"What do you think of him, Hawke?"
"I'm quite impressed, my Lord, but there are a few things that I find worrying. He's remarkably powerful, I'll give him that, but he has a lack of control and a violent temperament; I think the gene therapy has left a mark on his mind, as well as his genome. The decision to not use the Black Sarcophagus method of genetic alteration has put a very low limit on his lifespan, and he seems frail."
"…Hmm, possibly. Regardless, his lifespan is not of any concern to me; he will live long enough to serve his purpose. When fully trained and ready for deployment he will far outclass those worms, Adder and Flak. Speaking of those two, how goes the preparation for the Macro Land Campaign?"
"Flak has – with assistance – chosen sites for our initial invasion upon Orange Star soil. Adder is already in the troop selection process for his missions in Yellow Comet. Lash is days away from launching her attack upon Blue Moon, but the recent developments with our project here have required her experience in genetics."
"Very well. We will launch a coordinated offensive in five days. Do not fail me."
"Never, my Lord."
-R-M-R-M-R-M-R-M-
Sightless eyes watched the cold, cloudless night sky slide by the viewport set into the fuselage of the Red Mesan dropship, their owner running a hand through his long brown hair. Turning away from the view outside, Shade looked at the members of Viper Red Team, the suited and helmeted soldiers looking back at him calmly, strapped into their seats against the walls of the aircraft. The Red Mesan General wished he was in their position; he didn't like having to stand up while on a craft in flight, it made him nervous. Still, he had to brief them all, so standing was the best option. He walked over to the troop hatch at the rear of the dropship and looked over the team, mulling over what he had just seen.
"I would've preferred an overcast sky," he mused, almost to himself, his voice hard to hear over the low, muffled rumble of turbulence buffeting the dropship. "The moonlight will make us easier to spot and will complicate the mission. Still, conditions could be worse…" Shade's voice trailed off as one of the Vipers raised a gloved hand.
"Permission to speak freely, Sir." The soldier said, his voice muffled slightly from the full-face helmet.
Shade nodded. "Permission granted, Sykes," he replied. It was hard to tell the Vipers apart – their armour made it difficult to know who was who, unless you could tell by the ID number emblazoned on their right shoulder pad. Shade hadn't trained the Vipers personally, being more involved in the Cobra Supersoldier Project that intended to replace them in high-risk field ops, but he knew them well enough to distinguish them by ID number alone.
"With all due respect, what the hell are we doing? I understand these are extraordinary times for the Red Mesan Army, but getting woken up in the middle of the night and being told to get on a dropship with the General of the armed forces is a little unexpected. I know we're heading into a combat situation; we were told to bring our gear and weapons, but nobody told us the specifics."
Shade nodded in agreement. "I'll concede that it is unexpected; the lack of preparation time meant we couldn't schedule a briefing before departure, which I thought we would have been able to do. Now we're not far off from the LZ, I will brief you in full." He reached towards the roof and pulled down the bottom of a roll of what looked like black plastic; a press of a button embedded in the bottom right corner of the sheet fed power into it and revealed its true purpose as a compact flatscreen monitor. Shade produced a small handheld device from a pocket on his trenchcoat and thumbed a button on it, the screen's display flickering to show a birds-eye view of the Allied Nations' nearby island outpost.
"This is Kadarch Island," Shade said. "In preparation for their assault on the Watt Peninsula in two days time, they have built an outpost here and fortified it heavily with static gun emplacements and anti-air platforms. It serves as a major airbase for Allied operations here. A successful attack against the Peninsula, our main naval coordination centre, would cripple the operational capacity of our fleet and leave our shores wide open to a heavy and sustained invasion attempt. Commander Swift will be dealing with the defence of the Peninsula; she plans to meet the Allied Commander Eagle's air assault with her own formidable aerial forces. I'm sure you've all heard of her 23rd Air Squadron, the Stratohawks…" a few of the Vipers nodded. Swift's 23rd were a notorious squadron; the Stratohawks consisted of pilots hand-picked by Swift for displaying great skill or heightened three-dimensional awareness. The airforce CO trained them personally to be the best, and sometimes even joined them in the skies on sorties, inspiring them to incredible feats. Many a rebel base stubbornly soldiering on after their side's defeat in the Civil War a decade ago had been reduced to scorched, battered wastelands from their sudden and brutal onslaught.
"Anyway," Shade said, thumbing the remote's button again and bringing up the locations of the defensive emplacements, "This op is a rapid insertion with a view to sabotage. I hadn't really considered the added bonus of weakening their defences ahead of the battle, but one of my lieutenants pointed it out and I thought 'hell, why not?'" He did a quick count of heads. "There's nine members of Red Team here; six of you, henceforth known as Betas One to Six, will locate and plant explosives on as many static emplacements as they can get their hands on, while the other three – Alphas One to Three - will accompany myself on a trip to the outpost's data centre. They will protect me while I procure some rather sensitive data from the Allied network."
"I know what you're going to ask," Shade continued, raising a hand, "'Why are you risking yourself by coming along?'. There are many reasons. One, this data is top-secret, and only meant for someone of my rank."
'That isn't entirely true,' he thought, 'but white lies make the world go round.' He gave a wry smirk, before continuing.
"Two, due to some impressive network security it has to be accessed from an Allied terminal, which prevents OMI from tearing it out of the Allies' databases by force. Three, it's been far too long since I've been on the field and to be frank, I bloody enjoy being with my men during an operation."
'Sykes' nodded. "Don't have to justify it to us Sir. Just as long as you don't fry us by accident."
"I won't be frying anyone for a while," Shade said matter-of-factly. "My 'accident' has stripped me of a lot of my strength for the time being; I might be able to manage a few taser punches, but I'm mostly just a walking spark show."
"Whatever lights your lightbulb, Boss."
"Indeed…" Shade swayed slightly as the dropship started to descend. "Okay, we're starting the descent. As soon as that hatch opens I want you on the ground and clearing the dropzone; Betas will then search and destroy on the emplacements while the Alphas will go with me. You are to shoot at hostile targets…and anything stupid enough to get in our way. Do you understand?"
"SIR YES SIR!"
"Alright…" Shade let the flatscreen monitor roll up into the ceiling and turned to face the hatch at the rear of the troop compartment, a cold sneer on his face. "Payback time."
-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-
"I spy, with my metahuman eye…"
"Christ Watcher, give it a rest already! You've been playing I Spy with yourself for the last two hours!"
"…Something that looks suspiciously like a Red Mesan dropship on an intercept vector!" The Watcher said with a grin. He blinked, and turned to look at Rachel from across the command room. "…Did you say something?"
"I said…you…argh, j-just forget it," Rachel growled, running a hand down her face. She paused, and turned to the Watcher. "Did you just say-"
"'I spy with my metahuman eye'? why yes, I did!" he said proudly. "You're quite attentive." He smiled as the Orange Starian came stomping over.
"My fist will be quite attentive to your face if you don't stop being irritating," she grumbled, joining him at the radar console he was studying. "You saw their dropship?"
"That I did, tall, ginger and moody. Coming in low, obviously trying to avoid your radar." He pointed to a barely visible blip on the scope. "I'd say they'll be dropping off some troops and Mr Red Mesan General in a few minutes. So polite of them, coming round to say hi to their new neighbours. I wonder if they're bringing housewarming presents…"
Sonja rolled her eyes from where she stood, scanning the island and simultaneously co-ordinating the movements of the guards patrolling the base, from the safety of the control tower the three were in. "Care to cut the cryptic comments and tell us where he's dropping off? I want to set up a quick and bloodless ambush."
"I'm afraid your ambush may be more violent than you think," the Watcher said, the smile disappearing from his face. "Shade may well be out for a little payback after what happened to him at the start of the war…and considering how he's bringing along just one dropship, he may well be bringing the best of the best."
"So you're saying we should expect him to be out for blood," Sonja said sniffily. "I doubt he's that juvenile." The Watcher shrugged, turning back to look at the radar scope again.
"I know a lot about Red Mesa and its people," he replied. "Shade in particular. Mr Matthew Awner is a peculiar creature, motivated by few things. Few…but he pursues them with a fervour that is frightening to some. He's out for blood, yes, because you hold something that he desperately needs, and he's willing to walk into the middle of one of your bases to get it."
"Your crypticism is starting to get irritating," Sonja droned. "What is he after?"
The Watcher shrugged and crossed to the stairs leading down to the bottom floor of the control tower, leaning against the railings of the stairwell. "That's something I'm not privy to," he said apologetically. "Even this Watcher can't see what that guy's thinking...well, that's not entirely true, but whatever. My instincts tell me that this isn't related to the war, though. Considering he launched this operation as fast as is humanly possible and outside of normal channels, it's quite likely he's looking for something…personal."
"Launching an infiltration attempt for personal gain?" Rachel said incredulously. "Not saying I pity the guy, but he'd better have a damn good reason." She watched, hands on her hips, as the Watcher's eyes thinned. His eyes began to glow softly, garnering surprise from the two Allied commanders.
"…There's something missing," he said, as if in a trance. "Gaps…blank spots that drive him crazy. He wants…"
"…Watcher?"
"Watcher, what does he want?"
He opened his eyes fully and looked at them. "Memories. He wants memories. That's as much as I can pull from him."
"You mean you can read mi-"
"Anyway!" he said brightly, cutting across Sonja while stepping down the stairs. "He's gonna land in a few minutes, you need to decide how to respond, and I seriously need a smoke. Cheerio!" he descended down the stairs, leaving Rachel and Sonja to look at each other and wonder.
-R-M-R-M-R-M-R-M-
The dull roar of the midnight black dropship's engines rose to a scream as the turbojets on the side of the aircraft swivelled down to bring the craft down safely to the ground of Kadarch Island. The transport hovered no more than a foot above the floor, the troop hatch facing the base and the cockpit hanging over a sheer cliff, the dark waters crashing against the rock in the moonlight. Ten figures leapt down from the now-open hatch and immediately moved behind the somewhat safe cover of a ridge, bursting out of the grass. Nine of them were clad in black combat suits with full-face helmets; the tenth was in a black greatcoat and was scanning the terrain around them from behind ruby-red sunglasses.
"Switch to radio communication," Shade said, putting on and securing a headset. "Secure channel, sound off." Immediately, the Vipers followed his orders, quickly switching to radio comms.
"Alpha One, Sykes sounding off."
"Two, Arrow sounding off with so much enthusiasm."
"Three, Lars bored as hell and wantin' to tear shit up."
"Beta One, Dallas sounding off and reminding you morons to keep as much radio silence as possible."
Shade watched with what he hoped was detached boredom as the Vipers sounded off. He didn't want to appear too eager to get this operation underway, even though he was itching to get in there and start the first step on the long road to piecing his life back together. He didn't know where this newfound drive to sort himself out had come from: maybe his brush with near-death had finally shaken him out of his rut? He shook his head; now was not the time to be self-reflective. He looked back up just as the last Viper sounded off.
"Beta Six, Tyson sounding off, Sir."
"Okay," Shade breathed. "Betas, you know what you're doing; take down as many emplacements as you can. Once the Alphas and I are done, I'll contact you and tell you to haul ass to the pickup point. Move!"
"Sir!" they barked as one, stalking off into the darkness to begin the task of weakening the base's defences. Even with the unfortunate addition of moonlight to make their sneaking task harder, they managed to slot themselves in between two guard patrols without making so much as a rustle. Nodding to himself, Shade turned to the three remaining Vipers.
"Sykes, Arrow, Lars, with me. We won't be as stealthy as them; we can only get so far into the base before we have to go into fully lit areas. Standard pattern, cover all angles of the principal."
"The 'principal' in question being you, Sir," Sykes said. Even with the full-face helmet, Shade could tell he was smirking.
"Exactly. Time is oh-three-hundred hours, we have an hour maximum to get in, get the data, and get out. Let's go." The four Red Mesans rose together and started to move through the small expanse of grass, heading towards the chain link fence that signified the boundaries of the base, the three soldiers assuming a triangular formation around Shade, watching all angles for any sign of a hostile.
"Well hey there tall, dark and angsty! Looks like you're off hunting!"
C-CLICK!
C-CLICK!
Leaning against a nearby tree, The Watcher quickly found himself looking at the business end of two Red Mesan rifles, the other Viper acting as rearguard. Shade raised an eyebrow as he looked the young man over.
"Who the hell are you-"
"Tell your boys to lower their guns," the Watcher said, eyes twinkling behind his glasses. "I'm not an enemy here. Also, someone may get hurt, and that's bad."
Shade nodded. "Stand down." The Vipers did so, their weapons clicking slightly as the catches were thumbed back to 'safe', the barrels now pointing at the ground. "Start talking, and make it quick. I have no idea who you are and I have no reason to trust you."
"How can you say you have no idea who I am?" The Watcher mock-groaned. He grinned. "You've seen me around. Technician Lyons, bartender in the Commons…I've kept tabs on Red Mesa, much as I keep tabs on…well, everyone." He bowed. "You can call me The Watcher. From one ghost to another, it's nice to finally meet you." He grinned as Shade's eyes widened behind his sunglasses. "Ah, so you do recall me! Well, that's better than my last girlfriend, at least. Girl doesn't even remember my name anymore…"
"…But how did you get here-"
"I'd be out of a job if I told you all my tricks," The Watcher said, still sporting a grin. "Let's just say I can get from one place to another pretty damn quick. Now," he said, striding past the bemused Red Mesan General, "I'll get on to the meat and potatoes of why I'm here. You're looking for something in that thar Allied base, aren't you?"
"That I am. What of it?"
"Well," The Watcher said, spinning on his heel to look back at Shade. "They know you're coming. Sonja managed to crack your encryption routines – they are absolutely fantastic, if I do say so myself – and the guards are waiting for you. They don't know about your other group of soldiers doing the dirty with their emplacements, though." Shade made a face, looking down at the ground as the gears in his head whirred.
"Damn…" he hissed. He paced back and forth a bit, while the Vipers shifted nervously and The Watcher smiled, as calm as ever.
He paced.
He turned.
He paced.
"…Hmm…"
He stopped. He turned to The Watcher.
"You say they don't know about Beta Squad. The ones going to bomb the emplacements."
"That I did. They don't realise I know, but as you might have guessed, I'm a very good…watcher."
"Then it's simple." Shade thumbed a button on his headset. "Beta Squad, this is Shade. The Allied Nations know me and the Alphas are coming. I need you to make some noise; when you first blow up some emplacements, blow up something like five all at once. That should be enough to confuse the guards and give us time to slice a path into their data centre building. Do you copy?"
The Watcher turned to look at Sykes, eyebrow raised. "He's quite the tactician."
"Roger that. Shade out." He gave himself the liberty of a feral grin as he looked at The Watcher. "Problem solved. Thanks for the heads up." The Watcher grinned and bowed in return.
"Just keeping the playing field level, that's all. Good luck and good hunting."
FLASH!
Shade and the Vipers shielded their eyes as The Watcher disappeared suddenly and inexplicably in a flash of blue light. Shade sighed and shook his head.
"Well, that was lucky," Arrow droned. Shade shook his head, staring at the spot where The Watcher vanished.
"Luck has nothing to do with it. Whoever he is, he knows a lot about both us and the Allies. He's the one holding all the cards, and I have a strange feeling we're all just dancing to his tune…for better or for worse."
-R-M-R-M-R-M-R-M-
Red Mesan Army Central HQ, Iseba.
The Commons.
Night.
"Grrgh… I seriously need some nic-o-tine," grumbled a half-asleep and bedraggled Cougar, pushing through the double doors into the Commons, the large circular leisure and social room for the Army's command staff. He hadn't been able to sleep since his call to Shade, apart from occasionally dropping off for a half hour or so; he was still wearing his usual shirt, jacket and worn jeans combo, although slightly more dishevelled than usual due to the late hour. The muscular man's glinting grey eyes peered through the barely-lit gloom of the now-dormant room, picking out the smooth shapes of plush wooden chairs and low mahogany tables. He weaved through the jungle of furniture, crossing the room to the balcony.
THUD!
"Fuggin'…ow!" Cougar yelped, a bit too girlishly for a man of his masculine stature. "God damned chairs...stubbed toe today, broken legs tomorrow…" he grumbled, opened the doors to the balcony, and walked out into the cool night air, producing a packet of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. Leaning against the balcony railings, he stared out at the night sky, and the twinkling expanse of Iseba below it.
"Can't sleep either?" a voice said to his right.
"DAH!" he yelped again, jumping at least a foot off the floor – and landing on the foot with the previously stubbed toe. "OW! Jesus…why'd ya have to go n' do that, Tatania?"
Swift shrugged, a soft smile playing about her pretty features as she looked at him. "Because it's fun to emasculate you in spite of all your testosterone-fuelled manliness?"
"…Good answer." Cougar produced a lighter from his jacket, lit a cigarette, and took a long drag before speaking again. "Just wonderin' how Shade's little jaunt is goin', that's all. He made his last transmission a few minutes before oh-three-hundred hours, just as they were touching down; he's enforced radio silence since then."
"He…he should be fine," Swift murmured, looking back out at the dull horizon. "Though this sudden burst of…of activity is not really him." She bit her lip. "It's as if that accident back at the start of the war has changed him."
"It probably has, y'know." Swift's eyes flitted back to Cougar as he sighed and flicked ash into the night. "After our first chat, tha one where he said he wanted ta walk into tha goddamn belly of the beast on nothin' but a wing an' a prayer, I asked him to at least justify it."
"But he said he wanted to get some data out of the Allied network, isn't that justification enough? At least…for him?"
Cougar looked at her. "Do ya honestly believe that little spiel?" he said bluntly. Swift looked down at her feet.
"H-He's entitled to his secrets, Miavia-"
A growl. "Secrets, secrets…Tatania, everythin' about that kid is a damn secret!" Cougar's voice rose to a shout. "Even after I pressed him for info, he told me nothin'!" he threw his arms up in an expression of exasperation. "He's obsessed with what he's doin', girl! No consideration fo' what might happen to him…n' that we might worry for his safety." He fumed. "God dammit, he's always had secrets! Where's th' trust between fellow COs?" he looked Swift square in the eyes forlornly. "Tatania, I thought we were more n' just comrades…I thought we were family…"
Swift sighed softly, her eyes downcast. "We could never be a true family again, Miavia. Not after what we did to - to Iscariot. Not after what he did – wh-what he did to us…"
Cougar flinched, before matching Swift's sigh with his own. "Three years on, n' I still miss John..." he looked up at the starry night sky, his eyes hollow. "No deeper wound than betrayal, is there…?"
The night remained quiet, still and cold.
-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-
"Woah, what the – what did he just do?"
"Oh yeah!" The Watcher said, slapping a hand to his forehead, "I forgot to tell you about that. Yeah, he's a walking lightning bolt as far as I know. Looks like he's a little low on power though, otherwise your guards would be dead from electrocution, not bullet wounds."
"Do you honestly think that's any better?" Sonja said coldly, standing with Rachel and their black-haired, blue-clothed acquaintance as they studied the base's CCTV feeds. They had just borne witness to Shade and three suited soldiers quickly and clinically gunning down a couple of patrolling guards on the outskirts of the base. The two unlucky victims were stood in the harsh orange glow of one of the base spotlights when they were felled by a shadow in the darkness, blood leaking from expertly placed bullet wounds on their chest. The three soldiers had moved into the view of the camera and into the light right in front of the Allied COs eyes, before they got their first glimpse of Shade in the flesh, stalking coldly out of the shadows in the direction the guards had been shot from. A few curt words they couldn't hear over the video-only feed, and a pair of ruby-lensed sunglasses looked up at them, regarding the camera for a second, before a hand was flung out and a bolt of brilliant whitish-blue electricity had turned the CCTV feed to static.
"Well, it's easier to treat bullet wounds than electrical burns on ninety percent of your body," The Watcher said with a shrug of his blue-jacketed shoulders.
Rachel looked pensively at the wall of monitors, scanning for a sign of the infiltrators…something, anything, even just a flash of electricity. "This is going to complicate things," she said, a worried twist to her voice. "How do we track them if he keeps destroying the surveillance cameras?"
"Track them by the ones that get destroyed?"
"Cute Watcher, but that won't help. We need to know what they're carrying…weapons, tools, anything. That'll help us figure out what he wants to do and where he's going to do it."
"Well go up and ask them, Empress-in-waiting. I'm sure they'd be happy to let you know…just before they shoot you. Meanwhile, let's go over what we already have." The Watcher entered a few keystrokes, bringing up the feed from the first camera on the main monitor inset into the security bank. He slowed the video down just as Shade entered the frame, zooming in and slow it down to a few frames a second before…
"Gotcha," The Watcher said with a smile. "Should've kept your trenchcoat closed, ya naughty flasher. The girls can see your…'equipment'." He pointed a finger at the picture on the screen; a device hitched to Shade's belt, peeking out of the folds of his coat. "Either of you two know what that is?"
"That looks like an 'Owl Talon' Type 53 Electronic Intrusion Tool…" Sonja murmured. She gasped, eyes wide. "That's…that's IDS tech!"
"IDS?" Rachel said confusedly.
"Intelligent Defence Systems," The Watcher stated. "It's a part – or should I say, was a part – of that grand bastion of corporate bastardry, the military-industrial complex."
"They went under about three years ago…" Sonja murmured, stroking her chin. "Just after the war in Macro Land. It came out that the CEO was guilty of some rather nasty ethical and human rights abuses, and he'd thrown most of the company's assets into a joint project with Black Hole, something called 'Slipspider'."
The Watcher blinked at that, before suppressing a knowing smirk as Sonja continued.
"Said 'Slipspider' project never came to fruition, bringing about the economic and public collapse of the company. But for this…Shade to have some of their equipment…is it merely happenstance, or were they in cooperation? Red Mesan technology does seem to be a step or two beyond most of the Allies…"
Rachel's eyes narrowed. "It would give us a legitimate reason to continue hostilities," she murmured. "If IDS were in cahoots with both Red Mesa and Black Hole, it would explain the similarity of Red Mesan cloaking tech to the Black Hole prototypes we found. And the friend of a friend of our enemy…is our enemy."
The Watcher raised an eyebrow. "That's a dangerous assumption to make, milady. How can you be sure that both Black Hole and Red Mesa are connected through IDS?"
"I can't," Rachel said, "But I can sure as hell try and find out. And we still can't rule out the possibility that Red Mesa is more intimately connected to Black Hole than we thought…"
"Hold that thought," The Watcher said, looking up at a monitor at the top of the bank. "We've got three hyper masculine guys in armour and one thin, slightly effeminate long-haired electric metrosexual!"
"…What?"
"We've got Shade and the soldiers," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Damn people, laugh! It won't break your faces!"
"I'll laugh when this night is over," grumbled Rachel as she looked at the screen. Her eyes narrowed. "They're heading towards the data centre-" she was cut off as a second bolt of electricity fried the camera. "Oh, for Sturm's sake!"
"Don't use the Snifit Lord's name in vain, Rachel."
"Oh, shut up, Watcher-" Rachel was cut off again as-
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!
-an earth-shaking explosion roared its burning way into the night sky, the shockwave rattling the windows of the control tower. Sonja and Rachel turned and gasped at a plume of fire licking up from the western end of the island. The Watcher was already at a computer, searching for info on what had happened.
"Hey guys, five of your static emplacements just went off the network," The Watcher said, mock-scratching his chin. "I wonder what that meeeeeaaaans?"
"Tricky little…" Sonja fumed, glaring at the afterglow of the explosions, before taking a breath and regaining her icy composure. "He's outmanoeuvred us, probably sent out an extra team to soften us up for tomorrow's battle."
"Actually it's not 'tomorrow', it's 'today' – y'know, because it went past midnight like over three hours ago-"
"Shut up, Watcher!" both girls cried in unison.
"Yeesh, the things I get for helping…" he rolled his eyes as Sonja spoke into a radio handset.
"All troops, this is Commander Sonja. Squad One, I want you to meet us at the base of the control tower ASAP. All other squads, fan out and track down our saboteurs!" she moved towards the stairwell with Rachel in tow, glancing at The Watcher who was busy scanning the security monitors again. "Where is he?"
"Considering the camera covering the entrance of the data centre just got fried, I'd say he's in your computers, hacking your networks."
"Right…" Sonja said, producing and cocking a handgun from her uniform. "Let's go give him a rude interruption-"
"Woah woah woah woah woah woah wait," The Watcher said, waving his arms. "Guns? As in…shooty shooty bang bang death kill guns?"
"Yes. What's the matter?"
"I-I think I'll stay here," The Watcher said with a nervous grin. "I'm n-not exactly comfortable in firefights or standoffs or whatever."
"Whatever. Just keep in contact over the radio and keep us updated on what's happening, will you?"
"Sure thing," The Watcher said, looking at the Allied COs as they descended the stairwell to go meet their 'guest'. "I'll be…watching…" he added under his breath.
-R-M-R-M-R-M-R-M-
Tense breathing filled the data centre as the Vipers positioned themselves to cover Shade, who was stood in front of a terminal hooking up his intrusion device to the network. He glanced at his soldiers, noting their stony silence compared to his own panting, his body tired out from shorting out the security cameras and blitzing the high-tech security doors open with his powers.
"Sykes, Arrow, Lars. Stay sharp," he breathed, watching as the terminal's screen flickered once, twice, and turned into a green DOS prompt. "I have a feeling they know we're here by now."
RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT! Shade winced and pulled his head down below the screen as gunfire issued forth from a door that had just been opened on the opposite side of the room. Rows of terminals sparked and died under the hail of heated lead.
"Yep! They know we're here!" Arrow yelped, the three Vipers rolling into position behind terminals and away from their commander to return fire. Sykes poked his head out for a split second to see what they were up against; twenty soldiers, as far as he could tell. He gasped. "They REALLY know we're here!"
"Keep them busy," Shade droned as he pounded away on the keyboard, whipping up a script to tear any data related to him out of the network and copy it to the intrusion tool's flash drive. "This won't take long. One of you keep an eye on our rear."
"Gladly," Lars mused, pivoting his large frame to angle his carbine at the door. "Seems like we're safe on that side for now."
"Mmm," Shade hummed, not really paying attention as bullets whizzed past him and blasted craters into the plaster on the walls. "Anything about Matthew Awner…" he mumbled to himself. "All I can really remember…give me what you've got!" he hissed, hitting the enter key. Pictures, text, and folders flashed past in the browser on the screen, bits and pieces collecting in another window he had open. While the scan was running, he moused over to a file and clicked-
His eyes widened behind his shades. It was a citizen database record from Orange Star. His mouth hung open and his lips twitched as he read.
"M-Matthew Alexander Awner," he whispered. "M-My middle name i-is-"
"Alex?" a girl no older then ten said. A childish grin, blonde hair and sapphire eyes. "Cool! Better than mine, mine's Anne. Blech! Is there anything more…more old-sounding?!"
"Sounds snooty to me, Sarah," a boy of eleven said. Brown hair, grey eyes. "You sure you're not some sorta royalty, Matt?"
"Better than yours, Mr. Ryan Thompson Buxton," 'Sarah' said, tongue poking out. "Alexander is cool, makes him sound like some big conqueror from ancient history."
A small, timid whimper escaped his throat, a haunting facsimile of the childhood that he barely remembered, and was only now beginning to piece back together.
"S…S-Sarah?" he whispered, staring off into nothingness. "…Ryan?"
P-PING! The sound of ricocheting bullet fire snapped him out of his reverie. He stared at the screen, barely noticing his (even more) pale reflection. He composed himself, disconnecting the intrusion device and logging out of the network.
"You finished yet Boss?!" came Arrow's voice. "We're kinda sorta under fire here." A metre away from Shade, Lars nodded as he watched the door. "Yeah, we're kinda sorta under fire," he rumbled.
Shade nodded. "I'm done; Lars, kick that door open and let's get the hell out of here." He switched channels to Alpha Team. "Alphas, move towards the extraction point. The dropship should be coming in soon." He waited for a reply before switching back to Beta Team. "Move!"
"Roger," Lars said, slamming the door open with the butt on his rifle, bulletfire splashing above his head. "No door can stop us now!"
"Can it," Sykes grumbled, following Arrow and Shade out of the door. Lars rolled his eyes beneath his helmet and rolled out of the door after his team just as the Allied soldier's bullets pinged their way after him. He picked himself up, shutting the door behind him and grumbling as he stood up to see-
"God dammit." Another twenty soldiers, encircling them in a semicircle against the wall of the data centre. And at the very middle of the line, handguns raised and pointed towards the four, were Rachel and Sonja. The Vipers immediately arranged themselves in front of and to the side of Shade, giving him as much cover as they could.
"Give it up Shade," Rachel said, keeping her aim steady and true. "You may have got what you came for, but you're not leaving here. Not without a fight – a fight you will lose."
C-CLACK! The Vipers raised their rifles – but a thin-fingered, firm hand pressed down on the end of the rifle in front of Shade. Sykes turned to his side to see Shade.
"Sir!" he hissed, as Shade brushed past him. "What are you doing-" he was silenced with a look from his commander, who then turned to stare down Rachel and Sonja.
"I was wondering when we'd have the pleasure of meeting," Shade said, inclining his head. His voice suddenly took on a cold, chilling turn. "I wanted to look into the eyes of the person responsible for my near-death."
Rachel suppressed a shudder. "That was a mistake-"
"A mistake," Shade said calmly. "I can accept that. But only because you've made another one." Rachel's brow twisted in confusion.
"What do you mean-"
A sneer. "You've positioned your soldiers in just the right position." Shade raised his right hand, tensed, and-
"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHH!!" Electricity covered his body, sparking and crackling and jumping from limb to limb to hand to face to finger and up and up-
BZZZZTTT-POW-P-POW-POW-P-P-POW!!
The floodlights illuminating the scene sparked and exploded in a shower of hot glass and sparks, showering the unsuspecting Allies, catching them off-guard as Shade glanced at his Vipers and shouted.
"MOVE!" The Vipers jerked into motion, following Shade as he sprinted right towards Rachel and Sonja, brushing past them and into the now-darkened alleyways of the base. The two Allied COs coughed and winced, whirling around to see where their quarry had gone – and spotting a pair of ruby-red lenses glinting at them. A voice issued forth from the darkness.
"Always too slow, aren't you? Heh…misellius." They raised their handguns – but he was gone, back into the darkness like a ghost. Rachel growled and holstered her pistol, Sonja doing the same.
"We had him!" she seethed, clenching her fists and turning back to her men.
"At least we know what he's capable of…" Sonja mused, gazing off in thought. "Such a display of power…it reminds me of Hawke's betrayal of Sturm. Black Hole COs always seem to be able to use their powers on a local-scale basis, not just on a battlefield-wide one…"
"Next time all the tricks in the world won't save him."
"We want him alive, Rachel. He can give us answers."
"You're right…" Rachel shook her head and looked around. "Alright men, back to your posts and patrol routes," Rachel said, eliciting salutes and nods from the soldiers before they moved off. She turned to Sonja, and opened her mouth to speak before footsteps cut her off. She turned her head to see-
"He got away, huh?" The Watcher said grimly as he approached the two COs.
"Bastard blew the lights," Rachel droned. Then she blinked, a thought coming to her. "Sonja, did you hear what he said to us as they left? It sounded foreign."
"'Misellius', Sonja replied, hands on her hips as she gazed at the coming dawn. "It was Black Latin. He was calling us 'pathetic'…"
Rachel frowned. "Black Latin…isn't that-"
"The ceremonial language of Black Hole?" The Watcher interrupted. "Indeed it is. Obviously Mr. Pale 'n' Sparky was, at some point, a Black Holer…and considering Black Latin is only used high up in the government…"
"He must have been pretty important," Rachel completed. "First IDS gives us a link between Black Hole and Red Mesa, and now we find that Shade was at some point a big player in Black Hole…" she shook her head, her frown deepening. "Problem is, none of it's solid enough to be a casus belli for us." She gestured at Sonja. "Sonja?"
"Yes?"
"Go check up on what he copied from our network," Rcahel ordered. "Perhaps we can find out more about him…we need leads to go on right now."
"Understood." Sonja made to move off back into the data centre, but stopped as Rachel's hand landed on her shoulder.
"Don't worry about getting everything right now," Rachel said. "Eagle may well be fighting the battle tomorrow, but we need sleep as well." A smile. "Especially us two."
Sonja nodded, a tired smile on her face as well. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow morning-"
"Don't you mean 'later today'? It's 'tomorrow' already-"
"SHUT UP, WATCHER!"
"Hah, getting double-teamed by a pair of women…this is the stuff wet dreams are made of." The Watcher turned away from the two and waved a hand. "When the crap next hits the fan, I'll swing by and offer a hand." The black-haired youth walked away from the pair and into the shadows of the base.
"Aren't you going to wish us luck?" Rachel said with a smirk. The Watcher turned back to look at her, two softly glowing blue eyes peering at her behind a pair of glasses.
"When I'm involved…" he smilingly said, "There's no such thing as 'luck'." He bowed, and disappeared into the darkness, his voice issuing forth. "Be seeing you."