Blood Sisters

Sarah Reed was wasting away. She was sitting up now, and was able to feed herself. From the waist down she had no sensation at all, and could not move her legs or feet. Despite the best efforts of the surgeons, her face remained horribly deformed, even repulsive. Anyone who saw it, even the well trained medical staff, had to suppress their horror. She had to practically threaten them to get a mirror. In truth, Sarah felt horrified at first when she looked at her face too, so she did not blame them. She made herself look every day, and now her horrible visage fueled her anger.

For reasons that were unclear, Sarah was losing body weight, her failure to thrive was impacting her recovery and she often felt ill. Doctor Cooper had explained to her that she seemed to have contracted an unknown virus that was eating her away from the inside out.

Sarah knew what it was. It was some affliction that was a lingering effect of Michaela's bloody destruction of her body. It was not enough to have broken my body, Sarah thought. Michaela wants me to die slowly, painfully, to break my spirit as well. Sarah could feel the faint presence of the vampire tugging in her mind. She could feel the demon in her guts, it was somewhere to the East, but still on this side of the Appalachians. She could only sense the vampire's location vaguely, and when she tried to focus to get a better idea where she was, it only seemed to slip away. All this served to do was to feed her rage. As sick as she was, Sarah felt that her rage alone would keep her alive until she had destroyed that creature forever.

In the corner of the room, out of place within the cards and flowers, was the 7' tall armored red and silver presence of a D-Day unit standing mute guard over her. Sarah would sometimes gaze at it for hours, musing. She appreciated Paul's virtual visits every day. Which usually happened at about three o'clock in the afternoon, which it was right now.

Sarah could hear the power pulse through the unit as its lights snapped on, she could hear the faint hum of its hydraulic pumps and the whine of its servo motors. She smiled faintly at it, unaware of how ghoulish her smile appeared. “Hello Sarah” Paul's voice came quietly from the armor's PA. She knew that he was actually miles away in his master armor unit at Shay's Mountain. But it felt like he was right here.

The floor shook a bit as the steel armor walked to her bedside, and bent down over her. “Hi Paul, thanks for coming... as it were”. The armor could not smile, but it did nod its head affirmatively “you got it, Doc” Paul said. “How are you feeling today, Sarah?” came the almost obligatory question. Sarah tried to grin “I could use a stiff drink”. The armor nodded with the sound of servo motors. “I'll get right on that” Paul said.

Sarah's tone turned serious “Paul, I need to have a no bullshit conversation with you, hand me over a headset so we can talk more privately. You said you owed me one for not getting a warning to me in time about Michaela. Well I am calling it in”. If a suit of battlearmor could express surprise, the D-Day unit did. “Okay Dr. Reed, you got it”.

***

Though it felt someone punched her in the gut every time she teleported, Jenny was not going to ride piggyback on her younger sister. As Cricket leaped across the roofs of the city, Jenny kept up with her porting from one to the other. Every few jumps, Jenny held up a hand, bending over and grasping her side. “You know, you really should let me just carry you, Jen”. Cricket said. Jenny shook her head “Nah, I gotta get back in shape”. Cricket looked at her, concerned “But you might re-injure yourself”. Jenny gave a brave smile “Yeah, but that should be okay for now, they told me that Paul's nano-bots were still wiggling and jiggling inside me. They are going to keep working for a couple weeks till they run out of power and dissolve”. Jenny giggled, which produced a wince. “I never ate robot before, they kinda taste like chicken”. Cricket smirked “nice”.

The pair were heading to the apartment the Goldstar's kept in the city to regroup, get some fresh clothes, food and a shower. As they got further into midtown, their elevated road became more erratic as buildings became skyscrapers. They started bouncing off the flat glass sides of buildings, zig-zaging at the downward angle gravity forced on them until they could find a surface to stand on. This was trickier for Jenny who had to double or even triple port in quick sequence, flashing right after dropping then gaining momentum, pushing off one building to another. When she teleported, Jenny kept whatever velocity she was at before and after her jumps.

Cricket was so strong that getting up enough force to leap the width between buildings was easy, though she occasionally cracked the thick glass panels that she pushed off of. Jenny's force-field flashed and hummed with each teleport and impact, often drawing the attention of the people walking on the streets below. However, people in the big city were somewhat used to seeing the remarkable New Humans among them. Many of them even recognized Jenny Goldstar and gave cheers and waves. Her family was in many ways the first-family of the New Humans, and Jenny was the first-daughter of famous and well loved heroes.

“Your a popular girl Jen” Cricket mused as the two took a breather on top of an older brick building nestled between steel and glass towers. Jenny smiled “Yeah, its pretty cool, huh?”. Cricket shrugged “If you say so”. Jenny said, “we are almost there, just a couple more blocks and its hot shower and Chinese food time”. Cricket nodded “Hell yea, I am so hungry I am not sure which I want first”. Jenny took a whiff. “Definitely the shower I'm thinking”. Cricket gave her a look.

“Hey, its my auntie!” Jenny smiled. The Golden Girl saw Winter Ashton sliding along the track of ice she made in front of herself, jumping, weaving and bobbing along the city streets like she was an urban snowboarder, leaving a slick frosty path and a spray of water behind her. “Man, that looks like so much fun, I wish I could do that” Jenny said wistfully. Before Cricket could stop her, Jenny stepped to the edge of the roof and hollered down to her “Aunt Winter! Hi!”. North Star scraped to a sliding stop and looked up with alarm at Jenny, catching a glimpse of Cricket as she stepped back out of view.

Jenny could see Winter tap her earpiece, and not understanding what she was doing, pantomimed to her that she was not wearing one. Suddenly Titan landed beside her as he came down from one of his long jumps. The two were looking up at the roof the sisters were on, then said something to each other and started moving. “What the heck?!” Jenny said. Cricket replied from the dark shadows behind her “Jen, we have to bail, they are going to take me away”. Jenny looked back at her, “no way, why would Aunt Winter...” then it hit her, her Aunt was North Star, a federal marshal. “No, no” Jenny's voice shook “she wouldn't”

The two had hesitated too long, North Star had slid across the street and formed a ice pole from a flash-frozen water spout up the side of the building that she used to jet up to the roof, creating a high pressure rainfall below her that soaked a few passersby. Titan simply jumped up to the rooftop.

Cricket yelled desperately “C'mon Jen, run!” Jenny looked back at her, uncertain. Every bone in Crickets body wanted to run, but she could not bring herself to leave her new sister behind.

Titan and North Star arrived. Titan said in a commanding voice “Special Marshals, don't make this difficult 'Cricket'. Step away from Miss Goldstar, your coming with us”. Jenny narrowed her eyes, starting to tell Titan just what she thought about that, but Winter beat her to the punch. “Jenny, listen to me, this girl is not what she seems, you have to trust me”. Cricket looked fearfully at her sister. Jenny hesitated a second, then the doubt on her face became a look of resolve. She said firmly “your not taking her anywhere, North Star. Your not my Aunt right now, and I'm not your Jenny. I am Miracle! If you try to mess with Cricket your gonna find out just how miraculous I can be”. Cricket just beamed at Miracle, whispering under her breath “oh yeah”. North Star muttered “oh crap”.

“Listen... Miracle this is serious don't...” Winter did not even get the sentence out. Miracle was already airborne, and took North Star by surprise, her flying kick landed solidly against Winter's chest,

though Jenny did not spark her force-field. North Star collapsed and lost her breath from the force of the blow, sliding on her hip to the edge of the building where the side of her body slammed against the low horizontal stone edge that framed the top of the roof.

Titan shook his head “This is so bad” he grumbled. In an instant his height doubled, topping 12' of solid muscle. He left the Goldstar family to duke it out and tackled Cricket, who was not ready for him as she gazed in amazement at her awesome sister. Cricket found herself crushed under the big man, an “Oof” blowing out her mouth.

North Star rolled to her feet and sprayed a cone of water at Miracle, freezing it as it got to her, forming an orb of ice around her radiant force-field. Too late Winter realized how futile that was when Jenny simply appeared behind her, balancing on the edge of the building. North Star cursed and started to spin around. Miracle was far to fast for that, she leveled another kick into her aunts back, forcing Winter to fall forward, hitting the roof hard. She winced from the pain, breathing out a think moan.

“You know I am holding back, North Star. Just give it up and let us go”. Miracle said defiantly. Winter rolled around onto her elbows, looking up at her glowing niece “You are going to be in so much trouble when I tell your mom about this”. Winter made the brick under Jenny's feet slick and hit her with a high pressure stream of water that would make a fire hose seem like a drinking fountain. Miracle fell back off the edge into mid-air as North Star gained her feet. A second later, Miracle teleported over the roof, falling on her injured side with a cry of pain as the kinetic energy from her fall off the building was dissipated.

Titan leveled a punch at Cricket's head, the rest of her pinned underneath him, his other hand gripping her shoulder. Cricket managed to twist her head away and Titans fist punched through the roof, disrupting his balance. The Indestructible Girl punched Titan in the face with her free hand, which snapped his neck back and instantly rose a thick purple mound on the flesh over his cheekbone. “Damn girl!” Titan breathed. Todd's upper body had been knocked up off of Cricket, as he came back down he struck back with his elbow and forearm, which hit Cricket solidly across the chest. Her breath exploded out of her, and she was pushed into the roof, creating a crater of tar, steel and wood.

From her side, Miracle swept North Star's feet and Winter fell onto her side with a grunt, woman and girl face to face on the roof. “She's my sister dammit, don't you understand Winter?!” Jenny cried with an edge of desperation. North Star shook her head “She's not Jenny, she wasn't even born, she was grown... do -you- understand?” Miracle snarled “That doesn't matter one bit, and you know it!” Jenny ported above North Star, and came down on her hard, slamming a knee into Winter's gut as her aunt was rolling onto her back trying to get up. North Star groaned in pain and struggled to breathe, starting to pass out, Jenny was kicking her ass. Winter winced and punched at Miracle reflexively, her blow deflecting harmlessly off her energy field. North Star was seeing spots, she shook her head trying to clear it. Jenny stayed on her with a knee in her gut. As Winter's vision cleared she saw Jenny with a white-gloved fist raised above her face, a bright burning spark of energy crackling on her field in front of it. Jenny face was illuminated from the light of the spark, she had tears in her eyes and said thickly “Please Auntie, give up. Don't make me do this”. Winter just closed her eyes and dropped her head back, nodding “okay, okay Jenny”.

Cricket pushed Titan off of her, and gained her feet. Titan rolled to his feet as well, and the giant and small girl squared off. Titan sent a mighty punch down at Cricket, but she side stepped it and he again made a hole in the roof, causing him to bend over. Cricket gave a primal shout and did an untrained mighty uppercut right into Titans chest, who was pushed away violently and fell onto his back. The Indestructible Girl grabbed Titan's feet, and swung him around, flinging him off the roof and over the street. Titan shouted as he fell, hitting the ground hard, caving it in. He narrowly missed a few cars who's drivers had stopped to rubber-neck the fight above, though one of his legs did land on the hood of a taxi, denting in in. “Hey! Hey buddy, your gonna pay for that!” The cabby yelled at him.

Titan gave him a sour look and started to sit up. Then with a curse he saw the blonde teenaged death from above. Cricket had leaped from the roof and crashed down into his chest. Titan was pushed further into the cracked concrete beneath him, his wind knocked out. Quick as her namesake, Cricket jumped off Titan, raising both of her fists above her head, she clasped them together and brought them down on Titan with a thundering blow. The big man howled in pain as his ribs collapsed and cracked, he was pushed right through the street into the tunnel below. As the force of the blow spread out the road surface collapsed as well, and two cars fell through on top of the big man. Titan gave a shaking gasp, then blacked out.

Cricket felt a stab of fear, then after a moment saw that Titan was still breathing. He looked beat up, but not seriously injured. The girl gave a sigh of relief then took a moment to lift the cars off him. A faint green glow spread from Cricket and flowed around the vehicles as she pulled them up. This surprised her, as she had never tried to lift something big like a car before. “Huh”, she muttered. The passengers were crying out in fear and anger. She placed them carefully on the street, ignoring the horrified looks from the people behind the window glass.

Miracle suddenly appeared next to her, having teleported down from the roof. Cricket grabbed her in a hug, causing her field to hum and spark in protest. Jenny smiled sadly “Lets go, North Star is probably calling in to D-Day right now, we have to not be here when the cavalry arrives”. Cricket was tearful “Thank you so much for standing by me Jen, thank you so, so much” she sniffed. Jenny nodded “Your my little sister, Cricket. Its what sisters do... it seems” she smiled, then let out a big sigh “My mom is going to kill me.” Jenny shook it off “Okay, lets hurry. We can get what we need at the apartment, and get the Chinese food to go.” As they started moving Cricket asked “Hey, do you know what that green stuff was?”

Winter Ashton had crawled over to the edge of the roof. She looked down at the girls as they sprinted off. Then glanced over at Titan, laying unconscious under the street, his beta-cloth uniform actually torn in a few places, which Winter had almost never seen. People were gathering around the gaping hole in the roadway, calling down to the injured man, who remained unconscious. Winter heard the sounds of sirens getting closer. She rested her head in her hands. North Star hurt all over, she felt dizzy and felt like crying. D-Day was speaking loudly in her ear, but Winter was in a daze. All she said was her location, then added “I'm beat up, and Titan is out”. She pulled out the earpiece and dropped it beside her. Winter groaned as she rolled onto her back and looked up at the sky, her head throbbing. After a few heartbeats North Star reached into her beta-cloth suit's utility pouch and pulled out Winter Ashton's cell phone. She hit a speed dial, and her sister's voice answered. “Ally, we need to talk, come get me. Right now.”