title: Sounds.

author: anthony docimo.

archive?: YES - BUT LET ME KNOW!

Part one of [?].

Sounds.
by anthony docimo

Two Days 'Till New Year:

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Hobbs asked, poking his head through the doorway to the Official's office.

"Come on in," the Offical told him. Hobbs did as he was told, standing before the desk of his superior - the Offical. "Hobbs, you're going to take a few days off," he said simply.

Hobbs, on the other hand, was shell-shocked. "Look, sir, if it's about that joke I made the other day abut nobody getting fired -"

"It's not. But you are not to come to work for the next few days."

"But sir, this is my work, my life..." another possiblity came to him.

"Very funny, Fawkes, you can show up now."

"Agent Fawkes is currently resting. I'm dead serious." Fawkes'd been resting a bunch, after that Chinese debacle -- it'd just taken a few hours for the exhaustion to overwhelm his usual bravado.

Hobbs swallowed. Nervousness had grown something in his throat now. "Sir? Is there something wrong?"

"If it makes you feel any better, Hobbs, I'll count them as your sick leave. And I don't care if you sit in your apartment and yodel all week. Just stay off-duty."

"Yes sir," slowly backing away, very very slowly. "Anything else?"

"Yes. Take the Voice with you. She deserves a break as much as you." _If not more_ the Official thought.

"Yes sir," Hobbs said more confidently. _There's an ice cream truck with our names on it._

~~~

In her lab, aka office quarters, the Keeper looked over the full medical workup that she'd done on Darien Fawkes as soon as he'd returned from the Chinese Consulate. Even before she started typing up her report, she could tell that it was not good, not good at all.

She'd been wrong. She'd thought that they would've been able to milk Fawkes of his quicksilver body coating, and have no ill effects on him. Not so, according to her readouts.

For an emmision of a gland to have an effect, it first had to pass through the circulatory system, with the neural network intructing on how to go about things. It was something she should have seen before, it was so basic a thing!

'Like their prize hefer' Fawkes'd told them.

This was *not* good....or at least it had a potential to be that way.

~~~~

One Day After The New Year:

Darien stood outside the synagogue, listening to things. Right now, there was an angel singing in a voice so lovely, it hurt. Literally! Darien's neck swelled, thickening. A shiver ran down his spine.

"Well, it took them long enough," said a voice behind him, somehow hollow and gravelly at once. "Though we should wonder if he'll be like the others they tried." Fawkes spun around, not seeing anything but a mutt and some statues.

The eerie feeling went away after a minute. The stray kept looking at him funny though. "Shoo!"

"I wouldn't do that, kid," a man's voice advised -- he recognized Hobbs by sound. "That mutt always hangs around here. He's already the mascot of the softball team."

Fawkes turned around, ignoring the dog now, and making a theatrical bow of greetings to his partner-in-work...and another one to the young lady by his side, her reddish-brown hair tied together in a hairpiece. "Hey Hobbs, I didn't know you had a sister."

"Ha, very funny, Fawkes. No, this is my niece." The two of them walked around Fawkes, and headed for a nearby corner deli. "There something you want? I was told I'm off-duty, so I'm off-duty."

"Far be it for *me* to interfere in your plans," Darien countered. "I'm just wondering why I've never seen her around."

"Because you don't like to walk the grounds, Fawkes."

"Wait," Fawkes said, grabbing Hobbs's elbow. "Are you telling me that she's an Agent? At her age?"

Hobbs yanked free. "I'm not telling you a thing. Besides, remember somebody else who didn't look their age?" and entered the deli with his niece....leaving Fawkes outside alone.

Supposedly alone.

~~~

Two Days After New Year:

Hobbs walked back into the kitchen after going to the lav. The eggs were just about done, and smelled wonderfull.

But where was his niece? Usually she was sitting at the table....this time though, she wasn't.

"Marthe?" Hobbs called out. No answer. "Marthe?" he repeated, voice becoming aprehensive as he walked through all the rooms in his apartment.

She wasn't anywhere to be found.

~~~

Within the hour:

"No, I did not loose her!" Hobbs insisted. She went to sleep in the same guest bedroom she always uses, and in the morning, she was gone!"

"You will return her to the Agency at once!" the Official loudly ordered Hobbs.

"AND I'M TELLING YOU THAT I DON'T HAVE HER!!" Hobbs shouted back.

"Take this man to the cells," the Official ordered.

The sunglassed agents nodded and grabbed Hobbs by the elbows, dragging him -- his heels were still touching the floor -- to the area they'd been told to. "What a way to kick off a new year," Hobbs grumbled on his way out of the office.

At the doorway, the Keeper paused to let the sunglassed men pass, and noticed just who they were carrying: Bobby!

She shut the 'O' of her mouth, and made her way into the Official's office. She knew that she'd be briefed on what had happened, eventually anyway. Wordlessly, she handed him the report.

His eyes skimmed down it. When he was done, he asked her a question. "Could it have been set off by the Voice Program?"

Keeper had to think on *that* one. "Well, we know that, for all it's importance in making him invisible, the gland is still just a gland.....and certain kinds of music can have an effect on people: calming them down, for instance."

"Summary?"

She nodded. "It's entirely possible. We may be looking at a potent weapon against Mr. Fawkes's ability."

"Or a boon to it," Eberts put in, silenced by the look from the Official and Keeper alike.

"Check Hobbs's apartment," the Official recommended. "See if whoever -- whichever was -- responsible, left any clues." The Keeper nodded and walked out.

~~~

Later that day:

The Keeper looked on as a recovery team swept over the apartment carefully. These men had memories like sieves, but they were good at their job: a perfect combination, as far as the Agency was concerned.

Claire was looking at one wall in particular. Hobbs, or a friend of his, had used photo-doctoring to produce an image of Albert Einstein shaking hands with John F. Kennedy......and then blown it up to cover an entire wall in his bedroom.

Overall, the entire place, bedroom and the rest, was essentially spartan. He had what he needed to survive.

~~~

Meanwhile, in the old apartment, Fawkes was pacing the room, always keeping the girl in sight of at least the corner of an eye. "Now why don't you just relax, huh?" he asked. "You should be thanking me. I saved your ass!"

Marthe just stayed in at the plasic table, the sort used by little kids eating picnics and playing house. She saw nothing funny in it, nor any irony. _What is this, my personal inquisition?_ she wondered. This guy'd kidnapped her -- not to mention going red-eye on her during one of her humming songs!

The fact that he was an Agency man was without question: from time to time, part of him would vanish, become clear as just-washed glass. _This wacko's one of the talents like me??_

~~~

The phone rang.

The Officia picked it up before the third ring. "Yes?"

"Well I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up," Darien quipped. "How's it going, tubby? Ensnare any unsuspecting civlians lately?

"By the way, don't bother tracing the call, because I'll be long gone from this payphone by the time anyone gets here -- and that's *if* they can see me!"

"Kid, not only are you unwell, you also don't realize just how the Agency operates." _Or why._

"Unwell? Unwell?" Darien's laugh echoed over the phone line. "Oh that's rich, coming from you!" His tone seemed to change. "So, how's Hobbs?"

"That's none of your concern. Give yourself up, and we won't have to use force."

"With what, lardo? Catevari's dead, and granny's back to being a mother. You're shootin' blanks!"

"Yet again you underestimate the Agency, Fawkes. I'm giving you untill tonight. Then we start hunting you."

"Yeah yeah yeah. Whatever. Listen, the two of us, we're going where you can't get your grubby paws on us or anyone else."

"Remember: midnight, you'd best be back here." Fawkes hung up.

The Official, after hangning up the phone, looked up at the Keeper. "Handle Hobbs."

She nodded, and left.

~~~

Fawkes unlocked the door and came back inside. The table was exactly as he'd left it....right down to the food.

"What's the matter now, is the pizza touching the hamburger?" giving her a red-eyed smile.

"No."

Darien Fawkes stopped in mid-stride, startled by the girl.

More specifically, by her voice. It'd been a dead ringer for the man he'd just finished talking with. The Official.

Things began to fall into place....like why the Official wanted her back so badly.

But for now, he would play along. "Okay, I'll bite: what's wrong."

"I'll tell you later," she said, sounding like Bobby Hobbs, while she folded her arms and rested her head on them. She fell asleep right away.

Fawkes grimaced, but left her alone.

~~~

"I have some news about Marthe's kidnapping," the Keeper told Hobbs when she entered.

"Why the hell would I steal her?" Hobbs asked, bitterness on his tongue. "The Agency was the best thing that ever happened for the two of us! It gave me a place to work, and a way to keep her safe....even doctored. I would *never* ruin that," he said in all seriousness.

"I know you wouldn't," Claire replied, which gave Bobby a startle.

"You don't think I kidnapped her from the Agency?" Hobbs asked, still suspicious.

"Of course not," Claire reassured him. "And that was even before we got a call from the real kidnapper."

"Somebody who knows the Agency's phone number," Bobby considered. "Not too many there. One of the guys the Official fired last week?" Claire shook her head. "Then who?"

"Darien Fawkes."

~~~

When Fawkes returned to the room later, after having washed his hands of them, the girl was awake again. "Well, did you enjoy your little nappie? You know, I think I'll call you Mary, 'cause you look like that's your name. You like it?"

"You shouldn't mess with things you don't understand, my boy," 'mary' said, every sylable sounding just like Bobby Hobbs would have said.

"Oh yeah, and why not?" Darien asked, quicksilver starting to flow over him. 'mary' opened her mouth.....

And Fawkes blacked out.

The physically little Hobbs girl got up and headed for the door, stopping with her hand on the knob.

Looking around, she spied a bundle of rope lying where she could reach it. She headed for that. _Have to deal with this red-eyed demon first, then I can leave!_

~~~

"Robert," Claire asked, earning a quick turn-of-the-head towards her, he'd been startled. She covered the lapse with professionalism that would've made her mother proud. "Why exactly is your niece part of the Agency?"

"You were in my house, weren't you?" with no malice in the question. She nodded. "Did you see a sphinx on one wall?" Another nod, though she wasn't sure where he was going with this. "That's my family crest. A noble creature of silence and wisdom."

"And that relates to her -- how?"

"That's a family secret, I'm sorry. All I can say is that it's related to Marthe's muteness."

"I thought she could mimik other people," Claire said. Hobbs nodded. "Then she's not mute."

"She has no voice of her own, though one's slowly been developing," _thanks to the Agency._ "Other people are easy for her to 'vocally imitate'."

Hobbs's cell phone rang, so he answered it. "Hello?......Uh-huh," with a look at Claire. "Really?....that so?....well, we'll see you soon," and hung up.

"Well?" Claire asked, her official 'Keeper' voice poking through.

"That was Marthe herself. She's waiting for us at the corner of Lightburn and Hollings."

"And Fawkes?"

Hobbs shrugged, but still said a few non-English words with a decidedly hostile tongue. "No, no Fawkes. Let's go."

~~~

Darien opened his eyes, his ears still ringing. The entire world to him was ruled by the silvery light of quicksilver sight.

"How long was I like this? Since she did -- whatever that was -- to knock me out?" What memories he did have of those moments were fleeting, but the fact that his hands were tied with rope in a difficult knot reminded him that little 'mary' hadn't fled immediately.

"She hoped I'd stay here and get hauled back to the Agency, does she?" Fawkes asked rhetorically. While in quicksilver madness, like he'd been for the duration of this little fiasco, he was ruled by -- no, he IS the Id!

Darien managed to get to his feet, escaping. He'd deal with the ropes soon enough. "I just wonder what other little surprises the Agency has."

~~~

Hobbs was going through the desk Fawkes used. He knew he'd put it here somewhere, open for the kid to find......likely he hadn't found it before -- and now he definately wouldn't!

Ahh "Here you are," pulling out the paper from the desk drawer, upfolded it, and read it:

'Hey Fawkes.

'Yeah, I know, this isn't exactly something you expected, but shut up and let me talk, okay?

'You've handled yourself admirably for a man in your situation, you have since we met. I'll admit it now: not many people could have recognized Canadian terrorists. Granted, I haven't been the easiest guy around to deal with, that's who I am, for better or worse. Nonetheless, you proved to be an ideal goverment agent, regardless of your past history -- or perhaps because of it. Here's to many more years of working together, eh?

'By the way, sorry for telling you to shut up earlier.

'From: Bobby Hobbs.'

Robbert Hobbs didn't hesitate to tear the note up. "You did something I can't forgive, kid," was all he said.


end

okay, that's as far as I could get on this story..........Echo's plan of using pictures of new characters seems superior to any mind's-eye images that I might get {and is less subject to changes}. so, unless any of you can find a pic you think would suit Marthe Hobbs, that's the last i'll type of her........though if any of you want to continue it, i'm not against a shared-world/universe anthology {or whatever word you choose}.

some questions to consider: why is the Agency developing the talents? are there more than just invisiblity, toxins, sonics, and age?

thanks for reading, thanks for the comments, all of you!