** Chapters 12 & 13 happen during '3Below's- 'There's Something about Gwen (of Gorbon),' episode. Thanks! Hope you all are enjoying the story so far!

If you watch the show and are familiar with all three 'Tales of Arcadia' shows, then you'll know that the battle with the Akiridion-5 children, Aja and Krel, and the evil dude, General Morano, is building up to happen in the background soon.**

~ Chapter Twelve ~

Trouble on the Horizon

"Come on, Walt, pick up, pick up!"

With her phone pressed against her ear, Barbara shut her eyes and paced the floor of the woman's bathroom anxiously. After hearing about how Area's 49-B's Army had infiltrated Arcadia and was looking for outsiders, she worried for Walter, the rest of the changelings, and the remaining troll's safety.

Walter was supposed to be meeting her at Mr. Benoit's French Bistro at six o'clock for her half-hour break, but now, she wasn't sure it was such a good idea for him to be seen in public anymore. By the time she finished with the secretary's splint and glanced at the clock, her stomach dropped to find that it was almost six o'clock.

Barbara kept her eyes shut, begging for Walter to pick up, but the house line went to voicemail after many rings. Groaning, she hung up and tried calling his cell phone.

Walter didn't often have his cell phone on him anymore, but she hoped that he would have brought it with him if he walked towards town to meet her. After a few rings, it too went to voicemail, and Barbara heard his smooth British voice in her ear-

"Hello, caller. I am not in at the moment, so if you would please leave me your name and a brief message, I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you."

Barbara waited for the BEEP in her ear, then urged quietly, "Walter, it's Barbara. Look, I need you to give me a call back when you get this message. Alright? As soon as you get this, sweetheart, please call me. I don't think that we should-"

Barbara was about to say "meet up for coffee" when she suddenly saw men dressed in army uniforms pass by the woman's bathroom door, and she choked on her words.

Blinking and thinking it was all in her head, she opened the door and suddenly gasped out loud. At least five soldiers were standing at the nurse's station across the way.

No.

As she did a panoramic view, the entire ER floor was swarming with people dressed in bright orange hazmat suits and other men and women in camouflage army uniforms.

Barbara's mouth hung open in shock, and her heart began pounding in her chest. Shutting the bathroom door, she backed up towards the sink and realized that she was still recording her message.

"Walter," she whispered into the phone's receiver shakily, "something strange is happening here at the hospital and around town. I'm fine, but I need you to call me back, please. It's also best if we cancel our dinner date. Okay? Stay home and don't come to Benoit's. I'll be off soon and will explain everything when I get home. I love you." Hanging up, she placed her phone back in her pocket, took a few calming breaths, then left the bathroom to find out what was happening.

The ER floor was buzzing with a new onset of chaos, and the Hazmat people in bright orange outfits were pointing strange laser scanners at patients, doctors, nurses, and other staff's faces. Scowling and getting angry, Barbara clenched her hands into fists, marched up to the closest hazmat uniform to her, and tapped his shoulder.

"Excuse me; this is a hospital! Not a rat lab! What is going on here?"

The hazmat guy turned to face her, his face nothing but a respirator mask, and automatically held out his hand-held device to her face. She gasped out as a laser suddenly scanned her face.

"What in the-?"

"No anomaly detected," the device said in a robotic voice, and the hazmat man turned to leave as if he had no further interest in her. Growing angrier, Barbara grabbed hold of his shoulders and forced him to turn around again.

"Hey! I was talking to you! Now, I demand to know what is going on here!"

"Sorry, ma'am, but it's classified," the man answered her in a mechanical voice. He then shooed her away. "Move along."

"I will do no such thing!" Barbara argued, standing her ground. "This is my ER, and these are my patients and staff that you are unlawfully running laser tests on. Now, tell me who is in charge here!"

The man in the suit stared at her as if he wasn't going to answer, but then to her shock, he pointed a black-gloved finger behind him, and Barbara followed his gaze.

The uniformed officer female in question had dark brown skin, large glasses on her face, red hair, bright red lips, and had many badges and patches on her dark green uniform. She was going over something on a clipboard with one of her officers.

Barbara clenched her hands into fists and marched over to her. "Excuse me, are you the one in charge of these men in the hazmat suits?"

"That depends," the lady answered in a cool voice, not looking up from her clipboard. "Who's asking?"

"The ER doctor who is in charge of this floor, and all occupants admitted here," Barbara said, trying to keep her voice calm. When the female didn't glance up at her still, Barbara pointed a finger at her. "Look, I want to know who you are and what authority you have to enter this hospital to obtain illegal testing on my staff and patients?"

The lady chuckled darkly, finally glanced up at her, and handed a male officer behind her the clipboard. The look in her eyes seemed dirty, cocky, and untrustworthy. Barbara didn't know who this lady was, but she didn't like her already.

"My name is Colonel Kubritz of the US Army," the woman said. "I am the Commander-in-Chief over Area 49-B, a military base located fifty miles east of here. We have received intel that something extra-terrestrial is lingering in Arcadia Oaks, and we are here to collect them."

"Extra-terrestrial?" Barbara inquired, and Colonel Kubritz smirked darkly.

"Yes. Anything on or outside the Earth that isn't human." Kubritz adjusted the large glasses on her face. "Now, not to worry, doc, these are harmless and legal tests that we are running on every citizen in Arcadia Oaks."

Barbara scowled. "And what do the tests do?"

"They search for any abnormal anomalies and archive the data in our computer bases. It's harmless but allows us to find who and what we are searching for."

Barbara must have looked confused as she felt because the Colonel chuckled darkly and continued to explain, "I know it may seem strange to you, but Arcadia is full of surprises. Many people are walking among you who are not who they say they are. So, we are testing every citizen of Arcadia Oaks, starting with the big businesses, departments, and hospitals. These tests simply find the liars and creatures in hiding and make my job a lot easier."

Barbara instantly thought about the changelings and Walter, and her heart sank. "That is preposterous! Who gave the authorization or permission for you to run these tests on everyone in Arcadia Oaks?"

The Colonel's sneer grew more pronounced as she raised an eyebrow at her. "I did. See, doc, I don't need permission to run tests such as these because my Commander-in-Chief, better known as the President of the United States of America, has already permitted me to do my job. For over twenty years, I have dedicated my life to this work in protecting the citizens of the United States from outsiders, and I don't plan on stopping now."

Barbara's mind and heart were going haywire, but her voice was thankfully calm when she asked, "you said you are looking for something extra-terrestrial or someone who isn't human? What does that even mean?"

"It's classified," Kubritz said coolly, "but, let's put it this way, doc, you have bugs in this little town of yours, and we are the ones who come and exterminate them."

"I thought you were the Military, not exterminators," Barbara couldn't help but say in a challenging tone. "From where I stand, it sounds like you're only here looking for trouble."

Colonel Kubritz's smirk darkened. "Doc, there's been more trouble brewing in this little town far longer than you may have realized, and I'm here to put a stop to it. For example, wasn't Arcadia Oaks attacked by those troll creatures two weeks ago? That's not exactly classified information since it was all over the National News, but that's one of the things we will be responsible for. It's time for the Army to step up and help protect Arcadia Oaks from any future attacks."

Barbara opened her mouth to argue or stand up for and protect trolls and changelings' identities, but no words came out. She knew the Gumm-Gumm attack had been all over the news and papers.

Kubritz sneered at her when she was speechless. "Case in point. Now, be gone, Doctor. I've got pressing things to do."

With that, she stalked away with hands behind her back but then suddenly looked over her shoulder at her. "Oh, and by the way, we may be hanging around for a few days to monitor the people coming in and out of the hospital. So, my advice to you is this: stay out of our way, and we will do our best to stay out of yours. If you also have any information on these outsiders we've discussed, let us know."

With that, Colonel Kubritz walked away, leaving Barbara stewing in shock, fear, then anger.

"Not on your life, lady," Barbara whispered to herself. She then checked her watch and her heart skipped a beat; without hesitation, she ran towards the exit. "Wanda, I'm taking my break!"

Wanda, the hospital coordinator, glanced up from the paperwork at her desk as Barbara ran past, yelling, and she instantly stood.

"What? Now? But, Barbara…!" Wanda poked her head out of the door, held her arm out, and cried, "Doctor Lake! Wait!"

But Barbara was already gone.

Colonel Kubritz turned at the commotion of someone calling after a doctor to come back, and when she saw the tail end of the red-haired doctor she had just finished talking to running from the ER, she raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

In her experience, only the guilty ran, and there was something on that doctor's face when she was talking about the troll attack three weeks ago that interested Kubritz. She instantly turned to a nurse nearby and called her attention.

"Excuse me. But, that doctor that was here, just now, who is she? What is her name?"

The young nurse looked up at her in confusion. "Um… which doctor? There's like… five of them here tonight."

"The main one on duty tonight," Kubritz growled, losing her patience. "She has red hair pulled back into a bun, glasses, and blue eyes. What is her name?"

At that, the nurse's eyes widened in comprehension. "Oh, that sounds like Doctor Lake. Barbara Lake."

"Barbara. Lake. Hmm," Kubritz repeated slowly, smiling darkly. She then turned away from the nurse without another word and faced a male officer in a military class A-uniform standing at attention behind her. "Sergeant Costas?"

The officer saluted her. "Yes, Colonel?"

"Run a background check on Doctor Barbara Lake. I believe she is hiding something about the troll outsiders we are also searching for, and I want to find out what she knows."

"With all due respect, Colonel, but I thought we were searching for the Tarron children?" The Officer, Sergeant Costas, asked.

"We are," Kubritz said softly. "But, a possible lead to the trolls or changelings has suddenly come to my attention, and I want to follow the trail while it's fresh. Now, as for the Tarron children, don't worry, they won't be able to get far." She turned away from him and smirked darkly to herself. "They may have escaped our lockdown at the school yesterday, but they are still in town, and General Morando is on his way to collect them from us. We have to remain busy tracking them down until then. So, for now, do as I've asked, Sergeant. Do a background check on this doctor. I saw something like true panic in her eyes when I was mentioning the Troll attack three weeks ago. She's hiding something."

If Sergeant Costas thought her request was strange, he didn't show it as he nodded stiffly and walked away. Kubritz then turned and pointed at two other officers behind her. "You two. Follow me."

The officers followed after her without question as she walked over to Wanda, the hospital coordinator's office, and knocked once upon the open door. Wanda looked up and paled upon seeing them.

"Oh, hello… er…."

"Colonel Kubritz."

"Right," Wanda said softly. "Um, what can I do for you, Colonel Kubritz?"

"Doctor Barbara Lake," Kubritz said, getting straight to the point. "How long has she been in your employment?"

"T-ten years," Wanda answered slowly, "um, almost eleven years next month, in August. Why?"

"I'm asking the questions," Kubritz said smoothly, and Wanda paled even more. "Now, where did she go, just now?"

"Um," Wanda said cautiously, looking shook, "out on her break. I usually let her go at six o'clock."

"Do you know where she goes?"

Wanda stared between Kubritz and the two male officers behind her and then glanced back into Kubritz's dark, cold eyes and shuddered slightly.

"I-I'm not sure. I… I know that she enjoys coffee and comes back with a go-to cup from Mr. Benoit's French Bistro a lot. It's a cafe down on Main Street. But, she didn't say if that's where she was going tonight."

Kubritz nodded, grinning darkly. "Thank you so much for your help. That'll be all for now."

Without another word, she turned around and faced the two officers, leaving Wanda to watch them with wide eyes.

"Follow after that doctor," Kubritz ordered them in a soft voice. "Go to Benoit's French Bistro Cafe down on Main Street and see if she's there. Report back everything you find. And if you see our outsider friends on the way… any of them…. you know what to do. The Tarron children I want alive, but the others can be dead or alive."

The officers saluted Kubritz, brought two laser guns to the ready, then left without another word.