"Saya! Look!"

Even thought it wasn't a very long drive, a combination of jet lag and a red-eye flight had caused her to fall asleep in the car, her head against the window, her breath creating an ever expanding and contracting circle of condensation on it.

"Saya! Look!" Yuki repeated as she leaned over Haji's lap to poke her.

Saya's eyes opened, and gazed out the window she was leaning against.

A recent storm had created a pair of rainbows and trio of impromptu waterfalls on the emerald green, vertical, rain-carved mountains, creating a scene that seemed far too beautiful for something one would see while simply driving on the freeway.

As soon as a battle plan could be prepared – they would go Maui, being the closest major island to Kaho'olawe. It had been decided that the attack would be launched from Kihei, a town just across the channel from the small island. Unfortunately, that was all they had been able to plan, so far.

The problem was that even with Lewis' expert hacking, all they had managed to find out was that every bit of information on that lab was locked away behind some impossible encryption.

In the mean time, they planned to stay at their Oahu base of operations. They had left the original condo several months ago for security purposes, and had resettled at a new place on the less populated, windward side of the island, once again a beach side rental, since it had been decided that this made them look more like ordinary tourists than if they had rented an apartment, as had been done in the past.

It was a shabby house, but this was difficult to tell from the outside, since apparently it had recently been painted a bright, caution-tape yellow color. Thus the twins referred to it as "yellow house." They and Solomon had been staying there for several weeks, and had more recently been joined by the two Davids. David Jr. often claimed to be completely recovered, but he knew as well as anyone that his body was still adapting to his artificial lungs and he was no where near as healthy as he once was. He still had to wear an oxygen tube at all times.

There was a small welcoming party waiting for them at the end of the driveway – Aka and Ruka stood there, each with a few leis on their arms. The two Davids were inside, hovering over a computer.

Saya didn't realize that she was expecting to see Solomon amongst the welcoming party until she realized that he wasn't there, a man with a black hat and umbrella was nowhere to be seen.

The weary travelers jumped out of the car. Before any excited, affectionate greetings could be exchanged, both the twins briefly vanished. When they reappeared, everyone in the party was wearing one of the white, plumeria leis.

Saya found the sight of the garland on Haji somewhat amusing.

"It looks good on you," she giggled.

Haji looked down at the flowers now around his neck, gingerly pinching the garland as he examined it.

Freddie approached Aka and Ruka. "Hey that was a neat trick," he turned to Haji and patted him on the back. "Sensei, can you teach me how to do that?"

Freddie had been calling him that ever since Saya had proposed that Haji teach Freddie the basics of being a Chevalier. Haji had already politely mentioned that he preferred to simply be called 'Haji,' but that seemed to only make Freddie more intent on using the formal, and in this case, half-sarcastic, title.

Haji nodded.

Meanwhile, Kai had started unloading the luggage from the van. He pulled non-descrip black suitcases from the back, until he came to one iconic piece of luggage and attempted to lift it, only to have it hit the ground with a thud.

"Holy crap Haji! This thing must weigh at least a hundred and fifty pounds! What's the hell's the case made of? Solid lead?" Kai panted.

"Steel," Haji stated.

Saya, turned to Yuki. "These are our cousins, Ruka and Akahana Miyagusuku."

Freddie grinned at the virtually identical-looking girls. "So, you two are twins? Which one of you is evil?"

Saya winced at the wise crack.

The girls simply glanced at each other.

"I am," they said simultaneously, both giving a slight smirk and shrug. A satirical question deserves a satirical answer.

Even though they were clearly just joking, Saya was desperate to steer the conversation away from 'evil twins.'

"So, you two have been here for a long time, you must be so homesick!"

"Not especially, this place is nice," said Aka.

"Yeah, and it's not all that different from Okinawa," Ruka added.

"Both Oahu and Okinawa were parts of island kingdoms that were claimed by larger nations, but still managed to hold on two their own unique culture," Freddie chimed in.

"Um, okay," Ruka said indifferently. "We were thinking more along the lines of climate and stuff."

"Yeah, the scenery is kind of similar, in some ways," added Aka.

Freddie put his fist to his chin in a thinker pose. "I guess that's why they filmed "Karate Kid II" here, even though it was supposed to take place in Okinawa."

"He's so knowledgeable about history and old movies and stuff," Yuki stated proudly.

The twins shrugged and started back toward the house.

Saya walked quickly to catch up with them. "Um, hey, is Solomon around?" she asked quietly.

"Nah, he's on an recon mission."

Kaho'olawe.
It wasn't what a Hawaiian island should look like at all. The only green came from the few sparsely scattered bushes and trees. Deforestation and American bombs had destroyed the land.

After years of use for target practice, it was supposed to be given back to the people, to become part of a sovereign Hawaiian Nation, but it didn't come as much of a surprise when the US went back on it's word. It wouldn't have been the first promise it broken with its native people.

As far as most people knew, the island was now no more than a federal nature preserve – though there was very little nature left.

He had made up his mind to go through with it when he heard that his new comrades were having a great deal of trouble gathering information on the facility.

Intelligence would have to be gathered the good old-fashioned way.

He landed just beside one of the many dry, eroded gullies that covered the island, and used his impressive speed to explore the area undetected. He took notice of a large cluster of machinery.

An air defense cannon – not a problem for me to get past, but I'm sure it could shoot down any aircraft attempting to land.

Next would be the tricky part - he needed to get inside the underground base itself.

It didn't take long for him to find the facility's two doors, a large one facing the a helicopter landing pad, the other a small, normal sized door that seemed to be little more than an emergency exit. The main door was surrounded by several guards but by the backdoor, there was one, lone corpse corps, and it appeared to be standing just outside the view of the security camera. Perfect.

Killing the thing would be easy – the hard part would be killing it without damaging it's uniform.

He knew that this had to be done carefully, and took several minutes to plan his attack. Then, in a matter of seconds, the body had been dragged to a nearby gulch, and Solomon was wearing a mostly intact corpse corps uniform.

He had never really liked shape shifting, but as a chiropteran, he was capable of it. However, the grafted parts of his body seemed unable to change to different human forms – otherwise, he could have given himself his old, pre-injury appearance.

Fortunately, in this case, the grafts didn't need to change. The rest of his body faded to match the grafts, giving him a near perfect likeness of a standard corpse corps unit. He assumed the position of the guard he had just killed. Eventually its shift would end, and the door would open, or so he had reasoned.

Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on the shift being so long, leaving him standing by the door for nearly eight hours, and forcing him to abandon his plans to greet Saya upon her arrival. However, it had been sometime since he had figured that the best way to win Saya's affection was to fight for her cause.

Suddenly, a voice came from the earpiece. "C.C. 24-048, report to level 4 for sustenance injection."

The door opened – he was in. he activated the tiny GPS recorder he had hidden in his boot, allowing David to track his movements from his computer, and giving them a basic layout of the base.

He knew he had to work quickly, even though he looked like every other "C.C." it wouldn't be long before someone noticed that he wasn't where he had been ordered to go.

The whole facility had such a sterile, soulless feeling to it, from the gray concrete floors to the white walls, lined with fluorescent lights. He also noticed the security cameras mounted where the wall met the ceiling, which did not appear out of the ordinary, except for the black-metal barrel sticking out just below the lense.

Interesting, they have machine-guns attached to the security cameras – once again, not too much of a threat to a chiropteran, but certain death to a human.

He came upon an elevator, a diagram on the wall beside it, indicating the purpose of each floor. He did his best to memorize it.

Ground Level – offices, Level 6 - labs 1 through 3, Level 5 - labs 4 through 8, Level 4 – Matenence, Level 3 – Tank 1, Level 2 – Tank 2, Level 1 – Unit Storage. He repeated over and over in his mind.

Just as he was about to step into the elevator, something caught his attention. A young man passed by, with black hair and eyes an even brighter green than his own. Corpse corps. However, he was clearly unlike the other units – he wore his hair slicked back in a sophisticated style, and instead of the standard utilitarian uniform, he wore an unbuttoned white lab coat over a gray business suit.

Solomon decided to trust his instincts, and discretely followed him until he walked into an open door, beside it, a small plaque that read 'Program Director.'

Solomon stood just outside the doorway, hoping to over hear some information.

"Van, good to see you, I can't wait to hear what you have to say about our operation," came a deep, soft yet somehow coarse voice, virtually identical to the late Moses.

I should have known that Van was the one running this operation.

"Well, I am quite curious to see what you have been up to."

Solomon arched a brow. What happened to his accent? That's definitely his voice, but he sounds like an American.

The soft yet coarse voice came again. "Lurking in doorways is rude, you know. Come in."

Solomon discretely took a deep breath and walked into the room, still fairly confident that he could pull this off.

The room was quite different from the others he had passed, the floor was covered in a rich, royal blue carpet, reproductions of famous paintings hanging on any area of the wall that wasn't obscured by a bookshelf, and furnished with a cherry stained executive desk and a few comfortable chairs.

An aged Van Argano stood beside the lab coat clad artificial chiropteran.

Van watched curiously as the corpse corps looked the disguised Solomon over carefully and smirked. "Tell me, how does an average, run of the mill C.C. unit go about acquiring such a delectable cologne?"

Solomon flinched in his mask as he kicked himself inwardly. It hadn't even occurred to him that something so trivial might give him away. Had silence not been absolutely necessary, he might have said a swearword for the first time in decades.

The corpse corps walked up to him and ripped off his mask. Solomon still optimistically hoping that his rouse had not been foiled, tried to maintain a listless expression as the man carefully examined his face from an uncomfortably close distance. Solomon noticed his eyes fix on the left side of his face, as the dark-haired chiropteran lightly ran his fingers over the area where his natural body met the graft.

"Hmm," said the sharply dressed artificial chiropteran. "Corpse corps grafts, that must make you - Solomon Goldsmith."

Solomon's years as the CEO of a major corporation had given his plenty of experience in the areas of lying and deception, but it had not prepared him for this. Disguise was clearly no longer a viable option.

In the blink of an eye, three quarters of his body changed to his true appearance. Naturally, the grafted areas remained unchanged.

Van gawked at him for a few seconds before regaining his composure and wit.

"Solomon," he said with sarcastic sympathy, "what happened to your lovely face?" he snickered.

Solomon smirked at his former friend. "Van, what happened to your lovely accent?" he calmly retorted.

Van chuckled. "Ah yes, well – I ended up spending eleven years in a federal prison for my involvement in that whole sordid affair all those years ago, and wouldn't you know it? A French accent is a bit of a liability in prison – apparently it doesn't sound very tough, so I had to shed it during my stretch to avoid getting beat up, amongst other things." He paused. "You know, you would have been in my place if I hadn't been given your position as CEO. Ah, how I used to lay awake on my piss-stained cot imagining what prison would have been like for you – such a pretty boy, you would have been treated like a queen – a very sore queen – that or I suppose you could have used your monstrous powers and been exposed for what you really are – you would have probably ended up a test subject, yourself." Van paused. "But when the US renewed its interest in the corpse corps, I was paroled in exchange for sharing my expertise."

Solomon sighed. "Van, I should have known you were the one behind all this."

The sweet toothed Frenchmen laughed. "Me? Behind this? Oh, no no no, I retired years ago, and am only a consultant on the current project. My friend here is the one who is in charge."

Solomon looked at the well dressed corpse corps.

"C.C. 17-1," Van continued, "Professor Collins nicknamed him 'Gershom,' as in the son of the biblical Moses. Gershom was his first successful prototype for a thorn-free corpse corps, and what do you know, Collins was so proud of his creation that he made him his protégé and later, his replacement – in my younger days I would have been quite jealous. It seems that Gershom was the mark Collins always wanted to leave on the world."

Gershom stepped forward. "Now, now Van, will you please cease your prattling, you are monopolizing the conversation. I would very much like to talk to our guest, I've never met a real Chevalier in person before," he said, with his hands casually behind his back. "I suppose one could even say that you and I are half brothers," he laughed heartily at his own quip for several seconds before noticing that no one else was laughing. "Because of the grafts, get it?" He managed to get a very slight, forced chortle out of Van and nothing at all out of Solomon.

Gershom glared at them for a moment. "You'll have to forgive my underdeveloped sense of humor, I don't get out much." He paused for several seconds. "Now then, I suppose you're here to spy on us aren't you? I hope so, because if you intend to destroy this facility by yourself, you're sorely out of luck. Oh yes, we do have a self destruct mechanism here – my superiors were quite adamant about that lest they have another MET on their hands, it's wired directly to the pentagon, but I suppose even the Red Shield couldn't break into that. It can be activated manually from our control room, but the process is similar to that of most modern nuclear weapons – four different switches have to be turned simultaneously – it cant be done by a lone nut. It's a good thing too, it would be such a tragic waste if you were to destroy the vast majority of my little brothers, as well as the only facility in the world capable of making them. You see, we're finally making progress on the project, we've finally been approved to use them in a pilot program that, if successful, could mean the entire US army would be replaced with my little brothers - the government has realized that their old plan was far to convoluted, but super-soldiers can be useful against more than just monsters. However, I hear that you and those little red-shield bitches have been killing them all before they can be shipped out – but I think our recent excursion to Okinawa has shown that they can't eliminate every shipment."

Solomon, not being a complete idiot, wondered why this information was being given to him so freely.

Gershom reached forward. "Well then, Mr. Goldsmith, it was a pleasure to meet you, but I am afraid I am going to have to ask you to leave my office, Van and I have some business to discuss."

Solomon, being a polite man, shook the hand he had been offered. He appeared quite calm as he exited the room, but in reality, he was fully prepared for the inevitable moment when they called the guards.

Van strode across the room to the desk phone, and dialed. "Yes, I need three – no five squads up here immediately, we have an intruder!"

Gershom appeared by his side and snatched the phone away. "Cancel that last request – false alarm – get back to work," he said sternly.

Van's mouth dropped wide open as he stared at his associate.

"Have you lost your damn mind?!"

The lab coat clad corpse corps unit chuckled as his high-strung associate continued. "You're just going to let him leave?! Our losses would be considerable, but with enough units I am sure he could be taken down! You're going to just let him walk out with all that information – you basically gave him a tutorial on how to how to blow this place up! I'm sure they'll use that information to plan an attack – he and his red shield buddies will be back!"

"Exactly."

"Okay, now I really think you've lost your mind."

Gershom chuckled again. "He will be back, and most likely with Diva's offspring, Saya Otonashi and if we are very lucky, that other Queen that just appeared out of nowhere. Do you realize how valuable any one of them would be as a test subject? Even if we can only capture one, it would be tremendously useful, with a different Queen, we could develop a whole new strain," he laughed. "Oh yes, he'll come back with his Red Shield buddies, and when he does, we'll be prepared."

Ho'omakākiu: To spy, also: to watch with a jealous eye, to lie in wait to do evil.

I feel like I kinda went out on a limb with this chapter. I'd be curious to know what people think of my new villain, even though he's going to be a pretty minor character in this story. I didn't want to use Van because so many other have done that, and I figured Collins would be dead or really, really old by then, so I had to come up with someone new.