Following The Footsteps
Chapter Seven - intermission
Fifteen years after Xin Ru Si Hui, Max and Zack's daughter goes off on an adventure of her own, and finds out some startling news.
~~
Jonay spent the next three months training with Jondy, Krit and the others. She missed her family, but understood that what these guys wanted her to do was important. Important enough for Jonay to miss three months of school, and instead learn other ways of fighting, escape and evade, tactics, reconnaissance, even about explosives. She practiced her fighting each day, getting better and better all the time.
While she wasn't quite as good as Jondy, by the end of the first month, she could beat Dom and Mac, at the end of the second she could beat Gem, Lee, Oram and Krit. And by the end of the third month, she could beat Lex once in two matches, and had beaten Jondy once.
It was the 29th of February. Jonay only knew this because she had heard Gem arguing with Lee about leap years. Jonay had only heard a small bit of the argument, and was glad she hadn't heard any more. At first it had been a debate. A simple game of disputing each other's point. It had been this that Jonay had heard. Then it got to verbal abuse. Insulting the others point. Jonay hadn't needed to be near them to hear it; they had been loud enough to hear in the sparring room upstairs. It was only when it started to get physical between Gem and Lee that Krit and Teva had grabbed each of them and thrown them out the door. They started their verbal fight again out there, until Jondy and Krit came up and pushed them down the stairs.
The two of them stood up, shook themselves off, and looked up the stairs. Jondy, Jonay, Krit and Teva stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at them.
"What was that for?" Lee yelled up at the four.
"For arguing over a pointless thing." Jondy replied.
"Pointless?" Gem gasped. "Pointless? You call this pointless?"
"Gem. Shut up." Jondy ordered, "It was a pointless thing to start an argument about, you know that. You didn't need to start a fight about it. And if you did want to fight, you could have just gone up to the sparring room, without the verbal side of it."
"Why not? It's not often that you get to have a good argument around here. The rest of you idiots are too soft to have a good debate. We needed the practice." Lee commented.
"You think we're soft?" Krit asked.
"I don't think. I know." Gem stated.
"If you think you're going to get away with that Gem, then you're wrong." Teva barked as she started descending the stairs.
"Teva, don't." Jonay warned, as she reached out to grab Teva's arm. With the other arm she was holding Krit back. Jondy stood beside Krit, hands folded over her chest.
"Why shouldn't I?" While Jondy and Jonay both had extremely slow tempers, Teva had the quickest temper of them all. The slightest provocation and she would explode. Krit wasn't quite as bad, but if any of the others jumped the gun, then he would follow.
"Because that's what they want. For you to go down there and fight them. If you do that, then you're stooping down to their level. You heard Jondy before; they were fighting over a pointless thing. This is even more pointless than that. So just walk away now and go back up to the sparring room. We'll come up in a minute. You go too Krit." Jonay ordered.
"Fine. Fine. But only for you Jonay. If you're gonna save us all, I guess I'd better listen to you." Teva replied as she started back up the stairs. "Come on Krit. Let's go have a round."
Jondy waited for both of them to go up the stairs before looking back down at Gem and Lee again.
"You two. We need some more supplies. Go see Dom, and get him to give you the list and some cash for the stuff. I want you to go together, and get everything on the list, and be careful. And be quick. We leave tomorrow. That means we need to pack tonight. Which means that you two have to be home here, with all of the supplies, before sunset. You got that?" Jondy asked.
"Yes ma'am." The two mock saluted Jondy before running up the stairs and back into the apartment.
Turning back to Jonay, Jondy found that Jonay was staring at her, mouth slightly open, and eyes wide.
"Shut your mouth Jonay. You'll let the flies in."
Jonay snapped her mouth shut, before opening it again.
"Jondy? What did Teva mean about me being the one to save us all?"
"She was joking."
"No she wasn't. She was dead serious. Jondy, will you please tell me what we're doing? Where we're going? And why am I going to save you all?"
"I..."
"Please don't lie to me Jondy. I need to know what we're doing."
"Okay. Come up to the sparring room. We'll talk there."
Jonay followed Jondy up the stairs. They walked into the sparring room, where Krit and Teva were in the middle of a fight. Walking around them, Jondy opened the door to what was used as a classroom. Shutting the door behind them, Jondy locked it before sitting down, and motioning for Jonay to sit as well. Once Jonay had sat down, Jondy talked.
"You remember what I told you about Manticore Jonay?"
"How could I forget?"
"Good. Now, you will remember that I said there were 12 of us that escaped in '09 don't you."
"Yeah."
"Well, of that original 12, there are 9 of us left. Max, Krit, Syl, Teva, Dom, Mac, Zane, Cas and me. Ben and Tinga are dead. Manticore caught the other, Brin. Because no matter how long we live in this world, Manticore will never stop chasing us, or our children. We will never truly be free of them, until they are no more."
"And that is what you're planning to do. Bring down Manticore."
"Yes. That is what we plan to do. And you, we need you to help us."
"I will. This is what I was born for. To follow the footsteps of my mother and father. To help their brothers and sisters in the mission to end all missions."
"You make it sound easy Jonay. I'll eat breakfast. I'll go for a walk. I'll take down the impregnable bitch of a fortress that spawned us off. Let me tell you Jonay, this will not be easy. It will test us all. Blue lady knows what they have created since we left."
"Maybe nothing more than new soldiers."
"Maybe. But I doubt that. They have no doubt created some new enhanced prototype that could kill a hundred soldiers without breaking a sweat. But we won't know till we get there. And no doubt there will be some casualties. We all know that. And we're all hoping that it won't be us that is hurt or killed during this raid. But we will all protect you. If it comes down to us or you, it will be us."
"Why? Why am I so important?"
"Because, as you said before, you are following in your mother's footsteps. And your fathers. You are doing what we can only dream of doing. We need you to get inside the compound, and destroy the DNA lab. There is only one way in, and it's going to be hard. I will go with you, to help you."
"The DNA lab? What will that do?"
"That will stop them from creating further prototypes. We hope to bring the whole place burning to the ground, but if we can't do that, then we can at least take out the DNA lab."
"Are all the others coming?"
"Yes. Dom and Mac won't be coming in with us though. They will stay in our vans outside the perimeter. They will be watching us through the security cameras, and we will be connected to them with coms. While you and I take out the DNA lab, Oram and Lex will take the main auxiliary generator, Lee and Gem will take out the medical ward, and Krit and Teva are going to set off random charges.
"How are we going to get in?"
"To get into the grounds is easy. All you have to do is jump the perimeter fence, and stay away from the guards. To get into the lab is harder. You will have to climb through an air duct to get in and open the door from the inside. From there, I will help you, but getting in only you can do."
"And how do we get out if the place is burning down?"
"None of the charges will be anywhere near our exit route. If they are, then we will just improvise."
"Is that all I have to do? Climb through an air duct and open the door for you to come in and set the charges?"
"Basically, yes. But it's not that simple. The entrance to the air ducts is halfway across the building from the DNA lab. You will enter is there, and crawl through the ducts until you reach the lab, where you will exit the ducts, and open the door. Dom will be telling you the way through the ducts, via the com unit, but you will have to be absolutely silent as you do it. If you make a sound, then you could get caught. And if you get caught, they will do to you what they did to Brin."
"What's that?"
"They will make you one of them. They will make you forget about everything that you have out here. You will become a Manticore soldier whether you want to or not."
"I don't want that to happen."
"Neither do I, Jonay. That is why we kept you here for the past three months. You needed the training, to make you as good as we possibly could get you. Max and Zack started your training, and we have finished it. You won't get much better Jonay."
"But I can't even beat you Jondy. How can I be any good if I can't beat you? And I can only beat Lex one in two matches."
"That's because I'm the best fighter. I don't get beaten Jonay. You won't find many people better than me. And you have beaten me once. That just shows how good you are. None of the others can beat me. Well, Lex has beaten me once before, which also proves that she is very good, which is why you beat her one in two matches. You are good Jonay. Very good. Believe me."
"I do. I just..."
"What, Jonay?"
"I'm scared. I scared that I will come up against some one who is better than me, and they will kill me. I don't want to die Jondy. I'm 15. I don't want to die, and never see my family again. I want to come back after this, and run home, and tell mum that I'm ok and that I'm sorry. I want to play games with my brothers and sisters, and tease them, and hug them. I want to go to school, and graduate. I don't want to die. I'm too young to die."
"I'm sorry Jonay." Jondy whispered as she drew Jonay into a hug. Jonay rested her head on Jondy's shoulder, and waited for the tears to come. But they didn't fall. After a minute, Jonay pulled back.
"Jondy. I want to go home. I don't want to go inside or anything, I just want to see them again."
"Jonay..."
"Jondy, please. Did you know that it's the twins' birthday tomorrow? They turn 9. I want to see them again, Jondy. Please?"
"Ok. We'll go tonight. At midnight. But not for long, understood? We can't risk it."
"I know. But thank you Jondy. Thank you."
"You are welcome Jonay. Now come, let's challenge Krit and Teva to a tag team fight. Would you like to do that?"
"Sure! Can I be on your team Jondy?"
"Of course! Who's team would you be on otherwise?"
"I don't know. But let's go kick some transgenic ass!"
~~
Again, I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to write this, but I have many other things taking up my time at the minute. I'll try to write the next chapter soon though, but don't hold your breath.
Chapter Seven - intermission
Fifteen years after Xin Ru Si Hui, Max and Zack's daughter goes off on an adventure of her own, and finds out some startling news.
~~
Jonay spent the next three months training with Jondy, Krit and the others. She missed her family, but understood that what these guys wanted her to do was important. Important enough for Jonay to miss three months of school, and instead learn other ways of fighting, escape and evade, tactics, reconnaissance, even about explosives. She practiced her fighting each day, getting better and better all the time.
While she wasn't quite as good as Jondy, by the end of the first month, she could beat Dom and Mac, at the end of the second she could beat Gem, Lee, Oram and Krit. And by the end of the third month, she could beat Lex once in two matches, and had beaten Jondy once.
It was the 29th of February. Jonay only knew this because she had heard Gem arguing with Lee about leap years. Jonay had only heard a small bit of the argument, and was glad she hadn't heard any more. At first it had been a debate. A simple game of disputing each other's point. It had been this that Jonay had heard. Then it got to verbal abuse. Insulting the others point. Jonay hadn't needed to be near them to hear it; they had been loud enough to hear in the sparring room upstairs. It was only when it started to get physical between Gem and Lee that Krit and Teva had grabbed each of them and thrown them out the door. They started their verbal fight again out there, until Jondy and Krit came up and pushed them down the stairs.
The two of them stood up, shook themselves off, and looked up the stairs. Jondy, Jonay, Krit and Teva stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at them.
"What was that for?" Lee yelled up at the four.
"For arguing over a pointless thing." Jondy replied.
"Pointless?" Gem gasped. "Pointless? You call this pointless?"
"Gem. Shut up." Jondy ordered, "It was a pointless thing to start an argument about, you know that. You didn't need to start a fight about it. And if you did want to fight, you could have just gone up to the sparring room, without the verbal side of it."
"Why not? It's not often that you get to have a good argument around here. The rest of you idiots are too soft to have a good debate. We needed the practice." Lee commented.
"You think we're soft?" Krit asked.
"I don't think. I know." Gem stated.
"If you think you're going to get away with that Gem, then you're wrong." Teva barked as she started descending the stairs.
"Teva, don't." Jonay warned, as she reached out to grab Teva's arm. With the other arm she was holding Krit back. Jondy stood beside Krit, hands folded over her chest.
"Why shouldn't I?" While Jondy and Jonay both had extremely slow tempers, Teva had the quickest temper of them all. The slightest provocation and she would explode. Krit wasn't quite as bad, but if any of the others jumped the gun, then he would follow.
"Because that's what they want. For you to go down there and fight them. If you do that, then you're stooping down to their level. You heard Jondy before; they were fighting over a pointless thing. This is even more pointless than that. So just walk away now and go back up to the sparring room. We'll come up in a minute. You go too Krit." Jonay ordered.
"Fine. Fine. But only for you Jonay. If you're gonna save us all, I guess I'd better listen to you." Teva replied as she started back up the stairs. "Come on Krit. Let's go have a round."
Jondy waited for both of them to go up the stairs before looking back down at Gem and Lee again.
"You two. We need some more supplies. Go see Dom, and get him to give you the list and some cash for the stuff. I want you to go together, and get everything on the list, and be careful. And be quick. We leave tomorrow. That means we need to pack tonight. Which means that you two have to be home here, with all of the supplies, before sunset. You got that?" Jondy asked.
"Yes ma'am." The two mock saluted Jondy before running up the stairs and back into the apartment.
Turning back to Jonay, Jondy found that Jonay was staring at her, mouth slightly open, and eyes wide.
"Shut your mouth Jonay. You'll let the flies in."
Jonay snapped her mouth shut, before opening it again.
"Jondy? What did Teva mean about me being the one to save us all?"
"She was joking."
"No she wasn't. She was dead serious. Jondy, will you please tell me what we're doing? Where we're going? And why am I going to save you all?"
"I..."
"Please don't lie to me Jondy. I need to know what we're doing."
"Okay. Come up to the sparring room. We'll talk there."
Jonay followed Jondy up the stairs. They walked into the sparring room, where Krit and Teva were in the middle of a fight. Walking around them, Jondy opened the door to what was used as a classroom. Shutting the door behind them, Jondy locked it before sitting down, and motioning for Jonay to sit as well. Once Jonay had sat down, Jondy talked.
"You remember what I told you about Manticore Jonay?"
"How could I forget?"
"Good. Now, you will remember that I said there were 12 of us that escaped in '09 don't you."
"Yeah."
"Well, of that original 12, there are 9 of us left. Max, Krit, Syl, Teva, Dom, Mac, Zane, Cas and me. Ben and Tinga are dead. Manticore caught the other, Brin. Because no matter how long we live in this world, Manticore will never stop chasing us, or our children. We will never truly be free of them, until they are no more."
"And that is what you're planning to do. Bring down Manticore."
"Yes. That is what we plan to do. And you, we need you to help us."
"I will. This is what I was born for. To follow the footsteps of my mother and father. To help their brothers and sisters in the mission to end all missions."
"You make it sound easy Jonay. I'll eat breakfast. I'll go for a walk. I'll take down the impregnable bitch of a fortress that spawned us off. Let me tell you Jonay, this will not be easy. It will test us all. Blue lady knows what they have created since we left."
"Maybe nothing more than new soldiers."
"Maybe. But I doubt that. They have no doubt created some new enhanced prototype that could kill a hundred soldiers without breaking a sweat. But we won't know till we get there. And no doubt there will be some casualties. We all know that. And we're all hoping that it won't be us that is hurt or killed during this raid. But we will all protect you. If it comes down to us or you, it will be us."
"Why? Why am I so important?"
"Because, as you said before, you are following in your mother's footsteps. And your fathers. You are doing what we can only dream of doing. We need you to get inside the compound, and destroy the DNA lab. There is only one way in, and it's going to be hard. I will go with you, to help you."
"The DNA lab? What will that do?"
"That will stop them from creating further prototypes. We hope to bring the whole place burning to the ground, but if we can't do that, then we can at least take out the DNA lab."
"Are all the others coming?"
"Yes. Dom and Mac won't be coming in with us though. They will stay in our vans outside the perimeter. They will be watching us through the security cameras, and we will be connected to them with coms. While you and I take out the DNA lab, Oram and Lex will take the main auxiliary generator, Lee and Gem will take out the medical ward, and Krit and Teva are going to set off random charges.
"How are we going to get in?"
"To get into the grounds is easy. All you have to do is jump the perimeter fence, and stay away from the guards. To get into the lab is harder. You will have to climb through an air duct to get in and open the door from the inside. From there, I will help you, but getting in only you can do."
"And how do we get out if the place is burning down?"
"None of the charges will be anywhere near our exit route. If they are, then we will just improvise."
"Is that all I have to do? Climb through an air duct and open the door for you to come in and set the charges?"
"Basically, yes. But it's not that simple. The entrance to the air ducts is halfway across the building from the DNA lab. You will enter is there, and crawl through the ducts until you reach the lab, where you will exit the ducts, and open the door. Dom will be telling you the way through the ducts, via the com unit, but you will have to be absolutely silent as you do it. If you make a sound, then you could get caught. And if you get caught, they will do to you what they did to Brin."
"What's that?"
"They will make you one of them. They will make you forget about everything that you have out here. You will become a Manticore soldier whether you want to or not."
"I don't want that to happen."
"Neither do I, Jonay. That is why we kept you here for the past three months. You needed the training, to make you as good as we possibly could get you. Max and Zack started your training, and we have finished it. You won't get much better Jonay."
"But I can't even beat you Jondy. How can I be any good if I can't beat you? And I can only beat Lex one in two matches."
"That's because I'm the best fighter. I don't get beaten Jonay. You won't find many people better than me. And you have beaten me once. That just shows how good you are. None of the others can beat me. Well, Lex has beaten me once before, which also proves that she is very good, which is why you beat her one in two matches. You are good Jonay. Very good. Believe me."
"I do. I just..."
"What, Jonay?"
"I'm scared. I scared that I will come up against some one who is better than me, and they will kill me. I don't want to die Jondy. I'm 15. I don't want to die, and never see my family again. I want to come back after this, and run home, and tell mum that I'm ok and that I'm sorry. I want to play games with my brothers and sisters, and tease them, and hug them. I want to go to school, and graduate. I don't want to die. I'm too young to die."
"I'm sorry Jonay." Jondy whispered as she drew Jonay into a hug. Jonay rested her head on Jondy's shoulder, and waited for the tears to come. But they didn't fall. After a minute, Jonay pulled back.
"Jondy. I want to go home. I don't want to go inside or anything, I just want to see them again."
"Jonay..."
"Jondy, please. Did you know that it's the twins' birthday tomorrow? They turn 9. I want to see them again, Jondy. Please?"
"Ok. We'll go tonight. At midnight. But not for long, understood? We can't risk it."
"I know. But thank you Jondy. Thank you."
"You are welcome Jonay. Now come, let's challenge Krit and Teva to a tag team fight. Would you like to do that?"
"Sure! Can I be on your team Jondy?"
"Of course! Who's team would you be on otherwise?"
"I don't know. But let's go kick some transgenic ass!"
~~
Again, I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to write this, but I have many other things taking up my time at the minute. I'll try to write the next chapter soon though, but don't hold your breath.