A/N: Sorry about how late this chapter is but I've been crazy busy even over break. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Consider this my holiday present to all of you.
As Aaron and Tamara cautiously walked towards "The Seven", they were cool, calm, and collected. They had their weapons raised and ready to fire if they spotted any movement.
As they drew closer, both realized that the Omega members appeared to be frozen in time. They stood completely still as Tamara and Aaron came closer.
"Okay this is creepy." Aaron stated to Tamara as he glanced at the motionless Defiance.
"I know. It's like a scary movie. You know, where the silly teenager hears a noise in the basement but instead of running away, he goes down there. The light doesn't work so he says, 'a-a-anybody here?' but no one answers. So he keeps walking, getting closer and closer…" Tamara responded somberly. She paused though, once she realized what she had said. "Man I just sounded like Vas & Ram when we went to get the antidote for you when you had that horrid alter-ego."
Aaron laughed lightly at that, but suddenly thrust his right arm out with his palm extended and motioned for her to stop. "Wait I think I hear something." He whispered in her ear so they wouldn't be heard. They might be in frozen time but as Aaron and Tamara could move through it they wanted to be careful.
After a few seconds of silence, Aaron used more hand signals to indicate to her to continue on. He motioned two fingers to his eyes, and she understood that he wanted her to keep a lookout for anything suspicious.
With their blasters ready, they continued to stalk down the brightly lit hallway. Aaron and Tamara hoped that they were headed in the direction of the holding cells.
Eventually, they reached another hallway. This one was filled with normal sized metal doors that were protected only by an eight digit numerical code.
"Aaron you take the left side and I'll take the right side." Tamara directed him as she took charge. "Remember, we may only get one shot at this. For the passwords to work we'll need to restart time. Once we do, the alarms will be armed. So if we enter the wrong code they'll go off. Be careful." she added seriously.
They started on the doors and after a bit Tamara was able to hack into the right one. According to the sign posted on a nearby wall, the stairs led to the holding cells in the basement. They went through the door and just as Aaron was closing the door behind them, he noticed movement as the first few members of the Defiance came around the corner. He panicked as he saw Elias Powers, Dr. Necros and General Cross headed straight for them.
Once Aaron spotted them, he quickly closed the door and pushed Tamara down the stairs that led to the cells.
"How did they get here so fast?!" Tamara gasped, as they started down the steps. There were many steps in the stairwell that seemed to lead somewhere deep underground.
"I don't know. What I do know is that we need to keep moving." Aaron hastily replied as he sped up to put as much distance between him and Omega as possible.
They did not get far before they heard the door above them slam open with a loud 'bang'.
Now alerted to the incoming men, Aaron pushed Tamara to go even faster. They were now moving so fast that she had almost tripped a few times on the stairs.
Only seconds later, blasts started coming down from above them.
They were forced to duck and cover to shield themselves from the dangerous blasts. When one blast slammed into the wall a little too close to his head for comfort, Aaron turned around and tried to return the fire, only to have nothing shoot out of his gauntlet.
He panicked slightly and smacked his hand against the top of the gauntlet, as if the motion would get the weapon to work. A few seconds later, it did but only a few shots were fired out of the gauntlet before it completely died on him.
Aaron used the few seconds of distraction that the shots had provided to his advantage. He vaulted over the stair rail and landed smoothly onto the landing below. Tamara was already ahead because he had paused to return fire, so he needed to catch up with her in order for them to stick together.
"Come on Aaron!" she urgently called up to him from several flights down. They were getting close to the bottom of the stairs where she hoped the door to the holding cells where everyone was located.
"I'm coming as fast as I can!" Aaron called to her as he gasped for breath. He vaulted over another stair rail and slammed onto the landing.
After he vaulted over a few more floors, Aaron had finally reached the floor above Tamara, and instead of going over the rail again he took off at a sprint down the stairs. The momentum from his last jump helped carry him some, but the rush had tired him out slightly. After all, he had just vaulted down twelve flights of stairs as he avoided laser blasts, and tried to catch up with Tamara.
As Aaron reached the last few stairs to where Tamara waited for him, she saw him coming and ripped the door open. "Hurry Aaron!" she screamed as they ducked more blasts as the shots rained down from above them.
Aaron pushed himself harder as he knew that the Defiance had started to catch up. The second Aaron got through the door Tamara immediately shut it, and grabbed the closest object she could find. The closest thing turned out to be a steel bar, and a heavy duty chair that Aaron had brought over for her.
Tamara used the objects to her advantage, and she attempted to make some kind of barrier. It would take her some time to construct it, however. She prayed that it would be strong enough to hold off the Defiance's pursuit. Aaron needed to get to the cells before the Defiance caught up with them. If it didn't hold then all of their work would be for nothing
As she put together the crude doorstop, she signaled Aaron to continue on. She knew that if they were both captured, then everyone on the planet and not just their family, would be doomed to a life ruled by the Omega Defiance.
Aaron didn't want to leave Tamara to face the Defiance alone, and he hesitated for a few seconds. He looked at her and saw her set face. Aaron knew that he had to continue without her for now. She gestured to him to go on again.
"I'll catch up, just get to the cells!" She told him hurriedly.
They had to get to everyone before the Defiance reached them. So he went on and ended up in another hall and the only relief was that these doors were labeled.
'Holding cells…holding cells…ah holding cells.' Aaron thought to himself, as he looked into the rooms. He finally found the door he was looking for and he yanked it open. Aaron ran through in relief. He didn't bother to wait for Tamara because he knew she would catch up eventually. The second he stepped through the door, he heard people calling both of his names.
"Mom, Jason, S.T.A.N.!" Aaron called. He was beyond relieved to see them for the first time in what felt like months, but what in reality were only a few weeks.
"Hey what about us?" Vas sarcastically asked from his position on the ground
"It's great to see all of you." Aaron corrected himself happily.
Aaron's mom spotted him, and rushed over. He was caught up in a big hug as she was so relieved to see him.
"Charlie! Or should I call you Aaron? I'm so glad to see you." Amanda Landers told her son as she finally pulled back.
"Aaron right now please. We don't have much time. Do you know where the keys to your restraints are?" Aaron questioned the room in general. He stepped out of his mother's embrace and noticed that their feet seemed to have some type of shackles attached to them. STAN had the same restraint around his neck that Necros had put on him when they'd be captured before. Aaron knew that a ricochet from his gauntlet could destroy it but the weapon wasn't functioning.
"They're electronic bro. No keys for these." Jason told him. Aaron glanced over at him and smiled slightly.
"Hey Jase. Are you okay?" he quietly asked his brother.
Jason just waved him off and replied, "I am now that Aaron Stone is here. That's so awesome dude! You're a real life Aaron Stone." He sounded awed as he gazed at his brother in who was in his Aaron Stone uniform.
Aaron looked almost embarrassed as he started to respond but suddenly Tamara joined them in the cell as she finally caught up.
"Aaron, little short on time here!" She urgently reminded him as she entered the cell.
"Oh, right." Aaron answered, and both got to work. They had to quickly find the key to the restraints that had been placed on his family and Vas and Ram. Sounds of lasers being fired at right outside of the door could be heard minutes later and they knew time had run out.
They could hear heavy fire as they group outside bombarded the door with laser blasts. Aaron motioned his family to be quiet and to go to a corner of the cell. Once they were out of the danger zone, Tamara and Aaron went to stand in front of the door. They raised their weapons and were ready to defend the people, and android, that they cared so much about. The Defiance could not hurt them. They wouldn't let them.
After a few more shots were heard, the door suddenly gave way. It fell to the ground with a boom, and landed only a few inches away from Aaron and Tamara's toes.
In the front of the group stood Elias Powers and Dr. Necros with Tatianna, Cross, Cerebella, Zefir, Helix, Kronis and Zero behind them.
"Ready Aaron?" Tamara tensely whispered so only Aaron could hear her question. She dropped into a battle stance.
"Yea, let's kick some major Omega Defiance butt." He replied, both confident that they would win, and angry that his family was being threatened. He got in his own stance with his hands raised in front of him, and ready to fight.
At first, nobody moved as each group looked defiantly at the other. It was like the calm before the storm.
After a couple of seconds of tense silence the battle finally to began. Both sides fought against each other desperately and used any moves, no matter how dirty they were.
Aaron saw Powers, Necrose, Tatianna and Cerebella all coming towards him. He suddenly got an idea and he quickly used his x-5's. He hoped they still worked. They did, and he was shot off of the ground and into the air by the powerful compressed gases in the shoes. Aaron flipped over them and kicked down as he did. He wanted to finish this battle before it carried over to his family as they watched him fight, disbelievingly, in the corner of the room.
Meanwhile, Tamara fought her own tough battle.
"I've given you many chances to join us Emma. Why not switch to the winning side now? If you do, you will live. If not, you are sure to die." Zefir calmly taunted her in his trademark English accent.
He walked in a half circle around her, and she followed his movement. This prevented her from catching Helix move closer to her unprotected back. Helix had a long needle in his hand, which glinted sinisterly in the dim light of the cell room.
She couldn't see Helix move towards her and she angrily yelled, "Never! I would prefer to die rather than work for the Defiance!"
"Then you are in luck because that is exactly what is going to happen." Zefir warned her right before Helix jammed the needle into her unprotected neck. The syringe was filled with a sickly green substance.
Before Tamara was able to realize what had happened, she felt the painful sting of a hypodermic needle as Helix injected her with the drug. Helix left the needle in there and stepped back with a smug expression on his face. She quickly reached behind her neck and weakly pulled out the needle. The room started to grow dimmer as the drug took effect, and a few seconds later she had passed out and dropped to the floor.
Aaron heard the sound of a body hit the floor and was tempted to look over and see who had fallen, but he knew the consequences of what would happen if he did. However he assumed the worst because the body had sounded like it was small. He was now officially on his own. He had no weapons as his gauntlet still didn't work. Aaron had to resort to hand to hand combat instead..
Now all he possessed was his mind and body as he took on the most powerful group in the world. Things were truly not looking good for the hero Aaron Stone.
A/N: Now that you have read my present to you, please return one to me by leaving a review. I would like to give a big thank you to my wonderful beta Lady Black-Malfoy. Thank you everyone and Happy Holidays.
stonegrl28