Surge walked the line of privates who stood before him. His country was falling apart. That was bullshit. These kids- fucking kids, the youngest among them 18- a young 18, had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They knew of the succession, yes, but they probably had no idea why. The UN wasn't talking, and he wasn't supposed to either. They were sitting on the brink of the third world war.

They had hit an impasse Resources- all resources, were dangerously low. With most of the country in a blackout, even a spark of electricity was a sign of the times. The lights were on here. Clean water was getting more and more scarce; even the air they were breathing was getting to the point that it required a mask to keep one's lungs from filling with the poisons that they had pumped into it.

And we did this to ourselves.

It was a thought that haunted Surge, and those who remembered what it was like- before they lost contact with Mercury; before they destroyed their own land- depleting topsoil, and poisoned their own water with the runoff they had used to solve the air crisis. They were in deep. And it looked like there was no way out. One of the few patches of land, farm-able, sustainable land, was below them- the fertile belt that stretched across the American plains from California (where Surge happened to be from, born and raised) to the great Appalachian mountain range.

And they were fucking keeping it.

The water off the coast, the water that was swooped up by angry clouds and rained down on their crops, was so full of deadly poisons that it had to be drained before it was soaked; had to be purified in moisture vaporizers before it could be applied to the food. They couldn't produce enough to keep the country fed. The factory- the farming by machine; with hormones and mutagens- bio-engineering to allow the small area to feed such a massive population- had hit a wall. Even the bugs were becoming resistant to the poisons Humanity...

Humanity evolved more slowly then insects.

"Boys and Girls!" He finally spoke, and 100 pairs of eyes snapped to him, "This is our home. This is the world that our children will inherit. We owe it to them- we owe it to everyone who was forced to evacuate, and to the brave men and women who remain below us at this very moment- to get rid of every threat that we find to our brave land."

"Our enemies," he continued, "Think that we're gonna surrender if they can scare us- think that they can starve us out; that they can burn us to the ground and wait for us to die! But that's not what we do! We don't let them fool us! We don't fight amongst ourselves- we ban together, and we kick the shit out of anyone who tries to get in our way! We've lost our power source- but we got folk in the lab cooking up more. We will not lose our motherfucking bread! We do not know defeat!"

He cocked the gun he was holding, "Now, we know that the airships here- they're planning on poisoning our last food supply; this whole area is going to be unusable, but not for long. Just long enough to starve us out- to convince us to sell. But we don't let that happen. We drop in waves. We don't wanna scare them- we wanna secure them. Omega team is with me. We head to the heart of the beast- the commander behind this mission- who engineered our destruction, we go after Fuji! We destroy his battle plan, and we retake what is ours!"

"Everyone know what they're doing?" He bellowed.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Came the reply he was waiting on.

"Then Alpha team line up and get ready for the drop!"

His gun, in the lower right-hand side, near the butt, contained the same emblem as the ring Ashton always wore, a red "R" inside a black circle.

After the conversation with his mother, Ashton needed to do something to work off the steam that was still lingering from his talk with his mother-madam boss. The alcohol wasn't touching him, and he had realized, when the professor retired himself to the lab and told him to "get outside for a little bit" he meant that he was being annoying. He sighed. Loved Kanto. No public intoxication laws. Oddly clean, to...

One of his mother's favorite pastimes, another 'family' tradition- was boxing. It was one of the few things that they had in common. One of the few things- he looked down at the near-empty bottle-of the very few things that could kill his anger, was a body drenching workout. He slicked his hair out of his face and decided to go to the gym on campus and practice- he hadn't really ever been to a gym-gym, he had always had personal trainers- but he was curious. He set his phone to his streaming station and plugged his headphones in.

He left them in one ear while he flashed his student ID and signed a few papers, half-listened to directions, and found his way to the weight room. It wasn't as crowded as he had expected- though at midterm, what had he expected, really- so he managed to find a machine and follow it's instructions. Pumping- actually felt pretty good- all the burn without the actual punching sensation- just a couple dozen-hundred-reps of this he would just go jogging back around Sammy's property and do a check on the rest of the specimens

Actually, it was really relaxing; he quickly found a rhythm, and lost track of time until the machine stopped working. He looked up to see the timer had run down, and the words, "new occupant" were flashing. Someone must've reserved it or come in after him. He turned to get up- and nearly fell back. The woman standing before him had dead, soulless eyes, she stared hard into him, and wore an unmistakable red 'R' button discretely in plain sight on her collar. There was an air of otherworldly power about her- she gave you a slight headache and a deep sense of fear.

"Ashton, is it?" She asked, "Is that what you are called?"

"Yes." He struggled, managed to stand in defiance of her, "You turn?" he asked, hopefully.

"I need to speak with you." Her voice was emotionless- this woman had no soul, "Do you know me?"

"I've heard of you." He nodded, then added hastily, "Can we not talk about this here, in the public square?" he wiped his brow, hung the towel around his neck and motioned with his head to the door, "Lets take a walk."

"So," he asked as they passed into the cool autumn night, "Did my mother send you?"

"No, actually." She never smiled, her voice never changed, "I thought I should let you know something."

"Is that right?" the youth snickered despite his fear, "Because you're a psychic? You gonna warn me? Of what? Of what my ma's gonna do to me?"

"You do not believe in the power of the psychic energy?" she stopped- same monotone voice, same dead eyes, forcing him to look back at her.

"What did you want to warn me about?" He asked, her eyes freezing him.

He could hear his own heartbeat- the air around them was deathly silent. That made no sense. They were on campus- some people had class- there would be people, animals on the quad- why was it so silent? Why was his heart beating so loud in his goddamn eardrums! Shit- he... suddenly couldn't breath-why was his heart so loud- why was it burning- why were his lungs burning! Holy shit- what was happening?

And he caught her could, dead eyes again.

"Do you believe in psychic energy?" she asked, and her eyes were glowing. Yellow.

The beats in his ears were coming slower... and slower...

"Yes!" he tried to nod- tried to talk.

And they slowly... slowly... returned to normal, and faded... and faded, until they grew silent. The burning subsided, and he began to breath, only to realize that he had fallen to one knee with his hand to his heart.

"Holy fuck, lady!" He hissed- barely managing to stifle a scream, "I believe you! Goddamn!" He took deep breaths and stood up, "What did you want to warn me about?"

"This man you work with- Mr-Oak?" Her monotone, creepy voice.

"Professor Oak. What about him?" Ashton stopped at a vending machine to rehydrate his body after the day he had and realized another reason to love his new home- they sold beer in vending machines. Thank fucking god. What will they think of next?

"He is dangerous. I would not trust him, as much as you do. He will bring about as much harm as your mother. I have foreseen it. Find out where he gets this- well, lizards don't live after they burst into flame, do they?"

How did she know that?

"Why would a man be obsessed with creating monsters-bio-weapons? Don't you ask yourself that?" She stared at him.

"I do. And I'm going to find out. Don't worry." he took a long gulp, "In fact, I should probably be getting back, doing this whole, "undercover" thing. I will find out."

"See that you do." she narrowed her eyes, swung her head to the side, and stared at him. Then, suddenly, she was gone.

What

the

fuck!

One of the few places left on Earth where you didn't need a gas mask. Unless you were flying through a battle-field and getting ready to leap-frog another plane. Surge had dropped his ground troops; now it was just his team to take down Fuji; four waves, 20 soldiers each, hoping it wasn't overkill. He knew that the commercial flight below was not 'commercial' at all. He knew as sure as he knew where he got the gun he was holding. That flight was holding nothing but a team of scientists- lead by Dr. Belle Fuji

and they were planning a terrorist attack, which, if implemented, would destroy the food supply for the continent.

And they jumped. He knew where the doors were, they shattered them. The motherfuckers were wearing grunt uniforms. Fucking henchmen uniforms. And there she stood, before him- the woman he had secretly worked with behind doors- out of reach of the government eyes they both saw- in a secret deep, so deep that it went beyond individual countries, that it spanned the globe. But this... this was something he could not allow.

"Can't let you do this Belle!" His voice faltered as he raised his gun.

"You are a traitor," she said simply, as her grunts raised their weapons to match, "Who do you think you are, crashing in here- with a fucking troop? Starr! What the fuck were you thinking!"

"You can't do this! I don't care what some crazy bitch has seen or what you think is going to happen. Stand down, or you are under attest- for global terrorism."

"Stand down?" She laughed, "Are you mad?"

"You ain't getting outta this one, Belle." he sighed, "Got men on the ground to arrest you when you get off. If you make it to the ground without me, orders change from 'arrest' to 'deadly force'. I know what you're doing, bitch I was in on it! This is crazy! This is crazy even for you, Belle- come on!" he lowered his gun, and marched up to her, "What the fuck was I thinking? What the fuck were you thinking, bitch?"

He put the pun to her head, "Now hand me the fucking vile and turn yourself in. You are a dangerous, crazy bitch!"

She gazed up, into his eyes, like she had during their long years together as spies, and suddenly, his world went black.