Special Police DekaOps
9

The last few days were kind of rough. John McGee from Inside Extra got word about the “gray humanoid” and ran with it. And trying to find a way to tie it in with the mysterious Deka unit. Everybody could see how this was affecting Cap so she decided to call in one of the favors he owed her, a night out for drinks. Just to get his mind off things of course. She looked herself over in the mirror at the black dress she was wearing. She asked Ace, who was flipping through one of her computer magazines, “How does this one look?”

“It makes your butt look big,” she said not even looking at her.

“Could you please try and be a little more helpful”

“You’re just going out for a friendly round of drinks. It’s not like this is a date or anything,” Ace looked up a bit, “right?”

Michelle returned to the mirror, “I just don’t want to give Cap the wrong impression, that’s all.” There was a knock at her door, “Crap he’s here already.” Ace got up and put this blue shawl around her shoulders that went with her dress, “That’s perfect, thanks.”

“What are friends for?”, Ace said as she opened the door. Cap was on the other side.

“Oh, hey Ace,” he was wearing a gray suit and white shirt with a red handkerchief in the pocket. He looked over to Michelle and almost silently went, “Whoa.” Ace put up a fist to her mouth and coughed. “Ah… are you ready to go? I can wait a few more minutes if you want.”

“No, I’m ready to go when you are,” she said. Cap offered an arm that she readily took. They entered the command room where D.E., Boomer and surprisinly the Major were waiting for them.

“They clean up nice don’t they?”, D.E. asked.

“All right you two,” Boomer said looking serious, “we want both of you home at a reasonable hour.” Then he got that familiar smirk back on his face, ” But if you can’t, I here there are plenty of no tell motels around.”

Ace leaned against the doorway and went, “D.E.”

He reared back and punched boomer on the arm again,” Ow!”

“Don’t you listen to these two,” The Major said. “You two have some fun now, you hear? And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

As they walked to the elevator Cap said, “Then it’s going to be a boring night, because according to Helen you don’t do anything.”

They got a good chuckle but the Major remained stone faced, “You’re damn lucky I like you.”

Ace leaned her head against the doorway as the elevator door closed. D.E. said, “And to think Cap was asking how he got roped into this. Was Michelle that nervous too Ace? Ace?”, he looked back when she didn’t answer but she was already gone.

***
They sat at a local bar and just talked. It took her awhile but she got him to relax a bit, and hardly any alcohol was needed either. They even started to joke around after a bit. Dan apparently knew a couple of stories about the Major that even his wife didn’t know about. “Oh man that, one is perfect blackmail material,” she said while laughing.

“Why do you think he so nice to me?”, he grinned. “I can’t believe Helen hasn’t found out what he does yet. Speaking of which, Ace was telling me D.E.’s family and Boomer’s fiancé knows what we do.”

She nodded, “The Major made some allowances. D.E.’s family share just about everything so he didn’t feel it be right to keep something like this from them. Boomer actually begged to let him tell his fiancé because he didn’t want to risk losing her.”

Dan grinned again, “Pierce always was an old softy at heart.”

“How about you Cap, would you tell anybody?”

His demeanor changed slightly, “Petey and Andy asked and I didn’t tell them.”

“What about Barry?”, she asked. “I kind of figured he was the one who believed you back then.” He didn’t say anything but he did nod once. “According to the Major you two were pretty close.”

“He asked me to be the Godfather of his little girl, who he and his wife named Danielle, after me. Do you want to see a picture?”

“I love too.” Dan pulled out his wallet and took out a small photo of a red haired little girl with bright hazel eyes. “She’s adorable.”

Dan beamed with a bit of pride, “She looks like her mother, but you can see some of Barry in there too. Danielle a little bigger now then when this was taken.” His mind looked like it drifted a bit.

“You didn’t say hello when you checked on them did you?”

“It’s been over ten months since I last seen them. I didn’t think it’d be good to just show up out of the blue and start asking questions like a cop.”

Michelle put her hand on his, “You can call them anytime you know.”

“I know, but like I said I disappeared for ten months. Just to call out of the blue, that’s going to raise some questions. Ones I wouldn’t feel right in answering.”

“When you do let me know and I’ll help you set things up.” She patted his hand, “Of course you’ll be back to owing me three favors.”

“I’ve only counted two.”

She started counting them on her hand, “Well there this, letting Rev use the scanners behind my back and I’m saving Hawaii for something big.”

Dan pointed a finger at her, “Hawaii doesn’t count, you forced that one on me.”

She gave out a short laugh, “I swear you are the only person on the planet who complained that they were given a few extra hours in paradise.”

“The job was done there was no need to stay,” he countered. “That what we do, get in, do the job and get out right after. Hell, I’m still trying to figure out how Ace snuck a set of civvies on board the Shepard without anybody seeing her.”

“She got in, stashed it and got out right after,” she mocked him and laughed. Dan grabbed a peanut out of a bowl, tossed it at her and started laughing too. A loud voice cut them off and grabbed everybody attention.

Dan looked around in case it was an Alienizer or something until he found the source, “Oh dear God no.”

A man in a loud green suit was yelling at a waiter. “Do you know who I am? I’m John McGee, a very important reporter. Hell, I’m probably the most famous guy you ever had in this dump and you expect me to pay!?”

Michelle could tell Dan was mentally putting the cross hairs right between McGee’s eyes. “So much for a quiet evening. How about we get out of here?”

“Sounds good to me.” He paid the tab despite her wanting to split the bill. As they got out the door he said, “Michelle?”

“Yeah Cap?”

“How about I use one of those favors and take you for a walk through the park. Or does that sound too corny?”

She wrapped her arm around his, “Consider it paid in full,” and they headed for a park across the street. “But you still owe me one for Hawaii.”

***
Chatrox pulled the cloak tightly around him, why did his newest client want to meet in a sewer of all places. He concentrated and turned invisible, a human work crew was down here. Now he had another stench to add to the ones already assaulting his nose. As he passed he thought of several ways to dispose of them quickly and quietly, but there was only one human on the planet he would actually touch to kill. And he had a client waiting. Turning several corners he found his latest client, a green skinned Trinoblean. He let his invisibilty dropped and shocked him, “Hello.”

“Agent Chatrox,” he was visibly startled and the third eye on his forehead blinked several times.

“Did you have any trouble setting things up?”

“No, the base is set up as planned. The only thing I need is the part you promised you could deliver.”

“Of course,” Chatrox pulled a box from under his cloak. “One SPD control processor, modified to your needs of course.”

The Trinoblean started watering from the mouth, “How were you able to get a hold of something like this? SPD keeps these as guarded as their own weaponry.”

“One of the perks of my previous line of employment that I highly miss. I was able to gain access to this before anybody noticed it was gone.”

“I’ll be able to hack into any government database with this. Slag, I might be able to access this planet’s SPD computer network with this hooked into my systems.”

“One thing at a time,” he held out a hand. The Trinoblean placed a data card in it then held up a second one. Chatrox Interest was piqued.

“With something like this I’m going to need something extra to guard it, personally if I can,” and he handed him the card, the amount on it was considerable. Chatrox quickly ran through his inventory in his mind.

“Will a Vulcanian war suit do?”

“More than enough.”

I’m feeling generous today so I’ll throw in a couple of extra Igadroids, free of charge.” He nodded and they parted ways. Chatrox had to return to his base and change clothes. There was another meeting he had to attend to today.

***
The field team entered the command room in no time. Dan nodded to Michelle who returned it. She looked over at the Major and started snickering to herself, again. This has been going on all day and it was starting to get on his nerves, and he had a feeling exactly when it started. “Cap, I realize it’s none of my business, but what exactly did you two do last night?”

“We just talked,” he said like noting was the matter, “told a couple of jokes, told some old stories, nothing important. Like how one day all your uniforms were ‘accidentally’ dyed pink.”

Ace, Boomer and D.E. started snickering as well, an images of the Major in a pink uniform running through their minds. Rev even smiled a little at the thought. “Attention!”, the Major snapped, they followed orders but D.E. kept snickering.

“I told you I’d get you back,” Dan told him with a smirk

“Humph,” the Major grunted. “If we could get back to business?” They got serious again in no time. “All right then, we have a request from the US government and SPD Earth command. A government criminal database was infected with a virus of some kind that quickly multiplied and erased it.”

Michelle took over, “Their computer experts were able to isolate it, but it changed it’s coding and escaped. But they were able to isolate it long enough to discover two things. One it was of alien origin and they brought in SPD. Our experts were able to determine it was the handy work of a Trinoblean named Digitox, and he specializes in this sort of thing.

“What was the second thing that they determined?”, Ace asked

“It was apparently sent from an SPD source,” the Major informed them. “Or at least that where they were they were able to back track it to right before they lost it.”

“How is that possible?”, Dan asked.

“Did he get in one of the bases?”, Boomer wondered out loud.

“All of the bases on the planet were or are being checked as we speak, even ours to be on the safe side,” the Major replied. “Right now we think he has something that can mimic an SPD ID signature, pretty convincingly too.

“That government database might have just been a warm up,” Ace commented.

“Imagine the chaos if he was able to do the same with our criminal database,” Rev added.

“That’s what we’re afraid of,” Michelle said, “for the past couple of hours me and the other tech officers were able to get a rough location of where the virus was originally located.” She pulled up a section of the map that highlighted the Rocky Mountains. “Satellite imagery is showing part of a complex that wasn’t there before.”

“The apparent nature of the virus makes coming up with a counter virus a little difficult. A person has to literally rewrite the anti-virus code on the fly,” the Major informed them.

“So we set up a D-Hack and let Michelle take over from there,” Dan said

“You’re half right,” The Major said. “There’s a fear that the virus might use the D-Hack to jump into our system. So Michelle will be going with you on this one.”

“What?”, Dan body stiffened slightly.

“We would have asked one of the other units for assistance but they’re currently busy fortifying their own systems at the moment,” He explained. “Besides Michelle has her own License just like every other SPD officer so you won’t have to worry about her.” She held up a black License with white lettering to drive that point home.

Dan didn’t look all that happy but he said, “You heard the Major, gear up and move out.”

“Rodger,” they said and headed for the door. Dan and Michelle looked at each other as she passed him. She winked at him but he kept his face all business. He shot a look at the Major before following.

***
On the Shepard Michelle was wearing a field uniform similar to the other, but she didn’t have a star on the right arm. She was typing away on laptop that was connected to the main computer back at OpBase. The fact she was doing this in the Shepard small med bay on the bed didn’t bother her. The apparent silence from the main cabin was. Dan eventually walked in, “You all right back here?”

“It’s not exactly first class but it’ll do,” she joked.

He leaned against the edge of the bed, “We would have given you better accommodation but the main cabin wasn’t built to seat six.”

Michelle closed her laptop, “Cap, are you all right with this?”

“A little late to be asking me now isn’t it?”

“You had to know this was going to happen sooner or later. Hell, you seen me in the firing range practicing with this thing,” she patted the SP-Shooter on her hip. “I wasn’t trying to pass the time you know.”

“Cap,” D.E. called out from around the corner, “Ace said we’re going to be there in five minutes.”

“Right,” he called back. To Michelle he said, “We’ll talk about this later. We got a job to do and I need to know what kind of holes we’re going to be dealing with.”

She opened the laptop back up and turned so he could see. “I couldn’t get much. The only thing showing is the opening right here.” She highlighted that part of the screen. “Normal scan don’t show us much, but I was able to get a hold of a thermal scan from an SPD satellite.”

“You found a heat source?”

She wagged a finger at him, “Remember Cap, computers love the cold. And there’s a very sizable cold spot where the door is inside the mountain. And using that and a couple of different program I was able to get a basic idea of what this looks like.” She played with the control and a rough floor plan the size of a football field formed. “This is the best I could do is right here. The coldest spot seems to be right here, if I had to take a guess that would be the main computer room and our target.”

“You’re beautiful when you’re right,” he said. Then his face went red and told her, “I mean good job Michelle. I’ll fill in the rest.”

Ace landed the ship a short while later. The doorway was jutting out from the side of the mountain. D.E. and Boomer stood on either side of the door as Dan, Ace and Rev stood by with their Shooter drawn. Michelle hooked up a small pad from and ran a code breaker program. Several long minutes later the door split opened as Dan and the other covered the opening. He quickly held up four fingers than two and pointed inside. Boomer and D.E. both went in and with their SP-Shooters at the ready faced both sides of the upcoming corridor. “Right’s clear,” D.E. called out.

“Left’s clear,” Boomer added and they went inside.

“Emergency! DekaOps!”, Dan said as the DekaMetal activated. “Which way is that control room?”

“To the right,” she told him. He pulled the sky probe out of his pack and threw it down the corridor. Michelle linked up her pad with his as he checked the path so she have a map to work off of.

“I’m not seeing any surprises so far,” he said.

“Back the probe up,” Michelle told him. “That door there is where the cold spot is.”

“Right,” Dan commanded the probe to continue checking the corridor and took his helmet off. “Here’s how we’re going to do this. Me, Rev, D.E. and Boomer are going down the left corridor and provide a distraction. Ace you go with Michelle and cover her as she tackles that virus.”

“Right,” Michelle said. “I’ll tell you when I’m done with it and ready to go.”

“Hold it,” he told Michelle, “Ace is second in command of this team. If she tell you it’s time to go you move your little butt, you got that?”

“Yes sir,” she said and saluted smartly. Then she got that all too familiar wicked little grin of her lips, “And how long have you been studying my butt?”

“What… no… I…,” he stammered as they headed down the right corridor.

Boomer tapped his arm and asked, “How come you don’t say anything about my butt?”

Dan lowered his head, pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly counted to ten. He got to four before he said, “D.E.”, who punched Boomer in the arm again.

“Ow!”, Boomer rubbed his arm. “You said that was something you wouldn’t do.”

“I never said I couldn’t pick up something from Ace. Now suit up,” he said putting the helmet back on, “we got to make sure we cause a big enough distraction.”

***
Digitox saw them as they entered, but not through any computer screen. A while back he had a neural interface implanted in his head and used his “pet” to erase all evidence of it. He was connected to every sensor and system in this place, even Chatrox couldn’t sneak up on him if he wanted too. Oh look, they were splitting up. He’ll let them play the game this way for now. He walked over to the war suit he bought and patted it’s arm. Digitox dispatched a group of droids to deal with the two who split off, he would handle the others.

***
Where in the hell was the was the resistance? A complex this size should have guards coming out of the wood works. An automated defense system, a platoon of marines, a boy scout with a slingshot something. Dan checked around a corner, D-Colt in hand, still nothing. He was liking this less and less. Waving the others foreword he could tell by their body language that they felt the same. Rev went ahead to check out a door that was in front of them when his pad beeped. The probe was back in range, Dan programmed it to go down any open path. From the looks of things it would have done a complete circle if they stayed at the main entrance, and if this door was open.

Rev waited by the controls on one side of the door as he stood on the other. When D.E. and Boomer nodded that they were ready he signaled for Rev to open the door. With both of their D-Shooters out in front they entered the room. “Clear but plenty of hiding spots,” D.E. called out as they entered. It looked like some kind of storage room or something, a big one at that.

“You know,” Boomer whispered, “if I was gonna ambush some guys, this is where I’d do it.” As soon as those words left his mouth side of the wall slide up. Thirty Anaroids, five Batsuroids and two Igadroids came out of hiding. They all retreated backwards but the door closed before they could reach it. The all dove for cover behind some computer crates.

“Boomer you are so lucky I can’t reach you,” D.E. snapped. Rev, who was closest to Boomer, smacked him on the back of the helmet. “You read my mind buddy.”

“Why are they not firing?’, Rev asked. In fact none of the fired a shot since they appeared. Dan chanced a quick look over the crate he was behind. All of the bots were standing in formation.

“Do you think they broke?”, Boomer asked sounding desperate

“All of them?”, D.E. asked him.

“A guy can hope can’t he?” Then some heavy footsteps could be heard coming from behind the bots. “Oh that can’t be good.” The wall behind the bots slid up and a seven foot bluish gray metal suit came forward. All their eye were fixated on the Gatling gun on it’s right arm. “That kinda looks like an Elemental from those MechWarrior games.”

“Rev,” D.E. called out, “tell me that’s not a Vulcanian war suit.”

“I will not lie to you Terry.” D.E. started swearing.

“Vulcanian, like in those live long and prosper guys right?”, Boomer was sounding desperate again.

“More like the Roman god of craftsmanship and destructive fire.”

“I suppose now,” Digitox said from inside the suit, “would be where I tell you my master plan. Quite simply it’s this.” The Gatling gun started spinning and a stream of fire ripped through some of the Anaroids and crates in front of him. The other bots and they hit the floor as he waved the gun around.

“At least he’s a lousy shot,” Boomer said.

“Too bad with that thing he doesn’t have to be a good one,” Dan told him.

***
Ace and Michelle didn’t run into any trouble until they hit the corridor leading to the target room. Ace turned the corner saw an Igadroid leading about ten Anaroids in front of the target door. “Ops5 to Ops1,” Ace said into her License, “We got a bit of trouble.” There was no answer. “Ops1, Cap! Damn it, I think they ran into their own welcoming committee.” She looked at Michelle, “Ready to get in on the fun?” Michelle pulled out her License and nodded. “Right, change standby. Emergency! Dekaops!”

Ace was surrounded by a pink digital field as the DekaMetal formed around her in a flash of light. It changed into a black body suit in a burst. A dark pink strip went down her body from her shoulder to the top of her boots. On the left side of her chest the black and pink formed an outline for the number five. A backpack solidified on her back and the D-Shot appeared in a flash. “Face on!”, DekaMetal flashed around her head forming a dark pink helmet.

Michelle held her License across her chest, “Emergency!”, she thrust it foreword hitting the button on top, “DekaData!”

Michelle was surrounded by a white digital field as the Dekametal formed around her in a flash of light. In a burst it formed a black and white version of the DekaSwan suit. A backpack with two cylinders on both sides appeared on her back as a ten button keypad flashed on her left forearm. “Face on!”, Dekametal flashed around her head forming a white helmet. Michelle held her left arm in front of her chest, “Officer of the information highway,” she swung her left arm back and shot her right fist foreword, “DekaData!”

“Now!”, Ace took her D-Shot in hand and quickly turned the corner firing as fast as she could. She managed to wing the Igadroid while taking out a couple of the Anaroids. A hail of return fire forced her back. She looked over to Michelle and realized didn’t have any visible weapons. Ace mentally kicked herself, Cap would have noticed that sooner. She handed Michelle her D-Shooter, “Here.”

“Not just yet,” Michelle told her as she punched a five button code into the keypad on her arm. She clapped her hands as she went around the corner, knelt down and put both hands on the floor, “Electro charge!” A blue electric charge shot in front of her and covered the floor and walls. The Igadroid and Anaroids were covered and stopped moving. She looked up at Ace and said, “Let’s go.”

“Wasn’t that a Tokukyou attack?” Ace asked in disbelief as she stared at the frozen robots.

“Some what, I modified it slightly,” she told her. Michelle grinned at Ace from behind the helmet, “Thanks to Commander Scorp we have access to a lot of cool stuff.”

“How many times can you do that?”

“Well it’s charging up again, but not many in one setting or I’ll fry the system,” she said as she worked on the door lock. “And I’m still tweaking it. I got hit a little with that one.” She shook her hands as the door opened. “Oh… Ace, not to tell you how to do your job or anything, but the effect is similar to Boomer’s flash grenade.”

“Right,” she said as she started firing her D-Shot from close range. Michelle went in and studied the set up in front of her. Punching in another code a keyboard detached itself from her pack. It swung around until it was in front of her. Michelle pulled out a cord and plugged it into one of the rooms ceiling high towers. A virtual computer screen flashed to life in her visor and she started running an encryption breaker.

“Come on, come on,” she muttered before she finally broke the computer security system. A few moments later she was smiling again, “There’s the little bugger.”

His neural connection informed him the moment the break happened. They were better than he gave them credit for. Calmly he said, “We have a security problem in the main room.”

“I’ll handle it,” one of the Igadroids said, glad to get away from this maniac. “Anaroids eleven through nineteen come with me.”

“Where’s that group heading?”, D.E. asked from his hiding spot. Dan watched them head for the door. He remembered that the outer hallway was basically one path.

“Oh no”, he whispered. “Light it up!” Boomer threw a flash grenade without hesitation. His intention was to order the other to concentrate fire on the group that was leaving. Of course in his haste he forgot the reason why he didn’t order a flash grenade to begin with. Digitox was blinded as well and started firing wildly with the Gatling gun. They hit the floor again as he ripped threw a good chunk of his own forces.

“You bastards,” Digitox said as his vision cleared and saw what he had done. “Do you know how much these things cost me?!”

Dan wasn’t paying any attention, he was silently cussing himself out. He had to be smarter than this, trust Ace to do her job. Especially since it looked like the unit leaving wasn’t affected. “Cap,” Boomer called out, “now would be a good time for a plan B!”

“I’m working on it!” As soon as he could get his head straight that is.

“We are worried about Michelle too,” Rev said to him. God, was he being that obvious?

“Will that thing run out of ammo?”

“Judging by the holes in the walls I don’t think it firing laser,” D.E. said, “so I think so.”

“Then let’s find out for sure. Rev, move when I move. D.E. Boomer wait until I give the signal.” He looked over to Rev who nodded. They came out of hiding and started firing.

***
Ace stood in the doorway watching both ends of the corridor. They still haven’t heard from Cap and the others. She looked over her shoulder at Michelle who was still working on the virus, “How much longer?” She didn’t say a word but kept working as she concentrated. Footsteps could be heard coming their way, a lot of them from the sound of things. Now it was time to book,” Michelle we got to go now.”

“I need a little more time.”

“I don’t think we got a little more time.”

Michelle’s finger danced over her keyboard, “You find a way to get me that time and I’ll tell you everything you want to know about me and Cap.”

“There is something going on between…?” she was shocked. “No, Cap said we move when I say we move. I’m telling you we got to move now.”

“Prepare to eliminate whoever is in there,” a mechanical voice said.

Michelle unplugged herself from the tower, “Done.”

“It took you long enough to fix that virus.”

“I got that done a few moments ago.”

“Then what was…”

“Thought I leave a little surprise of my own while I was in there.” Ace offered he D-Shooter again, Michelle took it this time. “Wanna save the boys butts?”

“Oh yeah, Boomer gonna love that.” On Ace command they both went into the corridor firing at will.

***
D.E. fired away with his and Boomer’s D-Shooter in hand as he dove behind a crate and Boomer slid as Digitox let a few rounds fly. Then Dan and Rev moved again. He had his D-Colt on multishot and fired at the war suit while Rev took a shot at one of the remaining bots. Digitox changed his aim toward them and they went for cover. The plan was working so far but the Trinoblean was only fire in short burst to conserve his ammo. At this point it was a guess on what was going to give out first, his ammo or their luck. D.E. and Boomer moved again as Ace came out of nowhere and took out the last Igadroid. She turned to face the war suit as Michelle vaulted over, putting her hands on it’s shoulders, “Electro charge!” Digitox screamed as his systems started shorting out. Ace, with glowing D-Rod in hand, sliced through the Gatling gun.

“NO! You two are still in the main room!”, He yelled. Why wasn’t his connection telling him of any change? Nobody was where they were supposed to be.

“I put your security systems in a loop, I’m surprised you didn’t notice before now,” Michelle told him and the other joined her. “You guys all right?”

“Yeah,” Dan said. “Time to take this guy down.” He held his D-Colt next to his head, “Ops1!”

D.E. twirled both D-Shooters before crossing his arms in front of his chest, “Ops2!”

Rev took a fighting stance,” Ops3!”

Boomer pumped the grip on his D-Shot, “Ops4!”

Ace brought her D-Shot to her right, “Ops5!”

Michelle did her pose again, “DekaData!”

“Special Police!” The lights on their helmets flashed and they shouted, “DekaOps!”

“Cap,” Michelle said, “I’ll take care of Digitox, you take care of the remaining bots.”

“You sure?”

“Ace can cover me.” Dan gave the order and left her to the job. Digitox stumbled backwards as he tried to regain control of the suits systems. She pulled out her License and shouted, “Target orders!” The area went dark as a red X and a blue circle flashed in front of Digitox. After it scanned him for a minute the red X shined brightly before him. “Eliminate target.” She replaced her License and hit another code, “Data cannon!”. The cylinder on her back back flipped up and over until the ends were pointing foreword on her shoulder and the barrels extended. She braced herself as she reached for the barrels and hit the triggers, “Data blast!” There was a slight energy build up before two green streams fired out. Digitox was hit and deleted in moments. Michelle gave the thumbs down, “Got you.”

They were finished with the remaining bots and Dan walked over to her, “Impressive.”

“Why thank you.”

“Is there anything else you can do that I need to know about?”

“Do you want me to show you in my quarters or yours?” she said and walked off a bit. Dan was at a loss for words again, but he did point a finger at Boomer when it looked like he was going to say something. “Ace, can you give me hand back at the control room? I found out why it looked like the virus was sent from an SPD source and I imagine command will want it back.”

***

A few days later Dan was in the gym tightening the strap on his padded gloves. He was going to do this earlier, but a small trip to Russia made him put it off. Now that all the units were at Defcon 3 he had time to do this while they waited. He turned around and faced Michelle, who still looked dubious about the whole thing. “Why are we doing this again?”

“Because anybody can fire a gun. If you’re going to go out in the field I need to know how you handle yourself one on one. I did this with others when I first got here.”

“Even Rev?”, she laughed.

Dan shrugged his shoulders, “After I spent twenty minutes explain that I wasn’t mad at him or punishing him for anything.” He got in a loose fighting stance, “Remember, no actual contact. The gloves are on just in case.”

Michelle made a bell ringing motion in the air, “Ding, ding.” They started circling each other. Dan threw a couple of punches to test her defenses. Then she started in with a combo he was barely dodging and a roundhouse kick made him fall on his butt trying to get out of the way. She stood over him, “Did I mention that my cousin was an amateur kick boxer? He taught me a lot, like how to know when somebody holding back on you.”

“All right,” Dan said as he got up, “have it your way.”

“So is this your idea of foreplay then?”, she asked with a grin. Dan grabbed her buy the arms and looked serious. “Or is this it?”

“Michelle I don’t mix my professional and private lives.”

“You said no actual contact too, but you’re breaking that.” He let go and back away. She was wonder what the hell changed. “Cap I thought you were interested in me. If I read the situation wrong tell me now and I’ll stop wasting both our time.”

“No, I’m interested but…,” he trailed off.

“What, are you afraid I’m going to rob some place and make you choose between me and your job?”

“It’s not that.”

“Than what is it? You were normal until the mission.”

“Michelle,” he looked her in the eyes, “every time we go on a mission I have to keep in mind that there’s a possibility that one of us might not be coming back. I froze when I thought that might be you. And I made a stupid call because of it.”

She grabbed his face between her hands, “Hey, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, we all did. I’m not asking for any special treatment. Hell I’m not even going to be a regular fixture on the team, I’m special situation only. Besides if I ever find out you went out of your way to protect me out there I’ll kick your ass myself, you got that soldier?” and she patted him on the cheek

Dan smiled, “Yes ma’am.”

“I’m just looking for a guy to have some fun with Cap. I haven’t looked for that since my husband died in that car crash. Right now I really want that guy to be you.”

“I want to be that guy too. But things would go a little easier if you were a little more serious out in the field.”

“I’ll try Cap, but I’m not making any promises.”

He took her by the shoulders, “Michelle, could you just call me Dan.”

“How about I just call you Cap when we’re around the others?”, she asked as she got closer.

Dan gave her a half smile, “I can live with that,” and their lips met.

“Aw, look they’re kissing,” D.E. said from the doorway. Both he and Boomer were grinning like idiots.

“How long have you two perverts been standing there?”, Dan demanded.

D.E. stood a little straighter as he faced Boomer, crossed him arms and deepened his voice slightly, “Michelle, could you just call me Dan.”

Boomer tilted his head and clasp his hands in front of him. Lightening his voice he said, “How about I just call you Cap when we’re around the others,” He batted his eyes before adding, “Or when we’re alone and you do something really, really good.” Michelle made a little shocked noise as her jaw dropped in disbelief. Dan put a hand on her shoulder.

“Get out of here before I change my mind and kill the two of you.”

They walked off singing, “Cap and Michelle, sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”

“So much for trying to keep this quiet for a bit,” Michelle eventually said. “I would have just killed them, but that’s just me.”

“Paperwork would have been a bitch,” he replied. “What’s the most disgusting, degrading, dirtiest job we have around here?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’m going to assign them to it for a month.”

Michelle started smiling, “I’ll make something up. Now, do you want to try to get in round two?”, she held up her fist.

“I’m game if you are.” They started circling each other again.