The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Rebels

Chinook Mall, a massive collection of larger stores and smaller outlets sitting on one of Calgary's main streets, Macleod Boulevard, was packed nearly to capacity with people at 1:34pm on this, a Thursday afternoon. Shoppers mingled freely with young people hanging out with their friends as they enjoyed the sunshine and the last few days of freedom before school started again in a couple of weeks.

With so many people crowding the mall's many corridors, a virtual maze of selection, color and noise, it was almost a glitch in the time/space continuum when the balcony that ran along the top edge of the central corridor, leading to the mall's administration offices, became empty. Just as it was, at that very moment.

Lucky for the man in black as, with a glimmer of light, a teleportal irised open to let Mordecai step free, face grim. Or was it? His bag over his shoulder, the big psionic swiftly stepped to the balcony's edge after a quick reconnoiter of the balcony itself. Its emptiness was no surprise; he had done a quick telepathic scan of the area before jumping in, to make sure it was clear. As the portal closed behind him, the man in black scanned the milling crowds below with narrowed eyes.

Once again Mordecai's heightened senses swung into play as they examined the auras of the shifting populace below him. While technically on the run, the powerful lone gunman wasn't a quarry to take lightly, even for the Brotherhood. He wouldn't jump out of Calgary until he was good and ready, no matter how many Brotherhood wireheads got sent in.

That being said, he also wasn't so arrogant and confident in his power that he would move without being cautious. And so, as he continued to let his body refuel and repair, a process set back by the ambush he had just avoided, he wanted to make sure no threat was nearby. Hence the scan of the crowd. It didn't take long for his features to tighten into a grim mask as his enhanced vision spotted a knot of psionics, Brotherhood movers by the looks of them. The heavy-set psionics were pushing their way through the crowd with a dark purpose, their quarry a gaggle of young women trying to run, despite the close quarters, only a few metres in front of them.

'What the hell is this now?' he wondered silently, focusing on the five young women trying to outdistance their pursuers.

"I'd wait a second before you decide you need to help them, my friend," a dry voice suddenly suggested from somewhere behind him. Startled and surprised that he hadn't sensed anybody approaching, Mordecai spun about with a snarl, full shields dropping into place as a shockwave coalesced in front of his unwelcome guest, dancing quicksilver with deadly intent.

Finishing his turn, Mordecai found his shockwave seething in front of what appeared to be a rather ordinary looking man, average in height and build, slightly balding with a full, neatly trimmed beard that was just starting to gray. Pale blue eyes gazed calmly around the shockwave at the big man, despite the fact that the shimmering wall of destruction hovered in place a mere half a metre from him.

In a strange sort of afterthought, Mordecai noted that the man was dressed casually in pale gray slacks, a sports shirt and a light tweed jacket with loafers, not the typical Brotherhood uniform. In fact, the man looked more like a Normal than anything else. Except for the fact that he was oddly psionically invisible. How the hell did he, . . . ?

"And you are?" he bit out, continuing to restrain the shockwave's forward progress with a thought. It hissed and seethed in protest, but heeded his silent command.

"Not a threat to you, lone gunman," the man replied. "Look back at those young ladies, if you still think they need help. Look now!"

Despite his better judgment, the man in black glanced over his shoulder. And he swore softly under his breath as he watched several handfuls of non-Brotherhood psionics come obliquely out of the crowd to abruptly close in on the pursuers, turning them from predator to prey in a heartbeat of transition. Mordecai's eyes narrowed as he saw several flares of psionic energy appear and disappear before all the Brotherhood movers went down.