9
Prologue
What can I say? I screwed up big time. Yeah I know it's is an interesting way to start a story. How did I screw up? Well that's half of the story. Maybe I should start by explaining why I'm writing this. This is for my creative writing class (which I'm using as a backup in case my career in the P.M.T.C. doesn't work out, and that's looking increasingly likely) and that generally implies several pages. I'm a little bit worried about writing this owing to the fact it will reveal quite a bit about this incident, most of which I'd rather remain undisclosed. Oh well, it's worth it for 5 grade points right? Well what else exciting has happened to me? I mean other than my neighbor secretly building a bomb out of shark feces and my other neighbor planning to kill his left hand (with a spork). Maybe I should move. I doubt the rest of Sermudia any saner so I might as well stay here. And besides real estate prices are sky high now a days. Oh well I'm just procrastinating. Here goes nothing.
Chapter 1
RING! Nothing like a good alarm clock to wake you up in the morning.
"No way I'm getting up for any stupid clock" was Flay Bakerson's immediate thought.
RING!
"Five more minutes."
RING!
"Fine. Two more minutes."
RING!
"ARGH! Is 30 seconds to much to ask?" yelled Flay.
"YES! As a matter of fact it is! Now get out of your freakin' bed before I turn on the shock nanodes" came the exasperated reply.
"Well jeez, you're grumpy in the morning." Having grown up in the rougher parts of suburbia had led to Flay being on the receiving end of shock nanodes several times. Just the threat of them at this time of the day was enough to wake him up totally.
"I'm The Computer. What the hell do you expect? I have to be in over a million homes, waking up people over a million people all at the same time. I think that gives me a perfect right to be grumpy. Now get up!"
"One quick question." Flay decided that he could probably could ask about the shock nanodes and not have to worry about a spiked hairdo.
"What?" growled The Computer and Flay could could've sworn that for just a second he heard his bed crackle as some supposed nanodes warmed up. He decided against it.
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Maybe I should take some time to explain what exactly The Computer is and what P.M.T.C. (Protection and Maintenance of The Computer) does. The Computer is an all powerful computer. It controls and regulates all electronic devices and appliances in all of Sermudia. Yes, I do mean all. Even those little bracelets that you get at Pep Rallies, that you lose after the first minute or so and later on see a guy wearing about 50 of them. Yeah, you know those. Anyways the P.M.T.C. is an elite police force that protects and maintains The Computer (duh). Well it was an elite police force, but now if you haven't been in jail for more than month than you're pretty much in. But in Flay's defense it took some serious work (a.k.a a huge amount of brownnosing to stay in the guard) to get where he is in the force (security guard of the entrance to the Southeast wing which houses the Northwest shields). Also the force now guards the shields and anything else even remotely important. The shields keep them safe from prying eyes (cough cough humans).
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"Hey Flay!"
"Oh My Lord. God help me." "Hey Galif. What's up?"
"Oh nothing."
" I doubt that."
"Boy do you know me."
"Unfortunately" muttered Flay.
"Guess what I perfected and sold?"
"Well I would say soul, but the perfect part…" "I have nooooo idea."
"Do you want to know?"
"I'm guessing that even if I say no you're going to tell me."
"My shark feces bomb!"
"That's nice. I have to go to work. Bye now."
" But Flay I haven't even told you who bought it!"
"Alright bye. Got to go!"
Flay got in his car drove off.
That right there is where Flay should have seen this whole thing coming. He didn't think much of it until later on when it was too late. But that's how it usually works.
Flay checked in at work at the same time as always. 5 minutes late. He sighed and grabbed some coffee that somebody had brought from Moonkicks. He worked at the P.M.T.C. headquarters in the middle of downtown. It was a huge building that was practically a fortress with automated taser turrets, gas nozzles and scanners that ranged from metal to any kind of gun powder ever invented to radioactive waste to sharpened objects. Any person even contemplating an attack on The Computer or the shields could be arrested before he even said "Death to the computer!" or "The humans have a right to know!". As Flay ran to his post he stopped by to say hi to Kandi, the secretary of the Gecra, narrowly dodging the Gecra himself. After the last incident the last thing he needed was the Gecra to find out that he was flirting with his secretary. He ran to his post, in the Southeast wing, which was a box like where they sell tickets at the movie theater, except that it made of glass all around the top half of it allowing him to see out 360 degrees around his desk. He hated it. It was called the glass prison by everybody ranking above it for obvious reasons. People were sent there by Gecra Florose, when they were wanted out of the way. And Flay was wanted out of a way. He kind of screwed up. But that's another story. And that's not what he really screwed up on. He really screwed up at about 11:47 a.m. that day. Right about then he saw a man in a Seaway shirt coming towards the door his entrance.
"That's weird," he thought, "Nobody ever comes down here."
The man reached his box and held up the tray of sandwiches that he carrying.
"Delivery of tuna sandwiches with extra shark feces for the Northwest Shield crew."
"Huh? Who sent us sandwiches?"
"Look I just work at Seaway okay? I don't know who did it or why, I just know that they did."
"Uh…You got any ID? I think I'm going to need some."
"Look at me! Do I look like a terrorist with a bunch of sandwiches?"
"Uh…well…no. I guess not."
"There. Do you need anything else?"
"Uh, yeah. A weapon check, I think."
"Fine! Check me for weapons! Whatever!"
Right then, Flay made another mistake. He stepped outside. A security guard should never step outside his cubicle. He just calls for backup. He unlocked the door to his cube and stepped outside. He then realized that he'd forgotten the scan stick. He turned around and was promptly bashed over the head by the guy with the sandwiches. He fell to the floor unconscious.
"Perfect" grinned the Seaway man.
He went to the control panel in the booth and opened the grille in front of the entrance to the wing. He then went through to the break room, and placed the sandwiches with extra shark feces on the table right next to the wall. He walked back to Flay, and mindwiped him of the past five minutes. He then walked out of the building and proceeded to his van parked about a block away. He stood inside it and looked at the red button, contemplating it and pondering the consequences of pushing it.
"Push the godamned button!"
"Okay, don't get so touchy"
He pushed the button.
Approximately 30 seconds later, at approximately 1000 miles northeast of that spot, which comes out to be in mid-Mississippi. Also in the Pentagon.
"Hello Mr. Xavier," came the clear and calm voice over the phone. Sort of like what you would expect a snake to sound like, except without a lisp. Which was appropriate considering his alias: Snake.
"Uh, hi Mr.…Uh...Snake," stammered the shocked negotiator who was indeed a Mr. Xavier. He was shocked because it was generally custom for the person calling to identify oneself first, and because this was his first time to call Snake, there was almost no way he could have known his name.
"I'm uh, calling because we need some um, help."
"Obviously" came the reply practically dripping sarcasm.
"We uh, need some info on uh, an explosion that uh, occurred about 30 seconds ago and uh, thought that you, you know, might be able to help."
"No shit. Yes I can help. But you're new here aren't you? At the FBI I mean. Let me explain to you how this works. You give me the money and I send you the info. That simple. So where is my money?"
"We uh, still need to uh, negotiate that," came the now totally shaken reply of Charlie Xavier.
"We need to what? You are actually going to try to negotiate a price with me?"he said. He was going to totally blow him off when he realized that he could do with some fun."Okay let's play," he said in the way a lion says to a mouse that challenged him to a bite contest.
"We can offer you about 500 grand for the whole job," said the more confident reply as he held up the sheet with the maximum amount available for negotiation on it. It was a million dollars. Snake didn't work cheap.
"What do you say to uh, that?" he slowed down as he heard what he originally thought to be machine gun fire over the phone but realized a second later that it was the typing on a keyboard.
"No way. How about 1,500,000?" In a matter of 30 seconds he had hacked the FBI security cameras and had zoomed in on the piece of paper that Charlie was holding. He hadn't bothered to look up Charlie. He had already done that on another tab.
Charlie stuttered and coughed on his coffee in shock. Snake had said exactly enough to force Charlie to offer full amount. Even his graduating as top in class hadn't prepared him for this. He was beginning to realize why the former negotiator had quit with such great a salary and benefits. "What cough could you wheeze possibly use a-"
"Don't even bother trying to protest Mr. Xavier. I'm apparently worth every penny of it."
"But you are just a kid! What on earth could you know about-"
"Mr. Xavier! That will be enough. I am more than capable. Allow me to demonstrate. You are exactly 26, proud, and graduated top in class at Harvard. You also are engaged to a beautiful woman named Jean Gray, who you live with. She has a cat called Fluffles. It's a female tabby with an aggression problem and is pregnant. You wear medium Fruit of the Loom underwear, and oh! I know. I should announce this over the PA system!"
"No! No that's fine! I believe you. But, but, my cat isn't pregnant."
"She is I promise you. Anyway, put the money in my bank account now." Snake paused as he heard the frantic typing of keys. He watched as the money appeared in his account. He smiled and said:
"Thank you Mr. Xavier. Have a nice day!"
Five seconds later the info for the explosion appeared on the screen of the surprised head of the Pentagon. Mr. Xavier turned to his neighbor and asked:
"How does a 14 year old do that?"
"We don't know. Just one day, we got an e-mail from him that was offering his services to the highest bidder. We would have ignored it, except for the fact that it was sent directly through every filter to the president's phone and contained such confidential material I'm not even sure the Head of Security knew about it all. Needless to say we became the highest bidder in a matter of seconds."
"How did he know what was on my paper?"
"He can control just about any security camera, anywhere, anytime."
"Wow. Wait why don't we just rewire the entire system to stop him?"
"We did. We spent millions of dollars and five months to do that, and five seconds after it was installed a report of the entire mornings activities of the entire staff in level 18 security was e-mailed to the head of NSA with the signature: Sincerely, Snake."
"Oh." Right then Charlie's phone started ringing.
"Hello?"
"Charlie! It's Jean!"
"What is it honey?"
"The cat had kittens! We didn't even realize that it was pregnant! Can you believe it? Can you-thump! Charlie? Uh Charlie honey, are you there?"
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Snake was intrigued and a tiny bit worried. There were already satellite images of bleary buildings. He had his computer deleting all photos of the Bermuda Triangle, but it wouldn't be long till one slipped by. The explosion had the exact same coordinates as the Northwest Shield Generators in Sermudia (You're probably wondering how Snake knows about Sermudia. Well don't think that the P.M.T.C. finds out about it's info on its own. No actually they get most of it from Snake. For a minimal fee of course. But still Snake felt like he owed them something for all of the business he got from them. Although the Gecra doesn't know, so let's keep it that way.). But it didn't have any of the readings that were normally with an explosion. It seemed like it was made of a different sort of explosive. But what? He was cross-referencing it with every explosion ever recorded on the planet at that moment. Then he saw it. There was one explosion like that a few months ago. It seemed like some sort of test, so he recorded it. The only thing that he could really glean was the odd amount of shark fecal matter recorded for a few days after in that area. It was an absolutely huge amount, and could have no possible way of getting there. Except for bomb residual material. But that was impossible! No bomb could be made of shark feces. Well impossible or not, it had happened, and on his watch. He needed to track down the bombers and fast before they had time to plant another bomb. Which meant now.
Chapter 2
Sermudia. Northwest Shield Generator.
Flay woke up with one hell of a headache. Of course you would too if you had been within a mile of a one megaton bomb. Or the equivalent. He looked around at the devastation. He blinked. He looked again and realized that what he was looking at was the very last shell of the Northwest Shield Generator. With what brain power he had scrounged up in the past 15 seconds he realized that the attack had failed. Hallelujah! His job was saved! And then he realized 2 things. First, that he could actually see the shell meaning about 600 meters of pure steel had been vaporized and second, that the shell was lying about 500 meters to the left of where it should have been." Oh. Fk." was his immediate thought. And then "How the hell did I get in the booth? Last I remember I was trying to get back in my seat after I fell asleep. Wait. I didn't fall asleep. I had that coffee. Oh hell. It was the Seaway man. But how the hell did he get a bomb that big in here?" He then decided that that was of minimal importance. The main thing was he needed to make sure everyone was okay."Wait," was his next thought," I need to figure out how the hell I got in here and couldn't stop the Seaway man." He winced at this. He decided in the case report that there would be 10 humans armed with flamethrowers.
This is kind of redundant
Does this make sense?
Should I keep that there?
10,000th word!
He remembered crawling into the booth and shutting the door. After that he must have passed out again. But how had he even woken up? The Seaway, must not have hit him hard enough. He decided that he needed to find some people and quick. He pulled out his shock stick, and took off down what was the charred remains of the hall, ignoring the people from the Blue Cross who tried to stop him from running before they were able to check him out.
Maybe I should explain real quick that while the glass prisons are none to glamorous they are designed to be able to survive a nuke within a mile. That hasn't actually been tested, owing to the fact that no one wanted to volunteer, and there weren't really any nukes in Sermudia.
As he rounded the last corner to Gecra's office he realized that he had no alibi as to why the Gecra shouldn't fire him. Actually to be perfectly honest he didn't see any reason why he wouldn't fire him. He paused to ponder if he should bravely march in yelling that he was there to report and all of that crap. He decided that he would probably just be shot. It had happened before when tensions were high. Nearly to him. Actually now that he thought about it, it was probably wasn't on accident. He was then pondering how much trouble he would get into for running away and assuming a fake identity, when Kandi dashed around the corner and flung her arms around Flay and started crying. Flay, having had enough trouble understanding his mother, didn't know what to do, except put his arms around her and say "It's okay."After a minute she looked up and said "I'm scared." Again Flay having almost no experience with women said possibly the most un-manly thing you could possibly say to a women:"Me too." She looked up and stared for a second. Then she laughed.
"You know," she said," you're probably the first guy I've ever dated that has admitted he's scared."
"Really? That's funny. You thi-What did you say? Dated?"
"Yeah. I'm going to count this as the first one."
Flay blinked. He blinked again. "Oh. Okay." were the only words he could squeak out of his mouth. And then after a minute: "Well I guess I owe you big time. Some date huh?"
She laughed again. Flay liked that. He wasn't too sure why. It probably had something to do with her hair. It flipped so beautifully when she laughed. He shook his head to clear it and asked: "Where's the Gecra?"
"Talking to The Computer," she said.
Right then his phone rang. "Hello?"
"Flay you are going to get your ass to the Consulting Room and you're going to do it now. The Computer wants to talk to you."
Flay gulped and then said "Yes sir." He hung up.
"Kandi, I have to go talk to them. Sorry."
"It's okay. I feel better now. You can go."
He started to walk away, and she caught his arm and said, "Don't die."
He laughed and said: "If I can survive a megaton bomb then I think I can survive them. Don't worry." He hugged her one more time and turned and walked to the consulting room.
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Approximately 1 hour before that.
Snake was now very worried. He hadn't gotten any contact from The Computer or otherwise. He had sent a lot of e-mails letting The Computer know that he had figured out who had done this, but all had yet to be answered. Something was very wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He had tried hacking the cameras, but it was as if there weren't any there at all. And then it hit him. Something was blocking all communications into and out of Sermudia. Or was it just his feed? Whatever it was it would take a highly advanced program to outwit The Computer and him. He tried hacking a satellite again to get an image to see if they were still getting pictures, but they must have fixed the shield already. Good. That way they can't get anymore pictures-wait. They might have fixed the Shield Generators, but something wasn't right about the image. It wasn't up close that it bothered him, it was when he zoomed out to about 800 miles. Right about there something just didn't seem to fit. What was it? He zoomed in on the edge of the map, and realized what it was. Right at the 800 mile mark from the generator there was a pod of whales that he could see by their shadowy outlines. Was that it? That was all that was bothering him?"I'm getting pretty high-strung aren't I?" he thought. And then the whales disappeared. Snake blinked and stared. He couldn't believe it. Whatever was blocking the communications, must also be feeding the satellite a loop. The whales hadn't actually disappeared. They had moved off of the area recorded by the loop. Snake
was quite literally speechless. The sort of technology it would take do that was astounding. It had to be The Computer. Who else could have done it? He realized that with a loop on the satellite and communications block, there was nothing else he could do from here. He decided to put that money and helicopter license to good use (Helicopter license? You're probably finding that hard to believe. Well despite himself, Snake is very eccentric. He decided about four years ago, that as long as he had this money, and spare time, he should do something with it. And that something was flying a helicopter. Free time? You're wondering. He was 10 you're probably thinking. Well actually he graduated at age 9.). He needed to get to The Computer and let him know what had happened. He picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, I was wondering if you rent helicopters. Of course! I can be there in 5 minutes."
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Flay was beginning to wish that he had been outside the glass prison when the bomb went off. I won't bother repeating the whole conversation for most of it would have to be edited out. You'd probably be surprised that the Gecra knew more, shall we say "French", then The Computer, who had whole languages at his command. Flay wasn't. He had heard every one of those words before. From the same person. He was pretty sure that whether or not this whole thing would blow over, he was fired. He was so used to being cussed out that he kind of let his mind wander. He wondered why that light was flashing. Maybe it was because the shield had blown up. No, it wasn't blinking when he came in. Maybe-oh. It had a label on it. He started to walk over there. The Gecra kinda stopped in amazement. Nobody had ever had the nerve (or stupidity) to walk away from him when he was cussing them out. The Computer stopped as well, but for a different reason. He had already seen what Flay was looking at, and he became aware of a warning message that had been beeping. "Oh shit. That means there's a helicopter. Fk. As if we didn't have enough problems. NO! GECRA DON'T YOU GIVE THE FU-" But it was a little too late. The Gecra had already given the cough freaking orders. A missile was already heading towards the helicopter.
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45 Minutes before. South Mississippi. Gateway Helicopter Rental.
"Now explain to me why I can't get a helicopter." said a very angry Snake.
"Look kid, you're obviously not 30. You obviously faked this ID and license. You should be in school right now. You're lucky I haven't called the cops. Quit pushing it."
"I'd like you to take a look at the top right hand corner of my ID." came the reply almost shaking with anger.
"What of it? All it says is…OH MY LORD! My dear sir I am so sorry. I had no idea that you had… well I am so sorry. I just can't express my apologies. I am so embarrassed. I mean is there anything that I can do to make up for it?" came the manager's reply, who was almost stumbling over the apology.
"Yes. I'd like a huge discount. Or I might consider a legal action."
"My dear sir, for this mistake I will let you have well over half off on any chopper of your choice." said the manager leading Snake back through the door to the hanger. "Anyone catch your eye?"
"Yes. That one." said Snake pointing out the top-of-the-line one that must have cost at least 5 million. "Yes definitely that one."
"Ah,… well… yes of course sir." came manager's strangled reply. He sounded like an honest man who had just been given the choice between his wife and an incredibly hot woman. Snake smiled. This was a lot of fun.
"Well since that's settled, do you take Visa?"
45 minutes later. Over Sermudia.
He had never actually been to Sermudia. He had always wanted to, but had never gotten the chance to. He realized that his prediction about the loop had been right. He could clearly see the Northwest sector of Sermudia. He started to look for a place to land. All of the sudden he saw a bunch of activity on the ground. He thought that they were preparing a way for him to land, but then realized that he hadn't contacted them about coming. Right about then he began to see a flaw in his plan. To them it would look like a strange helicopter was floating over their heads while they were totally exposed. He thought about how the humans would react to an alien ship doing this. He decided that putting a parachute on wouldn't be a bad idea. He turned back to the window after shoving the parachute on, saw a flare of flame, and immediately exited the chopper via the side door. The helicopter followed him down (with some help from a SAM missile) and landed (quite violently) within 100 meters of him. Needless to say, he was quite stunned. The only thought he could put into words, was: "There goes my damn deposit."
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"Snake! Nice to see you here!" The Computer had already been notified of his presence, and had ordered him to be taken to the Consulting room. The Consulting Room was a tall room that consisted of metal panels on all of the walls and lights that flashed on and off with no apparent meaning. The part of The Computer that was there had speakers built in and it took up about half of the room. It was a basically a giant CPU that stretched from all 50 feet of floor to ceiling. Although the actual CPU for The Computer was kept a close guarded secret by the P.M.T.C.
"You owe me about 900 grand for that chopper."
"Actually, that was our brilliant tactician Gecra Florose's idea."
"Okay then. Gecra Florose, you owe me 950 grand."
Flay nearly laughed out loud at this. He had almost stopped caring about his job here. He smiled at Snake and held out his hand. "Hey I'm Fl-"
"Flay Bakerson. I know you."
"You do?" said Flay, who was a little mystified.
"Yeah. You're the one responsible for the lack of guard. Oh and by the way, your neighbor is in part responsible for this whole thing."
"Which one?"
"The one with the ugly burgundy carpet in his hallway."
"Oh, you mean Galif."
"Yeah that one. He designed the whole shark feces bomb."
"Wait. Is that what blew up?"
"Yep. You surprised?"
"Uh, hell yes. I knew that he had designed one, but I didn't know that it actually worked. I always thought that he put dynamite in the feces to make it look like he has actually blown it up."
"Well, he actually got it this time. Unfortunately."
Flay nodded grimly, glad to be spared a cuss round from a 14 year old. Then something struck him as odd.
"Hey, how did you know about The Computer? And us? And how to find us? And how I was guarding the generator? And…well how the hell did you know?"
The Computer answered this time. "Well actually I told him. He's my main informant for the humans."
"But wh-" began the Gecra.
"You see," The Computer cut across the Gecra, "All of the ones that we hire never give me the important intelligence. For example, here is a report that I got from a "crack" agent: "Paris Hilton was sent to jail again, and oh my lord was her dress hideous. It was so out of style. I mean 2 months old." And so on so forth. The only thing "crack" I see about this is what she probably takes."
"Well, we have been considering re-training them" mumbled the Gecra.
"Considering? Are you insane? If you don't…never mind. It's not that important right now. We need to who is responsible for this."
"I think we all know who is responsible for this attack. After all, we did catch them on the security camera." said Flay. Everybody stopped and stared at him. "The Seaway chain."
Everybody, even Snake, started laughing. "Flay," said the Gecra in between laughing spasms, "Get real. The whole Seaway chain has about as much IQ as my ass."
"It really was them. I promise you! A seaway guy appeared out of nowhere and…I mean 20 Seaway guys appeared out of nowhere and they jumped me an-" The Gecra cut him off.
"Flay look, if a Seaway guy beat you up then I-" the Gecra stopped. Right then a Seaway guy had appeared. He was holding a tray of sandwiches. He started into the room holding the tray in front of him and offering the sandwiches to the people in the room. The Gecra decided to continue.
"Anyway, prejudices aside, it's a good thing that you showed up Snake. We probably will need you a) to figure out who the hell did this and b) to put up some temporary protection." he said accepting a sandwich.
"I'm glad to be of assistance. Like I said I know who's responsible for the technology, but I don't have anything on who is actually responsible. We should probably pick up Galif to ask him some questions. By the way, good job putting up the loop on the satellites" he said to The Computer, while politely declining a sandwich. He hated extra shark feces. For that matter, feces of any kind.
"What? I didn't put up a loop" said The Computer.
"Well we should be grateful to the peo-" said the Gecra as he was cut off by a yell. The Seaway guy had reached Flay who had been rather suspiciously watching him go around the room. The Seaway guy had looked up and said "Oh shit."
Flay was on top of him before he even had time to drop the sandwich tray. "You mother fer!" he yelled. "You fing destroyed the Northwest Shield Generator! I'm going to fing kill you!" he yelled while pummeling him.
Snake just stared in a passive sort of way, the Gecra stared while wondering why he didn't hire him for hand-to-hand, and The Computer, well The Computer couldn't really stare. Suddenly it occurred to the Gecra that a) he might not be guilty and Flay might kill him and b) he might be guilty and their only suspect and Flay might kill him. He decided that either way it would be a good idea to get Flay off of him. He thought about it and realized that a few more seconds wasn't going to make a difference. He would take his time.
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Nevada, In the middle of the desert. Same time.
The soldier just kind of stared. He didn't know what to think. He hadn't seen a helicopter land here in a long time. He decided that he should call the Sergeant on duty.
"Sergeant?" he called over the walkie-talkie.
"Report Soldier" came the reply.
"This is Patrol A-6 here. Are we expecting any company?"
"What? Clarify A-6"
"Well there is a helicopter with no markings on it landing on our pad. What is our course of action Sergeant?"
Sergeant Jones sighed. Go figure an unidentified landed during his shift. "Hold your position. We're sending support" he said as he waved at his radio operators to do so. "We'll try to contact them." He then walked over to his radio guys and said "Can you get me on in contact with them?" They all gave him a look that said "Do you think we can't?" and handed him the headphones.
He spoke into the microphone in a commanding way. They had told him to do that when speaking to unknowns. "This is Sergeant Jones. I am in charge of this base. You are landing in restricted airspace. Unless you give us one hell of a good reason for this, then we are going to open fire on you."
The radio crackled for a second and then a reply came. "Sergeant Jones, we are traveling and we ran out of fuel so we had to find a place to land and this was the only place. If we can get fuel then we will get out of here."
Sergeant Jones liked this about as much as he liked the idea of being neutered, but he didn't really have a choice. He had to give them fuel. So he gave the order as well as the orders to keep all guns trained on the copter. Suddenly something struck him as odd. How come people would be "traveling" in a military transport chopper? He decided that it would be better to tell them to get the hell off of his base, when the door on the back of the transport fell open and guns started blazing. His re-fuelers were killed in an instant. "Shit! Open fing fire!" he screamed into the mike. His men had already obeyed. He knew that nobody would be this rash about attacking a base unless they had some serious backup. He gave the retreat to the base order, and not a second to soon. 3 more transport choppers showed up and let their cargo out. He knew that this was bad. They were already at the door, and were attempting to take it out. He had to do something and soon. He called the Pentagon. "Somebody get some support out to Area 51! We're being fing invaded!" was all he could get out before the line was cut. He was dealing with professionals. He sighed and called to retreat to the secret lower levels. It was going to be a bad day.
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After getting Flay off of the Seaway guy, there was pretty much a unanimous decision that the Seaway guy was guilty. He had, after all, recognized Flay, and Flay had recognized him. So they decided to skip to interrogation. Snake had the most experiences from looking at online training videos. Don't ask why.
"So," Snake said with just about the same smile he used when he tricked the helicopter rental guy with his dwarf ID," So are you aware that what you have done is a matter of treason punishable with death?"
"No shit. I had absolutely no idea, that what I was doing was a federal crime. Yes I fing knew."
"Well are you also aware that I have in my power to waive the death penalty?"
"What, was that a bluff? I honestly doubt that The Computer would give a human, much less a 14 year old human."
"Fine, whatever. You got me." The Gecra gaped from behind the one-way mirror. Admitting that the suspect was right was the last thing you wanted to do. "But, I do have permission to let Flay there to interrogate you" said Snake while rather nonchalantly playing with a shock stick.
"Big deal" snorted the Seaway guy."It's not like he can do anything with the cam-"
"Unfortunately, we are having to divert power from the security cameras in this section of the building to power the backup generators. So none of them are working" said Snake rather sounding for all of the world like he was just making simple conversation.
The Seaway man began to look nervous for the first time. "You don't actually expect me to believe that, do you?" he said as if he didn't really want to believe it, but was anyways.
"Notice that the red lights aren't even on, much less blinking on the cameras" said Snake in the same tone of voice, never taking his eyes off of the shock stick.
The Seaway man was actually perspiring now. "Yeah, but… you're just bluffing," he said "I know it. You can't be telling the truth." He started shaking.
Snake was now having a very hard time concealing his grin. "Well if you are so stubborn, I have to go talk to the Gecra about this." He walked out of the room, leaving the door wide open. The Seaway guy was handcuffed to his chair so he couldn't move. He realized that Flay wouldn't be restrained right now. He started to put two and two together. He decided that it would be a good idea to confess.
The Gecra was talking to Snake beside the one way mirror. "I don't think that it's going to work. He seems pretty well trained and that's one hell of a bluff to be making. The security cameras don't even have lights." he said rather doubtfully. Snake just smiled.
"Okay!" shouted the Seaway guy."I'll talk! Just close the door! Please close that door!" The Gecra gaped again. He promptly shut his mouth. Gaping wasn't dignified for a Gecra, and he was doing it too often.
Pentagon. Same time. Level 18 Security.
The whole of Level 18 was in chaos. The brief message that they had gotten from Area 51 was enough to send them into convulsions. They were about to send some more troops so that the Head of Security wouldn't have to even know, when their computers crashed. That sent them even farther over the edge. They immediately wired for somebody to fix their network, but it wouldn't be for another 3 hours or so till they got it back up and running. They decided that the best way to keep track of this thing was to contact Snake. They called his cell. No answer. They now had a serious problem. They decided that they need to let the Head know about Area 51. They drew lots to see who would be the poor soul who
told the Head of Security about this it. Ledam Johnson was that poor soul. Johnson gulped as he approached the Head's door. He realized that he probably should have updated his will. He decided it would be the first thing to do if he got out of here alive. He knocked on the door."Yes?" came the reply to the knock. To Johnson it sounded like he always thought God would sound like on Judgment Day. Except without all of the lightning. He sighed and walked in. "Ah Johnson! Nice to see you. What can I do for you?"
"Well sir, I'm afraid that I have some bad news."
"Really? Well bad news from Level 18 is always very bad. What is it?"
"We…uh…we lost Area 51."
"What was that? I didn't quite catch it."
"We lost Area 51 sir."
Silence.
"We're uh, sending in uh, extra troops, but they won't be there for a while. We think that we can rectify the situ-"
"YOU WHAT? YOU LOST FING AREA 51? HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE THAT? Etc…" It went on like that for quite a while.( The Head was, understandably, very angry about having the place containing Gaea captured. Oh yeah, you don't know about Gaea yet do you? Oh well, you'll find out soon enough.) Five floors below Charlie Xavier wondered what the hell that noise was.
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Area 51. Same time.
Sergeant Jones sighed again. He had lost about 50 men of the 200 that manned this base while trying to hold the upper floors. The enemy had at least 300 on their side. He had already retreated to the secret lower floors. He knew that he couldn't win back the upper floors. He also knew that if his duties to hold
the upper floors were compromised that his only duty left was to guard Gaea, and hold the levels protecting her. He prayed that the enemies didn't know how to find the entrance to the lower levels. He knew that with only half of the enemy's numbers he couldn't hold them even with the automated turrets on his side. He turned to his men and gave the orders to his elite squad to hold the secret entrance at all cost. He then turned to the rest of the men and had them assemble into their patrols: A-1 (A being short for Alpha) through A-9 and B-1(B being short for Bravo) thorough B-5. There used to be a B-6 though B-9 as well, but they were the squadrons who insisted on staying behind to buy time. He turned to his men and in a loud talking voice he addressed them. "Men, this is a serious crisis in case you didn't guess. We've lost all of the upper floors, and it won't be long till the enemy figures out that there is a secret entrance to other floors. We need to be there when they do. We also need to find out why they are here. We will divide the building's listening posts into 4 parts. 9 of the patrols will alternate stationing at each. If any of you hear anything then you will send Bravo Squad to me immediately and start recording the conversation. The patrols that aren't doing any listening will be cleaning weapons, doing inventory, KP, and making provisions so that we can retreat farther back at a moment's notice. There is absolutely no talking at listening posts and at the entrance. Farther in I will mark a point where whispers will be allowed. Other than that there will be no talking, except to me. Now you are dismissed." Sergeant Jones looked at the men leave. He turned to his Number 2. He sighed and said "Look at those men Watts. They don't deserve this. They are all dead faithful, and wouldn't think twice if I asked them to march to hell. Watts, I'm not sure if that call to the Pentagon made it through. I hope it did. If it didn't then I'm pretty sure that these men will all die."
Watts looked at his commander. He had never seen him like this. He realized how much it must hurt him to have his men die in front him like they had upstairs. "Sir, I think that there is nothing you could do that you haven't either done or tried to do. You are by far the best Sergeant that this place has had the pleasure to lay it's hands on in many years. Those men would die not only because they know what they're protecting is right and just, but because you are
leading them. Sir I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure the call made it through. You just wait."
The Sergeant looked up and said "Thanks. That's the most inspirational thing that I have ever heard." He stopped for a second as if thinking, then said "Now how about you go and do KP for tonight?" Watts smiled. That was the Sergeant he knew. "Yessir!" he said and went down the hall to the makeshift kitchen.
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"Well lets here that confession" said the Gecra.
"I admit that I was involved in the plot that blew up the Shield. I admit I was involved in a plot to blow up The Computer."
"Well not that we have that on tape," said Snake,"I have a few questions about you and your intents. First, who do you work for? Or are you part of a group? And why are you trying to destroy The Computer?" The Seaway guy sat for a minute, as if gathering up his strength.
"I'm part of a group that broke off from the Knight's Templar to destroy the Artifacts. Don't bother trying to verify that. It was far too early in their history for them to have recorded it. I suppose that now you are going to ask what the Artifacts are. That's what I thought" he said as Snake nodded, "The Artifacts are ancient machines that keep us from being able to communicate with God, and consequentially denying us Paradise. They all have protectors. We were actually protectors before we broke off. In fact," he continued "You are surrounded by protectors everywhere you go. But I digress on that subject. We have actually nearly located one Artifact and the other two we have pinpointed. We decided to set our plan in motion now so that people could realize what it was that was threatening us and-"
"Wait. What are the names of these Artifacts?"
"The names are Gaea, Atlantis, and Sterrain. We believe that Sterrain is already disabled, but we would like to check to make sure that we rid this planet of their scourge once and for all."
"And you think that Atlantis is an Artifact? Atlantis, if it actually exists, sunk to the bottom of the ocean. How can you possibly even think that that is an Artifact?"
"You don't understand this at all. Atlantis isn't a city. A city was built around it. Its protectors built it. They still live in it today." Flay was beginning to put things together and what he was seeing was an absolute staggering thought.
The Gecra wasn't as quick. "What the hell do you mean? We would have noticed other life on the ocean by now! There is no way that something can hide that long without us noticing them."
"Oh, but you have noticed them. In fact you developed shields for them to protect them from prying eyes. And they worked up until today when they were taken out in a supposed terrorist attack."
The Gecra's expression had changed from confused, to angry, to amazed throughout this speech. It hit him right them. "But…but, that…that's us!" he said in an amazed tone.
Snake had turned to the speaker that The Computer used and said, "Well Atlantis, you have had us fooled for a long time. It's time to come out and tell us what this whole thing is about."
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Flay was mad. So naturally he was in the breakroom. He always went there when he was mad. He himself wasn't even sure why he went there, but he did. I digress. Flay was mad because he wasn't allowed to kill the man who nearly destroyed his life. So he went to the break room. That's where Kandi found him.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"I wasn't allowed to kill a guy" came the surly reply.
"Who was this guy?" she asked slightly afraid now that she was dating a deranged psychopath.
"The one who nearly ruined my life and nearly killed me."
"Oh" she said, feeling slightly better now that she pretty sure that she wasn't dating a deranged psychopath. Then realizing that she needed to say more; "I'm uh… sorry?" She didn't know quite what to say if you weren't allowed to kill a person.
Flay laughed. He didn't know what to say either. They then both stood there in that horrible awkward silence that everybody hates while Kandi got a Fin Bar. Then Flay said
"Why did you ask me out? Well, that is, declaring we were going out."
"I did? I'm pretty sure that you did."
"No, I'm very sure that you declared it."
"I deny that" she said while unwrapping the Fin Bar.
"Do you? Well you did. And it doesn't matter how often you deny it" he said with a smile.
"Well I do deny it" she said, emphasizing it by throwing most of the Fin Bar at Flay. He dodged it and she turned to run, laughing, as he came after her. He caught her from behind and reached around her waist to hold her. He then realized that he was hugging her. He almost let go, but something inside of him said that he shouldn't. She turned in his arms and looked in his eyes. He caught his breath. He started to bend down.
"FLAY!" screamed the Computer, or at least that was what it seemed like to Flay. "Get to the Interrogation Room, we need you to hear-oh" he said as he saw them through the camera."Is this a bad time?"
"Well actually it-"began Flay.
"Don't care" cut in The Computer. "You need to get to the interrogation room, now. Go!"
Flay sighed. He had to leave Kandi for a second time that day. He turned to Kandi. "Sorry, but The Computer ordered me. Got to go" He turned and took off down the hall toward the interrogation room. Kandi looked after him longingly-no! she thought. I can't be looking after him longingly. He's really just a passing thing. I think. I mean I've dated guys who look at least 20 times better looking than him, and are 30 times smarter. But…but they have all asked me not the other way around. But if he's so passing and the opposite of everything that I've settled my standards for, then why did I ask him? And why do I want to follow him? Then it occurred to her. It might not be the solution to her question, but why not follow him? She decided that it would be a good idea to follow him, and make sure that he didn't get in any trouble.
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When Flay got to the Interrogation Room, they started by filling him in on what the Seaway guy had said, and then once Flay got over his confusion, and asked all of the questions that had already been asked, The Computer started his story. "Contrary to what our little zealot friend thinks, we are not blocking your prayers from reaching God" he said. "I really should start from the beginning. In the Beginning there was one, shall we say Computer to avoid confusion? Good. There was one Computer. His name was Chaos. He still exists, but under a different name which he changed, after having created Gaea, to Uranus. He and Gaea worked together to produce Gaea's protectors who were the forefathers of humans. Shut up you!" he said as The Seaway guy started to protest. "Anyway as I was saying, Gaea and Uranus worked together to create the forefathers of humans. After a few centuries of this though, they proved to be unruly and they reproduced like rats, no offense Snake (None taken), so they needed more specific governing. This led to Gaea and Uranus working together again to produce the Titans, who turned out to be a disaster. The Titans were a new breed of computers which were interconnected so they knew what each one knew, and they all had attitude, but one had a more highly developed attitude due to experimentation by Uranus. This one's name was Cronos. I'll get back to him in a minute- I SAID SHUT UP!" The Computer yelled as the Seaway guy again tried to protest. "Flay, you now have permission to use that shock stick if he says another word. Where you apply it on his body doesn't matter. Back to the subject, The
Titans all had extra Computers that were attached to them to maintain them from basically rotting out. They were known as Titanesses, but they are unimportant to the story. Let me explain something real quick. All computers are actually made with the programming to design their predecessor, who is an improvement off of them. I myself am designing my predecessor as we speak. Now Cronos didn't like the idea of designing the Computer that was to replace him when he left, so he did the one thing that is now the utmost thing that is not to be done by any Computer, which is he rebelled, taking the rest of the Titans to his side with him. This caused Uranus much anger, and he actually attacked the Titans, totally obliterating them. Unfortunately, in the ferocity of the attack the polar ice caps were melted which drowned all of the humans except for a few that Gaea had warned, and they built a giant ship to escape it. On the positive side, the plans for all of the replacements were saved, except for Cronos's plans which are presumably lost forever. Since the Titans were so closely interconnected, they had designed more Computers that were interconnected. These were so interconnected that they didn't really even need to consult each other to make decisions. They were to hold dominion over the humans and allow them to consult with them through mental connections, which would become so ingrained in society, that they actually became common place and the thought of it being a skill available only to priests was lost. This is commonly known as prayer." The Computer waited as Flay applied the shock stick to the Seaway guy in a none-too-pleasant place, to keep him from protesting again. "These Computers were too hold dominion in the most prominent place of human growth, which consequently grew tenfold due to the Computers there. This, at the time, was in Greece. These Computers were divided into strange categories which covered every possible human need. They ruled for a few thousand years, until they grew old and they had designed their predecessors. These predecessors were very similar and had only the smallest hints in a difference. They also moved to a different location. This was Rome. Allow me, if you will, to go back a few thousand years, in the years during the Greek Computers. There was also another group which was tasked with protecting a few Computers, though as to how accurately they labeled them (them being The Computers) is up for debate. These were the Egyptians. They protected their Computer's until they gave the plans up to their slaves who then left for a land promised to them by Uranus, with a vessel that they carried the plans in. This is the Arc of the Covenant. It was actually an update for Gaea which took hundreds of years to arrive." The Seaway guy gasped. Despite the fact that they had broken off hundreds of years ago, one of his
chapter's primary goals was to find the Arc of the Covenant. "Don't Flay." Said the Computer as Flay started to move his shock stick towards the Seaway guy's crotch. "You can't blame him for being surprised. When it finally arrived, it arrived, ironically enough, by the mostly atheist Vikings. But that's another story. As I was saying the Arc arrived late, which didn't really matter to Gaea, no thanks to those fing crusades. Those things were never supposed to happen, but the Catholics fell back into the stupid tradition of only Priests being able to pray. If those Priests hadn't become corrupt then that whole thing could have been avoided. Regardless, it did and there is no getting over it. Back to those Romans. You're probably wondering why they took over all of the known world. Well that was our doing. You see, I was being made, with constant improvements from all of the others, and they needed someone to take dominion over all of the people while better Computers were being made. So the Roman Computers were told to have their people gain dominion over as much of the world that they could. Gaea, at this time had taken control of all of the America's which included all of the South America area. Gaea was a little bit less material than all of the other Computers, which is to say that she preferred to have her people be closer to the Earth than themselves. She was biding her time till the other Computer's people spread to her land. When they finally did, it wasn't as she expected it to be. The Computers lost all control of their people when they introduced a new culture it seemed. Case in point in Africa. The slaves were a living example of how out of hand the protectors got. They thought about a purposeful destruction of the protectors, but it was decided that regaining enough protectors to actually protect anything would be counter-productive. And it would take way to long. So they waited as I was made and Sterrain was finished. Sterrain is actually a very old Computer and is long overdue for replacement. We would have already done that, but we lost track of him about 500 A.D. and therefore we can't get his vital designs for his predecessor. We should have had his coordinates, but somehow those were lost. So I was made off of Poseidon's old home, which had a huge amount of technology in it. Don't ask how. I might explain it when we have more time" finished The Computer. "Snake I'm pretty sure that you
This is kind of redundant
Does this make sense?
Should I keep that there?
10,000th word!
have some questions so shoot. And Kandi there's no point in sitting in the hall. Come in here." Kandi didn't say a word as she entered. She just walked in with an incredulous look on her face and grabbed Flay's hand. Snake glanced at this and then started his questions.
"This sounds an awful lot like mythology" Snake said more as a questioning statement, then an actual question.
"That's because it is. The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians just didn't understand the concept of computers so we had to explain ourselves as gods."
"Are you in, our definition, a god? I think that worshiping a computer would drive most every Christian over the edge."
"No. Uranus is your God. But he isn't a computer. He is the God. He is an omnipotent being with unlimited control over everyone. Unfortunately how he can manifest that power is limited to only indirect methods. If he tried to directly intervene, then he would obliterate this planet. Don't even think for a second that Uranus is even in the loosest sense of the word, a Computer. He is something far beyond that."
"Was Jesus real then?"
"Yes. He is the only manifestation of Uranus ever to be made. And all of the stuff about Mary is true."
"How…?"
"I'm not permitted to answer anything else. Uranus just contacted me. He says that there is a huge block on communications on this area that he just brought down. He was lucky to get through." Right then Snake's cell started ringing.
"New voicemail" he said. "Go on, I'm half listening."
"Well, first we need to secure this place, and then we need to secure Gaea's location. But where are we going to get an army to protect her? She's huge, because she has to rule all of land. So we need an huge army. Duh
This is kind of redundant
Does this make sense?
Should I keep that there?
10,000th word!
."
"How about the U.S. Army?" said Snake as he snapped his phone shut. "They are already on their way to Area 51, so I figure some stuff has happened that we missed. Oh, hang on I got to take this" he said as his phone rang again.
"That works out great. But first we need to get one of our guys in there. No offense to the humans, but I've seen a few too many Rambo movies with guys who shoot first, and apologize about destroying the only thing keeping earth together later. I would
This is kind of redundant
Does this make sense?
Should I keep that there?
10,000th word!
rather have one of our Infiltrators in there. Preferably the best. Who do we have?" asked the Gecra.
"We have Flay and um, hey guess what Flay!" said The Computer as he finished the search.
"WHAT? ALL WE HAVE IS THAT IDIOT?" yelled the Gecra.
"Well," said The Computer, "all of the other ones are either in the field or were in the Southeast wing."
"Um, I'm kinda right here. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't insult me while I'm in the same room. You know if it's all the same to you" said Flay.
"DO I FING CARE? NO! ARE YOU SURE THAT'S ALL WE HAVE? AND HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET INFLITRATOR TRAINING?" yelled the Gecra again, though he was calming down now.
"I've always had Infiltrator training but you've chosen never to use me so-" said Flay, beginning to yell.
"Hey guys can you keep it down? I'm trying to talk to the President, Secretary of Defense, and the Head of the Pentagon and it's kind of hard with you all yelling." They all stopped, more out of amazement then actual wanting to stop. "Thanks. You want me to do what? Okay I can be there in thirty minutes. All right, can do. See ya'll then" he then hung up his phone and looked at the Gecra. "I need a ride. Here's your chance to test Flay as an Infiltrator. I have a plan." As he got farther into his explanation Kandi tightened her grip on Flay's hand. She hadn't quite figured out what it was that she found different about Flay, but she was getting close. It was scaring her, but she was determined to figure it out. And she didn't want to lose him when she felt this close to figuring it out.
Chapter 3
Explanation time. I'm sure you're wondering where in the book you missed Flay being trained as an Infiltrator. You didn't. He was actually never sent on but one mission and that was just his maiden mission. He was going to be on another when he screwed up that first time. Now let me do something which is long overdue. Explain our standing of technology compared to humans. The scope of our superiority is comparable only to our Earth's size compared to Jupiter's size. And then the comparison of ours to The Computers is only comparable to the moon to Sun. Our technology is good enough to be able to break into Fort Knox and steal all of the gold, without the humans knowing for about 5 hours. The only Sermudian's with the expertise to do that though are the Infiltrators. These guys are tough. And when I say tough, I mean tough. As part of their warm-up, they are airdropped 10 miles from Sermudia and they then have to swim all the way back or drown. And like I said that's only for warm-up. For the actual training they have been told to move a building as a team with nothing but ropes. I wasn't actually in that group, but I heard that the Commander had to tell them to stop, because they were going too far. These guys are good. They are natural born kleptos and can walk across a minefield without setting a blade of grass out of place. They could steal the President's underwear, while he was sitting down. They can infiltrate any base, anywhere and learn anything that is required. And they only work in pairs. Flay never got a permanent Pair. Getting a Pair is a huge thing for Infiltrators. Naturally the Gecra would send in the best, meaning the best Pair. Unfortunately Flay was the only one out of Training that could actually do anything at the moment. But he actually couldn't because he didn't have a Pair. And the only Pair that he could possibly get would be one still in training. One who was at the top of his class. But back to the technology. How do you think that they kept Sermudia afloat? With buoyancy. Got you there, didn't I? You thought I was going to get all technical. Nope. But how do you think that they keep it from rupturing from all of the pressure, and all of the sharp objects that somehow find their way to it. Self-healing Nano-Tissue. It's next to impenetrable, due to the fact that the self-healing part is activated by salty water. You see, the salt content of the water contacts upon microscopic particles and shrinks them causing a microscopic substance to leak out and arrange itself in the magnetic field that's created by the magnets planted in The Bubble, as they call it. And you know how I was talking about Flay making that mistake on getting out of the Glass Prison?
Well that was because he could have just pressed a button and have had him scanned. How have they kept humans from finding them? Well first off the shields, but they also have a communication jammer. Where do you think the Bermuda Triangle comes from? That's them. They nab anybody who gets too close, brainwipe them and then give them a new life in California (They are one of the best states). They are also about 99 more efficient than us, environmentally wise. Where as we have maybe 90 biodiesel gas stations, and we're excited about that, they have only 1 or 2 real diesel stations and they're disappointed about that. They've been pushing for years to get rid of them. Anyway Flay is actually one of the best Infiltrators and it's only been 6 months since his graduation. He now needs a Pair. Which is what they are going to pick out.
"Hey there Commander Leffloyd!" called Flay to his old Commander.
Commander Leffloyd sighed. In his 60 years of faithful service to The Computer, he had never encountered a student like Flay. He didn't know whether or not to like him, but he was an amazing hand-to-hand combater. Even if it was a little (no, a lot) unorthodox. He remembered the first day that Flay fought Pan. Pan is a basic giant who spends his spare time at the gym. His actual job is just training the Infiltrators. So as you can imagine, he has a lot of spare time. Pan is the fighter that the Infiltrators first fight to learn that size doesn't really matter, as long as you don't get in the way of the fists. Quite a few always do get in their way that first day though. Flay didn't. He actually dodged them by dropping to the floor, sliding between his legs while somehow managing to land one hell of a kick into Pan's crotch. Pan later needed a serious raise to stay on the staff without quitting. Leffloyd turned around and said "Flay, it's good to see you! Pan is coming at three, so I need you out of here by then." Both of them burst out laughing at that. Kandi and Snake didn't get it. Gecra did, but he had to sign the approval for the raise. The amount was far too high to be funny. He mentally added that to the growing list of things that he didn't like about Flay.
"Actually, Commander, I'm here for a Pair" said Flay becoming serious all of the sudden. And they both knew why. A pair was for life. Even if it was a rookie, it was still for life. If your partner died then you would be excused from service.
"Well let's see what we have" said Leffloyd rather half-heartedly trying to smile. He knew that none of his trainees were ready for any mission, and if Flay was being ordered into service then they really weren't set for that mission. He looked around trying to figure out who was best set for any mission. He sighted
only one and sighed. He was the top of his class. The only problem was a he was an arrogant idiot, who probably couldn't pour water out of a boot without bragging to every person who came near enough to hear him. He knew Flay would tear him to bits. He looked around again for somebody who Flay wouldn't mortally hate. He could only find one. This one was a new recruit named Morphady. Morphady was as shy as they come, and it was probably a fluke in the test system that he even got there. He could do all of the exercises and such and was a modern day dead-eye and could shoot the wings off of a fly, but when it came to the stealth, well he couldn't cross a hall of carpet wearing socks without making enough racket to sound like Armageddon was coming early. He was about 20 years younger than Flay (in human terms that's about 5 years younger). Leffloyd called Morphady over. He came mutely. Leffloyd introduced him.
"Everyone , I'd like you to meet Morphady Branson. If it pleases all parties present, then I think that he will be Flay's Pair." Everybody except Flay and Morphady nodded. They began to examine each other. Flay, summing up his strength quickly, asked only one question.
"How's his stealth?"
Leffloyd barley caught himself from visibly wincing. "He's a, eh, little lacking, but his strength is exceptional, and when it comes to shooting, he could kill 29 out of 30 people with a 25 bullet-clip. And-"
"I'm sorry, but I can't take him" was Flay's answer.
The Gecra nearly gaped, but caught himself just in time, and said "Flay, be reasonable! This is who Leffloyd recommends, and I'm sure just because he's a little short on stealth training, doesn't mean he's not any good. I mean-"
"Thanks Gecra Florose, but if you don't mind, I can fend for myself" came the timid voice that interrupted the Gecra. This time he did gape. And then shut his mouth. "Look Flay," continued Morphady "I know for a fact that when it comes to stealth, let's be honest, I suck. But, have you ever considered that you might need a gun and muscle man while on this mission, whatever it is."
Flay stopped for a minute and looked at him. He thought about Snake's plan. He looked at him again. "I don't know. I- maybe. I guess. It kills me to take a Pair who isn't proficient in stealth, but I guess you're right." After another pause,
"I'm the boss of this Pair though, got it?" Morphady grinned, the first time that Leffloyd had ever seen.
"Okay, though it kills me to take such an infamous partner" he said while grinning. Flay glared at him.
"Alright, now that we have that settled, let's get the Pairing done.