Several minutes later down in the medi-lab Agent Daniels was beginning to regain consciousness after Rammun had jumped from his body into Tucker. His head was extremely foggy for the moment and he could feel a slightly numb feeling throughout his body. Memories of what had happened began to return to him began to realise just how much trouble he and Home were in. As he looked around he expected to see numerous scientists and doctors attended to numerous patients but he discovered that he was the only soul left in the entire medi-lab. There were numerous empty beds that had been occupied just a short time ago but now were completely empty. Most had not even been made up and still had medical equipment right next to them. It was like whoever had been in those beds had just gotten up despite whatever injury they had suffered.
Agent Daniels attempted to get out of bed himself but he was still feeling weak after his whole ordeal and for the moment he was unable to get out of bed. All he could do was lie there as he began to regain his strength. Much like Tucker since he had been a host for Rammun he had also obtained the spirit's memories but for the moment they would be no use to him. Previously he had been defeated through trickery but Rammun had countless centuries to learn from his mistake and it would take a miracle to overcome him now. He knew that Rammun would have already possessed Jessica's body and had started his plan to spread his influence across the galaxy.
One thing that Agent Daniels had no idea about was that Agent Carpenter and Sue were on their way down to him to recruit him for their plan to defeat Rammun. For all he knew he was the last agent remaining to stop the evil entity. He was more than determined to get up and battle the towering colossus that was Jessica. Even with his abilities he wondered if he was able to defeat her. He knew that his accelerated healing abilities had been transferred to her but he still retained his own. It meant that practically any injury that she would sustain would heal over in a matter of seconds. This would make her seemingly invincible and if they were to engage in one on one combat Jessica's size would eventually win and Agent Daniels would have to admit defeat.
After several more minutes Agent Daniels slowly got out of bed and placed his feet on the ground. His legs felt weak and he needed to keep his hand on his bed so that he could support himself. But as the moments went by he slowly regained the strength that he needed he was able to support himself. But before he went anywhere he wanted to quickly change his attire. He was wearing a gown that was similar to those found in a hospital and he much preferred to wear his uniform rather than this gown. Thankfully his personal effects were stored in a small box located underneath his bed.
It only took Agent Daniels a moment or two to get changed into his uniform and he began to make his way out of the medi-lab. He was slightly nervous to see that the entire medi-lab was deserted. He was used to seeing it as a vibrant area that was active at all hours of the day but now it was like a ghost town. It saddened him to think that almost everyone who had either worked in the medi-lab or was a patient was now part of Rammun's plan to spread his influence all across the galaxy.
After leaving the medi-lab Agent Daniels staggered down the flight of stairs that was used mainly by the staff. There was an elevator like access for patients who couldn't walk, but as he looked on he could see a horde of people roaming around much like mindless beasts. He could see a few of them were combatting each other. He wanted nothing more than to put a stop to it but it would be a pointless effort. His main objective was to try and stop Rammun in anyway. But as he stepped off the final step many of the infected people around him began to notice and made their way towards him.
Agent Daniels recognised many of those who were coming towards him as friends and he was extremely reluctant to hurt them. But they would slow him down and with every moment that went by brought Rammun that little bit closer to victory. He could just brush the people aside but they had numbers on their side. As he moved forward many of them jumped at him and tried to infect him but much like Tucker he was immune to Rammun's influence since he had been a host.
At first there were only a couple of people jumping onto him but within moments more and more were jumping on him and they were starting to create a pile of bodies on top of him. The combined weight would have overwhelmed any normal man but due to Agent Daniels's strength he was able to knock them all off with only one movement of his muscles. People went flying in all directions but the impact of hitting the ground did nothing to stop them. He felt that he would have to harm them to get past them.
But just when Agent Daniels was about to move forward once again he saw several of the infected people get blasted by a strange energy bullet. Those struck by this bullet fell on the ground unconscious but alive. Immediately after the first shots were fired he turned his head in the direction that the shots had come from and he could see a few dozen Sues all holding hi-tech rifles. They were firing at the infected people and Agent Carpenter was floating above them trying to create a telekinetic barrier in front of Agent Daniels so that he could no longer be attacked by the infected people.
Another dimension of Sue's multiplication abilities allowed her to duplicate objects if she is touching them while she is multiplying. This is what allowed her to duplicate her clothing or else each clone would be naked. One thing about a duplicated object was that they would not last long however, if a clone were to ever lose contact with a duplicated item then it would disappear as if it had never existed.
For the first few seconds Agent Daniels wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do. Things were happening extremely fast and as the small skirmish continued more and more infected people were descending on the area But Sue would counteract this by creating more copies of herself. She could copy herself infinitely if she was given the space but within seconds there went from a few dozen Sues to close to two hundred. Each one still carried the same rifle and continued to fire at the infected people. If the rifles were set to kill the area would be a bloodbath but since they were only set to stun it just meant that a lot of people would be having several hours of extra rest.
"Hey Jack are you going to stand there and look pretty or are you going get behind us?" shouted all of the Sues in unison. The call of so many women was difficult to ignore for Agent Daniels and he didn't waste any time in making his way towards the army of Sues. As he ran Agent Carpenter kept a telekinetic shield around him so that he would be able to make it back to them safely.
Several times while he made his way towards them he was accidentally shot at but the energy bullets would bounce off the shield but even so he would have easily been able to withstand the impact. He could see Sue further multiplying herself so that the infected people were kept at bay. The infected people were still several metres away from the army of Sues and they didn't want to risk them touching any of the clones in case it could infect the rest of the clones. It was still a grey area for them and they didn't know if the clones would be infected since they technically weren't even people but just copies of an individual. There was also a chance that a clone could be infected but it would not affect the rest of the clones. But that too would be disastrous because there only needed to be one clone to be able to produce enough copies to overrun a planet.
It took Agent Daniels only a short amount of time to make his way through the Sue clones so that he could stand behind them. He was surprised not to see the original Sue but it was common practice for her to safely be located elsewhere so that she couldn't be targeted. If she was infected then there was no doubt that the other clones would turn against them. He looked up at Agent Carpenter who was still floating above the clones. She seemed happy to see that Agent Daniels had gotten through safely but they still needed to get away as quickly as possible. If they remained there for too much longer it would give Rammun enough time to carry out his plans.
"Oh Agent Carpenter, Agent Grimm you don't know how happy I am to see you guys," said Agent Daniels as he stopped for a moment so that he could properly talk to Agent Carpenter. "You won't believe what's happening."
"Actually we do," replied Agent Carpenter as she slowly lowered herself in front of Agent Daniels. "I'm sorry but we don't have time to chat, we need to get out of here ASAP and rendezvous with Agents Rogers and Hackett. I'll explain everything on the way but right now every second counts."
Agent Daniels knew exactly what was at stake and he nodded to show that he understood. Immediately Agent Carpenter directed him in the direction that they needed to travel and they did not waste any time making ground towards the rendezvous point. The Sue clones were remaining behind so that they could fend off the infected people. But they were beginning to run low on ammo and creating any further clones would only produce rifles that were also low on ammo. But after several more minutes there was no ammo left and rather than become infected the Sue clones began to disappear one by one as they were being absorbed into a single body. Almost as soon as the two agents had begun to run a few of the Sue clones had also followed them so that when the clones were being absorbed they had a body to absorb into that was close to the agents. They could not be absorbed from a great distance so this was one limitation that Sue had with her abilities. But without the clones to fend them off the infected people began to chase the agents but they had already gotten a good enough head start to see them safely get away.
Meanwhile some distance away in the facility Agent Rogers teleported just outside one of the facilities many side labs. It was there that the company kept what they called the JR-259 serum that could repress the effects of the Jones serum in an agent. This lab was rarely used so it had been converted into a secure facility that would house the serum, the room's defences were top of the mark and it would be impossible for any normal person to be able to enter and take the JR-259 serum. But for an agent it would be difficult but not impossible depending on their abilities.
Thankfully Agent Rogers had extensive knowledge of the defences and security systems of the room since he had been one of the people tasked to install the equipment. Within the company he was one of the best techies around. It was one reason why he had been tasked to set up the terraforming equipment earlier that day but now it seemed like a lifetime ago. In the space of a few hours a normal day had turned into a living nightmare that he couldn't wake up from.
Jenny was sitting on his shoulder and she was very anxious to get to the JR-259 serum. She wanted everything to go back to normal as soon as possible but that would only happen if they succeeded in stopping Rammun. Due to her lack of size there was not much she could do to benefit the group in an all-out fight against Jessica. She did retain her normal strength but in comparison to Jessica's it was nothing. It was one of those times when she truly regretted being the smallest person within the company but she had used her size to her advantage on several occasions and she thought that she would be able to do it again.
Just outside the door leading into the old lab was a small device that was designed to register a person's fingerprint, DNA and heartbeat. It was a security measure so that whoever tried to access the room was the right person. It was needed the fingerprint of the individual, the DNA sample so that the device knew that it wasn't a forgery and the heartbeat of the individual so that it knew that a person hadn't just cut off the hand and used that. Only top personnel were allowed to enter the old lab and retrieve the serum but unfortunately neither Jenny nor Agent Rogers were on that list. If they were to try and attempt to gain access then a whole array of countermeasures would be initiated and it would only make the task even harder.
"Can't you just port us inside?" asked Jenny with some impatience. She wanted to get out of area as soon as possible because she felt vulnerable out in the open.
"No while the systems are online if I teleport inside then everything will be locked down and we'll get nothing," replied Agent Rogers. Normally he would have made time for some kind of joke but right now was definitely not the best time.
"So what are we going to do?"
"This is where you come into it my vertically challenged friend." Just to the side of the panel that registered a person's finger there was a minute gap. It was too small for anyone to actually get anything in there to try and hack the panel but it would not be a problem for Jenny. "I need you to shrink yourself further and climb into the panel. When you get in there I need you to pull out the red wire."
"What'll happen then?"
"The panel should deactivate and we'll be able to gain access to the lab without the security systems kicking in. But I don't pull any of the other wires, they could set the entire thing off and then we can kiss our hopes goodbye."
"Talk about pressure." She sighed for a moment as she prepared for what she was about to do. "Ok big guy I'm ready."
Agent Rogers gently grabbed Jenny off his shoulder and rested her in his hand. He moved his hand right next to the gap in the panel and he saw Jenny begin to shrink. It was an amazing process that would always bewilder him. Within seconds the three inch woman was nothing more than a speck on his finger tip and she entered the small gap. Inside the panel itself it was hard for her to tell which wire was which due to the lack of light. But she was still wearing her VSC device since she had recently been on a mission of her own and one of its many functions was a torch. It was one of the most basic functions of the device but it was also one of the most useful.
As soon as Jenny could see what she was doing she spotted the red wire that she was supposed to pull. It looked incredibly large in comparison to her and if she didn't retain her normal strength when she shrank she wouldn't have a hope of actually pulling it out. She took a couple of steps towards the wire and she had to step under other wires to get to it. She felt claustrophobic while she was inside the panel but her task was too important to give into any kind of fear. But to pull the wire she needed to increase her size slightly but this was not to give her any additional strength but so that she could get a better grasp of the cable itself. Her strength remained the same no matter what size she was.
With one mighty tug Jenny pulled the wire out and she could hear an electronic buzzing sound and she feared that she would be electrocuted if she remained inside for any longer. She quickly moved back to the tiny gap in the panel where Agent Roger's finger was there waiting for her.
Outside the panel Agent Rogers could see that Jenny had successfully pulled out the right wire and he could hear the systems begin to deactivate much like he anticipated. He had to wait for a few moments before the speck that was Jenny stepped onto his finger. As she began to grow she stepped towards his palm so that there was room for her and by the time she did she had reached what to her was a lofty three inches in height. She smiled and saluted Agent Rogers.
"Mission accomplished big guy," said Jenny. She felt as he grasped her again and he placed her on his shoulder. Unlike Jessica he didn't have any long hair so Jenny couldn't wrap any around herself for added safety. "Now what?"
"Now we waltz inside and pick up the serum," replied Agent Rogers with confidence. He knew that the hardest part of the mission was finished and now it would be easy for him to obtain the serum.
Within the lab lay a second door that required two keys to open that were carried by two individuals. Rather than try and find the keys it was much quicker and easier for Agent Rogers to simply teleport himself into the vault. He never liked having to blind teleport anywhere since he was afraid that he might materialise in a wall. If that were to happen he would basically fuse with the wall and the experience would most likely kill him. This was why he had only blind teleported on a few occasions and tried to resist performing the feat as much as he could. Sometimes much like this situation he couldn't allow his fear to overshadow what needed to be done. If he didn't blind teleport into the vault then any hopes of saving Home and the rest of the galaxy would be dashed.
The door that was in front of the two agents opened up after Jenny had deactivated the panel and Agent Rogers didn't hesitate in walking through it. He could have taken the front of the panel off himself and pulled the wire out but the panel itself was specially designed to detect anyone trying to tamper with it. This was the main reason why he needed Jenny to perform the task since if he had attempted it the systems would activate and they would not have gotten anywhere.
After several steps the agents came onto the thick doors of the vault. The doors were extremely thick and was made out of an alloy that was thought to be indestructible. Before it was installed the company had a few of the agents who had superhuman strength within their power set to test the durability of the alloy. All of the agents including Jessica, Agent Barnes and Agent Daniels couldn't break the alloy at all, none of them were even able to make a dent in it. The only thing that the alloy was weak against was heat but even then it had to be temperatures that were hot enough to melt the skin off flesh. It would be impossible for anyone to break into the vault and it was too specific of a location for someone to use a vortex to gain entry.
Agent Rogers took a deep breath and concentrated as he prepared to blind teleport. There was always the chance that he would reappear in a wall but he could not think about it. The fate of too many lives depended on him being able to get inside the vault. He had been inside before when the systems were being installed but he didn't know if anything had changed since it had been a few years ago.
Instantly Agent Rogers disappeared with Jenny on his shoulder and reappeared within the vault. Much to his relief he didn't reappear within a wall or a pillar but the pair were surrounded by darkness. He took a moment to be able to find the right button on his VSC device that would switch on the torch. When it did switch on around him he could see shelves of the JR-259 serum. The room was only ten foot by ten foot so it was very small but the contents were very valuable. There was enough vials of the serum to be used on more than three times of the amount the agents that were currently employed. He took a few breaths of relief after he had successfully blind teleported and it made him feel good that he was able to succeed.
"We're in," said Jenny still sitting on her shoulder. The effects of the teleport did make her feel uneasy but it was a feeling that would soon subside. "How many vials do we need to pick up?"
"A lot more than one," replied Agent Rogers. "The boss lady wants to bring a fair few just in case. Besides I'm not really sure that one vial will be enough to affect Jessica."
For this part of the mission there wasn't much that Jenny could do but sit and wait while Agent Rogers placed several vials of the serum within a small bag that he had brought along. The vials were made out of plastic, not glass so if they fell onto the floor they would not be shattered and wasted. It had also been cheaper for the company to use the plastic and since it had also been recycled it also helped the environment.
The JR-259 serum had only been created no less than five years ago and for many agents it gave them the opportunity to spend at least a short amount of time being a perfectly normal person. For some agents it was not that big of a deal for them since they still seemed to be perfectly normal. Other agents who abilities made certain parts of day to day life difficult accepted the serum and many of them had already used them. But the company had only given each agent one vial since the serum had no effect on anyone who had ingested it on two occasions. The second vial would always be kept by the company itself and saved for an emergency. Even Jenny had used her vial so that she could regain her lost height and for once actually have a chance of being the tallest person in the room which with her height had been quite often. Many times she had requested a second vial but each time her request had been declined. The company's policies were very strict and this was a matter that would always remain. In the time even a few rookie agents had been given the serum and many of those who had freakish appearances or difficult abilities had more than happily used up their vials already.
It only took Agent Rogers a few seconds to be able to pick up enough vials for what he thought that they would need. A couple of times he thought that they had enough but each time he would add a couple more until he had a dozen vials in his bag. Only then did he feel that he had enough, not only was his mind on saving the galaxy but also saving his best friend Jessica. Throughout their friendship there had been nothing sexual between them and they had been friends for a number of years. He could imagine how she felt about having her body hi-jacked by a soul as evil as Rammun. He only hoped that their plan would work and she would be free from him forever. All he did after obtaining the vials was to teleport out of the vault and to head towards the rendezvous point. He made sure that Jenny was safe on his shoulder before teleporting again.
Minutes later at the vortex generator area Rammun was still waiting for the scientist to calibrate the large vortex generator so that he could travel to another world. He was becoming extremely impatient and he sat down and glared at the scientist who seemed to be doing everything he could to speed the process up. The process needed at least two operators to be able to perform successfully and since there was only the one person doing it he was finding extremely difficult. The fact that he was working for his life didn't make him feel any better either. His heart was racing faster than he thought possible and he thought that he would suffer a heart attack at any moment.
Rammun thought that by now everyone within the building would be under his influence and that his former hosts would have little hope of stopping his plans. For the time being he had forgotten about the JR-259 serum since Jessica had so many memories that he had yet to scan them all. But he was quickly losing what little patience he had with the scientist and he slammed Jessica's enormous hand right down beside him. This caused a small tremor and only made the scientist jump in panic. It had only been a few centimetres away from him and if her hand had of struck him he would have been flattened like a pancake. He turned to look up at Rammun and he lowered Jessica's head so that he was right at his level.
"HURRY UP!" shouted Rammun. His breath was much like a strong gust of wind to him and he was absolutely terrified. "YOU BETTER GET THIS GENERATOR UP AND RUNNING OR ELSE NEXT TIME MY HAND WON'T MISS!"
"I-I can't," stuttered the Scientist. "There are supposed to be at least two operators to be able to calibrate the vortex generator. It's close to impossible to perform the task with just one, I'm trying the best that I can."
"TELL IT TO SOMEONE WHO CAN'T CRUSH YOU! I DON'T CARE IF YOU HAVE TO BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO GET IT RIGHT! JUST GET IT WORKING OR ELSE YOU WON'T LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE YOUR PLANET DECEND INTO THE CHAOS THAT WILL FREE IT OF LAW AND ORDER! JUST LIKE NATURE INTENDED IT!"
The scientist was still absolutely terrified with what was happening and he was starting to lose control of his bladder. Rammun could smell the urine but he didn't react to it. He had received Jessica's superhuman senses. He was about to motivate the scientist again when he heard a sound that was familiar to Jessica. It took a couple of seconds to realise that it was the sound that was made when Agent Rogers teleported. He looked towards where he had heard the sound and could see Agents Rogers, Daniels, Carpenter, Sue and Jenny. Sue had obtained another rifle and already she was beginning to multiply herself. Within seconds there were hundreds of her and the effort was nothing to her.
Rammun responded by standing up to his full height and looming over the group. He was impressed to see that the agents had not come under his influence but he thought that they didn't stand a chance against him. Not only did he have Jessica's body but he also had an in depth knowledge of the dark arts. He thought that it would be more than enough to overwhelm the agents and quash any plans that they had of defeating him.
The agents themselves were very nervous and they weren't sure if they were going to succeed or not. Never had they had to face anything like this and with the knowledge that billions or maybe even trillions of lives were depending on them it only made the situation that much more nerve racking for them. The agents were also armed with the JR-259 serum although for now they were keeping it hidden. Only the original Sue had a couple of vials since if it was cloned as soon as the serum left the cloned vial it would disappear.
"Ok team just like we practiced in the training room," said Agent Carpenter through telepathy to the agents as they looked up at Rammun's evil smile. Their fears would have to be put aside until the battle was over.