Chapter 18: Agents
Larry stood up, his wounds stinging him as he moved. With one more glance toward Number One's body, he turned and started walking toward the door that had slammed shut behind them as they walked in.
"Any idea on how to get past this?" Larry asked as he inspected the heavy door.
Section came up and began to look at the door herself before typing into her MUT for a moment.
"Whatever controls the door was triggered by all of us coming in here, so if I can just reverse the scripting…" she said, and then her eyes lit up, "Ah!" and the door slid back up into the ceiling.
Moving out of the temple carefully, as to avoid any other attacks, the team was only able to make contact with Nikita after getting outside.
"Good to hear from you," Nikita's voice came back just moments after Larry had reported in, "What's your status?"
"We're alive, all of us. But some of us are injured, and we have the Hero of Time and he's coming with us to your location, over," Larry reported into the radio that the ODSTs had been carrying.
"Good, a helicopter is on its way to pick you up. We want to get everybody back on the Pride, because we don't have enough time left to stick around here, over."
"Understood, when will the helicopter arrive, over?"
"ETA is five minutes, understood, over?"
"Roger that, out," Larry flipped the radio back to standby and handed it over to Leo, who slipped it into her vest.
The helicopter landed on the grounds of the Lon Lon Ranch and the entire squad jumped out. Link was on his hands and knees on the ground as the rotor blades stopped spinning.
"That was awful!" He groaned, "I didn't know that it was possible to fly, but I always expected it be easier…smoother, like a bird in the sky."
"Wimp!" Tatl called.
"Just 'cause I don't fly around all day doesn't mean I'm a wimp!" the twelve year old shot back.
Nikita came up, bend over to avoid the spinning blades of the helicopter and she looked down at the blonde haired boy with a startled expression on her face.
"That's the Hero of Time?" she asked.
"Yes, I am!" Link shouted in expiration.
"You're…younger then I expected," Nikita said as the helicopter blades began to stop spinning.
Link rolled his blue eyes, "So I've heard…" he looked around and his eyes bulged, "We're in Hyrule! At the Lon Lon Ranch! That's amazing!"
Nikita pulled everybody away from the helicopter and began checking after how much time each of the members had. A short amount of time remained now for most of the Clan Hunters, most had under a half hour left. Some members of the ODSTs had more sporadic numbers, but for the most part the majority of the newly formed coalition between the Clan Hunters and the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers was about to be forcibly logged out of the system.
"Which means we need a decision from the Hero o…Link here," Nikita murmured to Larry.
Larry nodded and moved over to Link, "Time is short Link, and we really need your help. Are you willing to come with us?"
Link looked up at Larry, "What about my horse? Epona? And Navi? And Zelda? What about all of them? What if I leave them and they need me?"
Larry shook his head, "I don't know. I can't answer that, Link. All I know is that there are a lot of people outside of Hyrule that need you, and I don't even know why that is."
"Epona?" came a voice from behind the assembled Clan Hunters, and everybody turned around to see Malon, the ranch owner's young daughter.
"It is you!" she cried upon seeing Link, "Where's Epona?" she demanded.
Link's eyes widened for a moment before he adverted them, "…stolen," he muttered.
"What?!" she shouted, "You let my horse get STOLEN?!"
Link's eyes were firmly planted on the ground in front of his feet, "…I'm sorry," he mumbled.
"You're sorry!? You're SORRY?!" Malon was screaming, "How can you have forgotten the song so easily?!"
Link looked up abashed, "The…song?" he asked hesitantly.
"Yes! The song!" Malon took a deep breath before putting both of her hands together in front of her chest and began to sing a wordless tune.
"La la la! La la la! La la laaaa la laaaa! Hmm ho hmm ho ho la la laaa!"
Link brightened up, "That's right! The song brings the Epona back to me, no matter what!"
Malon sighed in relief, "Good, now don't you forget it a second time!" she scolded Link with an upraised finger.
Link's eyes narrowed onto the finger as though it were an upraised sword. Eyes still narrowed, he pulled out a blue ocarina. Standing upright, he duplicated the song that Malon had just sung out loud.
With a loud neigh, everybody turned around to look at a chestnut brown mare coming around the corner of the barn.
Larry and Nikita exchanged confused glances, while Fox said out loud, "How in the heck…"
Link smiled as he petted the horse's nose and she wickered softly, "How could I ever have forgotten the song?" he murmured under his breath.
Turning away from his horse Link nodded his head, "If there are people that will need my help, then I will be the one to help them. I will come with you," he said.
Nikita nodded at her visible relief, "Thank you, I will inform the rest of our clan at once. If you will come this way…" Nikita gestured toward the waiting shuttle that was being used to transfer the remaining Clan Hunters and ODSTs to the Pride and Pillar.
"I'm taking Epona with me!" he called after her, and Nikita turned around, "Of course you are…I've purchased a horse from this ranch as well…"
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that," a voice shouted from across the expanse of the farm house.
Larry turned to spot three men in dark suits with sunglasses advancing across the open field coming from the farm house. When they got closer, Larry noticed that they had ear pieces in their right ears, much like the US Secret Service. They even had the familiar scowl on their face, as though sensing would-be assassins sitting in the bushes near the Presidential Limo.
"And who are you?" Nikita demanded putting herself in-between Link and the tall black suited men.
Larry could already sense their intent, and he motioned to his squad to begin spreading out. In the middle of a field, there would be almost no cover for either side to duck behind, should it come down to a firefight, so he was hoping to overwhelm the three men right away.
"My name is Tabb," the black suited man said, "And these are Agents Brown and Jones. We are system administrator enforces, designed to keep the security of the system safe. You are about to remove a Ta'veren from his home where he is needed. Such action is restricted. You will cease and depart at once."
"You don't think that you can just order us around like that, do you?" Nikita demanded.
"Yes, we do," Agent Tabb replied, "Because we are the Administrational enforcers. You will all leave, at once."
"I go where I want!" Link shouted, "You can't stop me! If there are people that will need my help then I want to help them!"
Larry put himself between the Agents, and to his surprise, Beyond stepped over to his left side, and the Agents turned their attention to Larry and Beyond.
"You…" Agent Brown said when he looked at Beyond.
"Enough," Agent Tabb said, "If they will not leave as instructed, then we will force them too."
"And the Ta'veren?" Agent Jones asked.
"We modify him, he must remain here," Agent Tabb answered.
Agent Brown had not moved, "What about…"
"He is still…"
"Only human," Agent Jones finished for Agent Tabb.
In one motion, all of the Agents reached into their suit coats and withdrew very large pistols.
Larry and Beyond reacted instinctively, with Larry activating the purple colored blade that he carried and Beyond spun the staff into the wrists of Agent Brown just as he brought his weapon to bare.
Red and Leo opened up then, with their battle rifles firing off three shot bursts into the trio of Agents. Amazingly, the Agents appeared to move around the bullets, always dodging. Larry's lightsaber was no different as Agent Tabb brought his knee up in between Larry's saber, and planted it firmly into his stomach.
Forced backward a few steps, Larry gritted his teeth and tried to push forward. That is until, he found himself looking down the barrel of one of the Agent's guns. Flicking his saber up, the blade absorbed the first round, and then with a minor adjustment, he caught another bullet in the blade.
Red and Leo were reloading, as Tex ran forward with her own sword raised to attack, but she was just as easily repealed by a firm punch to the face after Agent Jones sidestepped her attack.
When she fell backward, Nikita came forward and easily disarmed the Agent with a quick blow to the wrist, and then somehow she managed to grab his snake like arms and fling him across the open field, away from the shuttle.
"Come on!" Nikita shouted, "We don't have much time! Get to the shuttle!"
Link had his own sword drawn and he started to run off toward the open shuttle door. The pilot, seeing what was going on, started to turn on the engines and was motioning frantically from the cockpit. Link took off for the open door, but then turned around and ran toward Epona, "I can't leave without my horse!" He called over his shoulder.
"Oh, well ain't that grand!" Fox shouted sarcastically. Dropping his rifle, he scooped down over the fallen Tex and picked up her sword, "Well I ain't about to dilly-dally," he shouted to Link as he shoved the fallen Tex over his shoulder, "I reckon' one of our number has already left this party," he motioned toward Tex with his other hand as he took off, "Cause she's not just out cold, she's been logged out."
Larry sighed in relief as he batted aside the last of the large 50 caliber bullets from Agent Tabb's gun. Larry rushed forward, saber already ready to slice the Agent in half, but the thing moved faster then Larry could strike. Finally, he managed to get a hit in on the Agent's chin just as the Agent brought around his left arm and nailed Larry across the right side of his face.
Sent sprawling, Larry dropped his lightsaber. He felt like he had just been hit with a bag full of bricks, "Get Link to the Shuttle!" Larry called to Leo and Red, who both nodded and began to put themselves between Link and the Agents.
Link by this time had finally jumped onto Epona's back and was riding the horse at a full gallop toward the still open door of the shuttle, leaning low to avoid being knocked off his mount by the door.
Beyond and Agent Brown were still exchanging blows, one for another, easily matching each other for speed, except that Beyond seemed confident, where as the Agent seemed frustrated. Finally, Beyond twirled his staff and knocked the Agent so hard across the face, that his sunglasses went flying off onto the grass.
The Agent's eyes widened as Beyond rammed his staff through the Agent's stomach. Quickly, the suited man disappeared, only to be replaced by a thin looking man with a moustache and tired worn hands. Ingo, the ranch hand replaced what had been Agent Brown.
"Run!" Beyond shouted as he took off for the open shuttle, just as Nikita and Fox reached it.
Larry was beginning to feel tired and still lightheaded from that last attack that had so easily hit him in the side of the face. Agent Tabb stared down at him now, and that was when Larry recalled just how to get out of his certain death.
Focusing on the Force, Larry pushed outward with it and focused the might of his attack on the Agent's chest. The Agent, who had been ready to stomp Larry's head in flew backwards and landed on its back, buying Larry time to get on his feet and make for the entrance of the shuttle.
Recalling his lightsaber, Larry felt like he was running through thick molasses, as though the air had somehow solidified. The world around him grew darker, but he could care less. All he cared about was reaching that shuttle.
Fifty yards, forty, thirty, he was beginning to feel the muscles in his legs give way to exhaustion. But somehow he kept running, stumbling along and too afraid to take his eyes off of the shuttle for a moment.
Twenty yards, and Link and the two ODSTs were through the door. At ten yards, Larry stumbled and fell so that he was crawling on his hands and knees to get to the door. Looking into the faces of his teammates, he spat the dirt out of his mouth, and continued to crawl faster. But the darkness around him began to close, and the last thing he saw was his own arm extending toward the door frame and toward safety.
But by the time he had gotten there, his five hour time limit had expired, and Larry Thompson, A.K.A Harrod the Barbarian, was forced to log out of DreamLand to wake up screaming in his apartment.
