CHAPTER FOUR

Immediately, the jungle disappeared, replaced by the sprawling, if slightly incomplete, metropolis. But unlike the shining city of Terra Venture something was... off. Not right. Leo could not put his finger on it but whatever it was, it felt wrong.

"Do you guys-?" he began.

"Yeah, we feel it too," said Damon, "I had a look at the plans for this, a-and I don't know why but just looking at it gave me the chills."

"How in the world did they build all of this so fast," asked Leo, looking around. There were builders and technicians all scurrying about like ants, each preoccupied with their own personal tasks. But one thing clear: Their faces showed the same emotions he felt. Confusion and was that... fear? "This place was just the Command buildings and the skeletons of other buildings. I was only gone for two days. This should not exist. It's impossible. What'd you do?" He addressed the last part to Damon.

"Don't ask me," he said, "I haven't got a clue. Stannon has kept me away from the actual building part of the project and just let me stay as an observer." Leo's mind reeled. Why would Stannon only let the best mechanic and worker only take part in the greatest project yet devised as an assistant? That just didn't make any sense whatsoever, no matter which way you looked at it.

What on Earth is going on here? He thought. Whatever it is, I don't like it.

Then they reached what was called Central. The Command Tower.

The Command Tower looked like some giant, demented child with a fiendish implement of playthings had crudely nailed a massive, ugly pillar into the ground. There were two three metre high razor wire fences, the second one fifteen metres away from the tower, each with eight guards at their prospective gate. Just outside the first fence was wooden posts that two Mirinoians were tied to. A young woman and a boy no more than twelve. From the state of their faces and clothes, it was evident that they had been there for some time. And that they hadn't been fed.

"Don't say anything Leo," said Mike, grabbing his younger brother's arm, "Don't make a scene."

"This is madness," he said through gritted teeth.

"Did anyone notice that they've doubled the guard?" said Kai once they passed the second checkpoint, his years of military training and strategic mind scrambling for an answer. He couldn't think of any logical answer, which suggested that it was entirely illogical.

"Yeah," affirmed Damon, "Why do you think they did that?"

"Haven't a clue," came the response. In the reception there were to more guards standing before an elevator. One of them spoke into his helmet microphone.

"Rangers are here sir," he said, "Awaiting your access now."

"The codes have been sent and the elevator is descending," came the reply

Ping!

That was the elevator.

"Inside," commanded the soldier, none too kindly, "The Commander is waiting on the top floor." The rangers complied and before too long, the elevator doors closed, sealing them inside the tiny capsule.

The only thing to be heard was the hum of the elevator ascending a thousand floors, no-one could think of anything to say. In the case of Leo and Kendrix, however, they didn't need verbal communication. They were content to merely be in each other's arms.

"Ahh," groaned Damon, "Get a room would ya? Are you going to be like this the whole time?"

"Yeah," said Kendrix, "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Nope just checking," was all Damon said.

More silence, until...

Ping!

"Finally," said Kai. Slightly regretful, Leo and Kendrix slid out of their embrace and left the elevator. Mike looked around, taking in every little detail:

There were six soldiers armed with assault rifles guarding the elevator.

The interior of the building of less complete than its exterior.

There were walls that suddenly ended leaving a mess of wires exposed and, as a result, there were technicians in lab coats running about.

All of technicians were carrying what were supposed to be concealed firearms.

There were already four cameras homing in on the group.

And finally, Commander Stannon was waiting to greet them.

"Hello rangers," he said warmly, "Mr Corbett, it is good to see you back in one piece. I heard that you crashed into the middle of one of our skirmishes. Now you probably know why you are here. One of your teammates has gone renegade and is using her powers to help the savages instead of using them to wipe them out! What I want you to do, is to take a squad and hunt her down. I want her dead or alive, I'm not particular on the result. If she's alive we can make an example out of her, do something to really scare the savages. When the mission is complete I have another task I'll wasn't you to do so report back as soon as possible." Leo wanted to say that he wasn't going to take part in a mission that involved hunting down his friend but Mike tightly squeezed his arm and steered him away.

"Why did you do that Mike?" demanded Leo as soon as they were clear of the two checkpoints around Central, "There is no way I am taking any part of this mission! You should know that!"

"Of course we do Leo," responded Mike, "We just thought that you needed to see what had happened. You've been gone and we didn't want you to make a mistake now that everything is so tense. Mistakes can be very costly at the moment."

"What happened?" Leo asked, "I thought we agreed to be neutral. When did Maya go off?" Mike closed his eyes and sighed.

"We'll show you."

The morgue was one of the few fully completed buildings. In times of war they will always throw buckets of money at the places. What was strange however was that most morgues don't normally have armed, military guards. When they started for the entrance the guards looked like they wanted to stop them but two members of their party were clearly marked as military and they were admitted inside without any delay.

They walked through a series of white, sterile corridors with nothing to break the monotony. The air conditioning was way too cold (ice was developing on the walls and their breath misted) and Leo was immensely glad of his leather jacket. Kendrix on the other hand was wearing a skin tight GSA uniform that, while showing off her figure, did nothing to hold off the cold and as a result her teeth were chattering so much that her jaw ached uncontrollably. Leo pulled of his jacket and wrapped it around her leaving himself wearing nothing more than a red singlet on his torso. Kendrix wanted to give it back, citing that now he had to be colder but she was just too cold to say anything that would take away the warmth.

Not that Leo would take it.

"Three years and its nothing but shy looks," said Damon to Kai, "And now one day we catch them removing clothing. Fifty says he proposes in just over a week."

"I dunno," responded Kai, "Leo knows that Kendrix is always nervous, "But we do have to take into account that we are in war, people rush things in times like this, so I'll say around... two weeks." They suddenly realised that Mike was now directly behind them and that he heard them discussing his little brother's future marital status.

"Two weeks, three days and twenty-one hours."