[scikaiju]

Opening the door to their apartment building Marcus was a little surprised to see their landlord apparently waiting for him at his office door. The older man waved and walked over while Marcus went over to the row of mailboxes while he readjusted the backpack,which he carried the buckle and driver, on his shoulder while reaching for the key to their box. “Kat already retrieved your guy’s mail,” he told him pretty much right after he got the right key in hand. Why did he always do that?

“Thanks,” he told him. Making sure he had the door key in hand, he was a little surprised to still see their landlord still standing there. “I know we ain’t late on rent.”

He chuckled,” “No, no you're not. However, I did want to talk to you about your daughter.”

“We’re trying to keep her quiet…”, Marcus told him, wondering who would be complaining about her.

“Npbody has said anything,” he said. “I told you before the walls are more or less soundproof. Trust me, we’ve had kids who were older be much louder than Maddie.”

“But,” Marcus went, sensing that was coming.

“But,” he sadly went on, “she is growing. A growing child needs a yard to play in.”

“You trying to get rid of us?”, Marcus asked him.

“Of course not, but I’m also a firm believer that a child needs a home, a true home, While one of my apartments can be a home, a little one can need more.”

“You guys needed more than what we had,” his mind flashed back to something their father had told him and Nate when he and mom were showing off the house they were going to move into.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Marcus eventually told him then made his way to the stairs. Greeting some of the other residents as he came across them He got to his door and opened it up. Once inside he saw Kat and Maddie sitting on the couch.

“Look Maddie, Daddy’s home,” Kat said after giving him a wave, then taking Maddie’s hand to get her to wave as well.

“There’s my two favorite girls,” he said with a grin as he hung the backpack in the closet. An act that made Kat relax a bit. It was barely noticeable, but he knew her long enough to see it. “Hey, did our landlord talk to you about getting Maddie a lawn too?” She shook her head as he joined them on the couch. Playing with Maddie a bit, he asked, “How did the doctor appointment go?”

“Perfect,” Kat told him. “She is a perfectly healthy little girl.” There was a pause before she added,” “But.”

“But what?”, he asked knowing he probably wasn’t going to want to hear this.

“But they want to do some bloodwork,” she said, obviously bracing herself for his reaction.

“What? Why?”, he said. “You said she was healthy.”

“She is, she is,” Kat assured him. “But considering your history,” Kat trailed off. She didn’t need to finish, he knew exactly what she was talking about. That weird thing in his blood. “They just want to make sure it hasn’t passed on to her, that’s all.”

“And if it is,” he said taking their daughter’s hand. “I’m probably going to actually owe you a pony or something when you’re older aren’t I.?”

“She’s perfectly healthy,” Kat reminded him.

“So am I,” he shot back. “Still doesn’t stop them from sticking me everytime I go while they try to figure out whatever it is. That is the absolute last thing I wanted for her.” Then he added, “I should be there.”

“Marcus,” Kat said to him. “Do you remember the last time you went along on a visit. You were on edge the whole time, and Maddie was on edge the entire time as well. You’re not there and she’s perfectly fine.”

“I know, but still…”

“It’s just a precaution,” she told him. “How are things going with Nate?”

“You know, just a couple of bros just hanging out, stopping actual monsters, the usual. He did say he found something I might want to check out.”

“Is it about your guys’ dad?”, she asked.

“Yeah,” he told her, “but not what I want to know about it.” The reason why he kicked him out of the house all those years ago. “He said it’s an old conflict report from his time. He thought I might find it interesting, for some reason.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out why,” Kat told him. “We better get dinner going. You feel like Tai?”

“Sounds good,” he pulled out his phone and pulled up a delivery app, “I’ll order, you go find something for Maddie.”

***
The next day Marcus walked the halls until he got to the room Nate asked him to meet up at. Given how little he had toured this complex he still had to ask the AI where the room was at, luckily it was Artie. So he wasn’t just stuck at the door. Still it took him a bit to actually find it. Once inside he saw that there were several tables with monitors on them. There were only two other people in here so he spotted Nate more or less instantly. As he walked over he briefly wondered why this room looked like the walls were covered with wood paneling when every other room he’d been in had a very official office or lab type room. Okay the “frat room”, as he thought to call it, where Nate usually was with the rest of the guys waiting for the Cryptids to show up. So two rooms that felt out of place compared to the rest of the building. “Could you find a more out of the way room?”, he complained as he took the chair next to him.

“Don’t blame me,” he said looking up. “Blame whoever decided to put this so deep inside the building. Hell I’m not even sure we’re still above ground at this point.’

“So what is this place? And why does it look so … homely?”

“This is the archives,” Nate told him. “If you want to look up anything, as long as your security level matches up.”

“Right, right,” Marcus went. “Classified is still classified.”

“As for the way it looks,” he trailed off as he looked around at the walls, “I have no idea. I assume it made sense to somebody, somewhere.”

“And why did you want to show me? I’m assuming my clearance is up to snuff otherwise you are in so much trouble.”

“I heard about this the other day,” Nate said as he started typing something on the keyboard in front of him.

“This place has an AI program and stuff that’s just a stone’s throw away from being considered Flintstone era tech.” Here Nate didn’t respond, he just gave him that annoyed look he knew so well. “I’m just saying the tech is all over the place.”

“Certain areas require different needs,” was all he said as he kept on typing.

“You’re not saying I’m wrong.”

“Here it is,” Nate said, completely ignoring the bait he was leaving out there. On the screen a series of links appeared on the screen. Nate moved his finger on part of the table in front of the keyboard. Marcus looked at the screen and saw a cursor move in sync with what he was doing.

“I take it back. I was not expecting a hidden touchpad.” Then Nate clicked on a link and an image of their father popped up. Marcus felt a little off seeing it. “This just got declassified to level three clearance,” Nate explained. “From what I’ve been able to gather this was part of some sort of program they tested out, it was backed by some sort of psychologist.”

“So they made Dad talk about his feelings?”, Marcus snorted.

“Dad talked about his feelings,” Nate countered.

“Yeah,” Marcus agreed, “but he hated being forced to.

“It doesn’t look like he hated it too much,” Nate went on pulling up the previous window on a separate tab. Pointing at all the links below the one he clicked on he informed him,”Those are all him.”

Marcus leaned in to get a closer look, “Holy shit. Do we have access to all of them?”

“Not yet,” Nate explained. “Apparently it’s all time based. After so many years or decades in this case, lower security levels can view them.”

“So not many,” he went, Nate shook his head as he pulled the video back up. “How old is Dad here? He looks our age.”

“Not quite bro, according to the time stamp I was ten and you were nine. So about 46”

“Right, we just moved into the house, a couple of years before Mom died. Why do I want to see this?”

“It’s about his time as a Rider, I figured we could both get his perspective on it. Since we can't ask him directly this is the next best thing. Yes you’re temporary,” Nate said cutting off that remark at the pass, “ but it couldn’t hurt.”

“I guess not,” Marcus asked. Without another word Nate pressed play.

After a moment the video started playing, with their dad looking very annoyed as he looked at the camera. Despite themselves both Marcus and Nate sat a little straighter in their chairs, both had seen that exact look way too many times growing up. Then he started speaking, “Okay take number three of this stupid thing, since the other two weren’t good enough.”

“So glad that look wasn’t for us,” Marcus went. Nate just nodded as both tried to relax in their chairs. Their dad looked at something, nostrils flaring in annoyance once again.

“Start with the basics. Okay fine, the day started with my boys being,” here he lowered his head and both of them realized he started chuckling to himself, he looked up, looking not quite as annoyed as before. “Well, they were being my boys.”

“What did we do?”, Marcus asked Nate. “Because he only said that when we weren’t bad enough to be called hellions and not good enough to be considered angels.”

“I wish I could remember,” Nate said. “Must have been a doozy.”

***
-18 years ago-

“Give it back!”, Marcus yelled. Then there was a sound of a scuffle. Jackson Cole had put down the paper he was reading, or was trying to. With a sigh he got up and headed toward their room. Once he saw that the door was open he looked inside and saw both of his boys scraping on the floor.

“Hey!”, he yelled. Usually that was enough to get them to stop. This time he had to reach in and pull Marcus off of Nathan. “That’s enough!”, he didn’t yell but he kept his voice firm as he held them apart. Once they finally calmed down enough he went, "Now what is going on?” Both of them started talking over each other. “One at a time,” he said, making it known he wasn’t going to tolerate them talking at the same time.

“Make him give it back,” Marcus quickly jumped in.

“I didn’t take it,” Nathan quickly said.

“What it?” He demanded.

“My game,” Marcus said. “The one grandpa Joe gave me.”

“I didn’t take it!”, Nathan shouted back. Jackson sighed, that game was one of those cheap games where the characters barely moved on the screen. He had a feeling that thing was going to cause trouble sooner or later. He also knew his boys all too well. Looking around the room, paying close attention to areas around Marcus's height. Seeing a white case on a bookshelf Jackson reached over and grabbed it.

“This game?”, Jackson asked. Marcus’s eyes went wide for a moment, then got a look Jackson recognized as realization. Marcus had this habit of putting things down and forgetting where he put it. Hopefully the boy would grow out of it. “Now what do you have to say to Nathan?”

“Sorry Nate,” he said just loud enough to be heard.

“You better be sorry,” Nathan said pushing him.

“Hey,” he quickly told him. “He made a mistake, he’s human, it happens.”

“Grandpa Joe said you can’t learn if you don’t make ‘em,” Marcus said

“That’s right,” Jackson told them. “That goes for both of you. Now go wash up, breakfast is almost ready.”

“Okay,” both of them said then before rushing out of the room but before he left Marcus hung around the door a bit longer. “Daddy?”, he cautiously went.

“Yeah bud.”

“We still going on the trip?” Their yearly fishing trip all three of them went on every year.

“We are if I have anything to say about it,” he assured him. His boy grinned brightly as he left the room. Alone he stood there and said to himself, “You can’t learn if you don’t make them. I wish Dad told me that growing up.”

***
Jackson had grabbed the boys plates and brought them into the kitchen. Like always they shot away from the table as soon as they were allowed. At the sink his wife just stood there while the water filled it. As he placed the plates he was carrying with the others she said, “”You really need to make them bring them in here.”

He smirked a bit, “As soon as either one of us can pin them down long enough to get the point across.” She started to say something then bent over slightly as a coughing fit rocked her. Jackson quickly lost the smirk as soon as it started. “Julie!”, he went as he held her until she stopped. Once it looked like the fit was finally over he finally let go, “I told you to get that checked on.”

“I will, I will,” she told him, getting out of his grasp.” “All of that for a little cough.”

“There’s nothing little..,” he started to say. “And you had that cough for months now.”

“I’m fine,” Julie insisted, “It’s just a cough. I swear, for a man who fought literal monsters, you worry about the stupidest thing.”

“I consider nothing about my family ‘stupid’,” he shot back at her.

“Fine,” she said as she turned off the water “I’ll make an appointment the first chance I get.” It was something she said before but Jackson didn’t respond. He learned from previous times that would cause a fight. And as she pointed out what he did for a living, although things have been quiet for a while. “Are you still heading in today?”

“I have too,” he told her. “There’s some upgrades they want me to check out. Finally, they’re asking my opinion on something before they add it to the suit.”

“I don’t see why,” Julie said while she stopped what she was doing and turned toward him “It’s almost been ten years since the last sighting.”

“I know,” Jackson.said. “But thanks to that team we know they’re very superstitious. They have some hag read sticks and rocks to decide when to attack. Besides the last time we went straight to their doorsteps, I’m pretty sure that shook them up a bit. But it never hurts to be prepared, just in case.”

“In case the rocks and sticks say the time is right,” Julie smirked. He joined in, it was pretty ridiculous sounding after you hear it, more so saying it outloud.

“You still have that pager they gave you?” She moved her shirt just enough to show him she was wearing it. “Good, remember….”

“I get a message,” she sounded almost bored saying it, “saying there’s a Cryptid sighting near here grab the boys and head for the basement. You told me enough times.”

“”I just want you guys safe. You and the boys are everything to me you know.” She smiled then pointed at the clock on the wall. Jackson sighed, it was almost time to go. “I’ll call you later,” he said while leaning in for a kiss.

Julie suddenly pulled away and looked very serious, “Do you hear anything?”

Jackson took a moment to listen, there was nothing but silence, “No, I’ll check outside you check their room and the basement.” And they split off to find the boys.

***
-now-

On the screen their father said, “Then I went to the ‘office.’” He used air quotes when saying the word office. “The lab coats wanted my opinion on something they called… Oh what the hell did they call the stupid thing? Electrical buzzsaw? I think that was it.”

“Electrical buzzsaw?”, Marcus asked his brother while their father continued talking on the video.

“Might have been an early name for it,” Nate offered. “Shit like that changes all the time.”

***
“Jackson,” a white haired scientist said as he came in. The greeting was friendly enough, for a change. Jackson went on immediate alert. “Thanks for coming in.”

“Thanks Doc,” he said in return. Instead of focusing on him Jackson’s attention was drawn to, was that a mannequin leg, attached to some sort of machine. There was some sort of different machine attached to the foot. “So is this it?”

The man looked back, “Yes it is. Actually we were just about to test it.” Following the doctor’s example he grabbed a pair of safety glasses off a nearby try and followed him to a console that was connected to the contraptions by several wires. Checking a few readings he announced, “Out of the test area people,” he said as several others in the room quickly backed away. A few of them looking down made Jackson notice the tape line, hastily from the look of the thing, applied to the floor. Okay them, Jackson thought as he took a small step back. Just in case. “Test number one for the Electric buzzsaw in three, two, one…now!”. He flipped a switch and the machine started to move. Then the device wrapped around the foot blew up in a fairly massive explosion. Jackson, the Doc, people not even involved in the test flinched and ducked because of it.

Smoke still hanging in the air someone had run forward with a fire extinguisher and started spraying it. Before the nozzle exhaust covered the area it was obvious the foot was blown completely off. “I think test number two is going to be a while,” Jackson said as he removed the glasses.

“That goes without saying,” the Doc said, sounding his usual annoyed self. “What the fuck went wrong?”, he yelled at his crew.

“Language Doctor,” an older man with a ‘I’m superior than you’ look on his face waltzed into the room. The Director of this little secret organization, and an all around asshole “There are women present.”

“Like it’s a word they never heard before,” Jackson quipped. To those women he went, “You all have cable right?”

“We went to the movies last week,” one of them answered. “Just as bad.’

Which made the Director look more annoyed than superior. Especially after Jackson added, “See?”

“And this is why we test things,” the Doc quickly butted in. Waving some of the smoke out of his face, or acting like it as he walked away saying, “Somebody get me the pre test data ASAP. I want to know what went wrong”

Walking over to the test leg Jackson just stated at the stump, subconsciously flexing his right foot. “Well that gives whole new meaning to the term hot foot,” he quipped. A quick glance at the director showed that he was obviously not amused by it. And that just proved to Jackson he had his sense of humor removed at some point. “Was there something you needed sir?”

“No,” he said, almost dismissively, “just wanted to see the waste of funds in action.” Gesturing toward the dummy’s now stump of a limb he said, “And I just saw it go right down the drain.”

“Well it is new tech,” Jackson told him, just feeling the need to defend the department that created the armor and weapons he uses. “There’s always some,” he glanced back at the stump, “bugs to work out. “The BScan driver didn’t exactly work out of the gate.”

“And we have to be tighter with the budget, we might have to start cutting some perks,” he looked right at Jackson, “Like vacation time.”

“And good luck finding a new operator you don’t have to waste money on training to replace me,” he shot back.

“Over some vacation time?”, the Director started but Jackson quickly cut him off.

“Time I earned.” He promised his boys they were going to go on that trip. And he was going to make it happen one way or another.

“Fine then we’ll just look elsewhere,” he said smugly. “Like your little clubhouse.” He left with that superior look again. Jackson had let him.

After the Director was gone he did say, “Good luck explaining all the armed soldiers walking around the building.” As the Doc came back up he said, “I can’t wait until he retires.”

“Gonna be happening soon,” the Doc said. Jackson had nodded, he had heard those rumors as well. It was the main reason he said what he said. “According to the rumor mill Miller’s going to be the one to take his spot.”

“Miller? She’s the front runner?”, Jackson said in shock. “Another person in charge to butt heads with.”

“Look at it this way,” the Doc told him. ”we just have to worry about the Cryptids. Whoever in the Director’s chair has to deal with the government.”

“Think I'd rather deal with the Cryptids,” Jackson told him. Both looked at the stump as one of the other wheeled the test appendage away. “Too bad, I was really looking forward to seeing that work today.

***
-now-

“Never heard talk talk about his old boss before,” Marcus said as he leaned back.

“Almost makes you glad we have Miller,” Nate told him

Marcus replied with, “We’re throwing knives at her picture.”

“I said almost,” Nate shot back.

***
In the firing range a stand up was taped to the far wall. Soon it was riddled with bullets, mainly below the belt. At the other end of the range Jackson calmly put his assault rifle down and removed his ear protection as one of his men walked up next to him. “What did the old man do this time?”

“Just being himself,” was all Jackson had said. After thinking about it for a second, firing on that poor defenseless cardboard cut out over the threat of having his leave cancelled might have been slightly over kill. But that bastard just got on his nerves by just being in the same room lately. There was no way that was a healthy thing. It didn’t even make him feel any better this time around. “I’m starting to understand the phrase ‘Not big enough for the both of us’ from those old westerns now.”

“Just make sure the shoot out happens out of sight. You know how fast people will call the police nowadays.”

Jackson smirked a bit, now that was what he needed right now. Somebody to lighten his mood. He had some of the best guys he had ever worked with in this unit. “I’ll keep that in mind. But no promises.”

“How did the test go?”, his man asked. “Things look like they get all explodey?”

“Yeah,” Jackson said, “but not in the way you think.” He quickly told him exactly what he saw with the test.

“Ouch,” was what he said, shaking his foot a bit. “But get the bugs out now right? Instead of out in the field.”

“Yeah, ot be hard to explain that one to the wife and kids,” Jackson quickly agreed. “Fortunately the Cryptids haven’t been seen in years.” Just as soon as they walked toward the door to the main room the alarm started going off. Jackson pointed at him and firmly said, “Don’t say a word.” He knew he jinxed it by just saying that but he didn’t need it being rubbed in.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” his companion said as they quickly ran through the door. On the other side the men had already started mobilizing to get ready to go out into the field. Well those who had been here for a while were, the couple of new guys were just sorta looking around completely confused what was going on. “Stop looking around and get moving!”

“You heard the man,” Jackson snapped as he headed toward the weapon rack. While some of the others got the new guys moving Jackson reached up and pulled a case off the top self. “Didn’t think I was going to need this anytime soon,” Jackson commented just staring at it for a moment before putting it down then getting his gear, hoping the lay off hadn’t made him that rusty.

***

-now-

On the screen they listened as their dad spoke about that moment. “I really didn’t want to believe it, but there hadn't been a drill for an attack in years. Cost money not being made, that’s a direct quote from the old man after I asked him about doing a couple just in case. Cheap ass bastard, you know what I don't care if he sees this or not. That’s my opinion and I don’t give a damn what he thinks.” He took a moment to compose himself before continuing, “Any way, the alert goes off and the men are getting ready, fortunately I was able to weed out any of the excitable ones before now.”

Marcus looked over at his brother with a confused look on his face. It took a moment before Nate saw it. “In Dad’s experience the excitable ones were the ones most likely to go off script and do their own thing in battle.”

Suddenly remembering a phrase their dad used to use Marcuse went, “Ah, the gung ho morons,”

“Exactly,” Nate said as they returned their attention to the video

***
“Police are on route,” Jackson was told in the back of the old SWAT can they were able to acquire.

“Good,” he said going over the city map on the side of the van. “They’ll cordon off the area and keep any civilians out of the area..”

“What about the ones they can’t get to?” A question from one of the newer guys in the troop. A legitimate question, and one with an answer that was too complicated for him to explain at that particular moment. So he gave him the one answer he could to cover it all.

“Not our problem. We concentrate on the Cryptids and make sure none of them break through this line.” Going up to the driver he asked, “Is our way in clear?”

“According to dispatch,” the driver said while briefly getting toward the radio, “we got a straight shot to the entry zone.”

“We definitely didn’t get a lot of those before, we better enjoy it while we can.”

“Believe me I am. ETA, if no dipshit decides to drive in front of us, is about five minutes.” Obviously a response to the next question he knew was coming. One of the benefits of working with basically the same group for so long, sometimes you just knew what was coming.

Jackson lightly clapped him on the shoulder, “Thank you DJ. Get ready to scramble,” he announced as he turned back toward the rear of the vehicle, “we go hot in less than five.”

At the other radio station he walked over as his man operating it removed his headset and looked at him. “Initial reports from the police indicate it’s a small group of Cryptids, at least so far.”

“They never did an ambush tactic before now,” one of the others who had been here before pointed out.


“Doesn’t mean they can’t now,” another pointed out.

“We’ll worry about it if it happens,” Jackson told all of them. “Stay focused on the attack but keep an eye open for anything.”

The man who was with him at the firing range leaned in a bit and said, “A small group will make identifying the leader a hell of a lot easier “

“You would think,” Jackson said. Both of them looked at their watch then nodded to each other, almost go time. Both grabbed their rifles which caused the others to get theirs and get ready at the door. “Keep your head down in case there’s any shooters,” he said, mainly for the new guys' benefits, but it never hurt to remind the rest. Grabbing the case and attaching it to his back harness Jackson waited until he felt the vehicle start to stop before hitting the door release and everybody picked out weapons at the ready.

“On the right!” was the call out almost immediately as soon as they hit the street. Jackson and the rest did not hesitate to aim their weapon in that direction. Jackson counted at least five Cryptid creatures at first glance. Well that would be considered a small group all right. But why did something about this feel wrong?

“Big guy!" came another cry. Jackson looked toward the voice that was behind him and one of the larger Cryptids was sudden;y there.

“Where the fuck that one come from?!”

Who cares,” Jackson called out. Again a feeling he learned to trust made him look back at the first group. They had started their way. “Open fire!” Gun fire erupted as they fired in both directions. Jackson and those who had been doing this for a long time were used to what was happening.

The new guys on the other hand, “The bullets ain’t doing anything!”

“You were told this,” one of the senior members quickly shouted out over the gun bursts. “Just hold them off for a moment. Get ready to scatter and regroup if we have to.”

“Jackson!,” another one pointed past him. “That one right there!” Jackson quickly spotted what he was looking at. Some of the Cryptids were seemingly jumping in the way of one in particular. Testing this theory Jack took a moment to aim at that one directly. Then waited another second so the Cryptids could see what he was doing before pulling the trigger. One moved in front of his intended target, there was no doubt about it.

“Now it gets interesting,” Jackson muttered while handing his rifle off to the man next to him, another long timer who was waiting for it. Reaching back he pulled the case from the harness with long practice ease. Quickly popping the locks he opened the case. Inside was the familiar sight of the BScan Driver, a small rectangular device with a screen on the front, a diagonal cut out in the lower tight corner, a couple of slots built in, the device was situated on one end of a long strap. Grabbing the driver and pulling it free of the case, he tapped the screen quickly. A deep, heavily electronic voice came from the driver that said, “Ready.” Stepping forward Jackson swung the strap so it went around his waist and he clicked it into the other side of the driver. “Hensin,” he said before slapping the screen one more time.

On the street in front of him the driver projected an image of a large and long barcode. As Javkson stood there the code pivoted up on one end toward him. Once it was completely vertically it folded in the middle and that half came down hitting the street directly behind him covering him completely. The code shrunk down and condensed down and solidified for a brief second before fading away. In it’s place stood Jackson now wearing a dark green armor with silver highlights around the ank;es shins and shoulder, the dark grey under suit has stripes of the same color green going down his arms and legs. A firefly style elmet covered his head,as the blur lenses of the eyes stared straight ahead. On his right hip was a futuristic looking a gun, with a bar code etched in between two groves on the topThat electronic voice announced “Kamen Tider BScan.”

“The rider,” one of the Cryptids muttered before backing away, a fear overcoming him. One of the others quickly stopped it’s retreat and made him stay.

“”Let’s see if I remember how to do this,” Jackson said, a little heavy on the sarasism. Almost immediately he grabbed the gun and started firing at the Cryptids in front of him. The energized shots it fired were far more effective than the standard bullets from the rifles. Out of instinct he stopped firing long enough to join the grooves on the gun to the slots in the diagonal cut out and slide it through. A tone was quickly followed by the words, “Rapid impact.” The firing rate increased greatly as the Cryptids found themselves recoiling from the new assault. Jackson knew he should be concentrating on the leader, but with that big bastard right behind them, leader boy was going to have to wait a moment.

“Hold them back!,” Jackson said as he turned around and sprinted toward the big one.

"You got it boss,” One of the team veterans said as he and the others kept firing on the group of Cryptids.. “Alternate groups of fire, just like we practice!”

On his approach Jackson jumped off the roof of a nearby car and pulled the trigger on the gun, pelting the big Cryptid with blaster fire that made it take a step back as it covered up. As he landed Jackson almost didn’t duck out of the way in time from a wild swing from the Cryptid. Keeping the grip on his gunJackson snapped off a kick that rocked it’s head back leaving the Cryptid open to another volley from the gun.

“Watch it!” hearing his man shout that line out he quickly looked back to see the other Cryptids advanced on their position. The distraction was long enough that the big Cryptid grabbed him and threw him into the swat van.

Jackson still gripped the gun as he peeled himself off the van. Okay if they were going to survive the leader couldn’t wait. But first there was an extremely large pest to deal with. Slipping the gun into the grooves again he pushed it forward, stopped just short of going all the way through then pulled back and pushed it through again. “Sudden Impact.” Jackson aimed the weapon at the large Cryptid and pulled the trigger. From the barrel a bigger sized energy bolt hit the Cryptid, sending backward and landing on it’s back with a thud. It stayed down so Jackson headed for the other side saying, “Make sure that one stays down,” gesturing behind him with the gun.

“Too bad I left my nuke in my other pants,” he heard before spotting the leader quickly and charging toward it.

“Let’s do it sport,’ Jackson said as soon as he was close enough. The Cryptid obliged as it started swinging away at him. Jackson blocked and dodged where he could. This Cryptid was smart enough to avoid staying in range of the gun’s barrel every time he was able to bring it into position. Jackson was telling himself that they learned how he usually fought them, and not a fear that his reflexes were getting slower that was threatening to grow in the back of his mind. Too bad the Cryptid seemed to notice he was slightly faster on the proverbial draw than he was and knocked him around a bit. Jackson tried to get his arms up to block the attack. But the assault was so intense he lost his grip on the gun.

“Damn it,” Jackson grunted as he quickly stepped back to rethink his strategy. Chances were he could defeat this Cryptid without the gun, but it was going to take longer, and the big one wasn’t going to stay down for long. He was going to need the gun. But first some breathing room. The Cryptid charged forward and Jackson met it with a kick to the chest that knocked it back but not down. “Well damn,” Jackson muttered as he tackled the Cryptid to the ground and rolled off to a kneeling position. Locating his weapon he looked back at the Cryptid, snapping off another kick that knocked it’s head to the side. Jackson quickly dove for the gun as he rolled to his feet and faced the Cryptid. One more time he put the gun to the slot, this time running it back and forth three times before pushing it through.

“Molton Impact.” Jackson brought the gun around as it beeped and energy rings surrounded the barrel. As the Cryptid stood he took aim and depressed the trigger. A massive red hot beam emitted from the barrel, piercing the Cryptid straight through. It stood there for a moment before falling back and exploding as soon as it hit the ground.
Like always he looked around at the other Cryptids, and like they have done in the past they started to retreat, even the big one.

“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Jack said as he deactivated the driver and pulled it off.

“Aren’t we all,” one of the vets agreed.

“How come we don;t have guns like that,” one of the new guys asked.

Jackson and the other vets, more or less at the same time, said, “Budgets” The vets all looked at each other and began to chuckle amongst themselves. Years of being in the same unit will do that too.

“The police have the rest,” Jackson told the crew. “Let’s get out of here before the civilians see us.” The troop all entered the van, although Jackson did take one more look around just to make sure that nobody was watching them before they drove off.

***
After a long mission debrief that Jackson swore up and down was longer than the ones they used to do., he pulled into the driveway and slowly got out. He swore things didn’t hurt as much back then either, and sitting through that drive didn’t help anything either. Taking a quick moment to stretch out his backhoe headed for the door. A barking caught his ear, that damned dog next door. Then he saw Marcus run toward the chainlink fence that separated each property. Jackson started to head him off but a sudden catch in his back stopped him.

He was worried about Marcus hopping the fence. A stupid fear, he knew that deep down, but sometimes that parental instinct kicked in hard. He had nothing to fear as Marcus stopped a few feet from the fence. Then in as stern a voice as he ever heard from this nine year ild as he said, “Quier! Mommy’s sleeping.” As many times as he’d seen this kid do, it still amazed him that the dog actually obeyed. Nathan quickly ran over to get his brother to quiet down himself. Then both saw him now and waved. “Hi daddy.”

“Hey buds,” he waved up as he made his way up the walk. On the steps he looked back at the dog then quickly located the boy, who made it to the other side of the yard. Looking back at the neighbor’s dog. Shaking his head as he made his way up the steps he said to himself, “I wish I knew how that kid did that.” Once inside he spotted Julie watching the boys from one of the windows. He walked over and gave her a quick kiss. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“It’s just something I tell them when I want some quiet for a bit,” she told him.

“Does it work?”

“Today it did,” she said. “Do you think it’s too early to convince Marcus about going into veterinary medicine?”, she asked him. “I mean he is absolutely amazing with animals.” He didn't notice she was watching him as he walked away. “I got a page saying there was a sighting.”

“Fucking computer,” he said out loud.

“Actually I lied, I saw how you were moving,” she told him. “You’re walking a little stiffer than you were this morning. That only happens when you've been fighting those things."

“Fucking body,” he ammended, only half joking. Julie obviously didn’t find it funny as she crossed her arms and just stared at him. “I’m fine, I’ve already took a couple of aspirins and just waiting for them to kick in. I’ll be good as new before you know it.”

“Are they back?”, she asked. “The Cryptids, are they back?”

“Based on what I saw I don’t think so. It was too small of a group. BUt if they show up again we’ll know for sure.

“I really hate that you phrased it like that.” Jackson held her as they watched the boys play in the yard, “Both of them stopped having nightmares about them too.”

“I want them to be prepared in case they have to run,” he said. “Hopefully this was just a one off.” She grunted in a way that told him she really wanted to believe that but didn't. Okay he’d believe it enough for all of them if he had to. And if they were back, then he was going to make those bastards wish they never stepped another foot above ground.

***

-now-

The image froze as their father looked like he reached for something off screen. While Nate closed the window Marcus leaned back in his chair. Both of them were quiet for a moment. Eventually Marcus crossed his arms and went, “Wow.”

“No kidding,” Nate agreed. “I didn’t realize how much I missed hearing Dad talk about being a Rider.”

“Tell me about it,” Marcus said with a grin. “Too bad we can’t annoy him with all the questions like we used to.” There was a beep that made both of them look around before Marcus realized that was his phone. “Almost expected the alarm to go off after watching that,” he said while looking at the alert he just received. “It’s a text from Kat, we just ran out of Maddie’s cereal bites.” He got up and they both noticed Director Miller standing there. “Sorry, but,” he trailed off while waving his phone a bit.

Miller actually looked amused and said, “Go get that little angel her bites.” Then stepped out of the way of the door.

Marcus didn’t really say anything as he quickly moved past her. Nate walked up and said, “Sorry Director.”

“Don’t be,” she told him. “Actually he reminded me of you two’s father just now. Anytime he heard that either of you, especially when the two of you were still babies, needed anything he practically shot out of here.”

Nate lowered his head and smirked to himself after hearing that. “Yeah, that does sound like dad, it’s only natural I guess.” Miller quickly agreed. Nate looked back at the computer and said, “Thanks again for telling me about those videos.”

“I just remembered them myself. I’m looking into hurrying up declassifying some of those videos so you and Marcus can watch them sooner.”

“Director,” Nate started to say before she stopped him.

“I know what most people around here think of me. In most situations I actually try to encourage that opinion. But I lost loved ones to and understand the need to hear their voice again, even if it’s just a recording.”

Before either of them could say anything Nate’s hand went to his ear. “Excuse me Director, there’s a situation that needs my immediate attention.”

“Don’t let me keep you from your job Captain.” Nate excused himself again leaving her alone in the archive. She walked over to the computer and looked at the list of files, all of these she was trying to get open for the Cole boys to see.but there were ones recorded much later than were going to take much longer to declassify. A couple of them were some they shouldn’t see and she made sure those videos weren’t included on this particular list.

Pulling out her phone she pulled up the unaltered list and scrolled directly to the bottom. All these videos had some sort of date or number for a title. All but the very last one. One he recorded roughly a month before he was killed, it had the simple title of ‘To Marcus’. She just stared at it and went, “What did you tell him Jackson?” Granted if it bothered her that much she could easily open it or just delete it out right. But she wasn’t going to do either, this was one last message from a father to his son, and even she wasn’t that cruel. No matter how much it’s contents worried her.