Chapter 9

"Alright, everyone get down!" Haggard said, running out of the Oval Office seconds before a massive blast ripped through the doors. The small group had taken as many explosives as they had and piled them beneath the windows, to at least try to break through, but nothing happened. The metal sheet hanging in front of the window was still as firm as before.

"Damnit!" Haggard said, kicking at one of the bodies. "Now what!"

"I say we go after the 'agents'," Mulder said. "If nothing else we can at least find out their purpose for being here."

"Agreed," Redford said. "And you'll be coming with us."

"No argument there," Agent Todd said. "I just hope we can all get out of here when this is done."

"So where'd those agents get to anyway?" Marlowe asked. "Shouldn't they be coming our way by now?"

"Maybe not," Mulder said. "I've heard reports from inside the White House that there's a secret situation room under the East Wing."

"There isn't," Todd said. "I've been to the East Wing plenty of times, there's no 'secret control room' anywhere under it."

"I bet you believed there was a lone gunman too," Mulder said. "Our government keeps secrets from us every day."

"He's always like this," Scully said. "The scary thing is he's almost right half the time."

"What do you mean right?" Agent Todd asked, confused.

"Don't ask, you'll only get more questions," Scully said, as the group walked towards the East Wing. "Sergeant, do you have any ideas on what to do?"

"Find those two and make'em talk," Redford said. "Simple as that."

"Elegantly simple, Sarge," Sweetwater said.

"And get them back to the press," Mulder added. "Those two know things that have probably been kept in the dark since before any of us was born, and they should stand trial for what they've done."

"You're talking about this like it's happened before," Todd said.

"You'd probably not believe what we've dealt with," Mulder said with a smile. "Voodoo, demons, cryptids," He turned to look Todd in the eye. "We've even had to face down bad writers." Agent Todd just stared at Mulder.

Meanwhile, Anne was trying to get into the White House systems to open the shutters, but every attempt was blocked not matter what. After her latest attempt, she let out a curse and nearly threw the pad out the window, barely managing to stop herself. Panting, she decided to contact Rally again. "Artemis, this is Hera, come in, over." Static filled the channel. "Artemis, this is Hera, please respond, over!" Another burst of static answered, and Anne finally threw the pad at the chopper door. Any other piece of tech would've been useless, but Anne had already made sure her things were good enough to be tossed, thrown and smashed, and still work on to the next job. Picking it back up, she told the pilot to try and land on the Ronald Reagan building. As the chopper set down, Anne threw the door open and leapt out to the roof, looking over at the White House, shuttered and secluded. Looking towards the command center, she saw the survivors being shown into a large tent, set up to provide some comfort for the civilians and more shaken agents, while the team that was sent in was brought to the HQ for debrief. Looking at her slate, she dialed in Agent Skinner. Almost immediately there was an answer.

"Ms. Warbucks," Skinner said. "What do you need?"

"That soldier who was thrown out the window," she said. "I need him to give us a name on who threw him out that window."

"Hold on," Skinner said, and a few seconds later, he answered. "Her name is Todd, ma'am, she threw the corporal out the window before the shutters closed. He said she wasn't holding any devices or switches, he doesn't believe she locked it down."

"I'll run a check," Anne said. "You focus on getting more information out of the survivors. I'll keep trying to contact the others inside." Hanging up, she tried to go back contacting Rally, when an urgent feed appeared. Bringing it up, she saw it was a broadcast live from the Capitol building on all channels and frequencies.

In the CNN building, Ted Turner himself was watching the proceedings as they carried on about the incident that had gone from coast to coast. Anchors hurriedly read reports from around the country, from riots in Philadelphia and Boston, to incidents involving violent religious cults nationwide. Then, one of the techs called him over. "Sir, we're getting a transmission from the Capitol building."

"Well get it on the air!" Turner said, the teleprompters hurriedly putting new information on for the anchors. In living rooms and on radios across the nation, the anchors suddenly shifted gears. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now getting a broadcast from the Capitol building in Washington, we're going live now." The scene suddenly changed to a man in a brown suit, sitting behind the seat of the President Pro Tempore.

"My fellow white Americans," Morgan said. "I come before you today a man on a righteous quest. We are currently undergoing a state of upheaval tonight, but not without reason."

"Who is this guy?" Turner said.

"Maybe the one who started all this?" one of the techs said.

"Then what's up with his teeth?" said another. "Those plastic fangs?"

"Are we recording?"

"Yes, Mr. Turner," said another tech.

Anne watched the broadcast from her own datapad, and frowned. If this went on any further it could cause the complete breakdown of any kind of order across the country. And white Americans? All she needed was a white supremacist calling for the extinction of anyone he got rejected from going to prom with.

"As you can tell, our so-called 'president' is dead," he said, as the camera panned down to show the body of the former Mr. Clinton. "But that should not stop us from carrying on. I have long believed-"

In Bucks county, Pennsylvania, a firefighter and his wife watched the broadcast incredulously, shaking their heads, their small children listening intently from their bedrooms, as the husband held his shotgun. "What an idiot," he whispered. "He doesn't even know what he's talking about!" the firefighter barked, as the man went off on a long train of conspiracies and evil doings.

"Change it to something else," his wife said. "Maybe there's another station trying to explain all this."

The husband nodded, changing to their local ABC channel, which was actually covering what was happening in New York.

Similar scenes were playing out across the country, normal Americans worried more about their friends and family in the affected areas than the ravings of a clear lunatic with fake fangs and a bad sense of humor. Instead, many of them tuned off their radios to other stations who weren't broadcasting the man, and if they couldn't find one, they called the stations, asking that they bring back information on New York or LA.

"Sir, we're getting tons of phone calls, they're all saying to go back to New York and LA," the station manager said. "Should we cut the feed?"

Anne was asking herself the very same question. However, before she could, she saw the feed was being cut from CNN's broadcast, going back to the newsroom.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the feed has just suddenly cut out on us," the anchor said. "We're currently trying to bring it back, until then we have a new update on the situation in New York."

Morgan heard the noise from the broadcast room and leapt up from his seat to see that while he was still broadcasting, the news had cut away from his speech to show the situations in the rest of the country! "More Jews and communists," he said. "Those bastards! That's it, all of you, get moving! Get the whole city to follow our image! Don't kill any whites, just the mud people!"

The ghouls groaned, and made their way to the doors, shoving them open and swarming the few remaining guards who weren't following what was happening on the small TV they had set up in their main office. Quickly they moved to the Lincoln park area. Only they couldn't tell many of their victims apart, they were just food to the ghouls. But Morgan didn't know that, he was too busy fuming over the fact that no one had listened to him.

Mendez was busy looking over the barricade the police were putting up on the highway. It wasn't much, really, just a bunch of cars and a fuel tanker, but the town had a road flares in it's stores, and those would hopefully provide what Mendez was looking for when whoever did this came calling. The police and the town's workers were busy everywhere in the surrounding area, putting up sandbags, building barricades, and doing their best to hide the children and women that volunteered to look after them. Any building with a basement was used as a shelter, with as much food and water as could be put in with the people down there. Local farmers had been called and ordered to do the same, taking whatever weapons they had with them. A few lone civilians were monitoring the news and radio, two checking the internet, but nothing was turning up of any use.

"You really think this will work?" Locke said, watching his men put the tanker into position. "I can't believe a monster that can take out two RAF bases would be so easily destroyed by a trap of this type."

"I know it seems a little too caveman," Mendez said. "But you probably know KISS, right?"

"Of course," Locke said. "But what if it doesn't kill this thing?"

"Then we wait," Mendez said, pulling out a cigarette. "They'll probably start looking around for who did this. That leads them to our first position," he said, referencing their first defensive position where the A1304 met the B1506. Lighting the cigarette, he took a deep breath and exhaled. "If we can take out enough of them, we stand a decent chance of holding out for the rest of the night." Mendez took another drag. "You sure that doc can help Figgins?"

"He may not have much experience with traumas like this, but he can certainly help your friend until we can get him to a more experienced counselor." Of course, what Locke didn't mention was the fact that the counselor was barely out of university. Still, some help for the poor man was better than none. As it was, Locke thought for a minute on the man, Figgins. The poor bastard barely seemed like a man, a quivering mess of camo and skin. Whatever he'd seen at the base, it was eating into him.

"Sir, we've just got a broadcast from London!" Locke's radio squawked. "I'm putting it on now!"

As Mendez called the men over, Locke heard the transmission come through, broken, but still understandable.

"This is Lord Admi…Penwood in…aval headquarters, broadcasting on all frequencies. If anyone at the Home Office can hear this…a shot to the head…heart with a silver…or…ly water…not like we have any of…in stock…can be eliminated…explosives. These are your methods. These…are your orders:"

"Resist." Then…

"Your worthless…ase put up…fight…all for nothing…" said a german accented voice.

"You're even more worthless than I am…you haven't figured…room…bombs…not magic bullets…they bounce…" Then, a single gunshot, and the connection was cut. By now the men were all huddled together, staring at the radio and each other. Mendez was at a loss for words, but Locke was thankfully a man who had lived through much darker times.

"Well, come on now! A member of the nobility just gave us all an order!" he barked. "You men start working on that barricade now! Push those cars into better position, a man could easily get through those holes!"

The men gave a cheer and rushed to work, Mendez going to join them. He may not have given much credence to the ideas of nobles and titles, but he'd be damned if he let such badass last words go to waste.

Rally stalked through the tunnels, taking out the few ghouls that remained. The whole thing was a dead zone, distant gunshots and groans coming from every direction. Bloody footsteps led in all directions, and spent casings lined the floor. There was no radio reception there, so no hope of calling anyone for help if things went south. Then again, just the two of them transformed into ghouls…

"Don't think that way, Rally," she told herself. "Just find who you were looking for!" She turned to her partner. "May, any ideas on what to do once we find this thing?"

"I thought Anne gave you what we needed to take this thing down!" May said, looking to her rear. "We all know you can kill anything with just one bullet!"

"But these things aren't hyped up on kerasene or angel dust," Rally said, as they moved through the tunnel. "We both know they're not susceptible to pain or even a single shot to the head. The only way we're going to take them out is being better, Minnie. And if whoever did this finds us…" She stopped talking, trying to think of what to say next. "Like I said, May, just get something ready."

"Uh Rally," May said. "I don't have any explosives, remember?"

Rally felt her jaw drop. "You idiot!" she thought. "Nothing can possibly make this wor-"

"Don't move!" Agent Mulder said, pointing his gun at the agents, Scully and the others bringing up the rear. "Weapons on the ground, hands on your head!"

"Don't do this, Agent Mulder," Rally said, as she and Minnie slowly put their weapons on the floor. "You don't have any idea what's happening here."

"But you can tell us, can't you?" Mulder growled. "You know exactly what's happening here!"

"We know you think we're in on a lot of things, Mulder," Rally said, as she and Minnie got on their knees and put their hands in the air. "But we're just here for this incident. We already told you we're part of the Secret Service."

"The hell you are!" said a female voice. "I've only been in a few years, but I know both of you would never pass the screening tests they put in place for agents!"

"Added to the fact that the one on the right's too short, and we've basically got everything we need to know," Redford said. "Now why don't you tell us who you really work for."

"We're US government agents," May said, as calmly as she could manage. "We're on the same mission as you, trying to find the person that did this."

"How do you know it's just one guy, huh?" Sweetwater said, as he and Haggard walked up casually to the scene. "For all we know, it's a whole group of people."

"Maybe you can find out by putting a virus into the DoD network," May said with a snicker.

"That was a simple accident!" Sweetwater shouted. "I was only making a simple security check!"

"I thought you said you were putting it out on purpose," Haggard said.

"Enough about who did what!" Redford barked. "And you two," he said, pointing to Rally and May. "I think we need a little more good information about what we're up against."

"Why, you've already shown you're all more than capable of taking down any threats we've encountered."

"That's not going to cut it later," Mulder said. "And I keep losing the evidence I need to reveal the truth! Now tell us so we actually have some evidence!"

"Do you really think this is the time for an investigation!" Rally shouted. "The nation is under attack right now, and you're busy asking about some stupid conspiracy crap!"

"I've searched all my life for the truth!" Mulder yelled. "I deserve to know after all me and Scully have been through!"

"Mulder, get a hold of yourself!" Scully yelled. "She's right, we can worry about the truth later!"

"Do you really believe that Scully!" Mulder said. "After all they've done! My sister! What they've done to you! To your daughter! Don't you think we deserve the truth!"

"You really think the truth is the best thing Agent Mulder!" Rally said. "What if the truth is the worst thing possible!"

"Shut up!" Mulder yelled, pressing his weapon against Rally's head.

"You really think you can threaten me, Mulder-"

"I swear if you say you've watched president's die I'll pull the trigger!" Mulder yelled. "Now tell me what I want to know!"

"Stand down Mulder," Redford said. "She might be telling the truth after all!"

"You don't know a thing about the truth!" Mulder yelled. "What do you know about having one of the most important things in your life covered up like it was just trash!"

"What if she's right!" Redford barked. "What if the truth really isn't what you want to know!"

Tears were starting to form on the edges of Mulder's eyes. His hand developed a slight tremble. "She's a part of this," he said. "All the people who've helped me have died, all my family! And for what!" he yelled. "What's so damn important about the truth that you have to hide it from the people if hits the most!"

"Because it could hit everyone else harder," Rally said calmly.

With a scream, Mulder pulled the gun up and fired down the corridor, screaming in rage. In frustration. In sorrow. "Why won't anyone tell me the truth!" he yelled, still pulling the trigger even after he emptied the clip.

"Okay, I don't know you guys," Todd said. "But I get the feeling I'd be safer if I'd gone with your squad."

"Now you know how I feel when I took that bet," Marlowe said. Then he looked to his rear. "Uh guys, I know we're all having a moment, but I think something's coming."

"Tell it to wait," Sweetwater said, sniffing. "I need a minute."

"Me too," Haggard said, pulling out a handkerchief. "I know how he feels."

"You do?" Agent Todd asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Haggard sniffed. "I still don't know what combination I used for my biggest boom, and CID never told me!"

"I hope you're finished," Rally said quietly, getting up. "Because your theatrics just gave our position away. So reload, now," she said, picking up her weapon. "Because the welcoming committee's come by to say hello."

Pulling themselves up, the group formed two lines, back to back. The ghouls came slowly, in ones and twos. Rally noted these ones were carrying weapons and wearing uniforms, and that meant the FREAK had destroyed the security system. "Fire for the head!" she barked, firing at the closest ghoul. The others joined in earnest, the pop of Scully and Todd's pistols mixing with the loud cracks from Redford and Marlowe's M16s, as Sweetwater kept a steady tempo with his SAW. The ghouls tried to fire back, but their aim was poor, their master unable to guide them in his rage. Brain and bone littered the corridor, the group making clean, disciplined shots to the head. Shot from Rally and Haggard peppered the area, as shells clanked to the floor. Mulder was finally back to normal, raising his weapon and firing again, though his aim was off from his outburst. Agent Todd was also a little unnerved, but she made her shots as best she could, and in a few minutes, the ghouls were downed, Rally, May and the soldiers making sure with a good double tap in every head.

"Mulder, are you okay?" Scully said, going to her partner's side. "I don't think I've ever seen you get so worked up."

"They have it Scully," Mulder said. "They know the things I want, and they won't tell me." He started tapping the butt of his gun against his leg. "Am I crazy for wanting to know?" he said, giving a small smile.

"No," Scully said, patting Mulder on his arm. "You're just like the rest of us."

"Mulder?" Looking up, the pair saw Rally standing in front of them. "I've read your files, I understand that you have questions. But I promise, once we're done here, I'll make sure to tell you everything I can." May just gave her partner a look of "You really mean that?"

"I'll hold you to it," Mulder said. "Or else I'll sic my best guys on you."

"And who would those be?" May said, almost bored.

"The Lone Gunmen," Mulder laughed, Scully shaking her head, as the group walked down the corridor.

Chapter nine, chapter nine! It's published just in time!

I'm going to Comic Con! But I'll be back before too long!

I can't rhyme very well you see!

He'll keep this up if he doesn't get reviews, folks, so please, think of the characters he's working with!

Wilson, you made a "Duck Amok" parody.

Yeah, but it was actually funny!

Folks, while I deal with Wilson here, why not give me a review? Now c'mere! *Various sounds of violence*