<Episode 18>

“We got a slight problem,” Jack said as soon as he saw Rachel. He was surprised to see her outside the warehouse they were hiding out at. Well, it wasn’t much of a warehouse, it hasn’t been used for as long as he could remember. He only knew about because his Uncle would hide out here every so often, usually after a hot “job”. He was surprised that when his Uncle showed it too him it had a couple of escape routes built in, one were his bike was quietly resting. That amazed him when his Uncle showed him the place when he was younger. He couldn’t blame Rachel for standing outside though. They both had been cooped up in the place for the last two days. Actually he wasn’t to sure how much longer they could stay there and not get caught.

Rachel, who was having her own doubts about the place, sighed and started rubbing her forehead, “Do I even want to know?”

“Nick won’t help.”

“I knew I didn’t want to know,” she started rubbing with both hands now. “And why won’t he help?

“Well, seeing how we’re not only wanted by the police but the Army and the US government we are officially too hot to handle. He said he was doing me a favor by forgetting he saw me.” He went to rub the back of his head but stopped, he was suddenly worried about moving the hood and foil. So he started scratching the beard that was growing instead. He really, really hated having to think about stuff like this now.

“Not to mention World Inc., the rebels and any Drakan not involved in this conflict we come across. I’m assuming you didn’t tell him about that part.”

“What sane person would believe it without proof? Guess I could have powered up.” Then he added when it looked like she was going to say something, “I’m joking.”

“I don’t see how you can.” She looked at the night sky before asking, “You sure we can trust him to keep his word?”

“Out of all the guys my Uncle hung around with he was the one I trusted the most. Hell, I think I trusted him more than my own Uncle.”

“I’m sorry, but I have to meet this Uncle of yours one of these days.”

“Well if we’re caught maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get sent to the same prison. I’ll make the introductions.” She tried not to smile, but there was a small one playing on her lips. Things were still messed up between them but they were getting better. But he doubted things would be the way they were before this crap started. “We better get back and figure out what we’re going to do now.”

She nodded as they walked off. A sound caught their attention, somebody seeing him on the street was the first thought racing through his head. But it wasn’t, two guys had apparently grabbed a woman off the streets. His guts were twisting on the inside, he wanted to help but…. Jack was trying to force himself to turn around and try to live with it, hope… pray this wasn’t added to the nightmare. Then he got a good look at the woman, forgot everything he was just thinking and ran at them. “Let her go!”, he shouted and threw a right hook as the closest one turned around, not holding anything back. The first guy spun completely around before falling to the ground. The second guy let the woman go and tried to run. “No you don’t you son of a bitch!”, he grabbed him and threw him further into the alley.

Jack waved him on, the guy tried to run past him. He caught the bastard and threw him into a wall. Holding him to the wall with his left hand Jack stated wailing away with his right, again holding nothing back. A one sixty two fastball finally made him stop. Jack looked at the guys face, his nose was bent to one side among other things, and let him drop. He grabbed some newspaper and tried wiping the blood off the glove and made sure the hood was still in place. The last thing he needed was to give Anderson a clear signal from this damn chip in his head. He caught the woman trying to look at him out of the corner of his eye. He turned away and deepened his voice, “Get out of here.”

“What… who…,” she sputtered. This was tearing him up inside.

“Get out of here!”, he snapped. God he hated talking to her that way.

“But I wanted…,” Jack didn’t stay to listen, he just walked off praying she wouldn’t follow. He saw Rachel looking at him dumbfounded. This was going to be a tough on to explain. “Wait,” the woman said, “that’s the girl they’re looking for.” He could feel her staring at the back of his head. Please not here, not like this. “Jack?”, she put a hand on his shoulder and said a little more urgently, “Jack?”

He just looked straight ahead. Lie to her you moron, he told himself. Don’t get her involved in this. Uncle Pete already screwed her life up as it is. Tell her Jack who. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Yell at her to go away. Break her heart damn it, something to get her away from here. Tears started to form in his eyes as she reached for his chin to make him face her. Jack grabbed the hand and felt it trembling. He closed his eyes, he couldn’t to this, not to her. He finally looked at her and she put a hand to her mouth, looking like she just saw a ghost. God why was it so hard to speak. “Hey Mom.”

***

Was he trying to drive her crazy? All right she could see trying to help the poor woman. But going ballistic like that and then letting her get a good look at him. What in the hell was he thinking? Jack looked at her then said something to the woman. Whoever this woman was nodded, said something to him and headed back toward the street. Jack put his hands in his pockets and walked toward her. “Are you trying to get us caught?”, she asked but he kept on walking. “I’m talking to you.”

“I’ll explain it later.”

“How about you explain it now? How could you take a stupid risk like that?”

“Stupid risk?” He turned to her and snapped, “Fine when it’s your mother getting dragged into an alley I’ll just keep on walking!”

“Wait… what?”

“That was my Mom Rachel, what was I supposed to do?”

“Your Mom,” she was dumbstruck as he turned around. “But Mr. Anderson said his people couldn’t find her.” Jack stopped in his tracks, turning just enough to look at her.

“Ok, now we gotta talk.”

***

The hour was getting late and quite a few of his personnel had already left for the evening. There was some paperwork on his desk that needed his signature that he was taking his time with. A rival CEO in his city had invited him to a banquet to support whatever needy cause was trendy this month. He should probably finish this up and go. Anderson had already blown off the last two he was invited to and he had to keep up appearances. Even if being in a room with that many humans made him nauseous. The way these inferior being pretended to be superior to everything else. Davidson had no idea of the favor he did for him by making his armor blue, not that he would ever understand it.

A knock at his door caught his attention and Taylor walked in. Well it would distract him from the papers on his desk for a few moments. At the very least it would allow him to be fashionably late for the banquet. “What is it Mr. Taylor?”

“I realize it’s late sir but Dr. Armstrong called me last minute. The hand scanners are ready for field use.” Anderson just nodded in response. The scanners were designed to pick up Davidson tracking signal at relatively close range by using a tighter and stronger beam. He made a mental note to have some attached to the cameras on the outside. A more cost effective way of searching for them other than having several of his men out there on foot. “He says the maximum range is about twenty feet.”

“Hmm, I was hoping for a greater range but that will have to do for now. Is there anything else?”

“Yes sir there is,” he said as he put some folders on his desk. “Like you asked I talked to Mitchell and we narrowed the candidates for the task force leadership, temporarily of course, down to three. All we need is you final approval.”

“Fine I’ll look these over in the morning,” he picked one up and skimmed through it. He wanted Mitchell’s personal opinion on these men before promoting any of them. Not that he didn’t trust Taylor’s opinion on the matter, but Mitchell did train these men. It better be early in the morning, Mitchell was scheduled to go into the mark two program soon.

“We wouldn’t have to do this if Mitchell selected a new second in command,” Taylor commented. Anderson said nothing for a moment. They lost the previous second in the same conflict that delivered Davidson to them. He suspected that Mitchell held the fact Davidson survived and was bonded to the Fusion system over his own men against him.

“Perhaps,” Anderson told him, “but few had the experience and qualifications he did. If he was in better shape when they found him I might have considered him for the program.”

“Hmm,” his VP uttered. “Can I ask you something that has been bothering me?” Anderson leaned back in his chair and told him to continue. “Why did you pick Davidson for the Fusion program? I’ve gone over the reports of the incident and the medical resources I have access to and I can’t figure it out. Several of our men where qualified for the program. So what made him so special?”

“To be honest with you, I don’t really know. And I have asked myself that same question every so often since the decision was made. We had several men in the program’s prep stage. Several men who were very loyal and very dedicated I might add. But when I saw Davidson’s mangled form floating there in that tube next to the others, something told me he was the one to green light. I very rarely listen to my gut, as they say, but when I do it is rarely wrong. And up until recently he did not disappoint.”

“And you never thought this would happen?”

“I knew it was in the realm of possibilities. I also know we can handle the situation.” He turned his chair around and looked out the window at the night skyline. “I just wish I had the foresight to green light another one at the time.” As he sat there an idea came to him. There were a few still in the mark one prep stage. Surly one of them could be used. The person wouldn’t even have to beat Davidson, just keep him busy and dispose of the occasional rebel until Mitchell was ready. “Mr. Taylor,” he swung his chair back around, “have someone bring me the files on those who survived the incident. I want the information no later than two tomorrow.” Instead of complying Taylor looked confused. “Is there something in that order you did not understand?”

“Excuse me sir, but you only green lighted Davidson?”

“I believe that is what I said.”

“Then why was I recently handed a file on another one green lighted into the program at about the same time.”

“Another one?”, Anderson went back in his memories to when he gave the order. He personally gave the word on the spot, he pointed right at Davidson. There was no way another could have been green lighted without his say so. Allen, it had to be him. His files indicated he had everything to take over the company but not this. A back up plan perhaps, in case something went wrong or not fast enough. Perhaps something to personally take him out, that would be his style. Still somebody else had to know about this if Taylor was given a case file. “Is Armstrong still in the building?”

“I believe so.”

“Get him up here. And bring me that file.” He wanted answers and he wanted them now. Looks like he was missing that banquet after all.

***

Rachel sat on one of the cots they found while Jack took in what she just told him. “You told him to look for my Mom?”, Jack demanded. Oh yeah, he was reacting just like she thought he would.

“I asked him to look her so you could talk to her,” she explained. She was halfway expecting him to cut her off at some point. “I was trying to make things a little easier for you. But like I said Anderson kept telling me they couldn’t find any info on her.”

“I’m pretty sure they did,” he sat in a folding chair by the ratty old card table that was set up. “That first assignment they sent me on, the safe house and the elephant. The same one with the trap that damn monkey set for me. That was in my Mom’s old neighborhood.”

“Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I know it’s more than likely some weird coincidence, but it always seemed a bit strange to me.”

“Jack I didn’t think…”, she was at a lose for words, “I mean I never believed…” She couldn’t believe she handed Anderson a string to control Jack like a puppet with.

“I know it’s not your fault,” he said. Too bad she knew him well enough to know that a small part probably did. “We were both getting jerked around,” he gave her a sly grin, “and not in the good way either.”

She got the implied meaning, “Did you have to go to the gutter for that one?”

“Yes I did,” he answered matter of factly.

“Why for God sakes?”

“I’m a guy.”

Before she could say anything a knock at the door made her jump. It was strange though, two knock, then four and the three. Jack got up and went to the door and knocked once then three times then he put a hand on the doorknob. She quickly figured out who was on the other side, “You didn’t tell her where to find us?”

“Yell at me later,” he muttered before opening the door. For some reason he looked down and said, “Oh no, Rufus,” before backing up and letting his mother in. Rachel got a better look at her now, she had the same dark hair Jack did but her eyes were blue. She came in with a pet Taxi that she quietly put on the table. Jack just stared at the case as he closed the door. Nobody said anything for a while before he said, “Really want to make sure it’s me don’t you?

“I can’t think of a better test,” she said as she open the taxi and a brown tabby cat walked out surveying the area. It saw Rachel as she check it out and started rubbing against her arm. She scratched it behind the ear and it started purring up a storm. Jack’s Mom looked at him and said, “Well?”

He sighed, “Make sure the cat doesn’t runaway.” He walked up slowly and held out a hand to pet it. The cat saw him and started hissing and swiped at him with its claws. Jack backed up, looked at him Mom and asked, “Happy now?”

Rachel tried to calm the cat down, “What did you do to this cat?”

“I told you animals don’t like me.”

“I don’t believe that, you had to do something otherwise it wouldn’t be acting like this.”

“I didn’t do anything to the damn cat!”, he snapped. “Gah if you only knew how tired I am of saying that.”

Then his Mom took him into her arms, “My baby’s alive.” OK now she was officially confused. “Rufus had hated him from the moment they set eyes on each other.” She turned back to Jack and reached for the hood, “Let me get a good look at you.” He quickly put both hands on top of his heads to keep the hood firmly in place.

“Trust me that’s not a good idea.”

“What do you mean…,” she got a good look inside the hood, “is that foil in there? Jack what’s going on?”

“It’s long story Mom.”

“Oh trust me I got time. First I have a guy in a suit over a year ago telling me you’re dead. Then I turn on the news a few days ago and find out you’re wanted by the government.”

“It’s a really long story,” he amended.

“All this time and you couldn’t let me know you were alive?”, she smacked him on the arm.

“I wanted to, do you have any idea how many times I drove by the house? And what was I suppose to do? Walk up to the door and say ‘Hey, guess what’ ?”

“It would have been better than finding out the way I did.”

“I know, but things were… complicated.”

“Does it involve little miss thing over here?”, she jerked a thumb in her direction.

“Excuse me,” Rachel crossed her, “miss thing?” Jack got between them.

“She’s not the enemy Mom.”

“Jack I can talk for myself,” Rachel told him.

“Yeah, but you never argued against her before.”

His mom crossed her arms, “And what is that suppose to mean exactly?” Jack opened his mouth and saw the look on her face. He put his hands up and silently sat in a chair. “Whatever, I’m just glad my boys alive,” she put a hand on his shoulder and he put one of his on top of it. To her she said, “I’m sorry honey, I’m still a little shocked about this whole thing.”

“It’s all right Mrs. Davidson.”

“Call me Helen, all of Jacks friends do. I am assuming the two of you are friends.”

“I like to think we were before the current situation,” she told her.

“Right now we’re just kinda stuck with each other,” Jack added. Rachel was about to comment on that, all right go off on him, when he said, “I didn’t mean it like that.” Quickly changing the subject he turned to his mother. “I know I should be keeping a low profile these days, but when I saw those two drag you into the alley…”, he couldn’t finish the thought.

“Hey, I gotta pay the bill somehow.” Rachel’s eyes went wide as Jack groaned. She saw her discomfort and told her, “Honey, I’m joking.”

It took her a moment to get out, “Well I see where you get your sense of humor.”

“He should have taken more after me than he did his Uncle. What did you steal that got everybody in the country looking for you?”

“I didn’t steal anything,” Jack told her. Then he started rubbing his left arm, “Not that I had an option either way. It’s the main reason I talking to you right now.”

“Jack was in an accident, that much was true,” Rachel took over, Jack looked a little uncomfortable explaining this. “He was fitted with an experimental life support system. I was his… uh… his case worker.” It was close enough to the truth at any point.

“Case worker huh?”, she wasn’t sure if Helen believed her or not. She smacked Jack lightly on the arm, “So what happened, you miss a couple of payments?”

“That part is…,” he searched for the right word, “complicated.”

“So I hear,” she told him. They both looked at each other and started from the beginning. Not everything of course, they both left the Drakan and rebels out of it, just the basic of the situation. Although Jack did say he did some things he wasn’t exactly proud of. Helen took it all in quietly. Well, she did until Jack told her about his plan to split up and what happened afterwards. Then she went right into Mother mode. “You were going to leave this poor girl on her own when you had all that money?” She then proceeded to slap him on the back of the head.

“Ow!”, Jack grabbed his head.

“I raised you better than that.”

“Yes Mom.” She slapped him in the back of the head again.

“And don’t use that tone of voice with me young man.” After a moment she did it a third time. Despite all the crap he put her threw lately Rachel tried not to enjoy the sight all that much.

“What was that one for?”

“For thinking what you were thinking.”

“That your the best Mom in the world?”, he said right before getting out of range. She put her hand to her face.

“Sometimes I wonder who he takes after more me or Petey.”

“Petey was his Uncle right?” Rachel wondered out loud.

“He told you about him huh?” she sighed. “Petey moved in with us after I lost Ken in a car crash. Jack was only three months old when it happened. I try to stop myself from thinking about the type of man Jack could have been if he was around, and I wouldn’t trade who he is now for anything in the world. Although there are times I swear Ken possessed Jack because sometimes they act almost exactly alike.”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m second guessing or anything, but considering his ‘night job’,” Rachel felt weird asking this after that, “was he really the best person to bring in to help?” Helen chuckled a bit.

“You would not believe how many times I asked myself that. And I told myself the same thing again and again, if you can’t count on family who can you count on? Besides I’ve been handling my brother for years so he wasn’t going to be a problem. The people he hung around with on the other hand,” she went quiet for a bit. “It felt like an uphill battle on both sides at times, but I got us threw it.” Helen put Rufus back into the taxi, glanced at Jack then turned to her. She gave her that same sly grin that Jack sported more times than she cared to remember and said, “So… how has my boy been behaving himself?”

***

Mom stayed for a couple of hour, mostly telling some embarrassing stories about him. Naturally Rachel told a few more currents ones. Naturally he spoke only when spoken to. Not out of respect, because if he complained about any of it Mom had some really embarrassing stories she was sitting on. And Rachel was going to hard enough to be around as it was. He was surprised at how well they appeared to be getting along now. At one point he went to get the make shift storeroom they had to get something to eat and came back they looked at him and stifled a laugh, both of them. He made a mental note not to tick her off anytime soon.

The night ended with his Mom saying she would try to see him again as soon as she could. He wasn’t expecting it to be that morning with her pounding on the door. His concern quickly turned to worry as he let her in. “What wrong Mom?”

“You and Rachel have to get out of here. The police are coming, somebody saw you and followed you here last night.” Once again he was asking why me?

“I’m gonna kill Nick.”

“Nick was the one who told me, he was hoping I knew how to warn you.”

He turned to Rachel who was already packing her things. Jack did the same while grabbing some cans of food. She caught a couple he threw at her asking, “Any idea when they’ll be here?” The sound of sirens was followed by several cars screeching to a halt in front of the building.

His Uncle did say they were always around when you didn’t want them. “Answers that question,” Jack and his mom both said. He went to a wall and slide part of it back, revealing one of those hidden passages and the bike. Turning around he looked right at his mom. “This just got a bit more complicated,” he mumbled. No way he was going to leave her here. He pulled the envelope of money out of his pocket and put it in the backpack. Handing it to here he said, “You two take the bike I’ll go another way.”

“Jack now is not the time to split up,” Rachel argued.

“Listen to her,” his mom added.

“We don’t have time for a debate, go! I’ll meet you in the back alley by Arnold.” He pushed them toward the bike. As they got on Rachel gave her a slightly worried look. “She taught me how to drive these things so you’ll be in good hands.”

“What are you talking about, you’re better at driving these things than I am.”

Rachel uttered an, “Oh God,” as he closed the panel. He heard the bike’s engine start up and fad away as he backed away from the door. There was another way out on the opposite wall and he could have made it if he already didn’t make up his mind a few minutes ago. By the time the S.W.A.T. team busted in he was on his knees with his hands on top of his head. Jack was told to lie on his stomach by one of them as the others checked the warehouse. He hoped this bought them some time as they concentrated on him.

“All clear,” S.W.A.T. number two said as his hand were cuffed behind his back and he was raised to his feet. “Where’s the other one you were with?”

“What other one?”, he said as emotionless as possible.

“Smart guy huh?” S.W.A.T. number one said as he pulled the hood off his head. And now Anderson had a good idea where he was. Number one saw the foil and pulled it out. “Hey looky here boys. Trying to keep the mothership from finding you?” He just bit his tongue to keep quiet. “Jack Davidson you are under arrest for theft of government property and treason. You have the right to remain silent…,” he began as he was dragged out the door. He was surprised there wasn’t a media blitz too as he was escorted to a nearby van. He was placed in and a guard joined him. As they drove off two things bugged him, one his guard wasn’t really guarding him all that closely. Two, he knew he saw this guy before. Ten minutes in the guard pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.

“We got him, prepare to switch vehicles in a few minutes.” He closed the phone and gave him a big grin, “Bossman is gonna love seeing you again.”

Now things were clicking together. “You’re one of Anderson goons,” That’s were he saw him, he was one of the jackasses from the party. “Then I’m not gonna regret this later.” The van turned sharply catching the guard off guard as Jack jumped at him. His shoulder rammed into the guards chest then he snapped his head up catching the guard under the chin. He went down and a quick kick kept him down, hopefully for long enough. Jack got the cuffs under than in front of him like his Uncle showed him and searched the guard for a key and found one. Nobody in front seemed to noticed and he briefly wondered if they had one of those devices Anderson used on him to keep the armor from appearing. Only one way to find out. Kneeling down on top of the fallen “cop” he raised his left arm across his chest to make the belt appear. Swinging the arm to the side he brought up his right arm, “Henshin!”, and brought his right hand down.

A bit later the van stopped in front of a waiting unmarked van. One of the guards went back and opened the door. He was surprised to be staring into the red eyes of a blue metal insect crouching by the opening. Jack waved at him slightly before jumping at him and knocked him out without much trouble. He spotted a third guard taking to a guy dressed like a Men in Black reject. The third one charged but Jack grabbed him by the neck before he could react. Looking at MIB he said, “Don’t think I’ll regret this one either.” Jack spun the guard around and tossed him at the other one. MIB caught him with no effort and threw him into the wall. “I don’t believe this. Does he got pictures on you guys or something? Is that why you’re working for him?”

“Cute human,” MIB said as he put his sunglasses in his pocket as horn grew from his head and he turned into a red goat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t see a human standing,” Jack said before he charged the Drakan.

***

Rachel held on as Helen drove down a back street. The ride wasn’t as bad as Jack’s when he was pushing the engine but it was close. “What’s that?”, Helen pointed to something. As they got closer she could see it was a S.W.A.T. van sitting there and several officers laying on the ground knocked out. Jack was not dumb enough to power up the system and take them out, was he? Helen stopped the KR-1000 where it was and made her get off.

“What are you doing?” Personally she didn’t want to be this close to the police as it was, unconscious or not.

“Jack might be hurt,” she said as she got off and looked around the area. “Maybe it was this Anderson guy you told me about got them.” She was trying not to think of that but it was possible. Then they noticed the big hole in a wooden fence. More than possible. About then something blue and black flew over the fence and landed a few yards in front of them. She knew who it was but Helen was going, “Oh my God!”

“Oy.” Jack got to his feet and looked at them, “Get her out of here!”

His mom recognized his voice, “Jack?” A red Drakan, looked like a goat, calmly walked threw the hole. Jack got out of the way as it tried to ram it with it’s horns. The Drakan grabbed the punch Jack aimed at his head. He went to a knee yelling in pain as it twisted the arm. Rachel went to the motorcycle and activated the lasers hidden by the headlight. It recoiled in pain as it was truck by the beams and came toward them. Jack grabbed it from behind around the waist and threw it back. He started punching and kicking it while he had the opening. At one point he grabbed it by the scruff of hair under its’ chin and planted a fist right between it’s eyes then spun around and kicked it back. His hand went for the right pod but he hesitated and looked back at them. She knew what he was thinking and looked around. The building to their left looked abandoned.

“Jack that door by you! The door!” He saw it and nodded. Jack reached the goat as it was getting up and punched it where the laser burned its’ flesh. The Drakan bent over in pain as he grab and threw it head first into the door. Jack twisted the pod up and went in. She grabbed Helen by the arm and pulled her back, “You’ll be safer back her, hopefully.”

“What is going on?” An explosion came from the building that got her attention. “What in the hell?” After a few moments Jack came out in his street clothes. It took a few more moments but he finally looked in there direction.

“Helen…,” Rachel tried to explain what happened before she cut her off.

“Complicated doesn’t even begin to describe what I just saw.”