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The Os-Nàdarra Sentinels

Chapter 1: First Attack

-Unity Falls, June 13th

2010-

            Volcan had been sleeping soundly in

bed when the buzzing and beeping of his phone receiving several text messages

roused him from his sleep; lifting his head from his pillow he looked over at

the phone on his nightstand with a sleepy gaze, almost wanting to smash the

phone with his fist to silence it, but he restrained himself, and reached over,

picking it up from the nightstand and tapping the button on top.

            On the display, he saw the name

'Obsidian' at the top above the displayed message. "From 'Sid?" He asked

himself rubbing his eyes and squinting a little to clear the blur from them so

he could better read the text messages. The previous two simply read 'Wake up'

and 'Hey birthday boy!' on them, to which he smiled. "Aww, she remembered," he

said, and brought up the third one, the contents of which confused him.

"Wha...?"

            'Look behind you, sleepyhead.'

            It was then Volcan noticed there

seemed to be more weight than usual on his back, and it didn't belong to his

blanket he had draped over himself... It wasn't really heavy -not to him

anyway, but it was just enough for him to notice. Slowly, he looked over his

shoulder to find out the source of this added weight.

            A pair of light blue eyes, no

pupils, and a face of purple scales, stared back at him. "Rise and shine,

birthday boy."

            "AAAH!!" Volcan cried out,

immediately thrashing around in his bed and hurling the intruder off of his

back. "Holy sack of monkey SHIT!" He babbled randomly as he fell out of bed and

hit the floor, his ears filling with the roar of laughter, but it didn't just

belong to one person either.

            Untangling himself from his blanket,

which had left the bed with him when he fell out, he sat up and glanced around,

seeing his bedroom filled with seven people, all of them figures he knew, but

he had no recollection of letting any of them in, or even inviting them over

for that matter.

One of them, the one he had hurled off of his back

and was levitating in midair, completely defying gravity, was a purple

dragoness -eastern type, the variety without wings and grew hair instead of

horns, said hair growing in a spiked 'mane' running down the back of her neck

and standing out from the top of her head. Her entire body was covered in

amethyst scales with a slightly paler undertone, and she was dressed in a Unity

Falls police uniform, concealing an athletic figure underneath. He recognized

her quickly enough; he didn't know any other purple dragons except for one, and

that was Obsidian Kimoyama.

            Standing next to her was another

eastern dragoness, this one red in colour without an undertone, and a fair head

shorter than the first. She didn't look as fit as the first dragoness either,

but still had a healthy figure about her. She was dressed in a black T-shirt

and light blue jeans, and had something hidden behind her back, preventing

Volcan from seeing it. This lady was Ayane Nagano, whom he'd met around the

same time as Obsidian; a notably talented technician and engineer, capable of

creating wondrous inventions way ahead of the time period.

            Behind the two dragonesses was a

male dragon, a little taller than either of them but sapphire blue in colour.

This dragon was also a Western-type, with four horns growing out of the back of

his head as opposed to a mane of fur. He sported an athletic figure, and was

dressed in black jeans and a red, open vest that showed his torso and the

light-blue undertone running from his neck down below his belly. The male

dragon was known to Volcan as Rikyuu.

            The others in the room were his

brother, along with Pavan, Tsume and Brent, all of whom were still laughing

hysterically at how Volcan had reacted to Obsidian lying on his back when he

woke up. He scowled at the group, crossing his arms in annoyance. "Mature, the

maturest," he remarked. "Mind telling me what you're all doing in here, scaring

the daylights outta me and interrupting a rather nice sleep?"

            "What else, bro?" Lighris asked. "To

say happy birthday!"

            "You're eighteen today, big guy!"

Pavan reminded.

            "And we wanted to surprise our

favorite phoenix," added Obsidian.

            Volcan chuckled and rolled his eyes.

"Oh I was surprised alright," he said. "Yanno, that could be called trespassing

and invasion of personal space, 'officer'."

            "But are you going to charge me with

them?" She asked.

            "Hell no; you're too damn pretty to

go to jail," replied Volcan.

            "Flatterer," Obsidian returned,

giggling a little.

            "But an honest one," the phoenix

reminded. "Now uh... sorry to shoo you guys out but, you mind if I get some

pants on before we continue this conversation? This is kinda awkward sitting

here in my underpants and covered by a blanket."

            "Sure; we'll just wait out in the

living room," replied Rikyuu, motioning for everyone to stop out of the. "Come

on guys."

            Once they were out of the room,

Volcan promptly got dressed, finding himself a pair of clean jeans and a shirt

before he stepped out of his bedroom, walking down the hall to the living room

where his unexpected guests were waiting, along with stack of presents by his

television, and a large, two-layer cake on the table. "Cake was sent over by

mom," Lighris informed when he noticed Volcan looking at it. "Made your

favorite."

            Volcan smiled at everyone. "Rude

awakening aside, it's really great to see all of you," he said. "Especially you

three," he said to the dragons. "It's been a while."

            "Not since the city war ended,"

returned Rikyuu.

            "Now, let's not get into that," said

Obsidian as she walked up to Volcan and gave him a warm hug, which the phoenix

happily returned, giving her torso a good, affectionate squeeze of his powerful

arms before she pulled back from him. "This is supposed to be a happy day,

especially for Volcan here," she stated firmly.

            "Yeah, she's right," said Tsume.

"So, Volcan, ready to open your presents?"

            "Damn straight," he replied. "Though

I'm curious as to what Ayane's hiding behind her back there."

            "Well, let me satisfy your curiosity

then," said Ayane, producing an object from behind her back. At first glance,

it looked like a long black pole, like a quarterstaff but discoloured, except

for several narrow slits along its side that glowed with a strange orange

light, running from the tip down to the very bottom. Besides those glowing

slits, it didn't really look that interesting...

            "What... is it?" Volcan asked as he

took the long pole from Ayane, looking it over.

            "Now, while you're holding it," she

began. "Think of a staff-weapon, any kind at all, although be careful none of

us are near you when you do."

            Volcan looked over at Obsidian, who

backed up to give Volcan some room. He didn't know what to expect from the

object he was holding in his hand, so he cautiously gripped it with both, and

held it with both ends horizontal, away from anything breakable or from anybody

who could get hurt, before he pictured a Greek spear in his mind. Seconds

later, the pole in his hand suddenly changed, becoming longer and spawning two

tiny, leaf-shaped spearheads on both ends in flashes of golden light.

            "Whoa!" Volcan exclaimed, almost

dropping the staff. "It... turned into a xyston!"

            "A call it the Morphing Polearm,"

stated Ayane. "Long as you hold it, you need to only imagine any kind of staff

weapon you want, and it'll become it. It can't turn into anything shorter than

a polearm though; it can't be a hand-axe or a sword or whatnot, but despite

that, it's an efficient tool."

            "I'll say!" Volcan returned. "This

is incredible, Ayane; where'd you even find this?"

            "Find? Not in my vocabulary,"

returned the red dragoness. "I made it myself."

            Volcan gawked at her. "I knew you

were a wizard at science and technology but this just takes it to a whole new

level, girl," he remarked. "Thanks for this; I'll be sure to go practice with

this ASAP."

            "You're welcome," she said. "But you

still have more to open yet."

            "Nothing we've gotten him is as

spectacular as some shape-shifting stick, though," remarked Lighris.

            "Hey, don't sell yourselves short,"

said Volcan. "Remember it's always the thought that counts, and I'm sure you

guys have some surprises for me yet."

            Although Lighris had been right

about it, Volcan would never say it out loud; Ayane had definitely given him

something very unique that you'd never find anywhere else, but he still loved

every gift he'd received. From Brent, a video game the phoenix had been looking

for a copy of for almost a year now -although the hyena had ignorantly left the

price tag on it, making Volcan gawk at the cost of it, but Brent assured him it

was fine.

From Pavan, it was a new guitar pick, since his was

rather chipped and worn out; this one was made of a tough plastic that would

last him a decade of constant use if not longer. From Lighris, a new CD player

for his truck, one with alternating, dim but colorful lights that slowly

changed from one colour to another as music played; something to make night

time driving a little more exciting. From Rikyuu, Volcan was given a soda

bottle full of his favorite candies wrapped with red ribbon, and from Obsidian

and Tsume, new shirts, one of which had his own favorite band, Sabaton, on the

front, and the other a casual black sleeveless shirt.

"Well, guys, that's the last of them," said Volcan.

"I really appreciate the gifts."

"Hey, no problem," said Pavan. "So, what say we dig

into that cake?" He rubbed his hands together eagerly.

Obsidian cast a glance at the clock, and the smile

on her face turnedto a frown as she saw what time it was. "Damn... sadly, I

can't," she said, sighing unhappily. "I have to get going; my shift starts in

ten minutes and if I don't beat the rush hour, I'm going to be late."

"Aww, really?" Tsume asked. "Why don't you just call

and tell them you'll be a little late? You should at least get a piece of

cake."

Obsidian smiled gratefully at Tsume. "Thanks, Tsume,

but I can't," she said. "We're so short-staffed as it is, I can't start showing

up late." She turned to Volcan. "I'm really sorry, Volc... I'd like to stay,

but..."

"Hey, don't worry about it, 'Sid," assured the

phoenix, pulling her into another hug. "We all have places we want to be, and

places we need to be."

She smiled warmly and returned the hug, her tail

swaying contently as she stood there in his arms for a moment, and then pulled

back from him. "Happy birthday, Volcan," she said. "I'll make it up to you

someday soon, alright?"

"Anytime you got a minute, we can meet up," returned

the phoenix. "Thanks for coming."

"Wouldn't miss it for anything," she replied, and

then added half-heartedly. "Except maybe my job." With a goodbye to everyone,

Obsidian was on her way out of the apartment; Volcan could see she really

wanted to stay, but he knew as well as she did she had a very important job to

do.

            Although it didn't leave them as

much time to socialize; that bothered him, to a point, but he knew it'd never

negatively affect their friendship...

            ~~~~~

            The rest of the morning and early

afternoon were spent partying at Volcan's apartment. As the later day

approached several people headed out until only Volcan's brother and Rikyuu

were left. Lighris actually tried to talk Volcan into going to the Night Club

in celebration for him finally being of legal age, but Volcan had to remind him

-forgetful brother- that Volcan couldn't drink anyway; alcohol ignited in his

throat if he were to try and consume it, and he would begin belching flames

uncontrollably, possibly getting someone hurt in the process.

            "If you're not going to go there for

the booze, go there for the dancers, then," Lighris reminded Volcan. The Casa

Del'Gato was known for only hiring feline women as dancers at the club, due to

some study that felines and their natural flexibility made them better exotic

dancers than other species, and a better dancer meant better sales for the

club.

            But Volcan had no interest in going.

"You know I'm not that desperate, bro," said Volcan. "Besides, there's other

things I can do besides going to some crowded night club and gawk at women all

night."

            "Like what?" Lighris asked. "What

could be more fun?"

            "Well much as watching you get

beaten up by Jason at the club would be amusing," taunted Volcan, prompting a

dirty look from the lightning hawk. "I've got other people I can go visit

-including mom- and I'm sure I can find other things to do."

            Lighris scratched his head in frustration.

"Man, Volcan, you are like, the ONLY guy I know who will pass up the

opportunity to go watch women strip themselves down to near-nakedness and

possibly even score himself a date for the night in the process; what is it

about you that makes you so different than regular guys?"

            "A wide-open mind that can

prioritize," replied the phoenix. "I appreciate it, bro, really, but clubs like

that just really aren't my scene. Besides, it'd just be you and me there; Pavan

and Tsume aren't old enough and Brent... well, good luck dragging HIM away from

his tinkering and gaming out at his place."

            Lighris shrugged. "Alright, your

loss bro," he said. "Guess I'll get the other guys and head down there

tonight."

            "You do that," said Volcan.

"Thanks for coming by, bro."

            "Anytime, Volc," returned the

lightning hawk as he headed out the door. "Seeya later."

            "Bye."

            With that, Lighris was gone, leaving

only Volcan and Rikyuu in the apartment. The phoenix turned to the dragon as

they heard Lighris leave. "Well... what do you feel like doing, buddy?"

            The dragon shrugged. "I don't really

have anywhere I have to be today, so, what'cha wanna do, birthday boy?"

            "Well," he looked at the morphing

polearm Ayane had given him. "I do kinda want to try out that new weapon Ayane

gave me. Feel like being a sparring partner for me?"

            Rikyuu grinned in response. "Oh,

you're on," he said. "Where to?"

            "Where else but my favorite

hangout?" Volcan asked. "Overwatch Ranger Station."

            ~~~~~

            Unknown to Volcan and Rikyuu, as

they walked out of the apartment complex and took to the air, there was a pair

of prying eyes watching them from one of the skyscrapers overlooking the

neighborhood, on the roof of the building peering through binoculars. One of

the two figures took a hand away from his binoculars and raised a radio

walkie-talkie to his masked face. "Doctor, we've spotted the subject, but he's

still with someone; shall we proceed or fall back?"

            "Describe

his companion," came the response.

            "Blue dragon, young-adult male," Observer

One replied. "Approximately six-feet in height; average for males."

            "What

do your scanners say; is he an Empowered Being as well?"

            "Standby," the observer said as he

tapped a button on the lens of his mask, honing in on the dragon; a light swept

across the strange man's view as it analyzed the subject, and soon the data was

downloading. When it was finished, the data stated he lacked the bodily

electrons that Empowered Beings possessed. "Negative; the dragon does not

appear to have any sort of powers, but..." He noticed something unusual about

the DNA strands of the dragon listed in the data. "This is strange."

            "What

is it?"

            "The DNA patterns of this dragon are

inconsistent with those of other Blue Dragon specimens," the observer reported.

"They almost look like they've been modified."

            "Don't

worry about it; you've already confirmed he's normal," the voice on the

radio stated. "Intercept the subject

immediately; bring me that phoenix, and if his friend gets in the way, dispose

of him."

            "Right away sir; moving to regroup

with main unit."

            ~~~~~

            Later, Volcan and Rikyuu touched

down outside of Overwatch. As they landed near the old Ranger Station, Rikyuu

strolled up to the old building, looking over its weather-beaten frame with a

feeling of nostalgia. "Good to see this place still stands," he remarked.

            "Yeah; it's a sturdy piece of

construction despite having not been used in decades," said Volcan. "Well,

except for us." He promptly added.

            "Yeah, was about to say," remarked

Rikyuu, chuckling lightly. "A little forgetful are we?"

            Volcan rubbed is head in

embarrassment. "Sorry; mind's kind of wandering today."

            "Yeah?" Rikyuu arched an eyebrow at

the phoenix. "Something bugging you?"

            "No, not really," replied Volcan.

"Well... okay that's a lie. It's just the way things are right now, they're

just..." He looked back towards the city. "I know the gang war finally ended

but, fuck... it feels like there's still something going on out there. I mean,

all of those kidnappings that have been taking place lately have left the

police baffled, yet the gangs don't seem to be behind it. If they're not, who

is?"

            Rikyuu walked over to his friend and

stood next to him, staring out towards the city with him. "I know what you

mean, bud," he said, putting his hands into his pockets. "But don't let it get

to you; the police will find out the cause of it. The gang war is over; you did

your part for the city. I know you want to keep helping, but guys like you

deserve a little break, don't they?"

            Volcan nodded, knowing Rikyuu was right.

He looked over at his dragon friend and smiled gratefully at him. "Thanks man,"

he said.

            "Anytime," he replied. "Now... what

do you say we get started with that sparring match?"

            Volcan grinned back at him. "Let's

go for it."

            The two stepped a safe distance away

from the cliff, finding more level ground to use for their sparring match, both

of them adopting a fighting stance as they faced each other. As they stared one

another down, Rikyuu's colours began to change, slowly adopting a different hue

as he altered his powers mentally. Volcan watched him carefully as he changed;

Rikyuu's powers could be analyzed based on whatever colour he changed to, and

judging by the colour he was turning to...

            But then, he stopped part-way, and

he reverted back to his regular blue form as his gaze drifted back towards the

cliff. Volcan lowered his polearm when he saw Rikyuu take his attention off of

their imminent sparring match, eyeing him curiously. At first he wondered if

maybe this was some trick to throw off Volcan's guard but when Rikyuu kept

watching the open air beyond the ledge, he began to suspect something else may

have been up.

            "Hey, Rik, you alright?" Volcan

called.

            "I hear something," he called back

to the phoenix. "It sounds like an engine or something, coming this way but it's...

really faint, like muffled or something."

            Volcan put a hand to his ear, trying

to listen for whatever it was Rikyuu heard. Although he almost gave up

immediately when he remembered dragons had very keen hearing; far better than

what avians had. Anything Rikyuu heard could be kilometers away and Volcan

wouldn't be able to hear it.

            But he might be able to see it.

            Walking over to the cliff, Volcan

gazed out to the lands beyond. Using precise muscle control around and behind his

eyes, his vision became telescopic, and seemed to zoom away from his position.

He searched the skies beyond, but at first saw nothing, so he blinked, and when

he reopened his eyes again, his vision had become darker; everything had taken

on a dark blue hue to it. When he looked towards the city, he saw colours,

bright red colours with orange hue, in the shape of cars and clouds of exhaust

from their tailpipes.

            "Where do you hear it?" Volcan asked

Rikyuu, forcing his gaze to retract and glance over at Rikyuu, whom he also saw

in the same colours as he had the cars, but much dimmer in brightness.

            "Straight out that way," Rikyuu

replied as he pointed south of their position.

Volcan tried to follow his finger to the source, but

still couldn't spot anything, so Rikyuu moved closer to him, and, standing just

in front of the phoenix, Volcan followed the length of the dragon's arm to see

where he was pointing...

And his vision was suddenly filled with a lot of red, coming right towards them at

high speed!

"Look out!" Volcan barked, grabbing Rikyuu and

ducking down, pulling the dragon with him as the mass of red flew over them,

and he heard the splintering of wood and the sound of planks of lumber falling

to the ground; following the sound, Volcan saw the mass of red had flown into

the ranger station and smashed off the roof.

The strange mass of red looked like some kind of

small plane, except that its two 'wings' ended in massive rotors and it had a

dense, aluminum body in contrast to a small cockpit; it looked more like it was

meant for carrying something than for combat, so Volcan didn't believe they

were in any danger of it attacking, but it had nearly taken their heads off

when it had flown over them

"Volcan, what do you see?" Rikyuu asked, reminding

Volcan the dragon had no way to see what was there. "I can hear it but I don't

see anything!"

"It must be cloaked," replied Volcan. "It looks like

one of those twin-rotor helicopters... uh... Osprey's, yeah; those vertical takeoff

airships."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Volcan was already fed up with this,

and so he conjured a fireball into his hand, hurling it at the strange machine.

"Firebomb!" He barked. The flames hit the side, dispersing over the hull before

suddenly combusting and making it tilt awkwardly from the force of the blast,

along with alerting the crew onboard they were not so safely hidden.

            ~~~~~

            "Doctor; we've reached the subject,

but he seems to have spotted us even with our cloaking field up," the observer

from the roof informed.

            "Of

course he can see you, you idiot!" The voice on the other end of the radio

barked at him. "Fire Phoenixes have

infrared vision; he can see the heat of the Retriever! Forget the cloak and

just attack!"

            The observer grimaced at the radio,

but he made no response besides "On it, sir," and prepared his weapon.

"Activate the cyborgs; we're taking this phoenix in."

            ~~~~~

            The machine finally dropped its

cloak, revealing itself, and a door in the side slid open. Immediately a

half-dozen people, half of them humans and the other half anthros but unable to

be identified due to metal masks, goggles and full-head helmets they wore. On

their bodies they wore tactical armour, similar to what SWAT teams would wear

on operation, and carried compact automatic weapons in their hands. Two of them

also carried a very odd-looking device of some kind, which they placed on the

ground behind the first four. Placed in the center of the item was some sort of

clean, reflective sphere that, occassionally, crackled with electricity, and

moreso as the arms that arched up around it from four sides began to spin in

circles around the sphere, generating more electricity, although what purpose

the device served, neither Volcan or Rikyuu could tell just yet, but Volcan

felt a very mild sense of vertigo as he watched it, but shook it off and stared

back at the armoured men again.

            "Now who're these guys supposed to

be?" Volcan asked as he prepared himself for a fight.

            "I don't know, but they sure don't

look friendly," replied Rikyuu, also watching them carefully. "I just wonder

what that thing they placed there is supposed to be."

            Suddenly, several metallic clanking

noises filled their ears, coming from inside of the flying machine the six men

had come out of, and four more figures emerged from the inside. But these ones

were different from the rest; they were bigger, and the mere sight of them had

Volcan wondering if he was in some sort of Sci-Fi nightmare.

            (Play 'Tech War' By Adrian von

Ziegler on Youtube)

They were all human... mostly; they looked identical

too, with the same faces and ghostly pale, exposed flesh, but they looked

anything but human. Their mouths were covered with iron plating, and their eyes

had metal lens' seemingly welded right to their sockets, lenses with

illuminated with green light as they faced Volcan and Rikyuu. Their arms were

normal up until the elbow, where they were replaced with metal forearms that

ended in big, round, spiked spheres, like a medieval morningstar. As for their

legs, there was no trace of human left; the limbs were entirely mechanical, and

were the source of the height of these creatures, making them taller than even

Volcan.

"Hey, Rik?" Volcan asked.

"Yeah?" The dragon returned.

"Are we at the movies watching a 3D remake of the

Terminator? Because right now, I'm getting that vibe," the phoenix remarked.

"I honestly wish that's what we WERE doing, but

unfortunately, no; this is no movie," replied Rikyuu.

The four cyborgs began to advance on the two

anthros, raising their spiked mace-like fists in preparation for attack as they

stalked towards the phoenix and dragon, every step shaking the ground as if

they weighed hundreds of pounds.

Volcan wasn't concerned, though. "Well, then, that

means these monsters should be easy to beat," he said, grinning. "Because with

all that exposed iron I'll turn these guys right into liquid metal." He glared

straight at the metal arm of the nearest cyborg, mentally commanding his Pyro

Glare to zero in on the metal and send a concentrated heat wave towards it...

But nothing happened.

"Hey, what the...?" Volcan asked, rubbing his eyes

and trying again with his Pyro Glare, but still nothing happened. "Uh..."

Feeling a little nervous now, he tried casting a fireball at the cyborgs, but

once again, nothing happened; not even a spark erupted from his hands.

"Uhm... Volc, what're you doing?" Rikyuu asked. "Big

cyborgs, coming towards us."

Volcan replied with a nervous chuckle before turning

to his friend, wide-eyed and clearly suppressing panic. "My powers... seem to

not be working."

"Say what?" Rikyuu asked, his eyes becoming as round

as dinner plates and his scales visibly paling.

"BAIL!" Volcan roared as the first of the cyborgs

reached them and swung at them with one of its morningstar-hands.

The two narrowly avoided the attack, ducking underneath

it, and promptly took off in opposite directions. Three of the cyborgs pursued

Volcan while one kept chasing Rikyuu. The dragon noticed this quickly, and

realized that whoever these guys were, they were after Volcan; he had to do

something, quickly. But if Volcan's powers weren't working... could his strength

somehow be affected right now too?

Before he could even try, though, the cyborg caught

up with him, apparently faster than he first assumed, and swung at him with its

arms; he ducked under the first swing, but the second one caught him across the

jaw; miraculously he missed the spikes only to be hit by the forearm and sent

flying through the air head-first into the ground almost ten meters away, the

force of the strike stunning him.

"Rikyuu!" Volcan called out in horror, seeing what

had happened to his friend; he glared at the cyborgs chasing him, waiting as

the first one charged forward, bringing up both of its arms to swing at the

phoenix. Volcan hurriedly stepped forward and brought up his hands, catching

the cyborgs' attack by the forearm and stopping it.

He grinned. "Took away my fire powers, but I still

have my strength," he muttered, but his grin faded as he felt his hands being

pushed back towards him. "Eeeergh! For all the good it's doing me! Fuck!" He

tried to keep them back, but somehow they were actually stronger than even him;

Volcan could lift almost 1,600 pounds with his superhuman physique, yet these

machines were still more than a match for even him.

Thinking fast, Volcan stepped to the right and let

go of the cyborgs arms, letting its mace-hands hit the ground with an explosion

of dust erupting upon impact. Volcan took that second of vulnerability to

deliver a hard punch right to its jaw, snapping its head around in a full 360 like

an owl with a rather comical clicking sound heard as it twisted and wrinkled

the skin on the neck, but the machine simply turned its head back around to

proper alignment and looked towards Volcan again.

"Crap," muttered the phoenix, before narrowly evading

another swing of the cyborg's arm. He ducked and dodged around it for two more

strikes before he managed to catch its arm again, and with a grunt of effort he

spun himself around and struck the other two cyborgs by swinging the first, and

then letting go of it to send it flying off of the cliff, where it found its

destruction after falling almost a hundred feet.

"One down," said Volcan before he turned back to the

other two, which were getting back to their feet already.

One of the armoured men, seeing the spectacle

unfold, held up a radio to his mouth. "Doctor, the Cyborgs have engaged the

subject, but he's still putting up heavy resistance; even without his powers

he's successfully destroyed one already," he reported to an unknown source.

"How should we proceed?"

"He won't be able to defeat all of them as long as

the disruptor is active," a voice spoke from the other end. "He'll tire, the

cyborgs will not. Just make sure they bring him in alive."

"Affirmative."

"Hey, he's armed!" One of the men shouted, drawing

the observer's attention back to Volcan.

The phoenix had retrieved the staff-weapon he had

been holding when the strangers had first landed, and somehow, it had changed

shape; it had turned into a medieval-style halberd weapon, which he impaled one

of the cyborg's with before pulling it out and, with a powerful two-handed

swing, decapitated it, causing its functions to cease, and then held it up

horizontally to block an attack from the third. However, the fourth cyborg was

coming to join the fight as well, and Volcan was now stuck; the shaft of his

weapon had caught in the spikes of the cyborg's mace hands and he couldn't pull

it free!

Meanwhile, Rikyuu, having recovered from the earlier

blow to his head, looked up and saw the predicament Volcan was in. He had to do

something fast, but what was it that was locking Volcan's powers? He thought

back to the device he had seen the strangers bring out of their flying machine;

perhaps that had something to do with it, but he'd never get near it without his

own powers.

Unless... maybe his weren't affected.

It was do or die, now; Rikyuu thought over all of

the abilities he had gathered, quickly selecting the one that might serve him

best at this moment. 'These guys may have

stopped Volcan from using his powers, but they haven't stopped me from using

them for him,' the dragon thought

to himself as he pushed himself up to his feet, all the while his blue scales

beginning to change colour.

This scales changed to red and gold, in colour

patterns identical to Volcans'. Even his eyes had changed to be the same as his

phoenix friend, and he could feel great strength flowing into his limbs. The

dragon grinned in satisfaction; whatever tech these assailants were using to

stop Volcan's elemental prowess had no effect on Rikyuu's internal

nanotechnology that let him mimic the powers of others.

"Payback time," he whispered.

As the six armoured figures kept watching Volcan's

battle with the cyborgs, they failed to notice what was coming up behind them.

One heard the dragon's footsteps too late, looking over his shoulder just in

time to see Rikyuu's fist impact with his masked face, the force of the strike

sending him flying into another of his comrades and immediately alerting the

other four of the sneak attack; they spun around and faced Rikyuu, shocked to

see his colours changed and his fists burning with fire.

"What's going on here?!" The observer demanded.

"Observer 1,

what's happening down there?" A voice asked over the radio.

"Our scans were wrong; the dragon is an empowered being!" The observer

replied as the other three armed men began emptying their guns at Rikyuu, but

the bullets melted before even reaching him, splattering against his scales

like paintballs and failing to inflict any damage to him.

"My scanners are

flawless; if he doesn't have the electrons of an E.B then he can't be one," the voice on the other end

retorted. "It has to be someone else."

"I know what I'm seeing here, doc; it's the same

dragon and he has the phoenixes' powers!" The observer retorted as one of his

allies were clobbered by Rikyuu. "His colours have even changed to match them

but my scanners still detect no E.B. Electrons!"

~~~~~

Meanwhile, in a laboratory hidden in an unknown

location, the message reached the ears of a man standing over by a large

computer terminal. On one screen, the strange man could see the scene from

above via satellite, and despite his doubts, a heat signature about the same as

Skilerain's had appeared at the scene, yet Volcan himself was still busy

fighting the other two cyborgs; he could see such through the thermal imaging.

"Send me the data," he commanded. "I'll figure this

out myself."

As he watched, the scan results taken by the

Observer began to download onto the monitor before him, and the strange promptly

but carefully read them over, searching for anything to indicate that his

earlier results may have been flawed.

And there it was; as the Observer had tried to

explain to him before, the dragon's DNA sequence looked... unusual. For one

thing, it didn't appear to be any one persons' DNA, but that of several, all

dragonic but not all of them of the Blue variety, and while blue dragons

normally had a strong connection to magic energies such as Mana, this dragon

didn't have any such links, and yet he did not have the bodily electrons of an

Empowered Being... so how was it he was using powers at all, let alone powers

identical to those of the phoenix that the retrieval team.

"Wait... it can't be," the man said, shooting to his

feet and bringing an elderly, wrinkled face right into the light of the

monitor. "A strange DNA pattern, in a being not affected by my disruptors?" His

face contorted with rage. "Nero! That bastard! I set out to cleanse this world

of Empowered Beings and he keeps MAKING them!!"

"Sir? Have you

found anything?"

            Completely forgetting about his team

and realizing the predicament they were in, he promptly turned around and

tapped the communicator. "Get out of there, now; you can't beat that dragon!

Leave the disruptor and the cyborgs and escape, hurry!"

            ~~~~~

            "Roger, sir, we'll...!" He paused as

Rikyuu suddenly pushed past him, running towards the unusual device placed over

by the flying machine with his fist drawn back. Before the man could protest,

Rikyuu struck the device with all of his strength, smashing it utterly and

disabling whatever electronic field it was generating.

            Rikyuu looked over at Volcan. "Volc,

your powers should be back now; use 'em!"

            It was true; Volcan could feel the

presence of his elemental energy again, and as he glared at the cyborg he was

still in a deadlock with, the metal-plates on its face suddenly became red-hot

and melted together; a crackle of electricity followed and the cyborg staggered

back from the phoenix, letting the other one jump in as Volcan's weapon was

pulled from his hands. But with his powers back, even without his weapon the

phoenix was dangerous; he turned on the cyborg as it charged at him, and let

his gaze fall to its legs, which just as the other's visor had, glowed red-hot

and melted into the ground, sending the cyborg to its knees -or what was left

of them, and putting out his mace-hands to stop its fall.

            As soon as it raised its head,

Volcan was right there, and punched it with all of his might, breaking the head

clean off and sending it flying off, never to be seen again, while the one

Volcan had melted the face of was finally finished off by an inferno the

phoenix cast at it, one of such intensity that it utterly incinerated the body

and left the metal implants warped and burnt.

            Rikyuu was faced with two of the

armed men, still, and had changed colours again, this time to a jet-black hue.

Having used his earlier form to destroy the weapons of the strangers, they were

armed now only with knives, and when one tried to run at him, Rikyuu exhaled a

black energy at him that not only sent him flying back, as soon as he was back

on his feet again he ran away screaming in terror, as if the breath had been

some sort of terror-inducing attack -which, it very well could have been.

            The other one was shaking, staring

Rikyuu down with his knife held tightly, but he was trembling, even moreso as

Rikyuu met his gaze, the dragons' eyes blank white and lifeless, glaring

hungrily at the man. The longer he kept staring at those eyes the more

horrified he felt, even moreso as a creeping smile appeared on the dragons'

face.

            Until...

            "BOO!" Rikyuu yelled at him, flaring

out his wings and arms.

            The man screamed, dropped his knife,

and ran for all he was worth towards the hill where his comrade earlier had

fled, flailing his arms this way and that, as if he were being chased by a

swarm of bees or a flock of angry birds. He tripped part-way down the hill, and

tumbled his way down the rest of the way before disappearing into the

forestation below.

            Rikyuu laughed sinisterly as his

colours slowly shifted back to blue, putting his hands over his stomach as his

laughing intensified almost to hysteria. "Oh my god that was priceless; I wish

I'd had a camera!" He exclaimed.

            "Good one, buddy," Volcan called.

            Suddenly the air vehicle began to

power up, the rotors whirring and engine rumbling as it prepared to liftoff;

the figure Rikyuu had punched out earlier was back up and pulling the airship's

door closed as it slowly began to ascend to make its escape.

            But Volcan wasn't having it.

            Jumping onto the cockpit of the ship

he bashed the window with the pointed part of his elbow, shattering it upon

impact and keeping his arm back to prevent it from being cut by the glass,

before he shoved his arm inside and grabbed the pilot by the collar, bringing

him eye-to-eye with the phoenix. "Land, or I light up this entire vessel like a

freakin' Christmas tree; your choice, dirtbag."

            "I'm not afraid of you, freak!" The

pilot, an anthro wolf, retorted.

            Volcan smacked the pilot against the

remaining windshield above him, brutally cracking the glass with the wolfs'

skull, before bringing him to eye level again. "Can you walk away from a

burning airship when it crashes?!" He threatened, his eyes glowing like

mini-suns and reflecting off of the wolf's goggles. "Last chance; land this

heap now, or it goes down my way!

What'll it be, chum?!"

            Even through the goggles, Volcan

could see the wolf didn't believe him to be making an idle threat -and he

wasn't, either; heating up the ships' exterier to the point that the internal

electronics and mechanics would start melting really wasn't that difficult for

him, and the ship would crash down as a burning husk.

            "Okay, okay, I'll land it! Just...

just don't hurt me," the wolf pleaded.

            "Wise move," stated Volcan as the

ship began to descend again.

            "What's going on up here?" A voice

called from the cockpit door as it was pulled open roughly. "Why are you...?!"

He paused when he saw Volcan on the airship's front.

            The phoenix leered back. "I suggest

you go back to your seat, sir," he warned. "The flight's been cancelled."

            Quickly, the passenger slammed the

door shut. The instant the airship was back on the ground again, he attempted

to bail, falling awkwardly out the side-door before righting himself up again

and breaking into a run. He did not get far, though, before a blue-scaled arm

shot out in front of him and clotheslined him in the neck; he grunted and

gasped as his windpipe was briefly blocked, and fell to the ground in a daze,

barely noticing a foot pressing down on his chest and pinning him.

            Rikyuu eyed the fallen man for a

moment before he glanced over at Volcan. "Got 'em," he said.

            "Got your phone handy?" Volcan

asked.

            "Sure do," replied Rikyuu, picking

the said device out of his pocket.

            "Call Gregory and tell him to come

get these morons," said Volcan as he walked below one of the rotors as it

slowed down after the engine was cut. With that done, he bent his legs, and

made a mighty leap at the rotor with his fists outstretched, smashing the

fan-blade out of its frame, where it clanged to the ground somewhere nearby but

not anywhere in sight, leaving the airship now unable to fly again. After that,

he walked over to Rikyuu and grabbed the fallen assailant by the back of his

neck and pulled him up to his feet. "I'll keep my eyes on these two. And be

sure to let them know about the two who ran off as well."

            "Right-o."

            ~~~~~

            The police were on scene in less

than half an hour after Rikyuu called them; Gregory thankfully knew where the

Overwatch Ranger Station was and how to get to it. They detained the two

criminals and kept an eye on the three fallen cyborgs lying nearby, although

the damage to them was extensive and they were unlikely to stand up again

anytime soon. Once the crime scene was closed off with police tap and officers

set up around the perimeter, they immediately got to work gathering evidence,

while Gregory stood over with Volcan and Rikyuu near the destroyed ranger's

shack.

            The police chief was taking notes as

Volcan explained what happened to him, starting from why he and Rikyuu had come

to the station in the first place and when the strange group attacked. "Soon as

I saw the ship coming, I alerted Rik and we ducked; it flew right over us and

smashed into the station here," explained the phoenix, gesturing at the shack.

"Then those men, six of them total, and four of those cyborgs."

            "Four?" Gregory repeated, glancing

over at the fallen half-robots. "I only see three."

"One of them took a tumble off the cliff," said

Volcan. "My powers weren't working so, I had to do a bit of improvising in

order to survive the encounter."

Gregory looked at Volcan. "Your powers didn't work?"

Volcan shook his head. "No... which is why I think,

chief, these guys may be connected with the kidnappings that took place

recently. It may be a bit of a stretch, but it all fits; a cloaked airship and

a device that cuts off Super Humanoids from their powers, it would explain how

the others were taken without signs of struggle."

"Am I missing something here?" Rikyuu asked.

"I'll... tell you later," returned Volcan.

Gregory tapped his pen against his chin in thought,

before voicing his next question. "Where is this device?"

"Remains should be over there with the ones Rikyuu

took out, near the airship," replied Volcan, pointing towards the parked VTOL

aircraft as investigators photographed it. "Weird device too; never seen tech

like that."

"It's certainly not common," replied Gregory,

looking at Rikyuu. "And Volcan's powers weren't working the whole time until

you smashed the device?"

"Exactly," replied Rikyuu. "Soon as I shattered it,

he had them back again."

"How come yours weren't affected?" Gregory asked.

"Probably because my powers are artificial," replied

Rikyuu. "They're generated by nanites all throughout my body, unlike his which

are genetic and fueled by elemental energy in your body. Whatever that device

did, it probably wasn't tuned for electronics, so, my powers kept working

because the nanobots were unaffected."

"That makes sense, actually," said Volcan. "One good

thing Nero gave you, it seems."

"Yeah, no kidding."

Gregory cleared his throat, reminding the two he was

still interviewing them about the incident. "And, you also said one of them was

communicating with someone by walkie-talkie?" He asked.

Rikyuu nodded. "Yeah; I saw one of them talking into

one, with someone he called 'doctor'. Didn't hear a name or anything though,

unfortunately."

            "Hey chief," one of the officers

called out. "I think I found the radio they were using."

            "Bag it and get down to the lab,"

commanded Gregory. "Maybe we can trace the signal on it, if the channel's still

open."

            "You think they'd be that careless?"

Volcan asked.

            Gregory glanced back at the phoenix.

"Minor oversights can occur, especially in high-pressure situations," he

replied.

            "Charlie

1-0-2 to Alpha 1-0-1; come in chief," Gregory's radio buzzed.

            Gregory brought a hand up to the

shoulder-mounted speaker attachment of his radio. "Go for 1-0-1," replied

Gregory.

            "1-0-1,

we've located the other two suspects about one kilometer north of your

position; successfully detained."

            "Good catch, 1-0-2; get them back to the station for interrogation,"

the police chief instructed.

            "En-route

now, boss-man; Charlie 1-0-2 out."

            Gregory took his hand away from the radio and returned his attention to

Volcan and Rikyuu. "Alright; we got the other two."

            "So we heard," said Volcan. "You got

some good guys, Greg."

            "I should hope so," the chief

replied.

            "Chief... I think I found something,"

one of the officers called out, before they approached with a piece of metal

held between gloved fingertips.

            The metal piece, once belonging to

one of the cyborgs Volcan had destroyed, was melted and the front of it barely

decipherable, but it was just clear enough to make out a strange looking emblem

of rather disturbing image; an inverted pentagram with a Japanese kanji written

in the middle of it in white. Below it were the letters 'I.T.O.U.E' and the

image of a blooming flower behind the lettering. Aside from the pentagram being

red the lettering and images were in black & white, making them very clear

despite the damage to the metal piece.

            "I've seen that symbol somewhere

before," remarked Gregory.

            "Oddly enough... I think I have

too," added Rikyuu.

            "Where?" Gregory asked.

            Rikyuu put both hands to his head,

thinking back and focusing on the image, trying to remember where else he had

seen it. He stood like this for a moment before he grunted and shook his head.

"Nothing...I can't remember where I saw it, but it just looks so familiar to

me."

            "Volcan, have you seen this insignia

before?" Gregory asked.

            "No, but just looking at it, I think

I know what some of it means," said Volcan. "The inverted pentagram is a symbol

of evil in Catholic and Christian legend, and that Kanji written in the middle

means 'power', I think."

            "Western symbolism and eastern

writing in one image," Rikyuu analyzed, holding out one hand and then another

as he spoke. "And they basically translate to 'evil power'; what could that

mean? We're dealing with some anti-government Satanists?"

            "Plausible,

but very unlikely," replied Gregory. "Anti-Government cultist-types wouldn't

have any interest in someone like Volcan. Those letters underneath it

however... they're what stand out most to me; I know I've seen them before, somewhere." He shook his head. "I'll go

through some of my case files when I get back to the station; maybe I

encountered this during one of my old cases from my patrolman days. If not,

I'll have Marcus run a comparison with known organizations."

            "You should check some of their

hardware too," offered Rikyuu. "Those guns they had were no black market

surplus."

            "What makes you say that?" Volcan

asked.

            "I got a good look at one of the

guns the armoured fellows dropped; it was an HK MP5," replied Rikyuu. "Fully

auto, equipped with a red-dot sight, extended magazine and a collapsible stock;

not something you pick up at any gun store. That is the equipment of

professionals."

            "Are you thinking mercenaries?"

Volcan inquired.

            "That, or some ex-military who know

some very good weapons dealers," stated Gregory. "Those things are expensive;

you need to be well-funded to equip a tactical squad, especially with foreign

equipment." He glanced at Rikyuu. "How did you recognize those guns anyway?"

            "Video games and movies; you see

hundreds of them," replied Rikyuu. "Some of the most popular ones out there."

            "I trust you didn't tamper with the

one you looked at in any way?" Gregory asked, eyeing Rikyuu suspiciously.

            "Do I look fifteen? I know to keep

away from them," replied Rikyuu, winking at Gregory.

            The hawk shrugged in response.

"Okay. I'll let you two know if I find anything else out. In the meantime,

Volcan, I suggest you don't go anywhere alone," Gregory said, insistently.

"Whoever these people are that're after you, they're dangerous, and they want

you for somthing."

            Volcan nodded to the chief. "Don't

worry Greg; I'll be careful," he promised. With that, the two were told they

could leave, and so they began to depart, heading towards the cliff and opening

their wings in preparation for flight. Before takeoff, Volcan looked over at

Rikyuu. "Aren't you technically only four years old?"

            Rikyuu grinned at the phoenix in

response. "He doesn't have to know that."

            Volcan winked back at his friend,

and then peered out to the valley beyond. "Come on; let's get down there."

            "For what?" Rikyuu asked before he

and Volcan took to the air.

            "I want a closer look at the cyborg

I threw off the ledge here," replied Volcan. "Maybe we can scrounge a piece of

it over to Brent or Ayane for them to analyze."

            "You sure the cops won't give you

trouble for that?"

            "Dude, this forest is huge and even

I don't know where that Terminator ripoff landed," replied Volcan. "It'll be a

wonder if WE can find it." He reached for his cell phone in his side pocket.

"On that note, maybe I ought to bring in some extra help."

            ~~~~~

            Volcan called in some help from

Tsume and Pavan, whom he knew could cover the forest much faster than Rikyuu or

himself; the two were quick to respond, especially after Volcan told them that

he was looking for a wrecked cyborg that he had thrown off of a cliff for

attacking him. With that incentive, both were there within the hour, Pavan

arriving first by air, and Tsume emerging from the earth itself only moments

after.

            The four of them scoured the forest

for hours, searching high and low for the cyborg. At one point Volcan wondered

if the cyborg had remained intact even after Volcan had dropped it off of the

cliff and somehow got back up and walked away. But so far, Tsume detected

nothing walking around in the forest anywhere; being able to feel vibrations

through the earth she'd notice the cyborg so easily it'd be like broadcasting

its location if it tried to get away, especially since it was so heavy and

would produce even stronger tremors for her to sense.

            "Damn it, where is this fucker?"

Volcan demanded, starting to lose his patience. "With all the damage I did to

it, there's no way it could've gone far!"

            "Maybe you just tossed it too far!"

Pavan shouted to the fire phoenix as he flew overhead.

            "Hey boys!" Tsume called from

somewhere nearby. "I found it; over here!"

            Following her voice, Volcan, Pavan

and Rikyuu honed in on where the Earth Phoenix was, coming to a small cluster

of closely-packed trees that left the area below them shadowed, except for a

single beam of light falling down upon the half-destroyed cyborg in their

midst, allowed through the thick canopies due to an oddly human-shaped hole

above. The cyborg was in pieces; both of its arms where hanging only by threads

to its metal joints, one of its legs had been broken off by the fall and his

metal visor and facemask were both smashed inward, leaving the face a grotesque

mess.

            "Geez, Volcan, what'd you do this

guy; dangle an active grenade in front of him?" Pavan asked.

            "Considering what he tried to do to

me, this seems like minor payback," stated Volcan. "I'm not going to prop up

pillows for a mechanized behemoth trying to turn my bones into bread flour."

            "Was that a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk

reference?" Pavan asked.

            "How the hell did you even come up

with that?"

            While the two friends bantered,

Tsume and Rikyuu took a closer look at the cyborg, several time poking it to

see if there was any reaction, but from what they could tell it was completely

offline and wasn't getting back up any time soon; the damage to its body was

extensive on the outside, the inside was probably even worse.

            Suddenly, as they watched, suddenly

the chest seemed to move, as if something bumped against it. Immediately the

two jumped back from the cyborg, Tsume drawing a knife from her belt. "Uh...

Volcan?"

            The two male phoenixes stopped their

argument and glanced over. "What's up, Tsume?"

            "The cyborg is either having a baby

or something's trying to come out of it," replied the Earth Phoenix.

            "Say what?" Pavan asked, walking up

behind her to look over her shoulder, just in time to see the strange

indentation appear on the cyborg's chest again. "Okay, that is freaky; if some

creature with a long head and spiny tail comes out of that cyborg and I'm going

east until I hit Ottawa."

            "If you meet the Prime Minister,

send me an autograph?" Rikyuu asked, joining the joke.

            "You're American; wouldn't you

rather meet the President?" Tsume asked.

            "I have Canadian citizenship," the

dragon returned, shrugging.

            Suddenly, the cyborg's chest exploded,

and a small, spherical object flew out of it and soared towards the four

anthros with surprising speed, prompting them to duck as it flew over them,

escaping into the forest and leaving them far behind.

            "A shiny, flying baseball?" Rikyuu

asked.

            "Catch it; it might be a clue!"

Volcan barked.

            "First time I'll ever be playing

catch by playing chase," remarked Pavan before he dashed off, a burst of air

erupting around him as he took off at high speed after the ball. He spread his

wings and commanded the wind to carry him forward, boosting him as if

rocket-propelled as he sought to catch the fleeing sphere, ducking and dodging

one tree after another while trying to keep it in his sights.

            Finally, he started to close in on

the ball, and held out his hands towards it with grabby fingers ready to clench

it. "C'mere little ball, don't be shy..." He cajoled the little sphere.

            Suddenly, the ball flew the canopy

of one of the trees, passing between the Y-shape its trunk adopted halfway up

its height and between the clustered, leafy branches. Pavan, of course, tried

to pursue being unable to evade the tree in time, only for his wings to catch

on some of the trees parts, throwing him completely off balance and sending him

tumbling to the dirt with a surprised yelp before he hit the ground and went

tumbling forward like a hedgehog while curled up into a ball in defense.

            "Ouch," he groaned. "Okay, so...

batter gets a home run on me this time."

            "Not yet!" Volcan called as he and

Rikyuu flew overhead, pursuing the orb while Pavan straightened back out.

            The sphere kept flying, low to the

ground, towards unknown destinations while trying to outrun the fliers. As it

soared though, something exploded out of the ground it front of it, and out of

the soil emerged Tsume. "Aha!" She yelled as she made a grab for it with her

hands, but it banked left just out of her reach and evaded her. Disappearing

back below the ground again, she continued her pursuit, tunnelling through the

soil as fast as a torpedo before bursting up below the orb and successfully

snatching it with her hands. "Got'cha!"

But as soon as she gripped it, the thing gained an

extra boost of speed and, despite its small size, actually dragged her a short

distance before she lost her grip and fell to the dirt. "C'est des conneries!"

She cursed - coming out 'say-day-kohn-ree'- speaking French profanity neither

Volcan or Rikyuu understood as they flew over her, keeping the sphere in their

sights.

            "What'd she say?" Rikyuu asked.

            "Not a clue," replied Volcan.

            Finally, the sphere exited the

forest and began to ascend, climbing higher into the air until it was above

Volcan and Rikyuu; they watched in mild wonderment as it flew over them, and

then began to speed up, rapidly pulling away from them!

            "No you don't!" Volcan declared, and

focused his flame powers to his feet, expelling fire from his talons and

launching himself forward like a rocket-propelled grenade, chasing after the

sphere. For a moment he seemed to almost catch up to it, reaching out with one

arm to try and grasp it, but at the last second, it flew even faster, and

inched out of his grasp narrowly. "Fucker!" He cursed, and slowed down, out of

breath from beating his wings so hard and using so much elemental energy for

his rocket-flight.

            "Volc heads up!" Rikyuu cried out.

            "What?" Volcan looked behind him,

only to get smacked across the beak by some other form of unidentified flying

object, throwing off his flight balance and sending him careening down towards

the treeline again. "Shit, shit, shit! This is gonna hurt!" He bellowed before

falling through the trees, breaking several branches in the process before

finally hitting ground. "Ow... I was right..." He sat up soon after, rubbing

his head. "What the hell hit me?"

            "Another sphere," came the voice of

Rikyuu, before the dragon landed next to Volcan and proceeded to help him to

his feet. "Three of them, actually; flew right past me just as you started

slowing down. You okay?"

            "Yeah, I'm good," replied the

phoenix, rubbing his head as he was brought back up to his feet. "Thanks." He

turned his gaze towards the sky, staring off in the direction the spheres had

flown. Even for his telescopic eyes, they were already out of range and getting

further still. He retracted his vision back to normal sight, and turned to

Rikyuu. "One guess to where those other three probes came from."

            "Way too obvious," agreed Rikyuu.

            Seconds later, Tsume and Pavan

arrived on scene, both of them approaching on foot. "Did you catch that

sphere?" Tsume asked.

            "Unfortunately, no," replied Volcan.

"Was too fast even for my flying."

            "Damn; if I hadn't crashed earlier I

could've caught 'em once they were out in the open," said Pavan, punching his

right fist into the palm of his left hand. "There was too much junk to maneuver

around though; I couldn't go full speed."

            "Normally I might tease you about

making excuses," admitted Tsume. "But even though I got my hands on the sphere,

all that happened after was me taking a short trip through the trees and

getting dropped off abruptly."

            Volcan peered off in the direction

the four probes had gone one more time, and narrowed his eyes suspiciously as

he remembered how the things had flown. "Awfully strategic for robots," he

said. "Somehow I think our puppets had strings we couldn't see; the question

now though who is the puppeteer, and where the hell is he?" He crossed his arms

for a moment, deep in thought before he turned back to the others. "Come on;

let's go salvage the rest of that cyborg, and find out what Brent and Ayane can

tell us about it."

            ~~~~~

            A hatch in the roof opened as the

four probes returned to the hidden base, and flew into the laboratory where the

strange man worked. He looked up as the probes reached him, and held out his

hand, letting one fall into his palm. "Good... the data on these core probes

will help me plan for the next offensive," he said to himself, turning his

workbench and walking over to the large terminal in the corner. "I

underestimated Volcan and his circle of friends... I never would've imagined

one of Nero's accursed abominations would be in league with him."

            He put a hand to his chin, thinking

hard for how he could best rectify this situation. As ashamed as the Doctor was

to admit it, Nero's technology was far superior to his own. The blue dragon

posed a problem; the doctor had never learned just how Nero had created his

projects, let alone what gave them their immunity to the disruption fields. The

scanners had been unable to find the source either, but the data recorded on

these core probes that had returned just might have been able to devise a

strategy to defeat them both.

            "Volcan spends much of his time

close to his friends," the scientist theorized. "If I want to remove him, I may

have to deal with them as well..."

            Suddenly, as he neared the terminal,

he heard a voice coming through his long-range communications. "Retrieval Team 2 to Dr. Rex," it said.

            Snorting angrily the man pressed the

button on the terminal to send the transmission back to the team. "I told you

to not use my name over these channels," he reminded. "There's no telling who

may be trying to listen in over them."

            "Damn

I... I'm sorry sir; mere slip of the tongue," the other person pleaded,

sounding nervous.

            "I will let it go this time," the

scientist, Dr. Rex, returned, gruffly. "Give me your status report, now."

            "Yes

sir. We've confirmed that the surviving members of Retrieval Team 1 are in

police custody, along with three of their cyborgs," the man reported.

            "Where's the fourth cyborg?"

            "Unknown,

sir; we're searching for it now. We believe it may have fallen off of the cliff

during the battle and are conducting our search in the forests below."

            "Keep looking, and send Retrieval Team 3 to recover or silence the

survivors of Team 1, and get the cyborgs back," instructed Rex. "We cannot have

them giving away our operation before we retrieve our subjects."

            "As

you command sir; I will contact Team 3 and brief them. I'll report back as soon

as they are en route."

            ~~~~~

            Meanwhile, at the Unity Falls First

Division, Chief Gregory and his team were at work. On his way to his office,

Gregory instructed his officers and doctors their instructions. "Benson, you're

on interrogation; make those tight-lipped marauders talk as soon as possible."

            "I'll have them singing God save the

Queen by dinnertime," a rather portly human returned, in a rather cocky and

arrogant tone.

            "Tanner, Jeols, I want you two to

stay mobile and watch for any more of these guys; don't ask me how I know but I

have a feeling we're dealing with an organization," Gregory said to two other

humans in the station; one of his top constables, an African American man named

Tanner Phillips, and a Caucasian human, Michael Jeols -still a rookie, and

Tanner's partner.

            "We're on it, chief," returned

Tanner.

            "Rachel, you're in charge for the

time being; I have to look through some old case files."

            "You got it, chief," returned the

brown wolf, smiling at Gregory.

            "Obsidian, you're on Security; I

want you by the morgue and lab at all times, and let me know immediately if Dr.

Kent or Dr. Canyon learn anything from the evidence we collected."

            "I'm on it," the dragoness agreed.

"What about you, Chief?"

            "The symbol on that piece of metal

we found still bugs me," replied Gregory. "I know I've seen it before; I'm going to look through some of my old

case files and see if I can find out where and when."

            "Why not just let Dr. Kent run an

analysis on it?" Rachel asked.

            "He's alone in that lab; it'll take

him too long to get to it," replied Gregory. "If I'm right and it is from an

old case of mine, he won't have to do it anyway; saves him some time."

            "I suppose so," agreed Rachel. With

that, she turned to address the other cops as Gregory headed up the corridor,

past all of the offices and up to his own. "Alright, guys; you have your

instructions. Let's get to work!" And with that, they dispersed, heading to

perform their assigned tasks.

            This left Gregory to his own task.

Heading for the file cabinet at the back of his office, he pulled it open and

began scanning over the contents, which he kept in alphabetical order. Flicking

over file after file, he pulled out several, briefly surveying their contents

before putting them back in their place; this process carried on for what felt

like an hour until he finally came to the 'G' section.

            And suddenly, it seemed to come back

to him; a case he had done ten years ago. Feeling that sudden epiphany wash

over him he quickly searched over the files in G until he came to one folder

with the name 'Glaseros, V' written

on the upper lip, with the number '207' -kidnapping- written alongside it.

Something told him this was the file he'd been looking for; slamming the drawer

shut he carried the file over to his desk and seated himself before opening it

and beginning to read over its contents.

            On the very first page of the folder

was the photograph of an avian, with pale blue, almost white feathers and dark

violet markings below his ice-blue eyes, like the bags a person developed from

lack of sleep but these looked like they were part of his skin colour.

"Vernardo Glaseros," he said to himself, absent-mindedly flipping the page to

photographs taken at the scene, save one picture sketched out by one of the

witnesses.

            The picture looked identical to the

symbol that had been bothering Gregory; the pentagram, kanji, and even words,

it was identical. He had seen the

emblem before, ten years ago when an ice phoenix was kidnapped by unknown

assailants, leaving his wife and only child alone. Above the sketch was a photo

of one of the fallen assailants whom Vernardo had managed to kill while

defending himself. Even the gear worn by the assailant was similar to those of

the suspects they had just brought in today.

            The kidnapping, the helpless Super

Humanoids with no evidence to the use of their powers, the strange, nightmarish

cyborgs... it all fit the bill from that case...

            "It's them, again," he whispered,

his eyes furrowing with anger. Always, he had wanted to solve this case, or at

least give the family closure of Vernardo's fate -better yet, return him to

them. As a father himself, Gregory was sickened and felt cold as he imagined

what would happen to them if he were ever lost or disappeared; he barely got to

spend any time with either of his children, and leaving them that way was too

much for him...

            Flipping the page, his feeling

worsened; he came upon a newspaper clipping of the crime, and a photograph

taken of the family, clutching each other and weeping for the loss. A woman phoenix;

beautiful yet frail, and a boy, not even into the first decade of his life only

to have his father taken away from him...

            "I'm so sorry I couldn't bring your

father back to you, young man," he whispered to the photo. "But maybe I can

start over." With all this evidence, he could reopen the case, and pursue the

organization that had kidnapped Vernardo once again. Now, they were after

Volcan Skilerain, though why remained to be seen. Gregory did not even know

what 'I.T.O.U.E' stood for, let alone who could be pulling the strings behind

it; years ago, he had contacted Interpol while the case was still open, asking

them if they knew, but the organization was as much an enigma to them as it was

to the UFPD.

            "Well, there's still one group that

might know," he admitted to himself, loathe as he was to involve them. He

picked up the phone on his desk and pressed a button, waiting as it

auto-dialed. It took a while though, much longer than it should have, and he

found himself tapping his foot impatiently while he waited for an answer.

            Finally, there was a click. "Telecom

Centre."

            "This is Chief Gregory Vinson of the

Unity Falls Police Department," the hawk introduced himself. "I need to make a

call to the United States FBI, Priority One."

            "Which Agency, sir?"

            "Any."

            "Please hold."

            And then came the long wait and the

uninteresting pop music while he waited for an answer on the other line.

Gregory hoped he at least got someone who would give him a straight answer...

            His wait was shorter than he

expected; within ten minutes, there was an answer on the other line. "Senior

Agent Olson speaking; is this Gregory Vinson?"

            "Correct, Agent Olson," returned

Gregory. "Thank you for taking my call."

            "I had a free moment," the other

voice returned. "Is there something I can help you with?"

            "I've come across some evidence of a

potentially international organization that is performing kidnappings of

Superhumanoids," explained Gregory "They're identified by the letters

'I-T-O-U-E', and I want to know if you have any information available regarding

this organization."

            "I'll check for you; one moment

please," Olson returned, before the line became silent again for a few moments.

When the agent resumed their conversation, his response nearly made Gregory

blow his top. "I'm sorry, Chief Vinson, but I'm afraid that information is

classified under..."

            The Chief didn't let him finish.

"Agent Olson, maybe you didn't hear me when I said this group kidnaps

Superhumanoids; a decade ago they took a two-hundred year old Ice Phoenix, and

now they're back, targetting a seventeen year old Fire Phoenix! If I'm to

protect that boy, I need information."

            "Mr. Vinson, I understand your

predicament, but I'm not at liberty to give out a secret of this magnitude."

            "Damn secrets and damn your

protocols!" Gregory exploded, his patience at its breaking point. "Unless

you're the ones who created this abomination, I don't see why you'd have

anything to hide!"

            He didn't hear the phone click, but

easily noticed the long, awkward silence that followed his outburst. "Agent Olson?"

He asked.

            "Yes, I'm... I'm still here," he

returned, some hesitation in his voice.

            'He

knows something...' "I'm sorry for my outburst," said Gregory. "But on a

personal note, I already failed a nine year old boy ten years ago, when I

couldn't return his father to him. If there is anything you can tell me at all

that might help me protect another family from losing someone they care

about... please, I need to know."

            "Chief Vinson, you are a

golden-hearted man," returned Agent Olson. "But you have to understand, just

like you, I have things that must remain confidential. I want to help you, I

truly do, but I can't... if I did, I'd be betraying my oath of secrecy. I'm

sorry." And after that, the sound of the phone being slowly hung up filled

Gregory's ear.

            The Chief sat frozen for a moment

before he angrily dropped the phone back into its cradle, running both hands

over his face and stopping with his index fingers in his eyes. "How am I going

to protect Volcan, if I don't know what I'm protecting him from?"

            Suddenly, Gregory heard his personal

cell phone vibrate on his desk, the buzzing sound of it barely catching his

attention, but thinking it may have been his wife, Jennifer, asking him to

bring home some groceries he picked it up and looked at it. But, he was

surprised to see that it was from a private number, and had a name written on

it.

            Jacob

Rex.

            'Who sent me this?' Gregory thought. "Could..." He looked at the

cradled phone on his desk. "How'd he get my phone number?"

            Before he could continue to ponder

it, he heard a commotion outside in the hallway. People shouting -a few voices

he recognized, others he didn't a couple of officers even running past his

door. He picked up his phone and was about to call to front desk to find out

what was happening, but to his horror, the phone was dead. He set the phone

back down and sprang to his feet, keeping a hand on his sidearm as he walked

out into the hallway and peered towards the front.

            Not two seconds after he peered out,

an explosion rocked the station...

            ~~~~~

            "Very fascinating," said Ayane as

she looked over the pieces of the half-cybernetic body lying on the table

before her with a keen interest, closely examining the inner workings of the

legs and the arms alike. "The design is surprisingly simple and oddly

mechanical, yet very effective."

            "Mechanical?" Lighris repeated; the

Lightning Hawk had joined the others after learning about the attempt on

Volcan's life by the strangers. Fearing for his brothers' safety, Lighris had

promptly closed up his shop and came to Brent's workshop outside of the city,

to be where he could protect his brother if more trouble arose. Since his

arrival though, Brent and Ayane had been looking over the cyborg, while

everyone else watched and waited to see what they could discern from it.

            "Yeah; the internal workings aren't

as complex as I was expecting," replied Ayane. "Sure, there are lots of

electronics running from the top of the leg to the foot, which, from what I can

tell, basically act like nerve systems, transmitting commands from the brain to

the limb, but the 'bones' of this cybernetic body are hydraulic lines."

            "What does hydraulic mean?" Pavan

asked.

            "You serious?" Lighris asked. "Don't

you take shop class at High School?"

            "Hell no," replied the Wind Phoenix

without hesitation.

            Lighris irked an eyebrow at Pavan's

answer. "First guy I've ever met that goes to High School and didn't take

mechanics class."

            "Technically I've graduated now, but

nope; never even tried for it," said Pavan.

            "To put it simply, hydraulic systems

involve liquid," explained Lighris. "At my shop, you've seen those big lifts

that boost up cars for me to work on, right? Those are hydraulic lifts, using

pressurized liquid to generate lift and raise those lifts up to certain

heights. In the case of these cyborgs however, I'm guessing these hydraulics

are meant to support a really heavy body, right?"

            "That's pretty much the gist of it,

Lighris," confirmed Brent, nodding to the lightning hawk.

            "Hot damn; seems you can be smart when you want to, Lighris,"

joked Pavan with a mild laugh, which earned him a punch in the gut from Lighris

that sent him reeling and falling onto his backside. "It was compliment!"

Wheezed the Wind Phoenix.

            Tsume rolled her eyes. "There's a

fine line between complimenting someone and making fun of them, Pavan," she

stated.

            "By my calculations, based on the

amount of pressure I can detect in these lines," stated Brent, looking over one

of the arms. "These limbs can withstand up to two and a half thousand PSI

coming down on them, and can generate more than half that in force; that's more

than enough to literally knock a person's head off with one, good clean hit."

            "Bloody hell, no wonder I wasn't

able to overpower these guys strength-wise," said Volcan, notably impressed by

the feat of engineering. "Each one of them is just about as strong as I am.

Maybe stronger."

            "Unfortunately, yes," said Ayane.

"However, this means they have one major weakness; if you take out the

hydraulic lines, the limbs can no longer support themselves and the cyborg will

fall over and be rendered completely helpless."

            "That actually sounds like it'd be

funny to watch," remarked Rikyuu. "Although having death balls on the end of

their hands kind of ruin the rest."

            "What else can you tell us?" Volcan

asked.

            "That we're dealing with someone

who's even above the advanced class in cybernetics," said Brent. "Science has

come a long way but bionic limbs that actually respond to messages in the

brain; that kind of tech shouldn't even exist yet. But here it is, lying on my

workbench in plain sight. If I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe it."

            "I know I do," Volcan said,

suddenly. Everyone's attention was on him with that comment; he look

reminiscent, and deep in thought.

            "I know that look, bro," stated

Lighris. "You've seen this before, haven't you?"

            Volcan nodded in reply. "Pavan,

Rikyuu; you remember that assassin that attacked me during the gang war?"

            "How could I forget?" Rikyuu asked.

"When Aisuours brought you back, you looked like someone that was dipped in

acid."

            "I may as well have been, with what

that assassin did to me," replied Volcan. "He hit with a fire extinguisher hand

grenade. The chemicals in those things steal the oxygen out of the air, and are

extremely corrosive to skin; was a double-whammy when it nailed me." He looked

at the cyborgs' amputated leg, studying the exposed electronics with his sharp

blue eyes. "He had a bionic left arm, which was designed a lot like the limbs

on these cyborgs and was hard enough to stop a direct hit from the baseball bat

I was using; according to Xavier it was even able to stop his swords and

deflect bullets."

            "Devilshade," stated Ayane. "That's

the guy you're talking about, right?"

            "That's what he called himself,

yes," replied Volcan.

            "Do you think he works with the guys

who built these cyborgs?" Lighris asked.

            "Not much is really known about the

guy so it's hard to say," replied Brent. "Man's a total enigma."

            "We can probably at least assume

he's encountered them before," added Tsume. "They may have even been the ones

who gave him the arm, unless he invented it himself."

As she spoke, the sound of a phone ringing filled

the room, catching everyone's attention. After briefly searching to find out

who's phone it was, eventually Rikyuu called out that it was his, and picked it

up from his pocket, answer it. "Hello?" He asked. "'Sid, you okay? You sound

nervous... Say WHAT?! We're on our way down!"

"Rik, what's the matter?" Volcan asked.

"The police station was just attacked!" Rikyuu

replied.

"What?! Is Obsidian alright?" Tsume asked.

"Let's go find out!" Volcan urged, running for the

door.

"I'll stay here and keep analyzing this cyborg!"

Brent called as the others ran out of the workshop.

Once outside, Tsume and Ayane held onto each other

before suddenly sinking into the ground, and a dust trail began to lead the way

out of the property. Volcan, Pavan, Rikyuu and Lighris spread their wings and

took to the sky; Pavan used his wind powers to keep their currents in their

favor and let them travel faster, although as always he flew ahead of them

-just because he was a show off like that.

Meanwhile, Brent began to look over the cyborg

again, checking the inner workings of the legs once more and rubbing his chin

throughfully. "Hydraulics, eh? Maybe I can use that..." He found himself a

notepad and began to jot down his ideas. "Man, the guys would freak if they

knew what I was working on in here..."

~~~~~

Obsidian sat outside the police station on a park

bench as the area was sealed off and investigators began to comb the area for

evidence, and coroners carried away deceased bodies... several of which were

other police officers. Seated next to her was the SWAT medic who dressed a gash

in her arm, spraying it with stinging disinfectant before wrapping it in gauze

and bandages.

"Anything broken?" Obsidian asked the medic.

"No Officer K.; your arm seems intact," the medic

replied. "You should be good to return to service anytime, although maybe you

should see about taking a couple of days off."

"I'll be alright," assured Obsidian. "This isn't the

first time I've seen such..." She looked towards the station. "Destruction..."

The medic nodded to her, and began to pack up his

medical kit. "I'll go see the Chief next, make sure he's alright."

Obsidian nodded in reply, and watched as the medic

left before she turned her gaze up towards the sky off to her left. She spotted

four winged figures descending towards the scene; they had come even faster

than she had anticipated. Standing up from the park bench she walked over to

meet them as they landed, but someone else arrived first; Tsume and Ayane

erupted from the group of a grassy area and came running over to Obsidian.

"'Sid, are you okay?" Ayane called as they neared

her.

"I'm alright, Ayane," the purple dragoness assured

the red one as they stopped in front of her. "Thankfully I didn't get hurt too

badly." She glanced at her arm, and grunted as she felt a pair of scaled arms

hug her for a moment; the arms belonged to Rikyuu, who out of everyone seemed

to be the most worried of the group. Of course, this came as no surprise to her

or any of the others; Obsidian and Rikyuu had a very special relationship,

almost a mother and child kind of one, and Obsidian's safety meant a lot to

him.

"Told you that you should've been a model instead,"

joked Rikyuu.

"This job needed a lot more people," the dragoness

returned, poking him in the nose.

"Obsidian, what happened here?" Volcan asked. "Who

attacked the station; was it the gangs? The Sylvia Syndicate?"

"No," replied Obsidian, shaking her head. "I

actually wish it were so simple but it's not." She turned her gaze back towards

the police station, pointing towards a body that was being carried out to be

placed in another body bag. "See for yourself."

The others followed where she was looking, spotting

the body of a man coated in body armour, which at first they mistook for being

one of the SWAT officers, at least until Volcan looked closer at the body,

particularly the face mask and goggles he wore and the lack of emblems on his

armour. Except for that same sinister 'I.T.O.U.E' emblem he had come to know

all too well this very same day.

"It was them..." Volcan said, his voice filling with

anger. "The same bastards who attacked me and Rikyuu this morning!"

"But why would they attack the police station?"

Rikyuu asked. "If these guys work in secret that's a hell of a way to bring the

heat down on them."

"I think they came to retrieve their comrades that

we were holding," replied Obsidian. "They went for the morgue and forensics lab

too. Doctor Canyon got a nasty blow to the head when he tried to stop them, but

as far as I know he's okay. Can't say the same for the cyborgs; the intruders

destroyed them when they made it into the morgue. As for the lab, Marcus and I

were in their way; there was too much gunfire for us to fire back so..." She

smiled. "I gave them a splitting headache. So, our forensic evidence is still

safe."

Volcan chuckled. "They had it coming."

"And the prisoners?" Lighris asked. "Did they get away

with them?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Six came in, seven left; we

managed to kill three of them, but then they sent in more of those cyborgs,"

Obsidian ran a hand down her face. "Those, we weren't ready for, and couldn't

stop them."

"Greg... is Gregory okay?" Volcan asked.

Obsidian nodded. "Yes, he's fine," she replied. "He

took a few rounds but his vest prevented any real damage; good thing he never

takes it off."

"Yeah, damn good thing," said Volcan, sighing with

relief. "Thank the old ancestors you and Gregory pulled through."

Obsidian hummed in response. "So did Rachel and

Benson. Jeols and Phillips were away and Marcus didn't get hit either,

thankfully, but we lost five of our guys, even our receptionists... everything

just happened so fast." She put a hand to her forehead and returned to her seat

on the bench.

Volcan turned his attention towards the police

station, studying the carnage that had been inflicted upon the building; the

front door and desks, blown to smithereens, the inside riddled with bullet

holes, wounded cops being herded onto ambulances and public and paparazzi

clamouring to see it all up close with police officers from other stations

keeping them back, preventing contamination of any evidence.

Amidst the scene, the group saw Gregory stepping out

of the crowd, directing the officers before he spotted Volcan and the others,

and began to make his way over to them, waving off the reporters that tried to

talk to him and directing a few officers to hold them bac while he approached

the gathering. "Hello everyone," he said, somberly.

"This just started and it's already getting out of

hand," said Volcan. "What the hell do these guys want? First they attack me and

Rik, and now they attack the UFPD; are these the terrorists we defeated a month

ago, trying to get payback?"

"No, Volcan, it isn't," replied Gregory. "I think I

may know who's behind this, but I know very little yet."

"What've you found out, Chief?" Obsidian asked.

"Just before the attack, I learned where it was I

saw that symbol before," explained Gregory. "It was from a rough sketch, given

to me by witnesses to a kidnapping ten years ago."

"Who was kidnapped?" Tsume asked.

Gregory looked at her sternly. "You know I can't

disclose that," he stated. "However, I can tell you, the paraphrase 'I.T.O.U.E'

seems to refer to an organization of some kind. Years ago I contacted Interpol

when the investigation was still open but they had no knowledge of it, and then

I tried the FBI. They said it was classified."

"Whenever American Feds say that, it's short for 'we

created it and don't want anyone to know'," scoffed Lighris. "This group was

probably all their fault."

"While it wouldn't surprise me, let's not make

assumptions," stated Rikyuu. "I of all people know some radical organizations

out there operate solo and aren't backed by any sort of government."

"Name one," said Lighris.

"The same one that created me," returned Rikyuu without a second of hesitation and a stern

glare at the lightning hawk.

Lighris made no response to that, apparently having

forgotten about the organization of Nero Cornelius, and that Rikyuu was made by

them. Ayane gave the lightning hawk a kick in the shin that made him grunt and

leer at her, but she simply turned away from him. "Bitch," he whispered, which

earned another kick in his other shin by Tsume, this time sending him falling

onto his stomach. "Oh yeah, that's real nice; gang up on me." Lighris said,

sneering.

"You were kind of asking for that one, lightning

rod," Pavan pointed out.

"Shut up Pavan."

"I was only able to get a name," said Gregory. "Does

'Jacob Rex' mean anything to any of you?"

Nobody gave an answer to the question, but it was

Ayane who seemed to react to the name, her eyes wide with surprise after

hearing it. This did not go unnoticed by the police chief. "Ayane? Do you know

something?"

"I know that name, definitely," replied the

dragoness. "He was a highly respected figurehead of cybernetics, creating some

of the first robotic implants ever made. He went to work for the American

Government during the Vietnam war; after it ended, he supposedly disappeared."

"I told ya so," called Lighris, still lying on the

ground.

"Shut up Lighris!" Volcan, Pavan and Tsume barked

simultaneously.

"Then, a few years later, he re-emerged again,"

Ayane carried on, turning her gaze to Rikyuu. "There are rumors he may have

even worked with Nero once."

"You're very well informed," said Gregory.

"Most of it's just rumors and conspiracy theories,

but one thing is confirmed; two years after the Vietnam War ended, Rex was

incarcerated in a maximum security prison," Ayane went into further detail. "He

was barely there six months, and then the prison was attacked and he was one of

several not accounted for. But, there's a biography of him on the internet that

states he was paranoid towards people with special powers, whom he called

'Empowered Beings', and was convinced they'd one day try to rule the world."

Volcan scowled. "Well, now we know who's behind all

those kidnappings. They definitely have the means to take on even the strongest

Super Humanoid."

Pavan face palmed. "Just fucking great; a paranoid,

genocidal psychotic who creates Terminators and power-stealing technology, and

he's going around kidnapping people to dissect them in a lab somewhere," he

complained. "Why can't we ever meet someone who's nice, or maybe sane? That'd be a nice place to start."

"Hold on there, you two," urged Gregory before

looking at Ayane again. "Ayane, in your opinion, do you think he may be

connected with the I.T.O.U.E?" Gregory asked, matter-of-factly.

Ayane seemed hesitant to answer at first, as there

was no real evidence to support Jacob Rex was even still alive today, or was

involved with any sort of organizations. But the cybernetic technology she had

seen in the cyborg she had examined wouldn't let her come up with any other

answer than, "it's very likely; the cyborgs match his work, and the M.O of the

I.T.O.U.E fits with his extremist nature."

"So, now we have a name for our opponent," said

Volcan. "Now how do we find him? He's damn intent on covering his tracks."

"For the time being, Volcan, it may be best if you

go into hiding," said Gregory. "We discussed this before, but this time, I'm

insisting it. Jacob Rex and his organization have targeted you, specifically

now, instead of just grabbing random people in the city, and after the defeat

you gave them, they'll be more motivated than ever to come after you, which is

why I'm also putting you under police protection."

"Gregory, I can protect myself, and my friends have

my..."

"This is not up for discussion, Mr. Skilerain,"

Gregory interjected. "As a citizen of Unity Falls, you're my responsibility,

and it's my job to protect you even if you're capable of protecting yourself.

For the time being I recommend you find somewhere to go that might keep Rex

from finding you, and that an experienced officer accompany you at all times."

Volcan was about to make a response, but Obsidian

stepped in. "Chief, let me be the one to watch Volcan," she urged.

"Obsidian, you're not even a one-year veteran on the

force yet, and you've only been with my division for a few months," replied

Gregory. "Protocol states I put Volcan under the protection of a senior

officer."

"I know I'm still a rookie," admitted Obsidian. "But

Volcan knows and trusts me, and as a Super humanoid myself, I stand a better

chance of protecting him than other cops might. Besides..." She looked towards

the police station. "We have no senior cops left, Chief. Everyone's either in

the hospital or on very important cases. Even if they manage to finish them,

you'll need them to help you track down Rex and his organization." She looked

back at the chief again. "I'm the only person for the job. Maybe not the best,

but there's no one else."

Gregory eyed Obsidian for a moment, seeing the look

of worry in her eyes; he knew she cared about Volcan, just as any of the

phoenixes' friends did. Volcan did know Obsidian pretty well, and they trusted

one another, plus Gregory had just learned himself Obsidian was a psychic; her

chances of protecting Volcan may have even outweighed what four police officers

could give him. She also had a valid point; he needed all of his senior

officers right now.

Gregory sighed. "For a rookie, you have a lot of

insight," he said, sounding almost defeated in the way he said it. "Alright,

Obsidian; I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this for so many

different reasons but I'm officially assigning you to watch Volcan until the

I.T.O.U.E is dealt with; I want you to do regular check-ins at least once per

two hours. Volcan," he turned to the phoenix as he went on, "I have no

additional officers to relieve her; are you alright with her staying with you

for the duration of Police Protection?"

Volcan nodded. "I am," he replied.

"Alright," said Gregory. "I'll let you know a soon

as we find Jacob Rex. Until then, Volcan, you are to remain with Officer

Kimoyama at all times, understand?"

"I understand," the phoenix returned. "In the

meantime though, where should we stay?"

"What about Brent's place?" Tsume suggested. "It's

in a remote location; pretty unlikely Rex knows where it is, since Brent's

address isn't even listed in any phonebook or anything."

"How will Brent feel about that?" Lighris asked.

"A little intruded upon, probably," replied Pavan,

putting his arms behind his head in a relaxed manner despite his constant

fidgeting. "But to protect Volcan, I'd wager he'll do the right thing. If it

bothers him THAT much, he can just come stay at my place."

"We'll talk it over with him first," said Rikyuu.

"And, for that matter, some of us should probably stay nearby as well in case

Volcan needs help."

"My house is just a half kilometer away from Brent's

place," said Lighris. "I can be his backup."

"Got room for one extra?" Rikyuu asked. "I'd like to

be close at hand too, since my house is across the border."

"Well, I do have a spare bedroom," replied Lighris.

"Alright; you can stay at my place."

Gregory, having heard every detail of the

conversation, nodded in approval. "Alright, all of you. I wish I could handle

this matter myself but at this point it's beyond my control," said the chief of

police. "I wish you all the best of luck, and watch each other's backs, okay?"

"We will, Gregory," promised Volcan.

~~~~~

"Retrieval

Team 3 to base."

Dr. Rex approached the terminal after hearing the

transmission coming through, and pressed the transmission button. "Go ahead,

R.T.3."

"Mission

successful, Doctor. We successfully retrieved the members of R.T.1 and

destroyed the remains of the cyborgs recovered by the UFPD. They no longer have

any means of recovering information about your operation, sir."

"Well done, Commander 3," complimented the Doctor.

"We've run

into a couple of complications, however," the team lead continued. "R.T.2 has still been unable to locate the missing cyborg; it appears

someone may have made off with the remains, but we only found three at the

Police headquarters, so we know it wasn't them. Furthermore, we were unable to

destroy any possible evidence in the forensic lab at the station; we

encountered an unaccounted resistance there."

"What sort of resistance?"

"An Empowered

Being, sir; a purple dragoness. From what we saw, she appears to be a Psionic

life form, although the class level is unknown; she stopped us from reaching

the Forensics Lab and we could not get any closer."

The doctor's hands tightened into fists upon hearing

that information, and veins appeared on his forehead before he continued.

"Abort the search for the cyborg; we've done all we can for now. Rendezvous

with Team 2 and get back to base as soon as possible."

"Yes doctor;

we shall be back within the hour."

            The transmission ended, and the doctor stepped back from the console,

trembling with fury. "It has begun," he said. "The Empowered Beings and their

vile ilk, have infiltrated the Law Enforcement system! How long will it be

before they become mayors? Politicians? Governors; heads of state,

Presidents?!" He grasped his head with both hands and shook it. "Oh, if I don't

do something soon it will be too late; they will rule the world and enslave us

all!" He turned to his workbench and reached for something in the cabinet

underneath it, spreading it out on the smooth surface before him. "I have no

time to finish 'Project: Purge'. I must focus on 'Project: Aerial Savior' for

now..."

            As he poured over the plans, he

whispered something else to himself. "Merely killing Volcan will no longer be

enough," he said. "I destroy him and one of his henchmen may very well just

take his place. No... I will upgrade my cyborgs; I will find Volcan and his

entire crew... and kill all of them

at once."

            End of chapter 1