LNH20: Generation 2.0 #3: The Spoon of Destiny Saga Part 6

[Martin Phipps]

                                   Generation 2.0 #2

                       The Spoon of Destiny Saga Part 6

  Walter "Wikipedia" Brown, Juliana "Amazon Lass" Almeida and Edward
"E-Boy" Boyd spoke to Apoena "Minority Miss" Goulão  shortly after
their meeting with Fearless Leader, January Frost and Doc Nostalgia.
  "Okay," Walter asked.  "What was that all about?"
  "You're asking me?" Apoena asked.
  "I think we got off a little bit lightly," Juliana said.
  "Yeah," Edward said, "one minute I thought Fearless Leader was going
to punish us and the next minute he just asked us to leave!"
  "I think you should consider yourselves lucky," Apoena said.
  "It was about what Tran said about a spoon, wasn't it?" Walter
asked.
  "Maybe," Apoena said.
  "So what is the spoon of destiny?"
  "You're the smart one," Apoena said.  "You tell me."
  Walter used his power to access publicly known information.  "The
spoon of destiny," he said, "is an artifact from ancient Mesopotamia
believed by some to be an object of power left behind by ancient
astronauts.  It is currently been held at the Netropolitan Museum of
Art.  That's it?  He wants to steal a spoon?"
  "Bingo," Apoena said, "except the spoon at the Netropolis Museum of
Art isn't the real spoon."
  "So where is the real spoon of destiny?" Juliana asked.
  "They know," she said, referring to Fearless Leader, January Frost
and Doc Nostalgia, "but its probably for the best that we don't know
where the real spoon is because there are other people looking for it
besides Baidu Tran.  There are multiple copies of the spoon of destiny
scattered around so that anybody looking for it will not know which
one is the real one.  There's even a replica of the spoon of destiny
here at LNH HQ.  The real spoon of destiny is presumably hidden away
by somebody they trust.  It would have to be someone absolutely
trustworthy because the spoon is supposedly an object of great power
and in the wrong hands it could be used to commit great evils."
  "So besides Tran," Edward asked, "who else is looking for the
spoon?"
  "WHATEVER," Apoena said.
  "Whatever?" Juliana asked.
  "World Headquarters for Anarchy, Terrorism, Evil,
Vengeance, Extermination and Retribution," Apoena said, "an evil
organization headed by the supercomputer Ultravac."
  "So perhaps Baidu Tran is working with them," Walter surmised.
  "Perhaps," Apoena said.  "That's probably why Fearless Leader,
January Frost and Doc Nostalgia asked us to leave.  WHATEVER is a
terrorist organization that the general public neither knows about nor
needs to know about: the general public doesn't need to know about how
the LNH saves them every day from terrorist groups like WHATEVER; all
the general public needs to know is what they see on the news every
day.  They don't need to know how close the world comes to being
destroyed every day; most people wouldn't be able to handle knowing
that.  That's why they couldn't talk about the spoon or about WHATEVER
in front of your friends Jay and May: because they aren't Legionaires;
they're just your friends."
  "They may not be Legionaires," Walter said, "but I think they're
already involved in this up to their necks!"

***

  A man arrived at WHATEVER headquarters.  He was directed to the room
with the Ultravac computer.  The ticker-tape reader eyed him with
suspicion.
  "Who are you?" she asked.
  "No names!" the man insisted.
  "Fine," she said, "then you are The Nameless One."
  Suddenly some ticker tape started printing out from the Ultravac.
She went to read it.
  "Oh good, you are here.  Apparently, Ultravac was expecting you."
  The Ultravac printed out some more ticker tape.
  "Just read the messages out loud.  Don't add your own comments.  I
think this one is for me."
  The Ultravac printed out another word.
  "Arggh!" she said.
  The Ultravac comntinued to print.  The ticker tape reader took the
hint and just read what she was told to read.
  "You are to be hired to kill May and Jay Nguyen.  Their
investigation into their father's murder threatens to make WHATEVER
known by the general public.  We will decide when the general public
comes to learn about us and when they do it will be too late.  Ha ha
ha ha ha."
  "What will be my compensation?" the man asked.
  "$50 000 is being deposited in your bank account now.  Another $50
000 will be deposited in your bank account when the job is complete
and that means that both of them are dead.  Are these terms
acceptable?"
  "Very," the man said.  "It shall be done."  He left.
  The ticker tape reader frowned.  "So now I am going to be an
accessory to murder?"
  The Ultravac printed out a reply which she then read.
  "Where did you think you had been working up until now?  The Red
Cross?"  She sighed.  "Maybe I should think twice before I list this
place on my resume."

***

  Later that evening, May and Jay were eating at their favorite
restaurant when the assassin Ultravac had hired walked into the
restaurant behind them.  When he spotted the twins, he pulled out his
weapon.
  "He's got a gun!" somebody screamed.
  May and Jay knew this day would come.  They ducked down below the
table before the man could get off a shot.  Luckily the tables in the
restaurant were made of solid mahogany so they were safe as long as
they stayed low and away from the rain of bullets.  The other
customers in the restaurant, aware that they weren't the target,
simply made their way to the exit.
  May and Jay both noticed at the same time when there was a pause in
the shooting and guessed that the man had run out of bullets and had
to reload.  They quickly joined hands, stood up and blasted the man
with their flash shockwave effect.  The man was dazed long enough for
them to be able to dash out of the restaurant without him seeing them.
  "We need to keep running," Jay said.  "We can't go back home because
somebody could be waiting for us there."
  "I agree," May said, "but we can't go straight to LNH HQ either
because they might expect us to go that way."
  "Then where can we go?" Jay asked.
  "We'll have to head to the more run-down and dingier part of
Netropolis," May said.  "They won't expect us to go that way."
  Jay agreed and soon they found themselves in front of a decaying,
grungy, cockroach-ridden apartment building.
  "It's not working," Jay said.  "He's still behind us.  He's followed
us all this way!"
  "We'll have to go inside!" May said.  "Maybe someone in there can
help us!"  She knocked on the door.
  After about a minute or so, a doddering old woman dressed in a
garish muumuu opened the door.  Behind her May could see a furry,
writhing, yowling mass of cats.  It was not unlike the sight one might
see visiting Martin Phipps' apartment in Taiwan.  Seriously!  Check
out his Facebook page and you'll see pictures of half a dozen cats
wandering around.  Okay, granted, in this case it was more like a few
dozen cats but, really, a few generations of uncontrolled
interbreeding and this is what you get.  Scary!
  "Um," May said, "may we come in?"
  The old woman didn't recognize the twins and they didn't appear to
be a threat so she said, "Sure, come in.  May I make you some tea?"
  "No, really..."
  "I insist."  She went to make some tea.
  "Is there anywhere we can sit down?" Jay asked.
  "You can sit down anywhere," she replied.
  "But the cats...?"
  "Just push them out of the way," she said, "but gently.  They won't
bite but they might scratch."
  "I'll keep that in mind," Jay said.  He moved a cat from one of the
chairs and sat down.  May did likewise.  The cats didn't appear
disturbed.  Indeed, they simply jumped back up and sat on their laps.
May and Jay could hear the cats all purring around them.
  The old woman came back with her tea.  "I'm afraid it's English tea,
not Chinese tea."  She said "Shoo" a few times and cats obediently
made room for her and the tea on the sofa and coffee table.
  "That's fine," May said, "and we're Vietnamese, not Chinese."
  "Ah, I see," the old woman said.  "No offense intended."
  "None taken."
  "So what brings you here?"
  "Well, actually..."
  Suddenly, The Nameless One kicked down the door.  By the time he had
spotted Jay and May sitting down amongst the mass of cats, the old
woman had already pulled out her Zenith Space Command remote control
and fired its death ray, cutting the man in two!  Cats excitedly ran
up to him and started devouring the fresh meat.
  "Sorry about that," the old woman said.  "You were saying?"
  "Um," May said, "to tell you the truth we were hiding from him.  I'm
so sorry we didn't tell you sooner!  We almost got you killed!"
  "Oh pish posh!" she said.  "I can take care of myself."
  "I can see that," May said.
  "You killed him," Jay said.  He was still in shock.
  "I don't like to be disturbed," the old woman said.
  "But..."
  "Don't worry," she said.  "The cats like you and if the cats like
you then you must be alright."
  "Thank you," May said.  "For everything."
  The old woman smiled.  "Don't leave without drinking your tea."
  "Oh," May said, "of course."  May and Jay quickly downed their tea.
"We had better go now."
  The old woman nodded.  "Very well," she said.  "It is late.  You
young people need all the sleep you can get."
  May nodded.  "Thanks again."
  "It's no problem,"  she said.  "Just..."  Her face turned serious.
"Don't tell anyone about my death ray.  It's not registered you see.
And an old woman living alone needs protection."
  "Oh, of course!" May said.  "We won't say a word."  They got up to
leave.
  "Well, in that case," the old woman said, "feel free to some back
and visit!"
  "We will!" May said politely, even though she had no intention of
doing so.  They left.
  Once they were outside, they had to think of their next move.
  "What now?" Jay asked.
  "We have to go back to LNH HQ," May said.  "We're going to have to
ask for their protection."

***

Will Ultravac hire another hitman to kill Jay and May or will it just
let Baidu Tran deal with them?

What evil plan does the Ultravac computer have in mind should it gets
its... spools on the spoon of destiny?

Will the fact that Cat Lady saved May and Jay cause a rift between her
and the rest of the WHATEVER group

These questions will probably be ignored by people who will go ahead
and do their own thing in the next exciting chapter of THE SPOON OF
DESTINY SAGA!

Martin