Safety
#7 of The Adventures of Ain
Ain squeezed himself under the Jeep. It was like working on an aircraft or that was what he was trying to convince himself trying to prevent himself from hyperventilating. He unscrewed a panel revealing a computer chip and a lot of wiring crisscrossing each other alternating between red,blue,green, black and yellow. He reached for the computer chip it was no bigger than one of his claws. He brought up the energy converter and attached the long tube to the undercarriage of the Jeep with the energy shard in it. He cut three yellow wires and a blue one. The car purred to life.
As he raised from under the Jeep and dusted himself off. everyone started murmuring to each other. Then the room burst into applause. "For a couple of Aliens you sure now your way around our vehicles." someone from the crowd called out
"Nice work Ain."
Ain heard Zach quiet voice from behind him. A thrill of happiness washed over him. He turned to greet the wolf with a welcoming grin.
"You look like a natural down there." Zach praised Ain. "They won't forget about us any time soon, we will probably be the heroes of tomorrow in their eyes.
"Yeah hopefully they build statues of us." Ain half joked. "Now to get some food." his stomach growled in agreement. As they walked he heard praises for there help. They got some displeasing stares from some of the other members.
Ain felt like he was covered in dirt and sweat. the sun had shifted higher into the sky letting him know that they had been working a while. The garage reeked of machine oil and lingered his sensitive nose The garage was big enough to fill 100 human soldiers it would have to do since their bases had been destroyed.
As they were walking to go and get something to eat he noticed an empty tent. He tugged Zach's paw pulling him into a makeshift hangout he zipped the tent up hoping for privacy. He heart hammered in his chest. This was going to be harder than piloting blindfolded.
"I want to give you the full story on how I ended up with Dylan." Ain finally managed to squeeze out. God Zach probably thought he was trying to hit on him.
Zach sat down on the couch placing one foot paw under his butt. "Well it started when I was sixteen and I've told you how I grew up in poverty.I never told you about my time of prosperity and how I lived like a king or damn near like one." Ain felt his speech come out fast but it was too late to slow himself down words tumbled out of him. "I got with Dylan because I was still figuring myself out and he was only kid I knew to truly get the gay experience it was great in the first couple of months I would get gifts of things that I've always wanted but he started holding those things over my head he forced me to do so many evil things.
He had to close his eyes, tears threatened. "I stole so much, that wasn't the worst thing." Ain sniffled. "I'm a celestial dragon and my blood is rare it's pure energy. It was something that he wished that he could bury something that he wish he could hide but it was impossible. "I was used as a power source and I let them do it. I messed up all because I liked a boy and now it looks like the found a way to use it. I have to end this."
Zach stared at him and Ain just knew that Zach hated him. He sighed and wiped the tears from his eyes. He turned to leave. "No," Ain slowly turned around as Zach began to speak. "I've already told you I can't let you go on your own again."
The Lionarins get inside the Jeep. Ain wanted to badly shower and sleep but that would have to wait. Ain hopped in the back of the black Jeep it had a energy turret on the back he was the second best marksman on the team. "Give em hell guys." Sally had walked over waved bye as they left.
As they traveled on the roads it was creepy still, nothing moved. Ain spun the turret around checking the sky an object shimmered in the light lazily.
"Floor it!" Ain yelled as he started firing blue bolts came out rapidly.
He was shifted back with every shot he had to anchor himself or fear being launched off. He felt his body started to scoot back the Jeep speed up. Ain knew it was going to be a long ride he slid his foot paw across the bottom of the Jeep turning on the antigravity he felt his paws stick to the bottom of the Jeep he couldn't move them even if he wanted to.
Ain heard a couple of shots go over there heads as they rounded a corner. He returned fire, the turret began to start glowing red as he kept firing at the invisible target. He didn't know how many shots he had till it would overheat.
He spun himself around facing forward his heart sank as he realized that it was a straight path going forward.
No Ain wasn't going to die here. He tightened his grip on the turret and turned away from the Jeep.
He changed the visors to heat signature everything was blue red and orange. that did the the trick the stingray shaped air craft hovered behind in a deep orange them two tips on the nose of the glowed a deep red. Knowing that they would barrel roll to the right Ain. He fired off a dummy shot watching miss his target. He lined up his next shot. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the ship flipped. Every fiber went into him pressing the trigger.
Once the bolt connected with the ship it kept flipping until it connected with the earth a went up in a red flame. Ain felt his knees and legs get wobbly as changed his vision back to normal. He saw the gold and metallic black coat that covered the now charred ship. Ain gave himself a mental high five he would have wait till later to ask how cool that was.
As they were driving Ain felt the connection with the crystal get weaker, a few minutes later they stopped in residential area but all was quiet. they silently crossed through the area quickly moving
Ain hopped out of the back. "Well I guess we are walking huh?" Ain asked as everyone unpacked from the Jeep.
Ryan put the coordinates in for the museum. a blip showed up on his visor showing that they were about five miles off. "We need to take this slow we don't know what to expect and we don't want to get into a fight out in the open." Ryan said as he walked by Ain leading the front with Glare.
Gray clouds lazy drifted across the sky. then drips of rain began softly thumping against Ain's helmet. he looked up and flinched as a rain drop landed on his visor. he watched as it rolled down his face. "We might be safe they might not be water proof."
As they continued walking the rain had picked up from the light sprinkle to actually raining. They had abandoned the slow pace that they were and started moving like they had a purpose through the apartment complexes and courtyards. It looked as if humans went away with living in houses at least that's what Ain could pick up.
something tapped on Ain on the shoulder and he turned around to see Derrick signalling him to drop back. He joined the soaked white wolf in the back of the formation as Rocko moved forward.
"So what happened in the hotel?" Derrick asked.
"What do you mean?" Ain was caught off guard he almost slipped in the rain.
"when you picked up the crystal your fear smell was very strong." Derrick responded. "So I'll ask again hatchling what happened in the hotel?"
"I was just surprised that's all." Ain's mouth went dry.
"You saw something that freaked you out but didn't want to show anybody." Derrick snapped back.
"I was just surprised that's all." Ain repeated himself, hoping that Derrick would believe him.
"Yeah you were surprised that they had something come from you." Derrick growled." And now you are trying to cover it up.
Ain had a hard time coming up with a response, he just watched Derrick and simply nodded his head. "I...I was part of an experiment I was trying to do the right thing but it didn't work but I guess they figured it out." Ain finally choked out.
"Well you better figure out a way to fix our problem." Derrick retorted back as he rested his paws on Ain shoulders. A chill ran down Ain's body as he felt the power beneath paws Derrick's paws.
Ain kept a look out as the rain quieted back down to drizzle. the apartments and condos thinned out and and lead to businesses . Ryan pointed to a sign that had Krispy Kreme on it and like all of the neon sighs around it was off. "We should make base here. and get a lay of the land."
They moved right in front of the building all was silent except for the birds chirping. they double door stood looming and firmly closed. Glare motioned for him and Zach to go through. Ain's hands started sweating as he slowly moved fore with his energy rifle ready. Zach grabbed on to his shoulder as he moved forward. C_heck the front room then check the back split up and check the rest of the restaurant. _Ain made a mental note of what to do from training.
All of his sense where at a hundred as he felt like he could barely breath as they entered the shop. from what Ain could gather what he assumed was the dinning room was empty save for some chairs next the window to the right of the entrance.
"Clear." Ain whispered at Zach. Man he hoped that nothing was lurking or they would go somewhere else and go through the same process. Ain craned his head over the cash register breathed a sigh of relief as he saw nothing.
They cleared the back fairly quickly. Ain started to feel relieved as he was nervous over nothing but as soon as they split up he realized that he wouldn't have any back up if stuff flew off the handle.
Ain shakily reached for the door handle, his black gloves gripped the cold steel handle sending a shiver down his spine. he held his breath as he pushed down on the door handle and it creaked open. he let out a shaky breath as he stared at a white toilet. he gripped his chest and jogged back to the front were he seen Zach's grey armor waiting for him.
"Clear, Thank goodness." Ain sighed as he removed his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow."
"Put your helmet back on cadet." Ryan gruff voice growled. "You never know what could still be lurking."
Ain looked at Ryan and could't stop himself. "I need to take a quick breath geez." Ain retorted.
Ryan got real close to Ain he could feel the anger coming off his body. he gulp. "If you die you won't need to breath. And if you die out here that's on me. that helmet goes back on till I say so. He spat angrily at Ain.
Ain felt his scales prickle he couldn't look at his COs eyes so he looked at his helmet.
"I think Ain's hard head would protect him from any on coming bullets." Zach joked as Ain winced at Zach slapping his back. "There's a high probability that his head is tougher than helmet."
"Alright enough, cadets. There is no time for joking. How about you two scout ahead and see what going on." Glare said as she walked over. "Go over to the the museum and don't get caught while the four of us get a plan started."
They crept out of the doughnut shop quickly making there way down the street as their shoes softly patted across the ground.
"Are we still on?" Zach as they neared corner of the street.
"Yes, I take him down and arrest him myself." On the a surface he was confident but internally he was scared because of the prophecy. He let Zach lead the way as they continued to the museum. "I told you we dated?"
"Yes," Zach paused and watched Ain. "You feeling okay?"
"No, yeah I'm fine." Ain looked up at the glass building that they where next to. "maybe we scout from here?" Ain asked as he bushed past Zach's question
Ain's arms and legs strained as he lifted himself and Zach up the side of a skyscraper it was a bit windy as he beat his wings faster hopefully the cover of the rain would not make them stick out.
Rain pattered off of the them. as they watched as the lizards came in and out of a large glass windows they weren't doing it secret. Ain clenched his fist as he watched from a high building that looked over the latter part of the downtown area. He pressed the zoom button on his right wrist feeling visor zoom him inside the building the clarity never dropped. A hiss got lodged in his throat as he watched Dylan talking to what looked like a purple and black lizard. He had a sour taste in his mouth as he watched on. it looked as if Dylan and the lizard had been arguing. Maybe something wasn't going as planned. He quickly switched his visor to X-ray and saw that the stone was still lodged into the earth. His tail swished in the air. Ain sucked his teeth he had already pulled his gun off his back and was aiming to take out Dylan.
Suddenly with a burst of speed a white blur was on top off him. His gun went skidding across the ground.
Ain grunted as all the air was driven out of him. two heavy paws gripped him and pinned him down.
"What the hell are you thinking?" Zach growled at him.
God Ain was tired and all of Zach's yapping was getting on his nerves. He went limp under his friends grip. "I was going to take Dylan out, I had the shot but you messed me up." Ain whined."
"Get a grip, if you miss they will know where we actively after them. Zach rolled off of him. "The stone is still there." Zach put his armored wrist next to his mouth.
"Rodger that, come back to the hideout we have a plan." Ryan's gruff voice responded. Ain closed his eyes glad that Zach prevented him from taking the shot.