How to Become a God

How to Kill a God

A short beep interrupted Howard's rant, and his voice forcefully became a loud gravelly voice, "Agent, what the hell is happening?  The locals around your mission site are either tearing each other apart or building giant statues.  Explain the situation."

Finally, the raw influx of new people and information began to take its toll on Diana, and the situation was becoming more convoluted by the second.   Diana felt like she could only understand half of everything as if she had forgotten the rest and her mind could not catch up.  Suffering from a painful migraine, Diana placed her spinning head in her hands and repeatedly screamed, "I don't know!"

There was a moment of silence in the metal hallway.  Then, the gravelly voice firmly started again, "Listen to me.  Your name is Diana.  My name is Frank.  We are from the same agency.  I am part of the Special Mitigation Unit.  To help contain and clean everyone's mess up.  Tell me everything from the start."

Quickly, Diana recounted the recent events and her time as Lars' secretary.  Frank listened closely in silent concentration while he typed on his keyboards.  When Diana finished, Frank paused and summarized his report, "Right. Direct mind-reading and influence with a madman.  That's a tough order, but it is possible.  I've dealt with similar cases for years, but it isn't all that simple.  To make matters worse, you seem to have your memory only partially restored."

"Partially?  What did you guys do to me?"

"You agreed to the sleeper cell plan in the first place.  The engineer only said about half the phrase you to awaken you.  Right now, you are about half an agent.  Paul should have the whole set.  Alright, where's Paul?  Let me speak to him."

"He's here.  On the ground, unconscious.  Can't you come help me?"  Diana said as she glanced at the sleeping Paul.

"Yes, I should leave my post and endanger this operation and everyone else to save a half an asset.  My primary objective is to assist the other agents with support, not babysit greenhorns."

"Yes, so far you have been oh so helpful with me.  Everything is falling apart, and I don't know what to do.  Just give me anything, and I will just have to improvise.  Or is that too much for you to do either?"

The watch fell uncomfortably silent. Diana began to wonder if she had gone too far on a potential ally.  The gravelly voice cleared its throat and answered,

"I see you have gotten your bite back.  Now get your head back into the mission.  I have got some things and an experimental item that may help you.  First, the stun glove, standard issue.  As its name suggests it is a glove that can discharge rather powerful shocks.  Just clench your fist and press it against your target.  It doesn't matter how big, drugged up, or mind-controlled they are if they still have human weaknesses.  Remember, you need to charge it in between uses with the kinetic charger inside of your watch by moving around.  Next, the echo-thought.  These earphones help mitigate the suggestions and mind attacks that you may go through.  It clogs up your mind with other ideas and rapidly changes subject.  Don't fight it and act instinctively.  You can also use it to feign thoughts to hide from people checking your mind.  Finally, the Persona, a refill of your pen equipment with a case of new injections.  They can span the emotion range from pure rage to life-scarring fear to blind happiness.  The echo-thought and the Persona are a 2-piece experimental equipment that were used to help make you an agent.  Now, you are going to use them to defend yourself from the psychological attacks from our enemy and help infiltrate his critical systems.  They may exceed or may not fully work to your expectations.  Use them as you see fit.  Any questions, agent?"

Diana felt oddly disappointed with her lackluster equipment, "That's it?  A taser and an experiment?  No lasers, explosives, or skeleton card keys?"

"Agent, we are spread thin as it is, and we need to gamble.  Your enemy has provided everything else already.  You just need to take it from them.  I am sure you'll figure it out.  Your primary objective is to stop the mind-control broadcast and free those affected by it."

Diana could see a red blip with a 30 minute timer appear on a green map near to her location.  This time, Frank spoke with a hint of hope,

"I will continue to search for the rest of your activation phrase and assist you as much as I can.  Diana, expect the gear in 30 minutes and good luck.  We're counting on you."