Chapter Three - "The Four go to Washington" Our first direct contact with the United States government did not go well. We did not expect it to. They had every reason to be afraid. The news had been getting worse. More and more incidents involving MetaHumans none of them good.
There was a group of FBI agents at the TV studio when we did the first Press Conference. They would probably have tried to talk to us after we were done if Speed had not run us past them.
Every college that Psyche visited had agents of someone or the other. They applied for positions, they took jobs in hotels, it was a massive effort. For her part Psyche spotted them instantly and choose not to engage in the least.
She told Speed to do the same and for once he listened.
So it was at the still unnamed home base in Wyoming were we had our first official contact with the US government. Three weeks after the Press Conference.
Four suburbans full of FBI agents arrived. They were waved through the front gate and into the parking lot in front of the Admin building. The agents in the lead car entered the building, flashed their badges at the Staff, and asked to see the four of us. They were shown to the main conference room, we were called.
We met them in costume of course.
They asked us to remove our masks of course.
I said "No".
"We are Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, here under the direct orders of the President of the United States of America. You will remove your masks and identify yourselves. Now."
"We,” I pause to raise my hands which crackled and glowed with blue energy, “are superpowered MetaHumans, any one of us could kill all of you before you could even blink, and we say... No. Next request?"
“We know you you are.” gotta give them credit they had guts.
A laugh and “No they don't” from Psyche
I crossed my arms across my chest and waited.
They conferred, radios were involved.
"Your presence is requested for a meeting in Washington DC. The details are in this envelope. This meeting is in three days."
"A meeting with?"
"The President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, most of the Intelligence community and representatives of Congress. We do take you guys seriously. We... apologize for any rudeness."
"We accept. You will be shown out."
That was not so bad but it was a taste of things to come.
The location for the meeting was on the outskirts of DC, in a largely commercial area. The actual building was only 3 stories and seemed to house a number of politics-related businesses.
We arrived on time, and caught only a couple of stares as we walked into the building. A polite young woman was waiting for us, she escorted us to a waiting area. Much like the green rooms of entertainment there was food and drink available.
We did not touch any of it.
After about 10 minutes the same young woman appeared to walk us to the meeting. As the doors to the actual meeting room were being opened Psyche and I looked at each other.
"Nobody?" I asked.
"Nobody." she replied.
I had felt a great deal of normal energy inside from a lot of display screens. But no people.
And that was how it was.
Four Chairs, for us it seemed. and two tables pushed together to form a wide V. Arraigned facing us were nine large screens. The President in the middle, someone in uniform on his right. On his left what could only be a Senator. The other screens were filled with mostly men and two women.
Looking at us.
They were scared and I did not need Psyche to tell me that. Forgive me but I was feeling smug. Powerful and smug, bad combo.
"Please sit down, make yourself comfortable. Would you like something to drink?"
This came from the President.
"Thank you Mr. President we are fine"
We sat. Even Speed. I am pretty sure this meeting was the longest I have ever seen him sit in once place. The President introduced each of the people on the monitors. I was impressed, this was the core of the US government, except for the Supreme Court, everybody was represented.
Then he launched into the real reason for the meeting. They recognized both the great potential, and great danger, that our powers represented. Ok, good so far.
He felt that our call to other MetaHumans, and our willingness to stand up for what is right commendable, but not enough. Hmmm...
This danger, this risk, was the province of the government of the United States. uh oh.
He eventually finished with a question.
"So what do you think can we work together?"
My turn.
"Mr President... we are glad you recognize the potential danger that MetaHumans represent. We anticipated your offer and must respectfully decline."
"So far we have seen a wide variety of abilities among MetaHumans. Some are simply a little faster, a little stronger, than the norm."
"We four are different and we can only assume there are more just like us out there. Even if we wished to do so we cannot place ourselves under your control. We are responsible for what we do with our powers and we must decide how they are to be used."
"So we make you a counter-proposal. We wish to have our lands in Wyoming, and all adjacent federal lands, declared the independent Sovereign territory of Olympus. Using the model of native American reservations this is not impossible."
"In return we will take responsibility for all MetaHuman activity. Those that break the law, who take life, or who plot to impose their will on others will be our concern. "
"We will work with you we will not work for you."
"If you choose to reject our offer we will leave the United States and set up operations elsewhere. This would not be our preferred choice since three of us are American citizens.”
“But what we are now is bigger than any country."
"We are going to change the world Mr. President. Work with us and the United States will be the first to benefit from what we can do. Reject us and you will only be coming to us later."
"The bulk of the MetaHumans in the world seem to be located in North America. Without us life here might get rough."
I stopped because Psyche was speaking to me, fast intense words. She was white.
"They have six of us in a lab. They are... They are. Testing them. hurting them. Oh, god. They are not criminals They have not hurt anybody. We must help them!"
"You can read them? They are just faces on a screen."
"So? They are two floors up... all of them. Surrounded by pretty much the entire Secret Service. They are terrified of us and will do anything, anything, to gain any level of control." she hissed in reply.
Turning back to the face of the President I resumed.
"You have Six MetaHumans in a lab in Maryland."
I always was the direct type.
"It is a clinic. We are not certain they are not in fact ill. Since it is obvious you know I will not bother to deny it. We are doing what we feel we must. This could easily become a battle for survival and if it does I intend for the human race to win." the President shot back.
"These are not criminals you have no right to hold them."
"We have every right and we will do what we have to do. I find your question a little offensive. What right do you have to question me? I am the President of the United States of America!" he was getting hostile now.
I just looked at him. My force field came up, it slowly intensified until the light from it was blinding.
Amplifying and twisting the sounds of my voice I rumbled.
"The world has changed. It is time for you to accept that and us. You have our offer."
"And Mr. President this form of meeting is an insult. Please do not repeat it."
A wave of my hand and all the monitors and every other electronic device in the building fried. A few nice sparks but nothing movie quality. I allowed my forcefield to drop away.
We walked out of the building meeting no resistance whatsoever.
Psyche asked “Olympus?”
I responded “It needed a name -- good as any.”
Psyche whispered, “Zeus walks again.”
On the way back to the Hotel we were all quiet as we thought about what had just happened. Had I just told off the freaking President of the United States?
Six of us as lab rats. The President can wait.
I touched my earpiece "Speed get in the car".
Door pops, wind howls for a half second, Speed is sitting beside me.
"yeah boss?"
Speed always talks in blurts, there really are no spaces between the words. There is also little tone variation, a question sounds exactly like an exclamation. So to make it readable we will add spaces and leave off the rest.
"Recon the hotel before we get there. Examine every person in the place. We will be evacing as soon as we get our stuff together." I ordered.
"Psyche, call home. Locate a hotel 100 miles away from this 'clinic'. That is your evac point Speed. Recon the clinic as soon as you can. Psyche you can direct him?"
She nodded and continued talking to Central.
"Got it?"
"yes boss. we done for now."
"Yes."
Wind, slam, gone.
"Central has the hotel set and will send the location to Speed. We are going to get them."
She was not asking you understand. At least she was not asking the obvious question.
"Do we have a choice? Do I have a choice? No.” I said, rather calmly I wish to add.
“I have to live with myself. What people choose to do voluntarily is one thing, force is another. I will not allow our kind to be treated like animals. Consequences be damned. You people want me to be Zeus, fine, we are getting them tonight." I finished.
She smiled.
Midnight. 1 mile south of the lab facility in western Maryland.
It was rather isolated, as least as much as something can be in a heavily populated eastern state. The three of us walked down the road towards the complex.
When history is made you really do not feel it. We knew what we were about to do might start a War -- a MetaWar. When MetaHumans fight a lot of others get hurt there was no way around that. The four of us were about to commit federal crimes. That was not a relaxing thought either.
The US military was set up and waiting. Two massive Abrams Tanks sat just outside the main gate. Multiple layers of the fine troopers of the US Marine Corps were alert and focused.
Helicopters buzzed overhead. An Apache prowled. They really are beautiful things.
Right after Speed dropped us off we saw the first copter. It was a ways off but hard to miss.
Psyche said idly, "Do not worry about the helicopters they will not see us until you wish them to. Neither will the marines. They are mostly nice boys."
I was surprised, that was more power than she had displayed at that point. How little I knew back then.
"You can do that?"
"bossplease"
She speaks like Speed when she wants to express annoyance with me.
So we walked down the middle of the road marveling a little at the big mechanical birds that could not see us. Getting hit with a searchlight still creeped me out every single time.
We walked until we were inside the cleared forest area of the facility. Interesting how it had this huge outer ring of open space. At about 100 feet from the monstrous noses of the Tanks we stopped.
"Speed"
He arrived.
"Everybody get ready. Time to play."
"Psyche if anything goes wrong stay within touching distance of me. As long as you are close I can shield you from anything."
She nodded.
"Everybody ready"
"oh yeah"
"Yes", from Psyche.
"Sure, if I had anything to do," from Thor. He was feeling grumpy.
"Ok, here we go."
I reached out to the electricity around me. It was an easy matter to find the incoming power sources and short them out.
The complex went dark.
I pointed to each of the three helicopters in turn. Gently I 'tugged' on their electrical systems. I did not short them out well not quite anyway. I sorta pulsed them until each in turn bugged out or landed.
"Psyche start sending them to la-la-land."
We all began to walk forward. Well we walked Speed vanished.
Starting with the troopers in the Tanks they all fell deeply asleep. Psyche really is something.
The front doors of the main building were massive. Thor really wanted to rip them down. But since that would not be in line with the plan, he was turned down when he offered, again.
He did get to pry them open, without power they were rather stuck. I could have powered them open easily but I did not mention that. Thor got to pry open 6 other doors that night. Every one of the MetaHumans was locked in a vault. No not a cell, a vault, thick walls, padded walls, it was ugly.
They were all in bad shape, Speed evaced them, gently he promised, back to our hotel where people were waiting.
The desire to reduce the place to rubble was almost overpowering.
In case you were wondering -- I did not.
Sorry if you were expecting a battle. Three years ago we could not admit we had done it. This collection will be the first time that this information has been made public.
We returned to the Hotel and back home.
There was no doubt we had crossed the final line. None of us knew what was going to happen, but we did know we would see it through together.
At least home had a name now... Olympus.
Pulsar, Psyche, Thor & Speed MetaWar Chapter Four MetaWar Chapter One MetaWar Chapter Two