#3

 Janet woke up in a haze, in a cave, in the middle of the Amazon. She couldn't move, she couldn't act, or even think clearly. She was only a passive observer in her own body. She was tied to a chair in the middle of the cave, facing the entrance. At the entrance to the cave stood an armed guard, to keep her from getting out, or anyone else from getting in.

Outside of the cave, Philip sat, holding his tablet-computer with a satellite antennae. He was in a video conference with Rebecca, the acting president of Redmond Enterprise. Philip worked with Redmond Enterprises as the director of their "Project NOVUS": a top-secret division dedicated to the research of "novus" particles and developing their application in the macro-realm.

"I noticed that you brought my particle re-constructor with you, on your little trip to the Amazon."

"All to your benefit," he said. "I have found a new energy signature here, which I am looking to reconstruct. It will be useful back at Project NOVUS."

"Listen Philip, we need you working here with us. You are spending too much time with your own company and these global excursions."

Philip chuckled, "You will never find a replacement for me. I run the Project from everywhere. I defy you to find me one person in the world who will be able to take my place. Is that all that you called me for? I'm busy."

"You've been taking a lot of our equipment lately. You've used our carbon-fiber material to make your indestructible trench coat. You have our energy field projectors, the energy pistol."

"All things that I've compensated you handsomely for, and this will be no different. I'm researching a new energy signature, which we can find application for back at the lab."

"We will discuss this, when you are back here tomorrow. And if you are not back here, we will find you."

Philip only smirked at Rebecca's empty threat. He turned off the tablet, and entered the cave. Standing in the entrance of the cave, his figure was masked in the shadows. Only his menacing grin could be seen.

In the center of the cave sat Janet. She was in a hypnotic trance, unable to move or use her powers. There was a spotlight-esque device pointed at her, the particle re-constructor, scanning her sub-atomic particles, to reconstruct a replica later.

He couldn't believe that Doc had succeeded in creating a synthetic superhuman. Philip had tried many times and failed. Finally, he could create his own synthetic superhuman, to sell on the black-market.

As the re-constructor powered down, he pulled up a chair next to Janet. He pulled in close, uncomfortably close. Right next to her ear. She would have killed him if she wasn't in a trance.

"When I leave, you won't remember any of this," he said.

Her face remained in a trance-like state.

"What is the thing that you want more than anything."

She, of course, didn't reply. He pulled out a bright light, and shined it towards her. Not enough to blind her, but enough to see her face.

"All right, let's begin the questioning."

He whispered in her ear, and watched her face for sub-conscious expressions. She never verbally responded, but he could read her face like a book. He asked a methodically selected set of questions, to find her own psychological pressure points.

*****

Zack landed in the middle of a small village, to find huts ablaze, and Janet standing in the middle of it all. Villagers ran in panic, but one stopped as he unfortunately ran right into Janet. Her eyes were dead, but couldn't be seen through the sunglasses. She pointed her hand at him, as it began to glow. Zack fired a concussive blast at Janet, sending her flying backwards. The poor villager ran away. Now Zack had Janet's attention.

She flew straight into Zack, who emitted a force field to protect himself from an impact that would have otherwise knocked the wind out of him. Zack expanded the force field to an orb surrounding him. Janet continued to barrage the orb with energy blasts. Zack could see that her eyes were dead inside. There wasn't the life in them that there usually was.

Her whole body started to glow. She was about to project a destructive blast that could level the whole Amazon. He projected his force field around her. The explosion was contained. However, the oxygen inside the orb was quickly used up. Janet passed out on the floor.

"Alright Doc," Zack said, "take us up."

Zack grabbed Janet and they disappeared in a flash of light.

Tales from the NOVUS Universe #2

 "I've spent months setting up a global teleportation system, but it would seem that someone has hacked into it," Doc explained to Zack and Janet.

"Who else knows about it?" Zack asked.

"Only my former colleagues at Project NOVUS. I stopped working on the teleportation system when I started working here full time."

"So all someone at Project NOVUS may have had access to the system?"

"Yes, I abandoned the project because it was too big of a risk to the user and to the environment. Whoever it was who you saw, they must have completed the system. Janet, you are saying that you don't remember how he looked at all?"

Janet shook her head. Her memory had been wiped clean, and the soldiers didn't get a good look at the man shrouded in shadows.

"So, how does the system work?" Zack asked.

"It's a network of satellites which can locate an object on the ground, and then rearrange those atoms, replacing them with atoms from the destination. One of the negative side-effects though, is the radiation."

"My quantum vision didn't pick up any traces of radiation at the site," Janet replied.

"That's fantastic," Doc exclaimed, "that means someone has found a way to overcome that problem. We've got to find out how they did this. I can re-purpose the system for our use."

"So, you can't give us any narrower fields as to who might have done this?" Zack asked.

"Unfortunately no," Doc replied. "Our best bet is to search for the satellites. We can start with the ones that I built. It's possible that our mystery man is using them."

*****

Janet floated through the vacuum of space in her energy bubble, towards the first satellite, which sported the label "Redmond Technology". She flew in circles around the machine, scanning it with her quantum vision. "It seems like it's been active all right," she said on her earpiece.

"Over here too," Zack chimed in from another satellite on the other side of the world.

"Fantastic!" Doc exclaimed. "Janet, can you attach the device to the satellite?"

Janet took out the flat tablet-device with the antennae, flew to the bottom of the satellite, and inserted the tablet into a port on the bottom. The tablet passed through Janet's energy field and connected right into the port.

"Ok," Doc said "now I can hack into the system."

Just then, a bright light came from the bottom of the satellite, which engulfed her.

*****

Janet found herself in the Amazon jungle, face to face again with Philip Phoebus. His appearance was once again shrouded in a trench coat, sunglasses and hat. He sported a goatee, surrounding his menacing grin.

"Remember me?" he asked.

"I found him guys," Janet said on the intercom.

"Is Doc listening? Tell him that I said hello."

At this moment, Doc began to look for a trace on Janet's earpiece, and Zack started flying towards her. Janet threw the first punch, which Philip blocked and countered, landing square on her jaw. While she was down, Philip reached for her ear and grabbed the earpiece. He threw it to the ground and crushed it with his steel-tread shoes.

Janet projected a dome energy-field and expanded rapidly, sending Philip flying backwards. He landed on he face, and rolled over to see Janet walking towards him. He reached into his trench coat a pulled out a throwing knife, which glowed wit a purple tinge. He threw it straight at her, and the blade pierced through her energy field. Shocked exuded from her face as she dodged the small knife. Her quantum vision acted like precognition (a temperamental function), which allowed her to see the knife beforehand.

Janet's face turned from shock to determination. She hovered two feet above the ground, then charged Philip in flight. She pushed him past the surrounding trees, and found herself flying over a cliff. She grabbed Philip and dangled him over the chasm. "What is your name?" she demanded. He didn't answer, so she dropped him. Philip only smiled as he plunged into the chasm.

Rocket thrusters came out of his shoes and hands, stabilizing his decent to the ground. Janet did a pin dive downward, landing with a thud behind him. She grabbed his arm and started to twist it, but he overpowered her and broke her arm. She fell to the ground, and Philip pulled the energy-pistol out of his trench-coat, aiming it at her. A helicopter could be heard from above.

*****

"The signal was coming from the Amazon, but that is still a large area to cover," Doc relayed to Zack who flew towards the South Western hemisphere. Janet was tough enough to handle any threat they had faced, but never before had either of them faced such an advanced threat alone.

"I am going to use my quantum vision to comb through the jungle then," he said while floating in the upper atmosphere. "Who is this guy, Doc? It sounded like he knew you."

"I couldn't tell. I didn't recognize his voice."

Doc was in denial. He knew the voice, but he didn't want to believe it was who it sounded like.

... To Be Continued