Coeus?

“

The collective of civilised races assumes that its members have catalogued and visited less than two percent of the Milky Way's stars.

”

-Galactic History

***Sol, Earth, Australia***

***Gideon***

Maceo Luchini strolls out of the world parliament's main complex without a care in the world. Yet he is covered by ten body guards.

My little killing spree is the main topic among all the news networks. They have all kinds of conspiracy theories going on. From an attempted coup to a war between secret agencies.

My last strike is intended as a public statement to everyone who wants to watch. I've made preparations and instructed Cyla to give me a little aid from the shadows.

While I was busy with killing people and gathering information, she hacked all the uncovered bank accounts and government facilities which aren't completely disconnected from the net.

I sigh and wait while Maceo Luchini walks across the plaza directly towards me. Ten metres in front of me one of the bodyguards raises his hand and stops the entire group.

Astonishment causes me to hold my breath. I've encountered these enhanced soldiers several times by now. Somehow they are able to tell that I am there, but they can't see me.

It must be either by smell or sound. The information barrier around me is covering everything else perfectly.

“Mage, show yourself!” Maceo calls out, startling several passer-bys around us. “You've had your fun! Now it's our turn.”

The guards spread out while Maceo steps back, covered by two of his watchdogs. I drop the information barrier and walk towards him. “Such a shame. And I thought I would tear you guys apart for the entire world to see. It would've been cool if an invisible force had snatched you away from your guards while the scene is aired on every news channel around the world.”

I spread my hands for all the world to see. Several cameras all over the plaza are recording this scene, sending their information directly into the internet. “Today your inhumane genetic experiments will end, and you'll be taken down by one of those very experiments! Me! I'll end your attempts to create genetically enhanced supersoldiers!”

By claiming that I am one of his experiments I can go wild while shifting the attention away from mages.

“Get him!” one of the bodyguards calls out and three of them lunge at me. Others draw weapons, but I've already taken precautions against that.

The bullets veer off skywards without doing any harm due to the gravity anomaly that's surrounding me.

One of the bodyguards enters my personal sphere and is flung upwards, quickly reaching a height of fifty metres. A scream escapes his lips as he realizes what happened.

I reach for the other two men and cast force on each of them. They try to struggle. But since they aren't mages they have no way to stop me from doing as I please.

Both of them crash into each other with the sickening noise of breaking bones.

A fourth guard pulls an oversized gun from under his trench-coat and aims it at my feet. The movement was shockingly fast and the recoil of the gun makes even the enhanced soldier's arm tremble.

I attempt to get out of the way, but my body isn't up to the task. The bullet's trajectory is altered, but not enough because of the higher velocity. It impacts my shoulder and I scream. The pain feels like my arm is being torn off.

Without my shield spell it would've punched right through. The force lifts me from my feet and out of my protective sphere. My own spell lifts me forcefully upwards and I have to cancel it. Unlike my opponents I don't care about being airborne, but being thrown upwards too high isn't desirable.

I feel other bullets impacting my shield, but their small calibre isn't enough to punch through my shield. If they continue firing like this I'll have to look for another source of energy than my own body. Up until now the drain was manageable, but this is taking longer than I anticipated.

I try to right myself when something hits me in the chest. It's the soldier who shot the heavy artillery at me. He jumped after me!

His gun fires once more. This time from point blank at my left upper thigh. I wince as the bullet punches through bone, but it doesn't take me out of the fight.

He raises his hand and aims the gun at my face. I catch it and channel electrical energy through him. His body twitches and his mouth opens to a voiceless scream. I don't care and watch as his arm gets charred.

The gun looks interesting, so I pry it out of his cramped fingers and drop him to the ground. It has a big magazine and looks like a Desert Eagle from Counter Strike. I aim it at Maceo.

The people on the ground were looking at me with disbelieving eyes. Probably they've never seen a real mage before.

All they've hunted so far were some minor mages without proper education who stayed on earth. I doubt that any of them got the same training as me.

The gun roars and the recoil almost kicks it out of my hand. Pain surges through my injured shoulder and I am grateful about the body enhancement magic which I taught myself.

I've no aptitude for it, but it's very useful. The enormous drain on my powers can be countered by supplying myself with other energy sources.

The oversized bullet pops Maceo's head like a balloon, leaving only the lower jaw attached to his body. At this point the remaining bodyguards realize that their smaller calibres are failing to do to me any harm.

They turn and try to run, but I gun them down without hesitation.

That's when something grabs my foot and I am whirled around like a toy. Out of the corner of my eyes I register that the opponent whom I electrocuted got back to his feet. What's with this guy? He is even stronger and faster than the others.

He lets go and I am thrown back down to the plaza, crashing right into one of the restaurants. People searching for protection scream and hurry to flee. Debris and parts of the restaurant rain down on me while I contemplate the situation.

I wanted to put on a show of force, but that bastard is simply overpowering me with his superior speed. My ability doesn't matter if my body isn't able to react in time.

When I struggle like this with just one of their soldiers, then it can be hardly called a lesson. But I've already achieved my target anyway, so I should go for the grand finale.

A crying waitress is pressed to the wall right next to me. She has a bottle with expensive wine in her hands.

“Just what I need right now.” I take the bottle from her and snap off the seal while hobbling out of the restaurant. Normally I don't like alcohol, but it relaxes me and lifts a few unnecessary mental restraints if I don't overdo it.

I learned that back when I was a child and got abducted. After a big mouthful of the stuff I drop the bottle and focus on the approaching man.

He looks angry and raises a normal gun this time. Apparently he picked it up from one of his comrades.

As he starts firing a helicopter appears above the parliament and three heavy vehicles crash at full speed through the barrier which is hindering cars from driving onto the plaza.

They come to a screeching halt and more troops spill out. This time they look like real soldiers.

That's when my eyes fall onto a big power cord which connects the restaurant with the city's power grid. The fight took more of my resources than I anticipated and this would be a possibility to recharge myself.

Why not? It doesn't work much differently when I use the ship's fusion reactors to power my spells. There just happens to be a few safeguards between me and the energy, that's all. The safeties aren't really needed if you know what you are doing.

I've already used electric energy to recharge myself before and I've never felt as if it was even scratching my limits.

The bullets ricochet off of my shield as I raise both hands. “Then let's see who is the stronger one.”

I cast 'Force' on the power cord which is connecting the restaurant and the main power line. It is supplying the main street towards the parliament with electrical energy.

The big and heavy cord snaps loose and jumps into my hands. Energy surges through my veins and I feel my body healing as I channel the excess power into healing magic.

My eyes flick towards the helicopter as its minigun aims at me. It's easy to take over the highly automated device.

Cars can't be controlled to that degree, but the military helicopter is completely controlled by computers. The pilot screams as his machine suddenly veers off and unloads all its arsenal into the approaching soldiers, blowing up the three vehicles. Then I crash the helicopter into the soldiers.

I pull more energy from the city's power grid, which is similar to using the power of my ship's fusion reactor to cast spells.

One of the surging sparks of energy hits the battered bodyguard who gave me so much trouble. This time the energy knocks him out for good, charring him to a crisp.

The cord lights up and melts as I channel the energies into a final spell. A quick search for one of the satellites in the sky gets me my location via GPS.

***Sol, Earth, South Africa***

***General Denize***

I still watch the screen in a daze as ChannelONE airs the gruesome interrogation of several politicians who were backing us. On another channel Maceo Luchini was just brutally shot. “Stop these broadcasts! I don't care what you have to do. Send a strategic missile at the responsible news stations!”

“It's impossible to stop them, it's all over the world! Someone took over. Everything!” One of my subordinates hammers at his keyboard.

Suddenly the ground under our feet vibrates. “We just lost the connection to the surface!”

I shove the man at the cameras out of my way, then I flip the switch which overrides the network. This activates an old safety feature which doesn't rely on computers.

The screen remains empty, so I start selecting other cameras until I reach one which is surveying the base from a hill a few hundred metres away.

What's shown on the screen is the devastated surface part of our base. A twenty foot crater is in the centre of the landing field.

I continue cycling through the cameras until I reach the one which is showing the entrance to the underground facility. The very same person who was in Australia just seconds ago is standing in front of the entrance to our underground facilities.

His eyes are glowing blue and electrical sparks are coursing over his body as if he is a damn plasma globe.

Then the door opens and he steps into the lift. “Who! Who let him in!?” I scream and turn to look at the men behind me.

The technician at the other side of the room shakes his head. “The whole facility is in lock-down! We can't even escape out of this room!”

“Escape? Free the experiments! Get the guards to the elevator! I don't care how. Call for support!”

***Sol, Earth, South Africa***

***Gideon***

I whistle the tune of 'Once Upon a Time in the West' while waiting for the elevator to arrive at the lowest floor. "Are you ready Cyla?"

“Of course, but remember that you owe me one for this! I did nothing but hacking into computers over the last seven days! And even if Earth's computer systems are easy to penetrate it still takes a lot of time if you do it on this scale!” Her voice answers me over the headset on my ear.

“Okay. I promise you a real date when we see each other. I'll watch some romance movies and study how it's properly done. I'll even learn some pick-up lines. What do you think?” I ask.

“Just try to survive and don't give me any false hopes. I've already been in your head, in case you forgot.” She disconnects and leaves me to my own devices.

Relationships are hard to unite with your own personal agenda. Though I would like to meet Cyla again as fast as possible. Cyla hacked this facility for me while I was busy with mopping up the dirt in Rob's front-yard.

I notice that I am almost at my destination and check the weapon which I acquired from the super soldier. It's a real bitch to fire, but the design is cool and I always liked annoying people in Counter Strike. At least up until to the point where I got banned for cheating.

The doors open and I kneel down.

***Sol, Earth, South Africa***

***Guard***

“Fire!” All of us open fire to turn the elevator into Swiss cheese. After several seconds the Sarge lifts his hand and signals us to stop.

There is nobody inside. So I edge further to the wall's corner, having a bad feeling about this.

Then someone appears in the top right corner of the elevator's door, sweeping his gun across my eight comrades and the Sarge. Nine shots are fired almost as one while I raise my rifle towards the unexpected target.

My eyes widen as I realize that his gun is centered on my forehead.

***Sol, Earth, South Africa***

***Gideon***

Bam! Ha! This is easier than I thought. In Counter Strike you need two shots if your opponents bought a helmet. Holding the Deagle with two hands makes it a lot easier to fire in rapid succession.

I step out of the elevator and walk across the ceiling while exchanging the ammo clip. The pistol has twenty shots, but I want more ammo in case of encountering something unexpected.

“So. Let's see. I think the cells are to the left.” I take the left corridor and wonder if using gravity magic to walk along walls and ceiling is considered as cheating?

When I started my attack on the facility I sent it into lock-down mode. This means that all doors are shut, hence the weak resistance at the elevator. The downside is that upon reaching each door I have to activate the override and open it manually.

After the third door I stumble across a group of five scientists. There is something in their eyes which I don't like, so I execute them without warning using a lightning spell.

At that moment an inhuman howl from behind me causes me to freeze up for a moment. Then I turn to face whatever is behind me.

“It's Hulk!” I gape at the thing which escaped straight out of a bad movie. Okay, it's not Hulk because it's not green. But it's close. Like someone took two bodybuilders on steroids and mashed them together into one person.

Then it explodes towards me and this time I decide to cheat.

I create a strong electromagnetic effect along my gun's barrel and press the trigger, turning it into a railgun. The bullet hits the thing in its chest and creates a fist sized hole, but it's still coming.

Having no other choice I expand the gravity field around me. The monster drops head first into the ceiling, which is the floor to me right now.

Slowly the gravity increases, but the thing is still trying to get to its feet. I add another ten gravities and another ten until it's pinned flat to the ceiling. The struggling muscles are still visible though. Suddenly the whole corridor rocks and shifts, so I hurry to put a round into the thing's head and reduce the gravitation again. Whoever led the experiments in this facility is even sicker than my mother.

Hopefully this is recorded on camera. I am on a real roll since I supercharged myself with that power cord. Maybe this is how it's supposed to feel when you are on drugs?

After another corner I arrive at the holding facility and release the automated cell doors. People are stepping outside, but there is no Galia. “Hey, you! There was a girl with blonde hair brought in a while ago. Where is she?” I point at one of the men who are looking up to me like I am the eighth world wonder.

“The last cell. They rolled her in, lying on a bed,” one of the released people calls out.

I drop to the ground and rush to the last cell where I find Galia on a bed. “Gideon!” she cries out upon seeing me.

“What did they do to you?” I ask, ripping away the restraints and taking out the infusion needles in her arms.

“They are monsters, Gideon. They took samples from me, treating me like some kind of lab-rat,” she starts sobbing.

I touch her forehead and cast a healing spell on her. “Can you walk?”

“I think my back is broken,” she answers between the sobs. “I am just so glad that someone came.”

I growl, feeling something surging up from deep within me. Then I cast gravity magic on her to negate her weight and pick her up. “We'll go home.”

Once I am outside the room I head back the way I came and address the other prisoners while walking past them. “This facility will be destroyed in a few minutes. Whoever doesn't want to be here by then should follow me.”

“Your new eyes look cool. Do you intend on walking in Grandmother's footsteps?” Galia presses the words out from between her lips despite being in pain.

“I honestly don't know what you are talking about.” I walk faster with about thirty prisoners following me. Some of the stronger ones have to carry the injured. All of them are weakened, so it doesn't go as fast as I want to.

In front of a door Galia grabs my hand. “In there are the labs. Please make sure to destroy everything.”

I instruct the door to open and take a look. Inside is a huge lab with several computers. In the centre of the room is a hologram of a DNA strand with a double helix and a second strand with a triple helix. There is also a quadruple helix displayed further behind in the room.

“They've found a way to quickly check our mutated DNA strands against their normal double helix. That's how they found out that I am a mage.” Galia winces at the sight of a table with robotic arms and needles on them. A woman in a white coat is cowering behind it.

A simple thought snatches the woman from her feet and forces her onto the table. It's easy enough to instruct the medical device to do its work.

I release a surge of power through the facility to wipe the computers clean. Without looking back I leave while the scientist is being mutilated by the machine.

The rest of our return to the surface doesn't offer any more hindrances since the facility's personnel is locked behind the doors.

At the surface is a stealthed transport shuttle already waiting for us. I requested it from the mage's headquarters to escape quickly.

I head inside and wait until the other prisoners have boarded the transporter. It's essentially just a long box with gravity circuits and a cockpit, but that's all I need.

When the last man is inside I close the loading bay and instruct the shuttle to head back to the headquarters.

After a minute of flying at full speed I connect to the shuttle's communication circuit. “Activate Skyfall.”

***Sol, Earth, South Africa***

***General Denize***

I wipe the sweat from my forehead and sigh in relief. The monster left and didn't even bother to hunt us down, though he could have cleaned the facility room by room. Our reinforcements are almost here.

It sucks that we lost our research objects. This incident will throw us back by years.

Suddenly the command room's big screen activates and shows a familiar face. My eyes widen.

“Hello, General Denize and everyone else. I've got a message for you. All your bank accounts and financial backers had their accounts erased. It's not like you need the money, so I distributed it to educational, industrial and social sectors.

And there is a second small asteroid heading your way. The first one was just intended to wipe out any resistance from the surface.

This one is the size of a bus, that should be enough to flatten the base and smash everything that's underground.”

“So, goodbye. The asteroid should arrive about... Now!”

.