Chapter 5

Meetings

"Sir?"

Silence for a moment before Tony was able to snap out of his head.

"Yes, J?"

"A notification just came from the bank saying that your debit card was used for collect call from Qatar to the Pentagon."

Tony was still before breaking out into a soft smile.

"She's alive."

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"It's like a self regenerating molecular armor. Nothing we've ever seen before," a soldier said as they examined all that was left of the scorpion: the tail. The nine soldiers and their medic were gathered around it resting and watching what they were doing. Anna was right there with the other soldier examining it curiously. Fig had been taken by a helicopter to the nearest hospital and would be taken home once he was stable.

"Mm, not even Tony Stark is working on something like this." She mused out loud. "This is like years in the future."

"Oh, how would you know what Tony Stark was building?" The soldier asked, narrowing his eyes at her. She raised her eyebrow at him.

"Do you not know who I am?"

"No. Should I?"

Lennox stood up and moved Anna back towards Epps whom was shaking, holding his laughter in, and tugged her down beside him.

"Calm down, Doc."

"Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through," Lennox said changing the subject, taking a turn with examining the tail under the magnifying glass. "Hey aren't sabots hot-loaded for, like, a 6,000-degree magnesium burn?"

"Close to it. It melts tank armor." Epps piped up.

"So this metal skin must react to extreme heat." Lennox said. Suddenly all of a sudden the tail lifted up by itself causing all of them to jump back even though some sprawled out on the ground had no where to go.

"Heads up!"

Epps - who had jumped to his feet - yelled out as the tail went towards Epps, causing him to jerk back and avoid the stab that the tail had been about to make in his head. "I thought you said that thing was dead, man!"

The tail uncurled back flat onto the table, all of them were now on their feet and were throwing their bodies over the tail as Lennox called orders for it to be strapped down.

After it was strapped down they all just stood there in silence to try and catch their breaths. "This thing is wicked."

Everyone nodded at Lennox in agreement.

"Alright, get on the horn with Northern Command. Tell them that our most effective weapon is high heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load them on all gunships."

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At sunrise, they had landed at Nellis Air Force Base and after a quick debrief before being released to head home. Home was a place that Anna hadn't had in a long, long time. But she wanted to go back. Maybe not rekindle her relationship with her brother but build a new one, one where they both forgave and forgot everything. Lennox, Epps, and Anna headed towards one car with the other seven heading towards two others, all three would be taking them to an international airport that would take them home.

Suddenly black SUVs pulled up between the three cars and the soldiers.

"Captain Lennox, we need you and your team to come with us right now! Let's go!" A man said coming out of one of the SUVs, grabbing one of their bags out of their hands and running back.

The ten of them exchanged bewildered looks and didn't move until Lennox nodded for them to follow the man.

Anna felt a shot of adrenaline race through her and a voice in her head.

'It's almost time, sweet Anna. Be ready.' Primus whispered softly.

She would be ready.

They were taken in the SUVs to two helicopters that flew them to a very familiar structure of the United States: Hoover Dam.

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The ten of them lined up when they stood at the entrance of the Dam and waited for whomever had summoned them there. Anna stood at the end with Epps and Lennox, her cap throwing her face into shadow.

Epps must have seen whom they were waiting for as he called out: "Team attention! Present arms!"

They all straightened, saluting the important man that had come to them.

"At ease. Captain, Sergeant. Got your intel. Excellent work." The familiar voice caused instant tears to prickle at the corners of her eyes. She hadn't seen him face to face in six years, hadn't talked to him on the phone in two. She had missed her godfather greatly and she knew that he would have been mourning her terribly if she would have perished at the Qatar base.

"Thank you, sir. What about the gunships?" Lennox responded.

"They're being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. If they hit us again, we'll be ready for them. But won't do us much good if we can't get world communications back up." Secretary of Defense John Keller said. His eyes moved passed the Sergeant and onto the next one, a female medic, by the looks of her uniform. "I heard your medic kept you all alive and brought you all home."

"She did. The greatest medic I've ever had the pleasure to work with." Lennox said with sincerity. Keller moved towards her with a gentle smile that froze on his face when he met the familiar deep brown eyes of Mariann Stark aka Anna Johnson.

"Oh my, Anna?" He gasped out.

"Hey, Uncle John." Anna allowed him to pull her into a hug, Keller feeling an insane amount of relief fill his body.

His goddaughter was alive and well and in his arms. "Thank god that you're alright!"

They separated, ignoring the special agents, soldiers, and civilians watching them.

"Mr Secretary? If you would follow me." A new agent that had missed what had been going on said coming up. Keller refused to let Anna leave his side so she fell into step beside him, murmuring to him what she had seen first hand as they all trailed behind the special agents.

Anna could feel the confused looks of her fellow soldiers and knew that she had a lot of explaining to do but she wanted to spend as much time as possible with a member of her family.

Because if her necklace was anything to go by, it vibrating and heating up sh*t was about to get even more real.