Hey guys! I'm back with an update. Thank you so much to all those who read and reviewed. I just reached my review target, and everyone who made it happen is awesome! Thanks!
Coming to another important matter, the twist I promised in the last chapter is not here. I was going to squeeze it in, but I had a feeling this chapter was becoming a little too large, so I split it up and turned it into two chapters.
This is chapter 5, updating what's going on with John and Six. The next chapter will be Marina, and someone….. unexpected. Read, review and enjoy!

John

We are in so much trouble.

We stand there dumbly, staring at the Mogodorian addressing us. Mogs are suddenly everywhere, pouring out of their hiding places and discarding their disguises, until we are completely flanked. Every soldier I see is armed, and all of them have their guns trained on us. I can see no way to escape.

And despite all this, I remain rooted to the spot, unable to shake off my surprise.

Finally, Malcolm stirs. 'General Andrakkus Sutekh.' he murmurs in awe.

The General laughs with delight. 'I'm glad you recognize me.' he says gleefully. 'Your deaths will be all the more enjoyable!' He glances at Adam. 'That is, of course, once I've had a good, long, father-son talk with Adamus.'

Adam pales. I stare at him in shock. Once it's been pointed out, it's obvious. They have the same face- all sharp angles.

I finally pull myself together and step forward. 'If you want to get to them, you're going to have to go through me.' I say boldly.

The General roars with laughter. 'Number Four.' he mocks. 'How exactly do you plan to defeat me? You claim to be the leader of the Loric scum, and yet you are foolish enough to believe we will leave the airport of the city we know you are in unguarded.'

I resist the urge to slap myself. Of course the Mogs would be guarding the airport. They knew we were here.

And we walked right into their trap.

I curse softly and continue to look the General in the eye. I need to keep him talking while the others create a distraction. But how do I communicate with them without the General finding out?

'BK!' I think, reaching out with my telepathy. 'I need your help. Turn into something small and get Adam's attention. We need a distraction.'

'You may have outsmarted us now, but I'd like to see you beat me in a battle.' I say mockingly. 'Afraid? You should be.'

The General throws his head back and laughs again. 'Do you really think you can defeat me in battle? I am General Andrakkus Sutekh, the commander of the Mogodorians, the right-hand man of the Beloved Leader himself. Puny, arrogant fools like you don't stand a chance.'

'We'll see about that.' I say, praying that BK and Adam are ready. I highly doubt that the General is fooled by my posturing, but hopefully the soldiers are distracted. 'Three…..' I think, using my animal telepathy to signal BK. 'Two….' If he isn't ready, we're all dead. 'One…. Now!'

There's a huge roar to my left, and the soldiers scatter in shock. BK has turned into an enormous beast, complete with sharp claws, teeth and even two horns curling out of his head. He swipes sideways with his paws, and several Mogs disintegrate into ash.

'What….' the General starts, but he's cut short by a shockwave that ripples through the ground to my right. Mogodorian soldiers tumble to the ground, unable to maintain their balance. I look at Adam and know that he's responsible.

Sam, Sarah and Malcolm had all dived for cover behind the security check counter the moment BK shape-shifted into the beast. I can see them rummaging through my open chest for the guns we had stashed there to lay out cover fire.

In other words, we're at an advantage. The Mogs are disorientated and off balance. It won't take much to finish them off. And the General…..

'John! Watch out!' Sarah screams. I spin around too late, just in time to see the General's blade come crashing down on me.

Luckily, I'm still wearing my bracelet. The shield emerges, faster than thought, enveloping me and deflecting the blade. Even so, the force of the blow is enough to send me sprawling to the ground.

The General curses. He lifts me by the scruff of my neck and grabs hold of the bracelet.

I recoil, waiting for him to withdraw his hand, but he doesn't loosen his grip. Instead, he grits his teeth and yanks the bracelet off my wrist, dropping it almost immediately on the ground.

My eyes widen in horror. Even Nine had been unable to withstand the shock the bracelet had given him. Yet, the General had barely winced as he yanked it off me.

I have a sudden surge of grudging respect for him.

However, respect isn't going to stop me from getting killed. The General shoves me, and I crumple to the ground, dazed. I can see him stalking towards me, slowly, steadily, savouring the moment.

'John!' Sam yells, and something comes skittering down the floor beside me. I grab hold of it. It's my dagger from my Chest.

The General sneers down at me as he takes in the blade, noting the hilt that is wrapping itself around my hand. 'What good will that do you,' he says, 'when you're lying dead on the floor!'

He stabs downwards at me, but this time I'm expecting it. I roll sideways to dodge the blade and scramble to my feet, catching my breath.

I glance down at my dagger and swear under my breath. It's tiny compared to the General's sword, and won't be much use parrying his strikes. As if sensing my thoughts, the dagger begins to lengthen, until it's a metre-long sword.

I stare at it in wonder, and almost don't notice the General attacking me again. I barely raise my sword in time to parry his next blow.

The next few minutes are almost dizzying. The General is unbelievably fast, and I'm hard pressed to defend myself. I try to activate my Lumen and set myself on fire, or use telekinesis to wrench away his blade, but I can't concentrate long enough to use my Legacies. As it is, I can barely avoid his relentless flurry of slashes and jabs.

I curse myself mentally. If only I had practised my Legacies more often, like Nine and Six had, they would have come naturally to me. But I had been too arrogant to concede that I wouldn't be able to concentrate in the middle of a battle. Hell, I had been so overconfident, I didn't even think a Mog could ever beat me in battle. Yet, here I was, getting a thrashing at the hands of the General.

The thought distracts me. The General feints a jab at my flank, and I don't notice him kicking out until his heel catches me in the ribs with tremendous force. I distinctly hear several of them snap as I fly backwards and slam into the counter.

I try to stagger to my feet, but collapse on the floor once again, my head spinning from the impact. My hand lands on something hard and familiar.

With a cry, I grab my bracelet and hurriedly force my fingers through it. To my utter relief, the shield emerges just in time to deflect the General's fatal blow.

I scramble to my feet once again and retreat warily, pressing my palm to my chest to heal myself. The General advances, trying to relieve me of my bracelet again, but this time I'm ready. I slash out with my sword, and he withdraws his hand hurriedly.

For the first time in a few minutes, I glance around and assess the battle. BK has destroyed nearly all the Mogs by now, and Sarah, Sam, Malcolm and Adam have all taken cover and are firing incessantly, disrupting the Mogs' every attempt to rally. As I watch, the last of the Mogs cries out with pain and disintegrates into ash.

I turn to face the General again. He has evidently realized that the battle is lost, and is steadily retreating, his face a mask of hate.

'You were saved by your little toy this time, Number Four.' he calls out. 'Next time, you won't be so lucky.'

I activate my Lumen, and my palms catch fire. I raise my hands to launch a fireball at him, but he's too far. I watch as he disappears around a corner.

'He'll be back with backup.' Adam says, shivering. 'We need to get out of here.'

'Airport security will be here soon too.' Sam says. For the first time, I notice the alarms blaring and the voice of the announcer frantically directing the police towards us.

'Follow me.' Malcolm says, leading us out of a small service door down the stairs, and on to the runway. 'I remember having seen something here the last time I was here.'

'Something helpful?' I ask hopefully, as we follow Malcolm around a large hangar, where several planes are stowed. Malcolm ignores them and makes for a small helicopter near the wall.

'You can fly one?' I ask incredulously.

Malcolm smiles and yanks the door open. 'I did extensive research on the controls of your spaceship.' he says. 'How different could this be?'

I frown as I follow Malcolm through the door of the craft and help the others to clamber in. 'Are you seriously comparing a spaceship that we travelled in for nearly a year to a helicopter?' I ask.

'Trust me.' Malcolm says, as he sits in the pilot's seat and fiddles with the controls. They look amazingly complex, and I can't make out a thing.

'Don't you need an ignition key?' I ask.

'Most helicopters don't have ignition keys.' he explains, as he presses a button and the rotors start to whirr. He grabs the joystick and grins as the helicopter begins to rise in the air, steadily gaining height until we are well above the airport.

'Next stop, West Virginia.' he says.

Six

'Why couldn't they have taken her somewhere else?' Nine whines.

We're currently making our way invisibly through the Mog base in West Virginia. Between Nine and me, we know the place pretty well, but the base is huge, and we have absolutely no clue where Marina may be held. So, as you may have guessed, we aren't exactly in the best of moods.

On top of that, Nine has been complaining ever since he got here. I guess he doesn't exactly like using stealth.

'Trust me, this isn't exactly among my top ten places to be on Earth either.' I say. My voice trembles a bit as I add, 'Katarina….. Katarina was killed here.'

Nine shuts up instantly. He knows what it's like to have your Cepan killed right in front of your eyes.

We turn another corridor and emerge in a tunnel with a series of prison cells, all guarded by the same blue force-field.

'This is where I was held, for over a year.' Nine says. 'How are we going to break her out, if she's here, with these force fields in place?'

I warily glance around for guards, but it's instantly obvious that there aren't any. I frown, confused as to why there wouldn't be any Mogs guarding the prisoners. Maybe this row of prison cells is empty.

Even so, I have a bad feeling about this.

'We'll figure that out once we find her.' I say, yanking Nine forward. 'Come on.'

The moment we step into the corridor, alarms begin to blare.

Sorry about the cliffhangers. I have a tendency of becoming way too dramatic at times. Next update will be on Sunday or maybe Monday, because the next chapter's important, and I want to be careful with it. Review!