Lion's Den

Ellsworth, Maine, February 2010

The atmosphere was dull, everyone was tired but Nigel had forced them to stay. Nigel's ass was on the line if he fails to get a miracle then the project is taken away from him, Beers had stated that clearly when they met two weeks ago.

Nigel scratched his head as looked around the room, most of his team was falling asleep. The ideas they put forward were okay but they weren't good enough, Nigel needed something big, a miracle. After Mary had backstabbed Nigel he had found a new guy whom he trusted.

Daniel Keeling met Nigel a year back, they met when Nigel discovered Mary was working with Linn. Now Daniel sat in front of a computer and seemed to be working.

"I think I got it" said Daniel

Nigel looked at his friend hoping that he had something that might help save him "What have you got?"

Daniel stood up "This hybrid, he's been shutting down the signals right"

"Yes"

"I think we can get him" grinning at his thought

Nigel's eyes widened "How?"

"As I recall, we have an implant right here"

Nigel then jumped up "Yes, Mr. Miller from Janitorial"

"Bingo"

The research team then circled around Daniel

"Why don't we 'lure' him into a trap" Daniel then had a sly smile on his face

"A trap?"

"Yes, we get him to go to Miller and we catch him"

"It's not going to be easy" Nigel remembered the team he had in China who tried to catch the hybrid

"But we have home advantage" Daniel looked at Nigel with assurance

"Let's get to work" Nigel then smiled to Daniel

The research team then scurried over to their designated desks and began to plan a scheme to get the hybrid.

Arizona, February, 2010

The sound of the male rooster echoed through the farm, waking up animals and people alike. The old couple who owned the farm woke up from the call. Old man Bill, dressed up while his partner stayed in bed. Bill skipped breakfast and went straight to the barn, he fed the animals before deciding to check whether he had mail or not. When he stopped at the gate he saw a trail of dust and a man in a motorcycle heading towards his property. He went inside and got his shotgun, when he came out again the motorcycle was already parked in front of the gate with Spyke standing beside it.

Bill aimed the shotgun to Spyke, Spyke wasn't alarmed at all by the threat.

"What do you want?" Bill aimed the gun to Spyke's head now

Spyke moved forward to the gate

"I said what do you want?"

"I just want to talk" Spyke replied "I would think twice before pulling the trigger Bill"

"H-How do you know my name?" fear arising in his voice, he tried to hide it but it showed in his eyes

"That doesn't matter, can I come in?" he moved closer to the gate

Bill held closer to his gun threatening to shoot Spyke

"Don't you come any closer!"

"I don't want to hurt you, but if you force me…" Spyke paused "I will do what's necessary to obtain my goal"

Bill eased off but he still aimed his gun at Spyke "I don't want no trouble but I will shoot you if you come near that gate"

"Bill, I thought we had an understanding" Spyke shook his head in despair he moved closer to get

Bill reacted and was about to fire a warning shot but suddenly realized that he couldn't move, he was frozen in place.

Spyke opened the gate and walked calmly to Bill "I told I just wanted to talk, I'll let you go and we'll talk inside ok" he went past Bill and headed for the tattered house, releasing his death grip on the way

Billy immediately turned around and was about to shoot but then he was forced to drop the gun as the gun heated up in his hands

"Bill" Spyke spun around "Get your ass over here or I'll wipe your whole memory clean"

Fear then flooded his heart, Bill was not a stupid man, after what he had just witnessed he didn't want to end up in the morgue, he then obeyed Spyke and went inside.

Inside the house, Bill's wife, Cassandra was dressed and shocked to see Spyke, Spyke had put them in the lounge and they sat next to each other on the couch while Spyke stood. Bill held Cassandra's hand tightly fearing what the man would do with them.

"What do you want with us?" Cassandra suddenly spoke, her voice trembling with fear

"I want to 'help' you"

"Help us?" Bill sounded confused "From what?"

"From the nightmares that wake you up every night"

Bill looked over to Cassandra fear in both their eyes

"But they stopped" replied Bill

"Yes., but one day they'll come back again"

"We fought the nightmares and they went away" Cassandra pointed out

Spyke looked at Cassandra, pity in his eyes

"You both knew what they were, I'm sorry for what they did to you"

Bill and Cassandra sat in silence "It's not your fault" Cassandra said breaking the silence between the two

"Yeah it's not your fault" Bill backing up his wife

"No it is and I'll change all that, if they come back they'll never find you again"

Spyke looked at them both, their faces no longer showed fear, he smiled

"Close your eyes and this will all be over" they obeyed Spyke and he instantly went to work, closing his own eyes. Out of sympathy Spyke decided to erase their nightmare encounters and fill it with happy moments based upon their memories, one of the many abilities that Spyke possessed by being a hybrid.

Spyke left them on the couch, their eyes still closed, it was near midday now and he had better be going. He quietly went out the door and sped off from the farm.

One more to go

I think I can take it easy for now

Ellsworth, Maine, March 5, 2010

Nigel sat in his office alone, thinking deeply of the plan that they had concocted, 'Operation Lion's Den' his biggest operation yet. Then Daniel came in his office and sat in the chair opposite to Nigel, Nigel looked at Daniel

"Don't you have a job to do?" said Nigel trying to get rid of him so that he can continue on with his alone time

"Yeah But that can wait, I found the perfect place for the operation"

Nigel then seemed interested at what Daniel had to say

"Where?"

"Right here at our own backyard, there's an old building, the city council is planning to renovate it and it's perfect for operation Lion's den"

"I'll be the judge of that"

At the building Nigel was extremely happy with the location Daniel found. Now all they had to do was get Mr. Miller to cooperate with them, they'll have to make a cover story of course but that's easy.

They returned back to their base and Nigel immediately summoned Mr. Miller to his office on an urgent matter.

Mr. Miller came into Nigel's office dressed in overalls, Nigel offered him to sit down and he did.

"Mr. Miller right?" making sure he had the right guy in front of him

"The one and only"

"Great, now on to important matters" Nigel then looked in his drawer and took out a file "Mr. Miller, I need your help"

"My help?"

"Yes, I need your help to capture an assassin"

Miller's face then changed when Nigel said 'assassin' fear showed

"I didn't do anything wrong, the mug that got broken last week it wasn't my fault"

Nigel smiled at his attempt to not get involved

"I'm sure it wasn't, but I'm not giving you an option here you know too much already" he then placed a gun on the table

Miller gulped down a mouthful of spit, knowing that he has no other option left "What do I have to do"

Nigel smiled, he had won, he was now only days away from operation Lion's den and he will catch this hybrid at all costs.

A week passed, and they had been in the building for four days now. The hybrid hasn't showed up, it was in the city but hasn't made a move yet. Nigel grew impatient as he looked into the monitor to check that Miller stayed where he was.

Daniel noticed Nigel's patience was wearing off, he handed him a cup of coffee "Take a break, get some fresh air you look like you need it"

Nigel took the cup and took a sip "Yeah I think I do, I'll be back I in a couple of minutes, if anything happens call me" he rose up from his seat and got out of the van, he inhaled deeply the air refreshed him. Then he seemed to lose hope in the operation, he was going to call everything off when Daniel called for him.

"What's wrong?" afraid that something bad happened to Miller

"It's here" smiling from ear to ear

Nigel resumed to his seat and observed Miller while the blip was moving closer to the building

Spyke felt today was the day it all ends, but he felt something was wrong,  but he ignored the feeling as he took the elevator to the third floor.

The last signal

After this it'll be over

He went out of the elevator as it stopped at third floor, he didn't realize that there were two teams waiting inside the two rooms  in front of the elevator. He turned left and walked, he stopped at the third door and opened it slowly.

"Be prepared, he's going in" Daniel notified the two teams over the radio "When he goes in, wait in front of the door for the signal"

Nigel looked at Miller inside the screen, hoping he doesn't screw this up.

Spyke went inside and sees Miller sitting in front of the T.V.. Spyke edged closer to Miller.

Miller had no idea Spyke was in the room, that was until he spoke.

"Hey" Spyke's voice seemed to appear out of thin air to Miller

Miller jumped and felt a cold shiver down his spine, he immediately stood up and faced Spyke

"How did you get in?"

"The door was unlocked"

"Oh, okay who are you then?"

"I'm Spyke"

"Why are you here?" fear beginning to show

Nigel could hear everything from inside the van, and he was furious at Miller, he was afraid that he was going to blab away and expose the operation.

"I'm here to end something"

Miller didn't like what he was hearing he was afraid of Spyke and he was afraid of getting killed.

"Don't kill me, I have kids"

Spyke looked at Miller with a surprised look

"Kill you, I didn't come here to kill you"

"You didn't?" Miller sounding relieved

"Yes, I came here to close your signal"

"My signal?" Miller was somewhat confused

"Yes, you were taken, that's why you have a signal in your head"

"Taken?, I was never taken"

"That's weird but you have a signal" Spyke looked around the room as if trying to find something

Nigel was afraid he spotted the cameras but was relieved that he didn't.

Spyke decided to shut the signal without warning, he was getting suspicious and he wanted to get out of there quickly. Miller screamed when the blood flowed out of his nose, this alarmed Nigel and Daniel. The two teams outside the door was alarmed at the scream and instantly they thought the guy inside was dead.

Spyke looked at Miller "There you're free"

"What the hell did you do to me?" Miller screamed

Spyke didn't want to explain he just wanted to get out of there. Nigel gave the signal to Daniel, Daniel then shouted 'Go' in the radio.

Spyke heard the door being kicked in, he looked towards the window and saw stairs. He quickly ran to the window and climbed down as swiftly as he could. Inside the two teams broke in and charged into the room, Miller pointed to the window, his hand still at his nose. The teams then quickly followed in hot pursuit.

Spyke was on the second floor stairs when he heard the sirens, it was coming from his left, he looked up and saw men climbing down towards him. He moved faster and jumped down into the alley, he didn't want to meet the police, so he headed to his right, the police car blocked the only exit to the alley. Nigel and Daniel got out of the van and went into the alley, guns in their hands.

Spyke then realized he had ran into a dead end, he could hear the police behind him getting closer and closer, there was no escape, he was trapped.

Nigel led the way, behind him was Daniel and the two teams. Nigel didn't run to Spyke he merely walked giving time for the police to secure the area.

Spyke waited at the end of the alley for the police to come and get him, he saw a man leading what seems like an army behind him, they came nearer and nearer to Spyke then they stopped, they were still quite far away from him.

"You can't escape" Nigel shouted "There's no way out"

Spyke looked at him, he walked towards the man and stopped right in front of him.

"Who are you?" Nigel added

"My name is Spyke, Who are you?" he replied eyeing Nigel and the people behind him.

"My name is Nigel…"

"Nigel? That sounds familiar" Spyke interrupted "Yes, I remember now, five years ago some Chinese group tried to catch me, one of them mentioned your name"

Nigel remembered it, an attempt to get the Spyke that went horribly wrong.

"That was me, tell me what did you do to them?" remembering that they were terrified at what they saw

Spyke smiled "I... gave them a glimpse of their future"

Nigel looked at Spyke and for a moment he was scared.

"Your free days are over, you're coming with me"

Spyke looked at Nigel and he took a step closer to him "I'm not going with you and they're not going to force me"

Now it was Nigel's turn to smile "You can't fight them all at once, and you can't escape that way"

"You're right I can't fight them all at once but… I can escape that way"

Nigel looked at Spyke, he had worked hard for this and he's not going to let Spyke escape from him that easily.

Spyke spun around and began to walk.

"Stop right there" Nigel lifted his gun and pointed it at Spyke. The people behind him did the same.

Spyke stopped his back at Nigel "That won't work, Good-Bye Nigel"

Spyke began to run and they shot at him, he ran as fast as he could to the back end of the alley. The bullets that was fired didn't get far, as the bullets came near to Spyke they slowed down and trailed at his back.

Nigel was shocked, the bullets weren't going to hit him and he was going to escape.

Spyke jumped to the alley wall, then a flash of white light came from the wall, causing Nigel and the people behind him to look away or be blinded.

Nigel looked back to the darkened alley, Spyke was nowhere to be seen, he had miraculously escaped. They examined the wall but found only bullets that they fired. Nigel was still shocked, he touched the wall and it was real, somehow Spyke escaped from the wall but they can't tell yet.

Daniel stood beside Nigel, Daniel was investigating a bullet. He looked over to Nigel.

"He escaped..." said Nigel devastated

"Yeah, but he got lucky, next time we'll get him"

"I suppose…" Still devastated

"Come on, let's go, let them clean up"

Nigel took one last look at the wall and then he went with Daniel, they left the alley with questions lingering in their heads.