The First: EVO Uprising (19 page)

“
What part of ‘recon’ did you mental midgets not get?” His voice boomed. “Am I at fault for not realizing that in the age of stupid war movies and video games you three knuckle dragging Neanderthals can’t tell the difference between recon, short for reconnaissance, which is defined as an information gathering mission, as opposed to a combat mission, which you each failed miserably to pull off today! You three could barely work together to take on a couple of life size Barbie dolls, what made you think you had what it took to take her on?”

Erica scoffed shaking her head, catching Rogers’ attention.

“
Ms. Champion, why aren’t you standing over here with everyone else?”

She looked around, thinking he was joking.

“
Who me?” she wore a wide-eyed look.

“
I don’t see anyone else sitting their narrow ass on the steps of that goddamn plane.” He turned, burning a hole through her.

“
Whoa,” she coiled back, “what did I do?”

“
Exactly,” he snapped at her, “what didn’t you do? Get your ass up and fall in, now!”

She slowly got up, walking over. The look on her face asked Rogers what he was doing as she fell in standing next to Oliver.

“
On the flight back I’ve been wrestling with what pissed me off more.” Rogers stood over her. “These three ass clowns failing to follow orders, or you standing around while they got their asses handed to them.”

“
I told them it was a bad idea!” she fired back, “how am I…”

“
Sir!” he roared at her, “you are to address me as sir!”

“
Miss,” Maxine interrupted, “Are you alright?”

Rogers turned to see Maxine, Jennifer, and Angie walking up with their eyes glowing extra bright apparently locked on him.

“
Your heart rate is elevated to the point of distress,” Maxine said.

“
I’m fine, Maxine.”

Her face and mannerism told a different tale. She felt small, scared, and embarrassed. Rogers showed not an ounce of compassion or letting up.

“
You think because you make all these cool things and have your little degrees, you’re so smart,” Rogers scoffed, “but you’re not. You’re just book smart and world dumb, and that’s because you’re still a baby. You also showed me you don’t know what it is to be a part of this team. Because to be a part of this team means standing by each other’s side possibly to the end, even if they make dumb decisions. Not standing around playing Candy Crush while your team gets their asses handed to them. It’s the only sliver of respect I have for dumb, dumber, and dumbass!”

“
Uh… is that from me down or…” Adrian raised his hand.

“
You’re two seconds away from getting shot in the face dumbass!” Rogers growled.

His hand hovered on his sidearm within its holster to show he was dead serious.

“
Sir, yes sir!” Adrian straightened up.

Rogers gave a face a complete disappointment. It hurt her more than his words.

“
I expected better from you.” He shook his head. “Much better.”

He backed up to address them all.

“
I’m tired and can’t stand to look at any of you.” He looked down at the ground. “Make it your mission to stay out of my sight till tomorrow morning. Is that clear?”

“
Sir, yes sir!” the trio howled.

Erica did not answer as she looked down to hide her forming tears.

“
Dismissed.” he turned away in disgust.

Rogers walked off leaving them standing there, each reduced to a microscopic state. Erica stormed off without a word flocked by the android sisters. Oliver fell against the side of the Tornado staring off into space, while Rosann turned to her brother with a look that said she wished she had a bat to bash his skull in with.

“
I can feel you look, Rose,” Adrian snapped. “You ain’t got to tell me how I badly screwed up again.”

He stormed off leaving just her and Oliver alone in the hanger.

CHAPTER 9

A half hour after Rogers’ brutal verbal abuse, Adrian and Oliver stood at the door of Lady Tech’s R&D lab. Her do not disturb red light lit up on the comlink. Adrian huffed as he pressed the notification button letting her know they were standing outside of her lab.
 

“
This Miss has informed me that she does not want to be disturbed.” Maxine spoke on her behalf from the audio system above the door.
 

“
Maxine, tell her if she doesn’t open up I’ll do my metal version of Sheldon,” Adrian warned.
 

“
I’ve seen him do it,” Oliver said. “It’s like really annoying.”
 

Instantly the door slid open, and the sound of “X Gonna Give it to Ya” by DMX spilled out of the lab assaulting them. They walked in not knowing what was
more humorous, someone of Erica’s intellect listening to something so harsh, or Jennifer and Angie rhythmically nodding to the song as they worked along with Maxine at different tables assisting her in her projects.  
 

She lowered the music before turning to glare at them.

“
What do you two want?” she snapped.
 

“
We were wondering if you cared to join us for some Mario Kart 8,” Adrian smirked.
 

“
We also intend to raid the frig for some s’mores and ice cream,” Oliver added.
 

“
As you can see I’m kind of busy here.” She threw on a sarcastic smile.
 

“
No you’re not.” Adrian shook his head. “You’re working because your pissed. I know because I use to work on my ride when I was heated.”
 

He took an apologetic step to her with his head down.
 

“
Look,” he huffed, “what happened on that island was my fault. It was all on me. I didn’t follow orders, I came up with that crazy ass plan that could have gotten us killed if things were different, and I got you yelled at today. I’m sorry.”
 

“
Apology accepted.” She looked at the ground. “But it’s not your fault that our leader is an ass.”
 

“
Yeah, he is an ass.” Adrian quickly looked around to make sure they were truly alone. “But at the end of the day he means well, he reminds me of my old man back home. Old school guys like him will always be as hard as stone, and they have a weird way of showing they care, but they do.”
 

“
So why do you find ways to annoy him?” she curiously asked.
 

“
Because that’s just me,” he snorted. “I’m always
testing boundaries. He’s also not right about everything. Just most things. So come on, let’s go drive some video game go-karts on a sugar rush.”
 

“
I get Princess Peach,” she muttered.
 

“
Done.” He threw up his hands.
 

“
Can I come too, baby?” Angie walked over crossing into Adrian’s personal space.
 

“
Don’t call me baby!” Adrian turned, scowling at Erica. “You said you fixed her!”
 

“
I did,” Erica innocently shrugged.
 

“
You’re the only one who can fix me, lover,” Angie sensually smiled.
 

Oliver shook his head fighting not to laugh as Angie pinned Adrian up against one of the lab workstations while using one on her fingers to trace a circle on his chest.
 

“
Please, let me come with you.” She nuzzled up to him. “please… please…”
 

“
Alright!” He gave in grinding his teeth. “But you got to behave yourself! No monkey business, and no invading my personal space! Like right now!”
 

“
I’ll behave.” She blew an air kiss at him. “For now.”
 

She eased up a bit allowing him to barely slide from between her and the workstation. Adrian turned to Erica desperately trying to hide her amusement under an innocent face.
 

“
Fix her,” he whispered.
 

This gave Angie the opening to cup his rear, making him jump. He turned, shooting her his trademark dirty look.
 

“
We’re not in the lounge area yet,” she coyly smiled.
 

He stormed off with her sashaying behind him. Jennifer with a sneer followed behind her playful sister.
 

“
They’re going to have some ugly ass kids.” The sarcastic android shook her head.
 

 
Oliver walked up standing next to Erica as they watched the comedy unfold.
 

“
You’re not going to fix her, are you?” he asked.
 

“
Nope,” she grinned, “he must suffa!”
 

They both broke into laughter as they exited her lab followed by Maxine heading to the lounge area.  

˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜

As the trio, with androids in tow, ventured to find entertainment to blow away the gray cloud of the incident and aftermath of visiting Sophia’s island, Rosann found herself quietly walking into the firing range. There she found Rogers discharging armor piercing rounds from his modified M-45 tearing holes through steel structure targets. Two handed was how he held it, just as he learned in the Corp, and how he taught them to do it. Because of his strength, Rogers did not need two hands, but the old soldier stood for doing things the right way. Rosann stood at a nervous attention waiting for him to notice that she was in the room; it was then that she glanced at three bottles of Jack Daniels among an M4 Carbine, an M16, and a M249 LMG. As he fired off his final round, he picked up one of the bottles of Jack and knocked it back as if it was water. He downed three-quarters of the bottle before pulling it from his lips.
 

“
Use to be a time when five glasses of this would knock me on my ass.” He looked at the bottle. “Now all it does is give me bad breath and a gallon of piss. Damn regenerative healing.”
 

Rogers placed the bottle back on the table mixed with weapons, grabbing a clip to reload.

“
You gonna just stand there gawking at me,” asked Abe, “or you gonna shoot something… here…”
 

Rogers grabbed the M4 Carbine tossing it to her; Rosann caught it checking for a loaded cartridge as taught. She relocked and loaded; taking up position in the firing booth next to him. She aimed and breathed letting the Carbine rip as it tore through the steel target in front of her. The modified version still had a kick due to the powerful ammo it was loaded with. Rogers now with M16 in hand unleashed hell on a new standing steel target. Although she was hitting the target, his accuracy was far more superior to hers.
 

Rosann decided to transform into her ring-tailed lemur form, which allowed her the strength to hold the gun without it kicking back, as well as use her keen eyesight to hit the target more accurately.
 

She smiled at her accomplishment, but then turned to the feel of eyes on her. Rogers looked at her with a blank expression that displayed neither anger nor disappointment.

“
Cheater,” was all he said.
 

She quickly transformed back to her normal form.

“
Sir, I just took what you taught me and used my abilities to improve upon it… sir,” she relied.
 

Rogers did not bother answer as he handed her a couple of more clips to reload. She laid the clips down on her table taking one up, and began to reload her rifle. She lifted it to take aim again but ended up lowering it turning her gaze to the Sergeant who let off a couple of more rounds.  
 

“
Sir, permission to speak freely, sir,” she nervously requested.
 

“
Not if you going to turn back into a rodent Esposito,” Abe answered.
 

She nodded, looking down at the floor.
 

“
What’s on that brainpan of yours?” he asked.
 

“
Why are you here?” she bluntly asked.
 

“
I thought I told you,” he smirked, “to try and turn you all into good little super soldiers for the US of A… make sure you at least don’t get killed on your first two missions… don’t ask me to see pass that.”
 

“
I know we look like a bunch of screwups, but we’re here trying to learn to take these abilities given to us, and make
some
kind of difference in this world,” she pressed. “I seem to remember when I signed up for this that we’re supposed to be a team. But it’s like, yeah, you’re training us, but you don’t believe in us. You don’t believe in this… so again I ask… why are you here?”
 

Rogers turned, looking her in the eyes. It was not a direct look, more dismissive as he put down the M16, and began to reload the M-45.