After David is caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, his entire life changes in ways he never could have expected. This is a fan fiction taking place in the Whateley Universe.

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I slowly looked around, feeling a cold knot forming in my stomach. It had been bad enough when Jackie and I had just needed to escape from the Liberty League, but now we were completely surrounded by the MCO as well. Agent Owens stood there with his SWAT gear, along with another eight agents who were similarly dressed and heavily armed. However, on top of that, there were six more MCO agents in their power armor, two of which were in different models of armor than what I’d seen before. These two power suits were about twice the size of the other ones and looked much more heavily armed and dangerous.

“Surrender now,” Owens called out on a bullhorn. “You are all under arrest. Get down on the ground with your hands behind your heads.”

“We have the situation under control,” Force Majeure called out to them, obviously angry at the MCO’s intrusion. “We were just taking Pinball and her associate into custody…”

“Get down on the ground, mutants” Owens repeated firmly. “You are ALL under arrest. We will not allow you to further endanger human lives. This is your last warning.”

“Stand down,” Force Majeure yelled at Owens. “We’re operating under the authority of the FBI. You don’t have the authority to interfere in this operation.”

One of the MCO agents who was standing beside Owen smirked and said, “It looks to me like the mutants are resisting arrest.”

“Oh shit,” I gasped in realization. “This is NOT good…”

“You can say that again,” Twist commented from a short distance away.

“Oh shit,” I repeated with a forced smile, trying to cover my fear with a joke. “This is NOT good.”

Owens looked over everyone present with a cold firm look in his eyes. When his gaze settled on me, he sneered faintly, showing that his dislike of me had definitely become personal. A moment later, he called out, “Take them into custody.”

At that, most of the MCO agents began to approach, weapons drawn and pointed at the heroes as much as at Pinball and me. Jackie and I both formed our force fields and started to take off but the MCO agents opened fire.

“Oh no you don’t,” Twist exclaimed, teleporting inside my force field and grabbing hold of me again.

Jackie slammed into one MCO suit of power armor and then ricocheted off to slam into one of the larger ones. I ended up dropping my shield as I traded punches with Twist and got my butt kicked again. I didn’t know where she learned to fight, but she definitely knew how to do so a LOT better than I did.

“Just leave me alone,” I yelled as I managed to shove Twist off of me again. I staggered back to my feet, barely getting my force field back up in time to protect me from MCO gunfire. I gasped and muttered, “All I want to do is get to Whateley so I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore…”

Twist got back to her feet a short distance away from me and stared at me with a look of surprise. She looked like she was about to come at me again when she noticed one of the MCO power suits approaching. With a scowl, she turned and fired a blast of energy at the power suit and was quickly caught up in the fight with the MCO, giving me the opening I needed to escape.

I was about to make another run for it when I saw one of the MCO agents taking aim right at the Bronze Lady’s back. With a grimace, I formed a force field around her, just in time to keep her from being shot from behind. She snapped around in surprise and confusion, though I dropped the force field a moment later so she could shoot back at her attacker. I created a new shield around one of the power suits and used it to fling him right at one of the other power suits.

“Chester, come here,” the Bronze Lady called out.

A moment later, a bronze clockwork spider that was nearly four feet tall scampered up to her and then it crouched down. The metal spider’s back opened up and the Bronze Lady reached within, pulling out a new weapon. It looked sort of like a steampunk version of a grenade launcher.

“Thank you Chester,” she told the spider. “That will be all for now.” And with that, the spider scampered away, at least until one of the power suits opened fire on it and blew it up. The Bronze Lady suddenly looked very angry. “You horrid brute…”

The Bronze Lady opened fire with her antiquated looking weapon, firing some kind of sphere at the power suit which exploded into metallic netting that wrapped around him. She then began opening fire on the MCO agents in SWAT gear, taking out each one she hit.

At the same time, Adonis was fighting hand to hand with one of the large power armors and Force Majeure was trying to take out one of the smaller power armors. Super Star was flying in the air, going hand to hand with one of the smaller power suits, then she slammed it back towards the ground.

“You fools,” the Gentleman cried out angrily. “We had the villains contained…”

He pointed his cane at the other large suit of power armor and called out something in a language that didn’t sound the least bit familiar. Suddenly, the armor shell began to crack and crumble away, revealing the baseline human MCO agent who’d been piloting it from within.

Jackie bounced around the battlefield, hitting one power suit, knocking over several men in SWAT gear, and rolling over a car and briefly going airborne, only to land on the head of another power suit. I watched her with a sense of amazement and pride, determined that I was going to follow her example. With that, I summoned one of my smaller spheres and sent if flying at the MCO agents, hitting one, then bouncing it off and sending it flying at another. My single sphere bounced all around the battlefield under my control, smacking into nearly every MCO agent present. I missed about half of the time, proving that I still needed a lot of work on my control, but I hit enough of them that I felt like I was actually contributing to the fight.

I was a little confused at the realization that Jackie and I were actually fighting right alongside the same heroes that we ourselves had been fighting just a few minutes ago, but the MCO had proven themselves to be our common enemy. The MCO didn’t seem to care that the Liberty League was working with the FBI, only that they were mutants. I suddenly wondered how I ever could have bought into that their propaganda or believed their TV show was actually how things really worked. One thing I’d definitely learned lately was that the good guys and the bad guys weren’t necessarily who I’d previously thought.

Suddenly, there was a flash of red light and Adonis screamed and fell to the ground with a large hole right through his chest. A second blast of red light caught Jackie, sending her flying back where she smashed through several cars with her force field vanishing before she came to a final stop.

I stared at Jackie in desperate fear, then quickly looked around for the source of this attack. Several of the MCO agents were operating some sort of energy cannon that was set up on a tripod. They were aiming at Jackie for another blast, one that was certain to kill her if she didn’t have her bubble up.

“No,” I cried out, throwing a bubble around Jackie, just in time to prevent her from behind hit by the blast, though a single shot was enough to knock my bubble out.

Then I felt a burning pain through my thigh and dropped to the ground with a scream. I grimaced, already knowing that I’d been shot. It felt the same way as when I’d been shot in the shoulder, and when I looked around, I saw that it came from the same source. Agent Owens had a gun pointed right at me and he was taking aim for another shot.

“Oh no you don’t,” Jackie yelled, staggering towards me with one arm hanging limp and her face being covered with blood. When Owens fired, she jumped between us, taking the bullet instead.

“Jackie,” I cried out, trying to get back to my feet.

“I’m fine,” she told me with a wince and a forced smile. “Bulletproof uniform…” Then after a moment, she admitted, “But not bruise proof. And I think that hit back there broke a rib or two…”

“I don’t think so,” Super Star cried out, suddenly landing next to the energy cannon just as they were about to take another shot at Jackie. Super Star grabbed the cannon and threw it right at the back of one of the MCO power suits. “You aren’t killing anyone else…”

Twist suddenly appeared beside Owens, tearing the gun out of his hand and then punching him in the face. He snarled and punched back, but she was obviously a better fighter and easily blocked his attack.

“Hitting an agent of the MCO in the course of his duties,” Owens started, looking almost pleased, probably at having another excuse to be able to go after mutants legally.

“No,” Force Majeure exclaimed as he grabbed Owens. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Adonis, interfering with an FBI sanctioned operation, and several more counts of attempted murder…”

Owens just gave him a look of disdain, then said, “Don’t pretend for a moment that he was an innocent, or that any of you are. You mutants are a danger…a threat to real humans. I know all about those sexual assault charges your friend managed to slip out of last year. You can all pretend to be heroes all you want, but I know better.”

“I think it’s time for us to go,” Jackie told me with a grim look. “Before they remember we’re here.”

“But you’re hurt,” I reminded her, wincing at the pain in my own leg.

“Tis but a scratch,” she joked, wincing as she did so. “Besides, I’ll heal. We just need to get away from here first, and I can’t bring up my shield again yet…”

I nodded at that, not sure that I had enough energy to bring my force field back either, though I was damn sure going to try. With a bit of effort, Jackie and I were surrounded in my golden bubble and then we began to take off.

“They’re escaping,” the Bronze Lady called out in warning, firing a short at my force field though it bounced off without harming us.

I flew Jackie and me away from the parking lot as fast as I could but Super Star called out, “I’ll get them,” and flew right after us.

“Take her out,” Jackie told me. “I’ve got an idea.”

With that, Jackie had a look of concentration and I suddenly realized that she’d formed her own force field bubble right inside of mine. I understood what she was doing so dropped my bubble and formed a new one around Super Star, caging her in place. Without my bubble holding us up, Jackie and I fell to the ground, but her bubble absorbed the impact and we continued racing down the street like a couple hamsters in a ball.

“That won’t last long,” I reminded Jackie. “Once I’m out of range…”

“We don’t need long,” Jackie told me. “We just need an opening.”

Jackie pulled us off the street and into an alley where she dropped her bubble. She dropped to her knees with a wince, obviously in a lot of pain. I could certainly sympathize because my leg hurt like hell and I wasn’t sure I could really stand on it much less run.

“Stay hidden for now,” Jackie told me firmly. “Once it’s safe, make it to the rendezvous and I’ll meet up with you there.”

“What?” I asked in surprise, feeling just a little hurt. I suddenly remembered my Mom’s expression when she turned me over to the MCO and couldn’t help but feeling that sense of abandonment again. “You’re leaving me?”

Jackie put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “No, I’m leading them away from you. I’ll meet up with you again once I’ve lost all pursuit…”

I stared at her, suddenly feeling more worried for her than for me. “But you’re hurt,” I protested. “You’ll never get away from all them…”

Jackie chuckled at that, then gave me a grin. “I’ve been doing this for a few years now and know a couple tricks to help me get away. Trust me, I’ve still got an ace…or at least a jack or two up my sleeves.”

“But,” I started to protest again, though I wasn’t sure I even had a specific argument. “I don’t want them to catch you,” I told her, grabbing her in a hug.

“Don’t worry about me, kid,” Jackie told me gently. “You saved my life back and got hurt because of it. I’m not about to risk you any more than I absolutely have to. I’ll take the danger on this bit by myself, but you have to stay safe.” Then she gave me a smile and said, “You’re my little sister now. It’s the least I can do.”

I reluctantly nodded at that, then asked, “You promise you’ll be back?”

“I promise,” she agreed.

I suddenly thought of Becky and how she never trusted a promise unless it was properly sealed. I grinned and asked, “Pinkie promise?”

Jackie chuckled at that, “Okay. Pinkie promise.”

We crossed fingers to seal the promise, then Jackie moved back and reformed her force field. “Be careful, sis,” I called out to her. “If you don’t meet me there, I’ll tell Emily you were staring at that blonde waitress back at the diner.”

“Anything but that,” Jackie joked as she began rolling away. “She’ll never forgive me for not bringing her pictures…”

With that, Jackie was gone, leaving me bleeding and alone in an alleyway. I winced in pain, knowing that I’d heal from the gunshot, but that there was still a chance I’d bleed out. I tore my shirt to make a bandage, focusing on my problems one at a time. Bandage my leg so I didn’t bleed to death. Get to safety so I had a chance to heal without getting caught. Find food since I was starving and was really going to need the calories and nutrition for my healing. And of course, I’d have to find my way to the rendezvous point to meet up with Jackie.

Just then, Super Star’s voice called out, “Now where did that Pinhead go…”

“It shouldn’t be difficult following her trail,” Twist responded as she appeared at the opening to the alley.

My heart stopped as Twist turned and looked down the alley…and straight at me. I was too hurt and drained to fight her anymore, but it appeared that I didn’t have much of a choice. Her expression was grim and she just stared at me for a moment before nodding slightly.

“She obviously went his way,” Twist said, pointing down the street where Jackie had gone. “See the trail of dented cars?”

Twist and Superstar hurried after Jackie, leaving me stunned and confused. Twist had definitely seen me, but instead of trying to take me in, she’d actually let me go.

“I’m just a little fish,” I reminded myself with a grunt of pain as I slowly got back to my feet. “She threw me back and is going after the big one.”

After bracing myself to deal with the pain in my leg, I began hobbling my way down the alley, away from where Twist and Super Star had just gone past. Twist might have chosen to throw me back into the lake for now, but I didn’t want to take a chance that she’d change her mind and come back.