I'd like to thank PY687 for again Beta-reading my story and for sticking with me after the long wait for an update.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"AI Talking"

In the Hanger/Hideout/Home.

As he started to wake up sunlight flooded into Chris' eyes. 'Ugh, light. Why does morning have to come so early?' After his eyes adjusted to the morning light he smelled cooking, and after looking around he saw Rachel was already up and making breakfast.

He sat up. "Uh, what are you doing?"

Rachel looked over her shoulder and gave him a quick smile. "Good morning. I'm making breakfast before we head off to school. Today's Friday, don't you remember?" She walked over with two plates of pancakes stacked on them, one of which she handed to Chris.

"Oh goodie, going to school on an injured leg. This should be loads of fun."

"You can use a walking cane if you like."

He grinned at Maverick's suggestion. "Yeah, I'll use a cane. Then I can act like House and be an asshole."

"That's not what I meant."

He shrugged and started poking at his pancakes, his mind wandering to the day and mission ahead. Chris didn't have long to sit there dreaming when something Rachel said broke him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Sorry, you said something?"

Rachel looked a little annoyed. "I said, is there a reason you're poking at your breakfast? Think I poisoned it?" she glared at him.

Somehow, Chris' mouth started moving and words came out before his brain registered what he was saying. "No, I was testing to see if these pancakes are as soft as your boobs look, and they passed."

He felt a chill go down his spine. He looked at Rachel and he could've sworn he saw a tick mark was on her forehead even though there was no emotion on her face.

"Something wrong?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chris and Rachel were standing outside of the abandoned house. Rachel was wearing tighter fitting clothes from Chris' closet that consisted of jeans, a Marine Corps T-shirt and sneakers. Chris was dressed in simple pants and a hoodie to cover up the jumpsuit.

He was grumbling to himself, "Damn women and their tempers and not being able to take a joke."

Rachel turned her head and glared at him. "First, please refrain from cursing in front of me. Second, joke or not, it was rude. And third, you never apologized."

"Well I'm sorry. There, does that help?" he asked with sarcasm dripping from his words.

Further conversation was cut off as the school bus rolled up. They got on and ended up sitting in separate seats. Other than friends and teachers asking Chris what happened to his leg and Chris using his cane to lift up a couple of skirts in lunch nothing exciting happened in school that Friday. Afternoon rolled around, and as the final bell was ringing, Chris was walking towards the buses with his best friend Carl. He looked around and spotted Rachel talking with a group of girls when a thought suddenly sprang up and he smacked himself in his forehead.

Carl looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Something wrong, or do you like smacking yourself for fun?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"Mhmm, right."

They joined up with a couple of their friends and chatted until it came time for the buses to leave. Chris sat down in a seat close to the back of the bus. He gazed out the window listening to his iPod when the seat next to him became occupied. He didn't bother to look at who it was until there was a tap on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder and saw Rachel standing there.

"Can I help you?"

She sat down and replied. "No, I'm just stealing this seat. All the others are taken."

He looked around and was mildly irritated. He had hoped that the seat would remained empty. "Okay, that's fine. I don't really care." He looked back out the window.

Rachel gave him on sidelong glance, obviously a little hurt by his attitude, but she brushed it off and started talking to the girl across from her. The trip back was uneventful. The bus stopped in front of the abandoned house and dropped them off. Chris started down the road away from the bus at a slow pace. Rachel looked at him, confused. "Why are you going that way? Home is this way." Rachel gestured into the woods.

"I always do this so no one suspects anything."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense." Rachel shrugged and followed.

He looked at her. "So, why did you save me the other night? I mean, you could've just let me die and salvage my suit, right?"

Rachel looked away for a little bit. "Can we talk at home? It's going to be a long story." She looked back, hopeful.

Chris raised his eyebrow at the word "home." "Yeah, that's fine."

They walked into the main cave and were greeted with a couple of surprises:

There was already a brand new bedroom for Rachel.

Several robotic arms were bringing in pieces of the Fusion suit and fitting them together in a third storage tube.

More robotic arms were doing repairs on Rachel's Varia suit.

And last, the Gravity suit was running through the obstacle course on its own.

The sound of jaws hitting the floor was audible. Both Chris and Rachel were speechless. They watched as the Gravity suit maneuvered itself through the course fluidly.

"Welcome back, Master Chris and Lady Rachel. How was school today?" Maverick spoke up cheerfully.

Completely ignoring what Maverick said Chris asked, "Uh, Maverick, what is the Gravity suit doing moving around, without me in it?"

"Ah, yes. That. Well, it first started with an idea of mine, and after months of calculations and trials while you were out I was able to come up with a system to put a part of myself into either of the suits and operate them. So now tests can be run on any of the suits without harm to yourself or Rachel, and they can be done ahead of time instead of right before you have to leave."

Rachel, meanwhile, was too focused on watching the Gravity suit to have heard their conversation. She watched as it was attacked by three combat drones. The suit used the grapple beam to grab one of the drones and proceeded to swing it over its head and smash it into the ground. The remaining drones began attacking it with primitive power beam cannons. Again, the suit used the grapple beam, but it instead latched onto the ceiling and hauled itself up while raining down ice beam shots, freezing one drone while the other dived out of the way. The frozen drone was shattered by a missile at its feet. The last drone was crushed underneath the Gravity suits feet as it landed on the ground.

"Brutal, yet effective." Chris commented with a tiny grin. Rachel just nodded.

Maverick then directed the Gravity suit back into its label storage tube. "Now then, there's good news and even better news. First, the Fusion suit will be ready for action in about three months. Second, the Gravity suit is operating at 100%."

Chris nodded and turned to Rachel. "So now that we're here, can you tell me?"

"Sure, let's take a seat. Like I said, it's going to be a long story."

Chris sat down on the couch and waited for her to sit in the chair across from him. He gestured for her to start.

"Let me see where to start. Well, as you know, I was taking shelter in that house. Those two flying pirates were hunting me, and I had taken too much damage to my suit to fight back. I only half of my base shields left."

Chris interrupted. "Wait, so that's why the pirates were there in the first place?"

Rachel crossed her legs. "Yes, that's why. Now, can you please not interrupt?" After receiving a nod she continued. "After I got up to the second floor window I noticed a person walking in the direction of the house and I got a look at your face in the moon light. Then I heard the pirates overhead. I worried for your safety so I peeked out to find you, and to my surprise, you had vanished. One pirate left to search elsewhere while the first one stayed on the roof. After awhile you came back in your Fusion suit, though I didn't know it was you then."

There was a noise behind them. They turned and watched and the now completed Fusion suit stepped out of its holding tube and headed for the firing range. "I will be testing the basic systems of the Fusion suit in order to determine what work will need to be done. Please continue."

Rachel sat in thought for a moment before Chris spoke up to help her. "So I fought the pirates and damaged one of them."

"Yeah, and when you were thrown back after trying to use your Wavebuster, I was about to leave before they noticed me. But then something stopped me and I jumped out to save you. I figured you could be an ally. Well, that's it; you know the rest."

Chris sat on the couch, deep in thought. Rachel was about to ask what was on his mind when he got up and walked over to a large computer console with one big monitor and many smaller ones. He sat in front of it and proceeded to punch in various lines of codes. Random small screens flicked on, showing data, while the largest one turned on and showed a world map. Three red points on the map appeared: one in America, near D.C., one in Africa, close to Egypt, and the last one in Australia in the middle of open land.

He turned to look at her. "Your story gives me a lot to think about. Such as, did you save me because you figured on using me?"

"No, never!" Rachel exclaimed, offended and a little hurt.

"So then why did you save me? You could have moved on without feeling any guilt because you didn't know me, and you could've come back to salvage my Fusion suit."

"Look, I don't know why I did. And besides, do I really need a reason for saving you?"

"… Maybe not, but I still had to ask those questions."

He gestured towards the world map. "Anyway, I have news for you. I'm going on an extended mission to investigate these three blips on the map. As you can see, they are basically around the world, so I'll be gone for at least five to six months."

Rachel raised her hand. He chuckled. "You don't have to raise your hand, this isn't school. Go ahead and ask."

She nodded. "Well, if you're leaving and you will be gone for a while, what am I going to do?"

"Why, my dear Rachel, you thought I'd leave you here with my equipment alone? No, no, you're coming with me. Not that I don't trust you or anything; it's just that I met you only last night. So suit up and get ready. We leave in half an hour."

"And that's my queue. Both of your suits are ready. Chris, I believe you'll be taking the Gravity suit, correct?"

"It's the only functional one, right? And make sure Rachel charges her suit before we leave. Let her use the Gravity suit charger since they're similar."

"As you command. Lady Rachel, after you get suited up, please step over to the wall near the exit. You'll find a charging station there. Just plug in your arm cannon into the hole and I'll tell you when it's done."

"Okay, thanks."

Chris got up and walked into his room to gather his things, leaving Rachel to get into her Zero suit again and put her armor on. She opted to carry her helmet in her hand instead of putting it on.

Chris was sitting at the small computer desk in his room. "So, did you add that thing to Rachel's suit?"

"Yes, I did. All you have to do is give my subroutine the command and her suit will completely shut down."

"Very good, thank you Maverick. So did we both get subroutines?"

"Again, yes."

Chris nodded, satisfied that if Rachel turned on him she could be neutralized quickly. "And repairs on the Fusion suit. How long till it's functioning?"

"Rough estimate… About nine months, give or take one."

He sighed. "Yeah, I figured as much. So were all the supplies I listed transferred over to the firebase in Africa?"

"Yes, supplies for you and Rachel have been sent. Although only guy clothes and materials were sent due to the lack of female things."

"That's fine. If it's possible, could you gather some girl products and send them through the item transporter while we're there? I'm sure she'd appreciate that a lot. I don't know what she has on her."

"Done and done. Now you had better get going. That pirate base needs to be investigated. Contact me when you get to the firebase, and make sure you put Rachel into the base's system so the defensive systems don't kill her on sight."

"Of course, thanks for the reminder." He left his room and proceeded towards the Gravity suit.

"Can we get going please?" Rachel asked, irritated that a boy could take longer to get ready than a girl.

He just ignored her for the moment. He stepped up and the Gravity suit was assembled onto his frame. When it was finished, he stepped down and moved towards the recharging station. Rachel was standing next to the exit tapping her foot. He pushed his arm cannon into the slot, and while the suit was charging, he looked over at her. "Can I help you?"

"Well, it's a long way to D.C., so we need to make it there as soon as possible. Right?"

"That would be true if we were going to D.C., but our first stop is Africa – and no, I'm not walking. One, it's too slow, and two, I'm too fucking lazy."

Rachel frowned at his language. "Then how do we get there? Fly?"

Chris pulled his arm out of the slot when the meter read fully charged and proceeded towards the machine shop in the back of his home. "Well, my dear Rachel, you could say we're going to fly. But this method takes mere seconds to get us from here to our destination." He pointed to a raised platform.

"This is my long-range mode of transportation. Basically, it's a teleporter. We're going to use this to get to Africa, though sad to say, it's one-way. Now I do have receiving nodes almost all over the world but there are places I have to run to get to."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Not at all. I use it all the time. Now come on, we have to get to the firebase before dark. I'll go in first and make sure nothing is around the node and you come after about thirty seconds." Without waiting for her reply, he stepped up onto the platform and hefted his cannon. "See you on the other side." And with a flash he was gone.

She was stunned at the fact it actually worked. She always walked to the places she had to get to while wearing her armor. After about what she though was thirty seconds she stepped up onto the platform. "I sure hope he's right and I won't appear in the middle of the Earth or something." She too hefted her cannon, but she closed her eyes, not wanting to see what was on the other side for fear of really appearing at the center of the Earth.