Chapter 8: Calling to All Vigilantes
The Men in Black have been spotted regularly since the late 1940's. Said to be government agents or extra-terrestrial entities in disguise, they typically adorn black suits and sunglasses, and tend to behave in odd and peculiar ways, seemingly unfamiliar with typical human customs. They know much, but say little, and keep a close eye on those who know more than they're supposed to in the interest of keeping UFO sightings and alien or governmental conspiracies under wraps.
Dan was already familiar with this popular phenomenon in conspiracy lore, but he had decided to research the topic in further detail ever since his second encounter with his Man in Black-esque stalker. He thought that perhaps he could find some insight as to why he would be of any interest to this shadowy group, but to his dismay, he did not find any pieces of information that were not variations of what he already knew. Perhaps Dan was sticking his nose where it didn't belong, that the Man in Black was trying to keep the First Wave invasion a secret. However, the Men in Black usually confronted their targets directly and harassed them into keeping silent about what they saw, whereas Dan's own Number One Fan merely watched him, observed him. There was also the possibility that he was something else altogether.
Whoever that man might be, though, or on whose behalf he worked for, Dan started think that the First Wave might prove to be the least of his worries.
The taxi came to rest at the curb. Upon exiting, he remained on the sidewalk for a moment, gathering his bearings, and when the cab departed for its next destination, Dan began his trek anew. A week after the reconnaissance mission, the Watchdog had contacted him through Galaxy Truth, telling him that he has found a handful of recruits for their resistance initiative. He had then proceeded to host a meeting for the members of the Liberation Front, which was to be held at his apartment. Dan was very pleased with this development, and made his way there with restrained excitement, almost trembling with the thought that his vision was slowly manifesting into reality.
The elevator doors gave way to the third floor of the apartment complex Dan had entered. His head scanned left and right for the place which he sought, at last finding apartment 314 near the end of the next corridor. He remained in front of the door, brushing down his coat and taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm his accelerating heartbeat before knocking thrice. Moments later, the door opened and the Watchdog came to greet him, wearing a Rage Against The Machine shirt and dark, faded jeans.
"Hey, man!" he said, clasping Dan's hand. "Come on in! We've all been waiting for you."
Dan stepped inside, and Gary closed the door behind them. After placing his coat on a hangar inside the closet, Gary went down the small corridor and turned left into the living room, where an exchange was taking place.
"...and there they were," said a voice, "worshipping a giant statue of a freakin' owl in the middle of the damn forest!"
"Holy crap, dude!" said another voice that sounded suspiciously like Spock.
"Pretty messed, right? I was going to take a few snapshots of the scene, but I couldn't even bring myself to move my goddamn arms; it was like my entire body was paralyzed in fear. I'm tellin' ya, I ain't never seen anything so disturbin' in my entire life. Then, all of a sudden, my buddy says to me that he thought someone spotted us – he said it might have been Reagan, but it was dark, so I couldn't be sure. Then we bolted straight outta there as fast as we freakin' could."
Dan stood at the entrance, collecting himself before entering the room. Once his mental preparation was over, he proceeded to place himself at the entryway. Upon seeing the newcomer, everyone in the room fell silent and veered their heads to him. Of the four individuals present, Dan recognized Spock, who waved at him from his camp chair in front of the central coffee table, and Gary, who was currently taking his seat at the lofty chair in the far corner of the room.
Taking up the other two occupied places were men new to Dan. In the second of three extra chairs sat a grim-looking man who held a lit cigarette between his fingers. He had much stubble on his face, and his hair was short and styled with gel; his attire consisted of a Chimaira hood and camouflage-patterned cargo pants. And on one side of the couch was an older man, probably in his forties, with a thick, poorly kempt beard streaked with a bit of grey and lengthy hair tied back into a pony tail. He was a bit large, and wore a tie-die shirt in which his belly was a prominent feature, as well as a pair of unseasonable cargo shorts.
Dan remained at the room's periphery, taking it all in. He was expecting more people to show up; that there were only two recruits was a rather underwhelming reality. Consciously suppressing his disappointment, he breached the circumference of the circle of chairs to seat himself between Spock and the cigarette-smoking fellow when Gary spoke.
"Everyone, I'd like you to meet Crow," he said. "Crow, this is Enigma..."
The man with the cigarette performed a small salute.
"...and this is Druid."
"Pleased to meet ya!" responded the bearded man, waving from the couch.
Dan recognized the Druid's gruff voice as the one who was recounting the previous anecdote. And even though he had never met either of them before, Dan found that their names somehow suited them rather nicely.
"Our third volunteer in the kitchen," explained Gary. "They'll be with us shortly."
Dan sat back, assessing the situation. There were six people attending the first ever Liberation Front meeting. Of potentially thousands of Truth-Seekers in the online community, that meant that only three had responded to the call. The turnout was less than Dan had anticipated; he was hoping that they would at least be a dozen in number. As things currently stood, he was rather certain that six people would not be enough to effectively combat the First Wave.
Alas, he had no other choice but to shrug it off, ultimately resigning to work with what he had instead. After all, he rationalized, three was better than none at all. And he reminded himself that this was but the beginning; others would surely add themselves to the group as they made a name for themselves through their exploits.
If they their efforts amounted to anything at all, that is.
"Now that everyone's here, we might as well get started," said Gary. "Crow, since this whole thing was your idea, I'll let you lead."
Everyone directed their attention to Dan, who was taken aback at being forcefully thrust into the limelight.
"Uh...hey, guys" he started. "First off, um, I guess I'd like to thank everyone for coming. As I'm sure you're all aware at this point, the Liberation Front is a civilian resistance project aiming to combat the threat of the First Wave... You guys do know about the First Wave, right?"
"Fortunately for us, these guys are veteran Truth-Seekers," explained Gary. "They've been following the First Wave phenomenon for years."
"Good," said Dan, relieved. "Uh, anyway, the goal of the Liberation Front is to take down the First Wave by systematically attacking weak points in their foundation so that they collapse under their own weight. Are there any questions so far?"
The rest of the party neglected to speak, which Dan took as a sign to continue.
"In that case, you'll all be happy to know that we can already get started on our first mission. There's a place out in Watertown that the Shapeshifters are using to produce things they call Titans. I have reason to believe that these Titans play a vital role in the plans of the First Wave. Therefore, our objective is to infiltrate their facility, find the Titans, and figure out a way to destroy them."
"How do you figure we go about accomplishing this?" asked the Druid.
"I'm not quite sure yet," admitted Dan. "I was kind of hoping that we could form a plan as a group. Any ideas?"
The group stared collectively into space with serious expressions, writing rough drafts of possible courses of action in their minds.
"I say we apply brute force," said Enigma, exhaling smoke into the air. "I can easily procure firearms for everyone here. We'll take them out as we go, forcing our way to the heart of the compound. It's extremely dangerous, obviously, but it seems a lot less risky than finding a way to infiltrate the place relying on stealth alone."
"We might as well start drinkin' cyanide punch at that rate!" refuted the Druid. "I think you're forgettin' that not only are we outnumbered, but that the Shapeshifters are not quite human. They're stronger, faster, and more resilient than we are, not to mention that they probably have far superior technology, so our survival rate is pretty low if you ask me. Why don't we just have one team create a diversion to keep 'em busy while the other sneaks in and does the job?"
"Well, what kind of diversion would you suggest we use?" asked Enigma. "These guys aren't stupid, and they don't screw around either. They'll kill us without hesitation if they have any reason to suspect that something's up. Nah, we need to hit 'em fast, and we need to hit 'em hard."
"Druid does have a point, though," said Gary. "It would probably be best if we can find a way to get in and destroy the Titans before the shifters become aware of our presence there. What do you guys think?"
Dan, having opted to follow the discussion instead of thinking up his own ideas, remained silent at the Watchdog's address, whereas Spock took the opportunity to voice his own concerns.
"I'm leaning towards the Druid's idea," said Spock, stroking his goatee. "Crow and I have faced them before, and I can attest to the danger they pose in combat. It seems more prudent to sneak in rather than to engage them directly. However, that raises another issue. What are we supposed to do once we reach the Titan storage area?"
"We blow it up, of course."
The group turned to the entryway, where a woman holding a plate of potato chips and a sandwich now stood. She appeared to be the youngest one in the group, no older than a university student by Dan's estimates. Her face was splashed lightly with freckles and framed by locks of straight auburn hair, which was rolled up into a bun behind her head. She brushed off crumbs from her magenta shirt before addressing Dan.
"You must be Crow," she deduced. "I'm Polaris."
Polaris bowed slightly as she presented herself. She then took a seat on the other side of the couch beside the Druid before proceeding to devour her overstuffed sandwich.
"Blow it up, huh?" said Enigma.
"From the sound of things, these Titans are probably real big," explained Polaris, voice muffled by food, "so it's best not to take any chances and bring as much explosives as we can."
"I suppose this means you have experience with explosives, then," inferred Dan.
"My dad's a demolition worker," she said, "and he taught me everything he knows. I can easily make homemade explosives with enough raw materials. "
"Excellent," said Spock. "But we still have to find a way to actually get inside the compound."
Gary, whose squinting eyes have been staring intently at the coffee table for all that time, finally spoke.
"...Hey, Crow," he began. "Didn't you say that the shifters use a password system?"
"Uh, yeah," nodded Dan.
"In that case, why don't we just walk in?"
The group fixed the Watchdog, as though unable to process the total absurdity of the idea.
"Only a shifter could possibly know the password," he continued to explain. "And they look exactly like us, which means that we look exactly like them, you know? I say we, like, have two of us pass off as shifters, enter the facility, make them believe they're legit by using the in-depth knowledge we have on the First Wave, secure a passage for the rest of the team so that we can place the explosives at the Titan site, and then hightail the hell out of there before the entire place blows up."
The Watchdog folded his arms and gave a triumphant smile, evidently pleased with the brilliance of his plan. Dan chuckled at the delicious irony of the proposition. Fighting fire with fire; they wouldn't know what hit them.
"I like it," said Enigma, grinning. "I suppose all that's left is to decide who's going in."
"This is my plan, so I'm going to take the risk," said Gary. "Who's coming with me?"
"...I will."
They all turned to Dan in unison.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Crow?" asked Spock with some concern. "You don't have to, you know."
"No, it's fine," assured Dan. "I want to do this. Besides, who's going to pick the locks for the rest of us?"
"Alright," conceded Spock, albeit not too happily.
He wasn't quite sure he was even prepared for this, but Dan could not pass on the opportunity. He could think of no better way of bringing them down then by making them believe that their downfall was orchestrated by the hands of their brethren. Of course, the mission was the primary motivator behind Dan's decision to volunteer for the task, and he knew that its success rested upon the authenticity of his performance; he also felt responsible for the entire group in a way, seeing as the Liberation Front was his brainchild. Still, he could not deny that the vindictive fire stirring within him wasn't influencing his decision-making process.
"Great," said Gary. "I guess everything's been decided. Crow and I will pass off as shifters. Polaris will make the explosives, and the rest of you will break in and help place them, as well as serving as muscle in the event of confrontation. Does anyone else have anything to say?"
"I guess we should get the obvious stuff out of the way while we're at it," said Enigma. "So listen up, folks. What we're about to do here is extremely dangerous. By doing this, you are all risking your lives. We'd also be doing loads of illegal things. So if anyone has any problems with any of this, feel free to leave now."
None of them moved an inch, much to Dan's relief.
"Right on!" said the Druid. "I guess the next step is to work out the details in our plan. Hey, Watchdog, got a map of the place by any chance?"
"Good idea," said Polaris. "I'd need to know how big the place is so I can gather enough materials."
"I can help you out with that," said Spock. "I've scoped the area, so I have a pretty good idea of the dimensions. Might even be able to pull city blueprints and schematics online to see what tunnel systems might be lying down there."
"Alright, you guys get on that," said Dan. "Watchdog, we should probably talk about our act."
"Agreed," said Gary. "Enigma, you should stay too; I want to know how you can contribute to the mission weapons-wise."
The Liberation Front went to work, with Spock leading the way to the kitchen in search of pen and paper while Dan remained in the living room with Gary and Enigma to analyze how Shapeshifters behave. As he did so, he began to reflect on Enigma's previous warning. This was the last stop on the road on which one could not look back. He had been thinking about the journey that lay ahead of him for some time, but he nonetheless took the time to weigh the prospects with much thought. Was he Daniel Thompson, law-abiding, tax-paying citizen of Boston? Or was he in fact Crow, protector of the free world and campaigner against the forces of evil?
By the end of the night, as everyone left the Watchdog's apartment, he had found his answer.