Chapter 17 Hey We Know Those Guys
Character Qui-gon Jin
"I really think that we should have stayed with Kalathanon," Qui-gon was saying to Gandalf as the two walked through the library of Gondor.
"Perhaps," the wizard muttered as he pulled out another scroll from the shelf, "But then we would not have arrived back in here in time to pin Morgoth down, and since your and Starkiller's redirection of those lasers wiped Void and Despair from creation and with Azmodan being held off by Vern and his crew, we were needed here."
"Fair enough," Qui-gon agreed, "But if what Storm told us is true..."
"Why do you think I am looking for those records," Gandalf replied, "Now if you could check that shelf."
Character Sparta
With a heave the last block of Hadriel's new library was locked into place. Sparta sighed and stretched out his back before looking over to Alexandria who was just as happy to be finished with the library as he was.
"Well that didn't take as long as I had feared," Hadriel said as the angelic lore keeper walked up behind them, "I am glad that Spyro let you two come with me."
"Speaking of our son," Alexandria said, "We should probably contact him and let them know we are finished here."
"Yeah," Flyn added, "As nice as it is here, I do like tagging along with my bro's in Bad Co."
"Indeed it has been almost two years since you three volunteered to help me in this endeavor," Hadriel said, "Come let us see about getting back with DC, I'm sure they have gotten into more trouble by now."
"I wonder if K, C, James, Carter, Xavier, Blitz and Storm have rejoined them yet," Sparta commented, "Or if they are still running that college back on Earth."
"Well dear only one way to find out," Alexandria replied, "Lets go call them."
Character Captain John (Soap) Mac Tavish
Soap and Ghost were hanging down from the top of the stage on repelling lines while playing the guitar piece to "I Love Rock and Roll" by Jett, while Anjali and Katarina were wrapping up with the song and Price and Lucas were on the drums and Reinhardt was on the keyboard. As they hit the last chord he and Ghost zipped the rest of the way down to the stage were they and the others bowed and waved to their Russian audience. Soap was looking for someone in the crowd, a man who was going to be their contact for buying the hydrogen to clear the radiation from the bomb sites, Soap didn't see him.
After their bows Legion 141 exited the stage, heading back inside the structure's building. Inside standing off in a corner was a tall, sturdy, bald man with tan skin, sharp, blue eyes, a rounded nose, and tight lips. He wore a black, three piece suit and was carrying a briefcase. As 141 walked in the man approached them.
"Which one is Soap," The man inquired in an Egyptian accent as they all got into the room.
"I am," Soap said, "You Imhotep?"
"Yes," Imhotep replied as he nodded his head, "I assume you know why I am here?"
"You're the insurance man for the Russian Industrial Nuclear Plant," Reinhardt said, "Here to make sure we have the proper coverage to purchase large amounts of hydrogen."
"Indeed," Imhotep confirmed then motioning to the table, "Shall we begin?"
Soap accompanied the man over to the table where Imhotep began spreading out papers and forms, from his brief case, for them to go over. The next two hours were spent combing through the fine details of what sort of coverage 'The Echoes' needed to have in order to purchase hydrogen in bulk for recreational uses, like their flame cannons. After they had come to the end of the files, Imhotep seemed ready to pass them on to his organization's sales department.
"Let me just call this in," the Egyptian said as he got up and took a cell phone out of his pocket, "It will be good to have such a wealthy entity as yourselves in arrangement with RINP."
Soap watched Imhotep make the call, watched as the expression on the insurance man's face grew darker before he hissed something in Russian to whoever was on the other line, watched as the tenseness abated and Imhotep hung up the phone.
"Well are we good?" Soap asked.
"Indeed, my associates would very much like begin transactions within the week," Imhotep said. He looked like he was about to say something else when an explosion outside cut him off. Price and Lucas were in the room as soon as they heard the explosion with the rest following. Ghost tossed Soap an AK 47 as they headed for the door to see what the explosion was about. Imhotep followed them. "What is a band doing with this kind of fire power," he asked as they sunk a look out the door.
"Better to be prepared when going to dangerous places than not," Katarina replied, "Especially when women are involved."
Soap peered through the smoke left over from the explosion. The crowd had dispersed an hour ago, so when he saw the distorted shapes of about twenty people making their way towards them through the fog he decided that their best option was to hide and see what they were up to.
"Get behind something," Soap whispered, "We have twenty or so guys heading this way and I don't think we want them to find us, you to Imhotep."
The Egyptian nodded his understanding and climbed up into the rafters,Ghost and Anjali hid behind some boxes in the corner of the room, Lucas, Reinhardt and Katarina went back into the other room to hid, Price and Soap headed for the back of the room to hid in the flame cannons. Outside he could hear someone giving orders in Russian, then he heard the footfalls of men walking on the concrete floor of the building. More Russian conversation, then a thump and a whoosh. Soap peeked out of the cannon.
He saw the table that he and Imhotep had been sitting at was on fire, along with the documents proving that they could buy the hydrogen they needed. He looked up to see Imhotep who was furiously glaring at the Russian men in black suits who were now planting explosives on the building. There were ten in the room, six were planting the explosives, one was radioing someone else, two were watching the table burn and one... one was headed for the door where the rest of the Legion was hiding. Soap glanced over to the other cannon where he saw the top of Price's eyes just over the rim. Soap flicked his eyes towards the man going towards the door and Price nodded as the tip of his silencer on his M1911 rose just above the rim.
Soap readied his AK and waited as the mercenary opened the door and went inside then just as quickly flew back out as electricity arced off of him, Rehindheart's doing. The men all headed for the room when their buddy got launched and five more came in to watch the room where Price, Ghost, Anjali, Imhotep and Soap were hiding. Price dropped the last man in then the man just outside the door, drawing in the last four men. One of the men wore a patch on his shoulder that read RINP. That was enough for Imhotep apparently because the stout man dropped from the rafters and crushed two of the attackers into the floor as he landed and then lifted the leader with the RINP patch into the air. Price dropped two more of them men and a fire ball from Anjali killed the other three. Simultaneous gun fire and the ring of steel from the other room indicated that the others had taken care of their batch as well.
"You traitor," Imhotep hissed at the man he was holding in the air, "You thought to kill me? Now it is you and your organization that will pay!" With that he threw the man across the room, breaking the man's neck with a wet crunch as the body hit the far wall.
Soap and Price had gotten out of the cannons as the body hit the floor. "What was that all about," Price said, "I thought we were going to be working with you guys?"
"It would seem that RINP would rather seem me dead than their products in the hands of a special forces team," Imhotep replied as he rounded on them, "Now you have caused me a great deal of inconvenience, so talk fast and I wont kill you all as well."
Soap didn't let another word come out of Imhotep's mouth before pinning him against the back wall with a dagger against the man's throat. "I wouldn't try it demon," Soap said, "I'm stronger than you."
"I am no demon," Imhotep replied, "and you are no man."
"True enough," Katarina said as the other three entered the room, "But he is a demon hunter so whatever power lets you throw people across rooms strengthens him as well."
Imhotep just looked at Soap, not seeming to care that a dagger was against his neck. They glared at each other for a few seconds during which Soap almost thought he felt something try to pick him up but then Imhotep nodded his head and Soap let him off the wall.
"It seems we both have reason to want the destruction of the RINP," Ghost said, "We need their hydrogen, and you I assume want revenge."
"Indeed," Imhotep replied, "and since my powers don't seem to work on you, I can assume that the powers behind the RINP will also be unable to affect you."
"What powers," Soap asked, "Is there someone forcing you to work for the RINP?"
"Not now," Imhotep said, "I understand you have rooms at a hotel the 'Kamnh' is it not?"
"Yeah Clarence is a friend of ours," Price said, "Come on we need to get back there and make sure he is all right, you can fill us in about your, 'powers' as we go."
Soap, Reinhardt, Price and Imhotep got into one of the Firebirds while Anjali, Ghost, Lucas and Katarina got into the other one.
"So what powers allow someone to throw a hundred and fifty pound man like he is a rag doll," Soap asked Imhotep as Price led the convoy out from the stage and towards the Kamnh.
"I am Imhotep, High priest to Seti I, cursed to immortal agony after killing him and stealing his bride," Imhotep replied, "I was set free many years ago by a couple who are now dead and I received all the powers of undeath when I was fully restored to the presence you see me in now. My powers themselves involve control over the elements, some telekinesis, super strength and immunity to harm."
"Huh you sound like a regular in DC," Soap said, "well glad to have you along, sorry that your company tried to back stab you we know how that feels."
"Your used to people like me," Imhotep scoffed, "I doubt that."
"Telekinesis you say," Price said from the driver's seat, "Get ready to use those then we got more of your 'friends' ahead."
Four black trucks with gun turrets on their beds pulled out into the road ahead of them blocking the path. Soap leaned out the window and shot at the men on the turrets but had to duck back inside as a rocket blew up against the building to his right. Then the trucks were lifted off the ground and smashed into each other then flung back down the road that they had entered from just as Price drove through where the roadblock had been followed by Ghost and crew in the other supped up Firebird.
"Nice throw," Price called back to Imhotep, "Now lets see about what to do with this gas business."
"If we plan on using force then now would be the best time to strike," Soap said, "Price take us to the plant, Reinhardt radio the others to tell them the change of plan, tell Katarina to call Clarence and warn him of the danger, I'll call Jack."
"Who is Jack," Imhotep asked.
"Oh just the President of the United States," Price replied, "Don't worry about him to much."
Soap rolled his eyes as he sent out the call from the his laptop. Jack picked up on the other line with a "What now?"
"Jack plan B," Soap said, "We are going to take the gas, negotiations have been undermined."
"Undermined? Isn't that the representative of the RINP," Jack asked.
"Was," Imhotep replied, "Until they tried to have me killed for talking with your spies."
"You recruited him," Jack stated, "Look just try not to make this an international incident." With that Jack logged off. Imhotep just looked at Soap.
"Well that sounded like it went well," Reinhardt remarked as they turned onto the freeway.
Character Anjali
"We are going to do what," Anjali asked Ghost as he told them what Soap's new plan was, "Uhh... He is worse than K when it comes to sticking to a plan."
"I know," Katarina remarked as she called Clarence, "At least K doesn't change the plan after telling us what it is."
"So I take it the trucks getting flung about back there was our new friend's doing," Lucas said.
"That would make sense," Ghost replied as he speed up to keep pace with Price, "Unless anyone here suddenly developed a new super power."
"Speaking of powers," Anjali said, "At this plant I will have to keep mine toned down, we would not want to explode the very hydrogen we are trying to get."
"You mean steal," Katarina said, "There is no use in denying it."
Anjali was about to refute that statement when a bomb blew up outside the car throwing them off the road and into a snow drift. Ghost activated the rearward facing rocket tubes and fired them at the planes that had dropped the bombs on both theirs and Price's car. Two smoldering aircraft plummeting to the ground gave him a smile, until he tried to back the car out of the snowbank. The all-stick tires were doing their job to well, collecting a layer of snow and ice on the wheels so that they could not move the car. Price and his team were having the same problem.
"Come on," Anjali said as she opened her door, "The plant is not far from here we can walk and the cars will serve as a distraction to keep the RINP's attention away from their home base."
"Yeah until they see out tracks," Ghost stated.
"What tracks," Anjali asked as she melted the snow so that there was a layer of ice between them and the soft snow.
"That might work," Lucas said as he tested the strength of the ice, "And it wont seem out of place here in this frozen land."
Ghost clapped her on the shoulder as they went over to meet with Soap who was waving them over to his position.
"Huh, no tracks," Soap commented as they arrived, "That will be useful. Ok our new friend can get us past the level one and two security checkpoints but from there on we will have to get creative. Jack says we can't do anything that will cause Russia to go to war with the U.S. and I agree. However that means that only two other people can go with Imhotep into the building. I think that you and Ghost should go. You because of your resistance to radiation and Ghost because I trained him well and his face is not known to the guards there.
"You want me to leave me mask then," Ghost remarked as he pulled the covering off his head and gave it to Soap, "Just take care of it for me."
"Will do now we need to follow Imhotep he knows his way to the plant better than any of us," Soap replied as he got up and led them over to the Egyptian.
Anjali had only seen Ghost's uncovered face once before when he showed her his burns after she had gotten shot. Since then they had felt a companionship with each other, a relationship built off of fire. She was fire, he had been molded by fire, and looking at his craggy, rutted face, Anjali felt like she had know Ghost all her life. Ghost caught her watching him and beckoned her over as they followed Imhotep.
"Staring is considered rude you know," He said.
"Unless one is looking at a work of art," Anjali replied, "Your burns, they are not the random indiscriminate charring that a normal fire would produce, they are patterned like..." She reached a hand out and ran it along his cheek. "Like you were being caressed," She finished. "It was no mistake that you survived that fire what happened to you?"
"Remember when you got shot," he replied, "Remember how lucid you were?"
"Yes but I could still make out your voice, and shoot that merc that tried to kill you," Anjali replied now wondering where Ghost was heading with this conversation.
"Well I was about as lucid as that after I had been shot, same spot as you by the way, and then dumped into this rut along with my partner Roach, he didn't make it. Anyways next thing I know is I'm covered with gasoline and on fire, that's when I heard the voice," Ghost said, "It was female that much was evident, and I remember something about a life alone is not worth the living. Then I felt as if I was being wrapped in a blanket, or maybe it was a hug, I could hardly breath at the time and didn't stay concise for much longer but I did feel something against the sides of my face. I see now that they were hands, your hands."
"What, but how its not like..." Anjali started then it dawned on her with K and DC she could travel in time, it was possible that she had been the one who saved Ghost. "Why me?"
Ghost took her hand and placed it against his scarred face, her fingers lined up perfectly with the scars that ran down his cheeks and with the impressions around his mouth and chin. She just stood there staring at him.
"Hey what are you two doing," Katarina called from over a snowbank that the rest of the group had climbed over.
"Kat come here and look at this," Anjali called still holding her hands to Ghost's face in astonishment.
"What his face is burnt so what," Katarina said as she walked over to them, "Oh now that is a little disconcerting, your hands match his burns perfectly."
"That's because she made them," Ghost said, "I see now that it was Anjali who saved me from the fire."
"She did what," Price asked as he slid down the hill to join them, "How?"
"Think about it," Anjali said, "How many people do we know who can travel through time?"
"I think I see your point," Price muttered, "Still we can save the details for another day, right now we need to get you two and Imhotep into the nuclear plant, so come on."
Price and Katarina headed back over the hill, Anjali removed her hands from Ghost's face, Ghost nodded towards the top of the hill and started for it. Anjali, still stunned about her roll in his survival, shook off the thoughts that their encounter had brought up and ran to catch up to him. As they crested the snowy hill, the sight of the plant loomed in front of them. It was large with three cooling towers to keep the reactor cool. A tall barbed wire fence protected the outside from unwanted intruders, behind that were the various buildings of the plant each with its own security checkpoint at the entrance.
"Now my pass will get us through the barbed wire and into the main areas of the buildings," Imhotep said, "After we get inside we will have to 'find' a higher level pass-card to get into the hydrogen store rooms."
"Ok who generally has these keys on them," Ghost asked.
"The three security chiefs will have keys as will the ten plant overseers," Imhotep replied, "Lets hope we can take one from an overseer and not a chief."
"Longer reporting times," Anjali asked.
"Exactly," The Egyptian said, "Now follow me and let me do the talking."
They left the other five in the shadow of the snowbank and headed around to the security gate where Imhotep showed the guards his pass-card and was greeted with a cheery "Hey bronzy whats new?" By the guard who checked his card then let them through. Imhotep led them past several long gray warehouse buildings before angling towards one of the cooling towers.
"Figures that they would keep the hydrogen in the towers," Ghost said.
"Assuming that they haven't moved it due to our recent involvement with a certain spec-ops group," Imhotep replied, "Now keep quiet while I get us inside."
The guard to the cooling tower was not as pleasant to deal with as the one at the gate and he gave Imhotep a hard time about bringing 'visitors' into the cooling towers, but still let them pass without calling them into security. Imhotep nodded his thanks to the guard as they passed through to the inside. The tower was dark inside compared with the brightness of the sun on the snow outside and it took Anjali's eyes a few seconds to adjust for the lack of light. The concrete structure was claustrophobic with its dim light and uniform color. Anjali closed her eyes until the feeling of the building closing in on her dissipated before the three made their way deeper into the tower.
"Ok so how are we going to get the hydrogen out," Anjali asked.
"We won't," Imhotep said, "We let the RINP workers carry it out for us by shutting down the towers."
"Won't that cause the reactor to meltdown," Ghost said.
"That's the point I think," Anjali replied as they walked through the halls looking for someone they could lift a level three pass-card from, "The Hydrogen reacts with the radiation at a certain temperature and stabilizes it. We get them to bring the hydrogen out then we grab it."
"But that still leaves us with a melting down reactor," Ghost observed. A statement to which neither Anjali nor Imhotep had a response.
"Here comes one of the overseers," Imhotep said, "I'll distract him while one of you get his key."
"I'll get it," Anjali said as she and Ghost broke off from Imhotep to go around the overseer who Imhotep flagged down to talk about this quarters production numbers. Anjali slipped her hand into the occupied overseer's pocket and fished out his wallet, from that she took the key-card then slipped the wallet back into the man's pocket just as he and Imhotep were wrapping up their conversation.
"Did you get it," Imhotep whispered after the overseer had walked on down the hall and they had returned to heading for the center of the tower. Anjali held out the card in response and Imhotep took it. "Good now we can start shutting down the cooling towers."
"Not to be Johnny Rain Cloud here but wouldn't that mean we are going to be stuck inside the facility and the hydrogen will be out side the facility," Ghost asked.
"Leave our escape to me," Imhotep said as he casually swiped the card across a scanner and opened the door that led to the underground section of the plant.
They followed the stairs down into what opened out into a vast tunnel network, designed for large transports and very heavy elements. The air in the dim tunnels felt odd to Anjali, like it was charged somehow. She had the oddest feeling that she should recognize the strangeness to the air but couldn't quite place it. As Imhotep led them further in she didn't have time to dwell on the air quality down in these tunnels because soon after they got moving an alarm sounded throughout the complex.
"Well I guess they got the report about me being rouge now," Imhotep remarked as he unconcernedly walked over to a door in the wall of the tunnel, "In here is the first reactor core, we need to destabilize it. As soon as we do however, my 'friends' will know right were we are." The man gave a cruel smile as the door busted inward resulting in several small explosions and more alarms blaring through the tunnels. "Shall we move on then?"
"Let's," Anjali replied as she felt the radiation start to spill out from the room, "Do you think they will have guards at the next two housings?"
"Oh yes," Imhotep replied, "you two can deal with them, I will take care of the cores."
"Great," Ghost muttered, "and all I could sneak in was my pistol, not even silenced."
"We may need more than that," Anjali said as she pointed down the tunnel, "Look."
Strolling down the tunnel was the flaming visage of Moroni, the demon seemed not to notice them however as he went right past them and straight for the housing for the core that they had just opened up.
"What in hell is that," Imhotep asked.
"Moroni and he isn't in Hell anymore," Ghost stated, "Come on we need to get to that hydrogen before he feeds off the radiation enough to become corporeal."
They headed down the tunnels but soon noticed that Imhotep was still standing and watching Moroni.
"Come on," Anjali called, "Hurry you must show us where the hydrogen is."
"Can you not hear him," Imhotep asked as he turned to face them, "He is calling for help."
"Yeah help to destroy the world now come on," Anjali retorted as she grabbed Imhotep's arm and drug him down the tunnel. Imhotep easily shook her off of him though.
"No he wants our help," Imhotep insisted, "I don't know why you can't hear him but he is calling out for his friend Kalathanon. He says that there is something he must tell this K. Other than that he is just ranting about a dome of some kind."
Anjali and Ghost looked at each other, Anjali flashed her eyes and Ghost shrugged. "Well get a hold on him and bring him with us," Anjali said, "We need to get out of here before this place goes boom."
Imhotep nodded and grabbed Moroni's arm and led the rambling being towards the exit. "I guess we don't need that hydrogen then," he said as he caught up with her and Ghost.
"If we get the chance to grab it then we should," Ghost replied, "But otherwise lets go I don't like the sound this place is making."
The plant had started to creak and moan and Anjali could feel radiation leaking from the cores of the reactors. Imhotep took the lead, hefting the still smoldering Moroni onto his shoulder with no ill effect as the deranged general continued to whisper nonsense into the air. They wound through a different set of hallways than the ones they used on the way in but the bleak concrete construction still pressed in on Anjali like a vice closing around them. An explosion behind them caused them to pick up their already quick pace and soon the four of them practically dived out into the snow covered ground outside the plant.
Ghost was up and moving first and waving for them to do the same. Following his pointing hand Anjali saw the rest of their group driving up in trucks, trucks filled with the hydrogen they needed. As they got into the back of one of the trucks, Ghost banged on the cab and yelled for Lucas, who was driving, to get them out of there. The truck pulled away and got in line with the other three trucks and their two Firebirds as they started away from the destabilizing complex.
"Were not going to make it," Ghost yelled at Lucas.
An "ahh" from Imhotep drew Anjali's attention as she saw him get knocked out of the truck by a spasm from Moroni who then sat bolt up right and said, "It's here." Then an explosion drew her attention to the plant but instead of a nuclear explosion she beheld something much more spectacular, a giant, floating, crystal, skull like, dome that had appeared where the plant used to be.
"Stop the trucks," She yelled as she jumped out of the bed to land next to Ghost who had had the same idea. Another poompf told them that Moroni had landed next to them, She turned expecting to see the hellish melted face that was the demon's calling card but instead found herself looking into one of the fairest faces she had ever seen.
Moroni, this renewed one, had golden hair that fell down to his waist, a rounded face free of scars or other other deformities, two blue orbs for eyes that were set above a demure nose and full, if tight, lips. He was arrayed in armor of pure platinum from his shoulders to his feet, no helmet and no sword or weapon that she could see.
"It's here the way back to Kalathanon," the Cherub said, "I thank you for trusting me on this, even considering my history. But then again it is not much different from our dear K's own history now is it?"
"Who the blarg is that," Price said as he walked over to them with the rest of Legion 141.
"That's Moroni," Lucas said, "I got a glimpse of him from the rear view mirror, but he didn't look anything like that."
"Ah yes, I had to divest the last of my previous form before taking this one," Moroni replied, "I will have to thank Cloak in person from deleting me from time, it sent me back to before the creation of this world when I was still good. Seems that something reignited that old spark in me and now I need to see K, Lucifer is moving faster than he realizes."
"And we should trust you why," Soap asked.
"Try to draw power from me 'Demon Hunter,'" Moroni replied.
Soap, after a moment of concentration cast a look of appraisal over the Cherub before nodding and saying, "Well I'll be you aren't a demon, least not one I can drain like before."
"I'm telling you he is not evil," Imhotep said.
"Lets call Jack and see what his reaction to this is," Katarina suggested, "I say if he is ok with Moroni joining up with us then I see no reason to pass up such a powerful ally."
"Hold up," Anjali said, "Moroni you said something about that dome, that it can take us to K. Just how big is it, it is hard to tell from down here."
"Big enough to hold an army in," Moroni said, "A very large army."
"And you said that K needs help," Anjali continued, "So why don't we gather an army and help him."
"That... sounds like a good idea," Jack said from the computer that Reinhardt was holding, "Don't worry about things here, with the necros we can keep a lid on the terrorists."
"Then we need to get into it," Price said, "How are we going to do that?"
"Allow us," Imhotep and Moroni said. Then the group, including the Firebirds lifted into the air and headed for the top of the dome.
Anjali found herself right beside Ghost as they gained altitude.
"Hey," he whispered to her, "You know I never thought there would be a woman for me, but here you are. I've got a gift for you if you'll accept it."
"Ghost right now may not be the best time," Anjali replied, "But I haven't refused you yet and apparently I save your life so you must be worth something."
Ghost flashed her a toothy grin before saying, "My real name is Simon Riley, If your ok with 'us' then I hope you start using it."
Anjali returned his smile and flared up into her fire form as they went into the dome from the hole in the top.