Atlantis: chapter 5

Chapter 5! You're a super genius!

Please note this is a work in progress and the authors reserve the right to edit and/or re-format the book.

Chapter V: The rejoining

“Matt! Hey Matt! Over here!” Tom shouted excitedly to his best friend since 1st Grade. “Tom?” Matt turned and saw Tom. “Hey, how's it going?” He said, greeting Tom with a warm handshake. Matt was slightly surprised at the amount of blisters on Tom's hands, but he said nothing. “I didn't know you were here!” he continued in blissful forgetfulness. “Well, I am!” Tom answered joyously. He frowned a moment later, and asked “What's that? That thing on your arm?” he asked curiously, pointing at a solid green triangle on Matt's arm. “It's the symbol that all Psi-soldiers wear.” “Psicological?” “I've been promoted to Sergeant Matthew Kenderson, Psicological division 7.” Matt said proudly. “That means I can actually use stuff like Telekenesis!” “I know, I can control now it too!” Tom said. Matt looked skeptical. No wonder, because the last time Matt had seen Tom use Psi powers, a hole had been inadvertently blasted in a wall. Tom lifted the tank partway in the air, setting it down only after a startled Matt had involuntarily let slip: “Good God!” A soldier at Matt's elbow coughed meaningfully. “Right! We need to airlift you and any survivors out of here, and transfer you to Research Facility #2.” Matt jumped at the reminder. “OK, umm, problem.” Tom answered. “What is it?” Matt groaned. “There are probably more survivors, but we haven't found them yet.” “You heard the man! I want a sweep of the entire complex! Scan for any signs of life, friendly or otherwise. Sanders, Conners, take up take your squads and set up a defensive perimeter! Companies Alpha through November, take buildings D and E. Everybody else, buildings B and C. Tom and I will take building A. Dr. Stephens! Stay where you are, and be lookout and sniper for us, if you will. West, we could use those experimental robot guards I hear this place has been working on. Don't give me buts!” Matt exclaimed in answer to West's warning that he may not be able to get them working. “Just do it. Alright people, lets move!” With that, the American soldiers sprang into action. Tom hurried off with Matt, able to move far easier now that he had disposed of most of his firearms. He had taken off the gun strap, and all he still carried with him was his SCAR assault rifle and a Hush Puppy. It felt good to be back with his old friend, but that also meant that things were really serious. He, Matt, and two of their other friends, Scarlett Ottoman and Holly Dayne, were only brought together when the most serious of problems were at hand. This was fairly disturbing to anybody who knew that, as was the fact that Tom was the youngest of all of them at 18, Matt and Scarlett being 19, and Holly being 20, yet he was the best marksman, although Holly was the strongest. Matt and Scarlett were the fastest. Eventually, Tom would become the most skilled psychologically. Evidently, the expected loss of an entire Research Facility counted as a big problem. “So, Tom, what's happened? You look... different.” “Long story.” “Tell me.” And so Tom proceeded to tell Matt all that had happened since the big battle with Queen Rex, including the fact that Queen Rex was almost entirely dead, why he now had Velociraptor DNA mixed with his, how it had effected him, the ensuing fight with all the Atlantians, Dinosaurs, and Iraqis, the tracer he put on the Heli-plane, his spectacular fall from the roof, his wonder of how he wasn't hurt, his duel with the two Atlantians, and then finally, meeting Matt. “Some story.” Matt said as they entered the building. “Yeah. But here we are.” Building A was all the men slept, ate, and lived out most of their lives, unless in a battle, doing a drill, or some other activity. It was comfortably fitted, decorated by nice sofas and recliners surrounding a large plasma screen TV. Usually, the air was pleasantly fragranced with the scent of fruit, but it now stank of sweat, blood, and rotting flesh, and the bowl of fruit and nuts that usually sat on the coffee table had a large bite mark in it. Worse, the sofas were all shredded up, and dead bodies were strewn all over the floor, some of them dead with guns still in hand, in a last, desperate attempt at survival. It was a gruesome sight. Tom began searching for survivors. He doubted any were here, but they had to look. Matt stood guard, in case a Raptor were to suddenly burst into the room. “I've got a live one here!” Tom shouted. Matt handed him the First aid kit. Same as before. The soldier's side had been slashed open, and he had a ragged gash across the top of his head. Tom quickly cleaned all of the wounds, bound them up, and checked for any more cuts. The soldier looked OK. Tom searched for a piece of paper, and put a big M on it, laying it across the man. Next, he took out a hypodermic syringe filled to the brim with Morphine. How much was enough? 4cc's? He injected the entire contents into the man. He hoped it wasn't too much. The soldier was alive, but only just. “West, send a med team to this location.” Tom said. “Roger that. Their on the way.” To Tom and Matt's surprise, a few moments later robots entered the room, and they all had a red cross on their chests, except for maybe ten of them. These ten were decorated in Jungle Camouflage, and were hauling XM8 assault rifles. “Say hello to the Assault Robots!” West's voice rang out. “You got them working!” Matt said. “Did you ever doubt me?” West laughed. “I'll have to admit, I did.” “Sorry to interrupt. We will take over this room. Continue on.” Stated a mechanical voice. Out of the thirty robots here, 8 of the Assault Bots stayed with the First Aid Bots, and 3 of the First Aid Bots came with Tom and Matt, plus the two Assault Bots, for a total party of seven. The next room was the kitchen, and here Raptor bodies littered the ground as well as human, many of them with kitchen knives sticking out. As they came around a counter, they were startled half to death by a soldier. “Die you... Oh, it's you! I knew you'd come!” The soldier exclaimed, lowering his weapon. “Are you alright?” Tom asked. “Other than all my friends being dead, Raptors stalking the building, me having no gun (for he was holding a kitchen cleaver), and, uhh, oh yeah! An Atlantian is in the next room, probably on his way in now.” As he spoke, the door handle leading into the Mess Hall turned. “Quick, everybody, duck and cover!” Matt hissed. Everybody dropped to the ground, making no noise at all. Tom carefully and quietly made his way to the edge of the counter, and peeked around to look who had come in. An Atlantian, another officer by the looks, and he was backed by two Iraqis with guns. Tom glanced over at Matt, who was giving the soldier a P90 SMG. That was a pretty good gun. He would have to pick one up in the next armory, which, if he remembered correctly, was in the room adjacent to the Mess Hall. At any rate, he took out his Hush Puppy, and dropped one of the Iraqis. The other two were so confused, they stood dumbly for a minute, then the second Iraqi also fell to the ground. The Atlantian had the brains to take cover, but he had taken cover against the counter, right on the other side of Matt. Matt vaulted over the counter top. “Hi there!” He said cheerfully, then viciously kicked the Atlantian in his abdomen, slightly above his stomach, but below his ribcage, one of the weakest spots on the body. The Atlantian fell to the ground wheezing, and Matt kicked him again to knock him out. “This guy could be pretty useful for questioning.” He explained. Matt handed the man to a med robot to carry back to the hovercrafts, then they proceeded onward. They waltzed into the armory to restock equipment, and for the soldier to get a gun. Tom almost yelled in surprise as he came nose-to-snout with a sleeping Raptor. “Careful there,” Matt said, giving Tom a steady arm. “I'll take it out.” “No, let me.” Tom replied. “That's an evil smile” Matt commented. “Whatever, go ahead, your the boss.” Concentrating hard, Tom sent out a mental probe into the Raptor's head, searching for a certain part that all bodily commands passed through, including breathing, eating, moving, etc. A moment later, he found it, and disconnected it with a flick of his Telekenesis. The Raptor slumped to the ground, drooling, and Tom gave a satisfied grin. “Nice one.” Matt said appreciatively. They stocked up on ammo and weapons, and then continued on their way, Tom clutching two P90s; he had thrown away his SCAR, as there was not much use of it in a building. The next room was a dormitory, and Tom shuddered to think what might be in here. They opened the door. Raptors were feeding, at least twenty of them. Dead carcasses lay everywhere, hanging over bunk beads, slumped across furniture, lying in dismembered heaps on the ground, everywhere. The floor was awash with ruby red blood. Matt rolled a canister marked with a skull and crossbones into the room, then slammed the door. A moment later, they heard strange gargling sounds, and what sounded like heavy objects falling from a top bunk bead. Tom opened the door to find twenty Raptors lying on the ground, eyes closed, tongues out, stained red teeth showing. A couple of them had fallen from their perches at the top beads, and these had limbs and necks twisted at odd angles. Tom and Matt shuddered together. “Let's get out of here. No one else living could be beyond here, otherwise the Raptors would have found them.” Matt said, visibly disturbed by the scene. “Alright, but let's get West to run a sweep, just in case.” Tom disliked the idea of continuing on, but he disliked the idea of leaving anyone behind here even less. “This is West, I hear ya. I'm running a sweep right now, but I don't see anybody... Wait! There's one more guy, trying to pretend he's dead. He's to your right and three rooms down. The second room down his filled with Raptors, oh, gross: they're eating... oh, just uh, tell me if you need anything else.” West closed the connection hurriedly, and Tom imagined he was rushing to the bathrooms. “Alright, you heard the man, let's move!” Tom shouted. They charged down the hallway to their right, which was the restrooms and storage rooms, and slowed only when they reached the next door, leading to another, larger storage room. They crept through it, so as not to alert the Raptors in the next room. “Anyone got anymore poison gas?” Tom asked. “No, but i got this.” Matt said, holding up a mini helicopter thing and a remote control. “What good is that?” Tom asked. “Look.” Matt through it in the air, and started moving it around with his remote control. “If we can lure them into this room, we can setup an ambush for them, and take 'em out much easier than rushing in and shooting them.” “Yeah, good plan.” Tom agreed. They moved around the racks of metal boxes so that they enclosed the door in a rectangle-shaped clearing, replacing gaps on the shelves with more boxes from other shelves, so that the Raptors couldn't get out except the way they had come in. Even this was to be covered , because a shoulder's width gap between a side rack and the wall enabled somebody to push a last rack through, completely encasing the Raptors, where they could stick their guns through narrow cracks between the boxes. Full proof. Except that they didn't anticipate the incredible strength the Raptors wielded. Matt lured them through the door. At least 15. Maybe more. As soon as the last one made his silent way into the trap, Tom pushed the last rack through the gap, and the Raptors were done for. At least they would have been, except that one broke into a savage rage when it learned it couldn't get out, and head-butted a rack, making it wobble, then again, and again. The other Raptors got the idea, and started head butting the same rack over and over. It would have been fine still, because even all of them charging, they wouldn't all hit at once, and the rack was pretty heavy. Problem: They were smarter than that. They could even count seemingly, as the lead Raptor, or Alpha Male, as Tom knew he was called, let out a strange gargling hiss, then the same kind of noise, but at a higher pitch, then a final sound even higher pitched then the one before, and they all charged. Fifteen Raptors hitting one 400 pound rack. Raptors win. The rack toppled over, narrowly missing Tom. The Raptors were about to rush out, and the collective soldiers, robots, and superhumans didn't stand a chance. Tom couldn't believe that they were going to die, right here, right now, because of a gang of Raptor's intelligence, and a gang of humans' stupidity. No. It wasn't going to end like this, not for Tom. He grasped hold of his power tightly, unlocking a door in his mind previously undiscovered, and released the power, driving it out the door with all his force. It erupted like a caged beast, hurtling to the startled Raptors at the speed of light. The power punched a gaping hole in every Raptor, right through it's heart.

Then it was over.

“Whoa, cool! Nice work, Tom.” Matt said appreciatively a moment later. Tom was dazed, and felt like he was going to fall unconscious at any moment. “Uhh,” he groaned. Matt reached over and offered him a steady hand. “I haven't officially tried this, but my psi instructor said that in times of great need, you can transfer energy into other objects by channeling it through your arms. You think I should try?” he asked. “S...s...sure...” Tom muttered shakily. It was about all he could muster. A moment later, he felt the queerest sensation, as if he were waking from a deep, deep sleep and falling asleep at the same time. To top this, he also had the uncomfortable feeling of being sucked out of thick mud, which feels a little like having your feet squished and stretched at once. After perhaps a minute of this, he could fully stand, and he felt much, much better. “Thanks.” He said to Matt. “Anytime.” Matt replied, wiping some sweat off his forehead. Tom got up and stealthily crept through the next door, just in case more Raptors that hadn't been trapped were still in here. His caution payed off, but not until it was almost too late. Tom looked around the room, closely followed by Matt, who had told the others to guard the door outside. Nothing living in sight, except the soldier. They walked over to him. “Come on with us,” Tom told the man, who was still pretending to be dead. He didn't stir. “It's okay, we're friends.” Matt said encouragingly. The soldier cracked open his eyes partway, and at once leaped up into the air, shouting with joy. “Oh, oh, my god, I was so scared! I thought you had left already when I heard the hovercrafts outside!” “You're in luck, we're still here, and we're ready to go.” Matt answered. “Shh!” Tom hissed. “What is it?” Matt asked in a whisper. “I dunno, I thought I heard something...” Tom whispered back after a moment. Just then, a Raptor that had been sleeping in a corner behind the door awoke with a dreadful snarl, sending waves of terror down everyone's spine. It started creeping closer, an inch at a time. And closer. And closer still. Just then, the sound of gunfire erupted outside the door, and the Raptor turned its head, momentarily distracted. Tom seized his chance. Faster than a normal human, Tom sprinted up to the wall beside the pre-historic beast, and in a moment of unreal power and control, he jumped up ten feet in the air, higher than usual thanks to his DNA mix, planted his feet sideways on the wall, and sprang off, pulling out a katana as he went, all in one fluid motion. As he landed, he plunged it down into the Raptor's head, effectively ending its gruesome life. Now back to the gunfire. As it turned out, they were under attack. Not by men, not by Raptors. Three Utah Raptors. Matt bounded out the door into the enclosed area of shelving that they had set up. He saw an enormous creature, about the size of a T-Rex, but its arms more powerful, its claws more deadly. In its wake, two of their eight assault robots lay crumpled in heaps of sparking metal and plastic. Next to them was a heavy rack which they had been trying to push in front of another rack for more protection. It seemed that they had done this more than once, for every side had two shelves in a row, as they had taken one from the back and put it in the weak area. Now, not even a Utah Raptor could break through the defense. But three of them could. To buy more time before all of the shelves came toppling over when the Utah Raptors rammed them, Tom gathered up his energy, squatted down, and got ready for a 20 foot jump. A moment later, he was soaring through the air, and he felt so free, so powerfull, he wished he could remain up here forever. But gravity was not his best friend, and so Tom reached for a rafter in the ceiling just over his head. He caught onto it, and with a tremendous effort, pulled himself up using only his arms, over the top, and finally into a standing position on top. Two of the Utah Raptors were looking at Tom hungrily. The other was too busy ramming the shelves to see Tom. Matt was pumping lead, lead, and more lead into the Utah's muzzle, but the beast, huge as it was, was not seriously hurt. Tom gathered up a wad of energy into a tight ball, releasing it at the last second before it exploded inside him. It hit the Utah closest to Tom with a devastating effect: A chunk of it's flesh was now gone, and it toppled to the ground awkwardly, bending its neck so far as to kill itself if it had not already been dead. The other two turned to look at a sagging Tom. His strength was failing him. With one last effort, Tom leaped from the rafter onto the closest Utah Raptor. He clung to its back in a death hold, and started sucking energy out of it like a leech. The Utah gave a strange, gargling cry, “Agghilonaaaaaa....” then fell to the ground. Tom stood up calmly, feeling re-energized and powerfull. The last remaining Utah was looking at his fallen comrade in confusion. Matt took advantage of this, and he leaped over the shelves, rolling as he struck the ground, came up, and blasted a pyro-wave at the thing. It didn't stand a chance. Crying out in agony, it sprinted down the corridor towards the door, or at least so Tom thought, until he heard something that sounded like breaking of re-inforced concrete. Tom turned to Matt with an incredulous expression on his face. Matt shrugged. Shaking his head, Tom sprinted down the corridor after it, anxious to see what damage it had done. He rounded a corner, and was surprised to see a gaping hole in the wall. “That wall was 6 inches thick!” Tom shouted at Matt. “It's pretty strong.” He answered calmly “Nawww, really?!?” Tom said sarcastically. He started climbing over the wreckage, when he felt Matt's hand on his shoulder. “It won't do any good.” He said. “It can run at about 60 mph. We clocked one back at Facility 2.” Tom reluctantly gave up the chase. “Anyways, we gotta get back to the Hovercraft. The other are probably wondering where we are.” After navigating there way back through the wreckage of the Living Quarters and out into the courtyard, they found the rest of the men loading up the Hovercraft. They had found at least twenty grateful survivors between the buildings. West walked out from behind one of the Hovercraft, Dr. Stephens following close behind. “Tom! What a marvelous job you've done. We'll be transporting you straight to Research Facility No. 2, along with all the survivors.” Dr. Stephens explained excitedly. After a few minutes of explanations, they were in a Hovercraft, on their way back to Facility 2. “If you need anything, just let me know,” One of the crew said to Tom. “Thanks. I'll let you know if there's anything you can do,” Tom answered. Matt who was less stoic, asked for a beer. “Dude, you know you have to be 21 to drink alcohol.” Tom said plaintively. “Yeah, thats one of the nice things about being me. The government needs me so much, they wouldn't dare send me to jail. So for now, I don't really care.” “Whatever, just keep that stuff away from me.” Tom replied. Tom was known for his dislike of alcohol products.

The ride to Facility 2 was a short, if uncomfortable trip, because the hovercraft was being continually forced to weave through the trees, so it was more like one big roller coaster than anything else. Regardless, Tom had time to snooze, as he hadn't really slept at all in the past 30 hours, before the battle. When he was in the Hospital bed, his sleep was disturbed by the flashbacks, which had lasted about 29 hours. After that, he had skirmished multiple times, gotten himself almost killed at least six times, and now, as he landed and got out of the hovercraft, he was mentally preparing himself for an onslaught of questioning. Sure enough, a group of five neatly-dressed generals greeted them just inside the door. They glanced in startled disdain at Tom's and Matt's dirty, blood soaked uniforms, records of the battles they had just fought for the oblivious generals, as well as the rest of America. One general, the leader of the leaders, cleared his throat after a moment. “Ecchem. Yes, well... Good Evening boys. I see you have uhh... been fairly... active.” He said in a sneering tone of voice. The man was short, yet his ego made him tower over Tom. A glowing power seemed to radiate off of him like white hot, blazing solar flares. His eyes were almost a separate part of him, glowing in their own way of mysterious anger and rage, and yet their was an eerie calmness to them as if they could take anything down without breaking a stride. There was waspy venom in his voice as if he considered himself superior over all else. Noreover, there was a dark quality that was so intimidating even Tom felt himself taken aback. Lastly, there was a secrecy to him that contained all of this within a sinister figure. “My name,” he continued, “Is Dr. Shang. I am the head of this facility, whatever I say goes. Am I clear?” “Crystal clear sir!” Tom and Matt pledged simultaneously. Tom wondered at the man; it was as if he expected them to disobey an order just for the fun of it. Tom had learned early on that discipline was required of any soldier, especially him, for if an officer could not take orders, then who could? Never the less, doubt still lingered in the man's eyes. “Very well. You may go and wash up. I expect you both in the debriefing room by 17:00 hours. Don't be late.” Tom and Matt both saluted Dr. Shang, and only after he left did they begin the walk to their adjoined rooms. “Gee, nice guy huh?” Matt commented. “He's probably just had a rough day.” Tom said tiredly. “Who around here hasn't, though?” Matt pointed out. After a long and luxurious steaming hot shower, Tom felt ready again to take on the world. He had about 15 minutes to kill before his debriefing with Dr. Shang and who knew what else. He met up with Matt in the hallway. “Hey Tom,” Matt said. “Yeah?” Tom asked. “Who's in the room across from us?” Matt inquired. “Dunno.” “There's something about those rooms that seems... familiar. I can't think of what it is.” “Lemme check it out.” “How?” “RV.” “Remote Viewing? Wouldn't that be invasion of privacy?” Matt asked, troubled. “Yeah, but oh well. Something does seem familiar about this area.” “Do you know how to use RV?” “No, but you do.” Tom hinted. After a moment of arguing, Matt reluctantly pried through the door without physically touching it, entering a state of being which rendered his body clueless to his actions and the actions of those around him. For this reason alone, RV was not covered much in Matt's Psycho-kenesis classes, so he had a little difficulty attempting this maneuver. After a moment of careful prodding, Matt let out an exclamation of surprise, and suddenly ran up to the door and jammed the doorbell at least half a dozen times. A disgruntled Holly Smith flung open the door to chase off whoever was calling her, and froze in mid action. She was followed a moment later by Scarlett Ottoman. “Oh my God!” Scarlett screeched, and rushed out the door into Matt's arms. Holly just stood there blankly, as if she couldn't believe that they were there. “Oh my god! I can't believe it's you guys!” Scarlett exclaimed as Matt's grip on her loosened. “Yeah, neither can I,” Matt replied. They stood there in the hallway for a long, long time, just staring at one another. “Alright you four, come on! Dr. Shang wants you in the debriefing room in five minutes, but you were supposed to have come early.” Dr. Stephens's voice rang out behind them. "Just a minute!” Matt called. A pause. "Now what on earth do you think you guys are doing, just showing up like that?” Holly scolded, kidding. She then started laughing as Tom and Matt's expressions froze into fearful frowns, and eventually everyone broke out into elated laughter. Once the humor died down, Tom realized that they were running late. “Come on guys, we can catch up later.” Tom broke the happy party up, and they all started downstairs toward the debriefing room. They got there with two minutes to spare, but Dr. Shang was in a vehement mood, and so he scolded them for being late. “Did I not say, upon your entrance to this building, that you were to receive and carry out any orders that I gave you?” He asked menacingly. “Yes sir!” The four said together, their eyes fixed slightly above Dr. Shang's head. “Then why, may I ask, are you all late?” No one spoke after this comment. “I see...” he continued. “Oh well, for now, I have some questions for all of you.” Dr. Shang launched into a stunning array of questions, from why Tom helped out West when he got knocked to the ground to how the Biological cloning technology worked. Many of these, no one could answer, and whenever this happened, his mood slipped yet more into the category of insanity. From his first glance of Dr. Shang, Tom had gathered that he didn't like this man. Now here was more proof, as if he needed it. “... and how, may I ask, did the Raptors get out of the holding pens?” “I can answer that.” Tom volunteered. “We underestimated their intelligence. There have been numerous examples of it in the past couple hours.” “Like what?” Dr. Shang sneered. “Well sir, for one thing, they can speak. They have a complex language system beyond anything we could ever have imagined. When we were searching for survivors in the Facility complex, we could here strange sounds coming from the Raptors. Hissing and clicking, extremely weird noises and growls.” As he relived the details of the carnage, the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he had been terrified. He also hadn't realized up until now how alien the creatures sounded. Something about the sounds unsheathed his primal instincts, like something too horrible for words. “And they can count.” he continued. “We trapped a bunch of them in between a couple of metal storage racks. We didn't anticipate them escaping, but they only did so because they could count, and on a certain sound, they all rushed forward, hitting the racks at the same time, so that their combined force was more than that of the racks, and predictably, the racks toppled over. They must have done something similar with the holding pens.” “I see...” Dr. Shang didn't believe him. It was obvious in his voice. “Well, at any rate, they escaped. But how on Earth can they have taken out an entire facility within the span of an hour or two?” “It wasn't just them sir.” Matt answered. “After they escaped, they some how teamed up with a band of maybe 200 Iraqi troops, all heavily armed.” “And what were the Iraqis after?” Tom sensed where this was going, and instinctively he realized that Dr. Shang would be upset over the loss of the Heli-plane, regardless of whether or not he knew where the enemy base was. “Sir, they were after our vehicles. When Dr. Stephens and I...” “Save it!” Dr. Shang exclaimed. “I do not need to know of any acts of valor that Dr. Stephens has contributed to whatever happened at that facility. Just tell me what they were after and why!” Venom rang clear through his voice. Tom realized that Dr. Shang must have been a huge rival of Dr. Stephens. “Yes sir,” Tom murmured. “As I was saying, they were after our vehicles. When I was on the roof, I saw most of the Iraqis in the courtyard. They were all moving towards the garages, and sure enough, five minutes later, they had commandeered just about every vehicle out of the place. How they got the things started up is beyond me.” “What all did they take? 'Just about every vehicle' is not too specific.” “They drove out with I would say about 40 of the 50 armored Humvees, every single one of the tanks, 20 of the 25 APCs, and all of the 100 Assault Recon Motorbikes. I managed to jack, I mean, take back one of them, but how much good one of a 100 will do I don't like to consider. As for air units, they took all of the Apaches and Cobras, which is about 30 of each. The Hueys they left alone, the Chinooks they took about 10 of the 20, from the airfield, I don't think they took anything besides one A-10 thunderbolt.” “Lets see, what am I missing... Oh yes. I hear you had a Heli-Plane with masses and masses of currency and Biological samples in it? What has become of it?” “Sir, there was nothing I could do but tag it with a tracer. They took off with it, and I suspect are just now unloading it.” You let them ESCAPE!!!!!! Tom was mentally prepared for that. Instead, he got a: “Yes. Very good job. I couldn't expect anything better.” “Whaa...” Matt asked, startled. “Gentlemen, I too understand the importance of the knowledge of the enemy's base. They did not promote me to General for nothing. You have done very well, or at least, on that respect. All I can ask for now is the device which is receiving the tracer signal.” He waited expectantly as Tom mentally smacked his forehead. “Sir, I left it in my other uniform when I was changing.” Again, Tom braced himself for yelling, but again he was disappointed. “Only to be expected.” was the answer he got instead. “I can not expect flawlessness from men who have only just gotten back from fighting enough for a month in one day. I will give you a 10 minute break to find the device and bring it back here. Well, what are you waiting for, go get it!” He said in answer to the four's puzzled looks. A minute later, Tom was hurriedly searching his room and laundry for his uniform. Holly was helping him, but Scarlett and Matt were too busy talking to each other to really be of much use, though they were pretending to pick through Tom's room while they did so. Tom shook his head. Sometimes those two just got on his nerves, especially since they had told him and Holly that they were in love. "Guys, I hate to break up your love chain," Tom said exasperatedly. "But we only have another three minutes to find the thing. Can you please help?" "Oh yeah, sorry guys." Matt answered with a startled jump. "I found it!" Holly cried after another minute of searching. "Alright, now, lets go, go, go!" Tom said urgently. They had 60 seconds to get to Dr. Shang. They made it back to the debriefing room with 15 seconds to go. Dr. Shang was visibly annoyed that they had taken so long. He muttered something like: "Most highly paid... Can't even find his own laundry... We trust these guys to be the defenders of America?..." He shook his head, and the four "Defenders of America" hung their heads sadly at the insult. "Alright, at any rate, you have the device, now give it to me." Dr. Shang said out loud. "Yes sir," Tom answered, handing him the device. Dr. Shang studied the device for a moment, his deep, concealing eyes taking in everything there was to take in of the device, and, secretly, details about Matt, Scarlett, and Holly. He had already read up on Tom. He had decided that they were obviously very good at fighting, but strangely limited in believing of their Psi abilities. "Such a shame," He thought. "They could do such marvelous things with their raw power and sheer will alone, and what they could do if properly instructed is just fantastic." He glanced up to look at Matt. Tall, broad shouldered, stocky, high chin, thick eyebrows, blond hair, naturally big, and extremely fit. Hardly an ounce of fat on him. But these were just the physical figures that he noticed. He also had judgmental eyes, eyes that could tell a person's personality from one sweep. Matt had experienced pain, and from the looks of his dark, emotion stained eyes and the tight set of his jaw, he had had a lot of it. He thought of himself not as the savior of the world that he most certainly was, or even as the savior of America, but rather, just another common soldier doing his best to help. This was the best mindset a soldier can have, because if grown too cocky, that soldier could over estimate his powers, eventually leading to his death. He had the will to obey any order, defeat any opponent, and still stand to face the next. Matt's friendship with Tom was curious. Despite Matt being a year and a half older than Tom and having more of a visible muscle build, he believed Tom was stronger. Matt looked up to Tom, as did the rest. Tom, apparently, was the leader. Interesting. Dr. Shang thought. Next, Dr. Shang swept over Scarlett. Like her name suggested, she sported scarlet blood hair, eyebrows that ripped through her face like smooth scars, with thick, ruby red lips that looked like lipstick, but in fact were not. Scarlett hardly ever wore lipstick, or any makeup at all except for eyeliner, which gave her jet black eyelashes mixed with her deep, dark eyes, a mysterious and powerful quality. Muscular body, extremely tight thigh muscles, and slimmer build, but still incredibly powerful. She was most likely able to snap or at least bend a titanium rod an inch thick. She seemed to think like Matt, like a soldier, not a lady. She and Matt shared many qualities. Scarlett would get exasperated if she didn't have things her way. If she wanted to kill an enemy soldier, you would know that no matter the circumstances, that soldier would die. Holly. She was... strong. Solidly built. Tall, and like Scarlett, didn't really use any makeup. Strength emanated from her in a feminine aura. Dr. Shang, if anything, admired and secretly feared her. She had a light-hearted soul. Dr. Shang guessed she was the jokester of the group. Yet at the same time, their was a chill to her face. She, like the others, had seen lots of pain and suffering, and it had reflected itself in her face. She had dark rims under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in months. She also admired Tom, and Dr. Shang couldn't figure out the reason. He hoped he would figure it out some day.

Dr. Shang sighed. He wanted a nice dinner of steak and wine. He wanted to relax in the lounge. He didn't want to debrief anyone right now, even if they were to save the world. He made his decision.

"Gentlemen, I take my leave of you for the moment. I will require about two days to process this information you have given me. Meet me back here in 48 hours, no less."

Four faces lit up with joy, but Dr. Shang was able to contain his contentment.

"Well, off with you then!"

Tom, Matt, Holly, and Scarlett almost bounced out of the room, happy for a chance to catch up on all of their adventures for the first time in... years. When they arrived at their rooms, the first thing that they did was fling themselves onto the bunk beds. "So, where do we start?" Holly asked.

"I dunno." Tom answered. "There's so much to talk about."

"Oh I know Tom, how many times by now has Matt saved your life?" Holly teased.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Tom asked, playing along.

"Oh, just, when you were like, ten, and Matt was saving your a..."

"OK, we get the point." Tom cut in. "I admit, I would have been in some pretty nasty situations without Matt's assistance. However, I've gotten a lot better now."

"Let's see it." Holly challenged.

In answer, Tom lifted up the couch on the other side of the room.

"Cool." Scarlett said. "Anyways, lets hear more about the battle at Facility 1. I hear there were T-Rex's?!"

"Yeah, but they weren't there for long. Most of them ate it as soon as they popped out of the tree line into the clearing. They were easy targets for the men on the walls to pick off at will. However, one was too far and causing havoc, but that one bought it when I called in a C-130 gunship, and predictably, it blew him to smithereens. Got a lot of bio samples outta him though."

"Yeah I heard about that." Matt said. "What happened after he fell?"

"A squad of soldiers rushed up against his body for cover, and that gave the Atlantians food for thought about running up and smashing the rest of us in open warfare. If they had, they would've been mown down by the soldiers."

"Guys, lets pause for a moment." Scarlett interrupted.

"Why?" Matt asked.

"I'm starving!" she answered.

Twenty minutes later, the four of them were sitting on Tom's balcony, eating sandwiches, and looking over the courtyard of the facility. From the 30th floor, the men down on the ground looked like little ants, scurrying back and forth, carrying this, driving that, moving this, and all manner of things.

"So, Tom," Holly asked. "I heard a rumor from one of the soldiers that you jumped from forty stories high. Is it true?"

Tom took a moment to swallow his food before he answered.

"Yes it is." he replied, and waited for the outburst of excitement.

"No way!" They all said almost simultaneously.

"It's true." Tom said again.

"Whoa, cool!" Matt said approvingly.

"Nice," Scarlett agreed, slapping a high five.

"Well, I guess it is cool that you jumped from that high. How much did it hurt?" Holly asked.

"Uh, a lot?" Tom said. "I mean, what would you expect it to feel like?"

"I dunno. I've never been stupid enough to jump off a building." Holly answered.

"Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures." Tom defended.

"Oh, so, what was the desperate time? You had to go give Matt a hug?" Scarlett interjected. At this, the boy's cheeks reddened, and Tom was forced to give a detailed account of what happened at Facility 1 before they could go any farther. He again recounted the details of the gruesome battle. Although unpleasant, he was proud of his achievements.

Matt, who had already heard the story and been briefed by another general, backed Tom up.

"Yeah, that was amazing what you did with that missile launcher, blowing apart Queen Rex." he said

"Well, I guess that was pretty cool. And brave." Holly said.

"Yeah, it was." Scarlett agreed.

"So..." Tom said, casting about for a new topic. "What's everyone else been doing?"

"Well, we haven't had it exactly easy, but better than you." Matt responded.

"Same here." Scarlett and Holly agreed simultaneously. "It's been a little dicey, and we've had frequent attacks on the facility, but nothing as major as you." Holly said.

"I suppose its like that everywhere." Scarlett said. "But it was kinda weird, like, they didn't really want to fight, just draw us out. Like, they'd show up with about a hundred men, and we'd rush out, guns blazing, yada yada, we'd inflict a couple casualties here and there, and then they'd just turn and run."

Suddenly it dawned on Tom. "It was a distraction to pull all of our forces out to Facility 2." he said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Holly asked.

"Just look at this place. The rooms are jam packed. The hallways are filled with people at all hours." As if to emphasize his point, footsteps resounded outside as the men marched down to dinner. "At Facility 1, it's the exact opposite. We were running on a skeleton crew. The living quarters were almost deserted. I think they were purposely drawing all our forces to here."

"You know, you just might be right." Matt said after a moment's thought. "The more I think about it, the more I realize, when we were searching the LQ for survivors, more than half the bunks were empty. Of course, Raptors took the rest of the soldiers in there, but... You get my point."

"If so, then we have to be doubly careful now. They aren't just random idiots holding weapons. These guys are a lot better than we thought." Scarlett said gravely.

"Yeah, especially their officers. They know how to use the weapons they've got. Really well." Tom added.

"But what that doesn't explain is how the Raptors got out. I looked at the holding pens that they're making here, and they are completely Raptor-proof. Of course, they're trashing them because of what happened at Facility 1, but still. Those pens had electronic locks. The only thing that could open them was a signal from the control room. And to do that, you'd have to enter a twelve digit code. And you'd have to get past biometric access denial systems. It was completely full-proof." Holly said worriedly.

"That does seem strange." Scarlett agreed.

After a minute of silent thinking, Tom said, "The only thing I can come up with is that they had help from someone pretty high ranking." This thought troubled them all.

"If someone with access to that kind of knowledge is helping the Atlantians, we're in serious trouble." Matt said.

"Well, the Atlantians aren't really our enemies." Tom explained. "They're just puppets, and Iraq is taking full advantage of them."

"True." Matt acknowledged.

Tom finished his food, taking his tray back inside to the sink in their small apartment like room. The four of them would be sharing the room, as everywhere else was jammed packed.

Holly followed him into the kitchen, leaving Matt and Scarlett alone together.

Holly walked in and started helping Tom clean the kitchen.

"Those two'll be out there all night if we let them." Holly observed.

"Yep." Tom agreed. Being Matt's best friend, he had to listen to Matt raving on and on about Scarlett when they were together without her. "It gets sorta downright annoying, frankly."

"Well, it's almost impossible for them to not." Holly answered. "They're so alike in so many ways. Including combat style, which is a little scary."

"Speaking of which, why don't we go for a little sparring when they're done talking?" Tom asked, knowing it was Holly's favorite activity here.

Holly smiled at him. "Sure. I'd love to."

"I've missed you." Was the first thing Matt said. It just sort of slipped out...

Scarlett looked surprised, then, "Me too." she admitted.

A giant anvil lifted off Matt's chest. He was able to breath again. This was the most awkward part, the beginning. Once they started talking it became easier.

"So how are you and Holly doing?" Matt asked.

"Oh, excellent. She can be a little bossy sometimes, but not too bad. Anyways, it's really fun sparring with her. It's kind of cool to be fighting someone who has a completely different style than us. You know how we both tend to strike hard and fast first off? She's completely the opposite. She does nothing but block and evade everything I throw at her at first, then cranks her hostility meter up towards the end of the fight. She usually beats me." Scarlett said. "It's like, she knows I can't go all-out forever, so she just waits. Plus she's really good and wicked fast."

"Hmm, I'll keep that in mind the next time we go to spar." Matt said with a grin. Scarlett shouldered him in a friendly push. Matt shouldered her back.

"You've changed so much." Scarlett said.

Matt chuckled. "War and bloodshed tend to do that."

"Speaking of, as soon as we get back home, I need to show you my new place." She said.

"Oh yes, I haven't seen it yet."

"No, but you need to. It's really awesome."

"I'd like to."

They shared the silence for a minute, gazing down below at the gates.

"This place is so beautiful." Scarlett said. "This would be my dream vacation spot. I just wish when this is all over..."

"What?" Matt asked

"I just wish we had a chance to enjoy this. I mean, look at this. It's a tropical island. You've got your basic palm treas, banana trees, and a whole load of others I don't know. This place has so many wonders. Did you see the fresh fruit in the Officers' Mess? It was all picked right here, on the island. They had mangoes, bananas, coconuts, apples, plums, pears, all manner of stuff. All from right here. And the beaches! The beaches have pure white sand. We got to stroll by on patrol duty once. It was beautiful."

"Just like you." Matt said.

"Oh, come on. You watch to many movies." Scarlett said, though she sounded pleased, and Matt knew it.

They talked for a while longer, and then Holly appeared behind the sliding glass door. She opened it, and popping her head out, asked, "Anyone up for a little sparring?"

"Sure!" Matt and Scarlett answered.

"Alright, but I call I get Tom first." Holly said. "He's gonna get his butt handed to him." She said with a grin.