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  A month passed and nothing of any real interest had taken place at Park Incorporated. After ending the prison riot things had gone back to normal. It was one routine day after another as the agents went through missions and training exercises. Jessica was no different as she was going through another training session but this time she was an instructor rather than training herself.

  Under her watch she had three junior agents. One of them was Junior Agent Anderson and the others were newbies like her. The second trainee was a young man named Junior Agent Hammond who was a tall man with a relatively skinny frame. He had fair hair and brown eyes along with a slightly crooked nose. He had the ability to manipulate water in ways that were almost unheard of. He had a lot of potential but for the moment he was a novice. The final trainee was a young woman named Junior Agent Lister who had the ability to create three dimensional holographic images. She was a woman of colour and she was relatively short with long hair and what many would consider to be a nice figure. Each of them had only recently been given their powers so they were still learning and it would take a few of them a long time to master their abilities.

  Jessica too looked a little different. She still wore the white uniform that she had been wearing for some years but she had also cut her hair. It was not long anymore or wavy and this time was cut much shorter. It was just short of reaching her shoulders and she had it straightened as well. She was just trying out the new look but as she loomed over the trainees in the training room she truly looked like a goddess before them. Hammond was a little intimidated by her and although everyone knew that she was a gentle giantess he knew that it was somewhat likely that an accident could occur.

  For now the training room was plain as no real program had been activated. For this session there was no need for it, instead the basic training room was all that was needed. Even so there was still a scientist in the control room who would watch and document everything that was done.

  “Ok guys the objective of this training sessions is very simple,” said Jessica as she looked down at the trainees. They were some distance away from her so that they weren’t in her dreaded blind spot. “All you have to do is to get from this side of the training room to the other. One rule is that all of you must reach it or else the whole group will fail the session. There is also going to be a three minute time limit so you better not waste any time.” The trainees found this odd since it would probably take them seconds to get to the other side of the room. “Your time starts now!”

  The trainees started off from their positions and quickly made their way towards the other side of the room. They didn’t think it was going to be all that difficult since it was only a short run but as soon as they reached where Jessica was standing she slammed her foot right in front of them. This caught them by surprise as they jumped back for the moment. They all looked up at Jessica and she had a stern look upon her face. She knew that to be an effective teacher she had to be somewhat tough on her trainees and she knew not to go overboard with her strictness.

  “Oh and I forgot to mention,” said Jessica as she crouched down. “It’s my objective to make sure that you don’t get across.”

  At a speed faster than anyone anticipated Jessica’s hand came down and grabbed Junior Agent Lister before standing back up to her full height. The other junior agents seemed to ignore what was going on and just ran to the other side of the room. Jessica didn’t try to stop them but while she had Lister in her hand she didn’t need to stop them to ensure that they failed the exercise.

  It only took the other junior agents to get to the other side of the room. At first they didn’t realise that Lister had not reached the other side. She was still in the hand of Jessica who didn’t intend to let go of her until the exercise had finished. The pair looked over at Jessica who stared back at them for a few moments before making a point that she was holding Lister.

  “I have your teammate,” said Jessica. She did make sure that Lister was perfectly safe in her hand. The last thing that she wanted to do was harm her captive. “Remember unless all three of you reach that wall none of you will pass this exercise.”

  The two junior agents realised that the only way that they could get Lister across to the wall was to make Jessica let go of her. They knew that it would be a difficult challenge, they had heard rumours about Jessica’s strength and fortitude so making her let go of Lister was going to be difficult.

  Rather than working together Anderson and Hammond ran towards her and they weren’t sure exactly what they were going to do. Anderson wanted to use her intangibility powers to try and phase Lister out of Jessica’s hand but it was obviously out of her reach. Hammond just wanted to blast Jessica with water until she let go but for now he wasn’t very competent with his powers so when he tried to blast her it had minimal effect. To her it was like being sprayed by a weak water pistol.

  Instead of fighting them Jessica just stood up and took a few steps back. This created a bit more room between her and the junior agents. It also wasted a bit of time and she knew that time would run out very soon. Her only objective was to make sure that they didn’t succeed and she could already see faults in what the junior agents were doing. She could see massive room for improvement.

  The two junior agents ran towards where Jessica had moved to but before they could get close she slammed her foot on the ground making them stop in their tracks. Lister was in a somewhat panicked mood while she was in Jessica’s hand. She had never been handled like this before and she didn’t realise that Jessica knew exactly what she was doing and that Lister was in no danger.

  “Time!” stated Jessica. This was a clear indication that the time limit had expired and that the training session had come to an end. She placed Lister on the ground next to her fellow junior agents who had also stopped what they were doing. She didn’t have a very happy face as she knelt down and crossed her arms. “Now can either one of you tell me why you failed the exercise?”

  “Because you made it hard,” replied Junior Agent Hammond. He wasn’t happy with what had just happened.

  “Yes I did make it hard but if it were easy you wouldn’t learn anything.” She gave a sigh. “Even if it were hard you still could have succeeded if you had used one advantage that you had over me.” She gave another pause to see if any of the junior agents realised what she was talking about. “The answer to your problem was teamwork. You call worked as individuals rather than one unit and in the field that could get you hurt or worse. Only by using teamwork could you have any hope of succeeding. Hammond rather than using your powers to attack me you should have used them to more effective means, Anderson could have phased Lister out of my hand if she could reach. Your water blasts could have propelled her up to my hand. Anderson, you should have realised this when you figured out that you couldn’t reach my hand. You could have used that to your advantage but instead you squandered it. And finally Lister, just because I had you in my hand didn’t mean that you were defenceless, you have power of your own and you could have used it to create your own escape. Only working as a team do you have a chance.”

  “How did we stand a chance against you?” replied Junior Agent Lister as she felt that the exercise was impossible.

  “I told you, through teamwork. “Only through that could you have any chance of success, You might think that I’m some kind of all-powerful being but believe me there are agents more powerful than me and if I were to face a team I wouldn’t stand much of a chance. You three could have completed this exercise if you had worked together. An agent may be powerful but as a team they are truly unstoppable. Because you didn’t succeed I want you to go and do theory work for the next hour on the importance of teamwork. After that we can give the exercise another try.”

  The junior agents sighed and they wanted to complain but they knew that their complaints would fall on deaf ears. All they could do was give another sigh as they walked off towards another of the training rooms. This time rather than physical exercises taking place there it was reserved only for the theory work. On Jessica’s instruction there were already exercises on teamwork present when they arrived and they had to sit down and go through it in its entirety.

  A part of Jessica did feel guilty about not going easy on them in the training exercise but she knew that if she was soft she wouldn’t be helping anyone. She did want to see them succeed and she knew that the only way that this could happen is if she was stern with them. Everything that they were learning could save their lives and the lives of others one day. She felt that it was too important to go easy on them.

  She also had some free time on her hands so she decided to take a break. There was an area of the complex where she could sit down and relax for a few minutes. She had been working for several hours and she really needed a rest. As she sat down she was used to brushing her hair back but as she did she remembered that it was now shorter than before so it would take a bit of time to get used to it.

  The area that she was in was commonly used by agents to have a rest and there were refreshments already there. Unfortunately there were no refreshments that would satisfy her but she did bring her own from home which she used. She was drinking a large canister of juice and eating a cake which was nothing more than a snack.

  “Hey Jess,” said a female voice. Jessica began to look around but at first she couldn’t see anyone. Then she looked down by her right side and saw what looked to be a tiny speck on the ground.

  “Hey Jenny,” replied Jessica as she brought her hand down to the ground. She made sure that her fingertip was right next to the ground for the tiny woman to climb onto. When she had finished Jessica carefully lifted her up and brought her up to her eye so that she had a clearer view of her good friend. To anyone not used to the pair they would think it impossible that a person who was only a few inches tall could communicate to someone who was around one hundred and fifty feet in height. Thanks to Jessica’s above average hearing and Jenny’s louder voice such a thing was possible. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing much. Just been on a mission and now I’m just having a bit of down time. What have you been doing today?”

  “Just training some of the junior agents. Unfortunately they still have a long way to go.” She took a quick sip using her free hand before she continued talking. “They’re not working as a functioning unit yet and in the field if they’re not careful it could get one of them serious hurt or worse.”

  “Oh come on Jess they can’t be that bad. Everyone has to start somewhere and they’ll learn in time. When I have Junior Agents I make sure that they know everything they need for the field and no exceptions.” Jessica knew exactly what Jenny was talking about. It was no secret that Jenny was extremely strict when it came to training the Junior Agents. Despite the fact that she was only a few inches tall she could still be very intimidating. She knew that she definitely wouldn’t want Jenny as her drill sergeant. One thing that Jenny did notice was that she had changed her hairstyle. “Nice hair Jessica, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it that short before.”

  “Thanks and I thought I could do with a change. Tucker and Dawn really like it so I think I might keep it for a while at least. At least now I don’t have to worry about tying it back for missions.”

  “Oh yeah how is Dawn anyway?” Jenny was genuinely curious about Dawn since she did love her as if she were her own niece. Dawn would even sometimes call her Aunt Jenny although she did have some difficulties seeing her.

  “She’s fine right now. I’m going to be starting her in school soon.”

  “That might be difficult for you Jessica. One of the hardest thing a new mother has to do is sending their kids to school for the first time.”

  “It won’t be that difficult.” She was trying to put on a brave face but there was some sense to Jenny’s words.

  “Don’t kid yourself Jessica. Your little princess will be under the supervision of people that you don’t really know and she will be interacting with kids her own age, probably for the first time. It can be quite scary for someone like Dawn and I know the last thing you want is to see her upset.”

  “It’ll be fine don’t worry.” Jessica was telling this more to herself than to Jenny. She had been worried about sending Dawn to school, not really for the safety of Dawn but for everyone else. There was no doubt that Dawn would be the biggest and strongest person there and if she wasn’t careful someone might get hurt. She had always told Dawn to be careful around other people due to her size. The giant little girl had taken in her mother’s advice but on more than one occasion she had almost injured her father or anyone who was trying to supervise her. “Dawn knows that’s she’s bigger than everyone else and I’ve taught her to be careful.”

  “I hope you’re right I really do.” Jenny was showing concern and Jessica was glad to have someone like her not just as a fellow agent but also as a friend although there was little chance that they would be able to swap clothing.

  “Anyway how are you? I’ve heard that you’ve actually hooked up with someone and for once it is not just for sex.”

  “Well a girl’s gotta settle down sometime.” She gave Jessica a smile. “I was telling you that I was waiting for the right man to sweep me off my feet. Well I think I’ve found him and the fact that he has certain advantages does help.” Both women giggled a little at her joke. “But still I think I truly have met the man for me. He doesn’t think I’m fragile because of my size and he seems to genuinely care for me. I don’t know if this is fate or if I’ve just gotten extremely lucky.”

  “Hopefully he is the man that you say he is.” She had an evil smile on her face. “Tell him if he breaks your heart I’ll break him.” Her tone of voice suggested that she was joking and didn’t genuinely mean what she was saying. This made both of them giggle a little and it just showed how close they were despite the enormous size difference.

  “Oh you won’t have to do that. I can break his heart from the inside.” This got another giggle from the both of them and it could be disturbing for someone listening if they weren’t in on the joke. Moments later the laughter died down and the pair knew that they would have to cut the conversation a little shorter than they would have liked. “Anyway I’ve still got some work to do so you don’t mind just putting me down?”

  “I can carry you if you want.” Her tone of voice had returned to normal and she did show some concern. “It’s certainly going to be faster than walking.”

  “Nah I’m fine but thanks for the offer anyway.”

  With that Jessica lowered her extremely tiny friend towards the ground and slanted her finger slightly so that Jenny could get off safely. She watched as Jenny moved away and she was surprised to see just how fast she could move. It was easy to think that because Jenny was so small that it would take her a long time to get from A to B. She was one of the fastest agents in comparison to their body sizes. Only the agents who were gifted with super speed could move faster than her in comparison to their body size.

  Jessica finished off the rest of her break before getting back up and going back to work. At least for her today was going to be a relatively short day so she could go home earlier and see her daughter and husband. She only hoped that something didn’t happen to prevent her from going home.

  For the next couple of hours Jessica went through her work which included a small bit of training and even a routine mission to a planet just to give it a test. This planet was mainly covered in lush jungles with inhospitable deserts on its equator. There was some activity going on there that Park Incorporated wanted to monitor. They weren’t sure if they needed to step in yet to prevent a near cataclysmic event from taking place.

  The trip did somewhat remind her of when she used to take Tucker with her when he was strictly under her supervision. She knew that he would make some kind of comment about the planet which would make her laugh. He would want to do some exploring since he would be the first human on this planet. If his own people knew how many planets he had visited they would probably hold him higher regard than Earth’s most infamous astronauts. Alas this was an accolade that had eluded him.

  Just before Jessica planned to travel back through the vortex she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck. To a normal person it would have felt that they were stung by some kind of insect. That was however impossible for her since she was too big for any insect to sting her and without giving much thought she turned around to see three small drone like objects flying a few metres away from her.

  This caused Jessica some confusion since there was no intelligent life on this planet and the closest planet to this one which had intelligent life was too far for their technology to reach. She was just about to speak when all three of the drones began firing at her. She quickly brought her arms up to her face so that she could try and protect herself but she could feel the shots striking her body. They were not causing any damage since the laser like bullets were not strong enough to cause her any real harm. It was the same as if someone was simply taping her.

  It took her a few moments to get over her confusion before she moved forwards to attack the drones. Went to swat them away as if they were insects but she was surprised with how fast they could move. They were able slip through the spaces of her fingers and they continued to fire again. None of the attacks were hurting her at all they were still an annoyance for her. She just wanted to get rid of them as soon as she could.

  Jessica moved back a few steps before extending her arms again to try and swat them away. This time however one drone wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way and it was destroyed the instant that her large and powerful hand came into contact with it. Immediately it broke up into pieces and fell to the ground.

  If the other drones knew what had just happened they didn’t show it. They were just firing at Jessica but one thing that she found odd was that they were firing at different parts of her body. She had no idea why they were doing this but she was still strong enough to withstand them without really getting hurt.

  Before Jessica could attack again a canister of gas was fired at her head and it ignited mid-air to create a cloud of fog that she couldn’t see through. As she breathed in the gas it caused her to cough uncontrollably. It took her longer than she would have liked to admit to blow away the gas. When she blew it was like a hurricane was coming through and the gas soon dissipated.

  As soon as Jessica’s vision was back she prepared herself for another attack but she was surprised to see that the drones were gone. She had no idea where they were and she frantically looked around for any sign of them. Unfortunately for her there were none and as she looked down she couldn’t even see the debris of the drone that she had destroyed. This was all extremely confusing for her but suddenly she heard a beeping sound. She looked at the VSC device on her wrist and the beeping sound indicated that there was an incoming transmission. Quickly she pressed down on one of the devices many buttons and brought it close to her mouth.

  “Agent Snape can you hear me?” asked a voice that came from the VSC device. It was one of the scientists who was monitoring her mission.

  “Yes I can hear you,” replied Jessica as she took a few breaths. “You won’t believe what just happened to me.”

  “What happened? We lost your signal there for a minute or so there.” There seemed to be some concern in the voice of the scientist.

  “I was attacked and I don’t mean by the local life forms. Something if significant technology attacked me and now they’re gone.”

  “That is strange. There was no indication that you were being attacked before we lost your signal. It must have taken place during the period that we couldn’t monitor you. Do you have any idea what attacked you?”

  “They seemed to be drones but I was able to destroy one of them. They attacked me and then escaped me. I don’t know how they got here or where they went but whatever they were here for I think they got it.”

  “Its best you return to HQ immediately. Abandon the rest of your mission and return as soon as possible. HQ out.”

  The device went silent as the conversation had come to an end. She was more confused than ever but she could understand that it was best for her to return to headquarters. She had completed roughly half of her mission but as commanded she would have to leave the rest and complete it at a later time.

  Jessica pressed another button on her VSC device and mere moments later a vortex large enough for her opened. She didn’t hesitate in stepping through it and she felt the familiar feeling that she felt when travelling through the vortex. She was still very confused with everything that had happened. She thought that it could have been possible that the drones were some kind of defence mechanism that was put there by a race of beings many, many years ago. It would explain their sudden appearance but not their disappearance. It was hurting her head just thinking about it.

  Meanwhile in the undisclosed location the two remaining drones appeared and they landed on the ground right next to the figure that was Omega. It felt indifferent when it saw that one of the drones had been destroyed but it still had its data. It picked up one of the drones and almost in an instant it transferred all the data contained on the drone back into itself. It was the final piece of data that it needed.

  It was at that moment that Doctor Newman entered the area. He seemed to be out of breath and there was some sweat on his brow. He had not had a shave or a haircut in the last month so he had some relatively thick facial hair. The only reason why he was still there was because he was still some use to Omega. The man had completed the task that Omega had given him even though it almost got him killed. He was now wanted by several law agencies on Home but not to Park Incorporated since nothing he stole belonged to them. A couple of the items he had acquired through legal means while some of them he had to break the law. If not for his own intelligence he would have been caught relatively quickly.

  Doctor Newman had just been carrying out a few more tasks that Omega had given him and these included the material that he had helped acquire. He had given instructions on how to construct the items into what Omega wanted. It had taken him some time but he had just finished what he had been tasked to do.

  “You’re back,” said Omega although he didn’t turn to look at Doctor Newman at all. This creeped the man out somewhat but he was able to keep his cool. “Were you able to finish the task I set you?”

  “Yes I did,” replied Doctor Newman as he was still somewhat trying to catch his breath. “Everything is in order.”

  “For someone who is not of my calibre you have done well. I can now see that my creator was wise in picking you.”

  “But you can’t be seriously considering using those things.” There was some distress in his voice as he spoke. “Do you know how many people could be killed?”

  “Affirmative but if everything goes to plan they will not be needed. My primary objective is to destroy Agent Snape by any means necessary. If that requires the deaths of those that you would deem innocent bystanders then it must be done. Your role in this is pivotal and you have been well rewarded for this and will continue to receive future rewards upon completion of Agent Snape’s destruction.”

  “That’s the thing I don’t really want to see Agent Snape get destroyed. I might not be too particularly fond of her but I still don’t think that she should die.”

  “That is unfortunate.” Omega needed no time to process what had it had just heard. “Of course that means that you will have to be terminated so that you cannot compromise what is being set in motion.”

  “Did I say that I didn’t want to see Agent Snape dead?” He began to laugh nervously as he took back what he had just said. “I mean let’s go and kill the bitch.” He hoped that this would save his life but he couldn’t tell how Omega would react since he showed absolutely no body language at all.

  “Good, now I have all the data that I require. It is time to ensure that my creator’s final plan comes to fruition!”

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