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Ultraman Daxium
Ultraman Daxium – Episode 1
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- In a darkened room an older man in his sixties sat alone. The only light in the room was the faint glow of the computer screen on his desk. He waited patiently just staring at it. Before long the screen started to warp and twist. He didn’t panic , this is what he was waiting for. Eyes glancing at the door briefly he said, “Is everything ready?” “Almost,” an ethereal voice spoke to him. “The time table may have to be altered.” “There’s no need to do that,” he insisted. “Dimensional breaches have been becoming more and more frequent,” the voice informed him. “There is some concern a larger entity may be next.” “That’s why I created that special task force,” he argued. “Hell if it wasn’t for those first few things showing up I never would have been able to get it off the ground.” “The entities coming through in the future would be much larger than the ones you currently face.” “How much larger can they be?”, he demanded. “Our latest report indicate they can be as large as the building in the places you call cities.” He couldn’t say anything to that, he was too busy trying to imagine it and that boggled his mind. “We have chosen a candidate, have you chosen one as well?” “Yes,” he answered still thinking about the size, “yes I have.” “We wish there was another way.” “It’s a war, sacrifices must be made. I understand that completely. We will be ready.” “Hopefully both our sides will be.” The screen started returning to normal. Soon it was like nothing happened. He sat there for a long time looking at it. Turning on a desk light he picked up the phone and dialed a particular number. Waiting for a few moments he finally heard, “Yeah Dad?” “I’ve heard from our friends,” he said. “The breaches are happening faster than they anticipated.” “It would explain why we’ve been so busy lately. Are we going to have to do this faster now?” “Apparently,” was his only answer. “Well I’m ready for it.” Quiet for a moment he said, “What am I going to tell the others?” “We’ll worry about it when we get there. Although we could avoid all of this if you would just take that command position like I told you to. I have enough pull that I can still get it for you.” “Dad we went through already. I’m having a hard enough time being seen as one of the guys as it is. Forcing my way to a top rank isn’t going to help matters any.” “Have it your way,” he said giving up, for now. “Just be ready Joseph.” “I will Dad, see you soon.” Hanging up the phone he muttered, “He picks the worst times to show his independence.” *** “It’s July 28, 2025 and today is the official anniversary of the United Nations Defense Force,” A cheerful news reporter said on the television screen. “Five years ago today the major nations of the world pulled their resources to battle strange, otherworldly creatures they couldn’t fight on their own. The man who was one of the main people responsible for getting this joint venture together, Harold Richardson, had this to say about the anniversary.” The imaged changed to man in his sixties standing behind a podium. He was flanked on either side by men and women in black uniforms with red shoulders and stripes down their arms and legs, with red piping around the pockets. “Today is a very special occasion. Today marks the day the world realized it needed to pull together to get things done. The UNDF,” he gestured to the people beside him, “is proof of that. My only hope that after the threat has been neutralized the world will continue to realize that…” “Turn that shit off,” a man with his long brown hair tied back in a ponytail demanded. Hands covered in grease he worked on the old car engine in front of him. One of the other people in the garage did want he wanted, but only turned down the sound. “What’s the matter little bro?”, a man with a mustache and short brown hair smirked. “Don’t want to be reminded about how you washed out of the program?” He knew what his older brother was trying to do and wasn’t going to play along, at least not today any way. “Ken didn’t wash out Jeff,” one of the other ended up saying. ”He was medically disqualified.” “It only means the loser didn’t have the stomach for it.” Jeff walked over and leaned on the side just looking for a reaction. “Ain’t that right? How many times did they make you clean up that flight simulator?” “At least I tried and not just talked about it,” he said not looking at him. And mentally kicking himself for taking the bait. Jeff’s nostrils flared a little, “All that did was proved you’re nothing but a grease jockey, just like the rest of us. And that’s all you are ever going to be.” “That grease jockey as you put it,” their boss said coming into the room, “is one of the main reasons why most of you still have a job. Ken’s the only one who really seems to understand those new engines they’re coming out with.” “An engine’s an engine,” Jeff waved it off. “They all work the same way.” “Well they do after I fix your mistakes,” Ken smirked. “Watch it little bro, one of these days your mouth is going to cut a check your ass can’t cash” “I’ve heard it all before Jeff,” Ken said getting a rag to wipe off his hands. Jeff walked away when the boss made him. Under his breath Ken asked for the millionth time, “How am I related to that jackass again?” “Don’t let him bother you man,” one of the others told him, “He’s just jealous of what you can do. And nothing says you can’t try out for them again, medication has come a long way in the past few years.” “It wasn’t meant to be,” he said walking away from the car. “Besides, who really wants to be up there any way?” A moment later an alert was heard in the background. Everybody rushed to the window while somebody turned the volume back up on the television. Before long two black jet with red highlights flew to the west. A wistful look on his face Ken mumbled, “Yeah who really wants to be up there?” *** A couple of hours later those same jets flew to a base that was built into a mountainside. A hanger opened to allow the jets entry. Support crew immediately ran to them before they stopped and the cockpit hatched popped open. “Is it me or are these things getting bigger?”, A pilot with the name “Waters” on his nametag said. “I swear that… whatever it is was bigger than one of the Razor Wings.” “And just as maneuverable,” said the other with the tag Watanabe. “What do you think Jess?” Behind his gunman took off her helmet revealing shoulder length red hair, “We’re just lucky there were only three of them. And we downed one of them before they noticed we were there.” “That’s my girl,” Waters joked, “always the optimist. Ain’t that right rich boy?”, he asked the person behind him. “Somebody in this group has to be,” he answered, Richardson on his uniform jacket. “I’d try it but you guys would probably expect me to pay you to believe me,” he joked. “I keep telling you if you have some extra disposable cash I’ll gladly take it off your hands,” Waters joked back. “I open my wallet and I’ll never get you out of it,” he shot back. “Are you guys hearing this?”, he asked the others. “Sounds about right to me,” Watanabe said as he got out of the jet. “Same here,” Jess said climbing out the other side. “It’s nice to know I’m so highly thought of around here,” Waters sulked. “That would imply we think anything of you at all,” Richardson patted his shoulder as he got out. “Why do I fly with you again rich boy?” “I drew the short straw.” “Everybody’s a comedian.” “Captain on deck!”, somebody announced. Several of the hanger crewmen stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention as a man with gray hair edging his temples of his dark hair walked in. Wearing a similar uniform to the others, Hawk was written on his tag. The four quickly stood at attention as he came nearer. “Good job,” he told them. “You were able to take care of the creatures before they could get to a populated area. You got extremely lucky this time around and we probably won’t get that lucky again for a while. We’ll get over the cam footage in the morning.” “Everybody is a ray of sunshine today,” Waters said as the group started to walk away. “Richardson,” Hawk called out, “can I talk to you for a moment?” “You’re in trouble,” Waters smirked. “He’s not you Bill,” Watanabe said. Once there were alone Hawk motioned for him to follow him. “Your father called me again. He has a something or another, if it’s not one thing it’s another with him.” “I’m guessing he wants me to come along,” Richardson said, “as a guard or something official.” “You know your old man,” he laughed. “Just say the word and I’ll tell him you’re on patrol or something.” Richardson didn’t agree right away like he usually did. In fact he looked like he was torn about something. “Maybe I should go along this one time.” Arching an eyebrow in surprise Hawk looked at him. “You sure about that Joe? You always said you were uncomfortable doing favors for your father like that.” “I know,” he admitted,” but he’s always asking me and you’re always making excuses. Maybe if I go along with him just once he’ll lay off for a while.” Grinning a bit he added, “Besides, I’ve been on ‘patrol’ so much he probably thinks I’m being punished for something.” “Well I guess you know how to handle your old man,” Hawk said. “I’ll rearrange the schedules a bit so you can accompany him. Just to warn you the others are going to give you hell for doing so.” “I’m ready for it. Thanks Captain.” “Don’t thank me until after you survive this trip with your father.” “I’m part of Monster Squad, we’re ready for anything. Although I may need hazard pay for this one.” Hawk snorted, “Talk to your old man.” *** “Hey Ken,” he looked from under the hood he was working on at the person calling him. “We’re going to the diner to grab something to eat. You coming?” He looked at the engine in front of him. It was one of those newer model, a ’26, that their boss gave top priority. Therefore it went to him. Based on what was wrong right now he was estimating five, maybe ten minutes tops. He told them, “I’m going to be here a while. I’ll try to catch up if it’s not too late.” “Yeah I can see that happening,” Jeff said. One of their co-workers shoved him from behind. “What? He’s just going to drag everything down. You remember what happened last.” He quickly reminded Jeff what really happened that night. Like always Jeff played it off to make himself look good, like always. Not for the first time he wondered exactly what his sister-in-law saw in him. “Catch you later Ken.” “Yeah, see you guys later.”It didn’t even take five minutes to finish the job. It seemed the more complicated these engines were the easier it was for him to fix them. Wiping his hands he looked over to the car his brother was working on earlier. Popping the hood he saw were Jeff left off fast enough. Overhearing what problems the owner was saying he was having he immediately went to work fixing the problem, and at least one thing Jeff did to it. Not that he’d do it intentionally, Jeff could be a little careless at time. Especially when he was trying to show up his little brother. And he probably wasn’t that smart enough to figure out a way he could get away with it to get repeat business. “You have really got to stop making your brother look good,” his boss said. Ken was a little surprised, he thought he left with the others. “You know damn well he wouldn’t do the same for you.” “And Dad said you had to look after family no matter what,” he said continuing what he was doing. “There has to be limits. Even you can’t keep your brother from sinking forever, and he might drag you down with him.” “I’m thinking more of my niece than me or my brother,” he told him. Nodding he heard him say, “I guess I can’t fault you there.” Checking his work over he commented, “You look done to me.” He started to say,” I still have to…” A little more forcibly he repeated, “You look done to me.” Getting the hint he grabbed a rag and cleaned his hands again. “Come with me, I got something for you.” Taking him to his office he reached into his desk and put a large brown envelope on top of it. “That’s a little big to be a bonus,” he joked. Then he read what was written on it and things stopped being funny. “They’re not going to give me another shot.” “You don’t know that for sure, at least not until you try. You don’t even have to be a soldier, I know for a fact the UNDF is looking for qualified mechanics. And I have yet to see an engine you couldn’t figure out and they have some doozeys. Take the application, fill it out send it in. You will get in.” “Everyone goes through the same training process,” he said from personal experience. “I already failed it once.” “Ken you deserve better than this. Your skills are being wasted in this dump.” “You said I was one of the reasons why this dump was still afloat,” he shot back. “And I really don’t want to lose you, but we’ll be fine if we did. Tony and Rico do pretty good job on these things. Johnny’s always reading up on these things as well. Ken I’ve known you and your family for a long time. I know you are destined for something better than this. Whatever it is you are not going to find it here.” “So I’ll find it with these guys?”, he said really trying not to snap back. “I don’t know,” he said honestly, “but I’m pretty sure you’ll find it faster there than if you stayed here.” He forced him to take the application. “As a favor to me, fill it out.” “All right,” Ken conceded. Looking pleased his boss sent him home. Grabbing his jacket off the wall he stuck the envelope under his arm. Once he was a few yards out of sight he looked at the envelope in his hands. Stomach doing flip flops at just the memory he tossed it into the first trash can he came across. “And sometimes a guy doesn’t have a destiny at all.” *** “Mr. Richardson! Mr. Richardson! Any comments on the escalating creature problem?” “Do you think this so-called ‘Monster Squad’ has been an effective deterrent so far.” “What do you say to those who say the money going to the Squad and it’s weapons could be better spent elsewhere.” Harold Richardson made his way through the crowd with Joseph taking point. So far nobody noticed the name on his tag. No doubt if they did a whole new barrage of questions would come at them in rapid fire procession and they would never get out of here. Joseph was able to part the sea of reporters just long enough to get his father into the waiting limo. Once the door was closed the elder Richardson was finally able to speak his mind. “What a bunch of vultures, always looking for a bone to pick clean.” “They’re just doing their jobs,” Joseph spoke up. “Perhaps, but it did take some gumption to ask about the effectiveness of the Alpha team when there was a member of the unit present.” He turned to the dark haired woman sitting beside him, “What do you think Patricia?” “I do believe they used to say it takes a set,” she responded. “Dr. Williams said things are ready on our end.” “I still don’t know how this is supposed to work,” Joseph spoke up. “What am I supposed to do when it happens?” Going through the files on her lap Patricia said, “The way Dr. Williams explained it was once their selected individual breaches the dimensional walls it will bond with you as soon as possible.” “Yeah but what happens after that?”, he asked. “How do I work with this person? What’s going to happen to me?” “You’re a Richardson,” Harold told him. “You’ll be able to overcome anything that thing tries to do to you. We just need to get there in time. Williams said he wasn’t sure if the alien was going to last long in our world.” “And the sooner the better,” she added. “Williams said it’s possible the creatures may detect the breach before it forms completely. Seeing how they have been doing it longer they could be able to stop it before it’s completed.” “Let me call in the others,” Joseph said directly to his father. “I have seen these things personally. If they are going to try and stop it we’re going to need the help.” “They will just complicate things and get in the way,” Harold said hutting the idea down. “I’ve known Gabriel Hawk a long time, he’ll find some way to involve himself and screw this up.” “Captain Hawk is a good man,” Joseph said defending him. Patricia joined in, “And he wouldn’t be in charge of the Alpha Team.” “I’m not questioning his qualifications,” he quickly backtracked. “But he wouldn’t understand the complications of the situation. The timing of this is going to be tight. We’re not going to have time to explain the details to somebody out of the loop. Joseph you are going to become something more than human. You are going to become our best line of defense against these things.” Joseph just stared out the window in silence after that, wonder how much of him was still going to be human after this was over. *** The stars twinkling overheard Ken sat at the edge of a lake just skipping stones across it’s surface. This was one of the few places he could find some peace. It also had a special place in his heart, this was his and his dad’s special spot. He would take him her when Jeff was being too much of an ass to calm Ken down. Looking out over the water he remembered one of the last things he ever told him before he died, “Ken there comes a time when a man is faced with a decision that seems more than he can handle alone. How he decides shows what kind of man he truly is.” At the time it was his Dad’s way of telling him he was dying of cancer. He found himself having to grow up at the age of fourteen. Jeff… he just stayed Jeff. “I wish you were still here Dad,” he said to the lake. “I could really use somebody to talk to.” The only response was the wind lightly rustling through the trees. “Ever since you died it feels like everyone’s been looking to me to keep things together, to be everybody’s rock when things get tough. But who do I turn to? Who do I turn to now? My boss just told everybody I’m why they still have a job. Mom still needs help, I’m helping Jeff’s family behind his back. Because let’s face it, it’s Jeff. Did Mom go to him to keep things together? No, she went to me because I’m the responsible one,” anger tinged his voice. Wiping his eyes he convinced himself that something got in his eyes. “You once told me God doesn’t give you a burden you can’t handle. Sometimes I think he’s got me confused with somebody else. I don’t think I can handle it any more Dad.” Tears started to flow a little more freely, “I need somebody else to be the rock. I know it’s selfish but I’m tired of being the one everybody turns to.” Picking up a flat oval stone he looked at it for a long time. “While I’m at it why don’t I just wish for world peace?” Throwing the stone into the lake in anger he remembered what his boss said a little while ago. “Anybody with a destiny wouldn’t be stuck here with everything tying him down.” Dusting himself off as he stood he looked back at the trail. He had to get ready for another day of the same old shit tomorrow. About half way to the trees the ground started shaking, lightly at first just enough to be noticeable. Looking at the ground Ken wondered what was going on. There hasn’t been an earthquake in the area ever. Then it started to shake more violently and he fell to the ground, “What the hell?” The water of the lake stated churning. Something that sounded like a muffled scream filled the air. It took Ken a moment to realize it was coming from the lake. In the middle of the bubbling something started to rise. A pair of monstrous eyes broke through and seemed to focus on him. As the shadows grew around him Ken’s head kept going up and up, “Oh shit.” *** Claxons going off Hawk ran through the halls until he got to control. As soon as he entered he tried to avoid several people who hurried to get out of his way. A digital map on the wall started changing, getting smaller pinpointing a location. Standing behind a black man working frantically at a keyboard he asked, “What do we got Bridge?” “This looks like a big one Captain,” he said. “Sensors are picking up a huge life sign reading.” “How many are we talking about?” “I can’t tell,” he answered. “They’re so pact together it’s coming off as one single reading.” Hawk leaned over the man’s shoulder and looked for himself. It was like he said it was, “That can’t be right.” “I know, I’m trying to narrow the scan field to get a more accurate reading but it’s still coming up as a single life form.” The rest of the Alpha Unit ran in as Bridge got a location on the disturbance, “Sector 7J, park area. It’s still coming off as one entity.” “Can we get a visual?”, Hawk asked. “Working on it,” Bridge said, “there’s a lot of interference in the area. It might be why it’s coming off as one signal, I’ll try and compensate.” “With Joe babysitting his father we’re going to be a man short,” Watanabe informed him. “No we’re not,” Hawk faced them smiling. “I’m still a pretty good shot. Ryo and Jess, take jet two. Me and Bill have jet one.” Waters gulped a little but nodded in response. “I want every available Razor Wing in the air and every Scan Track on the ground to sector 7J. Bridge says this is going to be big. Any civilians in there needs to be evacuated first but stopping whatever those are has to share top priority if we’re going to get them out. Monster Squad scramble.” “Rodger,” they said and ran out of the room with Hawk in tow. Grabbing their helmets off a nearby wall rack they made their way to the hanger. The hanger support crew was working on all the black jet inside but they headed toward two in particular. Jess and Ryo boarded one as Hawk and Bill climbed into another. As the Jets powered up both pilots and gunmen ran preflight and weapon checks. “Razor Wing one to control,” Waters said out loud, “we are ready to launch.” “Razor Wing two to control,” Ryo spoke next, “we are ready to launch.” “Acknowledged Razor Wings,” Bridge said from his station, “You are a go for launch.” “Launching,” both of them said as they shot out of the hanger. They exited out the side of the mountain. Moments later more jets followed them out. “Remember,” Hawk said over the comm. Line, “we have to keep these things busy while the ground crew evacuates the civilians out of there.” “Do we have a visual on the targets yet?”, Jess asked. “I think I got something,” Bridge said. “I’m sending the image now.” A small video screen in front of all of them came to life. All of them saw what they were up against at the same time. “Holy mother of God.” They saw what looked like a giant lizard walking on two legs stomping through the park. Spike lined it’s back going down to it’s tail. “That thing is big,” Waters commented. Jess just stared at it, “Are our weapons going to work on it?” “There’s only one way to find out,” Hawk told them. “Hit the afterburners.” Both jets shot forward from the rest of the pack. *** The limo arrived in a middle of a commotion as people tried to get the hell out of there. Training made Joseph jump out before it stopped and try and figure out was going on. A monstrous roar gave him an idea where to look. He felt the ground shake before he saw it in the distance. Hand going for the communicator on his uniform jacket he couldn’t take his eyes off the sight. “Richardson to Captain Hawk.” “Hawk here, we’re a little busy at the moment Joe. We have a disturbance in sector 7J.” “I know I’m looking right at it.” “What are you doing in that sector?” “I’ll explain later if I can. What’s your ETA?” A moment of silence was followed by, “A little over five minutes. Is your father with you?” “Yeah he’s still in the limo with Mrs. Stanson and his driver.” “Get them out of there, their safety is your only concern right now. Is that clear Richardson?” “Yes sir.” Cutting the link he looked at his father. He knew he was going to have to disobey that order and that just killed him on the inside. “They must be detecting the resonance of the breach our friends are trying to create,” the older Richardson said. “We have to get to the target area now.” “Dad it’s too dangerous,” he tried to reason with even though it wouldn’t do any good. “We’ll never get there in time in this chaos much less with that thing out there.” “The clearing isn’t that far,” he forced his way out of the car. “Mrs. Stanson will back you up in protecting me. Won’t you my dear?” In response she pulled a standard UNDF handgun out of her briefcase. “Now come on the sooner you get bonded the sooner you can take care of that thing.” Richardson hurried off with his assistant right behind him. Joseph looked at the gun in his hand than at the monster before following. *** Running as fast as his legs could go Ken went down any path he could find. Whatever that thing was apparently decided he was too small for dinner. Of course he could still get stepped on, a thought that conveniently ran through his mind as he heard those gigantic feet hit the ground. So caught up in getting away he had no idea where he was going. Right now as long as he was going away from that monster he really didn’t care. “Help us!”, he looked over and saw an old woman try to help her husband off the ground. Stopping just long enough to see where the monster was he ran toward them. “I got him,” Ken told the old woman. Making sure nothing was broken on the old man he helped him back to his feet. “Are you all right?” “I’m fine thank you son.” A younger couple ran up to them. The young man took the older man from Ken, “I got you Grandpa.” “Let’s go Ella,” the young woman said to the old woman. She looked at Ken, “Thank you.” “No problem,” he said. They heard the monster come closer and ran off in different direction. Ken looked back and realized it was going in the same direction as that family. “Hey!”, he jumped up and waved his arms trying to get the monster’s attention, “Over here ugly! Right here!” The monster stopped and turned his attention right toward him. Mumbling, “Not a good idea,” he ran for his life again. *** “Fire!”, Hawk ordered. He and Jess both unleashed a pair of missiles that exploded on the monster’s back. It turned around to see what was attacking him. The Razor Wings split formation and went around it. “The rest of the jets should be coming up now.” More explosions erupted on it’s back. It screamed one more time and faced the oncoming jets. Waters and Watanabe turned their wings around and gave their gunmen another shot. “Scan Track in attack position fire!” On the ground a group of specialized Hummers pulled up and fired their mounted cannons. The monster roared again and opened it’s mouth. A blue flame shot out and hit the Tracks. “Holy shit that thing breathes fire!”, Ryo shouted. “Storm Track retreat,” Hawk ordered. “All Razor Wing squadrons concentrate on the creature. Distract it long enough to let the ground crew get the remaining civilians out of here.” *** Seeing the flames from where they raced for the clearing. Joseph looked around as they hit it, “This is nuts, we have to get you out of here Dad.” He kept going. “Look whoever or whatever these guys are I’m sure they will understand.” “And they don’t know how long on of their will last in our universe,” he said. “And they don’t know if they can get him back in time. This could be our only real shot.” He stopped and looked up. Joseph and Stanson did the same. The sky started to swirl. “It’s starting, Joseph stand under it.” Joseph looked at the vortex as a red orb started to emerge. He took a step forward. A dark energy beam shot out of the woods surprising all of them. It struck Joseph before he could cry out. Harold and Patricia had to cover their eyes the light was so bright. By the time the beam stopped all that remained of Joseph was a charred skeleton that crumbled to the ground. For the first time in his life Harold Richardson was at a loss of words. In the woods a man’s hand stopped glowing leaving him in shadows, “Gotcha.” Looking at the monster he said out loud, “Finish it Bemular,” and walked deeper into the shadows. Seemingly understanding the creature increased it’s attack. Richardson eyes went from what was left of his only son to the red orb in the sky. The vortex disappeared behind it as it hung in the air. “Come to me,” he said stumbling forward. “I was his father I should be a suitable match.” The orb jut hung there. “Come on join with me. I need to avenge his death. Damn it, join with me!” The red orb seemed to fluctuate a bit before shooting off. “Get back here! We had a deal! You can’t last long without one of us, get back here!” *** Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse Ken was in the middle of a freaking forest fire. The heat was unbearable and the smoke was making it hard to see and breath. Putting the collar of his shirt over his nose he tried to find a path out of there. Through it all he heard some crying. Looking for the source he found a couple of kids huddled together. Running over he tried to get them move. “It’s going to be ok, we’re going to get out of here.” Taking each one by the hand he tried to guide them to safety. “We got more civilians!” he looked up to see a couple of UNDF officer come toward them. “Take the kids,” Ken insisted. A cracking sound made them look up. A tree started falling. He officers and he kids went in one direction while Ken dove in the other. He looked up to see hi path to freedom blocked. The officer called out to him, “Sir if you can hear me we will get to you as soon as we can.” “Worry about the kids,” he shouted back. “I’ll find another way out.” Leaving before the guy could argue he found another path that he hoped lead out of there. It wasn’t long before the smoke and fire had him going around in circles. Another cracking sound made him freeze in his tracks, a flaming tree was coming down right at him. He didn’t have time to move out of the way. Instinct made him try to cover up and protect himself but he figured his was going to dir right here. A red light swallowed him a split second before the tree crashed down on top of him. Ken opened his eyes to find himself in a tunnel of some sort. Red, blue and silver lights seemed to swirl around him. “Am I dead?” “No but I fear I am dying.” He looked around until he found the source of the voice. He saw something that looked like a man stand before him. It took him a second to process that he was glowing and was as tall as that creature. “My name is Daxium, I was sent here to battle creatures similar to the one currently assaulting your world. Unfortunately the one I was supposed to join with originally perished before it could start. My time in your world is not for much longer. If I am to survive and complete my mission I must bond with someone in this dimension.” “You… you want to bond with me?”, Ken started backing up. “I witnessed you saving those young ones in my search. I know you have some courage and bravery in your makeup. I could not let you perish in such a manner. I will not use that to force your decision. Your choice to bond with me must be made of your own free will.” Ken wasn’t sure what to think. First of all he wasn’t sure if this thing was telling the truth about fighting the other thing, or his whole story. He definitely didn’t believe that this thing was going to die unless I bonded with him. But what if he was telling the truth? Whatever the other creature was it didn’t look like the UNDF was hurting it much. Of course running away he didn’t see much of the fight. Some words his dad said about a choice a man had to make came back to him. What was this choice going to say about him? “Let’s do it.” “Thank you,” This Daxium said. A light seemed to off of him and engulf Ken as it swirled around him. It wasn’t long before he felt he alien presence mix within him. *** “I got the monster in my sights,” Jess said. “I’ll keep her steady,” Ryo announced. Then a huge column of light appeared in front of them. “Holy…,” Ryo had to react fast to avoid it. “Where did that come from?”, Bill asked. Hawk silently wondered what was happening now. The column disappeared revealing what was inside, something resembling a human in basic shape. Huge lighted eyes highlighted his face along with the fin on top of his head. It had red and blue markings on his silver body. A diamond shaped jewel that seemed to have a light blue glow to it was embedded in his chest. Looking at the monster it took a defensive stance, “Shiah!” “Can this day get any weirder?”, Bill asked as he watched the giant run toward the creature. “Don’t say it if you don’t want an answer,” Jess admonished him. “All units…,” Hawk was ready to give the order to target the newcomer. “Don’t fire on that giant!”, Richardson said over the line. “Let him take on the monster.” Hawk couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Richardson are you out of your mind? Where’s Joe?” “Joseph dead.” He said plainly. They were too stunned to respond. “Just do as you’re told Captain.” Daxium charged the monster trying to stop it’s rampage before anything else happened. He punched and kicked Bemular who screamed which each hit. When it tried to attack back Daxium back flipped out of the way and brought both hands to the left side of his body. Light seemed to glow between his hands for a split second before extending his right hand toward the creature. A bolt of energy shot out and struck it. Again Bemular tried his fire breath but he rolled out of the way. Bemular came in unexpectedly and knocked Daxium down. It jumped on top of him and started bouncing up and down on his chest, he grunted with each shot of pain. The monster roared in triumph. With a punch he was able to get the monster off balanced, enough to free himself. Getting to his feet he grabbed Bemular by the head and started pounding away it it’s back. Bemular broke free and blasted him with fire at point blank range. Daxium fell to his back with a thud that shook the ground. Bemular kept up the fire assault pinning him to the ground. Before long the diamond on his chest started blinking red. Daxium managed to shot another energy bolt, right into Bemular’s mouth. The creature screamed in pain as it held it’s mouth. Daxium kicked it away in order to scramble to his feet. Punching at Bemular’s head and neck he forced the monster back. Looking like it was going to try the fire attack again he grabbed a tree off a nearby hill out of the ground and shoved it roots first into it’s mouth. It ignited almost instantly causing it Bemular even more pain. Pivoting on a foot he spun and kicked the he kicked it back and stood there. Holding his hands to the diamond, Palms facing down, Daxium spread his arms wide. Energy seemed to draw into him right out of the air. Slowly raising his right arm while lowering his left he brought them together at the wrist. A multicolored stream of energy shot out of the edge of his right hand hitting Bemular. After a few seconds Bemular started to fall back and exploded. Daxium stood there a moment before looking at the sky and flying off, “Shiah!” Hawk watched him go, “He didn’t say anything about not going after it. Razor Wings one and two follow that thing.” Both jets acknowledged the order and went after the giant. They almost caught up with him before the giant started to glow than disappeared in a flash. “What the hell?!” *** Still in the shadows the man watched the entire conflict and the giant’s departure. “I knew I should have shot the orb instead of Richardson.” *** Harold Richardson stood there fuming. That should have been his son damn it. “He joined with somebody,” he told Patricia. “I want to know who and I want it now!” He walked off not even sparing a glance at the remains of his son. *** A ball of light appeared in another part of the forest that wasn’t damaged by the attack. It condensed into the shape of a man before cracking and breaking away. Ken dropped to his knees not sure that really happened. The shards of light still hanging in the air told him it did. The flowed together and condensed even more into a smaller object that landed right before him. The light faded revealing a cylinder under a foot long with three slots on one end. Picking it up he heard Daxium’s voice in his head, “This is the Spark Magnifier. Use it when I am needed. You will know when.” Staring at it in his hand he got to his feet and stuck it in his pocket. Looking around to make sure nobody else saw what happened he got out of there as fast as he could. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly from the Inside ----- |
Episode 2
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- Despite the weather forecast fate seemed to be with them as the rain held off for long enough as they buried Joseph Richardson, or what was left of him. Hawk kept glancing over at Joe’s father during the ceremony. He still wouldn’t reveal why they were in sector 7J. Joe might have been Harold’s son but he lost a good man damn it, he wanted to know how and why Joe was left a skeleton. He, no the entire team deserved to know that much. But the rather infamous poker face of Harold Richardson was up in full force since it happened. And that just drove him crazy. Eyes wondering a bit he was somewhat relieved to see that the reporters and paparazzi decided to be respectful and stay outside the cemetery. Although you could still see the occasional camera or head pop out from over the wall. Even they had to make a living he guessed but there had to be a more interesting story than a funeral happening today. That creature showed up last night for crying out loud, and that giant. The preacher finished and a UNDF flag that was draped over the coffin was folded up and given to Harold. He barely reacted, in fact his assistant was the one who ended up taking possession of the flag. The preacher turned toward him and his men. The rest of Alpha Team and a few others held up their rifles and waited for his order. He gave it without hesitation, “Fire!” Almost as one they raised their rifles to the sky and fired, and again and again. Lowering their rifles Joseph’s coffin was lowered into the ground. The team walked up and said their final goodbyes and left as he stood by his grave. “Harold,” a younger man with blond hair walked up to him. Peter Brooks, the youngest on the UNDF board. Looking sympathetic he told him, “My Father sends his condolences and wishes he could have been here for you.” The surviving Richardson’s head barely nodded in response. “You have my condolences as well, Joseph was a good man. A credit to you and your family and to the UNDF.” “Thank you Peter,” he finally said. “And thank you father for me as well. Come Patricia, we still have an organization to run. Those creatures aren’t going to stop because of something like this.” Overhearing the exchange Hawk watched the two of them get into his limo. As it pulled away he shook his head in disgust, “I don’t think he shed a tear during that whole thing.” “According to my father that’s how he is,” Peter said coming closer. “He never shows anything as it would be a sign of weakness, no matter what the situation is. I have to admire him and pity him at the same time.” Looking back at the grave he said, “Although it probably cost a pretty penny to arrange this funeral so fast. Joseph did die just last night. That has to count for something.” “He probably wanted to get it out of the way so it wouldn’t interfere with his schedule as much as it already has,” Hawk said darkly. “Now that’s a little unfair Captain,” Peter told him. “We all grieve in our own way. I’m sure he’s probably hurting on the inside.” “I’ll start caring the moment he tells me why they were up there and what the hell happened to Joe.” Nodding a bit Peter looked around the cemetery. “Most of the board is putting it down to that rather famous instinct of his. He seemed to know about these creatures before they showed up. Maybe he had some insight about our new giant friend.” Getting a little closer he looked right at Hawk, “He did give the order not to fire on the giant, did he not?” “From the message on my desk this morning it’s an order that’s still in effect.” “I’ve heard, in fact his exact order is not to engage the giant for the time being. Which tells me might change his mind somewhere down the line.” Stepping a little closer and spoke in a bit of a conspiracal tone, “And it doesn’t mean we can’t be prepared on the off chance he does. Study the giant, find out what he can do, discover his weaknesses. Figure out the best way to defeat him.” A bit taken aback at what he was hearing Hawk asked, “Is that and order Mr. Brooks?” “Just a suggestion Captain,” he answered stepping away a little. “Some of the board members don’t agree with this order, some have told him the moment they heard but you know how he is once his mind is set. But they did agree to assign a codename to the giant for the time being.” “This is the first I’m hearing of it.” “It was just decided on before we had to leave for the funeral.” Grinning a bit he revealed what it was, “Ultraman.” *** “Of all the preposterous names,” Richardson said as they drove back to the mansion. “Ultraman. If anybody had come up with anything else I would have jumped on it. And we still no closer to finding out who he bonded with.” “We’re still interviewing the ground teams in the suspected area,” his assistant told him, “and checking the names of the survivors in the area. It will take time no matter how much man power we put on it.” “Time that could have been cut short if we were allowed to put the surveillance cameras in the park.” Going over the folders in his briefcase he muttered under his breath, “Damn environmentalist.” “And it was considered a huge invasion of privacy,” Patricia reminded him. “It was a struggle to get them in the major cities and the surrounding area. Even your influence only goes so far.” “They want protection but won’t let us do everything possible to do just. I’d bet what’s left of my fortune our giant friend and whoever he’s bonded with doesn’t have to worry about any backlash to their actions.” A little quieter he said, “They’re probably still celebrating their victory as we speak.” *** At that moment Ken was laying in bed of his modest apartment. Most of the furniture was from his old room from back at his parent’s house. Today was his day off from the garage. Although Jeff left several messages trying to get him to take his shift for one down the road. Last few times he’d done that he ended up working both shifts anyway. Usually he would have taken it but he really needed time to think right now, without the usual background noise of the garage. On the dresser on the far side of the room was the Spark Magnifier that Daxium had given him, his only proof last night actually happened and wasn’t some weird dream. If the continuous news coverage wasn’t proof enough. He had been wanting to try something all day but was too afraid to try. Setting his resolve he took a deep breath and looked, not out but in. Faster than he thought he would he found what he was looking for, something that seemed alien to his mind. Before he knew it he was in some sort of crystalline structure, the red, blue and silver light he saw from before swirling on the outside. With him in the structure was Daxium, his size this time around, standing there. Not sure what else to say Ken went, “So where are we?” “I created this space during the bonding,” Daxium explained. “From what I was feeling during the process the union was becoming to precise, we were becoming one being. Admittedly that frightened me and I was worried what would become of you. We are bonded but this way we retain who we are.” “So when you’re not… needed you’re in here and when you are I am?” Daxium nodded his head in the affirmative. Oh the things he would agree to. “It seems to me your getting the raw end of the deal. You time outside seems limited. I felt you lose energy. Especially when that thing,” he pointed at the diamond on his chest, “started flashing.” “Yes, my energies dissipated faster in your world than we anticipated.” “Would you have lasted longer if I said yes sooner?” “Doubtful,” he answered, “they were dissipating when the being from your world that was originally supposed to contain me perished.” “So what is going on?”, Ken asked him. “You said you were sent here to fight those creatures. Where do they come from? Where did you come from?” “I will do my best to explain.” Holding out his hand as an image of the galaxy appeared above it. “This is what you know as the universe. This pattern is repeated several hundred times in the muiltiverse. Each one inhabiting it own dimensional plain. My people discovered this long ago and we did our best to study them. We discovered several beings such as ourselves, beings of light. A few living in the same universe with beings such as yourself. Unfortunately we didn’t discover a secret of our own universe until after it was too late.” Ken watched as two more universes appeared in his hand. “They’re overlapping.” “Indeed, for some unknown reason our scientists can’t figure out all three universes inhabit the same dimensional plain, just out of phase with each other.” Starting to understand Ken said, “You and those creatures are from these other two universes.” “We did not discover the nature of our dimensional plain until the beings from the dark universe tried to invade ours.” The images disappeared as Daxium continued, “The beings of darkness saw us as a new land to invade and conquer. Unfortunately neither side knew how quickly the beings from one world would disintegrate as soon as they stepped into the other. We were at a standstill, they tried to continue the war while we tried to contain them, diplomacy having failed long before then.” “And since the creatures appeared first they discovered my universe inhabited the same plain.” “That would be correct KenScott. They planned on using your universe as a staging ground for their attack, in not use your people as soldiers to invade my universe out right. For some reason they do not have the same problem I have in your universe. Another part of my mission is to find out why this is so. Until we do the fate of both our universes is placed fully on our shoulders.” “Why not everything else seems to be on it,” he muttered to himself. “But at least somebody is actually helping shoulder the burden for a change. And it’s Ken Scott Dax, two words or just Ken. So are they all like you where you come from?” “No, after I was selected for this mission I was altered to help in our upcoming battles…” Daxium trailed off, his head tilted slightly in confusion, “Dax? My name is Daxium.” “I know I know,” Ken covered his face in his hands, “how do I explain this? My full name is Kenneth but everybody calls me Ken. It’s a shorten version of my name.” “You… shortened my name to Dax?” “Yeah force of habit, I do it with all my friends. If you’re not fine with it I can keep calling you Daxium.” “No I am… fine with it. If we are to be partnered like this I wish for you to be as comfortable as possible… Ken.” Wanting to leave he felt he should say something first, “Dax I hope you realize the amount of faith I put in you and that story you told me when I first met you.” “I do,” he said. “I promise I will not do anything to break the trust you put in me Ken.” Blinking a few times Ken was back in his room. Grabbing his jacket he put it on and headed for the dresser and looked at the Spark Magnifier. “I should have asked him how I’d know when to use this thing,” he said out loud. Putting it back in his jacket he checked himself over to make sure it wasn’t noticeable. It would be a tad hard to explain what it was. Taking a moment to take a black band and put his hair back in a ponytail he tried hard not to look at the pictures still taped to the mirror’s surface. Especially one of him back in high school standing behind a girl with red hair with his arms wrapped round her. It was long over but could never find the will to take it down or get rid of it. *** Things were quiet for a couple of days, too quiet for his tastes. It was time to shake things up a bit. Standing in the darkness of a cave off the UNDF radar Joseph’s killer watched as a portal started to open before him. Purple energy swirled as a creature walked foreword. Holding up a hand energy flowed through the creature stabilizing it enough to stay in this world. “Another Gazato,” he said as it took form. Slightly shorter than he was with an almost triangular body and fin like arms it’s head seemed squarely set on it’s shoulder. It came at him looking hungry. “I don’t think so,” a quick blast at it’s feet backed it up. “Why did they end another one of you?”, he said in disgust. “Even the Razor Wing units can shoot you down.” An idea coming to him he circled the Gazato, examining it carefully. “But maybe we can alter you a bit. Add a bit of height, maybe a little more power.” Facing the portal that was still there he said, “Do you think that is possible?” After a moment a voice answered, “It is.” “Good. I’ll leave it to you. The power you gave me only goes so far.” “But you are pushing the limits of what you can do every chance you have Avatar.” “Call it my innate human curiosity.” Starting to leave he added. “Send a few more regular Gazatos, just to keep the so-called Monster Squad occupied until this one is ready.” The Gazato was struck by energy from the portal. The creature screamed in pain and feel to the ground as he calmly walked away and into the light. “Let’s see what his giant can really do.” *** “Razor wing one you have a bogey on your six!” Ryo shouted into his communicator. “We see it,” Bill said as he began invasive maneuvers. The creature was able to keep up with him as he used every trick he could think of. Still it bought them just enough time for Ryo to get them in position so Jessica could shoot it down. “Thank you Jess.” “I was more worried about the Captain,” she said with a grin. “I can take care of myself Wade,” Hawk said over the line. “But thanks for the concern. All unit finish what’s left of these creatures.” All the Razor Wing units in the air followed the order to the letter. Hawk tried not to smile too much as he shot down one of his own. The creatures were still able to damage a Wing here and there in the melee, some so bad the pilot and gunner had to eject. If some could at all that is. The Wings flying in a holding pattern Hawk contacted the base, “Bridge is the area clear?” “I’m not reading any foreign life signs in the area,” he answered. “It looks like you got them all.” “Right. Contact the ground crew to assist the pilots who had to bail out. And have them reclaim the fallen creatures bodies. There hasn’t been any reports of contamination yet but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.” “I’m relaying those orders now Captain Hawk. Castle out.” “Hawk to all Razor Wing units, return to base.” All surviving jets acknowledged the order. Hours later Hawked walked the halls of Castle until he found who he was looking for. The Alpha team was hanging out in one of the break rooms just talking. It was hard not to notice the empty chair at their table. It didn’t seem right without Joe there but life goes on as they say. Might as well make his presences known, “Jess can I talk to you for a moment?” “Sure Captain,” she said getting up. “I’ll see you guys later.” “Jess don’t forget,” Ryo told her, “card game in this room at eight o’clock sharp.” “Make sure to bring your money,” Bill told her. “Especially since I’m planning on walking out with yours,” she shot back. “What can I do for you Captain.” “I’m not really sure,” he answered. Motioning for her to walk with him he headed down the hallway. “I was going over through some paperwork on my desk and I found the strangest request that Joe apparently put in a couple of weeks ago. It was about finding somebody for you.” Jess looked confused until Hawk said the name, “a Ken Scott.” “Oh he did not,” Jess moaned. Feeling a little embarrassed she explained, “He’s a guy I used to date back in high school. Joe caught me looking at a picture of him a few weeks back. He asked and I told him about him.” Chuckling a bit she added, “According to him I still have a thing for him.” “Do you?”, Hawk asked. “Oh no,” she said immediately, “but Joe didn’t listen. Said he’d help me get in contact with him again if I wanted. I told him if he did he’d be my new boot. I guess I didn’t stress the point enough.” “You know Joe,” Hawk said, “once he set his mind on something you’d be hard pressed to get him to change it. He was a lot like his father in that aspect.” “I told him Ken probably forgotten about me by now,” she continued. “Too many things going on in his life, especially back then.” “He was a bit all over the place I take it.” “No,” she told him, “The exact opposite. Ever since his dad died he took it upon himself to be the man of the house and shoulder everything. He pretty much had to, his mother wasn’t handling things well at the time and his older brother… From my point of view about him if it didn’t affect him directly he didn’t seem to care. And he played Ken like a fiddle too. Their parents owned a store that their mom was having a hard time keeping afloat. Ken pretty much decided it was his responsibility to make sure it stayed open, pushing everything to the background, school, a social life… me. I finally had enough when I overheard his brother practically guilt him into breaking a date so he could help out with the store, only because he had a date he didn’t want to break. I don’t know maybe I was being a little immature back then too,” she wondered out loud. “Maybe you should talk to him,” Hawk suggested. “At least say hi.” “That was years ago Captain,” she told him. “He’s probably has his own life now. And I’m too busy around here, any meeting would be cut short. Especially lately seeing how our targets are getting larger in case you haven’t noticed.” “Trust me I’ve noticed. From the look of things we’re going to earn that Monster Squad nickname in more ways than one.” “Captain I know it’s a little soon but is there any word on a replacement for Joe?” “We’re still going through the paperwork and it’s still going to be awhile.” Faking looking offended Hawk went, “You tired with flying with your Captain already Wade?” “Of course not I’m just worried about Bill. Me and Ryo both think he’s going to strain something trying to behave with you as his gunman.” “You noticed that too,” he chuckled. “I’ll try to push the paperwork a little faster but you know the bureaucracy around here.” Jess nodded and went on her way. Finding herself in her quarters she headed for her bunk. Going into her footlocker she pulled out an old scrape book of hers and found the page she was looking for easily enough, a photo of her and Ken around her seventeenth birthday. Yes it was over, but that didn’t mean she didn’t wondered what he was doing form time to time. *** “Ken can you come into my office?” He looked up from what he was doing and said he’d be right there. When he got there he noticed another rather large envelope on his boss’s desk. His mood deflated soon after. “Rose forgot something the other night and came back. She just happened to see you toss the other one I gave you into the trash.” “Slipped from my hand,” was all he could say. “You really disappoint me Ken, you really do,” his boss said sitting down. “I thought we both agreed you were going to fill it out and send it in.” “No offense but you agreed.” “Don’t get smart with me Ken.” “Trust me I appreciate what you’re trying o do. And as much as it hurts to admit Jeff is right, I’m just a grease jockey. I’m not going to be anything more than that.” “We both know that’s bullshit Ken.” “Mom still needs help, I can’t leave.” “She’ in pretty good shape now. Besides if she does need any extra help maybe Jeff will finally grow up and step up. Do you want to come with another excuse I can shoot down?” Actually Ken had several excuses floating around in his head at the moment. And his boss probably had a counter argument for each one just like he said. Actually he probably had one he didn’t have an answer for, but it would be hard to explain Daxium and his new need to get away at a moment’s notice. If he knew when that is. “Look Ken I know you can do this. And I know you know you can do this. And right now I’m not asking you I’m telling you to fill this out. I know Jeff will make a fuss if he sees this so I’ll keep it in my office until closing time. Don’t worry I’ll remind you in case you ‘accidently’ forget. Now get back to work.” The moment he left the office, like he guessed Jeff was right there. “Wow little bro, that’s about as disappointed I’ve ever seen the boss get at his golden boy. What did you do?” “Nothing,” he told him. “Now that didn’t look like nothing little brother. You might as well tell me because I’m going to find out. And once I do I’m going to rub it in your face so bad.” “Fine you want to know what it is?”, he snapped. “He’s gave the opportunity to get the hell away from you! And it’s looking better every second.” Not missing a beat Jeff told him, “And abandon your family? How selfish can you get?” He just happened to look down and see Ken’s hand form a fist. Smirking he said, “What are you going to do little man? Break your mother’s heart by assaulting your own brother? And you know I’ll press charges too.” For a brief second he thought it would be worth it. But that would be something Jeff would hold over his head so he just walked away. “Just like I thought, nothing!” Ken headed to the back to one of the restrooms and locked the door behind him. All these years and he still let Jeff push his buttons like that. Staring at his reflection he thought about the Spark Magnifier in his jacket’s pocket. “Some piece of work you bonded yourself too, huh Dax?” He didn’t get an answer, truthfully he wasn’t expecting one. *** Deep in the inside of Castle the one the dark beings called the Avatar studied the file in his hand. In the back of his mind he felt the Gazato grow stronger. Smiling to himself he knew it was about time. The giant would have to come out of where ever, or whomever, he was hiding. So deep in thought he almost missed Richardson and his assistant coming toward him. Saying a quick hello as he passed Richardson practically ignored him. He still smiled, just picturing the look on his face when he discovered his son’s murderer was right under his nose. Right before he blew it off. *** In the Castle control room Bridge and the scientific staff were busy trying to upgrade the sensors. Orders from both Captain Hawk and the board, something as big as that monster should have been easier to locate. So the order of the day was to increase the range of the sensor and fine tune arrays. Wiring hanging around his neck a man with salt and pepper hair popped up from behind the console, “How is that working Bridge?” Running a few tests he looked somewhat disappointed, “Only a twenty percent increase. Hawk was looking for at least thirty Dr. Williams.” Untangling himself from the mess he was in he said, “Not without a complete… gah…,” he tangled himself a little more before going in the right direction, “complete system overhaul. Then the pencil pushers on the board will be breathing down my neck. I’m still seeing their disapproving faces when I tried to get funding for the Alpha One.” “You’re still trying to get that off the drawing board?”, Bridge asked as he helped free the good doctor completely. “You’d think after one giant monster and they would see the need. Richardson and Brooks looked intrigued but the rest shot me down.” “And it was just one giant monster, who knows when another one will pop up.” Almost on cue an alert went off. Bridge ran around the consoles and put the new modifications to work. “I’m getting a reading similar to those flying creatures we’ve been getting.” Pulling up the image on the big screen he was confused to see a growing dark cloud a few miles outside the city. “I think we got some wires crossed somewhere.” “Impossible,” Williams started back under the console before Bridge stopped him. “The cloud is going against the wind currents and that reading’s getting stronger,” he announced. “I’m going to try to penetrate the cloud.” Using advanced sonar and radar he was able to look inside the cloud, and what was growing inside. “Monster Squad prepare to launch!” Claxons went off as a few moments later Richardson, his assistant and Brooks came in to see what the commotion was. All were quiet as their questions were answered on the screen. *** Ken was on a break on joking with a couple of the others when he started feeling funny. Not in a sick way either. He wasn’t sure how to describe it, only that it was coming from inside him somewhere. “Hey Ken are you all right? Ken?”, Rose shook him a little by the shoulder getting concerned. “I’m not sure,” he answered truthfully. “I’m going to head to the restroom.” Hurrying in he locked the door and concentrated, “Dax, what’s going on?” He heard a reply in his head, “I am sensing something similar to the creature from before. I can’t pinpoint it from here.” “I was afraid you were going to say that.” Flushing the toilet for effect he headed back out, “I’m heading home, I’m not feeling right.” “Oh you faker!”, Jeff shouted out. Ken ignored him as he headed to his car. True to his word his boss hurried out and gave him the envelope. Taking and saying he’d be in tomorrow if he was feeling better. Pulling away he saw an almost black cloud in the distance. Seeing how it was the only cloud in the sky like that it looked like a good place to start. *** Razor Wing one and two were able to intercept the cloud a half mile from the city in front of the others. Behind Bill Hawk tried to get a sensor reading through the cloud cover. Getting a fuzzy reading he made a mental note to have the sensor packages on the Razor Wings upgraded as soon as possible. “Hawk to all Razor Wings, I want this done by the book. Keep the creature occupied until the ground crews evacuate that area of the city.” Getting an acknowledgement he prepped the missiles on the underside of the wings. “Bill we’re going to have to go in and draw it out.” “You got it Captain,” he said while trying to figure out how much fancy flying he was going to have to do to get out of this one in one piece. “I’m seeing something,” Ryo announced as they flew in front of the cloud. “Something glowing and getting brighter.” “It looks like a set of eyes,” Jess commented. As they flew past the giant Gazato emerged from the cloud that quickly disappeared. “Castle sensors were right, it’s a larger version on the creatures we’ve been fighting.” “Then treat it like the others,” Hawk ordered. “All Razor Wings fire!” A barrage of missiles were unleashed on the creature. It cried out from the impact. In retaliation it fired a series of energy orbs from it’s mouth. One of the Wings was hit and both occupants had to eject. No one expected how fast the Gazato reacted into flying over and coming the two in the air. Sickened by what he just saw Hawk gave the only order he could at that moment, “Bury the son of a bitch!” Another barrage exploded on the Gazato forcing it to the ground. “Keep it up, any Scan Tracks in position to engage do so now.” As commanded those that could fired their cannons as soon as it was in range. It unleashed another volley of those orbs right at them. Several missed but still caused damage to the surrounding area. Some hit with deadly accuracy. Kan ran the streets having to dump his car a few blocks back when he ran hit the roadblock in the city and having to avoid the UNDF units trying to get people out of there. From where he was he could see them try and fight the creature like they did the other one. Down below it’s feet he saw some people running away, the Gazato saw it too. Ken could only watch in horror as it bent down and ate them despite the increased attacks from the jets at that precise moment. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out the Spark Magnifier and stared at it. If this wasn’t “when” then he’d never know. Not sure what else to do he held it above his head and squeezed the handle. From the slots on top three crystal prongs flipped out. The tips came into contact and created a small spark that quickly grew in size and intensity until it engulfed him completely. In moments Daxium was free and quickly grew in size, “Shiah!” “The giant’s back,” Brooks commented, “Or should that be Ultraman?” Richardson looked at Patricia who nodded and headed for a row of monitors with Dr. Williams right behind her. “All unit hold up,” Hawk ordered. “Richardson’s order is still in effect. Keep the conflict from entering the city if needed.” “That’s a pretty tall order Captain,” Bill said. “I know,” was his only response as he watched the giants collide. Daxium grabbed Gazato by that flipper of arm and tried to pull it back way from the city. The creature fought back sensing more food straight ahead. Blocking a kick Daxium quickly stepped back and fired an energy bolt. Despite their closeness Gazato was able to avoid the attack which took Daxium by surprise. It took opportunity to attack smacking him in the head. Crying out it fired more of those orbs. Back flipping out of the way of each one the giant of light landed on his feet and ran in. Jumping over another orb blast he nailed Gazato with a flying kick that knocked the creature to it’s back. Daxium stood over but was caught off guard by an orb at point blank range. The next thing he knew the Gazato was on top of him mouth open wide and coming closer. Barely getting his left arm up in time the creature bit down on his forearm hard. Crying out in pain he struggled to free himself. Light started pouring out like blood as the teeth went deeper. Ryo and Jess flew overhead and watched the whole thing. Jess’s thumb hovered over the trigger of the missiles. Finally she said, “Captain we have to do something.” “We can’t engage the giant,” he reminded her. Seeing the giant struggle another loophole in that rule came to him, “But it doesn’t say we can’t aid him. Wings one and two target the creature.” “Rodger,” Jess said while hitting the trigger at the same time. A pair of missiles hit Gazato squarely in the back. Letting go he turned his attention to his new attackers. Daxium rolled to a knee clutching at his forearm. With some effort he made the bleeding stop and turned toward Gazato. Standing up he crossed his arm in front of hiss chest and quickly brought them down. While his head and face stayed the same a line seemed to form down the center of his body. It expanded out and in a moment the silver on his body became blue while the blue markings became silver. “What did the giant just do?”, Ryo asked out loud. “I have no idea,” Jess answered. Daxium ran at Gazato and started punching and kicking it. Bill took a hand off the stick just long enough to rub his eyes, “Did he just get faster?” Gazato cried out in surprise at the flurry and tried to fight back. Daxium was able to dodge it’s fins and legs. Jumping up he flipped backwards and kicked it under his chin. The creature stumbled back and tried to keep from falling. Taking that moment he extended his right hand and a whip like energy stream emerged from his fingers. Twirling it around he struck Gazatao several times, spark like explosions erupting with each strike. Swinging the whip one more time above his head he tried to wrap it around the creature but Gazato took to the air before that could happen. Daxium looked up to see the creature come at him and crash into him. Flying past as Daxium crashed to the ground it landed and fired more orbs as he got to a knee. Daxium protected himself as the explosions went off around him. Looking down as his diamond started blinking red he knew he had t end this fast. Setting himself up and looking like he was going to run his body seemed to draw in energy again, and made the barest of flinches. In a second there was a flash across Gazato’s body and Daxium was now standing behind him, light whip retracting back into his hand and the jewel blinking faster that it was a moment ago. Gazato, with a glowing line across his body, stood there for a second before the upper part of his body seem to slide off than he exploded. Daxium put a hand by the jewel on his chest before looking up and flying off, “Shiah!” “Captain do you want us to follow?”, Ryo asked. “And what are the chances he’s going to pull that disappearing act again? All units return to base.” As Bill pointed the jet toward home Hawk remembered the little suggestion Brooks gave him. After what he just saw the giant do he was starting to see a little more wisdom in it. *** “Looks like he won again,” Peter said to Richardson as they exited the control room. “With an unexpected assist from our own Monster Squad I might add.” “It was a good call,” Richardson told him. “So far the giant has been fighting the same battle we have. Hawk decided to aide him like he would any ally.” “And if this Ultraman decides he’d rather fight against us?” Richardson stopped and looked at the younger man. His father would challenge him just like that in the past. In fact he was seeing a lot of Peter’s father in the look he was giving him right now. “Then I’ll be the first to order the troops to open fire.” “I’m just making sure your head is still on straight Harold,” he told him. “After you son’s death and all, some of us are a little worried.” “That is one thing your father never had to doubt. I suggest you learn to do the same.” “I think I already am,” Peter told him. He kept going on his way as Richardson entered an elevator and headed for his office. *** Emerging from an alley Ken held on to his left forearm. Rolling back the sleeve he winced a little at the red teeth like marks on it. Trying to rub the pain away he rolled it back down saying, “Looks like that bond was a little more complete than you thought.” Making sure nobody saw him he headed back to his car totally unaware a UNDF surveillance camera watched him leave the alley. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly from the Inside ----- |
Episode 3
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- In a different cave entirely he waited. Knowing the set up the UNDF had he felt it was prudent to diversify, so to speak. If there was more than one location his movements couldn’t be easily tracked if anybody suspected him. And on the off chance on of the locations was discovered he still had others he could use, as long as the giant didn’t sense them. He had to have sensed something when Gazato attacked. The only question was when did he sense it? The air twisting in front of him a vortex formed as something came through. Stabilizing it he watched it plop on the ground with a thud. Walking over he studied what came through to this world, “A glowing blue rock?” He tapped it with his foot, “What am I supposed to do with this? Hurl it at the Razor Wings and Scan Tracks?” “Do not judge Arnagarge at this stage Avatar,” the voice said. “Well it is rather unimpressive.” “Think of it as the larval stage if you must. Once near an energy source it will absorb it and grow.” “An energy source you say?” Picking it up he grinned to himself, “I believe I know the perfect place.” *** Two days after Daxium had fought that monster his left arm still hurt. It was more of a dull ache at this point but it was still noticeable. If he looked close enough Ken could swear he could still see teeth marks. And he was doing everything to hide the fact he was in pain these past couple of days at the garage. Fortunately they were super busy during that time so nobody paid him that much attention. Of course Jeff found the time to get in the usual snide remarks. “Hurry up little bro,” he had said, “or the boss is going to take away your golden opportunity.” Ken ignored him up until the point he slapped him on the left forearm, “Wake up!” Fighting hard to keep the new wave of pain off his face he briefly wondered if there was a way he could talk Dax into stepping on him. Being able to avoid any other sudden impacts to his arm for the rest of the day he headed straight home. A couple of aspirins made the pain go away a little more once they kicked in. Still he took it easy trying not to strain it too much. Daxium wasn’t much help either, saying that he didn’t know enough about human biology to try anything. Not that he could, locked away where he was, where ever that was inside of him. Something, Ken thought, he was better off not knowing in detail. A dinner of cold pizza beside him he was a little surprised to hear somebody knock at his door. Knowing Jeff would be banging loudly he opened it up just enough to see who it was, “Rose?” “Hi,” she said as he let her in, a couple of brown bags in hand. “I brought you a couple of things from the diner.” “You didn’t have to do that.” “You did it for me when I was sick.” “But I’m not sick,” he countered. “You’ve been protecting your left arm the past couple of days.” She told him. “So what happened?” “I…,” what was she actually going to believe? “You remember when I left work early? I headed for a drug store to see if I could find anything to help make me feel better. Unfortunately I got caught in the mess when that thing attacked.” “Why didn’t you say anything? We would have helped with your load at the garage.” “You know me,” he said as he took the bag and examined the contents, “Philly cheese nice, I don’t go looking for sympathy.” “And you have really got to stop trying to shoulder everything,” Rose told him. Not the first time somebody has told him that, including a particular redhead he used to date. Ken just grunted in response. Rose looked down at the coffee table at the papers on top of it. “You’re actually filling out the application again? That’s great.” “Does everybody want to get rid of me?”, he said as he sat down. She sat down next to him saying, “Nobody wants to get lose you Ken, but everybody knows you can do it.” After he snorted in response Rose asked him, “So why are you filling it out if you don’t think you can?” “I’m hoping once I get the rejection letter the boss will get off my back about it,” he said honestly. “Come on Ken you can’t think like that. And you know the old man only wants what’s best for you.” Leaning forward a bit she looked at him, “Come to think of it I don’t think I ever heard you talk about your academy days. What was it like?” “That’s because there’s nothing to talk about,” he informed her. “I did a lot of studying on rules and regulations. Did a lot of physical training. Fired a few weapons when they wanted us too. Everything was going pretty good.” He sighed loudly, “Then the flight simulator happened. After a few times they finally looked me over and said I had an extreme case of motion sickness, which is weird because I’m fine in a car or boat. But for some reason when I’m in the air…,” he trailed off. “They performed a lot of test and prescribed couple of medication but nothing worked. And because of that the medical officer declared that since I had a condition that would l hamper my duty I was, to use the official term, medically disqualified.” “Well that sucks,” Rose told him. “Yeah but what are you going to do?” “Well like Barry told you the other day medication’s come a long way since then.” She looked at her watch, “Now if you will excuse me my Uncle loves the diner’s cheesecake and is waiting for me to drop by and give it to him. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Before she got to the door Ken called out, “Rose.” She looked back to see him hold up her purse. With a sheepish grin she took and left leaving him looking at the application in front of him. “She can’t see her purse right in front of here but she can see me throw this in the trash from how many yards away?” *** Bridge entered the Alpha Team briefing room, making sure to lock the door behind him. Inside Hawk and the others were there waiting for him. Heading for the table they were standing around he took a disc out of his pocket and put it in the computer slot in front of him. “Sorry Captain, I know you wanted this sooner but I had to make sure nobody noticed what I was doing.” “It’s fine Bridge,” Hawk told him, “as long as you got it.” “I thought we weren’t supposed to engage the giant?” Ryo asked the question the three of them were thinking. “We’re not,” Hawk answered. “However Mr. Brooks suggested it might be prudent to study the giant. After his display last time I thought it wise to follow up on that suggestion. And from here on out I suggest we call the giant by the codename applied to him, Ultraman.” Jess’s forehead creased in confusion, “Why Ultraman?” “Because super just not enough,” Bill quipped. They just looked at him not really reacting. “Oh that was funny and you know it.” “Bridge,” Hawk said before Ryo or Jess could respond. On cue he accessed the disc and the table top flashed before a holographic image appeared above it, the park were the first monster and the giant appeared. “All right Boys and girl, the object of our attention today is roughly forty-five meters tall. Did we get a weight yet Bridge?” Having studied the file beforehand he didn’t have to look it up, “Based on the depth and size of the foot impression we’re estimating thirty-five thousand tons.” Bridge whistled out loud but they were all impressed. “We’re still trying to figure out how he does those energy attacks,” to highlight his point the image played the part were Ultraman fired an energy bolt at the creature. “It seems to me,” Ryo spoke up, “that he generates them internally.” “Yeah but it looked like to me he was drawing some in when he finished off the creature,” Bill countered. “Maybe that attack required more energy than what he had,” Jess offered. “That was my line of thinking as well,” Bridge told her. “Which might explain the jewel on his chest.” The image flashed forward to where the giant was on his back being assaulted by fire. “It seems to me he was getting a little desperate when it started flashing.” “So it’s like a warning light?”, Hawk asked. “In a sense,” Bridge said. “I think it’s an energy gauge. I’m thinking as powerful as this guy is he has a limited source of energy to draw from. And he has to replenish it after every battle.” “Which explains the disappearing act,” Hawk said. “Go to the next one Bridge.” The image changed into the footage from a couple of days ago. “As we all know our giant friend here pulled an interesting trick out of his hat.” They all watched again as this Ultraman changed colors, “Any theories?” He was greeted by silence, “I figured as much.” “The board has had the science teams working around the clock since we saw it happen and they can’t figure it out,” Bridge said. “I think Bill made a comment about him being faster. I think he was right. There’s a working theory that he changed himself somehow.” “That last monster was too fast for him,” Ryo said remembering the battle between the two. “So he adapted to the situation by becoming faster.” “And he did it by turning blue, like the markings on his body,” Jess commented. Thinking it out she said, “He has red markings, he could have a third form.” “It’s a strong possibility, but I think so too,” Bridge said. “All I know is there was a puddle of drool under a lot of scientists feet when they saw the footage. I’ve overheard a couple of them argue the physics of that whip like weapon he used. And they nearly creamed themselves when they saw this.” The imaged changed to the end of the fight where Ultraman was standing in front of the creature then behind it in a blink of an eye. “Did they figure out this teleport thing?”, Ryo asked. “Oh he didn’t teleport,” Bridged grinned like a kid in a candy store as he punched in a command and the image restarted. “I had to slow the footage down to frame by frame just to get this.” They watched as Ultraman seemed to expand in blur with a red trail of his crystal before standing the monster, and he seemed to make a slashing movement as he passed it. Bridge paused the image there, the blur effect in still effect Hawk leaned in trying, to process what he was seeing, “He ran?” “Because of that little trick I dubbed this form Hyper Mode,” Bridge informed them. “I don’t get it,” Bill spoke up. “If Ultraman can do that why even bother with the fight to begin with?” “I don’t think he can.” Bridge manipulated the image so there were two Ultraman present. “Look at the Jewel on his chest before he ran, it’s flashing about once a second. Now look at the after, I’d say it’s flashing two, maybe three times a second.” “It takes a lot of his energy to pull that move off,” Ryo said, “even if he pulls more in. Not to mention this form may not be the best option in every battle.” “He might have to wear the monster down a bit too,” Hawk added. “Which might be why he doesn’t pull out the big guns right away. I think that’s all we can do with the information we have for right now, so you’re all dismissed for now.” “I hate to be the downer but Richardson is going to find out about this,” Jess said. “What do we do then?” “Tell him the truth,” Hawk told her, “we’re doing our duty and preparing for the future. If he doesn’t like that answer send him directly to me, and he’s not going to like it if he tries to through his weight around me.” *** The light in the ceiling of the garage flickered again. The first couple of times the people inside looked up in confusion. After about twenty they pretty much ignored it. Although their boss mumbled something that sounded like, “Put a base on the moon but they can’t keep the power from going on the fritz.” Ken would occasionally glance up when it happened. As long as he worked here couldn’t remember the light flickering this bad. As it was he was trying very hard not to get paranoid about the situation seeing what he’s seen lately. But he was trying to take some comfort in the fact Dax wasn’t reacting to anything. A grouped of them had headed out for a lunch run and had come back saying, “This is going on all over town. Everything is going nuts, even the traffic lights.” “That’s what happens when you get too fancy,” Jeff said. “Once things get too complicated it takes nothing to take it out. No, give an old engine and I know it’s going to take something big to take it out.” “Those old engines used to be new engines you know,” their boss said from his office. “And there were guys back then who said the same thing about them. Progress happens, you got to learn to go with the flow.” “Like Ken,” he spat. “No not like Ken. You’re a smart guy Jeff, maybe a little too proud for your own good but you’re smart. One of these days you’re going to realize that and learn to work on the newer models.” “I know all I need to know,” Jeff protested. “In fact I’ll bet you anything that this car right here will start as soon as I turn the key.” While Jeff continued boasting he didn’t see Rose and pull a wire slightly and sneak away as he asked for the keys. Looking sure of himself he jumped in the driver’s seat and turned the key. The engine started to whir, then sputtered before dying out completely. Jeff got out and looked at the engine before setting his sights right on Ken, “What in the hell did you do?” “I’m all the way over here,” Ken said proclaiming his innocence. “Jeff figure it out,” the boss told him, He looked at Rose then shook his head, but didn’t saying to out here either.”When did I start babysitting again?”, he muttered as he closed the door to the office. Jeff started fighting back when some of the others started ragging on him. Rose came toward him smiling. “That was so wrong,” he told her, “funny as hell, but so very wrong.” “He’s always giving you a hard time,” she said, “It’s about time somebody gave him a taste of his own medicine. Especially since you won’t.” “If I didn’t know better I’d swear you were into me or something.” “I think my husband would have a little something to say about that.” “That’s why I know better.” While they shared a small chuckle the lights started flickering again. Even the radio started acting weird. While Jeff started banging on that to get it to work right Ken wondered out loud,” What is going on?” *** In the five years the UNDF has been in existence they had received more than their fair share of phone call and complaints. Usually about the noise or the occasional UFO sighting, of course now giant monster sightings were popping up in that middle of that particular racket made things interesting. Seeing how long the creatures had been showing up most of it’s members were surprised it hadn’t happen sooner. Sill nobody expected the calls they had been getting on the hotline. At a board meeting with the commanders of Alpha and Beta teams present Richardson pinched the bridge of his nose before he exploded with, “Could somebody tell these people we are not the power company!” “People are getting jumpy Harold,” Brooks said. “After everything that’s been happening lately they’re looking for answers.” “They should look elsewhere,” a strict looking man said. The commander of Beta team, Jamira, crossed his arms and looked annoyed. “We have more important things to worry about than flickering lights and blackouts.” “True but we’re getting calls from the power companies as well,” one of the board members spoke up. “They don’t know what’s causing these fluctuations either.” Looking at the board Hawk spoke up, “Based on the calls from the electric company I had Bridge look into it.” “Did he find anything Captain?”, Brooks asked while leaning forward a bit. “He found something he can’t quite explain yet.” Taking a control off the table and pointing it at the wall a map of the surrounding area appeared. “As you know the power plant is located right here,” he pointed the location on the map, “and it supplies power to ninety percent of the city as well as a couple of neighboring cities.” Another board member asked, “Have there been complaints of power fluctuations from those cities as well Captain?” “Yes there has, people from those cities and towns has called us as well.” “Can’t anybody do anything for themselves?”, Jamira grumbled. “That will be enough Commander,” Richardson scowled. Beside him Brooks motioned for Hawk to continue. “Bridge didn’t see anything at first, then he looked at the electrical grids themselves.” Pointing the control at the wall again a grid appeared on the map. Blue lines seemed to flow to where Hawk pointed out as the location of the power plant. “From the look of things this station is occasionally pulling energy in instead of putting it out.” With some mild interest Brooks asked, “Have you been able to determine why it’s doing this? Or who depending on the situation.” “Not as of yet. Bridge contacted the stations managers and they were in the dark as much as we are.” “A likely story,” Jamira grumbled as he left the room. “As brash as he is Commander Jamira is right,” Richardson said after he left. “They could be trying to cover their tracks. But this is a matter for the local authorities not us. Send what we have to them Captain.” “Wait a moment Harold,” Brooks spoke up. “We don’t know exactly what is causing this. With these monsters and giant appearing I’m worried this might be in the same vein. Perhaps it would be prudent to investigate little more closely.” “That might cause a panic,” another member said. “Then a small inquiry if you will,” he amended. “Perhaps a couple of technicians, maybe Mr. Bridge as well since he discovered this little anomaly.” “I’m sure a couple of technicians would be more than enough to handle this,” Hawk quickly said. “No Bridge discovered this he should finish it out,” Richardson said. “Besides it’ll be a good PR move, show we care about the little problems and such. In fact send Wade and Watanabe with him, in case somebody at the station is behind it. We might be able to scare him into making a mistake.” “I’ll tell them to get right on it,” Hawk saluted and left the room. Once outside he started rubbing his forehead, “I’d better tell Jess and Ryo to keep an eye in Bridge while I’m at it.” *** “Why me?”, Bridge said mainly to himself but loud enough that everybody in the Scan Track heard him. Jess looked back from the passenger seat and gave him a sympathetic look. It was always hard to go outside your nitch in the scheme of things. Behinds the keyboards in the control room he was as confident as the rest of them. Get him out in the field… well let’s just say field work wasn’t exactly his strong point. From behind the wheel Ryo tried to boost his confidence a little, “Think of it as your time to shine Nate.” “That’s easy for you to say flyboy,” Bridge grumbled. “Some of us don’t go looking for personal glory.” “Then think of it as a chance to get some sun,” he quipped. “We don’t go looking for glory Nate,” Jess stepped in. “We’re just doing the jobs we’re assigned.” “I know,” Bridge said. “Sorry Ryo.” “It’s just nerves Nate,” he told him, “we all get them when we’re sent out.” Thinking it would be for the best to get things back on the mission at hand he went, “Are you getting a reading on that station yet?” Turning in his seat Bridge got a look at one of the sensor readouts on board, “Nothing yet, but it’s looking like the pull is getting stronger.” “We’ll find out for sure when we get there,” Ryo said as the power plant came into view. Stopping at the front gate Ryo flashed their identification although the guard was paying more attention to the cannons on the back. “You’re not going to fire that thing are you?”, he asked looking nervous. “Only if you give us reason too,” Jess told him. Still unsure about the situation but knowing they were expected he let them through. Locating the main the main door they found a heavyset man waiting for them. Jess got out and greeted him, “Mr. Rowlings?” “Yes,” he answered. Leading them inside before they could introduce themselves he continued, “I hope you people are able to find something. I have customers threatening to call the police since this has been going on.” “That’s a tad much for some fluctuations,” Ryo commented. “Normally I’d agree but these fluctuations are getting longer and weirder.” “Define weirder,” Jess told him. “We’re starting to lose power,” Rowlings informed her. “I’m talking about the generators themselves here. We’ve run every test and diagnostic we have. We can’t find anything wrong.” “Interesting,” Ryo told him before looking at the tech with them. “Miller, Rodgers check out the generator and see if you can find something they missed.” With a slight motion of her hand Jess gestured toward Bridge. He was looking around like he didn’t know where to start. “Bridge, check out the computers in this place, maybe something wrong with the diagnostics systems.” “Right, there might be a glitch in the program that missing the real problem.” He had Rowlings direct him to their main computer room pretty much leaving Ryo and Jess in his dust. They looked at each other and smiled as she said, “There’s the computer expert we know and love.” *** Thanks to his boss, and more than likely Rose as well, word got out about Ken reapplying to the UNDF. Jeff immediately started in on the whole, ‘you’re going to fail again’ shit. Then the other drowned him out and started wishing him luck. Somehow a celebratory dinner was planned behind his back, naturally at the diner, and sprung on him after Jeff left for the day. Ken was actually glad of that for all the wrong reasons, because the night was going to be pointless enough without Jeff laying on a guilt trip. Besides the others seemed to be enjoying themselves so he saw no point in ruining their moods. One held up a glass in toast, “To the UNDF’s newest member.” When the others quickly joined in Ken figured it would be better to not let that get too far, “I haven’t gotten a letter saying either way yet.” “You got to have some faith in yourself Ken,” Rose told him with the other quickly echoing the sentiment. “You’ll get in this time, I’m sure of it.” Ken quickly changed the subject which the other went along with, thankfully. Before too long the party broke up and people started heading home for the night. Rose stood in the parking lot watching the sun hanging low in the sky as Ken walked up behind her. “I hope we didn’t annoy you too much.” “I had nothing else planned for the night. Speaking of which it looks like it’s going to be a nice one.” Looking behind them he saw the moon just start to come up over the skyline. “Looks like a perfect night to be with a lover,” she said. “And I better go find mine,” Rose kissed him on the cheek, “I’ll see you later Ken.” “Now I know you’re trying to get your husband to kick my ass.” “You’re fast on your feet, you’ll be able to out run him,” she grinned as she got in her car. Ken waved goodbye as she pulled out and headed for his own when he paused mid step. He got that feeling again, Dax was getting something. This felt close, and big. And getting bigger. Remembering the last time he looked up but didn’t see a dark cloud in the sky, but it felt like this could have been right on top of him. Walking to the sidewalk he looked around trying to figure out what it could be. It felt like Dax was getting a direction this time around, and it felt like it was coming from same direction as the power plant. “Looks like that quiet evening got scratched. Let’s check it out Dax.” *** Ryo and Jess patrolled the power station as neither of them seen anything that looked out of place. The techs they brought with them said the generators were normal as far as they could see. Of course they wanted to get inside the generators themselves for a more thorough check. Neither of them thought that was going to fly with the higher ups around here. “I’m going to check with Bridge.” Jess nodded as he went down the hall to the computer room. Ryo found him at one station with a computer of his own nearby looking like normal. “How are things on your end Bridge?” “Frustrating,” he answered, “this systems and computers are a couple of generations old at least. But everything coming up green on both machines. Hell if I know what’s going on.” “Maybe we’re looking at his the wrong way,” Ryo suggested. “If somebody is behind these fluctuations it wouldn’t be in plain sight. Does this place have a basement or something?” “I pulled up a complete set of plans before we left,” Bridge informed him. “I even got a deep san of the area underground. There’s nothing under the ground here except for some caverns.” Ryo looked at Bridge the moment he said that. Bridge quickly figured out what he was thinking. Both of them grinned as they said, “Caverns.” Bridge turned his attention to the computer he brought with him and looked up any geological surveys to locate an opening they could use. Ryo activated the communicator on his uniform jacket, “Jess, me and Bridge might have found a lead. We’re going to check it out. Keep an eye on things here to see if anybody reacts while we do.” “I’ll inform Miller and Rodgers. I’m going to need the extra sets of eyes, Wade out.” “I got a way in,” Bridge announced as he downloaded the map to his wrist scanner. “The opening’s about a half mile away.” “Take the lead Nate.” Leaving the plant and heading west they located the passage to the underground cavern. Bridge pulled up any known surveys of the cavern while Ryo pulled out a small flashlight out of pocket to light the way. Bridge would tell him where to go, although every so often Ryo would gently urge him for a direction when he got too quiet. “How long until we’re by the station?” “We should be close,” Bridge told him. “Nobody surveyed this place in years and didn’t do a very…,” he trailed off as Ryo took the light off the path. “What is that?” Ryo looked and saw a soft blue glow ahead of them, “Let’s find out.” Pulling his gun he quickly turned the corner and pointed it at the source. Bridge caught up to see a wall of blue glowing rock in front of them. “I’m guessing this wasn’t on any of those surveys.” “What is this?”, Bridge walked forward and tried to run a scan. The wall started glowing brighter and he noticed that his scanner started losing power. “I think this rock is draining electricity from the surrounding area.” “That’s a hell of a leap there Bridge.” “It’s either that or the battery is going on the fritz.” “This thing can’t be natural,” Ryo said. “That plant’s been here for how many years and this is the first time anything like this has happened.” “Or it’s been inert all this time and it absorbed enough energy from the area it become active. I’m going to try to take a sample to study.” Bridge checked himself and the area to do just that. Ryo coughed and pointed at his gun. Bridge messed with the settings so he could blast a small chunk off. He went to pick it up and jumped back as the piece crawled back into the wall as it glowed brighter. “That’s not right.” “I think we’re going to need a little more than us,” Ryo aid looking at the wall. “Let’s get topside and contact Castle. Starting to exit they stopped when they heard a low rumble. Bridge naturally looked up at the rock above them seeing a bit of dust come down on top of them. A voice in the back of his head that had been honed in combat made Ryo look back at the wall behind them. The rock seemed to shift revealing a single glowing red eye. “Run!”, he grabbed Bridge by the uniform and dragged him out of there as the cavern started shaking harder. The ceiling started coming down around them. Ryo had to stop and go back for Bridge as a boulder knocked him to the ground. “Come on,” he grunted as he helped him up. “I can’t feel my fingers,” he said as he clutched his arm but he continued running. Reaching the cavern’s entrance Ryo kept them running as he looked back. He watched as that single red eye emerged as a head with a single horn on the side came from the ground and kept going up. A monster made up of that blue rock stood damn close to the power station and roared before heading deeper into the city. “Ryo! Nate!”, Jess called out over the communicator. “Where the hell are you two! Talk to me!” “We’re here Jess,” Ryo answered. “Bridge might have a broken arm, other than that we’re fine. What’s your status?” “Outside of a giant rock monster nearly ripping down the wall we’re great,” she answered. “We’re evacuating the plant now, I’ll have Rodgers pick you guys up.” “Contact Castle and inform them of what’s going on.” “I think they’re already aware Ryo.” He silently agreed as he watched the monster use an ax like arm to smash a building. *** Ken went as far as he could with the traffic. Then he and several others saw the rock creature head in their direction. Everybody who could jumped out of their cars and ran away as fast as they could. Ken got out too but he wasn’t going with the crowd. He struggled to get through the mass of panicking people as he tried to get closer but he was getting pulled back. He knew he had to let Daxium out to fight that thing but it was too crowded. Seeing a park he broke through the crowd and ran for it. Seeing nobody else around and plenty of room he held the Spark Magnifier over his head. In a flash Ken was gone and Daxium was ready, “Shiah!” Arnagarage turned to face him as Daxium came toward him. Swinging his ax arm avoided the blow and countered with a punch of his own. The rock monster barely reacted to the blow and swung the stone “blade” again. Daxium jumped backwards to avoid it. Flipping in the air and landing on his feet he let a bolt fly. It exploded off the rock monster’s hide but it reacted like it was in pain this time. Daxium ran in and kicked it in the chest. It tried the ax again but this time Daxium caught it. As he struggled with the arm he left himself open to a clubbing blow to the back. Grunting in pain Daxium held on to the ax as more blows came at his back. Arnagarge was finally able to fling him off making the giant crash into a building. Daxium got off the building in time for that ax to smash into his chest. Spark like explosion came off of him as he fell to the ground. Quickly getting to a knee he started punching at the monster’s gut. Seeing the ax come at him again he rolled backwards a couple of times before getting to his feet and jump into the air. A kick to the head knocked that horn like piece of off his head. Daxium thought he was starting to make some headway when he noticed the creature started glowing. Looking around as the lights around them started flickering he saw that piece get absorbed back into the creatures body, reemerging on the other side of it’s head. He was stunned for a second too long as the monster kicked him in the gut. Staggering back another club like blow to the back of the head forcing him to the ground. Arnagarge picked him up and slashed him with the ax again. Daxium fell to his back hard and the monster stomped on his chest a few times. Struggling to get up the rock creature aimed the ax at his neck, ready to finish this battle once and for all. Explosion on it’s hide distracted the creatures as Razor Wings flew past. Daxium’s crystal started blinking red as he stood up. From the ground a lone Scan Track Jess, Ryo and Bridge in particular watched as the giant slammed his forearms together and held them out in a strong like pose. Again the line appeared on his body and expanded out, this time turning his body red while those marking became silver. “I knew it,” Bridge grunted. Arnagarge saw Daxium came at him again and swung the ax again. Daxium blocked it easily and punched him. The rock creature took a couple of steps back from the impact and the giant pressed his advantage assaulting him with kick and punches. Grabbing Arnagarge by the head he flipped him to the ground with a might crash. The monster wailed away with his ax as it tried to get up forcing Daxium back. Once on it’s feet it staggered backward a bit before starting to glow blue again it began drawing in electricity again. Holding his right fist next to the jewel Daxium started to draw in energy himself. That energy focused into his right hand as he drew it back and slammed it on the ground. An energy wave ripped through the street in front of him growing in height until it bisected Arnagarge. The wave disappeared son after as the monster stood there with a glowing line going down it’s body. The rock on the edges seemed to try ad reach out and knit itself back together but the two halves started to fall away right before he exploded. Daxium stayed around just long enough to make sure the monster wasn’t going to reform before taking off into the air, “Shiah!” *** Hawk and Bill were waiting in the garage when their Scan Track pulled in. Bridge had a temporary cast on his arm as Ryo and Jess helped him out. He took one look at Hawk and said, “I am never leaving base again.” “Sure you will,” Hawk told him. “You had an experience today, learn from it. You’ll be better man for it. Now get a proper cast on that arm, I want you at one hundred percent as soon as possible.” “Yes sir,” he said while Jess and Bill accompanied him. “Look at it this way,” Bill said, “you got a war wound now. Trust me chicks dig battle scars.” “Now there’s a myth,” Jess snorted. Turning to Ryo Hawk said, “I know the mission pretty much complete but there’s still a couple of unanswered questions.” “Like how long that monster has been there,” Ryo said. Hawk nodded while adding one of his own, “And exactly how did Ultraman get there so fast.” *** Hours later Dr, Williams was sitting at a row of monitors looking over the security cam footage from the city, specifically the footage from before and after Ultraman’s fight with the monster. Richardson was still hot on finding out who the giant had bonded with. Patricia was in here for a while helping him but Richardson had some sort of engagement so he was stuck by himself. Reaching for the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup he took a drink and nearly burnt his tongue, “Hot hot hot.” Waving his hands to cool off his tongue he looked at a screen just in time to see something flash behind a parked van and a guy walk out holding his chest. He replayed it a couple of times, there was definitely a flash and that guy seemed to come out of nowhere. Getting a close up of his face as he looked around while placing something into his jacket Williams paused the footage and mumbled, “I think I gotcha.” ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly from the Inside ----- |
Episode 4
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- “As you can see Ted the damage from the giant battle is very severe.” The reporter continued to talk as the station switched to an aerial view of the area. Buildings were badly smashed open or crushed. They stayed on the ragged gap in the middle of the street for a long time. “Power and water services for this part of the city are still out with no estimation on when they will return. Local hospitals were taken off guard at the amount of casualties they received. Local authorities are asking people to stay away from the area for their own safety, but anyone willing to volunteer with the clean up can sign up at designated areas. A UNDF representative said earlier…” Ken watched the work crews a couple blocks away, right were the authorities cordoned off the street. But even at this distance he could just make out the ripped up streets under the floodlights. While Daxium was in control when they traded places he was vaguely of what was going on when he was locked away in that safe area. Rubbing the back of his right hand absent mindedly he relieved the moment Dax unleashed the attack that caused all that damage to the street. Making his way out through the crowd he headed for his car. Getting in he sat there for a moment before looking in. Before long he was face to face with Daxium, “We have to be more careful.” “My actions were my own Ken,” Daxium told him. “You have nothing to feel guilty for.” “Yeah but I was the one who let you out.” “My people are at war with these dark creatures. It is my duty to defeat them.” “I know I know,” Ken ran his hands over his head as he walked away. “This is the first time we had to do this in the city itself. I wasn’t ready for the… I didn’t think we would…” “War is seldom pleasant Ken. But if it disturbs you so much I have other weapons at my disposal…” “No,” Ken said cutting him off, “I don’t want to you hold back because of me. There’s no point in putting yourself at a disadvantage. You know more about what you can do and when to do it more than I do Dax.” Daxium put a hand on his shoulder, “Although I will make no promises I will try to lessen the amount of damage I cause. But if I come to a situation where I have to use the Giga Wave again I will.” “I’m not asking you to Dax. God I’ve seen enough monster movies growing up I should have had an idea what would happen when one showed in the middle of the city. Don’t worry Dax I’ll get used to it.” As he was leaving the area he heard Daxium say, “For your sake Ken I hope you do not.” Blinking as he came back to the here and now he looked back at the damaged area before driving off. *** When the giant first appeared Richardson knew there were going to be questions. Questions from the board, questions from the teams and soldiers and especially questions from reporters. He was more than ready to answer all of them, when Joseph was the one who was supposed to be bonded with the giant idiot. As it was he was bidding time until Patricia and Williams could find a clue on who he did bond with. Then he had to find away to get the bastard in the organization. He thought he found a way, and some on the board were practically screaming for it as it was. It just depended on how much it was going to cost him. But until then the questions just kept coming, particularly from reporters. Especially the one that was currently assaulting his ear over the phone. The moron practically called every day since the giant appeared, asking the same questions every time. “Come on Mr. Richards,” he said after they played some verbal jousting for the past several minutes, “surely you must have some comment on Alpha Team decision to aid the giant before.” “I told you before any decision made in the field during a battle are those of the commanders alone,” he was starting to get annoyed being asked that over and over. “If you want a statement you’re going to have to ask him,” he said sharply. “You have to give me something to work with here. Does the giant at least have a name?” “If I knew his name I would have used it by now. Goodbye!” Slamming the phone down he waited a second before picking it back up. “I don’t want to hear from that jackass for at least a week. If I do you’re fired,” and slammed the phone down again. Beside him Patricia didn’t look all that impressed with the display, “That was a bit much don’t you think?” “I have people breathing down my neck from every angle imaginable,” he told her. “I have the board and reporters like that jackass asking questions about the giant. The rest of my family and Captain Hawk are still demanding to know what happened to Joseph. I can’t do anything about Hawk, the board or my family, but as for the reporters I can silence at least for a little while, just long enough to get a moment’s peace.” “From my experience,” Patricia cautiously said, “a forced silence will make them think you’re hiding something even more.” “Right now I don’t care,” he said plainly. “I need a moment or two to think straight. I wouldn’t be having this problem if that damn giant bastard came out of that portal faster.” The quiet moment was interrupted by William trying to come through the door with a security guard trying to hold him back. “Mr. Richardson I have to talk to you!” Richardson shot straight up demanding, “What is the meaning of this?!” “Sorry sir,” the guard said while he struggled with the scientist, “he tried to shoot past me.” “I’ve been trying o call you since last night,” Williams said still trying to get out of the guards grip. “I found him!” “He keeps saying that too but he won’t say who ‘he’ is.” Richardson and Patricia shared a brief glance as he sat back down. “It’s fine Craig, let him through,” she told him. “Bat Rastard,” Williams muttered after the door was closed. Ignoring his particular swearing habit Richardson calmed down a bit before asking, “What makes you think you have him Doctor?” “I’m pretty sure I got him on video,” without any permission he quickly went to the computer on the desk. Before long a screen slid down from the ceiling and the lights darkened slightly. In the next moment an image of Williams in a Hawaiian shirt with a drink in hand sitting next to a smiling woman appeared. Richardson dropped his head while Patricia shook hers. Going red in the face he scratched the back of his head, “Heh… sorry that’s my honeymoon.” Going back to the computer he found the proper file this time around, “Here it is.” Security camera footage started playing, a van was the only thing on screen for a bit. Richardson squinted his eyes a bit to try and figure out if there was a flash just then behind it or not. Then some long haired punk walked out holding is chest and looked around before putting something into his coat. “Run it again,” Patricia said after it was over. “Did you see something?” Richardson asked. “I’ll tell you once I’m sure… there,” she pointed at the screen. “You say the shadow too?”, Williams asked with a grin. He played it one more time for Richardson. Then he saw it, right after that flash there was a man shaped shadow that wasn’t there before the flash as the punk walked into view. “I pulled up his face and ran it through the database and found this. It’s after Ultraman fought the giant version of the creature we usually send the Razor Wings after.” They watched as the footage from a different camera played. This one showed an alleyway, there wasn’t a flash this time around but it did show the same individual come out clutching his left forearm. “I also found this.” A drawing of some sort appeared, Williams pulled up a clean image of the person’s face for a comparison, “That is from the night when the first monster appeared. A couple of troops posted the description after they lost track of an individual in the same area Ultraman showed up in.” Richardson leaned forward as he studied the individual. “He does seem to be favoring the same areas the giant took damage in,” Patricia commented. “Do you know who he is?” Richardson asked anxiously. “Not yet,” Williams answered, “we’re still running the image through the database.” “Speed it up!”, he barked. “I want to know who that bastard is and I wanted it yesterday!” Williams nodded and hurried out of the room leaving the image up. “I want him in this organization, I don’t care what it takes.” *** The ones the dark beings referred to as their Avatar sat on the floor, crossed legged and eyes closed. He tried to relax, build his strength. His “masters” were preparing to send another large entity through the dimensional phase, Bogun they called it. After Bemular he quickly discovered exactly how much it drained him to stabilize something that size. As it was he surprised he was able to build up enough energy to murder Joseph Richardson. Although the results were rather spectacular, in his own humble personal opinion of course. But he swore to be ready this time around, he had to build his reserves, push his limits slightly. And his masters were aware that he was doing just that. But apparently they weren’t aware to what extent he was doing so. He smiled to himself at the memory, he almost levitated last time, he was sure of it. He felt the energy within him, he felt himself get a little lighter like he was about to rise off the floor. If that knock on his door didn’t happen he might have done just that. But patience was a virtue. Slow and steady as they say, just enough that he could still cover his tracks so they wouldn’t discover the full extent of what he was doing. If they did then there would be no place he could hide. *** “Hey Ken!” Rose ran up to him as he pulled into the parking lot. When she came at him looking that excited it could only be one of two things. Was it wrong he was silently praying that she was having another kid? “What are you doing tomorrow night?” No such luck. “Please tell me you’re not planning on setting me up with another one of your friends? You promised me you wouldn’t do that anymore.” “Have you even known me to break my promises?”, she asked him. Before she could answer, with an all too familiar smirk she added, “But you never said anything about Davey’s co-workers.” Ken buried his face in his hands and groaned as he tried to walk past her. “Her name is Stacey, I’ve seen her when I visited Davey at work. She’s a lovely girl and you two have a lot in common.” “What is with you and the blind dates you set me up on?” “Don’t worry Ken and me are going to be there so it’s not like I letting you go through this alone.” And with that he buried his face in his hands again. “A chaperoned blind date, that’s just great.” “Oh don’t be such a baby,” Rose chided him. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.” Before he could utter those exact words she continued talking, “She seemed interested in you when I told her about you. Come on Ken I just want you to be happy.” “I am happy,” he told her. “Have you ever seen me unhappy?” “How much time do we have before work?”, she asked him. “Because I have a list.” “You do not have a list.” Chances were she might, but he wasn’t going to give in that easy. “Come on Ken, consider it a personal favor if you go on the date.” “If I’d called in all the favor you owed me for going on these dates I’d own your ass for a couple of months at least.” That apparent line of attack didn’t work because it looked like she wasn’t going to give in either. “This better not be a fancy place because I refuse to wear a suit somebody I don’t know.” “Great,” she hugged him around the neck. “I promise you won’t regret this.” “You said that the last time,” he told her, “and the time before that and the time before that and…” “Be quiet,” she told him. “You’re going to have a great time.” She went into the garage about the same time the bossed pulled up. “Ken,” he said, “early as always I see. Did you send that application in yet?” “Just waiting on the rejection letter,” he told him. “That’s negative thinking Ken,” he told him. “Besides I know somebody in admissions. I told her that if she didn’t see your name in a month time to send me another. And you will fill it out in my office and I will send it out for you to make sure it doesn’t get lost again.” “That’s not fair,” he protested, “Do you have any idea how many people apply to them a year? It took them two months to get back to me the first time.” “We’ll find out in a month time won’t we,” and his boss walked into the building leaving him alone again. Ken looked around halfway expecting Jeff to pop up with a smart ass remark. Instead he heard in the back of his mind, “Ken, are you alright?” “Whoa,” making sure nobody in the garage could see him he turned around and spoke to him, “you can initiate these things?” “Yes,” Daxium told him, “but since I am just a guest in your body I try not to disturb you normal life as much as possible. However you seemed more disturbed than usual at the moment. Is there anything wrong?” “Unless they have blind dates where you come from it might take a while to explain the one of the reason I’m feeling ‘disturbed’.” Daxium didn’t have a ready response for that. “Look Dax, I appreciate the concern, it’s just some human crap I have to go through every so often. But could you give me a warning next time. It looks like I’m talking to myself right about now and that’s going to draw attention.” “I will do my best to give you some sort of advanced warning in the future. But if an emergency arises I will not make any promises.” “Fair enough.” Ken came back to his senses about the time Rose popped her head out of the garage. “Everything set for tomorrow night,” she told him. “Great,” he said through a false smile. Although he was pretty sure Dax couldn’t hear him he muttered anyway, “And if you can find a way to fake that feeling during this date I will be eternally grateful.” *** “Captain Hawk!”, someone called out. He looked behind him to see Peter Brooks hurry up and catch him, folder in hand. He stopped to let him, somewhat curious about what this could be about. Rarely did a board member just want to talk. Something about the file in his hands said this wasn’t going to be one of those times. “Good day Captain,” he greeted once he was close enough, “I’m sorry to bother you like this.” “No problem at all sir,” he said. “What can I do for you?” “It’s not for me actually,” Brooks told him, “it’s for Richardson. Seeing how things are still a little frosty between the two of you I thought it would be prudent if I sought you out instead.” “I’ll do the job no matter who assigns it. What do you have for me?” “I’m not really sure,” he admitted. “I caught the tail end of it when I walked into his office. From what I understand it’s a person of interest in this whole monster mess.” Interest piqued he took the file and opened it. He realized the photo was cam footage almost immediately. Looking a little further he found the guy’s name, Ken Scott. It took him all of two seconds to realize why that name sounded familiar. “I peeked through the file while I was looking for you. I didn’t see anything particularly noticeable about him. More than likely Richardson is pushing his ‘instincts’ a bit here.” Reading a bit further a line of information caught Hawk’s eye, “This guy is considered dangerous?” “Dangerous enough to warrant sending Alpha team after him.” “That’s a bit much for one guy. There has to be a regulation against it.” “These are strange times Captain, people are a little jumpy and want answers. In fact a couple of board members found a by-law in the charter that most of us forgot about. It allows for a situation just like this.” “That’s an awfully convenient find,” Hawk commented. “Like I said Captain, strange times.” He started to leave but stopped, “One more thing before I go, please tell Mr. Bridge to be a little more careful in the future. I fully realize computers are his area of expertise, but apparently clandestine activities are not.” “I’m not sure if I follow.” “Let’s just say I’m more than a little glad that you decided to take my advice and study this Ultraman character.” Before Hawk could respond Brooks turned around and went the way he came. Hawk looked at the file in his hand and hoped this wasn’t the same guy Jess knew back in the day. An hour later he and the rest of the team were standing around the conference table with the file footage of Ultraman’s last battle. Arms still in a cast Bridge pointed something out, “See right there, when he punched the rock creature. The monster stumbled back, it didn’t do that at the beginning of the fight.” “So he had to go to this… Power mode,” Ryo said, “to defeat him.” “Exactly,” Bridge told him, “I also think his most powerful weapons are in this form too.” “Seeing what he did to the street the beat this one I hope he doesn’t have to go to this form too often,” Jess commented. A round of nods agreed with her. Bridge worked the controls with his uninjured hand to put all three forms side by side. Bill pointed at each one as he spoke, “So we got Hyper, Power and…” trailing off he tried to think of a name, “Normal mode?” “It’ll do,” Hawk told them. “I’m assuming this proves that theory we had that he’ll adapt to the situation?” “I would say so,” Bridge agreed. “So far his strategy seems to be he’ll start in Normal form here and see what he’s dealing with. Then he’ll either stay in this form or mode shift into one of these others depending on what he’s facing.” “Mode shift?”, Ryo asked with an arched eyebrow. “A term I just coined,” Bridge told him before returning his attention to the holo images of Ultraman. “I wonder if he can mode shift at will or once per battle.” “I guess we’ll find out one way or another,” Jess told him. “We have one more order of business,” Hawk informed them. He placed the info disc that was in the file into the console slot. Pulling up the information he briefly glanced at Jess before saying, “According to Mr. Richardson this is a person of interest that we should be looking for.” With a few commands he projected the information over the table. It mirrored itself on both sides so they could all see it with no problem. He was concentrating of Jess’s reaction he almost missed what Ryo said right next to her. “Ken Scott? I think I went to the academy with this guy. But I think his hair was shorter back then.” Hawk looked at him with mild surprised, he wasn’t expecting that one. That wasn’t even in the file Brooks gave him. Beside him Jess studied the image in front of here, whispering an almost inaudible, “Ken?” “We don’t know much,” Hawk told them. “All I know is he’s supposed to be brought in and is considered dangerous enough to have us go after him.” Jess pried her eyes away from the image to stare at him. In fact the others were looking at him strange too. “I know what you’re all thinking and I don’t like it either. Apparently there’s a regulation on the books that will allow the board to do just that. I already filled a complaint against it but until the board repeals it we have to do this. Are there any questions?” Like he thought Jess was the first one to speak up, “Is this some kind of a joke?” Before he could answer an alert went off. “Excuse me Captain,” Bridge said as he accessed his station from here. “We have another hit in the middle of the city. Looks like another big one.” “Do we have visual yet?”, Ryo asked. “No the reading is still underground, but it looks like it’s close to the surface. There’s no reports of power loss so I don’t think it’s the same as last time.” A new image appeared showing a map of the city that rose up a bit to show the current location of the reading they were getting. “Alpha team, get ready to launch,” Hawk told them. “I want Razor Wings in the air and Scan Tracks on the ground beating us there. We’ll continue talking about the previous situation later.” “You better believe we will,” Jess mumbled. “Let’s show this thing why they call us Monster Squad. Move out!” *** This night was going worse than Ken thought it was going to be. His “date” Stacey didn’t appear all that interested at all. In fact she seemed more interested in Davey, going so far to bring the conversation back to him when Rose tried to talk up Ken a bit. But she seemed more than content to pretend he wasn’t there. Normally he wouldn’t have minded but he was getting the feeling Rose set them up so she’d stop making to googley eyes at her husband. Of course he didn’t know how she acted at work, but chances were she did the same there too. Any other time Ken wouldn’t have minded trying to help Rose out, but this woman was so boring it was a struggle to fake being interested at this point. In fact he wasn’t even trying to hide he was looking at his watch every so often. Why not, his date started doing it over an hour ago. “I’m going to go powder my nose,” Stacey said suddenly. “I’ll think I’ll join you,” Rose said. Both of them got up and walked away. The moment they were out of sight Ken immediately turned toward Davey, “Rose secretly hates me doesn’t she?” “Come on Ken the dates not going that bad.” His only response was to stare at him. “Alright maybe it’s going a little bad.” “A little?”, Ken stated. “I tried to talk her out of it,” Davey told her. “But you know how Rose is when she gets started on something. Look I feel like I owe you one. If you want to sneak out I’ll make up an excuse for you.” “Are you kidding? The moment Rose finds out I left she’s going to hunt me down and kick… my… ass.” He felt Daxium react to something really close. It felt like it was right on top of him. Turning way from Davey and lowering his head he softly said, “I was kidding about faking that feeling.” “This is very real Ken,” Dax told him. “Whatever this creature is we are very close to it. We need to get away and intercept it’s before it’s too late.” “Easier said than done.” “What’s easier?”, Rose asked as they returned to the table. A second later the building started shaking. “What the hell?”, Rose asked as she and several others started to look around. Based on the feeling Daxium was getting he had a sickening idea what it was, “We got to get out of here now.” Pulling Davey to his feet he tried to push them to the door. “Wait we still have to pay,” Davey said. “We’ll drop off a check at the door.” “Now wait a minute,” Stacey started to protest. “I don’t know what kind of woman you think I am…” Ken had enough of this and didn’t have time to deal with people who haven’t been in this situation before, “Newsflash princess, not everything is about you.” That felt better than it probably should have. “I’ve been in more of these situations than I care to think about.” Their waitress tried to stop them, especially since a few more tried to copy what he was doing. Instead of a check Ken threw a wad of cash at her, “That should cover it and then some,” he told her. “Now come on!” The moment they hit the door Ken looked down the street as some sort of tendril looking thing broke through the asphalt. This was bad, that was practically right on top of them. The people he was trying to save stopped in horror as a green head broke through and roared at the fleeing crowd. “What the hell is that?”, Davey asked in terror. None seemed to notice that he was way too calm when he answered, “Something not good.” More of the creature broke free, making it look like some sort of giant slug as more of it was exposed. But even Ken started getting worried when a second head appeared at the other end, this one with a giant snout like nose on it’s face, and at ground level. He had to get out of there fast and let Daxium get after that thing, but he couldn’t just leave the others behind. That didn’t stop Stacey from fleeing in terror as soon as the second head emerged. “She has the right idea,” Ken grunted as he pulled Rose and Davey along. Hearing jets he looked to see them in the sky and UNDF ground vehicles. “All Razor Wings and Scan Track, distract the creature until the civilians are clear,” Hawk ordered. “Rodger,” Ryo, Jess, Bill and the other replied over the link. The lead air units fired a round of missiles while the ground units fired their cannons. The monster roared in pain and lashed out with that tendril on his head. Unable to hit the Razor Wings it smashed into the side of a building. Seeing chunks of buildings come down Ken dragged Rose and Davey with his as he dove for the sidewalk. The people behind them weren’t so lucky. Then some kind of smoke started blowing out of the monster body from these vent like orifices. A rancid order filled the air immediately. People closer to the creature dropped to the ground overcome by the gas. “Come on!”, Ken pulled his friends back up and ran down the street. Looking back he reached into his jacket, he’ll worry about explaining this to them later. “Over here!” A uniform man was waving people over to a line of transports. Ken immediately pushed Rose and Davey in that direction. The trooper ushered them into one of the trucks, “come on we don’t have much time.” It was then that Rose noticed somebody was missing. “Where’s Ken? Ken!”, she started to get out of the truck to look for him. “He’s probably in one of the other trucks,” Davey said trying to keep her seated. “But he was right behind us!” “Don’t worry, we’ll find him later.” Everybody in the truck and the others quieted down with some fear as a huge column of light appeared behind one of the buildings. The Razor Wings pulled away as it faded away revealing the Giant, “Shiah!” *** Bogun stopped spraying the gas the moment the top head noticed Daxium. Both roared as he got between it and the fleeing crowd. Bogun moved toward him but Daxium kicked him back. The tendril on top of it’s head lashed out and caught him on the top of the head. Forced back from the blow he started to put his hands to his side but the creature started spewing. Daxium started choking before firing the bolt, felt himself grow weaker. Bogun rushed forward butting him with it’s head. Realizing there were still transports behind him he fought to stay on his feet. Raring one more time Bogun reared his head back for another strike. Daxium regained his balance just long enough jump up and flip over the creature. Before Bogun could turn around he struck him in the side of the head several times before grabbing it around the neck. With some effort he was able to pull it away from the fleeing transport despite Bogun’s duel protest. The tendril acted like it had a mind of it’s own as it whipped him as the body struggled to get free. Squirming loose it quickly turned around and smashed the tendril across Daxium’s face. Going for it again Bogun missed as the giant back flipped out of range. Daxium quickly fired off a bolt as soon as his feet touched the ground, burning one of the vents on it’s main body. The two heads cried out in pain. Taking the moment the creature was distracted Daxium ran in punching and kicking away at Bogun. The tendril tried to come into play again but the giant easily blocked it and continued his assault. The forgotten lower head was able to get it’s mouth around one of his feet and clamped down hard. That distracted Daxium enough that it wrapped the tendril around his neck. Now Daxium struggled to get free as the pressure increased. The lower seeing he was about to fire off another bolt Bogun slammed him into the nearby buildings. Pulling him close he started spewing that gas right into his face. Before long the crystal started flashing red as he fell to a knee. Hawk didn’t need any prompting this time, “All units fire on the creature.” “We should target Ultraman too,” Jamira said over the comm. “Eliminate both of them at once.” “Richardson’s order is still in effect. Target the creature, fire!” he ordered again not giving Jamira a chance to argue. Alpha team and most of the other units unleashed their missiles almost immediately. Bogun cried in pain again s explosions rocked it’s body, stopping with the gas and letting Daxium go. He came back to his senses after a few moments, eyes on the tendril as Bogun went after the Scan Tracks on the ground. Crossing his arms in front of him the line appeared and changed his body to the blue of Hyper mode. Running in he jumped over Bogun again, landed and jumped back up with a spin lick to the creature upper head. Back flipping away several times he avoided the tendril reach. Holding out a hand he extended two fingers and drew a circular shape in the air. A line of energy followed the path of his fingers made. Connecting the two ends the outside edge became jagged like a saw and he threw it at Bogun’s top head. It sliced through the tendril with ease and it dropped to the ground. Bogun started thrashing around widely after it happened. Knowing he had to end this now Daxium set up for the run but the creature started spewing the gas again. Not sure he could travel through that and still make it he changed strategies and extended the light whip from his right hand. Waving it over his head Daxium lashed it around the creature’s body. Rearing back his left hand he drew in energy before slamming his left fist on top of his right hand. A surge of energy traveled through the whip and into Bogun’s body. A few seconds later the creature exploded and the gas quickly dissipated. The threat ended Daxium flew off into the night sky, “Shiah!” *** A couple of hours later people were still being treated for the gas. A lot of people didn’t survive it or the creature’s assault. That renewed Hawk’s determination to get to the bottom of this mess. Jess still wasn’t happy about this but she would follow orders. In those two hours they were able to track down their target. Fortunately it was on a pretty dissertated section of street, well since the monster attack anyway, so hopefully they can do this with as little extra attention as possible. “Wait for my order,” he said as he noticed he was talking on a cell phone. “No I couldn’t find her,” Ken told Rose, trying to explain his disappearance. Somehow searching for his date sounded like a good excuse. It also got him away from the UNDF units still patrolling the streets, since Dax put him almost of the middle of it. “So Davey was able to get a hold of her then? That’s good to hear.” That wasn’t a lie, she might have been a total bore but he didn’t want to see her get hurt. “I’m going to head home then. I’ll see you at the garage.” Putting his phone into his pocket he started to head for his car. “Now!”, they quickly came out of their hiding spots and surrounded him. They were able to take him by surprise, but bit did look like he started to reach inside his jacket. “Hold it Scott, you’re coming with us.” “What the hell is going on?!”, Ken demanded. Their weapons weren’t pointed at him but they were still in his hands. “You’re wanted for questioning, “Hawk told him. “I need you to come with us.” “I don’t think so,” Ken shot back. “I don’t know what’s going on but I am not… You back the hell away from me,” he said pointing at Bill. “Ken please just calm down.” “I don’t know you so don’t use…!” he turned to the speaker than stopped. He knew the face under that helmet. The uniform nametag that said Wade only confirmed it as his heart skipped a beat, “Jessica?” Ryo and Bill looked at each other confused. “I don’t know why they want you,” she told him truthfully getting a little closer to him, “but we need you to come with us.” “Don’t you need a reason to arrest somebody?” “You’re not under arrest,” Hawk informed him. “It sure looks like it to me,” Ken snapped. “Last I heard this wasn’t a police state. You need a reason…” “Look the sooner we get this worked out…,” Ryo reached for him. Ken pulled away from him, “Don’t touch me!” Taking a step toward Jess he recoiled a bit like he had just been shot as little blue arc of electricity traveled over his torso. He started to fall but Ryo quickly caught him. All eye turned toward Bill who holstered his weapon. “It look like he was about to get violent,” he explained. “It’s allowed in that regulation, I looked it up. Beside he just stunned he’ll be fine.” Before Hawk could reprimand him Jess stormed up to Bill and punched him square in the face. “Wade!” Hawk cried out pulling her away. “He wasn’t getting violent you asshole!” she yelled at bill as he held his chin. “We’ll sort this out later,” Hawk told while trying to stay between Jess and Bill. Waters, take Scan Track one back to base now, Ryo, Wade and myself will guard Scott in Track two. Now,” he added with a little more authority in his voice. Jess was already heading toward their Scan Track without a word to Bill. While rubbing his jaw a bit he headed for the other direction. Hawk got under one of Scott’s arms while Ryo did the same on the other side. “This kid better be worth the headache.” ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly on the Inside ----- |
Episode 5
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- Now this was a interesting situation the Avatar found himself in. He was standing by the lake Bemular appeared from. Bogun was still preparing to attack the city at the moment, he was a couple of hours away from being ready and his attention should have been there. Especially when this Ultraman would eventually show up. But his masters directed him back here. He didn’t know why until, he sensed it but just barely. There was another creature down there, from their universe just like they said. It must have sneaked through when Bemular crossed over. Kneeling down and putting a hand into the water he sent out small waves of dark energy until he found it. Whatever was down there was roughly three time the size he was and felt roughly man shaped. What did they call it, Ragnaron? He felt it be drawn by his energy. It must have been close to Bemular when he stabilized him. The “masters” said it was a similar to a pest or a rodent in there universe. His orders were to destroy it, but he wondered what would happen if he gave just a little bit more energy. Focusing his power he sent it toward the creature. It thrashed around as the beam struck it, but the Avatar could feel it drinking it in as well. He wasn’t sure how but he was positive he gave it the correct amount of a punch to accelerate it’s growth. In a few hours he’ll see what this one would be able to do. And if he was lucky his masters won’t know he did that on purpose. But right now he had to get out of here and back to Castle. He still had a job there to do. *** For a while he all he knew was darkness and nothing else. “KEN!”, Daxium’s scream echoed in the back of his head when he was awoken with a start. “Dial it down Dax,” he grumbled as he tried to focus on where he was. Wherever it was he was sitting and not in his own bed or chairs. “Ugh what hit me?”, he went to put a hand to his head. He was stopped part way and wouldn’t go any further no matter how hard he tried. Then he looked, he was handcuffed to a chair. Right then he remembered, one of those bastards shot him in the back. Looking around the room all he was able to see was the table in front of him and another chair. Then he saw a window looking into an adjoining room and saw them. And her. “And this was the only strange thing on him?”, asked the guy who was older than the rest of them. Ken gave him his full attention when he saw the Spark Magnifier in his hand. “The only thing we found,” said an Asian who looked slightly familiar to him. Then he turned toward her, “You recognized it Jess?” “I’ve never seen it before,” she told him. Ken’s eyes never left the Magnifier in the guy’s hands. “Oh no,” he muttered when he saw the crystal prongs pop out slightly as he squeezed the handle, “no no no no no.” The prongs clicked together and Ken closed his eyes and flinched. He was never going to see the light of day again. They were going to lock him and not stop until they figured out how he and Dax worked. Then he realized that things didn’t feel like they usually did when he used it. Cautiously he opened an eye and looked at his hand, it still looked normal as he wiggled his fingers. Letting out the breath he was holding he knew couldn’t relax fully just yet. Inside the room Jess was the only one who noticed Ken’s reaction but she didn’t say anything. “It has to be what the old man was looking for,” Bill said. “Why else was he getting violent?” “You’re the only one who thought he was getting violent man,” Ryo told him. “Captain,” he pleaded, “help me out here. You saw it too right?” “Not now Bill,” Hawk told him. “If he doesn’t tell us what it is we’ll have one of the labs check it out.” While they were talking Jess made up her mind and walked into the other room with Ken. “Jess wait a minute,” Bill tried to stop her but Hawk held him back. “She knows what she’s doing.” Closing the door behind her they just stared at each other for a few moments. Neither knew the other’s heart was pounding just as bad. “I know I’m the reason why we broke up,” Ken began after a bit, “but please tell me you’re here to be the good cop.” She smiled slightly, “No good or bad cop. I just thought you could use a friendly face right about now.” He smiled in return. Pulling out the other chair she sat across from him. “How have you been Ken?” “Would it sound like too much of a line if I said I’ve been kicking myself since high school?” “It kind of would actually.” “Then I won’t say it,” they shared a small chuckle. “I’ve been alright. How about you?” “I’ve been fine, a little busier than I thought I would be since I’ve joined up. What’s this I was hearing about you trying out for this too?” “I gave it a shot a couple of years ago.” “So what happened?” His only answer was to hold his stomach a bit as he remembered. Smiling a bit again she said, “I remember how green you used to get when you took me on the Farris Wheel back in the day. Are you seeing anybody?” “Nothing serious or anything that lasted that long.” Had a great girl in high school but I screwed that up like nobody’s business. “How about you, have you found Mr. Right yet?” “More or less the same, I haven’t had time to date since I’ve joined up.” Was kinda hoping this guy in knew in high school would be the one but look how that turned out. “How’s your family doing?” “Mom’s good, she’s doing better than what she was. Jeff’s… married and has a kid.” Jess’s jaw dropped, “Jeff has a kid? I don’t believe it.” “I’d show you a picture but I don’t think my wallet’s on me,” he looked into the other room through the window. She glanced back at the other before returning her attention to him, “Since I better look like I’m doing something official here what is going on? Why are they so interested in you? Why were you out there?” “I have no idea,” Ken told her. He had an idea but he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “A person I work with set me up on a blind date and I went looking for her after that thing came up from the street. Next thing I know you and the goon squad showed up. Not that I’m calling you a goon or anything,” he quickly added once he realized how that sounded. “I can buy that,” Jess said. Behind her he saw the guy who he was pretty sure was the one who shot him roll his eyes. “Can you tell me what that thing we found on you is?” Thinking as fast as he has ever thought he said, “My good luck charm.” “Your good luck charm,” Jess repeated slowly. He recognized that look she was giving him. She wasn’t sure if she believed it or not yet. “I was in the park when that first giant monster showed up,” he told her. “I found it on the ground, I picked it up for some reason and came out of it alive. It was working great until tonight. Do you have any idea why I’m here?” All they told us was that you were a person of interest and needed to be brought in for questioning,” she answered. “We don’t know any more than that.” “That’s a pretty flimsy reason as far as I’m concerned,” Ken told her. Jess shrugged her shoulders a bit, “It’s orders from up top, way up top. We have to follow those orders no matter what.” “It’s probably a good thing I did crash out,” he said. “I don’t think I would have lasted that long around here.” *** In his office watched what passed as an interrogation these days with some mild disgust. Partially because this woman was handling Scott with kid gloves, and partially because this was the person the giant bonded with. In front of him was the information on this Scott person as was his academy file. Inside that was the reason why he was originally rejected. As well as an addition that he had recently reapplied. At his request Patricia had the rejection letter stopped for the moment. He didn’t need that to mess up his plans. In the corner of the room Williams was using a lap top to view the footage on his own. “That device has to be the key,” he said after a bit. “He reacted when Hawk started messing with it.” Behind Richardson Patricia said, “That’s what he’s using to turn into Ultraman? I was expecting something a little more… elaborate.” “I wasn’t expecting a device at all,” Williams said. “I’m not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t anything as simple as that. Oh if I could only get that alone for five minutes to figure out how it works.” “It doesn’t matter how it works,” Richardson said curtly. “We have to find a way to get him working for us.” “Maybe we can use Wade,” Williams offered, “they seem close. Or maybe Watanabe. Their files indicated they started at the same academy at the same time.” “Not good enough,” Richardson spat. “That kind of familiarity rarely works. And there’s no guarantee Scott knew Watanabe at the academy.” “Not to mention the slight confusion that might happen after you had them bring in Scott as a person of interest in the monster threat,” Patricia commented. “And Hawk has made it absolutely clear they weren’t happy with particular direct order,” Richardson said. “I’m still on Hawk’s radar after the whole mess with Joseph. I don’t need them adding to that particular list. He studied Scott a bit as Wade left the room. Again he tested the metal cuff around his wrist. “There has to be something we can use. Is there anything in his file we can exploit?” “Nothing is standing out so far,” Patricia informed him. “However we might try a bit of kindness to make him more comfortable.” Richardson looked at her. “He might be a little more agreeable if we treated him less like a prisoner.” Looking at the screen he watched him play with the handcuffs again. “Get a hold of Hawk and tell him to remove the cuffs and try and make him a little more comfortable. Tell him it’s a different track to get him to talk if he asks.” Patricia nodded and got on the line. While she relayed the order Richardson studied the bastard on the screen. What was it going to take?” *** Back at the lake two men who were just passing through had set up camp for the night having gotten there an hour before. One using a small propane stove to cook some hot dogs whistled to himself as they roasted. The whistling stopped when he noticed the middle of the lake started to bubble slightly. “Hey Frank,” he called out to his friend. “What do you think that is?” He poked his head out of the tent and looked, “It’s probably an underwater geyser or something.” Looking a little worried the first one went, “Isn’t this where they say that first monster showed up?” “How should I know,” Frank told him. “The locals say a lot of things and I don’t listen to them.” “It was on the news I think.” “And that’s another bunch of lie spewing bastards right there,” Frank said going back into the tent. “Besides if this was the spot those UNDF freaks would have checked to see if there was more. They got to do something with the tax payer money they’re wasting.” “Have you seen the things they go against on the news?” “Smoke and mirrors,” Frank said shrugging it off, “a new type of plane who the hell knows what they really are. Monster now, I swear there’s something in the air.” The bubbling in the water increased. Then it quickly started to come toward them. Before he could warn his friend something that looked like a fin emerged, followed by a gigantic head. “Fra… Fra… Fran…,” he stammered toward the tent. Frank poked his head out to yell at him. Then he saw the thing right in front of them. Both of them screamed as a giant hand came down right on top of them. *** Rubbing his wrist Ken wondered what else could happen tonight. And forget the blind date Rose set him up on. First he was treated like a prisoner, now they were acting like he was guest or something. So much so Jess even volunteered to escort him to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Every so often he’d looked around to see if anybody else was escorting them but so far nothing. But he was amazed at how fast he and Jess fell back into old habits as they walked down the corridor. Well almost fell, if they were back in high school they might have been holding hands at this point. “So you’re working at Peterson’s Garage?”, Jess asked. “Did Jeff get you in? Wait that’s a stupid question, forget I ever asked that.” Ken answered any way, “Jeff started after me actually. They had a job opening and he needed some steady work. Luckily he’s a halfway decent mechanic or that could have been a big mess.” “I hoped he thanked you at least.” He stopped just long enough to say, “Have you met my brother?” “You’re right, what was I thinking?”, Jess said before they shared another laugh. “I still can’t believe he’s married.” “Yeah Janet’s a saint. If I ever get my wallet back I can show you that picture of Nicole.” Now how to say this next part without looking too suspicious. “Any idea when I can get that and my good luck charm back?” “I have no idea,” she told him. “Captain Hawk marked it as something suspicious. Since you’re a person of interest here it might be awhile. Is that going to be a problem?” “No, not at all.” At least not until the next monster attack, then Dax might have some issues. “How long was Jeff out of work before you got him the job?” Rubbing the back of his neck he answered, “About a year.” “Did this Janet make enough to support all three of them?” Reluctantly he answered, “Not exactly.” Now she stopped and looked at him. Oh he was way too familiar with that look she was giving him right now. “So you were basically helping support his family for that year?” “Basically,” he said not looking at her. Looking real disappointed she sighed, “Same old Ken,” and continued walking. “Could you not make it sound like a bad thing,” he said before following. “I know you were doing a good thing, but you were always shouldering everybody else’s problems and never taking anytime for what you wanted. How much can you actually carry on those shoulders?” “You have no idea,” he mumbled. “What was that?”, she asked. “Nothing,” he quickly said. “Do you at least have somebody to help you with all of this?” “Kinda,” it wasn’t a total lie. “I guess that’s a step in the right direction.” She sighed a bit again, “I don’t know, I guess I was hoping you’d become a little more selfish over the years. Even after we broke up I was worried you were going to get swallowed up trying to do everything. Even the family rock needs somebody to lean on from time to time. Or at least somebody to rant at when it gets to him.” “Who would have bothered listening to me?” “I would have,” she told him. Both of them just looked at each other for a few silent moments. “I’ve told you that more than once. You never listened.” “I didn’t want to drive you away with my problems,” he said softly. Before she could respond he quickly changed the subject, “So how is this outfit treating you?” “Pretty good,” she said going along with it. Besides there was no point in arguing about what he did or didn’t do back then. “I haven’t regretted joining yet, although I’ve questioned an order here and there. But Captain Hawk a good man, and so are the others.” “You’re going to have to do more than that to convince me the one who shot me I the back is a good man,” he told her. The past a group of people coming around a nearby corner, several people in suits, a couple of guys in lab coats and one guy in a uniform like hers all trying to talk over each other. Ken stop and stood as Dax reacted to something. It wasn’t a monster, but it was something dark. The feeling was gone in an instant but he felt enough of it to know that it was behind him. Ken looked back at the group. It came from there he was sure of it. Jess went a few more steps before she noticed he stopped, “Is something wrong Ken?” “No,” he said snapping out of it. “Just out of curiosity am I allowed to know who those guys are? Or am I going to be held longer for seeing them?” “Who they are is pretty much on the public record,” she answered. “They guy in the uniform is Commander Jamira of Beta Team, that one scientist is Dr. Williams, he helped make our weapons. And the leader of that particular pack is Peter Brooks, the number two man on the board. The rest are various assistants and secretaries who’s name are escaping me at the moment.” “Brooks is kinda young isn’t he? He looks are age,” Ken commented. “A lot of people have said that.” Jessica told him. “But he has his father’s mind according to Richardson and the rest of the board. So the complaints stopped soon enough.” “So where’s his old man then?” “He retired a few years ago, Peter just rose through the ranks like a rocket.” She looked back at the group, “Although between you and me I’m glad I’m not in Jamira’s unit.” “He that bad of a commander?”, Ken asked. “He’s… a little too gung ho about the job,” she told hm. “And a bit abrasive too. His whole unit is like that. Let me put it this way, they probably would have hunted you down with no problem what so ever, and with a smile on their faces.” “Sounds like a fun guy. Let’s go for the hat trick while we’re at it,” Ken said casually, “how about that Williams guy?” “He’s the lead scientist around here. Like I said he created or modified our weapons and equipment. Although I have heard he’s got an idea for a super jet he’s trying to get off the ground. I don’t know a lot of the details about it. Now, do you want to keep playing twenty questions or do you want to get something to eat?” “Lead the way,” he said gesturing down the hall. She smiled and bowed a bit before they continued. Still Ken looked back one more time as that group started to break up. What was it that Dax sensed exactly? *** Breaking away from the group the Avatar tried to figure out what that feeling was. Unlike that civilian with Wade he fought hard to suppress any type of reaction. It felt like his energy in some way, but not quite. In fact it felt a lot like it was… opposite? Yes that was it. It had to belong to the giant, there was no other answer. Which meant that civilian was Ultraman. This could be a problem, he had to be extra careful now. “Now I know I should have shot the sphere instead of Richardson.” *** In the cafeteria Ken and Jess continued to catch up on things, while trying avoid talking about Jeff. Even when they were dating he was the cause of the occasional argument. Although both of them did everything to avoid talking about the breakup. If anything they could at least try and be friends now. While they talked this time Ken noticed her teammates seemed to be hovering around in the corners. At least she admitted it, “I’m really sorry about this. I think they’re trying to make sure you don’t try anything.” “Just make sure they bastard who shot me stays in my line of sight. I don’t trust him as far as could through him.” Or as far as Dax could for that matter. While he turned his head to look around she caught another look of that ponytail of his. “I have to ask, when did you decide to grow that thing?” It took him a second to realize what she was talking about. “After I got rejected from the academy. At that point I had it either shoulder length or cut. I just decided one day to let it grow out for a while.” “I don’t think I like it,” she commented. “Then it’s a good thing we’re not dating anymore because I’m kinda used to it.” From the door Hawk watched the two of them. Richardson said to not treat him like a prisoner, but he was still a person of interest according to Stanson. Despite the mixed signals that guy was still considered dangerous for some reason. Jess could take care of herself, but if this guy had anything to with those monster then he wasn’t chancing anything. Sensing somebody stand next to him he gave him a curt nod, “Mr. Richardson.” “Captain,” he returned the greeting. “I noticed Brooks is still in the building.” “He said he read that file while he was looking for me. He’s probably as curious about this guy as you are.” “My hunch, as I’m sure he called it, might be wrong.” Hawk looked at him with some confusion. “Bridge is getting a signal.” “Where and why didn’t he tell me?” “The same sector the first monster showed up in. And Patricia was in the control room when his system detected the signal. I was on my way here to get a better look at Mr. Scott over there when she told me.” “So if a monster showed up and he’s here with us watching him what does that mean exactly?” “We might have to let him go.” “Now wait a minute…,” Hawk started to protest. “We don’t have much to hold him on as it is. I having Patricia bring his belonging as we speak. I’ll take care of it Captain. You have a job to do.” His tone indicted he wasn’t going to hear anything more on the subject. Hawk was tempted to call him on it. But if that report was true than they didn’t have any time to waste. Tapping the communicator on his chest he said, “Jess, Ryo, Bill get ready to scramble.” “Understood,” Jess acknowledged. “Sorry Ken, duty calls.” “Don’t let me stop you.” After she left he wondered what kind of guard was going to be on him now. After a few minutes this old man and slightly younger woman carrying a clear plastic bag came toward him surprising him a little. “Mr. Scott,” the older man said, “I’m Harold Richardson and this is my assistant Patricia.” “Hi,” he said looking them over. “We brought your things for you.” Taking the bag could see the Spark Magnifier wasn’t in it. While Ken tried to find a way to bring that up the old man continued, “I’m afraid I’m the reason why you’re here and I apparently made a mistake in doing so. Please let me reconcile that error by escorting you home in my limo.” He was about to turn him down when Daxium spoke up in his head, “Ken go with him.” Caught off guard for a moment Ken said, “My car still by the restaurant the monster attacked. Just take me there.” “Certainly my boy, certainly. Come Patricia.” Ken watched them go for a moment before getting up. *** In the hanger Razor Wing one and two were getting prepped for launch. “Remember people,” Hawk said as he checked the targeting system, “this is just a scouting mission at this point. Bridge said there was something about the water that was making it hard to get a clear signal. But it popped up just long enough for the long range sensors to get a hit.” “And this is the same lake the first one showed up in?”, Jess asked. “That’s what he said. So be ready for anything. Quickly going through the check list both jets were ready soon green. “Razor Wing one to control,” Bill said, “we are ready to launch.” Ryo soon followed, “Razor Wing two to control, we are ready to launch.” “Acknowledged Razor Wings you are a go for launch,” Bridge told them. “Launching,” both of them said as they hit the thrusters and flew out of the hanger. Before they left a limousine had already pulled out of Castle’s garage and silently went on its way. Inside Patricia listened to a small receiver in her hear ear ad looked at Richardson sitting across from her. Ken looked out the window on the other side of the seat. “They’re underway,” she said. Richardson just nodded and they rode in silence for about a minute or so. Then he said, “So you’re the one who joined with our giant friend.” “Excuse me?”, Ken had heard him perfectly, he just wasn’t sure what to think right at that moment. “Oh it’s all right, I know all about him.” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Then you won’t be needing this then.” Richardson reached into his coat and pulled out the Spark Magnifier. Ken eyed it as he held it out for him. “Captain Hawk wanted it analyzed. I had Dr. Williams bring it to me. Go ahead, take it.” Reluctantly Ken did so, “Thanks.” “I’m pretty sure you’re going to need it sooner or later. So what’s our giant friend’s name?” Again Dax spoke up, “It’s alright Ken, he’s the one who arranged for my original host.” Still not sure what to think about this he answered, “Daxium.” “Daxium,” Richardson repeated, “A little better than the name we came up for him, wouldn’t you say so Patricia?” She answered with a simple nod as she put on a pair of glassed as she started to go through some file. “That’s why you wanted me brought in,” Ken said as it dawned on him. “It’s the only way I could do it,” Richardson said not sounding all that apologetic about it. “My son was supposed to be the one to host our giant friend. Unfortunately something killed him before they could begin the process.” “I’m sorry,” Ken told him, not sure of what else he could say. “He was supposed to be our best weapon against these giant monsters. The he died and you happened. Daxium can still be our best line of defense.” Richardson looked at him, “You can join us. You can be there every time a creature shows up and take care of it.” “You’re trying to get me to join after you had me arrested?”, Ken asked in disbelief. “It’s just a minor inconvenience on your part,” Richardson told him. Ken couldn’t believe he just heard that. “I’m giving you the chance to be something better than what you are. I’ve seen that you reapplied for the UNDF, I can make that happen.” “Ken…,” Dax said. “Daxium seems to trust you,” Ken started, “but I don’t.” That’s seemed to catch Richardson off guard. And right now Ken didn’t, not for the whole arrest thing either. There was something about Richardson that was setting off his BS alarm. “Me and Dax are doing just fine on our own. We don’t need to be part of your outfit.” Richardson turned a couple of shades of red just then. Patricia watched him to make sure he wasn’t going to make sure to make a move toward Ken. Finally he stiffly said, “The choice is yours, but the offer is still stands if you change your mind.” They rode the rest of the way in silence after that. But while Ken looked out the window Richardson sent a text to his driver while he wasn’t looking. Ken started eyeing him when he realized they drove past the exit that would take them into the idle of the city. *** “Anything?” Hawk asked as Razor Wings one and two circled the lake. “I’m not sure,” Jess answered as she went over her sensor readings. “Something flashing in and out on my sensors.” “Same here,” Hawk commented. “Bridge can you give us a clearer picture of what’s going on?” “I’m trying Captain,” was the reply. “Something about that lake is messing with the sensor reading. I thought I corrected that after the first time.” “Try correcting it now,” Hawk told him. Bridge didn’t get the chance to. Both Wings suddenly got a reading and it was get stronger. A huge geyser exploded out of the lake, “Evade!” Bill and Ryo both barely avoided it. When the water fell back into the lake in it’s place was another giant creature, with black scaly skin and claw like fingers. Gray bone like protrusions appeared at it’s elbows, knees and shoulder the most prominent being a bone like fin that crowned it’s head. It roared revealing several rows of sharp pointed teeth. “That’s coming in clear as a bell now,” Bridge said from his station back at Castle. “Launch the other units,” Hawk ordered. “We’ll hold on for as long as we can. Razor Wing one and two engage the creature.” “Rodger,” was the reply. Missile fire from both jets struck the creature. Roaring in protest and electrical charge ran up and down it’s fin. It opened it’s mouth and an electrical beam shot out. Again both Bill and Ryo had to act fast to avoid the attack. “I almost miss that rock creature,” Bill commented. “It didn’t shot or spew anything.” “Cut the chatter and concentrate,” Hawk told him. IT seemed like forever before another wave of Razor Wings showed up. Shortly after Scan Tracks appeared and took position and fired at the creature giving Wings one and two a much needed breather. It roared in protest at the new threats. Unfortunately that also meant he had more targets to unleash it’s rage on. Clipping the wing of a passing Razor Wing the fin started the fin like bone started to spark again. “All units watch out!” The warning was a little too late as the electrical beam obliterated two of the Wings before being turned to the Scan tracks. “Concentrate on the bone on it’s head!”, Hawk ordered. “We take that out we might be able to stop that ray.” “You heard the Captain,” Jamira sneered from his Scan Track. “Beta Team show Alpha Team how the real pros do it.” “God I hate that guy,” Ryo said out loud. Luckily the comm. wasn’t on. Every unit tried to target the fin but the creature seemed to sense this and avoid the assault. While this was going one a limo pulled up in the distance. Richardson and his assistant got out and watched the situation from their position. “Come on out Mr. Scott,” Richardson said after a bit. Ken reluctantly got out of the vehicle but stayed on the other side of the vehicle. “It looks like they’re doing well,” he said to Ken’s continued silence. “They might not even need our giant friend for this one. Patricia, why don’t you see if you can tune into their comm. system.” “At once Mr. Richardson,” opening his briefcase as she put it on the trunk of the limo she quickly tuned in. “… sucker is tough…,” somebody said. “… still so I can target…” “…low on missiles…,” he recognized Jess’s voice in the chaos. “Use them sparingly,” Hawk told her. “Almost got…” Richardson studied Ken the entire time. He saw him want to reach for the Spark Magnifier, looking conflicted the entire time. “What’s stopping you Mr. Scott?”, he asked innocently. “They’re holding their own,” he said, voice strained. He knew he should be letting Daxium loose. Even Dax was screaming at him to do so in his head. But he didn’t want to do it in front of Richardson for some reason, to prove he wasn’t a weapon at his beck and call if nothing else. That and despite Dax’s insistences he was ready Ken wasn’t sure if he was ready to go so soon after his last battle a few hours ago. Suddenly one of the Razor Wings took a hit from the electrical beam. “Jess! Ryo!”, Bill shouted over the line. Ken’s heart nearly stopped beating upon hearing that. “Eject!”, Hawk shouted. “Eject!” It took a second but they were able to grab the handle under their seats and shot out of the Razor Wing and deployed their chutes. The creature saw them float slowly to the ground. That was all Ken could take, running around the limo and into the field. “Mr. Scott!”, Richardson called out. He looked back at him. “Good luck, to both of you.” Ken turned back around and pulled out the Spark Magnifier out of his jacket. Holding it over his head he disappeared in a ball of light that engulfed him and that quickly turned into a gigantic column of light. Richardson just smiled to himself. *** “Shiah!”, Daxium grunted as he took a fighting stance. Ragnaron roared n challenge as it came toward him. Seeing that clawed hand come at him Daxium grabbed it and flipped the monster over his shoulder. Going in he fell back when that electrical stream shot out of his mouth. Ragnaron quickly got up and swiped those claws against the giant’s chest. Then it wrapped those clawed fingers around his neck. He pounded the monster’s arms until it let go. With a grunt he kicked him back. Ragnaron roared again and started to swing those claws at him. Daxium avoided each swing backing up the entire time. Finally the creature got frustrated and went in hard. The giant ducked down and was able to flip the creature over. Jumping on top of it Daxium started pounding at the fin on it’s head getting the same idea as Hawk. Ragnaron was still able to shoot the beam out of his mouth that Daxium quickly avoided. Being forced off the creature grabbed him and threw him near the Scan tracks. UNDF troops scrambled to get out of the way as Ragnaron prepared another blast. Daxium saw the humans as he got to a knee. Before the creature fired Daxium spread his arms, hands open. An energy shield appeared in front of him that blocked the beam and protected the human behind him. They watched for a few moments dumbstruck at what they were witnessing. The beam stopped and Daxium dropped the shield and prepared to fire off a bolt. Ragnaron reacted in pain as his scaly hide was burned by the energy blast. He ran and dove into the lake. Daxium cautiously approached the lake trying to detect where he was. Suddenly Ragnaron jumped out of the water slashing him his claws. Daxium fell to his back. Trying to get up the crystal started to flash red. Ragnaron shot him point blank with the electrical beam. “Firing missiles!”, Hawk said as Bill swooped the razor Wing in. Unleashing what was left of his payload at Ragnaron’s fin, cracking it a bit. He stopped blasting Daxium to turn toward his attacker. Daxium forced off another bolt and blasted the fin on the other side. The resulting explosion was enough to break the fin as it fell to the ground. Ragnaron thrashed around in mind numbing pain clutching at his head giving Daxium a chance to get to his feet. Facing the creature he put his hands to his chest and spread them wide drawing in energy from his surroundings. Raising his right arm and lowering his left he brought them together at the wrist the multicolored stream coming from the edge of his right hand. Ragnaron reacted for a moment before falling back into the water and exploded. Standing there for a moment he found the Razor Wing Hawk and Bill were in. Acknowledging the help with a nod he looked into the sky and flew off, “Shiah!” “Watanabe to Hawk,” Ryo said into his communicator. “Me and Jess are alright, just a little shaken up.” “That’s great to hear,” Hawk told them. “We’ll send somebody to pick you up so stay where you are. We’ll discuss what you did wrong when we get back to Castle. Hawk out.” “It could be worse,” Jess offered taking off her helmet. “He could be sending Jamira after us.” “Don’t jinx it,” Ryo told her. *** Ken reappeared after it was over and looked around. Confused he said out loud, “Dax, I know you’re a little upset with me right now, but we are close to where I set you loose right?” “This is the exact spot,” was the reply, although he seemed confused that Ken would ask that. “Then where’s Richardson?” Running back to the road he looked in both directions and saw nothing. “That son of a bitch ditched me!” Kicking a rock in frustration and heading back toward town on foot he pulled out his cell phone, it was past midnight so who the hell would be up right now. Going through his call list he found somebody who might still be awake, “Johnny? It’s Ken, I got a huge favor to ask you.” *** A few miles away Richardson and Patricia rode in silence. Messing with her glasses she studied the lens for a bit before saying, “I got it.” “Show me,” Richardson ordered. Opening her briefcase she flipped up a panel revealing a screen. Taking off one of the frame’s earpiece she plugged it into the case. Typing in a few commands the screen came to life and there was Scott right in the middle of it. Like he hoped she got a clear shot of his face when he turned around. Then he transformed into the giant. “I’ll show that bastard who needs who.” ----- ED – Shinedown –Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 6
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- It had been two days since Ken was deserted by Richardson. Even though Johnny never really asked too many questions about why he was in the middle of nowhere he still ribbed him on it in a good natured way. Of course Rose and the others quickly caught on to what was going on. Making sure Jeff wasn’t in earshot he made up a quick story for them. “I ran into a guy I knew and he convinced me to head to the park top relax for a bit after what happened. Another monster showed up and he booked it before I could get in the car.” “I don’t believe it,” Rose stated. “What’s not to believe?”, Ken asked her. “That you have friends outside of work. I’ve never seen you hang out with anybody else.” “I do have a life outside of here you know.” “You’re going to have to have a hard time proving it to me,” she told him with a grin. The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly. Then Rose went to the door and looked back into the garage, “Hey Ken!” He looked over to her, “You have a visitor of the female persuasion.” “What?”, he had no idea who this could be. He had an idea on who he hoped it would be, but that was a long shot. Going over he was surprised to see Richardson’s assistant standing there, what was her name, Patricia? “Mr. Scott,” she began, “if I may have a few moments of your time?” She looked around the garage before adding, “In private?” “Yeah sure,” he saw his boss in his office look as confused as the rest of them. “I’ll be back in a few.” Rose started grinning, “You should have told me you liked them older.” Pointing a finger in her face he told her, “Don’t start getting ideas.” “Too late,” she chimed as he followed the assistant. “They walked a few yards away from the garage to her car so they wouldn’t be overheard. Without a word she retrieved her briefcase and put it on the hood of the car. Opening it she flipped open a panel that revealed a monitor. A moment later it came on to reveal Richardson’s face. “Good day Mr. Scott, how are you today?” Crossing his arms Ken tried not to look that disgusted, “What do you want Richardson?” “Alright then,” Richardson said not looking impressed, “we’ll get straight to the point. “I’m asking you one more time to join the UNDF.” Ken nearly laughed out loud, “You had me arrested, you ditched me in middle of BFE and you expect me to jump right in? You have got to work on your recruitment pitch.” He started to leave when Richardson spoke up, “Then you leave me no choice. I’m telling you you’re joining the UNDF.” “I don’t think it works that way,” Ken told him. “Free choice and all that.” “You haven’t seen this as of yet.” Ken watched as the image on the monitor changed. He paid a little more attention when he realized that was him on the screen. That son of a bitch recorded him the other night. “Mr. Scott!”, Richardson called out in the video. Like a patsy he looked back right at him. “Good luck, to both of you.” The he disappeared in a flash of light and Daxium was there in his place. “Let me tell you how this is going to work,” Richardson said coming back on the screen, “you don’t agree to join the UNDF this footage get’s released to every media outlet within the half hour. Everybody will know who you are and what your giant little secret is.” Ken stood there seething for a bit. Finally he said, “You’re assuming I won’t blow my secret myself.” “But what about your family and friends?”, Richardson asked him. “What’s going to happen to them if this gets out? Forget the media scrutiny, what if somebody, say from my organization, starts saying you may be a biohazard to those around you?” “You mother…” “Do we have a deal Mr. Scott?”, Richardson said cutting him off sharply. Ken looked back at the garage, he could see Rose and Jeff hovering around the door. Damn it he didn’t have a choice. “Alright I’m in.” “I knew you would see it my way,” he said looking a little smug. “To prove I’m not totally heartless I am well aware that you help support your family.” Patricia handed him a piece of paper. “By my estimation that should be double what you currently make a month. I’ll let you decide what to do with it, I’ll give you a few moments to decide.” Despite how angry he was at the moment he was able to think clearly enough on what to do with it, “I want half of it into a saving account for me.” “And the other half?”, Richardson asked. “I want half of that to go to my mother and the other half to go into a trust fund for my niece.” “Fair enough, a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Scott. We’ll see you soon after you put your current affairs in order.” After the monitor was turned off he focused on Patricia, “Your boss is a real piece of shit.” “I know,” she said calmly, closing the case, “but he gets the job done.” She pulled away leaving Ken standing there. He waited a few minutes to calm down before heading back to the garage. Rose was there almost as soon as he entered the door looking concerned, “Ken, are you alright? What was that about?” “Not right now,” he told her. He headed straight for the boss’s office and closed the door behind him. “Ken what’s going on?”, he asked. Not sure how to put it the only thing he could say was, “I’m… putting in my two weeks.” “Why?” what was that about?” Still unhappy about the situation it came out a little more bitter than he intended, “Your dream for me just came true.” *** “A civilian operative?” In order to get that bastard the giant bonded with into the organization there were miles of red tape he had to get around. Richardson had Patricia look for any holes they could exploit while they were trying to discover the other half of Ultraman’s identity. It was going to be hard enough to bypass the academy, where they were going to put him was another headache just waiting in the wings. So much so he almost couldn’t believe it when the board practically dropped the solution right in his lap. And seeing where he was planning on placing Scott Hawk’s reaction was pretty much what he expected. “What kind of bullshit is this?” “It’s something a couple members of the board cooked up without my knowledge,” Richardson explained as he sat behind his desk. “It’s supposed to make the UNDF look more relatable somehow. They explained it but it went over my head, you know how people think these days. It was already popular with roughly eighty percent of the board by the time I heard about it, otherwise I would have shut it down.” Yes it was a bold face lie, but he tried to appease the Captain a bit. “You could still shoot it down,” Hawk insisted a bit. “True but I thought it would make an interesting experiment.” “So any yahoo off the street…?” “Please Captain give me some credit,” he cut him off seeing he was trying to build up a head of steam. “Even the idiots who came up with this weren’t that stupid. In fact they pitched as a second chance program. In case some qualified person fell through the cracks somehow. As it stands,” Richardson slid a folder across the desk to Hawk, “I already have a candidate in mind.” As he read over the file he correctly guessed the Captain’s reaction yet again. “What the hell is this? You had us bring this Scott character in now he’s signing up? Wait, he’s blackmailing you isn’t he? He doesn’t want money he wants this?” “And we have a team of lawyers ready to ground him into dust if that was the case,” Richardson told him. “Actually he had to be convinced to take the offer. He’s almost as stubborn as you in that aspect.” Hawk wisely didn’t take the bait, “So why him?” “Honestly he reapplied to the academy, which tells me he wants in. Since it took some convincing he wants to do it the right way and not take a short cut.” “So what did it take to get him to take it?” “That’s between me and him Captain.” “Then why did you have us bring him in?” “I wanted to size him up personally, see how he would react to different stressful situations.” As an afterthought he added, “I know I should have told you this sooner but I wanted you and your men’s action to be authentic.” Hawk just stared at him dumbstruck, “You wasted our time and resources…? I don’t buy it. There has to be more than to this ‘civilian operative’ business than that. What’s really going on?” “There’s no big conspiracy Captain,” Richardson said, mainly to get some time to think. “It’s just politics mainly. They backed away when I wanted to leave Ultraman alone for the time being. So I agreed to something of theirs. Just to keep them happy more or less.” Something flashed across Hawk’s face that grabbed his attention, “Do you have a problem with what I just said Captain?” “No,” he said slowly, “but Joe said something similar when he finally agreed to accompany you as a bodyguard. Good day sir,” with that he started to leave. “Do you blame me for Joseph’s death,” he asked out loud. “I’m not assigning blame to anybody,” Hawk told him without turning around. “I just want to know what the hell happened to him. He faced him, “It doesn’t matter if you think I deserve to know or not, but his teammates deserve to know.” “I guess you’re right,” Richardson turned around in his chair. “I guess you can blame me after all. I wanted to see our soldiers in action, overriding Joseph objections in the process. Once we got there I foolishly got out of the car dragging Joseph along the way. He convinced me to stay in a spot he considered safe.” He was quiet for a moment as he relived the death of his only child. “Then a stray blast from that creature… He died because of a foolish old man Captain. You can tell Alpha Team that if you want.” There was a long uncomfortable silence after that. “He died from a stray blast,” Hawk said after a bit. “That’s all they need to know.” “Thank you Captain,” Richardson said. As he was leaving he spoke up again, “From the files Mr. Bridge have been downloading it seems you have been studying this Ultraman. Keep it up in case my hunch about him is wrong.” Hawk nodded before he left the office. Richardson leaned back into his chair, sometimes politics included spinning enough of the truth into a story for people to stop looking into it. *** There were several messages on his machine as he got ready to leave. There were two that he stopped and listened to while he was packing his bags. The first was from Rose, “Hi Ken, just wanted to say goodbye one more time and good luck. I know you’re going to do great, just don’t forget about the rest of us. Otherwise I’ll have to hunt you down and hurt you. Bye.” The other was from Jeff, “I can’t believe you’re abandoning us. You heard the boss, you’re the only reason why that dump is still open. What about the rest of us huh? What are we supposed to do? What about your niece you selfish son of a…” There was a brief argument with Janet over what he was saying before the call ended. One more time he had to ask, how was he related to him again? While he had some sort of quarters waiting for him at UNDF headquarter, Castle he thought they called it he had the option to have a living space off base, which allowed him to keep his apartment. Which was kind of a kind of a good thing because now he wouldn’t have to explain why he kept the picture taped to his mirror if Jess accidently saw it. Slinging the bag over shoulder he locked the door behind him and went down to his car and drove away. Pulling up to the main gate he showed the temp ID they gave him to the guard so he could get in. Looking at the main building in the day light made him relive some of the excitement from a few years ago when he first got accepted. That quickly went away when he remembered why he was here now. Finding a spot he was directed to a person who gave him a packet with the rules and regulations and such. Inside he also found two slips of papers, one was his quarters which he quickly located and threw his bag in. Because the second had where he was supposed to meet his new chief and crew. Heading toward the lower levels where all the vehicles were he tried to find the room numbers on the paper. Having no luck what so ever he walked to a guy going over something on a clipboard. “Can you give me a hand for a sec, I can’t find this room number.” He looked at it and him strangely, “I would say so, you got to go up ten floors or so.” “Ten floors?” Ken looked at the paper again, “That’s really far from the garage. Is management up there or something?” “Or something,” the guy said looking really amused about something before walking away. Finding the elevator he looked over a directory until he found the floor he was supposed to go and hit the button. Once there he was still lost as he had no idea where to go and didn’t see a “you are here” map anywhere. So he asked for some directions again. Once or twice he find somebody helpful, “You go down that corridor, take a right at the third hallway you pass…”, that sort of thing. But mainly he got some annoyed looks and a, “Oh, it’s you,” before they walked off. It didn’t take him long to figure out why either. “Dax from now on I decided who in the hell we trust.” Finally he found the room after about ten minutes of searching. Heading in he saw a conference room of some sort. He also saw who was waiting inside. Taking a step back into the hallway the door closed in front of him. Ken looked at the slip of paper again to make sure he read it right. Even going so far as to turn it over in case he was holding it upside down. No he had the right room all right. Stepping into the room again he saw he didn’t see things the first time. He stood there looking at Jess and her teammates as they looked right back at him. “Oh hell no.” “Hey civilian nobody we didn’t want who’s being forced on to us,” Bill said looking really unhappy right then. Ken returned the look, “Hey bastard who shot me in the back.” As he walked to the back of the room a guy he hadn’t seen before with the tag Bridge on his jacket stared at him, “How long is your hair?” “Longer than it was yesterday, shorter than what it’ll be tomorrow,” he snapped off as he leaned against the back wall. Of course Jess wouldn’t look at him, but from what he could see she didn’t look all that happy about this either. Hawk came into the room saying, “I see our newest member finally decided to arrive. “I’ll make this quick. That man over there is Nathan Bridge, our computer expert. Bill Waters and Ryo Watanabe, our best pilots. You already know Jessica Wade, who by the way is our top marksmen. And I’m Gabriel Hawk, leader of Alpha Team. Or as they call us around here Monster Squad. Alpha Team, this is our new… civilian operative, Ken Scott.” Nobody made the attempt to even pretend to exchange pleasantries. “Well then,” Hawk coughed, “let’s get this meeting started then.” “Wait,” Bill curt in, “not everybody is seated yet.” All eyes went to Ken who was still standing against the wall. “There’s no other chair,” he said. “Well get you a chair for next time,” Hawk said. “Captain,” Ryo spoke up, “you said the meeting never starts until everybody is seated.” “Yeah,” Bill agreed, “if the civilian wants to be part of this he better find a seat or get out of the room.” Jess shot Bill a look but said nothing. Ken looked around the room not wanting to give them the satisfaction. Locating a waste paper basket, he picked it up, dumped the contents on top of Bill’s head then went to the end of the table and sat on top of it. “Happy?”, Ken asked. Hawk looked real tired all of the sudden, “If you’re done hazing the new guy…” “We haven’t begun hazing the new guy,” Bill said looking right at him as he got the trash off of him. Ken mouthed the words, “Bring it.” Hawk still looked tired. *** After the meeting Hawk told Ken to meet him in another room. This one turned out to be a more high tech conference room without any chairs. Hawk stood on one side of the table in the middle of the room and gestured that he should stand on the other side. Both of them stood there and sized the other man up. Hawk began with, “Obviously we started off on the wrong foot.” Ken wisely kept his mouth shut. “But we are a team. And a team has to be able to be able trust each other, that means no secrets. So I’m only going to ask you this once, what did Richardson offer to get you to agree to this?” Ken looked at him for a long time. He apparently didn’t know the real reason why Richardson forced him to do this. Maybe if he told the Captain why he was her he might find a way to help him get out of this mess. But that wouldn’t stop Richardson from releasing the tape. Instead he said, “He’s helping me set up my paycheck to help out my mom and my niece.” “Is that it?”, Hawk asked not looking convinced. “Because from what I’ve seen you’re not being paid what the rest of us are. In fact it’s lower than the a grunt.” Why was he not surprised? “If he didn’t offer that I would have never agreed to this. I was waiting for my rejection letter when you guys cornered me.” “If you were so sure you’d get rejected why reapply?” “My boss wouldn’t get off my back about it. I figured after I got the letter he’d let it go. Obviously that didn’t work out the way I thought it would.” Hawk nodded a bit before changing the subject, “Is there any particular reason why you headed for one of the hangers first?” “If you were a mechanic where would you think they’d put you?” “Good point.” Hawk put a file with his name on it on the table and slid it to him, “So how good of a mechanic are you?” “Well I’m pretty modest, but everybody else I’ve worked with says they haven’t seen an engine I couldn’t figure out in no time.” Hawk nodded again, slowly this time, “Makes sense, because according to your academy file there you are highly adept at all thing mechanical. I believe the term they used was ‘genius’.” “What?”, Ken opened the file and quickly looked through it. “You have to be kidding. I’m just a just a grease jockey.” “Scott I don’t kid about things like that,” Hawk told him. “I’ll be up front with you, that is the only reason why I’m not protesting this all that much. Hell son if it wasn’t for that thing that originally disqualified you you’d probably be running a department by now.” Ken read the file as he listened, only to stop listening when he found the part Hawk was talking about, “A genius?” “Scott!”, Hawk barked. Ken gave him his full attention. “I will give you a chance to prove Richardson’s hunch about you right, more than what I was going too originally. So I suggest you don’t do anything to prove either of us wrong.” Still stunned Ken could only say, “I’ll try not to.” “I know it’s a lot to take in,” Hawk said with a little more understanding, “and you’ve been thrown into the deep end so to speak. This is Alpha Team’s war room for the lack of a better term. This is where we plan our attack strategies, in case we get sufficient warning. But mainly we use it to go over our mission, see what we did wrong or what we can improve on. What I want you to do right now is to go over the basic equipment data. The table will give you a holographic image to refresh your memory.” “I guess this is where I say yes sir?” “Since this your first day I’ll put that down to inexperience,” Hawk smirked as he took the file. “I’ll have somebody give you a better tour of the place and set you up with your gear. But study the things I’ve highlighted first as a refresher, but you can look at anything that doesn’t seem familiar.” Leaving the room he added, “I should tell you now there might be situations where things will rest squarely on your shoulders.” The door closed as Ken muttered, “What else is new.” He scrolled down the list, so far a few of the names were ringing a bell or two, so he mentally put them on the back burner for the time being. Looking at the things he wasn’t familiar with something near the end of the list caught his attention, “Ultraman?” Surprisingly he had access to that file and pulled it up. Watching as the image formed over the table he was soon greeted by a familiar sight, “Oh boy.” *** Now this was an unexpected development. Apparently his masters tried to push a monster threw decades ago. When they first discovered this world they rushed into breaking the phase and sent it in immediately. Of course they didn’t have a clue about what would happen once it crossed over. It took some doing but he finally located the remains of the creature. In fact it became sort of a local legend in the nearby town he found it in. Antlar they called it, his master had a name for it but they forgotten it. But not totally since they provided the means to revive it. “You come to see Antlar.” An old raggedy looking man came out of the woods. The Avatar couldn’t help but to noticed that he said more of a statement than an actual question. “What gave me away?”, he asked playing along, well aware of that rifle in his hands. “Nobody comes up here unless they want to see it,” he spat. “And they never listen because they don’t know how lucky they are.” “And why is that?” “I saw that thing come out of a hole in the sky!”, he snapped. The Avatar kept quiet, could it be possible this old fool saw him emerge from a portal. “But nobody believed old Zeke. I saw the creature come out of a hole in the sky. It used some sort of beam to suck in a plane.” “Then what happened?” “The creature started thrashing around like God himself was trying to strike it down. It tried to dig itself back to hell. Then there was a flash then that was it. The authorities said it was a natural phe… pheo… thing. But Zeke saw, I told them. But nobody believed old Zeke, said I was sick in the head.” “I believe you,” the Avatar told him. “In fact I’m here to bring him back to life so he can finish the job he was sent her for.” “An animal that big will destroy the town,” Zeke exclaimed. “That one and several others, that is the idea after all.” The old man pointed that rifle at him. Getting a good look at it now the Avatar doubted it would even fire, not that it could harm him in any case. “Old Zeke won’t let you. I’ve seen that thing and I won’t let you.” The Avatar raised a hand that was crackling with dark energy. Zeke back away, the end of the rifle starting to shake, “What are you.” “A superior being,” the Avatar simply said. “If it makes you feel any better I was going to kill you any way. I can’t have anybody knowing what I look like.” Old Zeke barely had time to flinch as the energy beam struck him, he didn’t have time to scream. In moments all that was left was the remains of the rifle and a charred skeleton. “Trust me Zeke I probably put you out of everybody else’s misery.” Going up the trail he found what he was looking for, a segment of the mountain that looked a bit different from the rest. It was a very slight difference but he could see it even after all these years. He could even feel the remains of dark energy that still remained in the area. Holding his hands close together dark energy swirled between until ball of energy formed. Looking like a dark diamond it flew forward and hovered over the ground. A beam came from it as it started burrowing into the ground. Before long he felt the dark traces grew stronger and he smiled. *** The person Hawk sent to give him the tour and gear him up turned out to be Ryo. A quick conversation revealed that it was the same guy he went to the academy with. And they were pretty friendly back then, well before the flight simulator, so Ken felt comfortable enough to say, “So you drew the short straw?” “Bill was a little too eager to volunteer,” he said “So Jess suggested I might be a good compromise. Come on the Captain said to hook you up with the basic equipment.” “Does it involve getting what you’re wearing?” “Sorry civilian, but you’re going to have to earn one of these, just like everybody else.” “Civilian? Dude that hurts.” “The truth usually does,” Ryo told him. “Come on, the equipment and weapon bay is this way.” After that little remark small talk was kept to a bare minimum. Going down a couple of floors, and a couple of dirty looks in his direction, they hit that bay. More people saw him and turned away. Jess was in there too, she glanced at him before returning her attention to the firing range. “What you need is over here.” Walking up to a table he saw a wrist scanner. “I recognize this from the academy,” Ken said picking one up and looking it over. “Not a whole lot has changed since then,” Ryo explained as he strapped it around his wrist. “It still does thermal, infrared and various other scans. But they improved the radar since then, even added a link to the Scan Tracks’ sensor package.” “Interesting,” Ken said trying to sound interested, but once he heard Scan Track he started thinking about what’s under the hood. And how fast he could get elbow deep in one. Ryo pointed to another table. Ken followed him and raised an eyebrow when he saw what was on it. “I get a gun?” “Civilian operative or not Captain Hawk wants you to be able to defend yourself. None of us are going to babysit you out in the field.” “I can’t get a uniform but I get a gun?”, he was having a hard time wrapping his head around that one. Ignoring the statement Ryo continued, “Your weapon has variable power setting, stun to kill. We mainly keep it on stun since it’s not supposed to hurt.” “You wanna bet?”, Ken asked. Coughing a bit he went on, “They added one feature though.” Taking the gun back he tossed him a helmet, “Put it on and lower the visor. Doing so he watched Ryo press something by the trigger. A targeting reticule popped up in his vision after a moment. Ryo moved the barrel around and the reticule followed it’s movements. “That’s cool,” Ken said as he took the helmet off. “There’s a targeting sensor in the barrel of the gun,” Ryo explained. “There’s a bit of a lag, especially after the guns been fired, but not enough to cause any real trouble.” About then Jess took aim and fired off round of shoots at the target in front of her. They watched as all her shots hit the heart of the man shaped target. Ken let out a low whistle, praying that wasn’t him in her mind. “Of course some of us don’t need the sensor at all,” Ryo remarked. Leaning in he said, “Just a word of warning, don’t mess with that woman.” “I used to date her,” Ken shot back, “I’m well aware of that fact.” “Captain Hawk to Alpha team,” Ken heard over Ryo’s communicator. “Get to the war room.” Jess and Ryo both acknowledged the call and ran out of the room. Ken followed saying, “Am I getting one of those at least?” “We’re working on it,” Ryo called back. *** Hawk watched them enter the room, somewhat impressed Scott decided to join them, at least he was being serious about this. But the others were still giving him a wide berth. One step at a time he reminded himself. “We had an interesting call from a town a few miles from here.” A map showed over the table highlighting the area. “For some reason airplanes have been sucked down from the sky according to witnesses.” “How long has this been going on?”, Jess asked. “It started a couple of hours ago,” he answered. “And the pull has been getting stronger since they first noticed it. Usually we’d send in a scout team but I volunteered us since it seemed like the perfect situation to break in Scott here. Jess you go with Bill in Razor Wing one for this one. Ryo you’re flying with Ken in Wing two.” Hawk watched as Scott blanched a bit. Jess looked at him and winced and Ryo dropped his head. Slowly raising his hand Scott asked, “I don’t suppose I can take one of those Scan Tracks or something?” “I already sent the Tracks out,” Hawk informed him, “they should be there by the time you arrive. And we travel as a unit Mr. Scott, no exceptions. Is that understood?” “Yes sir,” he said holding his stomach. “Keep your eyes close,” Jess told him on the way out. “Like you used to do on the Ferris Wheel.” “This better not be the simulator all over again,” Ryo muttered. Scott said nothing as the door closed. Given his condition Hawk would have complied with his request normally. But he needed to know how much of a handicap his condition actually was. *** In the hanger both jets were prepared. Ken hit his check list quickly trying to keep his mind off the situation. In front of him Ryo was trying not to think of the simulator as well. “It’s just a short flight Ken,” he said, “so keep it in until then. I don’t want to be wearing your barf again.” “Short flight… right.” Ken put on his helmet, unfortunately that put his mind back on what was happening. “Ah Ryo…?” “I had them put a couple under your seat.” Reaching under it he found two white sealable bags, “Thanks. Ryo…?” Without a word he handed back a third one, “Thanks.” “Razor Wing one to control, we are ready to launch,” Ken heard over the speaker. “Oh God,” he said before squeezing his eyes shut. In front of him Ryo tried not to sound worried as he said, “Razor Wing two to control, we are ready to launch.” “Acknowledge Razor Wings you are go for launch.” The jets shot forward and Ken forcibly swallowed the contents of his stomach back down. The short flight seemed to take an eternity for Ken. Finally heard Ryo speak to him, “We’re approaching the target area. Scan Tracks haven’t picked anything up yet. So we have to look for anything suspicious so I need you to open your eyes. I’ll keep the Wing as steady as I can but I need you to do your job.” “Right,” he answered. Opening his eyes he kept them focuses on the controls in front of him. Taking several deep breaths he slowly looked out and saw the ground below. Then he promptly threw up in one of the bags. “Two seconds longer than I thought it would take,” Ryo said attempting a joke. Ken smiled weakly as he wiped off his mouth. “Concentrate on the task at hand,” Hawk ordered from Castle’s control center. “Bridge says you’re close.” “You should almost be right on top of it Wing one,” Bridge said as he monitored the situation. Almost a split second later Razor Wing one was caught in a vortex that came out of nowhere. “Holy shit!”, Bill tried to regain control as the jet just spun in the air. “I can’t see where it’s coming from!”, Jess called out. Ken did, “By the…,” he swallowed hard to keep down another round from escaping his stomach. “Mountains,” he lowered his head and pointed. “By the mountains!” “I see it,” Ryo said as he brought the Wing around. “Ken I can’t I can’t keep her steady and target it at the same time. I need you to focus on the screen and block out everything else, got it?” “Yeah,” he said trying to do just that., eyes looking at nothing else but the screen in front of him. Putting the crosshairs at the base of the vortex he fired a couple of missiles. The explosion was enough to disrupt the vortex and Bill quickly regained control and get out of there. “Great shooting man,” Ryo told him. “Is civilian even authorized to fire those things,” Bill asked. Jess reached over and smacked him in the back of the head, “He just saved our asses.” “He is now,” Hawk told him. “We got movement,” Jess called out. Three of them watched as the ground started to break revealing a giant, dark brown head with a huge set of pinchers. The creature screamed and the vortex formed again from it’s mouth capturing both jets. And Ken lost his lunch again. “It’s stronger now!” Bill exclaimed. “The controls are doing nothing!” “Same here!”, Ryo said. “We’re being pulled backwards! I can’t get us loose!” “Eject!”, Hawk ordered. “Ken!”, Ryo called out. “I’m looking right at it!”, he said. All of them pulled the levers and shot out of there shot out of their jets. It was enough to get them out of the vortex as the Razor Wings smashed together. The vortex stopped and the creature ignored them as it freed itself from the ground reveal an armored bipedal feature. The Scan Tracks started firing as soon as they got it in their sights. Alpha Team and Ken hit the ground as his stomach threatened to give away again. “I just had to tell Richardson yes,” he muttered as he got it under control. “Waters to Castle,” Bill said into his communicator. “We’re all fine, but civilian looking a little green.” “Head to town and help with the evacuations,” Hawk told them. “Back up’s on the way.” “Rodger,” Bill said. Then he and the others looked at Ken. “I’m on solid ground, I’m good,” he said reading the silent question in their faces. None of them looked like they believed him. But they didn’t have time to argue and ran for the town with Ken right behind them. *** And this was the amount of chaos Ken was expecting with that creature nearby being distracted by the Scan Tracks. Dax was yelling at him again but with Ryo right there he couldn’t get away. Of course he was having a hard enough time getting the towns people to listen to him. “Evacuation is that way!”, he told a group. They kept on doing what they’re doing. “Yo I’m talking to you!”, again they ignored him as they tried to back everything they owned in that small truck of theirs. “Hey!” “You!”, Ryo called out pointing right at them. To him they listened. “You heard this man, take what you got and get to the evacuation area now!” They did as he said with no questions asked. Ryo looked at him before looking elsewhere. “This would go a little easier if I had a uniform,” he told him. “And I told you that you had to earn it first,” Ryo shot back. “Hawk to Alpha Team and other units, Calvary is coming in about five seconds.” Ken and Ryo looked up at the sound of engines of the incoming Razor Wings. A few moments later more Scan Tracks could be seen coming into view. “So now what?”, Ken asked. “We keep looking for civilians,” Ryo answered. “Other than yourself.” “Oh ha-ha,” Ken told him. “Ryo,” Hawk spoke up. “I’m sending a Scan Track to your location. Scott can keep looking for civilians I need you to help coordinate the attack from the ground in case it uses that vortex again.” “Understood,” Ryo replied. Taking his communicator off his jacket he handed it to Ken. “Keep in touch with this and keep looking for stragglers.” “Right,” Ken said. A Scan Track pulled up and Ken ran off. Keeping an eye on the scanner on his arm he’d look up every so often to see how the attack was going. Like Hawk thought it tried using the vortex again against the Wings. Those not stuck in the field fired at it to try and free those that were as well as the Tracks. From where Ken was it didn’t look it was doing a lot of damage. “Look for others,” he reminded himself. Going a few blocks he wasn’t picking up any other life signs in the area that he could see. “Scott to Ryo,” he said not really sure what to do. “My area’s clear so far.” “Scott this is Hawk,” he got in reply. “Jess and Bill reported the same thing. They jumped into a Track and went to help out with the battle. I want you to head to the evacuation area.” “Captain…”, Ken started to protest. Maybe he didn’t want to be part of this but now that he was he wanted to do his part. “That’s an order Scott. You’re not trained for this situation. You’ll be better off there.” “Yes sir,” he said. Turning off the communicator he looked at the creature. He could believably be a few minutes late getting to the evacuation area. Without a second thought he reached in his jacket for the Spark Magnifier and held it over his head. *** “Shiah!” Daxium took a fighting stance as Antlar looked in the other direction. Running in he jumped up and hit a flying kick to his back. Antlar stumbled forward a bit before looking back at his attacker Daxium ducked under those pinchers as it came at him and punched him in the stomach. He swung his head suddenly catching Daxium in the side with one of those pinchers that knocked him to the ground, The giant quickly kicked the monster back as it tried to get on top of him. They circled each other after getting on their feet. Daxium went low, grabbing the monster’s leg and knocking it to the ground. He pounded Antlar’s body but it’s hide was tougher than it looked, He was so intent on pounding the creature into submission he failed to notice those pinchers open up and the head raise up. Clamping down on his neck Daxium struggled to free himself before Antlar tossed him off. Getting to a knee he fired off a bolt as Antlar stood. It stumbled back from the impact giving him enough time to get to his feet and jump up for another flying kick. Grabbing those pinchers he kicked away at the monster gut trying to weaken something on it. Antlar started swinging his head again. Daxium tried to hand on but he was eventually flung off. Landing with a ground shaking thud he watched as Antlar dove for the ground and burrowed in faster than he thought possible. “Where did he go?”, Jess asked from her Scan Track. “I’m not seeing it on sensors,” Bridge said. Daxium looked around as he cautiously moved forward. Looking down as the ground under his feet started to vibrate. Antlar’s head came up right under and knocked him to the ground. As he got back up he looked for the creature but it went underground again. Concentrating on trying to feel where the creature might be he failed to notice it emerge from the ground behind him. “Look out!” Jess shouted. Daxium looked at her but it was too late. Antlar created the vortex and caught him. He struggled as he was pulled backwards. The pinchers clamped down on him, digging into his left shoulder causing the giant to grunt in pain. Light started pouring down his shoulder as Antlar pierced his skin while it tried to crush him. Hawk ordered for all units to assist Ultraman but it was having no effect. The jewel started to flash as he was able to free his arms enough to slam his forearms together and hold them out going into Power mode. Grabbing the pinchers he slowly started pulling them apart. Then with a deep grunt he threw Antlar over his head and away from the town. The creature felt it this time as he slammed a foot into his gut. Grabbing one of the pinchers he broke it by pounding hi other hand on it. Pounding him repeatedly on the head Daxium grabbed him, picked him up over his head and threw him. Seeing him crash he put his fist by the jewel and started drawing in energy. Scan Tracks in the area started backing up as fast as they could as he pulled the fist back and slammed it into the ground. The energy wave ripped up the ground as it slammed into Antlar. Moments later the monster exploded. Daxium took a moment to heal his wound before flying off, “Shiah!” *** “There he is,” Bill pointed out as they got to the evacuation area. Ken sat on the hood of a truck as he waved at them. Ryo pulled up a moment later as they got out. “Hey civilian, what did you think of that warm up?” “About the same as the first one I got caught in,” he said hopping off. “It sucked balls.” “Ken,” Jess spoke up, “thanks for the save.” “It was just a lucky shot,” he said trying to shrug it off. “So how are we getting back to Castle?” “We’re taking the Tracks,” Ryo told him. “Clean up will come for what’s left of Wings one and two. Good thing you’re a mechanic, you’re going to be busy for quite a while,” he joked as he slapped Ken’s left shoulder. He fought hard to keep the pain off his face. “I think we got room…,” Bill started to say as he pointed toward his and Jess’s Scan Track. “Ryo got more room in his Track than we do,” Jess quickly said. “Ken can ride with him.” “Sure,” Ken said trying to figure that reaction out. Bill and Ryo shrugged as they headed for their respected Scan Tracks. Ken took that free moment to grab his shoulder and grimace a bit from the pain. He didn’t notice Jess caught him. She was confused but didn’t say anything to the others. ----- ED - Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 7
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- For a high tech place Ken was silently complaining at how cold this particular room was. Shirtless and sitting on some sort of exam table he endured the “doctor’s” examination of the red welts on his shoulder. Of course this examination consisted more of poking at those welts more than anything else which sent a brand new wave of pain through his arm with each one. Something he should have seen coming when Jess told him who he was during his first “visit” here. Finally there was one poke too many and he snapped, “Don’t you have something to build?” Williams took a step back and said, “Mr. Richardson wanted you examined after each battle.” “Can’t he get a ‘doctor’ doctor to do this?” “Outside of Richardson and his assistant I’m the only other person who knows about you and Ultraman, or Daxium as you call him. So please bear with me, I don’t like this any more than you do.” “Just remember I’m not a lab rat.” He poked his shoulder again, “Is that all you can do?” Williams went to poke it more time and Ken slapped the finger away, “Quit it.” “How does the damage he takes affect you?” he asked rubbing his finger. “I’ve seen footage of you after a couple of battles, you seem to be in pain.” “It depends on the damage Dax takes,” he answered grabbing his shirt on put it on trying to protect his shoulder. “If he’s just hit I’m feeling it for an hour or so later. If it’s anything like the last time something pierced his skin I’m going to be feeling it for a couple of days.” “Interesting,” Williams muttered. “And you say he’s somewhere inside you? We did a full scan on you when you were brought in, they didn’t show anything.” “He’s really good at hiding,” he said annoyed that they did that while he was out cold. “Is that all I got things to do.” He wasn’t sure what exactly, but he knew it involved something far away from here as possible. “Just one more thing,” Williams said, “more out of curiosity than anything else. Does this Daxium have any names for his weapons?” “Oh come on I want to get out of here,” Ken whined. “Just humor me please, then you can go.” “Oh all right,” Ken sighed in disgust. Williams went to a computer, and after first pulling up a picture with a lamp shade on top of his head, from New Years apparently, he showed a video of Daxium finishing off a monster with his arms crossed at the wrist. Ken looked like he was elsewhere for a moment before saying, “Dimensional Strom Ray.” Getting a strange look on his face he turned his head and whispered, “Really?” “How should I know?”, Williams said before he realized what he just witnessed. Getting really excited as it dawned on him he exclaimed, “You’re talking to him? That’s nucking futs!” Too stunned to do anything but blink he eventually went, “Nucking futs, you… really just said that?” “Never mind that let’s keep going,” he said going back to the computer. He showed footage of Daxium doing the move that drained a lot of his energy, “The whip was the light flash mixed in with the Hyper speed run.” Next was when he wrapped the whip around the creature and created that surge, “Light Stream.” Then he showed him in his red form pulling back his fist, “He already told me that one, it’s called the Giga Wave.” After was an image of him pulling his hands to his side, “Flash bolt,” and one of that jagged ring he formed, “Hyper Saw.” “Excellent, now if…” Ken cut him off, “What did I say about being a lab rat?” “How does your giant friend feel about going on?” Ken got that far away look again before saying, “He says if you don’t let us out of here right now he will find a way to step on you.” “No he didn’t,” Williams protested. Ken’s only response was to raise an eyebrow slightly. Suddenly feeling unsure of himself Williams backed up and conceded, “All right you can go.” “Thanks doc, don’t say it hasn’t been fun, because it hasn’t.” Making sure the Spark Magnifier was still in his possession he left the room as fast as he could. “I did not say that,” Daxium said in his head. “He don’t know that.” Ken looked back as Williams left the room and headed in the other direction. “Anything?” Daxium’s answer was a simple, “No.” Frowning a bit he muttered, “Wasn’t him then.” *** Dinner was more of the same as Ken silently watched from his table as everybody gave him more space then was necessary. Some people doubled up at some tables to avoid sitting with the “civilian”. Ryo was the only person who seemed to greet him, yet he still sat elsewhere. Looking at what was left on his tray and realizing he wasn’t that hungry any more he dumped it in the trash. Leaving the cafeteria he ignored the looks some of them were giving him. Man, this was more and more like high school before he started dating Jessica. Speaking of there she was coming around the corner. She saw him and quickly went in the other direction. What the hell? “Jessica wait up.” When he caught up to her she stiffly said, “Can I help you civilian?” “Don’t start with the civilian bullshit,” he said getting in front of her. “What is going on?” She walked past him saying, “What makes you think something is going on?” “How you’re acting for one,” he said following her. “I brought here against my will and you act like it’s the old days. But now that I’m here voluntarily,” more or less, mainly less, “you’re acting like I ran over your cat.” “Just tell me one thing,” said facing him. “Just tell how much talking did you have to do to get Richardson to place you on Alpha Team?” “Is that what this is about?”, he asked. “Look I don’t know what kind of pull you think I had in this situation but I’m a mechanic. I thought they were going to put me in the garage or the hanger or the motor pool or whatever the hell you call them around here. Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would put me in a field unit, much less this one.” Snorting he added, “And my dreams could get pretty wild.” “I remember,” she said almost, almost, smiling but managed to keep a straight face. “So you didn’t weasel your way onto Alpha Team because I’m on it?” He stopped and stared at her “What?” “Is you being this self centered a relatively new thing or did I just not notice when we were dating?” “I haven’t seen you in years, suddenly we’re bringing you in then you’re a team member. What am I supposed to think?” Ken had a response but kept it to himself remember some arguments they had in the past, so he just shrugged his shoulders. They continued walking as she said, “Captain Hawk asked me about the reason you gave him for agreeing to join, you trying to help your mom and niece.” “What did you tell him?” She hesitated a bit before saying, “I said that sounded like you to a tee. He seemed a little surprised I backed up your story, but then again I know you.” “At least somebody around here is on my side, somewhat. Oh speaking of my niece,” he pulled out and opened his wallet, “I said I’d show you a picture of her.” “She’s a cutie,” Jess said taking the picture from him. “Yeah, fortunately she looks more like Janet then Jeff,” he joked. “Maybe she’ll be a genius like her uncle,” she said with a sly smile. “You heard about that huh?”, Ken said taking back the picture. “The Captain mentioned it off hand.” “You should have seen the file.” He quoted what he read, “Genius level aptitude at anything mechanical. There had to be a mistake made somewhere,” he said. “That had to be for somebody else and it got into my file by accident.” “Wait,” Jess stopped him, “you actually don’t think you’re that smart?” His only answer was “It’s me, plain ol’ Ken Scott. There nothing special about me” Outside of the alien giant from another dimension. “And that’s Jeff talking,” she told him. “Everybody else knew how smart you are. Why did you think my dad offered to help you pay for college?” “I thought he was trying to get me as far away from you as possible.” “Well probably that too,” she did smile that time. Looking around a bit she said, “I guess I should officially welcome you to the team.” “That would be nice, you’re pretty much stuck with me until the higher ups in charge change their minds. Or until I kick Water’s ass. Whichever comes first.” “I’ll make sure to look the other way. Friends?”, she extended a hand. He took it, “Friends. But no privileges, I have a reputation to maintain.” “You are not all that,” she told him. “That’s not what you were saying back in high school.” “I was taking pity on you.” *** “Morning Harold,” Brooks said as he passed him in the garage. Richardson told Patricia to head on without him as he stopped. Still as his bodyguard she hovered near an entrance and watched them. “Lovely day isn’t it?” “Yes it is,” he agreed. “Is that why you’re apparently calling it an early day Peter? It’s not even eight o’clock yet.” “My Father’s secretary just called a few minutes ago,” the younger Brooks answered. “Apparently somebody is trying to force a merger behind his back. Since he’s still out of town I intend to stop it before it goes too far.” “Yes, Stanley said something about it over the phone while I was on my way here. Well if you’re as much like your father like I think you are the poor bastards won’t know what hit them.” “Thanks Harold,” he laughed, “hopefully I’ll live up to his reputation. While I have a few minutes how is your little experiment going? I heard he had quite the interesting first day on the job.” “Apparently, Hawk said to me last night he was going to start training him properly today with the engineer final they came up with a few years ago.” “Yes Hawk mentioned to me as well,” Peter said. “I believe he said Scott eyes lit up a bit when he heard about it last night. He wasn’t sure why though.” “Who can tell with people now a days. Well give them hell Peter, I won’t feel sorry for them.” Shaking hands they headed in opposites directions. *** One more time Ryo showed Ken where he had to go. Any other day he might have complained about the beds around here. Seriously, an HQ this advanced they could only get mattresses that felt like concrete? But not today, he was more than ready for what was coming. He almost knocked over Ryo when he pointed out the room he was going to. Inside he saw an man who looked less than pleased to be there. Wearing the same uniform as the others he had a tool belt around his waist. Next to him was some king of control panel with an access plate that was open. Ken started salivating a little as Ryo made sure he didn’t run toward it, “Give him a chance to start it man.” “So this is the civilian,” he said looking Ken over, not hiding the fact he was unimpressed. “I’m Chief Marcus Albright, head of the engineering divisions. If you are going to work on the vehicles around here you’re going to have to go through me. Now Captain Hawk, for some reason, said he wants you to take the engineering final. Now here how it works, you’re going to get a set of tools…” “And I got to try and fix it before it blows,” he said tucking his ponytail into this shirt. Grabbing the set of tools he got in position he said, “Start the thing already.” Albright activated the test and Ken slid deeper into the console. “How much about this test did you tell him?” Albright asked Ken. Ryo just looked at him, “You know he betaed this back in the academy right?” “Betaed?”, Albright asked confused. Before he could answer there was an electronic sizzle and a “Damn it,” coming from the opening. Ryo looked at the hole before continuing, “Beta tested. They tried out the prototype back when we were in the academy. Ken was one of the people they picked for the trials. He must have took it at least thirty times in those two weeks. He swore he was close to beating it each time. I think he was still working it out in his head since then.” “If he worked it that much then he should know by now that this test is designed to be unbeatable. It starts at about critical and we don’t give them all the proper tools to fix it. It’s like that Maru something or another on that old show, nobody beats it they’re just delaying it. It doesn’t take a genius to know that.” As he was talking Ryo noticed several of the red lights slowly start to go back to green. Before too long Albright noticed as well. “What the hell?” Ryo couldn’t help but grin at the situation, “You never watched a lot of TV did you?” Ken popped out of the hole not looking as satisfied as Ryo thought he would. “I kinda jury rigged something here and I don’t know how long it’s going to last.” Both of them knelt down to see an extendable wrench loosely connecting to cables together. “If I can get something that will actually fix this thing that would be great.” Red lights started flashing on the console again and an alarm went off. “Damn it,” he muttered. Looking around he noticed another wrench sticking out of Albright’s belt. “Are you using that?”, he asked before taking it and sliding back in. *** Hawk had read Albright’s initial report that he had sent in after Scott completed the test. Scott was able to delay the “explosion” for longer than anticipated, in fact his time and score was comparable to some of the scientists they had under employ, even his methods were a tad unorthodox, Albrights words. He wasn’t sure what his recommendation was going to be according to this report. Still he wanted to see’s Scott’s reaction to the test. He found him in one of the break rooms with Scott saying, “I was close this time, let me take another shot at it.” “You were only scheduled for one test.” Ryo reminded him. “But I almost have it figured out,” he argued, “I just need another crack at it.” “I never figured that your white whale would be a test,” Hawk said making his presence known. Ryo snapped to attention. Scott just looked at him. They were going to have to work on that. “Ryo, our new Wings need to be inspected. Bill’s already going over one, check out two since you have the spare time.” “Yes sir,” he said leaving. “Scott, walk with me.” Surprisingly he did so without a fuss. “Tell me the purpose of that test I had you take.” “To delay a critical explosion for as long as possible so as many people as possible can get away safely,” he said without any enthusiasm. That changed with the next sentence, “But I can save a ton of people if I can fix the problem and keep it from happening.” “Look Scott I appreciate your dedication to this particular problem,” he told him, “but it’s that type of tunnel vision gets people killed in real life. And you won’t have the luxury of a redo. I want you focused but not to a point that you’re a danger to yourself and others, is that understood?” “Yes sir,” he sighed. “But if you keep your nose clean for the next few weeks I’ll try to arrange another go for you, but only if you keep your nose clean.” “I can do that,” Ken said a little too eagerly. “In the meantime though you’re going to study.” “I been hitting those regulations they gave me since last night.” “Good, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Ken looked confused so he enlightened him. “As your commanding officer I’m going to help you live up to that new genius label of yours. I’ve already contacted the academy administrations to find out where you left off. We’ll go from there.” Ken looked more confused now than he did before, “Why are you going that far for somebody who’s been forced on you?” “For one very simple reason son,” he said, “I believe everybody under me should live up to their full potential, including you. And seeing how you didn’t discover how high your potential went we have a lot of catching up to do.” “I’m just a grease jockey.” “For now, if I have my way you’ll be a lot more by the time I’m done with you. Now head down to the hanger, I want you familiar with the Razor Wings operating parameters before our next assignment, is that understood?” “Yes sir,” he said and headed on his way. Although Hawk overheard him mutter, “Why does everybody think there’s more to me than what there is?” Yeah this was going to be a challenge if he stayed in that mindset. *** “This is taking too long!”, one of his masters cried decreed through the portal. Sometimes, like now, they would show their anger by having a strong bolt of dark energy emerge from the portal. The Avatar learned not to be impressed by the display as it hit various objects in the cavern. Still it was an impressive light show though. “Why is it taking so long to establish a beachhead in this dimension?” “Humanity would not just lie down my masters,” he said trying not to sound board. “I told you this when you first recruited me. Of course we have the added problem of the light giant.” “Yes,” his master said slowly, “he has been a bigger threat than anticipated. Have you discovered which human is hiding him yet?” “No,” he lied, “he always disappears before I can get a pinpoint on the human’s location. Of course the monsters you are sending me are more than a tad noticeable so he is probably forewarned ahead of time.” “Your observations would be correct,” his master said. Another shape came into view. As he watched it looked like it was saying something to the first one. “Yes that should be sufficient.” The other shape disappeared and his master moved what he assumed was a hand. Dark energy formed in front of him in the shape of a map. “Avatar, we will be sending a creature called Neronga here. It has a special ability that should keep the light giant in the dark. Get there at once.” “Yes my masters,” he said with a slight bow. The portal closed and he started sneering. One of these days he would show them that they were nothing in this world without him. But that was for later. As it was he was slightly curious they meant about that special ability. And he was curious to see how Ken Scott and Ultraman were going to react to it. *** Anything?”, Hawk asked as he walked into the war room. Ryo, Bill and Bridge were going over every report and call they had been getting for the past couple of week. Weeks of multiple monster sightings and hits from their detection system. And weeks of nothing when they or another unit got there. There were small signs of something large going through the area but no monster in sight. Right now he had Jess and Ken out in the field to investigate the last couple of sightings to see if they could find anything the first time. “Still the same Captain,” Ryo answered. “But we’re trying to map the sightings at the moment,” Bridge said. “Try to see if there’s some sort of pattern we can predict or a path to follow. I’m starting with the sightings here and connecting those with the hits we detected.” “I still think somebody’s playing a joke on us,” Bill said. “Somebody had to have gotten into our system and set off the alarms.” “And not with the system I’ve set up,” Bridge said and very getting annoyed with repeating. “There are layers on top of layers of security programming and protocols to get through to even get to the alarm system.” “Maybe our resident genius had something to do with it,” Bill smirked. “He’s not that type of genius Bill,” Hawk reminded him. “And he’s not an actual team member either but he’s still here,” Bill shot back. Ignoring that last comment Hawk turned toward Bridge, “How are we doing with that pattern?” “We have a general idea of one.” Manipulating the image he made red dots appear marking the sightings so far. “The sightings seem to be focused in this area here,” he said pointing to the highlighted area. “Is there anything in this area that sticks out?” “Nothing that any of us are seeing,” Ryo said. “There’s that mountain range over here but it’s not close to any of the areas of activities.” “That range has been checked over more than once,” Hawk informed him. “From the ground and air.” “That might leave the underground,” Bridge said thinking it over. Fingers flying over the keyboard the map changed to show known underground caverns in the mountain range. “Don’t tell me it’s another electricity eating rock monster,” Bill complained. “There hasn’t been any reports of power loss,” Ryo reminded him. Getting an incoming call Hawk hit his communicator, “Hawk here.” “Captain,” Jess replied, “we might have found something. Ken took a scan of it and he’s uploading it to you now.” After a minute or so of nothing she said, “Ah Ken, start with the transmitting.” Over the line they heard him say, “I just remembered how to take an image with this thing give me a moment.” “Give it here,” she said. There was a brief argument between them before they started getting the scan upload on their end. “I almost had it,” Ken complained. “Oh yeah, they dated” Ryo smirked. Bill got a chuckle out of it as well. “We’re getting the image now Jess,” Hawk said. “What did you get?” “I think pretty good proof people are seeing something.” Bridge brought the image up for all of them to see. Hawk leaned in as they all saw the gigantic footprint on the ground. “So I’m guessing we didn’t get hacked then,” Bill said. “If we did we’re dealing with somebody dedicated to the joke,” Ryo commented. “Have you found any more?”, Hawk asked them. “Just the one so far,” she answered. “Ken eyeballing the footprint at being just slightly larger than a Scan Track.” “Scott, for future reference I usually don’t take guesstimates in an official report,” Hawk said. “I’ll remember to bring my tape measure next time,” he said. Hawk just raised an eyebrow at the statement. “I just stepped in it deep didn’t I?” Jess quickly said, “We’ll look for more of the prints and question some of the locals on if they saw anything, Wade out. Before the connection cut completely they heard, “Would you think…” “Definitely dated,” Ryo smirked again. Bill joined in, “Any bets on how long civilian is going to last?” *** A couple of days after they discovered the footprints, and they found several, they were able to get a small idea on what they were dealing with. Based on how some of the prints were spaced and what few eyewitness accounts they could get they were dealing with something that walks on all fours. Bridge was able to get a rough length from how they were spaced as well, but that was about it. Each of the eyewitnesses seemed to describe a different four legged beast. Still they were able to narrow the search parameters now. Although right now Ken was hanging onto a railing trying to get his stomach to settle down after Ryo landed their Razor Wing at an air field near one of the sightings. “Hang out here for a minute,” Ryo told him. “The local police chief wanted to talk about our search.” “And we couldn’t have taken a Scan Track for this why?”, Ken asked. “Because we’re in the next round of air searches,” Ryo said. “I shouldn’t be long.” Not to mention Bill was part of the ground search on this one and the Captain thought two of them in one vehicle was a bad idea at this point. “Take your time,” Ken said holding his stomach. Ryo winced a bit, trying not to think of the two of them up in the air. The meeting with the police chief didn’t start out much better, “I really wish you people would leave. You’re stirring up people more than necessary and making my job harder as a result.” “We’re trying o help ease the situation,” Ryo tried to assure him. “We have proof, that we showed you, that something is out there. Unfortunately this is the area the creature has been spotted the most.” “A creature nobody has apparently seen,” the Chief shot back. “A couple of pranksters take advantage of some mass hysteria is enough to mobilize the army apparently. Why don’t you take on a real problem like that giant guy, he causes as much damage as those monsters.” “We’re looking into the situation,” he said not wanting to have this discussion with somebody else since there was no easy way to explain Richardson’s order. The Chief started to say something else before a monstrous roar made both of them duck. Running outside he saw Ken looking in a particular direction, “Did you see anything?” “I saw through something,” he said mysteriously while looking confused himself. “You’re talking nonsense,” the Chief told him. “There was something there,” he insisted, “but it was see through. Then it disappeared entirely.” Daxium was able to tell where it was going since they were this close to it. Unfortunately Ken had to make something up on how he knew, “It looked like it was heading in that direction.” Ryo tapped his communicator, “Watanabe to Hawk, Ken might have spotted the creature. If he’s right it might be able to turn invisible.” “fF all the nonsense…” the Chief started to say. “Get in the air now,” Hawk ordered, and see if you can track it. I’ll have Bridge get a lock on your Razor Wing and we’ll try to figure out a way to cut it off.” “That damn fool believed that story?”, the Chief spat. Not even bothering hiding his annoyance Ryo looked him right in the eyes, “That damn fool as you called him has seen more strange creatures up close than you can possibly imagine. Come on Ken, let’s see if we can follow the trail.” He just held on to his stomach. Once they were in the air Ryo was able to spot the trial it was making easy enough. Feeding what they were seeing to the ground teams and Castle. Bridge was able to determine it was heading toward a nearby city. “We’re going to try to head it off on the outskirts as best we can,” Hawk said. “It’s traveling too fast for us to set up anything further away.” Not taking his eyes off the control panel Ken offered, “Maybe we can distract it with a couple of missiles.” “It’s a good idea Captain,” Ryo said, “we might be able to slow it down to give you more time if nothing else.” “We don’t know what type of damage it can take,” Hawk told them. “And if you make it mad enough it could come after you and you wouldn’t know it. Keep tracking it while we set up things on our side, Hawk out.” “Don’t say I never tried,” Ken said. They followed it for a few miles as the city came into view as well as the force that was waiting for a target. “Looks like the party is almost ready to start,” Ryo commented. “I’ll take your word for it,” he replied clutching the white bag. Back at Castle Bridge announced, “I think I narrowed down it’s location based on Razor Wing 2’s sensor.” “Send it,” Hawk ordered. “Scan Tracks twenty to twenty-four and Razor Wings ten through twelve fire off a round at those coordinates. Let’s see if we can make it show itself.” Several missiles fired off as cannons fired from the ground and zeroed in on the programmed coordinates. Some hit the ground, some exploded in midair as they hit something. A roar of pain was followed y the creature showing itself. With a brown hide and ridges on it’s back, a giant horn on it’s nose seemed to have a slight glow to it. “There it is, all units fire!” Ryo got their Razor Wing out of the way as the other units unleashed their firepower. The monster’s horn started to glow as it’s ears moved toward it and a wild arc of electricity shot out. “Shit that thing shoots electricity too,” Hawk curded “Ken hold it down!” Ryo shouted as he tried to make sure they weren’t hit by the arcs. It wasn’t good enough as his controls sparked and exploded around him, “Argh!” “Ryo, Ken get out of there!,” Hawk shouted seeing the damage from his vantage point. Ken went for his ejector seat when he noticed Ryo wasn’t moving. “Ryo?”, Ken reached over and shook him as best as he could. “Ryo! I think Ryo’s out!” he said over the line. Survival instincts kicked in as he vaguely recalled how to switch flight control over to him as Hawk ordered him to get out. Getting control of the stick he tried to steady their decent and head toward the city. Forgetting exactly where he was he pulled up on the stick and got the nose up for a few yards before they hit the ground. Then they crashed. Leaving Jamira in command for a moment Hawk, Bill and Jess took their Scan Track to the crash site. They found the mangled jet and Ken with a bleeding cut on his forehead under Ryo’s arm as he helped him away from the wreckage. “Watanabe, Scott are you alright?”, Hawk asked as Bill went to help Ken with Ryo. “Still here Captain,” Ryo said trying to stand on his own. “Thanks to Ken.” “Ken good job,” Hawk told him. “You didn’t bail out on your partner in a dangerous situation. I’m proud of you.” Ken, who started to look a little green, gave him a weak thumbs up as he started rocking back and forth. Pointing to his right he said, “There’s a trash can over there.” Ken’s hand went to his mouth as his cheeks puffed out as he ran for it. “Ryo you can sit the rest of this one out.” “I’m good to go Captain,” he insisted. “Just point me at that thing while we can still see it. “Alright then,” he nodded. “Ryo get in the Scan Track with Jess, Bill and myself…” “Blegh!” cut him off as Ken threw up in the trash can. They all winced a little from the sound. Jess started to go to him but Hawk stopped her. “He’ll be fine. Scott stay here, we’ll meet up with you later. The rest of you get in the Scan Track. We got to stop that thing before it breaks the line.” “Yes sir,” they shouted. Ken got his stomach under control after they left and pulled out the Spark Magnifier. *** Appearing from a column of light Daxium took a fighting stance, “Shiah!” Neronga roared in challenge at the new threat as the giant ran toward him, stopping so he was right between the creature and the city. “What is the giant doing?”, Jamira asked over the line. “I think Ultraman is trying to help us defend the line,” Hawk said. The four legged monster tried to get around him but Daxium kept getting in his way. Seeing the horn glow again Daxium spread his arms and formed the energy shield in front of him to deflect the electrical attack. Dropping the field the giant ran in, Neronga reared up on his hind legs to meet him. Grappling for a bit Daxium forced the creature down to the ground. Getting on top of the creature he started pounding on it with his fist. Picking it up he pushed it further away from the line. Neronga tried to use it’s tail to knock him down as he got up. Daxium easily jumped over it but was caught off balance as Neronga jumped up as he landed. Grunting as he crashed to the ground he couldn’t react in time as Neronga jumped right on top of him. Swiping his clawed feet at his head a couple of times he walked over the fallen giant and continued on toward the city. “Damn it,” Hawk cursed as he hit the side of the Scan Track. “All units open fire!” Neronga roared again and fired the electric beam that took out several Scan Tracks and Razor Wings. Daxium slowly got up to his feet, crossed his arms and flung them down as he went into Hyper Mode. Holding out his right hand he extended the Light Flash from his fingertips. Swinging it above his head a couple of times he wrapped it around the creature’s neck and pulled. The monster choked out a protest as it struggled to go forward. Daxium started to draw in energy for the Light Stream to finish this quickly when Neronga suddenly jumped backwards crashing into him. In Hyper Mode the creature as able to easily batter him around. He was able to get enough room to flip backwards himself and kick the monster under the chin in the process. Two extended fingers quickly drew a circle in the air forming the Hyper Saw as the jewel started flashing red. The Saw sliced through the creature’s tail cutting half of it off. As it thrashed on the ground in pain Daxium switched over to Power Mode and went at Neronga. Grabbing him by the neck he picked him up and slammed him down head first on the ground. Picking him up again he held him over his head and threw him away from the city. Hawk saw him put a fist by that jewel. “Of shit he’s using it again. Any unit in the target zone get the hell out of there now!” As the giant reared the fist back Neronga tried to surprise him again by jumping at him. Daxium threw the punch and caught Neronga mid jump in the chest. The unfocused energy of the Giga Wave obliterated him on contact. Watching for a moment as the particles that was left of Neronga floated away and burned out he flew off into the sky, “Shiah!” *** With a fresh bandage and wrap on his forehead Ken laid on the bed in is room. He was feeling weaker than usual after Dax returned him. Daxium said he was feeling it and put it down to the fact their bodies weren’t used to multiple form changes in a battle yet. Of course that crash landing didn’t do him any favors either. A chime at his door that he probably spent too much time deciding to ignore or not got him up. When the door opened he was shocked to see Hawk standing on the other side. “Oh crap I missed a meeting or something didn’t I? I’m sorry I had to lie down for…” “Easy Ken,” He said. “I postponed it for later. Ryo need to rest up some too. So how are you doing son?” “I’ve been better,” Ken answered honestly. “I figured as much,” Hawk chuckled. “Ken, you acted like a real member of the team out there today. So let me to officially welcome you to Monster Squad.” He reached for something in the hallway and showed him a UNDF uniform jacket. It took a Ken a moment to realize the tag held the name Scott. “You officially can’t wear a full uniform but I pulled a few strings and got you this. We all agreed that you deserved at least this much.” Ken took it not sure what to say or do, “I… thank you…” He tried it on and looked himself over in the mirror. After he was disqualified from the academy he positive he was never going to wear one of these. Despite at how he was forced to join now he started to smile. “Looks like a perfect fit,” Hawk commented. “Do us proud son.” “Yes sir,” Ken saluted him. Hawk returned it and left the room. He was a step closer but he was going to make Ken a full part of this team yet if it killed him. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly from the Inside ----- |
Episode 8
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in My Light ----- The streets of the city were quiet as a war was engaged in the skies above it. Razor Wings shot through the skies as they tried to shoot down the creatures that appeared out of nowhere. With triangle shaped bodies and a head that seemed to be built into their shoulders they zipped around the buildings making them harder to hit. Few of the pilots were brave enough, or foolish enough to try and follow the creatures. Razor Wing one had one of those pilots as it followed one creature before being forced to pull before he hit a building. “I swear these damn things are getting faster,” Bill said. “Just concentrate on where you’re flying,” Hawk said behind him. In Razor Wing two Ryo flew over the skyline until he spotted one n the open. “Jess four o’clock.” “I see it,” she answered as she got a target lock on her sensors. “Firing missile.” A lone missile trailed after it and caught it as it exploded. As it fell to the ground Ryo and Jess noticed something about the creatures. “They’re getting lower to the ground.” “I see them,” Hawk said over the line. “Ground team, are they in firing range yet?” Standing by a Scan track in his newly acquired UNDF jacket, but left unzip, Ken hit the communicator built into it, “Just about Captain.” “Fire as soon as you see the points of their teeth,” he ordered. “You heard the man,” Ken told the others. When they looked at him it took him a moment to figure out why, “I mean roger.” “Well work on it later,” Hawk said. Was that a chuckle? Please let that be a chuckle. After a few more minutes the Razor Wings were able to force the creatures low enough for the Scan Tracks to get a lock. “Targets in range!”, somebody shouted. “Let ‘em have it!”, Ken said. He put his fingers in his ears as the cannons mounted on the back of the Scan Tracks fired. He had to remember to wear that helmet one of these days. Several creatures took a hit. Those that avoided the initial wave tried to fly up but were met by the Razor Wings waiting for them. Another half hour saw the final creature taken out. “I would have ran out of bags a while ago,” Ken commented as he watched the Razor Wings in the sky. “Hawk to ground units, the sky is clear. Help with the clean up duty while we make sure no more show up.” “Scan Track…,” Ken took a moment to check the side of the vehicle , “fourteen acknowledge.” He hopped into the passenger seat saying, “Who wants to see a dead monster up close and poke it with a stick?” They found one near a school yard and pulled up a few yards from it. Getting out Ken had a vague flashback of Daxium fighting a larger version of this thing and started rubbing his left forearm a bit. Dax wasn’t getting any type of reaction from it, still Ken and the other pulled their weapons as they got closer. “Area’s clear,” Ken announced taking a look at his wrist scanner. “Fuller,” one of the others said to the man still in the Scan Track, “pull her up.” Fuller acknowledged and turned the track around and backed it up. “Keep it coming,” he waved him on, “keep it coming. Stop.” “This is going to suck,” Ken commented as a back compartment opened up. Trying to keep his hands away from the mouth he and the trooper picked up the creature and placed it in the compartment. “Don’t they supply gloves for this part?”, he asked shaking his hands. “Take that jacket off!” Ken looked around as Commander Jamira came out of another Scan Track and made a beeline toward him. “I said take that jacket off now! You don’t deserve to wear it civilian. That’s an order!” Ken held his ground, “Well here’s the thing, Captain Hawk told me to wear this whenever I’m on duty. Now in order to obey you I have to disobey him. And that’s a can of worms I don’t want to open.” He had a line about the Captain outranking him, but seeing how it looked like the Commander was close to strangling to him as it was he didn’t say anything. “Watch your back civilian,” he sneered before storming off. Once he and his Scan Track was on his way Ken hit his communicator, “Scott to Hawk, just to warn you Commander Jamira might be coming to you with some issues he has with me wearing this jacket.” “It’ll be the fifth time he’s brought this issue up since I gave it to you a couple of days ago. Respect isn’t going to come overnight, it’s going to come a day at a time.” “Understood, Scott out.” Ken looked at the retreating Scan track and whispered, “Not him either.” “Creature is secured,” Fuller announced. “Hey,” he asked the trooper by him, “what do they do with these things any way?” “Some of them are dissected to study,” he answered. “Some of them are destroyed. Some of us think it what they make the chip beef out of for the SOS in the cafeteria.” Ken made a face and held his stomach, “Don’t tell me shit like that, I had that for breakfast his morning.” *** “The people are demanding answers.” Richardson sat there looking a little tired as the board members started trying to talk over one another. But that was the general consensus the best as he could gather. Fortunately Peter wasn’t one of the as he silently sat in his chair as he watched the others. “I would hardly refer to reporters as people,” Richardson said during a lull in this particular storm. Naturally that comment started it all over again. “Well they’re asking what the people want to know,” one of them said. “What are we going to do about Ultraman? Some polls say he’s as bad as those monsters. Especially after one of those weapons of his tore up that street. They’re still repairing the damage.” “What he is doing is no different than when we fire a missile,” Richardson argued. “He’s just on a more massive scale then what we are.” “And Ultraman does seem to be helping us with the monsters,” Peter piped in. “So far,” another one said. “And the moment he turns against us,” Richardson told her, “I will be the first to give the order to open fire. I know Captain Hawk and Alpha Team have been studying the giant for any sign of a potential weakness. And more than likely some of the other units are as well.” “I know one of the bigger complaints is that our weapons don’t seem to be effective against giant threats,” Peter told them. “I know Dr. Williams has a team working on improving our weapons potency. But maybe it’s time to consider his other idea.” “That super jet of his,” the first board member said. “It could help ease the public anxiety,” Peter offered. “Especially if it works like he says it will.” “Perhaps it’s time to look more into it,” Richardson said. Several board members nodded in agreement. Enough to get the motion passed. A fourth member raised their hands, “Commander Jamira came to me about an issue he had.” “Do you want to narrow that one down?”, Peter asked. “He does seem to have several. He didn’t get control of Alpha Team. He doesn’t like the fact we’re getting called like we’re the police.” “It’s about the civilian wearing a uniform jacket.” “Oh that one,” Richardson snorted. “It was Captain Hawk’s idea after all,” Peter said taking the lead. “If he felt he deserves it this soon then I feel we should back him. This was the board’s idea after all,” he quickly reminded them when a couple of them looked like they wanted to argue the point. “We trusted his judgment so far. And we all know he wouldn’t do anything that would affect his team in a negative way. Beside this is a relative minor issue and not worth this board’s time and energy.” “I agree,” Richardson said. “If anything this is an issue between Hawk and Jamira. The moment it affects our ability to protect the public then we’ll take the matter into our hands. Is there anything else?” He waited a moment for somebody to speak up. “Then I guess this meeting is over.” Everyone else packed what they had and left. Peter lingered for a few moments so he said, “Have I ever told you that I’m glad you are on my side.” “Honestly Henry the only side I’m on is mine,” he said with a bit of a smile. Richardson snorted,” You father told me the same things on a few occasions. “Like father, like son as they say,” he said closing up his briefcase. “I’m still not a fan of this civilian operative nonsense.” “I know Peter.” He started leaving the room saying, “But even I’ll admit it revealed something I never expected.” “I know,” Richardson said, surprising Peter a bit. “Who would have believed that nobody was a genius? I mean look at him.” “I know, just a fascinating discovery isn’t it?” In the hallway he started smiling to himself, “But that wasn’t what I was talking about.” *** In his quarters Ken sat at the desk in the room and opened his cell phone. Knowing Rose she’d keep that promise to hunt him down if he didn’t keep in touch. After a few rings she picked up, “Hello?” Ken started smiling, “Hey Rose.” “Hey yourself,” he could hear the smile in her voice. “So they actually let you have phone privileges?” “I’m not a prisoner you know.” “You were acting like one in the days before you left,” she shot back. “How has everything been going? You been showing those other mechanics how it’s done yet?” “Not exactly, they put me on a field team.” She was quiet for a few moments, “Are they crazy?!” “I know. But at least if any of the vehicles on an assignment I’m right there to fix it.” “That’s probably what they were thinking,” she laughed. “So you learn anything new about yourself yet?” Outside of apparently being a genius this entire time? “Nothing yet, it’s only been a few weeks.” “You can figure out something about yourself in a few weeks. Wait… the UNDF has some advanced comm. gear. Why didn’t you use that to call me?” “They say I can,” he said poking at the computer at his desk. “I haven’t figured out how to get an outside line yet.” “Well ask somebody then. Wait I’m talking to Ken ‘I can figure it out on my own’ Scott here.” “Why does everybody make that sound like a bad thing,” he said getting a little annoyed. “Because you can only get so far on your own. You’re part of a team now, you’re going to have to learn to work like you’re part of one sooner or later.” “So they keep telling me.” He changed the subject, “How are things at the garage going?” “We’re still pretty busy,” she answered. “Johnny’s been picking up the slack on the new model cars after you left. Jeff’s acting like he’s king of the garage.” “When didn’t he?”, Ken asked half joking. Rose laughed anyway, “Good thing I’m still around to keep him in check then. So,” based on tone of her voice he had a feeling he knew what was coming, “meet anybody interesting of the female persuasion yet?” And there it was. The alarm went off just about then, saved by the creature alert. “Sorry Rose, duty calls gotta go.” *** Running to the war room Ken got to the door the same time as Bill. They looked at each other for a moment before Bill said, “Actual team members in first civilian,” and he hurried his way inside. “Bite me jackass,” Ken told him going in himself. That’s when he noticed Hawk was there staring at the two of them. “Gentlemen,” he spoke, “and I use that term very loosely at the moment.” “Sorry Captain,” Ken said. Hawk glanced at Jess and Ryo who quickly stood between them. This was going to be one of the larger struggles with this situation. “What are we looking at Bridge?”, Hawk said looking at the ceiling. The table top in front of them started to glow and a holo image of the a mountain range appeared over it. A rather large dot appeared under it’s surface. “We’re not exactly sure yet,” he said from his station. “The reading just popped up a few minutes ago. “How does something that large just appear out of nowhere?”, Ryo asked out loud. “If we could figure that out maybe we could intercept these things before they become active,” Hawk said. “Ken I don’t need a quip right now.” “Wasn’t going to say a word,” Ken told him. “The look on your face said otherwise,” Jess smirked. “Is the object doing anything?”, Hawk asked before ken could respond. “Not at the moment,” he said studying the readings. “It appears to just be sitting there.” “Looks like we got lucky on this one,” Hawk commented. Taking a light pen out of the console he started drawing on the image. “I want a perimeter set up on the ground here. Bill, Ryo I want you to coordinate a plan for a sky net above it with the other pilots. If we catch it right we might be able to damage it as it appears out of the mountain.” “I don’t suppose you guys have some mines or something?”, Ken asked. “We could place them around the creature and set them off as soon as it pops up.” “There’s one problem with that plan,” Jess told him, “we don’t know where the creature is going to break through at.” “And I don’t want to take the chance that we’d accidently leave some active mines behind for somebody to come across if they get buried once it emerges,” Hawk added. “It’s a good plan Ken, you just have to think a little further ahead.” “So is the civilian flying on this one?”, Bill said shooting him a look. Hawk looked at him, “He can fly with you since you’re volunteering.” Bill paled a little as Ken gave him a wicked grin. “He’s pretty good on the ground,” Bill quickly got out, “he can do this on the ground.” “I got no problem being in the Wing’s backseat for this one,” Ken said. “Which is why you’re taking one of the Tracks,” Hawk told him. “I’ll fly with Bill in Razor Wing one. Ken you help coordinate things on the ground. And try to keep away from Commander Jamira, he’s still not happy with you wearing that.” “You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ken said, then added, “sir.” “You’re getting better at remembering that,” Hawk smirked. “All right people let’s catch this thing before it get it’s pants up.” “Roger,” they all said, even Ken. Now if he could convince him to zip that jacket up and look a little more professional. *** Within the hour Razor Wings and Scan Tracks launched from their respective bays from Castle. Inside the Avatar watched their progress on a monitor, highlighting the position of the vehicle Scott was in. His masters assured him this creature, Melba, would bring something different to attack Ultraman with. Of course they said that about the last monster they sent through. But they might be right with this one. Ultraman could fly but he had never seen him fight in the air. The only real question was how much of a nuisance were the troops going to be? *** The perimeter went up around the mountain according to plan that Hawk had come up with. According to Bridge the creature didn’t change position the entire time. Which left them with a while bunch of waiting to do. As it was Ken was leaning against the hood of the Scan Track looking at the mountain. He could feel the creature inside from here. “I do not like this,” Dax had said in his head. “I should be trying to dig it out and destroy it.” Glancing at the other guys in the Track he spoke low enough that they wouldn’t hear him, “We’ve gone over this Dax.” “I know, it is just frustrating knowing that it is this close. We never had this problem before.” “You’re the one who told me to trust Richardson.” “Wade to Scott,” from his communicator brought him back to the here and now. “What is it Jess?”, he said hitting it. “We got a little pool going on,” she answered. “We wanted to know if you wanted in.” “What’s the bet?” “We’re trying to guess what Ultraman is going to mode shift into to beat this one if he shows up.” “Mode shift?” “That’s what we call it when Ultraman changes form,” Ryo answered. “What do you say man, you want in?” “Maybe next time,” Ken said. “I still have to study the reports on those fights. Or do you guys call them encounters. And not to sound like the new guy but isn’t that against the rules?” Bridge cut into the comm. system saying, “We got movement!” “All units prepare to fire,” Hawk ordered. Ken checked his wrist scanner for any stray life sign that wasn’t supposed to be there. He wasn’t getting anything outside of them with the range he got. He looked at the guys inside the Track, “You getting any stray blips on that thing?” “If anybody is watching they’re staying out of range,” was the reply. Ken nodded, but he could have used it as an excuse to get out of thee and let Dax loose on whatever that thing was. “I got movement on the mountain,” the guy watching the scanner said suddenly. Ken’s hand started for the Spark magnifier thinking that people were on the mountain. Then he saw what they were seeing, the face of the mountain started breaking up. There was a monstrous cry as a head appeared, followed by a long neck with some sort of blade like fin. “All units open fire!” Hawk shouted. They all locked on the head. It screams were cut off by the explosions. More of the mountainside broke away as the creature freed itself. It’s reptilian like body had claws instead of hands and these long protrusions like spikes coming from it’s shoulders. And these bright round glowing eyes that seemed to zero in right at Ken. “That can’t be good,” he muttered. Those eyes seem to glow right before energy like shot fired out of them. Ken and the guys in the Scan Track ducked for cover as the ground seemed to explode around them. “Lasers!”, Bill shouted as it started firing those shots at the other Scan Tracks. “It got lasers!” “Ken,” Jess muttered as Ryo looked worried as well. “Razor Wings take the heat off the Scant Tracks,” Hawk said. As ordered the Wings unleashed another barrage of missiles at the creature. It looked at the sky and fired at the Razor Wings who scattered to avoid it. The creature cried out one more time. Then leather like wings appeared from the protrusions and it took to the air. “It’s giving chase, scatter.” “Damn thing faster than it looks,” Ryo grunted. “We need some rear weapons on these jets,” Jess said as she looked back. “Worry about it later,” Hawk told her. “All Scan Tracks try to knock it out of the sky,” Jamira ordered. Those not caught in the original barrage did so. Those that were did what they could if the men and women inside were able. Ken shook the dirt off of him, slowly getting to his feet. Holding his head he hit the communicator then looked at it when it didn’t make it’s usual beep, broken. “Hope I don’t have to pay for that.” Looking at the others in the Scan Track he called out, “You guys alright?” He didn’t get an answer. “Hey,” he said going to the window and saw that all of them looked lifeless. “Shit,” he cursed as he checked for a pulse on each man. He felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders as he got a pulse on all of them. “Don’t do that me,” he told them knowing he wasn’t going to get an answer. Looking up at the sky he saw the creature smash it’s claws into any Razor Wing within reach. “Stay right here,” he told the unconscious men as he took out the Spark Magnifier and held it over his head. *** Appearing from a column of light Daxium looked up and Melba and took off after it, “Shiah!” The creature saw him and changed course to meet him. Daxium moved out of the way to avoid impact. He quickly turned around to fire off a Flash Bolt that hit it right between the shoulder blades. Melba cried out in pain as it started to fall to the ground. It was able to pull up before crashing and went at the giant again firing off those eye bolts of his. Forming the energy to block those initial shots he flew out of the way to avoid Melba’s head on crash. Giving chase to the still flying Melba Daxium reached out to grab a wing when the monster turned around and smack one of those claws into his head. A grunt of pain escaped as he lost his balance for a split second. It was long enough for Melba to start flying around him trying to bash him out of the sky. The giant covered him up to protect himself. Dropping slightly to avoid one of those claws Daxium saw the opening to kick him in the gut. Melba’s body bent from the blow as the light giant started punching him in the head. He kept up the assault as the monster started falling to the ground. Then it stopped in midair and fired off those energy bursts. Daxium recoiled from the first couple of shots but then he got out of the way and started flying around the creature trying to avoid those energy shots. Seeing no other way out of this he took a few shots he fired off another Flash Bolt. The impact made Melba stop just long enough for Daxium to fly right into him. Grabbing him around the waist Daxium pointed them toward some open ground and they crashed in a mushroom like cloud of smoke and dirt. Daxium slowly stood up waiting for the smoke to clear away enough that he could see the condition of his opponent. He was knocked back by those eyes blasts a second before Melba emerged from the smoke. The jewel started flashing red as he started back up but Melba knocked him back down and started clubbing him. Razor Wing one and two but fired some missiles that distracted the monster enough for Daxium to fly out of there. Going high enough that he could see Melba coming at him he put his hands to the jewel in his chest. Drawing in energy ashe spread them wide he raised his right arm and lowered his left. Bringing them together at the wrist he fired the Dimensional Storm Ray. The multi colored stream of energy hit Melba head on. Moments later he exploded. Daxium hovered there for a moment before flying off, “Shiah!” A sphere of light formed that shrank down to a shape of a man and quickly broke apart as Ken stumbled forward by his Scan Track. “We have got to work on that landing Dax,” he said out loud. A groan from the Scan track caught his attention as he ran toward it. “Hang on guys,” he said as he hit his communicator. “Right busted.” He looked around to see some headlights coming in his direction. Waving his arms he shouted, “Hey! Over here! We got wounded!” *** Another one down the Avatar thought darkly. The troopers had a chance to take their shots and do some damage as soon as Melba emerged. That cavern was a little too deep in the mountain for this one. He should have taken that into account. “What is it going to take Scott?” *** Hours later Ken caught up with Jess and the others in one of the rec rooms. They looked happy to see him but something seemed off for some reason. Jess came up to him saying, “Ken, how are you feeling?” “My head’s ringing little but they say I’m alright up here.” “You’re a lucky son of a bitch do you know that?”, Bill told him. “I saw the area around blow up, I thought all four of you were dead.” “I jumped behind the Scan Track,” Ken said. “I don’t know how they got hurt worse than me.” “I guess your GLC is still working,” Jess joked. Instead of laughing they all just looked at her. “Good luck charm,” she explained. “I guess so,” Ken shrugged. “That’s the one thing I don’t like about this set up. Before I joined, a monster showed up and I ran like hell out of there as fast as I could.” “Welcome to the big leagues Ken” Ryo laughed. “Oh before I forget,” he said after a moment, “who won the pool?” Judging how they were all standing it wasn’t any of them. Which would explain the look he picked up earlier. “That would be me,” Hawk said coming up behind them. “Everybody was saying Hyper or Power mode so I decided to go for the apparent long shot. Luck was with me tonight.” “You participated in a pool that’s probably against the rules?”, Ken said looking at him. “It helped relieve a little of the tension that was building up,” he explained. “As long as it doesn’t go too far I’m willing to turn a blind eye to it.” “We were about to get a late dinner in the mess,” Jess spoke up. “Are you coming?” “Actually I told the guys with me in the Track that since we all survived I buy them a glass of whatever passes for beer around here.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” Hawk said clapping him on the shoulder. “There’ll be a briefing for the mission in the morning so I expect you to be there.” “I’ll be there,” he said going past them. He saw the other three come around the corner. “Hey what took you guys long?” “My fault,” Fuller said. “I had them examine my head a little more carefully. I swore that when I came too for a bit you were glowing for a second.” “Really?”, Ken said thinking fast. “Must have been how the light was hitting me or something.” Ken didn’t see that Hawk was still standing here and overheard them. He nodded to himself before heading to the mess with the others. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 9
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- This one had to be the guy, nobody else he had been around had even set off the tiniest reaction in Dax. Of course the only real question was what was he going to do after that? He couldn’t go to Hawk without spilling his secret. And somehow he doubted Richardson would be all that subtle in his handling of the matter, and his secret would still be exposed. He’ll worry about that later. Taking a deep breath he opened the door in front of him and entered the office on the other side. The secretary got an attitude real quick, “Can I help you?” “Captain Hawk sent me,” Ken told her, “with a file for Mr. Brooks.” The secretary looked at him for a few moments before buzzing Brooks. The other door opened and Brooks greeted him warmly, “Ah yeas I was expecting this, thank you.” He took the file but he didn’t look at it. Instead he seemed to study him. “So, you are our civilian operative. We might as well make this official, Peter Brooks,” he extended a hand. “Ken Scott,” he said as he took it. Then he stared at their hands. Nothing. “Is there anything wrong Mr. Scott?”, Brooks asked noticing his reaction. “Or may I call you Ken?” “Sure,” he said snapping out of it. Trying to cover up the surprise reaction on his face he said, “I’m still amazed at how young you look. I thought I’d see a wrinkle or two up close.” Brooks chuckled as he let go, “I get that a lot. Good genes I suppose.” “Well I better get back,” Ken said heading for the door. “Oh Ken,” he called out, “if nobody had said it before, I apologize about your first visit here. A very unfortunate incident.” “Yeah,” Ken said still looking confused, “thanks.” “Interesting guy,” the secretary said after he left, but not really meaning it. “My dear you have no idea,” Brooks said with a bit of a smirk. Ken walked the halls until he found an empty hallway and leaned against the wall. Looking in he was soon in the protected area in his mind and was face to face with Daxium, “Anything?” Daxium didn’t look pleased with his answer, “Nothing.” “What the hell, it had to be him,” Ken insisted. “I went up to everybody I remember seeing in the group. I even went up to a couple of people who looked vaguely familiar. I pretty sure one of them wasn’t even in the group at all.” “Perhaps the person I felt was not in that particular group,” Daxium suggested. “Pershaps he or she was in an adjoining room.” “No, whatever you sensed I felt it going behind us,” he said. “And I’ve been all over that floor since we’ve been back and nothing. It had to be from somebody in that group of people.” “Then whomever I felt is now masking his energy signature from me now,” Daxium told him. “Unfortunately we now have a new problem as a result.” That didn’t sound good, “What problem?” “As I detected this individual it is more than likely he or she detected me as well.” “So whoever this is knows we’re Ultraman?” Daxium nodded, “I am afraid so.” “Great, just fucking great,” Ken spat as he paced around in front of Daxium. “Not only are back at square one now we have to watch our back even more.” “Do not worry Ken I will be more diligent in discovering the source of this dark energy.” “Just don’t broadcast yourself while you’re doing it. We got enough problems as it is.” Ken looked back out in the hallway and blinked his eyes a few times as he got off the wall. Seeing nobody else around he continued on his way. *** “All right people,” Hawk said as they gathered around the holo table. “You know Dr. Williams has been hounding the board to get this super jet of his built. Before I go any further we all do know about this right?”, he asked looking at Ken in particular. “I mentioned it to him once,” Jess spoke up. “That’s all you said,” Ken told her. Because that’s all I know,” she informed him. “That’s all anybody knew,” Hawk said. “He designed most of this in his personal time but nobody knew what it even looked like. Until now that is.” Pressing some controls on the table a rough diagram of this particular ship hovered over it. Hawk figured they were wearing the same expression he was when he first saw it. “Okay Ken, you’re the newly discovered genius, what do you think?” Normally he wouldn’t put a new member on the spot like that but he was going to get that boy to his full potential, kicking and screaming if necessary. Ken leaned in to get a better look at it. He picked up pretty quick that he could manipulate the holo image, using the light pen to turn it around he studied it for a few moments. “I think it looks like a giant mess.” “I have to agree with the civilian,” Bill said. “If this is the cockpit,” Ryo pointed out the front section of the jet, “why are there three seats up front by what I’m assuming the controls?” “And what are these seats back here?”, Jess pointed to a couple of sections in the back. “Time out chairs,” Bill joked. “So we’ll be calling them the Waters’ seats,” Jess joked back. “I’m surprised nobody mentioned this apparent empty space here,” Hawk showed them. “Granted this is a work in progress and Dr. Williams has said he’d be willing to let us work on it with him to make it a little more presentable. Bill. Ryo start with the cockpit and try to simplify it a little. Everybody is getting a copy of these plans so I want you all brainstorming ideas. Are there any questions?” Jess spoke up, “Assuming this will actually work, how soon before Commander Jamira wants a super vehicle of his own?” Bill and Ryo both laughed a bit as Ken looked at all three of them. Hawk chuckled as well, “Probably as soon as he finds out we have exclusive rights to this one. Anything else?” “Am I going to be working on this?” Ken asked. “Once a mechanic,” Jess smirked. “If I can get it pass the chief,” Hawk told him. “I know Williams wants you involved. But I don’t want you waist deep in something and miss a meeting or we get called on a mission. Is that understood?” “Captain I can handle it,” Ken insisted. Hawk repeated what he just said, “Is that understood?” “Yes sir,” Ken said. “If there’s nothing else then you’re dismissed.” “Getting waist deep in an engine,” Jess told Ken in a low teasing voice as they left the room. “I bet you got all excited.” “Really?”, Ken replied. “Is that the best shot you got?” “You got excited. You’re the only guy I know who actually bought those automobile magazines for the cars and not the half naked women.” If Ken had a response it was cut off by the closing door. Hawk looked at the plans for the super jet one more time. If Williams was right about this thing then it was going to be a huge help. If he was wrong it was going to be a huge waste of time and money. If it failed in the field, well he had no plans on being buried in that oversized coffin. *** Hours later Ken sat in one of the break rooms studying the plans for that super jet, among other things. True to his word Hawk was trying to get Ken caught up on everything. There were several data pads and books sprawled over the table. His vision started to get a little blurry so he put the pad down and rubbed his eyes. “Now this brings back some memories,” Jess said as she came over holding two cups of coffee. “A day or two before a big test your kitchen table used to look a lot like this.” “Thanks,” he said as he took the offered cup. Looking at the mess he cleared a spot so she could set her cup down as well. “I guess old habits die hard. Mom used to yell at me for being so disorganized.” “I remember,” Jess said with a smile. “She begged me more than once to help you organize things better. Even offered to pay me once.” Picking up one of the pads she asked, “Is your head ready to explode yet?” “Just about,” he said. “The Captain thinks I have a lot of space to fill up here. Somebody should tell him it’s a lost cause.” “Don’t let him hear you say that. Otherwise he’ll let you have it with his ‘living to your full potential’ speech.” “I’ve heard that speech a couple of time so far,” Ken grimaced. “I’d bet,” Jess could help but get a chuckle out of that. Taking a sip of her coffee she remembered something, “Before I forget again how’s your shoulder?” “My shoulder?” “I saw you grab your left shoulder after your first mission with us,” she told him. Ken remembered that, he also remembered thinking nobody caught him either. “You looked like you were in pain.” “I think I strained it when I ejected from the Razor Wing. I really didn’t feel it until after the mission was over. I took a couple of aspirin when we got back, I was fine later.” “How come you didn’t say anything?” “It wasn’t anything major,” he insisted. “Besides I didn’t want to look like a wuss my first time out.” “Wow,” Jess said with mock amazement, “you can change. You used to whimper like a little baby when you stubbed your big toe.” “I was looking for some sympathy back then,” Ken quickly said. “It obviously worked more than once.” “Try it now, I’ll tell you to walk it off,” Jess informed him and took another sip. “Anything else about the way I do things you want to ask me about?” “Well there was one thing that caught my attention.” Him and his big mouth. “What is with you going up to all the random people around the base?” “Just trying to be friendly,” he said. “I’m trying to be seen as more than just the ‘civilian’.” “I can understand that,” she said. “But the people I’ve seen you go up to were people in that group we passed during your first time here.” “Really? I didn’t notice. It must be why I thought they looked approachable, I’ve seen them before.” “I guess,” she said. Ken tried not to look nervous. He had heard that tone of voice from her before, especially in the month leading up to their break up. She didn’t quite believe what he was saying. If anybody in this outfit could figure out his secret it would be her. And he didn’t want to know what Richardson would so if anybody else discovered the connection between him and Daxium. And it was bad enough the one person who probably did know could take him out before he noticed. Damn it, why did he get caught on video? *** “As you can see Tom,” the field reporter said as she looked into the camera, “the devastation is incredible no matter how you look at it.” The image changed to an aerial view of what used to be a power plant that something had literally tore through. “Scientists and meteorologists are still baffled by this phenomenon. Tornados just appearing out of nowhere and apparently striking at various buildings for the third time this week.” The footage went to a scientist in front of a weather map, “This is a very interesting phenomenon. Tornados are being formed in conditions not suitable for their birth. If this is natural it throws everything we know about this right out the window.” After a brief return to the field reporter she sent it back to the newscaster, “Thank you Stacey. Authorities are still trying to locate survivors of this latest incident. Random polling indicates the citizens think that these sudden tornados are a big a threat to the populace as the giant monsters that have shown up recently and the giant the fights them.” Inside a break room someone used the remote to lower the volume, “I wish Richardson would take that stupid order off. I want my shot at the giant.” “He seems to be helping us so far Phil,” the guy next to him said. “The freak is probably behind this monster mess,” Phil stated. In the back of the room, with another pad in his hand, Ken listened to the two of them argue. In the back of his head he put it down as another reason not to piss off Richardson. Forget about the media hunting him down, most of the people around here wanted a chance to take down Dax. And a few probably wouldn’t think twice about taking that potshot against him. Grabbing the pad he got out of the room feeling a weight come down hard on his shoulders. “Ken,” Hawk called out when he saw him come out of the room. When he didn’t answer right away he called out a little louder, “Ken.” “Sorry Captain,” he said when he finally heard him. “My head was elsewhere.” “Are you all right son?”, Hawk said taking a closer look at him. “It looks like something is bothering you.” Taking a quick glance at the pad in his hand, and thanks to that conversation with Jess a couple of days ago, he said, “Head started to hurt trying to cram all of this in there.” “Ah,” he said in understanding, “didn’t your parents ever tell you don’t cram the night before the test, you don’t remember as much. This is the same thing.” “I’ve heard that once or twice,” he said. Hawk took the pad from his hand, “Hey.” “You’re taking a break,” he told him. “I can make that an order if I have too.” “I thought you just did,” Ken frowned. “I put a little more authority in my voce,” as he studied what was on the pad. “Ask the others, you don’t want to hear me put it in. Walk with me. What do you think about these tornados?”, he asked out of the blue. “Kinda freaky,” Ken answered, “but I don’t think it’s something we can handle.” “Try telling that to the people calling in. Times like this I feel that hotline was a bad idea.” “We’re getting that flooded with calls huh?’ “We were getting flooded before the giant creatures showed up. Now it’s like a log jam. Bridge is still trying to get another server set up to help handle the load. But I’ll be honest with you Ken, part of me thinks they might be right.” “Whoa, wait a second,” Ken stopped him. “You think something might be behind these tornados?” “Ken,” he began, “I have seen creatures of all shapes and sizes. I have seen monsters made out of rock. I have seen ones that breathes fire, shoot electricity and fire lasers out of it’s eyes. There was even one that turned itself invisible.” “Well when you put it that way,” Ken joked. “And not to mention our giant friend,” Hawk continued. “I don’t think I’d be surprised by anything anymore.” Looking at the pad one more time he handed it back to Ken. “Make sure you update that after the super jet gets built. I’m sure regulations are either going to change or get added to. I’m pretty sure the Chief will throw in something about maintenance so I want you to keep up.” “Speaking of the jet I have one question,” Ken told him. “Where are we going to launch the thing from? The damn thing is huge.” Hawk told him, “One issue at a time Ken.” *** “Is Degola acting in a satisfactory manner?”, his masters asked. The Avatar looked over to a lower section of the cavern. Down there a creature stood in the shadows looking up at him. A low growl echoed throughout the cavern as it stepped forward. The Avatar blasted another horse carcass down there that the creature quickly picked up and devoured. “So far yes,” he said returning his attention to the vortex. “So far neither the UNDF nor the giant has been able to detect him. As far as most people know a tornado is just coming out of nowhere.” “Excellent,” he said. “Our scientist worked hard to develop that particular ability. Heads would have rolled if it did not.” Something made the Avatar think that wasn’t just a colorful metaphor. “Is the plan still in place?” “It’s proceeding on schedule. I’m almost ready to start the final attack.” “Excellent,” he said again. “But there is one more thing. We are well aware that you are still experimenting with the abilities we have given you. Despite our warnings otherwise.” “And I’m not sure you appreciate the danger I would be in if I am discovered,” he shot back. “An entire army would be sent after me.” Not to mention Scott and Ultraman. “I have to be able to defend myself. No matter how much we disrupt their forces, the will reorganize. Especially if they find out it was me all along.” “Then we suggest that you do not let that happen. Cripple them so they cannot.” The vortex looked like it slowly collapsed on itself as it closed. The Avatar’s hand glowed with energy after the fact. “Don’t let that happen,” he sneered. “They’ll know it was me as soon as I make my final assault.” Dispersing the energy from his hand by blasting a wall beside him he walked over to the ledge overlooking the creature. “Perhaps one more target before we make your final push.” Using the dark energy at his command an image of what he had in mind. Degola seemed transfixed by the image. The Avatar smiled to himself, apparently his masters were not aware he could do this. “Now go have some fun before the real party starts.” *** Everyone walked into the war room to find Hawk and Bridge waiting for them. As they took their positions around the table Hawk looked at all of them, “A couple of you know that I have my misgivings about this tornado business. As a personal favor I had Bridge track the sightings. Bridge show them what you showed me.” “When I did so I found something weird,” he said as he pulled up a map over the holo table. “As you know these tornados have been appearing out of the blue. And so far they have struck a hospital,” a little blue tornado marked the spot on the map, “an old steel factory, a power plant and this one just came in, an armory.” They all looked at the spots on the map. “It’s pretty much a straight line,” Jess said. “Pretty much,” Hawk agreed. “And the weird thing these are the only buildings these tornados have touched when they hit the ground,” Bridge informed them. “But tornados leave a path of destruction,” Ryo said. “And attack trailer parks,” Bill commented. Jess told him, “Bill shut up.” “Any thoughts?”, Hawk asked. “Well the hospital and power plant are important,” Ryo said. “The armory is important to us in a way,” Bill continued. “The steel mill is throwing me.” “What do you think those Razor Wings and Scan Tracks are made out of?”, Ken asked him. “They’re made out of a special metal alloy,” Jess told him. “A majority of which is manufactured at that mill,” Hawk informed them. “And that hospital takes some of wounded we don’t have room or can’t get them here in time. That power plant helps power most of the sensor net in that sector. And that armory is used by both us and the military.” “That’s a pretty particular tornado,” Ryo commented. “So they only hit things that have some importance to our operation,” Jess said out loud. “Is there anything else in this line that is important to us?” “Well if the tornados keep heading in this direction,” Bridge extended the line. The map went 3D as it stopped at a mountain range, and a particular building embedded in the mountain. “It should hit right about here.” “I don’t suppose it’s too much to think that’s a backup base?”, Ken asked. “Ken now you can shut up,” Jess told him. “I’m just asking.” “I already took this information to the board,” Hawk told them. “Richardson and Brooks seem to take the information to heart and helped me convince the rest of the board. We’re on alert but we’re still trying to figure out how to defend ourselves against something like this. We’re built to hold up against natural phenomenon. Since this might be unnatural I’m not sure how well we’re going to do.” “Are there any clouds at all?”, Ryo asked. “Maybe there’s something hiding in those that we can take out.” “Possible,” Hawk mused. “Bridge did you get any meteorological data?” Ken zoned out as Dax started sensing something, something big and getting closer. Without thinking he turned his head toward the source. Jess eyes him wondering what was going on in that head of his. Then the alerts went off. “A tornado is starting to form,” Bridge said. “Detection system are going off as well, there’s a giant creature inside.” “I want Razor Wings in the air now!”, Hawk said. “Ken head topside to make sure everybody headed inside.” “Captain?” Ken asked stunned. “No questions Ken,” he said. “You want to be part of this unit this is some of things you have to do. Come on people we got a job to do!” As they ran for the hanger Bridge headed for the control room. Ken was left there by himself, “Okay then, where’s the door to the roof?” *** Razor Wings launched as soon as the alert sounded. People inside the hanger scrambled to get the jets in position to launch while the pilots and wingmen tried not to get in each other’s way as they ran for their vehicles. Elsewhere what limited defenses Castle had were brought online. Board members and non essential personal were secured in safety bunkers deeper in the mountain. Finally Razor Wings one and two launched and they got their first real look at the tornado, wondering how it was just standing there. “Do we have any idea on how we’re supposed to handle this?”, Bill asked. Behind him Hawk said, “We’ll try Ryo suggestion first. Ryo take a couple of Razor Wings and head in there.” “Acknowledged,” he replied. “Razor Wings twelve and fourteen, form up me.” “Have I mentioned this is the most dumbass thing we’ve done?”, Jess commented. “I’m trying not to think about it,” he told her. Flying in a triangle formation Jess and the other wingmen armed their weapons as they approached the cloud over the tornado. Entering the cloud there were a few tense silent moments that passed before all three exited. “The cloud is empty!”, Jess called out. “Repeat the cloud is empty!” “Then what’s keeping the tornado in place?”, Bill asked. “I think we’re about to find out,” Hawk said. Ken finally hit the roof of Castle as the tornado stopped spinning as fast to reveal a giant shape inside of it. Looking around as the winds whipped around him he spotted a couple of people huddled in the corner. “Lousy spot for some personal nookie time!”, he shouted over the howl of the winds. “Get inside!”, he pushed them toward the door he just came out of. He looked around to if there was anybody else dumb enough to be up there, beside him that was, even checking his wrist scanner to pick up any life signs. That tornado started to come toward the base as a set of laser like lightning came from the inside and struck Castle head on. Ken dropped to a knee as the entire base shook. “Target the shape in the funnel,” Hawk ordered. The armaments on Castle struck first as the Razor Wings joined in soon after. The funnel slowly faded away revealing the creature inside. Wild brown fur covered most of it’s body, with claw finger and toes on it’s exposed leathery skin. A low growl came from it’s large dog like nose and mouth. Pointing it’s hand at Castle that yellow laser like lightning erupted from this fingers. Various section of the base exploded. “Get that creature’s attention!” Ken got to his feet after the second assault and pulled out the Spark Magnifier. “This better work or I’m going to have some explaining to do.” He looked up at the jets in the sky, if any of them looked down here he was going to have some explaining to do any way. Instead of holding it over his head he pointed at the monster. Engulfed in a ball of light as always the column of light instead appeared in front of Castle. Before long Daxium stood before the creature and took a defensive stance. *** “Shiah!” Daxium didn’t waste any time in trying to push Degola away from the base. The furry monster protested as it tried to dig his clawed feet into the ground, throwing in a knee strike when he thought he could. After a brief struggle he was able to toss the giant to the ground with an angry grunt and continued toward the base. Daxium grabbed him from behind when it looked like he was going to fire those beams from his fingers. The soldiers manning the remaining guns of Castle’s defensive line to the opportunity to get in a few free shots the giant was giving them. Again Degola threw Daxium off and turned to face him, hitting him with those beams. “Try to aid Ultraman in getting that thing away from base,” Hawk said over the line. “Acknowledged,” Jess, Ryo and the other Razor Wings answered. Flying up behind Degola Jess got a target lock, “Firing missiles.” Several missiles from the formation of Razor Wings impacted the back of the monster’s head. It stumbled forward as Daxium got under it and flipped him over his shoulder. Jumping on top of the fallen monster he started pounding him on the head. Degola swiped his clawed fingers into his side. Daxium grunted in pain as he did it again and again. Forcing Daxium off of him Degola got to his feet fast and slashed those claws against the giant’s head several times, spark like energy flying off from the impact. Then point blank he fired those lasers from his fingers and sent Daxium straight back into the mountain side. Both the mountain and Castle shook from the impact. The creature pinned him there with those laser until another round of missile fire from the Razor Wings distracted him. Daxium fell to a knee as the jewel started flashing red. Getting to his feet he crossed his arms in front of his chest and flung them down going into Hyper Mode. Now Daxium was fast enough to avoid those lasers as he jumped and rolled out of the way as he slowly got closer. Jumping up one more time he spun around with a backhand that nailed Degola flush in that oversized jaw of his. Daxium jumped up again for a spin kick. Degola made a desperate grab for him. Dxium saw it coming and jumped back, flipping in the sky before landing on top of the mountain. He jumped off to nail him with another flying kick. Holding out his right hand he extended the Laser Flash and started whipping the monster with it. Trying to set the monster up for the Light Stream the air started to form a tornado around Degola again. The wind spun around him fast enough to deflect the light whip each time he tried. Again Daxium was rocked by those lasers. Setting his feet he got ready for the run as he drew in energy form the surroundings. His vision accelerated to the point where he could see where to strike between the wing gusts of the funnel. With almost a slight flinch Daxium was behind the monster as the jewel started to blink faster. Inside the tornado an explosion shot skyward in the funnel before it disappeared completely. Retracting the Laser Flash Daxium shot off into the sky. “Shiah!” *** A couple of hours later various crews were still cleaning up the internal damage near the front of Castle. Richardson and Peter walked the halls surveying the damage. “I never really expected that we would get hit,” Peter confessed. “Not like this at any point.” “We were just lucky I was able to talk them into putting in the gun emplacements into the place when we first built it,” Richardson told him. “Otherwise I don’t know how much damage would have been done to the place if that thing got any closer.” “Well maybe you can talk the board into upgrading our defenses.” “I’m planning on it. I trust I’ll have your help in the matter Peter?” “Of course Harold. You know you can count on me.” *** In another part of the base Alpha team was helping clean up the debris in a hanger that took a lot of the initial damage as Hawk walked in. “We got lucky this time. Casualties were kept to a minimum, a few unlucky bastards were caught outside but they’ll pull through. How are things in here?” Ryo spoke up, “A good chunk of the place isn’t that badly damaged actually. The only real damage was to the hanger opening over there. Some of the techs said they might have to rebuild the door completely.” “We might as well redo the entire hanger while we’re at it,” Hawk said as he took a good look around. “A possible hanger for that super jet?”, Ken said out loud. “My thoughts exactly,” Hawk confirmed with a nod. “We can still fit a few razor Wings in here. It’s going to take a little bit of juggling, but I think we can pull it off. Oh Ken the two found on the roof said you didn’t follow them down to the bunker?” “I was making sure nobody else was on the roof,” he answered. “Trying to play the hero?”, Jess teased. “What hero, I was following orders,” Ken shot back. Hawk spoke up, “Just remember there’s a fine line between a good soldier and a dead one. We just got you in this team Ken. I’m in no hurry to bury you.” “I’m not exactly in a hurry for that either,” he said. Then Ken noticed the look Hawk gave him before he turned around to say something to Bill. While he wondered what that meant he looked over to see Jess give him the same look before going back to her task. Neither Ryo nor Bill gave him that look, but he was not liking something about it just the same. That couldn’t mean what he thought it did, did it? ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 10
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in My Light ----- Ken usually liked being outdoors, it was one of the main reasons why he volunteered to accompany Bridge on this particular assignment. But right now he felt he had to get away from Castle for a little while. Ever since he saw Jess and the Captain give him those strange looks after that last creature attack he had the feeling the walls were starting to close in on him. They weren’t acting like anything was wrong now but he still couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched. Once they arrived at the park and the like he knew he was being watched now as everybody there turned to look at them. So much for that nice simple assignment he was looking for. “Can we get through please,” Bridge said as they exited the Scan Track. “What for?”, some muscle headed “genius” challenged. Like Ryo warned him Bridge kind of turned in on himself instead of asserting his authority. As many times as that happened with Jeff Ken felt his pain. “We have to check for any unusual creatures…,” he started to say. “There’s no creatures in this lake you freak.” “That’s what they said the first time,” Ken said backing Bridge up. “And look what happened there.” “You’re one of them,” he shot back. “I’m the new guy,” he said thinking quick, “they said that before I joined up.” “Nice one asshole.” “If another monster does show up I’m going to let you get stepped on.” “Let’s get the equipment,” Bridge said pushing Ken back toward the Scan Track. He looked back as the douchebag they were dealing with went back to talking with his friends. Both of them noticed he pointed at them and laughed. A few laughed with him. “They’re going to keep messing with us while we try to run these experiments aren’t they?” “The guy reminds me of my brother so probably,” Ken answered. “I should have stayed back at base,” Bridge mumbled. “You just have to show guys like that who’s in charge.” A lot of times he wished he learned that bit of wisdom a lot sooner. “You just have to figure out the best way to deliver the message. How mad would the Captain get if we flashed our weapons a few times?” Bridge’s only answer was to stare at him. “I’m just saying.” “I would rather check out the lake without damaging the equipment. Some of it is pretty delicate.” Ken looked back at the crowd, “And jackass and his friends are taking point on the main path to the lake” “Maybe we should wait until later to do this, after everybody leaves.” “Actually,” Ken said thinking it over, “I think I might know a pretty quiet spot.” Going off on one of the side path Ken lead him to a section of the lake side that pretty peaceful, in fact they were the only humans in view. “When did you find this place?”, Bridge asked as he took the view in. “Me and my Dad used to come here a lot when I was younger,” he answered thinking back. “Before he died this was our special spot. I still come up here from time to time.” Snorting a bit he added, “Hell I was here when that first monster showed up.” “How far away was it from you?”, Bridge asked. “I don’t know, a few yards that way I guess.” “Perfect,” Bridge said as he opened a case. Taking out a small submersible probe he gently placed it in the water. Opening another case by Ken’s feet he started controlling the device. “I might get this done sooner than I expected. If we can discover how those two monsters appeared out of this lake from basically out of nowhere maybe we can use that to predict where the others are going to show up.” Ken already knew where they came from, it was the who he was having trouble figuring out. Too bad he couldn’t share that bit of info with the rest of the team. Instead he said, “And we can have the troops ready for it.” “Exactly,” Bridge said, “and maybe I’ll get lucky and find a good luck charm of my own while we’re at it. Do you remember where you found yours, there may be more.” “It was back in there somewhere,” he said gesturing behind him. “I had a giant fire breathing monster on my tail, I was lucky I found it when I did.” “I wouldn’t be keeping notes in that situation either,” Bridge said with a small chuckle. Ken really hoped that was an innocent question and not some prodding about the story he told them. “Bridge to Castle, I’m starting he experiment now. Hopefully we’ll have some results soon.” “Acknowledged, just make sure you keep the pet project in line.” Bridge ducked his head a little, “He can hear you.” Ken smirked in amusement, “Oops.” *** While Ken might have found it funny Hawk didn’t when he found out about it. In fact he was less than pleased when he heard a few people on base use that term. A quick grilling gave him the source of this particular nickname, and that didn’t help matters any. In one of the conference rooms he stood in front of Alpha team and stared them down. “I have worked very hard to cultivate a feeling of team unity. And it annoys me to no end to have that feeling sabotaged from within. Now I don’t have a problem with a little good natured ribbing. But this ‘pet project’ thing is going too far. Now everything points to it starting in this unit. So the question is simple, which one of you have been calling Ken the pet project?” Hawk’s eyes went to Bill first as the main suspect, so did Jess and Ryo. But he was looking confused as they were. Then everybody looked back at Ken who had his hand over his head, “Yo.” “Why are you calling yourself the pet project?”, Jess asked for the group. “Because I was getting tired of everybody calling me the civilian,” he answered. Hawk pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, “Ken…” “What? It’s the truth.” “No it’s not,” Hawk argued. “I’ve told… we’ll talk about this later.” Taking a moment to get himself under control he did end up mumbling, “This is not helping things.” Back in control he looked at Bridge, “Did the tests at the lake reveal anything?” “Nothing Captain,” he answered. “It’s just like at the mountain range when that flying creature attacked, everything was normal. I was really hoping that since two creatures appeared from the lake there would at least be a clue.” “But initial tesst on the lake said it was normal the first time too,” Jess said. “Yeah and another one popped out of it a few weeks later,” Ryo added. “It had to come from somewhere.” “Maybe we should be looking for a giant door to knock on,” Bill joked. “How about we set you on a giant hook for bait instead,” Ken shot at him. Bill shot him a look but started smiling after a bit. “Gentlemen,” Hawk said sternly, although he was silently pleased those two were finally starting to get along, or at least faking it for the rest of them. “Bridge keep studying those readings those results in case you missed something. While you’re at it check any surveys of the lake and the surrounding areas. Maybe there’s an underground cavern housing these things or something.” “So we’re going with an underground society of monsters now?”, Ryo asked sounding a bit skeptical. “I remember reading a book where a scientist claimed the world was hollow,” Hawk answered him. “Like you said they have to be coming from somewhere, and I wouldn’t rule out anything at this point. Dismissed.” “Hey I just thought of something,” Bill said as they headed for the door. “Don’t strain that lone brain cell now,” Ryo joked. “Don’t quit your day job, or your night job for that matter,” Bill shot back. “But if the Captain is right maybe that’s where Ultraman comes from too. He could be like a guard or something.” “If he is he’s doing a lousy job of it,” Ryo commented. Jess took a quick look back at Ken as they exited the room. Ken started rubbing the back of his neck when she turned back around. *** “Mr. Richardson! Mr. Richardson!”, the crowd of reporters shouted as Patricia and a couple of security guards tried to guide him and Peter through them. “Do you have any ideas where these creatures are coming from? What are you doing about them?” “Mr. Brooks what about the giant? Why isn’t anything being done about him?”, a reporter was able to get an arm through and put a digital recorder in his face. “No comment,” Peter said before one of the guards cleared the offending arm out of the way. Eventually they were able to get to Richardson’s limo and Patricia was able to herd them inside without much trouble. The reporters wisely stayed out from the front of the vehicle as it pulled away. “Is it me or are they getting worse?”, Peter asked as he loosen his tie a bit once there were away from the pack. “They are what they always were,” Richardson said, “vultures looking for any piece of scrap they can get their hands on.” “Some of them are asking more and more about Ultraman.” Patricia glanced sideways at Richardson as she looked through her files. “Not everybody sees him as the hero that you see him as.” Peter waited a moment before adding, “My father is starting to ask questions about him and our lack of a response so far.” “I’m putting the final touches on a official statement. The public will know our official stance in a couple of days.” “I get the feeling the public won’t particularly like our official statement once they hear it,” Peter said dryly. “That’s why I’m looking for the appropriate spin on the matter,” he replied. “Make it a little more palatable.” “Well you better hope most of the public isn’t like my father. He wants us to open fire on him the next time he shows.” After a moment Richardson said, “Have him contact me when it’s convenient for him. I’ll try to get him to see things my way.” Peter smirked, “I think you had an easier time getting the board to agree to those defense upgrades.” Richardson smirked back,” Oh I learned to prepare for battle when we were on opposite sides a long time ago. Fortunately his son is a little more agreeable.” Peter smiled at his reflection in the window, “I like to think of myself as a little more open minded.” *** While walking down the hallway Ken paused mid step. Dax got a quick sense of something, but not here. It was further away and he lost it as soon as he got it. Times like these hated that Dax could do that. And he learned he really couldn’t do anything about it, and Daxium learned to be a little more patient as well. His first instinct was still to go after it but knew he couldn’t given their situation. “Maybe whoever’s behind this is giving their powers a quick check,” Ken said making sure nobody was around to overhear him. Daxium didn’t reply. “Just a thought.” “Hey Ken,” He looked back to see Jess and Ryo catch up with him. “Ryo told me you tried the simulator again,” she started smiling, “and failed again.” “Traitor,” Ken shot at him. His defense was, “I thought you already told her.” She looked at Ryo and grinned a wicked grin, “He also told me how obsessed with you were back in the academy.” Ken just looked at him. “I thought you would have told your girlfriend that already,” Ryo told him. Ken quickly said, “Ex-girlfriend.” “Former girlfriend,” Jess said at more or less the same time.” “And how did I know that was going to happen,” Ryo joked. “You’re suddenly psychic,” Ken told him. “Quick what am I doing tonight?” “Nothing with her,” he answered pointing toward Jess. “He has the gift.” Jess was the only one who didn’t laugh. “I think we went too far.” Ryo looked at her then said, “If she goes for the gun I’m hiding behind you.” “Some friend you are,” Ken said. “We’re not that close,” he shot back. “I can shot around Ken to get to you,” Jess informed him. “I’m willing to put that to the test,” Ryo told her “Anytime you’re ready.” “Don’t I get a say in this?”, Ken interjected. “No you don’t,” Jess told him. “Name the time and place.” “So what were you guys doing before this popped up?”, Ken asked trying to change the subject. “To the cafeteria for some coffee,” Ryo answered him. “Do you want to come?” “As long as it doesn’t involve me getting shot at I’m all for it.” “I’m not making any promises so don’t annoy me,” Jess told him. “Learned that lesson a long time ago thanks.” They continued to talk and joke all the way to the cafeteria. Times like this Ken actually felt like he belonged. Now if he could just figure out what that low buzz Dax was sending him was. *** Overlooking a field the Avatar watched as a strange yellow and purple colored flower quickly grew and slowly start to overtake the field. This was definitely one of his masters more interesting invasion plans. They wouldn’t quite explain what this Gijera was capable of. Only that his dark energy would make him immune to the effects. Too bad they couldn’t confirm if it would affect the giant or his host. He was going to have to find away to get Scott out here to find out. “Wow look at these,” a group of college aged students came into the field and looked over the flowers. The Avatar went further back into the bush to avoid detection. “Professor what are these? I’ve never seen them before.” “I’m not sure either,” the oldest of the group knelt and took a camera out of his pocket. “I’m going to take a picture and do an image search.” Getting up and uploading the image to the university computer he walked deeper into the field. From where he was the Avatar could feel a dark energy surge from underground. Soon the flowers started spewing a yellowish powder into the air. “What the…?”, the professor said as he and the others looked around in confusion. One of the students got a weird look on his face then suddenly started smiling. Holding his arms out he started running around in circles, “Weeee!” The others started to smile and do strange things as well. The Avatar jogged to the middle of the field with the powder still fresh in the air. Like his masters said he was unaffected. Waving a hand in front of the Professor’s he didn’t get a reaction. With a low energy blast he sent the one who apparently thought he was a plane or something flying. After a moment he got back up and started it all over again. “Well now,” he said looking at those affected by the powder, “this is interesting.” *** Reports of the field reached them quickly enough, especially when several police officers sent to check it out fell victim to the pollen as well. A Scan Track pulled up behind one of the patrol cars. Ken and the other two made sure their air masks were securely attached to their helmets before exiting. A short hike later and they found the field and the quickly growing group frolicking around it. “Oh this is going to be fun,” Ken said, heavy on the sarcasm. “Don’t they have like biohazards suits for shit like this?” “It wasn’t deemed necessary for this one,” the driver said. “Betcha if one of the higher ups was involved we’d get more gear than we needed.” “You’re not going to find an argument here. Come on, let’s get closer.” Going to the closest person Ken waved a hand in front of his face, then shock him a bit. “I don’t think Hawk wants us to punch these guys to wake them up,” he said, mainly to himself. As the third one ran a medical scanner on the one by him Ken hit the communicator on his chest, “Scott to Castle.” “Castle here,” Hawk answered. “What’s the situation?” “It’s like they said Captain, a bunch of people just playing around in a field with a bunch of strange flowers.” “How would you describe their condition?” A woman started doing cartwheels past him. He watched her as he answered, “The phrase ‘stoned out of their gourd’ comes to mind.” “Franklin can I get I better opinion?”, Hawk asked. “I’d say that’s a pretty good assessment Captain,” Franklin answered. “There definitely some signs. I need to do some blood work to be sure. I’m going to try and guide one of the affected away from the field to see if that has any effect.” “Good idea,” Hawk said, “keep us informed. Collect some of the pollen and one of those flowers so the scientist can run some tests on them. They been demanding a sample when we first got the reports and I want them off my back ASAP.” “Maybe we should torch the plants after we get those samples,” Ken offered. “That powder’s pretty much all over the place so we have plenty of samples.” “I’m keeping that option on the maybe pile,” Hawk told him, “but we may have to if it gets worse.” “Wow, one of my ideas wasn’t shot down for a change,” Ken said without thinking. Then he noticed their driver was just standing there, “Steve?” Ken started for him as he started hopping around like a rabbit. “Of shit, Franklin…!”, but he was holding hands with the one he was trying to get out of there and dancing round in circles. “Ken what’s going on?”, Hawk demanded. “Captain we got… we got…” He tried to fight the lightheaded feeling invading his head as he tried to get out of the field. “Ken,” he stopped as he saw Jess stand in front of him. He tried to speak as she came to him, “I can’t fight it anymore. I still love you Ken and I need to be with you.” He stood there totally alone in the field, smiling under the air mask, wrapping his arms around the invisible person in front of him. At the far end of the field a huge stalk emerged from the ground. A yellow and purple bulb near the top quickly grew as well as those in the field ignored it’s presence. *** The various war rooms inside Castle were going crazy once the monster plant appeared and they lost contact with the team they sent in. With the police and military help they had a two mile quarantine in place around the plant, getting out anybody who wasn’t affected yet. Half of the surveillance teams they had were keeping on the wind patterns while the other half were looking for any signs of aggression from the monster plant. Hawk was watching both as the rest of Alpha team studied the situation. “Bridge do we have any idea what’s in that thing?”, he asked touching the bulb in the holo image. “We can’t get a clear reading Captain,” he answered from his station. “Some of the scientists are speculating it may contain more of that pollen.” “I don’t want to think about how much of that stuff that thing can spit out,” Bill commented. “We’re going to have to take out that plant before it can mature enough to do that,” Ryo said stating the obvious. “Do you think we’re going to have enough time to get the affected out of there first?”, Bill asked. “We better,” Jess said as she leaned on the table. She noticed how they were looking at her and stood a little straighter. “I was thinking about their safety,” she quickly said. “We’re worried about Ken too,” Hawk assured her. “We’re going to make sure everybody is out of there before we attack, if we can. If it looks like that thing is going to open we’re going to have to risk it if we can’t get them out of there in time. Jess head down to the hanger and join Commander Jamira and help them get the affected out of there. Ryo, Bill…” “Captain,” Bridge cut in, “the affected are staring to move away from the field and the plant.” He showed them a satellite image to highlight his point. “What does that mean?”, Ryo ask. “That we might have caught a break,” Hawk said. “Jess head to the hanger now. Bill, Ryo get ready. Bill I’m with you. Ryo we’ll find a wingman for you on the way to the Razor Wings. Let’s go.” “Rodger,” they said as they ran out of the war room. *** “Of all the times to be stuck here,” the Avatar complained as he paced room. Scott was affected by Gijera’s pollen. He could stop Ultraman for good right there and then. But he couldn’t get out of Castle without raising suspicion, not with that lockdown Hawk ordered. Not even Richardson could overrule him on that one. The perfect opportunity and he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. *** Ken and the others wondered out of the field and into the nearby woods still in the dream like daze the pollen put them in. Inside his mind Jess was still hanging on to him as other people came up to him. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been treating you all these years little bro,” Jeff said. “I’ve always respected you and was a bit jealous.” Richardson clapped him on the shoulder, “I don’t know what I was thinking doing you like that my boy. You deserve better than that for putting your life on the line all the time.” “Come on Ken,” Jess said in his ear, “let’s get out of here so we can make up for lost time.” “Ken,” Daxium stood before him. The others around him didn’t acknowledge his presence. “You need to snap out of this and wake up.” “Not now Dax,” he mumbled as Jess started kissing him. “Ken this is not real,” Daxium insisted. “I don’t care.” “Ken this all an illusion created by the pollen the creature created. It shows you your heart’s desire to trap you in this state. It will do the same to your entire planet if it’s not stopped. You have to resist it.” “Go away Dax,” he said before turning away from him. “Ken,” he stopped when he recognized the voice. The older man standing before looked exactly like he remembered him. Before the sickness started eating away at him. Before… “Dad?”, he gasped as everybody else around him disappeared. “But you’re…” “I know son,” he said with that all too familiar smile, “but I’m here now.” Ken ran up and hugged his father, “Oh god Dad you have no idea how much I missed you.” “I know son,” he said in that gentle way of his as he rubbed his back. “I’m happy to see you too. I’m proud of you son, of everything you’ve done. But you have to make a choice now.” “Dad?”, he looked at him in confusion. Then it dawned on him, “No, no Dad don’t make me choose. I can’t lose you again.” “Remember what I told you son. And remember I’ll love you no matter what choice you make.” In the real world Ken stopped where he was. His right hand slowly started to go inside his jacket, shaking like it was fighting against itself the entire time. Finally he grabbed the Spark Magnifier. A cry of anguish escaped his throat as he held it over his head and activated it. *** Daxium turned around and found Gijera. Walking toward him he checked the ground around the field to make sure no humans would be in his way. IN the distance Razor Wings came into view. Wearing an air mask as well Bill asked, “What took Ultraman so long to show up this time?” The only reason Hawk could figure out was, “Maybe he was waiting for the area to clear too. Hawk to all units, start flying in a holding pattern while Ultraman takes care of the plant. Remember, if your pilot starts acting strange I want the wingman to take control of the jet and get out of here before you get affected as well. Pilots, if your wingman does the same thing deactivate your weapon systems and do the same. Is that clear?” He was greeted with a round of “Yes sirs” and Rodgers”. He watched as Ultraman took one last look around before continuing toward the giant plant. “Do you think Dr. Williams is going to be pissed that we might not used those incendiary missiles his team developed?”, Bill asked “He’ll get over it and I’m sure we’ll get another chance.” Gijera didn’t react as Daxium got closer and stood in front of it. Studying it a bit he reared back and pounded the bulb. The plant finally reacted and let out a small cry. He continued the assault to try and dislodge the bulb so it couldn’t shot out anymore of that pollen. In order to retaliate it raised it’s roots out of the ground and struck him in the back. It lifted out some more and tried to attack him again. Daxium blocked the roots as they came at him and ducked a couple that were coming behind him. One came at his feet and Daxium back flipped out of the way and unleashed a Flashbolt. Gijera cried out again as part of it’s stalk exploded and started smoldering. The giant ran at him and jumped up landing a flying kick. Now that he was in range again those roots struck again. Daxium blocked them again as best as he could before one wrapped itself around his arm. As he struggled the bulb opened. He looked on stunned as a small mouth cried out at him. It was enough of a distraction for a root to hit him in the back and knock him forward as the root pulled to keep him off balance. He was close enough to the mouth for it to clamp down on his forearm. Daxium grunted out in pain as he struggled to get free. The body of Gijera created an electrical that shocked him. Struggling harder he finally freed himself and tried to get some space between them again. The roots knocked him back closer to the monster. Another root wrapped around his ankle, he looked down as another wrapped around his arm again and a third around his neck. Gijera squeezed harder to prevent Daxium from getting away again, even going so far as to shocking him into place. The mouth in the bulb seemed to cackle as it lifted him off his feet. Shocking him a few more times he started slamming him into the ground. “Williams is going to get his wish,” Hawk mumbled. “Open fire with the new missiles.” The missiles flew from the razor Wings in position. Explosions quickly turned into flames on impact. Gijera let him go as pain racked it’s body. With the jewel starting to flash as he crawled away and the firebombing continued. Turning around and putting his hands by the jewel he started to draw in energy from the surrounding area and fired off the Dimensional Strom Ray. Gijera howled one more time before exploding. “Make sure you destroy the root,” Hawked ordered his men. They continued to carpet bomb the spot where it was. A large stray root flailed around in the flames. Daxium flew up into the air and unleashed another Dimensional Storm Ray that finished off the root and the system it had underground. The smaller Gijera flowers stopped spewing their pollen and quickly started to wilt. Those under it’s spell quickly broke out of it and looked around in confusion. In the air Daxium located the lead Razor Wing and gave it a nod of appreciation. Hawk raised two fingers to his helmet in a mini salute. Seeing and sensing that nothing was left of Gijera Daxium flew off into the darkening skies, “Shiah!” They were still finding victims in the surrounding wood long after it was over and they extinguished the fire. Usually they were confused about what happened, in some cases slightly embarrassed. Then Jess finally located Ken. Helmet by his feet he silently sat against a tree holding his head as tears fell down his cheeks. “Ken?”, she went up to him and knelt down beside him. “Ken are you alright?” “Fine for having my heart fucking ripped out all over again,” he muttered. She reached out for him and he moved away. “I’ll be fine, give me a moment.” Jess pressed her lips together as old annoyances crept back into her mind. Some things apparently didn’t change that much after all. *** Hawk gave him some time off after his ordeal. Ken shot out of there as soon as he said thank you. After all that happened there was only one place he could go. Standing on the bank of the lake at his and his Dad’s special spot he looked out over the water. “I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t say anything the last time I was here,” he said as he sat on the same old log. “I was on the clock, not a whole lot of time to talk and not look crazy. And I guess I owe you another one,” he let out a small sad chuckle. “I don’t know what to do, I made the choice I know you wanted me to make. The one I know you would have made, but it hurts so much.” Choking back the tears he looked away from the lake. Facing it again he made himself talk about something else, “You would not believe the spot I’m in know. I mean I know having an alien inside of me was going to complicate things, but not like this. It’s bad enough I was blackmailed into joining this outfit and not tell anybody the real reason why. Now I think a couple of them are staring to figure it out. Not just any two either, my ex-girlfriend and the Captain. You would have like Jess I think, I can see you giving me hell for letting her get away. And Captain Hawk reminds me of you in a way. And if there’s any two I’d want to tell it would be them, but I don’t know what’s going to happen if Richardson finds out they know. I wouldn’t put it past him to try and get rid of them in some way. I can’t confide in the only other people who know because they’re tight with Richardson, and I know one of them will tell him.” Sighing a bit he listened to the wind before he said, “I never felt so alone in my life Dad.” “You are never truly alone Ken,” Daxium said in his head. “Not if you don’t want to be.” “Thanks Dax.” He sat there for a half hour or so before hearing somebody walk up the path behind him. He was a little surprised to see Jess standing here. He was even more surprised to see her in some civilian jeans, shirt and a light jacket. “I figured you’d be up here,” she said as she sat on the log next to him. “The Captain was starting to get worried about you after you bolted out of there. I told him I’d check up on you.” She looked around and commented, “This place hasn’t changed a bit since you showed it to me that first time. Even this log looks the same.” “It’s why it’s one of my favorite places. How are the other victims?” “They’re doing good,” she told him. “Most of the said they experienced what they wanted most.” Then she looked at him. Getting real uncomfortable real fast he said, “Did Steve explain why he started hopping around?” “He wouldn’t elaborate,” she smiled before looking serious again. “How about you, are you going to elaborate?” “There’s nothing to elaborate on,” he said trying to shut this down. “Do I really have to point out you were the only one we found in tears?” “What do you want me to say?”, he snapped, anger getting the best of him. “I had what I wanted the most.” As hard as he tried he couldn’t keep it from coming out, “I had you back. My brother actually respected me. My Dad was still…”, he tried to choke back the tears again as the pain and emptiness threatened to over take him again. He couldn’t stop it this time. “Hey, it’s okay,” Jess said as she rubbed his shoulders as soon as the tears started to fall. “I’m right here if you need a shoulder.” Finally he admitted the one thought that ran through his head the entire time, and most of his adult life, “Damn it, it’s not fair.” “I know,” she said softly. She stayed with him until he was ready to go. *** “And I say his action today and before proves that this man, this Ultraman is a friend of humanity. But I assure you the moment he proves he is not he will wish he had never shown his silver face…”, Richardson image froze on the television as an older man faced the real one on another monitor. “I still don’t like this Harry,” the older man said. “We still don’t know anything about that thing.” “Peter said as much the other day,” Richardson said. “I’m sure he told you what I told him.” “What you keep repeating like a parrot. My words not Peter’s,” he amended when he saw that look on his face. “I imagine the board wasn’t particularly happy with that little speech of yours.” “Some were, some weren’t,” he waved it off. “It’ll blow over like it always does.” “Unless this Ultraman character makes a monkey out of you.” “I’ll worry about it if it happens Charles,” he snorted. “Although the way Peter is playing things I get the feeling you’re coaching him from the sidelines.” “You know what they say, like father like son,” he chuckled. “Do you want me to tell him to back off a bit?” “No, it reminds me of the old days in a way. Back when we were fighting tooth and nail to the top together.” “And at times against each other if I recall,” both of them shared a small laugh. “I’m sure you have more important things to worry about than bantering around with this old man. Take care Harry.” “You too Charles.” The screen went black and he turned off the television. Leaning back in his chair he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Hands starting to glow with dark energy he ran those hands slowly over his face. Wrinkles started to disappear as he started looking younger. Moving those still glowing hands over his head gray hairs turned blond. In moments the man the world knew as Peter Brooks was in the older man’s place and rose from the chair. “That doesn’t get any easier,” he said popping his neck and fixing himself a drink. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 11
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- Peter Brooks stared out one of the windows of his Family’s estate. For generations a Brooks has lived within these walls and he had no intention of stopping that tradition anytime soon. For a long time if he had anything thing to say about it and he planned on having that say, especially with his master’s gifts. Pushing the boundaries of their limits, despite their warnings, he grew stronger. And he was almost off the ground that last time too, he as sure of it. Then one of the help walked into the room disrupting his concentration. He dissipated the energy aura around him fast enough to keep his secret intact. Still he almost gave into the desire to blast her to atoms. He held back only because he would still have the skeleton to deal with. “Note to self,” he said out loud, “find out how much power it is going to take to disintegrate skeletal structure.” Walking away from the window his thoughts turned toward Scott and Ultraman as his phone went off. He looked at it with some confusion when he realized the number calling him was his own. Mainly out of curiosity he answered it, “Hello?” At the same time a dark energy vortex started right in front of him and the shape of one of his masters appeared inside. “I told you not to contact me here,” he hissed as he looked around to see if any of the servants were around. “You do not tell us what we can and can not do Avatar,” he told him. “And your insubordination will not be tolerated in front of our new ally.” “What new ally?”, he asked warily. “One from beyond this pitiful planet. Check the primitive communication device in your hand.” Looking at his phone one more time he cautiously put it back up to his ear and repeated , “Hello?” This time he was greeted with a strange otherworldly laughter. *** In a special military museum two guards wandered the darkened halls on their nightly patrol. “I still don’t see why they need two of us,” the younger of the pair complained like always. “Nothing ever happens around here.” “Company policy,” the older one said as he swung his light around the exhibit. “Just because nothing has happened doesn’t mean nothing won’t.” “Do you have any idea how tired I am of hearing that?” He shot back, “Probably as tired as I am of hearing you complain about it.” They walked the rest of the way in silence, just like the old man preferred. He spent several hours a night trying to figure out what he did to the manager to get stuck training his punk. At least they were near the end of their rounds then he could pass him off to Dan for monitor duty, then he could get some quiet time for an hour. “Chuck come in,” his walkie talkie squawked as it came to life. “What is it Dan?” “They seriously need to upgrade the equipment around here,” the youth complained, again. “I got some movement in the exhibit in front of you,” he answered. “I can’t make it out.” “No way,” the youth said, squinting his eyes and trying to see through the darkness. Chuck frowned, they weren’t supposed to trick the young buck here with the report scare for another couple of weeks yet. Nice for Dan to let him know the time table had changed. “Alright Dan, me and junior will check it out.” “Aren’t we supposed to get guns for this?”, the youth asked. “Not in the budget.” Carefully checking from the opening of the room Chuck slowly walked in. They were in the Desert Storm exhibit, and Dan usually hid by the old Hummer in the middle of the room. Making sure the young gun was still behind him he made his way towards it. Not seeing his reflection in the case on the left he figured he was hiding somewhere on the right. As they got closer Chuck figured Dan must have found a good spot hiding spot this time around because he couldn’t see him anywhere. Walking past it he was a little disappointed nothing happened, “I just saw it again,” Dan unexpectedly called in. “It’s behind you.” Dan had better not be trying to get him too, otherwise he’d stick this flashlight up his ass. He motioned for the kid to head back toward the door while he checked the back. He didn’t get far before he saw a flash of light in front of the Hummer. Heading over he saw the kid was just standing there. He wasn’t moving and had a freaked out look on his face, and a slight glow around his body. Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye he turned to his left. There was nothing there at all. Turning toward the door he went for his walkie talkie as he saw a pair of round glowing eyes. Hearing an echoing “Hohohoho,” a huge claw like appendage pointed at him and there was a bright flash of light. *** Dan ran out of there the moment he saw the thing blast Chuck and the kid and flagged down the first police car he came across. After checking it out for themselves they immediately took him to the station and contacted the UNDF. Captain Hawk and Commander Jamira responded to the call on their behalf, more of a PR move on Richardson’s part than anything else. Currently Jamira was staring Dan down in one of the interrogation rooms. “I think you’re wasting our time,” Jamira sneered. “You and whatever buddy you have working here are trying to get famous by pulling one over on us.” “The police saw the same thing I did,” Dan insisted. “I have the police reports right here,” Hawk, who was sitting next to the table with a data pad in hand, tapped a folder hat was on it. “We both read it.” “And I don’t have to believe it,” the Commander stated while Hawk kept his attention on the pad. “And I’m not a big believer in wasting time and money on the job,” Hawk stood to show both of them the image on the pad. Dan looked surprised as he recognized the Desert Storm exhibit and his two frozen co-workers. “Bridge just hacked into the security feed, this is live footage.” Jamira grumbled something and walked away. “Did you see what did this?” “Not clearly,” Dan answered. “I saw a shape sticking to the shadows. That’s why I sent in Chuck and the kid. Then that thing did … that to them and I went looking for help.” “Left them there,” Jamira muttered a little too loudly. “You did the right thing,” Hawk assured him. “Is there anything else that you can remember? Anything that seemed out of place.” “Well,” he said slowly, “Chuck looked one way for some reason, then when he turned around he got blasted.” “All right,” Hawk nodded, “is there anything else?” “Somebody was laughing,” as it occurred to him. “Laughing?”, Hawk repeated as Jamira grumbled something else as he left the room. “Don’t mind him.” “I know it sounds crazy,” Dan admitted, “But over the walkie I heard somebody laughing before Chuck got shot.” “Did you recognize the voice?” “It wasn’t anybody I knew, if it was they were disguising their voice.” “Thank you for the information sir,” Hawk said. “We’ll check it out immediately.” Shaking Dan’s hand he exited the room and found Jamira pacing the halls. “You were voted Mr. Personality back in school weren’t you?” “I don’t like having my time wasted,” he stated. “And I don’t like how everybody expects us to act like the police.” “I think this one is a little over the police’s head,” Hawk said looking at the video feed on the pad again. “No this looks like something that’s right up our alley.” “Then I’ll take my team in and blast the thing back to wherever it came from.” “We still have civilians in there,” he reminded him. “And they’re probably already dead,” Jamira snapped. “We don’t know that for sure,” Hawk argued. “And I’m not going to operate under that assumption. I’m sending in Alpha Team.” “Looking for more glory for Monster Squad,” he sneered. “The glory hunter tag belongs to beta Team the last I heard,” Hawk said leaving Jamira standing there steaming. *** Within the hour Alpha Team was mobilized and at the museum. Ken tried not think about this to much, shooting things in the sky was one thing but up close that was another thing entirely, while Ryo and Jess checked the door in the front of the building. “Clear,” Ryo said as he waved them in. Procedure and protocol swirled in his head as he tried to remember everything they drilled into him these past couple of months. “Just like we practiced,” Ryo said as he past him on the way into the building. Ken tried not to think about the times he screwed up in practice. Heading toward the door that lead to the room the disturbance was in Ken and Bill checked the entry way. “Clear,” Bill said after he looked at Ken who nodded. Heading toward the door to the exhibit they kept an eye out for anything strange an ear open for that laughter the Captain told them about. Getting there they could see one of the guards still standing there like a glowing statue. Ryo and Bill took point at the door. Looking at the gun in his hand he hit the button that that activated reticule in his visor. Jess saw him do it and smirked, “Cheater.” Ken smirked back, “Some of us didn’t have a mobile with six shooters over their bed.” “Neither did I,” Jess told him. Then that smirk got a little bigger, “They were forty fives.” Ryo waved them in and they made their way to the closest of the guards while the other two covered them. Ken kept an eye on the area while Jess ran her wrist scanner over the guy. “I’m getting life signs but they’re faint. Ken check the other one.” “Right,” he hurried over as Bill ran in to cover him. “I’m getting the same thing,” he said after a moment. “I wonder if we can move them,” Bill wondered out loud. “We’ll find out later,” Jess said. “Wade to Bridge, do you see anything?” “Just you four,” he answered. “Can you get to the security room? Maybe we can see what they saw from there.” “Watanabe to Miller,” Ryo said into her communicator,” meet us in the main lobby. Bridge can you give us direction to the security…?” “Hohohoho.” The sound echoed throughout the room as they tried to cover every cover they could see. Standing back tot back with the rest of them Ken tried to hid his confusion. Why didn’t Dax tell him anything was there? “Nine o’clock!”, Bill shouted. All of them turned to face what he saw. They saw glowing eyes and humongous claws that were connected to a creature with dull gray skin and a segmented looking armor, almost insect like body. Then it split into four identical ones in the next second. “Open fire,” Ryo ordered. None of them hesitated in pulling the trigger. All of them were stunned as their shots went through all four of them. Then they disappeared without a trace. “What the fuck?’, Bill muttered. That thought ran through Ken’s mind as well as Dax still wasn’t telling him the creature was there. “Did anybody get that thing’s life signs?”, Jess asked. “I couldn’t zero in on it,” Ryo told her. Then they saw those glowing eyes at the far end of the room. “Watch out,” he was able to get out before it fired it fired a beam from it’s claw. They got behind cover fast to avoid ending up like the other two. “Where in the hell did that one come from?” “Think I got something,” Bill said as he messed with his scanner. “Goes without saying that it’s not human.” “Send the information to the rest of us,” Ryo told him. In moments they saw what he picked up. “Keep an eye on your scanners and an eye on your surroundings.” “I just lost it,” Jess announced, as did the rest of them. “What the hell is that thing,” Ryo said out loud. As the three of them went forward a little bit Ken stayed where he was. They were going to need a little extra help on this one. Making sure he wasn’t in their line of sight he reached for the Spark Magnifier. “No Ken,” Daxium said suddenly. He couldn’t keep the shock out of his face, “What do you mean no?” “This being is not my target.” Before he could ask what that meant he saw the thing again. “Behind you!”, hearing his warning Jess quickly turned around and shot it in the shoulder. It disappeared again in an instant. “Good thing civilian held back,” Bill commented. Too bad that wasn’t his actual plan. “We better stick to pairs,” Jess offered. “Ken stick with me.” They took half the room while Ryo and Bill took the other. Everyone glanced at their scanners every so often to see if they got another hit. Ken saw movement out of the corner of his eye and pointed his gun at it. Then he remembered what happened to the guard as it faded from sight. “Ken look out!”, Jess shouted as he started to turn around. She pushed him out of the way as she took the blast. She stopped moving and emitted the same glow as the guards. “Jess!”, Ryo shouted. “No,” Ken whispered. Without thinking he leaned to the side and started firing at the creature. Again laughter filled the air as images of the creature shot toward the door and out of the room. “All units outside look out for the creature,” Ryo said. Ken stood up and stared at Jess feeling totally helpless. *** “What do you mean no?” Without Scott knowing Richardson had all of his conversations recorded when he went out on a mission. As such he knew he could talk to the alien. Of course he knew that before he made that offer to join the UNDF. “What do you mean no?” Right now he, Patricia and Williams listened to a particular line over and over. “What do you mean no?” “The alien refused to help?”, Richardson said through his teeth as he sat there fuming. “We had a deal! Scott was supposed to be able to control him!” “I don’t think Scott could control him to begin with,” Williams said. Richardson gave him a look that made him fall backwards into his chair. “I believe,” Patricia spoke up, “what the good doctor is trying to say is while he is in Scott’s body Daxium is the one in control when he is called upon.” “Exactly,” Williams said as he freed himself from the chair. “Scott and Daxium are two separate entities. He can’t control Daxium any more than he can control Scott.” “We had a deal!,” Richardson exploded, Williams nearly fell back intot eh chair. “He fights those monsters for us. Why didn’t he do that? Did Scott say why?” “Scott isn’t exactly talkative at the moment,” his bodyguard informed him. “He’s too busy staying with Wade and the other victims. I pushed him on it, he eventually pushed back. From the ramblings Scott implied Daxium wouldn’t confront the creature because it was from this universe and not the dark one.” “Why does that matter?”, Richardson demanded. “Scott wouldn’t say,” she told him, “in fact I don’t think he knows either.” Richardson pounded the desk. “This is all speculation on my part of course,” Williams spoke up, “but the alien’s mission is to fight and defeat creatures from this dark universe. Since the creature is from this universe he doesn’t see it as the enemy.” “He had better start,” Richardson said, “or he and Scott are going to star in the next alien autopsy.” “That would be doing Scott a favor in his current state of mind,” Patricia said. Richardson humphed at that statement. *** In one of the lab several scientist and technicians ran scanners of the affect people. Since the glow didn’t affect anybody else who touched it they were transported back to Castle. Ken silently watched them from one of the observation rooms. Several times Daxium tried to tell him that he was sorry this turn of events. Each time he ignored the attempt. Right know he focused on the techs as they continued their work and went over the readings they collected. Hawk walked into the room and stood beside him as he watched with him. After a bit he said, “They say they’re in a state of suspended animation. They’re perfectly fine we just need to figure out how to get them out of it. One of them said something about hacking into Jess’s wrist scanner to see if they can get some sort of reading.” Ken lowered his head a little bit. The Captain put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “She’s going to be fine Ken.” “It shouldn’t have happened,” he muttered. “Nobody is blaming you son,” he assured him. “My first instinct would have been to go for the first image too. And she would have done that the same for any one of us.” He watched as Ken squeezed his eyes shut. “We’ll get that thing if it’s the last thing we do. Hell Ultraman won’t even know there was a problem.” Hawk didn’t expect him to snarl a little more. “Like he even cares,” Ken said as he turned and left the room, almost running over Ryo in the process. “Easy Ken,” he said quickly getting out of the way. “Ken?” “Let him go,” Hawk told him as he walked into the room and joined him “I didn’t think he’d take it that hard,” Ryo commented. “I mean I know they picked up the friendship again once he joined but still.” “Just give him some time to get his head on straight. Any updates on the scanner?” “Bridge is writing a program to get through the field interference as we speak.” Hawk nodded. Ryo looked at his wingman and the others and said, “Is it wrong that I was expecting Ultraman to show up at some point during it all?” “I think we all were son,” he commented. Hawk thought about Ken’s reaction just now and some other things he’d overheard and seen since he joined up. “Ryo, do you know where Ken stands on the whole Ultraman business?” After thinking it over he had to admit, “I don’t really know. I’ve seen him look a little irritated or annoyed when some of the other units say they want a shot at taking Ultraman down. But outside of that whenever somebody asks him about it he gives as vague of an answer as possible and he changes the subject. Why?” “No real reason,” Hawk told him. “He seemed pissed at Ultraman at the moment and wanted to know if there was a history of it before now or because of what happened. I’m going to see how Bridge is coming along.” Once alone in the corridor he looked thoughtful for a moment, “I couldn’t have been that off the mark, could I?” *** The whole compound was abuzz from the events of the previous night. One of their own was out of commission and the lack of an appearance by Ultraman to stop the monster. Brooks just happened to walk by to overhear Jamira boast that he had been right to not trust the “giant freak” all along. The man was going to be unbearable after this. More so than usual at this rate. But he had to admit his masters were right this time around, the giant wouldn’t attack something from this universe. As it was they were looking for more hostile races on the off chance the UNDF was able to take this Baltan, as they were called, out. It was so simple he was surprised he hadn’t thought of it before. But right now the continued success rate was going to depend on Scott’s influence on the giant. “Speak of the devil,” he mumbled to himself as he entered one of the observation halls. Scott was looking out the hall’s large windows at the world outside, not even paying attention to anything else. Peter’s hand twitched ever so slightly, nobody would know and he wouldn’t have time to react. Then common sense returned to him as he realized there were several security cameras on the deck and more than a few of them catalogue his path. It might be a bit risky but perhaps he could underscore his faith in the giant a little more, if what he heard was right. Putting on a concerned look he walked up to him, “Is everything alright Ken?” Scott jumped a little. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, and you did say I could cal you Ken, correct?” “Yeah,” he said as he regained his composure. “Did you need something Mr. Brooks?” “Not really, you looked upset. And please call me Peter.” “I had a lot on my mind recently.” “Yes we all have,” he said. “Especially since last night. We put our faith in a so called superior being and just like that he doesn’t appear when we need him the most.” Scott lowered his head and Peter silently enjoyed seeing the anger grow inside of him. “My father was never a religious man, I guess some of it rubbed off on me, I’m sorry if I upset you in some way.” “No I just…,” he paused, “but this time I think I see his point.” “Well he always said that the only one you can really put any faith in those around you, even then you should expect to be disappointed. He was a rather cynical man” “Doesn’t mean he wasn’t right,” Scott suddenly got this strange look on his face and left him alone in a hurry. Peter wondered if he just realized he was speaking to one of his “prime suspects”. Another thought ran through his head as well, “Perhaps I might have pushed a little too much this time.” *** The lab where Jess and the others were was empty by the time Ken came back, on lunch or something right now he really didn’t care. Walking over to her he leaned back against a table and just stared at her. “Looks like I screwed up again huh?”, he told her. “I don’t know if I should apologize for falling into that trap like an idiot or for trusting Dax like an idiot.” His only answer to that was the sensation of Dax was trying to tell him something again. Fed up he looked inside and was face to face with Daxium. “What do you want?” “I realize you are upset with me Ken…” “Upset!”, he exploded. “It’s your fault this happened!” “My mission only pertains to the beings from the dark universe. I cannot in good conscious knowingly harm a being not involved in the war.” “But you have no problem commandeering the body of somebody from this universe when it suits your needs do you?” “Ken that is not how our situation works…” “Do you even care that could have been us if she didn’t push me out of the way?”, Ken demanded getting angrier and angrier with each passing second. “I would have been the one frozen in time and what would you have done then?” “We’re fortunate that didn’t happen.” He got right in his silver face and spat, “Tell that to Jess.” Looking back out he was face to face with the frozen Jessica. “Sorry you had to see that,” he told here knowing she didn’t see or hear any of it. “God Jess this is where I need you to tell me to snap the hell out of it.” *** At his masters request he set this Baltan up in a safe area, so he decided to place him, her the hell if he knew, in one of his contact areas. Not one of his regular spot but one he had used before once or twice in the past. In fact he almost forgot about it. He remembered why as soon as he passed those small towns that were nearby. He was fairly well known now thanks to all the media attention so it would be hard to explain why he headed out here on a semi regular basis. As it was Brooks had to study maps of the area to find an alternate route to the mountains that held the hidden area. It added an hour to his travel time but it did the deed. Right now he and the Baltan stood in front of a swirling vortex as his masters spoke to them, “And there is no sign of the light being?” “None so far,” Brooks answered. “Excellent,” he said, “things are finally going our way Avatar.” “It appears so,” he agreed. “So what are we going to do with… our friend here?” “He has been compensated already,” the figure in the vortex replied. “Once he has completed his task he will be set free. Then begins the next step in taking over this bastard planet and use it population to invade the light universe.” The Baltan suddenly spoke up, “No.” The shape in the vortex turned to look at him as Peter took a few moments to process what he just heard, “I beg your pardon?” “This planet is now ours,” the Baltan said in response. “We will subject the population and add it to our empire.” “I do believe we had dibs on this planet first, and might I add for much longer,” Brooks informed him. “That is not our concern. You have seen what I can do. From what I have witnessed you prove to be no threat to us. This planet will be ours.” The Baltan turned away and headed out of the cave. Peter looked back at the portal, putting a hand to his chin. The form in the portal seemed to nod his head before fading away. He grinned ever so slightly, “I do believe I have a word to say about that.” “And what would that be?”, the Baltan said without turning around. Hand crackling with dark energy Peter caught hit with a beam that knocked the alien to the ground, “Gotcha.” Watching him struggle to get up Peter blasted him again. “Arrogant creature, do you really think I’m going to prefer that insufferable trait in you when I don’t tolerate it in others?” Keeping the beam on him the alien writhed and screamed in pain. A thought occurred to him that made him smile, “I’m not going to kill you, not just yet. But I am going to try something I’ve done before, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.” The beam continuing to hold him down he got close enough to put that hand on his chest. It’s round eyes and various parts of it’s armor started leaking dark energy as it was ravaged from the inside and forcible changed. “Let’s see if we can draw Ultraman out of hiding, hmm?” *** “It has a hyper mode too?”, Bill asked while Hawk and the others looked one. Bridge had just presented them with a theory about the creature moving trick. “Not exactly,” Bridge said trying to find a way to clarify his findings. “It’s more like it’s teleporting, but at such a speed it’s leaving an after image of itself in it’s place.” “How did you figure that out?”, Ryo asked him. “I saw some eggheads arguing about it about five minutes before the Captain called this meeting.” “They are working on theory,” Bridge explained. “Me and a few others were trying to get the facts. Facts we got we got when we finally got into your wrist scanners readout and found something you didn’t notice before,” he imputed the results from the combined readout into the holo table between them. “I’m sure you three remember this particular moment,” he commented as the creature apparently split into four. “We were able to get a life sign reading at this range surprisingly enough. I’m going to slow it down so you can see it’s heartbeat.” After a moment they could see the heart start beating on one image and finish on another. The pattern was random but they could see the heartbeat clear as day. “You don’t have to tell me that Williams is salivating trying to figure out how that works,” Hawk said. “I needed a boat to get across the hallway to get here,” Bridge joked. “How does that help us defeat that thing?”, Ken demanded. “Easy son,” Hawk told him, “one step at a time.” ”We want to get the bastard too,” Ryo assured him. “But Civilian does have a point,” Bill added. “We’re working on it,” Bridge told him. Before he could go one the alarms sounded. Hooking it the table into the alert system he pulled it up on the table. “The creature is back, I’ve found a news feed. I’m patching into it now.” Soon the computers pulled up several screen that Bridge was able to condense into a single 3D image. Hawk looked past it at Ken and his reaction. The others watched as a now giant sized alien trashed around some town. “And he can grow to Ultraman size too,” Bill said. “Great.” “Maybe he’ll show up this time,” Ryo commented. Ken’s features darkened a bit. “I want all Razor Wings in the air and Scan Tracks on the ground,” Hawk ordered. “Yes sir,” they answered and headed for the door. Hawk held Ken back so he could have a moment alone with him.” “Ken I want you civilian evacuation duty for this one.” “Captain I can do my job,” he protested. “And I don’t your head is in the right place at the moment,” he said firmly. “And I don’t want others to get hurt because of it.” Ken didn’t have an immediate response as he looked away, but Hawk could see the young man seething. “We’ll talk after this over, but can I trust you to follow orders?” He hesitated to answer at first but eventually he said, “Yes sir.” “Good, but don’t worry son we’re planning on showing that giant bastard that you don’t fuck with Monster Squad.” He didn’t look convinced but he didn’t argue the point either. *** The UNDF forces mobilized quickly and were engaging the giant creature within minutes. Those giants claws of his seemed to be able to fire some sort of destructive ray as well. Razor Wings danced around it while Scan Tracks tried to get it’s attention to give the evacuation teams more time to do their jobs. However any paying attention to the conflict would have noticed a familiar energy signature in it’s beam if you knew what to look for. One person did and he was on the street making sure it was clear. “Scott to Castle, sector K8 is clear heading toward K7.” “Understood,” Bridge answered. Trying very hard to ignore the creature he kept his focus on his wrist scanner. Not seeing any life signs so far he looked down at his communicator as Richardson bellowed, “What are you waiting for Scott?! Set that bastard after it?” Ken switched his communicator off with a little more force than was necessary. Of course Daxium was practically screaming at him trying to get his attention. Since that was the one voice he couldn’t readily turn off he finally got fed up enough to look inwards. “What?!”, he demanded once they were face to face. “Now that it’s your size you’re suddenly interested. Well forget it, you said this was our problem and we’ll take care of it.” “Ken can you not sense the dark energy coming from the creature now?” He had to look away as he answered, “Yes.” “Then let me out to battle him.” “No,” he said shaking his head. “Because that thing is working with whomever working with those guys you’re fighting and is probably waiting to see if you’re going to show up.” Daxium tried to reason with him, “We do not know if that creature has been working with them this entire time.” “If they weren’t working together before they are now!”, he snapped. “I let you out and we just handed them the perfect weapon because you won’t go after anything from this universe as long as they don’t mess with it. And you can’t tell me they won’t search the universe looking for somebody else.” “There is some truth to your words,” Daxium was forced to admit. “This goes against my original mission statement but I feel I need to modify it given the circumstances.” “So you’ll get off your ass and help us?” “In certain situations,” he amended. “If the threat, as you put it, is my size then I will fight it.” “I guess it will have to do for now,” Ken said bitterly. “I’m sorry that this has put a strain on our friendship Ken.” “So am I Dax,” he agreed. “We’ll talk after this is over.” “Agreed.” Coming back to his senses Ken checked his scanner one more time to make sure the area was still clear. Grateful he didn’t give into the urge to throw the Spark Magnifier into his dresser he held it in his hand. Taking one more look he held it over his head and squeezed the handle. *** The column of light faded away revealing Daxium facing the Alien Baltan and took a fighting stance, “Shiah!” “Finally the bastard doing what he’s told,” Richardson muttered as he watched the feed from his office. “About time,” Hawk said. “All units keep out of their way.” Over the line he heard Jamira grumble something. The Baltan stopped it’s rampage and stared at Daxium before uttering a deep, “Hohohoho.” Raising it’s claws it fired another blast, Daxium did a cartwheel to get out of the way and prepared to fire a Flashbolt when he noticed the alien was gone. Remembering what he learned through Ken he quickly spun around with a kick that caught the Baltan in the gut. He dodged when it fired another blast. He looked up in surprise as the building behind him started emitting that same glow as the others. It was enough of a distraction to blast him with that destructive beam. Grunting in pain he fell back against a building and then a knee. The Baltan was on top of him in no time pounding him with those massive claw like appendages. The giant fought back hard eventually forcing the alien back. Stunning it with several punches a hard kick sent it flying back. As it struggled to it’s feet Daxium saw his chance and prepared to fire the Dimensional Storm Ray. Crossing his hands at the wrist a multi-colored stream of energy fired out of his upright right hand. The baltan quickly used it’s teleportation trick to avoid it. As the ground behind it’s previous position exploded upon impact of the ray. It set up position as he turned around to find him and fired the destructive beam again. Rolling out of the way at the last second he crossed his arms across his chest and flung them down going into Hyper Mode. Catching the alien off with his new speed he quickly got closer avoiding the beams. Jumping up he delivered a flying kick that knocked it to the ground. A few more quick blows and he was able to force the Baltan into the open area between the town and the nearby mountain range. With more room to maneuver he held out his right arm as the Light Flash whip extended from his hand. Striking the alien a few time it tried to fire it’s destructive beam again. Daxium jumped up and flipped back to avoid it. Then he ran in and black flipped again catching him under the chin with the tip of his foot. Back flipping away from him a few times he drew a circle in the air and threw the Hyper Saw. Daxium watched the image ready for it to stop. He didn’t know it could fire that beam while teleporting. Knocked back he was suddenly hit from behind knocked him forward. Forced to his knee as the images circled around him and fired at will. The humans watching this wanted to help but felt helpless as the couldn’t get a clear lock on their sensors. Those like Jamira enjoyed seeing the giant being taken down a peg or two. In the middle of the barrage Daxium started to draw in energy as the jewel started to flash, vision speeding up enough to catch a glimpse of the alien’s solid form during it all. Trying to time this just right he made the faintest of flinches and in less than a second he caught the Baltan and slammed both of them into the mountain causing it to shake and crumble a bit. Arms almost a blur he pounded away at the alien’s body as the jewel started to flash faster. Stepping back he extended the Light Flash one more time and spun around slicing through the Baltan and the mountainside. The Baltan exploded a moment later and Daxium fell to a knee. Forcing himself back up he flew off into the sky, “Shiah!” Bill watched him fly off saying, “Did that look pissed to anybody else? Because that looked pissed to me.” “We’ll discuss it later,” Hawk told him. “Castle what is the condition of the others?” “Wade to Hawk, what the hell just happened?”, Jess asked sounding confused. Back at Castle she and the guards looked around trying to figure out what happened. Hawk and everybody in Alpha Team who heard that felt very relieved at hearing her voice, a relief that they didn’t think was possible. “I’ll explain later. All units return to Castle.” *** Despite her protest that she was perfectly fine the doctors in Castle medical wing insisted that she and the guards stay overnight for observation. Although the Captain jokingly threatened to make it an order she put her foot down at being put in a bed. She’ll stay in the room if she had to but a bed was for sleeping … and other things. And she wasn’t in the mode for either at the moment. As it was she had to endure the Captain and the others hovering around her sat she sat it the table in the room to make sure she was alright. “I’m fine,” she said getting aggravated. “How many times do I have to say it?” “We were just worried about you Jess, that’s all,” Ryo said for the group/ “Oh yeah, you were really worried,” she said with a slight smirk. “Four of you and I don’t see a gift among you.” “The gift shop wasn’t open,” Ken said without missing a beat. Just like old times, well almost. “That was my line,” Bill told him. “Then say it faster next time,” Ken shot back. “You’re assuming there’s going to be a next time,” Jess piped in. “Excuse me,” a male nurse said from the door. “Dr. Jones wanted the patient to get her rest.” “I’m fine,” she insisted. Tilting her head as she watched him leave she muttered, “And so are you.” Bill caught the look on her face, “Maybe one of us should stay around to protect him from her.” She gave him a look that Ken had seen more than once in his short life, “I’m glad I didn’t say that one.” “She’s going to let him have it?”, Ryo asked. When he said yeas he patted Bill on the shoulder, “Nice knowing you man.” Hawk decided then to speak up, “Unfortunately the doctors can overrule me so we better go. I know you’re an independent woman and all, but I’m having Bridge going over the security footage while you were in the lab. He see’s anybody taking the opportunity to get all grabby hands his ass is going to be dust.” “Then the Captain is going to let the rest of us have a turn,” Bill joke. With a look from Hawk Ryo started to shepard him toward the door. He told Jess, “Get your rest now, because I’m going to work you double time tomorrow.” “Yes sir,” she said with a salute. As they started to leave she got Ken’s wrist before he could get out of reach. “Can you stay for a moment longer?”, she said as he looked at her. Once they were alone she said, “So I hear you went all Mister Grumpy Face once I got frozen.” He didn’t answer her right away. “You’re not reading anything into that are you? I would have done that for anybody on the team.” “I know, it’s…,” he hesitated before continuing, “I just got you back as a friend. I’d hate to think I screwed that up again.” “You are going to have to act like your brother to screw it up again, and we both know that’s not happening anytime soon,” she told him. He slowly started to smile. “But move faster next time, because I’m going to let you get blasted.” “Fair enough,” he said. “I’d better get going before Bill starts getting thoughts in his head.” “Yeah that will be a dangerous thing,” she said. “Because I will be forced to hurt him.” He went to the door before turning back around, “Do you want me to get that nurse back in here? Give you two a little alone time?” “You’re lucky I don’t have my gun.” ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 12
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn In My Light ----- Head for the garage, hanger, he still didn’t know what they called it around here but that was what he was told. Ken couldn’t help but wonder why the Captain called him down there. Granted he didn’t spend as much time down there as he thought he would, especially since Doctor Williams kept calling him to help with the “super jet”, and that was in between the missions and his studies, when he was down there he got along with pretty much everybody. Hell it was the only place on the entire base were nobody called him the civilian. They pretty much accepted him as one of their own as soon as he got elbow deep in one of the Scan Track’s engine blocks they had put aside for maintenance. He was sure if anybody had a problem with him they would have gone to him first and not to Captain Hawk. Once there he looked around until he heard Hawk call out, “Ken over here.” Finally seeing him he walked over there saying hi to a couple of people as he based them. “Dude, what did you do?”, one of them asked. He could only answer with, “Hell if I know.” The Captain apparently overheard and didn’t look amused. Trying to appease him he tried to think of the most appropriate way to respond. “You wanted to see me sir?” “Don’t force it you look like you’re about to break something,” Hawk told him. “I called you down here because I wanted your opinion on something.” Curious he followed to a area of the hanger that had something covered by a tarp tucked away in the corner. Hawk removed the cover to reveal an old GTO in pristine condition. Ken put his hand to his mouth to keep his jaw from dropping. “Since you were a mechanic in your previous life I thought you might be able to figure out the problem I’m having with her.” “You knew I was a mechanic before I joined up, so why show me this now?” “This is my baby,” he replied. “I’m not going to show her to anybody just off the street. Besides I’ve asked around and the guys around here say you’re pretty good.” “Flattery will get you everywhere,” Ken smirked. “What kind of problem are you having with her?” “I’m getting this sputtering sound after she’s been running for awhile.” “Let me hear it.” Hawk got behind the wheel and brought the engine to life. Ken lowered his head and closed his eyes and listened. After a bit he heard what the Captain was talking about. Singling for him to cut it off he waited until he was out of the car before saying, “Two questions, how long has it been doing that? And why haven’t you had the guys around here look at it first?” “For a few months and the Chef won’t allow it,” he answered. “He says it’s misappropriation of labor and material. I’d figured since you not officially part of his staff I’d be able to get around it. Do you think you know what’s wrong with her?” “I got an idea or two,” he said thinking it over. Thinking some more he started smiling to himself, “But if you can fix it so they won’t miss either of us for a couple of hours I know a place where you won’t have to worry about the Chief bitching about materials and labor.” Hawk just looked at him, trying to figure out if this was a big heaping pile of BS or not. “Just out of morbid curiosity I’m going to arrange that just to see what you’re talking about.” “Great you get thing ready and I’ll arrange things on my end.” Hawk shook his head and reached for his communicator. Meanwhile Ken reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. Dialing a familiar number he waited until he heard a greeting he used to hear in his sleep. “Hey Boss it’s Ken. Please tell me Rose is there and Jeff isn’t.” Smiling when he got the answer he said, “Perfect, tell her I got a customer for her.” *** Within the hour Hawk was following Ken off of base and to the garage he used to work at. They would have been out of there sooner but Hawk wanted them to go in civilian gear, a simple task for Ken since all he had to do was take off his jacket. A half hour later he pulled up and told the Captain to let him go in first. A huge smile on his face as he opened the door he went, “My God, this place is still open?” “Get in here you jackass,” Rose told him before giving him a hug. “Why did you stay away do long?” “You guys are the one who pushed me to join,” he reminded her. Pulling away he looked at her stomach, “I’d asked if you’ve been busy but I think I already have me answer.” She slapped his arm, “Who told you? I just found out a couple of weeks ago.” “Janet sent me an e-mail. Congratulations,” he hugged her again. “You planning on turning this one into a grease jockey too?” “Maybe, if it’s a boy I’ll probably do something a little more frilly,” she joked. “Now where’s this machine you wanted me to look at?” “Oh right,” Ken said heading for the door. “Bring her in Captain.” John ran over and raised the garage door to let Hawk coast his baby through the opening. Rose stared at it for a long time after it came to a stop. Ken looked at her, “Ah Rose, you starting to drool a little. Rose? Somebody get me a bucket.” “That’s a nineteen sixties GTO,” she said as she walked in front of it. When she finally heard the sputtering in the engine she shot the dirtiest look at Hawk that Ken had ever seen on her, “What did you do to it?” “That’s my commanding officer,” Ken said in her ear. “So? He’s not mine,” she shot back. “Not to sound insensitive or anything Miss,” Hawk began, “but have you worked on a GTO before? This is my pride and joy and I don’t want to hand her off to just anybody.” “I cut my teeth on my Grandfather’s,” she informed him. “How long has it been doing that?” “A few months,” Hawk answered. She winced, “Why did you wait so long to get her up here?” “I didn’t know this place existed,” he told her. “That’s because our boss,” she looked right at him through his office window and spoke a little louder, “doesn’t advertise.” He looked back at her and shook his head. John looked at Ken then to Hawk as he joked, “Most of us figured some money would have opened up once we unloaded him on you guys.” “Don’t you just feel the love,” Ken deadpanned. Rose shoved him, “How come you didn’t tell him about this place sooner then?” “I just found out he had it today,” he said. “What do you think? Fuel valves?” “One of the first things that popped into my head,” Rose answered. “Hopefully it’ll be an easy fix. So what are you doing here? You could have just given him directions.” “I wanted to make sure my old boss gave my new boss a good deal. At least try to weasel a finder’s fee out of him.” *** Peter walked by a series of monitors in the control room trying to look mildly interested in what was going on. But in actually he was trying to see what was going on one screen in particular as he passed by it. His masters had him plant a new monster in the sector it was covering, Magnatron. It was in the middle of open country and it should have gone unnoticed until it was too late. Then he discovered one of the idiots on the board approved a sensor station to placate the scientists in the operation. Fortunately he was in the control room enough that his presence wasn’t immediately questioned and that brought him a little extra time in case Magmatron was discovered before it was ready. That came close to happening with Melba but he was able to break free then. So far it had been days and nothing was amiss with the sensors yet. But he couldn’t relax just yet, worst case the sensor went off and the entire base would mobilize. But perhaps he placed it deep enough underground they wouldn’t detect it. Continuing on he noticed the person stationed at the screen lean forward a bit. Obviously he started to relax a bit too soon. “I’m getting a reading,” she said. “Two point eight on the Richter scale.” “I’m pulling it up on the man screen,” Bridge announced. In moments the entire room was looking at what she was. “I’m not getting any sort of life sign reading. What’s the usual seismic activity for the area?” “It’s pretty stable,” she answered. “It’s never been above a one once since the installation went active.” Peter faked looking concerned as he asked, “Is this something we should be worried about?” “I’m not sure yet,” Bridge answered. “I’m going to dig through the archives for any other sensor readings done in the area. For all we know it could be a regular spike we weren’t previously aware of. Jill, keep an eye on it in the meantime. Will notify Captain Hawk in case it gets worse.” “You got it,” she said going back to her screen. Peter took that opportunity to leave saying he didn’t want to get in their way. But he put that accidental tip about seismic activity and put it away in his mind the next time his masters wanted to place a monster underground. It would definitely hid the fact something was there for a little longer. “It’s true, you do learn something new every day.” *** Walking up to Hawk’s office she saw the door was open so she knocked to announce her presence. The Captain looked up from a report he was reading so she asked, “I hear you saw Ken in his natural habitat the other day.” “And you are officially the last person on the team to ask me that,” he told her while putting the report down. “Please tell me you’re not going to ask what he was like while he was there.” “It’s Ken in a garage,” she said walking up to the desk. “I knew what he was like when we were dating. I don’t imagine it changed all that much.” Turning her head to get a look at the file Hawk turned it so she wouldn’t have to stretch her neck. “Unusual seismic activity huh? Is that something we should be worried about?” “Bridge just gave me this particular report,” he told her. “Apparently it’s been steadily growing for the past couple of days. He figures it something we should keep an eye on.” “Could it be another monster?” “Wade I’m getting to the point where I’m starting to think everything is caused by a monster.” “The world mysteries are solved then,” she smirked. “We just have to figure out what kind of monster it is this time.” “That’s why we have Bridge and the others, we just have to stop them when they show up.” “That makes it sound so easy,” she said. “It’s a breeze to make something sound easy,” he said. “Those who are really good at it go into command.” She smiled at his joke. “Do me a favor and get the others up to speed if you see them. We’re sending a survey team to the area to check things out so I want the prepared for it just in case.” “Yes sir,” she saluted. :If it is a monster it’s a good thing it’s in a remote area.” “You’re speaking to the choir Jess. Oh if you can see if Williams had heard about this yet. When this outfit started he pushed hard for a vehicle that could dig underground. He was shot down pretty quick but something like this might spark it back up again.” “I’ll have Bill do that part. Last time I did that Williams talked my ear off.” “And I thought you liked Bill.” “Eh, he owes me one. He made me go with him when he wanted to talk to Jamira’s Beta Team.” “I heard about that,” he grimaced. “Carry on as planned then.” *** With the sun beating down overhead a lone Scan Track rolled to a stop in the middle of an area with only knee high dry grass and a few boulders of various sizes. Most of the occupants exited and looked around the area. “Why would they want a sensor station all the way out here?”, one of them asked. “Who know,” The one still in the Track answered. “I want to know why they wanted it to look like a rock.” The third one answered, “They figured it would attract less attention than if they put up the standard shack.” “Wasn’t really looking for an answer Larry, just thinking out loud.” “Stacy stop arguing with Larry,” the first spoke up. “The map says it’s that one over there. Pull the track up closer.” “On it,” Stacy said. He and Larry moved out of the way as she stopped the Scan track right next to the fake boulder. “It’s all you now Jase.” He nodded as he used his wrist scanner to send a signal to open up the façade. Larry hopped in the back to keep an eye on the radar for any outsiders coming into range. Stacy got out and kneeled next to Jase as he studied the readings. “I’m not picking up anything out of the ordinary. Hold on, we got a spike coming.” They had time to brace themselves as the ground started to shake around them. “That was a five point three. “Larry see if you can get an ultrasound look at what’s under us.” “I’m already doing it,” he answered. After several moments he announced, “I think I got something. Something big. Stacy send the feed back to Castle.” “Right,” she jumped into the seat next to him and established a link. “Scan Track seventeen to Castle we are sending you an image now.” “Image received,” Bridge responded. “Here comes a big one!,” Jase shouted. “Something’s coming up!”, Larry yelled at the same time. A huge rock like spire shot out of the ground obliterating the Scan Track, the fake boulder and the poor souls sent out there to investigate. *** After Castle lost contact with the Scan track alerts rang throughout the complex. Ryo and Ken ran into the Alpha Team war room as the others waited for them. “We got a hot one,” Hawk told all of them. “Bridge do you have that new images yet?” “I just got them Captain,” he answered. “I’m hooking the satellite feed into the war room now.” The holo table came to life to show them the brand new terrain that literally popped up moments ago.” Eyes on what he was seeing Ken thought, “Dax, are you picking up anything?” “Not from this distance,” was the response. “Just remember our deal in case it’s like last time.” In the real world Jess, “Does this have to do with that seismic report you let me look at?” “I’m afraid so,” Hawk said. “We lost contact with the team we sent out there.” “Bridge spoke up,” They sent us an ultrasound image right before we lost contact.” “Show us,” Hawk ordered. The satellite image rose up to show the area underneath it. Right under the spire was an organic mass that was pretty sizeable. Bill commented, “I’m guessing that’s not part of the local scenery.” Ryo looked at it and wondered out loud, “Where are these things coming from?” Ken silently wondered how the person behind this was getting them past Dax. According to him the energy needed to pen a portal for something this size should have alerted him the moment it happened. “You know the drill people,” Hawk said, “Wings in the air and Tracks on the ground. I want that thing surrounded eight ways to Sunday. Ken I want you and the other Scan Tracks to keep an extra eye open. I do not want to lose anybody else to this thing.” “You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ken told him. “Monster Squad move out.” *** It was a long quiet trip in the Scan Tracks as the Razor Wings went on ahead of them. Ken’s Track and the others kept an open ear to the comm. chatter as they got closer. Adding that to keeping an eye on their surrounding and waiting for Dax to pick up something was Getting Ken one sizable headache. “I’m not seeing anything so far,” the guy sitting behind them at the sensor control said. Ken jumped a little forgetting he was there. Hearing hawk in his head saying he had to rely on those with him instead of trying to do it all himself he said, “Let me know the moment you see anything out of the ordinary.” “Does that count?”, the driver said pointing at the horizon ahead of them as the peak of the spire was starting to come into view. “We already knew about that,” Ken said. “Anything new pops up let me know.” “Hopefully not literally,” the scanner guy grinned. “I’m obviously too soft on you guys,” Ken told them. “All Scan Tracks slow down and circle the spire,” Hawk order from Razor Wing one. “For now do a continuous scan. Razor Wings two, four and twelve fly around the spire to see if the mass underneath it reacts.” “Understood,” Ken said in a hail of acknowledgments. “Of this is going to be fun.” “This is what we signed on for,” the driver said as he pulled them into position. “Well most of sighed up anyway,” he smirked shooting a look toward Ken. He didn’t respond, mainly because was sending him a hard buzz in the back of his head. Over the comm. channel he heard Jamira say, “Beta Team begin ultrasonic scanning of the mass.” They acknowledged him seconds later. “Hey I think I’m getting something,” scanner guy said. “The spire is starting to vibrate a bit.” That went with the spike in the buzz he was getting. “Keep that engine running,” Ken said. “You really didn’t have to tell me that,” the driver told him. “Oh shit,” Ken blurted as another spire shot up near Beta Team’s location. “Razor Wings open fire,” Hawk ordered. The missiles payload barely did anything to the spire as it continued to grow. From his position he saw the ground start to shake in the area around the Scan Tracks. He saw them start to move before he could even utter a word. “Captain!”, Bridge yelled over the link. “It’s the ultrasonic. We lost the previous team right after the initiated it. There were too many this time around for it to get an accurate lock from the look of things.” “Understood. All units performing an ultrasonic scan are to cease immediately.” He watched as the ground slowly stopped shaking. “Any damage ground team?” “We’re just a little shaken up,” Ken said over the line. Then he realized what he said, “No pun intended. Beta Team looked like they took the worst of it.” “Keep your nose out of our business civilian,” Jamira barked. “We should have had that bit of information before we set out. I’m going to…” “Take it up with me Commander,” Hawk cut him off. “After this is over. Bridge keep a eye on those readings. I want to know the second that thing starts making some noise.” “Understood Captain,” he replied. Jess clicked into the line, “Captain maybe we should make some noise first. If it’s incubating underground maybe we can force it out before it’s ready.” “That might what the spires are for,” Ryo added. “To protect it from attack before it’s ready. “I don’t suppose you guys have a giant drill back at base I don’t know about yet,” Ken asked. “Don’t say that over an open line,” Hawk told him hoping Williams wasn’t listening back at base. “What did I say now?”, Ken asked. Before he could get an answer the ground started to shake, particularly around the Track he was in. “What the Hell?” Looking around he saw the ground wasn’t shaking as bad around the other Scan Tracks. And that sensation he was getting from Dax spike so high he was practically yelling that his head felt like he was going to split open. He got the message clear as day, that monster was detecting Dax and was going to attack. “Back us up now!”, he yelled at the driver. He didn’t argue as he put the machine into reverse and drove as fast as the machine could go. Others were doinght he same as more spires of various sizes started to shot up from the ground. Hawk ordered the Razor Wings to target the new uprising rocks and again it was no good. A sudden spire caught their Scan Track by the side and flipped Ken and the others over several times. The mass of spires finally started to crack as a brown Tyrannosaurs type of head was visible and roared revealing ragged grey looking teeth. More of it broke free revealing similar leathery skin and small spire like protrusions on it’s back. Shaking the loose debris off it’s body and looked around. Still functioning Scan Tracks opened fire on the creature. The missiles impacted it’s hide but it didn’t act like it was affected. The spires on it’s back started to glow as more spires rose from the ground around in the direction it was looking “Captain are you seeing that?”, Bill asked. “I see it,” he replied. “Razor Wing two we are going to fly behind it and attack those things on it’s back.” “Roger,” Ryo and Jess answered. Waiting for Razor Wing two to form up both jets flew around and coming up on the rear of the monster as a tail with four spikes, two on each side, was freed revealing the whole monster. Targeting the same spike on it’s back Jess and hawk each fired a missile. The monster roared in pain for a bit and quickly turned around to face it’s attackers. Bill and Ryo both moved to avoid a row of spires coming at them. “Good thing that thing doesn’t shoot anything,” Ryo commented. “Don’t jinx it,” jess said as she looked back to make sure they were going to get caught from behind. In the flipped over Scan Track Ken slowly came to holding his head, feeling blood under his hand, as he tried to figure out where the hell he was. The driver and scanner guy was both still out but he got a pulse on both. Dam it hurt to move. Carefully unhooking himself from his seat he lowered himself down, using the leg that didn’t hurt that much to break out the window and crawled out. Trying to stand he stumbled to a knee as blood started to drip down his face now. Eyes slowly focused on the monster. IN the next instant the Spark Magnifier was in his hand and over his head as he disappeared in a ball of light that formed as giant column of light revealing he being inside, “Shiah!” *** Jumping over the rock spires in the way he landed a flying kick to the monster’s head. Magnatron stumbled to the side to fight falling down. It looked at Daxium and roared again before spinning round trying to catch the giant with it’s spiked tail. Daxium easily ducked it and ran in trying to knock it down. The creature stood it’s ground and pounded Daxium on the back sending him to the ground. Stomping him on the back as the Razor Wings tried to get him to stop with their missiles. It backed away as the spires on it’s back started to glow again as a spire rose up and caught him in the gut sending him into the air and crashing back to the ground. Getting to a knee he fired off a Flashbolt despite the pain that caught the creature off guard. Getting to his feet he ran at Magnatron only to stop when he saw the spires on it’s back start to glow again. Backing up to avoid another one coming up from the ground he and the humans around the battle were stunned to see to see rocks rise up from the ground and hover in the air. Daxium continued to back away in order to make sure he wasn’t surrounded. Without warning on of the rock fragments shot forward that he easily sidestepped. Then another came at him the he barely dodged. Then more came at him so fast he had to put up the force shield to protect himself from the barrage. “I told you not to jinx it,” Jess told Ryo. Seeing a small opening in the barrage he dropped the field and banged his forearms together to go into Power Mode. Magnatron sent more rocks in his direction that he smashed and kicked in the air as he ran forward. “He’s going old School,” Bill quipped. Finally past the floating rocks he punched Magnatron with all he had, it’s head whipped at the side from the impact. Keeping up the barrage he had the giant monster backing up. Grabbing it by the head and with a huge grunt he picked it up in a suplex like move slamming back to the ground. Getting to his feet he straddled the creature and started punching it. A rock flew up and nailed him in the back of the head. More came at him forcing him off Magnatron. Getting to it’s feet it swung around smashing it’s tail into his side. He wasn’t fast enough in this form to avoid that spike tail as it came at him again and again. Scan tracks and Razor Wings fired away but more spires formed to protect it from them. Buta few were able to get through as the creature practically pinned itself in and hinder it’s movements. The Jewel starting to flash Daxium grabbed it’s tail and wouldn’t let go. The monster cried out in surprise as it tried to get away. Daxium started swinging side to side by the tail by the tail, slamming it into the spires to break them free of the enclosure then spun the creature around in a circle before letting go. As it got up he put his fist by the blinking jewel and drew in energy as the spires on it’s back started to glow. Punching the ground unleashing the Giga Wave huge spires formed between him and the monster. The wave crashed through them all leaving a huge cloud of dust that hung in the air. Daxium stood there waiting for it to clear when another barrage of rocks flew at him through the dust smacking him to the ground. “Holy shit,” Bill said as everyone looked on stunned as the dust cleared revealing Magntron with more rocks floating around him. Jewel starting to blink faster as more rocks came at him and not seeing any other choice he jumped up and flew into the air. The rocks tried to follow him put he flew just fast enough to outpace them Stopping in the air and hovering above the creature he put his hands to his chest and drew in energy one more time then threw his arms out. Moving his right arm up and the left one down he circled them back to his chest, seemingly condensing the energy trapped between the in to a ball of swirling energy between his hands. More spires formed around Magnatron. Twisting his arms and bringing the heel of his hands together as he forced his hands forward the globe shot toward the monster before it could form it’s rocky shield all the way. The globe of energy hit denting it’s skin into a similar shape as it continued to spin. Then it went in and Magnatron exploded a moment later. Daxium stayed just long enough to make sure it was really gone before flying off, “Shaih!” When one of the surviving Scan Tracks found them Ken was trying to free the driver. They hurried out and quickly signaled the other units and took over. “Hang back civilian we got this.” Ken was about to argue when the man cut him off, “Look man you’re not in that great of shape yourself. Tony, check him out while Mike and me get the other two out. This one time Ken decided to listen to him. *** When he was finally cleared of the medical wing he walked to the halls to the Alpha Team war room. A few people stopped and asked how he was, a far cry from when he first walked these hall. Although something told him that civilian nickname was going to stay around for the long haul. Could be worse he guessed. “Oh Mr. Scott,” Dr. Williams said as he saw him come in the other direction, “if I could ask you a…” Figure what it was going to be and seeing nobody else around and since he asked Dax ahead of time he said, “He called it the Storm Globe,” and kept on walking. “Ah,” Williams uttered as he took a corner too soon and almost ran into a wall. When he got to the war room the team was already looking at the new geography that Dax and the monster created. “I’m guessing that’s not going away anytime soon,” he said as he joined them at the table. “Not according to the experts,” Hawk answered. “Apparently this is as permanent s you can get. The higher ups are trying to figure what to do with it.” “I’ve been saying we should name it,” Bill spoke up. “I like that idea,” Ken said. “Mt. Scott has a nice little ring to it.” “Oh yeah he’s back to normal,” Ryo commented. “If you call that normal,” Jess smirked. Ken acted hurt by their comments. “Let’s not forget we lost people today,” Hawk reminded them. “Seeing all that carnage all I can say is that you are damn lucky Ken. I guess your GLC is still working.” “I still don’t understand why Ultraman waited until now to use that new move he used today,” Ryo asked. “He probably didn’t see a need to use it before now,” Bill speculated. “That wave punch thing he does was pretty effective before now.” Jess looked right at Ken as she asked, “I wonder if he has any other weapons he hasn’t used yet?” Ken looked right back as he said, “You’re going to have to ask him.” He didn’t see Hawk raise an eyebrow but he remained silent. “If he does,” Ryo spoke up, “I hope they’re not as destructive as that wave thing of his.” “Amen,” Bill agreed. “I think we all want that,” Hawk added.”No matter how helpful Ultraman has been we’re still talking about an alien at the end of the day.” Ken tried not to wince at his choice of words. “His definition of hazardous might not be the same as ours. But that’s something we’ve been dealing with since he showed up. Right now I think we all need to stop thinking about this and get ourselves some dinner.” “Great I’m starving,” Bill said as he headed for the door. “It’s barely real food down there,” Ryo said as he followed him. “It’s better than nothing,” he announced. “I can’t agree I’m agreeing with Bill,” Ken said. “You can’t believe,” Jess told him. Hawk watched them, proud of the fact they were his team. And while he choose those words to gauge Ken’s reaction, he was proud to have him aboard too. This might just work out after all.” ----- ED –Shinedown –Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 13
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- He could not believe he was able to get this day off, not that he was going to miss it for the world. He was always there for his niece’s birthday and he wasn’t going to stop now. Before he could get out of there though the Chief made him double check the gear in the trunk of his car. For some reason regulations demanded that personnel’s private vehicles should be filled with the same standard equipment, flares, barricade markers things like that. Ken questioned it the moment it was brought to his attention but Hawk wouldn’t budge on that one. “If you’re going to be part of this organization then you’re going to have to follow the rules like everyone else,” he said. It was a pain in the ass but nobody was going to say he wasn’t a team player. Besides they let him fill up his tank for free in the garage he’ll carry around some unwanted equipment. “Everything checks out Scott,” the Chief said as he put the last marker back in it’s holder in the trunk. And he checked every single one too, he was doing this on purpose. “You are good to go.” “Thank you sir,” Ken ripped off his uniform jacket and threw it in the trunk. Slamming the hood down he added, “Don’t let me stop you if you have anything important to do.” “Humph,” he grunted as he walked away and was soon barking at somebody else for doing something wrong. “So glad I wasn’t assigned down here now,” Ken muttered. “I thought you would have been out of here by now,” he looked up to see Jess and Captain Hawk walk up to him. For some reason the Captain had his hands behind his back. “No need o see me off,” he said as he opened the trunk back up to toss the wrist scanner in there. “I promise I’ll be back, maybe.” “I can’t let you go just yet son,” Hawk said. “You forgot something important.” “Oh no you don’t,” Ken quickly told him. “I didn’t forget anything. I filled out all the paperwork in triplicate. I crossed all the ‘Ts’ and dotted every ‘I’. I just spent the last twenty minutes…” Pulling a wrapped present from behind his back he asked, “Are you sure about that?” Ken looked at it for a few moments before saying, “I knew that.” Taking the gift he placed in the passenger seat with a little more care than he did his jacket and scanner. “Don’t feel bad Ken,” Jess spoke up. “Bill was in such a hurry to get out of here once he forgot his suitcase when he went on vacation.” “That sounds like something Dr. Williams would do,” he commented. “You don’t want to know what he left behind,” Hawk smirked. “Now what are you standing around here for? You got a party to go to. Get out of here and enjoy it and that’s an order.” “Sir yes sir,” he saluted as he got in the car. Jess waved goodbye as he pulled out of his spot and was soon out of there. *** In the control room the section that was connected to the various orbital satellites was busy as usual. An early theory that popped up when the creatures first started to appear was that they were alien in origin. Nothing was ever recorded to prove that theory but there were still people who insisted that communication with these things be made to see what they wanted, particularly with Ultraman. One person in particular was at trying hard to stay awake at his station, unfortunately busy as usual meant boring as hell. His eyelids starting to droop so he almost missed the blip on the screen in front of him. Waking up fully he saw it again and a third time said it was getting closer. “Bridge,” he called out, “I think I have something.” “I’m putting it up on the big screen now,” he announced. In moments the satellite readings were up for everyone to see. “Too far away to be one of ours,” Bridge commented. “Check the star charts and see if it’s a comet or something. I’ll check the records to see if this was launched before the UNDF became active.” “On it,” he said as he brought up the database. Bridge worked diligently until he found the old launch records while the other tried to match up the object’s trajectory with the ones they already had on file. Several minutes went by before he spoke up again, “It’s not an orbit we have on file.” Bridge looked back saying, “And I have nothing on file that’s supposed to be coming back on this path.” Another person asked, “Did you guys discover something new?” “It’s possible,” Bridge conceded. The first one grinned, “It’d be sweet if we did.” “Not if it’s a planet killer,” a fourth voice pointed out. “Killjoy,” the first one told her. “We’ll keep an eye on it for now,” Bridge said. I’ll send it to the astronomy guys to work on it in a little more detail, and to make sure it’s not coming this way.” He looked back at the guy who first picked it up, “With a note saying you get naming rights if it is something new.” The guy started grinning as he went back to his station. Although had to admit to a little bit of jealousy, having your name on an asteroid, or whatever it was, would be kind of cool. *** Even if Ken didn’t know where he was going all he had to do was look for the balloons. Janet went all out when it came to birthdays. Hopefully that wouldn’t change anytime soon. Already some kids were running around the yard and a few of the adults waved as he pulled up. He waved back seeing Rose and some of the others from the garage as he got out of the car. One little brown haired girl in particular stopped what she was doing as soon as she saw him and ran toward him, “Uncle Ken!” “Hey birthday girl,” he said scooping her up. “How’s my favorite niece?” Rose was close enough to hear him and of course had to say something, “And what if your brother and sister-in-law have another girl?” Not missing a beat he replied, “Then I’ll have two favorite nieces.” “You can’t have two favorite nieces,” Nicole informed him. Ken countered with, “You can have two favorite anything. You can have two favorite book, two favorite songs, two favorite flavors of ice cream. Speaking of which mine happens to be strawberry and butter pecan. And if you have either one I’m going to be diving in spoon first.” Putting Nicole down he took her hand and headed for the party. The brown haired little girl stood fast and looked back at the car. She looked up at him and asked, “Where is it?” Playing dumb he asked, “Where’s what?” “You know.” “Am I not good enough for you?” “Uncle Ken,” she whined. Smiling a bit he told her, “Check the front seat.” With a smile on her face she quickly retrieved the gift. Now she headed to the party with him. “Nicole,” a woman with the same brown hair called out. “Put that with the others. And your friends are waiting for you so you guys can finish that game.” “Okay mom,” she said and hurried off. The woman came up to him and hugged him. “I’m happy you came.” “Do you think I’m going to miss the big oh eight?”, he joked. “How are you guys doing Janet?” “We’re doing,” she answered. “My hours have finally picked up so that helps out a lot.” “That’s good to hear, you know I worry about you guys.” “Look who bothered to show up.” Ken resisted rolling his eyes as his brother came out of the house. With a beer in his hand Ken couldn’t help but wonder how many of those he had so far. “Come to show me up with some outlandish gift from the money from your government job?” “Don’t worry Jeff,” he said trying to keep his tone even, “I made sure you don’t look bad when the gifts are opened.” Rose commented, “He did enough of that back at the garage.” “Now you listen here…,” he began starting to get a little loud. An older woman with streaks of gray just showing in her hair quickly got involved before he could say anything else, “Jeff why don’t you go check on those burgers.” He walked off mumbling something about it being his house. She turned toward Rose, “And you know better than to get him started like that. You’re not my daughter but that won’t stop me from knocking some sense into you.” “Yes ma’am,” she said going over to help Janet with the kids and their game. Then the woman looked at Ken, “Now let me get a look at you and make sure everything on you is in one piece.” “I’m fine mom,” he said hugging here. “Everything is where it’s supposed to be.” “You will not believe how many years I lost when I found out you were on one of those units that takes on those monsters.” “It was a surprised to me too mom, it’s not like I asked to be put on it.” “How… close do you get to those things?” “Well this is a no win,” he said. “I tell you and you’ll hit me, I don’t and you’ll hit me.” “Don’t get smart with wise guy,” she playfully slapped him on the side of the head as they joined the rest of the party. *** Peter was surprised by the sudden summons by his masters, a sudden urge to get up and leave what he was doing. He hated it when they did that, especially when he was in a UNDF board meeting or something else of importance. He was starting to run out of excuses to get away when the sensation came. Obviously his masters still didn’t appreciate the position he was in, or they didn’t particularly care despite the many times he brought it up. Still he came when they called since he wouldn’t put it past them to just show up where he was if he ever decided to ignore the summons. And wouldn’t that be fun to try and get out of. “You are late Avatar,” the voice in the vortex said. “Try giving me a little more warning in the future,” he said adjusting the cuff of his shirt. Like always they ignored his complaint. “So what sort of creature are you sending through this time?” “We are sending nothing,” the voice said. Now this was a surprise his masters weren’t usually prone to social calls. “Thanks to the contacts we have made in your universe we have learned that something of interest has just come into range of your planet.” Inside the vortex the image changed to show him an asteroid floating in space. “A giant floating rock,” he said and not impressed. “Like the last hunk of rock you gave me worked so well.” “Not just any ‘floating rock’ Avatar,” one of his master said while coming back into view. “This one contains something special, the monster Makeena.” “And a long as we don’t infect it with dark energy it shouldn’t alert our giant friend,” Peter said fully appreciating this hunk of rock now. “Exactly, however there is a problem. Right now it will pass your planet. You need to change it’s path so that it will be caught in your planet’s gravitational pull.” “And how do you expect me to do that?”, Peter demanded. “Fly out there and give it a push?” The energy around the vortex pulsated briefly, “Belligerence will not be tolerated Avatar!” “My sincerest apologies my masters,” he said with a slight bow, but not really meaning it. “But it is a rather daunting task.” “We will create a portal near the creature. You will use the power we gave you to move it closer through said portal. We will close the portal once it is on the correct path.” “Oh is that all?”, Peter said dryly. The view in the portal once again changed to that of the creature harmlessly floating in space. Building up his power from within he held out his hands and shot the portal with the dark energy given to him. In space it enveloped the creature through a larger portal. Preparing himself for a moment he put all his dark energy into changing it’s path toward the planet. He sweated from the strain before the view went away. Stopping the beam he dropped to his knees in exhaustion. “It is done,” his masters said. “Before long it will collide with your planet.” “Lovely,” Peter said stretching his neck, feeling the strain of that task on every inch of his body. “Hopefully I won’t fall asleep through it. *** At that time Ken was talking to Janet and some of the guys from the garage when the sensation Dax was suddenly feeling hit him like a ton of bricks. Looking around he eventually looked up at the sky. Janet looked concerned, “Are you alright Ken?” “I’m fine,” he said covering it up. “I just thought I heard something.” “With all the freaks you come across I’d be a little jumpy too,” John joked. “I’m going to head to the little boy’s room,” he told them. “I’ll be right back. Don’t start eating that cake without me.” Inside he made sure he was alone before saying, “What the hell was that?” Inside him Dax answered, “I do not know.” *** “It moved,” Bridge said as he and the other in the room looked at the new reading astronomy sent them. The object had definitely changed it’s trajectory, there was no way that could had happen. Out of all that was going on Bridge had one main concern, “How close is it going to come to the planet?” After a couple of quick calculations he got his answer, “It’s going to hit us.” “Oh shit,” somebody muttered. “Now what?”, Bridge demanded. “It’s speeding up. Impact in less than two minutes!” Bridge hit his communicator immediately, “Captain Hawk to the control room now!” *** Ken tried to play off the sudden sensation Dax had sent him, God he was lucky Jeff wasn’t around at that particular moment. He hadn’t gotten anything since but it didn’t make either him or Dax any less nervous. Still he tried to not let it affect the party, always deflecting things back to the kids or the party when anybody asked him. And he definitely avoided any UNDF questions. Yeah he was supposed to be a representative all the time, but he was off the clock and at his nieces’ party so he didn’t particularly care at the moment. Besides as long as Jeff stayed about twenty feet away he was enjoying himself. “Uncle Ken!”, Nicole called out. “Your car is beeping!” “Nicole stay away from there!”, Janet shouted at her. “I’m sorry Ken I don’t know what she set off but…” He frowned, “I think I know what it is. And if I’m right she didn’t set it off.” “Base checking in on you?”, Rose asked. “Something like that.” This had better be good he thought to himself. Putting the key in the trunk lock somebody said something that caught his attention. “What the hell is that?” Looking up he say something in the sky too, something big and looked like it was on fire and looked like it was fire. It took him a moment to realize it was coming down, and right at them. “Oh shit,” he muttered. He looked at the rest of them just standing around looking at it. “Down!”, he shouted. “Everybody get down now!” Parents were covering their kids as they did what he ordered. “Come on mom,” he said running toward her, “I’ll help you down.” “Is it going to…?” “I’ll let you know in a moment,” he cut her off. Getting her to the ground he kept an eye on the object. Of all the times to leave the Spark Magnifier in the trunk. Dax silently agreed with him. When it looked like it was going to hit he covered his mom and ducked his head. Then nothing, there was a strong warm breeze that wasn’t there before momentarily but not what he was expecting. He and a couple of others looked up and saw a dull grey, rocky meteor standing upright in a field across the street. “The fuck?”, he whispered. “Get down,” Jeff mocked. “Not now,” he snapped. “What does that mean?”, his mom asked. “That I’m back on the clock.” Running over to his car he opened the trunk and quickly put on his uniform jacket. He was in such a rush that with his eyes on the meteor he failed to see the Spark Magnifier fall out of the pocket as he put it on. Jeff, however, saw it fall out. “Scott to Castle.” “Scott!”, Hawk practically yelled over the line. “Where the hell were you?! We had an unknown object on an impact trajectory with the planet. It just crash landed a few moments ago.” “I’m aware of that Captain I’m looking right at it.” “Bridge?”, Hawk asked. “His communicator indicates he’s in the vicinity of the object,” he quickly answered. “Okay Ken you’re the point man for this until we get mobilized. Do you remember the proper procedure for this?” “Vaguely,” he admitted as he strapped on the wrist scanner. “I’m supposed to cordon off the area with those markers you make me carry right.” “Right,” Hawk responded, “and there’s a basic scanner package in them. We’ll pick up the readings as soon as you activate them. Call back once you do.” “Right, Scott out.” He looked at the others, “Sorry guys but the party has to be rescheduled.” “You can’t do that!”, Jeff protested. Nicole quickly agreed with him. “Jeff it’s the smart thing to do,” Janet told him “we can always get things going again later.” Pulling his ponytail out from the jacket collar he pulled the markers out and slung them over his shoulder. “If you can’t get out of here make sure the kids don’t get anywhere near that thing.” As he headed off Jeff went back to the thing that fell out of his coat, wondering exactly how important it exactly was. Ken was wondering what he was going to do about the traffic that had stopped between him and the object once he saw the situation. Well on the upside he didn’t have to worry about being run over. Fortunately a couple of police cars were in the group as the officers tried to get the people moving. Getting the attention of one of them he waved him over as he crossed through the jam. “I don’t have time to argue. I’m part of the UNDF,” he showed him the identification card they gave him for situations such as this, not that he ever thought he’d actually get to use it. “I need you guys to keep these guys away from that thing, totally away from here if possible. There some ground vehicles coming in and they’re going to have to get into position to surround that thing” “We’ll do what we can sir.” “Wow, you just called me sir. That’s never happened before. Call in back up if you have too.” “My partner’s doing that now.” “Great, see if you can get some volunteers from the crowd while you’re at it.” Okay was that the right thing to say? There had to be some civically minded ex-military guys in this mess somewhere right? Ken made his way through the crowd with some assist from the police. Checking his wrist scanner for any radiation spikes he got a few yards away for it to be in maximum scanner range before planting the first one into the ground. Looking at the size of this things and the rest of the marker, “Yeah this is going to take awhile.” *** “And so far this hasn’t been all that impressive,” Peter remarked as he watched the Makeena through a vortex. “Patience Avatar,” his master said. “The creature is just acclimating itself to the atmosphere. The process takes time.” “And if I speeded up the process it’ll draw out our giant friend,” Peter added. “You obviously don’t need me here at the moment so I’ll take my leave and head back to Castle.” The vortex closed without another word. Exiting the cave he looked around as he called his secretary, “This is Brooks, I understand there’s a situation going on. I want to be kept up to date on what’s happening.” *** Finally getting the last one set he used his wrist scanner to make sure everything was set before turning them on. A small blue laser line emitted from the top and connected each marker before fading out of sight. He was about to contact Castle when he noticed somebody coming right at him. More specifically Jeff and the cop from earlier right on is tail, “Get him out of here!” “I have every right to be here as you do,” he shot back. The officer got between them, “Sir I’m going to have to insist that you head back.” “He lives across the street,” Ken told the officer. “Carry him back if you have to.” “Don’t listen to him,” Jeff interjected, “this moron is just a mechanic.” “That may be sir but this mechanic has enough authority to have you arrested if he wanted to.” “Now listen to the nice police officer and head back home,” Ken told Jeff. He snorted before turning around before turning around and storming off as the officer made sure he did head back home. Ken turned around, mainly to hide the smile on his face, “That felt way too good to be healthy. Scott to Castle.” “Took you a bit longer than necessary to call in son,” Hawk answered. “Had a slight crowd control problem,” he said. “You guys getting this?” “Loud and clear Ken,” Bridge answered.” As they spoke Jeff hurried over to Ken’s car. Not realizing Nicole was watching him he picked up the thing Ken dropped and pocketed it with a satisfied smirk. “Let’s see how Mister High and Mighty starts acting when he doesn’t have this.” “Can you describe what you’re seeing Ken?”, Hawk asked. “What’s to describe?”, he asked back. “It’s big, it’s rocky, it landed….” He knelt down to get a better look at the ground underneath it. After a couple of moments Hawk spoke up, “Don’t go quiet on me now son. What are you seeing?” “I might be wrong about this but everything I learned in high school and saw in disaster movies said this thing should have left a huge ass crater, it least it should have dug a trench in the ground. It barely made a dent from what I can see.” Looking at Bridge Hawk covered his communicator just long enough to say, “I’m going to turn him into one of us yet.” Removing his hand he went on, “That’s usually the case Ken, any ideas on what’s going on?” “I’m not sure. This thing was coming in pretty fast from what I saw. It’s almost like… no that’s too crazy to say out loud.” “After everything we’ve seen so far?”, Hawk countered. “Come on son what’s going on in that head of yours?” “I was about to say it’s almost like it slowed down and landed.” “Yeah that’s pretty out there,” Bridge commented. “No comments from the peanut gallery,” Ken shot back. “It’s a working theory at the moment,” hawk cut in. “I’m scrambling the Scan Tracks and keeping the Razor Wings on standby at the moment.” “I hope the Tracks can get through the traffic jam we have at the moment.” “How bad are we talking?”, Hawk asked. “It’s mainly some idiots taking picture with their phones and cameras instead getting back in their cars and getting out of here.” “Well it’s going to Jamira’s problem when he arrives.” “Yeah remind me to stay out of his way when he gets here.” “Ken,” Bridge spoke up, “are you standing in the scanning field?” “No,” he answered, “I’m standing a couple of feet away. Do you need me to back up a bit?” “Is there a group of people in the field on the other side? Because I’m getting a huge heartbeat reading here.” “Not that I can see,” Ken said jogging around the object. Hawk looked over Bridge’s shoulder to see what he was seeing as he readjusted things on their end. They looked at each other, that wasn’t a group reading. “Ken get out of there now!” “What are you…?”, then he looked at the meteor. “Figures,” he muttered and ran out of there. Out of habit he reached for the Spark Magnifier. He stopped when he realized it wasn’t there. Looking around where he was he tried not to panic, and was failing, “I had it when I left the base. The trunk.” He ran for his car only to stop when he saw the cop from earlier. Pulling him aside he made sure nobody else could overhear him, “I need you to get these people out of here now. There’s something inside that thing and I don’t know when it’s going to come out.” “Understood,” he looked back at the meteor himself before relaying the information to the other units. “I need you people to keep moving this is an emergency situation.” Making his way through the mess he made it back to his brother’s house and headed for his car. His mom asked, “Ken what’s going on?” “It just became an emergency situation and all of you need to get out of here now.” “What about you?” “It’s all part of the job mom. Now get everybody packed up this party is going to get violent before too long.” She wanted to argue but didn’t knowing the situation was worse than he was letting based on the look on his face. But he was going to hear an earful later. He searched the trunk of his car but didn’t find it. As he started to look under the car he missed the superior look his older brother was giving him. Nicole saw him place the cylinder in his coat pocket. Ken stood back up and looked around where he was standing, panic hitting red alert levels, “Dax, we have a problem.” *** Going the long way around Jamira and a squadron of Scan Tracks covered the meteor. If the readings were right then there was another monster in there and they had to contain that thing now, “Jackson, the rock covering it, how thick is it?” “Scanning,” he replied. “I can’t get a clear reading from this distance, even with the markers the civilian put in place. It survived entry into the atmosphere so I’m assuming it’s pretty thick.” “I say we find out how thick. All units target the object and…” “Do not fire!”, Hawk said over the line. “The area hasn’t been cleared of civilians. Repeat, do not fire.” Jamira was seething at him for cutting in, they had the perfect opportunity to stop that thing before it started and that idiot was wasting it. Looking at his driver he said, “Did that sound garbled to you?” He started grinning, “Only understood a couple of words sir.” “Any civilians still in the area should have moved faster,” another in his unit said. Another added, “He probably means the wanna be in his unit.” Jamira smirked to himself, now these were soldiers. “All units open fire.” Hawk yelled over the line again until Jamira shut the radio off. He’ll show him how this should be taken care of. The Scan Tracks in his unit and a few others fired on the creature. Through the explosion Jamira could see the exterior start to crumble. Then it started to fall away, or so he thought. It seemed to get taller then open up and unfold. Inside a huge pair of limbs and a head appeared and roared. Back at Castle Hawk looked on, “It wasn’t inside the meteor it was the meteor.” “Should we scramble the Razor Wings?”, Bridge asked “As soon as possible,” he said heading for the door. “I’m on my way and Jamira better hope something happens to him before I get there.” *** The monster didn’t move around much as the Scan Tracks kept pounding him. Before long it was getting the rock like plating up to block the assault. Before anybody knew it the Razor Wings flew overhead and unleashed their payload as well. At least it was staying where it was for the most part. Something Ken was grateful for since he was still trying to evacuate Jeff’s neighborhood. “Come on let’s move!”, he shouted as he waved people on. “Don’t trample anybody but get the hell out of here!” Damn it this was killing him, he needed the Spark Magnifier but he needed to find out who took it first. And with the monster right there he couldn’t exactly stop anybody he saw at the party and ask. When it looked like everybody left he headed back towards Jeff’s house. Maybe somebody kicked it under a bush or something. And that was how you grasp at straws. “Nicole!”, he heard Janet shout out. Ken turned around to see his niece come running at him with her mother right behind her. He did not need this now. “Nicole it’s not safe to be here!”, he told her. “Daddy took this,” she said. “Nicole come on,” Janet ran to grab her but she struggled to get away. “Don’t fight me Nicole.” “Daddy took this from Uncle Ken!”, she insisted. “Daddy took what?”, he asked. His jaw nearly hit the ground when she showed him the Spark Magnifier. He took it from her, “Your daddy had this?” “I saw him,” she said. “I took it from him. I know stealing’s wrong but…” Kneeling down to her level he said, “You’re right. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time stealing is very, very wrong. But this one time you did good kid.” Kissing her on the top of the head he picked her up and handed her to Janet, “Now get out of here before I kick both your butts.” Janet nodded and ran away from the monster. Nicole looked over her shoulder and watched her uncle run toward it. He stopped and held his hand over his head. She watched as he disappeared in a flash of light and a multicolored giant appeared from another and faced the monster, “Shiah!” *** Not wasting anytime Daxium charged Makeena trying to force him further away from the dwellings. The creature seemed surprised to see something his size come at him, but it still fought from being forced back just the same. Throwing a punch Daxium recoiled in pain as it turned around and he hit it’s armored shell. He tried a kick and the monster did it again and Daxium stumbled back. Bringing his hands to his side he quickly fired a Flash Bolt. Makeena wrapped part of his outer shell around himself again and it deflected back at the unprepared giant. Crying out in pain as he fell to the ground he quickly rolled to his feet. The creature came in quickly and backhanded him sending him further back. Realizing he wasn’t going to last long at this rate he banged his forearms together and switched over to Power mode. This time when he went o kick he still felt the pain as Makeena protected himself but it went stumbling back in surprise this time. Daxium poured on the attack, each strike forcing the monster from space further and further back. Makeena suddenly folded his armor and Daxium jumped back ready from what was next, or so he thought. Instead of attacking Makeena knelt down and put it’s hands to his face while making a peculiar noise. In the safe zone Daxium had created Ken felt his confusion and did something he never did and concentrated to see what he was seeing. He was just as confused, “Is that thing crying?” “I… I am not sure,” Daxium said inside their connection. “Maybe he didn’t mean to land here,” Ken speculated. “Maybe it was a mistake and he’s just scared.” “A possibility, one with a simple solution. With my assistance he may be able to go back into space.” “Sounds like a plan to me. Oh I’m going to love hearing the theories that going to be coming out of this one at the next meeting.” Elsewhere the beings from the dark dimension watched. The only thing that surprised them more than the fact that the giant from the light dimension showed up was the reaction of the creature they were told about. Well they would soon fix that As Daxium slowly came closer toward Makeena he held his hands open to show he wasn’t going to attack him again he stopped and looked up at the sky. He felt the wave of dark energy before he saw it. An vortex formed above Makeena and started assaulting him with bolts of dark energy. Daxium tried to help the creature but couldn’t get close until the bolts stopped and Makeena stood there. Eyes glowing purple he charged the giant and unmercifully assaulted him. Daxium took the brunt of it before ducking and flipping him over his shoulder. Makeena got up as Daxium tried to calm him down to no avail as he attacked again. Knocking him down again Makeena squatted down and surrounded himself with the rock again and lifted off. Flying up so fast the hovering Razor almost couldn’t avoid him he altered his course to crash into Daxium as he stood up again. Then he did it again from behind. On the third try the giant was ready for it and caught him, feet digging trenches into the ground until they stopped. The jewel started to flash as he drew on all his strength as and repeatedly slammed the meteor into the ground then threw him overhead. Makeena slowly came out of his shell as he brought his fist up to his chest, preparing to unleash the Giga Wave. The he saw the dwelling of Ken’s brother and others would be in it’s path. Going over the options he had in his head so he wouldn’t endanger it in case the creature would move he suddenly he crossed his arms over his chest and brought them down and mode shifted into Hyper Mode. Extending the Light Stream whip he swirled it around his head before wrapping it around the creature. Rearing the other hand back and drawing in energy from the surroundings he slammed it down on the wrist and the Light Pulse shot through the whip and into Makeena, a second later he exploded. Daxium stood there, clenching his fists and feeling no satisfaction over this. He flew off with a sharp, “Shiah!” Ken reappeared, falling to a knee and holding his chest. “Those multiple mode shifts still suck,” he grunted. Looking back at where the battle was all he could say was, “We’re facing a bunch of bastards.” *** With the board’s approval Hawk quickly organized a party to help the civilians hurt during the evacuation and help ease some of the chaos that was happening in the aftermath. He argued since they fired the first shot to antagonize the creature it was the least they could do to help out. Surprisingly enough Richardson agreed with him, especially since it would make for some good PR. In no time Hawk and the rest of Alpha Team were there joining Ken and trying to build up some good will. Jess in particular was having a bit of a time trying to find the parents of a little boy that was with her. Though she had to smile when they did find them. “Jessica Wade?”, hearing her name she was greeted by a familiar face. “Mrs. Scott,” she said as the older woman hugged her out of the blue, “how are you?” “I’m fine. And ‘Mrs. Scott’? Are you trying to make me sound like an old woman?” “Sorry, force of habit drilled into me by my family.” It looked like she was trying to say something but stopping short from actually saying it. “What is it?” “I always told myself I’d tell you something in gratitude the next time I saw you. But I can’t think of a way to say it without sounding like a total bitch.” “Well you said it was in gratitude so I’ll try not to be offended.” “Alright dear, you asked for it,” she said with what had to be a family smirk. “I always thought you breaking up with Ken was the best thing that ever happened to him. Only because he started growing a backbone where Jeff was concerned.” “Good thing you told me you were grateful for it first.” Although she still wasn’t sure how she should take it. “Uh-oh,” Ken said walking up to them, “my mom and my ex. No good can come of this.” “Only if you say anything stupid,” his mom warned him. “Which is pretty regular,” Jess added. “More so now a days.” “I knew I was going to get ganged up on,” Ken whined. “Uncle Ken!”, Nicole shouted as she ran up to him with a piece of paper in her hand. “I drew you a picture.” “And I can’t wait to see it.” Ken took it and opened it fully prepared to be the proud uncle. Actually looking at it his eyes bugged out a little. There was a drawing of a man with a ponytail flying to the side in a UNDF jacket with his hand over his head. Instead of a hand though there was a drawing of a flash of light. And behind him was something that looked suspiciously like Dax. “This is great Nicole. Just great.” Nicole beamed as she left them alone. This could be a problem. Jess, who was looking over his shoulder at the drawing, said, “You’re niece thinks you’re Ultraman?” “Why wouldn’t I be?”, he asked her with the straightest face he could manage. Then he broke out in a grin, “I’m the coolest guy she knows.” “Then she needs to meet more people.” “Hey civilian,” Bill said walking up to him, “you dropped you GLC.” Catching it after it was tossed to him Ken pocketed it, “Thanks I was looking for that.” And he was so grateful one of the team found it were he put it and Jeff was right there to witness it. The look on his face alone was worth the risk. Of course Jeff being Jeff he tried to save some face. “Ha, you’re in trouble now. How dare you lose you Global… Locating… Comp… What does GLC stand for?” Bill just gave him the strangest look, “Good luck charm.” And again the look on his older brother’s face was worth it. Just to rub it in Ken added, “My life been great since I found it.” Jeff walked off grumbling something colorful. “So you’re the smart one then?”, Bill asked. “I think things are going great,” Hawk said as he and Ryo joined them. “at this rate we should be back at base in no time. Then I get the ‘joy’ of dealing with Jamira over what happened,” he added looking a little dismayed. “What did you steal from me?!”, Jeff shouted. They looked over to see him and a very frightened Nicole. “I swear to God I out to..,” he raised his hand as to strike her. Nicole flinched expecting the blow but Ken was already there grabbing his wrist. “You do and I swear to God I’ll put you in the hospital.” “And I’ll press charges,” Jeff threatened him. “Does it look like I give a damn?” Taken by surprise by the look in his little brother’s eyes he said, “You and what army tough guy?” Before either of them knew it Jess was standing beside him, then Ryo, then Bill and Hawk. Looking back at them then to his brother Ken couldn’t keep the smirk off of his face, “This one.” Looking at them Jeff walked off saying, “Losers.” As Ken made sure Nicole was alright Bill asked, “How are you two related again?” “You have no idea how many times I’ve asked that?”, Jess commented. “Captain I’m going to take my niece home,” Ken said. “I’ll be back at Castle later.” “Take your time,” he told him, glancing where his brother went. “Report back when you do.” “Yes sir. Come on sweetie let’s find Mommy and Grandma,” and he took her hand asking himself that same question for the millionth time this year. “Oh,” he looked back to make sure the others couldn’t hear him, “And we have to talk about something you saw today.” ----- ED – Shinedown- Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 14
----- OP -Mercy Drive - Burn In My Light ----- He had heard rumors of a regular poker game when he first arrived at Castle. Considering how the people around here treated him back then Ken wasn't all that surprised that he wasn't invited to join in right away. He didn't think it would take as long as it did but eventually Jess and Ryo invited him in. Even Bill seemed happy to see him the first time around, or as he put it happy to see his money. Things were a little awkward the first couple of hands, but after a couple of jokes things loosened up a bit. Now that it was a couple of months later they acted like they played together for years. As it was Ken felt free enough to throw his uniform jacket on the couch as soon as he came in. Actually he kinda like hanging out with his teammates in this situation, everybody was much more relaxed. Jess had her jacket unzipped while Bill had his hanging on the back of his chair. Ryo, while the only in the full, official looking uniform, seemed a lot more like he remembered him from thier acedemy days. Everybody was so relaxed and chilled he almost hated to do this. Almost. "Full House, jacks over eights." "Damnit," Bill grunted as he threw his cards on the table. Jess pushed hers back toward the deck while Ryo looked at his hand. "That's five wins in a row." "Not my fault I hit a lucky streak," he told him while collecting the chips he just won. Jess eyed him, "If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were cheating." Ken eyed her right back, "You two are the only ones with long sleeves at the moment to hide any cards. And if I hid them under the scanner they'd be all sweaty and smelly." "Looks like civillian covered all the bases," Bill chuckled as he took the cards and shuffled them. "Yeah," Ken agreed, "next thing you'll be accusing me of dealing from the bottom of the deck like Bill does." "I do not...", he started to protest before he realized Ken just got the reaction he was looking for. "Screw you civilian." "Buy me dinner first," Ken shot back. "And I am not a cheap or easy date." "You are not worth that much work," Jess told him. "I should know." "You weren't complaining all that much back when he were dating," Ken told her. She didn't miss a beat, "I didnt know any better." "You're just mad I'm beating you at cards." "You think so?", and there was no mistaking the challenge her voice. He wasn't backing down, "Oh I know so." "Sounds like we're being dealt out fo this hand," Bill told Ryo. "Looks like," he agreed. Bill looked at both of them and started smiling, "Maybe the two of you should make this a little more interesting. You know instead of money maybe something a little more personal as it were." Both Ken and Jess eyed him suspisiously. Ryo spoke for them, "Define personal." "Nothing too extreme," he explained. "Maybe a small token of victory for the winner." And Ken was suddenly not liking that grin Jess was giving him. "Alright, if I win I get to cut that thing off the back of your head." His hand immediately went for his ponytail. "What's the matter Ken?", she dared to ask innocently. "Not feeling as confident now." "I'm still in," he said a little too quickly. Seeing how he was used to having it he wasn't looking to lose it anytime soon. "If I win...," he said slowly. He tried to think of somethng that would: a) get her to call off the bet and b) not cause her to knock his block off in the process. "If I win... I get to see the twins." And if looks could kill he would be so dead right about now. Oblivious to all of that Bill pumped his fist under the table and gave out a small, "Yes." "Alone," he quickly ammended. "You suck." "Wait," Ryo spoke up, "you two used to date. You mean you guys never..." he trailed off but they all got his meaning. "With Miss 'I'm not doing anything untill I'm married' here?," he replied. "Please." Jess raised an eyebrow at his answer but said nothing. "Let's get this over with." "Ryo deals," Jess said suddenly. "You pissed off Bill and beating I'm you fair and square." "Fair enough," Ryo said as he took the deck from Bill. Ken and Jess never took their eyes off each other as he shuffled and dealt the cards between them. Slowly both of them reached for their cards. The sirens went off with Hawk commanding, "Alpha Team prepare to launch ASAP!" "Duty calls," Ryo said spriging out of his chair while Bill grabbed his jacket. Zipping up her's Jess told Ken, "We are finishing this hand as soon as we get back." "You bet we are," he told her. Reaching for his ponytail one more time he grabbed his jacket and followed them out. *** Several Scan Tracks pulled up around a forest park and Alpha team, a.k.a Monster Squad, Piled out and stood in formation as Hawk adressed them. "Alright people you know the deal, look for and clear out any civilians you find." Back at Castle Hawk had told them that Bridge up a steady reading, but it was too generalized to pin point an exact positision. And to avoid a PR disaster like last time they were sent in to discover what it was and get people to saftey. And seeing how this was a govenmnet funded park try to take the object out before they were forced to call in the heavy attialry. They were still hearing about the damage caused the first time a monster showed up in a forest park. Hawk continued, "Because of the sheer size of the area to cover more ground I want you to to do this search seperately. Because you will be alone I want all of you to be extra careful and to stay in constant contact. Any of you discover anything hit you communicator and the rest of us will home in on your location. Is that Understood?" "Yes sir!", they responded. "Search teams move out. Scan track try to scan the park as best as you can and link your sensors to Castle. Let's see if we can get a little more specific about what and where this thing is." "Hey Ken," Jess called out. "Don't for get, snip snip," she made a scissor motion with her fingers. "You better hope I don't find the coldest room in the building," he shot back. The he touched his ponytail before puttng his helmet on and heading out in another direction. Hawk glanced over at Ryo who only said, "Best if you didn't know." "Part of me was afraid you were going to say that," he said as they each picked a path and started their own search. *** "This is Scott, I finally convinced a couple to head back to their car. They should be heading your way soon enough" "Understood Scott, we'll keep an eye out for them. Scan track Forty Three out." It had been an hour so far and that was the third group that he had located and sent to safety so far. And those two were the only ones to argue the point so far. "I'm guess the acedemy had the class about dealing with morons after I was DQed," he said mainly to himself before he kept looking. But from the communications he and the others have been overhearing the park was surprisenly crowded for a non holiday weekday. Well as far as he knew, it seemed that way to him. Then again it's been awhile since he's been to the park during a holiday. Checking his wrist scanner again he tried to detect anybody else or anythng that looked out of place. Not seeing anything right away he kept going along the path then he stopped. Standing a few yards away, and with his back to him stood a man with salt and pepper hair wearing and wearing an army jacket and some jeans, not to mention some very worn sneakers. He checked his wrist scanner again, tapping the screen after a bit. The guy was well within range of the scanner, so why wasn't he picking him up. Now would probably be a good time to hit his commnicator. "Ken!", Daxium spoke up suddenly. At the same time this guy turned around and and closed the distance between them faster than he thought was possible and grabbed his wrist, stopping him from hitting the communicator. Staring into a pair of mirrored sunglasses for a bit the man twisted a bit and sent Ken flying over his shoulder. "Oof," he grunted as he hit the ground. Going for his gun the stranger put a foot on his wrist and put enough weight on it to keepo him from drawing it. They started at each other for a few moments. Eventually the stranger said, "You're not exactly human are you?" Ken tried to betray nothing but wondered how in the hell this guy knew that. "But the energy I'm getting off of you isn't eactly like the the one I'm after either. Which begs the question what exactly are you?" "Ken," Dax spoke up again, "I'm sensing an energy similar to mine but it feels different, fainter." That's when Ken noticed the triangular pendant with the circular green jewel in the center of it hanging around his neck. "That sounds like something I should be asking you," Ken told him. Before long the stranger took his foot off his wrist and Ken shook his wrist to get some some feeling back into it. Refusing the offered hand he stood up and studied the man. "So what are you then?" "Well if i'm right I'm someone in a simialr situation as you," he answered. "I'm just a lot further from home." "Okay let's say I know what you're talking about, " Ken said trying hard not to verify anything. "What exactly are you looking for?" "Something I've been looking for for way to long," he answered. "Somethng that changed my life in a way I never expected." Okay that last part was sounding way to familar to be comfortable, "So does this thing have a name?" Looking further into the woods he said, "Gudis." *** "After what happened with the Baltan I sincerly doubt we should be trusting this Gudis," Brooks told the being in the swirling vortex before him "A mass of practically goo you found floating around the dimensional void." "A sentinant mass willing to help anyone willing to assist it," he was corrected. Brooks hid his hand as it started crackling with dark energy. He was so annoyed with them right now. "It is a situation we have under control." "No," he argued, "the Baltan was a situation we could control, especially if there was some checking of what they actually wanted before hand. Makeena was a situation we culd control, especially after you found out it was exactly as viscious as you were led to believe. This is something from another reality entirely. We have no idea of knowing exactly what it is oher than what it already told us." The edge of the vortex started to grow in intensity, "Do you question our decision Avatar?" Brooks stood his ground, "In this situation I am." Although their previous dispaly of displeasure were as impressive as the one he was seeing now he fully expected them to actually lash out at him this time. He prepared himslef accordenly seeing how close those "stray" energy bolts were coming toward him. Slowly the vortex returned to normal, "Fortunate for you other among us share your concerns." He simply said, "Oh?" He had a more interesting retort in mind but he was to avoid any violence being done to his body at the moment. "Yes, as a compromise we provided enough dark energy to Gudis to make sure it arrived in your dimension. And it will be just enough that we can monitor it's actions whenever we want." "Well, that does change things a bit," Brooks admitted. "Not to mention a waste of a perfectly good moment of defiance." "A moment that will not happen again Avatar." "Of course my masters," he said with a slight bow. The vortex faded soon after. Hand still crackling with energy he blasted the wall in front of him. *** "Let me get this straight," Ken said as he followed the stranger down the path, "this Gudis only wants to make everything part of it?" "Yes and no," he answered. "Everything would still look the same, more or less, but everything would be connected to it. There would be no individuality, no free will. Just Gudis until it uses the planet up and it moves on to the next one. Although it hit a snag when it reached Mars in my universe. It got there and found a dead world already and got stuck some how." "Wait, how do you know it was on Mars?" He looked back at him and smirked, "I was there." Ken didn't know how to respond other than with a slightly sarcastic, "Of course you were." "I was an astronught before I ended there and joined up with him," he explained. "How did you met your guy?" Again Ken wasn't verifing anything. "Have it your way then." Instead he said, "Since you're tracking this thing can you tell me how you can find it." "I used to be able to," he said looking around. "I'm still sensing something but it's been altered somehow. I can't pinpoint it like I used to." Ken had a sick feeling he knew how and why it was altered. Hanging back a bit he lowered his head and whispered, "You getting anything?" "Not so far," Dax answered. Ken looked back up to see the stranger look back at him, smiling again. "I see you can talk to yours too." "I still don't know what you're talking about," he said trying to save face and knowing he was failing miserably. If this guy suspected before he pretty much knew now. "So... is the weather nice where you come from?" *** "Castle to Hawk," Bridge caaled "Hawk here," he answered the hail while continuing down the trail looking for anything out of place. "I think I have better fix thanks to the additonal data from the Scan Track's sensors." "I don't want to hear 'you think you do' in this situation Bridge," he told him. "Either you do or you don't." "It's more like we've shrunk the general search area," he ammended. "That's still not very helpful," he sighed, "but it's better than nothing. Who's closest to this new area?" "Checking now." After a moment he got his answer, "Ryo, Jefferson, Mike and Ken are the closest." Checking the readings one more time he added, "Actually it looks like Ken's well inside the new search area." "What the... Hawk to Scott. Wy are you further along than anybody else?" Where he was he glanced at the stranger before saying, "I was chasing a crackpot who refused who refused to cooperate and I lost track of him. I've been trying to find him before he hurt himself." Of all the rookie...."Call for assistance in that situation in the future Ken. But right now I have a new assignment for you. Bridge has reset the search area and you're the closest to it. Try and discover what it is, back up is heading your way in the mean time." "Understood, Scott out." "Chasing a crackpot?", the stranger asked. "I'm following you," he told him, "it's like I'm chasing you." In the meantime Hawk told Bridge, "Send the new coordinates to everybody else and have tem cordon off the area as best they can. I'll send Ryo and the others to back up Ken." "Yes sir, Castle out." Hawk looked at Ken's general reaction wondering if that was the real reason why he was out that far. "Hawk to Watanabe..." *** "Hold up," the stranger said after a bit. Ken looked past him to see he didn't need to say he found it. In a middle of a field was a partictularly brown liquid. In the middle of that was something roughly the size of a man. It had a single solid like body, it had a bulbish like head and large red eyes and a mandible like vertical mouth. A pair of tenticles hung limp in front of it and didn't move, they didn't even twitch. Either it didn't know they where there or it didn't care. The stranger looked a little perplexed, "I didn't expect it to revert back to this shape." "Okay is this where you," without really thinking Ken crossed his wrists together, "do whatever you do?" The stranger held the pendant in his hand and looked at it. "This would have been the place but not now. I have to use a lot of energy to cross dimensions. Usually it builds back up after awhile. But I'm not sensing it now, I may have made one jump to many." "Alright then," Ken said as he stepped forward. Holding up his wrist scanner he tried to get a clear shot of the creature. "Unless you want to say cheese you might want to step out of frame." "And why don't you do what you do?", he shot back. "Not his size. Scott to Hawk." "Hawk here, what do you have?" "I found the creature and sending you an image of it now." "Good job son. I'll relay the image back to Castle to see if they can determin anything from it. Hawk out." "The name's Jack by the way," the Stranger said out of the blue. He looked at Ken wth a little chagrin, "I over heard yours during the previous transmission. It only seemed far." Ken nodded and looked back at the Gudis, "You have beaten this thing before right?" "I thought I did," he said while taking off his sunglasses. "I never thought it would slip through a dimensional crack." Remembering why Dax and the other monsters were here Ken had an idea what caused that crack but didn't say anything about it. "I think the only way to really destroy Gudis is to obliterate every atom in it's body." "Yeah... we're going to work on that." "Ken." He looked around to see Ryo and the others hurry toward him. Wondering how he was going to explain "Jack" he looked at his other side and saw he had already disappeared. "How in the hell...?" "That's the thing huh?", Ryo asked as he saw Gudis in the somewhat flesh. "Ugly sucker," Jefferson commented. "It's probably a beauty queen where it comes from," Ryo commented. "Watanabe to Hawk we've arrived at it's location." "Acknowledge, Bridge says scientists are curious about that slime that's around it. Try to get a more detailed scan of the substance while we try to figure out how to deal with it." "Understood, Watanabe out. You heard him Ken," and he turned back toward the creature. He on the other hand, "Me? You're the one with senority." "And Hawk put you on point.," Ryo countered. "Paper-Rock-Sissiors." Jefferson adn Mike laughed but Ryo obliged. Ken put out sissiors. Ryo had out rock. "Shit. Two out of three." "I have senority so no," He said with a smirk. "We technically have senority too," Jefferson said as Ken looked at them. Grunting Ken carfully walked toward the creature. Mike called out, "Careful, that stuff looks hazerdus to your health." "You think," Ken shot back. Getting onto scanning ranger he paused momentarily At this range Dax was getting a faint sense of dark energy. He watched the Gudis for any sign it detected him. Nothing so far. Doing the scan he hurried back to the others. "That stuff stinks up close." "What did it smell like?", Ryo asked "You know they're going to want to know." "Kind of like rotting vegtables." Remembering what this Jack guy told him he hoped it wasn't too late already. *** "Bill," Jess waved him over as she spotted him. "It's a little wierd not being in the air for this one huh?", he said when he was close enough. "A bit," she admitted. A lot was more like it. She was too used to veiwing the situation from the confines of a cockpit. And the fact she was used to situations involving giant creatured was a little unnerving once she thought about it. More than likely the others felt the same way but it made her feel a little silly. But right now Bill's look was concerning her a bit. "Hey are you okay? You look a little distracted." "I grew up around here," he said. "This is hitting a little close to home." "You did? I never knew that. "What's to know?", he said. "I grew up in an orphanage. I was never adopted until I was in my teens. Some of the nuns hated me because instead of helping keep the younger kids in like I riled them up instead." She smiled, "Yeah that sounds like you all right." Thinking abit she asked, "How close is it?" "Over that ridge over there," he turned and pointed toward part of the mountain. "I already told the Captain about it and he assured me they already evacuated it." She studied him a bit, "You don't believe him or something?" "Oh I believe him," he quickly said. "But...," she nudged. "But," he continued, "but when I was there the head nun had a bit of a captain of he ship mentality. I'm talking the going down with the ship type of thing. If she's still there I can imagine she's still putting up a fight about leaving." "I'm sure our guys can perseuade her to leave," Jess assured him. "Only if they're prepared to shot her with this baby," he joked while patting his gun. "Speaking of do you think Ken's still about mad about it." "If he's anything like I remember," she said thinking it over, "he's calmed down enough from wanting to beat the crap out of you to landing one solid kick to the nuts and calling it even." BIll winced, "I hope he's changed more than that because out of the two I'd prefer getting beat up." Actually if Ken wanted to beat him up that would actually be a step up from what she remembered of him when they were dating in high school. He looked around and squinted, "What the..." "What is it?", Jess asked as he went to investigate. He knelt down next to a rose bush that was literally wilting before their eyes. "I look around to see if can find anything else." "Water to Hawk." "Hawk here, what do you have Bill?" "I have a plant going to brown real fast right in front of me," he said. "Bill!", Jess called back, "I found a tree dying more and more by the second." "I heard," Hawk said before Bill could say anything. "Hawk to all units look around for any signs of rapidly dying floral or vegetion." Where they were Ken and the others looked around, "This whole area's dying." Ryo reported as much. Every unit reported signs of dying vegation near their location. Given what was in the middle of it all there could only be one reason. Hawk gave the order, "Ryo take it out." "That's probably be easier if we were in the Razor Wings," Bill commented, while making sure his communicator was off. *** "You heard him," Ryo said. "Mike scan for a potential weak spot we can exploit." Keeping an eye on the GUdis for any sort of reaction Ken commented, "That order would be a little easier to follow if we had some grenades or something." "You don't hear me arguing," Ryo said. "But we have what we have." "I think I have something," Mike told them. "Just under it's chin, I think you call that a chin, and a little to the right." "Our right or it's right?", Ken asked. Ryo shot him a look. "I'm just making sure." "Ours," Mike clarified. "All right guys," Ryo said, "set the guns for full power and take aim." All of them drew their weapons and adjusted their settings. Ken and Jefferson hit the switch on the side that activated the targeting reticle in their helmet visor and took aim like the others. Still the creature didn't react. To make sure of that Ryo spoke just loud enough for them to hear, "Fire." They did so in unison. What they didn't expect was for the slime to react. It raised up blocking the blast then fell back to the ground. "Shit," Ken muttered even as he tried to line up another shot. Now the Gudis looked alive as red glowing eyes focused on them and opened it's mouth surprising them again with an energy blast of it's own. It was powerful enough that it knocked them to the ground. Mike was the first one up but still groggy enough that he didn't see the Gudis come up behind him and wrap a tenticle around his neck. He struggled to breath as he fought to get it off of him. The others soon came to their senses and opened fired again trying to get the creature to release him. It swung the tentacle in such a way and at such a speed that Mike stopped struggling and he went limp. Gudis flung his body away where he landed in a heap. It looked at them again and fired another energy blast. Expecting it this time they jumped out of the way. "Fall back!", Ryo ordered. Another blast forced them to go in different direction. Ryo relayed in the situation as he got in contact with Hawk and called for back up. Ken stopped where he was when he didn't see Ryo and Jefferson in sight. Looking back to see where Gudis was, and realizing it was looking right back at him, he said, "Dax, just this one time." Inside his head he heard, "I agree Ken." "Good." With the Gudis coming toward him he reached into his jacket pulled out the Spark Magnifier. Pointing it at the creature he was envolped in it's light and was replaced with a human sized Daxium. The creature screeched and backed up into the slime and started pulling it in, leaving behind brown dead Earth in it's wake. Gudis started to grow into gigantic size. Daxium looked up at him as he brought his wrist together, almost crossed at his waist. His eyes flashing a bit he threw the right one up into the air and grew in size to amtch the creature. "Shiah!" Elsewhere the stranger from another univere looked up as well, more in amusment than in awe. "It's been awhile since I've seen it from this angle." Looking at his pendant in his hand he could feel the spirit was willing, however the energy was nowhere close to being able. "I guess we better let a new generation handle it. Let's see if we can find out where he changed." *** At the Castle command center Richardson, Peter and Jamira were watching things unfold as Ultraman started fighting the creature as the rest of the crew around them focused on their jobs. "One does wonder how he gets there so fast," Peter said out loud. While he couldn't specifically point out that Scott was Ultraman without rasinging any unnessary questions, hopefully he could raise enough curosity about it that he would he would become a little more choosey about unleashing the giant at some point. More than likely not but one could always hope. "He's there," Richardson barked, "that's all that matters." "Since he's there we should send out the Razor Wings and target both of them now," Jamira demanded. "We've gone over this Commander," Richardson told him. "Ultraman is not to be touched until my say so." "Then say so already!", Jamira practically screamed, drawing more than a few looks from Peter and those around them. To his credit Richardson didn't look fazed by the Commander's outburst. Unless you knew what to look for like Peter did. And underneath that calm exterior Richardson was fumming. "And there is a reason why Captain Hawk is the one in over all command of the military forces around here," he said evenly. "I suggest you learn why and remember it. You are dismissed." Jamira looked like he was about to say something but thought better of it. He stormed out hitting the door as it opened. "You may want to be careful Harold," Peter said allowing him a few moments to calm down. "More than a few board members agree with him. Not to mention that more than a few people around here consider Ultraman just as big of a threat as the monsters he fights." "As I have been told that on several occasions," Richardson reposonded, only letting a hint of the annoyance he was feeling out. "As have a few public polls those board members have been fit to show me." "So why let the order stay in place?" "Because he is still an ally. And I will not condone any action on a ally wthout concrete proof he's not." Or, Peter thought, make him an enemy since he had a feeling Richardson knew Scott and Ultraman's little secret as well. After all it only made sense given the facts. Now the question was how many people around here have put those facts together?" *** Daxium dodged to the left as the tenticle came at him. So far Gudis had been able to keep him at bay and kept him from using any of his energy based attacks. He couldn't even switch forms without being attack. On occasion he had been able to close enough to keep the creature from using it's own energy blast so in that respect it was basically a stand off. The humans were far enough away that they couldn't actively particiapate in the battle. So Daxium, for the first time since coming to this dimension, was truely fighting alone. And in a way he preferred it. While he was grateful for the assistance they occasionally provided he was still more concerned about their safety when they were involved. From his connection to Ken he knew that this Hawk was hurrying to get his units into position, and he silently admired his dedication to the fight. Seeing one of the tenticles come at him Daxium was able to block and make his way inside their reach. Unloading several punches on it's body he forced it back a bit. A spin kick knocked it further back. Then a tententicle wrapped around his wrist. Daxium was momentarily surprised at a dip in his power levels right before Gudis flung him into the mountain. Daxium broke free and held his wrist as he forced his way to some open space. He looked at his wrist then at the creature, it could drain his energy much ike it could drain the life out of the area around it. Embolden by this fact Gudis lashed out again again trying to get ahold of a limb. Daxium blocked each attempt and continued to back up trying to locate an opening he could exploit. Then the Gudis fired off a series of energy blast that rocked the giant and forced him to cover up from the onslaught. Thinking quick he put his shield up against the barrage, a couple of shot reflected back at Gudis causing him to stop and scream in pain. Seeing the open Daxium rushed in but he failed to realize it was a trap until it was too late. A tenticle came in low and slammed him at the knee. He went down and the other one quickly wrapped around his neck. Gudis seemed to cackle as he drained the light energy from the giant, even more so once the jewel on his chest started to blink. Realizing he couldn't remove the tenticles Daxium dropped both hands to one side and aimed a flashbolt at the point Ken's fallen comrade had pointed out. It worked as Gudis screamed in pain. and he felt the grip around his neck loosen. Another flashbolt freed him and backed the Gudis up. Not taking the moment to cherish his newly won freedom he backflipped a couple of times, set up and fired the Dimensional Storm Ray. It caught Gudis flush and it exploded. Daxium stood and watched the area for a moment. Yes he defeated the creature... yet something was nagging his in the back of his mind. Not seeing a immediate threat and knowing his time was short he flew off into the air, "Shiah!" Ken materailzed from the orb of light close to where he first changed. Behind him this Jack person leaned on a tree branch that was over his head. "I almost thought you had him." When Ken looked back he wasn't there. Looking around he found the pendant he was wearing hanging from that same branch. He took it and studied it, some lighting was flashing inside the jewel but it was weak, barely visable. And right then Ken knew, Jack was sent home but not all of him could make the trip. *** The mood back at Castle was a somber one as the team returned. But that was always the case when they lost one of their own on an assignment. Ken and Jess made their way back to the rec room they were in earlier after the Captain finshed with the post mission briefing. Throwing her jacket on the couch Jess put her hands over her head and streched, "God I need to get out of here for awhile." "I guess it's a little late to get a pass from the Captain," Ken said as he headed for the table. "Unfortunately," she conceded as she joined him. Both of them looked att he cards still face down on the table. "Seems a bit stupid now doesn't it." "A bit," he agreed. "You want to call the bet off?" "If you want to." Inside his head he did a little happy dance. "It was a childish bet anyway. I don't know why we listened to Bill in the first place." She looked at him then at the cards then back at him. "Maybe it's because you're a year older and you memory is starting to fade first, but I seem to recall that we slept together more than once back in high school." "Well it was your birthday," he said with a shrug. "Then it was my birthday." With a smirk he added, "And I don't know about you but I haven't looked at Arbor day the same way since." The corner of her lip crinkled in the smallest hint of a smile. "So what was with the whole 'not before I'm married' BS?" "From what I've overheard you have a pretty good reputation around here," he explained. "I didn't want to accidentally ruin it and get you angry with me all over again. And if Bill thought he had a chance with you I'm pretty sure you'd put me in the medical wing." "You're damn right," she said with a finger poke to his chest. Again they looked at the cards. Both of them thinking the same thing. "Somebody probably messed with them." "I wouldn't doubt it. I don't even remember what I had." "I don't think I even looked at mine." One more time the cards called to them. She looke at him, "Since the bets off it couldn't hurt to look." "I thought you'd ever say it." He stood by the cards he had. "Just the cards we have now." "Turn them over all at once," she agreed. Jess had a pair of kings. Ken had three of a kind with fours. "You lucky S.O.B." "Well you know what they say, lucky at cards total moron at love," he told her as he headed for the exit. "Just because you were once doesn't mean you always will be," she told. Stopping at he door he didn't look convinced. "Ken you are a great guy that any woman would love to have in their life. Trust me, I should know. Show a little of that backbone like you did against your brother and the girl around here will be swooning all around you." "Swooning?", he said cracking a smile. "That's a bit much don't you think?" "I'm just trying to rebuild your confidence," she told him. "Epsecially since you're obvioulsy still so devastated I broke up with you." "You keep telling yourself that." Pausing a bit at the door he looked back, "Thanks Jess." She waved it off, "Just be happy you're ex if still friendly with you." "Every day." Walking back to his quarters his mind went a million places at once. What happened to Mike popped up first but he did not need to dweal on that at the moment. After that conversation he started thinking about how he screwed up things with Jess but he didn't want to stay there either. So that left him with one safe, more or less, subject that was floating around in his head. Making sure he was alone he pulled the pendant out of his pocket. The chain dangled from his hand as he looked at it. Part of him feltDax trying to feed some of his energy to it but so far he was being rejected. "I almost thought you had him." As those words rang in his head his fingers closed around it, "What the hell did we miss?" ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 15
----- OP - Mercy Drive - Burn in my Light ----- Sitting on the edge of a computer console Jess waited for the enevidiable to happen. Then again this could have been the day the unimaginable actually happened. Glancing back at the screen she watched the ongoing battle of red and green lights for a few minutes. Then like all the other times the red lights won out in the end. She wasn't even surprised by the very angry sounding, "Damnit!", that came from the chamber underneath the console. She'd witness this particular even a couple of times but she knew enough to do nothing as Ken slid out of the chamber frustrated beyind belief. Although he let it get the best of him this time as he slapped the bottom of the console on the way out. Looking back at the screen she tried a joke to ease the tension, "That didn't work either." The look on his face said the attempt failed, big time. It would probably be a good idea not to mention that was the fastest the machine had beaten him so far. "I almost had it," he grumbled. Kneeling down she went, "Ken as somebody who's known you for a long time now this is, what, the tenth time you 'almost had it' since you've been here?" While he wouldn't look at her he mumbled, "Twelfth." "Twelve times," she told him. "Look I'm not trying to be mean or negative or anything, but maybe it's time to admit this can't be beat." "I can beat it," he insisted as he got to his feet. "I can almost see the solution in my head. I'm almost there I can get it." "God I wish you showed this much determination back when we were dating when you brother was pushing your buttons to get what he wanted." He gave he a look then left the room, "Whatever." "All right that was a low blow," she said following him out. "I'm sorry. But damnit Ken...," she stopped herself. "No, I'm not going to start this conversation out in the open like this." "Why not?", he demanded, turning to face her. "We both know I'm the one who screwed it up." "And I could have been a little more patiant with the situation," she told him, remember something similar she told the Captain when he first asked her about it, after they lost Joe. "I could have told Jeff off at least once." "I think Mom would have paid you if you did," he told her. "Great, now you tell me," she smiled. It took a couple of moments but he started smiling too. "Okay we narrowly avoid the post break-up argument ten years after the fact. But serioulsy Ken, twelve times..." "I know," he said as they started walking again. "It's just I just found out I'm supposed to be a genius at this crap. One way or another I should be able to see a solution somewhere." "And a bunch of other geniuses created that thing, the odds aren't exactly in your favor. Everybody from Captain Hawk on down have been telling you this. Besides if a miricle did happen and you do beat it they're just going to make it harder. It's how those guys work." "I'm technically one of 'those guys' you know." "Like you said you just found out. they known for years. Actually I'm glad you didn't hind out until recently. If you would have found out years ago you'd be just as stuffy as the rest of them. Then I would be forced to hurt you." "I'll keep that in mind in case MENSA ever opens a mechanics wing," he told her. Jess gave a playful jab to the ribs, "You better." *** In another part of the Castle complex Captain Hawk, Commander Jamira, Richardson, his assistant slash bodyguard Patricia, Brooks and a cople of the other board members listened to a few of the scientists as they discussed the ecological damage resulting from the last monster attack. There was a bit of information Richardson and a few others were having a hard time trying to digest. "What do you mean there's nothing alive?" "The subsatance the creature secreated killed everything in an on the ground it stood on," he explained. "Animal life, plant life, bacteria... When I say it's dead Earth I mean dead Earth." "What about the plants life we discovered that looked like it was starting to be affected?", Hawk asked. "We studied those as well," said another. "Some of them might be salvagable. Most I personally doubt can be saved at all." Brooks spoke up, "What about this dead Earth itself? Is there any way to correct the damage done?" "We're looking into it," replied the first one. "We think it's possible to salvage the area but we would have to know invasive the substance was..." "Can we replicate the slime to use on another monster?", Jamira asked. The scientist looked among themselves somewhat bewildered by the questions. Hawk decided to speak for them, "I don't think using a substance that is almost as leathal as some of the creatures we've been in combat against, if not more so, is a good idea." "It's a potential weapon we can use," he argued. "It would be stupid not to take advantage of it." "I have to agree with the good Captain," Brooks piped in, "Some of the beasts have proven to be rather mobile in the past. What if you miss in a populated area." "Then we don't miss." Everybody knew he wasn't joking. "Commander," Brooks began, "There must be limits..." Jamira cut him off, "I'm trying to save lives here! Thise things don't hold back and neither should we." "And I heard that same bunch of bull back before you were born," Richardson told him. "One side got a gun so the other got a bigger one than the other got a bigger gun than that and so on and so on. I didn't believe in it then and I don't believe in it now." "So says the man who's betting on the giant freak," he muttered just loud enough for those close to him could here, which included Richardson. "That will be enough Commander," Hawk quickly barked. Richardson responded any way, "A valid opinion, While destructive in his own right Ultraman has helped more than he hindered. Then we have the situations where he decided to either not use or modify his most powerful weapon. Will this slime do the same?" Jamira didn't have an immediate answer. "Sometimes the potential cure can be worse than the desease. I suggest you remember that." "Yes sir," Jamira said before leaving the room. Hawk looked at the board and excused himself before following him out. "Well that's going to be a unpleasant conversation," Brooks quipped after they were gone. Richardson added, "And the man wonders way he's not in charge of the attack forces." One of the other board members said, "Getting back to this dead Earth, wasn't there an orphange near by?" "Yes there was," Brooks answered. "I believe Captain Hawk's report indicated one of Alpha team grew up there." "Yes," Richardson said recalling the report. Behind him Patricia pulled the report up on her tablet and showed it to him. "Waters. I believe Hawk sent him along with the research team. Partly to help ease things over from the incident and partily to help keep an eye on things. We still don't know if the danger is over after all, especially of this slime did as much damage as we think. Besides it will be good PR in the long run." Just about everybody quickly agreed with him on the last point. Silently Brooks wished that Gudis creature had made it's way over here. *** "I'm open!," Bill shouted as he played a game of soccer with some of the kids from the orphange. Once he did he got the ball toward the opposing goal. Although instead of taking the shot he quickly passed to one of the smaller players on his team let him get the goal. "Alright," he gave him a high five and quickly got both teams ready for the next play. "I'm not sure that's what the Captain had in mind by keeping an eye on things," one of the UNDF members commented as they studied the vegetation nearby. Ryo looked back before scanning another group of plants, "At least he's keeping most of he kids occupied and out from under foot." "Too bad the nuns won't let some of the older kids help out," he commented. "I'm sure they know the area pretty well. They could point out any potential spots quicker than we can find them." "I tried," Ryo told him. "I even suggested that maybe some of the nuns could go instead. The head nun shut that down almost as fast as she did with the kids. She seriously said she didn't want the woman under her charge to go out alone in the woods with male hooligans." "We have females with us on this particular team." "I tried pointing that out too but she didn't want them to do anything ungodly with her girls either." "Well we know where her mind is at," he laughed. "Joshua!", they heqard one of the nun called. The looked over to see a boy doing a hand in the air pose similar to the one Ultraman usually took when he appeared. "Sister Victoria doesn't like you to play as that thing remember." "And she's one of those," he added while going back to his readings. "I didn't think you were part of the pro-Ultraman group," Ryo commented. "I'm not," he told him. "Nor am I in the anti-group either. I guess you could say I'm in the wait and see group." "Fair enough." "Johnson to Watanabe," his communicator chirped. "Watanabe here, what do you have Johnson?" "This sector seems clear so far. We're going to double check things then head to the next search sector." "Understood. Everything on this side of the mountain looks clear too. But check your area for any streams of rivers that may connect the other side of the mountain with this one." "I think some of the others are doing that now and Bridge is going over evey geological survey they can find but we'll keep an eye out. Johnson out." Ryo looked at the mountain briefly, "I wish Bridge would hurry up with those findings." "So you know Ultraman?", a small boy asked Bill between plays. "Well not personally," he answered, "but I'm usually around when he shows up." "Is he really tall?", asked another. "Oh he's huge, almost as tall as that mountain over there." After that the floodgates officailly opened. "Where does he come from?" "Where does he go?" "Is he scared to fight the monsters?" "How does he the lights from his hands?" "Whoa, you guys are asking me things even the eggheads back at base don't know," he said quickly in an attempt to close this particular gate. "Now if you want to ask me about the jets I fly..." He realized that was a mistake as soon as it left his mouth as that floodgate opened wide one more time. "Where's Ryo when I need him?" "Children!", a stern looking older woman start over not looking happy. Bill felt an old fear creep up in the back of his mind. "It's time for your study period, so get back inside." The children quickly went back inside the building leaving the two of them alone. She looked him over with a bit of disdain. She had that look for as long as he could remember so he didn't really think anything of it. "Hello William," she said evenly. "Sister Vicoria," he greeted her with a genuine grin. "It's good to see you still up and kicking." "Yes," she said with little enthusiasum. "Are you and your... organization almost done here?" "Probably," he said looking back to see where the others were. "We're not sure how far what ever that stuff the monster was putting out went. We're just trying to be thourogh, making sure nothing was left over that could harm the kids or anybody else in the area." "I beleive just by showing up you potenially put the children in danger," she told him. "Sister believe me if we show up the danger is already here. Like I said we're just being extra cautious right now." "And yet you don't do anything about that giant false idol." "That's a new one," Bill couldn't help but smirk, "I never heard Ultraman called that before." "That is what that thing is," she insisted. "The children talk more about that giant heathan than they do the lord." "I don't recall there being all that much talking about the lord when I was here," Bill told her. "There is when I am around," she counted. "Because we knew had to," he informed her. "As soon as you left the room we went back to talking about what we were before you came in." "And I see you quickly learned to lie after you left this place." "Oh I learned to lie long before I left this place." "You become somewhat delusional too," she told him. "I suggest you and your organazation finish whatever it is you're doing and leave before you corrupt the children even more. Good day William." She turned around sharply and walked before he could say anything. "And I was actually happy to see her too," he said to himself. "Waters to Watanabe, do we have an ETA on the finish of this job? The head cheese is starting to act like I remember her." As he walked away from the building he failed to notice a group of daisies nearby that started to droop. *** Not being able to beat the unbeatable situation one more time non withstanding this had been a pretty decent day so far. The text he had to study had been getting smaller and smaller the more he caught up with the study program Hawk set up for him. Picking up one of the data pads he put it back down and reached into his pocket. Pulling out the triangular pendant that had been left behind by the stranger he only knew as Jack he couldn't get his last words out of his head, "I almost thought you had him." "Dax, you getting anything yet?" Somewhere deep inside his mind he got a responce, "Still nothing I'm afraid. The energy signature inside is still weak. I have continued trying to try and share mine but so far it has been rejected." Ken was confused, "Rejected? If you two are similar why would he do that?" "Perhaps we are not similar enough," Daxium offered. "Perhaps..." And he never really trails off when talking. "Perhaps what?" "Perhaps he feel his job is done." "What in the hell does that mean?" "Hawk to Scott," came from his communicator. "Crap," he quickly shoved the pendant back into his picket, despite the fact the Captain coldn't see him, before responding, "Scott here." "Relax Ken," he chuckled. "Jessica and myself were heading to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and wondered if you wanted to join us. I'm sure you could use a break from all the studing you have been doing." He looked at those barely touched datapads. "Sure, I'll be right there." "And you can tell me your side about the lastest attempt she was just telling me about." "Thanks Jess," he muttered. "Permission to kill her when I get there." "Denied," Hak quickly told, although he did chuckle a bit. "Beside, she's standing right here and heard everything." "Permission to plan my own funeral before I get there." "I'll consider it," he chuckled again. "But it better be a cheap one, we have a budget around here." "Yes sir, I'll meet you there." Ending the conversation he reached into his pocket one more time and fingered the pendant. "Perhaps if you took it to Dr. William," Daxium offered, "maybe he would have a different insight that we currently do not." There was a thought. Williams was one of the few people around here who knew his secret. And out of the three he was the one he liked the most. Still, "I'm still halfway expecting him the jack the Spark Magnifier behind my back on those check ups. I'm not sure I want to trust this guy in his hands unless I absolutely have to." *** "Bridge," said one of the techs, "I just got a hit on that substance were told to look out for." He was afraid he was going to say that. "How strong is it?", he asked pulling up the screen. If they didn'y find a way to contain this now that patch of dead Earth was going to get bigger. "Not that strong, but if I'm reading this right it's growing stronger by the moment." "You're not reading it wrong," he was forced to admit. Linking into the Scan track's sensor package he tried to get a clearer picture of what was happening. "Now this is strange," he muttered, "It looks like it's pooling into one spot. Castle to Watanabe." "I'm here Bridge what is it?", he quickly responded. "We're getting a reading off that substance and you're the closest one to the source. Is there any dying vegetation near you?" "Not that I can see at the moment," he said. "Give a moment to do a search. Damn it how did it get on this side of the range. Bill, you and the others spread out check the area over." "You got it," he said. "You two look over in that direction." "Ryo," Bridge spoke up, "science section theorized the reason why you and the others didn't notice anything right a way when you found the creature was the substance affects the smaller organisms first." "I read the report Bridge, but thanks any way." "Ryo!", Bill shouted. "There a patch of brown grass that's getting larger by the second." Ryo ran over and saw that he wasn't kidding. He could literailly see the grass die right in front of him. "This seemed faster than it was last time." "Bridge you said we were the closest, where's the substance coming from this time?" "That's ther the thing it's not coming it's growing," he said, "Almost like it mashing together." "How is it doing that?" "If I knew that I wouldn't be trying not to panic right now." "Alright where is it mashing then?" This wasn't making any sense. Unless there was an underground stream somewhere it shouldn't have gotten on this side of the mountains, much less pool up in a single spot. "About a mile and a half west of your current location," he answered. Bill looked in that direction and blanched a little. "The orphanage," and he ran back there as fast as he could. "Bill wait," Ryo said in vain. "Damn it. Watanabe to all field units, meet back up at the orphanage. We have a situation." *** In one of the Castle cafeterias Ken, Jess and Hawk were making the usual small talk, after the initial teasing about Ken's latest test go around. Then Hawk started to ask about their acedemy days. He was already a military man before being assigned this duty so he never had the particulr "pleasure" of going through the academy process. Right now Ken was retelling his short time there , "But there was this one instructor who got on my nerves fast. I know he probably still knows more than I do but damn if he didn't get annoying fast. He was teaching, and I kid you not, proper field safety procedure in a combat situation." "Wait," Jess interrupted him, "did he talk in this long slow monotone voice?", going so far as to mimic the tone of voice to highlight the point. "And he walked like he had five sticks up his ass?" "Yes," she confirmed. "Oh God it has to be the same guy. There's no way there can be two like that." "Would you believe he tried to instruct me on how to clean a gun?" "Didn't you tell him you were practically brought up on the shooting range? At least since starting school?" "He wouldn't listen," she said. "I think he's head of admissions now or something." Remembering the guy when he was there, and forgetting where he was for the moment, Ken went, "Who in the hell did he blow?" Jess wincing slightly made him remember where he was, and more importantly who he was with. Then he looked at Hawk as a mild case of panic set in. Taking a sip of his coffee he waited a moment before saying, "Saying some disparinging things about a higher up if frowned upon. Considering I know exactly who the two of you are talking about," and Ken figured he was about to be royally chewed out," I would say that question passed though my head more than once." Being struck speechless for the moment Jess spoke for him, "Ah... Captain?" "I'm on a break," he explained, "and currently in the company of people I know fairly well." He glanced at Ken, "well one not quite as long as the other. I feel I can be a little lax in this situation. But if you said that in my preseance after this was over the lecture would have been on in full force." Seeing the younger man visiably relax made him smle behind his cup. "Bridge to Hawk," he called out over the line. "Hawk here." "We're getting readings for that substance and Ryo is reportig that plants in the area are already starting to die, faster this time around. "Understood. Get all avaialble Razor Wings in the air," Hawk ordered. "And have a Scan Track ready for me, Jess and Ken." "Understood, Bridge out." "This is what get for sending both pilots on an assignment," Hawk mumbled as they hurried toward the door. *** "That boy is as insufferable now as he was when he was here," Sister Victoria ranted in her office. Her listener was another nun who had been there almost as long as she had. "The nerve of that scoundrel, daring to tell me the children only talk about the Lord when I am around." The other one finally spoke up, "I don't know why you're so suprised. I've been trying to tel you that for the past thirty years now." "You don't kow what you're talking about," she said dimissing it. "No, of course not," she sighed. "I just have my own eyes and ears." "Is it wrong for me to want the children to respect the Lord?" "Respect is one thing," she countered, "teaching them they have to, especially when you're around. That seems a biger disserves than not talking about him at all." "Thay's enough Cheryl," she ordered. Before the discussion could continue the room started to shake. "What in the world?" Bill ran in, slamming the door open, "We got to evacuate the orphange!" "Now wait a miniute," Sister Victoria protested, "we just went trough this nonsense." "And this nonsense is a lot closer this time around," he told them. "We already got some of the kids out thanks to the other nuns." "I better go help," Sister Cheryal said. "Lord only knows where some of the hiding places the children like to use are." "Make sure you check the cubby hole under the stairs in the west end," Bill told her. as she proceeded him out of the room. He looked toward Sister Victoria who stubbornly held her ground. "Ah Sister, out is this way. "I have been the head of this orphange for almost thirty years," she informed him. "My place is here, no where else." "I don't have time for this," said. Because he knew she wasn't going to budge on this no matter how hard she pleaded. Which, in his mind, left him only one option. "I hope this doesn't send me to hell." Walking toward her he grabbed her by the arm, "What do you think you are doing?" Without another word he hauled her over his shoulder and took her out of the room. "Put me down! This is Blasphamy! I said put me down at once!" "Once we're outside," he snapped. Silently he hoped around a lot of people who could protect him from her. *** Hawk ordered them out of the Scan Track as he surveyed the area. According to Bridge the substance was pooling under the ground about a mile away from the orphanage. Thank heavan for small favors. As it was they could see the growing patch of dying vegation. Before putting his helmet on Ken said, "It can't be happening this fast." "Yet it is," Jess told him. Hawk hit his communicator and contacted Castle, "Hawk to Bridge, do you have any idea how it got on this side of the mountains?" "I haven't found anything yet," he answered. "There's nothing on record say that anything is connecting your side with the other." "Bridge," Jess spoke up, "are you getting any kind of reading from underground?" "Early sensor sweeps indicates something might be moving underground," he said. "Something big." Jess glanced in Ken's direction but he didn't notice. "No suprise there," Hawk said. "Jess, Ken scout the area for any civilians. I'm going to head to the orphanage to see if Bill and Ryo need a hand setting up a defense perimitter." "Right," Jess answered for the both of them. "Ken I'll take the area to the left, you take the right." "Got it." They went off in seperate directions. But Ken held something back, not that he could explain to the others how he knew to begin with. The closer they got the more the pendant reacted to Dax. And the feeling he was getting was if it was the Gudis it was reforming way too soon. Then again Dax was sensing dark energy a bit more easily now than he did the first time. *** "What's keeping that last truck from going?!", Ryo demanded as he looked at something that should have been gone hours ago. "Who do you think?", Bill shot back, sporting a newly earned black eye. "You have got to be kidding me," he groaned as he jogged over to see the head nun still refusing to get on the truck. "Sister we are trying to get the area clear and keep the kids safe. Empathis on keeping the kids safe. Now would you please get on the truck so we can do just that." "And I have told al of you my place and purpose is here and I will not run from it," she insisted. "Victoria," one of the other nun spoke up. "My place is here," she said firmly as a Scan Track pulled up. "I ordered that this area was to be evacuated already," Hawk barked as he got out. "What's going on?" "She's going on," Bill said frustrated beyond belief. Hawk stared at his new facial feature before he turned his attention to the sister. Before he could say anything she went on, "I told William, I told them over there," she pointed toward his troops, "I told all of them my place is here. I don't care what kind of authority you think you have or can act on but I will not leave the orphange on any condition." Hawk did not have the time for this, "Lady my main concern right now if for the children's safety. You don't want to leave, fine." Banging the side of the truck a couple of times he shouted, "Get them out of here now!" The other nuns protested but the truck pulled out any way. Turning back toward the Sister he told her plainly, "You stay out of the way. you do anything to impede my men in any way I will have you arrested on the spot." "You do not have the authority to...", she started to protest but he cut it off quick. "Yes I do and I have no qualms about arresting a nun in this situation." She walked off in a huff, naturally toward the orphange. Taking a moment he gestured toward Bill's eye. "Popped me one as soon as I set her on the ground," he explained. Then added, "She's a tad old school." "Obviously." Before Hawk could go on the ground started to shake hard. Bill rushed over to keep the Sister from falling as Hawk held on to the Scan Track. The ground shook so much Ken and Jess felt it where they were just as a giant tendril looking thing smashed itself free from the ground. Hawk took a quick look to see where the tendril was, realizing it was too close to the orphange to call in a Razor Wing strike. He looked round to see it fall down in the direction of Bill and the Sister. "No you don't," Bill turned to protect the nun by pushing her behind him puled his gun and fired. The tendril stopped just long enough for Ryo to run over and pull them out of the way before it fell all the way. "Come on," he said as he directed them toward Hawk's Scan Track. A little further away another one came up from the ground. Over her protest they pushed the nun into the vehicle with Ryo hopping into the back to man the cannons on top as Hawk drove them out of there. Ryo got a bead on the tendril closest to them and fired as more of the creature revealed itself. It looked like the first one but with some changes, the bulbus haed wasn't quite as large and it also had a more humaniod appearece with it's face with a very flat nose and mouth. Ken saw it from where he was and didn't hesitate to raise the Spark Magnifier over his head. *** This new version of Gudis ignored the colum of light as Daxium appeared. In turn he realized the foreign creature was heading for the orphange. Quickly getting between it and the building he took a defensive stance, "Shiah!" The Gudis didn't seem all that worried he was there. "What is that giant heathan doing?". Sister Victoria asked as she watched out the window. Bill answered her, "If you're talking about Ultraman it looks like he's trying to defend the orphange." "Why would that false idol protect something that's under the Lord's care?" "How do you know he didn't send him?", Hawk told her as he continued driving. While they sped away Daxium got past thse tendrils, close enough to land a few blows before backing up. The first Gudis cold drain his energy with prolong contact. Part of him was afraid that the indifference in this one was because it could do the same. Right then it started flailing away with those tendrils a bit causing him to cover up and make sure they didn't wrap arpund something on him. Then it opened it's mouth and fired a bubble like energy blast that exploded on impact and sent him flying toward the orphange. The walls shook as he landed hard on the ground. Seeing the tendrils come at him he quickly rolled out of the way. He got a quick glance behind it to see a trail of dead Earth seemingly following it. When it fired another round of the energy bubbles Daxium quickly threw his arms open to create the protective shield in front of him. When the blasting stop he quickly dropped the shield and fired off a flash bolt that exploded in a shower of sparks on Gudis' body causing it to cry out. He was setting up for another one when it did something he wasn't expecting. "You will die today giant," it said in a deep raspy voice. Everyone was caught off guard at this. Bill forgot the sister was there as he uttered, "Holy shit it spoke." Daxium was stunned long enough for it to lash both tendrils into the side of his head. Grunting in pain as he fell to a knee then they came at him from the other direction forcing to him all fours. One of them wrapped around his arm and started draining his energy as it pulled him up only to knock him back down with the other one. It came at him one more time and he grabbed it out of instinct then quickly let go as he felt the drain increase momentarily. But he missed as the first one wrapped itself around his ankle while it pulled and sent him to his back. Gudis started whipping him with those tendrils before stopping as the jewel started to flash. Slowlying getting to his feet he got into another stance but was powerless to stop it from firing another bubble at him. But this one was different as it quickly surrounded him. Even worse he felt the drain on his energy increase every second as he tried to escape. The Gudis laughed as he struggled, "Soon you and the rest of this planet will be one with me." The drain was so great Ken was starting to feel it in the safety zone Daxium had created, falling to a knee himself. Inside his pocket the pendent flashed with a brilliant light and something seemed to explode. In the outisde world there was a brief glimps of a red and silver giant that took Gudis by surprise, enough to cause it to back up. It fired some sort of energy blast from his hand that shattered the bubble around Daxium before disappearing completely. The jewel falashing faster than it was before Daxium was still in a knelling position as he realized the giant did something else. There were memories of fight with this creature that was forgien to him. In all of them the creature was defeated, in all of them it came back. And he quickly realized they all had one thing in common, the ground. The Gudis was connected to the ground it was on. Looking at the creature he stood and banged his forearms together shifting into Power mode. Launching an attack that caught Gudis off guard he pounded the creature before grabbing it's tendril, it was goind to drain more of his energy but it was necessary risk in order to pull this off. Feeling it full force he fought it as he started to fly and ripped it off the ground. GOing as high as he could with the drain he started spinning making the creature go around and around until he let it go launching it into the air. As it came down Daxium already had his hand by the jewel and drew in what energy he could as he flew at the creature. With everything he had left he punched the creature with the full unfiltered force of the Giga Wave. Gudis was obliterated on contact. The jewel flashing faster and faster he tried to sense something of the creature but couldn't. From Ken he recalled what the stranger said about thinking the only way to destroy it was destroying every atom of it's being and hoped he was able to accomplish just that, and hoped the humans could confirm it, as he flew off, "Shiah!" Ken immediately dropped to a knee as he appeared from the ball of light. Without even thinking he reached into his pocket for the pendant. The green jewel in the center was now cracked and blackened. He was almost afraid of what that meant. "Was he able to get home?" It took a moment but Daxium finally answered, "I'm afraid not. He used what little energy he had left to help us." Wrapping his fingers around it he felt a bit of sadness to well up inside him, "He was a long way from home just to die." "Indeed," Daxium sounded sad as well. "Do you think that's ever going to happen to us?" "I am not sure," he answered after a moment. "But I truely hope that is not our fate." "You and me both pal," he pocketed the pendant one last time, "you and me both." *** "Double check everything," Hawk told the crew heading into the orphange. "It wasn't hit directly but it was rattled pretty bad. I want to know that building is strucuturely sound before I let the kids and nuns set a foot back in there." "Thank you Captain," Sister Victoria said, although it pained her to do so. "No problem at all Sister," he told her. Looking back he saw some of his men, including Ryo, Jess and Ken, playing soccer with the kids. "And I hate to disrupt your routine like this again." "It'll help the children work out some nervous energy from the past couple of hours," she said. She noticed Bill hovering close by, "William I though you would be joining the other with keeping the children occupied." "I wanted to apologize for beng so rough with you earlier," he said. "I realize you were doing your job," she said. "As I hope you knewe I was doing mine." "Of course Sister, of course." "While I still don't believe in the hea... this Ultraman," she corrected herself, "I realize he may be part of God's plan." "Well you and the other nuns always said he works in mysterious ways," Bill said. "And I've seen some mysterious ways in this outfit let me tell you." "Yes," she said a bit stiffly. "If you will excuse me... and if you're Captain will let me I will check on the condition of the orphange myself." "With supervision," Hawk told her. "I don't want anything falling on you and nobody to be there to help." "I'm surprised it took you this long to get inside," Bill joked. Sister Victoria said nothing before giving a small nod and walking away. Seeing the moment Bill ran toward the group behind them shouting, "Pass me the ball! I'm In!" ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 16
----- OP - Mercy Drive - Burn in my Light ----- "Oh good you're here," Dr. Williams told Hawk and the others that made up most of the main squad that made up Alpha Team. He guided them toward the entrance to one of the hangers, one that had been recently reassigned to house something else. He seemed almost giddy as he let them enter first. There they got their first real look at the partially covered metal frame of the "super jet" William had finally convinced the board to get built a few months prior. "It's not much now in this state but the inside is almost complete. I can't wait to show you." "We can't wait to see it," Hawk spoke for the group. Williams started to enter the jet then stopped and quickly turned around almost causing the group to walk into him. "Wait, one of you is missing. Mr. Scott!" From one of the maintenance bays by the engine Ken poked his head out and looked around to find him, "Yeah Doc?" "It's time for Alpha Team tour of the ship," he told him while waving him forward. "You're part of Alpha Team so you're in too." Looking back at something in the hull he looked back at them, "I'm helping build this thing I already know what the inside looks like." Hawk spoke up before Williams could say anything, "Ken get in the line." Realizing this battle was over before it even began he looked at one of the other technicians, "Keep an eye on that gauge I set up. I thought I heard something start to shake as the system stated to pressurize." "You got it," she said. "Alright," Williams clapped his hands, "now we can go inside." He lead them inside the jet, almost skipping as he did so. Jess held back for Ken to catch up. "Did you ever finds out what those two chairs in the back were supposed to be?" "They're two mini one man jet fighters," he told her. That bit of news attracted the attention of the two pilots in the group. Ryo looked at him, "Really?" "Yeah," he answered. "They're supposed to disengage and reattach in midair." Bill didn't look sure at that bit of news, "How is that suppose to work?" He hesitated a bit before answering, "He's... still working that part out." "You had to ask," Ryo told Bill as they entered the body of the ship. Going toward the front they entered what they all assumed was the cockpit. Most of the control panels were completed, and few yet looked like they had any power yet but they got a good idea of the layout. "The pilot and co-pilot sit up here," William said with out any preamble as he went to the front of the room. Then he turned toward the center chair, "Captain you'll sit here. You can actually control the ship from that station in front of the chair. In case both jets have been have been launched." "I better log some time in the simulator," Hawk muttered. "Oh Wade," he said as he walked toward the chairs situated in the back, "This is weapon control. Since you are the teams 'crack shot', I think that's the right term, you'll be right at home right here. And over here," he said going to the last chair, "is the engineering display so this will be your chair Mr. Scott." Ken blanched a little as his eyes widened a bit with a bit of a squeak in his voice, "My chair?" "Mr. Scott in engineering?", Bill smirked. "Shut up," Ken told him before returning his attention to Williams. "Why do I have a chair?" "This is Alpha Team's jet and you are part of Alpha team and a mechanic as well, therefore it's your chair," he said like it was the most natural thing in the world. Based on the facts it was. In Ken's mind however... Ken stepped a little closer, "Ah Doc, I don't think you got the memo but I'm strictly ground and pound. Me and planes do not mix." "I have no idea what you are talking about," Williams told him as he walked away with Ken looking on in disbelief. "Since Mr. Scott already let the cat out of the bag how would the two of you like to take a look at those jets?" "I'll check them out," Bill offered. "You get familiar with those controls. I want my co-pilot to be well versed in their operations." "I'm not the co-pilot in this situation," Ryo called out as he left the room. He turned a pleading eye toward Hawk. "We'll figure that part out later," he assured him. "You better hope he doesn't play the 'Razor Wing one pilot' card," Jess teased her usual wingman. "We'll figure it out later," Hawk repeated. Meanwhile Ken kept looking at his chair in total silence. Then he bolted out of the room, "Oh Doc." "I'll head him off," Jess volunteered as she gave chase. "Ground and pound," Ryo said with a bit of disbelief once they were alone. "When did Ken start talking like one of the Trackers?" Hawk gave him an amused look, that was what the pilots called the Scan Track crews. Of course they called the pilots "Winger" but that was a whole other story. "He's finally starting to fit in," Hawk told him. "Do you know how long I've been waiting for this day?" "But he's one of us," Ryo protested. Hawk's grin got a little bigger, "And I've been waiting for somebody else on the team to say that for almost as long." *** "The continued favoritism shown to Alpha Team is completely unacceptable!", Jamira shouted. He had barged into Brook's office a few moments prior and those were the first words out of his mouth. Not even an angry hello, how rude. "It's bad enough the men are commanded by a man with no taste for battle. Now they're getting an over powered jet!" "Dr. Williams created the over powered jet in question Commander," Brooks told him, trying to be a calming influence in this conversation. "Since Alpha Team is primarily a squadron of flyers it was only natural that they would get first tibs." If it was possible it seemed like the man was seething even more. "I'm sure if your nice to Dr. Williams I'm sure he'll be more than willing to create some sort of super tank for Beta Team." Jamira slammed his hands on top of the desk, knocking over a picture he had on it. "I do not find this funny." "And I suggest you remember who you are talking to Commander," Brooks said sharply as he stood. Jamira backed up a bit but he didn't look repentant. Brooks picked up the picture and looked at it, "My Grandfather used to say anger can be a man's undoing. You can be angry but don't let it color your actions." He placed the picture back on the desk. "Perhaps they are words you should learn to live by." Jamira said nothing. "So why come to me with this particular complaint? There would be several other board members who would be more sympathetic." Although a little more nervous that he went over Hawk's head therefore less likely to do anything. "You seem more level headed," Jamira told him. "You also have Richardson's ear in most matters." "I wouldn't say I have his ear exactly," Brooks commented. "It's more like I'm a sounding board who talks back on occasion." "But he trusts you more than anybody else on the board," he argued. "Everybody here knows that." "You flatter me Commander but..." "You can make them see I'm right about this," he continued. "Beta Team is just as important as the Alphas." This was a plea that stunk of desperation in some ways. Brooks almost started to pity the man. "I'm not going to make any promises," Brooks conceded. "But if you truly want to prove Beta Team's worth you should show them the next time a creature shows up. Make a little noise as it were." "Prove our worth," he repeated. Jamira looked back down at the picture on the desk, then realized it was the only picture on the desk. He looked back at Brooks with a quizzical eye. "No pictures of your Father?" "He spent too many hours looking over my shoulder while I was working when I was younger," Brooks explained, "and I didn't that feeling while I am here. Grandfather was a little more relaxed while he worked, something I try to imitate. The pictures of my Father and myself are back at my home office. But do remember what I said Commander." He left the room without saying anything, an increasingly common occurrence. But how he detested to pretend to be nice to that man. But he did leave at the right time as Brooks started feeling a familiar sensation. Using a new trick he just learned he sent a quick pulse of dark energy that shorted out the monitoring devices in the room. A second later the vortex formed right in front of him. Hopefully Scott wasn't anywhere close by or this could get rather messy. "What can I do for you my masters?", although he wanted to tell them this was not the best spot or time. "The creature you sent over has proven to be worthless Avatar!", the shape inside said. "A pity," Brooks said. "Unfortunately it was the only creature I could get a hold of in such a short amount of time. And if you weren't so insistent on a flying creature..." "That is not relevant," he was told. Ah yes, this was exactly the conversation he needed right after the one with Jamira. "It's also the first attempt at turning a creature from this universe into something you can use against the light beings," Brooks said trying a different train of thought. Sooner or later security was going to notice those devices were down and call in to check on him. "There is bond to be some sort of trial and error involved." A hard thought to swallow since he thought that bat he captured could have worked. But he guessed that depended on if his masters had a vampire myth on their side of things. "True," the voice conceded. "The experiment is considered to be a failure. The creature you dubbed Pestar is worthless." "Maybe not," Brooks said thinking about his conversation with Jamira. "It may have an unintended side effect if I play things over here correctly." "In what way Avatar?" "There is a seed of descent in the forces over here," he explained. "If played right it could cause those cracks to grow. And if that fails then they will waste ammunition on a creature you were already planning on destroying any way." "Your words make sense Avatar. Very well, we will prepare to send Pestar over the dimensional rift." "I'll pick a proper location shortly," and the vortex disappeared. And just like clockwork security paged him. "Yes, is there a problem?" *** "All clear Captain." The Captain, a man who had spent more than few year on the water, nodded but kept his eyes on the seas before him, and an ear for those he had positioned around the ship to keep an eye on the sea around them. Three ships in the past two weeks had mysteriously blown up. He figured it was some sort of equipment failure but reports of lights in the sea itself made the men under him jumpy. That and those blasted monsters that had been showing up lately. A combination that made him put in the current set up around the ship to help put their minds at ease. "I can't wait to get to shore," The ship's X-O said, a woman who had served under him for a couple of those years. There was a more modern term for her position but the Captain liked the term Executive Officer, or X-O, and was allowed a few eccentricities. "You worried about those lights too?" he asked. "No, I have a hot date after we dock." "I didn't know you had a boyfriend." "I haven't picked him out of the crowd yet," she said with a sly grin. "Comments like that make me glad I instituted that no sex among the crew rule years ago." "And I hope you don't wonder why most of them disappear for hours on end after we dock and unload." "This old sea dog's not that old little missy," he grunted before breaking out into a smile. "And if you weren't so busy picking your next man out of the crowd you'd realized I'm usually one of the missing." "So the old seas dog still has some life in him," she smiled back. She turned around to look at the charts behind them. He took a quick, and admittedly unprofessional, glance at her rather lovely backside. If only he was a few years younger, and that rule wasn't in place. And thoughts like that made him remember why he put the rule in place to begin with. "We got lights starboard!", his man on that side shouted into his radio. His X-O went to the bridge windows on that side and looked out. She looked back and shock her head. That would have been all except he was still looking in that direction and saw the flash she didn't. And if this was the sea playing trick then this was a pretty good one because the trick was moving. "All hands brace for a potential impact!", he yelled over the comm. The X-O turned around to see the light flash again and getting closer. She ran for the radio, "This is the oil tanker Hayata, we have light flashing on our stabord side. Our position is..." Some kind of roar cut her off. Then the sun seemingly blacked out despite the fact the could see it reflected on the sea. The Captain looked out the window with widening eyes, "Mother of God." "Monster," the X-O got out. Another roar and explosion later that ended up being the last word ever heard from the ship. *** "Is that Scan Track ready?", Jamira barked as he marched his way through the garage. Those around him quickly got out of his way but Chief Albright stood his ground. This was his area and nobody was going it intimidate him. "An hour ago," he told him while going over his work schedule. "I sent you a message then." "I expect to be told personally Chief." "The moment I can get a budget for some message runner I'll get right on that," he said walking away. "I'm still talking to you Chief," Jamira grabbed him by the arm. "You do not walk way from a superior officer." "And despite the fact people call me 'Chief' I do have the same rank as you Commander," he said freeing his arm. "A rank I received before you if you want to get technical." "And I outrank the both of you," Hawk told them as he quickly got involved. "So I highly suggest both of you dial it back." "Captain Hawk," Jamira, with a large amount of sarcasm, started to say. Hawk wouldn't have none of it, "Commander Jamira, may I suggest before you start up anything with a fellow officer make sure you're not in enemy territory first." He glanced around the garage to prove his point. "Chief I'll let you get back to business." "Thank you Captain." Then he turned toward his staff, "Alright get back to work, show's over." "To you he's cordial," Jamira grumbled. "I don't tell him how to use a wrench he doesn't tell me how to use a gun," Hawk told him. "But that's not why I'm here. We got a call an hour ago. Another ship was destroyed." "More of those flashing lights?", he asked. "We got that this time plus something else," he informed him. "Monster." Jamira demeanor changed into something a little more serious, "Do we know what kind?" Shaking his head he went on, "That was the last thing said before the transmission was lost. We had some research teams flying over the area the lights were seen in since they were first reported, so hopefully we'll find out pretty soon." "You wouldn't be telling me this unless it was coming to ground." "Bridge detected a sharp turn toward land with this latest sighting. We have a couple of potential landing zones targeted already. Our forces are going to be stretched a little thin trying to cover them all. You better get Beta Team prepped and ready to go." "Don't tell me how to run my unit," Jamira grunted. "You just keep your flyers out of our targeting sights." As he walked off Hawk called out, "We're on the same side you know." "And Alpha and Beta teams are supposed to be equal too," Jamira said although Hawk didn't hear it. *** In the war room Alpha Team stood around the holotable as a map displayed the location of the lost ships, complete with dotted lines to highlight the pattern. There was a gently curve with the first three but definitely a sharp turn with the last one. The map also showed how close to land it actually was and those potential landing areas. Hawk filled them in on the plan so far, "We're going to break up the Scan Track among these four possible landing zones. Razor Wings will be stationed at this airport right here," he pointed at a section of the map that was highlighted a different color than the landing zones. "Once we have a confirmed sighting the Wings will launch and work in concert with the Tracks in that area." "Is there any reason why those spots were picked as potential landing zones?", Ryo asked. "Yes there is," he answered. "As you know all four ships were oil tankers. The ships have been found with no survivors and no trace of the oil they were carrying in the ocean at all. So here in this area we have a refinery, a couple of storage facilities and a dockyard were the oil is supposed to be unloaded." "I can't believe we're still using oil," Ryo commented. "It may not be the best solution," Ken said, "but it keeps those fancy Razor Wings and Scan Tracks going." Jess smirked, "Spoken like a true mechanic." "Save the debate for later," Hawk told them. "So where do you think this oil guzzler is going to pop up first?", BIll asked. Hawk knew he was trying to ease the tension a bit with the joke in his question, but he knew Bill enough to know it was a serious question. He said nothing as he watched them work it out on their own. "I think it's going to be the docks," Jess said after awhile. "Everything points to the creature being aquatic and we don't know if it can go on land." "This one storage facility is pretty close to the shore," Ken spoke up. "And there'd be less ships getting in it's way." "Not that it had problems with ships before," Bill pointed out. "It's going to be the docks, it's directly on the main path it's taking." I'm just saying." "It's sensing the oil somehow right?", Ryo said. "It's only attacked ship carrying oil despite the fact there were several ships in this general location. I'm with Ken on this one, it'll go after that storage facility. It is the largest food source, if it's using the oil as food." "Finally somebody agrees with me on something," Ken said. Jess told him, "Don't get used to it." He shot her a look. "I have to admit those are all pretty good theories," Hawk said taking control of the discussion. "I personally would have picked the refinery but all four of you made some good arguments and points. And I'm proud to have all of you under me. Ken get to the Scan Track Hanger and join your group. That drive to the coast is going to take a couple of hours at least. Ryo, Bill and Jess we'll launch in a hour and a half. We'll refuel once we hit the airport. If Bridge's calculations are correct we should be set up in plenty of time before it makes land fall. Monster Squad move out!" "Roger!" *** "How many passengers do you think we're pissing off with this little venture?", Bill asked as he and Ryo walked between the rows of Razor Wings occupying the airfield. "Well we gave the Tower and airlines plenty of warning to divert and reschedule flights to other airports for today," Ryo answered. "But I'm guessing quite a few." "I got to tell you buddy, there are times I tink the waiting is actually worse than the giant monster fight itself." "Well I'm not going to disagree with you." They reached their respective Jets as the Captain and Jess where finishing up the weapon checks on Razor Wing one and two. "How's she looking Jess?" "We're ready to fly," she told him. "How are we Captain?", Bill asked. "We are the same sir," he said with a big grin. Bill got real embarrassed and looked around to make sure nobody else heard that. "After five checks we had better be." Getting out of the cockpit he patted the side as he walked around her. "I should tell you there's been a slight change of plans, we're holding some of the Wings back." "Why are we doing that?", Ryo asked. "The board is worried about a stray shot hitting a storage tank or a ship full of oil. We're to hold back a couple of squads and load them up with a set of missiles fixed up with a special fire retardant to combat the flames." Ryo nodded, "Makes sense." "Wait," Bill spoke up, "we're not part part of the fire duty are we?" Ryo and Jess exchanged looks suddenly wondering that themselves. Hawk looked at Bill with a critical eye, "Is there anything wrong with being on fire duty Waters?" Bill suddenly stood a little straighter, "No. It's just... ugh... Ryo?" "You're on your own on this one," he told him. "You're supposed to back up your teammate," Hawk told him, "no matter how deep he's in it. Do you have an opinion Wade?" "We're trained to fight strange creature not fires," she said. "See, she backed him up. But you are also trained to follow orders and if you were placed on fire duty I know you would do it no questions asked. However being in command I do have the choice, and I never wanted to be firefighter when I was growing up." "Castle to Captain Hawk." "Hawk here, do we have a sighting yet Bridge?" "No sir, just a relay transmission from the garage." The four of them looked at each other as Bridge continued. "Commander Jamira is complaining that something is wrong with his Scan Track and demanding the best mechanic we have in the field. The Chief asked if it would be okay to borrow your man for the assignment." "Captain no," Jess said as she figured out who he was asking for. "Jamira hates him." "Captain you wouldn't," Ryo joined in. "Yeah civilian's a pain but even I wouldn't do that to him," Bill added. Hawk looked at them hiding the small sense of pride he was feeling. "Well he is the best we have in the field right now and he came in with a set of skills that I don't want to go to waste. I'll contact him Bridge, he'll complain less if it comes from me. Well at least not out loud. Hawk to Scott." "Scott here." "I have a little side assignment for you that you may not like." *** Jamira was chomping at the bit as the other Scan Tracks raced to their assigned locations. With the few that stayed with him, those who were loyal to him that is, they were in firing range if the beast showed it's head. And the dock below them still wasn't evacuated yet. As a new Scan Track reached their position he anger grew even more as he saw who got out of it. "What are you doing here?!" Ken fought real hard to ignore the sudden urge to get back into the Scan Track. "Captain Hawk sent me. He said you were having trouble." "Jamira to Hawk." "If this is about Ken yes I sent him," he responded before the question could be bellowed. "You said you wanted the best currently in the field and that's him." "I meant a mechanic from the garage in the field." "Mechanics from the hanger don't usually go out into the field. Besides one from the hanger wouldn't get here in time. Deal with it and let him do his job. Hawk out." Jamira didn't look at him as he waved toward the Scan Track. Ken made sure to give him a wide berth as he passed him. "The Chief wasn't much on details when I contacted him, so what happened?" "It stopped," one of Jamira's men commented as they stood by the open hood. The ones in the other Scan Tracks tried to stare a hole into him. He hadn't had a reception this warm since his first official day back at Castle. "A little more detail would help get this done faster," he told them. "It sputtered than stopped." "Sputtered huh?" Ken pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and immediately inspected underneath the vehicle. "What are you doing civilian?" Jamira demanded. "We had a similar problem in our group," he explained as he checked out the fuel lines. Pulling his head out from underneath he looked at the group, "Did you hit a really hard pump on the way here?" "What if we did?", the driver asked. "A simple yes or...," all of them, including Jamira, glared at him. So he decided to cut out the sarcasm for the moment and continued his search, "Because if you did... yeah right there. A hole in the fuel line about the size of a pencil. You guys are lucky the other one had a huge gap in it. Had to replace an entire section." "Just fix it civilian," Jamira told him. "Yes sir," he said. "Phil get me the repair kit." "You got it Ken." Both of them knew it was standard procedure to use the kit of the Track that needed fixing. But seeing how these weren't the most agreeable of guys this was the next best thing. "I'll see if we have any spare fuel." "Good idea," he said as he started to patch the hole. "I should be done in no time Commander.""Make it faster than that," Jamira barked. "We got fuel," Phil announced as he came back. Ken finished putting the patch seal around the line making sure there wasn't any gaps. Hopefully this will last them long enough to get them back to Castle. "Fuel her up," Ken told him as he got out from underneath the Scan Track. They ended up putting two fuel cans into the tank. Ken had them start the engine after a few moments and stayed on the ground long enough to make sure the patch held. "You're good to go Commander." "We could have done that," he sneered. Then he started barking orders at his team. "It's great to be appreciated ain't it?", Ken told Phil as they got back to their Scan Track. "Come on guys let get back to where we're supposed to be. "We got lights!", somebody shouted. They all looked at the light previously reported among some bubbly, churning water Ken looked down at the still full docks. "I hate it when she's right," he muttered. "Target that thing as soon as it comes out of the water," Jamira ordered. Ken looked at him then back at the people just now starting to run. He turned toward Jamira, "They're still evacuating." "Not my problem. It should have been emptied hours ago." "We're supposed to saves lives." "Fine," Jamira turned around, "go down there and help." Ken started to wave his guys down there but the Commander stopped him. "Just you civilian, and not as a UNDF representative." "What?" "Shut up civilian," Jamira snapped at him. "You want to be a hero fine but your not doing it play acting as one of us. You want to be a soldier than get back in that Scan Track and follow the orders I give you such when to fire. You go down there with that jacket on and I will have you arrested for insubordination and desertion of duty." Jamira's men looked like they were waiting for him to do just that. "I'll be happy to accept your resignation if you so choose." Ken stared at him while hearing the churning water in the background. He started to unstrap the wrist scanner as he headed for his Scan track. Phil tried to plead with him, "Ken contact Hawk." "We don't have time," he said as he handed him the scanner and his weapon. Making sure Jamira didn't see him pocket his "good luck charm" he handed Phil the Jacket. "Besides I'm just the civilian, so no big loss right?", he felt a small form lump in his throat. "I know he outranks you but try to stall him for as long as you can. It's been great working with you guys." He ran toward the dock as fast as he could trying not to think about what he just threw away. Jamira stood there triumphant watching him go. "Good riddence. You're part of my group now so get ready." He didn't wait for any kind of conformation as he headed back toward his vehicle. Phil turned his back to make sure Jamira didn't see him hit his communicator. "Coleman to Hawk, we have a situation." Hawk listened to the short version of what happened knowing he didn't have time to be stunned. "Commander Jamira what are you thinking?! That wasn't your man!" "I took care of your trash for you," he said. "You can thank me for it later." And he ended the communication before Hawk could say a word. "Jamira! Jamira! Damn it!" Hawk pounded the side of the Razor Wing in frustration. The others looked at him with some worry. Despite all of this they had a job to do. "Ryo, Jess in the air. Ryo you're in command of the air assault. If that things pops it head out of the water make sure it stays at sea long enough so we can finish evacuation. Bill, contact a couple of Scan Tracks from Area A to pick us up. We're going after Jamira." "What about Ken?", Jess asked. Hawk could tell Ryo and Bill were wondering about him too. He gave the only answer he could at the moment, "I'll deal with Ken later. Right now I need to get control of the situation before it gets even more out of hand." *** Ken had a hard time convincing the dock security to let him help get people out of there. Then he remembered he still had his UNDF ID with him and as far as the guard knew it was still good. And he bought his story about him being off duty and in the areas to explain the way he was dressed. Thank God he didn't ask about the hair. "Come on let's go!" he shouted while waving people toward one of the exits. "Ugh," somebody tripped and fell to the ground. A couple of people had ran over him and on him by the time Ken and another guard got to him to help him up. "Come on ,this is no place for a nap." "Thanks," the guard said s he helped the guy out. Ken looked where the Scan Tracks were, how long did he actually have? A roar made him look at the sea and found a bat like head sticking out of he water. "Shit," he started pushing people toward the gates. The he heard the first barrage of missiles. "Down!", he shouted right before they hit the creature. It seemed unfazed as more of it came out of the water, which included two enormous, extremely thick star shaped wings that head was perched between. Those wings were so big it seemed to walk on them instead of flying with them. Then he heard the familiar engines of the Razor Wings that came up and shot it from behind. Then the Scan Tracks fired again. From his vantage point it looked like the monster was trying to go in the direction of whatever was attacking it. He turned toward the Scan Tracks and shouted, "Stop firing!". "Of course he knew they couldn't hear him from this distance, not that Jamira would have listened to him any way. The something exploded as a missile missed it target and hit a storage tank. The creature seemed to be attracted to that as it moved toward it. Some more Razor Wings came in from behind. "Missiles away!", Jess said as she hit the trigger. Those exploded on the back of it's head. Then the creature looked at them and opened it's mouth and sit out a stream of fire, causing even more tanks to explode. "Shit," Ryo grunted as he got the out of the stream's path. "Do you think it's using the oil to do that?", Jess pondered. "I'll worry about it later." "Let's do this Dax," he said quickly looking for a place he could go unseen for a moment and finding it. Once there he raised the Spark Magnifier over his head and activated it. *** Jamira watched the column of light appear, the other thing he was waiting for. Make a little noise Brooks had said. He watched as the giant made his usual, "Shiah!" sound and took the creature on. His back was turned to his position. Now was his chance. "All units target Ultraman!" "This is Captain Hawk," he cut in. "Belay that order!" "Fire!", Jamira shouted as he turned his communicator off. HIs unit and those closest to him followed that order without hesitation. He would find a way to court martial those who didn't. The missiles hit Daxium square in the back. He grunted in a mixture of pain and shock as he looked back in the direction it came from. That's when he saw another round come at him and he quickly put his shield up to protect himself. "Ken why are they doing this?" "It's not all of them," he answered from the protected area, "just one idiot and his followers." He tried not to think about all the ones he heard at Castle saying they want a shot at the giant. "At least I hope so." Pestar shot his fire at Daxium while he was distracted, causing him to drop his shield as another round of missiles was fired. Then a couple of Razor Wings led by Ryo and Jess tried to intercept them with their own fire. "What are those Razor Wings doing?" Jamira demanded. "Following orders," Hawk told him as he pointed his weapon at them. Jamira turned and raised his weapon only to see Bill and the UNDF soldiers with them had him covered. "Which is more than I can say for you." "I'm doing what need to be done," he insisted. "There are two dangerous beings right there and I'm taking them both down." "Richardson's order..." "I don't give a damn about that old fool's orders! He sits safely behind a desk and I'm a soldier in the middle of this mess. I know what needs to be done better than he does." "You can argue with him back at Castle." Hawk looked at Jamira's men, ready to fight their own at a moments notice. "I'm placing Commander Jamira under arrest for insubordination among other charges. Now the question is how many of you are going to join him?" Jamira's men held their position, one even had Hawk dead in his sights. Slowly Jamira raised his hand and motion for them to lower their weapons. "This will be settled before you know it." Bill and Phil came forward to place him in custody. He wouldn't let them touch him but he left with them. Hawk turned away from him and paid attention to the battle of the giants. "All units in the air aid Ultraman however you can. Razor Wings in reserve start that bombing run on the fires. The sooner we get this under control the better." Ryo and the other pilots complied with the order and turned their missiles on Pestar. It fought not to go down as a wing gave out. Daxium unleashed the Dimensional Storm Ray to finish him off once and for all. He watched as a new set of Razor Wings came in and attacked the fire with their special payloads. Knowing he couldn't help fight the blaze he flew off into the sky, "Shiah!" *** "So am I under arrest or what?", Ken asked as he sat on the bumper of one of the cars in the parking lot with a UNDF soldier silently guarding him. Something told him this was a situation he should be getting used to once Richardson was done with him. "Should I take that as a yes?" A couple of Scan Tracks pulled up and Hawk and the rest of the team got out of the, He suddenly found the ground in the other direction real interesting. Hawk motioned for the others to stay where they were as he walked toward him holding his former jacket. "Take a walk," he told the guard who nodded and walked away. He waited for Ken to look at him. Hawk felt the weight of the jacket in his hands before speaking, "I had Coleman tell me the specific of what exactly happened with Jamira before I came for you. So I won't be charging you with desertion. It's also why I'm currently keeping my fist from connecting with your jaw. I just want to know why you thought this was the right idea." "Jamira was going..." "Stand up when you're talking to me," Hawk ordered sharply. Ken did so, looking him in the eyes. "Jamra was going to fire on that thing despite the fact the docks weren't fully evacuated." "So far that's confirming what Coleman and the others told me." "Coleman told me to call you and I thought I didn't have the time. I made a choice that I thought could save some more lives. A long time ago my dad told me there were times what a man choose told what kind of a man he was. I choose to save lives, even if it was only a couple more than what it would have been." Hawk slowly nodded as he understood what he was saying. "Did you think Richardson would get you back in after this?" "No," Ken told him truefully, "I figured once I was out I was out." And if Richardson had his way he'd be back, being dissected or something just to get to Dax. "If I was in your shoes I might have made the same call," Hawk told him. "But you still should have contacted me, I would have ordered you down there and we wouldn't have to go through this. Listen to me Ken, regulations state that any resignation has to go through your commanding officer and be of your own free will. You were forced to quit and I didn't get it so consider your resignation officially denied." Ken started to speak but Hawk poked a finger into his chest. "But let's get one thing straight right now. Everybody else may see you as the civilian operative, even you. But you are a full fledged member of this team who has more than proven himself. We have put too much work into you for to just throw it away. You are part of Monster Squad and you never, never, quit on us again. Is that understood Scott?" There was no mistaking the disappointment Ken was seeing in his face. He couldn't hide the shame he was feeling at the moment, "Yes sir." Hawk's expression softened a bit and he patted the younger man on the shoulder before handing back the jacket. "Come on son, our team is waiting for us." Putting the jacket back on as they walked the team greeted him and welcomed him back. *** Hours later Jamira stood in Brook's home office. He was currently suspended from duty while they were decided on what to do with him. "You have to do something. This was your idea." "No," Brooks said as he sat behind his desk, "I believe I told you to make a little noise to get yourself noticed. Not to fully ignore an order put in place by Richardson. That is fully on you. Even I couldn't smooth talk my way out of this one with even the silverest of tongues." "You have to do something. This is my life we're talking about!", Jamira slammed his hands on top of the desk. Brooks moved to catch a glass that looked like it was about to fall but didn't. "This is my career on the line and I need help." "What did I tell you that my Father said about anger Commander. And I suggest you should be thankful you still have that rank." "Your Grandfather," Jamira said suddenly. "I beg you pardon?" "You said your Grandfather told you that." "Oh yes, I did didn't I?" Remembering something else Jamira looked at the desk in this home office then at the walls. He looked at Brooks with some confusion. "I also told you there pictures of my father and myself in this very office." He gave him an innocent shrug, "Apparently I made a slight mistake." A battle honed instinct made Jamira reach for a weapon that wasn't there any more. Brooks cocked an eyebrow as he watched him. Then he raised a hand and unleashed a beam of dark energy that sent Jamira crashing across the room. Laying against the wall in a heap his chest was smoking but he was still alive. Each breath making him wince in pain he got out, "What... what are... you?" "I am what I always have been," he answered as he stood and walked around the desk, "a Brooks through and through." Tiny arcs of dark energy dancing between his fingers he smirked, "Although a couple of decades ago I made some acquaintances that made me more than that. Now Commander what should I do with you, hmm? I could blast you like I did Richardson's son and a few others but I keep leaving the skeleton for some reason. Probably some mental block I currently can't figure out. And it would leave me with some remains to dispose of and I want to avoid that if possible." Jamira knew this was his time, he was going to die, which is why the sudden noise coming out of his mouth surprised him, "Hahaha!" Laughing so hard he started crying. Brooks watched him, somewhat perplexed, "Is something particularly funny Commander?" "This is why Hawk has his job," he told him. "You put him there to weaken the forces. I knew there was a reason why it wasn't me." He almost felt pity for the man as he let him in on the truth, "Captain Hawk is in command because he was the right man for the job. He had all the qualities the board was looking for in leading the troops. I agreed and voted him in as well. Quite honestly you're lucky you even in command of Beta Team." "Jamira wasn't fully comprehending, "But why would you...?" "Why would I?", frustration about the actual situation instead of the question started to build. "I have to appease my masters by hindering and weakening the forces over here and at the same time not look like I'm doing it. Backing you instead of Hawk would put up a microscope I don't need hanging over me." He started pacing around the room, "Nobody understands this delicate balancing act I have to preform on a daily basis!" Calming down a bit a thought occurred to him that made him smile as he turned his back on Jamira. "Scott might understand better than most, but I don't think he'd appreciate the nuances." "Scott?", Jamira asked in confusion. "The civilian? What does he have to do with this?" Almost dumbfounded Brooks looked back around to stare at him. "Really? After a couple of misspoken words by myself you're able to figure out something not quite right. But after said revelation I drop a huge hint and you... How did you ever make it to commander? Fine I'll spell it out for you." Squatting down in front of him he spoke slowly. "Ken Scott is Ultraman." "What?", Jamira couldn't process the information and Brooks couldn't stop himself from enjoying the stunned look on his face. "I've known ever since Richardson had him brought in the first time," he said almost casually. "In fact I'm pretty sure Richardson knows too, hence the order and the whole civilian operative nonsense. And if he knows then so does his bodyguard. I am a little surprised Hawk hasn't put two and two together yet. It is rather obvious once you think about it. Oh," he said as another thought came to him, "Scott apparently sensed me too, he didn't know who it was at the time but I made sure he couldn't since then. "Ah," Brooks went as yet another thought came to him, "I know what to do with you now." Holding up a hand and with some concentration he made a vortex form right next to Jamira. He could only watch as a shape appeared. It looked at him then back at Brooks. "What is the meaning of this Avatar?" "Things with Pestar didn't work out like I hoped they would," Brooks told him. "However I have discovered an excellent consolation prize. Would you say you are ready for a human test subject?" It looked down at Jamira, "I would say we are." "What is that?", Jamira demanded. "That is one of the acquiescence I was talking about earlier. They call themselves the Zettons. They are quite war like and aggressive. You would probably enjoy their company if you weren't being experimented on." "What?" Another portal opened up beneath Jamira and he slid in slightly. Two more shapes appeared and grabbed him by the arms as they started to pull him in. The further he went the more he could see the misshapen heads and single eye staring at him. "Nooo...." his cried were cut off as the vortex closed. "This one had better be more successful Avatar," the shape told him. "I promise nothing with this one my masters. Even though he somehow rose to the rank of Commander in the forced he was rather useless. If he doesn't survive it would be a huge loss since you could use the data you collected on the next one." "We will see Avatar," and the vortex disappeared. Brook went over to the spot the Commander had been and readjusted a painting on the wall that had knocked loose when he hit. His sudden disappearance would cause questions. But that also means the majority of the attention back at Castle would be focused on locating him. Which means he could be a little more subversive in weakening the forces. Or perhaps he could push forward a project that might be useful to himself and his masters. "Where was that project file? King something I believe it was called." ----- ED -Shinedown -Fly from the inside ----- |
Episode 17
----- OP - Mercy Drive - Burn In My Light ----- Rushing into one of the training areas Ken was glad to see there was still a crowd around the shooting range. looking for a familiar face he spotted Bill he made his way through the crowd and stood next to him. The one or two protest he heard quickly gave way to cheering the participants. He had found out a couple of weeks that there was a friendly shooting competition held for the four years. Jess being one of the participants he wasn't going to miss this for the world. Although Richardson' assistant slash bodyguard Patricia Stanson standing right next to her surprised him a little. He had to raise his voice so Bill could hear him over the crowd, "Where we at?" He looked at him out of the corner of his eye, "Where in the hell have you been civilian?" "Williams just now let me go," he answered. "Any way it's the final round so you just made it," Bill told him. "Part three for today, they keep tieing." "And Jess was never a big fan of ties." "Neither is the boss's guard," Bill informed him. "Last year they went a half hour before there finally a winner." The crowd quieted down as two more targets appeared at the end of the range. By luck of the draw Patricia went first. You could hear a pin drop as she took aim and fired five times. All five landed by the heart of the target. Bill whistled, "That's going to be a hard one." "She can do it," Ken told him not taking his eyes off either of them. Making sure she had five rounds in her weapon Patricia checked hers to make sure. "It might be prudent to remember who works with who is in charge," Patricia said without looking at her, although low enough that nobody in the crowd could hear her. She looked at her out of the corner of her eye as she took aim. "It might be prudent to remember who my captain is." She fired five times all landed near the heart, tie score again. "Then you'd know I don't care," she finished as the crowd cheered. They went two more rounds, still tieing. Both of them were trying to ignore the crowd growing anticipation and the couple of bets they overheard. A new target came up and Patricia aimed and fired but on her last shot the bullet went wide. Two inches left of the heart. She cursed as she stared at the wayward bullet hole. Jess forced down the growing excitement suddenly growing inside her. She took aim and pulled the trigger as she breathed out. Five shots all near the heart. She won. "Yeah!," Bill exclaimed as he pumped his fist into the air. "Woo!", Ken shouted and clapped his hands over his head. "That's my...", he lowered his hands, still trying to clap but not connecting, and gave out a slightly awkward and more subdued, "teammate." Bill gave him a look as the crowd broke up. "So you did show up," Ryo said as he came up behind them. "Williams didn't want to stop working on that damn super jet," Ken told him. "He didn't understand why everybody thought this was important. I even tried that BS spiel he used on me on the ship about that damn seat." "I heard that a lot from other people on the project," Ryo commented. "At least you showed up," Jess said as she joined the group. "I do appreciate it." "You think I'd miss this?", he asked her. "I already knew you were a top shot, I wanted to watch as everybody else saw it." "Like we needed you to tell us that," Bill told him. "Yeah Ken," Ryo quickly agreed. "Well I just won it for the second time," Jess informed him. She won it the other two, last she she won it the saw way I did today with a shot going wild." She looked toward her left at the door as Patricia left the training are and lost a bit of her smile. "Would you believe she tried to intimidate me by mentioning her position." Bill was in disbelief, "She tried to get you to throw it?" Ken snorted and mumbled, "Like boss like employee." "What was that?", Ryo asked him. He quickly said, "Talking to myself." Before they could say anything else he was bumped from behind, rather roughly, from a group of Beta Team members as they passed. "Dude what the hell?", Bill demanded. Ryo told both of them, "Just ignore them." "You're not the one getting bumped every time you turn around," Ken protested. "They're just upset none of them got promoted to take Jamira's position after he got busted and disappeared," Ryo explained. "They're just looking for an east target. Somebody to blame basically." Ken looked at him and the rest of the team and started to feel guilty all over again because he gave in to Jamira's demand that he quit in order to help with the evacuation at the docks. "I hear they're giving the new guy in charge some attitude too, so you're not the only target." "Enough of those posers," Bill spoke up. He put an arm around Jess, "We got a winner here, we need to celebrate." "Here, here," Ryo agreed. "If you guys are buying the beer I'm in," Jess told the. "Oh Ken," she said as Bill and Ryo headed for the door. "The 'That's my girl' I'm pretty sure you almost uttered." He was going to say he wasn't but she knew him better than that. So instead he said, "It was a slip I caught it. I know you hate that phrase because it sounds possessive." "Actually," she gave him a look he couldn't quite interpret, "I think at that moment it would have been okay." Whatever that look was she lost it as she pointed a finger at him, "But only at that moment, is that clear?" He snapped at attention and gave her a quick salute, "Ma'am yes ma'am." "Alright smart ass for that you're buying the first round." *** The vortex formed in front of him as scheduled. Then several bolts of dark energy erupted from it and struck him full on. Brooks stood there momentarily frozen for the moment before being sent flying back toward the rear of the cavern. Arcs of dark energy still raged at the edge of the vortex as he slowly got to a knee. "You knew Avatar! You knew who the light being bonded with!" "And what," he said hoarsely as he stayed kneeling, mainly not to tempt another bolt in appearing defiant, "would you have had me do if I told you?" "To kill him at once!", came the reply with no hesitation, Actually it would have surprised him if there was. "Exactly," he told them. "Unfortunately the only access I have to him is at the base. Where security, not to mention cameras, are everywhere." "That is not our concern!" "It would have been once you sent a creature a creature over," he said trying to keep the defiance out of his voice. "Knowing what I could do they would hunt me down like a dog. You want me to place it where it could do the most damage I wouldn't be able to. And that's if they don't kill me while I try to escape. Now I know you could replace me if that happened. But how long would it take you? And while that was happening they would be shoring up their forces even more without any hindrance." The edges of the vortex still lashed out the occasional bolt of energy that hit the surroundings as he waited for their response. "You are on what you humans refer to as probation," the darken image of the Zetton inside finally said. "This will be the only respite of our wrath. With hold any more information or make a mistake of this magnitude again and it will result in your termination." And they didn't mean fired, that he was most certain of. "Your mercy is most appreciated my masters.' "We are sending a creature through the breach, Eleking." "I understand my master," he bowed as best as he could in this position. "Is there anywhere specific you wanted me to place this one?" "We will send it over the dimensional divide once it is ready," he was told. But somewhere in one of your cities will be sufficient." Where there would be even more cameras, wonderful. "As you wish my masters." "Be prepared." The vortex swirled itself out of existence and all was quiet. He snarled before unleashing a yell out of anger and raised both hands to blast the walls on either side of him in a rage. That moment past he stood, straightened out his sleeves and composed himself. "A parting shot from the former commander no doubt. I truly hope whatever process they are putting him through is slow and painful until his demise." *** She found Ken in the cafeteria, face in a datapad. And there were three more on the table next to him. Picking up a second coffee she headed over there. "Want some company?" "Have I ever turned that offer down?" he said looking up. "Well there was those times in high school before we hooked up and I broke you out of your shell." He conceded as he took the offered cup. Although his attention went back to pad as soon as she sat down. Speaking of high school. "I see Captain Hawk has you hitting the books again." He sighed, "I'm lucky he didn't triple my workload after what I did." "That officially didn't happen," she reminded him. "Still makes you a dumbass though." "Yeah I deserved that shot alright," he sighed again. She stared at him a bit, almost like she was studying him. "What?" "I'm trying to remember the last time you were in this mood." "Do you want before or after our break-up?" "Do I really want to know about the after?" "No you don't. At least not those first couple of weeks." He put the pad down and looked at her when something occurred to him. "Why did you just call me a dumbass when I saw you give Bill hell when he said it?" "Because I'm the only one allowed to call you that," she said matter of factly. She pushed one of the other pads toward him. "I'm pretty sure it's in that one." "I'll be sure to skip that page." "If only I had something to throw at you." "Ken Scott?" Both of them looked up to see a man in a UNDF uniform he didn't recognize. An older guy, maybe in his forties. Gray eyes seemed to study both of them. Jess stood up immediately as she recognized him. "Commander Reid." "Commander?", he looked at her as he stood up as well. "Commander Justin Reid," he introduced himself, although not offering a hand. "In charge of Beta Team." Those last two words made Ken stiffen up a bit. The commander noticed, "Is there a problem I should be aware of Scott?" "God I hope not," he blurted without thinking. Which caused the commander to raise an eyebrow. Thinking this was a good time to step in Jess said, "Commander Jamira had some small issues with Ken's status," and what was the best way to saw this, "and the uniform jacket he is currently wearing." Commander Reid nodded and inspected Ken a little closer, including the ponytail. "Hmm, he's definitely not regulation, that's for sure." He looked at her and she looked at him, both looking a little worried. "I suppose that's why Captain Hawk kept finding ways to put this off every time I asked to see this civilian operative of his." "You wanted to meet him?", Jess asked when Ken's mouth refused to work. "Yes," he answered, "I wanted to size him up with my own eyes. Personally think this civilian business is a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense. But Hawk thinks there's something to you and I respect his opinion. Tell me Scott, do you do your job?" "Best I can... sir." "Then as of right now I don't have a problem with you," he gave him a friendly smile. "Make sure it stays that way." "Yes sir," he answered, with more than a little relief. After he left Jess leaned in and said, "That's going to take some getting used to after Jamira." "Do you think I should still avoid him, just in case?" "Talk that over with Captain Hawk," she told him. "I don't want you to call me a dumbass in case I'm wrong." "The way you shoot?", he was looking and acting more like his old self now that he relaxed even more. "No way in hell am I that crazy." "And you learned that pretty fast too as I recall," she smirked. *** "God I hate the smell down here." Two men in utility workers uniforms walk through one of the tunnels underneath the city. Hours earlier there were several calls from the same block about strange power fluctuations. Not finding a problem above ground the foreman sent them underground to se if one of the connectors was faulty or if the cables were corroded or looked chewed through. "It's all in your head," the one in front said as he ducked under a pipe. "This service tunnel isn't even connected to a sewer line." "I know that Sherlock," the other one snapped. "It's the old, musty smell, like a tomb." "I don't want to know how you know that," he quipped. "And I'm not a fan of the dust falling on top of us either." "It's just dust knocked loose from the rumble from the traffic above us." He looked up at that thought, "And how old is the concrete above us? And what is the dust made of any way?" He covered his mouth at the same time he tried to blow out his nose the get whatever he thought was in there out. "Stop thinking about it before you have a breakdown," his partner told him. He kept on complaining so when they hit an intersection he said, "Let's split up, we'll cover more territory faster that way. Then you can get out of here." He looked up at the ceiling one more time, "If you say so." "Just call me if you find a problem." They went in separate directions and he enjoyed the silence. But after a bit it occurred to him that it was a little too quiet. "His nonsense is getting is getting to you," he told himself. But he still felt the need to talk out loud to break the silence. "Hopefully whatever the problem is it's easy to spot." Going about ten more yards he found the problem. Something that looked like a cross between a slug and a tadpole, maybe three feet long with pale skin. Then again those crescent shaped horns made it look like nothing he had ever seen. And it was currently affixed to a transformer by it's tail. Some how it seemed to be drawing energy from the machine itself. "Eddie you have to get to my location now.You have to see this." The only response he got was static, "Eddie? Eddie." "I don't think your friend will be responding any time soon." He jumped and looked behind him at the sound, seeing a man dressed in black standing in the shadows. "Who are you? What happened to Eddie?" "He's currently a smoldering pile of bones at the moment. I do really need to work on that." "You did...", he grabbed a wrench from his tool belt. The other person's hand started to glow with a dark purplish light, highlighting his features. "I was hoping you would do something like that," Brooks as he blasted the poor soul, again leaving the bones. "I would have done it any way, but it seemed more sporting if I was defending myself after all." Brooks stepped over the remains and gazed at the over sized tadpole. "I do hope you become a little more impressive than you are now. Although watching the giant trying to take on what is basically an electrified slug might be amusing for a moment or two." As he walked away he missed as the baby Eleking started growing arms and legs. *** "And these were found underground in those tunnels?", Hawk asked the crew foreman as they stood inside a tent. The burnt skeletal remains of somebody found a few hours ago when a couple of his men went missing.. Two more members of his crew had found this set ran out of there and he called the police. They in turn contacted the UNDF when they saw their charred condition. As it was Hawk was having a hard time not thinking about his lost teammate. Th chief nodded, "And the police wouldn't let us go back down there to search for my other man. And they made us wait for you to show up before bringing these above ground." "Now we don't have proof this is one of your men," Hawk told him. His gut said it was a lie. But his gut had been wrong before. He hoped this was one of those times. "The police said their covering all the exits," he said. "They should have been spotted by now." "They could have come across this poor bastard and got scared,' Hawk said. "They might have ran and got twisted around. It can happen to even the most experienced of men." "Watanabe to Hawk." "Excuse me a moment." He walked out of the tent, mainly to keep the crowd that had showed up from seeing the skeleton. "Hawk here, what did you find Ryo?" "Captain we found another skeleton," he answered. "Damnit," he looked back to make sure the man in the tent didn't hear. "What condition is it in?" "Same as the first one." "Bring it above ground," Hawk ordered. "Understood, Watanabe out." Hawk ran an hand over his mouth. He hated writing those letters to the family members of the men and women he'd lost over the years. Despite the fact this wasn't one of his own he wasn't looking forward to doing this face to face. "Mr. Fisher..." "I overheard you Captain," He said. "Get the thing that did this to them." All he could say was, "Yes sir," as he escorted him out of the tent. Handing him off to another officer he hit his communicator, "Hawk to all units underground, another set of remains have been found. Report anything suspicious and do not engage unless you're forced. Given what this thing can apparently do we are going to need a battle plan once we know exactly what we're dealing with. Hawk out." He scanned the crowd that was being held back by the barricades and security until he found the back and ponytail he was looking for, "Ken!", and waved him over. "Yes sir," he said after running over. "Find Price, I want the two of you to to take the remains in the tent and load it into a Scan Track while Ryo brings up the other one." "Yes sir," he said without hesitation, but he did take eyes off of him and looked at the tent. Hawk watched him turn a little green around the gills. He put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention off the tent, "Not everything about the job is pretty son. This is one of the things you have to deal with when you wear the uniform." He looked at the tent himself, "And this one is rough because I've seen this before. We all have, before you joined up. Our old teammate Joe." Ken knew that name, it was Richardson's son but that's about it. "Do you know what did it?" "According to his father he was hit by a stray blast from that creature the night Ultraman first showed up." Looking at the ground, and a little said, he muttered, "I still don't know why Richardson wanted to be up there. To be honest with you son most day I'm not sure I want to know the reason. Let's hurry up and get this over with. I'm going to contact Bridge and see if he's picking up any life signs underground. If we are dealing with the same thing I want to be prepared." "On it," he told him. Finding Price they quickly entered the tent. Both of them stopped short once they saw the skeleton. "Geez," Price uttered. "Tell me about it," Ken told him. Price found a sheet to cover the skeleton, at least they wouldn't have to look as they carried it out. One or two in the crowd protested that they covered it up. Ken pretended those who were protesting where Jeff and put the mental blinders up. A third man opened the back of the Scan Track and they slid it in. "Glad I don't have to ride with this thing," Price commented as the Scan Track was closed. Then Ken realized this was his Track. "The second one is going in yours," he joked. The other two walked off and he went back to crowd control duty. "Ken," Daxium spoke up inside his head. He felt him come to the forefront a little bit as the moved the skeleton and as he talked to the Captain so he half way expected him to make contact. Ken glanced around to make sure nobody was close enough to overhear him talking to himself. "What is it Dax?" "Ken the body..." "I felt it too," he didn't want to saw the words dark energy out loud, but there was a feint trace of it on those bones. "Not that, I have seen a body in that condition as well, when I first crossed the dimensional breach. I saw Joseph Richardson die." Ken started to slow his pace. "It was not a blast from the creature I fought." Ken came to a stop and looked around before softly saying, "How?" "Before I could bond with him a concentrated beam of dark energy came out of the shadows and rendered him to his skeletal structure. Unfortunately I did have the time to search for the culprit as my energy was fading fast. But I fear I know who was the one responsible." He had a feeling he knew too, "The one helping the guys you're at war with. The one I felt back at base." He felt Daxium's silent acknowledgment inside him. Ken looked as Ryo's group, and he had a similar expression that Hawk did a few minutes ago, carry out the one they found then back at the Scan Track that held the first one. "Richardson lied." *** The sun had and the city streets were still filled with Scan Tracks and various other support vehicles as well as the local military and police. The search area had grown to include blocks in several directions and was evacuated as quickly as possible during the night. Several Razor Wing units in the sky above with several squadrons back at Castle ready to launch at a moments notice. But most of the troops in know realized Monster Squad was on edge having lost a teammate the same way and tried not get in their way. "Nothing on the sensors so far," Ken said as he and Jess checked some the alleys on foot. She replied with a grunt and kept on going. Ryo and Bill were acting the same way the last time he saw them so he got used to it fast. "If it's the same... thing that got Joe we'll find it." He stopped himself from saying "the same guy" since he had no way to explain how he knew that. "He wasn't your teammate," she said in a tone that made it sound like he was an outsider. Which he was to a lot of people on the force, especially at the beginning, and he usually didn't care. But from her, right now, that one actually hurt. Ken stopped and looked away. Jess looked back and knew him well enough to read him. "You didn't deserve that, I'm sorry." He tried to act like it was nothing, "It's fine." And there might have been a time where both of them actually believed that. "No it's not fine. It's not your fault you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seeing that skeleton ripped off a scab on a wound that not exactly healed yet." "I'm sure I've made more than a few mistakes over the years," he said. Both of them remained silent for awhile as they continued on. "So what was Joe like." "Why do you want to know?" "Mainly because you guys rarely talk about him when I'm around. And if it's affecting you guys like this maybe it's time to talk about him." She looked at him slowly broke out in a smile, "I'm glad this part of you didn't change. Well Joe was nothing like his father for one, he didn't even try to use his name to get ahead. He insisted on earning anything he got while he was one of us. And he could joke with the best of them. I think you would have liked him." There was something in here voice that made him ask, "So were you two...?", he trailed off because he didn't want to say it out loud for some reason. "I didn't see Joe in that way," she answered. It was none of his business if they were or not, but he was hoping he was keeping the relief off his face. Not that he should be feeling any sort of relief, it was over a long time ago. "No Joe was a good friend," she went on, "and nothing more than that. Actually he was trying to find you so we could get into contact again." "How did he find out about me?" She started to answer but looked embarrassed about something. Eventually she said, "I was talking about you one night. He thought that maybe I wanted to get back in touch, to catch up. I told him you'd probably wouldn't be interested but he was still trying to do it." "I wouldn't have minded." She looked at him. "Catching up I mean." Before the conversation could be get even more awkward Daxium started sensing dark energy. Their wrist scanners went off at the same time so she missed him looking in that direction. "Where in the hell did something that large come from?", she said as they ran toward the source. "Tell Captain Hawk where we are." "On it. Scott to Hawk. We have a massive hit on our wrists scanners roughly thirty yards from our position, ah what the hell's over there?" "We got it to Ken as well as it's location. Try to get a visual confirmation but do not engage until we get there." "Understood, Scott out. Why did we get the fun job?" "You better hope your communicator's off," Jess said. He looked down at it with a worried look. So he missed her smirk, "Got you." It didn't take long to find the source. They didn't have to look all that hard.It suddenly stood up, towering over the buildings in the area. Whatever it was, a pale yellow that was almost white and black markings all over it's body and instead of eyes were two rotating crescent like horns, turned around. where it's mouth was supposed to be was a solid glowing mass. "That's not looking like the first giant monster," Ken commented. "God I hope that doesn't mean there's two of them," Jess said. Behind her Ken shuddered a bit at that thought. They heard the familiar whine of missiles as they were fired, first from the Razor Wings then by the Scan Tracks in position. "Wade to Hawk we're heading back tot he main line. I don;t think our guns are going to do much against that." "Understood and acknowledged," Hawk answered as he checked the weapons systems of the Razor Wing while Bill got them into position to launch. "Bridge, which unit is closest to their position right now?" "Commander Reid's unit," he answered. The took a moment to look at each other right before they ducked as the missiles hit the creature. "Both of you get out of there now," Hawk ordered. "I'll let him know the two of you are heading his way. Bill hit the after burners as soon as we launch." "Well be there in a few minutes Captain," he replied. "This is going to be interesting," Ken muttered as communications were cut off and they got going again. "He's not Jamira," she reminded him.It didn't help, "Yeah but he still has Jamira's men with him." "I wasn't going to mention that part." *** The creature cried out and recoiled in pain as more of the missiles struck it. As the Razor Wings came in close and it tried to smash it out of the sky with it's tail. The pilot were able to avoid it easily as the Scan Tracks took another shot at it. The creature turned toward them and arc shape blasts of energy shot out of it's mouth. The first couple of Scan Tracks took a direct hit and exploded on impact. Others were able to back away to safety. Razor Wing One flew over the scene as Bill cut back on the after burners. Hawk took a moment to observe the devastation and loss of life. "Damn it to hell." He'd had to give them a well deserved moment of silence later, like always. "We have to take out that thing's weapon. I hope you got some flying tricks up your sleeves Bill." "Then you better hold to your ass Captain," Bill told him as he took them in. Hawk got off a shot and Bill flew them out of the way right before this thing shot of of it's own at them. Several Razor Wings followed suit but a couple of the pilots weren't fast enough to avoid the creature's return fire. "Let's take her in again," Hawk ordered. On the ground Jess and Ken ran as fast as they could until they found Reid's Scan Track. "Get over here now!" he ordered as he spotted them. In the Track one of Jamira's men, who had been chaffing under Reid's order not to do anything until they got to them, so he decided to do as his former leader would have done, took aim and fired at the creature. "Wait until they're clear!" he chastised him. Right then the creature looked in their direction and fired. The blast hit the asphalt right behind them and sent Ken and Jess flying. She landed hard on the ground. He rolled as he hit. Both weren't moving right away. "You with me,' he ordered one of his men as they ran toward them. Her uniform and his jacket and jeans were torn but there wasn't any major bleeding that he could see so far. Jess moved first as she tried to get to her feet. Then Ken tried to as they reached them. "I'm okay," she insisted as Reid went to help her, "just got the wind knocked out of me." Ken on the other hand started feeling a pain in his left wrist the grew stronger and tighter every second, "Fuck." Reid looked at him, "Scott how are you?" He wiggled his fingers and gingerly moved his wrist, wincing the entire time but there was some movement. "I think I sprained it," he grunted. the other guy got on his right and helped him up. Jess ended up moving under her own power. They all got to the Scan Track and hid behind it. "Do not fire until I tell to," Reid told his gunner as the other man ran his wrist scanners over the two just in case. "She's fine," he said. Then he went to Ken's arm, "This is broke, couple of inches from the wrist, not sprained. I think you did it when you hit before you rolled." "But I can move my hand," he grunted. "You're not supposed to move it if something's broke." He started securing Ken's arm as Reid told him, "Don't argue with the tech Scott. You need to get to the perimeter line and to the med station. You're no good to me like this." "I still got a good arm," he protested. "And I can't take the chance your arm is going to distract you at the wrong moment. Get in, we'll take you there and rush back." "Commander I can walk," Ken argued. "We can't lose a set of guns because of me." "Scott," he started to argue back. "Commander," Jess spoke up, "Ken's right. We need to keep all of our guns in place." "And you got the best shot here," he said pointing at Jess. Reid looked at both of them not believing he was hearing any of this. "Wade, get behind the gun," he said at last. Jamira's man protested, "I'm manning the gun!" "And now she is," he told him. "You can escort Scott..." "I am doing nothing with the civilian! He's the reason why Commander Jamira is gone!" "Former Commander Jamira was removed because he couldn't follow orders. Now I'm giving you an order." "I'll go alone," Ken said as he started off. "I'll be safer that way at least." Reid looked at his gunner and he refused to budge. "Get him out of there," he told the others. Jamira's man had to be dragged out of the chair. He put up quite a fight until they got him out. Reid didn't see a sign of Ken any where, the kid could move apparently. "Wade take his spot. "Manuel keep you gun pointed at him," he gestured at his former gunner, "we can't just leave him here." As they took their positions in the Scan Track Reid look back at Jess, "I hope you're as good a shot as everybody says you are." "Right now so am I," she told him. She looked out the window as the column of light appeared and faded away to reveal Ultraman and he took his usual fighting pose. "Shiah!" *** Eleking cried out, startled, as Daxium appeared. He surveyed the area around them closely and quickly. It had been awhile since he faced one of these creatures in a city environment. He could adjust. Jumping over the buildings between them in front of him he landed he landed on the other side of the creature and tried to throw it down. It was as caught off guard as much as he thought it would be as it fought back until it freed himself from his grip. Eleking didn't wait as it attacked him with it's tail. Daxium covered up and blocked as he backed up, very aware how little room he he had to maneuver with. Kicking Eleking he backed flipped a few times to create some space between them and fired off as flashbolt as it turned around. Eleking recoiled in pain as it backed up then fired off it's own energy shot. Daxium quickly raised his energy field to block the blast then banged his forearms together to modeshift into Power Mode. Eleking fired again. Daxium took the chance and batted each blast out of the sky. Not worrying about what damage to the surrounding area, or his own hands and arms, that action caused he charged the creature. It surprised by twisting in such away that it caught him and threw him into a building using his own momentum. The side smashed in as he tried to stop himself from hitting it to no avail. Eleking didn't give him a chance to recover as it started bashing him with it's tail, knocking him further into the destroyed building. Trying to block the barrage Daxium grabbed the tail startling Eleking enough that he was able to get to his feet as he held on and tried to get a better grip on the tail. Eleking tried to run but his grip was too strong. Suddenly it stopped, clenched it's fist and started concentrating as arcs of electricity flowed between his crescent horns. Daxium was stuck in place until the creature stopped and pull it's tail free. Then lashed it around wildly hitting him and the buildings surrounding them. Then it turned around and shot him with his arc shaped blast point blank. As Daxium crashed to the ground it fired again and again. When it stopped Daxium was slow to get up but when he did it wrapped it's tail around him, trapping his arms to his sides and concentrated one more time. He yelled out in extreme pain as he was electrocuted on the spot. The Jewel flashed red as fell to his knees during a brief respite before it began again. Hawk ordered all units to attack in an attempt to help the giant. Jess tried to aim the Scan Track's cannon eyeing those horns, "Commander." He saw what she was trying to target and asked, "Do you think you can do it from here?" "Just give me distance, wind speed and direction." "Murphy!", he said to the man manning the sensors. "Already sending it Commander." Seeing the information she quickly adjusted her her targeting and fired before getting a clear lock in fear in the case the monster moved. Two missiles launched, one just missed. The other one hit and exploded on impact destroying the horn. Eleking cried out and released Daxium as it trashed around. Reid told her, "I'm stealing you from Alpha Team." "You're not ready for the fight Captain Hawk's going to put up," she said with a grin. Daxium slowly got one knee up to brace himself after he was free. Eleking stumbled forward trying to clutch at his ruined horn as the tail whipped wildly around hitting the buildings and the street. Standing up held his hand to his chest and drew it back as he drew in energy. Punching the ground he unleashed a Giga Wave. It ripped up the street as the wave rushed up and bisected Eleking before disappearing as it exploded. Making sure it was gone he flew off into the sky, "Shiah!" When Ken materialized from the ball of light he saw he was close to that med station Reid had ordered him to, "Nice landing zone Dax." "You were hurt because of my war," he answered. "It was the least I could do." "Our war bud," Ken corrected him. Making sure his arm was still secured he headed toward the station. *** "We may have a problem within Alpha Team," Patricia said as she put a file on Richardson's desk. He had already read the medical report, Wade was going to be sore and stiff for a while but otherwise fit for duty despite the minor scrapes. Outside of his own scrapes Scott's broken arm was going to keep him out of the action for a bit but Richardson was positive he could find a way to get him out there to unleash the giant when needed. So he really wasn't seeing a problem right away. "I don't suppose this has anything to do with the fact Wade beat you in that silly contest this year," he said as he picked the folder up and look at the contents. "Something worse," she said and stood a little straighter, almost insulted by the comment. "As you know we found two more burnt skeletons similar to what happened to Joseph. Captain Hawk told Scott the version you told him of what happened. But if you will read the highlighted transcript we recorded off Scott's communicator." "How?", he read out loud. "The guy you're helping the ones your at war with." He cocked an eyebrow, "The one I felt back at base. Richardson lied." Closing it and putting the file down and looked at his assistant, "You think the giant told him?" She replied, "That is one way to interpret the information at hand." "Do you think he will tell Hawk and the others?" "He had several opportunities," she answered, "But he didn't say anything to Captain Hawk. Not even to Wade, the one person in the unit he seems closest to, after he came up. However he may be planning to use it against you." Leaning back in his chair he didn't seem impressed or threatened, "Let him try. Once he does I'll throw back the fact he kept the fact there was an enemy agent in our midst from us." "And how are you going to do that without revealing the fact we've been listening in on him this entire time?" "I'll worry about that when it happens. I don't think we're lucky enough for that agent to be Jamira. Try to find out who it might possibly be." "He or she had hid this fact from us for a long time, it may take awhile." "I don;t care how, just get it done." *** Ken looked at his first ever cast in twenty eight years of life. At least they let him walk out of the med wing under his own power. Fortunately the pain he was feeling when he hit the ground helped cover up the pain he felt from Daxium's fight with that creature, so that was a good thing there. With nothing else to do since Hawk relieved him of most of his duties for the time being he headed for one of the break-rooms. He looked at it wondering how he was going to explain this to his friends and family once they eventually found out, and his mom was going to freak. Or kill him. And his money was on the kill part. "This is were you been hiding." He looked up to see Ryo and the others come towards him, still looking a bit apprehensive since nobody found the thing that did that to those poor bastards. Too bad he couldn't tell them they should be looking for a man and not a creature like they thought. "I heard of people trying to get out of work but this one a little extreme," Ryo said with a smile. He lightly tapped the red wrapping that was part of the cast, "I least I made sure it matched the uniform." "How long are they letting you sit on the sidelines civilian?", Bill asked. "They want me to come in every couple of weeks to see how things are healing but at least a couple of months." Something behind them caught his eye, three of Jamira men, including the gunner in the Scan track, in civilian clothing and duffels over their shoulders walked past the room looking angry, more than usual. "What's going on there?" Jess looked back and saw them, "Reid's cleaning house." "Word around base," Ryo said, "is Reid got all the Jamira loyalist together and told them he was the one in charge now and he wasn't going to stand for another incident of defiance like what happened on the last mission. Basically he told them if they couldn't deal with that he'll gladly transfer them to another division off base and get people who could. Those three are the ones that took the offer." "Yeah I'm not going to miss them," Bill commented. "I don't think any of us are," Jess agreed. "And their not going to realize how good they had it under Jamira when they try their crap elsewhere. But enough about them," she took a marker out of her pocket, "time to get to business." "Aren't I supposed to be drunk and passed out before you start drawing on me?", Ken asked. "Or if you have a cast," she said as she carefully too his broken arm, "Your friends can sign it." She signed her name and gave the marker to Ryo who did the same. Bill was handed the marker and looked at him, "She threatened to shot me if I didn't do this." "I'd believe it," Ken said before they both grinned as he signed his name. "I wondered where that marker went," Hawk said as he came into the room. He said nothing else as he came closer. It was worrying them a bit that none of them could read his expression. He held out a hand asking for the marker that Bill quickly gave him. Then still without a word he leaned in and sighed his name as well. Then he looked at them with a slight smile of his own, "We are a team after all." Capping the marker he pointed it at Ken, "You in particular should remember that." He saluted him with his good hand, "Yes sir." "I'm pretty sure that sunk in by now," Jess said. "He had better by now," Bill joined in. Ryo added, "If not than he's denser than I remember from the academy." "Hey," Ken spoke up, "I resemble that remark." "Come on," Hawk told all of them, "this rounds on me. As soon as we find something that's not going to react with that pain killer I know they put you on." *** In his home Brooks sat on the floor of his office and concentrated. The door was locked, his phone was turned off and the staff was told to disturb him for anything. The only way he could be bothered now was if his masters decided to communicate with him. Feeling the silence he concentrated, feeling the dark energy inside him. He let it well up, grow, let it expand as he pushed it top do what he wanted. Then he felt it, he rose off the floor. High enough that he could lower his leg and stand comfortably. After months of trying he finally did it. Now to figure out a way to transfer that to actual flying. And his master were none the wiser to this new discover having found a way to blocked his experimentation of his powers from the long ago. Although he should thank them. If it wasn't for their "punishment" he would have had the extra determination to push his powers like this, harder than he was before. Now the only questions were how far could he push his power, and what exactly could he do with it that they never suspected. ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly on the Inside ----- |
Episodes 18
----- OP -Mercy Drive - Shine In My Light ----- Jess pulled into an old diner's parking lot and looked at the building. To be completely honest she was a little surprised when Ken invited her and the others out to this place. he claimed it was one of his favorite places to eat back when he was working at that garage. As it was only her and Ryo were able to get away and take him up on the invitation. Sitting beside her Ryo stared at the building, "He really eats here? Of his own free will?" "You sound surprised," she told her usual wingman as she started to get out. "This looks like the type of place he would take me on a more casual date." And usually some of the better times they had, well before his brother stuck his nose in things. Getting out of that memory she looked over at Ryo in his dress shirt and slacks then at her jeans and blouse. "I told you that you were over dressing for this place before we left Castle." "A man should always dress his best," he told her as he adjusted a sleeve. She scanned the windows until she saw Ken. And the brunette girl sitting with him. Both of them noted how happy each of them looked. Ryo looked over at her, "Do you think he had a girlfriend this entire time?" "He would have said something," she said. Of course he would have. In fact he specifically said he wasn't currently seeing anyone when Richardson had them bring him in. Besides things were long over between the two of them. If he was seeing anybody that was his business and not hers. Still who was this woman? Then this mystery woman stood up revealing a very noticeable baby bump. Jess repeated, "He would have said something." "Which one of us are you trying to convince?", Ryo asked her. "Shut up," she told her wingman as she headed for the diner. Entering to some very familiar smells they made their way to Ken's table. "Are we early?", she asked him. Her eyes immediately went to the black brace currently on his left arm, a reminder of the broken bone he received on the last mission he was on. He looked up at them and grinned, "Glad you guys could make it. I just showed up myself and ran into a old co-worker of mine. Rose...," and he waved her back over. "Co-worker," Jess repeated. Of course it was one of his friends from the garage. He even told her about her once. To Ryo she said, "I told you he would have said something." He just gave her a disbelieving look. "What?", Ken asked catching it. "You two didn't think that me and her..." "Well with the baby bump we saw," Ryo admitted. "Granted I could probably take her husband but give me some credit now." "And I could do a hell of a lot better than this jerk," Rose told them. "Keep telling yourself that," Ken told her. “Guys this is Rose. Rose this is Ryo Watanabe, we went to the academy together. The short time I was actually there." "Hi," Rose said shaking his hand. "Hello," he greeted her. "And this is Jessica Wade..." With a surprised look she asked Ken, "The same Jessica Wade you used to date in high school?" Jess glanced over at Ken, who was giving her a look that she translated in her head as please don't hurt me, before saying, "That would be me." "Well now," she broke into a grin as she eyed the two of them, "working with your ex are we?" In response Ken pointed at her, "Stop it." Oblivious to her and Ryo's confusion Rose asked him, "What? I can't ask a question?" "As many times I've seen that look on your face right before you tried to set me up on a blind date? I'm cutting this off at the pass now." "Fine," she sighed. "If you want to be alone and miserable for the rest of your life see if I try and help you again." "I'll believe it when I see it." "Let's not get into an argument here," Jess cut in. "Trust me this isn't an argument," Rose told her. "This is just round God only knows at this point. Besides this big lug here knows I'd wipe the floor with him in a real fight." "Only because Mom told me never to hit a girl." "See he admits it," Rose said with a smirk. "I better get back to the garage. Remind your Captain to bring his car in for a tune up next week." She gave Ken a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't be a stranger. Nice meeting the two of you." "Likewise," Ryo said as she walked past them. "Same here," Jess agreed. "See you around Rose," Ken told her. She stopped by him and gave Jess the once over one more time. She leaned in and asked Ken, "You seriously just let her go? You are a moron." "Drop it," he said through his teeth. Rose just shrugged her shoulders and continued on her way. "So," Ryo said, mainly to spare Jess and Ken from the sudden awkward silence, "you ready to come back to Castle yet?" "I never should have been given this leave to begin with," Ken said as they sat down in the booth. "You wouldn't follow the doctor's orders," Jess reminded him. "They told you no heavy lifting while you were healing up." "And like I told them I still have a good arm," he told her. "We heard you tell the Captain that when he put you on leave," Ryo told him. "He's just looking out for your wellbeing." Jess added, "Besides, as much as you seemed to hate being there those first couple of weeks I'm surprised you didn't want to leave." "What can I say," he said with a small shrug, "I just decided to go with it. The place grows on you... like a fungus." "And there's a lovely thought right before we eat," Ryo commented as he took a menu from the holder on the table. "You eat here all the time, what would you recommend?" Jess took one as well and spoke for him, "If he's anything like I remember it'll be the Philly cheesesteak." Ken looked at her with a slight smile, "It's why it's my favorite place to eat." *** "Here's the reports you asked for Captain," Reid said as he walked into the office and gave him a vanilla folder. Two months in and Hawk still wasn't used to the lead of Beta Team being so cordial. Jamira would have one of his men to the report outside his door without a word. Then again why did he put up with that behavior for so long? "Thank you Commander," he said as he offered him the seat on the other side of the desk. Reid took it as he flipped through the file. "The Jamira regulars are still giving you some problems I see." "It's not as bad as it was," Reid replied. "Once the worst three were removed the others started to calm down. Slowly," he amended, "but I haven't reprimanded then as often as I did. Right now they're just testing the boundaries." Hawk nodded as he continued reading. "I didn't put it in but they still don't care for your civilian." "Them and a few others on base," Hawk sighed. "I'm sure I'm on more than few dislikes lists as well." Closing the file and putting it down he looked at the Commander. "Any word at all?" "I think you would have heard something before I would have Gabe," Reid told him. "Where ever Jamira went he is hiding himself pretty good. It's almost like he fell off the face of the planet. I've even had people keeping tabs on those who were loyal to him. Unfortunately they don't seem to know where he is either. "I don't like this Justin, I don't like it one bit," Hawk told him. "I've known Jamira for a long time and I could use several words to describe him. A stubborn, pig-headed ass being on the top of the list. But a hider, no. He wouldn't be hiding like this, especially if he thought he was in the right. And he thought he was in the right even after they stripped him of command." Reid shook his head, "Then the only other explanation is something happened to him. We both know Jamira rubbed a lot of people the wrong way." "And we haven't found a body yet either," Hawk reminded him. "Do you think somebody would take it that far?" Hawk frowned before answering, "I honestly don't know any more. *** A few days later Brook's masters sent over sent over an gillman like aquatic humanoid they called Ragon. By design it attacked from the sea. The UNDF quickly set up a defensive line at a coastal city and attacked when it came to shore. Still in his possession of his UNDF ID Ken was able to get close enough to the conflict to unleash Daxium to take on the creature. He did his best to keep the monster from entering the heart of the city. Ragon fought with a wild enough style that he was forced to block the attacks as beast as he could with both arms. Getting close he grappled with the beast. With a grunt he herded Ragon toward the water. Throwing the creature down it opened it's mouth as it laid there and spit a blue flame like beam at the giant. Daxium acted fast in getting his shield up. As soon as the creature stopped he dropped the field and quickly set up the Dimensional Storm Ray and destroyed the creature with the beam out of his hand. Glancing down at his left arm for a moment he shot off into the air, "Shiah!" Near the alley he released Daxium Ken reappeared from a ball of light. Leaning back against the brick wall he grimaced a bit as he held the brace around his left arm. "Dax I know you have to attack and defend yourself but could try and watch the arm a bit more?" Not getting an immediate answer he looked around and stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed for his car. He was stopped by a Scan Track, something he was hoping to avoid. The driver just looked at him, "Ken?" "Yo Chuck," he greeted him in return, then to the others in the Track he added, "Larry, Paul, new guy I don't know." They didn't respond but Chuck spoke up, "What are you doing all the way out here?" Which was one of the reasons why he was looking to avoid any and all members of the UNDF. "I heard stuff was going down and I'd figure I'd see if there was anything I could do to help," he told them. It was pretty lose to the truth. "I'd helped evacuate enough cities when I was on duty that I got an idea on what I'm doing." Larry shook his head then leaned over a bit to get a better look at him, "The Captain is going to flip when he hears about this." "What to flip about?", Ken asked. "I made sure to stay out of harm’s way." "I'm sure he'll love that explanation when you get back to Castle," Chuck told him. "See you when you get back to Castle." "I'll see you then," he gave them a waved as they drove off. But he knew that this was going to get back to Hawk. Like the other encounters he's happen to be seen at. "Yeah, that's going to be a fun conversation." *** A couple of weeks later Ken did return to Castle. Despite what he told Jess and Ryo he was surprised exactly how much he actually missed this place. Taking his usual parking place he got out and looked around, loving that he didn't have to go far to get the familiar smells and sounds of a garage even in this high tech place. Reaching into the backseat he retrieved and put on his uniform jacket. The only thing missing was the wrist scanner, but that didn't exactly fit around the brace. Just a few more weeks he told himself. Before long he was able to spot the person in charge of the hanger as he put his bag over his shoulder, "Hey Chief." "Scott," he replied, not taking his eyes off the pad in his hand. "Captain Hawk said he wanted to see you as soon as you got your belongings back in your quarters." Despite knowing that was coming he tried not to wince, "What kind of mood is he in?" "You'll find out when you get there," was all he said. "You'll find your adjusted workload when you officially check in." And that didn't sound good. "Adjusted how?" "Expect to push a lot of paper. Hey Jones, I said track 37 not 43!", he walked off leaving Ken standing there. Wondering exactly how long he could put this off he readjusted his bag and headed for the elevator. More than few greeted him when he reached his floor, a far cry from his first trip down these halls. Well his second trip technically, he wasn't sure he was conscious for most of the first one. "Mr. Scott," he looked around to see Peter Brooks come toward him, at least it wasn't Richardson. There were several messages on his phone from his secretary, more or less demanding his presence on base. Considering the situation he didn't get on Hawk's bad side. "Welcome back from your little vacation." He had several comments about that quote unquote vacation swirling around in his head. He wisely kept them to himself, maybe Hawk and the others were rubbing off on him. Instead he said, "Thank you sir." For some reason Brooks started walking with him, "So how is your arm exactly? If you don't mind me asking that is." "As well as can be expected," he answered while wiggling the fingers on his left hand. "They gave me some exercises to work on to get some strength back." "Good, good," Brooks said. "I see everyone wants you back at full strength as soon as possible." There was something in the way he said that that made Ken glance at him. Whatever it was it was gone almost as fast as he noticed it. "I would love to stay and chat some more but I do have some meetings to attend and you need to get settled back in. Have a good day." "You too...", he got out before Brooks hurried off. All this time he still hadn't figured that guy out. Outside of being one of the suspects for the dark energy blip the first time he was here. *** "The upgrades should be ready in a week," Bridge said as he sat in Hawk's office. "They would be finished faster but I'm having trouble getting Williams and his team involved." "He's almost done with that super jet of his," Hawk said as he looked over the estimates had supplied him. "And seeing how the board in getting more onboard with this thing by the day it's going to be hard to get him away from the thing." "I understand that Captain," Bridge replied. "I'm just saying it's frustrating." "Duly noted," he said with a small smirk. "Is there anything else I should be aware of?" "No, that should be it," Bridge told him. "That will be all then." Bridge nodded and rose out of his seat. As he exited Hawk started to take another look at those estimates. At least he was until another voice from the other room caught his attention, "Bridge my man." "Ken," he heard Bridge call out. "How are you doing?" "About as well as can be expected." Ken went quiet for a moment, "What kind of mood is he in?" And Hawk briefly wondered when people were going to figure out he could hear them through the vent grates. Not that he was going to say anything any time soon, he secretly enjoyed the little edge it gave him. Bridge answered, "He was in a pretty good mood when I was in there. Then again he hasn't seen you yet." "Funny," Ken uttered, "attack the guy trying to help you open up. I better get in there before that mood changes. See you around." "See you Ken." Ken walked in and stared at the three folders Hawk just finished putting on his desk. He started looking a bit apprehensive as he said, "Ken Scott reporting for duty sir." "Ken," he replied pleasantly, he was happy to see the young man again, "please have a seat." he did so glancing at those folders. Clasping his hands in front of him Hawk looked at him for a few moments before opening a random folder, "I see you've been busy while you were on leave." "Trying not to be bored sir," he said while trying to read the file. Hawk quickly closed it. "Idle hands and all that jazz." "Normally I would appreciate that," Hawk told him. "But not when I told you to take the time off to heal up properly I meant it. And you have been doing something because the doctors have been saying you're arm's not healing like it should. And seeing how you have been spotted at the three giant monster attacks I think I know why." The fingers on Ken's left hand twitched, Hawk assumed involuntarily. "I put you on leave to keep you out of these situations and to keep the stress off that arm. What if you got blasted again or rebroke it while helping somebody?" "I was just trying to help," he said just loud enough to be heard. "I am trained for this sort of thing." "Yes, one of the reports mentioned you said something similar to that." Hawk leaned forward, "Look Ken, I'm proud at how you jumped into the role, I will never deny that. But that leave was for your own good. You're damn lucky that injury didn't require any surgery. And I don't appreciate you putting yourself in situations that may keep you out longer than necessary. Now the doctors are saying you're healed enough for light duty. And I'm going to make sure you stick to the 'light' part of that sentence." Ken sighed, "The Chief mentioned there would be paper to be pushed." "Oh you better believe it," Hawk told him. "For the next two week we're going to put your secretarial skills to the test. And you will be stationed in the outer room of this office so I can keep an eye on you." Ken started to protest but Hawk ut him off, "I can make that three weeks just as easily Scott." "Yes sir," he said giving in. "Seeing how eager you are to keep busy you can start today. You can start by familiarizing yourself with the desk in the other room. I'll call you if I need you." "Yes sir," he repeated as he got up and headed for the door. "Ken," Hawk said to stop him, "it's good to have you back son." "Never thought I'd say this after my first few weeks here but it's good to be back." He nodded, "If it's not out there I have a scheduled appointment at one. Sooner if you can figure out the intercom or later if we get an alert that interrupts our day." "Yes sir. Ah," he paused at the door, "if we get an alert?" "You're still part of the team so you'll be going out with the rest of us. We'll figure out what kind of role, if any, you'll have then." Picking up the folders to put back into the file he told him, "Now get to work, and you better be able to make a decent pot of coffee." *** Brooks waved the smoke from his face as he stabilized another monster that came through the breach. Red in color with the wings and bat shape head, he quickly realized the smoke was coming from the creature. "Another spewer, wonderful." The form of one of his masters appeared in the vortex, "Going over your reports of our creatures defeat we realized that the deadly smoke Bogun emitted damage the giant." Brooks remembered that battle as well, he also recalled that the light giant was hesitant to use his hyper speed finisher as well. Instead revealing the pulse like effect through his whip. "Seeing how effective the smoke was I'm surprised you waited so long in trying it again." "Barrangas had to be specially created," the Zetton in the Vortex told him. "It will emit the toxic gas continuously, leaving a cloud constantly around it." "Then it's fortunate the dark energy you provided me makes me immune to it's affect," Brooks commented as he glanced around the quickly filling chamber. The Zetton inside said nothing. "I'll find an appropriate place to put him then. "Yes you will," the figure said and the vortex dissipated out of existence. The smoke swirled around him as he uttered out loud, "Would it be that hard to say good-bye at least once? I suspect it would actually." He looked over at the creature who had already increased in size. "Now how do I conceal you long enough to get you into the city? The smoke is going to be a bit of a problem." *** "Hey Chad!" the foreman bellowed. "Hurry with that hole! We're behind schedule as it is!" "I'm going as fast as the drill will go!", Chad called back. "Any faster and the machine will over heat and seize up." "Just hurry it up!", he yelled. "Will do," he muttered knowing the foreman had already turned around and started yelling at somebody else. "God help me if I work under another micro manager." "He just wants to get things done on schedule," his buddy said. "According to him we were behind schedule the second we started." The other guy shook his head and left before the foreman zeroed in on him. Chad looked around the construction site. Or should he have said new high rise. The old one was damaged during a battle between a monster and that giant guy. It was so bad they had to tear it down and start anew. So there was at least one good thing coming out of those giant freaks battles, the construction business was booming. A dark smoke started coming to come from the hole. "Oh shit," he said as he stopped the drill. The smoke continued to pour out as he checked the drill bit readout. "What the fuck did you do?!", the foreman shouted as he and some other came toward him. "I don't know!", Chad said as he started to pull the drill itself out of the ground. "Everything is still green on the controls. Maybe it's a pocket of something." "You better not have fucked up that drill head," he went on ignoring everything Chad just said. "I'm checking it now," he told him. Using the top of his shirt to try and protect himself from the smoke. It was still rank as hell though. "Drill heads still... looks... g.." he started getting woozy, fast. So much so he was unconscious before he even hit the ground. The foreman and a couple of others tried to drag him out of there but they were overcome by the smoke as well. *** Given the situation the military and UNDF was scrambled rather quickly. Out of the unit nicknamed Monster Squad by the others Hawk, Ryo and Ken set up a temporary command center while Jess and Bill were back at Castle ready to launch at a moment’s notice. All of them looking at an ariel view of the construction site that was now covered in that smoke that was now a couple of yards high. "Those closest to the opening died first," Bridge said over the comm line. "Medical's treating the others who inhaled it now. Right now their chance of survival is depending on how much they breathed in." "Did we get an analysis of the smoke yet?", Hawk asked. "We were able to get a man in a containment suit in there to get a sample," Bridge informed him. "But we're still going over the data he collected. But we did get some blood samples from the deceased and those who inhaled the stuff processed and got a hit from the database. It's the same as the smoke that two headed slug was spewing out a while back." Ken remembered that night clear enough, outside of the "wonderful" blind date Rose set him up on it was also the night he was rudely introduced to his current teammates. Hawk must have been thinking the same thing because he looked back at him when Bridge said that. Although he didn't need Bridge to tell him there was something there, he could sense the creature through Daxium from where he was. "Is that why the smoke staying in place like that?", Ken asked since he couldn't exactly explain how he knew in to begin with. "Because that's starting to weird me out a little." The majority of the smoke did stop at the edge of the construction site, although there was some spill over in the surrounding area truth be told it was more than a bit freaky. "You're not the only one civilian," Bill said over the line. "We'll need to get over it," Hawk told them. "Bridge, are we getting anything underground?" "Nothing so far," he answered. "I think the smoke is interfering with our sensors somehow." "We have a couple of Scan Tracks close to the affected area," Hawk said as he went over unit placements. "Have you patched into their sensors yet?" "I already did and got the same results." "I wonder why we could detect the first monster and not this one?", Ryo asked. Jess answered, "The first one didn't start spewing until after it was above ground. Maybe that has something to do with it." "Bridge," Hawk spoke up, "check the readings around that time and see if there was any type of interference then." "I'll pull it up," he responded. "Let me know if you find anything, Hawk out." "Understood, Castle out." "How's the evacuation going?", Hawk asked as he faced Ryo and Ken. "That smoke is stationary now but we can't count on it to stay that way. Not to mention that we have no idea when that creature is going to break out above ground." And Ken was wondering how he was going to get away when that happened. "We're still evacuating people in a mile radius of the construction site," Ryo answered. "Needless to say there are some very unhappy people feeling they were forced to move." "I'd rather they be unhappy then dead," Hawk informed him. "Unfortunately people who don't want to move can be stubborn too. Ryo, Ken," he glanced at his arm, "and I hope I don't regret this decision later, take a couple of squads and see that nobody's trying to sneak in or if we missed anybody." "And if we run into any reporters?", Ryo asked. More than a few have tried as they ran across some photographers or reporters trying to get a close up of the creature whenever they get an alert, particularly in the city. "You know the drill." Hawk told him. "If there's no immediate danger give a brief statement and send them on their way. Ken..." he looked over at him. "Keep quiet and let somebody else from the unit handle it," he answered. "I was going to say watch your arm," he smirked, "but that works too. Now move out." "Come on Ken," Ryo as he handed him one of the helmets with a full faceplate to protect them from the smoke. Ryo was on the way out while Ken stood there staring at the helmet with a bit of a grimace on his face. "I hope this things works better than it did against the happy flower." Remembering that incident as well Hawk silently hoped it did as well. *** "Initiating sonic scans now," Reid said over the line. Back at the Castle control room everyone tensed up slightly as the scan started. Everyone remembered how this one creature that could control the Earth itself reacted when they tried a similar scan. "I have the reading," Bridge said looking at the sensor readings of several Scan Tracks that were placed around the construction site. "I'm linking up the respective scans now. Remember to keep it low for right now." "We have it as low as it can be and still be on," Reid told him. "Do you have anything yet?" "A massive blob that's not telling me anything," Bridge responded. In all honestly he was expecting that on this sonic level. Reminding himself that the earth mover didn't emit smoke he said, "All Track in the link start to raise the sonic frequency slowly." "You heard the man," Reid told the man behind the scanner station in the vehicle. Being linked they could keep the frequency increase relatively even. Bridge kept his eyes on the readings until he saw a clearer picture. "Stop right there," he said. Switching what he saw to the main screen in front of the room the people inside stopped what they were doing when he did so. "Is it the same creature?", Reid asked. "Not exactly Commander." "Show me." "Patch me in too Bridge," Hawk said over the line. "Patching both of you in now," he told them as he hit the appropriate commands into the computer. After studying the image for a few moments Reid broke the silence, "I think I'm seeing a set of wings." "I'm seeing it too," Hawk confirmed. "We're estimating the creature's mass to be larger than the two headed creature," Bridge said as the people in the room fed him the information. "And so far we're only detecting one head." "So," Reid spoke up, "unless the two head one was some sort of strange larval form then this is a different creature entirely." "Commander," Hawk said, "at this point I wouldn't be surprised by anything. But we could use a drill vehicle right about now. And word of what I just said does not get to Williams in any form." *** In his office Brooks monitored the situation. In a way he had to admire Hawk's efficiency. Within a couple of hours he had the area evacuated, cordon off, set up troop placement and found a way to retrieve the dead. Actually the whole program seemed faster now that Jamira wasn't there, or it could just be his imagination. Also his earlier hunch had paid dividends as the troops he sent out to patrol found some that were trying to sneak into the cordoned off area. It was a shame that he was going to have to kill him eventually. Perhaps even in this conflict. And Reid seemed competent enough to take over if that did happen. Although at that time Brooks thought he might wish Jamira was still around, then again maybe not. While he would have made a mess of thing in the transition he would be next to impossible to deal with. Still he might as well get this over with. And hopefully his masters were still unaware that he could do this. Focusing the dark energy they granted him he opened a portal to view Barrangas through the smoke. Opening a vortex like this to talk to them was no problem, and one he figured out rather quickly. But to create one that didn't send out any ripples they could be detected by them, well all modesty aside, that took a little skill. As did this. Concentrating on the energy that linked them he made contact with the creature's mind, something his masters said was impossible. But the headache doing so gave him was more than worth it as he proved them wrong. While he couldn't control the creature directly, it's emotion, instincts, urges and will was far too strong for that, he could nudge it into action. As he did with a simple thought. Barrangas arise. *** "What the hell ever happened to freedom of the press?", a cameraman demanded as Ken and the female UNDF officer with him tried to get him and the female reporter behind him to get back into their van. "Feel free to get the hell out of here then," Ken said getting annoyed with the situation. Ryo could not be having this much of a problem. Of course Ken's unit was the one who decided to split up into groups of two. "This is a restricted area. And wearing WW2 era gasmasks doesn't count." "The people have.." he went on. "The people are safe at home, watching the coverage I assuming," his partner told him. "If you try to persist any further we will be forced to detain both of you." "Come on Trevor," the reporter said, "they're not going to budge. "Let's go." When the cameraman wouldn't budge she dragged him by the arm. "Come on." "Alright Sara, alright," he finally conceded as they got into the van. Watching them leave Ken commented, "They are so going to try somewhere else." "More than likely," she said. "I wonder what she looks like under that mask. She sounded cute." Ken snorted, "I saw how you looked at her while she was leaving, you're approaching horn dog territory there Janice." "Be in the dry spell I've been in," she told him, "And you had the same look. She probably doesn't even play for my team." "One more me then," he said with a smirk. "And you'd still strike out. Come on fellow horn dog, there's probably somebody else around here." "Yes ma'am." As soon as he said that he somebody jump deeper into an alley, "Over there!" They ran in to find a boy who couldn't be older than ten try to climb a fence. Janice rushed over and pulled him off of it. "Let go of me!", He squirmed in her grasp. "I gotta get home!" "Easy kid," she said, struggling to keep a hold of him while he squirmed. "It's too dangerous for you to go back in there right now." "You don't understand!" he yelled. "My mom told me to stay home! I'm grounded!" "I'm sure she'll understand this one time," Ken said, not really believing his story. If he was grounded he would have jumped at the chance to get out of it. Then the kid kicked him in the shin as he continued to try and get away. "Ow!" The ground started to shake before he could react, "Whoa," Ken's hand almost went for the Spark Magnifier as the kid stopped fighting. On both of their comms they heard Bridge announce, "The creature is trying to break through! I repeat the creature is trying to break through!" "Razor Wing units launch now!", Hawk said right after. "All search units retreat to the safety zones." The kid didn't struggle as much as the both grabbed him under the arms and escorted him to the street. About then they felt the ground shake again, this time with monstrous roar in the background. He looked around wondering how he was going to do this. "Janice," he finally said, "take the kid. I thought I saw somebody else over there." She looked in the direction he was pointing, "I'm not seeing..." "I have to be sure," he cut her off. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I check it out." "Alright," she conceded. "But I better see you soon." "As soon as I'm sure," he told her. Running after the "person" he saw he stopped as soon as he was in the alley. Trying to peek without being he seen he made sure she was headed toward the safe zone with kid. Once he was sure he ran toward the smoke filled area. *** Barrangas continued his way to the surface and broke free with one final roar. A deep red in color he walked away from the hole as the smoke swirled around his feet. Roaring one more time smoke seemingly feel out of the holes in the half horns on either side of his head. Wings that seemed a tad too small for his body flexed a bit right before the first couple of missiles hit him from various angles. Roaring in anger he increased the amount of smoke trying to obscure his body from view. In the air the razor wings came into view. Jess silently cursed as she realized the smoke was playing havoc with her targeting sensors. "Razor Wing One to all air units. Switch over to manual targeting and aim for the center of the huge mass of smoke." She got a round of confirms as Bill told her, "The board's going to give you hell of that if one of those missiles hit the city." "As big as that thing is we're going to hit something," she told him as she lined up a shot and fired. There was an explosion as her missile hit that was followed by several others. The smoke cleared enough that they could see the creature inside. Pulling the jet into a circle pattern outside the monster's reach Bill looked at it before saying, "Would you hit me if I said I don't think we're going to run out of missiles before that thing goes down?" "Once we hit the ground, yes." "Then I'm running as soon as we land." Jess was about to respond when she saw a flash in the smoke below. For a brief second she thought one of the missiles missed. Then a giant column of light appeared revealing Ultraman on the inside. He took his usual fighting pose, while flexing his left wrist a bit, and shouted his customary, "Shiah!" Looking at the helmet in front of her she commented, "I don't think we have to worry about our missiles anymore." *** Ignoring the smoke Daxium rushed right toward Barrangas, who towered over him a bit, and bunched it right in the snout. The creature fought back in some attacks that he easily avoided. Pivoting on on foot he planted a foot into it's gut. Seeing he had the advantage he tried to grapple with the monster. Barrangas positioned his head just enough that he spewed the smoke full blast right into his face. Making a brief gagging sound backed up out of instinct to get out of the way. The creature charged him trying to knock him down but he held his footing. He tried to fire a flashbolt but the creature rammed into him again. Barrangas surprised him by grabbing him into a bear hug and blowing the smoke straight into his face. Daxium struggled to keep his face out of the way as he tried to get free. Realizing the monster was pushing against him he fell back using the creature's own momentum to fling it off him and kept on the attack. Pounding the creature to try and keep it down and subdue it. But it used it's own considerable strength to knock him back. Rolling to his feet as the diamond shape jewel on his chest started flashing he charged again. Barrangas used his own tactic against him as it grabbed him and used his momentum to slam him into a building still under construction. While he was stunned Barrangas and pinned his arms to the building, using it's full weight to keep him in place, and started spewing the deadly smoke again. Daxium grunted and struggled to get free but felt himself keep weaker, to the point that his legs started to give out on him. In the air above jess watched, determination forming on her face, "Bill...". "Already ahead of you," he said. Razor Wings seven and ten form up and follow me. We're going to cook us one giant, ugly ass turkey." After a couple of quick "Rodger" they were quickly in formation and heading for the back of the creature." "Missiles away!" Jess announced as she pressed the trigger.. Three set of missiles hit Barrangas right in the back. The creature roared and reaction and let him go. Quickly banging his forearms together he shifted into Power Mode and kicked Barrangas back. Not wasting a moment he attacked Barrangas with renewed urgency. Kicking the creature down he backed up as he put a hand by the jewel to ready the Giga Wave. The wings on Barrangas' back started to flap causing the smoke to rush toward him forcing Daxium to cover his face. Daxium and the rest around them watched as the creature lifted off the ground and into the air. "Holy shit!", Bill exclaimed. "That thing can fly?" On the ground Hawk grabbed a helmet and out it onshouting orders, "Target is airborne! I repeat target is airborne! Break out whatever breathing units we have to spare and pass them out to the civilians in the area, and I want children to be front of the line." He knew it wasn't going to be enough if Ultraman couldn't beat this thing but it was the best he had at the moment. Daxium quickly took off and followed Barrangas trying to knock it back down to Earth. But the creature fought back creating some space between them. It rose even higher still until it turned around and came at him in a dive bomb like attack. Daxium flew backwards toward the ground to give himself time to set up and fire the Storm Globe. It caught the monster flush in the face causing it to explode in midair. Hanging in the air Daxium noticed that the dark smoke quickly dissipate into nothing. Satisfied that the threat was over he flew off into the sky, "Shiah!" "There you are," Ryo called out as Ken ran up to them. "Exactly how do you get lost in a city you grew up in? And Janice wanted me to tell you that she's going to hurt your good arm when she see you." "With all the smoke and commotion I got turned around a couple of times," he said. "And this brace doesn't exactly come with a built in GPS." "And I'm assuming you never found your mystery person." "I had to be sure," he replied with a shrug. "I suppose so," Ryo agreed. "And since I know Hawk is going to ask, how is you arm." "I might have banged it against something in the confusion at least once." "He's going to put you on desk duty for a month now, you know that right?" "It's better than latrine duty," then he looked down at his communicator hoping he didn't hear that. *** Ken leaned against the hood of his car as Hawk's GTO pulled up next to his. Wearing his civilian gear he looked at the diner behind him as he got out, "So this is the place you invited us to." "It's not as deadly as it looks," Ken joked. "So why did you invite me to it." "Actually," he looked back as cars he recognized as Jess and Bill's pulled into the parking lo as well. "I thought we try that team outing again." "Oh for you everybody shows up... sir," he quickly added when Hawk gave him a look that quickly turned into a smirk that made the younger man relax a bit. Then he got a good look into Bill's car. "Is that Bridge?" "He took some convincing," Hawk admitted. "Bridge, my man," Ken called out as he got out of the car. He gave him a small wave and muttered some sort of hello. Just like he usually did when he wasn't in the confines of Castle. "I'm going to break you out of that shell if it kills one of us." "Pretty brave thing to say in front of somebody who knows what you were like in high school," Jess told him. "It just proves it can happen," Ken quickly told her. "And I thought I was quick on my feet," Bill commented. "Lousy jokes don't count as quick," Ryo told him. Looking at the diner and frowned a bit, "I'm still suffering heartburn from the last time I was here." "Just means the food is good," Bill said. Still Ryo held his stomach. "Seeing how I grew up in Philly," Hawk said as they headed for the diner, "that Philly cheesesteak I keep hearing you talk about better impress." "I thought it was pretty good when I tried it," Jess told him. "Yeah but she dated the civilian, what kind of taste could she... have...," he trailed off when she shot him a look that could kill. Ryo leaned over to him, "Just so you know, you're probably getting shot later." "Anybody want to take some bets on when?", Ken joked. "I can get video proof," Bridge offered. Bill looked betrayed. Ken put his arm around Bridge's shoulders and told him, "That's the spirit," as they entered the diner. ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 19
----- OP - Mercy Drive - Burn In My Light ----- As Hawk lead the section of Alpha Team that were immediately under him, known by most on base as Monster Squad, they all took a moment to gaze at the giant black jet with the usual red highlights of the standard UNDF colors, taking up a good chunk of the room, a hanger retrofitted a bit after a giant monster attack directly on Castle, a few Razor Wings were on standby in sitting on the side. The big machine, code named Alpha One, was triangular in shape with a couple of engine ports on the back, although the wing were looking more like wings now since the last time they were in here. Still Hawk honestly had doubts the thing would actually fly but the techs and experts assured him it would. "There you are," Dr. Williams said and came toward them. Or at least that looked like his plan, he somehow got his foot stuck between a couple of thick cables and couldn't free himself. Hawk tried not to frown while he was slowly shaking his head as couple of people quickly hurried over and helped get him free. Behind him Bill muttered, "Only that guy." Hawk shot him a look to silently reprimand him. But it was hard to disagree. "A beauty, isn't it?", William said as he turned around to look back at the ship, but he kept walking backwards. Ryo, Bill and a couple of other deck hands were poised to catch him since he was backing right into a crate that was in his path. But he turned around and avoided it. "I never thought I'd see the day it was built." "She's quite impressive," Hawk told him. "In all honesty I never thought she'd get built either." Probably for a different reason than Williams but there was no need to say it out loud. "Come, come," Williams motioned them to follow him toward the Alpha One. "It's maiden flight awaits. Oh I wish I had a bottle of Champaign to christian it properly." "Ah, Captain," Jess said after they went a few feet. She gestured behind them at Ken who was frozen by the doors staring at the jet with his helmet in hand, and he was looking a little green at the moment. "Oh I'm sure he's just taking a moment to admire it a little longer," Williams told them. "I'm sure that's it," Ryo said looking worried. He leaned in closer to Bill, "How close is our station to his again?" "I'm sure it's out of spew range," Bill assured him. "But I'm taking the seat furthest away." "Not if I get there first," Ryo told him. Hawk cleared his throat and they both shut up. Williams lead them into the ship and on to the now fully functional bridge. Those currently not frozen in dread outside to a second marvel at their stations. Each of them spent time in the simulator so they knew what each switch and button did what when you used it. Still the real thing made them wonder if it was enough. Hawk looked around and realized they were still short a man. "Does anyone want to head out and collect our wayward mechanic?' "Wade to Tony," Jess said into her communicator, "can you nudge Ken toward the Alpha One for me please." "We've been nudging," came the reply. "We just upgraded to a slight push." "Take it up to a full on shove if you have too," she told him, remembering some of the things she had to do when they were dating back in high school. "Wade out." "While we're waiting," Bill spoke up, "did anyone else bring some barf bags for the civilian? I got two." "I grabbed four," Ryo answered. "I have three," Jess said. "Now I'm ashamed of all of you," Hawk told them. "I'm aware Ken has an affliction too. But don't you think this will embarrass him at all? How would you feel if you were him and you found out everyone expected you to throw up over everything?" Ken walked onto the bridge looking like he was in a foul mood. He had that look all day so it wasn't like he overheard what they were saying. Still nobody said anything right away. He sulked over to his station and practically slammed a stack of those sealable white bags onto the station beside him. "You got anymore add them to the stack," was all he said. Jess, Ryo and Bill put the ones they brought on top of it. To Hawk's surprise he did look grateful for the extras. As the rest of them took their station Ryo opened a communication link to Bridge in the control room, "Castle this si Alpha One, we are ready for our test and maiden flight." "Acknowledge Alpha One. Skies are clear and calm like the ocean. Perfect weather for a test flight." Ryo smiled, "Acknowledged Castle, Alpha One preparing to take off." He turned around to look at the Captain's station. "Does the captain wish to say a few words before we take off?" "That's never been my style Ryo," Hawk told him, although he did appreciate the gesture. "Just keep it smooth and steady for the maiden flight." "Oh let's give this ship a proper shake down," Williams insisted. "Let's do a few barrel rolls and the like." "Permission to aim directly at him sir," Ken said from his station. "Denied," Hawk quickly said. "Engine status?" Looking at his screen Ken replied, "Everything's green." Hawk thought he heard him mutter the word, "Unfortunately," but let it go. "Wade, weapons status?" "We're ready to go hot at a moment's notice," she answered. "Flight status?" Bill looked at Ryo and nodded. Ryo said, "We're ready to go Captain." "Captain’s station is green as well. Ryo, Bill this is officially your show now." "Yes sir," Ryo replied. "Alpha One to castle we are ready to launch." "Acknowledged Alpha One, opening hanger now." The wall in front of them opened and a ramp extended and personal quickly got out of the way as the engines came to life. "Alpha One you are a go for launch." "Rodger, Alpha One launching now." Ryo push the throttle forward and the super jet went forward with a lurch. Ken's hand immediately went to the bags next to him. Dr. Williams was the only one who didn't flinch when he did so. *** "I can't believe that albatross got off the ground," Richardson said to no one in particular. In the control room he stood with several other members as they watched the launch on the main screen. From the celebration going on behind him none of the others heard him. well one of them apparently did as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked next to him to see a sympathetic smile on Peter's face. "You're not the only one Harold," he said over the commotion. "I'm personally surprised it got green lighted at all." "Then what did you vote for it to begin with?" "Well Dr. Williams enthusiasm about the project was rather catching," he said sheepishly. "later on I started to wonder exactly what i was thinking?" "You're not the only one," Richardson said as he led Peter through the board members still congratulating themselves. After exiting the control he looked back at the door and mumbled, "You would think they did it single handedly." The younger man nodded in agreement as they walked down the hallway. "I can almost hear what your father would have said after he found out. You haven't told him about that thing yet have you?" "I do believe he would have said something to you about it by now if I did. In fact I'm expecting a rather long message or two by the time I get home." "I'd thank you for taking the blunt of his initial outburst but i know that would just be the warm up for that blow hard." "Yes," Peter chuckled, "we both know my father all too well." Richardson didn't notice when Peter stuffed his hand into his pocket when it startled to crackle in annoyance with dark energy. "So," he said lightly, "what are we going to do with those extra Razor Wings now the Alpha One is in operation?" "Ugh," Richardson groaned, "Alpha One. First it Ultraman and now it's that. I swear nobody can think of a decent name for anything anu more. As far as the razor Wings are concerned Captain Hawk hasn't officially decided yet. He said he wanted to see how the experiment went before doing so." "I assume the good Captain would like to have options," Peter mused. "It might be a good thing, have the proper equipment for the job depending on what it is. Similar to what Ultraman does I suppose." Nodding Richardson agreed, "I suppose." "Although," Peter went on, "rumor has it Hawk is looking for anew person to main the engineering station on the jet. Given Scott's condition and all." "He was looking for one before the jet was even completed," Richardson informed him. "Unfortunately Williams was given full authority over staffing the thing by the board." "I recall. I also believe we were the two votes for the negative category." "Right," Richardson agreed. "Scot being here was my idea to begin with and I know Williams enough to know he never too his condition into account when he assigned the core stations. And believe me I tried to talk to him out of putting Scott in there." "I'm sure he appreciated the effort Harold." Given the threats he used to get the bastard to sign up to begin with that was highly doubtful. "I'm sure he would be, but let's not tell him." "Have to keep up the image, I understand completely. I hate to leave suddenly..." "But we both have things to do," Richardson finished for him. "There’s always that isn't there?" *** Greeting his secretary with a nod as he passed her desk Peter entered his office and quickly locked the door behind him, making sure it was locked for the moment. Finally taking his hand out of his pocket he studied it a bit. "I usually have better control than that." With a smirk he added, "Then again he always slightly annoying and everybody has their limits." Going to his desk he pulled up the flight plan Hawk's men drew up for the initial flight. One Williams protested for it's simplicity if the grapevine was to believed. His masters sent out a little surprise not that long ago so it should be interesting to see how Monster Squad would handle that. Well along with the little surprise he set up for the trip. He was slightly curious how Scott was going to keep his secret in that situation. *** Getting out of the Scan Track Commander Reid looked up at the sound of a roaring engine as the Alpha One passed over the tree line. He knew the general flight plan Hawk's crew had come up with as he glanced at the time, they were early according to his estimation. "Williams must have talked him into pushing the engines," he mused mainly to himself. He also silently hoped this was just a coincidence since Beta Team was assigned to answer the call that came from this forest area. "That should have been us," somebody behind him grumbled. It wasn't the first time Reid had heard that since taking Beta over, it became more frequent the closer it came to launch time." he knew it was part inter-squad rivalry, part alpha male attitude Jamira installed early in his command. Still he said, almost automatically by now, "Beta primarily a ground unit. Alphas are the flyers." "Then the dork should have came up with a tank." He quickly quieted down looked back right at him. That outburst was all Jamira. The sooner it got through their thick skulls that he would tolerate that attitude anymore the happier they would all be. At least he'd be happier he was getting sick of dealing with it. Letting out a breath to calm him down he walked over to the local police officer waiting for them standing in front a taped off section of the forest while motioning for the least annoying man in the Track to follow along. "Hello," he said extending a hand. When it was took he added, "Jason Reid, I'm the head of Beta Team." Part of his personal approach in dealing with the locals. Some were a bit put off just by seeing the uniform, especially if they weren't the ones who called them in. A rank like Commander would put them on the defensive a bit, protecting their territory as it were. Give them a name and just say he was in charge and most would relax a bit. "Tony Malory," the officer said. "What I called you for is over here." Reid nodded as the officer lead them past the police tape and into the woods. "We were called in this morning. After seeing it we eventually decided to call you in. All be honest with you, part of me is hoping this is part of an elaborate prank. But with the way things are been going...", he trailed off. "It's better to be safe than sorry. I rather have my time wasted than have a real threat being ignored," Reid assured him. Soon they were there, from appearances it looked like someone put up various statues in the middle of the woods. What Reid noticed right away was that just about all of them were rearing back from something, all looked like they were afraid of something. He looked over to his man and they both nodded and started scanning the area with their wrist scanners. Getting closer to one of the statues he took a good look at the details in it's features. If this was a prank then the person behind it was damn good, he could see individual teeth in it's mouth as well as a tongue. "Was there anything suspicious about the statues that you notice Officer Malory? Outside of being out here I mean." "Well this one over here," he said pointing toward one near the front of this particular line. Reid went over there with him but didn't see anything that stood out right away, but he waited for Malory to continue. "Now I know this is going to sound like I'm nuts." "Like you said, the way it's been going lately," Reid tried to assure him. "Well I'm positive this one looks like Tom Smith," he went on. "We play poker with a couple of other guys every Saturday night. The nights i'm not on duty that is. I've tried calling his cell already but he's not picking up." "Does he come this way often?", Reid asked. "Almost every night," Malory informed him. "It's a shortcut to his apartment building from his job." "Is he married?" "Divorced three years ago. He's been sowing his oats again, he's had a new girl just about every night." "So nobody regular to contact," Reid mused. "Commander," his man called out. Excusing himself he went over to see what he found. "I did a scan on a couple of these to be sure. My readings say the stone is only a few millimeters thick." "Is it an empty shell then?" "No," he answered, trying to keep his voice low. "The inside is organic. I'm reading internal organs." Reid held up his wrist scanner and took a reading for himself. He felt sick in his stomach as he got the same reading. Even more so once he realized the person inside the shell was dead, as well as the rest of them. Behind the Malory had overheard them any way and looked what was his friend in utter horror. "Reid to Castle." *** "Turned into stone?", Hawk repeated once he was told. "That's correct Captain," Bridge confirmed. "I went over the readings Commander Reid sent in and have to agree with his findings." They were all stunned silent as they tried to process this. Ever since the monsters started attacking they’ve seen a lot of strange things. But turning people into stone? What could have caused that? "Normally I'd make a comment about a woman with snakes for hair,' Bill said, mainly to break the silence that started to become a little uncomfortable, "but even I know that would be in bad taste." "Are we going to investigate?", Williams asked, sounding a tad too excited about the prospect. Ryo turned to look at him, "With an experimental craft that hasn't fully been tested yet? Captain I realize that this is our duty but I feel have we have a huge hindrance going in." "For the most part I agree," Hawk said. "I don't think this ship is ready for actual combat." "Captain Hawk," Williams protested, "I personally over saw the construction of this vessel. I will personally vouch for it's fitness. Ask Scott over there if he disagrees." Hawk glanced back at Ken who was a couple of shades of green at this point, with a several of those sealed bags at his feet. Ryo winched, mainly from the memory of their academy days, "I'm sure he'd answer if he could at the moment." Williams went over to his station and looked at him curiously, "Do you have this same problem when you..." "Captain," Jess spoke up at the same time Ken shot Williams a look for almost blowing his secret. He put a hand over his mouth immediately regretting the action while she continued, "Maybe we can help look for the creature that did this. According to these sensors we have a pretty good range." Ryo was forced to confirm her point, "That we do." "Yeah Captain," Bill joined in. "In fact we could probably cover more ground if we used those jets stored in the back." "I agree with Bill," Ryo quickly added. Jess shook her head and ahd to take the jab, "Pilots and their toys." "And you're just as anxious to fire the big cannon this thing has," Ryo shot back. "Despite me better judgment that sounds like a good Idea," Hawk told them after quickly thinking it over. "Ryo, Bill take the Alpha Twos and prepare a spiral search pattern. Hawk to Castle, Alpha One will help Commander Reid and Beta team in the search of the area. Given the experimental nature of the flight we will only engage if necessary." "Understood Alpha One," Bridge responded. "I'm sure Commander Reid will appreciate the help. I'm informing him now." "Captain we're preparing to switch control over to you," Ryo announced from his station. In front of Hawk a control stick, matching the one Ryo and Bill had at their station, lowered from the console in front of him and moved forward a bit. Taking the stick he punched in the correct command sequence that would give him of the jet. "I have the stick. Ken apologies in advanced if this ends up being a bumpy ride." Ken mumbled something that sounded like an affirmative. "You two go now." "At least you skipped breakfast this morning," Bill joked as they passed Ken. "That was an unnecessary shot man," Ryo as they jogged down the corridor. "If you can't take a shot at your friend," Bill commented as they hit the fork in the corridor and each took a separate path. Near the aft of the ship they both jumped into a one man cockpit that was just above floor level. A canopy came down as they completed a quick preflight check before activating their comm. "Alpha Two-A ready to disengage," Ryo announced. "Alpha Two-B ready to disengage," Bill quickly added. "And I should have been A." "Acknowledge and file a complaint that I'll be sure to ignore," Hawk told him. "You are free to disengage now." "Rodger," both announced. Almost at the same time they hit the control in their separate cockpits. In the rear of Alpha One two panels lowered as two one man fighter jets were slowly backed out by a small ramp. On both black and red jets a tail fin popped into position as two sets of wings extended out and locked into place. "Disengage," Ryo ordered and both of them released the clamps that were holding the Alpha Twos in place. Both fell out the rest of the way before the engines came to life and the shot forward under the Alpha One. "Whoo hoo!", Bill celebrated. "That actually worked!" "Let's just hope the reengaging is just as smooth," Ryo told him. "Why are they surprised my device actually worked?", Williams asked. "I designed it myself." "Maybe because you weren't exactly sure how do to it until the last third of construction," Jess offered. "Dr. Williams if you would please sit down in one of the empty chairs." Hawk cut off his reply. "all this pacing is starting to make me nervous." "Not words I want to hear right now," Ken muttered. The Alpha One started to shake and he immediately reached for another bag. Still amazed he had anything left in his stomach at this point Hawk said, "Sorry son, I'm still finding the feel for here." *** Starting their search from the point the stoned humans were discovered they started expanding their search grid. They found nothing out of the ordinary at first. If this was one of the usual sized creatures they have been fighting lately there wasn't a whole lot of places it could hide. as far as Ryo could tell. "I'm not picking up anything so far on any of my sensors, how about you Bill?" "A whole lot of nothing," he replied. "Right. Watranabe to Hawk unless you're picking up something I don't think it's hear any more." "We're not getting anything either," Hawk answered. "Commander Reid, have you and your men find any more petrified people?" Walking through the trees trying to keep an eye on both his wrist scanner and his surrounding Reid answered, "Not so far. I already have Bridge listening to the police bands for anything similar." Stopping and looking at the ground he spoke back up, "You care if I make a suggestion Hawk?" "I'm listening Jason." "Is there anything in that fancy new toy of yours that can scan underground. Part of me is thinking that this is another burrower." Hawk glanced over at Williams who seemed to be thinking it over. Getting up and headed over to Jess's station he said, "It should be possible I would just need to readjust the setting. Should take no time at all." Half gesturing and half pushing her out of the chair Williams took it for himself and started on those readjustments. With her seat apparently taken over she strolled over to Ken and gave his shoulder a slight squeeze. "How are you holding up? Not counting the throw up bags that is." He started to answer then he got a wide eyed look on his face, "Engine readout just went dark!" "Sorry, sorry," Williams said doing something over there right before his station came back on. "Not in my current condition huh doc." "I'm getting something," Williams announced. "It's underground. Activating weapons." "Doctor wait!", Hawk cried out trying to stop him but he already had the button pressed. There was an explosive sound somewhere inside the ship and the alarms started to go off. "Engines are offline!", Ken yelled as Jess quickly ran toward an empty seat. "That wasn't my fault!", Williams cried out. "That wasn't my fault!" "Not now Doctor!", Hawk shouted. "Ken engines!" "I can't get them to come back up!", he answered doing whatever he could to make it not so. "We're going down!", Hawk told him trying to fight it. "Brace for impact!" "This shouldn't be happening," Williams stated as he assumed crash position. "This not a good start," Bill commented as he watched the Alpha One go down. "Not a good time Bill," Ryo snapped. *** "Alpha One has crashed landed," Bridge said as he pulled up a image from a satellite flying over the area. while not being an experienced pilot Hawk was able to keep them from landing nose first. Although the strip behind them indicated that they took a good chunk of the forest in order to do so. "Castle to Alpha One come in. Captain Hawk respond. Captain Hawk!" "We're here Bridge," Hawk grunted, a bit of pain edging his voice. "Everybody else respond." "I'm here," Jess called out using the chair to get back up. "That wasn't my fault," Williams repeated as he righted himself. "I survived worse," Ken moaned, although he shook his left arm a bit and hoped none of them saw. "Confirmed and great to hear Captain," Bridge said with a smile. "What's the status of the Alpha One?" Over the line he heard Ken mutter, "I don't believe it." "What is it?", Hawk asked. "Outside of the engines being dead readings are saying this hunk of junk is still air worthy." "Not now Doctor," Hawk said cutting off Williams response yet again. "The two of you get to the engine room and find out just what the hell happened." "He overloaded the system by activating the weapons that's what happened," Ken said as he took off his helmet. Williams stood at his full height and looked right at him, "We tested the weapons while the engines were running a hundred times." Ken wasn't backing down, "Welcome to a hundred and one. I've told you we should have put them put them on separate lines." "And what use would that have been?" "We’d still be in the air for one." He stopped and got a weird look on his face, "Why am I saying that like it's a good thing?" "You two," Hawk snapped getting their full attention. "Engines. Now!" As soon as they exited the bridge they could hear them start up again. Taking a moment to regain his composure he said into his comm., "Bridge we might be here for a while. We'll keep you posted on our status as soon as I find out myself." "Understood Captain, Castle out," Bridge said. He switched to another comm. line, "Castle to Commander Reid, were you able to get the position of the creature before the crash?" "Affirmative Bridge," he answered. "I already ordered the wagons to circle it. We're going to need more though if it decides to come up for air." "Understood scrambling units now." *** In a few moments after the crash Richardson and brooks returned to the control room. Staying out of the activity going around them. "If it could get any worse," Richardson mumbled. Besides him Brooks smiled on the inside. Yes they could get much worse. Making sure no one was paying him any particular attention to him he closed his eyes and concentrated on the dark energy that permeated the creature. Gakuma arise. "The creature is moving!", Bridge announced. On the main screen footage of a quadruped came out of the ground and shook the dirt off it's brownish gray, rigged body all the way down to the tip of it's tail.. The single horn on it's head swinging back and forth along with it's head. "Commander Reid's forces are not in position yet," somebody to their left announced. "Base units are almost ready to scramble," said someone to their right. "Watanabe to Castle, me and Bill are going to try to lead the creature away from the Alpha One." Acknowledge Watanabe," Bridge told him, "be careful and Castle out." *** With nothing else to do at the moment Jess volunteered to watch over Ken and Dr. Williams in case they didn't get the word to abandon the Alpha One. Or at least referee if they started going at it again. "Are you sure it's not the intake you were worried about?", she heard the good doctor say from somewhere behind a giant cooling coil. Coming out from an opening in a wall with his ponytail tucked into his jacket collar Ken replied, "It's the first thing I checked and yes I'm sure." On solid ground he looked and sounded like he always did. She was always amazed at how fast he could bounce back after being that green, even when they were younger. "Well I'm not seeing any cracks in the transfer units," Williams told him. "Start checking the lines then," Ken told him as he went to another opening. Hearing footsteps come up behind her she looked back despite knowing that it was going to be Hawk. "How are they doing?" "They haven't found anything yet. So far they seem kind of," right then Ken popped out of the hole and looked in a particular direction with a nervous look on his face, exiting all the way out as she continued, "oblivious to what's going on outside." "Hmm, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not at the moment,' Hawk mused. “I'm suddenly glad the Alpha Twos have VOTL capabilities so we don't have worry about them for the moment." "I found it," Williams called out. Jess and Hawk walked over to the other side of the engine room so they could see him behind the power generator a Ken made his way over to him. "A hole in the line, at least a foot long." "How in the hell did that happen?", Ken asked not exactly looking for an answer. Once he got there he was surprised by something Daxium thought he was picking up. Making sure Jess and the Captain weren't looking he held a hand over it. It was pretty feint at this point and with the monster right there he might have missed it if he was in a rush but there was a slight trace of dark energy at the edges of the gap. "Shit," he whispered. "How bad is it Ken?", Hawk asked. "It's like he said," he called back. "About a foot gap in the line. It looks like it melted through but it should be a simple fix." Moving a bit better look at what was behind the two of them he pointed, "That third locker behind you. There should be a section of replacement lines. We're going to need the one labeled 7-J." "I got it," Jess told him. "Great," Ken said, "I'll get the tools we're going to need from the storage unit Doc." "Ken," Jess called out again, "I'm not seeing it." "It's clearly labeled," Williams told her, "plain as day." "Doctor," Hawk spoke up, "she's not seeing it because it's not there." "No way," Ken said as he freed himself from the engine. "That was full last night. Going over to her he saw that it was empty. Checking the others lockers they found they were empty as well. "No, me and two others doubled check these last night before I went off shift. These were full." "Well they're not now," Jess said. "Time we push that genius brain of your," Hawk told him, "We need to get air born or abandon ship because right now we're sitting ducks." "I'm thinking, I'm thinking," he said holding his head. "We can't use a line from another part of the system because all the major systems are tied together by the same line." Going over to the storage unit in the wall he studied the tool situation. "If we had something to fill the gap. Wait..." "Ken?", Hawk asked as he raced out of the room and followed him back to the bridge. Walking to one of the consoles he watched the younger man pull up the information on the ongoing battle outside. "Why are you looking up Scan Track placement?" "Because my first thought was a hardware store and they're too far away," he said. "Scott to Commander Reid, I hate to interrupt but I'm going to need something from Scan Tracks 47, 52 and 78." "Scott I can't send those Tracks to you at the moment," he replied. "I'll be going to them, just have them look for me." "Reid this is Hawk just do as he asks this one time." "Yes sir," he sighed. "I'll give the orders to those three. Reid out." "Thanks Captain," Ken said as he programmed the information into his wrist scanner. "And I need to take the Alpha Three." "Go and don't prove me wrong," Hawk said as he left. On the outside of the Alpha One, near the back another ramp lowered and Ken rode out on a motorcycle and headed toward the nearest Scan Track. *** At Castle stood back in the Control Room and wondered what Scott's plan was. He specifically stated three Scan Tracks, so if he was planning on releasing the giant now how would he explain the delay? *** The driver of Scan Track 52 saw Ken coming and came to a stop once he was close enough. "What do you need Ken?" "I need in your toolbox," he said and the driver popped the back hatch. Getting into the box he quickly located what he was looking for, a role of duct tape." The gunman happened to see it and went, "Seriously?" "If you got a better idea I'm all ears," Ken told him. Not hearing anything he closed the hatched and was backed on the Alpha Three and headed off with the role on his wrist. Still shaking his head the gunman told the driver, "Get in contact with Track 47 and 78 and tell them to have it ready for him." Two quick trips thanks to that call ahead and Ken had already returned to the Alpha One and headed back toward the engine room. *** "Duct tape?", Reid said out loud once word of what Ken needed got back to him. "That's what he needed so badly?" He took his mind off it long enough to order, "Right flank keep's it attention! It's starting to move toward the Alpha One again." "We see it Commander," Ryo said he and Bill fired on the creature to get it's attention again. "How long can we keep this up?" Reid wondered out loud. A few more minutes of firing at the creature finally did the trick as it finally started to move away from the down jet. "Razor Wings are flying into the area and are getting into position now Commander," his scanner man answered. "About time," he said. "All Razor Wings this is Commander Reid..." "Commander!", his gunman called out. "The Alpha One is in the air." "What?", Reid exclaimed as he looked back. As hard as it was to believe there it was hovering above the trees. "I'll be damned. Whatever he did actually worked." "This is not possible," Williams said in downright amazement from one of the empty chairs upfront. "This should not be happening." "Don't question it Doctor," Hawk told him from his chair. "This goes against my earlier judgment but Reid and the men helped us out so let's return the favor. Jess prep the ship's main cannon." "Captain this will not..." Williams started to protest. "Prepping the big gun now," Jess stated. She looked over to Ken expecting to hear some sort of joke. But he was busy staring at his screen and turning a light pale at the moment. "How many shots are we going to get with that set up?", Hawk asked seeing how Ken wrapped all three roles around that gap. "With that... that... hack job?", Williams demanded. "One if we're lucky," Ken cut in. Putting a hand up to keep whatever was left in his stomach down he muttered after it subsided, "And if God really loves me." The Alpha One got into position to fire without the creature noticing. On the bottom of the ship another set of panels opened and a large electronic cannon lowered into position. In a few seconds it powered up to full strength. "Fire!" Hawk ordered. "Firing," Jess responded and hit the control. A redish gold beam shot from the cannon and his the creature dead in the side. It roared out in pain and fell to the side. "Direct hit!" Alarms started to go off again. "Engines are sputtering," Ken called out. "Get us on the ground now!" "Way ahead of you," hawk said as he put her down on the ground. While not as rough as their first landing it was still a bit bumpy as they touched down. Realizing they were all safe and sound Hawk looked back at Ken with a slight grin, "And that's supposed to be get us on the ground now sir." Ken smiled back, "Lost my head for a second, won't happen again sir." "Captain," Jess said. "Readings are saying the creature is still alive." "Damn it," he said. "Is there any way to get us back in the air?" "Captain,' she repeated a little more subdued, "according to this it's heavily wounded. I don't think it's going to make it." They walked over to her station to see what she was seeing. Pulling up the audio they heard breath after ragged breath. Like it was in immense pain. "Hawk to Reid," he said softly. "Are you getting this reading on the creature?" "Yes Captain we are," he sounded as disturbed as they were at this. Right now there was only one order he could give in this situation, "Commander put it out of it's misery." "Under..." The ground started to shake, "What the?" Not far away a similar creature, slightly bigger and with two horns on it's head emerged from the ground. It looked around until it saw the dying creature and went over to it. Nudging it a bit it let out a low, mournful growl and backed up. Opening it's mouth and emitted a ray that coated the other one in stone. Then it looked at the Alpha One and let out an angry roar. Nobody on board needed a translation for that. "Abandon ship!", Hawk ordered. "Open fire on the new one!" Reid yelled out. "Watanabe..." "We're on it Commander," he said. "Razor Wings form up on me and the Alpha Two-B." Hawk and the rest of them ran down the entry ramp to see the monster still coming at them despite the new barrage. "Ken," Hawk said not taking his eyes off the situation, "take Dr. Williams and head toward the nearest Scan track. Wade we'll head in the other direction. It's bound to follow one of us so the other group should get to safety." "Rodger," Jess said. "Come on Doc," ken said grabbing him by the arm and heading to the right over his protest but he ran once the monster roared again. Getting close to the trees Ken looked back and saw the creature was heading toward them. "It must be sensing Dax. Doc stay back." "What are you going to do?", he asked in a panic. "What do you think?" He pulled the Spark Magnifier out of the inner pocket of his uniform jacket and held it over his head. *** The other Gakuma reared back in surprise as the column of light appeared and faded away to reveal Daxium, "Shiah!" The creature fired it's beam again. The giant jumped out of the way as the tops of the trees in the way became petrified. Twisting ion the air it startled it's body as he landed. Gabbing one of the horns he started landing punches at it's back and neck. Gakuma tried to buck in order to throw him off. Feeling himself lose his grip Daxium uses the momentum the creature gave to rolled forward. Daxium threw up the field when he realized it was going to fire it's beam again. He grunted in surprise when Gakuma turned it into stone disk. Gakuma jumped forward knocking the giant stone onto the giant and forcing him to the ground. Taking the advantage it jumped up and down on the disk trying to force him into the ground. The stone crumbled before that could happen and began to continue to jump on Daxium for a bit before walking off him. Slowly getting to his knees Daxium watched the creature as best he could. He was so worried about the beam he forgot about the tail as it came around and smashed into his head knocking him back down. Shaking his head to clear the stars from his vision he saw the creature prepare to fire the beam again and rolled out of the way. Realizing that it missed Gakuma fired again but to no avail. Rolling to a knee he fired off a flashbolt that exploded on contact. Seeing the creature in pain started toward the creature but was caught off guard when it fired it's beam one more time. Catching him at the foot, stone quickly formed up to his knee. "Gah!" Daxium grunted in pain as he fell clutching at it as he dropped to the other one. It started to go past his knee on onto his fingers as the crystal started to flash. "Do we got a clkear shot at the creature," Reid demanded. Fortunately his gunner was pro Ultraman and truthfully replied, "Ultraman's in the way. I can't get a clear shot from this position." "Razor Wings it's up to you to distract that thing." Before they could respond or get in positions Daxium banged his forearms together and modeshifted into the red form of Power, the switch breaking the stone and free his body. Getting to his feet he grabbed the charging Gakuma by the horns and stopped it in it's tracks. He forced it's head away from him and any of the troops around them as it fired the beam one more time. Moving quick to change his grip to he had it around the neck. With a grunt he forced the monster into air and fell back dropping it on it's head. While Gakuma stunned he grabbed it by the tail and started swinging eventually letting it go and watched it land hard deeper into the forest. Drawing in energy he set up and unleashed the Giga wave that tore up the ground and destroyed Gakuma. Switching back to Normal Mode he fired the Dimensional Storm Ray and took care of the one covered in stone before flying off into the sky, "Shiah!" Williams watched as ball of light appeared in front of him that quickly condensed into the shape of a man and broke away revealing Ken on the inside. He quickly dropped down and clutched the same knee Daxium got shot at. Concerned about the pain etching his face Williams went, "Are you alright?" "As fine as I can be," he grunted between breaths. "Dax modeshifting more than once still takes a bit out of me, not to mention this," he gently patted his knee. Feeling the pain quickly subside he slowly tried to get his feet under himself, grunting every so often and waving Williams off, until he stood under his own power. Trying to get some more feeling into his leg he started walking around but with a noticeable limp for the time being. "How are you going to explain your leg when they find us?" "I'll tell them I stepped on it wrong,' he said thinking it out for a moment. "It sounds believable enough. I've had enough practice coming up with excuses since I was high jacked into this." *** "Two creatures," Peter ranted in his office after it was over. "Two creatures and they couldn't both attack at once. I swear those Zetton bastards are trying to lose this war at times." A vortex started to form right in front of him and he quickly sent out a pulse of dark energy to temporarily disable the security cameras in the room. "Avatar there is a problem," a voice said before the darken shape could be seen." "Oh, you saw the utter failure of the Gakumas too?" In most cases this would be border line belligerence in their eyes and they would disciplined him for it. But apparently now was not one of those times. "No," it answered, "those are not that we speak of. An experiment has escaped." "Escaped?", the Gakumas dropped out of his mind as this had his full attention. "Yes. Somehow it overpowered it's guard and found a way to create a rift into your world." "This could be bad. How dangerous is this experiment?" "More than you originally gave it credit for." "Than I...?" Quickly it dawned on him on what this experiment was exactly. "Of course it would be him. Who else could it be?" *** Elsewhere a hiker was walking along a path until he came to the lake. He stopped and tried to get a good picture of it. Supposedly this was the one those two giant creatures came out of. The UNDF said it was currently safe but people stopped using it all the same. More than a few pointing out they said that after the first creature came out of it then we got another. Truth be told part of his was worried that was one was going to pop out of the water right there and then. Admiring the calm water he reached down and grabbed his bag when he thought he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. He looked around and saw a man dressed in dirty rags curled up by the water line. He wasn't there before grabbed the small first aid kit out of his bag and hurried over to him. "Hey, you all right?" As he got closer he saw the shaggy beard and dirty skin of the stranger. He had some welts that were visible where the clothes were ripped but he didn't look hurt otherwise. This stranger looked in his direction causing the hiker to stopped out of a sudden fear that crawled up his spine. "Help me," he uttered softly and tried to grab at him. Finding his courage again he got close enough to touch him. "I'll help you just relax. We'll call the police and..." "NO!", he sat up and shouted startling the hiker he scooted back quickly. A little calmer he went on, "Not police... the UNDF... Hawk... Need to call Hawk." "Okay," he said mainly hoping it would keep him calm. "We'll call the UNDF and ask for this Hawk. But they're going to want your name." "Right name, they'll want my name," much to the hiker's relief it looked he was calming down and acted like he was thinking a little more clearly. "My name is... My name is...," His face twisted and he grunted as he held his gut and seemed to curl into himself. "Relax mam," was the last thing the hiker said as the stranger started to glow. Rearing up he screamed at the heavens as the energy expanded instantly killing the hiker. Breathing heavily after the wave he produced faded he went on to say, "Jamira. My name is..." He looked up to see the man he just killed then at the glow fading from his hands. Getting up he staggered forward trying to comprehend what he had just done." ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 20
----- OP - Mercy Drive - Burn in My Light ----- There was a small crowd in the Alpha One hanger after it was able to get back. Something that was made a little simpler after they rushed them a line to replace the one Ken had to fix on the fly. Right now nearly everyone there was huddled around making Ken a little self-conscious as he and the damaged line was in the middle of it. Commander Reid used a screw driver to trace the size of the hole that had melted through the duct tape wrapped around it. "I still don't believe it," Reid said handing the screwdriver back to the mechanic he borrowed it from. The Chief looked amused beside him, "Dr. Williams is still saying it shouldn't have gotten off the ground." "And yet it did." Reid looked at him, "Duct tape is a standard tool in the Scan Track's toolbox?" "And the Razor Wings," he informed him. "I'm going to have to make sure a couple of rolls are stocked on the Alpha One from now on. If nobody takes it off the blasted things." Ken and Reid both nodded knowing why with the length Ken had to go through once they found out the supply cabinets on board were surprisingly empty. Still Reid said, "I know they say it fixes everything for years but still..." "It won't fix everything," The Chief told him, "but it's good for a quick fix in the field when you need it." "I'll take your word for it Chief," Reid said. "Scott, I don't know if this fix of yours was genius or insane, but you officially have my respect for pulling off this stunt." "Thank you sir," Ken said and meant it. Reid smiled a bit and clapped him on the shoulder before making his way through the crowd. At seeing this the Chief said, "All right, breaks over. All of you get back to work." As the crowd dispersed he said a little softer, "Ken." "Yeah Chief," he said as the last ones walked away. The Chief didn't say anything right away. He just had a hand on the line as he inspected the damage a few moments longer. Finally he looked at him and went, "Four and you might have still been in the air." Grinning a bit Ken said, "I was estimating five minimum and I was in a rush." Shaking his head the Chief told him, "Get back to work." *** Walking into the Control Room Hawk studied the usual chaos until he found Bridge. Instead of being at his usual station he was in a small station on the side of the room. Walking up behind him he saw he was still going over the footage the various security cameras in the Alpha One hanger. Putting a hand on the back of the chair he said, "Anything?" Bridge looked back at him before returning his attention to the small screen, "Maybe sir, I'm not sure yet,.” Holding back a sigh he said, "I have the Chief, Ken and a few others swearing up and down those supply lockers were full the night before. I need a little more than that Bridge." "I may have a little more than that... there it is," he said suddenly. Hawk leaned in trying to see whatever the other man was seeing, "There what is?" "Let me show you," Bridge rewound the footage then said, "Watch the time stamp in the corner." He did so and Bridge still had to show him one more time before he realize the time stamp jumped forward twenty minutes. "I'm hoping that's something important." "It could be," he said. "I noticed it on one of the other feed by accident. At time I thought it was a glitch in the camera itself. But when I started watching the next one I just happened to see it again." Now Hawk's curiosity was piqued, "How many of the cameras had this jump?" "With this one? All of the ones in the Alpha One hanger," he answered. "I have other checking the security feeds around Castle around the same time. Just to make sure it wasn't a system wide glitch." "Part of me is hoping it's a security blip," Hawk said. "Because if it isn't..." "I don't see how that's possible," Bridge told him. "I designed the security protocols myself and test them regularly. There's no way somebody could have hacked into our systems." "I understand Bridge but it's something we have to keep in mind." Much like him Hawk didn't want to give this next order. "I want the whereabouts of the people who worked on the Alpha One and this time period. And I mean everyone. And pull the guard roster for that night as well. Whoever did this didn't just appear out of thin air." "I'll get right on it sir," Bridge replied. "Make it fast Bridge. If we do have a snake in our midst I want him routed out immediately." The big question going through his mind was if there was why did they wait until now to do something? *** Peter stalked through the woods toward the lake. While he briefly wondered how close he was to the spot he killed Joseph Richardson he didn't have time to reminisce. His masters had said that Jamira had escaped somehow and opened a portal to this area. Peter was curious about how Jamira was able to create a portal to this location. The man was always pull the trigger first then figure out what was going on type. And his masters didn't exactly elaborate on how he did it. Was it possible that the all mighty Zettons were embarrassed one of the "lessor species" was able to escape their grasp? The idea was delicious on it's own. The lake coming into view he slowed down when he saw a light ahead of him. There were four or five in front of body on the ground. It was too much to hope for that it was Jamira. He quickly noted that one of the group was a forest ranger. A couple of them and moved and Peter got a better look at the body, like he thought it was too much to hope for. But he could tell he died from dark energy. and the amount he was still feeling in the air it was fairly recent too. "Damn it," Peter muttered. "The UNDF is on the way," he overheard the ranger say. Great. "I'll make sure nobody touches the body. Folks I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask to hang around a little while longer. The UNDF is going to want to ask you all some questions." "But we told you everything we know," one of the protested. The ranger held up his hands to quiet them and replied calmly, "I know it's an inconvenience but it's standard protocol in this unfortunate situation. If you would all just wait over there..." Cursing under his breath Peter went deeper into the brush in an effort not to be seen. he was tempted to kill the lot of them just because they were in the way of his investigation. But the UNDF was already on their way. And since this as the third incident at this particular lake it would be given top priority and Hawk would probably personally to oversee it. And more skeletons would only increase the UNDF presence in the area. So he had to do the next best thing as he concentrated on the dark energy still lingering in the air. Essentially "seeing it" as he could pick up the epicenter of a dark energy wave that the dead man had to be near. And it was massive in size too as he mentally traced the wave, it was almost like something exploded. It almost masked the presence of the trace remains of the vortex opening Jamira had used to escape back here. Looking past the edge he saw something a little more interesting. Quietly making his way over he found the trial Jamira must have used. He must be radiating dark energy just based on the signature still remaining in these footprints. That would make him easier to track down. Unfortunately that meant Scott and the giant inside him could pick it up just as easily. And given the location Scott was just as likely to show up as well. And the UNDF was on their way. As much as he wanted to follow the trail and take care of Jamira personally he couldn't risk being discovered doing so. He was in no position to be discovered now. The best outcome for the situation for him was Scott running into Jamira and letting him and the giant finish him off before he told any of the UNDF about him. And he couldn't bet on that. *** "All right," Ryo said as he banged the side of the Scan rack after the back hatch was closed, "Move it out. They want you back at Castle ASAP." Commander Reid walked over as the track sped away taking the body that was discovered with it. "Tell me something Ryo, does anything about this job surprise you anymore?" "Hardly Commander, as soon as I start thinking I've seen everything something new pops up. So I try not to think like that anymore." "How is that working out for you?" "I'll let you know if it ever works," Ryo joked. He looked out over the lake. This was the third time that had been called out here. "Why this place?", he asked out loud and to nobody in particular. Reid looked at him, "What do you mean Ryo?" "I mean everywhere a giant monster and shown up this is the only place that had more than one confirmed sighting. What's so special about this place?" "I'm sure several scientist back at Castle started working on that very question as soon as we got the call," Reid told him. “I'll let the people with more brain power than I do figure out the why. I'm more worried about the what at the moment. Come on let's rejoin the search for whatever did this." Ryo nodded in the affirmative as the went back to the others. Closer to the woods Ken searched for some sort of trail while he asked Daxium a similar question as Ryo's. His answer was, "I am not sure. Perhaps the dimensional wall between our three universes is weaker here. This was the same area that was chosen for me to cross over." "Maybe," he muttered so the others wouldn't hear him talk to himself, but he had no real clue either. He knew machines not inter dimensional physics. Looking back to where the body was found they could both feel the dark energy in the air, truth be told it was making Ken a little nauseous there was so much of it around. "Do you think whoever did this is the same guy we've been looking for?" "I don't think so," Daxium responded. Whomever killed Harold Richardson's son exhibited more control than what I am sensing. The dark energy that was released here was unfocused, random." "Maybe he lost control for a moment." "Commander!", one of the others called out. "I found a trail leading onto the woods. It looks fresh too." Reid, Ryo as well as Ken and a couple of others that was close jogged over to look at the trail. The moment Daxium sensed the energy emitting from the prints that were barely visible Ken knew this was the way it went. While he looked in the direction it went Reid was looking in the opposite direction at the lake. "They could be form that area. If only those hikers didn't trample over everything we could have done a better scan of the area. Are the hikers and the ranger still here? Somebody get their shoe sizes before the leave. Maybe we can eliminate them from this mess somehow." "No offense Commander," Ryo spoke up, "but that sounds like a longshot." "I know," he conceded, "but we have a dead body by a spot that's been known to produce multiple creatures. I'll let the people smarter than I am tell me if I'm wrong or not." Both of them looked at Ken. He told them, "I know engines not computers." "Be nice if you knew both," Reid told him. "Ryo, you two head back to Castle and get some rest. We got it from here." Ken glanced at the trail with the fading energy footprints, "I don't mind being an extra set of eyes Commander." "I appreciate the offer but Hawk only let me borrow the two of you for a little while. I'll call for backup if we need it. Which we'll probably will given how these things usually go so rest up while you can." "Come on Ken," Ryo told him. "I'll buy you a coffee back at base. Ken gave in and followed him back the Scan Track they came in. He looked back over his shoulder at the trail wioshing there was a way he could lose all of them and follow it. *** Back at Castle in the Alpha team war room Hawk was looking over the results Reid had sent in. earlier. Bridge had made a mock up hologram of the info that was displayed on the table between them. Bridge did something and some of the footprints disappeared. "Commander Reid’s theory about the shoes was really helpful," Bridge had said. "I was able to get enough of them out of the way in order to find this." Hawk silently watched the other find in the sand, one shaped like a man. "How accurate is this Bridge?" Sighing slightly he said, "Not very, but it's the first one the program identified." "We're going to need more than this," hawk told him, not taking his eyes off the image. "I know, it's why I debated with myself on if I should show you this or not. Although it does line up with the trail they found. I already did the work and based on the distance of the steps the person who made them would match this guy’s height. If you straightened him out. Which I did... digitally of course." "I'm not questioning your work Bridge, it's just a pretty flimsy angle to go," Hawk told him. "But right now it's the closest thing we have to a lead at the moment. I'll contact Reid and tell him to put a couple of more men on it. We need to find whoever did this as soon as possible. Is there a preliminary report on the body found yet?" He pulled up the file but read it for him anyway, "To paraphrase the medical units the insides were smashed around like crazy. How that happened without any outside sign of battery is baffling them." "Tell them to join the club after everything I've seen." Bridge shut off the image and started to leave when hawks topped him. "When you gave the report of everybody locations that dealt with the Alpha One I noticed Ken wasn't listed anywhere." He looked more than a bit confused, "You don't really think Ken had anything to do with that?" "Trust me, I don't want too," Hawk told him. "But somebody was able to circumvent the hanger's security and cameras long enough to pull this off. And everything we got makes it looks like it was somebody on the inside, one of us. I have to suspect everybody involved Bridge. Even if I'm still praying they haven't been playing us as a fool." Bridge, while understanding, still didn't like the idea about checking on Ken, "I'll look into it and report back to you." "Thank you Bridge. And believe me when I'm praying he's not the culprit." *** He was hungry, he spent the entire night walking with no real direction in mind what so ever. He shielded his eyes as the sun seemed unusually bright to him. Having spent God knows how long in that dark hell hole he was grateful it didn't totally blind him. Still he kept going he had to reach... had to reach... what did he have to get to again? He panic for a moment as he tried to remember. Castle... that was it, he had to get to Castle and find... Damn it who was he trying to find again? One thing at a time he kept walking until he found a gas station. And praise the lord it had an honest to god payphone right in front of it. Now please still work. Practically running over to it and ignoring the looks the other people were giving him he picked up the receiver. Despite not having any money there was a code he could punch in that would connect him directly to Castle. He pressed exactly two of the numbers when the pain came back. "No... not now..." "Hey," the attendant shouted at him. He ran over as he dropped to his knees. Trying to keep the other customers at bay to give him some room he asked, "Hey buddy are you all right?" Jamira looked at him with pleading eyes as the pain raced through his body, "Run." *** Fingers tapping on the holo table as his team came in Hawk gestured for them to take their usual places. Even now he could see the curiosity in their faces as they waited for him to begin. "I know this alert seemed rather sudden but it really wasn't," he told him. "Me, Reid and the other squad leaders studied this footage for a good hour before we called for an alarm." "Why did you wait an hour?", Ryo asked. He knew that question would be coming sooner or later. "Yeah,' Bill added, "we never give anything that much of a head start. Not even civilian here." "Not now Ken," Jess quickly cut off his response. Without saying a word he activated the table and let them see for themselves. Bill squinted at the bearded man that seemed to be the focus of the footage. "Why does that guy look familiar?" Ryo pulled up a solid still shot of the man's face than activated the facial recognition software. Hawk paused the footage momentarily to give him the time to look it up. A few minutes later a picture ID of the individual popped up, a more clean shaven that they were more used too. "It's Jamira," Jess said for the group. Ken moved up a bit to get a better look at the paused figure. "What the hell happened to him?", Bill asked. "Did he come out of hiding?", Ryo said to Hawk. "Keep watching," was all he said as he restarted the video. They saw him head closer to a phone then act like he was in pain. None of them took their eyes off the footage as someone came up to him. jamira looked at him in fear right before he exploded in a ball of light. "Holy shit," Ken muttered. "Amen to that," Ryo commented as the light faded away revealing Jamira folded over in pain. He looked up to see how far he knocked those around him away, especially the guy who looked like he was trying to help him. Clutching at his hair he stumbled a bit as he started running away. Hawk stopped the footage there. "That's why we waited an hour," he told him. "We wanted to be exactly sure we were seeing what we were seeing. I had Bridge run it through every filter he has, twice. It's real." "So we're going to be hunting Jamira now?", Ryo asked. "He's to be brought in alive, if possible," Hawk told them. "We want to know where in the hell he's been. And how he can do that all of a sudden." "I'm sure Beta Team loving that option," Ryo said sarcastically. "Good thing Commander Reid purged the Jamira loyalist out of Beta then," Jess commented. "Do you really think they jump ship and join him?", Ryo asked her. "Probably not," she admitted. "But I wouldn't have been surprised if they 'forgot' they saw him once or twice." "Civillian being pretty quiet," Bill said as they looked at ken. "What's going through that noggin of yours?" "I'm just wondering how he can do that," he told them. Not adding the, "And for how long?", that was racing through his head. "Right now, based on this, we're thinking he's responsible for the latest incident at the lake,' Hawk went on. "We don't know how stable this new ability of his is. Just because we haven't had any casualty reports between these incidents doesn't mean he hasn't lost control with nobody around. It goes without saying we're considering him to be highly dangerous. And he looks scared which only multiples that. "We gave Reid’s men in the field the location of this gas station this was taken from," he continued. "Bridge was able to get the general direction he went in. He'll get a more accurate direction as soon as they report in and confirm the location of the various things seen in the feed. Once that happens we will cordon off the area as best we can." “That's if he keeps going in that direction," Ryo pointed out. "We already have a still of his face from the security video circulating in the media as we speak," Hawk said. "With a warning to stay away from him if they spot him and to report in immediately. Right now we want all units in the field on the ground to try and find him before a civilian does. Dismissed, I'll meet you in the Scan Track hanger shortly." "Rodger," they replied and started to leave the room. "Ken", he spoke up to get his attention, "a word." Jess looked back at him before glancing at Hawk and leaving. "I know you two had your problems in the past son..." "I won't go all gung ho on him if that's what you're worried about." He wouldn't make that promise for Dax though. And Daxium, still seeing and feeling the situation, silently chided him for the thought. "Just promise me you won't take him on alone," Hawk told, some concern in his eyes. "If he becomes dangerous and there's no other UNDF guys around I'm not sure I can promise that." "Do what you think you have to Ken," he said. "But if it is you, considering how the last time you two were together went, there will be an investigation into the matter. And I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help you once the legal claws come out." "I understand," Ken told him. Hawk let him go after the others. Alone he pulled up the face still they sent to the media outlets. "Don't put up a fight when we find you." *** In the office level of Castle was pacing back and forth in his office. He had viewed the footage along with Hawk and the others team leaders. HIs assistant Patricia knew enough to stay out of his way when he was in this mood. She as secretly glad the good Doctor wasn't here, he would have found a way to make the situation worse somehow. It was a "talent" she wouldn't have wished on anybody at this particular moment. "That bastard!", Richardson exploded. "That bastard killed my son! And he was under my nose the entire time!" And this part was going to be dangerous in his current mood, "I don’t think he was sir." He whipped around and got in her face, breathing heavily with anger. "What do you mean? You were there! That bastard Jamira did it!" "I personally checked the records and audio logs of that day after we saw the footage," she explained. "Jamira was here when the monster appeared." "He could have falsified the records!" "Except we have him on security video getting into a Scan Track when the deploy order was given. We can account for his whereabouts the entire time before and after Joseph death. And he was nowhere near us when it happened." "It had to have been him," Richardson said not wanting to hear this but looking defeated as he dropped in a chair. "There's no one else it can be." Elsewhere in the complex in a quiet corridor Ken was having a similar conversation with Daxium. "Are you sure it couldn't be him? You said he started hiding himself once he detected you." "I am very certain it couldn't be this Jamira," he replied. "As I told you before this outburst of energy was too unfocused. The person we are after has far more control over his ability." "Well maybe he lost control," Ken argued, going back to a point they didn’t have a chance to discuss earlier. "Maybe his power became unstable or something." "I would have noticed this instability long before now." "He did disappear for a couple of months. It might be why he went off the grid." "While I will admit that is a possibility I do wonder if your personal experiences with this person if clouding your judgment." "No it's...", he began, "alright maybe. It might explain why he had it in for you. Why he always seemed angry when I was around." "And I do believe you once told me the others said he acted like that well before you joined this organization." Not having an immediate to that he was quiet long enough that Daxium ended the communication. Walking out of the hallway he nearly ran into Jess. "There you are," she said. "Come on we're about to head out." Walking down the hall she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, "You going to be okay with this? No side issues we're going to have to worry about?" "Why does everybody keep asking me that?", he moaned as they continued toward the hanger. *** "We have angry everyday civilians who don't exactly understand the situation," Bill told Hawk. He was standing by a table looking over a touch screen like map that had the area highlighted that Jamira could have conceivably traveled on foot in the time it took them to mobilize. The temporary HQ tent that was set up gave them a pretty good view of the sky line and the ground. "Can I just point out we didn't go this all out when we were sent to pick up civilian." "There was no real prof at the time Ken was actually dangerous," he replied. "And Richardson wanted to check him out personally before asking him to join." "Right," he said remembering. "It's got to be great to be the boss to get away with a stunt like that. I wondered what he offered civilian to ease over that stunt." "I've been wondering that since day one," he muttered. "Hawk to Bridge how's the facial recognition scans going." "Slow," he responded. "I got cameras tapped all over the city. So far I have nothing. I'm slowly getting access into building security feeds in case he headed indoors. Unfortunately a good chunk of the buildings inside the search area are off the public grid system. So if he went into one of them we're out of luck." "Understood, send those building coordinates to the ground teams and we'll see if we can get access to it from the street levels." "Better make sure the medics have plenty of aspirin on hand," BIll half joked. "Captain one more thing," Bridge went on. "They're done examining of the attendant and the others." Both Hawk and Bill braced for the news. "The damage done to them was the same as the victim at the lake. They're positive Jamira in the cause for both." Leaning against the table with his head hanging Hawk pounded the table with a fist, "Damn it." Bill remained quiet as the Captain composed himself. "Anything else Bridge?" "I was able to estimate the size of the field Jamira emitted. If the men stay outside of fifteen feet of jamira they should be fine." "Acknowledged Bridge, I'll let the field teams know." "Understood, Castle out." "I got it Captain," Bill said. He walked away saying, "Waters to all units..." Hawk asked grateful Bill had done that. As much as Jamira was a pain in his ass over the years but he was still a comrade in arms. This was not an order he was looking forward to giving if Jamira got out of hand. No matter what he had done. *** "This is Miller and Jones, no sign. Moving on to the next section." Old instincts and training kept Jamira hidden enough that the two UNDF officers didn't see him. Which confused him on some level, he wanted to get to them. Why was he hiding from them. But they scanned the area with their wrist scanners and still didn't pick him up. Why didn't they pick up his life signs? It was what those devils did to him, that had to be it. That had to be the reason why he wasn't going to them. He was turned into a freak. Waiting a moment he got out of hiding and went in the other direction. They were hunting him, for what he'd done. He was sure of it. He was turned into a freak and they were hunting him down like an animal. That's what he would be doing in their position. The pain came up on him faster this time, catching him off guard and dropping him to his knees. He glowed slightly, his eyes widening in horror as the flesh on his arm started to go grey. "No, no, no," he whimpered as he clutched at his arm after what seemed like the glowing and pain stopped as his arm went back to normal. But he sensed something this time... no more like felt it. But how... no he knew how... no who it was. And that scared him more on a primal level than anything else going on right now did. *** Ken's head whipped around as Daxium sensed it. That flare up was either really close or Jamira had gotten better at controlling the intensity, it it gotten away from him. And if Dax was right he it was becoming more unfocused by the second. Truth be told all three options didn’t sound all that appealing at the moment. "Ken?", Jess called out as she and Reid noticed he stopped walking. "Did you see something?", Reid asked. "I thought I saw something," he said as he looked at his wrist scanner. Hoping they wouldn't notice him trying to increase the range of the scan. Although the fact he was getting better at covering up those "Daxium" moments bothered him a little. "I'm not picking up anything but the three of us though." "I'm getting a little jumpy too kid," Reid assured him. "I thought I saw him in the shadows a couple of times myself." "Is that why we're a group of three when everybody else is a duo?", Ken asked, letting them know that bit didn't go over his head. "It's just how it worked out," Jess said. "And I'm sure how this has nothing to do with pretty much half the base thinking I'm going to do something after he forced me to quit before he disappeared." At least Jess and Reid respected him enough to at least look a little guilty after getting caught. "Can I just add that most of the guys on base wanted to shoot him at one point or another before this happened." "Most of the base wasn't put in your spot," Reid countered. "Not that anybody really thinks you'd go that far but you know how rumors go. Besides Hawk asked me to be a extra set of eyes in case you did run into him." "And I'm here to do the actual shooting if it came down to it," jess spoke up. "Becasue you are a horrible shot even with the target assist." "I've been practicing," Ken argued. "With your eyes closed according to your last range score," she smirked. "Tell me something Ken," Reid spoke up to save him from any further ribbing, "How would you locate Jamira?" "Why are you asking me?" "Because I've been thinking this entire time if Jamira is hiding from us he knows how we operate. So in that case we're going to have a long search ahead of us. And since you're not totally ingrained with the system yet you might have a better perspective about it." "If you're trying to test this genius brain I'm supposed to have you're pushing the wrong area Commander." "I'm just looking for an outside perspective is all." Jess spoke up, "If you're looking for any ol' opinion you might not want to tell him you took his place for one." Grumbling a bit Reid said, "That thought already crossed my mind several times. How about it Ken, any thoughts?" "Well," he said trying to think, "Only thing coming to mind is he might head underground. I don't think we have any units down there at least." "Hmm," Reid went considering it for the moment. "The initial searcher didn't find a loose manhole cover. Of course that doesn't mean the he couldn't have found another way down. I'll contact Hawk and see if he thought of that already." As he contacted him Jess looked thoughtful about something, "I don't think we're taking something into account here." "What would that be?", Ken asked. “something me and Ryo were talking about right before we scrambled. He was scared in the video. He may not be thinking as straight like everybody seems to be thinking." And there was another thought that didn't sound all that great. "And that makes him even more dangerous," Reid said after reporting in. "Hawk is redirecting a couple of units underground just in case. If he did go down there it'll make him easier to catch at least." "Hopefully," Jess commented. Still Reid nodded in agreement. "This is Rogers," their comms came to life, "we found him..." "Argh!", the scream was audible even without it playing over their comms. Ken led the charge feeling the dark energy at the same time. They came to an intersection between the buildings and Reid swore, "Damn it!. Split up and take a route each. Bridge this is Reid, scan for the location of all units in the area and highlight Rogers location to all of them." "On it Commander," Bridge replied. Ken went in the direction that flare up felt strongest. Taking a few turns ended up in a wide area between buildings. He saw the two UNDF agents splayed like ragdolls against the wall. Then he saw Jamira curled up on the ground. His eyes or the glowing field around his body must have been playing tricks on him as it looked like his body was changing for a moment. Ken's hand started to move, not for his weapon but for the Spark Magnifier in his jacket. He stopped it since this quivering mass wasn't the SOB he remembered and cautiously went toward him trying to stay outside that fifteen foot range Bridge was warning them about. "Jamira," he called out. Ken flinched back when he moved back a little. "Keep calm, we're here to help you." That what's you were supposed to saw in this situation right? Jamira looked up in fear then in relief when something in his head clicked together. "You!" He rushed toward Ken, catching him off guard. Grabbing him by the shoulders he pushed him until his back was against the wall. Right then Ken was so scared he couldn't move. "You," he looked distracted, almost revolted by something. With that much dark energy coming off oh him this close to Daxium he could understand because it was making him a more than a little nauseous too. "You got to help me! You got to save me!" "Stay calm," his voice even sounded shaky to him. "He told me...," he went on, breathing heavy. "He told you were Ultraman." Oh hell. "Who told you?" Jamira struggled for a bit, "Brooks. He told me you were Ultraman. Had this done to me." Ken stopped listening at Brooks. He was the one behind all of this? "Ken, concentrate on what he is saying," Daxium told him. "Right," he muttered. "How did Brooks do this to you?" "Sent me somewhere. Monsters were everywhere. They did this to me. They turned me into this!" Behind Jamira Ken saw Reid come into view and looking right at them. He motioned with a hand for him to stop coming closer. Reid did the same when Jess entered the area. "Okay," Ken told Jamira, "just... just calm down, we'll help you any way we can. We’re a team right? We got to help each other." And he prayed to whoever was listening that playing that card wouldn't blow up in his face. "Help each other, right." He looked like he was starting to calm down. Still Ken didn't relax, just in case he had another flare up right then. Then jamira started looking at him in this way that was making him even more nervous, if that was even possible. "You knew." Glancing at where Jess and Reid where he went, "I knew what?" "You knew!" Grabbing him tighter he threw Ken off the wall. Landing near Reid he looked back at Jamira who started glowing again. "You knew who it was! You let this happen to me!" Jamira's body started changing, skin going grey his head seemed to melt into his body. Reid grabbed Ken off the ground as Jamira yelled in agony as his body started expanding, growing. "Let's get out of here!," Reid yelled as he dragged him out of there with Jess right behind them. "Captain!", somebody ran up to where he was standing with a pad in hand. "We have a situation!" "Now what?", he grumbled as he took the pad from the soldier. He was greeted by the image of a giant, grey humanoid monster whose head seemed to be part of his chest. "Where in the hell did that thing come from?" "Reid to Hawk!", came over the line. "Jamira turned into a monster!. Repeat Jamira turned into a monster!" Hawk looked back at the image on the pad, "Oh my god." On the ground Reid and the others were running for their livesz as what used to be Jamira tried to free himself from the enclosed space. "Move! Move! Move!" a section of a wall came crashing down behind them knocking Ken to the ground. "Scott!", Reid called out as he started back toward him. Ken rolled to his back, drew his weapon and started firing. "Go on!", he yelled. Getting to his feet he kept firing as he went into a side alley. "Ken!", Jess started to go after him until Reid grabbed her by the arm. Amazingly Jamira seemed to turn to follow him. "We're going to be no use to him like this," he said. "Reid to all scan Track units, mobilize on my location ASAP. The monster is headed east so try and draw it's attention. All foot units be on the look out and be prepared to aid Ken Scott as much as you can. The monster is after him for some reason." "Reid," Hawk cut in, "repeat that last statement." "I can't explain it but he's after Ken for some reason." Ken took a few more shots at Jamira before switching the gun to the other hand. On the run he pulled the Spark Magnifier and activated it. *** Daxium appeared and turned to face Jamira who was still freeing himself, eventually breaking through to the street. Jumping up he landed a flying kick that knocked the former human back. Taking a defensive stance he uttered his usual, "Shiah!", as Jamira came at him. Unlike the previous creatures he had faced monster Jamira was a capable fighter. In fact it seemed like he retained his fighting instincts and training as he blocked every punch and kick Daxium threw at him. Not the he was taking that many hits himself as he countered everything that was thrown at him. At the temporary HQ Hawk could just make out the giants from where he was. As everybody else stayed glued to the confrontation on the monitors he kept his attention on the two in the distance. "Ultraman just this one time. Don't do it." Deep down he knew the giant couldn't hear him, still he had to say it out loud. Jamira threw Daxium over his shoulder and the buildings around them shook from the impact of his landing. Daxium got his legs up and kicked him away as he leaned over him. Getting up he rolled forward a couple of times to create some space. Twisting on a knee he faced the former human, hands to his side as he prepared to fire a flashbolt. As the energy swirled between his hands he hesitated. Right before him there was a creature of dark energy, there was no way he could miss at this range. But it was also a human. If this was done to him perhaps it could be undone. The light between his hands dissipating he stood and held them out hoping Jamira would understand the gesture and calm down. The human stood there breathing heavily but he did not advance. Taking that as a good sign Daxium slowly approached him trying not to do anything to that could look like an attack. Jamira didn't move as he got closer. Through the darkness the giant of light could feel the human's fear and confusion. Hoping most of the human was still in control he held out a hand, palm open to show he had no malice in his intent. For a moment it looked like he was right as Jamira started to reach for his hand. "Come on," Hawk begged from where he was, "let him help you." Hands almost touching, either from Jamira's hatred for the giant or anger over the situation, a rage flared up as he wrapped his hands around Daxium's neck. The giant struggled in his grasp as he tried to free himself. In the safe area Daxium had created Ken broke his general rule and watched the whole thing and shouted, "Jamira stop it!" If he heard him Jamira didn't respond outside of through repeatedly at a building until he crashed through. Picking him up from the rubble he threw him against another building and started thrashing him. Daxium was able to trap an arm under his and tripped him to the ground. Jamira kicked his leg out from under him, reached up as he fell forward and trapped his head under his arm. His body started to glow again could feel the dark energy within Jamira start to eat at the light in his as the crystal started flashing. Survival instinct kicking in he started punching away at the former human's body until he let him go. Picking him up when the glowing stopped he continued to pound on him. With a grunt he picked up Jamira and threw him down the road. As he got up Daxium set up the Dimensional Storm Ray. Hawk went cold as he turned toward a monitor as the giant's right hand went up and his left went down. Again he hesitated in that position not wanting to take the human's life if he could be cured. Jamira looked at him, held his arms open a bit and stood there. Not taking his eyes off the screen Bill went, "What is Jamira doing?" Leaning against the table like it was the only thing able to hold him up Hawk knew immediately, "He wants him to finish it." Daxium lowered his had a bit, understanding his meaning as well. Picking it up he crossed his arms at the wrist and fired the multi-colored energy stream. Jamira recoiled from the impact and exploded soon after. Lowering his head once more Daxium stood there for a moment before silently launching himself into the sky. Leaning hard against the table Hawk had his head lowered as well. Taking a moment to remember his former comrade before he was turned into that. "I didn't think Ultraman would to do it," Bill stated. "Even after Jamira wanted him to." "He wanted his suffering to end," Hawk said after a moment. "Jamira must have felt that it was the only way to fix him. To give himself some peace." "How can you be sure?" "Ultraman didn't want to do it. He hesitated, twice. He has never hesitated to destroy a creature before now." *** Emerging from a ball of light Ken stood there and took off his helmet. Daxium took that moment to say, "I am sorry Ken. I didn't want to kill him but..." "It's alright Dax," he told him. "Jamira was a pain in the ass but he gave us something we didn't have before. Now we can end this and pay back the bastard who did that to him." "Ken," he looked over his shoulder to see Jess running toward him. "Are you all right. Reid has everybody looking for you." "Yeah," he told her, "I'm fine." "Well you might not be," she informed him. "Despite having everyone looking for you Reid's wants a word about you running away and drawing Jamira's attention like you did." "It worked didn't it?" "It's your funeral," she said as they walked off. Although she did start looking at him in a way that confused him a little. "Are you sure you're all right?" Remembering what he just told Daxium. Remembering who was responsible for this mess he was currently in he answered, "If I'm not I will be soon." ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly from the Inside ----- |
Episode 21
‑‑‑‑‑ OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in My Light ‑‑‑‑‑ The mood was sullen as everyone returned to Castle. Well after the fact Jamira, who had been missing for months, returned with some sort of strange power had taken everyone by surprise. Then he transformed into a giant creature and let Ultraman kill him. No one was talking one the way back outside of basic information to make sure nobody crashed into anything or each other. Not that Jamira was that well liked, most that knew him couldn't stand him. But he was one of their own and everyone wondered how did this happen to him. All but one person that is. Not only did he have an idea about the how, thanks to Jamira being leveled headed enough before he changed he now had an idea on who was responsible. But like everything else Ken kept that thought to himself. In order to explain that he would have to explain Daxium. And that was a can of something he wasn't ready to open just yet. Although if he got his way tonight then everyone would be dealing the repercussions. And right now he didn't give a damn. After all this time he finally found the person Daxium sensed his first time at Castle. Brooks, the man aligned with the beings Daxium's people had been fighting against. The one helping those creatures come into this universe. The reason, through an act of murder, he and Daxium bonded. And now the end was in sight, Ken could just feel it. The Scan Track he was in entered Castle's garage level and it pulled into it's assigned spot. Pulling off his helmet he got out and stood there. Mind already made up as soon as the battle with Jamira was over he looked around at the others around him, hopefully some of them would understand why he hid this for so long. Lowering his head a bit he barley whispered, “You ready Dax?” “Yes I am,” came the reply in his head. Part of Ken wondered if he was really as ready as he sounded. While not the first time he had to let his giant friend out soon soon after his last battle Jamira had used the dark energy he was radiating to practically eat away the light energy Daxium was pretty much made of. There was no way he could have replenished this quickly. But this might be their only chance to get at Brooks so they had to risk it. Glancing around at the rest of them Ken made his way toward an exit. One hope was dashed when he heard Jess call out, “Ken where are you going?” All he told her was, “I got something to do real quick.” “Hawk wants to talk to everybody,” she reminded him of the order they received right after the battle was over. “Like right now.” Unfortunately that was going to cut into Dax kicking Brook's ass time. “It's kinda important,' he told her. Like stopping the enemy's main supply line kind of important. But that was something else he couldn't mention, no matter how much he wanted to. She grabbed his arm, “Hawk will flip his lid if you're not there. “Then he can chew me out later,” he said freeing himself and using the garage crowd to lose her. He hated doing that to her but he'd take the heat. Then he wondered if he would get the chance to make it up to her, or any of them, if he could just finish this tonight. Getting into the hallway that lead to an elevator he saw Richardson's assistant Patricia Stanberry stand there. Pushing her aside she simply said, “Brooks has already left the compound.” That made Ken stop in his tracks and stare at her. “As I'm pretty sure that was were you were going I thought I'd save you the effort.” Looking around to see if anyone else was in the hallway Ken was more than a bit confused. “How do you know about Brooks?” “It doesn't matter how,” she stated to say. “Yes it does matter,” Ken snapped. “How long have you known about Brooks?” She calmly informed him, “We just found out ourselves” It just infuriated him. “We need to go after him with a plan.” “I have a plan,” he informed her. “And it involves Dax blasting him into atoms.” “He will make you look like the aggressor,” she told him. Way to calmly for his taste at the moment. “He will use that to force Richardson to sic the entirety of the UNDF forces against you.” “As long as I get him,” Ken told her plainly. “Listen to me,” she said finally showing some annoyance. “I spent a good hour calming Richardson down and he agrees. So much so he's ordering you to leave Brooks alone while he's here.” “He might not come back” Ken snapped again. “Either way we need to build a case against Brooks. We have to make sure everyone knows he's the target. When that happens you and the giant can let loose to your hearts content. But until then you need to back off him for the time being.” Ken really wanted to tell her where to stick that order. But surprisingly, well maybe not that surprising considering who it was, in his head Daxium was agreeing with her. Traitor. “Fine,” he said, I'll let it go for now,” and he walked off, back toward the hanger. Pounding te wall in frustration at this twist to the situation. Jess caught up with him as he came around the corner, “Where were you?” Trying to hid what he was feeling at the moment he told her, “That thing wasn't as important as I thought.” *** Hawk was waiting as Ken entered his office. To the side Reid gave him a friendly greeting but Hawk just stared at him. While part of him was glad he remained standing, realizing this time it was an official meeting. Another part hoped he was wrong about the reason why they were having the meeting to begin with. Yet another part prayed he wasn't so blinded that he let the proverbial fox into his hen house. Eventually the he said, “Ken.” “Sir,” the younger man replied, not giving anything away from whet he could tell. “So,” he began, “Jamira.” “I wish I knew what to tell you Captain,” he said. “I know he was a pain but nobody deserved what happened to him. “You know,” Reid spoke up, “most people would have thought you would have been overjoyed at that,” Ken had the decency to look confused, “A man died, who would be happy about that.?” “You and Jamira did have a history,” Hawk told him sharply, taking him by surprise. Even Reid look like his tone caught him off guard. “Both Commander Reid and Wade said they heard Jamira shout 'you knew'? What was it that he thought that you knew exactly?” After a bit Ken answered, “I don't know.” “Then think of something,” Hawk demanded. “Umm, Gabe,...,” Reid started to say. “Not now,” he snapped. “Well Scott, give me something.” Ken looked like he didn't know what was going on, even casting a glance at Reid, but eventually said, “Unless he somehow made his dislike for me as part of the reason why this happened to him I have no idea.” “It does seen a logical conclusion,” Reid spoke up. “And remember we both told you Ken was just as confused at what was going on.” Hawk shot him a look out of the corner of his eye. Reid didn't look pleased but he backed down, Ken still looked confused. “And after Jamira turned into whatever the hell that was I expect you have an answer to why he seemed to be specifically targeting you?”, he demanded. “Why are you..?”, Ken started to say. “Just answer me Scott.” “I was pretty high on his shit list sir,” he replied getting a bit of an attitude. Reid stepped in again, “Before Jamira got reagitated I pretty sure Ken about had him talked down. You would have been proud of him Captain.” He shot him another look, but this time Reid didn't shy away and stood his ground. Fine, he'd take a slightly different route. “Scott, where were you the night before the Alpha One test flight, around 21:50 and 22:10?” “What does that...?”, he asked caught off guard by the change of subject. “Just answer the question civilian.” Reid shot him a warning look. Ken had the audacity to look hurt, “I was by myself.” “Where by yourself?!”, he demanded. “We couldn't locate you anywhere on base turning that time frame.” “Why were you...,” then things seemed to click together for Ken as he started looking angry. “You think I had something to do with what happened?” “Answer the question!” “I was on the god damned roof!”, he nearly shouted. “Why were you up there?” “It's the only place I found where I can get some peace and quiet around here.” “A likely story,” Hawk spat. “What have I ever done to make you think I was behind sabotaging the Alpha One?” “Why are you on this team?” “I told you why.” “Tell me again!”, Hawk said standing up. Reid quickly jumped between then and pushed Ken out the door saying, “Go somewhere and cool off Scott, that's an order.' And he quickly closed the door before Ken could say anything. Hawk exploded, “That was my man!' Again Reid didn't look pleased, “I know, which is why I separated the two of you before either of you said or did something you'd regret. But seriously Gabe, what has he ever done to make you think he'd be behind any of this?” “He lied about why Richardson put him on this team,” Hawk told him. “I'm sure of it.” Reid sat in a chair by the desk, “I seem to recall you saying Wade backed up the reason he gave you.” “Then he told me a story he knew Wade would agree with.” Reid smirked a bit, “I was halfway expecting you to say she's in on it too.” “This isn't funny,” Hawk snapped. “Somebody around here had something to do with what happened with the Alpha One. And I would bet anything that same person had something to do with what happened to Jamira. He is the only one who stands out.” Saying nothing Reid unzipped his jacket and pulled out an envelope and placed it on the desk. “Before you finish this particular witch hunt and throw away something you've been very proud of you might want to read that. It got delivered to my office by mistake.” Hawk ripped it open and read the contents. Any anger he had built up slowly evaporated as he went, “Damn it.” Looking him right in the eyes Reid went, “I'll ask you again, has Ken done anything to make you think he would be behind any of this?” *** On the roof Ken looked out as the sky darkened around him. Despite Reid telling him to cool down he was still all sorts of pissed off. Granted he wasn't the perfect soldier, like he was even a soldier at all, but he thought he had earned a little more respect than that after all this time. He heard the door open and looked back to see Hawk step out onto the roof. Ken looked back at the ground in front of Castle and set himself. If he wanted a fight than Ken was more than ready to give him one. Not even acknowledging the Captain as he joined him at the railing as well. After a long bit of silence Hawk held out a opened envelope, “Here.” Ken just looked at it and said, “You firing me by mail?” Uttering a very tired sounding sigh he said, “Just read it.” Practically snatching it out of his hand he read the letter inside. His anger turned to confusion as he read it again. Finally saying, “I've been here a year. Holy shit.” “That sort of slipped by everybody with all the buzz about the Alpha One and Jamira,” He said. “Reid kept asking if you ever done anything to make me suspect you. And I couldn't think of anything except my early suspicions about you joining. I'm sorry son.” “Forget it,” Ken said putting the letter back into the envelope. “No. Ken it wasn't right. You've done everything I've asked of you and done everything possible to fit in.” “Then why suspect me at all?”, Ken demanded. “Because there's a snake in this particular garden son,” he said. “and I was desperate to find anybody who might be responsible. You were my first real lead.” “Captain, if I was going to do anything to the Alpha One I would have made sure it wouldn't have launched at all just so I wouldn't be on it.” “That accord to me after I cooled down a bit. But there is somebody here working against us. I just wish I knew who it was.” “Trust me Captain I'd be kicking his ass right now if I could.” Hawk smirked but he had no idea how true that statement almost was. Still there one thing he had to get out in the open. “You called me 'civilian'.” Looking ashamed of himself Hawk said, “I know. I'm not going to try and make any excuse for it, it just came out. You worked so hard to be seen as more than that. And I have been proud as hell of you too. I hope you'll forgive me about that unfortunate slip of the tongue I had.” “Already forgotten,” he said with a small smirk. Hawk nodded and clapped him on the shoulder. “But I am sorry for treating you like that son,” he told him. “ You haven't done anything to betray my trust in you yet.” Patting him on the shoulder one more time he headed back toward the door. Suddenly Ken was real tired of his situation. “Captain,” he started to say as the older man turned toward him. All the the things he wanted to say right there and then. I'm Ultraman. Richardson knows and blackmailed me to be here. I know how Joe really died and I'm pretty sure Brooks was the one who did it. He wanted to say all of those things. But he didn't. All because he didn't know what Richardson would do if anybody else found out. So instead he said, “Sorry about giving you some attitude back there.” “Don't be son” Hawk said walking back to him. “I pushed you into a corner, it's only natural that you'd push back. But don't go making a habit of it,” he said pointing a finger at him. “I'm only letting it go this time because I was in the wrong here.” “Completely understood sir.” Putting an arm around his shoulder Hawk guided him back toward the door. “Come on Ken, the next cup of joe is on me. Halfway to the door Hawk took the envelope from him. “Just so you know this bit of information will be leaked to the others. And a party will be planned to celebrate this particular occasion.” He attempted a joke, “As long as there isn't a dunk tank and I'm the one in it.” The Captain smiled, “I make no promises.” *** The next day Richardson was still on the warpath. Although Patricia and Dr. Williams were doing their best to keep it confined to his office. “Where is that bastard?”, he demanded. “He's apparently on his way in,” Patricia told him. “I'll strangle him myself!”, Richardson exclaimed. “We need proof,” she said firmly as she was getting tired of having this conversation. At least when she saw Scott earlier this morning he still understood the need for the most part. He didn't like it but he still understood. But with Richardson she had to start all over, again. “To hell with proof!” he bellowed. “We heard Jamira say it was him.” “And Jamira was out of his mind,” she told him. “He will turn that into a very believable defense. Then Scott would be wondering how we knew Jamira said that. He still isn't aware that we are monitoring him through his communicator while he is in the field. And I'm sure he's still wondering how we knew about Brooks as it is.” “I don't care about that nobody!”, Richardson bellowed. “If he wants to cause problems then I'll reveal his secret to the others and watch him deal with the consequences.” “If he doesn't tell the others his secret first,” Dr. Williams said. A sharp look from Richardson made him back up and sat down into a chair, that he just missed the edge of and hit hard on the floor. “The good Doctor does have a point,” Patriicia said as she watched Williams scramble into the chair. She was unfazed as Richardson turned that same gaze toward her. “You can only push him so far until he starts pushing back. And considering who he's bonded with...” “The giant wouldn't dare,” he protested. “Fine, I'll get rid of Alpha Team entirely and replace them with new people just to remind him who's in control.” Finally getting into a comfortable position in the chair Williams said, “Then he would blow his secret then.” “Captain Hawk and the others have been an effective buffer between him and you for some time now,” Patricia argued. “Not to mention the uproar from the entire base if you did that. But Scott isn't, and shouldn't, be our main concern right now.” “Right,” Richardson muttered as he finally calmed down and sat behind his desk. “Brooks, he looked me right in the eyes and didn't betray a goddamned thing. Shake down his entire family tree if you have too but find that proof.” “At once Mr. Richardson,” Patricia said, pulling Williams up by the coat as they left the office. Alone Richardson finally looked at a picture of Joseph that had been on his desk. “He didn't reveal a thing. What kind of cold, hearted bastard are you Peter?” *** Elsewhere in the complex Ken was studying one of the datapads that he still had in his possession. Mainly to try and keep his mind off of Brooks. But also because according to Hawk he was pretty close to “graduating” the course, so to speak. Not officially of course since he would never be able to pass the simulator. But academic wise he was almost there. The end was so close he could practically see the finish line in his head. “Hey man,” Ryo said as he and Bill sat with him, each with a mug in their hand. “How are you doing?” “I'm doing pretty good,” he told them. He looked up from the pad to see the looks they were giving him. “What?” “Bridge let it slip,” Bill started, “that the Captain thought you were the one behind the mess that's been going on lately.” “Oh my God,” Ken groaned. “It's fine guys, me and Captain Hawk worked it out.” “Commander Reid,” Ryo went on, “said that he had to separate the two you when it started to get a tad heated.” “It wasn't as bad as it sounds,” Ken told them. “He had us calm down before it got out of hand.” “Still the three of us already had a little talk with the Captain,” Ryo informed him. “I can fight my own battles guys... Wait,” he looked around. “Where's Jess? Oh God he threw her in a cell didn't he,” he started to get up. “She's fine Ken,” he assured him. “Me and Ryo made sure we did most of the talking,” Bill joked. “Although I have to admit it was strange that Captain Hawk seemed proud that we were standing up for you.” Ryo told him, “Because as far as he's concerned we finally gelled as a team.” “He still told us not to get into the habit of questioning him like that again. As far as Jess goes,” Bill said as he started to grin, “he just happen to slip us an envelope with some interesting information about you.” “Oh no,” Ken groaned. Hawk told him that would get out. He didn't think it would be this quick. “Oh yes,” Bill continued. “Her and the Captain are going over the basics of the party right now. I do believe Jess was talking about some giant pink bunny ears for you to wear as the guest of honor.” “Don't tease him like that,” Ryo cut in. “They were purple.” “Right,” Bill said with a nod, “with bright yellow polka dots.” Ken looked at them, “You two ain't funny.” “You'll find out if we're telling the truth soon enough,” Ryo told him, betraying nothing. After a little more, what he hoped was, ribbing Bill suddenly got this look on his face. Neither he or Ryo could figure out what was going on because he never looked this serious about anything. Suddenly he went, “Ken can I ask you a question?” Motioning him to go ahead he surprised him again. “Do you have a problem when I call you civilian?” Having an idea where this was coming from he went, “You always call me civilian.” “Captain Hawk mentioned something about it,” Ryo said as he took a sip of his coffee. “Kinda guessed.” “He did have a point though,” Bill went on. “I mean, yeah, you're the civilian operative and all. But you are one of us.” “Bill it's fine,” Ken told him. “At this point if you start calling me something other than civilian I going to think I'm dying or something.” “I guess you have a point.” He got up and put a hand on his shoulder. “I'll see you around,' he went all somber and serious, “Ken.” “You're not funny,” Ken shot back as he left. “Please I'm hilarious.” After he was gone Ryo went, “Since we're asking questions, why did you think Jess got thrown in a cell?” Kent went, “Let's put it this way, have you ever seen her angry?” “A couple of times,” he answered. “Trust me, you really haven't.” It took Ryo a couple of moments to understand what he was talking about. “Ah well, I suppose you would know that better than anybody. Of course you're assuming she would went that hard for you to begin with.” “Seeing how we 'gelled' as a team and all I'd like to think she got got a little angry.” “Then it's a good thing Bill and I did most of the talking,” he said with a smile. A couple of UNDF soldiers walked by and greeted them before heading toward a different table. Although Ryo lost the smile a bit as he watched them walk away. “The Captain tell you why he suspected you?' “Yeah he did.” “I can't believe it's been somebody on the inside this entire time. I hate feeling like I don't know who I can trust and who I can't.” “I know man, I know.” Unfortunately ken did know who he could, and more important exactly who he couldn't trust. But again he had to play along because he couldn't explain how he knew. *** So far it had been a week since the incident with Jamira happened, and Peter still hadn't let his guard down. He hadn't been acting any differently, he learned a long time ago that you had to keep up appearances. Especially after Scott became a regular fixture in the organization. But he was a little more aware of his surroundings and of the people around him. So far no one was acting like they knew something nor were they treating him any differently. Richardson seemed to be avoiding him of course. But he'd been through these stages of melancholy ever since Joseph died so he really didn't think anything of it. Particularly since his assiasstant slash bodyguard was as cordial as ever. He was starting to think that he might have caught a break and Jamira didn't say anything to anyone. Then he locked eyes with Scott as they passed each other in the hallway. His face betrayed nothing, But his eyes, they stayed locked on him a little too long. Then he felt the giant that had bonded with him, no longer trying to hide his presence like he had been. Again Peter betrayed nothing, although he did try and get a reaction out of him by smiling and nodding his head in greeting. He just walked by him without any type of acknowledgment. But Scott and the giant knew, in that there was no question. Even if he hadn't felt the giant broadcasting himself Scott's eyes were those of a man ready to fight. Yet he did nothing. He wanted too Peter had no doubts about that. But Scott didn't do anything, he didn't even look back over his shoulder. Which possibly meant he didn't think he could at the moment. For the time being that was good for him but eventually that was going to change. “Good morning my dear,” he said cheerfully as he greeted his secretary, stationed outside of of office as usual. She greeted him with her usual smile, “Good morning Mr. Brooks. “You have a few hours before your first meeting this morning.” “Right,” he said remembering, “for the next public relations event. I wouldn't mind them so much if someone came up with something different for a change. Thank you for reminding about it,.” “Maybe you can ask Ken Scott to get involved,” she offered. “Being a civilian operative might give P.R. A boost.” He grinned, “That's going to depend on Captain Hawk I'm afraid. He is rather protective of his men. But I'll bring it up and see what the others think of it. I'll be in my office.” “I'll be out here if you need me.” Closing the door behind him peter tried to think. Oh he would be bringing the idea up alright., but prayed it would get shot down. Mainly because it would mean he and Scott would be in close proximity to each other for the entire event. And until Scott finally decided to act he couldn't risk being that near him for long. Speaking of, he was taking a huge one right now not knowing how close Scott was at the moment. Sending a small pulse through the room he temporarily disabled the security cameras to his office. Then he formed a swirling vortex in the middle of the room. Waiting for the shape of one of his Zetton masters to appear he said, “The worst case scenario we discussed is closer to happening than I originally thought.” *** Looking through the folder in front of him Richardson looked at his assistant and asked, “Are you sure this information is accurate?” “As sure as I can be,' she admitted. “I had to do some digging just to find that,” she pointed to a one page in the file in particular. “After I found that the rest was relatively easy.” “Then we got the bastard,” he said jumping out of his chair. “I want an armed response unit, and I want to be there when we bring him in.” “That may not be the wisest course of action ir,” she told him. “We have him dead to rights!. We need to...” “We shouldn't do anything.” “Now listen here...” “No one is going to risk your health and well being in a potential conflict,” she said calmly. He sat back down, he was fuming, but he sat down. “If we confront him with an entire squad it'll expose our hand before we're ready.” “Then what do we do then? We have what we need right here.” “We give what he have to Captain Hawk.” Richard thought it over. “He's still looking for whomever it was that sabotage the Alpha One.” He looked up at her, “He won't confront Brooks directly.” “No,” she agreed. “Not without some concrete proof. However he might be convinced to have Bridge look into the matter a little further. There's also the added benefit that Bridge could locate something I missed.” “Do it,” he said leaning back into his chair. “Don't tell him why we're suspecting Brooks but tell him something.” *** I still can't believe you thought I would get so mad that Captain Hawk threw me into a cell,” Jess said they sat together in one of the break rooms. “That was a week ago,” he reminded her. “It still blows my mind you'd think that. Why would you think I would ever get that angry?” “I never thought you'd get that angry either until it was directed at me.” “Yeah well...”, she trailed off. “Jess, Ken,” Hawk called out as he walked up to them. They stood at attention pretty quickly as something about him said this was official. He stood close, enough that he could speak low enough so no one could over hear them. People were looking at them any way but they were just going to have to wonder what was going on. “ I can't give any specifics right now. Just be ready to go if I call for the team.” “Yes sir,” Jess answered for them, a little confused but remaining professional. Ken, on the other hand, wasn't hiding his. “What was that about?”, he wondered out loud after Hawk left. “I'm not sure,” she answered. “Come on, we better find Ryo and Bill if he wants the whole team ready.” Before they could move Ken's communicator went off. Wonder what as going on now he answered it. “Scott here.” “Ah Ken,” Dr. Williams replied as Ken and Jess looked at each other. “I need you down here in the Alpha One hanger right away.” Why now of all times, “I'd love too Doc but I was just put on stand by.” “I'm afraid I must insist,” he said with an authority that startled both of them. Well mainly it shocked the hell out of Ken if he had to be honest. The guy didn't seem to have it in him when he was working on the Alpha One. “I will make that an order if I have to.” “You know what,” Ken shot back. “The moment you out rank Captain Hawk is the moment I'll start taking that threat seriously.” “Ken”, Jess spoke up. “Go ahead and see what he wants. Just be sure to run if Hawk calls us.” “You sure?” She nodded and went off to find the others. Ken started off to the hanger going, “What the hell Doc? This better be a good one.” *** Walking into Brook's outer office Hawk nodded at his secretary. She looked at him and Reid a bit unsure what was going on exactly as they didn't have an appointment. Not that Hawk felt like giving him some advanced warning, just in case. “Is Mr. Brooks in his office?” “Uh, yes he is. Is there something I can do,” she started to say as she rose out of her chair. He motioned for her to sit back down, “Would you please tell him the Commander Reid and myself would like to see him.” “Yes sir.” Still unsure she hit button connecting to the inner office intercom, “Mr. Brooks, Captain Hawk and Commander Reid want to talk to you.” “Really?”, came the reply. After a couple of beats, Hawk could picture him trying to figure out what was going on, he spoke up again, “Please send them in.” Smiling at the secretary he nodded and said, “Thank you,” before he and Reid entered Brook's personal office. Standing up to greet then he extended a hand to as he walked around his desk. Each of them took it and Brook gestured to a couple chairs in front of his desk. Hawk noted that his eyes occasionally flickered toward the folders he carried in. Only Hawk took one of the offered chairs as Reid took a couple of steps back. Brooks watched him for a moment before turning his full attention to Hawk as he put the folders down on the desk. “So what to I owe the pleasure of this very unexpected visit?” “I do apologize for the unexpected nature if all of this but I have a couple of informal questions for you. If you don't mind.” “Of course Captain, I'll be happy to oblige.” He glanced back at Reid who remained silent, perhaps noting that he positioned himself between them and the door. “However do we really need a third person for a couple of 'informal' questions?” “I'm just hear as an impartial third party,” Reid said. “Yes,” Hawk stated, “for both of our protection. You know how the rumor mill around here works. A couple of people saw us enter the room then half the base starts thinking we started shouting at each other and throwing punches.” “How considerate of you Captain,” Brooks said with a slight smirk. For some reason that sent a chil down Hawk's spin, but he didn't show it. “While my appointment calendar is full I'm sure I can spare a few moments for you Captain. Please ask away.” “Well, as you know Mr. Brooks”, he began, “we ares till looking into the matter of who tampered with the Alpha One. During his initial investigation into the matter Bridge discovered a short anomaly in the security feed. It cut out for about twenty minutes.” “Really,” Brooks said, looking a bit shocked by that announcement. Not in a bad way, like he was surprised that was possible. “Yes sir,” Hawk continued. “He almost missed it but by his estimation the time it was out was long enough for someone to sabotage the Alpha One. To make sure it wasn't a system wide glitch he checked other security feeds around the same time. And all he found was the cameras shutting off in the hanger. But he also found,” he opened one of the files on the desk between them, “a couple of reports of the cameras going out in this very office. The last one was a few days ago according to the report.” “Well Captain,” Brooks slid the report back toward him after glancing at for a bit, “as evidence of wrong doing that is rather flimsy.” “And normally I would agree with you sir but given what happened with the Alpha One I hope you understand the need to check on it anyway.” “Of course Captain,” Brooks agreed, leaning back. “But I can't tell you any more than what I've told the repair teams when they call or come to check on them after they go out.” “Maybe there was something you didn't tell them,” Hawk purposely looked back at the door to the outer office. Brooks; eyes narrowed a bit, “If you are suggesting what I think you are Captain I'd suggest you put a stop to that line of thinking right now. She is a happily married woman and even if I did something, not that I am admit that I did, I wouldn't ruin her reputation to cover it up.” “Very well sir,” he said taking the folder back, “we'll put it down to a system glitch. Then he slid the other one over but didn't open it right away. He kept a hand on so Brooks couldn't open it either. That made the other man even more curious. “I'm not sure if you heard, after hearing that someone on the inside might have been responsible for what happened with the Alpha One Richardson started his own investigation into the matter.” “Really,” Brooks said evenly. Putting on one hell of a poker face from Hawk's perspective, and time spent around a poker table or two. “In fact I have not heard that.” “I just found out about it recently myself. I'm assuming it came from on of his infamous hunches. I also assume one of those lead him to look into peoples background information.” “Captain, are we really here now because of a hunch? Because I would lose some respect for you if that was the case.” “I would never do this on simply a hunch sir,” Hawk told him, “No matter who had it. Especially when it about one of the Board of Directors.” “Yet here we are Captain.” “As I said never on a hunch. However,” finally he opened the file and pushed it toward Brooks, “he did give us a lead that had Bridge check out thoroughly.” Brooks read this file a little more closely, “Captain, do believe this says were I went to school growing up.” “Yes it does sir, it also has your records there as well. In fact those are the ones you supplied when you became one of the Board.” Reaching over and pulling away the top page of the document Hawk fanned out the rest that was underneath. “However a recheck of those very school and we can't find a trace of you any where. No academic reports, no extracurricular activities, no address forms. Nothing any where.” Brooks looked like he was trying to find a way to explain the discrepancy. Hawk didn't give him a chance. “Going back even further we couldn't find any sign of a birth certificate at the hospital you were born in, a social security number or a drivers permit. In fact it looks like Peter Brooks didn't even exists a few years ago.” Brooks, or whomever this was, picked up the papers and studied them for a long time. Then he started smiling and chuckling a bit, catching Hawk off guard. “It's true what they say,” he said finally putting the papers down, “the Devil is truly in the details. I sincerely believed that no one would recheck these particular records after so long. “Then who are you,” Hawk demanded. “Oh I am a Brooks Captain,” he said. “My name may not be Peter but I am a Brooks through and through. Well since the secret's out what else to you want to know, hmm? Please don't act so shocked I plan to be completely and totally honest with you. So gentlemen, what shall it be? Perhaps you want to know the master plan. Or maybe you want to know exactly how many giant creatures we have at our disposal. Just to prepare yourself of course. “Or maybe,” he looked at Hawk with a slight sneer, “maybe you would like to know who Ultraman really is.” Hawk just eyed him. “Not that you would believe me. That is why I fought for you over Jamira for command.” “You fought to get Hawk this command?”, Reid said incredulous. “Part of the delicate balancing act I have to perform on a daily basis,” he said as easily as he would about the weather. “for every negative there had to be a positive to counter it a bit. Can you see the potential chaos and low moral if Jamira was put in command? Not to speak ill of the dead but the man was a moron at times. As such he would have been replaced by someone more competent eventually, so we avoid the rush and put in some one who could get the men to put up a decent fight. Life is nothing without the occasional challenges after all.” “Why the lake?”, Hawk asked suddenly. Brooks wasn't following, “I beg you pardon?” “The lake,” he repeated. “At lest two monsters have been confirmed coming from that lake in the park. The earliest we can trace Jamira after he popped back up was at the bank of that same lake. What is so special about it?” “Well this is awkward,” Brooks shifted in his seat. “While I would love to feed whatever conspiracy theory that's grown in your mind, truth be told nothing is particularly special about that lake. The second monster just happened to to come along with Bemular, that's the name of the first one just so you know. Much better than the designation we gave him. Giant creature one ugh... no imagination. I'm still shocked they came up with Ultraman. Back to the second one, well that was a little experiment on my part. The results were rather spectacular if I may be so bold. As for Jamira well they're not even sure how he got out of his cell much less been able to operate an interdimensional transporter. He's lucky he didn't appear a thousand feet in the air. Although that would have save me a lot of hassle if he did. No offense to the dead of course,” he quickly added. “Who are they?”, Hawk demanded. “You're partners in all of this?” Chuckling a bit, Hawk wasn't sure if he was purposely trying to piss him off or not but it was working, Brooks said, “From my point of view? Early on perhaps I believed that, when I could delude myself. But now I'm a servant in their eyes. A useful tool to help them bring their creatures over.” “You seem pretty happy for a 'servant',”Hawk commented. “I like to see it as getting in on the ground floor after it's all over,” he answered. Brooks quieted down and studied Hawk for a bit. Almost looking sad for some reason.”It is a pity really. I truly did like you Captain, I was hoping to put this off off a bit longer.” Brook's right hand started glowing with this deep, dark purple energy. Combat instinct made both Hawk and Reid jump out of the way as he pointed it at them and unleashed a blast that took out part of the wall behind them. As his secretary screamed at the explosion as a fully armored squad of UNDF soldiers burst in and took aim on Brooks and fired. Almost instantaneously the energy expanded and formed a barrier between him and them. “Cease fire!”, Reid shouted as the bullets started ricocheting. “You had an armed guard with you,” Brooks said, not lowering his guard.. Chuckling again he changed his tome to a more disapproving one, “Now that's just dirty pool Captain. But I should be honored you did so. You realized how potentially dangerous your target is.” Suddenly the field expanded knocking them and the furniture back into the wall. “Fortunately for you I'm in a generous mood today and in quite the rush.” Pointing his hand at the floor he blasted a hole and dropped down to the next level. Struggling to his feet he took a cautious look down the hole and hit his communicator, “Captain Hawk to all troops, this is a Level Five Alert. We have an hostile in the building. The hostile is Peter Brooks, repeat the hostile is Peter Brooks. Consider him armed and extremely dangerous. Do not try and detain, shoot on sight. Shoot to kill if absolutely necessary.” *** “Son of a bitch,” Ken muttered, almost completely feed up with the run around he was getting from Williams on why he was down here. “Look Doc you have five seconds to give me a damn good reason on why I'm down here or I'm out that door.” Williams didn't give him a reason, he didn't have time as Hawk announcement came from his communicator He looked at Williams accusingly. He still wasn't sure how Richardson and them knew about Brooks to begin with. But right now he was positive that the Doctor knew this was going to go down. So why in the hell did they separate him from the others? To his credit Williams look apologetic and more than a bit uncomfortable under his gaze. “This is it,” he said. “We can end this now if you and your friend can get to him.” “You're damn right I'm going to end this.” Ken said as he ran for the door. “Ken!”, Williams shouted to get him to stop. “Richardson doesn't want Hawk and the others involved in this. His orders.” “You tell Richardson to stick those orders up his ass,” Ken told him as he headed back down the hall. “I'm tired of hiding this.” Hitting his communicator he went, “Scott to Hawk. Dr. Williams had me in the hanger levels. I'm going to try and cut off Brooks if he tries to come this way or the garage level.” “I already have a team headed that way Ken,” came the reply. “But the extra fire power couldn't hurt. If he gets there before they do do not engage him by yourself. You have no idea what he's capable of.” “Understood, Scott out.” Cutting the link he muttered, “And I have a pretty good exactly what he's capable of.” *** Perhaps it was a bit overkill on his part, blasting through several levels of floor, but he had to make sure he met a little resistance as possible. For one, mainly, he wanted to avoid a prolonged, drawn out fight if possible. That would just slow him down and increase the chances of the UNDF troops taking him down. And secondly, if he was forced into the prolong fight more than likely he'd leave a skeletal corpse or two behind. He could only picture the fury in Captain Hawk when he discovered that he was the one who killed Joseph. No this was the proper play for this situation, put as much distance between himself and the majority of the forces after him as soon as possible. Which was quite a feat in these confined spaces. Not that he expected the entire force to be above him, Hawk wasn't that stupid. There would be heftier resistance further down. The question was how much resistance was he going to come across? And where Scott and the giant were in all of this? He probably should have started blasting his way up toward the roof, but there were a few surprises he wanted to keep to himself at the moment. Finding an empty level he ran down a few random corridors and started blasting his way down again another few levels. And practically on top of a small armed squad of troop, about four at a fast count. , Smiling warmly, Brooks reacted faster than the one directly in front of him, grabbing his rifle in one hand and his throat by the other. The kid grabbed at the one clutching his neck, crackling with dark energy. Then Brooks snapped it as easily as he would a twig. Dropping the body and he weapon he sent out a pulse of energy that sent the others flying back hard. While they were dazed he changed his mind and picked the rifle back up. Almost casually he walked up to each one and shot them in their exposed faces before dropping the weapon and moving on. The smile never left his face as he did each deed. There were a few small patches of resistance here and there as he made his way down, At this point they had to figure he only had one real escape route at the moment , getting to the garage level, and started planning accordingly. Hopefully he wouldn't run into the Chief and his crew along the way. But he shouldn't have that much of a problem with whomever put up a fight down there. \ Then Brooks felt it before he saw him. He slowed his gaunt as he stopped a few yards away from Ken Scott. Behind him was one of the ways out of here, and he probably could have made it to one of the others before Scott got to him. But this particular showdown was going to happen sooner or later, now was just a good as time as any, even if it wasn't the best of conditions. “Ken,” he said in greeting. “Am I still allowed to call you Ken? Or did that get rescinded when you discovered it was me this entire time? “Ask me if I give a damn,” he told him. “So,” he said evenly, taking a chance to glance around to see if there was anybody waiting in the wings, “is this where you demand why I betrayed humanity and and join forced with evil overlords form another dimension?” “Still don't give a damn,” Ken said. Brooks noted his right hand was going for something inside his jacket. “A buddy of mine might though.” “Yes,” Brooks grunted, “why waste time when we can get right to it.” Scott's hand was already in his jacket when he fired a blast. Ken jumped out of the way, rolling to a knee with a strange decvice in his hand. “Brook!” he looked back to see Watanabe and Wade lead a squad of soldiers down the ramp behind them and hold position as they covered him. “Figures,” he mumbled, “just when it's getting good.” Looking back at Scott he was still holding the device in his hand, although he glanced back at the others a couple of times. Having a idea what the device was he said, just loud enough so Scott could hear, “Are you really going to blow your secret in front of them?” Very plainly, and keeping his eyes locked on him, Ken said, “Yes.” “Hmm, I do believe you might,” Brooks mused. Without warning he blasted the ceiling above Watanabe and Wade's group causing part of it to collapse on them. “No!” Ken shouted in horror. Using the distraction Brooks ran past him. He look back just long enough to see Scott look undecided and start to help the others. “Go,” a woman's voice, probably Wade's, told him. “Get him, we'll be fine.” Ken ran after him as fast as he could. Brooks launched a few blast back behind him to try and slow his pursuer down. Finally he made it outside, he was almost there. Then he went down after a blast hit him in the back. Gripping his shoulder he looked back to see Ken come out holding his weapon out, and the cylinder in his other hand at the moment.” “You shot me in the back,” Brooks grunted as he got to his feet. “Not exactly a fair play from the hero.” “You murdered people,” Ken shot back. “It's over Brooks, or whoever the hell you are.” “Ask Captain hawk what I told him,” Brooks said. Ken said nothing as he holstered his weapon and returned the device to his right hand. “Just like that? You're not going to arrest me, lock me up for the others. Although I do think they would believe you if you told them I resisted. Granted security cameras are everywhere out here.” “I don't care,” he said. “And it never accord to you that I would have a plan just this situation?” Ken stopped, now looking confused instead of determined. Not realizing Brook never once stopped emitting the dark energy around his hand. Backing up and looking up as he felt it and his senses were nearly overwhelmed. A huge pool of dark energy started to form. Ken's communicator started making a electronic squeal as Brooks shot a wide beam at it. Before long something stared to come through and quickly took shape. A giant reptile creature, it had heavier armor looking hide around it's upper torso, tuft's of hair coming from spaces between those segments and a curved horn on top of it's head. It seemed to to orient itself for a moment before zeroing in on Castle and started heading toward it. “Have fun with Gomess,” Brooks said with a smile and a wave. Suddenly he was covered in dark energy and shot into the air. “The fuck?”, Ken muttered stun as he watched fly away. The ground shaking hard brought back to the immediate threat as the creature continued toward the base., Very aware of the cameras behind him he didn't have any other choice. Holding the Spark Magnifier over his head he activated it. *** Daxium barely appeared from the column of light when Gomess charged forward. Caught off guard he barely stopped himself from hitting the base behind him. With a grunt he was able to push the creature back. The monster roared a bit as he stopped pushing then quickly fell to the side while twisting, using Gomess' own power to fling him to the ground. Both giant quickly scrambled to their feet, with Daxium being slight faster geting off a kick to it's head. With the creature stunned, he grabbed it, struggled slightly to get it over his head, then tossed it further away from the base. Slapping it's head in frustration Gomess got up and charged Daxium again. Bracing for it better this time he barely budged as the creature rammed into him. Felling it position itself to do the same flip move he waited for it to fall and twist. Jumping with the throw Daxium flipped in the air and landed on his feet he was caught by a tail swipe that him him around the knees. Stumbling to hold his footing it was long enough of a distraction that Gomess launched his attack. Grabbing around the lower torso in a bear hug it stared to squeeze with all it had. Daxium grunted in pain from the increasing pressure as he tried to free himself. Inside Castle's control room Hawk made his way through the chaos to Bridge. While he was clearly busy shouting out orders and working his station Hawk was more worried about what was happening outside. “What's the hell is going on?” “We're trying a reboot now Captain,' he said, never taking his eyes of the screens in front of him. “Whatever Brooks did to summon that monster somehow fried a majority of our systems. Communications, security, repair systems are either offline of freezing up.” “Can we launch the Scan Tracks and Razor Wings?” He checked something, “Hangers are off line too,” Bridge told him. Swearing under his breath Hawk snapped, “Can we get people on the roof to launch paper airplanes at it?” Back outside Daxium had finally loosen it's arms enough to get one of his own through. Grabbing one of Gomess' arms he turned and flipped the monster over his head, the ground shaking from the impact. Daxium went to grab it again. But he was surprised when Gomess whipped it's head up and caught him under the chin. Stumbling back Gomess came at him again. Falling backwards he got a foot between them and flipped the monster over. Rolling forward he turned, set up and fired the Dimensional Storm Ray. After the creature exploded from the multicolored energy stream Daxium looked in the general direction Brooks had went off in. Whatever happened when Brooks and hia allies brought that creature over saturated the area with dark energy. Enough to completely cover Brooks' trail. He also realized right then the true purpose of the creature he just fought. Just to delay him long enough for the human to get away. Relaying this information he received the expected human swear word in response. Feeling anything but victorious Daxium flew into the sky with a , “Shiah.” Jess and Hawk found Ken still outside the compound looking real disappointed about something. And a bit ashamed too as he kept looking at the ground after he spotted them. Well the secret was out now, time to deal with the consequences. He flinched a bit before looking at Hawk when he put a hand on his shoulder. “You all right son?” “He got away,” was all he could say. “The bastard thought of everything,” Jess told him. “Don't beat yourself up over it.” “Yes he did,” Hawk agreed. “Still I'm glad you didn't get stepped on when Ultraman and that creature started going at it.” Now Ken was confused again. Didn't anybody tell him the cameras caught him turning into Ultraman yet? Somebody had to have seen it. The ones by the entrances had the best view in the house of his confrontation with Brooks. Or did Richardson come down hard with a black out order or something? Still he had to tell Hawk something, “Just lucky I guess.” Jess smiled, “I guess your GLC is still working then.” “I wished it worked that well with the electronics,” Hawk commented. “What about the electronics?”, Ken asked. “When Brooks summoned that monster,” he continued, “it did something to fry most of the systems.” “We can't even launch the vehicles at this point,” Jess added. “If Brooks let's another monster loose anytime soon we're officially screwed. “All the systems?”, Ken went, still not believing it. “A good size chunk of them,” she answered. Ken looked up at the cameras above the entrance. Nobody saw him change. That means nobody else knows his secret. That meant he still had that hanging over his head. That he had to keep lying to just about everybody. The ones who trusted him completely. The one thing that made him sick to his stomach every time he thought about that. Unless he just let all go and told the two of them everything right now. He looked back to see Dr. Williams and Richardson's assistant had made their way outside and stare at him. But Patricia wasn't exactly staring at him. He glanced over at Jess. What would Richardson do? Damn it all to hell. Eventually he forced out, “How are Ryo and the others?” “Banged up,” she answered. “But they're going to be all right. Unlike some unlucky bastards that crossed Brook's path.” She gripped his chin and made him look at her. “Never do anything that stupid again, do you hear me?” Freeing himself he went, “You're the one who told me to go after him.” “I mean coming down here by yourself,” she corrected him. “You wait for back up first.” “You heard the lady,' Hawk said as he guided both of them back inside. “We have a ton of repair work to get started on. And more than a few things could probably use a mechanic's touch.” “Yes sir,' he said, trying not to look like he was faking the smile. *** “He was going go blow everything!” Richardson snarled. It was hours later and repair work had been in full swing. Still Scott's almost decision from hers and William's point of view still ate at him. “This is totally unacceptable.” “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” Patricia told him. “I told you as much before. I'm surprised it took him this long to start pushing back at the situation.” “Well he better remember what we'll do if he does reveal it.” Knuckles rapping the desk as he walked around it to his chair, a little more subdued he asked, “Is there anything on Charles Brooks yet?” “Our teams are still looking into it. So far they can't find a sign of him any where.” “He has to be some where,” he said staring out into space. “I've talked to him several times since Peter came on board.” “Yes sir,” she said before leaving him alone. *** A couple of weeks later, after they had the major repairs and bugs fixed for the most part, Ken was summoned to one of the break rooms. Since nobody had seen hide nor hair of Brooks since his escape he hope this didn't have anything to do with him, despite the location. The fact they were still repairing the holes in the floor Brooks had made made him wonder what this was about with work still needing to be done. He found out as soon as the door opened up. “Surprise!”, the entire monster squad shouted as he entered. And ken jumped so hard a couple of them thought he was going to make another hole in the ceiling. “What the hell?”, he got out as Ryo and Jess dragged him into the room. “We told you a party was being planned,” Ryo told him. “It's a little late to be celebrating the one year thing ain't it.” “It's not just that son,” Hawk said as he herded him toward the cake on the table. “Happy one year anniversary,” he said reading the gel written letters out loud, getting confused at what else it said, “and graduation?” Hawk nodded at Bridge who walked forward and handed him a brown envelope. “It's been a long time coming civilian,” Bill said. Jess quickly stomped on his foot. “He said it was okay.” Opening it Ken studied the graduation certificate that was inside. “That's the same one we all received,” Jess said getting closer to him, “when we graduated from the academy.” He was hearing the words she was saying but they weren't making sense in his head. “This can't be real.” “It's about ninety-fave percent real,” Hawk told him. “As you instructor I determined you worked and did enough to pass the course I set up for you.” “But I can't pass the simulator.” Hawk smiled, a proud one if any of them saw it, “Son, on one your first missions with us you didn't bail out on your wingman and brought down a Razor Wing in a crash landing. As far as I and the rest of us are concerned, you passed.” “And since I'm still alive,” Ryo added, “I'd say with flying colors.” Finally tearing his eyes from the document he said, “I seriously don't know what to say.” “Just keep doing your job,” Hawk told him. “Does this mean I'm officially one of you guys now?”, he asked as the thought occurred to him. Hawk lost a bit of the smile as they all looked at him. “Not yet officially. I'm working on finalizing that last five percent.” “Well as far as the rest of us are concerned, “Ryo spoke up, “you are one of us through and through.” “Damn straight he is,” Bill agreed. “Even if we didn't want him to begin with.” “Bill”, Ryo quickly chided him. “I know what he means,” Ken told him. “Congratulations Ken,” Jess said giving a quick kiss on the cheek. “Of course when it does become official you're going to have to cut that thing off the back of your head.” “He hasn't finalized anything yet,” Ken said, mainly realizing he would have to lose the ponytail. “I'm sure he's going to push hard for it,” Jess teased. “Just to remind the two of you,” Hawk spoke up, “we have a perfectly good cake wasting away here. I think it's time we started eating some of it.” “Yes sir,” Ken grinned. “Congratulations Ken,” Bridge said as he handed him the knife. Inside of him somewhere Daxium offered his congratulations as well. Ken looked at all of them before cutting into the cake. He still hated the fact he was lying to all of them. But for right now, he knew why he still had too. Because he didn't want to lose any if this. Not if he could help it. ‑‑‑‑‑ ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ‑‑‑‑‑ |
A/N- Just a bit of warning, there's a heavy subject matter in this one.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episode 22 *** OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light *** Walking down the hall to the war room Ken wasn't sure if he should relax or not. After Brooks initially high tailed it out of Castle he hadn't been seen since. Most of the people around here thought he was regrouping and biding his time. A couple of the guys were overheard saying how they would kick his ass if he ever showed his face again. Knowing exactly what he was capable was Ken seriously doubted the latter. And since of couple of them were formerly Jamira's men part of him wanted to find a seat and some popcorn to watch them try. Walking into the war room he found Hawk studying some footage. He nodded to acknowledged that he entered the room but kept his eyes on what he was watching for the most part. Ken paused briefly when he realized Daxium was a main part of the footage. Maybe they were able to get to the camera back up and salvaged the footage. And if he was trying to figure out which way Brooks went. Ken got nervous all over again. If they were able to get where Brooks flew off to then maybe they caught something else. And he better get prepared to the chewing out of a lifetime for keeping this secret for so long. If he was lucky. “I have the reports of the Brooks investigation so far Captain,” he said, trying to sound normal. He didn't attack him right away, so Ken was taking that as a good sign. “What did they find?”, Hawk asked. “Well for one nobody is sure what happened to Charles Brooks,” he began. “Or at least where he is now. He's made the occasional public appearance since Peter Brooks had been on the scene and that's the last time anybody has seen him. But they did find something of interest,” he trailed off as he got a better look at what Hawk was watching. Daxium wasn't fighting that Gomess creature as Brooks called it. No this was from a few monsters back. “That bit of interest?”, Hawk asked after Ken was silent for a bit. “Um,” Ken stalled as he tried to hid how afraid he was getting. If he was looking for further proof about him and Daxium he was probably screwed. “Charles Brooks apparently let go of his entire staff a few years ago.” Hawk finally looked at him, “Let me guess, right around the time Peter Brooks appeared.” “That would be correct,” he remembered to say, “sir,” a little faster than he usually did in these informal situations. “You gotten better at that,” he said with a smirk before returning to the footage he was watching. Ken calmed down a bit, maybe the big secret was still safe for the moment. Still he had a report to finish, “After interviewing the current staff it turns out they were all hired by Peter Brooks personally and rarely saw Charles.. eh the elder Brooks. The investigators did say that after interviewing the original staff that they seemed surprised that Charles Brooks had a son, much less a full grown one.” “That's not surprising,” Hawk told him. “I know Richardson and the board never questioned it that much because Charles Brooks was apparently very secretive about his personal life. According to a couple of board members I've talked to nobody knew his wife died until a couple of years after the fact.” Ken couldn't believe that bit of information, “That's like government black ops level of secret keeping.” “No argument here son,” Hawk told him. “Is there anything else Ken?” “Nothing major, they're still monitoring Brooks' house and the spots he's known to hang out at. Bridge is checking to see if there are any system disruptions similar to the ones Brooks caused here when he brought that monster over anywhere else.” That made him look at the fight footage one more time. “Um... Captain? “Was there something else Ken?” “Not to question what you're doing or anything...” “But you're going to any way,” he said with a slightly bigger smile. “But what are you doing exactly?” “Studying previous footage of Ultraman,” he said as matter of factly as you could get and not be joking. “Okay,” he said softly. “As I heard it we started doing this because Brooks suggested it” “That he did.” He quickly tried to figure a way to say this that didn't make it sound like he was insulting or questioning the first guy that really had his back here. “Considering who Brooks turned out to be maybe he had an ulterior motive for suggesting it.” “I'm sure he did,” Hawk agreed. “But it doesn't mean it's not a sound strategy. Just in case of course.” “Of course,” he said more than a little dismayed. Hawk glanced at him briefly. “If it makes you feel any better Ryo, Jessica and Bill all had the same objection that's probably going around in your head right now. But as the leader of this team I have to be prepared for any situation, even ones featuring a currently friendly ally.” “If you say so sir,” Ken sighed. Damn it, he thought him and Dax would be past this nonsense by now. “I don't like it either Ken,” Hawk told him, “but it's all part of the job. If there's nothing else take some down time and try to relax. Everybody's stressing out on when Brooks is going to attack again. And I don't want everyone burnt out from worrying about it too much when it does happen.” “Yes sir,' Ken said and left the room. “It is a viable strategy Ken,” Daxium said in his head after they were in the hallway. “Doesn't mean I got to like it,” he shot back. After a bit his communicator beeped, “Scott here.” “Ken,' Bridge said. “You have a person trying to get in contact with you. It sounds pretty important if they're going through official channels to get to you. So I put them on hold and said I page you.” “Thanks Bridge,” he said. “I'll take the call in my quarters.” If it was that important then there were probably several missed messages on his phone. Now what was going on. *** Given the situation as he understood it Captain Hawk quickly gave him leave. Still Ken still found it hard to believe as he sat in the waiting room, trying not to look at the other people talking to each other with various armed police men watching them. His UNDF credentials helped get him as private a table as you could get in this situation, which helped a little but still. He didn't know what to say as a couple of more guards brought his brother Jeff into the room. The handcuffs he was wearing around his wrists helped him believe the situation a little more, again but still... Jeff sat across form him and they just stared at each other for a bit as the guard backed away to give them some “privacy”. Jeff started by snapping at him, “It took you long to get here. I've been stuck in here for hours.” “I just found out,” he snapped back. “Not to mention I had a hard time processing the fact you're in jail.” His brother snorted, “They're blowing this all out of proportions.” “You hit Janet,” he said. Jeff didn't even looked embarrassed, he just angry like his time was being apparently wasted. “And not for the first time according to Mom.” “She doesn't know what she's talking about,” he snapped again. “Believing that lying piece of shit over her own son.” “She's also the mother of you child,” Ken reminded him. As it was it took all he had not to reach over the table and try to shake some sense into him. And seeing how he was wondering exactly how far his credentials would go into getting him out of that mess, he kept his hands clasp under the table. “That don't mean anything,” he grumbled. Then the anger went away, not entirely but just enough for somebody who knew him to notice, “Is... Nicole still there?” Ken hesitated to answer, not sure if they wanted him to know or not. Eventually he said, “They're both still at Mom's the last I heard.” “Good,” he said, “she won't let that bitch keep me from my kid.” “Mom the one who called the police on you to begin with.” Here Jeff finally reacted, like he wasn't expecting that. Right now Ken didn't care one way or another. “Jeff what exactly happened?” “She started another fight that's what happened,” his brother said. “The same ol' crap too. I'm drinking too much. I'm not doing enough to help around the house. I'm not putting enough effort in at work. Nag, nag, nag.” At this point Ken didn't know what to think. Yeah he stopped Jeff from slapping Nicole after what was supposed to be her birthday party. But he never thought of it much after that, hell he didn't even think it would get to this extent. Hell if this was going on why didn't Janet say anything about it sooner? “You got to get me out of here,” Jeff said breaking him out of his thoughts. “What?”, he went. “You got to get me out of here,” he repeated, Ken just now realized how quiet he was speaking now, so much so he actually leaned in to hear him better. “You got the government connections. Use them to get me out of here before they trump up the charges.” “They're not going to trump up anything,” Ken began. He was quickly cut off, “The hell they ain't. They love sticking it to guys like me.” Pinching the bridge of nose Ken wasn't exactly surprised thing would be going this way. Still damn annoying though, “They're not sticking it to anybody.” “The hell they won't!” “Look if Janet is lying about being hit before they'll find out.” “Like anybody is going to believe me over her. The courts eats up stories like hers like a god damned buffet. I am screwed no matter what. That's why you got to get me out of here.” “Then what?”, Ken asked him. Jeff looked confused, almost as if he never thought thing past that particular point. Knowing Jeff that was a pretty big possibility. “Say I do get you out of here, then what. You still got to go to court.” Checking to see where the guards were Jeff leaned in a little closer and spoke a little softer, “They got to find me first.” “What?!”, he said through his teeth. “I go to court and I'm screwed. I leave town and it never happens.” “Yeah and when they find you it'll be even worse for you when they drag you in front of a judge.” “Not going to happen I know where to hide. I just need to get out of here.” “Jeff I can't do that.” “I'm family little bro,” he said, in a tone Ken was all to familiar with. “And you always got to help family. Dad always said so.” And there it was, his go to ace in the hole. Ken knew he was going there as soon as he started talking. He always brought up there dad when Ken wasn't immediately bending to his will. It still pissed him off royally when Jeff did that. But mainly at himself, because like now he started to listen. That button was way too fucking obvious. *** “How soon before the next creature comes through?”, Brooks said to the figure in the vortex. “If I may ask that is.” he stood in a dark cavern, his only refuge since he “retired” from the Castle Board of Directors. So far the UNDF hadn't located any of these site yet. Although now they knew how the monsters were appearing, and possibly from where since they saw him bring one over. Hopefully it'll take them a while to realize their main points of access to this dimension are primarily located underground. “Soon,” the figure replied. “We are making some modifications to Golza. There is some... debate on where the improved destructive beam should emit from.” “Ah, making him a 'fire' Golza as it were,” Brooks quipped. Realizing the figure wasn't reacting he sighed, “Right, no sense of humor. I forgot.” “We will tell you when he is ready Avatar,” and with that the portal vanished. Brooks grunted as the annoyance he was feeling made his right fist crackle. “How are you doing? I'm perfectly fine for not being able to go anywhere public since my face is posted just about everywhere. Just a minor inconvenience is all. Not that it matter to any of you, you one eyed...” Letting that annoyance build up and quickly get to him he blasted the wall. As the dust hanged in the air he started at the creator he just made. “That's going to be happening a lot now, I can just feel it” *** The next morning Ken was in the Castle practice range firing his gun at the target in front of him. His head wasn't really in it as his shots went a little wilder than usual. Jess, who was at the station next to his, had placed her shots in the “heart” of the target as usual. He put his gun down and lowered his head, leaning against the station. She always made some sort of comment about his shooting ability, right now he really wasn't in the mood for it. Hell he almost turned around and walked out of there earlier when he saw she was in there already. But this was a scheduled practice session, and Hawk usually gave you an ear full when you missed one. So he tried ot keep his tongue in check and remind himself she usually meant it as a jab between friends and not something mean spirited. She did say some say something, just not what he was expecting at this particular moment, “Rough night huh?” He looked at her not really understanding. “Captain Hawk mentioned you got a call Jeff was in jail last night.” Groaning, because he really didn't want that to get out any time soon, he asked, “How many of you did he tell?” “Me and Ryo,” she answered. Okay at least Bill was still in the dark at the moment. “He just wanted to make sure you were alright since you really didn't say anything after you got back. Do you know what happened? I mean you don't have to say anything if don't want to, or if you can't depending on legal matter. But we're here for you if you need us.” “I know,” he said, just looking ahead. Knowing he had to get at least one of the things weighing him down off his chest he told her, “He hit Janet.” Jessica sucked in some air but said nothing, just letting him continue at his own pace. “According to Mom not for the first time either. He's want;s me to use my 'connections' to get him out of this.” “Are you?” even though it a perfectly legitimate question, the look she was giving him pretty much said she thought it was already a done deal. Granted he gave in to Jeff before, a lot. Pretty much every time Jeff wanted something so it was a perfectly reasonable for her to expect him to do it again. Still that look was annoying the hell out of him, “I don't know.” “Did he bring up your dad?” He looked at the next target down the line because it looked really interesting at the moment. She walked away in disgust, “Oh my god you're doing it.” “I don't know what I'm doing yet,” he snapped. “I've been trying to get a hold of Janet all morning to get her side of things. She hasn't been answering her phone. She's even staying at my Mom's and I still can't talk to her for some reason.” Jess wouldn't let it go, “But you're considering it. Don't lie to me I can tell.” “I'll be the first to admit Jeff can be a ass. To a level only he's capable of reaching. But I don't think...” He stopped and amended himself. “I don't want to believe he's capable of doing something like this.” Her expression softened a little, mot much but a enough to notice. “I understand that. But Ken, if this is something he's been doing...” “I know,” he said. “I just want to get all the facts before I decide one way or another. Is that really that bad?” “For you, after bring up your father, that would be an improvement,” she said smiling softly. “Just don't rush into anything no matter how hard Jeff pushes the 'dad button' alright. Just promise me that much.” Seeing how Jeff's repeated pushing of that particular button was one of the, okay the major reason why she broke up him Ken said, “I'll try.” “Good,” she replied looking satisfied with his answer, “because the court martial would be worth it to beat some sense into you if I thought you did otherwise.” *** “Hey Jackson!,” a burly man sitting by a campfire shouted out. “Can you take that downwind. Yer stinking up the campsite.” “Fuck you man,” he said coming out from behind a bush. “That's your cooking you're smelling.” “Ain't nothing I've cooked made anything that smelled like that,” he protested. “You got something wrong with you. Been telling you that fer years.” “The only time I hear anybody complain is when I'm camping with you,” he said sitting back down by the fire. “So the problem is your cooking.” “Keep telling yerself that.” This particular argument had been a running joke between them for as long as they been camping in this particular location. Not that it still didn't get annoying but it did magically get cleared up after a couple of cold ones. Before that could happen a grumbling like sound filled the air. “I told you something wrong with you.” “What are you blabbing about now”, Jackson demanded. “Yer stomach making that noise. I know you can't be hungry already.” “You're hearing things,' he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “There it goes again,” he winced as the sound hit his ears. That's when Jackson started to look around in the darkness surrounding them, “That wasn't me.” “Who else could it be?” He heard the sound for a third time, much louder than the previous two. And the grumbling sounded more like a growl. “Wolves,” he as he took one of the larger sticks from the pile and next to him and stuck an end into the fire. Looking into the darkness Jackson went, “There's never been any around here this time of year before.” “Fuck it better not be a bear,” the burly one said keeping his makeshift torch in front of him.” “Don't fuckin' aggravate it if it is.” They heard the growl again, it was definitely getting louder. And coming from above them. They both looked up to see a huge set of glowing eyes starting right at them. Dropping the torch they ran for the hills. Almost right after a foot came down on top of the fire leaving the area in total darkness. *** The very next morning Commander Reid lead a team, including Bill and some other members of Alpha team on loan from Hawk, to investigate the claims the local forest rangers filed. Seeing the size and shape of the footprint in the middle of the campsite Reid was more inclined to believe them. Not that he personally doubted any information from a government source being a federal park and all, but there had been a few crank calls recently that wasted time and resources so his current investigation team wasn't as large as it usually would have been. Looking at the footprint for who know how many times he looked at the forest around them. “Now where in the hell did you go?” “Hey!”, Bill called out. “Trust me you don't want to go behind that bush.” This was directed at one of his Beta Team officers. Who promptly ignored his warning and walked around said shrubbery. Before long there was a “Good lord!” “Warned ya,” Bill muttered. “Welcome to my first couple of days in command,” Reid told him. “Not that I don't mind the company Commander,” Bill said after a bit of silence. “But why am I and a couple of other Alphas tagging along again?” “Captain Hawk and myself was starting to think that the 'friendly rivalry” between Alpha and Beta team was starting to negatively impact both units.” “Wait,” Bill cut in. “It was supposed to be a friendly rivalry? I don't think nobody passed that memo around.” “In theory it's supposed to be,” Reid admitted. “But Jamira's attitude did cause way more friction when he was in charge and that never went away after I took over.” Seeing that he could see exactly who was in which unit right just by how they paired up he let out a sigh of frustration. “We're hoping that by making both teams work together on investigations like this it'll lessen the tension between them a bit. Just them on of Reid's men bumped into Bill, “Out of the way Winger.” Bill shot back, “Watch were your going Tracker.” Reid sighed again, “Of course it doesn't help that one unit primarily air based and the other ground. Never did understand the reasoning behind that decision.” After a bit a thought occurred to him. “Waters, if you were in the air how would you track this thing? If you couldn't see it that is.” Bill thought it over for a moment. “Well if I couldn't see it I don't know how. Wait we had a situation like this before. The monster turned invisible but we were able to follow the tracks it was making. And we knew it was making tracks before because Jess and Civilian found one while on look out.” Reid started giving him a funny look. And it took him a little too long to realize why as Bill told him, “He said it was okay to call him that.” Letting it drop for the moment Reid asked, “Did they go looking for any more tracks to get a general direction of where it's going or been.” “I think they looked but I can't remember if they found any or not, sorry.” “Then hopefully we'll have better luck. Reid to Castle.” Promptly as ever Bridge replied, “Castle her Commander.” “Mark my location and send out a small squadron of Razor Wings to survey the area from the air.” A couple of his men looked slightly betrayed but he ignored the, Finding this thing was more important than catering to their egos.”We have a giant footprint at this location and I'm sure there has to be more. We're going to split up into two groups and try and locate some more. Have the Wings give the location of any they find from the air and give it to the closest unit. If anything can get a rough estimate of it's size and figure out where tit could possibly hide. Better yet find out where the damn thing came from.” “Understood Commander, we'll be launching shortly. Castle out.” “You know this one is going to be fun if it can turn invisible too,” One of his men, one who actually respected his command from the start, commented. “This job been more 'fun' then I can handle at times,” Reid told him. “Waters, it'll probably be better if you stuck with me.” Considering some of the looks he been getting Bill stepped a little closer to Reid and said, “If you say so sir.” “Gerald,” Reid called out. “Take half the guys and head that way,” he pointed in the general direction that that the footprint seemed be going. “The rest of us are going in the opposite direction. If you find anything that looks like that creature could hide in contact Castle and mark it's location.” “Yes sir,” his man saluted and quickly picked some men to go with him, including a couple from Alpha Team much to Reid's hidden delight, and headed off to follow the minuscule trail they had. “Alright Waters,” he said. “Let's see if we can a nest.” “Maybe we can find a giant egg for the mess,” he joked. Greeted with silence he moved along mumbling, “Nobody has a sense of humor in this entire outfit.” *** Walking up behind Bridge, Hawk watched him multitaask, going over several of the screens in front of him. One had the current monster search. A quick look around and he could see others in the control room were helping there. As it was Hawk was looking over his shoulder at the various other screens given the assignment he gave him previously. “Anythings in the records yet?” “Not yet sir,” Bridge said as he continued outlook at the screens. “Geological surveys haven't revealed any monster size cave in this particular area as of yet.” “They rarely do,” Hawk commented. “I know you're pretty thorough Bridge, but given the Brooks situation I'm not sure we can trust the surveys all that much.” “I've considered that Captain,” Bridge said. “I've checked the files myself to see if they have been tampered with in any way.” Gesturing to one of the screens Hawk could see he was still checking them even now, in a different area than the one they were currently in if he was reading them correctly. “I have people now going over any older surveys record to see if they can find any discrepancies” “Good man Bridge,” Hawk told him while patting him on the shoulder. “Although I think it might be a good idea to get some new surveys done just to be on the safe side.” “Good luck getting that through the Board's next budget meeting,” Bridge joked. “I'm going to need as much as I can get,” he grunted. But hopefully it wouldn't be as much of a fight, especially if Bridge can prove the surveys on file were tampered with in some way or another. Then again with the Brooks situation they may agree any way just so he didn't have any sort of advantage over them. He had it for far too long as it was. The familiar incoming communication beep got both of their attentions. Bridge replied first, “Castle here Razor Wing seven. What do you have?” “We're not sure,” came the reply from the female pilot. “Sally picked up a weird signal on her sensors. We swung by the area twice and picked it up both times. I had Nancy and Justin in Razor Wing eleven fly over the area and they got the same reading.” “Send it,” Hawk said as Bridge picked up the incoming signal and brought it up on the big screen. “We're receiving it now seven,” Bridge said. On the screen they could see the signal they were picking up. It seemed to be becoming from the mountain range in the area the creature was initially spotted. Hawk went to another screen and pulled up where Reid and his units was. And currently they were on the opposite side of the range the signal currently was. “It's never easy is it?”, Hawk said to no one in particular. “Hawk to Reid.” “Reid here, what is it Captain?” “The Razor Wings have picked up a reading on the other side of the mountain range. Get you team together and get into position as fast as you can. Bridge will give you the exact coordinates in a moment.” “Understood Captain, I'm recalling my men now.” “It could be nothing,” Bridge said as the link ended. “The readings we're seeing doesn't indicate anything in the monster size category so far.” “And this creature has to be somewhere,” Hawk reminded him. “Based on some of the things we've seen it makes sense that it would create a place to hide if there wasn't one there already.” “That could also be how Brooks was able to hide them all the time once he got them all this time.” That thought occurred to Hawk as well, more than once actually. And it literally depended on the time and his mood on if he believed it or not. Today and right now, “It would take time to create a large enough space to hold a giant creature. And that kind of work would be noticed some where no matter how he did it. Right now I want to concentrate on a possible creature sighting instead of what ifs.” “Yes sir,” Bridge said with a nod. “I'll get the internal units on stand by and ready to launch.” “Good man,” Hawk said one more time as he left the room. *** In one of the lower level Ken tried Janet's number one more time. If it went to voice mail one more time he was going to say screw it and head over to his Mom's place. And maybe get the Captain's permission to leave base first, he was semi official now after all. Hearing it ring again he finally got a voice, a cautious one, “Hello?” “Janet?”, he said more out of amazement that she actually picked up. He had to remind himself that he wasn't going to get the whole story if he only had one side of it now that he finally gotten a hold of her. Still what was he going to say now? “Okay, dumb ass question of the year here but are you alright?” “I'm, I'm fine,” said said. “Wait, I'll call you right back.” “Janet wait,” he said but she already ended the call. But like she said she would Janet called right back, wanting to talk over a video call. Almost not wanting too he accepted the call and held the phone out a bit. Her face filled the small screen and his eyes went to the huge bruise on her cheek. Leaning back against the wall behind him for support his free hand went to his mouth, the realization of what his brother did slamming into him full force, “Oh God.” “I,” she looked almost ashamed that he could see her, “I wanted you to see for yourself. It's not as bad as it was but it still .. yeah.” “I see,” he said, part of him still not to wanting to believe the evidence in front of him. “How long has this been going on?” “A few months,” she answered. Each word felt like a physical blow. A few months? “Why didn't you say anything?” “What was I supposed to say?”, she demanded. “He kept apologizing and and I kept forgiving him. Then he'd do it again.” “Why now?”, he asked. “If he's been hitting you for months why wait until now to say anything?” “He did this,” she pointed to the bruised side of her face, “in front of Nicole. That was the last straw. I only wish I did it sooner.” God, he didn't even think about his niece. “What are you and Nicole going to do now?” “I don't know,” she admitted. “The house is in Jeff's name and I'm not going back there. You're mom said we can stay there for as long as we want. But I don't want to impose on her good will any longer than I have too.” “I'm sure she'll tell you you're not imposing, you're family.” “Right now we are,” she said suddenly. And it took Ken a little too long to understand what she was getting at. “You're thinking about getting a divorce?” “I'm,” again she seemed hesitant to answer, “I'm not sure.” Before he could respond Bridge's voice came over the intercom, “All teams prepare to launch. A potential monster signal has been detected. All teams prepare to launch.” “Damn it,” Ken muttered as he looked at the ceiling. Looking back at his phone he said, “Janet I have to go. I'll call back the first chance I get.” “Right,” she said, but she still didn't look happy about it. “I'll talk to you then.” Still she soften a bit as she said, “Ken be careful.” “Tell it to the creature,” he said attempting a joke. Both of them knew his heart wasn't in it though. *** An hour after they mobilized and arrived they were still waiting. The area was cordoned off and all civilian withing a mile of the location were evacuated, some more than a bit angry about according to some of the others. Nothing like the gratitude of having your life potentially saved. A few ground units not currently aiming their cannons at the potential underground target estimated location were patrolling that mile area for any stragglers or people trying to sneak back in to watch, generally the orders were about any reporters but any one with a recording device was to be detained and quickly escorted from the area. Currently Ken was in the group keeping any eye on the target. Leaning against a Scan Track he had his arms crossed and was deep in thought. And not about the current situation. “Hey Civilian,” Bill said as he joined him against the vehicle. “Family trouble getting you down?” Snorting in disgust Ken muttered a, “Is everybody talking about this?” “You ain't that special Civilian,” Bill shot back. “Besides Hawk and Jess ask me to keep an eye on you and see how you're doing.” Ken snorted again. “Hey man, you got your real family and you got this one too.” This time he snorted a bit, “Hell for some of us this is the only family we got.” Right about then Ken remembered Bill was raised in an orphanage and never adopted. Not that it meant anything in the current situation but at least he was trying to show that he cared. Ken also immediately felt like a bit of an ass, “Sorry Bill.” “Forget about it Civilian.” After a moment Bill started looking at him, in a way that almost made him uncomfortable.” “Is this you trying to figure out a way to shoulder everything going on in the private life? Because Jess said you would and this is looking like it to me.” “I'm still trying to wrap my head around things,” Ken admitted. “My brother's been arrested, my sister-in-law has a bruise on her face the size of his fist. And I even had a chance to ask about my niece yet but I know she has to be scared and confused as hell after it happened.” His gaze went to the mountain range, “And I'm here stuck waiting for whatever the fuck that's supposed to be to come out of hiding.” Bill just nodded seeing how he didn't know what to say to that. Ken was kind of glad he say anything, he just needed to vent for a second. Both of them looked up to see the Alpha One fly into the area. “Just a hunch but I'm guessing they really think that something there if they brought out the big guns.” Being this close Daxium was already sensing the creature so there was no doubt in Ken's mind. He told Bill, “Better them up there than me.” “I betcha anything Ryo in my chair right now. Pretending he's the Alpha's main pilot.” “That's why they invented rock-paper-scissors,” Ken joked, but still not feeling it at the moment. “Ryo cheats,” Bill said joking along. “Hey man just remember, even the rock needs help every so often, so if you need anybody to lean on we're there for you,” he patted him on the shoulder and headed back to his Scan Track. Seeing how that was something similar to what Jess used to tell him Ken had a pretty good idea on where he got that line. Still he appreciated the gesture. “Hawk to all units,” he said from the bridge of the Alpha One. “Target has been confirmed. We have the green light to try and force it out of the side of the mountain range. I want a man from each unit to join in the patrols on for for the time being. Report as soon as you see anybody who's not supposed to be here.” “Understood,” The Scan Track driver said as he joined a chorus of other who confirmed the order. “Ken,” he shouted out the window, “since you;re already outside the vehicle why don't you join the patrols in this section.” “On it,” Ken said as he headed for the woods. He looked back at the Alpha one hovering n the air. That order just saved him a ton of hassle for when the creature decided to pop up. On the Alpha One Hawk looked back at Jess who was at the weapons station. “Wade, do you want to tell me again why that order was a good idea. Because I'm still not buying it.” “With an area this big the patrols can't see everything, especially when there's a lot of places a person can hid,” she said. “The more eyes on the ground looking for them the less chance of any civilian getting got in the crossfire.” “Outside of Scott that is,” the man next to Ryo said. And like Bill was worried about, Ryo was in the pilot seat. “No one asked you opinion Phillips,” Ryo snapped at him. Phillips looked back at Hawk, realized he wasn't going to get any support on the matter and quietly turned back to his station. Consider that situation handled Hawk glanced back at Jess. While he was open to any suggestion, especially ones that could save lives, he still wasn't fully buying it. Consider the Scan Tracks sensor package any stray non combatant could be detected easily. Still, for now at least, he'll consider it an experiment. A few more men patrolling on foot would cut down any chase time by a few seconds as soon as they were located. *** After an half hour several all clears came from those currently on patrol. Before giving the order Hawk thought, and not for the first time today, that Jamira would be extremely happy that they were about to do what he thought they should have been doing all along. “Wade, lock on to the signal and send a round of missiles to wake it up.” “Rodger,” she replied, already having a target lock on her screen before he said anything. “Firing missiles.” Around of missiles flew out struck the mountain full force. Everyone watching a cloud of smoke and debris flew up from the impact on the mountain and waited. The fingers on Ken's right hand started twitching slight as he still felt the dark energy. Suddenly a crimson beam of energy fired out from the cloud and started tearing out a path in the ground. Realizing he was in the path of this wave of destruction Ken jumped out of the way but was still caught in it's wake and ended up flying further than he intended. Stunned for the moment he tried to regain his bearings as the other units started firing. Through the smoke other parts of the creature started to emerge. With parts of it's skin looking like a hard, gray leather hood as it roared in defiance. As more of it's body became visible more of the gray area became apparent, looking like sections of armor covering the blue flesh underneath. It's gigantic neck started to glow a bit as arcs of electricity flew up it's head and collected themselves in a point right above it's forehead. A moment later that same crimson beam attacked it's assailants one more time. Scan Tracks in it's path that didn't react fast enough were sent flying or were destroyed altogether. “All units move,” Reid ordered. “Try to fire at it on the fly and not give that thing any stationary targets.” “God I wish I was in the air right now,” Bill whined from the sensor station. “Get it's attention,” Hawk ordered as he saw what Reid's troops were trying to do. Ryo already had the Alpha One moving into position as Jess called out, “Lock acquired. Firing missiles.” A new set of missiles hit the creature on the gray part of it's hide. It didn't seem to do much but the creature started looking at them. Seeing the energy build up in it's neck and travel up once more Ryo quickly maneuvered the super jet out of the way of the destructive beam. Jess glanced over at the engineering section now occupied by some one else. Where ever Ken was at this moment he was probably glad he wasn't aboard for this particular ride. Loose dirt fell off him as he was finally able to get off the ground. Ken looked over at the freshly dug, gigantic rut that was next to him. Yeah that was too fucking close for comfort. Look back at the mountain he saw the troops try to engage the creature. Although seemingly making it angrier would have been a better assessment. Spotting the Alpha one, he started getting a bit queasy just watching the moves it was pulling off. Time to lend a hand he thought as he subconsciously shook his left arm a bit. Making sure no one else was around as he reached into his jacket Ken raised the Spark Magnifier over his head and activated it. Attracted by the column of light Golza roared a challenge as Daxium appeared, “Shiah!” Both giants charged at one another. At the last moment Daxium jumped and twisted in the air as he landed so he faced the back of the monster. As it turned he fired off a flash bolt that hit it. But it didn't seem affected it much as it hit one of the gray panels. But he was confident enough that it did affect it and ran at the creature. This time connecting with a right to the blue flesh of it's face. Hat seemed to get the reaction of pain he was looking for and he tried it again with the same results. Trying it a third time he was surprised by the creatures quickness as it grabbed his arm and threw him to the ground face first. Golza started stomping on his back with apparent maniacal glee. Grunting with each stomp he rolled out of the way as he felt it's foot lift off his back. Not going far he tried to surprise the creature by tackling it at the waist to try and catch it off balance and silently celebrated as he did so. The two giants his the ground in a earth shaking crash. “Really wish I was in the air,” Bill mumbled as they watched the ongoing conflict. On top of it Daxium started landing several blows to the monster's face before Golza started building up energy again. Rolling off the creature as it fired straight up he wasn't prepared for how fast the creature could get to it's feet. It came at him hard trying to knock him off his feet. It took all he had but Daxium kept his footing but he was still a bit wobbly. Changing it's tactics a bit Golza came in and after a bit of a struggle got it's arms around him and started squeezing. Daxium cried out in pain as the pressure increased. Then he saw the monster's neck start to glow. Despite the pain he got his hands under it' chin and started pushing up. He just barely pushed it up enough that the beam went over his head. Letting him go the creature battered Daxium around a bit as he tried to defend himself but they quickly crumbled. With ease it picked Daxium up and off his feet and threw him into the side of the mountain. Dazed for a bit too long as the creature had time to charge up it's beam and fired it and kept firing it. The pressure against him increased the longer it hit him, even feeling the mountain behind him start to crumble as he was pushed into it. He tried not to panic as the jewel on his chest started flashing. “All units open fire!”, Reid ordered as Scan Tracks and Razors Wings unleashed a load of missiles at the creature to try and get it to stop it's beam. “Main cannon primed,” Jess called out at her station on the Alpha One as a handle and trigger lowered into position. Underneath the ship a cannon lowered into position. She impatiently watched her read out as it quickly hit full charge. “Main cannon ready.” Hawk didn't even hesitate, “Fire!” “Firing!”, and she pulled the trigger. A stream of energy fired out of the cannon barrel and hit Golza between the gray plates and hit the softer blue flesh. The beam stopped and the beast spun around to locate it's new attacker. Seeing his opportunity Daxium slammed his forearms together and mode shifted into Power Mode. “All Scan Tracks back away now!”, Reid called out although a few drivers were already doing just that just in anticipation of of him unleashing his main move. A new sense of energy flowing though him Daxium ran toward the creature and grabbed it from behind and forced it to turn around and punched it again. This time the monster reacted in pain. He kept up the attack and Golza stumbled back. Daxium was able to grab it around the head and with a grunt he was able to pick it it up and over as he fell back slamming it to the ground. Golza seemed to panic and quickly pushed him away. Turning over it started to claw at the ground trying to dig it's way out of there. Daxium ran in quickly and grabbed it around the waist and with another strained grunt was able to remove Golza from the hole it was creating. Holding the monster over his head he faced the mountain and threw the monster into it's side. Holding his fist to his chest he drew in energy. Then punched the ground unleashing the Giga Wave. Then energy wave hit, tearing up the ground as it hit the creature and through it into the mountain. A moment later Golza exploded in a massive fireball. Turning around Daxium looked at the UNDF forces in the sky and on the ground and gave them a nod in thank before flying off into the sky, “Shiah!” Ken's Scan Track found stopping on the other side of the gigantic rut that was still smoking a little. The gunner jumped out to get a closer look at it, whistling at the sight. He looked over at him, “How close were you to that?” “Really trying not to think about it,” Ken told him. Trying to find the best way to cross the rut, thinking it wasn't the best of ideas to jump into it considering the readings his wrist scanner was picking up, he didn't see anything in the immediate area. “I'm going to head that way, it had to stop ripping up the ground at some point.” “We'll meet you down there,” the driver called out as the gunner jumped back in. “You better hurry.” As the drove off Ken actually smiled. That would have been a totally different conversation after he first joined up. *** “The park services are still giving us hell,” Reid told Hawk hours later. They had both debriefed their respective teams and was currently sitting in Hawks office. “Even after we helped put the fires out.” “I'm sure it's coming from a bureaucratic level,” Hawk said taking a sip from his cup. “I've notice in my time in this organization that the ones behind the desk are usually the ones making the most noise. I'm sure if you asked the rangers in the park they be giving you a different story.”. “You seem so sure of that particular theory.” “Deal with the board as often as I have,” Hawk answered with a small grin. “I'll let you keep that particular honor,” Reid grinned back. “Although one park ranger did ask me if there was a way to warn people when Ultraman was going to go into his Red Form.” Hawk stared at him for a moment, “Red Form?” “His Red Form,” Reid explained, “that's what we call it in Beta.” Still Hawked looked confused. “Multi, Blue and Red?” Still not getting any reaction of recognition Reid asked, “What does Alpha call them?” “Normal, Hyper and Power.” Frowning Reid went, “That was in no report by Jamira that I've read.” “Honestly we never really talked about it,” Hawk told him.”I suppose that's what I get for assuming he read my reports that I sent him. Then again I wasn't much better considering I just skimmed his only concentrating on the parts were he was complaining out something in the operation.” A chime went off signaling somebody was at his door. “I really need to get an assistant. It's open.” Ken walked and looked like he was starting to say something when he spotted Reid. “Sorry Captain I didn't think you'd still be busy.” “It's alright Ken,” Reid said getting up, “I got to go over some old reports anyway.” When Hawk gave him a confused look he said, “I have to figure out where Alpha and Beta started to see things differently now to avoid any future confusion. Captain, Ken.” “Sir,” Ken said as he stepped aside to let him out. Reid gave the young man a quick, friendly pat on shoulder as he passed. Hawk hid his smile, finally he was acting like he belonged. Now if he could just convince him to zip up that blasted jacket. “So what can I do for you son?”, he gestured toward the now empty chair. Taking the offered seat he looked unsure of himself all of the sudden. Naturally this pique Hawk's curiosity because even when he first joined up he never looked this uncertain about anything. Maybe about getting into Razor Wing but he was usually a pale shade of green in those moments. “I... ah.... I have a pretty strange request. And I'm probably stepping way outta line too.” “I'll be the judge of that.” Knowing what happened with his brother he tried not to think the worst. “Would I be correct in assuming this 'request' is family related?” Fidgeting a little he replied, “Pretty much.” Again he tried no to think the worst. It could be he just wanted an ear to vent too. Or perhaps he wanted some advice from someone not personally involved in the situation. It was even in the realm of possibilities that he wanted an extended leave of absence to help sort things out at home. Or Jessica could be correct about her fears about the situation when she talked it over with him earlier. “So let's hear it.” *** “It's about time you showed up,” Jeff spat as he sat down across him at the same table they had earlier. He had already been arraigned but so far nobody they knew had stepped up to supply the bail money to get him out of jail. “I'm rotting away in this joint. You talked to whoever you had to yet?” Looking at him with the straightest of looks he said, “Yeah I talked to my Captain.” “Went straight to the top. Smartest thing your grease jockey ass ever did. When am I getting out of here?” His expression didn't change, “You're not.” Jeff sputtered, “He turned you down.” “No he accepted my request,” Ken told. He was trying not to show that he was enjoying this but based on how angry Jeff was getting he probably was. “He arranged for Janet to get an work interview at Castle in a couple of days.” “Janet?! She's the reason why I'm in here!” “No,” Ken said sharply, “you got yourself into this. Don't go blaming her because you can't control yourself any more.” “I'm your family!”, he growled and started to get up. Holding up his UNDF badge Ken waved the guards off and they complied by stepping back. But they were keeping a closer eye on their table now. “Did you forget what Dad always said? That you have to take care of your family?” “I remember,” Ken calmly told him. “Dad said a lot of things. You have to take care of family. If you fuck up act like a man and face the consequences.” Jeff snorted and looked away. “And this one has been running through my head a lot lately. Sometimes you have to forget about the past and start worrying about the future.” “And what the fuck does that mean?” “It means I'm thinking about Nicole's future,” Ken told him. “Because I;ve been wondering what kind of future is she going to have, who she's going to end up with, if you're acting like the jackass you have been.” “She's just fine!” Jeff shouted. Another hand up by Ken kept the guards in place again. The apparent power play in Jeff's mind was making him even crazier. “I don't need you or anybody telling me how to raise my kid.” “Because the example you've been setting has been so fucking great hasn't it?”, Ken shot back. “Jeff for once in your life listen to reason. Pay for what you did At least admit you did something wrong.” His older brother sat there fuming and said nothing. Sighing Ken said, “I wanted to tell you what was going on face to face.” Not sure what else to say since Jeff clammed up Ken got up and left. “Don't you walk away from me you son of a bitch!” Jeff yelled, getting partially up. “You are nothing without me!” He started struggling with the guards who tried to calm him down.. “You owe me! I made you the man you are now!” That made Ken stop in his tracks. Standing there fuming himself he suddenly turned around and headed back tot he table. With one last wave he sent the guards back and leaned against the table staring his brother right in the eyes. Eventually Jeff sat back down, confused by his sudden change of visual attitude but still angry as hell. Ken quite literally didnt give a fuck at how angry he was right then. “You know what?”, he said evenly. “You're right. You are absolutely right. You are responsible for me being the man I was. But you know what? I got away from you, I got away of your put downs and your guilt trips and everything else you threw at me and I quickly became somebody better. Somebody everybody else saw in me.” “There is nothing to you,” Jeff spat. “Yeah, you keep saying that. For as long as I can remember. Everybody else I knew said I had a gift, I had a future and you kept saying that. And you were the one I kept listening to.” “That's because there's nothing special about you.” Any other time time Ken might have enjoyed telling Jeff this, just to see the expression on his face. But right now, after years of this crap, he just wanted to shut him up. “Too bad I saw my file from the academy, before I got medically disqualified. I'll be honest I'm still not sure if I believe it or not myself. But according to their experts, I am quite literally a mechanical genius.” “You are not,” his brother began. Ken didn't even give him a chance to start with the spiel again. “It would explain why I was always able to figure out those newer engines they keep coming up with. Barely even had to crack open a manual. I just knew how it worked just by looking at it.” He stopped and waited a bit to see if Jeff had anything to say to that. His brother just sat there seething. He went on, “You're my brother and I love you. But I can't help but get a little pissed off thinking about where I'd be right now if I didn't keep letting you drag me down. Now I'm not blaming you entirely, I was the one listening to you and that's fully on me. But you kept trying to drag me down for whatever reason. And right now I really don't give a damn anymore what that reason was. Because right now, I'm pretty sure I'm who I'm supposed to have been all along. After I got away from you. And I'm praying to God or whoever listening that's something Nicole will never have to through with you acting like you have been.” Again he gave Jeff an opportunity to say something, anything. But again he just sat there, not even looking ashamed of himself or anything. Feeling strangely lighter after finally getting that off his chest he turned around and left the room and didn't look back after the door closed. *** Wandering around the office level of Castle Ken finally found the office dealing with outside civilian employment. It occurred to him that there would be a joke there for some people on base, at his expense of course. Which was why he didn't ask anyone of directions. He didn't go in, he wasn't needed in there of course. But he did walk by the reception desk and sat next to Nicole who was playing with her visitor badge and looking like the loneliest person on the planet. The way he heard things was the interview was scheduled pretty much after Janet had to pick her up from school and Mom wasn't available since it was a busy time at the store and was low on help. And there was no other openings in the schedule for her to come in earlier. Fortunately they let her bring Nicole, Ken just wished he could have gotten away from Dr. Williams sooner. “Hey kiddo, how are you doing?” He realized a little too late that was probably one of the stupidest things he could have asked. “I was able to talk my Captain into letting me give you guys a tour of the base after you Mom's done. That'll be pretty cool right?” She nodded but still said nothing as she kept looking at the floor. Seeing this usually happy little girl in this state was breaking his heart. More to break the silence than anything he said, “I hear you're staying in my old room. Now I don't care what Grandma says you tell her I said you can decorate it any way you want.” “Uncle Ken,”she finally spoke up. “Yeah kiddo?” She looked at him, “Is my Daddy a bad man?” “Um...,” alright, how in the hell was he supposed to answer that one? “No honey, he's not a bad man. He... just forgot how to be a good one.” He happened to look over to see Jess standing there listening to them. Ignoring the look she was giving him he said, “Your Daddy just need time to remember how to be a good man. And he needs a long time to think about the things he's done that got him to where he is now.” On the other side of the room the door opened and Janet, the person she was talking to, and Captain Hawk for some, came out of the other room. Nicole ran over to her before Ken could stop her. Fortunately Hawk knelt down smiling at her and started up a quick conversation with Nicole before straightening back up. Alone with Jess all he could say was, “Don't give that look. Jeff doing a good enough job on his own but I don't want her to think her father is a monster. Self-centered, an idiot and maybe even a jackass,” he glanced back at Nicle who was now hugging Janet's leg while still talking to Captain Hawk, “but not a monster.” “Fair enough,” she ended up saying. “But forgot how to be a good man?” “Janet had to see something in him,” he told her. “God knows I never seen it but it had to have been there at some point.” Janet, Nicole and Hawk came up to them. Hawk said, “There's been a slight change of plans, I need to show my new secretary the office while the final paperwork goes through. Just to get her familiar with the set up.” “Secretary?”, Ken asked, more than a little caught off guard. “I thought she was signing up to be part of the janitorial staff.” Janet just shrugged her shoulders. “Not after seeing those college transcripts,” he said. “I'm lucky nobody else snapped her up yet. As I said there still a little more paperwork, just the usual background stuff. But that can wait a bit why don't you take your daughter and get something to eat n the cafeteria. I'm sure both of you are hungry.” “I will in a bit,” Janet told him. “Thank you sir.” “She started calling me that faster than you did,”Hawk said taking a friendly shot at Ken. He faked a laugh, fortunately Hawk was more than familiar with his sense of humor by now. To Janet he said, “I'll see you in a bit.” “Yes sir.” Hawk and the other person reentered the office leaving the alone for the most part. Janet looked down at Nicole then at Jess. “I know I don't really know you and shouldn't be asking you this, but can I talk to Ken alone for a few moments.?” Jess was a little surprised but she said, “Sure.” Kneeling down she looked at Nicole and gave her a soft smile, “Hey there sweetie. I don't suppose you remember me. When that monster spoiled your birthday?” Nicole looked at Jess then nodded that she did. “Cool. How about you and me go down to the cafeteria?” “It's okay kiddo,” Ken told his niece. “You can trust her.” “'Kay” Nicole said. Without any prompting she took Jess' offered hand and they headed off. “Me and Uncle Ken will join you soon honey,” Janet told her. Ken added, “Charge whatever she gets to my account.” “I was planing to,” Jess shot back. Out of the blue Nicole looked up at Jess and asked, “Are you Uncle Ken's girlfriend?” “Ah,” caught off guard Jess looked back at Ken who was looking embarrassed at the moment, “I'm a friend who's a girl.” After they turned the corner Janet looked at him. “Thank you for doing this. But why? If you expect me to get back with Jeff...” “There's no hidden strings here,” Ken assured her. “I don't know what going to happen in the future. But if you do go through with the,” he paused, looked around then just said it, “ the divorce I know you'll probably going to need a better paying job than the one you have now to support you and Nicole. And since I used to live with Mom I also understand the need to get out of her house as soon as possible.” He said that last bit mainly to lighten the current mood. Luckily it worked for the moment. “But why?”, Janet pressed the issue. “After the divorce we won't be family any more.” “Divorce or not I'm always going to consider you family. So you're stuck with me because I'm not going to just drop out of your life. And Mom would hunt you down if you tried to do the same. And,” he couldn't believe he was saying this after everything that went down,” Dad always said you helped family. Besides you have my favorite niece.” Janet chuckled at that last bit then hugged him, “Thank you. Thank you for helping us like this.” She broke off and said. “I guess we better hurry up and catch up with Nicole and your friend.” As they walked down the hall Janet looked at him, “Why did you're captain ask me if I make my coffee as strong as you do?” Ken sighed, “He's the one who said he wanted it strong enough to strip the paint off the walls.” ----- ED - Shinedown - Fly From the Inside ----- |
A/N - Again some potentially heavy subject mattter, just to let you know. Didn't plan to have two of these back to back, it just how it worked out.
----- ----- Episode-23 ----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn In My Light Somebody had to be attacking him with a boulder, a tree or something equally heavy. That was the only reason he could currently think of that explained why his head was killing him as much as it did. So much so that he couldn't even feel Daxium telling him where or who it was. Then he tried opening his eyes to see where the attack was coming from. Huge ass mistake as he quickly closed them again when the pain seemed to increase. Holding his head it took Ken another couple of seconds to realize he was in a bed. What the hell? Then it slowly started to come back to him. There was a party last night. Some sort of anniversary, or special event. Something that required the massive celebration. Probably something on a bureaucratic level that he didn't care about one way or another. Everybody just went, or had to go... that part was still a little fuzzy. He was leaning more toward the had to go as he seemed to recall Hawk insisting that he show up. And he didn't have to dress it up, he just had to come in in his uniform jacket since Hawk and the rest had to show up in uniform. Vaguely remembering that he tried to avoid Richardson and Williams for most of the night Ken suddenly remembered one of the lab boys handing him something in a glass. Rising slowly to minimize the agony he was still feeling Ken clutch at his head mumbling, well more like grunting, “Ugh. New rule, never trust a guy in a lab coat holding a beaker at a party.” Carefully opening his eyes again he tried to force them to focus. That's when he noticed the door was on the wrong side of the room. Ken just stared at it for a few moments trying to process what the hell he was seeing. He had these quarters for over a year now and the door was never on that particular wall. And the bed was practically bolted to the wall so nobody could have moved it with him in it while he was out. So again, what the hell? Turning his head, slowly enough that a new wave of pain didn't hit him like a Mack truck, he tried to figure out what was going on. That's when he noticed a couple of items in the room that wasn't his, like that hair dryer on the dresser. And he was pretty sure that was a dress that he was seeing in the open closest. Oh shit these weren't his quarters. And he was suddenly very aware of the person sleeping next to him under the sheets. Looking at the mound next to him Ken did nothing at first. Then poking at what he hoped was a shoulder Ken went, “Please tell me I know you.” After a moment a familiar sounding voice answered back, “Please tell me you're not who I think you are,” right before a even more familiar head of red hair appeared from underneath the sheets. Ken and Jess just looked at each in total confusion before she asked, “Did we....?” Ken picked up the sheet, just enough to look at himself. And outside of the sock on his right foot that was dangling off the bed he wasn't wearing much. “I think we did.” “Oh God,” Jess groaned as Ken quickly located his pants and put them on even faster. Standing up that fast was a mistake but he had to get out of that bed. She sat up and hid her face in her hand for a bit, “How the fuck did this happen?” “Don't look my way for answers”, Ken told her as he looked for the rest of his clothes, both of their jackets was by the door for some reason, the apparent starting point for a loose trail of clothes he was now seeing, “most of last night is a blur. I don't remember even coming in here.” She looked at him with an almost accusing glare, “You planned this didn't you?” He looked back, “Excuse me?” “You planned this,” she repeated. “You had this planned out all along.” Any other day he would realize, eventually, that accusation came from the fact she was freaking out about this as much as he was. And at least thought he'd be a tad more understanding. But right now he was too hungover to give a crap. “Okay you got me. This was my plan all along. I talked Richardson into putting me on this team. Waited until the moment I could drag you away to have my way with you. Congratu-fucking-lations you figured me fuck out!” “Do not yell at me!”, she shot back. “I'm not...!” He winced and held his head, and a little more softly, “I'm not yelling my head hurts too damn much.” “Alright, alright,” Jess said as she covered her face again, “you didn't plan this.” Ken found a shirt, quickly realized it wasn't his and handed it back to her. She grabbed it and quickly put it on, “Okay, obviously we drank way too much last night. Lost some inhibitions.” “Of course,” Ken quickly agreed as he found a shoe, “happens all the time.” “Right,” she said as he tossed her uniform pants to her. “We obviously acted on an impulse we wouldn't act on in normal circumstances.” “Probably some old feelings that were buried over the years,” he said as he located the shirt he was wearing the night before. “Exactly,” Jess said. “Being too drunk causes that. So we... hold it.” Ken looked back at her, she was still in the bed and looked around, almost as confused as he was earlier. “This isn't my room.” *** After both of them successfully snuck out of whomever room that was, meaning nobody was in the hallway to see them stumble out over themselves trying to be sneaky, they split up and headed to their respective quarters. Ken quickly showered and put on a new set of clothes. One of the drawbacks of not having a regular uniform like everybody else is people tended to notice if you wore the same thing two days in a row. And that hangover was still there, and passing by the medical wing there was a pretty big line, apparently somebody in there had a halfway decent hangover cure according to a couple of people he talked to. Based on that line it must have been some party, too bad whatever was in that glass the lab coat gave him blacked out most of it. As it was he was sitting in the main cafeteria holding a cup of coffee in one hand while clinging to his head with the other, waiting for the aspirin to kick in. He should have waited in line. Wincing as somebody loudly scraped on the chairs against the floor, he risked opening an eye to see the offender, of course it was Bill, and Ryo, who was a little more considerate as he picked up a chair and pulled it out. Ignoring the other in the room nursing a hangover giving him a dirty look Bill just looked at him. “Dude Civilian you look like hell.” Ignoring him Ken just pointed at the kitchen. “Coffee pot. Here please. Ryo you got pull. Make them put it here.” At least he looked apologetic when he said, “Sorry man, I don't have that much pull.” Ken just groaned in disappointment. “Besides I don't want to piss off the other guys looking for relief in the coffee.” “Screw them my head's about to split open,” Ken said. “Well you're speaking in more complete sentences now,” Ryo joked. Ken responded with a particular finger. “Now that's just rude.” Snorting Bill told Ryo, “Told ya he got beakered.” Opening a eye to look at him Ken went, “I got what now?” “The unofficial term generally used is 'beakered',” Ryo began. “Some of the scientist around here have a, shall we say, not so legal apparatus that makes some pretty potent alcohol. They always bring it to the type of parties like we had last night. And they always wait for the chance to give it to one of the new guys.” “They have a still?”, Ken asked. Ryo nodded in response. “And how can I be one of the new guys? I've been here over a year.” “First time we had that large a party since you've been here,” was his only explanation. “They only break it out during those larger parties. Less chance of security catching them or something. Still drive the security guys nuts that they can't find it anywhere.” “And you know those lab boys aren't going to give it up or rat out their own,” Bill added. “Why didn't you warn me?”, Ken demanded. “Because it's funnier this way,” Bill told him. “I hate you so much.” “Oh you love me,” Bill told him. “A good chunk of us have gotten beakered man,” Ryo told him. “Some of us,” he shot a look toward Bill, “remember going through this and are willing to help a teammate out.” He put a small vile on the table. “I was able to get a dose before the line formed, and Bill did figure they might get you.” “They didn't have a “hangover be gone' formula when it happened to you,” Bill said to defend himself. Turning toward Ken he said with a smirk, “You should have seen it Civilian, Ryo was the head of the party leading the charge to the lab boys. They stumbled around so much you would have thought it was the zombie apocalypse.” With a look shutting Bill up Ryo turned back toward Ken, “Despite what Bill called it it won't get rid of the hangover right away. It'll just make it go away a little faster. And make it a little more bearable when it kicks in.” Taking it Ken just looked at it for a moment. “It's not more of what they gave me last night is it?” “They say it's not,” Ryo told him. “They're as secretive about that as they are as to the location of the their still. Besides what do you got to lose, the worst thing that happened to you this morning was waking up with the worst hangover you ever had, right?” “Right,” Ken mumbled. That and finding out he slept with his ex in his drunken stupor when he woke up. What the hell, what did he have to lose at the moment? Unscrewing the top he quickly downed the content. Then he quickly wished he hadn't. “God that tastes like shit.” “That's how you know it's good for you,” Bill quipped. “Let me get you out of here before he kills you,” Ryo told bill as he got up. Bill did the same, again loudly scrapping the chair against the floor. Again drawing some dirty looks from Ken and the others. “You are lucky I don't want to do the paperwork Hawk would make me do for letting the have you,” he said as he pushed Bill out of there.' “Come on man I thought you liked me,” Bill said as they left. “I hate doing paperwork more,” was the last Ken heard of them. Then he realized his coffee was cold. Slowly getting up he grabbed his cup and headed back for the coffee machine. He panic a bit when he realized there was no line. Please tell him they didn't run out. He nearly ran into Jess on the way to find out. And it was as super awkward as both of them thought it was going to be. “Jessica,” he said after a bit. “Ken,” she said in return. Then nothing for what seemed like the longest time. She broke the silence, “We keep acting like this people are going to start guessing we did something.” “Right,” he said. “We don't need to give the rumor mill any ammunition.” “And the mill around here is brutal,” she added. “I mean we just made a simple mistake.” “We drank a little too much,” he quickly agreed. “Well I got beakered apparently.” She winced a bit in understanding, but if he got beakered how much did she drink? “Either way we both lost control.” “Happens all the time.” About then a couple of female team members walked past behind them. “I swear if I ever find out who had sex in my room last...” “Relax Jennifer,” her companion told her. “It was nothing. In fact a couple of people on base found out their quarters were turned into party rooms during the night. Beside you just wish you were in on it.” “It's an invasion of privacy Beth.” “Then learn to lock your door.” By the time they past Ken and Jess were both gone, again headed in opposite directions. *** Brooks stood just outside one of the many caverns he used. Despite the manhunt that was still on his trail it would have been more dangerous for him to stay in one location. And with the general size of the “packages” his masters delivered it would have been noticed eventually. Besides staying cooped up in one location for too long would have drove him insane. Not that most people wouldn't have questioned his sanity if they ever discovered his little deal. He was sure there was more than a few discussions on the subject back at Castle once he “resigned “his position. Enough of the fresh air and the wonder. Ducking his head as he reentered the cavern he turned into the shadow and onto a path that was practically invisible if you weren't looking for it. That lead him to a larger cavern with a deep pit. A monstrous shape paced inside it. From the edge he watched it for a bit. “Not quite ready yet,” he said to no one in particular. Turning away he walked toward a small makeshift camp he had set up, it was the best he could do considering how hastily he had to get things ready. Picking up a small mirror he examined his feature, still debating on if he should let the beard grow out. A small bit of vanity made him keep his clean shaven appearance. However a beard would give him a couple of extra moments of anonymity if he ever had to refresh his supplies. Well, in a slightly more legal way then he had been. But given how fast the experts back at Castle were able to identify Jamira in his disheveled state the risk wouldn't have been diminished by much. Perhaps he grew the beard out then walked into the closest town as Charles Brooks... No chances were they were looking for him as well. A slight sensation in his mind caused him to look at the vortex as it was starting to form. Before long the shape of one of his Zetton masters was in the center of. “I'm afraid Pandon is taking longer to mature than anticipated.” Usually with news like that his master would lash out. The vortex didn't look any angrier than usual which piqued his curiosity just a bit. “It was something we were aware might happen Avatar,” the voice said. “The the duel nature of it's make up is making it hard to adjust for reasons we can not currently explain.” Well that would have been nice to know from the start. “Should I give it another treatment?', he offered. “Give it more of a kick to adjust quicker?” “No,” came the reply. “We choose this particular location because it is close to what you call a volcanic vein.” He looked at the rocky wall, funny it didn't seem any warmer in here than in any of the other locations. “Pandon is feeding off of that energy to adjust and mature at a proper rate. But it should be soon.” “Of course,” he said with a slight bow. The vortex disappeared as quickly as it acme. Brooks sneered, and turned away from the spot. Right fist crackling with the dark energy he was gifyed with as he tried to kept his temper in check this time around. If they bothered to look around him eventually they would start to notice the slight redecorating he had done in those instances. If they cared at all that is, which he highly doubted at this particular point. This is what he gets for “selling his soul” as it were, just to make sure he was on the winning side of this conflict. His parents didn't raise a fool after all. Going back to the edge of the pit he looked down at Pandon, if he couldn't zap it to give it a boost what else could he do to hasten the process. He had been here far too long as it was to be comfortable with Scott, the giant and the UNDF looking for him. And when this creature was ready it was going to bust out of here in what he assume would be a rather spectacular fashion and only a fool with a death wish would want to be this close when that happened. And he wasn't raised to have that sort of wish either. “Feeding off the energy of the magma hidden inside huh,” he muttered to himself as he went of the brief conversation he just had. “Maybe I can do something to hasten this after all.” He closed his eyes and reached out with the energy given to him to the monster's mind. But not like before with a couple of the others where he gave it a simple command. Here he was trying something different, trying to see if Pandon was attracted to any particular section down there at all. Because if he was right about this.... there. “Back”, was all he said as he was still connected to it's mind. It did so and he formed a field around himself and walked off the edge, slowly floating to where that attraction seemed the strongest as Pandon slowly backed up. Holding out a hand he fired a beam of dark energy at the wall, drilling into it. After several moments magma started pouring in the pit and he stopped. It fell just enough to cool off before it hit the ground. Behind him Pandon practically jumped up and down in excitement. “Enjoy,” he told the creature as he flew back to the edge . Once back on solid ground he walked to his camp and started to pack everything up. His master may not be happy with this turn of events but somebody had to look out for his hide in all of this. *** “Bridge said he was getting a weird sensor reading,” Ryo said as Ken walked beside him down the hall. After becoming more or less official Ken tried to take the job a little more seriously. Not that he was half assing it before, but a lot of people didn't seem t expect much out of the civilian operative. Now, well, some of those same people seemed to expect a little more out of him now. Not guys like Ryo and the rest of their team of course, he gained their respect a long time ago, even if they did keep suggesting that he zip up his jacket to look slightly more professional. But talks like these did seem to happen more frequently now too. “Hawk wants us on stand by in the mean time, just in case.” “In case this is Brooks doing whatever it is he's doing again,” Ken said. Not that it's never not Brooks. And he still had to hide that he knew what was going on and how Brooks was doing this. To reinforce that particular point Richardson's assistant walked passed them. One of three people on this base that knew about him and Daxium. She didn't acknowledge them as he passed. Although considering he was pretty much blackmailed to join he was paranoid enough to think she glanced at him with a warning look for a brief second. Oblivious to that probably imaginary exchange Ryo kept talking,”Brooks is pretty much the first thought that pops up whenever they get a strange reading, no matter how small. Not that you can blame them. The man can summon monsters from where ever they're coming from. Not to mention those strange powers that he has. How come nobody noticed before now?” he asked. “Exactly how blind where we to what was right in front of us?” Personally wondering how he did it so successfully for as long as he did Ken said, “Don't know man. Guess we never thought to look in our own direction.” “You'd still think we'd notice before,” they passed a obviously new section of wall compared to the rest of the hallway, part of the section damaged when Brooks fought his way out of here, “well before that happened. How did he fool us so easily?” Ken didn't really have an answer, not that Ryo was looking for one. Still he rubbed the back of his neck and tried not to look he was wincing since he was basically doing the same thing. Blanking on anything that would get them off this particular subject a group of people going in the opposite direction caught his eye. Ryo kept on going before he realized that he had stopped and stared at them. “Um... Ken.” “Just a second,” he said. Somebody in that group look familiar for some reason, and it wasn't just because they were all wearing lab coats. “Hey,' he called out to them. They stopped and turned around. One's eyes seemed to get a little bigger, almost if he recognized him. But Ken suddenly remembered him as clear as day, particularly from that party the other night. “You were the one who gave me the beaker.” “Oh shit,” he muttered as he bolted. “Get back here!”, Ken ordered as he gave chase. “Ken wait,” Ryo called out before he could stop him. A couple of the lab coat's comrades tried to get in his way. Surprisingly a couple of troopers who were in the area blocked them off and made an opening for him.. “He beakered me too man!”, one of them called out. “Get 'em!” “If they just find that still before things like this happen,” Ryo muttered. Being the good soldier he started to tap his communicator to alert security and Captain Hawk. The part of him that remembered getting hit with it himself, well maybe after a moment or so. The lab guy ran past several groups of people in the hallway with Ken right on his heels. At least he was until somebody grabbed him and dragged him down an adjoining hall. Nearly falling from the sudden change of direction he tried to get his footing, which wasn't easy since he was still being dragged down the hall. To his surprise it wasn't the big, burly security guy he was expecting. No it was Jessica and she did not look happy about something. Freeing himself from her grip he said, “I don't know what's going on but I got an ass kicking to....” “Shut up,” she snapped. Being more than familiar with that look on her face he did just that. Then felt like an idiot because they weren't seeing each other any more. Jess looked around to see if anybody else was around before hissing at him, “I'm late.” What the hell was this about? “Then maybe you should get to where you're supposed to be going instead of dragging me down here.” She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him closer. “No you moron. I. Am. Late!” He still didn't know what she was talking about. “By about a week.” Confusion gave away as it dawned on him exactly what she meant. “Oh shit. How'd this happen?” “How the fuck you'd think this happened?”, she snapped again. “That damn party.” “I mean are you sure?”, Ken asked. Right now in his panicked state he was creating a growing list of people who just might kill him over this. Jess, Hawk, Jess' father, Jess. Most of it was Jessica at this particular moment, just because she was the closest in proximity. “Like I said it's been a week.” she looked like she was trying to calm herself down, which was good for his survival. Mostly, he hoped. “I've already talked to one of the nurses about doing a pregnancy test. They're pretty discreet about it, unless it comes back positive. Then they have to inform Hawk and then my career is over.” “It doesn't mean it's over,” Ken started to say. Not that he knew what he was talking about but he felt like he should say something. “You don't get it,” she told him. “because of some stupid regulations if it was just me, I'd be taken out of the field and stuck behind a desk somewhere. But because we're both part of the UNDF I'm going to get discharged just so they don't have to risk the child losing both parents. And the fact this base has been attacked twice is going to be enough for them to justify it.” “I... I'm sorry,” was all Ken could say. “Don't,” she told him. “I know you didn't plan this but don't, okay.” She walked away rubbing her forehead a bit. “I got that degree my dad convinced me to get before I joined up so I should be able to land some sort of job. But I wasn't ready to give this up yet.” “We'll get through this, okay.,” he assured her. “I... I'll do right by this, don't worry.” She didn't look reassured. Jess actually looked annoyed and a little angry. She told him, “No.” He was taken a bit off guard by that statement, “What do you mean no?” “We are not doing that.” She walked off leaving him there. “That's not going to happen!” “What do you mean we're not doing...? That's my kid too!” She kept walking leaving him dumb founded at this turn of events. *** In the field two UNDF members were searching the area that Castle was getting that strange reading from. As part of a larger group it was decided that they could cover more ground if they split up in teams of two. One held a larger scanner array while the other kept an eye on his wrist scanner. Both of them were more heavily armed then they were currently used to. The one looking at his wrist scanner readjusted the rifle on his shoulder. “If Brooks is out here what good are these things going to do?” “We're not supposed to engage remember,” his compatriot told him. “We spot him, we call for back up and wait.” “That's if he doesn't spot us first.” “You can't be thinking like that. Look we're all still a little jumpy after what Brooks did.” “He ripped through Castle!” he snapped at his current partner. “He killed our team mates, our friends, like they were nothing. We are nothing compared to him. The bastard called a fucking monster!” “It takes one to call one,” the other man said. “Look Bart, you think this doesn't freak me out too? I lost friends too. I saw what he did to them. I know these peashooters aren't going to do shit to him. But we still have a job. And part of that job is to find him and try to make sure he can't do it to somebody else. And we can't rely on that giant freak to do it for us.” “Ultraman is the best weapon we have against him,” Bart shot back. “Then why isn't he a UNDF member?”, came the comeback. Bart didn't bother to respond, not with anything that hadn't been said before. This had been just a small part of the argument ever since Ultraman had shown up. Neither side had a good explanation. For every “But how do you contact him”, there was something like “he's not even human why would he care about us” Both sides kept circling each other. As it was the argument was usually pushed aside when the monster alert came but it started right backup after the giant disappeared. It had been going on for over a year and didn't look like it was going to end any time soon. Bart walked away, mainly to get some space between them for the moment. He looked down and saw something out of place among the rocks. He picked an used canteen, it looked relatively new. “Jordan,” he called out as he held it up. “You think somebody had been here recently?” “Probably,” he said as he took a closer look at it. “Looks bone dry from what I can tell. Maybe a couple of days tops. Chances are some kids were camping and left it behind.” He looked at it a little closer, “This is a pretty expensive name brand if my cousin's right about these things.” “Are canteens really that expensive now?”, Bart asked more than a little dubious about that particular idea. “You'd be surprised,” came the reply. “This one basically a tiny little refrigerator so the contents always stay cold.” “Geez what they won't make these days.” “Tell me about it,” Jordan said. “Probably belonged to some kid with too much money to know what to do with and can just get a new one. Still we better call it in just in case. Because that description fits Brooks too.” “If only he was just that,” Bart muttered as he walked away to see if he could locate anything else while Jordan contacted their superior. He didn't get far, just to the top of a ridge right above them, before he stopped. “Jordan!” He raced over and stopped as well as he saw it too. A massive hole in the ground that wasn't on any survey they were given. The edges were still loose and crumbling as Bart got his voice back as he looked around, the weapon on his back suddenly feeling more like a toy gun than before. “Oh God I hope we just missed it.” *** Hawk walked into the control room and immediately went to Bridge. He hated moments like this just for the uncertainty of the situation. A good chunk of the men were out there at this location while the rest of them were on stand by. God he wished somebody around here could figure out how these building sized creature could just walk around unnoticed most of the time. Bridge looked away from his screens just long enough to acknowledge him before going back to what he was doing. In turn Hawk gave the briefest of nods acknowledging Richardson right before he left the room. Ever since Brooks turned out to be who he was he spent less and less time in here during situations like this one or during any actual conflict. As it was Hawk was glad he wasn't breathing down his neck anymore when he gave orders to the troops from here.. Without any prompting from him Bridge started talking, “Latest surveys on record doesn't mention that hole at all. I've already accessed various satellites pass over scans over the last few months to confirm the surveys. That wasn't there about a day ago.” “You starting to think faster than me Bridge,” Hawk told him. Actually going to any aerial pictures of the area never even occurred to him. And that was slightly embarrassing considering he was in command of the primary aerial squadron. “Like you said Captain Brooks had a bit of an advantage while he was here. I'm just trying to close the gaps where I can. I've also been using this in conjunction with the few location we've know a monster has emerged from to try and get an idea of where he might have gone or might be headed.” “Is it too much for me to ask if you located a pattern yet?” “At this point I'm afraid not sir. We had a couple for them that could burrow into and travel under the ground, at least one giant version of the smaller creatures we used to engage on a regular basis. Not to mention the one that could turn invisible.” He sighed heavily as he leaned back in his chair. “I'm going to need more data to even begin narrowing down the search parameters.” “No offense Bridge but I hope we get him before you get that data.” Because more data meant more monster sightings. And that meant more destruction, especially if one appeared in the city. As sad as it sounded Hawk was starting to miss those smaller creature. Bridge nodded in understanding. “Have we gotten a report from Reid yet?” “Should be coming in pretty soon.” Almost on cue the console in front of him beeped as Reid called in. “Castle here Commander.” “Is the Captain there Bridge?”, Reid asked over the line. His voice sounded muffled a bit, a little more than he expected over the comm line. Bridge replied with, “He's right here Commander.” Then he moved aside a bit so Hawk could lean in a little. Not that it was really necessary given the modern communication equipment at their disposal . But he was older than the rest of the people under him and set in his way. “What's going on Commander?” “We were getting some sort of gas reading once we entered the gave,” he answered. “It was well within non toxic levels but I had us go back for the proper breathing equipment first just in case.” “Good call,” Hawk told him, “I would have done the same.” And he would have, facing as many giant creatures abilities that they had gave them all, what he considered at least, a healthy case of paranoia in these situations. “Where are you now?” “On a hunch I ordered a scan to see if the gases was coming form any where in particular. We found a pretty well hidden trail that leads deeper into the mountain.” “Does it look man made?” Reid was quiet for a bit before answering, “By my admittedly untrained eye I would have to say no. This seems like a pretty natural formation. And I know Brooks can do a lot of things I'm hoping altering solid rock isn't one of them.” “That makes two of us.” Hawks muttered. “Okay,”Reid spoke up, “we found a larger cavern.” Hawk was silent as he heard Reid issue commands to the men with him. All he could do at the moment was sit tight as Reid and his men softly spoke to each other. Outside of an audible “clear” from a couple of them it was nerve wrackenly silent. Reid started talking again. “So far it looks like a large cave to us. Simmons spotted a pit not far from the entrance. I know you don't like guesstimates Captain but it looks large enough to hold a giant creature, that opening spotted above ground seems to be further back from where we're standing.” “I'll live with it this time,” Hawk replied. “Do you see anything else?” “Nothing that seems out of the ordinary so far Captain.” “Commander Reid,” somebody called out. “What is it Jones.” “I think I located some foot prints in the dirt over here.” “Commander can I get a visual of that.” “Jones,” he called out. “Take a scan and send it to Castle.” There was a confirmation from Jones right after. A few seconds later bridge said, “We're receiving the scan now Captain. Putting it on this screen.' he pointed to one in front of Hawk. The image popped up and yes those did look like foot prints.” “If it was Brooks,” Hawk said after a bit, “I guess we know where he's been hiding out. Commander do you see any other signs of life down there?” “Outside of that canteen that was found, not at the moment,” came the reply. “That pit takes up most of this cave that I can tell, and not a whole lot of place to hide away that I can see. And honestly if he was here, knowing whatever was in here was going to burst out, I wouldn't have stayed either. He could have at least a couple of days head start on us.” “And I don't think that lead has gotten any smaller since he left,” Hawk said, mainly to himself, “Anything on the search top side?” “The last report I received indicated that nothing was spotted on the ground or in the air. Not even a monster size foot print this time around.” Hawk glanced at Bridge, hoping for a different answer. He was equally disappointed, “I have nothing so far either. No report from local authorities and no UFO sightings in the area. I've alerted near by seismic research institutes to keep an eye out for any anomalous reading and to let us know as soon as possible.” “If I didn't know any better Bridge I'd start thinking you're after my position,” Hawk said with a bit of a grin. “I'm better at handling computers than I am people Captain,” Bridge said with a grin of his own. “I'll leave the inmates to you sir.” “Just keep me up to date on where they are,” Hawk said. Then he went back to business, “Reid, leave a couple of men to explore that cavern fully. Have them log anything that look out of place. I don't think he getting sloppy but I can hope. Take the rest and join the search up top and try to find that creature. I've haven't seen one that can vanish into thin air yet. Turn invisible yes but not vanish completely.” And God help them if whomever Brooks was getting these monsters from, he refused to believed that one man was behind all of this, never figured out how to do that. “We'll get on it Captain,” Reid said, “Reid out.” “Bridge,” he said turning to him, “tell the troop to get off stand by and on half alert. I'm calling a meeting in a half hour. If whatever this creature is doesn't decide to show itself before hand.” “Yes sir,” Bridge said while he turned back to his console. Hawk left him to do his job. And he really wished he had that half hour to get things ready. But as he learned time was one of the few luxuries they had. *** In his quarters Ken sat on the bed stewing, going over his conversation with Jess over and over again. Why would she say no? If she was pregnant didn't she want him in the kid's life? Maybe he wasn't the greatest example of a potential father but that didn't mean he couldn't be one. And damn straight he wanted a chance to get to know his child. Thoughts about this potential child took his mind some where else. To a place he was almost afraid to think about. But he had to know if the kid's future was going to be affected or not. Taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down a bit more than anything Ken closed his eyes and looked inward as he said, “Dax I got a question.” Slowing opening his eyes he was in the safe space Daxium created when they first bonded. His usually giant friend was a more normal height here as always. “What do you wish to know?”, he asked. Oh where the hell to begin? “Dax I... uh... I know you pretty good about respecting my privacy when you're in here and I'm,” he made a half hearted gesture to the barrier surrounding them, “out there. But you kinda know what's going on right?” “I am aware of an issue between you and Jessica,” he replied. “I felt your turmoil over it in here. I apologize for looking to see what was the cause.' “I'm not worried about that right now Dax.” He nodded, “While I am not fully aware of all the details I did gather it involved a potential offspring between the two of you.” Ken just nodded, hearing somebody else say it out loud just made all the more real to him. “But I am confused about why this is causing trouble between the two of you. Even in my universe a new offspring is a cause of celebration.” “The situation is way more complicated then that,” Ken told. “But that's not why I'm here either.” Ken looked at Daxium in silence, trying to figure out the best way to ask this. “Dax, with what we got going. Is this going to affect anything? I mean is it going to affect the baby?” Daxium lowered his head as he thought his answer over. “I do not know.” Ken said a silent cure as he turned away from him. That was no where close to the answer he wanted to hear. “As I told you before when we realized my injuries would transfer to you, I was unfamiliar with human biology to make us completely separate when we first bonded.” Seeing the apparent pain his answer was causing Ken he stepped forward, “I wish I had a better response for you. If you're afraid Jessica would reject the child...” Ken faced him, “That is quite literally the last of my worries Dax. My main concern right now is that if Jess is pregnant what is Richardson going to do once he finds out I'm the father. And trust me he is going to find out.” While his facial expression was usually at the bare minimum Ken knew him well enough by now to see that he was taken aback by his body language. “You don't really think Richardson would do something to the child?” “The bastard blackmailed me to get you here,” Ken told him, not even hiding the anger he was feeling the more he thought about it., “because that is all he cared about. You're damn straight I'd think he'd do something. I don't know what. I don't even want to think about what that 'what' could be. But he'd do something. And I don't know who would be on our side if we tried to stop him.” “Ken,” Daxium said in a calm voice, trying to get through the panic settling into his friend's mind, “you would have allies in this fight. I have fought along side them myself. And in the brief glimpses I've allowed myself to take I know your team would aid you and Jessica any way they possibly can.” “If she even wants my help,” Ken told him, a bitterness edging his voice as he remembered his talk with Jess earlier. Putting a hand on his shoulder Daxium told him, “A warrior, no matter how skilled, can not fight multiple battles at once. And it is even more foolish to prepare for one fight while in the middle of another. Especially if you're not sure the second battle is even going to happen. Settle things between you and Jessica first. Then you can concentrate on the second together if it happens. Because in that battle a united front is better than a divided one.” “Guess that makes sense,” Ken admitted after a bit. “Sorry Dax. I'm just.... It's bad enough I may have put Jess in a situation where she might lose what she loves doing because we got too drunk. Now I might have put her in the middle of a shit storm that she doesn't know is coming.” “One battle at a time my friend,” Daxium repeated. In almost an instant Ken was back in his quarters, mentally physically he never left. Still without the answers he was looking for. One battle at a time he reminded himself. His comm went off and Bridge spoke through the link, “All teams, yellow alert. Prepare to move out in a moments notice. Alpha team, meeting in a half hour.” Ken replied with, “I'll be there Bridge.” Not the most professional response given his new status. But his mind was in a million different place right now. Opening his door he saw Jess on the other side. She didn't look angry, which was hopefully a good thing, but things still felt pretty chilly between them. An old defense mechanism made him try to lighten the mood a bit, “I'd offer to let you come inside, but considering the last time we were in bedroom...” And this was definitely one of those time when that sounded way better in his head than said out loud. Fortunately she smiled a little, just enough to be noticed. And he was also grateful she hadn't stopped by the armory for her own weapon. That was a plus in his book. She looked around to make sure they were still alone in the hallway. “I took the test.” Ken prepared himself for the news, “Okay.” “I haven't gotten the results yet,” she said. And that was way more frustrating an answer than he was expecting “Apparently discreet pregnancy tests are low on the importance meter. Especially since we're on alert now.” “You'd think they realize that we would want to know sooner rather than later.” “I don't know why I'm glad you said 'we' there.” Before he could say anything she went on, “But Ken, if it does come back positive, we're going to have to talk. About things that might affect the baby.” “Talk,” he repeated with a slow nod, “talking is good. We're definitely going to have to talk about... stuff.” And boy did he have the mother load of stuff to bring to that conversation. But despite his best efforts that part of him that was still bitter as hell got him to say, “And while we're at it maybe you can tell me why you told me no.” And tension between them rose right back up as soon as he said that. “You know exactly why I told you no.” “No I don't,' he shot. “I deserve an answer.” Jess opened her mouth to say something. But closed and looked frustrated as she said, “I leaving before I say something I'd regret.” “You sure as hell don't regret saying no.” She looked like she wanted to hit him. Instead she stormed down the hall and away from him. God he was getting flash backs to their break up on top of the headache this was giving him. “Dude.” Ken looked to his left and saw Bill standing there. Great, this was the last thing he needed. “What the hell did you say to her?” “It's a personal matter,” was all he told him as he walked past him. Bill followed him, “I have never seen her that angry so you had to have said or did something.” Ken stopped and snapped at him, “Why is it automatically my fault? Do I look in all of that good of mood to you? How do you know she didn't say something to piss me off?” “Okay man chill,” Bill said with his hand held up and backing away a bit. “Personal matter I got it. I'll be here if you want any help when you're done PMSing.” Alone in the hall way Ken just stood pinching the bridge of his nose, “Damn it.” *** In the city close to Castle most people went on with there day. Thanks to the newest mobile alert they were aware of a potential creature attack. Some were already taking action to get out. Some argued it was pointless as the alert stated they were unsure exactly when or where the suspected creature was going to show up as it concerned several near by cities and towns as well. Then there was those who didn't really care and went about things as if it was business as usual. Two in particular just looked on as they watched a couple of Razor Wings fly over head. “Guess it might be serious after all,” one of them said as she took a drink of her iced coffee.” “They're always over reacting if you ask me,” her friend said. “You think they would take care and not waste our tax dollars like that.” “My dad say it's so they can get in a quick attack run until the other troops show up.” “The guys at the dorm say the same thing. But it's like the weather they can't even get that right. I mean look over there.” He pointed to a what looked like a tornado in the background. “Did any weather person predict that for today?” Despite other around them noticing and starting to panic a bit she was still as nonplussed as her friend. “Shouldn't we, like, start running now or something?” “Eh,” came the reply. “We're here and it's all the way over there.” He took out a phone and tried to line up a shot to post online as some of the rest around them started to run away. “We got time.” He took the picture and doubled checked to make sure if it was a good one before posting it. He missed the tornado suddenly stopping revealing a red two headed creature that started to shoot fireballs out of both it's mouths. Looking up to see the commotion he saw the creature, in fact on of the heads looked like it was staring right at him. “Okay maybe now we should run.” But she was already long gone. At roughly that same instant back at Castle Hawk was going over what they knew with the others in the war room, while at the same time trying to figure out why Jessica and Ken were shooting each other some rather nasty looks. Something Ryo and Bill were noticing as well. Before he could say something about it Bridge called out. “We have a monster alert in the city. Reports said it came out of a tornado.” Apparently they had to remember to add any meteorology networks in the area to their look out positions in the future. But that was for then, as for right now, “Give me a visual Bridge.” “We've dealt with a tornado based one before,” Bill said as they waited. “Hairy, shot laser lightning out of it's fingers. Uglier than hell.” Then Bridge piped in the image as it hung over the table. “Is it too much to ask for a little consistency?” “The monster appeared at the edge of the city and is making it's way inside,” Bridge told them. “Initial scout teams are engaging but their going to need more help.” “You heard the man,” Hawk told the rest of them. “I want Razor Wings in the air ASAP. I don't think we're going to be able to prep the Alpha One in time. Ken help with the evacuation as soon as we get there.” “Yes sir,” he replied. He shot a glance toward Jessica who gave him a warning look in return. To Hawk it looked like he wanted to say something but held his tongue, and he did not look happy about it. Something to worry about for later time. Right now they had a job to do. “All of you move out now.” *** Within the half hour, given the proximity of the city being attacked to Castle, the full force of the UNDF was attacking the creature from the sky and on the ground. So far they were able to contain the monster to a generalized area to try and minimize the damage, But those fire balls quickly reminded them that it could go outside their combat zone fairly easily. On the ground Ken and a few other were trying to direct the panicked crowd as best as they could. “Come on!”, Ken shouted as he waved people on. “Move it! Past the safety barriers and into the trucks!” “Help me!”, he and a couple of others heard some one call out. One of the UNDF personnel spotted were it was coming from and pointed the source out. Somebody tripped and was currently covering up as best as he could as the crowd ran over him. Ken and a few others went against the tide to get to him eventually making a human barrier to give the guy a little breathing room as Ken and another UNDF member sat him up. “Bad enough you got to worry about a monster stepping on ya.,” Ken grunted as they helped the poor bastard to his feet. “I got him,” his teammate said as he got under the guy's arm and took his weight as he helped him to the truck. Ken and the rest tried to get out of the way as best as they cold so the didn't get trampled on themselves. Making his way to the front of a building he and a couple of others pressed themselves up against it to get a breather. “God this day sucks more and more as it goes on.” “Only going to get better until that thing goes away,” his partner said gesturing at the creature. “Come, I think the crowd has thinned out enough that we can make our way inward and start looking for people staying behind.” While he communicated that idea to the woman in charge of this part of the operation Ken just looked up at the Razor Wings attacking the creature, wondering which one Jess was in. And hoping Ryo wasn't off his game for this one. His partner got his attention and indicated that they got the go ahead and ran deeper into the city, taking separate routes to cover more ground. “Going in,” Bill called in the middle of the battle. “Right behind you,” Ryo replied as the two Razor Wings turned and took up parallel paths toward the creature, trying to take it by surprise from the rear. So far neither head noticed their approach. “I got a lock,” Jess announced. Hawk made the same call from behind Bill in Razor Wing One. Both of them called out, “Firing missiles.” Four round flew out from underneath the wings of the jets. Two aimed at each head. All four sets made contact as the creature cried out and tried to get at whatever it was attacking iy with his arms. It saw the Razor Wings fly past and opened it's mouths again. But instead of the fire ball two streams of fire, one red and the other a blueish purple came out. “Shit,” Bill said under his breath as both pilots did whatever they could to avoid the deadly stream. trying to get them. “I hate it when they bust out a surprise like that.” “Less bitching and more maneuvering,” Hawk told him. Once clear Ryo took a chance to look back at the creature as the beams stopped. “That was a little too close.” “Yeah,” Jess muttered behind him as a hand went to her stomach. Partly because that scared her as well it was so unexpected. Anther reason was, well she had another potential reason that she wasn't sure was a thing yet. Still just the idea... “Hey Jess,” Ryo called out. “You still with me back there? You went quiet on me.” “I'm still here,” she said as she shook herself out of it. She went with an easy half lie, “Think I just saw my life pass in front of my eye.” “Same here partner,” Ryo told her. “But we're not done yet.” “Not by a long shot,” she agreed. But she looked out the canopy for the briefest of moments, at the streets below. Haven't found any one still dumb enough to stick around Ken looked up to see the new attack the creature just deployed. As more jets tried to avoid it at least a couple of weren't so lucky as the blew up on contact. The shouts over his communicator were saying that Jess wasn't in any of the jets they just lost. But just the idea made up his mind for him. Taking one last look around to make sure Ken went for the Spark Magnifier in his jacket, “Ok Dax we're up,” and held it over his head. *** Pandon duel heads roared a challenge as the column of light faded revealing Daxium who quickly took his fighting stance, “Shiah!” Knowing what the creature could do he tried to keep an eye on both heads as the monster came at him. Following suit Daxium charged him as well getting under those heads and tried to attack the body with kicks and punches. Pandon was failing it's arms as well trying to give as good as it got s it pounded on his back. It kicked as well attacking his legs. Backing up a bit he saw the creature swing a arm down at him and back flipped several times to avoid the attack and get some space between them. It's head reared back a bit and shot a series of fireballs at the giant. Daxium bashed the fireball away with his fists waiting for an opening. Once the barrage stopped he quickly put both hands to the side and fired off a Flash Bolt that struck Pandon is it's chest. Crying out in pain and grabbing at it's chest the creature opened its mouth again and fired the duel streams one more. Daxium tried to roll and dodge those beams as best as he could. But he wasn't fast enough as the blueish one clipped him in the side. Grunting in pain as he grabbed his side he realized too late as Pandon came at him. Before Daxium could stop him he was grabbed and thrown into a building as it caved in a bit under his weight. Pandon, sensing an opening started pounding on the giant as the building gave away even more under the struggle before giving away completely. On the ground he tried to protect himself as best as he could as the creature started to stomp on him. Grunting with each stomp Daxium tried to get into a position to get himself up. On Hawk's order several Razor Wings and Scan Tracks attacked in unison to distract the monster long enough for Daxium to get up and push Pandon away. Thinking he had an opening to finish this quick he started to set up for the Dimensional Storm Ray. Pandon was quicker as it fired the fireballs at him again. The speed of the attack caught him off guard as he was struck over and over. Then the monster switched over to the duel streams again. Daxium put up the barrier to block it. Sparks flew as the beams hit the barrier but neither side would let up. Then some how the beams started to twist and spiral together into a single beam. Feeling the increased strength of the attack drilled into it Daxium tried to pour more energy into the barrier, even as he felt himself being pushed back from the force. But the beams won out shattering the barrier as it slammed into Daxium's chest, hurling him back from the impact. “All units open fire!”, Hawk called out. “Get Ultraman some time to recover!” As Pandon return it's attention to it's new attackers Daxium was slowly getting to a knee as the crystal on his chest blinked. The creature was strong and he briefly considered switching over to his Power Mode. But it was fast with it's attacks as well so maybe he would have to sacrifice some power to increase his speed and hope it was right call at the moment. Staggering to his feet Daxium held up his arms to his chest and threw them down as he shifted into Hyper Mode. Running in he quickly jumped up, flipping forward in the air as Pandon turned toward him as his heel came crashing down onto one of it's head. Quickly back flipping out of the way he ran in again with a jumping kick that landed on it's chest. Once again using his superior speed he got out of the way, formed the Hyper Saw and spun out of the way of another fireball barrage as he hurled it. The jagged circle of energy crashed into the monster ceasing the barrage. Holding out his right hand he extended the Light Flash whip from his fingers. With the extra reach he struck the creature more or less at will as sparks flew off of it. Backing up a bit he started to draw in energy as he set up for a run. Pandon fired off the duel beams again at the same time he made the barest of flinches. In less than an instant he was on the other side of the monster as Pandon stood there with a glowing like going across it's body. Light Flash retracting back into his hand the monster exploded. Clutching at his chest as he feel to a knee Daxium looked around at the UNDF forces before standing up and flying off into the sky, “Shiah!” Back on the ground Ken returned from the glowing ball as a hand immediately clutched at his chest. As best as he could he looked down his shirt and saw the red marking were Daxium got hit on his body. Trying to rub the pain away he walked off saying, “God I hope nobody decides to slap me in the chest anytime soon.” Back up in the air, in Razor Wing Two Ryo let out a long breath. Turning his head a bit he said, “Looks like we got some time as we head back to Castle. Do you want to tell me what's going on between you and Ken while we fly back?” She thought about denying it, but her wing man knew the both of them pretty well. “Private matter Ryo,” she told him. “Let me try to work on it first.” “Your call,' he said. “Let me know if you want me to kick his ass for you though.” “Tempting,” she said. “But honestly it's not entirely his fault either.” If she had to be honest that is. *** “Hey Janet,” Ken greeted his as of right now sister-in-law as he entered Hawks outer office. He was trying not to be nervous because he couldn't think of anything he done to be called to Hawk's office. But then again being called to any higher up's office was rarely a good thing. “Hi Ken,” she greeted him warmly. “They're waiting for you inside.” “They're?”, he asked as he headed for the door. No answer was forth coming as he hit the call button on the door and was soon given permission by Hawk to come inside. Who the other person was became apparent as Jess was already sitting in one of the chair. More or less ignoring him as he took the other chair. “I'm glad both of you came,” Hawk began. He looked at both of them before continuing, “Now normally I try not to get involved in any private matter between my men. I'm not a nosy person after all. Unless I start believing that private matter is starting to affect my team's dynamic.” Both of them started to speak up but Hawk held up a hand to keep them silent. “Based on what I've personally seen and heard from others, I think this matter between the two of you is getting close to that point. But I'm not getting involved just yet. No, you see I'm going to step out of this office for roughly forty to forty-five minutes, just to give the two of you some time to and try to work it in some relative privacy.” “Captain that really isn't,' Jess started to say. Again he held up a hand. “I sincerely suggest you take this offer. Because when I come back and if it isn't settled between the two of you, or at least gotten to good enough start of settling it, I will get involved. And I will get to the bottom of it PDQ.” Feeling satisfied that his point had gotten adequately across he pressed the intercom button on his desk. “Janet since my scheduled is cleared up why don't you take your hour lunch.” “Yes sir,” she replied, “thank you.” Giving a friendly nod to both of them he rose from his desk and left the two alone in the office. Both of them sat there in silence for several moments not looking at each other. Before long Jess spoke up, “I got the test results back.” One more time he braced himself for the news. “They came back negative, I'm not pregnant.” Feeling a bit of a load come off his shoulders, only able to say, “Okay.” Then she dropped another bombshell that he wasn't expecting, “So you can stop worrying about trying to get me to marry you.” His head snapped toward her, “Whoa! Wait... what? Where in the hell did that come from? Who was talking about marriage?” She gave him the strangest look, “You said you'd 'do right' by this when I told you I might be pregnant. What else could you have meant?” Now it was Ken turn to give her a strange look. “Why would you think...? Right, I forgot your mom's a traditionalist. I was trying to tell you that I'd help you with the kid any way I could. That I wasn't going to deny it was mine. At no point did marriage cross my mind.” “Then why didn't you just say that to begin with?”, she demanded. “Instead of letting me think you were trying to marry because I was pregnant?” “Because who does that any more?”, he asked. Looking around the room in disbelief he leaned back in his chair, “I was thinking you didn't wanted me in the kids life?” She was going to ask him why he thought that but considering what he meant she could sort of see where he would think that. “No, if we were having a baby I'd want you involved.” She looked over at him, “I've seen you with your niece. I know you'd be a great father.” She studied him for a bit trying to figure out that downtrodden look on his face, “You weren't looking forward to being a father were you?” “I got used to the idea,” he said., a little too defensively. After a couple of more moments of silence he started chuckling a bit. “What?”, Jess asked him. “It just hit me, if we were having a kid I mean. I know engines you know guns. Can you imagine our kid?”” Thinking about it Jess snorted a bit as well, “Probably find a way to put the guns in the engine.” “Most dangerous mechanic ever.” They shared a small laugh. Okay thing were a little better between them now, hopefully they could get past this particular bump in the road and get back to where they were with the friendship. Still Ken looked back at the door before saying to Jess, “I know he said he wouldn't pry if we got this fixed, but he's going to pry isn't he?” “It might be better to tell him any way,” Jess offered. “Just so he knows there isn't going to be a repeat performance of this particular issue.” “I was afraid you were going to say that,” Ken said. “And to think my biggest concern before all of this was Jennifer demanding a DNA test on those sheets. God I hope Hawk doesn't give us the talk. That was awkward enough when Mom tried to explain it.” “I don't think it'll go that far,” she assured him. “At least I hope not. Besides we'll be honest that it happened at that party.” “We got a little too drunk,” Ken said in agreement. “Lost control of our inhibitions.” “Acted on some long buried feeling that were still there.” It was a familiar statement that they said repeatedly since it happened that night. Generally neither of them saw it as more than an unfortunate event that happened and said anything more about it. But what Ken just said, although both of them had said it before on a couple of occasion, struck an uncomfortable nerve in Jess just then as she twitched a bit in her seat. Finally she just said it, “Ken maybe it's time we talked about our break up since those old feelings are still there.” He started to look really uncomfortable real quick, “We've talked about it.” “No,” she said, “we haven't. We talked about things leading up to it. Barely said anything about what happened after it happened. But we have never talked about it, at all. Ken I'm glad I got you back as a friend but we got this huge thing weighing us down a bit. I think it's time we cleared the air so we can move on.” “There's nothing to talk about,” he insisted. “I kept letting Jeff manipulate me to break dates with you to get what he wanted and you got tired of it. Simple as that. There's no big misunderstanding.” Getting a bit uncomfortable and shifting in her seat Jess told him, “That wasn't the only reason why I broke up with you.” Ken just stared at her, making Jess a little more uncomfortable than what she was. “What other reason?”, he finally asked. When an answer wasn't forthcoming he reached out and tried to pull her chair so she faced him catching her off guard. “What other reason? Because I'm wracking my brain right now trying to think how else I screwed up. And the only thing that makes any sort of sense is somebody told you I was cheating on you. Okay, it's over a decade too late but they're a Goddamned liar.” “No, nobody was telling me that you were cheating on me,” she said. “Not that I would've believed them to begin with if they did.” “Then what was it?” She looked in the other direction as she told him, “I didn't think you really wanted to be with me.” “Okay now I'm fucking lost,” he mumbled as he covered his face with his hands. She tried to explain herself, “Back then I believed that if you truly loved some one you would fight to be with them no matter what. And you weren't really fighting. It's teenage girl logic, don't try and understand it.” When Ken didn't respond she kept on talking. “As I got older I started to realize how immature that was, especially when I realized I wasn't exactly fighting to try and keep you either.” Still Ken didn't say anything right away. “I'm sorry.” Finally he said, “What do you have to be sorry for?” “For letting you think it was you this whole time when I was just as much to blame for our break up.” “It was mostly my fault,” he said. “My God,” she snapped, “Why can't you let me own up to my part in all of it? “Because it's true,” he shot back. “If I just stood up to Jeff maybe we'd still be....” Realizing what he was about to say he stopped himself. Slumping down in the chair a bit he said, “Well maybe we would have been together for longer than what we were.” “The break up was hard on me too,” she assured him. “Your phone calls begging me to take you back didn't help either.” After a bit she did admit to him, “And I've wondered if we would still be together now too. From time to time.” “So where do we go from here then?”, Ken asked. “Because people are going to ask and I want to keep our stories straight.” “We'll take like we have been,” she told him. “One day at a time. And we don't let one drunken night ruin what we've been able to rebuild.” “I am totally down with that,” Ken said. “I just wish I could remember that night at all.” He flinched, realizing he said that out loud and how it probably sounded, expecting her to start yelling at him all over again. Instead she had this wistful look on her face that caught him off guard. “So do I. ” Then she looked at him. “We do not tell the Captain that part.” He didn't disagree. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 24
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- Things had finally gotten, more or less, back to normal around Castle ever since Brooks true colors were revealed. Well maybe a new normal as some around base had taken to calling it. Especially since one the people who is on the most wanted list knew how they worked. Which meant something had to change, hence the new normal tag. Of course as with most things change wasn't easy, nor did it happen over night. There were hiccups, people having a hard time adapting to some new rules and regulations, but eventually things started to to settle down. Much tot he relief to the higher ups in the UNDF, which went without saying. But one thing didn't change, the need to bond with one team mates. In one of the cafeteria's Jess, Ken Ryo and Bill sat around one of the tables. Considering the red tint to Ryo's cheeks and the round of laughter from the other three one could correctly assume he was the butt of a joke, or in this case a particular story. “Did you have to say that one,' he shot at Ken. “As many stories you told on me about my academy days?”, Ken shot back. “Did you really think I wouldn't fight back eventually. And that wasn't even the worst one that came to mind.” Looking suddenly panicked Ryo shot a finger toward his former academy mate, “Do not tell that one.” “You don't even know which story I had in mind,” Ken shot back. “It could be anything.” “Maybe you should tell it anyway,” Jess said as she took a drink of her coffee, “just to see if the two of you are thinking of the same incident.” Ryo looked betrayed, “You're my wing man, who's side are you on?” She didn't miss a beat, “The side that gets me an entertaining story, it doesn't matter if involves my partner or not.” “I'm sure Ken knows a few embarrassing ones about Jess,” Bill popped in. “And vice a versa.” “Yeah that ain't happening,” Ken told him. Ryo and Bill both gave each other a look of confusion before Bill spoke back up, “And why not? If we're getting razed by some old stories she needs to get razzed too. It's only fair.” “For one simple reason,” Ken explained. “I'm more afraid of her than I am the two of you.” “Smart man,” Jess said, looking a bit smug. “You know,” Bill kept at it, “I'm sure she'd be more than willing to tell a few things she knew about you back in the day.” Ken just shrugged. Still determined he leaned a bit and muttered, “You can always tell me something when she's not around.” “We can still hear you,” Ryo informed him. Jess just wagged a finger at him. In response Ken replied, “Even if I was dumb enough to do that she would find out what I told you. Because you would tell her.” “Because I would make you tell me,” Jess said before Bill could protest. Ken just gave Bill a look that basically said “see” while he pointed toward her. “And you would crack pretty fast,” Ryo chimed in. “Wait we were laughing at Ryo,” Bill complained. “Why are you ganging up on me now?” “Because it's your turn,” Jess told him. “I hate to break up the ganging up on,” they all turned to see Hawk come toward them. He motioned for them to stay seated when it looked like they started to rise. “This is nothing official, sort of. I just came down here to inform Ken he had a guest.” The three of them looked at each other before focusing in Ken. He looked at Hawk more confused than any of them. “I have a guest? I don't know of anybody who'd want to see me.” Maybe his mother or his niece, maybe a couple of people from the garage wanting to say hi. But none of them would have caused Hawk to see him personally, or not tell him in advance one of them was coming. Because the paperwork for that alone was the size of a small hill. “My boy I hoped I was a little more memorable than that,” someone said. Hawk moved aside so they could get a look at the speaker as he came forward. It was an older gentleman, grey hair and all, that rolled forward a bit in a motorized wheelchair. He looked at Ken with a patient look. Ken immediately broke out in a huge grin, “Professor Kyrie. I don't believe it... I mean I'm happy to see you.” “As am I my boy, as am I,” Ken took the offered hand. Doing so the older man looked him over, “So you finally got in I see, even after that idiotic rule that let them remove you from the academy. That was a damn shame, you didn't need to be in the field with that brain of yours. But could those warmongering blowhards see that?” “So you're the one who identified Ken's particular gift,” Hawk spoke up, trying to ignore the last thing he said as that could technically apply to him. “When Ken was put on the team it didn't say who discovered that.” “Well not to brag,” Kyrie said, “but as they used to say, it takes one to know one. And I realized where Ken here should have belonged when I realized that we see blueprints in the same way?” Confused by this bit of news, especially since she known him longer than any of them, Jess looked at Ken, “What does he mean? How do you see a blueprint?” Looking really uncomfortable all of the sudden Ken rubbed the back of his neck and tried to blow it off, “It's nothing.” “Nothing he says”, Kyrie snorted. Seeing his mans discomfort Haw quickly stepped in, “Ken why don't you and Professor Kyrie pick a direction to go in and catch up. And maybe later, Professor, we can have a little chat ourselves. Help me find ways to help Ken to cultivate his gift better than we have been.” At that the Professor seemed genuinely surprised, “You are actually trying to help him along? Sir, I find that hard to believe” “I fully believe that a person should live up to his potential,” Hawk explained. “Like I told Ken on his first day, if he wasn't medically disqualified back then more than likely he'd be running a department by now.” The others started to look at Ken again as that bit of news never made the rounds, which caused Ken to squirm a bit more. So Hawk decided to add, “Or at least help me convince him that engineering test program can't be beat.” “Oh my God, you're still at that?”, Kyrie said with a smirk as he started to roll toward one of the doors. Ken followed saying, “I almost have it.” *** Walking down the hallway they talked and caught up. Manly the modifications Kyrie made to the motor on his wheelchair. An interest in engines is what gotten them to bond early on in Ken's academy days, before the Professor started to show him the more interesting ones he generally worked on. Seeing how fast Ken had caught on to how they worked, some times with him just blurting out what it did before Kyrie could tell him. After a bit Kyrie would just let him suss it out by himself, only giving the cadet a nod if he was on the right track.. It wasn't long after that Kyrie basically took Ken under his wing, then the letter came that seemingly ended the younger man's career in the UNDF. “I'm a good mechanic,” Ken protested when the Professor asked what he was doing before getting in on the 'Civilian Operative” deal he was under. Granted he might have taken Kyrie's apparent dismissal of the profession, which he basically scoffed as he said the word, more than a little personal. “And I'm sure you are,” Kyrie told him s they continued on, “I'm sure you were the best in your little garage as well.” Ken didn't mention that his former boss basically told everyone he was the reason the place was still open. Granted he was sure it was more to shut his brother up at the time, especially since he kept pushing Ken to try and get back into the UNDF again, he still remembered some of the looks a couple of the other gave him when he told them he was leaving. “But it's like having the skill of a race car driver and settling to drive a cab fore the rest of your life.” “I didn't settle,” Ken mumbled. “I'm sorry my boy,” Kyrie said after a bit. “It still annoys me to think of all that potential that was wasted when the told you to leave the academy. They wouldn't even let me have you contact information so we could keep in touch. I know of several institutions I could have directed you toward. Places that would have helped you fully understand and realize exactly what you are capable of. But they said there was too great of risk of a confidentiality breach or some such nonsense. Personally I think they didn't want two of me running around,” he added with a smirk. Ken smiled as well, “I'm sure I would have been my own personal flavor of annoyance.” The smirk grew bigger on Kyrie as he nodded in agreement. Going down the halls Kyrie seemed to try and get a measure of the area they were currently in. “But all things considered you did end up here after all. And I may have to reconsider my opinion of your Captain if it's true what he said about helping you.” “He's trying,” Ken said. “He's been patient as hell too, considering I'm not exactly regulations as far as personal is concerned. But I still think he's barking up the wrong tree.” “And there is your brother speaking again,” Kyrie stopped him, looking a bit exasperated. At this point Ken knew it as well, but even with everything he'd done over the past year he still thought that genius label was a mistake. Kyrie stopped and turned the chair so he could face him, “Ken, you're special...” “Which several people have told me for as long as I can remember,” Ken cut in. Kyrie looked at him, like he did back at the academy, waiting for him to come to the correct conclusion of the situation placed before him. And he wasn't going to let him off the hook until he did. “Then what is it going to take for you to finally believe what everybody else knows is true?” “You mean outside of finally beating that fuc...”, he quickly corrected himself , mostly because of who was with him, mainly because Hawk strongly suggested he clean it up a bit because of his current , semi official status, “that freakin' simulator?” He meant it as a joke, partially. If he was supposed to be this genius he should have seen a solution long before now. But Kyrie kept on giving him that look. Unlike the academy he got a reprieve when his communicator went off. “Sorry Professor,” Ken said before he tapped it, “Scott here.” “Apologies in advanced but we're going to have to cut the visit short son,” Hawk told him. “Bridge and Doctor Williams just relayed some information that going to require our immediate attention.” “Understood sir,” Ken replied. “I'll be there as soon as I escort Professor Kyrie back toward the visitor center.” “There's no need for that my boy,” Kyrie spoke up. “I still part of the UNDF myself, I just made a call and asked if it would be alright to stop by. I'll be perfectly fine to escort myself back to my driver in your garage down below. Now go on, that sounds important.” “He;s right about the visitor part Ken. Professor Kyrie has enough pull to travel the whole base unescorted if he wanted to. But I'd still would like to have that conversation later, about helping Ken Professor.” “And I would be more than happy to have that conversation as well,” Kyrie said, probably a little louder than was necessary. When Ken still looked unsure about just leaving the man Kyrie made a shooing motion, “Go. I'll be fine.” Still unsure about it Ken went, “Alright I'll be there soon. Scott out.” The call ended as he told the Professor, “I'll guess I'll see you sooner or later. I better go.” “I'm sure we will my boy,” Kyrie called out as Ken went down the hall. Making sure nobody was watching him Kyrie pulled out some sort of device from his pocket. The reading he recorded made him smile a bit, “I'm sure we will.” *** Entering the war room Hawk gave him a small nod as he took his spot at the holotable. Making sure he had all of their attention he started, “I'll tell all of you upfront, what the Bridge and the good Doctor found was something Brooks decided to help fund and I don't know how this went unnoticed for as long as it did.” Pressing a few keys on the controls in front of him a simple title came up. Ryo did the speaking for the other three, “King Joe? Does that stand for something?” “Not that Bridge could figure out or discover,” Hawk answered. “The only information he could discover was that he helped get this particular project going around the time Jamira disappeared.” “I don't get it,” Jess spoke up. “We went over everything with Brooks' name on it in the system with a fine tooth comb. Anything with Brooks' name period. Why did it take this long to find this project.” “As I said,'”Hawk replied, “I'm not sure. My best guess, because it's not one of ours. Well it is and it isn't.” “And I'm confused now,” Bill put in. “To clarify things a little better,” Hawk said, “it's an official UNDF project, fully backed and funded by the organization. But it's not one of ours, as in here.” Jess seemed to get it, “Another UNDF base.” “Or an outside organization we have ties with,” Ryo added. “No offense buddy,” Ken decided to join in, “I may be newish but even I know that would leave a ton of red tape to follow.” Then he smirked, “I shot down somebody idea for a change.” That look quickly withered under the stares from the others. “Sorry.” Hawk reminded himself that there would be the occasional backslide with him given his new status. Still a quick word to make sure those moments were kept to a minimum in the future might be in order. “Ken is right about the red tape though,” he said after a bit. “This would too but he could, and did ,cover it up a little better. I'm sure it goes without saying that we've been ordered to check it out.” A few more button presses and a image of the globe appeared above the table, a country in particular being highlighted. “The base in question is located in Tokyo, Japan.” Three sets of eyes shot at Ken at that bit of news. Hawk kept going, “They know we are coming and why, so no toes will be stepped on. Bridge and Dr. Williams will be joining us to help figure out what, if anything, Brooks did after he green lighted this particular project. Any questions? “No,” Ken said, surprising them a bit. Then he kept on talking, “But have fun in Japan. Don't worry I'll hold down the fort while you're gone. Send me a post card when you get there.” Lowering his head and sighing Hawk went, “Ken...” “You're going to bring me something nice?”, the younger man quickly said. “Please say you're going to bring me something nice. I would really love it if those words came out of your mouth.” “Ken,” Hawk, said sternly. Just enough to get him to be quiet for a moment. “Dr. Williams has personally requested your presence for this. He feels with the potential mechanical nature of this King Joe project you particular gift may come in handy. And I agree with him.” Still Ken was determined, “My passport is not up to date. I don't even have a passport.” Of course Bill had to say something, “Your UNDF ID covers as a passport in these situations.” “You're not helping,” Ken hissed at him. Looking back at Haw he said, “Is there anything I can say that will keep me off that plane?” “No there is not,” he told him plainly. The younger man dropped his head as Jess reached over and rubbed his shoulder a bit. Hawk gave her a quizzical look and she quickly stopped. After what they told him what happened after that party he wondered if he should speak to them again about things. Then he decided against it just as quickly. Like he told them he'd only get involved if it became a problem, and that didn't look like a problem to him. “I want everybody to pack their duffle bag for a couple of days. We don't know how long this is going to take so prepare to get comfy.” Ken looked up, like he just saw an potential out, as weak as it was. Hawk quickly shot that hope down, “You will have a duffle bag in about five minutes after you hit up supplies.” Looking defeated as he dropped his head again Ken asked, “Can I at least request two crates of barf bags for the trip?” “Why do you need two?”, Bill asked. “One there one back,” he answered without raising his head. And there was a cheery thought to end the briefing with. “Dismissed, we leave in two hours. And we will wait for any stragglers.” *** Standing at the doorway Ken wasn't exactly sure if he wanted his feet to keep moving or not. And knowing Hawk he would probably stay true to his word about waiting for anybody. Letting out a little whimper he walked toward the super jet. And fighting to make sure his stomach didn't go rogue on him before they even took off. He tried to find anything that would take his mind off of being on the Alpha One, for hours. Okay ,hat thought didn't help at all. “Why do we have so many people with bags in the hanger?”, he ended up asking, because there where at least twice as many duffle bags then his team needed. Jess answered him, “We're bringing an extra crew along. Given the length of the flight we're going to be taking shifts.” Yeah that didn't help either. “Captain Hawk wanted me to tell you that's not an excuse for not going either. Just try not to think about it too much.” Something in his stomach felt like it was trying to get that revolt started, “Too late for that.” “I am really sorry about this son,” Hawk told him as he, Bill and Ryo walked over to them. “If we had another way of getting there I'd jump on it for you in a heart beat. But the Alpha One is the only way we have unfortunately. At least for this short of notice” Ken just sighed, “In the future can somebody please remind the Doc, again, that I'm ground and pound and not zoom and boom when stuff like this comes up.” “Zoom and boom?”, Ryo asked, totally confused. “You try coming up with a catchy, rhyming phrase for you fly guys,” Ken shot back. Then he felt something pressed against his neck. He registered the rest of them looking surprised and a small hissing sound before he could react, right before he felt a massive shot of pain in that very spot. Ken jerked away and grabbed at his neck, “Fuck! Ow!” He caught a glimpse of Dr. Williams before Hawk came into his line of sight again. “I know language, sorry. But fuck...!” “I'll let this one slide,” he said as he kept his eyes on Dr. Williams, who was holding some sort of hypodermic gun looking thing. Something he seen only medical professionals use. Who also seemed confused at the reaction from Ken. “Doctor?” “The latest medicine for Ken's condition,” he said. “He should have no ill effects during the trip. You're welcome by the way.” He seemed equally confused by the angry look Ken was currently giving him. Hawk leaned in and quietly told Jessica, “Get him on the Alpha One while he's not thinking about it.” She nodded and dragged Ken toward the ramp. “Doctor,” Hawk addressed him, “perhaps you should have told Ken you were going to inject him with something before you did it.” “I didn't think I needed to remind him he had a problem,” was the reply. Williams headed for the Alpha One leaving Hawk a little dumbstruck that went over his head. Bill crossed his arms as he watched the doctor, “Did you ever want to spend, like, five minutes in his head? Just to see how he see things.” “We'll try and make sure Dr. Williams stays away from Ken until he cools down,” Ryo told him. “And how long do you think that's going to take?”, Bill asked as they grabbed their bags to board themselves. By himself for the moment Hawk muttered, “That ship is not big enough for this,” before grabbing his bag and headed for the Alpha One. *** A few hours into the flight Hawk called for a partial shift change, meaning Jess, Ken and Ryo got a small break while some of the others that came along took their position for the time being. Unfortunately for Bill he got roped into “Williame detail”, as it was quickly came to be called behind his back, for the moment. She was just glad for the opportunity to stand and walk for a bit. Everyone had sort of picked out a section of the Alpha One to temporarily call their own on the assignment, seeing how the ship wasn't exactly built with long distances in mind, therefore nothing that even resembled crew quarters were put into the design. Although both Dr. William and Ken both said the trip shouldn't be an issue. Jess had thought about hitting up her spot for a quick nap, instead she walked over to the supplies in the lower hanger and grabbed two ration bars and bottles of water. Substance in hand she crossed over to the small bay that housed the Alpha Three motorcycle, and the spot Ken decided to hang proverbial hat. More than likely because Williams decided to take up residence in the engine room. She looked down at him, waiting for him to look up from the pad in his hand. “Want some company?”, she asked when he finally did. He smiled a bit and patted the section of floor grating next to him. She did so and gave him a good look over, like she had been doing since the trip started. Whatever was in the shot Williams gave him seemed to be working, he wasn't as green as he usually gets or throwing up at the slightest jolt. But Ken wasn't his usual color either. She wouldn't describe him as pale, actually she wasn't sure how to described how he currently looked since the trip started. “How are you holding up?” “Have you ever wanted to throw up and not throw up at the same time?”, he asked. “Can't say that I have,” Jess answered. “How is that working out for you?” “All things considered I'd rather be puking my guts out,” he told her. “At least then I'd know it be over sooner or later.” “Then I guess you don't want to try your luck with this then,” she said holding up one of the ration bars. Ken made a face, but took it and a water. “I'm going to have to try my luck sooner or later,” he said with a grimace. While he opened the wrapper and took a small experimental bit she took a look at the pad he was studying. “Ugh,” he grunted, “I'm not sure if it's the medicine or that's the actual taste of this thing.” “These weren't made with taste in mind,” she reminded him as she took the pad and studied the plans that were on them. “Is this what we were assigned to check out?” He nodded, “Part of it. According to what Bridge was able to pull up it's actually for different machines and they combine into a larger one.” “Can it really do that?”, she asked as she handed the pad back. It was a small miracle, according to Ken and a couple of others, that the Alpha Twos could launch and rejoin the Alpha One without a hitch. “I was able to figure out where the connector points are on at least two of them so far,” he said as he took a swig of water. “Based on what I'm seeing it might be able to.” Jess smiled as she took a drink from her bottle. This was Ken in his element, that brain of his was figuring things out as fast as he could see it. So why couldn't the lunkhead see he was doing it without realizing it? Which brought her back to his resent visitor and something he said at the time. “So are you seeing those plans like you usually see them?” Like she was afraid of he turned a bit red, ironically making look more like his normal self, and looked uncomfortable. “I'm sure it's nothing to be embarrassed over. Ken I've seen you figure out how a machine worked just by looking at it. The more complex the faster you got. And that was back when we were dating in high school .Whatever it is you're seeing it's a part of who you are. You don't have to keep it a secret, especially not from me. You can tell me anything, anything, and it'll just be between us.” He looked unsure if he should or not. Jess sat there and let him decide on his own. Seeing how back in high school trying to make him talk just made him dig deeper into that hole he created for himself. Personal experience from when she started to crack through that shell of his. “It goes 3D on me,” he finally admitted. She didn't ask any questions, just waited for him to continue. “Everybody else looks at these plans or another set of blueprints and they just see them as a flat 2D picture full of lines. I look at them and I get an exact three dimensional image of it in my head. Every wire, every bolt, everything.” Quiet for a bit he admitted something else, “I was ten when I realized nobody else saw it the same way I did. I figured there was something wrong with me and kept quiet about it.” “Until Professor Kyrie figured it,” she added. He nodded in response. “I think that's pretty cool actually. Why did you think something was wrong with you though?” “Most people in school already thought I was a freak as it was,” he told her. “This just confirmed it to me.” “Nobody thought,” then she caught herself, “okay that would have been a lie. But that because they didn't try to get to know the real you.” She gave his hand a quick reassuring squeeze. “I'll keep my promise and not tell the others what you told me. But I'll bet you anything their not going to think it makes you a freak either.” He gave her a look. “All right Bill,” she conceded. “But he'll stop with the jokes as soon as the rest of us talk to him. And that offer to listen to anything you may want to tell me is still on the table, just so you know.” Before the conversation could go on Ryo poked his head through the opening and spotted the, “Ken,” he said, “Captain Hawk wanted me to give you a heads up. He's going to take control of the Alpha One for a bit since we still have some clear skies. And that he still hasn't gotten a feel for her yet so things may get a bit bumpy.” Ken made another grimace and held his stomach. “Guess that's one way to see if that shot will actually work,” Jess said, mainly as a joke. Ken did not look amused. *** “Oh thank you God, solid ground”, Ken said as he stepped off the ramp as the team exited the Alpha One. Just standing there on the pavement he just enjoyed the feeling of nothing moving for the moment, or for as long as the rest would let him. He didn't care who thought what about him doing it either. “You're not going to drop to your knees?”, Bill asked all of the sudden. “Maybe kiss the ground? No?” Ken, not to mention a few others just gave him the strangest looks. Grunting he moved on mumbling, “I just lost twenty bucks.” Ryo walked by, just stopping long enough to softly say, “I'll split it with you,” and held out a fist that Ken gave a quick bump to before he kept going. Hawk walked forward a bit as a man in a similar uniform to theirs, except the red was blue over here, came toward them. A very blond hair, blue eye man if anybody had seen one, with a Japanese woman right beside him holding a data pad in her arm. “Welcome,” the man said and offered Hawk a salute before offering a hand. As Hawk took it he continued, “I'm Doctor Franklin Greenberg, the head of the labs here at Tower.” I assume you lot would be the members of Alpha Team that we were told to expect.” “Thank you Doctor,” Hawk said and made some quick introductions. Although Ken gave him a bit of the side eye when he was introduced as the “junior member” of the unit.” Greenberg on the other hand, “Ah the civilian operative we heard about. He doesn't look quite as disappointing as we were told.” Both Jess and Ryo put a hand on Ken's shoulder to keep him from saying anything. “Rumors as it were. Oh, this is Emiko Sakurai, our main computer expert. She'll be assisting you man going over the records and programs for King Joe.” Hawk gave a quick in nod in greeting and turned to call back, “Bridge.” As usual when outside of Castle he meekly walked forward and turned in a bit, until he got sight of the person he would be working with. Then he just sort of stared. Which cause Emiko to blush a bit. “Miss. Sakurai this is...” then he got look at Bridge's current state, “Nathan Bridge? Bridge,” he quickly barked to snap the other man out of it. “Nathan Bridge our computer expert.” “It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Bridge,” she said offering hand. Bridge took it, surprising all of them who knew him, “Likewise. And call me Nathan.” Ken and Bill looked at each other, both of them mouthing his first name. This cause a couple of immediate elbows from Ryo and Jess, but they were a bit taken aback as well. Oblivious to all of that Emiko gestured to what had to be the main building, “We do have a lot to look over, perhaps we should get started right away.” “Of course,” Bridge quickly agreed. They went off, with a new skip in Bridge's step. “Come on love connection,” Ken muttered after a bit. This time Hawk looked back at him. “I want that to work out so bad for him,” was his only explanation for the lack of decorum. “I would be surprised,” Greenberg spoke up. “She is a rather solitary woman. If you will follow me I'll take you to the main lab where we're housing King Joe and a couple of other experiments then my office. Then I'll have someone show you to the quarters you'll be using during you're hopefully short stay. No disrespect of course.” “None taken,” Hawk answered for the group as they followed his lead. “I'm fully aware our visit is disrupting you're usual routine. We want our stay to be as short as possible as well.” “Pardon me,” Dr. Williams spoke up, “but just out of curiosity why did you settle on the name King Joe for this particular project? Is it some sort of acronym?” “It wasn't meant to be a permanent name,” Greenberg answered freely. “It was a pet code name for the project that just sort of stuck.” “Well that's disappointing,” Williams muttered. Hawk shot him a look trying to get across that might not have been an appropriate response. Oblivious as ever Williams asked, “Is something wrong Captain.” After a bit Bill started tapping Ken on the arm, “Hey Civilian, I think I know how they know about you now.” He pointed to a group of guards. One of them looked very familiar. “Isn't that one of the guys Reid told to shape up or ship out?” “It can't be,” Ryo, who overheard the conversation, said. Then the man in question got a look at them. And then an all too familiar scowl crossed his face as he stormed away from the others he was with. “Holy...”, Ryo muttered. “How far did Reid send those guys?” Ken asked as they kept moving. “Not far enough,” Jess mumbled. *** “As you may know,” Greenberg said as he lead them into one of the larger buildings, “Tower is the UNDF largest laboratory facility, hosting some of the best and brightest from across the globe. While we do have a small defense presence here we are mainly the research wing. Studying everything from improving the weapons and vehicles as well as studying the monsters you've been facing over in the states and that giant fellow of yours. I believe you call him Ultraman.” Raising an eyebrow Ken held his tongue. “We also work on good things as well,” he continued, “new ways to bring cheep and efficient power to the places that need it. Things like that.” “Maybe you would have been station here Civilian,” Bill said, low enough for only Ken and a couple of others could hear. “Being a mechanical genius and all.” Apparently Greenberg did over hear it as he stopped. Before Hawk could apologize he walked past him and up to Ken. Studying him a bit he went, “By any chance were you a student of Professor Kyrie?” Looking at the others first he answered, “Back when I was at the academy, yeah. For the brief time I was there.” Greenberg seemed to light up a bit, “You're the Ken Scott he was talking about. Who am I kidding, he still talks about. He hated the fact he lost you back then. Called me demanding if I had any pull in getting you a transfer over here despite the fact they disqualified you.” “So we noticed, “Hawk spoke up. “The professor visited Ken recently.” “Then it's a good place that I picked this particular building to start with,” Greenberg told them. “Ken you may personally enjoy the tour given to what I understand are you particular talents. Come, come.” He change the direction the group was going in and lead to to a set of double doors. “This is our experimental robotic display room.” He opened the doors and let the rest of them through, Hawk making sure Ken went in first. While, to his credit, he didn't say the “Holy shit” that sprung to mind as soon as he got a good look at the room, you could read his lips. He just started wandering around on his own as the Doctor let him. Soon a couple of the others started to do the same. They were all in awe of the various robots on display, which varied in looks from modern to retro. “They're all working models,” Greenberg said from his place next to Hawk.“Deactivated of course and power source disconnected. Not all of these models were actually meant for field use, that's the term you military types us right?” Hawk nodded that it was. “No, a lot of these were created in a spot of creativity.” Turning to Hawk he added, “It may not be the best use of money and resources, but I found that it helps boost moral and work rate if I allow for the occasional burst, to let the creative juices flow. Sometime we get a idea for to expand upon. The generator for your Alpha One for example came about when we were figured out how to power these things right here internally without any sort of external port. And wasn't nuclear in origin.” “So nobody starts glowing in the dark when there's a breach?”, Bill asked. “Bill,” Jess snapped at him. “My good man,” Greenberg said, “I believe that joke is older than my grandfather.” He looked for Ken, who had stopped in front of one display in particular. “Ah Imperalizer, that one is one of my personal favorites. As I'm the one that came up with him.” Walking over to join him while Ken studied it intently. “My first inspiration was the three lenses on what you would call it's face. The idea was...” “To give it a greater field of depth perception,” Ken said suddenly. “So instead of a single camera with a two dimensional view the three different angles of a single...” He trailed off suddenly as he looked over to the Doctor. “Sorry,” he went backing up a bit, “I'm probably totally wrong there any way.” “Do not be sorry,” Greenberg told him, “especially when you're right. That was the idea behind the three cameras in his head. Not a lot of people think of the depth perception part when they talk about the set up. You would have fit right in here, thinking of ideas like that.” “No no,” Ken quickly said, “I don't really do 'thinking of ideas'. I'm more of a building it when I see the plans type of guy.” He looked back at Imperializer. Softly he added, “And I would have loved helping to build this one.” “Our loss,” he said giving him a friendly smile before waling back to where Hawk was. “Seriously Captain, that is our loss. I don't suppose a talent trade would be possible.” “Sorry Doctor,” Hawk told him, “even if I was agreeable to the idea his situation would make it a bit difficult.” “Grand King,” Jess muttered as she read the name plate on the display as she and the others continued to walk around. “Galacitron, Jean-Bot. Jean-Nine. Deathfacer?” “That's a dinosaur on a tank,” Bill suddenly spoke up, pointing at one of the bigger cases. Said case contained what looked like the top part of a T-Rex and the bottom part of a tank. “As I said,” Greenberg told him, “Not all of them were meant to actually work in the field. Actually I'm still not sure why we created that one. But there it is. I do realize you would want to get on with why you're here but it is rather late in the day. I'm also sure you and your men would like the opportunity to rest and adjust a bit to the time difference.” “Actually Captain,” Ryo said, “I wouldn't mind resting up a bit. Especially since I'm pretty sure this is going to be Ken and Dr. Williams show from now on.” “And if I'm to be honest,” Dr. Williams said as he put a hand on one of the cases to lean against it. It seemed to move slight, causing Kem. Ryo and a couple of others to get ready to catch it if it fell. Oblivious to that he went on, “I'm feeling a bit pooped myself from the trip.” “Yes,” Greenberg went, eyeing the case, and more than a little relieved when Hawk gently pulled him away from the case. His attention turned to a set of opening doors as a big, stocky looking man came through. “Ah, perfect timing. Boris would you mind showing our guest where they'll be staying. Captain Hawk there are a few details I'd like to iron out first if that's alright with you.” “Not a problem at all Doctor. Ryo,” he said turning to him, “Take the men and follow Boris here. Jessica stay with me until the meetings done. The Doctor has some weapon upgrades he'd like us to go over. I'd like your opinion of them.” “Yes sir,” she answered, although she was looking forward to a little, not so cramped down time herself. “Come my new friends,” Boris said as he gestured toward the other door, “follow me. After you rest we drink, da? But I must warn you, we have stronger drinks than what you must be used too.” “Somebody who's obviously never been beakered,” Bill said to one of the others. “Ken, you coming?”, Ryo asked when he noticed he was still looking over the displays. “Yeah,” he said while holding up a finger, “in a minute. Or twelve. Or twenty.” Sad part was everybody in Alpha Team was sure he was telling the truth with that last statement.” Hawk looked over at Jessica who nodded. Going over to him she pulled, more like dragged, him away from something that looked like a mechanical dragon. “Come on Ken, toy store's closing.” “But...”, he started to protest. “It'll be here tomorrow,” she told him. Figuring it would be for the best she made sure Ken was in their group, just so she could keep an eye on him. “If your good I'll bring you back down here myself to wonder around drool.” *** Any complaint he might have had quickly disappeared when he realized the walk to Greenberg's office went through the hanger they were keeping the components for this King Joe. As it was he looked at something that might have registered as a giant, robotic looking head. Then he looked around at the other, even bigger golden coloered components in the hanger. He looked over at Jessica who stayed with him. “A bit bigger than I thought it was going to be.” Then they hurried up to catch up with Hawk and Greenberg. Exiting the giant hanger Greenberg started saying, “This is were most of the real work is done. We have wings for design and construction in this building. Generally on a small scale, but as you just saw we are capable of creating something much larger. In fact if Joe works out like expected we have plans on enlarging some of the display models to fight the creatures you're been up against.” He looked back at the group, “Some of my people are even fiddling around with the idea of making a robotic version of your Ultraman.” Again Ken cocked an eyebrow, that Jess tried to act like she didn't notice. “You might get the size,” he said, “but some of the abilities might be impossible to pull off.” “I'm sure we can come up with some equivalents,” Greenberg replied. “It's one of the weapon upgrades your Captain mention,” he said to Jessica. “We were thinking about using them to upgrade the big cannon in your Alpha One.” “Doc gonna put up a fight,” Ken mumbled. This time Jess did look at him, just to give a warning glare. As they continued talking Ken looked up to see that they were entering the lab construction areas. Apparently several based on the number of doors he was seeing. Glancing though the windows by the door nothing seemed all that interesting. Until they past one and his head tried to stay in place while his body kept moving. “I see something had piqued your interest,” he heard Greenberg say. Before Ken could apologize he smiled and came closer tot he door. “I must be honest and I hoped that something would, it's why I went the long way to my office. My apologies Captain, I just wanted to see his reaction.” Hitting a button by the door he said, “Dr. O'Hara a moment if you'd please.” After a few moments a woman came out, and spoke with the accent her name would imply,” And what can I do for you today Dr. Greenberg?” “I wanted you to meet Ken Scott here,” Greenberg told her. “He's a disciple of Professor Kyrie as it were.” “I wouldn't go that far,” Ken said a little defensively. “I was barely with him.” “Were you now?”, she said looking him over, not really looking all that off put on his apperance. “We're working on a project right now nobody can seem to get to work. You wanna come in and take a look?” “Yes,” he quickly answered. “Yes I would like that very much.” Then he looked over at Hawk for the okay. Hawk stood there a bit, wondering just how long it would take for him to start bouncing up and down and going “Please, please, please.” Enough time had based that he decided to end the younger man's torment. “Behave yourself.” “Yes sir,” he quickly said. “After you,” he said to the Doctor and they went into the lab. The first thing that struck Ken was based on how some of the “experts” looked he would have fit right in if this was were he was supposed to call home. One of them had multicolored streaks in her hair while another had various piercings on his face. Then he turned his attention to the project they were working on, a humaniod robot of some sort. Except the face looked a bit bird like and there was a fin on top of it's head. “Say hello to the THX-U7,” she said. “One of our latest goes at a battle bot as we're calling them.” Leading him closer to it one of her people started opening a back panel giving Ken a good look at the inside, at least from this angle. “Unfortunately this one refuses to budge when we tell him to.” “He can hear you?”, Ken asked. Then started thinking that he over thought what she said. Then O'Hara went, “The audible commands are working just fine. None of us can figure out where the message is getting lost in the rest of him. Maybe you can help there. I will never turn down the offer of a fresh set of eyes if asked.” Ken eye's wandered from the robot to a wall full of technical blueprints, he assumed for the thing in the room. He walked closer to the wall as O'Hara asked, “So do you want to give it a go?” Ken looked at the wall. As Kyrie suspected so long ago, like he told Jess on the trip here, the plans went 3D in his head, everything becoming more and more clear the longer he studied them. Maybe, after hearing it for years, just maybe they were all... Turning toward the THX-U7, a small smile started to form, “If you don't care.” *** “As you can see,” Greenbergs was saying while the three of them sat in his office, “we feel this upgrade will greatly improve the efficiency of damage of the Alpha One's main cannon. Actually I sent this report over e-mail several times. It keeps getting reject with a note that nothing's wrong with it to begin with.” Jess, who was going over the specs on a datapad, stopped just long enough to trade looks with Hawk. Dr. Williams had already started that fight Ken mentioned from the look of things. “I'm sure it's a misunderstanding,” Hawk said. “And partially territorial as well,” Greenberg said with a slight smirk. “I am a scientist myself after all. I felt the occasional heckle rise when thought somebody was trying to tamper with a project of mine.” A light on his desk lit up. Before pressing it it, he turned toward the two of them and said, “Excuse me please. “Yes Dr. O'Hara?”, Again Hawk and Jess exchanged looks, this time slightly worried ones. And for two completely different reasons, Hawk because he was worried he'd get hurt. Jess because she knew how he could get around a new bit of machinery at times. “Can you do something about this America you left with us?” came the reply. Jess pinched the bridge of her nose. She unfortunately won. “He's taking over things down here.” “Damn it Ken,” Hawk muttered. “I'm sorry Dr. Greenberg,” he said as the two of them started to rise, “I'll handle the situation.” Both of them left the office and hurried back to the lab they left him at. Once they got there. It wasn't as big a commotion as they feared, but still seemed a bit heated from the look of things. “The 3D model,” one of them started to say as Ken worked on the robot in the middle of the room. He stopped just long enough to look at him and say, “The model is wrong.” Then Ken went back to whatever he was doing that angered a few of them to begin with. “All these brains in the room and nobody thought to check if all the connections were in the right spots.” “You looked at those plans for a couple of minutes at most,” he tried to argue. “Completely ignoring the computer model we had set up. And you're claiming you saw something we all missed? In minutes?” “I'm a quick study,” came Ken's reply as he continued working. “The more advanced the machine the better I get it. That was a direct quote by the way. More or less.” This was not going to end well for somebody, more than likely him, so Hawk stepped forward, “Ken...” As commander of the troops back at Castle he wasn't used to being stopped for any reason. Which was why he was confused as he looked down at the arm suddenly blocking his path. Even more so when he realized who that arm belonged to. “Wade?” She didn't look at him right away, but staring intently at Ken. “He hasn't had that look since...” Finally turning toward. Him she said, “Captain, I highly suggest you let him finish what he's trying to do. I will take full responsibility if this goes wrong, but let him finish. Please.” Hawk wasn't sure what to make of that, looking back at the commotion in the middle of the room, trying to see what Jess was obviously seeing, he looked back at her.” “I will hold you to that full responsibility part,” he finally told her. Then stepped back and watched Ken do whatever he was doing. Before long he was putting panels back in place, apparently finished. “Okay let's see if this works,” Ken said. After a bit he looked over to O'Hara, “How do we find out if it works again?” The one he was arguing with previously answered for her. “It's a verbal command. Just say THX-U7 and what ever you want him to do...” “No,” Ken said said suddenly, “we're not calling him that. He needs a name. Something with less syllables than THX-U7. This things supposed to be battle field ready, you know how long that's going to take to say? Seconds count, a quote from him by the way,” he added pointing at Hawk. O'Hara seemed to take a bit of offense with that part, “The machine doesn't need a name, it's a machine.” Ken wasn't deterred, “You have for things that combine into a bigger thing you guys are calling King Joe. He can get a name.” Looking around at everybody else in the room he went, “Come on people let's brainstorm here. Who does he look like?' There was silence in the room until Jess called out, “How about Windam?” Looking over at her Hawk, and anyone who could see his face, seemed a bit surprised at his blank expression, especially compared to all the enthusiasm he was expressing just a second earlier. Then a sort of sad smile crossed his lips as he lowered his head a bit. Then that previous enthusiasm was back in full force, “Windam it is.” Going over to a person behind a lap top he said, “If you'd change that THX-U7 to Windam that be great. W-I-N-D-A-M.” This person looked over to O'Hara. She pretty much gave up at controlling things from the look of it, “Just do it.” He shook his head but apparently complied. “Awesome,” Ken said with a clap as he walked away. Taking up position in front of the newly christened Windam he waited. Putting his hands together and putting them to his mouth he studied the machine intently, almost like he was praying this would work. Finally, “Windam... come forward.” Nothing happened at first, causing the one he was arguing with at first to look a bit smug. Then there was a whirring sound as the machine started to walk toward him. The stunned disbelief of the scientists in the room was only matched by the sheer joy on Ken's face. “Windam stop,” and the robot did so immediately. “Windam forward,” and it did so again. “Turn left,” Windam went to the right. Ken was not going to let that miscue dampen his mood, “You know what? I'll take it.” Still trying to figure out what the hell was going on he pulled Jessica closer to the door. “Wade, I want to know what's happening. Right now.” Her answer, “He's finally believing that he the genius we been saying he was. I mean really believing it. It just took getting a robot to move to do it.” Hawk studied Ken for a few more moments, he would still talk to him later about hijacking another station's project. But maybe not as harshly as he originally had in mind. *** After all of the commotions Hawk was back in Greenberg's office. It occurred to him after awhile that his counterpart over here at Tower didn't seem as upset as Dr, O'Hara and her staff at his man over reach over the THX-U7 project. In fact he almost seemed giddy about it. Still his man did cross a line. “I must apologize again for Ken actions in the lab.” “Do not say anything to that young man,” Greenberg told him flatly. “Again this was me manipulating things a bit to get that kind of result. Just to see if he was up to all the praise I'd been hearing from Kyrie for the past few years, and he did not disappoint. Besides Dr. O'Hara did admit she invited him to take a go at it. I'm sure she got a bit too territorial when it looked like he caught something they didn't, in record time from my understanding.” “Still the naming thing was a bit much,” Hawk went on.. “I'm actually a little more disappointed that another one of mine went along with it.” “Even if he's right and we have pet names for all our little projects,” he said with a smirk.”Ah well do what you think you must, they are your men after all. Although I do think your other person, Wade was her name? Well I think she just got caught up in Ken's excitement. I was watching a video replay,” he held up a tablet to show him,” while you were on the back here, I was getting excited for him and I knew what was coming. His enthusiasm was rather catching. Are you sure you don't want to transfer him over here?” “No,” Hawk said with a bit if a grin, “I think I'll be stuck with him for awhile.” “Pity,” Greenberg uttered while leaning back into his chair. “We could always use new blood who don't like to be in the box. As I'm sure you noticed by some of the scientist that were in this particular lab. I have never cared about how they looked, just what inside their head.” Touching the tablet screen with a finger he added, “At least Ken apologized to Dr. O'Hara and her crew without any prompting, so you have to give him that at least. Now back to the boring stuff before the excitement happened. I believe we were talking about some weapon upgrade that keep getting reject from you end.” And Hawk wondered if he could force the potential headache that was going to be Dr. Williams over to Richardson to handle. Elsewhere in the complex O'Hara was in her office going over the feed from when Ken got the THX-U7, she refused to call it Windam, to move. “A bunch of blasted misplaced connections? How in the hell did that bastard catch that so fast and we didn't?” She started chuckling to herself, “He is on of Kyrie's all right if Greenberg telling the truth about both of them.” Here phone went off signaling she received a text message. It wasn't a number she knew. Frowning he looked at it any way. It was one line of text. “Call now.” Knowing she shouldn't call it, that she should just confess to Greenberg that she sold some data and equipment through some unsavory channels to get extra funding for here battle bot project and get it over with. She dialed the number any way. Damn this man for finding out what she did. “Hello Doctor,” came the voice of Peter Brooks, “just thought I'd check in and see how things are progressing.” *** “Don't lock him up,” Ken pleaded as a couple of Tower's personal began to add Windam to the display he toured earlier. “I just got him to work. Let him move around a little first.” Which Ken knew was impossible at moment as his power supply was already unhooked from the major systems inside. “Can you at least change the name to Windam?”, he said gesturing to the plate that said THX-U7. Being completely ignored he could do nothing but watch the two men completed their task and walked away. “Well this fucking sucks,” he said as he looked at Windam behind the case. Sighing in defeat he said, “Who am I kidding. I wasn't a genius for doing this. It was just a couple of stupid connectors.” Then he was hit in the back of the head. He stood there in shock for a moment before going, “Ow,” and seeing who did that. That person ended up being Jess who was looking as stern as he'd ever seen. “You finally started to believe it and I am not going to let you backslide now. You are a genius. I know it, the Captain knows it and you know it. So you better get that through your head right now.” But her expression did soften a bit as she looked past his shoulder, “But it does suck they put him in there.” Then she handed him one of the bottles of the local beer she was holding. He took it but looked at it with dubious expression, “After the last time booze was involved?” “I'm sure it's not that potent and one won't hurt,” she told him. “Come on I want to show you something.” She lead him through the complex until they were on an upper level. Then she walked through a door in particular to a balcony looking over the ocean. Walking forward Ken leaned on the railing and opened the bottle in his hand. “The view definitely better than the big pile of dust we got at Castle.” Especially with Sun almost gone from the horizon. Opening her bottle Jess joined him at the railing, “Yes it is. And I figured you could use some cheering up after I heard what they were doing with Windam.” “You do know me,” he said before taking swig. They stood there in comfortable silence for a few moments just drinking their beer. Without looking at her Ken started to smile a bit, “So, you went with Windam.” She started to smile too, “It just seemed right. It was what you called that beat up and rusty as hell motorcycle you got from that junkyard. Your first impossible project.” Ken snorted, “Everybody said I could never get it to work again and I wasted my money.” “That didn't stop you from trying,” she shot back. “You know, I used to love to see how happy working on that made you. It's why I never complained about it when you were working on her.” Taking another drink he said, “God I haven't thought about that bike in years. Do you remember how I kept saying how I was going to take you all across the country on it?” “I remember,” Jess told him. “I never really thought about how we were going to pay for food or where we were going to sleep. But I didn't care at the time, I was just looking forward to you, me and the road.. Whatever happened to that motorcycle any way? Even after our break up I kept expecting to see you go down the street on it.” Suddenly he lost the smile. Staring out at sea he told her, “I sold it for scrape a couple of months afterwards.” “What?”, she looked at him. “Why? You put a ton of work on it even before then.” “Honestly,” he eventually answered, “my heart wasn't in it any more.” Well that brought down the mood a bit. Which was not her intention. While still a comfortable one, they just stood in silence for a bit. “Ken,” Jess went after a few moments, “if I ask you a question, will you be honest with me?” “Sure,” he answered. Here she hesitated. After they finally talked about their break up things seemed much better between them. That weight she said that was between them being lifted. So she didn't want to put another one there if she could help it. Still she had to know, “When you first joined up, did you think we'd get back together?” He looked a little bewildered, not that she could blame him, “Okay what brought that on?” “Something that sort of stuck with me,” she told him, “after that mess with the happy flower as you called it.” He tensed up a bit having a good idea he knew where she was going. “After you finally admitted to what you saw the first thing you said was you got me back. Did you just think we pick up right were we left off?” “If we picked up where we left off you'd be pissed at me on a weekly basis after Jeff kept talking me into breaking dates with you,” he shot back at her. Not in a mean way based on the smile. Laughing a bit Jess conceded his point, “All right you got me there. But Ken, seriously, did you think we get back together?” He didn't answer right away, just looked out at sea. “Honestly?”, he eventually said. “Honestly back then, it crossed my mind a couple of times. Especially after I saw you for the first time in years. But I realized that ship sailed a long time ago. I'm just happy I got back what we got now.” “I'll drink to that,” Jess told him. Clinking bottles together they finished off what was left of their beer. “I better call it a night,” Ken told her. “If I know Williams he going to want to start cracking Joe open as soon as the sun starts to rise.” “Good luck getting some sleep,” Jess told him. She was going to need it herself with the time differences. Ken walked away from the railing, dropping his bottle in a nearby trash chute. Then he stopped and headed back, leaned on the railing and stared at her. “What?” “How about you?”, he asked. “Did you think we get back together?” “Honestly,” Jess replied while looking at the ocean, “back then the thought never crossed my mind.” Looking at him she added, “I'm glad we got back to where we are now too.” “Then we're on the same page then,” he said with a smile. “Night Jess.” “Night Ken.” She stayed on the balcony for a while longer, just taking in the scenery. Then, too herself, she said, “I wonder what's going to happen first. That he's going to noticed how I phrased that. Or if he's finally going to tell me.” *** Ryo comments from the day before turned out to be true for the most part. After breakfast Ken and Dr. Williams headed straight for the hanger the King Joe components were being housed. And Bridge was still going over computer records with Tower's Emiko. And while Ryo didn't say anything out loud like Ken did, he was hoping something would spark between the two of them well. And he and the rest that came from Castle pretty much had nothing to do. Captain Hawk and Dr. Greenberg agreed to let those who wanted it have a free pass into the city. And a few of them took him up on it. Those who declined for the moment, Greenberg had said they would be available for as long as they were here, had to find other way to entertain themselves. In some cases that was easier than others. Such as when Ryo and Bill discovered that Boris, their guide from the night before, also happened to be on the pilots on bases. It goes without saying that the three of them felt a connection real quick. Which was why Boris was showcasing one of their Razor Wings to the two of them. These were black like theirs but had the blue highlights of Tower's staff uniform. And the wings were sloped forward. Still didn't stop Bill from drooling a bit as he leaned over the cockpit staring at the controls. “I think I'm in love,” Bill said as he wiped his mouth a bit. “How does she handle?” Ryo asked their guide. “Like dream,” he replied with a big ol' grin. “You feel safer than in your mothers arms. And much faster.” He move so Ryo could get closer to the controls. “Unlike your Razor Wings pilot can both fly and shoot. No problem at all.” “Good thing Jess isn't here to hear that,” Bill commented. He looked down at the helmet as something caught his eye. Picking it up he noticed a secondary visor that could be pulled down. The fact you couldn't see through this one made the two of them confused as he showed it two Ryo. “Um, be kinda hard doing either with this in place wouldn't it?”, he asked Boris. “Da, it would,” he readily agreed. “That is a prototype for a VR display. Big thinkers around here want to do away with control panel all together. Make it harder to steal they say.” “Flying a jet without a physical control?”, Ryo said in disbelief. “”How is that even supposed to work? I mean just starting the engine alone you'd need something to press.” Boris just shrugged his shoulders, “I don't understand either. But I'm not a big thinker. I do my thing, they do theirs and somewhere in the middle we meet.” Bill on the other hand, “You think Civilian can build us one of these?” Word of Ken's feat the night before spread pretty fast. Ryo didn't answer him as he lowered himself down the ladder. “Come on it be cool.” “Well my friends since I showed you our toys,” Boris said. “maybe you can show me yours?” He looked over to the Alpha One with a bit of anticipation. They were on the same side after all and Tower personal were helping maintain the Alpha One while they were here. And they already had the plans for the ship so there was no secret to be worried about. “Come on,” Ryo told him as they headed over, we'll give you the grand tour.” They didn't get far as a motorized cart got away from one of the ground crew. Boris saw it and grabbed them by the collar to pull them out of the way as it sped past. It crashed into a wall with a ear ringing metal thud. Boris started yelling at the man in Russian as Bill stared at the impact zone. “That was a little too close.” Then that section of wall fell with another ear ringing clang. “That shouldn't have happened right?” “No it should not,” Ryo answered him as he, Bill and a few of the ground crew rushed over to inspect the damage. They all stopped at the sight of a couple of black and silver humaniod robots standing against an inner wall. “What the hell are these things?” “Another project of Dr. O'Hara,” Boris told him as he came closer. “More of her battleroids. She call these Chiburoids, mass produced metal soldiers. Very cheep, very fast to make. But strange though, very strange,” he muttered to himself as he started to stroke his chin. “You didn't know these were here?”, Ryo asked him. “Nyet,” was the answered, “I am as surprised as you.” Bill and Ryo looked at each other. Both nodded in silent agreement as Boris ordered the ground crew to check the other walls. *** “Alright,” Ken said as he stood inside one of the longer pieces of King Joe, “next section.” Datapad in hand he called up the schematics of the area he was in. Finding them he looked them over for a minute or so then looked at the part in real life. Since he finally decided to embrace the whole genius thing fully, Jess' words, he didn't feel the need to hide what he could do any more and was going through the process faster then Dr. Williams thought was necessary. And yet surprisingly accurate to everybody else looking at his results. Getting tired at staring what he would swear looked like a giant knee oint, he lowered the pad blew out a breath. “This is fucking ridiculous,” he muttered to himself. Then he turned and made his way back toward the port he originally came in at. Heading toward what the plans said was one of the middle sections he banged on the opening, “Yo Doc!” he waited a few moments. Only hearing him curse something about a bunch of wires once. Ken thought that was a record given his usual standard. Coming into view he gave out an exasperated, “Yes,” while still fighting with a wire that was looped around his wrist. It took Ken and one of the tower people working with them a second to free him. Then only got a mumbled, “Thank you,” in return. Ken figured he was still a bit sore at the fact Hawk seemed to like the weapon upgrades Greenberg was suggesting for the Alpha One. “Doc, I hate to add to your troubles but I'm still saying we're barking up the wrong tree here,” Ken told him. He grunted and stated his way back inside the machine. He stopped him, “Everything is coming out clean so far.” “Brooks could have done something,” Dr. Williams insited. “We checked all the major things first,” Ken argued. “Stating with the connectors that supposed to hold this stupid thing together once they joined up. They're clean. Electrical pathways, coolant system, all good. We are about five steps away from checking every nut, bolt and rivet in these things.” “Do I have to remind you what Brooks did to the Alpha One,” he shot back. Ken snapped back at him, “He also had physical access to the Alpha One. And nobody had seen Brooks here since this project was green lighted. Hell he's never even set foot on this base. And Bridge has determined that the security feeds around here haven't been tampered with once. He was never here.” “He could have showed up where the parts were manufactured,” Williams told him, not wanting to let this go. “Everything was manufactured here” ,Ken reminded him. “And since he flew away from Castle I'm pretty sure he can't teleport.” The good Doctor suddenly looked very smug, which was not a good look for him, like he had the winning point for the argument. “Then how do you explain those giant creatures, hmm?” “Doc,” Ken uttered while pinching the bridge of his nose, “you know why there are giant creatures and who's sending them.” Williams sputtered for a moment as Ken looked over at one of the people helping them. Did he say that loud enough for him to over here because that was not a conversation he wanted to have with Captain Hawk at this particular moment. Or any time soon. Or ever for that matter. Seeing how he didn't seem to react Ken turned his focus back to Williams, “We'll keep looking, but so far mechanically, these birds are coming out green. If anything he hired somebody to do something to the computer system which means it's in the hands of Bridge and Emiko.” “Humph,” he grunted, “you probably think those weapon upgrades will work as well.” Ken hesitated in answering, especially since Hawk let him have a look over those plans before Williams joined them for breakfast. He had to admit they looked good. Which Dr. Williams apparently saw on his face. “Dod gamn it,” he mumbled as he went back into the machine. “Doc,” Ken called after him. Shaking his head he noticed their assistant look at the Doctor's retreating form, then at him with the strangest look on his face. “Yeah he does that sometimes.” Walking back to the machine he was checking out his communicator went off, “Scott here.” “Ken,” came Hawk reply, “I need you to check out something for me.” *** “I don't understand how this was possible,” Emiko said as she sat behind her computer. Beside her Bridge had set up shop with his own rig, both going over anything to figure out how these Chiburoids got where they were. “I am seeing nothing suggesting security was messed with anywhere in the hanger.” “I know how frustrating that can be,” Bridge said not taking hs eyes off the screen in front of him. They had a similar situation back at Castle not that long ago and he only found it then by sheer luck. “We have no idea how long those robots have been in place so who knows when it happened.” “But I am finding no records of those machines being built either,” she said “There is a record of of what it takes to build everything here and I am not seeing any sort of requisition request for those material use in the Chiburoid construction.” Stopping what she was doing she held her head down a bit and slowed her breathing, “Think. If there are no records then we weren't supposed to know about them until... whatever the plan was. But she still needed the materials and revenue to get said materials.” She opened her eyes as she snapped her head back up, “There was an outside source.” “On it,” Bridge told her as he changed his search parameters. A few seconds later Hawk and Greenberg came into the computer room. “Please tell me you two found something,” Hawk said as he took a familiar spot behind Bridge. “We're still looking Captain,” Bridge answered. “Emiko figures Dr. O'Hara had an outside source to build the Chiburoids that were discovered. I'm checking various situations know.” “Even if she had outside resources,” Greenberg spoke up, “she would still need help in building them on that scale. Which would mean people directly under her are involved in this... whatever this is... as well.” “A bit of advice Doctor,” Hawk told him, “don;t make any accusations yet until you have absolute proof. I did that recently and it almost cost me one of my best people. Let's concentrate on O'Hara first then branch out from there.” The rig Bridge was sitting in front of started to beep, “Looks like I found something,” he said. “Looks like Dr. O'Hara received some large packages from a weapons manufacture.” He tilted his head a bit as he kept reading, “Said company is owned by Charles Brooks.” “Damn it,” Hawk said under his breath. “An nobody seen him since Peter Brooks went rogue,” he mainly said to Greenberg. “I think it's time we talked to the good Doctor about this.” Before the other man could respond his communicator beeped, “Hawk here.” It was one he had been eagerly awaiting as Ken responded, “Captain we have successfully hardwired a data transmitter into the head of one of these thing. You should be getting it now.” “Reviving transmission,” Emiko said. “The data is heavily encrypted. Nathan do you have that can speed this up cracking this code?” “Just a moment,” he said as he reached for a separate lap top and turned it on. Staring to connect it with her help he said, “Got a couple of home brew code breakers I've been keeping on the back burner.” “I would love to see the programming,” she said with a slight smile. Bridge smiled right back, “I would love to show you it.” Hawk coughed behind him causing Bridge to flinch a bit. The message was clear, work now show off programming later. After a few key strokes, “Program is activated. It still going to take a couple of minutes to break it though. Wait, the first layer of the encryption is already broken.” “I think I already have something,” Emiko announced. “It's a map of Tower, the entire complex.” She pulled up what she was seeing on a larger screen. “From what everyone was looking at most of the building had a series of dots going around the perimeter, even in the wall surrounding the complex. Highlighting an area on one of the building she announced, “This is the hanger and were they discovered the Chiburoids.” If those dots corresponded to just the ones they found.” All of them tried to count how many dots there were on screen. “We need to talk to O'Hara now,” Hawk said. “I completely agree,” Greenberg said. “That won't be necessary,” O'Hara said from the doorway. “Don't worry I fully intend to cooperate in this situation so there no need for any violence.” “Just what is going on Dr. O'Hara,” Greenberg demanded., “Julie. What are you trying to do?' “I just made some wrong choices Franklin,” she said. “Contacted the wrong people when things got too slow around here. I never was a patient woman you know. Then a worse person found out about it.” “Peter Brooks,” Hawk said figuring that's where she was going. She nodded. “He was nice at first,” she explained. “He saw great potential in my battle bots. Even after he helped get King Joe started he would send various emails about my design, completely amazed at how quickly we could build some of them. Then he showed his true colors.” She began circling the room, “All of our correspondence were turned over when he showed his true colors. I had no problem in doing so as I didn't tell him anything that wasn't public knowledge, or available to the Board. But Brooks was a better snooper than I thought as I started getting emails form a private source after the fact, detailing every black market connection me and some members of my staff have made to get projects going faster. He threatened to expose it all and end my and their careers. I don't give a wit about about what happens to me, but I wasn't going put a premature end to my staff because of my folly.” “I'm getting an activation signal,” Emiko announced getting it from the connection she had through the transmitter. Around the hanger and all over Tower hidden Chiburoids started to stir and break out of hiding. “Some of my staff on the other hand,” O'Hara went as they looked at her, “don't have that problem.” “Hawk to all units,” he barked into his communicator, “prepare for an internal assault.” “Aware of that Captain,” Ken had said as shots could be heard, over the line and through the building. “We broke another layer of the encryption,” Emiko announced. “We have a primary objective. They're after the robots in the display room.” Again they looked at O'Hara who just shrugged a little bit. None of them was actually sure if she was sorry or not at this point. Right now Hawk didn't give a damn. “Hawk to Scott,” he started to say. “We heard over the open line Captain,” he said. “Ryo and Boris have the hanger covered. Me and Bill and a few others are heading for the display room now.” Despite all of this Hawk celebrated, just a bit, internally. Not only was he finally believing the genius label he finally started to think like a UNDF member at the same time. It could have been under better circumstances but like the young man said the the night before, he'll take it. “Understood, Hawk to Wade. Meet up with Ken's group in the display room and try to fortify a defense.” He glanced back at the display Emiko had put up earlier trying to figure out where the display room was. The he glanced over at Greenberg, having forgotten he was there until just now. “My apologizes for taking over sir.” “I am fully aware this is your area of expertise Captain,” was his response “I'm just trying to stay out of your way. And the display is right here,” he said highlighting it on the screen for him. Emiko I know your busy but I need you to go over who on Dr.. O'Hara staff is capable of helping her pull something like this off.. And I highly doubt she'll be forth coming on who those people will be despite her claims.” “Yes Doctor,” she said as she immediately pulled up the staff records and started cross referencing. “Bridge, do what you can to lock down the King Joe hanger,” Hawk said to his man. “I'm not seeing any Chiburoids stationed there, but if Brooks is involved I positive it's still a main objective.” “Hanger is already locked down,” Bridge told him. He looked back at O'Hara who simply took a seat in an empty chair in the room. Greenberg motioned for one of the security to guard her. But something about this still bothered Hawk on a certain level. Why would a bunch of display robots be a primary objective when there were other, more easily activated things they could grab. Like weapons and data plans. *** The two groups of UNDF officers hit the display room, so far not an active bot in sight. While Bill and Jess started accessing how defensible the area was, and out side a few of the larger floor displays there wasn't a whole lot, Tower personal started to set up something the size of small folding table in various parts of the room. With a press of a button they expanded to three times there length. Getting a closer look at the new barrier Bill let out a low whistle, “We need to get some of these.” “Wish list later,” Jess told him. Emiko and Bridge had sent the Chiburoids location to all the troops and she pulled up the information. “Looks like the main force is coming from that door.” Tower personal repositioned the barriers to face the door she pointed out. There was a small hiss as somebody one of them announced they were locked in place. “Seriously,” Bill started again, “can we get Civilian the plans for these?” “Lock down all the doors,”one of the tower guard ordered. Men were already on the move as each was set with something that looked like two black disk attached to a metal bar. Then those disk expanded to cover more of the door securing it further. “Those be nice too,” a more than a few told Bill to shut up at that point as they took position behind the barriers. Bill spoke up again, “Okay serious question here are we going to have to worry about the displays in here? Because shooting up this room looks like it'll get expensive.” “It'll give the scientist something to do by fixing them,” somebody barked. “Just asking,” Bill said as the first pound came from the door. He like the rest of them aimed his gun at the door. That pounding went on for several minutes before the door started to crack. “Here they come,” Jess said from her position. Still they all waited until the door broke away completely, “Fire!” The first few Chiburoids took the initial hit and went down fast. But more walked in over their fallen comrades and moved forward. Trying to look over those coming into the room Jess tried to gage how bad this particular wave was. “I'm not seeing an end of this particular line!” “Worry about running out of ammo first,” Bill told her. “Don't wait and start picking your shots now!” Jess ordered. The door opening was pretty much a choke point, if they shot down enough Chiburoids then they would become a makeshift barrier in their own right for a few moments. Jess and a few others were able to get some clean head shots. Ken was not one of those people even with the targeting assist, and his helmet was currently on the Alpha One with the rest of theirs at that particular moment. Still he did the best he could, until some of the Chiburoids started to fire back. “Fuck they got into the armory!”, one of Tower personal said. Ken ducked as a few more shots flew over his head. This just went from bad to hell way too fast. And he was a mechanic with a gun. No he was also a UNDF officer, maybe not a full one, but one just the same. So he had to think like one. Then, as another volley went over their heads, he looked over at the display. The one containing Windam to be precise. Thinking as fast as he ever thought he raised his gun at the case and fired. Jess saw him, and figuring he had a plan altered her aim and shot at the case too until the glass shattered. Ken started for the now open case as Jess got Bill's attention. “Cover him!” “On it!” he called back as he and a few others made sure none of the Chiburoids couldn't get a clear shot at him. Once Ken made the case Bill hurried over and got behind the case to give him a little extra coverage. “What's the plan Civilian?”, he asked as Ken already had a panel removed. Already working on untangling some of the wires the scientist tied up when they deactivated Windam he replied, “I'm going to hook up the power source and reactivate the battle computer from memory.” Bill took his eyes off the Chiburoids just long enough to ask, “You can do that?” Ken stopped just long enough to answer, “I'm about to find out.” The fire fight kept going as more Chiburoids kept pouring through the door. A Tower personal got hit and went down. Another went down permanently as he took his eyes off the battle to check on his friend. Jess took out the the robot responsible but didn't get a reprieve as she had to duck a series shot that came in their direction. This was not going to end well at this rate. “Any help would be appreciated,” she said to nobody in particular. Then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and took a chance in case they started to flank them. But it was Ken. He positioned himself just by the front of the case and pointed at the Chiburoids, “Windam go!” The robot eye lit up and looked at the Chiburoids. Stepping out of the case it hurried toward the barrier and leapt over it onto a group. “Come on!” Ken shouted as Windam started battling the others. “Don't shoot the silver one!”, Jess ordered. The tactic seemed to be working as the Chiburoids seemed to be unsure of what was going one and they were able to whittle down the numbers a bit more in that moment. But that moment didn't last long enough as the Chiburoid readjusted they formation a bit and started to swarm Windam, dragging him the the ground. “Damn it,” she went under her breath as she shoot a couple of them off of him. Then the Chiburoids in the back started to go down as Ryo, Boris and more Tower personal made their way to the display room. Caught in a cross fire the Chiburoids went down in a hurry. Bill stepped out from behind Windam's display case as Ken ran for the pile, “I've have never been so glad to see anybody.” “Sorry to make you wait,” Ryo told Bill giving Ken a confused look as he started going through the pile of robots. Looking over at Jess she pretty much told him to let it go for the moment. “We would have been here sooner but there were a ton of these things.” Boris added,” Literally coming out of the wood works.” “Oh no,” Ken suddenly said. He had found what he was looking for. “Windam, buddy, what did they do to you?” The silver robot had various holes ripped into it, and an arm completely torn loose. Jess came over and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. Then the room started to shake. “Now what?”, Ryo asked out loud. “We have activity in the King Joe hanger,” Bridge announced. “But I'm not getting any signal that the Chiburoids made their way inside.” “Captain Hawk!”, a panicked Dr. Williams shouted over the comm line. “The machines are trying to crash through the ceiling!” Hawk stole a glance at O'Hara, she didn't seem shocked at this bit of news. Then things seemed to click into place. “Dr. Greenberg,” he said to his counterpart, “did any of her staff work on King Joe?” “Everybody worked on King Joe because of the sheer size.” Then it dawned on him about where Hawk was going. “It wasn't about the display.” “The Chiburoids were a distraction,” he said. “They needed time to get Joe up and running.” There was a louder crash and they turned to the two monitoring the situation. Emiko spoke for both of them, “Hanger breach. One of the components broke through the ceiling.”She switch the image on the main screen to an outside shot. All the King Joe components started to slowly fly out of the hanger. “They are headed for the city.” “Those things have any weapons?”, Hawk said to Greenberg. “Not originally planned but,” he turned to look at O'Hara who still said nothing. “Get an evacuation order going,” Hawk told the two computer experts. Hitting his comm he ordered, “All Alpha Team members get ready to scramble. We're going to shoot that thing out of the sky.” “Greenberg to defensive units,” he said into his communicator, “Prepare to launch and aid Alpha Team.” Boris looked at his men, “You heard order, go.” He then patted Ryo and Bill hard on the back, “Come my new friends. It's time to show our skill.” “Ken come on,” Ryo said as they started to run out of the room. “I'll be back to fix you,' he said to the robot lying on the floor, “I promise,” as he made his way out of the room. *** The pieces didn't do much, even as the combined assault forces of Alpha Team and Tower bombarded it with everything that had. Ryo and Bill separated the Alpha Twos and quickly formed up with several other of the Tower Wings in a loose formation. On Hawk's command each group picked a section to attack. Hopefully one of them would go down first before. According to what Ken and Williams were able to tell him during the flight, these thing didn't need a pilot as they were completely controlled by an AI system. Hopefully taking out one would mess whatever programming they had up enough to let them win this day. On the ground Ken had joined with the evacuation forces to help with that effort. He pretty much let the Tower personal do the instruction part as he waved people through. “Come on!”, he said after a bit, “What he said! This way!.” Ken tried to see if there was an end to this particular crowd and he didn't see one from his spot. In all honestly this was a scale he wasn't used to. Still he hadn't been trampled yet, generally that was a plus. But better not press his luck, especially with a crowd this size. “What Japanese for 'move your butts faster'?” “I've been saying it!”, the guy with went as they kept waving people through. “Alrighty then,” Ken mumbled. He tried to keep an eye on the flying machines at the same time. More people did so as they started coming together and the \defensive teams increased their attack. They took a formation as the larger section split apart to form legs, a smaller section landed on top of that, a bigger section on top of that. As a pair of arm extended out as the thing that looked like a head earlier connected at the top taking a very rough humaniod shape. “Holy fuck,” Ken said standing there a long with the rest of them on the ground. “It did turn into giant robot.” “Son of a bitch,” Hawk muttered. This is what he wanted to avoid. “All units concentrate fire on King Joe. Greenberg now that 's combined is there a weak point?” “We've already pulled up the plans,” Greenberg said. “Emiko, Bridge and Williams are going over it now. Also anybody who doesn't have a close connection to O'Hara and her group. It's a risk I know, but considering the situation I thought it was worth it.' “I'll leave you to it then,” Hawk said. “Hawk to all units keep on the attack.” “All right guys,” Ryo said from one of the Alpha Twos, “Get in formation. Keep the attack constant, once one wave attacka the next group in line set of a run.” “You got it,” Bill replied. “We will follow your lead,” Boris replied as other chimed in as well. They followed up on the plan as King Joe started to attack the building around, smashing the buildings with the fist, or what was supposed to be fist. Their attack seemed to go unnoticed as the damage from King Joe increased. So far it didn't seem to have any long range weapons. Which was a small blessing so far. On the ground the crowd seemed to get running again with a new furor as the giant robot rampaged. “Where's the American?”, one of the Tower people asked as they barely got out of the way of the stampeding crowd. “Avoiding this mess if he was smart,” came the reply. “Damn it check the ground to make sure they're not stepping on him.” On the other side of the street Ken started moving before the robot or the crowd did. Going down an alley nobody else was in he hugged a wall and pulled out the Spark Magnifier. It was Dax's size after all, as per their reworked arrangement from a while ago. Still he hesitated as bit. “Well, this is going to cause a lot of questions.” Then he held it over his head and activated it.” *** “I'm surprised and not surprised Ultraman showed up,” Bill commented as the column of light faded away revealing the being inside. Boris snorted a bit from his Wing, “He's smaller than I expected. Tales made him sound much bigger.” “Truth is better than fiction,” Ryo told him. “All units take up a holding pattern around the area. Do not engage unless ordered to.” Already uttering his standard battle cry Daxium charged toward King Joe. The robot did nothing as he unleashed a series of punches and kicks. Then when he stopped a vicious backhand from the robot sent him flying into a nearby building, causing it to cave a bit. King Joe came at him and Daxium rolled out of the way as it tried to grab him. A flash bolt made the machine stop momentarily. Daxium ran in with a flying kick that barely made it budge. He had to back flip out of the way as the golden machine tried to grab him again. Realizing what he had to do the giant banged his forearms together and held them out in a strong pose as he shifted into his power mode. Going in again Daxium started striking the robot. Joe was recoiling now but it was standing. Then it moved faster than he was expecting as it broke through his attacks and grabbed him around the neck. The giant pounded on it's arms as he was slowly being pressed down to his knees. Grabbing it's wrist and grunting he forced himself back up with all he had and started to remove those hands from his neck. Then the robot kicked him I the stomach bending him over from the blow. Grabbing him around the head and neck King Joe lifted him up and slammed him against another building. As it crumbled from the impact Bridge and Emiko had made a discover on their own. “King Joe is accessing the UNDF database,” Emiko told them. “With a priority on everything we have on Ultraman.” “The AI,” Greenberg said in understanding, “it trying to learn how Ultraman fights.” “I've already blocked it access,” Bridge announced. “It's trying a different attack route. Emiko I'm going to need your help in stopping it.” She nodded and they both started hitting the keys in front of them as fast as humanly possible. While that was going on King Joe picked up and threw Daxium into another set of building. Several rounds of rockets exploded off it's metallic hide it reached up and ripped a radio tower off a near by building. As Daxium struggled to get off the ground King Joe started swing the tower down against his back over and over. The Alpha One aimed it's missiles at the tower in it's hand before Daxium was hit again. With it's weapon gone King Joe then reached down and grabbed the giant around the neck and hauled him up, using him as a shield. Daxium cried out in pain as a series of missiles struck him before the Wings knew what was happening. “Shit,” Jess from her station. Letting go of his neck King Joe spun him around and punched him down again. On his back Daxium cried out again as a foot came stomping down his chest over and over. Then the robot held it there and leaned forward bit so a good chunk of it's weight was in one spot as it started grinding it's foot into his chest. Before long the jewel started to blink red on Daxium's chest. “Main laser fire!” Jess called out. A massive beam hit King Joe causing it to stop. It was enough of a reprieve that Daxium grabbed the foot keeping him down and pushed the robot off of him. Scrambling to his feet as the robot quickly regained it's balance he took up a fighting position again and tried to figure a new angle of attack in the time he had left. “We have something!” Williams cried out. “There's a less armored area right under King Joe's chest. “It's going to be a million and one shot though but the Alpha One's main laser should pierce it.” “Wade?”, Hawk called vack to her from his chair. “Just get me in position,” she said as the information came up on one of her screens. The Alpha One tried to giver her a shot but King Joe kept moving. “Come on,” she muttered as she waited for the shot, “figure out what we're doing.” Daxium saw the human's jet not sure what they were trying to hit. But Ken was watching at that moment to at the giant's request. Ken lowered his head and closed his eyes as he tried to recall what he could remember of the King Joe plans. They had to have found something but what? Not what, he realized, but where. They were trying to get in front of it. “Grab it from behind and hold 'im!” Daxium rushed toward King Joe and was able to get behind it. Grabbing both it's arms he struggled to turn the massive machine toward the Alpha One. On board Jess quickly locked down her target, “Main laser fire!” The beam hit the designated spot. An small explosion seemed to happen inside King Joe as it's movements started to get more jerky. Daxium let go and held his fist to the flashing jewel on his chest and drew in energy. Rearing back with that fist he launched it forward as King Joe turned around and faced, unleashing the full force of Giga Wave on it's chest. The energy from the wave obliterated most of the machine and the rest exploded as it fell. Breathing heavily for a moment as he held his own chest he looked up at the sky. With a “Shiah!” he flew off into the heavens. From his wing Boris asked, “Where does he go?” Ryo smiled to himself, “We stop asking that a long time ago.” On the ground Ken reappeared from a ball of light. Immediate;y his free hand went to his chest, as he was now feeling any damage Daxium took during the fight. Then, without warning, “Ulturaman!” Looking around in a panic he found the source. It was a group of kids, and all of them seemed really excited. Ken put a finger to his lips and hoped they got the message. They apparently did as the put their hands to their mouths and nodded their heads. Then the ran off giggling and Ken just smiled to himself. *** “Da, it's a beauty of a ship,” Boris had commented as he Ryo and Bill walked around the Alpha One the next day. “Pity I never had a chance to pilot her myself. But city needed help first.” For most of the Tower personal and the Castle crew that volunteered to do what the could with the clean up. And that stay of an extra day was at Greenberg's insistence, as a bit if a thank you for helping with the King Joe situation. To relax a bit before the trip and make sure the Alpha One was well supplied. “Maybe if we stayed an extra day,” Ryo told him. “But Captain Hawk, and the rest of us too, are anxious to get back home. We don't know when Brooks is going to send out his next creature.” “Maybe next time I visit Castle,” Boris said. “But hopefully that time will not be as entertaining.” “We can't make any promises there.” Bill started tapping Ryo on the arm, “I don't think all of us are in that much of a hurry to get back buddy.” They looked over to see Bridge talking to Emiko. “Lucky man,” Boris told them. “She is very much in her shell when not behind computer. It's good to see her interested in somebody.” Bill and Ryo just exchanged knowing looks. “I think I have everything,” Bridge said as he just sort of glimpsed at the cases by him. “I can't really think of anything I've forgotten.” He wanted to ask for something but wasn't sure how to. “Perhaps,” Emiko held a piece of paper, looking almost as unsure as he was, “Nathan, you were forgetting this?” Bridge took it and looked it over as he started smiling. It was her personal contact information. “Yes I definitely almost forgot that. And this too.” He found a piece of paper and quickly wrote down his contact information and handed it to her. “”We'll work out the time difference as we go.” Figuring out what was going on Ryo and Bill slapped hand in celebration for him. There was a slightly awkward moment where they couldn't decided what to do next so they settled on a quick hand shake and went their separate ways. Once he was close enough Bill wrapped a arm around him, “Bridge you sly dog.” “Cut it out will you,” he said looking super embarrassed as they entered the Alpha One. “Are I sure I can't get you and your crew to stay an extra day Captain?”, Greenberg asked as the two of them approached the super jet. “It's very relaxing here. Most days that is.” “We're needed back at Castle,” Hawk told him. “Commander Reid says the coast is clear for the moment, but that can change anytime. Besides, you probably have to start replacing O'Hara and the members of her staff that was in with her for this mess.” “Yes and the mess in general,” Greenberg agreed. “”It's going to take months to rebuild things here and in the city. Just based on the estimates on the work being done in the states after such an attack. Honestly I'm not sure how you deal with it on a regular basis.” “You be surprised what you can get used to,' Hawk told him. “As for replacing O'Hara's department.” he sighed, “I already have applications to look at. After we question her entire staff that is. I hope it's not the case but I may have to replace every single one of them depending on what they knew. However,” a smile returned to his face, “are you sure I can't borrow Ken for a bit? Say a year or five?” Hawk chuckled, “That's still a no Doctor.” “I was afraid you were going to say that,” he looked a bit chagrined. “Ah well have a good trip home Captain, it might be a slightly interesting one. As he walked off leaving Hawk to ponder what that meant he suddenly heard something new. Something like metal feet touching the ground. The he heard Ken voice coming from one of the hanger. “That's good. Right step,' he walked out backwards leading the robot O'Hara and her crew were working on when they arrived. It was still missing an arm but it was staggering after Ken. “Good, good. Left step, Right. Left,” the robot started to lift up it's right foot again. “Left. No left. I said left. Your other left.” Then the robot complied with what it was being told. “Good, now right.” “Scott!”, Hawk barked. He jumped and quickly stood at attention. But the robot kept going forward and ran into him. “Whoa, Windam stop.” When the robot complied he went back at attention, but with a nervous smile on his face. Walking toward him Hawk just stared him down. “Scott,” he said evenly, “what exactly do you think you're doing?” “Well.. they.. uh...,” he began, “Dr. Greenberg said if I could fix him I could keep him. I technically already fixed him...” and he was quickly losing any confidence in his reasoning the more Hawk stared at him. Jess spoke up in Ken's defense, “Dr. Greenberg did say that sir. Even sighed off on it.” “Even if that was true,' Hawk said as he took a datapad off of one of the supply crates being loaded onto the Alpha One. “I am not seeing a listing for THX-U7 on the supply manifest.” “Um Captain,” Jess went as she scrolled the inventory list up and highlighted one item under W. Windam. He shot her a cool glance. She tried to give him her most innocent looking smile. It wasn't working. Giving a once over to the beaten up robot he looked back at her. “If that thing blows up and takes out half of Castle it's on you.” Then he left to supervise the supply loading for the Alpha One. He looked back at Ken and the robot. “Whatever it takes I suppose. I just hate being left out of the loop in my own command.” In the mean time Jess was giving a worried look at Windam. “He's not going to explode and take out the base, is he?” Ken gave her a long drawn out, “Noooo,” before stopping and giving the robot a more critical eye. “I don't think.” Jess hand reached out toward him suddenly. He flinched a bit thinking she was going to hit him. Then he realized her hand went past his head. Then he saw it clinching Dr,William's wrist. More importantly the hypo gun in his hand. She took it from him saying, “Doctor, what did we say about injecting people without their knowledge?” He mumbled something and quickly walked away. She handed it to Ken, “Here.” He took it with a bit of apprehension remembering what it felt like last time. “Better get this over with. Maybe it won't hurt as bad since I know it's coming.” Holding against his neck Ken took a couple of breaths before pulling the trigger. “Mother...!” he pulled it away and grabbed his neck with his free hand. “No still hurts as bad.” Looking at the gun for a bit he handed it back to her, “Just for the record that's not going to get me in the air on a regular basis.” “Didn't think it was,” she said. “Come on let's find a place to secure Windam.” “Already got a couple spot in mind if they haven't already been taken,” Ken told her. “Windam, follow us.” After a bit of a staggering start the three headed for the Alpha One. Ken sort of glanced over at Jessica out of the corner of his eye, thinking about that offer to listen to anything he had to say. He briefly wondered if maybe it was time to tell somebody his secret. But then again he wondered what would Richardson do if he ever found out somebody else knew. And he didn't want to ruin her career because he got tired about lying to all of them. Something in this situation was going to break sooner or latter. It was just going to be a question on how bad the fall out was going to be when it did. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 25
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in My Light ----- Walking into one of Castle's labs Jess looked around until she saw it. And she still didn't believe it. Several people had told her that Ken and Bridge were working on Windam, the robot they brought back from Japan. But there they were huddled around a computer hooked up to the silver machine, A few of the scientist and Ryo and Bill, for some reason, behind them. Bill saw her first and called her over with a wave. Alright she'll believe that they were working together, but the idea that Ken initiaited this particular partnership? No, just no. That was too much to take in at once. Once part of the group she did ask, “So what are we doing exactly?” Ryo answered her, “Ken thinks something's wrong with Windam's programming.” “Yeah, the genius couldn't figure it out,” Bill chimed in. Which caused Ken to hold up a particular finger. “Showing everybody your I.Q.?” Ken shot back with, “Showing them my opinion of what your's is.” He stood straighter to stretch his back a bit and grunted while doing so. To her he said, “Windam's still confusing his left for his right every so often.” Jess nodded, remembering the robot doing that in Japan a couple of times. “I've gone over the wiring and plans more times than I can count. Whatever the problem is it's not mechanical.” “Which is why Ken asked me to take a look at him when I had some free time,” Bridge chimed in. Upon hearing this Jess immediatley reached out and put a hand to Ken's forehead, who pulled back in in surprised looking at her. “You ask for help from no one,” she told him. “You have to be sick or something.” “Why do you think there's a crowd?”, Ryo said. Which got a chuckle or two out of the group. Ken responded with a very annoyed sounding, “Or,” he paused to make sure everybody stopped finding the situation funny, “I deal with hardware and realize software is so out of my ballpark it's not even funny.” “I hate it when he has a point,” Bill ended up saying. “I still think he has a fever,” Jess said. Waiting as the new round of giggling died down Ken bent back down to see the computer screen. “Anything?” “Nothing yet,” Bridge told. The most of the crowd started to disperse seeing how the make fun of Ken segment of the evening seemed to be over leaving only her, Ken and Bridge. “There's a ton of code here. It's going to take me a little longer than the free time I have right now to figure it out.” “No rush buddy,” Ken told him. “I didn't expect that this was going to be done by lunch. And let's be honest here, Windam's just a side project that Hawk's only tolerating at the moment.” While Jess was sure Hawk was more than just tolerating it since Ken was finally starting to believe he was a genius at these matters the whole side project bit was still true. “Maybe you can contact Emiko and see if she has any ideas on where to look,” Jess offered. Ken apparently tried to sweeten the idea by adding, “And you can talk to her again.” “She helped with the programming, I don't want to accidentally insult her,” Bridge quickly said as he readjusted himself in his seat. Obviously a bit uncomfortable that his budding relationship was brought into this. “Come on man,” Ken said sitting on a crate next to him. “There's gotta be a way to ask her without insulting her.” Her looked over at her for a little help. “Of course there is,” Jess told him. “Maybe you could explain the problem and ask if she had any ideas what might be wrong “Just don't mention you been studying her UNDF profile in your spare time,” it was obvious to Jess at least that Ken meant it as a joke. A bad one, but a joke none the less. However Bridge's reaction, in how embarrassed he started looking made the two of them look at each other in surprise. Slowly Ken looked back at Bridge for a bit before saying, “You didn't.” ”Bridge,” Jess muttered as she buried her face in her hands and sat on a nearby chair. “I was just making sure she wasn't already in a relationship,” he tried to defend himself. Then added while looking away, “And make sure it wasn't changed recently, And checked for any traps to show her that anybody was looking at it.” “I was almost with you until that last bit,” Jess told him. “Yeah man,” Ken joined in. “Ask her, I was like you back in the day, and even I never went that far.” Jess looked unconvinced, “You didn't?” “No I didn't,” he insisted. “Even if I wanted to I would have asked one of your friends and you were the only one out of your group who'd give me the time of day. And if Emiko was already seeing somebody somebody would have said something before we left,” he told Bridge. “So you thought about,” Jess kept it up,” in your pursuit of me.” “You came after me,” he reminded her. Both of them started grinning at each other despite Bridge's still obvious discomfort over the situation. “Look Bridge what we're trying to say is you're going a little too far,” she nodded in agreement. “If you have too tell her it was Ken's idea”, she added. He shot her a look, then he just shrugged his shoulders a bit “If anything maybe Greenberg will stop bothering me to transfer over for a little while,” Ken said. “Hopefully.” “Not after how hard he was trying to get Hawk to agree to it,” Jess told him. A second after she said that Hawk walked over, looking around, “I thought there would be a bigger crowd for this.” Ken couldn't hide how annoyed that made him fast enough. “You missed it by a few minutes,” Jess informed him.” “They got tired of making fun of Ken,”Bridge added. Her and Hawk both enjoyed the joke. Ken on the other hand,”A. She was the only one making fun of me, And B,” he slapped Bridge in the shoulder with the back of his hand,”What the hell man I thought we were buds.” “Why do you think I didn't join in,” he answered. Here Jess started laughing a bit, at Ken's expression more than anything else. Hawk just walked away shaking his head, *** Elsewhere in Castle a different meeting was taking place. One where Richardson was positive was designed to waste his time. Something he was believing more and more by the second. “So,” he said in hopes of speeding things up, “we actually wasted resources on this so called fortune teller....” “Telepath,” one of the others quickly interjected. One who quickly started to shrink down in his chair, or at least tried to, under Richardson's glare. He conceded the but but still spat out the word, “Telepath. Why exactly?” Someone further down the table spoke up, “From your tone, I see you don't quite believe our claim. In a world where Giant creatures and Ultraman are a thing, why is this so unbelievable?” Patricia, who was standing behind him, leaned down and whispered in in ear. This person was Albert Lunden, the head of this particular project. And the idea he was challenging him this way in front of the other board members present. Still better to answer him in the same forum, for appearances more than anything else. “Because I can see Ultraman and these creatures,” he told Lunden. “They're something tangable. Not some overblown parlor trick to entertain the masses.” If Lunden was insulted in anyway he was good enough to not show a hint of it. But he did smile, like a parent would when their child said something so stupid it was cute. “I assure you Mr. Richardson what Timothy is capable of is more than a mere parlor trick. He is the first real example of extra-sensory ability the world has ever seen.” “We've heard that claim before,” one of the others said, followed by a round of the usual murmurs of agreement from the others gathered. “Granted,” Lunden responded, finally showing a hint of annoyance, “There have been those who have been extremely well trained at reading others and appear as if they're reading someone's mind. Those particular charlatan are worthy of this skepticism. But Timothy is capable of reading a person's thoughts. I have supplied documentation to prove this.” “Yes,” Richardson drolled as he flipped through the file in front of him. “Seeing how you and your sector has provided proof of this before hopefully you can understand some of the doubt that we may harbor.” “Of course,” Lunden said, suddenly looking very pleased with himself. “I'm sure you'll be quite satisfied with the results I provided the board.” Richardson sat there and gave a dismissive snort to that particular claim. Everyone else just read on silently. Trying to look like they at least understood the information in front of them. Then Richardson stopped flipping through when something in particular caught his attention. “Something wrong Mr. Richardson?”, Lunden asked innocently enough. He didn't respond out loud. He felt everyyone at the table looking at him and a vein pulsating on the side of his temple. On the page in front of him was a rather crude looking drawing of a group of people in some sort of wooded area. A creature of some sort, although it vaguely looked like the first one that appeared, was in the background. But the one thing that caught his attention, and ire, was some sort of beam coming from the wooded area and enveloping one of the figures there. A line connected the drawing to a single name, Joseph. Below it was a single line of text that said 'How it really happened.' Richardson tore his eyes off it long enough to glare at Lunden who sat there waiting. Looking back at Patricia who seemed taken a back as well, he forced himself to calm down enough to close the file and set it down and say, “No, nothing wrong at all. Let's cut to the chase here Mr. Lunden, why are you here exactly?” “I just want to prove Timothy can do what I claim he can do.” “Let's say that he does prove that he can read other people's mind,” Richardson said, not taking his eyes off of the man, “then what?” “Believe it or not, he wants to help,” Lunden told him and the other, “He's positive he can locate Brooks.” “That's it?”, Richardson said in disbelief. “Why hasn't he done it already?”, another person asked. “While I wasn't here when it happened,” he began, “word did get down to us that Brooks had some spectacular abilities of his own that he used in his escape. Nobody is quite sure of the extent of these abilities Timothy is afraid Brooks might be able to track him down if he did so. He wants me to ask you for protection in case that happens.” Richardson leaned back in his chair and said, “If word about the incident reached you, I'm sure you also heard he pretty much wiped the floor with us on the way out. I'm not sure how much protection we would be able to provide.” “He's not asking for a fire fight,” Lunden said sounding a bit desperate. Taking a moment to regain control he continued, “ But if he's here when it happen maybe Brooks would think twice about attacking.” “Or,” yet another person spoke up, “he could summon another giant creature to attack this base.” Richardson nodded in agreement along with a few other. They were still repairing parts of Castle from that incident. Still he said, “Seeing how we've been paying for this project we might as well see if it's been a waste of money and time or not. If this Timothy can do as Lunden claim then we'll go from there. Would that be satisfactory to you Mr. Lunden?” “Perfectly,” he said, although to Richardson and a couple of others he looked relieved to have gotten the answer. “We'll hash out the details later,”Richardson told the rest of the room, “schedules, ground rules for the telepath, but for now let's adjourn this meeting for now and get back to some actual work.” The group started to rise when he added,”Mr. Lunden if I could have a moment of your time before you go?” “Of course Mr, Richardson,” he said and sat back down. Both of them waited until the others left the room. Patricia kept her position behind Richardson, although she positioned her arms so she would have an easier time going for her weapon if the need arose.A notion that wasn't lost on Lunden as he put his hands on the table and kept as still as possible. “Is there an issue?” Before answering he reopened the file in front of him and located the crude artwork that he slapped on the table between then. Barely keeping his rage under control he almost snarled, “Yes there is. You can tell me what this is suppose to be exactly.” “Admittedly it's not the best rendition,” Lunden said as he leaned in to get a better look at it. “After seeing so much media of people doing something similar seeing someone do it in real life is almost disappointing. I mean it's borderline masterpieces in those movies.” Richardson slapped his hand on the table, which made Lunden jump a little. He tried to recover by adding, “Movie magic I suppose.” Barely able to keep himself from exploding in rage Richardson said, “I mean what is the meaning of this? Is this some sort of sick joke? Using my son's death...” “So it didn't happen that way?”, Lunden said in that obviously fake way. “Timothy was rather insistent that was how it actually happened. Usually he not wrong about what he sees, able to tell the difference between what actually happened and what was a made up lie and all.” “He invaded my mind?!”, Richardson shouted at him. Lunden responded calmly, “No he didn't. This image didn't even come from you. It was from her,” he gestured toward Patricia who looked surprised. “I believe the topic of his death came up and you thought about it. I fear I may have given you the wrong idea of Timothy abilities. While he can actively read someone's mind he has an easier time of things if the other person is willing. Mostly he hears random thoughts, it's similar to walking into a crowded room with everyone talking at once. He can get get snippets of a 'conversation' her and there, but if you concentrate you can pick up exactly what's being said by a certain party. He's the same way with his abilities.” Reaching over he pushed the image back toward Richardson. “Think of it as a show of good faith,” he said sitting back in the chair. “As for that image itself, well I did need something to get your attention. He could have grabbed something from someone else present, but it needed to be convincing. Not something somebody could claim I hired a detective to uncover. Now, while I'm curious about the actual going ons in that image I won't press for information, again as a show of good faith.” “How magnanimous of you,” Richardson without sounding impressed. “How do I know you or he won't release what happened to the public after he's done here?” “Because that would expose Timothy and his abilities to the general public,” Lunden explained. “And he's rather gun shy about revealing them. Particularly to an audience, he had a rather bad experience with a group of kids when he was younger when he showed off what he could do, as children tend to do. No, after that he rather reluctant to display them in any capacity. If his parents didn't bring him to our attention I doubt we would have known of his abilities to begin with. But since we're here I suppose now is a good as time as any to hash out some of those restrictions.” Taking the picture Richardson handed it back to Patricia who quickly folded it up and placed it into an interior pocket of her jacket. Finally taking his eyes off Lunden he agreed with the previous statement, “Yes it would be.” Especially since he didn't need anyone else to know that he knew who Ultraman was and that he's been here at Castle all along. *** Hours later Lunden had returned to the building they were using to conduct his department's test on extra sensory abilities. On the outside it looked like a regular office building, and for all intents and purposes it was. Several different UNDF departments had offices here instead of a base like Castle. Particularly those who didn't want the board hovering over their shoulders. Considering what they did Lunden was surprised they decided to take root here as well. Going up to to the main desk in the lobby he was greeted by the security guard manning it. “Good afternoon Mr. Lunden, did the meeting at Castle go well?” “Yes it did Frank,” he responded. Pulling out an ID card he swiped it in the card reader on the desk. Getting the green light he placed his briefcase on the conveyor belt and walk through the detector. Adding, “I was able to get them to agree to see Timothy.” “A small miracle there,” the guard commented as he opened and did a quick scan of the briefcase and moved it through. “Everything looks clean sir.” “Good,” Lunden commented as he retrieved the case, “I would hate to think I was trying to spy on my own company.” Frank gave a courtrsy laugh to the joke and waved him on. Maybe a bit much but again considering what they were doing, a necesssary security step. To rest the mind of the others who inhabit the building if nothing else. Greeting a few others as he made his way to a row of elevators on the back wall. The one he was headed toward didn't have the usual call buttons. Instead it had a sensor the he held his ID to it. After a moment the door opened revealing a standard looking elevator, but with no floor buttons. This particular elevator only went to one floor and was the only one in the building that did so. And only he and a select few others in the building had access to it. A short ride later Lunden reached the floor and exited to a regular looking hallway. Greeting a few more people he passed he made his way to the only occupied room, well on a semi permanent basis. Sitting in a chair was a young man in his late teens staring out into space. Lunden gave him a warm smile as he entered the room, which looked like part bedroom and part lab. “I'm back Timothy.” “I see,” was all he said in a bored way. “Richardson agreed to the deal,” it obviously wasn't a question. “I guess it was on my mind when I came in,” he said. “It was blasting on loud,” he replied. “You're usually better at shielding your thoughts.” “Just means I'm esctatic in the outcome,” was his response. “And that picture I drew that's suddenly missing from my collection had nothing to do with it,” he pointed to several drawings covering the desk. “You said nobody would see them.” “I know,” he responded as he pulled another chair closer to the desk, “and I'm sorry. But someone like Richardson is going to need hard proof before he agrees to anything.” “I'm not getting it back am I?', he looked despondent at the thought. “No, I'm afraid not.” He put a careful hand on his shoulder. Timothy was wary of any sort of physical contact, considering it hieghtened the strength of any signal or stray thought he could pick up. Lunden tended to do it to enforce the trust the boy had in him. Knowingly opening himself up to his abilities. “As you could imagine he doesn't want the truth of that particular matter known publicly.” “And the restriction we guessed he would demand on?”, he asked, both knowing he could look for them personally if he wanted to. “Pretty much what we expected, he was rather insistent that you don'tread any of the minds there.” “How are they going to stop me if I decide to do that?”, he asked with a wicked grin. “Timothy,” Lunden admonished him. “Joking, only joking,” he quickly backed off. “I learned my lesson a long time ago.” “I know you have Timothy,” Lunden told him. “It was a horrible way to learn anything. I'm just happy you trusted me enough to show me what you can do. And I don't want anything to happen to break that trust. But I can't stress enough how important this is. It's not about me, but proving that you actually have these abilities, and that there could be more people out there like you. People we can help learn how to use those abilities.” “I know,” the younger man said while looking away, “I'm sure they be worried about being turned into living weapons.” And it was a fear he had as well, as Lunden knew as well. All he could tell him was, “I won't let that happen Timothy, not as long as I'm in charge of the project.“ “I know, “ was all he said in return. “When do I head over?” “In a couple of days,” Lunden said. “It's going to take that long for them to get things set up, even with our help. So try to relax until then.” Rising from the chair he asked, “Do you want me to have anything up here? Some more art supplies?” “No, I'm good for now, Thank you.” Lunden patted him on the shoulder as he left the room. Once he was gone Timothy looked back at the door before going through all the papers on the desk, uncovering one he was trying to keep hidden, even from Lunden. Which he felt guilty about as Lunden was genuinely trying to be kind and understanding. But he felt he couldn't show this to anyone, because it would be bad for someone he just wasn't sure who as he lost this particular thought almost as soon as he tuned into it when Lunden asked him to look over the base to find something Richardson couldn't ignore. “Well he didn't say I couldn't try and contact him.” He looked at a drawing of somebody with Ultraman's head wearing a UNDF uniform. *** After a few days of excitement as the higher ups were getting the base prepared for some sort of test, a small group hovered around one of the parking lots that was under the base itself.On one of the upper levers members of Alpha and Beta teams hovered around in groups looking over the railing, not a whole lot to make this an official show. But just enough for someone to be comfortable,maybe. On one particular side Ken, Ryo, Jess and Bill stood around, in fact most of the groupings were members of the same team, just looking around at each. Ken leaned on the railing and asked, “Anybody have any idea who this is suppose to be for.” “No clue man,” Ryo answered him. “All I heard was the higher up is considering this a very special V.I.P., with an emphasis on the V.!.” “So where are Hawk and Reid then?”,Bill asked, as he looked over the small crowd standing around. “Somebody this important usually has all the big wigs out in force. At least someone making sure the rest of us is following protocol. But I'm not seeing anybody.” Jess added while looking around herself, “I'm not seeing anyone higher in rank than us at the moment.” She looked over at her usual wingman, “You hear anything Ryo?” “Nothing official,” he answered, while crossing his arms. “But the grapevine has it that nobody in a command position isn't allowed to be here when the guest arrives, so no Hawk, no Reid and nobody from the board is supposed to be here. I'm surprised they're letting us hand around waiting.” “It might have something to do with these apparent test that's suppose to happen,” Jess speculated. “Ken,” she said looking at him, “You got pulled into the building of whatever it is. You have any idea what these tests are suppose to be for?” “You're suppose to be able to figure out how something works by looking at it,” Ryo added. One of his talents due to his genious nature apparently ran the grapevine pretty fast since Japan. “”You had to be able to take a guess at some point.” “You holding out on us civilian?”, Bill chimed in. “For shame.” “You want me to shot him?”, Jess asked. “I'm considering it,” Ken answered. Bill didn't start looking worried until Ryo took a couple of steps away from him. “But outside of a power converter or a transformer that went on the fritz I didn't get a good look at anything.” He sighed, “Would it sound paranoid if I said it was like they were trying to keep me away from getting a look at it?” “Yes,” Jess told him almost immediately. “But the way things have been going since this started,” she shook her head slightly, “I wouldn't be surprised. The level of secrecy going on is insane.” “No kidding,” Bill quickly agreed, “Things weren't this tight when Brooks showed his true colors.” “Or when Jamira originally went missing,” Ryo added. Ken remained quiet. Mostly due to some guilt popping up at the mention of Jamira. On one hand it was a bit weird seeing how much of an ass he was to Ken when he was part of the organization, however if he figured out that Brooks was the one behind this maybe he could have stopped him from becoming that giant creature that Dax had to destroy. Maybe, possibly, although more than likely he still would have been an ass though. He broke out of his thoughts when he caught Jess looking at him, “What?” “I was about to ask you the same thing,” she told him. “Nothing, just.... just lost in thought,” he ended up saying. She got a little closer and said just loud enough for him to hear her, “That offer to listen to anything on you mind is still open.” “I know, you'll be the first to know if I do,” he attempted a smile but it didn't last long. She looked at him, before turning to to say something to Bill and Ryo. He looked at her, oh there was something he wanted to share with her, in fact she might be the only one here who wouldn't freak out that much hearing that he was part of Ultraman, possibly, maybe, he hoped. Damn it he needed somebody in this organization to know that wasn't Richardson, his bodyguard and the doc. Just for his own sanity if nothing else. And he might have then and there if Ryo and Bill, a few others weren't within earshot. While he was pretty sure Ryo and Bill wouldn't run off and tell Richardson he wasn't as sure about the others. “Car's coming in!”, somebody announced. Everyone got into a better position to greet this V.I.P. While it wasn't a limo like most of those present expected, but it was on the expensive looking side. The driver side door opened and a guy who looked like he should have been part of the board got out. He looked around and the group before leaning down and saying something to somebody that was still inside.The the passenger side door open and some kid slowly got out. He looked nervous even from where they were standing. He looked around the looked at the upper level, almost right in their direction. In fact Ken had a weird feeling he was looking directly at him. A feeling the intensified as he waved at him. Not knowing what else to do Ken glanced at the others before slowly raising his hand to return the wave, Although he stopped when he noticed that he was the only one doing so. “Just being friendly,” he said to everybody staring at him. Ken wasn't sure about anybody else but he was going to put that down to his civilian lack of proper protocol. Fortunately his communicator went off, and he hit it eagerly, “Scott here.” Bridge started talking over the line, “Ken I thought you should know that you're late for your latest session with the engineering test.” The infamous test that couldn't be beat although he'd been swearing almost since he arrived that he was close to figuring it out. But something wasn't right here. “I had a session?”, he asked. “Since when?” “Since about five minutes ago from the look of things,” Bridge told him. The Chief said it just popped up on his schedule.” “Not that I'm complaining about another chance at beating the thing,” Jess, Ryo and Bill exchanged smirks that he promptly ignored, “but could you find out who authorized this at the last minute.” “Sure thing Ken,” Bridge told. “I'll look into it and let you know once the test beats you again.” Bridge signed off before he could respond. “Try to help a guy get out of his shell and he takes pot shots at you when you're not looking,” he ended up saying. Turning to the rest of them he said, “Well I'm not looking at a gift horse in the mouth so I better head down there.” “We'll see you in a couple of minutes then, “Billl told him. Ken just shot him a dirty look before heading to the door. If today ended up being the day he'd shut everybody up for a while/ Once in the hallway he looked up the engineering section schedule and then at his messages. There it was, his scheduled time for the test program, but no notification that he was scheduled the time. It wasn't like the chief to not let him know it was there. Again he couldn't shake the feeling somebody was trying to distract him from getting too close to whatever was going on. *** “Is civilian okay?”, Bill asked after Ken had exited the room. “I mean I can't be the only one to think he seems down about something.” Ryo just nodded,” No, I've seen it too. The only thing I can figure what's causing it is that his brother's trail is coming up soon. After what happened that's got to be weighing down on him.” “Makes sense,” Jess said while her mind was elsewhere at that moment. “Is he going to be there?”, Bill asked. Jess just shook her head in response. “Not even supporting his own brother,” Bill said in disbelief. “Granted I've only met him that one time and he seemed a like a bit of a jerk. But still.” Ryo spoke up, “No offence Bill but if I found out my brother was hitting his wife I'd distant myself from him too. Either way I think at least Janet's happy he's not picking a side, at least not publicly. What do you think Jess?” She was still lost in her own thoughts so Ryo asking her opinion took her off guard a bit, but she quickly recovered. “I think he's still trying to wrap his head around what happened. Admittedly his brother is a jerk, but even I was surprised when Ken told me what happened.” Bill nodded,” Guess we just have to be there for him if he wants a shoulder or something.” Yeah,” she said, not mentioning that was something she told herself for the longest time. And didn't mention that it didn't happen, like it wasn't happening now. Maybe she should tell him instead, let him know he had at least her watching his back. Despite the offer to listen to anything he wanted to say, personal experience told her to not hold her breath. *** Ken walked the hallway with his head down. Mainly to avoid any eye contact in case some one crossed his path.While things were much better than when he first joined up right now he wasn't in a talking mood, and hoping this particular stance would inform anybody who came down this particular path. That was the plan anyway. <Hello.> Ken looked up when he heard the voice, it wasn't one he immediately recognized, but then again he hasn't had an extensive conversation with everyone who was stationed here to recognize more than a select few. But there was nobody that he could see. “Who...?”, he asked to himself. There were no doorways in the immediate area that he could see, or any intersections or corners somebody could hide behind. Ken went so far to make sure nobody was trying to play a joke through his communicator. <How are you?>, came another question from thin air apparently. “How are you doing that?” Ken asked out loud after checking a wall for a hidden speaker, being completely stumped on how this was being done. Then he heard another voice, one he was more than familiar with respond, “I am fine, how are you?” “Dax?”, Ken asked slowly as he stopped looking for this mystery person. “What's going on?” His usually giant friend replied with, “Some one is communicating with me.” <Whoa, I didn't know there'd be two of you,> “Okay how is that possible?”, he asked making sure no one was coming. Just talking to Daxium he was well aware that it looked like he was talking to himself. He didn't need those rumors to fly around base. “And how does this guy even know you're in here?”, he rapped his own head. <Sorry,> the voice said. <My names's Timothy. You waved back to me in the garage a few minutes ago.> Okay he had a name and face to go with the voice. Still doesn't explain what the hell is going on. Dax responded first, “It's nice to meet you Timothy, my name is Daxium.” “If we're done with the pleasntries,” Ken cut in, losing his patience with the situation, “But could one of you tell me what the hell is going on.” <Looks like nobody told you why I'm here,> Timothy said. <I should have been ready for that. I mean Richardson had a ton of restriction put in place before I even came here.> “Richardson,” Ken groaned. “Why am I not that surprised? Alright Timothy, would you please tell me what's going on, because I'm freaking the fuck out a little here.” <Yeah this has that effect if you're not expecting it.> Not even sure if Timothy could see him Ken started moving his hands in a circular hurry up and tell me motion. <I'm projecting my thoughts into your head. I'm what you would call a telepath.> He could sense Daxium's slight confusion, “I am not familiar with that term.” “It means he can read minds Dax,” Ken answered him. Then he fully realized what they were talking about, “Wait a sec, you're in my mind?” Now he doing more than freaking the fuck out a little, it was borderline full pledge panic at this point. “Actually,” Dax spoke up, “I think he's more in my mind than yours Ken. Otherwise I doubt I'd be able to hear him otherwise.” “But he could hear you through our connection? Then how am I hearing him?”, Ken asked trying to figure this out. Daxium agreed with his theory although he didn't have an answer for his second question. And if he had to be honest, all of this was starting to make his head hurt, and he still had to do the simulator. Shit, he nearly forgot about and hurried on his way, still there were questions, “Timothy, how did you know about Dax?” <I'm a little embarrassed about this,> he answered, <I was asked to scan Castle to find something Richardson couldn't ignore. I felt some sort of Alien mind, but didn't get a lock on it. I just got enough to realize it was Ultraman, and that he was part of the UNDF. Don't worry, I haven't told anyone about either of you so your secret is safe.> Ken snorted, if only that was true. <So is it okay if I talk with you for a bit? I always wanted to talk with somebody not from this planet.> “Whoa, wait a moment,” Ken butted in, “Do I get a say in this because I have something to do and I don't need the distraction.” While he had no idea about this Timothy character he could feel the disappointment coming from Daxium. Enough that Ken paused in his step and looked around, Yes he talked to Daxium when he could and was alone, but even his giant buddy was probably starving for some sort of communication from somebody else. “Look if you two can keep it quiet then go ahead.” <I think I can manage that,> Timothy eagerly agreed. “As can I,” Dax said. “Perhaps we can figure out how you can hear our conversation in the meantime.” “Just as long as it's quiet,” Ken empathized the quiet part as he reached the simulator room. Going in he saw the chief waiting impatiently. “Sorry, this was sprung on me too. I didn't even know I was scheduled until Bridge said I was late.” *** Back at the building Timothy had been calling home Lunden had called in and was talking to somebody in upper management who was currently writing down what he was saying. “So the test are proceeding on schedule then, good, good. Everyone will be glad to hear that. So when will be Timothy be given the okay to start looking for Brooks?” He listened for a beat or two, still taking notes. “Makes sense that they want to verify the results by retesting him. So you think sometime in the next couple of days? Okay I'll tell them. I have to be honest, it's going feel a little empty around here once Timothy gets sheltered over there. Oh, he's going to want some stuff room his room? Maybe he better come back here to pick them out himself. I have a boy around his age and he hates it when either June or I mess with his things in his room.” He laughed a bit, “You too? Okay let me know when you're on your way back. We'll see the two of you then.” Being an older style phone he put it back on the stand to hang up the call. Leaning back in his chair he pulled out his phone, mainly because he didn't want this particular call he was about to make logged in the system, for the main reason why he had been limiting his contact with Timothy. Brooks had things on him even before the kid became part of the program. And Brooks was revealed to have freakish abilities of his own. He thought he was in the clear once that happened. But no, he showed up right before he was supposed to meet with his mistress just to prove he was still under his thumb and remind him how much he would actually lose if the affair was exposed, among other things Brooks found out about somehow. However he did promise he would let him off the hook if he gave him something that was worth more than the information the man had on him. And he was intrigued behind the idea of Timothy abilities, but not enough to keep his promise, at least not yet. But maybe now this bit of news would be enough. Dailing the newest number Brooks had given him, which he changed at least once a month. It went to voice mail, at least he could put off talking to the man for a bit, “I think I may have something that will interest you. *** The test had went rather smoothly, or at least that's what Timothy told Daxium during those times they could talk in relative peace. They even figured out that the kid somehow tapped into their connection somehow, and his mind like Daxium originally thought. Ken was sure it was all rather interesting if he understood what they were talking about. It was a bit out of his league, but he tried to at least sound interested when Dax told him. Which was becoming a bigger problem then he wanted to admit. Even working on Windam wasn't exactly bringing him the joy Ken thought it should have, it did at first back in Japan but once they got back to Castle it just wasn't the same some how and it wasn't just not being able to figure out when Windam occasionlly mixed up his left with his right wasn't helping. No it was still this entire damn situation he was under, god there were day he just want to scream his secret out and let the chips fall where they did, fuck Richardson, his bodyguard and the doc to a lesser degree. But then again some of the fall out would be worse on someone like Janet and Nicole than on him. Even coming up here to the relative quiet of the roof of Castle didn't too that much to lift the weight he was feeling. Those thoughts were interrupted when he heard the door behind him open. Looking back he saw Hawk walk out and offer a friendly wave. He returned half heartedly before returning his gaze to the dessert. Without any preamble Hawk stood next to him and gazes out at the distance along with him while leaning against the railing. After a bit he said, “Not much to see, is there?” Ken just shrugged and kept on looking at the horizon. “I have to be honest son, I was a little surprised when I found out you spent time up here.” He looked down at the ground, “Considering your problem and all.” “I never had an issue with heights,” Ken informed him. They both looked up as a pair of Razor Wings passed over head. “It's the moving in said height that makes my stomach want to revolt.” “My mistake then,” Hawk told him. “Look son, you don't have to say anything, but we can all tell something is bothering you.” Ken started to protest but Hawk quickly put a stop to it. “Jess, Ryo and Bill have all come to me and said something. Even the chief, and we both know he doesn't say anything about personal unless he think it's really important. You do know any one of us would listen if you had something to get off your chest. At least I hope you do.” “I know you guys would,”Ken told him. “It's just...,” it would be so easy just to say he was Ultraman and get it over with. But again Richardson would find out eventually. So he stopped talking. Luckily Hawk didn't press the issue. After another moment or so he said, “Granted I'm no expert on the subject, but looks like you're suffering from a case of burn out to me. I took the liberty to check before I went searching for you, but outside of you're niece's birthday you haven't taken any personal time to get away from here.” This time he did protest, “I've had time off. You made me take it after I broke my arm.” Funny,” he smirked, “you have the same expression that you did when you told me you still have a good arm in order to get out of it,” Ken looked away, embarrassed. “And seeing how you kept showing up when a monster started attacking I wouldn't really call it an effective vacation in the long run.” He looked at the horizon and sighed, “Maybe you think you have to work twice as hard because of your situation, and I've been more than impressed in your dedication to the job. Most people may have seen it as a free ride, thinking the board would protect you from any repercussion. If I had to be honest I more than half way expected you to take that route when I found out they approved the civilian operative position and that they picked you. And I have never been happier to be proven wrong in my life. But listen to me son I don't want you to kill yourself thinking you have to prove yourself. You've more than proved that you belong. Otherwise I wouldn't be going to bat for you to make an actual member of this unit.” “That final five percent a little harder to crack than you thought?”, he offered Hawk a smile that the older man returned. “I didn't think it was going to be a cake walk,” he admitted. “But I'm still fighting. I'm not going to lose you on a whim of the board. We put in too much work at this point for them to throw it all the way.” Reaching into a pocket he pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to him, “Here, it's a three day pass.” “Captain,” Ken began. “We're not going to throw all that work away because you're stubborn either,” Hawk told him. “Take the time off, relax, unwind. Do whatever you do for fun, just come back recharged and ready for anything that drops. And I better not hear you showed up if there's a monster attack either.” “Then one better not show up where I am then,” he joked as he took the pass. Maybe that was what he needed, a small chance to get away from underneath Richardson for a couple of day. Hopefully Brooks will play along without knowing it. And maybe he'd be elected President before the week was over. If a creature did show up he'd just have to be better at not being seen by the others this time around. *** The tests completed Lunden was driving them back to the building. Timothy was all for getting some of his thing personally. In fact he looked more excited now than he did a couple of days ago. “You don't feel any after effects do you?” he asked the teen. “I'm fine,” he answered. Trying to hide his annoyance but Lunden knew it was there. “I'm just happy the testing part is over.” “And you made fools of their experts too,” he said, beaming like a proud parent. He look at his rear view mirror at the Scan Track escort driving behind them. “At least Richardson proving to be true to his word so far.” “So far,” he repeated. But there was something in the way he said it that caught Lunden's attention. “You didn't read him did you?” “No, Timothy told him, almost insulted that he'd ask that knowing he wasn't supposed to. “I did pick up he occasional thought here and there though,” he continued. Suddenly he loooked defensive, “I can't turn it off you know.” “I know Timothy, I know,” he tried to assure him. “So what did you pick up?” “Outside that's he's not really well like among most of the troops and personel.” “Well that's only natural I suppose, being in charge and all,” Lunden commented. “And when I got that image from his secretary she seemed upset that he didn't even react when his son died. Or at least not for long anyway.” “I can understand that she feel that way,” Lunden told him, “But there are certain things going on..” “He didn't even mourn for his son!”, Timothy said in a rare outburst. “Even she was disgusted that he went back to work like it was a regular day.” “We all mourn in our own way,”he said. “I'm sure that was just his way of coping with what happened. Timothy you can't really judge a person by one singular act.” “But,” he began. Then he got a weird look on his face, something Lunden has never seen before. It was almost fear as he looked up at the roof of the car. “We have to turn back.” “Timothy?”, Lunden asked looking concerned at this change of behavior. The the road in front of him exploded. He barely reacted in time to avoid the gaping hole in the road and stop the car. Behind them the Scan Track driver behind them reacted faster and came to a complete stop before reaching the same spot. Two of the UNDF troops jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward them. The third stayed in the Scan Track but he sat at the gunner station getting the weapons warmed up and into play. While one of them had his gun out looking all around for whomever just attack the other headed for Lunden's side of the car, “Are both of you all right?” “I'm fine,” he answered. “Timothy? Timothy?,” he started to panic when there wasn't a response. He started shaking him trying to get him to respond, “Timothy!”” His head wobbled around as he did so making Lunden even more afraid for him. “Sir,” the trooper said trying to pull him back and try to get a reading on his wrist scanner at the same time. “I'm getting vitals, they're steady. It looks like he's just unconscious.” He relaxed a bit upon hearing that, but not by much. “Let's get you out of here then we can get him out next.” Before he could answer the Scan Track exploded behind them. “Shit!”, the other Trooper cursed as they all ducked in response. Both troopers looked around with there weapon's drawn, “Where the hell did that come from?” Then he remembered, before it happened, timothy looked up. He tried to position himself to see what he sensed. Glowing with some sort of energy Brooks hovered in the air, looking like some sort of angry god or a devil. The trooper beside him saw where he was looking and did the same and saw Brooks. Immediately he pointed his weapon at him, Brooks shot a beam that turned the man into a charred skeleton on impact. It happened so fast Lunden didn't have the chance to scream at the sight next to him. “Castle Brooks is here!”, the other one called out while his teammate died. He got his weapon pointed at Brooks and got off a few shots that bounced off the energy field surrounding the man before he suffered the same fate. Lowering to the ground Brooks never took his eyes of of the car. Once he set foot on the ground he finally looked away at the remains of the two troopers. “I have to figure out why I stop at the skeletons one of these days,” he said. “It's so unsightly.” He blasted the skeleton again, causing it to disintigrate in seconds. Looking strangely satisfied he commented, “That's better.” Lunden put an arm across Timothy as he came closer, and then passed them to do the same thing to the other one. The he stood where the first one then looked at the fiery remains of the Scan Track, “Guess I won't have to do anything extra there now will I?”, he asked with a pleasant smile, in a way it made the gesture look even sicker. Leaning over a bit to get a better look at the occupants he went, “I'm guess the sleeping young man is the Timothy I heard about?” “No!”, Lunden tried to undo his buckle and cover Timothy at the same time. Brook looked amused at his struggled. Then Brooks opened the passenger side door then reached in to undo Timothy's seat belt. “Leave him alone!” Brooks responded by raising a hand that started glowing like he did before. Then he held up a single finger, “Shh, you might wake him.” He removed Timothy and held him in his arms, “Don't worry he's in good hands. And I took care of your little leak for you. You should really do better background checks than you have been from the look of things. Or at least keep a better eye on those under you. You never know who's been watching,” He gave him a wink then took a few steps back.. “The cavalry should be here shortly to assist you since they already know I was here.” He started glowing again and shot off into the sky. “Bring him back!, Lunden shouted after him. Timothy!” *** Hawk and Reid stood by Lunden who sat in the open door of a Scan Track One word of Brooks' involvement caused an immediate scramble to get here as soon as possible. The man seemed oblivious to all the activity around him “Why did he take him? Why?”, he asked over and over. Hawk and Reid glanced at each other hoping the other man had an answer fort him, but knowing that answer wasn't coming. “Don't worry Mr. Lunden,” Reid told him. “We're going to do everything in our power to locate him and bring him back.” Right now Hawk wished he was as opptimistic as his Beta Team counterpart appeared to be. Nobody had forgotten what Brooks was able to do when he went on the run, and if they did a glance of the carnage around here would quickly remind you. “Why did he take him?”, Lunden started again. Although he felt for the man this was getting them no where. Hawk motioned for Reid to stay where he was, The Commander nodded as Hawk walked away far enough that Lunden couldn't overhear him. Tapping his communicator he went, “Hawk to Castle,” and waited. That wait wasn't long as Bridge answered almost immediately, “Castle here Captain.” “Please tell me you got something on from the satellites,” he went. “I got something,” came Bridge's reply. He perked up a bit at the news. “It looks like we were able to get a hit of the initial attack and the direct aftermath.” Bridge paused as someone else spoke to him, “Are you sure? You are. Captain it looks like we have Brooks flying off from the location as well.” A slight fist pump caught Reid's and Lunden attention. “Do you know where he went?”, he asked praying he hear the right answer. “We got a direction and that's about it,” Bridge told him. Hawk deflated a bit. “Sorry Captain, I wished it was something a little more solid.” “We have a direction we can extrapolate on and learned we can detect him with the orbital satellites,” Hawk said. “It's a small victory that'll take.” Now he wished he felt as confident as he sounded. “Get to work on that Bridge, find me any possible location he might be using.” I'll get right on it,” Bridge said, “Castle out.” “That might be a long list,” Reid commented as he came closer, behind them, still in the Scan Track, Lunden looked more hopeful than he did a moment ago. “I wasn't expecting it to be easy,” Hawk told him. “Brooks been able to avoid us for this long. Hopefully that's going to change.” Reid just nodded. “Were you able to get of him why Brooks might have taken the kid?” “Yes, although if it wasn't for everything I've seen I might not have believed it. Apparently the kid is telepathic.” Reid stared at him for a moment or two. “Okay, I have to be honest I thought you have more of a reaction to that bit of news.” “Like you said, after everything we've seen so far,” Hawk answered. Although he was thinking giant monsters, Ultraman and now a telepath ,what was going to show up next? “But it does explain whty we were told to not interact with the kid. The big question is what does Brooks want with a telepath? And how did he find out about him to begin with?” “Anybody's guess is as good as the next,” commented Reid. Hawk nodded. The commander took another look at the carnage left after Brook's apperance this time around. “After last time Gabe It might be a good idea to go at him with as big a task force as possible. We might want to think about calling back those on leave, just for the extra muscle.” It was a good suggestion, no matter what kind of power Brooks had there had to be a limit. But how many would have to be sacrificed in order to reach that limit. He wasn't prepared to make that call just yet, not to mention he still had the kid as a hostage. And until he was secured a full assualt was off the table. “Not just yet, let see if we can find Brooks first and figure out the situation there.” “Castle to Hawk,” his communicator chirped. “That was faster than usual,” Reid quipped. He activated the communicator and replied, “What do you got Bridge?” “We have some more bad news for Mr. Lunden,” he said. “we just got a call from his building, one of his managers was discovered dead in his office.” Both men looked at each other before looking back at Lunden. The report continued, “Based on the provided information it sounds a lot like Brooks got to him. We won't know for sure until our people get a look at the body. We're going to need Lunden's permission for that according to them.” Damn bureaucratic B.S., bad enough he had to deal with it back at Castle. “I'll talk to Lunden. Get the appropiate personnel on stand by.” Bridge confirmed the order and ended the tranmission. “Am I the only one thinking that's how he knew about the kid?”, he asked. “No you're not,” Reid told him. “Looks like he tying off anything he sees as a loose end. Someone better get in contact with Greenberg over in Japan and tell him to keep an eye on O'Brian.” “Right after this conversation,” he said heading toward Lunden. *** While that was going on Ken had been sitting in the local diner he used to frequent, laughing as his friend Rose and a few others arranged a quick gathering once she found out he was free for a couple of days. And he felt lighter than he had in a while. Maybe Hawk was right, a few days away was just what he needed to get out of this rut.He guessed he'd find out how well it worked once he got back to Castle, A thought better off once he got to that particular bridge. “Only you would bring home a pet robot,” Rose said shaking her head. “Windam was a gift,” he told her. “It be rude not to bring him back.” “You're calling the robot a 'he',” she pointed out. “Then again we call every car a 'she' for the most part. Still weird though.” “You're just jealous I'm working on a robot,” he told her. “You're damn right,” she shot back. “So how did a grease jockey end working on an, I'm assuming, highly advanced robot to begin with?” “Just lucky I guess,” he said shrugging it off. While he liked all of these guys here, he still didn't feel comfortable revealing the idea he was a genius at these matters. While most of them would understand, Rose would probably tell him she knew it all the time considering how fast he understood the newer engines and tech that had been coming out. Still he felt like it was cause a separation between them and him. “That robot can't be that advanced,” one of the other said. “It was made in UNDF base in Japan,” Rose argued,“. “It's not going to be made out of cans and strings.” “There's some rubber bands in there too,” Ken added. Rose punched him in the arm in response. The conversation about how advanced Windam actually was went on for a few more minutes. Then Ken's phone went off. When he checked it he recognized the number as coming from Castle. His expression soured a bit, “Damn it.” “Getting called back early?”, Rose asked as a couple of the other started checking their phones for any emergency alerts. “I'm sure they're just checking up on me.” He answered the call saying, “Give me a moment to get somewhere a bit more quiet.” He stood up from the table, “This won't take long, I'll be right back.” Making his way through the crowd he stepped outside and into the parking lot. Putting the phone back up to his ear, “What's going down Bridge?” A voice he wasn't expecting answered,“I'm not exactly Bridge son.” Despite the fact Hawk couldn't see him Ken stood a little straighter, “Captain?” “At ease Ken,” he said almost sensing the effect he just caused. “First thing first, you're still on leave.” Ken blinked, “I was was joking that you were just checking in.” He said that without thinking. Fortunately Hawk found it a little funny as he chuckled a bit. Still he went, “Sorry sir.” “I'll let that one go,” he informed him, “Mainly because I needed the laugh at the moment. We contacted everyone on leave,” Ken brced himself for what was coming, “Brooks had been sighted,” And there it was. “He attacked Lunden, his associate and their escort.” Son of a bitch, the bastard went after Timothy? “Are they all right?” Lunden shaken up, and he killed the escort,” Hawk informed him. “But he took the kid for some reason.” Ken felt sick to his stomach after hearing that. “Bridge was able to get a direction on where he went after the fact. So we're trying to narrow down where he headed to.” “Understood,” Ken told him. “I'm on my way back.” “Belay that Ken,” he said suddenly. “We don't even know where he went yet. Just stay on standby for now and try to relax.” “Relax?”, Ken said in disbelief. “It sounds like Brooks is actively attacking us now and you're telling me to relax.” “We all know what Brooks is capable of Ken.” No, Ken thought to himself, we really don't. Even Daxium didn't know what he was capable of at this point. “But we can't do anything until we know where he took the kid. If we just go out in force without a direction we;re just going to cause a panic and make things worse. We'll call you if we need you son.” “Okay, don't take this the wrong way but I hope you don't.” “I hope we don't either Ken.” and the call was ended without any preamble. Standing there he wiped his mouth and looked around a bit, “Dax did you get anything? Has Tim tried to contact you yet?” Feeling his giant friend's concern and frustration he heard Daxium say, “Nothing as of yet, But if Timothy was in trouble wouldn't he have tried to reach out to us?” “Maybe he couldn't,” Ken offered. “It depends on how fast Brooks' attack was. If he took him it means he's still alive.” “And maybe unconscious,” Daxium finished for him. “We need to find him.” “I agree buddy,” Ken told him. “But Captain Hawk is right, we need to know where he took him first.” He could tell Daxium didn't like the idea but he accepted it. Going back into the diner he rejoined the others, “Not an emergency, just like I said.” Rose and a couple of others didn't look convinced but they let the matter rest. The conversation took a while to get back to normal but this time around but Ken's head wasn't exactly in it. *** Timothy woke up with his head ringing like it never had before. The last thing he remembered was... His eyes went wide as he remembered Brooks, feeling him more than seeing him. It felt like a perverted version of when he felt Daxium. Like it was almost the same but different in some way he couldn't explain. He realized he was feeling it now and started to panic. Then he felty a hand clamp down on his shoulder. He looked almost expecting to see Mr. Lunden but it wasn't him. It was Brooks. Looking around he didn't recognize anything, in the room he was being kept in. “Where am I?”, he demanded. Brooks removed the hand and walked in front of him. “You're the special one,” he said as he put his hands behind his back, “you tell me.” Timothy didn't know if he actually knew what he could do or not but he tried anyway. He reached out with his mind, wishing the bastard was still touching him since it would have made this easier, Brooks didn't try and fight in the way most people did when he read them and they knew what he could do, not that they knew what they were doing to begin with. He was able to 'tune' in as Lunden described it to the other man's mind easily enough and was immediately forced out. Timothy looked at him in surprise, no one had been able to do that to him before Brooks just smiled at him slightly, “You can look into other people's mind. Honestly I didn't think that particular trick I was taught would actually work, but it did.” Walking away Timothy tried yo run but found himself tied to the chair he was sitting in.”I must report this.” Confused at the statement Timothy watched as he raised an hand and a vortex formed in mid air in front of him. Before long a shape appeared inside, the energy of the vortex kept him from seeing the figure clearly, Timothy had the feeling he really didn't want a good look at the person. A disembodied voice spoke, “Is this the individual you spoke of Avatar?” “It is,” he replied while looking back at him. “Go ahead, I know you're curious.” Despite his better judgement Timothy reached out with his mind and found a new thought pattern and tried to latch on to it, learn what he could to tell the people at Castle if he ever got out of here. Then something else unexpected happen those thoughts latched on to him. He started seeing images, dark, disturbing images. Images of war, of death death to being of lights like Ultraman. The mental assault continued and he screamed out in pain. Past the point of not being able to take it anymore the alien thoughts finally pulled back. Timothy stopped screaming and slumped down in the chair as best as he could exhausted and breathing heavy. Ignoring his plight Brooks turned back to the vortex and went, “Well?” “It is as you say,” the voice said. In the haze that was now his brain the name Zetton popped up. He realized that what these demons were called. “This is the first time we seen such an ability in a lower species.” Here Brooks looked slightly agitated, “Well it does happen from time to time. I suppose you'll be wanting to experiment on him, hopefully he'll be a better subject than Jamira was. At least more controllable anyway.” Timothy thought that was it for him, his thoughts so scrambled he could hardly put two coherent thoughts together. Then the voice said, “No.” “No?”, Brooks said slowly, not understanding the answer he was give. He looked back at him then at the vortex. “I'm not saying he was any trouble to obtain but why not?” “Because we are still aware of you experimention with the power we gave you and some of the results of those tests.” Here Brooks backed up from the vortex, showing a bit of fear for the first time. “While we initially discourage you in these test we are now curious at exactly what you can do with them. So we charge you to experiment with the boy.” He looked genuinely surprised at this, “Really? I thank you my masters, I will try not to disappoint you in any way.” He bowed slightly as the vortex vanished. Turning back to Timothy he went, “Well that was unexpected now, wasn't it.” Timothy couldn't say anything as Brooks came closer, “Now how should we start the experiments, hmmm?” He came closer and started circling him, apparently thinking it over to himself. “Maybe, we could haunt Richardson with vision of his dear son Joseph, show him his death from my perspective. No I wouldn't want you to feel dirty after entering his mind. I've known him for decades and never realized how much of a hard ass he could be after he lost Joesph I swear he showed more emotion after his wife died.” “Oh, I know,” he said as he stopped right behind him. “Something not quite so specific. A little more wide spread, that should cause enough confusion to keep them off our backs for a bit, particularly Scott and the giant. I don't think either of us are ready for that confrontation just yet. Now if he's caught up in the wave, all the better.” He placed a hand on top of Timothy's head and sent his power into his mind. Again under a mental assualt he fought back, but in his exhausted state it wasn't much as his mental defenses gave away. He screamed out anew as the agony inside him grew. Then his mind felt like it exploded. *** After the diner Ken and the others headed for a nearby park, another old routine they had when Jeff didn't tag along. Hell it was before he even hired in. But it was weird how fast everyone fell back into the swing of things, even years after the fact. It felt good to Ken. To just feel normal even if it was just for one night. It was doing him wonders at the moment. Before long the group started to get smaller as the others had to get back home. Soon it was just him and Rose walking down a well kept path. “I have got to do this more often,” he said while stretching. “You looked like you needed it,” Rose told him. “I've never seen you that stressed out before. Not even when Jeff was giving you hell. Feeling a little defensive he went, “I wasn't stressed. “Then you were doing a damned good imitation of looking stressed then,” she shot back. “Then again with what you do I'd be a ball of stress myself. Honestly I'm not sure how you do it.” And she didn't even know the half of it. “Sometimes I'm not sure either,” he told her honestly. “Having some friends going through it with you helps I suppose.” Even if he was a giant made of light. “Then again you're a mom of a newborn and a couple of other kids. You're stronger than I'll ever be.” “And I told you, flattery will get you every where,” she poked him in the side. “But these friends, are any of them of the romantic nature? Your ex perhaps.” “I am never going to let them let you on base,” he told her. “Come on Ken I just want you to be happy,” she told him. “I mean I am advent believer in the saying that there's someone for everybody. Even an idiot like you.” She looked at her watch, “Speaking of significant others, mine probably almost driven mad by the little ones by now. I better get home and take the workload off of him . You going to stop by while your off? The kids would love to see you again.” “I sure I can make the time, but I promid Nicole the same thing.” “You'll work it out. Night Ken,” she gave him a sisterly kiss on the check and a quick hug before going off and leaving him alone. With nothing else to do he kept on the path enjoying the early night air. Then he dropped to his knees clutching his head. It felt like forever but the pain eventually subsided. He looked around seeing a few other in the park seemingly recovering from what ever just hit him. “Ken!” Daxium said in his head. “What's going on? You were in pain for a moment.” “You didn't feel that Dax?” “No,” was the answer, a very confused answer at that. “Things were normal then you reacted to something.” Right then Ken and others grabbed their heads again. Ken tried to reach for a bench to hold himself up but missed and feel to the ground. The pain subsided again. “Ken! Are you still there?” “What the hell is going on?”, he asked as he stumbled to his feet, and reached for his phone to call in. Another attack made him seize up and stumble off, trying to stay on his feet. In the confusion he didn't see that the Spark Magnifier fell out of his jacket. *** “We're getting calls from all over the city,” Bridge announced as the control Room descended into chaos from all the call ins. “People all over the city are getting attacked some how.” He looked at a different screen in front of him as he watched the information on it double. “We're getting another wave of calls., looks like whatever is going on happened again.” Behind him trying to decipher the information was Hawk, “How often is this happening?” “Based on the the waves of calls,” Bridge looked over the information before him. “Looks like every five minutes or so.” He looked around Hawk who moved out of the way, “Get some more servers on this. We're going to get overloaded at this point.” “On it,” someone called out. “Every five minutes,” Hawk repeated to himself. “This has to be Brooks, there's no way this is natural. Show the affected area on the big screen.” Bridge did so, and in moments a map of the city appeared with the effected area in red. Four different shades of red to be exact that he asked about it. “The center circle represents the initial wave of calls,” Bridge said. “What ever is going on is expanding with each atttack.” “Bridge tell me what people are describing again,”: Hawk requested. “They're saying it feels like their head is going to explode during that time,” he told him. “Is that why he took the telepath,” Hawk wondered to himself. An idea came to him, “Bridge, Brooks' flight path, does it intersect with the epicenter of whatever this is?” “Give me a moment Captain,” he said as he started typing in commands. Back on the big screen said flight path almost hit the center of the mass. “That's the best I can do. The screen he was looking at previously started reacting again, “Another wave just hit!” Hawk looked at the screen as the affected area grew a bit. “There's a lot of places he could be using at this point, He said getting back to the previous task. “I'll try to narrow it down but with the rate of these call our men would be hit with it too.” “One thing at a time,” Hawk said taking his eyes off the big screen. “Are people at least evacuating the city at least?” “”Based on the police and emergency bands the roads are a mess,” he answered..”Based on the calls we're getting some of those affected were driving, cars, truck, buses,” he trailed off. “Most of the roads going in or out of the city are clogged by multiple accidents, emergency services can't handle the load so far as they been hit as well.” “Let's see if we can help lighten the load,” Hawk said. “Scramble crews in the Scan Tracks, send most of them to major accident sights. But if you can send a few into the city itself to help with the panic there.” “If another wave happens,” Bridge began. “I know,” he said. “But we have to do something. Keep Razor Wings on stand by for now, we don't need our people crashing into buildings or each other in this situation. And call those on leave and see if they can help out in any way because this is an emergency.” Looking back at the screen he said to himself, “And hope most of them aren't in the affected area.” *** “Well that was exhausting,” Brooks said as he let go of Timothy's head and walked away and stretched his arms over his head. Timothy, who was almost drenched in sweat and breathing heavy, only had the energy to glare at him. Brooks noticed, “Now don't look like that, be happy. We're exploring how far you can take your abilities. I mean I wasn't even born with mine and I'm still figuring out what I can do.” He looked back to where the vortex was, “Although I assumed I was doing it in private. But they warned me they knew I was doing it before. So I should have guessed then that they would be monitoring me some how, even from a different dimension.” He held out a hand that started glowing, then a image of the city appeared in mid air. “This for example, I doubt even my masters knew this was even possible. He stepped closer to give Timothy a better look, not that he apparently wanted one. “It is a pretty good likeness, if I do say myself..” He tried to poke a building and a finger went through it, making him a bit dismayed, “Still working on making it solid though, I thought it would be easier to figure out.” He tried it again. This time it didn't pass through,”Although I am getting there,” he added with a smile. “But you see this area here?”, he waved that figure over a general area of the map he created, “I think that's how far we spread the panic. Isn'y it amazing? I don't think you ever thought you could affect this big of an area. Oh what's this?” He pointed out a single glowing dot on the map, “I wonder what that could be. Or should I say 'who' that could be.” Timothy looked worried now but was still too tired to protest anything. “I felt who it was through you,” he told the boy. “Somebody been a naughty little telepath. You know who Ultraman is and tried to look for him. But all you did was help me pin point his location.” The map disappeared as he closed his hind. “I can't believe how fortunate we are that happen to be in the area we caused the chaos in.” Brooks placed that hand on his trembling head, “Now we get to have some real fun.”Using his power to manipulate the boy's power again. Now the boy screamed as the assault pushed his abilities again. But through all his pain Brooks located Scott, shining like a beacon of light in the madness, and grinned. *** Things seemed to be over for the most part as Ken ended up going deeper into the park instead of out like everybody else. While he was feeling whatever the hell that was Dax was able ro sense a hint of dark energy and get a general reaction. So the plan was let him lose and let him deal with Brooks since he wasn't being affected so far. He just needed to get somewhere he wouldn't be seen. Finding a secluded place he glanced around for any set of eyes and reached for the Spark Magnifier. And found nothing, “Fuck, not again,” he started patting himself down knowing full well he didn't put it anywhere else. He looked back at the direction he came from, “It's gotta be that way, somewhere. Dax we really to think about putting some sort of tag on that thing for these situations.” If Daxium had an answer he didn't hear it as he was bombarded by a series of voices in his head. <What's happening?!> <Mommy! Daddy!> <Fuckin' aliens I'm telling you.> Ken dropped to his knees as he clutched at his head. This wasn't like the other times, no it was like he was hearing everybody in the city now. He tried to get to his feet but the foreign thoughts increased in response. Still he fought to rise and did so. Getting the Spark Magnifier was the only thought that was his own as he took a couple of steps in the direction he came. Then he heard Brooks <I don't think so Scott.> The thoughts increased again. Ken screamed in pain as he dropped to the ground. *** It took a while but they were able to get into the city to help out as it seemed to be worse as reports indicated. Jess took in the scene quickly before she lined up with the rest of the crew. Reid stood in front of them, “Alright from the look of things we have a window here,” he told them. “But we don't know how big of a window we have. So split up and help where you can, is that understood?” “Yes sir!”, the all replied. “Then let's do it,” he told them. They all picked a direction, by either picking one at random or checking their wrist scanners first. A few like Reid and Jess did both before running off. She found A few people struggling with others who were still on the ground. “Head that way,” she told them while pointing the way she came and helped with an older lady who was having a hard time standing. “They'll be people there to help you.” They thanked her and hurried off as fast as they could. “This is going to be a long night,”: she muttered to herself, Going a few more blocks and helping a few more groups she came across somethging that made her stop in her tracks, Down on particular street was a very high end store and a group standing in front of the display window. Seeing the objects in their hand she had a feeling what the intent was going to be. Not seeing any police or another group on UNDF troopers around she drew her weapon and waited. One of the raised a bat and she took aim. He started to swing and she pulled the trigger. The bat sparked once the shot hit it. The wielder looked around until somebody pointed her out. A few in this particular mob riled up the others and they satarted toward her. A slight reaim and she fired again. This shot barely went over the crowds head. Many ducked as the mob came to a stop. “Disperse and leave the area now,” she told them. The one who had the bat started forward again, saying some particularly nasty things about her. Readjusting her aim one more time she fired again. The shot exploded against his leg and he went down in a heap clutching the wound. She looked at the rest of them without lowering her weapon. A tense stare down later a couple of them helped the down man off the ground and they got out of there. Jess didn't take her eyes off of them until they turned a corner and disappeared. Even then she kept looking in that direction, not moving just to be sure. Once she felt it was safe Jess finally lowered her gun and holstered it. “I'm going to catch hell for that one,” she muttered. <Hey>, a voice said. She looked around trying to find the source. Whomever it was sounded like he was pain. <He needs your help.> For some reason she felt drawn to go in a certain direction. Not sure what else to do she started in that direction. That feeling lead her to a park of some sort, with nobody around that she could see. Still she felt drawn to a certain spot. Reaching it she saw something on the ground. It was Ken's good luck charm. Hurrying over she knelled down and picked it up. Now where was he she wondered. That feeling came back so she ran in that direction. *** <I betcha anything those giant freaks are involved.> <Babe we gotta move away from here.> <Come on, we might die tonight, don't you love me?> The stream of voices didn't end. Ken lay curled up in a fetal position as he was positive his brain was going to start leaking out of his ears. Nothing could shut them out, not even Daxium could help through their connection. And he could barely hear him as it is. He could have imagined he heard him say. “Ken stay with me. Concentrate on my voice only.” He tried, he really did but the onslaught just seemed to grow with each passing second. It was too much. He couldn't fight it any more, “I can't.” “Ken. Ken. Ken!” “I'm sorry Dax.” He thought he felt somebody touching him, but it had to be whatever this was trying to trick him. Even with the repeating of his name he couldn't focus. It wasn't until something patted his face that he realized it was an actual person there with him. Against the pain he opened his eyes and fought to focus on the person there. Eventually a familiar face came into view. “Jess?” “It's about damn time,” she told him and looking very relieved. The sight of her and the contact broke the attack for the moent. For a brief moment he felt Brooks' anger before it finally died down and he could think again, although his head still hurt like hell though. “Sit there for a moment, I'll call for some help.” “I can't,” he moaned and tried to stand up. “Gotta do something first.” “Damn it,” she muttered and got under an arm to help support him. “You can be a pain in the ass sometimes you know that?” They stood there for a bit before hew felt like he could trust his legs to move again. She stayed by his side the entire time as he headed on the path, he wasn't even sure if he was going in the same direction. She didn't ask what it was that was so important and he was glad at that. His brain was still in too much of a mess to think straight. After a bit she did go,”Dax,” he nearly stumbled after she said that but he kept going. “is that Ultraman's name?” He did stop here, wanting to look at her and ask how she knew that. But he couldn't, even with Daxium urging him on in the back of his mind. Forcing himself forward he managed a weak ,”I don't know what you're talking about.” “Of all the pig headed,” he heard Jess say under her breath, He got a look at her face out of the side of his eye. He was more than familiar with it, he saw it a lot before she broke up with him. Part of him was afraid she was going to let him drop right then and there. “I figured it out, okay. Even without Richardson putting you on the team. I saw you react when Hawk was messing with whatever your good luck charm is. I've seen you seem to know where the monster is before anybody else detects it. You favored parts of your body I know Ultraman was injured in. Don't treat me like an idiot. Didn't you ever notice it was me giving yuou a way to get away most of the time.” “Daxium,” he said suddenly. She stopped her rant and looked at him. He turned his head to look at her, “His name is Daxium.” “Okay then,” she said as she readjusted her position under to help him out a bit more. “If I got to be honest here I'm more surprised you actually admitted it than anything.” Despite everything Ken started to laugh. The pain in his head made him redret it immediately. “Does anybody else know? I can't be the only one who two put two and two together. I figured Richardson does because it's the only way the whole civilian operative business makes any sense.” “He's the reason why Dax is here to begin with,” he told her. He had his secretary and the doc try to find me after I bonded with Dax. He got footage of me and.” Jess quickly figured out where he was going with this, “He forced you to take the position on the team?” He could only nod his head. “That son of a bitch. Okay is there anyone else that you know of?” “Brooks knew the entire time,” he continued. The look on her face maed him say, “We sensed each other when you and the others brought me in the first time. I didn't know who it was at the time. Trust me, I spent a lot of time trying to see who it was.” “When you were going up to random people those first couple of weeks,” she recalled, again he nodded. “I only found out it was him from Jamira. Who Brooks told. The kid they brought in and Brooks took, he's a telepath so he stumbled on it. My niece saw me set Dax loose. A bunch of kids in Japan saw me come back.” He stopped and felt bewildered for a second, “Wow, I suck at the secret identity thing.” If Jess had a remark she kept it to herself as they continued on. *** Brooks raged after the connection to Scott was lost. He started blasting anything in the room, even going through the wall, uncaring if the people at Castle saw it or not. How did seeing that woman close off the connection? HOW? He looked at Timothy, “You did this! I don't know how but you did this!” Timothy didn't help matters by smiling a bit. Brooks seethed as he stared at the youth. Then he regained his composure and calmed down a bit looking at the destruction he caused. “quite a mess we caused isn't it? Hopefully you can can understand my anger, I had Scott at the cusp of defeat. He was ready to give up. Then she appeared.” The rage built up again at the thought at how close he was to victory. “Obviously I was being too nice,” he told the youth as he got back in position. “I wasn't pushing you hard enough. Let's see what I can do with something from this dimension,” Placing a hand on his head he sent even more of his energy through the youth's brain. Timothy's eyes started to glow the same color as the dark energy flowing through him and unleashed a scream that would have curdled any normal's person's blood. *** Back at Castle Bridge was going over reports from their own people and going over sattellites images of the area of the reports of the weird energy like blasts. “Looks like the building in question lines up with the predicted area Brooks's flight path crossed over and the center of the event,” he told Hawk. “Contact Reid and,” he began, “A giant monster just appeared!”, someone called out. And the energy in the room changed immediately. “Putting it on the screen,” Bridge announced. He, Hawk and the rest of the room looked up at it. It was humanoid in shape, with black leathery skin, But it's head was mostly a purpleish glowing brain. “Well that's some nightmare fuel,” somebody commented. Hawk glanced in the person's general direction, it was enough of a reprimand to quiet the individual. He remembered when seeing a monster caused a little fear, now even he, like everyone else, was just staring at the thing trying to guess what it could do. When did this become common enough that people just stopped reacting like they used to? Something to wonder about later, right now. “Contact Reid to get the Scan Track in position to attack that thing. Ready the Razor Wings to launch and join in. I'm going to get a team together to get the kid.” *** Jess continued to help Ken to wherever he had to go, assuming it was Ultraman related in some way. She didn't want to admit it but letting him know she knew changed something between them. She just wasn't sure what. “Does Richardson at least take care of you after Ultraman's battles at least?” He grunted, his usual tell that he was going to attempt to make a joke to alleviate the tension a bit, “If you count the Doc poking at the spot until I get irritated,” he told her. Yup, she was right. She didn't find it funny at all, “That's horrible. Why did you take it so long?” “Didn't really have a choice in the matter, Ken told her. “Richardson didn't want any one else to know what was going on.” “You should have told us, told me at least,” she said, a bit angrier over the situation than she should have been considering. “We could have helped you.” He looked down at the ground as they kept walking. “I couldn't risk it,” he ended up saying. “Couldn't risk what?”,” she demanded. “That Richardson would have found out,” he told her. “he'd do something if he ever found out. I don't know what, but he'd done something to whoever else knew.” The sad part was that sounded just like the Ken she knew. Always worried about other people than himself. Right now she didn't know who she was angrier at, him for trying to handle this mind boggling burden for this long by himself or Richardson for putting him in this spot to begin with. Suddenly he looked up, she did so as well and saw a creature more or less blink intro existence. Over her communicator she heard Reid giving orders to the troops to rally at his position if they could. Ken looked desperate. She saw his hand start to go inside his jacket but stop, the look on his face told her why. Unzipping her uniform jacket a bit she reached in and pulled out his good luck charm. It took a moment but she handed it to him, “You dropped this.” Ken hesitated before taking it. “Thank you,” he told her before he removed his arm from her shoulder and walked, more like stumbled if she was being honest, forward. He stood there and raised his arm up holding the device over his head. Then his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees. “Ken,” she cried out and ran to him, “I got you.” Getting under his other arm she helped him back to his feet. He looked at her for a moment. She mouthed the words “Be careful” to him. He nodded, and without taking his eyes off of her raised his arm up again. He was engulfed in a ball of light. It was bright, bright enough to hurt but she didn't look away. Soon she felt his weight against her fade away then the ball was gone. She looked back up at the creature, Ultraman stood between it and her. He stepped forward until he was out of the park before taking up a battle stance and shouting, “Shiah!” *** The creature roared at Daxium and charged at him. Daxium ran at him in kind. Grappling for a bit both giants backed up from each other. Daxium sized the creature up not exactly sure what he was dealing with. He could sense the dark energy just coming off it, but it seemed off in a way as well. Yet it was still a threat, a fact that was proven when it grabbed him and threw him into a building. The structure held surprisinly leting him come back with a kick to knock it back. He dropped to a knee an fired off a flashbolt. The creature gave out a cry of pain. Seeing an opportunity Daxium rushed in punched it in the head. Recoiling it's brain like head started to glow again briefly before firing an energy blast. The giant couldn't dodge fast enough and took the full force of the blast. Falling to the ground, Jess could feel the ground shake from where she was. As Daxium got to a knee it fired another blast. Quickly getting his shield up to block the attack He made enough time to get to his feet. And dropped the barrier. The creature fired one more time, but Daxium moved just enough to dodge it and come at the creature. It was ready for him this time as used his own momentum to throw Daxium to the ground. Blasted again as he tried to get up the giant went flying backwards and smashed into the ground. He halfway expected an immediate follow up but the creature just stood there swaying slightly. Confused by this new situation Daxium didn't let his guard down for a moment. It's head started glowing again ane he was ready for another attack. But it didn't come like he expected. Then a slight glow appeared around Daxium's head, then others around the city. Almost as one Daxium, Jess and other people reacted, grabbing their heads but for different reasons. Jess and the others because they could fell their thoughts being invaded, Daxium much like Ken before him was assaulted with those thoughts. Sensing it's attack was working it kept it up while blasting him again. Inside the safe zone Ken felt the mental assault as well, dropping to his knees from in it no matter how hard he tried to block it out. <I don't want to die!> <Should just nuke the freaks> <Get to the hospital.> <Ken.> His eyes opened up as he recognized one voice in the madness, Jessica's. Not sure what else to do he concentrated with all he had on her voice in the chaos and found it. Holding on to it like his life depended on ithe felt her courage, her strength, her... love? For him. Holding on to that last bit he tried to send Daxium the rest of it through their connection as he stood. With the diamond on his chest stating to blink, Daxium slowly stood to his feet, fighting against the onslaught on his mind. With a shout he fired off another flashbolt. The creature reacted to the pain breaking the connection it created between him and the humans in the area. Not wasting any time he quickly fired off the dimensional storm ray and destroyed the creature. Holding his head he stumbled a bit after it was over. Daxium shook his head a bit before flying off into the sky, “Shiah!” *** Jess looked around after Ultraman disappeared from view. Suddenly the ball of light reappeared before shrinking down into something man shaped. The light broke away revealing Ken, looking a bit worse than he did a few minutes ago. He offered a small, weak smile before collapsing to the ground. “Ken!” She raced over to him and flipped him over. “Come on Ken, wake up.” she slapped his face lightly again but wasn't getting any sort of reaction. Trying not to think the worst she checked for a pulse and found one. “Ken?”, someone called out. Jess looked up to see some guy run toward them. “Is that Ken?” “Who are you?”, she asked the newcomer. “Name's John. I worked with Ken back at the garage, he told her as he knelt down next to them. “Is he okay?” “He,” how was she going to explain this. Hell how did he do this the entire time? Going with the obvious thing she said, “He was hit by whatever happened pretty bad.” “I should have guessed,” he said. “I've seen a few people so far on the ground, not like this though. He must have gotten it pretty good. We should probably get him to a doctor or something.” “Or something, she muttered. After what he told her of the care Richardson was providing hin, Ken deserved better than getting poked at by Dr. Williams. So she asked, ”Is your car close, we can drive him to the nearest emergency room.” “Roads are still a mess,” he told her, “and those places are going to be a mess too for who knows how long.”She cursed to herself, he was right of course. Given Ken's condition they probably see him right away. But would they discover Daxium? And what would Richardson do then? And she wasn't sure Ken was wrong that he would do something. There had to be someplace they could take him. Getting an idea she looked at John, “How close is his apartment?” “A few block that way,” he answered. He pointed in a direction that was away from most of the mess. That should mean the roads would be clearer for the most part. “It's better than nothing,” she said, mainly to herself. “Help me get him up.” “Are you sure that's a good idea?”, he asked but he was trying to get in position to get him off the ground. “No,” she told him. “But it's better than letting him lie on the ground like this.” Together they got him up and headed to his car. *** Reaching the top floor of the building Hawk held up a hand to halt Ryo and the rest behind him. Some of them were still feeling the affects of that brain blast or whatever it was but they were able to shake it off, except for one man who felt like he couldn't move just yet. So Hawk told him to rest there and watch the flank while they did this. He and Ryo took both sides of the door and on his command a third kicked it open. The three of them burst in weapons drawn and ready. “Clear,” Ryo announced as they walked further into the room. “Captain,” he pointed to another room. The kid was slumped in a chair. They all ran over to him while keeping an eye out for an am,bush of any sort. Ryo checked his vitals , “He's alive.” “Ryo untie him from the chair.” As he started to do just that Hawk looked at the rest of the men. “Lucas, Grant take some of the others and secure the room.” acknowledging the order they grabed a couple of others and started exploring the rest of the room. Once it seemed clear he hit his communicator, “Bridge, Tell Lunden that we have Timothy and that he's alive.” “He'll be glad to hear that Captain,” Bridge told him. “Anything on Brooks?” He looked over at Grant who was shaking his head, “Looks like he got away.” *** The door to Ken's apartment opened as Jess and John carried him in. His landlord, who used a spare key to let them in pointed out a particular room, “The bedroom is over there.” “Thank you,” Jess told him as she and John carried him to it. The landlord hurried past him to open the door for them. Once in they maneuvered themselves so they could get him on the bed. John picked up his feet and swung them over so he was laying on the bed fully,and at least have Ken looking more comfortable than he was a moment ago. “Are you sure he shouldn't be in a hospital?”, he asked. “I'm not sure of anything right now,” she answered. “But I didn't want to leave him where I found him and this was the most accessible place either of us could think of. The landlord seemed to accept this and left. John was right behind him leaving her alone with an unconscious Ken. walking into the living room there was still one more thing she had to do, and Reid was bound to have noticed she disappeared by now. “Wade to Hawk.” “Hawk here. Where are you?” Here it goes. “I found Ken lying on the ground. A friend of his helped me get him to his apartment. The hospitals are going to be loaded is there anyway we can transport him back to Castle?” “That's a negative Wade. Reid informed me the streets are still a nightmare, even more so after that last... whatever it was. Is Ken alright?”, she heard the concern in his voice. She felt bad using Ken's condition like this but it couldn't be helped. Besides it was just enough of the truth without revealing his secret. “He's unconscious but his vitals are stable for the most part, I'm asking for permission to stay here and watch over him for the night to make sure that doesn't change.” “Granted,” Hawk said and Jess let out the breath she was holding. “Let us know if anything changes.” “Will do sir. Wade out.” That went better than she expected. Unzipping and removing her jacket she tossed it on the couch. Going back to check on Ken one more time she checked his closest. Finding another blanket she put it over him. “Where to we go from here?” she sasked knowing there wasn't going to be an answer. During the fight, when Daxium was in trouble she felt Ken in her mind. She tried to give him some of her strength and hoped it worked. She also felt something from him. His love for her, that d surprised her a little. She knew there were still feelings there, but love?. She knew her feelings for him, but didn't realize they were reciprocated. Thet could be more than friends now if they wamted to go that route. If he wanted to go down that route. If she dared go down that route with him again. So where do they go from here? ---- ED - Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 26
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- His head hurt, his head hurt so bad he was almost convinced he got beakered again. So much so a hand reached over to the other side of the bed. No, nobody was there this time so no apparent drunken one night stand this time around, so that was a positive. Slowly he opened an eye and almost immediately regretted it as the pain increased. Hell even Dax seemed to have a hangover from the way things were feeling. But how was that possible? Dax didn't even react the last time this happened. So he didn't get beakered, another positive not that it currently felt like one. So what the hell happened? Again he tried opening his eyes, with a little more success this time and carefully he looked around. Right off the bat he knew he wasn't in his quarters back at Castle, in another positive he wasn't in somebody else's room either. No this was his apartment in the city, so how did he get here? The last thing he remembered, well was his brains feeling like they were going to leak out of his ears. And his eyes popped wide open as he remembered.... Jessica. Shit, she knew his secret. Ken looked over at his dresser and saw her in her uniforms pants and the standard issue black UNDF tank top looking at him. But what drew his attention was her hand lifting up a photo he had taped to the mirror, the one of them back in high school. “I can explain,” he immediately said as he quickly rose up. But that was a mistake as he grabbed his head, “Right after my head stops trying to explode.” She looked back at the picture before letting go of it. Backing a away a bit she kept her eyes on the photo. She said, “Remind me to show you my scrapbook one of these days and this one page I keep going to,” before turning around and facing him. “How do you feel? Outside of your head trying to explode?” “That pretty much covers it,” he risked sitting up again. That didn't feel too bad this time around so he swung his legs over and sat there. She came over and sat next to him. When she wouldn't look at him he just talked, “I don't even know why I keep it up,” he told her gesturing toward the picture. “I keep taking it down when I get serious with someone, but it goes right back up after it ends, Half the time I don't even remember putting it back up.” Then he realized what he just said. Rubbing his eyes he added, “And that didn't sound creepy at all.” “Like I said,” Jess spoke up, “remind me to show you that scrapbook later. I'm just as guilty.” Both of them went silent for a moment. “Hawk knows I'm here by the way,” she told him. “I told him I found you lying on the ground after what happened and asked if I could stay to make sure you're all right. Luckily he agreed. I should probably report in soon, at least tell him you're awake.” Feeling nervous he went, “You told him what exactly?” “Just that I found you lying on the ground, nothing else,” Ken let out a breath, feeling more relieved than he probably should at the moment. His one fear over this whole situation just came to fruition, somebody else found out. Not only that it was Jess, and he just dragged her into this entire mess. What else was going to happen? Especially if Richardson found out. Then she started shaking her head, “I can't believe you're Ultraman.” Looking at her Ken went, “You said you figured it out.” “I did,” she insisted. “But figuring it out and actually seeing you change into Ultraman are two completely different things. I spent most of the night on that couch of yours trying to reconcile this whole idea in my head.” “Well I don't exactly change,” he told her. “It's more like I change places with him.” “Yeah you mentioned something about setting him loose,” she said. “So where do you go? When you set him loose I mean.” Ken sighed, how was he going to explain this, “After we bonded together, he set up this, I guess you could call it a safe zone, somewhere in here,” he gestured at his head. “At least thrat's where I think he is. He's usually in there until he's needed then that's where I go until he's finished.” “Can he hear us, like right now?” Ken kept quiet for a few moments, concentrating. Then he shook his head, “I can usually tell when he's looking out of my eyes. He's not doing it now.” “How can you tell?”, Jess asked. “It's hard to explain,” he said. “It's a feeling, like somebody watching you but from the inside. Like I said it's hard to explain. But it is noticable and a bit distracting when he does it. It's the main reason why I don't do it when he's fighting, I don't want to distract him at the wrong time.” “And you been living like this since that first giant monster?” “Pretty much,” Ken answered her. “It didn't get complicated until you guys brought me in,” he tried to joke. She didn't find it funny. Lowering his head he told her, “I'm sorry I dragged you into this.” “You didn't drag me anywhere,” she assured him. “I got here all by myself. One night of this made me a nervous wreck, trying to figure out how to cover for you, how in the hell have you been handling it all this time?” “I honestly don't know. I wanted to tell you,” he blurted out. “You, Hawk, somebody. There were so many fucking times I just wanted to shout it at somebody. I came close once,” he finally admitted. “To telling you and Hawk, right after Brooks got away from Castle. But the Doc and Richardson's assistant where right there, almost like they knew I was going to do it.” “Why didn't you tell us then?”, she demanded. He recognized that look in her eyes, she was getting angrier by the second. Reluctantly he answered, “Because she wasn't looking at me, she was looking at you. And I knew right then that was a warning. Every time I've come close the thought that Richardson would do something would stop me. I didn't want him firing you or whatever on my head. I couldn't live with that.” “That fucking bastard,” she mumbled. “Does he even care about the hell he's been putting through? What am I saying? Of course he doesn't.” She quieted down, after a moment, looking unsure. Ken guessed she was worried about what was going to happen to her now too and felt like an absolute ass for putting her in this position. Then she said, “I felt you, in my head when Daxium was fighting that monster. I felt that you loved me.” This was not what he was expecting where this conversation was going to go, not by a long shot. Jess apparently saw it, “I had to get the conversation off of Richardson or I was going to break something.” Then looking at him she added, “Are you going to deny it?” He wanted to, God only knew how much he wanted too. But he said, “I never stopped. A week after we broke up I saw you with another guy and my heart sank, just knowing right then and there I lost you for good.” “A week after?”, she said to herself. Then she sort of chuckled. “Oh yeah, that guy, one of my friends set me up with him, saying he'd be better fit for me than you. Then I broke up with him like a day later because he was so, God I wanted to shoot him he was so old school. I completely forgot about him, I don't even remember his name.” “Walter,” Ken said suddenly. “I never dated a Walter,” she insisted. “I spent the next two days trying to figure out how to drop an engine block on his head,” he informed her. “If I'm thinking of ways to end a guy I'm going to know his name.” Both of them laughed, just over the absurdity of that statement. “I felt you in my head too,” he told her. “I felt how you fell about me. I didn't think you'd love me in that way again. As a friend yeah, but like you did?” “Guess that answers that question,” she said with a small chuckle. When asked about this question she responded with, “Back in Japan I asked myself what was going to happen first, if you were going to tell me that you're Ultraman or if you'd realize how I worded my answer when you asked me if I thought we get back together after you joined. Looks like the answer was neither.” She chuckled again while tried to remember exactly what she said. Before it came to him Jess said, “So where we go from here?” “I don't know,” he told her honestly. She stood up and walked away going to one of the windows, “I mean it's not like we can pick up were we left off.” This part of that conversation he did remember, “Like I said before, we picked up where we left off I'd be letting Jeff talk me into breaking dates with you and you'd be getting pissed at me weekly.” Standing up himself he walked over and joined her, “And it's not like we can start over either. I don't suppose you have an idea on what we should do?” “Not about this,” she admitted. She looked at him briefly than back at the window. “But I think we should tell Hawk about you being Ultraman.” “Hold it a second,” he said taking a step back, “I've been trying for over a year not to do that. I know I said I wanted to tell him but..” “Listen to me,” she said grabbing his hand and pulling him closer, “you're right about one thing. Richardson would do something if he found out somebody else knew your secret. I have no doubt about that that.” Ken started to say something but she cut him off. “The way I see it , it getting out was inevitable. I wouldn't be surprised if other people were starting to put two and two together, if they haven't already. And you can't let Richardson keep lording this over you, especially now that you know I know it. We're going to need some sort of ally in all of this.” Ken stood there and thought it over. Finally he said, “When was the last time I said I hate it when you're right?” “I don't think you ever have,” Jess told. “Probably because you knew I'd kick you ass if you did.” “Well yeah there's that,” he said with a bit of a smile. “I guess we should get it over with. But I don't want to admit the truth to him in his office. I'm just paranoid enough to think Richardson has the place bugged.” “Yes you are ,” she told him. “But we'll figure something out since asking him to come here would make other people curious about what was going on. You still have a day or so left on your pass right? Give me that time to figure something out.” When he nodded his agreement she said, “Well I better contact Castle and give Hawk that update on your condition. And arrange a way to get back there. Give me a minute.” With that she left the room. Once she was gone he headed for the dresser and stared at his reflection. “This going to be a mistake,” he told his reflection. “But she's right, it's got to be done. Now if it didn't feel like the other shoe was going to drop.” *** Hawk looked over the reports on his desk on his desk but he had to keep going over them because his mind kept going elsewhere. Ken was due back today, looking at the clock on his desk he'd probably be reporting in soon. Hopefully the few days to himself helped him out a bit. Outside of getting hit hard bt whatever Brooks did to the kid. Nobody could have predicted that happening. Still he worried about his well being. As much as he didn't want to admit it he saw Ken like a son in a way, especially after he took him under his wing a bit and tried to help him reach that potential he didn't know he had when he first joined. The last thing he wanted was to see him, or any member of the unit for that matter, get hurt in any way. At least he might be able to give some insight on why Jess seemed a little off since she came back from watching him for the night after the event. The light on his intercom lit up getting his attention. “Yes Janet,” he said hitting the button. “Sorry to disturb you sir,” came her reply, “But Jessica wanted a word if you had the time.” He didn't even hesitate, “Send her in.” Everyone knew he pretty much had a open door policy if they wanted to talk to him. But even with Janet out there, something about this request seemed off. Mostly because anyone else would have just asked her if he was busy before knocking on the door. So he prepared himself for whatever she wanted to say. Slowly the door opened and she made her way in, “Captain Hawk,” she said in greeting. “Jessica,” he said in return. “Have a seat.” “If I was here for me I would,” she said. Which caused him to arch an eyebrow, and feeling confused. Fortunately she didn't need any prodding to continue. “Ken has to tell you something,” now he was feeling confused and concerned. “But not here, He wants to see you on the roof.” Slowly he asked, “Why the roof? Why not my office? And more importantly why did he send you instead of contacting me himself?” “That part's complicated,” she answered, fully aware that's not the answer he wanted to hear at that particular moment. “But it would be best to tell you what he wants to tell you there. We'll explain why after he talks to you.” He just sat there and stared at her, trying to figure out if this was a joke or not. “You're going to have to trust us on this one.” In any other situation he would trust them. Still his cuiriosity was piqued. “This better be important,” he finally said raising out of his chair. He followed her out of his office, although he gave Janet instructions to let anybody else know that was busy until his returned. They walked to the closest stairwell in relative silence. Although she kept insisting that Ken was fine and that he just needed to talk to him when he inquired about what was going on. Finally they reached the door to the roof and she opened it to let him through. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the brightness but there he was, practically in the same place the last time he saw him, leaning on the railing and looking out. Jess motioned for him to keep going, so he did joining the young man at the railing and looking out, much like they did last time. Finally he said, “Ken.” Hawk watched glance over at him out of the corner of his eye before saying, “Captain.” Studying him for a moment he tried to figure out why he looked so nervous. Looking back at Jess he saw that while she moved away from the door she still kept back from the two of them. “I hear you have something you want to tell me.” “I do,” he answered. Then he swallowed and said it again, “I do.” “Take your time,” Hawk told him trying to alleviate some of those nerves. “I have all day.” Ken started to say something but stopped himself several times. Then he reached into his jacket and placed a familiar looking cylinder on the railing between them. Hawk picked it up saying, “You're good luck charm, what about it?” He took in a deep breath before speaking, “It's called the Spark Magnifier. It's..., It's what I use... It's what...” “It's what you use to turn into Ultraman,” Hawk finished for him as a he handed it back to him. Ken's head whipped around to look at him. He looked at him in disbelief, “You knew?” “I suspected,” Hawk admitted as he took the device back. “I don't always follow it but I try not to confront anybody over anything without proof.” He looked over at Jess who looked just as stunned as Ken was. “He told you?” It took her a second to snap out of it, saying, “I figured it out.” Hawk simply nodded before returning his attention back toward Ken, who looked like he wanted to slink away somewhere right then. “I asked you point blank,” he began, “when you were first assigned to us if there was a reason why you were part of this outfit.” Looking so ashamed that he couldn't even look at him Ken went, “I know, I'm sorry. But I couldn't risk Richardson finding out that someone else knew.” “Why would you worry about Richardson?”, Hawk asked, although not too surprised he was involved in this somehow. Jess spoke up for him, “Richardson blackmailed him to join.” The way Ken reacted to her saying that told him that it was the truth. Still Ken added, “And I was sure he do something to the person who found out.” “So you carried this by yourself this entire time. Hell son I'm surprised you haven't cracked from the pressure by now. You should have told me sooner, I thought you trusted me after all of this time.” “I do,” Ken quickly said. “Like I told Jess there were times I came close to telling you. I'm sorry, I really am.” “Don't be sorry son, “Hawk told him. “I'm sorry you had to go through this practically alone.” “I was worried I'd disappoint you if you found out the truth,” he suddenly said. Even Jess looked a bit caught off guard by this particular statement. Finally Ken looked at him, “You always reminded me of my dad. I never wanted to disappoint him either.” Behind them Jess whistled softly, “That's pretty high praise coming from him.” “I though as much,” Hawk told them, suddenly honored that Ken apparently held him in such high regard. “Look Ken the only way I'd be disappointed right now was if I found out from someone else. Speaking of which,” he looked right at Jess., She held her ground telling him, “It wasn't my secret to tell.” “Fair enough,” Hawk said, trying not to get too amused at how relieved Ken was looking at the moment. “You know we have to tell the others right?” Ken buried his face into his hands, “I should have figured you were going to say that.” Picking his head up he said, “This is exactly what I've been trying to avoid, now it's fucking show and tell time” “You need allies you can trust right now,” Hawk informed him. “At least more people having your back then just me and Jess.. Let me worry about the moment Richardson finds out, you carried that burden for way too long as it is. I'll call Ryo and Bill to the conference room, maybe see if Bridge can disrupt the video feed since all of us meeting up here is going to cause questions.” Ken still didn't look convinced about the situation in general. “Deep down you know it's for the best.” It took several minutes but he finally agreed to it. “I know it's going to be hard son but it's for the best. Now if there isn't anything else you need to tell me we better head back inside and get started.” Hawk started walking to the door when Ken said, “Ah, actually there was something else.” Jess looked just as surprised by this as he was. Looking apprehensive again, Ken rubbed the back of his neck before saying, “I know how Joe really died.” Sucking in a breath Hawk took that in. Another look at Jess said she was caught guard as well. Finally Hawk said, “All right. But tell me after I gathered the others. This... this is something you should probably only tell once.” *** Ken hoped this would end better than he expected. First Ryo, Bill and Bridge were confused about why they were gathered in their usual conference room as he, Hawk and Jess stood in front of them. Ryo and Bill were even more confused when Bridge confirmed that the feed for the room was temporarily interrupted so nobody should discover what they were discussing, although he was as much in the dark for why as they were. Then Hawk told them what was about to be discussed wasn't to leave this room and for now was to just stay between them. Once they agreed then he dropped the real bombshell without any preamble. “Ken is Ultraman.” Ken watched the three of them, anxious for a moment, then Bill started laughing. “Okay Captain that's a good one.” “He's not joking,” Ken told him. Ryo looked over at Jess for confirmation. When he got it he just exploded, “What?! You been Ultraman this whole time! What the hell!” Ken just stood there as the rest of them talked over each other. Ryo's reaction surprised him the most though as he just seemed angry at the reveal. In fact Ken was worried he might attack him at any moment. The others thought so as well as Jess and Hawk quickly got between the two of them. Still Bill tried to hold him back. Ryo looked at him and demanded, “This doesn't bother you at all?” Bill looked at him, “Oh it bothers me all right, but it's Civilian. I'm sure he had a good reason to keep it quiet.” “He was worried about us,' Hawk told him. “Richardson blackmailed me to be part of this,” Ken told him,hoping it would be easier to believe if it came from him. “I couldn't risk telling anyone out of fear of what he might do to the person who found out.” “How did he blackmail you?”, Ryo asked, obviously still angry. “After you guys brought me in,” Ken started, “He said he was sorry for the 'inconvenience' and offered me a lift home since you guys were called away to face a monster. Instead of going where I told him to take me he had us go by the battle and had me watch. When I couldn't take it any more he got footage of me letting Da... Ultraman loose. He used that saying if I didn't agree he'd released the footage. I told him I'd reveal that secret before he got a chance. Then he said that one of the eggheads around here would start saying I was a biohazzard to those around me.” “Are you?”, Bill asked. “No,” Ken barked before he went on with his story, “I couldn't think of a way to counter that and I didn't want them to be put under a microscope because of me so I agreed.” Hawk took over saying, “And that's most of that particular situation. Now you said you knew the truth about what happened to Joe.” Again all eyes locked on him. Ken looked at Ryo and the rest of them hoping they would understand why he kept quiet about it. Taking a deep breath he started with, “You have to understand one thing first. This wasn't supposed to be me, it was supposed to be him. Richardson's been in contact with the place Ultraman comes from, arranging for one of their warriors to come over and help out, they just needed a host to house him while he was here.” “That's why,” Jess said in understanding. “he and his father went out there that night. So Joe could bond with him” Ken nodded, “Now I'm telling you what he told me. Things were going as planned but when Joe stepped forward to start the bonding process a beam shot out of the woods, killing him.” Hawk grunted, “Brooks.” “Yeah,” Ken said, “ Ultraman didn't get a look at who did it but that's who I figured it was.” “You known this the entire time too?!”, Ryo demanded. “No, I didn't know at first,” Ken told him. “I just knew that he died and what you guys told me.” Jess took a step closer to him, “When.... when did you find out the truth?” Now everyone was really staring at him. “When we found those other bodies underground.” Ryo shot forward before anyone could stop him and grabbed him by the jacket, “You son of a bitch, you knew for months and didn't tell us?!” “How was I supposed to tell you how I knew?”, Ken asked. His eyes went wide when he realized both Jess and Bill had grabbed Ryo's arm to keep him from punching him. “Ryo stand down now!”, Hawk barked as Jess and Bill got him to release his jacket. “We're all angry about being kept in the dark about Joe. And I'll agree that Ken should have told us before now. But he was in a situation none of us can fully understand. But we know the truth now, all of it.” Hawk looked right at him, “Correct?” “That's all I know,” Ken answered. “Right,” Ryo snorted as he walked away from the group before Jess could stop him. “You might not like it,” Hawk began Ryo turned on him suddenly, “How long have you two known that he's Ultraman? When did he tell you?” “I suspected for a while now,” Hawk told him. “I didn't know for sure until he told me earlier today.” “I figured it out a long time ago,” Jess answered. “I told him that I knew.” Looking disgusted Ryo walked away again. Hawk told the group, “As I was saying, you might not like it but at least the truth is out in the open now, and we have to figure out where we go from here. Ken is still one on of us,” he paused to see how the others would react. Bill and Bridge nodded their agreement right away, it took a bit but Ryo eventually agreed as well. Satisfied Hawk went on, “The way I see it our first priority is to get this video out of Richardson's hands just so he doesn't have it to hold over Ken any more.” “I assumed that was a given,” Bill spoke up. Turning to Bridge he went, “Any ideas?” Bridge thought it over for a bit, “How did he let you know about the video?” Ken said, “Over that briefcase his assistant is usually carrying.” Bridge thought that over as Ryo walked back to the group, “That's case is connected to his private server isn't it?” “It is,” he answered, “he's the only one with access to it. It's not even connected to our system.” Jess asked him, “Can you still get the video?” “It's going to depend if he has the briefcase connected to it or not,” he told her. “It's how he wanted it designed. And the case has it's own power source. So it'll be on the case's hard drive if anywhere.” Ken started feeling defeated when Bridge continued, “However I did create the security protocol for the case and his servers. He does occasionally hook that case up to our servers whenever he has to upload or download documents. I can set up something that can alert me when either of them does connect it to our servers. And I can have a little searcher program ready to send in to look for any video he has on the case and copy it.” Hawk got his attention, “Why not erase it outright? Seems like the simplest option even if he does notice it's gone. Assuming he comes to you, you could always claim it's a glitch in the case's system couldn't you?” “It's not that simple Captain, Bridge answered. “The case backs up everything at least once a day. And I mean everything, There would be several hundred copies of that video in that harddrive by now. I can easily claim the original and maybe a few of the copies got corrupted, but not all of them.” “We're assuming,” Jess said, “That his assistant hasn't already made a copy of it herself or downloaded it to that server of his in case somebody tried what we're talking about.” “This just gets better and better,” Ken mumbled. Putting a hand on his shoulder Hawk told him, “One thing at a time son. Let's see if that video is still in the case first then worry about any other problems.” Ken looked at him before nodding. “All right people we have a plan for now let's...” Ken tilted his head slightly before saying, “You sure?” Hawk stopped talking as he and everyone else looked at him. Okay how was he going to explain this one. “Are we sure about what?”, Bill asked. Jess studied him for a bit then it hit her, “I don't think he's talking to us.” Now everyone was really looking at him now as they realized what she meant, he was talking to Ultraman. Rubbing the back of his head he said, “Ah...he wants to say hello.” Not sure what else to do Ken reached into his jacket and retrieved the Spark Magnifier. He held it in his hand looking back between it and the group. “Never did this with this many people watching before,” he said, more out of nervousness than anything else. Deciding it's probably better to just get it over with he held it close and squeezed the handle causing the prongs to flip up and create a small spark. That spark quickly grew to engulf him as Hawk and the others, outside of Jess, took a step back. Eventually the glow faded away revealing the being they knew as Ultraman, but at a more human size. He looked at them before saying,”Greetings, I am Daxium.” Bill went, “Holy shit he talks.” “Indeed,” Daxium said. “I wanted to give my appreciation for your assistance since I've been in your universe.” Turning toward Hawk he extended a open hand. Hawk just looked at him, “I think this is the proper gesture.” It took Hawk a second, he was still getting over what he just witnessed, but he grinned and took the offered hand in his own and shook it, “Yes it is. It's good to finally meet you face to face.” Daxium nodded as the rest joined them. *** Jess walked into the Razor Wing hanger, giving a small greeting to any one who said hello. But she was looking for one person in particular. And there he was, inspecting their usual Wing. Ryo looked over and saw her then immediately returned his attention the the jet. Yup, he was still upset over the reveal alright, and it apparently carried over to her now since she informed them that she knew Ken's secret for a while now. Time to mend this particular bridge. She walked over to him but stopped a few feet away to give him some space. “Need a hand?”, she asked. “Knock yourself out,” was his answer. Hopefully he didn't mean literally. Then he pointed at one of the wing mounts that usually carried the missiles they used on missions. Taking it as her cue she headed for it and started her inspection. “Ryo, look.” “Not in the open,” he told her. That had to be a good sign at least, or she hoped it was. That he didn't want any one else overhearing them talk about Ken and Ultraman. After a bit he started looking around to see how close the others were. “Just tell me one thing,” he said looking at her. “Exactly how stupid am I?” Caught off guard she asked, “What do you mean?” “I mean you and the Captain apparently put it all together,” he explained. “Why didn't I see it. I mean it's so obvious now that I should have seen it.” “Is that why you were so upset earlier?”, she asked. “That you didn't figure it out?” “Not completely,” Ryo answered. “I mean I understand why, now at least. But I was upset Ken didn't think he could trust us after all this time.” “I understand, believe me I really do. I've been trying to get Ken to open up at least to me about it since Japan.” “You still figured it out though.” “Ryo, I've known him longer than any of you,” she told him, getting a little closer in an attempt to make this public conversation a little more private. “Hell I slept with him back then too, if anybody around here is going to put the pieces together it's going to be me.” “Hold on,” Ryo said looking confused, “You two slept together? I thought you guys told me you didn't.” “We did?”, she went trying to remember that particular conversation. Nothing was ringing any bells at the moment, because you'd think that would stick out like a sore thumb in her memory. “And you believed us? My god Ryo that's adorable,” she just said with how red faced he was getting. “But Ryo look on the bright side, at least Bill didn't figure it out either.” “And that's supposed to make me fell better how?”, he asked. “Imagine how you'd feel if he did and you didn't.” The thought dawned on him, “Point taken.” “After I put it together I could see how hard Ken was trying to hide it,” she told him. “Now I can't speak for Captain Hawk but I could see how much keeping this a secret was weighing down on him, particularly lately. Even you and Bill could see it.One way or another it had to come out now. And I'm not sure what caused Hawk to suspect the truth. But really Ryo never question yourself like that again. You're his unofficial second in command.” Ryo scoffed at this idea. “It's true, comr on, who does he leave in charge when he's not around? It's sure as hell not Bill. Just remember, just because you didn't see this coming doesn't mean you're not good enough to get to keep that trust he has in you.” “I suppose,” he conceded., “I'm just annoyed I didn't see it as well as you and Hawk did.” Then he started to smile, “So why hasn't Hawk left you in charge then?” She thought about that, “I should probably be a little insulted shouldn't I?” Both of them shared a laugh. At least things seemed to be good between the two of them now. Now they just had to worry about him and Ken. *** In the war room Hawk stood around with Ryo and Jess while they waited for the others. Ryo seemed much calmer than the last time they gathered as a group a couple of hours ago, so that was a good sign. But even though he said he was good now Hawk decided to keep an eye on the situation once Ken entered the room. They looked at the door as it opened to let Bridge in, carrying a folder that he was keeping a little too close to his person, at least to Hawk. Then again he might just be getting paranoid himself. They were looking into stealing something from the head of their organization, charges of treason for all of them was a distinct possibility if they were found out. Fortunately these war rooms didn't have the usual security measures that the conference rooms had, so there was a smaller chance of them being discovered, or Bridge getting caught messing with the feed. “Let's wait until Ken and Bill get here,” he announced when the others looked at him expectantly. The wait wasn't long as they came in a moment later, with Ken looking slightly annoyed about something. The reason why became evident real quick when Bill suddenly said, “So you're like a condo then.” Letting out an exasperated breath Ken went, “A condo?” “You're housing him,” Bill said. “I'm just a host,” Ken shot back, “not an apartment complex.” “So he's like an exchange student?”, Bill asked him. He looked like he was about to blow but Ken kept it in check. Still he sounded very aggravated when he said, “Yeah let's go with that.” Wisely Bill got the hint and quickly backed off a bit, “Hey I'm just trying to understand the whole situation here.” “He's been like this for the last twenty minutes,” Ken told him. Bill quickly tried to defend himself, “There was no one around, and I shut up when I saw somebody else. Come on the rest of you have to be curious about how this works too.” “Let's just remember,” Hawk quickly said, “we have to be careful about what we say around other people in the organization now. The wrong person doesn't need to overhear what we know about Ken now. Or hear that we know now in some cases.” Bill looked at Ken, “Civilian, seriously, how did you do this for so long? I'm a walking bundle of nerves and I've only known for a few hours.” “You make it sound like it was easy,” Ken told him. Ryo choose then to speak up, “Funny, you didn't seem to have that hard a time.” Jess quickly slapped his arm with the back of her hand as Ken hung his head a bit. “I'm just stating what I seen.” “If we can get back to the business at hand,” Hawk said a little louder than usual. He'd worry about Ryo and Ken later, right now, “Bridge you said you found something?” Everyone laid eyes on their resident computer expert, Ken in particular was looking hopeful. Truth be told Hawk was hoping for the best too. “Yes,” Bridge said as he finally put the folder down and opened it up, “But it wasn't the video.” Ken visibly deflated at that. Jess started rubbing his shoulder as Bill tried to reassure him. Ryo even looked disappointed at the news as he joined in with words of encouragement. Bridge looked disappointed in himself as he said, “Sorry Ken.” “So what did you find?”, Hawk asked for the group. “You had all of us gather for a reason.” “All of you have to see this. Just to make sure I checked our servers,” he explained,, “in case they did try to hide the video in there. Like I said I didn't find the video but I did find these.” Putting the disk into the appropriate slot he started pressing the proper keys to make what he discovered appear above the holotable. The rest of them were confused by the various boxes that appeared. “All of these are sound files,” he told them. “And all of them corresponds to an assignment you guys were on.” “So what does it mean?”, Ryo asked. “ Has Richardson's been monitoring us?” “Not all of you,” Bridge told them. “The first file is dated shortly after Hawk gave Ken his uniform jacket. To highlight this Bridge picked the appropriate file and played a snippet for them. Ken's voice came out clear as a bell in it, “Who wants to see a dead monster and poke it with a stick?” It dawned on all of them but Ken was who said it out loud, “He was monitoring me.” Then his hand quickly went to cover up his communicator. Although it was a little too late at this point. And it eventually dawned on him as well seeing how apologetic he seemed to look. “I already checked before I called Hawk to arrange this meeting,” Bridge told him. “You're communicator isn't active right now. In fact,” typing in another command a new sound file box came up, one that wasn't showing any kind of activity at the moment. “Some how he set up a permanent link to Ken's communicator.,”he gestured toward the new file “I'm assuming the link goes active once we get a hit on sensors. Or at least when you deploy to the field” “Then we got him then right?”, Bill asked. “We got proof now if he tries to do anything to us or Ken.” “At most it's a buffer,” Hawk informed the group. “I want the video, then we got him.” “Can we copy these files and erase the originals?”, Ryo asked “It would be better if we had them and not Richardson.” “Bridge, how often does Richardson or his assistant look at these files?”, Jess asked him. “Pretty much every time they upload a new file from Ken,” he answered. “The only mission not on here was the one from Japan.” “We were out of range for our standard communicators,” Ryo put in. “It makes sense. Is there any way to deactivate that link with out them realizing it.” “Possibly,” Bridge went. “I'm pretty sure they're listening in to Ken's communicator every time. At most I can make it so it doesn't record what he's saying. That why there would still be a file present but nothing would be on it. It's going to take some doing though, not to mention time. But I'm going to try and study the code for the link they used. No one in that inner circle of his has the computer skills to pull this off without getting noticed. He had someone do it, and since he didn't come to me he went to somebody in my department.I need to make sure that person doesn't find out the link was messed with.” “Better than nothing I guess,” Ryo said Ken had a look on his face like he just realized something, “That's how they knew about Brooks.” He quickly realized they were looking at him now. “Remember when I told you Jamira told me about Brooks earlier?” When they nodded he went on, “Well after we got back I was making a beeline straight to his office. Stanberry stopped me and said Brooks had already left.” “So he knew about him since then too,” Hawk said, mainly to himself. “I wondered why his double checking things while I was trying to find out who sabotaged the Alpha One felt off. And no Bill we don't have him yet,” he said reading the question on his face. “Not unless that conversation in on that file,” Jess offered. One look at Bridge after he looked up from the screen he was staring at apparently gave her the answer. “It's not, is it?” “Going over the mission logs, the file stopped recording the moment you all started back toward base.” “Damn it!”, Ken exploded and walked away. “Richardson is a lot of things,” Hawk spoke up, “A fool is not one of them. He's very good at covering his bases. We just have to have patience.” He looked over at Ken, “Or have a little more in some cases. In the meantime I want to make a proposition to Daxium, I think I'm saying it right.” Ken was silent for a bit, with a far away look in his eyes and his head tilted a bit, “He's listening.” “Okay then,” admittedly Hawk was just a bit uneasy saying this out loud, “I want to make one thing perfectly clear, I don't want to use him as a weapon. But maybe we can help the both of you a bit. Now I'm not sure how you've been deciding to let him loose as you say,” he shifted his eyes over at Jess, “although the reasoning behind some suggestions are becoming a little more clear now. But I was thinking we could do something to help you out on that matter, like giving you the all clear to let him loose . At least put you in a position to get away easier to do so. It took a moment for Ken to respond, “Dax is willing to go along with what you're suggesting but I have a issue. Richardson is listening in on my communicator. How do we do that and not have him find out we're doing it?” “We'll think of something,” Hawk. “Hopefully before Brooks sets another monster on the attack. And I doubt we have the luxury of time there, so if anybody thinks of anything let me know as soon as you get it. Well Ken?”, he said looking at the younger man. “I said Dax was agreeable to it.” he waited a few beats before going, “I guess I am too.” He held out a hand to Hawk who quickly shook it confirming their new arrangement. “I'm not going to lie, this is going to be weird.” “For all of us son,” he told him, “for all of us.” *** Near a railroad, in a small cavern Brooks stood around and waited. It was bad enough he felt his masters draw him to this ,unfortunately pretty populated construction area this time of day. He still hadn't been able to get them to understand that him being spotted was a bad thing. But he was still smarting over the fact that he almost had Scott If that woman didn't show up when she did, and he was still convinced the brat was involved somehow, then both he and the giant would have been finished. He was sure of it, While he was stewing he almost missed the vortex start to form. Quickly trying to calm his growing rage he faced it. Now was not the time to lose his temper, because the punishment would be swift and violent. He got a taste of it once and was in no rush to repeat the experience. Before long the outline of one of his master appeared in the vortex. “Avatar,” the voice seemed to echo a little more than usual. He put it down to the space they were in more than any anger on their part. Or at least he hoped that was the reason. He bowed slightly, “My masters. What is the plan now? I assume it has something to do with the site I'm next to.” “Indeed Avatar,” the image said. “The previous experiment you conducted gave us time to finalize our latest creation.” Brooks felt an eye start to twitch after hearing this information. It meant they used him to buy themselves some more time. They never expected him to succeed. If that damn woman never showed up he be gloating right about now. Forcing his voice to stay even he said, “And what are we sending over now that's sure to conquer the giant.” He quickly flinched away when the edges of the vortex started flaring up. Sarcasm was not the way to go there. “Be watchful of your tone Avatar,” the voice said with a force that was only used on those occasions they lashed out at him. So far they haven't but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't. “We will not abide any of your insolence.” “Yes my masters,” he quickly backed off. “I was not thinking clearly when I said that. You have been very gracious with your leniency with my experimentation with the power you have given me.” “That leniency is limited Avatar, we suggest you remember that in the future.” The edges of the vortex started to calm down, but he still didn't relax. They were apparently on edge as well. Brooks would have to remember to not poke this particular alien bear. “We are nearly ready to send a new creature over. So soon after his last battle the giant will be caught unprepared.” Brooks stood there thinking, after I soften him up for you, but wisely kept this thought to himself. “An excellent strategy my masters, The giant should be unprepared for a new fight so soon after the previous one.” Although Brooks seemed to recall a time Scott and the giant did just that. But they said he gave them time to finalize things with this latest one. “If I may ask, what needed finalizing on this newest creation of your?” “Our scientist were able to create Kodalar's skin so it will be reflective of any energy attack fired at it,” the voice explained, “In most cases directly back toward the point of origin of the attack among his other abilities.” “And most of the giants's major attacks are energy based,” he said to himself. “Yes that may actually work. An excellent idea my masters.” Again to himself he thought took your scientists long enough to figure that one out. “When are you sending it over?” “Soon,” came the reply. “There should be another tunnel nearby.” Brooks glanced over to the only other tunnel there was in this particular cavern. “It should lead to a larger one that can accommodate Kodalar easily enough. Wait there until then.” “Of course my masters,” he replied while bowing again. Once the vortex disappeared the disgust returned to his face. “Wait there,” he spat. “What else am I supposed to do walk to the center of the city and lead Scott and the giant on a merry chase. God there are times I wish I never accepted that deal, just so I wouldn't have to deal with how insufferable they can be.” He headed down that particular tunnel trying to ignore blasting something in frustration like he had done in the past. Mainly because these wall didn't look particularly stable and he wasn't in the mood to get buried alive today. Still he had a few moments to muse to himself about various things such as “Kodalar, interesting name. More than likely still better than anything those unimaginative morons at the UNDF would end up calling it.” *** Jess nearly jumped when the door alert went off indicating someone was on the other side. She was still expecting him but damn was she nervous. And she shouldn't be, it was just Ken,more than likely, she already talked with Ryo, Bill, Captain Hawk even Bridge and she couldn't think of any one else who would be knocking at her door this time of day, so it had to be Ken. She invited him here, mainly because she said she show him that particular page in her scrapbook, that was it, maybe discuss ways to give him the signal that it was his and Daxium's time to fight, but that was it. So why did the thought of opening that door make it seem like those butterflies were having a street fight in her stomach? “Damn it Jessica,” she told herself, “You're a fucking adult, start acting like one and not a scared school girl.” Taking she walk a deep breath she walked toward the door. Ken was on the other side, and he looked almost as nervous as she felt. “Ken, do you want to come in?” “Come in?”, he looked like that question caught him off guard. He looked around to see if anyone else was around, and so did she so she couldn't make fun of him there, she might any way just for the hell of it. Depending on her mood, and if he did something stupid. Not seeing anybody he finally said. “Uh, sure. Why not.” “It beats talking out in public,” she said and immediately winced at what she said. She was blaming that line on the nerves. She moved aside to let him in. Once he crossed the threshold she did one more check for any witnesses. There was no way in hell she was going to give the local grape vine any ammunition. “So what new?”, oh yeah she was blaming that one on the nerves too. “I heard about Timothy,” he told her. This got her attention since she was sure the kid was one who lead her to Ken's location the other night. So Jess was worried about him as well. “He's still in the infirmary, he confirmed Hawk's suspicion that Brooks used him to cause that event I was caught up in.” “Who told you about Timothy?”, she asked. Both of them had been trying since they got back to Castle. Up until now they, Ken in particular, kept running into a wall. They most she was able to get was from Ryo when he told her that the medical staff pretty much ripped him away from their hands almost as soon as they drove in. “Is he going to be okay?” “I was finally able to get some info out of Hawk,” he explained. “After I explained that he knew about Dax and how. Man it's still weird talking about him out loud now.” He shook his head a bit “But he's okay, physically at least.” Confused Jess asked, “What do you mean?” “Apparently whatever Brooks did to the kid sort of fried whatever it was in his head that let him read minds,” he told her, getting visibly angrier by the second just talking about it. “Fucking bastard,” he muttered, while in full agreement with that statement she did reach out and start rubbing his shoulder to try and calm him down. It apparently worked be cause he looked at her with a bit of a smirk. “That was literally the first time I heard Dax cuss too,” she smiled a bit too, “I think I might have rubbed off on him a little.” “Only you could corrupt a being from somewhere else,” she told him. “How did Timothy take this particular revelation?” “Not well according to Hawk,” he said. “They had to sedate him he was freaking out so much.” Jess nodded a bit as she took that bit of info in. “It only makes sense, I'm just guessing that he's been able to do that all his life. It would be like one of us waking up and being unable to see. Do they think his abilities will come back?” Ken suddenly looked a little sad, “They're not sure. Nobody around here even understood how he did it to begin with. And the guy that came in with him, Lunden, he's been a complete mess and has been no help at all. He hasn't left his side since they brought him in. Hawk had to contact Lunden's company in order to get the people who worked with him over here.” “Lunden's that bad?”, Jess went. “I'm surprised he was that close to Timothy.” “Took me by surprise too. But Hawk said he hasn't left his side since they brought him in.” He suddenly looked past her and at her bed, more importantly at the book on it. She looked at it as well and felt the nerves grow again. “I did say I'd show you that one page.” He followed her over to the bed and said nothing as she picked it up. Stepping a little closer to give him a better look her fingers found the right page without her even looking. She opened it then looked at him to gauge his reaction. Ken looked on in wonder as he focused on the picture of the two of them. He looked at her, “That was your seventeenth birthday party.” “You remembered,” she said with a smile. She glanced back at the picture. “It wasn't until I saw that photo on your dresser and you trying to explain it that made me realize that of all the scrapbooks I own this is the one I always keep with me. And this is the page I'm usually on.” she looked back at him and found Ken looking at her. And suddenly this felt very wrong. “What are we doing?”, she said closing the scrapbook and walking away, leaving him a little dumbfounded on what just happened. “We can't go down this road again.” “Why not?, he asked. “Is it because we're team mates now? Are you afraid it'll end the same way?” “No, it's not that,” she told him. Then what was the reason she was having doubts now? “I'm not the same person I was back then,” she eventually ended up saying. It felt close enough to the truth, at least because that was the only thing that came to her mind. “Neither am I,” he shot back. “You pointed it out to me enough times. I know we can't pick up were we left off.” “We can't really start over either,” she told him. “How could we, after all this time? Ken I like the spot we're in now. I don't want to ruin that.” “I don't want to lose what we have now either,” he said taking a cautious step closer. “But you know I love you, and I know how you feel about me. I wouldn't risk anything to ruin what we have now.” “I don't either, So what do we do then? It's not like we can just forget all of this and go on like we have been.” “I have no idea.” “Well you're a lot of help,” she told him. Despite the turmoil both of them started to smile. “This sounds like one of those one step at a time thing doesn't it?” He agreed. “Can I have a little time to try and sort this out in my head a bit?” “Yeah, of course,” he answered. He headed for the door. Then he stopped and turned around. He didn't look mad so there wasn't going to be as fight. So what did he want to say to her? “I was wondering ah...after you sorted it out of course, and if we can arrange it, did you want to go grab some dinner some time? Off base I mean.” Jess just looked at him for a short moment. Her mind sorted everything out pretty quickly right then and there. She didn't let it on though, or tried not to. “I do believe you're trying to ask me out on a date.” Looking a little embarrassed he said, “Granted my last few dates were because Rose set me up. But I'm pretty sure this is how it's done.” “I'd love too,” she blurted out. Looks like she caught him off guard again with her response. While he looked confused she told him, “I figured things out pretty fast. I'm willing to give us another chance if you are.” She never seen him smile so big. She wouldn't have been surprised if the top of his head was going to fall off his grin was so huge. “Great. I mean good. Hell I mean great. God that was harder than the first time I asked you out. You pick where you want to go. Anyplace will be fine with me.” “Let's see if we can arrange it first,” she reminded him. “Right, gotta arrange it first. Oh god there's going to be paper work isn't there?” he said. “ How do we classify this any way?” She grabbed his hands, “Ken relax, breath. We just need to ask for a pass from Captain Hawk, and pray he doesn't ask too many question.” “Ask for a pass, right,” he said calming down a bit. “He's so going to give me a look when we do, I just know it. We're going to do it together, right?” “There'd be less questions that way,” she told him. “Now go the the garage or something and work off that nervous energy. “ he gave her a quick salute before leaving her room. Jess turned around and leaned against the door after it closed, just waiting for what ever it was earlier to tell her this was wrong. Now she started to smile as that voice remained quiet. *** He should have taken a deck of cards or something. Monster sitting was tedious even before Brooks was forced to go on the run. Of course he was wishing for some cards then as well, since he didn't want to risk having his phone tracked. He always was a bit hard headed like that, thinking he didn't need something when he really did. Granted he had an excuse this time, fleeing Castle didn't give him a lot of time to gather things as trivial as personal entertainment and the like.Nor did planning a proper escape plan. But that was in the past, and this was now. And right now it was boring as hell at the moment. So he got up to walk around and stretch his legs a bit, all while ignoring the monstrous gaze following him. Those giant black beady eyes of course belonging to Kodalar, a massive blue, almost turtle looking creature that his masters had sent over. Outside of it's skin coloring the first thing he noticed was the off white tusks and spikes protroding on various spots on it's body. Those were the first thing he noticed, it took a bit but he eventually realized that this thing was watching him. Granted there were a couple in the past that gave off the impression that they were watching him, but Kodalar was just out right staring at him. Almost unnervingly so. And the fact that his masters were observing him some how only made the feeling worse. “Granted, you more impressive than some creatures they have sent over,” he said, knowing the intelligence of these things was relatively low and therefore it wouldn't understand what he was saying. “But I was expecting something less... generic looking. Now don't get me wrong some of your brethren had been down right bizarre looking, that one rock creature comes to mind.” Like he expected Kodalar didn't react, it just kept staring at him. Even if it looked at him in hunger it would be better than this dead expression he was getting now. “How about a little experiment, hmm? I'm sure they tested the properties of your hide, but I just need to know that they're actually right.” Again Kodalar didn't react as his hand started glowing, “Just a low level blast I think, nothing too impressive.” Brooks fired an energy blast that hit the creature in the thigh. Then like expected the beam shot back in his direction, extremely fast. So much so he almost didn't react in time as he jumped out of the way. The reflected blast hit the wall with way more force than he originally fired it. He stared at the spot for a long moment in shock. He looked back at the creature who was still the same. Brooks looked back and forth between it and the smoking spot several times before realization and anger finally set in. “Not only does it reflex back it increases in strength,” he said as he stood up running his hand over his head. “They never mentioned that. More than likely they expected me to try just that and get blasted by my own beam. The nerve of some people.” He started dusting himself off when he looked back up at Kodalar with a sinister grin, “Well, if I didn't see that coming neither should the giant.” *** Bill and Ryo sat at a table in one of the smaller cafeterias on base, one that they generally used when they just wanted to sit around and shoot the bull or whatever, as she approached the table. Both of them looked up and greeted her friendly enough. “I thought I find the two of you here,” she said as she joined them. “This seat taken?” “Not at the moment,” Ryo said as she pulled it out and sat down. Bill started looking at the door, like he was expecting something. Eventually Ryo asked, “What are you looking for?” “Ken,” he admitted. “It seems wrong that we're here and he's not.” Ryo didn't say anything, but he did have a look cross his face but she caught. And it wasn't a happy one. Apparently he was still a bit salty about Ken keeping everyone in the dark about certain things, despite what he said. Missing all of that completely Bill stood up saying, “I'm going to go find him.” “Yeah,” Ryo said with fake enthusiasm, “you go do that.” Bill did catch that one and stared at him. When he looked at her, Jess motioned that she had this one. Bill nodded and left the room. Ryo pointed at her and said “Don't.” “I'm going to anyway,” she informed him. “Are you ever going to forgive him about keeping what happened to Joe from us?” The way he looked at her made her think her hunch was on the mark. Most of his anger wasn't from Ken keeping the fact he was Ultraman from them. It was what happening to their fallen team mate. Hopefully having this discussion here rather in a properly staffed hanger would help him opening up “I understand where that anger is coming from,” she told him. “I really do, it caught me by surprise too. But Ken was in a tough spot.” “I know that,” he snapped at her. “I know that, but he knew how Joe's death affected us. Just the idea he kept the truth from us for this long.” “None of us are happy with it Ryo. I'm not, Captain Hawk's not. And I'm positive Bill's not either.” “Then why are none of you angry with him then?”, he demanded. “Because we're trying to understand the spot he was in,” she shot at him, anger almost getting the best of her. “If you're claiming to know the spot he was in, you should try understanding it as well.” Without thinking she said, “If your this upset now, I can't wait to see how you react when we go on that date.” “Date?”, Ryo went. “You two are going on a date?” Mentally kicking herself for letting that bit of information out Jess said. “Yes we're going on a date, Ken asked me out to dinner earlier. We decided to give it another try.” She braced herself for another outburst. Instead of shouting he started smiling, “That's great. I was wondering if you guys would give it another go.” “I thought you'd be angrier at the news all things considered,” she told him. “I'm still upset about being kept in the dark about Joe,” he told her, “but I'm happy for the two of you Jess, I really am. Just give me time to get over the whole Joe and Ultraman mess. So when's the date happening?” Before she could answer Bridge's voice came from their communicators and the over head speakers, “All units get ready to deploy. A monster signal has been detected.” Both of them shot up from their chairs. She quickly said, “Not tonight,” as they raced out of the room. *** Breaking through the ground Kodalar roared as workers ran at the sight of him. As he freed himself while the crater he created grew larger with the attempt. Brooks always thought of them as male for some reason, it was possible at least one or two of them could have been female. But that was neither her or there. At a safe enough distance, one where he could see the initial onslaught but not be immediately noticed,Brooks watched the scene unfold in front of him. Well unnoticed was a relative term, especially if Scott and the giant showed up. Not that he couldn't hide himself from them, he'd done it for a year. But it was better safe than sorry. Finally breaking through Kodalar fully emerged and surveyed the fleeing ants before him. Getting bored of that he locked his gaze on one of the buildings in the area and headed for it. Brooks pretended that there was a maniacal little gleam in it's other wise dead eyes as he smashed the building into rubble, At least from this distance it looked liked he was finally enjoying himself, or Brooks like to have thought as much while he watched.. The ever increasing sounds of jet engines slowly filled the air causing him to look up. The Razor Wings arrived faster than he anticipated. Hawk must have the troops ready to launch at a moments notice ever since he left. He chuckled a bit as he realized he probably part of that reason, Pulling a set of micro binoculars out of a pocket he scanned the area, and there were the Scan Tracks. Although he was more than a little disappointed the Alpha One wasn't here. That big cannon it carried was the only thing they had to an energy weapon. He would loved to witness the expression on Hawk and Scott's face as that beam was reflected back at them. Then again that would tip off Scott and the giant to this particular ability, and where was the fun in that? Studying the Scan Tracks a little closer as the Wings made a strafing run at Kodalar he spotted Hawk as the troops quick set up a temporary field HQ. More importantly he spotted Scott on the ground. And he seemed to be partnered with some one as they went into the chaos, more than likely to help with evacuation based on UNDF regulations that he help write. Now how was he going to get away and let the giant out this time? *** “Come on people, move it this way!”, Bill shouted as he waved a bunch of workers away from the carnage. On the other side of the street Ken was doing the same. Although he kept glancing up at the creature, trying to judge exactly how far away it was. If it got too close he was going to have to risk getting away to set Dax after it. Well not risk exactly, Bill was fully aware of things now, so he'd understand why if he suddenly bolted. Just another thing he would have to get used too on the fly now everything was out in the open, Everyone looked back at the creature as the Wings made another pass at the monster, with Scan Tracks joining in on the ground. As usual the barrage barely seemed to have an effect. “Civilian!”, he heard Bill call out. “I got things here. You wanna head to another area to see if it's clear?” It took a moment For Ken to figure out what he was doing, He was giving him the chance to get away. Getting used to things on the fly. Ken looked at the crowd and checked if any other UNDF officers were around. Things looked clear to him. “Yeah,” he said, “I'll do that.” Ken looked around to locate a free area. Before he could locate one the monster roared again, holding some sort of tank it tossed it at the direction of the Scan Tracks. It fortunately missed the target it was aiming for. But it did explode on contact. Right by the field HQ. Both Ken and Bill looked on in stunned silence before both of them shouted, “Captain!”, and ran for the blaze as the vehicles increased their attack. “Are you okay?”, Ken asked as they came across someone stumble away from the wreckage coughing up a lung. When he nodded he went,“Where's Hawk?” “Still in there,” he got out between coughs as he pointed back toward the mess. “He's making sure the others got out first.” He was still alive for the moment, a small weight seemed to lift off of his shoulders. Bill visibly relaxed a bit at the news as well. “Come on,” Bill said as he ran toward what was left of the field HQ. Ken didn't need to be told twice. Running past various workers and troopers they finally reached it. It wasn't as bad as either of them feared, but it was still pretty bad. Things were turned over and various objects were either broken or on fire or both. People were still stumbling away from it as Ken spotted one last person coming out of the smoke, a battered and bloody Hawk. “There!”, he shouted at Bill as he ran toward him. Ken caught him as he started to fall forward. “I got ya Captain,” he grunted as he got under his arm and supported him. Bill started moving what debris he could out of the way to give them a clearer path. “What are you doing here?” Hawk demanded as he started clawing at Ken's chest for some reason before a coughing fit made him stop. Waiting a moment it to stop Ken told him, “Getting the injured to safety first. I did read all those pads filled with regulations you gave me you know.” Hawk started grinning. After a few more yards he looked back at the monster then started poking Ken in the chest. He looked down and saw that his communicator was missing. He looked back going, “How?” Then he remembered Hawk clawed at his chest, he removed it without him realizing it. “I'm not paying for that if it's broken.” Grinning again Hawk told him, “I'll get a collection going. Now I believe you have a job to do.” Ken was speechless, and torn. On one hand he wanted to just that, on the other hand he had to make sure Hawk got to safety first. Even Dax was agreeing with that. “I got him Civilian,” Bill told him as he he got under Hawk's other arm and took most of the weight. “Do what you gotta do.” Ken was still to stunned to move. Hawk had to push him away to get him moving. Still Ken looked at Hawk, worried about his condition. Hawk waved him on, the order plain on his bloody face. Biting a lip Ken replied with a quick nod and ran toward the monster. “Kick it's ass man,” Bill called after him. Stopping in a big enough area, and fully aware that both Hawk and Bill were watching him, Ken reached for the Spark Magnifier, “Let's do it Dax,” and held it over his head as he activated it. *** The column of light appeared as Brooks lowered his binoculars after almost losing his grip on them. Scott just let the giant free, in front of Hawk and the other one. And it didn't look like he thought twice about it from where he was. “He did it, Scott actually did it,” he muttered in disbelief, “he just revealed who he was.” Brooks walked away from the scene as the giant was revealed as the column faded away and he got into a position to take on Kodalar, “Shiah!” *** Kodalar roared a challenge at Daxium before charging him. Running at the creature in kind he grappled with the monster before it's brute strength pushed him back. Daxium went in again with a kick that barely budged it. Kodalar slowly spun around trying to get him with it's tail. Daxium easily jumped over it and punched and chopped at the creature creature repeatedly. With a grunt the monster charged forward suddenly, bashing Daxium with it's shoulder. The surprising suddenness of the move combined with the force behind it put the giant flat on his back with a ground shaking thud. Kodalar quickly took advantage by coming up to Daxium and started stomping on his chest. Reacting in pain with each blow Daxium grabbed the foot as it was coming down and with some effort was able to push it back. The monster fought to keep it's balance, giving Daxium enough time to get back to his feet. He grabbed an arm and tried to use it being off balances to throw the creature to the ground. Kodalar was able to shrug it's arm out of Daxium's grasp and knock him back with a backhand. Then quicker than the light giant expected the monster grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Picking him back up, despite the increased barrage from the UNDF forces, lifted him off the ground then threw him into a building that collapsed on impact. Getting out of the rubble Daxium looked to see the creature jump at him. Rolling out of the way Kodalar crashed on the ground. Acting fast Daxium humped on it's back and started pounding away with his fist. Kodalar slowly was able to get up carrying Daxium on it's back. While hanging on for all he's worth one quick heave flipped him over it's shoulder to the ground. Seeing the monster come to stomp on him again Daxiom quickly rolled out of the way, got to a knee then jumped up and landed a flying kick. Kodalar stumbled back but it still tried to grab at him. Back flipping out of the way Daxium continued to flip backwards to get some space between the two of them. Bringing his hands to his sides, Daxium lined up the shot and fired off a Flashbolt. The beam struck the creature but less than a second later it came back at him. Daxium tried to move but got hit in the stomach as it exploded on contact. Crying out in pain he held his gut as he bent over slightly, eventually dropping to a knee.. “Ken!” Ryo and Jess both cried out as they witnessed what happened from their Razor Wing. On the ground Bill looked stunned about what just happened while Hawk ignored the medics trying to treat his injuries. Making eye contact both knew the other was worried about their friend and team mate. Kodalar stomped toward Daxium while he was still on the ground in pain.With a sudden grunt that surprised the monster with how intense it was Daxium stood up and banged his forearms together mode shifting into Power Mode. With renewed determination Daxium went at the blue monster, his increased strength adding a little extra oomph to his punches and kicks,Kodalar tried to cover up and lash out blindly at the same time. But it did get in a lucky shot at the spot Daxium was hit with the rebounded Flashbolt. Grunting in pain again he took a step back. The monster tried to grab him in the moment but the giant quickly broke free. Daxium grabbed the tusk by it's mouth and tugged down, ramming it's head into his knee. The monster stunned he spun around with a kick that almost knocked it down. While it didn't go down the monster did turn his back to him. Seeing his chance he grabbed it's tail and with another pain laced grunt he started turning in a circle, creating enough momentum that Kodalar left his feet. While that did make spinning him in circles easier it still put a strain on his wound. So much so, not to mention that the jewel startrted blinking, that he had to let go and held his side one more time as Kodalar went flying for a bit before crashing on the ground with a huge thud. He started to bring his fist to his chest but hesitated. If this creature's hide could somehow reflect the Flashbolt could it do the same with the Giga Wave? He looked behind him and saw the UNDF forces still presant. He lowered his fist he couldn't risk them getting caught up in the backlash if it did. So that left him with one option in this form, the Storm Globe. Deciding he needed a better angle than this he flew straight up in the air, Holding his arms out Energy formed between them that he quickly condensed by swinging his arms around. Once in a ball shape he held his arms out and firing the ball of energy,at the monster. It watched the attack come at him but did nothing to avoid it. Apparently catching the energy orb by holding it's arms open the attack was rebounded back at Daxium. Figuring there was a chance that it was going to come back at him Daxium dropped from the sky almost as soon as he fired the attack. The globe sailed overhead and into space as he landed on the ground. He studied this particular monster trying to figure out what to do.All his energy based attacks so far had been reflected back at him. And the only thing that seemed to have any affect was his physical strikes. Even if the jewel on his chest wasn't blinking it's warning he knew he didn't have enough time to try and beat it to death. So what was he going to do? Running out of options and time he crossed his arms in front of him and brought them down going into Hyper Mode. Holding out his right arm the Light Flash whip extended from his fingers. Getting in close he took a test swing at the monster. The whip hit the creature with no difficulty but there seemed to be very little contact made from the effort. Kodalar shook a bit, like it was laughing at him. Swinging the whip over his head Daxium snapped it back at the monster. It wrapped itself around where it's neck should have been. He didn't relax just yet, waiting to see if the creature would some how repeal the light whip from it's body. While it struggled to get free the whip stayed in place. Drawing in energy again as he held his other arm back he brought that hand down on his other wrist and unleashed the Light Stream as a pule of energy traveled at the creature. When it came into contact it rebounded back at him. Daxiun concentrated and sent more energy into the pulse of energy in the whip. It traveled back and forth several times before finally enter Kodalar's body, making it explode. Dropping to a knee and holding his side while the jewel flashed faster and faster Daxium slowly stood up, looked at the sky and flew away, “Shiah!” Bill ran around the area looking around for any sign of him. Then he spotted Ken down on a knee still holding the spot Ultraman took that major hit. “Ken!” he called out as he ran toward him. Seeing him Ken tried to hide the pain he was feeling and stand up. It still took a bit, Bill had enough time to reach him and help him to his feet. “Easy Civilian,” he said. “I got you.” “I'm fine,” Ken said through his teeth, “just a little winded. Dax mode shifting more than once during a battle takes a bit out of both of us. He hasn't done it enough for either of us to get used to it.” Bill didn't look convinced, “Uh huh. You're the one who has to explain it to Hawk and the others.” Just then a Scan Track pulled up and Commander Reid jumped out. Bill glanced over at Ken and muttered, “Well this just got complicated.” Muttering back Ken told him, “Not yet it hasn't.” Looking at them Reid went, “You okay Ken?” “I will be,” he told him. “I got a little too close to that fight,” he looked over at the still burning remain of the creature. “Got caught in the concussion wave when that monster blew up,” Bill stared at him but Ken ignored him as he continued, “It sent me flying and I landed hard. Just got the wind knocked out of me, I'll be fine in a bit.” “I'm sure you think so,” Reid told him. “But I want a second opinion from one of the medics. Hop in We'll give the two of you a lift to them.” Ken started to protest but Reid went into full Commander mode, “That's an order Ken.” “Yes sir,,” he said with a sigh after giving in. Mainly because he didn't think he could get to the medics under his own power at the moment. He barely made it to the Scan Track without making it look like a mistake when he jumped right in like nothing was wrong.But only because he was watching him Bill saw his eyes crinkle in pain a little. *** From across the tent Hawk watched as the Medics give Ken the once over while Bill stood by the tent's opening. They pressed on his stomach looking for signs that anything was broken or felt wrong. Ken took it in silence the entire time. Although from where he was Hawk could see his hand clench up into a fist while they were doing so. When they finally stopped that hand unclenched and he asked sounding perfectly normal, “So everything's good right?” The medics stood a bit straighter as one of them stated, “Looks like nothing broken. I'd still like you to stop by the med center later for a more comprehensive test to make sure everything okay.” “I'll try to fit that into my schedule,” Ken said sitting up. The medic shook his head and left the tent with the others. As soon as they was gone Ken's hands immediately went to his side as he bent forward slightly. “That didn't help things at all,” he grunted. “How are you really?”, Hawk asked him, hating the idea that he'd done this so many times in the past. Gingerly getting off the table before Hawk could stop him and start moving around. Eventually he admitted, “I've felt better, but I'm pretty sure I'll live. Dax never took a hit from one of his own weapons before. He's feeling it at the moment too.” Keeping an eye out for anyone coming into the tent Bill went, “At least you can skip Williams giving you a,” he made quote marks in the air. “'exam' now.” Shaking his head Ken told them, “Tried that already. Richardson's still going to want him to look me over when we get back.” Giving out a low whistle Bill went, “All of that for a 'concussion wave'? How did you think of that one so fast?” “It sounded good didn't it?”, Ken shot back. “And I have had some practice at covering for any injuries I might get through Dax. You just have to go with something that sounds plausible.” “Show me the wound,” Hawk said suddenly. Ken was reluctant to do so. “Don't make me make it an order Ken, because you know I will in a heartbeat.” Seeing he didn't have a choice in the matter, but still hesitating, Ken slowly lifted up his shirt. Hawk and Bill both stared at the angry looking red splotch adorning his side. “Sweet Jesus,” a new voice said. Ken quickly lowered the shirt as they spotted Ryo and Jess entering the tent. Bill quickly closed the flap before any one else saw the condition Ken was in. Jess held her hand to her mouth as she seemed to be staring at the wound through the shirt. “We came to check on Captain Hawk,” Ryo told them, the he started shaking his head, “But damn man are you all right?” “It'll be gone by tomorrow,” Ken told them, getting uncomfortable at all the attention. Picking up on it Jess forced herself to look at Hawk, “How are you doing Captain. We heard the explosion was close to where you set up.” “I'm not dead yet,” he told her. Touching the bandage on his forehead he added, “A little banged up but I'll be giving out orders before any of you realize it. Speaking of, I want the three of you to make Ken sit in this chair right here,” he patted the seat next to him. “I don't think he should be on his feet just yet.” Jess and the others grabbed him before Ken could react and guided him to the appointed chair. After a small struggle they got Ken seated in the chair. Hawk put a firm hand on his shoulder. “Now the three of you go help with the clean up I'll make sure Ken doesn't leave this seat until we're ready to leave. Oh, and Ken lost his communicator at some point. Keep an eye out for it.” “Yes sir,” Jess and the rest saluted, although with a bit of a smile at Ken's unhappiness with the situation, then did as ordered. *** Hours later, back at Castle Ryo found Ken in one of the hanger's diagnostic rooms. Unsurprisingly sitting in a chair hovering over his toy from Japan, Windam. A set of plans was pinned to a board next to him, he kept going back between them and the robot's now open cranium. Actually he looked more alive now than he's been recently, Ryo guessed finally getting it all off his chest did Ken a world of good. “You find the problem yet?” “No, not yet,”he said leaning back a bit. “I'm still convinced it's a programming issue because if it was mechanical he'd keep mixing up his left with his right. Not sporadically like he has been.” Ken looked at him before pushing off the table and rolling backwards to the wall behind him. He gave one particular panel a small tap with a fist and it sprung open slightly. Opening it all the way revealed a series of grates acting like shelves and several bottles of beer. Ken grabbed one and offered it to Ryo. “A peace offering,” he said. “It's not actually refrigerator cold but the AC vent here does a good enough job of keeping them chilled.” Taking the offered bottle and opening it as Ken took one for himself and closed the panel. Taking a drink Ryo gestured to the panel. “The Chef's going to flip his lid if he ever finds out about that.” Opening his bottle Ken said, “He's the one who told me about it. All the guys down here has a stash like this around here. The way I see it if the lab coats can have a still we can have these hidden stashes. But only Hanger personnel is supposed to know about it so shh.” he held a finger to his lips. Ryo said nothing, he just took another drink as he pulled up a stool and sat down next to him. Leaning forward a bit Ken said, “I'm sorry Ryo, I really am. I hated keeping all of that from you guys, especially about Joe. I never wanted to hurt any of you like that.” “I understand,” he eventually said. “I hate it with a passion, but I think I understand it. At least a little better now after I saw how you're being physically affected. Speaking of, Jess asked me to see how that was doing now since I told her I was going to look for you.” Like before he was reluctant to do so so Ryo told him. “You know she's going to corner you and check for herself if you don't, so you might as well get it over with.” Ken sighed and lifted up his shirt, like he claimed it was healing rapidly considering how it looked when they first seen it. Still Ryo asked, “You been hurt like this before and never let on? You are a fucking idiot.” Lowering the shirt Ken went, “Had to play the cards I was dealt, no matter how sucky the hand was.” After another swig he looked at Ryo for a bit. Finally he said, “So are we still good?” “Yeah,” Ryo said after thinking it over for a moment, “We're good.” Ryo held out his bottle. Ken did the same with his and they clinked theie bottles together. “We all have your back in this man.I heard Jess has a couple of ideas of how to get you that signal the Captain was talking about.” “She mentioned that she had some thoughts,” Ken told him. “Nothing concrete yet. She wants to go over them with Hawk first before she told me.” Nodding Ryo said, “She told me the same thing.” Looking at his bottle he added, “She also informed me that you asked her out.” Ken was mid drink when he said this so he just looked at Ryo while trying not to choke. So he decided to take it easy on the guy, “Look, you two are both grown adults and you can do whatever the hell you want, it won't affect me any. But,” he leaned forward a bit and looked Ken right in the eyes, “she is my wingman. And if I found out you hurt her in any way...” “You'll be the next one in line right behind her to deal with the scrapes,” Ken finished for him. Grinning because that's was probably how it would happen Ryo said, “As long as we understand each other.” Ken grinned as well as they clinked bottles one more time. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 27
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in My Light ----- On a perfectly normal night a car pulled into a ordinary diner, outside of it's vintage look nothing made it stand out as people passed. Once parked the driver quickly got out and went to the other side to open the door for his passenger. She got out and thanked him. Both of them tried not to look as nervous as they felt considering this was their first date in a long while. With the two dressed in jeans and t-shirts the male checked his phone real quick, “No alerts yet, how about you?” Doing the same she shook her head,” Nothing here either.” That was the one worry they didn't have to think about for the moment. Taking a quick breath to calm her nerves she asked, “You ready Ken?” Holding out an arm for her to take he answered with, “I'm ready if you are Jess.” With a smirk she hooked the offered arm with hers as they headed for the diner. Ken looked at it. He'd been here plenty of times, mainly from his days in the garage. The last time he was here was a couple of group outings with Jess and the others. While he was grateful for the familiarity of her choice, he still had to wonder why this place? “You're sure this where you want to go? I have no problem if you want to go somewhere else.” “Yes this is where I want to go,” she assured him, again. “Yes we went to fancier places back in high school, but we always had more fun when we went to places like this one.” “Not too much fun,” Ken said, “You're dad would have killed me.” “Well it wasn't my birthday yet,” she told him with a sly smile. It took a second but he started to smile too as he looked embarrassed suddenly. She pointed a finger at him, “And it's not my birthday today either. So don't get any thoughts in your head Mister.” “After the look Hawk gave me when he handed us the passes?”, he told her. The more than usual stern look he wore as he looked Ken right in the eyes made the message loud and clear to him, behave yourself. “That thought never crossed my mind.” Waiting a beat he added, “It's there now, so thanks for that.” “Just remember I can get my gun when we get back,” she warned him playfully. Once again he opened the door for her, and she thanked him again as they entered. The place looked particularly busy for the time of night. And more than a few couple doing the same as they were from the look of things. Ken pointed out a free booth that Jess nodded at in approval so they headed over there. A waitress quickly came over and handed them some menus before heading to the next table.Wiping his hands on his jeans before he opened it he looked at Jess, “Why aren't you as nervous as I am?” As she looked over the menu she responded with, “Girls are naturally better at hiding it,” before she quickly did the same with her hands when he looked at his menu. “Why are you even looking we both know you're thinking about the Philly cheese steak.” “Not necessarily,” he said getting a little too defensive. Generally meaning she was right. “I mean I've been thinking about trying the,” he trailed off while he read what else was offered as quick as he could and going with the first thing that caught his attention, “meatloaf for a while now.” He looked back down at the menu before looking confused and mouthing the word meatloaf again. Jess chuckled at him as the waitress brought over a couple of glasses of water for them. She walked away when both of them said they still needed a couple of moments to decide. Jess hid a smile as the waitress looked at him funny as she crossed off whatever she had written down. “That doesn't mean anything,” he quickly said. “Just that you're a creature of habit,” she informed him as she took a sip of water. “Which can be a good thing. I know you changed since the last time we dated, but some things would be too much to take.” “If your dad doesn't ninja us again I'll be happy with that change,” She snorted in response. So Ken went, “You complained about it too. Any time I was close to kissing you he'd pop up out of nowhere.” “I'm not disagreeing,” she told him. “The only time I was even able to get in a peck to the check was back in the school's hallways.” Going back to her menu she added, “It was one of the reasons I actually looked forward to school.” “I still expected him to jump out of a classroom suddenly,” he told her. Sharing a small laugh over the thought Ken looked up as the door opened. “Nope not him.” “If anybody it would be one of the others,” Jess said. “More than likely Bill.” “Your gun's in the car if that happens right?” “Right next to your GLC,” she told him with a knowing look, and apparently deciding to refer the Spark Magnifier by her nickname for it. And suddenly he looked like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Ken I understand,” she assured him, “I really do. In case Brooks makes some trouble you might not be able to get back to Castle fast enough. Or at all. And that's the only reason why I'm over looking it.” “Not to mention Ryo, Bill and Hawk having to explain why they went into my room looking for it,” he added relaxing a bit that she understood, maybe not completely happy with it but at least understood. Jess smiled at the visual he just gave her as she nodded. They ordered when the waitress returned. Ken did end up ordering the meatloaf dinner after all, much to Jess and the waitress' surprise. Alone again Ken looked around to see how close the others diners were, “Speaking of the job,” Jess rolled her eyes a bit, “just hear me out. Have you thought of a way to give me that signal yet? Because we can't keep betting on my communicator being removed every time.” Sighing a bit she answered, “All right I do have an idea, I'm still going over the logistics in my head before I take it up with Hawk. The biggest one being how well are you going to react at being at my beck and call,” she added with a grin. Smiling back Ken said, “Then I better hope this date goes better than I hope it does. Because you could probably make my life miserable.” “I could do that any way,” she reminded him. “And this from the guy who was betting I would sort things your way when you asked me out.” “I wasn't betting on you sorting things my way,” he informed her. “I was betting on that back then you told me about.” Jess looked confused about what he was talking about. So he clarified it for her, “When I was heading to your room to see that scrapbook, I finally remembered what you said in Japan.” Now she looked like she understood but he kept going.”When I asked if you thought we'd get back together. You said 'back then.' Back then the thought never crossed your mind. Now somebody might take that as you being more open to the idea now.” “I'm sure someone would,” she said as she leaned in a little. “Took you long enough to figure that one out.” “You know me,” he replied as he leaned in himself, “I was never the fastest on the uptake. But I also remember you being more persistent in getting your point across. You did spend,” he thought it over for a bit, “two weeks? In trying to get me to talk to you back in high school.” “It was three,” she informed him. “And you finally started talking back right when I was about to give up. You really need to work on that.” “I thought it was some sort of prank,” he said trying to defend himself back then. “Nobody talked to me back then unless they wanted help with their car or something.” “You're just lucky I figured there was more here,” she gestured at him in general, “than most people thought. And figured correctly I might add.” “Up until recently I would have argued that particular point,” Ken said looking away. “Stop listening to the Jeff voice in your head,” Jess told him. “It's never going to do you any good.” “I'm working on a super advanced robot back at Castle, I think I'm past listening to the Jeff voice at this point.” Before Jess could respond some one new said, “I don't believe it, you're out in public with somebody of the opposite sex.” They looked to see who it was. “Rose?”, Ken went in shock. Behind her was her husband and no sign of the kids. “What are you doing here?” “I arranged for some alone time with Davey,” she said. Davey literally had to stop her when she tried to sit with them, “So, is this a date?” “Will you go away if I said no?”, Ken asked her, hoping she'd get the not so veiled hint. No such luck, “You sure? Because this looks like it's a date to me.” Sighing he went,“If I say yes will you go away?” “Ken be nice,” Jess chided him.To Rose she said, “Yes, it's a date.” Ken looked at her like she didn't understand the door she was opening. And in truth she had no idea what kind of door she was opening. Even Davey gave her a sympathetic look. “Oh,” she perked up, “with the ex and everything. A little reconciliation is a great thing isn't it? But it's not going to cause too much trouble for you two is it? I mean there's no rule in the UNDF saying team members can't have relationships with each other is there?” “If there is it's broken pretty regularly,” Jess told her. Rose grinned while she nodded. Ken on the other hand was trying to project the thought of do not engage her in this conversation because she will not go away if you do into Jess' head. So far it hasn't worked, “And I'm sure our Captain would have said something when we asked for the passes.” “Of course he would have,” Rose told her. Suddenly she grabbed Jess' arm and pulled her up before either Ken or Davey could stop her. “I have to freshen up in the ladies room, why don't you come along dear.” And before Rose heard an answer she went off in that direction dragging Jess behind her. Ken and Davey watched their respective dates as they entered said ladies room. After a moment Ken rested his head in his hand, “So what are the odds she'll want to continue with this date after Rose is done with her?” “Not great buddy,” Davey answered him, “not great at all.” Ken moved his head so his hand basically covered his face. Of all the times to run into Rose. *** Rose fixed her make up a bit as she studied her reflection in the mirror. Next to her Jess did the same although she kept glancing over at the woman who dragged her in here. As apparently chatty as she was when she first came up to her and Ken she was surprisingly quiet once they came in. Jess decided to break the silence, “How long have you known Ken?” “Ever since he started working at the garage,” she answered. “I could never understand why he was single most of the time, he was such a great guy. Is a great guy I mean,” she quickly corrected. “But you knew that already didn't you.” “I knew it was in there,” Jess told her, “but it took a bit to finally get him to open up and show it. And I was happy that he did.” Rose nodded at this bit of information. Jess silently wondered if she was trying to size her up for some reason. Deciding to test this particular theory Jess cautiously said, “Although I get the feeling I'm not the type of woman you would have tried to set him up with.” “He told you about some of them I'm guessing,” Rose said with a slight chuckle. “”I'll admit that I am a firm believer in the idea that's there somebody out there for everybody. I was just trying to help him find her. Actually I was starting to think I should start introducing him to some of the guys I know” Jess snorted out a quick laugh at that. “But honestly I don't know you well enough to know either way if I would or not. Hopefully I'll get the chance to know you better after this.” “I hope we get the chance to as well,” Jess told her. She wanted this to work out with Ken as much as he hopefully did. And as close as he and Rose apparently were she wanted to be on good term with her at least. “So do I,” Rose told her. Then she turned suddenly to face her. It was so quick Jess was caught off guard, mostly at the serious look on her face compared to the light expression she wore a moment ago. Resting a hand on the counter she went, “Now I hope you understand that I've known Ken for so long I sort of see him as the brother I never had. So he means a lot to me.” “I completely understand,” Jess quickly told her, resisting the urge to back up from the look she was giving her. “Good,” Rose said, “so please don't take any offence when I tell you that if you hurt him in any way,” she leaned in a bit and Jess did give into the urge to lean back a bit, “I will stomp a mud hole in your ass. And walk it dry.” She backed off and went back the way she was before they entered the room. “Good talk. Now I think our men have waited long enough don't you think? We better go join them. Enjoy your date.” “I.. I will,” Jess stammered a bit as she went back into the diner. She stood there a moment trying to get her legs to work. She had face down several monsters of various sizes but something told her to not get on that woman's bad side. Walking back into the diner herself Jess couldn't help but smile at how relived Ken looked when he realized that she was coming back to their table. *** Their evening going off without any other surprises, luckily Davey was able to keep Rose at their table and let the two of them eat in peace. And there was no hint of Brooks or a giant monster at all so Ken and Jess could just relax and reconnect. Well more than they have since he joined up with Monster Squad, pretty much against his will but that wasn't a thought he wanted to have tonight. Although Jess was amused by the look on his face when his meatloaf dinner came. He should had ordered the cheese steak. Outside of that,and Rose interjecting herself into it when they got there, dinner went well, at least he thought it did anyway. Both of them agreed that it was time to go and get out of there before Rose made her way back over. Especially before Rose came back over. Pulling into his usual space in the Castle garage Ken quickly got out and opened the door for her one more time. “You're going to get me use to that,” she informed him as she got out, “and I'm going to get really annoyed when I realize you eventually stopped doing it.” Ken studied her for a bit as he closed the door, “Now I might be mistaken, but that sounds like you'd might want to do this again sometime. Minus Rose getting involved that is.” She patted lightly him on the cheek, “See you're picking up the not so subtle hints a little faster now.” He started grinning. “Could you not look like a kid on Christmas morning? It's getting a little creepy.” “Sorry,” he said fighting to get the smile off his face, and failing as one corner kept curling up. Finally getting it under control he went, “Walk you to your room?” “Well a proper gentleman would,” she said. Without another word they headed for the elevator that lead to the upper levels. Exiting on the right floor they made their way to her quarters. Ken happened to look down to see her hand wrapped around his. She noticed him looking, “Your hand looked cold.” “Seriously?,” he went as he looked at her. “That's the same line you used on me on our very first date Mr. Smooth,” she told him with a slight smirk. “Well I've gotten a little smoother since then,” he informed her. “I'll be the judge of that,” she said. Once they got to the busier part of the hallway leading to the living quarters Ken half way expected her to let go of his hand before they came across any one. Much to his surprise she didn't, her hand didn't even feel like they were going to let go. Even greeting a few people while still holding on to him. And apparently not caring all that much as they kept watching them, a couple actually pointing after them. Looking around he told her, “I gotta admit this is a lot different from the first time we walked together in the building.” “Yes it is,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “And in a much better way too. You know I was amazed how fast we fell into that old rhythm we use to have back then. I was almost scared what was going to happen since I just happened to be with a person of interest who was considered dangerous enough for me and the others to bring in.” “It scared me a little too,” Ken admitted. “Like I was opening myself to getting my heart broken all over again. Had to keep reminding myself those days were long gone.” “Those days may be gone,” Jess said. “But a new one is starting up.” she looked at him with a small smile, that he returned as he got a better grip around her hand. “What the hell?,” the looked over to see Bill staring at them from a rec room door way. And an embarrassed looking Ryo right behind him. “You're back?” He looked back at something in the room before returning his attention to them, “At a reasonable hour? What the hell is wrong with the two of you?” Taking Bill by the shoulders Ryo tried to get him away from the door. “Leave them alone Bill they're grown adults finishing a evening together not a peep show.” Both of them turned a little red at his choice of words. Jess still didn't let go of his hand as they continued on their way. After a few yards Jess went, “Can I ask you something about Rose?” He tensed up a bit, afraid of what she was going to ask. “Did you ever think about asking her out because you too seem really close, even before tonight.” Taking a moment deciding if he should answer the question he eventually said, “If I'm being honest, before I found out she was married I thought about it. But she's madly in love still with Davey. And I wouldn't do anything to break them up. Now if I could just do something about her unhealthy obsession with my love life.” “Well she obviously cares about your happiness,” she told him. “I mean why else would she threaten to 'stomp a mud hole' when we were in the ladies room.” Ken looked up at the ceiling and sighed, “And walk it dry?” When Jess nodded he lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Damn it Rose.” “Hey, I think it's sweet she cares that much about you,” she assured him while pulling him a little closer. “I just wish somebody cared about me that much.” “Talk to Ryo,” He told her. “No he didn't,” she said with slight surprise. “Well nothing as colorful as Rose's little saying was mentioned,” he explained. “But the general agreement was he'd be next in line after you were done kicking my ass.” She thought about it for a moment, “Sounds about right. So I'd suggest you behave yourself.” “I was planning on it,” he told her, “because I'm pretty sure Hawk is right behind the two of you if that ever happens.” After a bit he looked up and said, “Here we are.” When she finally let go of his hand he stood on one side of the door and her the other.”Okay now answer a question for me.” “Shoot,” she told him. “Do you want me in there tonight?”, and he pointed at her door. “Now wait a second Ken, I had fun tonight and all but like I told you earlier...” “I meant to look at the rest of your scrapbook. Why did your mind go south?” Then he started grinning. Giving his shoulder a quick shove she went, “Quit it.” Then she looked unsure about something, eventually saying, “Even if I was thinking about it, well,” she pointed at his head, “You know.” Actually he didn't, “What, is my sudden genius level really that intimidating?” “No,” she quickly told him. Then she started poking him on the forehead, “You know who.” “He's not even looking right now,” Ken told her, trying to pretend he wasn't hearing the desperation in his own voice. “I made him promise not to and everything.” “I'm sure you did,” Jess told him. “But just the idea. Sorry Ken.” “No, no it's alright. I get it.” Still he was frustrated over this particular wrinkle in their new relationship. “Well I guess we should call it a night then.” Neither of them was sure how to proceed from that point after she dropped that particular bombshell. Eventually deciding on a brief hug Ken started to walk away. Suddenly Jess went, “Screw it.” She grabbed him by the shirt and turned him around. Grabbing him by the head she pulled him close and kissed him. Taken aback by the suddenness of it all he eventually reached out to hold her closer as he kissed back. When she pulled away her face scrunched up a bit as she went “Hmm.” In disbelief Ken looked at her and went, “Hmm? Why is there a hmm? There should not be a hmm here.” “You're not a good a kisser as I remember,” she informed him. “Which probably means I have to work on you again.” Leaning against the wall she went on, “And I'm not sure I want to put in the work,” smiling the entire time. Ken grinned a bit too as he realized what she really meant, “Oh I think you'll find that I'm a willing student.” He leaned in for another kiss as she leaned in as well. “You two are back already?”, they heard Hawk say as he came around the corner. Which caused them to stop what they were about to do, although neither pulled away from the other right away. “Talk about deja vu,” Ken muttered to her. “Tell me about it,” she quickly agreed as the did pull away and faced their commanding officer. He apparently felt his timing was off, “I wasn't disturbing anything, was I?” Ken started to speak up but Jess quickly cut him off, “Nothing Captain. Did you need anything?” “No,” he told them, I just happened to be walking by.” Ken turned his head away as he rolled his eyes a bit. Both of them had heard that from her dad more than once when they were in high school. “I am a bit surprised though, those passes I gave you are still good for a couple of hours. I figured you'd still be out.” “I don't know what kind of easy date you think I am good sir but I do have standards,” Ken said crossing his arms over his chest. Hawk shock his head. Still Jess jabbed an elbow to his ribs. Good thing that particular spot had long since healed from Dax's last battle, other wise she might have gotten a little more than the small “Ooph,” he uttered as a result. “Yes well,” Hawk said he placed his hands behind his back. “I let you two get back to what you were doing.” And he walked away from the two of them. “Yeah, like that's going to happen,” Ken muttered. Looking over at Jess he just knew his feeling was right on the matter. What ever moment that was there had long since been broken with Hawk's arrival. She sighed in disappointment as well. “Well I better get going before the rumor mill kicks up if it hasn't already.” “Let it,” she told him. “But I would love to do this again sometime. Sometime soon.” “I'll start checking my calendar for a open day.” “That's generally every day of the week,” she told him. “Then we'll have plenty of options then,” he said. Jess gave him as hug an a quick kiss on the cheek. “Goodnight Ken,” she told him as she opened her door. “Night Jess,” he said in kind. Only walking away once her door was fully closed. “Hawk coming by was just a coincidence,” he told himself. “In no way is he going to keep ninjaing us like her dad used to.” *** Sitting back in his chair Hawk looked over some reports he had been putting off. Mostly because they had been busy dealing with various giant threats and in all honesty these reports weren't really that important, just daily status reports from the various section located in Castle. But mainly because he was trying to cover all the bases when things with Richardson came to a head. And there was no doubt in his mind that there would be a confrontation with him sooner or later, particularly when it came to Ken and the double life had had been secretly leading until recently, As much as he wanted to calm the boy's fear Hawk had a feeling those fears were right on the money. And if he was lucky being listed as a biohazzard would have been the least of his problems. Putting the report down he had to wonder again how he handled this particular load for as long as he had. Fortunately for his sanity at least, although he might not see it that way currently, Jess was able to convince Ken to at least confide in him finally. Which made him wonder who else around here were putting the pieces together about Ken and Ultraman. Granted Jess explained she figured his secret out just because she knew him for so long. And granted he had his suspicions about things when Ken was first assigned to his unit. Him being or being connected to the giant in some way was the only thing that made any sense when you thought about it. But he had no real proof one way or another so he didn't confront him over it once the thought came in his head, not that it didn't stop him from accusing Ken from sabotaging the Alpha One and the security feeds around the vessel. But there was no way nobody else connected these particular dots. So he tried to find out who else around here might have done it, starting with Reid. While trying not to show his entire hand he asked some question or phrased thing in just a way to see if he even suspected. So far he and others like the Chef didn't even indicate that they knew what he was talking about. Although times like this he was glad Jamira was no longer around, may he rest in peace, because he and his men would have no issue hunting Ken down, mainly because he was sure that Richardson's order about Ultraman didn't extend to Ken. And more than likely that would drag Jess, Ryo and Bill in trying to defend Ken from them. He stared shaking his head at the thought of a UNDF cival war. Okay that thought might have been a bit much. More than likely he would have lead the others into going under ground to protect Ken. And given the way Jamira used to think he would have had Ken's friends and family put under watch just in case he tried to contact them. And that was if Richardson didn't have them but under quarantine in a bid to get them out of hiding. He put the report down and started rubbing his face, again wondering the young man dealt with this for so long by himself. While he never talked to Ken about it Hawk could only imagine what scenarios went through his head. They couldn't be as bad as the thoughts he ended up having when considering them. At least he wasn't alone now since himself and the others were finally told the truth. Here he had to smile when he actually started to think about why he finally told them, it all started with Jessica telling Ken she knew. While reluctant at first, the sheer relief he radiated after unloading everything about him and Joe was visible. And as a side note seemed to draw him and Jess closer together. And that just made him happy for some reason. So much so he already had another set of passes ready for them if they wanted them since their outing last night apparently went well, all he needed was a date to put on them. That idea put him in a better mood for some strange reason so he went back to the reports. This one was from medical, In their estimation barring any sort of situation popping up Timothy was good to be released in a few days. Something that should make Lunden extremely happy. And if nothing else the medical staff was probably counting down the days since they could finally get him out of their hair. Although this made him think about Ken again. Mostly because he kept asking if he could talk to the boy. Hawk had tried to arrange that but Lunden was adamant that he be left alone. And there wasn't much he could say without revealing Ken's secret to the man. And Hawk wasn't sure he could exactly trust the man to keep it quiet. Reid, a most definite yes, the Chef, a yes as well, Lunden... well Ken was just going to have to learn to be disappointed. His communicator beeping broke him out of his thoughts, “Hawk here.” “This is the control room Captain,” Bridge told him. He sat a little straighter in his chair, wondering what he had found. Usually he would have assumed it was something monster related. Now well he had to consider Ken's whole deal in any possibility he came up with. “Could you come down here? We detected something you may want to see.” Hawk was out of his chair before he even finished his request. “On my way Bridge, Hawk out,” he hit his communicator again to end the link as he exited his office. “Control just called me if anyone tries to see me,” he told Janet as he passed her desk. She confirmed what he said as he went through the door. Most people he came across stepped aside and gave him a quick salute as he passed.Then he spotted Ken coming in the other direction. Both of them stopped in front of the door. While he did snap off a quick salute like everyone else he just sort of stood there. “Are you going in?”, Hawk asked after a moment. Gesturing to the door he said, “Bridge said he has something ro show me.” “That's what he told me too,” Hawk informed him. To his credit Ken didn't looked too surprised at this. But he did put a couple of fingers on his communicator, “I guess it's a little too much to hope that it's about this this.” While it was a small bubble all things considered, still he hated to pop it. “I doubt he would have called the two of us into discuss this a public forum.” The younger man seemed to agree with him, he still looked disappointed though. And anybody who knew the situation wouldn't blame him for looking this way. “Come on son, Let's see what's the fuss is about.” “After you Captain,” Ken told him. Hawk offered him a slight bow before going into the room. Obviously not something he would have done for anyone else, or with other people watching.But as hard as he was trying to make Ken a more serious member of the team, Hawk was forced to admit that the younger man was rubbing off on him a little as well. Going into the control room.they were greeted by the usual amount of organized chaos as the people stationed here monitored for any sign of trouble that would require their attention. Not seing Bridge at his usual station Hawk scanned the room until he spotted him at a side console that was about as private as you could get considering the circumstances. Pointing Ken in that direction they headed over to him. “Anything interesting Bridge,” he asked when they were close enough. “Maybe,” he answered. Hawk looked at him. Bridge never contacted him over a maybe, ever. Then he turned around, mainly to face Ken. “I have looked into that little problem,” Keeping his hand close to his body he gestured to his communicator. Ken took in a breath but he nodded in understanding, and tried not to look too hopeful. “I was able to discover the sources of the issue.” Hawk glanced around the room, remembering Bridge's theory on how Richardson was able to set up a link to Ken's communicator. Somebody under him had to had done it, but who? And did they know why? Ken did the same before returning his attention to Bridge. “And I figured out how they did it. But fixing it is going to be an issue.” Ken's face fell a little at that last bit of news. “Do what can about it Bridge,” Hawk told him. “But why did you call us down here?” “I think we might have discovered were Brooks could be,” he told the two of them. Ken stepped a little closer to the console Bridge was using, pretty much as focused as he had ever seen him.Hawked stepped aside a little to let him get a better look while keeping the screen in view for himself. “When Brooks first revealed himself internal sensors were able to read his energy signature while he was escaping.” “You were able to read his energy signature?”, Ken asked, empathizing the word 'his'. Meaning did they have anything on him and Daxium in the system. “Just his yes.” Hawk happened to notice that Bridge's finger was lightly tapping the delete button on the keyboard in front of him, and nodded in understanding. There was one, more than likely from when Daxium wanted to say hello, but Bridge deleted the reading from the system. “Now we haven't been able to track him by it. He knows our sensor range and set up in the city well enough to avoid getting detected. But we have been able to detect something just out of sensor range that matches his energy signature.” He pulled up the readings he was talking about on the screen in front of him. “How accurate can this information be,” Hawk asked him, “if it's out of range?” “Because it was close enough to the net I'm sure we can get a close approximation to his location.” With a few key strokes a map with a flashing dot appeared on the scree. “As of five minutes ago he was located right there.” Hawk first instinct was to tell him to get the entire building ready to launch. A full scale assualt and part of him was stioll concerned that it wouldn't be enough, even with Ken and Daxium backing them up. From the look of him Ken wanted to head to that location right now, even casting him a glance like he was looking for the green light. If that reading was inside sensor range he might have given it to him.But as it is he still had some doubts. “Bridge exactly where is this reading?” “About a mile out of range,” he answered. Well it was close enough that logically they could pick up something, but Brooks would really have to be broadcasting himself. Something in the back of his head was saying this was a trap. “Co-ordinates potentially has it on the property of a UNDF member.” Hawk and Ken both looked at each other. Guessing the unasked question they were thinking of he pulled the individual's file up for them. Bridge was about to announce who it was but Ken looked on stunned as he beat the other man to the punch, “Professor Kyrie?” One of Ken's old teacher from when he was in the academy, and the one who identified his gift to begin with, not to mention his most recent visitor. “Why would Brooks be there? If that bastard did anything to him.” “Calm down son,” Hawk told him. “We don't know anything for certain yet.” Not to mention if the professor was being held against his will or not. And as strange as it was to think this, for Ken's sake he hoped he was. Because if he wasn't that meant he was working with Brooks in some fashion. And that would affect Ken in some way. But they had to know for sure. “Bridge does Ken have anything major scheduled for today?” Ken looked at him as Bridge looked the information up, “The chef has him scheduled to work on the Alpha One for a couple of hours, but outside of that his night is free.” Nodding a bit, Hawk cast a look over at Ken, :”You and Jess didn't have any plans for tonight did you?” “Not that I'm aware of,” he said looking unsure of where this was going. Again Hawk nodded at this bit of information. Slowly he asked, “How do you feel about paying you're old professor a visit?” Now understanding Ken looked back at the screen. “Just, you know, to say hello and catch up a bit. He did say he and I would discuss ways to help you live up to that potential of yours. You can tell him about Windam and brainstorm some ideas on that little problem it's having.” Looking at him Ken narrowed his eyes a bit, “In how official a capacity?” Now Hawk looked at him. He could easily see a time where he wouldn't even think to ask that. Now here he was thinking like he had been wearing that uniform since the academy. Hawk couldn't hide how proud he was at that. “Semi-official,” Hawk told him. “You can take your own car but wear the uniform jacket. But don't bring a weapon, We don't want to tip Brooks that we're on to him and put the professor in the line of fire.” “I guess we better hope I fast at using this then,” he patted a part of the jacket that held the Spark Magnifier, as he called it. “I could probably use a little back up when this goes south, at least to get the Professor out of there at least. I swear I'm not trying wrangle a second outing with Jess out of this.” Snorting Hawk went, “I didn't think you were until you mentioned that last part. Even if I considered it I'm not sure I would choose here to be your back up. No offense son but there's too great a possibility you'd worry too much about her getting hurt than stopping Brooks.” “Not after I let,' he looked around suddenly remembering they weren't alone, then a bit softer, “our friend out. I have no say in what he does after that.” “I know that's what you say,” Hawk said ignoring how annoyed Ken was getting, “but I have to consider all the possibilities. Honestly I don't even want to send you into this potential lion's den but you're te only one here who has any sort of relationship with Kyrie. And if there's any one isn't going to raise his suspicions it's going to be you. And just you I'm afraid. Any one may cause him to block you out, especially if Brooks is in there with him.” Ken looked torn for a moment as he focus returned to the screen. Hawk watched as he got that distant look in his eyes and his head tilted just slightly. Something he quickly learned to identify that Daxium was talking to him. Finally he stood a bit straighter and said, “Well we did say we'd try to get together and talk. Today's as good a time as any.” “I think I can arrange something so you can get away for a while,” Hawk told him. “Thank you Ken, I know this is going to be hard for you.” “As long as I find out the Professor is alright,” he said with a determined look. “If it wasn't for him identifying my little gift you probably wouldn't have given me that big of a chance to begin with when they stuck you with me.” Nodding Hawk told him, “You would've had to worked harder to earn my trust and respect. Finish your rotation with the Alpha One check up. I'll have directions to Kyrie's place ready for you by then.” “Rodger,” he said with a quick salute and he left the room leaving Hawk next to Bridge. Bridge spoke up saying, “Is it wrong that I'm hoping this Kyrie isn't working with Brooks? Just for Ken's sake.” Still looking at the door out of the room Hawk told him, “Your preaching to the chior Bridge. Get those directions printed and send them to my office ASAP I'll give them to Ken personally.” Bridge said that he would and Hawk left for his office. *** Pulling into a drive way of a 'modest' looking house, actually it looked a like a couple steps from being labeled a Mansion, Ken stopped before pulling up all the way. For one he wanted time to see someone coming at him. Mostly because he was sure any place that looked like this should have had a gate surrounding it. At least some guards, UNDF or otherwise, if he was as important as he claimed to be back at the academy. So far nobody was in sight, not even a guard dog who should have been barking up a storm the moment he pulled up. Getting out of his car he looked at the house. Kyrie often invited him to come over to discuss thing. But Ken never did, either because he was too busy with his studies or the head administrator down right refusing to give him leave to do so. Ken often wondered what his life would have been like if he did take him up on those offers. One thing for sure he wouldn't be bonded to Dax right now. More than likely he never would have met Hawk and the others. Never would have reunited with Jess.Yeah his life would have been way different than what it was now. Closing his door he studied the building for a bit. While he didn't see any one in the windows he did spot some sort of device on the roof. Studying it as best as he could it looked more like it was designed to transmit than receive, but he was too far away to be sure. Kyrie always said he did his bigger experiments at his home, away from prying eyes of officials. That might have been one of them. Getting halfway to the house he started to feel it, that something that would indicate something from that dark universe the monsters and beings Dax and his people were fighting was near. But after everything Brooks did to hide himself after the first time he detected him why would he not to it now? Maybe this was a trap after all, Ken just hoped the Professor was a pawn in it and not an active participant, like he feared. Then Dax spoke up, “Ken wait a moment. Something about this feeling seems off.” Stopping where he was Ken asked, “In what way?”, because he sure as hell couldn't tell a difference in this feeling compared to the others. But seeing how he felt them through Dax to begin with he was willing to trust his judgement on the matter. “Like it's coming from Brooks and it's not.” And that did nothing to clear things up.”I understand your frustration Ken, I share it. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that it's coming from above us.” Ken immediately looked up as his hand went for the Spark Magnifier. Again his eyes locked on the device on the roof. Why would the Professor be transmitting an energy signature similar to Brooks? How would he even know what it was to begin with? A little more cautious he started toward the house again with eyes and ears a little more open. Suddenly the front door opened and Ken stopped in his tracks, ready for anything. Then Professor Kyrie wheeled into view. He happened to note that the Professor didn't seem surprised to see him. “Ken,” he greeted him as he walked up the steps to the door. “It's wonderful to see you again so soon.” “I had some free time and thought I'd come by and say hi at least,” he told him. It was a half truth any way. Looking amused he gestured to his uniform Jacket, “You were in a rush to get out of there I see.” “Well it is mandatory, so I forget I have it on sometimes,” Ken told him. Again it was a half lie, it was mandatory after all.” “Yes they do love to make you lot dress a like don't they,”he said with a slight chuckle. Backing up his chair a bit he went to the side to let him come in “Come on in. You didn't come all this way to stand outside my door.” Ken walk in and immediately looked around trying to see any sign of a trap. “It's about time you visited my not so humble abode. I invited you enough times.” “I know Professor,” he told him. “And I really wanted to come to see some of those machines you said you were working on.” Chuckling again he closed the door and lead Ken further into the house, “I always knew we were a lot alike in some ways. Oh can I get you something to drink?” “No thank you sir,” Ken said falling into a old habit.from back at the academy. “Yes, ever since I discovered we had the same gift. I did tell you how I discovered yours didn't I?” “No,” Ken said, probably getting a little too distracted by the conversation considering Dax was still getting what ever it was he was feeling. “You never did.” “Really?”, he seemed genuinely surprised at this news. “Well I was probably planning on it before they kicked you out due to your flying problem. But do you remember that complex machine that I had in pieces and told you to put together?” Ken nodded, how could he forget. He was medically disquauified a couple of days right after that. “It generally takes a team of four three hours to put it back together. It took you two, by yourself and you took a good look at the plans once. Yes you went back to double check something once or twice. But I saw it in your eyes. I thought I did before but that time I was sure. You got a complete picture of what the final result was going to be in your mind almost as soon as you looked at the plans.The only person to do it faster was me, and that's only because I designed the damn thing,” he added with a sad grin. “Right at that moment I knew you and I could change the world together Ken, we still might.” “If you're offering me a position, Captain Hawk is going to fight it,” Ken informed him having heard a similar spiel before. “Yes, yes I've heard the same from Greenberg,” Kyrie said off handedly, “I guess he told you I've been talking about you for ever since those idiots made that decision. You know, I never told your captain I thought he was right in in his hunch that you'd be running a department by now.” Rubbing the back of his neck Ken said, “I'm not sure I'd go that far Professor.” “Now is that your brother talking?”, Kyrie asked. How many times did he have to tell people he wasn't listening to the 'Jeff voice' as Jess put it any more? “Then again I don't think you would have taken that robot Greenberg offered you if you were. What did you name it again, Wind something?” “Windam,” Ken answered him as they hit the living room. Although he again looked for any sign of a trap. Or if Kyrie was trying to signal him in some way. He was having no luck in either case. “Oh yes that's right,” Kyrie said as he turned the chair around to face him. “I think he mentioned something about one of your team mates coming up with it though. She at least knew you well enough to go with something with a deep meaning to it based on what he heard.” “It did,” Ken told him. “Jess came up with a good one.” Kyrie studied him for a bit, “And you two seem to be close, just judging by your expression of course.” And here he wondered how much he should actually reveal knowing Brooks might be around somewhere close. “We are. We've been friends for a long time now.” Not to mention he got lucky in that billion to one shot at a second chance considering how things ended the first time around. But Ktrie seemed satisfied with his answer and let it drop. Actually Ken was grateful he was unattached to the base's grapevine because the news about the two of them spread pretty fast. “So what are you up to now?” he asked hoping he might let something slip. “Something potentially world changing,” Kyrie told him. “I've never been one to worry about my own legacy but this just might cement it.” Pointing to a closed door he said, “It's right in there if you want to take a look. I would really like a second opinion on it. At least one from some one who'll come close to figuring out what it does without me hand holding them.” Despite himself Ken went over to the door. Grabbing the knob he stopped himself, something was causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Dax wasn't getting anything outside of what he had been feeling the entire. So what was causing him to hesitate here? Kyrie urged him again to open the door and see. Ken was hoping that the fact he wasn't insisting in a aggressive way was a good thing. Figuring it was just his nerves Ken turned the knob but he stood back when he pushed the door open, just in case. The first thing he saw was some various machines that put his brain into over load as he tried to figure out what they did. Walking into the room he heard Kyrie wheel up behind him but stay back as he looked around. It wasn't long before saw two very large containers that could hold a person. And Brooks was in one of them. Ken's eyes went wide as he turned his head to look at Kyrie. He barely had time to register that he was holding a gun on him and pulled the trigger. Ken recoiled as the stun shot sent him to the floor. *** At Castle Jess and the others sat around in the main cafeteria trying to enjoy a late dinner. All of them trying not to think about the potential danger their absent teammate might be in. None of the were exactly happy when Hawk told them where he was going and why, and none of them wanted to miss out on the action either when it came down to it. They all lost friends to Brooks, particularly Joe. And they didn't want to think about the possibility that Ken might share his fate. Especially now since they all bore witness to how much of the damage Ken took when Daxium was hit. While it was one of the things she first noticed with him after he joined that lead her to realize that he and Ultraman were one and the same the exact amount of damage shook her. She caught Ryo looking at the time then Bill checking to see if his communicator was still on. Jess was just glad she wasn't alone in wonder what was taking him. It could be something as simple as Ken and his old Professor simply lost track of the time as they talked about various things, more than likely mechanical in nature. And while she didn't know their thoughts Jess hoped that was the case. But it was probably the main reason why Ryo suggested the late dinner. Just something to take their minds off where Ken was, not that the conversation was exactly over flowing at the moment. Well outside of Bill who would lean back in his chair every time a female officer would walk by, like he was doing now, and say in a overly friendly way “Hey Samantha.” As she passed she gave him a strange look, similar to the one the previous four gave him, he watched her go. Ryo and Jess looked at each other. She beat him to the punch by going, “I asked him the last time he was acting strange. It's your turn.” He snorted but put his fork down and looked right at Bill. Waiting until he turned back around he asked, “What are you doing exactly?” “What?”, he asked innocently, “Just being friendly is all, Kathy, how you doing?” Brow furrowing Ryo asked, “Then why haven't you done this until now?” “I don't know what you're talking about,” Bill informed then he nodded at a couple of ladies as they walked by. She and Ryo just looked at him. Bill saw it and realized he wasn't going to get out of this one. “Fine it's because of the two of them,” he said pointing toward Jess. She looked down and he better hope he wasn't pointing at what she thought he was pointing at. “I mean their practically a couple now after last night. You saw the two of them.” He was talking about her and Ken, he did not realize how lucky he was that he mentioned that last part.. “I don't want to be the only one in our group not in a relationship.” Both of them just stared at their team mate. That was what his current behavior was about? While it was a distraction from what was going on with Ken still, what the hell? “Bill there's no rush,” Jess told him. “No offence Jess,” Bill told her, “but that's easy to say when you're already in one. I mean there's you and Ken and Bridge apparently has Emiko over in Japan. Ryo, buddy it's just you and me as the lone single dudes in this particular group. And I'm not going to be the last one.” Ryo looked at him, “You're forgetting about Captain Hawk.” “He's married to the job,” Bill quickly replied. Still Ryo kept looking at him. “Beside you remember the gossip when we first joined up, about his wife divorcing him after the UNDF got started. He already had his shot.” Leaning back in her seat Jess muttered, “I'm telling him you said that.” It was just loud enough for Bill to hear. And he quickly got a panicked look on his face. And he quickly back off that line of thinking. But he did go back to his previous ways as a couple more females walked by. Sighing Jess decided to take a little pity on him. “You know if didn't look so,” what was the word she wanted to use here, she used it with Ken after their date, “creepy when you did that you might have better results.” “I don't look creepy,” he insisted, looking borderline offended that she would even suggest that. Right then Samantha came back by and overheard their conversation and said, “You do look creepy.” Jess and Ryo got a good laugh, more out of the timing of it more than the look on his face. Although that was pretty amusing as well. Bill quickly tried to save face, “Yeah well, at least I'm trying. Ryo here,” Ryo looked up seeing how he was being dragged into this again, “not even trying. At all..And I will have girlfriend before you.” “I hate to admit Ryo,” Jess told, “but he just determined enough to pull it off.” Bill looked triumphant that she agreed with him. “It probably won't last long,” and he look just as betrayed just as quickly, “but he'll beat you to it.” Despite the dig Bill still took it as a victory. “Prepare to be the lone single man and enjoy it.” With as smug as Bill was looking, this was as annoyed as she had ever seen Ryo, even when he was upset with Ken. He muttered, sounding full of frustration, “Told my self I wouldn't do this,” He quickly unzipped his jacket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped it open to show Bill something. Jess moved around to see what he was showing him as Bill's jaw nearly hit the table. It was a picture of a blond haired, blue eye woman. She and Bill looked at each other before turning their attention back to Ryo who was just staring Bill down. Eventually he said, “Her name is Tabitha. We've been seeing each other for about a month now.” “No way,” Jess said as she took his wallet from him and stared at the photo. “You never told me anything.” Snatching his wallet back he said, “I don't tell you everything.” “I told you Ken asked me out,” she shot back as she sat down. “You let it slip,” Ryo told her. “You had no intention in telling me at first.” “I would have,” Jess informed him, “eventually. Before the date happened.” Bill on the ther hand just kept staring at the spot the photo used to be completely stunned, “I'm the... I'm the...” Looking at him in pity Jess finished the thought for him, “The only single dude in the group.” Bill lowered his head to the table.Waiting a bit to make sure he wasn't going to start crying, Jess turned to Ryo, “You enjoyed that,” Replacing his wallet back in his uniform he said, “He had it coming.” Suddenly they were aware of the murmur of the cafeteria died down. Even Bill looked back up to see a serious looking Hawk come in their direction. And he only looked that serious if something was going down. With A few people start to talk to each other or check their communicator in cased they missed an alert. Even the three of them did a little checking just to be sure. He motion for the room to relax as he got to their table. He leaned on the table, with the room taking it to correctly mean it was a private conversation with Monster Squad and went back to what they were doing before he showed up. Considering they knew things the rest of them this didn't calm their nerves any. Nor did what he said next, “Have any of you heard from Ken in the past couple of minutes?” Trying not to sound to concerned Jess asked, “Why? What happened?” “About a half hour ago,” Hawk began, only going so loud so only the three of them heard him, “Bridge stopped getting that reading.” They looked at each other as he went on, “And Ken hasn't reported in yet. In fact he's not even responding to any of our hails.” Ryo immeditely tapped his communicator, “Watanabe to Scott, come in. Ken?” Bill joined in, “Waters to Scott. Ken are you there? Civilian this isn't funny.” Trying not to fear the worst Jess hit her communicator as well, “Wade to Scott. Ken are you there?” Trepidation started to creep in as she got nothing in response as well. “Ken if you know what's good for you you'll answer this damn call.” Still nothing. Hawk communicator beeped, “Bridge to Hawk, I think I discovered the problem. It's still a bit out of range but We've been detecting some sort of interference over the line when I've tried to contact Ken. I think the signal's being jammed somehow.” All of them looked at each other, worried about what that meant. Jess was holding on to the hope that meant he was still alive since whomever was responsible wouldn't try and disrupt communications from a corpse. Hawk looked at the three of them. “Ryo, Jess. You two take a Scan Track and head to Kyrie's place and scope out the situation.. Bill get the Razor Wings ready. I'll talk to Reid and have him get Beta team ready to launch while I do the same with Alpha. Contact me the moment you see something off.” “Rodger,” they all said as they stood up and headed to their respective destinations. *** He was groggy as hell when he came too, and Dax was practically screaming at him to wake up. Okay this was metal right under him, now what happened? He vaugely recalled getting shot with a stun shot again. Sucked as much as it did the first time too, and it was by Professor Kyrie this time to top things off. But he was on the floor this time around compared to being in a chair. Slowly he got his limbs under him and stood up holding his head. He was going to have whomever designed the damn thing get shot with it a couple of times and see how much they liked it. He looked around to see where Kyrie was and realized he was in one of those huge containers he saw before the Professor shot him. “How in the hell?”, he asked as he pressed his hands to the glass, which felt warmer than he thought it should. “Finally you're awake,” Ken turned his head and saw Brooks staring at him. His hand immediately went for the Spark Magnifier. He realized two things right then, one the Magnifier was missing, again, and two Brooks was still in the container he spotted him in earlier. “It was getting boring with you out.” “Oh I'm so sorry,” he told Brooks, high on the sarcasm. Right now he had a bigger problem if that was possible considering who his neighbor currently was. He started exaining his cell for a way out, but so far it seemed to be a solid piece of glass, he wasn't finding a seam anywhere. So how did he get in here? How was he even breathing for that matter? He looked over at Brooks and saw the device over him on top of it, which made Ken look up and see a similar machine on top of his. Something about it kept his attention. “There's that quizzical expression I grew so fond of,” Ken looked back down to see Kyrie come back into view. He came to a stop in front of both containers, he reached over to some sort of control panel. Part of the floor by him opened up and a column slowly rose from it. Again Ken found his eyes locking onto something, this time a space like opening that was in the middle as it continued up. But mostly the electronic components thar he could see from his position. Going back to the Professor, who kept looking at him expectantly, Ken demanded, “What's going on? What is he doing here?” “I've been asking that for the past couple of hours,” Brooks spoke up. “Shut up,” Ken snapped at him. “Now, now,” Kyrie said drawing their attention, “I realize both of you are slightly irritated at the moment but there is a reason for why both of you are here.” He wheeled a little close to Ken. “Now I'm sure you're curious to how I got you in there. It'll be my pleasure to show you.” Rolling back he looked behind him and called out, “Rover, Spot would you come here please.” A metallic sounding footstep made Ken Look past the Professor. A pair of humanoid robots came into view and stopped behind the Professor. “Now I'm not sure how advanced these two are compared to Windam, but they do help out when I need it.” Rubbing his legs he added, “Which is something I need more and more of these days.” Brooks quipped,”A little too helpful if you ask me.” Something about the annoyed way he said that made Ken look at the robots a little closer. Then the why and how he was captured became very clear. “They tased you,” Ken blurted out. Which drew another annoyed look from Brooks and one of excitement from Kyrie. He motioned for Ken to elaborate, like he use to do back at the academy. He complied out of habit more than anything else, “A forearm is bigger than the other on both of them. Meaning there has to be room for something else inside them.” “Excellent Ken, just excellent,” Kyrie said looking pleased with his deduction. “I did have something a little extra built in, just for him.” “Professor what is going on?”,Ken asked again trying not to let his frustration show and failing at the moment. “To explain what's going on I have to start to what brought all of us here to begin with,” Kyrie told him. “You see shortly afters those giant monsters and Ultraman showed up A colleague of mine studied the remain of some of them. Well the monsters mostly,” he said glancing over at Brooks, who just narrowed his eyes at the older man. “He discovered a unique energy signature, which he naturally attributed to the energy weapons from Ultraman. Then they discovered something extrarodinary, the remains themselves had a signature of their own. But the wavelength was the complete opposite of the previous energy they orriginally detected. But they didn't have the equipment to properly study it, so they brought me in.” Rolling over to another machine, one that looked damaged for some reason, he looked at it sadly, “So I created this thing here. Through it we discovered something so very interesting.” He looked at Ken and Brooks. “The universe isn't exactly what we thought it was. There were multiple universes out there similar to this one. Oh we were so excited to discover the existence of a multiverse we almost shared it with the world. But then I realized something. Those energy signatures being opposite of each other troubled me so. I was able to convince the others to study it more before revealing the research we have been doing. And because of my curiosity we discovered something else. That there were three universe sharing the same dimensional plan.” “Yes, yes,” Brooks cut in, “Three universes just out of phase with each other. I've been well aware of this fact. And I'm sure his giant friend has informed Scott of this as well.” “Of course you were,” Ktrie told him. “But I've been dying to tell this fact to someone.” He looked back at the damaged looking machine and Ken took the moment to look for some sort of defect in his cell. If only that thing over his head was a little lower. “I should have I know,” said after a bit, a inflection in his voice catching Ken's attention one more time. “But we we were all too stubborn for our own good, then we discovered that things in this universe had a similar wavelength to the other two, almost an middle point of sorts. My friend theorized that we were originally supposed to be one universe with the other two but something happened and they split like they did. Then we tried to prove it.” Ken looked at the Professor then at the machine. Now he understood why it look so damaged, “It blew up,” he said softly. Kyrie just kept looking at it as he nodded. “How many of you survived?” “Just me,” he said, voice starting to crack a little. “I had it brought here to serve as a reminder, and inspiration.” “Bull,” Brooks spat. “I was still part of the board when the men I'm sure you're talking about went missing. There was no talk of their demise in any matter.” “I guess you never heard of the term cover up,” Kyrie shot back. “And it took me a lot to cover it all up let me tell you.” “If it wasn't for this energy disruptor,” Brooks pointed at the device above him. Ken looked at his again. “I'd show you, could you pay attention while I'm threatening you?”, he stated as he saw Kyrie was watching Ken. “Well this is just humiliating.” Things about that device started to click in his head after Brooks mentioned the disruptor. He could see exactly how it could disrupt a energy source. But there was something else. “Wait,” he muttered as he took a step back. Kyrie had that expectant look on his face again as he folded his hands in his lap and waited for him to piece it together on his own. “Those are scanners,” he said as he figured out what was bugging him about it. Kyrie clapped his hands together, obviously proud of his former student. “I knew I was right about you,” Kyrie said. At the same time Brooks exploded in anger, “What?! I've tried getting out using my abilities. That thing keeps dispercing my attempts!” “It's both,” Ken told him looking back at Kyrie. “He built it to do both.” “Quite right,” Kyrie told him. But Ken wasn't sure it mattered, there was something that seemed more important at that particular moment, “But if you already discovered this universe is sharing a plain with two others why did you build these cells?” “Something one of my late colleagues said. About that maybe the universes weren't suppose to originally split. Perhaps they were originally meant to be one universe.” Both Ken and Brook looked at the damage machine. With a rock forming in his gut Ken said, “You tried it.” Brooks looked just as stunned, “But you failed.” “It was something small,” Kyrie told them. “A plant, a small one. And we were able to bring over two similar things from the other universes. All three were there for the briefest of seconds. “But the other two weren't compatible with this universe,” Ken said in understanding, remembering what Dax once told him about when his people or Brooks' allies tried to go into the others world. What was happening to Dax before he bonded with Ken. “They started to dissipate almost immediately.” “Correct,” Kyrie said, finally tearing himself away from the machine. “Oh we tried to stop it but it became too much for it and the power surge was quite substantial. To Brooks he said, “I was able to cover that up too in case you were wondering. Even in the UNDF money talks,” he sounded disappointed as he said that. “Of that I have no doubt,” Brooks commented “But you said you kept it for inspiration. What could that possibly inspire you to... do,” he trailed off as he figured it out, and looking at the Professor like he was a mad man. And at the moment Ken couldn't argue with him as it hit him too. “You're going to try it again? Was the first failure not enough for you.” “Professor,” Ken spoke up. “The three universe aren't compatible with each other.” “I think I found away around that problem,” Kyrie said. “Both of you are showing no ill effects. I'm sorry Ken but I sort of lied to you when I visited you before.” Reaching into his coat he pulled out a device that he didn't recognize. “I wanted to prove a hunch I had about you and the giant. I designed this to detect anything emitting either of the energy signatures. Which I picked up from you. And thanks to his rather spectacular escape I knew he had the opposite one. I'm just assuming based on the power display when you brought that creature over it was meant to let it stay in this universe.” He pointed at Ken, “You were the big question. How were you and the giant co-existing being from two different universes, and showing no ill affects at all. “Then it came to me,” he went one. “You united with the giant some how. It was the only thing that made any sort of sense. Ultraman is surviving because of you.” Waving the device a bit he continued, “This just proved the theory was on the right track. Because why else would the board come up with that whole civilan operator business just to get you on board without going through the proper channels again? So I needed you here. It's why I set up the transmitter on the roof, I was just hoping you would detect it and come investigate. What I didn't expect was it would attract him as well,” he pointed at Brooks. “Fortunately I had Rover and the rest ready when he tried to crash this particular party.” Ten more robots came forward when Kyrie raised a hand. All of them stopped when they surrounded both containers. “We've met,” Brooks said dryly as he looked around at the scene. Speaking up Ken announced, “Castle picked up your broadcast.” Kyrie rolled forward a bit, looking interested. “They know I'm here.” “I sort of figured that was the case,” the Professor told him. “Back at the academy you couldn't wait to get out of the uniform they gave you to wear back then. So you'll understand if I didn't take your word when you said you 'forgot' you still had that jacket on. I've been jamming communications since I had my helpers put you in there. I'm sure they noticed you haven't called in by now and probably already sent people here to investigate.” Hitting his communicator Ken went, “Scott to Castle.” He looked down at it when he got nothing but static. The worst part was Kyrie was probably right, Hawk may have sent somebody else here to see what happened to him. “Spot,Rover,” he said to the first two robots. “Take the others and patrol the grounds. We have some uninvited guest coming. Please give them a proper greeting when they arrive.” The bigger forearm on the first two opened a bit as they lead the rest out of the room. Pounding on the glass Ken yelled, “No!” It didn't budge, the glass didn't even shake. He watched Kyrie head to another machine that looked like it was connected to the chambers the two of them were in and started pressing some controls making the machine hum. “Professor! It won't work. The other two universes are at war with one another. Don't you think they would have tried this by now.” “Perhaps,” he reluctantly agreed. Giving Ken a slight shread of hope that he was getting through two him. “But they don't have the ingenuity that makes humans so special.” Ken pounded the glass again, more in frustration then an attempt to get out, as Brooks rolled his eyes. “As I said I think I figured it out. And you gave me the way to do it Ken.” He reached under his leg and pulled out the Spark Magnifier. “I saw you reach for this,” he said after examining it a bit, “when you first arrived. “ He squeezed the handle a few time, popping the crystal prongs. Brooks looked at Ken expectantly, eventually getting a disappointed look on his face. “Don't look so down,” Kyrie told him. “I'm sure this only works in his hands any way, But this is the conduit he needs to summon Ultraman. And that makes it exactly what we needed back then to make it work. And what I need now” He went to the column that rose from the floor and placed the Magnifier into the opening in the middle. Going back to the other controls he pressed some buttons before flipping a switch, the opening started to glow as the Magnifier started to hover in the opening as some sort of barrier appeared around it. Kytie started to roll to another part of the room. And onto a square area with a pole at each corner. Brooks stared at him, seething at this point, “You will pay for this.” “For what,” he asked as he retrieved a remote from another pocket. “For reuniting three universes?” “Maybe they weren't meant to be one,” Ken called out trying to think of anything to get him to stop this. “Maybe they're split for a reason. Did you stop to think what would happen if you failed in uniting them? You could end everything.” “That's just fear talking Ken,” Kyrie told him as he adjusted something on the remote. “You're damn right it's fear talking,” Ken told him, getting his attention. “But it's a possibility, you had to have considered it. Please tell me you considered it.” Kyrie said nothing. He didn't have to, the unsure expression on his face told him everything. The Proffessor never even thought about it. “”Professor, let me out and call off the robots. You trapped Brooks, that will go a long way after this is over.” “I'm sorry Ken, I truly am,” he told him. “But I invested too much, lost too much to just give up now. I have to see this through..” He pounded on the glass again as Ktrie pressed something on the remote. “Professor!” The scanner above them activated. Ken felt his skin tingle as the scanner did it's job. In the other chamber Brooks studied his hands as he felt the same. The poles around Kyrie activated as bolts of electricity started to connect them. Before long two shapes started to appear. One was a dark creature, with one eye that seemed to pierce his soul as it set it's gaze on Ken. In the other chamber Brooks stiffened a bit at the sight. Then a being made of light came into exsistence, and while Ken couldn't make out any color scheme there were enough phsyical similarities to identify it as one of Dax's people. “Professor,” he muttered, stunned at the sight. Overjoyed at the sight Kyrie spoke louder to be heard over the sounds of the machine. “Look! No degradation what so ever! Phase one worked like I expected. And if I'm right in my calculations these two are my counter parts from those universes. So let's begin Phase two shall we.” Pressing another button on the remote the bolts of electricity went from the poles and connected the three of them freezing them in place. Slowly the dark and light being seemed to be pulled apart and into Kyrie. As he screamed from the action Ken started kicking the glass around him, trying to do anything to get out of there and stop this before it was too late. But nothing was budging and he could only watch helpless to stop anything. Ken and Brook shielded their eyes as there was a bright flash. When it faded Kyrie, and the other beings were gone. In their place was some sort of creature with a grey and black body with some sort of glowing patch over it's heart. It's head turned to face him showing black markings covering indicating eyes and a mouth. Fins like things adorned the top of it's head. Both Ken and Brooks were stunned at what they were looking at. Placing a hand on the glass Ken whispered, “Professor?” The being looked around the room before looking at itself. It's shoulders started to shake slightly, like it was laughing. Then it yelled right before it started to grow in size, going right through the ceiling and it kept growing. Through the falling rubble Ken saw Brook's cell open and let him out. As he stepped out he looked right at Ken and smirked before he started glowing and flew out of the hole the still growing creature created. He pounded harder on the glass trying to break free as more of the ceiling came down. *** Seeing the drive way they were looking for Ryo stopped their Scan Track behind a line of trees to keep from being seen. Jess checked the Track's sensors real quick and saw nothing so they got out. Both drew their side arm as the made their way to the drive, Ryo kept an eye on his wrist scanner in case something popped up. Jess got there first and announced, “There's his car,” before quickly making her way toward it with Ryo right behind her. When they reached both of them looked inside and saw nothing a miss. She hit her communicator, “Wade to Castle.” Her only response was the static they got earlier. “We're still being jammed.” “Take it as a good thing,” her usual wingman told her. He looked around and didn't see anythng right away that could be trouble. “Come on, let's try the house.” They started for the building when the front door opened. Jess started to raise her weapon but stopped in case it was Ken. It wasn't, a series of robots came through and took up a defensive line in front of them. “Again with the robots,” Ryo muttered as he studied they're formation. None of machines said anything as,almost as one, they raised an arm that opened up to reveal another sort of device. Ryo and Jess both opened fired before the robots could do anything, although a few were able to fire off a coil from the device. Jess and Ryo quickly retreated and took cover behind Ken's car. Jess winced a bit as she heard those cables impact the car. Like he was reading her mind Ryo said, “Maybe Ken won't notice.” She shot him a look before they popped up long enough to fire off a few shots. The shot impact didn't affect the robots like they would a human, but Jess did score a couple of head shots before they retreated back for cover. Hearing a few more impacts and detecting a slight burning smell she told Ryo, “If he wants a sexual favor for damaging his car you're going to be the one performing it.” “What?!”, he exclaimed she popped back up and fired off a few more shots. “You got behind here too.” There was a new sound, like something being destroyed that made them look from where they were. Some sort of monster was breaking through the house. The robots that were still standing turned their attention to the new threat as something flew out of the weakage and started launching those cables at it. They creature looked down , bending down to swat the robots away before freeing itself from the building. From their communicators there was a burst of static before they heard, “...ott to Castle. Can anybody hear me?” She looked over at Ryo who looked as relived as she felt hearing his voice. “Ken it's Jess,” she responded to him. “Me and Ryo are outside the building right now. Where are you?” “I'm in a room on the first floor in a glass cage,” Both looked at what was left standing of the building. He was still in there? “I could use a little help getting out of here.” “Go,” Ryo told her, “I'll contact Castle. Watanabe to Castle a creature has emerged from Kryie's home,” She heard him say as she watched, waiting for the moment so she wasn't spotted by the monster. “We detected it once the whatever was jamming the signal stopped,” Bridge replied. “Razor Wings have already launched.” She didn't hear the rest as as she saw the monster look away and she sprinted toward the front door. So far the front hall looked stable as she ran in. Now where in the hell was the room he was in?. Some rubble started to fall from the upper floor that made her jump back a bit. Making her way forward found the living room and spotted a closed door by a gaping hole in the wall the monster made. Looking through the hole she saw the remains of some sort of lab and jumped through. “Ken!” she called out as she made her way through the wreakage. “Jess!” she heard from behind her. She turned around and saw him in a huge glass container like he said he was. She ran over as he started to look at a similar one that was opened next to his. “Ken how do I open it?,” she asked. He pointed to something behind her as he kept looking at the other chamber, “By the destroyed panel over there.” She looked over sand saw something that was crushed. When she look back at him wondering now what he went, “Give me a moment.” He studied the other chamber some more, particularly the top, before saying, “On this side of the cell, on the device above me. Do you see four blue wires?” Going over to that side she looked up and tried to see what he was talking about. “Four blue wires, I see them.” “Now are there two red lights behind them?”, he asked holding up two fingers. “Got 'em,” she told him. Looking right at her he told her, “Shoot the bottom one!” Not even hesitating she aimed her weapon and fired a single shot at the bottom light. There were a bunch of sparks as a panel in the chamber became partially open. She quickly helped him move it out of the way so he could get out of there. Once he was free she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck. “Do not do that to me again?”, she told him as he hugged her back. He pulled away and pointed at his communicator with both hands. She got the message, Richardson might be listening in right now. “What happened? Where's Professor Kyrie?” He pointed at the creature and she didn't realized until then at how close it still was to them. “That's Kyrie.” Then he turned his attention to a cylinder in the middle of the room that was housing the Spark Magnifier inside it. “He did something and turned into that... Kyrieloid or whatever you want to call it.” She knew that expression on his face, there was more he wanted to tell her but couldn't. And she knew why. “We'll worry about it later,” she told him. “We need to get out of here before he decided to come back this way.” As she made her way back to the opening she looked back and saw that Ken wasn't following her. Instead he was looking over the thing holding the Spark Magnifier. Figuring she better play her part she called out, “Ken, this way!” Walking around the column he studied it intently as he said, “I'm going to look around here a bit. Maybe I can figure out a way to undo what he did to himself.” The sad part was that thought probably was there in his head. “Ken this building could collapse at any moment,” she told him right before she heard the familiar sounds of the Razor Wings in the background, a few moments later she heard missiles firing off and exploding against what used to be Kyrie and him yelling out in pain. “Ken come on! Now we got to worry about a stray missile hitting this place.” “Go,” he told her. “I need to see if I can save him.” Jess, act or not, was going to argue that point with with him, she's stun him herself and drag him out of here if she had to. “I have to try,” he said suddenly. “He was the first one in this entire organization who saw something in me and before they kicked me out and almost made me believe it.” He had to be joking. Now was not the time to get sentimental. “He was the only one at the academy who thought I could go far in the UNDF. Then my problem was too much of a problem for the higher ups. He said he tried to fight for me..” She recognized that look, it was similar to when people were telling him he couldn't get the beat up motorcycle to work, he was determined to do this no mater what any one told him. “I have to at least try.” Still she muttered under her breath, “I'm going to need to get my head examined for this.” Looking at Ken she told him, “Don't stay too long, because I will not dig you out.” She mouth the words, “Be careful,” at him. He nodded before returning back to to column, testing out that barrier around the cavity with a finger only to quickly pull it back after a zapping sound. She waited a moment before heading out of there. And hoping leaving him there wasn't going to be a mistake. *** “That thing was Professor Kyrie?”, Hawk said as he sat behind Bill in Razor Wing One. They and a couple of other Wings flew in a loose formation as they flew up from a strafing run on the creature. From the pilot seat Bill let out a low whistle as he heard Jess' quick report. Hawk started trying to see anything of the older man in what he was seeing.. So far there wasn't a feature he recognized from his brief meeting with the man. Then again he didn't see anything of Jamira when the same thing happened to him. “That's what Ken said,' Jess told him. “I didn't see anything that would make me doubt him.” Her choice of words confused him slightly. After everything all of then have seen since this started why would she doubt him now. Glancing at his own communicator he thought he began to understood why. “Ken's problem hasn't spread to anyone else,” he hope he said in a way that she would get it, and nobody else would wonder what the problem was. As it was while checking with Reid he was afraid he set the man down the path of figuring out Ken's secret by accident. “His is still going on though the last I heard.” “Understood,” she said. “Ken said he's going to try and see if he can reverse what was done to Kyrie. I'm not sure what he can do everything looked pretty messed up to me. He's going to need all the good luck his charm can give him.” Now Hawk nodded, noting the code both of them decided on when describing the Spark Magnifier over a open line. “He need to get a hold of all he can.” His brow creasing a bit he pondered what she said just now. She seemed to empathize the get a hold in that sentence. It was a shot in the dark but maybe the Magnifier was used to turn Kyrie into what he is now. “Fall back just in case. You and Ryo get in that Scan Track and try to draw it away from what's left of the house.” “On our way,” she replied. In front of him Bill called out,” Razor Wings eighteen and twenty five form up on the rest of us and follow. We going to try to draw the creature away from the house a bit.” After both Wings confirmed the order he looked back at him. “I'm just assuming that meant us as well.” Smiling to himself Hawk said, “We do have a man in there. Let's give him some breathing room.” *** With the battle going on outside, hell he could see most of it every time he looked up, Ken kept working to see if he could get te Spark Magnifier out of it's holding place. Finding another control panel he experimented with a couple of switches and buttons trying to see if they were connected to anything close to the cylinder on container. If he only had time to crack this thing open, then maybe he could figure out what wire went were. Going to another he thought maybe he got lucky, this one was connected to an interior power source of some kind. It made sense, this lab had to use an incredible amount of power, even as wealthy as he was the bill would have to start hitting him in the wallet sooner or later. Going over the controls he flipped a couple switches and under the chaos going on outside he heard the tell tale whine of a generator wind down to a stop. He quickly looked back at the cylinder, the barrier was still active and the Spark Magnifier was still hovering inside it. Slapping the console in frustration he lowered his head and tried to think. “Of course it would have it's own power source, the casing is one solid piece to keep somebody like me from trying to get into it.” Tapping his fingers a bit he stopped as he looked back up, “Maintenance hatch,” he said to himself. Rushing over to the cylinder he started looking around the floor trying to find said hatch, it had to be close. “Come on, you got to be somewhere,” he expanded his search to a wider area. “You had to have plan to work on it at some point. You just didn't plant it in the floor and leave it at that.” Looking around he started to figure there was an access in the basement but what where the odds the way to the basement wasn't block or buried when Kyrie grew to Dax's size. Ken looked back out the opening and saw what was his old professor try to catch the Razor Wings flying by him. He looked back the barrier keeping him from the Spark Magnifier. He was running out of time. He tested it a few more times with his finger, get a sharp zap in return each time. Shaking in an attempt to get the pain away he studied harder. The barrier wasn't solid, while there was some push back he was able to penetrate it a little. Looking around, Ken didn't see anything he could stick in there right away. So that just left him with one option. Sighing he went, “This going to suck.” Steadying himself and taking a few deep breaths Ken thrust his and into the barriers. He got through with no issue but that slight push back was even stronger now that he was using his whole hand and feeling an electrical charge going up his arm he struggled before the barrier won out and he pulled his hand away. Flexing his fingers Ken steadied himself before he tried it again. Gritting his teeth he forced his hand even further before the barrier threw it out again.. Holding his arm Ken stared at the Magnifier. If Kyrie wasn't a monster right now he'd ask how he pulled this barrier off. Breathing hard from the pain the electrical charge was causing him he said to himself, “All right, third time the charm.” This time he jammed his hand in there but again what ever was trying to force him back stopped as he was less than in inch away from grabbing it. There was some sort of impulse that forced his hand out with enough force to spin him to the floor as the barrier gave him a stronger jolt. Getting up he pounded the floor then started clutching his arm. “Ken!” Daxium called out in his head. “Stop, you're damaging yourself trying to get the Spark Magnifier. You need to leave before this dwelling falls on top of you. You know Jessica was right about that. We can fight another way.” Not taking his eyes off the Magnifier he said, “You have another way that l can let you out that you've been keeping from me?” His giant friend fell silent. “Yeah, that's what I thought.” Shaking the pain out of his arm he thrust it in one more time, pushing against whatever the force was that was keeping him from grabbing it. Screaming as the current assuauting his arm seemed to increase with each second, finally he felt the Magnifier on his palm he quickly wrapped his fingers around it and pulled it free. Nearly falling back Ken kept his footing and looked at the Magnifier while he wiped the sweat off his brow with his other arm. Looking back up at the opening above him he didn't see Kyrie but he could still hear the battle going on out there. Despite the pain he raised the Spark Magnifier over his head and activated it. *** The Kyrieloid, as Ken dubbed it, slowly turned around as the column of light faded away, revealing Daxium standing there. They sttod there for a moment before Kyrieloid started toward him in a meanicing way. Instead of getting in a defensive staff like he usually he did he jusy stood there and held out a hand, telling him to stay were it was. It was more for Ken's sake than anything considering how connected he was to the human this used to be. Not to mention one of his own was dragged into this situation, so if there was a way to save both of them he had to at least try. All he needed was for the other being to co-operate and stand down. The Kyrieloid tilted his head as he looked at Daxium. Then it charged. Both giants stood there and grappled while on the ground Ryo backed the Scan Track out of the way to keep them from being stepped on. In the air Hawk orderd all Razor Wings to fly in a holding pattern until further notice. The two giants struggled before both was pushed back. Daxium came in with a punch that was easily avoided by the other giant. Kyrieloid went for a kick the Daxium blocked. This went on for a bit with each one dodging or blocking the other's attack. Hit by a kick to the gut Daxium stumbled back. Kyrieloid went in grabbing Daxiun in a headlock then lifted him up by the neck as he fell back. Landing with a grunt Daxium barely had to time to realize Kyrieloid quickly straddled him and started raining down hammer like punches at his head.. Covering up as best as he could he waited for any opening in the other's attack. Finally reaching through the fist raining down on him he grabbed Kyrieloid by the back of the neck and pulled down. It was enough to get a leg up between them and flip him off. Quickly rolling over he got to a knee and fired off a flash bolt as soon as his opponent got to his feet and faced him. As he held his Stomach Daxium ran in and tackled Kyrieloid into what was left of the building. He punched and chopped at his fallen opponent as he listened to something Ken suggested, which he never done until now, so he back off and fired off another flashbolt, Kryieloid saw it coming this time and the bolt hit the building as Daxium quickly jumped back. Part of the building blew up in a bigger explosion than those watching would have expected. Kyrieloid looked at the burning remains of the house before turning toward Daxium. With an angry yell he charged the light giant again. Daxium was ready for it as he grabbed an arm reaching for him and twisted a bit as he flipped the combined being over his shoulder. While he was on the ground Kyrieloid held up a fist that startled Daxium. Then a stream of fire shot out that the light giant barely avoided. Getting to his feet Kyrieloid grabbed Daxium by the waist and flipped him over his head. Grabbing his fallen opponent by the neck he hualed him up in the air and slammed him to the ground. Keeping hold of Daxium's throat he hualed him up again. This time Daxium bashed his forearms together and mode shifted into Power mode. Grabbing Kyrieloid's wrist he slowly removed his hand from his neck. Keeping his grip of Kyrieloid's wrist he pulled him close and lifted him over his heads. Quickly locating an empty lot close by Daxium grunted as he threw the combined creature at it. The ground shook a bit as Daxium put his fist by the jewel on his chest. Before he could draw in any extra energy to pull off the Giga Wave Kyrieloid shot up and fired off another stream of fire. Taking the full hit of the blast Daxium fell back to the ground. Kyrieloid rushed in and kicked Daxium in the side to flip him over. Then he jumped on his back and wrapped an arm around his neck and started pulling up and squeezing with all he had. Daxium struggled to free himself the jewel started to blink. Eventually he got a foot under him and slowly stood up with Kyrieloid jumping higher on his back to secure his grip and add some more weight to the effort. With a grunt he finally stood up and reached up to grab Kyrieloid and slam him to the ground and pounded on his fallen foe a bit before backing away. In the safe zone he had set up so long ago Ken pleaded with his former mentor as he started to get up, “Come on Professor, just stop this already. We don't have to do this.” At the time Daxium tried to contact the light being that was mixed up in there hoping to convince him to do the same thing. Finally he told Ken, “I'm not getting anything, not my compatriot, not Kyrie, not even the dark being he dragged into this.” Ken lowered his head, “I know, I feel it to. Whomever they were before all this, they're not there now.” A tear started to fall down his cheek, “Do what you gotta.” Nodding in the outside world as he backed up Daxium crossed his arms infront of him and shifted to Hyper Mode.Getting into a running stance he drew in energy and waited for Kyrieloid to finish getting to his feet as he extended the light stream whip from his finger tips. As soon as Kyrieloid was standing and turned toward him Daxium made the barest of flinches then in the next instant he was standing behind Kyrieoid who had a line across it's body. The whip retracted as Kyrieloid fell back and exploded. Daxium stood there with his head lowered for a bit before looking up and flying off into the evening sky, “Shiah!” *** “I saw the orb over there,” Jess said as she and Ryo ran toward what they thought was Ken's location. They slowed down as they spotted him sitting on a rock. At first she was worried after seeing some of the hits that Daxium had taken during the fight. Then she got a good look at his face then hurried toward him with her wingman right behind her. She watched him, Ken didn't even reacted to either of them, Coming to a stop she followed his gaze to where Daxium had finished off his opponent, smoke was still rising up from the spot. She looked back at Ryo and gestured toward her communicator. “I already talked to Hawk,” he said. Coming closer he looked at Ken who still didn't respond to either of them being there. “Bridge said the program never started, neither Richardson or his assistant were at Castle, they had a function elsewhere and Dr. Williams was in one of the labs the entire time. He apparently never heard something was going down.” All she need to here was that it wasn't on, Jess immediately sat next to Ken and wrapped her arms around him, “Ken I'm so sorry about Professor Kyrie.” Walking over Ryo put a hand on his shoulder, “I am too man, I knew he meant a lot to you.” “Thank you,” he said softly as he gripped one of her arms and closed his eyes for a moment. He leaned into her embrace for a bit before he opened his eyes, “But he did it to himself, all because he couldn't let an idea go.” “Some people are like that,” Jess told him as she used her thumb to wipe a tear from his face.. She looked over at the remains of Kyrie's home. “I don't know what Daxium accidently hit when Kyrie moved but I'm pretty sure all he had on that project is destroyed now.” Ken looked with them for a few moments before getting up. As he did so he said, “That was the idea.” Jess and Ryo looked at each other when he said that. She got up as Ryo went, “Ken, what do you mean.” “I mean,” he told them as he turned around to face them, “that it wasn't an accident. I told Dax exactly where to aim that flash bolt. Kyrie tried to do something that wasn't meant to be. And there's probably somebody in this fucking organization stupid enough to try it again once they find out about it.” Jess looked at Ryo, like she told him before he was defacto second in command of Monster Squad and technically could do something to him for destroying what was technically UNDF property. Slowly he nodded before saying, “Damn shame the creature moved, that was a million to one shot from the look of things.” “Ryo?”, Jess said in disbelief, “You're letting that go?” “Accident's happen,” he replied with a shrug. “Besides he's not wrong about somebody trying whatever happened here again. It's probably for the best that bit of info got lost in the battle. I'll tell Hawk privately, but I'm sure he'll agree.” The three of them left for the vehicles that brought them here. While she was going over with Ryo about her riding back with Ken, just to make sure he was going to be all right of course, he looked on not believing a word she was saying. After a bit she noticed Ken had trailed behind them a little just looking at both the Scan Track and his car. When they got closer he stopped where he was, they stopped and looked back at him. Ken looked past them before asking, “What happened to my car?” Ryo started looking to her for help as he stammered out a answer. Jess just pushed him toward Ken as she backed her way to the Scan Track. *** A couple of days later in Castle's medical wing Lunden was hovering around Timothy as he packed his bags. They were finally letting him go today but go where? His abilities were gone, Lunden assured him that it wasn't for good but he knew his face well enough to tell that he was lying to him. His parents practically gave him up when Lunden offered to help him refine his former powers and refine his control. Hell they seemed happy to get rid of him, and more than likely they weren't in a rush to see him again any time soon. And despite what Lunden kept telling him he didn't belonged back at the company either. So where does he go from here? The door opened and Lunden looked over as Captain Hawk came in for a bit, “I'm sorry to disturb you but there's a bit more paperwork for you to sign before they release Timothy. I told them I'd come get you.” “My hand's going to fall off if I keep signing my name. I'll be back as soon as I can Timothy. I wouldn't put it past the board to sneak some sort of document that says I'm signing over control of my company.” “All right,” he said solemnly. Lunden put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, at least that was probably his intent. All it did was remind him that he couldn't read people any more. “I wouldn't say things like that out loud Mr. Lunden,” Hawk said as he held the door open for the man. “Somebody is going to get an idea. Timothy started to turn back to his bag when he caught somebody stop the door from closing out of the corner of his eye. Some red headed woman, who he thought was familiar, held the door open as she watched Lunden and Hawk walk off. Then she waved somebody into the room, Ken, as she finally let the door close. Confused Timothy looked at Ken and the door, “What?” All he said as he held up a finger was, “Test run on an idea she had.” He made sure the door wasn't going to open anytime soon before breaking into a small grin as he faced him. “And I wanted to see how you were doing before they freed you. That Lunden guy's worse the the guards at the royal palace. He didn't let in anybody to see you that didn't work for him.” “I noticed,” Timothy told him. Although part of him was glad Ken at least made the effort to visit. “As to how I'm doing,how do you think?” “It's gotta be rough,” Ken said. “Rough?”, Timothy repeated in disbelief. “My abilities are gone, probably for good. I can't hear you or sense Daxium at all. You're as blank to me as that wall behind you.” “You're not the first high schooler to make that comparison about me,” Deep down Timothy knew he meant it as a joke, an attempt to lighten his mood a bit. All it did was make him angrier. “Don't you get it?,” he snapped. “My power is gone. I'm,” he did not want to admit this, at all, “I'm normal. Absolutely normal.” He sat on the bed completely dismayed at his fate. Ken came closer saying, “Normal. I think I remember what that feels like.” Timothy just snorted and waved him off. “It's an adjustment. You'll get use to it.” He looked away not believing him. Ken saw it and tapped him on the head to make him look at him. Pointing at his own head he went, “You know who I got living in here. You think this was easy to get use too when it first happened? Let me tell you it wasn't, especially after I joined up with these guys.” Sighing a bit he added, “And Dax wanted me to tell you that he's sorry you got caught up in all this, but he's glad you're relatively okay. So am I.” “I'm sorry,” Timothy told him, “I'm just scared.” “Look Tim,” Ken told him, “I never dealt with you exact situation but trust me, I get it. Like I said it's an adjustment. Anybody will tell you that. But most of them don't understand the size of that adjustment sometimes. Maybe listen to those of us who have an idea about how big it's going to be. He didn't reply since the floor was so interesting so Ken went on, “So what are you going to do now?” “I don't know,” was his reply. “Mr. Lunden says I still have a place with his company. He said I can't be the only one with these sort of abilities. That I could use my experience to help them cope.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” Ken sat on the bed next to him. He studied Timothy for a bit, “So why does it look like you don't believe him?” All he could do was shrug. “I'm assuming you been in his head, has he given you any indication that you should doubt his word?” A small, “No,” was his answer. “Listen to me Tim, a good mentor can help you reach heights you didn't know you were capable of, I had somebody like that back at the academy that I lost recently,” Ken looked sad for a moment.” I'm lucky I got that now with Captain Hawk. I don't think any one else would have pushed me this hard to be better than what I was when I first got here. Unless it was out of his unit. Just give Lunden a chance. I don't think he would be this over protective if he thought you were just a project for him to get famous. Because a lot of guys would in his position.” Before Timothy could respond Ken put a finger to his ear. Then he pulled back his sleeve a bit revealing some sort of device, and clicked something on it twice. “Test's over. I gotta get out of here before Lunden gets back. Think about what I said okay.” He quickly went to the door. Opening it enough to look out out Ken opened it a bit wider so he could slip out before closing it. Only then did he respond with, “Okay.” *** In the hallway Ken lowered his head a bit as he past Lunden who was hurrying back to Timothy's room. So far he hadn't noticed him which suited him just fine. He passed a few more intersections before turning into the one Jess was waiting for him in. “Worked like a charm,” he said with a grin. With a hand on her head Jess went, “I can't believe we pulled that off. I can't believe Captain Hawk agreed to it.” Neither can I,” He told her. “But your idea works. We should celebrate some how Do you think Hawk would aprove a couple of passes on this short of notice?” “I wouldn't press our luck,” she told him as she removed a small microphone and receiver from her ear. It was small enough that she could hid it with helmet or her hair if she had to. And it was connected to an inner ear receiver that was currently in Ken's ear. “But I'm shocked. I thought you'd want to try to beat the simulator again.” He knew it was a joke. A well deserved one considering how many times he'd tried to beat since he's been here.“This is going to come out wrong but you're more fun than that simulator.” “You're right, that did came out wrong,” Jess told him with a smirk. She put her hands around his waist while he drew her closer. “But it is nice to know I rate higher than that test.” “You always rated higher, but I think I should give the test a rest.” Hearing this Jess immediately put a hand on his forehead to see if he was feverish. “I'm serious, I saw what being that obsessive about something did to Kyrie. I can easily see myself going down that road if I'm not careful.” “Never going to happen,” Jess informed him. “You have one thing he didn't. Someone like me to keep you from falling off that deep end.” With a slight smirk he held her a little closer as he said, “That sounds a tad long term.” “If you play your cards right it will be,” she smiled back. “So I suggest you behave yourself.” “Yes ma'am.” Smirking a bit more he looked around to see if anyone was around, “I do seem to recall saying I'd be a willing student.” Jess just gave him a look but didn't try to get out of his grip. “I'm ready for my next lesson if you are.” He leaned in to kiss her. “There you two are,” Hawk said as he came around the corner. “It looks like the plan worked.” Just inches from her lips Ken muttered through his teeth, “It's your dad all over again.” “It's not that bad,” she said softly then they turned their attention to their commanding officer. “Yes it did, I'm just glad we had the equipment on base. It be a nightmare to explain why we wanted something like this.” “And Lunden didn't suspect anything?”, Ken asked. He had a hard time believing the man didn't notice was being dragged around. “Not as thing,” Hawk told him. “It helped that there was some more paperwork that required his signature, otherwise I have no clue on how I would have gotten him out of there. But I think a celebration is in order.” Walking forward he reached into a pocket. He surprised both of them when he produced a couple of passes. Both of them took the offered passes but Jess still went, “Captain?” Ken quickly spoke up, “Don't question it he might change his mind. Thank you sir. We appreciate it.” Hawk chuckled, “After the past couple of days you had I think you deserve it. And a little company probably wouldn't hurt. Now those passes aren't for more than one day, so I expect both of you to be back here before midnight.” Shooting off a quick salute Ken told him, “Yes sir.” Stepping a little closer he pointed right at Ken. “You better behave yourself.” With that he walked off to somewhere. Ken watched him leave and went, “What about her? She's going too.” “I don't have to worry about her,” he shot back. Before long he was around the corner and out of sight leaving them alone again. Ken started to go after him to argue the point. Jess stopped him and told him, “Come on we're burning free time. Let's go to the diner again, I'll get you the Philly Cheese steak this time around .” Getting a little closer she added, “And maybe, if I'm over my hang up by then, we can make plans for your birthday in a couple of months, but only if you're good.” Ken looked at her. “Seriously? Just the hint of some birthday 'fun'?You think that's all it's going to take to get me to go with you?” She gave him a sly smile and nodded once. She took his hand as he put his arm around her shoulders and they they headed down the hall, “Well, you're half right.” ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
Episode 28
----- OP – Mercy Drive – Burn in my Light ----- In a more mountainous region near an agricurltural farm a giant creature, that looked like a giant green mantis with three eyes that Brooks had dubbed Majaba, cried out as a series of explosions hit it and several Razor Wings flew past over head. In response it started spewing a yellow gas. Any effect it was supposed to have wasn't immediate apparent until it sank to ground level. There a few workers who hadn't cleared out yet started clutching at their throats and coughed as they fell to their knees. Before long some of the crops started to wilt as well. One worker in particular was trying to crawl out of the gas before falling on his face. Soon after a Scan Track came to a stop close by. A UNDF solider jumped out with a breathing device covering the exposed part of her face carrying a spare breathing apparatus sprinted toward the worker. Holding the mask to his face she turned it on before checking for any vitals, grateful that they were still strong. “Get going!,” she told the driver. “There's got to be more in there.” “Right,” the driver said as he drove off. The worker started to reach for the Scan Track as it drove past. “Easy big guy,” she told him as he got one of his arms over her head and helped him up. “You almost made it on your own. The edge of the gas is pretty close. We can get there on foot. They need to rescue who they can in the meantime.” He nodded as he clutched the mask to his face as they headed out of the gas. She looked back at the monster as more Razor Wings made another run. “Has anybody been able to figure out where that gas is coming from?”, Hawk asked from the rear seat of Razor Wing One. “If we can stop it from doing that everyone on the ground can breath easier.” No pun intended he thought to himself. Reid called in an answer. “I think I see a general location but it won't stand still long enough for us to get a lock on it.” “Keep trying Commander,” Hawk told him. Ending the communication he looked at the pilot in front of him he went, “I wonder how things are going on the ground Bill.” Bill nodded as he hit his communicator and opened a link to Razor Wing Two, “Ryo have you checked on them yet?” The “them” in question being a particular individual, and the only way any of them thought of to describe him without giving anything away on the chance they were accidentally overheard. “Doing so now,” he said. He checked one of his scanners and activated a new function that was covertly added to all the Razor Wings just recently. On it was the location of all the ground troops and the status of the area around them. He located one dot in particular, watching as it made it's way to a spot behind the creature, as they recently planned, as it joined in turning green with the others. Mainly to the person behind him he said, “He's in position and the immediate area is clear.” Nodding Jess reached into her helmet and activated the microphone hidden under it. “Ken it's show time.” On the ground and away from the gas Ken reached into his sleeve and clicked a button on a device that was on his wrist a couple of times to indicate that he understood. Yet he still looked around despite the all clear, more out of habit after doing this alone for so long than anything, before reaching inside his jacket. “Let's do it Dax,” he said as he took out the Spark Magnifier and held it over his head. Majaba turned around as a column of light appeared, soon to fad away to reveal the giant hidden withing. He took a quick defensive stance and shouted out his usual, “Shiah!” before charging at the monster. It stood there and took the shot as Daxium nailed it with a solid forearm shot. It's head rocked to the side but it started spewing that gas again. Daxium quickly jumped back to avoid contact with it. Then Majaba leap through the gas cloud and struck the giant with it's claws. Spinning around from the contact Daxium barely reacted in time as the creature tried to swing the claws at him again. Blocking them with his forearms He kicked it back and took a step back himself to fire off a Flashbolt that exploded against it's body.. Crying out in pain the creature jumped high into the air. Daxium tried to keep an eye on it but it kept going up until he lost it in the sun momentarily. By the time he located the monster again it was already on the wat back down and slashed him with both claws as sparks rained off the giant from the impact. Grunting in pain as he recoiled from the blow he took a couple of steps back and Majaba jumped at him again knocking him to the ground. It leaped up high in the air again and pointed the tip of those claws at him as it came down. Daxium rolled out of the way as those claws impaled themselves into the ground. Getting to his feet the giant spun around with a kick to the head that rocked it again. While it was stunned Daxium quickly grabbed it. After a brief struggle he was able to get a good enough grip to lift the bug monster over his head and slam it to the ground. It started spewing the gas again forcing Daxium to back away. Ready for it this time he quickly sidestepped out of the way when it tried that surprise jumping attack again. Majabe started jumping around the giant, trying to disorient him enough to attack again. This worked for a bit then Daxium stopped and jumped up himself, Flying straight up into the air and flying off. Majaba soon realized he was gone and stopped jumping and looked around. It turned around as Daxium flew in and slammed into it at full speed. Both of them crashed to the ground causing the dirt under them to rise up in a cloud, obscuring them from view for a moment. As the dust settled Majaba flew out and slammed into side of one of those mountains. Once fully visible Daxium set up and quickly fired the Dimensional Storm Ray, destroying the creature in a massive explosion. Holding his chest for a moment Daxium looked around, trying to sense if Brooks was anywhere close by, before looking up at the sky and flying off, “Shiah!” On the ground Reid was giving out orders to those around him. “Keep looking people. Some of the workers are saying people are still in the area because they couldn't get out in time. Anybody who had been in the affected area stay out of it for now. Try and lend aid to those we rescued so far as the rest of us head in and try to locate them. And try to see if you can get the last known location of those we're looking for while you're at it. The more starting points we have the better we can search the area.” The men in front of him quickly saluted and confirmed his orders. Once they were gone he added to himself, “And pray we're not too late.” Whatever that gas was it was pretty deadly. There was already a couple of causalities that they were currently aware of from it. And there were talks of burning the crops in and around the affected area as well. Personally he couldn't wait for this monster nonsense to be over with already. He looked around and saw Ken come jogging up to him. “You're late Scott,” he said going into full commander mode. “Sorry Commander,” he said as he removed his helmet. “I was making my way around what's left of that cloud. I didn't grab a rebreather in the rush.” “That was probably a wise choice,” he admitted looking at the cloud still hanging in the air. “But next time take a quick moment and think about what you might need in these type of situations.” He gave him a light, friendly slap to the chest with the back of his hand. He looked away and didn't see Ken wince from the blow. “Go help with the ones we've gotten to so far. The others will tell you my orders regarding them.” “Yes sir,” he said with a quick salute. Once he was gone Ken started rubbing his chest, yeah this one was going to hurt for a while all right. To Dax he muttered, “No offence buddy but can you react a little quicker next time. Hiding these injuries is starting to become a pain in the ass.” He looked up to see the Razor Wings were still flying around and tried to pick out a particular knowing he couldn't from this distance. Holding his helmet under his arm he reached into his sleeve again and clicked the device three times. The signal he and Jess agreed on to tell her that he was okay since they knew he was being monitored now. He rubbed his chest again, well relatively okay. *** Later Jess walked into one of the work labs in the garage area. Like she thought Ken was there working on Windam again.While she was glad he had something to keep his brain occupied, at least something that wasn't the engineering final that he was still obsessed with despite what he said after the mess with Kyrie. But he was spending so much time with the robot part of her was wondering if she should be getting jealous of the attention he was giving it. A small, very immature part that she thought she grew out of long ago. But a part of her none the less, and one she wasn't listening to. She never felt that way back in high school when they originally dated and there was no need to start now. Still he noticed her quicker now than he used to back then so there was that. She offered him a small wave and a smile when he did so. He returned the smile but his hand were currently occupied holding what looked like one of Windam's arm. “Hi Jess, he said. “just give me a quick moment.” “Take your time,” she told him as he started reattaching said arm to Windam. She came closer saying,“Since you're working on a different body part I'm guessing you and Bridge finally figured out that little problem he was having.” “Well Bridge and Emiko did,” he told as he concentrated on hooking up the proper connectors. “I was right, it was software related. It took them a couple of hours but they found out what it was. One single line of code was the problem, can you believe it?” “My dad always said the more complicated something was the easier it was to screw it up,” she told him. He snorted before muttering, “Ain't that the truth.” Going on she said, “So I can believe it.” Studying the robot a bit she looked over at him, still looking like a kid in a candy store working on it. “I overheard Bridge getting excited about something Emiko was telling him about Windam earlier. Something about an adaptive program, like he can actually learn.” “Yeah,” Ken said suddenly looking excited himself. He stepped back from the machine going, “Watch this.” Looking at the robot he said, “Windam, be a bud and get me that screwdriver on that table behind you.” She raised an eyebrow as the Machine turned around and made it's way to that very table. Windam looked down at the objets on it then picked up the very thing he asked for. Ken pumped his fist slightly when it did so and turned back toward him. It came forward then held out the screwdriver for him. He took saying, ”Thank you,” then he held out a fist. Jess watched as Windam made a fist as well, then bumped it against his. Them both of them pulled their fists back while opening them up. Grinning like an idiot he looked over at her. He lost some of that grin to confusion as he saw her expression, “What?” Still in disbelief she went, “You taught him to blow up a fist bump?” “Yeah,” he went like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If Greenberg only knew before he gave him to you,” she told, mainly in a teasing way.. A little too defensively he told her, “I'm just giving him a little more personality. Besides he learned what this was, and some other tools.” Then he used that screwdriver on something in Windam's shoulder joint. “It's not like I got him screwing around or anything.” “Ken, you know I'm messing with you right?”, she told him. “But let's be honest here, you might not have been the only person to think of it, but you're the only one who would have gone through with it.” “Somebody else would have done it,” again a little too defensively, then he added, “And had the guts.” His mood changed a bit as he looked at her, “Oh since you're here I can I get you're opinion on something?” Did he he just ask for help? Ken never asks for help. He kept looking at her expectantly so she nodded, not sure what else to do. “Great,” he went on not seeing her confusion, “I've been thinking of adding some weaponry to Windam here considering how messed up he got the last time I used him in a fight.” Which was back in Japan as she recalled. Jess remembered how distraught Ken was when he found Windam right after it was over. “I was thinking about adding some sort of gun.” He took Windam other arm and held it up a bit. “Apparently whomever programmed him originally made him a righty.” She snorted at the thought. Ken actually look insulted, “Don't laugh, you haven't spent as much time with him as me and Bridge have. Ask him to pick up or do something he always does it with his right hand., so it only makes sense to modify his dominant arm.” “You would have fit in at Tower all right,” she joked, well half joked at any rate. Making a robot right handed sounded like something he might have come up with if his talent was in that area. But he didn't even chuckle, he just gave her a look. “Sorry,” she told him, “please go on.” “Any way,” he said after a beat, “I was thinking of maybe making this arm replaceable. What do you think would make the gun mount more stable, if I replaced the arm entirely or make it so he could swap his forearm with that gun? I mean they designed him so parts can be easily replaced or upgraded, so he's already modular so there's no extra work there to do. But I'm not sure exactly how stable that connection would be in a fire fight compared to the other way.” Jess heard all of that, but she was still having a hard time with idea that the request was coming from him, “You are asking for help.” “Yeah,” he went, looking and sounding confused. She couldn't help herself, “But you never ask for help. On anything. Oh my God, this is blowing my mind. Did you even ask for help back at the garage you used to work at?” All the while he had his head down, then he suddenly exploded with, “I'm trying alright!” His outburst caught her completely off guard. She had never seen him this upset about anything. A little more subdued he said, “I remembered how annoyed you use to get back in high school when I tried to do everything on my own. I'm trying.” She quickly went to him, “Hey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make fun. I'm just not use to seeing you looking for help on anything.” She looked over at Windam who was oblivious to all of this, apparently, she hoped. “I can see you're trying not to fall into old habits and I'm proud of you, I really am. Like I told you, since you been here I've seen you turn into the man I knew you could be back when we first dated. But you're asking me about a robot that I can barely comprehend how advance it is. Now if you want to talk weapons I'm your girl.” “It's why I asked,” he told her. Jess had to smile at that “Hey come here,” she said pulling him a little closer and wrapping her arms around his waist.. “How about I make it up to you with another lesson.” Like she thought, that perked him up slightly. “I'm always a willing student,” he said as he started to lean in for that implied kiss. Then he stopped and looked at Windam. “Ah, could you look that way bud.” Again she was a little surprised it turned it's head. “Thank you,” Ken told the robot. Then he returned his attention back to her, “Now where were we?”, he asked as she went for that kiss as well. “I figured you be in here,” they heard Hawk say as he entered the room. Jess pulled away mumbling, “It is my dad all over again.” A little louder she went, “Can we help you Captain?” “No I was looking for Ken,” he said, “I figured you'd be close by. But Bridge wanted me to find you and the others. He said you'd find it interesting.” Standing next to him she could tell he tensed up slightly. She did so too, Did Bridge finally get it? With Captain Hawk waiting for any sort of response she nudged him slightly to get Ken to do so. “I'll be right there.” He looked at her for a moment, she could see the hope in his eyes before he turned toward Windam. “Windam, go to your recharge station and top off. I'll be back in a bit.” Hawk was caught off guard by the robot's response as it nodded and headed for that station. Apparently he spent less time down here than she did. Ken started to follow Hawk but he stopped suddenly, “Screw it,” he said right before he turned around. Grabbing her by the back of the head he pulled her in for a kiss. She was caught by surprise, so much so it took a second for her to try and push him back fully aware at how uncomfortable Captain Hawk was getting at the situation. Not to mention on how embarrassed she was getting. Finally getting him away she hissed at him, “He's standing right there.” He looked at her and went “Don't care.” Then he started out the door. Jess didn't follow right away. Because if she did she was going to kill him. He passed Hawk, who coughed into a fist a bit before saying, “With all due respect son, that wasn't exactly necessary.” Ken barely looked at him, “With all due respect sir, stop interrupting.” And he exited the door. Hawk coughed into his fist again before leaving himself. Jess still stood there a moment, looking over at Windam she told the robot, “I'm going to strangle him.” Then she left, trying to concentrate more on the fact Bridge wanted to see him about something than what just happened. *** Hawk had lead them to their usual war room, like they had in the recent past for dealing with Ken's particular issues. He looked back and went straight in. Jess was about to follow but didn't when she realized he he stopped in place right outside the door. Ken stood there and stared at the door. Hoping it was what he thought it was and then again wasn't sure what he would do if it was, And Bridge wouldn't have called them all in if he didn't find anything.He looked back when he felt Jess start to rub his shoulder to help him relax a bit more. He reached up and grabbed her hand and gave it a quick, grateful squeeze. “Breath Ken,” she said softly, “breath. I'm not carrying you in if you pass out.” He grinned at her joke, grateful that she was there to try and calm his nerves a bit. “Come on,” she took his arm, “it's better to get it over with, no matter what it is.” “You're right,” Ken told her as he took a deep breath. “You might want to get used to saying that,” she added with another grin as they walked into the room. Hawk, Ryo, Bridge and Bill were standing around the holotable waiting for them. “Sorry, it took a couple of seconds to talk him down.” “Completely understandable,” Hawk told them as they took a spot at the table. Bridge literally pulled him a little closer to the station he was at. “Well Bridge,” Hawk began, “we're here, what to you have.” Pressing a few keys he looked at them and said, “Tell me if any of this looks familiar.” After a few seconds the table started to glow as a creature took shape in the digital background. Ken inhaled sharply as he saw it. “Isn't that the... ?”, Bill began as he pointed at the image, then his mouth dropped. Ryo finished the thought for him, “The creature we went after the night we had to bring Ken in.” All of them stared in wide eyed wonder as they watched several Razor Wings fly in and attack the creature. This went on for a bit before a Razor Wing got damaged and the pilot and wingman bailed out and someone new with a ponytail ran into frame, toward the action “There I am,” Ken said scarcely believing it. “Here it comes.” He gripped Jess's hand in anticipation of what was coming next. Richardson's voice came from off screen, “Mr. Scott.” He gripped her hand a little more, grateful she was gripping his just as tightly as on screen he looked back. “Good luck, to both of you.” Ken could hardly breath as he watched himself turn back around and raise his right hand in the air and let Dax free to fight the monster. Ken couldn't speak as the video ended, none of them could apparently. After a few moments of silence Bill was the one to break the spell the video had on them, cautiously saying, “So we got him?” After taking a moment to compose himself a bit Hawk tried not to grin, but couldn't as he said, “If he tries anything, we got him.” “Yes!” Ken shouted out as he pumped a fist into the air after slapping the table. Letting go of Jess's hand he immediately grabbed Bridge in a bear hug and planted a big kiss right on his cheek. Unuse to such a show Bridge tried to squirm out of his grip, “Come on now man.” Ken didn't let go of him, “Bridge, you magnificent computer nerd, you're lucky everybody is in the room, because I would be doing so many things to you right about now.” And that caused Bridge to try even harder to get out of his grasp. Not even hiding his amusement over the situation Hawk spoke to the others, “Could one of you rescue Bridge from Ken?” “I'm afraid to try,” Bill said as he studied the situation. Ryo seemed equally reluctant to try even with Bridge giving both of them a pleading look. Jess was able to get the poor computer expert free from Ken's grasp. But he immediately grabbed her around the waist , lifted her off the ground and spun around, “Yes!” Looking back at Bridge as he put her down he said, “You have no idea how much I owe you man.” Wiping off his cheek he kept his distance as he told Ken, “Just don't kiss me again and we'll call it even.” “I make no promises,” Ken told him, “but okay.” Despite the embarrassment he was feeling over's Ken celebration Bridge still beamed a bit, proud of the fact he was able to get this. “I got lucky,” he told them, “I just happened to check the servers as part of routine maintenance and saw the briefcase was hooked in. I activated the search programs as soon as I saw it.” Ryo spoke up, “And neither Richardson or his assistant never noticed?” “Like I told you I designed the security protocol for that briefcase,” he reminded him. “And like I said there's hundreds of copies of this file in that hard drive because it backs up everything daily. I just picked a random one in the middle of the group to make a copy of, they shouldn't notice it any time soon.” “Guys we have to celebrate,” Bill told the group. “Bridge pulled off the damn near impossible here and took a huge target off of Ken's back.” “I never thought I'd say this,” Ken spoke up almost giddy, as he finally let go of Jess, “but I agree with Bill. We need to party.” Bridge flinched away a bit as He wrapped a arm around his shoulders, “And the man of the hour is right here.” “I don't want to put a damper on the situation,” Hawk told them, “But how do we celebrate without giving away what we did?” “Well think of something,” Ken quickly responded. To Ryo and Bill he said, “Do either of you have a major birthday or event coming up? No? We'll make something up.” “What are going to do with the video?”, Ryo asked. “I mean we can't just leave it this computer. Somebody else might discover that.” “You have this on a drive already,” Jess spoke up, “don't you Bridge? Tapping something on the control in front of him he answered with, “Right here, seemed like a better idea to put it on this than just loading it to our servers. Here Ken, I'm pretty sure this belongs to you.” Unconnecting it from the holotable he handed it to her when she held out her hand. Jess studied the drive for a bit before handing it to Ken who took it with a shaky hand. “Now we just have to figure out where to keep it in case we need it,” she told him. He barely heard her, his eyes were transfixed on the drive in his hand. After all this time, with this damn video hanging over his head. Now the threat from Richardson was still there, but now he had something to fight back with. Ken had never felt so free in his life. “Civilian,” Bill spoke up, “Whatever you do, do not lose that.” “Like I'm going to let that happen,” Jess told him, “Where do you think we should put it? It has to be a place Richardson, Stanberry or Dr. Williams wouldn't even think to look.” “I...,” Ken began just staring at the drive, almost if he was afraid it would simply vanish if he took his eyes off of it for even a second, “ I don't know. I got to think it over.” While they were talking Hawk looked thoughtful, finally saying, “Ken.” He and the others looked at him. “how much do you actually trust me?” Caught off guard it took Ken a moment to respond, “I trust you completely Captain.” “Do you trust me enough to hold on to that for you?”. Ken looked between him and the drive several times, finding himself growing paranoid all of the sudden. Hawk seemed to sense his apprehension and trued not to force the issue by holding out a hand. But Ken was fully aware that everyone was watching him intently, just waiting to see what he'll do.. And why was he hesitating? Hawk was the first one here to try and make him feel like he belonged in the unit despite the rocky start. Ken had no reason not to trust him. But he had this video hanging over him for so long he didn't want to risk letting it go. Wrapping his fingers around it he brought his hand to his head and closed his eyes. “I trust you Captain,” he said as he opened them back up. Still he was reluctant to hand it over as he finally placed it in Hawk's hand. “I'll try not to break that trust son,” Hawk told him as he pocketed the drive. “I know that was hard for you Ken. And I wouldn't say anything if you didn't give it to me.” “I would have,” Bill told him. Ryo quickly elbowed him in the ribs. “Why don't you all go and grab a late lunch,” Hawk told the group.Turning toward Bridge he went, “Unless there's anything else you would like to share with the rest of us that is.” Again Ken got hopeful, yes he got the video, but there was the whole deal with his communicator that they ust found out about too. A simple shake of his head was all it took to shoot that hope down.He looked over at Jess grateful that she started rubbing his arm. Hawk looked at all of them and said, “Alright then, dismissed.” *** Another day another cavern. Another defeated monster. Brooks sat on a stone, tossing a ball of dark energy from hand to hand, waiting for his masters to contact him. While he did so he silently sat there stewing about the defeat of Majaba. That one was one of his, much like the creature from the other dimension that snuck through when Bemular was sent over that he “boosted” to a more massive size. And much like that one he took it's defeat a little more personally than the others that were lost to Scott and the giant. It didn't matter that the mantis was the first, and still the only so far, creature that he had spotted when those same master once again gave him 'permission' to experiment with his powers once again. And that more than likely meant they expected his creation to fail, just to buy themselves a little extra time to finalize whatever they were planning. One one hand the logical part of his mind under stood why, or at least a reason he told himself repeatedly. To try and tire the giant out. After so many battles something would have to give with either the giant or Scott. Something that might have happened sooner if Scott didn't reveal his secret to the others. He remember the attitude some of the troops had toward Ultraman when he first appeared, how some of them wanted a chance to take the giant down if given the chance, he doubted that had diminished in the time he was gone. But he was no fool, Scott revealed his secret right in front of Captain Hawk. He would most definitely be on Scott's side if the others discovered the truth, and the rest of the so called Monster Squad would be right there beside him, as would others. They were so lucky they lived at Castle, and therefore extremely protected. Otherwise he would have shown Scott the folly of changing the rules of their little game on him. Of course there was another reason for the permissions he had been given that occurred to him.One that irked him just as much as loosing one of his 'babies'. It was an attempt to humble him. To make him remember his place as it were. And if that was the reason then they still didn't understand humans, himself in particular, at all. It just made the desire to defeart Scoot and the giant, and show them up in the process even stronger. He looked at the dark energy swirling between his hands. It made an image of the so called Ultraman. Snarling in disgust he clapped his hands together, smashing the image he subconscioulsy created into oblivion. “One day,” he muttered to himself, “one day Scott. That will be you then the last laugh will be mine.” Sensing something he looked to the side to see the familiar sight of the vortex his masters used to communicate with him from. Getting off the stone he stood where he usually did as he waited for the shape of one of them appear inside it. When it did a voice said, “Avatar.” “My masters,” he said with a slight bow, careful to hold back any sign of sarcasm as these Zettons did not appreciate it as much as other humans. “Am I correct in assuming the next creature is ready to send over.” He gave a quick glance of the space he was in. It wouldn't fit a full size creature, more than likely it was one that had to grow here as it happened once or twice in the past. He was caught slightly off guard by the response, “Almost Avatar, Just a little more time is needed. And we highly appreciate you contributions to the process.” Cocking an eyebrow at that particular statement he wasn't expecting that, much less announcing their appreciation? He had to have fallen into another universe at some point, perhaps during that whole mess with Kyrie and Scott not that long ago. “I am grateful for your kind words masters, but exactly what contribution did I have part in.?” “For adding to the data we have been collecting on the giant.” Again he was confused. “Ever since his first appearance we have been studying him just in case a moment like this one came to pass. We feel we now have enough usable data in order to finally defeat him and take over your world.” Now he understood, they were playing the long game here. An extremely long game from the sound of things, and he a mere pawn in said game. “From the beginning?”, he ended up asking. “Since he fought Bemular?” “No,” was the answer. “From the one right after that one.” From the Gazoto they had him boost to a larger size. Still even without that initial battle, and perhaps including the one against King Joe since that was a creation of scientist on this side of things, maybe even the one against whatever Kyrie and Jamira became since those where rather sudden. Still it was a rather impressive catalogs of Ultraman battles to have at their disposal. “We are programming them into our latest creation as we speak.” “And how soon will this one be ready?” “Soon,” came the reply. “But first we have an experiment we wish to preform.” Brooks took a step back as the vortex grew in size. For a brief moment he feared this experiment was going to involve him. But instead of being attack he watched as the figure stepped forward through the portal. Brooks held up his hands as he prepared to stabilized the beings as he had to so many creatures before. But as it took the shape and appearance of the Zettons it held up a hand to stop him. Brooks watched as it studied it's other hand for a moment. It was here when he noticed the blinking light on it's shoulder as the Zetton slowly stepped away from the vortex that returned to it's original size. It looked around the cavern before returning it's attention back to the vortex, “It seems to be a success so far.” A new voice spoke out, “Excellent. We will keep this portal open for future reports. Monitor you're situation until then.” Brook took an unsteady step toward he Zetton, studying it intently. “You can survive in this dimension now?” Considering they needed him to stabilize their creations when they sent them over this was a bit of a shock to him. Not even looking at him the Zetton said, “It is a new development. One we quickly advanced after your reports of one who was forcibly taken from us. If that human could pull such a feat than it should be a simple matter for us.” If it was so simple why didn't you do so before now, but Brooks kept that thought to himself. Especially with that Vortex was still open. “A marvelous feat of science if I do say so myself.” He studied the Zetton with some apprehension, why did they feel this necessary to begin with? “But,” he thought fast to figure out what he wanted to say without incurring it's wrath, “seeing it in practice is a bit unsettling to see in person.” “It is part of a new strategy,” came the answer. “We will show ourselves to the ones that ally themselves with the giant. In an attack right before we unleash our newest creation.” He looked back at the vortex when the Zetton did. He wasn't sure, but Brooks could have sworn he heard some sort of sound and a deep voice growl out a single word. “Zetton.” *** After having that drive in his possession for the past day Hawk had put it at least four different places in his office so far. Finally letting it rest in the drawer in his desk, but not the one he kept locked. The way he was figuring things he was going to need quick access to it when it came time. He always told those under him that seconds count in a battle situation. And in his mind this was no different, the field might not be something he was used to but it would have been a battle none the less, Hawk had every intention of using this particular “bomb” when the time came because Richardson wouldn't hesitate to use any advantage he had in the same situation. The chime at his door going off made him glance at that drawer, something he was going to have to try to not get in the habit of. The last thing he needed was to give it's location away by accident. Considering he didn't even know who was behind the door at the moment since he finally had that issue that allowed him to hear what was going in the other room fixed after Janet became his secretary, it would be a even bigger issue if the person decided to get curious at what he was hiding. A worry for another time, he told himself. Since Janet hadn't told him somebody wanted to see him it couldn't be that important. “Enter,” he called out. Unsurprisingly Reid was the one on the other side. He stood as the Commander walked in, “Jason,” he greeted his Beta team counterpart, “what can I do for you?” “Just came by to drop off a report that got on my desk,” he handed it over to Hawk who raised an eyebrow when he did so. Taking the folder he looked it over for a second before chuckling a bit. “I thought you might find it amusing.” As he glanced over the report, and he did find it mildly amusing, and slightly familiar at the same time, “I see the good Doctor Williams didn't want you to feel left out in the super vehicle department finally.” “Apparently,” Reid said as he took the file back. “I know I haven't talked to him about it. So either it was all his own idea, one of my men put the bug in his ear.” “Trust me, Dr. Williams doesn't need anyone putting anything in those ears of his. After all the times I ordered my guys not to mention some sort of tank or drill like vehicle over an open line in case he overheard it some how.” Considering how he was one of the three listening to Ken when he was in the field that was already a lost cause. “Hell I'm surprised it took him this long to bring it up. He came to me with some prototype plans for the Alpha One almost as soon as the board finally gave it the green light.” “I haven't heard of anything about it before now,” he said as he took the offered seat. Hawk took the one next to him instead of going around to behind his desk. As causal as this was there was no need to be so formal at the moment. He pulled a disk Hawk had seen out of the folder, “Speaking of plans, he says this as the initial plans for that vehicle. He wanted me and my team's input on it.” Hawk just nodded, Williams made a similar request when it came to the Alpha One. “Which brings me to the main reason why I brought this to your attention.” Again Hawk just nodded getting a feeling he knew Reid was going, “You want Ken to take a look at it.” “If it's no trouble that is.” “Not for him,” Hawk said. “I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help you out.” Here Hawk paused trying to figure out the best way to say this. “It'll just be me and him,” Reid said, reading his mind. “And maybe one or two others I know for sure don't have a problem with him since he's been here.Admittedly that's a pretty short list,” he added with a slight grin. A small joke seeing how much most of the people here treated him like a pariah when he first arrived. Fortunately it was a lot better lately now that he'd proven himself time and time again.. And in ways only a select few knew about. “Like I said Jason,” Hawk said. “he'd be happy to help you. I'll ask him if you want, he won't say no to me that fast.” “No need for that Gabe,” Reid assured him. “I'm only worried I'm going to catch him at the wrong moment, if the rumor mill is to be believed. Although between the two of us,” he leaned in a little, So Hawk did as well. “I'm a little surprised how this budding relationship with Wade has affected him. I mean for a while there I was worried he was going to go crazy from this place. Now he looks like he has a new bounce in his step.” Rubbing his chin Hawk responded with, “New love will do that in the right circumstances. And I'm sure getting Windam to finally work right had a bit to do with that bounce too.” Not to mention getting a couple of big secrets off of his chest probably worked wonders too, not that he could share that last bit with Ried no matter how much he trusted him. “But I'm happy for them, either way.” “So am I,” Reid quickly said. “although to be a little honest, I'm a bit surprised you're letting it happen with both of them in your main unit and all. I've overheard a couple of people say it creates a conflict of interest.” “I think I heard those same people,” Hawk told him with a sigh, “when they thought I wasn't around of course. But I've always told my men that as long as nothing they do has a negative effect on the unit I'll stay out of their affairs. Besides if I broke them up then I might as well go after the other couples in Castle. And that is a can of worms I have no interest in getting into.” “I don't blame you there,” Reid told him. “Most of the push back against the one talking about Ken and Wade are those same couples. Personally I think it's how touchy feely they been since they been together, almost like they were a couple of teenagers if you listen to the scuttlebutt and all that.” “From my understanding,” Hawk began leaning back a bit, “They use to date, back in high school I believe. It could be they just feel into old habits Or it could be the new love thing like I said. Give them time I'm sure they'll mellow out eventually.” “Or a combination of both,” Reid added. “But as you said as long as it doesn't affect the team it's not really our business.” He then looked thoughtful about something. “But I did want to talk to you about something else we talked about briefly. About the possibility of Ultraman being one of us.” Hawk tried not to show his trepidation. Because he was afraid he might have accidentally lead him right to Ken. And he wasn't exactly comfortable with the number who knew now as it was. “Was it because he keeps showing up where we are?” He really choose his words carefully now. “Ever since he showed up in Japan.” And those were probably the wrong words considering the limited amount of Castle personal who went on that particular trip. Too late to back out now. “If he's not one of us then he's connected to somebody some how.” “Yeah,” Reid nodded, “I highly doubt he's sitting in the sky somewhere just watching what we're doing and waiting for a monster to pop up.” Looking at him Hawk wondered exactly which parts of his brain were trying to connect the pieces in front of him. “I'm sure you got a couple of suspects in mind already since you brought it up to me.” “One or two,” he told Reid. “But I don't have any proof one way or another. I made the mistake of accusing Ken of sabotaging the Alpha One with out any concrete proof once. I don't want to make the same mistake with the one actually helping us out against those things.” “Completely understandable,” he told him. “And considering a good chunk of Beta still wants to take a shot at him I can see why.” “I have a few in Alpha waiting for Richardson to rescind that particular order as well.” Shaking his head Reid went, “It's a damn shame. He does so much to help us fight those monsters and this is the reception he gets. I don't blame the guy, whomever it is, for keeping quiet for so long.” “Neither do I,” Hawk said, hoping that meant he hadn't put two and two together yet about Ken and Ultraman. “Wish I could tell him I had his back.” “I'm sure he would appreciate it Jason.” After a bit more small talk Reid took his leave. Once he was gone Hawk visibly relaxed. He came that close to blowing Ken's secret. He had faith in him and he didn't want to tarnish it any by accident. But again how did he manage to keep that a secret for so long by himself? *** She was almost becoming a regular in the garage level. Almost as soon as she walked in holding a couple of cups of coffee the few that saw her pretty much all pointed to the lab Windam was in. Jess was taken back a bit but she nodded in thanks real quick since her hands were full as she headed for that door. Granted she already guessed Ken was going to be in there already but she was grateful for the assistance. Then she realized the door was closed, and there was no place to set one of the coffees that she could currently see. One of the workers saw her dilemma and quickly got the door for her, “There you go.” “Thanks Phil,” she said. Being here so often looking for Ken she did quickly learn the names of the ones he was friendly with. And to be fair Ken tried to do the same with the people on base she was friendly with as well. Fortunately these current friends liked him better than some of her old ones back in high school. She looked back after Phil closed the door behind her. Then she looked over to see Ken wiping something down on Windam. “Was something wrong with him?”, she asked when he spotted her. Taking one of the offered coffees he told her, “Thanks,” and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “No nothing was wrong, just polishing him up a bit. Windam's has to look his best you know.” She rolled her eyes, yeah that was Ken in a heartbeat when it came to machines. “I hate to burst your bubble Ken but he's still considered a battle bot,” she said sitting on a free stool. “Doesn't mean he still can't look his best. You don't want to be all dingy looking facing down a bad guy, do you buddy?” Windam shook his head once in answer. Ken just beamed with pride as he looked at her, “See.” “You taught him that,” she shot back. He quickly held a hand up, “Get a stack of bibles, that was all him. Now I'm not a software guy like Bridge is, but that adaptive program they put in him is freakin' amazing. You gotta see this, I was going to show you the other day but Hawk came in. Windam where's your favorite toy? “He has a favorite toy?”, Jess asked as Windam started looking around before moving in one direction. Then he went to a wall, bent over and picked something up. Walking back over he handed Ken a small figurine of some sort. Jess just stared, “I don't believe it.” Taking the offered figure he showed it to her, “His favorite toy.” He handed it back to the robot. “I swear he damn near has a personality already. Hell, I thought I was going to have to leave Bridge alone for a few minutes when I showed this off to him. I can't believe they were just going to put him in a display case and leave him there,” he added as he seemingly spotted another smudge or something to wipe down. She just shook her head at the display she just witnessed, “Okay, all serious here, but maybe you should have been at Tower all this time. Not that I'm exactly sure how much actual work you would have gotten done geeking out over everything.” “Maybe,” he conceded although still a bit annoyed she brought it up again, “but then I never would have gotten back together with you.” With a slight grin he added, “Sounds like a good trade off to me.” She got up and wrapped her arms around his waist, “I cannot disagree with your logic there.” He put an arm around her and gave her a quick squeeze. Windam turned his head which amused Ken greatly. She pointed at the robot, “Did he just think we were going to kiss or something?” “Apparently,” he told her not even hiding how happy he was over the situation. Then he gave her a quick one which caught her off guard a little then looked around the room. He turned back to her smiling, “No sign of Hawk anywhere.” “Well in that case,” Jess said as she pulled him in for a longer one. She pulled away going, “Been wanting to do that longer than I originally thought.” “Tell me about it,” he said. “I was almost afraid we're going to be late for homeroom for a moment,” he added as a joke. She was about the say something when the dorr was pushed open with a bang. Instinct made her go for the weapon that wasn't there. Ken got ready for a fight as well but she stopped his head from reaching into his Jacket right away. Then Windam moved and stood in front of them and the person who forcibly entered the room. They both looked as Stanberry, Richardson's assistant stared at them. She felt Ken tense up as he snapped, “You ever heard of knocking?!” “I believe I just did,” she told as she glanced at the door as she walked in. “I'm here to inform you this particular relationship is now officially over.” “You don't have the authority,” Jess told her, “There's no regulation that says nobody in the UNDF can see each other. “But Scott isn't part of the UNDF, not officially any way. Mr, Richardson has decided that his status as a civilian operative means...” “Bullshit!”, Ken suddenly exploded and stormed toward her. Stanberry stepped back in surprise, and if she had to be honest a bit of fear crossed her face a little. Jess was a little afraid herself if she had to be honest, She had never seen Ken so angry before. And if he did he never showed it before now. “I don't give a fuck what Richardson thinks. My personal life is not his fucking concern,” “We both beg to differ Mr,” She didn't even get a chance to finish. “You tell Richardson he can take his opinion and stick it straight up his ass. Sideways. You too.” Then Stanberry looked over at her with a particular look. She was expecting it, Ken having told her about the silent threat when he almost told her and Hawk everything after Brooks escaped. If she was expecting Ken to back down again she was deeply mistaken as Ken took a step closer. Jess couldn't see his face but she was surprised by the near venomous like tone of his voice as he told her, “Test me bitch.” Stanberry took another step back, definitely in surprise this time. “What the hell is going on in here?”, the Chief demanded as he stormed in. Although once he saw Ken he quickly got between the two of them. “You want to help me back him off?”, he asked Jess after a bit. That snapped her out of the stupor she was in as she grabbed his arm and dragged him away from Stanberry. “Now what the hell happened in here?” “He was going to attack me,” she quickly said, “for no reason.” Which was a bold face lie but how were they going to explain their side of things. Apparently they didn't have too as the Chief crossed his arms. “Really now, no reason you say? Funny, because I have at least five people who flagged me over who told me you barged in here uninvited and said something that royally pissed him off. And considering the short time I've known him he's been really even tempered so that's really saying something.” “And this doesn't concern you,” Stanberry informed him realizing he wasn't going to believe her, basically dismissing him. “Go back to what little task you were doing before now.” “Now she did it.” Ken muttered. Jess looked at him before looking back at the chief. The change in his demeanor was evident to everyone but Stanberry apparently. “Little task?,” he said evenly enough but something about him finally tipped off Stanberry as she started looking less and less smug by the second. “She call running this entire division a little task. I will not have some over glorified secretary come barging into my section and start throwing her weight around. Now I'd suggest you walk out of here under your own two feet or I'll have the boys and girls under me physically throw you out.” She looked back and a couple of the 'boys and girls' as he called them were at the door. Most of them looking like they were just waiting for the word to be given. “Mr. Richardson will not tolerate this treatment,” Stanberry quickly got out. “Well then he can come down here and express his displeasure personally,” the chief told here. “And I'll tell him the same thing. Now get out of here. Phil, Connie,” Stanberry didn't even look back as the two that were called entered the room. She just got this look on her face as she smartly turned around and left, making sure nobody touched her. Finally back at the two of them, “You don't make small enemies do you kid?” Ken just shrugged his shoulders. The Chief just shook his head and left the room himself. Stopping just long enough to examine the door and uttering a small curse before leaving them alone. Ken's only reaction to the situation was, “That felt way better than it probably should have.” “Ken,” Jess began, “you know I have your back where Richardson is concerned. But maybe it wasn't the best idea to fire the opening salvo in this situation.” “She looked at you,” was all he said. “I know, I saw it.” “I got sick of that threat,” he went on. “Even if we didn't have the video I still would have done that.” He reached over and took her hand. She gave his a quick squeeze. “I'm not going to have a pompous son of a bitch tell me who I can't be with right after we got back together.” Jess appreciated the sentiment, she really did. It was something she wanted to see since the days his brothers pushed him to get what he wanted. But she was fully aware of the shit storm this particular incident could cause. Then he got a look on his face as he looked at the ceiling as he said, “This is not going to be a fun conversation.” Then he hit his communicator, “Scott to Hawk.” Jess nodded, he was right it wasn't going to be fun but it was a necessary one all things considered. “I just did something sort of not good.” “I've been getting some reports from the Chief and the garage crew,” he said. Ken just winced. Jess joined in as well. “You want to tell me what's going on before I get upset.” “I,” he began slowly, then he just got it out, “kinda got into it a bit with Stanberry.” “God dammit,” was the exasperated reply. Jess could picture the expression on his face just by the tone. “Stay were you are. I'm going to talk to you and any one who witnessed this personally about what just happened.” “Yes sir, Scott out.” He looked at her and went, “So how screwed am I?” She really didn't know what to tell him, “I not sure, hopefully calling in and telling him upfront instead of trying to hide things will help. But I wouldn't bet on it.” Ken lowered his head. Hopefully Hawk would believe the two of them and any of those who witnessed what happened *** Hawk had to reluctantly give Ken credit for one thing, he didn't do anything small. And getting into a verbal confrontation with Stanberry was the very definition of a big one. And now he had to be the one to deal with some of the fall out. Right now Ken was in his office waiting for this particular meeting to be over with. And if he was smart he'd stay there until he got back. Normally Hawk would have dragged him along, or at least Jessica, to get both parties involved in fixing the situation. But considering the nature of the situation, and the fact he noticed Jessica's hand hover around the general area her gun was in the field, Hawk felt it was best to leave the two of them out of this. And if what they and the others in the hanger told him was true then more level heads were going to be needed. Still he wasn't going to walk into this particular lion's den by himself. He didn't even have to make the request, Reid sought him out after having heard what happened., Hawk wouldn't have been surprised if half of Castle heard it by now. And he halfway expected the other half to hear it within the next five minutes or so. But he was grateful Reid volunteered to join him in the meeting. As it was he rather face down one of those giant creatures alone with a half loaded six shooter at this point. And the rather rough patch they had right after Joe's death and the run around with Ken in the beginning was still fresh in his mind as well. He tried not to think about how he treated Ken this entire time, because if he did he would've head right back to his office and grab that drive. Reid, while not fully aware of the exact details, seemed to sense the inner turmoil he was feeling. “At least there's one good thing,” he said as they reached the door. “things probably won't go as bad as when we confronted Brooks.” Hawk offered a weak smile, “Never assume anything.” Because the fall out could be much, much worse but he didn't share that thought with him. Opening the door without any preamble they walked right in. Like he suspected Stanberry wasn't in sight. More than likely she was in the other room with Richardson. “Once more into the breach,” Hawk said as he headed for the door that lead to Richardson's main office. Not even knocking he opened the door and walked inside seeing Richardson sitting behind his desk with Stanberry by his side. Reid came in right after and stood next to him as each side studied the other. Breaking the silence Hawk calmly said, “Mr. Richardson, I assume you're aware of the reason I'm here.” “Yes,” he said leaning back a bit, “a little incident that's been blown out of proportions. Or one aggravated by Scott if you want to get more specific.” “Funny,” Hawk went taking a couple steps forward. “The way I hear it Stanberry was the aggressor in this situation according to the witnesses I've talked too, including the Chief . And if what they all claiming is true than I'm not sure I can't fully fault Ken for aggravating, as you say, the situation. Now I've already reprimanded Ken for his actions for this situations.” “I hope you'd do morer than reprimaned him,” Richardson interrupted. “Telling Mrs Stanberry her to fight him him of all thing. What kind of man would say that to a woman.” “Even if said woman is your bodyguard?”, Reid chimed in. Richardson shot him a look. To his credit Reid held his ground. Hawk hadn't seen a whole lot of people do that for even a second. “Actually according to Ken,” Hawk quickly cut in before Richardson could respond to him verbally, “His exact words were 'test me' and a particular word generally used to describe a female dog.” Reid spoke up again, “Since the word going around is that she barged in and told Ken and Wade that their relationship was over per your orders I'd be pretty pissed off as well.” “I highly doubt she barged in,” Richardson told them. “Hawk to Bridge,” he said hitting his communicator, “Would you please transmit the footage you found to Richardson's office.” Maybe it wasn't the footage he used to blackmail Ken, but if it would wipe the look of Richardson's face it would be just as good. Not even asking permission he reached over and hit a few switches that activated a hidden view screen in the wall. He stepped back as the footage from the lab started to play. Hawk eyed Richardson the entire time. Naturally he did look away when Stanberry shoved the door in. He turned to Reid. “What did that look like to you?” “Looked like somebody barging in to me,” Reid told him. Stanberry started to reach for the controls, “No don't stop it yet, here comes the part everybody's talking about.” They watched as Ken walked straight up to Stanberry. Then she looked over at Jess. Here Reid stopped the footage himself. “Now I don't know exactly what's going on here, but that look she's giving Wade here has threat written all over it.” “In your opinion Commander,” Richardson snapped at him. “Apparently Ken's as well,” Hawk spoke back up, “since that's when he said what he did. And if I'm being honest I'm seeing a threat in that look as well.” “So she went a little over board,” was all Richardson could respond with. “That's more than a little over board,” Hawk told him. “And I don't even know were to begin with this apparent ruling you made over their relationship.” “It's not you concern Captain, and I'm only using that term for the moment,” Hawk didn't even blink at the thinly veil threat “And I don't take kindly to the offices interfering with the people under me. They are my concern not yours.” “Commander,” he said addressing Reid, “perhaps if you were in total command...” Reid quickly cut off that line of thinking, “You don't want to know the fight I'd be putting up.” Hawk fought hard to keep the smirk off his face as Richardson started sputtering. “The way I see it,” Hawk told him, “that particular decree had no legs to begin with, because you're either targeting one man. Which would bring you a whole mess of legal problems no matter how hard you tried to spin it. Or you're telling everybody involved with somebody not part of the UNDF that they can't be with that person.” “That is preposterous Captain.” “I don't think so. Bridge found that particulat addition you're getting ready to propose to the board to add to the charter. I've read it over several times before I came here, that's exactly how it reads. And the fact you're assistant here tried to enforce it before it was even ratified would add to those legal woes.” “And we didn't even bring up those who are married to those outside the organization,” Reid added. “While I won't speak for Captain Hawk, I personally would be directing people to send all those lawyers fees from the divorces directly toward you and the board. And seeing how our legal team has spouses outside the UNDF I'm sort of doubting they would be all that willing to help you mediate those matters.” “Oh I'm sure one or two would do their job,” Hawk joined in. At his desk Richardson's face was getting redder and redder by the second. “Likely not very well but they would do the job.” “What do the two of you want?!”, Richardson exploded as he stood from his chair. Hawk put his hands on the desk and leaned in so he looked him right in the eyes. Showing him he wasn't impressed at this display of anger at all. After he learned the truth about what happened to Joe, why Ken was really part of his team, no he was going to have to do a lot more than this to get Hawk's attention like he used to. Calmly he replied with, “What we want if for the higher ups to stop messing with the men under us.” “Scott isn't under you,” he sneered. Hawk slapping his hand on the desk caught Richardson by surprise as he sat back down at the look he was getting. “The hell he's not,” Hawk told him. “You said the Civilian Operative program was a second chance. I remember that like it was yesterday. An opportunity for someone who originally fell through the cracks. Ken has more than lived up to that opportunity. Me, Reid, the Chief everybody on base thinks so. You are the first one I know of to say otherwise.” “I think he's the only person in Castle who thinks that,” Reid said. He didn't wither either as Richardson turn his glare toward him. Like Hawk he didn't looked exactly impressed with the display directed toward him. Reid looked over at Stanberry, “Before I forget,” he reached into a pocket and put a slip of paper on the table and slid it toward her, “It's from the Chief. The bill to fix the door. I believe his exact word were 'She broke it she can damn well pay for it.'” “Only seems fair,” Hawk said with a shrug when she looked at him. “So what's it going to be? Are you going to back off Ken or do I tell Bridge to go ahead and scratch a particular itch he's been having since Brooks got away? Because he sure there's some secrets still to be discovered.” His face damn near purple Richardson angrily said, “Fine, I'll forget about that new addendum to the charter, and I'll leave Scott alone. But I will be there when this blows up in your face Captain.” “I'm sure you think it will,” Hawk told him. “Good day sir.” not even waiting for a response he turned around and lead Reid out of the room. Once out of the hallway he stopped and looked back at the door. “Is it wrong that felt good?” Reid started shaking his head, “Gabe I knew you had a set but damn that was something else. What if he called your bluff about Bridge?” “Who said I was bluffing?” Bridge did want to do a little more digging. But not because of Brooks. He wanted to get some more ammunition to help defend Ken. “But what about you? I've hardly ever seen anybody else stand up to him like that.” “Are you kidding?”, Reid went as they continued walking. “I was shaking in my boots.” “Right,” Hawk said in disbelief. “I was standing right next to you and didn't even see a bead of sweat on you.” “I'm really good at hiding it,” was his answer. “Remind me to never play poker with you with a face like that.” *** And he thought being alone with a brainless monster was boring. Granted that was before one of his masters stepped through the vortex to test a device to keep him stable on this side of things. It got to the point were Brooks had timed it out. Every twenty minutes, exactly he might add, the Zetton would examine his extremities just to see if they were still structuarlly stable. Then he, she, whatever the hell it was, would do a check on the device. After it did all of that then ithe Zetton would stand in place staring at the vortex until the next check. And he was pretty sure it kept doing it while he slept as well. And that's all his “guest” did, Brook sure hadn't seen him eat in the the couple of days it had been here, outside of that single eye there wasn't anything to indicate that it had it had any sort of facial features. Not any that he recognized at any point. Out of the corner of his eye he saw it move. Brooks glanced at his watch, twenty on the dot. The Zetton went through it's usual motions before returning to it's usual standing state. Despite knowing he wasn't going to get any sort of response from the alien Brooks still went, “Everything still in working order I presume. Not going to fade away or whatever happens when out of your dimension?” The Zetton didn't even move a fraction of a millimeter than he could tell. Granted he only said something because the near silence was starting to get a little maddening. “Just assuming you're the same one in the vortex every time, you seemed much more chatty on the other side of things.” Brooks eyed narrowed a bit, maybe he was going crazy but he would have sworn it turned it's head, just a little. But that was about it as it kept up the million mile stare it had been doing. The other major drawback was it gave Brooks more than enough time to think. Mainly about the device on it's shoulder. If they were going to use that to stay in this universe, and probably use it to invade the giant's universe as well depending on it's strength, what did that mean for him? They originally made their deal because they needed someone on this side to help stabilize their creatures as they came through. If they could do it mechanically then why would they still need him? For the immediate future he should be fine be, at least that what he told himself since given the size difference between this particular being and the creatures that were usually sent over a little tweaking would be needed to compensate for that difference given how new the technology actually was. And in some of these quiet moments he had almost convinced himself that it was true. But the actual situation meant his days of being useful was probably coming to a close. And somehow he doubted his masters would let him keep the power they had given him as a parting gift, nor would his youthful appearance stick around much longer after that. And Charles Brooks was no match for anyone at the UNDF, someone from sanitation could probably take him out without much effort. So while he sat there contemplating how much damage he could do before they drained these abilities from him he looked over as the vortex started to do something, returning to the state it usually had when communication was happening. He stood next to the Zetton and waited for another of his masters appeared, which made him wonder once again if he dealt with the same being each time. When one did there was no pretense, no greeting, no attempt at small talk, granted that last one may be too human for them, just a single word was uttered, “Report.” So far this one sounded the same as before. “The device is working as designed,” his visitor replied. Paying close attention Brooks couldn't notice any difference in either voices. So as far as he knew there was no difference in the voices between Zetton to Zetton. “There has been no derogation to the test subject.”Did he just refer to himself as “the test subject”? There was cold indifference then there was that. “Excellent,” came the reply. “Do you think the next stage of the plan is feasible?” “I do believe it is.” Brooks raised an eyebrow. He knew there was a plan since they previously mentioned a new plan of attack. But that was about it. He had a idea what it might be with all the time he spent in his head since the experiment began. So he was curious at how close he actually got to the actually plan. “We will commence with the planning stage now.” The shadowed image faded away as the Zetton turned toward him. “We?”, he asked. Now he had a part to play in this situation, interesting. “Yes,” the Zetton said as it walked away from the vortex as it finally disappeared, “your knowledge of the base you used to inhabit should be extremely useful.” So far this was in line with the idea he had come up with.” “Anything I can do to help,” he said as he followed. Holding out a hand the Zetton created a very rough image of a hallway. If he had to guess one they thought existed inside of Castle. Granted based on what was hanging in front of him that could have been any hallway in the building. Or any building, anywhere. “This is what we believe is the main corridor of that base.” Again he had to raise a eyebrow. He vividly recalled that particular hallway, it looked nothing like this. “Any information you can provide to correct and expand on this image would be useful.” Again with the useful. Not appreciated, just useful. He'd show them just useful. Smirking just a bit he activated his own power and took over the image without the Zetton's permission and immediately made the necessary changes, expanding the image into a small model of what he recalled of the inside of Castle. As the Zetton looked around at the adjusted image Brooks crossed his arms, “So what do you want to know?” *** The whole mess with Stanberry blew over fairly quickly for the most part. Just about everybody he came across on base seemed to be backing him and Jess for the most part. Even the old Jamira regulars, which surprised Ken a bit. All right it surprised him a lot. Apparently there was a rule Richardson was getting ready to try and get into place, according to rumors, and it was not sitting well with a lot of the men and woman around him. But at least Stanberry went in another direction every time she saw Ken now. Yes Hawk chewed him out for it but it was worth it as far as he was concerned. But more importantly as far as he was concerned Jess readily forgave him for the incident. And to be honest he was more worried about that than any thing Hawk was going to do to him. Okay it wasn't his fault to begin with but he was so worried about losing her again he didn't want to take any chance to risk it. He dated a few women in the past 10 years since their first go around and none of them made him feel like she did. And the same was true for her based on some of the things they talked about since getting back together. So yeah he was making damn sure he didn't do anything to screw this up. Maybe a little too hard according to Jess. Just another thing to keep in mind. But he told himself to try and not think about so much, she loved him, he didn't have Jeff trying to push his buttons to get what he wanted at their expense any more, and, at least according to her, he was being the type of man she knew was on the inside whatever that meant. As far as he could tell he was just being himself. But if she was happy with what she was seeing he'd take it. But those were thoughts for when he was alone, sitting in the cafeteria with her and the others he just learned a new bit of information that he never knew about. “Since when has there been a Tabitha?” Ryo looked embarrassed at the question.Bill looked just as uncomfortable for some reason. “Sorry Ryo,” Jess told him looking apologetic. “It just slipped out “ “Okay who is Tabitha and how long have her and Ryo been a thing?”, Ken asked still feeling confused over this new bit of information. Ryo had a girl? When in the hell did that happen? He barely left Castle as far as Ken knew. “This had to be how you felt when you were telling us about Dax,” he mumbled as he retrieved his wallet and showed him Tabitha's picture. “It's been a little over a month. And I'm surprised she didn't tell you before now.” he said indicating Jess as he put his wallet back. “I don't tell him everything,” she said a little defensively. And that drew a look from Ken. She ended up telling him something similar to what she told Hawk, “It's not my story to tell.” “That never stopped you in high school,” he informed her. “I knew who people I never even heard of were dating because of you.” “I was a teenage woman back then,” she told him. “Gossip was a second language for me and my friends.” “Oh trust me I recall how fluent you use to be back then,” he told her. Then he returned his attention back to Ryo, “But dude a month and you never said anything?” “He didn't tell me either,” Jess informed him. “I'm pretty sure he told us to shut Bill up.” And now he was confused all over again. “Why?”, he began. Bill sharply answered with, “Don't ask,” before he could even finish the question. “Okay, now I really want to ask,” Ken told the group. Ryo smirked at Bill as he started burying his face in his hands. “That's not making me want to ask any less.” “Leave him alone Ken,” Jess told him. “There's plenty of time to hear about it later.” Bill went from looking grateful to betrayed pretty quick. Okay he really wanted to know what was going on now. “Bill, I'll make you a deal,” Ken told him. When Bill looked interested he continued, “I'll drop it if you tell me how you convinced whomever it was back at Tower to send those barricade plans?” “What barricade plans?”, he asked. And he wasn't the only one at the table who was confused. “Those expanding Barricades they used during that assault back at Tower,” he reminded them. “I seem to recall you asking to get me the plans at the time.” At this Bill perked up a little. “Dude are you serious? You got the plans?” Realizing everyone at the table was staring at him now he quickly said, “I never talked to anybody after we saw them that one time. I mean Bridge is the only person I know with any regular contact with anybody at Tower and I didn't go through him. Ask him yourself.” “We will,” Ryo told him. Waving him off Bill asked Ken, “But seriously they sent the plans?” “The Chief showed them to me before I headed here,” Ken answered him. “And he has no idea why we got them either.” “Maybe they're sending them to all the UNDF bases,” Jess offered. “Making them standard equipment now since they worked so well during that assault.” “The Chief considered that,” Ken told her. “He's contacting the other bases to see if they got the plans too. If they didn't, and if Bill didn't pester anybody to get them, then Greenberg still trying to rntice me to come over for a bit.” “So a little sample of what you could be working on,” Jess said while shaking her head. “Doesn't give up easy, does he?”, Ryo quipped. “It's literally the first time I've heard from him since Japan if it's true,” Ken told them. He glanced over at Jess, “But since we have the plans the Chief wants me to take the lead on building the first one, just to see if it'll work like people who where there said it did. He wants to get started as soon as possible, like right after dinner” “Hey that's great,” Jess told him with a big smile. “Taking the lead on a big project like that. See I told you you had it in you.” “I know we didn't have any plans or anything,” he started to say. :Go,” she told him, “I know you're salivating just to build one as much as Bill is to get them. Go and have some fun, just don't make Windam jealous. Just remember I'm here once this part of your career takes off.” He had this same exact thought several times back when the dated the first time around. Ken just never said it out loud for anybody else to hear before, “I don't deserve you.” “You probably don't,” she said. “But I think I'll stick with you anyway.” They both leaned in for a kiss. Then both of them stopped and looked around the room. “You see Hawk any where?”, Ken asked, standing up a little to survey the area better. She looked around him to see behind him, “I'm not seeing him anywhere.” “If he just pops up again than he fucking teleported,”, Ken muttered as he sat back down.and kissed her. Both of them lingered on it for a bit before pulling away. “Well teach?” “Better,” she told him. “Much better.” “I for one,” Bill suddenly spoke up, “can't wait until you two get out of this phase of the relationship,” While both of them stared at him, and Ryo slowly trying to move away from Bill, Jess was the one who asked the question, “What stage are you talking about?” “This whole touchy lovey dovey thing you guys are doing now.” Ken and Jess just looked at each other, both wondering what the hell he was talking about. “It's getting sickening. There's no way you two could get any worse.” Ryo mumbled, “You had to say it.” “I'm suddenly seeing why Ryo hadn't mention he was seeing somebody before now,” Ken told him, still feeling confused. “Mr. Scott,” Jess said as she turned in her chair to face him, “I don't know about you but that sounded like a challenge to me.” “I do believe you are correct Miss Wade,” he joined in. He took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. “Shall we take up the gauntlet snuggle bunny?” “And here we go,” Ryo said pushing away from the table, While Bill looked at him, face full of worry. Jess grinned at him, “Yes we should honey dove.” “My cute little angel.” “My big, strong hard working man.” She got in close, “I wuv you.” “I wuv you more,” he said tapping the tip of her nose lightly. Bill started patting the table. “I'm tapping, I'm tapping. You guys win.” “You brought it on yourself,” Ryo told him as he brought his chair back to the table. “Thank God,” Ken said said after Bill stopped tapping out, “I was making myself sick there.” Still grinning Jess said, “I'm pretty sure that was you in high school.” “No way,” he said in full disbelief. And surprised when she actually nodded. He thought hard and fast, there was no way he acted like that the first time around. Was there? Eventually he ended up going, “How did you stand me?” “I don't know,” she answered him, “but you're lucky I did.” “Oh I fully realize that, thank you very much.” Then he felt something from Dax. Several somethings almost all at once that made him look around. These were close, too close for comfort. And more were still popping up. What the hell was going on? “Ken?”, Jess asked. All around them communicators were going off about some sort of invasion happening. But that made no sense. Then he got another spike, one that made him whip around to face the far end of the room. A few started to back away as some sort of portal formed out of thin air. Then some sort of one eyed being started to walk through. Ken tensed up, he had seen something like that before. At Kyrie's lab not that long ago, it was one of the creatures Dax's people were at war with. He barely heard Dax's warning as he saw the creature hold up some sort of device and fire it, in his direction. Jess reacted before he did, grabbing him by the jacket and throwing both of them to the ground. Ryo and Bill were right behind them as more of those creatures came through firing at anything that moved, which was just about everybody in the room who was trying to run. “I'm guessing friends of Brooks,” Bill said as the four of them tried to crawl toward the closest door since none of them were armed. And there were way too many witnesses to let Dax out and play.. “Did you have to ask?”, Ryo snapped at him. Before long a group of guards burst through that particular door and started firing at anything that didn't look human.That particular number was growing by the moment as the portal stayed open. The creatures started concentrating their fire at them. From Ken's perspective it looked like both sides took hits but only the UNDF soldiers were going down. Then something caught his eye while on the ground. A light on the creature that kept going on and off. Once drawn to the device on it's shoulder his mind went into overdrive trying to figure it out. And he wasn't sure if it was because it was alien technology or the stress from the situation or both but how it worked was staying just outside his mental reach, but he understood their function right away. They were using them to stay in this dimension. He looked over to where he thought Jess and the others were but quickly realized they had moved on without him. Seeing Jess head toward one of the fallen guards he hurried up to catch up with them. She grabbed the man's gun when he did. “You gotta aim for the device keeping them stable in this dimension.” Ryo grabbed a weapon as well and knelt next to Jess as they joined in. Bill just looked at him as he gtabbed a gun for himswlf, “Aim for the what?” For the love of... Taking a quick breath Ken tried to remember that despite telling them all he knew he still knew these things longer than they have. So he told him, “Shoot the blinky thing!” Jess paused just long enough to hear what he said. Then she took a quick aim on one and fired off a single shot. It hit the device and caused it to spark a bit then the creature screamed a bit as it dissolved away into nothing. Ken watched the whole thing and a couple of others as she scored a few more bull eyes. “Geez Dax was that going to happen to you if we didn't bond?” He didn't hear a response as the invaders suddenly all turned in their direction and increased their fire. “Move!”, Ryo shouted as they made it for the door. Once in the hallway and seeing it was clear for the moment they finally stood and ran away from the cafeteria as did others who were able to escape. Toward the armory if Ken recalled correctly. Hitting his communicator Ryo kept moving as he looked around, “Watanabe to all units still fighting, aim for the blinking device on the creatures' shoulder. Damaging that will make them go away.” “Ryo,” Hawk called out over the line, “are you absolutely sure about that?” “Saw it happen myself Captain,” he said. He glanced back at him before saying, “Ken was the one who figured it out.” “Understood, Hawk to all units, aim for that device.” “You heard him Beta Team,” Reid joined in. “Sounds like the best plan we have for the moment.” There were several rounds of acknowledgement. Then another group of creatures came around the corner. They seemed surprised enough that they didn't fire right away. That didn't stop them however as they quickly opened fire on the group, with Jess hitting the target the most. While the sound of things made it seem like these creatures were all over the place that group sudden appearance made him ask, “Dax can you sense these guys?” The others looked at him, with Jess in particular looking at his communicator then stopped, realizing now was not the time to worry about him being listened in on. In his head he heard Daxium tell him, “No, I have no idea where any of them are after they exit those portals.” Nodding a bit Ken said, “Probably means they can't sense us either.” “It's a likely possibility,” he heard in his head. Outside his head he heard Ryo go, “What are you thinking Ken?” “I'm still piecing it together,” He answered and tried to think fast. “That's the way to the armory right?” When they said it was he tried to get out what was in his head. “That last group came from that way. Granted it was probably chance but you have to think Brooks told them where stuff was around here.” “The stuff he knew about when he was here,” Jess took over for him seeing his line of thinking. “It's 101, keep the troops away from the weapons.” “But we have more than one armory,” Bill said. “Now,” Ryo said. “We added several weapon stockpiles on every level since Brooks. He wouldn't know about them.” “So we hoof it to another floor,” he said in understanding. “So which way do we head, up or down?” “Both,” Ryo told them. “we split up,You and me will head up, maybe try and meet up with either Hawk or Reid. Jess, you and Ken head down.” “The garage is pretty close,” Jess offered. “I'm sure the chief has the area secured right now. And them maybe we can coordinate a pincer movement of a sort and try to trap them between the two groups. Catch them in a crossfire if we can.” “Maybe I can get Windam involved too,” Ken offered. “His battle computer is active and we could use all the help we can get.” “Sounds like the best play we have for the moment,” Ryo told them. “Keep you heads down and eyes wide open. Be safe guys.” They all acknowledged him and continued on until they found a stair well. After making sure both ways were clear they split up and headed toward their destinations. *** “Bridge do we have whatever these things are on sensors?”, Hawk said from his post. There was a lull in the attack they were facing for the moment, the invaders backing away once they realized they figured out what to target now thanks to Ken's observation. Everything in his body told him to take the breather, and many of those with him were doing just that. Especially with the wounded and fallen they pulled in here with them. But he didn't get this far by not being aware of what was going on elsewhere in a battle. “Barely,” was the eventual answer. Right now Hawk was just grateful none of those portals had opened up in Command Room, otherwise the entire outfit would be blind and deaf to must things going on in the complex. “We have some sort of energy signature we can follow but mainly we know were they are based on the reports that are coming in.” Not ideal but it was better than nothing at the moment. As it was Hawk had barricaded both ends of the hallway that lead to the Command Room, but he didn't dare leave and talk to the man himself. “If I have to be honest Captain,” Bridge went on, “Whatever they used to get in is similar to the portal Brooks used to bring that monster down on us when we found out about him. They're wrecking havoc with our electrical systems but not on the same scale.” “So that's who he'd been working for,” Hawk muttered, mostly to himself. Thanks to Ken he knew about this strange war that made it's way to their world. But outside of the ones like Daxium he wasn't all that versed on the combatants. Well, outside of finally getting a good look at the one Kyrie some how produced he had no idea what they looked like. “Okay Bridge, keep trying to lock in on them and keep me updated.” “Yes sir,” Bridge replied before cutting the link. The one question he really wanted to ask the man was could the enemy listening in on them. It would be so easy to walk into the room and ask him face to face. But he couldn't leave his post in case they renewed their attack. He didn't even know what there goal was. The portals just showed up at seemingly random places so it was hard to figure out the objective they were after. So he went on instinct when he set up shop here as soon as he could, trying to guess what the potential targets could be. Speaking of potential targets,“Stanberry,” he called out over his communicator, one more concern he had to worry about, “Location report.” He intentionally kept the question as vague as possible, not giving away where she was just in case they were listening in “Secured,” was her reply. Whatever the issues between them were she knew her responsibilities was to protect Richardson and the board. And hopefully the men he and Reid allocated to support her were going to be enough, as it was he had Janet and the other secretaries and civilian staff on base hold up in whatever office they were in. “No sign of the enemy anywhere.” Another small favor there, if they wanted to disrupt them or get them to surrender then there was no faster way than to capture the Board. Then again that was thinking in human terms, who knew what these invaders thought. The fact none of the portals appeared in that section at least told Hawk they didn't consider them a priority, at least for the moment. “Understood, it goes without saying but keep your eyes open for anything.” There wasn't any response as the link ended. “Captain Hawk,” he turned around when he heard his name called, and was relieved when he saw Ryo, Bill and a few more men come toward him. “Good to see you Ryo, Bill,” he told the men and acknowledged the others. The fear started to set in as he realized some were missing“Were's Jess and Ken?” “They headed for the garage,” was Ryo's answer. Then he quickly filled him in on Ken's observation when he last saw him. Hawk would have to remind himself to be happy at how far Ken had come with thinking like that. Right now he had to go over his original strategy with what he knew now. If it was right they're initial goal was to try and cut them off from the main armory. And if Ken was right about Brooks' involvement in this attack then some of their information would be out of date. How could he use that? “Hawk to Bridge,” he said suddenly. “Those reading you're able to get, how wide spread are they?” “Not very,” came the surprising response. “Outside of the occasional burst here and there, readings and reports have them primarily around the main armory. With a group near the hanger and garage.” Hawk looked at Ryo and knew they had the same thought, Jess and Ken were headed for the garage. “They are trying to separate us from the weapons from the look of things, heavy or small.” “Looks like,” Ryo agreed. “But how come they haven't tried to gain a foot hold somewhere else? We were caught off guard and they could have wiped us out without even trying, at least set up a base of operations before we could stop them.” “I'm not sure,” Hawk told him. And that was driving him insane at the moment. Something like this there had to be a goal, even if it was just confusion. Then it hit him, that was the plan . “They want us confused,” he said softly. “This is a diversion. This whole thing is just a diversion for something else.” “What could this be a diversion for,” Bill asked. “I mean there's usually a giant monster of some sort.” “Brooks,” Hawk told him. “Brooks had to do something when that other monster showed up. Why else he unleash that massive amount of energy before it came through. He's around somewhere. They want to make sure we couldn't detect him,” he talked a little softer so only the two of them could hear him, “or Ken for that matter.” “If this is what they're doing to distract us then.. .,” Ryo started to say but stopped. Bill paled slightly as he thought about it. Hawk couldn't blame him, after all the monsters that were sent their way what was coming up if they were going to this length to get their attention? *** Oh how she wished Ken was able to sense where these things were. At least it would make each corner they approached a little less nerve wreaking. She had them stay close to the wall and gave him a weapon and told him to keep an eye on their rear as they made their way to the garage. He was at least aware of how serious the situation was to reframe from making the obvious joke. Actually Jess didn't think she would have minded it that much if it broke the tension a bit. Reaching yet another intersection she motioned for him to take the other corner and check it, almost there she told herself. Ken carefully peeked around the corner then nodded at her, all clear. She nodded in response then checked the hall leading closer to the garage. She motioned for them to keep going. They made their way then a sound made them stop and look behind them. Several of those things turned a corner a little further down an headed in their direction. “Move!”, she ordered Ken as she pushed him in the other direction. He didn't argue as they ran away from the invaders. In moments both of them ducked as they started firing at them. Jess still ran as she fired off a quick shot when she could, not even stopping long enough to see if she hit anything. They were almost to the garage she kept telling herself, almost to a fresh set of ammo and reinforcements. Almost there just a few more corners. A shot from whatever they were using went past her and almost hit Ken. Then he dove for the floor as another one almost hit him. And that's when the thought hit her, maybe he couldn't detect them but maybe they could detect him and Daxium. And all things considered they were going to need the two of them more than they were going to need her in this mess. She stopped and quickly turned around and took aim. A single shot nailed the device as the creature began to dissolve but they kept coming, so she kept firing. “Jess!”, she heard Ken cry out when he realized what she was doing.”We're almost there come on!” But she kept firing at the invaders, seeing one disappear and more keep coming. She should have told him to get going, that she'd cover him but she was too busy concentrating on her moving targets. She should have said she loved him one last time. When they were close enough that she was sure this was it Jess felt a hand grab the collar of her uniform and pulled her back. She was vaguely aware that it was Ken 's doing as he kept pulling as he forced her behind him and and spun toward the horde as he pointed his right hand at the invaders. He was quickly engulfed in an orb of light that finally caused the invaders to halt their advance. When the orb faded away Daxium stood where he was and quickly fired off what she recently learned was called a Flashbolt at the creatures. It hit the closest one and exploded on impact as the creature fell to the ground unmoving. Then all she could do was watch as Daxium charged at them, launching an attack they weren't expecting. They tried to swarm him but he was holding them off, not easily but he was holding them off. A few starting to dissolve made her notice were he was attacking them, at the device, either he learned through Ken or Ken was telling him where to focus his attacks. The creatures started to retreat after a bit as Daxium kept tearing through them. Then he grabbed one and slammed it against the wall. As it gripped with both hands at the hand wrapped around it's throat Daxium quickly reached up and tore the device off it's shoulder. As it faded away like the others he looked at the device in his hand. Cautiously she stepped forward and said, “Daxium?” She took a quickstep back as he became solid light that expanded into an orb shape. Then it shrunk down again, breaking away revealing Ken once again. He looked around before looking back at his hand, he was holding the device. She saw a look cross his face that she had seen before, most recently in Japan, he was figuring it out, or trying toev. “Ken?”, she asked to get his attention, mainly because now was not the time for his brain to go into overdrive piecing this particular puzzle together. When he looked at her she went, “I thought you said he only comes out for something a bit bigger. He looked back down the hall making sure they weren't coming back. “He made an exception given the circumstances.” Taking one last look at the device he pocketed it before hugging her, “Do not do anything that stupid ever again.” “Pretty sure that's my line,” she told as she hugged him back. He pulled back going, “You okay?” “I'm fine,” she told him, although she was trying not to think about how sure she was that she was going to die before he pulled her back. “Come on, almost there.” He didn't say anything as he followed her the rest of the way. They finally turned the last corner that lead to the garage and were immediately met with a bunch of UNDF soldiers aiming their weapons at them. Both of the held up their hands with Jess going, “We're friendlies!” “Stand down!”, they heard the Chief call out before making his way past the group to wave the two of them forward. Once past the line she finally tried to get herself to relax a little. “What are you two doing here?”,the chief asked as he ushered them into the garage. “We figured they basing their attack on information they got from Brooks,” Ken told him as he walked away from the two of them. Jess picked up were he left off, “ They don't know we have more than one armory station now. We're trying to use that to our advantage some how.” “Do we have any idea where these bastards are coming from?” the Chief asked. She shook her head despite having an idea from what Ken told her. She hated keeping information from him but telling what she knew would cause more questions than what they needed at the moment. Suddenly Ken shouted out, “Windam!” After a bit the robot came out othe lab it was in and walked toward him. Ken reached into a pocket and pulled the device Daxium grabbed a bit ago and showed it to him. “You see this, attack anything that doesn't look human that has one of these. Is that understood?” Windam seemed to study the device before nodding. Pointing at the way they just came in he told him, “Good, now guard that door until I tell you otherwise.” Again the machine nodded and took up position at the door. Ken started looking at the device again. “Is that the thing I heard Hawk and the rest talk about over the line?”, the Chief asked. “Yeah,” Ken said eyeing a lab before heading toward it. With her and the chief following he went on, “I'm hoping I can use this to disrupt the other ones being used, at least be able to detect them.” “I'd concentrate on that last part if I were you,” The Chief said. “That sounds more doable with what we have down here.” “One thing at a time Chief,” Ken told him. “I'll let Ryo know we made it,” Jess told him before hailing Ryo over her communicator,hoping she wasn't detracting him at a bad time. It looked like those fears were put to rest as he answered back. “Good to here from you Jess. Me and Bill made it to Hawk. What's your status?” “Everyone in the garage seems to be in one piece if a little rattled,” she told him. “We were able to get one of the devices off the creatures. Ken has a couple of ideas for it that he's working on right now.” “Good,” he said. “Whatever they are it better be good. Captain Hawk just figured out something about their attack that you need to hear.” She shared a brief glance with the Chief, now what? *** Ken and a few others carefully made their way down the hall. In his hands was something he had quickly put together using that device and anything he could get his hands on in the garage, fortunately it had labs with equipment that was comparable to the labs found on the upper levels. Still he might have been a little more confident if he threw this thing together up there than down here, but beggars couldn't be chooser in this this situation. He kept his eyes on the device in his hands, only stopping when he got a reading. He looked over to the man next to him and nodded. As he quickly went forward to the upcoming intersection the others with him drew their weapons and took up positions. Anxiously he watched the man go up to the corner and take a peek using a small mirror to see around the corner. Pulling the mirror back he looked at Ken and held up three fingers. Ken looked back at the readout on the device and held up three fingers of his own. He was getting three hits and the other guy was seeing three of the invaders. Holy shit the thing worked, it actually worked. The other man quietly rejoined the group and they made their way back the way they came. It seemed like forever but they made it back to the garage were he immediately hit his communicator, “Scott to Hawk, the prototype worked like I thought it would. We can fully detect them now” “That's great news Ken,” Hawk responded. “Bridge and his staff are already looking over the base's schematics to see if there's a way to connect that device to the internal sensors from down there. But get ready to haul it up here if you have too.” “Understood Captain,” Scott said before the link ended, they still weren't sure if the enemy could listen in to their comm frequency yet so they tried to keep things as brief as possible. Going over to a near by workbench he set the device down and started undoing the straps to his wrist scanner. Once off he started to unscrew the back cover of the device. Jess came up to him and watched him for a bit before going, “What are you doing now?” Getting the cover off he studied the insides a bit as he told her, “It occurred to me that if we got to move this to the upper floors then it might be useful if more than one person had access to the readings, maybe get a wider field of coverage to detect them” He really wished he had something to call the invaders outside of them, even Dax didn't know what they were called. Finding the receiver unit he was looking for he turned his attention back to the device he created. Then his hand sort of just paused, hovering by it. Immediately Jess was concerned, “What is it.” “I'm scaring myself here Jess,”he admitted to her. “I'm a builder, a fixer, a damn grease jocky. Hell I told Greenberg that I was more of a hands on type than a think something up type. Now here I am figuring out how to use alien tech with ours to figure out where they are. Jess never in my wildest dreams...” She immediately held him by putting an arm around his shoulder, “Hey strange circumstances Ken. This is pretty much the deep end we've been thrown into. It's sink or swim, and boy are you swimming.” She started rubbing his arm to get him to relax a little. “If anything you better hope Greenberg never hears about what your pulling off here. Otherwise your inbox is going to explode everyday.” Despite the situation he snorted a bit. He reached out and held her closer, grateful she was there to calm him down a bit. “I really don't deserve you.” Unlike her answer from before it all went to hell she told him, “Yes you do.” Leaning in to give him a quick peck on the cheek she looked around. “I better pick some guys to help me escort you to the command room in case we have to.” “Actually, I better show you how to operate this first,” Ken said, just soft enough that only she could hear him. “Just in case Hawk's right and I gotta get away real fast before we get there.” What he didn't say was that he probably should have been out there already looking for him. “You think he's out there too?”, she asked him. “It makes sense,” was his answer. “Despite the tech they got here,” he gestured to the device he cobbled together. “it's pretty easy to take out. Going from the output it has it's not strong enough to cover something the size they usually send. They're still going to need Brooks to stabilize whatever is coming.” “I guess you're right,” Jess told him, then quickly added, “I wouldn't get use to hearing that by the way. Okay show me how to run it.” “Okay,” he said turning back toward the device, “I made sure the display was easy to read and figure out, I also realized that thing has different frequencies, so in case they get the bright idea to change what they're using you can use this dial to go through them. This dial can extend or shrink the sensor range...”, she kept nodding as he went over each component and what it did. After he was done and she started to repeat everything he just showed her his communicator beeped, “Scott here.” “Ken,” Hawk said, “bad news. Bridge just told me there's no way to hook it up to the sensors from down there.” Ken had a feeling that was going to be the case but still he did sort of hoped, just so he could get away and track down Brooks. “You'rte going to have to get it up here and install it.” “Understood Captain,” he looked around “Let us finalize a few things down here then we'll be on our way.” “Don't take too long son.” Again the link ended. And Ken went back to work on his wrist scanner, he was going to have to work fast. Jess had already started looking for volunteers for the goup. “Why don't we hook it up to one of the Scan Tracks?”, Ken and a few others looked over at the guy who asked the question. “They got a sensor package. “It's not as good as the sensors installed inside the base,” Ken answered him as he went back to his previous task, “And I'm kinda doubting how many levels they can actually get through. Besides I'm not sure how far away the wrist scanners can be be away from this thing and still get the signal.” “Windam,” Jess called out. “You're with us.” The robot nodded and walked away from the door. Ken's mouth dropped for a moment as he watched this, “What the hell, he listening to you now?” “Apparently,” Jess said just as stunned as the rest of them. “I didn't even think I just said it and well,” She gestured toward Windam who was still coming toward her. Everyone just watched as the robot finally stopped in front of her, waiting for further orders. Okay this day officially couldn't get any weirder. *** “Any sign of them?, Hawk asked as he checked with the guards he posted on either end of the corridor. The guard didn't look at him as he shook his head. That was the same response the ones on the other side had given him. He tried not to worry, they did say they had to finalize something, whatever that was, before heading in this direction. And he was pretty sure they weren't going to take the elevators so it was going to be by stairwell and that was going to take time, especially if they took a less than direct route from the garage to best avoid the invaders as much as possible. It was good strategy and it was what he would have done or told them to do if they called in to let him know they were off. That's what he told himself, still didn't calm his nerves though. And that was almost an hour ago. “Keep you eyes open,” he told the guard who nodded. Almost as soon as he turned around Ryo called out, “Captain we have incoming!” Then he ducked a little as something by his head exploded. A few more explosions started to heppen as it took Hawk a second to realize it was incoming fire. The invaders had gotten here first. “Make sure they don't come up behind us!”, he told the guard, who nodded although they kept looking back at where the attack was coming from. The last thing they needed was to be attacked from two different direction, which he knew was a possibility when he took up position in this here. Ryo, Bill and the others were already returning fire when he made it to them. “How many?” “Too damn many!”, Bill quipped as he took a few shots before going back behind cover. “Just aim for the thing Ken pointed out,” Hawk ordered as he drew his side arm. He was able to get a quick look at what was coming and found himself agreeing with Bill's not so professional estimate of the situation. “Argh,” Ryo cried out as he took a shot to the shoulder. Bill quickly grabbed him and helped him down behind cover as he and the others laid down more fire “I'm fine,” Ryo insisted as he tried to get up. “You're starting to sound like Civilian when he's hurt,” Bill told him as he grabbed a medkit from somebody and opened it. He quickly had the wound bandaged and wrapped and was back trying to hold off the invaders as someone else pulled Ryo back from the assault. Hawk pulled back and took a quick glance at the other end. So far it didn't look like they were coming that way, a small favor at least. “Windam, go!”, he heard somebody call out. He risked a look to see the robot come up behind the invaders and attack. As soon as they turned to the new threat a few shots came from behind the robot, at least two hitting the device the aliens wore. As they started to dissolve away Hawk and the rest of them started firing again. He hoped this was going to be enough of a distraction. And it was as the combined attack started whittling down the invaders numbers. When the last one was gone he stood up as Jess and the others rushed forward. Ken was with them but he stopped to check on Windam along the way. “You okay buddy?”, he asked as he did a quick visual inspection of the machine. “They didn't damage anything did they?” “Ken come on,” Jess called out to get him moving again. To him she said, “Sorry we're late Captain. Ken was able to hook his device to our wrist scanners so we did our best to avoid any conflicts we could to avoid being detected.” “Completely understandable,” Hawk told her hiding the relief he he was feeling. “Ken hurry up and get to Bridge to get that thing hooked up to sensors.” “On it,” he said. But he turned around first to face the robot. “Windam help guard this end.” As soon as the robot nodded he went into the control room while sparing a worried look as he past Ryo. Just then Jess noticed him as well. “Ryo,” she went as she knelt next to him. “This is what happens when I'm not around to watch your back. “ “It's only a flesh wound,”: he grunted as he re-positioned himself. “Let me hear that from a medic first,” she told him as she stood back up. “Henry, Phil bring the package up here,” she suddenly called out. The two men hurried forward carrying a crate. As they set it down she told Hawk, “I figured it be a good idea to bring some fresh supplies and ammo while we made our way here.” “Good thinking,” he said. Then he got a better look at the crate. It was for an automated defense turret they had recently received. He looked at her, “We had one of these in the garage armory?” “It was the Chief's idea,” she told him. “He remembered the armory a couple of levels up had a couple of these stored in there. We made a stop and collected one to bring up here. The Chief had a couple of men come with us to grab another one to set up down there.” “We needed this a few moments ago,” Bill said as he an another started to undo the latches on the crate. And open it “Better late than never,” Hawk told him as they began assembling it. “we'll set it up on this end. “Martin, Roberts get on the other end and help keep watch.” “Yes sir,” they replied and hurried to the other end taking some of the supplies with them. Ken came back out into the hallway, “We got it hooked up,” he announced. “It's picking up the alien devices clear as a bell. The information should be transmitting to the wrist scanners now.” Hawk and a few others did just that. So far he was only picking up a scattering of signals around the area. “The only drawback is we're getting signals from every floor at the same time. Bridge is working on it though. But if you set the scanner to this,” Ken took Hawk's arm and started pressing a few things and before too long the various readings started to fade away, most of them at any rate, “it'll put you in map mode so you'll get a hit if any of them come in this direction.” “Map mode?”, Hawk asked. Ken immediately jerked a thumb back toward the door to the controll room, “Bridge's idea. He and the others were working on it once they found out what I was doing. He's also texting direction to the scanners themselves so everybody on base can switch over to it.” “Do you people even need me at this point,” Hawk muttered with a slight grin. “Good job Ken, this is going to help a lot.” “Just make sure Greenberg doesn't find out about it, please,” was his response. Hawk chuckled despite himself. Of all the things to be worried about in this situation. But Hawk was still wondering how he was going to word it in his reports as it was. He didn't want to give Greenberg any fresh ideas to try and take Ken for his Tower staff. Then Ken got a look on his face right before his head whipped around in a certain direction. “Ken?”, Jess asked right before the lights started to flicker. “Here it comes,” she whispered. Hawk nodded, this is what happened when Brooks brought that other monster over. “Captain,” came Bridges's staticy voice over the communicator. “We got a reading outside of the base.” Hawk looked back at Ken who was looking around before locking eyes with him. Hawk saw it in his face. “There's a stairway to the roof that way,” he pointed down the hall he and the others came from. “Go.” He nodded and shared a quick look with Jess before running down that way Bill who had stop assembling the turret long enough to walked up to help support Ryo as he walked up to join him and Jess to see him go. “I'm really starting to hate this part.” “Tell me about it,” Ryo joined in. “Get in line boys,” Jess told the two of them, having figured out that Ken was Ultraman before any of them did. “Just keep an eye on those scanners,” Hawk told them. “And finish getting this thing together, I wouldn't put it past them to try and attack thinking we're distracted. By what's going on outside” The all complied but silently Hawk was in agreement with them. *** He found the door Hawk had mentioned soon enough, not even slowing down as he bashed the door open and started up the flight of stair that led to the roof. The only thing that halted his progress was when the base started to shake a bit and he held on to the guard rail to keep from falling off. As soon as it seemed to stop he headed up again. The invasion, now what ever was out there, this was going to be big. And if Brooks was still out there then this might be his chance to finish things once and for all. “One thing at a time,” he told himself, “stop the giant threat first then worry about Brooks.” Reaching the door to the roof, again he didn't stop as he rammed his shoulder into it to bust it open. He heard a deep voice go, “Zetton”, before he actually spotted the creature. He looked up at what was sent over this time around, black with white limbs with glowing orange spots on it's chest as well as a slightly flashing orange strip going down it's face. It seemed to look right at him as Ken tried to stare it down. Then there was several small explosions that made Ken rush to the the railing and look down. Some Scan tracks got mobilized and started firing at the monster, who promptly ignored the attempted assault. Ken looked back up at the creature who stayed in place, still apparently staring at him, almost like it was waiting.”You ready for this one Dax?”, he asked not taking his eyes off the monster. And remembering that he let his usually giant friend loose earlier to help Jess deal with the invaders that almost got the two of them. While he wasn't out long Ken wasn't exactly sure how much energy he used and how much had built back up in the meantime. “I'm as ready as I'll ever be,” came the response in his head. “I do believe the phrase you 'be been so fond of recently is 'Let's do it'.” Ken didn't even hide the smirk after hearing that. “I am corrupting you,” he said still keeping his eyes on the monster. Reaching into his jacket he retrieved the Spark Magnifier and held it over his heads as he activated it. *** Zetton looked up at the column of light that formed on top of the base. It faded to reveal Daxium who quickly jumped off in case the creature tried to attack him while he was on it. Making sure he landed to the side of the monster he quickly rushed in and pushed it away from the base. Once far enough away from Castle he didn't have to worry about it for the moment he backed up and took on his usual fighting stance, “Shiah!” The creature barely reacted, only repeating, “Zetton,” and came toward the giant. Daxium saw it raise it's arm back and jumped back again to avoid the blow. He went for a kick the creature easily blocked and pushed back making the giant stumble slightly. Daxium went in again and tried to attack. The creature just stood there absorbing each punch that impacted it's body. After a bit, and since he was too close to dodge the blow properly Daxium was knocked to the ground by a backhand. Before Daxium could get up Zetton grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him off the ground.Then swung with it's other arm to knock him down again. In desperation Daxium kicked out with a foot and caught his opponent at the knee. As it staggered a bit Daxium rolled backwards to get to his feet. Before he could do anything fireballs like objects shot out of that strip on it's face. Rocked by the multiple impacts he was able to dodge a couple long enough to start bac kflipping out of the way as more came at him. Once there was a pause in the attack Daxium landed on his feet and quickly fired off a Flash Bolt. Zetton held up both arms, bent at the elbows and some sort of field surrounded the monster blocking the bol and catching the giant by surprise. When the field dropped it fired those fire like energy balls again. Daxium dove to the side to avoid the attack and quickly fired off another Flashbolt at the monster.Just as fast as he fired it off Zetton formed that barrier again. He rushed in again hoping to catch the monster off guard as the field lowered. The creature ended up grappling with him as it seemed to be fully prepared for this change of tactics and easily threw him to the side. The creature didn't follow up with another attack of it's own, almost like it was daring him to attack it again. Daxium held back a bit, not falling for the obvious bait, trying to go over his options, No matter what he did next one thing was for certain he had to figure out a way to disable that field before he did anything else. Then the creature turned toward Castle and fired more of those fireballs at the upper levels. Daxium quickly grabbed it from behind and tried to pull it away from the base. Again it easily shrugged him away and knocked him to the ground. Closer to Castle Reid had stepped out of the Scan Track to watch the two giants battle and not for the first time felt like an ant looking up at something. After witnessing Ultraman battle monster after monster after he took over Beta Team he was still in awe of seeing it at this level. Even feeling the ground shake under his feet as they struggled against each other still blew his mind slightly. He doubted he would ever get use to it. But seeing Ultraman basically on the ropes stunned him most of all. Reid was aware that one of his men walked up beside him. “That thing seems to have a counter for everything Ultraman is throwing at it.” “Looks like,” he was forced to agree. “But get ready to get the hell out of here in case he goes red.” Which meant going in to the strong form of his and that really destructive weapon he uses in that mode. His man nodded as he went back to the Scan track, Reid slowly started to make his way back to the vehicle as well when the monster grabbed Ultraman and literally throw him further away. Reid tensed as he saw Ultraman position his arms to go into that stronger form but the monster fired those fireballs again to stop him. “Come on fight back,” Reid mumbled as he witness the giant just stand there and take the attack. Then he set up his arms as he did when he used the main beam weapon in his starting form. Reid look back at the monster, could the beam shatter that field it could put up. Ultraman crossed his wrist and fired the beam. But the monster put both hands to it's chest as the beam hit. After a bit Reid's mind finally processed what happened, “Did it just absorb that beam?”, he asked the air. Ultraman looked easily as shocked as well. There was a deep, “Zetton,” before he held up both arms and fired a beam of it's own. Ulteaman was hit before he could react. A pained grunt filled the air as he hit the ground. But he still got back up to fight the creature. The monster fired the beam again but Ultraman quickly spread his arms to put up his own field. It blocked one shot, and a second but Ultraman ended up taking a step back. A third destroyed the field with a minor explosion. “Zetton,” the monster fried another blast in the confusion but Ultraman was apparently expecting it and tried to move out of the way. But he wasn't fast enough as the beam hit him in side, apparently ripping him open. Reid lost his breath as he heard Ultraman cry out in pain as he was spun to the ground. “Fuck,” he heard some one say. He couldn't reprimand anyone since it was him as he watch Ultraman grab at the open wound that seemed to be bleeding light as that jewel on his chest started blinking red. Daxium tried to heal the bleeding gash in his side, even if it was just a little, but he was assaulted by those fireballs before he could concentrate enough to do it. Another cry of pain was canceled out by another volly that exploded around him. He banged his forearms together and mode shifted into power mode and ran toward the monster. Ignoring the new assault he kept going forward finally punching the monster right in the face. It rocked back so he kicked it in the stomach to cause it to stumble even more. Daxium tried to keep up the attack trying to keep the creature rocked and to keep it from firing off anything else. Then it stuck one of it's hands right into the gash and twisted. A loud cry of pain came from Daxium as he grabbed the monster's wrist. With some effort he slowly pulled the offending hand out of his wound then punched it in the head again. “Zetton.”, it said again as it grabbed him by the throat. He was barely able to pull the hands away as the side of his body with the gash threaten to give away from the pain. Ignoring it he quickly turned around and hurled the monster away from Castle. Bringing his hand close to the jewel he began drawing in energy. The monster raised it's forearms again to create the field one more time. Expecting it Daxium ran toward the monster, this Zetton. It didn't move. Just watching the giant get closer. Then Daxium reared back with the fist and punched the field with the full force of the Giga Wave. The field exploded but still saved the monster although it seemed stunned. Sent back from the explosion Daxium crossed his arms and threw them out as he rolled to his feet and was kneeling in Hyper mode. Drawing in energy one more time he flinched a bit and was suddenly behind the creature as the light whip retracted back into his fingers. Behind him the monster had a glowing gash of it's own across it's body. It stood there for a moment before finally exploding. Daxium stumbled a bit as he looked behind him and held the gash in his side. He would have taken the time to heal it but the quick flashing of the jewel told him he didn't have the time. He apologized to Ken for the state he was about to leave him in then looked at Castle. The roof was destroyed thanks to the monster's assault, he couldn't return his friend in that mess. He apologized one more time before looking up at the sky and flying off, “Shiah!” *** “The creatures are disappearing back into the portals!”, Hawk announced over the communicators. “All units keep an eye out for any stragglers just in case.” Turning to the men with him, who looked as ecstatic about the news as he felt, Reid said, “You heard the man. Let's get back in there and sniff them out of hiding” He heard them comply but didn't pay attention to it. Something behind them caught his attention first. At first he thought it was one of the invaders as his hand went for his weapon. His men seeing the motion quickly turned around and did the same. Fortunately for the individual they quickly realized the person was human and held their fire. Walking through the group as he got a better look at the individual he said, “Scott, what are you doing out here?”. Then he noticed how pale the young man looked. He stumbled to a stop and for a moment and looked like he was going to say something. Then his face twisted like he was in immense pain and grabbed his side right before he dropped to the ground. “Ken!”, One of his men shouted as all of them ran toward him. Keeping an eye open in case this the work of one of the invaders. “Easy Ken,” Reid said as he knelt next to the unconscious man and holstered his weapon. Carefully they flipped him to his back, trying not to cause any more damage, whatever it was he was suffering from. As soon as he was on his back Reid immediately pulled up his shirt trying to figure out what the problem was, he was just grateful he wasn't apparently bleeding. At least on the outside, who knew what kind of internal injuries he could have suffered. Lifting the shirt up he and a couple of others with him gasped at the ugly red welt on his side. “What the fuck caused that?”, one of them said. He went to touch it but Reid stopped him in case he made the situation even worse. “I don't know,” he said then paused. He suddenly recalled Ultraman getting hit and ripped open in the same general area. Then he lost his breath again as he remembered Hawk asking his opinion about Ultraman possibly being one of them. He lowered the shirt as he stared at the man, realization quickly dawning on him. Holy shit. Immediately he hit his communicator, “Reid to medical. I need a team at my location now!” he ended the call then turned to his men. “Get a med kit out of the Scan Track.” One of them ran for he vehicle as he and the others stayed with Ken. “Hang in there Ken,” he said hoping the young man could hear him on some level as he ripped off his uniform jacket and balled it up to place under his head, “help's coming. Or there's going to be hell to pay.” *** There were some things that required Hawk's immediate attention in the aftermath of that invasion, getting repair crews in motion, making sure of the number of causalities or fatalities that occurred during said invasion was current, that sort of thing, otherwise he would have been down here already with the others. Hawk was worried when he heard Reid call for a med team, wondering if there were still more of those aliens around. Once he heard it was Ken he was calling the team for he fought hard not to panic. Particularly after he saw some of the footage of the conflict between Daxium and that monster Bridge was able to recover. Some of the content of that battle being the main reason why he hadn't shared it with the others as of yet considering Ken's current condition.. Turning a corner he saw Jess, Ryo and Bill all hovering around the door of the room Ken was in, all looking worried about him. Jess in particular as she kept acting like she was going in the door but stopped. Ryo noticed him first as he came closer, “Any word?” “Nothing yet,” Ryo told him. “All we know is that he's still unconscious but they're still examining him.” Jess put a knuckle to her mouth as she listened and just stared at the door. Bill stepped up to her, “Hey, he's going to be okay. Civilian's tougher than he looks. He'll be up and out of there before we know it.” Ryo looked at Hawk and seemed to read what he was thinking, but didn't say anything but joined Bill as they tried to comfort her, and ultimately each other. Hawk walked up and placed a hand on Bill's shoulder. “Pardon me,” they all looked back to see Dr. Williams there. “Can I get through please.” “And do what?”, Jess demanded with a particularly nasty tone in her voice. Her reaction caught the doctor off guard. Given what he heard about the “care” Richardson had given him since he was forced to join the unit Hawk couldn't exactly blame her at the moment. Although Hawk was surprised as well when Ryo and Bill turned around and essentially tried to block him from the door. “I..”I... I,” he stammered to get out, “I just want to check on Ken, see how he's doing.” Ryo, Bill and Jess all crowded the door a little more. Hawk didn't realized he joined until he noticed Williams was looking at him funny. Now as over all leader of the forces he should be putting up a better example than trying to bully one particular man from entering a single room. But right now his man was down and he wasn't going to let anybody other than a qualified individual look him over. “I am a doctor after all,” he said, puffing up a bit. “Hmm,” Ryo went, obviously not that impressed with William's display, “I didn't realize that being able to create something like the Alpha One meant you knew the human body as well.” “Oh didn't you hear,” Bill chimed in, “that's the hot new doctorate right now. Everybody's jumping on it.” Just staring a hole into the man Jess joined back in, “Yeah, well he can practice with somebody else. Ken's already in better hands.” Hawk glanced at her over the choice of words. And he didn't fail to notice that Williams caught it as well. That was probably going to cause some problems some time soon. “I have to see him,” Williams started to insist. All of them crowded the door even more. He looked like he was going to say something when Reid walked up beind them and placed a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, causing him to jump slightly. “I'm sure,” Reid began as he gently guided Williams away from the group and the door, “that they'll gladly let you in. Just as soon as you tell them why you need to so badly.” Williams began to stammer a bit as he squirmed his way away from Reid and stood in front of them. Looking at each one of them before he eventually lowered his head, muttering something that sounded like, “Needed elsewhere,” and headed in another direction. While Ryo and Bill relaxed a little Jess kept her eyes on Williams until he hastily turned a corner. Then she turned her attention to Reid. Slowly he turned around, and with a critical eye studied each of them for some reason. Looking satisfied about something he just nodded once before going, “I thought so.” And that comment made them all look at each other. Hawk in particular was starting to get a little worried at what that meant. Reid stepped up to him and said, “I think we need to talk a little more about that question you asked me.” And that's when Hawk knew, Reid figured it out. Reid looked at the others again and told them, “It's safe with me, so don't worry.” That's when it occurred to them that he knew now too Before anybody could say anything else the door behind them flung open with somebody going, “But you shouldn't be up!” Ken, much to his and Hawk was sure's everyone's relief, walked out of the room putting on his uniform jacket going, “I shouldn't be a lot of things.” He noticed all of them right then as the door closed behind him. “Hey guys, Captain, Commander,” he said like he wasn't just unconscious for a couple of hours. To Reid he said, “I heard you found me. Thanks and I hoped I didn't scare you too much.” Reid looked at him like he was seeing him for the first time, “Maybe you should listen to the Doctor Ken,” he began, carefully Hawk noticed. “That seemed like a big deal he was talking about there.” He looked back at the door and basically waved the idea off, “You know doctors,” he said, “always blowing things out of proportions...” Reid made him stop by placing a hand on his shoulder. Ken looked at the hand before going up the arm to look at him with a confused look. Reid just smiled as he kept the hand there. After several moments he went, “If nobody has said yet, thank you. For everything you've done since joining up.” With a quick pat on that same shoulder Reid looked at the rest of them before leaving. Ryo, Jess and Bill all looked at each other, looking worried despite his assurance. Ken on the other hand just watched him go before he looked at the rest of them. When he finally did speak it was, “All right, who told?” “I think you did son,” Hawk informed him, “without meaning too. Granted, I didn't really help in that regard.” He began rubbing his eyes and sighed. “Have I mentioned I'm getting really uncomfortable with the number of people who know at this point?”, he asked. “Several times,” Jess told him. To Hawk she asked, “Do you think we can really trust Reid to keep quiet?” “I do,” he told her and then he looked at the rest of them. “I don't really think we have much of a choice in the matter.” “He apparently hasn't told anyone yet as far as I can tell,” Ryo offered. “Yeah,” Bill put in, “if he did I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the guys who want to take Ultraman down hanging around. I wouldn't put it a couple of them to take a shot at Civilian here.” “I really didn't need that thought,” Ken told him. “They got to get past me first,” Jess told him. Ryo added, “They got to get past all of us.” Bill nodded his agreement with that statement. Ken looked grateful for the support. Felling like a proud father as he looked at them Hawk told them, “Come on. It's still dinner time. And if Ken can stand it he's probably a little hungry.” “Can you stomach stand it now?”, Bill asked. “I mean it's been a couple of hours but it still has to smart if it's like last time.” Ken wouldn't look at any of them as he went, “Uh, yeah right.” For some reason Hawk didn't exact;y believe him for some reason. Jess beat him to the punch as she went, “Ken what aren't you telling us?” Even with Ryo and Bill staring at him now Ken didn't answer her question. Then looking as stern as he had ever seen her Jess said, “Kennith Riley Scott, you better answer my question.” “Whoa full name,” Bill went. Then he looked confused, “Wait a minute 'Riley'?” Ken pointed right at him, “Shut up.” With all of them basically surrounding him he eventually gave in, mainly from the glare Jess was giving him at the moment, in that Hawk was sure of. Finally he admitted, “This one pierced Dax's skin. When that happen's I'm usually feeling it for a couple of days.” He quickly added, “But I'm good, the spot just a little tender right now. In a couple of days I'll be perfectly normal. Honest.” “Define normal Civilian,” Bill told him. We'll talk about it later,” Hawk told the group. “Let's get some food, if there is any left.” They started off again. After a bit Ken started looking thoughtful and stopped, making the rest of them stop as well and looked back at him. “How come nobody thanked me before Reid did?” They all sort of groaned at the comment. Ken just grinned as Ryo pushed his head to the side as they continued on to the cafeteria. *** “How was this possible?!”, the voice inside the vortes demanded as energy lashed out all around him and his Zetton visitor. While he was used to such a display, even felt this particular wraith personally on a couple of occasion, Brooks tried not to enjoy the some what fearful reaction it was getting out of his visitor. Well at least not visibly, well not too much at any rate. He didn't want to be a rude host after all. “How did the giant beat this monster? We put in all the data we had collected into it! Victory should have been assured.” “I am not sure,” his visitor said. Was that almost a stammer when it was speaking? Alright he may be enjoying this just a tad too much. “We witnessed the battle. Zetton damaged the giant and had an answer for just about everything the light being was throwing at it. There was no way the giant should have emerged victorious.” “And yet he did,” Brooks said calmly. A bolt of energy lashed out from the vortex. Brooks just looked as it landed close to him. He didn't even change his expression as it happened. “No matter the amount of battle data you may have it doesn't take into account certain things that can't be properly measured. Like determination, quick thinking, how willing the person in question would be to go outside their normal behavior pattern to achieve victory. And the giant has been more than willing to do that on more than one occasion based on my observation at least.” His visitor looked at him and demanded, “And why haven't you shared this insight before now Avatar?” “I have,” Brooks shot back. “It's not my fault you ignored those observations.” “What about the information you supplied about the human's base?”, his visitor demanded, getting in close. If he was human he would have sworn he was trying to get in his face and intimadate him. “The humans had more weaponry then you originally implied.” “The information I gave was based on what I knew when I was there,” he said trying to show this one he would not be easily intimidated. He lived a full life and took on all comers in his business life before the Zettons weaved themselves into his life, gave him these abilities and allowed him to relive that life essentially. But he would not show any hint of fear to it. “That was months ago. Obviously thing were going to change since I've been gone. Perhaps you should have taken that into account, maybe followed my suggestion of taking out the Control room first instead of the armory.” Something he and his visitor witnessed through the portal. Brooks resisted the urge to release a very loud sigh when he realized what was happening. “Then how do you explain how they were able to destroy many of us?” He looked right at the device on his shoulder, “Well that is a rather obvious target you're sporting. Considering the human the giant bonded with particular gift, I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one to discover it.” “Either way Avatar you failed us.” the Zetton said as he walked away from him. Brooks just watched as it strolled away from him until it stood next to the vortex. “It is time to remind you that failure in any form will not be tolerated.” The energy around the vortex grew quickly and lashed out, directly at him. “No!”, Brooks said as he held out a hand, as he quickly drew upon the dark energy within himself to try and protect himself from this assualt. He felt the arcs of dark lightning hit the barrier he tried to put up. But it eventually stopped. He could sense his visitor's confusion, he was feeling it himself. The barrier he tried to throw up took on an unusual shape, one of part of a forearm and a hand, almost Ultraman sized if he had to guess. He studied the giant limb, wiggling his fingers and seeing the energy construct do the same. He started laughing to himself, then out loud. “What is the meaning of this Avatar?!”, came the demand of one of his masters. He really didn't care which one it was at the moment. “What? This?”, he innocently asked while he gestured with the giant construct. “I think it should be fairly obvious.” Dark energy swirled as it surrounded him as he saw things shrink suddenly. He smirked to himself as his visitor looked up at him. He looked on satisfied as he could see familiar markings start to adorn his arm, While the skin itself was black the markings themselves were different shades of purple, He felt his face and head and felt how the bulbous his eyes felt and the fin now adorning the top of his head. He just formed the dark energy around him to become a copy of Ultraman, a dark copy if you will. He looked down at his visitor and said, “It's a sign that we should rethink our current working relationship. I'll give you time to come up with a first offer. Until then just a reminder of who you're dealing with.” He reached out and grabbed the Zetton and the vortex and squeezed. He felt both disappear in his grasp in different ways. The vortex just ceased to be, as for the Zetton he saw what was left of it dissolve away in his hand. He looked at that hand for a moment longer before punching through the ceiling of the cavern. Standing at his full height he looked around, chuckled to himself and flew off into the cloudy night sky with a sarcastic sounding, “Shiah!” ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside ----- |
In his office Richardson sat there behind his desk fuming as Stanberry stood by his side. On the other side in the chair in front of him Williams tried not to squirm too much under his gaze. Despite knowing he wasn't the main reason for Richatrdson's current state. He was just the messenger, which in this case was almost as bad. And it had nothing to do with the still incoming damage estimates from the recent attack from those things, the roof and the upper levels were going to take weeks to repair at the minimum.. The three of them were certain those beings were the species that the giant's people were at war with. The idea that they had the gall to attack them directly wasn't even the reason for his current mood. No, his mood was in response to the previously mentioned message that was delivered. “He told them?”, he finally got out.
“That what it looked like to me,” Williams told him as he tried to sink deeper into the chair, anything to get away from the look he was currently receiving. “It did seem like thet were circling the wagon as it were when I tried to see him. Wade even said he was in 'better hands'.” “That does make it seem like he informed them of something.” Stanberry said, trying to remain the level headed one in this situation despite the recent altercation between her and Scott. “I did say he'd start pushing back eventually, apparently that time is now.” She sniffed a little, “If you don't count his reaction when I tried to tell him he had to end his relationship with Wade.” Richardson waved that last line off like it was nothing. Stanberry stiffened slightly at his action. “This is completely unacceptable!”. He nearly bellowed. Still he slammed the palm of his hand on top of the desk, causing the good Doctor to jump in his seat. “Does he not realize that doing that will compromise everything?!”. Drumming his fingers on the desk he sat there thinking. “Well I'll show him. I warned him that our specialist will find him a biohazard to those around him. If he thought I was bluffing...” “If,” Stanberry spoke up, again trying to be the voice of reason in this particular group, “Scott informed them of Dr. Williams' attempts at medical treatment, I doubt that he would keep that information from them as well.” “Right,” he muttered, “the bastard probably told them about why he was assigned to them as well.” Richardson thought back to earlier when Hawk was in this office, and made that thinly veiled threat about Bridge wanting to scratch a particular itch and go hunting in the system. “We need to do something to remind him who's in charge around here.” “The only question I have is why would he tell Commander Reid,” Williams said suddenly causing the two of them to look right at him. He flinched slightly when he noticed. “Before I left the area completely, I looked back and saw Reid talk to Hawk and the others. From my perspective it looked like he knew as well. Although they seemed surprised by this based on their reactions.” Richardson and Stanberrry looked at each other for several moments. Finally he asked, “How close is he to Reid?” After thinking about it for a few seconds she said, “Scott has earned the Commander's respect since he took over command of Beta Team from the look of things. But outside of that they didn't seem particularly close. So it's doubtful Scott would tell him.” While she started looking thoughtful Richardson was still unhappy with the idea somebody else knew. “If Scott didn't inform him, “Then how in the hell would he even know Scott is Ultraman unless he told him?” “There is a small chance he didn't tell any of them,” she said. “At least not directly. Scott and the giant are linked in a way no one ever considered when this all started..” Williams seemed to realize what she was talking about as he started shaking a finger at the air. “The injuries. Scott has suffered the same injuries, to various degrees, as the giant.” “Correct,” Stanberry said with a nod. “He has tried to cover them up since he's been here but somebody was bound to notice this sooner or later. Given the number of times the med team here or in the field had to look him over pieces were going to be put together, so to speak. It's very likely Hawk confronted him about the connection instead of the other way around.” “Would that account for Hawk's action in this office?”, Richardson asked. “If Scott earned Reid's respect,” Stanberry started, “then he's more than earned Hawk's loyalty. That much was obvious to anybody paying attention way before now.” Williams looked at her in shock and expecting Richardson to blow up. While he did glance up at her he kept his temper in check for the moment. “Either way,” he said, “we should keep a close eye on the situation. If Scott thinks having an ally in Hawk, is going to protect him and those around him, he is very much mistaken.” *** Looking around the garage Ken never felt this nervous about anything, all right asking Jess out for the first time in years but that was personal. This was professional. After a week's delay after that attack the Chief finally said it was time to get on those plans and see if the “blasted thing” worked as advertised. Since Ken was still supposed to take the lead in getting those first few barricades built, it was going to be on him if this didn't work properly right out of the gate. Bill, who was giving him the thumbs up, was one of the few present who were in Japan and saw it work properly, so no pressure. He looked around again and finally found who he was looking for, Jess was near the back of the gathered group, she told him earlier that this was his moment and didn't want to distract him during this. She smiled and gave him a small nod. Ken relaxed immediately. “Okay let's do this,” he said after a bit. Then he noticed the crowd start to react to something. When a few of them started to stand a little straighter, some of those nerves came back. The crowd parted a bit to let Hawk and Reid through to the front. “Sorry we're late,” Hawk said. “Neither of us wanted to miss this.” “Although why the crowd?”, Reid said as he looked around. “It's just a barricade not a transformable robot.” Looking over at Ken he went, “It's not a transformable robot, right?” “No sir,” Ken said as he stepped toward the barricade, which was already to deploy. Then he got an idea, “Commander, since this a two man operation, if you would join me for the for the demonstration.” Reid looked a little surprised but joined Ken for the demo.. “No offence Captain,” he started to say. “None taken son,” he said easily enough. “I'm air and he's ground and more likely to use it.” “Exactly.” Ken said. Picking it up he told the group, “As you can see it's fairly light,” handing it over to Reid, who judged the weight for himself before handing it back, “meaning it's not as cumbersome as it looks.” Sitting it back down he pointed out a few things on the device and had Reid press them, “It's now ready to go. Commander if you would grab that handle and pull that way.” Ken grabbed the other one and the two of them pulled, extending the barricade out a few feet on either side. Ken hit one more switch, which caused a slight hissing sound then motioned for Reid to back away from it. “Now let's see if this part works like it should. Somebody want to give it a good kick?” A few in the crowd looked around and at each other. Two of the bigger garage guys started talking to each other and stepped forward. Ken said nothing but did put his hands together like he was praying then put it up to his mouth and said nothing. The two of them took up position and ran at the barricade, launching a simuitaneous kick at the device. It didn't budge an inch getting a few gasps from the crowd. Ken tried not to react, but he did pump his fist slightly behind his back. “I do believe that was a successful test run. What do you think Chief?” He looked over as the man stepped closer to the barricade, “Could have used this a week ago,” he ended up saying. “Amen to that,” Hawk said, which got a few nods from the others. “But I'd say it passed the initial test,” he said looking on in approval. “Good job, I'm going to come up with a few more tests to run on the thing but we should start mass producing it right after.” “All right civilian,” Bill said as he clapped him on the back as Hawk and Reid made they're way out of the garage. Ken grinned at him, god he was glad this worked like it was designed to, those plans were a bit more complicated than he originally thought they would be even with his particular gift. He caught another look at Jess who was letting him have his moment, but she did give him a small applause for it working. He lost sight of her as the crowd started to disperse. Then he felt a arm around his shoulders and was surprised to see one of the garage guys start to guide him away from the barricade. “Me and the others were wondering,” he said, “after you success here and working on Windam if you thought you were too good now to work on a boring old engine now.” “Never,” he told him as they headed for a particular Scan Track that had it's hood popped up. “Ah the trouble maker,” he said using the less colorful name those in the garage had given this particular vehicle. Which it only got because something seemed to go wrong with it every other day. Almost since the day it arrived on base according to the others . Which was the main reason it was never in the field all that much but was never fully scrapped or replaced because it would be seen as a waste of resources by the higher ups . “What's wrong with it this time?” “Engine starts just fine,” he said, “but it starts losing power right after. Granted it's a simple enough fix since most of are sure what the problem is. But an extra set of hands couldn't hurt. Even those high class hands of yours.” “If these hands were that high class I'd be at a higher pay grade,” Ken told him. A little piece of teasing from the others that started once he started working on Windam and word about his gift quickly got out. But in his heart he was just a mechanic, and he wasn't ashamed of it. Case in point as he was already helping remove certain bolts so they could extract the engine of this particular Scan Track to work on it better. “I gotta tell you man,” another garage regular said as he watched Ken work, “I heard you were a genius and all, but I couldn't make any sense out of those barricade plans. Where did you even know where to start.” “I found page one and went from there,” he said as straight as possible. Although it was the truth, he wouldn't have put it past the guys at Tower to have the beginning somewhere in the middle. Or at least the ones who used to be there, According to Bridge, who was quoting Emiko, Greenberg pretty much let go of most of the staff after that incident. He looked up to see them looking at him, “But I'll admit that it took me a few times to find the starting point on those things. Hey Chief. Did the other bases get the barricade to work too?” Ken was so glad that the other bases did get the plans, because he was slightly worried that Greenberg sent them to intice him like Ryo and the others originally thought.” “Yes they did, but thery had their regular eggheads build it and we're one of the few to get it to work on the first try.” Somebody who worked on the project with him raised a hand so he went for the high five. “Cameron, Trevor, remember you guys are heading for that outpost by the end of the day, to do whatever it is they're doing up there.” “What's going on Chief?”, Ken asked, since this was the first time he heard anything about a project that wasn't the barricade. “Apparently the office has been building something the past couple of months according to rumor,” he said. And Ken was still confused. The grapevine wasn't that tight lipped around here. So the 'office' building anything should have made some sort of waves around here. “Apparently they're in a rush to get it done so they're calling for extra help from all the bases and facilities on the continent.” “Then how come they haven't called for Golden Boy here?”, somebody said pointing at Ken. Granted he'd been called worse since he's been here, but Golden Boy? “No idea, given what he can do I'd figured he be one of the first ones plucked out of here,” the Chief said as he headed off in another direction. “A small favor that I'll take,” Ken muttered as he went back to the Scan Track's engine. He was also very aware of everyone working with him on the engine stare right at him. “It's not going to fix itself. Okay I sounded way too much like the Chief there.” “You don't want to be called to work on a super secret project?”, one of them asked for the group. “Not if it means I have to be assigned somewhere else,” he answered. Resting his elbows on the edge Ken went into a bit more detail. “I just got back together with Jess. I don't know where this outpost is and I'm sure we could survive a long distance relationship at the moment.” He started shaking his head, “I don't want to risk it.” “I'm sure she'd understand, especially if it meant advancing your career,” another of them said. Ken remembered Jess saying something similar when he first told her the Chief wanted him to take the lead on the barricade. Still... “Look,” he told them, “I was that smuck in high school who got lucky enough to land the girl of his dreams, but didn't realize that until after he lost her. I'm fully aware of what I have now, and I don't want to lose it again.” “And that makes you an idiot,” he heard Jess say right before something slapped his ass. He grabbed it and turned around to see her standing there. “What exactly are you thinking?” “I'm thinking you took a swing at me when I did that to you back in high school,” he said. “What the hell?” “Why don't you want in on that project?”, she demanded in return. “We just got you believing that you are the genius people have said you are. You should be showing off whenever you can.” Unfortunately that got more than a few nods of agreements from those around him. “I'll still be here, just don't forget about me.” “And I'm worried you'd think I did forget about you,” he shot back. “I never would, but I don't know how busy I'd be or how long it would take. I've seen too many people over the years try the long distance thing and break up any way for various reasons.” “Like I wouldn't be calling you once a day to see how you're doing,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “Well maybe not once a day, that sounds a tad stalkerish. But at least once a week. And why am I not liking that look you're giving me.” “Oh I just remembered something else from when I smacked you on the butt back then,” he told her. “You had me turn around in front of everybody because I owed you a free shot in return.” “Now wait a moment,” she said as she quickly stepped away from him. “Sound about right to me,” one of the female mechanics said as Ken took a rag and started cleaning his hand. “I thought so.” Ken said as he dropped the rag. Jess backed away, noticed that the others were trying to block her in then ran out of there with Ken right after her, “No you don't.” He got a glimpse of something silver and shiney, “Windam, stop her.” The robot quickly stepped in her way with it's arms outstretched to block her path. “Windam get out of my way,” Jess told the robot. When it did so she hurried past him. “Traitor,” Ken said as he passed the robot and continued the chase, following her around a corner. There was a loud smack like sound a few moments later. Ken came out holding his ass again going, “That didn't go like I planned at all.” ^^^ Somewhere in the ocean on a deserted island Peter Brooks sat on a rock, leaning back and absorbing whatever energy the rays from the setting sun would give in those moments. Taking a deep breath of the sea air he felt relaxed, truly relaxed for the first time since he accepted the energy his “masters” first bestowed on to him. If he was being completely honest with himself the last time he ever felt this relaxed he was basically a child, right out of college. Most of his classmates were slightly nervous about the future, but not him, he was eager for the challenge that same future would bring. Stretching he said to himself, “This would be the perfect place to just get away from everything for a month or two.” Looking over his shoulder he studied the smoke and fires that were sporadically set in the jungle. “If it wasn't partially destroyed that is,” he finished that particular thought. He went back to watching the setting sun. Part of the reason he initially accepted that particular deal was a phrase that kept flowing through his head the past few years. One that seemed to grow stronger in truth the older he got, if I knew what I know now in the body I had back then. Charles Brooks would often just sit there, alone in the family mansion, and relive his youth in his minds, particularly things he would have done differently if he was just a little smarter. For example Charles Brook, when he was the age he looked now, would have formed the copy of Ultraman out of dark energy then immediately charged in to challenge Scott and the giant without fully understanding how he did it to begin with and what he could do. Charles Brooks would have lost that battle because he would have been “young and dumb”. That's why Peter Brooks was smarter than Charles, yes the thought of immediately challenging Ultraman had crossed his mind. No he had to figure out how to do it at will, and more importantly learn what that form could do and how to control it properly. Which was why he had been out here on this island for the past week, learning how and more importantly, learning how to control it. One thing he learned right away was while he could copy the giant's form he couldn't copy his abilities, not exactly. So while he couldn't 'mode shift' as the giant could or fire any of his particular weapons he could use a couple of things he'd learned to do once he received the dark energy. Unfortunately he knew his stay here wouldn't be a long one. The island was uninhabited and far away from any major shipping lanes however UNDF satellites were still circling the planet. And eventually someone was going to notice this particular island suddenly looked like a war zone if they looked close enough and send a team to investigate. Brooks had no intention of being here when they did. That would give away the surprise he had in store for Scott and the giant. Finally getting off the rock as the sun fully set he stretched one more time and concentrated. Dark energy started to swirl around him at his command and quickly expanded to form the copy of the giant. He really needed to come up with a name for this form, lord only knew what kind of inane designation those at Castle would give it. “Hmm,” his voice seemed to echo as he thought it over out loud, “we called the giant Ultraman. My masters reffered to me as Avatar. Maybe Ultraman Avatar? Yes that has a nice ring to it.” Chuckling to himself he looked up at the night sky and flew off, on to the next island to do a little more practicing. *** Walking into the Command Room Hawk returned a few salutes that were snapped off when those inside noticed him. Looking around he found Bridge in his usual position and headed over. He looked extremely busy with what he was doing, as was everyone else in the room. Just about everyone on base was in one form or another. Ever since that invasion. According to the other commanders he'd talked to since then so were the people stationed at those bases. Something that was completely understandable, all things considered, even after they sent over the plans for that device Ken created on the fly that should have detected those beings, after he was able to make it work without the device they had come over with. That would have been hard to explain to the other bases. It would have been possible but hard all the same. But Hawk was certain Ken had another worry on his mind, he shared it. There had been no sign of Brooks anywhere. Not during or after that invasion. While it was possible he and his allies were regrouping it was still unsettling. Yes, there had been quiet periods even before they knew Brooks was involved. It seemed different this time around, like something big was coming, they just didn't know what or when. “Anything?”, he asked Bridge when he was close enough. “Nothing so far,” Bridge answered. “Even with Ken's detector, not even a blip on the radar.” He adjusted a few dials and looked disappointed with the results. “Where ever he's hiding he's making sure to stay off the grid.” “He was able to hide himself in plain sight,” Hawk said, which got a slight nod from the man. “So that's not that surprising. Hopefully the board will hurry up and approve those satellites with those detectors installed. That should make the job easier, Brooks knew the limits of our equipment so I'd bet he's outside of our range. We have to make sure any information he has is as outdated as possible just so we'd have an edge in the situation.” Looking around he turned back to Bridge and softly said, “Any head way on that particular problem you discovered?”, in all the chaos and searching he didn't want Ken being listened in on to be forgotten. “I know the cause,” Bridge said just as softly, which meant he knew who Richardson went to to establish that link to Ken's communicator. “Fixing it is going to be an issue,” based on the look Bridge was giving him it was going to be hard to mess with the program without being noticed. “But I'll keep working at it.” “Please do,” Hawk told him. “The fewer worries we have in the field the better. Keep me informed on either front.” “Will do Captain,” he said. Hawk looked at him briefly before leaving. 'Will do'? That had to be from hanging around the others as much as he had recently. He guessed it was a good thing, the man was opening up after all. “Oh Captain,” Bridge said before he had gotten too far, “Have you warned Ken yet that's Greenberg is coming?” Smirking a bit Hawk said, “Not yet, I'd figure it be for the best to wait till the last possible second before I tell him. Just to give him less of a chance to find a place to hide.” Although if Hawk was right he'd probably be better off helping Ken find a place to hide if not get him off base entirely while he was here. As best as he tried word still got out that Ken was the one who came up with that detector. If Greenberg was anything like he was in Japan he wasn't going to leave Ken alone while he was here, if the emails haven't started already. No, he was fairly certain Ken would have said something if that was the case, either him or Jessica. Then he stopped and turned back to Bridge, “Do me a small favor, could look into this project the Chief brought to my attention that has personel being relocated to another outpost. Even if it's not military by design it still sounds like something I should have been aware of.” *** Walking quickly to the cafeteria Jess greeted a few people that she passed, but didn't stay any longer than that. Most of them probably figured she was off to meet up with Ken, and they would have been right. She wasn't late, they didn't even set a time to meet up, just when either of them could get there. But unless the Chief grabbed him for something he was usually there first, already at a table. It wasn't the diner or any place fancy but it was better than nothing, and at this point most of the people on base stopped staring at them, like they did with every one who got together. Even if she wasn't technically late, she didn't want to keep him waiting longer than necessary either. If it was something official he would have understood, it was just the idea to her. Besides she was looking forward to a nice, quiet, as quiet as you could get in a loaded cafeteria, lunch with Ken. Then she entered the room and immediately heard Reid chewing out a couple of people with everyone else trying not to stare at them. Okay quiet might have to wait a bit. Looking around she saw Ryo step up to her. All right her curiosity was getting the best of her. “Why is Reid reading those guys the riot act?” “There started talking about how they wanted to take down Ultraman again,” he said. She noticed that Ryo was getting between here and them. It was a sweet thought, but after all the time she'd over heard morons like that say something similar after she figured it out, and not once did she argue back. She wanted to, but kept it to herself. “He just risked his life defending this place, again!”, Reid's voice carried over to them. Jess watched the scene with a little amazement. Reid was true to his word and kept Ken's secret to himself, but he also seemed to be doubling down on stopping any sort of talk of attacking Ultraman. Jess doubted Jamira, may he rest in peace, would have done that much. Actually she wouldn't have been surprised if he would be the one leading the attacks. Then she remembered why she came here to begin with and looked around, getting confused when she couldn't spot him. Turning to Ryo she went, “Where's Ken?” “He was here,” he said. “But when those guys got started he got this look on his face then left. Honestly I couldn't really blame him. Having to listen to that the entire time he'd been here. I would have exploded a long time ago.” “Thanks Ryo,” she said as she went to go look for him. Ryo was right, Ken had way more patience than anybody had the right to have listen to that shit the entire time. And if it was finally starting to get to him then he had to be feeling it bad at this point. Now where to find him? Before she might have headed for the roof, seeing how that had become his favorite mooping spots recently, but that was currently impossible since it was still being rebuilt and off limits for the time being. Which left the garage, an old habit of his since they were dating the first time, Tearing something apart and rebuilding it always seemed to calm him down back then. So the garage it was. Hopefully nobody down there wasn't going to think she was the cause of his current mood. She wouldn't put it past most of them to hold her for that free shot from the other day. Granted she was fairly sure Ken wouldn't actually take it, she was still getting ready to run out of there again. Then she looked down a hall and stopped as she spotted him. He was leaning against a wall that had a row of windows and was just staring out them. Even from here he looked miserable. She walked over to him, Going, “Hey,” when she was close enough to be heard. When he looked back she said, “Are you okay?” He turned back away without saying anything. Oh yeah, this was bad all right. Standing next to him she looked out the window with him. After a bit she told him, “I heard what happened, don't listen to those idiots.” “It's fine,” he finally said. Although the tone said it was far from the case. She'd seen this before, when his brother Jeff would get to him. And much like then it look like he was going to internalize it and put it wherever he put things like that.. Jess wanted him to open up to her about it, but knew pushing the matter would just make him turn in more. He had been trying to change, or at least not fall into old habits. Jess took in a quick breath and said nothing, trying to remember what he was trying to do wasn't going to happen over night, it was going to take time. So she rubbed his shoulder slightly as she started to walk away. “It's just fucking frustrating,' he said suddenly. She was taken a little off guard by the sudden admission. But she went up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist as she rested her chin on his shoulder. He went on, “I mean those assholes still want to take Dax down after all this time, and he's been putting his life on the line every time a monster shows up. Not to mention mine,” he added looking at her, “because he doesn't know what'll happen to me if anything happens to him. I don't even know why we even bother half the time.” He looked back out the window, that was something that hadn't crossed her mind before, what would happen to Ken if anything happened to Daxium? “Because it's who you are,” she told him as she held him tighter, trying to ignore that possibility. “I won't speak for Dax but even in high school you'd help in whatever way you could. I'd be surprised if you didn't. But don't try to shoulder this by yourself any more, do you hear me?” Ken didn't say anything but he did reach up a hand and place it behind her head in a makeshift hug of his own. “You have me and the others backing you up now.” “I know,” he said softly. “Well try to remember it more often now,” she told him. “You've always had a support system, you just need to use it when you need to.” “I'm still getting used to the idea,” he admitted with a lopedsided grin. “You've been getting used to that idea since high school,” she gave him a quick peck on the cheek as she finally pulled away. “But there is something I have to tell you that Hawk wanted you to know.” “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”, he asked looking confused. “Well that's going to depend,” she told him. “Greenberg is due to arrive in a hour or so.” And that mood turned to a look of mild panic just like that. “It's Windam related,” she told him. Now he started to look worried, “He's not taking him back,” she said figuring that was going through his mind. “He wants to see what kind of progress you made with him. Apparently Bridge and Emiko have been talking.” “He's going to bug me about that detector,” he said. Ken showed her the emails that been gathering electronic dust in his inbox since the other bases received those plans. “More than likely,” she told him. “But do you really think me and Hawk are going to let you go that easily?” He started to answer then he got a strange look on his face right before he looked back out the window. Her first thought was that those invaders came back but he didn't tense up like she thought he would in that situation, no he looked confused. “Ken what is it?” “I'm not sure,” he said walking away from her but keeping his gaze on the horizon. “It's something Dax had been picking up on for the past couple of days. I already told Hawk about it but he said to not say anything until Bridge could look into it more since I don't have a clue what it is, just a vague direction.” Despite herself she asked, “Is it them? Slowly he shook his head,” No, this feels different tham them. It feels familiar and foreign at the same time. It's not even regular, it'd just coming and going at random. This is the first time I've felt it in a day.” “Why doesn't that sound good,” she said. “Probably because it doesn't sound good at all,” he said. “Guess it's too much to hope it's just me sensing Greenberg was coming.” he added with a slight smirk. “Probably,” she said as they walked away from the window. “But you still owe me lunch despite the assholes.” He took her hand as they walked. Although he did take one more look behind them at the window, which made her look back too. She gave his hand a quick squeeze, no that didn't sound good at all. But she was certain they could handle whatever was thrown at them. *** Ken tried not to squirm too much as he stood in the hanger waiting for the jet carrying Greenberg to arrive. Flanked by both Jess and Hawk, who were making sure he wasn't going to run, Hawk's words, he kept his eyes on the hanger door. His only relief was the idea that Bridge was there as well looking almost as nervous as he felt. More than likely for an entirely differr\ent reason than he was. “I didn't know Emiko was coming along,” he said to Jess, mainly to stop thinking about his own set of nerves. Ken wasn't expecting an answer, at least not from Hawk who said, “As fas as I know she's not.” He glanced over at Bridge and studied him for a moment, “Although that would explain why he's here.” “The long distance thing is kinda hard,' Ken commented, “Or so I've heard. Can't imagine what it's like after you first get with someone. Bridge,” he called out. When he looked his way way Ken said, “I'll make you a deal. You calm down and I'll calm down.” “I'll believe you actually calmed down when I see it,” Jess told him. “You're not the one getting headhunted,” Ken shot back. “Nobody is getting headhunted,” Hawk informed him. “At least not on my watch.” Any reply that Ken might have had was cut off when an alert went indicating a craft was coming in. Ken almost gave in to an urge to start backing his way to the door. But he decided to be better than that. Well that and Jess getting a grip on one arm while Hawk grabbed the other one to keep him in place. On the other side of the room the wall opened up and a runway extended out as a private jet, with the UNDF logo painted on the side come in for a landing. Ken tilted his head slightly when he noticed that the came to a much faster stop than he expected. Several crewmen quickly approached the plane to help secure it as the door opened up and a small boarding ladder lowered to the floor. Before long Greenberg, in his UNDF Tower uniform emerged and gave Hawk a quick salute. Behind him Emiko looked around and gave a small wave at Bridge who returned it. “Captain Hawk,” Greenberg said as he approached. “It's good to see you again. Hopefully this visit won't be as interesting as your trip to Tower.” “One can only hope,” Hawk said as he took the offered hand. Then looked behind him to see Ken staring at the jet engines and Jess trying to get his attention. “I see he noticed,” Greenberg said suddenly as he stepped past Hawk to Ken. “Have you figured out how they work yet?” Despite himself Ken answered, “Almost. Some sort of instant reverse thrust on landing?” “That would be in the ballpark,” Greenberg said looking pleased with the answer. “Please excuse me Captain, but we did just create this particular piece of technology not that long ago. I wanted to show off to someone who would appreciate it. No offence of course.” “Of course,” Hawk told him. “You still can't have him though.” “It's still early in the trip,” Greenberg said. Then Ken remembered who was standing next to him and started looking a little wary. “Just joking Ken, just joking. But we must talk about that detector you whipped up if there's time before we have to return to Tower. I was just astonished when I heard that you originally used technology from those invaders to create it, truly astonishing. I doubt even Kyrie could have pulled that off.” Ken was embarrassed right before he locked eyes with Bridge who was greeting Emiko. When both of them started to look embarrassed, he knew where that bit of information leaked from now. Greenberg decided then to move this conversation toward the door, “Is the original still around, I would love to take a look at it. I've often wondered what alien technology would look like.” “I'm surprised you haven't seen it already,” Ken muttered as he looked back forward again. Although it did earn him a quick kick to the shin from Jess. “Hey,” he said in protest. “Don't be rude Ken,” she said. Greenberg seemed amused by the quick exchange between the two of them. “Although I do admit I do have an unofficial pipeline of news about you Ken,” he admitted as he looked back at Emiko and Bridge as well. “I do apologize for the intrusion of your privacy Ken. And if it helps she was reluctant to do so. So don't think too badly of her, my curiosity about what you would do with Windam did get the better of me after all. Oh Captain Hawk, I must apologize if I haven't already, for not informing you beforehand that you were going to have an extra passenger on the way back.” “Given the results I can't complain too much,” Hawk said. “Ken has come into his own,” Jess quickly agreed. “Windam has come a long way as well.” “And I can't wait to see it demonstrated,” Grerenberg said. They made their way to the garage Windam was kept. Grrenberg looked around as he was introduced to the Chief while Bridge helped Emiko set up the lap top she had brought with her. He didn't seem confused that this was were Ken was usually working on Windom. When Ken came into his field of vision he gave him an appreciative nod. After a few more pleasantries the demonstration started. Ken did the usual things most people would expect, raise a certain arm go to a cetain person, perform a certain task that sort of thing. Greenberg looked mildly impressed, but it did look like he wanted to see something more. So Ken decided to give it to him. “Windam, go grab your favorite toy for the man to see.” “Here we go,” Jess went as Greenberg raised an eyebrow as Windam turned around and headed back to his usual room. Before long Windam came back out holding that figurine that seemed to be his favorite and showed it to Greenberg. “And that's his favorite toy,” Ken said as Greenberg looked at him.. And that smile on his face was infectious as Ken started grinning as well. “Would you put it back please.” Windam nodded and headed back to his room. Greenberg followed him and stood outside the door as he watched the robot put the figurine back in it's place. “Now I'm impressed,” Greenberg commented as Windam came back. The robot held out a fist that Ken quickly bumped in return, then both pulled it back to blow it up. Jess just face palmed herself that he just did that in front of the man but Greenberg was highly amused by the display. “Now that was what I was looking for when I let him go with you.” “Then why did you put him in a case then?”, Ken asked. “Ken,” Hawk barked. “It's quite alright Captain,” Greenberg told him, “and completely understandable. Truth be told I wasn't made aware of the adaptive program until after you left. Otherwise Windam would have never been put into the display.” He looked over to Jess, “I've heard Windam listens to you now as well.” “Yes he has,” she answered. “We're not exactly sure why.” “I could understand it if I told him to,” Ken spoke up. “But she gave him some instructions during that invasion and Windam did as she said.” “Could it be because he realized it was a highly volatile situation?”, Greenberg offered. “That was the first thing that I thought of,” Ken said. “But we've been testing him and he's still listening to her.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jess look around and cover her backside and smirked slightly. “I'm figuring it's because I'm usually down here visiting Ken when he's working on him,” Jess offered. Greenberg nodded as he thought about the situation. “That might be the reason,” he said. “But we can find out for sure now. One of the reasons why Emiko came along is because she developed a program that should help us communicate with Windam here. Windam could you sit in that chair please.” Everyone looked on expectantly waiting to see if Windam would react, he didn't. Ken just shrugged his shoulders when just about everyone was looking at him. “Well it was worth a shot,” Greenberg said. “Windam sit in the chair please,” Ken said. And Windam did as he was told. “Nathan”, Emiko said as she and Bridge started removing various plates from Windam's head then started attaching various cables from that computer to him. In moments they were done and she offered Bridge the seat at the keyboard. “We'll be ready in a few moments,” she announced to those of them watching. Ken walked up closer to Windam, looking at where they connected to him. “You okay bud?”, he asked. Windam just nodded in response. “Okay but let us know if something feels off.” “It's perfectly safe,” Emiko informed him. “None of Windam's systems should be harmed by this.” “I've gone over the program myself,” Bridge told him. “It's completely compatible with Windam's programing.” “If you say so,” Ken said as a new set of nerves started to hit him. Greenberg started gesturing to himself. It took a moment but Ken got the idea. “Windam, answer Dr. Greenberg's questions.” Windam nodded again in response. “All right let's start with something simple,” Greenberg said as he addressed Windam, “Who am I?” From the speakers on the computer, in something that sounded like a child's voice, came, “Dr. Greenberg.” Ken's jaw just dropped as everyone else looked on in stunned amazement. “Excellent,” Greenberg said. “It's so nice to be remembered. All right Windam, can you please say the name of the person I hold my hand over?” Picking the Chief at random the speaker went, “The Chief.” This went on a few times with various people in the garage. “Phil. Bridge. Alexandra.” When he put a hand over Emiko's head the computer was silent. “Well that's not surprising. I do believe this is the first time Windam has even seen Emiko.” He walked over to Jess with Windam's eyes following him the entire time. “Now let's find out why he seems to be listening to someone other the Ken.” He put a hand over Jess's head. Then from the speaker came the word, “Mama.” Ken's eyes bugged out a little when he heard that. Everyone stared at Windam. Slowly Jess looked at him, “Ken?” “That wasn't me,” he quickly said, “I never taught him that. Bridge that better be your idea of a joke.” “I didn't do anything,” he said. “Emiko?”, he looked at her but she was already shaking her head in the negative. Greenberg quickly went over to Ken and placed his hand over his head. “Papa,” came the response. “Well that's very interesting, it looks like Windam imprinted on the two of you,” Greenberg said. “I didn't even know that was possible. I wonder,” he trailed off as he walked over to Hawk and placed a hand over his head. “Captain Hawk,” Windam said. “Ken if he said anything other than my name,” Hawk told him in a warning tone. “I was already out the door,” Ken said as he kept his eyes on Windam.. “Mad?” Everyone turned back to Windam when they realized how he said that word. He just asked a question. Ken just looked on in amazement, Windam just asked a question. Snapping out of it Ken walked over to him, “No bud, nobody's mad”, he shot a quick glance over to Jess to make sure of that. “You just took us by surprise is all.” To Greenberg he said, “Maybe now is a good time to end the demonstration.” “Yes,” he agreed, “This seems like the perfect place.” Emiko and Bridge started to unhook Windam from the computer. “Well that was interesting, and completely unexpected. I'm not even sure how to explain it to my staff back at Tower. Ken whatever you're doing please keep it up. I want to see where this leads in the future.” Ken just stared at Windam as he stood up and walked over to him after the panels from his head were put back. A little absentmindedly.he reached out and rubbed off a slight smudge on his outer shell with his thumb. “You're not exactly the grandchild my mom is expecting from me bud.” Then he got that feeling again and looked in that direction. “Again?”, Jess asked as she stepped closer to him. “It feels a little closer this time around.” Bridge who overheard immediately went to a computer and started a search in the general direction Ken was loking in when Emiko wasn't looking. Obviously he hadn't shared everything with her, something he was extremely grateful for at that particular moment. He looked over at Hawk who nodded then made his way over to Bridge. “Windam go recharge for a bit,”he said as he looked back in that direction. What in the hell was he feeling exactly? *** It wasn't Scott and the giant that he had been sensing, that much Brooks was certain of. Being around them for so long that feeling was pretty much imprinted onto his cells at this point. But whatever this was was almost sickeningly familiar, he just couldn't place from where.. If he was sensing whatever this is, then there was a chance Scott was as well. Brooks wasn't a gambling man in any respect, but he would have bet money on it. Which made this little jaunt back to the states particularly dangerous, just because they might cross each other's path. It was a possibility he had to remember as he tried to track the source of that sensation. Not that he thought Scott would just drop everything and follow it too. But as he witnessed not that long ago Scott did turn into the giant right in front of Hawk, so one way or another the man knew now and somehow Brooks doubted that Scott would keep these random sensations from the man now. No, it was more than likely not only could Scott be around, but at the very least Hawk's personal unit, the aptly named “Monster Squad”, would be there as well. And if Hawk knew Scott's secret it was possible that unit knew as well. Hawk never seemed like the type of person to keep the men in his unit in the dark about something like that, at least in his experience with the man. So Brooks kept every sense he had as open as possible as he slowly floated over the barren landscape he was in now. Well that was a tad too dramatic, he was over a stretch of dessert. Still he kept close to the ground, they were aware of what he could do now, did know that is, he was able to upgrade what he could do after all. Still they knew he had powers now, and could fly. Only an imbecile wouldn't tell the people he worked with to keep an eye on the skies, and the glow he emitted while in flight was more than noticeable. More so in the late afternoon sun. And walking would leave a highly visible trail. He paused in his path as two things happened at once. One he started sensing it again, it was strong enough that he could get a stronger sense of it's location now so he knew he was heading in the right direction. The second thing made him lower himself to the ground and pull in his power to be less noticeable, the way too familiar sound of Razor Wing engines. Brooks looked up to see two jets fly over head and head toward the same area as that sensation. Brooks watched them, anticipating when they were going to open fire on whatever it was. But they didn't, in fact it looked like they went in for a landing. Brooks looked around, “No,” he said to himself, “They wouldn't just send two Razor Wings to attack something, they'd send an entire squadron. So they landed.” But that didn't make any sense either if this was some sort of exploratory expedition those Wings would have escorted a bigger jet carrying the scientist or whomever they thought was necessary to properly examine whatever it is. “What is going on?” Risking the chance of being spotted he flew off in that direction again, but still keeping low to the ground. Seeing a valley he slowed his approach and landed a few yards from that edge over loooking it, were the sand was making way to rock, and cautiously made his way forward after waiting to make sure guards weren't going to try and swarm him. Getting on his knees when he was just feet away from the edge he made his way over and looked over the side. “What in the hell?”, he asked as he saw a base of some sort. Looking a little closer he was certain some of those he was watching were wearing UNDF uniforms from various branches including one he didn't quite recognize. Then he spotted a hanger open up and saw a row of Razor Wings right before one was rolling out to a massive run way of sorts. This was a UNDF base, one that had been there a while from the look of things. But as part of the board, when he was part of the board that is, he knew the location of every base and outpost in the organization. But he had no idea this was out here. And if he didn't know then the other members didn't know either. Richardson more than likely knew, but the other probably didn't know this place even existed. Then he got a better look at that runway, no that was a hanger door, a massive hanger door. What was out here? Backing away from the edge he finally stood and held out a hand forming a vortex. It took a moment but a shape was soon inside it. “Avatar,” came the usual voice. Brooks smirked a bit, This was the first time either side had contacted the other since he announced that they needed to rework their working agreement. Generally Brooks would have waited for them to make the first move. But this was a special circumstance. Besides that more respectful tone in that voice was oh so satisfying. “Greetings my 'masters',” he was heavy with the sarcasm on that last word. “I don't suppose you felt some sort of strange sensation on your side of things? Because I believe I found the source of it. If you have a creature ready I believe we can work together to discover what it is.” *** Walking the halls of Castle Hawk was in a slightly better mood than usual. Partially because Richardson, Stanberry and Dr. Williams were currently elsewhere so he didn't have to worry about that potential headache for a while. Passing one of the break rooms he saw the men of his unit just relaxing and enjoying the quiet moment. Part of him wanted to join them but he still had work to do that couldn't be put off because he wanted it to. Although he did catch Ken's eye without meaning to. They just nodded at each other in acknowledgement before Ken returned to their conversation and he went on his way. Hawk smirked to himself as he realized how much more relaxed Ken seemed after Greenberg's brief visit. Luckily for all of them the man didn't try to recruit Ken once while he was here. But Hawk's mood slipped back into confusion again briefly as he remembered Greenberg asking why he wasn't allowing Ken on the project, and how fast he changed the subject when he realized Hawk had no idea what he was talking about. So that made one more person who was aware of this project that he had no clue about. Apparently this project was so secret Bridge couldn't find any sign of it anywhere,which made the man look as frustrated as Hawk felt. As the one in charge of the military side of things he hated being out of the loop. And like he told Bridge this sounded like something he should know about. If he had to bet he would have laid down money that Richardson and company were there right now. “Gabe,” he heard. Looking behind him he saw Reid catch up with him. “One of the people I was looking for,” Hawk commented when he did so. Which got a appropriately amused look from the Commander. “I'be been getting a few complaints that you're cracking down on the anti Ultraman talk,” he said as they both started down the hall. “Just anything about wanting to open fire on him, nothing else,” Reid said defending himself a little. Reid glanced around before saying, “Everyone is entitled to an opinion and those people can be as anti Utraman as thery want. But I'be always had a slight issue with the attacking him talk even before I figured out...,” he trailed off. Hawk nodded in response so Reid went on, “At some point you have to figure he's just going to say 'Fuck it, you're on your own'.” “I don't disagree,” Hawk told him. “But we do have to be careful at how we react to situations like that now. I'm still kicking myself because I'm sure that question I originally asked you helped lead you in that direction.” “I know,” Reid said as he looked around again. “I see it in their eyes, wondering why I'm so insistent about it lately. How did he do it for so long, and not raise more suspicion than he has?” “You would not believe how many times I've asked myself that,” Hawk said with a slight smirk. “I'm not even sure he knows how he did it.” Their conversation was interrupted by Hawk's communicator going off. He hit it immediately and tried to not think the worst, “Hawk here.” “This is the control room,” Bridge said. “can you come up here? We have an alert that doesn't make any sense. I'd rather not say over the link.” At first Hawk was concerned that Richardson started listening to the rest of them. But Bridge was monitoring that situation and would have informed him that was the case before now. “I'm with Reid, we're on our way Bridge.” They both looked at each other, both wondering what would make this alert any stranger than any of the others. They hurried off despite their confusion, strange or not an alert meant that they would be needed soon if not immediately. Members quickly got out of their way as they made their way up. As soon as he entered the command room Hawk was going, “Now what's so strange about this particular alert?” Bridge didn't even turn around to look at them as he focused on his station, “Two things Captain, one it's roughly eighty miles west of this location.” walking up behind the man Hawk looked over his shoulder at the screen he was looking at. The distance didn't classify this as strange in his book, They had to deploy on distances that long, if not longer, away before. Then Bridge pulled up the alert for him. “The second is that it's a UNDF emergency signal.” All right, now that classified it as strange. Coming closer Reid asked the two of them, “Do we even have a base in that general location?” “Not that I'm aware of,” Hawk told him as his brow furrowed as he studied the signal. He knew the location of every base and outpost in the organization, so what in the hell was this? “Bridge how authentic is the signal?” It was the only thing that made any sense to him, somebody was faking a signal as a prank. And Hawk was going to make sure the hammer would be brought down as hard as possible the moment they found out who was responsible. As many times as possible if he could. “I've tripled checked it,” Bridge told him, “it's the current emergency signal. It just went into effect a couple of weeks ago.” “”But there's no base or outpost out there,” Reid said. “So what and who is giving off the signal?” “No clue Commander,” Bridge told him. “We're going over any report we can locate in the system to try and explain it.” “Bridge we;re getting an audio transmission from the same location now,” somebody called out. “Put it on speakers,” Bridge told him. The man didn't even nod an acknowledgement, he just went to work doing just that. Soon they all heard,””Repeat we are under attack! A giant creature just appeared out of nowhere and attacked. We are requesting assistance...” Static soon followed. “Bridge, that creature?”, Hawk asked. The monster, if there was one, should have set off the alarms before now if it was that close. “I've already checked,” came the reply, “It's a dead zone as far as the sensors are concerned.” “What?”,” Hawk went as he leaned in closer to get a better look at those readings. Granted he was no expert at reading these things like Bridge was, but even he could see something that looked like an obvious hole in the sensor net. “How long has that been there?” “It looks like almost since the beginning of the organization,” Bridge told him. “As far as we're able to determine based on some older records we found.” Now that was disturbing, why would there be a dead spot in their sensor grid? And how come no one noticed it before now? Trying to think a bit more logically it more than likely it had something to do with that mysterious signal they were receiving. “Well one good thing,' Reid said suddenly. “At least Brooks wasn't aware of it otherwise he could have launched any of those monsters from there. Or hide out there to begin with,” “Bridge, let's get them launched,” Hawk said. “If it's one of ours or not we have to respond, especially since there's an apparent monster attack Let's go Commander. Bridge, have Monster Squad board the Alpha One. Ken can catch a ride with you.” Reid nodded as they rushed out of the room. Meanwhile Bridge was already making the deploy announcement over the intercom and communicators, “All units, get ready to scramble. Hanger crew prep the Alpha One to launch!” *** Sitting behind Reid in the Scan Track Ken looked out the window, not even seeing the scenery as they passed it. According to the Commander they received an emergency transmission from a UNDF location not that long ago that it was under attack from a giant monster. Ken had a feeling the attack on Castle wasn't going to be the end of it. Apparently it was far enough away that Dax couldn't even sense it, which wasn't that unusual. As Ken estimated his limit was a couple of miles at best. The fact that nobody knew this particular base even existed before now, yeah that was a head scratcher. Most of the short bits of conversation in the Scan Track and over the line was about this mysterious location. Although Ken did notice they were going in the general direction of whatever that feeling Dax was getting ever so often was coming from. He briefly wondered if the two was connected somehow. If it was would he be able to get away somehow to look for it? Since Reid was in the loop now, depending on what Hawk told him, he might be able to confide in him about it, after this battle was over that is. Any thought he had about doing some unauthorized exploring was interrupted when he got a feeling from his giant friend. This one was very familiar, He looked through the windshield and a little further ahead, granted he wasn't the only one who noticed the dark smoke rising into the sky but that wasn't where he was looking. Ken noticed Reid was looking at him. This he did know the Commander was aware of and nodded his head slightly.Reid snorted a bit and looked back forward as he hit his communicator, “Reid to Alpha One. It looks like the report was right so far. Do you have a visual on the target?” Hawk was the one who answered, “We just got a visual on it right now. Razor Wings follow our lead and run in with the initial attack. Scan tracks break whatever speed limit you have to and get into attack position. Our job is to keep it distracted long enough to make sure that base is evacuated before we really hammer it.” “Understood,” Reid called out among the other confirmation. Then he added, “I want each Scan Track to send out a man to help with evacuation. They're still our people and we need to help as much as we can.” Cutting his communicator he looked back at Ken. He quickly got the message. “Guess I'm the man from this Scan Track,” he said with a smirk. There was one good thing about Reid knowing, now he didn't have to figure out an excuse to get out of the vehicle now. He just had to worry about where he was going to let Dax out, so far he wasn't seeing anything he could hide behind and keep out of view. Worry about it later. “Just don't get stepped on,” the guy next to him said. “We don't want your girl beating us up later.” “Jess wouldn't beat you guys up,” Ken told them as he kept his eyes focused on the destination ahead of them. Keeping his face as straight as possible he added, “She'd snipe you from a distance.” He stared at him while Reid and the driver paid them no attention. Before long the grin he was holding back finally broke through and the guy punched him in the shoulder. “I've been dodging these things since that first one popped up from that lake. I've gotten pretty good at it by now.” Most of the people he worked with knew he was at that lake when the first one showed up by now so he wasn't revealing anything by saying that. “Up ahead,” Reid called out, basically him telling the two of them to keep quiet and get ready. The guy next to him was already shutting up as they finally saw what the guys in the air had already spotted. The first thing Ken noticed was how skinny it looked compared to the other monsters Dax had faced since that first time. It still had a fairly big gut but was skinnier in the limbs, at least it looked like that way from here. Then he noticed the big crooked looking horn on the top of it's head and spikes going down it's back. Then they saw the angry looking red and yellow eyes that were focusing on the incoming Alpha One as it turned around as the Razor Wings open fired on it. The monster thrashed around, it's club like tip of it's tail pounded the ground as the missiles and rockets exploded against it. Then some helmet like panels on the side of it's head flipped up as it opened it's mouth and launched fireballs at it's attackers. The Alpha one and Razor Wings easily dodged the attack, which on some level made Ken so happy he wasn't up there with the rest of them at that particular moment. His stomach was threatening to flip around just watching them. Long spikey, claw like fingers took a swipe at the Alpha One as it passed by. Ken nearly grabbed the Spark Magnifier right there and then when he saw that but had to trust Ryo and Bill's piloting skills to keep them all safe. The Scan Tracks came to a stop at the opposite end of the valley the monster was standing at. Getting out Ken looked around, trying to get any sense of Brooks because he just had to be out here somewhere. A roar from the creature quickly stopped that line of thinking and returned to the task at hand. Then he got a good look into that valley. He felt better at just staring at what he was seeing since the others were doing the same thing. They looked at each other right before they all headed for the base. Reid was righ,t secret or not, they were part of their organization and they needed their help. Seeing someone he recognized from Castle Ken grabbed her arm and asked, “Were are we on the evacuation?” “Most of the staff retreated deeper into the base,” was her answer. Well that was either going to be good or bad. Right now Ken was leaning toward bad, especially if that thing decided to step down here. It looked like it could fit easily but he wasn't sure if what he was seeing could handle the weight. Then she grabbed his arm, “Richardson and Williams are still in there!” “You've got to be kidding me,” Ken muttered. He quickly hit his communicator, “Scott to Hawk, the situation just got a little more complicated. We have people still inside the main base, Richardson and company are among them.” “Son of a bitch,” Hawk muttered over the line. “Ken keep doing what you can to evacuate the others not in the base. Hell get them in that base if you have to. I'll try and get in contact with Stanberry, chances are she's with him right now. We'll figure out where he is and go from there. Hawk out.” Pushing the one he recognized toward the side they came from Ken made his way toward someone else and helped him up. Then from the piece in his ear he barely heard Jess softly tell him, “Try and destract the creature if you can.” Ken clicked the device around his wrist once to confirm that he understood. The tone was because of the one currently sitting in 'his' chair on the Alpha One's bridge. This particular circle didn't need to get any bigger. Helping a few others Ken soon saw an opening and some sort of machine big enough to hide him momentarily, he looked around to make sure no one was looking at him and ran for it. Getting behind the machine he pulled out the Spark Magnifier and held it over his head and activated it. *** The creature known to its creators as Kelbeam backed up in surprise as a column of light appeared on the other end of the valley. As it faded away revealing Daxium in the base people were running scans and studying anything to figure out where the giant came from, all but Richardson that was. On the outside those who weren't familiar with this particular sight stared on in awe at what they were seeing. Onboard the Alpha One Hawk looked back to see Jess look like she was looking at the screen right in front of them. Lowering one hand from the field of view of the other person in the room he gave her a quick thumbs up. She nodded slightly and turned back around to her station as they all heard the usual “Shiah!” the giant usually shouted before a battle. Leaping over the valley Daxium grabbed the creature and started pushing it back. Kelbeam tripped on it's tail and fell back. The giant quickly jumped on top of it and started pounding away at it's head. Then those panels flipped up again. Daxium tried to avoid it but got hit by one of the fireballs that it fired out of it's mouth and fell to the ground. Kelbeam got up and started toward the base in the valley again. From his knees Daxium lunged at the creature and grabbed it's tail. Planting his feet and bracing himself as best as he could he pulled back. Kelbeam yelped in surprise by the sudden pull and tried to move forward despite the new resistance he was was feeling.. With a grunt Daxium started pulling back harder to keep it away from the base. Slowly the creature was being pulled away from the valley despite the monster fighting and struggling against it. Getting a better grip on the tail the giant grunted again and threw Kelbeam further away from the valley. It fired off another set of fireballs. Daxium spread his arms forming the energy shield to block the barrage. He dropped the field as the monster charged him. Daxium grabbed hold of Kelbeam and held his ground as the monster tried to push him back toward the valley. Suddenly Krlbeam stepped back making the giant stumble forward, trying to keep his balance. Those claws quickly swiped across his body several times before he was grabbed and thrown to the ground. Daxium got to a knee as quickly as he could to stop it from going at the valley again, but the monster was waiting for him. Spinning around and bashing that tail against him. The monster started stomping on him. Daxium grabbed the foot as it came down again. “Give him a hand,” Hawk said as Jess quickly fired off another round of missiles that impacted against the creature's back. Kelbeam looked back to see where this new attack was coming from, but it was enough for Daxium to push on the foot to knock it down. Getting to a knee he fired off a Flash Bolt as the creature got up. Running in he started pounding on it once again. Picking Kelbeam up he threw it to the ground with a thud. Kelbeam caught the giant off guard with a point blank fireball attack that knocked him to his back. Writhing on the ground in pain the crystal on his chest started to blink. Krlbeam reached down and grabbed Daxium by the throat and hauled him up and started thrashing him around the head. Then it stopped and looked at the valley. It was feeling the same thing Daxium was currently getting, that sensation was definately here. Using the distraction Daxium pounded the hand away from his throat then punched the monster in the face. With another grunt he threw it further away from the valley. He looked over at the Alpha One and pointed at the creature. On the ship's bridge Hawk was confused by the gesture until he looked back at Jess who was already doing something, then he got the notification that the main cannon was deploying and understood. “Captain!”, the man at the engineering station started to say. “She knows what she's doing,” was all Hawk told him. One the ground the Alpha One got into position behind the giant and to the side as both of them faced the monster. Daxium set up for the Dimensional Storm Ray at the same time Jess was powering up the main cannon. When Daxium crossed his arms at the wrist Jess called out, “Main cannon fire!”. Under the Alpha One the main cannon fired at the same time Daxium unleashed his destructive beam at the creature. Both beams hit Kelbeam and it fell down and exploded. Ryo and Bill both high fived each other in celebration. “I was hoping we would do that one of these days,” Bill said overjoyed at the situation. Back on the ground Daxium looked back at the valley since he was still feeling whatever was in there. Knowing he couldn't do anything about it without drawing the ire of others in the organization he was currently aligned with he looked up at the sky and flew off, “Shiah!” Closer to the valley an orb of light appeared before shrinking down to something human shape then broke away revealing Ken. He came out of his hiding spot and made his way to the others. Then an alarm went off and they heard an announcement saying, “Everyone clear the launch pad. The Icarus is about to launch. Seeing the ground slowly start to split Ken and the rest of them headed for high ground of the valley once he got to the lip he finally stopped as the rest of them kept going and watched, that sensation being stronger than ever at this point. Hawk looked at his controls as a light indicated that they were receiving an incoming transmission. Hitting the switch a small screen by him showed Richardson's face looking back at him. “Mr, Richardson,” Hawk said. “Are you and the rest all right?” He had questions that needed answers but right now certain ones needed to take priority over the others. “We're all fine Captain,” he said. “Thanks to you and the men's timely arrival. I guess the proverbial cat is out of the bag now. Welcome to the Dungeon, the UNDF's secret development base.” “Which does beg the question,” Hawk told him. “Why is there a secret base to begin with? So close to Castle no less.” “Let's be honest with each other Captain,” he said practically rolling his eyes. “Every organization with any type of power has a secret, under the table dealings, from governments to business operations. This is where we develop our more powerful weapons.” “Funny, I thought that was Tower's position in the organization,” Hawk said, and since Greenberg knew about this place what did he think of it? “Tower is where the dreamers create things Captain.” Now how would Greenberg react to that particular statement? “Yes most of what they create is useful but the real work is done here, away from prying eyes and any potential moles in the organization.” “Is that why personal have been taken from Castle and the various outposts for the past week?” “Given the threat level of what we recently faced Captain,” Richardson went on, “it was felt that it was in the UNDF best interest to get this particular project off the ground as soon as possible.” Looking at someone off screen he said, “Launch the Icarus.” Back on the ground Reid and a few others joined Ken as they watched as a giant vessel of some sort slowly rose from the formaly hidden hanger. Reid pointed out the UNDF logo on the side. That feeling was stronger than ever now. There was no doubt in Ken's mind now, that was the source of it. There was no doubt in his or Dax's mind. *** At Richardson's insistence the Alpha One landed and Hawk and the others, minus the person in his seat, got off as a replacement crew took over. All of them watched the Alpha One rise up and as it and the Razor Wings returned to Castle. Reid did the same as the Scan Tracks drove off returning to base as well. “I can't speak for Commander Reid,” Ken said as they all stood there, “but I'm not walking back to Castle.” “I don't think that's the plan son,” Hawk said while looking up at the massive vessel. They all did and saw a smaller craft deploy and come closer to the ground near them. Ken blanched a bit as he watched it get lower and lower, “On second thought I'd rather walk.” “Not until after the tour,” Hawk told him. As the shuttle looking vessel started to land Reid asked, “I understand you lot going up there but why me?” “Richardson's order,” was Hawk's answer. “He wants both of us to be familiar with it. Apparently a detail of Scan Tracks can be loaded and launched from that thing, as well as the Razor Wings.” “So it's basically a mobile version of Castle,” Bill asked. “From the sound of it,” Hawk told him. “We'll find out once we're aboard.” The shuttle landed and a ramp lowered to allow them entry. A couple of men greeted them as they entered it and saluted. Hawk and Reid returned before continuing on. Ryo lead the others in returning the salutes. One of them held out a open box, inside was a hyperthermic gun. Hawk saw it and looked at Ken, “I think that's for you.” “I wonder who's idea that was?”, Ken mumbled as he took it in hand and studied it. A vail was already loaded into it so he placed it next to his neck. Taking a deep breath and bracing himself he pulled the trigger. “Mother fu...”, he quickly held his tongue and stopped himself from finishing that particular statement out loud. As he held his neck he handed the gun over to Jess, “Am I missing some sort of pressure control on this thing?” She took it with no problem, but she was staring at him the entire time, “Are you asking for help?” And she had no idea how old that was getting, “Are you going to ask that every time?” “I'm not used to this yet,” she shot back. “It is a bit weird civilian,” Bill put in. Ryo added, “He ain't lying.” “I'll be in the back feeling miserable,” Ken said as he made his way to the rear of the vehicle before Hawk stopped him.”I'm not looking for another way out.” “I'm not taking the chance,” Hawk told him. “I think we're ready for take off,” he told one of the men who greeted them. To them he said as that man went to the cockpit, “Now let's see what's going on exactly. Despite knowing the stuff he just injected himself with would work he still held his stomach as they each grabbed a loop hanging from the ceiling as directed. Jess was the only one who stood by him as they got ready to launch. The slight lurch from take off made Ryo and Bill look at him with some concern. “I'm good,” he told them right before there was another bump in their flight, “As long as that doesn't keep happening.” Not to mention this was going to be the longest short ride he'd ever taken in his life. His only comfort was Jess rubbing his back slightly as they got higher in the air. Well one good thing, now he didn't have to worry about sneaking into that base to find that source. He still wished it was on the ground though. *** “Welcome aboard the UNDF battleship Icarus,” Stanberry said in greeting as Hawk led them off the shuttle. All of them looked around the hanger as several people, some in the uniform he was familiar with but most having grey were there was supposed to be red, saluted him and Reid. Hawk returned the salute out of habit more than anything. He kept reminding himself that they were all part of the same organization, despite the slight uniform differences. Yet he had no trouble when they were at Tower investigating the King Joe robot, then again he knew about the base in Japan, as well as the ones in Russia, Great Britain, Mexico, Canada and so forth. It still irked him that there was a base, practically a stone throw away from Castle and he had no clue it existed, much less they were building this blasted thing. He returned his attention to Stanberry as she continued, “As members of the UNDF, in various capacities that is,” none of them failed to notice she looked directly at Ken when she added that last part, Jess put a hand on his forearm to keep him from saying anything, “You have free reign of the ship. Everything from the bridge to the mess.” “Just one big happy family,” Bill commented. Which got him a quick elbow from Ryo. “You're gonna break a rib one of these days.” Like he didn't say anything she went on, “However, Mr. Richardson does request yours and Commander Reid's presence in his office before an official tour can be given. If you both will come with me.” “This should be good,” Reid grumbled as he followed her. Before following he turned toward his people, “I'm sure this goes without saying but be on your best behavior until I get back.” When most of them sort of turned toward to Bill he added, “We're not taking any souviners back home this time Ken.” He opened his mouth to protest but kept whatever comment he had to himself, still he shot a look toward Bill when he started grinning at him. Without another word he hurried to catch up with Reid and Stanberry. A quick ride in an elevator took them to the floor Hawk guessed Richardson was on as the doors opened. A few more guards saluted as they passed. Then Stanberry stood by one door in particular at the end of one corridor and motioned for them to enter. Seeing a room that seemed a step or two down from his office back at Castle even with the giant window right behind him “Mr. Richardson,” he did say in greeting. “Captain,” he said a little curtly, not even bothering to stand, “Commander. Granted this wasn't how I wanted either of you to learn of the existance of this particular project. But we can't always get what we want. I'm sure you have plenty of questions.” “I have a few,” Hawk said. “Cheif one being when did this get the green light? Nothing about this vessel says that was a recent order.” “I have to agree,” Reid put in. “The Alpha One took a few months to complete as I understood it.” “You both would be correct,” Richardson told them. “Construction of the Icarus started shortly after the first giant monster appeared. Given it's size this was pretty much started the next day.” Given how Joe's funeral was done in the same time frame he couldn't help but wonder which decision was made first. “The size of it,” Hawk commented. “I'm seem to remember Dr. Williams using that to try and get the Alpha One built originally. And it still took a while for the board to give the okaty to build that.” “Yes he did,” Richardson said as he leaned back. “He even brought that up when he first heard what I just told you this morning. But honestly the Icarus being built had nothing with the Alpha One being built or not.” “So why build either one?”, Reid asked. “The Icarus, just to be prepared,” Richardson answered. “As for the Alpha One, well it occurred to me that this vessel might be too powerful for some threats, or too destructive if you would prefer. Some of Ultraman's weapons have proven that point long before now. So it was decided that the Icarus would only be used in the most desperate situations. In the meantime it would be a mobile base of sorts. Used to get the men to a situation faster. In fact I've already made plans for the Icarus to be stationed next to Castle. The proper parties have already been notified of this of course.” “The rest of the board wasn't aware that Dungeon or this ship exssted before now, were they?”, Hawk asked getting right to the point. “Given Brooks ended up being tied to the enemy it was probably for the best, don't you think?” “That's going to depend on what the rest of the board is going to say about it,” Hawk told him. But even he had to stifle a shudder thinking about the mess Brooks could have caused if he knew this Dungeon base was a thing. Before he could respond all of them saw a light start blinking on the desk. A second later Stanberry entered with her phone in hand. Richardson made a face that he quickly covered up. “Speaking of the board that should be them now. If the two of you will excuse me.” “Of course, we can continue this discussion later,” Hawk told him. This time he didn't even bother to hide his expression this time as they exited. Stanberry pointed out the direction of the elevator. He thanked her and they took their leave. Reid waited until they were a few yards away, and Stanberry entered the room, before speaking. “That's a conversation I don't even want to be a fly on the wall for. How upset do you think the other board members are going to be about this thing?” “It'll depend on how well he spins it to them,” Hawk told him. “But there's going to be some sort of fallout over this. Of that I have no doubt.” The floor under them lurched slightly. Hawk had been on enough air crafts in his time to recognize what was happening.”We're moving. Think we're headed toward Castle?” “I wouldn't bet against the idea,” Reid told him. “You know, forget about the board for the moment. What's the general public going to say about this thing? People are grumbling about our budget as it is.” “Fortunately that's not our problem,” Hawk said as he headed for that elevator. “Let the PR people handle that headache. As far as I'm concerned we have more important,not to mention much larger, problems to worry about.” Reid nodded as they arrived at the elevator. Hawk briefly wondered where his people currently were considering they were given all access to the massive vessel. If he knew his people like he thought he did he figured Ryo and Bill were somewhere on the bridge looking at the controls. Jess was more than likely examining the weapon situation. Ken, well with Ken it was a question of how soon he was able to break away from the others to check out the engine on this thing. *** On the decks below Hawk would have been surprised to discover that they didn't split up like he thought they would. They pretty much stayed as a group to explore the ship. He would have been down right shocked that they found themselves in what would have been the Scan Track launch bay. Right now they were examineing one of the vehicles that would have helped launch those ground vehicles. “So it doesn't land and deploy the Tracks then,” Jess commented as they circled one of the massive dropships. Ryo looked back at the other two dropships that were behind the one they were looking at, “Doesn't seem like it. You seeing any weapons on your end Jess?” “Not at the moment,” she called back. “At least nothing visible, looks there might be a couple of ports some guns might extend from. No, it doesn't look like they open up at all it's a solid panel.” “So either they deploy further away from the target or they're counting on the main ship to provide covering fire in addition to the armor on these ships,” Ryo mused. “either way it's not a detail I think I'd want to be assigned to.” On the other side Ken and Bill were doing their own inspection of the bay in general. They found themselves by the launch hanger door and Ken's mind was already at work figuring out where everything went and was connected to. “Seems pretty basic for a ship this advanced,” Bill commented next to him as he tried to study the door as well. “Sometimes basic is better,” Ken told him as he looked around. “Less of a chance that something's going to screw up at the wrong moment.” “What do you mean we're still getting a red light on the main door?”, somebody said that got their attention. “That light's been green all day!” “Something must have come loose during launch,” somebody else called back. “We just have to find out where it is.” “Richardson wanted this vessel fully operational by the time we reached Castle. We're not going to have time to figure out where it is.” Ken looked over the shoulder of the person who had announced that red light to begin with. Getting a good look at the schematic on the screen he looked around, using his fingers to trace some lines from the diagram and located an access panel. Making sure nobody was paying him too much attention while he walked over, he opened it and studied the diagram on the inside for a second and reset some breakers that had tripped. “Now it's green,” the person called out. “All systems are operational.” “Still better mark it for a closer inspection, if it's going on and off on it's own it's probably something electrical.” No one noticed Ken as he closed that panel and walked away from it. No one but Bill who just gave him this look as he said, “Now you're just showing off.” Ken just shrugged his shoulders as they rejoined Ryo and Jess. “You guys want to hit the Razor Wing hanger next?” “Might as well,” Ryo said. “The three of us are going to spend more time up there than down here any way.” Then he remembered Ken was still there, “Sorry man I meant you too.” “I plan to be on the ground as much as possible,” Ken told him. “It's going to have to take a major emergency to get me back aboard this thing.” At the door somebody stood there and called out, “Any body in here good with machines? They need some help in the engine room.” Jess, Ryo and Bill looked at the man then immediately turned their attention right at Ken. He sighed a bit, “Can I at least get a chance to volunteer first before being signaled out?” He raised a hand to get his attention, “I'm pretty decent” “Decent?”, someone else said.It happened to be somebody from Castle. “If I knew Ken was here I would have pointed him out myself.” “Works for me, follow me,” he said with a wave.. Ken was right behind him with Jess and company in tow. “The engine has a slight hiccup they can't figure out. “ “Not sure,” Ryo spoke up, “I want to hear the words 'engine' and 'hiccup' in the same sentence when we're this high in the air.” “The engineers and scientists are swearing,” he continued, “that it's nothing major. But being new technology they just want to make sure. But it is the first time the engine has had any problems.” Ken grunted,”Is that what they're saying?” This wouldn't be the first time he ever heard somebody claim some issue just popped up after they were working on any sort of engine. He heard it plenty of times during his time at the garage. “I've been working on this engine almost from the beginning,” he informed them. “And I can confirm it's never done this before. Nobody can explain it. We wanted to do some test runs before we officially launched. But Richardson was pretty insistent about launching when we did. You guys deal with him more than we have, is he always that pushy?” “You have no idea,” Ken said. When he looked at Ken Jess quickly stepped in, “What Ken's trying to say is... You've been lucky.” Ryo leaned in and told her, “That wasn't much better.” “I was under pressure,” she said defending herself. “Right, pressure.” “I'll take that as a yes,” the man said in response. Things were quiet the rest of the way, several people got out of their way as they passed. Ken caught a look ar a side section map of the ship on the wall, it looked like most of the floors lead to the engine room in the back of the ship. Their impromptu guide radioed ahead that they were coming as a door marked “Engine Room restricted access” came into view. He opened the door and held it open as they all entered. “Here we are.” Ken took one step inside before he came to a stop. The others stood with him as they looked around at the sight before them. Ken wasn't sure exactly he was expecting when he first heard the words 'engine room'. Maybe a more high tech version of what you see on a naval battleship, at most a bigger version of the one on the Alpha One. But this, this was something he'd only seen in science fiction movies. And like with the tech the invaders used his brain was going into overdrive trying to make sense of what he was seeing. “How did you guys even begin to build this?”, he ended up saying, voice full of awe.. Next to him Bill said, “What's that genius brain of yours telling you civilian?” “That it wished it discovered that genius thing a couple of years sooner.” “Ken,” Jess told him, “You figured out how to use alien technology. You'll get this” “Why does some of this look familiar?”, he muttered to himself, not really hearing what she said. But still appreciative of the encouragement. “Hold it,” someone standing next to their guide spoke up, “that was this guy? He doesn't look the type.” Ken finally turned away from the room and stared at him. He quickly back tracked. “I didn't mean anything by it. But most of the eggheads I'm around look like the guys down there.” Ryo pointed at one in particular saying “There's Dr. Williams. Let's go see what he has to say.” “It just hit me,” Bill said suddenly. “Scott in Engineering.” Ken kept going for the stairs that headed down, “You shut up.” With the others right behind him they made their way to the main floor. Then Ken got a good look at what they were calling the 'engine'. It was roughly the size of a two story house and took up most of the room with the various tubes and cables coming off of it, connecting it to other things in the room. Ken was convinced more than ever of two things, he had seen this before he just couldn't place from where at that particular moment, and this was the source of the feeling Dax was still getting. And right now he was so close he was starting to get a headache from it. “Ah Ken,” Williams said as he came up and shoved a datapad into his hand, “I'm glad you're here. Can you jump into that Jefferies tube over there and check the electron flow for me?” Feeling Bill just stare at him with a full on smirk on his face, he pointed at him and said, “Still shut up.” He made his way over to the opening, tucking his ponytail into his jacket and made his way inside. This was his best chance to figure out what was going on. *** She was surprised they let her, Ryo and Bill just hang around while everybody else worked on the problem. Because if there were three less qualified people to be in here it was the three of them. But they tried to stay out of the way as best they could as they hung around the tube Ken went in minutes ago. His head popped out as he looked around the bat before pointing at something, “Could one of you hand me that?” Bill was the closest as to the area he was gesturing at. After making sure he was grabbing the right thing thing he passed probe looking device over to Ken. “Here you go.” “Thanks,” he said as he went back in. Jess smiled to herself, he was in his element all right. She wouldn't assume to think for Ryo and Bill but it was obvious to her at least that Ken was having a blast at the moment. “Ken,” Ryo said into the opening, “Any idea how long this is going to take?” “No clue,” he answered from somewhere inside that tube. “Go ahead and keep exploring the ship if you want, I'll catch up later.” Jess started shaking her head, “We do that and we'll never get him out of here.” Speaking in a slightly softer tone Ryo said, “I'm going to report this to Hawk in case he doesn't already know about that hiccup.” “We'll watch after Ken,” Bill said. With a nod Ryo walked away and hit his communicator. Looking over at her he asked, “How hard do you think it would have been to get him out of here before this happened?” “We might have had to club him on the head and drag him out of here,” Jess told him. Both of them shared a quick smirk over the image. “I can hear you,” Ken said as he came out of the tube. “I assure you violence would not be necesary to get me out of here.” “You want to try saying that to somebody who doesn't know you like I do.” He started to say something but then he got a vacant look in his eyes as he tilted his head slightly. Jess recognized the look almost as soon as he got it. So did Bill as he moved to block Ken from view of anybody who might look this way. Daxium was talking to him, but about what? Her first thought was there was another monster, Bill's as well as he looked down at his communicator. “Are you sure?”, he suddenly said in a low voice. Stepping closer to him to keep this conversation as private as possible Jess asked, “Ken what's going on? Is it another creature?” “No,” Ken told her looking confused. “Dax says he's fully recharged now. It takes him at least a day to get back to that state.” Jess looked over at Bill who looked as confused as she felt. Since neither of them fully understood how their particular union works they didn't know what to make of this particular development. He walked past the two of them and stared at the reactor powering this ship. “It that thing,” he said. “It has to be. Dax has been feeling that thing since we've been on board. If I can figure out why some of it looks familiar maybe we can figure out why.” “Maybe you saw the plans years ago or something,” Bill offered. “Like back at the academy or something. That professor guy that visited you sounded like the type to think this up.” Jess quickly slapped him on the arm, that was still a sore spot with Ken and they all knew it. “Prtoffesor Kyrie,” Ken said with a hint of sadness in his voice. “No, he showed me a lot of the plans he was working on back then. This wasn't one of them. “Sorry Ken,” Bill said as he remembered what happened with Kyrie not that long ago, “I didn't mean to drag up any bad memories.” “Do we have a working monitor down here?”, Ryo asked as he came back. “If you do get us an exterior view of the back of the ship.” Somebody went to a station and pulled up the requested angle. The sky right behind the Icarus seemed to have warped, almost like a trail following the ship as it flew across the sky. “Captain Hawk said they spotted it a few moments ago. It just started a half mile back or so.” “Is the sky returning to normal?”, Bill asked as he was just as transfixed at the sight as the rest of them. “A Razor Wing just reported back while I was talking to Hawk,” he said. “It looks like it's going back to normal right now, if that's going to be the case later nobody can say. But this isn't good, they can't even explain the readings they're getting from whatever that is.” “Pulling up those readings,” one of the engineers said. When he did he looked concerned at what he was seeing, “What in the hell? More people crowded around the screen and looked at what he was seeing. Jess did so as well, but she was no scientist, she had no clue at what she was seeing. Even Bill was scratching his head. Ken, on the other hand, leaned in a little closer, a look of recognition on his face. “I've seen that reading before,” he said loud enough that only she could hear him. “At Kyrie's after he was...”, he trailed off as his eyes went wide. She looked over at Ryo, he apparently overheard and was looking concerned. Both of them were there looking for Ken and he told them what happened. Ken's head snapped toward the reactor. It looked like he was finally putting the pieces together and grabbed William's arm, “Doc how did they get the idea to build that?” “Well from my understanding they didn't think of it,” he answered, “not exactly. They found some plans in the database while they were trying to find a source to power the Icarus fully. They weren't exactly for this but they were able to modify what they were doing in the engine they have been working on.” “Who's plans Doc?”, Ken said getting insistent on the matter. “This is important!” “A group that died mysteriously a while back. I think one of them was named Kyrie.” Jess went to steady Ken as he went white as a sheet almost immediately upon hearing that. “Doctor Williams we need to turn that off as soon as possible,” Ryo said cutting into the conversation, and looking concerned as well. “It's causing damage on a level we don't fully understand at the moment.” “Shit,” Ken said as he bolted away from the group and toward the stairs. “But we have to land first,” William said looking back between Ryo and the retreating Ken, obviously confused at what was going on.“Richardson has to authorize it's shut down.” “I deal with Richardson,” Ken yelled from up top. “Just shut that fucking thing down before before it's too late.” “I don't understand what's going on,” Williams said before he disappeared from view. “I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid,” Bill said as he went after Ken. “Watanabe to Hawk,” Ryo said into his communicator. Even she knew Bill was going to need help in that task, so did Ryo. Hopefully Hawk would be enough to curtail that head of steam Ken was building up. “Dr. William,” Jess said as she watched Bill and Ken leave the room, “you really need to keep up on our mission reports. But we need to start shutting that reactor down now.” *** He was already out the door when Ken realized something, he had no clue where Richardson was on this ship. And he wasn't sure there was time to hunt him down. Where would he be? Nowhere near the engine room that was for certain. “Is there another one of those maps around here?”, he asked no one in particular as he looked around for anything similar to that cross section from earlier. Hell he wasn't even sure he was on the same floor, he just went up a few flights of stairs and went out the door. “Civillian hold up,” he heard Bill call out as he hurried to catch up. “Don't try to talk me out of shutting that thing down.” “I'm not,” Bill told him as he grabbed his arm and dragged him along. “I just got the info on where Richardson is from Ryo after he got done warning Hawk that you were coming. Follow me.” Ken didn't argue as Bill lead the way. He pointed out an elevator and they got in and Bill pushed the button for the appropriate floor. As they waited to reach their destination Ken kept an eye on the floor indicator as Bill leaned against the wall. Eventually he said, “So what happened to keeping me from doing anything stupid?” “Heh, you heard that?”, Bill smirked. “Don't get me wrong I still plan to do that because if you ever were this is going to be it. I doubt even Hawk could get you out of that hole. But you're like the only guy on this thing that has a clue about what that engine is doing. I'll take your word over the people who built it any time.” Ken looked over at him for a moment, “Wow, to think there was a time I didn't think we could stand each other.” “I remember those days,” Bill said. “Both of us would be pretty miserable right now if that was still the case. I'd probably just let you put your head in that noose and wipe my hands of the situation. On the other hand Hawk would be lecturing us about getting along regularly. I don't know about you but I don't want to go through that.” “Again,” Ken added since they did get that talk fairly regularly when he was first assigned to the unit. ”Good thing we got past that.” “Amen buddy,” Bill said as he held out a fist. Ken bumped it as the door opened and they got out. Bill pointed out the way to go and Ken headed in that direction. They were was pinpointed even more when they spotted Richardson's assisstant guarding the hallway. They ducked behind a corner before she spotted them. “You think Hawk or Reid told them you were coming?” “I'm pretty sure both of them would be right there with her,” Ken said. He definitely didn't have the time for this. “That feeling is getting stronger. There's no way that can be good.” “I was really hoping you weren't going to add that last part,” Bill said. “Wait here until I give you an opening.” As he walked around him and into the hall Ken looked at him, “What are you going to do?” He felt a different wave of panic come into existance as he realized Bill was heading right toward Stanberry. “You are an idiot.” There was a quick conversation between the two of them, Ken's jaw nearly dropped as they started to walk away from where she was standing. Bill looked his way and gave him a thumbs up, Well it was an opening. Still Ken slowed slightly as he reached the spot where she was and saw them turn the corner, “What in the hell did you say to her?” Something he'd try to remember to ask later. Then again maybe not, because that felt like it would leave mental scars if he found oud. Finding the only door down this particular hall he tried it and opened it. Richardson was inside shouting at whomever was on the other end of that line he was on. “I don't want to hear excuses, just fix the damn problem!” He looked up as Ken entered the room and closed the door behind him. For Bill's sake at least he promised himself he try to resist the urge to punch this bastard in the face since he found himself alone with him for the first time ever But after everything this particular individual had done to him, from having his future team mates track him down to blackmailing him into joining, he was going to have to do a little more than try. Just remember why you came in here to begin with he told himself, over and over. “How did you get past Patricia? I don't have time for any nonsense from you right now Scott. Get out of here.” Oh that nose was so tempting right now. Stay on target, “We have to shut that reactor down now. Before the damage it going to cause will be irreversible.” “You have no idea what you're talking about,” he snapped. “The hell I don't,” he shot back. “I'm the only one here who has any idea what's going on outside and why.” “Let's get something straight right now Scott,” he said walking over to meet him in the center of the room. “I don't need you. I can get ride of your sorry ass just like that!”, he snapped his fingers for effect. And he seemed a little surprised Ken wasn't reactling to that little show. He just stared him down, forget the video, he was fucking sick of this bastard in general. “No, you get something straight I don't need you. On the other hand you need Dax, which means you need me. And right now you need to listen to me, that reactor needs to be shut down before it's too late.” “I'm not sure what you think you're seeing Scott,” he practically spat out his name, “but I had the top scientist in this organization modifying the machine Kyrie's group to the engine powering this vessel. We discovered the perfect clean energy source. Once we fix that little problem it will be the perfect clean energy source for all of us.” “Of all the idiotic,” granted he probably should have stopped before saying idiotic, but hopefully Hawk would have been proud at his restrant from throwing in a few of the more colorful adjectives that were floating around in his head at that particular moment. “Tell me how a device designed to unite the three universes is suppose to be a power source?” His expression went blank as he looked at Ken. Finally Richardson went, “Three universes?” “You know, The three universes, ours, Dax's, and the dark one the creatures are coming from. All inhabiting the same dimensional plain? Just out of phase with each other?” Richardson still looked confused at what he was saying. “You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?”, Ken said as he realized why he looked so confused. “If you have no idea then Doc has no... damn it.” Ken bolted out of the room, right past Bill and Stanberry, “Gotta get to Doc!” he said in passing. Ignoring the elevator he hit the stairs and ran down them as fast as he could. “You're people never told him?” Inside his head he heard Daxium say, “I was unaware that my superiors kept him in the dark on this matter.” Hitting the right deck he burst through the door and ran straight toward the back of the ship. “Outta the way!” he shouted as he ran past a group of people coming his direction. Why did this hunk of junk have to be so big? Finally He reached the Engine Room door and went through it. “Doc we really have to turn that off right now!” He jumped the last couple of steps and rushed over to Williams. “You guys had no idea what Kyrie's group was trying to do.” “Granted it was an unusual set of diagrams,” Williams began. Ken grabbed him by the arms, “Listen to me, they discovered something nobody else knew about, something they didn't share with antbody else in the UNDF. They learned that our universe shares the same dimensional plane with two other universes. And he was trying to unite them.” “That's theoretically impossible,” one of the engineers scoffed. Ken snapped at him, “Theorectically work with me!” Returning his attention to the Doc he said, “A really tall friend of mine told me about it first.” “A tall friend,” Williams mocked. And Ken had never wanted to slap some sense into anybody in his life. Luckily the Doc seemed to pick up on his growing hostilty, since he gripped his arm tighter and pulled him closer. “A really, really tall friend,” he said through his teeth. He was trying to say anything sort of mentioning Dax by name for him to get it. Ken saw something in his face that made him hope he finally got it. “Really, really tall?” “Really, really tall,” Ken confirmed and glanced up. Now it looked like he fully understood what he was saying. Only one way to find out. “Come on Doc work with me here. You have a machine that was designed to make three universes into one and turned it into a engine for this hunk of junk, what's it going to be the affect?” William thought it over for what seemed like forever, but finally it looked like he came to a conclusion as he went wide eyed he looked over to the other scientist and engineers, they looked like they came to the same conclusion. Ken pushed it, “It's going to look a lot like the trail we're leaving outside ain't it?” “But that's... that's not possible,” he almost stammered out. Before long an alarm went off and the lights started going red. “Now what?” Ryo asked as he and everyone who wasn't an engineer looked around. Ken and Williams both looked at the wave pattern for the engine. It was way more erratic than it should have been. Dax was getting alarmed as well at what he was feeling. “Doc come on,” Ken said as he ran toward the control station, “we got to try and stop this.” They were joined by the other engineers. Everybody worked frantically trying to stop this new issue before their worst nightmare comes true. *** On the Icarus' Bridge Hawk and Reid looked around as an alarm went off. He had been in the military life long enough to understand that any alarm was never a good thing. But the way the people around him were reacting to it made this one feel particularly bad. “What's going on?” he asked the one person who looked like they were in charge of the ship despite his youth. “The reactor looks like it's about to explode,” was the answer he got. “People are working on it now but they don't know if they can stop it.” Reid looked at Hawk, like he was expecting him to take over the situation. He wanted too but he wasn't the captain of this particular vessel. The person who was looked like he was about to panic, very possibly this was his first command If the roles were revereed Hawk might have been too. But this wasn't the time to panic so he let instinct take over, stepping forward to where the man was and getting everybody's attention. “I don't mean to step on any toes,” he told the man who looked grateful most of this wasn't on his shoulders any more. “Alter course away from Castle and any populated area. Somebody contact the closest airport and have them divert any aircraft away from our flight path. Have all personnel get ready to abandom ship.” “Only Richardson can issue an evacuation order,” the person suddenly said. He withered a bit when Hawk and Reid looked at him. Yup, this was his first command all right, and hopefully not his last. “He can take it up with me,” Hawk informed him, “Right now this is an emergency situation and we don't have time to haggle with technicalities.” “Yes sir,” he said and hit his communicator. “All hands prepare to abandon ship. Get all lifeboats prepped and load who you can on the drop ships.” He seemed to gain more confidence with each order he gave. With that problem out of the way he turned toward Reid. “He said people are working on the problem. What are the chances Ken isn't one of them?” “I'll make sure he gets on one of those lifeboats,” Reid said and headed for the door. The one thing he learned about Ken in the time they been teammates was he could get a little single minded in the right situation. Reid knew this as well. And given how familiar this situation was feeling, well hopefully they wouldn't have to drag him away from here. *** “Come on!” She heard Reid say as they tried to herd the engineers out of the room. Jess was doing what she could to help with the evacuation, the thing that caught her off guard was Ken trying to push people out of the room as well. But she caught him looking at the reactor every so often. Hopefully he was just getting something from it and not still trying to figure out how to fix it like she feared. She wanted him to live up to that genius label like he'd been trying to but now was not the time to prove it. “Come on Doc,” he said grabbing Williams and pulling him away from the console. “All hands are abandoning the ship.” Jess took him from Ken and he hurried over to grab someone else, “Ryo just outside the door Dr. Williams, follow his directions on where to go.” She waved anybody Reid and Ken had pushed this way out the same door. They kept at it until was just the three of them in sight. “Is that everyone?”, Reid asked as he joined her at the door. “I don't see anybody else,” Ken announced as he hurried back over.to them. “Outside of us that is.” “Watanabe to Wade,” Ryo's voice said over her communicator. “The last dropship and shuttle has left the hangers. Direct everybody else to the remaining lifeboats.” “Understtod Ryo,” she answered, “See you on the ground, Wade out. I ready to get off this ride if you two are,” she told them and they hurried out of the room. Although she had to go back and pull Ken, who was looking back at the reactor, away from the door. “How bad is this going to be?”, she asked him. “Bad,” was all Ken said. “The suits back at Castle are probably worried about an international incident,” Reid said as he took the lead. “We're going to have an interdimensional incident,” Ken told them as they kept going. “They're thinking too small. Who the fuck decides to try and turn something they don''t understand into a reactor?” “This one time we can't blame the suits on the board for,” Reid said. “They weren't even involved from what I understand. But we got a ship about to blow and we're not sure what the blast radius is going to be. I don't think 'bad' exactly covers it. I'm not sure what else you would call it “ Ken slowed and fell behind. As she went to get him again she thought she heard him mutter, “My white whale.” But he started walking toward the lifeboats again with out any prompting from her or Reid. When somebody made one last announcement over the speakers for a everyone abandon ship order they reached the sections on this deck that had the life boats. Ken pointed out one that wasn't used and they hurried toward it. Jess and Reid entered the boat first, the hatch closed right behind her. She looked back and saw Ken look at her from the otherside. She should have known he was going to do that. Jess hurried back and tried to open the door back up but the controls were locked. “Ken what are you doing?” “Saving you,” he told her. She started pounding at the door as she saw his arm move toward the controls on that side. “I love you Jess.” “Ken, don't do it, don't you dare do it!”, she told him right before the lifeboat launched from the ship. “Ken!” She stared out the glass as the ship started to get smaller. *** Not even waiting for the shuttle's ramp to lower all the way Hawk jumped to the ground and looked up at the Icarus seeing more lifeboats eject from the massive vessel. He looked around to see if he could locate any of his people and spotted Bill running up to him. Standing behind him was Stanberry and a extremely peeved looking Richardson. “Bill have you heard from the others yet?” “Ryo's on the dropship that's landing right now,” he said. “Last I heard Commander Reid, Jess and civilian were still getting people out of engineering. So they should be on one of the last boats.” Glancing briefly behind him he stepped a little closer, “Justs a heads up Captain, but it was not a fun ride down. So watch out.” “Captain!”, Richardson bellowed as he stormed past Stanberry. “You had no authority to order any one to get off the Icarus!” “Lives were potentially at stake with a ship equipped with a power source that began doing things nobody could explain,” Hawk said walking past him. “That alone gave me the authority.” “Do you have any idea what the cost was to build that ship?”, Richardson said as he followed him. “We can't afford losing the cost just because you got worried about a tiny defect.” “That tiny defect was warping the sky!” Hawk snapped as he whipped around to face him. He wasn't sure what his expression was at that moment but it was apparently enough for Bill and a couple of others to try and step between them. “And the engineer I talked with seemed pretty certain it is going to blow, that goes beyond a 'tiny defect'.” He looked at Stanberry, “Get him out of here before I have him detained on one of the shuttles.” “You can't do that to me!” Richardson screamed. Stanberry said nothing as she struggled to get Richardson away from him. “Let go of me! I'll fire all of you!” “Hawk to Reid,” he said hitting his communicator. “Please tell me everybody is off the Icarus.” Because right now he was considering every option he had at the moment. The most prominent one floating around in his head was bringing in the Razor Wings or the Alpha One to shoot it out of the sky before the reactor exploded. Neither idea sounded all that particularly good but destroying it couldn't be any worse than letting reach critical mass. “Gabe,” Reid said. Hawk was confused why he would use his first name at a time like this. “Ken's still on board.” Hawk stopped where he was. Bill looked shocked as well as he heard from where he was. “He launched the boat before me and Wade could stop him.” “Hawk to Scott! What in the hell do you think you're doing?” “Trying to save lives,” came the reply, “like I was trained to do. I don't know if I can do it so you might want to get everybody as far away as you can. This boom is going to be massive according to these readings.” “Ken this isn't the simulator, if you fail....” “I can kiss my ass goodbye, I know.” Things were quiet for a few moments, “Captain, if I get out of this so you can strangle or court marshail me, but if I don't I wanted to tell you, thank you for believing in me this entire time and it's been an honor to serve under you and with the others. Scott out, pray it's not for the last time.” “Can we get the shuttle back up there?”, Bill asked. “I just heard what's going on,” Ryo said as he joined the two of them. “Williams and the others were able to establish a link to the Icarus' mainframe. They can't do anything about the situation from here but monitor the sensor readings. That engine is giving off some sort of interference they can't figure out. It was messing with the dropship I was on electronics while we were trying to land. It's going to make getting back up there and dock almost impossible. Captaiin,” he started looking a little distressed, “all the lifeboats were launched. The Icarus is going to either explode or crash and Ken's stuck up there without a way off either way.” “Take me to that ship with the link,” Hawk told him urgently.He didn't know what he could do from there, but it had to be better than just standing here waiting for whatever to happen. Ryo led the way. “But can't Ken just you know,” Bill raised his right hand a bit, enough that Hawk and Ryo understood what he was getting at, “and get out of there?” “It's going to raise a ton of questions,” Hawk said as they approached the shuttle, “but hopefully he'll think of it before it's too late. Dr. Williams give me an update on Icarus' status. I need to know how massive a explosion this is going to be if we're going to get everyone far enough away.” *** Pulling up every schematic he could find in the computer database Ken tried to understand what he was seeing. He wasn't exactly joking earlier when he said he wished he discovered the whole genius thing sooner than when he did, maybe he could make sense of what he was seeing faster than what he was. If he had more time he could probably figure this out but he didn't think he had that luxur\ry. So he pushed his brain harder than he ever had before, “Okat looks like there's a unstable element in the reactor core itself,” he said to himself as he went back and forth between the reactor read out and the schematics, “now what's causing it? What am I not seeing?” “Ken,” he heard Williams' voice come from his communicator. “The Icarus' vertical lift is starting to fail and they're just at bare minimum now. A few more go and it's going to crash.” “One problem at a time Doc!”, he snapped. “So unless you have any suggestions about stopping the explosion please shut the hell up so I can think.” Ken knew this wasn't the simulator, he was feeling a pressure that it could never imitate. There was something about having actual lives on the line that made you think faster and in ways the simulator couldn't do. He also had something he never had with that test either, the actual plans to work from. There was nothing that he could see that was causing the instability, all the readings before that point were coming out normal. “Come on Kyrie figured this out already.” Then he realized something, and hit his communicator, “Doc! Can anybody down there tell me for sure if this reactor was based on Kyrie's original plans?” There were some mumblings over the line before he heard, “All they're saying is it was based on the plans they discovered in the database. Kyrie was still working on his original device since then?” “Their original machine blew up, only leaving Kyrie alive. He already solved the cause of the explosion. Now how did he do it?” Ken shut his eyes and tried to remember what he saw in that lab. “He needed the Spark Magnifier to stabliize the unification process he was trying to achieve. That's not going to happen now. The instability,” he said as it hit him like a ton of bricks, “it's the three universe trying to converge on a single point.” Ken quickly looked through everything he could find on the reactors internal workings. “There,” he said finding what he was looking for. The reactor used the same containment system the machine in Kyrie's lab used. “”If you can hear me don't stop praying just yet.” “Ken how much longer until the explosion?”, Hawk asked over the line. “No offence Captain but I don't need the distraction right now,” Ken said as he pulled up the containment readings. Okay genius brain, time to start working in a way you never worked before. “Come on the problem's mostly mechanical. that's completely in your wheelhouse, you got this,” he told himself. Now if he could just get himself to believe it. Before realizing he needed an outside source Kyrie would have tried modifying the containment field. He fully realized he was betting a lot on the modifications done to Kyrie's original design would be enough to make this work, but he didn't have a lot of choices at the moment. Locating the field controls he started to adjust it by moving the emitters and adjusting the field. Doing this for a few minutes he thought he went deaf when the alarms stopped. He looked at the readout seeing the wave go back to normal. “Please tell me all of you are seeing this.” “The reactor's stabliizing,” Williams said in disbelief, “Ken you did it!” Ken wanted to celebrate along with him but he thought he beat the simulator a few times as well before the program started to create more problems. Holding his breath he watched waiting to see if the same was going to happen now. He waited, and he waited and waited. It wasn't going unstable again. “I did it?”, he said still not believing what he was seeing. A grin started to form on his face. “I did it! Fucking yes!” He couldn't celebrate just yet, “Okay one thing done, next thing is thing is the ship is going to crash. We need to keep it in the air. Where are the air vent controls on this thing?” “Air vents?” he heard someone say, probably one of the engineers. “If the lifters are going down then I'll get some extra air into the fuel mix, spark that son of a bitch into working and keep it afloat.” “That isn't a normal engine,” the engineer said. “It's a new anti gravity system they developed separately from the reactor. There's no fuel mixture to mess with. The instability in the reactor must have caused enough feedback to damage the sytem, you'll almost come straight down once you lose enough of the rest .” “No,” Ken said as he pulled up the data. The Icarus wasn't going straight down yet but it was going to be close enough. According to this the crash was going to be a couple of miles away from his current location, but he was still going down. Then he saw something about the reactor and ran a quick simulation. “Fuck!,” he said as he pounded the console, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” “Ken what is it?”, he heard Hawk ask. Leaning on the station with his head hung low he said, “The reactor. It's going to explode on impact. The blast radius is going to be miles wide. You all going to be caught up in the blast.” Damn it he had it, he fucking had it fixed. And they were going to die anyway. He punched the console again. Looking over at the pilot who controlled the drop ship they were in. reading the unasked question in Hawk's face he started shaking his head. Well in the couple of trips he took on them he didn't expect them to be built with speed in mind, still there was a small hope that was quickly dashed. “Ken,” Hawk said. “we all knew death was a possibility when we signed up. You did your best son, I'm proud of you.” “It wasn't enough,” he said as he choked back a sob. He had the problem fixed. And he didn't even know how those anti grave lifters even worked and he did not have the time to try and figure them out. “Ken,” he heard Jess say. “We're all hearing you over the line. Williams patched us all in just so we wouldn't be left in the dark. It's okay.” “No,” he said as a sob escaped, “it's not okay.” “Ken Hawk's right. you did all you could. And we had a little more time together. I wouldn't trade that time in for anything.” “I was going to try and keep my promise,” he told her suddenly. “The one I made you back in high school. I was going to try and take you all over the country. Even if I had to do it base by base, I was going to try.” “I was looking forward to sleeping under the stars back when you made it. So maybe not base by base.”, she told him. “Maybe some outdoor camping spots.” He let out a small laugh. Then his eyes snapped open as he looked at the engine as a thought came to him. “Honey, hold that thought. Doc what if we destroyed the engine?” “Hawk already asked me about that,” he said. “The reactor would still explode and cause the same issue. The self destruct was designed...” “No I don't mean just blow it up,” he cut him off. “I mean really destroy it from the outside. Obliterate the damn the damn thing.” There was some more muttering over the line before Williams said, “We don't have the ordnance available. It would take something just short of a nuclear warhead to get the effect you're talking about. And there's none on board, even if they were you couldn't get it set up in time.” “Than I'll improvise something. See you all on the other side if this doesn't work like I think,” Ken hit his communicator to end the link and stared at the engine. That explosion wouldn't just affect and kill things in this universe. “Dax, feel up to saving people in three different universes at once?” “I'm willing to try if you are,” he said as Ken ran out of the room. The ship started to list to the side making everything tilt at an angle, he willed those lifters to not fail now. He didn't stop, trying to keep his balance by holding his hand against the wall as he ran. Coming to the section where the lifeboats were he hit the first control panel, the hatch didn't open, “Damn it don't mess with me now.” He started clawing at the panel until he pulled it off the wall. He started messing with wires until the hatch opened. He stood and braced himself as the wind buffeted him. Reaching into his jacket he pulled out the Spark Magnifier and pointed it at the open space in front of him and activated it. “What's that light coming out of the side of the ship?” Jess and Reid looked up with the rest of them as that light got bigger and Daxium appeared in it's place. “Where in the hell did Ultraman come from?' Behind her Reid put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. Not that far away Hawk, Ryo and Bill all silently rooted him on. This one time Ken broke his general rule and watched things through Dax's eyes. “Okay Dax let's try to raise thing thing up and further away from the others.” In the outside world Daxium nodded and quickly pounded his forearms together to mode shift into Power Mode. Flying until he was under the ship Ken pointed out a strong point and told him to push up from there. Placing his hands were Ken indicated Daxium increased his flight power upwards. With a grunt he slowly started to guide the ship's nose into an upwards direction but it was still going down. “I don't think this will work for long,” Daxium said through their link. “It has too much momentum for me to affect it fully.” “Look down at the others,” Ken said. When he did so he estimated where they were compared to the ground. They were still too close, but maybe the wave from the blast would have lost some of it's energy by the time it reached them if this didn't work. “We don't have a choice Dax we gotta do it. You obliterated some monsters by just punching them with the Giga Wave, think you can do it with this ship?” “We won't know until I try,” Daxium released the ship and flew ahead of it. Then he turned and faced the Icarus as it came toward him. “Dax if I'm wrong about this it's been fun buddy,” Ken said as he and Dax tried to figure out the best angle for Daxium to land the punch for the maximum effect that he was hoping they would get. “Yes it has,” Daxium replied as he brought his fist to his chest and started drawing in energy. “Don't you do it! Don't destroy the Icarus!” Richardson yelled at the screen as he, Williams, Stanberry and the others all watched. Those who weren't part of that particular trio looked at him like he lost his mind. Pooling the energy into his right hand Daxium flew toward the falling ship at the angle both of them agreed on. Once he was close enough he threw his fist forward with all he had. The Icarus was torn up immediately as the unfocused energy of the Giga Wave tore through it. Then the wave hit the reactor and it exploded The Icarus was engulfed in a massive explosion that made everyone on the ground duck and shield their eyes. But that was all there was, just a fireball in the sky as debris and the remains of the ship fell to the ground. It took a second for most of those watching to realize that they weren't dead, they survived. “Where's Ultraman?” and other variations of that question flowed through the crowd as they looked up at the disapating fireball. Did he just sacrifice himself to save them? “There!” somebody pointed out as they sky cleared enough that he could be spotted hanging in the sky. Jess lowered her head in relief that Ken was still alive. Reid came up beside her and smiled in support. Bill was busy high fiving everyone within reach as everybody celebrated. Ryo looked around at those around them, most were still celebrating being alive but a few were looking slightly horrified at the apparent sacrifice they just bore witness to before leaning in and saying to Hawk, “If nobody has already once Ken appears out of nowhere people are going to figure out his secret.” Hawk looked around and said, “We'll worry about it when it happens.” Above it all Daxium returned to his starting form and studied where the Icarus was. He wasn't feeling anything now. They had done it, they closed the rift that machine was creating and saved beings in all three universes. One of those universes might have belonged to his enemy but he didn't care about that now. They saved them and he felt fairly good about it. Then Daxium got a quick sensation behind him right before a beam blasted him in the back “Argh!” he cried out in pain as that blast sent him to the ground with a crash that caused a small dent in the ground. Several UNDF members pulled their side arms as they spotted the source of the attack. Floating down to the ground with a dark energy outline surrounding him Brooks had his back to them as he hovered around Daxium's eye level as he started to get up. “You really are a hero, aren't you? Do you think your masters will approve of saving your enemy? More importantly do you think my masters would be appreciative that you did so. I can't speak for the former but on the latter I highly doubt it. But you have my appreciation though, you saved me the trouble of destroying that ship myself. But that was then and the war goes on does it not?” Daxium stood at his full height and stared at Brooks. “Because I might have had to spoil this surprise before I wanted you to see it,” he said as he lowered himself to the ground. Then he raised his right hand to the sky, palm open. Dark energy surrounded and engulfed him. Daxium took a step back as the dark energy mass grew in size. It solidified and took shape into a dark copy of himself, Daxium grunted in surprise as those in the UNDF all talked and pointed at the new sight. Brook's voice boomed with an echo as he waved the giant on with a couple of fingers, “Shall we finish this?” “Shiah!” Daxium said as he took on a defensive stance. Brooks stood there and cocked his head slightly as he started to chuckle. Then he shot forward with a series of strikes that made Daxium back up as he tried to block everything that was coming at him. Then the light giant grabbed his wrist and flipped his dark copy over his shoulder and slammed him to the ground. Jumping on top of him Daxium started pounding away at Brooks. Brooks got both hands up and blasted him off. Daxium landed hard on the ground. Brooks was already on top of him and dragged him up by the throat, then knocked him down again. A kick knocked the giant back even further. As he got to his feet he fired off a Flash Bolt that exploded against Brooks who stumbled backwards but kept his footing. Charging forward he tried to tackle Brooks down by the waist but the dark copy refused to fall. Clutching his hands together Brooks raised them up and slammed them down onto Daxium's back. Grunting in pain he fell to a knee Brooks reached down, wrapped his arms around Daxium, picked him up and slamming him to the ground. Instead of continuing his attack Brooks kicked him away and let him get back up. Then he made a motion with his forearms, like he was going to mode shift into a power mode of his own then waved a hand toward Daxium, indicating for him to do it. Against his better judgement Daxium mode shifted back into Power Mode and went at Brooks. To everybody's surprise Brooks easily blocked everything Daxium was throwing at him. Then he grabbed his wrist and applied enough pressure that he grunted in pain and almost went to a knee because of it. Then without any effort at all he threw Daxium to the side and walked away looking completely unconcerned. “You got to be kidding me,” Hawk muttered as Brooks stared right at them and held out his arms, like he was sayin 'this is it?'. “Castle scramble the Razor Wings and the Alpha One to this location now!” “Come on,” Jess said, “get up and fight.” Brooks kept looking at them right until a flash of light behind him crashed against his back. Surprised by the sudden assault Brook took a step forward and looked behind him. Daxium had shifted into Hyper mode and extended the light whip from his fingers. Before his copy could react he started thrashing the whip around Brook's body causing him to cover up then he wrapped it around his neck, pulling in energy as he drew his other hand back and slammed it it against his wrist, unleashing the Light Pulse right at Brook. He quickly slashed a hand through the whip breaking it. Holding out his other hand he fired a blast that Daxium cartwheeled to avoid. Jumping up Daxium aimed a kick at Brooks that he easily swatted away. Daxium jumped out of the way as Brooks pounded the ground with a fist. Getting into a runner's stance he drew in energy again the made then barest of flinches. Everyone who had seen this move before expected it to be over. “What?!” Bill exclaimed as in the next instant Brooks had Daxium by the neck again with one hand and the arm with the whip by the other. He just stopped Daxium's fastest attack with ease. The jewel on his chest was flashing. “That was close,” Brooks said as he threw him to the ground again “You might want to end this fast,” he said as he gestured to the “jewel” on his chest.” “You smug son of a bitch,” Reid said beside Jess who felt just as helpless as everyone else watching this. Quickly forming the hypersaw he threw it at Brooks to make him avoid it, at least that was the plan. Instead Brooks caught it mid flight and crushed it with one hand making it shatter into shards of light. But it still gave Daxium enough time to shift back into Power mode and set up the Giga Wave. Brooks just stood there and let him, even taking a few steps back to give him more room to do so. Daxium punched the ground with a yell and unleashed the move. Brooks blasted the move with a massive energy wave of his own that combined with the energy of the Giga Wave as it was sent toward Daxium. He tried to jump out of the way but was still hit with the backlash and was thrown to the ground. The jewel started blinking faster than anyone had ever seen it as he struggled to get to his feet. “Heh,” Brooks chuckled as he turned away slightly as he brought a hand to his chin. He was enjoying this. Once on his feet Daxium shifted back into his normal form and set up the Dimensional Storm Ray, he was running out of options and energy at this point and was getting desperate. Swinging his arms out Brooks finally reacted by pointing that hand right at the giant. “Gotcha,” he said as he unleashed a blast from his fingers. The beam pierced through Daxium's chest and out his back as he recoiled from the impact. “KEN!” Jess, Ryo and Bill all shouted at the sight causing looks of surprise from all those around them. Instead of falling right away like all of them expected Daxium's body started to crack around the hole the beam caused as the jewel stopped flashing and went dark. It looked like he started to break apart as he finally began to fall leaving only a glowing orb as the shards of light he left behind faded away completely as they drifted to the ground. Jess ran toward the orb before Reid could stop her. Ryo and Bill ran toward it as well as Hawk looked for the air strike he called in. The orb started erratically toward the ground. When it was about ten feet above the ground it started to break apart as well, Ken falling out of the bottom and landing hard in a heap. “No,no,no,” Jess said as she ran toward him. She got to him first and cradled him in her lap, he was unconscious but it looked like he was still breathing. Ryo and Bill was soon by their side. Ryo ran a scan over him with his wrist scanner as soon as he got there. “I'm getting life signs,” he announced. “Thet're faint but they're there. He's still alive. We need some help over here!”. he yelled at the ones just staring at the scene. A few looked like they were going to hurry over and assist them but stopped as they looked up and behind them. “Ken, wake up!”, Jess said shaking him slightly. “Wake up you idiot!” “Jess he'll be okay,” Bill told her. “He'll be out for a little while then he'll be on his feet like nothing happened just like before.” Oh how she hoped that was going to happen like he claimed but something made her afraid that it wasn't going to be the case this time. The ground started to shake slightly and felt like it was getting closer with each tremor. Ryo and Bill both looked up with some trepidation. Still hanging on to Ken, trying to protect him, Jess drew her sidearm and pointed it right at Brook as he came closer. Her aim never wavered as he stopped then started to shrink in size. Before long he was back to normal. He looked at the gun pointed at him then at Ken who was still lying limp in Jess' arms. He broke out into a grin before saying, “Looks like I win.” Then he started glowing again and flew off into the sky as Jess and others started firing at him. She stopped and turned her attention to the still unconscious Ken. Now what were they going to do? ED – Shinedown – Fly From the Inside |
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Episode 30
OP – Mercy Drive – Burn In my Light Pulling into the driveway the soon to be ex Janet Scott stepped out of her car with her phone to her ear and a bag of take out in the other. Closing the car door she leaned against it as she listened. Soon she went, “Thanks for the update Jessica I'll let her know.” Looking at the house she tried to brace herself to deliver this bit of news. Her current mother in law wasn't exactly overjoyed when she found out Ken was currently in a coma and nobody was sure when he would come out of it. And the news reporting on that dark Ultraman that had appeared in the past couple of days wasn't exactly helping matters. Right now she wasn't sure if Jessica keeping them updated was a good thing or not. She guessed it was better than being kept in the dark. Getting her nerves set she walked up to the door and opened it. And was greeted by the sight of her daughter Nicole and mother in law Susan working on a jigsaw puzzle on the coffee table. “Hi mom,” Nicole said looking up. “Can I see Uncle Ken yet?” “No Honey not yet,” she told her. It broke her heart a bit to see her look so disappointed, but it couldn't be helped. “But as soon as I'm allowed back on base I'll make sure that you can. Now go get ready for dinner.” “Okay,” she said and quickly headed for the hallway bathroom. Susan looked at the bag still in her hand, “You didn't have to buy dinner.” “I know,” she said as she sat next to her,”but I'm trying to pull my weight around her. Besides I promised you something from this restaurant the other day.” “But they told all the non miitltary personnel to stay away from the base for the time being because they don't know if that dark giant is going to come back and attack it. If you're not working...,” she trailed off as Nicole came back in and went into the kitchen. But her unfinished message was loud and clear. “I mean I told you you can stay here as long as you needed to and I meant it. But don't go broke trying to make me happy.” “Well that's something I don't have to worry about for right now,” Janet told her. Reaching into a pocket she pulled out the letter she received earlier in the day and handed it to her. “It came while you were out taking your walk, Captain Hawk arranged it so I'd get a small regular check while the emergency is still going on. It's not as much as I was making but it's better than not having one.” Reading it over Susan handed it back to her, “Now I see why you and Ken always talk so highly of the man. Not a whole lot of people would go that far after this sort of time for someone working for them.” Looking concerned she hesitantly asked, “Ken, is there....?” Janet slowly shook her head. “Damn it,” Susan suddenly said and clenched her fist. “Why was he out there in that mess? Why was he even put in a field unit to begin with? He was just a mechanic before that.” Putting a arm around her she said, “I wish I could tell you.Susan. But Captain Hawk and Jessica both told me they're giving him the best of care right now. He's in te very best of hands right now. I'll get dinner on the table.” As she stood Susan started putting the loose pieces of the puzzle back into the box. In the kitchen she saw Nicole look at a picture of Ultraman that she drew that Susan had put on the refrigerator door. “Come on Uncle Ken,” she thought she heard Nicole say, “You need to wake up. We need you to stop the bad guy.” Janet went a little cold. Before her and the others were told to temporarily leave Castle the rumor mill was ablaze saying Ken was Ultraman. She never told Susan or Nicole about that part. So how did her daughter find out? Jessica would know, she just had to. Grabbing her phone she started to walk to the backdoor, there was no point at this time for either Nicole or Susan to overhear this conversation. Then she heard a very loud gasp come from the living room. “Grandma?”, Nicole said as she started that way. “Stay in here Nicole,” Janet told her. She wasn't expecting the worst but wanted to shield Nicole just in case. Going into the living room she found Susan still on the couch with a horrified look on her face. Looking at the television a news report was showing footage of Ultraman fighting that dark copy of himself. Then she watched as the image froze as the dark on shot a beam through Ultraman's chest. And the word racing around base was that Ken was Ultraman. Gripping her phone tightly she slowly backed into the kitchen then turned straight for the backdoor. Jessica just had to know one way or another. *** At Castle everyone was on high alert. Everyone, to the guards on patrol to those just walking the halls to any scientist who knew how to handle a weapon was armed. Roughly an hour after he defeated Ultraman they got word that Brooks returned to that secret base that built that giant ship and destroyed it. Groups that launched to confront him found it in flames and Brooks nowhere to be found, in either form. Then a couple of hours later he was spotted in Mexico right before he took out the UNDF base there. Then they got word that he might have been seen in the UK a couple of hours after that. But they soon lost contact there too. So until they heard otherwise Hawk thought it was safe to assume that base was destroyed as well, but was it by him? As he walked into the control room he spotted Bridge at his station as everyone else worked frantically. Making his was over, while trying to avoid anyone trying to gurry across the room, he asked, “Was it him Bridge?” “Someone at the UK base was able to send off a CCTV image right before we lost contact. I've already ran the facial recognition program, twice.” Hawk stood behind him as Bridge brought that shot on the main screen. A close up of the image in question was joined by a photo Hawk recognized as the standard UNDF ID photo. It was the same individual in both pictures, Peter Brooks. “It was him Captain.” Hawk stared at the images, again wondering how this particular snake was able to hide in the garden for as long as he did. “This was two hours after he attacked the base in Mexico.. Even at the Alpha One's top speed that's still an eight hour flight at least. How was he able to do it in two?” “Unknown at this moment Captain,” was the one answer he didn't want to hear. It wasn't that long ago that he stood in this very room and said he wanted to make sure the information Brooks knew about the organization was as outdated as possible just so they could have any type of advantage. And right now where Brook's abilities were concerned they were so behind the curve it wasn't even funny. “But,” Bridge continued, “there's been some speculation in the past couple of day that he can move as fast as Ultraman's,” he paused for a moment. Hawk looked down at him and understood. They were all feeling the sting of Ken being out, Bridge would be no different. Soon he looked back up and finished his thought, “As fast as Ultraman when he finishes off a creature in Hyper Mode. Or get close to it at least.” “And sustain it a lot longer than he could apparently. It's a working theory and the only one we have at the moment. Brooks is attacking the organization directly now. Almost like he's trying to dismantle us piece by piece. Given the fact Ken told us that the beings he's working with want to use our dimension as some sort of staging ground to attack the dimension Ultraman is from we're obviously the biggest threat to that goal.” Bridge looked back at him momentarily when he talked about what Ken had told them out loud for everyone to hear. And if Hawk was being honest it felt weird to say it out loud. But Ken's secret was out in the open now thanks to that last battle so there was no point in hiding anything now. “Bridge!” some called out frantically. “Footage from Ulktraman's fight with Brooks has been leaked to the media.” Without any prompting the person sent the feed to Bridge who immediately put it on the main screen. Hawk felt his gut twist all over again as he watched Ultraman's final moments before the image froze with Brook's shot piercing his chest. A rage Hawk had never felt before quickly overtook him, “Who leaked that footage!” “The news anchor said it came to them anonymously Captain,” the man said. That rage grew louder in his ears by the second. Apparently it showed because the person flinched a bit expecting to get the brunt of it. Hawk forced himself to get it under control, he was just the messenger he reminded himself over and over, it wasn't his fault that footage got released. And he wouldn't be stupid enough to point it out if he was. It took Hawk a while to get to the point where he felt he could speak without yelling. Still he sounded very strained as he got out “Bridge?” “I'm comparing the footage to the position of the Icarus' drop ships and lifeboats now,” he said as his fingers danced over the keys in front of him. Narrowing down which ship the footage casme from wasn't going to help if they didn't know who was on that particular ship. Mainly thinking out loud he said, “I didn't do it and I know for sure Ryo and the others wouldn't either. And neither would Reid. So that just leaves everyone else who was there. I need to figure out who we can trust right now because I'm putting a guard on Ken's room. If somebody leaked that then I wouldn't doubt it if they tried to sneak in and get some footage of him saying he was Ultraman.” Bridge understood where he was coming from. “The footage stopped right when Ultraman got blasted. You and the others said an orb was all that remained of him and Ken fell out of it.” Quickly he did a search for this news story. After a few minutes he announced, “All the footage out there stops at the same point.” “I don't know if the person or persons responsible was paid for what was leaked,” Hawk added. “But you have to imagine that having any sort of proof that Ultraman was human would have to be a fairly big pay day.” Hawk didn't want to take any one off of duty for this, but now it was about one of thier own. He would not tolerate anybody, no matter who they were, violating their privacy like that. And right now the number of people who wouldn't take advantage of this situation was extremely small. “Bridge!” Both of them shared a look, now what? “Tower just sent out a distress signal.” And Hawk felt he knew Bridge well enough at this point that he didn't need to see the look on his face. His thoughts were on Emiko right now and Hawk couldn't blame him. The follow up confirmed their worst fears, “They're being attacked by Brooks.” “Have somebody else work on the leaked footage Bridge,” Hawk told him. “I want you to try and get sattlite footage of the attack if you can.” Bridge just stared at his console. Putting a hand on his shoulder he added, “I'm sure she's fine, try and contact her if you can.” Bridge looked up at him still stunned. Then he started to look determined and gave him a nod before getting on the task given. Hawk left him to do what he had to do. Right now Hawk was trying to figure what strategy, if any, Brooks was using to pick his next target. Tower and Dungeon he understood, those were the bases things were created, things that could possibly hurt him if given time. But the Mexico and UK bases, outside of being military installations they didn't have any value outside of that. In fact he knew that outside of patrols and test flights the UK base rarely deployed. Tower in Japan had seen one giant creature attack in that King Joe robot they developed. And that was still more action than the other two bases had seen. So his theory could be right and Brooks was trying to weaken them so his allies could fully invade. But how was he picking them? Dungeon was first and that was eighty miles west of Castle but they hadn't been touched so far. So why go to Mexico, then the UK and now Japan? If there was a pattern to all of this he wasn't currently seeing it. And if there was one he didn't want to think about how many more installations they would have to lose before one became apparent. *** Just when you thought that things couldn't get any more tense around here, footage of Ultraman's last battle was starting to make the media rounds. In the rough hour since the news hit fingers had already been flying. Alpha was blaming those in Beta, Beta was blaming the science staff, they were accusing the people from Dungeon that were temporarily stationed at Castle since they didn't really have a home at the moment. Jess, Ryo and Bill all decided to stay out of the blame game. Although she was casting an eye Richardson's way, but that was all she was doing. All the current confusion was doing was giving Brooks a bigger edge than he already had, if they were too busy going at each other than he had a greater chance of attacking them when they weren't looking. And right now she needed to keep her focus as narrow as possible. Hawk had the Brooks front covered so she and the others could concentrate on watching over Ken. Not that any of them had any clue of what to do. Ken was still in a coma with no sign of coming out of it any time soon. Bill remembered hearing that a person in a coma could hear those around them and that's what the three of them have been doing for the past two days, just talk to him when it was their turn to watch over him. Nobody told them to they just decided on their own to stand guard over Ken. Mainly because his secret was officially out now. And while doubtful there were a few that might have taken a shot at Ultraman by going after Ken. Ryo had even seen Hawk do it earlier in the day. It might have been a foolish fear but one shared by more than them from the things she'd seen since Ultraman had lost to Brooks.. There were a couple of times since then she would have sworn she saw some she knew wanted to take Ultraman down get herded away from Ken's room by someone else. That still didn't stop the near constant bombardment of questions for that first day. When did he become Ultraman, how long have you known that sort of thing. Answers were hard to give since none of them knew how much to actually share with people but eventually Captain Hawk and Commander Reid put out a joint statement on the situations. It didn't calm anything down but the near constant questioning had slowed down. As she walked the halls of the medical wing she had an idea she wanted to run by Hawk that should help with the guard situation he was worried about. None of them had an issue standing guard over Ken, especially after the footage was leaked. But again Brooks was still out there and who knew when they would have to scramble to face him when he decided to show back up. She knew Hawk was taking a turn watching over Ken while they finalized the watch rotation. As she turned the corner that led to his room she paused in her step when she saw a small crowd situated in front of Ken's room. Her hand went for her weapon as she ran over to see what was going on. “Let us through,” someone demanded. Now she was close to see that it seemed to be two groups facing off with each other wiith a couple of the medical personnel along with her fellow UNDF soldiers trying to hold the others back . And Jess spotted a couple who wanted to take a shot at Ultraman in the group that was trying to get through, she hurried her pace. “Not going to happen,” she heard Ryo say calmly but firmly. Getting a glance at Bill's head she knew this was potentially bad. The apparent leader of this mob stepped forward, even from here he looked like he was trying to intimidate Ryo and Bill. Jess wasn't sure who to feel sorry for in this situation. “Now you are going to let us through that door...” “And do what?”, she demanded, finally making her presence known as she approached the rear of the aggressive group. A couple saw her hand firmly resting on the grip of her weapon, ready to draw it at any second. Those few wisely decided to to separate themselves from this particular group, if not leave all together, The leader looked at her, glanced down at her weapon then glanced back up at her. Based on the look of disdain he was giving her it was obvious this and a couple of the others were what was left of the Jamira leftovers. And when you thought you were done with these assholes. “Walk away,” he told her. Jess felt a twitch in a finger of her gun hand, just for that tone alone if nothing else. “Not going to happen,” she informed him. Her only movement was to move through the remnants of the group and join Ryo and Bill in front of Ken's door. A couple of the smarter ones seemed to get the message and quickly followed the others who left the group. But this one and a few others weren't that smart apparently. “Now why don't you all go somewhere and do whatever it is you apes do when you're alone. The head goon got incensed and started forward. Jess held her ground as he took a step forward. Bill took a step forward to get in his path. “Just to get one thing straight,” he told the man, “I'm protecting you from her, not the other way around.” “So get the hint,” Ryo added. The two sides looked like they were getting ready to get pyshical and start fighting right there. “Is there a problem?”, Reid demanded as he quickly got involved by stepping in between the two groups. He stared at both sides. Jess kept her eyes on the head goon who quickly backed down from the Commander's gaze. “And you better not be thinking about doing what I suspect you're thinking.” Not getting the hint the head goon pointed at the door to Ken's room and started saying something. Reid quickly cut him off, “Because I would hate to think anyone under my command would be cowardly enough to attack a man when he's unable to defend himself at the moment.” He continued staring the man down until he finally started taking a step backwards then finally leaving and taking the group with him. Bill visibly relaxed as the defending group started to breakaway as well. “Well that was almost our worst nightmare,” Ryo commented when he felt it was safe to do so. “Wonder how gung ho most of them would have been once they found out Captain Hawk was in there,” Bill said with a slight smirk. “All because they still think Ultraman just up and killed Jamira,” Reid said while shaking his head slightly. “No matter how many times I show them the footage and explain what was obviously happening. They just won't get it through their thick skulls.” He stopped and looked at her, “You want to stand down there Wade?” “Jess,” Ryo went. She looked down as Bill removed her hand from the gun at her side. “They're gone now, you can relax.” “Nobody saying they wouldn't deserve it if they did anything,” Bill added as he quickly backed away. “Like Ryo said they're gone now. Me and him got this.” “And I'll make sure it doesn't get that far again,” Reid told them. Although he was still keeping an eye on her. Jess didn't really respond, she just kept glancing down the corridor that goon and his apparent friends went down. She did look at him when he said, “I wouldn't look the other way if it came down to that.” “Understood,” she finally said. Taking her eyes off that one corridor she looked at Ryo, “So Captain Hawk is still in there?” “He's still in there,” he answered. “He told Bill and me to let you in if you dropped by.” Let her in? That didn't make any sense. When did that start? Her wingman knew her well enough to see the confusion. “Ken has another visitor in there with him. He said you'd know who he was since he's not technically supposed to be in there.” “Thank for the heads up Ryo,” she said as she walked past them. She knocked on the door before entering the room. Ken had been laid up ever since Ultraman was defeated, maybe even killed by Brooks. At least she wasn't alone in the strange feeling she always felt when she looked at Ken just lying in that bed doing nothing but breath in and out.Bill even commented that he never really got how long his hair actually was since it was hanging loose now. ”Captain,” she said in greeting as he looked at her with a nod. Being the only stranger in the room the “visitor” pretty much stuck out. He was some teenager so why did he seem familiar? “Hello,” he said looking a bit unsure. “I don't suppose you saw Mr. Lunden stalking the halls out there? He wasn't all that happy that I arranged this behind his back Lunden? Now she remembered this kid and why he was here. “Timothy, why are you here?” Looking slightly embarrassed he answered, “I just wanted to see Ken after I heard what happened. See it for myself. Maybe try and,” he started to reach out a hand to touch his head. Then stopped and started to pull it away. “You know what happened to me right?” With a nod she said, “You're a telepath. At least you were before Brooks kidnapped you and burned out your ability doing whatever it was he did. And you guided me to Ken's location while he was doing it.” “Turns out burned out may have been more tempoaray than anyone thought.” “You got your telepathy back?”, Jess said a little stunned at this particular bit of news. “He asked to see if he could try and contact Ken while he was still under,” Hawk added. Timothy ended up putting that hand on Ken's forehead anyway.and looked like he was concentrating a little. After a second he stopped whatever it was he was doing and told her, “It's not back, at least not fully. It comes and goes. I didn't even realize I could tune into people again until one of Lunden's lab boys put a hand on my shoulder and I got a look into his mind. I used to get a stronger signal with physical touch than just trying to, well just hear the other person's thoughts.” “Have you,” Jess swallowed hard, not sure if she should even believe what Timothy was saying, “have you been able to contact him?” “He's still in there,” Timothy told the two of them. Next to her Hawk visibly relaxed at that statement, she probably looked the same, she definitely felt a weight lift from her shoulders. “He's, I'm not sure how to explain this, he's in there but he's not fully connecting to everything in his head. Not just yet.” “What do you mean 'not connecting'?”, Hawk asked, giving him time to figure out the best way to articulate his thoughts. “It's like there's a door right in front of him in this room his mind put itself in,” he eventually said. “If he walks through that door then he should wake up. Ken hasn't figured out he should open it and walk through, not yet.” “Can you wake...?”, Jess started to say then stopped herself. “I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that. I don't even know why I thought it.” Hawk put a hand on her shoulder. “I asked him the same thing when he made the request. And I felt just as bad as you do when I did.” Still Timothy gave her a sad smile. “Like I told him, even before Brooks violated my head I don't think I could have. Even if I could I'm not sure if I should. This feels like something he has to do himself.” “So what do we do in the meantime?”, Hawk asked him. “Captain, you said you all have been talking to him?” both of them nodded as he kept going, “Keep doing that. Maybe he doesn't understand that he's doing it, but he's hearing and responding to your voices, especially yours,” he said to Jess. “Just keep talking to him, your voice is guiding him to that door.” Against her better judgement Jess started feeling a bit of hope that she could cling on to. If somehow her, their voices can help Ken through that door then they will keep talking. Then something occurred to her, noticing what he wasn't saying. More specifically who he wasn't mentioning. “What about Daxium?” Timothy looked up at her and started shaking his head. Hawk looked like Timothy just punched him in the gut. Jess felt the same. “I'm sorry,” he started to say. “Don't be,” Jess told him. “It was Brooks who did this, not you.” “She's right,” Hawk was able to say after a bit. “You're doing what you can. We're going to have to do the same. As much as I hate to admit it we were depending on Ultraman to deal with those giant creatures. Now we have to do it on our own. It's going to be tough but we'll figure out a way, we're going to have to.” “What about that comotion we heard a few minutes ago?”, Timothy asked. Jess looked over at Hawk who confirmed that they heard something was going on in the hallway. “I'll worry about that,” Hawk told him. “Actually Captain that's why I was looking for you,” Jess spoke up. “If it was all right with you I think I can get Windam to guard Ken's door.” He thought it over for a few moments, “Do you think it possible?” “Well he listens to me,” she told him. “It shouldn't be that hard to tell him to stand guard. We just got to make sure we tell him who's allowed in here and who's not.” “The only problem with that is the medical staff,” Hawk told her, fortunately keeping the whole “mama” thing out of the conversation. “With that footage getting leaked we don't know who wouldn't try to cash in on revealing the state of Ultraman after that bombshell got out.” “”If only my power was at full strength,” Timothy said. “I could help weed the bastards out.” “I wouldn't ask you to do that Timothy,” Hawk said. “Luden said you always had an issue reading the mind of somebody without their permission.” “Ken wouldn't want you to do anything you'd feel bad about later,” she assured him. “We got this, so don't you worry.” Some things were so much easier to say than believe. But she knew she had to. *** In a slightly quieter spot in Castle medical wing Bill walked into what would be called a waiting room in any other hospital carrying two cups of coffee. They were ordered to take a five minute break by Hawk after he exited Ken's room. Still their friend was still just down the hall in case they had to cut that five minutes short if they had to. He held back a bit as he saw Ryo on his phone, “Yeah I'm still okay.”, he was quiet for a moment obviously listening to the person on the other end. “No there's hasn't been a sighting yet. I'll call you again when I can. Love you too.” Putting the phone down Bill finally stepped forward and offered him one of the cups. “Thanks.” “No problem,” Bill told him as he took a seat next to him,”but you're doing the next coffee run.” Ryo nodded in response a he silently drank his, then made a bit of a face as he looked at his cup but kept on drinking it. “Letting Tabitha know you're alright?”, he said gesturing to the phone still in his hand. He took a sip and made a similar face, “I think I grabbed the pot they use to sterilize their equipment with by mistake.” “I told her I would, and my parents were calling me nearly non stop after news of Brooks attacks on some other UNDF bases was reported. I think just about everyone around here has gotten calls.” “You're not kidding,” Bill added. “I had a couple of nuns from the orphanage call me. I'm not even sure how they got my number.” Ryo was looking at him funny at that comment. “No joke. I mean nobody else is going to call me. Everyone else who gives a damn about my well being is around here.” “Most of the people who care about me is around here too,” Ryo reminded him. Bill asked, “So you're saying we're a couple of sad sacks then? Because I agree with you.” “No,” Ryo told him,” I'm saying you're a sad sack, I got a girl.” “Hey,” Bill said right before he gave him a elbow to the ribs. Then both of them shared a laugh. It felt good to do so after everything that happened the past couple of days. That laughter stopped as they heard some metallic sounding foot steps come toward them. “What the hell?”, Bills asked as the both of them got up “That's it Windam,” they heard Jess right before she and the robot passed the door, “right down this hall.” Both of them raced to the door and looked out as the extremely odd couple continued down the hall. Bill was the one who spoke up, “I think we've been replaced by a machine my man.” “Looks like,” Ryo said as he backed away. Smirking a bit as he went back to his chair, “Wonder how that moron and his cronies, would have been so tough if Windam was guarding that door earlier.” “I would have brought the popcorn,” Ryo told him. “Guess that leaves me with bringing the beer,” Bill said with another smirk. He let out a sigh as he sat back down and leaned back in his chair. “Is it wrong I was thinking Ultraman was pretty much invincible? I mean yeah he took damage and lost energy when that thing on his chest started blinking but he always pulled through in the end. It didn't even occur to me that Brooks could have defeated him.” “I'm guilty of the same thing,' Ryo informed him. “Hell I don't think anybody there outside of the Dungeon guys even considered it. Reality hit us hard, and left a bad taste in our mouth.” “I was really hoping that was just this coffee,” Bill said. “Gotta be honest about something else, I really expected that Ken was going to be up and about by now, maybe be super pissed that everybody else found out he was Ultraman this whole time.” Ryo gave his shoulder a quick squeeze and looked as sad as Bill currently felt. “Come on man,” Ryo said getting up, “I'm pretty sure those five minutes are up. Even with Windam there it wouldn't surprise me if those morons came back. And Reid's probably not going to show up again and stop it if it goes south.” “Yo're right,” Bill said as he poured the remainder of his coffee into a nearby planter, halfway expecting it to start wilting any second. Following him out he added, “You were going to jump right in if it got physical weren't you?” He called back, “Why should Jess have all the fun? *** “We need to find a way to determine where Brooks is now and where he's going to show up next!” With only Patricia there as the only other person physically in the room Richardson sat there in the boardroom staring at all the video screens adorning the walls of the board's usual meeting room. A rarely used function of this particular room was that every screen was connected to a particular UNDF base all over the planet, a virtual board meeting as it were. The dark screens being the ones that were recently destroyed. The last time this particular function was used was right after Ultraman first showed up and the heads of those bases were demanding to know why he refused to do anything about him at the time. Much like then he sincerely wished those screens were equipped with a mute function. The person who was speaking kept going, “Any one of us could be next.” “I'm aware of that,” Richardson said tearsly. “As I'm positive you're aware that sentence includes this location as well. We're doing what we can to keep an eye on the situation. All of you have the same information that we have. As of yet Brooks hasn't shown a pattern anyone or thing can predict. So unless one of you is withholding data that shows what any pattern he has is. If not then we're all in the same boat.” “Unless you have another secret base,” another one butted in. Zeroing on that particular screen he wished his usual glare worked as well when the person was here in the flesh. Even more so since a few faces were nodding in agreement. His gut was telling him convincing the board about the value of secrecy around Dungeon was going to be easier than getting these people to agree with him. So he wasn't even going to try. “I'm starting to see why Brooks was able to fool us for so long,” he said, getting the surprised reaction he was looking for.. “Funding for Dungeon had to come from where. The information was all out there in the open, nothing was hidden from anybody. Every financial meeting I keep expecting someone in this organization to point out this block of the overall budget that apparently wasn't going any where. You want to know if there's another secret base somewhere look for a money trail and find it. Now we have to figure out how to defeat Brooks.” Without any warning or preamble he ended the meeting before any of them could responde. “Perhaps now wasn't the best time to go on the attack,” Patricia stated the moment after the screens went dark. “The entire organization is under attack now we need to be...” “Not now!”, he snapped. “People need to remember who is in charge around here.” “The one in charge needs to learn to listen to someone other than himself,” she shot back, “Get out!” he demanded. She held her ground. Why was everybody so defiant lately?. “Remember who you work for.” “I work for the UNDF,” she said calmly. “And the UNDF is more than just one person, Before I go I feel it's my place to inform you that I overheard some grumbling from some of the board about a meeting to discuss your place in the organization. If it survives Brooks that is.” “They wouldn't dare,” he said, not looking at her. They would dare and he knew it. They were in the middle of a crisis, now was not the time for a change of leadership. And those idiots would do it any way because they're focusing on the wrong problem. Finally heading toward the door she added, “And according to the unofficial grapevine once Hawk is sure Scott is out of the woods he will be seeking you out to discuss Scott's situation and treatment since he joined up. From what I gather it will not be pleasant.” She exited and closed the door behind her. Richardson sat there stewing in his own juices before finally picking up his fist and slamming it down on top of the table. *** The garage were Ken used to work was quieter than usual. All were very aware that the dark version of Ultraman was attacking the UNDF seemingly at will. And the main base was just outside of town. Just about everyone stopped what they were doing every time there was any unusual sound. Everyone was so on edge that they looked for anything that would destract them from what was going on. And from the waiting. “Anybody hear anything about Ken yet?”, one of the mechanics who had been there almost since their former comrade had started working there. Knowing all eyes were on looking at her Rose informed them, “There hasn't been anything new.” All the one there who worked with him stopped what they wewre doing for a moment. In fact it looked like a couple of them were praying. “Jess told me they have their very best looking after him, I'm sure he'll be fine.” The lunk head better be fine or there was going to be hell to pay. “Anybody let Jeff know Ken was laid up?”, somebody asked. The answer here wasn't exactly forth coming from anyone. After they heard what he did to Janet most of them just cut him off completely. One of the couple of them who still kept in contact with him finally said something. “I tried to tell him. He only said the ingrate had it coming then started talking about something else, He didn't even look concerned at all.” “Yeah that's Jeff all right,” another spoke up. “And he wonders why hardly anybody ever visits him. How did Ken describe him that one time, if it didn't affect him personally he just didn't care?” Rose hated to admit it but they were right. She had never seen any pair of siblings that were such polar opposites than those two. But as much as Jeff annoyed and bullied him Ken would have been concerned about Jeff if the situations were reversed. But this situation had to be weighing on their mother something fierce. Maybe she'd drop by after work for a few just to see how her and Janet were doing. And maybe find out if Janet had some different news about Ken that Jess was keeping her in the dark about. *** Taking in a deep breath of the cold air as he walked the streets of Moscow Peter Brooks had a new bounce in his step. His father had always admired this city. He wasn't a “red” as some of his compatriots back then might have called him. No as the saying went he was American as mom and apple pie. No, what he admired about this city was it's buildings. He marveled at the design work that went into those domes that topped certain older buildings around the city. While Charles Brooks never held the same level of admiration his father had his enthusiasm over them was slightly infectious. So much so Peter Brooks had a small pang of regret over the idea of possible having to destroy them. Oh well, all fair in love and war as the saying goes. Heading straight toward the Moscow UNDF base Brooks stopped at an intersection and waited for the light to change back. And he looked straight at the lens of the street camera. And he stood there for two full light changes, occasionally looking around for any sign of authority to show up.When the light signaled that it was his turn to walk again Brooks looked up with a sigh and gave a small wave at the camera before finally continuing his journey. That was the fifth survilance camera he'd come across and the fifth time there was no response whatsoever. “With this sort of response time,” he said to himself and looked arounf again, “maybe we should have started our invasion here. My so called masters would have had a foothold on this planet already.” Brooks continued on foot toward the bases. Yes he could have flown the rest of the way but he felt like stretching his legs a bit. That and that part of his father that still inhabited his head wanted to see those buildings at street level. And while he eyed those buildings almost remembering the seer joy his father would get in his eyes just looking at pictures of them he was still very much aware of the fence blocking his path to the base. Brooks could have easily gotten around this obstacle, Flown over it, he definitely could have gone through it. Brooks even toyed with the idea of blasting his way underneath it. It would have been novel at least. But the one thing really got his attention was the lack of guards anywhere in sight. Holding his arms out at the side he looked in both directions and went “Really? If I was still part of the board I would be deeply distuirbed at the lack of security around here.” “So this is the 'Wall',” he said as he looked at the building, trying to see if there was any sign of life, on the other side of the fence. “Well at least it's not in China like some of those idiots wanted to call that base. It's no Castle but it's still rather impressive. Now I wish the board did fly over and take that tour. Well I'll be seeing the inside soon enough after I crack it open.” He felt a tug on his sleeve and somebody with some heavily accented English saying to him, “Excuse me.” Brooks turned around and say a couple, the male of the two holding a camera. Both of them jumped back a little while he stared at them. “Excuse me,” he repeated while holding out the camera. “Take picture please.” It took a second but Brooks started to realize this was a couple of tourists. And they wanted him to take their picture. Both of them relaxed a bit as he smirked and took the camera. “Of course,” he told them. Both of them took a step back and embraced each other with wide grins. Getting them both in focus he said, “Now say 'we're going to die'.” He pressed the button that would have taken the picture. Brooks was assaulted by a huge jolt of electricity that dropped him to the ground. The couple started shouting in Russian as they drew a pair of sidearms and pointed it at him. In seconds the street was swarming with soldiers from the base and covered him. A couple of heavy assault vehicles rolled in and took position behind them. Through a megaphone the person in charge said, “Peter Brooks, we have you surrounded consider yourself under aresst!” He ordered a few of them to go to him. With handcuffs in their hands they approached him. A sound made them pause and look at each other. A sound that none of them were expecting. One that made them nervous. That sound was Peter Brooks laughing. They all pointed their weapons at him, a few screaming at him in Russian as he stood. “Oh that was clever,” he said as he tried to get the laughing to stop, “That was really rather clever. I did not see that coming. I mean I was wondering how those two knew I spoke English. But still I did not see it coming at all. Bravo on the acting job,” he said giving them a small ovation, “you had me fooled.” “Peter Brooks,” again the one in charge bellowed, “put your hands behind your head and get on the ground or we will open fire.” “You put a lot of thought and effort into this operation,” he said instead as he took a good look at the force confronting him, This would explain the lack of security or any sort of response he was looking at earlier. “I am truly honored at this effort. It's going to fail spectacularly but I am honored none the less.” “This your last warning,” he was told. “Put your hands behind your head and get on the ground!” “How about I do this instead?”he said right before he turned back toward the “couple” with his hands raised, crackling with the dark energy within him. He blasted both of them before any of them could react, leaving a pair of charred, smoking skeletons. “Fire!” came the order. And those surrounding him did so without hesitation. They stopped when they realized the barrier that was now surrounding him stopped their assault. With a sneer he held his right hand over his head and he was engulfed with dark energy that quickly grew in size as once again he became the dark copy of the giant, the self titled Ultraman Avatar. “Do you want me to get on the ground now?”, he asked as his voice echoed slightly The respoce was getting fired upon by the soldiers on the ground and the heavy assault vehicles. Even the Wall's defensive cannons open fired at him. He stood there and absorbed all of it. In fact he found it rather amusing in a sad sort of way. They had to have read the reports on what he could do and accomplish and yet here they were trying their hardest to attack. And they have to know on some level that it was useless.. Time to prove it to them. With a brief gesture he pointed at one of the assault vehicles and fired a beam at it. The vehicle and it occupants went up in a massive explosion. While the troopers ducked from it Brooks took a step forward, reaching down to pick up the other one. With little effort he hurled it into the Wall. As he expected the cannons increased their rate of fire, Well those that were still functional, the impact from the assault vehicle obviously knocked out something. Walking toward the base he quickly turned around to the remaining soldiers still there firing at him and incinerated the lot with a quick massive beam. He turned his attention back toward the Wall. Taking out one of the remaining connons with another beam and continued forward. A hanger started to open, so nice of them to give him his next target. Anything that was about to launch out of there was quickly decimated along with whatever else was in there in another massive explosion. “Now let's see,” Brooks said as he appeared to be studying the building, “their equivilent to Castle's control room should be right about,” picking a spot he punched into the face of the building, “here.” Extracting his fist he looked inside the hole he made. “Yes that was it,” then he lashed into the building again, he briefly wondered if he could take this facility down faster than he did Tower. *** There was footage of Brooks destroying the Wall over in Moscow. Hawk wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not as he watched it via the holo table in the Monster Squad war room. Those poor bastards never stood a chance. Leaning against the table with his head hung low he made a promise to himself to make sure Brooks paid for every life he'd hurt or taken since this whole ordeal started.. If it was the last thing he did Hawk was going to find a way to make it happen. Just standing there wasn't going to make it happen. At least he wasn't the only trying to accomplish this, at the moment, seemingly impossible feat. Dr. Williams and the other scientists around here were trying to quickly devise any sort of weapon that could stop Brooks, preferably before he turned into that perverted version of Ultraman he some how created. Although both he and Williams were surprised when the Chief informed them that Ken had been apparently working on something since that invasion. Unfortunately whatever it was he was working on involved alien technology. And the only one on base who could begin to understand any of it was currently in a coma. And no one, not Jess, not the chief knew where he was keeping his notes on this project. “Why didn't you tell me you were working on something,” Hawk muttered as he pulled up the Ultraman file he had created ever since Daxium first showed up. Yes the idea was originally Brooks' to begin with, but as he told the others it was still a good idea to be prepared, just in case. He looked up from his endeavor when the door opened up and Ryo came rushing in. Without any proding he said, “Bridge just got word of survivors from Tower.” That was the first bit of good news he'd heard in the last two days, “Who?” “Geenberg and a few others,” he said as he stepped forward. “I was in the control room when he finally got in contact with Emiko. I ran right over once he got the details of their escape.” “How did they escape?”, Hawk asked. “Everything through official channels said there were no survivors.” Going to the table Hawk watched as Ryo pulled up the plans for Tower. Pointing out something below ground level he went on, “There's an underground hanger that they store their non-military vehicles. Once facial recognition picked out Brooks Tower's security quickly got Greenberg and the others to that hanger almost immediatly. They launched the transport right before Brooks attacked. They're currently over the ocean and headed this way.” “Good. I'll get someone on arranging quartes for them when they arrive,” Hawk said. Hopefully some of those survivors were scientists and technicians, we could use the help getting ready for when Brooks finally decided to show back up at their door step. “Bridge is already taking care of that part,” Ryo informed him. When Hawk looked at him he added, “He said it'll free you up to concentrate on taking down the big problem.” He gestured toward the image of Brooks destroying the Wall. “Good, So how much did Bridge actually relax?, he asked. “I wouldn't have been surprised if he turned into a puddle right then and there,” he said with a slight smirk. Hawk started smiling as well, he was geniunely happy for Bridge for getting into contact with Emiko. Hopefully that wouldn't be the only reunion for the immediate future. Ryo looked a little closer to see what he was doing and nodded, “Trying to see if any strategies you came up with will work on Brooks?” “In theory,” he replied. “There's been strategies to take down Ultraman all over the organization. I've been in conference calls with other commanders across the globe, pulling together what we know. And we have the same problem I had with Daxium, we don't know the limits of his capabilities. With Daxium there were a couple of things, that light blinking on his chest when he got low on power. Having to draw in extra energy to do his more powerful attacks. With the latter we at least had an opening to attack and with the crystal at least a indication that we could hold out a little longer. With Brooks we have none of that.” “So he's apparently as invincible as we thought Ultraman was,” Ryo commented. “I know I thought Ken and Daxium were unbeatable.” “Nothing unbeatable,” he told him, “Ultraman wasn't and I'm betting everything that Brooks isn't either. We just have to figure it out, one way or another.” “I wish I was that confident,” Ryo said. “Nobody in charge ever starts out that confident, trust me you'll grow into it, before you know it,” Hawk assured him. “I should know, I did.” *** “This is a horrorble idea.” Two individules walked down the halls of the medical wing trying hard to not draw any attention to themselves. Not an easy task considering how the one who spoke was obviously the most nervous of the two. In hushed tones he went on, “I heard they got that robot guarding the room now.” “So?”, demanded the other one who was also keeping his voice as quiet as possible. Both of them stopped and acted like they were looking at something on a chart they carried as a couple of medics, who were deep in conversation, walked by.. Once they went around the corner the one in charge pulled on the other's uniform jacket to get him moving. “It's just one robot, we just gotta disrupt it's sensors long enough to get inside and snap a picture. Then we're out of there before anyone knows what happened.” “You got no problem violating the privacy of one of our own?”, the other demanded. “I'm no fan of Ultraman either but Scott is technically one of us.” “There isn't going to be an “us' at the rate Brooks is going,” the other told him. “Scott the only one around her who could have stopped him. And looked what happened when they fought. Scott's down for the count and Brooks is going through the UNDF like a we're nothing. And we're pretty much are compared to him.” “But this feels wrong,” the other argued. “You were the one who released the footage to the press to begin with,” came the counter. “Yeah but I left out the part that showed Ultraman was human,” he shot back. “I thought he deserved that much at least. Besides how are you going to prove Scott was Ultraman anyway?” “You think you're the only one who got a copy of the fight footage?” The other man looked horrified at the thought. “You shouldn't have bragged about how much the network was paying you for it.” “I wasn't bragging,” he started to protest. “Not the point, if you didn't want Ulktraman identity revealed you should have kept quiet about the pay day. You're just lucky nobody overheard you, not everyone would be smart enough to profit off the idea. No they would have gone straight to Hawk and Reid,” he let him think about that for a moment. “Look we both agreed that we're going to split before Brooks shows up. Might as well have a little extra cushion to live in while the shit's going down.” “It still feels wrong.” But he was still following the other one despite his moral objection. They approached the intersection that lead to Scott's room. The one had them slow to a halt as he checked the camera he was hiding in his jacket. “Oh god we're actually doing this,” he said trying not to panic as he fumbled with some sort of device the other swore would interrupt the robot's sensors and not affect anything else in the medical wing. “Quiet,” the other one snapped through his teeth before he took a peek around the corner. “Looks like it's our lucky day.” The other one looked around the corner as well, the hallway was empty. “Mr. Roboto deserted his post.” “But that doesn't make any sense.” “Who cares this is our chance, come on.” Before either could take a step there was the sound of a door opening and mechanical whirring that made them look behind them. In a second Windam reached out and grabbed both of them by the collar and drew them closer. They struggled in vain to get away. They stopped when Ryo, Bill and Jess walked around into view. “Good boy Windam,” Jess told the robot. Behind the two the robot seemed to stand a little straighter at the praise. “You guys did know,” Bill said as he crossed his arms, “that the medical staff all have headsets? “ “And they told us,” Ryo added in, “as soon as they spotted the two of you. We guess your path just based on where they saw you.” Ryo did a quick search and found the camera and the device. Bill took the device and looked it over. “What are the odds, ”he started to ask while handing it over to Ryo, “that they weren't going to use this do dad on Windam? Hey Jess how angry do you think Ken would be after he found out?” “I say royally pissed would just about cover it,” she answered. “That sound about right to you Ryo? “Yeah that would cover it,” he said as a couple of guards came out of another room after Bill knocked on the door and took control of the two from Windam. “So who do you think we should deliver them to Hawk or Reid?” “Don't think it matters,” Bill answered. “Both want to ream the party responsible for the leak pretty bad the last I heard.” The one with the misgiving swallowed pretty hard. “I'd say Reid,” Jess said suddenly. “According to Bridge Hawk looked like he wanted to murder somebody once he found out about the leak.” “So Reid it is,” Bill said. Taking the camera and device from Ryo he told them, “I'll escort these two and hand over the evidence. Come on guys.” With little effort the guards made the two follow Bill down the hall. “I better let Hawk know we've caught a couple of suspects trying to get into Ken's room,” Ryo said. “”Giving him a chance to join in?”, Jess asked. “Making sure we don't get any backlash for not sending them to him after he finds out,” he replied. “Smart,” Jess admitted. “Come on Windam, let's get you back in front of Ken's room. I don't think those two are the only ones.” Windam nodded and followed her towards Ken's room. *** Standing next to Ken's bed Jess looked down at him. Everything about him looked normal, his appearance, his breathing, it just looked like he was sleeping. He just wouldn't wake up. Getting some of the stray hairs out of his face Jess tried not to think about all the times Ultraman took a major hit or damage during any of his battles. How often he tried to hide the hurt and pain he suffered because of it. She stroked his cheek with the back of her hand, feeling the slight stubble that had grown over the past couple of days. “I'm not sure how you'd look with a beard. Well I got used to the hair I can get used to that if you decided to grow it out,” she told him. Timothy said that all of them talking to him was leading him to that door. “Still might see if I can get a razor in here and give you a shave before you notice it though,” she said with a slight chuckle. “Janet called me yesterday,” pulling up a chair she sat next to him. Taking his hand in hers she went on, “I don't know if any of the others told you or not but word about you being Ultraman got around pretty fast. Even she heard it before Hawk ordered all the civilian workers around here off base before Brooks decided to attack.” Oh how she wanted him to show any sort of reaction at that news. But there was nothing as the more rational part of her mind knew this would be the result. “No surprise there right? Everybody around here just loves to gossip. But she wanted to know how Nicole found out.” She sighed a bit before going on, “I didn't know what to do so I told her what you told me, that Nicole saw you change at her birthday party. Just to warn you she did not seem that happy about it.” She started smiling as something came to her, “Nicole drew you that picture showing you becoming Ultraman. You played it off as being the coolest guy she knew. I don't think Janet would have bought it. She said she hasn't told your mom about it. That's probably a good thing because I can just see her barging right in demanding answers.” He still kept slowly breathing in and out and all she could do was just imagine his reaction to that. “Well I did tell myself I was going to try something new instead of just telling you what was going on.” Pulling out her phone she pulled up a popular video streaming app. “Timothy said you were reacting to our voices, maybe some music will help too.” Smirking a bit as she typed a name into the search bar she told him, “I still don't understand what you see in Metalcore with the whole growler thing. And how you found a Swedish band I'll never know,” she shook her head. “But you enjoy it so I guess I can't complain too much,” she found the song she was looking for, “And this song isn't too bad, and it fit us in a way.” She put her phone on the nightstand beside his bed “Hawk to Wade,” came out of her communicator. She hit it more out of habit than anything, “Wade here, what is it Captain?” “Can you meet me in the others on this floor's break room?”, he asked. “We just got word about another attack by Brooks. “Damn it,” she muttered. “I'll be right there. Wade out.” She hit it again to close the link. “I wish he would just go away.” And that wish wasn't going to just happen and she knew it. Getting up she put the chair back where it was then leaned over Ken. “I'll be back as soon as this is over.” Kissing him on the forehead she stated there long enough to whisper, “Ken walk through that door already.” Finally turning away she pressed the play button on the screen and exited the room with the song playing in the background. After the door closed she missed Ken's eyes popping open. *** The past couple of hours had them going over the details of the latest attack by Brooks, Austraila this time. Hawk watched all of them as they looked over the information on the tablets before them and discussed the events, adding this new information to the overall strategy they were trying to come up with. And there were a few good ideas that they had come up with, ones worth pursuing with Reid and the other commanders, those who were left that is. And even though this room was technically the medical staff lounge they were letting them use it as temporary war room and both sides tried to stay out of the other's way as much as possible. Of course every so often one of them would look away from the tablet screen and look in a general direction, Ken's room. Hawk couldn't really say anything since he'd been doing it himself, even looking at the door when one of the medics rushed by just seeing which direction they were going. He wanted some sort of update as much as the rest of them but right now he had to priortitize. And right now Brooks took top priority. “I know it's rough,” he told them, “but we need to concentrate. Brooks has been keeping a couple of hours between his attacks. We can't expect that to keep being the case, and with the speed he's apparently traveling I'm surprised he's taking this long.” “It might mean he has to rest,” Ryo offered. “Even Daxium took at least a day to fully recharge his energy.” “So he's blinking without actually blinking,” Bill spoke up taping a spot on his chest. Ryo nodded that they were thinking along the same lines. “So he does have a limit,” Jess muttered as she studied the screen in front of her. “But that's flying half way across the world in a couple of hours. If we're going to out last him in a battle how hard are we going to have to push him?” Ryo looked like he was thinking it over, and not exactly liking the conclusion he was coming to, “If we get him to that point there might not be much of us left to go on the offensive.” “I was afraid somebody was going to say that,” Bill said while making a face. “Not like I planned on living forever.” “Speak for yourself,” Ryo shot back. A slightly nervous laughter filled the room for all too brief a moment. Hawk joined in, they all needed something to relieve the tension that was filling the room. No matter how brief it was. Then the pad in his hand started to beep and that tension ramped right back up again. Without any hesitation he pressed the message indicator and read it, Brooks had struck again, “It's what you think it is.” “He struck again in Antarctica,” Jess said reading it out loud. Then she went back to the previous screen and added the location to the map. So did the rest of them, and there still wasn't a pattern, at least one that he was picking up. Bill looked up, confused, “We had a base in Antarctica?” “It's mainly a scientific station,” Hawk told him, he wasn't surprised none of them seemed to know about. Hawk tended to forget it existed most of the time. “The first of a few we created to appease certain parties that was worried that we would just be a military force. This one houses a maximum of twenty personnel at any given time. It literally has little to no value what so ever.” “No offence Captain,” Bill said, “but are you sure about that?” Ryo added, “It could be another Dungeon for all we know, just hiding in plain sight.” “Admittedly it's a small possibility,” Hawk agreed with them. It would be the perfect location for another weapons facility. It was so remote some one would have to go actively looking for it in order to find it. “But now is not the time to start looking for more places like Dungeon.” “Hawk is right,” Jess said. .”we need to figure out where he's going to strike next.” “Exactly,” Hawk told them. “The moment we can figure that out is the moment we can start working on better strategies to deal with him.” Still studying the locations he attacked and when Jess ended up saying, “That might be harder than expected. If anything it looks like he's going to any base that crosses his mind at the time.” “Don't make it sound impossible or anything,” Bill told her. “I didn't think it was going to be easy,” Hawk told them. “Captain Hawk,” one of the medics said as he stormed into the room. All of them looked at him, wondering what was going on. Then he remembered this was the one taking care of Ken and wasn't sure what to think. “What is it?” “It's that blasted machine you left in front of my patient's door. It won't let anybody into the room.” Ryo looked at her, “Jess?” “I didn't tell him to do that,” she told him as they all got up from the table and nearly knocked the medic down as they headed for Ken's room. It wasn't long before they saw a team of medical personnel trying to get Windam away from the door with little success. “Windam,” she called out, “step aside.” Windam started to, then Hawk watched as it looked at the door and stayed where it was. It almost looked like it was undecided on what to do. Pushing past the medics Jess repeated, “Step aside.” With one more look at the door it moved. “Windam what's going on with you?”, she asked as the medic who brought this to their attention moved past her into the room. “He's gone!” the medic said as he came back out a second later. Pushing him to get his attention Ryo demanded, “What do you mean he's gone?” Hawk, Bill and Jess didn't wait for a response as they barged into the room only to find it empty. Ryo quickly joined them and took in the sight for himself, “How in the hell? Where did he go?” “Windan,” Jess called out to the robot. When he appeared in the doorway she went up to him. “Windam tell me the truth, did Ken tell you to keep people out of the room.?” To everyone's surprise but hers Windam nodded once. Lowering her head a bit she muttered, “Okay he's apparently fine so that means I can kill him now for this stunt.” “Why would he do that?”, Bill asked. “Get security,” one of the medics called out. “Scott has to be somewhere on base.” “Bridge to Hawk,” okay now was not the time for another Brooks update, “we just got a report of somebody stealing one of the spare Alpha Three motorcycles from the garage a few moments ago. The culprit's already left base. I'm looking for security footage but the electrical system went down for about ten minutes around the same time.” “Ken?”, Ryo asked. Hawk didn't say anything, but it seemed to point toward him. Now what was he thinking? “This doesn't make any sense. Why break out of Castle and steal a motorcycle?” “I think we got something here,” Bill announced as he pointed at something on the floor by the closet. There was some sort of crumbled stone mess. Kneeling down Jess took a better look at it. Taking a pen from the medic she carefully looked through it. A few more bits broke apart any way but she looked like she found what she was looking for. Joining her Hawk soon saw what she was seeing, part of it looked like the Spark Magnifier, the device he used to release Daxium. Looking at him she said, “I think I know where he's going.” *** It felt wrong sneaking out of Castle like that but they wouldn't take him there to see for himself, not yet. He was vaguely aware that people were talking about Brooks and they were more worried about him. On some level Ken knew he should be too. While he drove the motorcycle to that location his mind was only half on the road in front of him. The other half was on the pain in his chest. His mind wandered back to when he first woke up. The first thing he realized when his eyes opened was that he was getting sick of seeing the medical wing. After the invasion when he woke up then it took a couple of seconds to remember why he was there. This time that pain he was feeling was a harsh reminder of what happened, Brooks had beaten them. And badly. How long was he out this time? Last time it was only a couple of hours, but as stiff as he was currently feeling he was thinking it was longer than that. Carefully sitting up he grunted and grabbed his chest, “Dax, you okay buddy?” To his surprise there wasn't an answer. “Dax?” he went and again there wasn't an answer. “Don't do this to me man,” closing his eyes he looked inside his mind for that alien spot that indicated that he was there. Clenching the sheet he realized that the spot wasn't there any more. “No,” he whispered as his eyes started to get watery. No, this couldn't be what he was thinking, it just couldn't. Spotting the closet he made his way over on unsteady legs. Swinging the door open he started searching his uniform jacket. The Spark Magnifier, if it was still there then Dax was fine. He told himself that over and over until he found the interior pocket he kept it in. It made no sense what so ever but it was a hope he was clinging to. Reaching in he felt a wave of relief fall over him as he felt it in his hand. Then he pulled it out, it looked more like stone now then the usual metallic sheen it had before. What did that mean? He gripped it in his hand and felt it start to crumble in his grasp. Before he knew it the remains fell to the floor. He started breathing hard as he used the wall in front of him to keep from falling. The spot where they battled Brooks, he had to get there. He didn't know why but he knew he just had to get there. Grabbing his clothes he started getting dressed. Not sure how long he was riding he came to the spot, now pretty much barren outside of what remained of the Icarus. Letting the motorcycle fall as he got off he started walking forward. “Dax!”, he called out, listening for any type of reaction and still getting nothing. Feeling a little more panicked than a few moments ago he called out, “Dax!” Wandering around the area with his hair whipping around his face from the wind he kept calling out, “Daxium! Come on Dax where are you?! Answer me! This isn't funny.” Without realizing it he stopped in the same spot Daxium had his last moments. An overwhelming sadness over took him, a truth he couldn't ignore anymore. One more time he yelled out, “Dax!” Finally he dropped to his knees, “You can't be gone.” His voice cracked as he lowered his head and the tears started coming, “You can't be dead.” On the wind he thought he heard a slight whisper, almost inaudible, “Ken.” He looked up trying to see through the tears, “Dax?” It was almost too good to be true. It was. “Ken!” this time he recognized the voice as Bill's and looked over to see him, Ryo, Jess and Hawk run toward him. Jess reached him first and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck as she got on her knees next to him and just held. Ryo asked as they caught up and stood around them, “Are you all right?” He slowly shook his head. “Ken I'm sorry...” “He's gone,” was all he managed to say as he stared out into space again. “We know,” she said in his ear. “We're here for you.” He heard those same exact words from several people when his father died. Like then he wasn't sure how any one could help with how hollow he was feeling. “Come on son,” Hawk said as he and Jess helped him to his feet. “Let's get you back to Castle. There's nothing you can do for him now.” “Civilian,” Bill started talking as he finally let himself be pulled away and toward the Scan Track they took to follow him, “You gave the docs in medical a fit disappearing like that..” “Bill,” Hawk said, “take the Alpha Three back to Castle, we got him.” “Yes sir,” he replied. Then he reached and put a hand on Ken's shoulder. “We'll help you through this man, we got your back.” “He's not lying there,” Ryo added. When they reached the Scan Track he stopped and looked back at the area. Then the rest of them did as well, taking a moment of silence to say farewell to their fallen ally. With another sob Ken entered the Scan Track. *** Back in the medical wing Ken sat in the same staff lounge the others were using earlier, Jess and Ryo were in the seats next to him trying to get him to open up. Hawk stood close by keeping an eye on them and another on the tablerts still on the table. Out in the hallway they all heard Reid giving it to those who were on security at the time, “Could one of you please tell me how a man who'd been in a coma for the past two days snuck out of this complex with a God damned motorcycle!” There was no immediate answer but just about all of them could imagine the looks on the faces of those on the recieving end. All but Ken who was stuck in his own world at the moment as he leaned foreward with his head hung low. Carrying a try with plastic cups of coffee Bill came in. Taking a quick look back out the door he hurried into the room. “Glad I'm not them,” he said as he put the tray down on the table and started passing the cups out. “Made sure I poured from the right pot this time around.” “Much better,” Ryo commented as he took a sip. Bill offered Ken a cup, he just kept looking at the floor. His hair hung over his face, they knew Daxium's death was hitting him hard and they all wished they could do anything to help. “Ken we're right here if you need anything,” Ryo told him. “Yeah Civilian,” Bill told him as he pulled up a chair and joined them, “even if you just want to unload and get it all off your chest.” Jess was as surprised as any of them as he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper, “It just hurts so much.” “I know Ken,” Jess said as she started to rub his shoulder. “It hit us all pretty hard, not as much as it's hitting you but you'll get through this.” “She's right son,” Hawk joined them. “I'm still not sure how you and Daxium actually worked, but it's obvious to anyone that the two of you had a link nobody could imagine.” Putting a hand on his other shoulder he went, “Take some time to process this, but I'm afraid I can't let you have as much time as you're probably going to need. Brooks is still out there and we're going to need any idea we can get if we have any chance at survival.” “Ken!”, the four of them looked at the door. Timothy was standing in the doorway with an annoyed looking Lunden right behind him. Not being familiar with the history the kid had with Ken Ryo and Bill just looked at each other. In contrast Jess gave him a small nod in greeting. “I'm apologize for barging in like this but Timothy insisted,” Lunden explained as the youth came into the room without being invited. “It's all right,” Hawk assured him as he got out of Timothy's way. “With both of you still in the building I was expecting him sooner actually.” “Ken?”, he asked as he got close enough, “How are you?” “Been better,” was the short reply as he kept his head down. Jess was down right stunned that Timothy was getting any type of response out of him. Especially since they've been here the whole time and barely gotten anything out of him. “I can see that,” Timothy said as he took a step closer. “I know about Daxium, I'm sorry.” He put a hand on Ken's shoulder then got a shocked look on his face as he quickly pulled it away. Jess and Hawk shared a quick glance, they both knew he had some version of his telepathy back, so what did he get off of him to cause that reaction? “I... I better go. I'll see you later Ken.” He waited for a reply. But Ken just sat there. Looking up at Hawk said, “Good-bye sir.” Giving Jess a quick nod he turned around and headed out of the room. “So that's the man who told not to get that upset over losing you abilities,” Lunden commented once they were a ways down the hallway, and well out of earshot of Hawk's group . “I don't want to sound cailous but look at him now. If the rumors are true then he was Ultraman and he can't do that anymore and now look at the state he's in.” “That's not why he's acting like that,” Timothy told him as he started to hang back a little. “He's mourning his friend,” stopping he looked back down the hall, “and that's making him relive his father's death all over again.” Lunden stiffened a little knowing he really stuck his foot in his mouth there but kept walking with Timothy right behind him. *** Hawk ran the halls heading for the hanger level of Castle,the Tower survivors were almost here. It wasn't as if he didn't believe Bridge and Ryo but he had to see this for himself. When he entered the hanger the door was already open and the runway extended to receive the incoming craft. A quick glance around let him spot Bridge among those waiting for the craft. Before anyone noticed him another called out, “Here it comes!” All of them watched as the craft came in for a landing. It did so without a hitch and support crews were already rushing toward it before it came to a stop. The side hatch opened and a short staircase lowered as Hawk walked up to the opening. The first person he saw come out was one of the troopers stationed there, He looked around real quick, paying particularly close attention to the closing hanger door. Once it did he finally step out and holstered his side arm. After what they've been through Hawk couldn't blame the man for being overly cautious. He was fairly certain his name was Boris. “Do you have any wounded?” “Some,” he said right after he saluted him. Looking back he waved men forward, “We got wounded, get them off the plane first.” None of them needed to be told as they were already heading for the craft. Boris got out of there way and let them pass. “How bad was it? “Bad,” was the answer he was expecting but really didn't want to hear. “We lost contact with Tower before we even hit the ocean. I ordered the pilot to maintain radio silence until I was sure we weren't being followed.” “Smart idea,” Hawk said. “We still have no idea of what Brooks can do at the moment. And his mind set seems to be our complete and total destruction.” He looked as the last of the wounded was helped or carried off the plane. Then the non wounded personel started to walk off, Greenberg in the lead. “Captain,” he said in tired greeting. “Thank you for being a friendly port in a storm. “Emiko!”, Bridge suddenly called out. Both of them looked around to see him run toward the craft. “Nathan!” she ran toward him and they quickly embraced each other. Another happy reunion in these dark times. He would never presume to speak for any one else, but he would take as many of those moments as he could get. “Ufortunately I'm not sure how long we'll be a friendly port,” Hawk said as he looked around at the people who came off the plane and the condition they were in, “Sam, Jake, see if we can arrange some kind of refreshments in the quarters for our guest. They look like they could use a place to get some rest after the medics check them out.” After they acknowledged the command they hurried off. “That is very much appreciated Captain,” Greenberg told him. “That craft is not as comfortable as it looks.” He caught Hawk looking over his shoulder at the craft. “I'm afraid what you see is what's left of the staff at Tower as far as I'm aware.” Hawk felt for him, “I'm sorry.” Both of them headed for the door. “I hate to ask under such circumstances, but who were you able to get out with?” “Unfortuneatly not as many as I would have liked, the bigger transports were above ground and Brooks targeted them first” he answered with a sigh. “Boris, and a couple of guards and what scientists they could get in their grasp. Naturally we'll be willing to help out against Brooks. We've been brainstorming ideas the entire way. Well it was either that or just breakdown and cry over the situation.” “Any help would be greatly appreciated,” Hawk said. “We've been brainstorming as well, and nobody around here is going to say no to any fresh ideas.” “Well we did come up with something, using the device Ken created to detect Brooks. We were studying his plans you supplied us after my last visit before he attacked.” “Do you think it's possible?”, Hawk asked, another bit to potentially hold on too, maybe. If, no, it had to work and have a decent range first. “I think so,” he said. “I know Ken created it to detect the device the invaders were using. But if we had a read out of Brooks' energy signature than it should be possible.” “We have that signature,” Hawk informed him. “Our sensors recorded it when he revealed himself.” “Good, good,” Greenberg said. “I know we need the rest but I would really like to get started on that as soon as possible. The faster we can get that done the faster we can transmit the plans to any surviving UNDF base. Hopefully they can get a few more survivors out than we did if anything.” He looked hesitant to ask the question Hawk could see forming in his face. “Ken, has there been any change?” Hawk smiled despite himself, “He woke up a couple of hours ago,” “Oh thank God,” Greenberg said, obviously extremely relieved at the news. “When I heard he was in a coma, I didn't know what to think. I realize the ground troops need to be on the front lines but against something like Brooks.” Apparently word hadn't reached him that Ken was Ultraman just yet. That was going to change the longer he stayed here. “It was just a situation of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Well it was close to the truth. And that made him think of all the excuses he heard from Ken about some of the injuries he received since he joined up, and they all boiled down to wrong place, wrong time. “I'm giving him an oppertunity to recover, but I'm not sure for how long.” Nobody was sure how long they had was a sad fact that neither of them w anted to say out loud. *** When they were dating the first time in High school Ken's mother told her how he reacted after he found out his father had died. How he was know reminded her of that conversation, so much that she wouldn't hve been surprised this was how he looked right afterwards. He and Daxium were as close as she had ever seen two individuals, having him inside his head like that had that effect. So when that internal damn finally broke and he let it out and she was right there at his side. Gently she rubbed his back as the tears just fell, the last time she'd seen him like this was back when he was affected by that “happy flower” shortly after he first joined. “Hey buddy it's going to be okay,” Ryo said, helping to comfort him. “Just let it out.” “Listen,” Bill said, “we are going to kick Brooks' ass for this, no matter what size he is. Just you wait.” When it finally looked like the crying was under control Jess stood up, “Come on Ken, the doctor said you can go back to your quarters. I'll take you there.” He stood and let her walk him out the door. “I'll keep an eye on him after we get there,” she told the two of them. Outside of the occasional sob Ken was fairly quiet as they made their way to his room. A few people spotted the two of them, All it took was getting a good look at him or a stare from her to get them to leave him alone for the moment. Even one of the idiots from that mob outside his door seemed to understand that now was not the time to start anything. Finally they got to his door. They stood in front of it for a moment. “Do you want me to go in with you?”, she asked him. He nodded in response. “All right,” she pressed the button to open the door and let him walk in first. Closing and locking the door behind her she just looked at him as he just stood there in the middle of the room. Eventually he started to shrug off his uniform jacket and let it drop on the floor. “I'm only doing this because you're distraught,” Jess told him while she reached down to pick it up, “so don't even think I'm going to keep doing this.” She was trying to get some sort of reaction out of him, anything. But he just shuffled toward his bed and sat down and just sat there as she hung his jacket up. “I'll be here as long as you need me to,” she assured him as she sat next to him. “I never knew were he was in here,” he said suddenly while he gestured toward his head, “not exactly. I just knew he was there, I could sense him if I just looked, Now there's nothing and … I just feel so empty.” Ken's eyes start watering up again. “I don't know what to do.” “Right now you don't have to do anything,” she told him. “I have to... we had to stop Brooks. It wasn't even supposed to be me to begin with. He saw me try and help some kids during that first giant monster attack. That's why he choose me. Not because I was the bravest or the best, just because I was trying to help some kids. He didn't even know if I'd agree to bond with him in the first place. He told me what was going on and took a chance that I'd agree. There were so many battles, so many times we were hurt, so many times I doubted if dealing with all the bullshit around here was worth it. We had to stop Brooks. When we had the opportunity....Dax is gone.” Burying his face into his hands he sobbed a little more. “He's gone. We had to stop Brooks and we couldn't do it.” “Ken it's okay,” “It's not okay.” “Not right now, but believe one day it'll be okay.” She really didn't want to say this next part but felt that he needed to hear it. “You know this better than anybody, you went through something like this when you lost your dad.” He stiffened slightly, all right that was probably the wrong time to bring that point up, so maybe he didn't need to hera that right now. “I know you just woke up and all, but why don't you try and get some sleep, things will be clearer then. I'll see you in the morning.” She started to get up but Ken lashed out and grabbed her wrist. “Don't go, please,” he said without looking up, “I can't be alone tonight. I can't.” “You want me to stay? All night?”, she asked.. When he nodded again she wasn't sure what to do for a moment. Yes she told the others that she'd watch him but that wasn't exactly what she had in mind. After a bit she finally told him, “All right, just for tonight though.” She dropped back down next to him and glanced at the bed. They were the same standard size in every room in the base. Before their drunken one night stand months ago she often wondered how two people could sleep in one of them. well they figured it out once, along with some of the more physically active couples, to be diplomatic, they just had to do it sober.Then she looked down at her uniform, she was proud as hell to wear it but not exactly what you would call ideal sleep wear. “Since I'm sleeping here tonight can I borrow one of your shirts?” Once again he nodded but added a, “Yeah.” “Okay then,” she said and walked back over to the closet, she spotted a few button down shirts in there when she hung up his jacket. Turned out that were mostly dress shirts but she did find a couple of more casual one that looked comfortable and long enough to cover her up, actually she was fairly sure she'd seen him sportting at least a couple of them under his uniform jacket. Picking out a light blu one she turned back to Ken, “Why don't you get dressed for bed too.” “All right.” She waited until he finally got off the bed before heading into the bathroom to change. Getting out of her uniform she put the shirt on over her under garments and quickly washed her face before buttoning the shirt up. Catching herself in the mirror she started smirking, sleeping in the same bed as Ken while wearing one of his shirts, guess this particular relationship was pretty much official then. Calling out she said, “You've really have gotten smoother since high school. You only been awake for a couple of hours and you already talked me into sharing a bed with you.” Mainly saying it to lighten his mood she walked back into the main room. If it wasn't for the fact that she'd seen him get up and, and he changed his clothes, it didn't look like he moved at all. “Come on Ken, let's get some sleep.” He laid down, she quickly got between him and the wall so she wouldn't have to climb over him.Although Jess did reach over him to hit the control to turn off the light. With his back to her Jess waited, just listening to his breath. It wasn't long until it slowed down enough to signal that he fell asleep. Wrapping a arm around him in a protective way she whispered into his ear, “You're not alone in this Ken, don't you start thinking that you are. I love you,” Giving him a quick kiss on the cheek she laid her head down and drifted off herself. *** Standing in front of a particular door that had a re-enforced lock applied to it that had a “Athorized Personnel Only” label on it Hawk looked around and didn't see any one else in this particular hallway. Hitting his communicator he said, “Hawk to Control Room.” Bridge answered with his prompt as usual reply was, “What do you need Captain?” “Outside of wondering why you're still up, I'm at the door leading to what's left of the roof, has Richardson already gone through?” “From my understanding Captain, a lot of people has been losing sleep the past couple of days.” With everything going on, such as waiting for Brooks to finally decide to show up, he wasn't all that surprised by that particular statement. “As for Richardson, looks like he used his override on the door lock a few minutes ago.” Nodding he went, “I see, do me a favor and unlock the door for me will you?” “Consider it done,” the lock attached to the door went green and Hawk quickly opened it. “If, for whatever reason, things go south, do you want me to lose the evidence?” Smiling he walked through he told him, “I appreciate the offer Bridge but I don't think that it'll be necessary. I'll let you know when I'm ready to leave. Hawk out.” Closing the door behind him he looked around. Surrounded by what was left of the upper level. It was still under reconstruction since it was obliterated by that monster that showed at the tail end of that invasion. Seeing nothing but barricades and bare steel beams he walked deeper in. Keeping one eye on the floor, not all of it had been fully repaired yet, he kept the other looking out for Richardson. Spotting him looking out a hole that used to be a wall Richardson said, “Good of you to come Captain.” “Not a problem sir,” he said as he glanced around the area, something some would call a sixth sense, one honed over many battles, was telling him something was wrong. That danger was near. Bridge would have warned him if anyone else was up here. So what wasn't he seeing? Or was the paranoia about Brooks finally getting to him? “Although I am surprised you wanted to have a talk up here.” “There's less of a chance that we would be overheard by unwanted ears,” he said while turning toward him. “As to why were both here, word has it, that after Scott came out of his coma that you wanted to have words with me.” Rubbing his chin slightly as he watched Richardson closely he said, “That's one way of putting it.” “Then I suppose Scott has told you certain details of why he's part of the UNDF.” “He told me everything,' Hawk practically snarled, catching Richardson by surprise by the sudden tone shift from him. He couldn't help it, Brooks was still in the forefront of his mind but ever since Ken told him the truth it had just been festering, just underneath the calm demeanor he put up everytime he was around this man. “Have him declared a biohazard?” “I did what needed to be done,” Richardfson said calmly, so calmy Hawk almost snapped that they had the video, but now was not the time to reveal that particullar fact. That ace was going to be needed eventually, and now was not the time to reveal it. “Ultraman was to be an intrigal part of our overall strategy in pushing back those giant creatures. Scott refused, or was too ignorant, to understand that. He fell in line nicely after that.” “While making him miserable in the process,” Hawk snapped at him. “You have no idea about who he is do you? Ken hasn't worked as hard as he has the entire time because of that threat. He has worked as hard as any one I've ever seen to become part of this. He literally put the weight of the world on his shoulders, and did everything he could to defend this world and didn't come out unscathed. And he didn't complain once while he hid it.” “He was taken care of,” Richardson said as he turned away. “his wounds were tended to.” “Having Williams poke at those wounds does not equal 'tended to'. The man isn't even a medical doctor!”, Hawk yelled. “Dr. Williams was part of a necssarily small circle that knew what was really going on. Adding more people to that circle would have complicated things more than they needed to be. I realize you're upset about being kept in the dark about these things Captain but as I said it was necessary. Scott got the same treatment I would have given anyone who joined with the giant.” “Any one?”, Hawk said in disbelief. “I sincerely doubt you would have let Joe go through what you let Ken go through.” Richardson looked like he was close to exploding, “Keep Joseph out of this Captain.” “Why?', he asked. “Ken already told me Joe was the one weho was supposed to bond with Daxium. More importantly,” he took a step closer, knowing he was already on the line. But if he was festering about what Ken had been through, he was way past the boiling point where his late teammatter was involved, “he told me what really happened to Joe.” They practically stood nose to nose. Hawk was fully aware that he was one step away from becoming the ex-captain of the UNDF. But right now he really didn't care. That sixth sense kicked into overdrive and he drew his weapon and whipped around right before someone started clapping. An older man, from the look of thigs was approaching eighty at least, who wasn't there a second ago stood there with an amused look on his face. “That was highly entertaining, bravo you two.” “Charles?”, Richardson asked, losing any signs of anger he had a moment ago to total bewilderment. “Where have you been? Are you alright?”, he started to walk toward him. Hawk quickly put up a arm to hold him back. “If that's Charles Brooks,” he said not taking his eyes off the man, “then how did he get up here. How did he get inside Castle without being seen?” Looking like he got over his shock Richardson stared at the intruder as well. “Very perceptive Captain,” he said with mock approval, “a perfect example of why you were chosen to lead the troops. “Quit with the false compliments,” Hawk ordered.. Who are you?” “I am truly and deeply hurt Captain,” this man said. “Those compliments were very real and heart felt. Not to mention well deserved. As for who I am, as I told you many, many months ago,” his hands started glowing a deep purple as they crackled with energy. Hawk took a step in front of Richardson as he picked those hands up. Both of them watched as he ran those hands over his head. Both of them watched as decades literialy melted away and Peter Brooks stood before them, “I am a Brooks through and through.” “You bastard!” Richardson exploded. “You killed my son!” Grabbing the weapon from his hand he started firing at Brooks before Hawk could stop him. Those harmlessly hit the barrier Brooks had put around himself. Hawk took the gun back and held it at Brooks despite witnessing how useless it was against this man. “What did you do with Charles you bastard?!” “I'm right here Harold,” he answered. “I thought that would be obvious by now.” “Bull shit. You are not Charles Brooks.”, Richardson spat. “Oh yes I am,” Brooks insisted. “Remember when you were fighting to get Joseph...” “Don't say my son's name!” “Richardson calm down!”, Hawk ordered. The last thing he needed was for him to make whomever this was angrier than necessary, because they were not going to last long as it was if he decided to destroy Castle like he did the other bases. “Before I was so rudely interrupted,” Brooks said with a smirk which made Richardson seeth even more than he was, “You were trying to get Joseph into this high end school. You remember it, you kept calling them a bunch of pretentious pricks, and he didn't even want to go there. But you wanted him in there because that school was the best chance he had to get into that military academy you were set to get him into. 'Nothing but the best for my son.'. Those were your exact words. But you didn't have enough clout to get Joseph in. So you came to me, and together we got him in. I never told anyone that tale and I know you haven't either. So I'd imagine that would be enough proof that I am who I say I am.” Behind him Richardson nearly fell where he was, “Charles?” Brooks offered a small smile, “Hello old friend.” Nearly at a loss for words Richardson finally got out, “How? Why?” “I like to hear that answer myself,” Hawk said. “Well the answer to both is the same,” Brooks answered. “”My quote unquote masters, well former masters I suppose, sought me out and offered me a deal. No I wasn't sick and dying or whatever theories you're trying to come up with to explain my apparent betrayal to humankind. I simply saw the truth, the Zettons, that's what they call themselves by the way, would get a foot hold on this world and then the universe, and we couldn't even hope to stop them. So I pledged my allegiance to them simply as a matter of survival. The only hitch in the plan was the giant, or Ultraman if you prefer, that you arranged to come over. Don't look so surprised Harold, did you or they really think the Zettons wouldn't notice the communication between our universe and the light being's? “What did these Zettons offer you?”, Hawk demanded. With a shrug he answered, “To not be a slave. At my age I wouldn't last long if not culled out right once they were in control. As a sane man what other choice did I have.” “Sane is debatable,” Hawk wondered why they were having this conversation. This was not Brooks' pattern for the last couple of days. “To each their own captain,” Brooks told him. “Tell me Harold, do you remember all the times you complained about my 'father' to me? You have no idea how hard it was not to laugh in your face during those moments.” “He's provoking you,” he whispered to Richardson. “Why are you here Brooks.” “Honestly I'm not sure.” He started looking around almost wistfully, “I supposed I missed this place on some level. I am truly going to hate to make it disappear.” Glancing at them he smirked, a sinister glint in his eye, “But not right now. No, I think I'll save Castle for last.” “You're warning us?” Richardson asked. “Not exactly,” he said while starting to walk around them. Hawk made sure he stayed between him and Richardson. .”You see my little jaunt in Moscow made me realize something. The other bases didn't really do anything. I mean they tried to put up a defence, they failed but they tried. At least The bunch in Moscow made things interesting, they had a plan. They put up a challenge, an extremely small one but a challenge all the same and that's why I'm here.” “You want a challenge?”, Hawk asked him. “Yes,” Brooks said getting excited. “That's exactly what I want. Out of all the bases remaining this one will give me that challenge. So I'm going to save you for last, let you have time to get more prepared than I'm sure you already are. Don't disappoint me Captain, I am expecting a worthy one from you and the troops. Harold I'll see you then.” He started walking toward a gaping hole in one of the walls. “Don't just stand there,” Richardson barked at him, “stop him!” “With what?”, Hawk demanded. “Another example of why you were the perfect man to lead the troops, until next time.” He started to glow and jumped out the hole. Flying off into the night sky. Hawk ran toward the hole and made sure he did leave completely before lowering his weapon. But relaxing was not in the cards, not any time soon. His communicator beeped and he opened the link. “Captain this is Greenberg. Good news and bad news. My idea for that detector worked. We just picked up Brooks and he's close.” “I'm aware,” he said with a sigh, “I just talked with him. Bridge, get Reid and any squad commander and department head up and tell them to get to the conference room. We got work to do and in a hurry. Dr. Greenberg, I want you there too.” “Of course Captain. I'm assuming the news is going to be bad.” “”I'll explain at the meeting, Bridge unlock that door I'm heading there now, Hawk out.” He locked eyes with Richardson as he turned back around. Right then neither of them was thinking about Brooks and what he just said, both of them were realizing they weren't exactly done with that conversation before Brooks showed up. That talk was going to be finished one way or another. But not right now. He made his way past Richardson and toward the exit. Brooks was more important than their little war and he needed to concentrate on that. *** Coming out of her slumber Jess was quickly aware that she was alone in the bed. In fact she heard Ken talking. Her eyes focused to see him shirtless, a towel hanging around his neck and a pad in hand, seemingly working away on something. He was concentrating so hard on what he was doing he didn't notice that she propped herself up on an elbow. “They got the right idea,” she heard him say, “but the beam needs to be the the exact opposite of the reading of Brooks' energy signature.” She heard the Chief's voice come from the communicator on the table, so that's who he was talking to, “Well I guess you would know Ken.” Jess looked at Ken intently, if she was right then he found out that the others found out he was Ultraman while she was asleep. Briefly she wondered how he reacted to that news. Right now it looked like he accepted it and moved on. “But raising the power levels on the Alpha One's main cannon?” “It needs to pack a bigger punch,” he quickly said. “As close to the level of Ultraman's main beam as we can get. We just have to adapt the Alpha One's weapon systems where we can.” What a difference a night apparently made. So much of a difference that she almost started thinking that she got played last night. But they didn't even have sex so what would've been the point? He finally noticed she was up and walked over in the time the Chief was apparently thinking it over. Leaning in he kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “Morning.” The Chief came back, “It looks like it's possible Ken. But you know Williams is going to put up a stink about it.” Ken made a face as he went back to the pad in his hand, “If he starts making some noise about it then tell him he can go duck a sick. And you can quote me on that.” Duck a sick? Jess tried to figure out what that meant. Then she remembered Dr. Wiliams particular habit when it came to swearing by switching the first letter in a couple words in a colorful expression. Muttering, “Suck a...” Her eyes went wide as she looked at him. The Chief caught it too, “”You really know how to keep friends don't you.” “It's a gift,” he said. “Have you had a chance to look at those plans I sent you yet?” “I took a look at them. Nearly spit out my coffee after I realized what you were working on.” “Do you think it's doable?” The chief paused again before going, “Maybe, I don't know. You've been working on this since the Zettons attacked?” “In my free time to see if I could do it.” She and Ken looked at each other, both realizing the Chief said something they didn't recognize. And both of them was just as confused. She let Ken know that she had no idea either. As she stood up he asked, “What the hell is a Zetton? Wait a minute, that's what that last creature that attacked the base kept saying.” “Ken, a lot has changed over night,” the Chief told him. “I'll see you in the Alpha One hanger in about an hour, hour and a half or so when we start working on those upgrades and your idea.” “An hour and a half?,” Ken went as he checked the clock on the wall. “Why so long? We need to get started on these projects as soon as possible.” “Ken, ever since Brooks beat you half my staff has been canoodling each. Coming in on time hasn't been a priority even with me yelling at them.” He stood there blinking a few times. “Canoodling each other?”, Ken said in disbelief. “You know what I mean,” he snapped. “Oh I know what you mean,” he told him. “I'm just working on that's how you said it.” “I'll see you in the hanger later,” the Chief snapped before he ended the link. Ken just stood there mouthing canoodling. “”Ken,” she said feeling free to speak up now that the call had ended. Mostly because that rumor mill would have a field day once it found out they spent the night together, “maybe now isn't the best time to start antagonizing certain people. We do have a bigger problem at the moment.” “I know, I know,” he said putting the pad down on the dresser and slid it to her, “I also know that anger is one of the stages of grief, and while I'm not sure where it falls on that scale I'm right in the middle of it. Williams just the first target I had a chance at.” “I'm not going to be a target am I?”, she asked. Jess highly doubted that Ken would go that far, but if that anger was a deep as that sadness he was showing the night before then it would be better to tell him the boundaries now. “No, you're not a target,” he said. Holding his head down a bit he looked up at her, “But you were right last night, I did go through this before with my dad. The cancer that killed him went with him so as much as I wanted to I couldn't do anything. But Brooks, I can punch him right in the dick.” “I'm guessing that's why you were so insistent about upping the power on the main cannon,” she said. Taking the offered pad off she looked it over. Whistling as she saw the power levels he was talking about she went. “Are you sure it can handle this?” “We might have to reinforce a few things,” he admitted. “But I'm sure we can do it. You're coming to the hanger too, right?” “You want me involved in this?” “Well yeah, that gun pretty much your baby in this whole thing. Oh that project I was talking about,” he pointed at another file tab on the screen. “If you want to check it out.” Normally she wouldn't since this wasn't her field of expertise. But he was working on something and didn't even tell her what it was, so she just had to know. Pulling up the file she looked for anything that would say what she was supposed to be looking at. She did and her jaw dropped. “Are you serious? This can be done?” “Hopefully,” he said as he took the pad back. “If we weren't in a rush that is. But if we could get it to work it would be a step in the right direction.” “I'm guessing the Chief told you about what Brooks has been doing since you and Dax fought him?” He nodded and started pressing some things on the pad. “Did he tell you Greenberg's here?” Apparently not because Ken stopped what he was doing and stiffened up slightly, when he went back to work she offered, “I can have Ryo and Bill keep him away from the hanger while you're working.” It look liked he was thinking that offer over then told her, “No, we're going to need all the help we can get, on the Alpha One and this. Hell if this works I'm fucking bragging.” “You're definitely not the same guy I dated in high school,” she said giving him a kiss on the cheek. Then she started rubbing his face, “You did shave.” “It was getting itchy,” he told her as he went back to the pad in his hand. She could see that he went back to the Alpha One tab, looking at the schematics of the weapon systems. “I could really use your advice on this while we're working on it.” Again he was asking for help and it still shocked the hell out of her. This time she was able to keep it to herself. “I'll be there. Unless you have another weapon expert I don't know about.” “You got nothing to worry about there,” he said with a smirk then went back to the pad. Knowing there was nothing else for her to do, and realizing she had to get back to her room in order to get ready for the day she walked into his bathroom. Turning on the faucet she rubbed some water on her face. Then she jumped slightly as she felt Ken wrap his arms around her waist. “Thank you,” he said in her ear. Turning the water off she asked, “For what? I didn't do anything.” “For listening to me last night.” he offered her another towel so she quickly dried off her face. “I don't know how straight I'd be thinking right now if you didn't.” Turning around to face him she told him, “I've always been willing to listen if you needed someone to Ken, even back in high school.” “I know, it's just.” He looked for the right way to say what was on his mind, “You heard me say I figured out too late that you were the girl of my dreams. And you still are. But even back then you never really knew exactly how afraid I was of losing you. And I ended up driving you away any way.” He held her a little tighter, “Truth be told that fear that I'm going to do it again is there in the back of my head.” “Hey,” she wrapped her arms around his neck, “I thought we had this talk already. As far as I'm concerned, what we have right now it's long term. The only way you're going to drive me away is if you start acting like Jeff. And we both know that's not happening any time soon.” He leaned in and kissed her, she didn't resist. She only pulled away when she ran her hand through his hair. It was bone dry. “You haven't showered yet?” “When I woke up I had all these ideas running through my head,” he said kind of sheepishly. “I had to start working on them, Hell I'm surprised I was able to shave without cutting myself” He looked over at the shower unit, “But if there's a rush I'm pretty sure we could both fit in there.” She looked at him in pure shock, “You haven't just gotten smoother since high school, you've gotten bolder too.” “I'm a red blooded male,” he explained as he held her a little closer, “anything to see my girl naked.” She slapped his shoulder. Still a particular thought popped back in her head. Given the timing of everything now was not the time to be thinking of this type of thing, especially considering he was still grieving over Daxium at this point. But this was something she'd been wanting to do since that first date. And if it wasn't for that hang up it would have happened, well that and Hawk showing up. And no one knew when Brooks was going to show up. Looking over at the shower she said, “You got to be at the hangar in a hour or so?” Looking confused he went, “Yeah?” “Then we got time.” Keeping her arms around his neck she started walking forward. “Time?”, he asked walking backwards as she walked forward while keeping his arms around her waist. “Time for what?” She flashed him a wicked grin, “You're going to have to get back in that bed and find out.” “Wait,” he said looking back as he realized they were heading toward the door. He looked at her, “Are we going to get in on the canoodling?” “If you're lucky,” she said slyly. “But if I hear one yahoo we're not doing anything.” “Of course,” he readily agreed, “Not one yahoo will come out of mouth. But can I get away with a yowie wowie?”, he asked as they passed through the door and into the other room. “How about a woo hoo?” “Shut up and get those pants off.” *** The hanger was busy with just about every technician, scientist and mechanic not currently working on shoring up Castle's defenses was involved with doing the same with the Alpha One. A couple moved out of the way as another lead Windam, who was carrying a rather large power regulator, through the crowd. Even with the newcomers from Dungeon and Tower thrown into the mix things were running relatively smoothly, despite Williams loudly complaining that they were ruining the vehicle. Although he was well within ear shot, Ken did his best to ignore him. Instead he tried to focus on what Hawk was telling him, such as some of the things the Chief hinted about earler. “So Charles Brooks and Peter Brooks are the same guy?”, he asked after listening quietly. “Saw him change with my own eyes,” Hawk told him. “And he knew something only Richardson knew so that was pretty much all the confirmation I needed.” “Huh,” Ken went. “No offence sir,” one of the Tower survivors said as he butted in, “but you two are taking that news way too calmly. It's one guy going around as two people, father and son for crying out loud” “Dude, we've seen a lot of shit you can't even imagine,” Bill said as he and Ryo came over carrying some components. “Like that one monster who turned invisible.” “Or that first one who attacked Castle,” Ryo added, “the furry that one that could form it's own tornadoes and shoot lasers out of it's fingers.” “Let's not forget the one who could control rocks like it was nothing,” Hawk told the man. “Not to mention I was bonded with a light being the size of a office building, one guy pretending to be two different people ain't nothing,” Ken finished. The man just looked at all of them, started shaking his head then walked away. “He wouldn't last five minutes around here.” “Need I remind you that more than a few people around here who thought the same about you,” Hawk admonished. Ken, realizing he was right, just nodded his head. Then the three of them all started looking at Bill. “Hey I thought civilian would last more than five minutes,” he argued, quickly realizing they put him in with that group. “I was thinking a week and a half top, but more than five minutes.” “Oh that was so much better,” Ryo deadpanned. “With friends like you,” Ken told him with a smirk. A Dungeon technician pushing a cart caught his attention as he passed by. “Hold up a moment,” he said as he went over to the cart. Examining each one of the components he looked at the guy. “We have higher rated capasitors than this.” “Yes we do,” he replied. “But these are the highest rated one that will fit in the slots on the Alpha One.” “Oh geez,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Okay, okay, I'll try to figure a work around. Just hold off on installing them just yet.” The man nodded, but Ken was already pulling up the plans for the Alpha One on his work tablet and started working on that work around. “When I said we needed to up the power I mean we need to up the power. Why is that so hard to understand?” “The curse of command son, no matter how well you think you explained something there's still going to be one or two who won't exactly understand. And no, it never stops being annoying” Hawk told him. Ken was confused and showed it. Why would he tell him that? “You may not think it Ken but right now you're pretty much in charge. All these people are answering to you.” “No pressure then,” Ken went as he went back to the diagram on his tablet after looking around the hanger. “You're handling it just fine,” he assured him, “for the first time any way.” Which means there were going to be more times like this, he felt the ulcer forming already. “Just don't push yourself too hard trying to get this done. I'm going to need you just as much as everyone else. So don't burn yourself out.” “Brooks told you that he was saving Castle for last?”, Ken asked him. When Hawk didn't respond in any way he went, “Do you believe him? “Not in the slightest,” he answered. “I never said we had time, I said I didn't need you to burn yourself out.” “Would you put that down!” they heard Williams yell at someone. Both of them look around the corner to see him bothering some of the workers. “Don't touch that! The Alpha One is fine as it is, it doesn't need upgrading! Leave that alone.” When he looked at Hawk all his Captain said was, “Like I said you're the one in charge at the moment.” Then he backed up a few steps, obviously a sign he was on his own on for this one. “Doc you want to calm down for a bit,” he called out. But Williams ignored him. “I don't suppose I can go to him and shake him until he comes to his senses?”, he asked Hawk. His answer was a noncomital shrug. Then he remembered Ryo was still there and he had command experience. But he and Bill had already started walking away. ”Doc, can you be a little less possessive about this thing.” Again he was just being ignored and more than likely they didn't have the time for the Doctor's little temper tantrum. “I am so failing this test,” he muttered to himself. “Windam!”, he called out and pointed at Williams, throw him out” Here he finally started paying attention to what he was saying as Windam stopped what he was doing and headed toward Williams. “Not wait a minute,” William protested as he started backing away. “The Alpha One is my creation, you have no right to mess with it.” He started to run but Windam already grabbed him by the collar of the shirt and lab coat then proceeded to drag him toward the door. “Let me go! You can't do this to me! I'll have all of your jobs.” Nobody was in an immediate rush to help him, most of them just got out of the way. “Windam let him go,” Jess ordered as she walked out of the Alpha One. Windam did as he was told but Williams still ran out of there almost as fast as he could go. Then she looked right at him. “You seriously just did that?” Well he did, and he wasn't exactly feeling that guilty about it. But Ken knew her well enough to know that answer wasn't going to fly. Instead he went with the first thing that came to mind, which probably wasn't the best thing to say, “Could you not contradict me in front of the kid?” And immediately he realized he should have listened to that voice that was saying that was not a good idea. “So , before I stick my foot in my mouth any deeper, how did the simulations turn out?” “It can't get any deeper,” she said dryly as she walked over to show him the tablet in her hand. “The main cannon should be able to handle the increased energy output. But I'm not sure how many shots we would be able to get off before something gives away.” She showed him a couple of results, one where the cannon overheated and exploded and in another sensors had picked up parts starting to burn up and melt. Neither were exactly a good options. “Without completely rebuilding the main cannon from scratch we have at most five shots, maybe, before either of these options happen.” “So we have to pick our shots then,” Ken said as he started looking at various energy relays in the design. She grabbed his arm and took him somewhere relatively quiet, well as quiet as you could get in a crowded hanger. “Ken be honest with me here, how much of this desire to increase the energy output of the main cannon is you actually wanting to stop Brooks? And how much is it wanting to avenge Daxium?” He started to protest that last part but she cut it off. “Everyone has been wanting to know the answer but they don't want to confront you over it.” He wanted to say he didn't have time for this, but he answered her any way, “Right now it's about fifty fifty. But I felt the fight through Dax. I'm literally the only one here who understands what we're up against. That negative of Dax it's a energy construct Brooks made and controlling some how. We want to get at Brooks we need to get through that construct first.” “You should have led with that,” she told him. “She's right son,” Hawk said as he came uip behind them. “I've found that the more the people under you know what's going on the faster they'll get behind the idea.” “I'm kinda new at this being in charge thing,” Ken told him. “I know,” Jess said, “It's why I haven't hurt you yet.” Before he could say anything his communicator went off, “Greenberg to Scott. We're ready to test out this project of yours.” Suddenly he was very, very nervous. He asked Greenberg and his people to handle this while the rest of them worked on the Alpha One, he was the only one here who could understand the plans Ken had roughed out and finish them, if not improve them. Ken's ego wasn't so big that he didn't realize that he really didn't know what he was doing here. Looking over at Jess and Hawk they both indicated that they were coming with him. Good, he was going to need the extra support. “Understood Doctor, I'm on my way to see if I came up with something that works. Scott out.” Looking around the area he spotted someone, “Jennifer! Keep things down here running until I get back.” Giving him a thumbs up she told him, “You got it boss.” “I did not just hear that,” Ken said as Jess started pushing to get him moving. “You're future is waiting 'boss',” she teased him. “You'll get use it,” Hawk told him. “Bill, you're coming with us.” He acknowledged the command and quickly caught up with them. Exiting the hanger they headed toward another large room. Before it was a storage room for some larger engine components and a space to work on them. Right now those parts were pushed aside although one crate had a small piece of metal with a target painted on it, About half way between them was Greenberg, the Chief, and a few others as they stood by a set of control that was connected to a few poles with these blocky looking devices attached to them surrounding the crate and behind a clear picture window sized screen. Ken inspected everything about the layout before looking at the others. “Everything checking out so far?” he asked Greenberg “Yes sir,” Greenberg said eagerly. He was so not going to get used to that. “All lights are green. I must say it's invigorating to be working on a special project instead of just telling people what to do. I mean I never got this oppertunityall that often back at Tower.” “So what did he make?”, they heard Bill ask Jess. “Ken maybe you should show them now,” she offered. “Right,” he said trying to get the nerves under control. “Jess would you be so kind to help me out here by shooting that target when I tell you to.” “Done,” she said as she drew her weapon. “Just tell me when.” To Hawk he asked, “I'm guessing it be too much to ask her for a quick kiss for luck in this situation.” Jess just gave him a look before returning her attention to the target “Slightly,” was his answer. “Right,” Greenberg stepped aside from the control. Clearly meaning that the floor was officially his. Ken went to the control, fourtunately Greenberg thought to label everything otherwise he would be looking really dumb right now. Working the control every body watched as the devices on those poles started lighting up. Checking the controls to make sure everything was in working order then motioned for everybody else to step behind the screen then he finally said, “Now.” Taking a quick aim she fired off a shot. Everybody but her, Ken and the ones working on the project jumped when the shot hit something unseen in front of the target, Pumping his fist slightly Ken motioned for her to do it again. She complied only to get the same result. Then he motioned for Bill and Hawk to join her. All three of them shot at the target several times only to have that unseen force stop every shot. Dropping his weapon slightly Bill looked dumbstruck as he stared at the target before looking at Ken. “Civilian, did you...did you just invent a force field?” “Technically I reversed engineered a force field,” he said trying to act all humble, and failing miserably at the moment. “But yes.” He pounded the screen in front of him “Fuck yeah!” Then he pressed a control and the poles' light went off.” In case there's any doubt, Jess.” She took a quick aim and fired a shot that hit the bullseye. Looking thorouly impressed Hawk holsted his weapon. “How did you come up with that?” “From that device the invaders had,” he told them. “I noticed that they were taking hits but it didn't look like they had any effects. I figured that the field keeping them stable was also protecting them. And since we still had one of there devices,” the device in question being the one he used to cobble together a way to detect those invaders, “I messed around with it until I found out I was right then started working on this.” “Can I say there's genius,' Bill said as he hung a arm over his shoulders,”then there's this guy. Dude that's incredible.” Feeling his face frow warmer by the second Ken said, “I'm just lucky that work.” “Stop saying that was lucky,” Jess told him. “That was all you. Like I told you before it's sink or swim time. Right now you are doing laps.” “Yes dear,” Ken said still feeling the glow of the moment as he did some things to the controls. “Ken,” Hawk said getting his attention, “are there any drawbacks that you notice?” Ken figured he would have brought that up .It was Hawk's job to look at all the angles. “Right now power usage.” The chief joined in, “What you saw just now,” he gestured to one of the cables on the floor. One of them came directly from an opened section of the wall, “We had to hook directly into Castle's power supply in order to pull this off. I don't know what those Zettons were using but it takes an incredible amount of power.” “So,” Jess looked at him, “we can't use this on the Razor Wings or Scan Tracks?” Ken slowly shook his head. “Maybe we can use it on the Alpha One,” he told the group. “But that's about the smallest vehicle we have that can possibly put out enough power.” “We're going to have to modify things a bit,” Greenberg added, “But that should be easy enough to do. But word has it Dr. Williams is throwing a bit of a fit on the modifications being done to the Alpha one as it is.” “I'll run interference on Williams,” Hawk told them. “How soon do you think this will be ready to install in Castle?” “We should probably do a few more tests,” Ken said, thinking it over, “Just to make sure we can eliminate any bugs in the system.” He glanced over at Hawk who looked proud as he nodded approvingly. “But after that we should be good to go.” “Then we can send the plans to the surviving bases,” Jess added. “we might have a shot to actually survive this.” “It looks like it,” Hawk added. “I'll let you get on this. Ken good job, looks like you're hitting your stride. Don't let it go to your head.” “We won't let that happen,” Bill said. “Don't worry civilian we'll keep you grounded.” “I have that job handled,” Jess said as she took Ken's arm. “You think Dr. williams went back to the hanger yet?” “Man being in charge is a bitch,” Ken muttered. Hawk, the Chief and Greenberg all silently nodded in agreement. “Chief, Dr, Greenberg, You guys got this. I'm going to go make sure nobody strung up Doc by his shorts.” *** Looking at the display in front of him Hawk lookd through several files on the holo table while he waited. Glancing up as the door opened the other members of Monster Squad walked in and greeted him. Like he figured it didn't take long for them to notice the tray with the five shot glasses and a bottle of scotch that was next to him. “You wanted to see us Captain,” Ryo said for the group but he still kept looking down at the tray. “Yes I did,” he said while pulling up another file, “thank you for being so prompt as usual. ”Finding the file he skimmed through it as the others took their usual places around the table. “Ken, I was looking through the report the Chief submitted about your side project. He said you discovered a slight draw back. Do you want to elborate?” Ken knew the problem was in the report, they all knew it. But he complied any way, Hawk smirked to himself remembering when he first showed up as part of the unit. “Well The good news is the field is permeable, so even if it fully encloses the ship or Castle we'll be able to breathe. I'm not sure how we pulled that one off but I'll take it. The bad news, my shield apparently worked a little too well. It deflects things from both sides. So while we won't take damage while it's up we can't fire any weapons either.” “So,” Bill went,”if we fire any of our weapons, like the missles, we'll be damaging ourselves from the backlash and doing Brooks' job for him.” “That's one hell of a draw back,” Ryo commented. “Have you found a way to fix it?”, Hawk asked. “If we had more time,” he began, “we could probably fix that glitch with no problem. But we don't have that time. The only options the Chief, Dr. Greenberg and me have come up with so far are either not put the field around the Alpha One's main cannon and weapon ports.” “Which leaves our underside unprotected,” Jess spoke up. Ken went on, “Or we turn off the field momentarily to fire the cannon,” “Which leaves the Alpha One completely exposed,” Ryo said. “Don't suppose you have a third option?”, Bill inquired. “Not really,” Ken admitted. “But I decided to run with a variation of that second option.” Hawk nodded slightly then motioned for him to go on. “I talked it over with Bridge, he and Emiko are working on a program to tie in the field with the firing controls. I already have the crew working on placing the field emitters so that field will go down around the cannon long enough for it to fire then the field will go back up.” “Not the best option,” Hawk said as he finished skimming the report, “but it's better than nothing. We're going to have to keep moving to keep Brooks from getting a clear shot at the cannon. I already have them being installed in front of Castle as we speak. So right now we're focusing mainly on defense” “Is somebody going to ask?”, Bill suddenly asked ass he gestured at the tray. “I think you just did,” Jess told him. “No disrespect captain but that's not exactly regulation to have that in here.” “No it is not,” he readily agreed. “But, given the circumstances I bent the rules slightly.” Taking the bottle he opened it and started pouring some into each glass. “I'm not going to lie to you, even with Ken's invention, our odds of survival are not that great. They're better than they were but not that great. And before that final battle comes I wanted to share a drink with the ones I'm probably going down with.” Pushing the tray forward a bit he waited until each of them took a glass before he picked up the last one. “This is usually where,” he began, “one is supposed to say they have been proud to serve with you. And that's true but it doesn't really cover how I feel. I remember all of your first days under my command. And I watched as you all grew from that moment, some by leaps and bounds,” he added while gesturing toward Ken who started looking slightly embarrassed., “into the people you are now. No, proud doesn't even come close to covering how I feel. So lady, getlemen, Bill here's to you.” They all silently toasted each other before each of them downed their drinks. “The Captain took a little shot at me there,” Bill said. “We're going to die aren't we?” “Not without a fight,” Ryo told him. “Damn straight,” Jess added. “Before we meet our final reward,” Ken said, “I just have to know one thing. Bill, how exactly did you convince Stanberry to move away from her post back on the Icarus?” “I just used my natural animal magnetism,” he said easily, “she couldn't resist my charm.” Jess snorted out a snicker that she failed to stop. Ken stared at him. “No, really, how did you do it?” “I'm telling you she couldn;t resist me dude.” “I asked,” Hawk cut in, “her that very question. Her version was she saw the two of you try and sneak closer. Surmising that Ken was there to argue about the engine she decided to help you out and told Bill to follow her to let you sneak past.” “Okay that makes way more sense,” Ken said as Hawk poured another round. Ryo agreed with him, “Much more sense.” “Why is her version more believable than mine?”, Bill whined. “Because we know you Bill,” Jess told him. “I almost believed you,” Ryo told him. “If I had seven or eight more shots in me.” The rest of them laughed. Bill didn't find it all that amusing. “Would you ever imagine that we would get this close as a unit?”, Jess asked as she downed her second shot. “Especially after Ken joined us. I mean we weren't exactly welcoming him with open arms back then. Now look at us.” “Well to be fair we were still grieving Joe,” Ryo put in. “Then we were told some civilian nobody,” Bill started. Then he seemed to remember said nobody was still in the room, “No offence, but that who was taking his place.” “None taken,” Ken told him. “Hell I'm in the same boat. Before all of this I was just a grease jockey, and that's all I thought I'd ever would be even with other people saying I was destined for better things. Then that first giant monster showed up and everything changed. I bonded with Daxium, then I was placed here in a field unit and made the best bunch of friends I ever had.” Looking over at Jess they both started smiling, “Not to mention I got back something I thought was long over.” “You and me both,” Jess said as she snuggled a little closer to him. Ken wrapped an arm around her and pulled her even closer. Pouring another round Hawk joined in, “I didn't think it was going to be an easy road but I knew deep down that we would get here eventually.” He checked his watch briefly. “With everything going on I actually have a couple of people asking me to marry them a little later.” Sudden Ken and Jess glanced at each other before taking a small step away from each other. He got the hint right away. While they were back together, such talk was a little too soon. Bill on the other hand, “Why wait for later. We got the couple, we got me and Ryo as witnesses, we got you. Let's do this thing right now” “Sounds like the perfect opportunity to me,' Ryo said. To Hawk's surprise, they did look like they were considering it now. “And I call best man,” he added, beating Bill to the punch based on his expression. Ken looked at her, instead of popping the question the three of them were expecting he would Ken asked, “Does your mom still want to throw you that exagvent wedding she was talking about since we were dating in high school?” “Unfortunately,” Jess sighed. “I haven't been able to talk her out of it yet. But if she found out I was already married...” “I'd rather face Brooks with a empty squirt gun, I'm not facing the wraith,” he told her. “I don't blame you,” Jess told him. Both of them started to get closer. Then they stopped and looked at them. “Do you mind.” Hawk and Ryo immediately turned around. Bill did as well, after Ryo made him. Hawk silently laughed to himself. No sir, proud didn't even come close to how he felt about his team. *** Bridge sat at his station in the control room, not that far off was Emiko who joined in as they upgraded various things as they kept a look out for Brooks. Given that they had similar positions at Castle and Tower respectively, that position being the lead computer person, she fit into Bridge's little group rather well. Even if he did try to sneak the occasional look her way, just amazed, and very grateful, she made it out of that situation alive. “I've just heard from the Alpha One hanger,” she said suddenly. “Ken reports that he is extremely satisfied with our program.” “Good,” he said as he tried to make it look like he wasn't staring at her. “I told him you did good work.” “We do good work,” she corrected him. Bridge found that he could get used to that we part very easily. “You developed the main part of the program that made the temporary open work. I just followed your lead.” “Only because you found a way to get the programs to talk to each other easily,” Bridge quickly said. “That program could be used in a lot of fields.” She started blushing at his praise. “Bridge, tell me something,” she said, suddenly changing the subject. “after we arrived a couple of days ago we heard Ken was this Ultraman. Is that true?” He knew Ken wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of others finding out that particular fact. So he considered denying it or changing the topic altogether. But after the battle with Brooks everybody seemed to know so there was no real point. “It is or at least it was, he kept quiet about it for a long time though.” “But how?, she asked. “Ken is so,” she held her hands out and sort of close together, “and Ultraman was so,” she pulled those hands apart, indicating the size difference between the two of them. “The others were trying to work out the mass difference between the two of them.” “I'm sure that discussion took place here as well,” Bridge said. Honestly, once it was revealed to him Bridge had the same question. He even went as far to try to make a simulation of it to figure it out, he had about as much luck understanding the mechanics of the situation as the others did. “But maybe we could discuss it later, maybe over,” he gulped a little, “lunch.” He actually just said that, out loud for somebody to hear. Bridge stopped breathing slightly as she looked shocked that he made that invitation. Slowly she started smiling and went, “I'd love to.” She said yes? She said yes! Bridge's elation was short lived as they got a hit on the sensors. A, as Ken had been calling it, dark energy reading. Brooks was close. Emiko froze up slightly having gone through this before.. Bridge quickly locked down the reading and put it up on the main screen. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at it. The hit was coming from the same location when he defeated Ultraman. “All teams,” he said hitting the intercom, “prepare to scramble. We have a sighting on Peter Brooks.” *** Yes he said he was going to save them for last. But he got bored, and outside of Moscow there really wasn't a challenge. Castle could provide that challenge. Given enough time they could probably come up with something that could hurt him. That was only if he was stupid. Charles Brooks may have been that stupid in his younger days but he worked hard to make sure Peter Brooks wasn't. So he waited two days, he was planning on more, but he was bored. But before he arrived he stopped off here, the sight of the giant's last battle, and he wasn't exactly sure why. It wasn't like he felt the need to pay his final respects to his fallen foe. However if he knew Hawk like he thought he did then he would have made sure Castle's sensors were upgraded just to pick him up. And this place was as good a place as any to eliminate the main “threat” before continuing on to Castle. So he stood there and waited, because they would come to him first. *** “So much for being last,” Ryo said as he and Bill headed for the Alpha One. The hanger was just this side of organized chaos as crew and technicians were scrambling to make sure the super jet was ready to launch. And Ken and the Chief were right in the middle of it trying to direct it all. Putting on his helmet he added,” Not that anybody expected that to be the case. Somebody make sure that any battle data we collect gets sent to the other bases if we fail. Maybe they can see something we didn't.” “You know the plan,” Hawk told Reid and a few others who were trying to stay out of the way of the others. “We'll head out first in the Alpha One to confront him. Then I want two squadrons of Razor Wings to fly out after that, and I want the pilots with the best reflexes in those two groups. Your job is to try and distract him while we try to line up a shot with the main cannon. If for whatever reason the Alpha One goes down head back to Castle immediately. Do not try and engage Brooks.” Reid took over, using a digital board to diagram this part of the plan, “We're going to need two lines of Scan Tracks in front of Castle. Your job is to try and slow him down long enough so we can get that new force field up to full power. Once you get the word abandon those vehicles and haul ass back into base. The defensive turrets will take over from there. Hopefully that program the computer boys and girls came up with will work as planned.” “Brooks said he wanted a challenge,” Hawk took back over. “we're going to do whatever we can to give him one. Even if we just frustrate the hell out of him by not going down easily. Dismissed.” They hurried off as Hawk and Reid shared a look, both aware those could be the last orders they ever gave. Looking around Bill spotted somebody in the chaos and called out, “Boris! You're heading out too?” “Da,” he said. “This bastard cost us Tower, it very much felt like home. Me and the other will do what we can to protect your home from him. Bill thought over what he said, yeah this place was pretty much home to him. More so than the orphanage he grew up in. “Just don't die out there man. We're sharing drinks after this is over.” “In this life or the next,” Boris agreed. They quickly bumped fist and headed in different directions. Taking a moment from the Alpha One final checks Ken checked on the progress of something else on his wrist scanner and nodded approvingly at what he was seeing. To the Chief he said, “Looks like Greenberg and the others finished the installation of the field emitters on the outside of Castle. So the base should be safe at least. As long as the power or emitters last.” “It's better than nothing,” The chief agreed. “This is really It, isn't it?” “From the look of things,” Ken said as he got ready to board the Alpha One. “We all knew this day was coming, particularly after Brooks revealed himself.” Picking up a case off a diagnostic machine he opened it up and took out the hypodermic gun, that was already loaded with his anti airsick medicine so he pressed it to his neck and pulled the trigger. “God Damnit!,” he yelled as he jerked the gun away from his throat. “I swear they're giving me the defective model.” “Yes, I'm sure that's it,” the Chief deadpanned. Then he held out a hand that Ken reluctantly took. “You all give him hell now.” “You know it,” He said. Grabbing his helmet he turned toward the Alpha One's ramp then saw Windam standing there. “Windam, watch this place while I'm gone.” The robot nodded. Ken put a hand on Windam's shoulder and gave it a couple of pats. “And listen to the Chief while I'm gone too.” Then he walked around him and went up the ramp. On the bridge Jess was at her station when Ken walked in. Putting his helmet on the chair he checked something on his station. “Evreryuthing green on your end?” he asked. “So far,” she answered. “How about you?” “Green right now,” he replied, “but I don't know once we activate the field. We may not get as many shots at Brooks as we originally thought. God I wished we tested it more.” “We have to work with what we got.” She looked over at him, he was still looking at his station but he moved over slightly and extended his hand toward her. Once she took he pulled her out of her chair and grabbed her in a tight embrace. She held on just as tight, neither wanting this to be the last time. When he did pull back he stroked her cheek slightly, “Don't you dare die on me.” Giving him a small smile she said, “I was going to tell you the same thing.” He kissed her right then and there and she returned it. They only stopped When Hawk made a slight coughing sound. Ryo and Bill came in right behind him and they all took their stations. Without any preamble or speech Hawk simply went, “Status report.” Bill checked a few things on the pilots console before saying, “”Alpha One controls are responsive and operational.” “Weapons are ready to go hot on your order,” Jess announced. “Engines are at full power,” Ken said as he tightened the strap on his helmet. “Alpha One to control,” Ryo spoke out loud. “we are ready to launch.” “Alpha One this is Castle,” Bridge replied back. “You are a go to launch. Good luck and Godspeed.” Hawk took a moment to look around the bridge before giving the order. “Take off.” The Alpha One shot forward out of it's hanger. Everyone was feeling the nerves in the pits of their stomachs. “Activate the field.” Ryo activated them at his station and the lights dimmed slightly before going back to full strength. “Field is active,” Ken called out, “and stable. It's holding at full power.” “Set course for Brooks' current location,” Hawk ordered. “And keep an eye out for any tricks that he has up his sleeves, giant or otherwise. Boys and girls, this is it. If you're so inclined start praying.” *** Everyone was quiet, just focusing on what they were doing for the entire flight. Hawk kept a screen showing their location and Brooks' at his station. Hitting his communicator he called up Castle, specifically Reid “Commander, have you been able to evacuate the board and VIPs yet?” “I got the majority of them to get out of Dodge,” he reported. Hawk frowned, a majority wasn't going to fly here. “Greenberg said he isn't running this time and helping with the defenses. Richardson decided to stay, he said that if this was it he was going down with his creation. Stanberry is staying with him.” “That idiotic son of a bitch,” Hawk muttered. “Make sure you secure him as deep inside the complex as you can. Get Greenberg in there too. The UNDF needs to survive in some form if we fail.” “Captain,” Bill called out, “ we're approaching Brooks.” “Do what you can Reid,” Hawk told him, “Hawk out. What is he doing?” Bill studied his sensor readings, He looked over at Ryo who indicated that he was getting the same thing. “It looks like he just standing there.” “And he's looking right at us,” Ryo added. Ken and Jess looked at each other for a moment.” “Show us,” Hawk ordered. After a few button presses a screen popped up on each of their stations. And it did look like he was staring right at them, smirking. The image caused various emotions in the five of them, from annoyance to anger. Hawk knew he had to focus them fast if they were going to last longer than five minutes. “Weapons range? “”Brooks is in missile range,” Jess answered. “Fire a couple off to let him know we see him, but not directly at him.” Hawk told her. “I'm sure we have his attention, let's make sure we keep it as long as possible. “Good as time as any to see if Bridge and Emiko's program works,” Ken said as he pushed the image to the side. Still he kept an eye on the readout. “Firing missiles,” Jess announced. Two missles shot out and at Brooks. Ken watched as the field around the missile ports went down just long enough for those missle to fire before going back up. The missles hit the ground by Brooks and exploded on impact. They all held their breath, knowing that wasn't going to be enough to finish this. To prove this point when the smoke cleared Brooks still stood, surrounded by the dark glow of the energy he weilded. Then he acted like he dusted something off his shoulder. Then he raised that hand over his head as that energy quickly expanded and formed the dark copy of Daxium. “Think we made him mad?”,Bill asked. “Don't really care,” Ken called out as he worked his station, just making sure the field remained at full power. “Evasive maneuvers!”, Hawk called oud. “Let's make sure we keep that field a surprise for as long as possible.” Almost on cue Brooks held out a hand and fired off an energy blast at them. The Alpha quickly got out of the way and launched another round of missiles at him. This time they were directed right at him. He ignored the explosions and fired off another blast. This time they didn't evade in time as the beam hit the ship. It was rocked by the impact. On the inside various things overloaded and exploded out. “There was an unexpected power surge when the beam hit but the field is holding,” Ken yelled over his shoulder. “But I wouldn't recommend taking too many direct hits.” “Figured that one out on my own!”, Ryo yelled back. “We got Razor Wings on radar,” Bill called out. Brooks stared at the Alpha Onme as it flew away from him but not that far. Glancing at his hand and back at the ship he was stunned, that was a full power blast. “How did you do that?”, he asked them and not getting a response, not that he was expecting one. Although he was expecting that ship to be a massive fireball right about now. “You been hiding something from me,” he wagged a finger at them, “Naughty, naughty.” Then more explosions hit him from behind. He looked back to see the Razor Wings only for the Alpha One to fire off another round itself. “Keep moving!”, Hawk barked, “Don't give him a clear target. Razor Wings increase attack. Jess!” “I'm preparing the main cannon now,” she said knowing where he was going. “Diverting power to the main cannon,” Ken announced.. The lights started dimming again. “Field is returning to full power.” “Make sure those two have top priority,” Hawk said. “Razor Wings start distracting.” Brooks stood there as the Razor Wings started swarming around him like a bunch of mosquitos, firing whenever they had a clear shot.. He fired off a shot at them where he could but they evaded the blast, but he did get at least one that was too slow. This went on for just long enough that he lost track of the Alpha One. Ignoring the gnats he turned around and spotted the super jet, it's main cannon deployed. “Firing main cannon!”, Jess announced. And pulled the trigger. Brooks stared at them as cannon quickly powered up. A massive beam hit Brooks and knocked him to the ground. “Direct hit.” Brooks laid there and grabbed at the smoking part oif his chest. They hurt him, they actually hurt them. “Keep up the pressure!”, Hawk barked out. “Keep him dowm! How long before we can fire another shot?” “It's going to be a couple of minutes,” Ken called out. The ship was rocked again as Brooks lashed out with several beams. Amid the explosions Ken kept working on keeping the field up and the cannon powered, “As long as we don't many more hits like that.” “Working on it!”, Ryo told him. “Civilian we'll keep us in the air,” Bill spoke up, “you just do what you do.” “Working on evassives!”, Ryo shouted. “Everybody hold tight!” The Alpha One barely avoided another blast from Brooks. Unfortunately a few more Razor Wings went down trying to do the same.. But all of them kept firing whatever missiles they had left trying to keep Brooks down. He fell forward as another blast from the main cannon hit him from behind.” “We might have three snhots left,” Ken told them, “Maybe, I'm not garanteeing anything.” “Field status?”, Hawk demanded. “It's still uip,” Ken said looking at the readings. “It's gaining strength again but slower than last time. I'm not sure how much longer it's going to last.” “I'm out of missiles,” Jess told them. “Only thing we have left is the main cannon.” “Divert power to the main cannon,” Hawk ordered. “Let's try and hurt him permanently.” “Diverting power to the main cannon,” Ken replied. “Jess, make it count!” “Firing main cannon!” Jess said one more time. Brooks fired a beam of his own the same time. The two beams hit each other, there was a brief back and forth between them before Brooks' beam finally won out and decimated the beam from the main cannon and hit it. As the cannon exploded things on board the Alpha One started exploding as well. “Feed back in the engines!” Ken called out. “I'm trying to stabilize it!” “Weapons are useless!,” Jess said. “I'm cutting off what I can to help with the stabilization.” “We're going down!” Bill shouted. “Level her out!”, Ryo told him. “Try for a crash landing!” “Everyone brace for impact!” Hawk ordered. The Alpha one leveled out but still hit the ground hard. Ken and Jess were knocked out of their chairs, Ryo flew over the console as Bill nailed it chest first. Hawk was thrown to the floor as well. Brooks cracked his neck as he watched the ship dig up the ground as it skidded to a stop. He slowly started chuckling that quickly turned into full blown laughter at the sight. Bleeding from the forehead Hawk slowly got up coughing, “Status treport, I want to hear from everybody now!” “Think I busted a rib,” Bill grunted as he slowly stood up holding his side. “But I'm still here.” “Think I'd rather be in that coma,” Ken said as he got up, wiping some blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and headed for Jess, who was struggling to get up as well. “It hurts way less.” “I'm good,” she told him. Ken still tried to keep the blood from the cit above her left eye from getting into it. “Ryo are you still there?” “I can't get up,” he said weakly, “My leg.” Ken and Hawk hobbled over to him and saw him on the ground grabbing at his leg. Ken went to do a quick scan on it his wrist scanner but it was busted. Jess went to Bill as they helped Ryo up and steadied him. “Can we get out of here,” she asked. “We crashed pretty hard and if ramp not knocked out of place I'll be surprised.” Helping to walk Ryo off the bridge Ken told her, “There's a manual release built in on the chance we had to crash.” They hurried as fast as they could to get to the ramp. Like Jess feared it looked like it was knocked out of place slightly with shafts of dying light coming through. Letting Hawk take Ryo fully Ken hurried to the door and pried off a panel. Throwing it to the ground Ken went to the other side and removed a similar panel. “Somebody get that other one,” he said. Bill went over and grasped the lever on the inside. Ken did the same, “Pull it on three. Three.” They both pulled the levers at the same time, bringing them all the way down. The ramp budged about an inch. “Damn it, don't jam on me now.” Ken and Bill both started to push on it with all they had, Jess joined in and they barely got it to budge another inch. “What about the Alpha Three bay?”, Jess asked. “There's a release there too,” Ken said as he realized whay she was thinking. She hurried off as the rest of them kept working on the ramp. “Hydrolics must be busted, bent or something.” “Worry about it later,” Ken told him. “Bill grab a couple of those metal scrapes, we can use them to make a splint for Ryo.” Bill went to grab them but started holding his side as he started bending over. Ken helped him up and grabbed the pieces Hawk pointed out. “I got it,” Jess said coming back, “The way looks clear.” Hawk directed them in that direction and soon they were out in the open. “Ken,” he heard that whisper like voice again. He looked around trying to find the source. That wasn't one of the others, he must have hit his head harder than he thought. “Over there,” Ryo pointed out. Brooks, still in that dark construct copy, stood there looking at them. All of them reached for their weapons. He started chuckling at the sight of them. Ken heard that voice again, it seemed louder this time around. Brooks started turning and walking in a certain direction. “He's headed for Castle,” Bill said in disbelief. He wasn't finishing them off, he was just heading toward the base. That raised all their ire at some level or another. Ken ripped off his helmet and threw it to the ground in frustration, it couldn't end like this it just couldn't. “Hawk to Castle, he's coming, repeat he's coming! Get all defenses ready!” “Ken,” came the voice again. He started hitting the side of his head with the heel of his hand drawing the others attention. “Ken.” “Seriously am I the only one hearing this?”, he snapped. Jess came closer looking concerned for him. They probably thought he was about to lose it. Hell he could be as far as he knew. “Ken,” she began. Hawk helped Ryo to the ground, but he looked concerned as well. “Ken,” the voice said again, stronger this time, and it sounded very familiar, But it couldn't be him, it wasn't possible. Dax was gone. “Ken,” it said again, “lets do it.” Ken started feeling some sort of sensation, a familiar one, all around him. Ken looked around and then he understood. Brooks seemed to sense something as well as he paused and looked back momentarily before he kept on walking. “No you don't”, Ken grunted and ran after him before the other could stop him. “Hey!” “Ken!,” Jess called out after him. “Hey!” Ken shouted again. “Hey, you overgrown negative!” Brooks stopped and looked back at him. “Yeah that's right I'm talking to you. You didn't think I heard about last time?” Brooks turned around fully as Ken kept walking toward him. “Looking all smug, saying that you won. What in the hell did you win? I'm still here. In fact that's your problem, You killed Joe but you left Dax alone. You stopped Daxium but left me alive. You know that's probably why you never had any actual kids of your own, because you can't finish shit!” The others looked at him like he lost his mind, and he might have at this point but he couldn't stop now. “Yeah that's right, I said that. Because you can't. The protective field around the Alpha One, that was me. The power from the cannon that knocked you on your ass that was me. All of that happened because of me, “ he started pounding his chest with each word, “Because I'm still here!” “What is he doing?”, Ryo asked. Not one of them had a answer for him. Brooks rubbed his chin slightly as he seemed to ponder what he just said, “Interesting, and quite possible. Let me rectify that mistake,” He pointed a couple of fingers at him and fired a beam at him. Ken kept walking forward despite the danger as they others shouted at him. Suddenly a section of the ground started to glow and that light shot out and intercepted the blast shattering into a bunch of light shards that hovered in the air. “What?”, Brook said as he took a step back in surprise. He fired off another beam as another glowing spot flew out to the same result. Brooks kept trying to inceinderate him with an energy beam and the same thing kept happening as Ken kept walking forward. To Jess and the others it looked like those shards seemed to be following him now, almost surrounding him. “What's happening?” Bill asked. Then he got a look of realization on his face, “You don't think?” “I honestly have no idea,” Hawk said dumbstruck at the sight. “I think it is,” Jess said as she removed her helmet. “I don't think it's over just yet.” Ryo looked up at her then back at the sight before them, “No way Brooks got angrier and angrier with each blast that was intercepted by those damn glowing spots. “How are you doing this? How?!” “How?”, Ken said as he finally stopped. The shards started to gather and circle in front of him as a shape started to form, “I'll tell you how.” Holding his arms wide he kept looking up at Brooks as the shards kept spinning until they formed a basketball size glowing orb that floated right in front of him. “Because we're Ultraman bitch!” Finally looking at the orb Ken swung his hand through it. The orb disappeared but in his hand was the Spark Magnifier. Quickly he held it over his head and activated it. Three crystal prongs flipped out of their slots and connected making a single spark that quickly grew in size until it engulfed him completely. Brooks took another step back as it formed a gigantic column of light. Hawk and the others looked on in awe as it faded away revealing Daxium . “Shiah!” *** Back at Castle Reid was in the control room, trying to get their defensives finalized. Hawk's last report was that Brooks was one the way. The mood changed from tense to feeling like full blown panic was about to happen. They had a plan, hopefully it would work. It may be easier to solve the world hunger problem. “Do we have a visual on Brooks yet?”, he demanded. “Not yet,” Bridge told him. “But we have his last location on orbital satellite camera now. According to these readings he's still there. He hasn't moved” “Show me,” he said as he turned toward the main screen. The monitor changed from it's previous read out to an orbital view of the scene. Reid could barely breathe at what he was seeing. Not the image of the downed Alpha One, not the sight of Brooks, but at the column of light Brooks was facing. “Don't let this be a screen glitch,” he muttered.. “That's no glitch,” Bridge said softly. On the screen the light faded revealing the form they knew as Ultraman standing there. “I thought Ken couldn't do that any more.” Coming out of his state of shock Reid went, “Who cares he's doing it now. Change of plans, I want a small squad of Scan Tracks ready to head out there. I think we got some friends in need of a pick up while he keeps that bastard busy.” *** Brooks was too stunned by the sight of Daxium being alive to react when he ran right at him. The giant tackled his copy around the waist and knocked him to the ground. Scrambling to get on top of him Daxium started pounding down at his head. Brooks tried to cover up from the assault. Finally he got a hand up and blasted the giant and sent him flying back and he hit the ground with a Earth shaking thud. Both giants scrambled to their feet and got into ready position. Inside the newly reformed safe area Ken watched things through Daxium's eyes, ignoring his general rule about these moments. He felt the need to witness this no matter how it turned out. Because he knew, and felt that Dazium believed as well, that one way or another this was going to be the final battle. Inside the dark like void that was the copy Brooks floated there staring at the giant. The initial shock slowly turned to annoyance and quickly to anger as he continued to gaze upon the being he killed a few days ago. Fine if he won't stay dead then he'll find an another way to get rid of him and take Scott with him. Brooks moved first, just trying to bum rush the giant. Daxium grabbed him and tried to hold his ground. Brooks was more powerful and slowly started to move forward, Daxium's feet dug grooves in the ground as he was pushed back.. Eventually Brooks rearranged his grip slightly and was able to throw him over his head and to the ground. Brooks jumped up and aimed a fist at Daxoum's head. Ignoring the pain he was feeling Daxium rolled out of the way, and fired off a flashbolt pretty much point blank. The bolt exploded against Brooks' body and he grunted in pain as he tried to stay on his feet. Daxium rushed at him again but Brooks jumped up and started flying straight up into the air. Looking up the giant flew after him. His pursuit was quickly cut off as his copy quickly turned around and went right at him. They collided and began fighting in the air, throwing whatever punch or kick they could get in. Being more used to actually flying Daxium was able to use that experience to buze around Brooks and get in whatever shot he could. Then he stayed in one place for a moment too long and Brooks was able to grab him by the ankle. Brooks started pinning around and around as fast as he could. Then without warning he let go and slammed the giant to the ground. As Daxium struggled to get to his feet Brooks' hand crackled with dark energy, pointed at it and unleashed a massive beam at his opponent. Seeing this Daxium tried to jump backwards out of the way as it hit the ground where he was. The Earth exploded in a massive cloud of dust. On the ground Hawk and the others tried to cover up as best as they could. Brooks landed on the outside of the cloud and waited sensing some sort of trap from the giant. Through the cloud a spinning ball of energy shot out and at Brooks. He reacted the only way he could and held up his hands to try and catch it. Brooks skidded backwards as he tried to stop it from going forward any more. After a brief struggle he was able to throw it to the ground where it exploded on impact, Hands smoking from the attempt he looked where the attack came from. The cloud had cleared away enough that he could see the giant more clearly, mode shifted into the red form known to the others as Power Mode. Inside the safe area Ken hands balled into fists, “Are you kidding me. That's the only thing you didn't hit him with last time.” “This battle is not over yet,” Daxium told him quickly before returning his full attention back toward Brooks. Both giants ran at each other. Brooks grabbed at him again, Daxium rolled under the attempt the hurried to grab him from behind and started squeezing with all he had. His dark copy grabbed his wrist and slowly started to pull his arms away from each other. Daxium struggled to keep the grip, but after a quick suggestion from Ken he dropped back then kicked out with both feet to knock Brooks forward to the ground. Rolling backwards Daxium crossed his arms and swung them out to go into Hyper Mode. Extending the light whip from his hand and started thrashing away at Brooks while he was still off balance. Grabbing the light whip Brooks pulled him forward with a mighty tug. Daxium kept his feet long enough to jump up and flip over a haymaker of a right from Brooks. Before he landed he lashed back with a kick that landed right between Brooks' shoulder blades that knocked him further away from him. When he went in to get closer Brooks spun around and grabbed him by the neck. With a roar he lifted the giant off his feet and slammed him repeatedly to the ground. “Why don't you just die!”, he angrily bellowed at him before holding him over his head and slamming him to the ground one final time. Looking down at Daxium as he reverted back to his starting form and the jewel on his chest started blinking red. Seeing this Brooks started to chuckle again. Kneeling down he grabbed the giant by the back of the head and pulled him up slightly. “I hope you're prepared to face the abyss one more time,” he told him. “And stay there this time. And Ken Scott, if you're hearing this I will take your advice, and I'll personally make sure you go with him. Your skeleton I won't mind leaving behind. I'll let the others moun over you right before I erase them from this mortal plane.” Ken heard all of that and did everything he could to channel his anger to Daxium. Brooks felt it as Daxium punched him right in the face. As his head snapped back Daxium punched him again fighting to get away and to his feet. By the Alpha One the others watched on helplessly, all afraid there were going to witness it all over again. “Come Ken, Dax you have to do this,” Jess said. Finally getting away Daxium stood and tried to fight back with all he had.Brooks defended this new onslaught easily and swatted him away. Grabbing Daxium he raised him over his head one more time and threw him. Daxium used the momentum to fly away a bit and land on his feet. Turning around Brooks held up a hand and fired another beam at him again. Crossing his arms he flung them wide to form the barrier to block it. The beam impacted the barrier and Daxium took a step back from the mpact. The dark giant poured on the power to the beam as the light giant poured more energy into keeping the field up, trying to ignore the cracks he was starting to form in it. “Come on Ken. Who am I kidding, Come on Ultraman!”, Bill shouted. “You have to do it!” Ryo joined in. “Don't give up!” Hawk yelled out. “Stomp his ass!” Jess shouted at the top of her lungs. Ken heard it all but tried to ignore it. He was focusing on the problem at hand and it wasn't that beam threatening to blast them again. No he was working on another problem, “Why is he so strong? His energy is the direct opposite of Dax's, but even in this form he shouldn't be a pushover. So why?” Closing his eyes he pushed his brain in ways he never had before trying to figure it out. His eyes snapped open as it occurred to him, “He's not bonded to it like we are, he is one with the energy, on a level we're not.” He looked around at the barrier that separated him from the light energy that was Daxium, licking his lips he said, “Dax drop the field.” “We will not survive a direct hit from his beam,” Daxium told him in a strained voice. “No,” he said looking up. “Not that one, the one around me, drop it!” Daxium quickly protested this idea,“But I don't know what will happen to you, Ken, who you are now may be engulfed by my energy and disappear completely. You could be no more.” “And this could be our only shot at stopping him,” he shot back. “Dax we have to do everything we can to do that. Drop the field.” “Ken if this is it I must tell you, I'm not sure the original person I was supposed to bond with would have made as good a partner as you ended up bering”. Partner, Ken never thought of their relationship like that before. He was just the guy who was housing Daxium until he was needed. But Partners? Well that sounded pretty damn good right then and there. “It was a blast for me too buddy,” Ken watched without any sense of fear or trepidation as the barrier around him faded away and Daxium's energy came rushing at him from all sides like a tidal wave. Like the night they first bonded he felt the alien energy enter him and start to mix with who he was. But more intense this time around. He welcomed it with every second. The barrier Daxium threw up finally broke away and there was a massive explosion. Jess and the others covered up out of instinct only to look on horrified at the sight. They didn't just lose Ken again, they couldn't have. Brooks had stopped firing and started laughing. Then he stopped and the others looked on in shock as the smoke cleared, revealing Daxium just standing there completely unharmed and his head lowered. Slowly the jewel stopped flashing red, going back to a light blue then going to a brilliant white, Where the protected area used to be Ken stood in the energy field with his head down. Slowly an image of Daxium seem to impose itself over him. Then they seemed to split apart and stood side by side. As one they lifted their head. On the outside Daxium lifted his head as well and took a defensive stance, in what sounded like Daxium and Ken's voice combined he shouted, “Shiah!” Grunting Brooks tilted his head slightly trying to understand what he just witnessed. The giant was done now he wasn't. What sort of trick was this? No matter he quickly fired off an energy blast. Daxium moved faster than the beam as it shot past him. He did it again over and over and the giant moved so fast he was evading each one with ease.. Then suddenly Daxium was right in front of him. Before he could even flinch in surprise a punch to the chest sent him flying back. Letting his sudden rage fuel his actions Brooks sent out something similar to Daxium's Giga Wave attack. Still his default form Daxium reared back and punched the ground in front of him unleashing the Giga Wave that intercepted Brooks' wave and ran through it. Brooks jumped out of the way and hovered in the air. He lost sight of the giant but found him floating right behind him. Inside the copy Brooks felt the breath leave his actual body as the giant flew in fast and tackled him around the waist with such force he was stunned before he was even slammed to the ground. Inside the former safe space Ken and Daxium stood in similar stances as they looked down at Brooks. Daxium was stunned slightly himself, in wonder as he went over what they had just done in his head. “I did not know this level of power was attainable.” Ken smirked slightly. “This could have been us all along pal.” Daxium landed on the ground, Brooks tried to blast him again. He held up a hand to deflect the beam. “You can't stop me!”, Brooks bellowed. Then Daxium was right behind him again in the next instant, grabbed him around the waist and threw him backwards to the ground. “You.. can't stop...me!” a still defiant Brooks said as he struggled to his feet. “What is he doing?”, Hawk asked as they all had their draw drop to various degrees the sight they were witnessing. “Whatever it is he's doing it without mode shifting,” Jess said, silently wondering what this meant for Ken. Brooks threw a punch that Daxium easily catched with his hand then gripped his fingers around it tightly. With little effort he picked up Brooks by that very hand then slammed him down to the ground. On the inside Ken, feeling the unimaginable level of energy flow through them, had a slightly worried look on his face now. “But maybe it was a good thing we didn't start out like this. This level of power, it's almost...” “Almost intoxicating,” Daxium finished for him. That moment was enough to allow Brooks to get Daxium over his head and throw him. The giant twisted and flipped in the air and landed on his feet. The he ran at Brooks who was still staggering, jumping up high enough to wrap his legs around Brooks' neck and flip him to the ground. Daxium took a quick step back as Brooks fired one last beam of dark energy at him. He charged the giant with a roar, almost animal like in its nature. Daxium just went low, going to a knee as he lashed out with his right hand in a slicing motion, the edge glowing. On the inside both Ken and Daxium looked at their hand, at the same time they said, “Okay that's new.” There was a gash on the dark copy's side that seemed to gush dark smoke as he grabbed at it. Trying to fly away he didn't go far before crashing and slowly getting to his feet. “I think he's finally blinking,” Bill said in hushed tones before shouting, “This is your chance! Do it!” “For Joe!,” Hawk and Ryo both joined in. “For everyone he's hurt,” Jess said as she watched Daxium draw in energy and set up for the Dimensional Storm Ray. Howling one more time Brooks pointed his hand at the giant and fired off one more beam. Then the giant wasn't there anymore. He looked down to see his enemy knealling there looking up at him with his arms crossed at the wrists. In that duel voice the giant shouted, “Gotcha!”, as he fired his destructive beam It impacted Brooks and blasted him off his feet. Standing he kept the beam concentrated on Brooks who struggled against it with everything he had. Ken and Daxium yelled as they increased the power. Finally the dark copy fell backwards and exploded in a massive fireball. “Yes!,” Jess exclaimed. Hawk pumped his fist as Ryo and Bill exchanged high fives. It was over, it was finally over. Catching something out of the corner of her eye Jess looked over and saw a welcomed sight. “Over there,” she pointed and all looked to see some Scan Tracks come toward them. When they stopped Reid and others jumped out of them and ran toward the three of them. “You're late,” Hawk told him once he was close enough. “What are you doing out here? This wasn't part of the plan.” “I tweaked it a little,” he looked around then up at Daxium who started glowing and looked like he was getting smaller. Jess and Bill started running in that direction as people helped Ryo to his feet and toward one of the Scan Tracks. Daxium kept shrinking, getting brighter the smaller he became. Soon he was human shape and the glow faded revealing Ken standing there. Then he started running in the direction where the copy was seemingly destroyed. “Follow him,” Hawk quickly said as they jumped into the Scan Tracks and took off after him. Now what was happening? *** He didn't understand why but Ken ran toward were the construct was. Maybe he had to see for himself before he, no they, would actually believe it. At least this nagging feeling took his mind off the question going through his mind once he came back. What exactly was he now? Outside of Dax feeling weaker for some reason he felt perfectly normal. But what was normal to him now? He just united with Dax on a level neither had even dared to imagine before. There was no way he was just the same as before A honk got his attention as a Scan Track drove up next to him and slowed down. On the inside he heard Hawk tell him, “Get on!” Jumping on the side rail he held on as they driver picked up speed to get him to that location. They found a newly formed crater in the center of it all. Ken jumped off before the Track came to a full stop and he ran toward it. Once it stopped fully, Hawk, Reid, Jess and Bill along with others got out of their respective vehicles and followed him. Ken only stopped long enough at the top of the crater wall to look for anything that indicated Brooks was still around. Seeing a form lying in the middle of it he took off again. Once they were close enough Hawk, Jess, Reid and a couple of others drew their weapons. Taking the lead Ken approached the figure to find a Peter Brooks who looked like he was aging forty years right before their eyes. He moved slightly and opened his eyes to see Ken standing there and the others covering him. “That won't be necessary,” Ken told them, but not taking his eyes off of Brooks, “he's powerless now.” Hearing this Brooks looked at his own hand and concentrated. Letting out a breath he let the hand drop. ”He's right. The energy given to me is gone now.” “What is wrong with him?”, Bill asked. Brooks heard him and smirked a little, “Just the one thing modern medicine has yet to find a cure for, old age. The Grim Reaper is undefeated after all.” He half laughed, half coughed at his own joke. Eyes focusing on Hawk that smirked returned, “Tell me Captain, would you have believed me if I told you Scott here was Ultraman, when I offered to back, when you confronted me in my office?” There was silence until he muttered, “No, I don't suppose you would have.” “Peter Brooks, or Charles Brooks I should say” Hawk began, “You're under arrest.” “Normally I would comply my dear Captain,” he said as he started coughing again. “But I don't think I'll be here long enough for you to even slap the cuffs on me. Or whatever it was you were planning on doing. My just rewards I suppose, nobody lives forever after all.” “Brooks,” Ken said as he knelt down next to him. “Pleae don't go and get all mushy on me now,” Brooks told him. “You know, I did want to sit down and talk with you about our respective dual identities. Discuss the problems that comes with it and how to handle them. It's a true pity, you were the only person who would truly understood the headache that situation caused.” “Yes I would have,” Ken agreed. “But we were on opposite sides of this thing. I choose to bond with Daxium, you choose to work with them. And we were both changed because of it.” “For better or worse,” Brooks agreed while nodding his head. He suddenly got this far away look in his eyes. “If I knew what I know now when I was your age.” He rattled out a breath and his head dropped to the side slightly. Ken checked for a pulse, then reached out and closed Peter Brook's eyes before he stood up. Now it was over. “Ken?”, Jess asked behind him. When he turned to face her he was surprised to see the worry in her eyes. “You are Ken right?” Out of all of them she would be the one to notice if anything about him seemed different. “Who else would he be?”, he heard Bill ask somebody. He didn't answer right away. He was looking on the inside for that answer himself. Finally he was pretty sure he found the answer he was looking for. “I'm me,” he assured her with a small grin. Jess immediately ran in and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Stop doing that to me,” she said in his ear. Holding her tightly he said, “That's something you're not going to have to worry about any more.” “Gabe,” Reid spoke up, “No offense but you all look like hell.” “I'm sure we do,” Hawk agreed. “Let's go back home.” As a group they headed toward the Scan Tracks while a smaller group went toward the fallen Peter Brooks. *** Elsewhere, in a dark universe, several of the Zettons stood around a pulsating orange globe, One looked at the others before speaking, “You all felt it. The Avatar is no more. “We have,” another spoke with no emotion in it's voice. “Then our objective is over,” said another one. “At least until we can locate a replacement human.” The second one turned it's head at the third. “No, a new human Avatar should not be necessary. Our dealing with the one we had should have proven to you that in the end they will not bow to us. At least not completely.” “Then our objective is completely over then,” the third said. “As much as a problem Charles Brooks ended up being we do need an agent in that universe to stabilize our attack forces that we send over the rift.” “Not necessarily,” the second spoke again. Waving a hand in front of the globe an image of the device they recently created hovered in the air. “While the initial outing was a failure, we still believe that this can be useful.” the first one finally spoke back up, “The humans were able to use it as a weakness in our attack on their base.” “We are aware,” the second one said. “But the idea is still sound. We believe that making improvements to the original design will be quicker and more effective than finding a new human Avatar.” “Very true,” the first said. ”Start working on those improvements. Find a way to add it to the creatures we create for the invasion. But in the meantime, we should search for a new Avatar, but not a human one. There are other species in that universe. We will still use this Earth as the staging ground since the dimensional barriers there are still weaker than anywhere else we have located. But there has to be a species somewhere who are liked minded enough to join us willingly. Comeanse the search and the improvements.” The group split without another word. In the background several monster like roars echoed in the air. *** Several weeks after Brooks had been defeated Richardson sat in his office on the monitor on the wall were several video feeds showing the celebration when Hawk and his unit returned to Castle after that confrontation. He drummed his fingers against his desk in annoyance as he concentrated his focus on the videos of several people practically slapping Scott on the back for a job well done. That should have been Joseph, if it wasn't for that bastard it would have been his son and not this nobody mechanic that lucked into the situation. He looked at the computer on his desk. The screen was doing nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to indicate that those he originally made the deal with to send the giant over were trying to make contact. “Why won't you say anything?”, he demanded. Not for the first time, these so called allies had been maddenly quiet ever since the giant crossed the rift to this universe. He was still dividing his attention between the video feeds and his computer when Stanberry walked in and stood in front of his desk. She glanced at the feeds and commented, “It's no use to view weeks old video. We won, you should be there with the others.” Smiling ruely he told here, “Some how I doubt that I would be that welcome. No I wouldn't be that welcomed at all, not after everything I did to get the giant here.” “Speaking of the giant, what are we going to do with Scott now? With the threat over he does seem to be a rather unnecessary part of the organization.” “He was never a necessary part of the UNDF,” he corrected her. “Just a means to an end. I'm sure most people around here realize that.” “Not everybody,” Stanberry informed him. “Captain Hawk's personal quest to get Scott full member status has picked up some steam in recent weeks. Even before the Battle of Brooks, as it's being called, he has made some compelling reasons to get Scott that status.” “Only the future knows for sure,” he said as he went to the computer and pulled up a file. Stanberry gave him a curt nod then left the room. If she stayed she would have seen that the file he pulled up was on the vote for the Civilian Operative program that got Scott here to begin with. Then he highlighted the ones who voted against the idea. In the park where all of this started, on the very hill where this started Hawk, Ken, Jess, Bill who was helping Ryo who was still using crutches, got into position. Behind them Reid and others walked with them. Once they got near the top the sky started to swirl in a certain spot. Ken looked back at the rest of them then took a step forward. Once he was at the edge of the swirl Ken put his hands together over his head, he started to glow slightly as the rest watched him with baited breath. Holding his arms out Daxium seemed to come from his body, as Ken dropped to a knee Daxium floated so he was directly underneath the swirling portal. Jess quickly ran over to Ken and helped him back to his feet as Daxium turned to look at him and the rest. “Goodbye my friends,” he said. At Hawk's command they all saluted him, even Ken despite Jess holding him up. Daxium nodded as a red sphere formed around him and it went up into the swirling sky and disappeared with it. “Goodbye Dax,” Ken softly said as he felt his strength returning. “So why did he have to leave again?”, Ryo asked as he hobbled over to them. Hawk and the others were close behind him. “He was too badly hurt during that first encounter with Brook,” Ken said as he kept looking at the section of the sky that portal was. “He couldn't heal properly here, he had to go home if he was going to survive.” “That's why you said he felt weaker,” Jess said as he tried to stop leaning against her. Although she was staying close in case he needed help again. “I wish we could have helped him in some way,” Hawk spoke up. “He did so much for us while he was here.” “Ah Captain,” Bill cut in. “Speaking of 'us', what's going to be our future exactly. The threat is over right?” “If it's over,” Reid told him, “then there may not be a future for the UNDF. We were created to deal with those things. If those things are gone then we may get disbanded.” “It seems more than likely,” Hawk agreed. More than a few in the crowd were talking among themselves after he said that. “That would be a mistake,” Ken spoke up. “Brooks may be gone but those Zettons are still out there. From what Dax told me about this war between his people and them the Zettons don't seem like the type to give up easily.” “So you think they'll be back?”, Reid asked. Jess went, “He is the closest thing we have to an expert on the matter, if he thinks they'll be back I'll take his word on it” “They do have that device,” Ryo added. “Would anybody just let that go to waste? All they have to do is figure out how to get to work with those monsters they've been sending over and not be that easy of a target.” “You know,” Bill spoke up, “I'm sorry I asked.” Hawk stepped in, “Say they do send more of those creatures over? How do we handle them without Daxium?” “Then we'll figure it out,” was Ken's answer. “We did when we were trying to stop Brooks, we can do it again.” Hawk started smirking, “I seriously doubt you would have given that answer when you first joined up. Speaking of joining up, I think this would be the perfect opportunity to do that thing you were talking about.” “You bring them?”, he asked Jess with a slight sigh. She nodded and pulled a pair of scissors out of her pocket and handed it to him. Looking at them he glanced at her then at Hawk, “Either of you want to do the honors?” Hawk quickly backed off. “No, this one is all yours,” Jess told him while she pulled a plastic bag out of that same pocket. “Of course you'd say that,” Ken muttered as he reached back and grabbed his ponytail with one hand. Then with the other he proceeded to cut it off with the scissors. “Civilian, what the hell?”, Bill asked as they watched him put the ponytail in that plastic bag. “This was the surprise you were talking back?”, Ryo asked Jess who nodded. Getting some of the now loose hair out of his face Ken told them, “Well a couple of days ago Captain Hawk informed me that I was about ninety-seven percent official and should be a hundred percent offcial in a matter of weeks. I figured if I was going to officially part of the UNDF I should start looking the part.” He zipped up his uniform jacket to highlight that point. “It's about time,” Ryo said as he hobbled closer and slapped him on the back. “We need to start working on an official welcome aboard party.” “Damn straight,” Bill quickly agreed. “But nothing from the scientist's still right? Not after last time. Wait does this mean I can't call him Civilian any more?” Ryo informed him, “I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it means.” “Wait a minute, who got beakered last time?”, Reid asked. They all started looking at Ken. He got the hint, “Ah. Then I'll help keep the scientist away then.” “We can work on it on the way back to Castle,” Hawk informed them. “Let's head home.” They all started back to the Scan Tracks. All except Ken and Jess. She watched him look back at where the portal was, a sad look on his face . Putting an arm around him she asked, “Feeling empty again?” “A little,” he admitted. Then he looked at her with a smile, “But it's not as bad this time. I know he's going to be fine.” “And you'll be fine too,” she assured him. “So, a new stage in your life. How do you feel about it?” “Honestly, scared,” he admitted, although he felt foolish about doing so. But there was no one else he would admit that to. “And that's perfectly normal,” she said, “Just remember you're not alone so don't try dealing with this alone. Do you hear me?” “Wouldn't even dream of it,” he said. “Finally,” she said right before she kissed him. When they stopped they headed off after the others, although both Bill and Ryo were having some fun teasing the two of them over the act. Yes this part was over. And yes there was a chance they would be thrown into it again sometime in the future. But that was the future, right now all of them could finally let out that breath and relax. For now everything was going to be okay. ----- ED – Shinedown – Fly from the Inside ----- |
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