Chapter 6

Espionage

Dear Mr. Stronkhold,

I believe you are in need of my assistance. As you most likely have guessed, or known, Rogues are not prone to giving information to others, especially to Venoson, but I find it my honor to do so with you. Meet me two miles north from the Border. I will be waiting on my cycle for you.

Sincerely,

The Rogue

Torik closed the message hologram. "This should be interesting." He muttered.

"Why did you send for me?" The sands continued to churn.

"I saw your sympathy for the Faction."

"But we slaughtered them…" Torik stated.

"Only after they attacked you." The Rogue continued. Her body was slender, the desert armor light without burden. It consisted of red chest and shoulder plates, and thick leather pads over her thighs. Her boots were laced in red, with silver shins. She wore a large clay-colored upper cloak, complete with hood, casting a shadow over half her face.

The Rogue led him deep into the desert, the Broken Lands. They stopped on a hollow arch, overlooking the invisible borders of the next world. Torik shielded his eyes; the sun was much brighter here.

"There." The Rogue pointed. Torik squinted in the direction, his gifted sight betraying him. He saw only the molten sand and wavy sun of the horizon.

"There's nothing there." He argued. The Rogue grinned and extracted a pair of binoculars from her bike. She handed them to the Venoson.

"Look again." Torik did, and oddly, he took a step back in surprise. With only the naked eye to guide him, his sight yielded nothing, but aided by these average binoculars, he beheld a massive dome. The base was a pale bronze, complete with enough layers, it seemed, to withstand a thousand tanks.

Torik lowered the binoculars. "What is it?"

She took the tool from him, filling his hand with another small object, about the size of a golf ball. "A Face Shield."

"And what is this?"

"Something to turn it off."

"And?" Torik raised his eyebrow. Spill it.

The Rogue stepped back. "Now let's get this straight. I'm not helping you, I was never here. Ok?"

"Of course. You know my respect for your tribe."

"I don't have a tribe, ya' hear? There's no one left. NO ONE. Hunter's dead and nobody's gonna' take his place. Not even his wife… All of this has to end, and you know it. All this…chaos. Not just for the bounty hunters. It is for you too."

"Understood."

The Rogue began to board her cycle. "Get a group together. More than just two. Although your infiltration of Beacon was one hellova' mission, you'll need at least twice that to get into Emerald Base. Its destruction or immediate shutdown will open your communications tenfold, as well as upset the hunters' balance of power."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Torik asked, almost playfully.

The Rogue removed her goggles, revealing her deep violet eyes. "The simple wheel to start rolling. The abolishment of Factionalism."

"Which set of Factions?" Torik's eyes narrowed.

"All of them." Was her simple, light answer.

Torik fingered with his watch. "Quite a task to be preaching, not to mention undertaking. Sure you're up for it?"

"A wise man once said, 'If you want something more than anything else, you will get it'. Let's put it this way: accomplishing your greatest need in the world, is one hundred times better than the greatest sex in the world."

Torik chuckled. "Good day to you Rogue."

The Rogue covered her eyes again. "Good day to you, Agent of Venoson." Her hovercycle's engine roared and she shot off, leaving a high spread of sand waves as she went.

"Very interesting." He muttered.

"She wants to do what?" Erik strode beside the Venoson on the street corner behind Direct.

"Abolish factionalism."

"Which faction?"

Torik grinned, answering as casual as he saw fit. "All of them."

Erik slowed his walk. "Holy crap."

"My sentiments exactly."

"Wait." Erik caught back up. "What does that have to do with the bounty hunters?"

"Don't know."

"Well, aren't you going to find out?"

"Nope."

"But-

"Listen, Erik." Torik held up his hand to quiet him. "Can you help me or not?"

The Vengeance Officer gave a heavy sigh. "Yes I can."

"They're not exactly a wonderful group, but most of them have at least fought with or beside one another." Torik recalled Erik's explanations as he sat on the steps outside the city hall. The building had barely been used. A stature of medium height slumped against the pillar next to him. So this is Vor? Torik looked him over. He wore a slightly ruffled green jumpsuit, with bronze shoulder plates and a small pack seemingly built-in on his back. Latched around his forearms were similarly bronze, long bands, complete with modules yielding an emerald green crystal oval jutting out of each.

Not far from him sat an Elite officer in very complex suit. Torik couldn't help but tilt his head at the thing. Jim. Vor's partner. The Venoson took a quick glance to Kane not far away and recalled the incident of the Enforcer chasing these two "renegades".

Jim's suit was far from just bulky. Torik toyed with the idea that he literally lived in that suit, like it kept him alive. Although he was sitting down on the steps, Torik could see a hefty jetpack grafted into the suit, with an auxiliary floodlight that wrapped up to his right shoulder. The arms and legs were bulky but flexible, nearly every inch layered in tough, insulated covering and packs, loaded with small, remote explosives.

Jim caught Torik staring. "Look, I've got everything you'll ever need to sabotage anything at any time. Be happy." He obviously wasn't, or maybe this is how saboteurs look and act before they possibly kill tons of people.

The Venoson's eyes passed over Kane, he already knew what Enforcers could do, quite a lot that is, and rested on Tom, the fidgety and most inexperienced of the group. He was currently pacing back and forth muttering hastily to himself, apparently in an argument with whatever his conscience was telling him.

"Any second thoughts, officer?" Torik called over.

In a strikingly humorous change of visage, Tom ceased pacing and snapped to attention, standing completely erect. "No, sir!"

Torik regarded him with increasing humility. "You know, you can relax."

"Sir, I was ordered to treat with the utmost respect."

"Then I order you to relax."

If Kane were not wearing a mask, he would have laughed out loud.

The desert winds had become torrents in the time they first got on their way to the base. The Group of Five laid on their backs on the stretch of hill just before the building. Torik started his inspirational speech, "Ok, did everyone go to the bathroom before they came?"

Vor apologetically raised his hand. "Well, I'm sure they've got some sort of lavatory inside." Torik said. The group laughed again. "Now, does anyone need a run-down of the plan."

Tom's hand went up. "Does anyone else need a run-down of the plan." The rest shook their heads. "Okey dokey, let's go, then."

The saboteurs fell into sprints all around Emerald base. The few guards wandering about were bashed unconscious by Kane's chain-clad fists and boots. The real obstacle was the solitary door that poked out from beneath the earth. Torik began to arm his Force gun, but Vor beat him to it.

Torik watched in amazement as the twin claws sprang forth from the modules on the Elite's arms. He followed their nearly silent slicing through the metal. Vor discretely retracted them again. As Torik passed Vor he halted, looking from the modules up to Vor. "Try not to stick those in anyone." He said.

Vor only chuckled. He and Jim exchanged an awkward silence.

"All I'm saying is we need to take this base out. Their satellite system has become strangely complex and they're starting to use code we've never seen before." Torik had explained. Jim recalled the conversation, how Vor shifted uneasily at mention of the satellites. There were still some things he didn't know about his friend.

The group crawled and trudged silently through the shafts, the officers' boots clanging overhead through the grated floor. They went a little ways before stopping at a groove in the wall. Vor leaned up next to it, and extended one of his new claws. Sticking the blade in the groove, he slid it slowly down until they heard a faint Chunk! as the latch/groove was cut through and its door was opened. Vor braced against the flap and motioned Kane and Tom through saying, "You all have your jobs, let's do this." He re-latched the door, now only he and Jim remained.

Vor stepped up to one of the looser grates and extended his claws fully. Jim noticed and questioned, "What're you doing?"

"Starting what we Irish like to call a ruckus." Vor went into pouncing position.

"Too late for that." Jim had a small igniter bar in his hand, his thumb on the button. High above them, from the hallway out of the catwalks, a small explosion billowed, the smoke making it look bigger than its intent. Shouting and orders commenced, while soldiers scrambled to search positions around the smoke. The floor was cleared.

The Irishman turned to his partner, mouth open, "How?" And Jim simply answered, "Never question a tactical mind." And they separated.

Kane set off to find the barracks. If Trinity's forces could be nullified, their duties would be much easier. "These hallways are endless."

"Just keep looking, feel free to take time at this stage. We're not in a hurry…yet." Torik urged.

"I always plan to take my time…"

The grate yielded little resistance to a round volley of high-velocity bullets and Jim's enhanced legs. It sprang from its frame and clattered down a few feet away. Jim shot up out of the opening. "Well," he grinned to himself, "That was easy."

King! A bullet sang off his armor. "Maybe not." He turned on the sniper, still grinning. One pull of the trigger and the assailant was dead. "Finally, Torik, I get to have some fun. Thanks for the opportunity."

"Anytime Jim." Torik crackled over the headset.

"Heard anything from Vor yet?" his expression changed to amusement.

The Irishman leapt across the banisters with one-toed talons. From his perch he watched Officers pass under him, talking casually. He noticed one particular pair, looking exhausted, and followed them.

The Officers came to rest at a door significantly larger than the others, and when it slid open, it revealed a room full of couches and the stench of beer and liquor. "I seem to have found the lounge. Congratulate me, will ya'?"

"Congrats." Came Tom's reply. A soft, universal chuckle rustled over the net.

Five or six guards passed under Kane in the rafters, all heavily armed. They had poured out of yet another door up ahead. It locked itself. "Hmm, that's new."

"What's new?" Tom sounded worried.

"Calm, down, rookie, I think I found the armory."

Tom was finding this base to be larger than he had ever imagined. "What did I get myself into?" Already he had seen not one, but two main control rooms. As far as he knew, his only job was to be ready for Torik to give him orders if things got 'dicey'. How he saw it, though, was that he was only dead weight, and a personal annoyance to Kane. "Oh, well."

Torik dashed through the basement corridors. Fresh light streams flickered off the ceiling. "I think I'm getting close to the generator." He fingered his headset and patched through to Vor…

Sergeant Vlad Belt had had a long day. His colleagues had already given him hell over trying to date the Captain's daughter in another city, and the fact that she slapped him, multiple times. His luck with women had backfired since the 7th grade, and he still hadn't gotten over it. Not that there was much he could do about it anyway.

Belt was a good kid, a little biased sometimes, but he had faced enough crap, on his terms, to justify his random, and sometimes violent mood swings. Luckily, his wrath had been spared from Private Nick and the other newbies. He was in a lull, but he was mellow.

In fact, he was still mellow when the chatter halted way too quickly around the vending machines and coolers. He was still cool, calm, and collected when the group poised at the door parted to reveal a thing of medium height in a green jump suit.

"Hey guys," it said, with a light Irish accent. Belt wasn't sure if it was real or not. "A funny thing crossed my mind this morning. I was thinking what it would be like to take on…" it extended one finger and proceeded to count every person in the room, "forty guards only armed with their fists and wits of steel, kick all of their asses, then laugh at their nearly conscious bodies and drink their own beer." The thing cracked its knuckles and grinned. Nick was pissed. Belt drank his Diet Coke.

Kane's door was a predicament on its own accord. It was not complex. On the contrary, it was boring. No locks, no sensors, not even a door handle, just a flat slate indented in the wall. "Hey Kane."

The Enforcer twitched violently for a moment, then responded with fire on his tongue. "Yes?" He seethed.

There was a long pause, as if they were taking a longer breath. "…How you doin'?" It was Tom, mimicking an old ad campaign that failed.

Kane's words were knives. "If you do a 'Waazaap' gag, I promise you will not hold the privilege of a throat tomorrow." Tom's voice clicked off and Kane was left to ponder the door.

Mr. Belt had put up a good fight. His Diet Coke was still intact, and so were his ribs. He'll just have a headache for a long time when he wakes up.

Vor had kept to his word, perched on the overturned couch guzzling a Jack Daniels. All the guards inside were flat on the floor. The Elite had but one scuff from the Private Nick's boot when the kid took it off and threw it at him.

"Heh, heh," Vor shook his head, "What enthusiasm."

"Vor, are you there?"

The Elite finished the bottle and picked back up his headset. "Yeah?"

"I'm gonna' enter the preliminary corridor to the generator. Bad news is, there's going to be some intense gravity-

"I hope you've been working out." Vor interrupted straight-faced.

"My POINT is, that this can be stopped. Head to one of the main control rooms; it should be just down your hall, it doesn't matter which one, and shut down the system. This should cause a chain reaction that will not only stop the awesome gravity, but cancel about half the codes I have break in order to hack into the mainframe."

Vor saluted an unconscious Belt. "Will do, General. Fightin' Irish!"

Kane had solved his problem in the rafters. The door, in its simplicity, scanned the palms of whoever touched it. Now perched in the rafters, Kane easily pounced on the first officer to open the door.

The multitudes of shell cases and spike launchers made the Enforcer's head spin. "Hey guys? Pop quiz: what sophisticated military organization has… Instant-Freeze cartridges and… Holy crap, uh, Fusion Cannons? I never thought I'd see these again."

"In other words, these guys are loaded." Jim summarized.

"No shit, Sherlock."

Torik made a request. "A Fusion Cannon? If at all possible, use your visor to copy the schematics for one of those, I could use them later… Thanks. Vor, I'm almost there."

The circular door opened and Torik cascaded through. However, he landed with a hard clang and could not move from a kneeling position. Gravity. His strained voice sang over the net. "Vor, where the hell are you?"

The steel door was cut into several pieces before Vor rammed through it, slicing down the first guard in his way. The next guard was armed, but his bullets only deflected off one set of claws while the other slammed into his gut. Vor ducked the next volley from the guard behind him while yanking out his gun. One shot to the head and he was gone.

The Irishman retracted his claws. "Room clear, what d'you want me to do?"

"Shut down…the system."

Vor strode over to the console. "How?" he was so casual.

"I don't care! I'm being crushed." He cut off.

"Ok." Vor comfortably drew out his claws again and thrust them headlong into the console. He pried the panels apart and thrust one arm deeper into the guts of the system, literally pulling them out until one large cord ripped open. All light left the room. "That work?"

Sweat poured down the Venoson's face, but he could move. "Yeah. Thanks."

Vor looked at the console again, retracted his claws, and walked out of the room.

Torik dashed down the corridors. They began to convert to a neon tint lining the walls instead of the average dusk. He was getting close to the generator room. A voice on his headset made him stumble.

"So, explain the plan to me again?" it was Tom.

Kane's angry bass came into the conversation. "Why the hell are you asking now!?"

"Cool it, Kane, just keep going." Then, to Tom, "Where are you?"

Tom looked around. "Don't know, but there's a lotta' yelling and it's getting louder."

"I see him." Jim's monotone came over easily. "And there are plenty of snipers heading his way. I don't think they're after him, but if they see him…"

'They're after me', Torik thought. "Jim, see if you can't slow them down a tad." Came Torik's order.

"Gladly."

Jim lined up his crosshairs to the running gunner. One shot. The gunner fell with a silent scream. Another, further left. The gunner was running down the steps, getting halfway down, then leaping over the railing to the next flight. On his next leap, he received a blast in the gut to set him in place.

The Elite Sniper decided to change positions, chancing a flash of his bulky suit. He sensed the shot; it burned in his place. The opposing snipers lingered on a catwalk. Their hesitancy rewarded them with the riddling of their foolish bodies.

Three new shots clanged next to Jim. He whirled onto his back, his gun flinching as it loaded a small missile on its bulkier right side. He loosed it from the hole. The smoke left a spiral before splintering the catwalk and its occupants.

ANOTHER presence; behind him. Without hardly looking, Jim hopped up, sighting just over the top of the steel box, and launched his second missile. Two bullets sang into the metal before many cut-off expletives were heard, then another deafening explosion.

"I'm being surrounded. I've gotta' move." Jim calmly informed.

"Go ahead, you've made the time I need." Torik was timing the strides perfectly, but light charges were beginning to streak past him, denying his words. The Zero-gravity was finally working in his favor, but time was running short; the generator would be back soon… What was up with that code? Damn, how much do we actually know!?

The end of the corridor was slightly disappointing. All it beheld was a small console and screen. Not even a chair. "Well, at least it's generic." He began typing. In two minutes he was in.

"Damn it!" Jim's voice crackled in. "This place has more snipers than the castles back home!"

"And what home is that?" Kane's monotone actually sounded curious.

"You need not worry of things that do not concern you." Wow, Vor actually knew some wisdom.

Torik was so caught up in the chatter that he nearly missed what flashed across the screen, but his mind processed it fast enough. "Oh my God." The conversation stopped. The Venoson had copied the data onto his headset and resolutely shut down the generator before he replied. "I have the blueprints, and they're not in any language I've seen before."

"Holy sh-

COMMENCE AUXILIARY! INTRUDERS ARE PREVALENT, EXECUTE WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE!

Torik whirled on the voice, only to witness the console being crushed by a door descending from the ceiling, as if the Lord just dropped it into place. Another door slammed down in front of Torik, nearly crushing his big toe. "Tom!" he yelled over the tac, "I think things just got dicey!" And bolted.

Jim wasn't sure of many things about this Base, but he was certain that it was alive. In the sense that it could feel pain. Only three minutes ago did Jim fire on a wall, leaving a small singe mark, and a new plate of armor slid over the wound. Now the Base knew they were there. And the walls were moving to compensate.

"New Mission everyone." The members perked up. "Search for a green orb of some kind, that's the mark of the satellites." Torik's knowledge told them. "We need to destroy it."

Kane flattened himself behind the pillar. His emerald eyes scanned the Central. Out of nowhere he felt a surge of energy and his eyes flashed. Literally. A bright green light blinded his vision. That must be it…

"Whew." The Venoson's hands ached. They had become swiftly callused and scratched. "Mom always said I had delicate hands."

"Huh?"

"The generator's powering down, interference'll be out in another few minutes. You gotta' start wrapping this up."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Jim hovered on his catwalk. "This place is a factory and a castle. Literally, I found the ballroom." He chuckled to himself.

"Uh, guys?" It was Tom, sounding very shaken. "I think I'm in trouble."

"Damn rookie!"

"Jim, can you see Tom?" Torik kept his cool.

Jim lingered on the balcony, scanning the underworld. "Yes, he's in the Central Platform." He looked to the far right. "And there's a shitload of guys comin' his way."

"Wait, what!?" Tom did a little dance.

Torik tore in, "Jim! Can you get to him?" Silence. "Jim!"

"…Yes."

The Elite rose, his jetpack flaring. He rocketed over the Central, first circling. His large machine gun he positioned in front of his head as he flew. Laser fire rained down upon the closing forces, few fell, but most were startled. They continued to come. Jim made another pass, arming his third and final missile. God let it fly with a prayer of forgiveness.

The explosion radius was engulfing, sucking in all but a couple, who immediately ran.

Tom looked up from his position, and his eyes shot open. High above him, sitting strangely out of place, sat an elevated console. "I think I got something." And he broke into a run.

"Tom, wait! That's-

Ssffltk! He didn't know the streak was coming, but his instincts sensed it, jerking his body slightly to the right in the run. It sliced through his left elbow, blood trickling out both sides. As the force flung him around, his good arm cast out his double-barrel blaster. His assailant's chest exploded from the dual blasts.

Tom fell onto his back, then instinctively rolled away from auxiliary fire. He held two fingers to his black helmet. "Jim, I've been hit. I'm down."

"Damn it!" Came Jim's response.

"Listen, Tom, just get up and see if you can-" Torik was cut off by a louder and commanding voice.

"Stay where you are and stay down!" Kane boomed.

The Enforcer bolted down the dark corridor. All around him walls were jutting or converging into each other. Again, his emerald eyes flashed before he flung himself into the bright abyss.

Below him the massive, cubed platform rose ominously, its lower ends sinking around it. Its ascension was forming a dark and ever-widening chasm. Kane saw the protruding semi-orb slowly disappearing into that chasm. He kept his body erect, knees bent and only slightly moving.

This is when the other guards noticed the Enforcer's floating outline and opened fire.

A shot skimmed Kane's left shoulder, while another shattered his right shoulder com-link. He didn't return fire, but kept his gun level with both hands. Emerald locked upon emerald. The vision of his opponents was slowly being overcome by a black sheet, with a dark-blue tint outlining its perfect square plates.

Kane jerked his head to the left to dodge a final shot, then the black was over his eyes. The chasm was long. Fffwoo! He passed a floor. His gun didn't move. Fffwoo! Fffwoo! Fffwo- Green flashed, time slowed, Kane's gun leveled even more. Emerald locked on emerald. The blaster before him discharged and recoiled in slow-motion. Silence.

Kakakashooooom! Light and fire flooded between the walls above the Enforcer. He looked up into the growing fire, latched his gun, and extended his right arm straight up toward the light. The pressure administered into his palm hit the trigger. A thin, powerful grappling hook sang from the band on his forearm, jettisoning a small puff of ignition smoke as it went. The line entered into the orange and red cloud, then grew out of the smoke plume at its peak, finding the ceiling and drilling into it.

Kane stopped and hung momentarily in the blackness, then was hurled up into the now smoking higher chamber. He ducked his head down while entering the smoke, then brought it up as he emerged. Drawing his gun once more, he checked all around him for any other snipers. He found none. Kane, though, heard no sound, and could not see his assailant, but knew as he fell back into the burning abyss…

Torik couldn't believe his eyes, as his ears turned deaf for a few seconds. The explosion was extravagant enough, but what the Base did next was amazing. It transformed again. The burning pillar that housed the Emerald sank into the dark abyss that had now appeared in the Central Core. All other surrounding tiles converged into each other, forming a smooth chasm. What finally appeared, as Torik's eyes shone wider, was one, large, gaping hole in the center of the room. That's where Kane is…

Drunken mist floated around the dank basement. Kane had softened his fall by landing on one of the rotting buildings, and falling through to its own basement. "Great," Kane murmured to himself, "Multiple levels." The Enforcer brushed as much soot off of his uniform as he cared, which wasn't much.

Kane's surroundings left much to be desired. Well, at least as much as could be desired in a Ghost City. Another Ghost City. "Oh my God."

"What? What is it?" Vor asked.

"I'm in the West City… I think."

"What is it doing underground?" Tom wondered.

Torik answered instantaneously. "Sandstorms."

"There's something else…"

"What?" But Kane grew silent… A great cave, no, a stone doorway, stood erected in the mist. A colossal gate guarded the secrets within. But there was something wrong. This gate had seen better days, the wear on it more than noticeable. These bars had once been straight and strong, now they were only wires. The hinges were gone. What happened next made Kane's heart tremor.

The gate shook.

Instinctively, the Enforcer frantically readied the on-board camera on his headset. Upon initiation, a ruby viewing piece sat itself in front of his right eye. It now mirrored what he was seeing. "Guys?"

Each of the saboteurs, even Tom, floating fifty feet above the abyss with Jim, lifted their heads. Each readied their ruby visors.

The ghostly gate faltered, nearly distorted in the air. It clanged, mangled, to the gray floor. The mist accented something else, wavering over a heavy mass. Is that an arm? Kane's mind flared. His emerald eyes looked upon, now in clear shaded light, a three-pronged claw, which sat motionless in the stale air.

"Oh shit."

"My sentiments exactly." The voice belonged to Vor.

"You guys see what I see?" Kane asked.

The rest of them didn't know what to say, but Torik spoke first. "Kane, I need you to do something for me. Run. As fast as you can."

"Run? Why do I need to-

"RUUUUUUUN!" He did run, and the creature took notice. In one powerful lunge it had flexed the contours of its cage, in another it had broken free.

"Kane," Torik broke off into the sewers as if he knew where he was going, even though he didn't. "Keep running, but look around so I can get an idea as to where you are." What Torik saw were old buildings, like an abandoned underground city. He did, even, catch glimpses of a great three-pronged claw gaining ground behind the Enforcer. He quickened his pace.

"What can WE do?" Jim.

"Nothing! Stay there and wait for something to happen."

Above the chasm, in the darkness of the rafters, Vor perched. "Well, screw that idea." Both sets of claws flowed out in the shadows.

"Vor!" Jim watched his comrade dive into the blackness; a green arrow with spiked tips. The dark vortex swallowed the Elite quickly, its gaping mouth growing wider…

Kane felt like he was running a marathon, save for the 60-foot dragon tailing him.

Torik at last found a landing with substantial footing. Just beneath him, the two closed the distance between each other. He took careful aim… Kane nearly lost his torso as his feet escaped a great blast. The beast behind him barely shivered.

"Great aim, marksman!" Kane screamed.

"Kane. Stop moving and get down."

"Why?" he asked angrily.

"NOW!"

The Enforcer stopped short and knelt, then rocked onto his chest as the beast leaped over him. There was a great crash when it smashed headlong into the alternate wall. The entire city shook.

"Holy crap." Vor, now closer to Torik, was there. The behemoth sank to the floor, its wings now quite visible. "What the hell is that thing?"

Torik said very quietly. "Jeva."

All of them stood in silence as the thing struggled back to its feet. For a long time it just sat there, staring at the carved earth. Crash! It pounded its head into the stone again and again, until the outer layer gave way completely. The streets flooded with misted dirt and concrete. Kane had at last sought refuge with Torik and Vor atop one of the buildings. "E.T. go home?"

"He wants out."

Vor was perplexed. "He?" But their thoughts were interrupted as the beast let out a cry of despair. The outer layer only exposed walls of solid steel and rock. However, light was beginning to flood the chasm. Jeva turned its head around, its huge eyes unblinking in the sunlight. It opened its wings partway, and launched upward. Jeva paid no mind to burrowing through the outer walls of the chasm itself.

Torik reacted quickly. "Jim! It's coming your way."

Jim floated in the hole. The adjacent wall was torn asunder as a sight no one had seen except in storybooks plowed through. Jim wasted no time, ascending with the creature. The crosshairs leveled between the eyes. "Say goodnight sweetheart."

"Don't shoot it!"

Jim knocked his own gun askew and missed, striking a rivet instead. The behemoth barreled past him, knocking him off balance. Of all times, it was now that his jetpack decided to sputter and fail. Darkness overwhelmed him…

Kane lunged his arm out and grasped the thick padding of Jim's descending suit. The Enforcer was indeed strong, but even he strained at the dead weight. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for Jim to come to.

"Your jetpack still work?"

"Huh? Yeah, one second." The flood light turned on, then off, and the concentrated flame grew again.

"Then let's go." Despite Kane's size, he propped onto Jim's back. The set-up was awkward, but necessary.

Jim suddenly looked scared. "What about Torik and Vor?"

"They're way ahead of us."

The sewer tunnels were small, but fast. Only Torik and Vor, the thinnest of the group, could scale them. Despite that, they all met on the same platform. Jeva, though, was high above them.

"Jim, make sure that thing gets out of here safe."

Instead, the Elite turned the gun on his commander. "What's all this about, Torik? Why is there a creature that size in the basement?"

Torik held up his hand in surrender. "All I know is that we need to make sure that thing doesn't get attacked, otherwise we're all dead."

Erik saw the Thing rise out of the base. He knew the drill. Legs spread and palms together, he initiated the incantation. "Kaaameeeehaaaa…"

From beneath the layers of wire and metal it rose, its old wings at last spreading. Behind it, a lone and reluctant sharpshooter rose with it, only a tad slower.

The Vengeance Officer felt his concentration waver as the dragon came into full view. This thing was massive. 'Could it be? Something like this? Could it be Eternal?'

"Meeeee-" A fleeting thought and Erik hesitated. He did not know what this would mean, nor the great consequence of attacking this colossus. No one knew that… But apparently someone had a clue, as the Officer ceased his incantation and fell back, laser shots raining down around him.

And Jeva, the dragon from the depths of West City, the underground of Emerald Base, rode the winds toward the horizon. To the sun it glided, leaving its potential prey to wallow in their confusion. That is, until Erik ordered a transport.