August 7, 1987
Antonio Cifredo’s bunker
An abandoned Military Base
Location Unknown
Antonio Cifredo has spent months reassembling his base in this bunker, just now putting the finishing touches on his world wide monitoring network. Cifredo has assembled a system incorporating the most advanced Earthborn technology integrated with alien tech that he has acquired over the years. Starting up the system for the first time he is not surprised to receive and incoming message within the first hour.
Switching on a seven foot high screen Cifredo views an alien face. The scaly blue-green skin of the face is clearly female and very menacing. “Human, you will disconnect your device and abandon this network!” the Alien woman demands with anger in her deep set blue eyes. “Or you risk the invasion of your pathetic planet!”
Antonio Cifredo grins at the screen not at all intimidated by the alien. “Commander Edma, I presume,” Cifredo responds to the threats softening her hardened glare.
“How is it you know my name, Earthman?” the strange looking alien’s mouth moves weirdly to ask.
“I’ve known of you since your failure at Jonestown, Guyana,” Cifredo informs his first caller on the alien frequency he discovered years ago. “One of my daughters and her husband died at Jim Jones’ hand while you tried to unlock the secrets I already had.” “I know full well that your threats are empty.” “You have no invading force.” “You have barely been able to keep your head above water on Earth.”
“You are wrong human fool!” Commander Edma replies her anger returning.
As Commander Edma’s mouth begins to move to speak again Cifredo interrupts. “I believe it is I who will do the talking now,” Cifredo tells Edma confidently. “Now that you have ended your little ploy for the suit, Redmayne.” “You are no threat to my plans.” “I suggest you move along or you will be my first target when I get the suit!”
“I must admit you do impress me that you know of my double identity, but you are truly a fool if you believe you still have a chance at controlling the McCoy girl,” the alien charges. “She will soon be out of play at any rate!”
“It would be best for you if you not cross my path again or you will end up like your golden boy friend,” Cifredo threatens.
“Golden boy?” Commander Edma questions. “Prince Benue?” “He still lives?”
“Just barely when I was done with him.” “I suppose by now he has crawled into a hole somewhere to die,” Cifredo reveals to the Spartain Commander for the first time. “I will gladly give you the same treatment if you force my hand!” “Goodbye, Commander Edma!” Cifredo ends the communication abruptly to lean back in his chair. He has no fear of the alien, his stockpile of weapons is far beyond anything she could imagine. The Spartain Commander Edma who poses as Janet Redmayne is no threat to him at all.
It is a Monday morning like any other as Eileen McCoy-Byrnes wakes to roll over in her bed to greet her husband with a good morning kiss. She finds only pillows in the bed next to her. It isn’t unusual for Corey to get up before her so she is not concerned as she pulls herself out of bed. Eileen stumbles to the bathroom barely awake. The bathroom door being closed is unusual to her as she walks into it. Turning the knob the door doesn’t budge. She leans into it finding that something is blocking it on the other side. It takes a little more force to get the door open to discover the unthinkable.
On the other side of the bathroom door her husband Corey lays unconscious, his feet blocking the door. She pushes her way inside to step over him, “Oh my God, Corey!” she exclaims at the sight of him lying face down in a pool of his own vomit. She rolls him over onto his back checking for a pulse and respiration. Under him on the floor lays a baggy half full of multiple colored pills like she has seen many times. The cop in her reacts instantly, he has overdosed again! Wiping his face with a towel from the rail she clears his airways.
How many times has this happened now, five, six, she has lost count. Every time this happens he promises her he is done with the pills until it happens again. Eileen rushes back to the bedroom to the metal box under their bed. She retrieves the Argoian powersuit from it to quickly dress. In minutes she is airborne carrying her overdosed husband to the Emergency room again. It has been nearly a year since they both lost their jobs as cops thanks to Corey’s drug problems. It is Eileen’s love for Corey that keeps them together through these hard times. What hurts Eileen the most is that everyday she knows deep in her heart this love is a lost cause.
Since losing their careers Corey’s drug habit has made it impossible for him to hold down any profitable job. What little money they do have she earns using the suit doing things it was never meant to do. Many of Eileen’s nights are spent worrying if the next day she will be a widow.
They arrive at the Hospital, Sentry has brought this man in so many times now that the staff asks few questions of her at this point. The staff take Corey Byrnes away on a stretcher as Sentry finds her way to waiting area trying to hide her tears under her goggles.
Sentry sits alone for a time until her brother Michael arrives to join her in her time of need as he has many times before this morning. “So he has done it again!” Michael says in an angry tone. “How many more times are you going to go through this with him?”
Sentry looks to her brother in shock, “How can you say that?”
“Face it sis, he is a lost cause that you can not fix!” Michael says. “You should have just left him there on that bathroom floor to die this time.” “Be done with him, stop letting his weakness run your life!”
“You of all people should understand this isn’t his fault, he can’t help himself,” Sentry says trying to hold back the tears that want to flow.
“You mean he doesn’t love himself and he certainly does not love you!” Michael replied coldly. “If I had loved myself, or had someone to show me I was worth loving, I would have never touched drugs!”
When Sentry turns back to her brother he is gone. He was just an illusion, a manifestation of the suit and its power. She knows deep in her heart what he said is true. Michael would be alive today if he had felt love from someone. With her mother dead, she was too busy learning to be a cop with their father to see what was happening with Michael as he spiraled into drugs and loneliness.
“Ms Sentry,” the attending nurse calls to her. “You can see him now.” The costumed woman gets up from the waiting room chair to follow the nurse back to the stall they have placed her husband in. He is still unconscious. “We have given him drugs to counteract the pills in his system he should be coming around soon,” the nurse explains.
Sentry stands at the side of the bed looking down at her once handsome husband. His face is now drawn and pale when it used to be full and tanned. He once had a surfer’s body now he is little more than skin and bones. The drug have turned him into this zombie. It makes her want to cry, but somehow she holds back her tears. All that matters is that he is still alive and she still has him.
Corey Byrnes opens his dark rimmed eyes to gaze at his costumed wife. The whites of his eyes are riddled with red veins as he tries to speak his mouth is dry. Sentry reaches out her hands to call a pitcher and glass to her from across the room. She pours the water from the pitcher into the glass to help her husband drink. “Look at you,” he whispers as she takes the glass away. “You can’t even fetch me a drink without that suit!”
Sentry is shocked by his accusation. “It is not like that at all,” she tells him. “It was just quicker, so I didn’t have to leave your side.”
“That is just an excuse,” Corey accuses. “You are as addicted to that suit as I am to my pills.” “The difference is I don’t beg you to stop.” “Don’t you see I just want to die!”
“NO! Corey don’t ever say that!” Sentry pleads trying to force her will into his mind.
“It is too late for that, you couldn’t save Michael and you can’t save me!” he replies. “I can’t go on with your hypocrisy!” It is then that Corey Byrnes draws his left hand from under the sheet to reveal a hypodermic needle that he plunges into his neck, pushing the plunger.
Sentry is fast but not fast enough to stop the clear fluid from being injected into her addict husband. She grabs the needle, pulling it from his neck. “Oh my God, Corey what was that?” she asks looking at the syringe.
“Insulin, I will be dead in seconds,” Corey answers. “You will at last be free to deal with your own addiction. Corey goes silent then as his already weak body reacts to the poison coursing through her veins. Sentry backs away from the bed in shock unable to respond as his body begins to tremble and convulse.
“This isn’t how it happened,” Sentry mumbles, her back against the wall. “He never spoke to me so coldly about his addiction.” “This is all wrong,” she sobs. Then something clicks in her mind, she remembers what happened after returning home from Boston. What she learned about Janet Redmayne from the real Steve Roberts. Eileen went to work to discover that Redmayne had fled. She tried for several days to track her using the suit. Whoever Redmayne really is she has definitely found a way to block the tracking power of the suit.
An old barn
Glory Gulch
Alta, Utah
Destiny is a strange thing, some time events need to take place in certain locations to maintain a balance. When one event is removed another fills its place. Like a rock removed from a beach, the tide quickly moving in to fill that hole with sand. As is the case here, the timeline has been changed. Where two women once fought a renegade Dream Machine to save others, one must now fight to save herself.
Sentry stands with her back against the barn wall mumbling as she is lost in a world of her worst fear. It is a loop that she can not free herself from and she has no idea how she got there. Sentry is not alone in the barn another woman stands watching her not knowing what horrors she experiences.
The second woman goes by the name the name Hecate now, since being recreated by one of Redmayne’s Bernr parasites. It is Hecate who has trapped Sentry in an apparent endless cycle of pain. “You are a strong one aren’t you?” Hecate comments as Sentry begins to realize the rouse. “Let’s begin again.” Hecate has a job to do and she does not intend to fail. The sinister woman raises her hand to Sentry releasing a mist that descends over the woman lost in a world of fear. Sentry is sent her back into a world meant to break her will.
Antonio Cifredo’s bunker
An abandoned Military Base
Location Unknown
The once charred body of James Santoro floats in a synthetic embryonic fluid as Cifredo enters the small lab. This is the second chamber in which Santoro has been placed over the last four months. In this clear glass cylinder Cifredo can view every inch of his man’s body as adjustments are made to it. Cifredo has used his alien technology to change nearly everything about his former right hand man.
If Santoro’s mother were to walk in the room right now, she would not recognize her son. His face and body structure have been altered to become a hybrid of human and alien. The tattoos James once had on his skin are now all gone, burned away by the accident that nearly killed him. The skin that has been regrown onto his body is different as well. His Mediterranean sea skin tone replaced by a paler hue that almost shimmers in bright light. Most of his dark hair is gone only a few patches of stubble remain on his body. When he is finally released from the alien equipment he will discover all of the changes to his body are not to his liking.
The pain and trauma of his transformation have nearly wiped away all that was James Santoro in his mind. He fades in and out of conscious never really knowing rest. He no longer knows or cares what is happening to his body. His only hope is that the pain will soon be over.
Cifredo steps forward, closer to the clear glass cylinder. He admires his handy work. From head to toe this new man looks nothing like James Santoro. “You are going to need a name my friend,” Cifredo says grinning. The sound of his creator’s voice through the cylinder makes the man inside squirm. Cifredo thinks back over the past months, one thing has been a constant. “You surely have been restless as I have made these improvements on you.” “Everything you were before is gone now, only that remains.” “That shall be your name, Restless.” “Today we shall bring you back to breathing air.” Cifredo makes a few adjustments and a tube slides down into the tank. The tube snakes down into the fluid in the cylinder as if it is alive. It parts the man’s lips sliding into his mouth and down his throat of its own accord. “If all has gone as planned you shall be the next step in my acquisition of the powersuit!” Cifredo brags as the fluid if forced from Restless man’s lungs as it is replaced by air for the first time in months.
Southeastern Police Division Headquarters
San Diego, Ca
Sentry arrives at her father’s desk to meet him for dinner. “Hey Hillary, have you seen my Dad, we were meeting for dinner.”
“He was there at his desk a little while ago,” Detective Brower replies. “He probably just went to the Men’s room.”
Sentry takes a seat at the Detective’s desk glancing over the case file papers her father was working on. When she was a kid, her father spent so much time at work building his career that she didn’t see him much. Growing up she idolized him, he was her hero catching criminals and making the world a better place. Now as a rookie cop, working alongside of him it is like all of her dreams have come true. The case he has brought her in on is a big one, she can tell.
They are hunting a serial killer that murders three women from the same family every seventy-five years or so. Everything they have learned lays spread out on the desk in front of Sentry as she leans forward to look over the many notes and reports.
“I’m headed home now,” Detective Brower says to Sentry as she gathers up her personal things. “Are you going to be alright waiting here alone?”
Sentry looks around the squad room realizing for the first time that she is indeed alone except for Hillary Brower, her father’s partner. “Yes. I’ll be fine, he shouldn’t be much longer,” Sentry replies as Hillary Brower heads for the door. For a time Sentry feared that her father was having an affair with his partner but now that she has come to know the woman Sentry knows that could never have been true.
Left alone in the squad room Sentry’s attention turns back to the papers on the desk. Most of them she has seen before, accept for the ones laying on top. They are employment record from all of the city morgues around the time of the previous murders over the years. Her father has used a yellow marker to high-light several entries on each. About a year before each of the triple murders there was a new night shift worker hired who quit right after each set of murders. It has been only the last two decades or so that photos of employees have been kept on file and her father had ordered photos of these men sent here to San Diego. She finds the envelope containing each of the photos. Comparing each of them she discovers that the man in each of the photos is the same. Sure different haircuts with the passage of the times, but identical just the same. In fact, he looks a lot like a guy currently working in the San Diego morgue.
Suddenly it strikes Sentry, she looks in the desk draw where her father keeps his gun while in the office. It is empty! She knows her father has no need to take his gun to the Men’s room with him! There is only one other answer, he has gone to the Morgue alone. Sprinting across the squad room to the window Sentry throws open the pane. Jumping out the fourth floor window she takes flight over the city toward the morgue.
As the wind blows through Sentry’s dark hair she gets a strange feeling of regret. It is as if she has lived this moment before and there is nothing that only she can do to change the events about to happen. She puts the strange thoughts out of her mind as a thunderstorm storm forms over the city. If her father is in trouble only she can help him. There is no obstacle the suit can not overcome. Sentry touches down outside the City Morgue to hurry inside just as the rain begins to fall.
A loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning throw everything in the building into darkness. Sentry’s goggles adjust to give her night vision in the darkness of the office corridor. She takes the fire stairs down to the basement. Her confidence at an all time high she struts down the hallway to the storage facility.
She hears the voices from inside the room even before she enters. Stepping through the door she can clearly see the three identical triplets, one of them holding her father, another pointing a gun in the darkness at the door. “One move and you are a dead woman,” the man with the gun shouts in the darkness at her. They have no idea she can see all of them in the dark room.
Sentry will have to act fast, an energy bolt will light of the room giving the men the advantage they need to take action. Only one man is armed and he will be her target. She raises her hand, the bolt must be instantaneous, leaving the men no time to react. Seconds before she fires a flash of lightning lights up the room revealing her identity to the three men. She is blinded by the flash of lightning as fires. In the seconds that follow she hears a blood curdling scream and thump of someone falling to the floor. As her night vision goggles adjust again she catches the last of the three men fleeing the room. But who screamed?
Sentry’s gaze turns to the man laying on the floor at the center of the cold storage room. She rushes to his aide, it is her father who screamed. She rolls him on his back to see the burn wound on his chest. His clothing and flesh burnt away by her blast. She can see his slowly beating heart under his charred rib cage. “Daddy, oh God, no!” she sobs.
Lyle McCoy struggles to open his eyes to stare up at his daughter. The words slip from his dry lips, “You did this, you killed me with that damned suit.” His body falls limp as power returns flooding the room with light. Sentry watches as her father’s heart stops beating.
Tears poured from her eyes into the lens of her goggles. She pulls back the cowl of her suit to wipe her eyes. This can’t be happening, she thinks pulling her dead father’s body to her chest. She cries holding him tightly to her body as she looks around the empty room. Again she realize how wrong this all is, but it doesn’t lessen the pain. She doesn’t belong here, this is not where she should be.
Sentry can clearly remember now that she finally located Janet Redmayne after months of searching for her the old fashion way with solid police work. Redmayne’s transfer turned out to be a dead end, faked documents that led to a non-existent police department. This was Sentry’s first free weekend that she could go after Redmayne. Flying east she turned up her speed over the Mojave desert too get to Redmayne by dawn. It was somewhere over Utah that she spotted a disturbance at a Ski resort.
Sentry looks down to her father’s body on her lap, it is gone. In fact when she looks around her the Morgue storage room is gone. She now kneels in what appears to be an old barn. She is not alone, another woman is standing over her. The woman is shorter than Sentry and rather plump with kinky green hair, a golden ring through her nose.
An old barn
Glory Gulch
Alta, Utah
“She told me the suit would make you stronger, but no one has ever seen through two of my attacks.” the woman says to Sentry.
“Who are you and who is she?” Sentry demands standing up from the floor as the punk-rock dressed woman backs away.
“My benefactor of course,” Hecate explains. “As for me, I am your worst nightmare!” “I will find it, I know it is in there somewhere!” Hecate raises her hand to Sentry swirling her wrist this time. The mist released is a much deeper green than the last time as it encompasses Sentry. Sentry feels her knees buckle as she collapsed back onto the floor, unconscious.
Hecate takes a buzzing communication device from her pocket. Opening the device the buzzing ends to reveal a small screen inside the two covers. She looks over at Sentry on the floor who reaches up over her head as if to slap some invisible object, she is again lost in an illusion. On the screen in Hecate’s hand the image of Janet Redmayne looks none too pleased. “I need a report now!” she demands. “Why have you not been answering my summons?”
“This one is much stronger than any I have encountered,” Hecate replies. “She keeps seeing through the fears I have instilled in her mind.”
“It is that damned Suit!” Redmayne exclaims. “You need to get it off of her!”
“Yes ma’am,” Hecate replies. “I tried while she experienced the first encounter, but it appears to have no seams.”
“Then you must scare her out of it with your illusions!” Redmayne demands. “Trick her!”
“My power really doesn’t work that way,” Hecate explains. “I can only trigger the fears to the surface, not manipulate them.”
“Than you better figure something out or your chance at freedom is gone!” Redmayne demands.
“Yes ma’am,” Hecate replies as Redmayne ends the call.
Sentry now stands near the side of the old barn holding open the door to an old metal tool cabinet. Hecate has watched all of Sentry’s movements throughout the barn in each of her illusions of fear. She can not see what Sentry sees as the illusions form around real objects in the barn. With each new illusion the things in the barn are recreated to fit into the scene Sentry lives out. Hecate walks over to Sentry completely unnoticed by the woman. Hecate touches Sentry’s forearm and the woman is frozen in time. The fear monger leans forward to whisper four words in Sentry’s ear, “Your lover is here.” Hecate can only hope that the words are enough to influence the change in the illusion that she needs.
Antonio Cifredo’s bunker
An abandoned Military Base
Location Unknown
The newly christened Restless lays nude on a cold metal table, now breathing air again on his own. He stares straight to the ceiling not moving, not even to look around the strange laboratory room. Even without scanning the room he knows he is alone. A device on his head finishes the programming he began in the gestation cylinder. Cifredo placed the device on his head after removing him from the tank. As the device educates him on one of his possible new abilities he follows the instructions almost instinctively. His newly reorganized brain reaches out through the wiring connected to the device that adorns his bald head. His brainwaves flow into the computer system like bytes of information accessing the mainframe. Restless is just that as he begins to learn not only what he is being taught but everything within Cifredo’s computer network. The data in the networks tells Restless of every piece of alien technology that Cifredo has acquired over the years, what it does and where it is currently stored.
Another of his possible new abilities is to incorporate that alien technology into his body. Cifredo’s goal is to have Restless acquire the Argoian powersuit from his granddaughter to take it as his own, to use its talents for Cifredo’s purposes. Restless also learns his true origin as James Santoro even thought almost every aspect of the man is gone now he somehow believes what he learns, even if he does not understand it. The one thing he does not learn is Cifredo’s ultimate goal once Restless has acquired the powersuit.
After little over an hour his education is complete. Restless rises from the table to remove the crown on his head. Restless’s bare feet touching the cold floor he recognizes the temperature but does not truly experience it. His new make-up is almost cold-blooded in nature to allow him to adjust to any environment. He looks over the unusually hued of his bare skin in the reflection on a glass wall. It is missing something that will allow him to not stand out so much in human society. With a thought and some concentration dark brown hair begins to sprout on his head, then his underarms. The hair growth continues down his body until he appears more appropriately adult human. Restless looks then to a smaller metal table at the side of the room where clothing has been neatly placed.
Restless picks up the first garment, it is a medical green scrub shirt. He will have no use for this if he is to acquire the powersuit, he thinks dropping it to the floor. Next there is green scrub pants that join the shirt on the floor for the same reason. Lastly he picks up a pair of white boxer shorts that will do nicely to act as a show of modesty, as he steps into them. Dressed in his fresh clean underwear Restless turns to the door to wait for his creator to return. His knowledge of the facility and the function of its security allow him the opportunity to simply leave, but he has no wish to leave, yet. Restless wishes to learn more, starting with Cifredo’s ultimate plan for him.
The home of Lyle and Claire McCoy
Phoenix, Arizona
As it begins again, Sentry wakes on the couch at her parent’s home in Phoenix, Arizona to the buzzing of an alarm clock on the end table. She reaches out to slap the alarm off. It is mid-morning after she has spent a rough night on the couch. Her parents have gone away for the weekend to leave her in charge of keeping an eye on her younger brother, Michael. Michael has been rather out of control for the past several months and her parents fear he will get in trouble if left home alone.
Standing up stretching to go to the kitchen Sentry opens the refrigerator door to stare inside for some breakfast. Then for an instant she feels as if she is not alone. It is a strange feeling almost as if someone is touching her arm. “Ding, dong.” The sound of the doorbell draws her attention from the refrigerator. Sentry returns to the living room heading for the front door. Opening the door Sentry is surprised to see the exchange student from France, Todd Campbell. She was unaware that he even knew where she lived. “Hello Mansur,” she says, trying to sound as French as possible.
“Ahhh, Mon an mien, there is no need for that, my English is good,” Todd says smiling with his sexy white teeth. Now Sentry can see why her girlfriend Pam is so in love with this guy. “Are your parents at home?” he asks oddly out of character.
“Ah no, they are away for the weekend,” Sentry replies with a smile, not quite as large as his grin that appears glues on his face.
“Might I come in?” Todd asks politely. “There is something I would discuss with you.”
Feeling foolish Sentry backs away from the doorway. “Of course, is it something to do with school work?”
“I’ve decided to go to Medical School when I return home to Paris,” Todd says still smiling. “I was hoping you could give me a head start on my study of anatomy.”
Now Sentry is truly caught off guard by his blatant come on. “I really think you should talk to Pam about helping you with that,” Sentry says backing away from the charming Frenchman in her living room. “She would be more than glad to play doctor with you.”
“I have no interest in, how did you say, Playing doctor with her,” Todd replies backing Sentry across the room. “I am more interested in examining what you have under that red suit.” Sentry’s back hits the wall as Todd presses his soft full lips to hers. She could easily push him away, make him stop.
Sentry is confused as she does not try to resist this handsome man from another country across the ocean as he pushes his tongue into her mouth. She wants to move her hand to resist but instead it goes to touch his dark full head of hair. She massages her hand through his hair as she returns his kiss. His mouth tastes of mint and chocolate as she explores it with her tongue. Her passion flares as she moves her hands to slide off her goggles and cowl allowing him to move in even closer.
“Take the rest of it off,” Todd breathes into Sentry’s ear as his hands move over her body.
“Gladly,” she moans as she moves to strip away her suit.
“Sentry what the hell?” Pam shouts as she bursts into the living room. “What are you doing with my man?”
“She forced herself on me!” Todd exclaims pushing Sentry away.
“No, that’s not what happened,” Sentry tries to defend.
“You slut!” Pam shouts at her best friend. “Do you have to screw with every guy I ever liked?” Pam then lunges across the room at Sentry’s throat. The two women collide slamming back against the living room wall. The force of the attack busts them through the wall into the kitchen where they land, breaking the dinning table to the floor. Pam pins Sentry to the floor by the throat furiously shouting. “You knew he was the one I wanted to give my virginity!”
Sentry would laugh if not for the fact that Pam was closing off her airway. She always suspected her best friend was hiding something, but never strength like this attack has revealed. Sentry manages to get her feet up under Pam to push her off. Pam is sent back through the kitchen window onto the back yard. Pulling up her cowl, Sentry flies after her friend to find her laying on her mother’s smashed car hood. “Pam honestly he came after me and I couldn’t say no,” Sentry pleads still trying to defend what her friend walked in on. “It was just a kiss, I would have not let it go any farther, I swear!”
Pam slides down off the hood of the car, turning her back to Sentry. “You took off your mask!” Pam charges as her anger flares she digs into the dented hood with her fingers. “You never take off your mask!” “You were about to take off more!” Taking a good hold on the car she lifts it over her head to turn and face her former best friend. “We are done, you whore!” Pam shouts sending the car sailing through the air at Sentry. It all happens so fast that Sentry has not time to react as the car comes crashing down on her, pinning her to the ground.
It takes Sentry a few minutes to recover, rolling her mother’s wrecked car to the side. Pam and Todd are gone as she looks around at the destruction that has been caused. Her mother’s car is totaled, there is a whole in the wall of the house that exposes the kitchen, beyond that she can see that one of the living room walls is gone as well. Why do these things keep happening to her? Sentry wonders.
Then suddenly she realizes, “Oh my God, Michael!” Sentry leaps into the air, flying back into the house landing gently at her brother’s bedroom door. She knocks to softly say, “Michael are you okay?” “Sorry about the noise.”
“Go away you freak, I hate you!” he shouts from inside the room.
“Come on Mikey, you know that isn’t true,” Sentry replies through the locked door. “I’m your big sister, I love you,” she says trying the door knob again.
“Stop, calllling meee thaaaat!” he shouts as his voice trails off. “Myyy naimessss Mich…”
Sentry is now official alarmed as she breaks the lock on the door to force it open. She finds her seventeen year old brother wearing only his underwear as he is slumped on the floor beside his bed. From his left arm a needle still hangs dangling from his vein. She rushes to him, pulling the needle from his arm, it is empty as she tosses it aside. On the floor by a small empty bottle lays next to a spoon and a lighter. “Michael, can you hear me?” she shouts in his face as she takes hold of his jaw to shake his head. “Oh my God, what have you done,” she sobs. “How much did you take?”
The teen’s red eyes squint open as he says softly, “All of it!” “And it is your fault not mine!” Sentry looks at him in confusion as she holds him on her lap. “How are you such a freak and still Dad’s favorite?” he whispers. “You have done nothing but make him hate me since you got your special little suit.” he mumbled. “I hate you for it!” “I do drugs because you make me feel worthless!”
“No you do drugs because you can’t deal with being gay,” Sentry says it out loud for the first time. “Because you blame yourself for Randy’s death.” She confronts him with the truth that she has accepted about him even if he can’t.
Michael’s speech is slurred now as he says, “Gooooddd wooood neevverr luuuvv mmmee iiiff Iye….” “Iiitt iisss yyyouuuuu annnndd yoorrr Deeemmooon sooot thaat diiid thissss.” Michael’s eyes close for a final time as Sentry lets him fall to the floor at the side of his bed. She wants to cry but all she feels is anger. Anger fueled by the knowledge that her suit could have stopped this and failed. All the Argoian Powersuit seems to do is fail now. “ENOUGH!” Sentry shouts touching the emblem on her chest, causing the powersuit to retract back into it.
An old barn
Glory Gulch
Alta, Utah
Hecate stands not far away from where Sentry kneels on the floor of the barn wearing only her bra and panties. At last she has succeeded! She watches as the woman, until minutes ago known to her only as Sentry pulls the emblem disk from her chest and throws it across the barn and out the open window. Hecate runs after the frisbee like disk but by the time she reaches the window it gone out of sight as if under its own power.
“How could you do this to me?” Eileen McCoy says standing up from the dirt floor of the barn. Hecate turns to face her captive realizing for the first time that it is she that Eileen speaks. “You made me suffer through all of that pain!” “WHY!” she shouts. “You took the worst moments of my life and made the three times as bad!”
“You haven’t known fear yet,” Hecate says raising both her hands to release the mist twice as strong as she did previously. “Without your suit to protect you, escaping this time will be impossible!” she smiles. The mist forms a large cloud this time that completely obscured Eileen as she steps toward Hecate. Hecate begins to giggle as a fist comes out of the cloud to punch her in the face.
The Queen of fear falls back to the dirt floor. She sits up grabbing for her faces as blood drips from her mouth. Looking up Eileen McCoy stands over her glaring down with hatred. “Guess again bitch?” she snarls. “That was all me that saw through your tricks, the suit doesn’t effect my mind.” “There was one constant in all of those false memories.” “The suit has brought me nothing but pain.” “My husband’s death, my father’s death, the loss of my best friend and my brother’s overdose, but all of those things happened before I got the suit!” “But your fear did teach me one thing, I am my own worst enemy.” “Now it is your turn to have your worst nightmare,” Eileen threatens reaching down to grab Hecate’s leg as she tries to crawl away.
August 8, 1987
An old warehouse
St Louis, MO
The Redmayne’s new headquarters is a step up from the small apartment she shared with her fake husband in San Diego, but it is nothing compared to Antonio Cifredo’s bunker. She can not stop going over the conversation she had with Cifredo in her head. How could this simple Earthman know so much about her activities. And the idea that Prince Benue still lives is something she has not considered in years. Now more than ever she must move forward with her plans.
Robert Redmayne tinkers at a workstation far bigger than the one in the bedroom closet back in San Diego. He uses equipment linked to satellites high above the Earth to intercept the flow of power from the Argoian power core to the powersuit on Earth. Up until now the Redmaynes have kept their theft of the power small to go unnoticed. “Have you succeeded?” Janet Redmayne asks impatiently.
“Yes, I believe I have,” Robert replies. “She has removed the powersuit ending its draw on the power source.” “I have now successfully hacked that power feed for us to receive the full flow.” “As long as she doesn’t put the suit on again, no one will ever know that power now fulfills our needs in place of Sentry’s suit.”
“That will not be a problem, I have already sent Hecate to retrieve the suit,” Janet explains. “With this added power we can increase our production ten fold!” “But first we need to dispose of that old alien tech thief.”
“Do you think that wise?” Robert asks. “He poses no real threat to us.”
“I refuse to let any human openly speak to me as he did,” Janet replied angrily. “He needs to pay for his insolence.”
Rt. 210
Alta, Utah
Eileen McCoy has spent most of the night walking through the hills of Utah. She is still only dressed in her bra and panties. After dealing with Hecate she didn’t even attempt to look for the Argoian powersuit. As she walked aimlessly she finds herself crying over the loss of her husband, the loss of her father and the current state of her life. Eileen feels as if all of her suppressed emotions from the past year have come crashing down. All of the things Hecate made her experience are a jumble in her head. It all felt so real to her, it is hard to tell what was real and what was an illusion.
By morning she finds her way back to Utah highway 120. Her tears now dry on her face, she is exhausted, not even caring where she is going when an eighteen wheel pulls over in front of her at the side of the road. The driver jumps out carrying a large blanket. “Good Lord girl what are you doing all the way out here?” Chuck Hart asks as he wraps Eileen in the blanket to guide her back to his truck. He helps the weak and haggard woman into the cab of his truck. She doesn’t really even look at his face, she is too lost in her own mind. Chuck climbs back into the driver’s seat next to her to pull back onto the road.
“Awful far from home aren’t you Officer McCoy?” he says to her. It is now that she looks over at him for the first time. She recognizes the man in his late sixties with a bushy mustache and mutton chop sideburns as well from the time Rose Barton almost made Corey shoot her. Is this just another reminder of a horror from her past, she wonders. Eileen still has nothing to say but now feels she can somehow trust this man. “I was expecting to find another young woman out here on this road,” Chuck comments. “I guess she managed to change her destiny on her own.
“You sure do seem to know a lot about destiny, don’t you Mr. Hart?” Eileen finally says her throat dry from her night of hiking. “The last time I saw you I almost died if not for that glimmer in your eye.”
“No, my dear it was a glimmer in your eye that saved you,” Chuck replies glancing over at her. “That man sure did love you to break that mind control.” “Please call me Chuck this is far from official police business wouldn’t you say?” “I have a case of bottled water back there behind the seats if you need a drink,” he tells Eileen gesturing with his head.
Eileen stretches to reach into the back compartment of the truck cab to get a bottle of water. After taking a drink she feel more like talking. “Where are we headed?” she asks the driver ignoring his comment on how much Corey loved her.
He looks over at the woman wrapped in a blanket next to him telling her, “I would say first stop would be to get you some clothes.” Eileen suddenly feels a rush of embarrassment over her current state. “Then to Salt Lake City International Airport to send you home.”
“I’m in no hurry to go home,” Eileen says as she finished her bottle of water. “What say I just be your co-pilot for a few months.”
Chuck does not reply at first as he keeps his eyes on the road ahead. It is clear to him that something tragic has happened in Eileen McCoy’s life for her to land here. For the first time in a long time, he doesn’t know what that tragedy is. The dreams he has been having for the past few months have been of Diana Carter meeting her daughter from the future and fighting a Dream Machine. It was a complete surprise to him to find Officer McCoy here on the road and not Diana Carter. This change doesn’t make sense to him. Perhaps his curse has somehow been affected by the Dream Machine. But as far as his curse goes he did dream of this San Diego cop before when her life and her future were in jeopardy. “Your life is in San Diego, not riding the road with this old man,” Chuck finally replies.
“Is it?” Eileen queries. “Everything I loved in my life is gone.” “I’d be going home to nothing.”
“I’m sure that isn’t true,” Chuck consoles. “You were given an important gift that came with a lot of responsibility.”
“I’m thinking it might not be so much of a gift as a curse,” Eileen tells him bluntly.
Chuck Hart knows all too well about curses. He has lived with his own curse since he was seventeen. It was a painful, horrible thing until he learned to use it to help people in need. Helping people in need is what he has dedicated his life to do and he has no intention of stopping now. “You may not have chosen it, but you did choose to be a police officer.” “You took a pledge to protect the innocent.”
“Did I choose to be a cop or did I just follow blindly in my father’s footsteps?” Eileen retorts in a disappointed tone.
Chuck Hart has no intention of allowing this courageous young woman to give up on herself like this. “No one ever said life was easy, we all have our pain and suffering, but we have joy and hope too.” “You may feel that you have hit bottom now but there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Wow, you sure are like a pamphlet on positive thinking aren’t you,” Eileen comments. “Right now I just feel like I have been overwhelmed by all that has happened.” “I just need some time to get my perspective back.”
“Running away from your life in San Diego is not the answer,” Chuck says pulling into a General Store. “I know there is more good for you to do and hiding from the world in a Semi is not your answer.”
“It seems to work for you,” Eileen says judgmentally.
“My calling is much different than yours,” Chuck explains parking the truck out of the way of traffic. “Some people are meant to be on the front lines and others behind the scenes, you are a front line person.”
“This is what you were talking about to Corey months ago,” Eileen realizes. “Something about how I was meant to stop a great war from coming to Earth.”
“You and some others,” Chuck reveals for the first time.
“What others?” she demands, “Are you a psychic or something?”
“Or something,” Chuck replies quickly, “Now what are your sizes so I can get you some clothes.”
“Not until you tell me what you know about my future,” Eileen demands again. “I have a right to know!” “Who else is involved in this war?”
Chuck hesitates for a few minutes not wanting to tell her about events that he has dreamt that he has thought he already averted back in California. “There will be seven others, as powerful as they are, it will be you that brings them together as a team to defending Earth from invasion.”
“Seven?” Eileen ponders. It sounds ridiculous to her, seven people on Earth to defend against an alien invasion. “Okay Nostradamus who are these seven soldiers of Earth?”
“I do not know them by name but one is a Warrior beyond reproach,” Chuck tells Eileen. His description rings a clear bell, Master Warrior.” “Another is a woman who can save lives, bring people back from the verge of death.” “There will be a man from beyond Earth who can lift any weight.” “From over the sea a young one who can control electricity.” “A tiny woman from the north who can burn with the heat of a star.” “A boy from the stars who will become a King and his associate that appears to me as little more than a phantom.” “Now can I go buy you some clothes?”
“Just get a ladies sweatpants and shirt in medium,” Eileen tells him as he hops down out of the cab. “Size seven sneakers,” she calls after him. Watching the older man walk across the parking lot Eileen thinks about his prediction. If not for everything she has seen in the last year and Master Warrior’s confession that he has dreams of future events she would surely consider this man a nut. But as ridiculous as what he told her might seem it would explain why she keeps crossing paths with him. He has actively been trying to guide her toward a destiny he believes she has and it is sweet.
Problem is the suit is gone now and she really doesn’t care where it is. She looked around outside the barn but couldn’t find it anywhere. If she is meant to bring Master Warrior and those others Chuck described together as a team then it may already be too late. The thought of ever putting on that Sentry uniform again only gives Eileen a feeling of dread. She lays her head against the window glass and drifts off to sleep after her long night.
It isn’t long before she is awoken to the sound of the door opening as Chuck climbs back into the truck cab. He carries with him a brown paper bag that he hands to Eileen. “You can get dressed in the back,” he tells her. Eileen takes the bag to climb between the seats into the sleeping compartment as Chuck starts up the truck again. They pull away for the General Store and are back on the highway.
Eileen opens the bag commenting about its contents. “Really?” She exclaims at the sight of the red sweatshirt and pants. “Red?” “Was that the only color they had?” Eileen shrugs off the blanket to pull on the sweatshirt and then the red pants. If the red suit was not enough the blue sneakers surely complete the outfit. Then at the bottom of the bag she finds one more item that must be a joke.
“The color suits you,” Chuck says as Eileen climbs back between the seats.
“What about these?” Eileen asks holding up the yellow swimming goggles that were at the bottom of the bag. Chuck just shrugs his shoulders giving her a grin. “How is it you know so much about Sentry when you never met her?”
“My curse is I have dreams of disaster,” Chuck replies. “Usually when I have done something to prevent it, those dreams fade within a few days.” “The dreams I had of you strangely did not.” “I can only assume that I did not do enough to insure your place in preventing the disaster I dreamt of when I saved you from your partner.”
“I’ve heard this story before, someone else told me about his dreams of the future,” Eileen replies looking out over the road ahead thinking of Master Warrior and their adventure in Boston.
“I know of who you speak, his dreams are of his own future,” Chuck tells her. “I dream of things bigger than myself, on a much more grand scale.”
“You have met Master Warrior then?” she asks hoping his answer will give her more confidence in his story.
“No, but I know of him and for now it is best that I keep my distance from anyone else with a power similar to my curse,” Chuck explains.
“Why is that?” Eileen asks.
“I fear that interacting with someone capable of seeing the future might show me things even worse that I have already seen,” Chuck explains. “But you are not the only unique person I have met.” “I have met the man from beyond Earth and you have met the woman who can bring people back from the verge of death, have you not?”
“That girl from the airport, that is who you are talking about, isn’t it,” Eileen concludes. “What was her name, Diana?” “I suspected she saved my life in the back of that truck but never had proof, until now.”
“It is she who I expected to find here today,” Chuck explains. “It would appear that the crisis I came to influence was something she could handle on her own.”
“Influence?” Eileen repeats.
Chuck smiles to himself, “I am no fighter, not even before I grew into this old man’s body.” “I learned long ago, taking an active role in the events I see can make things much worse,” Chuck tells Eileen as he take the turn off towards Salt Lake City. “I prefer to be more of a coach to those who can truly solve the crisis.”
“You really do intend on sending me home, don’t you?” she asks as they ride down the exit ramp.
“I know it feels like a punishment to you now, but in time you will realize your destiny is important to more people than yourself,” the old truck driver tells her. It is clear to Eileen even though Chuck appears to know a lot about her, he doesn’t know everything. Sending her home in a red sweat suit and blue sneakers doesn’t make her Sentry again. She has no desire to reveal the truth to him. Maybe he is right, maybe she should just go home and spend some time finding out who Eileen McCoy is again.