Finally, a top which would fit her new chest size. The Huntress couldn't have felt any more comfortable in that one moment when the sweater went on. True, it hugged her body and its length left her stomach uncovered slightly but that was just a minor detail.
The leather coat and pants were dried and she finally felt better than ever. She even had shoes now. Her feet grew very warm inside, since they'd nearly been frozen to the bone. Funny what people forget about when their minds are occupied with other things.
After much debating, the Huntress had convinced Kate to let her and the boys into the bases main operational centre. She led them through multiple bland, grey metal corridors. Huntress was obviously bored with the dull colours and so was Gray. Will didn't seem to care. He kept glancing over at the Huntress with questions flooding his mind. His facial expression said it all.
Upon arrival, the control centre seemed less disappointing than the rest of the base. Many blue monitors with camera feeds everywhere, terminals for research purposes, even display cases with certain alien artefacts to be used in emergency situations. It was like the set-up of a base from a spy movie.
Coolness aside, there were plenty of desks littered around the rest of the open space, but no one was sat at any of them. They were deserted. There wasn't even a soldier in sight. The Huntress noted it straight away, as did Will. Gray on the other hand, not so much.
'Bugger me. This is alright, isn't it. I mean, it's a proper control centre. Kinda like a superheroes lair, but with the awesome vehicles parked nearby instead of inside directly. Got any choppers?'
Kate couldn't hide her grin anymore. She was clearly entertained by Gray's reactions. Something which probably didn't happen often.
The Huntress stopped at one of the smaller desks and looked over the statistics on the monitor. 'Let's leave the choppers for now. This is much more interesting. Results from an alien technology scan, set for all parameters. Kind of surprised that something like this is left unattended.'
Kate quickly changed her walking direction from the main computer to the Huntress. She nudged Huntress out of the way and looked at the results herself. She certainly wasn't impressed by what she saw. Huntress guessed as much.
Will and Gray joined them. Will took one small glance and saw an empty chart. Not a single bar or spike on the table. Not a single trace of alien tech.
'So there ain't any technology here? Nothing alien? But your alien so that can't be right. What about these damn gadgets in the cases?' questioned Gray, adding in a point towards Huntress on his right. She noted his habit of thinking aloud. Something she'd have to get used to if she was going to keep the humans with her. A decision she still wasn't one hundred percent certain on.
Kate began working away on the computer, looking through the scraps of detailed scans. She looked desperate for an explanation. Things obviously were growing worse within UNIT and this seemed to be a new occurrence. Kate's reaction said it all. This shouldn't be possible. Something should be picked up. Huntress' own presence in London for a start.
Kate sighed and placed her hands on the desk, holding her body upward while her head hung down. 'Nothing. The satellites we have left seem to have been reprogrammed. There useless now.'
That one word engraved itself in the Huntress' mind. Reprogrammed. This meant that either these creatures controlled the satellites from a set location, most likely their own base or...
Huntress hurried to seize control of the computer from Kate. She started tapping away and began to watch. Every code engraved into the reprogrammed satellites zipped across the computer screen endlessly.
All the others saw was binary code in a neon green on a black page. Huntress saw more. She saw a language. A history page. The purpose and orders given to the satellites computer systems. All it took was one slice of code to answer her one question, the decider. After a good four minutes of the others waiting in silent anticipation, she found it.
'Ah! Gotcha! Oh, yes. These eyes have still got it!' she exclaimed as she shot her body upright again and waved her fists in victory. Will, Gray and Kate shuffled backwards whilst startled.
'Wha, what!?' Gray yelled back out of sheer reaction.
Huntress pointed at a highlighted section of binary code, at least seven lines long. 'This is very bad. Extremely bad' she answered, yet in a positive voice. 'All it takes is one recorded section of code to answer the big question. Where?'
Kate and Will looked at each other while Gray kept his eyes on Huntress with his mouth open in wonder and confusion. Huntress took the silence as a queue. She turned around to face the three.
'These aliens have superior technology to humans, that's evident from the current's disappearance and their mind manipulation abilities, yet this code indicates that human technology was used to reprogram the satellites. It already seemed fishy, ignore the pun, that they kept them operational after they'd learned what they needed to learn. Besides, why leave them working for humans to use? Why not lock them out?'
'Woah, slow down. So they used our own technology to hack the satellites. Why not their own technology if it's superior?' Will argued.
'Best guess is that they have agents here in London. Whatever they're doing, it requires this little smoke screen and as little exposure as possible'
'And the incident at the Thames?'
'A different phase. Something so important that I'd never guess. Probably. So, multiple questions thrown here. Let's try this'
The Huntress walks over to a lone, dirty whiteboard in the corner of the room. She starts pulling it to the centre of the room. Will rushes to help her.
With the whiteboard now in the centre of the one bright light in the room, Huntress grabs her sonic and pulls it apart to reveal a whiteboard marker. Purple, of course.
'How the hell does it do that? This wizardry is nuts!' Gray exclaimed uncontrollably.
Huntress simply turns her eyes to Gray and gives him a cheeky little grin. 'I'm a wizard, Gray. Best remember that. Plus, I have a friend who did the same with their sonic. And he's a mad Scotsman. Mine is definitely the better title here. Right, better shut up now. Woah!'
With no warning, she grows increasingly dizzy and falls to her knees. As the others rush to her aid, she holds out a warning palm in their direction.
'Back!' she shouts commandingly, her voice quivering with a cross between pain and slur behind the power of her word.
She closed her eyes and let her head fall backwards slightly and almost like she had no control over herself, her mouth opened and golden energy swirled out in a streak and faded away into nothingness.
Her eyes flicked open again in moments and she smiled as she watched the last glimmers of the energy vanish. 'Beautiful' she gently said.
Trying to focus once again, Huntress regained her bearings and started drawing four large circles onto the whiteboard with words atop each one. Satellites, Current, Mind Control and Final Motive.
'So! Let's start with the current problem, I mean the satellite problem. Damn this language. Why would aliens alter satellites to hide their presence, yet leave it open to the public still? Anyone? Come on, brainstorming works!'
Will looked down as he began brainstorming. It was another habit which the Huntress noticed. Kate would close her eyes and Gray would look in multiple directions as his mind wondered. All human, yet so different.
Will's eyes darted up suddenly. 'Human technology. If they used our tech to hack them, they still need our tech to use them. They can't afford to lock them out. It isn't possible.'
Huntress pointed a finger gun at Will and imitated a fired shot. 'He shoots, he scores!' she responds before writing Human Tech in the bubble, then added an equal sign with the words "Public Place". 'That also means that normal humans access the same tech. Why else would they leave it up? Blending in, remember?' So how about the current?'
They all go back to thinking. Huntress studies them closely. These are answers that she already knows to a certain degree, but what she's more curious about is how the humans would think and what kind of theories or answers they would bring to the table. Would their conclusions align with hers?
This time, it was Gray that spoke whilst raising his hand like a kid in class. 'What about that creature thingy! He tried to get me into the water. It'd stop my body from floatin away.'
This is not the conclusion that the Huntress had originally came to, but this was also plausible. She was proud of Gray. 'Not bad. That means that the mind control and current are linked to these kidnappings. Easy to handle and take away the prey. Ergh, take away.'
On the board she draws a two-way arrow between Current and Mind Control, then adds Kidnapping to the drawn line. Kate's attention is focused on the words.
'Kidnappings? You never mentioned anything about that'
'Still unknown, actually. But since these creatures tried to hypnotise both Will and Gray into the water, its best to assume that this has happened to other people too. Meaning that those people didn't escape and have disappeared.'
As Kate thought about this new information deeply, the Huntress decided to simply add something herself to the Current circle. The words Water Manipulation.
'Water manipulation? So they can make the water do as they bid, like the vanishing water currant?' Will questioned. Huntress didn't bother to turn away from the whiteboard, so she nodded in agreeance.
'That's right. They could turn that current-less river into a tsunami if they wanted to, at least that's implied at this point. Which leads us to the big one, Final Motive. Why kidnap humans, hide their presence and operate in close proximity to humans whilst they have their hands on such superior technology?'
'An assault' came the response of Kate. The others all turned and looked at her.
'That's reasonable, right? They have humans as test subjects or food or even skin suits. They have control over the Thames which gives them a line of attack when assaulting London. As for the proximity, learn everything you can about the enemy. Why attack when you can hinder their defence first.'
Gray was left wide-eyed and stunned. Huntress and Will both nod their heads and started piecing everything together in their heads like a colossal sized jigsaw.
'I really hate to say it Kate since I'm liking this planet, but your right. This is an attack, if this conclusion is correct. That means... that means that we need to know how. If they're using human tech with these capabilities then they must be in a real high-ranked place. Something along the lines of military, perhaps. If only we could search for something else out of place. Something wrong or unusual within the system itself. Narrow it down.'
For what seemed like no reason, Gray slowly took a chain with dog tags off from around his neck and gently placed it on the nearby desk. The others watched his every move. Huntress noticed the sadness growing in his damp eyes. Then it hit her, a military designed dog tag. She remembered noting that it clearly wasn't his.
'A black spot' he slowly spoke while his eyes remained on the tags. 'A strange black spot on every radar appeared in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A ship with my sister on it was sent to investigate and it never returned. They were the first ship dispatched by a new Naval research centre built near the Thames itself. They had a major hand in the ships design apparently, something new or different about it compared to their other vessels.'
Strangely, it was now Kate who hung her head. For some reason, this hit her. She felt pain herself. Huntress could only guess that UNIT noticed the same radar black spot and dismissed it. The military already had it in hand after all.
'You know Gray, I think you've stumbled upon our how. What do you say guys? Wanna come with me and pay those guys a visit. Only way to figure out the truth is to investigate, right?'
Will instantly turned to Huntress and nodded with approval. Huntress looked over at Kate and she also gave a nod. She finally turned to Gray and approached him.
She gently picked up the dog tags and placed them in is hand, wrapping his fingers around the warm, metal. 'Save the planet and find out what really happened?' she added.
Gray looked at her with a grateful smile. 'Are we gonna get uniforms?'
* * *
Far from where the command centre was, Weller was searching and throwing crates around in a storeroom. Full-size crates which would certainly require a forklift for a normal human. However, Weller didn't seem very human at present moment.
The sign outside the door read Ammunition Storage, but nothing inside was quite impressive enough to warrant Weller's attention. Every gun, sword and bomb was petty and worthless in her eyes. Junk.
With a huff, Weller left the storage room and continued down the hallway. She pulled back her right sleeve and revealed a black and green watch-looking device. As she tapped the screen, a full-body hologram of Ironwood appeared before her. Both were emotionless and cruel looking. 'Nothing of threat here. Not worth our time' she reported.
'Don't be naïve, Mena. They may not have the weapons, but they could have the brainpower. When one of our targets get away, that means that something is going wrong. Those two men and the woman must be dangerous if Lethbridge-Stewart is willing to use her remaining resources to take them into custody. Follow them and use your ears. Any key words or plans come back to me immediately. If you act beforehand, I'll find someone else to use that body since we can't exactly give the noisy biddy back.'
Weller looks away in disgust but tries to hide it. Once Ironwood finishes speaking, she looks back at him and nods. 'I understand, Commander. Your orders shall be done.'
With that, the transmission dies and Weller continues on her way. A dastardly wicked smile suddenly flashes across her lips.