PRESENT DAY

Flecks of molten metal sprayed into the air from the Mogadorian energy weapons melting the metal case Sam was crouched behind. A few burning specks fell onto Sam's face; Sam didn't even flinch. He calmly kept the rifle aimed down range, keeping his mind clear, the way Zachary, Sevens Cepan, had taught him. Aiming down the sights, Sam exhaled slowly. Squeeze don't pull, Sam thought as his finger closed around the trigger. The rifle bucked, slamming the butt into his shoulder as red energy discharged from the barrel of the gun and lept towards the soldiers at the end of the hall. Sam smiled grimly as the red shot sank into the chest of a Mogadorian who was able to show a flash of surprise on his face before he exploded into ash.

Red smoke billowed from the vents along the barrel of his rifle as Sam quickly ducked back into cover. Shit Sam thought, popping open the back of his gun, despite already knowing what he would find there. The bright canister that he had loaded into the chamber was now a dull black, empty. The Mogadorian noticed the red smoke and chortled with glee, "Looks like someones out of energy you worm!" he cried, pulling a black sword out of his belt sheath. With a loud cry he rushed towards Sam's position.

Sam smiled grimly and slowly stood, grabbing at his own waist and feeling the familiar warm, smooth metal hilt as he wrapped his hand around it, pulling forward a Loric sword of his own. The hilt burned blue as the loralite almost anticipated the clashing of steel with a Mog weapon. Sam was not afraid, he and Zach had trained extensively in melee combat, given how the Mogs engaged in it as often as they did, and Sam had defeated Soldier class Mogs before.

The Mogadorian came in with ferocity that abandoned any sort of skill, he simply wanted to over-power Sam and get past him. Sam tensed as the enemy took a huge, over head swing, and Sam snapped his own counter, bring his sword in an arc in front of him, catching the Mogs sword well before it landed a strike. Quickly re-balancing himself, Sam swung back out from his left to his right with a quick slash that the Mog had to throw himself to the ground to avoid. Pouncing forward, Sam slammed the sword down onto the helpless Mog who barely had enough time to get his sword in the way. The Mogadorian rolled backwards but Sam advanced with a flurry of swings that landed two blows on the chest of the Mog, but not enough to kill him.

The Mogadorian regained his feet and squared off again with Sam, this time more cautiously, but Sam was now on the attack. With two quick steps, Sam closed the distance and landed a series of strikes on the Mogs blade that left it swung wide to his right, as Sam landed a punch that caused the Mogadorian to stumble back off balance. Sam grinned, he remembered a time when he would have punched a Mog and they would have laughed. That was a long time ago, before the fifteen straight months of training he had to endure with Zach. Sam was not so small anymore.

The Mogadorian realized he was in trouble and rushed Sam again but Sam calmly took a step back, blocked wild swing, reversed his momentum and slammed his sword through the chest of the Mog, all the way to the hilt. The loralite blazed bright blue for an instant as the Mog cried out in pain and exploded into ash. As the brilliant color faded, Sam slowly sheathed the sword and crossed the hallway back to his discarded rifle, panting heavily.

The temperature of the bunker had dramatically increased as the reactor below Sam grew more and more unstable. He didn't have a thermometer but if Sam was a betting man he would say it was bordering on 125 degrees, or close to it. His shirt was stuck to his chest as he continued to gulp air and he wiped his sweaty forehead with his sweaty hand, effectively doing nothing. Sam glanced around and noticed the growing haze in the air, as if it was beginning to get so hot that everything was becoming blurry to his eyes.

Glancing back towards the outside door, his eyes fell onto a small black box beside the frame. The long discarded radio he had sent his last words to Six with. Closing his eyes, Sam tried to focus on Six's face but the heat was making his brain go a little fuzzy. Instead of just her face, Sam tried place a memory in his mind, a kiss, their first kiss. He smiled as suddenly her beautiful face appeared just inches from his, the smell of french vanilla strong in his mind as she closed her eyes, face getting bigger.

FLASH

"Well Mister Macho, did you actually have a plan after your little speech or are we just going to stand here watching these," Six complained as she leaned forward and squinted, reading the plaque, "Lemurs."

"Hey," Sam piped in defensively, "Lemurs are cool, and I'm thinking of how to best attack the patrol of the Zoo."

"They have creepy eyes," Six muttered, still hunched over, now with her hands on the rail, leaning in to get a better view.

Sam really was trying to devise a plan, and he was trying to completely ignore that the way Six was leaning was pulling her shirt forward and exposing and inch and a half of her back, a bit of pink cloth sneaking out over the top of her shorts. Well he was failing at both, miserably. Any time he actually thought of something to say, she would shift and his eyes would find their way back to her and any plan he had in his mind somehow transformed into an extremely satisfying alien make-out session.

"Why are you staring at my butt, did I sit in something?" Six suddenly asked, trying in vain to look over her shoulder as see the back of her shorts.

Sam flushed crimson and immediately tried to hide behind the map of the zoo he had been examining. He was literally the worst at this sort of shit, goofy and lame, about as opposite of debonair

as you can get. He didn't really know what to do to try and defuse the situation so he simply blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "We should split up," Sam winced as he said it, it was a dumb idea and quite the opposite of the entire reason to divide into teams, but Sam's big mouth had already formed the words so he decided to stick to his guns, "We can cover a lot more of the north end that way."

Six stopped and slowly turned her head towards Sam, one eyebrow raised, "Isn't that exactly what you said we shouldn't do like...ten minutes ago?" Sam's mouth was working but nothing was coming out, Six just bowled right over him, "Sam how about we just try walking around? I know it sounds crazy but...maybe it's better than standing here..."

"Y-yeah, okay we can just do that." He replied, not very 'assertive' he mentally berated himself as Six simply picked a direction and walked. Sam crammed the map into the front pocket of the backpack and re-slung it over his shoulder as he hurried to catch up to the fast walking Six.

They moved in silence for minutes as they followed the paths that ran the outlines of several cages, none of which slowed Six down. Sam was busy trying to think of something clever to say to brake the silence when Six whirled around suddenly, startling Sam with her piercing gaze.

"Sam why are you such a nerd?"

Sam was perplexed, of all the things he would have thought she would suddenly say to him, this didn't make the list. Caught off guard, he didn't really answer the question, "I'm...sorry?"
"Don't apologize!" she said with an exasperated sigh, "You make everything so damn difficult!"

Sam had no idea what was going on, "Do you...want me to call John or something and switch me and Sarah?"

"Oh my fucking God you're impossible!" she shouted as she stormed away, leaving Sam with his mouth hanging open.

Scratching his head, Sam was tempted to pullout his phone and call John to see if he had any idea about the weird outburst, but figured that, like him, John would have no idea and Sarah, like all women, would know exactly what was wrong but keep it a big friggin' secret, so he ultimately decided to give Six a second of time away from him to clear her mind of whatever was bugging her. Thumbing his phone, he opened up the internet and started surfing the local news to see if there was any weird stories that might give a hint to where the next Loric was hiding.

"She's not coming back." Six's voice suddenly cut into the air after a few minutes of reading.

"What?"

"Emily, that's who your texting right? She's not coming back, that guy was way too hott."

Shaking his head, Sam couldn't help but smile, he wasn't even sure Six was trying to be mean this time, she was just a born natural at it. "Thank you for the reminder that almost all guys are better than me Six, but I was searching the local news in case this Loric accidentally slipped up and there was a weird story or something."

"Ohhh," Six said in a mocking tone, making an impressed face at him, "waste of time tho, we Loric's don't do dumb shit like that."

"You and John literally blew up an entire school."

"Silence," she replied with a genuine smile, "and not all guys are better than you," she continued, standing directly in front of him, hands in her back pockets, "just better looking." she finished with a wide grin. "Now come on, we are burning daylight."

Sam flushed pink in his cheeks but Six had already turned around. Jamming his phone in his pocket, Sam started to follow when he heard Six's voice float into the air ahead of him on the path.

"Oh my GOSH they are so PRETTY!"

Sam almost burst out laughing, it was quite seriously the girly-est thing he had ever heard Six say, and with almost a squeak in her voice! Hurrying his steps he fully planed on being on the fun side of picking on someone when he spotted Six through a small crowd of people, a wonderfully colorful parrot on her shoulder. Her beaming smile practically making her glow, she was excitedly talking about something with the man next to her, another parrot in his hand. She had never looked more beautiful than in this serene moment of happiness for her. Sam's mouth went a little dry and he felt his heartbeat quicken, This is the girl you are trying to get Sam, she's not just out of your league, you're not even playing the same sport, quit kidding yourself.

"Sam," she called, jarring him from his self abuse, "Sam come here quick," she pleaded, frantically motioning him to come over.

"Yeah?"

"Give this guy twenty bucks so he can take a picture of me with this badass bird." she said, smile never leaving her face.

The man gave Sam a questioning look as he glanced from Six back to Sam again.

"We arn't dating," Sam clarified to the unasked question as he took out his wallet and handed the man a twenty. The man put his hands up defensively and walked past Sam to take a picture of Six.

The parrot had started to play with a few loose strands of blonde hair in front of Six's face and she would not stop giggling about it, giggling. Sam stood in astonishment at the girlish Six that had suddenly replaced the badass alien shit stomper he knew all too well.

Six glanced over and saw Sam staring, causing her to blush a deep shade of red. And now she's blushing, what the hell is going on. The man walked forward and traded the picture for the parrot and Six proudly walked over to Sam, presenting the picture.

"Backpack, and if you tell John or Sarah about this, I'll kick your smart ass." she said, but there was no venom to her voice. Sam actually laughed.

"You don't need the excuse."
"Haha too true too true," she murmured, unzipping a pocket and placing the photo in it.

"Hey I didn't get to see it!"

"And you never will." she replied, lightly shouldering him.

They walked in silence again,but it was different than the first time. Six was walking closer to him, like, A LOT closer. All he had to do was reach out and grab her hand! Sam was working up the courage to when Six spoke again.

"Thought you had to clarify to that guy we weren't dating?" she said with a grin.

"I was just-"

"I thought it would have been obvious." she continued off-hand, once again looking away from Sam down some of the less used paths.

"Ah, that's what you meant." Sam said in a defeated tone.

"What's that tone for?" Six asked, turning back around and stopping next to Sam.

Sam stopped, what had he meant? "I don't think there was a tone." he replied with a forced laugh, trying to play it off. Six's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, turning him towards her. Their eyes met, he penetrating gaze searching his eyes.

"There was a tone."

"I don't-" Sam started,he really didn't have a response, he didn't know why he had said it like that, and he really didn't know why Six was so interested. She was going to beat his ass if she found out what a crush he had on her.

She studied him for a moment longer and let out a small sigh, starting to turn away. Suddenly John's voice, as if descending from the heavens to save him, screamed in his mind. Just get it over with he says, then let's get it over with. Sam suddenly found a backbone he didn't even know he possessed, and grabbed Six's shoulder, turning her back towards him. Six's startled face was only a foot or so away as Sam took a step forward. Her face did one of the most beautifully confusing things he had ever seen and if he wasn't so busy trying to kick his own ass into doing this, he would have liked to study it. Six went from startled to confused to surprised to something that almost resembled fear in about a second and a half of time.

"Sam, what are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"Being assertive..." he simply replied.

Her face was inches away now, he had committed, he couldn't stop even if he wanted to, and he defiantly didn't want to. His eyes were locked on hers but hers kept flicking from his eyes to his lips and back again.

"What does that mean?" she whispered, eyes slowly closing.

"I have no friggin' idea." Sam responded, licking his lips.

The next moment seemed to take years while at the same time taking seconds, as he leaned in half expecting to feel a solid fist in his face. Instead he felt what might be described as pure electricity as the heat from her breath rolled across his face. Suddenly he felt something soft on his nose and realized their noses were touching, their noses were freaking touching and Six wasn't busy beating his ass. Slowly, painfully slowly his lips touched hers, sending the warmest, fuzziest, scariest feeling in the world to every part of his body. Fuck it, I'm here, let's do it, he thought as he pulled gently on her shoulder, as he actually applied pressure to the kiss.

Sam suddenly felt the rest of his body, not just that her lips were on his, and realized she had grabbed a hold of his shirt with both hands and was softly pulling. His mind was racing with so much unimportant shit it was hard for him to keep track of his thoughts. Don't breath out of your mouth, in nose out nose, evenly evenly, I wonder if lipstick 'tastes', she smells like french vanilla, I would have thought something more deadly, I never realized we were the same height. Suddenly, he was thrown backwards as Six roughly pushed him.

"Sam what the hell are you doing?" she yelled, breathing heavily.

Sam was dumbstruck, "I...I'm sorry I didn't mean-" he started stammering, trying to think of anything that would get him out of an ass whooping that was, now, very clearly unavoidable. That's when he actually looked at Six. She didn't look angry, not at all. She looked...hungry. This is either really good or really bad, Sam thought right before she crossed the two steps of intervening space, grabbed him by the collar, yanking him towards her, lips crashing together again.