*Thanks to Dami-Chan for the logo

<Episode 4>

Outside the building Jack was sitting on the steps. Some kind of med tech from World Inc. kept flashing a light in his eyes and asked these really annoying questions. It got real old real quick. “Would you git,” he moved his head away, “I just got hit in the head, I’m fine.”

“Sir…,” he began before Rachel stopped him.

“He’s normal, trust me.” The tech snorted and packed his gear. She sat next to him on the steps and said, “That was a little close.”

“What do you mean? I had me right were he wanted me.” She rolled her eyes at the bad joke. “Actually it reminded me of a bully I knew back in high school. He had a mean uppercut too.” He rubbed his jaw more from the memory than from the pain. “Any idea why the team went in early?”

“One of the more conscious members said they were supposed to wait for a guy on a black motorcycle,” she explained. ”One pulled up before we did and nodded in their direction. They assumed it was you. The guy was gone by the time they hit the door.”

“Anderson has some bright ones working for him, that for sure.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some kind of investigation on what happened. Mitchell hates mistakes like this.”

“Good for him.” Jack got up from the steps and headed for the bike. Rachel followed close by.

“And were do you think you’re going?”, she asked.

Jack patted the bike’s handle,” I am taking this thing to the limit. I was holding back because you were on it.” She paled slightly, dumbfounded by the thought he could handle a faster speed. She quickly put that plan on hold.

“Friedman is going to want to check you out after this one.” He started to protest but she stopped that too. “And I’m your mission operator, so I can make that an order if I had to.”

“Alright,” he got on the bike. “Need a lift?”

“No I’m going to catch a ride with one of the others.” She turned to watch the last car as it was pulling away. Jack was almost positive she said a cuss word in French. Keeping a straight face he held out the helmet. She took it and got on, “Keep it to the speed limit and I can guarantee you can have all day tomorrow to play with your new toy.”

Jack grinned, “Deal.”

***

The echoes of the howl slowly faded away in the house, and the blue monkey quickly reverted back to his human form. He had decided to wait a few hours after the humans left the building. He had come in the back way in case the front was still being watched. The moment he entered the smell of Drakan blood assaulted his senses. At that moment he knew what happened. The video footage from the hidden security room confirmed it. He popped the tape out of the VCR. That old fool would have to believe him now.

***

Anderson walked the halls of his company, nodding to everyone he met. He went out of the way to be pleasant to the one he remembered snubbing on the day of the ceremony. He always tried to keep his employees happy, Anderson saw everyone who worked for him as part of his pack. And the way he figured it an unhappy employee was practically an invite for a competitor to come into his territory. He would not have that.

He ran into Haily as he exited an elevator. How fortunate, he wanted to talk to her, “Miss Haily.”

“Mr. Anderson,” she said pleasantly. She was still wearing a more casual look like she did yesterday. He looked around the immediate area and didn’t see who he was expecting.

“Where’s Mr. Davidson? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“He’s taking a little R&R sir. Taking on three Drakan in two days I figured it couldn’t hurt.”

“Of course, we don’t want him to burn put too quickly now do we?” He gestured down the hallway, “Join me for a walk?” She agreed and they went down the hall. “I’m assuming Mr. Davidson has the KR-1000 with him?”

“That would be a safe bet,” she answered with a bit of a smile.

“I take it he found a part of the job he likes.”

“An angry Drakan couldn’t pry that bike away from him.” He chuckled politely at the joke. “Have you seen my report of the incident yesterday?”

“Yes I have, very thorough Miss Haily.”

“It was my first mission report and I wanted to make sure nothing was left out.”

“Relax, you did fine.” She was quiet for a bit. “Is something on your mind?”

“I was wondering about how the injured members of the scout team were doing. I was trying to find Mitchell to find out how they were.”

“Mitchell told me about it last night. There were a few cracked ribs and other bones and that one poor fellow who was gored in the shoulder. Outside of that they’re all fine. In fact I believe Mitchell is reminding them and his other teams of proper procedure right now.”

“I hated putting that in my report but…”

“You did the right thing,” he assured her. “Believe me Mitchell would have come after you if you didn’t. I’ve seen him grill people, it’s not pleasant to watch. In fact I would rather face an ‘angry Drakan’ with a dull butter knife than be interrogated by him,” he said with a smile, Haily smiled back.

They came to another set of elevators and he decided now would be a good time to part ways. “I have to check on something on another floor, so if you will excuse me.”

“Of course,” she said

“Thanks for walking with me,” the elevator doors opened and he stepped through before he remembered something. Before the door closed he held out a hand to stop them. “Oh Miss Haily,” she turned to face him. “If you can convince Mr. Davidson to stay in tomorrow stop by R&D. I believe there is something that could help him in future battles.”

“I’ll let him know as soon as I see him.”

“Good,” Anderson let the door closed. Sometimes you had to keep a potential competitor happy as well.

***

Jack parked the bike in the World Inc. garage grinning ear to ear. He’d been dreaming about having a machine like this for as long as he could remember. Now if he didn’t have to be turned into a freak in order to get it. Turning off the engine he got off and headed for the elevator.

He hated coming back here, he wanted to find his mom. But he told Anderson he’d stay until he got the monkey. And he was always told to keep his word, no matter how disgusted it made you. Besides he still had questions he needed answers to, with more coming to mind every day. Like why his first assignment took place in his mom’s old neighborhood. It was just too much of a coincidence to him. If the Drakan had one safe house in the city there could have been more. With all the cameras this place had watching the city that was the only they could find. It smelled a little fishy to him.

Or it could be his distrust of rich people. Either way he figured he had time to sort it out.

Jack reached his floor and walked out. The place was quiet at this time of night. He kinda preferred it that way. The fewer people in the building the less he had to worry about somebody turning into a bull or a snake or something. As he approached his room he heard voices coming from it. Jack stopped right outside the door and peered inside. A few of the guys from the scout team were inside his room. What was going on here?

“I still can’t believe how high that thing jumped,” one of them said.

“No kidding, who would have thought a guy who turned into an elephant could jump that high,” said a second one. “Of course anything can get some air with the proper motivation.”

“Yeah, said the first one, “good thing we had our…”

“Good thing Davidson showed up,” said a third voice he couldn’t see.

“Right,” the first one said slowly. “That thing went nuts after it saw us. I thought we were going to die.”

“Hey Jack,” Mitchell came up from behind him and surprised him. “I was wondering when you were going to show up. Man you must have given that motorcycle quite a work out.” The other three in the room came out like they weren’t saying anything. No point in asking questions now.

“Yeah I got a pretty good feel for her now,” he told him. “Almost lost it a few times but I can handle her.”

“Good to hear. Did you try out the lasers? That the first thing I would have done.”

“I got off a couple of practice shots,” he admitted.

“Make sure you do that a lot. You never know when you’re going to need an accurate shot with them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He pointed to the other three, “So what’s this all about?”

“The guys wanted to buy you a drink,” Mitchell told him.

“Yeah man,” said one he recognized as the third voice, “you saved our hides yesterday. Me and the other wanted to thank you.”

“Hey just doing my job,” he told them. Jack wasn’t in the mood to be in a group right now. Particularly this group so he made up an excuse. “Besides I’m still a little wiped out. I’m just gonna get some sleep in.”

“Ok we’ll do it some other time,” the one who had the first voice said. “You know, I thought they were nuts when they told us only one guy was going to back us up.”

Mitchell slapped Jack hard on the back, “I told you this guy was something else. I’ll see you tomorrow buddy.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Jack watched them leave before entering his room. He took off his jacket and tossed it on a chair absentmindedly. He sat on the edge of the bed and thought about what he just heard before Mitchell showed up. Another question he needed an answer to. And he wasn’t sure if he was going to like the answer to this one when he got it.

***

When Rachel returned to work that morning Jack wasn’t in his room. She eventually found him in the cafeteria. Walking up to him she saw he was staring out into space, sitting in front of him was a bowl of soggy cereal. How long was he like this? She stood there waiting to be noticed. It took a few moments before he looked at her. “Never took you for the blue jean wearing type.”

Rachel took the seat in front of him, “There’s a lot about me you don’t know about.”

“I know you swear in French.”

“You speak French?”

“Not a word. But I heard my Mom cuss out my Uncle enough times that I can recognize the tone.”

“You can huh?”

“I may not know what’s being said but I can usually tell when somebody getting cussed out.” He returned his attention to his cereal. Jack looked a little dismayed when he saw the mush in his spoon and dropped it back into the bowl. “So what’s in the package?”

“It’s yours.” She gave him the brown envelope she was carrying. “You got a new driver license, IDs, a new social security number.” Jack raised an eyebrow at that one. “You’re technically dead, so the higher ups said you needed a new one. I don’t get it either.” She wasn’t looking foreword to saying this next part, “And your checks are in there too.”

“My checks?”, he said slowly.

“Mr. Anderson is treating you like an outside contractor. You get paid for the jobs we give you.”

“So this is my Drakan blood money?”

“I know it’s not a pleasant thought but you need something to live on.”

“I guess Allen doesn’t want me mooching off the company more than necessary.” Jack pulled out a white envelope and opened it. “I wonder what a freelance Drakan killer makes.” He pulled out the check and his jaw fell, “Whoa. Does Allen know they’re paying me this much?”

“I think Allen would have a stroke if he knew what Anderson was paying you.” He started looking depressed as he pulled out two more checks. “Does it help to know that it bothers me too?”

“Not really,” he admitted.

“Let’s put this in your room. We can figure out what you can do about them later. Mr. Anderson wanted me to take you down to R&D. He said there might be something down there to help you out.”

“Oh joy.”

It took a few minutes for Jack to find a place to put the checks. He didn’t looked all the thrilled about going to R&D. More than likely he wanted to go out and play with his toy some more. Hopefully what ever R&D had come up with would lighten his mood. Judging by how anxious he was getting it had better be good.

Rachel led him to R&D. Showing their IDs to the guard she let him go in first. Like with the with the command center Jack stopped inside the door. She saw Tim talking to Barry by a nearby computer and she pushed him in that direction. Barry put down whatever device they where discussing and turned toward them. “Rachel, Jack how are you doing today?”

“We’re fine,” she told them. “Mr. Anderson said there was something down here that could help Jack.” She noticed he was looking around the room. He looked disappointed for some reason, “Jack?”

He looked at her, “You promised me there’d be a vampire.”

“Ignore him,” she told them.

“It’s over here.” Tim led them to a table holding various objects and picked up a grey cylinder. As he handed it to Jack she wondered what use that thing was going to be.

So did Jack, “I’m suppose to poke them to death with this thing or something?”

“Snap it,” Tim said while making a flicking motion with his fist.

“Snap it,” Jack said more in mock as he did the motion. The top part of the cylinder extended about three feet. He snapped it in the other direction and the other end extended the same length. “Ok, that’s cool.”

“Glad you like it,” Barry said as he took the staff from him. He twisted it in the center and it returned to it’s original size. Handing it back to Jack he said, “It’s only a prototype at this point. We have a few ideas on what to add to it but this should do you until we get that one finished.”

“It’s designed,” Tim added, “to fit between the handle bars of the KR-1000. So you always have it with you.”

“Cool, I’ll go see if it fits right now.” Jack turned around and walked out without saying good bye.

“Great,” Rachel said, “you just gave him something else to play with on that bike.”

***

Anderson hung up the phone. Mitchell stood in front of the desk waiting patiently. “Williams’ people just spotted another rebel. She’s contacting Haily and Davidson as we speak

“Are you sure we shouldn’t send a team in first? I’m sure some of the boys would like to,” Mitchell started grinning, “‘scout ‘ the area again.”

Anderson didn’t show any sign of emotion, “I sure they would. But we can’t have these scouting accidents too often. Davidson would get too suspicious and I don’t care for some of the looks he giving me as it is. Besides he was designed to operate alone, it’s about time he started doing exactly that.”

***

Jack brought the bike to a stop inside an alley opening. He waited a few moments for Rachel to pull up behind him in her car. Hanging the helmet on the handle bar he looked down the alley. Jack hoped there wasn’t another spider down there waiting for him. “Are they sure this is the right spot?”

“Heather and her team are rarely wrong,” Rachel answered.

“Huh.” Jack got off the bike and took the collapsible staff from it’s holder. “So how are we playing this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do I go in alone or do you go in with me?”

“Since I’m the mission operator I’m suppose to be back at the command center talking to you through an earpiece.”

Jack turned his head to look at her, “Why aren’t you?”

“I’m a little more hands on than that.”

Jack kept the comment he had to himself and just nodded. As he led the way down the alley he noticed this one was a lot straighter than the one he fought the spider in. He didn’t even want to think what that thing could have done with a larger space. The end of the alley was bricked off, a dead end. “Guess there’s a first time for everything.”

Rachel pulled out a cell phone, “I’m going to call Heather and see if we went into the wrong one.”

“You mean they couldn’t call and tell us we went into the wrong one?”

Before she could answer Jack saw somebody on the roof above them. The person suddenly jumped and landed right in front of them. The red haired woman slowly stood straighter as she looked at them. Jack took a step foreword, ready for an attack. The woman sniffed the air, “Drakan blood.”

“Not again.” Before she said anything else Jack brought up his left arm across his chest. The grey metal belt appeared around his waist. He waved the arm to the left, but before he could raise his right arm she spoke again.

“The smell is on both of you.”

“The elephant,” Rachel said out loud. The woman face grew angry when she said that and changed into a red jack rabbit.

Jack raised his right arm to his face. “Henshin!,” he shouted as he slammed his right hand on top of the belt. The moment he was in his armor Jack quickly flicked his right wrist extending the staff to it’s full length. The rabbit took the time to tie it’s ears behind it’s head, then waved him on with one hand. Jack charged in swinging the staff at the rabbits head. The rabbit caught it with one hand. “Not good,” he muttered.

Before he knew it the rabbit had punched him with her free hand. She nailed him five times with the staff before spinning in place and hitting a kick to his chest. Jack flew back and landed on his butt. The rabbit started spinning the staff around in some very complex looking maneuvers before letting it rest in a crook of her arm. With her free hand she waved him on again. “Great a kung fu expert.” He quickly got to his feet and the rabbit tried to spear him with the end of the staff. Jack caught it and braced himself in case she tried to throw him. It wasn’t, instead she was slowly pushing him back using the strength of her legs.

Thinking quickly Jack pulled on the staff catching it off guard. As she stumbled foreword he caught her with a clothesline. Jack tried to use the staff to pin her down but the rabbit kneed him in the side a couple of times to get him off of her. He held his ribs as she kicked herself up. The rabbit swung the staff but he ducked and got in a punch to it’s stomach. The rabbit took a step back so he went in to press his advantage. He fell into it’s trap as she raised her head quickly and caught him under the chin. Then she leaped at him with the staff across his chest. The rabbit had him pinned against the wall and she was still pushing. Jack grabbed the staff as close to the middle as he could and twisted, hoping she wasn’t gripping the staff too tightly so this wouldn’t work.

The staff returned to it’s original size to the rabbits surprise. Jack nailed her with a head butt and they both dropped the staff. Not giving up the advantage he created Jack kept punching the rabbit in the gut and head. The moment the meter started flashing he spun around and hit a side kick to it’s stomach. Unlike the elephant she went flying back. Quickly he pushed the button under the belt. The two mini turbines in the belt started spinning and he ran at the moment he felt the charge go down his leg. Jack jumped up and aimed his right leg at her. The rabbit saw it and crossed it’s arm in front of her to block. His foot hit her arms and the charge caused her to fly back. In moments she exploded.

***

The blond haired man walked up to an old man sitting on an old porch. The old man didn’t look all that pleased to see him. “I hope you don’t think you’re going to change my mind.”

“Of course not,” He said plainly. He pulled the video cassette out of his jacket, “I just want to show you what we’re up against.”