Well, here's a new chapter. A word of caution, though. This chapter is probably the most important one in the story, and reveals a whole lot about the history of certain characters. So don't skim over it if you don't want to miss some important things. Also, this chapter may be a tad confusing, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. On to glory!
Chapter 5: "The Mark of Father"
"You're surrendering? " asked the Delightful Children, bemused.
"What are you, deaf? I'm surrendering. Now are you going to leave me in the blazing heat, or are you going to take me into the power plant? Release the prisoners and promise not to melt the reactor, and I'm all yours."
He placed a hand over his eyes, blocking out the glare of the blistering sun. They had met outside to negotiate. The cliff was beautiful, vast and deep, the cloudless sky a brilliant blue. The place was far too gorgeous for a power plant. But it had been awhile since Crow could get out in the sun, and the place was more annoying to him than beautiful. He was starting to sweat. Looks like a black T-shirt and jeans weren't such a good idea.
"So what do you say? Are you going to take me or are you going to stand there and let me die of skin cancer?"
"Oh, of course we'll take you, and we promise to release the prisoners!" exclaimed the Delightfuls. Crow noticed they were crossing their fingers behind their backs.
"Imbeciles," he muttered. "So, off to the power plant, huh! Let's go!" He moved at a brisk pace towards the children. Just as he was about to reach them, he tripped.
"Oops, I forgot to tie my shoe! Silly me." The Delightfuls waited impatiently while he tied his shoe. He was taking a very long time.
"I like to quintuple knot them," he explained. "Oops, that's one knot too many! Silly me!" he repeated. So he restarted the tying process, and noticed his comrades sneaking into the power plant. Everything's going according to plan. The Delightfuls were very impatient now, and were getting close to screaming.
"There we go!" he exclaimed happily. He walked forward a few more feet before he tripped again.
"What now!" cried the Delightfuls, exasperated.
"I seem to have sprained my ankle. I don't suppose you can carry me, can you?" he asked.
"Carry you! How are we supposed to carry you!"
"Well, if you can't carry me, you'll at least need to support me. I can't make it all the way to the power plant by myself!"
"Oh, fine," they agreed. They moved to support him, and Crow began limping towards the power plant. After a few feet, he fell on top of them.
"Oh, I seem to have lost my balance. Sorry!" he apologized.
"GRRRRRRRHHH!"
Hurry up, guys, he thought. I can't keep this up forever.
"All right, let's move people, let's move!" ordered Cree. She was ordering hostages into the Boomer. They needed to blast a hole through the wall, but she figured that someone or other would pay for that.The thugs that the Delightful Children had hired weren't terribly difficult, and were all knocked unconscious. There were more coming along, but they had barricaded the door, and it would take them a minute or two to get through.
"Okay, that's the last of them!" called Silo. "Off you go, Walker!"
"Right. Come on, mates, only a few miles to the nearest town!" Walker informed his new passengers. He took off, heading east.
"All right, team, jet packs good to go?" asked Numbuh 1, securing his own jet pack. His comrades nodded.
"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Cree. "Let's shut down that reactor so we can hurry and save Crow!" They took off towards the reactor. Meanwhile, Crow had finally entered the power plant, and was handcuffed. The Delightful Children, as well as a few of their goons, were snickering menacingly.
"Well, I am glad we finally made it! I thought it was going to take forever!" laughed Crow. The Delightful Children weren't laughing. Uh oh, better stall, thought Crow.
"So, tell me, why Australia? I had always thought that you guys would try something in India. Good ol' Pakistan was right next door, you could have blamed everything on them. That would have triggered a war for sure. Imagine that, two countries that are old enemies, each with nuclear capabilities, bombing the living crap out of each other. Sounds like something Father would have been proud of," he smirked.
The Children grew furious. "Don't you dare mention Father in front of us!" they shouted.
Damn, that wasn't a good thing to say. Crow gave a nervous laugh. He was pretty sure he could break out of these handcuffs if he really wanted to, but with all these guards trained on him...what chance did he have?
"So, did anyone watch "House" last night?" he asked awkwardly. He was gifted with negotiations, but what could he do when the people he was negotiating with didn't want anything he could offer? They wanted him dead. Nothing else. They hijacked a power plant and risked nuclear war just so they could get him killed.
"Ummm, guess no one watched House. So, anyways, there's something I've been meaning to ask you guys. Why is it that you always talk at the same time? No offense, but that's just plain weird. You guys act like a bunch of zombies. Is that a side effect of being raised by Father?" He knew that he wasn't doing anything to help the situation, but he figured he might as well get in a few parting shots before they killed him.
"Shut up!" they shouted. "You worthless–"
"Worthless? You know, Father always said that I was the best there was. Thing is, he didn't realize I was even better than him. I guess that's why I'm leader of the teenagers and he's a pile of ashes up in space."
"That's IT!" screamed the Delightful Children. "We're going to shut you up once and for all!" And so they took out their guns, real guns, and were about to open fire when a loud explosion shook the room. The Children and their goons turned in shock.
"KND! Attack!" shouted Numbuh 1. He and the rest of his comrades, including Cree and Chad, rushed forward. The goons, taken by surprise, didn't even get a chance to open fire. They were all down within seconds. Seeing that they had lost this round, the Delightful Children quickly escaped.
"Looks like the cavalry's arrived!" laughed Crow. He gave a mighty tug on his handcuffs, and they managed to snap apart. He ignored the throbbing pain in his wrists and chased after the Delightful Children. Wally caught up to him, and they both ran like mad, trying to catch up. The Delightful Children entered a room and Wally and Dizzy soon followed. As the Delightful Children exited, one of them pulled out a remote and pressed the button, sealing off the doors of the room. Wally and Crow crashed into the steel door.
"God dammit!" shouted Crow. "They've got us trapped in here!" He banged loudly on the steel and gave a sigh. He was strong, but he wasn't that strong. He'd have to wait for someone to free them.
"Hey, this is the office my dad used to work in!" realized Wally. "I think the cliff is on the other side of this wall," Wally said, pointing at the wall adjacent to the the two doors.
"Well, until someone opens this place up, I guess it's just you and me," sighed Crow.
"Yeah," Wally said slowly, "Just you and me." He launched a flying kick at Crow, using his jet pack to gain height. Crow barely managed to dodge it. He jumped back a few feet, a look of pure anger on his face.
"You stupid bitch!" shouted Crow. "Now isn't the time for your petty vengeance!"
"I can't let you walk away after what you've done!" retorted Wally, as he landed on the ground.
"How can you hate me so much?" asked Crow, exasperated. "You don't know, you don't even know what you are! What we are!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Wally.
"I didn't want to tell you this, but... Wally, you and I aren't like other people. You've noticed it too. We're stronger than other people, tougher, faster."
"S-so?" asked Wally, now nervous. What was he getting at?
"Wally, you and I were created for a purpose. We were created to become soldiers. Our births were carefully planned and controlled. Our parents were oblivious to it all. But it happened nonetheless. You and I are, in a sense, the bastard children of Father."
"What are you talking about? That's bull!" shouted Wally. No way could this be true, he thought. He's just raving. But there was something in his voice that made him wonder. He sounded like he was telling the truth, like he really wanted Wally to believe him.
"Wally, you and I share his DNA. In a sense, he's the one who created us. Years ago, he started looking into making his own super soldiers. He searched everywhere for parents that might have the offspring he desired. Once he found them, he monitored them carefully, waiting for them to conceive. As soon as they did, he'd kidnap the mother, and alter the DNA of the embryo, shaping it into the creature he desired. He even spliced in some of his own DNA, so every soldier would carry his mark. Then he'd mindwipe her and take her back the next day, and then he'd wait, year after year, monitoring the child and it's parents, to see if it showed signs of promise. He didn't want to waste years feeding a child that turned out worthless. So if the child didn't seem worthy, he'd kill it, along with it's parents. If it did, he'd murder the parents and take the child."
Wally stood in disbelief. "But then how–"
"Let me finish. There was a problem with his plan. The soldiers began dying off, one by one, before they ever reached adulthood. Even the ones that had looked promising. Turns out Father didn't grasp genetics as well as he thought. It was a good thing too, because he realized that having so many powerful, brilliant soldiers would invite rebellion. So once he decided he had finally perfected the procedure of genetic enhancement, he chose to look for only one set of parents. One child, that he would train himself and keep an eye on. One child that would become his own tool for slaughter. That child was me.
"I don't know what he saw in my parents, but one day he kidnapped my mother, altered my embryo, and made me into a super soldier. Unlike the others, he took me at birth. I don't really know why, I guess he just wanted to make sure the process had worked. So from that day on I became a weapon of mass destruction. Assassin, soldier, spy, you name it. I was so perfect, so strong, so young. At seven years old I was already a killing machine.
"But that's when Father got greedy. He chose to have one more, just one more. So he found your parents, and decided that their child would be his new super soldier. He kidnapped your mother, altered your DNA, and then sent her back home. He sent me to check on you, to see how you were progressing. You don't know this, Wally, but I was there when you took your first steps, when you said your first word, when you first met Dizzy and the others. I was your guardian angel, there to make sure you never came to harm. In a year's time, it would be my duty to take you away and murder your parents. But something changed my mind.
"You were three at the time. You had gotten separated from Dizzy and the others, and you had fallen in a river. I rushed to save you. I pulled you out of the river. And then you–" Crow's voice faltered, "you hugged me, and told me that you loved me."
Wally's eyes grew wide. "I remember that! You...you were the one that saved me," he said quietly.
"At that moment I realized what Father had planned was wrong. Why should you have to go through the same pain that I did? So I arranged for your father to get a new job in America, and had you leave the next day. I told Father that you had drowned, and that I killed your parents to destroy any evidence that we had ever entered your lives. He nearly killed me that day, but it was worth it. Because of you, Wally, I became a human being again. "
"But I've fought Father dozens of times. How come he's never recognized me?" asked Wally.
"He never actually saw you. You were still an embryo when he altered your DNA.
He left it to me to observe you once you were born. I was the only one who knew what you looked like."
"B-but this means I'm related to the Delightful Dorks!"
Crow laughed. "Please. The Delightful Children aren't even related to Father. Trust me, I've checked their DNA. And we're not really his kids, either. More like distant cousins. He doesn't have enough DNA in us to claim paternity."
"This is just too weird. It can't be true. You can't even prove it!" cried Wally.
"Wally, look at the birthmark on your bicep. What shape does it remind you of," asked Crow, pointing.
"A scythe, I guess. Me brother has one too. What about it?" asked Wally, defensively.
Crow peeled back the right short sleeve of his black T-shirt. He showed his bicep to Wally. On it was a dark birthmark in the shape of a scythe. "The mark of Father," he explained. "The cursed mark that Father was born with. Every enhanced soldier of Father has one, along with whatever else he passed on through his DNA."
"Then it's true," admitted Wally, awed. "But, if Joey has one, then that means he's been altered too, with Father's DNA put in him! But who could have altered him, if Father thinks my parents are dead ?" asked Wally.
"I did," answered Crow.
Wally looked at him incredulously. "What! But, but, how could you do something like that to him!" shouted Wally, now angry.
"Wally, don't you understand? You and I are almost our own species! We shouldn't have to die out! We should thrive, and grow! The DNA of Father of isn't a curse, it's not like any of his personality is transferred. Whatever traits are passed on are extremely valuable. Wally, I've given your brother the opportunity for greatness."
"An opportunity for greatness! You call becoming the science experiment of some teenager an opportunity for greatness?"
"Maybe I was wrong, Wally. Perhaps I should've left him alone. But I did what I thought was right, to make your brother everything that you could be. Already he's shown signs of greatness. So have you. Once you've finished puberty, you'll become as strong as me, if not stronger."
Suddenly, a giant blast of flame burst against the wall, and a dark figure stepped through the new hole in the wall. "Unfortunately, I don't think Wally will be reaching puberty anytime soon," said the dark figure.
Crow's eyes grew wide. "No," he whispered. "No! You're dead! I killed you!"
"Looks like you didn't," laughed Father, as he raised his arm, preparing another blast. "Sorry boys, but DADDY'S BACK!"