Before Jessica could say another word Agent Rogers teleported out of her hand. She knew that he was going into battle and she wouldn’t let him or Agent Rogers fight alone. Her body was going to take some punishment but she certainly wouldn’t allow her fellow agents to get hurt.
Jessica came out from behind the building that had been her shield and she began to swat away drones that were flying close to her. She was able to strike a few of them and send them falling to the ground where they were destroyed on impact. She could see that Agent Rogers was also attacking the drones, he was teleporting from one drone to the other and then knocking them so that they would fall. Many of them were able to recover before striking the ground but a few of them were not so lucky.
On the ground Agent Daniels was doing well against the tanks that were coming his way. Unfortunately a few of them were able to strike him and it caused him to falter for a moment. His healing powers were a great asset but it didn’t mean that he was in trouble. He knew that if this kept up he would be defeated. He even saw three tanks rolling towards him and he had yet to recover from the last attack.
Before either of the tanks were able to make a shot they were all destroyed by Jessica’s gigantic foot that stomped down right on top of them. It was rare that she would use such a technique for fear of killing someone. This was a fear that she didn’t have right now since she knew that they were merely machines and not manned. She saw Agent Daniels slowly get up to his feet and she could also see his body knitting itself back together after taking a lot of damage.
“Thanks big girl,” said Agent Daniels as he looked up at her. He gave a hand gesture which on Home was the same as saying thank you.
“No problem,” replied Jessica as she gave him a smile but she then looked in front of her and saw many more enemies. “This battle’s far from over, keep your mind clear and we might just get out of this alive.”
By then Agent Daniels’s body had recovered enough for him to carry on the fight. He ran towards some of the robotic soldiers and was able to clothesline their heads right off. It was not due to a weakness in the metal but how they were constructed together. Despite the fact that a pair of lost their heads it didn’t put them out of the fight. They were still able to fire at him but like Jessica most of the bullets bounced off him. He knew that they needed to be smashed before they were properly out of the fight.
In the air more than once Agent Rogers had almost been shot by one of the drones. Thankfully his teleportation abilities allowed him to stay one step ahead of them. Unfortunately like Jessica had said to him it would only take one hit for him to be down and out. He could see both of the agents taking out the army left right and centre while he was teleporting constantly through the air. A part of him really did want to have the same strength as his colleagues. Unfortunately that was something that the Jones serum hadn’t gifted him but he did have his teleportation abilities. Something that neither of them had and he would just have to use those to his advantage.
Agent Rogers did come up with an idea as he looked at some of the soldiers that had been destroyed on the ground. Some of their weapons remained intact and he could see himself using them to his advantage. Without giving much of a thought he teleported down to the ground right next to one of the fallen robotic soldiers. He picked up one of the machine guns that it was carrying before teleporting away.
He soon reappeared mere moments later on top of one of the larger drones. It was strong enough to support his weight and using the machine gun he began to fire at the other drones that were in the air. It was his way of dealing a decent blow despite the fact that he had the same strength as a normal person. Many of his bullets missed but some of them did strike true and they were strong enough to puncture through the armour of the drones. One by one they began to fall but these were only a small portion of the drones that were still flying in the air. It was going to be a near impossible task to take them all down.
Multiple times Jessica could feel the bullets striking her body. They were painful and she had to do something before she was struck enough to cause her serious harm. Her own healing powers were nowhere near as powerful as Agent Daniels so she couldn’t rely on herself healing quickly. She tried to think of a better strategy than just to smash every robot that was in sight.
She was able to come up with a possible solution but it would be somewhat risky and it required skills that were beyond her expertise. She figured that these machines worked on some kind of electronic field that allowed them all to function on one network. She thought if that network was hacked all of the robots would simply drop.
Just above Jessica Agent Rogers was still doing his best to try and destroy the drones but he was getting himself into trouble. One thing that he didn’t realise was that he was almost out of bullets. He was continuing to fight but suddenly he felt himself completely engulfed in Jessica’s hand as she reached up to grab him. Unfortunately in his surprise he had accidentally shot her a couple of times in her hand but they had done little damage to her as she brought him down to her level.
“Daniels keep them distracted for a moment,” said Jessica as she could see Agent Daniels who was still fighting the machines tooth and nail. He barely heard her as she quickly moved behind a building so that she had some cover.
“What are you doing Jessica?” replied Agent Rogers with a small amount of annoyance in his voice. It was one of the few times that she had ever heard him frustrated but she had no time to concentrate on that. “I told you that I’m more than capable of looking after myself. You don’t need to protect me.”
“I know but it’s not like that.” She took a quick sigh as she went to explain her plan. “These machines must work on some kind of network. A hive mind so to speak which makes them a more effective tool. Maybe you can use your VSC device to hack into that network and shut them down.”
“But our VSCs aren’t working. Remember we can’t contact out of here and believe me I’ve tried to open a vortex but it hasn’t worked.”
“That’s because you were trying to make a connection that was outside of the shields. It’s blocking everything come in and out but since the machines are already inside hopefully there’s something that you can do. I know that you have the skills that we need to stop this army before we get into real trouble.”
“I don’t know if I can Jess…”
“But I know that you can.” She interrupted him before he could say anything else. She didn’t want him to fall into doubt. “Teleport inside one of these buildings where you’ll be safe and then begin the hack. Agent Daniels and I will keep them distracted so that you can do what needs to be done.”
“But…” He still had his doubts but before he spoke he was interrupted by Jessica who didn’t want to hear it.
“No buts Pete. I’m counting on you to do this for me.” Agent Rogers knew that this wasn’t an argument that he couldn’t win. He teleported out of her hand and this allowed her to go back into the battle so that she could help Agent Daniels who was slowly becoming overwhelmed.
Jessica wanted to go full out on these robotic fiends. She didn’t have to worry about killing anyone since they there was no one around to harm and even if she accidentally hurt Agent Daniels he would quickly recover. The only thing that was preventing her from fighting without holding back was that she didn’t want to damage the buildings around herself. She had prided herself on being able to travel through the city without causing any damage. Once or twice she had accidentally caused some minor damage that the company did pay for but she didn’t want to destroy any buildings.
There seemed to be no end to the machines, it seemed that as soon as one was destroyed another would pop back up in its place before Jessica or Agent Daniels really had time to recover. Jessica was continually being struck by bullets and projectiles and for now she was still standing. She would be lying if she said that it didn’t hurt and underneath her white uniform there were bruises. It also didn’t help that the machines were hitting the same spots again and again which prevented her from recovering properly. It was one of the times she wished that she wasn’t so big, if she were a normal sized person she would be much harder to hit but due to her immense size targeting her was simple. She was just glad that she could still withstand it.
Inside a nearby building Agent Rogers reappeared and he quickly got to work with what Jessica had told him to do. He admitted that there was some merit to her words but he still wasn’t sure whether it would work or not.
Quickly he began to use his VSC device to try and hack into the machines’ control systems. He pressed a few certain buttons before a holographic screen appeared close to his face. This allowed him to see what he was doing and using his free hand he began to type away on the screen as he attempted this hack. The network was more complex than he thought and he knew that it would take all of his skills to have even a hope of breaking in. He might not be as strong as Jessica or Agent Daniels but he thought that his computer skills just might win them the day.
Agent Rogers tried every technique he knew to try and hack his way in but nothing seemed to be working. There was one technique that he hadn’t tried but he knew that it was difficult and the chances of success were relatively small. One thing he hadn’t realised was that his attempts had drawn the attentions of some of the drones that began to converge on his location.
For now Agent Rogers was unaware of this and just kept going with the hack. He could hear his own heart beating but he could also hear some of the action taking place outside. There was the sound of metal coming into contact with metal with the faint cry of pain by a woman’s voice. He didn’t need to be a genius to know who the voice belonged to and if anything it only proved to be a greater motivator for him. He didn’t like to hear anyone in pain, especially one of his best friends.
There was also another sound he could hear, it was a low humming noise and he thought that it was getting louder. This only made him feel even more nervous and under pressure and eventually the noise was so loud that he had to turn around. There he saw the two drones coming towards him and almost instantly they began to fire at him. He was able to teleport away before he was struck by the bullets. In his panic he teleported himself close by since he needed to see where he was going before he teleported.
It only took the drones a few moments to locate him again and they began to fire. Agent Rogers had to teleport again and for the moment he couldn’t continue the hack. He hoped that he didn’t have to start the hack over from scratch but right now his main concern was simply keeping himself alive. Unfortunately he had not brought the machine gun that he had picked up so for now he had no means of actually fighting the drones. All he could do was dodge their bullets.
For several seconds the drones fired at Agent Rogers and he had to keep teleporting just to ensure his own survival. It was extremely difficult to keep his composure but he did look out of a window and he could see another empty space in the building just across from the one he was standing in. Since he could clearly see where he was going he quickly teleported to the next building and he hoped that he had created enough space to keep himself safe for the time being.
Almost immediately Agent Rogers continued the hack and although he had lost some of his progress he didn’t have to start from scratch so that was at least a small victory for him. He did see a shadow come past the window and at first he feared that it was the drones but thankfully he saw that it was Jessica. She didn’t notice him as she continued what seemed to be the endless battle.
Unfortunately the drones that had been attacking him had noticed where he had gone and quickly made their way towards him. What terrified him the most was the fact that he could hear them coming. The low humming noise was their give away and it was a noise that would probably give him nightmares for the rest of his life. That was of course if he survived this encounter.
“Come on there has to be something,” said Agent Rogers as she was still on the interface screen. He was still trying to use every technique he knew but nothing was seemingly getting through to the machines’ network. He would often talk to himself when he was under stress. It was a way of him trying to calm himself down and focus on the task at hand. He knew what the price of failure was.
Agent Rogers heard the glass smashing as the drones made their way into the building. It was at this point that he found a way into the network. It was a technique that he hadn’t used for a while but as soon as he was on the network he immediately commanded all of the machines to shut down.
Within moments of Agent Rogers initiating the shutdown command the machines began to shut down one by one. The drones began to drop out of the sky as the other machines slowly grinded to a halt. He gave a huge sigh of relief as she saw that his efforts had been successful. He even began to laugh so that he could properly cope with what had just happened. He and his friends were alive.
Outside Jessica and Agent Daniels saw the machines shutting down and both of them stood there with a relieved look on their faces. Jessica even sat down with a loud thud which caused another small tremor. She was breathing heavily as the fight had taken a bit out of her and she looked down at Agent Daniels. He had sustained a few injuries but she could see that already he was healing over. She was glad that Agent Rogers was able to succeed in his task and she began to think that the battle was over. She looked down at Agent Daniels who was gently pushing over some of the machines that were still on their feet.
“Hey we won,” said Agent Daniels as he felt the rest of his body recovering from the battle. He was glad that it was over but he still had the problem with the fact that they were still stuck there.
“I wouldn’t be saying that just yet,” replied Jessica as she saw another blue light appearing before them. At this point she felt Agent Rogers teleport onto her shoulder as the light began to take the form of Omega. Once again it was the same size as Jessica but no one there really panicked since they knew that it was merely a hologram.
“Congratulations I didn’t expect you to actually come through that,” said Omega again with absolutely no emotion in its voice. “I had hoped that my army would have been more than enough to exterminate you but then again if it had been that easy my master would not have needed to create me.”
“Let us go right now and release everyone that you’re holding hostage.” Her voice was firm and somewhat angry. She was still not happy with the situation at hand and simply wanted it to be resolved as soon as possible.
“It would be illogical to release them but I see now that the only way that I can destroy you is if I do it myself.”
“The three of us against one of you?” replied Agent Rogers with some confidence in his voice. “You don’t stand a chance buddy.”
“I beg to differ.”
With that the hologram disappeared and mere moments later the agents saw another vortex open and there was a purple flash which they needed to cover their eyes from. When the light faded they saw the figure of Omega floating there. It was one thing to see it as a hologram but as an actual being floating right in front of them was something completely different. One thing that they noticed was that it was smaller than they expected. They had thought that it would have been around the same size as Jessica but to see that it was normal size made it look like less of a threat.
“This is going to be easier than I thought,” said Agent Rogers as he looked at Omega while it was slowly making its way down to the ground. He was filled with confidence but this wasn’t something that was shared by Jessica. Instead she felt a sense of dread as she knew that she was going to be in for the fight of her life.
After a few moments Omega did land on the ground right in front of Agent Daniels. Instinctively Agent Daniels did go to strike Omega and his blow did hit true it seemed to do no damage. If anything it had caused him some pain as he took a step back from Omega. This was the first time that he had ever punched something and there was no damage caused whatsoever.
“Tironium,” said Omega as if he could read Agent Daniels’s mind. “Virtually indestructible.”
Omega then raises its hand up into it was outstretched from its body. Before Agent Daniels could react Omega fired an energy beam at him and he gave out a cry of pain as he seemingly disappeared. This caught both Jessica and Agent Rogers by surprise who both thought that their teammate had just been killed right in front of their eyes. Jessica in particular gasped and covered her mouth in shock.
“No Jack he’s…” said Agent Rogers but before he could finish the sentence he too was struck by the same energy beam that seemed to come out of nowhere. Like Agent Daniels before him he gave out a cry of pain before seemingly disappearing into thin air. This again caught Jessica by surprise since he had just been on her shoulder.
“NO!” shouted Jessica as she looked at where her fellow agent and close friend had just been sitting. Her eyes began to well up as she thought that he had just been disintegrated along with Agent Daniels. She looked down at Omega who just stood there looking up at her. It once again showed no kind of emotion at all. “You bastard!” Her emotions were beginning to get the better of her as her normally calm demeanour gave way to absolute anger. “You killed them!”
With that Jessica kicked Omega as hard as she could and it sent it flying through a few different buildings. In her rage she had failed to notice that the kick had just broken one of her toes when she kicked Omega. She hadn’t even felt the pain and for a moment she thought that it was down and out. She was somewhat surprised to see Omega slowly flying back towards her but what caught her by surprise the most was the fact that it wasn’t even damaged by the impact.
“Impressive,” said Omega when it was around a hundred metres away from her. “That kick was the most powerful ever recorded on Home. I would congratulate you but as you can see the kick’s primary objective was not achieved.”
Jessica stood there for a moment in disbelief as she couldn’t believe that her attack had no effect on Omega whatsoever. She had never come across anyone who was able to take a hit like that and show absolutely no damage. Even Agent Daniels would have needed a few minutes to heal after that.
“W-What are you?” asked Jessica with much disbelief in her voice. There was even a hint of something else that she had not felt too often. This was the sense of fear as she thought that this might even be her last day. She was up against an opponent who might just be too much for her.
“I am an artificial intelligence created by Jarvis. My primary objective is to destroy you and those of your bloodline.”
“Jarvis? Bloodline?” This was when she realised that when Omega mentioned about bloodline it was talking about Dawn and possibly even Tucker. Something inside of her snapped as a new anger and determination took over her. This was not purely the desire to destroy Omega but a primal need to protect her daughter. She clenched her fist so hard that it did cause her a small amount of pain. “You won’t hurt her!” With that she went to lunge at Omega but it responded with an energy blast which was different to the one that had seemingly destroyed Agents Rogers and Daniels. The blast hit her in the shoulder and made her stop dead in her tracks. She could feel the pain coming from her wound and she needed to back away for a moment.
“Seems that my data was incorrect. I was lead to believe that you were more level headed than a straight up attack. Destroying you might not be as difficult as I first calculated but then again that will be most helpful.”
“Why are you doing this?” Some of her anger had faded away as she continued to nurse her shoulder. The blast has gone right through her uniform and attacked her directly. If not for her power boost a few years before the blast would have been strong enough to separate her arm from the rest of your body.
“My Master wants you dead and I was created to make that happen. I do not question his motives, all I am here for is to make sure that your destruction takes place. When I am done with you then I will move onto your family and after they are gone my objectives will be complete.”
“You’re not going to hurt my family!” Her rage began to increase and she began to forget the pain in her shoulder. She could see that Omega wouldn’t stop until its task was complete and she knew exactly what that meant. “I don’t care if you want to cause me harm, that’s what I’ve come to expect after becoming an agent but the moment you threaten either my husband or my daughter is the moment that I will show you no mercy.” Her anger was beginning to peak and yet she was able to make herself look like she was bottling it up. “By the end of this day you will be nothing but scrap parts under my boot and I will stand while you will fall.”
“The chances of my defeat are seven thousand, eight hundred and sixty two to one. Your strength is mighty but you cannot damage my armour, my intellect is far greater than yours and I am simply more powerful than you.”
“For a machine you talk too much.” She didn’t show even the slightest hint of fear in her voice at all. Many times she had faced foes who claimed to be more powerful than her and each one had fallen at her hand.” She clenched her fist again and from Omega’s reading of her body it could tell that she wasn’t lying.
“You have never faced anything like me.”
With that Omega unleashed another energy blast but this time it struck Jessica on the inner side of her right knee causing her to fall down to her one knee. It had known this was a particular weak point after looking over the data from the sham battle that Jessica had with his drones a few days before. All the data that had been collected allowed Omega to see where Jessica’s strong and weak points were located. It knew that bringing her down to one knee would give it a definite advantage but there was still the fact that it had to defeat Jessica and even kill her. This was something that it thought was going to be relatively easy but the truth was that it indeed was in for a good fight.
Jessica tried to get back up to a standing position but when she tried Omega would just blast her in the same spot again causing her to kneel down again. She wanted to try and smash Omega but the machine was just outside of her reach and just stood there for a few moments. It could see her winching in pain and in truth this was the most pain she had been in since she gave birth to Dawn.
One thing that Jessica hadn’t realised was that Omega had simulated this battle many, many times and each time it came out on top. Any plan that Jessica would think of Omega already had countermeasures against it. Omega had even alienated her from the other agents so no back up could be called in, there was no escape route and even if there was the off chance of Jessica somehow winning Omega did have an ace in the whole that would ensure its victory against her.
Once again Jessica went to get back up to her feet and Omega went to fire at her knee again. This time however Jessica was expecting this and was just able to move her leg out in time. She took the opportunity to once again kick Omega as she was just able to get close enough to it. Rather than going for distance she kicked him so that he would go straight up. She could still feel the pain in her broken toe but when Omega flew up right in front of her she used one of her powerful fists to knock it down right into the ground. The forces that were involved would have been enough to easily defeat any normal person or even those enhanced by the Jones Serum. This time however it didn’t work as she watched Omega simply pick itself back up and much to her horror she could see that it still had no damage whatsoever. It was almost more that she could comprehend and she truly began to fear that not only will she die but also her family.