<Episode 28>

Rachel and Jack arrived back at the Habitat with the others. Almost immediately they went looking for Melissa. Both of them had a determined look on their faces. They finally found her in the main area. “Ok, remember what we discussed,” she told him. “We’re not gong to over react. I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why we weren’t told.”

“Calm, right,” he said not taking his eyes off of Melissa. Rachel was starting to get worried, his guard was up again. Personally she couldn’t blame him, neither of them expected to find this out.

“Jack,” she grabbed his arm, “do it my way. There’s no need to make a scene.”

“I’m not going to make a scene. I just want some answers.” She took the lead and both of them walked toward Melissa. She saw them and hurried over to them.

“Jack, Rachel,” she greeted them with a huge smile. “I just got the word. Thank you Jack,” she surprised him and a few of the other by hugging him, “Lance has been my friend for a long time. I don’t think I could do this without him.”

“Jack was glad to help,” Rachel said for him. “But we kind of overheard a piece of information, and we were hopping you clarify it for us.”

“Anderson’s you freakin’ cousin!”, Jack outburst caught everybody off guard.

Melissa didn’t even try to hide it, “I see you found out.”

Rachel grabbed his arm and turned him toward her, “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to make a scene.”

“Screw that,” he told her. “I want to know why I wasn’t told I was in the middle of a family feud.”

“If only it was actually that simple,” Melissa sighed and walked away. They followed her as she continued. “Maybe this whole mess would make some kind of sense. Then again what war does? To be honest I’m surprised you two didn’t find out before now. I know how the people down her loves to gossip. Maybe they were like me and were afraid of how you would react.”

“Why, because you and Anderson both have people fighting your personal war?”, Jack demanded.

“Again, it’s not that simple.” She stopped and looked like she was trying to figure the best way to begin. Melissa faced them, “You have to understand, this,” she gestured toward the others, “isn’t a new thing. To my knowledge there has been Drakan calling for equality between the classes for decades. If not longer. And there are those ready to beat those Drakans back down whenever they raise their heads up.”

“Anderson is obviously in the latter category,” Rachel said. “And you’re in the former.”

“Not as much as my Brother was.” She looked past them, “You could see could see the way he felt at a young age.”

***

A young boy of eight years of age was running through the halls of a mansion like house. Several people told the dark haired, blue eyed boy to watch out but he was having too much fun to listen or even care. Besides it was his house, he could run in it if he wanted too. Then he took a corner too sharply and ran into a stand holding a very old vase. He was able to catch the stand no problem. The vase, however, wobbled and fell to the ground, shattering on impact. “Crud,” he said as he looked around.

He saw a broom closest and took out a broom and dustpan then started cleaning the mess. A butler in his fifties who was searching out the source of the noise found him sweeping it up. “Master Richards,” he said, “let me clean that up.”

“No,” he said, “it’s my mess Phillip. I’ll clean it up.”

“Listen to you servant Christopher,” said another boy who was ten year old, also with dark hair. He leaned against a wall, “It is the only time somebody of his status should be listened to at any point.”

“He’s still a person Matthew,” Christopher argued. “Even he deserves some respect.”

“He’s a blue,” Matthew said. “He doesn’t deserve anything but what we give him.”

“Take that back,” Christopher said walking toward him. Phillip quickly put a hand on his shoulder.

“Master Anderson is quite right young sir,” he said. “I’m just a lonely blue, not much good for anything. I’m fortunate your family saw fit to give me place of employment.”

“You see cousin,” Matthew sneered, “even he knows how the world works. Like my Father said, why make changes to a system that still works. Even you own Father feels the same way.”

Not able to contain his anger anymore he failed away with his fist and he let out a low growl. Luckily his fist connected and his cousin went down. “Master Richards!”, the butler cried out as he pulled him back.

“You blue lover!”, Matthew cried out as he held his cheek. He got to his feet and ran off saying, “I’m going to tell your Father blue lover!” Christopher knew he was trying to insult him. He really didn’t care, he wanted to pop Matthew one for like forever.

“Oh Master Matthew,” Phillip said sounding very concerned. “What is your Father going to say when he finds out about this?”

“I don’t care,” he said stubbornly. Actually he did, but dang it he was in the right here. It was just that everybody else was too pigheaded to realize it. He took the broom from the butler and started sweeping up the mess again.

“Master Richards that’s my job.”

“And I made the mess,” he said a little too defiantly. “I’m sorry Phillip, but he makes me so mad sometimes.”

“I can see that young sir,” Phillip said with an amused twinkle in his eye. “But if you don’t mind this old blue saying so, you can’t let other get under your skin like that.

“Don’t call yourself a blue,” Christopher told him.

“But that’s what I am young sir, and you are a green. Mark my words Master Richards, Drakans will be following you. And not because they think they have too. No sir, they’ll follow you because they’ll want to, much like your father.”

“I don’t want to be like him,” he mumbled.

“Maybe not, but you have the same charisma he has. Emily herself saw it in you. Master Anderson may have the power and money behind him, but you have that extra little something he hasn’t. If you don’t mind me saying so. Now give those here,” he took the broom from him, “this is my place in the world and I am happy with it.”

“Can I hold the dustpan for you?”

Phillip sighed, “If you wish. But we better hurry, I know your little sister has been dying to tell you about her latest visit to Emily’s.”

***

Melissa came back to her senses and saw Haily and Davidson staring at her. “No my brother and Anderson been on opposite side of this particular fence for as long as I can remember. Our parents tried to keep me out of their, and I’m quoting here, petty squabble. But I found myself seeing things as my brother did.”

“So mom and pop didn’t exactly go along with Christopher view on things?”, Davidson commented.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Melissa told him. “Mom and Dad were old school all the way when it came to this.”

“That had to make things interesting growing up,” Haily said with a wry grin.

“Rachel you had no idea,” she grinned back. “Chris wasn’t the first green to think that as a child. Most parents beat it out of them. Other, like ours, waited until they grew out of it and came to their senses. Sadly most of them did grow out of it, I guess it’s a part of that whole teenage rebellion thing. My parents fully expected Chris to grow of it too.” She smiled again, “To bad for them he never did. He was one of those rare greens that actually believed that the classes should be equal.”

“Bet mom and pop wondered where they went wrong.”

“Jack,” Haily warned him.

“Believe it or not I heard them ask that same question more than once. Especially Dad, he didn’t even bother to hide his disappointment at times. I remember being in my room and hearing the two of them argue through the walls.”

“So why did you join up with your Brother if you knew what kind of commotion it was going to cause?”, Haily asked.

She had to think about that one for a moment. “I guess because there were two opposing viewpoints.” She tried not to laugh at the confused look on their faces. “As Emily has been found of telling me lately you need to consider all the facts before making a decision.” She started walking again, “I think that’s why he started searching out other Drakan that thought like him. Despite how hard my family tried to persuade him other wise.”

***

Christopher sat in the park going over things in his mind. A couple of days out of high school and his Father was already pressing him to go to the school he wanted in order to take over the business. Too bad Christopher had other ideas about what to do with the company. He doubted his Father would be pushing him this hard if he knew what he had planned. His mood started to darken as a familiar scent reached his nose. “What do you want Matt,” he asked.

Matthew sat on the bench next to him, “Must you be so familiar Christopher?”

“I can’t be familiar with my own cousin?”, he shot back.

“There is such a thing as being too familiar cousin. You should remember that.” They sat in relative silence for a long time. “I saw you coming out of that meeting last night,” he said suddenly. He grinned at his cousins’ discomfort. “Really Christopher, most men have out grown the idiotic notion of equality between the classes by now.”

“The only people who think it’s idiotic are those too close minded to open their eyes.”

“A clever comeback cousin,” he joked. “Did you come up with that all by yourself? Or did these… rebels put those words in your head last night.”

“Why do they automatically have to be called rebels if they don’t agree with your view of things?”

“The very definition of a rebel is one who goes against society norm Christopher. Even you can’t be blinded to that fact.” He sat back and stretched out. “Which is what these fools exactly are, rebels to our society. No rebellion has ever won against society cousin.”

Christopher looked at him, “Tell that to those who fought in the American Revolution.”

Matthew laughed out loud, “Are you actually trying to compare this hiccup you’re apart of to a piece of human history? You do them a disservice comparing them to that filth Christopher.”

“Drakan fought in that war too Matt,” Christopher corrected him.

“I realize that,” he informed him. “I also realize they did so to maintain their cover.” He slowly shook his head, “It still pains me that we have to hide what we really are by appearing as an obviously inferior life form.”

“Sounds like you want to start a rebellion of your own,” he said slyly.

“And you would say that wouldn’t you cousin, and no doubt would enjoy the bit of irony involved,” he answered as he stood up. Looking around, his lip curled in disgust at all the human in this particular park. “As much as something like that appeals to me in the end I am a realist. The humans outnumber us, even a school child knows that. Any superior physical or mental advantage we might have would be negated by their sheer number. Then were would we be in the end, an exhibit in a zoo or worse.” He walked away and left Christopher to himself. To himself he started saying, “But it might be time to start thinking about doing the same to these rebels.”

***

They stopped talking as a group of kids passed. They gave him a scared look, but a few waved at him. Jack waved back with a bit of a smile. Melissa caught it and had to smile at them, “You’re going to ruin your image Jack.”

“The boogieman only goes after the bad kids,” he informed her

“You’re loving that role a little too much,” Rachel told him.

“They turned me into that, well their parents did,” he shrugged. “But there is one naughty ‘kid’ I would love to get my hands on.”

“You might,” Emily said coming up behind them. “When the time is right. But there is no guarantee that you’ll ever battle Anderson face to face. Assuming of course child that Anderson was the kid you were talking about.”

“What’s the matter, can’t see that coming?” Emily cane shot out and whacked him in the shin, “Ow!”. Rachel put a hand to her mouth but she was still chuckling.

“Should have warned you,” Melissa said. “If you’re going to make comments like that you might want to invest in a good pair of shin guards.”

“Anything else you forgotten to tell me that I should know about?”, Jack asked while rubbing his leg.

“Melissa,” Emily said, “I was asked to find you. They you need in the war room. It sounded rather important.”

Melissa threw up her hands and muttered, “What did they lose now?”, and walked off in a hurry.

“She is so gonna go nuts,” Jack said, mostly to himself.

“If anybody knows anything about going nuts…”, Rachel muttered. Before he could ask her what that meant Emily spoke up.

“The child is stronger than she think at times. Christopher would have been proud.” She looked at them, “Word has it you discovered her ties to Anderson. I must say child you look rather upset,” she said mainly to him.

“Yeah, well I’ve been kept in the dark about a lot of things since I’ve woke up in the middle of this crap,” Jack told her. “And personally I’m getting sick of it.”

“And seeing how I was the one keeping him in the dark about a few of those things I kind of understand how he feels,” Rachel added

“Well let me ask you something,” Emily said. “Would the two of you have done anything different if you knew Melissa and Anderson were related?” Jack and Rachel looked at each other, not sure what to say. “I thought so,” Emily said after a few moments.

“Ok, maybe we wouldn’t have,” he admitted, “but it still doesn’t explain why we weren’t told.”

“Perhaps she was afraid you would do something differently, maybe not agreed to this at all,” she offered. “Or worse, judge her for what her family has done. I say chances are good that those thoughts crossed your minds at least once on the way back.”

“Well…,” Rachel started scratching the back of her head. He said nothing, it actually crossed his mind more than once.

“Trust me child,” Emily leaned heavily on her cane. “I knew all three of them growing up. Anderson is nothing like his cousins, much to my relief. No, he revels in his in his status. A condition that was made worse when he started working for Allen at World Inc.”

“But Allen was Anderson’s vice president,” Rachel said. “I might have been just in tracking but I don’t think even a hostile take over would let Allen be VP of the entire company he used to run.”

“Excuse me child, I meant the elder Allen, his father Harold. Anderson connected with him almost immediately, seeing how they had somewhat similar views about the growing rebel problem.”

***

Anderson was next to Allen as they walked behind the senior Allen through the halls of his company. Harold Allen was a man with gray hair, but he kept himself in relatively good shape. He was also an alpha with some power among the other pacts. Not much but enough that the others respected him. “Bradley,” he said to his son, “do you have those financial projections for the next quarter?”

“Right here sir,” he said pulling a folder out of his briefcase. “If things stay the course I’m sure you’ll be very happy with the projections.”

“Good, good,” he quickly read it over. Bradley gave him a very smug look. Anderson may have risen quickly in the World Inc. ranks and gained the senior Allen’s favor, but the younger Allen was still the heir to this corporation. “Very nice Bradley, up to your usual standards.” The smug look disappeared quickly as his father turned around and handed back the folder. “Mr. Anderson,” Harold addressed him, “what kind of results did you get when I asked you to go over those same projections.” Bradley looked betrayed, his Father didn’t seem to care.

“I have them right here sir,” he handed him another folder, this one was a little thicker than Allen’s. “I hope you don’t mind but I added a few suggestions that might keep those projections on course.”

Harold Allen looked then over than looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “Trying to control the future Mr. Anderson?”

“No sir, I just recognized some potential trouble areas that somebody should keep an eye on. Perhaps cut them off entirely if necessary.”

He tossed glance toward his son. “You might want to pay attention to this one Bradley, he has a good head on his shoulders. You might learn a thing or two from him.”

“I…,” he stammered, “I have something that needs my attention.” Allen looked down and walked away in a huff.

Harold looked disappointed, “I wish he had a backbone. I gave him the perfect opportunity to defend himself too. I would have been satisfied with a ‘your wrong’. Anything that suggested he had some initiative.” Sighing loudly he added, “Don’t be surprised if something happens to sabotage your projections.”

“I’m fully prepared just in case sir.”

“That’s why I like you Mr. Anderson, you remind me so much of myself. Walk with me.” They went down the hallway passing a few people. “I hear your cousin is hanging around some unsavory elements as of late.”

“Christopher has always been a bit of a black sheep in the family. His parents and myself have tried to make him see reason, but some people are just too hard headed to see things correctly.”

“Hmm,” he took that in. “I also believe his sister has been seen with them lately as well. What was her name again?”

“Melissa,” he answered while trying to hide how shocked he was. “She… always was heavily influenced by him. I’m surprised my Aunt and Uncle let things get that far.”

“Don’t blame your family Mr. Anderson,” he told him. “More and more of our kind have been falling for this foolish notion. The only way we can survive as a species is for tradition to be followed.”

“I agree with you sir,” he told him. “But I also see that some of these people won’t listen to reason.”

Harold sighed again, “Not this again. Mr. Anderson we can not force these people back into the right way of thinking.”

“And you said yourself that there are more joining this particular cause. It must be stop before it becomes too big, at all cost if necessary. We are already secretly monitoring them, why not take that next step.”

“Perhaps, but you will be hard pressed to find another alpha that would go to such length. The outrage from the other pacts would ruin whoever was involved. No, as long as I am in charge of this company that will not happen.”

“If I was running this company I would take that chance.”

“Then, Mr. Anderson, it is a good thing you are not in charge.”

Anderson stopped walking, “Maybe it’s time to change that.”

Harold stopped, turned around and looked at the young man, “Are you challenging me Mr. Anderson?”

He stood a little straighter, “Yes sir I am.”

The older Allen studied him for a bit. “You do realize my son, who is a few years older than you, has challenged me several times so far. Each time I turned him down.”

“Yes sir I do. You said yourself a little bit ago that he had no backbone. And I think you would agree that if you did he would not give you an honorable fight.” Anderson waited patiently, hoping he read this man right.

Suddenly he chuckled and muttered, “So much like myself.” A little louder he said, “I accept your challenge Mr. Anderson. The arena, say two month from today. Just to give us the proper time to prepare of course.”

“Agreed,” he said and walked off. He tried to keep his emotions under control. He got what he wanted, a chance to be an alpha. The words of that seer came back to him, his decisions would change their world. She also said no human could stop him but his fellow Drakan could. And that included Harold Allen, so he would have to train very carefully for this.

***

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Jack said loudly. Emily expected this type of reaction from him. “You’re telling us that Anderson took over World Inc. because he beat up daddy Allen in a fight.” He looked over to Rachel, “Am I the only one finding this a little hard to believe?”

Rachel crossed her arms, “This from a man who agreed to a round of Honor Combat.”

“It is our way child,” Emily explained. “Anything important between two Drakan, especially the two vying for the alpha position, is usually settled in this manner. Fortunately some of us have better ways to settle these things. Christopher, for example, was only considered our leader because of his conviction and belief in the cause. But some hold on to the old ways with such an iron grasp, it saddening at times.”

Rachel studied her for a moment before asking, “You were there weren’t you?”

“Yes child I was,” she said softly. “Tradition demanded that a seer be present over such an event. To give her blessing and for honorable combat. And for a clean death.”

***

Anderson blocked out everything except Harold Allen. Even the seers’ disapproving glare did not distract him. Along with the seer Bradley Allen and Maxwell Banner were there. As were two acquaintances of his, Walter Taylor and a man from the fledgling R&D department Barry Armstrong. Witnesses to what was about to happen. Allen reverted to his green shark form, with a sizable chunk missing from the fin on the top of his head, while he changed into the green cheetah. They circled each other, growling and swiping at each other. The shark fist struck him before he could react. Anderson was forcibly turned around and went to a knee, in moments he was tasting a coppery substance in his mouth. First blood to the senior Allen. The shark smiled, almost like he smelled the blood. The cheetah jumped to his feet but held back from rushing in. Harold would expect him to rush in.

The shark nodded in approval at his restraint and they circled each other again. Anderson knew Allen had enough experience to counter his youth. He would have to bid his time. The shark kicked out a foot that the cheetah blocked. He swung a fist in retaliation that the shark took. He was taking a measure of his strength, a smart tactic. The cheetah started testing is defenses, trying to find a hint of an opening or a weakness to exploit. The shark was good at covering himself, but he saw a hint of something there. Biding his time he launched a few direct attacks with punches and kicks in various combinations and blocked when he had too. Harold Allen wasn’t the alpha for nothing as he was quickly finding out. Suddenly he saw his opening and feinted to his right before launching a kick at his left side. The cheetah was shocked when the shark caught his leg and threw him to the ground. The shark jumped on top of him with his mouth wide open. The cheetah quickly got his hands up to keep from chomping down on his neck.

The shark started punching him in the side to get him to loose his grip. The cheetah was able to get his legs under the shark and pushed him off. He jumped out of the way as the shark lunged at him again. They went at each other trying to wear the other one down. The cheetah snapped off a kick that caught the shark unaware and made him stumble backwards. Seeing his chance the cheetah roared and jumped on top of him, knocking the shark to the ground. Not letting him take a breath he swiped his claws into his face repeatedly, tearing into his flesh. “I yield!,” the shark said suddenly. The cheetah paused in his attack not sure what to make of this. “I yield Mr. Anderson,” he repeated. The cheetah got off of him and backed away. The shark got to his knees, “The company is now yours, run it as you see fit. Hopefully you’ll find time to ask me for advice from time to time.”

Anderson looked him in the eyes while he said, “If we are to survive tradition must be followed.” The shark eyes went wide right before his claws sliced through neck deeply, severing an artery. Anderson walked away and returned to his human form as Harold Allen lay there dying. He grabbed a towel and calmly wiped the blood from his hand.

“You killed him!”, Bradley Allen shouted at him.

“Of course I did,” he stated flatly, “it was a fight to the death after all, just like tradition demanded.” He noticed the seer was already leaving, he would worry about her later. “It was a proper fight so control of World Inc. will be turned over to me. I will of course allow a proper period of morning so we can finalize this in a week.” He looked at the witnesses that remained. Taylor and Armstrong would follow him no question about it. Allen, he would keep around. The man was no serious threat, but he respected his father. It was the least he could do. Maxwell was a different story, he was very close to the late Allen. But he was a good worker and kept to himself. As long as he followed the line he set he would keep him around. If he didn’t then he would fine away to take care of him. Anderson allowed himself a small moment to reflect on things. He was in control of World Inc., now he had a way to take care of these rebels incase they got too ambitious. And he already had plans in his head in order to do so. First he was going to need an army, then take things from there.

***

Jack walked around trying to take in all he heard. It was late at night so he had plenty of time to reflect without being disturbed. He turned a corner and was surprised to find Melissa sitting by herself, a few empty beer cans lying on the ground by her feet. “Are you drunk?”

“Not yet,” she answered, “I usually don’t get tipsy until after about three beers.” She did a quick recount of the empty hands. “Alright, maybe I’m a little tipsy. Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not a heavy drinker. Hell this is the first time I’ve touched the stuff since Chris died. I’ve seen him a little wobbly at times when things got a little too rough. Rumor had it he had a bottle of Jack Daniels hidden around here somewhere. I think Sparky found it awhile back though. Now I’m understanding why I found him like that sometimes. Here,” she tossed him a can, “sit down and share a couple of drinks with me.”

“How do I know you’re not trying to get me drunk and so you can have your way with me?”

Melissa tilted her head back and barked out a laugh, “Don’t flatter yourself Davidson.”

He turned a chair around and straddled it. “It’s the blood thing right,” he acted hurt.

“No, I don’t do the inter species thing.” She took another drink, “If the smell of blood bothered me I don’t think we would have gotten as far as we did in the beginning. God, if Chris knew about some of the things I did to get us some information he would have beat my ass.” She shivered in disgust for a bit before she started staring at him. “You know, before I meet you I didn’t think it was possible to be grateful for somebody and hate them with everything you had at the same time. I mean I’m grateful you saved my life and all.”

“But you hate me for killing your brother,” he finished for her and opened his can. He took a drink before continuing, “Look, I know I’m never going to be forgiven for that. No matter how hard I try, and I don’t blame you one bit. And I think I know why you kept being related to Anderson from us. I pretty sure I over reacted when I heard it. I’m just tired of feeling used.”

“I don’t want you to feel used Jack,” she told him. “You and Rachel are free to leave any time you want. In fact you have my word that nobody from this cell will hunt you down. And anytime you need help will do what we can.”

He nodded, “I said I’d help you guys and take Anderson down. I’m not backing out of that now.”

She gave him a small grateful smile, “I’m glad to hear that. But I have to warn you, if we’re going to take the fight to Anderson I might have to send you on jobs similar to the ones he sent you on. I don’t want to, but if I want to better to the life of the ones down here I’m going to have too.”

“I don’t like it either,” he told her, “but this is a war after all. Everybody have to do things they don’t want to do.”

“Then here to a quick end to this mess,” she held up her beer can and Jack hit his against in a toast. Then they both took a drink at the same time. There was a better understanding between them now, he hoped. He wished Rachel was here to see it, she would be pleased when she found out. Now all they have to worry about was what Anderson was going to throw at them next.