When Brad got downstairs, he found that all of his ladies, except those that had gone shopping were there. Frank, Hal and Carrie were off to one side talking quietly. Once they saw that Brad and Vanessa had joined them, they asked to please fire a few rounds so they could evaluate everyone's skill, and see who needed more training.
After everyone donned the appropriate safety equipment, both Sammy and Samantha stepped forward. Smiling shyly, they pressed the button to run each target farther out from the twenty yards Hal set them too.
Carrie was about to say something, when Frank laid a hand on her arm shook his head slightly, and winked at her. The big woman smiled at him shrugged and turned back to watch.
Once the hanging paper targets had been run all the way out to three hundred yards each girl picked up a nine millimeter inserted a clip, and chambered a round. When Hal told them to begin, the girls fired so rapidly, it was like they were using machine pistols. They fired all their rounds, dropped the spent clip, and slapped another one in, and kept firing.
Suddenly both girls stopped firing just as fast as they'd started. Pulled the clips out of the guns, and ejecting the chambered round. Still as one, they hit the retrieve button for the targets.
Like she was coming out of a trance, Stephanie looked over at Hal and Carrie. "There are four rounds left for each weapon; three in the magazine, and one was in the chamber."
"We would have fired those too, but the weapons got too hot," Sammy added.
The girls unclipped their targets and brought them over to the table by Hal and Carrie. Stephanie laid hers down first, face up. It was instantly clear that none of the rounds fired had hit near the bulls eye, but were lower. There was, however, a pattern to the holes. Steph's shot pattern was H-I H-A-L.
Carrie chuckled as Hal looked chagrined. "Cute, smarty-pants," he said to Steph, who bowed her head slightly, and grinned as Sammy stepped forward. She laid her target down face up as well, but neither Hal nor Carrie could figure out what the pattern was. Frank snorted, picked up Sammy's target, flipped it over, and laid it on top of the other target. He then lined up the bottoms so they were perfectly aligned with each other.
Both Carrie and Hal stood speechless as they looked down on the two targets. Both said "HI HAL" but Sammy's had been done backwards. Then too the fact that both targets had aligned so that the holes also lined up perfectly was astounding in itself.
Frank smirked at the girls. "You two cheated!"
"Huh? How could they cheat? We stood right here and watched them do it!" Hal said.
"A set of twins, both with active mental powers? They did this linked together so it would look like an amazing feat of marksmanship," Frank said. "It still proves that they are excellent shots, especially considering the distance, but the feat is not as amazing as it looks."
Both Steph and Sammy stuck their tongues out at Frank. "Spoil-Sport!" they said in unison, but jokingly.
Shaking his head in wonder at the two precocious fifteen-year-olds, Hal looked at Joyce and Vanessa. "Wanna go next?"
The two women stepped up to the firing line, and Vanessa asked. "What weapon would you like me to use?"
"Any one you would like, Vanessa. The Glock would be fine," Carrie said, somewhat sarcastically. No one should be able to even hit the damn targets at that distance, but yet the twins did it.
"Uh, which one's the 'Glock'? It's been twenty-eight years since I had basic firearms training. I don't remember anything called a 'Glock'," Vanessa replied.
Joyce smiled at her lover. "This is a Glock, sweetheart," She said picking up one of the guns the girls had used. "Most of it works just like the old M1911 you trained with, except it doesn't actually have a safety. Insert a magazine, rack in a round, point and shoot."
Vanessa smiled her thanks. "What are you going to use?"
"I thought I'd use one of the MP5's I keep picking it up, so I thought it would make Hal and Carrie rest easier if they knew I could use it," Joyce replied.
Before loading their weapons, they put up fresh targets and ran them out to three hundred meters. Both women then picked up their weapons, loaded them, and chambered a round.
When they started firing, Joyce finished first of course, but Vanessa took her time; only firing a round every couple of seconds. When they brought the targets in, Joyce had shot out the inner two rings, and Vanessa shot out the bullseye.
When Brad walked up to the line, he reloaded both target racks and sent them down to the end of the range. He didn't, however, pick up a weapon. Instead, he dropped a handful of .223 bullets, without the cartridge, he'd gotten from the reloading bench on the shooting table.
"Guys," He said to Hal and Carry. "I hate to point this out, because I know you're just trying to evaluate us, but I think there might be one thing you over-looked."
He turned back to the table, and tapped it. "Hey guys! Wake-up!"
As he spoke all eighteen bullets suddenly sat up on their bases and began hopping around like they were really happy to see him. Very faintly you could here tiny little voices talking excitedly.
"Do you remember that job I had for you?" Brad asked.
The small group seemed to settle down amid sounds of assent.
Brad held a hand out above the table. "Come on; hop up. It's time."
By now the group watching was laughing their butts off.
The Bullets used Brad's hand as a spring board to jump to a place about eye-level where they just hung there, in a perfectly straight line. Shortly it looked like two or three of them were getting pushy.
"Boys! Come on now, no pushing! You'll all get to go! Now behave!" Brad said, causing another round of laughter from the group. One of the bullets was facing the wrong direction. It was a little less shiny than the others.
"Uh, Flash?" Brad asked.
A tiny 'Eh?' was clearly heard.
Brad pointed down-range. "The targets are that way."
A tiny 'thank-you' could be heard, and it turned around. By then the rest of the bullets seemed to be getting antsy.
"Calm down folks! Billy, get back in line. No Jenny, you can hold it for a few more seconds. Now, anytime you're ready," Brad said.
The bullet on the end turned and said something to Brad.
Brad sighed. "Oh, all right! Get ready!"
The bullets stopped horsing around, and got back in line.
"Get set!"
They seemed to get more tension to them. Little 'Billy' crept forward ever so slightly.
"Go!" Brad said.
Immediately there were a bunch of soft 'pops' that were to close together to separate. However, 'Flash' was still in place for a moment before it 'yelled' a loud (for a bullet) 'Yaah Hoo!' and another soft pop was heard as it seemed to disappear as well.
The group of observers was clapping in appreciation of the performance. In his mind, he could feel the missing girls laughing, too.
When everyone calmed down, and saw that the bulls-eye of each target had a neat cross through it. Hal smiled at Brad. "We understand that if you used your abilities, you'd be the best shot in the world, what we want to know is how good you are without using your abilities."
"Neither set of twins, nor I have ever held a weapon before. Joyce, Terri, Tera and I were all designed to be the soldier model. While Vanessa was a breeder, and the two youngest were for researchers/scientists. Only Joyce and Vanessa got the initial training, but all of us have a very strong, instinctual, grasp of the skills we're supposed to have," Brad said.
"So... 'Nessa is a 'super' mother, Steph and Sammy are 'super' scientists, and the rest of you are 'super' soldiers?" Carrie asked. "What about Tabby?"
Oracle answered. "Tabitha was an experimental 'accident'. A researcher once speculated on how the baby would turn out between a combat model and a normal human soldier. Early tests did not meet the researcher's expectations, and they decided it was the fault of the sire. The child was scheduled to be 'disposed of' as a failed experiment. Her father got permission to take her home and raise her as his own. Even I don't know why, but some quirk by the lead researcher granted his request, and he took her home that night. She was still an infant at the time." Then Oracle bowed her head, and Vanessa returned.
Carrie frowned slightly. "That still didn't answer my question; does she have the same instinct that the soldiers have?"
"We don't know for sure, but Oracle seems to think there is a good chance she does, just not as strong, perhaps," Vanessa answered, shrugging.
While they'd been talking, Brad took a .22 round from one of the rifles, and had used it to randomly trace small circles on the back of a target. When he'd drawn ten of them, he hung the target backwards, and sent it down range.
He put the round back into the magazine for the rifle, before seating the magazine, and chambering a round. "I promise not to use any, uh, 'powers of the mind' to do this. I have ten rounds in this rifle. I drew ten circles on the back of the target. If any part of the hole itself breaks the circle, the shot's a miss."
Hal chuckled. "You're leaving a margin of error of only millimeters. You might be good, but no ones that good!"
"Care to make a wager?" Carrie said grinning.
Carrie's question sparked a round of betting by the playful ladies, and Brad was suddenly glad that Julie was with Maria.
Brad looked at Sammy. "You're betting against me?"
"Not exactly," She replied grinning profusely. "This is a 'win-win' wager."
Brad just shook his head, and waited until all the betting had finished. Then he took aim, and fired all ten rounds, a second or two apart.
When the target got back up to the shooting table, Brad grinned, and made a small adjustment to the rear sight of the rifle. Everyone in the room looked at the target in shock.
Brad chuckled. "We're not, after all, infallible supermen."
Every hole from every shot, was off by the same amount, in the same direction. The holes from all the bullets was dead center on the line of each circle.
Since it was nice and sunny now, Brad had decided to do some swimming and work on his tan. When he first got out to the pool, he noticed that there were two city utility vans parked by a manhole between Frank's property, and the golf course abutting the rear of the property. Since Joyce, Stephanie, and Julie were with him in skimpy bikinis, he'd expected much more interest from the men working.
Curious, he reached out with his mind, and touched the mind of one of the men he could see. They were there planting data and phone taps on the lines going into Frank's house.
The other van was a surveillance van. Carefully watching, and recording everything the lovers and Julie did. Throwing his towel over his shoulder, he excused himself, walked over to the surveillance van, and knocked on the door. When the men inside didn't open up, Brad did it for them.
"Hello Gentlemen. How are you today?" Brad asked nicely.
"Fine, what can we do for you, Mr. Rogers?" the one towards the back replied.
"Well, you could leave me and my family alone, but somehow I don't think you're going to do that," Brad said and raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Sorry, no. We won't be doing that," the man said.
"Well, I just thought I'd ask," Brad replied. "Mr. Director, can you hear me?"
A heavily distorted voice issued from the speakers over the bank of flat-panel monitors. "Yes, I can. I see that I've been duped into killin' my own security chief. Very cleaver, Bradley."
"I know you think of us as inhuman monsters, sir, but I swear to you that those pictures weren't faked. I blackmailed Sampson into sending his daughter to us so we could get her away from him. I couldn't stand what I found anymore than you did, apparently." Brad pointed to the monitor showing a close up of Julie. "As you can see, she is doing a whole lot better."
Brad heard the man sigh. "I do believe ya, Bradley. The horror in those pictures just couldn't be faked. For doing that service for th' girl, I'll give ya one piece of information; Martin Sampson had rheumatic fever as a child. He was sterile ever since."
Brad paled. "You mean she's..."
"Like ya'll? Yes, she was meant to be a breeder like ya'll's own dame. When ya'll forced Martin to send her to ya, ya saved us a lot of extra work," the voice replied.
"Director, why are you pursuing this? What have we done that was so wrong that you need to hunt us down and destroy us?" Brad asked.
"Because when we created ya'll, we trespassed in God's domain. The end result was 'at none of ya'll're human, ya'll a bunch a soulless demons summoned up from hell. Ya'll proved it ta me with the shameful, incestuous, relationships with ya'll's dame an' siblings. Not ta mention the chil' pornography, and computer hacking. Ya'll're are pure evil, and it's our duty, as Christians, and as human bein's to rid this planet a vermin like you!"
It was Brad's turn to sigh. A religious nut, this guy was a religious nut which meant he was on a crusade. "Excuse me, sir, but don't you think you're being a little presumptuous? I mean, how do you know God didn't give us souls? He gave the scientists the knowledge to create us, who are we to think we know that this wasn't part of God's plan all along?" Brad licked his dry lips. "Just for the record, sir, and again, I swear to you, we had nothing to do with that mess at the school. Hell, Heather was a victim of those creeps!"
"I suppose ya'll're going to deny the hacking that was done to the Ecogen Computer system?" The voice asked.
"No, that was us. Sir, Ecogen had a 'shoot on sight' order on us, they were trying to kill us! We had to do something to protect ourselves. It was you folks that decided to blow the place up. You could have just destroyed all evidence of your involvement, and the government would have been kept out of it and shown to be a victim as well!"
"What about th' incest? Ya'll tryin' ta deny that yur not in love with them?"
"No sir, I'll never deny what I feel for those wonderful ladies. Sir, we were designed to be attracted to each other, as well as to be able to breed together. If you checked our DNA, I highly doubt you'd be able to link us to any of the others. Yes, we have an unorthodox relationship, and yes, the girls love each other as much as they love me; I'm sure both of those are offensive to you. However, we're not forcing it on anyone else, none of us are being forced into it, and we try to keep most of it behind closed doors. If no one asks, and we don't tell them, how is it going to offend anyone else? I refuse to believe that God could find anything wrong with true and honest love between people.
"Director, please, we have no desire to hurt any one. We just want to be left alone to live our lives just like everyone else. Please pull your men back, none of us will outright attack you, but we will defend ourselves," Brad said.
"I'm a poor man ta be a threatenin', son."
"That wasn't a threat, sir. I'm simply asking you not to hurt anymore of your men. If you leave us alone, we'll leave you alone," Brad said.
"I'll give it some thought, Bradley. Howevah, I'm goin' ta continya surveillance on ya'll, so don't make me do sumpthin' rash. Ya hear?"
"That would be a sad day, sir. Enjoy your stay in our city, Mr. Director; If you'd like a really good prime rib, try the Hammond just across the river, in Superior; the food's excellent," Brad said.
"I'll try that, thank ya," the still distorted voice replied.
Brad nodded to the two men, and backed out of the van, closing the door behind him.
"What was that all about?" Julie asked when he got back.
Brad smiled at the girl. "Nothing really, I just went over to see what was going on. They said they're looking for an unusual power drain."
That seemed to satisfy Julie, and as she dove back into the pool with Joyce.
"I just can't believe the mysterious 'Director' is none other than Ex-President Edward J Brush! I'm surprised someone hasn't strung him up by now!" Stephanie said, mentally. All the girls had been listening in when Brad talked to him.
"All I know of him is what the history books said, and they portray him as a saint. What'd he do?" Tera asked.
"He created the 'Office of Homeland Security' so all the questionable deals he had in the works wouldn't be discovered. He and his cronies ripped off the American people for billions of dollars with that whole Iraq thing that his father started. At the time, it was touted as a humanitarian effort, and that's the way most of the history books remember him. However, evidence showing that all of the humanitarian effort, was a ploy so Brush and co. could get a chunk of the OPEC pie does exist, it's just been buried." Stephanie explained. "His daddy started it, but he is the man most responsible for the deep recession we've been in for years. That was one huge wrench thrown into the big machine!"
"I think he might have gotten even more religious than when he was in office. I don't remember him being that much of a hypocrite," Vanessa said.
"Well, if he is or not, I do believe he's going to back off a bit. He's still going to watch us, but he'll quit trying to capture or kill," Brad said. "I got the impression he was sincere about that."
Sammy snorted. "I think we should get ready for an assault then. He's a religious fanatic who thinks we are demons and it's his duty to God and Man to hunt us down and kill us. Nothing, I repeat, Nothing is going to change his mind."
"What about young Julie? Did the rewrite delete her instincts and her abilities?" Tabby asked via Tera.
"I didn't mess with the subconscious at all. I don't know about her abilities. Oracle? Can you tell us?" Brad asked.
"Yes I can. Young Julie will retain her abilities, but she won't be awaked by any of us," Oracle said. "I can't tell you who it will be, but she'll be just fine."
Everyone was silent for a minute. "Where are you guys, I was thinking about firing up the grill and eating out here tonight," Brad suggested.
"We just left the mall, lover. We should be there in about a half hour. Don't forget to check with Erin before starting it though, She'll be pissed if you torpedo one of her projects," Heather replied.
Vanessa added, "I've been helping Marie with the chores, I'll swing by the kitchen and talk to Erin and Janice before joining you in the pool."
"I'm really sorry to interrupt this tender moment of domestic bliss but our tail is getting more aggressive, and both men have put masks on," Terri said, tensely. "It's starting to look like the Director was full of shit."
"See? Never trust a religious fanatic when they believe they're on a crusade!" Sammy said.