Okay... so I'm moving on to chapter 3, sry it took so long, been working on my other story. Now that I have free time, it's time to work on this one.

Another, Insane Choice

The Arsenal

John stared at the passing scenery as they drove out of the city. He was in one of their trucks with, Derek and his mother, they were following Cameron and Alex who were in the truck in front of them.

The Connor's, namely Sarah and Derek, decided it was a good idea to go deal with the weapons situation first and deal with Riley later. John wasn't happy about it, but he knew they were right, besides, he knew deep down that Riley wouldn't say anything.

Sarah, Derek, and John had driven in silence for almost an hour now, it turns out, that the safe house that the resistance had set up, was outside of town. It was right about now, that Sarah felt comfortable enough to begin questioning Derek about Alex.

"So... how well do you know this guy?" Sarah asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Kyle and I knew him when he was a kid. We met him when he was twelve... the last time I saw him was 2026, about five months before I was sent back..." Derek paused, he had a far away look in his eyes. John quickly took notice of his uncles look, in the reflection of the rear-view mirror.

"They may have had a rocky introduction... but Kyle loved the kid, loved him like a little brother. Alex was always a pain in my ass, he was cocky, stubborn, and always thought he was right. The thing is... he usually was. Besides being one tough, brave, and crazy son of a bitch, Alex is a genius. You taught him how to reprogram the metal..." Derek finished, addressing John directly.

"He sounds too good to be true." Sarah commented, dryly.

"That kid could do some crazy shit. In the fight we were talking about earlier, the one where he got chewed out by his mother, afterwords. We were about to lose that fight... We were attacking a SkyNet automated factory, that was producing T-800's, and triple eights. We couldn't advance any further because of a SkyNet, anti-air tower. We all felt it in our bones, Connor was about to order the retreat, then Mercury shows up, and begins trying to talk Kyle into handing over his explosives. The two fought for about sixty seconds before Kyle finally relented, we all thought the two of them were crazy, but before I could stop him, Mercury, hopped over the cover we were behind, and began dodging and weaving his way through the debris that littered the battlefield. We knew no man could make it across the two hundred meter gap, between us and the tower, but the thing was, Mercury wasn't a man, he was a kid, and he could hide under pieces of ruble, and squeeze through small openings to avoid the machines..." Derek told the story of that day, he had a smirk on his face the whole time.

"About ten minute went by, when suddenly the tower exploded. I was on the horn in a flash, telling command that one of the towers was down. Forty seconds later, our birds used the opening to destroy the other towers... and then Connor had them rain fire down on the factory..." Derek continued to explain.

"Can we trust him? That's what I'm asking you. Can we trust him?" Sarah interrupted.

"If you're asking, can he be trusted, to keep John safe, then yes. If you're asking if he can be trusted to follow the rules, and to help us fight SkyNet, hell yes. But if you're asking if you or I can trust him, then no." Derek replied. Both John and Sarah glanced at him with odd looks.

"Alex 'Mercury' Cameron, is loyal to one man... and one man only. He trusts John's judgment over all others. He may do what you or I tell him to do, but just like the metal, if John orders him to do otherwise he will. Alex has and always will, be fanatically loyal to John Connor. So I guess the real answer to whether or not we can trust him, is whether or not we can trust John." Derek finished, glancing back at his nephew who simply let out a huff and returned to staring out the window.

Sarah refocused her attention on the road, as their lead, suddenly turned onto a gravel road that led into the desert. They drove in silence for another twenty minutes, when suddenly a large warehouse came into view. This place was definitely hard to find, if you didn't know about the gravel road, you would never find it.

As they drove closer, Sarah could just barely make out, figures standing on the roof of the warehouse, they didn't look to be moving, they just stood there in the harsh sunlight. They were able to drive right up to the building, Sarah could make out, a single guard sitting on a chair, right next to the only door.

The group hopped out of their vehicles, and stood in place as Alex approached the man. After a moment he waved the rest of the group over.

"So... what are you doing back, Mercury?" The large man asked with a smirk. "I thought Connor sent you on some sort of top secret mission."

"Well Rick, I figure I might need some bigger guns." Alex replied sarcastically.

"Who are these people?" The large man asked.

"That's Cameron, infiltrator, model: Who gives a fuck. Then we have Lieutenant Derek Reese, jumped back in 2027. Then... we have some celebrities." Alex finished with a smirk.

Rick examined Sarah and John, his face blank, after a moment he grinned and glanced at Alex. "You know they're going to get swarmed in there, right?" Rick asked, with a snicker.

"Not if you keep your mouth shut, lard ass." Alex replied, sarcastically.

"Get your ass inside, before I back-hand you." Rick replied with a stale look, as he banged on the door twice.

Alex just grinned, as the door swung open, revealing a thin looking man with big eyes. "Hey Alex. Get in here." The man stated, eying the Connors suspiciously.

The group filed in, Sarah immediately scanned the room, it was a single room, forty by forty feet, and it was set up like a bar, there was about thirty people in the room, all different ages, and races. Each one returned Sarah's look of suspicion.

Alex scanned the room as well, his gaze fell on an older man standing behind the bar. After a moment Alex began to approach the man, the Connor's stuck close, each one scanning the room.

"Colonel Rork." Alex stated with a salute as he reached the bar.

"I didn't expect to see you back here so soon, Major Cameron." The Colonel replied, with a stale look. "Who are your friends?"

"Well one's, Charlie-Delta, One-Five-Seven-Nine." Alex replied in a serious look.

The Colonel's eyes widened slightly, as Alex motioned towards John. "I see... What can I do for you?"

"They've got their own plans, and agendas, my mission is still a no-go, so I'm going to help them out. We need weapons, and ammo." Alex explained.

The Colonel eyed him for a second, before nodding. "Take what you need, but leave the MF-12's, we need those." The Colonel stated, motioning to behind the bar.

Alex nodded, and led the Connor's behind the bar where two refrigerators sat. Alex grabbed the handle of one and twisted, opening it. Inside, it was revealed to be hollowed out, and it led into a large room that housed a shitload of large crates, and a few tables. The others quickly followed after Alex, as he stepped through the opening.

"Alright... let's get what we want, and get out of here before we overstay our welcome." Alex ordered.

"Aren't these guys friends of yours?" Sarah asked eying him.

"Yeah... but their army... I'm FM Brigade." Alex replied, as he walked over to a crate. After a moment he felt Sarah's eye's boring into him, and glanced back with a smile. "Friendly rivalry, Like Marines and Army."

"Friendly Rivalry?" John asked, that's not really the kind of thing you expect to survive the apocalypse.

"FM operates, as single units or in small teams... we're the elite shock troopers. The army's got this grudge against us, because a lot of people think we get special treatment." Alex explained.

"Do you?" Derek asked, as he opened one of the crates.

"Depends... like I said we operate in small groups. It's easier to reward small groups, then it is to reward an army." Alex replied, with an odd look on his face.

"So... what kind of weapons do we want." Sarah asked, as Alex opened another crate.

"Plasma and electromagnetic based, are what we want. I'll show you what to look for... Some of these weapons we can't use." Alex stated as he began pulling out greyish, bullpup looking rifles, and started loading them.

"Why?" John asked, as Alex handed him one of the rifles, John made a face as he felt the weight of the rifle, it was slightly heavier then it appeared.

"Some of the weapons here, are either PA or Cyborg based. We aren't strong enough to use them." Alex explained.

"PA?" Sarah asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Powered Armor." Alex replied, as he pulled more rifles out of the crate.

John perked his eye brows, in interest, "Powered armor. Are you serious?" John asked with a grin.

"Yeah. Three suits were sent back with us. Highly armored, weight is about two tons. Equipped with on board sensors, and electromagnetic equipment, each one has dual slots, for anything up to a T-1000." Alex explained in a plain tone of voice, not realizing how interesting the subject really was.

"Dual slots... like you can plug in one of their chips?" John asked, suddenly very interested in the subject.

"Two actually... Each powered suit, can house a pilot, plus two chips, to control sensors, and equipment, along with offering tactical analysis, and battlefield assessments. A trained pilot in powered armor, along with two cyborgs providing back-up, is an incredible pain in the ass for SkyNet. Some of the weapons in these crates, can only be used by someone in power armor, or a combat model, cyborg." Alex told them, as he handed two more rifles to John.

"So, what are we getting?" Derek asked as he opened more crates.

"I'd say... Seven rifles, five shotguns, three DMR's, two sniper rifles, six PDW's, ten handguns, a few toys to play with, and something with a little... kick." Alex replied.

"I like the sound of that." Derek stated with a grin.

"So...What am I looking at here?" John asked, as he examined one of the 'bullpup' rifles.

"Muzzelite MZ14 Bullpup. Fires superheated plasma rounds. Five hundred meter range, one of those puppies with drop a terminator in one hit. Similar reload fashion as any bullpup rifle, eighty rounds a mag, they got full-auto and single shot." Alex explained.

"Great." Sarah stated, as she walked over to John, he handed her the rifle, as she began her own analysis. After a moment she pulled the magazine out and looked at the rounds inside. The rounds were loaded standard, but the bullets looked unique, they didn't have a point to them, and each one had three lines that separated the bullet into four equal parts from front to back.

Cameron noticed Sarah staring oddly at the rounds and decided to clarify. "Each round is loaded into a secondary chamber behind the firing chamber. In the secondary chamber, a piece of the bullet is broken off and passed into the firing chamber, there an electrical charge is introduced into the front of the round, that begins a reaction, that causes the round to melt. As this is happening the bullet is accelerated down the barrel, and by the time it exits the barrel the round has become a molten ball of superheated metal. The round doesn't lose any of it's mass, so it still hit's with the same force. It's mock plasma based weaponry, the resistance designed them off of SkyNet's actual plasma based weapons."

Sarah glanced at her then back at the magazine, she kind of understood what the machine was talking, about, but most of the technicalities of it all were probably way over her head, Sarah decided to simply nod, to show that she understood.

"Then we have these bad boys." Alex chimed in, as he finished loading another gun, John glanced over and immediately recognized it as a shotgun, it actually looked a lot like the shotguns, from the 'Halo' games that he would play from time to time, though these were slightly thinner, and had retractable stocks.

"XR-6 assault shotgun. eight rounds, operates on a similar basis to the MZ14, the only difference is that the reaction that causes the round to melt is much slower, so that the metal shards still hit, but they continue to melt even after the initial impact of the round. Plus the reaction begins at the back of the round, instead of the front and it occurs while the shot is traveling down the barrel, instead of when it's in the chamber. This gun is good up to thirty feet, anymore then than and the rounds are molten slag, they may be able to melt the machines, but that takes time. A word of warning, unless you're a sadistic bastard, don't use one of these against a human being, at more then thirty feet, they act like Dragon's breath." Alex finished with a disgusted look.

"I'm guessing a lot of these weapons aren't household friendly?" Sarah asked, with a tilt of her head.

"Yep... These babies will burn your damn house down if you let them." Alex replied with a grin.

"Then we have the M8-6 Designated Marksman Rifle, same concept as the MZ14, eighteen rounds, effective up to one kilometer." Alex stated as he pulled out a rifle that looked like the bullpup's except it had a longer barrel and a high-powered scope.

"These weapons will prove very effective against the advanced terminator models." Cameron commented as she began inspecting the sights on one of the bullpup rifles.

"They are quite effective, though I would be weary of using the DMR's against any T-X units... the rifles fire superheated rounds that are hot enough to detonate a T-X's experimental plasma based fuel cell. The resulting explosion is almost always enough to level about four square blocks." A mysterious voice began explained. The Connors all quickly glanced over at the entrance into the secret room, and saw a thin looking man staring at them with a small smile.

"Hi Fred." Alex stated without looking up.

"Hello, Major Cameron, are you finding everything okay?" Fred asked keeping his smile.

"Yes, thank you." Alex replied glancing over at him.

John and Sarah both eyed Fred, cautiously, this was the T-1000 that Alex had spoke of.

Cameron did a quick scan of this new individual. Her scans picked up that he was not human, but that he didn't have an endoskeleton either. She tilted her head slightly and stared at him for a moment, after a second he stared back.

The two stared at each other for a moment before Cameron simply stated, "Thank you for the warning."

"You are very welcome." Fred replied. He had taken the appearance of a young Asian man, probably in his early twenties.

Next we have the Mk. 2 HVRG or high velocity rail gun." Alex stated as he lifted a large weapon out of a crate. The weapon was about five feet long, it was rectangular in shape, it didn't have a lot of round parts to it, it was all black, and the front had two three foot long rectangular pieces sitting on top of each other, each one had a row of metal prongs that stuck out in-between the two. If you looked at it from the side, I looked like an alligator mouth.

"A rail gun? Now I'm sure you're pulling my leg." John stated with a shake of his head, as he walked over to Alex.

"Okay, now it's my turn to ask, what the fuck is a Rail Gun?" Derek asked, as he set two more bullpup rifles on a nearby table.

"It's a weapon that utilizes electricity to accelerate a slug to a fraction of the speed of light. They were considered science fiction until the resistance captured one on an abandoned naval vessel that had been sunk in the Mediterranean. It was designed by the U.S. navy before judgment day, it's existence is classified, both by the Navy, now, and the resistance in the future." Cameron explained.

"She's right. The cyborgs helped us make these, there portable rail guns. These babies are what General Connor and I like to call, 'The Finger of God'. These guns cannot be fired while standing and actually have to be anchored to the ground before they can be used. At five miles this baby will put a round, directly on target, with zero bullet drop, in about 5/8's a second. It's widely considered by the federation to be the most powerful hand-held weapon ever made." Alex stated with a wide grin.

"Holy shit." John stated with a shake of his head.

"'Holy shit' is right." Alex replied tossing a piece of metal to John. John caught it, but was surprised to feel it's weight, the piece of metal was about four inches long, about half and inch wide, and it was shaped like a pentagon, it weighed two pounds.

"Is this what that thing fires?" John asked as he passed the round to Derek, who also adopted a look of surprise when he felt it's weight.

"Yep... it's a single shot, reload rifle, but each shot hits with a force sixteen times greater then that of a modern day anti-material rifle. No one knows exactly how far they can fire and still be useful, since no engagement has ever taken place over a distance greater than like, six miles. The cyborg that created and tested the gun, believed that at a range of twenty five miles the slug would hit with the same force as a modern day rpg." Alex stated, as he reached into the crate and pulled out a second one.

"Jesus." Sarah said with a scratch of her head.

"After that, we come to these little bastards." Alex told them as he pulled out a small sub-machine gun. "These are the LR-4 LVRG, or low velocity rail gun. Same concept though these guys don't pack the same kind of punch. Theirs one hundred and twenty rounds in each mag. We've dubbed these babies 'bullet hoses' since they like to spray lead down range. They've got barely any kick to them, and yet are strong enough to shred a T-888 at close range." The gun was shaped like a combination of a P90 and an AK-74u the back had a similar shape to the P90, in terms of the magazine/stock combination, while the front was almost identical in all aspects to the AK-74u except that the barrel was shaped like a miniature version of the larger rail gun they were just shown, it also had a fore-grip for stability.

"I like the sound of that." Sarah commented as Alex handed her one.

"Then we've got these." Alex stated as he pulled out some handguns that looked exactly like his. "There affective up to one hundred meters, thirty rounds, and I don't think I need to tell how effective they are."

"That's it for guns... what else we taking?" Sarah asked tilting her.

"We'll take a few dozen EMP grenades and a few mines, for good measure. These guys will put a T-888 into reboot easily, but where they're really useful is against T-1000's, put one of these at their feet, and the bastard will turn into goo." Alex explained.

"He's right, EMP based weapons are extraordinarily affective against the T-1000 model. More so then even a rail gun." Fred added, he still had his smile.

"Finally... we've got something to use as a last resort..." Alex told them as he lifted a small brief case out of one of the containers.

"What's in there?" John asked, eying the box.

"General Connor figured out how to make portable mini-nukes..." Alex began, the Connor's all glanced at him wide eyed. "They're made from jury-rigging one of the cyborgs hydrogen fuel cells. The case is shielded so don't worry about radiation or anything. Inside is a detonater and or a timer. You can use either or both. The bomb explodes with a similar amount of force as a cruise missile, theirs also a nice mushroom cloud to fuel your nightmares. Like I said... last resort." Alex finished as he gently set the case on the table.

"I don't know how I feel about having one of those in the house with us." Derek stated eying the briefcase.

"Have you ever seen one of those before?" Sarah asked, her eyes too, were focused on the case.

"Yep... John Connor once infiltrated a SkyNet work camp, freed all the prisoners and then blew the whole place using a make-shift bomb he had made by setting off about a dozen of those things, that's some powerful stuff, and you don't wanna fuck with it." Derek replied.

"Well... since you know how to respect it, it's living with you." Sarah stated, after a moment. John simply rolled his eyes as his uncle let out a sigh.

"Hey... you guys want to help out with these?" Alex asked, they all glanced over and saw him standing in front of a wall of sandbags.

"What is that for?" Sarah asked as they approached.

"Blocks the head from the plasma guns, the powered armor and the bombs. Theirs a garage door behind it... so let's pull all this down, back up one of the cars, and get this shit loaded." Alex explained.

"Sounds like a plan." Sarah stated, as her and the others began grabbing sandbags. Alex began to assist as well, when he suddenly noticed Fred still standing in the middle of the room, watching them curiously.

"You want to help out?" He asked, eying Fred oddly.

"I just remembered why I came in here." Fred said suddenly.

"Why is that, Fred?" Alex asked, returning to work.

"Your mother is here." Fred stated. The Connor's quickly glanced at Alex, who made a face and then rolled his eyes and turned to face Fred.

"Why is she here?" Alex asked, curiously.

"We have a problem..." Fred replied, his smile finally vanishing. Alex glanced at the Connor's then back at Fred before finally making a move to follow after the liquid metal machine. The rest of the Connor's followed close behind, eager to hear about this new development...

Okay done... sry a lot of exposition, but I felt I should get most of the new weapons out of the way so that I don't have to keep explaining them later... anyway look forward to the next chapter soon... and I appreciate all of the reviews you guys are giving me. Sry for the slow start... but I've got this big story planned out and I kind of have to explain some stuff before diving in, otherwise it won't make much sense.