“ Couldn’t stay away from me too long eh?” Jack said gloatingly , awake and staring right at him. He didn’t know how long him had been here but it was bad enough to be in here, let alone with Jack.

 Jack on the other hand delighted in seeing Michael in jail with him ,the jailer going to jail amused him to no end.

 “ I don’t give a damn about you Jack,” He grunted while looking around outside. No one, not even the cliched sleeping guard.

 “ God we’re fucked,” He stood up and ignored Jack, feeling his neck for the spot where the dart had penetrated his skin. It felt the same, save for a tiny scab.

“ I know, Jessica is here to get me,” Jack resigned himself to his fate. Michael looked at him like Jack was an idiot, what was he going on about?

“What are you talking about? Jessica ain’t here for you? She’s a distraction,” He said while looking through the bars.

“Distraction? I don’t get it,” Jack expected an answer soon, why and what did they need her for? And if Michael was in here, who was the mastermind?

 “ You don’t get many things and I’m not going to bother explaining it to you,” He looked back at Jack briefly, affirming his view that that brainless pretty boy wouldn’t need it.

“Oh come on, we’re both stuck here together, throw me something,” Jack pleaded to Michael.

 Michael turned around and leaned against the bar, sighing at the fact he had to be stuck with Jack of all people.

 “ At best we get rescued and nothing comes out of this. At worst,” His tone darkened as he felt an almost apocalyptic dread come over him, “ We have to learn Korean.”

*******

 “Jessica, I need you awake.”

 Jessica’s eyes pricked up as the voice roused her from her sleep as well as a constant nudge on her forearm. Her eyelids flipped up as her vision shifted from blurry to clear , the sight of her father in jeans and red and white checkered shirt shocked her system into full alert.

 “Papa!” Jessica rose up but instinctively covered her chest , her almost skanky outfit was not something she wanted to wear in front of her father.

“ How did you find me?” She asked him as they talked on the wide open field, the swamps were nearly impossible to sleep and Jessica wasn’t open to the thought of uprooting entire sections of it to make a suitable sleeping area.

As to how Wallace got to her, she spotted a small boxy blue car nearby, at least telling her he drove.

Wallace could see the worry written on his gigantic daughter’s face but he managed to project an image of calm to her. She needed it, after twice being shot at and having her home destroyed.

 “ It wasn’t as hard as you think, a twenty storey woman stands out pretty easily,” He chuckled , which managed to bring a smile on to his daughter’s lips.

“ Why were they shooting at me? Papa ,why does the company want me dead? Was it because of Jack?” She lay back down on her stomach, her hair flanking Wallace. From the bewildered look he had, she guessed he didn’t know much about it.

 “Only Lauren or Zoltan  could authorise that but I don’t know who did it or why. I do know you need to get Jack out, he’s being held at Rockford Camp.”

 Jessica’s reaction was both a reflex and one of utter disgust,  “ No I’m not, I need to know why I’m  homeless. You need to take me to Lauren or the Colonel, explain to them I did no wrong, it was all Jack’s fault!”

 Jack, the mere mention of him was enough to upset her. Rescuing him would be out of the question.

  “I got the information from Michael but he isn’t picking up his calls, his phone appears to be off. Jessica,” His voice shifted to an almost sage like voice. Jessica tensed up as she knew what was coming.

 “With great power comes great responsibility,” Wallace said , amused Jessica mouthed the words to his most overused line since she grew.

 “ I know the line but what trouble is he in? He probably deserves it too, the little douchebag. Got himself nearly killed by wild dogs and that’s after he got himself thrown overboard. I saved his little butt twice already, don’t need to make a third!”

Wallace shook his head, looking at her with a stern gaze, “ You know that’s wrong, the boy isn’t smart enough to know what to do. Rich guys like him probably have had everything handed to them, he’s only now realising how hard it is to make it on your own.”

“Papa, he is a pain in the butt. Plus I’m no superhero, you don’t lock up a superhero,” she said with a bitter undertone.

 “ So if I am not a superhero, what am I?”  

Wallace wished she hadn’t asked that. She could have asked it at any moment, in the 10 years since it became clear she wasn’t an ordinary person, when her strength and size exceeded that of any human before her.

 But she did not, as if afraid to know the answer.

“Papa?” Jessica called out to him while he was lost in his own thoughts.

“What am I? An experiment? Some sort of next generation soldier?” She asked, dreading the answer but she couldn’t go back, her curiosity had been piqued.

 “ You really want to know?” He asked , even now he felt guilt over what he did.

 “Yes but,” she raised one finger up to stop Wallace from answering, “I am probably a super soldier.Like a bigger Captain America.”

 “That’s more or less correct. How long have you known?” In hindsight, he realised it wasn’t that hard to guess ,what with all the military personnel involved, no effort was made to hide the officers and men from her.

Jessica shrugged, the confirmation of what she was actually had less impact than she thought. Not the earth shattering kind that made her life flash before eyes, leading to some final catharsis. No, she was almost apathetic about it.

  “ I guessed the answer, plus why would a Colonel get involved? It is mighty fishy. But why me? Why did Leighton choose me out of all the people they could have used?”

Wallace gave her a look, part guilty but also relief, she wasn’t too sure why he would be relieved.

“They didn’t. I chose you, you were so sick,” His lip quivered as he spoke.

 “ That you had nothing left but to use your own work to save me?” Her lips curled into a ‘O’ shape in surprise, that part she hadn’t expected.

“ Yes, I watched you everyday go for chemo while we waited for a bone marrow donor but as time went by, we knew that wasn’t coming. Your mother and I couldn’t stand to watch our only child wither away in bed. We need a cure and I had one.”

*********

June 1998

Wallace sat in the room, silent as he held the syringe in his hand; the only sound coming from the hacking coughs from Jessica, only six and already she flitted between life and death. By her side were various machine, hooked up to her to monitor her vital signs while she slept, the occasional beep in between her coughs.

 Her bills were costly but it was nothing compared to the emotional strain placed on him and Maria.

 He held the syringe up against the moonlight filtered through the gossamer curtains, the cool sea breeze causing it to flutter.

 A clear liquid was all that was within. It had been easy to pilfer, just announce a bad batch and send it to be destroyed. He had put in great thought but now, just seconds away from saving her, he stopped, his conscience had seconds thoughts.

 He had seen the serum’s work on the veterans they brought in, some missing a limb or full control of their muscles and all of it had come back, even regrowing limbs. Curing cancer was a whole other ball game on its own but there was hope.

His own thoughts were interrupted by a howl of grief from the master bedroom, Maria crying herself to sleep again. These crying sessions were becoming more frequent as Jessica’s own condition worsened.

“So it’s settled then,” He muttered to himself and quietly walking over to Jessica. She had lost a great deal of hair , nearly bald as the remaining strands of hair provided a sparse covering.

 Good, he thought, she could sleep despite the coughing.

 He prepped the needle, squirting a little of it out as he checked for air bubbles before finding a spot on Jessica’s tricep, gaunt and pale. The vein was easy to find as he pricked her skin, Jessica’s own body tensing up.

Her face scrunched up in pain but she didn’t wake as he pressed down, injecting her with what he hoped would save her life.

******

“So that’s why I had a little red dot on my arm in the morning. I always thought it was a mosquito bite” Jessica said as it finally became clear.

“But why am I so...vertically gifted?” Jessica pressed on, leaning in closer to Wallace, he was one of the few people she could do it to without the usual hyperventilating and screams that followed from being so close to a face as tall as a two storey house. She wasn’t sure how to feel right now, neither anger nor grief came to her.

  Wallace peered into her eyes, unable to make out her thoughts so far. He chuckled to himself, “ I wish I knew. We tested your blood but we couldn’t find anything.”

“So what did you find out? Apart from super healing like Wolverine, I survived being bombed!” Jessica thumped her chest with her fist proudly but also thankful her own body had saved her from certain death.

 “ Oh?” Wallace’s eyebrow curled into a convex shape, “ What else did you learn?”

“Uhh...I’m strong like a Saiyan, got the whole ‘what doesn’t kill you makes stronger’ thing since the same missiles couldn’t budge me in Miami…” She gently picked up Wallace, holding him close to her. Which is when she realised something was amiss. Wallace was smaller, had he shrunk? No, people didn’t shrink like that.

 You idiot, she thought to herself. If he didn’t shrink, you grew! Damn , she grew, would it happen again? She definitely did not want another.

 “ I might be bigger, you were about as big as my thumb but now you’re smaller than it,” She was shaking a little from the thought, she didn’t wish to get any larger.  Learning at 17 that she had stopped growing was a milestone for her,another growth spurt would lead to more trouble.

 “ I-I,” Wallace was at a loss for words, the virus had never been so independent in other test subjects.

 “It seems Ambros has a mind of its own. When you got hit by the missiles, it might may have told the body to go beyond repairs but to improve; making sure you wouldn’t be hurt so badly by the same weapon again.”

“Ambros? You named the thing you injected me with?” Jessica gave Wallace a strange look but he had done more eccentric stuff.

Wallace cracked a sheepish grin, his hand passing over his face, “ Okay it seems bad now but at the time it seemed like a good idea, we called it Project Olympus.”

“And you made a Titan. How many rules did you break to make me?”

“Too many for my liking. Some of those could get me a life sentence in jail  but I’d do it again if I had to,” Wallace replied as he leaned against her thumb, Jessica doing her best to keep him on a horizontal plane.

“ No jail could hold you, I’ll break you out; I promise,” Jessica declared , Wallace couldn’t help but be filled with warmth from hearing that, he couldn’t have been prouder.

 “I’m touched , I really am,” He placed his hand over his heart but he had more pressing things to address.

“But you could start with breaking Jack out, that poor little man shouldn’t be a part of this. I’ll call Zoltan, get him here. He might know more,” Wallace reached for his pocket but Jessica pushed her pinky against her pocket, preventing that from happening.

 “Where will you go after this? You can’t stay with me , it’ll be too dangerous. Will you head back to the apartment?”

 Wallace shook his head, “ I can’t , I have to go into hiding”

“How will we see each other? I never liked the fornightly visits but I can’t stand the idea of losing you forever. You’re all I have left!” Jessica almost cried at that last line, holding back tears as her throat ran dry and a lump formed as she imagined life without Wallace.

 “Don’t worry, I’ll find you again. I’ve never abandoned you, not when Ambros made you an Amazon and certainly not now or ever,” he assured her while patting her pinky.

Jessica understood what he was signalling for and retracted her pinky , Wallace grabbing his phone to make the call.

“Hello? Zoltan? I found Jessica, you can come get her.”