Author's note: Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the continued starts
and stops to the updates on Infinite crisis. It's not fair to all those
who've been following so far. Secondly, a few have contacted me with some
fears about me abandoning the story. I want to assure everyone that I
will not abandon this story. Come hell or high water, I'm finishing this
story. The only other thing I can think to say is that I hope that I at
least made this part worth the wait.
MAU: Infinite Crisis, part 7
By: Set3
Earlier in the day, Peter pulled some favours to switch shifts with Wait
so now he had the graveyard shift. As he walked in the now empty main
laboratory, his sight immediately locked on the girl still suspended in
the mesh enclosure. Peter grimaced, it was like they were treating the
girl like some animal. No, worse than an animal, animals tended to be
fed. Pater had asked around a few times and no one could tell him when
the girl last ate. The door closed behind him and he started walking to
the cage. He shifted the contents he'd been carrying to one hand as he
made his way through the two sets of mesh doors of the cage and stopped
in front of the girl.
As he looked at the girl, her head was drooped down, not appearing to
notice him when he came in. Peter stood there a moment, trying to keep
his anger down, and reached up to wake her up. Just as he touched her she
pulled back as much as she could with a whimper before settling back down
with a blank look on her face staring at nothing. Peter had pulled back
in surprise at her reaction.
"What the hell have they been doing to you?" Peter asked as he looked
back behind him imagining he was staring straight at Wait. He again
swallowed his anger as he turned back to the girl. He shuffled the
contents he had been carrying and opened one of them, a sandwich, and
held it up to her. "I hope you don't mind turkey. It was the only kind
they had left in the caf? today."
The girls response was as immediate as the one where she shied away
earlier. Her eyes fixated on the sandwich as she tilted her head forward
trying to get a bite. Peter held the sandwich closer to her and she
practically inhaled it. Peter barely pulled his hand back as the girl
only just nicked his finger with her teeth as she finished eating.
"Hungry aren't you?" he joked weakly while shaking his hand. He then
opened the bottle of water he was also holding and held it up. She drank
the water down greedily and soon the bottle was empty. It was night and
day after he offered the girl food and water. She seemed much livelier
now but she was still subdued.
After a minute, Peter finally spoke up, "So, what's your name? In all the
excitement during the times we've met, I've never had the chance to ask
you." She stared at him trying to decide if she should tell him. After
all, he was, in a big way responsible for her current predicament.
"Noel," she said finally, "my name's Noel."
"Hello Noel," Peter said with a smile.
"I suppose you think you've earned a feel too," Noel spat out.
Peter's face fell. "I had nothing to do with that," he said. He then went
to check her restraints and made a show of tightening them. "But, I'm
still ashamed that a man like him could be called a soldier," he said as
he left Noel's cage did his rounds around the lab before returning to the
main console checking the readouts from the leads attached to Noel's
connectors.
John, Major, and Andria had quickly gathered their supplies, mostly
modified swat gear, and followed Agent G to his waiting car. They dumped
their gear into the trunk and piled in. John, the look-a-like that he is
now, had to wear a hat and shades to disguise himself from his unintended
fame as they drove through the city from the outskirts to the airport.
With Agent G's credentials, they quickly passed through security and
walked out to a waiting C-130 Hercules military transport plane. As they
boarded, John noticed it had Canadian markings.
As they were stowing their gear, a woman came down from the cockpit who
was dressed respectively like Agent G.
"Hello everyone," she said as she began shaking the hands of John, Major,
and Andria as they check their gear, "My name is Johanna Mars, I'm a
representative of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS for
short, Agent G has told me about your team."
John nodded, assuming the role of spokesman for their group. "A pleasure
to meet you but, why is the Canadian government letting us come along?
Apparently, you guys are well within your rights to take this on your
own," he queried.
Johanna gave him a small smile. "It would have been if not for the
details that your liaison provided me with. From what I've leafed
through, Henry is an extremely dangerous person and your group has had
the most experience in dealing with him. Speaking of which," she paused
to look the group over again. "I thought there were four in your group."
John looked embarrassed. "Yeah, our leader," he said stretching the word.
"decided to go on ahead. He'll meet up with us when we get there."
Johanna just nodded as she made her way to her seat and strapped in.
John, Major and Andria followed suit and strapped in beside Agent G who
was already seated. As the transport took off, Johanna turned to them.
"We're going to do a quick stop over at a military base in the Alberta
Rockies to pick up more personnel we'll need," she explained. "I hope you
all brought something to read because we'll be travelling for a few
hours."
Andria groaned as she realised she would have nothing to do and stared
daggers at both John and Major who'd already pulled out a tablet and
began to read. Major noticed Andria's glare and responded by sticking her
tongue out at her. Andria just huffed at that before she twisted around
to look out the window behind her as the transport began taking off down
the runway. Five hours at least with nothing to do.
"Perfect," Andria thought sarcastically.
It was late afternoon now at the main lab in the floating headquarters of
Tonoan Industrials and the small number of scientist and researchers went
about their assigned tasks taking samples from Noel or studying the
materials they were able to gleam from the exo-suit 2 (the Linna suit).
Tom and Mike were at the far end of the main lab using the tools and
equipment that weren't in available in the lab they kept the exo-suits
in. They were currently working on a prototype replication of the exo-
suit 2's battery.
"It's a work of art," Tom stated as he placed the battery in a makeshift
charger they built specifically for it.
"It really is a triple A battery," Mike countered. "Once the material in
the casing is used up, the whole thing becomes useless."
"I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective," Tom started.
"This is actually genius if you think about it. During the tests we did,
the prototype battery gave out a uniform amount of power before it
depleted. If we can refine it, we can make it last longer. There's also
the fact that so far, a depleted battery is environmentally friendly, so
no toxic chemicals from a tossed battery."
"Yeah, but so far when we tested the prototype to the power needs of exo-
suit 2 it lasts only half an hour," Mike said. "When you factor in the
cost of making this and charging it, we're actually loosing money. And no
one's going to spend the money to cover the cost of one of these let
alone buy them one after another."
"So they'll have to buy wholesale for awhile," Tom said with a smile.
"And besides, this is just the prototype design. We're limited by the
constraints of the casing we have to put the thing in. You forget that
the whole purpose of prototypes is to get the bugs out of the way so the
end product will be cheaper."
Mike rubbed his eyes. "Have I ever told you that I hate your optimistic
view of everything?"
"Not since yesterday," Tom quipped.
Meanwhile on the bridge Mr. Tonoan had told the bridge crew to begin
preparations to cast off and set a course to their shore office in Japan.
The crew quickly went about their tasks in gathering supplies for the
voyage. It wouldn't be until close to sundown when they finally got
underway.
The plane ride was long for John and his team but made longer by Andria's
childish antics to pass the time by periodically asking if they were
there yet. As they were making the final approach the pilot pushed the
controls forward causing the transport to dive downwards at a steep
angle, causing Andria especially to scream, while dodging a fighter that
had flew over them and sped off ahead before turning back and around
coming alongside them. The pilots swearing as he leveled the plane was
cut short as he responded to a hail from the now escorting fighter. The
co-pilot handed a headset to Johanna.
As Johanna pulled the headset in place. She heard a female voice. ".. I
repeat, to the unknown bogey. You are entering restricted military
airspace. State your confirmation code to proceed. If you do not comply
you will be fired upon. This is your final warning."
Johanna signaled the co-pilot that she wanted to return the hail, He
flicked a switch and nodded to her and Johanna spoke into the receiver.
"This is CSIS agent Johanna Mars, confirmation code: "Black 25, they all
came home." Repeat: Black 25, they all came home," she said.
There was a pause on the other end. "Confirmation code accepted," the
fighter pulled ahead of the transport. "Follow me in and do not deviate
your course or you will be shot down. Clear?"
"Affirmative pilot, we'll stick to your course." She quickly relayed the
instructions to the pilots. The military transport adjusted it's course
and followed the fighter till it hit the landing strip. The fighter did a
touch and go and circled around before landing in behind the transport.
Andria was the first off the transport, having a rash of airsickness due
to the sudden dip the plane took just minutes earlier. As soon as she
reached the bottom of the ramp she threw up.
"What the hell was that?" Andria asked after she had a moment to compose
herself.
Behind them, a service crew came out to the fighter and the pilot had
stepped down from the ladder and walked over to them. The crew were
already moving the fighter into the nearby hanger.
"It's not everyday CSIS comes to visit us on such short notice," the
female pilot said as she pulled her helmet off. For some reason, the
woman looked familiar to Andria. "So, to what do we owe the pleasure?"
she asked as Johanna came down the ramp.
"Search and rescue," Johanna replied as she handed the pilot a thin file
folder. "Is the CSOR team still around?"
The pilot flipped through the few pages that were in the folder. "Yeah, I
didn't think they were going to take this long, must be because they
spent too much time in the desert," she said as she closed the folder and
looked at the group. "They'll be back in fifteen minutes and it'll take a
few to refuel your transport so you all may as well come inside and warm
up," she said as she turned around and lead them back to the barracks.
John looked to Major who only shrugged and to Andria who was beginning to
rub her arms to keep warm and nodded and they followed after Johanna who
was already on her way to the building. On entering, they quickly passed
through the entryway into the common room where two teenage boys were
sitting on a couch playing video games. The pilot excused herself so she
could change out of her pilot suit. Andria quickly sat down on a chair
beside them.
"So, what are a couple of kids doing at a military base?" she asked.
The two boys paused the game and looked at one another before one of them
turned to her. "What kind of base do you think we're in?" the dark haired
one asked her.
Andria cocked an eyebrow. "Um, the military kind?" she asked, not certain
what he was getting at.
The blond one let out a quick laugh, he scratched his nose with his left
hand and held out his right. "Touch one of my fingers," he said. Andria
gave him a dirty look. The boy sighed. "This isn't a stupid fart joke,
just touch a damn finger and you'll see," he said.
Andria moved her hand towards his and hesitated before poking one with
one of hers. As soon as she did so, she received a nasty shock that was
five times worse than any static shock she ever had in her life. With a
curse, she yanked her hand back and stuck her still smarting finger in
her mouth. "God DAMN it! What the hell was that?" she shouted as she
shook her hand out.
The blond kid smirked as he held his hand out again, daring her to touch
his hand again. Seeing that she only responded with a dirty look, he
pulled his hand back with a chuckle. "This whole base is dedicated to
house the people who were changed by the alien box. From those who'd be a
danger to the populace to those who would be in danger from the people.
Our own private resort where we can just be ourselves without having to
worry about freaking people out."
"It's a place to keep you all safe," said the pilot woman who just came
into the room. Hiding behind her was an eight year old boy. The woman was
now wearing a pair of tight jeans and a thin long sleeved dark red
turtleneck under an equally tight looking dark brown leather jacket. On
her hips were a pair of revolvers and a bandolier of bullets over her
belt. "I hope he didn't hurt you too badly," she said as she pats the
child's head behind her.
"No, I'm ok. My finger's just a little numb right now," Andria said as
she shook her hand again as if to prove her point. Andria stared at the
woman, there was something familiar about her when she first saw her and
the nagging feeling increased as she saw the woman now. Shaking it off
for now, she turned to the blond teen. "I've seen some crazy stuff since
I joined Jeffrey's team but I can't for the life of me understand why
you'd change yourself that way."
The pilot woman looked at the blond coyly. "Why don't you tell her
Eddie?" she asked him.
"I'm tired of explaining myself every time some one new comes along
Chris," he grumbled as he turned back to the TV.
Chris, the pilot woman's name, gave him a look. "You shock a guest and
just leave it at that? Tell them why you're like that or I'll toss your
games outside," she threatened.
Eddie paused and turned back to Chris and saw the look on her face, she
wasn't bluffing. And the last time she made the same threat, he found his
games in a bag tied to the top of the flag pole. It took him days to get
them down. He dropped his controller and sat back in the couch. "I used
the alien machine to turn myself into a literal human bug zapper," he
droned obviously tired of repeating his story.
"You turned yourself into a human bug zapper because..." Chris urged
mockingly.
"I was tired of the damn bugs always flying around me," he began as he
started to rant. "No matter what I did, there were always bugs flying
around my head dive bombing my face," he had a manic look on his face.
"I've bathed and showered before going outside wearing just cleaned
clothing too. I've tried every different style of clothing too."
"It was funny seeing him in plaid and polka dot phase," the dark haired
teen beside him said with a grin.
Eddie ignored his impute. "I've also tried every single type of diet
under the sun thinking that was it. I even tried doing the reverse, not
bathing at all."
"I was really happy when he got out of that phase. Let me just say that
for awhile we bought out the local supply of air fresheners," the teen
beside him said.
"Shut it Cole," Eddie told him. "You know how frustrating it is when you
get dive bombed by bugs while the guy next to you who stinks like shit
and doesn't have a single one buzz near him. So yeah, when Cole and I
found the alien box at first we used it to change ourselves in different
ways but when I was about to go outside I thought: "If these bugs want to
keep flying at me then fine." Then I used the box to make it so I'll fry
every single one of those fucking bugs," he said as he held his hands
together as if holding an imaginary bug between them. A few static pops
could be heard. "It wasn't until we came back after that the box stopped
working. Not a bad way to be stuck either," Eddie finished.
"And then he nearly killed our science teacher by giving him a heart
attack when he touched him," Cole said.
"He had it coming anyways, you remember how he liked hitting us with that
damn strap. Besides, even after I saved him he actually had the balls to
try and sue me," he said dismissively with a wave.
The room fell into an awkward silence until Major spoke up.
"So Cole, what did you change about yourself? You look pretty normal to
me. Or is it something under the clothes."
Cole just laughed. "No, I'm still all guy here. I sort of have the same
problem Eddie had, not to his extreme but anyways. My body now produces a
pheromone that attracts dragonflies. Sometimes I get hired to go to
outdoor parties during the summer to keep mosquitoes away."
"Yeah and in the meantime I have to stay here in the middle of bug
central," Eddie complained.
John stifled a chuckle and turned to Chris. "And what about the little
one behind you? Is he your son?"
Chris smiled mournfully as she looked down at the boy still behind her
and ruffled his hair. "He's not my kid. But he's a special case. You see,
there are dozens of bases like this one around the country so... If
anyone recovers a working box, it gets sent to the nearest base and the
person with the worst changes uses it. Our little guy here is first on
the list for this base if we ever get an active box. The second is
Brandon behind you," she said.
The group turned around and were suddenly faced with a horrific monster.
Andria screamed and fell back unto her rear while Major put her hand on
her gun at her hip. The monster was tall, about six and a half feet. Its
arms and legs were long, too long to be normal for any human. With sickly
pale skin and the muscles on it body seemed to be both sunken in showing
the bones yet still looked incredibly powerful. It had cleft hoofs for
feet and its hands ended in long fingers tipped with deadly black talons.
The head on its shoulders resembled more a deer scull than a regular
human one. Like the rest of the body, the head had the same sickly skin
covering it. It's lips not quite able to close leaving sharp teeth on
display. It's predatory eyes were sunken into their cavities. Even the
points of the antlers that grew from its head seemed deadly sharp as
well.
The terrifying image was offset by the fact it was wearing a bright
cheery lavender vest and light green slacks.
"Holy fuck!" Andria exclaimed.
"Meet our resident wendigo. Don't worry, he just likes to meet new
people, he kinda gets a kick out of seeing people's reaction to his
looks," Chris said with amusement. "If you're wondering, he used it
during Halloween one year," she explained as the "wendigo" walked off
giggling with an eerie voice of a five year old.
John and Major looked at each other while Andria swore as she got back to
her feet.
"So, what's wrong with the little guy that he gets to be first in line?"
Andria asked.
Chris' face turned sour. "He and two other children were kidnapped by a
man who had a working box. After a few days that he abused them he used
the box to change them. Later after days of abuse the other two children
turned feral and killed him then killed each other. Our little one here
was found locked in a cage not long after that."
"How was he changed?" Andria asked. "He looks fine to me."
Chris looked down at the child and gave him a sad smile. "Why don't you
show her," she coaxed with a small pat on his back gently pushing him out
from behind herself. The boy looked at the new people then back up at
Chris shyly. "It's ok, I won't let anything bad happen to you," She
assured him with a smile.
The boy breath deeply in and out through his nose and timidly stepped
forward towards Andria. Andria kneeled down and leaned closer but the boy
pushed her back. He looked up at her face and opened his mouth. As he
open his mouth, his cheeks split open and his jaw lowered and ten two
circular saw blades came out and began spinning while grinding against
each other to produce an inhuman metallic scream. Andria, with a cry of
surprise bolted upwards taking a few steps back. The boy closed his mouth
and ran back to hide behind Chris.
"What kind of monster would do that to a child?" Major demanded.
"You answered your own question," Chris said. "Apparently, his captor
liked to beat him, even after his change. I guess one time he hit him
hard enough in the head that it knocked something loose so now he can't
open his mouth anymore without those saws coming out," she said bitterly.
Major turned to John and whispered in his ear. "Isn't there something you
can do to help him? I mean, if you were able to fix my body up, you
should bee able to help fix what ever is wrong with him."
"I'll see what I can do," he whispered back and reached into his jacket
pocket and pulled out his screwdriver. "If you don't mind, I might be
able to see what's wrong and if I'm lucky, I be able to fix it."
Chris looked down at the child with a worried expression, but after a
minute she let John do what he could.
John knelt down to the boy's level. "Have you ever watched a TV show
called Doctor Who?" he asked him. The boy shook his head. "Well," John
started. "The hero of the show is called the doctor. And what he does is
he goes about the universe in his time machine helping everyone he comes
across. He uses a device like this," he held his sonic screw driver in
front of the boy for him to see. "Called a sonic screwdriver that helps
him help people. It can do all sorts of things. From opening doors,
surfing the net, to looking inside of people." John then leaned in
closer. "And if he's really bored, he uses it to put furniture together,"
he said in a mock conspired voice which made the boy smile. "Right now,
I'm going to us this to look inside you to see what's going on. I promise
it won't hurt," he reassured him. The boy absently turned to Chris who
only gave him a reassuring look of her own. The boy then turned back to
John and nodded.
The screwdriver buzzed as John ran it over the boy's head and body. Once
he was done he stared at the blue lights on its side. He scanned the boy
a few more times checking the screwdriver each time. When he check the
screwdriver for the last time he just stared at the lights for several
minutes after which he adjusted the controls ever so slightly and put a
hand on the boys shoulder. "Ok, listen now. I'm going to use this to try
and fix you now. You might feel a sharp sting in your head but you're
going to have to tough it out ok?"
The boy looked nervous and held a hand out to Chris who came over and
took it. They both then walked over to the couch, with a quick look from
Chris, Eddie got out of the way and the two sat down with the boy on
Chris' lap holding her hand tightly. John was once again in front of the
boy and with steady aim, he pointed the sonic device behind the child's
right eye. As the buzzing of the device intensified, the boy squeezed his
eyes shut and held Chris' hand even tighter. Just as the pain was about
to cause him cry out, John had finished and placed the screwdriver back
in his pocket.
"Now I may not be a real doctor, I do look like The Doctor, so please
open your mouth and say ah," John told him softly.
The child looked up behind him to Chris who gently urged him to try.
After several long seconds of hesitation he slowly opened his mouth and
quickly uttered a sound before putting a hand over his mouth in surprise.
He looked around at everyone in bewilderment and quickly said a small
"Hi." before covering his mouth with both hands again which did nothing
to hide the smile behind them.
Chris gave him a hug and a pat on the head and told him to go off and
show the others. The boy bounded off her lap and ran down the hall with a
squeal of delight followed by several giggles. Chris got up and shook
John's hand. "Thank you, you have no idea how much what you did means to
him and everyone else here."
"It's no problem," John replied. "I was glad that I was able to help him.
I do however want to check up on him after our mission just to be sure
everything's ok," he added.
Chris became a little somber on hearing that but agreed none the less.
Johanna, who had slipped away during the whole thing had returned garbed
in in military gear with the helmet slung under one arm she came up to
the group.
"The Hercules should be refueled by now and the CSOR team is back from
their exercises. So, if anyone still needs to get changed, now's the time
to do it," she said as she turned and left.
Chris pulled out the revolvers from each holster one at a time to check
them. Major noticed that the barrel of Chris' guns were oddly designed.
Instead of the normal barrel that held the bullets, the ones on her guns
were open, the bullets being held in place by clips.
"Where'd you get guns like those?" Major asked.
Chris smiled as she put one back in its holster. "Complements of the box
and two of a kind," she said holding it up. "With the way these are made,
when I run out of ammo, I just pass them over my bandolier and I'm
instantly reloaded. All the advantages of a revolver without the jamming
of an automatic pistol," she said with a hint of admiration. She put the
one she was holding away as well and picked up a combat knife from the
chair beside the couch and attached it behind herself to her belt and
then slipped on a bullet resistant vest. She gave everything one final
check before she was satisfied then took a deep breath. "Ok, here we go."
Andria's eyes widened as she suddenly realised why Chris looked so
familiar. "You're Rubi!" she cried recalling the character from an old
PS3 game called: Wet. Andria lean to one foot excited to meet a fellow
gamer chic. "My name is Andrea. So, is Chris short for Christine? What
games do you play?"
Chris just snorted as she headed out to the military transport. "I don't
really play that many games. And I'm sure that my mom meant for Chris to
be short for Christopher. Just because I look like a girl doesn't mean I
was born as one. Believe me, once I'm able to, I'm going to change back.
I like being a guy and until then, I'll do my job," she said defiantly as
she exited.
Andria groaned in disappointment as she walked after her followed by John
and Major. They quickly boarded the Hercules transport, they strapped in
next to the CSOR members, Johanna had already gone up to the cockpit.
Andria leaned over to Chris who was sitting beside her. "I'm sorry about
earlier," she told her.
Chris pursed her lips in annoyance. "Don't worry about it."
"I was wondering about something," Andria started.
"What?" Chris asked.
"How come you're not taking a sword with you? If I remember correctly,
Rubi had a sword on her back not a knife."
Chris sighed. "This isn't some crappy video game Andria. Besides, the
sword's a bitch to get back in the scabbard especially when you're under
fire. A combat knife is much better for close quarters anyways."
"Oh," was all Andria could say, much to her disappointment. She was
really hoping to see a video game character move in the flesh like in the
game. And while she taped herself doing some stuff, it eventually got
old. "Oh well," she thought. At least she met some else who was like her.
She reminded herself to ask Chris later why she turned herself into a
female video game character later as the plane took off into the air.
000000
It was a few hours past sunset and the ship that was the headquarters of
Tonaon Industrials had left its dock and was on its was to its Japan
office to replenish the ranks of the science team to increase the rate of
research being done on the exo-suits and the girl's nanites. Noel, of
course, was still hanging in her cage having resigned herself to a deep
state of depression as the various scientist went about their work.
Nicolette had come a few times to draw some blood and make some comments
in her recorder then leave. Noel had given up trying to convince anyone
here that she was alive if not human. They never listened. Noel tried to
pass the time listening in on the various conversations around her. Right
now He was listening to two scientist talk about him.
"So, who do you think made it?" the male scientist asked the female one.
"For the last time, I don't know and I don't care. We were told to find
out how it works and that's what I'm going to do."
"You got to admit that the AI program is outstanding. The response time
is instantaneous and responsive. I haven't been able to trip it up at all
yet."
The woman pulled her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I'm
just tired of doing all this passive analysis. We need to cut it open to
make any further progress." The phone rang on the desk they were working
at and she picked it up.
Noel couldn't ear what the conversation was about but he could see the
woman nod her head a few times before hanging up. She then walked over to
Noel's cage holding a syringe filled with something and entered. As she
walked up to him she flicked the syringe. Noel didn't like the look of
this and even though it had proved futile so far, he struggled against
his restraints.
To his, and the woman's surprise, his left arm came free. The woman
screamed and dropped the syringe.
"Look out it's loose!" some one else shouted.
Unbeknownst to Noel at the time, Peter had actually loosened his
restraints and would have let him escape had he tried to. Peter may have
forgotten to put his restraints back on at the end of his shift or may
have intended to leave them off. At this point, it didn't matter to Noel
why they were loose, he had to act or they would kill him.
Don Wait had been bored to tears all throughout his shift and was glad it
was going to end soon when he heard the scream and some one shouting. His
attention was drawn towards the doll thing as it was pulling its
restraints off.
"Well at least it's a break in the tedium," he mumbled to himself as he
brought his MP5 up and aimed down the sights. He fired but the rubber
bullets his gun was loaded with only penetrated the first mesh door
before being stopped by the second. At this point Noel had finally gotten
the harness that was holding him suspended off and was now working on the
cables still connected to his legs. Don swore as he dropped his MP5 and
pulled out his sidearm he already knew he was going to get in trouble for
using live ammo but the way he figured was that since it was really a
machine, they could still use it whether or not it was working one
hundred percent. And with that going through his head, he fired three
bullets. Two bullets hit Noel in the left and right shoulders and the
third hit him dead center in the chest throwing him back through the mesh
wall behind him tearing it from its frame where he landed on the floor
unmoving.
Then all hell broke loose.
Up on the bridge, the crew were busy when suddenly all the system and
computer monitors flashed red and blanked. Then every security and
emergency alarm began ringing as security doors closed all over the ship.
The helmsman informed the captain that he lost steering control. When the
captain ordered another of the bridge crew to call up the computer guys
in the mainframe room. The crewman did as ordered then but told him the
phone line was dead. A person from security tried his radio but quickly
pulled his earpiece out as a screeching tone erupted from it. The
security system began warning of incoming boarders in random parts of the
ship while another warned of fires breaking out in others. The ship
suddenly increased speed as well knocking most people on board off their
feet.
Meanwhile, in the lab containing the exo-suits, Mike and Tom were working
with Nelly again in the exo-suit-2 with Peter supervising. Mike stood by
going over the data while Tom was telling Nelly of how next time they
wanted to test the suit with the prototype battery when the room suddenly
lurched to one side. Fire alarms and automated warnings of intruders
sounded in the halls. A man who was placing a sensor inside of exo-suit-1
cried out in pain as the suit, without warning, closed up slicing several
of his fingers off that didn't make it in time. The empty suit then swung
a hand catching another nearby that went to help the man sending him
flying into the wall on the other side of the room with a sickening
scrunch as he crumpled to the floor dead. The suit then plodded over to
the helmet that matched it and placed it on its shoulders. On doing this
the features of the suit began to melt together and less distinct. The
maple leaf pattern on its chest now looked like a bloody splotch. Its
head shuddered as it split open revealing a gaping maw of a mouth full of
long sharp teeth. With a roar its arms grew claws and it smashed through
the door and left. Nelly had finally gotten to her feet and started to
run after the rampaging suit but was stopped short by the cord that was
supplying her suit with power. It was only when the cable was pulled out
causing her to fall did she stop.
Mike was in a state of shock while Tom check on his injured colleague
while Peter check the dead one, seeing he truly was dead he went out into
the hall. Aside from the smashed door the only other sign of the of the
run away suit was the sound of bulkheads being smashed as it broke
through security doors. Judging from the direction the noise was coming
from Peter guessed that it was heading towards the main labs. He then
picked up his radio to inform security but the radio only sputtered
static. Running back into the lab he picked up the phone but quickly
discovered the line was dead. With a growl, Peter dropped the phone down
and walked over to Nelly.
He grunted as he turned her over onto her back. "Are you ok?" he asked
her.
"Only my pride," she responded. "And if you tell ANYONE about this, I'll
do much worse to you. You hear me?"
Peter allowed himself a short laugh. "Believe me, I'm probably the only
one who'll never go waltzing over to your bad side." He turned to Mike
first but saw he was in no condition to do anything. He then turned to
Tom. "What the hell happened?"
Tom had just finished bandaging his colleagues hand and was wiping the
blood off on his pants. "I have no idea. Nothing like that ever happened
before. I didn't even know it could... Shift like that, let alone move on
its own."
"We gotta get that thing back and under control," Peter stated as he
looked around trying to think. When his eyes fell to Nelly he looked back
to Tom. "How soon can you attach the battery to the Nelly's suit?"
"Yeah, I think so," Tom replied. "I'll still need to calibrate it so
it'll take a few minutes."
"Then get started," Peter told him.
Down in the main lab, things weren't getting any better as the fire
sprinklers had activated making everyone's day miserable. The problem was
only compounded with the fact the doors to the lab had locked. Some were
hiding from the sprinklers under desks while a few were trying the door,
only one was working on the sprinkler system. Don was at the door with
mixed success in communicating with the security personnel on the other
side of the door. He found that if they shouted, they could barely make
out what the other was saying. They weren't any better then Don in the
lab but they were dry. However fortune seemed to be smiling on them as
the technician was finally able to stop the sprinklers allowing "clearer"
communication between the door. While the guards outside were able to
move freely through the halls, every door on the ship they checked seemed
to be locked. Don was in the middle of telling them to go to one of the
smaller labs to find one of the computer techs and hack the door open
when he heard shouting followed by gunfire and ended with two thumps on
the door.
Don backed away from the door and motioned the techs and scientist to get
behind cover while he swapped out the magazine in his MP5 with live ammo,
the other security man did the same as they got behind cover and aimed at
the door. None of the security personnel on the ship were strangers to
boarders. Being the headquarters for the whole company and a ship on the
ocean, they averaged on repelling boarding attempts from pirates and
other like at least once a year. This was however the first time any have
made it inside the ship let alone this deep into it. A second later there
was a load bang on the door followed by several others in rapid
succession.
The repeated bangs on the door both worried and confused Don. If it were
pirates on the other side of the door then why were they banging on it?
Surely they knew it was useless to force their way in like that. If it
were him he'd of already had cutting torches on the door or at least some
breaching charges to blow the door. He was about to relax until he heard
the doors actually begin to creak under the constant physical attacks.
The banging stopped for a short moment before renewing, this time slowly
but more forcibly than before. The center between the doors actually
began to bend inward until two bloody clawed hands burst through and
forced the doors to open inwards with an ear-splitting metallic screech
and cracks from the doors being ripped from their tracks in the frame.
Don and the other guard readied their submachine guns as the berserk
hardsuit entered the main lab. It's eyeless head looked around the lab
and seemed to settle on Don. With a start is let out a heavy roar and
charged straight for him. Don and the other guard opened fire on the
rampaging hardsuit as it advanced, with the bullets having no effect it
was already upon Don. It grabbed him by the head with one hand and
crushed his hands still holding the now mangled weapon. Don screamed out
in pain, the monster roared back and grabbed his head with both hands
now. The other guard spent his entire magazine on it before rushing in
hitting it with the butt of his gun with no effect.
The berserk hardsuit began to squeeze Don's head until a sickening crack
indicating that Don was now dead. Don Wait's body fell slack. Not seeming
to be content with Don's relatively quick death, the hardsuit back handed
the guard still hitting it and pushed down on Don's body sending what's
left of his head through his torso to his waist. The people who watched
this horror screamed and scrambled for the wrecked door. The hardsuit
ignored them and walked over to Noel's body. It reverted back to its
original form and picked Noel up, holding him against itself and opening
its armor Bringing him inside. Once Noel was inside, the hardsuit
shuddered and fell to its knees. The hardsuit began repairing the damage
to Noel's body.
Soon enough Noel was whole again and woke up with a start. Seeing that he
was back in his hardsuit he looked around and laid eyes on the damn cage
that held him for weeks on end. He quickly tore it apart with grim
satisfaction. With that sorted Noel then took stock of his surroundings
and nearly threw up when he saw the gory mess of Don Wait.
"Ok, I'm free now. I'm still a girl but I'm free," Noel thought to
himself. "Now which way is out?"
Out on the ocean, a Canadian Halifax-class frigate was approaching the
ship. On the bridge the captain told the radio man to issue a warning to
the runaway ship.
"Attention fleeing vessel," the radioman started. "Cut your engines and
prepare to be boarded. You are under suspicion of kidnaping a Canadian
citizen and harboring a known terrorist." He waited for a response. There
wasn't any. He repeated the hail but after another minute there was still
no response. "The bogey hasn't responded to hails captain."
The captain nodded. "Try contacting them by signal light. It might be
possible their communications are out," he said with a raised eyebrow
obviously not believing what he said himself.
Over on the bridge of the company ship the bridge crew watched the light
signals having not heard due to the radio still being out. However, they
were powerless to respond as they were still locked in the bridge and
there wasn't any strong enough lights on the bridge to send a return
signal of their plight. They could only watch as the frigate came along
their course at a respectable distance.
After waiting several minutes the captain of the frigate told the
radioman to signal the go ahead for the boarding team to start their
mission that was now flying over them.
On the Hercules transport, John and his team were getting ready along
with the CSOR team. Although, John was having a slight argument with
Andria over the issue of her not wanting to wear a parachute.
"I'm telling you, I don't need one," Andria stated matter-of-factly. "I
have my grav con," she said as she snapped her fingers causing a faint
misty blue aura surrounds her.
John raised an eyebrow. "Andria, that only worked once in the game," he
told her.
Andria pouted at that. "You know that's just a plot hole for the game.
Come on, this is one of the few times I'll ever get a chance to use it
like this," she whined.
One of the CSOR members came over. "Trust me kid, you don't want to hit
the water from this height. Even if you hit the water, without a chute,
it'll feel like hitting concrete."
The statement took the wind out of Andria's petulance as she grumbled and
pulled a parachute on muttering of how cool it would have been.
John pulled on a ski mask before pulling his helmet on. Both John and
Andria were dressed in modified SWAT gear. The mask John was now wearing
was to protect his identity and avoid future headaches since he still
looked very much like David Tenant. Major had her own gear from when she
was first transformed as well as the weapon that only, until she came
upon the box, existed in the anime. She loaded a magazine into her Seburo
C26A assault rifle with a silencer and clipped it to her tac vest. Andria
herself had her gunblade configured in rifle mode. John was the only one
on the their team with a conventional firearm. Another of the CSOR team
members handed Major a radio but she held her hand up and shook her head.
"I don't need it," she said. "Just tell me what channel we're on." He did
so. "Can you hear me?" she asked over the radio. Her voice had a weird
digital echo to it but came through clear.
Johanna came down from the cockpit to the hold and stood in front of
them. "We're almost over the target area. Once the signal is given,
you'll all be jumping, after thirty seconds pull your chutes. There's a
frigate on the surface that will provide a distraction while you land.
Needless to say, the priority here is to rescue a kidnapped civilian.
Target of opportunity is a Henry Donald. If possible, capture him as
there's a possibility that he's kidnapped several people and are holding
them at his base of operations but he is considered extremely dangerous
and has proven himself to kill when cornered. So don't take any chances."
They all acknowledged while Andria spoke up. "Don't worry about the
distraction, I can take care of that."
Johanna nodded. "I'll leave it to you then," she said before she turned
and headed back to the cockpit. The lights in the hold dimmed as the back
of the plane opened up. Everyone lined up ready for the signal. The light
next to the open door turned green and everybody ran out and jumped into
the air. After thirty seconds, they opened their chutes and steered for
the flat top of the ship as they drifted down. As they floated down,
Andria "summoned" a hologram of an eidolon from Final Fantasy XIII. It's
glowing body flew off to the bow of the ship easily distracting the few
guards that were on deck as well as those who had a window in the island
tower of the ship. They quickly touched down on the deck, John and his
team made way for the base of the island tower while the CSOR team
secured the few people on the deck.
They quickly found the doors they found to be locked. Major pulled the
panel off the key pad by the door and attached a device to hack the
system. She pulled out the cord from her dummy plug and connected to the
system. Reality fell away from her as she was plunged into the digital
plane where she was floating in an ethereal void, the security system was
identified as a box icon in front of her. As she approached the icons on
the box turned red causing her to stop. Major swore as she looked for any
holes in the systems firewall.
"What's taking so long?" John asked.
"The security system is top notch. I shouldn't be surprised since this is
the head office for the entire company, so wait while I figure this out,"
she said. As she began to probe the firewall the red icon turned back to
white. In the real world, the door opened.
"Good job," John said as the group walked in.
"But I-I didn't even do anything yet," Major sputtered. No one seemed to
hear her.
"We're in. So, what now?" Chris asked. "It's not like we were able to get
the plans to the ship so how are we going to find Noel?"
John pulled out his sonic screwdriver from a pocket in his tac vest.
"It's all right, I can use this to track Noel's power signature. It's
almost exactly the same as the alien box," he explained. "It's probably
why the machine she had closed up early when Johanna came by her place."
"How do you know about that?" Chris asked as she turned him around by the
shoulder.
"III may have glanced through the file Johanna gave you wen you were
finished with it," he said as he began pointing the screwdriver around.
Only he, and to a lesser extent Major, were able to decipher the subtle
pitches of buzzing and barely perceptible changes in light. "This way,"
he told them as he headed in the general direction of the main lab.
"Wait!" Major called out. "What about Henry? I know he's still here. I
can feel that slime ball any where," she said in disgust.
John breathed a sigh in frustration. "Ok, lets split up. Half with me and
half go with the Major and search the ship for Henry."
"Looks like I'm with you then," Chris said to John. "My first priority is
to rescue Noel."
Two of the CSOR team members went with John Andria and Chris while the
other three went with Major. After splitting up John's newly revised team
head to the aft of the ship while Major and her team went to the fore of
the ship.
Meanwhile in the lab that had held the hardsuits up till now. Tom had
finally calibrated the battery prototype and hooked it up into the suit
that Nelly was still in.
"'K Nelly, the exo-suit is now being powered by the battery. I don't know
how long it'll last but you should have on the outside of half an hour
before it's dead," he winced inwardly on saying that last word.
Nelly nodded at that while adjusting the helmet to the hardsuit she was
now wearing for the first time. Tom did one final check before giving her
the thumbs up.
"One more thing though," Tom warned. "I have no idea how much power the
exo-suit will drain from the battery. Since we haven't tested any of the
combat capabilities of the suit I'm not sure if you'll even get thirty
minutes."
"Don't worry. I'm not the type to play around on the clock," Nelly
replied as she headed for the door where Peter was waiting.
He put a hand on her shoulder. "Be careful," he told her grimly.
She told him she would as she pulled the faceplate down on her helmet and
ran down the hall. As she rounded a corner, her foot slipped on the
polished floor and skidded to a halt against the wall. Picking herself
up, she was glad that nobody saw her being so clumsy and was off again
following the spent ammo casings and random dead body. Soon she was in
the main lab and ran head long into Noel sending him to the far side of
the lab.
Noel hit the wall hard and fell to the ground but got up almost
immediately. He extended the blades from his hardsuits forearms and
readied to attack. "I don't know who you are in that hardsuit lady but
I've got a LOT of pent up aggression from being held here against my
will," Noel told her.
"You don't know what the fuck you mean by 'pent up'," Nelly countered as
she launched herself at Noel.
Noel swung a bladed arm down in front of Nelly but she dodged to the side
at the last minute then pushed herself off the wall behind Noel kinking
him in the back sending Noel flying forwards this time. Noel growled as
he got up and retracted one of his blades and fired several energy bolts
at Nelly's previous location. Nelly, had jumped into the air and landed
in front of Noel, ducking down Nelly swept a leg knocking Noel's feet out
from under him as he fell to the deck. In one fluid motion Nelly rolled
over and grabbed hold of Noel's arm and held him down with her legs.
Nelly's military training was obviously giving her an edge over Noel but
he refused to ever go back to that cage again. He struggled against
Nelly's hold but her grip stayed firm. In desperation he extended the
kater blade from the arm that Nelly was holding. Sparks flew as the blade
grinded against Nelly's hardsuit. In surprise, she let go to avoid being
impaled in the face allowing Noel to roll away and get to his feet.
Nelly was growing concerned. She kept glancing at the indicator on her
HUD that showed her battery level seeing tat a third was gone already.
She ground her teeth trying to think of what to do, she had to hit the
girl hard and fast enough to knock her out or knock her helmet off and
knock her out that way. She knew from personal experience that it didn't
take much to do that. With that in mind she rushed forward making a feint
by kicking the girl in the stomach, she reacted by doubling over and
grabbing Nelly's leg. Nelly then brought both arms up and struck the back
of Noel's head with both elbows slamming Noel almost comically to the
ground. Taking advantage of this Nelly got on Noel's back and grabbed him
in a headlock and pulled back hoping to either suffocate him into
unconsciousness or pull the helmet off by force. Noel countered by
deploying his jump wings flipping her over. Noel then jumped up and came
down with a punch followed by a kick. He tried kicking her again but she
caught his leg and swung him around into one of the few robotic assembly
arms still in the lab smashing it to pieces. Nelly continued swinging
Noel smashing him into the floor and various other equipment until Noel
kicked her away while using the jump jets on his hips to get some
distance from her. Nelly was becoming frustrated and activated the
ribbons in the helmet of her hardsuit. Noel groaned knowing that thing
were going to get a whole lot harder.
Major and the three other CSOR team members were trying the doors and
finding each of them locked. On the occasion they heard something on the
other side, Major would kick the door in and check the room, often
finding terrified employees. After telling them to stay put, they would
move on to the next door. They continued this tactic until the hall split
off into three directions. This caused Major to decide to split up the
team to cover more ground. Two of the CSOR members would go right while
Major and the third went down the left side. Major and the soldier walked
a short distance before reaching another split in the hallway. This time
Major went right while her companion went left. She had reached her
fourth door when she heard a noise behind the door. Readying her rifle,
she kicked the door in and came face to face with Henry who was busy
putting on a suitcase style suit of Ironman armor. Major froze for the
briefest of moments but she managed to compose herself quickly enough.
"Freeze!" she shouted as she aimed her rifle at his unprotected head.
"Put the palms of your hands on the sides of you head and is I see you
charging up any of your weapons to shoot, so help me god, I'll shoot
right through that thing you call a face," she spat.
Henry calmly complied and put his armored hands to the sides of his head.
He gave her an unpleasant smile. "I see you're still up and about," he
said casually. "Tell me, how's your memory been?"
"Shut it!" Major shouted, she was already on the radio telling the other
CSOR soldiers that came with her to come to her location. "Fuck you
Henry."
Henry only smirked. "Tell you what, if you let me go, I'll tell you what
your name is. I mean your real name," he said.
Major hessitated. "H-how can you know what my name is when you deleted my
memories," she accused.
Henry only shrugged. "I took a copy of your memories before I erased them
from your mind. If you want, I can tell you little about your robotic
friend before he blew up," he taunted.
Major lowered her rifle ever so slightly. She want, desperately even,
wanted to know anything about her past. But to give Henry any slack would
be deadly. She righted her rifle in resolve. "How do I know you're not
lying just so you can get away?"
Henry quirked his head. "You don't," he said simply. "For all you know
I'm probably lying about everything. But can you really take that chance
for a small bit of piece of mind I can give?" His smirk changed to a
predatory smile. "Tell me. If you're so distrusting of me, what makes you
think that Jeffrey deserves any of yours?"
Major narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"Hmm? Oh nothing. It's just that I'm not sure Jeffrey told you everything
about us,"
"He told me that you put your own sister in the hospital," Major stated.
This caused Henry to chuckle. "Oh, he really didn't tell you anything at
all did he?"
Major started to feel more nervous than before. "Just shut up, if you get
out of that armor and surrender yourself, you'll have your chance to tell
us what you think is real."
"Maybe," Henry replied. His finger twitched.
Out on the bridge of the frigate, the radar man got the XO's attention.
"Sir, I'm getting an airborne contact coming off the mainland and it's
heading for the bogey."
"A missile?" he asked.
"Unknown sir, but the bogey is now between us and the contact will breach
the bogey in twenty seconds."
The XO gritted his teeth. "Very well, deploy what counter measures we can
and inform the boarding party of a possible missile impact."
"Ey sir."
At this time the three CSOR team members were right outside the room.
"Either way Henry, you're under arrest for several murders and suspected
kidnappings," Major stated as she inched towards him, her rifle still
trained on his head.
"Oh, I don't think so," Henry said as slowly turned around.
Just as the radioman was issuing the warning, when the wall exploded
inwards and an armored robot climbed in pointing a muzzle on its arm at
the direction of Major and the three soldiers with her.
"Run!" Major shouted as she ducked and rolled as the robot fired a
shotgun blast that caught one of the fleeing soldiers in the chest.
Fortunate for him, his tac vest did it's job and he mostly had the wind
knocked out of him though he was going to be sore for days afterwards.
When Major recovered to her feet, Henry already had his helmet on and was
about to leave when he turned back to her.
"At least trust me when I say this: Jeffrey isn't telling you
everything," and then he was gone as he flew off towards the mainland.
"FUCK!" Major screamed as she aimed her rifle at the robot that stayed
behind and opened fire. The HV-type bullets that were loaded in the rifle
made quick work of the robot as the bullets perforated the robot. the two
CSOR members added to the onslaught with their own fire and the robot was
quickly downed. After making sure the robot was dead they check on their
companion that caught the shotgun blast and found he actually had two
cracked ribs but was otherwise ok.
"We lost Henry," Major said bitterly.
John had lead the team down through the decks and hallways when they
across the hallway filled with destruction, ammo casings and dead bodies.
"Well," John said grimly. "I don't think I'll be needing my screwdriver
to lead us to her by the looks of this."
They all checked their weapons and continued on. As they passed a room
with an broken door bullets suddenly spewed forth from the room. They
took cover on either side of the door.
This is the Canadian Armed Forces," Chris shouted. "Stand down!"
"Bullshit!" a voice shouted back followed by more bullets.
"We don't have time for this," Chris stated as she took a few steps back
before running to the door. Just before reaching the door she fell to her
knees and slid through on the floor. Two shots rang out followed by a
groan of a man and a thump on the floor. Chris walked out a second later.
"He'll be walking funny for awhile but he'll be fine, lets go," she said
as she continued down the hall. Andria gave John a look to which he
responded with just a shrug as they followed after.
Henry was hugging the shoreline over the water as he left the ship far
behind. He wished he had more time to study the girl and the tech she
made for herself with the box. But, the risk was too great with Jeffrey's
team there and without his usual armor he decided caution was the better
part of business. As he considered what else to do, something landed on
his back causing him to dip as he flew. Looking over his shoulder he saw
Jeffrey in his Batman beyond suit holding on to him.
"Where is she!?" he demanded. as he tried to force him down.
"Try checking the boat," Henry replied as he began spinning so much that
Jeffrey eventually lost his grip and fell off where he smacked in some of
the four foot waves of the ocean before he was able to activate the
rockets in his boots. With a grimace he headed for the ship.
The main lab had been completely destroyed by the ongoing fight between
Noel and Nelly. Nelly was able to maintain the upper hand but her battery
was nearly dead which she noticed as her hardsuit was slowing down. Nelly
knew that her next move was her last chance to subdue the girl. She ran
straight at Noel who moved to grab her. As he did so she duck down and to
the side batting his arm away with one hand while throwing a jab to his
side and slide in behind him and reached under his helmet and started
pulling.
"Come on, you piece of shit, get off," Nelly gritted.
Noel grabbed her arms and pulled her over himself, thanks to her training
she recovered, but Noel had had enough and shoved a hand through the
battery and its casing. Nelly's suit stopped moving.
"Fuckfuckfuck, fucking move you piece of shit," Nelly pleaded to herself.
She was once again unable to move. "Please move, I don't want to be a
fucking cripple for the rest of my life," she pleaded again coming close
to tears.
Noel didn't know what to think. Just seconds ago this woman was literally
trying to pull his head off and now she sounded like she was crying. "Was
she really paralysed?" he asked himself. "Was she just not able to walk?
No, even if the hardsuit had no power, a person could still move it, even
if only slightly." So far, the woman was only banging her head around
trying to move herself. Noel could see that her fingers weren't moving at
all so she must really be completely paralysed then. "How did she get
like that?" He wondered. "And why did they put her in a hardsuit? Did
they find something out about the hardsuits that I didn't think of?"
Noel continued to wonder these thoughts. He didn't want to leave her like
that. While it wasn't the same he felt he could relate, being tied up
like he was for weeks on end. Every other day, the same jerk off would
touch him in places... Noel shook his head. He didn't want to leave her
like this where some one like his molester could take advantage of her
but he couldn't leave her with a fully functioning hardsuit either. Noel
thought about this until he realised something. He was a Claudia-class
Boomer. He intentionally made himself like that so he could repair his
own hardsuit if he needed to. "Surely, I can use that to change her
hardsuit too right," He thought to himself. He flipped her over and
removed what was left of the battery casing and put his armored hand in
as he concentrated. She didn't need the armor of the weapons the hardsuit
had, she just needed the motors and sensors to move. Soon, his armored
hand began to meld with the Linna hardsuit. Once that was done, he began
absorbing the material of the hardsuit into himself and his own armor.
This caused the Linna hardsuit to look sickly as veins started to grow
over it. As the veins pulsed, they seemed to flow back to Noel making the
Linna hardsuit somehow dull in color as well as appear thinner. Once he
was done Noel pulled away, the veins on her hardsuit remained but looked
withered giving the hardsuit a look as if it were dead.
Noel hoped he was doing the right thing as he turned away and headed for
the exit. When he came to a corner, he bumped into Chris with John Andria
and the two CSOR members. Surprised, Chris brought her revolver up and
was about to shoot when John pushed it aside just as she fired sending
the bullet harmlessly into the wall behind Noel.
"Stop!" John told her. "She's the one we've been looking for."
Chris looked surprised but put her revolver away and she pulled out a
canteen and took a swig of it as she cursed.
"We were going to rescue you," John said as he looked Noel over. "But it
seems you were able to take care of yourself."
"Believe me when I say it was pure coincidence. You have no idea how long
I wanted to get out of that hell hole," Noel said in relief.
Chris quickly radioed that they found Noel and were heading out. The
captain of the frigate told her that they were sending a helicopter to
pick them up. The rest of the boarding team acknowledged as they headed
for the flat deck. They met up with Major and her team as they got onto
the deck outside. As they waited for the helicopter John and Major shared
a tender kiss.
"Don't you ever do that again, you hear me?" John told her.
"I can handle myself," Major replied hotly. "I just wished I didn't loose
him," she said bitterly.
"You may have lost him but with any luck, the tracking beacon I stuck on
him might lead us back to his hide out," a voice said.
Surprised, they all turned around as Jeffrey turned off the cloak on his
suit revealing himself.
"Once we know which rock he crawls under, we're going to get him and stop
him. Once and for all," he said with a look of determination on his face.