Title: Trojan

Genre: Action/Adventure

Spoilers: None really.

AU/Cannon: AU

Author: Seadragon

Dedicated to: The story I wrote, and lost in Europe.

Ship: Not telling!

Slash: None.

Summary: Holly was silent for a moment, thinking. "Oh D'arvit!" She swore, and tapped her mike. "Hello? Hello?! Can anyone hear me?! The team that was sent after the group of goblins, turn back! Turn back! They aren't goblins!" And that was when a second explosion sent flames high into the air all around the city.

Captain Holly Short has had a lot going against her lately. First her entire team is slaughter in front of her. Then everyone back at Headquarters can't stand the sight of her. She's assigned a rookie, and things don't get any better.

But now there is another problem.

Haven is being attacked. By what? They don't know. By who? They don't know. How? They don't know. People are dying every which way she turns, and there is no one who can pull her out of this nightmare.

Or is there?

- - - - -

Chapter 8: Dangerous Times

- - - - -

"Will all officers on the first shift please report to the De-Briefing Room. All 1st officers to the De-Briefing room." The loudspeaker blared over and over. The second shift officers were preparing to leave, Holly and Laton among them. There was a strange lack of chaos in the Plaza.

Outside though, was a decidedly different story. Many houses had burnt in the initial explosion, leaving hundred of people homeless. They had taken in the worst injured that hadn't made the Hospital cuts, but there were still many, many more outside, with no where to go.

"Alright, I don't exactly have anyone to visit." Holly admitted to Laton once they were outside Police Plaza. They were both trying their best to ignore the fires and people on the streets. For Holly, this wasn't all that difficult. She had been on site for several disaster class events. None had been quite like this though. Laton was having trouble keeping his eyes trained on the ground. He kept glancing up with a pained look on his face.

He cocked his head and looked at her curiously. "But, I thought your mother…"

"How do you know about my mother?" Holly demanded, stopping in the middle of the street to stare at the blue haired rookie. He also stopped, an innocent look swiftly covering his face.

"They gave me your file to read before I met you." He shrugged. "They said it would help me get to know you."

Holly backed down. "I suppose it would." She said slowly. "But, we are not going there. I don't want to see her, and especially not now. We will go to, the grocery store."

"The grocery store?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" She snapped defensively, before continuing her walk, which looked slightly more purposeful now. Shaking his head, Laton followed her.

- - - - -

The visit to the grocery store turned out to be one of the worst ideas she could have had. Hundreds of people were crowding the entrances fighting to get in. The entire city had gone into panic mode, and when in panic mode, there were two things they could do. One was sit on their doorstep and cry, which many civilians had chosen to do. And there was make a run to the local stores and horde everything you could.

Unfortunately, quite a few people had chosen the second option as well.

From a ways away, Holly and Laton watched the crowds shoving each other back and forth, and every so often, a couple people would be able to slip in the doors.

"So, I take it we're giving the grocery store a miss?" Laton asked innocently, but you would have to be deaf and blind to miss the smirk. Holly scowled at him, but nodded.

"I'm not in the mood to become part of that raging crowd anytime soon." She said, turning to look at the hordes of anxious people, all fighting to be at the front of the crowd.

Together, they turned to walk back towards Police Plaza.

Screams behind them changed their plans.

Holly whirled around just in time to see flames come roaring out of the grocery store, passing through the thick glass doors as though they were made of paper.

"Get down!" A voice shouted, and Holly and Laton flung themselves to the cracked asphalt. Only later did Holly realize the frantic voice had been her own.

When she worked up the nerve to look up again, she wished she hadn't.

The people in and around the grocery store had never had a chance. The grocery store itself had collapsed directly after the initial explosion, and there was no movement from anywhere with in ten meters of it. Flames were spreading around it in a circle, desperately trying to continue burning.

A throbbing pain in her arm caught her attention, and she tore her eyes away from the fallen in shell of the store. She glanced at her broken arm, and shuddered.

The cast was practically crushed, and pieces of it had broken off. One such piece had pierced her arm, and a steady stream of blood was trickling away from it. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the offending piece of plaster, and tried to pull it out of her arm.

A pointless exercise as it turned out. It was stuck deep, and pulling on it only made the bleeding worse. As her blood splashed onto the bashed and beaten road, she squeezed her eyes shut, distraughtly trying to fend off the coming tears.

Needless to say, she failed miserably.

Laton had gotten to his feet, and was looking around trying to find some sign of life. But when he heard her crying, he waded through the wreckage to her side.

As he helped her to her feet, she wondered when he had gotten the black gloves he wore now. If he noticed her curious glance, he didn't show it. Instead, he was speaking frantically into the microphone Foaly had given him.

"Right."

The conversation was over, and in her dazed stupor, she hadn't heard more then the last word. Holly blinked lazily, and fought the urge to close her eyes. Her last thought as she slid to the ground was that this just might be the end of the world. Surprisingly, she didn't much care.

- - - - -

Laton spun around when he heard a dull thump. Holly was lying on the ground, apparently unconscious.

Extremely thankful for his new gloves, he picked the captain up with a little difficulty, glanced around once more, and seeing no movement other than that of the first shift officers, started back to Police Plaza.

While she wasn't exactly heavy to start with, it was safe to say that Holly had definitely lost weight since that disastrous mission. As it was, she didn't weigh much more than a child.

It was difficult enough to pick through the rubbish on the roads by yourself, but when carrying an injured officer, it got that much more difficult. Laton nearly dropped Holly several times upon tripping over loose stones, or, to his extreme discomfort, dead bodies.

But he gritted his teeth and kept walking, waving off offers of help, there were other people who needed it more right now, if they got to police plaza, she would be just fine.

Once or twice, he found himself wanting to drop her in the street and go and hide. When this happened, he reminded himself that he was on a rescue mission, and if he stopped, who knew what might happen? The LEP was down enough officers, they needed everyone they could get.

He found out just how true that was when he saw several officers recruiting unharmed civilians to fight if, or should he say when, it was needed, and to sort through the rubble for survivors.

Unfortunately, there weren't too many to be found. The explosions just kept coming, and no one knew how much longer the city could hold up under this pressure. Or how long it would take before the earth collapsed inwards, bringing the Mud People's cities down with it.

Whoever was causing these explosions wasn't only putting the lives of the People in danger, but also those of every living creature on the planet.

And no one knew why. Or how to stop them.

Or if they even could be stopped.