HOME | DD

Description
: Baumton Explodes

Note: the World of City of Heroes/Villains, all the signature characters, locations and such are property of NCSoft.

Authors Note: This is a considerable "jump forward" in the events of "Yesterday's Sins". A great deal has happened, some of which will be alluded to, others of which, not. A short summary, is that the small group referred to in the chapters that have already been posted has shattered, destroyed by repeated failures and the insanity of Lady Blackout. In fact, Lady Blackout has murdered Paradocs (Pam in YS), and done various and sundry very unpleasant things to Jen and Wendy.

Jen's battlesuit in this story is not the same as the one you're familiar with, the one that gives her the powers over electricity in game. It's an earlier one, with considerably different powers. In fact, as I've said, this group has an overarching storyline that considerably predates my involvement in CoH, and her battlesuit in this story is what I'd originally pictured.

May 23, 2002

Jennifer Lee sighed as she walked into the main lab of BL Technology. She wasn't distressed at the usual mound of half completed projects, schematics and other technological debris that were lying around. That was to be expected. In fact, as disorganized as the lab might be, it was the heart and soul of BL Technology.

Jen had no real illusions. She ran the business side of things, marketing the gear that was designed here, making sure the bills got paid, and the other countless tasks that managing a successful business required. For all of that, she got her share of the company name, lending the "L" to "BL." However, there was no doubt in her mind that the real heart of the company was the technology that was designed in this lab. High end equipment that might end up with Portal Corps, or the Freedom Phalanx, or the Federal Government. There was only one person who could truly take credit for all of that, and that was the "B" in their name, her best friend, Angela Brightwater.

Jen shook her head, half in amusement, and half in exasperation as she looked at Angela, her face buried in her arms, slumped over a worktable snoring. "Ange? Ange? C'mon, it's time to wake the dead…"

"Er..whazzat? Lemme get some sleep mom…" mumbled Angela.

"Do I look like your mother? Let's see, I'm not 4'10", I haven't quite gone gray yet, and I've yet to successfully bake a cake… nope, not your mom."

Angie looked up, and absently brushed away a diode that had stuck to her cheek, giving her a temporary dimple. "Oh… it's you Jen. What are you doing in the lab at such an ungodly hour…"

Jen rolled her eyes and pointed at the clock. "Only you would consider 9:30 in the morning "ungodly." You know, for some reason, the business world likes to get things done when the sun is in the sky."

"Hmph… the sun's evil. All big and bright and yellow in the sky. Night is much more pleasant," said Angie. "You know very well how much of a headache that thing gives me."

Jen shook her head. "I know, I know. Anyway, I'm not so much worried about you sleeping in. Whenever you get your work done is fine with me. I kind of expect you to be weird anyway. But, you know, your apartment's attached to the lab. You could have slept in a real bed by walking what, thirty feet?"

With a flash of her legendary insight, Jen ducked just as a roll of tape went flying right where her head used to be. "You know, that's never going to work…"

Angie stuck her tongue out at Jen, and laughed. "You know, one of these days, I'm going to put a laser guidance system on one of those, you'll see, I'll get you back yet!" she cackled.

"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you, when was the last time you were out of the lab? Oh, and walking over to the kitchenette to make yourself some Ramen doesn't count!"

Angie narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me you're going to start on that routine again?. No mother, I haven't been out of the lab this week. Yes mother, all I've done is eat, sleep and tinker. Are you happy now mother?"

"I'm not joking around, Ange. There's more to life than tinkering around with stuff down here. I mean, why don't you go ahead and call John at Portal Corps back? He seemed like a nice guy."

Angela got up and started pacing around the room. "You know Jen, just because I'm a bit of a geek girl doesn't mean that I'm quite ready to go find a geek guy. John's kinda nice, but he's… well… so… John!" said Angela rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I don't think he could really put up with the way I 'look' at the world."

Jen cleared a small spot on one of the work benches and sat down. "Hey, I know it's not easy finding a guy who can put up with us, but it's better than just closing ourselves off, right?"

"You're one to talk. When was the last time Bill called you? I mean, really? Miss Creep-you-out-at-the-first-date?" asked Angie.

Jen looked at the floor a moment. "He's been busy lately. He called last Tuesday…no wait, that was a week ago last Tuesday, to cancel our date."

"Oh, so that means what, you two have had seven dates in the six months you've been 'seeing one another', if that's not entirely too generous a way to say it?"

"Okay, okay, I know it's not going that well, but at least I'm trying…" said Jen plaintively.

"Oh yes, Jen, you're very trying," smirked Angie.

***

Julie Carter glanced at the book in her hand. Introduction to Child Development, 4th edition "I think I can go ahead and put this one in the box, I think I've studied this one enough." It was her last day of finals at Steel Canyon University. All she had left was Child Development, and she felt like she had that one about as well studied as she was going to manage, so she'd started to pack up, so she could leave the dorm and get back home in good time that evening.

"Jules," said her roommate, Terri. "You know, you really should stay the night. I'm telling ya, you don't want to miss that party tonight."

Julie threw another textbook into the box and looked up. "No thanks, you know that's not my scene. I wanna sleep in my own bed tonight. Nothing says 'being home' like waking up in the middle of the night as your cat starts playing with your toes."

"Aw, c'mon, Bobby Blanchard will be there. You know, the rumor mill says he's kinda sweet on ya," said Terri as she jumped off her loft bed.

"Ugh," said Julie grimacing. "That thought's enough to make me skip my last final and go home, just to make sure he doesn't have a chance to see me…"

"What? You're joking!" said Terri in disbelief. "I mean, c'mon, he's practically the most popular guy in school, and he's into you! I mean, he's the starting wide receiver on the football team! Have you looked at his…"

Julie cut her off. "I saw him shove a freshman into the reflecting pool the other day Terri. He's a bully and a jerk. Not interested."

"Hey, c'mon, it was just a prank, you know, boys will be boys after all!"

"Terri, when you say that, all you're really doing is giving them an excuse to be jerks. He's a jerk, and frankly, I'd rather date the statue of Atlas. Sure, it's kinda boring, but at least you know he's not a jerk!"

***

"So, Angie, now that we're done berating one another over our respective romantic failures, let's actually pay attention to what I'm down here for." said Jen, adjusting her seat on the workbench.

"Oh? You mean that my witty repartee and company isn't enough to drag you down to the depths of the dungeon?"

Jen took a sip of her coffee. "Nah, though your coffee is. You know, you still make the best coffee in the entire building, and that includes the Starbucks across the street too."

Angela smirked, "well, that's not exactly a high compliment, to be better than chain coffee, but I'll take em when I can get em. Anyway, what's up?"

Jen took another sip of her coffee, and then waved the cup vaguely at the lab. "The usual. Progress report, where's our next moneymaker?"

"Blah, blah, money, money, money," laughed Angie. "Do you think about anything else?"

"Of course I do, but, you have to admit, the money is nice. Even if you insist on eating ramen for supper more often than not… Anyway, you know as well as I do, that the money also helps with our other projects."

Angie brightened. "Now, that I have good news on. I took a bit of a break from trying to sort out that power capacitor we're doing for Portal Corps. Instead, I think I've got something good. Look at this…"

She led Jen over to a workbench in the corner, where a large, sealed metal box sat. "This is the key component to that geothermal generator I've been working on. All we need to do is sink a shaft down about five hundred feet, and then run the special cable I've got over there down the hole. Hook the cable to this baby, and we've got a small, self contained power source. It is able to generate electricity from the changes in temperature as you go down that far. I think I can get a lot more efficiency out of this baby, but at least for now, it should generate enough power to keep a small village in light and refrigeration. Clean, green, safe and low maintenance."

Jen smiled broadly. "That's more like it Angie! This is the kind of thing we should have been doing all along, instead of running around pretending to be heroes."

Angie frowned, "I still don't think we were wrong Jen." She reached out and put her hand on Jen's left wrist, holding it tightly when Jen tried to pull it away. "I've told you, it's not your fault that Mary went nuts."

With a great heave, Jen yanked her arm away angrily. "Yes it is. I should have seen, I should have known. We could have gotten her help."

Angie shook her head sadly. "You know, hindsight's even more accurate than your Insight ,Jen… but a lot less useful. You can't be perfect, none of us can be."

"Listen, I came down here to check on our business!" yelled Jen. "I don't need lectures on how my failures aren't really my failures. Pam's dead, Mary's nuts, and you know as well as well as I do how many other failures we've left behind."

Jen started to walk away, but then stiffened and stopped in front of another work station, where an all too familiar mesh bodysuit was sitting. "Angie, I told you, I don't want you to repair my battlesuit. I'm retired!"

Angie sighed and walked over. "Pay attention Jen. This isn't your old suit. It's three full generations ahead in tech." She then pulled at the mesh to reveal not one, but two suits. "See, I'm working on two designs."

"Angie, I'm not going back out there!" snarled Jen. "I'm also not going to ask who the second is supposed to be for."

"Jen… I know. You've told me, a few dozen times. But, you know something, we can sell these suits too. Do you have any idea how much this would be worth to the police? The government? Even that new Hero Corps? We've always dealt with heroes, even the ones who wouldn't have known Madame Insight from a hole in the ground. This is just the next step…"

Jen narrowed her eyes. "You know Angie, that's a nice line, but I know you too well. Yeah, we can do that, and we will, may as well get something out of your work, but…"

Jen's line was left unfinished when a loud klaxon started going off in the lab.

"What in the world?" asked Jen, her anger yanked away by shock.

Angie hustled over to a computer monitor and started looking at the readout. "Something really weird, all kinds of bizarro energy readings, all over the city."

Jen felt something like a brick in the pit of her stomach. "What do you mean by bizarro readings?"

"Bizarro generally means flat weird…" said Angie absently. "I need to see this for myself…" She hustled for the door to the lab, Jen right behind.

A moment later, they were standing outside their building, looking up into the sky, which had been filled with a host of mysterious lights. Angie looked up at the intently, her brows furrowed in concentration.

"I don't like this Jen… there's something going on. It's almost like some kind of dimensional portals opening up… Only time I've ever seen this energy pattern is at Portal Corps, but it's not quite the same. More powerful, more defined, less chaotic."

Jen put her hand on Angie's shoulder. "I don't think any of us will like it when the day is done. I've got a really bad feeling about this…"

***

Teri looked out the dorm window and screamed. "What are those things? Is Lord Nothingness at it again?" referring to a recent attack on the city by one of Paragon's less notable villains.

Julie frowned. "I don't know… but it isn't going to do us any good for us to panic. We've got lots of heroes, they'll take care of it, whatever it is."

"Don't panic? Don't panic?" sobbed Teri. "Have you looked out there? It's like the end of the world!"

A moment later, the dorm's intercom system came to life. "This has been declared a Class C criminal incident. All students are asked to remain in their dorm buildings. All classes and finals will be postponed until a later date."

Julie sighed. "Only in Paragon do they have plans for everything. So much for getting home tonight… I wonder how long finals will be delayed this year…"

**

Angie was bent over her displays, constantly fiddling with the readout trying to get a sense of what this new threat was. Every bit of data she received seemed to deepen the worry lines that had appeared on her round face.

"I don't like it Jen. Definitely portals. Lots of them, more appearing every second."

"Can you get a sense of where they go?" asked Jen, her face creased with a frown that matched the one on Angie.

"Nope, lots of interference when I look. Wherever it is, they do not want us to know, " said Angie, slamming her fist on the console.

Jen looked at the TV in the corner. The newscaster was showing a scene eerily similar to the one over Paragon, except the tower in the distance clearly marked it as being the skyline of Tokyo. "Well, looks like we're not alone, if that's any consolation."

"To be honest Jen, it's not... not at all." She glanced at another monitor. "Well, Freedom Phalanx comm lines are off the chart, that's to be expected though."

"You can eavesdrop on the Phalanx?" asked Jen in surprise.

"Nope, they've got some seriously good encryption. Could probably break it if I wanted, but I've got better things to do. That said, I can monitor the amount of traffic. Good bet that I'd find the same if I looked at Hero Corps," said Angie.

"I'm sure," said Jen dryly. "In fact if you could find a way to listen into the Mid..."

Jen's voice was cut off by the sound of a dozen klaxons going off, before the entire room was bathed in sudden darkness.

"What the...?" said Jen.

"Power cut off..." said Angie tersely. A moment later, the room glowed red as the emergency lights came on. "Ok, most of my remote monitors are useless, never got them hooked into the auxiliary generator. Still, let's see, the external cameras should be good to go..."

She fiddled with a joystick and a moment later the street outside in front of Chiron Medical Center came into focus. There were bizarre brown creatures walking down the road, potshotting anything that moved with some kind of a green energy ray.

Jen watched the monitor a moment, frowning as what appeared to be a hovertank drove past the building, headed for City Hall. Suddenly the hovertank was struck by an arrow and exploded.

"How in the world did he manage that?" asked Angie in surprise.

"He's Manticore, he can do anything," said Jen frowning. "Of course, anything except actually be nice to someone, but I guess that's too much to ask."

Jen watched the monitor a few moments longer, and then walked over to the worktable where Angie had the battlesuits. She hesitated a moment, and then took off her glasses and put them on the bench, before pulling off her blouse.

"Whoa Jen! I told you, those things aren't remotely ready. They'd be worse than useless right now!"

"Where is it Angie?" said Jen distantly.

"Where's what?" said Angie, in a falsely confused voice.

"My suit. I'm sure you fixed it."

"Are you sure?" asked Angie, deciding not to respond directly to Jen's statement.

"Positive."

Angie sighed, and then tapped a few buttons on a nearby keypad. A metal panel slid back in the wall, exposing a black and red battlesuit, pristine and undamaged. "How did you know?"

Jen rolled her eyes. "You're predictable. A drunken muskrat could have figured out that you'd fix the suit. Probably updated it to boot, right?"

"Well, yeah, in fact it can..."

"Explain it while I put it on..." said Jen, pulling the suit out of its cubbyhole. "Madame Insight is about to make one last appearance."

**

Julie Carter sat down in the basement of her dorm building, surrounded by a couple dozen others who hadn't managed to leave campus before the weirdness had started. The entire room was bathed in the dim glow of the emergency lights.

She heard a muffled sob in a corner, and looked to see one of the freshmen huddled in the corner, all by herself.

Julie walked over, and knelt next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey there, I'm Julie, you're Susan, right?"

Susan nodded. "Yeah... Susan Abbot."

"I'm Julie, are you from Paragon?"

Susan shook her head, wincing as another distant explosion rumbled through the building. "N..no, I'm from a little town in upstate New York."

Julie smiled, and put an arm around her. "Yeah, you aren't used to this kinda thing then. It'll be ok, Statesman is out there, I'm sure of it."

**

Jen pulled on her gloves, completing the task of putting on the costume she thought she'd left behind forever.

"How bad are things Ange?" she said, walking over to the monitor bay.

"As bad as it gets... I think," said Angie. "Whoever... whatever they are, they've selected their targets well. Looks like power and communications are both pretty much down. Major jamming. Once you go out, I won't be able to talk to you."

"Are you serious? I thought you said you could beat any jamming system known to man with this system."

Angie snorted. "In case you haven't noticed, you can't exactly call those thing 'man.' Anyway, I'll work on it, maybe in a bit I can figure out a way to burn through it, at least on a limited basis."

Impulsively, Jen reached out and pulled Angie into a tight hug. "You've been the best friend I could have ever hoped for Ange. Be well," she said, tears falling onto Angie's shoulder.

"Whoa! Jen, Do not talk like that!" said Angie, pulling back in shock.

"Be realistic Angie. We'll be lucky if any of us are here tomorrow."

Jennifer had forgotten just how uncomfortable it could be to put her battlesuit on. It wasn't that it didn't fit, that wasn't the problem. It was the momentary wave of nausea as the suit tried to integrate itself with her nervous system. Angie hadn't quite figured a way for the suit to transmit into Jen's brain, but she had figured out a way for Jen to give commands to the suit with just a thought. Handy, effective, but still, not the most comfortable thing Jen had ever done.

Before she slipped out the hidden door in the back of the lab, she did one last check. All systems seemed to be ready to roll, with the plasma grenades fully loaded, the tasers ready, and the light bulb in good condition.

"Well, once more into the breach," muttered Jen as she slipped out the door. Before she'd left, Angie had told her that one of the worst hit parts of town was Baumton, and Jen had decided to make her way there. Staying low to the ground, she flew to the east from their headquarters and headed towards Steel Canyon, where a quick run to the north would get her to Baumton.

---

The rumors had begun to spread through the terrified students in Steel Canyon. Some thought that Lord Recluse was attacking again. Others swore that Reichsman had somehow escaped and was on the attack. Still others just spoke of trumpets and bowls. The most common rumor though, may have been the most terrifying. Alien invasion. Bug eyed freaks.

Julie wasn't sure what to make of it all, but she had a feeling the worst had passed. She'd been listening to the sound of explosions, and they'd been growing progressively more muted. She concluded that the heroes of Paragon City; Statesman, Manticore and the others were pushing the enemy back.

The only disquieting thing was that while the explosions seemed to be growing more distant, they seemed to be coming from the North. From Baumton.

---

Jen landed just south of the highway entrance into Baumton. A group of policemen had set up a roadblock there, keeping people from entering Baumton, keeping all the lanes of the road open for those fleeing what looked to be a combat zone of a type that hadn't been seen since the siege of Berlin in 1945.

Jen stepped up to one of the officers. "I need to get in there," she said.

The officer looked at her a moment. "Don't recognize the costume, code name?"

Jen tried not to let the exasperation creep into her voice as she answered, "Madame Insight."

The officer looked over a list on a clipboard. "Well, it shows you as inactive, but you aren't the first hero to come out of retirement today. There's a command post a couple hundred yards down. Manticore is in tactical command."

"Thanks," said Jen as she flew off down the road, looking for the Command Post. A moment later, she saw it. Manticore and Positron stood there, addressing a small knot of heroes. Jen landed behind them.

Positron was speaking, his voice booming over the external speakers of his armor. "All right, we've got some trouble off to the northeast. They're making a real push over there, and we need to stop them. We're spread way too thin, so you're going to have to run solo out there. Keep your heads down, and stay alive. It's bad out there."

Manticore scowled when he caught sight of Jen. "You? Just what we need, another quitter. Well, you don't get to quit on us today."

Jen shook her head and stalked off to the northeast, trying not to enter into her familiar litany of reasons that someone needed to bounce Manticore's head against a wall a few dozen times.

Jen started to pick her way down the familiar streets. Sherwood Elementary was just ahead. It was hard for her not to take a moment to think about how her life had come full circle, from gaining her powers that day in the school yard, to now going into what she suspected would be her last fight.

She'd reached the small retaining wall where her and Angie had always liked to sit when she saw it for the first time. She wasn't entirely sure how to describe it. It was huge, maybe 8' tall or better, and had brown skin, and a uniform trimmed in red. It carried an enormous curved blade, and stalked across the battlefield as if it owned the place.

"Here goes nothing," muttered Jen as she took aim at the creature. She extended her right arm, and felt the recoil as the first of her plasma grenades launched from her forearm launcher. There was a satisfying bang as the grenade landed at the creature's feet. However, when the smoke cleared, the creature was still standing, and had turned to look at Jen.

The creature extended one hand towards Jen, and suddenly she felt like her head was exploding. Every bad memory she had came rushing to the surface. Pam's funeral, the torture that Mary had put her through, the death of the Senator's son. Every one of those memories, and countless more rampaged through her head. Jen collapsed to her knees, unable to focus on anything.

Suddenly, she felt tremendous pain shooting up and down her left side. She forced herself to focus on the pain, and used it to her advantage. "Get… out of MY HEAD!" she cried. Her head cleared and she found herself lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Blood which was also dripping off the creature's enormous blade. The creature loomed above her, its blade raised to strike once more, a blow which Jen knew would be fatal. She pointed her left arm up at the creature and willed her spotlight to turn on at full intensity.

The light shone directly into the eyes of the creature, causing him to cover his eyes in anguish. "Well, nice to know that a few hundred thousand candlepower affects these things the same way it does humans," muttered Jen as she fired her taser at the creature. The creature writhed and finally fell at her feet.

Jen looked at the long gash up and down her left side. The medical systems in her suit were already applying a topical anesthetic and a foam that was designed both to disinfect the wound, as well as stop the bleeding.

"Jen? Jen?" came the panicked voice of Angie over her com unit. "Are you there?"

"Hey Ange, figured out the jamming huh?"

"Yeah, but first thing I see when I finally get your suit's telemetry online is that your medsystems are activated. What happened?"

Jen laughed bitterly. "Let's just say that I nearly got myself gutted like a fish, ok? Can you give me an update on what's going on?"

"It doesn't look good Jen. Communications are still pretty poor across the line, but there are running firefights throughout the city. Baumton looks to be the worst hit, but the other places aren't that much better."

Jen sighed. The news wasn't good, though it didn't exactly surprise her. "Same worldwide?"

"Probably, but international communications are totally down."

The line went silent a moment. Then the voice of Angie came back, "Sorry bout that, had to deal with a visitor…"

"Angie, visitor? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, well, I can get through the jamming, but it leaves my systems lit up like a Christmas Tree. I'm attracting attention here. Good thing I happen to like to tinker with the Security Systems."

"Ange, shut down, and I'm on my way back."

"Don't worry Jen, I'm already switching to remote broadcast locations, they won't be able to track things back here very quickly. Do what you have to do."

"Angie…"

"Jen, we also serve who just duck and hide. You're where you need to be, get back to work."

"Yes mother…" said Jen wryly, as she began to look around.

She climbed to the top of the school gym and looked around. Her suit was able to give her the same distance vision as a good pair of binoculars, and she used that ability to scout around the town. She saw a line of explosions in the distance, slowly working their way towards the Hazelthorn Towers, her old home.

"That line's never going to hold," she muttered, as she saw the onrushing hordes of invaders, supported by heavy armor and even a few flying machines, versus the thin line of heroes that opposed them.

"Angie, we need to…"

She was cut off by a shrill shriek, as a pack of monkeys came swarming up onto the roof of the gym. They weren't exactly monkeys, but she didn't know what else to call them.

Before she could react, the pack had jumped onto her, and had pulled her too the ground. They were ripping and tearing at her. They managed to tear her battlesuit off of her right shoulder and she felt their sharp, needle like teeth rip into her shoulder.

She tried to raise her arm to do something about them, but there were too many of the creatures sitting on her for her to be able to move her arm even an inch.

"Good bye Angie," she whispered over the com. "A pack of monkeys, who would have ever thought it would end like this."

---

Angie watched her monitors in horror, as she saw the sudden damage to the suit. She saw circuits go offline, as whatever was attacking Jen seemed to be ripping the suit to ribbons.

What horrified her though, wasn't the thought of what was happening to the suit, but that her best friend was sitting in that suit, and what might be happening to her.

Jen's voice came over the coms weakly. "A pack of monkeys, who would have ever thought it would end like this."

"It does not end like this," snarled Angie. She flipped a switch on the console in front of her. "Priority override: 867-5309. Execute emergency order Corbomite."

---

At the emergency order, the batteries in Jen's battlesuit discharged all their power in one blast, setting up an electrical field around Jen. Blue lightning played all around the monkeys, and the air was soon filled with the sickening smell of electrocuted fur.

Jen lay there a moment, stunned at the turn of events. Finally, the voice of Angie came over her com. "Jen, Jen, are you there?" cried Angie, the tears choking her voice obvious even over the com.

"Ange, what happened?" said Jen, sitting up, glad that the world didn't move in circles too quickly.

"I overrode the suit, that was an emergency defensive discharge of the systems. Are they gone?"

"You overrode the suit?" said Jen in annoyance. "Angie, I'm not sure I like that idea. I mean, to have someone else able to take control of the suit when I'm fighting?"

Angie's snort was audible on the com. "Quite some time to complain there. You're the one who just said goodbye on the com you know."

"We'll talk about it later," hissed Jen.

"Just remember, if it weren't for that, there wouldn't be a later. Anyway, you best head back, whatever your 'monkeys' were, they did a number on the suit. It's pretty much out of action."

"No, Angie, I'm not coming back."

"JEN!" screeched Angie. "Are you out of your friggen mind? The power cells are kaput! The monkeys did enough damage on their own, and the emergency discharge finished the job. The taser is out, the spotlight is out, the grenades are still powered up, but the launcher is out. About the only thing working in the system is the com unit! You can't do anything more."

"Angie, like I was saying before the monkeys interrupted, they are on the way to Hazelthorn… I've got to make sure that its evacuated."

Angie sounded doubtful, but finally she agreed to Jen heading towards Hazelthorn towers. Jen mused that Angie didn't have much choice but to accept, considering that she was off in Atlas Park.

Jen picked her way through the rubble, but it was already slow going. "Ange? You there?"

"Of course I'm here. What, you think I ran over to Starbucks for a cup?"

"I'm not sure I'm going to make it in time, without my flight systems, I have to do it the hard way. Can you patch me through to someone there?"

Angie's voice was incredulous. "How? Remember, they've pretty much nuked the com systems here in town. It's all I can do to keep communicating with you."

"Hey, you're the genius. Figure it out."

"Yeah, yeah, of course, good little Angie will always figure it out," muttered Angie over the coms.

Jen continued to pick her way towards her old home, but it was becoming more and more obvious to her that it was going to be tight. The explosions were getting closer and closer to the building.

"Ask, and you'll get it Jen. I've managed to connect into Mr. Carter's cellphone. I haven't called him yet, but whenever you're ready," said Angie, slightly smugly.

"Do it now, and patch him in," said Jen.

A moment later, the voice of Michael Carter came over Jen's com. "Who is this? We've been trying to call out all night, but this is the first time we've gotten a signal."

"Hello, Mr. Carter? This is Madame Insight."

"Um, hello there. Thats a name I haven't heard in a long time."

"Mr. Carter, I'm fighting the invaders out here, but I've got to tell you, I don't think we'll be able to save your building. Are there many of you left there?"

Jen was horrified at the answer. "Everyone is still here. The PPD came by and told us not to evacuate, that we'd be safer here."

"I'm telling you right now, they're wrong. You've got to get out of the building! Head towards Steel Canyon before it's too late!" shouted Jen.

"Now, I know, you used to be Baumton's own local heroine, but I think the PPD knows what they're doing."

"Mr. Carter. Please, listen to me!" said Jen, desperately.

"I'm not going to take everyone out into that war zone," said Mr. Carter.

Jen climbed over another bit of rubble, and found herself face to face with yet another invader. This one was somewhat smaller than the one she'd first faced, dressed entirely in green and brown. It pointed some sort of a ray gun at her and fired, and Jen felt herself thrown back against the remains of nearby wall. Her painful breathing told her that she'd likely broken a rib or three, but if she didn't do something soon, that was going to be the least of her problems.

The creature had pulled out a massive sword of his own, and obviously intended to finish the job his larger friend and the monkeys had started.

Jen reached over to the grenade launcher on her right hand, and opened up the loading mechanism. She grabbed a grenade and leapt towards the invader, pressing the button on the grenade and putting it up under his far armpit. She ducked to put the invader's body between herself and the grenade in the brief moment before it exploded.

She felt herself blasted away from him by the explosion, but as she'd hoped, his body had absorbed the primary blast of the grenade.

"Madame Insight? Are you there?" said Mr. Carter.

"Yeah, I'm here, just had a little distraction," said Jen, wiping blood away from her mouth and nose. "I'm telling you, you've got to go. Please sir. This… this is Jen Lee."

The com line was silent for a moment. Finally Mr. Carter's voice came through, "Jenny? You mean, our old babysitter?"

"Yeah," said Jen wearily. "It's me. I'll be there in just a minute"

Jen was just about to the tunnel next to the building when a massive explosion hit just across the street from the tower. Jen looked up at the apartment building, and saw both Mr. and Mrs. Carter standing at the window of their apartment, looking out.

Mr. Carter's voice came over the com. "I… I think it's too late. It's too late for us all. Jenny, please take care of Julie."

He'd no more than said that when a massive explosion ripped through the building, starting right where the Carters had been standing. The entire building groaned and tilted. Jen was convinced the entire thing was going to collapse, but somehow, impossibly, the building tilted over nearly 30 degrees before stopping.

"Jen?" said Angie softly over the coms.

"They're gone," said Jen, her tears mixing with the dried blood on her face.

"Jen, you can't fight any more. You don't need to die there too."

Jen looked at the scene around her in despair. There didn't seem to be any reason to stay alive. It was all over. The world she'd known was a heap of rubble. She started walking back to the fight, reaching to pull her last three grenades out of the launcher, when the last words of Mr. Carter echoed in her mind: "please take care of Julie."

"I'm on the way out," said Jen. "I'll stop by the lab for some clothes, but I need to go to Steel Canyon."

About half an hour later, Jen limped back by the command post.

Manticore was hunched over a map, trying to decide where to send the latest batch of heros to arrive. He looked up and saw Jen. "I knew you would quit the fight," he sneered.

Positron looked at him. "I'm getting no readings from her battlesuit. It's totally out of comission. Let her be, she's useless."

"She always was…" spat Manticore.

Jen didn't hear either one. She had other things on her mind.

--

Jen limped into the dormitory. She'd stopped at Angie's lab long enough to wash the dried blood from her face and put a long coat over the remains of her battlesuit. However, that didn't get rid of the welt on her head, her lurching gait, or any of the other visible reminders of the night she'd gone through.

She remembered the dorm well, from the years she'd roomed with Angie in this very building. The hallway was dim, as the emergency lights were running down, but the stairwell down to the basement was easy to find.

A moment later, she slipped into the basement room where the students were gathered. It wasn't hard to see Julie. She was huddled over an especially terrified looking student, an arm around her shoulder, whispering something into her ear.

Jen watched a moment, trying to find any words that would work to tell Julie the awful news. There were many ways to say it, but could any of them be considered kind? Sighing, Jen decided there was no kind way to tell the young woman that her family was gone.

At that moment, Julie looked up and her eyes met Jen's. Julie got up and hustled over.

"Jen? What are you doing here? What in the world happened to you? You look like..." said Julie.

"Julie, not here. Can we talk somewhere, privately? Your room maybe? They aren't close to the school right now."

Julie chewed her lip, looking back at the assembly of terrified girls, but finally nodded. "Yeah, it's up on the third floor. Elevator's out though."

They started up the stairs, Jen's battered body protesting with every step. Julie kept asking what had happened, but Jen just shook her head each time.

Finally, they got to the third floor, and Julie unlocked a room in the middle of the hallway. Jen couldn't help but smile slightly, as even though the room was half packed up for the end of the school year, it was still obviously Julie's room. Bright, cheery posters on the wall, and an array of plush animals on the shelves and her bed.

Jen motioned that Julie should sit down on the bed, and then she sat down next to the younger woman and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Julie. I've been in Baumton," Jen said simply.

Julie gasped. After a moment, she said in a small voice. "What's going on? I saw the explosions in that direction."

Jen shook her head. "It's an invasion of some kind. I have no idea what they are, or where they came from. But... I was over by the Towers."

Jen felt Julie's shoulders stiffen. "I'm sorry Julie. They took a direct hit. Right on top of your apartment."

Pale, Julie looked at Jen. "What are you saying?"

"I'm really sorry Julie. They're gone."

"Noooo!" screamed Julie. "You have to be wrong! You have to be!"

"I'm sorry Julie. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

Julie turned towards Jen and put her head on the shoulder the monkeys had mauled. Jen winced slightly, but said nothing as her young friend began to cry. Jen's own tears began to flow once again as well, as the impact of the night descended on her once again.

A moment later, Jen looked up, and saw something bizarre. As Julie cried, her sobs coming in great heaves, the plush animals were trembling in concert.

"Oh, god no. Not Julie too," thought Jen, as her own tears began to flow even faster.

Description
: Baumton Explodes

Note: the World of City of Heroes/Villains, all the signature characters, locations and such are property of NCSoft.

Authors Note: This is a considerable "jump forward" in the events of "Yesterday's Sins". A great deal has happened, some of which will be alluded to, others of which, not. A short summary, is that the small group referred to in the chapters that have already been posted has shattered, destroyed by repeated failures and the insanity of Lady Blackout. In fact, Lady Blackout has murdered Paradocs (Pam in YS), and done various and sundry very unpleasant things to Jen and Wendy.

Jen's battlesuit in this story is not the same as the one you're familiar with, the one that gives her the powers over electricity in game. It's an earlier one, with considerably different powers. In fact, as I've said, this group has an overarching storyline that considerably predates my involvement in CoH, and her battlesuit in this story is what I'd originally pictured.

May 23, 2002

Jennifer Lee sighed as she walked into the main lab of BL Technology. She wasn't distressed at the usual mound of half completed projects, schematics and other technological debris that were lying around. That was to be expected. In fact, as disorganized as the lab might be, it was the heart and soul of BL Technology.

Jen had no real illusions. She ran the business side of things, marketing the gear that was designed here, making sure the bills got paid, and the other countless tasks that managing a successful business required. For all of that, she got her share of the company name, lending the "L" to "BL." However, there was no doubt in her mind that the real heart of the company was the technology that was designed in this lab. High end equipment that might end up with Portal Corps, or the Freedom Phalanx, or the Federal Government. There was only one person who could truly take credit for all of that, and that was the "B" in their name, her best friend, Angela Brightwater.

Jen shook her head, half in amusement, and half in exasperation as she looked at Angela, her face buried in her arms, slumped over a worktable snoring. "Ange? Ange? C'mon, it's time to wake the dead…"

"Er..whazzat? Lemme get some sleep mom…" mumbled Angela.

"Do I look like your mother? Let's see, I'm not 4'10", I haven't quite gone gray yet, and I've yet to successfully bake a cake… nope, not your mom."

Angie looked up, and absently brushed away a diode that had stuck to her cheek, giving her a temporary dimple. "Oh… it's you Jen. What are you doing in the lab at such an ungodly hour…"

Jen rolled her eyes and pointed at the clock. "Only you would consider 9:30 in the morning "ungodly." You know, for some reason, the business world likes to get things done when the sun is in the sky."

"Hmph… the sun's evil. All big and bright and yellow in the sky. Night is much more pleasant," said Angie. "You know very well how much of a headache that thing gives me."

Jen shook her head. "I know, I know. Anyway, I'm not so much worried about you sleeping in. Whenever you get your work done is fine with me. I kind of expect you to be weird anyway. But, you know, your apartment's attached to the lab. You could have slept in a real bed by walking what, thirty feet?"

With a flash of her legendary insight, Jen ducked just as a roll of tape went flying right where her head used to be. "You know, that's never going to work…"

Angie stuck her tongue out at Jen, and laughed. "You know, one of these days, I'm going to put a laser guidance system on one of those, you'll see, I'll get you back yet!" she cackled.

"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask you, when was the last time you were out of the lab? Oh, and walking over to the kitchenette to make yourself some Ramen doesn't count!"

Angie narrowed her eyes. "Don't tell me you're going to start on that routine again?. No mother, I haven't been out of the lab this week. Yes mother, all I've done is eat, sleep and tinker. Are you happy now mother?"

"I'm not joking around, Ange. There's more to life than tinkering around with stuff down here. I mean, why don't you go ahead and call John at Portal Corps back? He seemed like a nice guy."

Angela got up and started pacing around the room. "You know Jen, just because I'm a bit of a geek girl doesn't mean that I'm quite ready to go find a geek guy. John's kinda nice, but he's… well… so… John!" said Angela rolling her eyes. "Anyway, I don't think he could really put up with the way I 'look' at the world."

Jen cleared a small spot on one of the work benches and sat down. "Hey, I know it's not easy finding a guy who can put up with us, but it's better than just closing ourselves off, right?"

"You're one to talk. When was the last time Bill called you? I mean, really? Miss Creep-you-out-at-the-first-date?" asked Angie.

Jen looked at the floor a moment. "He's been busy lately. He called last Tuesday…no wait, that was a week ago last Tuesday, to cancel our date."

"Oh, so that means what, you two have had seven dates in the six months you've been 'seeing one another', if that's not entirely too generous a way to say it?"

"Okay, okay, I know it's not going that well, but at least I'm trying…" said Jen plaintively.

"Oh yes, Jen, you're very trying," smirked Angie.

***

Julie Carter glanced at the book in her hand. Introduction to Child Development, 4th edition "I think I can go ahead and put this one in the box, I think I've studied this one enough." It was her last day of finals at Steel Canyon University. All she had left was Child Development, and she felt like she had that one about as well studied as she was going to manage, so she'd started to pack up, so she could leave the dorm and get back home in good time that evening.

"Jules," said her roommate, Terri. "You know, you really should stay the night. I'm telling ya, you don't want to miss that party tonight."

Julie threw another textbook into the box and looked up. "No thanks, you know that's not my scene. I wanna sleep in my own bed tonight. Nothing says 'being home' like waking up in the middle of the night as your cat starts playing with your toes."

"Aw, c'mon, Bobby Blanchard will be there. You know, the rumor mill says he's kinda sweet on ya," said Terri as she jumped off her loft bed.

"Ugh," said Julie grimacing. "That thought's enough to make me skip my last final and go home, just to make sure he doesn't have a chance to see me…"

"What? You're joking!" said Terri in disbelief. "I mean, c'mon, he's practically the most popular guy in school, and he's into you! I mean, he's the starting wide receiver on the football team! Have you looked at his…"

Julie cut her off. "I saw him shove a freshman into the reflecting pool the other day Terri. He's a bully and a jerk. Not interested."

"Hey, c'mon, it was just a prank, you know, boys will be boys after all!"

"Terri, when you say that, all you're really doing is giving them an excuse to be jerks. He's a jerk, and frankly, I'd rather date the statue of Atlas. Sure, it's kinda boring, but at least you know he's not a jerk!"

***

"So, Angie, now that we're done berating one another over our respective romantic failures, let's actually pay attention to what I'm down here for." said Jen, adjusting her seat on the workbench.

"Oh? You mean that my witty repartee and company isn't enough to drag you down to the depths of the dungeon?"

Jen took a sip of her coffee. "Nah, though your coffee is. You know, you still make the best coffee in the entire building, and that includes the Starbucks across the street too."

Angela smirked, "well, that's not exactly a high compliment, to be better than chain coffee, but I'll take em when I can get em. Anyway, what's up?"

Jen took another sip of her coffee, and then waved the cup vaguely at the lab. "The usual. Progress report, where's our next moneymaker?"

"Blah, blah, money, money, money," laughed Angie. "Do you think about anything else?"

"Of course I do, but, you have to admit, the money is nice. Even if you insist on eating ramen for supper more often than not… Anyway, you know as well as I do, that the money also helps with our other projects."

Angie brightened. "Now, that I have good news on. I took a bit of a break from trying to sort out that power capacitor we're doing for Portal Corps. Instead, I think I've got something good. Look at this…"

She led Jen over to a workbench in the corner, where a large, sealed metal box sat. "This is the key component to that geothermal generator I've been working on. All we need to do is sink a shaft down about five hundred feet, and then run the special cable I've got over there down the hole. Hook the cable to this baby, and we've got a small, self contained power source. It is able to generate electricity from the changes in temperature as you go down that far. I think I can get a lot more efficiency out of this baby, but at least for now, it should generate enough power to keep a small village in light and refrigeration. Clean, green, safe and low maintenance."

Jen smiled broadly. "That's more like it Angie! This is the kind of thing we should have been doing all along, instead of running around pretending to be heroes."

Angie frowned, "I still don't think we were wrong Jen." She reached out and put her hand on Jen's left wrist, holding it tightly when Jen tried to pull it away. "I've told you, it's not your fault that Mary went nuts."

With a great heave, Jen yanked her arm away angrily. "Yes it is. I should have seen, I should have known. We could have gotten her help."

Angie shook her head sadly. "You know, hindsight's even more accurate than your Insight ,Jen… but a lot less useful. You can't be perfect, none of us can be."

"Listen, I came down here to check on our business!" yelled Jen. "I don't need lectures on how my failures aren't really my failures. Pam's dead, Mary's nuts, and you know as well as well as I do how many other failures we've left behind."

Jen started to walk away, but then stiffened and stopped in front of another work station, where an all too familiar mesh bodysuit was sitting. "Angie, I told you, I don't want you to repair my battlesuit. I'm retired!"

Angie sighed and walked over. "Pay attention Jen. This isn't your old suit. It's three full generations ahead in tech." She then pulled at the mesh to reveal not one, but two suits. "See, I'm working on two designs."

"Angie, I'm not going back out there!" snarled Jen. "I'm also not going to ask who the second is supposed to be for."

"Jen… I know. You've told me, a few dozen times. But, you know something, we can sell these suits too. Do you have any idea how much this would be worth to the police? The government? Even that new Hero Corps? We've always dealt with heroes, even the ones who wouldn't have known Madame Insight from a hole in the ground. This is just the next step…"

Jen narrowed her eyes. "You know Angie, that's a nice line, but I know you too well. Yeah, we can do that, and we will, may as well get something out of your work, but…"

Jen's line was left unfinished when a loud klaxon started going off in the lab.

"What in the world?" asked Jen, her anger yanked away by shock.

Angie hustled over to a computer monitor and started looking at the readout. "Something really weird, all kinds of bizarro energy readings, all over the city."

Jen felt something like a brick in the pit of her stomach. "What do you mean by bizarro readings?"

"Bizarro generally means flat weird…" said Angie absently. "I need to see this for myself…" She hustled for the door to the lab, Jen right behind.

A moment later, they were standing outside their building, looking up into the sky, which had been filled with a host of mysterious lights. Angie looked up at the intently, her brows furrowed in concentration.

"I don't like this Jen… there's something going on. It's almost like some kind of dimensional portals opening up… Only time I've ever seen this energy pattern is at Portal Corps, but it's not quite the same. More powerful, more defined, less chaotic."

Jen put her hand on Angie's shoulder. "I don't think any of us will like it when the day is done. I've got a really bad feeling about this…"

***

Teri looked out the dorm window and screamed. "What are those things? Is Lord Nothingness at it again?" referring to a recent attack on the city by one of Paragon's less notable villains.

Julie frowned. "I don't know… but it isn't going to do us any good for us to panic. We've got lots of heroes, they'll take care of it, whatever it is."

"Don't panic? Don't panic?" sobbed Teri. "Have you looked out there? It's like the end of the world!"

A moment later, the dorm's intercom system came to life. "This has been declared a Class C criminal incident. All students are asked to remain in their dorm buildings. All classes and finals will be postponed until a later date."

Julie sighed. "Only in Paragon do they have plans for everything. So much for getting home tonight… I wonder how long finals will be delayed this year…"

**

Angie was bent over her displays, constantly fiddling with the readout trying to get a sense of what this new threat was. Every bit of data she received seemed to deepen the worry lines that had appeared on her round face.

"I don't like it Jen. Definitely portals. Lots of them, more appearing every second."

"Can you get a sense of where they go?" asked Jen, her face creased with a frown that matched the one on Angie.

"Nope, lots of interference when I look. Wherever it is, they do not want us to know, " said Angie, slamming her fist on the console.

Jen looked at the TV in the corner. The newscaster was showing a scene eerily similar to the one over Paragon, except the tower in the distance clearly marked it as being the skyline of Tokyo. "Well, looks like we're not alone, if that's any consolation."

"To be honest Jen, it's not... not at all." She glanced at another monitor. "Well, Freedom Phalanx comm lines are off the chart, that's to be expected though."

"You can eavesdrop on the Phalanx?" asked Jen in surprise.

"Nope, they've got some seriously good encryption. Could probably break it if I wanted, but I've got better things to do. That said, I can monitor the amount of traffic. Good bet that I'd find the same if I looked at Hero Corps," said Angie.

"I'm sure," said Jen dryly. "In fact if you could find a way to listen into the Mid..."

Jen's voice was cut off by the sound of a dozen klaxons going off, before the entire room was bathed in sudden darkness.

"What the...?" said Jen.

"Power cut off..." said Angie tersely. A moment later, the room glowed red as the emergency lights came on. "Ok, most of my remote monitors are useless, never got them hooked into the auxiliary generator. Still, let's see, the external cameras should be good to go..."

She fiddled with a joystick and a moment later the street outside in front of Chiron Medical Center came into focus. There were bizarre brown creatures walking down the road, potshotting anything that moved with some kind of a green energy ray.

Jen watched the monitor a moment, frowning as what appeared to be a hovertank drove past the building, headed for City Hall. Suddenly the hovertank was struck by an arrow and exploded.

"How in the world did he manage that?" asked Angie in surprise.

"He's Manticore, he can do anything," said Jen frowning. "Of course, anything except actually be nice to someone, but I guess that's too much to ask."

Jen watched the monitor a few moments longer, and then walked over to the worktable where Angie had the battlesuits. She hesitated a moment, and then took off her glasses and put them on the bench, before pulling off her blouse.

"Whoa Jen! I told you, those things aren't remotely ready. They'd be worse than useless right now!"

"Where is it Angie?" said Jen distantly.

"Where's what?" said Angie, in a falsely confused voice.

"My suit. I'm sure you fixed it."

"Are you sure?" asked Angie, deciding not to respond directly to Jen's statement.

"Positive."

Angie sighed, and then tapped a few buttons on a nearby keypad. A metal panel slid back in the wall, exposing a black and red battlesuit, pristine and undamaged. "How did you know?"

Jen rolled her eyes. "You're predictable. A drunken muskrat could have figured out that you'd fix the suit. Probably updated it to boot, right?"

"Well, yeah, in fact it can..."

"Explain it while I put it on..." said Jen, pulling the suit out of its cubbyhole. "Madame Insight is about to make one last appearance."

**

Julie Carter sat down in the basement of her dorm building, surrounded by a couple dozen others who hadn't managed to leave campus before the weirdness had started. The entire room was bathed in the dim glow of the emergency lights.

She heard a muffled sob in a corner, and looked to see one of the freshmen huddled in the corner, all by herself.

Julie walked over, and knelt next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey there, I'm Julie, you're Susan, right?"

Susan nodded. "Yeah... Susan Abbot."

"I'm Julie, are you from Paragon?"

Susan shook her head, wincing as another distant explosion rumbled through the building. "N..no, I'm from a little town in upstate New York."

Julie smiled, and put an arm around her. "Yeah, you aren't used to this kinda thing then. It'll be ok, Statesman is out there, I'm sure of it."

**

Jen pulled on her gloves, completing the task of putting on the costume she thought she'd left behind forever.

"How bad are things Ange?" she said, walking over to the monitor bay.

"As bad as it gets... I think," said Angie. "Whoever... whatever they are, they've selected their targets well. Looks like power and communications are both pretty much down. Major jamming. Once you go out, I won't be able to talk to you."

"Are you serious? I thought you said you could beat any jamming system known to man with this system."

Angie snorted. "In case you haven't noticed, you can't exactly call those thing 'man.' Anyway, I'll work on it, maybe in a bit I can figure out a way to burn through it, at least on a limited basis."

Impulsively, Jen reached out and pulled Angie into a tight hug. "You've been the best friend I could have ever hoped for Ange. Be well," she said, tears falling onto Angie's shoulder.

"Whoa! Jen, Do not talk like that!" said Angie, pulling back in shock.

"Be realistic Angie. We'll be lucky if any of us are here tomorrow."

Jennifer had forgotten just how uncomfortable it could be to put her battlesuit on. It wasn't that it didn't fit, that wasn't the problem. It was the momentary wave of nausea as the suit tried to integrate itself with her nervous system. Angie hadn't quite figured a way for the suit to transmit into Jen's brain, but she had figured out a way for Jen to give commands to the suit with just a thought. Handy, effective, but still, not the most comfortable thing Jen had ever done.

Before she slipped out the hidden door in the back of the lab, she did one last check. All systems seemed to be ready to roll, with the plasma grenades fully loaded, the tasers ready, and the light bulb in good condition.

"Well, once more into the breach," muttered Jen as she slipped out the door. Before she'd left, Angie had told her that one of the worst hit parts of town was Baumton, and Jen had decided to make her way there. Staying low to the ground, she flew to the east from their headquarters and headed towards Steel Canyon, where a quick run to the north would get her to Baumton.

---

The rumors had begun to spread through the terrified students in Steel Canyon. Some thought that Lord Recluse was attacking again. Others swore that Reichsman had somehow escaped and was on the attack. Still others just spoke of trumpets and bowls. The most common rumor though, may have been the most terrifying. Alien invasion. Bug eyed freaks.

Julie wasn't sure what to make of it all, but she had a feeling the worst had passed. She'd been listening to the sound of explosions, and they'd been growing progressively more muted. She concluded that the heroes of Paragon City; Statesman, Manticore and the others were pushing the enemy back.

The only disquieting thing was that while the explosions seemed to be growing more distant, they seemed to be coming from the North. From Baumton.

---

Jen landed just south of the highway entrance into Baumton. A group of policemen had set up a roadblock there, keeping people from entering Baumton, keeping all the lanes of the road open for those fleeing what looked to be a combat zone of a type that hadn't been seen since the siege of Berlin in 1945.

Jen stepped up to one of the officers. "I need to get in there," she said.

The officer looked at her a moment. "Don't recognize the costume, code name?"

Jen tried not to let the exasperation creep into her voice as she answered, "Madame Insight."

The officer looked over a list on a clipboard. "Well, it shows you as inactive, but you aren't the first hero to come out of retirement today. There's a command post a couple hundred yards down. Manticore is in tactical command."

"Thanks," said Jen as she flew off down the road, looking for the Command Post. A moment later, she saw it. Manticore and Positron stood there, addressing a small knot of heroes. Jen landed behind them.

Positron was speaking, his voice booming over the external speakers of his armor. "All right, we've got some trouble off to the northeast. They're making a real push over there, and we need to stop them. We're spread way too thin, so you're going to have to run solo out there. Keep your heads down, and stay alive. It's bad out there."

Manticore scowled when he caught sight of Jen. "You? Just what we need, another quitter. Well, you don't get to quit on us today."

Jen shook her head and stalked off to the northeast, trying not to enter into her familiar litany of reasons that someone needed to bounce Manticore's head against a wall a few dozen times.

Jen started to pick her way down the familiar streets. Sherwood Elementary was just ahead. It was hard for her not to take a moment to think about how her life had come full circle, from gaining her powers that day in the school yard, to now going into what she suspected would be her last fight.

She'd reached the small retaining wall where her and Angie had always liked to sit when she saw it for the first time. She wasn't entirely sure how to describe it. It was huge, maybe 8' tall or better, and had brown skin, and a uniform trimmed in red. It carried an enormous curved blade, and stalked across the battlefield as if it owned the place.

"Here goes nothing," muttered Jen as she took aim at the creature. She extended her right arm, and felt the recoil as the first of her plasma grenades launched from her forearm launcher. There was a satisfying bang as the grenade landed at the creature's feet. However, when the smoke cleared, the creature was still standing, and had turned to look at Jen.

The creature extended one hand towards Jen, and suddenly she felt like her head was exploding. Every bad memory she had came rushing to the surface. Pam's funeral, the torture that Mary had put her through, the death of the Senator's son. Every one of those memories, and countless more rampaged through her head. Jen collapsed to her knees, unable to focus on anything.

Suddenly, she felt tremendous pain shooting up and down her left side. She forced herself to focus on the pain, and used it to her advantage. "Get… out of MY HEAD!" she cried. Her head cleared and she found herself lying on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Blood which was also dripping off the creature's enormous blade. The creature loomed above her, its blade raised to strike once more, a blow which Jen knew would be fatal. She pointed her left arm up at the creature and willed her spotlight to turn on at full intensity.

The light shone directly into the eyes of the creature, causing him to cover his eyes in anguish. "Well, nice to know that a few hundred thousand candlepower affects these things the same way it does humans," muttered Jen as she fired her taser at the creature. The creature writhed and finally fell at her feet.

Jen looked at the long gash up and down her left side. The medical systems in her suit were already applying a topical anesthetic and a foam that was designed both to disinfect the wound, as well as stop the bleeding.

"Jen? Jen?" came the panicked voice of Angie over her com unit. "Are you there?"

"Hey Ange, figured out the jamming huh?"

"Yeah, but first thing I see when I finally get your suit's telemetry online is that your medsystems are activated. What happened?"

Jen laughed bitterly. "Let's just say that I nearly got myself gutted like a fish, ok? Can you give me an update on what's going on?"

"It doesn't look good Jen. Communications are still pretty poor across the line, but there are running firefights throughout the city. Baumton looks to be the worst hit, but the other places aren't that much better."

Jen sighed. The news wasn't good, though it didn't exactly surprise her. "Same worldwide?"

"Probably, but international communications are totally down."

The line went silent a moment. Then the voice of Angie came back, "Sorry bout that, had to deal with a visitor…"

"Angie, visitor? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, well, I can get through the jamming, but it leaves my systems lit up like a Christmas Tree. I'm attracting attention here. Good thing I happen to like to tinker with the Security Systems."

"Ange, shut down, and I'm on my way back."

"Don't worry Jen, I'm already switching to remote broadcast locations, they won't be able to track things back here very quickly. Do what you have to do."

"Angie…"

"Jen, we also serve who just duck and hide. You're where you need to be, get back to work."

"Yes mother…" said Jen wryly, as she began to look around.

She climbed to the top of the school gym and looked around. Her suit was able to give her the same distance vision as a good pair of binoculars, and she used that ability to scout around the town. She saw a line of explosions in the distance, slowly working their way towards the Hazelthorn Towers, her old home.

"That line's never going to hold," she muttered, as she saw the onrushing hordes of invaders, supported by heavy armor and even a few flying machines, versus the thin line of heroes that opposed them.

"Angie, we need to…"

She was cut off by a shrill shriek, as a pack of monkeys came swarming up onto the roof of the gym. They weren't exactly monkeys, but she didn't know what else to call them.

Before she could react, the pack had jumped onto her, and had pulled her too the ground. They were ripping and tearing at her. They managed to tear her battlesuit off of her right shoulder and she felt their sharp, needle like teeth rip into her shoulder.

She tried to raise her arm to do something about them, but there were too many of the creatures sitting on her for her to be able to move her arm even an inch.

"Good bye Angie," she whispered over the com. "A pack of monkeys, who would have ever thought it would end like this."

---

Angie watched her monitors in horror, as she saw the sudden damage to the suit. She saw circuits go offline, as whatever was attacking Jen seemed to be ripping the suit to ribbons.

What horrified her though, wasn't the thought of what was happening to the suit, but that her best friend was sitting in that suit, and what might be happening to her.

Jen's voice came over the coms weakly. "A pack of monkeys, who would have ever thought it would end like this."

"It does not end like this," snarled Angie. She flipped a switch on the console in front of her. "Priority override: 867-5309. Execute emergency order Corbomite."

---

At the emergency order, the batteries in Jen's battlesuit discharged all their power in one blast, setting up an electrical field around Jen. Blue lightning played all around the monkeys, and the air was soon filled with the sickening smell of electrocuted fur.

Jen lay there a moment, stunned at the turn of events. Finally, the voice of Angie came over her com. "Jen, Jen, are you there?" cried Angie, the tears choking her voice obvious even over the com.

"Ange, what happened?" said Jen, sitting up, glad that the world didn't move in circles too quickly.

"I overrode the suit, that was an emergency defensive discharge of the systems. Are they gone?"

"You overrode the suit?" said Jen in annoyance. "Angie, I'm not sure I like that idea. I mean, to have someone else able to take control of the suit when I'm fighting?"

Angie's snort was audible on the com. "Quite some time to complain there. You're the one who just said goodbye on the com you know."

"We'll talk about it later," hissed Jen.

"Just remember, if it weren't for that, there wouldn't be a later. Anyway, you best head back, whatever your 'monkeys' were, they did a number on the suit. It's pretty much out of action."

"No, Angie, I'm not coming back."

"JEN!" screeched Angie. "Are you out of your friggen mind? The power cells are kaput! The monkeys did enough damage on their own, and the emergency discharge finished the job. The taser is out, the spotlight is out, the grenades are still powered up, but the launcher is out. About the only thing working in the system is the com unit! You can't do anything more."

"Angie, like I was saying before the monkeys interrupted, they are on the way to Hazelthorn… I've got to make sure that its evacuated."

Angie sounded doubtful, but finally she agreed to Jen heading towards Hazelthorn towers. Jen mused that Angie didn't have much choice but to accept, considering that she was off in Atlas Park.

Jen picked her way through the rubble, but it was already slow going. "Ange? You there?"

"Of course I'm here. What, you think I ran over to Starbucks for a cup?"

"I'm not sure I'm going to make it in time, without my flight systems, I have to do it the hard way. Can you patch me through to someone there?"

Angie's voice was incredulous. "How? Remember, they've pretty much nuked the com systems here in town. It's all I can do to keep communicating with you."

"Hey, you're the genius. Figure it out."

"Yeah, yeah, of course, good little Angie will always figure it out," muttered Angie over the coms.

Jen continued to pick her way towards her old home, but it was becoming more and more obvious to her that it was going to be tight. The explosions were getting closer and closer to the building.

"Ask, and you'll get it Jen. I've managed to connect into Mr. Carter's cellphone. I haven't called him yet, but whenever you're ready," said Angie, slightly smugly.

"Do it now, and patch him in," said Jen.

A moment later, the voice of Michael Carter came over Jen's com. "Who is this? We've been trying to call out all night, but this is the first time we've gotten a signal."

"Hello, Mr. Carter? This is Madame Insight."

"Um, hello there. Thats a name I haven't heard in a long time."

"Mr. Carter, I'm fighting the invaders out here, but I've got to tell you, I don't think we'll be able to save your building. Are there many of you left there?"

Jen was horrified at the answer. "Everyone is still here. The PPD came by and told us not to evacuate, that we'd be safer here."

"I'm telling you right now, they're wrong. You've got to get out of the building! Head towards Steel Canyon before it's too late!" shouted Jen.

"Now, I know, you used to be Baumton's own local heroine, but I think the PPD knows what they're doing."

"Mr. Carter. Please, listen to me!" said Jen, desperately.

"I'm not going to take everyone out into that war zone," said Mr. Carter.

Jen climbed over another bit of rubble, and found herself face to face with yet another invader. This one was somewhat smaller than the one she'd first faced, dressed entirely in green and brown. It pointed some sort of a ray gun at her and fired, and Jen felt herself thrown back against the remains of nearby wall. Her painful breathing told her that she'd likely broken a rib or three, but if she didn't do something soon, that was going to be the least of her problems.

The creature had pulled out a massive sword of his own, and obviously intended to finish the job his larger friend and the monkeys had started.

Jen reached over to the grenade launcher on her right hand, and opened up the loading mechanism. She grabbed a grenade and leapt towards the invader, pressing the button on the grenade and putting it up under his far armpit. She ducked to put the invader's body between herself and the grenade in the brief moment before it exploded.

She felt herself blasted away from him by the explosion, but as she'd hoped, his body had absorbed the primary blast of the grenade.

"Madame Insight? Are you there?" said Mr. Carter.

"Yeah, I'm here, just had a little distraction," said Jen, wiping blood away from her mouth and nose. "I'm telling you, you've got to go. Please sir. This… this is Jen Lee."

The com line was silent for a moment. Finally Mr. Carter's voice came through, "Jenny? You mean, our old babysitter?"

"Yeah," said Jen wearily. "It's me. I'll be there in just a minute"

Jen was just about to the tunnel next to the building when a massive explosion hit just across the street from the tower. Jen looked up at the apartment building, and saw both Mr. and Mrs. Carter standing at the window of their apartment, looking out.

Mr. Carter's voice came over the com. "I… I think it's too late. It's too late for us all. Jenny, please take care of Julie."

He'd no more than said that when a massive explosion ripped through the building, starting right where the Carters had been standing. The entire building groaned and tilted. Jen was convinced the entire thing was going to collapse, but somehow, impossibly, the building tilted over nearly 30 degrees before stopping.

"Jen?" said Angie softly over the coms.

"They're gone," said Jen, her tears mixing with the dried blood on her face.

"Jen, you can't fight any more. You don't need to die there too."

Jen looked at the scene around her in despair. There didn't seem to be any reason to stay alive. It was all over. The world she'd known was a heap of rubble. She started walking back to the fight, reaching to pull her last three grenades out of the launcher, when the last words of Mr. Carter echoed in her mind: "please take care of Julie."

"I'm on the way out," said Jen. "I'll stop by the lab for some clothes, but I need to go to Steel Canyon."

About half an hour later, Jen limped back by the command post.

Manticore was hunched over a map, trying to decide where to send the latest batch of heros to arrive. He looked up and saw Jen. "I knew you would quit the fight," he sneered.

Positron looked at him. "I'm getting no readings from her battlesuit. It's totally out of comission. Let her be, she's useless."

"She always was…" spat Manticore.

Jen didn't hear either one. She had other things on her mind.

--

Jen limped into the dormitory. She'd stopped at Angie's lab long enough to wash the dried blood from her face and put a long coat over the remains of her battlesuit. However, that didn't get rid of the welt on her head, her lurching gait, or any of the other visible reminders of the night she'd gone through.

She remembered the dorm well, from the years she'd roomed with Angie in this very building. The hallway was dim, as the emergency lights were running down, but the stairwell down to the basement was easy to find.

A moment later, she slipped into the basement room where the students were gathered. It wasn't hard to see Julie. She was huddled over an especially terrified looking student, an arm around her shoulder, whispering something into her ear.

Jen watched a moment, trying to find any words that would work to tell Julie the awful news. There were many ways to say it, but could any of them be considered kind? Sighing, Jen decided there was no kind way to tell the young woman that her family was gone.

At that moment, Julie looked up and her eyes met Jen's. Julie got up and hustled over.

"Jen? What are you doing here? What in the world happened to you? You look like..." said Julie.

"Julie, not here. Can we talk somewhere, privately? Your room maybe? They aren't close to the school right now."

Julie chewed her lip, looking back at the assembly of terrified girls, but finally nodded. "Yeah, it's up on the third floor. Elevator's out though."

They started up the stairs, Jen's battered body protesting with every step. Julie kept asking what had happened, but Jen just shook her head each time.

Finally, they got to the third floor, and Julie unlocked a room in the middle of the hallway. Jen couldn't help but smile slightly, as even though the room was half packed up for the end of the school year, it was still obviously Julie's room. Bright, cheery posters on the wall, and an array of plush animals on the shelves and her bed.

Jen motioned that Julie should sit down on the bed, and then she sat down next to the younger woman and put an arm around her shoulder.

"Julie. I've been in Baumton," Jen said simply.

Julie gasped. After a moment, she said in a small voice. "What's going on? I saw the explosions in that direction."

Jen shook her head. "It's an invasion of some kind. I have no idea what they are, or where they came from. But... I was over by the Towers."

Jen felt Julie's shoulders stiffen. "I'm sorry Julie. They took a direct hit. Right on top of your apartment."

Pale, Julie looked at Jen. "What are you saying?"

"I'm really sorry Julie. They're gone."

"Noooo!" screamed Julie. "You have to be wrong! You have to be!"

"I'm sorry Julie. I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

Julie turned towards Jen and put her head on the shoulder the monkeys had mauled. Jen winced slightly, but said nothing as her young friend began to cry. Jen's own tears began to flow once again as well, as the impact of the night descended on her once again.

A moment later, Jen looked up, and saw something bizarre. As Julie cried, her sobs coming in great heaves, the plush animals were trembling in concert.

"Oh, god no. Not Julie too," thought Jen, as her own tears began to flow even faster.