Hello Ultras! Welcome back to the next chapter of The Ultra 10 Chronicles! I really hope you enjoy this one!
Trigger warnings: There is one trigger this chapter. A torture scene, which takes place towards the beginning of the chapter. It starts in the paragraph which reads, "Do you know much about infrared technology?" It continues until the page break, a total of twelve paragraphs. There isn't much that goes on in it that isn't inferred afterwards, so if you skip it, you aren't missing much. Still, its there to read if you want.
The soundtrack for this chapter is "Everybody Hurts" by REM. I thought that it was a good tribute to both Josie Thompson and Sam's feelings this chapter. You can listen to the song on youtube by going to /watch?v=Y6yUY7M9yfw
Enjoy the chapter!
The Ultra 10 Chronicles: Volume 2: A Hero Earth Needs
Chapter 51: Breaking In to Break Out (Part 1)
The next afternoon, PLUMMER headquarters
Bree Albright sat in the cafeteria area, polishing her canister gun when her communicator buzzed for her.
"What is it?" Bree answered the call.
"Agent 18, you are requested in Alpha's office," the agent on the other side of the communicator commanded. Bree huffed an annoyed sigh.
"I'm on my way," she answered. She stood up from her seat and made her way towards the administrative section of the base. Approaching Alpha's personal office, she knocked, waiting for a response.
"Enter," Alpha answered. Bree opened the door, and went inside.
"You called for me?" Bree asked. Alpha was sitting at his desk, sorting through some papers.
"Yes," Alpha responded. "You know that I hate beating around the bush, so I'll get right down to it. I want to offer you a promotion. To Agent 10," Alpha said. The abruptness of Alpha's demeanor threw Bree off of her guard.
"Can I ask what made you decide I was deserving of a promotion all of a sudden?" Bree asked.
"The main reason is that Max Tennyson is no longer holding the position," Alpha said. "But as for why you specifically? That is because of your zeal in obeying my orders yesterday."
"Does that mean that I'm being reassigned?" Bree asked.
"Fortunately not," Alpha responded. "You are still going to be in charge of disciplining Josie Thompson. But with your new rank does come with certain trust."
"May I ask what exactly?" Bree asked, cautiously.
"Agent 01 is my right hand man," Alpha said. "As such, I have other tasks then overseeing you in your duties. I want you to be my fist. Someone I can trust to carry out my assignments to the letter."
"I understand, sir."
"I trust that you'll still carry them out with the same vigor, even if no one is there to watch you?" Bree could feel her heart racing. She would be allowed some alone time with Josie.
"Of course, sir," Bree answered smartly.
"Good. Remember that she has not been court marshaled yet," Alpha reminded her. "Even though we know that she is already guilty, there are still proceedings to go through. So make sure that she remains conscious. Other than that, you are free to use whatever method you deem fit in interrogating Josie Thompson."
"Of course, sir," Bree answered again.
"Then you are free to go, Agent 10," Alpha told her. "But remember, I am always looking for people that I can trust to take with me to the top. Prove yourself worthy, and you will become my fist." Bree nodded as she exited the office. She walked down the hall back towards the cafeteria. In her pocket, she felt the communicator that had been specially modified by Josie for Overwatch's use. For a moment, she considered reporting to Max or Wes on her progress. But after thinking about it, she wasn't so sure it was a great idea. For her promotion, she had to torture Josie, and she wasn't sure how that news would go over with them. Or if they could overlook what she was doing to get close to Alpha.
"Maybe it would be best if Josie stayed here in PLUMMER custody. It would clean up a lot of the mess," she muttered to herself. "I guess that I will have to just keep it quiet for now." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the communicator, disabling it from its power supply, before returning it to her pocket. No sense having it on if she wasn't going to be using it for a while. She'd just have to come up with an excuse when she eventually reported in.
Bree made her way through the cafeteria and towards the detention area. Coming up to the door, she pressed her badge to the scanner, which unlocked the door to let her through. As soon as she entered the cell block, the lights came on, illuminating the entire room. Like last time, Josie struggled to blink through the blinding light to see who it was that had come to visit her.
"Hello again, Josie," Bree greeted her prisoner.
"Back for more, huh?" Josie weakly said. Her days of agony and pain were taking a toll on her, and she was finding it harder and harder to maintain her tough exterior. Inside, she was terrified to endure any more torture. "Where's your leash?"
"It's just me today," Bree replied. "Which means that I don't have to put up an act."
"What do you mean?" Josie asked, confusion evident on her face.
"Wes left me to be a mole inside the PLUMMERs," Bree told her friend. "I'm supposed to get close to Alpha, so I can report his actions to Wes and Max." Bree took a breath before continuing. "I just need to know where they went so that I can deliver whatever intel I get to them." Bree had a pleading look on her face, as she tried to get Josie to trust her.
"You don't need to know where Max is at to communicate with them," Josie replied. "You know that. There are other ways to contact him."
"My communicator is broke," Bree lied. "And I can't get yours without arousing suspicion. Please Josie, time is of the essence!"
"No, I'm not telling you where," Josie replied. Bree had enough of this.
"Fine," she said sucking in a deep breath to unsuccessfully steady herself. "If you won't come with the carrot, then it's back to the stick." She stepped away from Josie's cell, walking towards the table against the wall to the side of the cell.
"Do you know much about infrared technology?" She asked. Josie didn't say anything, prompting Bree to go on. "Infrared is a light wave that is imperceivable to the naked eye. Invisible, but still just as powerful as a beam of light." Josie picked up a metallic rod.
"There are certain metals which absorb infrared light, just the same as iron does to thermal energy. This makes the metal incredibly hot, hotter even then an iron left on the coals." Bree walked slowly back towards Josie's cell, carrying the metal rod in her hand. Even from several feet away, Josie could feel the infrared-derived heat on the end of the metal rod.
"I'd like to ask you again. Where is Max and his friends hiding out at?" Bree waived the rod close to Josie's face, causing her to try to pull back as best as she could.
"I don't know," Josie pleaded. "The plan never got that far." Bree waived the rod close to Josie's face again.
"You see, I don't believe you," she said.
"P-please Bree, don't do this," Josie begged.
"Then tell me," Bree tried again.
"I-I don't know," Josie answered, immediately shouting in pain as Bree pressed the hot rod against her cheek. "Aahh!" Bree let the hot rod sear into Josie's skin for a couple of seconds before pulling it away.
"Where is Max?" She demanded.
"Please!" Josie begged. "I don't- aahh!"
"Don't lie to me!" Bree shouted as she took the rod away. There was a large red spot where she had pressed the rod. "I'm just getting started. But this can all end as soon as you tell me where he is!" Josie's face was flushed with tears, as she tried to break her restraints that were holding her to the wall. Bree stood up.
"I'm losing my patience," she said threateningly. "Now which leg do you want to start with?"
"Alpha, sir?" Agent 01's voice came through the communicator. "She's interrogating Josie Thompson again."
"And?" Alpha responded. He was still in his office, sorting through some paperwork for the funeral proceedings for the agents that died when Max's little band of traitors escaped. Some of them were going to be actual funerals, and others would simply be the cover story for why certain agents went missing. It was absolutely boring work, but he risked bad press if he didn't make it at least look like he cared.
"She tried talking to the prisoner first, although the receivers didn't quite pick up all that she said. Whatever it was though, it failed," Agent 01 reported. "Now she's simply torturing her."
"Nothing too easy, I hope?" Alpha responded.
"No sir," Clyde answered. "She went straight for the Dakite rods. She's literally branding Thompson with them."
"Any progress?" Alpha replied coldly.
"Josie hasn't said anything that would give us any insight, sir," Clyde answered. "Though, like I said, I can't make out anything that Bree said before she started with the Dakite. I'm starting to think that Thompson doesn't in fact know anything. She's simply begging for mercy."
"No, Thompson doesn't know anything," Alpha answered. "That was obvious after my first time torturing her."
"Then why are we continuing?" Clyde asked, confusion leaking through the speaker.
"The torture is not for Josie, but for Bree," Alpha said. "To harden her. To keep her in line. Josie is no threat to us at the moment. But Bree Albright is. If her allegiance is still with Max, she could seriously threaten what we've got planned. I specifically had Bree continue to torture Thompson so that she wouldn't go back, couldn't go back. Her torturing her friend will either break her, or scare her from Max's band of traitors. It is designed so that she would serve us and our goals."
"And?" Clyde asked, his voice a mixture of uncertainty and surprise.
"You can call off the interrogation," Alpha gave his approval. "Just as Bree started with the carrot, and moved to the stick, so too did I start out by giving her a promotion. And now she gets to see what lies ahead of her if she were to try to betray me."
"Yes, sir," Clyde spoke from the other side of the communication. "If you need anything…"
"Yes," Alpha cut him off. "I've got more paperwork to do." With that, Alpha ended the communication. He accessed the next file on the PLUMMER database. Maxwell Tennyson's file and history. He marked it for deletion.
"You were a good soldier, Max," Alpha spoke to himself as he watched the computer deleting the data. "But I am the only one that can protect Earth from alien species. You are standing in my way. So I have to make you disappear."
Max's group's home base
"How are those badges coming along?" Wes asked one of the men working at a computer that had the seized PLUMMER badges connected to it.
"It's a little harder than tapping into the Emergency Broadcast System," the ex-agent replied. "Josie led the team to encrypt them."
"We don't have that luxury to break into them," Wes replied.
"I'm just saying," the man replied. "She's the gifted one. I'm just trying to crack her code."
"We need them cracked in the next few hours," Wes reminded the guy for the hundredth time. "If we can't use them to get in, then the whole operation is going to fail miserably."
"Why don't we just use your own badges?" Ellie asked, walking up to the two men. "I'm assuming that you still have them?"
"Yes, but our badges have likely been exposed by now," Wes explained. "Alpha probably knows every agent that left with us. If our badges got too close, he'd be on us like white on rice. That's why we need these badges. They haven't been tagged."
"Can I see one?" Ellie asked. The man at the computer handed her one that he hadn't connected yet. "I'm going to take this back to Team Ultra," Ellie explained to Wes. "We've got a techno-guy that made our communicators. He might be able to crack the encryption."
"We don't have many options at this point," Wes sighed. "Is he good?"
"He made our suits and our communicators," Ellie told him. "If anyone can crack it, I'm sure he can."
"Fine, take it," Wes told her. "But if he messes up, it could be disastrous for us." Ellie nodded and jogged away from them, towards the nearest exit. Once she left the building, she opened up her suit and took off into the sky.
"Cooper, you there?" She spoke into the comm link.
"I'm here, what's up?" He replied.
"I've got a PLUMMER badge with me," she explained. "They use it to access their base. Wondering if you could break the encryption."
"Most of my higher-processing computers are still in my garage," Cooper replied. "If we could plug it in, then I'm sure that I could break the encryption."
"Great," Ellie replied. "I'll meet you there!" She changed her flight course, and headed towards Cooper's house. After some time flying, she landed on the street the house sat on and walked up to the garage. But something caught her eye. Cautiously, she walked towards the garage door. Behind her, Cooper landed in the form of Morph.
"Hey, El-" Ellie cut him off.
"Shh!" She whispered and jabbed her thumb at the garage door. Cooper saw that the lock had been blown off. And after this long without any power, none of the traps or sensors would have gone off.
"Got it," Cooper whispered back, being encased again in Morph's suit. The two of them crept cautiously towards the garage door. Cooper pressed his hand on the door, feeling some resistance. His other hand transformed into his energy cannon, which powered up for a fight.
"There's something blocking it," he whispered. "On three…" Ellie nodded, powering up her wrist cannon.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three!" Cooper whisper-shouted as he slammed his weight into the door, sending the object holding it closed flying across the room. With a shout, both he and Ellie burst into the room, pointing their arm cannons around and lighting up the dark room.
Moments before
Sam was startled from his sleep when he heard the faint sound of movement outside. Instantly awake, he sat up, looking around for whoever could have made the sound. But whoever it was, they were still outside the garage, which gave him an advantage.
As silently as he could, he pulled out his suit and opened it up. The faint metallic sound of the NanoMech scraping over each other as they expanded to cover his body was deafening in his adrenaline-heightened state. The mech finished covering his body just as he saw the door to the garage budge ever so slightly. The chair he'd leaned up against it keeping it from swinging open on its own, and now it was providing one final barrier between him, and whomever was on the other side.
His hands turned into arm cannons which began to power up as he pointed them at the door. Silently, he stood up to be prepared for a fight. He the suspenseful seconds in his mind.
"One…"
"Two…"
Three…" All of a sudden, the chair went flying across the room as the door burst open, and someone quickly came through. Partially out of surprise, and partly on purpose, Sam fired his arm cannons, the energy bolts missing their targets, but not by much. They burned into the wall beside the door.
Immediately, several energy blasts were shot his way, which he lunged to avoid. Falling into a summersault, he sprung to his feet and fired again at the two intruders. His adrenaline was dictating the movement of his body now, and he was acting on pure instinct.
More energy blasts were shot towards him, to which he dodged again before firing. Another energy blast burned by him, coming so close that he could smell the ozone. Before he knew it, a shot slammed into his left shoulder. The force spun him around, which he used to fire again from his right arm. His shot hit one of their legs, which seemed to short out whatever tech they were wearing. They fell to a knee, not like they were injured so much as their armor had suddenly became too heavy.
But his own left arm was suffering the same ailment, the circuitry fizzing out and seizing up. His left arm was now worse than totally useless. It was a liability and obstruction. Still, another energy beam whizzed by him, only one this time, different than the two before.
Sam spun around, his heavy left arm swinging wild as he moved. He aimed again at the intruders and was ready to fire.
"It's him!" One of the intruders shouted. He stopped for a moment before raising his arm cannon again. The figure farthest from him raised his arm cannons too. But the one in front, the smaller one, stood up.
"It's him," she said again. "Don't you recognize your armor?" The other intruder lowered his arm slightly, moving his helmeted head closer, as though he were squinting behind the mask.
"It is my armor," the figure said, before raising his arm again to point it at Sam. "But it still might not be him."
"Are all boys this stupid?" The female one asked before reaching up and removing her helmet. Sam watched as the NanoMech began folding up into itself, just like the way his suit did. Confusion was now the predominate emotion in his mind, forcing him to lower his arm cannon. The second figure lowered his arm too. His NanoMech rippled, like the surface of a lake, pulling back to reveal the face behind it. In the dim light of the garage, Sam saw the face of…
"Cooper?" Sam asked, thoroughly confused. Cooper's face looked even more confused.
"Sam?" He asked. Sam reached up and pulled off his helmet, the NanoMech folding up into their storage mode, revealing Sam's identity. Cooper blinked a few times in astonishment.
"Wow, it's really you," he said. "We thought that you were gone for good."
"I… I thought so too," Sam replied, still trying to believe that he was just a moment ago fighting his friends. "The way you two entered, I was about to go all out on you."
"Yeah right," Cooper said. "I was the one that hit you with the energy bolt." That was when Sam's mind started working again.
"Who's this?" He asked, pointing towards the other figure in the room.
"This is Ellie," Cooper introduced. "She's-"
"I'm right here, you know," Ellie spoke up. "I can introduce myself." She looked at Sam. "I was a part of Lucky Girl's team. My name's Ellie. Now I'm part of Team Ultra."
"So you guys are still around?" Sam asked. "I got here yesterday and saw the garage abandoned. Made me wonder what happened."
"You know that Vilgax attacked, obviously," Cooper asked. Sam nodded before he continued. "We got the heck outta dodge to avoid his drones. Been staying in a cabin outside the city since."
"So why are you back to the garage?" Sam asked.
"Long story short, the PLUMMERs aren't the good guys," Ellie started.
"Figured that when I saw them working beside Vilgax's drones," Sam replied. "Still don't know the why though."
"We haven't put all of that together yet either," Cooper said. "But there's a splinter group from the PLUMMERs that Ellie got in good with." To that, Ellie nodded. "They're trying to break into the PLUMMER Headquarters to rescue one of their own. I asked Cooper to break the encryption on one of their badges. He needed his computers here to do that. Hence why we are here."
"Which we should get started on," Cooper cut in. "There's a generator in my backyard that will provide power for my computers. Once we get that going, I can start hacking the badge."
"I can get that," Sam volunteered.
"I'll come with," Ellie said. She reached into her pocket and gave the PLUMMER badge to Cooper. She then followed Sam out into the backyard. They walked around a bit in the overgrown grass looking for the generator.
"So… how's the rest of the team?" Sam asked, breaking the awkward silence that had sprung up between them.
"Some are better than others," Ellie said. "But overall, we're staying in there. What about you?" Sam shrugged.
"Fine, I guess," he said.
"Where did you go?" Ellie asked. "I wasn't a part of the team when you left, but Ben, Cooper and Julie have talked about you."
"Did they tell you why I left?" Sam asked. He sounded like he was made out of glass. Like the slightest thing could shatter what resolve he was functioning on.
"A little," Ellie replied. "They said that you were close to him, and that his death impacted you the hardest."
"I was there when he died," Sam said. His mind going back to that day. "I'd talked to him just minutes before he died. If I'd been there quicker, he might not have been killed." Elle stepped in front of Sam, looking into his face.
"Doctor Animo killed him," she said. "Not you. You can't blame yourself for what that creep did." Sam looked at her for a moment before closing his eyes.
"You're right," he sighed, though it sounded like it was more words than a conviction. "I couldn't have stopped it." After a moment, the two started walking again.
"So you went on hiatus," Ellie started up the conversation again. "Took a walkabout. Went for a breeze, is that right?" Sam nodded his head.
"That's right. I needed to get away from Bellwood for a while." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the generator. Probably the third or so time they'd walked by it, but their conversation had entirely taken his attention.
"There's the generator," Sam pointed at it. The two walked over to it and checked it for gas. "Looks like it's full."
"Cooper's quite the emergency preparer," Ellie remarked.
"I doubt that there's much that could catch him off his guard," Sam said as he primed the generator and gave the pull cord a tug.
"Lukas's death took him off his guard," Ellie said. "It affected all of us. Even me." Sam looked at her.
"You weren't a part of Team Ultra yet."
"Still affected me," she said. "Just differently. It affected everyone differently. And we are all dealing with it differently."
"How is it affecting you?" Sam asked, forgetting about pulling the cord for the moment. He looked at the girl that he'd only just met, yet somehow shared much in common with.
"It scares me," she said after a momentary pause. "It reminds me that the people we are fighting are fighting us for real. They want to kill us, and in some cases can kill us." Sam thought about that for a moment. Noticing the silence, he gave the cord another pull. The engine almost caught, turning over a couple of times before dying.
"How… How do you cope?" Sam asked shakily. Ellie took a deep breath.
"I'm still figuring that out," she said after a moment. "Some days it is almost like I'm invincible inside that suit. Other times, it terrifies me. It's the scariest in my dreams."
"Same here," Sam sighed. "It terrifies me to think that what happened to Lukas, that could have been me. It could still be me, or someone I care about." He looked up at Ellie. "That's why I left. I didn't want to have to face that reality." He gave the pull cord another tug, the generator coming to life. The mechanical hum filled the evening air. Inside the garage, several lights flickered to life.
"I guess that makes me a coward then, doesn't it?" Sam asked Ellie. It surprised him how open he was being to this girl.
"You came back," Ellie reassured him. "Coming back. To face your fears… That doesn't sound like a coward to me."
"Even though I'm still terrified about what is going to happen?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Ellie replied. "If you weren't afraid, then what would you have to be brave about?" Sam thought about that for a moment.
"Come on," Ellie finally said. "We'd better get back into the garage to see how Cooper's doing." Sam started walking towards the front of the house again when Ellie slipped her hand into Sam's, giving him a reassuring squeeze. It felt nice to know that someone else wasn't only scared and hurt like him, but that like him, they were finding the courage to heal from it.
The two teenagers headed into the garage to see Cooper already hard at work to hack into the PLUMMER badge. His eyes glowed a pale blue color as all of the computers worked together, long lines of code filling the half-dozen monitors that populated the wall of the garage.
"You two took some time to get the power on," Cooper remarked, still engrossed in his work. "Hope that the generator didn't give you too hard of a time starting."
"We just had a lot to catch up on," Sam quickly said.
"Well I know what that is like," Cooper replied. "It's hard to believe that you're back, but I'm definitely glad that you came back." Cooper looked deep in thought for a couple of seconds.
"Ellie, I'm almost through the encryption," he said after a while. "Whoever encrypted these must be a genius… you know, for not being a techno-path like me." That last comment made both Sam and Ellie chuckle.
"You're the most humble techno-path I've ever met," Sam joked.
"I'm probably the only techno-path you've ever met," Cooper replied.
"You don't know that," Sam replied. "I could know hundreds of techno-paths."
"Alright, if you boys are done flexing your biceps," Ellie butt in, "Then perhaps we could finish hacking into the PLUMMER-"
"Done," Cooper cut her off as his eyes returned to their normal color. The computers all around the room shut off in accordance with his eye change. Cooper pushed up his t-shirt sleeve to reveal his biceps, which he flexed as hard as he could. "And I still can flex my biceps!" The three teenagers laughed at his humor.
"I'd better take this back to Max's group," Ellie said, picking up the badge off of the table. Then to Sam, "You could come too, if you want. They could definitely use the help."
"Or you could come to the cabin with me," Cooper suggested. "I'm sure the others would like to catch up with you too."
"No, I think that I'll go with Ellie," Sam said. "I'm not sure if I'm completely ready to see the others yet. But I can still do some good with the ex-PLUMMERs." Cooper nodded. He took off his wristband and gave it to Sam.
"Take my communicator then. I can borrow Julie's until we get your suit's communicator working again," he said.
"I never turned mine off," Sam responded, a little confused.
"I figured as much," Cooper replied. "But I only assumed that it got damaged the day Doctor Animo attacked when you showed back up in town on the cameras, but we still couldn't reach you." Sam nodded.
"We've got to go," Ellie said. "It goes down tomorrow, and they still need to use this badge to hack the other three badges." Sam nodded.
"Then I'll see you later," Sam told Cooper.
"Sooner rather than later," he replied. "You two go, I'll shut down the power here." Sam nodded and followed Ellie out the garage door.
"So where is this group?" He asked Ellie.
"Down by the docks," she said. "Let's suit up, and you can just follow me." He nodded, and the two opened up their respective suits, being encased by Cooper's NanoMech. Ellie took off into the night sky first, and Sam took off soon after, following her over the streets of Bellwood until they finally came into the old part of town. Just a little farther, they entered the old fishing industrial area, where the two teens landed.
"Right through there," Ellie said the moment they had landed, pointing towards an old warehouse.
"That building looks abandoned," Sam said, his NanoMech suit still folding up into its storage mode.
"That's the point, silly," Ellie teased him. "It would be hard to hide if it looked like it was a hangout from the outside." She led the two of them towards the door she had exited from earlier in the night. When she got close, someone opened it up from the inside.
"You're back," Jack Morningstar greeted them. "And I see that you brought someone with you."
"Another member of Team Ultra," she replied as they entered the warehouse. "He's got a suit too."
"Always glad to have members of Team Ultra helping us out," Jack replied, closing the door behind them. "You guys are going to be our heavy hitters." Wes crossed the warehouse towards the two teens quickly as soon as he recognized Ellie.
"I hope that your friend here was able to crack the encryption without setting off any red flags?" He asked, looking at Sam.
"There was another member of the team that hacked the badges," Ellie told him, pulling the badge out of her pocket and presenting it to the old Navajo man. "And yes, he cracked it. One hacked PLUMMER badge, as requested."
"I'm glad," Wes said, looking at the badge. "We'll get our guys on it immediately to replicate it for the other badges. Meanwhile, you can show your friend around. I'm sure that we could really use his help tomorrow." Ellie nodded, as Wes walked off with the badge. Ellie started showing Sam around.
"So what is the plan for tomorrow?" Sam asked.
"They are going to use the badges to open up the doors," Ellie explained. "A few people are going to be dressed like PLUMMER agents, driving the patrol van in, as if they were getting off patrol. But there's going to be a couple more people inside the van. They'll be the ones to open the doors from the inside, which apparently doesn't require a key. That'll let most of us in."
"What happens then?" Sam asked.
"Most of us are heading to the armory to see what we can grab or smash. That'll draw most of the base there while a few of us heads for the detention block where the person we're rescuing is. They'll sneak out of there, while the majority of us escape out of some hole in the armory where they originally left through."
"That's it?" He asked.
"Yep, pretty simple," Ellie concluded. "Of course, we'll probably be among the ones seeing the action, being the big guns and all. We'll just have to stay close to Max."
"Who's he?" Sam asked.
"Max is the one in charge," Ellie answered. "He wears a red Hawaiian shirt. You can't miss him." Ellie looked down at her wrist watch.
"We'd better go get suited up," she exclaimed.
"But the operation is tomorrow?" Sam asked, a little confused again. "It's still tonight."
"Max told me earlier the address to the entrance of the PLUMMER base," she explained. "I thought that it would be smart to scope the place out for any possible information we could use." Sam had to agree that it was a smart idea.
"Alright then," he said. "Lead the way." Ellie gave him a toothy smile and headed for the entrance. Once they were out, the two suited up, taking off into the night sky.
A/N:
That'll do it for this chapter. What were your thoughts? I had the hardest time coming up with the title for the chapter, but decided on this one only after I finished writing it. It's referencing both breaking into PLUMMER Headquarters, as well as breaking into Sam's feelings. As a result, both Josie will be able to be broken out, as well as Sam breaking out from his traumatic past. (Not sure if you folks wanted to know that, but I thought it was cool enough to share.)
What were your thoughts on the chapter? How is Bree going to fare in the coming attack on PLUMMER HQ? Does she get an early wind, or is she going to find out about it when the rest of the PLUMMERs find out? While we're at it, do you think that Alpha expects that Max will try to rescue Josie, or is he too busy to consider it? What did you think about Sam's return? Any other thoughts? Questions? Comments or critiques? Leave them in a review! And if you'd like, leave a follow and a favorite! Thank you so much for reading, and we'll see you next time! Have an awesome day!
Review Responses:
Kingpizzathe3: Yay! Chapter 50!
Thank you for the review, and joining the community! Here's to another fifty chapters!
Ushindi: Cool chapter. Charmcaster would probably be an anti hero. It's hard to tell whether Bree is actually siding with Alpha or against him. 50/50, I guess I will find out later. Sam, after resting a bit, would go out to find Team Ultra and would probably find them during a battle. That's what I think.
Thanks for another review! I really appreciate every one! I'm glad you liked the chapter! Hopefully this chapter builds on the Bree Albright side-plot to the point that you are suspecting one way or the other. This next chapter build on it a little more. I know where she ends up, but her pathway of getting there, just like with most of the characters in the story, I'm experiencing as I write them, only a couple of days ahead of you readers. So I'm not even sure which side she's leaning towards right now either. But which side she ends up on is already set, so no worries there!
yraj2004: Also, another idea, Alpha's true name isn't revealed yet...
If Alpha managed to get away alive, (injured to whatever extent you want, but alive.)
He could come back as that Proctor Servantis, whom I still wish that when Ben had gone ALIEN X, had grabbed and squeezed his head like POPEYE THE SAILOR does to his favourite signature can of SPINACH.
Haha, I like the image that put into my head! An interesting idea... He certainly has Servantis's conniving character, and a high rank in the PLUMMERs, just like Servantis. I'll have to think about that idea, as I hadn't originally had Servantis planned to make an appearance in the Ultra 10 Chronicles. But neither was Alex Animal originally going to be a villain. So things definitely change. Thanks for the review!