The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Ghostly Caller

The phone rang. Jason and James watched it with baited breath, James being quiet for once. Madeline stood quietly in the corner, not saying anything, a furrowed, somewhat concerned expression on her weathered features.

Finally, a voice came on the line. It was a voice that sounded electronically modified. "This is GHOST One. Who is this?"

Jason breathed a sigh of relief. They had reached GHOST! He was about to speak, when James let out a whoop of joy. "Yes!" His cry made Jason jump and Madeline yelped a bit. James look at them both and blushed.

"Er...excuse sorry got excited yes rude ahem sorry sorry sorry..."

"...Lord have mercy," Madeline muttered, rubbing her hair.

"What's that?" The voice asked. "Speak clearly. There's too many voices at once."

Jason looked at James. He motioned for James to be quiet. James grinned sheepishly and shut his mouth. Jason then spoke up, trying to speak loudly and clearly.

"Hello there," He said. "This is the Urban Spider AKA Jason MacQuil. I know this isn't a secure channel but it's the best we got at the moment. Midnight AKA James Fisher Jr is with me."

"...Jason?" The voice sounded surprised. He heard some movement and some yelling. There was then a loud click and Axel's voice came through the phone. "Goddamn, you almost made me shit myself! Sorry about that, had to be careful cause you were calling from an unknown number." He started yelling. "What happened?! We lost communications with the facility twelve hours ago! Satellite imagery shows mass amounts of activity around the base! Government forces were deployed but we haven't heard anything yet!"

Jason waited for him to finish and then said, with a sigh, "...Its...not going to be easy to hear."

"Not gonna be easy?" Axel barked. "Did you tell me it ain't going to be easy?! Spider, you tell me what the hell went down last night and don't mince words! I've seen shit in my day that would turn a kid like you inside out! Now talk!"

Jason swallowed. And then he spoke. He told it all, same as he had told Madeline. As soon as he started with the words 'invasion' and 'attack', Axel's yelling had stopped. The phone was dead silent during the whole explanation, so much so Jason might have suspected they had lost the signal if not for the occasional noise. Finally, he finished and sat back in the chair. He waited.

A long moment passed. Then Axel spoke. His voice was almost somber, unusually subdued and quiet.

"...My god."

"Yeah," Jason muttered. He looked at James, who was now leaning hunched on the table. James looked up at him and sighed but didn't speak, continuing to be silent. He was tracing circles on the table counter with one finger. "We don't know where the rest of the team is now...Robertson is dead and..." He swallowed. "We have to assume the Director is too..."

Another long stretch of silence passed. Then Axel's voice returned. His voice was cracking a bit, as if he was trying to hold back tears or another strong emotion. "...How in the hell did this happen? How in the hell was the facility invaded?! Were all our measures for nothing?! All our security?!" He was screaming now.

Madeline walked over and mouthed 'Too loud. Leave you in private' before departing the kitchen. She shut the door behind her. Jason waited as Axel vented, the man screaming about security, defenses, and everything else that should have stopped a breach in the base. Finally, he stopped screaming and took a breath. Jason cut back in.

"The enemy attacked us in overwhelming force," Jason reported. "Pure brute strength, not to mention surprise on their side, made us lose out. It a mercenary unit, they called themselves the Skeleton Crew-"