Episode 10: True Colors

While everyone was off on another fugitive-capture mission Abel had asked Sorun to aid him in the base under the garage.

"OK Sorun, the tricky part was making sure the buffers integrated properly with the additional electrical load. After all, the proximity alarm has to encompass the entire garage or- Sorun, are you listening?" Abel asked when he noticed Sorun was still playing his video game.

"Yep, pox alarm, bluffers and toads." He mumbled, not taking his eyes off the game in his hands. Abel sighed and continued working until he was satisfied it was done. He pressed the on switch and an ear-piercing screech erupted throughout the entire garage. The others arrived a few seconds before Abel managed to turn it off.

"What was that?" Kopi asked and she and Querl dragged a fugitive stasis pod in with Tam trailing behind them. They were all covered from the waist down with thick mud.

"It's our new proximity alarm." Abel replied.

"Which I know how to operate, because I was totally listening." Sorun butted in.

Abel rolled his eyes. "Oh, hardly. Anyway, how did the mission go?" He asked.

"Great, to say we wandered through 35 inches of mud to find an empty pod." Querl sighed as wiped some of the mud off his pants. Abel looked at the pod and saw that it was half filled with mud.

"To be accurate, the pod wasn't completely empty. Tam, tell Abel how you lent a hand; Oh, that's right. You didn't." Kopi glared at the man behind them, who was just staring at them.

"Not now Kopi." Querl warned but she didn't pay him any mind.

"No Querl! If anyone slows us down it's Tam. Seriously, I've seen fried snails move faster than you were today." She huffed.

All of a sudden Tam side punched her in the face and into the wall, hard.

"Tam!" Querl cried out and put up a force-field in time to protect him from the green haired man's punches. "What's gotten into you?" He asked as Tam continued his assault. As soon as Tam lifted his fist again, the Coluan dropped the force-field and shot an energy blast at his chest. It only stunned the man.

"Abel, hide, now!" Querl ordered and the youngest obeyed.

"What's your problem Tam?" Sorun asked as he dodged Tam's punches. The strongest member of their team didn't answer as he attacked. Suddenly Kopi tackled Sorun to the ground before Tam could hit him.

"What are you doing?!" Sorun growled.

"Trying to protect you from a violent attacker, if you hadn't noticed." She huffed.

"You mean protect me from a teammate?!"

"Tam assaulted both you and Querl without cause!"

"You assault me all the time!"

"GUYS!"

Both teens looked up from their arguing and saw that Tam had Querl by the neck and was slowly squeezing as the Coluan shot many energy blasts at him but they just tickled him. Sorun and Kopi ran to Querl's aid but Tam suddenly threw the green-skinned teen at them, sending all three of them into the far wall. He then turned to Abel, who was cowering in the corner.

The giant approached the small boy with a sinister smirk on his face.

Abel gulped and stood up to face the man. "This isn't you Tam. Something's wrong." He said as calmly as possible but his whole body was shaking like a leaf.

"Yeah, everyone's in my way!" He grinned and reached for the boy. Abel closed his eyes and braced for the attack. But it never came. Abel opened his eyes and saw Tam's arm stretched towards him but it was just hovering in the air.

His face had an expression of anger and pain on it. He grunted loudly and started shaking slightly as Abel backed up in fear. Tam huffed and walked over to the stasis pods.

"Well at least I won't be going back to the boss empty-handed." He smirked before grabbing Rekin's stasis pod and running out the building.

After getting over his shock Abel quickly ran over to the others where getting up.

"Are you guys Ok?!" He panicked.

"Absolutely not." Sorun groaned as Querl and Kopi helped him up. "Where's Tam?"

"He got away and he has Rekin! Said he was taking him to some boss!" The boy exclaimed.

"How could I fall for the innocent act?!" Kopi growled. "We should interrogate all Tam's known associates, he's clearly been fooling us all this time!"

"We are Tam's known associates!" Sorun shouted at her.

"I've seen Tam's criminal record." Querl suddenly butted in. "The only crime on there is severe property damage due to Tam being... well... Tam." He shrugged.

"That's what he wants us to think!"

"No way Tam attacked us willingly, this boss or whatever must have forced him!" Sorun argued.

"I don't think Tam's in control of himself, he wanted to hit me but he couldn't. It was like there was a war going on inside him." Abel explained.

"Accept it. Tam's just a bad guy playing us for suckers."

"ENOUGH! Whatever's going on our first priority is to locate Tam and that pod fast and bring them BOTH back here." Querl said.

"But this isn't Tam's fault Querl! What Abel's saying might be at least possible right? Tell me you know that!" Sorun begged.

Querl froze suddenly and looked away from his friend as a series of painful memories flashed through his mind in less than a second.

He sighed in defeat and headed over to the console.

"Most of the controls were smashed by Tam in the struggle but I've managed to track Tam's prison tag signal; he's at the Kelna River Dam, which is luckily fully automated." He said before turning to the youngest member of their team. "Abel, try and get the comm system up again while we track down Tam." He ordered before he and Kopi mounted their bikes and drove off with Sorun running after them.

Once they were gone Abel ran to the console and started looking through the Ark's files to see if what Sorun said could be right. He gasped at the result before quickly trying to fix the comm system so he could warn the team.

Or else they might never make it back...

Querl, Kopi and Sorun decided to take a shortcut through the forest to get to the dam faster. It appears Tam had taken the same route as they found his tracks and the trees he had knocked down to get through.

"At least our fugitive is easy to track, signal or not." Kopi pointed out to break the silence.

"I'll take point. I'd hate for our teammate to get nailed by a trigger-happy peace cop." Sorun glared at her before speeding up until he was running along side a frustrated Querl.

"Look Sorun, I don't know what's gonna happen when we find Tam, but I promise you that I'll do everything possible to see that he doesn't get hurt." He promised the young speedster.

Suddenly the beneath the two boys exploded and sent the tumbling down the hill and over a ledge!

"GUYS!" Kopi cried as she jumped off her bike and ran to the ledge. She looked over and saw Querl tightly gripping a rock with one hand and Sorun's leg with the other. She breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled them both up.

"Are you OK, Querl?"

"Fine."

"Me too." Sorun growled as he dusted himself off. "Thanks for asking."

Querl ignored the two of them and went to see what had caused the explosion. He knelt down and examined the scorched ground.

"Land mines." He said, holding up a piece of the bomb. "There were some stored on the Ark and we moved them to the garage; Tam must of grabbed a few when he left."

"Friendly people don't generally build traps for the good guys." Kopi glared at Sorun. "Right, Querl?"

The Coluan just ignored them and kept walking...

Tam nervously pushed the pod through the River Dam control room until he was in the main engine room. As he stood there he kept rubbing his fists in a slight nervous fit.

"I didn't expect you back so soon." A voice suddenly laughed from the shadows. Tam flinched in fear when Balto stepped into the light with a smug look on his face. "Hantara's still scouting for a larger base, but I'll be glad to help you with the pods; after all, a good leader is only first among equals."

"I, uh, had a little problem, boss. Only got one pod." He gulped.

"Let me guess, you ran away?" He growled.

"Those goody-two-shoes brats were all over me, but I took care of 'em and I snagged Rekin." He smirked as he turned the pod so Balto could see Rekin sleeping inside. "Between him and me, how much more muscle do you need?"

"That's a rather cowardly way to justify failure." He huffed. "But as far as my intentions go, you and Rekin are at least a place to start."

"Or end."

The two men quickly turned to the entrance and were shocked to see Querl, Kopi and Sorun standing there, weapons ready.

"You took care of them, did you?" Balto growled at the green haired giant.

"Mostly." He gulped.

"Savior the daylight. Things are about to get rather dark." He snarled at the teens before lunging at them. The wolf-man went for Querl but the Coluan blocked him with his staff. As the two tried to over power each other Kopi aimed her blaster at them.

"Querl, get clear!"

"I'm trying!"

As they fought Balto, Sorun took that moment to run to Tam. When the larger man saw the speedster coming he started swinging his fists.

"Tam, tell me you were just playing along with Balto; you were leading us straight to him all along, right?" Sorun pleaded as he continued to dodge Tam's heavy punches.

"I could tell you that, but I'd be lying." He laughed. But now he was getting annoyed that Sorun refused to hit him back. "You fight like you don't wanna hurt me, but I got no problem hurting you!"

Sorun quickly threw one of his sais and it flew right passed Tam's shoulder.

"Ha! Ya missed!"

But unbeknown to Tam, Sorun wasn't aiming for him. The sai sliced right through a metal rope and dropped some thick pipes onto Tam's head, stunning him for a few moments. Sorun grabbed his sai and ran for Balto. The wolf-man had grabbed Querl by the shirt and thrown him into Kopi, causing them to smash into a wall.

Balto had barely a second to turn before Sorun came at him, sais at the ready. But he managed to block them.

"What did you do to Tam, Balto!? Some kind of mind control!? He grunt in rage as he struggled in his grip.

"Oh please, is it so hard to believe that he would chose me over all of you?" He laughed cruely.

"Yeah, it kinda is."

"You OK?" Querl asked Kopi as they sat up. But before the blue girl had a chance to answer a large shadow was over them. They looked up and saw Tam glaring down at them.

Querl only just managed to generate a shield dome over them both before Tam's fist came down on them. But the force of Tam's punch made large cracks in the shield. Querl was struggling to keep the shield up as Tam continued to hit it and Kopi quickly looked around for their weapons but found them outside the dome, out of reach.

Sorun quickly kneed the wolf in the gut and pinned him against the wall, sai at his throat.

"Whatever you've done to Tam, undo it, now!" He shouted, but Balto just laughed.

"I believe you have more pressing concerns." He grinned and pointed to the others and Sorun growled in anger when he noticed his friends in danger.

"This isn't over." He whispered before running to save his friends.

Tam punched the dome once again but this time it smash right through the purple shield and into the side of Querl's face, knocking the poor Coluan unconscious. Kopi gasped as her friend fell to the ground and Tam raised his fist again. She closed her eyes tightly and waited for the deadly hit to come, but it never did.

She quickly opened her eyes in confusion and saw she and Querl were at the other side of the room with Sorun leaning over them and Tam's fist was stuck in the spot where they had been moments ago. She quickly checked Querl and was relieved when she found him breathing, but that hit had really done a number on him.

"Does Tam look like he's playing for our team right now?" She glared at Sorun.

"Farewell, brother." Balto called from the exit. "I need people who don't turn simple tasks into debacles." He said before making his escape, taking Rekin with him.

"I can finish this, Balto! Wait for me!" Tam shouted after him but was suddenly screaming in pain. He fell forward to reveal Kopi standing behind him with Querl's taser staff.

"What'd you do that for?!" Sorun exclaimed as he checked on the green haired man.

"I was stopping him from escaping!" She shouted as she grabbed Tam's wrists to cuff them. But before their argument could continue, however, there was a large static noise coming from their com-links.

"WAIT!" Abel screamed into the com-link. "Tam's not Tam! I mean, Tam is Tam, but he's not Tam right now. There's a man named Parvus who is half Titan, half Imskian who can shrink down to the size of an ant and he can also control people's minds. He must be hiding somewhere on Tam somewhere." Abel quickly explained.

But before Sorun could do anything Kopi suddenly smacked him in the chest with Querl's staff. Before he could recover she threw the staff to the ground and jumped at him. But Sorun quickly dodged and punched her in the face.

"Whether your under mind control or not, that felt good." He smirked as Kopi snarled at him.

As the two continued to wrestle each other Tam came to and remembered everything that had happened while he was under Parvus' control. He quickly ran at the two teens and grabbed Kopi, but then he noticed she was in a brief daze. Suddenly Sorun started to run around him in a fast circle. He suddenly shot out and punched Tam in the arm, throwing him of balance and causing him to drop Kopi. Sorun struck out again, this time nailing Tam in the leg.

Kopi quickly recovered from her daze and grabbed her blasters.

She fire them and hit Sorun right in the legs. The speedster cried out as he flew across the room and landed with a thud. Kopi aimed again but before she could shot Tam punch her in the side and the blast hit a water pipe above them, drenching them in freezing cold water.

Parvus had gone back to Tam.

Kopi desperately tried to dodge Tam's punches but she was quickly loosing energy. Suddenly Sorun kicked Tam from behind.

This strange game of tag continued for near five minuets until the large puddle under their feet became electrified and they started screaming. A small speck fell off Kopi's shoulder and started growing large until it was around Able's size; it was an unconscious Parvus.

The team looked to the sighed to see a barely conscious Querl kneeling on the floor, holding his staff with one end of it in the water. They could all see a large bruise forming on the side of his face where Tam had hit him.

"Got ya." Tam snarled as he grabbed hold of Parvus tightly, full of rage.

"Tam... I know that Parvus... hurt you... but he's no longer... a threat. We can't... squish him." Querl panted in exhaustion as Sorun lifted him up and supported him.

"Oh, I can definitely squish him." He hissed, tightening his grip slightly. "Then again, I'm not a bad guy." He grinned and tossed him to Kopi, who quickly cuffed him...

As soon as they returned to the garage they put Parvus in a stasis pod and treated their own injuries. They all had several cuts and bruises and Querl also had a nasty concussion. He was now holding a large ice pack to the side of his face.

"Tam." Kopi said, not daring to look the man in the eye. "I'm so sorry, I was-"

"Just doing your job." Tam reassured with a warm smiled as he placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. She smiled up at him weakly.

"It's your job now too, Tam." Querl suddenly said. "You're one of us. Me and Able will remove that prison ID mark."

"Oh yeah!" Tam cheered and they all laughed. Tam suddenly turned to Sorun and Able with a grin on his face. "And you two." He said and, before they had a chance to escape, pulled them into a bone crushing hug.

"No problem." Abel grunted.

"Can I have my lungs back?" Sorun gasped.

"In a minute."

Kopi laughed at the three of them before she noticed Querl staring at the pods with a worried look on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"Balto has Rekin." He stated with a sigh. "Who knows what those two could do as their strength increases everyday."

"Good thing we're getting stronger all the time too." Kopi quickly reminded him ad they turned their attention back to the boys.

"Tam... seriously... OXYGEN!" Abel pleaded.

"Room... getting darker..." Sorun mumbled weakly...