Summary: The hunt to find Kennedy continues...
It's good thing Brains isn't in the weapons business…
May 2099
Captain Turquoise slowly picked himself up from the floor, a couple of minutes after the consoles of the GDF base's security centre exploded, and cautiously looked around the room.
It didn't take him long to spot the half melted looking, slowly disintegrating, remains of one of the Mysteronized GDF officers, beside one of the destroyed consoles.
He stared at the gruesome scene for a moment, before suddenly remembering that his partner was also a Mysteronized person, "Holy shit," he muttered, before calling out to Mahogany. "Kallen!"
"I'm not injured, Daniel," Mahogany's voice came from the other side of the room. "How, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that both of the Mysteronized GDF officers and Captain Johnson are dead."
Turquoise looked at his partner in relief, "What the hell do you think happened here?" He asked, as he spotted what was left of Johnson's corpse and shuddered.
"I honestly don't know," Mahogany muttered, as he started making his way towards Turquoise, while pulling out his Specatech to make a recording of the scene. "Check to see if you can raise Scarlet and/or Skybase."
"Do you think Paul's still alright?" Turquoise commented. "Considering…"
Mahogany paused for a moment, as if he was trying to sense where Scarlet was, "I can sense Paul," he replied, after a moment. "I can also sense several corrupted presences further into the base."
Turquoise's comm cracked and Captain Magenta's voice come over the speaker, "Mahogany, Turquoise," he called. "Do you read me?"
"I hear you, Magenta," Turquoise replied. "Mahogany and I ran into some complications, but they have appeared to have resolved themselves now."
"What's your location?" Scarlet's voice cut in. "Are any of you injured?"
"We are still in the security centre," Turquoise answered. "And we are not hurt, but something rather strange happened here just now."
"Is it an immediate threat?" Scarlet replied.
"No, whatever happened actually saved our butts," Turquoise replied. "It killed the Mysteron's that were attacking us, including Captain Johnson."
"Are you sure Mahogany…?" Scarlet asked.
"I'm fine, Paul," Mahogany cut in. "Although how I do not know, whatever it was it really made a mess of those Mysterons…"
"As in half melted them," Turquoise added. "And they are slowly crumbling away, not instantly disappearing like they normally do."
It was silent on the other end for a few moments, "Whatever happened, it's not the priority right now," Scarlet eventually replied. "If you have some sort of scanning equipment on you leave some of it there to keep an eye on the situation, but I need you two to meet up with our group if you can, removing Kennedy from the equation is still our priority."
"S.I.G." Turquoise and Mahogany confirmed.
0o0o0
By the time Mahogany and Turquoise had caught up with Scarlet's team Skybase had managed to contact them and give them an update to what had happened outside.
Apparently International Rescue had been holding out on them, and had come up with a way to counter the Mysterons using the information that they had managed to gather over the years.
Mahogany looked as pale as a sheet upon hearing this information, "Is it a bad thing that I'm really glad Brains and Fermat don't make weapons for a living?" He muttered.
Scarlet cocked an eyebrow at Mahogany, the younger man appeared to be quite shaken up after what had happened in the Security Office, "Are you okay, Mahogany?" He asked, as they made their way down the corridor to where Kennedy was potentially hiding.
"To be perfectly honest," Mahogany replied. "Not really, whatever Aaron used, it was designed to do damage to the Mysterons, so in all reality you and I should have been affected as well," he shuddered. "But it doesn't appear that we were, and I kind of want to know if that was because we were just out of range, or Brains overlooked something."
"Since when are you Rainbow fairies on first name terms with members International Rescue?" One of the younger GDF officers asked in a snarky tone. "I thought those ambulance chasers hated your guts."
"Since before you were in diapers," Mahogany snarled back. "Have some respect, Thunderbird Shadow just saved your life."
"Also mind your own business, soldier," Scarlet added, cutting off Mahogany before he accidentally exposed who he actually was.
This seemed to wake up the soldier's shell shocked commander, "The GDF will give Spectrum their full cooperation," he ordered, glaring at the younger officer. "Is that clear?"
The GDF officers acknowledged the order and Scarlet slowly led his team though the base, checking the offices and storage rooms, for potential ambushes, as they went.
In a couple of the rooms nearest to the communications array, they did find some of the mobile defence platforms, the GDF commander had been talking about earlier, "They are completely nonfunctional," Amber pointed out, after taking a couple of minutes looking over the machines. "It looks like their systems suffered a massive power surge."
"Sort of like the computers in the security centre," Turquoise agreed. "Think the Mysterons had taken over these to set an ambush?"
"Bet they weren't betting on IR's little surprise," Navy added. "But that begs the question…"
"Now is not the time to speculate, Navy," Scarlet ordered, a chill running down his spine, Mahogany was right, it was looking like it was a fluke that they weren't affected by whatever Brains had cooked up for the Mysterons. "Besides I don't think Shadow dealt with everything."
"It didn't," Mahogany confirmed.
"Oh great," Ochre muttered. "That means the one's that are left are going to be extra pissed."
Scarlet snorted softly at Ochre's comment, but he wasn't laughing a few moments later when they stumbled across a defence platform that had somehow missed Shadow's attack.
Thankfully, they had passed an armoury not long before they stumbled across the first downed defence platform, and Mahogany, Navy and Grey, with some of the GDF soldiers, retrieved some of the more high powered weapons there, for this exact reason, and were able to take it out with a couple of well thrown grenades.
They would end up taking out two more of these platforms, before coming across one of the Mysteron agents that was guarding Kennedy.
Thinking that they had come across of his fellow commanders, the GDF commander approached the Mysteronized officer, before Mahogany or Scarlet could make a grab for him, the Mysteron didn't hesitate, and shot the commander in the upper chest and shoulder.
Mahogany made a grab for the downed commander while Scarlet provided cover fire, managing to shoot the Mysteron in the head, killing the agent instantly.
While the rest of the GDF officers stared at the location where the, now vaporised, Mysteronized officer had been, Mahogany got to work to stabilise the injured GDF commander, "As much as I hate to say it," Mahogany growled, as he worked. "I think we are going to have to spit up, if the only other people that are still alive on this base, not in this group, are Mysterons, the GDF officers here are going to be a liability."
Scarlet looked at the other confused and frightened GDF officers and turned to Captain Grey, "Take Amber, Magenta and the GDF officers and find some where to hole up until you're given the all clear," he turned to GDF officers. "GDF you're to go with Captain Grey and follow his lead, don't go wandering away from the group and don't trust anyone that isn't part of the group you're currently in."
The GDF officers looked confused at Scarlet's decision but complied with the order taking their injured commander with them.
"He doesn't have much time," Mahogany murmured. "I did the best I could to stabilise him, but if we don't get this place secured soon…"
"S.I.G." Scarlet replied.
0o0o0
It took about another half an hour of clearing offices and dealing with couple more defence platforms, before they finally caught up with Kennedy and the three other Mysteronized guards that were with him.
The fact that the Mysterons hadn't made a run for it was not lost on Mahogany, "This is a fucking trap," he muttered to Scarlet. "They have nothing to lose at this point."
"I agree," Scarlet muttered, as he turned to the rest of the officers with them. "Keep your eyes peeled for anything that might look like a booby trap."
"Hey, think Aaron is still out there with Shadow?" Turquoise asked, suddenly.
Mahogany looked at Turquoise curiously, "I don't know," he replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Just remembering something you said about Thunderbirds being able to scan for hidden surprises, like toxic gas, at rescue sites," Turquoise replied. "And I wondered if it could find things like explosives?"
Mahogany and Scarlet stared at Turquoise for a moment, then Mahogany reached for his communication device, "Magenta, do you read me?" He asked.
"Loud and clear, Mahogany," Magenta replied. "What do you need?"
"I need you to contact International Rescue and see if Thunderbird Shadow is still in the area," Mahogany replied. "If he is, tell him to do a scan of the base, and point out anywhere he detects any explosives or other suspicious substances, and have them send us the results."
"S.I.G." Magenta replied.
0o0o0
Aaron, it turned out, had not left the area, part of the reason was that he wanted to be sure Spectrum had everything under control before he left.
Another part of the reason was he kind of wanted to know exactly what had happened with those missiles he had fired, he knew that three of the life signs near the communications array was no longer registering and now he feared that he might have accidentally killed someone that wasn't a Mysteron.
Even though his parents and uncle did kind of want him to leave the area and let Spectrum handle it…
"Thunderbird Shadow," Briar's voice came through the comm unit. "We have a request from the Spectrum unit that is on the ground, I'm patching you through with a Captain Magenta."
"F.A.B." Aaron replied, as the image on his comm changed. "Captain Magenta, this is Thunderbird Shadow, what do you require?"
"We request a scan of the base, looking for explosives or anything else that may appear out of place," the Irish sounding officer replied. "Our people are closing in on Kennedy, but we are worried he's going to go suicide bomber on us."
Aaron looked down at his current scans on the base, it appeared that the bulk of the survivors had gathered in the GDF base's infirmary while six other life signs were closing in on another four - he assumed that this was the Spectrum team closing in on the rogue GDF Colonel.
But when he switched his scanners over to do a scan for explosives, Aaron found his mouth going dry, "Magenta, you might want to get your people out of there," he commented. "The whole place looks like it's been rigged to blow."
Magenta's voice sounded shocked and strained, "You're sure about that?" He asked.
"Sending the results of my scan now," Aaron replied.
Looking at the life sign monitor, the results were instantaneous, four of the life signs nearest to the where he suspected Kennedy was starting bidding a hasty retreat, while the life signs in the infirmary also started to make a retreat.
But two of the life signs went onward to where the rogue Colonel was…
Aaron spotted the larger group of surviving GDF sprinting across the base when the first explosions started ripping through the base…
0o0o0
As soon as Scarlet heard that the whole base had been rigged to blow, he ordered all the human officers evacuate the base immediately, with Mahogany suggesting that the safest escape route might be through the area that had the anti-Mysteron missiles fired into it.
Retreat was not a option for Scarlet and Mahogany, they had to be sure Kennedy had been neutralised, so after giving, Copper, Navy, Ochre and Turquoise a head start, they pushed on, extra alert, because they knew it was four against two, and they would need to be able to run, when Kennedy undoubtedly blew the place up.
In some ways he hoped Kennedy was in a gloating mood…
In the end it turned out the three Mysteron guard Kennedy had didn't put up much of a fight, something Scarlet thought was odd until he saw Kennedy sitting behind his desk without a seemingly care in the world, "Ahh, Scarlet, Mahogany," he said, casually as if he was talking to old friends. "So nice of you to finally join me, it's a shame that you sent your friends away though, I would have liked to had more of them here for this little celebration."
"Celebration?" Scarlet asked, quietly. "You're saying that there's something here to celebrate?"
"Of course," Kennedy replied. "The end of the world government, at least where Russia and China, along with their allies are concerned."
"Damn it, this was all about making the world government look like it had no control over its own people," Mahogany hissed. "You're seeking to divide the human population."
"So why are you putting up so much of a fight to survive, if you have already performed your role?" Scarlet added.
"Isn't it obvious?" Kennedy replied with a laugh. "We will take any opportunity to rid ourselves of you disgusting Myst mistakes and your allies." Kennedy started to glow. "But it's like you said, my role is complete, goodbye Scarlet and Mahogany."
Kennedy disappeared in a flash of green light, revealing a countdown that was rapidly ticking down to zero…
"Run!" Scarlet shouted at Mahogany, as the pair made for the door, just as the first sounds of explosions started ripping through the base…
Notes: I'm a real stinker here aren't I? ;p
But something else to note, the Mysterons are now no longer hiding the fact that, Scarlet, Mahogany, Coral and Rhapsody are not Mysterons but are actually something different…
The fact that Scarlet and Mahogany survived Brain's missiles is further proof of that…