First Wave: "The Lost Prophesies"
Chapter Three – Tae-Kwon-Who?

Three years later, the remaining friends continue their search for Max and the fourth alien

Disclaimer: See Chapter one

" We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job."
- Winston Churchill

Maria brushed her curly blond hair into a tight ponytail and reached on to the bed for her gym bag; she was already late for her Tae Kwon Do class.

"Alex, I'm going now."

"'Kay, I'll see you later Ria" came the reply from the living room. Her brother was no doubt on the computer and would barely notice her absence over the next couple of hours.

She picked up her keys and rushed out the door, her trainer Mr. Han Sang Wu was going to be angry, he was forever lecturing her on discipline.

Before she could get very far though she ran into what felt like a stonewall and landed on her butt.

"Hey watch it!" She admonished the perpetrator before climbing back on her feet and rubbing her aching bottom.

"I wasn't the one barrelling down here like a bat out of hell" came the sarcastic reply.

Maria glared angrily at the 'stonewall' before continuing her angry tirade "look, spiky, get out of my way, I have better things to do with my time than to swap insults with you."

She tried to push past him but he continued to block her way.

"I'm waiting!"

Maria gritted her teeth in annoyance "for what, a personality? 'Cos that may be a long wait!"

He crossed his arms across his chest "for an apology."

Maria spluttered, she couldn't believe the audacity of this jerk. Who did he think he was…Royalty? "Well in that case you'll be waiting even longer than you would have for that personality of yours."

She shoved her way passed him, this time sending him flying on to his butt. Argh! That man is so exasperating she thought as she rushed out of her apartment building, that was the third time she'd had to endure his annoying presence in as many days.

She briefly wondered as she hailed a taxi if she should consider moving out of the city, it seemed to be attracting a lot of weirdo's, including 'Spikey the Stonewall" who stalked the hallways of the apartment complex like a…freaky…freaking…thing, with a chip on it's shoulder.

Maria groaned, her insults were seriously lacking, which she found was a common occurrence whenever she came across Spikey. The guy just had this way of making her so angry that she had trouble thinking of anything apart from a million and one ways to kill his sorry ass.

Isabel looked up from her book as Michael barged through the door, a look of fury in place of his usual scowl and laughed.

"What's so funny?" he demanded as he threw himself next to her on the sofa.

"Let me guess, you had another episode with the mystery woman?" She teased, knowing full well how angry he got whenever the subject was brought up.

"She's just so annoying... and rude" he grumbled like a sulking child, causing more laughter to erupt from Isabel.

Liz walked into the small living room then, and taking one look at Michaels face guessed "the mystery woman again?"

"Nice to know you two find my life so amusing."

Liz grinned, enjoying the brief moment of light heartedness that she rarely felt anymore. "Speaking of life, lets get back to our non-existent one, what did you get from the Conspiracy Theory book Izzy?"

"Personally I still think this is a bunch of hogwash…" remarked Isabel.

Liz pulled the desk chair across from the sofa and sat down "probably, but a lot of people believe that most of the theories are based on some sort of fact."

"Like all the crazy conspiracy theorists waiting for ET to cure them of cancer?" asked Michael sarcastically.

"Yeah, and also some well respected scientists" corrected Liz.

"Liz may be right on this one because from everything I've read, there's this one place that stands out the most, It's called the Eagle Rock Military Base."

Michael sat up showing the first sign of interest in days "what about it?"

"The first interesting fact is that it's close to Roswell, probably about an hour or two out of town and deep into the desert, which explains why we've never seen it. Also, although 'officially' it's a training base, 'unofficially' this is where they study alien related cases, and basically anything UFO related."

"And what better specimen to study than a real life alien?" remarked Michael bitterly.

Liz felt tears prick the back of her eyelids, she knew that they had found out about Max because of the shooting that day at the Crashdown. She would never forgive herself.

Forcing her voice to sound optimistic and cheery she suggested "well it sounds like a good possibility, lets find out more about it."

"Okay, now onto the Whitman family...Michael, anything?" Questioned Liz.

When Max had first been kidnapped, Liz had suffered a near mental breakdown and in desperation had both agreed and assisted Michael with breaking into the Sheriff's Station. They had searched for the investigation reports of both Max's disappearance and the Whitman family's desperate flee from Roswell.

Since then Michael had taken over the investigation of the Whitmans, and all clues had led them to New York City where they believed the Whitman siblings now lived after a tragic accident had killed their parents.

"Nothing so far, all we know is that she moved here in the nineties and changed her name after that stalker episode."

"So no new leads on her new name? Damn, for all we know, she doesn't even live here anymore."

"What about her brother? I mean we know her adoptive parents died in that car crash, but her brother is still alive isn't he?" asked Isabel.

"I'm working on it, from what we've uncovered about them before they changed their names was that he was a Computer Science student at the University of Philadelphia, so maybe he's continuing the same studies at NYU."

"That's not a bad place to start" agreed Isabel.

"Anyway I did manage to find a picture of him." Liz passed the photocopied picture around. "Sorry, that's the best I could do, It's an old yearbook picture."

Isabel took the picture and studied it. The quality was definitely terrible and she doubted if they'd ever recognize him on the street based on it. "If it's an old yearbook picture how come you couldn't get one of her?" she asked Liz, feeling a flutter of excitement stirring in her stomach at the thought of finally seeing her sister, even if it was on a blurry photocopy from a yearbook.

"Apparently she refused permission, I think it's because she was hiding from her foster father who'd been stalking them for years, so I'm guessing she didn't want pictures of herself to in any way help him find her." Replied Liz.

In the police reports they had stolen they had discovered that Aaron Warton had eventually tracked her down, it was in that car chase that her adoptive parents had died.

It was at that moment that Liz looked up at the clock on the wall and exclaimed in surprise "Guys! We're late for class."

Michael groaned at the thought of attending some type of karate classes that Liz had insisted they attend. She was adamant that when they eventually found Max they would need some form of self-defence, especially her as she had no alien power to fall back on.

Except for her power of communicating telepathically. Over the past three years she had practiced regularly until she had reached her current level where she could communicate with anyone possessing the power.

After her near breakdown, Liz had found the strength from somewhere to pull Isabel and Michael out of their own depressions and had begun looking for clues for the two missing aliens.

Somehow she had become their new rock, and where they had previously looked for guidance from Max, they now looked toward her for it.

It was a role she didn't feel capable of having, but her own wants and needs came second, the search for Max came first. So if that meant leading two alien hybrids in a desperate search for the missing two, then so be it.

"We need this Michael, especially if we're going to attempt a rescue on our own. None of us want to use weapons in this attempt, that means we have to find other means to fight our way in and our way out!"

Michael nodded in understanding, before pulling himself off the sofa to get ready.

The girls gave each other small smiles before making their way to the bedroom they shared to get changed.

Maria turned the shower on and stepped in, she let the water run over her hot and sweaty body, it had been a great work out and now her trainer Mr. Han Sang Wu had asked her to take the next class.

She reached a hand out of the shower and picked up her watch, noticing she had 15 minutes till her next class she quickly turned the shower off and climbed out.

She felt the tension building in her body at the thought of leading her own class, although the faith that Mr Wu showed in her had a somewhat calming effect. If he said she could do it, then she believed him.

She'd spent her childhood training in all the forms of defence. For some reason she had always felt a desperate need to protect. What…she didn't know. It was like an ingrained sense of protectiveness which had pushed her to study all the different forms she came across, and now she had been given the opportunity to train others.

It was an exhilarating feeling. Maybe this was the reason for her countless ours of training, maybe she was meant to help other people achieve the enlightenment and discipline achieved from the training? Maybe she wouldn't feel so empty anymore.

Maybe.

Michael paced the hallway in front of the door, feeling his irritation growing at every passing minute "ISABEL! This is a form of Karate; it does not require you to have perfect hair and perfect makeup." He shouted in the direction of the bathroom.

Liz pulled on her jacket and looked at her watch, just as a perfectly made up Isabel joined them.

"That doesn't mean we have to look like homeless uneducated people" She looked pointedly at Michael and flicked her hair behind her shoulder.

"Then how come Liz doesn't spend her life primping to make herself look pretty if it's so important?" He demanded.

Liz arched both her eyebrows "are you saying I'm not pretty?"

Michael squinted at the two glaring girls, how did he always manage to put his foot in it when it came to woman? It was like everything was constantly coming out wrong and he was constantly being attacked for it.

In frustration he ran his fingers through his hair "no…I just meant. Uh…you don't need to 'cos you already look pretty…and stuff."

Isabel placed her hands on her hips in anger "and what? I don't?"

Michael whipped his head back and forth, feeling trapped between the two angry females.

Liz smiled, followed shortly by Isabel.

Sometimes he hated being the only guy around two women. Clearly this time they had been playing with him, but next time…could see the end of him!

Isabel picked up her coat, pleased with the payback she'd given Michael for rushing her when she was trying to get ready "what are we waiting for? Lets go."

Michael sighed and grabbed the keys for the second hand Ford they'd bought when they had moved here.

In the car Liz continued to page through all the information on the Whitman family, or whatever they were calling themselves now, their parents had died two years previously in the car wreck and there were no other relatives apart from a hippie aunt that was currently travelling the world. Liz sighed this was turning into another dead end.

She chewed on her fingernail an idea forming in her head; she tapped Isabel on the shoulder, "Izzy, what if you tried dreamwalking Alex Whitman, we have a picture of him."

Michaels face brightened at the idea, but Isabel looked doubtful.

"I don't know Liz, you know I haven't done that since that time I tried when Max was taken" she said, hoping that Liz would drop the painful subject.

To her dismay, Liz persisted ,"Yeah, but the reason you didn't get through to him is because we suspect he's being drugged, otherwise he would've already used his powers to escape. It had nothing to do with you, in fact if anything your powers are stronger than ever before."

Hope sprang anew at Liz's words "I don't know, I guess I could try" agreed Isabel. She still looked doubtful, but at least she was willing to try.

Maria waited for the beginners class to file in, it was a sea of unknown faces, until that is her eyes fell on those of Michaels, she couldn't believe her luck I must have really bad karma or something she thought to herself.

When Michael looked up and saw Maria's shocked face he actually smiled until he realized she was taking the class, his smile immediately fell from his face oh boy, something tells me this is going to hurt

After an hour of immense torture Michael realized he'd been right when he predicted it to be a painful experience, the lady of torture herself had used him numerous times for examples and he was already beginning to feel the after effects of it, and it hurt. He had so many aches and pains he couldn't even count them, not to mention the decided limp he now sported.

Liz giggled at the pained expression on Michaels face, when he heard her giggle he threw her a glare before storming out of the room.

Liz and Isabel hung around after classes hoping to get a few words with this woman who had not only beaten Michael up, but who had somehow captured his interest. She was tiny, with long strawberry blond hair and piercing green eyes.

"Is there anything I can help you two with?" She looked up from her task of packing away the mats; she recognized them as the girls who had come with that annoying guy from her apartment building. She briefly wondered if either of them were his girlfriend before reminding herself that she didn't care.

The blond one was very tall and strikingly pretty, the smaller one was a dark beauty with dark soulful eyes.

The blond was the first to respond to her question.

"Yeah, um, we were wondering if it would be possible to get extra lessons from you?"

Maria glanced over them as if studying their capability. "You guy's looked quite advanced to me, why would you need extra lessons?"

"We have done some of this before, and we were hoping to get into the advanced classes, but they were fully booked and this was the only one we could get into, and, well frankly it's just a waste of time, no offence, you look like a really good trainer and all…"

Maria waved her hand to stop the never-ending-speech, "none taken. Okay, if you're serious about it, be prepared to train hard, I'll meet you here every evening at 7:30."

Liz gave her a smile of gratitude "thanks Miss..?" She hesitated, realizing she didn't know her trainer's name.

"Deluca, Maria Deluca."

"Thanks Maria, by the way, I'm Liz Parker and this is my friend Isabel Evans."

As they made their way out of the room Isabel could feel a strange sensation of loss, in confusion she looked over her shoulder at Maria who had resumed her task of packing away the mats.

Unable to determine the cause of the feeling, she shrugged it off and followed Liz to the showers.

That night Isabel tried dreamwalking Alex, she got into his dream easy enough, but the most she could get from him was that they were still in the city, even though he was in a dream state it was like he realized the importance of keeping his sisters location a secret.

She saw him sitting in a room strumming at a guitar, somewhere in the shadows stood a woman, she was singing to the tune that Alex played on the guitar. All too soon the song ended and the dream shifted to Alex sitting at a computer, he seemed to be talking to an unseen person called 'Ria'. Could this 'Ria' be her sister? she wondered.

Isabel's eye's shot open as she left the dream, her breathing was ragged and she was perspiring from the effort, after all this had been her first dreamwalk in what, three years?

That same week she also had another vision of her sister, all she could make out was her blond hair, she couldn't see her features or location, but she did seem to be crying, and Isabel could read immense sadness from her, when she came out of the vision she realized that she had been crying too.

Liz opened up her bedside drawer and slipped the picture out, it had obviously been held many times over the years by the worn look it had. She lightly ran her fingers over the image silent tears running down her cheeks as she cried for the man she loved, the man who had been gone for over three years now. She had no doubt in her heart that he was still alive, the very fact that her heart was still beating was testimony to that fact. But alive or not, he was still out there somewhere, probably in a lot of pain, who knew what the FBI were doing to him?

It had been a hard decision moving to New York, but the three of them had agreed that it was a good place to start looking for both of the missing aliens. Isabel had had a vision a year ago indicating that her sister was somewhere here in the city, proving the clues that they had uncovered had been correct.

As for Max, well he could be anywhere, but they would never give up looking, and maybe if they found this fourth Alien, she would be able to combine her powers with Michael and Isabel thus hopefully aiding them in finding Max.

She gently placed the worn picture back into her drawer and shut it. Climbing under the covers she said another prayer, the same one she had recited for over three years for the safe return of her man, her soul mate.

They'd been coming to the gym for a month now, the three girls got along very well and even Michael was somewhat cordial, although when he'd first found out about the extra lessons he'd been furious to say the least.

begin flashback

"You did what?" Shouted Michael, outraged at their audacity of signing him up for a class he had no intention of attending, not if it was being led by that pixie from hell.

"Watch the road Michael." Admonished Isabel, before calmly continuing "I don't see why you're so upset, I mean we're never going to get anywhere if we stay in the beginners class."

"But why her?" Demanded Michael "she's like a..a...sadist!"

Liz groaned, getting tired of the argument "yeah whatever, it's called sexual tension Michael."

At this point Michael had turned around to glare at Liz and no doubt offer her some choice words on his thoughts, although before he could Isabel had screamed and grabbed the wheel as the car started to veer off the road narrowly missing a head on collision.

end flashback

But if Michael had been angry, Maria had been positively seething when she saw him walk in the next evening, she'd put on a calm face and had used Michael for some more 'examples', needless to say he'd walked out of there that night with plenty of bruises, but he'd gone back the night after, and the nights following that.

After their nightly training Liz and Isabel had left to go and shower, Michael hung back and waited for them to leave before walking back. Maria was still there packing up her stuff, humming a song as she worked; he cleared his throat attempting to get her attention. She looked up at him, her face devoid of all or any emotion.

"Yes Michael, is there something that you wanted?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from squeaking in nervousness.

Michael shifted his weight and looked down at his feet "uh yeah, I was wondering about, if..um..well..." He looked up at her, her eyebrows were raised and there was a look of amusement on her face, he lost his nerve and started to back away nervously, "never mind."

A fleeting look of disappointment flashed across her face before she masked it.

Half an hour later, the trio freshly showered were walking to their car, deep in conversation about the progress they had made in their training.

Liz interrupted the conversation to point out their trainer standing alone outside of the Gym. "Hey isn't that Maria? Maybe she needs a lift" she suggested looking up at Michael who shrugged and looked away what was with him tonight? She asked herself, frowning she grabbed his arm and led him and Isabel to where Maria was standing.

"Hey Maria, do you need a lift?" She asked as they approached the small girl.

Maria turned around her eyes briefly locking on Michaels before she averted them. Liz smiled Ah! So that's what's going on

"Uh no thanks, my brother should be here any min...Oh, there he is" she said pointing to the red car that was driving into the lot.

Liz turned from Maria to see a jetta pull to a stop beside the curb. A tall man, whom she assumed had to be Maria's brother climbed out of the vehicle and grinned at Maria, "hey 'Ria, sorry I'm late, I completely lost track of time."

"Let me guess, you and your fellow computer geeks got caught up in the latest techie craze to hit the web?" Teased Maria.

Maria's brother gave his sister an apologetic shrug before turning to greet her friends.

It was at that precise moment that Isabel saw his features clearly for the first time.

"It's you!"