Project: Hero

[scikaiju]

A quiet, sunny late afternoon and the people of city of Chicago were walking the sidewalk and filling the streets with there cars. Some going home, some going to work others just relaxing and trying to have some fun. The park was especially filled with those trying to relax and unwind. People read while other played with their dogs or their friends. Parents were using the free time they had to spend time with their families. One little boy about eight years old in particular was sitting by his parents playing with his toys. In one hand was a generic green monster that barely moved. In his other was a figure of a man dressed in blue and grey. He was having the two fight and the grey and blue figure won every time, smashing the monster into the dirt. “Take that you evil monster,” he said as he made the figure stand on top of his defeated foe.

“Tommy,” he Mom called out as she started packing things up, “It’s item to go honey. Get you dolls and …”

“Mooooom,” he whined.

“Sorry, I mean action figures,” she corrected herself. Beside her husband stifled a chuckle. “Oh like you got a better response when you mispronounced that damn thing name.”

“It’s hard to pronounce,” he tried to defend himself and failed miserably. They boy grabbed his toys and put them in the bag he carried them in. They headed for their car when the Dad noticed a couple of people were pointing at the sky. A large disc shaped object was slowly getting bigger as it got closer to the ground. People started running in every direction as the man dropped what he had and grabbed his wife and son hands and started running. “Come on!”, he said as he tried to remember where the closest shelter was.

“Bill,” he wife tried to get his attention, “there’s a shelter over there!” he wasn’t listening, his only concern was getting his family to safety. Tommy pulled his hand away and ran back toward the saucer through the growing crowd. “Tommy!!”, his mother screamed.

Tommy stopped and reached into his bag. He pulled out the grey and silver figure and held it over his head. “Cyberone will stop you!”, he shouted at the ship. His Father ran back and scoped him up.

“Heather,” Bill shouted, “this way!” He started running in the direction she tried to point earlier. They reached it in a matter of minutes and quickly found a space in the rapidly filling underground bunker. Bill put an arm around both of them to try to comfort them and prayed to whoever would listen to him.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” Heather kept saying over and over as her heart raced.

“It’s going to be alright honey,” Bill assured her. “Just you see, they’ll send that thing back to wherever it came from just like always.” A sound similar to the ray guns from old science fiction movies could be heard and the shelter started to shake and screams could be heard from the outside as people still tried push their way in. Bill rubbed his wife shoulder, “It’s going to be just fine.” Now if he could only convince himself of that.

Tommy was the only one of the three who wasn’t worried in the least. He kept looking at the figure still in his hand, “Cyberone will save us mom. He always saves the day.”

-----
Deep in the city at the main headquarters of the Eagle Corporation the situation was being monitored amid a hurricane of activity. People were going back and forth as reports kept coming in. An older man with balding grey hair stormed through the halls with various junior execs trying to keep up behind him. Everybody who saw him coming quickly got out of his way and wasn’t expecting an “excuse me” from him. Nobody did when this sort of thing happened. He pushed open a set of double door and walked into a control room. It was a lot more hectic in here than it was in the rest of the building. By contrast nobody in the room barely paid him any attention. He walked over to an army Captain that was standing by a control board and was busy barking out orders to anybody not doing anything. “How in the hell did that thing get so close?!”, he demanded from the Captain.

“Were still trying to figure that one out Hammond,” was all he said.

“That Mr. Hammond to you,” he told him. “I still run this company.”

“Not in here,” the Captain informed him. “And especially not in this type of situation. That was part of the agreement remember?”

“Don’t think you can tell me what was in that agreement Smith,” he scolded. “I signed the damn thing.”

“Captain Smith,” an intern said holding a readout. “The best we can tell we got a sensor reading from the satellites after it was well into the earth atmosphere. We’ve never seen that happen before. We’re still trying to figure out how they were able to do that.”

“Well hurry up Truman, that last thing we need is somebody out the use a hole in our sensor net like a two dollar hooker,” Smith barked. The intern ran off trying to figure out the answer. “God, do you know how much trouble I had to go through to get funding for that last sensor upgrade?”, he said to nobody in particular. “Does our friend recognize this craft?” he asked a Corporal to his left.

“He recognizes the basic design of the ship sir,” he informed him. “He wouldn’t go into specifics, but he implied this could be bad if left unchecked.”

“I don’t want to tell you your business Smith, “Hammond said sarcastically, “but you might want to get Ryder out there.”

“He’s already suiting up Hammond,” he answered sounding annoyed. “I also have the closest missile range ready to go with the ‘special’ payload. All they need is Ryder out there and the signal them to fire at will.”

“Why don’t we fire the payload now then?”

“We wait until Ryder is in contact.” He shot Hammond a smug little smile, “That is how you wanted it after all.” Hammond walked off to another console in huff. Not for the first time Smith wonder who he pissed off to get this assignment.

In a bunker like room a couple of floors above them a blond short haired man wearing an almost skin tight dark blue body suit walked into the brightly lit room. He stood in the middle of a group of poles in the center of the room as he readjusted the lead that connected the top part of the suit to his forehead. Holding his arms out to the side several people station on the side of the room went to work. The ceiling directly above him opened up and various pieces of grey metal looking armor slid down on mechanical arms. They position themselves around him at various heights as he waited.

“Neural receptors are green,” a female announced.

“Proceeding with armor attachment,” a man on the other side of the room said. An almost silent buzzing could be heard as the pieces moved into final position. With each one going into position a voice called out it’s status. Grey pieces closed around his feet, shin and legs.

“Lower armor in position and green.”

The man pulled his arms back a bit then into placed them into metal gloves on either side of him as they closed around his forearms. More covered his upper arm seconds later.

“Arm armor and weaponry are green.”

In front and behind him two big pieces were placed on him and secured.

“Torso armor is green.”

Above him a helmet came down and split open then closed as it reached his head.

“Head armor and sensor are green.” A few seconds later she announced, “Life support, computer and weapon systems are green. The CBR-1 is ready to activate.”

“Activating now,” the man said. There was a hiss as the armored sealed itself around him. Sensor reading and diagnostics came to life in front of his eyes as the armor powered up. “Ryder any is there any system feedback?”

“None,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me my adoring public needs it’s butts saved.” He turned around and headed for another door in the back of the room. It slid open and he didn’t see or hear them sigh in annoyance at his comment. He entered a room with a hanger door on the far end slowly opening. Near the center of the room was a low to the ground jet looking vehicle, the same color grey he was. He sat on the vehicle like you would a motorcycle. Sensors, readouts and the engines came to life as he started flipping switches. A canopy slid over him as he grabbed the controls and waited for clearance.

“CBR-1, the area is clear,” the woman in the other room announced of his helmet head set. “You have permission to launch the Cy-Jet.”

“Acknowledge,” he replied, “Cy-Jet is launching. Get out a bottle of the bubbly sweet heart ‘cause this is going to be a memorable one.” Her response was cut off as he throttled the engines to full and shot out of the hanger. He zipped around the building a few times before heading for the saucer. A ping on his radar made him look to the sides of his craft. Two F-16 Falcons flew formation with him in the center. He clicked into their comm system, “You guys ready to kick ET butt back into space?”

“The Wild Aces always are sir,” the pilot to his port answered.

“Right lets shows these bastards why you don’t mess with us.”

“Oh hell yeah.” Before the even got close to the battle area they could see Squadrons already attacking the ship, some being taken out before the pilot could eject form their plan. He lost his jovial attitude as he watched the planes turn into fireballs that quickly burnt out.

Back in the control room it was announced, “CBR-1 is approaching the target vessel. Awaiting word to launch the ground attack.”

“Right,” Smith responded. “Make sure the special payload is fired in the second wave of the ground assault. Once he does a fly by and sends us the reading fire at will.”

The Cy-Jet and the F-16s split formation as the saucer spotted them and started firing the green laser at them. Cyberone fired a few shots of his own in return before twisting his craft out of the way of another volley. The feedback from the hits gave him the frequency of the shield surrounding the craft. Adjusting his weapons to match they frequency he fired off another round. His shots went through and impacted the surface of the attacking craft. Sending the frequency to the surviving jets and tactical command he let himself smile under the helmet. “God, I make this too easy for him sometimes.”

One the ground a wave of missiles fired at the craft as tanks tried to get their attention right below. Some paying the price for that very act. After a few tense moments another wave of missiles fired at the craft. They flew so fast nobody watching had time to notice that one missile in particular was wider than the others. But they noticed that one missile flew through the shielding and into the ship itself. All of them were disappointed that it didn’t explode on impact but happy some damaged was caused. But only a small few of them knew that it wasn’t designed to explode.

-----
The missile ripped through several levels of the ship before stopping about half way in, stuck between floors at first glance. Several dark grey alien with huge black eyes, blue tinted armor like suits and legs bending in the opposite direction cautiously approached, spears and rifles ready for anything. One poked the intruding object lightly the point of his spear lightly before jumping back. In there own language somebody commanded, “Step away from the foreign object!”.

The one with the spear replied,” I have studied the history of this planets weaponry. This is suppose to cause structural damage on the outside of the craft not penetrate it. This is faulty.”

“If you know so much about these weapons why are they getting through our shield?!”, the one in charge demanded.

“We started rotating the shield harmonics,” he said. “It works momentarily but soon they are able to match it.”

“It’s the armored one,” the commander stated plainly. “All weapons target…” he was cut off the panel of the missile flew off crashing into some of the aliens. Before they could react shots where fired cutting down the first row of aliens. From the smoke of the missile a figured dressed in black from head to toe and wearing black body armor slowly and calmly walked into view and fired again. When they finally came to their senses to attack the intruder he ran at them. Getting close to the middle as he could he used their numbers against them, like he’s done many times before. One of the guards close to him lunged at him with his spear. He spun to avoid and barely saw the tip of the weapon pierce the one who was trying to sneak up behind him. The alien didn’t have time to realize what he had done as he was now staring down the barrel of the intruder’s weapon, that was the last thing he would ever see.

He didn’t bother to watch the alien drop before firing at another one. The one in charge shouted something at his troops and they started backing away from him. Having a hunch about what that order was he grabbed one who was a little too slow and held it in front of him. Just like he thought the gunmen came foreword firing away. He returned fire as his unwilling shield jolted from the impacts of each shot. A stray shot hit him in the right shoulder causing him to drop the gun. He kicked his dead hostage toward them and fired with his left gun as he dove behind a console for cover as they continued firing. Out of habit he checked his shoulder, the suit prevented the slug from going through but the impact cause his arm to go numb. Hearing the head alien shout orders again he put the gun down momentarily and pulled a grenade of his chest. Pressing the button and counting to three he tossed the grenade over and into the middle of them. A moment later it exploded sending tiny little shard of shrapnel that slice their way through their exposed flesh.

Cautiously he came out of hiding waving his gun around while trying to get some feeling back into his right arm. A pile of dead bodies or those still I pain writhing on the floor gave him a buffer zone that let him shot anybody that tried to come at him. Somebody threw a spear at him that he barely ducked. Forcing his right arm to move he reached for the sheath on his left bicep and threw a throwing knife in the direction the spear came from. The blade embedded itself into an alien throat as it gurgled a blue-ish liquid out of it’s mouth and slowly went to the floor. Another one charged him from the side. He pushed the spear so it went past him and placed the gun right under it’s chin. The alien face didn’t have time to register the shock as he pulled the trigger and the top of it’s head exploded out. He aimed and fired again but heard nothing but a click, he was out of bullets, “Shit.”

He holstered the gun and reached behind his back with both hand removing the knives that were there. The alien in charge shouted orders to those still remaining on their feet. Breathing a little easier at the fewer numbers he still didn’t relax, his arm was still tingling and started to hurt like hell as the feeling returned to it. He ran foreword slashing at the closest alien. Cutting deep at what he hoped was a vital point he turned his attention to another one. A spear was swung in his direction, he ducked and jammed the knife all the way to hilt into it’s chest. Twisting the blade to cause more damage he pulled it out, blood spurted out hitting him but he paid no attention. A quick spin kick snapped another one around, wrapping his arms around his head the intruder snapped it’s neck. He blocked another spear swing with his knives and looked the alien in the eye right before he smashed his head into his. The alien recoiled from the impact just long enough for him to jam both blades into it’s neck.

Turning his attention to the leader he watched as he pulled a black metal sword out of the scabbard at his side. He readjusted his grip on the knives as he waited. He knew enough to not charge in after taking all these guys on. The leader was impatient and came right at him swinging widely. He parried or dodged what he could, if not just jumping out of the way. That sword edge looked sharp as hell and he was in no mood to test the suit against it. Dropping down so a beheading swing rushed over him he crossed his arms and squeezed the knives handle near the hilt. A slight hum filled the air as the blades started vibrating at a very fast rate. Yelling he swung the knives at the alien exposed stomach. The blades sliced through the armor, flesh and bone like the proverbial hot knife through butter and the alien fell to the ground dying. He backed up as he put the knives back into their sheaths and looked around. Retrieving the fallen gun he ejected both empty clips and loaded the clips attached to his legs. As he stepped over them he shot any alien that looked like it was still capable of movement while he made his way toward the only undamaged computer station on the wall. Their blue blood covered him but he wasn’t concerned too much, it would dry and flake off before too long.

Opening the gauntlet on his left forearm and revealing a mini computer he pulled out a wire and hooked it into the station. He waited impatiently as the decryption program broke into the system and recognized whatever the hell he was looking at. It beeped after it was done and he immediately downloaded a schematic of the ship and sent it to command and that armored idiot. Using the time he had he quickly identified the most likely weak spots and sent them too. Then he found the weapon controls and did what he could to lock them out, even gong as far as putting in a twenty-five layer encryption program their so called friend invented. He looked up and thought he saw movement behind him on the screen. He turned his head and pointed his gun at an alien trying to come at him. A single shot caused what ever was in it’s head to spray out the back of it. Looking back he saw he was now locked out of the system. “Fucking bastard,” he cursed as he unplugged himself. He could finish cursing them out later, there were a couple of weak points inside the ship he needed to get to before he could leave. And the whole ship knew he was there now.

-----
Cyberone maneuvered the Cy-Jet in and out of the way of the lasers being shot at him. After changing his weapons to match the shield harmonics for the fifth time he was able to take out one of the gun turrets. A beep momentarily got his attention and he risked a glance down at the screen in front of him. The design of the alien ship appeared with several points highlighted. “It’s about time, I can only do so much before it looks like I’m stalling,” he muttered to himself. Flipping his comm to an open frequency he announced, “CBR-1 to all squadron and ground troops, I‘ve completed my scan of the ship and marked the vulnerable points. Focus all attacks on one of the coordinates I’m sending now.” He got several confirmation replies a second later. He split from his current flight path and fired away. If only that bum could have done something about the stupid shields. Not even waiting for a target lock he fired on of the missiles hidden in the fuselage. He watched as it ripped into the hull of the ship revealing a passage way into the interior of the ship. Marking the location he sent it on a special coded communication link. He better be grateful that he took the time to do that.

-----
The aliens were going nuts trying to find the intruder on board the ship. But none of their scanners were picking him up. Occasionally a patrol would report seeing something in black and that would be the last they would be heard from. The patrols were so busy looking for him they failed to notice an extra blinking light here and there. One patrol rushed by and he dropped down from his hiding spot in the ceiling. Drawing a gun he jogged in the other direction keeping an eye out for any backtrackers or an oncoming patrol. The computer on his arm beeped, signaling an incoming message. The idiot blasted a hole in the ship and expected him to use that to get out. A way out, yes, but more than likely extra crewmen were going to be assigned there now. Placing one last bomb he headed for the hole. It was going to be a pain in the ass but it was a lot closer than his original escape route.
-----
He could hear the cheers of the pilots in his headset as they continued to do major damage to the alien ship. All of these times and he wondered why nobody ever pointed out the bad guys seemed to stop shooting at them after a certain point. Although he kept an eye on the gun emplacements they hadn’t hit yet. There’s been a few time the invaders were able to break the encryption they put in place. He’d nearly been shot out of the air a few times when that happened. Good thing he was one hell of a pilot and this ride handled like a dream. An alarm from his control console went off and he set his gaze toward those very guns. No, they weren’t coming back online so what was it?

Checking the scan again he saw something was happening on the bottom of the ship. Twisting the stick he dove for the underneath. At the center of the ship, a very large panel was opening up like an iris. Cyberone could see the energy build up from where he was. He didn’t need a schematic to know what that thing was, a big ass city destroying gun. Hitting a few controls he started the activation sequence for his own weapon and flew in position. “Cy-Jet to command I’m activating the Tri-laser, tell the fly boys to head out of here and to clear the ground. This is going to get messy.”

“Wait CBR-1,” he heard Smith shout over the headset. “Shadow hasn’t sent the exit signal yet. Hold off on the Tri-Laser.”

“No can do Captain. Don’t worry I know what I’m doing.” He cut the transmission before the Captain could reply. They didn’t have time to argue. The Cy-Jet hovered in the air as soon as it got into position, with the nose pointed at the opening. Behind him three panels flipped open and emitters about two feet long emerged. The nose of the Cy-Jet opened up to reveal a mirrored inside and another emitter. Cyperone got a target lock shouting, “Tri-Laser fire,” and pulled the trigger. From the prongs behind him three small lasers hit the nose of the craft. The mirrors controlled magnified the laser into a bigger beam that ripped into the opening. At the same time a small band wavelength transmitted a destruct signal to the packages Shadow left behind. They blew up first then the effects of the laser kicked in as more explosion went off on the outer layers of the craft.

Disengaging the laser and he flew away and things started falling apart. Pieces were falling onto building below as he flew out of there. The Cy-Jet zigged and zagged through the falling debris as he made his way to open air. The ship started crashing to the ground a second after he got clear. He turned the ship to watch it fall to the ground, “Take that bitches!”

-----
On the inside his gauntlet beeped twice, that was never good. The ship was getting ready to fire the big gun and that armored idiot was getting ready to set off the charges and use the Tri-laser. “I’m going to kill that fucking bastard,” he stated to himself and started running. The hum from the main weapon vibrated the decks of the ship then it started jolting around. A boom behind him caused the floor to shake harder and various panels started sparking then start blowing up right by him. Bowling over a group of aliens he saw daylight ahead of him. Running as fast as he ever had before he kept his eyes locked on the opening. The explosions started get more violent as a piece shrapnel flew free and hit him in the back, ripped the suit and tore into his shoulder as it knocked him to the ground. Ignoring the pain he got up and continued his escape. More explosions went off around him as he felt the ship lean toward the side, this thing was going down.

He saw rooftops as he got closer to his only exit. Leaping out the opening he was in freefall as a fireball followed him out moments later. Somersaulting with the force of the explosion he pointed his feet at the buildings below. When he was a few yards above the rooftop he punched the buttons on the side of his belt. The soles of his boots flashed momentarily and he literally paused in midair for a brief second. Then he started falling again but this time from a height of a couple of yards. Still he landed hard on the rooftop and fell on his back. He had to shift to his side as he felt renewed pain from his shoulder. Slowly getting to his knees he put a hand to his ear, “This is Shadow, I need a pick up and a clean up crew.”

“Acknowledged Shadow,” A woman’s voice answered. “Both are on there way now.”

Reaching behind his head he pulled the mask off. Brown hair was plastered to his skull from sweat and his features were twisted from the pain. Reaching for the hole in his shoulder he gingerly started removing some of the gravel from the rooftop, “Fucking A.”

-----
Cyberone flew over the wreckage when he saw people started coming out of the shelters or whatever hiding place they could run into. Changing direction he slowly flew over the crowd who erupted into cheers as they saw him. Sliding the canopy back he raised a hand in victory and they got even louder. “Thank you!”, he shouted at them. “Come on now, who’s you hero?!”. They erupted in even more cheers.

In the crowd Tommy and his family cheered along with the rest of the crowd. With the figure still in his hand he told his Mother, “See, I told you he’d save the day. He always saves the day.”

Raising the index and little finger on one hand he told the crowd, “Rock on!”. As he flew off he passed a billboard advertising the upcoming Cyberone video game. After today that was going to sell a butt load more copies now.

-----

[scikaiju]

As an elevator quickly rose through the floors of the Eagle Corporation building the woman riding inside tried to stop her self from fidgeting. Hell she had to stop herself from readjusting her skirt for the hundredth time in the past couple of hours. She prided herself for her composure, it’s why she was hired for the job. But then again how many times did she get hired to work for an actual hero. Her heart was about to come out of her chest as the door opened and she walked out on the floor. Taking a quick moment to see if her strawberry blond hair was still in a respectable looking ponytail, a small miracle seeing how she was pushed into one of those shelter a hour or so ago, she went foreword. Before she found who she was suppose to see a while ago surrounded by a ton of people. Getting his attention she told him, “Mr. Hammond, I apologize for being this late.”

He gave her a small nod as he broke away from the pack, “Perfectly understandable Miss. Wells. I would have to be a real hard ass for penalizing you for something beyond everybody control.” One assistant seemed pretty instant so he signed whatever it was he had just to get away from him. “Come with me Miss. Wells, I’m sure you want to get started as soon as possible to make up for lost time. He’s this way, he should just about be done with his debriefing.” She followed him down several hallways. Coming out of one of the offices the blond hair man now wearing a dress shirt and slacks was looking pleased with himself. “Mr. Ryder, a moment of you time please.”

“Yeah I got to meet up with a supermodel…,” he took one look at her and immediately changed his mind. “Of course I can make some time.” Coming over quickly he took her hand and looked deeply into her eyes grinning, “And who are you?”

“This,” Hammond said tired of being ignored, “is Miss Jennifer Wells. She going to be you’re new program manager. Seeing how you ran off the last one with your demands…”

“Oh I ask for a particular brand of bottle water and he goes ballistic.”

“The lawyers say differently,” Hammond said dryly. “Miss. Wells this… interesting fellow is…”

“Brett Ryder,” she finished for him, “formerly of the Army and first test subject for the CBR-1 armor system. Now a hero to millions nationwide and a bona fide superstar.” They looked at her and she blushed slightly. Tucking some stray hairs behind her ears she added, “I’m a bit of a fan.” Oh why did she say that out loud? Brett grin just went wider.

“Always a pleasure to meet a fan,” he kissed her hand and she started blushing again. “Mr. Hammond,” the boss looked surprised he said that, “I’m sure you have very busy schedule. Why don’t I show her around the place? I promise you she’ll be in good hands.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he mumbled. He stepped a little closer to him and warned him, “Don’t run this one off.” Brett looked innocent as waved as he walked off.

“Don’t mind him, he always worried about potential lawsuits,” he told here. “So Jen, can I call you Jen?”

“Please do,” she said.

“Good,” he smiled, “You know I have always believed that in order to be an effective team you have to be real with each other. I mean all this mister and miss nonsense, it just separates us in a totally impersonal way.”

“That a very unique viewpoint for a guy in the army,” she told him a little surprised.

“Let’s just say me and my superior have had several interesting discussion over the matter.” He led her to the control room and waved a hand around the room. “This is the main control room and the people who help me look so good out there. I couldn’t do what I do without these fine people backing me up.”

“Modest as always,” and older woman came foreword, giving him a spiteful look. She gave her the once over before saying, “So you the fresh meat huh. I hope you’re tougher than you look.”

“Lay off her Martha,” Brett said losing some of the charm in his voice. “This lovely lady just got here.”

“Then somebody better save her from you,” she said.”

“Then somebody better save her from you,” he mocked. Jennifer wasn’t sure what to make of this. This was not how she pictured this meeting going.

“I’ll tell you the total amount of your duties Wells,” Martha started walking out of the room. She had to hurry just to keep up with the older woman. Brett was muttering something behind as he followed. It wasn’t until they were in a corridor with more military personal than she expected guarding things that she actually started. Jennifer assumed this was where the CBR-1 suit was being kept and tested. “You are essentially head of the support staff around here. You’re primary job is to make sure the suit and weapons are in perfect condition before every invasion or whatever comes our way. And the proper equipment is ready when needed.”

“No offence, but I was aware of all of this before I hired in,” she informed Martha.

“I’m sure you were but I don’t think you were told everything.” Now what did that mean?

Brett realized where they were and quickly got involved, “Now she doesn’t need to know about this just yet. Give her time to get settled in first before springing this on her. I could tell her over dinner, say at the finest restaurant in town. I just happen to have permanent reservations.”

Martha had a rather smug look on her face, “I don’t see why now wouldn’t be a perfect opportunity to stop her delusion.”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”, Jennifer demanded.

“Don’t listen to her,” Brett said as he tried to get her walking in another direction. “Between you and me, I think she got a couple bats loose in the belfry.” Martha calmly pushed the door opened and Jennifer got a good look at what was inside. “God damn it,” Brett said throwing his hands in the air.

Inside the room a doctor was busy finishing up stitching the shoulder of a brown haired man wearing black pants. She gasped a little at his bare upper body. On his left side, right under the ribs was a huge nasty looking scar. On his right shoulder there was an equally nasty looking bruise. The man turned and looked in there direction. She actually saw hate flash in his hazel eyes and felt a little afraid. He jumped off the table, actually tearing some of the stitches out and stormed over to them. “Yo glory boy!”, he yelled.

“Not now Anderson,” Brett said sounding very annoyed.

“Not now?”, he asked almost laughing. “You nearly blew me up you son of a bitch!”

“I had to do something you moron!” Brett shouted back. “They were getting ready to destroy the city.”

“It takes a good minute to warm a gun that size up to that kind of power level before it could even fire. I was thirty seconds away from that hole you blasted in that fucking ship.” Jennifer was stunned at what was going on. But why was she remembering Brett shot a hole in the alien ship during all of it.

“What the hell is going on?”, she asked Martha.

Totally unfazed by the tirade she answered, “Jennifer Wells, let me introduce Ryan Anderson. A former navy seal, and the program dirty little secret.”

“Dirty little secret?”, she repeated.

“Let’s just say it takes more than Ryder here to get the job done,” Martha said smirking at Brett who was totally focused on Ryan. “I might add part of you job is to keep them from killing each other, if that possible.”

“Anderson,” the Doctor said while trying to get him back into the room,” You opened your stitches. You’re bleeding all over the place.”

“And in about five seconds I’m not going to be the only one,” he said trying to get at Ryder before couple of guards quickly held him back.

Brett started taunting him, “You want to go you over paid hack?”

“Anytime you idiotic son of a bitch!”

“That is quite enough,” Martha said with a lot of authority. She was reminding her of an elementary school principle she used to have. Eventually both backed off a bit. “Anderson, I suggest you learn to keep you emotion in check in the future. A clear head is very important in what you do. That should be clear to you by now.”

He looked at her, Jennifer saw him stare her down. She gasped a little when his fist started to ball up. Then he turned back into the room, but she thought she heard him mumble something like, “Why do I even keep this job?”

Brett started looking smug but quickly lost it when Martha turned her attention toward him. “And may I remind you Ryder that he has saved your backside more than once. So hack was an inappropriate choice of words there.”

“Just calling it like I see it,” Brett told her while leaving. “Not like there aren’t hundreds of guys who can do what he does.”

“Don’t mind them Miss Wells,” Martha said finally speaking to her, “it’s just their time of the month.”

Jennifer didn’t hear what she said, “I… I don’t understand. Who was that?”, she pointed at the door.

“I already told you,” Martha told her matter of factly.

“Tell me again,” she insisted.

“I think I’ll let Mr. Hammond and Captain Smith handle that,” she said. Handing her a very thick file she added, “Seeing how you’re so familiar with Ryder and his achievements I suggest you do the same with Anderson and what he does.”

-----

An hour later Jennifer, who tried to go over the contents of the file Martha gave her, was in a conference room with Hammond and Smith. She knew the information in the file had to be real, she just couldn’t wrap her mind around it at the moment. Brett sat on one end of the table resting his feet on it, he was talking to somebody named “Sugar” on his cell phone. And totally oblivious to how annoyed the other two gentlemen were. She looked at him with different eyes. A definite case of the image being shattered by the reality if there ever was one. A few minutes later Anderson walked in wearing a worn T-shirt and jeans and sat as far away from as he could from Brett. Hammond gave him a once over and sighed, “Is it too much ask for you to look professional at times like this?”

“Talk to glory boy over there,” he said staring daggers at Brett. Ryder was still engrossed in his phone call.

“Seeing what Anderson has done,” Capt. Smith spoke up,” I think we can allow him a little leeway. How’s the shoulder Ryan?”

“The doctor slapped some of that goop on it,” he replied.” I should be fine in a day or two.”

“How is that even possible,” Jennifer asked. “I got a good look at it. That wound should not be fine in a day or two.”

“One thing at a time Miss. Wells,” Hammond informed her. “Now I’m sure you have a lot of questions right about now.”

“That goes without saying,” she said.

“And we will try to answer them the best we can.”

“Until you start pussy footing around,” Anderson said just loud enough to be heard. Hammond shot a quick hard glance in his direction. The Captain decided now would be a good chance to take over before things got a little too heated.

“I understand you already met Ryan under less than ideal circumstances.” That could be one way of putting it. “I’m pretty sure introduction weren’t made at the time, so Ryan let me introduce Jennifer Wells.” He gave her a curt nod, but she couldn’t help but the notice the suspicion in his eyes. “He operates under the codename Shadow. Of course that info is in the file Martha gave you.”

“Yes, the file explained a lot of things,” she agreed. “Except why he’s here.”

“It is a bit of a story,” Hammond said. “It goes back to the start of the CBR-1 program. The Eagle Corporation won a bidding war with several other companies to develop a combat armor for military use. Several designs were drawn up and sent in but the Pentagon liked what we had to offer. They even shared development cost of the initial suit prototype. That’s where Ryder came into the picture as the test subject.”

“What about me?”, Brett said taking his phone away from his ear.

“It’s nothing important,” Ryan told him, “go back to your porn line.”

Brett mocked him a bit before going back to the phone, “Nothing baby, just a jealous nobody.”

Hammond continued, “Ryder was the top candidate in the class he was in. The Neural net used in some of the controls of the armor responded to him faster than anybody else. We were well into the testing phase and almost ready for mass production until things hit a snag. Each suit would have to be tailor made for each soldier and the net would have to have been individually adjusted to each one to achieve maximum connection. And no matter how many times the numbers were crunched the cost per suit would still be in millions. Hell before that first invasion the project was going to be scrapped and we would have eaten the development cost.”

Smith picked things up from there, “Ryder performance with the suit when he fought them off was enough to convince the Pentagon to keep this option open. We’re hoping to find a way to cut production cost while still keeping the suit effective.”

“Why mess with perfection,” Brett said with a smile.

“Of course,” he said while looking at Hammond, “we didn’t know Eagle Corp would market the design as a toy.”

“We had to recoup the money would put into this somehow didn’t we?”, he said defending his company position. “Lord only knows when the military would have actually kept their end of the bargain and put the suit into development. The marketing guys had a field day too. They extended CBR-1 into Cyberone, named some of the weapons we created to aid him, and then they licensed the likeness to the highest bidder. I mean my god they’re working on the rights for a movie deal at the moment.”

“Remember I told them I want anybody but Tom Cruise to play me,” Brett interrupted. “As long as they got talent and can capture the real down to earth me.”

“Then you’re asking for a miracle,” Ryan said dryly. Brett ignored him and went back to his phone call.

“And that’s were Ryan came into the picture,” Smith said as he walked past him and patted him on the good shoulder. “That first invasion taught us a lot. Like we had no idea what we were up against, and that we were damn lucky to come out of that.”

“It wasn’t luck,” Brett cut in. “I kicked ET’s butt and sent them crying back to momma.”

“And the collateral damage was unprecedented,” Smith reminded him. “They’re still rebuilding parts of the cities that were hit the hardest. That was when it was decided that something else was needed,” He looked at Ryan briefly before returning his attention to her, “or someone else. We found out there were more than one intelligent species out there and not all of them were of the friendly sort. And a lot of them were nastier than the ones we drove off. We went through a lot of options, but we knew that there had to be a way to get to them before they could really damage us.” Taking a quick glance toward Hammond to see if he wanted to contribute anything he continued, “The idea of a strike team that could take out most of the enemy forces and do a reconnaissance of the lay out and what to expect. Eventually the strike team concept got whittled down to a one man insertion unit.”

“But why one man?”, she asked. “That would seem like a suicide mission to me.”

“There was a lot of debate over the matter,” he looked at Hammond again, not looking amused, “but some how the brass was convinced this was the way to go. Luckily Ryan was available and passed the program we developed with flying colors. So essentially we have the two top candidates from both programs.”

“But how come nobody has never heard of this?”, Jennifer demanded.

“Again the brass was convinced that it would be in the countries best interest to keep this quiet.” He leaned on the table looking Hammond in the eyes, “Something about the not destroying the nation hope or some such nonsense.”

Hammond wasn’t ruffled by the accusation, “And how would the nation react if they discovered that one of the men who saved them came home drenched in the invaders blood? The public doesn’t want to know the gritty details at how the day was won. All they care about is that the person they perceive as the hero is still standing and still looking pretty.”

“And that say a lot about us doesn’t it?”, Smith said sounding a bit disgusted. Looking back at her he went on, “So I hope you see why you weren’t told this until now Miss. Wells. Very few people know about Ryan’s part in all of this, and everybody in charge wants it to stay that way. We couldn’t risk an applicant who didn’t get the job to go out and blab to the nearest reporter.”

“What about the person who had the job before me?”, she asked. “What’s stopping him from talking?”

“It’s all part of that confidentiality agreement you signed Miss. Wells,” Hammond replied. “The lawyers worded it so that it still in effect even after he left the position, the same goes for you too. Any hint that Shadow has been leaked and the hammer will be brought down.”

“Don’t think that threat was obvious enough,” Ryan said coolly.

“Just protecting everybody best interests,” Hammond told him.

He countered with, “More like protecting your cash cow.”

Smith cut in, “I think Miss Wells might be interested in knowing how we know that there are more intelligent civilizations out there. Ryan, why don’t you show her and introduce her to Zac.”

“Why me?”, he asked.

“Because he’s always more comfortable around you than anybody else. These things just seem to go easier that way.”

Grunting he got out of the chair, “Come on newbie, you heard the man.” He didn’t even stay to hear her protest. But knowing she was getting left behind she quickly went after him.

“Ok sugar, the meeting over, I’ll be there faster than you can finish your drink,” Brett ended the call and looked annoyed at them. “Do you have any idea how much more this meeting going to cost me?” When they didn’t answer he rolled his eyes and left the conference room.

“Something has to be done about Shadow’s attitude,” Hammond said. “He was totally unprofessional just now. And more than once he has been just out right rude to people around here.”

“Funny,“ Smith smirked, “I was thinking the same thing about Ryder. The way you let him get away with things sometimes is almost disgusting.”

“I do not let him get away with things. Several times I’ve reprimanded him for his actions.”

“Only when it was going against your company or affected your bottom line,” Smith took the file off the table and put it under his arm. “You should be glad Ryan has a high tolerance for bullshit. Because thanks to your paranoia about the Shadow program getting leaked we don’t have a replacement readily available if anything happened to him or he just decided to quit. And I’m not sure we could get one up to speed and prepared in time for the next invasion.”

“And you say I’m paranoid,” Hammond leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. “We had an entire program of candidates before Anderson came to the forefront. I’m sure one of them would be more than acceptable in the role.”

Smith walked away from the table. As he reached the door he said one last thing, “In a case like this I’m not sure second best is good enough.”

-----
She was surprised he was standing there holding the elevator for her. She said a quick thanks but he didn’t respond. The trip down was almost unbearably quiet. He wouldn’t even look at her. Standing there with his arms crossed his eyes were fixated on a spot on the floor. When she couldn’t take the silence anymore she had to ask something, “Where you going to hit her?”

“What?”, he said still not looking up.

“Martha,” she said, “where you going to hit her? I saw you start to make a fist after she told you to not loose you temper.”

“I did?”, he glanced at his hand briefly. “I was seeing Ryder every where at that point. Almost getting blown up does that to you.”

“That doesn’t make it justified…”, she started before he cut her off.

“I know.” Was it just her imagination or did he look a little regretful just now.

Deciding it was better to change the subject she asked, “So who’s this Zack person the Captain mentioned?”

“First of all it’s Zac, without the K.” Finally looking at her he added, “It’s kind of a sticky point with him. And like the Captain said, he helped us understand there was more than us out there. If that first invasion wasn’t enough of a clue.”

“I’m surprised this guy wasn’t on the news after that. He would have had a lot of credibility.”

“Let’s just say the military has nothing on Hammond when it comes to keeping secrets.” Now she knew she wasn’t just imagining that small smile on his face. It disappeared as soon as the doors opened. They entered a small darkened room with a big window on one wall. She was surprised that it just looked over another room that was brightly lit. She saw a door and started for it but he stopped her, “Give him a minute, he knows we were on our way down.”

Jennifer wanted to ask questions, but wasn’t exactly sure if she could handle another surprise at this point. She found out that she could when the door leading into the enclosed room opened up. In walked a something that looked human wearing a white suit. Except that it’s skin was a pale blue and some barely noticeable facial features, almost like somebody started to add the detail to a sculpture but stopped when they did the nose, lips and ears. He stood in front of the window and looked at them. She looked at Ryan, he suddenly looked more guarded and suspicious then he did a moment ago. It’s lips curled into what looked like a smile and said, “Greetings friend Ryan.”

“Zac,” he said evenly and without any emotion. “The Captain and Hammond wanted you to meet the newbie.”

“Would you stop calling me a newbie,” she told him. She knew that outburst was unprofessional at the moment, but she would not be looked down at by anybody.

“Her name is Jennifer Wells,” Ryan kept on going ignoring her. “This would be Zac.”

Zac nodded his head, “Greeting Jennifer Wells. You must forgive friend Ryan statements, he has had a very trying experience today.”

Ryan turned around and walked away muttering, “He calls almost getting blown to bits a trying experience.”

“I’m surprised I’m not speechless at this moment,” Jennifer said to nobody in particular while rubbing her forehead.

“I would presume,” Zac said, “that the almost constant exposure to interstellar life forms, despite the fact most you have encountered have been on the malevolent side, have made situation such as this to be a little more tolerable.”

“That’s a long way to go just to say you’re used to it,” Ryan said dryly. Zac nodded in agreement while smiling again.

To Ryan she asked, “Why are we separated like this?”

“The air in his planet is slightly different than ours.”

“Friend Ryan is right Jennifer Wells. While my air is breathable by humans, they do find it highly irritating if they inhale it. There are special rebreathers that can be used if the people here heed to speak to me personally. Your atmosphere has a similar effect on me, so I have a rebreather of my own.”

“So he just has this room and that one over there?”, she pointed to the door behind Zac.

“Actually we just have the room, Zac has the entire floor,” Ryan corrected her. “But he wants to interact with us in our environment from time to time.”

“He has the entire floor?”, Jennifer repeated. “What did he do to get an entire floor?”

“I have helped in the improvement of Brett Ryder’s armor and weapons,” Zac answered. “When I first made contact after the initial invasion of your planet I was impressed with the armor you developed, despite how crudely it was designed. In exchange for a habitat I offered to help improve the armor systems and provide information on the other civilizations that inhabit the universe.”

“So you just happen to be in this part of the universe that day?”, Jennifer said half joking. Zac laughed a little any way.

“Something like that Jennifer wells,” he admitted. “I was assigned to watch over your planet. We monitored the transmission from several of planets just like yours at this stage of development,” he said anticipating her next question. “When one appears to be on the threshold on interstellar flight we take a more close examination of that planet. When I arrived your planet was able to fight off the invasion. A feat that should have been next to impossible given your current level of technology. So after much deliberation within my government it was decided that I would make first contact and offer any assistance I could.”

“Wow,” was all she could say.

“That’s enough for the history lesson,” Ryan said. “This was the last of the deep dark secrets around here, so you are officially up to speed.”

He turned to leave but she caught his arm, ”Wait, how did they keep him secret? I remember that day, everybody was watching the skies wondering if they were going to come back or not.”

“I made contact and Captain Smith and Frank Hammond were able to secure a private landing zone for me,” Zac replied.

“Alright, now you’re up to speed,” Ryan amended. “Zac’s got something to do or something.”

“Friend Ryan,” Zac spoke up as he headed for the door, “please feel free to visit me again. I do enjoy our conversations.”

“Right,” was all he said as he hit the elevator call button a couple of times and walked through the doors as they open. Looking at her he added, “You coming or what?”

Taking another look at Zac she said, “It was… nice… to meet you.”

“It was a pleasure to meet you as well Jennifer Wells. I hope to see you around the building.” He turned and headed for the door behind him. Jennifer watched him for just a moment before joining Ryan in the elevator.

-----

[scikaiju]

The next couple of days around the Eagle Corporation settled back into what she quickly discovered to be routine. The business aspects of the place kept on doing what they were doing. Marketing was still finding new ways to spin Cyberone recent victory into sales. Jennifer abruptly discovered that part of her duties was to help manage Brett’s personal appearances after the Tonight Show called about his upcoming guest spot. That would have been nice to know before she took the job. “Doesn’t he have an agent for that sort of thing?”, she asked Martha when she saw her.

“He hired one a few months ago,” she said, “when he wanted to renegotiate his pay rate. His thinking was that since he was the only one capable of using the suit he had all the cards. Mr. Hammond and his team of lawyers crushed the poor bastard like a bug.”

The military part of the job was strangely a bit easier than she originally thought it was going to be. Everybody was aware that the military helped create the suit and she was prepared to go through a lot of regulation and red tape on daily basis. But outside of signing her name in triplicate things were pretty smooth. Granted she still had a hard time wrapping her head around the whole Shadow thing. Captain Smith was very cordial with her, and when Brett wasn’t in his line of sight Ryan was kind of pleasant to be around. When she demanded to check on his wound before she let him to any kind of training he joked, “You just want to see me half naked again, don’t you?”.

That took her by surprise and she sputtered out that it was purely for safety reasons. On inspection the “goop”, which she later found out was a green gel that Zac brought with him and shared, healed the damage incredibly fast. “Can I get something like that over the counter?”

As he pulled his shirt back on he commented, “I’m surprised Hammond hadn’t tried to market it behind Zac’s back yet.”

“He’s that protective about it?”, she asked.

“More like he’s highly selective about it’s use,” Captain Smith said as he walked up to them. “He doesn’t mind letting us in particular use it because he feels it part of the bargain he made with Hammond. As far as Humanity in general goes… he feels we should figure this stuff on our own.”

“I’m assuming that one of the things he develops on his floor,’ she stated.

“Right in one,” Ryan told her.

“Ryan,” Smith said, “you might want to get down to testing, we still got to do the routine check on your equipment.”

“Yes sir,” he saluted and left.

This was most definitely the more tedious part of her job, watching the equipment tests. Zac supplied tech for both Brett and Ryan, the CBR-1 suit upgrades and the various equipment Shadow used. In fact the suit Ryan wore was made of a new material his people invented that prevented bullets or slugs from piercing the suit. But you could still feel the impact and anything with an edge was still a problem at this point. At the moment she was busy going over the check list for Brett and the armor while Zac and other watched in the control room above them. He did not seem excited about the whole ordeal. “Alright, track the pen in my hand.” She held it out at various spots while the tech beside her told her they got a clean lock each time. She just happened to look at the monitor to see that Brett gaze was set on something else, her chest. “Fire at the target as I shout them out.” He turned around

“Yeah, yeah,” he said sounding bored. He raised up his arms and two panels popped up revealing the hidden lasers in the gauntlet. She named off a target position and he hit it with pinpoint accuracy. Although she was able to cross him up at least once. He looked back at her and said, “That was for looking at your boobs wasn’t it?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she told him as she checked that off the list.

“Let me make it up to you. I’m throwing a party tonight, everybody here is invited. You could be my special guest,” the tone of his voice gave her an idea on how he meant special. “What do you say Jen? I throw great parties, you can ask anybody.”

Looking like she was thinking it over she suddenly said, “Strength test.”

“That wasn’t a no,” he told her as he went over to the testing area. On the wall was a hydraulic weight machine with a reinforced bar on it that was about as high as his waist. Ripping both handles he waited for the test to begin.

“Alright we’ll start off light,” she said. Apparently light was one ton as she watched the tech dial it in. There was a very loud hiss as the machine started working. Brett picked the bar up and over his head with relatively no problem. When he put it down they dialed it to a ton and a half. He showed off by doing a few reps. “Two tons,” she whispered, the tech smiled and quickly did what she asked. The sudden increase caught him off guard and he almost lost his grip.

“Very funny,” he said but held it above his head. “You want to see how much I can do huh, two and a quarter tons.”

The tech looked at her, she just nodded. His arms bent slightly from the increase. Brett kept calling out for more weight and they complied. When it to 2.75 tons she kept a close eye on the suit readout. He was close to the suits limit. “Ok Brett you showed me, I’m marking off the test.”

“Wait,” he said sounding a bit strained. “I can do more…three tons.”

“Brett Ryder,” Zac said through his rebreather from the control room, “the suit is operating at acceptable levels. There is no need to continue the test.”

“Three tons,” he repeated. “I can do it.”

Jennifer looked up at Zac, he hesitantly nodded. “You heard the man.” Now it looked like he was really feeling strain as the bar suddenly dropped to his shoulders and his knees started to bend as well. This went on for several minutes before she started, “End the…”

“I can do this!” he repeated.

“The suit is starting to redline,” Zac announced, “end the test now.”

“I almost got it!”. He shouted as he made one final push and got the bar over his head. He let go and backed away as the machine dropped to the ground. The tech quick reflexes were the only thing that stopped it from crashing to the floor from three tons of pressure. Brett started flexing, “Who’s the mack daddy?”

“Who’s the show off?”, the tech beside her whispered.

“The test was completed,” Zac repeated from the control room. “The excess weight was not necessary. You were close to damaging the suit’s systems.”

“And I have been working out,” Brett said if that explained everything. “The armor enhances my abilities, so the stronger I get the stronger the armor is.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Jennifer said going over the readings. “According to this you almost pushed the suit past it’s limit. If it burned out while you were trying to go over board you would have been mushed.”

“But they didn’t so it’s all good.” He reached up and took the helmet off, he wore a cocky smile but his head was wet like he just came in from the rain. “I do believe that was the last test for this baby so I’m going to call it a day.” As he walked off he turned quickly and pointed a finger at her, “Remember, party tonight. It wouldn’t be the same with out you Jen.”

“Wait, we still have to test the final laser….,” she called after him. Brett just waved and exited through a door. Sighing as she pinched the bridge of her nose she looked back at Zac, “How much damage did he do?”

“None that I can see from these scans Jennifer Wells,” he replied. “But I will do a closer inspection later to confirm those reading. I’ll have them for you when I am done.”

“Thank you Zac.” She checked her watch, “I better get over to oversee Ryan’s tests.”

“Jennifer Wells,” Zac said suddenly, “could you relay a message to friend Ryan for me? Tell him I highly enjoyed the entertainment disc he gave me to watch.”

“Entertainment disc?”, she asked confused.

The tech leaned in and whispered, “DVD.” Jennifer chuckled and said she relay the message. When she got to Ryan testing area she was greeted by Capt. Smith as he stood in front of a window over looking a smoke filled room. She went over the check list quickly and discovered they were doing a test on the mask rebreather. Looking a little closer she could just make out the outline of somebody in there.

“I ain’t breathing this gunk in,” Ryan announced. The Captain nodded to another tech who activated a ventilation system that quickly cleared the room of the smoke. She saw that he was standing in the middle of the room in his regular clothes, but he was wearing a black mask and some kind of belt around his waist. He took the mask off when he saw her. Raising an eyebrow and said, “Look who finally showed up. Then again you were with glory boy so technically you’re early.”

“And no bitching about Ryder this early in the morning,” Smith said into a microphone.

“I wasn’t bitching,” Ryan told him, “well at least not yet.”

“Ryan,” she said as she took the mic, “Zac said he enjoyed the DVD you gave him. Curiosity getting the better of me here, what exactly did you give him?”

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” he answered.

“Interesting choice,” she admitted.

“We had to talk him out of giving Zac Independence Day,” Smith told her. “Let’s continue with the test shall we?”

“Right,” she agreed and looked over the list. “Let’s see… we’re going to test the anti-gravity pulse boots.” She had to read up on his equipment quickly since she found out. This was one of the things Zac provided for the Shadow program. Ryan walked out of the room and over to a table with a set of boots on them. Without any prompting he slaps his hands on the side of the belt he was wearing. The bottoms of the boots flashed momentarily and flew up a few feet surprising her.

A second later when they fell back down he announced, “Works.”

“OK, I wasn’t expecting that,” she said.

“He mainly uses it to cushion his landing during falling from a great height,” the captain explained. “But he found a couple other uses for them.”

“Alright then,” she checked that off and told him, “Vibroblades.” He held up a pair of knives and stood in front of a metal pole she would guess about two inches around. Ryan tapped the pole a couple of times with the edges of the blades then held them out. Jennifer thought she heard a humming before he sliced through the pole. He glanced over at her, Jennifer held the clipboard close to her, “Now you’re just trying to impress the new girl.” Ryan actually grinned as he put the knives down. “You know there one thing I don’t understand. How are there not any reports on him? I can figure with the black suit he’d be hard to see at night, but most of the invasions take place during the day. With all the live coverage how is he not spotted by the cameras?”

Smith smiled and said, “Ryan, why don’t you disappear for the lady.”

“No fucking way,” she said. He pressed something on his belt buckle and stood there with his arms crossed. Then she waited… and waited… and waited some more before saying, “He’s still there.”

“Check the monitor,” was all Smith said. She did and did a double take in the process. He wasn’t there. Before she could say it was a trick Smith walked into view of the camera. He was there but Ryan wasn’t. “Another one of Zac’s gifts. The belt emits a special static field that that renders him invisible to any type of camera. He won’t even appear on photographs, at most he’ll appear as a transparent blur. So while there might be the occasional sighting of man dressed totally in black, nobody has been able to prove it. It works great with the sensors on alien ships as well.”

“So they couldn’t come up with system that would totally cloak a person?”, she asked.

“Zac said the scientist on his planet came up with on,” Smith admitted, “but there were some side effects.”

“It’ll kill you after a couple of uses,” Ryan finished for him.

“Ouch,” she said. Looking back at the list she saw that target practice was up next. This was one of the areas where he was still using earthborn tech seeing how that was one of the things Zac wouldn’t share with them. Seeing how she only needed to see how accurate he was with the guns she looked around a bit. When he put the handguns down and lowered his ear protection she asked, “When do you need a bazooka?”

“That’s not a bazooka,” he informed her. “It’s a mini rail gun.”

“I’m not seeing a difference.”

“Here,” he went over to her, took it off the wall and showed her. “Look inside the barrel, you see all those rings?”, she nodded. “Those are mini magnetic coils. Those shoot the rocket out of the weapon with out a charge.”

“Making it almost silent,” she finished. He nodded in response this time.

“Another company is working on something similar for regular weapons like hand guns and all that for the military. I saw a demo one time, since the bullets are in the barrel the guy fired three shots before there was any recoil. It was some really cool shit.”

“I’m not a gun girl so there I’ll take you word for it.”

“And I am so glad of that,” they looked over and saw Brett coming toward them. She looked at Ryan and saw him try to keep his face neutral, but his eyes were telling a different story. Brett flashed him the smile he usually reserved for the cameras, “The party is going to be about eight-ish, I forgot to tell you earlier. And it is a formal affair just so you know.” He glanced over to Ryan and lost bit of the smile, “Did I just see you try to use a gun to pick her up?”

“What are you doing down her Ryder?”, he asked. “Trying to compensate for something, well more than you usually do.”

“I’d figure I save the lovely lady her from being around a total bore.”

“Then why did you show up?”, Ryan shot back.

Brett finally lost the smile and started to come at him when Jennifer got between them. “I can kick you ass any time I want Anderson.”

“Why don’t you suit up and we test that theory?”, Ryan shot back. Brett stood there steaming for a few moments before storming off. And she knew she missed something there. Before she could ask Ryan what that was about he just smirked a bit, said, “Well that just brightened my day,” and walked off himself.

She gave the results of both tests to Smith that afternoon. Jennifer felt she had to bring up the incident in the shooting range. The Captain rubbed both sides of his temples for a moment before saying, “Tell me Miss. Wells, have you ever heard of the ‘Persian Flaw’?”

“I think so,” she answered. “It has to do with the Persian rug makers centuries ago. They believed only God could make something perfect so they would purposely miss stitch one thread in the rugs to show their devotion.” She thought about it for a couple of seconds when it dawned on her. “You’re saying the armor has a weak point?”

“Several,” Smith told her. “Zac and Hammond both pushed for them, just in case Ryder started to get a little… I really don’t want to say power hungry because that sounds so cliché, but you know what I mean. I do believe Ryan just reminded Brett that he knows where they are. And is willing to take advantage of each one”

-----
The dimly lit control room of an alien ship contained more of the aliens that tried to invade earth a few days prior. It took several cycles to get the latest transmission from the errant vessel. Several of the sensor readers spent a majority of their time deciphering the images and signals trying to understand what they were seeing. After much deliberation they finally agreed the news must be shared. One stood up and walked over to one who sat on chair situated on a platform that was higher than the floor the rest of the occupied. Kneeling down and with lowered head he spoke, “My Lord, the son’s vessel has been lost.”

Outrage flashed in his eyes as it stood and demanded, “Who has killed the crown Prince of the empire?!”

“The beings of planet 35-Gamma, the one the inhabitants call Earth.”

Their Lord smashed a fist into his follower’s skull, “I do not care what those insignificant insects call their worthless planet! How did they destroy my son’s ship?”

Another one came foreword but wisely stayed out of his reach. “The armored one sire, he dealt the killing blow to the ship. There have been reports of this one from the other species we are in contact with.”

“I know of this armored one they speak of,” he cut him off. “The story of this lowly human makes me ill. I will take my revenge on him no matter the cost.”

“Sire,” the second scan reader hesitantly said. He flinched slightly as their king cast his angry gaze at him. “The armored one was not the one who killed the Prince.”

“You just said the armored one destroyed the ship!”, he bellowed. The creature flinched back in fear even more.

“But the Prince was already dead before we lost the ship sire,” he quickly explained. Waving a hand over a sensor and image appeared in the air in front of them. The Prince and his warriors were investigating the missile from the human counter attack. They all watched until the sides blew off and something fired out killing their kind. The smoke seemed to swirl around something momentarily but nothing was there. Silently their Lord watched up until he saw his son fight something that wasn’t there. Then the Prince was cut open and fell to the ground. Sensing his Lord anger starting to rise the reader ended the image and prepared to be the recipient of his rage.

Surprisingly he regained his composure and sat back down. “Something was there, the smoke almost betrayed it’s presences. I want to know what it is.”

“At once my Lord,” the reader said as he got up and returned to his station. Enlisting the help of his comrades to aid in his task they poured over all the footage after the missile appeared and the massacre began. After several long and tense moments he walked over and addressed his lord. “We believe we discovered who the apparent specter was.” Again waving a hand over sensor another image appeared, this one of a near empty hallway. “This was the cleanest image we could find my lord.”

“I still see nothing.” The reader looked behind him and nodded. A couple of his comrades began to run the image through several filters before something started to appear. The Lord leaned in closer as slowly a figure almost engulfed in black faded into existence. “What is this?”

“The Prince’s murderer sire, or the best we can make out. He is using a sensor mask of a Malkarian design form what we have been able to determine.”

The Lord closely inspected the image, “Is he a Malkarian?”

“The body dimension we have been able to record are wrong for an average Malkarian sire,” he explained. “We speculate this specter is a native of the 35-Gamma.”

“How is it possible these insect have possession of this technology?”

“It has long been rumored that the Malkar government has been aiding the inhabitants of that planet, ever since the Troyaiden original invasion failed.” Their Lord stared at the image for a long time before making it disappear.

“Lock in the gate co-ordinates for 35-Gamma,” he commanded. “Send a beast and scout in our fastest ship to the planet first. If I am right the human will send both of them out once it make itself known. Have the scout monitor from afar with his scanners set on those reading to detect the specter. If he is not killed by the beast then I will personally rip him limbs from his sockets.”

“And what of the armored one sire?”

“Ready a Hellrizer for when we arrive,” he ordered, “that should be enough to take care of him.”

-----

[scikaiju]

Much like she thought the party was all about Cyberone’s latest victory. Brett held it in his own apartment, witch was one of those two floor penthouse deal. The party room, as she called it in her head, was lined with various trophy cases. Inside each one was a piece of alien weaponry or technology that the higher ups decided Brett could keep. A rifle here, a piece of armor there. Right now she standing there in a red dress with some classical music playing in the background as he was in a white tux telling her and a few of the guest who hadn’t heard this particular story before about a small golden colored rectangle fixed on the wall. “These guys were some tough bastards let me tell you. They had some kind of nanotech that repaired their armor as soon as I knocked something off. Hell, I think they might have regrown an arm or something once or twice. I was too busy protecting the public to notice. I definitely wanted something from them in my collection. It took them forever to find a piece they couldn’t classify as dangerous. Like I couldn’t handle it again if I had too.”

“How did you beat these guys to begin with?”, somebody asked. She knew because she read the official report. She kept quiet just to listen to his version of things.

“It was one of those things so simple you almost over thought it and missed it.” Jennifer looked around to stop herself from smiling because she could just hear Ryan’s response to that. Brett continued, “Using the various scans I had available I was able to discover the nanotech operated at a specific electric frequency in order to regenerate itself. Then it was only a matter of finding the correct counter frequency to stop them form doing that. They wet themselves several times over when they discovered I was actually hurting them.”

Several of the guest started congratulating him on his ingenuity. She backed away from the group. He had to leave out the fact Zac recognized the aliens and what they were using. And that it actually took him ten minute to stop what he was doing and listen. Of course from the look of things it didn’t exactly appear like it was bothering Brett that much. He stood there soaking it all in and enjoying every second of it. Jennifer walked around the room and checked out some of his other trophies. From the reports she read Jennifer was able to recognize most of them. Although she wondered how much sweet talking he had to do get half this stuff out of Eagle Corp. “I knew this was going to be boring but damn,” she mumbled to herself.

“It’s not so bad,” Captain Smith said offering her a drink. “You get out of the office for a while and you get to see Brett be self absorbed in a whole new environment.”

She did smile that time, “I’m surprised you’re actually here listening to this.”

“We have to keep up appearances,” Smith explained. “The CBR-1 suit was co-developed and both parties involved should be here showing support and what not. I’m just glad Hammond had a more pressing commitment to go to tonight.” Sighing as he took a drink, then he added, “Lord only knows how much he would be playing into his ego right about now.”

“You two don’t like each other do you?”, she asked.

“It’s more like we’re two alpha males used to getting our own way,” he told her. “He’s seeing things one way, I’m seeing a different picture all together and they’re not exactly meshing. It’s almost like Brett and Ryan in a way. They see two different things when they’re looking at the same objective.”

“Somehow I doubt you and Mr. Hammond would be coming to blows,” she said while taking a drink.

Smith smiled at her, “You should have seen us in the early days of the program. We made those two look like they were playing card. I think we scared off the first program manager that way.” He put his cup down, “But we mellowed out after awhile, agreeing to do what was best for the program instead of our own egos. Even if it meant we had to agree to disagree on certain things at times.”

He excused him self when he saw another Captain at the party and went over to him. Jennifer was left alone for exactly five seconds when Brett spotted her and separated himself from the crowd around him, which she noticed was mostly female. “The Captain wasn’t boring you was he? Because I can talk to him…”

“Just trading a little small talk,” she told him.

“I see,” he said nodding, “that’s cool I guess. So what are you doing all the way over here when the party’s over there?”

“I figured I do a little looking around on my own,” she said.

“I totally understand,” he said. “Sometimes you want to look around and try to figure out what some of these things were. Take that thing over there,” he pointed to a particularly nasty looking gun, “turns out that thing was a hair dryer.”

“I’ve read the report,” she informed him.

“Already?”, he looked surprised.

“I’m a fast reader,” she stated.

“Then I won’t bore you any further with the details.” Brett looked her over now that he was closer to her. “You know, I was certain you’d wear a little black dress of some kind.”

“I don’t own one.”

“Oh come on now, every woman has one black dress in their wardrobe.”

“Then you’re looking at the exception to that rule,” Jennifer said walking over to the window.

“A woman who likes to stand out,” he said thinking it over. “I like that.” He walked over and leaned against the wall next to her. “If you think this collection is interesting you should see the private one I have upstairs.”

“Weren’t you accusing Ryan earlier of trying to pick me up with weaponry?”, she asked innocently. The look on his face was definitely worth it. Looking at her watch, “Thank you for the invite but I have to leave now.”

“What already?”, he protested. “The night still young yet and the party still going strong.”

“I have one day off this week and I have a ton of stuff I need to squeeze into that day before it’s over. So the earlier I get started the better.” She didn’t exactly lie to him, there were a couple of thing that needed her attention, but that shouldn’t take that long. Jennifer was just looking foreword to a free day away from the mess she gotten herself in. Just to be nice she added, “And you do have a very nice collection.”

“Thank you Jen,” Brett said the smile returning to his face. “I’ve worked very hard to get this. Although if you want to see a surprising collection you have to check out what Anderson has.”

That stopped her in her tracks, “Ryan has trophies at his place?”, she asked in disbelief. She didn’t know him that long but that didn’t seem like something he would do.

“Trophy, as in singular,” he corrected her. “Makes what I have here look normal.” Jennifer said good night and got her coat. She didn’t want to say it out loud but her interest was peaked. What could he possibly have that he thought was worth saving?

-----
Jennifer kicked herself for letting her curiosity getting the better of her. Logging into the Eagle Corp files she found out Ryan’s current address. Much like she thought he lived in a more average part of the city. She picked up some coffee along the way and headed over to the building. It turned out it was one of those apartment building you had to buzz the occupant to be let in first. Quickly checking the listing for his name she hit the call button. After a moment he answered, “Who is it?”

“Ryan, it’s Jennifer.” For several moments he said nothing. Hitting the button again she added, “I brought coffee, you like it straight up black right?”

“Where in the hell did you find just plain coffee?”

“From a coffee shop a couple of blocks down from you,” she explained.

“Now I know you’re a liar,” he said. “I’ve been to every place around here and none of them sell plain coffee.”

“Have you seen what I look like?”, she told him.

After some more silence he said, “If you’re a morning person you’re automatically on my shit list.” He buzzed the door open and she quickly entered. His apartment was a couple of floors up. Knocking on his door she waved at him with her free hand as it opened just a crack. He opened the door wearing a white tank top and grey pair of sweats and let her in and took one of the coffees.

He took a drink and tilted his head back before saying, “Where have you and your body been the past year and a half?”

“I’ll take that as a thank you,” she told him. She walked a little further into his apartment as some old school Bon Jovi played on the CD player. The place wasn’t as elaborate as Brett’s. A few steps in and she was already in the living room. There were a couple of closed doors that she assumed lead to the kitchen and bedrooms. In the corner was a home gym system, a tread mill and a few dumbbells laying on the ground. About then she noticed how wet his hear was. “I didn’t mean to interrupt what you were doing.”

“I already did my morning workout and just got out of the shower. Did you eat anything yet?”, he gestured to a box of doughnuts on the coffee table. She took a couple as he asked, “So what brings you this way this early in the morning.”

“I had some free time before I had to do some things. And I went to Brett’s party last night and didn’t want you to think I was playing favorites.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time a manger did that,” he said. “So how was the bore fest anyway?”

“Let’s say I guessed you wouldn’t be showing up.”

“If I wanted to see and hear that much fiction I’d watch reality TV,” he told her. “So,” he started as he sat on the couch, “I’d imagine he was showing off his collection. More than likely he mentioned something about what I had and you just had to see it.”

Jennifer paused mid bite and looked at him. How in the hell….? Well there was no point in lying to him at this point, “I believed he said something about it.”

“Don’t worry,” he told her, “everybody wonders what it is and if they can see it.” He got up and headed for one of the doors. Turning around he added with a grin, “I’m not Ryder so relax, it’s not in the bedroom.”

The room he led her to was a study of some sort. There was a computer in the corner and a couple of bookshelves. But the main focus was the glass case on the far wall. Inside was a black suit similar to what he wore on assignments. But this one looked worse for wear with rips and tears at various spots. What drew her eyes was this huge gash on the let side, right under the ribcage. That was the same place she saw that huge scar on him. “Holy shit,” she ended up saying.

“This was the suit I wore on my very first assignment,” he told her. “I was up against this four arm species, I don’t remember their name. They were a warrior race and very, very good at what they do.” His hand rubbed his side slightly as he remembered that day. “They said I was in surgery for about 30 hours, the swords they used had a serrated edge and did a lot more damage going out than they did going in.” He looked almost thoughtful for a few moments, “That was the first time they used Zac’s goop on me. Smith told me I probably wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for that.”

“So why do you keep it around?” Jennifer looked at his eyes, they were still somewhere else. “If it was me I don’t think I would want a reminder of a day I almost died.”

“The fact I survived made me want to keep it,” Ryan explained. His expression changed slightly, “Then Zac decided to share the material their making that suit out of now. Not that the whole blade thing would have done me any good but I was getting shot at too.”

“It’s a little obvious you don’t trust him,” she informed him, “just so you know.”

“I never had any intention of hiding it,” he shot back. “I don’t even want to trust that goop they use, but I have too.”

“No you don’t,” she said. “You got every right to say ‘No, I don’t want that used on me’.”

He looked a little irritated but he spoke calmly, “Look Jennifer, my only job is to make sure that armored idiot look like he handling things by himself. I can’t do that if I’m laid up in a hospital bed somewhere. So I got to put up with the goop until we can make our own version.”

“I’m starting to wonder why Zac even likes you.”

“You and me both,” Ryan said right before he took another sip.

-----
A board meeting between her, Smith, Hammond and Zac was more or less routine. The biggest topic of conversation, outside of Ryan attitude, was how that last ship got past the sensor net. Zac stood in front of a wall screen as a computerized image of the earth slowly spun. Several points of light with lines connecting them orbited the image at the same pace. “I’m pleased to say the invaders did not find a way to cloak themselves from the net. We were finally able to determine that this section right here,” the image stop as he highlighted an area, “had a satellite malfunction“. They all looked a little closer and saw that there seemed to be a bigger opening there than in the others sections. “They exploited that unexpected opening.”

“Have we been able to fix it yet?”, Hammond asked.

“We have been able to reprogram the neighboring satellites to cover this area, but it is a stop gap solution at best,” he informed them. “The best possible solution is to repair the satellite or replace it completely.”

“That’s going to be easier said than done,” Smith said. “Don’t get me wrong, after this last time we’re going to be able to get things in place to do just that. But some on the hill are going to be bitching. More than one of them considers the CBR-1 to be a resource hog.”

“I think I know which ones you’re talking about,” Hammond told him. “I can get them to see our way, one way or another. You just have to know how much grease to apply to the palm.”

“You’re talking of a bribe?”, Zac asked.

“I see it more as helping them get some of their pet projects off the ground,” Hammond corrected him. “The Captain here knows what I’m talking about, right?”

“Unfortunately I do,” he admitted. He quickly changed the subject, “Miss. Wells how did the test go with the tazer gloves?”

“I think Ryan fell in love with the idea the moment he hit the trigger in his palm,” she told them. “I do believe his exact words were ‘Now that’s what I’m talking about’.” There was also something about Brett and where the sun didn’t shine, but she thought it was best to leave that part out. “He’s actually looking foreword to using them on the next invaders that come or way.”

“Which is hopefully a ways off,” Smith said suddenly.

“We all have the same wish Captain Smith,” Zac told him. Jennifer nodded in agreement.

“What’s the matter Smith,” Hammond smirked, “losing some of you bite?”

“I’m praying for some extra time to shore up or forces while we’re in a quiet period,” He said while looking at Hammond darkly.

“Then you better get a move on Smith,” Hammond said as he stood up. “That’s the only thing nobody can guarantee.” He gathered the files in front of him and stood up, “If you will excuse me, I have a meeting in an hour. There’s talks of a merger and I have to make sure that certain information doesn’t get leaked accidently.”

Watching him leave Smith dryly said, “Looks like this meeting adjourned.”

Left alone in the room with Zac Jennifer kept glancing over at him as she arranged her files. She wasn’t good at hiding it as he said, “Is there something else Jennifer Wells?”

“Nothing,” she quickly said. “Wait,” she corrected, she might as well get this out of the way seeing how her damn curiosity wouldn’t let it rest, “there’s something I’ve been wondering about. Now granted, I haven’t been her that long, but Ryan’s like the only one around here that I’ve seen you call friend.”

“That’s because he is the only one I do call friend,” he stated.

“Why for God sakes?”

“Because in some ways we are in the same situation,” he explained. “We are both outsiders looking in. Myself being from another planet and friend Ryan being the person most people around here would like to ignore until they need him. In fact Jennifer Wells you are the only project manager I have seen since they started that seems to care about his wants.” Then he surprised her by adding, “Friend Ryan is also the only one here who is open with his mistrust about me.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t…” Jennifer tried to lie but knew she couldn’t. “You know him better than I do,” she finally admitted.

“Indeed I do,” he said, not even sounding annoyed or condescending. “I’ve seen with my own eyes how his attitude and posture changes into something more defensive whenever he knows I am around. He is always expecting me to betray the trust Frank Hammond and Captain Smith put in me.”

“So why are you calling him friend then?”

Without missing a beat he told her, “He’s being honest with me.” With that he nodded, said good bye and left her alone to think that over.

-----

[scikaiju]

The sensor net detected something coming into the atmosphere, fast. By the time Ryan had suited up and grabbed his gear it had already crashed in the middle of the city. His part of the operation was a simple recon job, find out what crashed and track it to the best of his ability. The garage already had a jet black motorcycle ready as he entered. It was a custom job with the same static field generator as his belt. Jennifer took a station in the control room next to Smith as he headed out. Brett was already armored up and was waiting for the word to launch, his foot tapping as he leaned against the Cy-Jet. In no time there received word, “This is Shadow, come in.”

“We hear you Shadow,” Jennifer said into her head set. “What the situation?”

Looking down from a near by roof top he answered, “There’s a big smoking hole I the middle of the city.” Opening the computer on his arm he added, “There’s zero reading on any kind of radiation, but no signs of life either.” He adjusted something on the visor of his mask to get a closer look at the crater, “I’m seeing some metal panels, big ones. I think there might be something that looks like an engine thruster.” Readjusting his vision he looked around. “There’s nothing in visual range, but the streets are getting a little crowded with the locals. Just a wild guess on my part but they might be getting nervous.”

“Understood Shadow,” Jennifer looked over to Smith who nodded. Hitting another channel she said, “Cyberone get ready to launch.”

“Sure thing darling,” he told her as he hopped on the Cy-Jet. “After this is over we’re going to get a late dinner and really get to know each other.” Jennifer didn’t respond but she did roll her eyes. “I’m not hearing a no Jen, so I’ll see you afterwards.” Before she cold say no he quickly said, “Cy-Jet is launching.”

She closed the channel for a moment to say, “This is going to be long assignment.”

Cyberone landed the Cy-Jet away from the crowd but they rushed at him any way. He got off saying, “Please people, I got a job to do, well ok maybe a quick autograph or two.” He took a pen from somebody and signed a few things, a piece of paper, a shirt, a woman even lifted her shirt and he took his sweet time signing his name on her breast. Above them Shadow saw what he was doing and slapped his forehead before walking away in disgust muttering moron. Jennifer ran some very loud feedback into the CBR-1 Helmet that made him physically wince. “Right, I got a job to do,” he told the crowd as he started making his way through them. “Ok now stay back in case this is dangerous. I don’t want any of you getting hurt.” The crowd played right into his hands as they separated to let him through and cheered him on. “Alright let’s see what they think can take over the planet this time.”

On the rooftops Shadow jumped from building to building trying to find any sign of life from the crash but so far his scans hadn’t revealed anything. Part of him was thinking it was probe or satellite of some sort. Another, slightly more paranoid part was convinced there was something came down with it. And that part was right more times than not. Now if he could only find out where it went, or why nobody was screaming in terror yet. There was always screaming and running in these situations, so maybe it was a satellite. But the paranoid part of him wasn’t letting it go. “Shadow reporting, no signs of life yet. I’m still going to continue the search.”

“Understood Shadow, we’ll update Cyberone.”

“Hoo-boy,” Cyberone said after he cut off the external speaker and circled the crash site. He ran ever scan he had available on what was in the creator. One of them was getting a small trace of something organic leading away from the craft. The trail lead to the crowd but it was quickly covered up by his fans watching him work. After a few moments Jen told what the latest on Shadow. Over the private line he said, “Well tell him to hurry up. I can only do this for so long before it starts looking like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Hold you horses Cyrberone,” Smith cut in on the line. “Searches take time, you know that. It wouldn’t be the first time something was able to hide from us.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever,” he ignored him. Cutting the transmission he started talking to himself, “I still don’t see why I need that hack. I had no problem with the first invasion so why do I need back up now.”

From the shadows of an alley nobody noticed the stranger whose legs were bending backwards. Their Lord equipped him with something similar to the Malkarian hiding field so one of the human primitive sensors should be able to detect him. The probes he launched were also hidden from their scans. He quickly located the Specter after he arrived and monitored him. When the armored one arrived he sent a signal to the Lord’s vessel and awaited word. Several moments went by before the word was given. Going further into the alley he pulled a gray container out of hiding. He flipped a couple of switches before running off to observe this from a distance. The container dropped it’s own hiding field right before it started to open.

A couple of rooftops away Shadow’s gauntlet started to beep like crazy. His eyes went wide behind the mask as he saw a rapidly growing alien life sign coming from behind him. “Where in the hell did that come from?” Then the screaming started.

His scanner went nuts right before people started to runaway from a certain alley. Cyberone pushed his way through and flinched as a car went flying over head. He looked and saw something come out of the alley. From the light of the streetlamps he could tell the main body looked like a crab, with hair. But that was where the similarities ended. It had six, extremely long legs and what looked like hands instead of pinchers. Eight eyes glared at him as what he thought was the mouth started opening and closing. The thing was about half the size of a car, then it started growing. When it was about ten feet tall Cyberone mumbled, “Who’s playing a PS3?”

Eagle Corp was getting a visual from the CBR-1 helmet and the control center stopped what they were doing and stared. Even Hammond was at a loss of words. None of them had seen anything like this before. Jennifer shook her head to snap herself out of it and tried to get things back on track. “Zac, please tell me you know what that is.”

“I’m afraid I do,” he answered. “We only know abominations such as that by one name, Beasts. Creatures genetically altered to serve whatever purpose the creator had in mind. Rarely is it for the good of anybody but the one who set it loose.”

“Probably too much to ask that they go down easy,” Smith said out loud as he watched Brett run at the thing.

“Alright ugly,” he yelled at the thing, “it’s go time!” He punched it with all his might right in the mouth as it watched him come. The beast recoiled a bit from the pain. “Plenty more where that came from.” He jumped out of the way as a fist came crashing down at him. “Oh come on now, do you know how many times I’ve seen that one?” he crossed his arms in front of his chest, “I mean why do the big ones always smash? Show me something different.” Cyberone didn’t see the leg that lashed out and knocked him into a building. As he pulled himself from the debris he said, “I didn’t mean right now.” He kept his tone flippant but he felt that one.

Shadow made his way to the alley where the life sign originated from while Ryder was keeping… whatever that thing was busy. Looking down he found the container soon enough, and he was getting an energy reading from the thing now. Ignoring his first instinct he took out a gun and changed ammo clips. Taking aim he fired and tagged it with a beacon, a clean up crew would be sent afterwards and they would pick this up. He thought he saw something a little further down. He doubled checked the readings he was getting, the computer wasn’t registering anything but he saw something. “This is Shadow, I seen movement where the creature came from. It might have been the one who set it loose. I’m going to investigate.”

“Negative Shadow,” Hammond told him.

Over the line he heard Jennifer go, “What?”

“We can’t have him going after what might be wild goose chase,” He explained. “The creature is our primary concern.”

“I think whoever was hiding it is a top priority too at the moment,” Smith countered.

“I wonder who General Miller would agree with?”, Hammond said nonchalantly.

Smith grunted before saying, “You heard the man Shadow, do what you can.”

“What in the hell do you expect me to do against that thing Hammond?”, he demanded. He wasn’t all that surprised when he didn’t get an answer. “Remind to shot him somewhere that’s not fatal,” Shadow said not caring if they heard him or not. Going back to the edge of the rooftop he watched the crab looking thing smash Ryder with a car. Was it wrong that he actually enjoyed that? If it was then he never wanted to be right.

Picking the car over his head as he stood up he threw it back at the thing. There was a satisfying wet crunch as it backed away after the car hit. From the look of thing the creature lost a couple of eyes. “Aw did that hurt? Let me put you out of my misery.” Popping the forearm laser out their holders he started blasting the creature. It tried to shield itself as each hit burned and dug into it’s flesh. The remaining crowd cheered him on as it slowly started to back away. “That’s right, who’s the man bitch?!”

The crab creature screamed and suddenly charged at him, “Oh shit.” The creature clubbed him down the street then continued coming at him. Cyberone used the neural net to cancel the alarms flashing away in his field of vision. He did not need the distraction right now, and the ringing in his head was bad enough. All he could do at the moment was dodge those giant fists coming at him. He heard Hammond screaming for Anderson to do something. That made his blood boil, he did not need that hack’s help. Seeing an opening he charged again then slide under the beast swing. He found himself staring at its belly and aimed both forearm lasers right at it. “Eat it fucktard!”, and he let loose a series of laser at its belly. The monster screamed again and jump almost half a block away. Cyberone got to his feet and taunted the thing, “Where you going? Not so tough now are you?” Screaming one more time the monster ran at him. He ran too and jumped when it got in range. Aiming for one of the wounded eyes with all the might he could muster and punched right through the socket.

The beast thrashed around trying to dislodge him but he would budge. Before long it dropped to the ground and stopped moving all together. Cyberone freed himself and backed away. Feeling great he nodded his head and said to himself, “Posterized.”

Resting a foot on the edge of the roof Shadow just looked on, “They are not going to be able to make a helmet big enough to fit that head now.”

“Cyberone! Cyberone! Cyberone!”, the crowd started cheering. He turned and started posing for the crowd who started cheering even louder. He ate it all up and hammed it up even more and they responded in kind. They were so caught up in the celebration nobody noticed that one of the beast legs started twitching slightly. Without warning it got right back up and the crowd started screaming and running. Cyberone turned around and saw pure hate flashing through it’s remaining eyes. He could barely react as a fist slammed into him. He went sailing over the fleeing crowd and the beast gave chase. It stepped on anything and anybody in it’s path to get at the one who hurt it. Shadow open fired trying get it’s attention but the beast gaze was fixed on Cyberone.

“Why don’t you stay down!”, Cyberone shouted as he started firing at it again. It ignored the pain and still came at him. He started to get a bit worried when it jumped up again and aimed one of it’s fist at him. He grabbed it and almost went down to a knee from the force. He was actually struggling to keep the fist from coming down. Warnings started to flash again and he could bother to make them go away. He felt the creature lean in putting it’s weight into it. The warnings started going off faster as the pressure increased. The circuitry in the under suit started to spark a bit as systems started to fail. “You are…,” he grunted, “not… getting the… best of… me!” With a lot of effort he was able to push the fist to the side but he fell from the impact.

“CBR-1 arms are redlining!”, a tech yelled out. On her board a schematic of the suit was showing Jennifer just that. Not to mention the other damaged the Beast caused.

“We’ve got to end this now,” Smith said. “I’m calling in an air strike.”

“He can do it,” Hammond said. “Once that bastard gets hit with the final laser it’s over.”

“That might not be possible Frank Hammond,” Zac said as he went over the readings. “The damage is preventing the final laser to draw the necessary power levels. Brett Ryder barely has enough to function properly as it is.”

“Then tell him to get to the Cy-Jet,” Hammond ordered. “The Tri-Laser should be able to fry that thing.”

“We can’t use the Tri-Laser with the crowd that close,” Smith argued.

“And this has got end now,” Hammond demanded. “This is costing us too much as it is.”

“People are dying and getting hurt out there?”, Jennifer told him.

“And who do you think going to get sued, that creature?”, Hammond shot back. Jennifer looked at him in disbelief. “Don’t just sit there gawking like an idiot tell them to wrap this up fast.”

A retort almost came out of her mouth, but she bit tongue and put a hand to her head set. After a second she was able to send Hammond’s order to both of them. It didn’t take long for them to reply. Shadow said over the speaker, ”Tell him to shut the fuck up, I’m working on it.”

Cyberone responded with a, “Does he want to come out here and do this?!”

Smith didn’t even attempt to hide the smirk on his face as he said, “I do believe they finally agreed on something.” Hammond fumed but said nothing in return.

Cyberone’s arm felt like they were made of lead at this point, but he had to keep going. If he could take care of this thing without his help then he could prove to all of them he could do it alone. He tried popping the forearm laser but they just sparked as they tried to open. The warnings would not go away no matter how many times he tried to shut them off. All he had to do was last a little longer and take this thing out. The beast started wobbling a bit, he was sure of it. It was bleeding pretty heavily from the eye he punched out. “Oh you better believe I’m going to be the last man standing you ugly son of a bitch.” It came at him again and bowled him over but kept on going. “Where do you think you’re going?” It grabbed a girl as it ran off, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”, Cyberone shouted as he gave chase.

“This is not good,” Zac said as he watched what was happening. They looked at him, “Part of the Beast programming is to repair itself if it is too damaged. They do this by ingesting organic matter.”

“It’s going to eat that little girl?”, Jennifer asked feeling like she was going to throw up.

Hearing all he needed to hear Shadow ran after the creature. “I’m going after the girl,” he told them.

“Negative Shadow,” Hammond said as he pushed Smith aside. “Let Cyberone do his job. This is his territory not yours.”

“Shadow is still on the move,” a tech announced.

“What does he think he’s doing?”, Hammond demanded.

“Friend Ryan is doing the right thing,” Zac calmly said.

Shadow was able to keep up with the crab. The girl was in it’s hand screaming her head off. Going over and rejecting several options in his head he braced himself, prayed and jumped off the current roof he was on. He grabbed the hair on it’s back and held on for dear life as it started to react to the new sudden pain. The frightened girl was pleading with him, but he couldn’t hear her over the beast screams. Slowly he crawled his way to the arm holding her. Jumping on and latching himself to the arm he could see the beast was seeing him now. It tried to grab him with it’s other hand, Shadow quickly drew his gun and shot a few rounds. As the creature pulled it’s hand back from the pain he made his was over to the girl.

“Please help me! You got to help me!”, she pleaded as she gripped him tightly.

“Hang on to me!”, he told her. Wrapping his legs around it’s giant wrist he prayed to God he figured this out right. Hanging on to the girl with one arm he made a fist with the other. As an arc of electricity jumped between the two electrodes on the back of his hand Shadow jammed it into the fist holding the girl. The hand open and he pulled the girl out. Shadow jumped down with girl and ran for all he was worth. Looking back he saw, not to mention felt, the crab come after them. It threw a car at them that fortunately sailed over there head. Making a quick cut into a nearby alley the Crab over shot them before hastily turning around and trying to get at them. Fortunately luck was with them as the crab was too wide to fit in now, but that didn’t stop it from trying to reach at them with it’s good hand. Putting the girl down he told her, “Duck your head and cover you ears.” She turned away and did so as he pulled a grenade of his chest. Pressing the button and quickly saying, “Onetwothree,” he threw it. Luck was still with him as it landed in the creature’s mouth. For what seemed like an eternity it went off and smoke and blood spewed out of it’s mouth. It took a few steps back before dropping to the ground again.

Cautiously Shadow drew his guns and made his way to the beast. He never took his eyes off any of it’s limbs. He even debated if he should shot the entire clip of both guns into it’s face just to make sure. Cyberone finally caught up with the thing and saw it laying there in the street. He saw Anderson in the shadows and nearly dropped to his knees in shock. How in the hell did he take that thing out? He couldn’t have taken it out by himself, there was no fucking way. The girl slowly rose up and saw the beast laying there. When Shadow started to lower his guns she ran up to him and hugged him around the waist, “Thank you, Thank you, thank you!,” she told him.

Shadow saw Cyberone and removed the girl. “You never saw me kid,” he told as headed deeper into the alley. “I’m just a figment of your imagination.”

Cyberone stumbled foreword and stared at the dead beast in front of him. He was so stunned about what happened he didn’t even notice the crowd that was forming around them. They started celebrating his victory and only he noticed the girl was still facing the inside of the alley waving at something.

-----
When he got back to Eagle Corp Smith, Zac and Jennifer were there to congratulate him on a job well done. Ryan figured Hammond wasn’t going to be there, he showed up his cash cow after all. Not to mention even he knew the girl was going to talk despite him telling her otherwise. Ryan excused himself and headed for his changing room. Wile under the showerhead he couldn’t help but to feel a little elated, he finally did something that was worth it. Despite all the shit Hammond would give him he would do it again in a heartbeat. He got dressed in his street clothes and started making his way back to the garage. People were telling him good job as he passed, but all he wanted to do at the moment was head home. “Anderson!”, He heard Ryder shout out. He didn’t even bother to get out of the under suit he was so angry. He didn’t even noticed part of the suit sleeves were burnt and still smoking. “What the fuck do you think you were doing?!”

“Saving a little girl life,” was all he told him.

“That’s not your job you son of a bitch!”

Ryan turned away saying, “Don’t get mad at me because I did something you couldn’t with the suit.”

Brett gripped his arm and tuned him around, “I had that thing beat.”

“Then you should have made sure while you were elbow deep in it’s eyeball.” He removed his arm from his gripped and started to walk away. Brett grabbed him again and started swinging for his head. Ryan ducked and sunk his fist into the other man gut. Brett had the wind leave his body as he dropped to his knees. Entertaining some thoughts to pummel him some more while he had the chance he ended up saying, “You know what Ryder, you’re not even worth it.” Brett reached out to grab his leg but Ryan was already down the hallway. Was Hammond going to be more of a bitch because of that? Yeah he was, but that was so worth it.

-----

[scikaiju]

She had to keep busy to get things done quickly, the CBR-1 suit suffered heavy damages from that outing. Zac estimated it would take a couple of days to repair the micro circuitry in the under suit. The press unit, of course, was going nuts, although the company PR staff was able to convince people that the man in black the girl saw was just a hallucination on her part. Jennifer didn’t say it out loud but she felt sorry for the girl for being put through this after the fact. But she had to make time to talk to Hammond, there as something in Ryan file she needed explained. Ignoring the secretary she stormed into the office. Hammond and Martha just looked at her confused. She slammed the reprimand on his desk. If it was for that fight in the hallway she could totally understand it, but this, “You suspended him for saving the girl?”

“He let himself be seen,” Hammond explained calmly. “Ryan knows he is not to be seen by the public for any reason.”

“He saved that girl from being eaten,” she nearly exploded. “What did you want him to do, stand there and watch it happen?”

“He knew his duty. Cyberone was on his way, he would have saved her in time.”

“Did you see the damaged report on the CBR-1 suit?”, she asked. “He barely had enough to go after that thing, much less do anything.”

“And you don’t know that,” Hammond cut her off sharply.

“The Captain and Zac agree with my assessment,” she told him. A small vain seemed to pop out on his forehead.

“And there are a clear set of guidelines both of them has to follow Miss Wells,” he told her coolly. “Anderson didn’t follow those guidelines and was punished appropriately.”

“God, you were so worried about those law suits you should be overjoyed he stopped one from being worse.”

“That is enough Miss Well!”, he stood up and shouted. “I’d suggest you get back to monitoring the CBR-1 suit repair and not worry about some guy we hired to sneak around behind people’s back.”

Jennifer stared at him for a long time. Finally she picked up the paper saying, “I’m starting to understand his attitude around here.” She slammed the door behind her.

Hammond leaned back a moment before reaching into a drawer and popped a couple of aspirin into his mouth. After a moment Martha said, “I’ve been saying that for awhile now.”

“Not now Martha,” he said sounding very tired. “Smith’s been reading the riot act already. Hell, even Zac acting strange now. Suddenly a new suit enhancement is going to take longer than he originally estimated. Just out of the blue too, and I know it’s because of what I did to Anderson.”

“I warned you something like this was going to happen,” she told him. “One day you were going to push things too far and things were going to start to push back.”

“And we have the guidelines in place for a reason,” he argued. “Anderson job is to only provide reconnaissance and provide data about the enemy.”

Martha didn’t even miss a beat as she countered that argument, “And while he’s at the disable weapon systems, eliminate any enemy soldiers he comes across, make it possible for Ryder to take down those ships…”

“That will be all Martha,” he said curtly. Rubbing his eyes as she left he said, “Why does everybody want to argue about this today?”

“Perhaps because they realize Ryder isn’t the end all and be all of this project,” she got in right before she closed the door.

-----
The scheduled test after the repairs were complete did not go well at all. Not that there was anything wrong with the suit. It was operating above specifications at this point. No the problem was Brett, all his test and reactions were way off target. The only way anybody could describe it was that he seemed distracted. And not his usual type of distracted. No, this was something deeper, everybody could see it on his face. And more than likely everybody had an idea about what it was about, or who.

Smith found him sitting on a bench staring at the under suit. Brett didn’t even react to his presence. Clearing his throat a bit he said, “You just had an off day son. It happens to everybody every now and then.”

“I had it beat,” he finally said not taking his eyes off the suit.

“Brett that happened almost a week ago,” Smith told him. “You let your guard down at the wrong moment. Just be glad things didn’t turn out worse than what it did.”

“The only reason Anderson took it down is because I’d weaken the damn thing. I like to see how he would do against that thing before I hurt it.” Smith sighed sadly and left him alone. There was no point in trying to talk to him when he was like this. Not for the first time he cursed whoever he pissed off to get stuck with Hammond.

-----
“My lord,” a scan reader said as he knelt before him, “we finally have word from the scout. The beast was defeated.” All of them were expecting their lord to shout in outrage and flinched in anticipation. Instead they were surprised while he contained his outburst.

“Which one of the two defeated the beast?”, he asked. “The armored one or the Specter?”

“Apparently both my lord. The scout reports that while the Specter was the first to discover the landing site he remained hidden while the armored one made contact and battled with the beast. After it received too much damaged it went to repair itself and that is when the Specter involved himself.”

“So they work in tandem then,” their lord said as he thought it over. “While one does one function the other does something else.”

“There partnership does not appear to be a perfect one my Lord,” the scan reader said. “The scout was able to intercept an encoded transmission…”

“I do not care if they work well or not!” he bellowed. The scan reader scurried back a bit as he stood up. “The Specter is still alive, so I will slay him personally for killing the Crown Prince. Pilot how much longer until we are ready to travel to 35-Gamma?”

“The stardrive is synching up with the closest gate now my Lord,” he replied. “After we enter it will be at least two solar cycles.” He sat back down irritated, but even his will couldn’t change the basics of interstellar travel. Waving his hand foreword the pilot returned to his console and punched in the co-ordinates. Finally he felt the ship move through the deck plating under his feet. Soon he would have his revenge and the Specter’s head for a trophy.

-----
The past two days were a bit nerve racking to say the least. Just about everybody was giving Hammond the cold shoulder when ever he showed up, especially from the military guard assigned to the building. Of course he was taking his frustrations out on those who weren’t. Jennifer and a few others gave him a dirty look when he said something about getting rid of Ryan completely if he was going to cause this much trouble. She wasn’t sure but she was positive Zac was going to read him the riot act before an assistant got him out of there with something important.

Ryan seemed almost happy to be out of there according to Captain Smith, even if it was only short term. “He said he was just glad to get away from the headache,” he repeated. Something Ryan admitted too when she ran into him at a coffee shop trying to get a plain coffee to go. One more time she helped him out. Although he did surprise her by asking how some of the guys back at the office were. Hell, he even asked about Zac.

And right now she had to tell somebody, “He started calling me friend Jennifer.” Ryan nearly chocked on his coffee.

“How pissy did you get with him?”, he ended up asking.

“He started calling me that after I started sticking up for you when Hammond suspended you,” she told him.

“I guess some people have no sense what so ever,” he said off handily. He explained, “Don’t you know Hammond goes after everybody who doesn’t agree that glory boy the main deal?”

“Let’s just say he starting to discover not everybody shares that view,” she told him.

Brett was something else all together. Lately he’s been disappearing for hours at a time. When he did decide to show up he was in worse shape than the last time anybody saw him. Nobody knew what was going on with him, although Smith seemed to have an idea. But he wasn’t sharing at the moment. “Captain Smith,” she said after she finally caught up with him, “I need to talk to you about Brett.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine Miss Wells,” he said as he kept on walking. She got in front of him and made him stop, “You caught me in a rather busy moment.”

“That’s been happening a lot lately, and I’m tired of being avoided.” He tried to move but she kept getting in his way. “Now tell me what’s going on with Brett,” she demanded.

“Alright Miss Wells,” he began, “to put it frankly Brett is trying to pull himself back together.”

“Have you seen him lately?”.

“I never said he was succeeding at the moment,” he snapped. He apologized and looked at the ceiling for a few moments. Finally he said, “Miss Wells, I’ve known Brett since before the project. He was never under my command but his name did get around. And I’ll admit even back then he was a bit of a glory hound. But as long as he was kept grounded it wasn’t much of a problem. Then he was chosen to don the CBR-1 armor.”

“And what?”, she asked feeling a little impatient. “Did things go to hell or something?”

“That was a little dramatic, don’t you think?”, he attempted to joke. She wasn’t laughing. “Let’s just say Hammond wasn’t the best person to keep him grounded. No, he feed Ryan’s ego from day one. I tried to be a counter balance, but when you got the marketing machine around here…,” he trailed off. “Brett’s a good man Jennifer, but with the way his ego was being fed what Ryan did hit him harder than even Hammond expected. He just needs a little time.”

“Well as everyone around here seems to be fond of saying,” she told him, “I not sure we have the time.”

“A saying I know all to well,” he agreed. Both of their cell phones went off. “Captain Smith here,” he said as he answered his.

Jennifer looked at her caller ID and was mildly surprised at who it was. She gave Ryan her number for professional uses, but she didn’t actually think he would use it, “Hello?”

“If you’re still looking for glory boy I got a tip on where you can find him.”

“How did you find him?”

“As strange as it sounds we have a mutual friend who owns a bar in town. Do you know where O’Conner’s is?”

“I’ve never heard of it.” While he gave her directions Smith looked like he paled a bit. “Ok Ryan I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“You might want to wait a few minutes there Miss Wells,” Smith told her. “And keep Ryan on the line, he’s going to want to hear this too.”

-----
As it turned out the bar was a couple of blocks away from Ryan’s apartment. The place looked pretty normal, outside of the fact there were only two cars in the parking lot. One was a Jaguar she knew belong to Brett. The other was a Chevy truck that Ryan was currently leaning against. He acknowledged her with a nod as she pulled up beside him. She asked the obvious question as she got out, “So where’s everybody else?”

“The owner sent his customers and staff away when he noticed the shape Brett was in,” he told her. “After a bit he called me.”

“Did he happen to say what kind of shape he was in?”

“He didn’t say in so many words,” he hesitated a bit, “but a bit fucked up was implied.”

“Oh this should be fun,” she said as he led her inside the bar. As they entered they could see Brett hanging on to a bottle of something as sat at the bar. There was a few days growth of stubble on his face and some dark circles under his eyes. And the closer they got the stronger the alcohol smell was. Brett didn’t even acknowledge them as they got closer. Ryan didn’t even look moved at all at his predicament. Taking a good look at him she accidently said, “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

“Thanks for the heads up Manny,” Ryan said to the bartender.

“It ain’t nothing,” he told them. “I’m just going to add the losses for tonight to his tab,” he waved a hand in Brett direction.

“The bean counters are going to love that one,” Ryan smirked as he leaned against the counter and looked at the bottle. “Never took you for a JD drinker. So how long were you planning on being on this bender glory boy?”

“You’re not helping,” Jennifer scolded him.

“And you’re point?”, he asked plainly.

Brett finally uttered, “Go away Anderson.”

“It’s alive,” he said.

She ignored him and concentrated on Brett, “Look we have a situation and we need you…”

“Why?”, he interrupted her. “So this hack can show me up again?” Jennifer gave Ryan a quick warning glance that he wisely followed as he walked away. “Why don’t you just put him the suit and get it over with.”

“You know that’s not a possibility Brett,” she tried to reason with him. He started mumbling something about adjusting doohickeys and what’s it. Sighing she said, “We got to sober him up fast. Do you got any ideas?”

Looking thoughtful for a minute he turned his head to the bartender, ”Manny, I’m going to need a funnel, an enema tube and all the hot coffee you can make.”

“Oh very funny smart guy,” Brett said.

“Who was joking?”. Without warning he hauled Brett up by his shirt and bent him over the bar. “You want to get his pants?”, he asked Jennifer.

Caught totally off guard she went, “I beg you pardon?”

“Get off me!”, Brett forced his way off the bar. Slumping back down on the stool he took another swig from the bottle, “Admit it you fucker, you just want to be me. You want the fame, you want the money, you want everything I got.”

“You know what, sometimes I almost do,” Ryan snapped. “I want to be acknowledge, I want to be thanked. Hell I’d take getting appreciated at this point.” Leaning against the bar again he crossed his arm, “No, what do I get? A ‘Were you seen?’ or ‘Did you leave behind any evidence?’.” A dark look crossed his features, “Or my new personal favorite ‘You shouldn’t have saved the girl’.”

Brett finally looked at him with glassy eyes, “Wait, they… they actually reamed you out for that?”

“Roto Router was calling for tips.”

Looking at Jennifer he asked, “Is that… is that true?”

“I’m afraid so,” she admitted.

“God, I’d be… I’d be acting like a jackass too,” he mumbled.

“I think present company has something to do with too,” Ryan said.

Before Jennifer could say anything Brett held his head in one hand and said, “I just want to prove it wasn’t a fluke.”

Both of them looked confused. “Prove what wasn’t a fluke?”, Jennifer asked.

“That first time with the armor,” he told them. He picked up the bottle, looked at it for a long time before setting it down again. “I drove off an alien invasion, why do people think it was a fluke?”.

“Nobody I know of thinks it was a fluke,” Jennifer said.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud, but even I’ll admit it was a fluke,” Ryan added. “It took more guts than brains, but driving off an invasion…? Hell even I was impressed at the time.”

“Then why do I need you?”, Brett asked him. “If it wasn’t a fluke why do they say I need your help?”

“Manny you ain’t hearing any of this,” Ryan said suddenly.

“Whatever man,” he said as he kept washing glasses. Jennifer wasn’t exactly convinced but they really couldn’t argue about it right now. Ryan wasn’t sure about the trustworthiness of his friend either.

“All that patting on the back after I drove them off,” Brett continued. “All of the good jobs, the way to gos and congratulations. All of the saying I can’t be beat then they go behind my back and hire you,” he said bitterly. “I mean what so great about you Anderson? Do you know how many times I told myself my life would be easier if they just fired you?”

“Do you have any idea how many times I thought the court marshal would be worth it if I just walked away while I watched you getting your ass kicked?”, Ryan shot back.

Jennifer lowered her head in frustration, so much for them finding some common ground. “We do not have time for this,” she told both of them. “If you two want to have a pissing contest, do it on your own time. We got something coming this way and according to Zac’s translation it is not a good thing.”

Brett just looked at her while Ryan kind of smirked. To Ryan he said, “Must be important if she talking like that.”

“Something like that. Remember that ship we took down a couple of weeks back?”, he asked him.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well according to Zac that was the prince of this particular empire. And Daddy was not happy his little boy didn’t come home. If he’s right they’re going to be here in less than three hours.”

“Revenge huh?”, Brett started chuckling. “That’s a new one all right. So what do we do?”

“What we usually do?”

“Kick ass, look good and hate each others guts afterwards?” Ryan nodded in response. Brett stood up, “Good I always like that plan.” Then he almost fell on his face before Brett called him.

Ryan finally got a real good whiff of him and went, “I think we’re going to need a something a little stronger than coffee for this one.”

Jennifer got under his other arm, “I think you’re right. Maybe Zac has an alien remedy to sober him up or something.”

“Finally, he gets to experiment on somebody other than me for a change.”

“Get him to the backseat of my car.”

“I knew I’d finally wear you down,” Brett said out of the blue. Jennifer was at a lost of words. Ryan couldn’t help but start laughing.

-----

[scikaiju]

Zac did have something for Ryan condition, but they were still pouring coffee down his throat a couple of hours later. He sat there in the blue body suit with the neural lead hanging around his neck. Every so often he slapped his own face a couple of times to stay focus. “Ugh… I am so going to get a massive hang over later,” people heard him say as they passed.

“Smith!,” Hammond yelled as he barged into the room. Brett winced and held his head. He was ignored as Hammond stormed over to the Captain. “Why the hell is Anderson in the building?”

“I do believe his job Hammond,” Smith return evenly.

“He’s still suspended Smith!”

“Would you shut it,” Brett told him. “My head feels like it ready to explode.”

“Not now,” he dismissed him. Brett flipped him off. “Look Smith, his suspension isn’t over yet.”

“Geez, how long did you suspend for saving that kids life?”, Brett asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I seriously doubt his suspension supersedes his duties,” Smith told him.

“You want to bet Smith?”, Hammond challenged. “Why don’t we call up Miller and find out one way or another.”

Smith got a smug look on his face as he pulled a letter out of his coat. “I already took the liberty of talking to him yesterday.” Handing the letter to Hammond he simply told him, “And he agrees with me.” Hammond looked at the letter and turned a couple of shades of red before storming out of the room.

“You enjoyed that just a little too much,” Brett commented with a wry look on his face.

“You’re damn right I did,” Smith said with a straight face. “You ready to go?”

“You know it,” he stood and held his head again, “whoa… dizzy wave.”

“You sure about that?”

“On two separate occasions I partied all night long with a couple of supermodels the night before we were attacked. Two that I remember anyway, I’ve had a few wild nights. Trust me this ain’t nothing.”

“I do not need to know about who you’re sleeping with,” Smith told him.

“Who was sleeping? We were up all night.” He put the lead in place and headed for the armor assembly room and prayed the receivers were getting a clear signal. Meanwhile Ryan was dressing in his suit in his locker room as he waited for the word to go. Jennifer hurried to the command center and took her spot while Smith entered from another door and Zac went over the sensor reading.

“Long range is getting a blip,” somebody called out. “At current speed it’ll reach us in under twenty minutes.”

“We got a incoming transmission!”, another person shouted. Suddenly all the screens in the room were taken over and played a single image. The ship’s Lord looked ahead and started to speak in his language. Zac lowered his head and listened while every one else tried to figure out how to get there stations back online.

Somebody rushed into the room, “Something just took over the monitors out here.”

Hammond pushed past him looking even redder than before, “What the hell is going on? I was in the middle of a call when some gibberish started playing.” Then they noticed the thing on the screen, “What in God name is that thing? Is that the alien?”

“Sensors are detecting a wide beam transmission on all frequency. The entire city is getting this.”

“Nothing like a little wide spread panic to end the day,” Smith said dryly.

Jennifer put the head set on and announced, “Cyberone, Shadow finish suiting up and prepare to launch.” Looking over to Zac she asked, “So what’s he saying?”

He waited a few more moments before answering, “Similar to the last transmission we picked up. In essence he has come to claim vengeance for the murder of his son. He is saying he wants the armored one and the… I believe he is saying the specter.”

“Alright the armored one has to be Brett but What’s the specter?”, she thought about it for a few moments. “You don’t think he means Ryan?”

“That is a possibility friend Jennifer,” he said. “But how they discovered friend Ryan I am not sure.”

“We’ll worry about it later,” Smith said. Leaning on the control console in front of him he added, “Well if they want them they’re going to get them, and then some.”

Brett walked between the poles and stood there as in another part of the building Ryan went to an equipment locker and opened it up. He grabbed the belt and snapped it around his waist. Armored pieces came down from the ceiling as the techs in the room called out various readouts. “Neural receptors are green.”

“Proceeding with armor attachment.” The boots flipped up and encased his feet, shin and legs. “Lower armor in position and green.” Ryan tightened the strap of the gun holster around his upper thighs. Brett put his hands in to the silver gloves and it enclosed around his forearms as more wrapped itself around his upper arms. Ryan fastened the gloves and tested the tazer by making a fist. ”Arm armor and weaponry are green.” Ryan checked the sights on one of the guns before holstering it. Two big silver pieces were placed around Brett’s chest. Ryan tighten the black harness like vest on his chest. “Torso armor is green.” Above him the helmet opened as it lowered and encased his head. Slipping the black mask over his head Shadow headed for the door. “Head armor and sensors are green.” The suit closed itself with a hissed and the tech gave him the go ahead. Cyberone hurried to the C-Jet and took off at Jennifer command while in a sub garage Shadow jumped on the black motorcycle and raced out into the open.

“The alien ship had stopped in earth orbit,” A tech announced.

“What are they waiting for,” Smith mumbled. “Are they thinking about attacking from orbit?”

“It would be the most effective way to attack Captain Smith,” Zac told him.

“There’s a thought I didn’t need,” Jennifer said while racking her brain trying to remember if the CBR-1 armor was space compatible.

“We got some long range missile near by…” Smith started before Zac interrupted him.

“However the person in the message said he wanted personal vengeance on the one who killed his son. This species will not use such an attack to accomplish that.”

“Then why did they stop in orbit?”, Jennifer asked.

“I guessed they realized who they thought about messing with,” Cyberone said as he circled the city. “I kicked their asses once, they know I’m going to do it again.

Shadow parked the bike and over heard that, “And I was just starting to find him bearable.”

“Come on man I’ll buy you a bottle of whatever rot gut you usually force down when this is over.”

“We got incoming from the ship!”, somebody shouted out.

“So much for that theory,” Shadow said as he watched the sky. It wasn’t long before everybody saw it, a fireball coming straight down. People ran for cover as Shadow climbed a fire escape. He knew it wouldn’t be long before the news helicopters were launched. Cyberone moved the Cy-Jet out of the fireball’s trajectory and played with the idea of firing the Tri-Laser while it was still in the air. No, it would be better to save that in case the ship came into the atmosphere. All any of them could do was watch as it came crashing at the planet. Several minutes later it hit the middle of town, close to where they were located. Chaos erupted as people scrambled away form the smoking creator while others tried to get closer with their cameras. Putting his hand to his ear Shadow said, “Somebody make sure the paramedics and emergency teams get down there, we got a mess down there and the civilians are just making it worse.”

“Acknowledged Shadow,” Jennifer told him. “Captain Smith is going to make sure they get an opening to the area ASAP.”

“I’ll do a fly by and scan for survivors,” Cyberone said over the link. He didn’t get very far as a yellow beam came through the smoke and hit the starboard wing on the Cy-Jet. “What the fook?” he said as he tried to stabilize the craft, then other one hit, this time under the craft. Power started to go rapidly as he fought for control as the jet went into a nose dive.

“Cyberone eject now!”, Smith yelled.

“Not doing that,” he grunted. With a lot of effort he pulled the nose up and skidded as eh hit the ground. He went a long way before it finally came to a stop. Shakily he got himself out of the vehicle and looked back seeing if anybody got in the way. From the look of things he was lucking in that aspect. Then he heard a rumbling and felt the ground shake. “And that can’t be good,” he muttered as he turned around.

From where he was Shadow felt his heart drop as a shape came out of the smoke. A huge shape, almost two stories tall lumbered in to view. A huge humanoid robot lumbered foreword, the ground cracking under it’s weight. Cyberone took a couple steps back as he looked at the thing coming at him. Shadow gulped and whispered, “We’re going to need a bigger gun.”

-----
“Holy shit,” Smith said, it was echoed several times by the people around him. Most people were stunned at the sight of the robot, even Hammond was speechless. Jennifer was the only one at the moment trying to do her job trying to get the attention of either Cyberone or Shadow, even going so far as to break protocol and call them by their real names.

Zac surprised them all by saying, “Fuckk. I was unaware they had a Hellrizer.”

“Forget the ship,” Smith ordered, “have every base in range aim their missiles at that thing.”

“It was shot from orbit and survived reentry,” Hammond said as he found his voice. “Do you really think our missiles are going to do any damage to that thing?”

“Not now Hammond,” Smith barked.

“I’m afraid Frank Hammond is correct Captain Smith,” Zac informed him. “The Hellrizer is the ultimate battle system. One can take out a city if left uncheck. It will take nothing short of one of your nuclear weapons to stop completely.”

“And that is not option,” Smith told him. “Is there any other way to stop it?”

Zac thought it over, “Perhaps a direct hit to the central processor, but it is heavily shielded for such an attack.”

“So I beat on the head until I expose it,” Cyberone said.

“It will not necessarily be there Brett Ryder,” Zac said. “The design has evolved over the decades to make the Hellrizer very customizable. The relocation of the processor is one of the first things that several species mark as a priority.”

“Then we scan the son of bitch,” Smith told him.

“I tried that I can’t get through the shielding,” Cyberone cut in.

“Get me the new super scanner Zac made for us,” Shadow said.” If it lives up to what he says it should get Ryder an inside view of that thing.”

“My thoughts exactly friend Ryan,” Zac said with a smile.

“Great now I’m thinking like him,” he mumbled.

“He can fire it with the rail gun,” Smith said. “He can stay were he’s at and still get enough distance to do the scan.”

“I’ll get it to him,” Jennifer said as she got out of her seat. “Larry, take over for me.”

“Now wait a minute,” Hammond said in protest.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Jennifer told him. “Besides, my car closest one to the garage entrance at the moment. And it’s part of my job to make sure they have the proper equipment.”

“That’s not what we meant Wells,” Hammond told her. “Smith do something!”

“We still need to get Shadow the rail gun so we need to send somebody out there.” To Jennifer he said, “Head for the garage, one of my men will be waiting for you with the rail gun, and one of Ryan’s spare hand guns. Just humor me on that one.”

“Right,” she agreed. When she reached her car there was already a soldier with a black case standing by it. He explained that he wouldn’t be able to accompany her for secrecy reason. She guessed that made sense, it would be hard to explain why she was driving a soldier around. Still she would have like him there a little extra security. Then he handed her the hand gun, she looked at it a bit before taking it. “Just point and shot right?”

“That’s the basic of it,” he agreed. “I hope you don’t have to use it.”

“That makes two of us.” Jennifer put the gun in the waistband of her skirt as he put the case in the backseat. After that was done he handed her a GPS unit that would home in on Shadow static field. He gave her a quick salute and wished her luck as she got in. Her nerves finally started getting to her she started the engine and got out of there. What in the hell was she thinking?”

-----

[scikaiju]

Shadow raced across the rooftops, he needed to get as close as possible to fire that scanner and still be far enough away he wasn’t noticed. He paused just long enough to see Ryder get picked up as he approached and thrown into a truck. He winced behind the mask, armored or not that had to hurt. Before he could figure out where to go next he heard something close to him. It sounded like a lot of gibberish to him. But if he could understand what it said he would have known the voice said one word, <Specter.>

He turned around to see one of the aliens he fought from before in wearing the same blue tinted armor, but this one with gold decorations, standing before him. Shadow didn’t know the language but he knew that look of hatred in it’s eyes, “Fucking A.” Then it wrapped a hand around his head.

Peeling himself from the side of the truck he activated the laser on his forearm and started running and firing away. The robot looked like it was getting aggravated as it tried to shield itself from the blast. Then the robot’s head flashed right before it fired that yellow beam at him. He had to stop short and backtrack a bit to avoid getting nailed with the thing. Well at least now he knew where it came from. Time to get an advantage. He locked the suits target sensors on that visor on it’s face and unleashed several bolts of energy at it. The robot recoiled as it tried to protect itself. “Oh hell yeah, take that you over grown son of a bitch!” The visor flashed and a massive yellow beam came right at him that he couldn’t avoid.

The alien had him pinned against a stairwell door way with it’s sword out and pointed at his head. Shadow tried to loosen the grip around his neck but it was no use. He let go with his right hand, drew one of his guns and started firing point blank. The alien Lord let him go and jumped away. Not even taking time to catch his breath he drew the other one and continued firing at his attacker. Without warning it jumped high into the air. It took Shadow a second to realize he was the intended landing zone and got out of the way. He faced the alien after it landed with his guns up as it had the sword in a defensive position. He dropped the guns and grabbed the vibroblades as he ran at the alien.

Either he was alive or those alarms he was hearing was part of his eternal punishment. He did not want to know how many of those he could take before it killed him. Now where the hell was he? It took him a while to realize he was actually inside a building. Now he really didn’t want to know how many of those he could take. “Excuse me ladies,” he said as he noticed he wasn’t alone. “Just a minor set back, but you might want to find some cover just in case.” He exited through the hole he apparently came in from and scanned the street. “Shit!,” he shouted as he fell backwards to avoid the robotic fist coming at him. Well, seeing how he already made one hole in the building he crashed through another one to avoid the robot.

“Hey watch it!”, A cameraman yelled as the fell to the ground.

“You’re the idiot trying to film this,” Cyberone shot back. The robot punched through the building trying to get to him. He picked the guy up and got him out of there as part it punched can at them. Running a block away he put the guy down. “So did you get footage of that?”, he joked as he noticed the guy still had a death grip on his camera.

The guy started holding his neck and winced, “I think you gave me a case of whiplash…”

“You lying sack of shit,” he said right before the robot tried to blast him again. “Right death ray,” he muttered as he went for cover. There had to be a way to take that thing out. Looking around he had an idea. Cyberone ran around a building corner to buy himself a little extra time, if that thing didn’t decide to crash through the building to get to him. He grabbed a parking meter and pulled it out of the ground then waited. Almost on cue the robot appeared around the corner. Waiting a beat he tossed the meter like a javelin and prayed to God. It flew right on target and smashed right into he visor, even piercing in it. The robot tried to fire it beam again but it went wide attacking the buildings around it and itself. “Ha! Try to shoot me now you big tin…,” more guns popped out of it’s shoulders... “can?”

Knives and blade clanged against each other on the rooftop. Both of them were oblivious to the chaos the robot and Cyberone was causing. Shadow was kept on the defensive trying to find an open where he could strike. But unlike with the other one this was wasn’t giving it to him. The only thing that broke their concentration was when a mail box came flying at them. Shadow chanced a glance over and muttered, “You getting a little too close Ryder.” A glint grabbed his attention and he looked back. The alien was already mid swing. He tried to jump back but the tip of the blade the vest and cut through it and the suit. It wasn’t a deep of fatal cut, just bled like crazy and hurt like hell, “Damn it.”

The alien laughed and said something, <You are what killed the Prince? You are good but easily distracted for a warrior.> Deep down he knew that was an insult of some kind but he kept his cool. He was wounded and knew that was going to hamper him, and that thing probably knew that too. Shadow pressed the attack again hoping to catch it off guard, maybe finish it before the alien tried to take advantage of the situation. It almost seemed to be smirking as it blocked his strikes. He couldn’t pay attention to that, he had to look for an opening, no matter how small. The alien suddenly stepped back almost making him lose his balance. Quickly the Lord raised his sword and swung at his head. Acting on instinct he dropped and crossed his arms in front of him. Activating the blades he swung hard at it’s gut. It stepped back and put the sword in his place. The blades cut trough the blade with ease but he was surprised that it was able to dodge it.

“What the..” was all he got out before a fist crashed into his head. The blow was hard enough to crack the visor on his mask. Then another one came that shook him so hard he dropped the blades. A powerful straight jab whipped his head back and forced him to the ground. Pieces of the visor started to fall away as he tried to get to his knees and back up. The alien lord picked him up and slammed him against the door and held him there. For a long time he stared at Shadow.

After several moments he spoke again, <I will see the true face of my son’s murderer>. The alien Lord reached up, grabbed the mask and pulled it off his head. He was bleeding around his left eye where the visor started breaking. Again they looked at each other for a long time, he almost seemed to be studying Shadow’s face. <Now I shall kill you slowly>. Shadow made a fist hitting the trigger on his palm, and an electrical buzz filled the air.

“Shit shit shit shit!”, Cyberone cursed as he tried to fire back at the robot. Nobody told him it had extra fire power. Property was getting eaten up around him by what ever it was shooting out of those cannons. Not to mention the armor was getting some dings that the tech and Zac wouldn’t be able to pound out. His head was splitting in two with all the alarms going off and the warning of the suit power level dropping. Without warning to giant cases popped out of the robot shoulder cannon and two more seemed to come from it’s back to replace those. “How much fire power did those alien bozos give this thing?”.

Hoping it was going to take a bit to bit to reload the bullets in to the actual firing chamber Cyberone ran at it. It started firing again but the shots went over his head. Great he was out of range but now what? Well obviously he had to take out those guns too. Why couldn’t they have built a jetpack or something into the suit? Running in he saw it kneel down to try to get him, perfect. Cyberone jumped up and on top of its knee. Not wasting a second he jumped up again and grabbed the cannon barrel and swung himself up upon its shoulder. The robot tried to sling him off but he held on tight. Getting his footing on the metal surface he pulled back. There was a loud creaking as the barrel slowly started to bend. Finally it broke off completely. Feeling a sense of victory he started swinging the piece in his hands like a club against it’s head. He never saw the hand come up and grab him. The robot slammed him into a building then into the street below before letting go.

Ignoring the increasing volume of the alarms in his ears he got to his feet and faced the robot again. All he could do was watch as it fist came at him. He went flying as part of the face plate flew off exposing part of his face. Cyberone smacked into the ground hard but still tried to get to his feet. He looked through the hole in his helmet at the approaching robot. Breathing heavily he literally had no ideas left. Nobody even told him how much or where he had to pound on the thing in order to get to the processor. “What are you waiting for you son of a bitch,” he muttered, mostly to Anderson.

Jennifer followed the emergency units as they went into the combat zone. She didn’t like it but it was the fastest way to get there. Looking at the GPS unit she saw she was close to Ryan position. Getting her nerves together, and really wishing she had a stiff drink at the moment, she got out of her car. Checking his position again, she centered in on exactly which building he was on top of, but why did it look like he was moving around so much. Looking at how close the robot and Brett were she grabbed the case on the backseat and ran for the building. She was amazed that it wasn’t as heavy as she thought it was going to be as she raced up the stairs. Blowing past people who were hiding in the building she made her way to the roof and ended up kicking the door open. Then she discovered why he was moving around so much.

He was going hand to hand with the alien, and it didn’t exactly look like he was winning. He was bleeding in various spots and his right eye was nearly swollen shut. But the tazer gloves seem to be helping him a bit. The alien went for a right cross he ducked and connect a left to it’s side before following up with a right. The Alien lord took a step back, trying to figure out why this lower species blows were hurting him so much. Shadow jumped up and hit a spin kick to it’s head that rocked it. Not wasting a second he took the throwing knife from his arm as he jumped on the alien back and put the edge to it’s throat. It flipped him off quickly and planted a fist right in the center of his chest. He saw star and thought he felt something crack as the wind left him. The alien Lord stood over him than slowly reached down and took the knife from his hand. Studying it intently it spoke <How slowly can you bleed to death human?>

Not even thinking about what she was doing Jennifer dropped the case and pulled the gun from her waistband and started firing. The alien lord flinched and tried to shield himself as Shadow painfully rolled out of the way. The Lord looked to see who was even daring to shoot him and was slightly amused to find out it was a human female, slightly but not much. It saw how wildly the barrel of the gun shook between shoots. The shaking became worse as the Lord walked toward her, she even started to take steps backwards. This one was not a warrior, but the Lord admired her courage, so he would end her life quickly.

Shadow crawled away a bit not realizing what was happening behind him. His left hand grazed against one of the vibroblades. He looked back and saw the alien stalking Jennifer. Blocking out the pain he grabbed the blade, got up and ran at the alien. “RAAAGH!” he screamed as came closer to him. The alien turned and went to a defensive position. His right foot hit the ground and in mid step he hit the side of his belt with his free hand. There was brief flash under his foot as he was launched into the air higher than the Lord was expecting. Shadow raised the blade over his head as he came down and squeezed the handle with both hands. All the Lord heard was a brief hum right before the blade pierced its skull and he didn’t even feel it. Shadow kicked off and let go of the handle as the Lord stood there. Almost with a stunned look on it’s face it dropped to it’s knees then to the rooftop under it. Shadow knelt there as the pain came back, but he did everything to force it away again as he looked at the case.

He had to go for it, there was no point of not trying it now. All or nothing time. Cyberone brought up his arms in front of him, fist pointed at the sky and started rerouting the power from any system that still had it. General power… check. Targeting… he could still see it on the remaining part of the helmet, put it in the maybe file. Body suit… all he could spare. Neural net… he left whatever he needed to keep it functioning. Life support... the fucking helmet was cracked open, didn’t really needed at the moment. Communications… gone. Any last bit of energy the suit could muster and spare was going into this. The cracked readout In front of his finally said he had enough power. Four panels on each fore arm open and energy arcs passed between them. The Final Laser was almost ready to go. He swung his hands around and drew them to his side on top of the other and the energy built up. Now where in the hell was he going to shoot this thing?

Shadow quickly opened the case and grabbed the rail gun and sensor shell. Loading it on the go he ran to the edge of the roof. He hefted it to his shoulder and tried to line up the shot as best he could. Hearing a lock on tone he shouted, “Fire in the hole!” and hit the trigger. The sensor soared over the robot and did a quick deep scan of the robot. In his vision Cyberone saw a schematic of the robot inside outline itself of the robot. The chest looked weapon free so he locked on to that in the brief second he had. He yelled as he brought his hand forward and pointed at the robot. The energy crackled and became a huge laser that shot from his arms. The laser hit the robot chest and exited through it’s back a second later. Cyberone lost all power and dropped his arms. Feeling the weight of the armor he held his breath as the robot stood there with a smoking hole in his chest. Shadow lowered the rail gun and didn’t dare move any more. Smith, Hammond, Zac and the rest watched the scene off a news feed quietly praying.

There was no sound at all until the robot slowly fell backwards. It crashed bringing up a bit of dust as the street broke more under it’s weight. Cyberone just looked at it dumbfounded for a long time. Finally he muttered, “I did it.” Then louder he repeated, “I did it.” Shadow breathed a sigh of relief as he dropped the rail gun. The control room erupted in cheers, Smith and Hammond even reluctantly shook each other hand in celebration. Cyberone, fueled by the adrenaline of winning, pumped his fist in the air. “That’s right, I did it!” People came out of the building and joined him in the streets. “Who the hero?!” he shouted as he flexed. The crowd started cheering wildly and joined him in celebration, but he was still keeping an eye on that thing

Back in the control room Smith tried to get everybody back to business, “This ain’t over yet people. We still got a space craft over our head.”

“Captain Smith,” Zac said. “We have another transmission from the ship.”

“Put it on,” he said and braced himself for the worst. An alien, he could tell this one was different from the previous one, appeared and started talking. After a couple of moments he asked Zac, “What’s he saying?”

Zac waited a few beats before translating. “He is saying the Specter has claimed their Lord. They are nothing without him…” he trailed off looking confused. “Captain Smith I do believe they are surrendering.”

“They lose their leader and they’re calling it quits?”, Hammond asked in disbelief. Smith was having a hard time believing it himself.

Zac listened intently, “He is saying their life revolved around their Lord and master. Without him there to guide them they have no wish to continue. They will do whatever we wish of them.”

“Hot damn something finally going our way,” Smith said as he tapped the panel in from of him. “Tell them to stay were they are for now. Franks, tell the missile bases to get that ship in their sights just in case, it attacks shoot it to hell. Zac…”

“Yes Captain Smith?”

“Contact your government and see if they can take these guys of our hands.”

“I was going to do just that Captain Smith, as per our arrangement.”

“Has anybody heard from Shadow?”, Smith asked suddenly when it hit him that he hadn’t called in yet. Everyone was looking at each other but nobody was answering “Ok that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s a bad thing.”

“We are still receiving Friend Ryan’s field signal,” Zac said going over the readings. “I can also confirm the sensor was fired.”

“I guess he can do something right after all,” Hammond remarked. He noticed everyone was giving him a strange look, “What?”

Shaking his head Smith said, “Somebody get him out of here.”

“Now wait a second, I run this corporation.”

“And I told you before in here you don’t and until we take care of that craft I’m the one in charge.” Hammond looked disgusted as he walked out before a soldier could escort him out. “Get a clean up crew to Shadow’s position,” Smith ordered, “and a medic. If we’re right and he is that Specter thing they’re talking about I got a feeling he’s going to need one.”

-----
Shadow tried to relax a bit and he was breathing a little easier now, but not by much. Ignoring the news helicopters flying overhead he held his chest and limped over to Jennifer, who was currently sitting on her butt with the gun still pointed at the dead alien. Slowly he kneeled down and carefully took the gun from her still trembling hands. She just stared at the corpse in front of them. Finally she sputtered, “What… what did I… what just… what just happened?”

“Miss Wells, I do believe you just helped save the day,” he told her.

She started smiling a bit before it went away as something slowly dawned on her, “He’s going to get all the credit, isn’t he?”

Wincing a bit a he turned his head to look at the celebration still going on in the streets. He was amazed at the stupidity of some people as a group of them actually hopped up on top of the fallen robot. To her he simply nodded his head and said, “Pretty much, yeah.”

With a blank look on her face she said, “That… sucks.”

Offering her a weak smile he told her, “Welcome to my world newbie.” She finally looked at him and slowly returned the smile. He helped her up and both of them watch the victory party down below.