The Mercenary Returns Chapter 1
Two Years ago.
Two people battled on top of an active volcano, the explosion caused by the crashing plane triggered it and it was about to blow but the two mercenaries didn't
care, all they cared about was ending the other.
"WHY DID YOU BETRAYED US? WE WERE YOUR FRIENDS!" jack shouted as his axe clashed against the enemies sword.
"You took Ayla away from me, she was mine." Kooro said "Her death is your fault!"
"MY FAULT?! MY FAULT?! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Jack screamed increasing the rate of his slashes "WHO DRAGGED US TO THE TEMPLE OF THE GOLDEN IDOL?!
WHO DIDN'T WARN US ABOUT THE DANGERS?! WHO STOLE THE TREASURE AND ABANDONED US WHEN WE NEEDED HIM?! YOU! YOU! YOU!" Jack screamed at
the top of his lungs as the two broke away. "I tried desperately to save Ayla but I wasn't strong enough to get her out the trap required two people and you left
us, so how is her death my fault?" Jack asked coldly
"If you hadn't taken her from me she would still be alive." Kooro stated
"She was never yours." Jack said chucking throwing stars at him which he easily avoided.
"If you say so but after I kill you, well, the entire world will blame you." Kooro said
"How? we don't exist, the only ones who know about us know us as the "Hidden Lotus" and no one has ever seen our faces." Jack sneered
"Correct, I guess that I'll just have to keep your memory alive. by cursing you everyday of my life." Kooro sneered back charging at jack but jack had seen this
coming. and jumped out of the way, normally it wouldn't have helped but what kooro didn't know was that he had just landed in a trap. the ground where he
landed was covered in oil and he slipped and fell the oil went over the cliff and Kooro would have plummeted into the volcano if it weren't for his sword which he
stabbed into the ground.
"Oil? really I taught you that trick." Kooro said
"Yep ironic isn't it?" Jack said as he pressed a button. and the ledge kooro was on exploded, sending him plummeting down into the lava below.
"It's over" Jack said "It's finally over time to head home."
DARBY RESIDENTS
Nine years, it had been nine years since John had died and jack had run away, she didn't blame him the loss of his father was harder on him than she had
thought. she still kept the light on hoping that he would return as the note he wrote said. but so far he hadn't she was almost starting to consider suicide. the
search had been called off six years saying that since jack hadn't been seen in three years that he was never coming back so with that final thought she picked
up a knife. "John jack I'll be seeing you soon." she said just as there was a knock on her door. She decided to answer it and it was then that she almost had a
heart attack because standing out on the porch was her son a beaten, cold and shaking Jackson Jonathan Darby. "Jack is that really you.?" June asked shaking
"Its me mom and I'm sorr-" jack was cut off by june slapping him across the face.
"Young man you are in so much trouble!" June said with venom in her voice but that ended when she pulled jack into a hug sobbing uncontrollably, "I thought
you were dead."
"I'm alive mom. I'm home." Jack said breaking down into tears as well. "Come on lets go inside and get out of the cold."
June refused to let go of jack as if she thought that if her hand left his than he would disappear like all the other dreams she'd had. when they entered the
house jack saw just how big an impact leaving had on his mom, the house was a pigsty, trash littered the floor, the the furniture was covered in stains and
empty bottles of alcohol littered the floor seeing this caused jack to break down into tears again and hug his mom repeatedly sobbing out "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
over and over again. regaining his composure jack said "come on lets get you to bed, I'll do the housework for a while, you just rest you look like you haven't
gotten a good nights sleep in years."
"I haven't." June answered, when jack got to her room he say the the bed looked like it hadn't been slept in, in years. "I've been sleeping in your room but I'll
just change the sheets and then you can sleep in your room again." June said shaking
"No mom, I'll change the sheets on your bed and I'll sleep in here, and I don't want to hear another word on the subject." Jack said firmly
"alright." June said looking downcast. when jack got her tucked in and was about to leave she said. "Jack, wait don't go."
"I'm not going anywhere mom, would you like me to sleep with you tonight?" Jack asked concerned to which june quickly nodded. "alright."
Jack said and thats how they spent the night.
For the rest few days jack did all the cleaning and cooking despite his moms protests, june refused to let jack out of her sight, except when he was in the
bathroom of course they both knew that they had to move, the money that Jack's father had left behind had covered the expenses but they had to find a smaller
house and Jack suggested a small town called Jasper Nevada to which june agreed and jack agreed to get a job there to help his mom pay the bills, so in three
weeks they packed up their belongings, and moved to the Jasper located right in the middle of nowhere. june by this time was letting jack out of her sight as he
had given his word that he would never run away again. A year passed without incident until jack hopped on a beautiful blue and pick motorcycle and got
involved in a war older than the human race. at first he tried to get out of it but he realized that after all the missions he'd been on in his hidden Lotus days he
couldn't live a normal life, but still he never told anyone but his mother what he'd been doing for the past nine years, she hadn't approved but she was proud
that he never accepted jobs that involved killing, he didn't have the heart to tell her about Kooro but he didn't think he had to worry about him.
"Hey jack is something wrong?" Arcee asked snapping jack out of his thoughts.
"No nothings wrong arcee just thinking thats all, ten years ago today I ran away from home, and only returned one year ago." Jack said
"Why would you run away?" Arcee asked concerned
"I just couldn't deal with what happened when dad died." Jack said.
"What did you do?" arcee asked
"Sorry Cee but I don't want to talk about that." Jack said
"Ok jack but just remember if you ever do want to talk about it I'm here." Arcee assured him
"Thanks partner and arcee." Jack asked
"Yes jack." Arcee answered.
"Can you not tell the others that I ran away from home its just something that I'd like to keep secret." Jack explained
"Alright jack you can count on me." arcee said. earning her a big smile from jack.
They arrived at the base soon after and they walked in on Fowler briefing Optimus on a situation. "...At first we thought it was mech or the cons steeling our
equipment and data, that is until we captured this video." Fowler said showing everyone a video of someone in a mask stealing data from a terminal, to
everyone but jack thought it was just a thief but to jack there was something familiar about that man, to familiar.
"It can't be." Jack said under his breath, as fowler continued.
"look on the crooks right shoulder, as you can see its a lotus hidden by a small branch with three leaves, thats the sign of the the Hidden Lotus, they were a
group of mercenaries that showed up out of nowhere ten years ago and disappeared one year ago but I always thought it was strange."
"What was strange Agent Fowler?" Optimus asked
"They never accepted jobs that involved killing a target, they only took jobs to bring in criminals or retrieve treasure from temples, they never killed until one of
them betrayed the other two and killed one of them for treasure the other spent four years hunting him and finally found him, killed him by dropping him into a
volcano. We managed to retrieve this video from the black box of the planes they stole." the recording was covered in static and was blurry so on one could
identify who they were much too jacks relief.
"If you hadn't taken her from me she would still be alive." one stated
"She was never yours."the other said said chucking throwing stars at him which he easily avoided.
"If you say so but after I kill you, well, the entire world will blame you." the first said
"How? we don't exist, the only ones who know about us know us as the "Hidden Lotus" and no one has ever seen our faces." the second sneered
"Correct, I guess that I'll just have to keep your memory alive. by cursing you everyday of my life." the other sneered back charging at the one with the axe but
it seemed that he had seen this coming. and jumped out of the way, normally it wouldn't have helped but what the one with the sword didn't know was that he
had just landed in a trap. the ground where he landed was covered in oil and he slipped and fell the oil went over the cliff and he would have plummeted into the
volcano if it weren't for his sword which he stabbed into the ground.
"Oil? really I taught you that trick." he said
"Yep ironic isn't it?" the one with the axe said as he pressed a button. and the ledge one with the sword was on exploded, sending him plummeting down into
the lava below screaming. with that the one with the axe sat down for a few seconds and then said "It's over, Its finally over. Time to go home." The video cut
off there.
"Wow they had some moves where did they come from?" Miko asked
"No one knows, their faces were never known, after this video was shot the last surviving member of the Hidden Lotus handed over his axe to us for safe
keeping and said he was done, and just left. no one had seen or heard from him until now." Fowler said
"I don't think the one who stole all the data was the one with the axe, he moved like the one with the sword." Arcee said "Did they have codenamed?"
"Yes the one with the sword was just called mist, the girl was called moon, and the one with the axe was called shadow." Fowler answered as the monitors lit up
with everything that the government had on them, the sword was mist's weapon of voice, he called it "Soul Solid" Moon used throwing stars, and Shadow as you
saw used an axe which he called "The Warlock Axe" why? we don't know all we do know is that now one is back and it's a serious problem but I know this, he
wanted us to see him this time." Fowler said
"Why do you say that Fowler?" Bulk asked
"Because two ton, these guys could break into the most secure building without being seen, or heard, compared to that with the security that place had, a five
year old could have broken in without being seen. I'm telling you because the General thinks you bots are the only ones besides shadow who could stop him and
since we can't find shadow..." Fowler trailed off
"Alright agent fowler keep us informed."Optimus said.
Arcee turned to asked jack what he thought about that when she realized that he was gone.
"where did jack go?" she asked
"Up top I think." Miko said he had a really serious look on his face during the talk and I think I heard him say 'it can't be' under his breath, and than he just
snuck out."
"Thats weird." Bulk said "Think jack knows something about this?"
"Maybe, he was acting strange today." Arcee said "I'll go talk to him." she said when she got to the roof, she saw jack curled in a ball shaking. "Jack are you
ok?" arcee asked concerned
"No Cee i'm not" jack said his voice full of terror, "he's alive."
"Who?" arcee asked confused.
"Mist, or as I know him, Kooro." Jack said
"Wait are you saying that you know mist?" Arcee said
"Yep we were both members of the Hidden Lotus, I was shadow." Jack said
"Thats funny Jack but really what's wrong?" arcee said thinking jack was joking
"THIS ISN'T A JOKE ARCEE THIS IS SERIOUS!" Jack yelled
Seeing the look in his eyes arcee realized that jack was telling the truth and said "alright jack but according to the video mist fell into an active volcano, how did
he survive?"
"I don't know but I do know this, if he finds me he will kill everyone I care about. the autobots can't stop him, only a Hidden Lotus can defeat a Hidden Lotus"
"We should tell the others." arcee said
"you're right but not now ok? I need to find the right time to tell them." Jack said
"Jack I don't think-" arcee began.
"Please arcee I will tell them just not now ok I need to sort this out." Jack pleaded.
"Ok jack but you had better tell them soon." arcee said sighing
"I will and Cee?"Jack said
"Yes Jack?" Arcee answered
"Thanks." jack said
"Anytime partner." arcee said "Now come one lets get you home."
Unknown to them the autobots saw their entire conversation and were trying to process all that they had heard.
UNKNOWN LOCATION
Finally after a year of searching he had the data he needed, it took him no time at all the hack the so called firewalls" surrounding the data he had stolen and he
came across what he had been looking for.
"Finally I found you shadow, now you will pay for what you did to me." Mist said as he slashed the screen with jacks face on it with his sword cutting it in two.
Chapter 1 re-uploaded, next comes chapter 2
Until we meet again
PrimusPrime Out