Carmody and the Electric Dragon

10th District Sewage Maintenance Workshop, Pan City

Santo Green was busy re-wiring the circuits inside a large maintenance robot when his phone rang. That was a rarity as the original Santo only had three contacts in his phone memory – his mother, his boss Jake Long and an old high school friend he caught up with once a year.

The caller ID said “Police Auxiliary” and for a moment the Emissary was certain that Santo’s heart stopped beating. He had no idea why they had his personal phone number but he decided if they were on to his plans, they were unlikely to call him first.

“Hello, Santo Green” he said simply.

“Good evening Mr Green” said a polite female voice. “This is Detective Sue Parker from the 10th District Police Auxiliary. Sorry to trouble you at home but I was wondering if you could spare a few minutes to talk with me?”

“Certainly, Detective. You are lucky to get hold of me as I am still below ground at the moment. Fortunately I am near one of the repeater stations so the signal is strong enough to reach me. How may I help you?”

“You’re still at work? I thought only us Police Auxiliary worked terrible hours!” Detective Parker said amiably.

“Yes, well time and blocked pipes wait for no man” Santo replied. “Was this a social call Detective, as I have a whole residential tower with overflowing toilets to clear. It is currently a Code Yellow but could escalate to Code Brown at any moment”

“My apologies, Mr Green. I am calling all maintenance workers who use the service tunnels under the city to see if they have spotted any unusual activity recently”

“Ah, yes, my supervisor mentioned something about that the other day”

“Jake Long? Yes, he was the one who supplied me your number. In particular, we are looking for any unfamiliar robots or drones you may have seen, or unauthorised people using the tunnels”

Santo paused and glanced at the dozens of rebuilt drones, robots and Sentinel soldiers standing in varying states of readiness around the maintenance workshop. They watched him with their glowing red eyes, eager to be set loose upon the world above.

“No, I have not seen anything out of the ordinary” he said. “It has been dead quiet down here”

=====

10th District Junior High School, Pan City

Wednesday October 31st 2046

Sarah was waiting at the usual meeting spot for Carmody, her back against the clear glass window of the coffee shop on the corner. Inside the early morning workers were buying their pumpkin flavoured coffees and pastries. She had no idea why everyone suddenly went mad for pumpkins just because it was Halloween. As far as she was concerned, pumpkin was only to be eaten mashed with sausages or roasted alongside some lamb.

Today the skies were relatively clear, barely any white to block the overwhelming blue face of the sky. It promised to be a hot day but the evening would be warm and pleasant, which was when the festival would occur.

In honour of the school festival she was wearing her lion one-sie pajamas with her face painted to match by a harassed mother this morning. Of course she had shorts and a t-shirt on underneath and her little yellow paws were jammed into a pair of orange gumboots. The only downside was her tail kept dragging on the pavement and at least one careless pedestrian had trodden on it already. She wondered how real lions coped with clumsy people standing on their tails, then decided they probably just ate them!

“Gosh Sarah, you are really yellow!” cried Carmody when she saw her. Her friend was walking up with her usual school bag, enormous lunch box and her cricket bat slung over one shoulder. Sarah looked her friend over, noting the white shirt and pants and a pair of kid’s sized cricketing pads strapped to her legs. On her head sat a large baggy cap, spray painted a vivid green it appeared.

“Thanks. I’m a lion. What the hell are you?”

“Sir Donald Bradman, most famous Cricketer ever” Carmody said. “Dad reckons he was probably a Kinetic Enhancer like me, he was so good as a batsman”

Sarah mulled that over. “Are you sure? Wasn’t he a cricketer like a hundred years ago?”

Carmody started walking towards the school so Sarah fell in step with her. Their bags bounced in unison as they marched down the pavement.

“My dad reckons there have been Awakened all through history, but they developed their Abilities by themselves just like you and I did. People probably thought they were extra gifted or athletic and stuff”

“Maybe they just burned them as Witches” suggested Sarah, smiling a little at the thought.

“You are an evil girl, Sarah Evermore” Carmody chastised her with a laugh. As they approached the school gates, they met more and more students, most dressed in an array of costumes.

It was easy to tell the home made efforts from the store bought and rented ones. Carmody thought the home made ones were the cutest until they both clapped eyes on Mr Hanson, otherwise known as Handsome Hanson to the students (and female staff). He was dressed in a full length Wizard’s robe, with a neat black goatee painted on his face and a broad grey felt hat draped rakishly over one side of his head.

He was standing inside the school gates, welcoming the students for the day. Every so often he would use his Pyrokinesis to launch mini-fireballs up into the air, bursting them in a variety of colours over the awe-stuck heads of the kids.

His performance was so good the students were blocking the gateway, staying there and egging him on to even bigger and probably more dangerous fire tricks.

“Alright students, please move along” came a voice from above and the two girls joined a horde of others in yelling in delight at the sight of Miss Abrams, their English teacher. She was drifting over the courtyard about four meters up, astride an actual wicker broom and wearing a decidedly skimpy black Witch’s outfit. A stuffed toy cat, black of course, was perched on her shoulder like a Pirate’s parrot.

Handsome Hanson stopped his show to admire the view, but at least he had the decency to hush the boys who started wolf-whistling at the teacher. Sarah and Carmody pushed through the throng to reach the meeting spot they had for Lilly and Achmed.

When they arrived, the two girls had to burst into laughter. Lilly was covered from her head to her calves in a white sheet, two eye holes cut out in front of her face and a simple rope belt holding the fabric over her clothes, leaving her arms free at the side.

“Let me guess, you are a giant hanky with a nasty booger trapped inside!” guffawed Sarah. Lilly’s eyes could be seen glaring out from beneath the white covering.

“No, I am obviously a Ghost” she said crossly and folded her arms in front of the sheet. “Mum forgot to make me a costume so she put it together this morning”

“Seriously, it looks fine” Achmed tried to reassure her. “I think I have seen about twenty Ghosts already this morning. At least you have a white sheet on. One kid I saw had a black satin sheet draped over him. That was just wrong on so many levels”

The three girls looked at Achmed. He was wearing his usual weekend clothes of jeans, black t-shirt and bright red joggers. The only difference was he had a fake Inductance jack on his forehead with a cable to a small black box on his belt and a pair of cheap Smart Glasses over his eyes.

“Who the hell are you, anyway?” Lilly asked the boy.

“What, you don’t recognise the outfit? I’m Nick Knox, Net Diver Detective from that Anime series I am always telling you about”

“Is that the really obscure one only Network Jockeys like yourself watch?” wondered Carmody. “I think Vance watches it sometimes”

“Hey, it’s a classic!” Achmed said loudly, then stopped as he realised the girls were all looking behind him. He turned to see what it was and saw Eric walking hesitantly towards the group.

“That’s Nick Knox, isn’t it?” Eric asked and Achmed beamed proudly. Eric was wearing a smart and expensive looking suit, dark grey, with a black bow tie at his neck and brandished a bright blue water pistol he drew from a shoulder holster. His short blonde hair was slicked down and neatly combed with a side parting, adding to his sophisticated look.

“Hi guys, the name is Hargreaves, Eric Hargreaves, secret agent” he said half-heartedly, then put his water pistol away. The girls were all looking at him with a strange series of expressions and he had no idea what to make of them.

“Hi Eric” ventured Lilly, since it appeared that Sarah and Carmody had been struck dumb by his appearance. “You look really handsome today. Is that your own suit?”

“Yes, my brother Two ordered it for me in case I had to attend any formal events. He orders his own suits by the dozen so he added this extra one in for me”

Lilly was feeling especially brave since she was mostly covered by the sheet. She stepped between the Lion and Sir Donald and faced them towards Eric.

“So ladies, what do you think?” she teased them both. “Even more handsome than usual I would say”

“Not bad” Sarah admitted grudgingly, “But why would a secret agent introduce himself as a secret agent?”

“Because anyone who blatantly told you they were a secret agent obviously could not be one. Classic double bluff” Achmed chimed in, still stinging from no-one but Eric recognising his costume.

“I think we all need to head to class” Carmody told them, her eyes wandering to Eric even though she kept telling them not to. She hefted her bags and strode past the boy, catching a whiff of men’s cologne as she did so.

He might be only thirteen years old, but he looked like one hell of a man today she had to admit!

=====

Angelina met them in the hallway, having been busy already this morning with the festival committee. She was costumed in a plain, buttoned one piece skirt with long sleeves and black stockings and shoes. A long collared white shirt was underneath, the collar falling to her shoulders. Her usual long black hair was pulled into two braids from a central parting, making her thin face even more severe looking.

“I’m Wednesday” she explained and everyone thought it was very appropriate. She was a dead ringer for the character at the best of times. Angelina was friendly and chatty to everyone, even Eric who could barely meet her eyes. She just smiled and acted like everything was normal and Carmody was grateful to her. Whatever Eric may know about her family, Carmody still trusted Angelina and wanted to remain her close friend.

Carmody said goodbye to her friends as they entered their homerooms for the start of the day. As she watched all of her companions enter the same room, she felt a familiar stab of jealousy. Of them all, she was the only one who had a different homeroom and teacher.

She even felt envy as the stunning Miss Abrams flew down the hallway, seated side-saddle on her broomstick. As she levitated into the class the roar of approval from her students made Carmody wish even more she had the same teacher.

“Miss Brentwood, or should I say Sir Donald, the class is waiting for you” said Mr Ishikawa.

Carmody looked at her home room teacher standing in the doorway. He was dressed all in long, tattered black robes, his face half covered by a white skull mask. A long gnarled staff was in his left hand, topped by a plastic skull that had red glowing eyes.

At his side was a life sized plastic skeleton of a cat, seeming to stand there all by itself. Mr Ishikawa flexed his fingers and the cat bowed to her, like a puppet but with invisible strings of Telekinesis.

“Mr Bones says he is honoured to have such a famous batsman in our class” said her teacher. “Won’t you please join us?” The cat trotted in a strange way into the classroom, the teacher’s fingers flexing and moving in time to the skeleton’s motion.

“That is pretty cool, Sir” Carmody admitted and followed the bouncing plastic cat into her class. Maybe her homeroom was Okay too she realised.

=====

10th District Maintenance Tunnels, Pan City

Bob Two stood on his coiled tentacles, watching over his force of robots, drones and modified Sentinels. He had worked hard to get them ready for this day and viewed his small army proudly.

“They are barely functional, but they will be good enough for the task they will perform” Santo Green said with a curled lip, seated on his throne of crates and packing cases.

“Yes” Bob Two tapped emphatically on the concrete floor of the chamber, his black lensed camera eyes boring into the Emissary. None of his Sentinels carried their weapons now, all of those had been taken by Santo for his own purposes. Like the rest of his mechanical army, the Sentinels were armed with jagged blades of metal welded directly to their hands, more spikes and sharp horns fitted across their bodies.

“Remember the plan, Bob Two” Santo warned his subordinate. “Your Gremlins will be the first wave, drawing the Dracoris into action. They are all expendable, provided they bring the guardians to me”

“Yes” tapped Bob Two again. He knew the plan, just like he knew that the Emissary inside of Santo Green had no concern if Bob Two was destroyed. He was as expendable as the motley collection of machines.

The difference was, Bob Two was much stronger than he had been before. The blood and Soul Sparks of countless rats and vermin had added very little, but then he had captured the Wall Runner. There had been so much blood, so much energy in his Soul Spark! Bob Two felt more powerful than ever, perhaps even strong enough to challenge Santo Green for the role of Emissary!

“Are you looking forward to this evening, Bob Two?” Santo asked him, watching from his throne.

“Yes!” Bob Two replied with a forceful tap on the floor, his enthusiasm sending a chip of concrete flying.