Chapter 8: Not Your Average Terrorist

"Sir." A man said, as he watched the radar screen carefully.
"Yes?" His commanding officer said, coming over.
The two men were in a room at the Pentagon in Washington, in an area reserved for watching the airspace over Washington DC. The man at the desk seemed concerned.
"We've got four flying objects coming from the east, entering restricted airspace."
"Oh really? Can you identify them?"
"Yes sir. They seem to be large helicopters. Military issue, I'm afraid."
"Contact them."

The man at the desk pulled up a communication radio and sent a message to the helicopters.
"Unknown vehicles, you are entering restricted airspace. You are ordered to head north and land immediately." He said into the radio.
No response. The blips on the radar screen continued moving west.
"Unknown vehicles, I repeat, you are entering restricted airspace. Land now or hostile action will be taken."
The radio crackled to life. Then a voice came out of it.

"Foolish humans. Do not believe that you can stray us from our purpose." It said. The voice was a man's, but it had a strangely distorted and electrical air about it. No more came.
The officer was struck by a combination of fear and fury. There were few places in the world that had not heard of the terrorist attacks that had happened to the USA several years ago, and in the nation's capitol, there was always the fear that they might strike again. That was why all planes flying over the capitol were monitored closely to make sure that they were where they were supposed to be at all times. The last thing they wanted was a plane being deliberately crashed into the White House or the Capitol Building.
"Launch the fighter jets." The officer shouted.

Although the airfield was miles away, the fighter jets, screaming through the air at hundreds of miles per hour, crossed the distance to where the helicopters were in just two minutes. The pilot of the lead jet made one last attempt to contact the pilots of the helicopters to get them to turn around.
"Attention! You are ordered to land now! If you do not comply, you will be shot down!"
No response. They were nearing the rear helicopter. There is never any way for a helicopter to be faster than a jet. They were sitting ducks.
"Launch missiles."

Simultaneously, with the military precision of the US Air force, eight missiles shot from the fighter jets toward the four helicopters.

Simultaneously, the eight missiles smashed into a black force field that surrounded the helicopters completely. The shields went down, showing the astounded pilots four unscathed flyers.

"It didn't work!" Came the reportin over the radio. The pilot's voice was almost frantic. "They've got some kind of force field!"
The officer bit back a heartfelt curse.
"Try again!"

A new set of missiles shot from the jets. Once again, the helicopters were surrounded by the force field. Then, to the confusion of the pilots, the force field around one helicopter gathered itself into a ball, and their confusion turned to horror as Xana's dark energy lashed out like a fist, colliding with one of the jets. It crumpled like tinfoil as the pilot bailed out. Seconds later, the falling wreckage exploded in a ball of flame.

The dark energy lashed out three more times, as the jets fired a third set of missiles. The missiles collided with the ball of energy and exploded, and a few seconds later, three more falling wrecks joined the first.

The pilot of the first jet looked about to make sure that his comrades had all gotten out safely. The parachutes of the four pilots were all there. Then he turned to look at the helicopters. They had slowed down for some reason. The back door of one of the flying vehicles opened.
"WHAT IS THAT?" He shrieked.

Standing in the doorway was a horror he could scarcely imagine. It had a bulbous, white head with a triple-ringed symbol on it, which extended down into a snout with six narrow red eyes on it. The body seemed to have a brown, almost robotic exoskeleton, and four organic looking limbs extended from the torso, each encased in a metal "shoe." The pilot estimated that if it stood on its hind legs, it would be nearly twice as tall as a human.

The Tarantula raised its arms, and the pilot realized to his horror that they were not shoes, but the barrels of guns attached directly to the arms. The monster started firing lasers, and in a few seconds the four parachutes were shot full of holes, and the four pilots dropped like stones.
By the time they remembered to activate their backup parachutes, the helicopters were speeding away, as the creature taunted them. In a few minutes, they were flying out of Washington, to the bewilderment of those at the Pentagon. Xana had more important matters to attend to than them.

-------------------------
The stone landed in the water with a plunk. The surface rippled, then the rock was gone. Odd groaned, and reached for another stone.
"Face it Odd." Ulrich called. "You're no good at skipping stones."
"You're just jealous of my skill!" Odd shot back.
Odd was sitting on the edge of the factory bridge, trying to skip stones in the water. Ulrich and Yumi were sparring instead to pass the time. They had been told by Jeremie to wait on the bridge until he and Aelita finished.

"What's taking Einstein so long?" Odd grumbled. He reached for another stone, just as a familiar sound came from the entrance to the factory.
The three of them felt their eyes open wide as the overbike and the overwing coasted out of the factory entrance. Aelita was piloting the overwing, and carrying the overboard on her shoulder. Jeremie was riding the overbike, and had a cardboard box in sitting behind him.

"No way." Yumi said.
"Oh yeah." Jeremie said, grinning triumphantly. "Given what I know about materialization, it was easier than I expected. Anyway, it worked!"
Jeremie dismounted, and so did Aelita, placing the overboard just off the ground, where it hovered placidly.
"I also got these." Jeremie said. Inside were their weapons and three small metal circular objects.

"I'm sure you know what to do with these." He said, throwing Odd a pair of gloves, Ulrich a sword, complete with a sheath and a belt to carry it, and Yumi a pair of metal fans. Then he went around and fastened the small circular objects to their necks.
"And those will give you your special abilities." He said with pride. "I even programmed them to give you the pixelization abilities Odd had, and there's no danger about them now. I've had enough time to perfect the process."

"Seriously?" Yumi said, astonished. She held up a hand, and all of Odd's stones raised into the air and hovered there. Then she threw them at the water, each of them skipping several times before sinking.
"Hey!" Odd said.
"Sorry, Odd. I can't help it if I'm better at skipping stones than you."
"Hey, Yumi!" Ulrich called. "I ran the length of the bridge in 1.5 seconds! New record!"
"Hey guys," Jeremie said impatiently. "May I remind you we have a world to save? The vehicles will let you catch up with Xana, and the rest will help you fight him. Call us as soon as its safe to deactivate the tower, okay?"
"Right!" Odd said, flipping backwards onto the overboard.

"Good luck, guys." Jeremie said.
"Thanks, Einstein." Odd replied. "So, a race, anyone?"
"You didn't beat me last time." Ulrich said, getting on the overbike. Yumi was getting on the overwing. "You won't beat me this time, either." He said, with a grin.
And with that, they took off.