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Chapter0: Prologue

Looking through the scope of his sniper rifle, the soldier kept a close watch on his comrades with enhanced vision. That was his special ability. Everyone on his team had a specific ability that assisted the team. Looking at the area ahead, he noticed one lone guard standing at the entrance. This could be a problem, he thought. He used the communicator he had been given to speak with the rest of his team.

"Lone hostile," he told them with his deep Russian voice. "Right in front of the entrance."

"One guard in the largest enemy compound in the United States?" the team leader whispered back into the earpiece of the sniper. "You'd think they'd be a little more heavily guarded."

"What do you want me to do, sir?" the sniper asked.

"Take him out," said the leader.

"Gladly," the sniper replied. He got the target in his sights, focused in on his head, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud noise, and the target immediately began to fall. Unfortunately for the sniper, the angle of the shot was just perfect enough to pierce straight through the target's head and hit the alarm button right behind him.

"WARNING," The pre-recorded voice blared as sirens went off behind it. "SECURITY BREACH. LEVEL ZERO."

"Well, shit," the sniper muttered to himself.

"So much for going in quietly!" the team leader shouted over the communicator. "Let's move, people! We've got hostiles inbound! Vlad, watch your shot next time!"

The sniper slammed his head to the ground in disgust.

Chapter1: A Summons

Marshal North had drifted off in Precalculus again. What else was new? Nothing about that 45 minute class period exactly screamed with excitement. The room was very poorly decorated, with only a smattering of confusing formulas scrawled on the board. The content of the class lesson alone was enough to make an ADHD kid on a sugar high fall into a deathlike trance. Worst of all was the teacher. She was a short and stout old lady with a vendetta on all of teenager-kind. One of her most shining features was her voice, which was equivalent to lodging a bullet into one's head- a quick, painless death, minus the painless part. She scanned the room with her beady eyes until she spotted Marshal, who was almost asleep sitting up in his chair, running his hands through his short brown hair.

"Pay attention, Marshal!" she screeched. "This next test could make or break your grade."

"Yes, ma'am," he droned, dismissing her. He did his best to pay attention to the lesson until the secretary came over the intercom.

"Please dismiss the following students to the office," she blared, not realizing that the intercom would pick up her voice just fine. She began reading off a list of names, most of which Marshal knew, including his own.

"Good riddance," his teacher glared at him as she pointed to the door.

"Same to you," he smiled back. He pushed up his glasses with his middle finger as he walked out of the classroom and shut the door behind him loudly. He waited in the hallway for a moment because he knew her name had been called as well. Pretty soon, a girl walked out of the Spanish room. She had long blonde hair that she kept up in a ponytail most of the time. She also wore glasses just like Marshal, and they both dressed fairly similarly with their hooded sweatshirts and blue jeans. It was like they were meant for each other, and indeed they were.

"Hey, Adelia," Marshal said, walking up to her.

"Hey," Adelia said back, smiling. They met with a hug and a kiss. Marshal was still trying to get used to the idea of kissing her. Their first kiss had just been a few nights ago at their junior prom. Marshal had been waiting to do it for the longest time, and he almost chickened out for the umpteenth time, but Adelia was there for him. She always was.

"Do you know why we're being called to the office?" Marshal asked her.

"No idea," Adelia admitted. "It seems kind of random."

Marshal nodded. "I agree, but it's getting me out of Precalc so I won't complain."

Adelia laughed. "She really hates you."

"It's okay," Marshal replied. "The feeling is mutual." They both laughed and took each other's hand as they walked down the hallway. Suddenly, Marshal felt a strange presence thundering down the hallway right towards them. He turned around and thrust his arms out to stop the boy charging into him, with little success.

"Ha!" the boy laughed. "I caught you off guard again, Marshal!"

"Actually, you didn't catch me off guard, Chris," Marshal corrected, picking himself up off the floor. "You merely succeeded in knocking me down."

"Eh, close enough," he said, waving off the correction. "Anyway, were you guys called to the office, too?"

"Yeah," Adelia answered. "Do you know what it's about?"

"My dad only said that some guy from a big company was coming to talk to some of us about something," Chris told them.

"Ah, the perks of having a parent as the superintendent of the school," Marshal sighed.

"Did Serena get called, too?" Adelia asked.

"Yup!" he said with a goofy grin on his face. Chris and his girlfriend Serena Carver had been together for quite a while. They were madly in love with each other, and they already fought like a married couple. "We should hurry and go." The three of them walked down the rows of classrooms until they reached the main office. They were greeted there by a tall girl with long blonde hair. She smiled at Chris as the three of them walked up.

"Hey, babe," she said pleasantly.

"Hey," Chris smiled back.

The girl turned to Marshal and Adelia. "Hey, guys," she greeted.

"Hey, Serena," Marshal replied. Adelia just smiled pleasantly. They were chatting as the principal of the school shoved all of the students that had been called into the office. There had to be at least forty kids crammed into the office.

"Thanks for coming," the principal said to the students. "We have someone here today that wishes to speak to you." A young man stood up out of an office chair behind the principal and everyone gasped.

Chapter2: Something New

"Oh my gosh!" a girl near Marshal squealed. "That's Walker Breckinridge!"

Marshal turned to Chris. "Who's Walker Breckinridge?"

"He's a really wealthy businessman," Chris explained. "He's only like, 26."

"That, and he's not too bad looking," Serena said dreamily.

"Should I be worried?" Chris asked, poking her with his elbow.

"Well, he's single," Serena told him. The four of them laughed. Meanwhile, Breckinridge began to speak to the group.

The young businessman fumbled with the cuffs of his expensive looking suit and began to speak. "Hello, Silver Springs High School!" he began. "For those of you who don't know, I'm Walker Breckinridge, owner of Breckinridge Industries. My company is based right here in the United States and deals with construction and military-grade weapons manufacturing. I'm here to strike a deal with you. My company is looking for something of great importance. It's something that could help our business expand even more. In order to do this, we're recruiting young people like you from all around the world to help us out."

A number of students interrupted with questions. "What is this? Why do you need us? What do we do?"

"Calm down, now," Walker said somewhat sternly. "I'll explain everything. My company is looking for an ancient artifact known as the Titan Orb. This artifact is believed to have a mystical power that would be extremely helpful to the operation of Breckinridge Industries. The problem, however, is that my entire workforce is too busy with our day-to-day operations to mount a search for the orb. That's where you all come in. We need young people such as yourselves to aid us in the search."

"What do we get out of it?" one of the jocks in the group asked.

"I'm not quite sure yet," he admitted, "but I assure you, the reward would be great if you should happen to find it."

"How dangerous will it be?" one girl in the back asked.

"Oh, extremely," Walker said, eerily calm. "I do expect a few casualties."

This caused a stir in the crowd. The entire group started heading out the door, not willing to listen to this psychotic man's idiotic dream any longer. That is, except for four people. For some unknown reason, Marshal and his friends seemed inclined to stay and hear this man out.

"Ah, well." Walker sighed, running his hand through his slicked back brown hair. "The cost for unimaginable wealth and power is not to be taken lightly, I suppose." He turned to look at the four that had stayed. "What's making you guys stay? Are you interested in my offer?"

"I'm not sure," Marshal said slowly. "I just have an odd feeling that I was meant to do this."

"I feel the same way," Adelia agreed.

"This could be either incredibly stupid, or totally amazing," Chris thought out loud.

"I could use the change of pace," Serena nodded. "Something new would be nice."

"Perfect!" Breckinridge cried out happily. "We'll have you sign the paperwork right away and contact your parents. You have until the end of the week to get anything you may need to take with you to the training facility. We'll provide a list for you, so don't worry too much about it. Again, thank you so much!" He turned to walk out the door, but suddenly he stopped for a moment when he saw Serena. He walked up to her curiously.

"Your eyes..." he murmured. "They look awfully familiar."

"Oh?" Serena blushed. Chris' face also turned a shade of red, but he was certainly not blushing.

"Oh, well, I'm sure it's nothing," Breckinridge sighed as he turned around once more. "I'll be back on Friday to pick the four of you up personally. I have a feeling that you four will be very...special." With that, Walker Breckinridge left the office, leaving the four of them alone.

"What do you think?" Marshal asked Adelia.

"I think I need to start packing," Adelia laughed. "I can't believe we're actually doing this!"
Serena and Chris weren't listening, because they were having a conversation of their own.

"What was up with that just now?" Chris asked, seemingly upset.

"What are you talking about?" Serena asked.

"You looked like you were getting really friendly with Walker Breckinridge, there." Chris accused.

"He was all up in my face!" Serena cried. "I got nervous." The four of them all laughed as the final bell of the day rang.

Chapter3: The First Step

One week after Walker Breckinridge had come to Silver Springs, it was finally time for Marshal, Adelia, Chris, and Serena to leave their homes and join the task force. It had taken Marshal quite a bit of convincing in order to gain his parents' consent, but as soon as he mentioned that his college education would be completely paid for when he was done (hopefully,) he was immediately out the door. Chris, Serena, and Adelia had all had the same discussion with the same results. They were all ready to go, so they met at the municipal airport where Breckinridge was waiting for them with a helicopter, wearing yet another suit.
   
"Great!" he exclaimed, pleased to see the four of them. "I'm really happy that all of you could make it. Do you have everything you need?"
   
"Yes, sir!" the four of them shouted, dropping their bags and awkwardly stumbling into a salute.
   
Breckinridge laughed. "Come on, now. You're not being shipped off to military school, so drop all the formalities."
   
Marshal raised his hand to object. "With all due respect, Mr. Breckinridge—"
   
"My business partners call me Mr. Breckinridge," Breckinridge interrupted, taking off his sunglasses. "You may call me Walker. Or, if that is too informal for you, I will accept Commander Walker. Just none of that, 'sir' bullshit. You guys are almost my age. That makes me feel old."
   
"Yes, Commander Walker," Marshal sighed. He had already patronized the commander of the entire task force. Things were not starting off well.
   
"Anyway," Walker said, putting his sunglasses back on, "we'll be arriving at the training base pretty quickly. Once we get there, I have a surprise for you all."
   
"I love surprises!" Adelia exclaimed. "What is it?"
   
The young businessman smirked. "You'll see." With that, he ushered the four of them into the helicopter while some assistants carried their luggage into a small cargo hold. Quickly, the helicopter turned on and the rotors began to spin. In a matter of seconds, the aircraft was rising up into the air, leaving the small town of Silver Springs behind it. Marshal, Adelia, Chris, and Serena looked down at their small hometown, knowing they'd be back someday.
   
Serena looked over at Walker and began to ask him something, but her voice was immediately drowned out by the helicopter. Walker held out his hand in order to stop her momentarily, and then reached underneath his seat. He pulled out a big black headset with a microphone attached to it. He placed it on his head and motioned for the rest of them to do the same, which they quickly did.
   
"Helicopters," his voice garbled through each of their headsets. "Great for transportation, not so much for conversation. What did you need, Ms. Carver?"
   
"I was wondering why you came to get us personally," Serena asked. "It seems a little bit overboard for the president of such a huge company to come out to a small town in the middle of nowhere, Colorado just to pick up four average kids."
   
Walker simply laughed. "Yes, I suppose it is. However, I have my reasons. Out of the one hundred young men and women I recruited, you four interest me the most."
   
"Why us?" Adelia asked. "None of us are exactly what you would call the picture of athleticism." She wasn't wrong. None of them were exactly in the best shape of their lives. Marshal couldn't run ten feet without getting short of breath, Chris was slightly overweight, Adelia had severe respiratory problems, and Serena could hardly manage a pull-up.
   
Walker nodded. "That's true. I pulled up your scores from your most recent physical fitness test, and they are certainly not the best out of what I had picked. Your saving grace for each of you was your academic scores. The four of you are all ranked in the top ten as far as intelligence is concerned. With the right training, the four of you could be some of my best soldiers."
   
All four of them breathed a collective sigh of relief. They at least had one redeeming quality about them. Feeling a little calmer, they sat in silence until the small helicopter began to descend in a small forest clearing in the mountains. Looking down at it, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. The calm, green grass waved gently with the wind until being flattened by the wind coming from the helicopter's spinning rotors. The trees around the area all seemed normal, their tall branches waving as if saying hello to the newcomers. Once the helicopter had made a smooth landing, Marshal and the others hopped out onto the clearing.
   
"Is the base somewhere around here?" Chris wondered. "Like, maybe there's a secret entrance nearby?"
   
"Nope," Walker answered, still inside the plane. "Which leads me to my point. This is your entrance exam."
   
"Entrance exam?" Marshal repeated, confused. "We didn't hear anything about that."
   
"That's the idea," Walker assured him. "None of the recruits were told about this exam. Basically, your test is to locate the task force's headquarters and get there from this location within twelve hours. Once you arrive, you will be ranked by your order of arrival and placed into ten-man squads."
   
"What happens if we don't make it to the headquarters in the time limit?" Serena asked.
   
"If you don't, you'll probably die out here," Walker said coldly.

Chapter4: The Entrance Exam

"Are you serious?!" Marshal cried. "You're crazy!"
   
"Nonsense," Breckinridge dismissed. "This test is really quite simple, with the proper tools." He snapped his fingers, and a worker jumped out of the helicopter holding four small cardboard boxes. Marshal and the others each took a box and opened it. Inside was a strange device that looked like a visor of some sort. It fit over each of their heads just like a pair of glasses. Marshal and Adelia struggled trying to fit the strange visors over their glasses until Breckinridge stopped them.
   
"You won't need those glasses anymore," he said, holding his hand out to take them.
   
"But neither of us will be able to see," Adelia told him.
   
"Of course you will," Breckinridge assured her. "What you hold in your hands is a Breckinridge Industries Class 9 Heads-up Display, or a 9HUD for short. It gives you detailed information on your current location, weapon status, and vital signs, among other things. It also functions as a pair of eyeglasses, which adjusts according to your needs."
   
"That's amazing!" Marshal exclaimed.
   
"Yes," Breckinridge acknowledged. "I was going to issue you all the 12HUD, but that series is a bit more...complicated. Anyway, I'll hold on to your glasses for the time being." Marshal and Adelia took their glasses off and handed them to Walker, who put them in his pocket.
   
He continued to explain the contents of the box. "Along with your 9HUDs, you've also received a Series 9 Magnum. This small pistol is compatible with the 9HUD and features a targeting reticle as well as a 2x zoom function. For now, these are loaded with paintballs, which you should only use if you find a group of hostile recruits."
   
"What's the point of that?" Serena asked, confused. "I thought all we had to do was find the headquarters as quickly as possible."
   
"Yes, your score is mostly based on your order of arrival," Walker confirmed. "However, we'll also be taking into account the amount of paint on your clothes. For example, if somebody shows up in first place, but the second place finisher has less paint on their clothes, then the second place finisher will end up being ranked first."
   
"Interesting," Marshal mused. "Then shall we get started?"
   
Breckinridge smiled. "Of course. Good luck to you all!" The young businessman signaled to the helicopter pilot, who turned the engine on. The helicopter slowly lifted itself off the ground as the rotors began to spin faster and faster. Soon, it was high up in the air and flew off in some random direction. Chris immediately turned around to look at the setting sun.
   
"He's heading northeast," he deduced. "The sun sets in the west, and the helicopter is flying at about a 135 degree angle away from the sun."
   
"He could be intentionally trying to throw us off," Marshal argued. "Let's see if he left a waypoint on these HUDs." Marshal touched the side of the strange visor. A display resembling that of a video game's pause menu showed up on his visor. Using the strange little buttons on the side of the 9HUD, he selected "Waypoints" on the menu. Suddenly, he smiled.
   
"What's up?" Adelia asked. "Did you find it?"
   
"Yup," Marshal grinned. "I'm sending the waypoint to you all now." A few taps on his visor later, and Marshal had managed to show the rest of them the waypoint to their destination. According to the waypoint, the base was about ten kilometers away from their current position, to the northeast.
   
"See?" Chris said. "Northeast."
   
"Let's go carefully," Marshal suggested. "We have a long walk ahead of us, and we don't want to run into anybody that we don't need to." With that, the four of them took off at a careful jog into the forest in front of them.

*   *   *

In a nearby part of the forest, a lone young man stepped out of a helicopter. He was rather large by anyone's standards, towering over the men that had picked him up from his home in Russia. It wasn't just that he was tall, though. He was also very muscular, his light clothing fitting very tightly over his large arms, legs, and torso. The worker that handed him his equipment trembled slightly, afraid that the man-mountain in front of him would decide to squash him like a gnat once he was finished, but the giant merely put the 9HUD on his melon-like head, grabbed the Magnum with his meaty hands, and walked off into the forest, slightly skewing the angle of his approach to the southeast.

*   *   *

After a couple of hours, Marshal and the others were beginning to tire. Their legs ached from the long walk they had endured, along with quickly ducking and dodging to find cover from hostile forces. The waypoint had been slowly getting closer until it showed that they were less than one kilometer away from their destination. Adelia, Serena, and Chris started running, realizing they were nearly there. Quickly, Marshal raised his hand.

"Wait!" he whispered, looking around nervously. "There's someone nearby." As if on cue, there was a rustling in the trees above them. Suddenly, a gigantic figure flew down onto the ground with a misleading amount of speed and grace. It whirled around and fired a few shots with a Magnum straight at Adelia. Adelia quickly rolled out of the way, causing the paintballs to splatter red paint all over the tree that was behind her. Adelia quickly drew her weapon and pointed at the huge figure, with Serena and Chris following suit.

Realizing he was in trouble, the figure turned around and started racing away, only to stop right in front of Marshal with a paintball Magnum pointed directly at his chest.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't pull this trigger," Marshal said, attempting to be threatening to this humungous person.

"Good question," the figure said with a deep, Russian voice. "Maybe this will provide your answer." He quickly pointed his weapon at Marshal's chest before Marshal could even react.

"Do it," Marshal said, showing no fear. "If you do, I'll involuntarily pull my trigger and we'll both go down."

Adelia, Chris, and Serena were a few feet away, frozen with fear. "Is he crazy?" Serena whispered to the others. "He could cost himself a rank!"

The large man stared at Marshal for a moment, then sighed and put his weapon down. "Not bad," he said. "No one has ever stood up to me with such grim resolve. What is your name?"

"I'm Marshal North," Marshal told him. "Those three are my friends; Adelia Sinclair, Chris Harley, and Serena Carver." The three of them waved tentatively, still terrified of this giant man in front of them.

"I see," the man said. "My name is Vladimir Kozlov. I'm from Moscow, Russia. It would be a pleasure to work with you, Marshal North."

Marshal blinked a few times. "Excuse me; did you say you want to work with me?"

Vladimir laughed, his deep voice causing Marshal's chest to vibrate. "Of course. No one has ever earned my respect as quickly as you have. I would be honored to work under someone with guts like you."

Marshal was slightly taken aback. "I'm flattered. You're pretty awesome yourself, Vladimir."

"Please," Vladimir said, holding out his right hand for a handshake. "Call me Vlad."

"Sure thing, Vlad," Marshal smiled, returning the handshake. "Let's get out of here." The five of them holstered their weapons and took off for the headquarters.

Chapter5: Squad Four

Marshal, Vlad, and the others had finally reached the headquarters after a brisk jog for the last kilometer. It was a lot nicer than any of them had expected. A huge, white dome structure loomed over all of them. There seemed to be an outer ring inside the dome for walking, with windows allowing a look inside. Beyond the pathway, however, was unable to be seen. Connected to the dome was a large structure that resembled an apartment complex. On the top of the apartment structure sat a strange device that projected a beam of light up into the sky. Once the beam reached a point above the complex, it suddenly stopped and fanned out over a large radius around the whole building.
   
"A cloaking shield," Vlad observed. "Commander Breckinridge must be extremely cautious."
   
"Probably because people would cause an uproar if someone built such a massive structure in the middle of the Rocky Mountains," Chris suggested.
   
"Let's go inside," Marshal said, trying to move things along. The five of them walked into the dome's large automatic doors to find a sizeable amount of people standing around in the large lobby. At the front of the crowd stood Walker Breckinridge, who was talking to the boy that was standing at the very left of the front row. Marshal and the others began to walk in to join the crowd, but they were immediately stopped by a pudgy looking worker.
   
"Wait," he ordered them. "I need to count you and check your clothes for any paint." The five of them stopped and stood in a row as the rotund assistant circled around them. "Not bad. You're all clean. Great job! Now, which of you would like to be counted first?"
   
Vlad turned immediately to Marshal. "You should go first," he suggested. "You worked the hardest out of all of us today."
   
"Thanks, Vlad," Marshal grinned. He stepped forward in front of the employee.
   
"Alright," the fat man said, checking a clipboard, "you're number 41. Congratulations! You are the leader of Squad Four. You may take your seat at the very left of the front row."
   
Marshal stepped cautiously into the crowd. Was he really good enough to lead a squad? What if he wasn't able to lead his squad effectively? What if he got somebody killed? He steadily got more and more nervous as he walked over to his chair and sat down. Vlad followed closely behind and took the seat next to him.
   
"You look nervous," he said, furrowing his eyebrows.
   
"It's that obvious, huh?" Marshal chuckled, sinking down in his seat. "To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm up to the task of being a squad leader. I've never really led much of anything before, not even a group project for school."
   
Vlad's face softened. "Look, Marshal. I've only met you a little while ago, but I have complete confidence in you. On the outside, you may not appear like much to most people. You seem to be the type who rarely puts himself out there and takes charge of things. But when we had our little stand-off earlier, I saw what you are truly like on the inside. On the inside, you have a will stronger than that of any man I've ever met, and that's saying something."
   
"Thank you, Vlad," Marshal said, sitting up a little straighter. "You really know how to give a good pep talk."
   
"For a friend, I will do most anything," Vlad assured him. He turned in his chair to see who else was coming to sit in his row. Marshal craned his neck in order to see for himself. Chris, Adelia, and Serena had also come and sat down in the third, fourth, and fifth spots, respectively. After that, a few more people showed up. First, there were two boys who looked exactly identical, right down to the way they styled their blonde hair. Oddly enough, they even walked in the same fashion and took their seats without saying a word. Soon after them, a young girl with dark skin and long black hair came and sat down. She had a single paint splatter on her shirt. Marshal thought that she looked too young to even be in high school. After her, a boy and a girl came in. These two didn't appear to know each other at all, but the boy kept eyeing the other girl as if he wanted to tell her something. With the inclusion of those two, the fourth row was completely filled. Marshal and the others sat in an uncomfortable silence while the rest of the recruits shuffled in over the next hour.
   
Finally, once the final, paint-splattered boy trudged to his seat, Breckinridge walked up to the front of the lobby and stood at a podium. He had a piece of paper in his hands, and looked as if he was ready to give a speech.
   
"Congratulations to all of you for passing the entrance exam!" he began. "I am proud of all of you, regardless of what rank you received. Now, we will introduce the squads and each of their members by name. Can Squad One please come up to the front at this time?" The front row immediately stood up and marched to the front of the lobby. Breckinridge read off all their names and they sat back down quickly. He continued this with Squads Two and Three. Marshal was just about to fall asleep when the commander called to his squad.
   
"Now, let's introduce Squad Four!" Breckinridge called. The ten of them stood up and drug their feet to the front of the lobby, not showing as much enthusiasm as the other three squads. Who could blame them? They were all tired. After a few seconds, they were up to the front, and Breckinridge read off their names.
   
"Squad Four is led by Marshal North," he read. "Other members of the squad include Vladimir Kozlov, Chris Harley, Adelia Sinclair, Serena Carver, Ryder Urban, Travis Urban, Mia Luna, Aurora Kaiser, and Tristan Kane!" The other squads applauded as the new squad walked back to their seats and sat down. Marshal looked at the other five members of his squad, desperately trying to learn their names as quickly as he could. While he did this, the other squads were introduced one by one until Breckinridge had finished introducing Squad Ten.
   
"Now that we've introduced everyone," he continued, "I'd like to take the time to welcome you to the Breckinridge Task Force HQ. Our mission is quite simple, when you think about it. It's basically a scavenger hunt! Except for the fact that the object we're trying to find has been thought to be lost for thousands of years and almost no one has much of any knowledge on it. That's beside the point, though! I have absolute faith that all of you will do your very best and our mission will find success! Of course, there will be roadblocks on the way. I'm sure that there are other special interest groups that seek the artifact as well as us, so we'll have to be extra careful. That's why I've built this training facility. I will turn each and every one of you into a great soldier, the likes of which no one has ever seen before! I hope you are all ready for your training!" The crowd roared with cheers and applause. Breckinridge quickly calmed them down. "Training starts tomorrow. In the meantime, we will be showing you to your dorms in the housing complex. Each squad gets one floor to themselves, with Squad One staying on the top floor and so on. Each floor comes complete with everything you will need to survive here at headquarters, with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a huge common area, and even a kitchen! Enjoy your stay! You'll be here for quite a while. Again, thank you and congratulations! I'll see you all tomorrow morning!" Applause rang through the lobby as everyone stood up and walked over to the apartment complex.

Chapter6: Meeting the Team

After a quick elevator ride up to the seventh floor of the housing complex, the newly formed Squad Four stepped out to find their new home. It was exactly how Breckinridge described it. They walked into a large common room, which had a few couches, a TV, and a coffee table. It looked like it could fit way more than ten people, which Marshal figured would be good for hosting meetings. There were two separate hallways leading out from the room. One of the hallways led to the kitchen, while the other held five doors, presumably leading to the bedrooms.
   
"Not bad," Chris commented. "I could get used to this!"
   
"It looks a little too comfortable," Vlad said.
   
"Well, we do need a comfortable place to rest from the brutal training we're sure to have," Marshal reminded him. "I think it's perfect. Before we assign rooms and everything, though, I think it'd be nice if we all got to know each other a little bit, first!"
   
"Great idea," Adelia said, smiling. "Let's go sit on the couches." All ten of them found a spot on the couches. Marshal and his group sat on the one, while the other five members took the other. They seemed to be nervous of each other for some reason.
   
"I'll start things off, I guess," Marshal said. "My name's Marshal North. I'm from Silver Springs, Colorado, and I'll be your squad leader. I don't exactly know a whole lot about what a squad leader is supposed to do, so you'll have to bear with me for a little while. I tend to be a little quiet at first, but if I get to know you better, we'll be the best of friends! It's great to meet all of you."
   
"I'm Adelia Sinclair," Adelia said after Marshal was done. "I'm also from Silver Springs, Colorado. I'm a lot like Marshal, I really have to get to know someone before I can be friends with them, so don't be afraid to come and talk to me!"
   
"I'm Chris Harley!" Chris said, hyper as always. "I'm yet another Silver Springs native. I've been told I'm kind of eccentric, but I just don't get it. I tend to have a temper occasionally, so try not to make me mad. Also, I'm a little smarter than I look, so don't try to play tricks on me."
   
"The name's Serena Carver," Serena told them. "I'm the fourth and final Silver Springs native here. I don't like to talk much, but if you ever need advice on something, I'm your girl. That's about it."
   
"Vladimir Kozlov," Vlad said bluntly. "I'm from Moscow, Russia. I've never really been around people my age before, so this will take some getting used to. Please try not to get in my way or annoy me and we'll get along just fine."
   
The other five members on the other couch just got more nervous, after being inadvertently threatened by the imposing man across the room from them. Eventually, the small, dark skinned girl sat up and introduced herself.
   
"My name's Mia," she said. "Mia Luna. I'm from Chicago, Illinois and I'm a freshman in high school. I came here to get away from my stupid town with its stupid people. That's all you need to know about me."
   
After Mia had introduced herself, the other girl decided to speak up. She had brown hair that was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a simple t-shirt that had an image of the flag of Great Britain. "My name's Aurora Kaiser. I'm from a small town near London, England. I've always been interested in American culture, so I definitely couldn't pass up the opportunity to come here and learn about it first-hand! You all should come and talk to me so I can find out what life is like here."
   
Immediately after Aurora finished, one of the boys spoke up. "My name's Tristan Kane!" he said, pushing up his glasses. "I'm from Omaha, Nebraska. I'm kind of a tech nerd, so if you have any questions with phones, computers, and the like, I would love to help you out!"
   
Lastly, it was the twins' turn, but they were silent. They both looked like they were staring off into space.
   
"You don't talk much, do you?" Aurora asked them.
   
"What was that?" one of the twins said. He shook his head and looked straight at Aurora. "Oh, I'm awfully sorry about that. I was talking to my brother. I'm Ryder Urban, and this is my brother Travis. We're from Davis, California. Something interesting about us is that we can actually communicate telepathically!"
   
A confused silence came over the room. "Wait a minute," Aurora said. "Did you just say, 'telepathically?'?"
   
"Yeah," Ryder confirmed. "Pretty neat, right?"
   
"Yeah, that's pretty cool," Marshal agreed, somewhat skeptical of the twin's claim. "Now that we've all introduced ourselves, we should decide who gets to room together. I'm sure there's a rule somewhere that says guys cannot room with girls, so we'll go off that. If there's anyone who wants someone specific, now's the time to say it."
   
"I'd like to room with Serena," Aurora said, looking at her across the room. "You seem very nice, and maybe you could tell me all about life here in America!"
   
"Sure!" Serena said, smiling lightly. "I would love to."
   
"Alright, there's one room," Marshal said. "Anyone else want to request someone?"
   
"Travis and I would prefer to room together, if that's okay," Ryder told him.
   
"Alright," Marshal nodded. "Any more requests?"
   
Vlad turned to him. "I'd like to room with you, if that works."
   
Chris turned to Vlad. "Hey, maybe I wanted to room with Marshal! He's my best friend, after all."
   
Vlad just stared at him with a steely gaze for a moment. Quickly, Chris looked away. "Fine, you can have him."
   
"I'm glad you see it my way," Vlad said, grinning smugly. "Is that alright with you, Marshal?"
   
"Sure," Marshal said. "That works for me. Alright, I think that's all the requests we can have. Chris, you and Tristan will have to room together, and Adelia and Mia will also be paired up. Any big objections?" Nobody said anything. "Good, then let's get settled in."
   
"One problem," Tristan said. "Where's our stuff?"
   
"Crap," Marshal muttered. "Commander Breckinridge's workers put our stuff on the helicopter."
   
"What do we do?" Adelia asked. "We need our stuff." As soon as she said that, the elevator door opened to reveal Walker Breckinridge. He walked into the room while a small horde of workers followed behind him, carrying a bunch of bags and suitcases.
   
"Hello, Squad Four!" he greeted. "And hello, my friends from Silver Springs! Glad to see you did so well today. I have brought all of your luggage for you. Don't forget, training starts tomorrow at 8 A.M sharp! We'll start off with squad workouts, and then break off into sections for more specialized training. Also, tomorrow you will be receiving your official 12HUDs after training. Now, these HUDs are a little more complicated than the 9HUDs you got today. The 12HUD is simply a tiny little chip that is surgically implanted into your brain. Now, before you freak out, realize that the surgery is extremely safe and there is virtually no risk involved. I have seen to that. Any questions?"
   
"No, sir!" they all shouted in unison, saluting in their seats.
   
"Again with the 'sir' crap," he said. "You still don't need all the formalities towards me. My only job is to oversee yours. I hope you all will get along well! See you tomorrow morning!" He snapped his fingers, and his workers quickly followed him out of Squad Four's apartment.
   
"Well, that was convenient," Serena said.
   
"No kidding," Marshal agreed. He looked at the clock. It was 11:30 P.M. "We should get to bed, guys. It's really late, and we don't want to be late for training on the first day."
   
"Yes, sir!" the squad shouted.
   
"Yikes," Marshal mumbled. "Now I know how Walker feels." He grabbed his luggage and walked to his new room, with the rest of his new squad following suit.

Chapter7: Training

Vlad's alarm clock blared throughout Squad Four's entire apartment, but Vlad was already awake. He ran into his and Marshal's room, turned it off, and shook Marshal awake. "Get up, sleepyhead," he grumbled, his voice even more gravelly than usual. "We have training to do."

Marshal groaned and sat up. "It's too early to be functioning right now," he complained.

"What are you talking about?" Vlad laughed. "It's 7:30. We overslept, in my opinion."

"Your opinion stinks," Marshal mumbled, sitting up in his bed. "We still have a half hour until we need to be there."

"Which gives us just enough time to have breakfast," Vlad reminded him. "Let's go get the team ready. I made Russian waffles."

"What are those?" Marty asked, still half asleep.

"They're like Belgian waffles, only bigger and better," Vlad explained. "Now, let's get going." The two of them got up, got dressed quickly, and went out into the kitchen. Soon after they got out there, the rest of the squad shuffled out, just as tired as Marshal was.

"Morning, all," Aurora mumbled. "Let's do great today."

"Yeah," Marshal agreed. "We have a lot of work to do today if we want to prove ourselves to the others."

"I'm more nervous about that surgery Mr. Breckinridge was talking about," Mia said, shivering. "I hate surgeries."

"He said that there was virtually no risk," Tristan reminded her. "Theoretically, all he has to do is implant a tiny microchip onto the surface of the brain. That just takes a small syringe at worst. The whole thing would probably only take about one to two minutes to finish, and you'd probably even be awake for the procedure."

"How do you know that?" Mia asked, unconvinced.

"I may or may not have hacked into the headquarters systems and found the files on the surgery last night," Tristan admitted, taking a huge bite of a Russian waffle.

"Just don't get us in trouble, Tristan," Marshal scolded him. "We don't want to start off our first day with getting in trouble for hacking Walker's computers."

"I never get caught hacking," Tristan bragged. "I'm the best hacker this side of the Missouri River!"

"Whatever you say," Marshal sighed, shrugging his shoulders. The squad quickly finished the rest of their breakfast and got ready to head out. They were all empty handed, except for Vlad, who carried a large bag on his shoulder. Marshal had no idea what was in the bag, and he wasn't sure rather or not he wanted to find out. They made the quick trek to the training dome and waited in the lobby, where other squads had already gathered.

"Hey!" one boy shouted, standing over by another squad. "What squad are you guys?"

"Squad Four," Marshal answered. "How about you?"

"Squad Three," the boy said, smirking. "It looks like you'll be our big competition. Not that it'll be a competition, what with us all being better than you."

"Excuse me?" Marshal asked. "Just because you got here before us yesterday doesn't mean you're better than us."

The boy walked up to Marshal. He was about an inch taller and a pound heavier, by the looks of things. His brown hair was perfectly moussed up, just like Marshal had always tried to do with his hair, but never could. "You're Marshal North, right? The leader of Squad Four?"

"That's right," Marshal confirmed. "Who are you?"

"Jack Martin," the boy said. "You'd be wise to remember my name. After all, it's the name that yours is going to fall under the whole time we're here!"

"Oh, yeah?" Marshal replied, his face turning red. "We'll see about that!"

"I suppose we will!" Jack smirked. "Don't be too surprised when I'm completely right, though! It happens all the time." He laughed snobbishly as he turned around and snapped his fingers to call the rest of his squad to him. The other nine members of his squad walked a safe distance behind him, seemingly afraid of their leader.

"Ooooh!" Mia grunted, watching the squad cower behind their leader. "That guy pisses me off!"

"Agreed," Marshal growled, gritting his teeth. "Let's do our best and show him a thing or two."

"Right!" the rest of the squad shouted together. They waited in the lobby while the rest of the squads wandered in. Finally, Walker Breckinridge appeared on the outer ring on the second floor.

"Good morning, everyone!" he shouted down to them.

"Good morning!" everybody shouted back.

"I love the enthusiasm!" he explained. "I hope you're all ready for the first day of training. It's gonna be a doozy! We'll start off with general weight training in the fitness center, up here on the second floor. Now, before you all dash to the elevator, don't bother. They're not working. You'll have to use the stairs."

A number of people groaned as all the recruits trudged up the stairs. Once they got up to the second floor, Walker led them into the door that led into the middle of the dome. When they got inside, they were amazed. The entire circular room as filled with different weight training equipment as far as the eye could see. Marshal looked over to see Vlad grinning ear to ear as if he had just died and gone to heaven.

"This reminds me of home!" he shouted uncharacteristically.

Breckinridge smiled. "Alright, everyone, go nuts!" The one hundred recruits dove straight in and attacked the training equipment in whatever way they knew how. Seeing an opportunity to show off his squad, as well as upstage his new rival, Marshal immediately took Vlad to the benches.

"Alright, Vlad," he said. "I'm assuming you've done bench presses before."

"Of course," Vlad scoffed, flexing his gargantuan arms.

"Alright," Marshal said. "Let's show everyone what you can do then."

"Gladly," Vlad acquiesced, winking. He proceeded to fill the weight bar with an obscene amount of weight. Several other recruits stopped what they were doing to watch the big kid do his thing. Vlad lay on the bench, grabbed the bar, and began to effortlessly lift the weights.

After a minute or two, Marshal looked down at Vlad. "You know you can stop sometime," he said.

"Oh, thank God," Vlad sighed. "I was starting to get bored." He set the bar down and it crashed into its holding place with a thud that shook the whole room.

"Good Lord," Marshal muttered. "You're an animal."

Vlad simply laughed. "I was called here from Russia for a reason, Marshal," he told him. "Now it's your turn."

Marshal's eyes widened. "You're joking."

Vlad laughed again. "Of course I am. You do what you're comfortable with. Of course, if I feel you can do more, I'll make you. I'm a pretty good judge of strength."

Marshal nodded and quickly stripped the weight that was on the bar. He then put a mediocre amount of weight on the bar and sat down to lift it.

"Not even close," Vlad said shaking his head. "You need more."

Marshal sighed and put more weight on the bar. It was closer to what someone of his stature would be able to comfortably do.

"Nope," Vlad said, standing up. "That's not enough." He pushed Marshal out of the way and loaded up more weight than some of the guys bigger than Marshal were doing. "This is about right."

"You've got to be kidding," Marshal groaned, shaking his head. "There's no way I can do that! That's more than what I weigh!"

"You won't do it with that attitude," Vlad scolded. "If you just sit down and tell yourself you can do it, then you will. Confidence is
key, Marshal. All good leaders must have confidence to be effective."

Marshal nodded. "Okay, I'll do it." He lay down at the bench and got ready to go. Vlad stood above him, ready to help if necessary. Marshal took a deep breath, mustered all his willpower, and lifted the bar off its support. He was surprised by how light it suddenly felt. He lifted it five times before putting the weight back down.

"What did I tell you?" Vlad said. "That was easy, no?"

"Yeah, it was," Marshal admitted. "You're really good at motivation, Vlad."

"I try to be," Vlad told him. "The morale of your comrades should be one of your top priorities."

"Shall we keep going?" Marshal asked him. "We still have quite a bit of time."

"Yes, sir," Vlad smiled evilly. "Let's move on to squats next."

"Oh, god," Marshal groaned.

Chapter8: The White Rose Blossoms; the Red Scythe Reaps

After an hour of training, Marshal was about ready to pass out. Vlad had absolutely pushed him to his limit. Every part of his body hurt, from his arms to his feet. He fell down on the floor, and Vlad walked over to stand over him.
   
"That was fun, wasn't it?" Vlad asked him with a malicious smirk on his face.
   
"I hate you," Marshal grunted.
   
"Come on, now," Vlad laughed. "It's only going to get easier for you from here." As he was talking, a timer went off in the room. The door swung open, and Walker walked into the room.
   
"Great work today so far," he said. "Now it's time to move on to the third floor. From there, you will have to decide what type of combat you want to specialize in. Your specialization will determine what weapon you use and how you fight when in combat. You will need to decide between your squad members as to what each one of you want to specialize in. That way, we don't have every member of a squad doing the same thing. One of my assistants will be around to pass out sheets explaining each of the specializations. You may begin to discuss as you're walking up to the next floor." Squad Four regrouped and followed the line of people out the door. One of the assistants was handing out flyers to each of the recruits as they walked out the door.
   
Marshal looked at the flyer as he walked. "Okay, so it looks like there are less than ten specializations. We've got snipers, weapons specialists, hackers, and a few others. What does everybody want?"
   
"I want to be a sniper," Vlad said bluntly.
   
"Okay, then," Marshal said. "There's one sniper out of the way. Who else knows what they want to do?"
   
"I'll be a hacker!" Tristan shouted, jumping up and down.
   
"I'm interested in the camouflage specialization," Mia said quietly.
   
"I'll do the medical specialization," Adelia said.
   
"I'll join you," Serena said to Adelia. "The more medical support we have, the better."
   
"I'll do the weapons one," Chris said.
   
"I'll go and study tactical maneuvers," Aurora said.
   
"We'll do reconnaissance," one of the twins said.
   
"Good, that's everyone then," Marshal said. "Let's review and confirm. Vlad will go to sniping, Tristan is on hacking, Mia will do camouflage, Adelia and Serena are medics, Chris is our weapons guy, Aurora is our tactician, and the twins will do recon. Are we all good?"
   
"Yes, sir!" they all answered.
   
"Awesome," Marshal said. "Let's go, then." They walked up the stairs to the third floor and waited until everyone else had made it up.
   
"What are you going to do, Marshal?" Vlad asked him, hefting his strange bag up on his shoulder. "Just about all of the specializations are taken."
   
"I'm not sure," Marshal admitted. "I'm not really a fan of firearms and all that stuff, so I'll go with the non-weapon specialization."
   
"Interesting," Vlad mused. "What don't you like about firearms?"
   
"I really don't know," Marshal told him. "I have terrible aim, for one thing. I'm also somewhat afraid of guns."
   
"That's an interesting phobia to have," Vlad said. "Especially considering the work you'll be doing here."
   
"Yeah," Marshal agreed. "I'm sure once we get started, I'll get over it. I have to lead my squad effectively, after all."
   
"That's the spirit," Vlad smiled.
   
Breckinridge walked up to face the squads. "Okay, I trust you all have decided what you're going to specialize in. The specialization instructors will be around waiting for each person that is interested. They will be holding up signs showing which specialization they are teaching, to minimize confusion." Just then, seven people walked up the stairs, holding pieces of paper in their hands. Each person located the person that matched their specialization and left with them.

*   *   *
   
Vlad felt a little out of place with the rest of the sniper trainees. The rest of them were all short, skinny, and easy to fit into small spaces. He, of course, was not. He knew, however, that he was one of the best at his craft, and he would show this "instructor" what he could really do. He followed the group into a large room with a lot of rectangular obstacles.
   
The instructor turned to face the trainees. She was a small lady with long raven hair tied up in a ponytail. Her pale face was free of any blemishes, and her eyes were covered by a pair of opaque, black sunglasses.
   
"Welcome to sniper training," the instructor said with a Russian accent nearly identical to Vlad's. "I am Anastasia Markov, and I will be your instructor as long as you're training here."
   
Vlad was very interested in this woman, and not just because of her accent. She also seemed very young, probably around eighteen, just like him. She also seemed to be pretty handy with a rifle, which pleased him. He reminded himself to talk to her after the lesson that day.
   
"Now," Anastasia said. "Who in here has had experience with a sniper rifle in the past?" Vlad was the only person to raise his hand. "That's interesting. Well, let me get this out of the way for all of you who enjoy playing first person shooter video games, it's not all quick-scoping and 360 no-scopes. Being a sniper takes plenty of patience, stealth, and self-control. I'm sure the man mountain over there would agree."
   
"Yes, ma'am," Vlad agreed, blushing a little.
   
Anastasia smiled. "Now, this room was designed with sniping in mind. This is the kind of thing snipers run into when in the field. You must keep a constant watch on your team from your position and protect them from any threats, when possible. Of course, it isn't always easy to do this." She looked at Vlad. "You seem capable enough," she said. "Would you care to help me demonstrate the role of a sniper?"
   
"Absolutely," Vlad told her, reaching for his bag. He unzipped it and quickly pulled out a huge sniper rifle. It looked heavily customized with a suppressor, a very big scope, and a couple of other interesting attachments. The most interesting thing on the rifle, though, was a pattern that seemed to reoccur quite a few times all over the body. It was a simple white rose, overlaid by a menacing red scythe resembling that of the mythical Grim Reaper. Noticing the symbol littered around Vlad's rifle, Anastasia gasped.
   
"That symbol!" she cried. "I've seen it somewhere before!"
   
Vlad just smirked and shoved his way to the front of the group. "I'm ready to assist you, Ms. Markov."
   
"Of course," she said, still fascinated by the symbol covering Vlad's rifle. "If you could, please take your position up in the sniper's nest to your right." Vlad did as instructed and walked up the incline on his right to a small square area above the whole room. It provided enough cover for anyone to take shelter from a stray bullet or two.
   
"I'm in position," Vlad told her.
   
"Good," Anastasia said. "Now, I'm going to walk through the course to the other side of the room. As I go through, targets will appear around the whole area. Your job is to take out all of the targets that pose a threat to me. Stealth is the name of the game, as I'm sure you know."
   
"Of course," Vlad said. "I'm ready to begin whenever you are."
   
"Alright then," Anastasia said, smiling a little bit. "Let's get started." She pressed a button on the wall next to the start of the obstacle course and started walking through. As soon as she got in, Vlad immediately spotted a target dummy coming around the corner of one of the rectangular obstacles. With a yawn, Vlad pulled the trigger without even looking through the scope of his weapon. His bullet went straight through the dummy's head, literally knocking the stuffing out of it. The dummy stopped right where it was. Anastasia continued walking through the course. Again and again, target dummies would pop up, and Vlad easily dispatched them all without hesitation. Anastasia got to the end of the course and pushed another button on the wall. All the training dummies returned to their original positions, and the rectangular obstacles sank down into the floor.
   
"Alright," she said calmly. "You can come down, now." Vlad packed up his rifle and walked back down to the floor.
   
"How did I do, Ms. Markov?" Vlad asked smugly, an obvious smirk appearing on his face once again.
   
"You stay here," she said sternly. "The rest of you, we're done for today." The other clearly freaked out recruits left the room while Vlad stayed behind. She walked up to Vlad and stood up on her tiptoes to get up in his face.
   
"What's wrong?" Vlad asked.
   
"What the hell is a member of the Crescent Rose Snipers doing here?" she asked him angrily.
   
"I don't know what you are talking about," Vlad said nonchalantly.
   
"Don't play dumb with me!" Anastasia shouted. "I know everything about the Crescent Rose Snipers. They're known as some of the greatest snipers in the entire world. Even I wasn't able to become one. Just who are you?"
   
"The name's Vladimir Kozlov," Vlad said, formally introducing himself to the young instructor.
   
Anastasia gasped yet again. "Wait a minute, you mean you're the Vladimir Kozlov? The child prodigy that became a Crescent Rose Sniper when he was just thirteen years old?"
   
"I'm still not sure I know what you're talking about," Vlad said, avoiding the subject. "Perhaps my memory would return if you accompanied me for lunch?"
   
"Fine," Anastasia grunted. "But only if I can get some information out of your annoyingly big head." The two of them left the training room together.

Chapter9: Bitter Rivals

Marshal arrived at the non-firearm training room. It seemed that he was the only one that was in that specialization. Even the instructor had managed to vanish somehow. Just then, Breckinridge showed up at the door with an annoyingly familiar face in tow.
   
"Hey, Marshal!" Jack Martin greeted him with an extremely saturated amount of sarcasm. Marshal just grunted in reply.
   
"That's kind of rude," Breckinridge scolded him. "You should be a little nicer to your only specialization partner."
   
"Him?!" Marshal screamed. "You've got to be joking!"
   
"He's completely serious, buddy!" Jack said, faking kindness towards Marshal. "We're gonna have so much fun together!"
   
Marshal turned to Breckinridge. "Walker, please, this guy has been nothing but rude to me since I met him, and I don't feel comfortable training with him."
   
"Nonsense!" Breckinridge said, dismissing Marshal's plea. "I'm sure the two of you will get along great! That being said, though, it seems your instructor left, thinking that there would be nobody taking his class. I guess that means the responsibility falls to me. Come on, you two. We've got some work to be doing."

*   *   *
   
Vlad and Anastasia had made the trek back to Squad Four's apartment, where Vlad had fixed her some authentic Russian food for lunch.
   
"I hope you like svitanak," he said sheepishly, placing a plate of delicious looking chicken in front of her.
   
"I do!" she cried. "How did you know?"
   
"Who doesn't love svitanak?" he asked jokingly. The two of them both laughed as they dug in to eat their lunch.

*   *   *
   
"You're here because you don't like guns," Breckinridge assumed. "That's perfectly fine! There's nothing wrong with that. Because of this, though, you need to figure out ways of alternatively taking out enemies. That's why we've also equipped the headquarters with a plethora of weapons besides firearms. They're all stored in this room!" He motioned to the walls, and Marshal and Jack looked around to see weapons of every shape and size adorning the big walls of the training room.

"Wow," Marshal said, gaping in awe. "This is incredible!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack dismissed, "when do we get to start beating the crap out of each other?"

"Right now, actually," Breckinridge assured him. "The two of you have 30 seconds to pick a weapon off of the walls and start a mock battle. Go!"

"Yes, Commander Walker!" the two of them shouted. They ran to the walls and searched for a weapon that suited them the best. Marshal immediately set his gaze on an old katana that was set on the top of the wall. Jack picked up a set of steel battle claws and immediately ran towards Marshal.

*   *   *

"So," Anastasia began, "what is a Crescent Rose Sniper doing here of all places?"

"Walker called for me personally," Vlad told her. "Of course, I accepted. Breckinridge has done quite a bit for us in Moscow."

"But how did you get out of the Crescent Rose to come here?" Anastasia asked him.

"I haven't been in the Crescent Rose for quite some time," Vlad said. "It's been at least three years since I was last with them."

"I've never heard of anyone just up and leaving that group before," Anastasia mused.

"Well, my departure wasn't exactly what you'd call, 'official,'" Vlad admitted.

"You deserted," Anastasia answered for him.

"I almost had to," Vlad said, defending himself. "The ways they were operating before I left were...less than ethical, to say the least. So I packed up my rifle, and I quickly moved to Moscow, where no one would be able to accurately track me down."

"Wow," Anastasia said, in awe of the young man's story. "That's amazing. They never found you after that?"

"Oh, they looked," Vlad assured her. "They just weren't very good at it."

Anastasia laughed. "You know, Vlad, you're a pretty interesting guy."

Vlad laughed, finishing off his Svitanak. "Thanks. I'd like to get to know you a little better myself, Ms. Markov."

"Please," she said. "Call me Anastasia. And perhaps we could do this again tomorrow?"

"Just let me know what you'd like me to make," Vlad told her, smiling.

"I haven't had some good borscht in a long time," Anastasia said. "Maybe you can make that tomorrow?"

"Borscht it is, then," Vlad agreed. "I'll prepare it tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow for class."

"Of course," Anastasia said. "Until tomorrow, Vlad." She got up and walked out of Squad Four's apartment.

*   *   *

Marshal had just gotten knocked down by Jack for the fourth time in a row. Frustrated, he got up and started swinging his sword at his opponent again. Jack quickly blocked all of Marshal's attacks with one claw and forced him down with the other.

"That's enough," Walker told them. "You two are done for today,"

"No!" Marshal adamantly refused. "I can beat him; just give me one more round!"

"Why don't you give up?" Jack asked him. "You should've figured out that you couldn't beat me by at least the third attempt."
In a fit of rage, Marshal ran at Jack and punched him square in the face. Jack stumbled back a few feet and fell flat on his backside.

"Maybe I just don't need a weapon to take you down," Marshal said, putting the katana back on the wall where he found it.

"That's enough, you two!" Walker shouted. The two of them turned to look at him, quickly stumbling to attention. He turned to Jack. "You're dismissed for today, Jack. Marshal, you stay here."

"Yes, Commander," Jack mumbled, walking out of the room. When the door closed behind him, Walker looked straight at Marshal.

"Marshal, I know it's disappointing to lose," Walker told him, "but you don't have to make things worse by getting violent. No matter what, Jack is one of your comrades. You need to treat him as such."

"You weren't there this morning when he insulted my squad," Marshal retorted. "I just wanted to show him that he was wrong about us. He's no better than us."

Walker stared at him for a moment, and then he smiled. "Tell you what, Marshal. Stop by my office here in the dome tonight after training is over for the day. I'll have something for you that I think you'll like."

"What is it?" Marshal asked him.

"It's a surprise," Walker said. "I can't tell you yet. Now, you're dismissed. Go get some lunch and report back to the fourth floor in an hour for the next activity."

"Yes, Commander Walker!" Marshal said, saluting. He ran out of the room. Walker sighed as he watched Marshal race back to his apartment for lunch.

Chapter10: Squad Battles

After a quick lunch, Marshal met up with the rest of his squad and they walked back over to the training dome. They made it to the fourth floor to find the rest of the squads standing around a huge course that resembled a map off of a first person shooter game. Props of all sorts littered the whole area, and a few structures appeared here and there. The whole course was only connected to the outer walkway by two metal bridges, one that was colored red and another colored blue. Above the course, there was a Jumbotron, not unlike those found at big sports stadium.
   
"This is incredible!" Tristan exclaimed.
   
"I wonder what we'll be doing up here," Ryder mused.
   
"Well it looks like we're about to find out," Aurora said, nodding over to the staircase on the other side, where Walker was just arriving.
   
"Hello, everyone!" he said, waving to the group. "I hope you all have been doing well today. Now, this portion of the day will be where we pit each squad against each other in a team death match of sorts. Only two squads will participate in a match per day, which means that you will only have to participate in a match once a week. The squads are randomly chosen and the map is also randomly generated, so you never know who you'll face or what kind of map you'll be playing on. The matches are conducted on a best two out of three round basis, which each round lasting twenty minutes. Kills are checked by a simple laser tag system. If you are killed, you must return to your team's respawn area and wait for five seconds. The winner of each round is decided by the total amount of kills earned by the whole squad. At the end of the week, all the kills will be totaled, and the squad that has the most points will win a prize! Any questions?"
   
"No, Commander Walker!" everyone shouted.
   
"Great!" Walker exclaimed. "Then let's get today's match underway! We have randomly selected the teams, and the two squads that are participating are Squads Six and Ten. Squad Six will take the red side, and Squad Ten will take the blue side. Please get ready to begin the match!" The two squads grouped together and took their respective sides. Waiting for them next to the bridges were some 9HUDs and Magnums, just like the equipment they had received for the entrance exam. Each team walked across the bridge onto the arena and the bridges retracted into the center circle. The Jumbotron turned on to reveal a scoreboard showing a red six and a blue ten, with white zeroes underneath them. In the middle, a timer showed twenty minutes, the time for each round. An alarm sounded, and the two squads began to prepare for battle. Within thirty seconds, the first kill had been counted for Squad Six. As soon as that happened, Squad Six went on a rampage, utterly decimating Squad Ten in the first round with a score of 67 kills to zero.
   
Chris whistled. "Wow, Squad Ten is not doing very well."
   
"Well, they were the very last people to show up last night," Serena reminded him. "Most of them were all covered in paint, if I remember correctly. We probably can't expect much from them to start off."
   
"Come on, Serena," Marshal groaned. "The entrance exam had hardly any bearing on skill."
   
"It may not have been the only factor," Adelia agreed, "but it still was a factor any way you look at it."
   
"Whatever," Marshal sighed. They all turned their attention back to the ongoing match, where Squad Ten had started doing better, only losing to Squad Six in the second round with a score of 49 to 13."
   
"That's it!" Walker shouted at the end of the round. "Today's match is over! The winner today is Squad Six!" Everyone clapped for the victorious squad as the two teams exited the arena. Squad Ten looked extremely discouraged as they left their gear by the bridge, where they had found it.
   
"Aw, man," one of the squad members said. "We got destroyed."
   
Marshal walked up to them. "Don't feel bad," he said, attempting to cheer them up. "That's what the training is for, right?"
   
"He's right," one of the girls said to the rest of them. She appeared to be the squad's leader. "We'll get better and hopefully win next week. Let's do our best!"
   
"Yes, ma'am!" the rest of the squad.
   
"Thank you," the girl said to Marshal. "What's your name?"
   
"I'm Marshal North," Marshal told her. "I'm the Squad Four leader. What's your name?"
   
"Karly Garret," she said. "Squad Ten leader. It's nice to meet you, Marshal."
   
"Likewise," Marshal said, smiling. "Good luck next week!"
   
"Thanks," Karly said, smiling. "Good luck to you this week!"
   
"Thanks, you too!" Marshal grinned. "See you around!" He walked back over to his squad, feeling like he had done his good deed for the day.

Chapter11: Emerald Flash
   
"Great job today, everyone!" Walker praised. "We're all done for today! You have the rest of the day to do whatever you'd like. Supper will be at 5:30 in the cafeteria on the top floor. Along with the cafeteria, the instructors' offices are on the fifth floor. If you have any questions, they will be available until after supper tonight. I do request that Marshal North comes to see me around 4:00." He looked at Marshal and winked. "That's all, then. You're all dismissed. See you tomorrow!" Everyone cheered as they dashed down the stairs to get back to their apartments.
   
Squad Four got to their apartments and crashed on the couches in the common room. Travis grabbed the remote and switched on the TV.
   
Marshal groaned. "I'm completely beat."
   
"Same," Chris agreed. "This whole 'training' thing is gonna suck."
   
"Nah," Serena laughed. "You just have to stop being such a wimp!" Everyone laughed while the TV provided some background noise. They all just sat there in silence for quite a while, desperately trying not to fall asleep, when Vlad decided to strike up some conversation.
   
"So, Marshal," he began. "What does Commander Breckinridge want with you?"
   
"No idea," Marshal admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "He told me after my specialization class today that he had a surprise for me and he wanted me to come see him after training. I have no idea what it could possibly be."
   
"Sounds odd," Tristan said. "Do you want me to see if I can find out anything?"
   
"That's okay," Marshal told him. "I appreciate the thought, but I don't want you to get in trouble. I'll just go check it out in a little bit." Tristan, looking a little discouraged, slouched back down in his seat and shifted his gaze to the TV."
   
"Speaking of which," Adelia said, "it's almost 4:00. You might want to get over there as soon as you can."
   
"Oh, crap," Marshal muttered. "You're right. Thanks, Adelia. I'll see you all later!" He dashed out of the apartment and took off through the stairwell down to the bottom.

*   *   *
   
Walker was typing a report on the first day's events on his computer when Marshal crashed into his office.
   
"Sorry, Walker!" he shouted, stumbling into his standard awkward salute.
   
"It's 4:01, Marshal," Walker told him. "Tardiness is not a quality that befits a squad leader."
   
"Again, my deepest apologies," Marshal offered. "It's been a long day so far."
   
"Understandable," Walker admitted. "Now, I have a surprise for you, as I said earlier. Did you take that katana you were using out of the weapons room?"
   
"No, I didn't," Marshal told him. "I figured it was just supposed to stay there."
   
"Well, I'm rather glad you didn't," Walker said. "Now I can justify giving this to you!" He reached under his desk and pulled out a long black box. He handed it to Marshal, who gingerly picked it up.
   
"What is it?" Marshal asked.
   
"Open it and see!" Walker ordered. "I really think you'll be impressed."
   
Marshal took the lid off of the box to find a brand spanking new katana, held by a sheath. The sheath looked like it could be strapped to Marshal's back. "This is a katana?" he asked.
   
"Yes, it is," Walker confirmed. "Not just any katana, though. This is the latest and greatest weapon our designers have come up with. Go ahead and unsheathe it."
   
"Okay," Marshal agreed. He took the sword out of its sheath and stared in awe. The outside of the blade was black, but a strip of it in the middle shone a bright emerald green. The guard was the same shade of green, and the hilt was made out of some kind of spongy, black material.
   
"What do you think?" Walker asked him. "That's the latest and greatest in sword technology. The blade is made out of a diamond and emerald composite, which gives it a superior amount of durability. It's covered by a layer of black carbon fiber to keep the interior protected and to make it look really cool. The hilt is also made out of specially designed foam to maximize grip strength while simultaneously providing comfort for your hands. I call it, 'Emerald Flash.'"
   
"I don't know what to say," Marshal said. "Thank you so much!"
   
"It's no problem," Walker assured him. "You're lucky you got one. I found out that Jack took that pair of battle claws out of the room after training today. That means he's kind of stuck with those. You, however, didn't take that rusty old katana. That was a good choice on your part. This sword has the potential to give you the edge over Jack when you spar against each other again."
   
"This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me," Marshal told him. "Again, thank you so much."
   
"It was nothing, really," Walker reminded him. "Just be sure you do your best from now on!"
   
"I will!" Marshal said, absolutely giddy with excitement over his present. He practically skipped out of the office back to his apartment. Walker laughed as the door to his office closed.

Chapter12: Serena's Secret

Marshal made it back to his apartment in record time. He walked in with a huge grin on his face.
   
"Well, look who's back so soon!" Aurora said. "What are you smiling about?"
   
"This!" he said, unsheathing his sword.
   
Everyone jumped back. "What the hell?" Mia cried.
   
"Walker gave me this katana as a gift!" Marshal beamed. "It's the coolest thing ever! It's pretty much indestructible, and look what happens when you swing it!" He swung the blade around, and a green trail of light followed it in the direction it traveled.
   
"Okay," Mia admitted. "That's insanely cool."
   
"I know!" Marshal shouted. While he was showing off his new weapon, the TV channel changed without anyone touching anything. The picture showed Walker in his office.
   
"Evening, everyone!" he said. "Supper will begin shortly. If you're eating in the dome with us, you should come at this time. I have a few more announcements to go over when everyone gets here, so please try to attend tonight." With that, the TV switched back to its regularly scheduled programming.
   
"That's pretty cool," Tristan said.
   
"Shall we go to supper?" Vlad asked.
   
"We shall," Marshal answered. The squad made yet another trek over to the dome and raced up the steps to the top floor. They got to the cafeteria before all the other squads, so they got food instantly and sat down. As soon as the other squads arrived and got settled in, Walker appeared, as perfectly timed as always.
   
"So," he began, "I forgot to mention a few things before we left training today. First off, after dinner you will all report to the medical ward on the first floor to receive your 12HUDs. Like I mentioned to you all, this hardly even qualifies as a surgery. The only thing that the nurse is going to do is take a small syringe and inject a tiny microchip into your head. The procedure is painless and takes all of about ten seconds."
   
Tristan looked at the rest of the squad as if to say, "I told you so."
   
"Also," Walker continued, "I forgot to mention a little detail of the squad battles earlier. Each team will be asked to come up with their own logo to represent them on the scoreboard, leaderboards, and other things. I ask that each squad get those to me as soon as possible. The deadline for these submissions is Friday. If you don't meet that deadline, I'll make you a logo, and trust me when I say that you won't like it." A few people in the cafeteria giggled, thinking of possible things the commander would make as logos. Walker continued on. "That's all for now. Enjoy your supper, and I'll see you all tomorrow!"
   
Vlad looked to the group while Walker left the cafeteria. "I have an idea for our logo," he told them. "Are any of you good at graphic design?"
   
"I can draw on paper," Adelia said. "I just can't draw on the computer."
   
"I can do that," Mia said. "We can work on it together tonight!"
   
"Awesome!" Adelia exclaimed. "All-nighter, here we come!"
   
"I'll help, too," Vlad told them.  "I should probably let you know what I'm thinking of doing." They quickly finished their dinner and reported to the medical ward to receive their 12HUDs. After a quick, painless injection, they all went back to the apartment.
   
"I don't see where this 12HUD is," Mia scoffed. "I think mine's broken."
   
"I'll do a little digging around," Tristan said. "I'll see if I can find some instructions on these somewhere."
   
"I'll allow that," Marshal said. "Just please be careful. I'm sure they'll be beefing up their security now that they are going to start having trained hackers running around the place."
   
"Oh, please," Tristan said, cracking his knuckles. "They have no idea what they're up against." He dashed into his room and shut the door behind him.
   
"Well," Serena said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to take a shower and head to bed for the night."
   
"That sounds like a lovely idea," Serena agreed. "I'll get ready to take one after you."
   
"I think we all need to get to bed early," Marshal said. "We've got a busy few months ahead of us." Everyone went to their rooms and prepared for bed.

*   *   *
   
"You can go first," Aurora said to Serena when they closed the door to their room behind them. "You know, since it was your idea and all."
   
"Thanks," Serena said, lifting up her shirt. Once she had gotten it off, Aurora noticed a huge mark on Serena's left arm. Looking at it before, she had just assumed it was a trick of the light, but now she noticed that it looked more like a tattoo. A strange tribal pattern traveled the length of Serena's upper arm. It consisted of a single curving line that branched off into many other curving lines.
   
"That's quite the tattoo," Aurora said, complimenting her.
   
"Thanks," Serena said, "but it's not a tattoo."
   
"What is it, then?" Aurora asked, getting confused.
   
"It's a burn," Serena told her. "I've had it since I was really little. My mom told me that it just appeared on me one day without anyone noticing, but I don't believe that story for a minute."
   
"Doesn't it bother you?" Aurora asked. "That looks like a very serious burn to have to deal with for that long."
   
"It's pretty much healed," Serena dismissed. "I don't even feel it anymore."
   
"Probably because all the nerves in your arms are dead," Aurora said. "Let's go talk to Walker about this."
   
"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Serena asked her. "I really just want to take a shower and go to bed."
   
"No," Aurora said. "This could be a problem, and I want to make sure you're okay. Plus, Walker needs to know about this."
   
"Fine," Serena groaned, putting her shirt back on. "Let's go." So the two of them quietly left the apartment and headed for Breckinridge's office.

*   *   *
   
Walker was just putting the finishing touches on the first day's report when Aurora stormed in, leading Serena by the arm.
   
"Ah, Ms. Kaiser," he greeted. "And Ms. Carver. What can I do for the two of you?"
   
"You can look at this," Aurora said, lifting up Serena's left sleeve to reveal the strange mark.
   
"Oh my god," Walker gasped. "I know this mark!"
   
"You do?" Serena said quizzically.
   
"Yes!" Walker confirmed. "It's the mark of the Catalyst!"
   
"What on Earth is a Catalyst?" Aurora asked him.
   
"The Catalyst is a person that can interact with the Titan Orb and make it work," Walker explained. "There is only ever one living Catalyst on the planet at a time! This is incredible! I knew you were special, Ms. Carver, I just knew it!"
   
"Thanks," Serena said, "but I don't see what's so great about this."
   
"You are the most vital component to my operation's success," Walker told her. "If you hadn't volunteered to be on the task force, we would've spent years after finding the Titan Orb just trying to find you! This is an extremely important discovery. If you don't mind, Ms. Carver, I would like to have some of my lab guys study you occasionally. Would that be okay with you?"
   
"You'll have to run that one by my boyfriend," Serena told him. "He can be a little overprotective."
   
"No worries," Walker assured her. "I can persuade Mr. Harley, no problem. I have a way with people. In any case, thank you so much for coming to me with this information!"
   
"No problem," she said sheepishly, putting her sleeve back over her mark. "We'll see you tomorrow." With that, the two girls went back to their room, leaving Walker to gush over his new discovery.

Chapter13: The First Mission

A few weeks had passed since Breckinridge's task force had begun training. Everyone was gradually getting to act more and more like a cohesive military unit, rather than a bunch of confused teenagers. Squad Four had shown the most improvement, overall. In the third week of training, they had scored the most points in the squad battles, outscoring every other squad by over 50 points. Individually, they had also undergone some startling changes, physically and otherwise. They were all in the best shape of their lives, and a couple of them had even developed some interesting abilities. For one, Mia had figured out how to camouflage herself just like a chameleon. She was also working on getting her power to take an area of effect. She was not alone, though. Aurora had somehow found out that she had a slight aptitude for telekinesis. She had been practicing with some smaller objects, and was slowly working her way up to bigger and bigger things. Even Adelia had shown some interesting abilities, being able to heal wounds with nothing but her hands.
   
Walker had definitely noticed the squad's drastic improvement in performance. He called them to his office one day after supper to speak with them.
   
"I am very impressed," he told them. "The ten of you have improved so much since you arrived here five weeks ago. I am so impressed, in fact, that I am sending you on your first mission."
   
The squad jumped for joy. They were finally putting all of their skills to the test. "What are we doing?" Marshal asked him.
   
"This is going to be a fairly simple job," Walker said. "As of now, we have little to no information on the location or origin of the Titan Orb. All we know is that it's really old."
   
"That's not a whole lot to go off of," Tristan scoffed.
   
"Yes, but that's where you come in," Walker retorted, glaring at him. "We want you to search the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu. If anything, you may find some clues."
   
"Yes, Commander Walker!" the squad shouted.
   
"We have arranged for you to get there by helicopter," Walker told them. "You'll leave tomorrow morning, and you'll only have a few hours to spend searching. I trust that you all understand your mission, so you're dismissed." The squad saluted and marched back to their apartment.

*   *   *
   
The next morning came quickly, and Squad Four was ready to go for their mission. They had received their combat uniforms, a skin-tight black set of clothes with emerald green accents, reflecting Marshal's new katana. The accents were specially designed by Walker, and they were only able to be seen by people wearing a 12HUD linked up to the task force's network. Every squad had their own set with their own distinctive color, and by some stroke of pure irony, Squad Four managed to get the exact same color as the blade of Marshal's new katana. They cheered when they saw their helicopter waiting for them on the helipad behind the complex. It was decorated liberally with the squad's emblem, which covered many parts of the plane. The logo was perfect for their squad. Designed by Vlad, Mia, and Adelia, it showed the red scythe on Vlad's sniper rifle, with Marshal's katana crossing over it. The two weapons rested on top of a simple white circle.
   
"Alright, team," Marshal said to his squad. "This is our very first mission. Let's do well!"
   
"Yes, sir!" the rest of the squad yelled. They all piled into the helicopter, and Aurora took the controls. She hoped that flying the helicopter all the way to South America went as well as it had when she was learning how to fly. She started up the engines, and they were soon off to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.

*   *   *
   
After a few hours in the air, Squad Four had finally made it to Peru, where the ruins were located.
   
"Alright, everyone," Marshal said, calling his team to attention. "We're coming up on the destination. We have one hour to search, so look carefully."
   
"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted. Aurora landed the helicopter over the ruins of the city. It was very quiet; not a soul could be found there that day. The ten of them fanned out and searched the entire city. None of them could find anything. Finally, Tristan spotted something etched on the wall of a ruined building.
   
"I've found something!" he shouted. The whole squad regrouped around him and looked where he was pointing. They saw an old piece of art that covered the whole wall. It showed some ancient people throwing their hands up to the sky. At the very top, a giant man held a circular object above his head. The object gave off some interesting beams of light that came down to the ground, where the people with their hands up waited.
   
"This is interesting," Ryder said. "It could be a clue."
   
"Let's get some pictures and head on back," Marshal suggested. He used his HUD to take some images of the etching, and they quickly headed back to their helicopter and got ready to go back to base. As they were leaving, another helicopter was getting ready to touch down on the ruins.
   
"Who are those guys?" Mia wondered.
   
"Let's not stick around to find out," Marshal said. "Aurora, full speed ahead. Let's get home."
   
"Roger that," Aurora said, acknowledging that she got Marshal's order. She put the helicopter into overdrive and they sped back to headquarters as quickly as possible.

*   *   *
   
"This drawing could be an important clue," Breckinridge said, reviewing the squad's report. "The beams coming from the orb on the top seem to be doing multiple different things, so it can't simply be the sun. We'll look into this. Good work today, Squad Four. You are dismissed."
   
"Yes, sir!" they shouted, saluting.
   
"Enough of that," he said, his face turning red. "Just go back to your apartment." They all turned and walked out the door. Before he was out the door, though, Marshal turned and walked back up to Breckinridge's desk.
   
"By the way," he said, "before we left the ruins, we saw another unidentified aircraft touching down. Did you send another squad in after us?"
   
"No," Walker answered. "You were the only squad on an assignment today. That's very unsettling."
   
"So we may not be alone, then," Marshal guessed.
   
"It's very possible," Walker admitted. "There are many other companies besides mine that would probably love to have the Titan Orb in their possession. We'll just have to be more careful. Thanks for the information, Marshal. You're dismissed." Marshal saluted and dashed out the door after his team. Walker leaned back in his chair and sighed.

Chapter14: Grudge Match
   
Squad Four resumed training the next day, continuing as if nothing had happened the day before. The day was like any other, right up until the time came for the squad battles.
   
"Today's match should be very interesting," Walker previewed. "The two teams will not be going for most kills today. Instead, we are having a single round, single elimination match. That means as soon as you are down, you're down for the whole match. Now, as for today's competing teams, we have Squad Four taking on Squad Three!"
   
Everyone gasped and looked at the two squads staring each other down. Jack had his usual confident smirk on his face, while Marshal seemed to be attempting to shoot daggers out of his eyes at Jack. They had not yet faced off in the arena, so it was finally time to see who the better squad truly was. Marshal took the red side, with his squad following suit. They found a set of weapon modifications there waiting for them, making each of their weapons more suitable for a round of laser tag rather than a military operation. They fitted each of their weapons with said modifications, aside from Marshal who kept his blade.
   
"Let the match begin!" Walker cried, starting the timer. All of the squads cheered as the two teams ran into the arena. Today the map was set as an ancient city, closely resembling Machu Picchu.
   
"How fitting," Marshal said, smiling a little bit as he drew his sword. "Let's go, people! Get in cover formation 10 A!"
   
"Yes, sir!" the squad said. They fanned out and found cover behind some walls, just as Aurora had taught them. She had figured out an organized system that was easy for them all to remember what they were trying to do. Vlad and Mia ran off to a high point so Vlad could get in a perfect sniping position. Mia used her camouflaging power to hide both of them from enemy view.
   
"Tristan, get in their HUDs!" Marshal ordered.
   
"I'm on it!" Tristan confirmed. He opened up the menu on his HUD, and a holographic screen came up in front of him. He moved a few things around with his hand and smiled. "It's done! Their motion sensors are jammed, and their weapon status relays are offline."
   
"Perfect," Marshal said. He opened the communications line with the squad. "Vlad, what's your status?"
   
"I'm in position," Vlad told him quietly. "They haven't spotted me. Mia's on her way back to you right now."
   
"Copy that," Marshal said. He waited a few seconds as Mia returned to the rendezvous point.
   
"I'm back," she said.
   
"Well, you're going to be leaving again in a second," Marshal said. "Take Travis to the enemy side and let him do some reconnaissance."
   
"Understood," Mia said. She cloaked herself and grabbed Travis, causing him to disappear as well. After another few seconds, Ryder spoke up.
   
"They're all grouped together," Ryder said, "behind the building opposite us."
   
"Did you get that, Vlad?" Marshal asked.
   
"Yes," Vlad confirmed. "I have a clear shot of all of them."
   
"Take it," Marshal ordered.
   
"Understood," Vlad said. He pulled the trigger of his rifle, and a single laser managed to catch all but one of them, giving Squad Four nine points immediately. The remaining member disappeared from Vlad's view immediately after the shot was taken.
   
"I got all but one of them," Vlad reported. "Not sure where he is."
   
"Alright," Marshal said. "Let's split up and search." The rest of the squad got out of their cover, but they were all immediately taken down by a few quick shots from a pistol. Jack Martin stepped out into the open and laughed.
   
"That was too easy!" he laughed. "I don't even need the rest of my team for this!"
   
"Vlad!" Marshal whispered behind his cover, trying to reach his sniper. "Take the shot!"
   
"I can't!" Vlad cried. "He's not in my range!"
   
"Oh, I almost forgot," Jack said. He took a single shot with his pistol and took out Vlad. "Now it's just you and me, Marshal! Let's do this."
   
Marshal stepped out of cover to face Jack. "Alright," he said. "I hope you're ready."
   
"Of course!" Jack scoffed, holstering his pistol and grabbing his battle claws. "This is just like any other training session, which I always win!" He ran straight at Marshal and slashed at him with his claws. Marshal ducked out of the way just in time and circled around Jack, swinging his sword violently to take out his opponent.
   
Meanwhile, the rest of Squad Four exited the arena, disappointed that they had all been taken out so soon. "Man, I can't believe we lost!" Chris screamed, frustrated.
   
"It's not over yet!" Adelia reminded him. "Marshal is still in there!"
   
"Yeah, but he's fighting Jack Martin," Chris said, shaking his head. "You know, the kid he's never beaten in his specialization training matches?"
   
"There's a first time for everything," Vlad said philosophically. "We just have to place our trust in Marshal."
   
Back on the training floor, Marshal was having the fight of his life against Jack. The two of them had no way of getting each other out by the rules of the match, so they were locked in a true deathmatch. Jack blocked Marshal's katana with one of his claws and slashed at him with the other, just as he had done countless times in practice. Unfortunately for Jack, Marshal was expecting that. He ducked under Jack's claw and swept him off of his feet with a low kick. Jack tripped and fell on the floor of the arena, but not before knocking Marshal's blade out of his hands. Marshal stumbled over to grab the Emerald Flash while Jack got back up.
   
"Not bad," Jack said sarcastically. "You're really improving!"
   
"I've been working hard so I can wipe that annoyingly smug grin off your face!" Marshal shouted. He ran straight at Jack to attack him again. Before he was about to slice Jack's head clean off, Jack just simply disappeared. Marshal stopped and looked around to try and find him. Without warning, Jack appeared directly behind Marshal and kicked him in the back. Marshal crashed into the ground face first, coughing up a little blood.
   
"Like that?" Jack asked him. "I've been saving that little ability just for something like this. You weren't expecting that now, were you?"
   
Marshal stood up slowly, wiping off the blood that trickled down his mouth. "Not bad," he admitted. "Now I guess it's my turn!" He took one step towards Jack and was immediately in front of him somehow. Jack reflexively slashed his claws in a cross pattern to stop Marshal, but Marshal quickly ended up behind Jack. He hit Jack in the back of the head with the butt of his sword, and Jack crumpled to the floor, knocked out.
   
The crowd gasped, thinking that Marshal had just killed Jack. The clock stopped as medics rushed into the arena, hovering over Jack. In a matter of seconds, Jack was awake again.
   
"Get off me!" he screeched. He got on his feet, dusted himself off, and glared at Marshal. "You little prick! I'm going to murder you!"
   
"Come on, then," Marshal said, sheathing his sword and waving his hand at him. "See what happens."
   
Jack screamed in a fit of rage. The pure hatred coming from his eyes was visible even outside of the arena. He knocked all of the medics down and teleported straight into Marshal, jamming one of his claws straight into his stomach. Marshal coughed and spat blood onto Jack's face as he fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.
   
"Marshal!" Adelia screamed. She jumped across the gap to the arena and rushed to her other half's aid, but she was quickly stopped when Jack teleported in front of her.
   
"You're not going anywhere," he told her, getting ready to pounce on her. "He's mine."
   
"Move," Adelia ordered, her words laced with poison.
   
"I'm afraid I just can't do that," Jack sneered, almost ready to strike. He jumped at her, but quickly stopped when he felt the barrel of a shotgun press against the side of his head.
   
"I do believe she asked you to move," Chris asserted, pumping his shotgun.
   
Jack gulped. "You won't shoot me," he uttered nervously, his voice cracking a little bit. "You don't have the guts."
   
"I might not," Chris agreed, "but he does." He nodded his head to the right to turn Jack's attention to Vlad, who was preparing to shoot him straight between the eyes with a well-placed sniper round.
   
"Fine," Jack growled, gritting his teeth. "You can go. Don't think I won't forget this, you no-good, dirty little savages!"
   
"Good," Adelia said, smiling evilly. "See to it that you don't." She sprinted over to Marshal and placed her hands on his wound, just like she had practiced. She focused all of her attention towards healing Marshal's wound. Eventually, she could feel a cold sensation traveling down her arms and out through her hands straight onto Marshal's wound. After a few seconds, the gash in Marshal's stomach was completely closed, and he opened his eyes.
   
"Adelia," he groaned. "What happened?"
   
"You won," Adelia chuckled. "That's what happened."
   
"I don't feel like I won," Marshal croaked, clutching his stomach.
   
"You'll be fine," Adelia said. "Jack's going to be in for the punishment of his life once Walker gets ahold of him."
   
"Jack shouldn't get in trouble," Marshal argued. "We were having a match."
   
"Marshal, he stabbed you," Adelia reminded him. "If I hadn't been here to heal you, you could've bled out and died."
   
"I guess you're right," Marshal admitted. "I just wish he wouldn't get in trouble."
   
Adelia just laughed. "You're so weird, you know that?"
   
"Yeah," Marshal grinned. "I still don't know why you hang around me."
   
Meanwhile, Walker had rushed out onto the arena floor to check on Marshal. "Are you okay?" he wailed, fearing the worst.
   
"He's fine," Adelia reported. "No injuries."
   
Walker breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're alright, Marshal. As for Mr. Martin, however, he is in for the punishment of a lifetime!" He looked around for Jack, but he was nowhere to be found. Even Chris and Vlad looked confused.
   
"He was in my sights just a moment ago," Vlad insisted.
   
"He just disappeared again," Chris grumbled. "That's one really annoying ability."
   
"He can't have gotten too far," Walker surmised. "I want you to find him and-" He stopped what he was saying and immediately turned to the window, where a helicopter could be seen flying erratically just over the compound. It bore the insignia of Squad Three.
   
"He's got to be in that helicopter!" Marshal proclaimed. "Let's track him!"
   
"Wait," Serena said. "Something's wrong with the helicopter!" She was right, of course. Everyone watched helplessly as Squad Three's helicopter went down in the forest and crashed with a huge explosion. Panic ensued within the ranks of every squad. Even some of the instructors showed some signs of sheer terror. Marshal took off out of the compound to find where Jack's helicopter had landed, with the rest of his squad in tow.
   
"The helicopter didn't get very far," Walker reported to them through their HUDs. "I'm sending you a waypoint now."
   
"No need," Marshal told him. "We're here."
   
What lay out before them was a sight that none of them had wished to see. The helicopter was a total loss, with charred and burning parts strewn all about. Shards of broken glass and metal were scattered around the ground. The clean mountain air was distorted with the awful smells of smoke and burning flesh. Marshal treaded carefully to the remains of the helicopter's body to see if he could find Jack sitting there, but he couldn't. Jack was still gone. In his place, there was a singed set of steel battle claws sitting in the pilot's seat.
   
"He's gone again," Marshal observed. "Did he just fake his own death?"
   
"If he did," Mia said, "this is probably the worst attempt at faking a death that I've ever seen." The ten of them stood there as the burning sun set behind them.

*   *   *
   
Jack materialized outside of a bar in the middle of nowhere. He coughed smoke out of his lungs and looked around. He spotted a motorcycle with the keys still in the ignition. He jumped onto it, started it up, and sped away from the bar, where a window had just been broken. He rode down the long stretch of freeway for a long time until suddenly he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"
   
"Quite an interesting performance, Jack Martin," said the voice on the other line. It wasn't a voice that Jack knew.
   
"Who is this?" he asked. "How did you get this number?"
   
"That's not the issue," the voice hissed. "The issue is that you did a terrible job faking your own death, and now your former comrades are looking for you. I can provide you with some shelter, assuming you can do some things for me."
   
"Why should I trust you?" Jack wondered skeptically.
   
"Because I know where your family is," the voice countered. "You do want to see them again, right? Your parents and your dear sister?"
   
Jack scowled. "Fine. Where do I need to go?"

CHAPTER15: MANAFEST

Several months had passed following Jack Martin's disappearance, and life at the training compound continued as normal. Walker had taken a special interest in the abilities that Marshal and Jack had exhibited at the training match before Jack's fake death, and he asked Marshal to help him research it.

"How did you figure out that you had this ability?" Walker asked Marshal one day during specialization training.

"I don't really remember," Marshal admitted as he used a wooden sword to beat up a practice dummy. "I just saw Jack do some strange teleporting trick and I wanted to do something similar, so I did."

"Interesting," Walker noted. "Did you notice anything strange happen while you were used this ability?"

"I guess I did feel kind of weird," Marshal remembered, thinking back to the training match. "Like there was some kind of energy around me that slowed everything else down."

"I see," Walker mused, taking notes at this point. "I think I've figured out what you experienced."

"What would that be?" Marshal asked.

"You'll find out soon," Walker told him. "I have to finalize my research first. Within a few days, I'll be holding a seminar on my findings. Anyway, I think you've assaulted the poor training dummy enough. Let's call it a day."

"Alright," Marshal conceded. He put down the training sword and headed back to his squad's apartment for the night.

*          *          *

"So, that's all you know?" said a shadowy figure.
   
"Yeah," Jack snapped. "I've told you a thousand times, man, they have no idea where this thing is."
   
"What about the girl?" the figure asked. "How do they know she's a Catalyst?"
   
"She's got this weird mark on her arm," Jack explained. "That's about all they know. They're not sure how she does her thing, either."
   
"Interesting," the figure mused. "You're dismissed." Jack turned and left.

*          *          *

A few days later, Walker pulled everyone out of their specialization classes for a special meeting. Nobody seemed to have a clue what it was about besides Marshal.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Walker began, giving the task force the usual smile. "I'm going to start this seminar off with a question. How many of you remember the training match between Squads Three and Four a few months back?" Everyone raised their hands, thinking it impossible to forget such a dramatic showdown with a fiery conclusion.

"Good," Walker continued. "Now, how many of you remember the strange abilities that Mr. North and his opponent displayed?" Again, hands shot up, though not quite as many as before. "I see. Well, over the past several months, I have done some research on our dear friend from Squad Four and have reached a conclusion. Marshal North and Jack Martin, while possibly unbeknownst to the both of them, displayed knowledge of the concept of mana during that match."

"Mana?" Tristan repeated. "As in, 'the stuff that lets you do spells in video games' mana?"

"Essentially, yes," Walker confirmed. "Though I'm not sure they've ever been used in such ways as what Marshal and Jack showed, there are many theories surrounding this concept. Most all of them point to mana being a force of nature or power. It is also believed in some cultures that mana is present in every living being; in some cultures it is also referred to as aura. I believe that we can use this discovery to our advantage. If the theories are to be believed, each of you has mana inside of you waiting to be manifested as an ability. We just need to figure out how to make it appear. We'll start tomorrow, replacing the morning briefing with mana training."

"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted.

Walker sighed. "I guess that'll never stop. Dismissed!" Everyone shuffled out of the training dome for the night, mentally preparing for the next day's events.

*          *          *

A few weeks later, almost everyone in the task force had gotten the concept of mana, which had been renamed Manafest, down to a science. Marshal perfected his ability to slow down time, Vlad's vision improved even further, Mia learned how to make a field of mana that would camouflage anyone inside it, Aurora had discovered a knack for telekinesis, and Adelia had even learned how to heal most injuries using only her mana. Even the twins had managed to hone their telepathic connection to a fine art, and Tristan had learned to find out everything about a piece of technology just by touching it. Only Chris and Serena had yet to discover any abilities.

"Man, I don't get what I'm doing wrong!" Chris muttered, slightly upset. "I know that my mana is there, but it just doesn't do anything. It's like I just haven't unlocked it yet."

"I know what you mean," Serena agreed. "I can feel my mana as well, but it feels like there's something missing for me. Like I need something to make my ability work."

"I'm sure it will come to you guys in time," Marshal said, trying to lift their spirits.

"Besides," Aurora added, "I thought Walker said that Serena's abilities only worked with the Titan Orb."

"Well that makes me useful any other time, doesn't it?" Serena wondered sarcastically.

"At least you know what your problem is," Chris grumbled.

"Well, complaining sure isn't going to help you out!" Serena scolded. Their spat was interrupted by an incoming transmission from Walker.

"I need you all in my office immediately," he said, completely expressionless. He cut off the transmission quickly without even checking for acknowledgement.

"That was...weird," Marshal said after a moment of confusion. "Let's go, I guess." Squad Four quickly left the training room to head for Walker's office.

Chapter16: Interference
   
Aurora landed the plane in the helipad, and Squad Four raced for Walker's office. When they got there, he looked almost surprised to see them.
   
"Ah, Marshal!" he said. "Back so soon from your holiday?"
   
"You called us here," Marshal reminded him.
   
"No I didn't," Walker protested. "Why on Earth would I do that? You guys are on vacation, after all."
   
"I figured it was something important," Marshal said.
   
"Well, I wasn't the one who called you," Walker assured him. "Since you're here, though, I do need your help with something. All of Squad Three has gone missing."
   
"The entire squad?" Tristan squeaked.
   
"Yes," Walker confirmed. "Apparently, people that were around them before they disappeared said that I had sent them on a mission. Obviously, there was no way I would've given them a mission without being there to give it to them in person. Something very weird is going on, and I want you all to get to the bottom of it."
   
"Okay," Marshal nodded. "We'll do it."
   
"Perfect," Walker praised. "I knew I could count on you. According to our communications satellite, their HUDs went offline somewhere in the area of New Orleans, Louisiana. That's where you'll be traveling tomorrow. Be well equipped before you go. We don't know what we're dealing with here."
   
"Yes, sir!" the squad shouted.
   
"You're dismissed," he said, waving his hand. The squad retired to their apartment for the night to prepare for the next day's mission.

*   *   *
   
Later the next day, Squad Four had arrived in New Orleans. They got out of the helicopter and looked around. It was very festive all around the city. Jazz bands were still playing swing versions of Christmas carols, and people danced wildly to them in the street. The air was filled with cigarette smoke and a few other unknown scents.
   
"Ooooh!" Mia cried, her brown eyes twinkling with excitement. "There's a party going on down here in New Orleans!"
   
"Let's go check it out!" Aurora suggested.
   
"We're here on a very important mission!" Marshal reminded them. "Squad Three could be in serious danger!"
   
"Come on, Marshal," Adelia giggled. "Don't be such a stick in the mud. Squad Three can wait for a little bit while we check out what New Orleans has to offer."
   
"Fine," Marshal grunted, "but be on the lookout for anything suspicious." The squad wasn't listening to Marshal's orders, though. They were already down the street, dancing to the jazz band's music with the other people in the crowd.

*   *   *
   
"There's some more of these kids," said a scout on the roof of a building near where Squad Four was busy dancing. He looked down at the squad through a pair of binoculars. "What should we do, boss?"
   
"I think I'm going to greet the newcomers," said a shadowy figure behind him. It seemed to have the body shape of a man. Suddenly, the man seemed to change shape right before the eyes of the scout. Suddenly, the man wasn't a man anymore, but a young girl.
   
"I'll be back soon," the girl said. "Keep watching them."
   
"Yes, sir," the scout said. "I mean, uh, yes ma'am?"
   
The girl groaned as she walked away from her incompetent scout.

*   *   *
   
Marshal and the others had finally finished with their sightseeing and decided to finally search for Squad Three. They searched for any clues that they possibly could, but nobody seemed to know anything on the whereabouts of their friends. Finally, one woman in a small bookstore finally seemed to have their answer.
   
"Yeah, I saw some kids like that," she told them. "They came around lookin' for some weird ball thing. I guess they wanted to play a game or something."
   
"Do you know where they went?" Aurora asked.
   
"I don't," she whined apologetically. "I'm real sorry about that."
   
"That's okay," Aurora told her. "Thank you for your help." They turned and left the bookstore. As soon as they got out into the street, they heard a faint voice coming from the alleyway behind them.
   
"Help," the voice coughed. "Please help me."
   
"That voice sounds familiar," Vlad observed. "Let's go check it out." They dashed into the alleyway to reveal a young girl around Mia's age, with short blonde hair.
   
"Hey, that's one of the members of Squad Three!" Tristan exclaimed. "Let's help her!" They ran up to the girl and got her on her feet.
   
"Squad Four?" the girl said quizzically. "I didn't think I rated that much of a rescue. Thanks for your help."
   
"No problem," Marshal assured her. "Where's the rest of your team?"
   
"A bunch of strange looking guys with bright yellow outfits came and beat us all up," the girl explained. "They left me here and took everyone else with them."
   
"Did you happen to catch where they were headed?" Marshal asked.
   
"Yeah," the girl answered. "I can try to take you there." Vlad bent over to pick up the girl and she led them around town. Suddenly, the entire city of New Orleans seemed much too quiet. The streets somehow emptied, and all the shops seemed to be closed.
   
"This is getting weird," Serena said, shivering.
   
"I agree," Chris said. "Something's definitely wrong here."
   
"It's just up ahead here," the girl insisted. "Please help us!"
   
"We're almost there," Vlad assured her. They finally got to the place that the girl had told them to go. It was an abandoned warehouse, which looked like it hadn't been used in almost a hundred years. The walls were rusted and falling apart, and there were large holes in the roof. It looked like the perfect place for someone to store kidnapped people.
   
"Here it is," the girl said. "This is where they said they were taking my teammates."
   
"Let's go in quietly," Marshal said. "Vlad, stay outside and provide a little overwatch. Mia, get us in there.
   
"Yes, sir!" they both said. Vlad handed the girl off to Chris, who hefted her on his back. Vlad took off to find a vantage point while Mia used her camouflaging power to make the rest of the squad disappear. They went in the door silently and saw all nine members of Squad Three sitting there huddled in the corner, tied up with ropes.
   
"Wait a minute," Serena whispered, "there's only nine members of Squad Three. If they're all sitting right there, then who do we have here?"
   
The girl smirked and kicked Chris in the back of the leg. Chris yelped in pain and fell down. The girl ran out of Mia's camouflage field and turned to face them.
   
"Here they are, boys!" she said in an uncharacteristically deep voice. Right before their very eyes, the girl that they had carried to the warehouse changed into a strange looking man with sunglasses and a bright yellow jumpsuit. "Let's get 'em!" Suddenly, some men wearing similar bright yellow jumpsuits matching the girl's description jumped out of the storage crates around the warehouse, weapons at the ready.
   
"Get to cover!" Marshal barked. Mia broke the camouflage field and they all scrambled to find cover behind some of the storage crates. They got behind some crates just before the entire force opened fire on them.
   
"Marshal!" Vlad cried through the 12HUDs communicator. "What's going on in there?"
   
"We've got contact!" he shouted. "We're pinned down. Give us some support!"
   
"I would love to," Vlad said, "but there's no good vantage point to see inside the building!"
   
"Then use thermal vision, for god's sake!" Marshal screamed as a bullet whizzed by his head. "We're all behind cover on the floor nearest the entrance!"
   
"Understood," Vlad acknowledged. He pressed a button on the scope of his rifle, and the view switched so he could see heat signatures. He shot a few rounds into the wall of the building, which pierced through the rusted metal and into the head of one of the enemies. Seeing their comrade go down caused the men to stop firing and look at the body for a moment, completely dumbfounded. In that instant, Vlad fired three more shots, taking down even more of the enemies. In the confusion, Marshal managed to get out of cover and find the strange shape shifting man that had led them into this trap. He throttled the man by the neck and slammed him into a nearby storage crate. He quickly unsheathed the Emerald Flash and pointed the tip straight at the man's neck.
   
"Who are you?" Marshal interrogated. "What are you doing with our friends?"
   
The man just stood there for a moment, then laughed hysterically. "All in due time, my friend!" he told him. "All in due time." He suddenly melted into a puddle of water and trickled away down a storm drain outside. Marshal turned to the squad.
   
"Get Squad Three out of those restraints," he ordered. "We've got quite the report to send to Walker."

Chapter17: A Group of Savages

"So let me see if I've got the gist of your report," Walker said to Marshal, leaning back in his office chair. "You were led by this weird shape shifting man into an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of New Orleans, then proceeded to get ambushed by some hostile forces?"
   
"That's about it," Marshal confirmed.
   
"What did these hostile soldiers look like?" Walker asked him. "Were they wearing anything that struck you as odd?"
   
"Yeah," Marshal answered. "They were all wearing these ugly bright yellow jumpsuits."
   
Walker's eyes suddenly widened. "Did you say, 'bright yellow jumpsuits'?"
   
"Yeah," Marshal said. "They were really ugly, and they had these gray stripes on them, kind of similar to how our suits are designed, only the stripes showed up for us."
   
"Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about," Walker said, visibly shaking at this point. "This is really, really bad."
   
"What's wrong?" Marshal asked. "We took care of them, so there's no reason to worry."
   
"Oh, there's reason to worry, all right," Walker assured him. "We've stumbled upon my biggest business rival. And by the looks of things, he doesn't want to play nice."

*   *   *
   
"I'm sorry, sir," the shape shifting man said, saluting to the back of a tall office chair. "We were unable to bring those kids back to the base as you requested."
   
"That's really too bad, Forrest," the man said, not turning his chair around. "I'm afraid I'll have to punish you."
   
"Please, sir!" Forrest pleaded. "Please don't throw me in the Pit again!"
   
"I'm afraid you've exhausted all my options, Mr. Albinson," the man behind the chair said. He pushed a button on the arm of his chair, and the floor opened up underneath Forrest Albinson, sending him screaming down to the bottom of a long, dark tunnel.
   
"I'm terribly sorry about that, Mr. Martin," the man said, still refusing to turn his chair. "We'll send someone a little more competent to retrieve your squad next time."
   
"Don't worry about it," Jack said, walking into the room. "There's no way they would willingly come here, anyway. The more pressing issue is the fact that Breckinridge knows about you now. What will you do about that?"
   
"Simple," the man said, grinning evilly behind his chair. "If it's a fight that young Walker wants, then it's a fight he shall get. We start our search for the Titan Orb tomorrow. My workforce is at your disposal."
   
"Understood," Jack said. "I won't let you down, Mr. Savage."
   
"See to it that you don't," the man said, "unless you want to end up like Mr. Albinson down there." Jack shuddered as he could still hear Forrest Albinson's screams from the Pit down below.

*   *   *
   
"Thomas Savage," Walker began, "is the owner of the Savage Corporation. He's a corrupt and sinister man who will use whatever means necessary to get what he wants. I can't even count the number of times he's sent someone to assassinate me."
   
"He sounds charming," Marshal said sarcastically.
   
"That's not all," Walker told him. "He's also been charged with hundreds of felonies throughout his career, ranging from money laundering to murder. He's never been found guilty, though, because the evidence always manages to disappear somehow."
   
"Money talks," Marshal commented.
   
"That's exactly right," Walker agreed. "Now that he's found out about us, he'll probably dig a little deeper. If he figures out about the Titan Orb, we could be looking at having a full-blown war on our hands."
   
"That's crazy," Marshal said, feeling a chill run down his spine.
   
"That's not even the worst part," Walker said. "The Savage Corporation has the largest workforce of any company in the world today, which means that he has workers to spare. I had to ask for a bunch of teenagers to volunteer to risk their lives searching for something that I wasn't sure even existed. I'm not able to expend any more of my workers than I already have. I need every single one of them to keep my company's day-to-day operations running. We're severely outnumbered, here."
   
"What do you want us to do?" Marshal asked him.
   
"As of right now, your top priority needs to be finding any and all information that you can on the Titan Orb," Walker said. "If we can find it before Savage finds out about it, we may prevent some serious bloodshed."
   
"Understood," Marshal said.
   
"You are dismissed," Walker told him. "Be sure to relay this information to your squad as soon as you can. I'll let everyone else know when I can." Marshal saluted and left Walker's office, uncertain about what the future held for him and his friends. If a war broke out, he would have to do whatever it took to keep his team together, but at what cost? What if he had to let one of his friends die? What if he died? More and more doubts were filling his head as he shuffled slowly back to his apartment. When he got through the door, everyone was waiting for him in the common area.
   
"What's the deal?" Chris asked him. "What did Walker say about those guys we ran into?"
   
"From the looks of things, they're soldiers belonging to one of his business rivals," Marshal explained. "Walker's worried that since they've found out about us, they'll find out about the Titan Orb, which could mean war."
   
"Crap," Serena muttered under her breath.
   
"We're severely outnumbered, by Walker's estimations," Marshal told them. "This guy has a lot of his workforce at his disposal, whereas Walker only has the few of us that volunteered. If we ended up going to war, we wouldn't have a chance."
   
"What do we do, then?" Aurora asked, getting nervous.
   
"As of now, our best bet is to continue searching for the Titan Orb as best we can," Marshal said. "If we can find it before this Savage guy knows we're after it, we might get away scot-free." Once he was done explaining what had happened, the TV turned on and Walker showed up on the screen.
   
"Hello, Squad Four," he began. "I trust that Marshal has relayed the news about the Savage Corporation to you. This is a great issue, so we need to complete our objective as quickly as possible. Now, after Marshal left my office, I received some intel on someone who may have important information regarding the Titan Orb. He apparently resides in Tokyo, Japan, so that's where your next mission will be taking you. Find the man, get any information you can from him, and come back. You will leave tomorrow morning. That is all." Walker pressed a button on his desk, and the TV shut off once again.
   
"Alright, guys," Marshal said. "You heard the man. Let's get geared up for another mission. We're going to Tokyo." The squad cheered as they took off to their rooms to prepare for their next mission.

Chapter18: Muramasa, the Demon Blade

Squad Four's helicopter quickly touched down in a small airport on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. They all got off the copter and strategized.
   
"Our intel suggests that there's someone in the Tokyo area that knows about the Titan Orb," Marshal reminded everyone. "We should split up and search the city. I think groups of two would be safest."
   
"Yes, sir!" the squad agreed. They got into their pairs and headed out. This time, Marshal was paired with Adelia, which he was okay with. They hadn't had much time together since they had left Silver Springs. This was a great chance to have a date, even if it entailed collecting top-secret intelligence on a mythical artifact that no one seemed to know about. A date was a date, after all.
   
"What are we looking for?" Adelia asked. "Would there be a specific place this guy may be at?"
   
"If he knows about the Titan orb, he is probably interested in archeology and ancient history," Marshal deduced. "Let's search for museums around the city." They took a quick look on their HUDs' menus and searched for local museum.
   
"Ah!" Adelia cried. "The Tokyo National Museum! Let's go there." They shut off their HUDs and hailed a taxi to take them to the museum.

*   *   *
   
"This guy has to be pretty well-read," Chris suggested to Serena, "Why don't we check out the library?"
   
Serena laughed. "'Check out' the library?"
   
"Yeah," Chris said, straight faced. "Let's go check it out." Serena busted a gut as they searched for the library.

*   *   *
   
"What do you suggest, Mia?" Vlad asked.
   
"I was kinda hoping you'd have an idea," Mia admitted.
   
Vlad sighed. "I honestly don't know what to do. Let's just look around, I guess." The two of them wandered aimlessly around Tokyo, trying to figure out where to go.

*   *   *
   
Aurora and Tristan had met up with the twins, and they decided to go together. They had stopped at a nearby McDonald's per Aurora's request.
   
"This is daily American food, right?" she asked the, taking a bite out of a fake, greasy hamburger.
   
"That depends," Tristan scoffed. "Are tea and crumpets typical British food?"
   
"What about fish and chips?" Ryder asked, sporting an over the top British accent. "Or bangers and mash, perhaps?"
   
"Shut up," Aurora muttered, taking another bite of her hamburger. The boys laughed.

*   *   *
   
After paying an exorbantly high amount of yen on a cab ride, Marshal and Adelia had arrived at the Tokyo National Museum. They walked into the huge stone building and saw an enormous amount of displays, ranging from dinosaur bones to the recently obsolete iPhone 4. While they were admiring the vast amounts of exhibits, a man in a suit came up to them and began quickly rattling something off in Japanese.
   
"I'm sorry," Adelia interrupted. "We don't speak Japanese."
   
"Oh!" the man exclaimed. "You must be some American tourists."
   
"You could say that," Marshal lied.
   
The man pushed up his square glasses and slicked back his dirty blonde ponytail. "My apologies. Well, I welcome you to the Tokyo National Museum! My name is Ryutaro Tanaka, and I am the museum's curator. If you have any questions, please ask me!"
   
"Oh, you must be the person we're looking for," Adelia guessed. "We're looking for some information on the Titan Orb."
   
Tanaka cried something in Japanese. "What do you want to know about that for?"
   
"We want to find it," Marshal explained.
   
Tanaka looked around nervously and noticed Marshal's katana. "Tell you what," he whispered. "Follow me on a tour and I'll let you know what I know." He walked into one of the rooms and pretended to show Marshal and Adelia an exhibit on ancient Japan.
   
"The Titan Orb has many appearances in ancient cultures all across the world, with many different interpretations, most of them all leading to the existence of 'gods,'" Tanaka told them.
   
"So, it's something that ancient gods used?" Marshal guessed.
   
"Yes, according to legends," Tanaka confirmed, "but here's the weird part. Ownership of the orb is actually able to be traced back throughout history to actual people."
   
"Wait a minute," Adelia said, piecing things together. "If people owned the orb, but it was proven to be owned by real people, then that means that many of the ancient world's religious deities..."
   
"Are false," Tanaka finished for her. "That's exactly right. The people who owned the orb were often thought of by ancient people as gods. Interestingly enough, the similarities between religions of distant regions like Greece and Egypt indicate that these people were able to travel great distances."
   
"So who owns it now?" Adelia asked.
   
"Nobody knows," Tanaka said. "The orb has been lost for hundreds, if not thousands of years."
   
"How was it able to be traced, then?" Adelia wondered, confused.
   
"There are many ways of tracing such powerful artifacts," Tanaka explained. "Unfortunately, my knowledge on this subject is limited to what I've told you. If you want, I have a contact in Italy that knows more about it."
   
"Thank you very much," Adelia said. "Let's go, Marshal." She turned to face Marshal, but he was across the room, staring at an old sword in a display case.
   
"This sword," he mumbled. As he stared at it, it seemed to radiate a strange purplish-black aura.
   
"Ah," Tanaka said. "I see you have found Muramasa."
   
"Mura-what?" Adelia sputtered.
   
"Muramasa," Tanaka repeated, "the Demon Blade. It's the very last blade of its kind in existence. It was made by the famous swordsmith Muramasa Sengo during the Muromachi period. It's called the Demon Blade because it is said that its maker's soul lives on inside of it. Muramasa was a very unstable man, almost what some would consider psychotic, so the Japanese government eventually decided to stop buying his swords. Of course, this made him very angry, and it is said that he went on a murderous rampage with this very blade. Now, the legends say that if someone draws this blade, they cannot sheathe it again until blood is shed. Some people have gone insane holding the sword, even going so far as to wound or even kill themselves!"
   
Marshal was trying to listen to everything that Tanaka was saying, but for some reason, he felt that the sword was calling to him. What he speaks of me is true, it said. Those men didn't have the will that it takes to wield me. But you're different. You seem to be very strong. Take me with you.
   
"I can't," Marshal said aloud, looking at the blade. Adelia and Tanaka looked over at Marshal like he was crazy.
   
Nonsense, the blade urged. You are free to do whatever you like. After all, I have chosen you.
   
"How would they know that?" Marshal asked him.
   
That man, Tanaka, has known that someone would come by one day to receive me, the sword assured him. That someone is you, and that day is today.
   
"Are you okay, Marshal?" Adelia asked.
   
"I'm fine," Marshal muttered. "Muramasa says it wants me to take it with me."
   
"So the day has finally arrived," Tanaka mused. "Fine. You may take Muramasa with you, but remember to use it carefully. Overusing the great power of this sword can be very harmful."
   
"I understand that," Marshal said. "Can we hurry? It's starting to grow impatient."
   
"Of course," Tanaka said, seemingly depressed. He opened Muramasa's display case, took the sword and its sheath out, and tried to sheathe the sword. Somehow, the scabbard seemed to repel the blade somehow, almost by magnetism.
   
"Uh-oh," Adelia uttered. "We may have a slight problem."
   
"No matter," Tanaka said, putting the blade up to his arm. "This is easily solved." He took the cursed blade and cut his wrist, letting blood spew from the gash and put a single drop on the blade. After cleaning it off with his sleeve, he slid the sword quickly into its scabbard, where it finally locked in place.
   
"Are you okay?" Marshal cried, gaping at the giant gash in Tanaka's wrist.
   
"Of course," Tanaka said, grabbing a bandage out of his pocket. "It's just a flesh wound, after all. Now, don't forget to only use that blade for emergencies when you must shed a little blood. If you don't control yourself with it, you may end up hurting the ones you love." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a piece of paper. Taking a ballpoint pen off the top of his ear, he scribbled something down in some barely legible English handwriting and handed it to Adelia. "Here is the address of my contact in Venice," he said. "I hope your search for the Titan Orb goes well!"
   
"Thank you very much, Mr. Tanaka!" Adelia said, bowing slightly to show respect for the man's culture.
   
"Anytime, young ones," Tanaka replied, bowing as well.

Chapter19: Tokyo Panic

Marshal and Adelia left the Tokyo National Museum, with an address to their next destination and a brand new weapon. Marshal admired the blade, which was still tucked safely away inside its scabbard.
   
"It looks almost brand new," he noted. "You would never be able to know that it's almost five hundred years old."
   
"Be careful," Adelia reminded him. "That thing's dangerous."
   
"Nah," Marshal said, waving his hand at her. "It'll be okay. I can handle it."
   
"I hope so," Adelia said. "For your sake."
   
"You worry too much!" Marshal told her. "I'm telling you, it'll be fine." As soon as he said that, everything went from fine to not fine.

*   *   *
   
Vlad and Mia had still been wandering around the city when they noticed some men wearing bright yellow jumpsuits just like the ones they had seen in New Orleans. Vlad saw that each of them held a weapon of some type, and they seemed to be walking directly towards them.
   
He turned his back to Mia and crouched down. "Mia, get on my back and cloak us."
   
"Right," Mia nodded. She clambered up onto his back and used her ability to make them disappear from view. Confused, Savage's men looked around for the two people they had just seen, not realizing they were still directly in front of them.
   
"Man," Mia whispered. "For a bunch of dangerous soldiers, these guys are kind of dumb."
   
"There is a certain strength in numbers," Vlad quietly reminded her. "Let's get back to Marshal as soon as we can."

*   *   *
   
Chris and Serena left the library, having found nothing useful. Their hour long search for any information on the Titan Orb only resulted in the librarian trying to peddle random books onto them because she didn't speak any English.
   
"Man, that lady was no help at all!" Chris shouted, annoyed.
   
"Give her a break," Serena pleaded. "She didn't speak any English."
   
"Whatever," Chris muttered under his breath. "Can we just go, now?"
   
Serena was about to open her mouth to say yes, but stopped herself because she saw a familiar flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye.
   
"Contact," she mumbled to Chris. "Get into blend formation 2B." The two of them looked for the largest crowd of people near them and shoved their way into it. Before Savage's men knew what had happened, Chris and Serena were already gone.

*   *   *
   
Marshal and Adelia were immediately surrounded by at least twenty of Savage's forces. There was seemingly no way out of the circle of soldiers. Adelia drew her pistol, and Marshal unsheathed Emerald Flash.
   
"It's time for a new formation," he said to her. "Attack formation 2M is about to be engaged."
   
"What on earth is that?" Adelia asked him.
   
"All you need to do is duck," Marshal said. Without warning, he unsheathed Muramasa and charged directly at the enemy in front of him.

*   *   *
   
"I think we're clear," Vlad said. "You can drop the camouflage now, Mia." With a slight shimmer, Vlad and Mia materialized back into plain view. They looked around and noticed Chris and Serena attempting to blend in with a crowd of people, which was easily spotted by their trained eyes. Vlad ran over to the two of them and yanked them out of the crowd. Mia pulled them back under a veil of energy and they disappeared once more.
   
"Don't ever do that again," Chris warned. "You scared the crap out of me."
   
"Maybe you shouldn't be such a coward," Vlad said in jest. Chris looked like he was about to punch Vlad square in the face, but he quickly decided against it because he remembered who he was mentally threatening.
   
"We need to contact the others," Mia said. "There are too many hostiles in the area."
   
"Maybe you could look beside you," Travis's small voice came from just outside the camouflage field. All four of them screamed in surprise as Tristan, Aurora, and the twins entered the field.

*   *   *
   
Before Adelia had even had time to process what had just happened in front of her, Marshal was already sheathing his two swords. The guards around him seemed completely unscathed.
   
"I think you missed," she whispered.
   
"No, no," he insisted. "Give it a second."
   
"Really, Marshal, they're going to shoot us!" she said with a little more urgency.
   
"Hold on," Marshal told her. He finally got the two swords to click back into their sheaths. As soon as he did, the guards all literally fell to pieces at his feet.
   
"What just happened?" Adelia wondered, attempting to restart her heart.
   
"Muramasa happened," Marshal told her, winking. "Man, that felt awesome!"
   
"Like I said," Adelia reminded him, "please be careful."
   
"Of course," Marshal said, ignoring what Adelia was saying. "I'll do that." Adelia just sighed as the other members of Squad Four appeared behind her.
   
"We need to leave," Aurora told them.
   
"We got what we needed, so we were going to find you guys anyway," Adelia said nonchalantly.
   
"You found the guy?" Chris asked.
   
"Yeah," Marshal told him. "He gave the address of some guy in Venice that's apparently an expert on the Titan Orb. We're going to bring this to Walker."
   
"What are we waiting for, then?" Tristan asked them. "Let's go home!" Squad Four raced off for the airport and left Tokyo as quickly as they could.

*   *   *
   
"I don't think your workers are really fit for this kind of work, Mr. Savage," Jack suggested. "They're not the brightest light bulbs in the box."
   
"Yes, I suppose you're right," Savage said, frowning. "Get Mr. Albinson out of the Pit. We have much to discuss."
   
"Yes, sir," Jack said, somewhat terrified of what awaited him down in the Pit where Forrest Albinson was still screaming.

Chapter20: Mad Mia

Squad Four went to Walker's office as soon as they got back the next morning and gave him their report. They told him about Tanaka at the museum, and about the soldiers who had attacked them. Marshal conveniently left out how he had kind of brutally murdered at least twenty of them with a cursed samurai sword.
   
"Interesting," Walker said, writing down notes. "May I have the address of this Italian fellow?"
   
"Sure," Adelia said, handing him the piece of paper.
   
"Excellent," Walker said. "I will send Squad One on this assignment immediately. You all have the day off tomorrow. Be sure to rest and recover for whatever lies ahead."
   
"Yes, Commander Walker!" the squad acknowledged. They saluted and left. Before Mia was out the door, Walker stopped her.
   
"Mia, while Squad Seven was on assignment in Chicago, they reported that someone was looking for you," he said, worried. "They thought it might be your parents. Do you want to call them?"
   
Mia suddenly fell into some sort of rage. "No!" she shouted. "They'll just try to rip me away from my friends again, just like they always do!" She stormed out of Walker's office and ran past her squad straight for her room. When she got there, she slammed the door, buried her head in her pillow, and screamed.

*   *   *
   
"It looks like your old friends from Breckinridge's task force are going to be quite the problem, Jack," Savage said, leaning back in his chair after reviewing the footage of Marshal taking down twenty of his men. "Shall we attack them at the source?"
   
"We can't," Jack told him. "The base is hidden, and I teleported so far away from it that I'm not really sure where it is anymore."
   
"Well, that's too bad," Savage sighed. "What do you think, Forrest?"
   
"Yes, sir," Forrest Albinson said, huddled in the fetal position in the corner of the room. "Whatever you say, sir. Always happy to assist you, sir."
   
"Good," Savage said, smiling. "Now, Jack, it appears that our enemies have located an information source in Venice. I want you to track them there and see if you can find out anything."
   
"I'll get right on that," Jack told him. He left the room without another word, trying to take extra care not to look at or listen to Forrest huddled in the corner.

*   *   *
   
Adelia knocked on her door for the umpteenth time, trying to get Mia to let her in. "Mia, please!" she yelled inside. "You've been in there for almost the entire day now! Can you please let me in and tell me what the deal is?"
   
It was silent for a moment, but finally the door opened just a crack, and Mia stuck her head out. Her eyes were still wet with tears.
   
"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I got so upset and I fell asleep. Come in, quick." She opened the door just wide enough for Adelia to slip in and closed it behind her. Adelia sat down on Mia's bed and patted the mattress on her right. Mia took the hint and sat down next to her.
   
"What happened earlier?" Adelia asked, crossing her legs and waiting for a response.
   
"Walker called me back after we finished our report," Mia told her. "He said that while one of the squads was on assignment, they found some people that were looking for me. They suspected that they might have been my parents."
   
"Don't they know you're here?" Adelia asked.
   
"I'm sure they do," Mia said. "They just didn't know that I was leaving. When Walker came to my school, I was immediately convinced. When he said that I would have my college paid for, I totally jumped at the chance to help him. When I got home, though, my parents told me that there was no way I was going off on some wild treasure hunt with any 'crazy businessmen'. They weren't even concerned about my future! They didn't care that this was the only way I would probably be able to get a college education and make something out of my life. They just wanted to do what they always did and keep me away from anything and everything!"
   
"Mia, they do that because they want to protect you," Adelia assured her. "I'm sure the thought of you going off on some dangerous mission to find a legendary artifact that might not even exist terrified them. What if you got hurt, or worse?"
   
"It's not just that!" Mia protested. "Any time I would try to make friends, they always drove them away from me somehow. It didn't matter how nice or how mean they were, as soon as my mom or dad found out about them, we were pretty much through."
   
"That sounds awful," Adelia whimpered. "Your parents were really that controlling of your life?"
   
"Absolutely," Mia said. "Nothing that I've ever done has ever been my choice. My parents never even let me be a normal girl and do fun girl things with friends. Coming here was the only thing I've ever done where I could say that I made a decision for myself. That's why I never want to go back. I don't want my parents to rip me away from you all." She started sobbing again, so Adelia awkwardly wrapped her arm around her shoulder  and held her.
   
"There, there," she said, stroking Mia's short black hair. "We won't let you get taken away. It's alright."
   
"Thanks, Adelia," Mia blubbered, burying her face in Adelia's sleeve. "You're such a great friend. I'm so glad I got to meet you. I'm glad I got to meet Marshal, and Vlad, and Aurora, and everyone else."
   
"No problem," Adelia said, smiling. "Anytime you need anything, you just let me know!"
   
"You mean it?" Mia asked, looking up at Adelia.
   
"Of course," Adelia said, laughing. "By the way, you said your parents never let you do normal girl things, right?"
   
"Yeah," Mia said, sniffling.
   
"Well, I tell you what," Adelia said, a huge grin forming on her face. "When this is all over, I'm gonna take you, Aurora and Serena and we're all going to have a girl's night out! Just the four of us! We'll get our nails done and we'll go shopping and we'll have a sleepover and talk about the boys that we like!"
   
"Are you really into that stuff?" Mia asked, skeptical.
   
"Of course not!" Adelia shouted. "I hate doing girly things. But if it's with my friends, I'll do it!"
   
Mia suddenly burst out laughing. When she laughed, she made a hilarious squeaking noise when she breathed in, much like a guinea pig. Adelia heard this for the first time and broke into equally hilarious laughter. The two of them sat there for the longest time, just laughing. They would've kept going well into the night, but Marshal knocked on the door.
   
"Go to sleep!" he yelled. "We've got some stuff to do tomorrow!"
   
Adelia jumped off of Mia's bed and onto her own. On her way over, she managed to swing off the ceiling fan's long cord that controlled the light. It switched off as she fell onto her mattress with a thud.
   
"Good night, Mia."
   
"Good night, Adelia.

Chapter21: Gearing Up
   
The next day was fairly uneventful until Squad One came back from their mission to Venice. They went into Walker's office quickly and gave their report. They all looked extremely nervous, like they were about to tell Walker that the world was about to come to an end. Even the leader, Daniel Layton, who was supposed to be the best out of all one hundred recruits, looked like he was about to wet himself. After they had finished their report, Walker was immediately on all forms of communication with his task force.
   
"Everyone respond to the cafeteria immediately," he said sternly. "That is an order."
   
Marshal was a little worried by Walker's unnaturally dark tone. What could that mean for them? What happened to Squad One while they were on their mission? He quickly found out when he arrived at the cafeteria to find Walker standing on a podium in the middle of the room with all the recruits standing around him.
   
"Alright, everyone," he began. "I've got good news, and I've got bad news. The good news is that Squad One found our contact in Venice and have discovered a key ingredient in our search for the Titan Orb. According to our source, the orb is locked in a mystical vault that will be opened with a special key. This special key is actually an Ancient Egyptian ankh, appropriately named the Titan's Ankh, which rests in the recently uncovered tomb of an ancient physician named Shepseskaf'ankh."
   
"Bless you," said one of the Squad Eight members.
   
"Thank you," Walker said sarcastically, glaring at the boy. "Now, the bad news is that our new enemies have found out about the tomb as well, and are more than likely going to get there as soon as they possibly can. We need to get to the tomb and get the ankh before they do."
   
"How will we do that, Walker?" Marshal asked.
   
"Mr. North does bring up a good point," Walker said. As we are right now, we don't have the time nor the equipment to get to Egypt and stand a chance against Savage's forces. Luckily for us, though, I had a contingency plan in motion just in case an event like this should arise. If you all would please follow me, I will show you what I'm talking about." He led them all downstairs to the first floor, into the lobby where they had all first met. Suddenly, he took a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button. The floor of the lobby began to sink down into the ground, almost like an elevator. Above them, a covering slid across the floor to keep anybody else from falling down the large pit. After sinking for a minute or two, the floor finally stopped. Some dim lights flickered on, and they found that they were in a strange room resembling a laboratory.
   
"This is my research and development room," Walker told them. "This is my pride and joy! So many things in this room are experimental, and I've been working on them while you all have been training for the past several months. So far, there are only two things that are ready for me to present to you, but I believe they could be our biggest assets in the battles to come. First, we have the first ever automobile designed by Breckinridge Industries, the Breckinridge Industries Series One Technical. This vehicle comes standard with a driver's seat, a passenger seat with a standard grade catapult, and a rear bay able to hold up to eight people. You can transport your entire squad with one single vehicle! The best feature of this vehicle, though, is that it can be compacted into a small, capsule-like unit that can fit in your pocket!" He pressed a button on the dashboard of the large, truck-like vehicle and it shrunk down into a small capsule.
   
The soldiers marveled at these amazing vehicles. Most of them were rendered completely speechless by this amazing feat of Walker Breckinridge's technology. Smirking a little bit, Walker pressed a button on the top of the capsule, threw it out, and the truck instantly grew back to its normal size. Everyone cheered loudly for Walker's amazing new vehicle.
   
"Thank you, thank you," Walker said, bowing a little bit for show. "That's not all I have for you today, however. How many of you have ever played a video game called Halo?" A few hands went up in the crowd. Walker smiled. "Good. Well, if you know anything about the Halo universe, you'll know that it takes place over five hundred years from the present day. In this time period, humans have become so technologically advanced that they have managed to create extremely powerful Artificial Intelligence units, or A.I. for short. These are not like the artificial intelligence that we are used to here. They're fully modeled, holographic characters that are sometimes even more intelligent than their own creators. But I digress. Today I'm here to tell you that those works of fiction are now a reality!" A few gasps came from the crowd as ten short, cylindrical objects rose up from the ground behind Walker. He pressed another button on his remote, and ten holographic images resembling people materialized on top of the cylinders. Cheers erupted from the crowd.
   
"Ladies and gentlemen," Walker said, trying to be a good showman over the roar of the crowd. "I give you your very own Artificial Intelligence units! Say hello to Xenon, Phaidros, Araqiel, Vígi, Tydenn, Seisyll, Siward, Alkippe, Nephthys, and Kalmiya! The crowd continued to cheer and applaud as the small holographic images waved at all of them.
   
"Each squad will receive an A.I.," Walker said. "The A.I.s are all stored on these tiny data chips that can be inserted and uploaded onto any existing Breckinridge Industries product, including your weapons. If that is not portable enough for you, your 12HUDs also have an attachment that allows the A.I.'s data to be uploaded wirelessly onto it, allowing for access to it from anywhere at any time, but this will require the assistance of your team's hacker. Are there any questions?" Nobody said anything because they were in awe of the amazing technological feats that had been displayed for them. "Hearing none, we will head back up to the cafeteria to discuss the next mission. Please grab your Technical and your A.I. units at this time!" Vlad went to capsulize the Technical while Marshal went up to pick up his A.I. unit. He found the cylinder that was marked with a number four and looked at his A.I. for the first time. It was quite an amazing sight. The image was only shown in shades of emerald green, which pleased Marshal. This was the A.I. that Walker introduced as Vígi, to the best of his recollection. He looked fairly similar to Marshal as far as facial structure was concerned. He was wearing a long scarf that looked as if the wind was whipping it around. His hair was spiked up to a point, and he wore the signature suit of a Breckinridge Task Force soldier.
   
"Hello, Marshal North," the A.I. said. "My name is Vígi, and I will be your assistant from now on."
   
"Hello, Vígi," Marshal said, returning the greeting. "I'm glad to have you with us." He pulled Vígi's data chip from the cylinder and walked back over to meet with the rest of his squad. Once everyone had pulled their A.I.s and capsulized their Technicals, Walker took them back up to the lobby and herded them all back to the cafeteria. Once everyone had gotten seated again, he continued his presentation.
   
"Now that that's taken care of, we can discuss the matters at hand," he said. "This next mission requires all of you to work together. You will all be heading to the tomb of Shepseskaf'ankh, where you will search for the Titan's Ankh. Of course, this will require teamwork between all of the squads simultaneously, so I ask that all the squad leaders meet in my office immediately following this briefing for a quick strategy discussion. Now, that is all I have for you. We leave tomorrow morning, extremely early. Be ready!" With that, Walker turned and left the room, with the squad leaders following suit.

*   *   *
   
"So," Thomas Savage said, looking at Jack. "What did you find out?"
   
"Breckinridge has discovered the location of an Ancient Egyptian ankh that is said to open the way to the Titan Orb," Jack reported. "It's apparently located in the tomb of Shepseskaf'ankh."
   
"Interesting," Savage said, leaning back in his chair and stroking his slicked back black hair. "What else can you tell me?"
   
"That's all I've got," Jack told him. "I assume they will be going after it tomorrow."
   
"Then we must strike first," Savage said. "When they get there, we'll be waiting with the Ankh in our hands and ammunition in our weapons, ready to kill. I've taken the liberty of putting together a small task force similar to dear old Walker's for you. Unfortunately, you don't have your own squad yet. That will come when Mr. Albinson finally manages to capture your old one."
   
"It's no problem," Jack said. "I can get by. How many people are in this task force?"
   
"As of now, we only have eighty, not including you," Savage estimated. "Once you get your own squad to join us, we'll be even with Breckinridge."
   
"Sounds like a plan," Jack said. "What are we waiting for?"
   
"We're waiting for your new claws to be ready," Savage told him. "I think you'll enjoy them. We studied the sword of your old friend Marshal North and made your claws similar to it. We're calling them the Golden Talons. You'll get them tomorrow."

"Thank you, sir." Jack turned and left the office.

*   *   *

Vlad's alarm clock buzzed throughout the apartment extremely early the next morning. The entire squad got up, energized for the day's mission. Vlad had made Russian waffles, just like he did the morning they had all met.

"This is it, everyone," Marshal said, taking a huge bite of his waffle. "This mission has a lot riding on it. If we pull it off, we may finally be done."

"What does that mean, then?" Mia wondered. "What happens next?"

"I'd assume we all go back home," Vlad said.

Mia's eyes began to water. "After all we've been through? Could this really be it?"

"Of course not!" Adelia exclaimed. "We'll all be friends forever!"

"Wishful thinking, Adelia," Ryder said. "We all live so far apart that it'd be almost impossible for us to meet again."

"Not necessarily," Serena argued. "We have these HUDs that are able to communicate across the world if they need. It'd be simple for us to at least keep in contact."

"Don't you think Walker will want these back, though?" Chris wondered.

"That's pretty unlikely, considering they've been implanted onto our brains," Adelia reminded him.

"Anyway," Marshal said, "our mission is simple. Get to the tomb, find the ankh, get out, and get home."

"Pretty simple, indeed," Vlad agreed. They all finished their waffles as quickly as possible, then got dressed and headed out to the helipad. They were one of the last squads to arrive there.

"You're late, Four!" the Squad One leader, Daniel Layton, shouted at them.

"Bite me, Layton," Marshal grunted. He didn't really care much for Squad One's leader. He was a lot like Jack, thinking that he was better than anyone else that was beneath him, which was everyone. He even looked the part, too, looking like he was the star quarterback of his high school football team. While Marshal doubted that he had ever sliced up twenty guys at one time, he still had quite a bit of respect for Layton's leadership skills.

"Whatever," Daniel said. "Let's just get ready to go." The squads all piled into their helicopters and took off for Egypt.

*   *   *

After an extremely long helicopter ride, the task force finally landed in the Egyptian desert. Aurora capsulized the helicopter with the new button placed in the cockpit, and Vlad uncapped the new Technical. He got in the driver's seat with Marshal taking the passenger seat and the rest of the squad taking the rear bed. Vlad set the waypoint to the tomb that Daniel Layton had sent to everyone and they took off. On the way there, they noticed nine helicopters slightly similar to theirs making a landing a ways ahead of them, most likely in front of the tomb.

"That has to be Savage," Layton assumed through the HUDs communicator.

"Maybe it's just somebody friendly!" Squad Five's leader Luvenia Davison hoped.

"Doubtful," said Squad Six leader Cyrus Turnball. The communication channel went quiet again as they finally got to the tomb. They drove by the helicopters, which were already empty, as they found the door.

"We're here," Marshal said, jumping out of the Technical. "Let's get moving." Everyone jumped out and walked into the tomb. Stretching out in front of them was a huge labyrinth that seemed to span a huge distance. There were ten paths, one for each squad to go through.

"Crap," Ryder muttered.

"Let's fan out," Daniel said. "Once somebody finds the ankh, let us know so we can get out of here before we have any big problems."

"Yes, sir!" the rest of the task force acknowledged quietly. Each squad took the paths from left to right corresponding to their number. Squad Four walked along their path for a while until Marshal suddenly stopped them.

"Wait," he whispered. "Do you hear that?" They all stopped and listened ahead of them. They heard some people talking loudly ahead of them.

"Man, this place is boring!" a voice shouted. "It's been nothing but dark hallways and dead ends!"

"Shut up," a female voice whispered. "There's a chance that those Breckinridge guys are here. We need to be quiet."

"Aw, man!" the first voice shouted louder. "This place is just a dead end again!"

Vígi finally decided to speak up. "They said it was a dead end. Maybe we should just turn around?"

Marshal nodded at the rest of his squad and they ran in the direction of the voices. They reached the source of the voices rather quickly, weapons drawn. They stopped in a dead end room, where ten enemy soldiers were waiting for them with their own weapons at the ready.

"Go!" Marshal barked. Squad Four opened fire on the enemies, taking out eight of them quickly. Marshal slashed a ninth with Emerald Flash. The last soldier, clearly freaked out, shot a single bullet from his small pistol that landed square in Serena's stomach. Serena fell to the ground, clutching her stomach in pain.

"Serena!" Chris screamed.

"Adelia, get her out of here!" Marshal ordered. "Mia, give her some cover!" Adelia quickly grabbed Serena and ran out of the room as fast as she could, with Mia running behind them putting up a camouflage field.

"Serves you right!" the enemy said. His voice matched the one that was yelling earlier. "Now, I'll just take down the rest of you idiots!" He raised his pistol to fire again, but was immediately stopped when Chris slammed into him and tackled him to the ground.

Chapter22: The Berserker Awakens

Chris wailed on the enemy soldier for an extremely excessive amount of time with a flurry of punches. He never once stopped to rest his fists. After a while, the poor man was nothing more than a bloody pulp at Chris's feet.
   
"Chris?" Marshal called slowly, backing away from his best friend. "Are you okay?"
   
Chris stood up and turned around to face Marshal. He was quite a sight to behold. His sleeves were splattered with blood, and his eyes had changed from their natural brown to a shade of red similar to the blood on him. He appeared to be in a daze.
   
"Marshal?" he grunted weakly. "What happened?"
   
"You kind of went crazy," Marshal told him. "Are you sure you're okay? Your eyes are a little red."
   
"I'm fine," Chris said, shaking his head to wake himself up. He suddenly remembered what was going on and gasped. "Serena! Is she okay?"
   
"She's resting in the Technical," Mia reported. "She'll be healed up in no time."
   
"Oh, thank God," Chris sighed, clutching his chest with his hands. "I don't know what I would do if I lost her."
   
"It looks like you've done quite enough already," Vlad said, motioning to the puddle on the floor that used to be human-shaped.
   
"I told you we should have turned around," Vígi said.
   
"That doesn't matter now," Marshal said, glaring at Vlad while also muting Vígi's voice. "What matters is that we find what we came here to find."
   
"Right," Tristan agreed. "The ankh should be in this maze somewhere." The remaining eight of them turned around and ran back to the tomb's entrance.

*   *   *
   
Serena woke up in Squad Four's Technical. She sat up and winced in pain, clutching her stomach. Adelia noticed her and gently pushed her back down onto the bed of the Technical.
   
"You shouldn't move yet," Adelia suggested. "The wound isn't completely healed yet. Give it a few more minutes."
   
Serena grunted and laid back onto the floor, where she immediately passed out.

*   *   *
   
Marshal and the others were wandering around the labyrinth of the tomb when the whole tomb began to quake. After the quake stopped, a deafening screech and a bloodcurdling scream rang throughout the whole area. Almost immediately, the entire squad's HUDs were hit with an emergency transmission.
   
"This is Squad Ten leader Karly Garret," the voice said. "We have the ankh, but there was a trap. All squads are advised to evacuate ASAP! The tomb is going to collapse!" Another screech traveled through the air and in Karly's transmission just before it cut off.
   
"Let's move, people!" Marshal barked. The squad immediately turned around and ran as quickly as they could out of the tomb. On their way, they ran into most of the other squads, all scrambling wildly to find the exit of the strange tomb. In the panic, some of the soldiers were knocked down and left behind. Finally, nine of the ten squads made it out of the cave and jumped in their respective Technicals. Vlad started up Squad Four's engine and they were one of the last ones out of the gate. Karly was just getting out of the cavern with the rest of her squad just behind her. As soon as they reached their Technical, a huge monster crashed out of the cave, busting a huge hole in the entrance. The monster had the head and wings of a hawk, but it was blended with the muscular torso and razor sharp claws of a large, feral feline. The monster towered over the ten members of Squad Ten.
   
"Let's go!" Karly shouted to her squad, hopping in the squad's pink Technical. "We can get away if we go now!"
   
"Sorry, ma'am," one of her squad mates, the boy who had finished last, said. "We can't do that. You go. We'll hold it off as long as we can."
   
"Absolutely not!" Karly screamed. "We leave now!"
   
"No time to argue!" another girl from the squad. "Go, now!" She quickly turned on the menu of her HUD and flipped a few things. Without warning, the squad's Technical started up and took off without Karly doing anything.
   
"Sorry, Karly," the A.I. Kalmiya said, popping up on the Technical's dashboard. "The rest of your squad gave me an unquestionable order to keep you safe at all costs."

"I am the leader of this squad, and I override that order!" Karly shouted.

"Unfortunately," Kalmiya said, playing with the cat ears that popped up out of the top of her head, "you do not have the majority in this situation. Please respect the wishes of your squad this time." Karly screamed as the Technical sped off into the distance, leaving her squad behind. She watched helplessly as Savage's men managed to make it out of the tomb before it caved in on them, grabbed Squad Ten, and evacuated before the monster could do anything about it. Unfazed, the monster simply shifted its attention to the ten vehicles speeding away from it on the ground. It leaped into the air and shot towards them, using its powerful wings to generate a ridiculous amount of speed.

Vlad stomped on the gas pedal as hard as he could, causing the emerald green Technical to shoot over a sand dune and go airborne. Marshal turned to face the rear bed of the Technical.

"What is that thing?" he wondered, terrified of the huge, imposing monster that was rocketing toward them.

"It looks like it's an Axex," Vígi observed, turning his own voice communications back on. "They're the Ancient Egyptian equivalent to the griffon. They were known as spirits that guarded the tombs of great and powerful Egyptians."

"Great," Marshal muttered. "Another thing that wants to kill us. Fire at it!"
   
"Yes, sir!" the squad shouted, drawing their weapons. They all sent a barrage of bullets at the Axex, but it dodged all of them handily.
   
"That won't be enough!" Daniel said over the communication channel. "All units, fire at that thing!" All ten Technicals fired every available weapon they had at the winged monster, but it still dodged every single bit of ammunition that was thrown at it.
   
"No way!" Squad Two leader Andrés Juarez shouted. "It dodged everything we sent at it!"
   
Marshal looked at his squad, and quickly focused on Chris. He noticed that his eyes hadn't changed from their red color.
   
"Chris," Marshal said. "Are you sure you're alright?"
   
Chris stared at him for a moment, then back at the Axex still speeding towards them. "I have an idea," he said. "You're going to have to trust me on it."
   
"What is it?" Marshal asked.
   
"I want you to shoot me off of the catapult and onto the Axex," Chris told him.
   
"What?!" Serena shouted. "Don't you dare do that! That's insane!"
   
"Trust me!" Chris shouted back. "I know I can do this!"
   
Marshal looked at Chris for a moment, and then sighed. "Alright. You'd better know what you're doing."
   
Chris clambered up onto the Technical's catapult and got into position. "I'm ready when you are, Marshal!"
   
"Vlad, switch me spots!" Marshal ordered. "You should take this shot."
   
"Absolutely," Vlad said, smirking with confidence. The two of them jumped onto the hood of the Technical and leaped into the opposite seats. Marshal quickly put his foot down on the gas pedal and they regained their momentum quickly. Vlad lined up Chris so he would have a perfect shot at the Axex, and pulled the lever on the catapult. Chris shot up into the air at an incredible velocity, headed straight for the Axex. Instead of getting out his shotgun, though, he simply raised his fist.
   
"What is he doing?!" Adelia shrieked. "He's going to get himself killed!"
   
"Wait a minute," Vígi said, materializing on the dashboard of the Technical. "There's something going on with Chris. I've read about this somewhere before."
   
"What are you talking about?" Serena asked her.
   
"I've only heard about people like him in stories," Vígi mused. "The red eyes, the seemingly infinite rage, the crazy physical power, he's got to be one of them!"
   
"One of what?" Tristan shouted over the roar of the engine.
   
"Chris is a legendary Berserker!" Vígi shouted.
   
Up in the air, Chris smirked as he raised his fist to meet the Axex. He suddenly let out a terrifying war cry as he met with the Axex, landing his fist square into the creature's torso. Both he and the Axex began to fall to the ground while he kept his fist planted firmly down. The two of them met the ground, and a huge explosion rocked the entire desert.

Chapter23: The War Officially Begins

Marshal whipped the Technical around and sped toward where Chris had landed. When they got there, they found that he had made a huge crater just with his fist. The Axex had a huge hole in its torso where Chris's fist had made contact. They found Chris standing there, staring at his right fist. Marshal brought the Technical up to him.

"Nice job," he praised. "Get in and we'll go home." Chris smiled and hopped in the back of the Technical, where Serena proceeded to punch him in the stomach.

"Ow!" he cried. "What the hell was that for?"

"That was for scaring me half to death!" Serena yelled. She raised her fist, poised to punch Chris again. Chris closed his eyes and cringed, expecting another punch. Serena quickly put her arms around Chris and gave him a kiss. "That one was for saving us." Chris blushed.

"Take it easy, lovebirds," Aurora said, averting her eyes. "We're going to have to ask you to get a room, soon." Everyone laughed as they raced back to catch up to the other squads.

"This is Squad Four leader Marshal North," Marshal said into the HUD communicator. "Target has been neutralized. Do we still have the ankh?"

"Negative," Karly said, her voice breaking. "My squad has been captured by Savage's forces, and one of them had the ankh. We've lost this one." She forgot to turn off her communicator, and everyone was able to hear her sobbing while Kalmiya piloted the Technical for her.

"So, what do we do now, then?" a Squad Six member asked.

"The only thing we can do now is go back to headquarters," Daniel said. "The loss of Squad Ten is a crushing blow, but we must see what Breckinridge wants us to do next."

"Agreed," Marshal said. "Let's get our birds in the air and head for headquarters." The Technicals all stopped. Everyone capped their Technicals, quickly uncapped their helicopters, and took back off for headquarters.

*   *   *

"This isn't my squad," Jack told Forrest, looking at the camera footage of a holding cell containing Squad Ten. "This is Squad Ten."

"Well, you're gonna have to deal with it!" Forrest shouted at him. "They had the ankh and we managed to grab them. They've agreed to work with us, something that I'm willing to bet your old squad would be unwilling to do."

"Fine," Jack muttered, clearly unimpressed. "So we have the Titan's Ankh. Now what?"

"Now, we figure out where it goes," Savage said, coming out of his office to greet Jack and Forrest. "Once we do that, the Titan Orb will finally be mine. From there, I will have the power to finally be able to realize my goal."

"Wait just a minute, Savage," Jack stopped him. "You still owe me some answers. Where is my family? How do you know about them?"

"Not until we find the Titan Orb," Savage warned him. "Then I will tell you the truth about your family." He turned back into his office and shut the door behind him, leaving Jack hopelessly confused.

"What do you want to know about your family for?" Forrest asked Jack. "What happened to them?"

"It's a long story," Jack told him. "One for another time. Let's go."

"Where are we going?" Forrest asked, keeping up his string of incessant questions.

"If you don't stop asking so many annoying questions, you'll be going to the Pit," Jack warned him. Forrest shuddered as the two of them walked down the hallway.

*   *   *

"The loss of Squad Ten will not be taken lightly," Walker assured the group. "We will strike Savage back with everything we can. This is not a simple treasure hunt anymore. This is war. If it's a fight Thomas Savage wants, then he will be getting one hell of a fight. As of now, according to the general report, the enemy is currently in possession of the Titan's Ankh. Our objective is simple. We find out as much about Savage's forces as we can, find out where they're keeping the ankh, steal it, and go on our way. I don't care who
Thomas Savage has on his side, it doesn't compare to my task force." Everyone cheered. Walker continued, visibly angry. "He can do whatever he wants to me and my company, but attacking my precious volunteers is crossing the line. Let's get prepared for war."

"Yes, Commander Walker!" everyone shouted.

"No!" Walker shouted. "The time for pleasantries has passed. You will all hereby address me as, 'sir' or, 'Commander Breckinridge'. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted louder.

"What was that?" Walker shouted at them.

"Yes, sir, Commander Breckinridge, sir!" everyone shouted as loud as they could.

"Good!" Walker said, pleased. "You're dismissed. We'll resume activity tomorrow. Karly, please come see me in my office immediately." Everyone scattered back to their rooms, pumped up but nervous about what awaited them in the very near future.

*   *   *

Jack had taken Forrest to his living room in the apartment that Savage had set aside for him when he arrived at Savage's doorstep a few months ago. He jumped onto the couch and kicked his feet up. Forrest sat on the floor in front of him, crossing his legs.

"So," Forrest said. "Are you gonna tell me what your story is?"

"Just shut up and listen," Jack said. "For the longest time, now, I've been alone. My family disappeared without a trace when I was just three years old. My mom, my dad, and even my sister Molly were suddenly taken away from me. Since then, I've been moved from foster home to foster home all around the United States. Finally, once one of my foster parents finally told me why I was part of a new family almost every month, I ran away on my own. I snuck into a high school in some small town out in the middle of nowhere and assimilated into normal culture. One day, Walker Breckinridge showed up and gave us the offer to go with him and search around the world for the Titan Orb. So I took him up on his offer, and the rest is history."

"I don't get it," Forrest said. "Why did you think that would help you find your family?"

"Because I would be able to search for them while searching around the world for the Titan Orb, idiot," Jack said. "But Walker's missions were too structured for me. Finally, I found a way out when I fought Marshal North. Soon after I left, Savage called me and told me he knew about my parents. Now, here I am."

"Wow," Forrest said, staring awkwardly at Jack. "That's quite the story."

"Yeah," Jack said, dismissing him. "Now get out of my apartment, you freak." Forrest stood up and dashed out of Jack's apartment.

*   *   *

"So, Vígi," Marshal said, looking at Vígi's projection on the coffee table in between the couches. "When Chris launched off of the catapult on the last mission to attack the Axex, you called him something. What was it again?"

"I think Chris is a Berserker," Vígi told him. "Of course, to be completely sure, there's one more thing I need to know. Chris, is your family of Norse descent?"

"As far as I know," Chris answered. "Why?"

"Then everything makes perfect sense," Vígi concluded, pleased. "You see, Berserkers were Norse warriors that were said to have fought in a wild and reckless manner. They almost appeared to be in some sort of trance-like fury. This condition would not only appear in battle, but also in laborious work. Men who underwent this process of berserkergang were reported to be able to perform tasks that otherwise seemed completely impossible for a normal human to finish. Once they had undergone the process, they went insane, mowing down everything in their path, not even bothering to distinguish between friend and foe. When their rage subsided, many of these men were found to have dulling of the mind and weakness, which could last from one day to even the rest of their life."

"So I'm one of these?" Chris asked the A.I.

"It looks that way," Vígi answered. "Typically, most people of Norse heritage don't inherit such traits from their ancestors, but you appear to be a rare case. While it's quite an interesting power, it's very dangerous. You should be very careful when you use it."

*   *   *

Karly Garret walked into Walker's office, where he waited for her there along with Squad Three. "You wanted to see me, sir?" she said.

"Yes," Walker said. "I wanted to extend my condolences on the loss of your team. That had to be a hard loss to take."

"Yes, it was," Karly admitted. "Thank you for your concern."

"Well, I've called you here to give you your new assignment," Walker told her. "From now on, you will be the acting leader of Squad Three."

Karly gasped. "You mean it?"

"Of course," Walker said. "You will be immediately relocated to Squad Three's apartment. However, this does mean that one of the two A.I.s under Squad Three's control will have to be given to me."

One of Squad Three's original members turned to Karly. "You can keep your A.I.," she said. "Araqiel reminds us too much of Jack."

"Thank you," Karly said, grinning. The Squad Three member took Araqiel's chip out of her pocket and handed it over to Walker.

"Great," Walker said. "You're all dismissed. Your assignment for the night is to get to know your new teammate, or in Karly's case, teammates."

"Yes, sir!" the reinvigorated Squad Three shouted. They all left to go back to their apartment. After they had left, Walker picked up the telephone on his desk and dialed a number.

*   *   *

Savage was sitting in his office filling out a report on the previous mission when the phone on his desk began to ring. He picked it up with a sinister smile. "Hello, Walker."

"Listen here, you son of a-"

"Now, now, Walker," Savage said calmly. "There's no reason to be rude."

"You abducted nine of my volunteers," Walker reminded him. "I have plenty of reason to be rude."

"If you're so upset about it, why don't you do something about it?" Savage asked him.

"Oh, don't worry," Walker said. "I plan to."

"Is that a threat?" Savage asked.

"No," Walker told him. "That's a promise." With that, Walker Breckinridge hung up the phone on Thomas Savage, officially starting the event that would be forever known throughout history as the Titan War.

Chapter 24: Battleground NYC
   
The next day came sooner than anyone had anticipated. Everyone was still extremely worried about the impending war between Breckinridge and Savage. Everyone shuffled out to the lobby of the training dome for Walker's morning briefing.
   
"Good morning, everyone," Walker said, uncharacteristically plain for once. "I'd just like to let you know that our primary objective has officially changed. As of last night, we are now officially at war with the Savage Corporation. His heinous acts against our forces will not be taken lightly. Are we ready to begin?"
   
"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted, still trying to get used to calling Walker sir.
   
"Good," Walker said. "Our first objective takes us to New York City, where one of your fellow soldiers, Travis Urban, has recently been sent on a reconnaissance mission. He's reported that Savage and his forces are rumored to be staying there. We will hit them hard and show them that we aren't going to mess around. If you all understand, then get going!" He marched back to his office, his usual smile completely wiped off of his face.
   
"Something's off about Walker," Marshal said. "He almost seems angry somehow."
   
"Well, he did just start a war with one of his business rivals," Adelia reminded him. "He could be stressed out about that."
   
"That may be," Marshal admitted, "but no matter how angry Walker's gotten, he's never managed to get through an entire one of his speeches without cracking at least the tiniest of smiles. There has to be something more going on that we don't know."
   
"Well, if Walker wanted us to know what was going on, he'd probably say something," Vlad said, changing the conversation. "Either way, we need to get moving."
   
"Right," Ryder agreed. "Let's move. Travis is already there, and we need to give him some support." The squad dashed off to find their helicopter, and they immediately took off for New York City.

*   *   *
   
Forrest Albinson walked into Savage's office with a few men holding a prisoner in their arms. "Sir," he said, "we've located one of Breckinridge's reconnaissance units."
   
Savage turned around in his chair to face the boy. "Ah, this is a member of Squad Four! One of the Urban twins, if I'm not mistaken. Which one are you?" He waited for a reply from the twin, which never came. "Ah, you must be Travis. You're the quiet one, so I've heard. Yes, I've heard all about your squad from your old friend Jack Martin. Isn't that right, Jack?"
   
"Sure is," Jack grinned, stepping out of the shadows of Savage's office. "So, what exactly are you doing in this neck of the woods, Urban?"
   
Travis remained silent.
   
Jack glared at Forrest. "Next time you capture a reconnaissance soldier, make sure it's one that actually talks, you complete moron!"
   
"I'm sorry!" Forrest cried. "He was the only one I could find!"
   
"It's no matter," Savage said, calming the two of them down. "Now that we have one of the Urban twins, he'll surely be sending a distress signal to his other twin. Breckinridge's forces should be arriving any time today. We'll be ready for an all-out attack."
   
"Yes, sir!" the two of them shouted. They left Savage's office with Travis still in tow.

*   *   *
   
The task force had almost made it to New York City when Ryder decided that that moment was the perfect time to have a panic attack.
   
"Guys!" he cried. "They've captured Travis!"
   
"What?!" everyone cried in disbelief.
   
"He just told me that they know we're coming and they're preparing for a huge attack!" Ryder squeaked. "What do we do?"
   
"Well, we can't very well turn back now," Daniel Layton said over the communicator. "We'll go in and get your brother back, Urban."
   
"How are you planning on doing that while minimizing casualties?" Marshal asked, skeptical of Layton's claim.
   
"I'll think of something," Daniel lied. "Let's just get there first." After a few minutes, all nine squads landed in a quiet location just off of Long Island. They all quickly switched from their helicopters to the Technicals and drove along the streets of New York City in a line.
   
"Ryder, did Travis say anything about a location?" Marshal asked him.
   
"Apparently, Savage's New York City office is on the 35th floor of the Empire State Building," Ryder reported. "It spans the whole floor, and they seem to even have similar facilities to our headquarters in there."
   
"Did you get all that, Layton?" Marshal asked.
   
"Yes, I did," Daniel assured him. "Let's move, people! We're taking a trip to the Empire State Building."
   
"Yes, sir!" everyone shouted. They drove a little faster, trying to cut the time it took to get to the Empire State Building as much as possible.

*   *   *
   
"They're on their way," one of the former Squad Ten members told Jack, who was waiting about a block away from the Empire State Building for them.
   
"Excellent," Jack said. "Thank you for not being completely useless. I may have underestimated you, Squad Ten."
   
"Whatever," the squad member shrugged. "We're not Squad Ten anymore. Here, we're Squad One."
   
"You're damn right, you are," Jack smirked. "Now get ready for a fight." He put his brand new Golden Talons on and waited for the task force to arrive.

*   *   *
   
"Contacts lighting up on multiple channels," Vígi told Marshal. "We've got quite a bit of company headed our way."
   
"Then we'll just have to improvise," Marshal said. "Layton, set us an alternate course taking us away from these contacts!"
   
"You don't order me around," Daniel huffed. He still did as Marshal had asked and made a sharp left into one of the narrower streets. Behind Squad Nine's Technical, everyone could see a few vehicles looking similar to big, black vans speeding along the street they had just left.
   
"Dodged a bullet on that one, didn't we, Danny boy?" Marshal asked him sarcastically.
   
"Stuff it, North," Daniel grouched. "I still outrank you."
   
"Look how far that's gotten you," Marshal remarked. They continued on to the Empire State Building in silence.

*   *   *
   
Jack's cell phone began to ring. He picked up quickly. "What is it?"
   
"We've lost them!" a soldier on the other line shouted. "They're taking another route!"
   
"Can't you idiots do anything right?!" Jack screamed. He teleported in a flash and was immediately at the top of the building. He scoured the block around him and saw nine identical vehicles speeding towards the Empire State Building at an extremely conspicuous pace.
   
"You're mine now, Marshal North," Jack said, smiling evilly.

Chapter25: Round Two

"We're almost there!" Daniel assured them all. "It's just at the end of this alley!" Suddenly, he gasped. "Shit!" He slammed on the brakes of his Technical, causing everyone else to follow suit. Everyone managed to stop without incident.
   
"What's going on?" Squad Seven's leader Kelsey Noir asked, stuck near the back of the line. "I can't see!"
   
"It's Jack!" Andrés shouted. "He's back!"
   
Just by hearing the name of his former rival, Marshal sprang out of the Technical as if he had just been hit by a bolt of lightning. He ran over the top of the three Technicals in front of him, drawing Emerald Flash as he moved. He jumped off the top of Squad One's Technical and brought the blade down on Jack Martin, who had his new claws at the ready to block the attack.
   
"Long time, no see," Jack said as if the two of them were old friends that were getting reacquainted.
   
"Same to you," Marshal replied, still trying to force his sword down through Jack's claws. "Are you ready for me to beat the shit out of you a second time?"
   
"As I recall," Jack said, "you were lying on the arena floor, almost bleeding to death."
   
"Well, if you'd remember a few seconds before that," Marshal retorted, "you'd remember that you had passed out on the ground after I hit you with the butt of my sword."
   
Jack growled. "Marshal!"
   
"Jack!" Marshal cried. The two of them exploded into battle.
   
"Now would be a good time to get going, Layton!" Karly shouted.
   
"Right!" Layton agreed. "Let's move, everyone!" The nine Technicals rode past Marshal and Jack, who were locked in one of the most important fights of their lives.

*   *   *
   
As the rest of the task force raced towards the Empire State Building, Karly was the first to notice nine familiar faces standing at the front door.
   
"Oh, no," she groaned. "Don't tell me they're in on this, too!"
   
"It looks that way," Daniel said. "We may have to take them out. Are you prepared to do that, Karly?"
   
"Can we do a nonlethal takedown?" she asked.
   
"It may be difficult to do on all nine of them, but we'll attempt," Daniel told her.
   
"Thank you," Karly sighed. They pulled up to the Empire State Building, where the former Squad Ten was waiting for them.
   
"Well, look who it is!" one of the boys shouted. "It's Gullible and company!"
   
"Did you manage to find the Titan Orb for us to take out of your hands, too?" another boy sneered.
   
"What are you talking about?" Karly interrogated them.
   
"Oh, please!" one girl said, glaring at Karly. "At least make it sound like you had managed to piece together the information with that slow brain of yours. Or is that massive forehead of yours just for show?" Suddenly, the girl dropped to the ground due to a single bullet shot right in between her eyes from Karly's pistol. Karly blew the smoke off the tip of the barrel and put the weapon back on its holding spot on her leg.
   
"Daniel," she said, "I've changed my mind on that whole, 'nonlethal' thing."
   
"Awesome," Daniel said, grinning. "Let's show these guys what we do to deserters." The former members of Squad Ten were riddled with bullets from all the remaining members of the task force. Worried that someone might have seen them all murder nine people, Adelia glanced around the block for any witnesses, but she found no one.
   
"I wonder where all the people are," she wondered. "Isn't this supposed to be the city that never sleeps?"
   
"I was beginning to think the same thing," Serena told her. "Even when we were driving here, there didn't seem to be nearly as many people as there are on TV."
   
"Call it a lucky break," Vlad told them. "It's just convenient that we don't have to worry about hiding bodies."
   
"Agreed," Chris said.

*   *   *
   
Marshal and Jack's battle was going about as swimmingly for Marshal as it always did, which was equivalent to swimming in molasses. Jack was still easily parrying Marshal's strikes, then coming back at him with a claw swipe to the stomach. Marshal wasn't sure how many more times he would be able to dodge a hit from Jack before he got cut again.
   
"I see you got some shiny new toys," he said, trying to distract Jack.
   
"You like?" Jack asked. "Savage actually cares about me, unlike Walker."
   
"Walker cared about you!" Marshal reminded him. "He cares about all of us!"
   
"You're so misguided, Marshal!" Jack shouted. "You'll never change!" He lunged at Marshal, claws outstretched. Marshal simply did like he had when the two of them had previously fought and circled behind him at an incredible speed. Jack kept soaring through the air and crashed into the ground.
   
"How can you judge how misguided I am when you can't even decide what side you want to be on?" Marshal asked, getting angry with Jack.
   
"I'm not on anybody's side!" Jack screamed. "I don't care about the stupid Titan Orb! I just want my family back!" He made another lunge at Marshal, which was dodged yet again.
   
"Sorry to break it to you," Marshal said, "but this isn't going to solve anything!"
   
"You don't understand!" Jack yelled at him. "You don't get why I'm doing this!"
   
"No, I don't!" Marshal agreed. "So show me!"
   
Jack uttered a primordial shout as he ran at Marshal as fast as he could. Suddenly, he disappeared in a flash of light, and reappeared in front of Marshal. Or at least, where Marshal used to be. Before Jack even realized what had happened, Marshal was behind him, sheathing the Emerald Flash and drawing the cursed Muramasa blade.
   
"Teleportation is pretty neat," he said. "Unfortunately, it doesn't hold a candle to being able to stop time."
   
"When did you figure out how to do that?" Jack asked in disbelief.
   
"That's not the question you should be asking," Marshal told him. "You should be asking yourself when you thought I didn't know how to do it." Before Jack could even move, Marshal closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly, everything around him stopped. The wind that was moving through the city suddenly stopped, all noise ceased to sound, even birds simply hung suspended in the air. Marshal casually strolled by Jack, stabbed him through the gut with Muramasa, and sheathed the sword while on his way to meet back up with his friends. Jack wouldn't realize the blade had impaled him until Marshal started time again, nearly five minutes later.

Chapter26: Face-to-Shadow
   
The task force entered the Empire State Building and were immediately greeted by a whole battalion of Savage Corporation employees, weapons ready to strike. Daniel Layton stopped the group, and they all immediately drew their weapons and forced a quick stalemate.
   
"Nobody move," Layton ordered quietly. "Wait for the right moment to strike. As soon as one of them drops their guard, we take them all out." They all stood facing the enemies, weapons ready to take them all out, when Marshal suddenly popped into the middle of both groups.
   
"What's up, everyone?" he asked completely nonchalantly. Adelia noticed that he held the Muramasa in his hand.
   
"Oh, no," she groaned.
   
Marshal just grinned and closed his eyes as he slowly put the cursed sword back in its sheath. Just like back in Tokyo, the entire group of enemies fell into neatly sliced up chunks as soon as the guard of Muramasa clicked back into its sheath. Marshal opened his eyes to find the entire task force gaping at him with their jaws on the floor.
   
"What's wrong, guys?" he asked them. "You all look like you've seen a dashingly handsome man pop out of nowhere and kill a bunch of guys."
   
"Yeah," Adelia scoffed, unamused. "What a crazy notion."
   
"Lead on, Layton!" Marshal said, completely oblivious to Adelia's comment.
   
"Don't tell me what to do," Layton grumbled. "We need to get up there and find Savage and the Titan's Ankh. If we can kill him and also manage to get the ankh, we might have a chance at stopping this war before it gets any farther than it needs to be."
   
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Vlad grunted. "Now, if you'll just shut up and get us where we need to go, that'd be nice."
   
"Is being annoying your entire squad's favorite activity?" Layton asked.
   
"We have a club with T-Shirts!" Chris said, grinning sarcastically.
   
"We meet on Saturdays and Sundays, if you're interested!" Marshal said with the same goofy grin.

*   *   *
   
"They're in," Forrest said to Savage. "They took out all of the men stationed in the lobby."
   
"How unfortunate," Savage said, not showing any concern for the workers he had just lost. "Well, I would send in our specially trained task force, but it's a shame they aren't here right now."
   
"They're at the base in the Loess Hills in Iowa, aren't they?" Forrest asked him. "They're guarding that weird key that those Breckinridge deserters found."
   
"Mr. Albinson," Savage said, standing up. "Why on Earth would you divulge that information in front of the enemy soldier you captured that can communicate telepathically with his twin that you didn't capture?"
   
"Oh, no!" Forrest cried. "Forgive me, sir! It was a mistake, honestly!"
   
"No matter," Savage said, reaching for a button on the arm of his chair. "You'll have plenty of time to think of your foolish mistake in the Pit." He pressed the button again and the floor swallowed up Forrest Albinson once again, sending him into the mysteriously frightening depths of the Pit. Travis didn't pay any attention, as he was busy sending information to his brother.

*   *   *
   
Daniel Layton led the task force up the small stairwell of the Empire State Building to the 35th floor. Oddly enough, they met no resistance on the way up.
   
"They must not have planned on us making it past the lobby," Vígi observed.
   
"Where's the vote of confidence, Vígi?" Serena asked the squad's A.I.
   
"To be quite honest," Vígi said, "I wasn't sure you would make it either. That stand-off in the lobby would not have ended in the task force's favor had Marshal not shown up when he did."
   
"What can I say?" Marshal asked smugly. "I guess I've just got super amazing timing."
   
"I think you're getting too overconfident in your abilities," Vígi scoffed.
   
"Nobody asked you, Vígi," Marshal mumbled.
   
"Shut up, Four!" Daniel shouted back at Marshal's squad. "We're here." They stood at a surprisingly plain steel door with a number 35 painted on it. Squad One breached the door and went in, weapons at the ready. Oddly enough, though, they had no resistance waiting for them on the other side yet again.
   
"Something is definitely wrong," one of the Squad One members said quietly, looking around for signs of life anywhere and finding none.
   
"Agreed," Daniel said. "Let's search the floor. Savage has to be around here somewhere. There's no way he could've escaped that quickly without us noticing."

*   *   *
   
On the other side of the floor, Savage sat in his office with Travis still handcuffed to the wall. He merely laughed when he saw the task force enter the floor through the security feed.
   
"This is precious," he admitted. "Your message must not have gotten to your brother in time. It's true, you know. The ankh is in a secret base in Iowa's Loess Hills, along with my own task force. They're guarding it with their lives as we speak, training hard for the sole purpose of eliminating the lot of you. They may not be ready yet, but I assure you they will be by the time you all get your sorry butts there."
   
Travis seemed flustered. He wondered why the message hadn't reached Ryder yet. He'd never had this kind of problem before. He tried once more, attempting to warn his brother about the trap Savage had laid for them.

*   *   *
   
The task force scoured the entire floor, looking for something to finally show up, but nothing ever came.

"This is ridiculous!" cried a member of Squad Eight. "Nobody's here!"
   
"Quiet!" His leader, Kimiko Nakahara, scolded.
   
"Something's coming up on the motion sensors," Daniel observed. "Let's check it out." Everyone snuck quietly over to where the blips on the radar were coming from. They were led to a simple wooden door, seemingly leading into an office of some sort. The door had a large window leading through to see inside the room, but it was blocked by a curtain. Marshal looked and found that he could see two silhouettes standing in the room. He could faintly make one shadow out as Travis Urban, but the other one was entirely obscured from his view. Just then, another figure appeared in the room from out of thin air.
   
"Something's happening!" Marshal whispered to the others. "I can't hear what they're saying, though."

*   *   *

"You're an absolute mess, Jack," Savage chuckled. "What happened?"

"It's fine, sir," Jack said, waving his hand in an attempt to show nonchalance. "This is nothing but a mere flesh wound. Nothing a little rest won't fix up."

"Can you at least get us to the Loess Hills?" Savage asked. "We have some work to do."

"Of course," Jack said.

Savage turned to Travis. "Farewell, young Travis Urban," he smirked. "It's been quite a pleasure." He raised a pistol and shot Travis in the torso before teleporting out of the office.

*   *   *

The gunshot reverberated throughout the hallway. The entire task force gasped.

"We've got to get in there!" Ryder screamed.

"Leave it to me!" Chris shouted. He let out a primordial scream and gave the sturdy wooden door an explosive knuckle sandwich. The door went flying across the room and smashed into quite a few pieces on the opposite wall. Squad Four rushed inside to see Travis bleeding from his abdomen.

"We've got wounded!" Marshal barked. "We've got to get out of here, now!"

Daniel nodded, acknowledging Marshal's sense of urgency. "You heard the man!" he shouted. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Chapter27: Tensions Rise

All nine helicopters touched down behind the compound. Everyone scrambled out and ran to the door, with Squad Four leading the charge. Vlad carried Travis Urban up to the infirmary on the top floor. He took the wounded boy to a room near the end of the hallway. Adelia rushed to the unconscious Travis' side and examined him closely.

"Single gunshot wound," she noted, taking off the top part of Travis' combat suit. "Lower abdomen; looks like it missed all vital spots."

"Is he gonna be okay?" Ryder asked nervously, holding back tears.

"I think he'll be fine," Adelia said reassuringly. "Why don't you all go get some supper? I'll stay and do what I can."

"I'll bring you some food," Marshal said solemnly.

"Good," Adelia said sternly. "I need to talk to you alone."

Marshal gulped as he left the infirmary. Adelia's tone left him extremely worried.

*   *   *

Vlad sat down at a table and began eating his supper: a huge steak and French fries. He was so hungry, he didn't even notice when Anastasia sat down across from him.

"I see your appetite is as big as ever," she said, chuckling.

Vlad jumped in surprise and looked up at Anastasia. "Oh, hey," he mumbled, looking back down and continuing his feast.

"That's all you have to say?" Anastasia asked. "It's been so long since we've seen each other."

"It feels like just yesterday," Vlad said with a mouth full of steak.

"You haven't been to a class since before Christmas," Anastasia reminded him.

"I've been busy," Vlad said, taking a swig of his drink.

"I know," Anastasia said, "but I feel like you're brushing me off.

Vlad looked up from his plate and swallowed his huge bite of food. "I'm sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "There's been so many things happening, I've hardly even had time for myself."

"I understand," Anastasia told him, "but I still miss you. The least you could do is take me on a mission sometime. I could be a big help."

"Maybe next time, then," Vlad said, getting up and grabbing his empty plate. "I've got to go, now. I'm going to check on a teammate in the infirmary." He leaned over to give Anastasia a peck on the cheek before heading out of the cafeteria.

*   *   *

Marshal tiptoed into Travis' room. He had a tray of food in his hands. "Hey," he said sheepishly to Adelia, who was standing over Travis' bedside.

"Set the food down over there," Adelia said bluntly, pointing to a table near the bed without even looking up. Marshal set the tray down gingerly and sat in a chair next to Adelia.

"How's he doing?" Marshal asked.

"Fine," Adelia said, still not looking up. "Marshal, I need to talk to you."

"About what?" Marshal asked. He felt his heart rate increase, and every muscle in his body tensed up.

"I can't go on like this," she said. "Ever since we got here, you haven't been the same. You've turned into a monster, Marshal. You kill people."

"They're our enemies," Marshal reminded her. "Every time I've done it, it's been to protect you and everyone else."

"That's not the point," Adelia argued. "You don't just do it to save us; you do it because you enjoy it. You could just leave it at a simple stab in the head or the heart, but you literally make people fall to pieces. It's disturbing, and what's worse is that you don't even seem to care!"

"I don't have any control over that!" Marshal cried. "It's this stupid cursed sword!"

"You're so full of it!" Adelia shouted. "I can't believe you!"

"You don't hear the things that I hear!" Marshal yelled, his face turning red. "All I hear anymore while we fight is, 'Kill! Draw me! I need bloodshed!' It's driving me insane!"

"You know what?" Adelia asked, finally turning to face Marshal. "I don't care! You're just a homicidal psychopath! We're done! Get out of here and leave me alone!"

"Fine!" Marshal screamed. He stormed out the door and slammed it behind him. Adelia sat down in the chair, buried her face in her hands, and cried.

"He does have a point," Mia said, appearing in the room.

Adelia jumped in surprise and looked at Mia. "How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it."

"And?"

"I think Marshal's telling the truth," Mia told her. "No matter how you look at it, that new sword of his is seriously freaky."

"I just don't know anymore," Adelia sighed, putting her face back in her hands.

*   *   *

Marshal stormed down the stairs and out of the compound when he got a message on his HUD. He opened it and Daniel Layton showed up in the display.

"We have a leader's meeting in Walker's office right now," the message said to Marshal. "Be there as soon as possible."

Marshal just grunted as the transmission closed.

Chapter28: Clash of Egos
   
Marshal sauntered into Walker's office, where the rest of the squad leaders sat at a boardroom table waiting for him.
   
"Late again, North," Daniel said, glaring at him with murderous intent.
   
Marshal responded by turning around, bending over, and pointing to his buttocks. "Kiss it," he offered, shaking his rumpus around.
   
"That's it!" the Squad One leader shouted to the heavens. "You're dead, you annoying little shit!" he jumped out of his chair and throttled Marshal into the wall behind him.
   
"Enough!" Walker's voice boomed throughout the office. "Sit down, you two. We have many things to discuss." Daniel released his grip on Marshal and stomped back into his chair fuming. Marshal chuckled lightly and slipped quickly into his chair.
   
"So what are we here to discuss?" Karly asked once the two boys had settled in.
   
"We need a plan," Walker said. "If we're gonna get through this war, we're going to need to strategize, especially considering how poorly the last mission went."
   
"If we get the Titan's Ankh, we'll effectively win the war," Karly pondered. "They have no idea where we are, so we could search for the orb virtually unopposed."
   
"We don't know where the ankh is, though," Kelsey sighed.
   
Just as Kelsey sighed, Squad Four's A.I., Vígi, showed up on the holographic tabletop. "I may be able to assist with that," he said. "I've been reviewing the HUD data of the injured Travis Urban and I've managed to pull up an interesting audio clip."
   
"Play it, Vígi," Marshal ordered.
   
"Right away," Vígi confirmed. He blinked out of the table and was replaced by a music note icon. After a second of loading, Savage's voice could be heard over a layer of static.
   
"It's true...know," Savage's voice garbled. "The ankh...compound...Loess...Iowa." With that, the music note disappeared and Vígi showed back up on the table.
   
"We were barely in Travis' range, so this was all I could gather," Vígi said.
   
"Thank you, Vígi," Marshal said, smirking.
   
"So how did that help us at all?" Daniel asked, glaring at Marshal. "All that was was a bad audio recording that may or may not have even been Thomas Savage."
   
"That's definitely Savage," Walker confirmed. "I'd know that annoyingly persuasive tone anywhere."
   
"Also," Squad Nine leader Bleu Travers added, "We can draw conclusions based on what could be heard from the clip."
   
"What do you gather, Travers?" Daniel asked.
   
"From the recording, I distinctly heard the words 'ankh', 'compound', and 'Loess.' Assuming that Loess is used to denote the Loess Hills in Iowa, we've just discovered that the Titan's Ankh is located in a compound somewhere in the Loess Hills." As he explained this, Bleu furiously wrote something down in a notebook.
   
"It could very well be a trap," Daniel argued. "Savage isn't that stupid. He had to know that Urban would have some sort of recording device on him."
   
"There's only one way to find out," Marshal muttered cryptically.
   
Daniel stared at Marshal quizzically, but opened his eyes wide once he figured out what Marshal was getting at. "You can't be serious."
   
"I'm completely serious," Marshal replied. "The only way to know for sure is to go look for ourselves."
   
"That's a suicide mission!" Daniel shouted.
   
"If the ankh isn't there, then it shouldn't be a problem," Marshal smirked.
   
Daniel growled in rage. "Fine! If you're so sure, then I'll go! If only to shut you up!"
   
Marshal leaned back in his chair. "It's up to you."
   
Daniel scowled and turned to Walker. "I'll be mobilizing my squad immediately." He stormed out of the room, leaving the other leaders in a stunned silence.
   
"I suppose that's everything, then," Walker said, standing up. "You're all dismissed."

Chapter29: A Valiant Sacrifice
   
Squad One gathered around their helicopter, where Daniel Layton was already waiting for them.
   
"Let's move," he said to them as they walked up. "We've got a compound to infiltrate." The other nine squad members nodded quietly and boarded the copter. Daniel started the aircraft and it soared up into the sky.

*   *   *
   
"So what's our next move?" Chris asked.
   
"For now, we wait," Marshal answered. "Squad One is en route right now to locate and infiltrate the compound."
   
"That shouldn't be too hard," Tristan said optimistically. "There aren't a whole lot of things out in the Loess Hills."
   
"That's not the hard part," Mia said. "The hard part will be getting in and finding the ankh."
   
"What if they fail?" Aurora wondered.
   
"They won't fail," Marshal said firmly. "Daniel Layton may be one extremely annoying pain in the ass, but he knows what he's doing."

*   *   *
   
"I have no idea what I'm doing," Daniel said. "I can't find this compound anywhere. These hills all look the same!"
   
"Something's showing up on motion sensors," the co-pilot said. "It appears to be about five miles due south of us."
   
"Thermals are picking something up at that same location," a sniper in the back said through the headset. "There's a lot of activity; there's no way that's just a simple farmhouse."
   
"Roger that," Daniel said. "Get switched on, people! We're going in." He turned the helicopter due south and pushed toward the compound.

*   *   *
   
"So how is Travis doing?" Ryder asked Adelia, who still hovered over her teammate's bedside.
   
"His condition isn't improving, but it's not getting any worse," Adelia explained. "Right now, there's too much tissue damage for me to fully heal him."
   
"What does that mean?" Ryder asked nervously.
   
"It means he has to heal himself naturally for a little bit before I can finish the job," Adelia told him. "If I healed Travis right now, some of the deeper tissues wouldn't heal correctly, and that could present problems for him later down the road. I'll probably be able to fix him within the next day or so."
   
"Oh, thank goodness," Ryder sighed, relieved that his sibling would hopefully be just fine. "How's the rest of the team faring? Is Marshal okay?"
   
"Why should I care?" Adelia wondered. "That monster can go get himself killed for all I care."

*   *   *
   
Squad One's helicopter touched down just far enough away from the eerie-looking compound so that they wouldn't be easily detected. Daniel jumped out and ushered the rest of his squad out.
   
"All right, we all know what to do," he reminded his squad mates. "Let's get the job done and be back home in time for breakfast tomorrow."
   
"Yes, sir!" The squad answered back rigidly. Squad One was very formal. As the ten most elite soldiers on the task force, they were expected to maintain a certain degree of professionalism. This also served to make them seem rather pretentious and condescending in the eyes of their peers, but it wasn't of their concern at this point. The squad's snipers took two separate positions around the compound, providing the team with maximum coverage. The other eight took off for the compound quietly, avoiding detection.
   
Daniel fired off a few quick hand signals to his team behind him, and everyone stopped where they were. Daniel put a finger to his lips, then motioned forward slowly, so everyone else began sneaking along the plain at a painfully slow clip.
   
One of the squad's snipers came through the communication channel with an urgent message. "Sir, they've spotted me! They're going to raise the alarm!"
   
"Son of a bitch!" Daniel swore. "Everyone, pull out now!" But Daniel's cries came too late. An alarm buzzed through the chilly Iowan night, and guards poured out of the large compound in a flash.'
   
"Find them!" one of the guards barked. "We can't let them get to the ankh!"
   
Hearing the word, "ankh," sparked something in Daniel Layton. Out of time and out of options, he committed his final act as the leader of Squad One.

"Xenon," he said, calling to the A.I. unit in his HUD, "I need you to pull out and send a message for me."
   
"Certainly, sir," Xenon's calm, robotic voice said back.
   
"Tell Commander Breckinridge that we found the ankh, but this was the end of the road for us," Daniel instructed. "Tell him that our mission was a failure, and we're terribly sorry."
   
"I understand," Xenon confirmed. "It has been a pleasure working with you, Daniel Layton." With that, Xenon disappeared from Squad One's HUDs to send the message to Walker.
   
"Okay, everybody, this is where we make our final stand," Daniel said, closing his eyes and drawing his assault rifle off of his back. "When I say, 'go,' I want you all to-"

*   *   *
   
Walker woke up in a cold sweat. Something was wrong. He rushed out of his bed and raced to his office, where Xenon stood on top of the desk.
   
"I have a message for you, Commander Breckinridge," Xenon announced. Walker could faintly detect a hint of sadness in the A.I's voice and features, which was thought to be impossible for an inanimate program like Xenon.
   
"Go ahead," Walker whispered, starting to choke up.

*   *   *
   
Daniel's orders were cut short with a quick stab in the gut. He opened his eyes out of shock and darted his gaze around in order to take in his surroundings. The rest of his squad rested on the ground, dead, and his wound was caused by an infuriatingly familiar pair of claws. Daniel looked straight forward to see a smugly confident Jack Martin staring at him.
   
"Damn you, Jack," Daniel grunted through the pain. "You always were a pain in the ass."
   
Jack laughed. "Sorry, boss, just doing my job."
   
"I'm not your boss anymore," Daniel reminded him. "I will be kind, though, and give you a warning. Commander Breckinridge knows that the Ankh is here. They'll be coming full force within the next day. If you're smart, you'll get out of here before North shows up."
   
Jack laughed even harder. "If you think that I, Jack Martin, am scared of Marshal North, then you're delusional! Just die!" He finished Daniel Layton off by quickly removing his Golden talon from Layton's abdomen. The leader of Squad One chuckled weakly as he fell to the ground.
   
"Wow," said Forrest Albinson, who had been watching from a distance. "I thought that these guys were supposed to be tough!"
   
"They were," Jack grunted. "They just weren't ready for us."

Chapter30: A Rash Decision

Marshal and Vlad were asleep in their room when an alarm in their HUDs rang. The two of them jumped up with a start. Vígi appeared in their view once their vision focused.

"Morning, boys and girls," the A.I. said, speaking to the whole squad. "Breckinridge had me wake you all up a little early this morning because he wants everyone to report to the cafeteria for a n urgent meeting. I suggest you all get a move on." Marshal could've sworn he saw a look of sadness on Vígi's face as he blinded out of view, but he immediately forgot about it as he and Vlad got prepared for the day.

*          *          *

"I see," Thomas Savage said, sitting in an office identical to the one in the Empire State Building. "So they now know that the Titan's Ankh is here and they'll possibly be coming at us full force within a few days' time. Is that basically what you're telling me, Jack?"

"Yes," Jack admitted. "With this knowledge, it would be wise for us to get the Ankh moved to a safer location and-"

"No," Savage said, cutting Jack short. "Everything is progressing as it should be. There is something else that I require in order to maximize the Titan Orb's potential, and it just so happens that the Breckinridge Task Force is in possession of it. Or rather, in possession of her."

"I'm not sure I follow," Forrest said, scratching his head.

"I know you don't," Savage scoffed. "You needn't worry, though. Soon, Walker Breckinridge will no longer be a thorn in my side, and we will be able to finish our search for the Titan Orb without opposition."

"Understood," Jack uttered, covering Forrest's mouth before he managed to say something stupid again. He grabbed his shape shifting accomplice by the shirt and dragged him out of the office.

"Now," Savage said, turning to look at an opaque, cylindrical container nestled in the corner of his office. "I just need to find out what makes Breckinridge's soldiers tick." He got up from his desk and pressed a button on the base of the tube, which lowered the covering to reveal a comatose Daniel Layton, suspended in some type of gel.

*          *          *

"Thank you all for coming early this morning," Walker said as Squads Two through Nine sat down in the cafeteria. "I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Squad One managed to find the compound and has confirmed that the Titan's Ankh is in the compound in question."

"Well, what's the bad news?" someone at Squad Two's table asked.

"The bad news, as you may have noticed, is that Squad One was...unable to make it back to us this morning," Walker winced, dodging the reality of the situation.

"So?" Chris asked. "They're probably just running a little late."

"No," Walker said weakly, his voice breaking slightly. "They won't be coming back. They were killed last night."

Murmurs began to circulate throughout the whole cafeteria. No one could believe that the task force's top squad had been wiped out so easily. "What will we do, then?" Marshal asked.

"We're not doing anything," Walker muttered. "We can't afford to suffer any more casualties. I'm keeping you all here while I recruit more members. That's Savage's biggest advantage over us, and as long as we stay this small, we'll never be able to defeat him. That is it. You are all dismissed. This compound is on lockdown."

Numerous complaints rose all around the cafeteria. "This is exactly what Savage wants us to do!" Karly shouted. "Are you seriously going to play into his hands like this after everything we've accomplished?"

"What have we accomplished?" Walker asked seriously. "If I recall correctly, the past three missions, which have also been our most important, have been failures." With those discouraging words, everyone in the cafeteria grew silent. Some just stared dumbfound at Walker, and others looked down at the ground in shame. "That's what I thought," Walker sighed. "This discussion is over." Walker walked out of the silent cafeteria without another word.

*          *          *

"What's the plan now, Jack?" Forrest wondered. The two of them had been wandering aimlessly throughout the bland compound all morning after their meeting with Savage.

"For now, we wait," Jack said. "Breckinridge's forces should be here sometime within the day, most likely at night. We should just rest and get ready for their arrival."

"Are you worried about that Marshal kid showing up?" Forrest guessed. "He got you pretty good last time."

Jack turned around and glared at Forrest with murderous intent. "If you mention that name again I will personally throw you in the Pit," he warned. Forrest shivered in fear and closed his mouth.

*          *          *

"So that's it, then?" Adelia asked. She had stayed the night in the medical ward to keep tabs on Travis, whose wound had healed considerably from the previous evening. "We're stuck here, completely helpless, while Savage is going off to find the Titan Orb?"

"That's about it, yeah," Mia confirmed glumly.

"Not only that," Vlad added, "but we've also lost a great leader and our top ten soldiers."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Adelia cried, trying to keep everyone's spirits form crashing through the floor. "We have to get back there right now and show Thomas Savage that we won't be messed with!"

"How can we do that?" Marshal asked, not even looking up from the ground. "Everything is on lockdown right now. Walker would blow a gasket if he found out we left during a lockdown to go do something that just got ten of our comrades killed."

"Stuff like that hasn't stopped us before!" Adelia reminded him. "Chris, when we were being chased by the Axex in Egypt and Serena told you not to launch yourself out of the catapult, what did you do?"

"I did it anyway," Chris recalled. Serena also recalled that moment and immediately formed a scowl on her usually calm face.

"Exactly," Adelia said. "What happened after that?"

"I beat the Axex," Chris stated proudly. "I took it out with a single punch!"

"See?" Adelia said to the rest of them. "That's just one example! Sometimes you just have to break the rules a little to succeed! That's why we're not going to let some stupid lockdown hold us back! Are you guys with me?"

"Yeah!" cheered the other squad members.

"All right, then," Adelia said. "You guys find a way to sneak out, and Ryder and I will catch up with you after I've finished healing Travis." Everyone nodded in understanding and walked out of the room, except for Marshal. He walked toward Adelia, attempting to feign aloofness.

"Thanks for the inspiring speech," he said flatly.

"I wouldn't have had to make it if you had been just a bit more optimistic," she said back.

"I'm the one that got Daniel and the rest of his squad killed," Marshal told her. "I pressured him into going on that mission in our leader's meeting yesterday."

"Why am I not surprised?" Adelia wondered.

"Adelia, please," Marshal groaned. "I never meant for that to happen. I had no idea what we were up against, and if Layton hadn't been such a hothead in the first place, he wouldn't have even gone."

"Look," Adelia said, turning to face him finally. "I have to tend to Travis, so why don't you just leave with everyone else? I don't have time to listen to your freaky little problems."

"I-" Marshal started to say something, but he stopped himself and trudged shamefully out of the room. Adelia just sighed and placed her hands over Travis's wound. As soon as Marshal had left, Ryder walked in.

"Hey," he said. "I saw Marshal walking out of here looking kind of sad. What's going on between the two of you?"

Adelia sighed again. "Sit down, and I'll tell you."

*          *          *

Mia had managed to sneak the rest of the team into the storage room, where their Technical's capsule was stored. She dropped the camouflage field and the seven of them came into plain sight. Tristan quickly grabbed their capsule and held it out for everyone else to see.

"We're in business," he said, showing a light grin as he waved the capsule around in his hand.

"Perfect," Marshal whispered. "Now we just have to get out of the compound without being seen and hit the road for Iowa."

"I've already hacked into all the security cameras," Tristan reported. "They'll just show a still frame of the room as it's empty for as long as I want them to."

"Great job, man!" Chris praised. He gave Tristan a pat on the back, but he misjudged his strength by a bit and knocked the scrawny hacker over.

"Ow," Tristan groaned. "Thanks, I guess."

"Let's move, people," Vlad suggested. "We've got a big drive ahead of us."

Chapter31: Compound Crackdown

Vlad brought the Technical to a stop behind a hill near the compound. Everyone jumped out and gathered together.
   
"Okay, everyone," Marshal said, "this is it. We've got no backup, no medic, and no reconnaissance. We've only got one chance to get in there, get the ankh, and get the hell out. Vlad, you go set us up with some overwatch. Let us know what we're dealing with."
   
"Understood," Vlad acknowledged, getting his rifle out of the Technical and placing it on his back. He took off to find a vantage point while Marshal turned to the rest of the squad.
   
"We'll be going in quietly under cover," Marshal explained. "If things get too messy, I'll stop time and get us out of there as quickly as possible."
   
"What's the plan once we get in there?" Aurora asked.
   
"I'll let you know when I get that far," Marshal said, unsheathing Emerald Flash.

*          *          *
   
In the medical ward of Breckinridge's headquarters, Adelia lifted her hands off of Travis to wipe some sweat off her brow. "He's healed," she said, exhaling sharply. "He'll wake up in a little bit."
   
"Thank you so much," Ryder blubbered. "If I'd lost Travis, I...I..."
   
"I know," Adelia said, stopping him. "You should stay here with him."
   
"What about you?" Ryder asked. "Where are you going?"
   
"I'm going to help my idiot of an ex-boyfriend," Adelia said, brandishing the helicopter's capsule in her hand.

*          *          *
   
Looking through the scope of his sniper rifle, Vlad kept a close watch on his comrades using his enhanced vision. Looking at the area in front of the compound, he noticed one lone guard standing at the entrance. This could be a problem, he thought. He opened up communications to speak with the rest of his team.
   
"Lone hostile," he told them with his deep Russian voice. "Right in front of the entrance."
   
"One guard in Savage's largest compound in the United States?" Marshal's voice whispered back to Vlad. "You'd think they'd be a little more cautious."
   
"Yeah," Chris agreed, "especially considering the stuff they've got in there."
   
"What do you want me to do, sir?" Vlad asked, still keeping his eye on the singular guard.
   
"Take him out," Marshal ordered.
   
"Gladly," Vlad replied, smiling to himself. He got the target in his sights, focused in on his head, and pulled the trigger. There was only a small noise before the rifle's single bullet hit the target in the head and he immediately crumpled to the floor. Unfortunately for Vlad, the angle and speed of the shot were both just enough to pierce straight through the guard's skull and hit the alarm button right behind him.
   
"WARNING," the pre-recorded female voice blared as sirens went off behind it. "SECURITY BREACH. LEVEL ZERO."
   
"Well, shit," Vlad muttered to himself.
   
"So much for going in quietly!" Marshal shouted. "Let's move, people! We've got hostiles inbound! Vlad, watch your shot next time!"
   
Vlad slammed his head to the ground in disgust.

*          *          *
   
Adelia snuck down to the first floor of the headquarters and tiptoed across the lobby. She stealthily leapt across the tiled floor, not making any noise and avoiding detection. She made it out the automatic door and into the crisp nighttime mountain air. She started walking normally again, not realizing that Walker was leaning on the wall next to the door.
   
"Going somewhere?" he asked her, standing up and walking towards her.
   
Adelia nearly jumped out of her skin as she yelped and whipped around to face Walker. "Oh!" she cried. "Walker! Good to see you! You always have the greatest timing, if I may be allowed to say. Also, if I may be so bold, you are looking about as cool as a fair number of cucumbers."
   
"What are you doing, Adelia?" Walker asked flatly.
   
"Oh, Walker," Adelia sighed, putting on the most ridiculous act ever. "Why must you assume that I'm always up to something?"
   
"I don't," Walker said, "but I do know that you're a terrible liar and I can plainly see your squad's helicopter capsule in your hand."
   
"What are you talking about?" Adelia asked, playing dumb as she quickly slid her hand behind her back. "I don't have anything in my hands!"
   
"Knock it off, Adelia," Walker ordered. "Just tell me what's going on before you make me angry."
   
"Fine," Adelia groaned, giving up the act. "Marshal and the others went to Savage's compound after you told them not to, and I was going to help them since I had just gotten done healing Travis."
   
Walker stopped and stared at Adelia in disbelief. "You guys directly disobeyed my orders just so you could avenge Daniel Layton?"
   
"Of course," Adelia scoffed. "Jerk or no, he was a great leader to all of us, and he died getting us some very vital information that would've gone to waste. We weren't about to let his death be for nothing."
   
"That's actually very noble," Walker admitted. "Okay, I'll allow it this one time. Why don't I fly you there? I'm not sure you've ever flown this thing yet, and the last thing we need is our best medic getting killed in a helicopter crash."
   
"Okay!" Adelia said, excited that she had managed to persuade Walker into going so far as to joining them on their mission. She threw out the helicopter's capsule, and they climbed in. They were just about to take off when somebody ran out the door after them.
   
"Wait!" she cried, her long black hair flying in the wind of the helicopter's blades.
   
"Ah, Anastasia," Walker said. "Can we help you?"
   
"Take me with you!" she pleaded. "I want to help Vladimir and his friends!"
   
"Of course!" Adelia agreed. "Let's get moving!" The three of them jumped into the helicopter and took off for the hidden compound in Iowa.

Chapter32: Savage Smackdown

Vlad formed up with the rest of the squad as they dashed straight into the compound. Marshal sliced up the door with the Emerald Flash, and it fell into pieces at their feet. When they arrived inside, they were greeted by twenty Savage Corporation employees, who each held a sub-machine gun in their hands. They stood in a classic firing squad formation, pointing their weapons at the squad.
   
"Aurora," Tristan squealed, "now would be a good time to do your thing!"
   
"I'm all ready to go," she assured him. As she said that, the firing squad in front of them emptied their weapons at Squad Four. Miraculously, the bullets all stopped in midair, as if they had all stopped right into an invisible wall. Aurora smirked as she waved her hand around and the wall of bullets shot back at the people shooting them. The impromptu firing squad fell to the ground, all dead.
   
"Let's move," Marshal said plainly, not even stopping to consider the amount of murder that had just happened in front of him.

*          *          *
   
Walker touched the helicopter down in a cornfield near the compound. Adelia quickly jumped out and got her assault rifle out and ready to go.
   
"Anastasia and I will provide aerial support out here," Walker told her. "All you need to do is get in there and help out your squad. Make sure none of them die."
   
"Yes, sir," Adelia acknowledged, saluting. She turned and ran over the hill to the compound as Walker took the helicopter back into the sky.

*          *          *
   
Marshal and the others tore through the huge compound, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. Marshal slashed, Chris punched, and the rest of them shot through waves of Savage's employees.
   
"I don't think your insurance covers that!" Chris joked as he punched a poor, unsuspecting employee straight up into the air and into the light above them, electrocuting him.
   
"Tristan, we need some direction," Marshal said. "Find us a map and let us know where the ankh could be located."
   
"I'm on it!" Tristan said, pulling up a menu on his HUD. He stopped moving to find a map of the compound, and the others stood around him, covering him as he searched. In a matter of seconds, Tristan found what they needed.
   
"It looks like there's a secret elevator up at the top that will take us to the room with the ankh, way down below ground level," he observed. "They've gone all out trying to protect the Titan's Ankh."
   
"It seems almost too cliché to be true," Serena thought.
   
"Agreed, but it's also the most logical idea," Vlad said. "Let's go for it, Marshal."
   
"Of course," Marshal agreed. "Let's move, people!"

*          *          *
   
Adelia found the entrance to the compound and went in quietly, not knowing what to expect. When she walked through the busted doorway, she had to stop herself from vomiting. In front of her, the entire room was a bloodbath. Chopped up pieces of human were strewn about, while others had bullet holes riddling their entire bodies and even more had fist sized imprints on their skulls.
   
"Damn it," she swore. "Can't they just control themselves at least a little bit?" She followed the trail of death, taking care not to notice the piles of bodies around her.

*          *          *
   
"They're here!" Forrest screeched. "What do we do? They're slaughtering everyone!"
   
"Calm down," Jack said grumpily. "Let's just get to the storage room and protect the Ankh."
   
"Just the two of us?" Forrest asked. "There's seven of them!"
   
"Don't worry about it," Jack said, leaving the room. "Let's just get over there."

*          *          *
   
Marshal and the others had made it to the top floor of the compound without much problem. At the end of the hallway in front of them they found the elevator that they were looking for. The whole hallway seemed to be entirely quiet.
   
"Let's move quickly," Vlad suggested. "They're bound to be coming up here shortly." The rest of them nodded and took off at a brisk pace for the door. They got about thirty feet from the elevator door when a small legion of enemy soldiers appeared seemingly out of nowhere, catching the lot of them completely off guard.
   
"Shit!" Chris swore out loud as the soldiers pointed their firearms straight at the seven of them. They were all poised to drill a sizeable amount of holes in the intruders until a single shot took down the soldier at the front and center of the group. Everyone looked back to see Adelia standing behind them lowering her pistol.
   
"You idiots," she grumbled. "You couldn't have at least waited for me to show up?"
   
"We figured you were preoccupied," Marshal said, trying hard not to show the tiniest of smiles on his face.
   
"You're here now, though," Tristan reminded her, "and that's what counts."
   
"Hey!" one of the enemy soldiers behind them shouted out. "Don't ignore us! We're, like, trying to fill you all full of holes!" As he raised his weapon again to start firing at Squad Four, he was suddenly dropped by a sniper bullet that seemed like it came from heaven.
   
"What the hell was that?!" Mia cried. "Who's the sniper?"
   
"That'd be Anastasia," Vlad said, grinning widely. "I'd recognize that sound anywhere."
   
"Let's take care of the rest of them, then!" Marshal ordered. "Formation 8A!"

*          *          *

"Looks like they've got everything taken care of now," Anastasia said, watching the fight through the scope of her rifle.
   
"Good," Walker said, taking the helicopter up higher in the sky. "Everything is up to them, now."

*          *          *
   
Jack and Forrest quickly spun around to see the door to the room fly off of its hinges with a huge explosion. Dust and smoke quickly filled the room as Squad Four quickly entered the room with it. When everything settled, Jack turned to find Marshal holding Forrest with a katana held up to the shape shifting boy's neck.
   
"Don't move," Marshal told Jack. "Just give us the Titan's Ankh or I'll cut this kid's head off."
   
"Do it," Jack goaded, equipping his claws. "I don't even like him, to be quite honest."
   
"Jack!" Forrest cried. "Please! Don't do this! What about the time we've spent getting to know each other?" Jack just continued putting his claws on, not even acknowledging his terrified comrade. He finished putting his weapons on and lunged for Marshal, preparing to strike both him and Forrest, but was suddenly thrown back when Chris got in between them and landed a punch straight into his side.
   
"Dude," Chris said, "you are one stone cold motherfucker."
   
"You're one to talk, oh legendary Berserker," Jack grunted, slowly climbing back on his feet.
   
"Don't even try to pretend to be Mr. Holier-than-thou, Jack," Vlad growled. "Chris may be a homicidal Berserker, but at least he distinguishes between friend and foe."
   
"That didn't seem to be the case when you threatened to kill me before I left," Jack argued.
   
"You tried to kill Marshal," Adelia reminded him. "Might I remind you that you were once allies?"
   
"That doesn't matter any longer!" Jack shouted. "I'll just kill you all here, my enemies!" He lunged toward the group in front of him, but quickly stopped when another voice emanated from the doorway.
   
"Now, now, Jack," Savage said, stepping over the broken-down door. "No need to kill any of them. We'll simply make a deal with them."
   
Aurora gasped. "Guys! That's Thomas Savage!" Everyone immediately drew their weapons and pointed them straight at their greatest enemy.
   
"Calm down, everyone," Savage said. "I'm only here to make a deal."
   
"We're not interested!" Marshal cried out. He dropped Forrest and lunged for Savage. While he ran, he took a look at the man who had caused him and his friends so much grief and hardship for the past several months. He looked to be older than Walker, seemingly in his mid to late 30's. His brown hair was slicked back just like Walker's, but started to show signs of graying. He wore a suite exactly like Walker's as well. If Marshal didn't know any better, he'd even say they were twins. Savage's most prominent feature, though, was his set of deep blue eyes that pierced through Marshal's very soul and seemed to drown him in an endless ocean. Suddenly, Marshal stopped his attack and stared at Savage's mesmerizing eyes.
   
"I think if you stop for a moment, you'll find this deal quite interesting," Savage said, forming a smug grin on his face.
   
"Snap out of it, Marshal!" Vlad cried, slapping his leader on the back with his giant hands. Marshal stumbled forward and shook himself awake as if just waking up from a nap.
   
"What the hell was that?" Marshal asked, raising his sword in a defensive position.
   
Savage just laughed eerily. "You all have special powers of your own. Who's to say that I don't have my own, as well?"
   
Marshal growled in rage. "Open fire!" Everyone drew their weapons and fired at savage. The man simply laughed again as he effortlessly dodged every single shot fired at him.
   
"Not bad," he said sarcastically. "You might make me break a sweat over this deal."
   
Marshal had finally reached his limit. He stopped everything around him and sprinted for his enemy, poised to drive the Emerald Flash straight through Savage's heart. He made his final lunge and started to thrust the sword when the unthinkable happened.
   
Savage blinked.

*          *          *
   
What happened in New York? Ryder asked his brother telepathically. Why weren't you able to warn us about the trap?
   
I'm not sure, Travis thought back. I think there's something about Savage that causes my powers not to work.
   
And if your power was stopped, there's nothing preventing him from stopping the others' powers, too, Ryder concluded. The others might be in some serious trouble if they meet up with Savage.
   
All we can do now is hope that they don't, Travis said, still lying in the hospital bed.

*          *          *
   
Adelia barely even had time to blink when she saw her ex-boyfriend impaled through the head on his own sword. Savage stood where he had been before, yawning as he used the Emerald Flash to hold Marshal's limp, lifeless body up off the ground.
   
"Now, for my deal," Savage said, completely nonchalant. "You have a choice to make, my friends. You may either have the Titan's Ankh, or you can attempt to save your friend, here. Keep in mind that he won't necessarily survive either way."
   
"Guys, we need Marshal to live to fight another day!" Chris said. Everyone immediately agreed and ran for their leader. Savage dropped Marshal to the ground, and Vlad immediately scooped him up.
   
"Let's go!" Vlad barked, hefting Marshal on his back and running out the door. The others quickly followed behind him, with Serena bringing up the rear. Before she made it through the doorway, Savage stepped in front of her and grabbed her by the wrist.
   
"Going somewhere?" he asked, forming a frighteningly sinister grin on his face.
   
"Let go of me!" Serena cried, struggling to get out of Savage's iron grip.
   
"'Fraid not," Savage said, squeezing Serena's wrist even tighter. "You'll be coming with me. Jack, Forrest, let's go."
   
"Yes, sir!" the two of them shouted. They both ran over to Savage and Serena and Jack began to teleport them out of the compound.
   
"Chris!" Serena screamed as she disappeared instantly.
   
Chris turned around, hearing Serena's voice, but saw no one behind him. "Serena?!" he cried out, searching for her. He looked back around the room, but Serena was gone.
   
"Chris, we have to go!" Adelia shouted.
   
"Serena!" Chris screamed, punching the ground below him.
   
"Live to fight another day!" Tristan said, repeating what Chris had said earlier about saving Marshal. "Let's go!" Chris got up and ran to the elevator.

*          *          *
   
"Something's wrong," Anastasia said. "They should be out of there by now."
   
"Agreed," Walker said, turning the helicopter around. "Let's go check it out." He began lowering the helicopter to see the top level of the compound. Anastasia lifted her rifle to see inside. The elevator door opened to reveal Vlad carrying the unconscious Marshal on his back with the sword still protruding from Marshal's skull.
   
"Get us down there, now," Anastasia said. "We've got wounded."
   
Walker suddenly cut off the engine and the helicopter plummeted to the ground. Anastasia held on for dear life as Walker immediately turned the engine back on and kept the two of them from crashing on the ground by just a few feet. He softly touched the copter down on the ground as Squad Four sprinted out of the compound and piled into the aircraft.
   
"What the hell happened?" Walker shouted.
   
"Thomas Savage happened," Vlad said solemnly. "We need to evac immediately."
   
"Of course," Walker agreed. The helicopter took off and sped for headquarters.
   
In the back of the helicopter, Vlad set Marshal down on the floor and Adelia immediately hovered over him. She gingerly removed the Emerald Flash from Marshal's cranium and assessed the damage. She quickly put her hands on his head and used her healing power. Marshal's head was immediately enveloped in a calm golden light, and his wound closed up.
   
"He's healed," she sighed. She quickly went to check his pulse and heart rate, and found that both were returning, slowly but surely.
   
"Is Marshal going to be okay?" Mia asked, looking worried.
   
"I don't know, Mia," Adelia said, fighting back tears. "We just have to wait and see what happens." The entire squad huddled together as Walker piloted the helicopter across the black night sky.

CHAPTER33: TUCKED TAILS

Darkness.
That's all there was.
Blackness.
That's all that there had been for what felt like an eternity.
Emptiness.
That's all there would ever be.

*      *      *

Out through the crisp, calm air of the Rocky Mountains, a lone helicopter streaked through the star-lit night sky. A very worried Walker Breckinridge sat at the controls, doing everything in his power to get where he needed to go as quickly as possible without crashing and potentially killing all of the passengers. Finally, after a dangerous and excruciatingly long flight, Walker landed the helicopter next to the compound. So far, the war with Savage had not been in his favor, with Walker's latest casualty being one of his greatest fighters, Marshal. Walker jumped out of the aircraft and dashed to the doors of the compound. Immediately after him came Squad Four and Anastasia.
   
"Let's move!" Walker barked, holding the door open and making circular motions with his free arm. "We need to get up to the medical ward, ASAP!"
   
Squad Four's sniper, the Russian man mountain Vladimir Kozlov, grabbed the unconscious Marshal off the floor of the helicopter and hoisted him on his back as he sprinted into the building and up the five flights of stairs to the infirmary in record time. The nurses on staff had already prepared a room for Marshal, and they guided Vlad to it. The others had finally caught up and were catching their breath as Vlad gingerly sat Marshal down on the bed.
   
"I'm gonna need some space," Adelia said. Everyone stepped out of her way as she led a team of nurses toward her ex-boyfriend. She surveyed the situation and quickly made a decision.
   
"Hook him up to an IV," she said to one of the nurses. As the nurse got started on hooking Marshal up to the IV, Adelia turned to Walker and the others.
   
"I need you guys to go outside," she said, pulling her long, blonde hair back into a ponytail. "I'll come out and let you know how he's doing in a little while." Vlad turned and led everyone out of the room.

*      *      *
   
Darkness. But suddenly, the darkness changed. It went from pitch black to a warm gold. The boy finally started becoming aware of himself as the darkness began to fade.
   
What's going on? he wondered. How did I get here? Why can't I remember anything? As he became increasingly confused, the darkness returned, swallowing up the boy and his thoughts.

*      *      *

Serena Carver woke up with a migraine. This wasn't anything new for her, though. She suffered from these for most of her life. What was troubling for Serena was that she had no idea where she was. She tried to get up and take in her surroundings, but quickly found that she wasn't able to move from her current position. The dark room around her suddenly brightened as a door opened in front of her. She snapped her eyes shut in order to adjust to the sudden, harsh light.
   
Before she had time to adjust her eyes, they were pried open and forced to focus on a grinning Jack Martin.
   
"Mornin', sunshine," he said, cheerfully sarcastic.
   
"Jack Martin," Serena drawled, still half asleep, "let me out of here or I swear I'll-"
   
"Do what?" Jack interrupted. "It doesn't look to me like you're in any position to issue any threats."
   
Serena growled and thrashed against her restraints, but they held tight against her resistance. Eventually, she sighed and gave up. "What do you want with me, Jack?" she asked.
   
"I don't want anything with you, Carver," Jack told her. "The big man is the one who wants you. Not so much for you, per se, but for something you can do."
   
"Bite me," Serena said, gritting her teeth.
   
"No need to be so sassy," Jack said. "It's not like you have a say in the matter. One way or another, Thomas Savage will have the power of a Catalyst. You have some time left to make a choice. Choose wisely." With that, Jack left the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Serena in darkness again.

CHAPTER34: A SEPARATED FAMILY

Adelia had been examining Marshal's head for almost an hour while her team of nurses made sure that all his vital signs were in order. After some time, Adelia lifted her head from her work.

"Mia," she sighed. "I told you to stay in the waiting room." The nurses looked around, puzzled, until Mia appeared from out of nowhere, her brow furrowed with worry.

"Sorry," the girl said. "You've been in here for a while. Everyone is getting worried."

"I'm close to finishing, I think," Adelia assured her. "Why don't you start getting everyone ready to come in?" As Mia walked back to the waiting room, Adelia put her hands back on Marshal's forehead and continued to examine Marshal's wound. Seeing nothing on the outside, she focused her power and a golden glow appeared around her hands. She gently placed them on Marshal's forehead and closed her eyes, allowing herself to literally see inside Marshal's head. She searched the surface of his brain for any immediate signs of damage, but couldn't find any. She looked deeper and deeper into Marshal until she saw what she needed to see. She quickly threw her hands back in shock as all of Squad Four, including Travis, who had been released from the infirmary hardly an hour ago, walked in.

"How is he?" Vlad asked. Adelia saw that Vlad looked extremely worried for the first time since they had met.

"I'm not entirely sure yet," Adelia admitted. "He looks to be completely fine, but there's something else."

"Spit it out!" Tristan shrieked, mentally crumbling under the pressure. "What's wrong with Marshal?"

"The blade managed to miss every part of his brain except the hippocampus," Adelia explained. "That part of the brain is thought to store and retain memories, both short and long term."

"So he's lost all his memory?" Ryder guessed.

"We won't know until he wakes up," Adelia told him. "For now, all we can do is hope."

"Everyone's here, so let's stay with Marshal," Aurora suggested.

"Not everybody," Mia reminded her. "We're missing Serena, now."

Vlad did a quick head count. "Not counting Marshal, there's still one missing," he observed. "Where's Chris?"
Everyone looked around for Marshal's best friend and Serena's significant other, but he was nowhere to be found. When everyone thought about it, they realized that no one had seen Chris Harley since they had left Savage's compound in Iowa.

"Son of a bitch," Vlad muttered.

*      *      *

There was only one survivor left at the Savage Corporation compound hidden in the Loess Hills. He concealed himself underneath a table and watched as the lone assailant beat all of his comrades to a collective bloody pulp. The last soldier whimpered as the terrifying man crouched and stared at him.

"Where is he?" the assailant growled with rage.

"Who?" the soldier squeaked.

"Savage!" the man roared. He reached under the table and grabbed the soldier by the shirt, lifting him off his feet. "Tell me where he is!"

"I don't know!" he cried. "He disappeared from the compound! He could be anywhere in the world right now!"

"Maybe this will help you figure it out!" the crazed marauder growled, raising a bloody fist in front of the terrified grunt's face.

"South America!" the lowly peon sobbed. "He said something about the jungles of Guyana. That's all I know, honest! Please don't kill me!"

Chris Harley grabbed the grunt by the shirt and stared at him with a pair of burning red eyes. Suddenly, his face softened and his eyes reverted to their original brown color.

"Thanks," he said quietly, letting go of the soldier's shirt and allowing him to slump to the floor. He turned around and walked away from the now ruined Loess Hills compound and stumbled for the south, determined to find Savage and, more importantly, rescue the love of his life.

*      *      *

Darkness. After the episode with the golden light, it had seemed even darker. The boy wished to see light again, to figure things out. As soon as the thought was formed, he got his wish. A white light began to show up at the very end of his visual field. It grew larger and larger until it was all he could see. Finally, his eyes adjusted, and he was finally awake and aware.

*      *      *

"Look, everyone!" Tristan gasped. "Marshal's awake!" Everyone turned quickly to see Marshal North sitting up in his hospital bed. Adelia immediately rushed to his side.

"Marshal?" she said cautiously. "Are you okay?"

Marshal slowly turned to give Adelia a puzzled look. "Who are you?" he asked. "Where am I?"

"Marshal, that isn't funny," Vlad scolded. "You should drop the act."

Marshal's eyes widened at the sight of Vlad. "Leave me alone!" he shouted. "I don't know you people!" He ripped out his IV and jumped out of the bed, poised to fight the crowd in front of him.

"Hold him down!" Adelia ordered. Vlad and the other boys lunged for Marshal, but they underestimated the strength of a crazed, frightened Marshal North. The scuffle knocked all the equipment over until they finally held down a kicking and screaming Marshal on the bed. During the fight, Adelia prepared a syringe of sedative and managed to plunge the needle into Marshal's arm, releasing the sedative drug into his body. Soon, the leader of Squad Four crashed onto the bed as the darkness he had been struggling to overcome pushed him back into slumber once more.

CHAPTER35: DWINDLING

Serena spent the night in agony. Even in the dark, stimulus-free room, her migraine still bothered her. She wasn't able to shift to a more comfortable position, for she was strapped down to the cold, hard metal table in the center of the room. As soon as she was finally beginning to fall asleep, the door flew open and the lights switched on. Serena grunted with rage and looked up to see Thomas Savage staring down at her.

"Good evening," he said to her, showing on his face that he actually had no intentions of wishing his Catalyst prisoner a good evening.

"Eat a dick," Serena grunted, grimacing through the pain of her migraine.

"Such defiance," Savage noted. "You are either very brave, or you are very stupid. Either way, you can't ignore the fact that you are a captive, a spoil of war."

"Like I care," Serena spat. "You don't scare me. My migraine is more of a threat to me than you are."

Savage looked at her curiously and frowned. "Is that so? Well, I guess you aren't worried enough to care about my plans for you."

"Jack already told me," Serena said. "There's no way I'll ever work with you."

"I was expecting you to say that," Savage chuckled, his deep blue eyes flashing brightly. "Fortunately, I'm developing a sort of...workaround."

"What are you talking about?" Serena demanded.

"You'll find out in a few days," Savage said, smirking. "Once the Titan Orb is in my possession, the world will have a new Catalyst!"

Serena's eyes widened as Savage left the room, laughing maniacally.

Chris, she thought. Please make it in time.

*      *      *

Adelia and the others stood over the now sleeping Marshal, not quite sure what to think.

"What do we do with him?" Mia wondered.

"For now, I'll have to put Marshal into a medically induced coma before he wakes up and becomes more destructive," Adelia said. "I don't really want to do it, but we don't have many other good options."

"Poor Marshal," Tristan sighed. Vlad, Aurora and the twins just shook their heads in sadness.

"Yes," said a voice from the doorway. "'Poor Marshal,' indeed." Everyone turned to see Walker trudging into Marshal's room with a pained expression on his face.

"Commander!" Vlad shouted. The Squad immediately snapped to attention. Normally, Walker wasn't one for stuffy military customs, but ever since the war with the Savage Corporation had broken out, he had become much more serious around his volunteer soldiers.

"At ease, guys," he said, calming Squad Four down. "I came in because I heard that Marshal was awake, but it seems that I'm hearing things. Care to elaborate, Sinclair?"

"Of course," Adelia agreed. "Things are worse than we thought. Marshal's hippocampus is mangled beyond recognition, effectively running all his short and long term memories. He woke up, but he became destructive due to fear and confusion."

Walker sighed. "This isn't looking good. Squad Four isn't fit for duty. Nearly half the group is either incapacitated or just AWOL. Under these circumstances, I'm afraid I have to disavow Squad Four until everyone is back in action."

"Disavow us?" Ryder wondered. "What does that mean?"

"It's a kinder way for him to tell us that he's kicking us out," Vlad explained, glaring at Walker as he spoke. Everyone gasped in surprise and disbelief.

"Why would you do that?" Aurora asked. "Why would you just dump us like that?"

"It's not really a decision I want to make," Walker admitted, "but seeing as your numbers are down nearly fifty percent, I can't send you on any missions. Rather than have you all sit around here at headquarters, I figured I'd make some space for some new recruits,"

"What about Marshal?" Adelia inquired. "We can't risk taking him back home; who knows what could happen?"

"Marshal will stay here, as will you," he explained. "I may be trying to cut costs here, but I'm not so heartless as to leave a wounded soldier unattended. As soon as Marshal is back with us, I will reinstate you all. That's all. You may take all of your equipment and vehicles with you. I ask that you're all gone by tomorrow morning at sunrise." The now former Squad Four stood in a somber silence as Walker Breckinridge turned his back to them and walked away. The remaining six members glanced sadly at Adelia, who was already hard at work examining Marshal, so they shamefully trudged out of the room and out of the compound.

*      *      *

Chris hadn't the slightest idea where he was. He'd just been wandering around aimlessly since he left the compound. He started getting frustrated when he got a call on his Class 12 Heads-Up Display. He noticed that the call was from his teammates, so he quickly answered. "What's up?"

"Where are you?" asked Vlad on the other line. "We're coming to get you."

"No idea," Chris said. "I'll send you my co-ordinates." He navigated the 12HUD's holographic menus and sent his current location to his team.

"Got it," Aurora confirmed. "We'll be there ASAP." The line was cut, and Chris sat down in the middle of a field and waited for his friends to pick him up.

CHAPTER36: THE FINAL SEARCH

Jack Martin stormed into Savage's office, seemingly angry.

"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Martin?" Savage asked.

"I've done everything you asked me," Jack reminded him. "I got the Titan's Ankh, killed Daniel Layton, and I even got the Catalyst from Breckenridge's forces for you. When are you going to hold up your end of the deal and tell me about my family?"

Savage smiled. "Ah, yes. I almost forgot about that. Don't worry, Jack. You'll have your parents and your sister back as soon as you do just a few more things for me."

Jack slammed his hands down on Savage's desk. "I'm sick of this bullshit, Tom!" he shouted, showing his brash nature. "I've been patient with you for a long time, and I think that it's about time you gave me some answers!"

Savage's smile was quickly replaced by a frown. He stared directly into Jack's eyes with his deep blue eyes. "You'll finish your mission, and then you will have your parents and your sister back. I give you my word."

Jack recoiled in disbelief. "You have them, don't you?"

"I don't know where you got that idea," Savage smirked. "Just one more job, and I'll help you, understood?"

Jack scowled, finally putting all the pieces together. "Fine," he sighed. "I'll play your little game. Just don't forget what we agreed to." Jack swiveled around on his heels and stomped out the door.

*      *      *

After hours of searching, Vlad spotted Chris waiting for them down below. "Found him," he said to Aurora, the helicopter's pilot. "Land right there."

"I'm on it," Aurora said. She softly landed the aircraft next to Chris, who hopped in the back.

"Thanks for leaving me at the compound, guys," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I really just appreciate it, you know?"

"Maybe if you weren't so slow, you would've gotten out with us in time," Mia retorted.

"Whatever," he grunted. "Anyway, how's Marshal doing?"

"Well, he's in a coma, if that answers your question," Ryder said.

"We also got kicked out of the task force," Aurora added. "So now we're on our own until Marshal is better."

"So what do we do now?" Chris asked.

"We're planning on looking for your girlfriend," Vlad told him. "Did you happen to find any clues about where they took her?"

"Somebody said something about Guyana, South America," Chris remembered, thinking back to that poor soldier he had terrorized.

"It's more than likely that Savage is in the rainforest there. Let's start there."

"Already on it," Tristan said, fiddling around on his HUD. "I'm going to pinpoint her location; here's hoping her 12HUD is still active. Vígi!"

"Yes, Tristan?" the Squad's designated AI acknowledged as he popped up onto the dashboard of the helicopter.

"I need you to send a location request to Serena's Heads-up Display," Tristan ordered.

"Of course," Vígi confirmed. "I'm on it."

*      *      *

Serena woke up to an annoying alarm tone that sounded as if it were inside her head. She snapped her eyes open and found a message box from her HUD projected in front of her visual field. Vígi was also next to the menu, looking almost happy to see Serena.

"Hello, Serena," the AI said pleasantly. "Tristan Kane is trying to locate you. Do you accept?"

"Yes," Serena whispered, trying to be as quiet as possible, avoiding being found out by whoever might have been watching her at the time.

*      *      *

"Got it!" Tristan shouted excitedly. "She's in Guyana, just like you said, Chris!"

"We've got a long flight ahead of us," Aurora said. "We need to refill the gas tank."

"Let's go grab a bite to eat, too," Chris suggested. "I haven't eaten in a few days, thanks to some people." He glared at Mia, who glared right back.

*      *      *

Jack walked to his quarters, where Forrest waited. He had transformed into a cat and had laid himself out on Jack's bed, purring softly as if to imitate snoring. Jack slowly crept over to the sleeping cat, grabbed it by the tail and flung it off of his bed. Forrest flailed through the air and managed to land on his feet. He quickly changed back into his normal body and gave Jack a pitiful look.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Let's go," Jack said, ignoring him as he walked back out of his room. "We've got a mystical orb to find." Forrest stumbled after him, still dizzy from being thrown across the room.

*      *      *

Adelia hadn't left Marshal's side since they had returned from that fateful mission. She worked herself to exhaustion, then pushed herself even farther. She wasn't sure if she would be able to restore Marshal's memories, but she could at least fix his wound.
If only there was a way for me to communicate with him, she thought. Maybe I could manually restore all of his memories. She concentrated her healing abilities to the maximum until it all suddenly stopped and she passed out and slumped over Marshal's abdomen.

*      *      *

Marshal woke up in a strange, empty space. He stood up, dusted himself off, and took in his surroundings. Everything around him was white.

"Well, I suppose it's better than darkness," he muttered to himself.

As soon as he spoke, a flash of golden light covered the entire world around him, save for a white patch around where he stood. Then, without warning, Adelia appeared in front of Marshal. She shook her head and opened her eyes.

"Marshal!" she cried ecstatically. "I did it!"

"Who are you?" he asked, still not recognizing her. "What did you do?"

"Oh, that's right," she muttered. "You don't remember me. Anyway, my name's Adelia, and I'm here to help you get your memories back!"

CHAPTER37: FLASH

"How are you going to restore my memories?" Marshal asked.

"Sometimes, people with amnesia can remember things once they are reminded of certain events in their life," Adelia explained. "I'm going to try this with you."

"Slow down a minute," Marshal interrupted. "Can you at least tell me where I am first?"

"I'll tell you," she said, "but you have to promise not to freak out." Marshal nodded, so Adelia took a deep breath.

"Marshal," she said, "you are in a coma right now. Your sudden memory loss caused you to become frightened and destructive, so we had no choice but to put you under."

Marshal sighed. "Okay, I suppose that makes sense. What is this injury you're talking about?"

"You got a pretty bad stab wound through your head," she explained. "The wound is healed, but there was some residual damage to the part of your brain that stores your memories."

"I see," Marshal said, struggling to wrap his head around everything.

"I realize that it's a lot to take in," Adelia said. "I'll give you some time to sort things out. I have to go now, anyway. I'll be back." She slowly faded out until she was completely gone.

*      *      *

Adelia woke up back in the hospital, where Walker was standing over her. She slowly sat back up and shook herself awake.

"Napping on the job, Sinclair?" Walker asked, stifling a chuckle as he spoke.

"You won't believe what just happened," Adelia told him. "I just-"

"-managed to get your way into Marshal's head?" Walker interrupted, finishing her sentence for her.

"How'd you know?" Adelia inquired.

"The nurses called me here," Walker explained. "They said you had passed out on top of Marshal, and while you were out, Marshal began mumbling to himself as if he were dreaming."

"Really?" Adelia uttered in surprise. "That's great!"

"Yes, but I also have some bad news for you," he said glumly.

"What could possibly be wrong?" Adelia wondered.  "With my method, Marshal should theoretically be back to 100 percent in no time at all!"

"That's just it," Walker sighed. "Your method is theoretical, nothing more. There's a risk of causing more serious damage to Marshal's brain."

"How?" Adelia asked. "There shouldn't be any adverse effects with a simple memory trigger."

"We don't know how much of Marshal's memory has gone missing," Walker reminded Adelia. "The amount could be enormous. The strain of the rapid return of said memories could be too much for him to handle. He could die from this."

"But, Walker, with my Manafest, it really shouldn't be a problem," Adelia said.

"That's true," Walker conceded. "Your healing abilities really are astounding. Unfortunately, you simply don't have the power to do something as demanding as keeping Marshal's nervous system from getting severely damaged."

"What do you want me to do, then?" Adelia asked, getting irritated.

"There is one way, but it's an extremely slim chance," Walker said. "We could potentially amplify your power with the use of a Catalyst, but-"

"Serena is the only one in the world," Adelia finished.

"Exactly," Walker confirmed. "So for now, I want you to just keep Marshal stable until Vlad and the others return with Serena."

"Can I at least talk to him?" Adelia pleaded.

"As long as you don't trip the trigger," Walker said as he left the room. Adelia sighed and turned back to Marshal.

"All right, Marshal," Adelia said as if he could hear. "We'll have you all fixed up in no time, and we'll go kick Savage's butt!"

*      *      *

"We're coming in for a landing," Aurora told her teammates. "We're touching down in the middle of the rainforest, so brace yourselves."
   
"No need," Vlad said. "Just set us near the canopy."
   
"You're joking, right?" Tristan asked nervously. "We're not parachuting into the Amazon Rainforest. That's crazy!"
   
"You're right," Vlad admitted, showing Tristan a confident smirk, "but who said anything about parachutes?"
   
"That's even crazier!" Tristan shouted in disbelief. "I'm not doing that."
   
"Perfect," Chris said, stepping into the conversation. "You can stay up here with Aurora and do your little techie magic stuff."
   
"Sounds good to me," Vlad agreed. "Are the rest of you ready?" Everyone nodded, so Aurora lowered the helicopter's altitude just above the top layers of the Amazon. Vlad, Chris, Mia, and the Urbans stood on each side of the helicopter and leapt out and quickly disappeared into the treetops.
   
"They're going to get themselves killed doing stuff like that," Tristan grumbled as he settled into the copilot's seat and set up his tech.
   
"They'll be fine," Aurora smiled. "We'll have Serena back before you know it!"
   
"Right," Tristan agreed. "Hopefully the signal we have is accurate."
   
*      *      *

Mia managed to grab a vine hanging in the canopy and used it to swing over to a sturdy branch. She planted her feet gracefully onto the thick branch and watched as the Urban twins landed on the tree with an equal amount of grace.
   
"What happened to Vlad and Chris?" Ryder asked, looking around for their interim leaders.
   
"Maybe they didn't make the drop," Mia predicted. "They'll be alright, hopefully."

*      *      *

Chris and Vlad were alright. They had decided to skip the vines at the top of the canopy and instead rocketed down to the forest floor quickly and silently. They stomped down on the ground with great force, but were unharmed.
   
"That went...better than I expected," Chris admitted. He had only followed Vlad down to avoid being shown up by the big Russian, but realized what he was getting into about halfway down the fall. "How did we survive that?"
   
"These uniforms are made out of a special material Walker designed that manages to reduce forms of damage due to shock and stress," Vlad explained. "Anastasia was telling me about it a while back, but I hadn't really had a chance to test it out before now. I'm glad to see it works."
   
"You and me both, buddy," Chris assured him, chuckling a little.
   
"Anyway, we should gather the others and find out where Serena is," Vlad suggested. "Let's get ready to move out."

CHAPTER38: THE SEARCH IS OVER

Mia, Travis, and Ryder touched down on the forest floor with grace and stealth. Vlad and Chris walked over to them, grabbing their weapons from off their backs.

"Ready, everyone?" Vlad asked. Everyone nodded quietly, so Vlad went on. "The mission here is a standard search-and-rescue. Tristan will guide us to Serena from the helicopter, and we're going to find her and bring her back home with us. Let's keep casualties to a minimum; stealth is key on this one."

"Tristan, set us a waypoint," Chris ordered to his companion in the sky.

"Got it," Tristan buzzed back into everyone's HUDs. "It's on its way. On another note, would it kill you to say please?"

"No time for the sass, Kane," Chris said flatly. "We're heading out." In a matter of seconds, the waypoint appeared in the squad's views, about two kilometers away from their current position. It was labeled, "S. CARVER" in all caps. The five of them took off in the direction of the waypoint at a moderately slow pace.

*      *      *

Jack and Forrest had been leading their troops around the rainforest for hours. It didn't help that they had absolutely no idea where they were going. The only clue they had to go on was the Titan's Ankh, which was said to glow when it got near its destination.

"This sucks!" someone in the back of the large company complained.

"Like it or not, this is actually what you signed up for!" Jack snapped back. "You can't complain now!" They trekked through the forest until the Ankh finally started glowing.

"We've got something!" Jack barked. "Let's get moving, double-time!"

*      *      *

Vlad led the others in Serena's direction through the forest path when suddenly, the motion detectors on his HUD flooded with activity.

"Mia, give us cover, now!" he ordered. Mia quickly focused her mana while everyone gathered around her. The five of them immediately disappeared and got off of the path. They watched as a huge company of people marched briskly through the rough forest trail. Vlad quickly caught a glance of Jack Martin leading the troops from the front, holding what appeared to be the Titan's Ankh in his hands.

"Did everyone else see that?" Vlad asked. The others all nodded to confirm that they had.

"That must mean that they've found it," Ryder theorized glumly.

Mia dropped the camouflage around them. "I'll go tail them," she said. "You guys go find Serena." As she turned and got ready to vanish again, Travis walked up behind her and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Good idea," Ryder said, as if Travis had said something. "Take Travis with you and have him let me know what you figure out." Mia looked back at Travis, who smiled and tapped the side of his head to remind her of his telepathic link with his brother.

"Perfect," she smirked. "Let's go, Chatty Cathy. Try to keep up." The two of them instantly vanished, leaving Chris, Ryder, and Vlad. The three of them turned back in the direction of Serena's location.

*      *      *

Jack and Forrest stared in awe at the monolithic structure towering over them. It was so gigantic that it was amazing it had remained hidden for such a long time. The outer walls were decorated with ancient hieroglyphs, all seeming to depict a scene with what appeared to be the Sun. At the base of the structure, a carving in the wall looked as if it would fit the Titan's Ankh. Jack looked down at the ancient key in his hands and noticed that it was glowing with a white light brighter than anything he had ever seen.

"This is it," he breathed, hardly believing what he was seeing. He walked up slowly and placed the Titan's Ankh in the indent.

*      *      *

Mia and Travis were only a few feet away as Jack was beginning to open the door to the Titan Orb. Mia looked at Travis fearfully under the camouflage field. Travis nodded and closed his eyes to send Ryder the news.

*      *      *

Vlad and the others were just outside of Savage's jungle base when Ryder stopped in shock. "They found it," he gasped.

"Who found what?" Chris asked.

"Who and what do you think, clueless?" Ryder asked exasperatingly. "Jack and his group found the Titan Orb."
   
"We don't have much time, then!" Vlad cried. "There's no telling what could happen once Savage has the orb and Serena!"
   
"I could tell you," said a voice behind them. The three boys whipped around in surprise to see none other than Thomas Savage standing behind them, smiling.
   
"You!" Chris growled in rage. He let a primal scream loose and lunged for Savage, but he suddenly stopped and stared into the same deep blue eyes that had nearly gotten Marshal killed. Vlad's extremely acute vision began to blur, and Ryder found that he wasn't able to get ahold of Travis.
   
"Every time we meet, you're so rude," Savage commented. "I don't understand why we can't just be civil for once!"
   
"What do you want, Savage?" Vlad asked, squinting to try to get his enemy in focus.
   
"Nothing," Savage admitted, obviously lying. "I'm just waiting here for the Titan Orb so I can start my scheduled demolition of the world."
   
"What are you talking about?" Chris drawled, almost ready to pass out.
   
"Well, what else is one supposed to do with an artifact of such great power?" Savage asked rhetorically. "We'll start in London, and once we finish off Europe, we'll move on to the rest of the world. Then, when it's all over, I'll use the orb to remake the world and become a god!"
   
"You're crazy," Chris slurred, stumbling. "Serena would never help you do that."
   
"You're right," Savage said, shrugging his shoulders. "She's about as stubborn and pig-headed as the rest of you. Unfortunately for her, though, I have my methods of getting what I want, and what I want isn't her. It's her power."
   
Ryder, piecing it all together, gasped in surprise. "You want to steal her mana and gain her Catalyst power? That's insane! You could kill her!"
   
"That's not my problem, now, is it?" Savage grinned. He gave a laugh of pure insanity as he brushed past the three of them and back into his compound. Chris, Vlad, and Ryder all collapsed under the stress of Savage's powers.

CHAPTER39: CHAOS UNLEASHED

Jack uncovered his eyes after the blinding light in front of him had died down to tolerable levels. He looked inside to see a simple black ball, no bigger than a basketball, sitting on a stone pedestal in the center of an empty room. The ball had a strange pattern on it that Jack could've sworn he'd seen before, but he just couldn't place it.

"I-is this it?" Forrest stammered, cowering behind Jack in fear. Not even bothering to acknowledge his partner's presence as usual, Jack stepped slowly into the dark room. With each step he took, his heart began to beat faster and faster until he was right on top of the pedestal and each beat of his heart felt like it shook his whole body.

"Incredible," he murmured, gaping in awe at the orb. He gingerly grabbed it and slowly lifted it up. When he had it firmly in his grasp and off the pedestal, the pedestal slowly sank down perfectly into the floor. There were a few seconds of terrifying silence, and then the whole structure began to quake. The patterns on the wall lit up, and all Jack noticed were the patterns that seemed to resemble creatures of some sort. They slowly seemed to almost be coming out of the walls. Suddenly, the whole temple exploded in a beacon of light that could be seen for thousands of miles.

*        *      *

Walker went outside for a breath of fresh air. Along with constantly checking with Adelia on Marshal's condition, he had been working almost non-stop trying to keep the task force from falling completely off the rails.

He sighed and muttered to himself, "Man, could things get any worse?" As he finished the word, "worse," a brilliant light shot up into the sky like a rocket. Walker just stared at it for a moment and sighed.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered. "Why do I even bother sometimes?" He turned and ran back into the compound to get his troops mobilized.

*        *      *

"Jack!" Forrest cried as the stone temple collapsed into rubble. A huge cloud of dust obscured everyone's view. When the dust finally settled, Jack stood in front of the rubble, holding the Titan Orb in his hands. He looked dazed, as if he had been hit by a school bus. He shook it off and smirked at Forrest.

"We've got it," he said, laughing in disbelief. "It's finally over!"

"Hooray!" Forrest cheered. The other useless troops joined in the celebration until they quickly stopped, noticing something moving in the rubble behind Jack. The figure managed to get out from underneath the rubble, and they all looked upon it in horror. It was a creature identically similar to the Axex monster that guarded the Titan's Ankh in Egypt. Unfortunately, that was only one of their problems.

*        *      *

Tristan fidgeted in the helicopter, trying to make contact with the rest of the squad. "No one's responding!" he cried.

"We can't land right now!" Aurora reminded him. "If I do, we run the risk of losing the helicopter!"

Tristan looked out of the window and gasped in shock. "Look out there!" Aurora looked where Tristan was pointing and saw an enormous swarm of strange creatures leaping and flying out over the canopy.

"What's going on?" Aurora wondered. "First that weird light and now this?

*        *      *

Mia grabbed Travis by the wrist and sprinted away from the creatures swooping down onto the Savage Corporation troops. The two of them took off toward Vlad's location. When they were a safe distance away, Mia dropped the camouflage and stopped to catch her breath. She got on her communicator and pinged Tristan.

"Mia!" Tristan garbled through the line. "What's going on down there?"

"Jack has the orb," she told him, panting. "Somehow taking it out of its resting place released all those...things!"

"Are the others with you?" Tristan asked.

"No," Mia replied quickly. "They went to rescue Serena. Travis and I were sent to see what Jack was doing."

"Well, the others aren't showing up on radar for some reason," Tristan told her. "You should go find them and get them out of there."

Mia looked over at Travis, who nodded grimly. "Got it," Mia acknowledged. She closed communications with Tristan and ran through the last stretch of forest before the compound.

*        *      *

Chris opened his eyes groggily and groaned. He stumbled to his feet and immediately felt a wave of nausea pass over him. He fought the urge to vomit and tried to focus on the figures sprinting up at him. Before he could even catch up, Mia was right in front of him assaulting him with questions.

"What happened to you guys?" she asked. "Where's Serena? Why couldn't Travis reach Ryder?"

Chris wobbled around dizzily and attempted to tell Mia what had happened, but it only came out as an incoherent mess. Ryder and Vlad were just waking up, and Travis rushed to his brother's side. After shaking his head vigorously and waking himself up, Ryder nodded at Travis and looked to Mia.

"Savage ambushed us," he recalled, rubbing his temples. "He cancelled out our powers somehow. Then we must've blacked out or something."

"Come on," Mia said, helping Vlad onto his feet. "We've gotta get Serena and get out of here. Jack has the Titan Orb."

"That's right," said a voice from the door. Everyone spun around and drew their weapons on Jack Martin, who raised his hands above his head. Everyone immediately noticed the pulsating orb in his left hand. Something about the orb caught Chris' attention and woke him up immediately.

"That pattern!" he gasped. "It's the same as the one on Serena's arm!"

"Interesting," Jack smirked. He disappeared in a quick flash of light. A few seconds later, he reappeared, clutching Serena's wrist with a death grip. "You mean this pattern?"

Serena looked panicked. She met Chris' gaze and her face lit up a little bit. "Chris!" she cried.

"Serena!" Chris cried back. He lunged to take out Jack but was stopped by a ruthless punch to the gut from what appeared to be a giant gorilla. Chris, getting angry and gaining his strength back, gave out one of his signature primordial screams. The gorilla got angry as well and charged at Chris, eager to start round two.

"You're right, Harley," Jack said, not even paying attention to the deathmatch between Chris and the gorilla. "These patterns are identical. Thanks for confirming that! Now, we have to go. Have fun with the creatures we unleashed! Come on, Forrest, we're leaving." The gorilla suddenly stopped attacking. It lumbered back to Jack, and suddenly morphed into a familiar looking boy, staring at Chris with horror.

"That's the shapeshifting kid from New Orleans!" Mia remembered. As soon as everyone was distracted with remembering Forrest, Thomas Savage walked out the front door of the compound.

"Excellent work, you two," he said, congratulating Jack and Forrest. "Let's move on, shall we?"

"Stop!" Vlad shouted, grabbing his rifle and firing a shot straight at Savage. Unfortunately, before the bullet reached him, Jack managed to teleport the four of them away and the bullet simply left a hole in the door of the compound.

"Damn!" Chris swore. "We lost her again!" He punched the ground in rage.

"No time to be worried about that now," Mia warned. "We've got bigger problems heading our way!" Right on cue, a huge swarm of monsters resembling the Egyptian Axex circled them.

"We've got to go, now!" Vlad said, pinging Tristan as he started firing shots at the surrounding creatures.

*        *      *

"Kane, Kaiser, we need an extraction, now!" Vlad barked over the 12HUD's communicator.

"There are too many hostiles, and it's impossible to find a clear LZ!" Aurora replied hurriedly. "You're going to have to get back up to the canopy somehow!"

"Wait a minute," Tristan said, glancing at the radar. "There's something coming our direction. One, two, three...nine dots. All friendly!"

"Walker must know something's up," Vlad guessed. Suddenly, another transmission cut in.

"Squad Four, this is Squad One AI unit Xenon," said the oddly human-sounding artificial intelligence program. "We have heard your need for an immediate evac and are here to help."

"We've got this!" Karly interrupted brashly. "You go get Serena back!"

"Thanks, everyone!" Aurora said, grinning.

*        *      *

"That's great, guys, but could you PLEASE get us out of here?" Mia cried. Right on cue, heave fire rang out above Mia and the others, taking out a chunk of the attacking monsters.

"There's an opening!" Vlad shouted, looking over where the enemies had been downed. There was a tree that could be easily climbed straight up into the canopy. Vlad immediately took off for the exit route and everyone else quickly followed. The five of them scrambled up to the top of the canopy, where Aurora and Tristan were waiting for them with the helicopter. Everyone piled in, and they took off away from the Amazon.

"I've picked up Serena's signal again," Tristan said. "She's been moved to London."

"How did they get there so quickly?" Ryder wondered.

"Jack's abilities must be amplified by the orb," Aurora guessed. "We have to get to London before things get ugly."

"This isn't exactly going to get us halfway across the world in time," Chris said, knocking on the body of the helicopter.

Aurora smiled as she pushed a button in the cockpit. "Buckle up."

CHAPTER40: PLEAS

Adelia woke up from another session of talking to Marshal. She was certain that she knew what event in Marshal's mind would be the trigger to gaining his memory back, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him about it. Besides, she thought, maybe this could be a good thing. Maybe we can just put all of this nonsense with Ankhs and Orbs behind us and just start over. She realized what she was considering and immediately shook her head. How could she be so stupid? Her friends still needed both her and Marshal to help them finish what they had started. She got up from Marshal's bedside and walked out of the infirmary. It was eerily quiet, not a soul was out and about in the compound. Adelia crept cautiously to Walker's office and opened the door. Inside, she found Walker sitting at his desk, staying as busy as always, blissfully unaware of the fact that the compound was completely empty.

"Um...Walker?" Adelia said timidly.

The commander gave out a yelp and jumped several inches off of his chair. He looked up at Adelia in wide-eyed surprise, but when he realized who it was, his expression softened. "Oh, Adelia. Forgive me, but I've been a little on edge today. How is Marshal doing?"

"He's stable, at least," Adelia reported. "Where is everyone?"

"Right now, the rest of the task force is currently neutralizing a threat in the Amazon that emerged after Savage managed to get his hands on the Titan Orb," Walker explained. "According to the most recent reports, he's escaped to London with both the orb as well as Serena."

"What's he going to do?" Serena asked, even though she knew that Walker would likely be just as clueless as she was.

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Walker admitted. "With the Titan Orb, Savage is literally capable of anything. Our only hope of stopping him now is to get Serena back before he can..." Walker suddenly stopped, looking pained.

"Before he can what?" Adelia asked, trying to get Walker to finish his sentence.

"Before he can drain all of her mana."

*        *      *

Serena woke up again on another table. This time, she found that her entire left arm was connected to some sort of machine through a series of tubes. She didn't want to know how all of the tubes managed to fit inside her arm; it felt very weird. As she surveyed the room, she saw that it was extremely similar to the one that she had been in before. The door opened and Thomas Savage walked in with a smug grin on his face.

"Hello again, Ms. Carver," he sneered, his voice dripping with dangerously toxic amounts of sarcasm. "Nice to see you again. I'm terribly sorry for the sudden change in location."

"I'm sure you are," Serena huffed.

"Silence," Savage commanded. "If you'll be so kind as to listen to me, I'll explain just how much trouble you're in at the moment."

"Fine," Serena sighed. "I'll bite."

"Well, it's not like you have a choice," he admitted. "In any case, I assume you have an understanding of the concept of mana?"

"Yep," Serena said flatly.

"Well, good," Savage said, giving her a fake smile. "Anyway, after some quick research on the Titan Orb, we've found that it only responds to a particular type of mana."

"Mine," Serena finished for him.

"The pattern on your arm proves it," Savage continued. "Now, there is still a problem in all of this. You seem to be unwilling to cooperate with me, and the orb will only do what I want with your mana powering it."

"Then I guess you're done for," Serena chuckled.

"Not quite," Savage smirked. "If you won't lend me your mana, then I suppose I'll just have to take it for myself. I've been preparing for such an event. I've had a very nice test subject helping me through this time." He walked over to a tube on the other side of the room and pressed a button on the base. Suddenly, the tank lit up, and Serena gasped at what she saw inside.

*        *      *

Marshal was getting better at staying aware of himself even while Adelia wasn't there to talk to him. He thought about everything that Adelia had told him; who he was, where he lived, what he could do, and other things. He was even starting to remember some of it, but no matter how much he thought about it, he simply couldn't figure out how he had ended up like this. Eventually, his head began to hurt, so he quietly pleaded for Adelia's help as he drifted back into his deep sleep.

*        *      *

"Can he even do that?" Adelia asked. "I thought mana was exclusive to each person. That's why Serena's the only Catalyst in existence."

"There's nothing saying Savage isn't going to try to get it." Walker said, reminding her of Savage's unethical methods. "He has a way of getting what he wants."

"This is so dangerous for both of them, though!" Adelia cried. "Mana is still just being discovered; there's so much we still don't know about it. Savage could not only kill Serena, but himself as well!"

"He does whatever he deems necessary," Walker restated.

"So what do we do?" Adelia asked.

"You're going to stay here," Walker said, standing up from his desk. "Be ready for everyone to come back, Serena included. As soon as we get back, we'll get Marshal back up to strength and hit Savage right back."

"Understood," Adelia said, giving a grin as she left the office.

CHAPTER41: CATALYST

"Daniel Layton, in the flesh," Savage said, grinning evilly. "Still alive. Still awake, but just barely. He's been a fantastic subject for my quick studies on mana. Thanks to him, I'm finally ready to complete my plan."

"You're bluffing," Serena said, but she was getting less and less sure.

"You'd like to believe that," Savage presumed. "I can't blame you. I assure you, though, Mr. Layton here has provided me with sufficient data on mana. I managed to successfully remove his mana and implant it into several cells. These cells quickly grew to become clones of Daniel Layton." He walked over to a screen and brought up a camera feed of a strange room. Serena gaped in wide-eyed horror as she stared at literally thousands of clones of Daniel lying out on lab tables.

"This method has been a total success," Savage reported. "So therefore, I can infer that your mana works the same way."

Serena's breath and heartbeat sped up rapidly as she realized just how real the danger she was in actually was. She tried to find a witty retort to regain mental control of the situation, but was mortified when nothing came to her.

"I see you are done talking," Savage said smugly. "I won't waste any more time." He sat down at a chair across from Serena and inserted some tubes into the veins in his arm.

"Say good bye to your mana."

*      *      *

Aurora pushed the button in the cockpit and the aircraft morphed back into a helicopter. In the back, everyone had lurched forward and fell onto the floor due to the sudden change in speed.

"What the heck was that?" Ryder asked.

"That was the helicopter's jet mode," Aurora confessed. "Walker showed me that feature before we left. I figured now would be as good a time as any to test it out."

"Well, it worked," Tristan confirmed. "Serena is right below us in that building."

"Good," Vlad said. "Now we just have to—wait, Chris what are you doing?" Everyone turned just in time to see Chris leap out of the helicopter toward the skyscraper below. He brought his fist back and roared with anger as he plummeted for the imposing structure. Suddenly, he seemed to glow with a fiery aura as he brought his fist down upon the roof. When he made contact, a huge hole was blasted in the roof, and Chris disappeared in the resulting dust cloud. Aurora brought the helicopter down to a safe spot on the roof and capsulized it when everyone had gotten out.

"Well, is anyone honestly surprised?" Mia asked. Everyone shook their heads in response and made their way into the building.

*        *      *

Jack and Forrest walked into the room to find Savage and Serena sitting in the machine Savage's scientists had designed. The transfer of mana was almost halfway complete, and Serena looked to be slowly wasting away. She was visibly losing weight and her dirty blonde hair became brittle and white. Savage, on the other hand, was experiencing the opposite. His slightly thinning hair quickly grew thick once more, and he was rapidly putting on muscle mass.

"This is just weird," Forrest squeaked, trembling. "Just give him the orb and let's get out of here!"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack shrugged, not paying attention to Forrest's complaints as usual. "This guy owes me some answers." He walked over to Savage and slammed the Titan Orb down next to Savage, who opened his eyes calmly and turned to face Jack.

"Thank you," Savage said. Jack noticed a deeper, heartier tone to Savage's voice as he spoke. "You're dismissed."

"I don't think so," Jack spat. "You're going to tell me where my parents and sister are."

Savage looked at Jack for a while, and then he smiled. "You mean you still haven't figured it out yet?"

"I know you have them," Jack growled.

"Then you're a little smarter than I give you credit for," Savage said. "Well, you've figured it out. I have your parents, along with your dear sister, Molly. Unfortunately, I can't tell you where they are yet. I still require your services."

"I'm not lifting a finger for you until you let my family go!" Jack exclaimed. "I held up my end of the bargain, Tom. I got you the Titan Orb. Now it's your turn."

Savage blinked a few times, and then guffawed in front of Jack. "You have no idea how this works, do you? You're not in any position to demand things from me."

Enraged, Jack unveiled his claws and raced over to Serena's side of the room. With one quick slice, he severed the entire mass of tubes draining Serena's mana away. Mortified, Savage quickly turned to find that the transfer had not been fully completed; he had only received 60 percent of the Catalyst's mana.

"Insubordinate swine!" he roared, shooting up out of his chair and grabbing the Titan Orb. "No one crosses Thomas Savage and gets away unscathed!"

Just then, the door behind them suddenly crumpled and flew to the opposite wall. Savage whipped around to find Chris and the others standing at the entrance. Forrest had morphed into a fly and flew away as quickly as possible.

"Serena!" Chris cried, seeing his other half in her diminished state lying on the table. When she heard her name, she got up slowly and murmured groggily, weakened from losing over half of her mana.

"Seriously?" Savage bellowed. "You people always have the worst timing! Do not interfere with my business!"

"They're not the ones you have to worry about!" Jack reminded him. He charged Savage, claws outstretched, but for once, he was too slow. Savage turned around and jabbed a needle straight into his heart. He quickly hooked himself back up to the mana transfer machine and turned it on at maximum output. In an instant, Jack crumpled to the ground, having suddenly lost all of his energy.

"There," Savage said, removing himself from the machine. "Thank you for your service, Jack Martin. You are hereby discharged."

"Jack!" Serena cried, suddenly awake. She got out of Chris' arms and stumbled over to Jack's side.

"Serena," Jack groaned weakly. "I'm sorry. I've done some terrible things to you and your friends. I've deceived you all this time. I only did what Savage asked me to do because he's been holding my family hostage."

"That's why you left us, isn't it?" Chris asked.

"Yes," Jack coughed. "I couldn't save them by fighting Savage. I had to convince him to give them back to me. I was a terrible person to all of you, even Forrest, who was only trying to help me." Just then, Forrest morphed back into his normal form and knelt down at Jack's side.

"Jack!" he cried, holding back tears. "I thought we were partners! What kind of partner dies like this?"

"A pretty shitty one," Jack said, managing to chuckle a little bit. "I'm not asking any of you to forgive me, but I do have one last wish."

"What is it?" Serena asked, tears forming in her eyes.

"Save my parents and my sister," Jack grunted, his voice breaking as his eyes began to glaze over. "Tell them that I love them, and tell them I'm sorry that I failed them. Can you please do that for me?"

"Consider it done," Vlad assured him, unsure if he was telling the truth.

"Oh, good," Jack said, managing a smile. "Thank you." He closed his eyes for the last time, smiling with his mind finally at ease.

"Honestly," Savage muttered. "I fail to see the need for so much drama. It's not like I was going to leave him alive long enough to give him his family back."

"You're a monster," Forrest growled.

"Who are you to judge me?" Savage asked. "You're nothing but a lonely little freak who can't even decide what species he is! I only allowed you to join me so I could study your power! You were supposed to die before Jack." Forrest hung his head in sorrow.

"Leave him alone!" Chris yelled.

"Don't even get me started on you, 'berserker'," Savage hissed. "You are not so innocent, yourself. You've murdered just as indiscriminately as I have. As soon as you get angry, you commit a mass genocide of my work force. Who is truly the monster here?"

Chris fell silent, pondering what Savage had just asked him. In that moment, Savage grabbed the Titan Orb. Vlad immediately drew his rifle and fired at Savage, but he suddenly teleported out of the way.

"It's no use," Savage chuckled. "With Jack's power, I'm virtually untouchable. Now, it's time to say farewell as I use the power of this orb to wipe out the planet!" He focused Serena's stolen mana into the Titan Orb, which began to shake violently and glow with a sinister purple light. Then he grinned evilly at Squad Four as he disappeared in a flash.

"This is a problem!" Ryder cried.

"We have to get out, now!" Aurora shouted.

Without warning, Vlad shot out a nearby window and jumped out into the London skyline. The others quickly followed, with Chris bringing up the rear while carrying Serena. Forrest collected Jack's body and quickly followed suit. The nine of them crashed out to find nothing but an eighty story drop below them.

"Whose bright idea was this?!" Tristan screamed.

"Aurora, get the helicopter out!" Vlad ordered quickly.

"There's no time!" she shouted back. "I can't get in the helicopter and start it while it's in the air!"

Vlad stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. "Well, it appears we're doomed then."

"Don't say that yet, ladies and gents!" said a voice on their communicators. Everyone looked around and saw a jet screaming towards them, with Walker in the cockpit.

"Walker!" Mia shouted, excited that she was going to live.

"Get in, everyone!" Walker shouted, positioning the jet so all of them could skydive right into the back. Everyone managed to make it in undamaged, much to their collective relief.

"How did you know we were here?" Vlad asked him.

"No time for that!" Walker shouted. "We've got to move, now!" Walker turned the jet around and shot off into the horizon at Mach speed. The members of Squad Four and Forrest looked back at the building they were in and watched as it suddenly erupted in an explosion of nuclear proportions. Within seconds, the city of London was completely decimated.

"I can't believe Savage just murdered all of those people," Serena whispered in terrified awe.

"Not to worry," Walker said. "I took precautions before I arrived, since I figured out what Savage was trying to do. Hopefully, everyone was able to evacuate in time and avoid casualties. Luckily, the family of one of my finest members lives in the area."

"My parents!" Aurora suddenly realized. "They're alright, then?"

"As far as I know, they should be safe," Walker assured her. "I don't know where else they can go at this point, though."

"We have to stop him before any more people die!" Forrest shouted, still holding on to the body of his only comrade.

"We will," Mia said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "Will you help us, too?"

"You won't throw me in the Pit?" Forrest asked, unsure. "You won't call me a freak?"

"Of course not," Mia assured him. "You're definitely not a freak. You have an amazing ability!"

Forrest stared at her, wide-eyed, and began to sob. "Thank you! Thank you so much! I promise I will do my best to help you all!"

"Forrest Albinson, right?" Walker guessed, looking back from the cockpit. Forrest nodded. "I've never been one to trust deserters, but your bravery today in the face of death has convinced me. Help us avenge Jack and defeat Savage."

"Yes, sir!" Forrest agreed, saluting awkwardly. Squad Four smiled as Walker's jet sped off to the compound, where Adelia was waiting.

CHAPTER42: RETURN

A quick jet ride later, Walker had led Squad Four back to the compound and rushed them all to Marshal's room in the infirmary, where Adelia waited. She turned to see them, and a huge grin popped onto her face when she saw Serena alive and well.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said to Serena, trying not to tear up.

"I've been better," Serena admitted, feeling her hair which had turned white after losing her mana. "Walker told me what we need to do to save Marshal. Savage may have taken over half of my mana, but I think I can still help you."

"Good," Adelia said. "Come over here and place your hands on top of mine." Serena did as instructed while Adelia focused her mana into Marshal as she had done before, causing her consciousness to flow into Marshal's. Serena focused on keeping Adelia's mana stable while she was inside Marshal's mind.

*          *          *

Marshal watched as Adelia appeared in front of him. He smiled, happy to be able to see her again.

"Hey, Adelia," he smiled. "It's nice to see you again."

"Same to you," Adelia said, smiling back. "I've got some good news! I figured out what it is I need to do to get all of your memories back."

"That is great news," Marshal agreed. "I was starting to get bored in this empty space."

"There's one problem, though," Adelia admitted. "I'm not sure how to present this to you without it being weird."

"After all you've told me, I don't think anything could get much weirder," Marshal told her, chuckling a little.

Adelia laughed as she walked toward Marshal. "Promise you won't freak out?"

"Promise," Marshal told her. He was suddenly surprised when Adelia got up close to him and kissed him on the lips. When Adelia backed away, Marshal slowly opened his eyes and smiled at Adelia.

"So?" Adelia asked. "Do you remember?"

"I think so," Marshal answered. "Does this mean we're back together?"

"If you promise not to go crazy again," Adelia said, grinning. "Now, it's time for you to wake up. Everyone's waiting for you." She disappeared again, and Marshal smiled as he closed his eyes again.

*          *          *

Adelia woke up and looked over at Serena, who was still covering her hands. Serena looked over at her with a look of concern.

"Is he alright?" she asked.

"I think so," Adelia said, blushing. "The trigger seemed to work. Now we need to see if he'll wake up."

They didn't have to wait long. Marshal opened his eyes and looked around at everyone as if nothing had ever happened.

"Hey, guys," he said, smiling cheerfully. "Did you all come out just for little old me?" Everyone smiled simultaneously and crowded around Marshal in a big, awkward, group hug.

"Good to have you back, Marshal," Vlad said, showing a rare smile.

"Are you feeling okay?" Mia asked.

"I'm just fine," Marshal assured them. "I've got a slight headache, but that's to be expected, I guess."

Adelia laughed. "You're such a goof, you know that?"

"Yeah, I guess," Marshal admitted. "But at least I'm your goof."

"Touching reunion, guys," Walker said quickly, "but we still have a problem. Savage is still out there destroying the world, and if we don't get out there and stop it, we'll be in for even more trouble than last time."

"We also have a promise to keep," Serena said to Marshal and Adelia. "We lost someone in our last battle."

"That can't be right," Marshal said, confused. "Everyone's here. I did a head count. In fact, it looks like we have an extra." He looked directly at Forrest, who stared back at him as if he were trying to initiate a contest.

"Squad Four is present and accounted for, as well as the addition of Forrest Albinson," Walker remarked. "However, a certain traitor who redeemed himself in his final moments was unable to make it back with us."

Marshal contemplated what Walker had said for a moment, and finally pieced it together. "Jack is dead?"

Everyone nodded in solemn silence.

"He stopped Savage from getting all of my mana," Serena said, "but Savage got angry and drained away all of his mana. He asked us to save his family for him before he died."

Marshal sat quietly for a moment before getting up out of bed. "I can't believe that cocky shit got himself killed before we had a chance to fight one more time. Hardly seems fair to me."

"Marshal," Adelia said, looking concerned.

"The fact remains, though," Marshal went on, "that Jack Martin sacrificed himself to save Serena, and also save me because of that. I owe my life to Jack, whether or not I'd like to admit it. The least I can do is fulfill his last wishes."

"So?" Walker said, trying to wrap his speech up. "What do you plan to do?"

"It's time I met with Savage again," Marshal announced, looking at his swords resting on the wall. "It's time we end this once and for all."