Disclaimer: So I'm back faster than I thought... which is also something Stephenie Meyer isn't...
Disclaimer Deuce: Pillar has inspired this chapter. Look the band up
Mike's POV
It was a new sensation, running up and down my spine every moment. Every moment worrying someone was watching me. Realizing I was powerless. True weakness. I'd never felt it like this before. Every single person could kill me, and some had the mind to. I could feel it in the way they looked at me. The way they breathed around me. I wasn't stupid. I tried not to focus on it. I spent hours upon hours training, doing anything to raise my chance of survival here. Kendo stick work. I'd ask for a partner, but every vampire could overpower me easily with one hand. I hadn't asked the shifters. Pride. That's what it is... I'd always been powerful... but now I'd been reduced to a whimpering pile of weakness easily being out muscled by everyone, including my girlfriend.
I know I shouldn't feel that way. I know the very idea shouldn't make me sick... It isn't proper. It isn't right... but it is. As wrong as it sounded I enjoyed feeling stronger than other people. Does that make me a bad person? I couldn't honestly answer that.
I swung with all my might slicing through the air and spinning away. I gathered backwards spearing forward. I struck with the hilt then swept the air before plunging my weapon in to the ground.
"So this is where you're hiding?" I heard a familiar voice. I forced myself to relax.
"I wasn't hiding." I said spinning the kendo stick between my hands. If Hikaru saw me doing this he'd be scolding me. What... he told me to make the movements my own. I swung the blade and spun with it without thinking, following momentum and before I realized it I was jumping through the air with a spin kick.
"You know... it's impolite to ignore someone when they're talking to you." I stopped spinning and faced her. I was short of breath. It was refreshing to be tired.
"I'm sorry."
"it's also impolite to lie." She pestered.
"I didn't lie."
"You've been hiding for me for a week, ever since you've become human, why?"
"I told you, I'm not hiding, I'm just busy." I maintained.
"There is no war, and even if there was you wouldn't be a part of it, you're human now." That sounds so nice... can I have that? I wanted to stay human, but I was addicted to the power I had attained.
If I had to live my life with the Volturi without a doubt I would be a vampire. But if given a choice between life and death I found myself struggling to find my answer. If I could go back to my family and never see a vampire again, could I? Give it all up, all the power in the world for a chance to be normal?
A chance to reach my true potential. A chance to be more than a murderer. A chance for true love without the fear of being used for my power? Yes... I would give up the ones I think I love to live my life with those I know I love.
My heart felt squeezed in my chest. In three years my last two years would seem like a distant dream. Power, respect, fear, love... a lover from a different country, two beautiful vampires who loved me... all of it... just a passing dream.
But I forgot one very important fact. There is no going back. I gulped and felt a shiver go down my spine.
I would never get to hug my parents. Thank them for making me who I am. I would never get to hold my nieces and nephews. I would never get to meet my sisters and brother-in-law. I would never be able to reminisce with my family.
I felt my throat tightening and my breath becoming uneasy. And then a tear. I realized Zuri was still there staring at me.
"Mike... what is it?" she said closing the gap between us.
"It's nothing... I'm just thinking about the life I gave up."
"Gave up? You say it like it was your choice." she said wrapping her arms around me. At 5'11 Zuri was the exact same height as me.
"No... I would give anything just to be normal again." I said honestly. I loved my power but if I could change the world, make it "normal" no vampires, no werewolves... I would.
"You can be. You're human again." She said.
"No... Eventually I'll be forced to be a vampire again." I admitted.
"Run away with me... We'll go to my village, we can be protected." she whispered in to my ear.
"And never see my family again? And they'll be in danger? What if they turn them because I have power... if I have power so does my parents... so does my siblings... what if they kill them all... for me leaving? No... this is my prison... I'm so weak... so pathetic." I admitted in disgust. Zuri held me tighter.
"Vulnerability doesn't make you pathetic, it makes you human. It makes me love you." she said before kissing me. It felt completely different from when I was a vampire. I felt each taste bud responding to her tongue, the gentle attack of her lips. She paused for a moment and backed away.
"I love you too Zuri... don't let go." I said holding on to her tightly.
"I won't. I never will."
Elzam's POV
"Final tests for the Mark V Zealot underway, Psycho, status report." I called over the com. I watched stroking my chin. I needed to shave. Preliminary tests for the Mark V had shown it vastly superior to the Mark IV in every way except maneuverability. I had argued the points of having a frame that could move well as well as fast but the argument that we didn't have the technology to make the Zealot V both maneuverable and well armored left some to be desired. I didn't like the sacrifice but I knew protecting the pilot was the top priority.
The scientists wouldn't believe so. The Mark V Zealot cost well over three billion dollars to be created and it was a fact I was made increasingly aware of. The field tests boasted of a traveling speed of ninety miles per hour and armor strong enough to withstand tank rounds. I argued for more mobility but was voted down by the head developers of the weapon. Preliminary plans were being made for my personalized Mech, but not so much as a piece of metal had been put to use for it.
In fact all members of the EDU had created their own blueprint of their personalized Mech... while some didn't vary from the Zealot everyone's personalized Mech had better maneuverability and less weapons.
We had tried to affect the Zealot but Mr. Green... our financial backer and only real connection to the government had signed off on the designs. Something didn't sit right with this. Years as a green Beret had trained me to be distrustful and my gut told me not to trust Mr. Green. He was the same person who sent Havik our way and now we've added him to our kill list.
Right now Mr. Green held all the cards. He had a full jacket on each of us but he was also in charge of our equipment and supply lines. We'd never met him before and his phone was untraceable. I watched as Psycho attempted to move the boxy mech. Truthfully he was a very skilled pilot but the mech had all the grace of a tank, and turned about as quickly as one. There was a piece that was missing and it irked me that I couldn't see it.
"That's good enough Flight Lieutenant, come in for your report."
"As ordered Commander." The phone was ringing. It's four in the morning, who the hell is... Mr. Green. He knew when we would receive the package and he knew us well enough to know we wouldn't sleep on it.
"Hello Mr. Green."
"Commander Elzam... I'm flattered." he said in a monotone voice.
"Why are you calling now?" I said cutting straight to the point.
"So short with me? Well I've never been one for small talk anyway. I want your full report on the performance of the Mark V Zealot." Psycho Nate Schmidt made his way in to the office and signaled to ask if he should leave. I shook my head. I motioned towards a phone on the desk and he quietly lifted it without making a noise.
"We didn't have time to do the testing, we unpacked and prepped it for tests today, we'll start in Oh seven hundred hours." I heard a disapproving noise.
"I know you better than that Commandant, and I know Flight Officer Schmidt better. Your results?"
"The Mech's Agility is reduced even more from the Mark IV which had less than the Mark III, II, and Prototype."
"Yes, Yes, I read that in your previous reports, it doesn't concern me, what about the armor and weapon output." Mr. Green responded impatiently. I paused and took a mental note.
"The weapon output exceeded expectations within a 10% rate."
"Good... then the Mech is ready for mass production." The pit in my stomach that had been stirring over my feelings about Mr. Green grew. It all made sense now. He wasn't going to make six of them for us, he was going to make hundreds for whomever he deemed necessary. My eyes turned to Schmidt who had obviously deduced the same thing but I made sure he was silent.
"Is there a problem Commander Elzam?" he said after I hadn't responded.
"No, of course not." I lied as smoothly as I could.
"Good, I've received your teams blueprints, as requested our top engineers have started work on their specific mechs. Your personalized Mech will be the most difficult to make I warn you. It will take the longest time... They have already started on Flight Officer Briggs mech, it should be ready much sooner, possible inside a year."
"Yes, is there anything else?" I asked.
"No, talk to you soon." he said.
"Of course Mr. Green." I heard the click and only then did I let the receiver go. Nate was going to say something but I motioned for him to be quiet. He looked at my eyes and nodded. I buzzed my pager three times to signify a meeting, in the forest. The team would know where to go. We needed to discuss this.
I stopped for a moment to look at the Behemoth in front of my window.
Ivan's POV
I had been on his trail for days. Shifter. He would not evade me. Every time I got close to him he was in a crowded area... taunting me... leading me. I wasn't stupid I could tell he was trying to trap me but I didn't care. The bastard killed my Andrea. He killed my angel... he would be ended, I would follow him until the end of time. He would not escape... and when I catch him I will dig my fingernails in to the back of his neck and bite off his throat.
Elzam's POV
"What's this all about?" Tim Briggs asked. I looked each person in the eye before moving to the next person.
"We have a problem." I said calmly.
"What is it?"
"The Mark V Zealot is going to be mass produced." Each of them nodded realizing the connotation.
"I was under the assumption that this team would be the only people trusted with those mechs and that is what I signed on for." I explained.
"I haven't trusted Mr. Green from the start but the layout of this mech doesn't make sense for one on one combat with Vampires." I explained.
"Mass producing these weapons were never part of the plan, We were meant to be a surgical team killing vampires as we found out about them, but every new mech is harder and harder to hide, and has more and more weapons that don't meet that standard. The mark V is twenty feet tall, how are we supposed to be quiet and surgical when we're piloting mechs as big as houses?"
"What do you prepose we do?" White asked. He had been silent so far.
"I have a friend who builds, modifies, and fixes guns... I want to see if I can't convince him to join our unit on a secret basis... if anyone wants to back out now is the time." I waited for someone to say anything but no one responded. I looked each of them in the eye.
I pulled out a phone, it didn't look special but it was one of the few phones in the world that couldn't easily be tracked. Everyone claimed their nice new phone was untrackable but I'd learned that there was no such thing... I had to depend on the fact that us being in the woods didn't raise any flags.
I dialed the phone number. After the third ring it clicked but no words were said on the other side. No hello, no greeting of any sort.
"Do you know who this is?" I asked.
"Yes I know who you are." he said after recognizing my voice.
"Good... I need your help, I want to convince you to help me."
"With what?"
"I'm putting together a team and I need you on it."
"I retired."
"Come on I know you got more in you."
"Don't even start with me Ironman, you know I quit for my son."
"How is he doing?"
"He's doing great, his mother left a couple years ago... worried I'd never hear from you again."
"Yes, there has been complications."
"You want me to join your team." he said as a statement.
"Yes... I need you to build some unique weapons for us, and I don't know someone I'd trust more here with me." He laughed.
"Trust? Obviously you don't trust your team, what name you running?"
"Jack Elzam." I answered.
"Really? They made a whole new identity for this job... Interesting."
"Are you in?" I persisted.
"I told you, I'm done with active duty, I'm a father now."
"I thought maybe I could convince you to..."
"If you trust your team put me on speaker." I obeyed him and pressed the speaker button.
"Alright... what has he told you about me?"
"Nothing... just that you could help us." Lisa answered.
"A woman... that's... different... interesting..."
"Has he told you my name?"
"No." Briggs responded.
"And you expect me to trust them? You won't even tell them my name."
"This line isn't necessarily secure."
"No line is, and whoever it is can find me even if you don't give my name."
"This is Lincoln Krane, a friend from the service."
"How much do you know about Jack here? Do you know his real name?" Lisa snorted
"Link, that's not part of the deal." I argued.
"I will build your weapons, send me the materials, but I will not take part in anything more."
"Good I'll-"
"If... you trust your team."
"I told you I trust my team."
"Then why do none of them know your real name... besides the girl whose pouting."
"I'm not pouting."
"Yeah whatever. That's my deal, if you can't trust them with your name, I can't trust them with my weapons, that's my deal." I looked down at my feet. There was no point in hiding it.
"Davis Johnson, my name is Davis Johnson."
Thanks for reading, I've been bouncing around Lincoln Krane in my head for months now, I figured this would be a good introduction to him. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for those who have reviewed. Remember to review, give high fives, rolls of twenties, and knucks. Catch you on the Flipside