You know it always amazes me as to how much I don't know about my own home world any more. I mean I honestly believed that after spending quite a bit of time here, that I thought I was brought up current on everything. I never knew how wrong I was till the day that it hit home, though not my actual home, but the city that I lived in, that's how close it got.
I had been down in the lab when Amy called me over the in-house com-link. "Alex there's something up here that you need to see, I'd patch you in, but you have no connection to the TV down there." She stated.
I went back upstairs to see what she was talking about, and I noticed that the news was on, and normally I wouldn't really care about that, expect that the image on the screen was the front of the Junior High School right here in Martinez, and there was two men dressed in tight fitting black suits with full facial masks standing in front of the place, this was not something that should've been happening.
"Ah what exactly is going on here?" I asked.
Amy looked at me. "The school is being held hostage right now, and given that this is the middle of the week, there's a full school right there, and the students and the staff are trapped inside. The police have tried almost everything, but so far there's no way to get in."
I looked at what was going on and I knew at that point that we were going to have to intervene. "And they won't be able to either, we're going to have to go, we need to find out a way into the place and see if we can take care of everything that's going on. I already know for a fact that the police chief isn't going to like that either." I stated.
Within five minute we were heading out the front door and I stopped just shy of the steps away from the house, Amy and Alexis turned back to see me just standing there looking down at the pavement. "Come on, we've got to go." Alexis stated.
I looked up at them and smiled. "And we will."
"So why are you moving?" Amy asked.
"Because you haven't, so move already, but both of you come back towards me please." I told them. They both came towards me and stood next to me. I watched as silently the ground that they were standing on opened up and revealed a car coming up from the ground. "Ladies, I bring you A.M.Y." I told them, as a 1997 blue Pontiac Firebird came to a rest level with the ground around it.
Amy and Alexis looked at it and walked slowly towards it. "Wait, I thought that she was still on the other world?" Alexis said as she rubbed a hand over the car's body.
"And why did you name her after me?" Amy asked.
I smiled. "Originally I didn't, but when I realized what the letters stood for Automatic Manual Yearling, I realized that she was A.M.Y., however it wasn't till after I had realized that that I added the voice to it." I explained as we got into the car.
Along the way over to the school I explained everything about how she came to this Earth and what all of this world mean. Which for you dear reader I shall get into much, much later. When we arrived at the school, there was something that was going on because even the Police Mobile HQ unit was there. "OK this really isn't good if they happen to be there." I said as I put on my suit.
We got out of the car and walked over to the police officer that was standing right out in front of the door to the mobile unit. "So what's going on?" I asked him.
The police officer gave me a look of disdain which I had pretty much come to expect from just about all of the police these days, after all I didn't work with a badge, however at the same time, I refused to work with a gun either, the only reason why one person had ended up in the hospital was because of a self-made energy blast that I had hit him with in the first place.
The officer didn't say anything to me, he just opened up the door said something inside and then back out closing the door. I could tell these guys really hated me. A second later the door opened back up and the police chief stepped out. "Ninja, we weren't expecting you to show up for this, but then again it seems that if there happens to be something major in this city or county, you're never far behind in dealing with it. Well I hope you don't mind if the other officers here don't much happen to like you being around. Personally I don't either, but I tolerate you because of the good work that you're doing so far, and I mean so far." He said as he started walking towards a van that was parked nearby. "After all you haven't killed anyone, at least that we know of."
I didn't bother to answer him, this was something that they were going to have to get used to, after all part of the reason for wearing the mask (besides protecting who I was), was making sure that they never knew what I was going to be doing next. Once we got to the van, the chief opened the side door that was when we heard a couple of people actually say quietly, "Oh shit, not them." We turned around to see a black sedan car roll to a slow stop, along with a white van right behind them.
The ones that stepped out of the car were those that seemed to come right out of a spy movie, all dressed up in suits, and these were the kind of people that weren't used to at all taking no for an answer. I knew right then that this entire thing had hit a scale that was beyond the local level, this entire thing had hit federal level, and from what I had found out there was something that actually had happened while I was gone to need to create something called Homeland Security, something that I still hadn't been able to figure out yet. Of course the one thing that I didn't figure that I would be needing to do was to ghost hack their computer systems.
The one that was the head of this detail came over to us, and in a world that happens to be mostly male dominated, it surprised me when the lady that was with them spoke first. "I would like to know who among you is in charge, and the ones with the masks can remove themselves from here or find themselves under arrest, and trust me if you want a fight then my men will be happy to provide you with one that you will not be able to handle." She stated.
The Chief looked at her. "I'm Chief Peterson, how can I help you, and how is Homeland Security needing to be involved in this?" He asked.
Since I wasn't about to move in any way, she only looked at me and then gave the ever so slightest nod and then tried to move the chief away who only stood still, I could tell that he noticed the order as well. The order had been one that made the ones behind her move towards Alexis, Amy and I, they really had no idea what in the world they were in for in the slightest.
The first one tried grabbing me but discovered that I moved slightly faster than he did, I know that the lady wanted a resisting arrest charge so that they could formally charge us, however that wasn't going to happen. I moved towards her, and the guy grabbed my arm and tried to throw me back against the van. I say tried because before he knew it he was reversed and up against the van himself long before he realized what was going on. "Please do me a favor lady and tell your people to back off. I don't give a rat's ass what training they think they've had, the place that I got my training from, I spent so much time there that it could make these people think that they've still got white belts. Trust me, with what's going on here, you're in my city and my county and as it goes I protect it all, which means that whatever is going on here I will be finding out about it. You've already tried hacking into my computer system three times, and each time you've bounced off with barely a ripple of getting into the system. There's a reason for this, and that reason is one that I could share with you, no I won't give you the program dealing with it, but I will tell you how I did it in the first place. Just back them off, now." I told her.
The lady could see that I had the guy in a firm but unmoving grip, something that none of them would ever be able to pull off at all. She raised her hand and the others stopped and backed off. I let go of the one that I had been holding and even he stepped away. "Now tell me how our best hackers can't get into your computer system. Since you suddenly appeared, our number one priority has been to get access to your computer system, and yet the fire wall that you have installed is nothing like they've ever seen before, why is that?" She asked.
I faced her and looked her right in the eyes. The one thing that I loved about wearing a full face mask with eye lenses that they couldn't see through was that she couldn't see any of the ticks that my face was giving away right then and there. "You're still working with binary, ones and zeroes, I've been to worlds that no longer even use that, other Earth's if you will that not only no longer deal with that kind of programming, but the speed of their computers is years to light years ahead of yours here. I've used that programming set up to create my firewalls to make sure that none of your people can ever get into the computer and see things that they're not supposed to see at all." I told her. "Now, why is Homeland Security so interested in this, after all, you guys are under the control of an idiot, and still won't fully deal with roaming terror, and yet this lit up on your radar like nothing else. What's really going on here?" I asked her.
"The only reason why we happen to be here in the first place is because those that have taken the school hostage are not from these shores at all. However some of them may actually be from here, we don't know considering the masks that they wear like you. You wear a mask and yet you're not doing a damned thing with them, why is that?"
I looked her over and then looked at the Chief. "I take it that you've already tried several times trying to get into the school several times already, and yet you've met up with resistance several times at every chance that you've taken?" I asked.
The Chief knew what I was doing and nodded at me before answering. "Ah yeah, we've tried every entrance that a man can fit into and believe me, we haven't been able to get access to any of them at all yet. There's always either someone guarding that location or they're nearby, either way no one's getting in there." He said.
That was the one thing that I knew was wrong. "You're wrong on that, after all you're not thinking like a kid, like someone that would not want to be here yet wants to come back for hat ever reason. There's always one kid that wants to come back, and when you find that one kid, the one that can't be here for some reason, then you know that you've found the right person there. So tell me Chief Peterson, who's not here today. After all we've got someone that couldn't make it here for some reason. Who is it that couldn't be here today?" I asked.
