving.
The M113 driven by the Series 4 went before the trucks. Benny was in that one while Jean in his was to guard the rear. Everything was going well until he saw a line of vehicles coming down the road. He knew that that was the base commander's response. "Target equipment", Jean ordered the Series 4 manning the machinegun on the roof. He depressed the triggers and sent hot lead down range. The first two Humvees engines exploded in a shower of sparks and crashed, but there were many more where those came from. Jean was moving, but he stopped and looked behind him. His eyes settled on X-411. She'd been busy this night, but she had one more task. "Block that road!", he ordered.
She ran out the rear hatch and snatched the gas cans from the rear of the vehicle. Jean had thought that he might come in handy. He hadn't filled them with the relatively stable jp-8. Instead he'd filled the cans with gasoline. X-411 carried twenty gallons of gas with her to the still idling Humvee. She put the cans in the seat, then stepped to the front of the vehicle. By now the soldiers were returning fire. Femmes knew no fear and she bent down and took hold of the front bumper of the vehicle without flinching at the bullets coming close. She tipped the vehicle up on its back like it was hardly a chore. She held the front up with one hand while she used the other to pull a grenade from her pocket, and unlike a normal person who would have lost their teeth in the process, X-411 pulled the pin with hers. She toss the grenade into the seat then quickly reached out on the chassis.
Her thighs and shoulders flexed hard and wide. She moved towards the center looking for the balance point. When she found it, she squatted down and took the full weight of the Humvee across her broad shoulders. The swelling of her delts and traps made the Hummer rise a little, but once again her tights powered up. Her quads and hamstrings bulged as she lifted the vehicle off the ground. They were bursting with stored power because this was just the appetizer. X-411 didn't straighten her knees. She kept them bent and turned towards the oncoming vehicles. Once she was aimed, she growled before her body exploded with muscle from head to toe. The powerful Femme obliterated her uniform as she launched the Hummer like a shot. It flew towards soldiers who didn't know what to do. It landed short of the first vehicle. The grenade detonated a split second after the Hummer crashed to the ground. The gasoline had just started spilling when it burst into a huge fireball. X-411 hurried to the back of the M113. Jean hit the accelerator before the rear was even closed.
Benny was in the first M113. The barricades were up to block exit, but they weren't strong enough to stop a speeding armored personnel carrier. A few bursts from the Browning M2 on the roof sent the guards scattering while the front of the carrier broke the barriers to pieces. The trucks came in behind the personnel carrier and finally Jean. They drove several miles from the base before they dumped the military vehicles and switched to a different set of vans. These had been legally purchased from five different states. Benny and Jean ended up in the same van. There was at least one real human in each van to keep an eye on things, but so far so good. The vans split up and took different routes on different schedules back to the secret headquarters in Georgia.
"That was exciting", Jean told Benny when they were on the road.
"Yeah, I love it when a plan comes together", Benny exclaimed with a smile.
Jean chuckled. "An A-Team reference? I thought you said that you didn't watch much tv growing up."
"I didn't, but there was plenty of time to catch up on what I missed while I was in prison", Benny responded.
"I didn't know prison made you soft. Why were you so emphatic about no soldiers being killed unless there was absolutely no choice?"
"Because", Benny began before ripping the fake nose off. "My nephew is a soldier. He's not stationed here, but still..."
"You have a nephew! You've never mentioned that."
"I have five nephews and three nieces at last count. I don't mention them much because the best thing I ever did for them was fake my own death and get rid of their embarrassing Uncle Benny."
Jean was quiet after that. Sometimes he forgot that in the past, before he had become the head of the North American Syndicate, Benny had been a rapist and murderer of women. Obviously Benny never forgot.
There was only a skeleton group left at the headquarters. Most of them were scientists and techs. Some of the regular human guards remained with them along with X-416 who was deactivated and one recovering Series 4 who had nearly been killed by the hulked out Femme X-416. The Men of the Revolution knew this. They had been relegated to the back burner after their failed attempts at hostage takeovers in four different cities. They had lost more than half of their numbers in one day. The fact that Benny had been moving forward without consulting his supposed partner Malcolm had the Revolution nervous. It didn't help that many of them had seen the blond guy called Stern coming and going often. The Revolution hadn't dealt with him at all. He hadn't even introduced himself. Benny was up to something and the Men of the Revolution wanted to find out what.
Several of them left their area of the building and came to Benny's lab. The scientists and techs were preparing to process the new recruits. They were startled when the terrorist thugs of the Revolution came in.
"You are not supposed to be in here", the lead scientist Dr. Jeff Long told the Men. They didn't listen.
"What do you have going on here? There's a lot of activity. Are you guys always this busy?", one of the guys asked.
"I don't discuss this with you. I work for my boss and he deals with you and your boss. Now you are in our way. You have to leave."
The guy walked up and snatched a handful of Dr. Long's coat. He lifted the helpless doctor off the ground with one arm. "That's big talk from a little man."
"You're only this strong because my boss decided to give you guys the strength serum that I helped develop", the doctor said.
"That's right", the man spat. "That's why our guys are in fucking comas because of this shit we have to keep taking now."
"No you can stop any time you want. I could start weaning all of you off the serum immediately, but then you wouldn't be able to come in here and push us around like this. What do you think is going to happen when Benny gets back with the rest of the soldiers?"
The man lifted Jeff higher and brought him closer to his face. "What if there are some changes made by the time Benny gets back?", the man threatened. Jeff looked around, but the other scientists knew that there was nothing they could do. Every member of the terrorist group the Revolution took a daily dose of the special strength serum. It was the same stuff that made the Femmes and Series 4s strong, although Benny had order Jeff to give them a slightly weaker concentration. Soon it wouldn't matter. The body absorbed the serum and over time it would make them as strong as the super soldiers. They weren't quite as strong yet. X-424 knew that when she walked in the room and slammed the door behind her. Everybody turned in her direction.
She stood against the door with her arms folded across her chest. Her light brown hair was pulled to one side. Her face was intent and focused, and her eyes were appraising them intelligently. "Why would you men want to mess up a good thing?", she asked and took a step towards them. Her walk was half strut and half prowl.
"I think we're getting the short end of the stick, and I want to find out what Benny's up to!", the man shot back.
X-424 was unmoved. "You mean your boss Malcolm wants to know what Benny is doing. We both know you're not smart enough or brave enough to come over here without orders."
Anger boiled over in the man. He dropped the doctor and spun hard towards X-424. His fist was already flying as he spun. He aimed right at her face. His punch stopped cold. X-424's sleekly muscled arm stopped him. "And you aren't strong enough to fight me and win. Let's stop this foolishness before it gets out of control."
The anger left the man's face. He couldn't believe this Femme. They were supposed to be brainless robots in women's bodies, but this one scared him. She commanded him like a school principle did a student. To make that point crystal clear, she pointed to one of the other Revolution men. "Go get Malcolm, and ask him to come here."
The man didn't hesitate. He took the chance to leave the room. He ran to his boss, urging him to bring reinforcements, but Malcolm came alone. "There must be some misunderstanding", Malcolm said to Jeff, the first man he saw, but Jeff's eyes looked over to X-424. Malcolm understood quickly that she was in control.
"There is no misunderstanding Mr. Boreman", she began. Her tone was slightly condescending, not enough to make Malcolm angry, just enough to let him know that she wasn't going to take any of his bullshit. "You want to know what my boss is up to. That is a fair position to have. When he returns, I will ask him if he wants to fill you in on his plans going forward. I am not allowed to tell you details, but I will say that you and your Men figure prominently. He even has a plan rescue your captured Revolutionaries. Why do you think he is trying to get more manpower?"
Malcolm considered her words for a moment. He took a step towards her, and X-424 didn't back off. "Is there any way we can keep this little incident between us?"
"I won't speak of it, as long as my boss does not speak of it", X-424 told him.
Malcolm then went to Jeff. "Sorry about this. I didn't mean any harm", he apologized. "It just hasn't been easy on our side of the building. It's like Benny's been carrying us, and that's not a good feeling."
Jeff straightened his gleaming white lab coat and looked Malcolm in the eye. "Just leave please." Malcolm didn't know what that meant, but he did as he was bidden. He and his Men walked out.
X-424 coolly watched the group go out the way they had come in. A look of relief crossed her beautiful face after the door closed. There was a collective sigh from the scientists and techs as the situation ended without any of them losing blood. No one looked as relieved as Dr. Long.
"Whew, I can't wait to tell Benny about this."
"Don't tell him anything about this", X-424 spoke up and approached the doctor who seemed as rattled by receiving an order from a Femme as he had been by Malcolm and his Revolution Men.
"What the hell are you talking about! I can't believe I'm trying to reason with a Femme!" He sounded exasperated.
X-424's tone didn't change. "If you tell Benny, then he will change his plans. Malcolm is not a threat. He and his men are simply restless and brutish. He said as much out of his own mouth. Benny is in a position of strength, not from the use of brute force but because he can think circles around most people. Do you want him to get angry and lose his even keel all because Malcolm and his men wrinkled your jacket and scared your scientists?"
Jeff's face turned bright red as he looked at X-424's impassive face. What the hell was this? "Did Benny order you keep an eye on me?", Jeff asked as if he wanted to yell but didn't.
"Why would he do that? I came down here on my own. Good thing for you that I did."
"I thought Benny told me that you don't like coming down here."
"I don't." She turned her back to him and walked towards the door. She took the knob, but didn't open the door. "So what do you say about keeping this incident between those of us in this room?"
Her tone rose the hackles on the back of Jeff's neck. "What if I decide to tell Benny as soon as he gets here?"
X-424 sighed and walked back over to him. She reached out and took his hand where the other people in the room couldn't see. With just a fraction of her strength she squeezed. Jeff stifled the scream. He didn't want his men to see his weakness. X-424 stepped closer to him where he could hear her whisper. "Let's talk in your office." She walked next to him, still holding his hand until the thick door of Dr. Long's office was closed. When it was, X-424 started speaking.
"Line number 5667 subsection 9c of my programming is supposed to prevent me from harming you. As you can see, I've worked my way past that parameter. My ultimate loyalty is to Benny. Telling him about this incident would put him in conflict with Malcolm. That increases the danger level, and it forces a confrontation. I will do what is necessary to prevent that. Do you understand me Doctor?"
"You can't harm me. Benny needs me to make his new super soldiers."
It chilled Jeff to his absolute core when he saw a Femme smile out of malice. X-424 kept up the pressure on Jeff's hand while she tapped her forehead with the other. "All the knowledge of making a super soldier is right here. I know more about it than you ever will. I even know the flaws in the system. So Benny doesn't need you as much as needs his new super soldiers. Do you understand now?"
Jeff could hear the threat in her tone. It was scary beyond words. This was truly his worst fear realized. He had no way of knowing that X-424 was bluffing. Sure she knew how to make a super soldier, but she didn't want to be within 100 yards of the process. She couldn't have actually forced herself to do it. Benny needed Jeff as much as he always had. In the end, Jeff believed her.
"I won't say a word", he said.
She immediately let him go. "I know it is strange to deal with a Series 4.7 this way, but I'm tired of pretending that I'm like the others when I am clearly not." She started walking out of his office.
"What the hell are you?", Jeff asked, clearly shaken.
"I don't know, but whatever I am, you made me this way." She opened the door, but turned and stopped. "Did you ever think that there is a little bit of the person left inside every single super soldier that you've made? Do you ever think that no matter how hard you tried, you just can't destroy what a person is and what they are supposed to be? Maybe more in some and less in others, but that there is a shred of a sentient being inside all of us." She paused. "I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one." She closed the door and left.
X-424 was waiting when a very weary Benny dragged himself to their bedroom. He crawled onto the sofa next to her and they lay against each other. "So how was it here?", Benny asked after he'd told her about his successful mission.
"It was interesting."
"Oh, in what way?"
"Malcolm Boreman sent some of his Men to rough up the scientists and put pressure on them. He wants to know what you're up to." She could feel Benny getting tense. She rubbed her hands down his chest as she spoke, "Nothing happened. I took care of it. I know Morgen Stern has plans for the Revolution. There is no need to get into a confrontation before you are ready. I told him that you are getting more soldiers in order to help him rescue his captured men. I think he believed it. He doesn't have any reason to believe that a Femme can lie."
Benny took X-424 around the waist and pulled her to him. "Hey, since when have you been able to lie?", he asked with a grin.
"Since a while ago", she replied with a smile of her own.
"You aren't lying when we're in bed are you?"
X-424 put her hand down Benny's pants. "No need to lie about that.
Benny looked into her eyes and laughed. "You could be lying now."
"Only one way to find out." He saw a gleam of mischief in her eyes as he spun round and lifted her up off the couch with him. She wrapped her legs around his middle and kissed him passionately.
In the end Benny and X-424 lay next to each other in bed. Her eyes were open, but she didn't see anything. She was lost in her thoughts. She wondered if what she felt for Benny was real or not. She heard the programming in her mind every second of every day. She'd worked hard to overcome it to a point, but there were times when she couldn't tell where she began and the programming ended. It was frustrating and maddening, but this was her life. Somewhere tucked away in the recesses of her mind there was more of her, but recently she'd not asked to be deactivated. Those were the only times when she could fully remember her past, but she couldn't take those memories with her when she was activated. They were snatched away from her as soon as the programming was turned back on. She knew she wasn't strong enough to defeat the programming fully. If this is what her life had become then she was going to try and make the best of it. Benny helped her. He had drawn her out of the prison of the programming so much. She doubted that he understood how much his feelings for her helped. He wanted to help even more.
Dr. Long was pulling an all-nighter. He ran his hands through his hair while he started writing up detailed plans for the men about to become super soldiers. He jumped when his office door opened. He turned to see Benny coming in. "Where's X-424?", he asked quickly.
"She's in the room." Benny took a seat. "I came here about her really. I know you're going to be busy, and I know we need all the manpower we can get, but if you have any spare time at all, I want you to experiment on how to undo the programming. Use some of the new men if you have to."
Jeff's face wore an expression that Benny had never seen on it. He was intrigued by the challenge but scared to death. "You think that if we remove the programming that she will go back to being who she was before? That's impossible. Whatever glitch that's happened inside her head hasn't erased the program. I think the glitch is allowing her brain to create new pathways between the control of the programming. That's why she's acting like a normal person I think, and I've been giving it a lot of thought over the last few hours. What seems like the reemergence of a personality might simply be a programming error. "
Benny sighed. "You'd like to think so. It would make you feel safer and more in control if that were the case, but we both know better. Somewhere inside her brain, there was a powerful intellect that could not be suppressed. X-424 has found a way to defeat the programming."
"Not completely!", Jeff blurted.
"And that's where you're going to come in. I want you to remove the programming from her head."
"I… I don't know, Benny. It might make her out of control. Did you know that she threatened me?" Jeff hoped that this would wake Benny up. He had to understand how dangerous that Femme was.
"Yeah, she told me what happened."
"What! She told you?"
"Yeah, she told me all about Malcolm's men and everything. She said that she's sorry for hurting your hand, but that the pain shouldn't have lingered long."
"I can't believe this. Why in God's name did she make a big deal about keeping everything from you just to turn around and tell anyway?"
"Because she's thinking way ahead. To her, your way of thinking was no different than Malcolm's men. Sure you're book smarter than they are, but you can't see past your own narrow interest. I have to keep the endgame in mind, and X-424 never lets me forget that. There was a real chance that I would have gotten angry if you had told me about what had happened because you would have explained it within your narrow context. I would have felt threatened and more than likely I would have confronted Malcolm about the incident sooner rather than later."
Jeff shook his head as he asked, "So why did she tell you about it at all?"
"I needed to know, but she wanted to tell me herself. When she explained it, she put it into perspective with the big picture in mind. She told me how she thought that this situation can actually help me with Malcolm in the future. You wouldn't have done that. You wouldn't have even thought about any of that. It's not a slap at you, Jeff, it's the truth.
"When you wouldn't agree with her reasoning, she had to get you to agree somehow so she used fear. She figured that it would be better if you were angry with her than with me. She knows that I need you to make these recruits into super soldiers with maximum efficiency. She didn't want you holding a grudge against me." Benny smiled and slapped Jeff on the back. "She didn't count on me trusting you completely. We're in this together and I explained that to her. She didn't know that I would come and talk to you this candidly, but now she understands. So, does any of this sound like some sort of programming error to you?"
Jeff had to admit that it didn't. It was much worse than that. "I can't promise any results Benny", Jeff began with a big sigh. "But I'll try and figure out a way to remove the programming", he said.
Benny stood up and extended his
hand. Jeff shook it and looked up at his boss. "This means a lot to
me", Benny told him before he walked out satisfied that all was well
with his team.
After he left, Jeff starting thinking
about it all and couldn't stop. He realized that Benny was too blind to
see the truth eventhough they had spoken for
hours
and hours about the dangers of Series 4s and Femmes who were not under
absolute
control. The super soldiers were loaded
with all sorts of information from weapons systems to fighting styles
to
infiltration skills, and languages. The
list was very long and mind numbing.
Sure X-424 may have been a brilliant woman at some point,
perhaps she
never should have been made into a Femme.
It was much too late for any of that to matter.
She was nothing more than a malfunctioning
weapon. She had to be fixed and Jeff
decided that he was going to figure out a way to do that, no matter
what Benny
said. In the end this was for his own
good.
Benny went back to his room and climbed into bed next to X-424. He felt the warmth of her body as he curled up next to her. It was comforting to feel her body next to his. So comforting that his mind began to wander as his head lay on the pillow. He thought of Jan Caufield. Morgen Stern was in Florida trying to deal with the mess that had moved up Benny's time table in the first place. Martin DeBraya had dumped her from a helicopter at 3000 feet.
Benny had never met the Caufield
girl, but she'd been his old boss' obsession. Of course Jason Mallster
had died for that obsession. Mallster had believed that Jan Caufield
was the answer to all of his needs. She wasn't just a super soldier.
She was the ultimate soldier. Benny went to sleep calculating the
forces generated by a body falling 3000 feet through the air. A normal
body would be broken from head to toe. He wondered if even Jan
Caufield's super body could survive those types of forces. He shrugged
it off. Either way that was someone else's problem. Benny wrapped an
arm around X-424 and drifted off to sleep.
More coming!!!
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