Frontline News.


As the M.P.s begin the search, Col. Sharp is watching their progress inside and out.

"Maderna here, all sniper teams ready and waiting."/"Lavigne reporting; he's not in the secondary hanger, moving to primary."/"This is Berkowitz, third floor armory's clear, sir."/"This Huynh on floor five; he not in rec-room*."/"This is Mutt in supply room five; no sign of him, heading to the Chaplain's place**." He hears from a few of the monitors.

"11 minutes already...where is he?" Col. Sharp asks under his breath while glancing at the door behind him where Flash, Scarlett, Gung-Ho, and Frostbite have set up a cross-fire position when Mainframe gets his attention.

"Machine shop!" He says, enlarging a screen showing Deep-Six standing over a body before taking the soldier's pistol and shooting the camera with it.

"Damn; attention, we have a man down in machine shop two and the suspect is now armed, proceed with caution." The Col. says over the intercom, but notices movement on another monitor. "...Mainframe; screen 4, pan to the right." He says, and sees Snake-Eyes making a bee-line for the location. "Col. Sharp to Snake-Eyes, stop right now; do you hear me, that's an order!"

But the demand goes unheeded as he races past two random M.P.s. Inside the room, Deep-Six hides behind a stamping press before a small explosion is heard from the door. Seeing no one, he looks elsewhere, and just barely manages to avoid losing part of his head to Snake-Eye's sword. "You wanna die next, huh; fine by me." The diver says.

The ninja lets body language be his reply. "How long have you been against us?" He asks by pointing the blade at him.

"You must be wondering how long this has been going on, but you're not gonna find out that easy, pal." Deep-Six replies before firing three shots at him.

"You killed McCabe that day, didn't you; why?" Snake-Eyes asked with an unseen scowl.

"Why get all riled up...cause of that euro-bitch?; She wouldn't stop looking over my shoulder, so good riddance." Deep-Six said, causing the only real Joe in the room to charge him with a flurry of slashes, damaging a few pieces of equipment. "Aw, that's gonna cost you; but you can pay for this first!" He said next as he picked up and swung what was a lever from a forklift, just barely missing his face but not his visor, which is forced off. Seeing what is underneath causes the diver to cringe. "...Holy god."

"God?" The diver hears from behind him. "He ain't where you're going, asshole."/"Wait, how did you-" The speaker and Deep-Six say to to each other as Col. Sharp and all the Joes rush in.

"Suspect disarmed; move in and surround him!" The Colonel says as Short-Fuze, Dusty, Gung-Ho, Grunt, and Cross-Country rush in, and while Scarlett hands Snake-Eyes a blindfold for temporary use. Once Deep-Six is led out, Col. Sharp heads over to one of the Green-shirts. "Good thing he was too overconfident to notice your return." He says to the man in question, who turns out to be Breaker.

"It sure is, sir; and good to be back."


"And there ya have it, right out of the Colonel's mouth." Barbecue explained.

"Ha, serves that sucka right; must have been outta sight."/"Neat'o."/"Let's make sure to give Breaker an apology for the hard time we gave him."/"And a few "welcome back" drinks at the clubhouse when-." Roadblock, Bazooka, Torpedo, and Lady-Jaye all say, having been called to along with Alpine, Airtight, Cover-Girl***, and Wild Bill*** by Duke to hear the full story before Green-shirt Perry interrupts.

"Duke, we jus...just found Mull...Mullaney." He tells them while catching his breath.

"Mullaney's alive, where's he now?!"

"Still topside being checked by Larivee and Flint." He tells them, and flattens himself against the wall as Roadblock and Lady-Jaye rush past him.

Once reaching the flightdeck, the pair see the old chemist being tended to. "Seems i have some more guests." Mullaney says aloud as he points them out to Flint.

"Professor, what happened?" Lady-Jaye asks him.

"Eh...Oh, it's you again; didn't recognize ya." He replies after squinting his eyes. "Bet i had ya goin' there after the Houdini act back there; to think i was under the impression you did that to me!"

"Forget that; How'd you get away?" She asks again as she crouches down.

"Well, after giving you up for dead, i went all around to each hiding place i could until i found some washed up metal from that fight i saw...not sure if it was yours or Cobra's; but anyway, i made it as sea-worthy as i could to get here." He explains.

"It was a LANTIRN from one of the Skystrikers we lost; our mechanics hauled it up before you got here." A random sailor mentioned.

"One of those, you mean?" Mullaney asks, pointing to the three remaining jets. "They anything like a Lancaster?"

"Lancaster...dude, today's birds are way faster." Roadblock tells him while snickering.

"That's a shame; used to be a navigator with the RCAF****, you know."

"And-" Flint started before noticing flashes out of the corner of his eye.

"Flint; come here and look at this..."


After hearing Shipwreck's story, Lady-Jaye ran off, and is seated against what's left of a church's wall with her face against her knees when she hears footsteps behind her.

"Kinda fitting that I'd find you here." Flint says cryptically as he plops down next to her, but she shows no reaction even as he puts an arm around her. "That wasn't because of us...Alison?"


Chapter twenty-nine. Read and review.

*No offense to any Vietnamese readers.

**Finally added one.

***Just added them.

****Made up.