<Episode 15>

Jack ducked a punch from the hammerhead and cracked the lizard in the head with the staff. The rebel leader and the others ran in to help these two. He jumped over a red lion with a scar on its chest as it tried to grab him. When he landed Jack kicked the leader in the chest, turned and rammed the end of the staff into the lion’s gut. Jack tried to drive it through the things as he use the Drakan to knock down the hammerhead. A red fish of some sort hit him with a straight right that he felt through the helmet. He spun around and took a home run swing with the staff into the fish’s side. The hammerhead grabbed the staff suddenly as the tiger planted its shin into his gut. Jack went down to a knee as the hammerhead let go of the staff to come in to kick him in the head.

He tried to get off his knees but something pushed him pack down and tried to keep him there. Pushing up just enough to turn over he let a fist fly. A blue mantis’s mandibles went wide as it cried out in pain, he guessed it was a guy. Rocking up then back he kicked it where its spine should have been to knock it foreword. Jack reached for the staff but the lizard shot out its tongue at the staff and flung it away. “Son of a …,” Jack muttered as he backed up to get some room between them. The Drakan regrouped as well and tried to circle him. Looking quickly he saw that the staff didn’t land that far away, it was just a matter of getting to it. Easier said than done.

Trying an old trick that worked for him back in high school he made a move toward the leader. The shark and mantis moved to protect him. Jack stopped and changed direction and bowled over the lizard. He rolled off and went for the staff before the lion tackled him to the ground. A red furry hand hauled him up while the claws on the other slashed at the back of his neck. He kicked a foot back that the lion caught and flipped him around and knocked him down. The fish jumped over the lion and stomped a foot into his chest. The armor barely held up, but it still hurt like hell. Both of them picked him up by the arms and held him in place as the mantis jumped up and aimed a kick at him. For a brief moment he was back in the nightmare and freaked. “NO!”, He flung the lion in front of him to take the kick. With his right arm free he started raining punches at the fish’s head. The tiger leaped up and kneed him in the chest. It roared as it raised a clawed hand over its head.

Jack fell back and put his foot to its stomach to flip it over. He barely ducked a kick by the fish. He got up quickly and elbowed it in the back of the head. A roar caused him to turn and see the hammerhead come at him. Jack picked it up over his head and slammed the thing to the ground. The tiger kicked him square in the back the forced him into a palm strike to the chest by the lion. Then both of them grabbed him and threw him over the rest of the group. He landed and saw stars that cleared to reveal a blue insect foot coming right at him. Jack grabbed the foot to deflect the blow. The mantis guarded itself to protect its lower region from another punch. Jack got to a knee and did throw a punch, right at its knee. The crack was audible as the leg bent backwards and it went down screaming. He didn’t have a moment to breathe as the fish jumped on top of him and started pounding away.

***

Rachel paced back in forth in front of the car and motorcycle outside of the cave. Several times she almost went inside to see what was happening but stopped. Jack asked her to stay outside for this assignment and she said she would. What could she really do to help him out in there any way? It was him against who knew how many in there. But she was also his mission operator. She promised herself that she would personally keep track of every assignment he would be assigned to. So she wandered close to the mouth of the cave to see if she could hear anything. There was a scream that she didn’t think was human. Or at least that’s what she told herself.

“The hell with it,” she reached into a pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Maybe Mitchell had an assault team near by and they could get here before it was too late. There was no chance in hell of that happening of course and she knew it, but she didn’t want to admit it. She should have insisted that a team went with them on this one. Rachel was about to press send when she heard a noise. It didn’t come from the cave. In fact it sounded like a few cars coming to a stop. She didn’t have to travel far before she saw a couple of vans that the assault team used and Mitchell was motioning for his men to fall in. She was glad to see them, but why were they here? Nobody told her they were part of the plan.

***

Jack battled his way to his feet as the meter started flashing. The lion threw a punch at him that he barely saw coming. He grabbed it and flipped it over his shoulder, then his hand went to the right pod and twisted it up He blocked a kick from the lizard as the charge went up his side and down his right arm. Jack aimed the fist at the center of the thing’s chest and nailed it. In the biggest stroke of luck he ever had it crashed into the fish and exploded. The fish fell backwards smoking and it wasn’t moving. The other looked at their fallen comrades, he took that moment they gave him to grab a quick couple of breathes. The tiger balled up a fist then screamed in anger and charged. Jack kicked out on instinct that snapped its head back.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the hammerhead come at him with his staff in its head. The lion grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms back. Jack dropped to his knees to force the lion to lean over. The hammerhead couldn’t stop as it cracked the staff on top of the other one’s head. He got out from under it and grabbed the staff. Hoping they hadn’t heard about this one he twisted it to collapse to its original size. The hammerhead looked down in surprise as he kicked it in the gut to make it let go. Jack backed up as he snapped it back to its full length. He remembered a few fights back in high school were he was outnumbered for some reason. He never won any of those, something in his brain must have trying to tell him something.

The lion growled, “The stories said you were a demon.”

Oh yeah, some demon. His head was pounding. His body was aching like he couldn’t believe. Most of his muscles were just this side of feeling like Jell-O. And if it wasn’t for his reconstructed legs he doubted he’d even be standing right now. Jack took a deep breath and cracked his neck. “Bring it kitty cat.” Why in the hell did he say that? The tiger and the lion came at him. Well, Mom always said his mouth would get him in trouble.

***

Melissa tried to keep her mind off the fact Chris was fighting the Drakan Killer. She did plan to be out there with the others. If she looked confident of his victory then they should feel it too. That was the plan and she tried to make it work like Chris could. But he could do it and look like he wasn’t even trying, something she never mastered. So she ended up in Emily’s room. The old lady was sitting at her table nursing a tired looking plant. She looked so calm at the moment Melissa actually envied her. She knew deep down she was asking the impossible but she asked it anyway, “Are you sure you don’t know what’s happening?”

“My gift provides me with glimpses of what might happen,” she answered. Then she looked at her over her glasses. “Not once have they provided me the opportunity to do play by play,” she said with a smile and a small chuckle.

She sat down feeling the frustration, “I must look like an idiot.”

“You look like someone who is worried about her brother. Even if you are conflicted about it,” she added softly.

“That noticeable huh?”

“Very, but some what understandable. Your brother has to kill the man who saved your life.” She picked up a pitcher and poured some water into the pot. “But the man didn’t earn the name ‘Drakan Killer’ because he was nice to us. I’d imagine that’s why you set up that little surprise without Christopher knowing.” Nothing seemed to get past her.

“You ‘saw’ that I’d imagine.” Out of habit Melissa made sure the cane was out of her reach. She and Chris were bopped with it more than once growing up after such a comment

“More like I heavily suspected, and judging from you reaction I must be right.”

“Like you said, the Killer got the name for a reason. Is it wrong for me to help my brother out?” she asked a little too defensively

“Normally I would say no,” she sighed heavily. “You have to remember fate brought them together now for a reason. Now it’s up to them to decide which path they take from here.”

***

The hammerhead threw him over its head. Jack grabbed the staff after he landed and looked up. It came at him with its mouth wide open. He jammed the end of the staff into its mouth. The shark gagged and went backwards holding it mouth. The tiger went to check on him as the lion got between them. Jack glanced at the meter, it was close to flashing again. How long has he been getting his butt kicked here? Ok it was official he had to get out of here while he was still breathing. He turned to run but something tripped him up. Crap, he forgot about the mantis. Jack started kicking at until it let go and he scooted away. He used the staff to get to his feet and stumbled backwards.

“Christopher!”, a new voice cried out.

“What?” the leader looked around. Ten more Drakan ran toward them and gathered around the tiger, facing him.

Jack fell to a knee, “Oh come on!”

“What are you doing here?”, the tiger demanded.

“Your sister sent us to watch your back,” a blue horse answered.

“I told her to make sure you stayed out of this.”

“And she told us to make sure you stayed alive.” The horse pushed it toward an opening. “Get out of here, we’ll finish this thing off for good.” The lion had to drag the tiger toward the opening.

Jack got to his feet again. The meter started flashing again while they were talking. An idea came to him and he only had one shot of making it work. Taking a moment to set himself he ran at the group. They stood there waiting for him. As he ran he moved his grip on the staff to the end of the staff and raised it up. He planted the other end on the ground as he reached them and jump. Jack vaulted over the group as he let go of the staff and landed on the other side. He told himself, “don’t stop,” over and over in his head as he twisted the pod down and ran at the leader.

***

Emily froze as a vision of something dark came to her. Suddenly Christopher’s path became very clear. She tried to keep herself calm for Melissa’s sake. The child never had the gift like she did but she could sense what others around her were feeling from time to time. It wasn’t enough as she suddenly went very rigid. Tears started to form, “No.”

She got up and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s all right child, it’s all right. But you must be strong for the others. They are going to need you now more than ever.”

***

The moment he jumped everything seemed to move in slow motion. The lion saw what was happening and tried to push its leader out of the way. The tiger grabbed the lion and threw it out of the way. Jack extended his right leg and the tiger stood there. It didn’t even move or tried to block, it didn’t even react as he came closer. His foot came into contact with the tiger’s shoulder. It flew back as he landed, Jack turned to the oncoming group. He heard the explosion as he burst threw the group and kept running. He was expecting them to pile on top of him at any moment. The staff was slowly getting closer, it was now or never. He jumped for it, grabbed it as he rolled to a knee and got the staff up to block the first attack. It didn’t come.

The Drakan surrounded the flaming remains, some dropped to there knees. Almost as one they looked at the ceiling and howled. Jack remembered hearing a similar howl before, back at World Inc., back when all this started. Then he was confused, now it shook him to his core and his blood went cold. He could hardly breathe, it felt like he was going to have a breakdown or something. Jack collapsed the staff and had to walk away, get as far away from here as he could. He needed to get some air, clear his head. Try to figure out what the hell he was feeling. He chanced a look back, some of the Drakan were staring at him, like they were going to attack him again. Right now he didn’t care, he just wanted out of here.

“Now!”, a bunch of black uniformed men burst out and took a position around the top row. Before what he was seeing could register they opened fired. The Drakan went down and they kept firing.

“No,” what he was feeling started being replaced by anger, “No!”. Jack raced up the steps and grabbed the closest one. He slammed him against the wall and shouted, “What are you doing?!”

“Following orders…”

He cut him off, “What orders?”

“What you don’t take out we take down. No Drakan leaves alive.”

“Who gave you that order?”

“Anderson did.”

Jack looked back into the stone stadium. The Drakan were lying on the ground in a growing pool of blood. His grip tightened around the man’s uniform. Yelling in anger he tossed the man down the steps. He stormed toward the opening he came in knocking whoever was in his path out of the way. “That son of a bitch!”

***

Anderson sat at his desk awaiting word from the operation. This was the main reason he regretted allowing Haily to accompany Davidson on his missions. If she stayed here and talked to him threw a link than he would have instant word of what was happening. The phone rang and he quickly picked it up, “Yes?” Mitchell was on the other end.

“Mission accomplished Mr. Anderson.”

Best news he heard all day. “Excellent. What is Davidson’s condition?”

“He’s alive but according to my men he didn’t appear happy. You might want to get out of there, I don’t think I can beat him back.”

“Don’t worry Mitchell, I’m sure I can handle myself.” He looked at a drawer on his desk, “Armstrong and I already had something built in case things get out of hand.”

***

Rachel heard the gunshots and hurried back to the cave and went in. She wasn’t sure how far she got when Jack rushed past her. “What’s going on in there?” He didn’t answer her, he just powered down and kept on going. “Jack, wait a minute. Did Mitchell and…”

“Not now,” he finally said, there was something in his voice she never heard before. Jack looked at the staff in his hands like it was the first time he seen it. He got a disgusted look on his face and threw it down. She picked it up and saw there was a hint of a reddish liquid on one end of it. He got on his motorcycle and rode off. Rachel put the staff in an inside pocket of her coat as she got in her car and went after him. A quick glance in her rear view mirror showed several assault team members coming out of the cave. What happened in there?

What ever happened in there Jack was taking it pretty heavily. She was barely keeping him in sight on the road. Before long she realized where he was heading, back to World. Inc. What kind of damage management was she going to have to do now? But for whom, that was the big question at the moment. Jack parked the motorcycle by the front door and went in. She parked behind him and raced too cut him off. She saw Jack had gotten to the desk before he fell to his knees and threw up. “Jack!”, she went to his side. He pushed her away and got back on his feet. He looked at the secretary behind the desk.

“Where’s Anderson?”, he demanded angrily.

“In his office.” He went off again. She tried to calm him down but he wasn’t listening. Everybody they past gave them a wide birth as they passed. Actually part of her was glad he was still moving. It looked like if he stopped he’d fall over. She formed a quick plan in her head, let Jack say what he had to say then get him to Freidman as soon as possible right after. He saw Anderson’s door and seemed to get another burst of energy.

Jack walked up and kicked the door in. “Oh man,” she muttered. She looked at the door, it was hanging on by one hinge. This was coming out of something alright.

“Mr. Davidson,” Anderson didn’t look all that surprise to see him in this state, “I understand you are upset but…”. Jack grabbed him by the shirt collar and slammed him against the wall.

“Jack put him…”

“Shut up!”, he shouted before returning his attention back to Anderson. “What kind of man are you!? What kind of man would organize that kind of massacre? What in the hell did they ever do to you to deserve that?”

Anderson smiled calmly, “I already told you, they wanted to live outside of what worked for centuries. I couldn’t have that.”

“Why does that matter to you so much?”

“It offends me.”

“You’re nuts.”

“No, I’m saner than most people I know.” His eyes went feral looking, cat like. “And I don’t appreciate being hassled in this manner.”

“What the hell?”, Jack let go slightly, “You’re one of them?” Rachel backed up for the door as he changed into a green cheetah. Anderson grinned as he grabbed Jack in return and threw him into the opposite wall. He changed back and went into a desk drawer. Jack got to his feet and put his left arm across his chest. The belt appeared around his waist and a small device appeared in Anderson’s hand. Before she could warn him Jack finished the movement and shouted, “Henshin!” Anderson pressed the thing in his hands as Jack brought his hand down on top of the belt. A whistling like sound she never heard before filled the air as the armor formed. Then it faded away surprising them both. “What…?”, he looked at her.

“I didn’t know about this,” she told him.

“Did you really think,” Anderson said, “I would have a weapon designed and not have a way to counter act it in case it turned on me?”

Mitchell ran in with his gun up. “He’s a Drakan,” she told him, “cover him.” He looked at Anderson then pointed his gun at her. “Wait, didn’t you here what I said?”

Jack fell back down, “Why am I not that surprised?”

“I already knew” Mitchell said casually. “Why do you think he confides in me?”

“So what do you turn into Mitchell?”, Jack said between breaths. “I’m guessing a rat.” Then he turned to her with an accusing look in his eyes. “Or is that you?”, he spat. He didn’t actually think she could be in one, could he?

“Don’t blame the girl Jack,” Mitchell told him. “She didn’t know, we weren’t sure how well she could act. As for me I’m as human as the two of you. Well,” he grinned, “as human as she is anyway. I still got all my original parts, unlike some people in the room.” Jack sat there fuming.

“Now don’t be crude Mitchell,” Anderson said as picked up Jack by the arm and pushed toward the door. “But we do have a problem on our hands at the moment. See if Dr. Armstrong has something that could remedy part of it. I believe he was working on some kind of control unit when he was developing the Fusion system. At the time I didn’t think it was necessary, but let’s see if he modified it. As I recall when placed the wearing couldn’t do anything without being told what to do first. I mean everything. And take her with you, I need to figure out if we can trust her like we did before this. And if not, I’ll figure out what to do with her.”

***

“I told him it was a mistake not giving you to me,” Mitchell told him as he led them down a service hallway. Apparently there were some holding cells designed for Drakan prisoners under the first floor. These guys thought of everything alright. They even had Rachel here pretending to be a prisoner too. “This never would have happened if you were placed in my unit. But he wanted someone who could operate independently. It was good in theory, I’ll give him that, but they didn’t have to assign you to someone to make you even more independent.”

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Rachel told him, “he’s always been like this. Even you couldn’t beat it out of him.”

“Not for lack of trying. I don’t even know why he was picked for this project. I had guys hurt as bad as he was on that mission, one of them should have been put in. I don’t know what Anderson saw in this bastard.”

“Keep talking,” he mumbled. Mitchell jammed the gun into his back.

“What was that ‘buddy’? I got to be honest with you, you don’t look like you can put up much of a fight right now.”

“That’s how you like you’re targets right? Get them when they can’t fight back?”

“Oh get real Jack, this is a war. You kill these things all the time, so don’t get on a high horse and preach to me.” They reached the ground floor according to the sign. If there was a way out of this he wasn’t seeing it. Rachel coughed a few times. He looked over as she opened her coat slightly, there was the staff. She pulled it out so Mitchell wouldn’t notice. Then she snapped it back to extend one end. It caught Mitchell in the leg, “What are you…,” was all he got out before Jack tagged him on the chin with a right. He grabbed the gun and kicked him in the gut. Whipping the gun across his face knocked him out. Rachel collapsed the staff and handed it to him.

“There’s fire exit over there,” she pointed out. He didn’t move.

“Why are you helping me? You work for them.”

“I was in the dark as much as you were. What I knew I told you.”

“Yeah right.”

She swore in French. “After all this time have I ever given you any reason not to trust me?” God, he wanted to say yes so bad right then she could probably taste it. But if he had to be honest with himself, there was maybe one thing he could think of, that uh she uttered when he asked her how she found him. But then there were all the apparent arguments she fought on his behalf. Rachel also went out of her way to make him feel like less of a freak. And right now, as much as he hated to admit it, they were in the same boat.

He pointed a finger in her face, “Don’t make me regret this.” Jack tried the door, it wouldn’t budge, either stuck or locked. He backed up a few feet and rammed the door open. It lead to a side alleyway. Rachel got out and headed for the sounds of the street. He dumped the gun into a dumpster and followed her.

She peeked around the corner. “Your Uncle ever give you any tips about this?” She looked at him, “You think you can make it?”, she sounded concerned.

“I’m on my sixth wind,” was all he said as he checked things out. His bike was still out in front of the building. He pushed her around the corner and headed for it. Rachel was going for her car but he stopped her. “Get on the bike,” she didn’t argue. Quickly he started the engine and rushed off. There had to place in this city were he could hide out for awhile. He should have listened to his Uncle more when he talked about it.

***

“So he got away.” Mitchell remained silent, but that mark on his face spoke volumes. Haily and Davidson were a little more resourceful than he thought. A pity things worked out the way they did, that could have been helpful to him in the war against what was left of the rebels. “When will your men return to base?”

“They’re still securing the Arena, but they should be back within the hour. In the meantime I’ll get another team together and track Jack and Rachel down. I’ll have someone tell them to get on the case the moment they return.”

“Let’s give them a few more hours before we go after them, shall we.” Mitchell wasn’t sure what to say.

“I’m not sure that’s wise, the longer we wait the harder they’ll be to find.”

“I always thought the hunt was a little more interesting if the prey had a slight edge.” Mitchell didn’t look convinced, but he would follow orders. “It’s not like you can’t locate Davidson whenever you want.”

“Rachel could find away to counter act it.”

“Like I said, it makes things more interesting.” Mitchell nodded and left the room. It was a problem he admitted to himself. Haily might know a couple of things that could possibly hurt him, but not by much. Davidson, on the other hand, was basically a loaded weapon in a man who could be feeling like prey and if he thought he had nothing to lose it could get messy. But there was an upside to today’s situation. The rebels were dealt a devastating blow. He doubted they could recover, and that could only help him in the long run. Then his thoughts turned to the late Christopher. He was a rather formidable foe over the years, he felt the need to say something. Anderson looked out the window over looking the city, his city, and sighed. There was only one thing he could say, “Farewell cousin.”