Connection Terminated: Vertigo
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is connected to Beyblades but I do have the intellectual property rights to the plot, some of the original characters and most of the ideas.
Sleeping My Life Away
10101011011100101101010101
Emily had uploaded a debilitating program unto the Advanced Logistics and Electronics Controller, seriously lowering its overall "active" effectiveness, e.g.: Less combat capabilities, hacking potential and foreign system overrides.
However, the program had not removed one crucial thing.
Information.
Every single rebel base was open to Ivan Elmdor and his army, allowing him to pick off each and every one of those now completely helpless rebels like a little boy removing the wings from a fallen dragonfly.
Ivan Elmdor had succeeded where his father had not.
He was going to take revenge on those pests that had been a hindrance to him for so long.
And he was going to make it hurt.
A lot.
1011101010101101010101010101
16:23, Kiev, Ukraine
Mariah huddled closer to Ray in the bare and thin-walled house they were hiding in, even though it was practically freezing inside and out. Her breath turned into miniscule snowflakes as she stared out at the dense snowfall that lay on the small window, their current source of light, which, unfortunately, wasn't too bright. It had been two months since they had escaped the almost inescapable back at the SEA base, which, unsurprisingly, was torn to shreds, and split up to conceal themselves from Ivan's sight. Kai, taking command once more, had gone alone; true to himself. He explained the need to find the people who knew how to remove the block on Alec and advise them to destroy that precious piece of code. Their lives and their entire cause depended on it. Max, Kenny and Emily had traveled to Europe as well but stayed hidden in the vast city of Paris, slowly gathering information about the rebel bases that had not been entirely ripped apart by the attacking Vire. Tyson had tagged along with Mariah and Ray, seeing as both he and the Chinese boy had undergone the same mysterious pain that was inflicted on them. To top it off, she had begun to put on some weight; in light of all the days they had nothing on their table. (Which, strangely enough, was their floor) Well, at least Mariah had some time alone with Ray while Tyson; undercover of course, went searching for other survivors.
"Here, this should help." Ray said in a reassuring way, silently telling her that everything would be all right as he placed his jacket over her shoulders.
Mariah smiled appreciatively and buried her head in his arms, listening to his heartbeat, entirely content with the world for but a brief moment. Ray bent down, slowly parting his lips to meet hers when Tyson came barging into the cramped building, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. "Hell! Talk about good timing in sneaking into the Ukraine base... " Ray and Mariah quickly got off each other and Tyson, momentarily forgetting what he was supposed to say, stared at them in slight queasiness and revulsion. "Uh, okay... " The Japanese rebel mumbled, scratching his nose as the other two's cheeks turned scarlet.
"Bad and good news. The base here in Ukraine's been totally wiped out by those Vire guys. You should have seen all the dead people-" Tyson waved his hands in the air animatedly "- lying on the floor with their eyes open and mouths dripping blood and all. They had their guts ripped out and there was this guy with his legs spread wide apart and-"
Mariah coughed and Tyson stopped in mid-sentence, noticing her narrowing eyes.
"Weeeell, anyway, I snuck into the deeper parts of the base-" The cocky Japanese rebel flashed the fake news reporter tag the three had crafted for him to get access into the base "- and this guy jumps out of this blood- stained closet or something. He grabs my shoulders, starts shaking me dementedly before I punch him across the face. The dude gets some sense into him and jabbers about these Artemis whatever people and then just drops dead." Tyson finished, catching his breath before slumping to a cross- legged position on the cold, hard floor. Ray scratched the back of his head thoughtfully as light filtered through their frosted window, granting an almost ethereal look to the scene. "I heard something about a Russian and Ukrainian-based militant organization before... Might be those Artemis guys." Mariah suggested and the two other rebels turned their attention to her, gazing at her intently. She frowned, trying to remember the exact details of the story she picked up from Raul, the deceased SEA engineer, all those months ago. Those months when they had no idea of the hell that would follow. Those months of peaceful (relatively) and ignorant bliss. Those months that was forever lost in the endless river of time now. She shook her head to remove the wistful ache in her heart and looked up at her two comrades.
"Can't remember a thing. Sorry." She said apologetically and Tyson groaned in frustration, before completely messing up his spiky blue hair. He shook his head in a despairing manner, getting up from his seated position and reaching for their laptop, which served as their connection to their comrades and to the rest of the world via the news and the other branches of media. Tyson ran a cold hand through his hair once more before plopping back down onto the floor and switching the portable computer on. Ray and Mariah crawled up to Tyson to peer at the loading screen of the laptop, practically squeezing the latter in between them. Tyson, fidgeting uncomfortably, typed in a sequence to start up their satellite link to worldwide television. An anime show featuring a bunch of kids piloting gigantic war mechs popped up and Tyson hissed a "Yes" through his teeth. "That Ivan kid's going to appear on TV soon. Heard it from some of the guards at the Ukrainian base." Tyson explained before tapping the number keys on the laptop repeatedly, shifting the programming on their "television" set to the news. Ray nodded in understanding before suddenly grabbing Tyson's button-pressing hand and pointing to the screen. "There. It's him." Ray mumbled and all three pairs of eyes were entirely focused on the show that featured Ivan delivering a speech before huge crowds, watching as well the 3 unfamiliar faces that scrolled the screen along with 3 other faces that they had seen before. Mariah's eyes narrowed as she saw the mug shot of Cypher, a 3 dimensional picture of his face rotating on the screen beside the government's rendition of both Ice and Blaze. "Why is Ivan putting those two under wanted criminals now? There's something weird going on here." She observed and Tyson nodded in agreement, an eerie emulation of Ray's previous gesture.
Drake, Sarah and Jex stood beside their leader as he delivered an extremely compelling speech to the public and even they had to admit he was doing quite well, seeing as he wrote the entire thing by himself. A giant red drape covered a huge, wall-like structure behind the young yet masterful boy, whose carefully planned lies began to dispel the doubts and insecurities of the crowd under them. Sarah glanced behind her shoulder, narrowing her eyes to check if the Vire, which were placed for security reasons, were still lurking in the shadows behind their all so wonderful chief executive. She shook her head quietly, mainly to remove her slight apprehension at having completely unguarded Vire roaming the darkness behind her and to get rid of the feeling of despair and loneliness she held in her chest since her encounter with Ray and Mariah. Something told her that there was more than just one hell of a sniper behind that man who had shot down her bullet and her mind was scrambled with unclear memories of a past she didn't seem to have. Sarah blinked off the ache in her head and chest and turned her attention to Ivan, who was practically soaking himself in the eloquence of the words he had picked for his speech.
"All 6 people shown here and on television sets around the globe are threats to international security and peace. They go under the name of the Artemis militant organization and I am requesting you, the people of the world, to support the military in their effort to capture and stop these agents of bloodshed." Ivan Elmdor promptly made a dramatic gesture to further his monopoly on the crowd's attention and bring his mendacious message to all the ears around him. The three agents holstered their long, mainly decorative rifles to add to Ivan's already super-fine point, garnering claps and cheers from the audience.
"These scum have joined forces with the now almost completely destroyed rebel traitors and are helping those terrorists regain a military foothold right here and mother Russia! We must not let them and the defiant rebels destroy the bonds of our hard-earned peace and prosperity!" Ivan continued, sparking a few agreeing shouts from the gigantic crowd below his platform. Drake's lips folded into a slight grin, glancing at his two, apparently emotionless, comrades. Sarah rolled her eyes and delivered a quick kick to his shin to stop him from acting immature in front of all the people Ivan had summoned. Jex, meanwhile, was twitching uncontrollably, as though he had an itch on his back.
"Under my leadership and with your help, our benevolent soldiers will surely apprehend these anomalies of our times and restore order to our civilization! If we do, we shall even grant these misguided souls the chance to change their ways via our, not my, government's re-education program and make them into productive members of society! They have merely been deceived by this man-" Ivan pressed a miniscule button on the side of his watch, activating a large display hologram that featured a face that seemed to have an all so significant part in Sarah's past. A tall, lanky man with brown-hair that fell along the sides of his head rotated in the hologram. Dressed in a forest green sleeveless shirt, muddy brown military- issue pants that were tucked into black combat boots, the man obviously had some field experience and that was not lost to Jex, Sarah, Drake, Ivan and the audience below them. The most discerning facet of this apparently practiced soldier was the blood red cloth he had wrapped around his eyes, totally concealing them to the public and even to his allies. Sarah compulsively touched her forehead, a hidden memory washing over her like a migraine.
"-Who is also known as Matt Aquila, a former soldier under my father and mutineer against our republic. We need to unite and put up a strong front to stop more people like him from surfacing, thus hindering any more of these so-called "righteous" causes from disturbing our tranquil lives! So, people of the world, hear me, Ivan Elmdor, and together we can forever remove chaos and turmoil from our already war-scarred planet Earth!" Ivan finished regally, punching the cold air with his fist to hammer his lie- riddled ideals into the minds of the people. Cheers erupted from the crowd and claps and shouts of support spread like wildfire across the sea of individuals, which Ivan presently bowed to. He waved to the people whose freedom was stolen from his murdered father, smiling boyishly as to further his image as a benevolent leader. His three agents hastily walked up to him, following him in an almost fatherly protectiveness as he took long strides down the steps of the platform. Sarah, pale, made an impulsive reach for the pistol at her hip; a compelling thought urging her to kill Ivan here and now. "Hey, are you all right?" Jex asked and she quickly nodded before taking in a deep breath. "Get some sleep later, you'll need it."
"Hell, even the world believes that hypocrite now!" Ray shouted angrily as the program ended with the sly dictator shaking hands with the representatives of countries his father had, in a way, commandeered with that memorable global coup de tat that was so quickly changed the roles of power in the world. He fell backwards, lying down on the cold floor and staring at the ceiling dejectedly. Mariah sighed and crawled up to him, nudging his chest with her head before lying down beside him while Tyson, more or less guessing what was going to happen, tucked away the laptop and decided to rest in the other room instead. Ray closed his eyes, thinking of his past life as a beyblader. All the times he and the Bladebreakers had gone to the world tournament, playing against a different team each time and winning against them. A thin frown crossed his face and he rolled over to his side, staring into Mariah's golden eyes. "Do you think we'll even get out of this?" He asked her quietly, stroking the side of her face. She purred reassuringly in response and snuggled up to him, flashing her fangs in that demonic way of hers. "Yes, I do. Look, we've gone so far and I don't think Kai's just going to let us give up like that!" Mariah snapped her fingers for emphasis and placed her head on Ray's chest, once again listening to the quickening pace of his heart. Ray smiled and placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she glided of to a well-deserved sleep. "Yeah, I guess so... " He whispered and soon followed her into dreamland.
18:15, Above Kiev, Ukraine
"So they're planning a worldwide manhunt for us? Big deal, I've handled worse." Matt Aquila replied cockily, reclining in the copilot's seat of the high-speed jet they had bought with Ice and Blaze's money from their previous exploits. He grinned at the communications screen where the silhouette of his correspondent whacked his own forehead, obviously irritated by Matt's blatant immaturity. "Look, I killed an Eagle and fooled another one into believing I was dead. To make it worse, they were my comrades. 6 billion people searching for me are not even half as difficult as that." The Artemis organization leader put both of his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, pulling the red cloth wrapped around his forehead down to cover his eyes for some shut eye. "Plus, if what you're saying is true, then somebody is finally remembering how I really am." Matt added coldly, as if the simple act of placing his scarlet cloth over his eyes had somehow summoned unwanted memories. The jet made a sharp turn as Blaze, sitting beside Matt as the pilot of the speedy plane, adroitly banked it with one deft movement of his hand. "We should be in Brazil in a few minutes. I'll activate the cloaking equipment." Blaze commented quietly, tapping a switch on the dashboard, eliciting a casual wave from the government sniper turned rebel. "Aquila, I believe you should still be more careful. As of now, Ivan is running a global scan on the Internet with that Alec program he stole to locate you." The mysterious informant advised and Matt nodded in reply. "Hey, Blind Eagle doesn't exist in any history book and Matt Aquila appears under "deceased". Blaze and Ice belong to a group of mercenaries whose true identities are erased from international data banks. Dean committed "suicide" a long time ago and both Carlo and Jose were never registered with real names, seeing as their birth certificates were "stolen"." Matt added casually and the other man shook his head before closing the communications line. The sniper shook his head and leaned backwards, drifting off to an uneasy sleep as Blaze slowly circled the plane around a secret rendezvous location, deep in the South American jungle, where they should refuel and restock their weapons. Finally, some sleep for me... He thought, smiling to himself as Blaze began to lower the jet to a reasonable altitude to search for the refueling point. Without warning, dozens of blips suddenly sprung to life on their radar, signaling the arrival of a few Anti-Frame machines that were hidden in the darkened canopy as to spring an ambush on the unwary Artemis militants. Blaze's hand shot out and grabbed Matt's shoulder, shaking him back to awareness as his left hand, still on the joystick, forced the plane into a quick evasive maneuver. Below them, the Anti-Frame giants opened their shoulders, revealing and firing their massive armory of weapons in a metallic rain of destruction. "Aw, shit! Ice, Carlo, Guio! Let's blast the hell out of those machines!" Matt yelled to the soldiers waiting behind the cockpit and quickly released the clutch of his seatbelt before readying for combat. "Blaze, bring us to a reasonable freefall altitude!" He ordered and the mercenary nodded in reply, pulling the joystick to his chest and blasting the plane at an extremely dangerous 70-degree angle to the sky. "We're in for one hell of a joyride."
1011101010101101010010101
End of chapter
Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is connected to Beyblades but I do have the intellectual property rights to the plot, some of the original characters and most of the ideas.
Sleeping My Life Away
10101011011100101101010101
Emily had uploaded a debilitating program unto the Advanced Logistics and Electronics Controller, seriously lowering its overall "active" effectiveness, e.g.: Less combat capabilities, hacking potential and foreign system overrides.
However, the program had not removed one crucial thing.
Information.
Every single rebel base was open to Ivan Elmdor and his army, allowing him to pick off each and every one of those now completely helpless rebels like a little boy removing the wings from a fallen dragonfly.
Ivan Elmdor had succeeded where his father had not.
He was going to take revenge on those pests that had been a hindrance to him for so long.
And he was going to make it hurt.
A lot.
1011101010101101010101010101
16:23, Kiev, Ukraine
Mariah huddled closer to Ray in the bare and thin-walled house they were hiding in, even though it was practically freezing inside and out. Her breath turned into miniscule snowflakes as she stared out at the dense snowfall that lay on the small window, their current source of light, which, unfortunately, wasn't too bright. It had been two months since they had escaped the almost inescapable back at the SEA base, which, unsurprisingly, was torn to shreds, and split up to conceal themselves from Ivan's sight. Kai, taking command once more, had gone alone; true to himself. He explained the need to find the people who knew how to remove the block on Alec and advise them to destroy that precious piece of code. Their lives and their entire cause depended on it. Max, Kenny and Emily had traveled to Europe as well but stayed hidden in the vast city of Paris, slowly gathering information about the rebel bases that had not been entirely ripped apart by the attacking Vire. Tyson had tagged along with Mariah and Ray, seeing as both he and the Chinese boy had undergone the same mysterious pain that was inflicted on them. To top it off, she had begun to put on some weight; in light of all the days they had nothing on their table. (Which, strangely enough, was their floor) Well, at least Mariah had some time alone with Ray while Tyson; undercover of course, went searching for other survivors.
"Here, this should help." Ray said in a reassuring way, silently telling her that everything would be all right as he placed his jacket over her shoulders.
Mariah smiled appreciatively and buried her head in his arms, listening to his heartbeat, entirely content with the world for but a brief moment. Ray bent down, slowly parting his lips to meet hers when Tyson came barging into the cramped building, clutching his chest and breathing heavily. "Hell! Talk about good timing in sneaking into the Ukraine base... " Ray and Mariah quickly got off each other and Tyson, momentarily forgetting what he was supposed to say, stared at them in slight queasiness and revulsion. "Uh, okay... " The Japanese rebel mumbled, scratching his nose as the other two's cheeks turned scarlet.
"Bad and good news. The base here in Ukraine's been totally wiped out by those Vire guys. You should have seen all the dead people-" Tyson waved his hands in the air animatedly "- lying on the floor with their eyes open and mouths dripping blood and all. They had their guts ripped out and there was this guy with his legs spread wide apart and-"
Mariah coughed and Tyson stopped in mid-sentence, noticing her narrowing eyes.
"Weeeell, anyway, I snuck into the deeper parts of the base-" The cocky Japanese rebel flashed the fake news reporter tag the three had crafted for him to get access into the base "- and this guy jumps out of this blood- stained closet or something. He grabs my shoulders, starts shaking me dementedly before I punch him across the face. The dude gets some sense into him and jabbers about these Artemis whatever people and then just drops dead." Tyson finished, catching his breath before slumping to a cross- legged position on the cold, hard floor. Ray scratched the back of his head thoughtfully as light filtered through their frosted window, granting an almost ethereal look to the scene. "I heard something about a Russian and Ukrainian-based militant organization before... Might be those Artemis guys." Mariah suggested and the two other rebels turned their attention to her, gazing at her intently. She frowned, trying to remember the exact details of the story she picked up from Raul, the deceased SEA engineer, all those months ago. Those months when they had no idea of the hell that would follow. Those months of peaceful (relatively) and ignorant bliss. Those months that was forever lost in the endless river of time now. She shook her head to remove the wistful ache in her heart and looked up at her two comrades.
"Can't remember a thing. Sorry." She said apologetically and Tyson groaned in frustration, before completely messing up his spiky blue hair. He shook his head in a despairing manner, getting up from his seated position and reaching for their laptop, which served as their connection to their comrades and to the rest of the world via the news and the other branches of media. Tyson ran a cold hand through his hair once more before plopping back down onto the floor and switching the portable computer on. Ray and Mariah crawled up to Tyson to peer at the loading screen of the laptop, practically squeezing the latter in between them. Tyson, fidgeting uncomfortably, typed in a sequence to start up their satellite link to worldwide television. An anime show featuring a bunch of kids piloting gigantic war mechs popped up and Tyson hissed a "Yes" through his teeth. "That Ivan kid's going to appear on TV soon. Heard it from some of the guards at the Ukrainian base." Tyson explained before tapping the number keys on the laptop repeatedly, shifting the programming on their "television" set to the news. Ray nodded in understanding before suddenly grabbing Tyson's button-pressing hand and pointing to the screen. "There. It's him." Ray mumbled and all three pairs of eyes were entirely focused on the show that featured Ivan delivering a speech before huge crowds, watching as well the 3 unfamiliar faces that scrolled the screen along with 3 other faces that they had seen before. Mariah's eyes narrowed as she saw the mug shot of Cypher, a 3 dimensional picture of his face rotating on the screen beside the government's rendition of both Ice and Blaze. "Why is Ivan putting those two under wanted criminals now? There's something weird going on here." She observed and Tyson nodded in agreement, an eerie emulation of Ray's previous gesture.
Drake, Sarah and Jex stood beside their leader as he delivered an extremely compelling speech to the public and even they had to admit he was doing quite well, seeing as he wrote the entire thing by himself. A giant red drape covered a huge, wall-like structure behind the young yet masterful boy, whose carefully planned lies began to dispel the doubts and insecurities of the crowd under them. Sarah glanced behind her shoulder, narrowing her eyes to check if the Vire, which were placed for security reasons, were still lurking in the shadows behind their all so wonderful chief executive. She shook her head quietly, mainly to remove her slight apprehension at having completely unguarded Vire roaming the darkness behind her and to get rid of the feeling of despair and loneliness she held in her chest since her encounter with Ray and Mariah. Something told her that there was more than just one hell of a sniper behind that man who had shot down her bullet and her mind was scrambled with unclear memories of a past she didn't seem to have. Sarah blinked off the ache in her head and chest and turned her attention to Ivan, who was practically soaking himself in the eloquence of the words he had picked for his speech.
"All 6 people shown here and on television sets around the globe are threats to international security and peace. They go under the name of the Artemis militant organization and I am requesting you, the people of the world, to support the military in their effort to capture and stop these agents of bloodshed." Ivan Elmdor promptly made a dramatic gesture to further his monopoly on the crowd's attention and bring his mendacious message to all the ears around him. The three agents holstered their long, mainly decorative rifles to add to Ivan's already super-fine point, garnering claps and cheers from the audience.
"These scum have joined forces with the now almost completely destroyed rebel traitors and are helping those terrorists regain a military foothold right here and mother Russia! We must not let them and the defiant rebels destroy the bonds of our hard-earned peace and prosperity!" Ivan continued, sparking a few agreeing shouts from the gigantic crowd below his platform. Drake's lips folded into a slight grin, glancing at his two, apparently emotionless, comrades. Sarah rolled her eyes and delivered a quick kick to his shin to stop him from acting immature in front of all the people Ivan had summoned. Jex, meanwhile, was twitching uncontrollably, as though he had an itch on his back.
"Under my leadership and with your help, our benevolent soldiers will surely apprehend these anomalies of our times and restore order to our civilization! If we do, we shall even grant these misguided souls the chance to change their ways via our, not my, government's re-education program and make them into productive members of society! They have merely been deceived by this man-" Ivan pressed a miniscule button on the side of his watch, activating a large display hologram that featured a face that seemed to have an all so significant part in Sarah's past. A tall, lanky man with brown-hair that fell along the sides of his head rotated in the hologram. Dressed in a forest green sleeveless shirt, muddy brown military- issue pants that were tucked into black combat boots, the man obviously had some field experience and that was not lost to Jex, Sarah, Drake, Ivan and the audience below them. The most discerning facet of this apparently practiced soldier was the blood red cloth he had wrapped around his eyes, totally concealing them to the public and even to his allies. Sarah compulsively touched her forehead, a hidden memory washing over her like a migraine.
"-Who is also known as Matt Aquila, a former soldier under my father and mutineer against our republic. We need to unite and put up a strong front to stop more people like him from surfacing, thus hindering any more of these so-called "righteous" causes from disturbing our tranquil lives! So, people of the world, hear me, Ivan Elmdor, and together we can forever remove chaos and turmoil from our already war-scarred planet Earth!" Ivan finished regally, punching the cold air with his fist to hammer his lie- riddled ideals into the minds of the people. Cheers erupted from the crowd and claps and shouts of support spread like wildfire across the sea of individuals, which Ivan presently bowed to. He waved to the people whose freedom was stolen from his murdered father, smiling boyishly as to further his image as a benevolent leader. His three agents hastily walked up to him, following him in an almost fatherly protectiveness as he took long strides down the steps of the platform. Sarah, pale, made an impulsive reach for the pistol at her hip; a compelling thought urging her to kill Ivan here and now. "Hey, are you all right?" Jex asked and she quickly nodded before taking in a deep breath. "Get some sleep later, you'll need it."
"Hell, even the world believes that hypocrite now!" Ray shouted angrily as the program ended with the sly dictator shaking hands with the representatives of countries his father had, in a way, commandeered with that memorable global coup de tat that was so quickly changed the roles of power in the world. He fell backwards, lying down on the cold floor and staring at the ceiling dejectedly. Mariah sighed and crawled up to him, nudging his chest with her head before lying down beside him while Tyson, more or less guessing what was going to happen, tucked away the laptop and decided to rest in the other room instead. Ray closed his eyes, thinking of his past life as a beyblader. All the times he and the Bladebreakers had gone to the world tournament, playing against a different team each time and winning against them. A thin frown crossed his face and he rolled over to his side, staring into Mariah's golden eyes. "Do you think we'll even get out of this?" He asked her quietly, stroking the side of her face. She purred reassuringly in response and snuggled up to him, flashing her fangs in that demonic way of hers. "Yes, I do. Look, we've gone so far and I don't think Kai's just going to let us give up like that!" Mariah snapped her fingers for emphasis and placed her head on Ray's chest, once again listening to the quickening pace of his heart. Ray smiled and placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she glided of to a well-deserved sleep. "Yeah, I guess so... " He whispered and soon followed her into dreamland.
18:15, Above Kiev, Ukraine
"So they're planning a worldwide manhunt for us? Big deal, I've handled worse." Matt Aquila replied cockily, reclining in the copilot's seat of the high-speed jet they had bought with Ice and Blaze's money from their previous exploits. He grinned at the communications screen where the silhouette of his correspondent whacked his own forehead, obviously irritated by Matt's blatant immaturity. "Look, I killed an Eagle and fooled another one into believing I was dead. To make it worse, they were my comrades. 6 billion people searching for me are not even half as difficult as that." The Artemis organization leader put both of his hands behind his head in a relaxed position, pulling the red cloth wrapped around his forehead down to cover his eyes for some shut eye. "Plus, if what you're saying is true, then somebody is finally remembering how I really am." Matt added coldly, as if the simple act of placing his scarlet cloth over his eyes had somehow summoned unwanted memories. The jet made a sharp turn as Blaze, sitting beside Matt as the pilot of the speedy plane, adroitly banked it with one deft movement of his hand. "We should be in Brazil in a few minutes. I'll activate the cloaking equipment." Blaze commented quietly, tapping a switch on the dashboard, eliciting a casual wave from the government sniper turned rebel. "Aquila, I believe you should still be more careful. As of now, Ivan is running a global scan on the Internet with that Alec program he stole to locate you." The mysterious informant advised and Matt nodded in reply. "Hey, Blind Eagle doesn't exist in any history book and Matt Aquila appears under "deceased". Blaze and Ice belong to a group of mercenaries whose true identities are erased from international data banks. Dean committed "suicide" a long time ago and both Carlo and Jose were never registered with real names, seeing as their birth certificates were "stolen"." Matt added casually and the other man shook his head before closing the communications line. The sniper shook his head and leaned backwards, drifting off to an uneasy sleep as Blaze slowly circled the plane around a secret rendezvous location, deep in the South American jungle, where they should refuel and restock their weapons. Finally, some sleep for me... He thought, smiling to himself as Blaze began to lower the jet to a reasonable altitude to search for the refueling point. Without warning, dozens of blips suddenly sprung to life on their radar, signaling the arrival of a few Anti-Frame machines that were hidden in the darkened canopy as to spring an ambush on the unwary Artemis militants. Blaze's hand shot out and grabbed Matt's shoulder, shaking him back to awareness as his left hand, still on the joystick, forced the plane into a quick evasive maneuver. Below them, the Anti-Frame giants opened their shoulders, revealing and firing their massive armory of weapons in a metallic rain of destruction. "Aw, shit! Ice, Carlo, Guio! Let's blast the hell out of those machines!" Matt yelled to the soldiers waiting behind the cockpit and quickly released the clutch of his seatbelt before readying for combat. "Blaze, bring us to a reasonable freefall altitude!" He ordered and the mercenary nodded in reply, pulling the joystick to his chest and blasting the plane at an extremely dangerous 70-degree angle to the sky. "We're in for one hell of a joyride."
1011101010101101010010101
End of chapter