The next few days settled into a routine for Morgan. Every third day he trained with Helen, on the other two days he would do his best to follow the PT program laid out for him by voice becomingly increasingly convinced that there was some sort of joke about its requests. The time it suggested he eat light bulbs and allowed the glass to pass through his system to make his digestive tract tougher was the only time he completely ignored the whole document.

  Going out with Marie still happened but not being able to leave without an escort really crimped the romance that he was trying to generate. Whilst she seemed to be okay with that it did worry him that this was something that would go nowhere without room to grow.

  It was a week after the meeting at the snack bar that Annie moved in. It was all surprisingly anti climatic, he expected a great deal of stuff instead her total worldly goods fit in one duffel bag and one archive box. The duffel bag was emptied quickly of clothes and she passed the box to him. Its contents were varied, some legal documents but what he spent most time on was the picture albums. The wedding album was the one he kept returning the rest to Annie. He rationalised that choice as the rest were shared, this was his and Joanne’s alone. That night and the next day he spent on his own. The day after that he got back to his routine answering no questions about his thoughts.

  Annie got a job waitressing at Alan’s Snackbar where she started to strike up conversations with the customers. The lack of an arm may have made her slower to serve but nobody complained and Alan seemed to be happy with the situation so that was not mentioned.

  Training with Patel got harder to organise the next week as she was now working with the rest of the augmented squad trying to see what they could do. Whilst she did make room for him once a week the difference between him and the trainees getting full time attention was getting larger. This was something he decided to accept until the next training cohort started. At that point he was going to catch up.

  The soldiers wives activities were somewhat underwhelming. The cooking classes were interesting and might even be enjoyable if the tension between him and Wendy could just go. Whilst she had stopped attacking him overtly his augmented senses were such that he could clearly hear her talking him down when he was not there. It was so clear that he assumed she knew what she was doing and seemed to be baiting him to respond. It just left a sour taste in his mouth that got worse every time Annie told him how good she was with her issues.

  No the real interesting thing on his timeline was Comicon. That was ten days away and he decided to find Trelawney to ask for advice about blending in. The advice surprised him.

  “so, let me check. Wear army greens –badly- put on a scarlet headband while carrying an oversized fake gun and I will blend right in. No offence but is this some sort of wind up?” Morgan asked. Hugh grinned pulling out his phone and pulling up pictures. There was an array of pictures of him dressed as some sort of half robot half prawn standing next to stormtroopers, lots of women clad in bikini armour and many more costumes besides. The costumes ranged from distinctly down market to absurdly ornate but it was convincing. If anything something as sensible as army greens might be too sensible. Grinning he asked “ok, who am I dressing as?”

  Hugo’s smile beamed back “oh well have you read the marvellous micro comics then?”. While Morgan shook his head Hugh reached down and spread out an array of comics showing an incredibly large busted Indian lady kicking hell out of foreign saboteurs.

  “Is that meant to be Patel?” he asked half horrified, half amused.

  Hugh nodded gravely adding “just stirs your heart to know such a patriotic and heroic lady is so close. Never noticed her blouses getting ripped in battle so much either, can’t imagine the quartermasters happy. Anyway lets look at the last two. See the big lummox in the background? She has a flunky now. Not as smart but big and brave. They call him the Ox. He’s so strong reliable and stupid you see.”

  Morgan grabbed a comic ignoring Hugh’s protest about getting finger marks on the artwork and flipped through with mounting horror. “This is tripe” he objected, Hugh put a mock sympathetic expression on saying “I know, I know. Its just not fair is it. But you must admit its an easy costume Oxbridge – do you mind if I call you ox? You should start to get in character”

  Morgan looked at Hugh and snarled “if you think I am wearing this tripe you can go f yourself!”

  An hour later he was looking at a scarlet strip of cloth and an absurdly oversized Remington M870 foam replica. The most absurd thing was the sniper scope. A sniper scope on a shotgun. He honestly had no idea how he had been persuaded that this made sense. He remembered part of it was the faux pas of referring to Hugo’s costume as roboprawn. Apparently there was a big difference between Roboprawn and Battle Krill which had nothing to do with starships named after ducks? He had to concede his costume was both easier to wear and nowhere near as silly. Though he continued to object a sick heavy feeling in his stomach made him think he was probably going to eventually agree.

  He got back to his house an hour later finding Annie in a bathrobe painting the nails on her bad arm while the news droned on in the background. Looking up she sniffed “Dad I’m not your social secretary. Marie is in the kitchen” after which cryptic comment she went back to her nails. Marie was there drinking some hot chocolate while watching something on her phone.

  When she noticed him she took her ear buds out and smiled at him “So told you are organising a base escape without me?”. Seeing his confused look she continued “Helen came round and told me she was being your escort to some sort of symposium about specials? She wanted me to know it was not stepping on toes.”

  Through raised eyebrows “A symposium about specials. Well that sounds better than I expected something called ComiCon to be. Yes I am getting off base but it really is research, didn’t think of you because, well its work. You’re not. “ He was about to continue when Marie got up to hug him. After that she sat back down and waved for him to continue. “Since when was she assigned to escort me? Thought Hugo was my native guide?” Shaking his head he sat down next to her and continued “Does she really need to check with you?”

  Marie shrugged “No but she’s trying to apologise for last time. Don’t worry” Finishing the dregs of her drink she got up kissed the top of his head and put the drink in the sink. Leaning back on the sink she smiled “So Annie is getting ready for a date. She had me do the nails on her active arm while she talked about what was good to do.” Her smile got wider “What do you intend to do with an empty house for the night?”

  With a matching smile he took a step and taking her hips in his hands kissed her. After a few moments he broke the kiss and leant back shouting out to Annie “when are you going?”. They both grinned at each other.

  When Annie returned it was nearly midnight and she found them both watching a movie on the couch dressed in bath robes. Marie stretched out reaching with her hand to stroke the back of Morgans neck almost purring. Annie looked at them then slumped on one of the chairs. She started monologuing to herself “Hello Annie. How was your date Annie? Oh I’m so sorry to hear that Annie. Really Annie how could he still think you’re a nun in that dress. No Annie I agree you should not have agreed to have a theological debate with him, that was a mistake. Never mind Annie I feel bad for you so will not flaunt how good my night was”.

  Whatever reaction she wanted Morgan’s laughter was not acceptable and she stormed out in a huff. The sound of Marie’s laughter joining his did nothing to improve her mood. Her night was little better, Marie apparently was a screamer.

  Marie had a shift starting early next day so Annie’s ongoing bad mood was not directed at her.

  With ComiCon being the next day this was a routine kind of day but even Morgan recognised he was being oddly happy about it all when he caught people giving him strange looks. Both Hugo and Corporal Patel were hard to get hold of so assuming it was all going to sort itself out he instead went on line and decided to read up on some of the Marvellous Micro comics.

  They were clearly propaganda pieces designed to make people feel safe. Despite that some of it was entertaining in the non ironic sense, It reminded him of MACH man from his childhood comics. The plots ranged from the silly (a romantic fling with President Harry Windsor behind his wife’s back to help stabilise the tri state union in west coast America) to the confusingly absurd (Irradiating cocaine to make sea monsters build airplanes?) but there was something sincere about it that made reading it bearable. Channing was portrayed either as Rambo or Machiavelli as the plot demanded. When he closed the website down all he could think about was how in flux politics seemed to be internationally. Oh the plots were silly but they were set in a world whose rules were suddenly unfamiliar.

  Next morning he arrived at the car park five minutes early when Patel with a duffel bag arrived flanked by a lieutenant wheeling in a couple of archive boxes on a trolley. He introduced himself as Brian and then stood there with a smug grin on his face. Since Helen also looked amused Morgan decided not to worry and before he could think of a polite way to ask what was going on Hugo pulled up in a minivan. Getting out he was already wearing most of his battle krill costume, looking warily at the lieutenant he saluted and then asked “What are those boxes for sir?”

  Brian smiled “Private Trelawny – Thank you for notifying me that you would not be following my orders to stay away from comics and related paraphernalia. You will be pleased to know that I did check and my instructions were indeed countermanded by a senior officer, luckily I know how to make lemonade. Private Trelawney, You will be required when at this social event or gathering to recruit and promote to the participants the good works and general desirability of the British army. To assist in this endeavour I will go with you and we will both attend space F27 and hand out flyers”. He indicated the boxes on his trolley. He continued pure malicious glee in his eyes “as this will be an official endeavour you will of course be in full uniform”.

  Hugo gulped and frowned. After a few squeaks that seemed to be attempts to organise his thoughts he finally responded “Sir my duties are to escort Mr Oxbridge and to blend in. It would take me too long to get my uniform, we would miss entry and furthermore I would not be able to blend in adequately”. There was a triumphant note in his voice that Morgan looking at the lieutenant thought might be a tad early.

  The lieutenant smiled and turned to Helen raising an eyebrow. She reached into the duffel bag and pulled out a smaller bag that she then threw at Hugo. He caught it and the Lieutenant started to talk once more “Thank you Corporal for bringing the spare uniform I requested. Corporal I regret to inform you that you will be required to be a replacement escort for Mr Oxbridge. It is my understanding at these events that person or persons attempt to dress as prominent heroes, you are currently a popular target of such imitation am I correct?” Helen in parade ground rest merely nodded and he continued “As such you should be able to mix and mingle freely whilst appearing to be merely a good imitation. Mr Oxbridge, you will be left to your own devices providing you make no attempt to lose your escort. Close down is I understand at four pm and we will escort you both back at that time”.

  He opened the van, got in and gave every appearance of going to sleep. The three of them looked at him and then started stacking boxes in the back of the van. The drive was quiet to Comic Con and it took about forty minutes to get there. When they got there the LT agreed to park up while they went to find a changing area for cosplayers. When he drove off Hugo turned to Patel “what gives corp” and she rolled her eyes.

  “What gives private is that you’re an idiot. As I understand it you loudly declared in barracks that you had found a way round Lieutenant Rathbones orders. And you did that when he had enough time to organise this!”. Helen pushed them both to the male changing area pointing at her watch “change quickly, ten minutes, here.”

  Morgan and Hugo slouched in and got changed. Hugo’s moaning went from inaudible to funny then annoying and Morgan got changed quickly leaving him to complain about how long it took to pack a costume properly. Six minutes later he was standing outside when Patel approached looking almost normal except for a scandalously ripped white T shirt top which he ignored. The Bra looked industrial strength anyway so really not much to worry about. Eight minutes later they were joined by the LT who after a quick conversation with Helen went into the changing area. Shortly after Hugo exited with him both carrying boxes. All four made there way back to the van depositing the boxes and reloading the archive boxes onto the trolley. The LT handed them wristbands “Ok already checked us all in. Patel, Oxbridge you have all access passes though you are registered for the fancy dress event at 2pm no other things are booked. We will meet here at 16:15 precisely and return to Pederville. Private Trelawney, Bring the cart, we are going to set up our recruitment stand.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Morgan and Patel watched them go and she shrugged “handing out flyers for a day isn’t terrible, serves him right. What do you want to do?”

  Morgan looking at the receding figures slumped his shoulders “I was going to follow my native guide” he said waving at them “but now, ... I guess lets just go in and look round. Theres a writers brainstorming session that I thought might be right for what I need at ten but otherwise lets just mingle”.

  Approaching the sports centre the cosplayers started to be obvious. Though in some cases it was hard to tell if someone just really liked suits or was cosplaying as a time traveller they no longer stood out. Having two hours to kill they looked through the various displays and merchants before settling down to a coffee. Absurdly overpriced they bought it anyway and Finally Helen asked “So how are things going with Marie. I mean she makes you sound friggin awesome but I thought I would ask”

  Morgan kept a bland expression ruined by the taste of his coffee as he sipped it to stall for time. “Well. Things are going well. I mean obviously early days but yes no problems”

  She nodded and then eying her cup suspiciously put it down. “Thats good.” They stared at each other and then Morgan dropped his eyes.

  “I read the regs you know. For service couples. They are crazy.” Whilst her face suddenly brightened he continued “I mean they might make sense for existing couples. But two people who are just feeling things out?”

  He was interrupted by Helens guffaw “think a lot of yourself if you think there’s any feeling out on a first date”

  He also smiled “Fair, ok it just seemed like a good way to make a permanent record of a crash and burn”

  She stared at him for a few seconds and then smiled “Pessimistic. Ok I agree. Shall we talk about something else? Ooh I know, want to know what I did with my level ups?” When she started talking he held up a hand to stop her.

  “Permission to touch” he asked and at her nod he tapped her hand.

  Eighty six cores of which eighty are assigned to Gamma containment Fast Mover build. Further core assignments are as follows Health, Healing, Longevity, Sensory augmentation, Spatial awareness, Augmented strength.

  He tried to compare this with his old reading of her and saw few surprises. He had thought she was level four and though max health had increased her current actually seemed lower. What drew his attention most was the build systems entry. “Level six? Sorry I appear to have not been keeping track, when did that happen? Your current health is, not at capacity are you alright?”

  “Time of the month” she replied and then continued “Yeah levels. As far as the lab boys can tell conflict with other specials makes you gain experience. Fighting baselines does nothing. If not nothing certainly too small to notice with our current set up”

  Morgan nodded “And you are doing nothing but train with other specials, gotcha. Does that mean the coppers I augmented only go against baselines?”.

  Giving him a warning look she replied “I would not talk about something that may be classified and is clearly not happening. Did you find out anything else?”

  “You have an entry I haven’t seen before, Build systems ready for activation?” Morgan replied taking another repulsive sip. Putting the cup down with a grimace he continued “When did it appear and what is it. I mean assuming you know”.

  “No idea, it suddenly appeared at 5 and hasn’t done anything since” Helen replied. With a shrug she continued “somebody had to be first at levelling up and guessing what stuff does. Thanks to you its me”. She sat forward staring at him intently “I don’t know if you’re going to pull some magic out of your hat but I should point out that whenever you do that I will be obliged by standing order 1489 to report it immediately so my power stability can be retested. So unless you want to end early lets shelve it for now huh?”

  Finding that easy to agree with they passed the test of endurance which was finishing the coffee and took a look around. After some observation about the blessing of augmented senses being a double edged sword they went to the stall area. The majority of the stalls sold what appeared to Morgan’s eyes overpriced tat. The displays were entertaining but after indulging for a while he got back to business and started to sit in on discussions about plots and abilities. It would be unfair to call it a total waste of time but it was not as productive as he had first hoped as there was very little brainstorming about new abilities and lots of discussions about emotions.

  With half an hour to spare before the start of the fancy dress competition and both fed up they decided to go to the recruitment stand and see how things were going. F27 was easy to find and there were a few people hanging around it. It soon became obvious why, the native guide had struck. From somewhere and somehow a poster with Hugo’s Face on it bearing the words ‘Get your photo taken with an actual SCAR operative’ and underneath ‘A co-worker with Micro and the Ox’ had appeared. A cue had formed with Hugo striking ‘heroic’ poses next to overweight nerds whilst the Lt handed out flyers and discussed things with people.

  Helen cackled at the sight “They normally are lucky to hand out a dozen leaflets. If that LT is not careful those two might get sent to more of these things”. After some discussion I was decided not to disturb what looked like a smooth operation besides which it would break the very loose cover they had. With that they went to the entry for the Fancy dress competition that apparently was called cosplay display.

  Entry had already been organised so they hung around in the waiting area where attendees could just wander in and out and take photos of the better costumes. Though the range of costumes was frankly huge there were several other ‘Micro’ costumes. His appreciation of the décolletage and the skin on display was noted by Helen who seemed quite unimpressed, almost annoyed. After a few minutes a harried looking man with a headset and clipboard came in and started to give instructions.

  “Ok people nice to see some familiar faces but I’m gonna want you all to pay attention Hmkay? Ok you will all draw a number from this bag here and that determines your order. When your number is up go on the stage. Do 2 walks up and down and then answer some questions about who you are dressed as. If you don’t go out when your number is called you can try again at the end”. He held a bag out and people started to draw numbers and reacted with either glee or disdain according to what they drew.

  29 seemed neither high or low with just short of fifty competitors so they both settled down to watch and see what was expected. Not much more than headset had already said apparently, the only wrinkle was you seemed to be expected to clap and cheer no matter how badly anyone did. It took about an hour to reach their number and it was a relief by then. Helen turned to him as they were in the wings “Let’s give them a show.”

  It took a few seconds hurried discussion but when they walked out Helen was standing on Morgan’s outstretched hand. He walked down the runway while she blew kisses at the crowd and then when they reached the end he abruptly withdrew his hand leaving her floating there. In reality she was standing on one of her force fields but it looked like she was just floating. To amazed applause he walked back down the runway. Coming back it looked like he picked her up but she cancelled the field just as he put his hand under her feet and then lowered her to the floor.

  The Compere of the competition approached all teeth and showbiz. “Well thank you for your magic show, that was unexpected give them a round of applause people”. Arms pumping upwards he led a round of applause and then turned back to the pair “Well congratulations Micro on being the first contestant to bring your sidekick in on your act, tell me how did you find him?”

  The microphone pointed at her and she replied in a bright cheerful voice ”Paid informants watch our every move, he was never free, we are always watching.”. The man’s smile never wavered as he turned to Morgan “and you how do you feel being part of the brave forces protecting our country with this little bombshell?”

  Morgan paused for a split second and then took pity on him “It’s great to do great things. Standing here with this hero I can only hope to one day earn the accolades I have”. There was a pause whilst he seemed to be expected to continue then Helen was addressed once more.

  “And Micro What about that plot arc with you and the American prince? Were you sorry that he thought he could do more for this nation as part of the west coast peoples collective?”

  Helen smiled and in the same cheerful voice as before replied “the bitch broke him, don’t want someone else puppy no matter how house trained. Leave him surviving by doing after dinner speeches and I will find someone to break all by myself”. This was given disconcerting overtones as she grabbed Morgan’s bicep and smiled at him while saying it. The compere tried to rally himself, a smile remained on his face but it was much more plastic as he turned to Morgan.

  “Well Imitation, magic and comedy, you two skill wise may be a treble act but are you going to try to be a trouble act as well?”. Somehow this awful pun seemed to boost his confidence and he shoved the microphone in Morgan’s face despite not actually asking him anything.

  Morgan considered and then decided to just play it straight “F27 folks, if you don’t like our act go talk to Hugo Trelawney about serving in SCAR with the genuine articles. Rule Britannia!”. With a wave they left the stage to somewhat hesitant applause not laughing until they got off stage. Helen handled in the entry forms still giggling to a clearly disapproving volunteer. Finding a place to watch the remainder of the show they settled down and he whispered to her “why were you upsetting them? Easy prize surely?” In reply she pointed to a poster advertising the event, it was not clear why until he read that the first prize was a tour of Pederville Castle with Major Channing as a tour guide.

  The winner of the event was a tetraplegic who had converted a wheelchair into some sort of half dalek called Stavros? They came in the mid twenties and there were two other ‘Micros’ who got positions ahead of them. Morgan was approached by one, a quite strikingly attractive young sikh lady who wanted him to work with her as an Ox. After his refusal he was whisked out by Helen and they went to the Scar stand.

  Walking past the queue they saw Hugo who grinned at them then shouted “oh no thanks folks, I mean it’s a nice offer but the competition rankings mean there are people who look more like Micro and the OX than you two do. Can’t be taking second best you know!”. Morgan picked up his kit bag and passed Patel hers as well. With a wave they both returned to the changing areas and got into some casual attire returning to the show.

  This time they did not enter and walked around outside eventually eating at an outside catering van that had put tables out some sort of fusion Mexican Japanese rice dish that was much better than the coffee. They just wiled the time away chatting until Helen got a ping on her phone which made her frown. Morgan’s raised eyebrow got a response “The Aliens are moving again. Its odd is all they normally keep a predictable schedule. Should be another fortnight”.

  “Do we need to muster or something?” Morgan asked getting a shake of the head in reply. Helen arched her back in a yawn and replied “No takes three days from first scan to landing. Just don’t make plans for the next couple of days, observers across the world are going to be tracking it, wishing it lands in some other poor bastards country”. She settled back to a more normal position and continued “if we are the poor bastards then the FARTS are gonna try to gas them. No I am not making that up. Fast Alien Response Teams. Suicide jockeys the lot of them. Wish them luck and get out of the way.”

  It was interesting that a small but noticeable number of people got similar alerts, despite this the event wound to its conclusion without any reaction and they went to watch Hugo and Rathbone take down the stand. Both were tremendously cheerful, Rathbone had smashed the targets for follow ups and Trelawney had basically been paid to attend a Comic Con. Yes a lot of time had been spent on the stand but he had been allowed breaks which had sort of worked for him.

  The only fly in the ointment was the alert and it was close to the only topic of discussion back to base. While nobody had any idea what sort of drive the starfish used orbital mechanics was clearly applicable based on previous manoeuvres. For some reason this early launch was burning a lot of whatever they used for fuel, that was an odd behaviour for them. Eventually the discussion wandered onto the landing point. Rathbone closed that conversation down “Normally we make a guess three days after launch and localise quickly the closer they get to earth. All that assumes they use least fuel trajectories though, they’re not doing that now so who knows? Lets just wait”

  Nobody liked that but it did sum the situation up.

  When they got back to the base whilst they were unloading what remained of the promotional material Patel asked Rathbone to clarify a regulation for her “Sir in regs what constitutes a date?”.

  Rathbone frowned for a second “I assume you don’t mean how to write down a calendar. Ok lets see if I can remember the reg”. He frowned for a second then recited slowly and haltingly ”A social occasion or an event may for the purposes of these regulations be actionable if it contains any two of the three items listed below. 1) Food – the provision of food as a major part of a social interaction 2) Affection- this may be considered in the case of emotional support but is always relevant in the case of direct physical prolonged interaction 3) Entertainment – When entertainment is provided by either party with the intent of pleasing or impressing the other party”. He put the box down and said “do I need to know about an USCMP corporal?”

  Patel responded quickly “I don’t think so sir, a recruit was asking for clarification and I wanted to get it right sir. No Unwanted Sexual Conduct Military Personnel to report sir” Rathbone grumbled something about being careful and directed Hugo to wherever the flyers had come from. Helen turned to Morgan “good thing you didn’t buy me dinner- think of the paperwork.”