Just thought I'd add an author's note here – I have not given up on the other stories. It's just that I am currently doing my exams and I have been busy with revision as I'm doing re-sits as well.

Stab, pivot, parry, slash. Well that's another merc I don't have to worry about anymore. Two if you count the one Fleet finished after I stabbed him.

"Hey Phoenix! At your five!" I turn at the shout from Dozer to see an eclipse merc bringing a rocket launcher to bear on me. I bring up my pistol and two bolts of green energy hit the merc in her chest, going right past her kinetic barriers and cooking her internal organs.

"Thanks for the heads up!" I yell back. Then the shooting stops and I realise that all the mercs are done – lying on the floor, most of them smoking from some sort of wound, using weapons that weren't supposed to exist only made it easier. "Kara clean up the security would you?"

"Of course Phoenix. Extraction is arriving now." Came the disembodied female voice. I sighed; I wished that Kara would use some of her emotion sometimes; it didn't mean her useful life was coming to an end after all. Our dropcraft was coming in over the rooftops; it looked like a defender mark II from that old game UPF: Dropship with a slightly smaller wing. It touched down lightly in front of our squad of five, lowered its rear ramp and we all trooped inside. I sat down and pulled my helmet off, relived that another op was done and we hadn't had anyone injured. After that had passed I had to try really hard to remember when this was all just a game.

A few months earlier

"Argh!"

"God FUCKING DAMN IT!" I smirked as Nathan screamed down the microphone at me as I blew out his characters chest again with my assault rifle. I teabagged him just to piss him off more because that made him play worse which made it easier to kill him again. I caught a glimpse of something on some cliffs just as my characters head exploded from a well-placed sniper round.

"Ha ha! Eat it bitch!" I hate it when Lucy gets the drop on me – she always rubs it in my face. I changed my weapons while I was respawning to get a better shot at her, she was always sniping. Although she was also good at ambushing and I had fallen to her sidearm and knife many times. I respawned and immediately start scanning for Lucy but instead I see Nathan. I knew he couldn't see me but I grinned victoriously anyway, lined up the shot and pulled the trigger. "Game over." Came the game announcer. I looked at my scoreboard with interest; I had gotten a double kill with that last shot apparently. But it wasn't Lucy I got sooo…

"Umm Richard… did I use you for the winning kill?" the deep breathing coming through the headset I was wearing was all the answer I needed but he confirmed it anyway.

"You. Stole. My. Kill." We couldn't help it – we all just started laughing. Well all but Richard. Eventually we calmed down enough to speak normally although all we did was say goodbye.

"See you at collage tomorrow yeah?"

"Yeah sure Richard see you tomorrow." There was a click as Richard disconnected. "Mm thinking about it guys I've got to go too – got some notes to copy up." I grimaced at the thought of work coming up but knew that it couldn't be put off any longer. Lucy picked up on it – that was one of the annoying things about her being my ex – she knew me too well. But not well enough to see the feelings I hid from her.

"How long has it been there for?" Again even though she couldn't see me I still looked guilty.

"Less than last time…"

"That's not too hard to beat. Last time you left it for over 3 months!"

"Yeah but you can't say it wasn't worth it!" I grinned, knowing that she was probably blushing pretty hard right about now. The reason for that was because we had gotten a bit carried away celebrating her 16th birthday and hadn't been able to keep off each other for that said amount of time

A/N if anybody sends me a review saying that's illegal then I refer you to the fact I'm British.

"That was pretty sickening watching you two back then." Nathan making his presence known again in the convosation.

"Dude you had a hard-on whenever you saw us, and don't deny it because Shannon told us you did! She also said she wanted to do more than see but we stopped her there." And without further ado I quit from the party and turned off my x-box.

The notes actually didn't take that long to do. Not that I'd tell Lucy that as she'd just rub it in my face. I spent the rest of my time before I went to sleep on my personal project. It started off as a replica of the gun on Primeval, but I had pulled out most of the components and re-built it as a working model. I actually managed to finish it about five minutes before I went to sleep. It also woke me up in the morning… by me shooting myself with it. "AHH! FUCK! THAT IS THE LAST TIME I SLEEP WITH A GUN!" well at least I knew that it worked and what it felt like. Ah well time to get up.

About an hour later I was on the bus – with the PCL (Projectile Charge Launcher) strapped under my jacket. And so begins another uneventful collage day. Lessons, break, more lessons and then lunch. Lunch was when for five of us, life got pretty damn weird.

We were all discussing the PCL while most of us were trying to eat.

"Wait so let me get this straight… you went to sleep with a gun that shoots electricity… and then you woke yourself up… by shooting yourself with the gun that shoots electricity?" Lucy was barely holding back her laughter at this point.

"Do you really think that I would be stupid enough to shoot myself intentionally?" I glared at her.

"Yep pretty much." I was a bit surprised that Richard was keeping a straight face. Then I saw that he was having a hard time as well. Nathan was just busting a gut on the floor and I was rapidly coming to a decision as to how to test the PCL again.

"Would anyone like to see what it can do?" Lucy and Richard raised an eyebrow, Nathan was still laughing on the floor. I reached inside my jacket and drew it out, pointed it at Nathan, made sure that the charge setting was on minimum and with the slightest smirk I shot him.

"AHH! FUCK!" it was my turn to laugh at someone getting shot by a PCL. And I liked it!

"The best part is that it has different settings so, it can inconvenience like it just did or, it can cause unconsciousness or in extreme cases it can kill."

"INCONVENIENCE? THAT FELT LIKE MY NERVES WERE ON FIRE!" Nathan screamed at me.

"Well maybe you won't find it so funny when someone else is shot with this thing then will you!" I shot back. We stood there glaring at each other for a few seconds. And then we burst out laughing – we were too good friends to fall out over this.

"Well it's nice to see that you two are ok with each other again. What was it about this time?" Roslyn said as she walked up.

"Oh I just shot him with this." I said holding up the PCL for her to see. She just nodded.

"Well, that aside I came to find you to bring you outside. Everyone else is already there so we decided you needed sun. So get off your asses and scoot!" she emphasised this with arm gestures and a glare. If you have never seen Ros glare then it can't be described: it's a force of nature, it can't be stopped and it can't be resisted. So we all just looked at each other, stood up and followed her out the canteen.

We walked in silence pretty much until we had gotten to the door. I hadn't been out in the sun for a while you see, so I was almost white… and I had been to the art room before break anticipating this… can anyone see where this is going? I had gone and stuck some fine glitter on my face, neck, hands and arms. Just to see what people would say. So just before we went outside I took off my jacket and gave it to Nathan with a wink – he helped me come up with it.

I took a deep breath. And stepped out into the sun. After a quick check that the desired effect was happening looked up. Into about three hundred speechless faces.

"Umm… hi guys?" I took a quick look back over my shoulder and saw that once again Nathan was struggling not to laugh, Richard was sniggering, Ros was wearing the same stunned face as all the rest and last but not least Lucy was giving me one of her 'I'm going to kill you later' looks.

"Aiden, why THE FUCK are you sparkling?"

"Cos sparkly is the new non-sparkly, it's gonna be the latest fashion!"

I'm not too sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that everyone was distracted from me just then.

We all heard the sound of a jet engine. But it was much closer than usual. And I picked up something wrong about the sound – I wanted to become a pilot after college, so I had spent quite a bit of time learning about aircraft. This one sounded like it was surging. And that's a very bad thing for a plane engine to do – it means the plane has to land if it doesn't stop in under a minute.

A/N I don't actually know if it needs to land, I just know it can seriously damage the engine if it's not stopped.

This one's pilot had decided to land on our college football field (English football!). It was pretty long so he just might do it as well.

I've got to say the way the plane's pilot landed it was masterful, but it needed work. The plane came in low over the houses at the far end, cleared the goalposts and came down on its belly. It skidded along the field and one of the wingtips clipped the mid-set of goalposts and that sent it into a lateral spin.

The plane eventually slid to a stop not that far from where we were. I could see the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. They looked to be fine but a bit shell-shocked. I ran in front of the plane waving my arms until I had their attention. Then I made a cutting gesture across my throat telling them to cut the engines – they were still running. They did so. Next I signed for them to open the doors – it was only a small plane if you've not figured it out yet so it didn't need inflatable slides.

The steps touched the ground and when no-one came out I darted in, ignoring people shouting at me to back off in case something went wrong. I looked over to where people were gathering. I was disgusted to see that most of them were filming this on their mobiles instead of helping.

The cabin was dark except from the light from the windows. There were sixteen people sat down two sides. Most were unconscious and the ones that weren't were in bad shape. I leaned back out the door.

"I could do with a hand here! Especially people with first aid or medical training!" a few people started running toward me when I said that, only to be stopped by one of the teachers that had come out to see what could be done. The only people who didn't stop were Nathan, Richard, Lucy and Roslyn. It didn't take them long to reach me.

"What do you need us to do?" asked Richard. I gave them a smile to show them I appreciated this. Then I realised that I was still sparkly. The smile faded quickly.

"Right, we can start by going through and checking injuries. If it's serious but we can move them then we get them as far as we can from the plane – it could be leaking fuel." I paused as my nose picked up a vaguely familiar scent. "Make that is leaking fuel, we've got to be quick. You guys get started, I'll see if there's any danger of it igniting." They all nodded. I got out the way and headed toward the wing where the fuel tanks are.

I crouched to get a better look at the starboard wing. It looked fine – no fuel leaks and looked intact. I stood and walked at a fast pace to the door where I had seen Nathan put down my jacket and pulled it back on. After walking around the nose of the plane I crouched next to the port wing. This one was the source of the smell of kerosene. It was dribbling onto the grass and running toward the main body of the plane. I didn't think much of this until I realised that the pilot had done a belly landing as in with no wheels. The actual plane had been in touch with the ground. The friction that must have been produced… it would have been enormous… and where there's friction there's heat…

I ran to the body of the plane and felt the lower section – it was still hot enough to burn my fingers. That meant it was hot enough to set the fuel on fire.

"GUYS GET OUT OF THERE! MOVE, NOW!" I could just hear sirens starting to get here. I ran around the plane to the door. They were all trying to help someone out of the plane. I darted in and slipped into the cockpit. The pilot was trying to get the co-pilot free from his straps. I shoved him out the way and hit the emergency release. "COME ON! GET HIS OTHER ARM AND LET'S MOVE!" I got one arm and the pilot got the other and we basically dragged the co-pilot out of the cockpit.

All the others had waited by the door, stupid fools, I growled at them as we set off as fast as we could away from the plane. We didn't get far before I heard the soft 'wumph' of the fuel catching light. "Aww FUCK!" this was shortly followed by a feeling of intense heat. The shockwave knocked us all down, I noticed that we all ended up on top of the people we were trying to save, and as the heat got worse I noticed that we would probably shield the people from the plane enough that they would live. 'Huh,' part of me went to myself 'five lives for five lives. It seems the balance must be kept.' I had a vague sensation of toasting like on a hot summer day. Then after an orange flare, everything faded to black.