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Chapter 4 â€" Surprise Surprise, another Apparent Suicidal Mission

The sun was just beginning to set as Skye and Ryan slipped from their cloaked prowler and onto the surface of the planet. The planet was part of Earth's outer colonies, yet it still was jam packed with rebels and others who would rather do their own thing, Skye and Ryan's mission was to infiltrate a facility and collect something of great importance.

"Skye, did the commissioner tell us exactly what we're looking for?" Ryan asked.

"No, but judging on his previous mission logs for this area, it's not pretty," Skye replied.

"Wait, what mission logs?" Ryan asked, "He never showed me any."

"He didn't show me these either, I had Becka, acquire these from their data base." Skye said making quotation marks with his hands.

"Why what's been happening?" Ryan asked inquisitively.

"Well he wanted something from this factory, I'm not sure what, but so far from what I can tell, there something or someone inside whose been killing off his men." Skye explained, "And it's our job to figure out what and stop them."

"Great, another dog mission to add to our resume," Ryan sighed.

"Well it's not like agreeing to stay on board with them was a bad idea, they probably would have come after us if we just jumped on our ship and left." Skye retorted.

"Yeah, that's true." Ryan thought inwardly.

"Is that the factory?" Ryan asked, his enhanced vision allowing him to see the kilometre distance between them.

"Yeah, it's a deserted Draconian ship yard, they had one on this planet a while ago, but we shut it down," Skye said, sending him the records.

"So why would he send us to this planet? If it's shut down, there isn't any need for his men to be sent here... unless he's after something that could have survived the tactical nuke." Ryan asked.

"I don't know, it's gotta be something important to him," Skye replied, "after all he did send us."

"Yeah, that's what kind of worries me!" Skye replied.

Ryan's froze, pushing his closed fist into the air.

"What is it," Skye thought to him.

"Not sure, I just heard something ahead of us, fifty meters," Ryan motioned ahead.

"Got it, you have your powers primed?" Skye asked.

"Don't I always?" Ryan muttered to himself.

The two boys stuck to the shadows, Skye using his matter shield to hide their movement.

"There!" Ryan pointed to a small clearing to the side of the factory, "Inside."

The two quickly darted shadow to shadow, hiding in the shade of the large singed trees above them.

They walked into the clearing, looking around, "I can't see it," Skye commented.

"It's here somewhere!" Ryan replied, looking around frantically.

There was a quick flash in front of the two, followed by a blast of purple energy slamming into Skye.

"You okay?" Ryan asked, as he scanned the area, looking for the energy's source.

"Yeah," Skye said standing up, there was a massive burnt hole in his augmented armour, his burnt chest healing over, "But whatever it is, it's powerful."

Skye heard the energy charge, "look out!" He called to Ryan, shoving him out of the blasts way.

"This is bad," Ryan said, "We can't fight something we can't see!"

"Kick up some dirt, maybe it will coat his armour." Skye suggested.

Together they both sprouted their wings, white on Skye and mid-night blue on Ryan and began flapping, kicking up dirt in the clearing.

The wind from their wings pushed the dirt over the clearing, filling the air, and for a split second the dust seemed to settle on a figure like shape.

Skye shot a bright white flame at the area he suspected the enemy to be, what evidently missed , the shape quickly vanished again.

"We gotta go, we're just going to tire ourselves out and then they will gain a huge advantage." Skye ordered.

"Where are we falling back to?" Ryan asked.

Skye gulped, and glanced at Ryan, "The factory."

Skye and Ryan walked into an opening in the side of factory, carefully walking around anything that could make a lot of noise.

"This place is really, really, creepy!" Ryan thought.

Skye reached over and took his brothers hand, squeezing it tight, they walked into another room.

"This machinery is new!" Skye whispered, "And it's defiantly not Draconian."

"Well then who built it, it doesn't even appear to be ancient either." Ryan commented.

"Well somebody built it," Skye said walking over to one of the machines.

"Skye!" Ryan shouted.

Skye jumped back just in time to miss another blast of purple energy.

"Go," he yelled to Ryan.

Both boys ran into the corridors that surrounded the room, they took off running at their best speeds, streaking across doorways, down sub-levels and into another dark room, their rest point.

"Where are we?" Ryan asked his holographic map flickering in the darkness.

"I don't know it's not on the map!" Skye pointed to their current spot on the map which was blinking red.

"What are these things, they're invisible, and I can't exactly fight something I can't see." Ryan stammered.

"Let's call the commissioner and ask for some tech re-enforcements, maybe they can help us figure it out." Skye suggested, keying his com.

The sound of static filled both Ryan and Skye's com, the line was dead.

"Well now, that can't be good." Ryan half laughed.

"We're fine, we can at least heal quickly enough they can't hurt us." Skye optimized.

"Yeah, until we get tired and can't support our powers to do that anymore," Ryan grimaced.

"That's not going to happen, we're fine." Skye

"Skye but look at you, your augmented armour vaporized, your chest plate is gone, you might as well be wearing no shirt at all, if you take another hit, its going to be a big strain on your body to heal." Ryan whined.

"Ryan," Skye put his hand on his brother thigh, looking into his green eyes, "nothing is going to happen we're going to work this out." Skye replied.

As soon as Skye had finished saying this, there was a loud pop, the wall in front of them vaporized into a plume of purple light.

"Looks, like they found us," Skye said, standing up, he ran forwards, thrusting his palm out, expecting his fire to blast forwards, but nothing.

"What the?" Skye thought, trying to use his power again, any power, nothing was working.

"Ryan, look out!" Skye said, noticing a small purple energy ball forming.

Ryan extended his hand, trying to harden his molecules with his ability, but nothing happened, the smaller change impacted on Ryan's chest plate, shattering it, and burning his smooth skin beneath.

"Ryan!" Skye shouted, rushing over to him.

Skye got about ten feet away from his brother when he ran right into a barrier; he collapsed to the ground, his nose bleeding.

"Ryan, I'm coming!" Skye stated, standing up, the blood flow stopping and he tried to push through the wall, but to no avail.

Whoever it was, picked up Ryan, his prone body was lifted into the air, tossed over what Skye imagined to be someone's shoulder, and then he too disappeared into nothing.

"Ryan!" Skye shouted, trying again to shoot a burst of flames into the wall, but nothing happened.

Skye stood, running from the room, he ran down the many corridors, trying to find an alternative pathway to the other side of the wall.

As he ran he spotted something, it looked like a small computer, clearly it was Draconian, but yet it had several feeds from the foreign systems wired into it, it displayed an energy reading, "It must control the force fields." Skye thought, as he typed some commands into the system, trying to figure out what exactly he needed to do to get to the area where Ryan might be.

There it was, as clear as day, even spelled out in English across the screen read, barrier control. Skye clicked on it and began scanning the data flowing across the screen. There was a map indicating where the power generators were for each barrier was located and after finding the correct wall raced to find it, however after he had left, the control panel's language reverted back to Draconian.

Skye raced through the hall ways, searching for the location indicated by his map, he scanned countless routes, memorizing the escape pattern he could use if he needed to, when he saw what he was looking for.

The panel was a bright box, shimmering an almost iridescent blue colour, the displays showing barriers around the facility.

Skye reached down, picking out the shut-down command, and pressing it with his finger. There was a loud hissing sound, something was wrong, Skye turned to leave but realized that two visible barriers had risen, sealing him within the corridor, he was trapped.

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Chapter 4

Skye couldn't believe he had been so stupid, he walked right into a trap, without even considering this outcome.

From beyond the barrier, Skye could see his assailants, they were still camouflaged, but for some reason Skye was getting a lot better at seeing them.

"Who are you?" he demanded, however, there was no response.

"Answer me!" Skye shouted.

There was a flicker of static forming around a humanoid shape, then their camouflage disappeared causing Skye to let a small squeak escape his voice.

In front of him, stood two boys, probably about thirteen years old, one was wearing a pair of turquoise briefs and a t-shirt, the other wearing a black t-shirt with a white long sleeve underneath and black jeans, the clothes were tattered and worn.

Skye also noticed that each boy was wearing a collar around their neck, a bright purple crystal was securely attached to the brass, it pulsed with light.

"You're just kids!" Skye sighed.

The two boys looked at each other, then walked closer to Skye, the apparent elder of the two had a small dagger in his hands, the other looked more shy and quiet.

"What are you guys doing down here, this place isn't safe for you." Skye said, trying to avoid any concern about the knife, powers or not, he was pretty sure he could over power these two in combat skills alone.

"Do you guys ever talk?" he asked them.

They looked at him, walking closer and closer, as they got near Skye felt a weird sensation wash over him, it was like he was being coerced to do something, he couldn't tell what.

Once the two were right in front of Skye they froze, the older one falling to his knees, Skye walked over to see if he was all right, despite the situation, he had to do something, it was his build.

Skye got a good look at the two boys, the younger one had a mop of brown hair, cut in an almost boy toy look, which went well with his bright hazel eyes. The eldest had blondish hair, with blue eyes; he wore it to his eyebrows with a slight trimmed look running the side of his hair.

Skye asked the boy again, "are you okay?" he didn't reply only he now looked like he was experiencing great pain.

Skye slid to his knees, looking at the younger on, "why is it your powers work and mine don't." Skye thought.

"Because that is our power, we can stop other's powers once they get close enough to us." The older boy thought.

"Wait, you can talk telepathically too? I thought..." Skye froze.

"What were you going to say?" A deep voice echoes from behind Skye, but before he could turn around, a large hand wrapped itself around Skye's neck and shoulder, squeezing extremely tight.

"I was going to say that I thought only I could do that..." Skye lied.

"Tell me the truth boy!" he spat squeezing Skye's shoulder tighter, Skye could actually feel his arm go numb as the blood flow was cut off to it.

"Where's Ryan!" Skye demanded.

"Who is that?" the man asked.

"My brother!" Skye snarled, "You had them take him away from me!"

"What did you two do?" the man shouted, "I didn't see you take anyone."

Both boys looked terrified, they froze, the younger one grasping his abdomen, where the hint of a bruise still remained.

"When did this occur?" the man asked Skye.

"Never mind just let me go!" Skye shouted, his powers flaring inside him, small electric currents jumped across his body as he tapped into Ryan's abilities.

"How can you use your powers, their ability," The man boomed.

"Isn't fully developed yet, they can only hold my powers back so long." Skye struggled, loosening the grip the man had on him.

"Oh yeah well feel my powers!" the man laughed, his grip intensified, "listen to me!" he said.

Skye could feel that presence in his mind once more, urging him to listen.

"Get out of my head!" Skye shouted.

"That was quick, usually people take a few minutes to realize what my ability is." He taunted.

"What level is your powers rated at, you're defiantly too strong to be a level four like these two weaklings." He asked, his power pushing Skye to answer.

"Leave them alone, they never did anything to you!" Skye countered.

"I asked you a question boy, answer it, NOW!" he shouted, pushing more of his ability into Skye's mind.

Skye resisted as best he could, but this was new to him, the level Joey's creeps had used was a level five, but this was much stronger and was a direct bond, not like the easily broke indirect ones that he had broken free of.

Finally the push was too much for Skye, his defence crumbled, "Level nine," Skye replied.

"Really, I can't believe my luck, running into someone slightly more powerful than me, and still being able to control him! You will be a great addition to my team!" he laughed.

"Fat chance!" Skye shouted, his tensed his wrists, electricity bolted from him into the man, this was enough energy to stop a level four's heart, hopefully he would get the message to let go.

The man screamed, but pushed further into Skye's mind, causing Skye to stop in his tracks.

The two boys froze; each knowing that he had broken through Skye's last defence.

"Now what boy, I can make you do what ever I want!" he laughed.

"No you cant!" Skye spoke aloud.

"Oh but I can, watch." He said before shouting, "Stand."

Skye stood, following the man's orders, he walked up to the youngest boy, he stood about a half inch taller.

Skye couldn't believe what the man was asking him to do, he couldn't, he wouldn't.

"Do it!" the man shouted from behind Skye.

Skye's right fist quickly snapped up and he punched the boy square in the side of the face.

Skye gasped, he was repulsed by what he had just done; his punch caused the boy to fall backwards, crashing to ground, his palms breaking the fall but were cut up on debris on the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" Skye stammered, looking at the boy, his eyes watering.

The boy gave him a knowing look, like he knew it wasn't his fault, but he still clutched his left elbow, apparently when he fell he smashed it hard enough to crack the bone, he was in so much pain and yet hardly showing it.

The man released Skye from his control, wanting to see what would happen, from the look of things, he beyond shaken. Skye collapsed to his knees once more, a few tears streaming down his cheek.

Skye looked at the boy, he had split on of his full pink lips, so much guilt rushed through his mind he was collapsing in on himself.

"I'm so sorry," Skye said again, sliding towards the boy, who inched backwards away from him.

"No please don't I want to help you!" Skye said, again sliding closer to him.

The boy froze, he didn't know what to do, he knew it wasn't Skye's fault he had hit him but still he was a stranger he couldn't trust.

Skye got closer to the boy and slowly reached his hand out towards his split bleeding lip and the bruise which was forming on his cheek.

"Trust me, I won't hurt you!" Skye whispered.

The boy wasn't sure why, but he let down his guard, relinquishing Skye from his power restraints, he allowed him to come closer.

Skye lightly touched the boy's lip, his hands glowing white, as he concentrated.

The man looked at the scene with awe.

The lip re-sealed itself, closing and healing over, the blood seeping back into the boy's body, next came the bruise, which Skye touched with great regret, after all he caused this. Once Skye was done he heard the man clapping, he turned around to see him and was shocked himself.

It wasn't like it was a young strong man, but he was fat, white haired and old looking.

"Looks like I found myself the best one yet! A healer, and elemental." He said with awe.

"Are you sure you don't wanna fix the last thing?" he asked with a sly grin.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

The man made a pointing gesture at the boys, "lift his shirt and lift the elastic on his briefs."

"What?" Skye snapped.

"Do it!" The man shouted, pushing his thoughts into Skye's head.

Skye's hand were shaking, he didn't want to do this, it was insane.

Finally the control the man had was enough to push Skye to lift the shirt and expose the boy's stomach, back and lower his elastic on the briefs. Skye gasped, shocked.

Skye couldn't believe what he could see, the boy's chest, stomach, back, down his legs, everywhere, scars, cuts, wounds still healing, everywhere, the boy had endured some sort of hell.

"Do it!" the man shouted.

Skye reached out his right hand, his fingers glowing white as he touched the soft skin beneath his belly button, his powers quickly healed the boy, returning his body to what it should look like, not disfigured or scared, it was a flawless heal.

"Ahh, a nice clean slate to start on again, here I thought I was going to need a new boy," the man laughed.

"You fucking son of a bitch!" Skye yelled, "How dare you!"

"Oh come on it's all in good fun, and now that I know you can heal yourself, this is going to be much more fun." He chided.

Skye's face showed the disgust he was feeling, he turned to look at the man, his head looking at the floor.

"You're right!" Skye replied.

"I'm what..." heh, "you see you're already thinking like me, we can have one each." He laughed.

"This is going to be more fun, he looked up at the man, raising his hands to waist height open palm up; white flames whisked to life on his skin, the intense heat beginning to melt the metal on the walls beside him.

"What are you doing," he shouted, "Turn that off!" he shouted using his powers.

"There are two reasons that's not going to work!" Skye smirked, "One, when I get pissed, or sad or anything, my powers, along with my brothers magnify, we grow to a level 10 and you and I both know what that means." He glared.

"You're undefeatable, invincible a... god." He shrieked.

"No, I'm more of an angel of death, if you will." Skye replied his lips curling into a smirk.

He turned, trying to run through the barriers which wouldn't budge he was trapped.

"Your boys, the ones you so readily beat the life out of, have more than one gift, one you didn't know about." Skye spat.

"What?" the man asked exasperated.

"They can amplify powers, strengthen them, make them change into their most powerful form, and you can't do a thing about it, because they're blocking your powers right now." Skye laughed.

"No... please, don't.... together we could be great!" he shouted.

"Burn in hell you son of a bitch!" Skye shouted he thrust his palms out towards the man, white hot flames burst from him, streaking through the hallway and smashing into the man and the barrier behind him; the walls of the facility melting away as the heat was pushed through the small corridor.

A second later Skye closed his palms, the fire stopped, the bright white light faded and they could see what was left of the man, his skeleton was still standing against the place the barrier had been and as the wind washed down the corridor from the hole in the wall Skye had made, his bones shattered and disintegrated.

Skye turned to look at the boys, whose eyes were wide with shock and terror.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you!" Skye said warmly.

They both looked much more at ease hearing that, they walked towards him slightly. "Thank you," the youngest said.

"Those were the only words he's said in the last ten years." The eldest one smiled.

They both embraced Skye in a tight hug, Skye's element rushed through him, singing the necklaces off their necks, the gems falling into their hands. "No more mind control, or power limitations." He said.

There was a loud smack as the wall a few meters away erupted into blue flames, a second later Ryan rushed through the opening, looking at Skye and the others.

"Skye!" he shouted rushing to hug his brother. "What are you doing with these freaks!" he asked.

Skye watched the boys faces drop, "Hey Ryan, they're not freaks, they're like us." Skye said before filling him in on what he missed.

"Where were you?" Skye asked.

"We hid him where we knew Joe wouldn't see him, so he would be safe," the eldest said.

"That was so considerate, especially with all the violence to see everyday!" Skye commended.

"Well, I guess there isn't a need for me anymore!" the eldest said.

"What do you mean?" Skye asked.

"I'm not real, I'm a projection on the part of Josh that needed to take over to protect him, I'm his better half" he said, as he dissipated into a cloud of energy, which was soaked back up by Josh.

"You're full of surprises!" Skye grinned, "Come one we're going home!"

Josh gave them a sad look, disappointment filling his eyes as a few tears fell to the ground.

"Josh, you're coming with us, your joining our family!" Skye said, knowing just what to say.

Josh's gaze quickly snapped up to meet Skye's a bright smile spreading across his face as he ran to Skye once more hugging him tightly.

"Let's get out of here," Skye said as he linked hands with Ryan.

Both boys closed their eyes, their elements flying freely from them and wrapping around the boys in orbs of light, which quickly vanished, the boys along with them.

They orbs of light filled their headquarters in the main hall of Paul's lounge, the boys quickly fell from the cloud and stood in front of the commissioner.

"Good, I see you have my package!" Paul smiled, "I knew you two were the right ones for the job, hand him over to my men here."

Josh looked down at the ground in defeat, feeling betrayed, he started to walk towards his new captors.

"No!" Skye replied.

"What, you dare speak to me that way?" Paul snapped.

"First you send Ryan and I into that place, fully knowing what was going to happen, you have us go because you knew we couldn't kill him, and would come back home." Skye shouted, "Sir I'm ashamed I ever served under you, I thought you were better, Josh is coming with us, we're not going to be staying of Earth as long as we thought, consider us no longer in your service."

"You can't so that!" Paul shouted, motioning to his guards.

"Sure we can." Ryan snapped.

"I'm sorry it had to come to this." Paul said, "but it's for your own good." His men opened fire, shooting round after round of ammunition into the boys, several actually made targets before the barrier formed around the boys, he couldn't believe Paul was like this.

"You can't hold that up forever!" Paul said, you can't teleport when you're shielding." He laughed.

"Who said I'm the one shielding us," Skye said making the no hands gesture.

"What, than whom!" Paul snapped.

"Guilty," Ryan laughed, his hands coated in golden light.

"You're powers aren't strong enough to hold that kind of barrier!" Paul snapped.

"No but with Josh's ability, his powers are enhanced enough to stop anything!" Skye laughed as he closed his eyes and teleported them back aboard their ship.

When they opened their eyes again Becka and Serina were looking at them from the large newly finished holo-pad table, which was the size of a bathroom.

"Must you boys always come home bloody, if I was your mom, I'd freak." Becka replied.

"Well it's a good thing were leaving then," Skye said as the clattering sounds of bullets rang, out the boys wounds healing over.

Skye looked over at Josh, he was lucky he only had one bullet wound, in his shoulder; Skye reached over and lightly touched the wound, his hands a glow again, the bullet fell out of Josh's shoulder and the wound healed flawlessly.

"Who is this?" Becka asked.

"His name is Josh; he doesn't really talk but..."

"I can see why," Serina snapped, "He's been through so much, his memories are full of such pain and suffering."

"Don't scan his memories!" Skye snapped.

"Sorry sir!" Serina replied.

"Let's go, best speed out of orbit, before the commissioner gets fleet up here." Skye ordered.

"We left a note saying were leaving right," She smirked, as the engines roared to life, "All ahead full." She noted.

The ship lurched forwards through the stratosphere, magneto sphere and mesosphere, finally into the vacuum of space.

Skye noticed Josh's weary expression, he decided it was time to introduce Josh to the ship and its contents.

"Josh, this is the Thunder in Paradise, your new home!" Skye grinned.

Suddenly Josh's face light up; he realized all that Skye had said was true, he really was telling him the truth when he said that he could live with them.

"Now off to your rooms, all of you its bed!" Becka grinned.

"Yes mom," Skye and Ryan laughed as they showed Josh where his quarters were.

"Night Josh!" Skye said, leaning down and tucking him into his bed.

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End of Chapter 4 â€" More to come