Penny Wise and the League of St. Claire

Chapter 8

The next day, Penny and her followers transported to the future and went to the Pentagon. Since the giant complex is still a military headquarters in the future it is heavily guarded.

“Well people, I doubt we can get in there without tripping alarms,” Penny said. “But, we must try.”

Staying invisible, Penny and her members ran up to the front entrance. Guards didn’t see them and there were no motion detectors. They were able to slip inside when a man dressed in a military uniform gained entry. The man approached a guarded doorway and had to submit to a retinal scan before gaining entry to the main concourse. Penny and the others snuck in before the large door closed.

The Pentagon is a huge building with over six and a half million square feet of floor space. The building itself had been hardened against attack from the air since the 9/11 attack. Missile systems as well as hard electromagnetic shielding protected the building from harm. Unfortunately, there was no way to know if this Peron character was in it.

“Look,” Jordan said. “There’s another poster with Peron on it.”

“Yes, and he looks like a slick car salesman,” Milo said. “I never trust anyone who parts their hair in the middle.”

“What the hell difference does that make?” Carmen said in a scolding tone of voice. “Lots of great people parted their hair in the middle.”

“I was making a joke,” Milo said with a wise-guy smirk.

“This is not the time for levity,” she shot back.

“Stop it, you two,” Penny told them. “I don’t think he’s in this building.”

“If he’s not here, where could he be?” Harriett asked.

“I don’t know, but he isn’t here.”

“Heads up,” Milo said. “I think they’ve detected us.”

Four guards were using handheld infrared detectors to locate intruders.

“Time to fight!” Penny yelled.

They became visible and stood defiant.

The guards raised their weapons, but Harriett made them fly out of their hands and skid down the corridor. The guards advanced, but Milo kicked the first and flew into the air and rammed his fist into a second guard. Jordan ran forward, slid down feet first and used a sweep with his legs to knock two more guards down.

More guards appeared brandishing weapons. Carmen eyes flashed with powerful laser beams to melt their assault rifles. Harriett made the molten rifles fly up and smack into guards that still had weapons, splattering blood all over the floor and walls.

Milo continued to kick and punch guard after guard. Jordan aided him by using his fists, swinging them like a hammers to smack heads. He had to jump into the air to gain advantage when he attacked. At first, he jumped too high, but after a few attempts he got it right. After a few moments, he realized that he could levitate and move around while floating in air. He used this tactic to gain advantage by darting quickly and avoiding weapons’ fire.

A new group of guards appeared down the corridor in the opposite direction, essentially blocking Penny and her group’s exit. She raised both hands, palms down, and fired blasts of searing white-hot lighting bolts into them, blasting them into smoldering corpses.

“Come,” she yelled. “We must go.”

The others ran with her to the entrance but it was blocked.

“Blast them, Jordan!” Penny commanded.

Jordan formed an energy bubble and flung it at those blocking the way out. The bubble blew the defenders and the entrance to pieces, forming a much larger exit hole. Jordan then made the League members invisible and they ran out and away from the Pentagon, which was in a state of pure panic by this time. Sirens and klaxons were going off everywhere and people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Penny extended her hands. “Take us back, Jordan.”

Jordan and the others held hands with Penny and in a flash they were back in their time near the monument in St. Clair Park.

“That didn’t go as well as I had planned,” Penny said, straightening her jacket.

“Why do you say that?” Milo retorted, frowning. “We kicked ass back there.”

“Yes, but we did not find the Beast. We must sever his head to destroy the body.”

“We’ve gone to the most logical locations,” Jordan said. “And yet, he has not been in any of them.”

“We must be patient,” Penny said. “He’s well protected by demons in human form. They’re very powerful. Those we fought today are lackeys, not the Beast’s powerful minions.”

“What kind of powers do these demons have?” Jordan asked.

“Theirs are like ours,” Penny replied

“How can we defend against them?”

“We must strike first.” She held up the cross attached to her necklace. “In hoc signo vinces. In this sign, you will conquer.”

They all recognized this from the sign in the heavens that Emperor Constantine saw before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the winning of which allowed him to claim the emperorship of the West and establish Christianity as the State Religion.

However conquering the Antichrist sounded easier said than done. The problem comes down to how to find the prime minister. He’s not only well guarded he is also impossible to locate. This is to be expected because the League is not the only people trying to kill him. They needed help, but it’s hard to find this help in a suppressed society.