Chatrox studied the unconscious Stevens for a few moments. He was being held in the air, hands and feet attached to four silver orbs. He grabbed the human by the hair, lifted his head up and studied it. Stevens looked just as self righteous knocked out as he did when he was awake. He had plans for this human, but when the bosses “suggested” he tell what he knew about the black badges he altered his plans. He didn’t junk it entirely, there where still Deka on this miserable planet and the plan can still be altered to affect them a little more directly.

But despite all of that, this part of the plan he did not mind altering one bit. He slowly pulled a knife out from under his cloak. Chatrox scaly lips formed a sick grin as he brought the edge of the knife up to his neck. “That would be a mistake Agent Chatrox,” Waven said coming up behind him. “I need this one alive, for the moment.”

“He won’t talk, if that’s what you’re expecting,” Chatrox told him. “I know him enough to realize he is as stubborn as the universe makes them

“I don’t want him to talk. I want him to watch before we kill him.” Waven turned toward the human then said, “I suggest you leave Agent, if you don’t want him to see you when he wakes up that is. If I am in a generous mode I may call you back to finish him off. Just to see how you do it of course.”

“I left your order with the other two, as arranged.” As he turned invisible he added, “And I better be called back to deliver the finishing blow.” Waven smiled to himself as he heard the footsteps leave the room.

Zyra walked in a moment later. “So why did you want this one alive? You made sure we keep the other leader alive till last.”

“Because an artist doesn’t do anything the same way twice,” he informed her. “I could feel the frustration of the other one as he realized his teammates were dead. I want to see that build in this one, as his are killed right before his eyes. I want to savor his insanity as it happens.”

Zyra studied the orbs, “And didn’t you say that you shouldn’t give these Deka an opening?”

“Yes I did,” he said as he turned to walk out. He pressed a button by the door and four sentry guns popped out of the wall. Zyra gasp in shock and quickly got out of the range of fire. “Each of these guns are connected to one of the orbs. If he some how manages to release a limb they activate and fire. If you want I can arrange a, let say, a personal demonstration.” Zyra shot him a look that could kill. He walked out saying, “An artist never leaves anything to chance.”

***

The Major let them rest for as long as he dared. He knew the faster he found out what happened the faster the can locate them and Dan. If Dan was… no he was still alive. Ace and the other walked in, none of the looked rested and each of them had some paper in their hands. “What we could remember,” she told him as they handed him and Michelle the papers.

“Good,” he said. They scanned the papers, searching for anything they would pop out at them. Rev, of course, had the most information. “Waven, Zrya and Matox. Well, at least we got some names now.”

“I’m running them through the SPD database now,” Michelle told him with out hesitation. As the search ran she looked over Rev’s report. “The head guy called himself an artist?”

“I read that,” Ace said while sitting against the railing and looked at the floor.

“Man, is Cap even alive?”, D.E. wondered out loud.

“We can’t start thinking like that,” Boomer said. “We got to believe Cap’s still breathing.”

“He’s still alive,” Ace told him. “If they wanted Cap dead they would have killed him right there and then.”

“I heard them say he was alive,” Rev added. “But that does not mean that mean they just didn’t take him else where to finish him off.” He looked over to Michelle who put down his report and closed her eyes. “I am sorry Michelle, but it is an option we must consider.”

“Cap’s alive,” Ace repeated. “I know it. When I joined the force, this old pilot took me under his wing. He knew a lot of detectives, ones who would talk about some of their cases. There was this particularly nasty one, he called himself an artist too. He never killed his victims the same way. But they were able to tie him to each murder because he did one thing the same with each one. A signature I guess you would call it.” She looked up, “Whoever this guy is, I praying that I know what his signature is.”

“He kept Mynx alive,” the Major said following her train of thought.

“It ain’t much, but it’s all we got to go on,” Ace got off the railing.

“So they’re using him for bait, like they did on Nagaus 7,” D.E. said. “So how do we not do a repeat of the other Ops unit then?”

“You said they had a teleporter right,” Michelle said as her console beeped, the search was done. “Those are pretty rare to get your hands on. But they’re still traceable. Maybe we can catch them by surprise if I can locate their ship”

“Allow me Michelle,” Rev said. She nodded and started on what she was doing. Rev read over the report, “Not much is known about Zyra and Matox, except that they are mercenaries for hire. Waven has been wanted for mass destruction on several worlds. He also appears to be a weapons designer, developing his own weapons. And selling them to the highest bidder as well.”

“Explains why I didn’t recognized what they were using,” D.E. said. “Could this guy have developed his own teleporter too?”

“He appears to have the intellect to do so,” Rev said. “Hmm.”

“What is it Rev?”, the Major asked.

“According to reports, all three of them disappeared a few months ago. Only recently reappearing on Nagaus 7.”

“They been in training for this,” Pierce said. “I think that pretty much confirms that the Alienizers know about us.”

“They were training a little too well,” Boomer said darkly while crossing his arms. Then he had a thought, one that scared him, “How well do they know us.”

“They haven’t attacked the base,” Ace said, “so I don’t think they know us all that well.” He didn’t look all that relieved and she knew why. “But you might want to call Lisa, just in case. You too D.E.”

“I don’t think they should be the only ones calling their families,” the Major told her. “Just to ease everybody concern.”

“Got it,” Michelle said suddenly.

“Got what?”, Ace wondered.

“The Shepard does a continuous scan of the area when it’s out in the field,” she started. “So I linked up with the computers and ran through the data she collected during that time period. I was able to pinpoint the exact energy signature for his transporter beam.”

“So you know where they’re at?”, D.E. sounded hopeful.

She looked a little defeated, bringing down the mood even further, “No. But if we catch them teleporting again I should be able to lock down the source.”

“To or from there location?”, Ace asked.

“Either one, but I rather be it from their location. In order to increase or chances I’m going to have to link up with the SPD satellites in orbit to get a better coverage area. It’ll take me a few minutes to get that set up though.”

“Do it,” Pierce told her. “I’ll authorize anything you’ll need to get it done.” Michelle would have replied but she was already busy establishing the link.

***

Pierce walked into his office and sat down feeling very weary. He knew there was no point but he couldn’t help but think he could have trained Dan a little better.  Pushed him a little harder back in basic. But he knew he pushed Dan to his limits back then. There was nothing more he could have done. He opened one of the drawers on top his desk and pulled out a picture in a frame. In it was an old picture of him, his wife Helen and Dan right when they bought their house. Dan was as excited as they were when they paid it off. Helen even considered him one of the family, in some way so did he.

He looked up and saw Michelle walk by, finally taking a break. She had Dan’s cap sitting on the table as soon as they all agreed to keep it there. All of them saying they were going to hand it to him when they get him back. After a moment he looked back up just in time to see her walk back to the Command Room. He hoped she had a cup of coffee with her at least. They last thing they needed was her dieing at her post trying to find him. Not that everybody else wasn’t working themselves to the bone trying to help her. And what exactly was he doing? Pierce reached back into the drawer and pulled out a small metal box.

Slowly opening it up he set it on the table. Inside was a black License with a white faceplate. The lettering was gold instead of black like the others. Pierce thought it was a joke when they gave it to him. But he took it anyway knowing the tradition behind it all. “So that’s the StormLicense huh?”, he looked back up and saw Ace leaning in the doorway. “Michelle was telling me about it. Are you going out with us next when they show back up?”

“And do what Ace? Hobble my way around the battlefield?” He closed the lid on the box. “I’d be more of a hindrance out there than a help.” Pierce put the box back in the drawer and closed it. “Anything yet?”

“No but we’re still searching for any stray energy reading. The SpaceBase is sending us the data they collected over the last few days. If that ship they were by was a decoy they had to come in from somewhere.”

“Good,” he said nodding. “I’ll contact the other commanders and have them keep an eye out for them.” She went to leave put he stopped her, “As of now they’re your team Ace. Are you ready for it?”

She didn’t answer for a few moments, “I’m just in the pilot seat until we get Cap back.”

“I want to believe he’s still alive too, but we have to prepare for the worst.” She looked unsure at that. “Dan picked you to be his second for a reason Ace. If he didn’t think you could handle the job he wouldn’t have gave it to you in the first place.” He snorted a bit, “Actually he was pretty nervous the first time he had to take over command of a unit too.”

“Really, I never would have thought it looking at him now.”

“You should have seen him back then, I had to calm him down the night before he officially took over. But after a getting a couple of assignments under his belt he found his way and turned into the person you know today.”

She looked skeptical, “How do I know that’s true?”

“Well, I guess you’re going to have to ask Dan when you find him.”

A smile returned to her lips, “I’ll remember to ask him when you’re around.”

“I’ll deny everything of course,” he chuckled.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less Major. I’ll keep you informed if we get anything.” She started to leave but paused, “I’ll do my best Major. And we will get him back.”

“I know you will Ace.” She nodded and headed for the hanger. With the few moments he had alone he stared at the picture one more time. “It was definitely easier to build up her confidence than it was yours Dan.”

***

He had to be in hell, it hurt too much for him to be any where else. He slowly opened his eyes and didn’t see the fire and brimstone he was expecting. Moving his head as little as possible he tried to get a look. His arms and legs were attached to some kind of orb, that explains why he couldn’t move. What worried him more that there were a few more sets by him. Then he saw the guns aimed at him move when he tired to free his hand. Ok, getting free was not an option right about now.

“Ah, you’re finally awake,” the trio leader said. “I was starting to think we caused some sort of brain damage when we captured you.” He stood right in front of him and held his hands behind his back, “Are you accommodations agreeable?” He was going to wipe that smirk right off this alien’s face when he got the chance.

“Why am I still alive?”, he demanded.

“Because it is part of the tapestry I designed. Much like this,” He set his OpsLicense on a small platform in front of him, well within reach if his hands were free. “I have often wondered how fast one of you SPD operatives could activate your fabled Dekametal. Is it possible you could get free and transform before the sentry guns blast you to atoms?”

“You’re demented,” Dan said not hiding his disgust. “Did you play these games on Nagaus 7 too?”

“Not these games exactly, that would be boring.” Waven turned his back and Dan eyes went right for the License. “Right now you’re wondering if I’m dumb enough to step into firing range. Use me as a shield as it were. Do you wish to find out?”

“Of course that depends if you think I won’t go for it anyway.”

“Yes that is an interesting variable,” he agreed while turning back around. “One that has crossed my mind more than once. Tell me human, would you actually throw your life away, on a gamble?” Dan felt the fingers on his right hand start to twitch. Waven gave him a small smirk. “I didn’t think so.”

“Why deny myself the chance to kick your ass when my team gets me out of here.”

“I’m glad you think that way human, because they will be joining you soon enough. A meal will be served to you in a few hours. I do hope you understand that it will be in liquid form. Do not worry it won’t be poisoned.” Dan watched him leave then looked at his right hand, his glove was still one. Maybe he had a chance after all if he could use the built in sensor. Slowly and carefully he turned his hand around. Then keeping a close eye on the cannons he raised his hand just slightly, then brought it down in a tapping motion. He wasn’t sure how far away from base he was but he had to try something.

In the next room Matox watched as Waven walked over, “He’s trying it, just like you said he would.”

“Of course he is,” Waven crossed his arms and watched intently. “They are trained to use everything at their disposal after all.”

“I don’t get it,” Matox said, “why have us take everything off of him but that. Can he get into contact with the others with that thing?”

“Possible, but the signal won’t penetrate the ships hull. It’s just not strong enough. I was just curious to see how long it will take him to realize that it’s futile and watch his frustration grow.”

Matox started to look a little worried, “The other Alienizers say it not a smart idea to make a Deka angry.”

“The other do not think like I do.” He started paying close attention to the human’s eyes. How they only revealed one thing, determination. Oh this one was in total control of himself. Waven enjoyed breaking people like him. “Find Zyra and tell her to begin training but be ready to leave at a moment notice. I just need to study this one a little longer.” Matox said nothing as he headed out. Oh yes he will enjoy breaking this one.

***

It took her longer than she expected to wrap her head around the idea that she was in charge now. Ace still thought of this as Cap’s team, but now everybody was looking at her. She needed to clear her head, and she only knew one way to do it. Taking one of the spare Machine Hounds to the side she was soon elbow deep into it’s engine. Usually this did the trick when she wanted to forget everything but one thing was still on her mind. He said, “Strike hard, strike fast,” why was that still bugging her? It was SOP by now, no point in questioning it. She stopped what she was doing and just stared at the Hound then at the Shepard for a long time.

Slowly a hint of a plan came to her as she looked back and forth between the two black and white Machines. “Strike ‘em fast then strike ‘em hard,” she said to herself, a smile returning to her face. Catching one of her crew she said, “Put that back together.” Ace ran off to clean up and find the others. Cap did tell her not to think like him.

None of them had to wait long before Michelle got a hit from the satellites scans. “They’re in Nevada this time,” she said. “The signal just appeared.”

“Did you find out where the signal originated?”, Pierce asked.

“I think I got a couple of blips,” she told him not taking her eyes off her monitor. “But they were so close together, and one of them is so faint that it’s hard to be sure. It’s going to take me awhile to separate the signals, if there are two signals that is.”

“Keep working on it,” Pierce told her, “Ace…”

“We’re already in the air.” The call went out to scramble a moment later. As Ace got in her seat she hoped she didn’t barf up her lunch before they got there.

***

“You said they be here,” Zyra said while kicking a rock.

“Patience,” was all Waven said as he searched the night sky. He purposely kept the transmitter beam “loud”, but he didn’t tell them that. An infant could figure out where they were. Unless these human were as backwards as the stories say they are.

“Are you sure?”, Matox asked.

“Be quiet,” Zyra snapped, “before he goes into one of his ‘artist’ monologues again.”

“I do know how you love to hear them Zyra,” Waven taunted. She tested her repaired whip coil on a nearby boulder. She tried not to show her pleasure in the new feature he added. One always had to keep your opponent guessing. An engine could be heard in the distance, one that was getting closer. His sensors confirmed it was the same engine noise emitted from the Deka jet. It quickly came into view and opened fired on them. Zyra and Matox leaped out of the way while he knelt down smiling slightly, “So the rest of the pack has some teeth as well. Matox, welcome them.”

“Right,” He fired at the jet as it spun to it’s side and zigged and zagged to avoid the shots. Two new sounds came out of nowhere. Matox turned around and saw two black and white motorcycles come at him. Rev and Boomer both hit the front brake and swung their back tires into the huge alien knocking him off his feet, “Argh.”

“Damn you,” Zyra spat as she reared back with both hands, ready to shoot the whip coils at them. Then a shot hit her in the shoulder. “Where did that come from?!” On top of a small hill a half mile away D.E. ejected the bullet shell from his sniper rifle and took aim again. Exhaling as he pulled the trigger he hit her in the knee and watched her go down.

Waven was about to order Matox to get up and fire in that direction was a blast knocked him foreword. He turned around to see Ace level her D-Shooter at him while she controlled the Shepard with the pad in her other hand. He saw the ship land behind her while keeping it’s flood lights trained on them. The lights revealed that Boomer had the Hounds weapons aimed at Matox while Rev had his D-Shot aimed at Zyra. “As my friend would say,” she began, “we got you covered six way to Sunday. Give up now and tell us were your hiding Cap.”

“Or what, you’ll delete me?”, Waven taunted. “How will that help you in locating you commanding officer?” Much like his captive this one body language barely betrayed anything. The human had a good student in this one.

“Even if you don’t tell us anything we’re tracking you teleporter signal as we speak.”

“Then why would you need me then?”, he said mainly to distract her and the others. “Perhaps you want to know if my ship is booby trapped. Perhaps I rigged the ship to self destruct if I am deleted.” Just like he thought that caused a reaction in her and the others. “Are you willing to take that chance?”

Ace felt herself being torn in two. Their mission was to take this guy and his cronies down, but at the expense of Cap’s life? She gripped the handle of her D-Shooter tighter as she quickly made her decision. “Cap wouldn’t want us to spare you to save him.” Rev and Boomer looked at her momentarily in shock, but nodded in agreement. Dropping the pad she reached behind her back for her OpsLiciense.

Zyra took the moment they looked away from her to move. She opened her right palm and extended the whip coil. It wrapped itself around Rev’s leg and before he could react she squeezed her fingers into her palm. A high strength electric charge ran down the coil as Rev stiffened from the jolt, “Argh!”

“Rev!”, Boomer shouted. Matox grabbed the bike by the front tire and threw it up. D.E. fired off a couple of more rounds, mainly at the big guy and the woman. Ace held her aim steady on Waven.

“Call them off now,” she ordered.

“Matox,” he sneered, “twelve degrees to your left, maximum range.” The big one turned and fired blindly.

“Damn it,” D.E. dropped the rifle and tried to get out of the way but wasn’t fast enough. He rolled down the hill as the blast rocked him.

Ace didn’t hesitate to fire the moment he ordered an attack. Waven armor protected him from the energized slugs just long enough for him to draw his sword and swat away the rest. She dodged the blast that came from the sword and went over her options. Seeing no choice she drew her D-Rod and put it up in a guard position. This was not how the plan was suppose to go down. Waven just stood there with blade resting on his shoulders. “This fight isn’t over yet.”

“Oh I think it is,” he said casually and looked back. Ace resisted the urge to cruse out loud. Zyra kept shocking Rev until his Dekasuit disappeared. Matox just pounded away with his fist until Boomer’s suit did the same. He raised his hand for one more strike but Zyra wrapped a whip coil around it to stop him.

“We want them alive you dolt,” she scolded him.

“But I like hearing them scream,” he whined.

“I do believe the move is yours to make,” Waven said to Ace. She felt the D-Rod button under finger, thinking she might have the chance to get this guy before his team could do anything to the others. But that would leave the others open to retaliation. Slowly Ace lowered her arms and let the D-Rod drop to the ground. “Pity, I was hoping you put a fight.” Without warning he energized the sword and swung it at her. She felt the blade crash against her chest. As soon as she got back top her feet he slashed her again. Ace pulled her D-Knife and threw it at him. Waven caught it in the air, but he was caught off guard when Ace charged him and tackled him around the waist.

She tried to get the sword away from him, at least that way she stood a chance. Then Matox hand wrapped around her neck and lifted her off of him. She kicked away at his arm trying to make him let go. “I must admit, I admire the fight in this one,” Waven said. If Ace wasn’t wearing the helmet she would have spit at him. “Give her to Zyra.” Matox looked disappointed as she was flung to the third one.

“Not so tough now are you?”, Zyra mocked.

“Go to hell bitch,” Ace told her. He whip coils wrapped around her wrists and hauled her up. Zyra smiled as she squeezed her palms, shocking Ace. She held her there a little too long as Ace was knocked out by the time her suit faded away and fell to the ground.

Waven walked up and studied her, “I wasn’t expecting this one to be so young. Take them to base.” He reached down to pick her up and held Ace under his arm.

“What about the one out there?”, Zyra said nodding her head toward D.E. direction.

“Leave him,” Waven told her. “Why waist the time to search for him, especially if he’s a corpse.” With Matox holding Boomer and Zyra grabbing Rev, he said, “Return to base.” And a flash of light later all of them were gone.

***

Michelle knew something was wrong when she got the blip again. Either they ran or…, no point in thinking like that. “OpsBase to Ops5 come in,” after several moments she repeated, “Ops5 come in. Ops2, Ops3, Ops4 somebody come in.” Silence was the only thing that greeted her. She put her face in her hands as the Major put a hand on the railing. Then a call came in giving them both hope, “OpsBase.”

“Ops2 here,” D.E. said weakly.

“D.E.,” the Major said, “what is the status of the others.”

“I don’t know, they were gone when I stopped seeing stars. All I’m seeing is the Shepard and the Hounds out there.”

“Did they take the others?”, Michelle said mainly to her self but the others heard her.

“Be my best guess, I still barely seeing straight after that barrage. They might have thought I was dead or something and decided to leave me here.”

“Scope out the area the best you can D.E.,” the Major told him. “We’ll have somebody out there to pick you up momentarily.”

Michelle tuned them out as she concentrated on the blips she got. She believed with everything she had that there were two each time. Now she just had to prove it. Starting with the last one she ran the signal through several scans. She had to repeat the process a couple of times but she finally found what she was looking for, the secondary blip. As she thought it was so close to the stronger transmission it was easy to miss. She did the same with the first hit and found the same thing. That was the easy part, now she had to figure out why they didn’t register a bigger hit on the transmission source.

Pulling up the sensor data she compared the weaker hit to what was collected to what was recorded. This part took way too long for her liking with the stakes involved, but slowly she was starting to narrow down her search area. The Major remained quiet during all of this trusting her to get the job done. “Come on, come on,” she muttered, “where in the hell are you hiding. And more importantly what’s hiding you.” She was able to track it as far as the mid west, that’s when she noticed a strange level of interference. It almost looked like background noise but something seemed off about it. More than likely it was just her imagination but she was getting desperate enough to look into it. She located the source of the interference quickly enough. “I don’t believe it.”

“What did you find Michelle,” Pierce asked sounding hopeful.

“That decoy ship they left,” she answered.

“What about it? The SPD tech went over it with a fine tooth comb and found nothing. Not even when they took it apart in a clean lab.”

“It wasn’t on the ship itself,” she said while bringing up a computer generated image on the main screen. “But the ship may have left something behind. I’m getting a field of some kind being generated underground. From these reading it’s covering a ten mile area.”

“Why didn’t we detect it before now?”

“Because it’s powerful enough to cover their tracks but weak enough not to be easily noticed. It’s a work of a genius, or an artist,” she added, leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She was able to filter out the interference from the readings. In moments she got a lock, “Like I thought, they been in Indiana the whole time.”

“Hiding under our noses the whole time too.” He watched her get up and take off her lab coat. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“I am going to pick up D.E. then we are going to Indiana,” she told him plainly.

“Michelle you’re not a field agent.”

“No, I’m special situation only. It doesn’t get any more special than this.”

This was not good. “It just the two of you,” he argued, “Against a trio that’s captured most of the unit. Even Dan would say this was nuts.”

“And Dan wouldn’t sit on his ass either while the team was held captive,” she snapped. Pierce turned away slightly. Losing some of the edge in her voice she said “I’m sorry Major, I really am. But like you said this was an attack on us. It maybe unit pride, but we shouldn’t enlist the other units until we exhaust all of our options.”

She headed for the hanger and ready room when Pierce spoke again, “Michelle.” When she turned around he took Dan cap off the table and handed it to her. “Make sure he gets it.” Nodding she took it and placed it on her head.

Pierce looked around the empty command room the moment he was alone. It was a feeling he wasn’t comfortable with, especially when one of the tech took Michelle’s chair after she left. He looked at the canes in his hands. If he was smarter back there on Nagaus 7 he wouldn’t have thought twice about evening the odd. Slowly he headed for his office and hoped everything turned out alright.

***