It had taken her approximately forty-five seconds to try and get the equipment she needed. It should have taken only around thirty, but Princess was stumbling through her explanation and request so quickly, that noone, not even Zark, could have understood her. Fortunately Barron pieced it together by focusing on key words and had zipped into the truck to pull out an item she didn't even know the truck had …

…A lead vest used by radiologists in an X-Ray room.

Five seconds after crudely wrapping it around her head and securing it with duct tape, she dove down into the subway and began her search for her partner. She found him inside fifteen seconds and growled as she looked at the red flashing countdown.

Damien was obviously in a profuse sweat as he crouched over one unit with a pair of pliers in his teeth. He was surrounded by several differently sized pliers and cutters and swore around the piece in his mouth as he worked through his second disarming.

"Sarge," he mumbed as he felt a new presence in the room. "Tell me Cass has you up to speed. I'm only getting through one every minute and a half here."

Princess set her hand on his shoulder and checked the status of the only neutral device. "My record on these is forty-five. I'll start at the other end."

His head jerked at his partner's voice and he flicked his attention to her for only a second before he looked back down at his bomb. He continued to work in amongst the wires. "Three, two, one …" he counted down, wincing in morbid expectation as the last number left his lips.

Princess wanted to chuckle at him as she frantically thrust her hand alongside a handful of wires in search of the elusive lead wire. "Don't worry, I'm not ticking."

He let out a grunt as he snipped the wire and yanked the rest free from the timer. "Two down," he breathed and slid on his knees to the next one. "You're lucky we're about to die," he muttered. "Or I'd have to snap photographs of and give you hell for your headdress."

She leaned back on her knees and pulled her clippers from her pocket. "Pretty it isn't," she breathed, "But it might save us all."

"Here's hoping," he muttered as he held a wire and reached for his clippers. "You know Cass."

"Mm-hmm?" She hummed distractedly as she yanked free the timer on her first weapon and slid across to the next.

"It's been a blast, you know that?"

She grinned and fished her fingers into a new set of wires. "Pun intended I suppose."

"I'm a Bomb Technician, what did you expect?"

She didn't look away from her task, but jutted her chin toward the next device. "How about neutralizing bombs?"

He grinned and moved toward the next. "Multitaking."

She blew out a breath of air and lifted her lip into an irritated snarl at this particular bomb's wiring playing difficult. "Can you do two at once instead?"

He scoffed and lowered his face into the mass of wires. "Can you stop ignoring what I'm trying to say?"

She let out a huff and gave him an exaggerated attentive look that lasted exactly one and a half seconds. "I hear you, Damien. But," she dropped her head back to the task at hand. "I am not going to give the last I loved working with you so now goodbye speech. Not right now." She moved on to the next one. "Because we're getting out of this."

He passed his eyes across to the next bomb's timer as it fell to below the five-minute mark. "We've got six to do in four, Cass. Can we do it?"

She winked at the bomb, not at him, as she pulled another timer free. "You bet."

Four minutes counted down a lot faster than the two technicians were comfortable with. Pressure and rush on their last respective bombs drew out their disarming time to an inappropriate level. Princess could feel the sweat of exertion and panic sliding her lead headdress across her hair as she shifted and moved between pliers and wires. She swore she could hear her bloodflow through her ears; a heavy whooshing sound like pressurized water pulsing through a flexible tube. She tried hard to ignore the deafening qualities of such a sound as the cutters surrounded the offending wire.

She shuddered as she tried to find strength to close the clippers. With climax to the situation only a squeeze of her fingers away, her body was reluctant. She found her ability only once a bead of sweat broke free from her brow and rolled into her eyes. She heard the snip of the wire, and then felt a mortifying buzz in her head as the duct tape finally broke it's hold and released the lead vest to the floor.

She couldn't block the panicked cry that escaped her lungs as she frantically tried to retrieve the garment and set it back into place within the three-second time frame.

"No. No. No. No," she sobbed as she frantically scrambled and fumbled. "God, No. Damien, I'm so sorry."

She didn't notice that the buzzing had ceased and the danger passed until his hands pulled the vest away from her and he pulled her hard against him. "It's okay, Cass. We did it." His voice was as shaky as hers was. "We did it."

She clutched onto him tightly as she finally let her fear escape her body. "I have never been so scared in my life."

He pulled back from her and stroked her hair from her face several times before he settled his hands on both her cheeks. He admired her intently. "You and me, both, Cass."

She touched his hands and closed her eyes in a slow blink as she felt her body calm. When she opened her eyes she saw in his the deep thankfulness and admiration she'd only ever seen from Jason. "We're a hell of a team, Damien."

He nodded and poked out his bottom lip. "So don't leave me for them, okay?"

She gave him a wide-eyed stare. "For who?"

Be blinked slow and let out a breath as he drew himself to a stand. "Never mind. I'm just being a selfish asshole."

She said nothing through her own confusion as he walked toward one of the many units to begin pulling the actual detonators from the bombs. She still sat on her ass on the gravelly and dusty concrete floor of the utility room, but she watched him work as though she were pulling the detonators with him.

It was close, she thought to herself finally as she looked around the room at the incomprehensible amount of compound pressed into each corner of the walls. So close that she had let herself panic, not only for her own life, but for the many more which would have been lost.

He interrupted her thoughts with a breath of disbelief. "This is just insane, Cass." He held up a fistful of detonators and shuddered. "If we hadn't of been able to work through these … God." He looked up to the ceiling. "He's a mad man."

She raised her eyes to her partner, and blinked back a tear. She considered the tiny life back at Neptune who was only there, within death's grasp, because her father had so ordered it. By trying to save the little girl he's put her in worse peril. Her breathing quickened into shallow panting that made her light headed.

"This is why," she whispered softly.

Damien turned and crouched beside her as he tucked the handful of wires into something a little neater than a hurried mess. "Why what, Cass?"

She raised her eyes from the floor. "Why I hid her from him."

"You mean Mark?"

She nodded and rocked forward to press her hands into the ground to push herself to a stand. "I hid her to protect her." She clutched at the front of his vest and fell apart. "I struggled, cried, fought, and broke my own heart just to shield her from all this."

He was startled by her admission, and by the absence of colour in her eyes. He stooped just a little to lower himself to her height. "Princess," he began, choosing her G-name in the hope it would bring her back to clarity. "Don't do what I know you're thinking. She needs him as much as she does you." He held her arms. "And that man needs the two of you. You'll destroy him if you leave again."

She shook her head, losing her focus on him. Her eyes danced across his chest, but saw nothing. "I have to. This won't ever end. It'll keep going and going and going."

Damien worried at her sudden sing-song voice and vacant eyes. He looked at the mess over her shoulder and then back into her face. "I wish I knew what to say, Cassie…"

She ignored him and stepped back as her head rolled from side to side on her neck. "On, and on and on and …"

Damien's eyes shot wide as her voice began to lower and darken with every word she spoke. Her languidness gradually controlled and slowed. Her eyes filtered in colour and steeled ahead of her. There was a transition between scared and aggressive that seemed to happen so horrifically fast that Damien wasn't sure if she would remember that he was a good guy.

But she continued, and her voice slowed and lowered into nothing more than a growl. "And on. And on."

Damien was officially scared. He knew the Swan's reputation. He knew how well she could destroy anything and everything that threatened she and those she loved. He took a step back from her and half whimpered her name.

She blinked and slid her eyes to him. "It ends tonight."

His voice was still weak. "What?"

"The danger to the people I love at the hands of that monster ends tonight."

He nodded timidly. "Okay. Cass. Just. Just don't hurt me, okay? Partners, remember?"

She took a look at her old communicator and inhaled a long breath. "You're my best friend, Damien," she assured darkly. "Right now, you're the safest man on this planet." Her arm rounded out wide to one side and she watched it as she lifted it above her head. She smiled when she saw the tiniest little spark flicker in the faceplate and when the Flaming Phoenix symbol flashed brightly to her. "Transmute!"

Damien was actually thrown backward a little by the explosive bubble of light that took her over. He staggered into a hunch and covered his eyes with one arm. He tried hard to see through the light to check if his partner was okay, but with every shift of his arm from his eyes the light blinded him. He cried out her name into the buzzing energy and was rewarded only with the haunting chiding honk of a Swan.

And then silence and dark.

He heard a bulb pop in the fixture above his head and drew his arm from his face. He couldn't hide a gasp at beauty of the woman before him. "Cassie?"

She tilted her head and gave him a gentle stare. "Up until now you didn't really believe it, did you?"

He shook his head, but didn't move. In fact he didn't even speak.

She looked down her shoulder, petted her pouches and stroked at her yo-yo. "I missed you," she muttered to it as she turned and flicked her hip to leave the room.

Damien quickly snapped out of his funk and ran behind her. "Wait Cass. Don't go in there alone, let us go with."

She shook her head as she stalked to the surface. "This is our fight, Damien. I don't want you to get hurt."

He wasn't willing to touch her, but the desire to try and stop her was practically overwhelming. "C'mon, girl."

She ignored it as she stepped into the street and steeled herself to assess which vehicle would suit her the best to get her back to the station in time to join the fight. There was, perhaps, a distracting moment of detected gasps and whispered comments from the other officers, but that was quickly demolished with a proud suggestion from her Squad leader.

"There's a police bike to your left, Swan." Barron purred from his position. "It'll pull 220 if you know how to stroke her just right."

She smiled coyly over her shoulder at him. "Thank you, Sir."

Damien panted when he reached Barron and the other officers and pointed at her with his whole hand as she mounted the bike. "You aren't seriously going to let her go are you?"

He folded his arms against his chest and gave a firm nod. "She's got job to do, Knight."

"But alone?" He jogged to the cab of their truck.

Barron flicked a brow at him as he revved the engine. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To help my partner, Sarge." He nodded at her as she kicked up the stand to take off. "She might be G-Force, man. But she's also one of us." He revved hard again. "She's going after Zoltar, Sir. That fucking coward just fucked with one of ours, and I damn well am gonna let this asshole know that if you go after one of us, you take us all on."

~O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O-O~

Zoltar hated this; the damn G-Force whirlwind attack. For too many years his men had succumbed to this most lethal of Earth forces. Unlike his men, however, Zoltar was rarely caught up in the cyclonic expulsion of turbulence their attack generated. He was used to the maneouvre. He'd seen it more times than he had soldiers.

He stood firm with his elbow locked around a steel joist of his mecha and merely gripped both hands together to steady himself. His men, however, they were rather easily defeated inside the fifteen seconds the birds were invisible inside their tornado.

Long ago he had assumed that if he was unable to see him, then the reverse must also be true. It was clear that the trick took a specific formation in order to be so effective. His suggestion of a fast elimination of the threat had been communicated with the Luminous one many months ago. Tonight was his first attempt to see if he was truly as smart as he believed himself to be.

With his eyes in the tornado, he angled his head to the left. "Fire!"

A hole in the body of the cricket wound open and a large canon-like barrel slowly shifted into position. As ordered, the gun fired a hot, bright, blast of light into the heart of G-Force's attack.

There was a loud feminine cry of pain, an accompanying panicked call of what Zoltar assumed was the woman's name, and then the entire G-Force team flew violently out of their whirlwind.

Lisa struck the ground first. She landed shoulder-first on the grass and was propelled into several overhead rolls that finally ended with she on her side in the dirt. She valiantly tried to push herself up off the ground, but only managed to press herself as high as the length of her arms would allow before she collapsed back down.

Jason landed next, on his feet, but awkwardly. He stumbled onto his knees and rose to his feet to run only a handful of steps toward Lisa before he stumbled again. He rolled and continued to try to get to her as he called out her name worriedly.

Keyop and Mark were the only two to touch down with any amount of dignity, although their landings were less than gentle. Mark spared a glance toward Lisa, who still tried hard to rise, but continued to fall, and then at Jason, whose highest concern at the moment seemed to be the fallen Falcon.

He looked upward and raised his wrist to his mouth as Zoltar's laugh rang through once again. "Tiny. We could use you down here, buddy." He didn't listen for the reply before he stalked two steps toward Zoltar.

"Congratulations," he growled as facetiously as possible. "It only took you, what, six years to work out how to stop that."

Zoltar stepped down from his platform and kicked randomly at a prostrate goon in his way. He could see Mark's uneasy gait and knew there was the possibility of injury to the great Eagle. "Is there still fight in you, boy?" He snarled. "You're more than one man down." His hand waved up to invite his remaining goons out of the machine. "And I, I have almost a full army."

Mark shook his head defiantly. "You still haven't won, Zoltar."

"Haven't I?" he purred as he swept his hands through the air to present the scene. "I've already destroyed your family, your precious home base, your pride and now it looks like your team are only a few gunshots away from annihilation as well."

Mark staggered defiantly forward. "While I still breathe, Zoltar, you have nothing."

Zoltar held up a gun into the Eagle's visor. "Then that is something I'll rectify right now."

A booming and low roar sounded from above, which took Zoltar's attention from his kill. The Spectran ruler raised his head to the sound with wide eyes. He barely had time to move before the massive girth of G-Force's muscle landed on the ground with as much force as to register on any nearby Richter Scales.

Tiny rubbed at his fist then punched at his hand a couple of times as he stalked forward toward a man who was now petrified to be in existence. The Owl, the one the Spectrans always referred to as the Fat One, seemed now to have doubled in height as well as width and barreled down upon Zoltar with an expression that swore a thousand deaths.

"You wanna mess with someone, slimebag, then mess with me," Tiny threatened with enough venom in his voice to frighten even his own teammates.

Zoltar turned and fled back to his platform. He pointed behind him. "Men. Attack. Protect your ruler!"

The challenge seemed to thrill the Big Man. Tiny grinned and fell into a high crouch to brace himself against the sudden wall of green that was fast approaching. Each arm held out either side of him and he let out a massive grunt as he ran into the crowd and clotheslined as many Spectrans as he could.

Zoltar wasn't exactly sure where this beast had come from. He gagged as he heard the Owl let out gargantuan grunts as he pleasured in taking the men by their hair to slam their heads together. He was effortless in his fight to free himself of hapless soldiers attempting to tackle him to the ground. Men were thrown about as if nothing. When the Swallow leapt in to join the assault, the big man became more fierce.

All the while, the owl had his eyes firmly locked on the face of Zoltar. It was fearsome in it's intimidation. Why G-Force had locked this creature away in the Phoenix for so many years, he would never understand.

Mark, meanwhile, had limped across the grass toward Jason and Lisa. There was a bloody hole in her side, just under her ribs. She writhed in pain, but valiantly vowed to keep fighting. She shoved Jason from her repeatedly as she tried to side to her feet.

Jason looked at Mark and shook his head. "She's done, Mark."

Mark nodded. "Stay with her, then. Leave the fight to us." He spun on his good leg and marched as proudly as he could back into the frey. His target was beyond a wall of thirty men. Thirty men, who currently had a rampaging Owl and Swallow tearing them apart.

He yelled as he launched his boomerang through the crowd and leapt high to catch it and fire again.

The cannon fired once more, this time tossing Keyop off his flightpath. His little body slammed against Tiny, who stumbled when he contracted his body to catch the little guy. Mark landed in front of them both as Tiny staggered into a fall, and let out a few controlled breath as the sea of green in front of them parted to allow Zoltar back through.

"You know," Zoltar began slowly. "I have to admit that I might actually miss this." He stepped to one side of the Eagle and admired the legend for a long second. "You are, by far, the greatest enemy I have encountered."

Mark kept his breathing steady as he considered the most effective kamikaze option to end the madness once and for all. "I wish I could say our feelings are reciprocated, Zoltar."

Zoltar tsked loudly. "Such a shame your beautiful little Swan couldn't be with you on your final battle, Commander." He smiled. "She was such a beauty to behold. So much more a fighter than you'd ever let her become."

Mark's head snapped to glare at his enemy. "Mention her again and I swear to God I'll kill you."

Zoltar's brow flicked upward. He was quiet for a long moment before he suddenly bubbled into hysterical laughter. "Kill? Me? Commander, look around you. You and your team are defeated. There is nothing left in any of you. Nothing."

Mark blinked slowly, vaguely aware of the distant sounds of police vehicles. "It isn't over until the fat lady sings." He straightened, but wobbled, proudly in difference to the pain he was feeling. "And I can't hear any opera right now."

A silky feminine voice ghosted across the wind to the side of both men. "How about a little Zeppelin, Commander? I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for a little rock and roll."

All eyes shot to the pink uniform of the former G-Force woman as she slid through the crowd. Her eyes were squarely on Mark as she threaded her fingers through his and touched her other hand to his chest. "Sorry I'm late, Commander." Her eyes narrowed and swept toward Zoltar. "I had a little thing to deal with before I could see if the skirt still fit."

Mark tightened his hand on hers. "Better late than never, Princess."

Zoltar's eye twitched at the sight of her before him. "You?"

She still semi-embraced Mark as she was addressed by the Spectran ruler and offered only a facetious smile. "Oh, you thought I got caught up in the big bang expected over at Neptune? Why that little thing?" Her tone fell fast. "You'll need to do better than that."

Mark found his want to smile again and let pride energize him as Jason and a defiant Lisa stepped up into the group. "United we stand tonight, Zoltar," he breathed proudly. "We're ready."

Zoltar coughed. He cracked his neck. He curled a lip. He let out an almighty roar. "Kill every single one of them!"

Princess opened her arms and leapt high in the air beside Mark as the reenergized G-Force team battled again. Her sense of absolute belonging swirled around her with every zip of a bullet past her helmet. It was as though the fight was nothing but a sublime dance as she spun, kicked, and swung her yo-yo at any man who dared near her.

It seemed like only a few seconds before the din died and she landed softly on the grass beside a silent, fallen goon. She smiled as she searched out the rest of her team and was somewhat irritated to find Zoltar standing in a direct line between she and Mark.

She licked slowly at her lip as Mark's eyes met hers and blew a breath of air from her mouth that could almost have looked like a kiss.

Mark smiled in return and lightly flicked his head toward Zoltar in a silent order. She nodded and leaned back to launch herself into a run.

Mark ran toward the Spectran ruler in time with her and, as the two G-Force members collided against Zoltar, they embraced around him and began a fast and turbulent pirouette.

The remaining members of G-Force, Damien, Barron, and about ninety percent of the city police force watched on in complete awe as the tornado of Swan and Eagle spin and rose up from the ground.

There was a solitary sound that emanated from the tornado. It was a long cry. This wasn't a war or battle cry of a man at war, it was a long and sorrowful wail of absolute and utter defeat. The cry wailed on, hiccupped, and then began again with what appeared to be an explosion of force through the side of the tornado as the Spectran leader was propelled out. He flailed through the air and fell hard to the grass at Barron's feet.

Zoltar moaned and tried to press himself up from the ground. At his first fall back to earth, he felt the sting of the muzzles of a dozen large firearms hold him down in place. He blinked up into the crowd of black-dressed city enforcers.

Damien took great pleasure as he dropped into a crouch beside Zoltar and gave him a solitary punch across the face. "You, dirtbag, have the right to remain silent…"

Barron looked up at the slowly waning windstorm in the sky. Spotlights from cruisers highlighted the slowly emerging figures still spinning within. Even through the white and grey winds he could see that the two warriors spun together, their bodies intertwined as one. Her arms held around his neck, his around her waist. They melded not only in body, but in spirit as the two lovers passionately embraced and kissed in the middle of battle.

The old Sergeant held his hat at his chest in respect as Mark and Princess softly touched the ground and their short moment of perfect romantic intimacy dove into something somewhat more desperate. The Eagle didn't appear to care what was happening and who was watching as he desperately clutched the face of his Swan and kissed her with absolute intensity.

The desperate kiss softened and fell into a long and uplifting hug. Mark lifted his prize by her waist and held her tightly to him as the other members of G-Force joined them on the celebrations.

Barron signed hard and gave a nod as he dropped his hand heavily on the shoulder of his younger officer. "Knight. It looks like we need to begin a search for your new partner."

~~Fin~~