Two
"So, where are the tikes?" Christmas threw another knife at the dart board. He and Ross were having a drink with Tool. Tool set down his beer, "On the way here from visiting their mother." As soon as he spoke, Zheko and Nona walked into the bar. The twins looked much healthier. Physically anyway. Zheko and Nona had told their mom something that they had been hiding from her and she freaked out. Thea had cast them out after recovering from the shock.
Tool could tell his kids were distressed. He could practically smell their anxiety, "How'd it go?" Nona stood next to her dad, "Could have gone better." "Oh?" Tool turned his body so he was facing the twins. The twins shared a look then Zheko sighed, "We told her something we've been hiding and she freaked."
Christmas held one of his knives in his hand, ready to throw, "I'm sure it wasn't that bad?" He threw the knife but it never hit the dart board. The knife was floating inches from the target. Ross, Tool, and Christmas watched the knife change trajectory and head to Zheko's hand. Nona was levitating the beer bottle Tool set down. "We're not normal," Nona says. "We could've gotten ourselves away from Crane if he didn't pump us with so many suppressants," Zheko added. He handed the knife back to Christmas.
Ross took a swig of his beer, "Now I've seen everything." "How long have you two been able to do this?" Tool waved his hand between them. Nona shrugged, "Since as long as we could remember. Any time something would happen it was looked over or brushed off." "Once we learned control, we hid what we can do. How Crane figured it out is anybody's guess," Zheko sat at the bar.
Zheko and Nona had moved into a loft near the bar to be close to their father. The relationship was slow building but it was there. Tool had convinced them to work at the bar and stay out of trouble. It worked for a while, until they offered to help. Then things changed. Zheko and Nona, also known as Echo, joined the Expendables on a few missions. Gunner took a liking to the twins, like a big brother would. Toll Road tolerated them. Hale Caesar loved their sense of humor. Christmas and Ross had taken them under their wing and taught them what skills they were lacking. Including flying their aircrafts. They even got the Expendables trademark tattoo commemorating joining the team.
The Expendables were tasked with intercepting a shipment of bombs meant to be delivered to a Warlord in Somalia. But first, the team needed to break out an older team member. Doctor Death's specialty was knives, just like Lee Christmas. Doctor Death was being transported on a military train with heavily armed men. These men were not expecting to get attacked by highly trained mercenaries. Doctor Death knew where this train was headed and used it.
After killing the armed men on the train, Dr. Death sped up the train to crash at the end of the tracks. The end of the tracks coincidently held a compound of a crooked militant group. The crashing train set off a massive explosion killing everyone and destroying everything. "Whoo, just like old times," Dr Death exclaims as he climbs into the helicopter Ross was piloting.
Disappointment shown on Dr Death's face when he was told they weren't going directly back to the states. Ross and Christmas flew their plane to Somalia to take out the arms dealing Warlord. The team met up with Caesar on a boat and sailed into the shipyard to intercept the weapons. As the Expendables made their way towards where the Warlord was meeting the buyer, Ross and Dr Death recognized him. Conrad Stonebanks. The co-founder of the Expendables. A man that was supposed to be dead.
Then everything went to shit. Ross let his emotions get the better of him and he acted irrationally. This gave the heartless Stonebanks the upper hand. Stonebanks' minions were chasing the Expendables through the shipyard while Stonebanks flew over them in a helicopter. He pulled one of his newer weapons and aimed for Ross but decided to shoot someone else just to hurt Ross. Stonebanks aimed his weapon at Caesar's leg; taking him down. Then shot him in the back. The bullet was a through-n-through. Shot in the back and came out his chest near his heart.
Stonebanks finishes the fight with a glide bomb and flies away. The explosion from the bomb sends the Expendables onto the water several yards away. The team pulls Caesar out of the water and patches him up enough to get him to a hospital. Ross disbands the Expendables in light of Caesar's injuries. He decides to go after Stonebanks on his own as revenge.
Now, Ross was fully ready to go after Stonebanks even if it killed him. But CIA operative Max Drummer, the Expendables new mission manager, has a different plan. Stonebanks is to be brought in alive to be tried for war crimes. Ross is pissed since he has no choice but to complete the mission. Instead of banding his crew back together he recruits new members.
The new members consist of former U.S. Marine John Smilee, nightclub bouncer Luna, computer expert Thorn, and weapons expert Mars. Skilled sharpshooter Galgo asks to be included in the team, but Ross turns him down. Lee Christmas, Doctor Death, Gunner Jensen, and Toll Road meet the new team and aren't impressed. Christmas speaks privately with Ross where Ross reveals this mission is a one-way ticket for him.
Ross and the new team set their plan in motion to capture Stonebanks without too many casualties. And it worked well, until Stonebanks ran his mouth and pissed Ross off. During the ride to their plane where Trench Mauser was waiting impatiently, Stonebanks' men caught up to him. His watch had a GPS tracker. Something the team didn't think about, even Thorn missed it. Their vehicle was shot at, causing it to careen out of control then flip. Stonebanks took the new team hostage and threw Ross over a bridge into the rapids below.
When Ross returned to the airfield, he was met with a video from Stonebanks challenging him to rescue his new team. It was up to Ross, Christmas, Gunner, Dr. Death, Toll Road, and surprisingly the twins to rescue the four new members. Galgo was also a new addition. Ross knew he needed all the man power he could get. They loaded up in the plane and flew to Azmenistan. Not knowing that Stonebanks had control of the Azmenistan Army.
The twins were having a blast. They had joined this mission last minute with the rest of the older crew. Zheko and Echo would never admit it, but when they had nothing to do they binged The Vampire Diaries and their spin-offs. But mostly TVD. The twins would drool over their crushes. Echo crushed on both the Salvatore brothers and hated the way Elena strung them both along. If she was in Elena's shoes she'd be with them both, or neither of them. Zheko absolutely adored Malachai Parker, also known as Kai, the Siphon. Tool would occasionally catch them watching the show. He won't admit to standing in the background and watching along with them.
So, here they were, fighting alongside Christmas and Doctor Death. The much bigger team of Expendables were trying to escape the Azmenistan Army and Stonebanks. The man is sneaky. Stonebanks had found out about Tool's twins and their abilities. He either wanted to capture them or kill them. And judging by the fact Zheko and Echo were killing his troops he decided to kill them.
One of the men Stonebanks kept close to him joined the fight long enough to get close to the twins. Stonebanks had acquired a very powerful neurotoxin that is fatal, and the dose would most certainly kill the twins. The man Stonebanks sent to inject the twins with this toxin had gotten his chance. A quick jab with a needle to both Zheko and Echo and the task was done, only for the man to get a bullet to the chest.
Zheko was feeling like shit. His body felt like it was on fire and his limbs felt heavy. He found his sister looking just as sickly as him and knew instantly something was given to them. Echo stopped to shake the feeling in her limbs, "We'll be alright. Just need to get out of here and get back to dad." Zheko nodded even though he was not convinced. With the toxin flowing through their veins, they figure using their abilities would be a good idea. The faster the enemy gets taken down, the faster they get home.
Tanks were firing at the building the Expendables were in, destroying it even further. Max Drummer, Trench Mauser, and Yin Yang had joined the fight in a helicopter. Taking down other helicopters and men on the ground. It was then that Drummer wanted the entire team of Expendables on the roof to rescue.
Zheko and Echo were struggling to keep fighting as their bodies were starting to shut down. A neurotoxin that powerful should've knocked them on their asses within minutes. But they kept pushing through the aches and pains, putting their bodies through hell as they fought. Fighting the armed men on the way to the roof, and fighting the toxin. They were determined to make it out of this mission alive.
Everyone made it to the roof but Ross. He and Stonebanks were going toe-to-toe in one last battle. They both beat the ever living shit out of each other before diving for their guns. Ross was faster. Stonebanks received a full clip in his chest. There's no surviving that. Especially with the building blowing up from the C4 planted around the building.
Drummer hovered for as long as he could while the building started collapsing from the explosions. Ross ran as fast as his tired body would take him and jumped at the very last second and grabbed onto the rope still dangling from the helicopter. The Expendables held their breath as the dust cleared from the debris. Seeing Ross hanging onto that rope for dear life was a relief. Christmas teased Ross before pulling him up after receiving an apology for being an idiot.
Zheko and Echo were laying down across the seats in the plane as they flew home. Their bodies giving up the fight against the neurotoxin. The twins never got the chance to tell the Expendables about the toxin before their bodies gave out. They just laid down and fell asleep.
Gunner was sitting the closest to the twins when he noticed something wrong. He moved closer to Zheko and pushed the boy's foot, "Hey, kids." When he didn't get a response, Gunner stood up and checked to see if they were breathing. "Doc, they're not breathing!" Gunner moved Echo out of her brother's arms to start CPR. Doctor Death started CPR on Zheko.
Those not in the cockpit tried to help one way or another to revive the Vagen twins. Galgo yelled to Ross, "Fly faster!" Though they continued their efforts to bring the twins back, it was no use. Zheko and Nona Vagen had died.
The entire crew of the Expendables, including Drummer, Mauser, and Yang, as well as Tool crowded the medical examiners' office. They wanted…No, needed to know what killed Zheko and Echo. Tool had been inconsolable when he learned his kids were gone. The man collapsed and sobbed as his children were carried off the plane on covered stretchers. It took Ross, Christmas, Yang, and Mauser to calm Tool enough for the trip to the ME's office.
The ME read the results, "After examining both Zheko and Nona and running several blood tests. It was found they were injected with a very potent neurotoxin. Upon further examination of their bodies, even with all the injuries they sustained, an injection site was discovered. Zheko was injected in his neck, while Nona's injection site was her left shoulder blade. The site around the injection shows quite a bit of damage."
The ME set down the file, "To be honest, I'm surprised they survived as long as they did after being injected. This strain of neurotoxin is extremely fatal. They should have dropped dead minutes after being injected. They fought the effects for as long as they could before succumbing." The ME handed the file to Drummer, "I was able to track the manufacturer." The ME left the room as Drummer opened the file. Drummer slammed the file shut, "Church."
AN: I'm thinking about having Tool join the twins eventually as Alaric. He dies during a gunfight with Church, only to wake up the day he takes over as the History teacher. He will have his and Alaric's memories.