Chapter 21

Right after Renton and Eureka argued with each other

Renton sighed as Eureka stormed out of the room. "I'll just let her cool off." He thought and returned to doing his laundry. "Maybe this would not have happened if I had not signed those girls' notebooks." He thought as he sorted out his shirts. Renton hoped that Eureka would not be angry for long. "I should go apologize to her right after I finish my laundry." He thought as he shoved his hands deep inside the laundry basket. He felt something that was soft but stiff and pulled it out. Apparently, the object Renton pulled out was a white bra. He stared at it for a few seconds as thoughts flooded into his mind. It was too small to belong to Talho or even Mischa and Hilda. It could be Gidget's though. Renton's face felt warm all of the sudden. The object he held in his hands seemed familiar.

"I've seen this somewhere before."

A quick flashback of the time he accidently walked in on Eureka changing played across his eyes.

"Eureka!" He gasped and quickly shoved her bra back into the bottom of the laundry basket. His heart rate returned to normal and his face grew less red. Behind him, the door squeaked open.

"Eureka?" Renton said and spun around.

Renton's eyes widen in surprise. "You!" He gasped. In the doorway was the man that abducted Eureka nearly four months ago.

"You!" The man said in a mocking tone as he took a step in. "Of course it's me! Who else would have the skills to sneak on this ship?"

The voice sent chills down Renton's neck. The voice was strangely familiar and reminded him of someone he once knew long ago. However. he could not see the man's face; it was covered by a set of black goggles.

"You're not laying one finger on Eureka again." Renton said as his body tensed.

"It's not her that I am after. It's you!" The man screamed and jumped forward. Renton quickly tossed all his laundry at the man in attempt to stop him. However, this only slowed the man down a small amount. The man knocked aside the clothes and lunged forward at Renton again.

Renton raised the laundry basket above his head and quickly brought it down upon the man's head. The man's knees buckled a little as his head broke through the bottom of the basket. He hollered in pain, quickly pulled the basket off and rammed it into Renton. The basket snapped and shattered as it contacted Renton.

Renton grunted as a few plastic shards penetrated his skin. He quickly recovered and sent two punches at the man's nose. The man stumbled backwards as blood flowed out of his nose.

"Damn you!" The man cried in pain and pulled out a small tranquilizer. He pulled the trigger; the muzzle flashed and a muffled thud sounded. Renton's vision flickered and his body felt numb all over.

"I would kill you, but Dewey wants you alive." The man chuckled before Renton drifted into darkness.

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Eureka stepped over the spilled food and into Renton's room. "Renton?" She called out again but no one replied. She stooped over and picked up her white bra. "This is mine…" She said quietly and looked over at the broken laundry basket. Eureka gasped and dropped the bra as she ran over to the basket. On the ground were plastic shards tipped with blood.

"This blood is still wet." She told herself when she touched the blood.

She swiftly got up and sprinted out of Renton's room. She knew he was still nearby because the blood was not dry.

"Renton! RENTON! Answer me!" She called out as she ran down the hallway. She turned the corner and bumped into Holland.
"What's wrong Eureka?" Holland asked.

"Renton is gone!"

"What!?!"

The ship suddenly tilted and quivered. They ran to the cockpit room and joined the rest of the crew.

"What happened!?!"

Moondoggie was busy handling the GekkoShip so Gonzy answered instead.

"A small unidentified aircraft crashed into us."

"How did you miss that?"

"It's not as if I lost my touch…" Gonzy started to mumble. He did not want to admit that he was taking a nap when the small aircraft came.

"Breach in hatch 443!" Gidget yelled across the room. Holland exhaled loudly.
"Hap, Hilda, and Matthieu equip yourselves."

"Yes sir!" They said together and pulled out SMGs from the cabinets.

"Talho?" Holland called.

"Yeah?"

"Get into the bunker with the children."

"What!?!"

"I can't let you help fight this time."

"Why!?!"
"Both you and the baby will get hurt."

Talho gritted her teeth. She knew that Holland was right.

"Alright." She sighed and embraced Holland. With that, Talho left the room along with Maeter, Linck, and Maurice.

The three children walked silently behind Talho.

"Mama is acting a bit weird." Linck whispered as they headed for the bunker. Maurice nodded in reply. Before leaving the room, he noticed something strange about the big compact drive on the table. For some bizarre reason, the red and blue light blinked out of unison. Maeter sniffled a little and held her hands to her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Maurice asked.

"I am scared."
"How come?"

"No it's not, mama and papa were fight earlier."

"About what?"

"I don't know but I'm scared."

Maurice chuckled softly "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

They arrived at the bunker shortly after the conversation.

"Alright, wear these." Talho said and handed the three children bulletproof vests. The children wore the vests over their clothes and entered the bunker.

"Talho, aren't you going stay here too?" Maurice asked as he entered the bunker. Talho shook her head and closed the door before Maurice could react.

Holland called Eureka over and handed her a small pistol.

"Here, it's not strong enough to kill in one hit but it can stop most people. Go get Renton."

She nodded and ran off searching for Renton.

Holland looked around the room and hollered, "Okay, let's kick out the intruders!"

The remaining crew took up pistols and took up defensive positions.

"Hilda and Matthieu cover the hanger." Holland yelled.

"Okay!" Matthieu said and left with Hilda to the hanger.

Holland turned to Hap and said, "You take the east side of the ship. I'll cover the west side."

Hap nodded and left the room. Holland too left the room and patrolled the west side of the Gekkoship.

Holland jogged down the hallway and was about to turn a corner but then heard voices. He skidded to a stop and threw himself against a nearby wall.

"Go! Go! GO!" A voice called and then many footsteps sounded.

Holland instantly recognized the command.

"SOF!?! What are they doing here?" He thought as he waited for them to come closer.

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

"Now!" Holland thought and jumped out in the hallway. There were five men, fully armored and equipped with rifles. Holland quickly took down three surprised men and jumped back behind the wall.

"Damn! Take him out now!" The commander of the group yelled.

The forth SOF unit ran up but Holland quickly tripped him and fired into his forehead. "One more to go." Holland told himself and rolled out in a crouched position.

"Huh? Where did he go?"

A hail of lead sprayed down at Holland causing him to take cover. He managed to dodge most of the bullets but two had hit him directly in the leg. Holland crumpled to the floor and dropped his SMG, which slid a few feet away from him.

"Damn it!" He said as he quickly reached out for his gun. His fingers nearly touched the barrel of the gun but all his efforts were quickly crushed. The last survivor, the commander of the group, had brutally stepped on Holland's outreached hand. Holland let out a yell of pain as the man put all his weight onto Holland's hand. The SOF command laughed coldly and aimed his gun at Holland's forehead. From behind, Talho shot the man directly in the back of his head. The commander's eyes widened and then swerved out of focus as he slumped down on the ground.

"Talho! I thought I told you to stay in the bunker!" Holland grunted from the ground.

Talho pulled Holland up from the ground and slapped him.
"You would've died if I didn't come!"

Holland smiled and scrunched his face as pain rushed through him.

"Maybe…"

Eureka ran through the hallway and called frantically for Renton. She felt that she was getting closer. Eureka turned the corner and encountered two men; one was a soldier and the other was Renton's captor with an unconscious Renton slung over his shoulder. Eureka quickly fire two rounds into the soldier's legs and effectively disabled the man from further combat. She swiftly took aim at Renton's captor.

"Stop right there!" He yelled and pushed the point of his pistol at Renton's head.

"No!" Eureka gasped.

"Put your gun down or else you will find your boyfriend missing part of his face."

Eureka did not know what to do. If she tried to fight, Renton will die but if she does not fight, Renton will be taken away for who knows what reasons. To her surprise, a shot echoed through the hallway. She collapsed onto the floor and blood oozed out from the bullet wound on her back. The man who shot Eureka walked up to Renton's captor.

"We need to leave now!"

"Let's also grab the girl."

"No! We have no more time!"

"Why not?"
"Most of our crew has been killed. We have no cover fire anymore."

Renton's captor sighed.

"Alright, let's get back to Dewey."

The two men sprinted through the rest of the ship and left on a shuttle.