Silent Mobius Fan Fiction ❯ Red Destiny - Book 1: New York ❯ Fantasmas ( Chapter 8 )

Silent Mobius: Red Destiny

Book 1: New York

Chapter 8: Fantasmas

Authors: OSTOCOM

E-mail and website: see our profile

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: We do not own Silent Mobius or its characters, but we do own our own characters. See Book 0 for complete disclaimer.

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"Spring cleaning," said Maris emphatically, "is for idiots with nothing better to do."

"Shh!" said Adara, searching frantically for the "speakerphone off" button. "She can hear you, you know."

"I-di-ots," Maris repeated.

Calixta's laugh came over the receiver. "Well, if the shoe fits..." she said. "Anyway, I'm not done yet. Do you mind if I come in later today and stay later, Commander Davis? Since it is up to you today..."

"I don't know," Adara sighed. "If the Hawks attack, we really need the computer systems up right away."

"Oh, don't worry about that," said Calixta. "I'll set up an interface link to my computer here. That way I can keep tabs on everything going on up there, and if there's an attack, we have twice the computer power. Plus, it would be a perfect time to upload some of my best fight sims to the holomodule there. Number 12 would be especially helpful, I think. I've noticed we tend to be sluggish with our countermeasures when the Hawks flank us."

"I'm fast enough," growled Maris, her fingers clenched around an Evian water bottle. "It's the rest of you overpaid pansies slowing us down."

"Not according to the holomodule statistics," Calixta said sweetly. "I suggest you take another look and see which 'overpaid pansy' is consistently 1.3 seconds faster than you."

Adara began to see the wisdom of keeping the two of them in separate rooms. "Permission granted," she said quickly. "Just make sure you check in constantly and that you can get here fast in an emergency."

"Will do," Calixta said. "And I've got the spinner right outside."

"Excellent," said Adara. "Keep me informed."

"And have fun cleaning!" said Amber.

"May it be cleansing for your spirit as you purge your dwelling of impurities and bad memories," Miakoda offered.

"Thanks," said Calixta. "I'm sure it will be."

"It'll be so fun!" exclaimed Amber. "I love getting out all the rags and bottles of cleaning stuff, and just cleaning everything!"

Miakoda looked skeptically at Amber's desk, which was littered with pens, papers, half-filled cups of cold coffee, and dirty Tupperware containers that had once housed enchiladas or Mexican rice.

"Well...you know...once a year or so," Amber said defensively. "Anyway, it's fun. Do you need any help? I'm a mean mopper. And dusting! I'm very good at dusting."

"Um...I think I can handle it," Calixta said. "Thanks though. Calixta out."

Adara pushed a button and hung up. "That's that, then," she said.

Amber frowned and fingered a pink crystal on a chain around her neck. "I wonder what she meant by that," she said.

Maris slammed her bottle of Evian on her desk. "I think she meant that someone who starts kicking Lucifer Hawk ass 1.3 seconds faster than I do can probably handle cleaning her own damn apartment."

Adara pinched the wicks of two "Relaxation" aromatherapy candles on her desk. Flames sprung up, and lavender-scented smoke wafted through the air. She sat down and inhaled deeply. It was going to be one of those days.

------

The vacuum cleaner hummed quietly as Calixta pushed it across her living room floor. On the far side of the room, a computer monitor that took up half the wall flashed pictures of the different rooms in ECC Headquarters. Calixta grinned as she watched Maris sharpen a knife and fling it at a picture of a Lucifer Hawk with the caption "Damn Bastard." As Calixta continued vacuuming, she launched into a mock commentary:

"Maris Lynn takes the shot. Turn, flick, and a miss! Oh! Did you see that, Tim? 'Yes, I saw that, Chuck. Blatant miss if I've ever seen one, and I've seen a few in my day...' She couldn't hit the side of the barn! 'More to the point, Chuck, she can't hit the Hawk. This is extremely disappointing from a defensive standpoint.' Yeah, Coach Jameson has to be sweating over this one. Lynn's average is down to 66%, and her assists are dismal. What was the ECC thinking? 'It was thinking in terms of a more aggressive offense. The Hawks are only getting stronger, and Lynn has that grit, that 'take no prisoners' mentality.' That's true, Tim, but if she doesn't stop turning it on her teammates... 'It's a typical rookie mistake, Chuck. As the season goes on, she'll start learning to be more of a team player.' Yeah, and it would also help if she could start learning how to aim..."

THUNK. The vacuum cleaner hit the leg of the heavy oak coffee table. Calixta winced. "Touché," she said. She turned the vacuum cleaner off.

"Computer," she commanded, "remove furniture from the main living area." The computer panel on the wall whirred, and the table and two plaid overstuffed couches dissolved into pixels of light. "Thanks," Calixta said, and resumed vacuuming.

A few minutes later, she was finished. She stowed the vacuum cleaner in a small closet down the hall. "Computer," she called. The computer beeped in response. "Open files Sectional2.real and Table3.real. Layout pattern Beta 5." By the time Calixta returned to the living room, a cream-colored sectional and a round glass coffee table adorned the room.

"Well, that's that," said Calixta. "Time for a snack." She went into the kitchen, got a bottle of lemonade out of the refrigerator, and slid some bread into a gleaming metal toaster. "Toast and lemonade," she said. "The true cuisine-the perfect combination of art and nature. Magnifique!" Calixta kissed her fingertips as the bread popped out of the toaster, warm and golden brown. "But enough gastronomic snobbery. Back to work you go."

She returned to the living room and stretched out on the couch, munching the toast and letting the lemonade bottle dangle from her hand. "Computer, display all files on the holomodule database."

The computer obeyed. Row after row of file names filled the screen, pushing the videos of the ECC into a smaller and smaller area and finally eclipsing them altogether. Still more files popped onto the monitor, forcing the screen to scroll down.

"Uh...Computer?" Calixta said nervously. "How many files are there?"

A polite, slightly digitized version of her voice responded, "Three thousand one hundred eighty-four."

"Aarrrggg!" Calixta screamed. She slammed her lemonade bottle on the table and buried her face in one of the couch cushions. "I hate spring cleaning!"

------

Amber stood by the sink in the break room, scrubbing her Tupperware containers vigorously. "I really need to start keeping things cleaner," she said. "I'm becoming such a slob."

Miakoda smiled, stretching her long legs out in front of her. "It isn't too bad," she said diplomatically.

Amber's crystal cooled slightly against her skin, and she frowned. "See, it's true!" she shouted. "I've completely let myself go-even you think so. Don't lie to me!"

Miakoda's shoulders tensed as she tried to think of how to express herself both politely and truthfully. She stopped suddenly as she felt a familiar uneasiness, like the flutter of an owl's wings. "Something's wrong," she said.

Amber's frustration faded into anxiety. "Is it a Hawk?"

"I don't know." Miakoda stood and slipped out of the room like a shadow. Amber followed her into the main office, where Adara leaned over the security monitor, looking perplexed. "What's wrong?" Miakoda asked.

"I'm not sure," said Adara. "It's like something was there, and then it wasn't."

"I'm getting a strange feeling too," Miakoda said. "It's not a good sign."

"All right, I'll review the security logs." Adara settled behind the security console. "Amber, dial Calixta's number. Put her on speakerphone."

"Yes, ma'am." Amber strode over to the desk and dialed.

"Hello, Commander," Calixta said. "Is there a problem?"

"Maybe," Adara replied. "I'm looking at the energy readouts for the security field. There was a brief spike two minutes ago, and then nothing. Internal sweeps show nothing unusual. It almost looks like a glitch."

"Maybe it is," Calixta said. "Let me take a look." Adara heard the clicking of keys, and then Calixta responded again. "Yeah, it looks like the computer just overcompensated for an unusually high energy reading, probably a power surge. I doubt it's anything to worry about, but I'll keep an eye on it anyway. Over and out."

------

The barriers had not been easy to overcome. But then, he hadn't expected them to be. If the ECC Headquarters were easily penetrated, he might have to think ill of his enemy, and that would be a shame. Still, he was glad it hadn't been too much trouble. The access codes had been most helpful....

The Lucifer Hawk smiled to himself. An odd sensation, smiling. It was something he only did while in human form, and he still wasn't used to it. He allowed his face to melt back into its natural grimace as he contacted his supervisor. "Are you clear?" he whispered.

"As crystal," a silky-smooth voice replied. "How was the mission, Zervax?"

"Your virus has been successfully uploaded," Zervax reported.

"Good. Let me know exactly how it performs," the voice ordered. "It's a prototype, so I want to know exactly what it can do."

"Understood." Zervax looked up at ECC Headquarters and watched the lights flicker off. "I don't think you'll be disappointed."

"I'm sure I won't. Over and out." The transceiver crackled. Zervax turned it off and stared with pleasure at the darkened building. For some reason, he found it easier to smile now.

------

Maris shut the door to the holomodule behind her and removed her training gun. She wasn't a fan of guns, really, and she definitely wasn't a fan of the holomodule, but damned if she was going to let Calixta stay 1.3 seconds faster. True, her attacks were more powerful than Calixta's, but she wanted the special satisfaction of beating the computer specialist at her own game. "Um, Computer?" she said.

The computer bleeped expectantly. "Open a kick-ass simulation...please?" Maris wasn't exactly sure about the correct protocol for talking to computers, but she figured it couldn't hurt to be polite.

"File not found," the computer said.

"Oh, come on!" Maris pulled a water bottle out of her second holster and held it up threateningly. "Do what I say or your motherboard gets it!"

"Aggression is futile," the computer chirped.

"Like hell it is!" Maris snapped. "You're telling me you can't open a Lucifer Hawk simulation, you junkyard heap of-"

"Please specify file number," the computer interrupted.

Maris thought for a moment and shouted, "Two!"

"Opening LHAttack2.sim," the computer announced. A busy intersection appeared around Maris, and crowds of people pushed past her. She turned and watched for the Hawk. Her eyes caught a flicker of movement, and she swung her gun that direction. "Gotcha!" she shouted as she focused the targeting scanner on the misshapen head of the Category Two. Just as she was about to pull the trigger, the lights in the holomodule went out.

"Computer, I need lights!" Maris shouted. The room stayed dark, however, and Maris could still hear the noise of traffic and the smug hissing of the Lucifer Hawk. "Lights, dammit!" Her eyes had started adjusting to the darkness, but she was more than a little disturbed by the computer's lack of response.

"Hello, Adara?" Maris tapped the communicator on her jacket. "Hello?" Again, no response.

"To hell with this," Maris muttered. She cocked her gun and began backing slowly toward the door. "Computer, end program."

Nothing happened. Maris watched nervously as the glowing red eyes of the Category Two came closer. She fired several shots, but they only served to anger the Hawk and make it accelerate toward her even faster. Finally, Maris pushed the controls to the door, but the door stayed shut.

"Shit!" shouted Maris, beginning to panic in spite of herself. She pounded on the door and pushed buttons frantically, but nothing she did had any effect. "Let me out of here!"

------

Adara took a moment to stack her papers neatly, then picked up her ink pen and resumed writing. "Lieutenant Solaris and Ensign Ramirez formed an effective perimeter defense, thus allowing Lieutenant Nakai the time needed to call upon the owl spirit-" Suddenly the lights went out. Adara opened her left hand, and a small flame lit the room.

"Miakoda?" she called. "Amber? Maris?" She received no response, so she tapped her communicator again. "Calixta, report." Still nothing. She picked up the phone, but there was no dial tone. "Not good," she muttered under her breath as she swiftly exited her office. Amber and Miakoda met her in the hallway with flashlights.

"It seems strange that the power would go out," Amber commented. "There hasn't been a storm or anything."

"Do you think it's just an overload?" Miakoda asked.

"I'm not sure," Adara said grimly. "But the communication system's down, so our first priority is to make sure we're all present and accounted for. Where's Maris?"

"In the holomodule, I think," Amber replied.

"Fine," Adara said. "Now I just want to check on Calixta." She pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number. "Hi, we have problems," she said. "The comm system is down, and so is the power."

"I noticed," Calixta replied. "The last thing I saw were the lights going off, and then the video monitors went out. So is anything still working?"

Adara looked over at the computers, which still gave off light. "The computers are still up. Security's good. Do you think it was just a surge or a power outage?"

"The restaurant across the street still has lights," Amber piped up.

"If it had been something like that, it should have affected everything," Calixta said worriedly. "I don't like the sound of this. Hang on a sec." Adara heard the clicks and blips of a computer, followed by irritated mumblings in Spanish and French.

"Well, the video monitor's gone out completely," Calixta announced. "I can't get it to come back. And I'm not getting very clear readings from my computer either. I'll be over in a few minutes and see if I can figure out what went wrong."

"All right, see you then." Adara hung up. "Well, there's no sense in splitting up," she told her subordinates. "Follow me." She turned on her heel and led the way to the holomodule room.

As the three got closer, they heard gunshots and muffled swearing.

"Are you all right?" Miakoda asked as they stopped in front of the door.

"No!" Maris shouted. "I'm stuck!"

Adara pushed the emergency control, and the door slid open a crack before starting to slide closed again.

"Nauticus, come to me!" Maris shouted, quickly tossing some water through the diminishing opening. Her teammates jumped back as the large water sword formed. Maris twisted Nauticus quickly, and the sword jammed the door open a few inches.

/Ms. Lynn?/ came the sword's tentative voice. /Being stuck like this is terribly unsettling./

"Suck it up, Nauticus," Maris said through gritted teeth. "Hey, help me out here, will you?" she called to her teammates. Amber and Miakoda began trying to pull the automatic door farther open.

"I think it's working!" Amber exclaimed. She braced her foot against the doorjamb and continued pulling the door. Adara joined in their efforts, and the door opened several more inches. Amber pushed her back against the door, but as she did so, the door began closing again, and she lost her balance and tumbled into the holomodule suite, falling on top of Maris. Adara and Miakoda moved their hands quickly as the door slammed shut.

Amber scrambled up and apologetically handed Nauticus back to Maris. "Well, fuck," said the blonde sailor as she let the water sword dissipate into thin air. "This isn't exactly what I had in mind."

The truthsayer shrugged and smiled pleasantly. "Suck it up, Maris," she advised.

------

Calixta jumped out of the spinner and held her door card up to the scanner. A red light flashed, and "Access Denied" appeared on the screen. "All right, we'll do this the hard way," Calixta said. She punched in code after code, but the computer steadfastly refused to recognize any of them. She removed the cover of the scanner and inspected the circuitry. Everything seemed fine as far as hardware went, so why…?

The redhead briefly contemplated blasting the doors away entirely, but figured that would just cause more problems than it would solve. "Calixta to Adara," she said into her communicator. The communicator crackled with static. "Right," Calixta said. "That's why I should get a cell phone. I hate cell phones, but I should get one anyway. Oh well."

She shrugged and tried kicking the door. Nothing happened. "Didn't figure," she mumbled. "But these things are always worth a try."

Calixta reentered the spinner and programmed a course back to her apartment. Maybe she could access the systems from her computer. At any rate, at least her apartment had a phone that wasn't connected to the ECC communication system. As the spinner lifted off, Calixta began mentally composing a list of "Security Updates and Changes to be Implemented ASAP." While she was at it, she started making a list of "Caffeinated Products to Buy."

------

Adara kicked the door to the holomodule repeatedly, but it remained unyielding. "It's times like these that I wish I could swear in Yiddish," she said. "I should have paid better attention in synagogue."

"I don't exactly think that's the place to pick up that kind of vocabulary," Miakoda pointed out.

"True," Adara sighed. Just then, an alarm rang and a staticky computer voice said, "Ed Aler. Sekkkty Breeee-" The message terminated in a resonating, high-pitched screech. Miakoda and Adara covered their ears.

"Great," said Adara. "Now we have a security breach. And there are no lights. And no sign of Calixta. And I've lost two officers to the holomodule of doom. Of all the days for the chief to have gone out of town and left me in charge."

"You're doing fine," Miakoda assured her.

"I still want backup," Adara said, and began dialing Calixta's home number.

"Look out!" Miakoda shouted, firing her gun at a large Lucifer Hawk that was beginning to slide through the wall in front of them.

Adara instinctively formed fireballs in her hands, and winced as her cell phone caught on fire and fell to the floor. Furious, she picked up the charred black device and threw it at the Hawk. "And on top of everything, I still can't swear in Yiddish!" she yelled.

"Schmuck?" Miakoda offered helpfully.

"SCHMUCK!" Adara shouted as she hurled flames at the Hawk.

------

Amber leaned against the door of the holomodule and flashed her light around the room. "So, the simulation is still running?"

"Yep," said Maris tiredly. "It won't turn off. And the damn Hawk won't die, no matter how many times I shoot it."

"Well, where is it now?" Amber asked, raising her gun as she continued sweeping the room with her flashlight.

"There!" Maris shouted, pointing. She frowned as she took aim. "It looks different, though…"

"There's another one!" Amber shouted, aiming at a Category Two across the room.

"What the fuck?" Maris exclaimed. "There was only one before!"

"I wonder how it got here," Amber mused as she fired.

"I…don't…care!" Maris shouted as she emptied her clip into the first Hawk's chest. "All I care about is getting it out of here!"

"Um…that might be kind of hard," said Amber, pointing up to a swarm of Category Threes that had suddenly appeared overhead.

------

The first thing Calixta saw when she came home was her brother and sister sitting on the couch. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "I didn't open you."

"We just came to say hi," said the red-haired boy of eighteen. He smiled disarmingly and leaned back on the couch. "So how've you been?"

"Okay, first of all, you're dead," Calixta said, pointing at him. "And secondly, you hate me." She stared accusingly at the smiling fourteen-year-old girl, who was twirling her sandy-brown hair through her fingers.

"Hate is the wrong word, really," her sister said, staring up at her with wide hazel eyes.

"Whatever," Calixta snapped. "Computer, please close files Jean-Marc.char and Anna.char." At that command, her siblings vanished. Calixta sighed. "On second thought, it was kind of nice to see you again. Computer, please reopen files Jean-Marc.char and Anna.char."

The computer made a horrible crunching noise, and a distinguished middle-aged man in a Navy dress uniform appeared in front of her. "Umm…Computer? I didn't ask to see my father-although it's nice of you and everything, but-"

The hologram of her father flickered and faded into nothingness. "That's nice," Calixta said bitterly. "It's just like you to disappear *again*. And really, this shouldn't be happening. Computer, do you have any idea what's going on?" The computer blipped, and Calixta thought it sounded just as confused as she felt. "Right. Stupid question. Well, *something* is wrong here."

She picked up the phone and dialed Adara's cell phone number. "This number is temporarily unavailable," a mechanized voice announced.

Calixta slammed the phone down, stormed over to her computer, and began typing furiously. "Something had better start going right here!" she shouted, scanning the screens for a clue to the puzzle. She heard a hissing noise behind her, and looked up to see a small, pixilated Category Three hovering above her head.

"Computer, end simulation!" Calixta commanded. The Hawk faded slightly, but remained present. "Or things could just keep getting worse!" shouted the frustrated computer specialist. "That works too!"

------

"Going…to…kill…her!" Adara muttered as she continued flaming the Hawk. "Schmuck, schmuck, schmuck!"

"I'm sure Calixta's working on the problem," Miakoda said, wearily continuing to shoot at her elusive opponent.

"She had better be!" Adara shouted. "And she'd better be okay too, because if she's dead, I'll kill her!"

"Right," Miakoda said, adjusting the trajectory of her shots as the Hawk moved again.

"You poor foolish humans," said the Hawk. "So alone…so frail…"

"That's it!" the auburn-haired fire elemental snapped. "Let's show him how 'frail' we really are, Lieutenant."

Miakoda nodded and pulled a bundle of sage out of the medicine bag around her neck. "Light this." Adara shot a thin flame at the sage, and fragrant smoke filled the air. Miakoda closed her eyes and drew her arms inward. "Kindred wolf, servant of the Great Spirit, in my hour of need, come!" she intoned, flinging her arms wide at the last word.

A wind seemed to blow through the room, followed by a feral howl that sent a chill up Adara's spine. She watched transfixed as the ethereal figure of a wolf ran across the room and pounced on the Hawk, fangs bared.

The Hawk let out a wild scream and fell to the floor in a pool of black blood. Adara took advantage of the moment to engulf the Hawk in flames. Its body contorted to form the sign of infinity, and then disappeared. "There," Adara said, satisfied.

"You realize that with the security breach, there are probably more out there," Miakoda said, breathing heavily.

Adara sighed and held a small fireball out in front of her. "Come on," she said. "Let's go Hawk hunting."

------

Amber quickly pushed another plasma cartridge into her gun and then brought it up, firing repeatedly across the ceiling of the holomodule. Several of the Category Threes fell to the floor.

"Not bad," Maris admitted. "But we've got bigger Hawks to fry." She gestured toward the two Category Twos.

Amber leaned tiredly against the wall. "It'd be nice if they'd let up a bit."

"Well, they're not going to," Maris said gruffly. She looked over at her bedraggled coworker, and her face softened a bit. "But yeah, it'd be nice." She clapped Amber on the shoulder. "Okay, let's fire together on two. One…two!"

They fired repeatedly at the closest Hawk. "Two?" Amber inquired as she continued shooting.

"It throws the bastards off guard," Maris laughed. "They're always expecting three."

Amber grinned, but her smile faded as a man with faded red hair attired in a Navy dress uniform appeared in front of them. "Who are you?" she demanded, confused.

The man looked back at her, dazed. "I don't understand."

"Think he's a Category One?" Maris asked, readying her gun.

"I don't know," Amber replied. "I can't read him at all."

The Hawk at the far end of the room sensed an easy meal and began moving toward the man. "Move!" Amber shouted, but by the time the man looked up, the Hawk had already clamped its jaws around his head.

Without warning, the man suddenly transformed into an apron-clad woman, then into a bookshelf, and finally into a denim beanbag chair. The Hawk looked down, perplexed. Maris and Amber blinked.

"What the hell?" Maris said, starting to laugh. "What was that?"

"I think something's wrong with the holomodule," Amber replied.

"You think?" Maris said sarcastically. "You don't get much more wrong than this."

"At least it worked in our favor this time," Amber pointed out.

Just then, the Hawk by the beanbag roared, furious at being deprived of a meal. It began advancing toward them, hunger in its eyes. The second Hawk apparently had the same idea, and the two began converging on the trapped ECC members.

"Or not," Maris muttered. She stepped back and found herself against the wall with nowhere else to go. As she raised her gun, she noticed that she was running out of ammunition. The cartridge she had in the gun would only be good for two or three more shots. She had one more after that. And after that...she swallowed and prepared to make her last desperate stand. "Ready, Amber?" she asked, looking over toward her teammate.

Before she could react, Amber had taken the gun from her hands and started running straight toward the Hawks. "Amber!" Maris shouted. "What the fuck are you doing?!"

------

"What are you doing?" Calixta shouted as the Category Three moved closer. "You stupid machine! Computer, open file gun4.sim." There was a shimmer of light, and two short trident-shaped swords appeared on the floor. Calixta picked them up and shrugged. "Sais matters not," she said philosophically.

As she went into a fighting stance, a short man of about twenty with a blond crew cut appeared suddenly in the path of the Category Three. The Hawk swerved toward him, and he began panicking and backing toward Calixta.

"Hey Jared, make yourself useful or get out of the way," Calixta said irritably. Jared obligingly ducked as Calixta's whirled the sais impressively around and through the Hawk. The Hawk spurted dark blue blood and fell to the floor, dead.

HHw

Calixta bowed with mock ceremony and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "How about that?" she said. "I proved myself, didn't I? You never thought I could fight, but you were wrong. You thought I was too weak, too geeky, too emotional to be able to fight. Well, I *can* fight. I fight for a living. I defend the world. And what do you do? Where are you now? Still teaching tae kwon do at the local YMCA? Still trying to make it onto a professional hockey team? You're pathetic. I can't believe I was ever upset that you left! You know what? If you came up to me right now and *begged* me for the chance to rekindle our relationship, I wouldn't be interested at all."

"Good…um…because I'm not interested," Jared said.

"Why not?" Calixta demanded. "What's wrong with me-what's wrong with you? Why-oh, this is ridiculous! Computer, delete file Jared.char."

"Command error," the computer announced in a staticky voice. "Command not recognized."

"What?" Calixta exclaimed. "It's not like it's disguised itself or something." She sat back down at the computer and tried to enter the command manually. An error message appeared on the screen. Calixta frowned. "No...the commands are being bypassed or...corrupted, somehow. No wonder all this weird stuff has been happening. You have a virus, poor thing. Okay. Let me put you to sleep." She tried to shut down the computer, but it wouldn't respond.

"Come on!" The computer specialist clutched her head in her hands. "Work with me. Talk to me!"

"Work with me. Talk to me!" a pleading voice echoed.

Calixta turned around, startled. Where Jared had stood, there was now a sixteen-year-old boy with wide blue eyes and aquamarine hair falling just past his cheekbones.

"Antonio…" Calixta whispered.

------

"Amber!" Maris shouted desperately. "Don't be an idiot!"

Amber didn't listen; she simply slipped in between the two Hawks. "Excuse me!" she said politely. Once she was on the opposite side, she smiled and drew her gun and the gun she had taken from Maris and pointed one at each of the Hawks. "Please leave my friend alone," she said.

The Hawks turned toward her with sinister smiles. "Foolish human," said the first. "You should not have interfered."

"We do not make exceptions," said the second. "Compassion is for the weak, not for those who would survive."

"What good is surviving in a world without compassion?" Amber asked angrily, and fired. The guns had a stronger kick than she had expected, but she kept shooting. The Hawks shook as she hit her marks repeatedly, and they suffered further damage as Maris swung around in front of them, slicing at them with the only weapon she had left, Nauticus.

"I can't keep this up much longer," Maris said.

"It's okay," Amber said. "Save your strength for a spell."

"You think I haven't thought of that?" Maris shouted. "But spells don't work on holographic Hawks."

"Right, and neither do my truthsaying powers," Amber said. "But they worked on that one." She nodded toward the second Hawk. "He's real."

Maris grinned and raised the water sword in front of her.

/Hear me, Charybdis/

/She who drives men into the depths/

/Swallow your enemy/

/In your eternal shadow.../

Tendrils of water began swirling upward from the Hawk's feet. It tried to move, but seemed inexplicably frozen to the spot. Maris's blue eyes seemed to glow with the ancient anger of the sea as she continued the spell:

/Unleash your rage/

/Upon the foolish adventurer/

/Bachtesh lethathian crythelianis/

/Lythtesh torothian urethianis!/

The water flowed faster, encircling the Hawk and engulfing it in a giant whirlpool. Amber fired a shot into the center of the raging vortex. The whirlpool shot upward in a great column to the ceiling and then vanished, leaving no trace of the Hawk. Maris grinned triumphantly. "Got him!" she shouted.

"Your tricks are useless," said the holographic Lucifer Hawk smugly. "You can't 'get me' that way."

"Good thing we have a few more tricks up our sleeves," Maris replied.

"Well, so do I," retorted the Hawk as it grew two feet taller and fierce-looking spikes began pushing through the skin along its arms.

------

Calixta looked warily at the latest hologram to appear before her. "Well, your timing is as terrible as always," she said. "I think you practice it. Anyway, I'm going to shut you down as soon as the holomodule's working again. In the meantime, just leave me alone."

Antonio nodded. He looked around Calixta's apartment with undisguised curiosity. "Oh hey, you kept the toaster!" he said delightedly. "Do you remember making that toaster for our science project? It took forever to make. And getting the nanobots to cooperate was so tricky-it took us forever to get them to accept repair commands from the main processor-"

"Whose idea was it to make a self-repairing toaster anyway?" Calixta interrupted.

"I can't remember," he replied. "I just remember it took forever. Remember all those late nights we spent working on it?"

"How could I forget?" Calixta said. "I remember everything-even the things I wish I could forget."

"Like me?"

"I don't know." She turned away. "Look, I'm sorry. I really need to get back to work."

Antonio moved in front of her computer. "Why did you run away that night?"

"I really need to get back to work." She focused on the screen, trying to ignore the pleading blue eyes.

He reached out to touch her hand, but his fingers slipped ghostlike through her skin. "Don't you love me, Roja?"

"How can you ask that?" Calixta demanded, a sudden harsh note in her voice. "What right do you have to talk about love?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, leaning forward earnestly. "I love you. Why isn't that enough to make things work?"

"I guess some things just can't repair themselves," Calixta replied. "But there are some things I *can* fix, like this virus problem. Excuse me." She maneuvered her chair so that her back was to Antonio, and proceeded to type, her mind absorbed in solving the problem in front of her and ignoring the one behind her.

------

Adara stepped into the main office. The light from the fire in her hand was enough to cast long, ominous shadows over the empty room, but not enough to offer her any comfort. She let out her breath slowly. "Well, I don't *see* anything-"

"There!" Miakoda shouted, pointing to a bulbous black mass emerging from the table holding the dimly lit computer.

"It's too risky to use my fire powers here," Adara said. "You'll have to shoot. *Carefully.*"

Miakoda took aim at the Hawk as it paused in front of the computer. "Do you trust me not to move?" it asked wryly. It teleported to a spot near the ceiling and back again in an instant. "You shouldn't."

"I never did," Miakoda said. She closed her eyes briefly, and a golden brown shield appeared around the computer systems.

"Ah, of course," the Hawk said, teleporting to random locations as it attempted to avoid Miakoda's carefully fired shots. "You would protect that, wouldn't you? After all, technology is the only thing that separates you humans from us. It's a thin metal shell protecting your fragile race. But when the shell cracks-" A thin fissure appeared on the computer screen, and it began to spark. "What is left to protect you from your own weaknesses?"

"I guess you could say we're the last line of defense," Adara said, smiling as she pulled out her gun.

"You are indeed the last," the Hawk replied, hovering menacingly above her.

Everyone became too engaged in fighting to notice the messages appearing on the still-functioning computer screen: "FILE CHIRON.EXE DETECTED. FILE DELETED."

------

"Deleted?" Calixta exclaimed. "Arg! That was my best antivirus too!" She stood up and began pacing furiously across the room. "It should have at least shut down the system or something, even if it didn't exactly *fix* the problem. What now? I hate this! I hate computers! They're the spawn of Satan!" The computer blipped. "Oh, not you," Calixta said, patting the screen reassuringly. "I love you. I just hate you too, that's all."

She sighed and reviewed the file activity quickly. "Well, no wonder the antivirus didn't work-the computer couldn't even recognize it as a file! The command code got corrupted before the antivirus could even take effect. And there's nothing I can do about it. Unless...."

"Unless what?" Antonio asked, peering intently at the computer screen.

"Unless the commands replicated themselves faster than the virus could destroy them," Calixta replied excitedly. "Don't you see? It's just like the toaster-in a way. Making things repair themselves. It's a good idea."

"If it works," Antonio said.

"Right," Calixta said, quickly turning back to the computer. "If it works."

"You can make anything work," Antonio said. "At least, if you really want to." He traced her chin gently with his index finger and turned her face toward his. "Do you want-?" He leaned down toward her, and their lips met almost involuntarily.

Calixta pulled away. "I'm sorry-I..."

Her eyes opened and she saw a Lucifer Hawk standing where Antonio had been. "Love is your greatest weakness," it said, smirking.

"Well, your heart's not so strong, either," Calixta retorted as she grabbed a sai and jammed it through the Hawk's chest. The Hawk flickered and turned back into Antonio, who promptly collapsed on the floor, clutching his heart. Blood seeped over his fingers.

"I...I'm sorry," Calixta said uselessly. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, but she swallowed hard to keep from crying. (It's not even real,) she chided herself. (But it used to be.... Now I only have this shadow, this phantom reality. Is this all my skill is good for-a game of make-believe?)

"No," she said resolutely, turning back to her computer. Her fingers raced over the keyboard as she began reprogramming the antivirus.

------

"Oh shit!" Maris shouted as the Hawk swung its arm at her. She didn't have time to get out of the way, and she winced as the club-like arm collided with her ribcage. The spikes on the Hawk's arm scraped against her skin, drawing blood. Maris instinctively jumped away, rolling backwards.

"All right, Amber," Maris said as she pulled out Nauticus, "back me up here. And how about lobster when we're finished?"

"How about now?" said Amber, smiling as she picked up on the obscure hint. She pulled out her guns and charged at the Hawk as Maris came from the other side in a pincer attack. Nauticus sliced through the Hawk, and Amber's cartridges made multiple indentations in its skin.

"You-" it spat out, hunched over as its skin slowly regenerated. "You really think you can-?" And that was all it got out before it flashed out of existence.

"Program ended," the computer announced. The holomodule doors slid open, and Maris rushed headlong through opening, with Amber close behind her. Once they were safely outside, Maris threw her arm around her teammate's shoulder. "That was some good backup, Ramirez," she said appreciatively. "How about I buy you dinner tonight?"

"Lobster?" Amber asked hopefully.

Maris hesitated. "Well...as long as you don't put salsa on it, or something gross like that."

"Fine with me," Amber said. "Let's go find the others."

The two walked up the stairs toward the main office, running faster as they heard gunshots coming from the main office. They burst in and found their teammates in a gunfight with a large Lucifer Hawk. "Here comes the cavalry!" Amber announced, brandishing her guns.

"Just as long as we don't have to clean up after it," Maris muttered.

"Good timing," Adara said, ignoring Maris's comment. "Let's form a perimeter defense."

"Spare your efforts for our next encounter," said the Lucifer Hawk. It folded its arms and disappeared.

"That's it?" Maris said. "The scrawny little wimp just up and left on us?"

"We'd better double-check," said Miakoda. "Computer, are there any Lucifer Hawks in the building?"

"Negative," said the computer, its voice crackling slightly.

Maris eyed it skeptically. "You sure?"

"I'm not sensing anything either," Miakoda said.

"Well...I guess that's all right then," said Maris. "Still, it's a damn shame. We could've taken them." Her obvious weariness belied her bravado, but no one called her on it.

Adara collapsed into the chair next to the computer. "Oh, good," she said tiredly. "Communication's back up. Hey, Calixta."

"Hey," responded an equally tired Calixta. "You all okay?"

"Fine," said Adara. "What happened?"

"We got hit by a nasty virus," Calixta replied. "We need to upgrade our security measures. Again. And I want my pay quadrupled starting now."

"I'll run it by Mackenzie," Adara said. "In the meantime, I need you over here to assess the damage and help secure the building for the night."

"Fine," Calixta said. "I'll be over in a few minutes. There's just something I need to take care of first. Over and out."

------

Calixta knelt down next to Antonio and gently brushed his hair away from his face. "I'm sorry," she whispered. She crossed his arms over his chest and stood up. "Computer, delete file Antonio.char."

Calixta watched as the pixels of light dissolved, and she remembered a stanza of a poem by Pablo Neruda:

"Meanwhile there grows in the shadow
of the long passage through oblivion
the flower of solitude, moist, extensive,
like the earth in a long winter."

She had come so far, and she still couldn't forget. Yet there was nothing left of her past but phantoms, ghosts, fantasies. Nothing real or substantial. And solitude was not a flower without thorns. It wasn't nearly as hopeful as Neruda made it sound, especially if spring never came...

"Enough," Calixta said. She selected several files, mostly old simulations of people and dreams she should have given up on long ago, and moved them to a new folder.

"Computer," said Calixta, "please delete the contents of the folder 'Fantasmas.'"

"Files deleted," the computer announced. Calixta sat staring at her holomodule. Finally she sighed and said, "Despues de la muerte, la muerte de los sueños hay solo la memoria y el silencio." (After death, the death of dreams, there is only memory and silence.)

The scent of a remembered shadow lingered in the air and silence suspended itself expectantly. Calixta laughed suddenly. "What's the use?" she asked bitterly. "You'll still be here when I get back."

She left for work, shutting the door softly behind her. The click of the door echoed like a revolver shot, but the ghosts of the past refused to fall dead.

---------------------------------------------

Next Episode Preview:

Adara: "The Lucifer Hawks change their tactics once again, and we find ourselves in yet another fight for our lives. What could be so important about a seemingly abandoned mall? A slight chill creeps in as events spiral out of control almost faster than we can handle."

Episode 9: Fugue