A/N: Uh…what happened to all the reviews? I'm kind of disappointed by the COMPLETE lack of response (except for the lovely Borderline Sociopath, who actually did leave me one). What happened, guys? :( I don't usually complain over lack of reviews but then again I also hope for more than just one! Are you all sleeping? Come back! I miss you all! Okay, well now that that's out of the way, we'll move on. But seriously, guys I need reviews so I know what to improve and what to keep! Or if it's even worthwhile to continue updating this! So I hope to see a few more this time because I love hearing what you guys think! Oh yeah, and just to clarify: the story from Hal/Maggie/Ben/etc. point of view is, at present, taking place further along than the one for the kids. I apologize for this oversight but I'll be catching the times up very soon, don't worry!

Chapter 4: Rebecca Mason

Things were not going according to plan and Jimmy's sudden "it's close" comment wasn't helping me any. I held the harness close to me, trying to ignore how gross it felt in my hands.

"What's close?" Gabe asked and I knew he was trying hard not to lose it.

"T-the…Overlord…it's close by."

Overlords…I didn't have to dig far into my memory for that one. Those things were terrifying, at least from what the textbooks showed of them. Tall and thin, with fish-like heads. And they were the big bosses who ordered the attack on Earth in the first place. "How close by?" I breathed, almost afraid of the answer.

"Couple of miles," Jimmy whispered back. "That way." He pointed. We watched as the alarm technicians emerged from their van and went into the building, then broke off in a mad dash from the place.

"How can you be so sure where it is?" Gabe asked. We'd gotten a good distance from the building, out of sight at least, and were now walking aimlessly in the dark with only Jimmy's senses to guide us.

"I can feel it," Jimmy replied. "They give off a communication frequency. It's hard for me to hear from far away but it has to be close. The signal's strong."

"How many?" I asked. One Overlord was bad enough but if there were multiple Overlords we were all screwed.

"I can only hear one," he replied, much to my relief.

"What's it saying?"

Jimmy stopped and shut his eyes, like he was focusing. "I-it's…it's hard to tell…it sounds like it's trying to communicate with someone."

Gabe shot me a worried glance. "Like a fleet? "

He frowned for a moment and then his eyes snapped open, green pupils dilating for a moment. His breathing became shallow and he started gasping for breath.

"Jimmy!" I was at his side in seconds, propping my cousin up as he slumped over. He seemed to regain his composure midway. "What the hell just happened?"

He looked pale and shaken. "I-I…I don't know," he said, running a hand through his sandy hair. "Just…felt short of breath for a second." But he still looked terrified.

"You good now?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm…I'm fine. Let's…let's just keep moving."

I nodded, letting his arm go and he pressed onward, Gabe and I trailing after him. I turned to my brother. His brows were furrowed together beneath his dark hair. I couldn't help but think he looked just like Dad, same profile, same sort of expression. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He sighed. "Nothing."

I nudged him. "No seriously, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," he replied, letting his feet drag across the pavement as we walked. His gaze shifted to Jimmy's back a few feet ahead of us. "I don't think he's telling us the whole truth."

"Who? Jimmy?" The thought hadn't really occurred to me. After all, why wouldn't he tell us the whole truth? But my brother had a point. Something wasn't adding up. Why would he just double over like that unless something was wrong. Seriously wrong. But it was apparent that he wasn't going to say anything. "Maybe," I mused aloud. "But I think he'd tell us if we should be worried. " He nodded but I knew that he wasn't convinced.

We walked until the sun was rising over the trees. The light filtering through the leaves made weird shadows on the pavement and I was starting to feel tired. Gabe's watch read six thirty and for the first time I was worrying about what Mom and Dad would do to us once they found out we were missing. "How much further?" I asked, suddenly feeling the urgency of the situation. If we didn't hurry up, we risked being found. And if we were found, we sure as hell wouldn't be getting a second chance. Our dads would go and they would probably die.

"We're here," he replied, putting out a hand to stop the two of us. We stared at the place, an old auto repair shop with rusted hulks and old gas pumps outside. The whole thing looked like a creepy set out of a horror movie.

"In there?" Gabe asked incredulously. Jimmy nodded.

"You sure?"

He nodded again. "The frequency is coming from in there."

I wet my lips nervously and looked uneasily to Gabe. Slowly, he held the harness up. It wasn't like the orange, glowing one that woman Karen had. It was lifeless and brown and obviously dead. But we only needed them to get in.

"How are we supposed to put these things on?" I asked, spinning my around end-over-end, trying to figure out a way.

"Belt," Jimmy answered, tugging his own off and letting his jeans sag a little. He secured the belt around the thing and then attached it all to his waist. It didn't look to obvious against his black t-shirt. Gabe and I followed suit and soon we looked like three harnessed kids. Except perhaps a little livelier.

"Just act emotionless," Jimmy told us. "Like you don't think or feel."

"Gabe's halfway there!" I quipped, causing him to smack my shoulder. Jimmy hushed us, pointing at the garage entrance. We crept forward slowly and I could hear my heart pumping in my ears. Whatever fatigue I'd felt earlier was wiped out in a flood of adrenaline. We were silent, serious. Jimmy led the way around the back and gently tested the door. It gave easily and he beckoned us inside.

The smell of gasoline and motor oil hit me, a heady mixture that wasn't helped by the musty odor of the place overall. It was dark, save for occasional movements out on the shop floor. We found ourselves standing in the middle of what must have been the store. There was an old, cobweb-infested cash register and some very dusty merchandise. The place looked like it hadn't been inhabited since before the first invasion.

"Where to now?" I whispered as softly as I could.

"The Overlord's outside," he told us. "At the side of the building."

"Did it hear us?" Gabe asked, a panicked look in his eye.

"I don't think so…he hasn't indicated it yet, anyway."

"So where is everyone else?" I asked, making my way toward the door that led to the repair shop.

"There's some more harnessed kids in there," Jimmy replied, closing his eyes and focusing. "No skitters though, that's good."

"Is Uncle Matt in there?"

"Not sure. Only one way to find out…"

He pushed the door open slowly, quietly and we slipped into the garage. The smell was even stronger here. There was scrap metal piled up everywhere but the center of the floor remained free of any debris. And there, in the center, we saw a curly-haired head. Uncle Matt!

I resisted the urge to cry out because all around him were kids around our age, all with those glowing, orange things on their backs. And if Jimmy only had a fraction of a harnessed kid's ability, then these were some serious powerhouses. We wouldn't stand a chance. We ducked behind a pile of scrap metal to observe and think something out.

"What do we do?" Gabe asked urgently.

"We have to figure out a distraction of some kind," I replied, a plan already formulating in my head.

I picked up an oil can off the ground and hurled it through the open shop door, crouching further back into the shadows as the harnessed kids filed past to investigate. Thinking quickly, Jimmy leapt up and shut the door softly, leaning against it. "It won't hold them long," he warned.

Gabe and I rushed forward to Uncle Matt. He was unconscious and he looked pretty beat up. His lips were split and swollen and he had two black eyes. I tried to rouse him without any luck.

There was a pounding on the door. "Guys!" Jimmy called. "Hurry up!"

"We don't have time, grab his legs!" Gabe complied and I grabbed Uncle Matt's arms. We hoisted him off and took off running for the open garage door. "Let's go!"

Jimmy darted off the door and it flew open a few seconds later, the kids filing through, their faces blank. We didn't stop until we made it out of the garage. I smiled a little and turned to Jimmy triumphantly. Only…he didn't look the same anymore.

"I am impressed," he said in a voice that was his and at the same time…wasn't. "I did not expect you children to make it this far."

"Jimmy?" Gabe asked fearfully.

"Jimmy cannot hear you at the moment." And then, looming over us, was the horrific form of an Overlord…

Chapter 4: Ben Mason

I couldn't believe it. My son was missing. My son. Just gone. And he'd left a note, too, which meant he had disappeared knowingly. But maybe not of his own accord. I refused to believe that he had just snuck off with friends. That wasn't like him at all. Something must have happened to him. And with all the weird things I've been feeling lately, it would have made some sense. "Dammit!" I cursed myself. "Alex, what are we going to do?" I turned to face my wife as she walked around the kitchen, trying to keep her hands busy by straightening and re-straightening everything. It was her nervous habit.

"Try to relax," she advised, but the shaking in her voice was too obvious. "I'm sure it's nothing…we called the police. I'm sure they'll find them soon." That was a joke. The police had so much to worry about already. A kid missing for a few hours wouldn't raise any alarm bells.

"And if they don't?" I banged my fist against the kitchen table. "We should've been more careful!" God, I felt so useless just sitting there, waiting. I should have known something like this was bound to happen. Jimmy's inherited some of my abilities, why did I think that the Overlords wouldn't pick up on that?

"This isn't your fault, Ben," Alex chided, sitting down across from me. "We couldn't have known something like this was going to happen."

A motorcycle engine outside interrupted us and I leapt from the chair to answer the door. My brother was just coming up the drive. "Thank God you're here!"

Hal strode in quickly. Alex offered him a brief hug before he sat down in the living room. "Where do you think he might've gone? Where they might have gone."

"You think they're together?"

"I'm damn sure of it," Hal replied. "It's not just some coincidence. They took Matt, Dad's missing…"

I froze. "What?"

Hal straightened up. "You didn't know? Karen didn't tell you?"

I shook my head quickly. "You've been in contact with Karen?"

A look of alarm crossed my brother's face. "She showed up at our house! Anne told us she showed up at theirs too!"

Alex glanced to me worriedly. They were intentionally trying to keep me out of the loop!

"They're coming back, she said."

"I know," I replied softly, regretting it the second a look of confusion played on Hal's face.

"What do you mean you know?" he sputtered. "You knew and you didn't say anything?"

"It's not that! It's just that…" I sighed. It's just that I didn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. "We'll talk about that later. Right now, we need to focus on finding Jimmy and Rebecca and Gabe."

He didn't look pleased but he agreed anyway. "If the aliens took Matt and Dad, maybe they took the kids too."

"Or they went looking for them."

"How would they know that they were missing in the first place?" Hal countered.

"Wouldn't be the first time Jimmy's heard something he wasn't supposed to. Maybe one of your kids overheard Karen talking to you and decided to launch a rescue mission."

Hal shook his head. "I don't think so…my kids wouldn't do something like that…Do you think you could find them with your…you know, 'powers?'"

"There's a number of frequencies nearby," I responded. "I don't know which one to hone in on and they're drowning out Jimmy's signal."

"It's a start," my brother answered, hopping up and heading for the door. "Just…hone in on the closest one and we'll work our way out from there."

"What do I do in the meantime?" Alex asked.

My brother paused and looked to me pointedly. "Well ever since Karen told us the aliens might be coming back, we've been trying to organize the 2nd Mass leaders again. Call Maggie, maybe you can help out." Alex nodded and came to the door.

"Be careful, Ben," she advised, kissing me goodbye.

"I will."

It must have been nearly seven-thirty when we rode out. The nearest frequency was about four miles away, no problem given the lack of any real traffic. I knew Hal was mad at me. I should've said something sooner but…it was just too impossible to believe. We'd pushed those bastards off of our planet years ago. I didn't want to think that they'd come back. I didn't want to think about what it might mean for me. For my family. And I didn't want to think about what it might mean for Jimmy. I was a product of the invasion. I lost some of the best years of my life. And my son was just now approaching that age. I didn't want to let it happen to him, too.

As we approached the spot, located on an all-but-abandoned road, I suddenly stopped. Hal stopped behind me.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

I didn't answer. My head was pounding and I nearly collapsed off the motorcycle. The feeling of pain ripped through me as the shrill sound of the frequency overtook all my senses. I gripped my head tightly, falling to my knees. "Overlord…" I gritted out. "It's close…" Hal looked up and froze. I followed his gaze and saw something I really didn't want to see.

There, in front of a service shop, was an Overlord. And he was standing over my son, my niece, and my nephew.

The signal weakened. Jimmy spoke and I instantly realized what was going on. "Take one more step and I will not hesitate to kill them all." I had hoped that this wouldn't happen. I had hoped and prayed with all my soul. He had inherited a lot of traits from me, not just in looks but also in terms of harness abilities. But the one thing I'd always hoped was that those things wouldn't be able to invade his mind. And now they had.

"Let them go!" I managed. The Overlord turned to face me.

"Come with me, Ben Mason, and your son will be allowed to live."

"What do you want from us?" Hal shouted to the behemoth. He was panicking, I could tell. If he moved, the thing was likely to kill the kids and Matt too. He was fighting every urge to lunge at the damn thing.

"In due time, you shall find out," Jimmy replied for the monster. A second later, my son was on the ground, writhing in pain. I shot forward only to fall to my knees seconds later as the Overlord wormed its way into my mind. And then suddenly…it all stopped. Two shots rang out. I looked up as Hal rushed over to me and helped me up. I wasn't sure if I was seeing things but the Overlord was doubled over, lying in a pool of purple-tinted blood. And there, helping Jimmy up was…

"Dad?"

A/N: Tom's back! Whoopee! In any event, I hope to garner some more reviews this time around. Was the notification feature broken or something because I was severely disappointed by lack of response on this one and on 'Keep Your Eyes Open.' I encourage (implore) any and all of you to review this now. I'll consider doing backflips and doling out cookies if that's what it takes! Wow…I sound desperate. In any event, hope you liked this chapter. I might continue…if you guys want me to. REVIEW!

Musical playlist thingy:

-Black Sheep—Metric
-Grow Up –Metric
-Combat Baby—Metric

I like Metric :) Will you review now?