In the reception office of a county morgue, a young female receptionist is getting ready for the graveyard shift by starting her laptop's Solitaire game.

The doors open and in walks a man that stands an intimidating 6'8. He walks up to the desk and leans over a bit. The receptionist is frozen in fear. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a black badge wallet. The woman sighs.

"Sorry, it's late. I get spooked easy." she says.

He flips it open and shows his badge. "My name is Special Agent Robert Oppenheimer with the FBI. I'm here about the body from the crash the day before yesterday."

"The big rig driver? Let me make sure the coroner's still here before I send you back."

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

"In 1939 the Los Angeles Times ran a story about a man named G. Warren Shufelt. He was a geophysical mining engineer who said he found a series of tunnels and shafts beneath LA." says Cpt. Art to Bruiser.

Bruiser follows close behind the in the smoke filled streets of Centralia. Staring a hard look of guilt into the back of his head.

"In these shafts he claims to have found slabs of gold buried into the walls."

"Gold?" Ask Bruiser.

"Your thinking was this really gold, or was this that Illudium shit."

"Was it?"

"That's what I'm on my way to find out. And I wanted to ask if you'll join me."

"This seems like the kind of business we nomads aren't allowed to assist The Resistance on."

"You saved my girlfriend's life..." Bruiser looks down and grits his teeth. "...and mine. If I can't trust a guy like you to keep his mouth shut, then who?" Cpt. Art puts his hand out. "You gonna back me up, again?"

Bruiser reaches out his and they shake on it.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Cigarette Smoking Man' looks out the window of a Private plane. Outside the fields of Pennsylvania sweep by under him. Someone taps his shoulder, and he looks back.

'We're five minutes from Centralia, Sir."

CSM looks relieved. "Good, I wasn't sure how much longer I could stay awake. Where are they others?"

"They're all in the back, asleep." CSM looks back. Scattered throughout the seats are three identical look men.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

"You probably couldn't see where we went, but this Hotel is just across the street from the theater." explains Joan to Scully & Monica. "It's filtered just like it. Now, the first four floors are occupied by all us when we're not busy chasing our asses. The rest of the floors are empty except the top floor, 24. That one is occupied the the Cpt. and his lady."

"It looks brand new." says Monica.

"Yeah, construction finished just a week before the fire broke out in the mines, and was scheduled to open the day after. Obviously it never happened."

"I thought none of you ever sleep." ask Scully.

"Doesn't mean we don't need our own space for ourselves, somewhere to just get the world out of our heads."

"Come on, I'll get you rooms on sixth floor, far enough so that your not disturbed by the noise."

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

"Whoa, you are one tall sucker. My name is Dr. Dodson." Dr. Dodson looks more like a former linebacker turned gym teacher than a doctor. He reaches out his chili stained hand for a shake. The tall man, 'Oppenheimer" obliges. "What can I help the feds with?"

"I'm here to follow up on the body pulled from the wreckage on Thursday."

"Good. This body ain't been nothing but trouble since it entered this town. First the EMT's swear up and down that that girl struck by that rig was dead when they found her, then some junkies storm the hospital to rob the hospital's goodie room, and kill a poor nurse with kids. Follow me to that evil thing."

Dr. Dodsen leads him to another room, where a blue body bag lays on an autopsy table. On the bag sits a brown folder.

"This is it." Dr. Dodsen explains, picking up the folder. "It's male, mid-to-late twenties. He died most likely from the impact to the ground after being tossed from the vehicle following the collision. Shattered his skull so bad, pieces of brain matter were found in the area close to the body. He also may have had a gun shot wound to the rib area. But you guys will have to confirm that in Quantico."

"Were there any personal items on him? Any papers, electronics maybe?" Oppenheimer asks.

"Well, the truck was stolen from a truck stop in New Orleans, so no hints as to who this guy was. A chain was recovered near the body, not sure if it belong to him, or the trucks owner though." The doctor looks closer to the sheet and sighs. "It just keep getting stranger."

"What's that?"

"This guy had radiation poisoning."

"Where's the chain that was recovered"

The doctor turns around and and walks over to a filing cabinet and opens up the top drawer. He pulls out an orange baggie and turns around. "Here we go, it's pretty nice too-" BANG! A bullet shatters the doctors scull into fragments. Oppenheimer's face gets coated with blood, and he displays an almost 'afterglow' satisfaction from it.

Outside in the parking lot of the Morgue the receptionist is running for her life. She doesn't need to know what/who the gunshot was for, just that it means get the hell out if you wanna live. Suddenly, Oppenheimer appears in front of her. With a gun barrel to her forehead she closes her eyes and prays.

=x=x=x=x=x=x=

Mulder makes his way through a marsh, on his face he has a breathing apparatus. He looks on at the first buildings that line the outer limits of Centralia. Thick black smoke blocks out a large portion of the horizon. He begins to make his way forward, when suddenly he's distracted. A black plane passes overhead. Looking up, Mulder spots gold colored stones falling from the plane's cargo bay. Hundreds of these 'gold' stones drop on the city. "What the hell is that?" Mulder asks himself out loud.

A/N: So sorry for anyone still following my story for the HUGE time delays between chapters, I'm working on fixing that, and hopefully the next few days will bring a number of new chapters, as I have time coming up for it. On another note, I've gotten PM's asking me if i can change my writing style to a more traditional style, and not use the quick scenes I often break up into pieces in a chapter and sometimes over a few chapters. But sorry to say I'm a very impatient person, I get bored with a scene easily and move on the next one. Or why I largely skipped over how exactly Skinner helped Mulder and the thing behind the body in New Orleans that set my story into motion. All this will be answered by the end. And I hope the twist and turns that I'm setting up will pay off. Sure, I lose out on adding 'depth' to my character's, but would also embarrass myself trying. I mean, I managed to establish an emerging friendship between Ash & Nina in just a few lines of 'You know what I hate", right :P. As always ALL reviews and critiques are appreciated. Thanks.

Coming up: Mulder & Scully reunite, a scene with Doggett, and Bruiser's guilt grows as just as much as Cpt. Art's trust in him.