Chapter Six:

Rio's Past

Several miles away, a silver car raced down the highway toward New Tech City. Agent Yoselin Jimenez sat at the wheel, her knuckles white as a news report played on a small television screen on her dash, showing an alien invasion striking the city where they were headed. Princess Tomas sat in the passenger seat beside her, eyes glued to the screen.

"All this over Rio," he said.

Yoselin shook her head. "I don't understand it either," she said. "But we're going to figure this out, Princess."

Princess Tomas glanced at her and looked down. "Tomas," he said sheepishly.

Yoselin did a double take. "What?" she asked.

"I'm Tomas right now, actually."

Yoselin looked back at him, squinting. Apparently, the tell she had used to figure out which he was at the moment had been wrong. "But I thought—"

She shook her head. "Sorry. I'm going to be able to tell the difference eventually."

Tomas smirked. He appreciated her for trying. He looked back at the screen. "Do you think Rio's alright?" he asked.

Yoselin didn't answer at first. Her eyes glanced down at the screen again. "He darn well better be," she said.

Back on the Sky Ace, the airship flew as fast as it could toward the North Pole. Inside the containment area where Ivan Callahan was being held, Commander Roberts stepped in. "We've outrun them for now," he said. "But they're still following us. Callahan was right, they pulled all their forces out of the city the moment we left."

Gordon and Rio looked up, having both taken up guard duty for Ivan. Doctor Kuchar sat beside Rio, testing his vitals and examining the glow emanating from his body.

"Has the world government been informed about what's going on?" Gordon asked.

Roberts nodded. "I contacted EAGLE High Command," he said. "They'll pass it on. Your predecessors have also been notified and told to prepare themselves to re-enter active service if necessary."

"What about the city?" Rio asked.

Roberts looked at him. "What?"

"The city?" Rio repeated. "How many people were hurt?"

Commander Roberts held his gaze for a short minute before letting out a long breath and sitting down. "Not as many as we feared," he said. "I think we have Mr. Cherry's efforts to thank for that."

Rio breathed a sigh of relief. At his side, Doctor Kuchar pressed his fingers against his left bicep. "How does it feel?" he asked. "I can feel some energy radiating just off the surface, but nothing harmful as far as I can tell."

Rio shrugged. "It feels a little warm," he said. "But other than that, I feel normal."

"What do you suppose it does?" Ivan said, leaning back on the chair in his cell. "It must be something important if they're going to such great lengths to obtain it."

His eyes traced every inch of Rio's body, looking almost hungry at the faint glow. Rio rubbed his arm uncomfortably and turned away.

Commander Roberts sniffed. "All I can say is, there better be a real sanctum at the pole, because if I find out you've lied to me, Callahan, I'll—"

"You'll what? Submit an official report about me?" Ivan asked, mocking him. "Wait five to ten business days for a general with some actual authority to respond."

"I had the authority to bring you onto this ship, didn't I?"

"And I'm sure you'll have to prepare a full report on that later," Ivan said with a smirk. "All of that aside, since we have time, I'm far more interested in this murder charge our guest over here has. What's that about?"

Rio looked up at the terrorist, tension filling him out of habit.

"That's enough of that," Gordon said. "It's none of your—"

"It's alright," Rio said, cutting him off. "I'd rather tell it. I'd prefer to have everything out in the open."

Gordon stopped and looked at him. He and Roberts looked at each other, and the commander shrugged. "I can't pretend I'm not curious myself," he said.

Gordon didn't look happy about it, but he nodded back to Rio. "You can if you want to," he said.

Rio shifted uncomfortably. "You probably already know I was a boxer out in Vegas," he said. "My sibling and I moved out there about two years ago."

"One of the people who stood up for you?" Gordon asked.

Rio nodded. "The one in the dress," he said. "They wanted to get into the drag scene there. I wanted to be a boxer. It made sense to move together. And for a while, it was going great. We both got the jobs we wanted, my sibling started headlining a couple of shows, and I started making my way up the rankings. And then, one day, I was approached by someone working for Don Brasi."

"Don Brasi?" Commander Roberts said. It was clear neither he nor Gordon nor Doctor Kuchar recognized the name. Ivan, on the other hand, showed just a slight glimmer of recognition.

"On paper, he's just a local businessman in the area," Rio explained. "But everyone in Las Vegas knows that he basically runs the city's underworld. As for what he wanted with me, he had a lot of money riding on an upcoming fight, and he wanted me to throw it. He offered to pay me double what I would have earned from the fight to do so. I didn't want anything to do with that, so I turned him down."

Rio swallowed, his hands fidgeting.

"He warned me that I'd regret it, and that I had until the match to reconsider his offer. My sibling warned me not to cross people like him, but I thought I was tough enough to handle anything he threw at me. When the match came, I stuck to my guns. I took down my opponent and won the match. The next day, our next-door neighbors were found brutally murdered inside their apartment. Whoever did it left a number of items belonging to me, broken chains, used bandages, things I'd left in the trash in the locker room, all over the place. They also planted some anti-trans literature around their place, just to give me a 'motive.' I'd been in fights before for defending my sibling, so they used that against me."

"The next day, the cops came for me. Despite how much I protested and denied the allegations, all evidence said I was guilty. Only one person working the case believed I was innocent."

"The FBI agent from the alley?" Gordon asked.

Rio nodded. "Yoselin," he said. "Yoselin had been working the Brasi case for a couple of years at that point. Something about the method used for the murder matched another set of murders linked to Brasi, murders that had happened long before my sibling and I moved there. She also listened to my sibling and I talk and said we didn't sound like people who would do . . . the things that were done to the couple. So, she spoke to her boss, and convinced her to offer us a deal to help them bring in Don Brasi once and for all. We took the deal, and we've been living in Detroit under witness protection ever since."

The room was silent as Rio finished. Both Gordon and Doctor Kuchar looked like that kind of situation was all too familiar to them, while Commander Roberts simply shifted uncertainly. Meanwhile, Ivan Callahan simply smirked.

"That tracks," he said. "From what I know of Brasi, that is how he operates. But I'm afraid your FBI friend is wasting her time. Last I heard, Brasi has powerful connections that ensure he will get off even with the most damning evidence against him. Such is the reward of those who pledge themselves to CRIME."

Commander Roberts sniffed. "I don't see the logic in that," he said. "In my experience, crime doesn't pay."

Ivan didn't respond. He simply chuckled to himself as if laughing at a joke that only he understood.

"Either way," Gordon said, looking at Rio. "If your story is true, I'm sorry that all happened to you."

Rio rubbed his arm. "I am too," he said. "I just hope Princess Tomas and Yoselin are both okay right now."

He glanced out the window, looking back the way they came.

Several miles back, the Vader Clan ship maintained its pursuit. General Ikros stood on the bridge, Bofala by his side. "Where are they going?" he clicked.

"Sensors indicate signs of Vader Clan and Denji technology at the planet's pole," Bofala said.

Ikros fluttered his wings. "Likely something left behind by Soto, I imagine. Have we yet learned his fate?"

"According to human record, he perished over a year ago at the hands of humans wearing similar battlesuits to the one we faced today."

Ikros's mandibles let out a disdainful buzzing noise. "How shameful, for Soto to meet defeat at the hands of such pathetic creatures. But then, we always knew he was unworthy of his station, didn't we?"