Chapter 2 – An old friend

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Mike sighed and took a minute to rest. It was already past midnight by the time he made it to Trabia, and having to walk the entire way he was very worn out. He looked around sadly. Most of the town was in shambles. People were sleeping on the street, crying at their lost houses, families or what else…Mike couldn't know. Shaking his head he walked into a nearby Inn.

"Any rooms open?" He asked walking up to the Inn keep.

"Yea." The man said opening up the book.

"I'll take every room you have." Mike said slamming a bundle of money down on the counter.

"What?" The man was shocked, and started counting the coins. "Ok…rooms one through five, and seven through ten, twelve, twenty, and twenty one." He fumbled taking off all the keys from the wall behind him as Mike walked outside.

"Come on." He said helping one of the families sleeping on the street. "Go in the inn."

"But the bomb…it destroyed everything, I have no gil for an inn." The woman said.

"It's already payed for."

"Oh bless you!" She said smiling and helped her children into the building.

Mike sighed sitting on the bed taking off his shoes. He was out in the town another hour or two helping everyone he could find and getting them into the Inn, some had to share a room, but none would share with him, they were so thankful they wanted him to have his own room. Sighing again he laid down and within minutes was fast asleep.

*** *** ***

Gabriel sat in his office again, typing away on his computer. He smiled to himself as charts and graphs came up and Wedge knocked on his door and came in a few minutes later.

"Sir?"

"What is it?" Gabriel said not looking up from the computer.

"Well one of our teams found something when placing one of the bombs." He said.

"Oh?" That got his attention, and he stood up and walked over to Wedge, seeing that he held a sword. "I'll take it."

Wedge nodded and handed over the sword, then left. Gabriel just stared at it for a minute. It was beautiful, a black base to hold, and a long shaft that curved in at the top. He marveled at it, the blade was half as long as his entire body.

Gabriel wasn't aware of time anymore, his plans, the money he would make, the safety of the bombs, all that mattered was the sword. It took a hold of him, and his eyes burned looking at it. "Good…good." He wheezed out, unaware he even said anything.

*** *** ***

Mike opened his eyes cautiously; he had been expecting to have another one of those weird dreams. Sighing he got up and got dressed, there was a lot of work to do. "Let them stay as long as possible." Mike said, throwing some more money at the Innkeeper.

"Yes sir!" The man said smiling and counting the coins. "Thank you sir!"

Mike rubbed his forehead and looked around. Trabia was a small town, and as half of it was destroyed he didn't expect to find one of the bombs here, but it was the closest, and he figured it was worth a shot. He had already looked mostly around the town the night before when helping victims, so he decided to search the outskirts.

Not five feet outside in the direction he went out he saw a small building. A few Biocorp soldiers were walking around outside of it and Mike hid behind a nearby tree peeking at it. That was defiantly the bomb, how could no one have found it?

Mike took out his gun and looked around for a stealthy way to get there. There was none, the building was in the middle of an open plain. There were two guards at the door, and who knew how many were inside or behind the building.

He sighed and started running at them from the side, as quietly as possible. Luckily they didn't notice him at first, they were talking about something, and he was able to run out of their view and get to the side of the building.

He quickly peered over to the back of the building to see if there were any guards there, and thankfully there were none. But it still left the question of how many there were inside. Quietly inching his way close to the front he could hear the two talking.

"No he only tells his Commanders the code." One said to the other.

"Yeah I guess I know why. I hate that bastard."

"You know what would have happened to our families if these bombs went off and our families weren't up there safe?"

"Yeah, yeah, but what do you think is going to happen if they do go off? How long do you think he'll keep them alive?"

"What reason does he have to kill them?"

Mike sighed lowering his gun, these people didn't deserve to die, they were just protecting their families, they were blackmailed. Looking up Mike saw a window not far above his head.

Holstering his gun Mike jumped up grabbing the windowsill and pulled himself up. Trying to balance himself on the short piece of wood he slowly opened the window, and dropped in.

He instantly took his gun back out and tried to see in the sudden darkness. He could make out a little bit from the light coming in through the window, but beyond that he could barley make out anything.

Apparently it was just one big room, there was only that one window, and the one door that was guarded, and there didn't seem to be anyone in there either. Mike was a little confused, thinking it was a little too easy. But seeing a platform in the middle of the room he slowly and carefully walked over to it.

It was defiantly the bomb, sleek and silver with a timer and a keypad in the center. Mike sighed rubbing his forehead and looking around one last time he put away his gun. He never planned on finding it so fast, or so easily, and had no idea how he could disarm it.

"Fast aren't you?" A voice rang out from the darkness. Mike jumped and grabbed his gun, almost dropping it.

"Who's there?" He cried out.

A masked man stepped out; he was wearing all black and held a Katana in his hand. Mike took a step back and aimed the gun at him.

The masked man laughed. "I'm a guard, so to speak."

Mike sighed. "Get out." He said softly keeping the gun pointed as best he could in the low light.

The man laughed again. "I may not be able to see your face but I know you're scared. I'm not going anywhere." He took another step forward, raising his katana preparing to strike.

Mike took a step back and fired the gun. The masked man easily ricocheted it with his sword and jumped forward. Mike ducked barley dodging the katana and backed up firing two more times, and falling down in the light of the window.

At that moment the door burst open and the two guards came running in, their guns drawn. I needed a better plan, Mike thought pointing his guns at the soldiers.

"Leave…I'll handle this." The masked man said.

"But."

"Go! Tell the captain what happened." The two nodded and ran out, leaving the door open. More light seeped into the room and Mike could now see the man better. He was built, Mike could tell that because he was wearing tight clothes. "So Mike, what are you doing here?"

"What? How do you know my name?" Mike was shocked. The man just laughed and took off his mask. Mike gasped. "John?"

*** *** ***

Mike sighed, looking out the window at kid's playing together happily laughing, with their parents complaining to keep safe. "What's wrong?" Captain said walking in the room and smiling.

"Oh nothing. It's just that I want friends."

"Well you're not going to make any in here studying, get the hell out there." He said smiling.

Mike smiled, thanked him and ran outside.

"What do you want?" One of the kids said smugly as Mike approached them.

"Be nice!" One of the parents yelled into the street.

Mike bit his lower lip. "Oh, I guess I just wanted to play with you guys."

"You guess? And what if we don't want to play with you, you gunna arrest us?"

"Well no but…"

"Why don't you go back inside or something, teams are full." Another kid piped in.

Mike just sighed and started back towards the house. "Hi, Mike right?"

Mike turned around to see another kid standing there, the others had gone back to playing whatever game they were playing. "Oh, yea."

"Hi I'm John. I saw what happened, those kid's are jerks."

Mike smiled. "Yea, thanks…"

10 years later

"I don't see why you have to leave." Mike said softly. Mike and John had stayed friends all their life. The two were inseparable, and although Mike had vowed to become a cop like the captain that took him in and fathered him, John didn't want that for him. Cops didn't get payed that much, and his parents had been very poor, John didn't want that for him, and any family he would have later on in life. That day he decided he would be a mercenary for hire.

"We've talked about this time and time again, this is what I want to do. I'm sorry but I've made up my mind. It hasn't been an easy decision."

"But…"

"Look there's nothing you can do to change my mind, you knew this day would come. Don't worry, we will meet again…I can feel it."

Mike sighed as John started up his bike and road off out of town. "Yeah, I feel it too."

*** *** ***

John put his sword away and helped Mike up. "Sorry about that."

"Sorry for what?" Mike asked. "I'm the one who tried to shoot you." The two laughed. "But really, what are you doing here? Don't tell me your working for Gabriel."

John sighed. "Well yea…but I had no idea this is what I would be doing."

Mike shook his head. "Still…I never thought I'd find you here."

"Yeah I know. But listen I never would've signed up with him if I knew what was going on, and in fact I was hoping to find you here, and specifically asked to be placed here."

"What?"

"Look I know it sounds weird, but once I found out what he was doing I started sneaking around. You know I've always wanted to be like a ninja right?"

"Yea…"

"Well I've found out a good deal of information, and decided then I would plan against him, but still work for him so I could get more info. I knew you'd try and stop his plan, being mister hero, and figured I can help you."

"Oh…I could sure use it old friend?"

"Yes I'm sure you could, but I can give more help then you can imagine."

Mike's eyebrows arched. "Really? What do you mean?"

"I found codes and locations to eleven of the bombs." Mike gasped. "Yeah that's right, but we'll have to come up with something for the other half of them…I couldn't find the locations or codes of them without getting caught, and when he announced to us his plan was about to happen I asked to guard one of the bombs, and luckily he put me in charge of this one, and knowing that it was closest to Timber, and hoping you hadn't moved I knew you would come sooner or later. And I guess I was right."

Mike smiled. "So then you know the code for this one?" John nodded and walked over and punched in a few keys. A few beeps followed and the bomb powered down.

"Nothing more then a very expensive paperweight now."

"You mean they can't reactivate it?"

"No, there was a safety precaution installed so that once you arm it, and then disarm it, you cannot arm it again."

"Well that's great, so where are we going now?"

"So then you accept me in your little save the world party?"

Mike laughed. "Of course I do, even if you didn't have the codes."

John smiled. "Yeah, yeah sure, anyway the closest bomb that I know about from here is in Dollet."

"Well it is a little far…but I guess to Dollet we go."