After months of training, it was almost time to present herself to her father for his forgiveness and to Greg Howard for her revenge.

Professor Julian Saber sighed as he glanced around the lab he had been provided with to make the monstrous mockeries of his greatest creations. Thank God, he had managed to resist telling Ravensclaw about the Artificial Intelligences he had created. When the pain from the scorpion stings had turned to fire in his veins and he had sobbingly told his captors about the source of The Six’s abilities, Ravensclaw had set him to work building six new physio-neural interface units that would counter the powers of the great team he had designed and created for the cause of justice.

He was puzzled however by the constant references to the six heroes. Had Doctor Howard chosen not to bond with his beloved Tricia then? Saber had been counting on Howard to take up a mantle of leadership in an increasingly mad world. It was frustrating that he had been provided with no information from or about the outside world in fact, he had very little access to any information at all. He knew his only hope of saving himself lay in the complex programming of the suits themselves. He would create a back door, a sort of ‘off switch’ in the defensive mechanisms of the units that could be triggered by a signal that could be delivered verbally. He carefully coded the last of the programming. In this at least, he knew he was safe. No one on the planet, save perhaps the departed Solomon, could decompile his software. He uploaded the last program to the suits and pressed the simple signalling device to contact Nathanial Ravensclaw.

Ravensclaw was in his office when his secretary announced a visitor. He wasn’t expecting anyone so he was prepared to summon security at the touch of a button.

“No need for the goon squad Father, I just came by to say hello,” a familiar voice spoke from around the corner as Natalia strode confidently into the room. Nathanial’s jaw dropped in surprise at the sight of his daughter. This wasn’t the pampered pet he’d last seen over 10 months ago. No… the woman before him radiated a self-possession Natalia had never had before, and a hardness that was impossible to overlook.

“Darling? What have you done to yourself?” he stared at her in disbelief. “You’re so… so… powerful,” was all he could manage.

“I decided to never let myself fail again. What happened in Bonn will never reoccur… ever. I’ve burnt away all of my weaknesses and forged myself anew,” she spoke with her newfound self-confidence and pride.

“My God! You’re even more beautiful than before… if that’s possible… like a killing blade,” he breathed out approvingly.

“Yes, the same weapon that is going to remove Doctor Gregory Howard from our path Father… and anyone else that happens to get in our way!” She whirled and cast one of her Escrima staves at a bust of Napoleon that shattered into a cloud of random pieces. Nathaniel could only look on in amazement. His child was now as dangerous as a viper or a black widow spider, gorgeous and deadly. He had the beginnings of an idea.

“Dearest Child,” he spoke smoothly, “how would you like to be even more powerful than you are now?”

“If it’s possible, of course I’m interested Daddy… but how?” she asked curiously.

“I finally cracked the problem that was Professor Saber and he has just finished creating enhancement units like those that he’d created for The SIX. I’d like you to have one. You are the one person, the only person on Earth that I trust implicitly. The other candidates are controllable but without certain…” Nathanial grasped for the correct word, “…guarantees, I would not have them enhanced at all. I need you to lead ‘the team’, if we can use the term sans irony. You’ll be in charge and will rid us of the works of The SIX once and for all. Come with me to the lab and I’ll have the others summoned and waiting for us,” he commanded. Natalia retrieved her staff from the ruins of Napoleon and quickly followed her father to the elevator and the 113th floor.

Trish gloried in the speed and power of flying to near sub-orbital atmospheric altitudes. She and Greg were testing the latest improvements to the ACM, which included an Self Contained Bbreathing apparatus of Greg’s design. They were on the edge of space and could see the stars brilliantly gleaming down on them. Greg wanted to see if the suit could take the friction of re-entry without malfunctioning. Solomon and Hestia had calculated that the new matrix would, at the very worst, crystallize slightly and that the nanomechs would be able to repair the minor damage. Greg still considered this an extreme test but the chances of them having to de-orbit without a ship of some sort were very slight at best. He really wanted to test the re-breather and gas tightness of the ACM in general. Trish had volunteered for the test, as she was less likely to panic in the conditions they would be undergoing and Greg had to grudgingly agree. He knew that his most deeply wired instincts would be very likely to kick in and skew the data they were collecting.

she informed him, keeping him apprised of what was happening at all times. The pull of gravity affected them almost immediately as Trish angled their descent to the most efficient re-entry vector. Greg could see the ionization beginning to glow around them as their speed increased. He noted that they were still cool and breathing easily as the friction built up around them. They slid through the upper tropopause into the lower like a hot wire through styrofoam. The Coriolis winds of the atmosphere began to buffet them as Trish made the necessary adjustments to their flight path. The heat of re-entry was bleeding off as they approached the lower levels of the troposphere and she activated the LAR in order to avoid commercial flight paths. At 5,000 metres above the surface, Trish engaged the braking manoeuvres they had worked out to cut their excess speed. A sudden stop travelling at the velocity they were now would kill them, physical enhancements or not. Five minutes later, they had landed in the yard of the AERI, the whole test taking less than half an hour. Hestia and Solomon were ecstatic as the suit came alive with bugs reordering the slightly damaged areas of the ACM. Trish dropped the headpiece of the new suit and uploaded the information they had collected to the base. She was sweaty and wanted a shower more than anything else.

she spoke with deep sincerity.

he admitted quietly.

he responded without guile or shame.

she announced with bravado. She embraced herself and Greg understood immediately that the hug was for him.

Joachim Azeri had trailed Greg Howard around the world over the last eight months. He’d learned Howard’s habits and most of his routine inside and out, and still he was not sure how to go about killing him. He wanted to complete this assignment and get on with his life. Azeri finally decided on a simple booby-trapped letter; the envelope itself wouldn’t be dangerous but the contents would be soaked in a deadly contact poison. He returned to his rented room in Parry Sound to prepare the lethal mailing and wait for confirmation. It was ten days later that Greg collected the mail and opened it. For all of his enhancements, his skin was still porous and the poison immediately began to attack his nervous system.

All of a sudden, his throat started to close up and he couldn’t breathe. He collapsed on the ground and started to convulse. Trish was having trouble functioning as well but the nanomechs rushed throughout their body and began to neutralize the toxin. Joachim had seen the dance many times before and knew that his target was finished. He snapped a quick photo with his cell phone and left the scene. He was back in his room shortly and sending his photograph by email to Ravensclaw with his request for payment. Greg on the other hand was now beginning to get his breath back and lay gasping on the floor of the post office. The paramedics had just arrived and were taking his pulse and heart rate when he regained consciousness. One of them was reaching for the letter.

“Don’t!” he uttered with great exertion. “Please don’t touch that… letter. Use tongs or… gloves…” he wheezed. Greg struggled to a sitting position, took a deep breath and began coughing.

“The letter may be poisoned… please take care… can you bag it?” he directed. The paramedic placed the letter and envelope into a baggie and sealed it. He placed the rest of the mail into a different one and they waited for the O.P.P. to arrive. Don was there within minutes, his young partner Ed in tow.

“Hey Doc, what’s all the fuss?” Don began. The lead paramedic spoke up before Greg had a chance.

“Doctor Howard here was having difficulty breathing and was in the midst of some sort of seizure when we arrived. We loosened his clothing and the seizure-like symptoms disappeared as the patient began to breathe on his own again. The doctor suspects some sort of poison on one of the letters, so we bagged them and waited for you to get here. We’d rather have taken him to the hospital, but the doctor insisted on waiting for you to arrive,” the young woman reported efficiently.

“Damn right I did!” Greg asserted. “That letter is postmarked from right here in town and the poisoner may still be here in Parry Sound. Have your lab people be very careful with that letter Don. I just got lucky… someone else may not be,” Greg warned.

Don raised his eyebrows.

“Just as you say Doc, now go see the doctors at emergency. I’ll be up soon to ask you some questions,” Don instructed.

An hour later at the hospital, the doctors were puzzled by Greg’s tox screen, but as there just wasn’t anything wrong with him that they could find and so they reluctantly discharged him. Don was waiting for him in the lobby. He was oddly formal.

“You were right about that letter Doctor Howard… it was, figuratively speaking, dripping with some sort of poison that the lab boys can’t ID. They also said you shouldn’t be alive. You’re a lucky man Greg,” Don said, raising a quizzical eyebrow and scratching his head.

“Lucky? I’m blessed if what you say is correct,” Greg tried to insert a modicum of surprise into his reply.

“The preliminary lab reports are in and there were no fingerprints on the envelopes except yours and the postmistress’,” Don reported. “We’ve eliminated Carol as a suspect, she was almost in shock at seeing you collapse like that. You were right about the letter being mailed in town, but we’ve absolutely no way of knowing where from. We’re at a dead end for now. Do you have any enemies that you know of?” the officer began his formal questioning, jotting down notes in his little book as he proceeded.

“Oh… probably just the entire energy industry by now, Don,” Greg said facetiously, trying to inject an iota of humour into a very serious situation. “None here in town that I can think of though. You keep investigating here and I’ll try to figure it out from my end as well. If I have any insights, I’ll call you at your office. Uh, could you do me a favour and keep my survival as quiet as you can?” Greg posed.

“You just leave the detective work to us, OK Greg?” Don warned Greg. “I’m serious about this. We’ll be in touch.”

“You’ve got it, Don. Keep me in the loop, OK?”

“OK.” Don agreed perfunctorily.

Don drove Greg back to the post office and Greg took his truck back to the landing. He was fuming all the way.

she interrupted him,

Trish recalled ominously.

Greg posited.

Trish responded logically. They returned to the AERI and cursed every moment it took them. The assassin could be on his way out of town by now and if so, out of their grasp.

Natalia woke up suddenly and looked around her in panic. She calmed when she saw that she was in her own room at the Trade Centre. The last thing she recalled was putting on the cool mesh suit that Saber had handed her and sealing it. She was naked so the ’bonding process’ must have been completed. She didn’t feel any different, so she decided to test her new abilities. Walking over to her wet bar, she took a stainless steel cocktail shaker and gripped it with all her strength. It crumpled like wet tissue. Incredible! She quickly dressed in her fighting outfit and placed her Escrima staves in the thigh pockets. She opened the door and nearly pulled it off its hinges. Natalia laughed aloud, the strength alone was fantastic! She was curious as to what other surprises lay in store. Taking the elevator to her father’s office, she was pleased to find him in.

“Good day Daddy,” she greeted him cheerily. “How are you? I’m feeling Godlike!”

“Hello Sweetheart, you are the last of our superbeings to awaken. Let’s go pay the good Professor a visit and find out exactly what you’re capable of,” Nathanial invited. They rode the elevator to the Professor’s lab and met up with the other five volunteers. The Professor looked up from his notes and scowled, he had hoped for at least one bond failure but his work had been too good.

“Well, it appears you’ve all survived. I’ll tell you all that I can about the powers you now possess and then you’ll have to read the instruction manuals…” he informed them, pointing to six heavy volumes stacked up on a table by the wall, “…that is if you can read,” he commented snidely. “As I call your number, step forward and take your manual. Subject one…”

“George Rico.”

“Whatever. Your suit, aside from the defensive and flight capabilities described in the manual, generates fire of varying degrees from a simple candle’s heat to that of a small nuclear blast… it’s all in the book… step back,” the old man spoke dismissively. “Subject two,” he called out.

“Steven James,” came the reply.

“I didn’t ask as I don’t care,” the Professor was becoming irritated with the whole process. “You have the ability to travel and breathe underwater and to a certain extent, control it. Read the book, step back. Subject three.”

“Sam Munio.”

“I really could care less, are you all deaf as well as stupid? Your strength has been enhanced to approximately 10 times that of the others here. Read the instructions carefully. Step back. Subject four…”

“Lia Tang.” The Professor shook his head sadly…

“Young woman, you can control your size and mass. I caution you to read the instructions with extra attentiveness. Step back. Subject five…”

“Frank West,” came the now predictable response.

“Oh, shut up! Your ability is time. You can affect a very localized chronometric field, it’s in the book, read it well. Ms. Ravensclaw?” the Professor looked up from his task as Natalia stepped forward.

“Your power is speed and enhanced agility. It fits nicely with the training your father told me you have, but use caution, I beg you. Anyway, it’s all in the book. Good day!” he said, disgusted with himself even more than the others. Nathanial stepped forward to address his team,

“Well it seems that you all have some studying to do. Get to it! I’ll expect you to begin training in the arena in 4 days. Natalia, please stay here for a moment. That was very brusque Professor,” he chided the old man.

“Do you expect me to feel pride over what I’ve been forced to do? I have unleashed a great evil on the very world that I vowed to save. I have perverted my very ideals. You’d prefer I do a cartwheel perhaps? Cackle evilly like a mad scientist?” Saber shook his head in repugnance.

“No, you should show some gratitude that you still possess your life! Regardless, I thank you and in return, you’ll be given some small freedoms to create some more miracles for me,” Nathanial quirked up the corners of his mouth. “I have arranged better quarters and a somewhat better equipped lab for you. You see, I can be humane at times… but don’t ever think of crossing me. Good day Professor. Natalia... please follow me,” he turned on his heel and the two most evil people Saber had ever met left the room.

Nathanial escorted his daughter back to her room. The door had been repaired and the shaker replaced. Natalia hid a small, amused grin.

“I’ve taken the liberty of having a costume made for you my dear. It’s over there on the bed,” he gestured in the general direction. Natalia opened the box and found a light garment that looked very much like her current gear along with two new Escrima staves made of metal. She cocked an inquiring eyebrow at her father.

“The material is a lot tougher than the cloth that your uniform is currently made of and it also contains communications gear. The new staves are titanium steel but still as light as your wooden ones. I’ll leave you to come up with a suitable codename. Now study your book. I’ll see you in four days in the training arena.”

To Be Continued