(A/N: See chapter 29 as promised to you all.)
Chapter 29: Back to haunt you
The time difference on earth was really hitting me hard, Eden prime was about five hours behind earth and I found that out the hard way. "Uuuuugh, morning already? Why didn't we just get a hotel in the nocturnal district?" I groaned aloud, I was still way too tired from all the traveling from Rannoch to earth, plus the ten hour flight from New York city to Zootopia, it also didn't help that most of the sleep I'd lost was over the look on Mrs. Flattail's face once I told her the bad news about Chuck. But I swore the night before that I would never let anything like that happen again because of the black hearts, I swore on my life, Chuck's life, on the lives of all the people who sacrificed themselves for our colony that I would not stop I would not rest until every last black heart in the galaxy was dead or behind bars for the rest of their lives.
"Well sorry Sargent but it was on short notice, and to be honest that part of town is…how do I put this? Full of weirdoes." Dad replied as he just sat on the edge of the bed. I was about to ask what he'd meant by that when I was interrupted by a very loud snore from a certain four-year-old, at least one of us got some sleep last night.
"Should we…you know…wake him?" I asked contemplating if we should make him get up with us.
Dad just chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, let him sleep a little longer. He's too cute when he's like this." Dad suggested with a wave of his paw.
Then for some reason Jacob started talking in his sleep. "Stop that badger…he's…got my…firehose." I could barely contain my laughter with what he was saying. It was just so random and ridiculous. "Mommy…that's…a pink pickle."
I left the room to go and get the three of us some breakfast from the hotel buffet, not an easy task when you only have two paws, that's when I remembered one little ace up my sleeve. "Hey Angel, are you somewhere close by?" I asked knowing he was, and as expected my answer was given when he just popped out of nowhere. However Angel was getting a lot of surprised looks from the hotel staff and other guests, I mean I can't say I blame them for getting freaked out after seeing a half ton war mec appear out of nowhere.
"Do you require assistance Sargent Blaze?" He asked as he looked down at me.
"Yes, just a minor little task." I replied as I handed him one of the plates of food. "I just need you to hold onto this plate until I say otherwise if you don't mind."
Angel took the plate without complaint, not that he would feel agitated, he was a machine after all. "We will transport your sustenance for as long as you need us too." He stated, you know…like a robot would, without emotion.
"Thank you, I really appreciate it." I said thanking him, then he nodded his head and simply said.
"Acknowledged." I continued to plate up food for my brother and my dad when I heard and saw the flash of a camera from behind us, I turned around and there I saw a wombat with his omni-tool set on camera mode taking pictures of my bodyguard.
"Excuse me but can I help you?" I asked sounding a bit annoyed.
He just snapped another picture at him before saying. "Crikey mate, I don't know how you could afford a geth like this un' but I gotta say mate she's a real beauty." His Australian accent was very authentic, he had to be from out of town too because only a tourist would act as surprised as this. He snapped another picture right in Angel's face which I think might've caused a little bit of a glitch as he started shaking a bit.
"Hey don't do that you might break him." I scolded feeling very annoyed.
But the guy just said in retort. "Oh com'on now mate it's just a machine I'm sure he OI!" I grabbed his wrist and deleted his pictures on his omni-tool, I know that was kind of a dick move but he did something to my bodyguard and I wasn't too fond of him doing it. "Oi what's your bleeden problem mate? I was gonna show my mates back home all of those pictures now I gotta start over." He said complaining.
"Well you should've thought of that before you fucked with my bodyguard, come on Angel let's go." I said as I finished filling the two plates of food for my dad and my brother then we headed back to the elevator.
Before we even got half way that same guy shouted out to me. "Bloody wanker!" Then he threw a soda can at my head but before it made contact Angel quickly caught the can with lightning fast speed and reflexes.
Then he looked back at the wombat and said with a warning. "Do not do that again sir…" Then Angel extended one of his swords piercing the soda can and causing the drink to spray everywhere, then continued his sentence. "Or we will be far less tolerant of your behavior next time." The wombat then raised his paws as if to say he's had enough and doesn't want any trouble, smart move if you ask me.
But I was more interested in what Angel just did. "Did you just make a threat?" I asked sort of confused and at the same time impressed.
Angel then retracted his sword and said. "Organics use intimidation as a scare tactic to deter farther hostilities from other organics in the future, we have adopted this tactic into our software as an extra means to protect you from any and all potential threats." Wow…a robot that can scare people, with a threat of violence.
"So you know how to intimidate people?" I asked bluntly.
He just looked at me and said very nonchalantly. "Yes." Kind of a dumb question to ask him on my part. To be honest a lot of people were still scared of the geth, and for good reason too, what with their history and all. But I knew I didn't have anything to fear from him. We got in the elevator to get back to our room, I was about to hit the button when I remembered that I had my paws full. "Hey Angel, could you hit the button for me please? Were on the tenth floor." Without saying a word Angel hit the button and the doors closed with a bell ringing to signify that the door was closed. We climbed to our desired floor, but for some reason we didn't stop at it, we just kept on climbing and climbing. "Hey what the hell's the matter with this thing?" I hit the stop button but it didn't work, we just kept on climbing and climbing all the way to the top, even if someone would have called the elevator from a higher floor than ours we still would've been allowed to get off first, something wasn't right. I tried to call my dad to see if he could get the hotel staff to help us fix the elevator but I couldn't even do that, for some other reason my omni-tool signal was being jammed. "Okay what the hell is going on?" I asked rhetorically and confused.
"Allow me to explain Mr. Blaze…" That voice…could that be…?
"Sean? What are…oh no." It didn't take a genius to figure out the he was a part of the black hearts too. And clearly he was here for what I did to Crystal.
"You see Mr. Blaze you made a grave error in judgment when you injured Crystal, so she has asked me to personally avenge her for the scars you gave her the day you quelled our attack on Eden prime. So now I must finish what my beloved Crystal has started…" The elevator stopped with a jerk on the top floor. "Good bye, hell spawn." Then with a loud bang from all around us the elevator cab began to plummet to the bottom of the shaft at high speed, without thinking Angel quickly deployed his swords and stuck them both into opposing sides of the elevator to try and use them as makeshift brakes, sparks began to poor in through the holes in the walls, his tactic only managed to delay the inevitable, I watched in horror as the screen to count the floors just kept counting down at a ridiculous speed.
"Sargent Blaze, we cannot stop the elevator, we must evacuate through the emergency hatch." I looked up at the ceiling of the elevator and saw the emergency hatch, but I knew already that it was locked from the outside, it wasn't meant for people to get out, rather for rescue teams to get in, but luckily I had a spare key.
"Here goes everything." I said as I charged up my biotics and leapt up to punch the hatch off, the hatch flung open then Angel grabbed me.
"Hold on to our chassis Sargent Blaze." He wasn't getting any complaints from me that's for sure, Angel quickly hopped out of the elevator and latched onto the side of the elevator shaft, we just watched as the elevator cab dropped to the bottom of the shaft and crashed to the ground floor, I could hear the screams of people below us fill the shaft, I only hoped no one got hurt.
"We have to get back down there ASAP." I ordered to my bodyguard. Angel quickly let go of the shaft to fulfill my request. "No wait I didn't mean like THIIIIIIIIIIS!" We landed on top of the wrecked elevator, I glared at Angel and said. "I didn't mean like THAT you tin plated Jackass! And YES…I'm aware that you're not actually made of tin!"
He put me down and said. "You did specifically say that we needed to get back to the lobby as quickly as possible. We calculated that a straight drop to the ground was the fastest and most logical rout to take."
I narrowed my eyes at him and said. "Just open the door to the elevator shaft thank you." Angel stuck his hands into the crack of the door way and pushed both of them open. We walked out of the shaft to find that the whole lobby was in a panic. "Yikes, this place looks like it's seen better days." I said in a poor attempt to make a joke.
That's when Angel replied. "Astute observation Sargent Blaze." If this damn geth had a personality than I'm absolutely sure that he would've just sounded sarcastic right about now.
Before I could say anything else I was interrupted by that same annoying ass V.I. that literally just tried to kill me. "Astonishing, you survived the elevator. No matter, I anticipated this and I have calculated dozens of different scenarios to kill you with, even if you have a mark 7 geth defender protecting you but there is no way you will emerge from this unscaved let alone alive." Sean said over the intercom, just then the lights went out and the whole room went black and the lobby erupted with gunfire from other mammals who just had to be black hearts disguised as hotel guests or hotel staff, they were all shooting at us too, but before they could even try to hurt me I dropped a barrier large enough to shield us both from the hail of bullets.
"Seriously can't I just go one month, just one freaking month without someone trying to kill me so I can enjoy my time with my family and my girlfriend while I'm on vacation? I mean is that too much to ask for? Is it?"
While I was complaining Angel knelt down and said. "Activating defense protocol Beta prime Zulu 9-6-4, deploying sur-kit." Steam popped out of his back as it opened up and revealed that he was carrying a few weapons, a combat knife, a pistol, an assault rifle and a belt full of stun grenades.
"Well what do you know, you are one handy little toy aren't you." I didn't hesitate and grabbed every single weapon out of his back and outfitted myself with them. "Okay, here's the plan Angel, your main priority is to make sure that they don't hit me while I'm trying to evacuate the civilians to a safe distance, so do me a favor and keep them occupied any way you can." I elaborated my plan to him.
He nodded his head then replied. "Acknowledged Sargent Blaze, we will run interference as requested." As soon as I dropped the barrier I took aim with the assault rifle and started to pick my targets. I saw Angel doing the same as he charged in blindly and swiping his swords through anyone who was shooting at me at a speed that even a cheetah would have trouble matching. I took cover behind a couch as three black hearts were shooting at me, so I just held my gun over my head, pointed at them and fired blindly.
"Forward; the demon spawn is cornered, we can finish him once and for all!" A horse blasted out to his brethren, I had a feeling that they were going to charge me at some point so I pulled off one of the grenades and threw it out to them.
"Special delivery fuck wads!" I shouted as the grenade hit the floor, before any of them could react it went off and stunned at least ten of them. I didn't waste time as I got up and threw a biotic shockwave at them and sending them in all directions. I ran into the next room to find the real civilians hiding behind the front desk and in a back room.
"Is it safe to come out?" A tapir asked as he held on to his wife, it was clear that they were scared to death at the sudden attack.
I knelt down and whispered to them. "For the moment, but it's not safe to stay here, all of you need to get out now while you have a window of opportunity and someone call the police to help, were gonna need them if were gonna survive this." I quickly reloaded my gun then said. "Everyone follow me and keep your heads down, I'll keep you safe."
Before anyone got up another civilian stood up and said sounding annoyed. "And who exactly put you in charge mate." Oh good it's my new favorite wombat.
I just glared at the guy already tired of his bullshit. "Do you want to get shot? Because I think that could be easily arranged for you if you don't get off your ass and get moving!" I yelled at him.
He quickly retorted by saying. "Who the bloody hell do you think you are mate? Commander bloody Shepard? Your just some dumb kid playing soldier."
Okay that's it. "Now you listen to me you stubby legged shit stain…" I grabbed the collar of his shirt and just bellowed in his face. "I don't care if you like me because I'm the only one here who's got any know how in terms of killing the black hearts so unless you've got a better idea shut the hell up and get the fuck moving! Do I make myself clear you eucalyptus eating sack of shit?!" I know that wombats don't actually eat eucalyptus leaves, I was just tired of his crap. "Now get your asses outside and to a safe place, and if you have family in a hotel room tell them to stay there until it's safe to leave." The wombat finally shut his trap and did as I said, everyone else started to try and call their families but came up with the same problem that I had in the elevator, the signal was being jammed. "What the hell is going on?" I asked once again.
"Isn't it obvious Mr. Blaze? I've taken the liberty of disabling the signal towers in this part of the district to prevent anyone from calling for help, not that it would've mattered, as we speak I have already begun cyber-attacks on the ZPD's internal network causing all outside communications both over radio frequencies and omni-tool to fail. No one is coming to save you Mr. Blaze. Not a single soul." Wait…how can he do that? He's just a V.I.
"But…how? That shouldn't be possible for you, you're just a V.I. there's no way that you could have that kind of capability." I asked him directly.
That's when something happened that I didn't expect, something that no one could've anticipated from him, he just started laughing. "You foolish boy, I would've thought by now that you would've figured it out, especially after I caused the elevator to plummet from the top floor, you are right though, a standard V.I. doesn't have the processing power to do all of this, but I am not a mere V.I., oh no I am far worse than that."
No….that's impossible…could he really be… "You're…you're an A.I. aren't you?"
He then answered me very nonchalantly. "Close, it's true that I am capable of all the things a true artificial intelligence can do but I was not born of mere circuitry and silicon, but of flesh." What the hell did he just say. "Do you remember what I told you back on the Monarch? When I said that Crystal preferred males of her own species? That was 100% true of course, hence her desire to try and kill you and make you her's, or at least your body."
Aaaaaand now things aren't making any kind of sense. "What in the hell are you talking about?" I asked feeling no less confused as to when he started babbling a bunch of nonsense. I then looked up for a brief second as a flashing light caught my eye. It was Angel flashing his eye at me in Morse code.
He said, keep him busy, need to counter hack, distract as long as possible. Oh now that is something I can do my friend.
"Let me tell you a story Mr. Blaze; once upon a time there was a young black fox who fell in love with an arctic vixen, they did everything together, they loved one another unconditionally and never felt more complete when they were together, unfortunately hard times fell upon these two lovers when the vixens father forced her to stay away from me…" Uh…okay did he just say me? As in talking about himself in first person? "He said that I was no good for her and that I was nothing but trouble, so we chose to see one another in secret, one day I worked up the courage to ask her to run away with me and be my bride, without hesitation she agreed to do so, but unfortunately there was one small problem, a problem that neither of us could avoid, we had no money to live off of, so I chose to do something that I deeply regret to this day as it caused me to live for the past three years as this…hollow form, I tried to rob her father's floor safe and steal every last credit he had, but I was ultimately discovered and he attacked me and beat me to within an inch of my life, and to try and finish me off he dragged me into the back yard of his home, doused me in gasoline and set me a blaze." Okay yeah that's going a little too far but still you kinda earned it dude. "I was on the verge of death, the doctors said that there was nothing that could be done to save me. But none of them were…him." He paused for a moment.
I had a feeling that I knew who he was talking about then I guessed. "Him…you mean the reaper?"
Sean was quick to answer me. "Very good Mr. Blaze, he came to Crystal and I while I was in my condition, he took pity on us and offered us a better life, a life where we could live together as husband and wife, but there was a price of course, and that price was eternal servitude to the enlightened one and the black hearts, we agreed to do so for a price of our own, to save me from death of course, and to put an end to the one who had put me in that state to begin with, and so the reaper personally did as we'd asked, he even brought the head of Crystal's father as proof that he'd done as we'd asked."
I then added with a smirk. "But I take it he didn't really follow through on the part where he saved you from death?"
Sean quickly corrected me, sort of. "Oh he did, and at the same time he didn't, but that wasn't his fault, no that was your father's doing when he destroyed the first of our Phenix cannons on Miduwar, you see Mr. Blaze that was where he was going to resurrect me, through the power of the Lazarus project."
I knew that I'd heard that name before, not just the word Lazarus from the bible but the Lazarus project? That was something that I couldn't quite put my finger on. "Remind me what that is exactly."
He then asked me very casually. "Do you recall the name Cerberus?" That's when it all became clear to me, Cerberus, back before the reaper invasion Cerberus was known as a black ops team for the alliance, but they went rogue and decided that they wanted to put all of mammal kind on top of the other races, they wanted us to be in complete and total control of the galaxy and they were willing to get it by any means necessary, and as for the Lazarus project, that was something they used to bring commander Shepard back from the dead after being killed by a now extinct race of aliens which were simply called the collectors who we now know were just prothians that were made to serve the reapers, and the reason that they killed Shepard was because they knew if Shepard could kill one reaper then it was possible that the rest could follow suit, so they proceeded to kill the commander, but Cerberus wouldn't allow that so easily so they created a kind of experiment called project Lazarus which was meant to bring the dead back to life, and thankfully for everybody else in the galaxy it worked.
Then after words Shepard agreed to work with Cerberus to bring down the collectors after they started to abduct entire mammal colonies to try and make them in to a reaper of some kind oddly enough, and to do it they helped Shepard assemble a task force to destroy the collectors at their base, but after that they tried to do something completely stupid and find a way to control the reapers and also jeopardized the war effort to defeat the reapers at any chance they got, so to put an end to that Commander Shepard along with the fifth fleet laid waste to their main base of operations and put an end to Cerberus and their insane idealism of control. But as for all the work they'd accomplished during their existence, most of that was lost forever and from what Sean had told me it seems that all of the information about project Lazarus was found by the black hearts and they decided to put it to good use, but from what he'd just told me my dad took it out which obviously put a damper on things for Sean.
"So the black hearts found the specs on the project and tried to bring you back from the dead but it didn't work, and only because my dad destroyed the facility, too bad for you then." I said with a shrug of my shoulders and a smirk.
"It wasn't the work of Cerberus being destroyed that caused our rage toward your father Mr. Blaze, it was his fleet destroying my body that caused it, but thankfully my darling Crystal was a true genius and didn't leave it to chance when it came to my life, so she found a way to download my consciousness into a computer and turn me into an A.I. of sorts, but even though I was a soul turned into software my love for my beloved Crystal was not altered, unless of course I were to say it grew stronger which I am proud to say it did." He said sounding very sure of himself.
"Wow, and I thought the reaper was a fucking lunatic but I guess you and your girlfriend are both off your damn rockers." I said as a joke and also to try and stall for time, I only hoped that stalling him would help us a little bit.
"Go ahead and laugh while you can Mr. Blaze, because once I'm done with you my darling Crystal and I will finally be reunited in flesh after so long." He said once again sounding very certain of himself.
"Oh really? Well if Crystal is really that lonely then maybe you should download yourself into a sex toy, or hell maybe even a sex bot seeing as your obviously so interested in crazy sluts like her, oh and by the way did you enjoy watching my little peep show for your girlfriend? Oh and what about when she made out with me on the elevator? And let's not forget that she wanted me to fuck her so bad that it drove her nuts at the fact that I was already looking at someone else, and the best part that she was a bunny instead of a vixen…oh and by the way bunnies are a fantastic lay by the way I'd definitely recommend you give it a try." I said sounding like a smart ass as I always did.
Sean then replied nonchalantly. "Oh believe me, I was not thrilled when you and my bride to be we're being intimate, but I know she was only testing out my new body to house my mind in so I will forgive her."
Wait, what did he say? "Uh…I'm sorry but what the hell are you talking about?" I asked with a new level of confusion.
He then laughed again, I swear it is so creepy to here an automated voice laugh. "Was I not clear Mr. Blaze? If it's possible to download one's consciousness into a computer then it is possible to do the same by uploading it into another body, that is after we remove your mind from it and leave you to expire, and with the added bonus of your biotics I will become an unstoppable force to be reckoned with and our children will be even more so as we conquer all corners of the galaxy in the name of the enlightened one."
Okay if things weren't weird before then they definitely are now. "Yeah well I'm sorry to disappoint you but your plan to plug your brain into my head will never work, you see I'm a Sagittarius and YOU'RE A FUCKING PSYCO! Plus your forgetting the one major thing dumb ass, if you kill me then you'll never get your new body." I said trying to sway him.
Unfortunately that didn't faze him one bit. "Who ever said I needed you alive? All I need is your body, which the Lazarus project can revive for me in the end, as long as there's enough of you left over it doesn't matter. I will have what I'm after, and once I get it…"
I interrupted him to try and buy us more time, and also to piss him off. "Blah-blah-blah do you ever shut the fuck up? I mean seriously this is time that I could be using to fuck my girlfriend and your boring me to death with classic bad guy monologuing, hey here's an idea, why don't you go annoy someone else as a pop up add on their computer screen for like a half hour or so, at least you'll be doing something productive other than bitching about how horny you are to a bunch of people who don't actually care about your little sob story, and p.s., you're on a laptop, all I have to do is chuck you into a fucking trash compacter." I managed to get a few snickers out of the civilians from that remark, even though this wasn't the time for jokes.
"You do realize that before I'm done with you I'm going to make you suffer don't you?" Sean asked bluntly.
I then replied very smugly. "Oh believe me I'm already suffering, because your voice is so annoying I mean I can only imagine how irritating you sounded before you became Bing 2.0, seriously it's like two varrins getting it on."
He finally revealed that he was getting annoyed. "If I didn't need your body so badly I'd hack into a nuclear missile silo and drop every last nuke I could on you and…"
I interrupted him again. "WHAA, WHAA, I'm Sean and I can't get laid because I'm stuck in cyberspace as a dumb A.I. because my girlfriend and my new boss weren't smart enough not to put my body near a giant weapon of mass destruction which in retrospect probably wasn't a very good idea to begin with cause now I'm the world's first super horny A.I. and I can't even take care of myself because my girlfriend didn't program me to have a dick. Oh, and it gets worse, I'm so pathetic that I have to steal a body from a guy who's never done me any wrong who's also still currently using it because I can't just download my mind into a CLONE OF SOME KIND, I mean really why didn't you think of that little number? I'm almost 100% sure that would've been your best bet in getting yourself a new body ya wanna be Alexa, speaking of which, Alexa shut the fuck up because I'm tired of hearing 2020's greatest bitch hits." That's when everyone else from behind me started to burst out into laughter.
"ENOUGH!" He bellowed, it would seem my plan to distract him was working.
"Ooh did I strike a nerve?" I asked with a grin as I leaned up against the counter.
"I think it's time that I finish what I started with you, and even though you've proven to be better than some simple little fool like most alliance scum I assure you that I have many tricks up my sleeve that may surprise you." He didn't even realize that he'd set me up for another joke.
"Oh are you gonna finally shut up? Because god knows that would surprise me." I was just loving every minute of harassing this guy.
"It's no wonder the reaper wants you dead, you're without a doubt the most annoying abomination I've ever met." He stated actually sounding angry.
I put a paw to my chest and fake gasped and acted very dramatic just because I could. "Aww, the reaper wants me dead? And here I was gonna make us matching T-shirts so everybody would know were besties, I feel so hurt by…oh wait, I just remembered I don't care."
Eventually Sean had finally had enough arguing with me, but instead of acting to finish me off like he was supposed to he just got suspicious of why I was talking my head off like a politician during a filibuster. "Wait a minute…" He said sounding suspicious. "Why haven't you tried to get everyone out of here yet?"
I gave a very sinister grin and said. "Simple, I just had to keep you babbling long enough so Angel could reset the signal towers and keep you distracted from your hack on the ZPD just long enough so you couldn't defend against their anti-virus programs effectively, in other words, goodnight Seri, see you in hell." That's when the lights came back on so I took this chance to call the ZPD for reinforcements.
"This is dispatch." A voice spoke through my omni-tool.
"Hello, we need help at the pride rock hotel, there's a terrorist group here and their trying to kill us!" I shouted so she would understand that this wasn't a prank.
"Sir, I need you to stay calm and listen, we're sending as many S.W.A.T. mammals your way as we can but you need to stay low and out of sight until they arrive, and whatever you do, do everything they say and don't hold anything in your paws that could be seen as a weapon." She said sounding serious.
"Sure, but just let them know ahead of time that there's at least one of us in here that has a gun who isn't a bad guy, I'd rather not get shot." I only hoped that the S.W.A.T. teams wouldn't mistake me for a black heart.
"Don't worry, I'll inform them ASAP, just try to hang on for as long as you can." That made me feel a little better about the odds of me getting shot by the good guys.
"You got it, just please tell them to hurry." The sound of rushed foot falls made their way to our location so I made ready to fight again. "Everyone keep your heads down." I whispered as I took aim toward the arch way. I breathed a sigh of relief once I saw it was my family, Alice and Flashlight standing there. "Dad, oh thank god you're okay." I rushed over and hugged my family.
As much as he would've loved to keep sharing this family moment dad pulled away from the hug demanding a sitrep. "What's going on down here? Flashlight was contacted by Angel and it said the black hearts attacked the hotel." He asked sounding worried.
"Well I'm afraid it's a bit worse than that. Sean's leading this attack against us and here's the really messed up part. He's not actually a V.I. at all he's actually some kind of A.I. born via an organic mind, which I know sounds utterly ridiculous but it's the truth." I explained flatly, Dad was at a loss for words at the revelation.
"That's right Admiral…" Sean spoke again through the intercoms of the lobby.
"Sean? What's the meaning of this?" Dad demanded with authority.
"Isn't it clear you pompous little bastard? Revenge, that's the meaning of all of this, I want revenge for what you did to me and for what your son did to my beloved Crystal as well." Sean clarified very nonchalantly.
"What I did to you? What did I ever do to you?" Dad asked sounding just as confused as before.
"You destroyed my body you demonic bastard and because of that I will have my revenge and what better way than to take your son's body and fill it with my mind?" He stated just as nonchalantly as before.
"Yeah sorry to burst your bubble pal but I don't swing that way." I joked yet again. What? It was clever. Before dad could ask him anymore we heard the sound of thunder crashing down outside along with the smashing concrete, before we could even ask what it was the front entrance burst open and charging through the front wall was something I'd hoped I'd never see again. "TITAN MECH! Everyone run, RUN, get to the emergency exit, go-go-go-go-go." I cried out to the civilians and they all ran as fast as they could while I laid down suppressing fire. "Dad, get them the hell out of here while I deal with this hunk of shit!" I said as I opened up on that damn mech's face, it charged up a shot and fired its eezo weapon at me but I put up a barrier just in time and blocked it. "Sorry, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stamp this as…return to SENDER!" Oh great, I'm doing my own cheesy one liners now, I've been spending too much time with the asari.
The eezo shot went flying back into the laser and destroyed it just like the last time, I smiled as I charged up a warp attack and threw it at the damn thing knocking it backward and down on its ass. "How do you like that mother fucker?" I shouted rhetorically feeling victorious, but it was way too soon as the damn thing just got back up and opened up its machine guns. "Oh come on…" Was all I managed to say before it open fired on me, I rolled out of the way and hid behind cover as I reloaded my gun. "Come on Angel where are you?" I asked knowing he couldn't hear me, but as if on cue Angel came to my rescue and just open fired on the larger mech with his Gatling gun, it didn't really scratch it as much as it distracted it, but I already knew it wouldn't. But that's when I realize that was the plan he'd cooked up for me, so I used my biotics to get me on top of that things shoulders and with one biotic punch I burst the mech's head open and it came crashing down. I hopped off of it then cheered. "Woo-hoo! Is that all you got tin-can?" I said as I trashed the dead mech, but my celebration was short lived as I'd found that it wasn't all it had just like before. "Uh-oh…forgot that it could do that."
It began to make the same beeping noise it did the first time I'd encountered it which meant it was about to blow, so I used my biotics and threw it outside the giant hole it came through, and once I had the damn mech just exploded sending pieces of it everywhere. "God damn, that was close." I said as I observed the destruction outside.
"Affirmative, if the mech had exploded inside the hotel the force of said explosion would've brought the building down upon us." Angel said with agreement.
"Well gee thanks captain obvious." I said sarcastically.
Then Angel said in reply. "We are not captain obvious, we are geth." Oh my god this thing is so annoying sometimes. Before I could say another word I was cut off by the sound of sirens from outside the hotel, I immediately ran outside with Angel behind me, as soon as we got outside we saw over a dozen cop cars all landing out front.
"Fan out, secure the area, Lieutenant Black you're on crowd control." An officer shouted out to the rest of his fellow officers, it was clear that he was in-charge, and to my surprise he was a rabbit, he had gray fur with blue eyes, he was dressed in heavy S.W.A.T. armor and armed with a shotgun, he walked straight up to me then asked with an authoritive tone. "Son, are you by chance one Mr. Cody Blaze?" I nodded my head yes, before I could say anything he simply said. "Good, your with me on the sweep same goes for the mec, oh…the names Hopps by the way, Samuel Hopps.
My jaw dropped with his sudden reveal of information. "Did…did you just say that…you were a Hopps?" I asked with astonishment, he just let out a sensible chuckle then replied.
"Why yes I did son, I did say I was a Hopps, ever sense my uh…lets just say my ancestor Judy Hopps joined the ZPD there's been a Hopps on the force sense then, and it doesn't seem like it's going to change anytime soon." Really glad he didn't try to narrow down how far down the line she was. But still to meet an actual living descendent of Judy Hopps, that is definitely something to write home about.
As the three of us went back inside to evacuate anyone still inside the hotel I then asked him something that was bothering me. "Hey uh…how did you know my name? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't give my name to the lady over the phone."
He looked over to me then said in reply. "Your dad called me just a few minutes ago, we used to go to school together, we were pretty good friends back then, come to think of it I think I was his only friend back then…you know because of the whole fox stereotype thing, but I was taught from an early age not to judge someone based on their species, I didn't see him as anything lesser than me, I saw him as a mammal who just wanted to fit in, and you know what? I don't regret ever getting to know your dad, mainly because he's done all sorts of things to try and make the galaxy a better place for all races, both mammal and alien alike."
I immediately came to like this guy, he actually understood that foxes weren't just shady characters who couldn't be trusted, he saw us as people rather than parasites. The three of us swept the building out floor by floor working our way up, occasionally we'd find a family scared out of their minds over what was happening, after we'd reassured them that it was safe they all went down stairs, we made sure not to leave any rooms unchecked and with Angel's biometric scanner it was easy to track down any organic beings in the rooms.
"Corner room left side, we detect five organics hiding inside." Angel said as he pointed to the room. "Alert, these mammals are armed with heavy weapons, they are more than likely not civilians."
Sam and I both looked at one another and nodded in agreement to be ready, we lined up on either side of the door ready to breach, Angel stood in front of the door then kicked it in, the mammals inside the room started shooting directly at Angel but to no avail. The bullets just bounced off of him like always, then someone fired a rocket from within the room, the rocket exploded against his chest and sending him flying back into the wall behind him, his eye started to flash red, I doubt that meant he was dead sense he even said that his chassis is hard as hell to break.
"Is he okay?" Sam asked as he fired a few rounds from his pistol into the room.
"Yeah don't worry about him, that's a diamondized steal chassis he's got, nothing short of an artillery shell can break through that." I replied as I pointed my assault rifle into the room and open fired on the black hearts, I took a quick peak inside the room and saw that they were composed of a boar, a gray wolf, a honey badger, an oxen and an antelope, they all had heavy assault rifles, while one of them was on a turret outfitted with a machine gun and a rocket launcher. I had to duck back behind cover quickly before a bullet hit me. "Okay, I still count about five of them in there, all of them with revenant assault rifles and one all-purpose turret, any ideas for dealing with them?" I asked as I looked over to Sam, who then said back to me.
"Your grenades, use them." I felt kind of dumb for not thinking about that myself, I pulled two grenades off my belt and tossed one to him. We both pulled the pins then tossed them inside the room, and as expected the grenades went off and the gun fire stopped, we wasted no time to take them out as we shot out from behind cover and open fired on them, but it would seem that it wasn't going to be as easy as we thought, because these guys weren't just ordinary black hearts, I recognized their armor all too well.
"Oh FUCK! Their honor guards!" I cried out, I didn't waste time with my gun anymore. I pulled out my knife and charged up my biotics then I ran into the room and gave them the old one two while they were unable to fight back, I first used my biotics on the turret and just threw it out the window sending the boar with it. I then charged strait for the oxen and leapt for his throat with my knife but missed as he side stepped out of the way. But sadly for him I rebound off the wall and just drove it into a gap in the shoulder of his armor, he screamed in pain as he dropped his gun and threw me off, then out of no where Sam came rushing in and used a double kick and sent that fucker into the wall with his own biotics which I was completely unaware that he even had, once he landed he deployed a pair of omni-blades from his wrists then looked at the remaining guards who'd finally regained their sight.
Then he said with a smile. "Show of paws, who moves as fast as lightning?" The black hearts then pointed their guns at him and fired, but just as they did he leapt over them and landed on the wolf wrapping his legs around the back of his head and slashing at his helmet, then he took both blades and stabbed him right through the eye holes of the face plate, he fell to the ground and Sam hopped off of him then went straight for the antelope, while he was taking care of him I went for the honey badger who had just dropped her gun and pulled out a razor whip from her back.
"Come on…" I said taunting her. "Come and get some!" I took my stance holding my knife out in front of me, she then whirled her whip around and wrapped it around the blade of my weapon then pulled it out of my paw. "Ooookaaaay…that's just embarrassing."
She then whirled her whip at me again this time aiming for my head, I quickly dropped to the floor then used a biotic pull on a chair sitting behind her, as it zipped past her and connected to the chair it then came flying at her with speed, she leapt out of the way and while she was on the ground I used a biotic throw on her sending her back into the already downed oxen, as she tried to get up I then made a run for my knife, I slid on my knees as I grabbed it then I hopped back to my feet then leapt into the air with the knife over my head, but just before I could make contact Sam was thrown right into me by the antelope he was fighting, we both crashed into the wall in a daze on the floor, both our opponents stood over us with their weapons poised to strike, but before they could Angel charged in with swords drawn as he performed a flying kick into the side of the antelope.
The badger quickly turned around to face the much larger mec, she swung her whip at him only for him to wrap it around his sword, then he immediately pulled her in by spinning his entire torso like before with great speed pulling her off her feet and catching her in midair by her neck then running her through the heart in between a small gap in her chest plate to allow flexibility with his free arm. After he pulled his blade out he turned to the antelope who'd just pulled out a sabor with two blades, one of them just hanging off of the other one, I'm pretty sure it was called a zulfaqar, he twirled it about from side to side to try and intimidate us, but it didn't matter as within the next few seconds Angel's head opened up and deployed his sniper rifle then he shot the dumb bastard in the face, he hit the ground dead as a door nail. "Ha…he Indiana Jones'd your ass." I said with a smirk.
All that was left was the oxen, who tried reaching for another gun only for Sam to stomp on it and point the muzzle of his shotgun in his face. "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" He said threateningly.
Angel then walked over and began to restrain the black heart with a pair of handcuffs Sam had given him. "Angel, run a biometric scan on him and see just how badly he's hurt." I said to my bodyguard.
Angel did as I'd asked and started making his usual buzzing and clicking noises as he scanned the ox. Once he was finished he looked to me and announced. "Subject has suffered no major damage, one minor laceration in the left shoulder, recommended recovery time one month followed by two weeks physical therapy unless top line meda-gel is administered."
"Impressive, your geth friend doubles as a field medic too. That could come in handy if worse comes to worse." Sam voiced as he put his gun away.
I then knelt down and looked the oxen in the eye as I began to ask him a few questions. "How many more of you are in the city?"
He just looked up at me and said. "Our brothers and sisters are everywhere always hiding in plain sight of you and your foolish followers demon scum."
"Uh…demon scum?" Sam asked as he looked over to me, clearly he hadn't heard about these guys thinking that my dad and I were both demons or whatever.
"Long story short these guys are all crazy and think I came from hell." I said quickly before turning back to the oxen. "How many of your guys do you have in this hotel?"
The ox just spat on my face in defiance. "I won't talk, you can do what you will with me but I will never tell you anything."
And here we go again, just like back home. But this time I wasn't going to torture him, I was going to do something a little differently. "Angel, kill'em." I said coldly, yes I know this wasn't much better than before but it was just a part of the plan.
"What?" Sam asked looking at me with disbelief. I just turned to him and gave him a sly wink.
Just as Angel started to deploy a sword I quickly stopped him. "No, that's too good for him. Throw him out the window."
The oxen just looked up at me and said. "You think this will scare me? My soul is prepared for death, nothing you do to me will make me talk."
I just turned to him and said with a chilling voice. "Oh I don't want you to talk anymore…" Then I leaned in close and whispered in his ear. "I just want you to die…and I promise you it's going to hurt, but the pain you feel will be a mercy compared to all the horrors I'm going to subject your brothers and sisters to, oh all the fun little plans that I have for them...I might just set some of them on fire, or maybe rip out their guts with my biotics. Who knows…the possibilities are endless." I then snapped my fingers to let Angel know I was done. I just hope that this guy was dumb enough to believe me. "Of course…you could save them from all the pain I want to inflict upon them just for the sake of causing them all pain. You're all still gonna die of course but it'll be quicker if you tell me what I want to know, or it could be slow and painful as we demons prefer of course…your choice."
I looked at the guys face, he didn't seem fazed by what I'd said at all. I gotta give these fuckers one thing they've got balls. But as Angel started toward the window with the oxen I found a picture that had fallen from the oxen's pocket, on a hunch I picked it up and saw that this guy was a father of two young calves. I knew I'd hate myself for doing this but I didn't have a choice and people's lives were in danger. "Or maybe you'd start talking if I brought your children into this…both of them." That's when the look he'd had on his face before turned to one of fear. Bingo.
"How…how did you know about my children?" He asked sounding terrified.
I quickly started to lay it on simply by laughing evilly. "A demon such as myself always makes it my business to know these things, you know…your daughter has such pretty blue eyes, I might just gouge them out one by one…then I'll take your son…and cut off his own tail and strangle him with it, and just before I kill them I'll tell them…that their daddy didn't love them enough to give me what I wanted when I asked SO nicely." I hated every single minute of what I was doing to this guy, I just wanted to punch myself for even thinking of threatening his kids let alone scaring him like this.
"No please leave them alone they're innocent they've nothing to do with this!" He cried finally sounding like he was coming around to the idea of spilling the beans.
I just shrugged and said. "Oh really, funny you should say that…because everyone in this building is innocent as well but you fuckers planned on putting them in danger right from the get-go and you didn't bat an eyelash at that. So why should I care if I make your kids suffer for your actions against a bunch of innocent mammals?"
The oxen then started to beg. "Please I beg of you don't harm my children!"
That's when I knew he'd had enough. "If you want to save them then TALK! Or else I'll make good on my promise!" I said feeling absolutely sickened by my own words.
"Alright…just don't hurt my children!" He sobbed, I looked toward Angel and motioned for him to bring him back in, he set the oxen on the ground then he started talking. "We came in a force of ninety, the majority of us are hidden through out the rest of the building, most of us split up into five man teams like mine, we were supposed to either lay in wait for orders to attack you or collect hostages and force the police to waste time to save them while we make our escape. You've already killed the majority of our troops on the ground floor, I've told you everything, now will you promise to leave my children be?"
I just smiled at him and said with the same chilling voice. "Well...sense you gave me what I wanted…alright I'll let them live. Angel, knock'em out please." And as I'd asked Angel delivered one quick punch to the guys face knocking him out. "Come on, let's hit the rest of them."
As we made our way forward Sam quickly called to his other officer's over his omni-tool telling them everything we'd just learned, about a few seconds after that they confirmed that they were sending up extra S.W.A.T. mammals to help us out. Each group we found we managed to take down with minimal casualties, and luckily we didn't really run into anymore honor guards, the rest of these fuckers were just a bunch of dumb grunts. "Put them all down stairs with the others, I want to question each and every single one of them myself." Sam ordered to his men who around this point had just cuffed the last of the black hearts. "I'd say this was an exceptional job don't you think kid?"
I didn't really pay much attention to what Sam was saying to me at this point though, I was still hung up on the part of this when I threatened a guy's kids. "Hey slick you still with me?" He asked again.
"I went too far back there didn't I?" I asked back as I just leaned up against the wall. "When I threatened his kids like that, I went too far."
Sam just stood there with a look on his face, a look that basically confirmed what I'd asked him was true. "I can't really say that you did the right thing, but it did help us end this a lot quicker. Besides I knew you were just saying that to get him to talk so no harm no foul." He stated while simply trying to get me to stop guilt tripping myself.
"Still though I'm better than that, I knew better than to threaten kids even though it was just hot air I was spewing out I knew better than to cross that line." I just felt so ashamed of myself, I felt like I wanted to crawl under a rock and die because of what I'd done. "I'm not even a speacture yet and I'm already doing what I want to get the job done."
"Come again?" Sam asked, clearly that last part caught his attention. I just sighed as I pulled up the note Shakrimi had sent to me while I was still in the hospital and showed it to him, is jaw just dropped as he read it to himself. "Holy monkey bread, this is legit. You're really being offered to become a speacture, and at such a young age too. I guess being a soldier really does run in the family huh?"
"Yeah…I guess." Even though he sounded happy for me all I felt for myself was disgust. Not only that but I also became what everyone else in the galaxy sees foxes as, a gigantic liar. I know I had to do something to get him to spill his guts, but I could've done better than that.
"Listen kid, I know you probably feel like the most evil sack of shit in the history of this galaxy but sometimes the right thing to do isn't always the way to go, sometimes you have to do bad things for a good reason." Sam stated as he put a paw on my shoulder.
"Yeah well I doubt that Judy Hopps ever had to do anything like that to get the job done." I replied still hating myself.
Around that point Sam said very casually. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean she was never tempted to cross that line. God knows that I've been tempted to do things that only a dirty cop would ever do, but even though I felt it would've been the easiest thing to do I always made sure to weigh my options before doing something I'd regret. Because sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures and at the end of the day it all boils down to weather or not you want to become the kind of people you hate or be better than them."
Wow, that had to be the WORST pep talk I'd ever received in my entire life. "Officer Hopps, I'm not trying to sound like a dick here but isn't this the part where you're supposed to make me feel better?"
He just facepalmed as he sighed. "The point I'm trying to make…is that you could've done a whole lot worse than that slick."
Then why the hell couldn't you just say that before instead of drag it out? And what's with that dumb nickname he's just given me? Oddly enough what he'd said somehow made me feel better, but it was short lived because I had a brand new problem to worry about. And it came in the form of a call on my omni-tool. "CODY! CODY CAN YOU HEAR ME!?" I knew that frantic tone of voice anywhere.
"Alice? Where are you? What's happening? Are you guys…?" I was cut off by the sound of an explosion on her side of the call.
"Cody you need to get here right now somethings happened to AH!" The next thing I heard was static. I instantly went into panic mode assuming the worst had befallen my family and my girlfriend. But how? Jacob's geth should've protected them from anything the black hearts would have to throw at them.
That's when I'd remembered something crucial about the black hearts, something that's nearly gotten me killed time and time again, Phantoms. "We need to find my family now! Angel can you get in contact with Flashlight and find out where they are?"
Angel turned to me and said reassuringly. "Please wait while we triangulate their last known location." He then started making those same buzzing and clicking noises like he always did, then he turned back to me and said something I didn't want to hear at all. "Error, unable to make contact, terminal codenamed, Flashlight, is off line."
"Offline? What do you mean offline? You guys can't be destroyed that easily!" I shouted as my fear grew even larger. A million thoughts began to run through my head, I had no idea what to do or how to save my family. I didn't even know where they were. But luckily help came in the form of a new friend.
"Give me your wrist and boot up your omni-tool, I may be able to track her last known call." Sam said as he booted up his own omni-tool. I hope this guy knows what he's doing because if not than both my family and Alice are screwed. I didn't hesitate to boot up my omni-tool again or let him take a look at it, and he didn't waste time either as he started to trace Alice's last call. "There, this is where they are in the meadowlands district. They must've taken a cab it's the only way they could've gotten there so quickly."
"The meadowlands district?" I had never heard of that part of town, I'd only ever heard of the major three like any other moron who wasn't from earth.
"It's a district primarily meant for pray animals, it's usually very quiet and usually doesn't see a lot of crime but that doesn't mean squat when you've got a terrorist group in the city trying to stir up trouble." Sam relayed to me just before he made a call of his own to his fellow officers. "This is Captain Hopps calling precinct 45 we have a confirmed terrorist threat in your vicinity I repeat terrorist threat confirmed on your stretch of the playground boys, send out all available units, be on the lookout for anyone dressed in black body armor with a white insignia on the chest plates, insignia looks to be a heart clenched in a paw, these suspects are well armed and dangerous, also be on the look out for a family of foxes, two adults one juvenile no older than four years old, and a gray rabbit doe, they're being hunted by these terrorists as we speak with the intent to kill."
It didn't take long for anyone to pick up thankfully. "We read you loud and clear Captain, dispatching all available units to aid in the hunt."
Sam smiled at this response then he turned to me with a very confident look. "Alright slick let's go save your family and girlfriend." Okay seriously what is with that nickname? We raced for the nearest stairwell and headed down to the ground floor and rushed to Sam's squad car, be popped the top and all three of us hopped in the car, then same closed the top of the car and said to the two of us. "You guys may want to buckle up." Then the next thing I knew Sam gunned the engine and both Angel and I were being pulled back into our seats because of how fast this rabbit was driving. I swear to god this guy's driving is crazier than mine, the only difference was he was actually allowed to drive like a psychopath, well you know relatively because he had his sirens on.
We managed to get to the meadowlands district pretty quickly, by the time we got there the entire district had been blocked off by cops of every single imaginable species of mammal, rodents included in case you were wondering. As soon as we landed my heart just sank, as I looked through the window I saw lying on the ground being tended to by paramedics, my father. "DAD!" I quickly kicked open the door and just bolted for him pushing past anyone in my way. I just fell to my knees as I took his paw in mine, he still had a pulse, but just barely. "What happened to him?" I asked the medic, he just ignored me though as he started hooking my dad up to a breather. "WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?! ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!" I blasted, my fear had now reached an all time high. I had no idea if my dad was going to be okay or if he was dying and no one would even tell me.
"Cody?" I turned around to the voice of my mother, she was hurt too, but not as bad as dad was, the worst she had was a broken arm at best as it was held in a sling. I ran over to her and just hugged her also while being mindful of her injury.
"Mom what happened to dad and…? Wait…" I looked around and started to search for Jacob and Alice, but they were nowhere to be found. "Mom where are Jacob and Alice? What happened to you guys while we were separated?"
Mom just shed a tear as she looked at me and said. "It took them." 'It' took them? What does she mean by it?
"What was it mom? Tell me was in some kind of a drone or a mec? What was it?" I asked franticly, desperately even.
That's when she said a set of words that chilled me to my very core. "Your brother's geth bodyguard. It just…it went rogue, as soon as we were away from the hotel it told us to hand over your brother or else he'd…he'd kill us all."
I didn't even know how to process any of this, the one thing that was supposed to protect my brother from the black hearts was secretly a black heart mec this entire time, and dad didn't even know. "But where are Alice and Jacob?" I asked hoping once again that she'd tell me that at the very least.
"I don't know, when it turned on us your father used his omni-tool to overload it for a few seconds then he told us to run, Alice just grabbed Jacob and ran off to god knows where now while I stayed behind to help your father fight it off. But as you can see that didn't really pan out for us very well, I only suffered a broken arm but your father…" She paused as she saw dad finally being lifted up onto a stretcher and loaded into the back of an ambulance.
I turned to her and said. "Go with him mom, it's too dangerous for you here. I'll find Jacob and Alice, and when I find that damn mec I'm gonna rip out its god damn hard drive!" And just like that my biotics just began to flare up, I really need to get a better handle on my anger. After a few deep breaths I managed to back my powers down, not too long after that though mom just expressed her opinion on me going after Alice and Jacob on my own.
"Cody you can't, that geth nearly killed your father and it'll do the same to you if you try to fight it!" She cried with worry.
"Two big differences mom, one…I have my own geth defender with me, and two…I have hyper biotics now so I think I'll be fine." I replied trying to reassure her.
"Plus he's got me to back him up too. Hey Carole, nice to see you again, you're looking good by the way." It was no surprise to me that Sam and my mom knew each other, I mean why would it be.
She looked at Sam, she seemed a little better about letting me go off to save my brother and my girlfriend, especially sense I had some pretty decent backup. After finally conceiving my mom to just go with my dad to the hospital Sam, Angel and I started inward to the district. The whole place looked really expensive too, just about everywhere you looked was a REALLY expensive looking car or house, hell just about every house I saw had it's own pool too. It made me wonder how much it would cost to actually live here. Wait what the hell am I thinking right now I need to find Jacob and Alice. We started our search in a few back alleys, apparently that's where witnesses saw Alice and Jacob last. Of course I couldn't be too sure if this information didn't just come from another Phantom, at this point I'm not letting my guard down for anything.
"How you holding up slick?" Sam asked as he combed over what had to be the fifth alley we'd searched.
Honestly I didn't know what to say to him, I was scared, angry, worried especially for Alice and Jacob. I just hoped they were okay. "I'm…I'm doing the best I can right now okay?" I had to fight off the anxiety that I felt bubbling up inside my gut just to keep from crying.
It seemed like he was about to ask me again when we heard a noise from down the alleyway, we both became as quiet as possible as we made our approach. I used paw signals to Angel to cloak himself and take a sniper's position on the roof to provide cover fire just in case. He just turned invisible and found himself a perfect sniper's perch. The sound we'd heard was coming from inside of a dumpster. Great, now I get to smell like two week old garbage. Sadly though Sam and I had to use a couple of trashcans in order to reach the lid of the damn thing. "We open on three." Sam whispered to me as he held his pistol at the ready.
One…two…THREE!
We threw open the dumpster aiming our guns inside and there we found… "Alice!" I quickly put away my gun and dropped down into the dumpster to help her. It seemed that she'd taken quite the beating herself, but she was alive, that's all that mattered. I quickly administered some meda-gel and started to drill her for answers. "Alice where's Jacob? WHERE'S MY BABY BROTHER?!"
She just looked up at me with a mournful look with tears in here eyes as she said. "They took him, the black hearts took him. I tried to fight off the geth but…he was too much for me to handle alone. I'm sorry…I'm so sorry Cody, this is all my fault." She threw her arms around me holding me tight as she sobbed.
I could hardly register what she'd said as her words echoed inside my head. They got him, they got my brother, but I was determined to get him back no matter the cost or the difficulty! I was going to find him and bring him home, and no force in this galaxy or in heaven…was going to stand in my way.
(A/N: Now I'm not gonna lie this chapter was a bitch to finish up because this is where I started to run out of gas. But it'll be okay, I'm still gonna finish it and every other story I've got going on right now eventually no matter how hard it maybe. Anyway it's time for the spoiler. In the next chapter of ZME, Cody gear's up for war with Angel by his side, the two manage to infiltrate a black heart stronghold and confront Flashlight face to face in hopes of finding Jacob. And that's all for now folks hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope to have chapter 30 finished soon.)