Mission Hellfire

Dr. X turned to look at Blur and Tempest as they stepped onto the bridge from the lift. "Ah, just who I wanted to see. I have a mission for you, Blur, into InterCEPT's new Head Quarters." He looked to the assembled Council, his Council, with pride. They were the best, had been able to take out all of Team Extreme, except for one. That one was standing in this room.

"Mary, Asazi, you two are back-up, in case something happens to Blur. I will be dropping all three of you off on the roof. Your goal is to get to the lower basement 7 of the building. Director Zervas recently got hold of a data core that is required for a Master Trilobug. If she and her scientists figure out a way to access the information stored on that core, and produce their own machines, then... we will not stand a chance. You must get the core back at all costs."

The airship moved over its intended target, and lowered two ropes. Two people rappelled down them, and another jumped, landing silently on the roof. Before the other two could reach the bottom, he already had the roof hatch open, propping it up so he could take out the security systems. He slipped in, and was soon followed by his team.

The three moved down the corridor to the stairwell, knowing that the elevators would not work from the power plant nearby being cut. They moved down to the ground level, and from there, spread out.

Blur motioned for them to keep quiet, and move as quickly as possible. He moved into the main lobby, and purposely let himself get seen by a camera. The alarm went off, and very soon he was surrounded by agents.

"Put your hands up, right now!"

He followed their orders, the laser-disk and whip in each hand.

"Put down your weapons!" the agent called, leveling his rifle.

Like his new name, the whip snapped up and out, followed by the laser-disk. The razor tip cut across faces and throats, while the disk flew around and took out those that the whip missed.

Blood splattered the walls and pooled on the floor. It covered the gold visor of the black helmet.

"...I'm sorry... I had to do it." Blur whispered.

He took off; reaching another stairwell that was guarded by Asazi and Mary. Neither of them questioned the blood.

This was where they would go in and grab the data core.

They made their way down the stairs again, and met no resistance. Blur was becoming quite disturbed at how easy this was. As they neared the last level, something set Blur off, and he motioned for Asazi and Mary to wait one level above while he proceeded alone.

As he slid up to a corner and peeked around it, using the reflection of the visor to keep from getting his face blown off. There were 15 guards, and 5 spider bots. He took a deep breath, and threw himself into the hall way. The pistol and energy blade flashed, sparked and glowed. As he charged to the back of the hallway, the way cleared, until he came to an open door. A spot of blood seeped out of his uniform, running down his arm from where a bullet at hit him.

Unprotected in the room sat Diana, looking her age. He put his weapons back in their holsters and entered with his arms raised in surrender.

"Blur, of the Council of DOOM. I've heard that you killed Alex Mann." The gray haired director raised a pistol with a steady hand. "Why? He was our last hope."

He kept walking towards the desk of the Director. One foot in front of the other, eyes trained on the trigger, and the face of the woman. "That is the exact reason why I let him die. He would never have succeeded in being your 'last hope' as you put it. I had been ordered to kill him anyway."

"Let him die? You let him die? I heard that you killed him." Her words held force, questioning, and the hint of disbelief.

"Yes, let him die at the hands of Dr. X. You should know that your hero gave up, too. He gave into Dr. X. Now, you have something that I want. The data core, if you will."

Diana glared at the black mask, setting the pistol down and taking the data-core from a drawer in her desk. "He never would have given up... "

"I know. He fought hard though." he took the data-core from the Director, slipping it into a pocket on his belt. "He wants you to know that he is sorry for letting you and the rest of humanity down." He vanished then, moving nearly invisibly back to the stairs and up to the escape route.

Diana sat back in her chair, tears flowing down her face. "Damn you, Blur. Give him back..." her face was buried in her hands, sobs racking her thin frame. "Damn you, Alex... why, why did you have to be stupid enough to think you could take X on all on your own? You could still be here..." She looked up, something that Blur said catching on her thoughts. "Wants? Is he still alive?"

'That voice... it WAS Alex who spoke to me. It still held the same caring and passion... but on a flatter level... almost as though he was trying to be dead, yet alive at the same time.' She jumped up, grabbed her weapons belt, and ran from her office.

Her combat boots splashed in the blood spilt, spraying onto her legs. His foots steps were still there...

Back up the lower level stairs, through the bloodied lobby, and back up the stairs. Asazi led the way, Mary coming up close behind her, and Blur brought up the rear. He had passed Asazi the data-core, since he knew that she could take care of it.

He stopped two floors below the roof. There he waited for Diana, an emergency light illuminating the space on the stairs that would be between them. When she was on the level below him, gun drawn, he spoke.

"Turn back now, and maybe you can get out of here alive. Go find Simon Grey, if you can. This place is rigged to blow. Save yourself, Diana." He rested a hand on the pistol at his side.

"Don't do this, Alex. Please... you can still save the world."

"What world is there left to save? Its over Diana... all you can do is run, and keep running... or give up." He pivoted on his heel, and raced back up the stairwell to the roof.

After debriefing Dr. X, Alex returned to his quarters. Removing his helmet let him scrap off the dried on blood. Striping down let him set out his uniform to be cleaned by the bugs that had started swarming his room. He put on loose black clothing, and wrapped a mask around to hide his face if anyone came in unexpectedly.

He sat back on the couch, bringing his feet up, and letting his mind run through the faces of people he once knew... people that he killed in the past hours.

That lobby had to have been full of forty or fifty people he knew by name and face. People that he could have carried on a conversation with about their lives and families. And then he took it all away.

Now their bodies were buried under rubble of the building. Befitting burial... but not a befitting death.

It was as though he denied them right to be humans... denied them right to live their own lives freely.

He pulled a fold of the mask over his eyes, tilting his head back and closing them. He felt no remorse for his actions, and part of him even wanted to kill. Why? There was no justifiable reason to do so. Dr. X had told him about taking lives needlessly. 'Maybe the scientist thought I would not take any lives. But once he sees the video from my helmet, then he might rethink his decision on hiring me.'

A trilobug crawled up on the back of the couch, and looked Blur over. It chittered, announcing that his stuff was clean. It didn't even wait for a reply before leaving with the rest of the small swarm.

'To bad I can't go back in time and fix what mistakes I made. I could make sure that I never went to fight X on my own.' lifting the fold to look at his leg that he had lost below the knee. He wiggled his toes, smirking. ' Maybe joining wasn't such a bad idea. Simon, Fidget and Diana are all right... But Grinder and Rikki are gone. My fault once again. I don't know where Brandon is, but I don't think it matters. When I see him, if I ever do, will tell me how he is doing.'