Fan:Crux Origins: The First Crux Wars

Crux Origins: The First Crux Wars
Author:	majorq10hero
Completion Status:	Incomplete

Part I

Chapter 1/Prologue

This is but one of the tall tales LEGENDS of which the people speak.

Long ago, when the first builders were a new wave, they lived on the planet of their own creation, the legendary Crux.

These first builders ruled Crux, and all four of the realms each one ruled were prosperous and peaceful (primarily because several generations ago all the troublesome people had been thrown off the edges of the planet, for unlike Earth, crux really WAS a cube and it darn sure had an edge!).

But one day, when the time was right, the first builders left Crux, leaving the four realms to lead their own lives with each other. The first builders left the four realms a gift, and told them to guard it with their lives. But the builders were in a hurry to avoid traffic, and forgot to tell them why it was so important, or even what the gift was, or even WHERE it was.

For a while, there was peace. The four realms lived in harmony for generations, happy in not knowing what it was they were supposed to be guarding or how they should be going about that. There was peace between them, until one day something changed.

No one knows exactly what happened that changed, but something did (one theory proposed by some of the archaeologists digging on Crux Prime is that in their haste, the first builders actually forgot to leave their gift on Crux and had to put it through the snail mail once they reached their destination, and this is the result of the package's arrival). Anyways, the people from each region started getting together with the people from other regions less often. They no longer intermingled. Eventually they broke off all diplomatic ties to each other and went their own ways. In this manner, the unity that once held Crux together was split.

(The first builders, by the way, were too busy making intricate plans for the future of aqua magna and Bara magna to notice these unfortunate happenings)

The conflicts on Crux soon escalated. Eventually, all the people needed was an excuse to unleash total war and chaos on each other. Soon, a tiny dispute between two of the four realms became a declaration of war (this is when the other archaeologist say the package arrived, and they say that IT was the straw that broke the camels back).

The first side (who were called the Elementrons after the builder who was their ex-dictator) was very warlike, and saw everything as an opportunity to learn a better way of defeating your opponents. The first step, they said, was to make them fear you, so they decided to follow the path of the fearsome dragon. But their costume designer mixed up the orders, and they ended up looking like Bats instead. They were also quite militaristic, and had an organized, well functioning army. But they also knew this, and so they mocked their opponents seeing them as a rag-tag group of peasants. At the first battle, one of their leaders (or "Lords") is credited for stopping the battle to ask the opposing army if "this was all just some jest?"

But their opponents, the Imaginatrixians (again, named after the builder who had ruled them), were very cunning. And very arrogant. They decided to adopt this insult as their own "theme" so that when they finally "Obliterated those wretched Bats" it would feel even more satisfying. They ordered Jester uniforms, but got Mosaic Jester outfits because the costume designer had spilled paint all over his only prototype. The next time the Jesters faced the Bats, the sides were more evenly matched.

At first the other two races of people were eager to go to war (although some scholars say that "war" was mistranslated, and meant "costume store" because they are of course the same word in the ancient crux language). But then, as they looked at the Jesters and the Bats, engaged in relentless combat time and time again, they started to question the purpose... and while these two peoples (who had spontaneously adopted the "Exploreian Bot" and "Bone Suit" as their uniforms) weren't the brightest or the most powerful of the four races, they were the only ones who thought "Wait, hold on... What's the point here? Why are we doing this again?" so many scholars think they had all the common sense in the family.

This did not stop the war however. Generation after generation, conflict after conflict, The Bats and the Jesters fought until the original reasons for the war were lost in time and they simply did it because it was all they knew to do. The Bots and Bones waffled a bit, never really seeing the point. The Bones would team with the Bats, and the Bots with the Jesters, then they would switch, then they would go out on their own, etc. etc. etc.

The war raged, until one day, as mysteriously as it had all began, the war ended.

Some say it was because there was no one left to fight wars, that all the people were wiped out.

Some say that they finally resolved the conflict (which is the unlikeliest of all hypotheses)

And some say, the only way they would ever have stopped was if the first builders returned, and, horrified at what had happened to their creation, ended it. But perhaps not completely. Perhaps, they say, the first builders ended the wars and exiled the Bats, Bots, Bones, and Jesters to opposite corners of the universe, so that by the time they found each other, time would have made sure that no recollection of these wars would remain. Then they would be allowed to return to crux. And to their gift the builders had given.

700 generations passed.

Then, four explorers, one descended from each of the peoples of crux, finally found what their ancestors had sought so long.

They found the planet Crux.

And with it, they found the gift, the one given by the first builders to the ancient ancestors of the explorers.

They found the Imagination Nexus, the source of pure imagination.

This is not their story.

This is the story of the only oversight that the first builders had not purposefully made. When they exiled the inhabitants of crux, they completely forgot about the troublesome ones they had thrown of the side generations before, who had taken refuge on the stray asteroid that had by some uncanny timing been floating right underneath crux on the day they were thrown off.

They never expected them to return.

But they did.

This is their story

Chapter 2

A job as an underground mercenary and bounty hunter may sound cool at first, but this stereotypical vision of a glorious life of epicness is rarely close to reality.

"For one thing," thought the Major, "waiting for your prey is on the list of the top ten most lethally boring activities." Not lethal for him, of course, but definitely so for the target, which had yet to arrive, even though it had been several hours since the designated time.

The Major, or MajorQ12, as he was also known, carefully peaked over his cover. This caution was unnecessary, since his cloaking systems were on, and he was a Ghost's shadow to anyone who looked, but he knew it was better to stay in the habit. Sure enough, his brief glance revealed exactly what it had revealed for the fast 48 hours: nothing. The Major was annoyed, which wasn't surprising considering the situation, but there was nothing to be done about that at the moment.

"Well, at least the pay for this one is good; otherwise I would have had those people get this guy themselves. They're both going to have to answer for this one."

There are only two ways to capture prey, he knew. You could find them, or let them find you, and frankly, the Major much preferred the first of those options. Ambush had never been his style.

Still, a job's a job, even if this job required him to wait for the prey to come to him. Even if the conditions were dislikable, it was the first job he had been offered in months, so there was nothing he could do but accept it.

He looked down at his armor, able to see it through his unique HUD. He made a rare smile; everything about him was unique, armor, weapons, everything. Of course every piece he wore had once been part of the Nexus Force in some form or another, but that time had long since past. He hadn't actually stolen them; he had left what he thought was a fair amount of money (actually he left twice the normal cost of each piece) at Nimbus Station and Nexus Tower, where he had procured - he loved that word, procured - each one. As soon as he was back home (which was actually just his starship, since he was nomadic) he immediately begun modifying and combing them.

He was wearing his "Space Marine" outfit now; it was the ideal choice for this mission, formed from the Space Ranger and the Space Marauder kits. Of all the ones he had made, it was his favorite. It was a more of a silver-blue then the Ranger, with some of the more menacing features of the marauder. It was more powerful than either of them, and, in his opinion, more powerful than both put together (in the case of two minifigures working together). As with all his kits, he had removed the unnecessary, weaker components to make room for improving the better ones. He had modified a Wormholer so that it strapped to his back and he could hold it in one hand, so he had made one for each hand to hold. He wasn't using them tonight though; tonight he stuck to the basics, his emergency side arms, each one a combination formed from all four of the original one handed weapons, to maximize the potential of each. He often thought of himself as "Too dark to be a Ranger, too precise to be a Marauder, and too powerful to be either."

The fact that he was unique, however, didn't change the fact that he was growing impatient.

"Man, this guy was due over 12 hours ago, either he is lazy, or something's gone wrong." After all the time he'd spent waiting, he was beginning to rethink his answer to his favorite question: "Dead or Alive"

And then something changed.

He froze. He tuned in to his surroundings. Yes... something was now in the area, something that wasn't there before. He peaked around his cover with his peripheral vision.

The Major, for the second time that night, made one of his rare smiles. The target had finally arrived. The Prey had entered the Predator's den.

It was time to hunt.

Chapter 3

The Major watched the prey carefully sneak around every maelstrom enemy he saw. "Coward," he thought, "I am going to enjoy this more than I first realized."

The Major knew that once the target reached its destination, which happened to be Sentinel Point Zeta, that he would have mere seconds to dash over and snag him. The instructions were very specific: the prey must be caught red-handed. Of course, this made the Major's position, a good distance from Point Zeta, seem inadequate, but the outcropping he was in provided the most cover in case things went wrong.

Of course they never did.

The Major stood up to check that his cloaking device was getting the maximum power. It was. He loved all his various invisibility devices, but this one was his favorite. And often the most powerful.

He had based it on the principal that people in general will see either what they expect or what they want to see. A little mind/senses disruption transmitted over as far as two kilometers, and their wish came true. They would always see what they expected to see.

And they never expected to see HIM.

Especially not any rank 1 recruit that he just happened to be hunting.

"They're getting braver, gotta give'm that much. You used to never see anyone below rank 3 on Crux Prime."

The Major did a basic systems check, which was fortunate, because something he had counting on having had broken. His homemade Xpresso - IV had malfunctioned, and he had counted on it to get him across to Point Zeta in the time it took his target to blink. Now he would have to start running early.

He looked across the landscape. "As in, now. He's almost at Point Zeta, and I've still got a couple hundred yards to cross."

He started running. He watched the prey enter the ten-meter defense zone surrounding Point Zeta: the prey was ten meters from his trap.

"I think I'll demand an extension fee for this hunt, it's been that annoying."

He watched the prey

Eight meters

The Major felt the sweet rush of adrenaline

Six meters

He focused on the job, and silently recited his rules...

Four meters

"It doesn't matter what the target's story is, once turned prey, always preyed upon until dead."

Two meters

"Be loyal to the contract, know not any vendettas."

One meter

"And most important of all-"

0 meters. The Prey was entering the net...

"-NEVER know anything but perfection when working."

The target opened the mailbox a split second before The Major jumped him, literally. He leaped, grabbed the target in mid leap, and threw them both to the ground. They briefly rolled across the hard rocks before the Major immobilized the target. Then came the Major's favorite part.

Major: "MassiveCuddleyGoof, you have been caught in the act-"

Goof: "WHAT THE CRUX???"

Major: "-of tampering with other people's mail; "

Goof: "They couldn't have sent YOU!!!"

Major: "You have the right-"

Goof: "They wouldn't!"

Major: "-to remain silent."

Goof: "They couldn't!"

Major: "if you choose-"

Goof: "WHY ME???"

Major: "-to neglect-"

Goof: "MERCY, PLEASE!!!"

Major: "-this right-"

Goof: "WHY YOU-"

Major: "-it will-"

Goof: "-LITTLE-"

Major: "-be actively-"

Goof: "-PIECE OF-"

Major: "ENFORCED!"

...The target said no more, because having one's head shot off at point blank range does affect one's ability to articulate words very skillfully.

It was only after the prey was deceased that the Major began to converse with him, which was his own little way of coping with how little he was being paid to take care of such an annoying guy.

"... Hoping that you will put me back on the map... know that that you were my first job in months? Of course I was going to ask which you preferred, but once you started yelling, I decided 'Dead' would be better for my health than 'Alive'..."

For some reason, the dead always had more appeal to him than the living.

When The Major finally reached his ship, which he had left hidden safely in Aura Mar, after he deposited the body in its respective compartment, he listened to a message someone had left, thinking it would be from his client for the current job, demanding to know what was taking so long.

But it wasn't.

It was from who he thought would be the fourth least likely of anyone to contact him.

After considering this unexpected message for some time, The Major sighed, and set a course for his next destination.

It had been a long time since he had set foot in Nexus Tower.

Chapter 4

The Major landed his ship on the designated platform. It was a secret platform, according to the message.

"Either things are getting really bad for the Nexus Force, or they've gotten tired of me and this is a trap. I will assume both."

His logic behind both was that they had never really gotten along after his last visit. Even though he DID leave a fair price.

He looked around. No sign of anything out of the ordinary. But that didn't mean he wouldn't be using caution.

He entered Nexus Tower. A few guards tried to stop him, but they only delayed him for about 3.8 seconds. The Major kicked them aside; he hated bad timekeeping. He calmly strode down the hall, and into the designated meeting room.

He was surprised to find that this wasn't a trap, and that his new client was actually there. And that as promised, she was alone.

"Vanda" The Major said, without any trace of emotion in his voice. Without any trace anything, really. He was using his "client-negotiating-voice": flat, cool, and uncaring for the world.

"Major" she replied. She seemed a bit unnerved that he was wearing his Buccaneer/Samurai 'Ninja-elimination outfit'. Which was the intended effect. "We have a job for you. Two, actually."

The Major said the first thing that came to mind, which surprised him: "Then things must be twice as bad as I figured."

Vanda briefly raised one eyebrow, and then replied, "The jobs are connected. How you respond to one will affect the other."

"I can't wait," the Major said. Again, he hadn't taken enough care in not saying what he was thinking. He made a mental note that he was out of practice since it had been over three months.

Vanda, who had nearly forgotten who she was talking to, inquired, "Are you usually this sarcastic?"

"Only when my client is from the Nexus Force." was his reply. He was actually almost never sarcastic, especially when talking to a client, but it was a good enough excuse. In reality, he actually was interested in seeing what it was that would make anyone from Nexus Force proper want HIM.

Vanda rolled her eyes (when she thought he couldn't see her), and then turned around to punch an access code into a security panel. A security door opened in front of them. "Are you familiar with the origin story of Crux?" she said between these actions.

The Major's heart raced, as well as his thoughts. Surely she couldn't know? It was impossible.

When he realized Vanda was looking at him, and that he had been totally silent for several seconds, he quickly replied, "I know the story."

Vanda shrugged, and then led him through the door she had opened. It was pitch black once she closed it. She flicked a switch. 'Well, we have reason to believe that it's more than just a story. Here's something that was recently recovered from Crux Prime."

Inside, the Major gasp. He was looking at an outfit unlike any he had ever seen. The armor was red, with black markings and a black helmet. It also had a powerful staff and a fearsome shield.

Yes, there was no doubt about it. He was looking at a preserved piece of Bat Lord armor.

"Do you know the significance of this?" Vanda asked.

'More than you know' was what he thought, but fortunately, "Yes" was all he said. Good to know he hadn't completely lost control of his thoughts.

"Then this is your assignment: We want you to go back in time to when this artifact has been dated at. We want information. We want weapon samples. And we want the details of what really happened."

"In other words, I'm your guinea pig." the Major coldly replied. He did NOT like jobs where he had to go in without adequate info. Not that that ever bothered his clients.

"We will pay you handsomely. Just take this sample," she pointed at the Bat Lord equipment, "and go find Wenn Wuzzit on Nimbus Station. Tell him I sent you. He'll take care of the rest."

The Major did NOT like this idea. But a job's a job, so the details shouldn't really matter. At least that was what he figured until Vanda told him the rest.

"We will be sending you back accompanied by a team of Nexus Force Agents. You will have a rank 3 Daredevil, Samurai, and Engineer at your disposal." she said.

"NO." the Major (who was getting more annoyed by the minute) asserted. "I work alone"

"We understand this will be new for you," Vanda said, obviously more calmly then she actually felt, "But it is necessary. We want you accompanied so we can monitor your progress."

"A.k.a.: You don't trust me." the Major said, in a very annoyed tone.

Vanda apparently had been expecting this reaction "Would you?"

"No," was all the Major could say. But that didn't mean Vanda would get the last word, "But it's still outrageous."

Vanda ignored him, instead continuing: "In return for your services..."

They had better be generous...

"...You will receive two million in cash, as well as amnesty for when you stole Nexus Force equipment."

For a second, the Major thought he had heard her wrong. 'TWO MILLION?' he thought. 'That could make me for life, but...'

There was still one more thing.

"I BOUGHT the gear you are referring to," the major said. "And for twice what they normally sell as well."

Vanda looked taken aback, like she hadn't known this fact. But she answered, "Either way, they were NOT for sale. Nexus Force gear is exclusive to Nexus Force."

"And yet you don't give it to your members, you make them pay. Not how I would run a war."

Vanda looked as if she agreed, but she just said, "Our reasons for why we do this are classified information."

"Which means you don't know them either." the Major said, in his 'I'm-just-gonna-stand-here-and-tell-you-what-I-know-that-you-don't-want-me-to-know' voice. He had long since stopped caring what she thought about his attitude. If Nexus Force needed him at all, it meant that they needed him badly, and that no one else was capable. So there was no reason for him to make an effort to be on their good side. Instead, they were the ones who needed to stay on his.

Vanda was obviously irritated, but did not reply to what he said. Apparently she had recited this conversation very well. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked in a hurried voice, eager to get the meeting over with.

"Will the money I left be returned in addition to the two million and the amnesty?" he asked.

"No."

"Goodbye then."

The Major turned to leave, but Vanda stopped him. "How much was it?" she asked him, obviously desperate.

The Major told her. Vanda looked pale.

"Fine," she surrendered. "But for that price, you will also be going with a rank 3 Shinobi on your team." The Major considered this, but then decided that having four people wouldn't be much worse than having three.

"Deal," he said. "But one more thing..."

Vanda sighed, and judging from this sigh, she had already surrendered to giving whatever the Major desired. Which suited him just fine.

"Do the other Faction Leaders know about this?" the Major asked.

"They do now." Came a voice from behind. The Major turned to look…

The other three faction leaders stood in the doorway.

It was turning out to be such a lovely afternoon.

Chapter 5

Vanda jumped right in. "Duke," she said, "listen to me just this once-"

But Duke just shook his head. "No." he said, "You have gone too far this time. We gave you the artifacts because you said they might be infected, you never said anything about hiring this... bounty hunter." He said the last part with a hint of disgust in his voice. "Let alone sending A.N.C. recruits with him."

The Major looked from Vanda, to Duke, to Hael, to Overbuild. He was pretty he could take out the three of them. Maybe all four, if Vanda sided with them. But he didn't want to test that theory anytime soon.

Vanda, however, would not give up. "You know that this could be our chance to turn the tides. We need to do this, it's the only way."

But Duke was just as stubborn. "None of us ever approved this plan. It was never even discussed. Vanda, you have lost what trust I had in you."

THAT got Vanda's attention. Apparently this had been building up for some time. "I don't care!" she exclaimed, "I will go through with this plan. And when it works, I will look at you and laaa-augh!"

This just seemed to get Duke even madder. "VANDA, THIS HAS GONE FAR ENOUGH!!!" Apparently the Major had been all but forgotten. "THIS PROJECT IS DONE!!!!"

Up until this point the other two faction leaders, who were standing behind Duke, had not spoken. As soon as Duke started yelling, Overbuild put one of his mechanical arms around Duke in an attempt to calm him down, but Duke shrugged him off. This pause was, however, enough for the Major to speak up. "I would have thought that you would have liked this plan," he said. "You're basically hitting two birds with one stone."

Duke wheeled around to face the Major. "Leave now," he said, "or I'll have you thrown out. And you won't be using the elevator."

This didn't deter the Major at all. He simply replied, "I don't doubt that you would TRY." But Duke was not intimidated either.

"Vanda, I don't know what drove you to mixing with this thieving Bounty-hunter scum. But I probably don't want to." he said, without letting his gaze leave the Major.

The Major was getting annoyed. Up until this point he had found the prospect of a front seat to a faction leader quarrel somewhat amusing. But enough was enough. "I BOUGHT those items." He said, "With my entire family fortune."

"I wouldn't have thought that you ever had a family." Duke sneered. "You always seemed too uncivilized."

"Funny thing, that: I probably would have ended up a rather nice guy if the Nexus Force hadn't slaughtered my parents in front of my face." The Major sneered back. But unlike Duke, he meant it.

Duke was taken aback, as if this had never occurred to him. "Then why are you even here, instead of plotting your revenge?" he countered.

The taunts had no effect. "I came here because payback doesn't pay. A job's a job. And this one looked promising."

Duke decided that it was time to draw the line. "Well, now you're out of one. Sorry Vanda, but it's three to one against you." He pointed back at the other two leaders behind him.

"Actually..." began Overbuild. And then he and Hael slowly walked over to Vanda, and then stood behind her. "I think you're wrong on that account, Duke. We approve of this plan. I actually do believe it might work."

Inside, the Major smiled. His team had almost won. But Duke wasn't about to let them have the last word.

"It doesn't take a genius like you to see that this is a fool's errand," he began, "but since it appears I stand alone, I must say this: In any war, there are shatter points. Targets that will break an entire defense. And I see one in this plan. Either this will be our Achilles' heel, or the Maelstrom's. So I will accept this plan, but know that I still believe that this will turn out to be the movement that cripples us, and I will blame you if I end up being right."

He said no more, and left the room once he was done. Hael and Overbuild tried to get him to stay, but they couldn't, so instead they decided to follow him to try and calm him down.

Once they were gone, the Major had a few more questions for Vanda. He thus learned that A.N.C. stood for Advanced Nexus Commandos, and that it was a special operations branch of Nexus Force. He also learned that he would be communicating with the present, through a special HUD that would record his progress indefinitely, so that they could watch him in the present time. He learned that once he went back, he would be able to talk to them, but they would have no way of communicating back. He would be on his own.

"Which is why it's so important that you have backup with you." she said, "We have no idea what you will be up against and we won't be able to help you once you're there. When we have enough data, just say the word, and we'll pull you back. But we can only do this once, so make it count."

She had told them the reason for this was that Wenn Wuzzit's time machine would probably burn out after they were pulled back. Powerful as it was, all power had its limits, and a two-way 700-generation leap was really pushing it as it was.

But there was one more thing the Major needed to know.

"What was the second job you had for me?" he asked.

"That," the Paradox Leader said, "Is for after you come back from this one, ok?" She didn't sound very hopeful when she said it though. Perhaps this conversation had changed her mind about the second job? Probably.

He also learned that while he was there, as much as circumstances allowed, he would smear anything important he found with a special gel that would preserve it so the Nexus Force archaeologists would be able to dig it up again on Crux Prime.

In theory, this was a well thought out mission. But in execution, he doubted it would run as smoothly as Vanda made it sound.

Then it seemed Vanda thought it was her turn to make inquiries. "Did you mean what you said about your family?" she asked.

The Major was stunned. No one had ever seemed to care. But then again, no one had ever known. His vision started to blur, but he quickly shook off the feeling. 'No time to dwell on it now' he though.

"Yeah," he eventually replied. "Like you care."

Vanda seemed hurt, but then smiled and replied, "I hated the other faction leaders for a long time, because they abandoned my mentor, Baron Typhonus. It really did seem like they didn't care either, but know I understand that they did. It just takes time."

Time. It was something the Major thought was never on his side, even when it was. Now, it seemed as opposed to him as ever. "But who could blame it?" he thought, "I'm about to meddle with it more than ever."

He had all the answers he needed. He took the Bat Gear, said farewell to his client, and headed back to his ship. He set a course for Nimbus Station once he got there.

This was going to be a tough job.

Chapter 6

The Major woke up with a start. Then he relaxed when he realized that the bleeping noise he heard was only the ship informing him that they were entering Nimbus Station's orbit. The Major went back, and tried to find the plan he had formed while sleeping. When he found it, he reviewed and checked over it before he decided that it was acceptable given the circumstances. But there did seem to be one tiny detail out of place, like he had forgotten something critical.

As he started the manual phase of landing his ship, it finally occurred to him what he had forgotten. "Oh yeah," he thought, "I'll have some incompetents slowing me down on this mission."

The Major cursed, he had forgotten all about for the whole duration of the trip. He decided to stash the plan he had formed away in some corner of his mind until he might find it usable again.

The Major sighed; at least some of the trip to Nimbus hadn't been wasted. He had spent the first 15 minutes examining, disassembling, and rearranging the new HUD, the one he was specifically given for this mission which supposedly would relay/record what he saw/heard for HQ to view at their leisure. Now that he had modified it, it looked more or less like his old one, with the exception that he could now communicate with teammates as well as see first person views of their HUDs. He had also managed to give the relay/record/whatever an OFF switch, so that whenever he wanted he could break from filming their Friday night movie and have the privacy that HQ was unkind enough not to provide. He also separated the visual and audio feeds, so that he could turn off each one individually (he did this mainly so that he would have the pleasure of pushing all the wrong buttons of whoever had the misfortune of reviewing the tape; Since HQ would have no choice but to believe whatever fake audio he provided while the visual was out, he intended to provide them with more than a few not quite authentic narrations. Oh this was going to be fun!)

But he also had another reason as well. He was sworn to protect his family secret, at all costs. If this meant keeping his clients in the dark - or in the silence, as the case may be - then so be it. He didn't think he would find anything that might jeopardize the secret, but better safe than sorry.

The Major looked up to look out the front viewports. It was time for him to land. He gently lowered his ship down in the forest surrounding the Forbidden Valley launch pad. State of the art cloaking device or not, if someone were to accidentally walk into it, it would more than likely be discovered.

He prepared to leave his ship, the only place he called home, for a long time. He packed a selection of his favorite Fusion-Kits, a medium-supply of consumables (most of which, like the kits, were of his own design: with some he could fully restore any one meter, depending on which one he chose to use), and some other items that might be useful, such as a spare MKIII and Crux Prime Armor. He only planned on using these to either convert to local currency or bribe someone if necessary. After considering the first of those a second time, he also packed a couple more rare items (but nothing like a Flogmore's Cap or a Maelstrom-infused ninja hood, since they might alter the time-stream by creating another Maelstrom in the past). After reviewing what he had, he decided that, since he still had room, to pack a few more consumables. There, he was done. He gave one last long look at the ship's interior that was all he had for a home then turned forward, and headed out.

For some reason, The Major had a sense of foreboding about this mission.

Meanwhile, in Nimbus Station Plaza, four minifigs were getting tired of waiting.

"Where is he?" the first one said, "Do you think he's running late or something?"

The second one, an Engineer, turned to the first and said, "I think that your kit has you on a permanent speed boost. He isn't late; it just isn't time yet. We still have a few minutes."

The first was going to reply, but the third one spoke first, "Yeah, why is it that all you Daredevils are so impatient? I'd almost say you were in a hurry to meet him."

The first one to speak grumbled an inaudible retort, then resumed his way of making the time pass, which was figuring out what he would say when he finally arrived. So far, he had nothing. Well how do you greet a homicidal mercenary that you'll be working with for who knows how long?

He looked at his watch, which was a stupid thing to do, seeing as it was fast. He was growing more impatient. The sooner they met him and got this mission over with, the sooner they could part ways.

The Major stood on the cliff with the Forbidden Valley launch pad, and looked down on Nimbus Plaza. He was once again wearing his Space Marine outfit; it was, after all, the one he was infamous for. He looked back; his timing was perfect. The sun was setting in the distance behind him, so that would make his entrance more intimidating. Heck, why not put on a show?

And with that, the Major got ready to jump.

It was almost time, and the four minifigs now looked anxiously at the crowd surrounding them.

"Do you think he might be in disguise?" the Daredevil said, "For all we know he could be sneaking up on us through this crowd!"

"Nah, that's not his style," the Shinobi replied, "He'd want to make his first impression lasting."

"If he IS spying on us, do you think he appreciates your childish banter?" the Engineer said, since he certainly didn't. But this didn't stop the Shinobi from arguing back.

While the Engineer and Shinobi began another one of their endless arguments, the Daredevil noticed the tugging at his sleeve. It was Jonathon. The Daredevil sighed, even though he knew that their Samurai had had some terrible experiences, the fact that he never talked to anyone was still annoying. But it made him feel heartless to think like this.

"What is it?" the Daredevil asked the Samurai. All the Samurai did was point. The Daredevil turned to look where he was pointing.

The sight sent a chill up his spine. A shadow was descending to the Plaza from above.

"Guys," he said, "I think we don't need to worry about that anymore." He indicated to where the shadow was.

The others turned to look, just in time to see the shadow swoop in, and land right in front of them.

Once they realized who had just appeared in their midst, the people in the crowd tried ran in a panic. When the Major had descended using his Jetpack, he created such terror that the whole crowd was desperately trying to get away. All except four minifigs: from left to right they were a Samurai, Daredevil, Engineer, and Shinobi. But he already knew they were his contacts simply from the observation that they didn't run.

The Engineer stepped forward and saluted the Major. "Nexus Force Lt. Praxer reporting for duty, sir!" he proclaimed.

The Major was about to reply, but the Shinobi spoke first. "I had no idea you had already gotten that promotion, Prax," she said, "I thought they awarded them AFTER a successful mission."

Praxer turned and stared daggers at the Shinobi. "Shut up, Reyna." he grumbled. But when he turned back, the Major was staring daggers at HIM. "If this guy is going to be like this, he had better be a seasoned veteran," thought the Major.

"Buckets off, all of you." he said, without breaking his stare.

"What?" Praxer looked confused.

"The Helmets. Take them off." the Major clarified.

Obediently, all four of the minifigs removed their helmets.

"Holy Nexus! Their just kids!" thought the Major.

He kept his outward shock at a minimum though. "How old are you?" he asked the Engineer.

"18, sir," the Engineer stated.

"Oh Crux, this isn't good. I've been set up! When I get my hands on that Mrs. Darkflame..." The Major put away that thought, and returned to the dilemma: Prax was obviously the oldest one in the group, and the Major had expected seasoned warriors for his team.

The Major looked at each one. The Shinobi, Reyna, if he had heard right, looked slightly younger than Prax, about 17 or so. The Daredevil looked about sixteen, and in his prime. And the Samurai...

"Holy Crux, he can't be older than 12!!! "Was the result of the Major's first observation. Then he made another one. The Major looked into the boy's eyes, and saw something there that he loathed. This kid had seen things no child should ever be allowed to see, had had experiences no one that young should have to experience. "Just like you," he realized, "You were forced into this life as a kid, remember?"

The Major shook away those thoughts, since they would only distract him on this mission. "Give me a role call." he finally said.

"Praxer!"

"Reyna!"

"Andrew! But you may call me Axolc."

The Major waited for the young Samurai to call out his name. When he didn't, the Major got worried. He walked over to him.

"What's your name?" he asked as gently as he could. Which isn't saying much.

The others shot nervous glances at each other before Reyna spoke up, "His name's Jonathon. He's my brother, and he doesn't talk."

"Crux, Crux, CRUX!" The Major was cursing more violently by the moment.

"Are you all ready to leave?" he finally asked.

"Yes," all of them in unison. Well, all of the ones who could talk that is; John just nodded his head.

The Major nodded. "Then let's go."

As they headed over to Wenn Wuzzit by the Avant Gardens launch pad, the Major noticed something about the Engineer, Praxer. There was something different about the glance he stole at the Major when the Major's back was turned. What could it be? The Major listed the possibilities in his mind:

Excessive Fear: no, they all had that, it was only natural

Excessive Hate: possibly, though he couldn't figure any reason why Praxer would hate him more than they usually do.

Foreign-atmosphere: completely normal; The Major had always seemed foreign to the Nexus Force

Then he realized what it was: a combination of the three. Praxer was xenophobic. He made a mental note of that right as they reached their destination.

"Wenn Wuzzit?" said the Major, a bit impatiently.

"Yes, what can I have done - sorry I mean what could I be doin- hold on...That's it! What can I do for you?"

The Major looked at the speaker. He was covered in various types of watches, and wore a totally insane-looking hat with a clock in it. He was pacing back and worth, and he leaned back to stare at the sky. He often put his hands up to his head, all of which gave the impression that he was distraught. The Major got the feeling that this was not uncommon for him. All in all, Wenn Wuzzit was the goofiest looking person the Major had ever laid eyes on, except perhaps that one time he had been hired to find Cringe Lo. THAT had not been fun.

"I believe you've been expecting me," the Major said.

Wenn Wuzzit finally stopped pacing and turned to look at the Major. "Oh, it's you," he said, "They told me you would be coming. Everything's ready, just hop into the portal. We've already closed off the Battle of Nimbus Station for you so just hop in and Wah-La! You'll be in the past. Or will you have been? Or were you already being? Oh, my..." And he resumed his distraught pacing.

The Major sighed, they better get this over with. He walked up to the portal, and beckoned his team to follow. He looked back one last time, and then he jumped in.

For a few seconds the rest of his team was speechless.

Then, out of the blue, Prax said, "You know we could just leave and no one would no where we had gone. It's not like he would be able to find us where he is now."

But the Daredevil, Axolc, just shook his head and replied, "Oh, come on! Where's your sense of adventure?!" and he leapt through the portal, leaving the others no choice but to follow.

Part II

Chapter 7

When the Major regained consciousness, he found himself in a place like none he had ever even heard of before, and seemingly miles from nowhere. What was he doing here?

Then he remembered: he was in the past.

With a slight groan, he got up to observe his surroundings. The first thing he noticed was that, from where he stood, the sky was a dark purple/blue blend. Which probably meant it was nighttime. Next, he let his gaze drop fall onto some mountain peaks to the - was it the north? It was impossible to tell. He shrugged, and continued to methodically lower his gaze, moving towards ground level. He realized that he was in a very craggy area, which could be described as a relatively shallow canyon that looked like some variation of Crux Prime or Forbidden Valley. But it wasn't an identical scene by far. For one thing, it seemed like the ground really was solid ground, and the rocks were blackish-brown instead of grey or purple. Even so, he reminded himself that anywhere he walked would become part of a planet he'd traveled before, in the future (or however you say it; unlike certain lunatics, the Major didn't care). He would have to look for similarities in the terrain and geological formations, and let these compensate for differences.

Then he turned his eyes towards the ground, and finally noticed the four bodies lying prone on the ground. "Poor kids," he thought, "They'll be out for a lot longer. They're not used to this sort of stress."

Then the Major realized what he had just thought. "POOR KIDS??? You CANNOT think like that, Major, for YOUR OWN sake!"

He knew he couldn't to let himself get attached to these kids. They were, after all, Nexus Force commandos, even if they were a bit underage. And besides that, the Major knew what happened when one gets too attached; it never ended well. So he resolved not to do anything that might rip open wounds, old or new. He was NOT about to go soft.

Then for the first time, the Major noticed something around him that he hadn't because his first thought had been the kids. He had come through in the middle of a small encampment, comprised of two beige tents and a dangerously unmanned campfire between them. Normally, he would have either checked out the tents or crept away into the distance before anyone noticed. But he now had the kids to worry about. "And I've also got to find a less personal name for them. If I keep calling them 'the kids', I'll inevitably get attached. I need a way to deny what they really are and yet still be able to believe the denial. And not just name-wise."

He thought about this, but then decided he would come up with something later, since lo and behold, his protégés were starting to wake. First Reyna, then the Daredevil, and finally Praxer started to get up with a groan. Jonathon had not yet awakened.

They started greeting each other before they were even completely awake. Once they all had come to grips (with none too much help from some of the Major's Xpressos) they began looking around cautiously, but once they had counted themselves, they appeared very alarmed. Reyna especially looked worried.

It didn't take them long to find their missing member though. As soon as they saw John lying on the ground, Reyna rushed over and tried to wake him. So far, it wasn't working.

"John... JOHN! Come on, wake up! WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP!!!" Reyna looked like she was on the brink of tears. Jonathon however showed no signs of life. 'And if the stress had been enough to knock all five of them out cold...'

The Major cursed; he had to do something. He didn't want to admit to himself that it was because he cared, so he told himself that if John went now, who knew what the grief would do to Reyna?

He pulled a vial out of his pack and got up. He calmly strode over to Jonathon, and pushed Reyna aside before she could object. He positioned the boy's head on his knee, and then thrust the vial to the boy's mouth. The powerful liquids rushed in. Having seen every drop down the boy's throat, the Major straightened up from his hunched position, and waited. Three seconds later, he got a reaction.

Jonathon started to cough. At first it was very weak, but gradually it became more forceful, and soon the boy was breathing again. In a moment he sat up, and gazed groggily at his surroundings. Judging from his expression, the Major guessed that the world had not yet come into focus for him.

At that point, Reyna was so over stimulated that she tried to rush over and embrace brother, but the Major held her back. "Let him come to his senses first." he said.

Jonathon turned to where he heard the voice, and it must have been that moment that the world came into focus, because his eyes suddenly widened and he started to slowly back away from the Major. He went slowly because he was almost completely frozen with fear. He gave Major a look of terror that unnerved everyone, including the Major.

"He's awake. You may go." the Major said as he released his grip on Reyna.

Like a mad rabbit, she rushed to John's side to comfort him. Soon he was back to normal, but in the Major's books, that still was not good condition.

"He really does have that paranoid look, like at any moment something could jump out of nowhere and grab him. He's only twelve, it's just wrong. It's inhuman, whoever did this to him. And I want to know what."

The Major didn't have time to correct his own thoughts, because right at that moment, there was the sound of a flap opening, and the Major turned just in time to see the source of it crawl out of his tent.

Chapter 8

"Well, hewo der gud strangers. Where yus from?"

The speaker, who had just stood up after exiting the tent, was an old guy with a cane. If his attire was to be trusted, he was evidently a member of the bone tribe. The Major looked warily at him. He didn't appear trustworthy, and the Major trusted no one to begin with.

"Where yus from?" the Bone guy repeated, "Dusn't yus understand mees language?"

"Oh! Uh, we understand, and we're not from anywhere in particular, Mr. ...uh" The Major was stuttering. 'Nexus!' He was not himself right now.

But this didn't seem to bother the Bone.

"Heeh, Heeh, Heeh!" the Bone laughed in a raspy voice, "Yus, gud strangers, yus may calls me UNCLE THOKI!"

Axolc smiled, "Pleased to meet you, Thoki," he said, "Is it alright if we just call you Thoki?"

"Dat wurks tu." Thoki replied, "Now what can Thoki dus for yus un dis fine murning?'

The Major decided that the accent must be fake, because it was inconsistant. But he decided to bide his time. "Can you tell us how far it is to the nearest village?" he asked.

"Of corse good sirs, I wus just hedding der now, with my wares."

"Your 'Wares'?" the Major eyed him suspiciously.

"Thoki sells used wepuns and armors. Yus want tu see? Der in de wagun-cart thingies behinds me." he pointed back behind him without turning around.

The Major looked over the Bone's shoulder. "What wagon?" he asked.

"What dus yus mean? It's rite der-" he turned "OH NOES!!! Thoki haz bin ROBBED!!!!"

"Well then, let's go catch whoever stole it!" Axolc said, obviously eager for battle.

"Wud yus? Cud yus? OH, THANK YUS!! Thoki cud HUGS yus!!"

"No you won't. And we will find the theives," The Major decided that it would be a good opportunity to check out the kids in combat. "But you'll owe us a favor."

"Thoki wud du anydings!! Wat's in dat waguns es Thoki's life!!"

"Okay then," the Major said, "Let's move out!!"

So he and his team did.

---

As they were walking down the canyon, Axolc thought back. During the conversation Axolc had noticed how Prax and Reyna had looked at Thoki with disgust. He didn't see why his friends were so negative towards non-members of the Nexus Force. They were people too, even if sometimes they did talk a little funny.

He didn't have time to berate them for being rude, however, before Reyna had asked the question they had all been wondering.

"Sir, what was it you gave Jon that woke him up?" she asked the Major.

"A powerful healing potion of my own design. It can bring anyone back to their maximum strength, even when they're on death's door."

Reyna looked puzzled, "Then why didn't you use it on the rest of us?" she asked.

"Because it takes an entire vial, and they're reserved for emergencies. The potion costs a lot to make, and I only have four." The Major sounded rather impatient.

"Then why-"

"BECAUSE I need you at maximum efficiency or you will slow me down even more than you already are!! And I doubt Vanda will be very eager to pay if you guys wind up dead. She doesn't seem eager to pay as it is!!" the Major definitely was getting impatient

Then Prax spoke up, "I have a question," he said, "Why are we helping that underling? We're just wasting time."

"Prax!!"

"No, it's a good question." The Major stopped Reyna short of arguing till the end of time. "First reason: He'll owe us a favor, and I can use that."

"We don't need his help."

"Don't interrupt. We may not NEED his help, but it will make things easier seeing as we don't know the lay of the land." By now the Major was staring pointedly at Praxer. "Second reason: I am actually interested in seeing what he sells, and whether it is legit, although it probably isn't. Third reason: WE will not be stopping the thieves, YOU will. I want to check out your form."

At this, Axolc shuddered. It had been a while since he had practiced, so he was afraid of what the Major might do to him if he messed up. He looked around, and noticed that the others felt the same way. Luckily, the Major didn't notice, or if he did, he didn't care.

---

By the time they reached their destination, the Major had almost gone deaf. The kids had pestered him with questions the entire walk. He was more than eager to get this over with.

The tracks left by the cart had led them through a secret pass in the crags, into a series of hilly green fields. Since then, there hadn't been any road, so the Major was taking notes on every landmark he saw. Which was nothing. The hills were that empty. They'd just have to hope that the tracks wouldn't disappear before they got back to the road.

"Okay, there's your target." He said, pointing at a cart in a patch of tall grass that lay below them. "Now go get it. I will watch you so I can get an idea of how you operate."

The kids looked nervously at each other, then huddled together to discuss their plan. When they were done, the Major watched them head into the tall grass.

Then came the interesting part.

Chapter 9

The four kids split up when they were halfway down the hill. Axolc and Jon diverged to the left and right, while Reyna and Prax continued walking straight towards the cart. So far, so good. They hadn't been seen by the bandits yet.

The bandits wore identical blue shirts and black trousers, and none of them were wearing headgear. Two of them stood watch while a third was rummaging through the cart's load, which even from a distance was obviously too much for the poor cart.

However, from Axolc's observations it seemed that the two on watch must have been pretty bored, because they were almost falling asleep and by the looks of it not taking their job very seriously.

Axolc also noticed that the tall grass ended before they reached the cart, which meant that Reyna and Praxer would have to act their part all the more convincingly.

The two of them casually strolled out of the tall grass and out into the open. The two guards bolted upright, and marched over to interrogate them.

Axolc only caught snippets of the dialogue as he snuck around to the other side of the cart, but he figured it was something like:

"Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"Hello, my boyfriend and I were wondering if you could tell us how to get out of these hills? We snuck here to get married but now we're lost and we can't even find the preacher."

"Why would you have to sneak away for that? And where exactly are you from?"

"Our families back home are having a feud, and we'd never gain their consent."

"But where exactly are you from? Are you from the Bot Village? You don't look like Exploreian Bots."

"Yes, we grew up in the Bot Village, even though we aren't Exploreians ourselves."

...and that was as far as they got. The guard suddenly grabbed Reyna, and shouted something about spies and yester. Did he mean yesterday? It was hard to tell. Whatever he said, one thing was clear: their cover was blown.

Axolc leapt from his hiding spot along the left side of the cart, and jumped the one who had been rummaging through the stolen loot. He clobbered the bandit on the head with one of his Flareguns, while he fired the other at the one holding Reyna. But his aim wasn't near good enough, and the bandits easily dodged.

Axolc heard a sound, and turned his head just in time to see Jon leap up from the other side of the cart and tackle the bandit Axolc had just stunned. As Jon engaged the thief in melee combat, Axolc turned back to watch the others. They weren't doing well. One Bandit was wrestling Prax sumo-style, and winning, while the other had Reyna pinned to the ground face down. Axolc charged in, firing his Flareguns all the way. The bandit holding Reyna turned just in time to feel Axolc boot in his face. The kick momentarily stunned him, which was enough of an opening for Reyna to kick her legs back and send the bandit flying off her.

Axolc and Reyna both turned to see Praxer fly straight into edge of the cart with a crash. They were about to rush to his aid, when the one who had attacked Reyna grabbed them both and slammed them into the ground, face-first. He held both of their heads down while his companion went and grabbed Prax by the shirt, and threw him over to join them. Once all three of them had been immobilized by the first bandit, the one who had thrown Praxer went into the cart and retrieved the first blade he could find, a scythe. He hurried over to them, and beckoned his partner to stand aside.

But his partner didn't move. Instead he started arguing, saying that he should have brought a rope so they could bound and interrogate the spying kids before they killed them. His companion yelled back that they were too dangerous and that he was the leader so he decided what they would do. The first argued that they were equal in rank, and soon the conflict arose into a full-fledged argument. You would think that the one holding them down would have found this at least somewhat distracting, but no, he kept the three kids pinned helplessly on the ground.

That was when Jon reappeared. He shot the scythe out of the executioner's hand with his bow, and followed up with a Samurai flying kick that sent the one he had hit flying. The first bandit got up to try and grab him, but Jon defended himself easily, and then went on the offensive, driving the bandit back with his katana. Annoyed, the bandit grabbed the fallen scythe, and began to counter Jon's attacks with his own. But unlike the bandit, Jon had not forgotten the three bodies face-down on the ground.

Reyna was up in a shot when she realized she was free, and just as quickly she charged at the remaining bandit. The bandit turned, and was extremely surprised to see the little girl he thought he had subdued charge at him with two lethally sharp curved blades. He was even more startled when she actually used them.

SSSHHRINNKK

It was him or them, but that didn't make it feel better. Especially not Reyna, who was more than aware of Jon staring at her.

Exhausted, Reyna plopped down on the ground. Had she really just done that? Yes, she had, there was no doubt. She hung her head low and she started to cry.

She felt the touch of someone trying to comfort her and looked up. It was Jon. He sat down next to her and tried to comfort her. Their roles had switched. Now she was the one distressed and he was the one trying to calm her down. It felt strange, but also soothing in a way. She knew he would always be there, to comfort or be comforted. It calmed her down, and also gave her a warm sense of security. She felt at peace.

Axolc, meanwhile, was helping Praxer up out of the mud. When he glanced over and saw Reyna sobbing with Jon at her side, he knew to stay out of it. He brushed himself off, and looked around. No sign of anyone else around. He walked over to peer into the cart. The third bandit was nowhere to be found. He looked down. Ahh, so that's how Jon did it. Axolc saw the third bandit had been buried underneath an avalanche of armor and weapons that had somehow slid off the open end of the cart. Axolc beckoned Praxer to come over to see, but the engineer, tired and not really in the mood, rolled his eyes and trudged over half-heartedly.

"Looks like someone's been buried in a surplus of success," Axolc said.

Prax raised an eyebrow, "Is that the best pun you can come up with for this scenario? Cuz almost anything beats that."

Axolc sighed; sometimes Praxer could just be depressing. He was serious ALL the time!! No matter what Axolc would have said, Praxer still wouldn't have laughed, or even smiled. He had no sense of humor whatsoever. Axolc didn't know why he ever bothered trying to be humorous around him other than hoping that Prax would somehow change. And Praxer was a creature of habit, so much so that sometimes Axolc actually considered the possibility that Prax didn't believe change existed.

But Axolc was cheery anyways, whether for Praxer's benefit or for team moral in general.

"You know," Prax said, and Axolc turned to face him. He was still staring at the buried bandit. "This all seems so... anticlimactic. I'd almost say it was too eas-"

He never finished his sentence, because he was interrupted by the sound of someone struggling. He wheeled around to see the second bandit dragging Axolc in front of him by the neck. He held a knife to the Daredevil's throat.

"One move and he dies." was all the bandit said. It was all he needed to.

Praxer looked out of the corner of his eyes. Reyna and Jon thankfully had seen the knife, and weren't trying to do anything except stare at the bandit. The bandit stared back.

"I want to know who you are, and who sent you." he said, "You're obviously not-"

There was the sound of a weapon discharging behind him. His expression froze, and he slumped down, releasing Axolc and the knife. He lay still once he hit the ground.

All four kids turned to see who their rescuer was.

It was the Major.

"Get up," he said, "We've got some work to do."

Chapter 10

The Major had made his decision: they could not go on like this.

After he had saved the kids' hides, they immediately went and delivered the stolen cart to Thoki. It was a silent trip. Who knew what was going through those kids' heads? The Major didn't care.

Thoki, however had been positively joyful to see his wares again.

"OH GUD STRANGERS!!! Thoki cud KISS yus!! Thoki is so hahpy!!!"

Ugh, the Major was in a foul mood, and somehow Thoki's hysteria didn't seem to help.

After getting directions from Thoki on how to reach the village, they said their goodbyes and headed in opposite directions: Thoki rode his cart into town while the Major led the kids back into the fields of green. Once they got there, it was nearly dark, so they decided to crash at the top of a hill in the dead center of the fields. Soon, the kids were fast asleep.

The Major, however, had other plans.

he spent the whole night awake, so he could build something they would be needing for the next month or so from the available materials. This was not a long list. He got wood from the forest to the right of the craggy areas, found water from a creek in the same forests, and wove together some grass nets, since grass was in surplus stock. It was daybreak before he was finished and began heading back to their campsite.

Along the way, he thought about what he had seen yesterday. The performance of his young ones was why he had brought them back to these fields. What was it Thoki had called them? The Jade Hills, that was it. The name certainly did fit; the hills were definitely very green, and they did seem to glisten when the sun shone just right. They were also quite vast. All-in-all they would serve the Major's purposes just fine.

The Major had expected to see the kids up and about by the time he got to camp. When he saw no sign of any activity as he marched up the hill, he started to get both anxious and annoyed. And annoying the Major was probably one of the top five deadliest extreme sports in the universe, maybe even top three. The kids were not going to like what was in store for them.

When he reached the camp, he casually enter it without waking anybody, which was not a good sign. It meant he would actually have to wake them up himself.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beauties!!" he said in a sarcastic voice. When this got no response, he took a deep breath, and at the top of his lungs shouted, "ON YOUR FEET!!!"

The kids were out of their sleeping bags and stock straight in about 1.7 seconds. Hmm... it seemed they'd have to work on improving time-efficiency.

"SIR!" Praxer said, while making a failing effort not to yawn, "What's wrong?"

The Major simply replied, "I am surrounded by people who seem to be more focus when sleeping than when fighting. Now get yourselves together so I don't have to yell at half-awake test dummies. I do NOT want to hear any yawning interrupt me, got it?" He made his voice sound as militaristic as possible. "Do whatever it is you usually do in the mornings, so I can begin our little pep talk."

The Major was in a foul mood, and the kids were finding it hard not to notice. Once they had had some breakfast and coffee, they lined up at attention in front of the Major. Without telling them, he was actually timing them.

'Hmm... we'll DEFINITELY need to work on some time-efficiency,' he thought.

Once they were all lined up, the Major began his speech.

"I'll get straight to the point. Yesterday your performance was somewhat lacking. In fact, you work about as efficiently together as the average rank 2 noob can work alone!!"

The kids shot nervous glances at each other. They didn't think they had been THAT bad.

"Your form is terrible." the Major continued, "You only won by virtue of the fact that you outnumbered them four to three, and that I was there to save your hides when you got sloppy at the end. And your opponents were just common thieves!!! We cannot go on like this."

At that point, the kids were hanging their heads low, and they didn't make a sound. It was almost as if the Major was looking at four Jonathons wearing different gear. The Major paused to see if one broke the silence, either to defend them or to lighten up the mood. Leave it to Praxer to be the one to object.

"I, for one, think we performed rather well considering it was our first real-life combat experience."

The Major was stunned. "Wha-what?? Did you just say-"

"It was our first live-fire exercise, sir." Praxer apparently had an urgent need to interrupt.

The Major decided that this was the last straw. "Well, I have still seen better, and let me tell you this: You have not earned the armor you wear. So until you do, you shall not wear it."

Then it was Praxer's turn to be stunned. "Whah? You don't mean-"

"Yes I do. And do not interrupt." The Major held out his hand to the shocked kids. "Cough 'em up," he said, "and you'll get them back when you earn them."

For a few seconds, all three were stunned. Then Jonathon reached up and pulled off his helmet, revealing short brown hair underneath. He handed it to the Major, along with the rest of his armor once he had removed it. The others followed suit, but instead of shock on their faces, they now glared daggers at the Major. But the interesting thing was that the glare began when Jonathon had surrendered his helmet. The Major wondered if perhaps he had touched a very serious subject, one that had an unpleasant back-story. But he decided that he would have to worry about this later, and continued his speech.

"Now here is how you will earn them back. We will be spending the next month or more training in these hills. I will take each of you aside, one at a time, and train you individually for a week. The order will be: Praxer, Axolc, Reyna, and then Jonathon. Then, once you all meet my expectations, we will spend some extra time reviewing everything and testing your new capabilities. Once these individual tests are completed, we will begin team training, which we'll end in a similar manner, except the tests will be harder, since you'll be working together. We will spend as many months as it takes to get you up to an acceptable level. Are we clear?"

The Major looked around. His trainees looked a little uncertain, but there were no one had any questions. Which suited the Major just fine.

"In that case, we will begin immediately. In case you didn't catch this part, Praxer, you're coming first. The others will stay here, while we go off to another hill where they won't distract you." The Major focused his stare. "Unless you have any objections?"

He said the last part in a tone that clearly indicated what would happen if Praxer did. Praxer wasn't stupid, and got the gist. "No sir!" he said, "Let's get this over with, sir."

The Major glanced at the others. "Good," he said, "then let's go."

And so they began their trek to the other side of the fields.

Chapter 11

As they walked, the Major contemplated the past few days. In particular he pondered his group of learners. When he took the job he was told that they were from a branch of Nexus Force called A.N.C. or "Advanced Nexus Commandos"

But what troubled him was that it was certain that these kids were neither "advanced" nor "commandos", just the opposite in fact.

And that meant that "A.N.C." was a fake. It had to be a cover for something else. But what?

The Major now knew he had two mysteries he needed to solve before he could leave: the one he was hired to solve, and the secret of these kids.

A.N.C.

What could it mean?

---

Praxer had woken up in a foul mood. And being picked on by this... outsider hadn't helped.

By the time they reached their destination (which of course was on the other side of the fields, which from his observations were no different than the side the others were in), Praxer was sore and tired, and neither of these ever helped to improve his mood. He was impatient to get this so called "training" over with. As if there was anything he needed to learn.

"So what now?" he asked the Major.

"You run the course," the Major said, indicating an obstacle course he had set up, "and then come back." The Major indicated a bypass he had built alongside the course. "I will time you. You will repeat the course as many times as it takes for you to meet my expectations."

Prax looked at the course. It started on the hill they were on, with a wooden bridge leading to the neighboring hill (as if there needed to be a bridge). Then the course continued through some sandbags hung on ropes that swung like pendulums, and on to stepping stones, rope challenges, rings that looked like those rings of fire you see in the movies except they weren't on fire, and something that looked similar to a conveyor belt before it finally ended on another neighboring hill. The entire course covered at least five hills.

"Fine," Praxer replied, "and when I get back you'll be shocked at how low you placed your expectations."

"We'll see," the Major said, as if there was something he wasn't Praxer, but he knew the boy would find out soon enough.

Praxer got ready to run the course. He began his warm-up by stretching his legs and working his way up, as was his usual routine.

But then his routine was interrupted when the Major said, "Just a reminder: you're being timed."

"Yeah. So?" was Praxer's reply.

"As in right now." the Major clarified.

"Wait, what? How the crux is that fair?!"

"Life's not fair. There will be times when you will not have the time to sip lovely wine and stretch your legs. Do you think the Maelstrom or whatever it is Nexus Force is fighting this week is gonna see you stretchin' your legs and say 'Oh, I'm sorwy! Were you going to warm up first? I'll just come back later when you're done.'"

Praxer was now convinced that the Major was deliberately trying to push all his buttons. 'Whatever we're fighting this week?! Who does he think he is?'

As if reading his thoughts, the Major said, "If you're thinking about trying to put me in what you see as my place, remember that we have yet to put you in yours. Or, to save us a bunch of trouble, you could just run the course, seeing as your time is ticking."

This, Praxer decided, was the limit. He'd show him. He'd set a record the Major would never forget.

Praxer got up and dashed to the course, and when he got to the bridge he didn't slow down. About 3 feet across, the floorboards he was standing on gave way, and he plummeted down through the supports. He had wondered why the seemingly solid supports were necessary; they weren't. They were hollow, and led down to a tunnel underground.

'This is probably another way to the end of the course,' he thought, 'our old instructor used to have quite a few of those in our old exercises.'

Praxer sighed, oh how he longed for the days training in Nexus Tower, before he was forced to put up with this outsider. But those days were long gone, and-

And he remembered his timer was ticking.

Curses! He got up to his feet, and raced down the tunnel. His path was dimly lit by some torches hung on the walls. At the end there was a ladder, but it went up beyond the light of the torches. But seeing as he had no other way, he climbed. He figured it could be another way to the end.

He hit his head on something hard. He groped around with one hand, while holding on with the other. He couldn't see where he was; he couldn't see what he was doing; he couldn't even see the hand that was two inches from his face!

Then he felt a handle on the ceiling, and pushed.

He found himself outside, which meant the handle had belonged to a trapdoor! He gave a sigh of relief, he had finally finished the-

And then he saw the Major in front of him, and realized he was back where he had started.

The Major shook his head, slowly and deliberately, as if to say, "You have my sympathy, but that doesn't change the fact that you fail!"

Praxer growled, and started again. By this time he knew not to ask the Major if his time would be reset.

He looked at the bridge. There had to be some way to get across it. And then it hit him: the handrails.

Praxer turned himself sideways, and planted his feet on the left handrail, while hanging onto the right one with his hands. He slowly moved himself along with his hands and feet, until he had reached the opposite end. He looked back, but he couldn't tell the Major's expression, since his posture gave no indication to anything, and like always, he was wearing his helmet.

When he remembered that his time was ticking, Praxer turned back to the course ahead. The next challenge was the swinging sandbags. He ran right in. Praxer thought he was doing pretty well, until about halfway through, one of the bags hit him. Whatever was in there was definitely not sand, in reality it felt more like cement. Knowing the Major, it probably WAS cement.

Praxer gritted his teeth and continued, but he was worn and less focused. He was getting hit more often. But since the Major hadn't told him to restart the first time he got hit, he didn't care.

Then, when he was almost to the end of the sandbag portion, three sandbags descended on him in unison, and he couldn't get away in time. He was already weakened from getting hit so much, and he had also noticed that, unless his senses were deceiving him, the load in the sandbags had been getting heavier and heavier, as if gradually transitioning from sand to cement, only in this case from cement to something that made cement seem as soft as sand. But these three sandbags must have made a giant departure from the pattern, because in comparison, the earlier cement-filled sandbags felt as light as air. But he didn't care, because whatever these three bags were filled with, the combined force of all three was too much for Prax in his weakened state, and he tumbled of the edge of the course.

At first, Praxer was grateful that the hill wasn't so steep or high up from ground level. That was before he had fallen through the false layer of grass that the Major had been so kind to weave. It turned out that underneath this deception, the hill was very, very steep and very, very high up. After at least 60 seconds he finally landed in a pool of mud (60 seconds may not seem like a long time, but it seems like an eternity when you are falling down a practically vertical hill).

The good news was that the mud cushioned the impact, so he survived.

The bad news was that, well, it was mud.

The worst news of all was that the first thing he saw when he came out was a sign that read:

IF YOU CAN READ THIS
THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO
START OVER

'Oh, c'mon! This guy has got some nerve!'

And so Praxer continued the course, and the Major's hidden surprises did not let up. The stepping stones, he learned, were not only waxed but also positioned over a hidden bed of nails. The rope challenges used extremely weak ropes, so he had to jump from one rope to the next rapidly or they would break. The rings he had first described as "rings of fire minus the fire" were actually covered with painful substances of varying kinds, including acid, boiling tar, glue, and an unidentifiable one with the properties of all three. He had to restart the course five times before he reached the conveyor belt challenge.

That was when he realized that the conveyor belt part was another unstable bridge, except this time there were obstacles advancing on him. He looked and saw that these were actually modified Samuraizor dummies with wheels. Somehow they managed to not fall through the weaker floorboards. Which would mean... the center would have to be stable enough to support them! ...which would mean he could safely traverse it!

The problem was: then he would be directly on the line of the dummies' path, so he would have to fight his way through them. And his current state was weaponless.

He charged forward to confront the first one, and flipped it over his head. But this wasn't an instantaneous maneuver, so by the time he had completed it the next one was practically on top of him. He punched it with all his might, and it flipped over on top of the one behind it. He leapt over those two, and knocked the next one aside with a swift roundhouse kick. Inch by inch, little by little, ever so slowly he was fighting his way across to the end. By the time he got there, he had no energy left.

His face was red, and covered in cuts. His body was bruised all over, and he was beginning to suffer from fatigue. He looked over to the contraption that had been producing the dummies. It was similar to the statues in Forbidden Valley, except it held a Samuraizor in each hand, and it didn't quite resemble a dark ronin. It actually looked more like one of the dummies itself.

Praxer's exhaustion soon gave way to rage at this machine that had caused him pain, and in his fury he grabbed one of the Samuraizors and snapped it in half. Then he did the same for the other one.

Then he turned and began to make his way across the bridge that led straight back to the Major. But he was so tired that he barely noticed when one of the floorboards gave way, and he fell down into the tunnel below. By the time he lifted the lid of the trapdoor and pulled himself out, tears were ready to run down his cheeks. But he didn't let them. He had completed the course, and that was all that mattered.

But wait - hadn't he just come up through the trapdoor? But then that would mean-

He gave in and cried. He didn't care that the Major was right there in front of him. He just closed his eyes and let the tears roll down. He had failed.

---

The Major had seen enough. It was clear that there was more to this boy than meets the eye. Arrogant he may be, but he had endurance like none the Major had ever seen. The Major had wanted to see what it would take to break him, and now he knew: it was the sense of defeat when faced with victory. The Major had just left a little taste of this feeling at the end by having the floorboards of the way back be as weak as the ones on the first bridge. At the time he thought this would not be enough if the person had already cleared the entire course. Apparently he was wrong. This blow might pretty well have crushed the boy's spirit. If it had, the Major might never forgive himself. But it had done its job: it had softened the boy so he was ready for the Major's training.

The Major did, however, see that this boy had been through enough for one day. He picked up the boy, and carried him over to the camp they would be using for the rest of the week. He laid Prax on his cot, and brought the blankets up to the boys head. It felt odd to feel pity for this boy, who had given him the hardest time of them all.

Then the Major turned around to lie down on his own cot. He was asleep in seconds.

And that night, he dreamed about his past.

Chapter 12

The Major woke up with a start! He surveyed his surroundings until he knew that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

He sat up and thought about what had happened. He had had the dream again last night, the dream that he had had since he was a kid. But the thing that tortured him about it was that he knew it wasn't just a dream, it was actually a memory. Most people can just shrug off a bad dream and say "It's not important, because it isn't real," but the Major couldn't. His dream actually WAS real.

The Major wondered why he would've had the dream again now, fifteen years since the last time he had had it. Usually, people say that when repeating dreams that they had forgotten suddenly return, that they return more vivid than ever before. In the Major's case, however, the dream hadn't become more vivid, just a bit less accurate with details in order to make it more dramatic and terrifying. And if this sort of thing could disturb the Major, who knew what horrors Jonathon was seeing each night?

The thought of Jonathon brought him back into the present: he was supposed to be training the kids.

He got up with a grunt and walked over to Praxer's bed to wake him up. But to his surprise, Praxer's bed was empty. He looked around, and when he didn't see the boy anywhere, he decided to check out the area more thoroughly.

---

It is said that a day where you don't learn anything is a day you didn't live. And the Major was learning something new each day.

He found Praxer at the obstacle course, trying to get a better time.

The Major watched from afar as the boy prepared to run it once more. The boy crouched down in a ready position, braced himself in that position for three seconds, and then darted over the unstable bridge. He ran so fast that he was always one step ahead of the falling boards. The Major was seriously impressed.

And then he didn't stop there. The Major watched as Praxer dashed through the swinging sandbags without even slowing down. Not a single one hit him. He was evading left, right, over, around, and then, to the Major's wonder, actually slid under the final three without slowing down, and was back on his feet the moment he was clear. He had not even slowed down.

The Major realized that, without knowing it, he had actually been timing the boy's progress, and he was glad he did. The record was astounding.

When he got to the waxed stepping stones, Prax jumped to the first one, and then the second, and then the third. The Major realized that he was actually timing each step so that he landed on the closest edge of each stone, slid forward, and then propelled himself off the opposite edge. Now the Major was REALLY impressed.

When he reached the rope challenges (he hadn't stopped running) he grabbed the nearest rope and snapped it off, jumped into the air, swung the rope he was holding over one the bars the ropes hung from with his right hand, grabbed the opposite end in his left, and zepplined across to the other side. And incredibly, the boy still had not slowed down even once!

Then came the ring challenge. By this point the Major was incredibly intent at watching the boy and was anxious to find out what he would do next. And he wasn't disappointed. Praxer leapt into the air, used the rope he was still holding like a whip, and swung through the ring. His hands were so close to the top of the ring and of his rope, it almost looked insane. But the Major still made a note that he would need to design them a bit smaller in the future.

After Prax had repeated the process several times, he reached the Samuraizor dummy challenge. The Major watched, as the boy again used his rope like a whip, only this time on the first dummy. Once he was sure it was securely fasten, began to swing the rope, and the dummy, over his head. He charged forward, and as each dummy got close, it was suddenly whipped off the track by the boy's new powerful swinging weapon. In no time at all he was at the end, but, unlike yesterday, this time he didn't stop. He dashed across the final bridge to the start hill the same way he had run across the first. He only came to rest once he was on the hill.

And that was when the Major finally decided that his presence should be known.

*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP*CLAP* "BRAVO, Prax, BRAVO!!!" *CLAP*CLAP*

Praxer looked shocked. Getting applause was one thing; getting it from the Major was another entirely. In fact, up until that point he had thought that his latest run was somewhat behind the others he had made that morning. But now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was a sight he would never forget.

"Good Morning, Major" he said, "How long have you been there?"

"Just long enough to see that last run," the Major replied, "in which you managed to beat my expectations by half."

Praxer was stunned. He had not expected to clear the Major's minimum time until later that afternoon! Who knew? Maybe this could be the start of something more... he couldn't think of the right word. But he had the feeling that, whatever it was, this would be the start. And he was excited.

"So what's on the schedule for training today?" he asked, innocently.

The Major leaned back, as if trying to remember. "Well, let's see..." he began, "I believe that today we ditch the obstacle courses and go work on our leadership skills. Sound good?" For once it was not a rhetorical question.

"Sounds good!" Prax replied, and they headed over to their camp. He found that he was actually starting to grow on the Major, which surprised him. But since he couldn't think of any reason why not, he decided to welcome the new friendship.

By the end of the day, he didn't even think he needed Nexus Force anymore.

---

At sunset, a spying figure emerged from his hiding place. He was glad he had remained in the hills, because now he had some valuable information for the king. In fact, the king might even reward him. The thought brought an certain feeling to mind, but whether it was ambition or happiness he couldn't tell. It had always been hard for anyone his race to differentiate the two.

It had been weeks since he had first lost contact with his companions. When he finally found them again two days ago, all three of them were dead, and the cart that they were supposed to deliver was nowhere in sight. He once again felt glad that he had decided to stick around, or else he never would have heard what had happened to them.

Apparently, a couple of kids, led by a peculiar bounty hunter, had stopped them. The kids had at first played innocent, but then they were uncovered as not being native. In fact, from what he had overheard from the two around the campfire, none of them were from anywhere nearby. He had also learned that the other three kids were at a separate camp, though he had yet to find out why they were divided.

The figure considered his options. He could either go and report to the king now, or he could stay in the Jade Hills a while longer. If he stayed longer, then he further had the choice of trying to gather more intel, or try and take out the three kids over on the other side, since from what he had gathered they were rather inexperienced.

He pondered a while, and then decided that first he would eavesdrop on the other camp before heading back to alert the king, WITHOUT starting anything.

After all, he would definitely need proof before the king would believe his story about warriors from another world.

Chapter 13

For Prax, it seemed like the week had gone by in a single day. He had never felt like this before.

But it was the last day of training, and he knew the Major had to work with the others as well. They couldn't train together much longer. This would be their last day.

But Praxer had plans for it.

---

By now the Major was getting tired just by trying to think about what A.N.C. could mean. It could be anything, but nothing seemed likely. This morning the Major had finally decided that it probably wasn't actually "A.N.C.", just something pronounced in a similar way: "ANK".

The sound of Praxer returning brought him out of his thoughts. He had let the boy run off because he had said there was something special he said he needed to work on. So he let him, and had sat there all morning waiting for his return.

He heard the sound of an engine, which was odd, since there shouldn't have been anyone around to drive it, unless...

Oh, crux! The Major turned to face the sound with his weapon raised. He aimed it squarely at the driver...

It was Prax.

"What in Nex's name do you think you're doing boy?!" the Major yelled.

Prax just smiled as he pulled up next to the Major and climbed down. "I found this abandoned on the side of the road, and decided it would make our trips across the fields much easier," he replied.

The Major was extremely worried, the boy didn't seem to get that this could blow their cover, and with it their whole operation. He quickly pressed Praxer for more precise details. "A: What road? Did they recently make one here in the middle of nowhere? B: Did you actually see someone desert it? C: When did this happen? D: If this was what you needed to work on, why did you not inform me sooner?" The Major was counting each one on his fingers as he said them.

Prax was just as quick to reply; He sounded sarcastic today, which, from the Major's observations thus far, usually meant he was in a good mood (for him). "A: It was just a figure of speech; I found it in the woods. B: No, but it was in pretty bad shape when I found it upside-down and stuck in the creek. C: I first found it three days ago, and I've been working on it during my spare time. D: Ever heard of surprises?"

The Major was now very worried; if the vehicle had been found like that then the owners were probably still around. "A: This is not a joke, please be literal. B: Then our presence may be known. C: By 'spare time' do you mean when you're supposed to be asleep? D: Not a good idea when in enemy territory."

"A: Whatever. B: I doubt it. C: You sound like my mother. D: See 'A'."

"Alright, enough of this nonsense!! Tell me everything, in chronological order and medium-length adaptation." The Major was getting very impatient.

Praxer, however, noticed this, so he decided to tell the Major his story without any more hassle. "Ok, so during our foraging exercise three days ago, I stumbled upon this, but I was in a hurry, so I ignored it and moved on. Later I came back and managed to haul it out of the mud, and, by the looks of it, it has been here longer than we have. Over the past few nights I've been restoring it, and today I finally finished the new paint job. As you can see, it's very adaptable, and can ride most terrains with ease. It can also hold up to 5 people: 2 in the front, 2 in the back, and one on the turret."

"Did you say it has a TURRET?! Then that means it's a WAR VEHICLE!!! Which means it would only be here if WE HAD BEEN DISCOVERED!!!"

Praxer shook his head. "It was in the creek longer than we've been in the fields, remember?"

"Oh really?" the Major said, as he walked over and leapt into the machine. "Then, pray tell, why isn't there any MOLD on these MILITARY RATIONS I just found in the WATERPROOF COMPARTMENTS?!"

Praxer's grin turned to a frown as he realized he had been set up. He quickly leapt up into the shotgun seat, and fastened his seatbelt. When he looked over, the Major was already buckled in the driver's seat.

The Major stepped on the pedal, and they rushed across the fields. Not a word was spoken. Both of them knew that Praxer had made an honest mistake, but both of them also knew that he shouldn't have kept it a secret. Both of them knew where they needed to go, and both of them knew who they would find when they got there. What neither of them knew was how many of them would still be alive.

---

When the squad's transport crashed, they done an excellent job in making the accident look less recent. But they knew the deception couldn't last, so they moved swiftly to confront the three younger warriors.

The king HAD been pleased with the one who had been spying the other night. So much so, in fact, that he made him the leader of the mission he put in effect: to eliminate the other-worlders. This promotion worked two-ways: if they succeeded, he would have earned it, but if they failed it would mean he would be dead anyways, so it all worked out. And he planned on succeeding.

But there was one problem: these kids did not seem to know when to DIE!! For TWO DAYS they had besieged their camp, and yet still the greatest warriors on the planet were unable to breach the rag-tag defenses set up by these kids!! It was OUTRAGEOUS!!!

He hadn't lost any men, thankfully, but as far as he could tell, neither had they. And the other two were due back any day now, so if they were going to succeed, they needed a new plan, NOW.

The mission leader had been thinking these very thoughts when his lieutenant walked over and addressed him. He leaned over to whisper something in the leader's ear. When he finished, the leader was grinning from ear to ear, and gave the orders of attack as had just been suggested.

Then the leader looked back at the children's defenses. It seemed strange, but he admired them. But then they were fellow warriors too, so to respect them was only natural. But to admire them...

He shook of these thoughts, his duty came first. He turned around and got ready for the final attack.

Chapter 14

The kids were running out of options. When they had realized they were under attack, Reyna and Axolc had immediately fortified the hill they were on with whatever they could find and prop up, which happened to be a dozen classic rocket parts of varying colors. Jon had helped set them up too, but they had let him rest since he was scared. They all were, but Jon was especially. He was the youngest after all, and the most emotionally scarred.

It had been two days since they had first seen the approaching enemy warriors, who were making a failing effort to not be detected. They were, after all, in a grassy field that went on for miles and miles without any sort of cover. This had given the kids enough time to prepare their defenses.

They had then proceeded with their job of staying alive. Axolc knew they were causing the attackers some grief; at the start of the battle, they had rigged anything they couldn't use as cover to explode, and hurled them over the defenses and down into the enemy camp. As far as Axolc could tell, this hadn't caused any casualties, but it had caused a great deal of loud cussing from the attacking forces.

A closer inspection had revealed that the attackers wore similar outfits to the thieves who had stolen the cart, and Axolc was sure this was not a coincidence. How they knew about them, he didn't know. Maybe they got worried when their booty hadn't arrived at the scheduled time. Who knew?

It didn't matter. What mattered now was that there was an unusual amount of activity in the enemy camp, as if they were getting ready to attack again. Axolc woke up Reyna, who had been asleep. They decided to let Jon sleep longer, at least until they really needed him. They did not want to cause him any more worry, and he needed rest.

Reyna took her Elite Long-Barreled Blaster out of her backpack. Normally, Axolc would have used his Flareguns for this, but the Major had taken them away, along with the rest of their faction gear. It was cruel, but at least now they were all motivated. They knew they wouldn't get them back until their training was complete. But that didn't change the fact that they were at a disadvantage without them.

"That's why he took them away," Axolc accidentally thought out loud.

"Hmm, what? Who?" Reyna had heard him, and was half-listening as she lined up one of their models that had not yet exploded in her scopes.

"The Major," Axolc replied, "He took away our faction gear so that we are learning how to fight when we are at a disadvantage. He wasn't just trying to motivate us."

"Hmm... well, I think he actually meant what he said. I half agree with him actually." Reyna measured the charge on her blaster, and was about to fire when someone blocked her shot. She cursed under her breath, and looked for another target, preferably explosive. "I mean, most recruits have seen enough combat before they even join a faction. All three of us have/had/will have rank three gear and we had never even been in battle. And he's The Major! He's probably wondering why they teamed US up with HIM."

"So am I." Axolc replied, "I can't stop thinking about it."

Reyna's eyes passed over a crate of ammunition. "I probably would be too, except I don't ever let myself worry about it." she said as she charged up her blaster, "I'm too busy worrying about the job at hand."

Axolc glanced around, and he realized one of the attackers was missing. "Hey where's the one in red?" he asked, "The one who acts like he's the leader."

Reyna glanced around. "I don't see him," she said, "and so far he hasn't seemed like the kind who would miss a fight-"

Both Reyna and Axolc wheeled around when they realized they had been fooled. The real attack was coming from behind, while the activity in the camp was just a distraction.

Only one attacker had already entered the camp: The one who wore red instead of blue.

He grinned an evil grin, raised his battle staff, and charged.

---

The Major and Prax were mere minutes away from their destination. Along the way the Major had noticed that there were several tracks identical to their vehicle's own, all leading in the direction they were heading.

"You get in the turret." the Major told Prax. "This could get hairy."

Praxer leapt out of his seat and climbed into the turret seat. It was similar enough to his Assembly turrets that he could use it instinctively. He revved it up, and prayed that it would work when he would need to use it.

---

Axolc reached into his backpack, and drew the first weapon he laid his hands on, a super dirk. It wasn't great for this situation, but it would have to do. He threw it at the leader to stop his charge, but he unintentionally added spin to his throw and it hit with the blunt end. This did, however, stun the red warrior. Axolc followed up with a flying kick in his opponent's face.

The warrior went reeling, but quickly recovered, and began to swing his staff at the boy. Axolc was nimble, but he couldn't dodge his attacks forever. He needed a new plan.

He looked over at Reyna, who was holding back the other attackers. She was doing pretty well, considering she was armed with only her blaster and an elite katana. But she was still preoccupied.

Axolc dodged one attack by sliding between the leader's legs and tripping him from underneath. This momentary respite was enough for Axolc to pull out his next two items, which luckily for him, happened to be a Fantastic Pilum and a Wolf Shield. He drew both of these, and slowly advanced on the recovering warrior.

When the warrior saw him, he rolled on his back and leapt to his feet. He charged at Axolc with his staff raised. But Axolc was ready this time, and blocked the incoming attack with his pilum. He soon put the warrior back on the defensive.

The warrior soon realized he had his back straight up against the wall of the makeshift defenses. When he felt the wall at his back, he smiled as if it was all part of his plan. He slapped Axolc with his shield, momentarily stunning him. He then grabbed the rocket part at the bottom, and yanked it free. Axolc watched as the wall collapsed under its unstable weight, revealing the true nature of this attack.

The camp really had been preparing to attack, and now they were lined up and ready, with the defenses already toppled for them. It had been a double bluff.

That was when Axolc noticed that Jon was standing next to him, with nothing but an ordinary great short sword to defend himself. He was grim-faced and determined.

When Reyna saw that their defenses were broken, she decided how to make better use of the ones on her end of camp. She pushed the models out of their alignment, and directed them down the hill, where the forces they thought were the main attack were positioned. The models fell on them and trapped them underneath. With this done, Reyna turned to stand by Axolc and Jon.

They stood side by side, looking at the opposing army with grim resolve; they all knew none of them would ever back down.

---

The leader of the warriors stood in front of the kids with a victorious look on his face, as he knew he had won. These kids who had caused him so much grief were finished. But then he decided to give them one last chance, since they were only kids, after all.

"You three have fought bravely," he said in a thick accent, "but it is futile. You face the strongest army to ever traverse the planet Crux. Surrender now, or you will suffer."

To his amazement, all three kids shook their heads slowly, deliberately, and in unison. He looked at them in awe. Not a single one of the kids in front of him was ever going to surrender. They were all going to fight to the death.

"You never cease to amaze me for ones so young." he said, "I truly admire your spirit. But that doesn't mean you will receive any mercy from me. We all have to die sometime."

Then he noticed that all three were now looking at him with smiles on their faces. The one he had just fought in single combat stepped forward, and said, "Well, do it then."

The leader was baffled, because the young one had made it clear in his tone that he meant "you die" and not "you kill us". That was when the leader realized that they were not looking at him, but behind him.

As he turned around to look he heard the engines.

---

Everyone watched in awe as the vehicle appeared over the hill behind the attackers. It was going so fast it actually did not level out with the hill, and shot into the air. Everyone was still petrified as they watched it cruise in the air before coming in for a landing, right in the center of the attacking army. It landed without damaging itself, or, to everyone's shock, even slowing down! When the attackers realized they were being mowed over by a four-wheeled demon, they panicked. The vehicle was on a rampage through their lines, and whatever it missed on impact was being neutralized with the turret.

When about half the army was dead or decommissioned, their leader decided enough was enough, and raced over to their deserted camp. He rushed into one of the tents, soon reappearing with a rocket launcher in his hands. He hurried back the way as he prepped the launcher for use. The moment it was ready, he stopped in his tracks, got the vehicle in his sights, and fired.

The rocket cruised over the battlefield, homing in on its target. The target had no defense.

The vehicle was blown off its wheels and into the air. It landed with a crash, bounced low a few times, and then continued to roll across the battlefield, before coming to a screeching halt, all the while being consumed by fire.

For moment, everyone stared. No one could comprehend how quickly everything had happened. Could it really have gone in and out in just a matter of seconds?

After what seemed like forever staring at the motionless burning vehicle, the attackers decided the answer was yes, and turned back to what they had been doing, as if it had only been a minor interruption. They slowly advanced up the hill to the kids, who had not moved.

But then there was a sound of scraping metal, and everyone turned to see two silhouettes emerging from the burning rubble. Some squinted to get a better look, some shook their heads in denial, and some just stared.

But when the Major and Praxer emerged from the fire with weapons raised, the army knew it was no delusion.

And then the battle began.

Chapter 15

The Major and Praxer charged forward and waded their way through the enemy army. The kids did likewise, and they met halfway between. After learning that they were all unharmed, the Major left them with Praxer while he scurried the battlefield, doing damage to whatever got in his way as he searched for one warrior in particular. He found him lying on the ground, where being out of breath from the recoil shock of the rocket launcher was apparently the least of his troubles. There was also a piece of shrapnel stuck in his chest, and from the looks of it, the wound was mortal. The Major also noticed that he happened to be the leader, since he wore red instead of blue. The Major was about to finish him off when he spoke.

"Wait," he breathed weakly, "Tell me... who are you?" he coughed violently, before continuing, "I must know... so that I... may enter... the next life... know-*cofkf*-ing the name... of the grea-*cofkf*-t warrior... who proved... my better." Whenever the warrior's words were too long to rasp between breaths, he coughed and cringed in pain.

The Major decided that the warrior had the right to this last wish, "In whatever world you call the next life, you may tell the people there that you were slain by the great MajorQ12, who came not from another world, but from another time."

The warrior smiled, tried inaudibly to mouth on last thing, and died.

---

Once they realized that their leader was dead, the fight went out of the remaining warriors. Soon, there was nothing moving on the battlefield. The Major had let some of the warriors escape, knowing that if they ever spoke of this battle, they would not speak encouragingly about going for round two.

That night, in his personal log, the Major concluded:

"It was actually very fortunate that Praxer found the vehicle, or else we never would have made it in time, and the others would be dead. So I guess I should be grateful he found it, but that doesn't mean I can say the same for keeping his discovery secret. I've decided to say that the two cancel each other out, and leave it at that.

"But this 'A.N.C.', or whatever it really is, remains a mystery. I was going to spend our last day of training discussing this with Praxer, before the incident occurred. I'm certain that he is the only one who I can trust to give me straight answers and not tell the others of our discussion. I must try to talk with him tonight, during his watch or my own. I feel like I'm so close to finding the truth, tantalizingly close. But if Reyna or Jon discovered my interest, who knows how they would react? Who knows how ANY of them would react? I can't risk falling back to square one, so I must act now, and I must act quietly."

When he was done writing this, he realized that he was starting to nod off. He decided to give in to his need for sleep, since, after all, the best he could ever do was prolong it's desire.

---

Sometime in the night, the Major found himself being shaken awake. It was Praxer. The boy beckoned the Major to sit with him.

The Major got up, and did a visual scan of the area, as was his timeless habit. When he was certain the area was clear, he walked over to sit next to Prax. The boy got straight to the point.

"Sir, what happened with the vehicle... I'm sorry. I should never have kept it a secret, sir. I know that now. And I'm sorry."

The boy hung his head low in submission and utter shame. The Major simply replied, "It's alright. You learned your lesson, and what's more, if you hadn't found and restored that vehicle we never would have made it in time. So you can call us even."

Prax perked up when he heard this, and then lifted his head and gazed at the stars. "Maybe," he slowly said as he gazed out into space, "But we all still owe you for the incident with the cart."

"Well, remember I'm not charging you any interest."

They both laughed, like old friends laughing at old jokes that should have stopped being funny several hundred uses ago. That was how solid their relationship had become. The Major wondered if the others would end up the same way, until he realized that if he could create this sort of bond with Praxer, the rest would be easy in comparison! He had mixed feelings on that.

"I'll keep that in mind, sir" the boy interrupted the Major's thoughts with a chuckle. The Major smiled back, but of course Prax couldn't see it through his helmet. The Major never removed his helmet, EVER. The world could only make wild guesses as to what was underneath, and the Major liked it that way. But it was time to get to the point.

"I actually wanted a word with you, Prax, before I go back to sleep." he said in a now serious tone. Prax looked at him inquisitively, as the Major continued, "I want to know about how you got to be where you are today. How you joined Nexus Force."

Praxer winced, "That's a sensitive topic sir, especially for Jon and Reyna-"

"-Which is why I'm asking you. I need to know, ok? Whether it's going to be a safety issue or not, whatever happened to you is just... well just look at poor Jonathon! Whatever happened to him that made him like that?!"

Praxer's peaceful expression morphed into one of anger. "Get to the point," he said, "so we can go back to bed."

The Major was not deterred. "I want to know how you got to be in the Nexus Force at such a young age, and how you got your rank 3 gear without ever being in combat, and also whether that last part is really true. I highly doubt none of you had ever seen combat."

Praxer drew lines in the ground, which would have to do since there wasn't any sand. After a short while, he finally said, "Reyna and Jon have seen combat," obviously with the intention of leaving it at that. But the Major was not finished.

"So it was your first time in real combat as a unit?"

Praxer nodded slowly, with his head still hung down, looking at the ground.

"Then what about you and Axolc?" the Major continued, "Where do you come from?"

When this got no response, the Major tried a different approach, "Who was your training officer?"

"Sgt. Vylar," Prax replied evenly.

The Major couldn't recall anyone with that name, so he pressed for more, "What did he look like? Any distinguishing features?"

Prax lifted his head and looked upwards, as if trying to remember. "He's Paradox," he finally said, "And he always carries a Wormholer. Umm... he has a dragon tattoo that runs down one side of his face." Praxer indicated where it would be on his own.

Oh no. It couldn't be. It's impossible! It-

The Major realized that Praxer was staring at him, and was once again grateful that he kept his helmet on, and that no one could ever read his expressions. It was always reassuring to know that no one would ever know what you were thinking unless you wanted them to.

The Major shook his head, and thought about the description again. Come to think of it, the tattoo didn't HAVE to mean it was really them. In fact, it probably wasn't even the same tattoo! The Major knew he was only fooling himself, but he decided it was necessary until he had solid proof. Otherwise, he would just assume that it was what he thought without any. That's how his mind worked: his own thoughts prevented himself from thinking certain other thoughts, and then gave reasons why he had to prevent them. It made him more efficient in the long run, though as to why he wasn't exactly certain. He just knew it was true.

"So how did you meet the others?" the Major finally asked.

Praxer hesitated before he decided that it was ok to answer, "Shortly after we were recruited, they put us together at random, except it really wasn't." Behind his helmet the Major raised an eyebrow as Prax continued, "That's how 4-man squads are normally formed, by randomly selecting one member of every faction. But Axolc and I... we already knew each other. We were from the same planet, even the same neighborhood, so we were sort of friends for a while..."

"When they recruited you, how long had it been since you two had seen each other?" the Major asked during the pause that followed.

Prax thought a moment. "I think it had been about three years," he finally said, "Anyways, we were teamed up with Reyna and Jonathon since they were extremely close, even taking into account that they were brother and sister." He paused a moment, then continued, "I actually heard that they were going to be separated when they were recruited, but they refused to leave each other's sides. I don't know if that's true, but I certainly believe it. You've seen how protective Reyna is with Jon."

The Major had, and he certainly knew what the boy meant. "But why would that make them decide to put you four together?" the Major inquired further.

Praxer turned to stare straight out into the space in front of them. "I don't think they approve of bonds." he finally said, "I figure they wanted to keep all the people with relationships in one place so that they wouldn't hinder multiple squads at once."

The Major was almost done with Prax. There was just one more thing he needed. "What happened to Reyna and Jon before you met them? What's their story?"

Praxer tensed up. "If I knew, I wouldn't tell," he stated grimly, "We never discuss it. Reyna has never told us, never talks about it, because it upsets Jon. She doesn't think he's ready, and we respect her judgment. So whatever happened is their business, period!" Prax looked like he was trying hard to contain his anger.

"Well then, I'll just have to ask them," the Major calmly asserted, as though he was surrendering just one battle in a war, a war that was far from over. "And hope that one of them will tell me."

"NO" Prax replied defiantly, "Do not, repeat: NOT, discuss this with anyone other than Reyna. If she won't tell you, then you may not, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, take this talk to Jon. IS THAT CLEAR?!" Praxer was on the verge of yelling, but luckily not quite there yet. Their discussion had yet to wake up anyone else, so the Major decided to end it before this status changed.

"Alright boy, have it your way," he said with an edge in his voice that was swiftly growing, "but this is something I need to know for the sake of not just the mission, but for our own sakes as well! And mark my words, I've been through worse than each and every one of you little tykes combined!"

Praxer was now both shocked and enraged. He snarled his retort, "You just keep thinking like that, Bounty Hunter, and see how far it gets you."

With that, the boy stormed off to bed, and the way he had spat his word of reference to the Major, he had made it clear that any sort of friendship they had ever had was now over.

Chapter 16

The Major woke up realizing he had had the dream once again. He surveyed the area, and then got up with a grunt as he stretched out his back. Today was his first day of training with the Daredevil, Axolc. After what had happened last night with Praxer, he wasn't exactly looking forward to it. But time was of the essence, so he didn't want to waste it complaining.

He checked his chronometer. Curses! Because of his dream he had slept in again! He made a mental note to stop before it turned into a habit, and then got up on his feet. He leaned back on the tree behind him, and let the natural sounds of the forest wake him up.

Wait: Tree? Forest? Oh nexus...

He leapt up from his slouched position and wheeled around, searching left and right for any sort of clue as to why he had woken up in the forest instead of the fields. He continued glancing anxiously all around him, until he remembered: he had been trying to find the village. After his discussion with Prax, he had left to see the village so he could find out the identity of the attackers they had driven off. He realized he must have fallen asleep on the way over.

He relaxed for a moment, and then decided he had better go check up on the kids first. And then once again, he remembered that Axolc's training started today. Nexus! He wouldn't have any time left to visit the village. Oh well, it couldn't be helped.

He started his hike back to their camp. When he got there, he found the kids perfectly awake but idly chattering away in their beds. Relaxation is good, but they obviously weren't taking the situation seriously enough.

"OUT OF BED, TURKEYS!!" the Major shouted from the next hill over from their own, "OR YOU'LL BE SORRY WHEN I GET OVER THERE WITH YOU!!"

This got their attention, the Major observed, as the kids rushed around like mad rabbits. By the time the Major arrived, the camp was nice and spiffy, and all four kids were standing at attention. They looked rather ridiculous with scant weapons and armor between them, but to the Major it was acceptable since it was all they had. Or was it...?

The Major decided to test this new theory. "Open your packs," he ordered, "and dump their contents into separate piles."

They did as they were told, and the Major was shocked at how unevenly things had been divided. There were a total of 9 Big Ones, and Reyna owned almost all of them, whereas it seemed as though Praxer had been the only one carrying massive amounts of consumables. This simply would not do.

"Ok," the Major began, "from what I'm seeing, it seems as though you guys are pretty much independent about your gear, right?" They nodded. "Well, that's not good," the Major continued, "because you're a team. You should be working together, not as individuals. We will be talking more about this when we work on team skills. But for today, I'll settle for just splitting up the consumables more evenly between you."

As it turned out, Praxer had contributed enough consumables for them to each have a decent amount. Each kid was given 20 snack packs, 10 armor gleams, 10 super notion potions and a handful of various food items. The faction drinks were left to their owners, since they couldn't share those anyways.

"We'll do the weapons and armor later," the Major said when they were done, "So you can put those back. But just remember that we will be coming back to them. Now, Axolc, this week it's your turn to train, so pack up the rest of your stuff with whatever else your friends wish to sacrifice in order to help you during the next week."

As it turned out, this speech got a reaction but not the desired one. The other kids now felt obligated to contribute, as opposed to feeling moved. The speech had backfired. Oh well, there would be other opportunities.

Once Axolc was packed up and ready, they decided to spend the rest of the morning searching the battlefield for anything they could salvage. They actually found that, other than the one Praxer had found, all the vehicles had made it intact. So that was a lucky break for them.

When it was time to leave, Axolc bade farewell to his friends, walked over to one of the vehicles, and then leapt into the driver's seat without hesitation.

"Ahem," the Major authoritatively said, "I'll drive, if you don't mind." Axolc had seemed pretty let down, but he moved to the shotgun seat without question. Once they were strapped in, they set off to what Axolc assumed to be yet another hill in another corner of these endless fields.

---

"Okay, Axolc," the Major said when they reached their destination, which was, as Axolc had foreseen, just another random hill, "Are you ready to begin?"

"Crux, yeah!" Axolc eagerly responded.

The instant these words left his mouth, the boy found himself being flipped over onto his back. He hit the ground hard before rolling all the way down the hill. He hadn't even seen the Major move! He got up with a groan, and then protested, "Wh-what was that for?!"

"You said you were ready. I assumed you were being truthful. I guess I was mistaken."

Oh now, THAT got under Axolc's skin. He leapt back onto his feet and charged at the Major, only to find himself flying up, over, and down on the other side of his target. He landed in the grass with a thud.

"Ow" he breathed as he sat up and rubbed his head. The Major just stood there, not moving a muscle. Axolc watched the Major with shock; he looked as if he hadn't moved since they had first begun! In fact, he even looked as though nothing had even happened yet and he was waiting for Axolc to hurry up and make any sort of move so they could begin! OH THE ARROGANCE!

Axolc jumped up, but then advanced more cautiously. 'Maybe if I feint a movement to the right, he'll fall for it-'

His thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of being swung around, and he realized that, once again, he had been lifted up off the ground. He was soon right back where he had started, in the same spot on the ground and panting for breath. By this time he was thoroughly enraged, which was very much unlike him. He wondered what training had been like for Prax.

"Ahem, if you are quite done kissing the dirt down there, perhaps we could get on with it?" the Major did not make it sound like he was impatient, but rather, he made it sound like he was the peak of civilization and cultural refinement, and he was addressing some insolent little boy who had just spoken out of turn. "Are you really going to sulk just because you were too busy forming your plan of attack to notice that I was attacking you first?" It was beyond infuriating.

Axolc charged again, but this time he actually managed to avoid the Major's first lunge, allowing him to grab onto the first thing available, which happened to be the Major's helmet. No sooner had he touched it than he found himself thrown back with such force that when he landed on his side he actually thought he heard something break. He couldn't find the location of the fracture itself, but he certainly felt the resulting pain.

With a groan, he rolled over onto his back, and sat up. When he looked down, he saw blood coming from his arm. He looked up, and realized it was true: The Major actually had shot him, and stood with weapon poised to do it again. Axolc was rendered speechless.

The Major, however, was not.

"The helmet is off-limits," he declared in his no-nonsense-or-else tone. "Remember that."

Chapter 17

The next morning, the Major offered Axolc a choice. They could either resume the exercise from yesterday, or they could start a different form of training. But the way he had said it was more like, "Now, do you want to spend the day training my way or the hard way? I was thinking we might want to do it my way for the sake of variety, but if you want to give the hard way another go..."

Axolc decided the Major's way might be the better option in this case. So the Major led him on a short walk to a target range the Major had evidently set up. It was positioned on the first relatively flat area Axolc had seen since they had entered the Jade Hills. The targets themselves were lined up in six rows, three on his left that faced the right, and three on his right that faced the left. The rows were widely spaced, and the boy estimated that there were at least thirty targets in each row. The Major handed him a matching pair of basic flintlock pistols, which made Axolc's day. He was about to start on the left side until the Major stopped him.

"Now, hold on. What's the fun in doing it like that?" the Major said in a way that made Axolc sure he was smiling even though he couldn't see for himself, "That's not how this exercise works."

The Major pointed at the pistols, saying, "You only have enough ammunition in those to hit each target once. No more, no less. When you're in combat, sometimes you won't even have that much, so consider me generous. You will run down that walkway," the Major said as he pointed to a narrow wooden path between the two sides of the range, "and, without slowing down, hit as many targets as possible. If you miss one, do not waste precious ammunition trying to hit it. Just fire one shot and move on. I will tally your score."

When the Major was done, Axolc walked over to the start of the path. A gate barred his way, and from the looks of it, it was similar to the ones he had seen watching sports, the kind that flipped down or to the side the instant a race began. He crouched into a ready position. He waited for the signal to begin.

When he heard the gunshot, Axolc was off so fast he almost caught on the gate as it took a whole .3 seconds to fully open. He was about to start firing, when he realized the targets weren't there. It was not until he looked up that he saw them. They had been simultaneously shot 50 ft into the air above. So that was the trick. He would have to hit them before they hit the ground, when they would be out of sight. He let rip his pistols.

BLAM
BLAM
BLAM
BLAM

It was all that could be heard for miles. The sound of pistols discharging traveled farther than one might think possible, since the hills were completely void of anything that could possibly bar its way.

Axolc thought he was doing quite well, until he realized he was slowing down. He realized this because he saw how the Major had set one of their salvaged vehicles behind him, and now it was driving right behind him at his own initial speed. One thing was certain: The Major certainly knew how to motivate people.

Axolc tried to maintain his speed, but the more he ran, the harder it became to do that and shoot the targets at the same time. He accidentally missed one...

And then he felt a sharp pain in his leg. He looked down and saw that a dart had hit it. So that was the trick. He couldn't slow down, or he'd get run over. He couldn't miss a target, because if he did it would mean he would get hit by darts, which were probably poisoned with nonlethal but very painful toxins. And he couldn't maintain his current speed and still hit the targets. So, he decided, he would have to improvise. He deliberately missed a couple of targets, and waited for them to hit the ground. As soon as he saw a panels open on the sides of the walls ahead, he dropped down flat in his tracks. His plan worked, the vehicle behind him rolled right over his prone body, leaving him unharmed. Thank nexus the tires were the size they were, or he never would have made it! Axolc lifted his head and watched as the vehicle continued straight on, right into the darts that were meant for him.

Back on his feet, Axolc dashed down the path, until he was right behind the vehicle. He grabbed on to the back fender and leapt into the backseat. Now above the darts, he turned to take out the targets behind him that he hadn't had time to shoot during his maneuver. Once that was done, he climbed over to sit on the hood of the vehicle, still shooting targets as he went. Once he was positioned so that he was still on the vehicle but technically in front of it, he resumed shooting the targets at his leisure. By the time he reached the finish line, he felt pretty good about his performance.

The Major felt many things. Surprise was one. Approval was not.

"You missed the point of this exercise!" he exclaimed when the boy was done, "It was supposed to test your physical abilities, not your abilities to create loopholes! Although I see," he continued with a growl, "that you value those abilities more."

With that, he stormed off, leaving Axolc to wonder why the Major could expect so much of him. But then he realized that he didn't know what the expectations had been, because he hadn't even tried to meet them. He had taken the first exit to the path of least resistance, because he didn't think he could take such a beating as had been set up for-

And then he realized that the beating wouldn't have been as brutal if he hadn't tried to charge straight in at high speeds. The pursuing vehicle had matched his initial speed, so his overeager start had set him up for the harder work. And yesterday he had spent the entire day attacking the Major without pause.

He had finally gotten the message: he was reckless.

He sat down and thought about that. He didn't even notice when the sun went down.

At daybreak he was still thinking about it.

Chapter 18

Under normal circumstances, the Major approved of "thinking outside the box," but Axolc had crossed that fine line to cheating.

But now Axolc knew it, and by the looks of it, he had gotten the Major's point. The Major hadn't seen Axolc jump headfirst into anything after the target range. But there was just one problem: it seemed that all the time the Major had spent trying to get Axolc to see the point, he had driven it a bit too far. Axolc was taking too much time analyzing every risk (at least the Major hoped that that's what he was doing) and what was worse, he hadn't heard Axolc crack any jokes either. That would have to change soon, or Praxer and Reyna would have the Major's head.

So the Major devised exercises for the next couple of days that required quick thinking and instincts. Unfortunately, while the boy was analyzing risks much faster, he still had to measure every one. By the fifth day of training, The Major was forced to use drastic measures. He would have to leave subtlety and learning by doing behind. He told Axolc to pack, because they were ending training early. Once they were completely ready to leave, the Major invited Axolc to sit down with him for a little chat.

The Major began by asking him, "Do you know what my point was in the first few exercises?"

"Yes sir."

"Then what was it?"

"I was reckless, sir."

"Do you know why that's a problem?"

"Yes sir."

"Should you ever go rushing in without thinking?"

"No sir."

The Major took a deep breath. "Good," he said, "One last thing: Did you know that you sound like Praxer when you call me 'sir'?"

Axolc blinked, tried to keep a straight face, failed, and burst out laughing. The Major laughed with him. When they had both recovered the Major rested one hand on his knee and said, "Making light is a good thing, especially when the people you work with are overly serious. Team morale is extremely important, and from what I gathered, you're the only one holding it up." He gestured to his audience. "And being reckless just means you're fearless to the point of foolishness. You need to find a proper balance between caution and recklessness. Be too reckless and you'll get smashed, be too cautious and opportunities escape you. So here's the real point: you can be as reckless as you want when you have friends to hold you back, but when you're on your own out there, you need to be able to do it yourself." He paused for a second, and then continued, "But when you're in combat, however, you will rarely time to calculate risks. So you need to be able to make quick, decisive choices. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

By this point Axolc had brightened up quite a bit. "Yes SIR!" he said eagerly.

"Good," the Major replied, "Now do you want to go back now like I said we would, or do you want to train a bit more to try and achieve this balance?"

Judging by his expression, being given the choice was the last thing Axolc had expected. He pondered a moment, before replying, "I want to stay for rest of the week."

The Major nodded, "Good, then let's get going."

Axolc was confused. "Wait, but I thought that we would do what I-"

"Which is why we are going to a different training area I have set up elsewhere." the Major interrupted, "Do you think I was going to have us pack up when we might just have to unpack again?"

'Oh' Axolc thought as he jumped into the shotgun seat. The Major climbed in on the other side, and soon they were on their way to their next destination.

---

Along the way, Axolc realized that he had been keeping track of the general directions they had been moving, and realized that, if the Major and Prax had moved straight in the direction they had departed from when they had set off to train, the path the Major and Axolc were taking now would cross that path, maybe even the training ground itself. Then Axolc realized that that was where they were heading. He would be seeing what Praxer had gone through during his training.

---

When their destination was in sight, the Major started to slow down. Axolc had thought they had already been going slow enough BEFORE this happened, so he leapt out of the vehicle while it was still driving and started to run alongside it. He was actually pretty fast, even without his Daredevil kit.

"Betcha 200 coins I can beat that snail to the campsite!" he yelled back as he started gaining ground.

The moment he finished saying this though, he heard engines revving up, and was literally blown off his feet as the Major whooshed by in a blur. Half a second later, he made a hard left turn and brought the vehicle to a screeching halt in front of the campsite. He casually hopped and leaned back on it, arms folded, as Axolc approached. "Never bet against me," he said, "or you'll always lose."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Axolc panted, "What did you pour on that slug's engines?!"

The Major perked up. "Funny you should ask," he said, as if it just occurred to him that Axolc had actually come up with a valid reason the Major had never thought of, "It's my own invention: a special gasoline blend that has the effect of five cups of espresso on any kind of machine. In fact, Espresso is one of the primary ingredients."

"Wait wha-what?!" If there was one thing Axolc had expected, it was not that the literal meaning of his statement would be true. "So you cheated!"

"You should know. And like I said, never bet against me." The Major cocked his head to one side and held out his palm, without unfolding his arms, saying, "Now pay up."

Axolc grumbled an inaudible retort as he handed over the money. They then got to work on unloading their gear. By the time they were done, it was nightfall, so they decided they would go to bed and begin training in the morning. Axolc rested his head on his hands as he stared up at the starry sky, and for the first time started to wonder about the place they were in. Not just these jade green hills, but the entire planet as well. He wondered where the inhabitants were, what they were like, how he was descended from them, which ones he was descended from, what was for breakfast tomorrow, whether the Major's rations could taste any worse, what the local food was like, whether hot dogs had been invented yet, why he felt so hungry all of a sudden, why the stars looked different in the present he was from, whether he should really be calling it the present since technically from where he was it was the future, how many grammar mistakes he had made in that last thought, whether everyone talked like the Bone person they had met, what that Bone person was doing now, what Praxer and the others were doing now, what they would be having for breakfast tomorrow...

His thoughts eventually lulled him to sleep.

Chapter 19

For the rest of their week, the Major spent more time training Axolc personally, as they had done on their not-terribly-productive first day. This time however, they were making progress.

Naturally the Major had to go easy on the boy, as he had done that day, before he had tried to grab his helmet. The Major did not regret shooting him for that. He needed to make it clear that the helmet was off-limits, even if that meant shooting the boy with a stun-charge. Despite the result, his weapon had actually been set to stun, so the only problem was the fact that it became significantly more powerful at point-blank range.

The Major shook his head to bring himself to the present. Right now he and Axolc were doing some work with Axolc's aim. It was fairly good, but not perfect by human standards, and human standards were easy compared to the Major's standards. He was not a perfectionist; he just believed that it was possible for the boy to do better with a little practice. Crux, when The Major was his age...

'Snap out of it!' the Major thought to himself, 'Or you'll both get killed because you were too distracted!'

"Hold on, Axolc," the Major said as he watched him train from the sides, "You're gripping the guns too hard." Axolc loosened his grip to the other extreme, "Now too loosely. You need to hold them just enough to keep the average bloke from doing THIS." In one fluid motion the Major lunged forward and slapped the gun from the nearest of boy's hands, careful to hit the gun and not the hand. Axolc was baffled.

"Sir, you're not exactly 'the average bloke'..." Axolc nervously pointed out.

"Hmm... You're right. Maybe I ought to go a little bit easier on you. Here, let me try again-"

The Major used the same move again, disarming the boy's other hand. He didn't try to do it any less forcefully than before. "Oh, I guess I'm just too good to even pretend to be bad. Oh well, I suppose it's all the better for you in the long run." The Major shrugged and turned to walk back to his position.

"For what it's worth sir, I think you can be plenty bad when you want to." Axolc replied to the Major's back, "In fact, I might even say you're the worst."

"What do you mean 'might'?!"

Both of them burst out laughing, it was good to see Axolc back to normal. For a second, The Major wondered why he was trying so hard not to get attached to these kids, and then why bother since he was failing miserably. But then he remembered the last discussion he had had with Praxer, and this brought him back to his senses. "Back to work," he said in his old, militaristic, not in any way facetious voice.

Axolc nodded, and after retrieving his pistols, resumed firing at the target set up. The Major had set up a challenge in the obstacle course, where Axolc had to shoot straight through the line of swinging sandbags and hit a target behind them, without damaging any of the sandbags. Axolc was actually quite good, actually better than the Major had expected he would be at this early stage.

But a head start never means the race is over. Axolc still had a little room left for improvement before he met the Major's expectations.

So the days went by, until the last day was almost upon them. The Major had spent his spare time (when Axolc wasn't looking) devising a new exercise for their last day of training. He finished it the night before, and when he stepped back to admire his work, he almost impressed himself. The best he had hoped was for it to be adequate only given the time-restraints, but he found that his handiwork would have been adequate under any normal circumstances. With this sense of accomplishment in mind, he went to bed.

His pleasure didn't last though, because that night he had the dream again.

---

The Major woke up with a start, as he had done so quite frequently since he had accepted this job. He got up with a groan, and shook his head groggily, wondering what was happening to him. He knew that this was not normal; he rarely had the dream at all. At least he did before he had accepted this mission. Now he was getting it more and more frequently. He thought he knew why, but he would not let himself consider the possibility until some solid evidence was thrown in his face. However, this resolve was weakening, and he doubted he would be able to keep up the self-deception for much longer.

Not for the first time, he marveled at just how self aware he was, not just because he was self aware, but because he was self aware of being self aware. Now the only thing he needed was a way to express this notion that made complete sense to him, and then maybe to the rest of the world as an added bonus.

In any event, he couldn't help but feel unnerved after having the dream again. He knew that would be a problem, if the feeling was still there when training began...

Training! He had forgotten his new exercise! This wouldn't have alarmed him, except that it was an all-day exercise, and it wouldn't be fair to give his student a late start with a set deadline. He rushed over to Axolc's bed to wake him up. Axolc was still snoring, as content as... (the Major searched for an appropriate analogy)... a pig. That was it: content as a fat, happy little piglet. His snoring almost sounded like one, too.

The Major almost laughed at the last part of his comparison, but managed to wake Axolc up without cracking up. "Last day of training, Sleeping Beauty!! Up and at 'em!!"

Axolc got up groggily, and stayed that way until he had eaten breakfast. Tsk, what a waste it would be, to be like that in the morning. Not productive at all.

Once they were ready, The Major led Axolc over to where they would be having the final day's activity. It was a maze-type obstacle course, located in the forest. The Major explained how Axolc would have to escape the forest before dawn to succeed. He explained how, although at times some areas might look open, he would always be enclosed by wooden palisades. The rule was that he could not in any way attempt to bypass these palisades, since they were built to indicate boundaries as opposed to provide them. The Major also said that he had set up a couple of surprises if Axolc went the wrong way. Axolc would know by now what to expect when the Major used the term "surprise".

The only thing Axolc was unsure about was that the Major had never said what he would be doing during that time. But Axolc soon discarded these worries, knowing, or maybe just hoping, that the Major would not have designed the course to be beyond his abilities. So he did not let the Major's vagueness worry him more than was justified, considering this was the Major they were talking about.

The Major handed Axolc a pair of flintlock pistols, and watched as the boy walked over to the entrance, took a deep breath, and jumped through.

Chapter 20

Axolc had been running all morning, and was starting to tire out. But he wasn't going to stop and break until he was absolutely certain that he was safe from whatever "surprises" the Major had set up. So far he had seen none. So far he had kept on running. So far he had not reached the end.

So he kept running, until he ran straight into a wall.

He looked up at the wall he had just crashed into. It was simple, made of wooden shafts stuck in the ground vertically and lined up side-by-side. It was too high to jump over or see over, maybe even too high to climb over. It was as tall as most of the trees, and they were pretty tall – for redwoods.

He turned to his left and started to follow the wall. With any luck, if he stuck to the wall it would lead him out of the forest by nightfall.

---

The Major was starting to rethink his decision to leave Axolc.

At first he had thought that since it would take all day to get through the maze, it would be the perfect opportunity to head to the local village to buy supplies, as well as information. But now that he was actually there, he was starting to have second thoughts. What if Axolc completed the maze before he got back? What if the maze ended up being too hard? What if the mysterious warriors came back? What if other warriors found them?

The Major took a deep breath, and, not for the first time, calmly and logically answered the questions to himself. There was no way Axolc could complete the maze before sundown unless he cheated, and the Major trusted him not to. The maze had been designed at non-lethal difficulty, so if anything happened it wouldn't kill the boy. The mysterious warriors would think twice before coming back; it would be a while before they regained enough courage and foolishness to come back for seconds. As for other warriors, that was about as likely as Roo Morg learning how to fly.

The Major shook his head, and then resumed searching for the items on his shopping list. He had found a free, relatively readable map of crux half an hour ago, so he had sat down at an outdoor cafe, and was now in the process of committing it to memory. At the same time, he made a list in his head of the things they would need to figure out for the Nexus Force. He had not forgotten the reason he was here... yet.

His list went something like this:

What Nexus Force Needs to Know:

1. Roughly how much of the Legend of Crux is true
2. How the war between the original inhabitants began
3. What weapons were used in that war
4. Who won that war/How it ended
5. Who was descended from whom (since the legend says each faction was descended from a different tribe/people)
6. What was life like for those tribes/peoples
7. What knowledge gained in the past can help aid the fight against the Maelstrom in the future

...When he had reviewed his list in his mind, he decided to make a second one, which went like this:

What Nexus Force Does NOT Need to Know:

1. EXACTLY how much of the Legend of Crux is true
2. Anything of or related to the First Builders
3. Anything of or related to their first creation
4. Anything of or related to the Major's...ancestral significance

The Major cut it at that. Just these little lists would be very time consuming without getting elaborate with them. He tried checking off what he already knew, and realized that this was approximately... his second list. It just figured.

The Major stood up from the outdoor café seat he had been sitting on, and stretched his legs. He was about to leave when a waitress came over with his check. One would think that a medieval village would have an easier to dodge system of payment at outdoor cafes and such, but apparently this was not the case. He dropped a couple coins on the table and turned to leave. The waitress stopped him again, but this time, a bit more aggressively.

And then it dawned on the Major that he had no idea what was used for the local currency.

This was not good.

He turned around to face the waitress and glanced to the left and right. No one was watching, but of course he already knew that; he was just doing it for the theater. He reached into his bag and slipped out a light green gem. He kept glancing left and right to keep his act up as he handed the gem to the waitress, putting his finger to where one would guess his lips would be. The waitress got the message, and let him go. One disaster narrowly avoided.

The Major decided his next priority would be to look into the local currency. Since the kind in the future had evidently not been invented yet, he figured it would be better to pawn a few of the spare items he had brought with him. That Dragon Helm would come in handy.

He looked around, but he couldn't find any sort of trading post where he could sell his items. The marketplace was packed, so he was finding it difficult to move around efficiently. The Major did not like crowds.

"It's such a shame," he thought, "Since I'm in the past I no longer have one of my greatest weapons: infamy. Oh well, it can't be helped."

He continued searching until something caught his eye. One stall had a sign that read:

UNCLE THOKI'S SUPER SHOP!!! WEAPONS, ARMOR, AND MORE!!

The Major decided to skip this stall, because he didn't want to attract any attention. He was almost certain that if he went there, he would be recognized, and his cover would be blown. He walked by without making any more eye contact.

The person manning the stall, however, did.

---

Axolc had just encountered the Major's first "surprise." He had set off a trip wire, which caused the two trees on either side of him to fall down on the place he had just been standing. He had run into this trap when he had tried backtracking to see if he was going in circles, and apparently he wasn't, just in spirals. So he kept on moving.

It was late afternoon, and the sun was starting to fall down to the distant horizon. Axolc knew he had no time to waste. At the moment, he was running through an area where the walls were close and in plain sight, much different from how it had been when he'd started. He came to a fork in the road, and on a whim, chose left. He was nearly impaled by a horde of flying spears, which happened to look just like the elite javelins he used to use in training back home. He decided to grab one in case he might need it later.

He moved back to the fork, and headed down the correct path.

---

It was nearly sundown, and the Major was driving back to the training grounds.

He kept checking his chronometer, he had lost track of time in the market, and was unsure if he'd be able to make it. He had no excuse prepared in the event that Axolc finished the challenge before the Major returned, and he was unsure how the boy would react if he told him the truth.

He shifted the gears, and accelerated well beyond reasonable speeds.

Chapter 21

Axolc could see the end of the maze up ahead. He was almost through...

Suddenly, as he entered an area where the corridor widened, a gate slammed shut on the path ahead.

He wheeled around to see a similar gate slam down behind in the same manner.

He turned and faced in front of him. He was in a circular arena, and the only way out was through that gate. He would have to find a way to open it.

That's when he looked up, and noticed the army of little gun-wielding targets looking down and surrounding him from the top of the walls. He was lucky he did, for at that moment they open fired.

He ducked and dodged his way around the arena, occasionally getting hit. Thankfully the Major had not used real turrets, and these were much smaller, pebble shooting guns. Axolc tried to fire back with the pistols the Major had given him, but he was running out of ammo. He realized he did not have enough to hit every target. He needed to improvise.

He looked around through the endless rain of sand and pebbles falling down on him. Then he got an idea, so crazy it might just work.

He thrust his salvaged javelin into the side of the arena walls and leapt on top of it, so he was level with the turrets. He remained balanced on the flimsy pole just long enough to fire one shot at the nearest target. He wasn't aiming for the target itself, but instead for the weapon it was holding. His plan worked, the force of the bullet jerked the turret's direction of fire to the side, right into the adjacent targets. This worked- better than Axolc had hoped. It started a chain reaction that destroyed all the targets, using their own guns.

The gate went up, and Axolc strode through it, feeling tired but exhilarated, and wondering why training had to end so soon.

---

As it turned out, the Major got there just in time.

He leapt out of the vehicle and raced over to the end of the maze, just in time to see Axolc's final stunt. He was impressed; the kid had come up with a way to defeat the challenge that the Major hadn't, and that took some skill. When Axolc emerged from the forest, he found his instructor was applauding him.

"Well done, Axolc!" said the Major, sincerely. "That was amazing!"

Axolc was panting for breath, but he was smiling at the Major, proud that he had gained the Major's approval. The Major wished he could freeze time and live in that moment forever... and then he realized that such a thought was about as sentimental as a guy could get. Nexus!

They walked back to the camp together, and packed up everything. They loaded everything into the vehicle – and they would have to find a better name for it – so that tomorrow they could head back at first light. They settled down to bed, or at least that's how the Major wanted it to seem. Once he heard Axolc's one-of-a-kind snore, he opened up the map he had gotten in the market. He got up out of bed and sat up so he could take a more professional look. He casually drew his weapon.

"Tell me," he said, "did you really think you could get this close without my notice?"

In one, silent blur, the major wheeled around and shot their uninvited guest in the knee. He heard a small cry, which was good, because it meant the intruder was still alive. He casually got up and walked over to examine the man.

By the looks of it, he was allied with the warriors from earlier. He wore the same outfit, except that instead of shades of blue and black his outfit was colored shades of green and brown, evidently to provide camouflage. The Major began his interrogation.

"Why were you spying on us?"

The man groaned, then responded, "The king...orders...find out more..."

"Who is this king you speak of?" The Major was not going to waste this first and possibly last chance to identify the warriors and who they worked for.

"THE king" was all the intruder said before he clammed up again. The Major decided to loosen his tongue a bit.

"I am willing to bet," he said, as he moved his blaster into position, "that two wounded legs are more painful than one. And I KNOW that the pain increases when I fire at point blank range."

The intruder turned pale, and swallowed nervously. "What…you…want?" he eventually asked.

"I want to know why this king of yours is so interested in us, and how he learned about us in the first place. Do you think you can tell me that?" The Major nudged the spy's good leg with his blaster.

"Ugh…king wants…needs something…someone…final push…" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pill.

Before the Major could stop him, he swallowed it.

"Ohhh..." was all he managed to let out before he died.

The Major wouldn't be getting anything more out of him.

Chapter 22

The ride back was uneventful. After they arrived, the Major decided to give the kids a few days respite before beginning training with Reyna. So far training had been quite successful, but he didn't want to wear himself out.

At least that's what he told the kids.

In reality, it would take much, much more than two weeks of training them to wear him out. He had other reasons.

He had almost finished the puzzle.

There were only a few pieces left before he solved the mystery of the kids, and he wanted to spend some time solving it.

So he let the kids go off and run around, hollering at the top of their lungs and having a good time, while he contemplated this puzzle. He had put aside A.N.C. for a few days so that he could come back to it with a fresh mind, and now seemed as good a time as any. He groped around the name in his mind, and yet flustered as he was, nothing seemed to connect. He was about to give up when it struck him.

A.N.C. squads...

A.N.N.C.H. squads?!

For the first time in over 10 years, the Major felt true fear running down his spine. His wall of denial had crumbled, and he was struck speechless. This was not good.

---

A few days later, Reyna woke up early so she could pack up what little she had and be ready when it was time to leave for training. From what Axolc and Prax had told her, she was in for a rough but rewarding experience. From what Axolc had said, they had barely touched actual abilities, and the focus was really on mind set in combat, but when she had tried to take him on in a sparring match, he had literally blown her away. Before that Reyna was proud to have never lost in one-on-one wrestling, and she was MAD. She was eager to learn whatever the Major had to teach her.

An hour later, she was waving behind her at the camp as the Major drove her to their training area. She looked at Jonathon, who had just woken up. She smiled at him and waved, but he just frowned. She had thought that it would be less traumatic if she had let him sleep instead of waking him up just to say goodbye, but as luck would have it he had awakened right as they were driving away. Oh well.

By that time she had stopped waving and was facing forward. She turned to look back again, and what she saw both amazed and shocked her. Jon was running after them on foot. Reyna asked the Major to slow down, and when he saw who was chasing after them, he did so without question. Reyna hopped out of their ride, and then turned to face Jon just as he caught up. Without slowing down, he rushed into her arms and buried his face in her shirt, and Reyna realized he was crying. "It's ok," she said soothingly, "I'll be back in just a week." She crouched down to his level, which was necessary since he was small for his age. "Praxer and Axolc will be there to take care of you," she continued, "Everything will be fine."

He nodded slowly and then reluctantly left her embrace. He started walking back to the camp with his head hung low, but it was then that Reyna noticed how far they had come. "Major, can we give Jon a ride back to camp?" she asked.

But to her shock and fury, the Major said no. "You need to learn about family responsibility," he said in his 'professional insight' voice, "So I suggest you walk your little brother back to camp, and then come back. You wouldn't have had to do this if you had woken him up to say goodbye in the first place."

Reyna was thoroughly enraged. What did HE know about family or responsibility?! But then she remembered how both Axolc and Praxer had said he had flawlessly pushed their buttons to strengthen their resolve, so she got a hold of herself. She did as he had said, and led Jon back to camp on foot. Prax looked at her disapprovingly, but said nothing. Axolc was nowhere to be seen.

After one more short embrace, Reyna left Jon with Praxer at the camp and trudged back to where the Major was parked. She found that he was reclining in his seat, as though he had all the time in the world but the world needed to learn about some proper timekeeping. Reyna got in and buckled up without a word. Then the Major revved up the engines, and they resumed their silent ride to the training grounds.

---

When they arrived, the Major took a deep breath. He had no idea what had happened to Jon and Reyna, but since Praxer had told him that they had seen combat when he and Axolc hadn't, the Major had a guess at the general gist. He didn't know if what he was about to show Reyna would yield any reaction, and he wasn't completely sure if he really wanted to find out. But he needed to know.

He jumped out of the vehicle, and once again thought that they needed a better name for it. Reyna jumped out the other side, and they met in front of it. They were in front of a forest, one of the ones that surrounded the fields. The Major explained to Reyna that what he was about to show her would not be part of her training, but just something that she would need to remember later. She nodded, and he led her into the forest. After a brief walk, the trees became more barren, as well as fewer and farther apart. Soon there were no living trees in sight, and the ground was nothing but moistureless dirt. The Major led Reyna through a thick brush, and she gasped when she saw what was on the other side.

She was looking at Crux Prime.

Chapter 23

For a moment, Reyna was paralyzed in fear. An old awakened fear, that she had hoped she would never feel again, swelled up in her.

She was looking at Crux Prime.

"No, not yet." She whispered to herself, not quite as reassuringly as she would have hoped, "It's not Crux Prime YET. It's just that one day it will become Crux Prime. Right now it's just a scary-looking valley-" her thoughts were interrupted by an echoing roar and a distant fiery flash of light, "-which just happens to be home to a-" she heard the roar again, only this time coming from multiple directions, "-that is, more than one, fire-breathing dragon. Nexus above..."

Then the Major spoke to her.

"Do you know where we are?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, carefully trying to keep her voice from cracking.

"Are you afraid?" he asked, but not in a disdainful, criticizing tone.

"...yes, a little," she confessed. She braced for whatever harsh comment the Major would make next. But to her surprise, he didn't.

"Good," he said, "because if you weren't it would mean you were a fool. Fear IS an appropriate response to seeing this," he spread his arms over the devastated land, "So long as you control it, rather than it controlling you. We will be training very close to this area, so whenever we are doing a forest exercise, and you come upon an area like that," he pointed at the scorched wood behind them, then continued, "turn back immediately. There may not be any Maelstrom yet, but there are still dragons and other monsters which precede it. Is that clear?"

Reyna nodded. Having made his point, the Major turned to leave, and beckoned her to follow.

She didn't hesitate.

---

When they arrived at their training grounds, they hopped out of the vehicle simultaneously, and the Major led Reyna to somewhat of a rare occurrence: a lone tree in the fields. It was located atop a hill, a good ways from the edge of the forest. It wasn't often that one found shade in these hills, and Reyna was grateful for it.

When they were all settled in, the Major decided that this time he would actually tell his student what they would be working on ahead of time, as opposed to his previous methods of getting a message across through experience. This lesson was rather different, so different means would b employed.

"So then, refresh my memory. You are the Shinobi, correct?" he was being a bit sarcastic.

Reyna picked up on his sarcasm immediately, and followed up with some of her own, "O, I don't know, maybe...YES?!"

Rather than choosing to endure more high-level sarcasm, the Major turned switched to his no-nonsense mode. "Do you know what a Shinobi is?"

Reyna was confused at this apparently spontaneous change of voice, mainly because to her the question itself still seemed a bit sarcastic. "A ninja, sir" she eventually responded.

The Major nodded briefly, then asked, "Can you be any more specific?"

At this point, Reyna was baffled. "No" she replied.

The Major nodded, then leaned back against the tree that provided their shade. He began his summary of the true nature of the Shinobi.

"'Shinobi' is the original, historical Japanese word for 'ninja', and as such it takes the original, historical meaning. Before the Forbidden Volley, spamjitsu, or whatever you think of as ninjas today, they were something completely different. Today you might think of them as disciplined masters of martial arts, but in reality the original Shinobi were mere bandits. For the most part they were little more than hired thieves, although the more skilled ones sometimes became mercenaries or assassins. Do you follow me so far?" he turned to Reyna, and she nodded, so he continued.

"The real warriors were the Samurai, who had a code of honor and protected the people. They were not on good terms with the Shinobi." He paused before continuing, "But the Shinobi did have one thing going for them: they were the masters of what they did. Even though they were mere bandits, they were very skilled bandits. In fact, some believe they were the most skilled bandits of all time. They could sneak in and out of wherever they wanted, could eliminate whoever they wanted, and take whatever they needed." He turned to Reyna again. "They were the masters of stealth and secrecy, the best in their league," he paused for a moment, "And YOU are going to be one."

Reyna was speechless, for multiple reasons, but chiefly for the end of the Major's speech. Her mouth was gaping wide open, and she was completely frozen. The thoughts were taking a long time to register.

The things the Major had said like 'Masters of stealth' and 'the best in their league' were at war in her mind against the other things he had said, like 'hired thieves' and 'bandits', each one trying to monopolize her thoughts. Eventually the positive comments won, after echoing just long enough in her mind so that she was becoming numb. Of all things she had expected training to be, this was not one of them.

She looked up, and suddenly realized how long she had been silent, and in that awkward, open-mouthed position, while the Major patiently awaited her response.

"Yes SIR!" she exclaimed with zeal. The Major's head slightly leaned to one side, and Reyna chose to believe it was because he was smiling under that helmet of his.

"Good," he said, "then our first lesson today is stealth. Let us begin."

They got up and walked over to the forest.

Chapter 24

"Hah!!" Reyna shouted as she unleashed a lightning fast roundhouse kick on her target.

"Hah yourself!!" her target shouted back, as he dodge the attack with matching speed. Reyna was not intimidated. With her adrenalin pumping, she could continue like this for ages. Apparently, so could the Major. All the more challenge for her.

Reyna missed a beat, and was blown off her feet because of this late reaction. The Major tried to follow up his successful attack with a Judo-grab, but she dodged it, rolling around him and ending in a backhand slap on his back with the full force of her arm behind it. The Major stumbled and fell, but managed to turn his fall into a somersault, allowing him to escape further attack as well as use his momentum to leap to his feet. He turned back toward his opponent, and their eyes met, more or less. Both contenders made it clear in this gaze that neither was going to back down, and that the fight would continue until one tired out. This didn't seem to be anytime soon, so The Major decided to call a break.

He and Reyna sat down. Both of them were breathing hard, but they mainly felt exhilarated, and knew it would take a long time for the adrenalin rush to fade away.

The Major thought about what they had done over the past couple of days. On the first two days they had built up Reyna's stealth abilities. She was now at the point where the Major himself had a hard time trying to find her if she didn't want to be found. Then they had worked on some other assassin skills such as sniping, and now they were working on combat. Technically, they were supposed to be working on Reyna's ability to detect and exploit shatterpoints in her foes, but this had proven near-impossible when applied to the Major. They would keep doing it for a few days, not so much for the shatterpoints as for the fact that she was learning good stuff and that they were having fun.

"So what next?" Reyna asked him.

"Hmm," the Major was shaken out of his thoughts, "What?"

"Where do we go after we're done with training? Do you have a plan?" Reyna clarified.

The Major thought for a moment. "Yes," he replied, "It's not much but it's a working progress."

"Does it have to be elaborate?" Reyna questioned further, "And why are we here in the first place?"

The Major was a little surprised she didn't know, so he inquired, "Didn't they tell you that when you signed up?"

"We didn't sign up for this particular mission. We just woke up one day to find a post-it-note on our door, saying that we were chosen as candidates for a top-secret mission. They didn't tell us we'd be with you until we had already accepted.

The Major realized it just figured; no Nexus Force recruit would sign up to work with him.

He shrugged, and told her their objective. "This is essentially a reconnaissance mission. We are approximately seven hundred generations in the past, which is supposedly when many of the decisive events of The Great Crux War happened. Our job is to take the legend of what happened, and...loosely fill in the gaps."

"The Great Crux War?" Reyna seemed genuinely surprised, "You mean the First Crux War? You don't actually believe that old fairy tale do you?"

However surprised Reyna may have been, the Major was twice that when he heard the girl's response. When Reyna looked up at him, somehow she could tell that underneath his all-concealing helmet, the Major was giving her a cold stare. "The legend is real," he replied, "And here is your proof." He reached into his bag, and pulled out the Bat Lord helmet which Vanda had given him. Up till that point he had all but forgotten he had it. While Reyna stared at it in awe, the Major decided to get out the rest of the outfit just for good measure.

He was glad he did.

He had seen the outfit before, minus the helmet. He now knew where, and now he also knew something he had been trying to find out for ages.

The mysterious warriors that had attacked them... were Bat Lords.

---

"So why not?" Reyna persisted as they practiced. She was being very stubborn at the moment, which was saying a lot for her.

The Major leapt over a poor imitation of his crouched roundhouse (which was obviously done from memory of seeing it in action instead of from experience), took a deep breath, and, not for the first time, replied "Because it's too risky is why. Legend says that the Bat people were the most powerful fighting force in history. Your "plan" is out of the question."

"We already beat 'em once." Reyna pointed out as she dodged the Major's countering sweep.

The Major just shook his head. "We got lucky once." He rolled around a left hook and landed a pinpoint counter swipe at Reyna, knocking her off her feet. She recovered fast as he continued, "It doesn't take an idiot to know that the chances of your idea succeeding are about zero. And I am not an idiot."

He dodged another hook, which turned out to be exactly what his student wanted. By the time he was in the position to counter, Reyna had her foot against his chest, and the foot had greater momentum. The Major landed on his back, and realized that he felt both proud and annoyed, not necessarily in that order. From his position he activated one of the weapons installed in his gauntlet: a nearly-indestructible capture/grapple cable. Reyna protested as she was yanked off her feet.

"HEY!! You said no weapons!"

As he stood up, the Major tilted his head and smiled. "I don't like it when people get as good as me; it get's me down." Now completely back on his feet, he continued, "And when it's the rules that make me feel down, I avert them."

"Well then," said Reyna, as she looked up from her crouched position. She hadn't missed the part where Major had said she was getting as good as him, and for that reason she wasn't going to slip up now. "Let's avert the rules."

Faster than the Major thought humanly possible, Reyna dashed forward and slipped one of his guns out of its holster as she ducked his counter attack. With equal speed she rolled around behind her teacher, and fired.

The Major let out a grunt as he was flung forward, and landed face-down on the ground. He groaned in pain as he tried to push himself up. When he looked down, Reyna heard a small cuss.

She was bewildered; this was so unlike the Major. He had never, EVER made any noise, let alone cursed, in response to getting hit with an attack in all their time training.

And then she saw the blood.

Reyna rushed up to help her tutor. She helped him onto his back and gasped. The blood was dripping down from a wound in his left side, and everywhere blood dripped the surrounding flesh was raw. She almost dropped him in shock when she realized the damage she had done. She knew the Major would recover... barely. In the meantime he would be in quite a bit of pain.

He cringed as she helped him up. Seeing this, Reyna could stand it no longer, and let out all her emotion.

"I'M SORRY, MAJOR!! I'M SO SORRY!! I'MSORRYI'MSORRYI'MSORRY-"

He held up his hand that was not covered in blood for her to stop. "I got what was coming to me," he said, "I broke the rules first so I'm not complaining. Now help me back to camp, Shin'ika."

Reyna nodded, and tried to work out what the Major had called her. She had never heard him speak in this tone or language before, and it rattled her.

When they were settled in, she asked him.

All he said before he fell asleep was, "You'll figure it out. Somehow, somewhere, deep down you'll know."

At first this just confused Reyna even more. She thought about it through the night, and it kept her awake until well after midnight. It was then that she gave up and decided not to think about it. She cleared her mind, and-

-And there it was.

Somehow, the meaning became clear, as if it had been waiting for all her noisy thoughts to leave before it surfaced. She understood it perfectly.

"Shin'ika."

The Major had called her "Little Shinobi"

Chapter 25

When Reyna checked on the Major in the morning, she was shocked to find that his wounds had almost completely healed overnight. It was like magic!

When they had settled in, she decided there would be no better time to bring her idea back up again.

"So why not?" she asked him yet again.

He just sighed; he knew that she would not listen to reason until it was applied with full force, so he grudgingly accepted that that was what he would have to do. He took a deep breath, and, as patiently as he could, began to explain his reasons to Reyna.

"Ever since we got here I have been measuring out every risk we take," he began, "But the numbers of risks of your idea of a plan going wrong are higher than I can count. Every move we make is another risk we take, and I am not going to make them any greater than necessary."

"I find it hard to believe that there is a risk in EVERYTHING we do." Reyna was still being willful and persistent. She just didn't see why the Major was opposed to her plan.

What she did not realize was that the Major saw more holes in it than can be found in a fishing net. "Well for starters," he replied, "I could not list all the things that could go wrong just from us being here in the past. Tampering with time is hard to avoid, but if we mess up the consequences will still be dire."

Reyna was confused. "But I thought that no matter what we do, we can't change time, because if we go back in time, then we have already gone back in time."

The Major was impressed by Reyna's grasp of that particular concept, but he still needed to correct her. "That's just one theory. There are others, many of which are just as – if not more – likely to be true. While no theory has been proven, for the most part they are all perfectly plausible when you let them stand on their own. I'm making all my decisions on the assumption that the theory with the most severe consequences for tampering with time is the right one."

"Consequences like..." Reyna beckoned the Major to continue, so he did.

The Major thought a moment, "You know what a paradox is, right?"

Reyna gave him a sarcastic look. The Major hadn't actually meant it like that, but oh well. Before she could unleash her omnipotent sarcastic abilities, the Major corrected his explanation.

"Never mind. Let's just say..." The Major looked around for some sort of visual aid, and plucked the first one he saw out of the ground where it was rooted, "...that this blade of grass is the space-time continuum..." He wrapped it into a spiral-tube shape, which was rather hard to do considering it was a blade of grass. "...And this tunnel the time-stream. Time and events flow through it, like water through a pipe. The time-stream completely wraps around time, and keeps it flowing together in its tight, spiral shape. Do you follow me so far?"

Reyna nodded, though she evidently found the use of a blade of grass for the visual aid amusing.

"Now let's say you go back in time and accidentally do something that prevents yourself from being born." He loosened his grip on the grass tube, and it started to slightly unfurl. "But if you were never born, then there would be no 'you' to keep yourself from being born, so you would be born. But then since you were born, you would go back in time and prevent yourself from being born, but then you wouldn't exist and therefore couldn't prevent yourself from being born...and so on, and so on..." Bit by bit as he said this, the Major unraveled the grass tube he had made... "...Until the time stream is unraveled, and all of time is destroyed: Past, Present, and Future. See?" The Major held the now straight blade of grass up to Reyna.

She nodded, and was getting up to go practice when the Major stopped her. "There's more. You don't have to make your parents break up to set off this chain reaction. Even so much as making eye contact with an ancestor has the potential to create a paradox. Therefore we must tread these lands with caution, and I will have the final call on what turning points in history will be caused by us." The Major paused, took a deep breath, before he closed the debate, "Does that answer your question?"

Reyna acknowledged with a nod, although she was clearly disappointed that her plan would not be used. "But then, why would Nexus Force trust us to do this?"

"Now you're starting to think." The Major replied, "It's because they measured the potential gains and losses, and determined that, IF they could minimize the risk, IF they could find someone with enough skill to stay alive, IF that person also had enough brains to not become his own ancestor, IF ALL THIS, THEN the rewards would be worth that risk. I'm that guy."

Reyna thought for a moment. "So they analyzed the risks and weighed them against the gains, and determined that if they could get the best of the best, it would be worth it?"

"Yes, and that's called TRA: Theoretical Risk Assessment. Do you know what we call your plan?"

Reyna shook her head.

"Your idea of a plan is what we call DRA." Reyna's expression indicated that she didn't understand, so the Major continued, "Dynamic Risk Assessment... a.k.a.: analyzing risks by taking them... a.k.a.: Winging it. Marching right into Bat territory and hoping they don't kill us is not a plan; it's a suicidal form of DRA, with an emphasis on 'suicidal'." He leaned forward as he summarized, "We are seven hundred generations in the past, trying to learn about history without accidentally changing it, and you want to try WINGING IT?!"

Reyna blinked a moment, then broke out into hysterical laughter. The Major smiled as he rolled his eyes, but of course she couldn't see.

"But sir," Reyna said, with tears rolling down from laughing too hard, "They're the ones winging it. They're Bat Lords!!"

With that, she resumed her endless stream of laughter, not so much because her joke was funny as it was just fueling her already infinite laughter. Meanwhile the Major just shook his head.

"Shin'ika, I would have said your greatest weapon was your powers of pure, undiluted sarcasm, but as far as bad jokes go, I don't think even Axolc will be able to live that one down."

That set them both off.

---

"Ok Shin'ika, there's just one more thing we need to fix before I should be allowed to truthfully call you that."

Reyna leaned closer, eager to hear what their final exercise would be. It had been a few hours since their discussion about the time-stream, as they had needed time to recover and have their midday meal. Now that they were finished eating, it was time to resume training, supposedly.

Reyna smiled. So far they had worked on her stealth, accuracy, efficiency, patience (which had taken the longest to master), and several other skills that made her feel more like a ninja than ever before. She was eager to hear what they would be working on next.

The Major noted her smile as he explained, "As I have said, a Shinobi can be a bandit or an assassin. And an assassin never cries over their kills."

Reyna's mood changed dramatically when she heard this. She had no idea how they would "fix" this, but she didn't think she really wanted to know. She had no intention of turning into a heartless killing machine like the Ma-

She stopped herself there. She knew by now that there was more to the Major than just ruthless killing, because that was another thing the past week of training had taught her. With this in mind, although she still wasn't eager to do whatever it was the Major required, she at least wasn't as opposed to it as before.

"So, remember it's you or them." The Major continued, "You are going to kill when you need to, because if you don't you will be killed, and then your brother will be left alone."

When Reyna heard this, it lit a roaring blaze inside her that she could not contain. But then she realized that she could at least control its direction. Focus, focus, she told herself. Her heart sped up, she was breathing twice her normal rate, and adrenalin flowed through her veins. She focused all her blind rage at anyone trying to hurt her or her friends. And then she realized that at the moment that was no one, and she cooled down.

The Major, who had been watching Reyna's expression the whole time, nodded approvingly, and said, "Now all you have to do is remember that whenever it comes down to a choice between you or them. That's the end of our training, Shin'ika."

Hearing this set Reyna on emotional overload. She felt proud that she had gained the Major's approval, upset by the means used to get it, in awe that she had come this far, sad that training had to end, eager to go show off her skills to her friends, and to finish it all off, exhilarated after all the adrenalin. She was officially over-stimulated.

On that thought, they got ready to leave, despite the fact that it was only their sixth day.

Chapter 26

Axolc, Prax, and Jon were positioned around their campfire, lying in their sleeping bags. It was well after nightfall, but Axolc couldn't get to sleep. Tomorrow Reyna and the Major would return, and then it would be Jonathon's turn. Axolc shuddered at the thought of Jon spending a week alone with the Major, but he didn't think the Major would be harsh. But then again, who knew? The Major might try to toughen Jonathon up the hard way. No, Axolc could not bear the thought, and he did not believe the Major would ever do such a thing. But the thought was so terrifying that he could not rid it from his mind, and it clung there, ready to torture him through the entire night.

But then a sound jolted him awake.

He turned to look at where Praxer was supposed to be on watch, but his friend was nowhere to be found. Axolc slipped out of bed, and checked to see that Jon was undisturbed before moving around the smoldering remains of the campfire to Praxer's last known position. As it turned out the boy was still using his sleeping bag for its intended use, instead of being on guard like he was supposed to.

"Pssst! Praxer, wake up."

Praxer lifted his head groggily. "Unh... is it my watch already?" he moaned quietly.

Axolc shook his head. "You were supposed to have started your watch hours ago," he whispered back, "remember? No one's been on guard since midnight!"

Hearing this jerked Praxer to his senses. "Did you check Jonathon?" he asked without pause.

"Undisturbed and sound asleep," Axolc confirmed, "But I heard a noise."

Praxer creeped out of bed without another word, and together they surveyed their surroundings. It was hard to see by the dim light of the nearly dead fire, and beyond the small area it lit everything was pitch black. It was so dark that night that Praxer almost thought it was unnatural.

But something about this bothered Praxer, and it took him a minute to realize what. "When did you put out the fire?" he whispered to his companion.

Praxer watched as Axolc frowned. They had designed the fire to last for ages with minimal assistance, that being provided by whoever was on watch. It hadn't been unmanned long enough for it to die out on its own, so Praxer had assumed Axolc had, for some reason, extinguished it.

"I never put out the – Oh Nexus!"

They drew their weapons as they realized they were not alone. They took opposite ends of the camp and surveyed the area as they circled the would-be-fire. They couldn't see a thing, because, as they had noted before, beyond the faint glow provided by the fire's ashes everything was pitch black. Actually, it was not so much black as it was devoid of any light and color. It was as if the darkness was showing them who's boss by devouring everything it its path.

Thankfully Axolc also realized that they would be hopeless like this, so he attempted to restart the fire while Praxer solemnly watched for movement. He sat down and laid his flintlock pistols beside him while he worked. Apparently the dying fire had its smoldering heart set on staying dead, so it was all the boy could do to keep it at its current brightness. After several minutes of barely being able to see what he was doing and getting frustratingly poor results, Axolc decided to try re-lighting it with his pistols. "Flint-lock, flint-rock...what's the difference?" he figured. He reached to where he had set them down-

-And they were gone.

Axolc looked down in a panic. Both his pistols were nowhere in sight. His gaze darted around the camp in a panic, with the same results. This was not good.

But before he could look for them, he needed to finish his job and get the fire up and running. From his crouched position he half-crawled, half-dashed to his sleeping bag, where he had left his backpack. Luckily it was still in his bag where he had left it. He ran back to the fire the way he had come, and opened his bag. He groped around inside it until he found what he was looking for: a BBQ Blast Hot Dog. With this in hand he set his knapsack down, but it was then that he realized that he was right next to the sleeping Jonathon. Axolc realized that if he used the Hot Dog to light the fire, the sound would definitely wake the boy up. This was something undesirable, as none of them ever wanted to worry Jonathon any more than necessary. He began to rethink his choice of methods...

Axolc sighed, and reached for his backpack. Maybe there would be something in there that he could use to a similar effect-

-His knapsack was gone.

Abandoning all thoughts of the fire, he quickly but quietly got up and ran over to Praxer. He explained what had just happened, and Praxer's expression darkened. He handed Axolc a Spike Hammer from his inventory, and they carefully moved back to the fire's ashes. Whoever was out there was either a thief, or an enemy patient enough to bide his time while he slowly disarmed them. At the moment Praxer thought the latter more likely, because a thief wouldn't have gone through the trouble of extinguishing their fire if they were already asleep.

Praxer had a sensation of being toyed, as if the person out there in the dark was a cat who liked to play with her food, and he was a trapped mouse. It made him feel both uneasy and enraged; he did not like the feeling of being powerless.

He heard a noise, and wheeled around to face it. Naturally he saw nothing. He cursed, this was not looking good. Axolc, meanwhile, had started digging through Praxer's bag, looking for something, anything, that could provide them with some measure of light. He was having no luck. Not only were they trapped mice, they were BLIND trapped mice.

Then Praxer heard a whoosh, and as he turned to face it saw a blur of something that reflected light come out of the darkness, striking the bag in Axolc's hands and carrying it away from them, into the darkness on the other side. He asked Axolc if he had any idea of what it was, and Axolc responded that he was about to ask him the same question. He also would have made a comment about the future looking not-too-bright had the situation not scared them as much as it did.

They resumed scanning the area.

If Praxer had had his Engineer gear, he would have been able to see what was out there through his helmet. But unfortunately, none of them had their faction gear, as they were still in the Major's possession.

Praxer thought he heard a noise, and turned to face its direction. He walked over to where he thought it had come from, and suddenly was knocked back onto the ground, flipping in midair and landing on his stomach. He looked up just in time to see a black cape trailing into the darkness behind a figure cloaked in black. Praxer leapt to his feet but the figure was already gone, as if he had vanished into thin air. Actually, Praxer decided that it was more accurate to say the figure dissolved and became one with the darkness, and even though looking back it might have seemed ridiculous, neither did the all-concealing darkness, which had been real enough.

Praxer heard a small shout, and turned to see Axolc on the ground and a black blur receding into the darkness behind him. Praxer charged at where the blur had dissolved into the blackness of the night, only to be thrown back on the ground by the intruder. It was as if the intruder was saying "nice try, but you'll never beat me at my own game when we're in my territory."

Praxer got up, and helped Axolc do the same. They cautiously retreated to the fire. Now disarmed of all their weapons, they stood back to back over the ashes of the fire, which were growing colder by the second. The light barely stretched half as far as it had when their struggle had first begun. This was not good.

They heard a sound, and turned just in time to see the blurred motion of whatever had knocked the backpack out of Axolc's hands again, this time right between their noses. Praxer realized that the intruder was indeed toying with them, because their reaction time never would have been enough had whatever it was been aimed at their heads.

Praxer's eyes met Axolc's, and they realized they were thinking the same thing: that this very well might be the end. But just trying to put this feeling into words is not possible, because it loses the power of the collective sense of despair running through each of them, making all their thoughts irrational and uncoordinated. Despair didn't cut it. Sorrowful acceptance didn't cut it. No words could properly describe the feeling coursing through them both simultaneously. It was worse than death. It was knowing that you were about to die.

Another blur of motion, this time more distinct, brought them out of their trance. Praxer noticed two things about this particular attack. One, that the weapon had been thrown with less force, and was therefore discernible as some sort of blade; and Two, that their opponent was using this to say, "Hold on, little mouse, I'm not done with you yet."

The two young ones looked down at Jonathon beside them. He had the covers pulled up all the way over his head. Amazingly, all the commotion had yet to wake him up. But then Praxer realized that there hadn't been any commotion, because the intruder had moved in on them without a sound.

Once again Praxer's eyes met Axolc's, but this time with a different feeling. If it was at all possible that the mysterious attacker did not know that Jonathon was with them, they would use whatever means necessary to make sure he never did.

They resumed their back to back positions, this time with firmer resolve. They slowly circle around each other, until they had made a full rotation. Something was up. The intruder hadn't made a move in over 30 seconds, and now the lack of activity was somehow scarier than when there had been some. They glanced around, with Jonathon sleeping right by their side.

Suddenly the silence was broken by another noise, louder than the previous ones. So far they had only ever heard the intruder when he was trying to avert their eyes from his attack, and Praxer assumed that this was no exception, so he didn't turn. Neither did Axolc, which meant he had caught on as well.

Then it came again, only this time loud and with a visible cause. A miniature firecracker was thrown to their side opposite Jon. Their instincts took over and they wheeled around to face it. Predictably they were both kicked from behind and pushed to the ground as the intruder rushed over them. Praxer looked up in time to see what he had seen before: the intruder's outfit for a split-second before he became one with the darkness again.

They hadn't even gotten up yet before another of the blades zoomed between them, this time coming from behind. But this time Praxer was ready, and as it came he grabbed one of the smaller half-burnt logs from the would-be-fire, and held it straight in the weapon's path. The blade was stopped in its tracks and was stuck firmly in the log.

From out of the darkness Praxer heard an "Aah", like he had impressed the intruder and perhaps gained his respect.

Just then his thoughts were interrupted by three more blades being shot out and just barely missing him, so he decided that this theory was unlikely.

Not caring, he lifted up the log so he and Axolc could examine the weapon.

It was a finely-crafted shurikin, made of polished steel and razor sharp. Now that it was motionless, they could clearly see the light of the should-have-been-dead-already-would-be-fire, as well as-

-They had no time to react to what they saw, because they only saw it for the split-second before it was too late. The intruder grabbed them and literally pulled them to the ground and into a roll. When they came out of the roll, they were flat on their backs with the intruder on top of them.

Now that the intruder was in the open, it was much easier for Praxer to examine him. The closer examination didn't reveal much more than before, all he could see was that the figure wore the blackest of black clothing, plain, without any accessories other than his equally black cape and hood. It wasn't like a ninja hood, but more like a pitch black Forester's Hood. The figure was positioned between him and Axolc and crouched on one knee, with his back to Prax so his face was kept away from sight. A glance to the side revealed that Axolc couldn't see either.

What they did see was the knives being held at their throats.

Praxer looked back at his captor. His cape was flapping silently in the wind, and seeing this made Prax realize something he hadn't before.

"Wait, you're not-"

His captor slightly increased the pressure being applied on Praxer's throat by the knife, just enough to tell him to hold his tongue. He gulped, and swallowed what he was about to say. Axolc was completely frozen.

And then out of the blue the intruder spoke.

"You guys need to be careful or you definitely won't last much longer in this place. That was so much fun, except it was almost too easy!!"

Praxer's jaw went slack. He knew that voice.

He stared as his captor turned her head and smiled.

"Hi guys," said Reyna, "Enjoying the night life?"

Chapter 27

Even after the due explanations from the Major, Praxer was still quite mad.

"YOU NEARLY GAVE US A HEART ATTACK!!!" he yelled at both Reyna and the Major alike, "WE THOUGHT WE WERE ABOUT TO DIE!!!!!"

Jonathon simply yawned as he snuggled up in his sister's arms. Even though it was still dark (though admittedly not nearly as dark as it had been before), they had decided to wake him up before swapping stories. This was so that he wouldn't be in the dark as to why Praxer would be in such a foul mood the next day, and so he could be with his sister again. At that moment when his sister woke him up for the first time in almost a week he had looked happier than anyone had ever seen him before. For the first time they could remember he seemed genuinely calm and at peace. Looking back at this, Reyna smiled and squeezed him in her arms. He gave a rare smile back, which was enough to keep them and everyone in a good mood- except of course, Praxer.

Axolc was of course the one who'd tried the hardest to lighten the mood. "Seriously Prax, lighten up!! Can't you even take ONE joke without exploding?"

As usual, Axolc's good humor had no effect on Praxer.

"It's NOT funny!!!" he bitterly growled. He had kept this barrage up for over an hour, and didn't sound like he was about to let up anytime soon. Axolc had been just as terrified as him, but he wasn't about to hold a grudge against someone trying to have a little bit of fun. Praxer, on the other hand, could hold a grudge and NEVER let go.

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Prax," the Major repeated for at least the third time that morning, "You keep yelling at me, who had no hand in this, and at your friend, whom you should have forgiven by now. She already said she was sorry she scared you, so I don't see what this endless rant is supposed to accomplish."

"SHE DIDN'T MEAN IT!!!!!" Praxer shouted back. Even for him, this was a bit over-the-top. Axolc had almost NEVER seen Prax get mad at Reyna; this tireless rage was usually reserved for him. Back at the academy, Axolc had noticed a...relationship...emerge between Reyna and Prax, although he hadn't seen much evidence of it since they all had met the Major. Axolc assumed that they were going to forget about it until the mission was over, so it wouldn't cloud their judgment.

Come to think of it, maybe their relationship was why Praxer was so mad at Reyna, and he felt like he had been betrayed. Axolc realized that this was probably the case.

"And YOU," Praxer continued without even pausing to breath, "This is exactly the sort of thing YOU would think up. So either it was YOUR idea, or Reyna has picked up on some of YOUR bad habits."

This was a chalenge, and the Major knew it. He leaned forward until he and Prax were nose to nose, supposedly. "Or maybe," he said, "it happened like I told you it did: As we drove up, we saw that no one was on WATCH," he paused to emphasize this point, "So Reyna asked if she could have a little fun. I agreed on the condition that no one got seriously hurt, and she accepted that condition. Although the way I heard it, it sounded like she might've been a little disappointed..." As he said this, Reyna shot the Major a sarcastic look like she was not amused, although she was probably laughing hysterically inside.

"So I came over and doused out the fire, just loud enough to wake Axolc up," she finished for him. "And then we began our little cat and mouse game."

"WELL I'M STILL MA-"

"WE KNOW!!!"

When he heard everyone (save Jonathon, who gave him a look to the same effect) yell this back at him, Praxer just grumbled an inaudible retort and finally left to go somewhere private. Reyna got up to follow him, much to the dismay of her little brother. When they were gone, Axolc decided it was time to voice his earlier thoughts.

"Sir, can I speak with you a moment?" he said as calmly as he could, with a side glance at Jonathon.

The Major got the message, and after he had gotten Jonathon back to bed, went to go talk with Axolc.

The boy got straight to the point. "Sir, what do you plan on doing for Jonathon?"

The Major grimaced; he had forgotten that Jonathon's training would have to start soon. He looked left and right, but of course no one was there, so he leaned in closer to Axolc.

"Can I trust you to keep this strictly confidential?" he asked quietly.

Axolc nodded, though obviously a bit disturbed by this reaction.

"Jonathon's form is flawless. His skills are top-notch. In fact, I might even go as far to say that he's gifted." The Major paused for a moment, "But he has no confidence."

Realization dawned on Axolc. "Ohh..." he replied. When he realized the Major was looking at him, he quickly resumed his careless joking around. "Well, there's a shock. I really thought you had meant it when you said our form was terrible."

"No, I was specifically looking at you when I said that," the Major teased, "But no, seriously? I consider mental strength just as important as physical strength, if not more."

Axolc nodded, he knew what the Major meant by that. But he was still unsure about the Major and Jonathon being alone for a whole week.

"Sir, the others wouldn't want me to tell you this, but... there is something you should know."

The Major was both surprised and anxious. He had not expected Axolc to know anything about Jon's past, but even though it meant he was one step closer to the truth, he still knew whatever it was would have to be horrifying. He really was seeking knowledge he didn't want but knew he needed: the unbearable but necessary truth.

"Reyna and Jon... I heard something...a rumor. Someone said that they were onboard some sort of transport...Venture...something. I can't remember."

The Major beckoned him to continue, so he did.

"Anyways, what I heard was that there was a...malfunction, and they had to...evacuate. But Jonathon and Reyna...didn't make it."

Axolc let out the breath he had been holding. There, he had said it. There was no going back.

The Major, meanwhile, looked as though a light had gone off in his head, judging by his body language and the circumstance. Axolc had no idea what was going on under his helmet, but at the moment he didn't care.

Then the Major nodded, like something that had been bothering him had just become a little clearer.

"That makes sense," he said, "Almost all recruits are provided by such transports, and not all of them make it through unscathed..."

Axolc was confused. He couldn't remember ever being on such a transport. But then, come to think of it, he couldn't remember ANYTHING about how he had gotten to Nimbus Station from his home planet. He realized what had never occured to him: that there was some sort of gap where the journey should have been in his memories. It was frustrating.

Then the Major broke the silence. "Thank you, Axolc," he said gently, "This information will help. Jonathon is trapped in his past, and in order to free him I need to know what it is. Thank you."

With that, the Major stood up, stretched his legs, and left to who knows where.

Chapter 28

The sun had risen by the time the Major found Reyna and Praxer. They were side-by-side, having an apparently engaging conversation underneath a large rock outcrop that hung over a relatively steep incline in the forest. They didn't notice him approaching, so the Major heard glimpses of their conversation.

"C'mon Prax, he's not that bad."

"You're right, he's worse. He doesn't care about us. Vylar was right."

The Major heard a sound like Reyna grabbing Praxer anxiously before the conversation continued,

"Vylar was the most heartless man that ever lived. We all heard what he said about us behind our backs. I don't know why you are constantly tricking yourself into thinking he didn't."

"He was better than the Major."

By this time the Major had slowed down considerably, and had been sneaking up as quietly as he could. When he heard this, he decided to wait and see what else they said.

Reyna tried to show her friend reason. "Well, I don't know why you think that. You obviously never got past all the things Vylar said about the Major. Vylar probably never even MET the Major. You have. Start seeing through your own eyes, instead of the ones they gave you."

Praxer made a 'humph' sound, then replied "The Major doesn't care about us. At least Vylar didn't try to dive in and examine our pasts like they were his personal science experiment."

"Praxer, Major DOES care. His desire to learn what happened to us is proof of that, not the opposite. Vylar never asked about us or our pasts because he already knew and didn't care. Major's just trying to help us, and he'd help you too, if only you would let him."

"Well, when we messed up at the academy, at least Vylar would say it to our faces instead of doing it by making us run impossible obstacle courses and try to find a "message." And he never hid himself behind some mask."

"Now I see you're just in denial. Prax, Major's probably NEVER taken off that mask. It's probably all he knows...like our gear. If you felt like me when you handed over your gear, you probably felt like your life was over."

"I still do. Your precious instructor is just too heartless to see that. When has there ever been any indication whatsoever that he cared?!"

There was a pause before Reyna responded, "He called me Shin'ika."

"What's that, a disease?"

"It means 'Little Shinobi', but don't ask how I know that. It's a very affectionate name in whatever language it's in."

"This is all speculation, you don't know the meaning for certain."

"...Actually I do. Somehow I am more certain about it than I am about the sun rising in the east."

"So he likes you, fine. But does he actually care?"

Another pause came after Praxer's question, which he obviously meant to be rhetorical. Reyna thought a moment before giving her honest, level-headed response.

"I think he is trying NOT to care, but failing to do so once he gets to know us. Same thing when we get to know him. You just can't see it because you don't want to. You don't want to admit that a notorious murderer has become a father figure-"

"He has NOT become a father figure. THAT I am certain of."

The seemingly endless silence that followed was deafening. Even though he couldn't actually see, the Major just knew that Reyna was looking at Prax with tears in her eyes, while the boy just coldly stared back.

Eventually the silence was broken.

"The sun's up," voiced Praxer, "Let's go get some breakfast."

"Ok," whispered Reyna.

They got up and walked right past his hiding spot as they began the trip back to camp. The Major did not get up to follow them when they left.

He just sat there in the confines of his helmet and silently wept.

Chapter 29

When the Major had come to his senses, he wanted to kick himself for letting himself care. But he couldn't. He could not berate himself for caring about them when Reyna had been so sure of it that she had argued with Praxer over it. Yet his affection was not only causing him grief, but also to the ones he felt affection for. The conflict of feelings was confusing, hateful, and exhausting. And yet he could not kick himself for it.

When he got back to camp, the others had already eaten, so he ate alone. It was sobering. They could live in their own world, while he lived in his.

But as he ate, he could not help but notice something, nor could he ignore it.

Jonathon was staring at him the entire time.

---

Later that afternoon, the Major got everyone together for an announcement.

"We are running low on supplies," he said, not technically lying, "Some of which require a trip to the nearby village. I'm going there this evening, and I want Reyna and Prax to accompany me. No arguing. Clear?"

Reyna and Prax glanced at each other; Jonathon went back to being in his world of sorrow; Axolc said nothing. None of them looked too enthusiastic.

"I said, CLEAR?!"

"Yes sir!!" snapped all four in unison (Jonthon didn't speak, but he straightened up and nodded in sync with the reply).

"Good. Be sure you're ready; we leave in an hour." The Major was in no mood for delay. The more lasting effects of the conversation he overheard earlier had begun to harden him, and at the moment he was stuck in no-nonsense mode. Nexus knows how long it would last.

---

One hour later, they all bade farewell to each other, particularly Jonathon and Reyna. The Major had promised her that they would be back that night, and now Reyna was repeating that promise to her brother. Then they got in the vehicle and drove off.

In very little time they reached the village, since the Major had tried out a shortcut he'd found on the map he'd bought from his last visit. It ended up cutting their travel time in half.

He parked the vehicle where it would be hidden in plain sight, knowing that it would be too conspicuous if they left it covered up with branches in the forest or in some other hiding place. They got out and walked over to their first stop: the café. They didn't order anything, but instead just sat down at an open table. The Major got out his map and showed it to his charges. It was then that he decided that that was what he would call them henceforth to avoid getting further attached. Of course he might as well say it was already too late, but still.

"Where's the Bot Village?" said Reyna out of the blue.

"The what?"

"When we retrieved Thoki's cart, one of the thieves asked us if we were from the Bot Village, right before our cover was blown, remember?" Reyna clarified.

The Major did indeed remember, and he also realized that that was what had given them away. "There is no Bot Village. The Exploreian Bots live in New Bot City, down here." He pointed to a spot in the southeastern area of the map. "You fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, but the trick is also one of the hardest to avoid when you don't know the land. Once you said you were from the Bot Village, which does not exist, they knew you were lying."

Realization dawned on both his charges as they continued to study the map. Once they had gotten the gist of it committed to memory, all three of them got up and left the café.

The Major led them on a couple minor errands, taking care to avoid the street where he had seen Thoki's shop, until it was nearly nightfall. Then the Major took them into a back alley where they could converse in private.

He checked the time. It was getting late. They would have to head back to camp soon.

It was time to cut to the chase.

Chapter 30

"Reyna," he began, "Do you trust me?"

Reyna was bewildered, while right next to her Praxer was almost fuming. When Reyna saw Praxer's expression, it served to strengthen her resolve.

"Yes, I do."

The Major turned to Praxer. "And you?"

Deliberately avoiding eye contact, as calmly as he could, Praxer replied, "As much as I'd trust any murderous criminal."

The Major had expected this sort of response, and replied, "And how many of those have you met? I know your old instructor was one."

This just made Praxer's rage flare up, but amazingly he managed to keep his emotions under some measure of control. "Sgt. Vylar was NOT a killer. He was like my second father."

That stung, because by now the Major was certain who this so-called Vylar was. "So you'd trust a sleazy, fast talking murderer who'd kill you in your sleep before you'd trust one with enough courage to do it to your face? For a minute, I thought you were smart..."

Praxer looked like he wanted to reach out and yank the Major's helmet off his head and use it to smack his unprotected jaw. "I don't know what you have against my old teacher," he growled, "but get to the point."

"Actually, the point no longer concerns you; now this is just between me and Reyna, since we actually trust each other." He turned to face Reyna, whose gaze was darting back and forth between the two speakers, wondering if it was even in her power to stop this.

"Shin'ika," the Major began, bringing her gaze to him, "There is something I need to know that only you can tell me, or else I won't be able to help your brother." He bent down and leaned in closer. "I need to know what happened to you and Jonathon before you met Axolc and Praxer. I need to know what made him lose the will to speak."

Reyna was shocked and afraid, while Praxer was shocked and enraged. Unlike with Reyna, however, Praxer's shock was the lesser of those two emotions.

"That is none of your business, bounty hunter," he spat. "Jonathon will be fine if you just give him time."

The Major wheeled around to face the vat of molten rage before him. "Praxer, that's not true. He will never recover without help. He's already beyond time's powers to heal."

"Actually..." Reyna interrupted, causing both sets of yes to fall on her, "That's what we all thought. We didn't think it would last forever, and our instructor didn't seem to care, so..."

The Major turned back to face the boy. "You see?" he snarled, "Your instructor never cared about you. He was just a brick-faced bureaucrat seeking promotion. Your mental state didn't matter to him, only your ability to obey and to fight and to die, all blindly for that would-be-honorable Nexus Jerks!!"

Praxer could no longer contain his rage. He grabbed the Major and literally pinned him against the alley wall.

"The Nexus Force," he firmly declared, although he lost the effect because he was stuttering from all the emotion, "Is the greatest cause in the entire universe. It carries the weight of protecting of all minifig-kind on its shoulders, valiantly fighting against the greatest force of evil and chaos, the Maelstrom. The things it sacrifices every day for people all across the universe are innumerable, as we all strive towards success. Now you just go and think about what you've sacrificed for the greater good of our world."

The Major, meanwhile, patiently waited for Praxer to finish. When he had heard the beginning of Praxer's speech, he had just stopped listening, since he knew he had heard it before. When it was over, the Major wasted no time in employing his response.

"How long did it take you to memorize that speech?"

Praxer was dumbfounded. "What?" was all he could say.

"Those aren't your words," the Major asserted, "They belong to your old instructor. How often did he make you recite that...once a week? Every day? How long was it before you could spit back those words without even thinking?"

Praxer stared in disbelief, which soon morphed back into rage. "What are you imply-"

"I'm not implying anything; I'm telling you that I know you did not come up with that on the spot, because I'VE HEARD THOSE WORDS BEFORE."

Praxer stared in utter shock and equal rage. He was about to reply when Reyna, who had been all but forgotten, stopped him.

"Praxer, just let it go. Did you really think reciting the code would get you anywhere?" Praxer turned to face Reyna, looking like he had just been betrayed. His emotion was getting a bit extreme now, and not just his capacity for rage.

The Major, meanwhile, was shocked to learn this. "That's their CODE now? What is this world coming to?!"

He hadn't meant to think this out loud, but he did. And Praxer, looking back with a sinister smile that meant he had found an opening, replied, "Indeed, not that you would know anything about a moral law or code of honor."

So far the Major had been trying to stay calm, but now Praxer's attitude was starting to have an effect. "I know more about moral laws than your instructor will ever know," he replied, "Because I don't lie about who I am."

This was too much for Praxer, who had stopped thinking clearly at this point. He was now in a state of total rage, where sense and thought did not exist. In one motion, he pulled back his fist and hurled it at the Major, landing square in where he guessed the jaw would be. The helmet made it hurt, but it was well worth the pain to see the Major stumble back in surprise.

"JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!!" he yelled at the Major in all his rage. He tried to lunge at the Major's prone body, but something physically held him back. He was somehow aware in some sealed away corner of his mind of a voice pleading for him to stop, but he was beyond the point where thoughts of anything but the man lying in front of him were rendered powerless.

The only reality he knew was him, the Major, and the open air between them.

The Major tried to get up, but as he got onto his feet Prax broke free of whatever was holding him and delivered another, equally powerful punch. The Major fell once more.

"JONATHON!!!"

Praxer just got madder and madder, and he realized that his rage was giving him strength beyond measure. The Major tried to get up again, but Praxer knocked him down a third time.

"VYLAR!!!"

The Major weakly tried to sit up, but Praxer wouldn't let him have that. Since his arms were being held back, he delivered a swift kick to the Major's helmet, and down he fell again.

"ALL OF THEM!!! ALL OF US!!!!"

He wanted to lunge at the Major and rip him to pieces, but he physically couldn't. As the focus his rage increased and expanded from just the Major to also anything that got in his way, he became aware that something was still holding him back. He wheeled around to face whatever that thing was. As it turned out, it was a sobbing girl who looked only slightly younger than him.

"LET GO," he forcefully commanded. She just shook her head, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

He repeated again, with even more force, "LET GO, NOW!!"

Still, she refused.

"LET GO, OR ELSE!!!"

When she refused the third time, he decided that he had had enough of her mute pleading and her refusal to obey. He pushed back. Shoving her away from him, he lunged out and struck the girl hard in the face. She staggered backwards with a cry and fell, lying still and senseless where she had fallen. Finally free of the annoying girl's hold, he turned to face the Major, who had managed to regain his footing during the pause. The Major looked down at the girl, as if she were somehow important. Praxer knew she wasn't; this moment was just between him and the Major.

He lunged at the Major, but this time he no longer had the element of surprise. Having lost this advantage, he was quickly tossed aside. He was not deterred however, and he leapt on the Major, who for some reason had knelt down with his back turned. It took Praxer a minute to realize that it was because he was examining the girl.

Then Praxer tried to pull off the Major's helmet, but the Major jerked his head back, straight into Praxer's. In some sealed off area of his mind, Praxer was aware of blood trickling down his forehead, but this didn't stop him or even slow him down. He just kept attacking the Major left and right.

Then he realized, to his shock and awe, the Major wasn't even reacting. He just held that idiot girl's head in his arms, monitoring her breathing. Odd, that he should take so much interest in such a worthless girl. Or was she...? Praxer leaned in for a closer look- -And realized it was Reyna.

His mind was flooded by his memory and senses flowing back into him. He started to feel faint, and he couldn't make sense of any of them, except...

He had hurt Reyna.

First he was flooded with emotion, primarily guilt. Had he really? Yes, he had.

He had hurt Reyna.

Then his memories started to reorder themselves, and he was able to make sense of some of them again.

He had hurt Reyna.

His sense of reality came last, as he slowly became aware of the bruises all over his knuckles and the bleeding wound in his forehead.

He had hurt Reyna.

And then with his sense of reality came the fatigue, and he realized he could no longer stay conscious...

He slipped away in darkness as tears rolled down his face.

---

The Major found, to his relief, that both his young ones were alive. He could not describe how grateful he was for that. Up until that day he had never even imagined how enraged Prax could get. Nor did he ever want to see such an insane berserker rage again. He had seen the boy's reaction when he had come out of it, so it was highly probable that the boy had learned his lesson.

The Major prayed that he had too.

Chapter 31

The Major had waited too long, but he had to make sure the kids were awake and functioning before they got back to camp. He didn’t need to tell them that this incident had never happened; they already knew.

So when they got back to camp, it was past midnight, and Axolc was half-awake on watch. The Major took over for him and sent all the kids to bed. Once they were asleep, he sat there and did something he had been dreading to do for so long.

He had just enough pieces of Jonathon’s puzzle to start putting them together, although not nearly enough to ever complete it. He just hoped he would find more pieces before he ran out or else he would have to improvise.

---

Praxer got up an hour before the others usually did. Even though he needed the sleep, there was something he needed more.

He looked over to where the Major was sitting with his back turned. He took a deep breath and walked over to him quietly. Before he had said anything or even entered the Major’s field of vision, the Major spoke to him.

“Yes, Praxer?”

Praxer found this unsettling. Not the fact that he knew he was there, he thought the Major might as well be omniscient, but the fact that when he spoke, he had done it calmly and soothingly, as if it were he who should be making amends.

“Sir, I wanted to talk to you…about last night.”

The Major turned to face Praxer, and indicated a spot next to him. Praxer sat down, and realized they sitting exactly as they had the first time the Major had tried to find out about Jonathon’s past. Then the Major replied in the same soothing tone.

“I’m here for you, son.”

Praxer took a deep breath, and desperately tried to ignore what the Major had just called him. He was afraid it would set him off again, but when he realized it was having the opposite effect, he exhaled. Maybe Reyna was right, maybe he was just in denial.

“Sir, I’d like to say I’m sorry,” he began, “I lost control I don’t know what came over me, and…”

The Major held up a hand for him to stop. “I’m the one who should apologize,” he said, “You were getting mad and I just fueled your rage with thoughtless taunts. I should have realized sooner what the berserker you could be. I won’t make that mistake again.”

At first Praxer just shook his head in disbelief, but then he just shrugged and changed the topic. “How’s Reyna?” he asked.

“She’ll live. But you’ll need to more careful around her.”

Praxer sighed. “Do you think I’ll ever regain her trust?” he whispered.

The Major turned his head slightly in Praxer’s direction, or at least that’s what Praxer thought he saw, because the movement was so small it was hard to tell if it was really there. Then the Major responded, “Praxer, she does trust you. She trusts you with every fiber of her being. That’s why you need to be careful not to break that trust.”

Praxer found this somewhat reassuring, but not completely. It took him a minute to realize why. “Then why did she look at me like that the entire ride back last night?”

For a moment, there was silence. Then the Major made his response.

“You surprised her last night. She had no idea how deeply you were seeped in your rage. She is far more skilled than you in certain ways, and she knows what those are. She is afraid that, for all your willpower, you might go off again…and she might have to stop you from doing something you’ll regret.”

Now Praxer understood, and the thought was unbearable. He resolved that he would not let anything like that ever happen, or else…. He just wouldn’t.

But there was more that he needed to know, but he had a feeling that if he continued that they would eventually reach the topic of Jonathon. But he decided that if getting what he needed to know meant the Major would get what he needed to know, then so be it.

“Sir, about Vylar…do you…know him?”

There was a long pause, and Praxer had a feeling it was because the Major was choosing his words carefully. When he finally responded, he did so without any trace of emotion in his voice, which Praxer took to being deliberate, as though the Major was spending great effort on restraining his emotion.

“We met once.”

Praxer took the hint, and decided that this would have to be satisfactory for now. He put all thoughts of his old sergeant aside indefinitely. There was still so much he wanted to know, but he decided to limit it to just one question.

“Sir, just please tell me this….Why are you so obsessed with Jonathon’s past? None of us had perfect lives before we joined Nexus Force, so we just thought if we gave him time he would grow out of this…phase.”

For the first time since their conversation had begun, the Major turned his head to look at his young charge dead on.

“Jonathon is grown up,” he began, “In fact, he is the most grown up of all of you. But he had to grow up before he was ready. You at least can still see the good things in life. Well, not you especially, but Reyna can. And Axolc can make light of even the direst situations!!”

The Major paused to catch his breath. Praxer had noticed that his voice had risen gradually, but then as he resumed it returned to its normal state.

“But Jonathon…can’t. If he ever had a childhood, something happened that tore it to pieces. If I can, I need to salvage it, or else….”

As he had spoken, his voice had gotten lower and more sorrowful. He had let the last part hang, like he was going to continue but then decided not to. Praxer wanted to hear the rest, so he beckoned the Major to continue. Reluctantly, he did.

“Or else…he’s going to end up like me.”

As the truth dawned on Praxer, for the first time, he really felt as though he could see what was going on under that helmet.

He suddenly recalled a certain saying: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Vylar had always said that the Major was a ruthless demon who loved to cause pain and death, and took great pleasure in his work. Now Praxer could see through this lie. The Major was just a guy who had been put on the spot long ago, and had been forced to learn how to survive by whatever means necessary.

And if that meant choosing to kill or be killed, so be it.

The Major only led the life that had been thrust upon him.

---

The Major couldn’t prolong it any further. It was time for him to leave with Jonathon to go train.

He had been killing time for a good portion of the day, but he was aware of how his charges stole nervous glances at him when they thought he wasn’t looking. Eventually he realized that the longer he put it off, the worse off Jonathon would be when the time came. So at midday he decided to make the announcement that everyone was holding their breath for.

After they all had eaten, he got all his charges lined up in front of him, with Jonathon in the center. He slowly walked over to them, dreading every minute of it but not letting any of his reluctance show. He had already worked out what he was going to say.

“Jonathon?” he asked, crouching down so they were level. The boy nodded.

“It’s time for us to go and train,” he continued, “Let’s you and me make this a short trip, ok?”

Jonathon nodded, but a bit more calmly than before. The others looked at each other through the corners of their eyes, and by the looks of it were thinking the same thing: the Major’s choice of words had been fortunate. It might mean the departure would be less traumatic.

In the end there was barely any trauma, and what there was came from Reyna, not Jonathon. After they said goodbye, Reyna did something the Major had expected. She called him over for a word in private.

“Sir,” she said, “I don’t know what you are planning to do with Jon, but…don’t show him the place you showed me. For his sake.”

The Major nodded; he hadn’t been planning to, although this had confirmed another thing he had suspected for a while. He gave his word to Reyna that he would not show Jonathon the place he had shown Reyna.

Besides, they would be heading in the opposite direction.

---

The Major helped Jonathon into the passenger’s seat before getting in on the other side. As they buckled up, Jonathon looked back at the people waving goodbye. He didn’t wave back, but even when the camp was out of sight, he was still staring behind them as they drove away.

Chapter 32

When they finally arrived at their training grounds, they didn’t have much daylight left to train in. The Major figured that they would have just enough for one, short exercise.

He helped Jonathon out of their vehicle, and then led him over to the center area of one particularly large hill. He then took a deep breath, and knew that he was not completely ready for Jonathon’s training.

--- “So what now?” Axolc asked no one in particular. “Whad’ya wanna do?”

Praxer grunted, and Reyna shot Axolc a disapproving glance. They had all been silent for hours, and Axolc was sick of it. The one thing the Major had forgotten to work on was his lack of patience.

But after 2 ½ hours of utter silence, who could blame him for being uneasy?

Finally, he decided he had been patient long enough, and stood up. He stretched his legs out, deliberately doing so as loudly as possible. Once he knew both his friends were looking at him, he spoke up again.

“Well, I’m gonna go practice my skills. I’ll see you two later.”

With that, he turned around to leave, when suddenly he heard snickering behind him. He wheeled back around towards his friends; if there was one thing he disliked, it was being the target of a joke he didn’t understand (as opposed to jokes he actually got, which were just fine).

“What’s so funny?” he asked the others, not very humorously.

“You,” Reyna replied, with a laugh, “You don’t realize what’s going on now, do you?”

Axolc honestly had no clue, and indicated this with a shake of his head. He looked at his friends and waited for them to explain.

“Praxer just found something here, something that’s very interesting.”

Axolc looked at Reyna, and for the first time noticed that something was in her ear. A closer examination revealed that it was an earphone. Praxer had a similar one in his ear as well.

Axolc’s gaze followed the cords down until they merged, and then along the cord, which went straight into Praxer’s backpack. He looked at Praxer, who smiled and opened it up. Inside was something Axolc had no idea Prax had: an iBrick. Axolc was astonished, both by the fact that Praxer had found it and by the fact that he had not shared.

“Take out the headphones,” he said, “I want to hear.”

Without objection, Praxer unplugged the headphone cords and inserted a cord connected to a pair of speakers. He then switched to the first media file, which happened to be a holovid. As he did this, he told Axolc, “We took one look at who this was from and switched tracks, so now we’ll all hear the whole thing. I still want to know how he managed to slip this in my bag though…”

He hit play, and a face they all knew and loved appeared in front of them.

“Hey, guys!” said Alex, “How’s it going?”

---

“Ok, Jon, here’s what we’re going to do,” the Major said as calmly as he could. “We are each going to have a sword, and I’ll let you choose which one you want. Your job is to use it to hit me as many times as possible, and I am going to use mine to defend myself.” He paused. “Ok?”

Jonathon looked scared and nervous. The Major focused on the “nervous” because one thing about Jonathon was that he almost always looked scared. Still, the Major decided to address both.

“Don’t be afraid. All I am going to do is try to block your attacks. If you want, I won’t even use a sword. I can use a stick or something.” He pulled a medium-length Spinjitzu staff out of his bag. “See?”

Jonathon nodded, though still a tad unsure. However, it was still much less than what it had been, and that was a start.

“Now which sword do you want…” the Major said, pulling two swords out of his bag, “The lighter, easier to use one or the stronger one with more reach?”

Jonathon looked at his options, and picked up the Elite Sword of Blocking. He held it in his hand, a little unsure, and then put it back. He tried holding the other one, which was a great katana. He stuck with the katana, and the Major guessed it was because it was more similar to the one that came with his Samurai gear.

The Major put back the unused weapons and then leapt back into a ready stance. “One last thing,” he said, “While we are doing these exercises, I may try to discourage you with words. But any such thing I say during this time will almost definitely be something I do not actually mean. If I insult you, or threaten you, or say things that scare you, just know that I am not being serious, and that you have to either ignore it or let it spurn you onward. You cannot let it work to discourage you. Ok?”

Jonathon nodded, but as he did so he was staring at the Major the way he had done on their first day of the mission, when he had woken up to see the Major’s face where Reyna’s usually was. This unsettled the Major, but he took his own advice and let it strengthen his resolve to help this scared, innocent boy.

“Good,” he said, “Now let us begin.”

---

Axolc was astonished. Alex was an old friend from the academy, who they had known since the beginning. When they first began, the assignment officers wanted to separate Reyna and Jon, and their original design was to have one squad of Alex, Prax, Axolc, and Reyna, and Jonathon in another squad. But Jonathon wouldn’t leave Reyna’s side, and Reyna refused to be parted from him as well. The assignment officers disagreed, and were too stubborn to rethink their decision, but too powerless to enforce it on their own.

They all would have been in major trouble if Alex hadn’t taken a stand. He volunteered to switch places with Jonathon so that the boy could be with his sister, leaving him with the other squad.

The assignment officers grudgingly found this acceptable, and Alex had been a friend of their squad ever since. He hung out with them whenever he could, even when that meant leaving his own. They generally had lots of good times together, whether listening to music on his iBrick, hacking into the Nexus Tower mainframe (one time they even added “Bring your Maelstrom Ape to Work Day” to the calendar), hanging out, or just having a general good time. They all felt like he was just as much part of their squad as any of them, and had the system allowed squads of more than four, there was no doubt he would have been.

Even when their superiors had noticed this and responded by relocating Alex’s squad, he still kept in touch with holo-messages like this, which he said were sent from his iBrick. He loved his iBrick, and he said this was partially because it reminded him of them.

They hadn’t heard from him for a few weeks before their mission had begun, and now they understood why: he had been busy working on this.

Axolc was dragged out of his surprise when the message continued. “As you have probably guessed, I have no way of knowing what you are saying, because this message is prerecorded. I wish I could’ve seen the look on your faces when you discovered this. I bet you never realized that I’m THAT inseparable from you.”

They all laughed, including the recording of Alex. When they had all stopped, Alex continued.

“Anyways, if you are watching this it means that I somehow accidentally slipped this into Praxer’s bag, right before a time where, hypothetically speaking, you would be on a top-secret and purely hypothetical mission and, hypothetically speaking, I would have no clue about its nature whatsoever except that, hypothetically speaking, any forms of direct communication would be impossible, but that, hypothetically speaking, the timing of this accident was perfect, because we all know how perfect I am.”

They laughed again, both at the joke about perfection and his “purely hypothetical” rant. If their superiors ever found out about this, his “purely hypothetical” talk would not save them from punishment, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t fun.

“So, getting to the point,” Alex continued, “good luck out there on your purely hypothetical mission. I’ve given you a whole playlist to listen to while you’re there, all songs that were our personal favorites. And in case you, hypothetically speaking, wanted to listen to this music in combat, I’ve added a button on the player that triples the volume so that it can be heard over the din of your purely hypothetical battle. There are also some more messages I’ve recorded, but they reflect the music tracks, so go through them all in order. And, one more thing…”

He paused and looked away, as though avoiding eye contact. “I’m not supposed to say this, but… I need you guys to know. Things have been getting hot on Crux prime. REAL hot. By the time you see this, my squad will have already been deployed there. So, in case any of us don’t see each other again, well…thanks for everything. I couldn’t ask for better friends.”

Then he perked back up, and said, “I’m sorry I haven’t been in contact for a few weeks, but I thought this would end up being more important. Be safe out there on your purely hypothetical mission. Vylar himself couldn’t stop me from being there when you get back.”

Then, the image faded, and a notification popped up saying that the message had reached its end. All three of them just sat there in silence.

“Wow,” Axolc finally said, “I can’t believe it.”

“Neither could we,” Praxer replied, “But it’s true.”

Reyna nodded her affirmation. “We’ve listened to some of the tracks, and they really are all our favorites. I don’t know where he got the iBrick though…”

“It’s his,” Axolc replied, “Remember? He had an iBrick, and that’s how we would listen to these songs together. Remember he said it was his most treasured possession, since it reminded him of us?”

Both Praxer and Reyna went wide-eyed. “But, Axolc,” Reyna replied, “That’s not… he wouldn’t… how could…”

Axolc picked up the device, and turned it over. Inscribed on the back in sharpie pen was the name “Alex”.

They were all silent, except this time, it was for real.

Chapter 33

Axolc, Prax, and Reyna skimmed over the list of tracks. At least four were holo-recordings. It seemed Alex wanted to talk to them quite a bit. After that, they went back and listened to them in order. They followed a pattern, first came one of Axolc’s favorites, then Reyna, and finally Praxer. Then the pattern would either repeat or in between there would be a holo-recording of Alex talking about one of these particular songs or telling a certain story about the fun they had, related to this song. For example, sometimes back at the academy Axolc would write parodies of certain songs, and Alex would make an exaggerated mimic of them. These ones always got a good laugh, especially on one rare occasion when Axolc’s parody had better lyrics than the original.

Then they reached the last track. Predictably, it was a holo. They turned it on, with smiles on their faces, ready to laugh. But this was not the case.

Alex came on, but this time he looked seriously distressed.

“Ok guys, this is it. I’m out of time.” He glanced around him nervously. “I’m somewhere I’m not supposed to be, getting information you’re not supposed to have but I think you really need.” He glanced at his watch, and then wheeled his head to face something that wasn’t on screen. In the background they could hear a thumping noise and a faded yell, like someone trying to break down a door. Alex turned back to face the camera.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” he said, still cautiously glancing in the direction where the sound was coming from. By this time the kids were completely absorbed in the holo-vid, with more than worried looks all over their faces.

“The one thing I’m hoping for you,” he continued, “is that your new… leader can help Jonathon. That’s why I’m here. I’ve snuck into an off-limits area of Nexus Tower so that I can access the database and get you any information you’ll need for your mission.” He had completely dropped the pretense of being hypothetical, which was not good. It meant he had no time to joke around, and there was always time to joke around for him. He was almost as humorous as Axolc. His serious behavior could only mean that he was about to get caught, and that the consequences would be dire. He looked straight at the camera.

“So anyways, I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more, but I’m out of time. I’m hoping this gets to you, and that this information will help.” Suddenly there was a crash, and voices started rushing in, getting closer to the camera. Alex wheeled around to face them, with a defeated look on his face. In the background, they could hear someone demanding that he hand over the recorder and surrender, and that they wouldn’t ask twice. Alex slowly turned to face the recorder one last time.

“Goodbye,” he whispered, before the camera view suddenly went flying over his head. The view paned rapidly, and with a shock the kids realized that Alex had thrown the iBrick into a ventilation shaft. It landed at the bottom with a thud.

And then the world went black.

---

“C’mon, you can do better than that!” the Major sneered. “I could do better than that in my sleep!!”

He saw Jonathon grimace. So far, the boy had done quite well by ignoring the Major’s taunts. It would have been preferable if he had let them drive him onward, but for the moment the Major wasn’t picky. But he still hadn’t hit the Major once, despite the fact that the Major knew he could.

“C’mon now, HIT ME!! Once I’m done with you, your sister is next!”

The Major regretted saying this the moment the words had left his mouth. He berated himself in his mind for letting himself get out of hand. He probably had no chance of helping Jonathon now…

And then he realized that this new taunt had had a new effect on his student. The threat had lit a spark in his eyes, and when the Major saw this, he wanted to pump his fist and shout “SCORE!!!”

He never got the chance.

Jonathon lunged at him, and continually hacked at him with all his might. The Major only managed to block three or four before he was hit – multiple times. Jonathon swung, swooped, lunged, and hacked with his sword, and soon the Major was breathless. But he felt exhilarated, because he had finally gotten the boy to fight to his full potential. The kid was not in a state of blind rage like Praxer, but was actually slightly more focused, and definitely more motivated, than before. He was about to bring his sword down on his mentor for what felt like the 50th time when the Major held up a hand for him to stop.

It was getting dark, and so they headed back to where they had camped, with the Major congratulating Jonathon all the way. He told the boy he had done well, and that he was proud. It was hard to tell from the boy’s expression whether this was having a positive or negative effect.

After the Major put Jonathon to bed, he sat in his own for a few hours before he fell asleep.

And once again, as soon as he was asleep he had the dream.

Chapter 34

Once, long ago, there was a planet that was a proud example of how peaceful living could actually exist. It was both envied and admired by its neighbors, all of which tried their best to follow its example. This glorious world was in a region of space that had never even heard of the Crux system, much less the ongoing conflict between the Nexus Force and the Maelstrom that was spreading out from those worlds.

That is, not until the Nexus Force itself came.

When the strange explorers that had just landed told them of this ongoing war, the people of the planet were skeptical, but still worried about the possibility these strangers might be serious. They were only afraid that if they were, then that might bring this “Maelstrom” to their planet and destroy it. This was a rather selfish thought, but these people were a symbol of peace. If their planet was overrun, all their neighbors would go down with them.

But despite their wariness, they allowed the Nexus Force explorers to build the “small, temporary outpost” that they wanted.

---

Many, many years later, there lived a young boy named Miles. Miles lived in the suburbs on that planet, where the Maelstrom had still not yet touched, but the Nexus Force remained. At the time he did not know this, but they had long since passed the original point when the Nexus Force had first said they would leave. In fact, every time the planet’s leaders brought this up, the Nexus Force would simply say their work was not yet done, and that the outpost was still needed, and that the Maelstrom was still looming closer every day, all lies of course. They were doing things to the planet that its population did not know of, and never would have allowed if they had. The Maelstrom, for the first time, was being driven back. And the “outpost” was now a very large base of operations, none of which were legal but could ever be found legally. Every time the planet’s people protested, saying the Nexus Force had long outstayed their welcome, the people Nexus Force sent to deal with them just smiled, and promptly renegotiated their contract – with even more building rights than before.

Such was the once prosperous society Miles was growing up in, but his youth made him oblivious to it all, until one fateful day….

---

On his twelfth birthday, Miles’ family had a party planned for the afternoon, and Miles was ecstatic. All day, he kept glancing at the clock, simply incapable of waiting for his friends to arrive.

So naturally, when the doorbell rang, he was at the door in a flash, not realizing that it was a good three hours before anyone was supposed to show up.

“Hello,” said the Nexus Force officer in front of him. “Are your parents around?”

Miles stared up at the officer in awe and fear. He wanted to speak, but no words would leave his mouth.

So it was fortunate that at that moment, his father arrived at the door. “Right here,” he said, “Now who are you and what do you want?”

The officer took off his Paradox Space Marauder helmet, revealing a fierce dragon tattoo on the right side of his face. He smiled a rather unconvincing smile, and replied, “I am Sgt. Malorus of A New Nexus Call to Heroes office.”

“A.N.N.C.H.” Miles’ father coldly abbreviated. “Whatever it is you want this time, make it snappy. We haven’t got all day.”

The Doctor’s smile widened. “If I am correct, your boy is turning twelve today, is that right?” Miles’ father nodded his head, and glanced down at Miles in a way that told him that this man was not welcome in any sense of the word.

The officer, however, was unfazed. “Then that means that he is now eligible to begin training so that one day he may valiantly fight for the Nexus Force.” He bent down to look at Miles. “Doesn’t that sound fantastic, boy?”

Miles was unsure, but his father was absolutely sure…of the opposite. He motioned Miles to step behind him, and sternly replied, “Absolutely NOT!!! He’s just a boy!”

Malorus stood up, now with a serious look on his face, and replied, “The Nexus Force needs new recruits. It’s important that if he does join, he begin training at a very young age.”

But Miles’ father just shook his head even more defiantly. “No. IF he joins your so-called quest to save imagination, it’ll be his choice, and when he’s old enough to make it himself. No baby son of mine is going to war at age twelve.”

Malorus leaned in closer, and almost growled, “The evil forces of chaos are everywhere, and we are the only thing that stands in its way from total destruction. Everything we do is something we sacrifice for the greater good. When was the last time you sacrifice anything as selflessly as us?”

“Oh you’re selfless alright. In fact, you’re so selfless you don’t have anything of your own to sacrifice, which is why you take from us. And you know something?” the boy’s father continued, returning to the old and still-usable retort, “I’m pretty sure the only Maelstrom I’ve ever seen around here is from the Paradox laboratory that YOU brought here,” He paused as he looked the intruder’s attire up and down. “…That, and the Paradox armor you are wearing right now.”

The officer had nothing to say back at that, and so they both realized they were at a stalemate. Malorus moved in even closer, until he was nose to nose with Miles’ father. Both had looks of total disgust written all over their faces. For at least two whole minutes, no one spoke.

“Is that your last word?” the officer finally growled.

“YES,” his opposition growled back.

The officer backed away, and turned to leave. But when he was halfway down their walk, he turned back, and said, “I do hope you change your mind, good sir. We’ve never seen any dirt on YOU before, and I’d hate to see that status changed.”

As he turned to leave, he bumped into Miles’ mother, who had just come home from the grocery store. He abruptly apologized, although evidently not meaning it, before going on his way.

“Who was that?” she asked her husband when she reached the door.

“I’ll tell you after a certain someone has gotten to bed,” he whispered in response, hoping Miles wouldn’t hear him.

But he did.

---

By the time the party was over, Miles had quite forgotten about the strange man. All his friends showed up. He had a wonderful time. If you had asked him then, he would have said it was the happiest day of his life. After everyone had left, it was getting late, so he went upstairs with a smile on his face.

His parents saw this smile as they put him to bed, and both wished that his smile could last forever. Looking at him, so peaceful and content in his sleep, they simply wanted to freeze time so they could relive that moment, again, and again, and again. They dreamt of an impossible future where their son would still look this happy every day, and they prayed that this happiness might last long enough to see it happen. They wanted it to last forever.

But nothing ever does.

---

When Miles heard movement downstairs several hours later, he remembered what he had overheard, and quietly tiptoed out of bed and crept to the balcony overlooking the kitchen. His parents had sat down with a cup of coffee, thinking their son was asleep.

“Now, tell me what this is all about,” his mother said.

His father opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly a relentless knocking at the door shook the house. “Open up!!” came a voice from outside, “Or we’ll break down the door!!”

Miles rushed over to the other side of the hallway, which looked down on the entryway. His eyes widened when he saw that the voice was not kidding around, and followed through on its threat when no one answered.

Miles and his parents watched in horror as four Paradox Space Marauders, all armed with lethal Wormholers, stepped inside their home. Miles looked in awe as his father walked over to them, without letting them see even a trace of fear in his face.

“This has gone far enough,” he said defiantly. He decided the best plan would be to put them on the defensive as quickly as possible. “Leave now, or we’ll report this to your superiors. I wonder what Duke Exeter would have to say about this…”

He let it hang, and waited for their response. After a moment, the leader took off his helmet, revealing the dragon-tattooed face of the man who had visited earlier that day, Sgt. Malorus. It also revealed that he had a sickening smile on his face.

“I warned you,” he said, his voice completely devoid of emotion, “that we’d all be sorry if you disagreed. This is your last chance. Your son comes with us, to live a noble life fighting for the Nexus Force, or we shall take him. He’s young enough that he won’t remember you if he goes now.”

Upon hearing this, both Miles and his father lost their composures, and stared at the sergeant in total fear. Miles was so terrified that this fear had completely paralyzed him. Why did these men want him so badly? He almost started to cry, but something told him that making any noise would only make things worse. So he held his tears.

Seeing this, Malorus took it to his advantage. “That’s right,” he continued, “You’ll all be forgotten to him. And if he won’t forget you on his own, we can make him. We are getting our recruits and we are getting them while they are young enough to follow, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.” He leaned forward, fingered his weapon, and slowly growled, “SO STAND ASIDE.”

But then, when everyone least expected it, Miles’ mother stepped up to the plate. She took a deep breath, and began her speech in a low voice. “He will remember us, and if you do this, it will come back to haunt you. A heart is like glass: a person who breaks them on a regular basis will eventually get cut. You may not have a heart or soul yourself, but this will come back to get you. Somehow, it will.”

When she spoke, her voice sounded so certain. It was as though she knew her son was eavesdropping. It was as though she was looking right through Malorus’s face. It was as though she meant every word.

Her speech, however, only did half its job. Everyone’s attention had shifted to Miles’ mother, but Malorus did not seem daunted in the least. Miles’ father looked shocked, as though he had heard something in her speech that no one else had. But then, more determined than ever, he stepped in front of his lifelong partner, and faced the intruders with total defiance written all over his face.

“Enough talk,” he uttered slowly and deliberately, “If you’re going to kill us, take good aim.”

But upon hearing this, the sergeant just laughed, as if what his opponent had just said was totally ridiculous. When he stopped his smile had just broadened, like causing pain was the most wonderful thing in the world for him. He moved in closer, and looked directly at them, saying, “Oh, we won’t have to aim. Not the range we’ll be using.”

Miles watched in horror as the Space Marauders revved up their Wormholers. His gazed followed them as they moved in closer to his parents. He tried not to watch. He couldn’t bear to watch. But his eyes were glued to his parents and their attackers.

The entire affair was over in seconds. Seconds that felt like eternities. Seconds he knew he would never, ever forget. Seconds he would relive in his dreams again, and again, and again.

His parents lay dead on the ground, almost beyond recognition, by the time the men were done.

Chapter 35

Sgt. Malorus put his helmet back on, and gave out a new command to his troops. “Search the entire house,” he ordered, “I want that boy, and I want him two minutes ago.”

His troops obeyed without question. They spread out and checked the basement and the backyard. They checked the ground floor. Any second they would find him, still lying on the ground in the hallway upstairs, sobbing at the half gone face of his mother.

But then he heard something: A weak voice in his head, trying to reach him through his stream of tears. He stopped. The voice came again, and this time he could hear it.

“Miles… run… run… away…”

It was the voice of his mother, calling out to him through his thoughts.

He ran. ---

When his troops came back empty-handed, Malorus knew something was up. He lectured his troops at length on the reward for failure before he had to admit defeat. He gave the order to fall back, despite his instincts urging him otherwise.

He could smell the boy’s fear, and it was still a fresh scent. He was still in the house. Somewhere…

---

When he was sure the men were gone, Miles ran back downstairs as fast as he could. He had hidden where no one had ever found him: in between levels of the house. Years ago he had taken out some of the nails that held the boards under his bed in place, much to the dismay of his mother. She was the only one who knew, but she never told. She had found him the day he had first entered the inner mainframe of the house, and had been waiting for him at the entrance when he had come out. It was like magic, how she always knew what he was doing, or how he was feeling, or when he had done something he knew he was not supposed to do. Pure magic.

These were the thoughts that went through the boy’s head as he looked down at the body that was once his mother. He tried to shake her awake, but he knew it wouldn’t work. He had sensed it, felt it, the moment her life had left her.

She was dead.

Miles buried his face in the remains of his parents and had almost cried himself to sleep, when he felt something prodding his back. He lifted his head ever so slightly, just in time to hear a voice that made his heart freeze.

“Well, well, well,” said Sergeant Malorus, “Looks like we have one more loose end to take care”

---

Thinking the boy was unaware of how his parents had really died, the sergeant leaned in closer and said, “I’m so sorry boy, but we were too late to stop the Maelstrom from doing this. We didn’t know they could hide so well, and look at what they did!” He held out a hand to Miles. “Come, let’s make amends. This was our fault for not realizing what our enemy was capable of.”

Miles was speechless, for multiple reasons. After a few moments without a reaction, Malorus leaned in even more, looking as benevolent and welcoming as a man could be.

But Miles knew otherwise, and seeing this falsehood just turned all his shock and sorrow into rage.

“It WAS your fault.” he uttered grimly.

Malorus’s expression darkened, as he realized he’d been outplayed. Miles could see the fury growing on his face. But then he just shrugged, as if one witness wasn’t going to be a problem.

Miles heard and saw him rev up his Wormholer and realized that he did not intend for the boy to be a witness.

Time seemed to slow down as Malorus lifted the wormholer above his head. With a shock, Miles realized that the sergeant knew how scared he was, and was taking his time, knowing that his target was too terrified to run away. In the moment before Malorus brought his saw down, Miles decided that that was NOT how he was going to go out.

As the sergeant brought down his weapon for the killing blow, Miles dived and rolled between the legs of his attacker. Confused and then enraged, Malorus tried to free his weapon from the hardwood floor it was now stuck in, but Miles, without rising from his crouched position, spun around on one leg, extending the other to trip his attacker of his feet. Hmm… effective. He would have to remember that trick.

His opponent, however, didn’t waste any time getting up. His strength now fueled by rage, Malorus yanked his weapon from the ground as his quarry retreated across the room. With an earthshaking roar, he let loose his weapon’s full power, unleashing a storm of bullets at the boy.

Yet to his shock, the boy managed to dodge to the side of them all, and the bullets just shattered against the far wall.

With a grunt, the sergeant pursued the boy to the hallway upstairs. But when he got there the boy was gone. “The little brat,” he thought to himself, “He’s just trying to give me a hard time.” Realizing the truth in these words, he smiled and called out, “That’s all you’re doing you know!! Just prolonging the inevitable!!”

He heard a noise, and wheeled around to see what it was. He must have been hallucinating, because nothing was there. Still, he decided to take a closer look where it had come from. Fingering the trigger of his weapon, he walked over to the balcony and looked down at the kitchen. He had to lean out to get a really good view, so he did.

Too late, he became aware of the familiar sensation he got whenever someone snuck up on him. He was not given any time whatsoever to react when an impossibly strong pair of hands reached up and shoved him off the balcony. He crash landed on the kitchen table, which collapsed under the force of his collision. At least it had broken his fall.

He looked up in time to see a tiny little head disappear from what was visible from the kitchen. Now in a state of total fury, he got to his feet, and set his Wormholer to the highest power setting.

There was no way that little kid was going to get away with this.

--- Miles did not know how much longer he could keep the current pace up.

He had been taking potshots at Malorus for what seemed both like an eternity and a blink of an eye. He still needed a plan for how to get out of the house, but in the meantime he had to keep taking every opportunity to attack his foe, or he’d eventually get caught. He had better things to do that night than die.

He held his breath, and peaked out at where he had left Malorus. Luckily, it seemed he was still digging through all the rubble they had made in their last skirmish, and his back was turned to Miles.

Miles hid again quickly, and tried to come up with an escape plan. The options were still unacceptable. Get shot making a break for the nearest window, get hacked to pieces trying a direct confrontation, or eventually tire out playing cat and mouse.

His choice had remained fairly constant throughout the night, mainly because his options hadn’t changed much either.

Miles cursed under his breath, and turned to look back at Malorus.

He moved just in time to avoid being decapitated by his enemy’s weapon at close range. He made a note to pay closer attention to what his foe was doing in the future.

He darted from side to side, taking advantage of the poor speeds his enemy was capable of aiming his weapon at. As ducked and dodged his way through the house, he realized he needed a way to end the fight, soon. But how…?

He suddenly remembered his father had said something before they killed him, about someone high up not knowing about this… but who was it? They didn’t teach about the Nexus Force in school, so he had no idea. Was it something like…Exit-er? Someone who exits? Someone who exits what-?

A hail of bullets at his left shook him out of his thoughts. Run now, think later.

He had one trick left that he hadn’t tried yet, but it was extremely risky and just might kill him. But he realized that if he didn’t try it, he would end up dead anyways, so it was time to act. He looked behind him, and initiated the first step...

---

Malorus almost blinked: it looked like his quarry was slowing down. Yes, he was! Inside, Malorus let out a victorious cry; it was finally over. His strength had won out over the little pest.

He edged nearer to the boy, his weapon no longer firing. When he was close enough to finish off his worn out prey, he didn’t waste any time. He swung his saw-

-And missed.

The boy had jumped away just before the impact, and was now running away at a good speed, but one Malorus knew he was capable of matching. He gave chase, trying to finish off the fleeing boy but always being just out of reach. He cursed loudly. How could this kid do this to him?!

He paused in his thoughts, and realized that there might actually be more to that question than meets the eye. He put it away for later.

At that moment, he needed to keep his mind on the chase.

---

Inside, Miles wanted to shout “SCORE!!!” The first part of his plan had succeeded, and he was now running just slightly out of range of the sergeant’s saws, but too close for his enemy to consider shooting again. Now it was time for phase two.

He led the chase around the house until they passed a relatively skinny but quite stable decorative column bordering two of the rooms. Knowing that his enemy was right at his heels, he grabbed the column as he past it and used his momentum to swing himself around it. With expert timing, he kicked out with his feet-

-And landed a devastating blow in his enemies face.

The sergeant was knocked back hard and lost his grip on his weapon, which went flying five feet to the side. Miles heard him let loose a barrage of words which he himself had never heard before, and decided to put away for future use. Miles did not have time to celebrate, however, because his enemy was pulling some sort of new weapon out of his pocket. Miles tensed up and pounced on his foe, grabbing the unknown device. He and the sergeant started wrestling over it, but for a moment it looked as though Miles’ enemy was winning.

With a shout, Miles brought his knee up into his enemy’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. Miles quickly broke free of his grasp and ran off.

Not for the first time that night, Malorus cursed. It wasn’t just the pain he was in. Injuries could recover, but reputation could not.

---

Miles was hidden away in the one place he was sure was safe for the time being: his secret hideaway inside the mainframe. Slouched so that he could fit in the given space, he examined the device he had stolen. Contrary to what he originally thought, it was not a weapon, not a direct one at least. It was a communicator.

Miles smiled. For once, it looked like things were starting to go his way. This was exactly what he needed to expose Malorus and escape. And that meant he now had the advantage.

Chapter 36

Malorus had wanted the little brat dead for hours, but at this point he began to consider taking his head, having it bronzed, and displaying it on his mantle. It was an amusing thought, and although it wasn’t a serious one, it at least helped him stay focused. When he got this mad, focus was an invaluable thing.

He patrolled all the rooms of the main level, but there was still no sign of his quarry. This frustrated him, because whenever he went up or down he no longer felt his presence. The boy had to be on the main level because that was where the scent of fear was the strongest.

Malorus looked into another room, still relentlessly seeking his prey. He had only been in this room for a brief moment earlier, and now that he saw what it was he decided to take a closer look. Inside he found a desk covered with miscellaneous documents, multiple file cabinets up against the walls, and an old bookshelf that obviously did not have enough shelf room for its intended purpose. There was little doubt that the study had belonged to the boy’s late father. Malorus walked over to the desk for a closer look at the papers.

When he saw what they were, his heart stopped. There was a copy of each of the contracts that allowed Nexus Force to be present on the planet. Each one was fastened to another set of papers by a paperclip, and close examination revealed these to be articles and clippings and even legal court reports. All of them were organized to show all the times the Nexus Force, especially A.N.N.C.H. division, had violated their agreements, in the order they were listed in the contracts. He was seeing enough evidence to legally wipe out the Nexus Force presence from the whole sector.

This was a disaster.

---

Miles heard the sound of papers shredding, and went to investigate. He peeked into his father’s study from his hideaway, and gazed at the source of the noise. Not surprisingly, it was Malorus. He tried to get a better look, but the sergeant’s back was turned, and all Miles could see was what he dropped on the floor. When he saw what it was, he cringed.

Malorus was destroying his father’s papers. While Miles did not know exactly what these papers contained, he did know that his father had been extremely protective of them. Once he had asked his father why, and he had said it was because he had searched for them all his life, and that he had been constructing them bit by bit for decades. Now Miles watched in horror as all the things his father ever sought, the things his father had considered his one purpose in life, were being torn to shreds in front of his eyes.

Miles decided then and there that enough was enough. He was not going to let Malorus destroy any more relics of his old life while he was still breathing.

Miles quietly retreated back for the time being so he could come up with a plan. After several hard attempts at this returned fruitless, he hung his head low and sighed. But then he remembered something he had that he could use, and opened his eyes.

He looked down at the communicator that was still in his hand, and he knew what he had to do.

---

When everything was in place, Miles stepped into plain sight. He was back in the anteroom, looking straight at his father’s study. He took a deep breath, and took his first step past the point of no return.

“Hey Nexus Flop!” he called out. “Haven’t you forgotten something?”

This got the reaction Miles had anticipated, which he still wasn’t sure he wanted. But it was too late to go back, because his opponent had heard and was already coming out into the open. When he saw that his quarry was just standing there, the sergeant smiled.

“I’ve got more important loose ends to take care of right now,” he taunted, “But I guess I have the time now that you’ve finally stopped prolonging your fate.”

Miles was not in any way daunted by this poorly composed threat. He was past all that now. “I don’t believe in fate. We have to take responsibility for our actions – and that includes our crimes.”

That just made Malorus snap. “Crime is in the eyes of the beholder, and once I’m done here, no one will be left to behold this one. I’ll kill when I need to, because there are people dying on the front lines every day-”

“-Because you send them to their deaths, while you sit in the safety of your base and watched them through a monitor!”

Malorus was losing the argument, and his face showed it. What was once an expression of amusing triumph had now become that of total rage. He stopped, growled, “I’m through with you,” and charged.

---

Miles ducked as his foe’s weapon whizzed right where his head had been. He responded with a swift kick to his enemy’s side. Due to the fact that his target was fully armored while he was in his street clothes, this kick had probably hurt him more than his foe. But he’d take what he could get.

“AAARRRGGGHHH!!!” the sergeant roared, as he relentlessly tried to land a blow on his quarry. So far, even though they were only at an arms distance, his target had proved just a tad too fast every time. He was mad.

Miles was trying to stay calm, but deep down he was also going mad waiting for Malorus to take the cake. He was almost ready to get down on his knees and beg to anyone that he would. This would not do.

Miles dodged another overhead attack, and stated as-matter-of-factly, “You know, the literal meaning of insanity is trying the same thing over and over while expecting different results.”

“RRROOOAAAUUURRRGGGHHH!!” It almost sounded like the sergeant was so infatuated in his rage that he couldn’t even speak.

“Oh? Does that mean you didn’t know? My mistake.”

Malorus paused and shook his head. “Listen kid,” he growled, “Why don’t you just shut up and die like your folks? It seems they didn’t pass on their common sense to you.”

“Yeah?” Miles replied, “Well I’ve got better things to do tonight than die.”

Malorus simply laughed. “Oh, you naive little fool,” he mockingly cooed, “There’s nothing else left for you to do!”

“Actually, there is” Miles asserted, without a trace of fear in his voice. “I could do… THIS!!”

Suddenly Malorus found himself being grabbed at, twisted, and tossed about. His quarry had leapt on his back, and was holding him by the neck. Not only that, but at the same time the little monkey was also shaking him back and forth, relentlessly increasing the squeeze on his neck that was already choking him, and repeatedly smashing his head in Malorus’. The sergeant felt like his head would explode at any second.

But then suddenly, just when Malorus was sure he wouldn’t last another two seconds without oxygen, his torment stopped.

For a moment, there was silence, as Malorus tried to figure out why the boy had stopped.

“Or would you prefer I do this?” the boy finally replied, holding something in front of Malorus’s confused face. When it finally came into focus with the rest of the room, Malorus gasped. The little brat had recorded everything he had said on the communicator he had stolen, and was now sending it to at least four different random locations on the planet. Malorus tried to grab it, but it was yanked away from him before he could make it cancel.

It seemed he was wrong about the documents being a higher priority. All the evidence needed to dispose of both him and A.N.N.C.H. had just been sent out across the entire planet.

But he wasn’t ready to go down alone.

---

Miles was flung off the sergeant’s shoulders, so hard that when he finally landed he was all the way in the kitchen. He looked up just in time to see his enemy’s Wormholer being revved up. Without thinking, Miles thrust one of the broken pieces of the table in front of him, right before the rain of bullets hit. He took a deep breath; he hadn’t counted on his enemy putting up much of a fight after he sent the evidence. Maybe he had gotten him so angry that he didn’t need a reason for killing Miles. He put that thought away for future reference, just as the sergeant came bearing down on him.

Miles leapt to his feet and bolted right before his enemy’s weapon came down on the place he had been sheer moments ago. Miles’ mind raced in time with his beating heart as he just barely evaded the sergeant’s last ditch effort to kill him. He still had no way to escape the house without having to force open a locked door or window, which he did not have time to do. His enemy was way to close in the current pursuit, so Miles concentrated on making the gap a bit wider before he did anything else.

But Malorus just would not give up, no matter how many times Miles evaded his attacks. It was truly insane.

“When the Nexus Force gets here, I think an Insane Asylum would literally be perfect for you,” Miles taunted at the foe approaching him from behind. He didn’t get any reaction, so he didn’t waste any more breath with taunts. He needed every one.

Eventually, Malorus just got fed up with playing rabbit chase, and decided to improvise. He decided that intentionally damaging the house further wouldn’t get him in any more trouble than he already was.

He stopped running and calibrated his Wormholer. He immediately thrust it into the thickest decorative column bordering the anteroom, with the saw active. Within moments he had sliced straight though the column, which then groaned and started to slip under the weight of the second floor. He repeated the process three more times before half the house collapsed.

When the dust cleared, he saw that his handiwork had left the entire second floor sloped down, so that only one end of it could be considered a second floor at all, while the other end had been brought straight down to the ground. Strangely enough, other than that the rooms were fairly intact, despite the sloped ceiling he had just lowered into the kitchen floor.

It had also caved in all the doorways, leaving his prey trapped in the room with the predator.

---

Miles knew he was trapped the moment he had heard the rumbling, but he never would have dreamed that his enemy would go that far.

‘It’s because he has nothing to lose’ he realized.

But when he looked his enemy in the eye, he realized that he was tired of running anyways. It was time to fight, and he now had the upper hand in a way that his opponent had not yet discovered.

“Now there,” Malorus said with a cruel smile, “Did the wittle monkey woose his wegs?”

Miles smiled back, and crouched down in a ready stance. The smile did not leave his face, but it was no longer a smile of pure happiness. It was a smile of pure concentration.

Malorus walked over to him making cooing taunts all along the way. When he was right in front of the boy, the boy had still not moved. Malorus was confused by this, but he figured he was happy just as long as the boy did accept his fate, whatever the reason.

Malorus looked down on the boy with an evil grin, and he looked back up with an equally sinister grin. Malorus didn’t care why as he took his Wormholer, raised it above his head…

…and brought it down right on target without doing any harm at all.

---

Malorus was truly stunned. How could this happen? How is he not dead? He didn’t even move!!

Then he looked down on his weapon, and realized why it hadn’t done the motionless boy any harm at all.

The saw-blade was missing.

Malorus looked up just in time to see the delighted face of his quarry smile up at him and pounce. Soon he was fighting him like a monkey again, only this time instead of being choked the sergeant was pinned to the ground and the monkey was attacking his face.

Malorus craned his neck back, and what he saw answered one question: his Wormholer’s saw had gotten ripped off when the upper level had collapsed and was now half buried in rubble and twisted beyond repair. Malorus opened his mouth to curse, but instead found his jaw being yanked up by an unbelievably strong pair of hands. He reacted by biting down as hard as he could, and the boy yelped. He shoved the boy off him and pushed himself to his feet.

But when he saw how fast the boy had recovered, he realized that the tides had turned.

He was supposed to be the predator, but now he was the prey.

Chapter 37

There were times when Miles had felt better, but there were many more when he had felt worse. Making the one who had murdered his parents gave him satisfaction, especially since at the moment he was winning.

But that was about to change. Malorus had momentarily repelled him, and was on his feet. Miles leapt back up again, but stopped when he noticed something had changed about the way his enemy was holding himself. His enemy seemed to be reinvigorated with a new energy, and lunged at Miles. Miles dodged, but not before he noticed something different about his enemy’s face.

The dragon tattoo had started to glow.

---

“Huff, huff, huff,” was all that could be heard in the corridor as a very distressed Nexus Force recruit raced against the clock. He had to get the message he had received to the commander before it was too late, even though it might already be.

He literally burst into the room he’d been told to enter without waiting for the meeting inside to end. He knew that what he came to ay was more important.

“PrivateEpsilonStarcrackerreportingsirthere’sanemergncyinsector5627wehaveacodeBAR77041!!!”

The people in front of him were stunned. He looked around, waiting for someone to respond, or at least for someone to step aside and let his commander step into view. He looked around more and more anxiously…

And then he realized that he was in the cafeteria.

Curses! Note to self: double check room locations.

He was out the door even faster than he had entered, and ran at speeds that defied reality. It still wasn’t enough. He’d never make it in time, because it had probably been too late by the time he received the report at his post in emergency communications. It would almost certainly have been too late by the time he realized that the private coms might be compromised and he’d have to deliver the message in person. It was definitely too late after he had had to stop twice to ask directions. And then after the cafeteria…

He forced himself to stop thinking about it. What’s done is done. He’d just have to do the best he could to get the message where it needed to go.

He knew he had not been trained for the day he’d get a report like this. He was carrying a message and calling one of the highest level emergency codes in the system.

BAR77041 – Baron77041.

The number referred to an extremely large Nexus Force facility.

The “Baron” stood for “rogue”.

---

Miles barely escaped death as some unknown energy was shot out right over his head. It left purple scorch marks where it impacted, leaving Miles in gaping shock.

He didn’t stay like that long though, because Malorus was firing another blast of the strange power.

As Miles ducked left and right, he realized he had seen that color somewhere before. He racked his brain trying to remember where, while still just barely avoiding the storm of energy being thrown at him.

Suddenly he remembered.

He looked to where the broken blade of his enemy’s previous weapon stuck halfway out of the ground.

He looked back up at his enemy’s face.

The dragon tattoo was glowing the exact same color, as well as emitting an aura so powerful Miles could feel it from across the room.

His enemy was using Maelstrom against him.

---

Yes, Malorus knew that he was in even deeper trouble now, but he wanted that kid DEAD!! He wanted him dead so badly, he was willing to compromise his cover just to kill him. He was willing to use powers his master had put him under strict orders not to use, but he didn’t care.

His master was not the immediate threat.

Looking back, he realized he was being extremely irrational in revealing his darkest secret, but there was no way the boy would be alive long enough to tell the tale anyways. He decided to take the chance if it meant finishing the boy off.

After he lost count of how many straightforward attacks he had used, he decided to try something else. He gathered his energy, and compressed it into a sphere. Then he kept adding more and more energy to the sphere, and as he did it grew bigger. When he was sure he had reached as much as he could stay in control of, he wasted no time hurling the sphere at his target. His target dodged, but this time Malorus had anticipated it, and redirected the sphere’s movement with just a simple gesture. He smiled as his target’s eyes went wide, moments before the sphere impacted…

…Right next to its target.

Malorus cursed. How could he have missed?! He was about to create another sphere, when he realized it would do no good. His last one had burned a hole in the wall of rubble, just big enough for the boy to crawl through. Not surprisingly, that was just what the boy did. Malorus reached for something on his belt, and smiled. Now he finally had that cursed boy.

He casually walked over to the little tunnel, and rolled a Big One inside. Now that boy was as good as dead.

---

Miles heard the explosion from the distance. Once he had gone through the tunnel, he had wasted no time whatsoever in escaping the wrecked house. He ran away without any idea of where he’d go, and ended up lying on the ground, sobbing with his back in the dust. At first he had just been in shock, as the events of the night finally registered in his mind. His vivid memory of the entire night just played back in his head, over, and over, and over again.

Hours later, he saw a Sentinel airstrike flying overhead, and it wasn’t long before the fire that lit the night sky signaled the destruction of the A.N.N.C.H. facility. Miles didn’t care; they were all guilty. They just wanted to clean up their mess so they could pretend it never happened. But they couldn’t change the fact that it had, and he was the living proof of that.

The bombardment rays shone in the sky in greens and blues, and the airstrike continued long after everyone in the facility had to be dead. Miles didn’t watch, but just closed his eyes and cried himself to sleep, feeling confused, hurt, and afraid.

And the next day, he vowed that he’d make them afraid.

Chapter 38

The Major woke up with a start; he had had the dream yet again. This time it had felt more real than ever, and it took him a few seconds for him to just to calm down. It was only after he had that he realized it was 2 in the morning.

With a groan, he propped himself up on his elbow and scanned the area. Even if he was going to go back to sleep, which he wasn’t even sure he would, he had gotten in the habit of this surveillance and had no intention of breaking it.

He thought about what he had seen. The dream had been different this time around, closer to what had actually happened. Normally in his dream Malorus, or Vylar as the kids knew him, started using Maelstrom-based attacks from the very beginning. For this reason the Major had never been completely sure if he had actually used Maelstrom at all or if it was just something the dream made up to make it seem scarier. But now he was certain that it was not just his imagination, and that Malorus really was a spy for the Maelstrom.

The Major groaned and stretched his back. He still couldn’t believe A.N.N.C.H. was back. It seemed impossible, but he knew there was no such thing. Nothing was impossible, and the return of his childhood nightmare was proof.

“You’d think they would be a little more creative though. I still wonder why they used that name when only a handful knew what it really meant.”

The Major stood up to help clear his mind. He was among the few minifigs in the universe who knew that A.N.N.C.H. – originally dubbed “A New Nexus Call to Heroes” and now apparently changed to “Advance Nexus Commandos” – really meant “Anything Nexus Never Comes Halfway.” Hence the name, they dealt in absolutes, believing that the ends justify the means, especially when the means involved murdering civilians. In fact, the way they totally despised civilians was half the point of their organization. The Major had no idea why; he only knew that in their definition of civilian, “innocent bystander” was crossed out and replaced with “coward.”

The Major shook his head. He needed to focus. He had a hunch some representatives of A.N.N.C.H. would be waiting for him when he returned to the present, so he needed to be ready. He needed to know three things: a) how Malorus survived the destruction of the A.N.N.C.H. facilities, b) How he managed to rejoin the Nexus Force, let alone continue his work, without being recognized, and c) how many people understood the true nature of A.N.N.C.H., or A.N.C. as it was now known.

He considered each one, not caring how his disregard for time-travel grammar would have sent Wenn Wuzzit’s head spinning. He had originally figured that Malorus, after pulling the pin of whatever explosive he had set, would have either died in that explosion or the one at his HQ. Apparently this was not the case. Was Malorus on his way when the bombing had happened? Or did he somehow know his quarry had survived, and was still out searching at the time of the raid?

After carefully considering this, the Major realized it didn't sound plausible. If Malorus had known the boy he hunted had escaped, he would have found him by now. Or later, whichever seemed more accurate to anyone interested in applying time-travel. What mattered was that Malorus had survived and was now continuing his work, possibly with others. The Major wouldn’t rule out the possibility that other A.N.N.C.H. members had escaped either, but the stuff he could prove or disprove took priority.

He moved on to the other enigmatic unknowns: How many others were in with Malorus and how did the ones who weren’t fail to recognize that bricking dragon tattoo of his?

For a minute he actually considered the possibility that one or more of the faction leaders was in on it, but he didn’t think that was too likely. If Malorus had any brains, as long as he served the Darkitect he would naturally try to minimize contact with the faction leaders unless he was planning an assassination, and there would have been plenty of more effective ways for him to set up one of those. And to top it off, Malorus was only a sergeant; the faction leaders probably never saw his face under either one of his identities. So the possibility of the faction leaders knowing about his scheme was out.

Finally, after hours of brooding over Malorus and A.N.N.C.H., he finally decided to get back to sleep. He was about to lie down when movement caught his eye. He sat back up to look. It was Jonathon. The Major decided he needed a closer look.

Jonathon was tossing and turning, and even trembling in his sleep. The poor boy, he must have been having a bad dream or something.

The Major shook his head. This was why he had to help Jonathon. He hadn’t fully realized it when they first met, but now he knew the boy was already starting to walk in his footsteps. Poor Jon was already trapped in his own world, where reality was twisted in such a way that it would seem as though anyone or anything could be just an illusion, concealing a horrifying and murderous beast within. The Major had felt that way before, the night his life had changed. He knew what it was like. It was like being trapped in an endless nightmare, a nightmare more horrid than any dream, because it’s more of a perception of reality rather than a fictitious creation of the mind.

But the most horrid thing about such an emotional scar is that once you were trapped inside you would be alone forever. Completely alone. No friends, no family, no one you can trust. Just you, alone, in a world where nothing could ever be completely as it seems. Nothing.

And once that horrid lens over reality is in place, there are only two ways out: winning a costly battle against fear by turning it all into anger and thirst for revenge, or letting the fear take a hold of you until you die, still trapped within this fear.

The Major knew he could not allow either to happen to Jonathon, but was still unsure if it was in his power to prevent. If it had been any other boy, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to save him. But Jonathon still had a sliver of a chance. The poor boy still had one link, one thread of hope, barely keeping his head above the surface of the darkness. His fate hung by a thread, a thread that still kept him from being submerged and that he still desperately held onto with both hands. Jonathon still clung to Reyna, his one last shred of connection to reality. His sister had experienced everything with him, and she was the only thing the boy could trust, could believe, in that black world of torment.

Suddenly the Major had a vision. He saw Jonathon in a jungle, sinking in the black mire. The Major ran over to where Reyna was already desperately trying to pull him back onto shore. She pulled an old, decaying rope which her brother held in both hands. But no matter how hard she pulled, the mire always matched her strength. He held on, and she pulled with all her might, but she could barely keep him from sinking deeper than he already was. The Major grabbed the rope and they tried to pull Jonathon out of the mire together, but the harder they pulled the more resistance they encountered. The Major pulled until he saw the rope begin to slowly unfurl in the middle, so he quickly let go before it snapped from too much strain. But the pull of the mire did not recede with the Major’s, and he was forced to watch helplessly as Reyna’s efforts slowly started yielding to the opposing pull. When she realized he had started sinking faster, Reyna screamed and grabbed her brother by the hand.

As Reyna looked as though she was being pulled in with him, the scene changed. They were now standing over an open crevice in the ground. When the Major looked into it, he saw nothing but darkness for as far as the eye could see, with no bottom in sight. Reyna was still on her stomach, one hand grasped tightly by both of Jonathon’s and the other pushing down on the ground, trying to pull them both up but only managing to keep them from plummeting down into the abyss. Jonathon’s feet were swinging as he dangled in the air, literally hanging on for dear life. The Major knew he had to do something, but suddenly realized that only one person had the power to save Jonathon, and it wasn’t him.

All he could do was reach out his hand as far as it would go and ask the boy to grab hold. If the boy reached out and grabbed on, the Major could save him. But the boy wasn’t doing it. The Major tried to ask why Jonathon wasn’t taking his hand, but when he opened his mouth no words escaped. But then, to the Major's wonder, Jonathon heard his mute cry and responded with one of his own. The terror in the boy’s eyes told the Major everything he needed to know. Before Jonathon could take the Major’s outstretched hands, he knew he needed to free his own. The danger was growing every minute, but Jonathon just wouldn't take that risk. The Major shed painfully bitter tears, and finally accepted that he was no longer in control. If Jonathon was willing to let go of his sister, to release the desperate grasp keeping him alive and put his faith in the hands of another, he would be saved. Jonathon would have to let go of Reyna before he could grasp the Major’s outstretched hand. There was nothing the Major could do to make him take that risk; it would have to be Jonathon’s choice.

There was nothing more the Major could do. It was all up to Jonathon now.

Chapter 39

Reyna was getting tired of this week.

Thankfully, the week was almost over, and Jonathon would be coming back tomorrow. Then, if the Major’s plans stayed unchanged, they would a week of team training. For Reyna, it couldn’t come soon enough.

She sighed. Their week had been uneventful since they finished watching that last holo. They spent the majority of their time messing with the iBrick, trying to figure out how it had gotten back to them after Alex had thrown it down the ventilation shaft. Even Praxer was baffled. Every reason they had come up with seemed improbable to the extreme.

But the real thing that was bothering them was that they couldn’t find the files Alex had said he’d downloaded. They had searched through all the files multiple times, and none of them looked like any top-secret secrets from the Nexus Force database. None of them could bear the thought of Alex being captured in vain, so they willfully continued to search for them with every code they could think of.

Finally, Praxer had taken the risk of analyzing the iBricks’s core programming process to uncover its secrets, which luckily were not destroyed in the process as far as he could tell. His analysis revealed many things, most of which had just glazed over Reyna when he tried to explain them, since she hadn’t really been paying attention. She got the general idea though: some of the inner data storage components, almost definitely the stolen files, were either damaged or cut off from the core on purpose.

But there were some still connected to the core, barely. From Reyna’s understanding they were, metaphorically speaking, hanging on by a thread. She wasn’t as into computers as Praxer, and what she excelled at did not extend to what goes into a computer. There was probably not a computer system in the universe Praxer could not disassemble, improve, and then reassemble, nor was there any program Reyna could not hack. But, after further examination and several hundred pages of science notes which were gibberish even to Reyna, Praxer concluded that there was nothing he could do to reconnect the processor without corrupting the whole thing. This apparently led him to believe the severing was intentional, since he almost certainly would have been able to fix it otherwise. That said, Praxer wasted no time in closing up the iBrick, and then left it at that.

What Reyna did understand in Praxer’s words was how they might be able to access the files.

“If the division was intentional, then whoever did this is a genius, and he almost certainly would have known how to access the files. If he could do it, we can too, eventually.”

“How?” Reyna asked, hoping Praxer could respond in plain, everyday language.

Axolc, however, spoke first. “Well, there are only three generally convenient ways to access data: using code, using the physical data storage, or getting someone smarter than you to do it.” He smiled and waited for a response. When none came, he just shrugged and continued, “Hey, I’m not the science major.”

“Did someone mention me?”

All three of them jumped and jerked around to see where the Major’s voice had just come from. They only grew more anxious when they couldn’t see him or anyone anywhere. They got up and started looking around more carefully, even though it was unnecessary since they could see everything that happened within the mile in these endless hills of jade. Sweat poured down Reyna’s neck, and she was just wondering if this was how her friends had felt when she had snuck up on them the night she returned, when suddenly the Major’s voice came again.

“No luck? Tsk, you’re being careless again. Reyna, did you check the sleeping bags? Axolc, where’s your knapsack? Did Praxer remember to check his pockets?”

Reyna found this hilarious and terrifying at the same time. Judging from the glances exchanged with her friends, they felt the same way, except of course Praxer could not find it funny. While they didn’t understand what was going on, they made an unsaid agreement to follow the suggestions the Major had given. Reyna was just walking back over to the sleeping bags when his voice came again.

“Ow! Watch where you’re stepping, Shin’ika!”

Reyna looked down, and her eyes went wide. She bent down to pick up the little device and gave a sigh of relief. She held it up for the others to see as she spoke into it.

“Tell me, Major. Is this your idea of a pleasant surprise?”

The screen had been cracked from Reyna stepping on it, so it was hard to tell exactly what was happening on it. However, they could tell that it was the Major, and Reyna instinctively knew that he was smiling under his helmet. “A surprise?” he said, “Not really, but I guess I owed Praxer one.”

Praxer’s expression told Reyna that they would not be discussing that until a later date, and he stepped up to address the Major. “Sir, you’re not the type who’d call just for a pleasant chat. What news?”

The Major leaned forward so his helmet took up more of the screen. “I was just about to ask you the same question,” he replied in a way which clearly meant they were probably in trouble. “What have you been hiding?”

Praxer looked at Axolc, then at Reyna, then back at the Major. Then, as if he hadn’t just seen what was written in their expressions, he replied, “Nothing, sir.”

“Axolc, do you agree?”

Reyna looked at Axolc, and realized they both had mixed feelings. If he told the truth, Praxer would be punished severely, but if they lied, the Major would know.

“…Yes,” he finally replied, “Nothing at all.”

“Reyna?”

Reyna looked at the Major, then back at her friends. She felt completely torn, but she knew she had to respond quickly. Finally she turned back to the communicator screen.

“Nothing happened, sir,” she said.

“Good,” replied the Major, “Now that you’re thinking as one, maybe now you can all tell me the truth so I can go easy on you when I get back.”

They looked at each other in turn. Praxer opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped when he saw his friends’ pointed expressions, which might have well been screaming at him to just tell him. With a huff, he handed Reyna the communicator and went to go get the iBrick. When he came back, he held it up to the screen.

“A friend of ours somehow slipped this in with our gear before we left, sir,” Praxer explained, “From what we’ve seen, it looks like he illegally downloaded some files from the Nexus Database onto it but then was caught. We were just trying to figure out how to access them.”

The Major made a small noise of satisfaction and thought a moment, before telling them, “Well then I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is Jonathon’s training is taking longer than expected, and the reason I originally called was to ask if you’d be alright with waiting two or three more days.” He leaned forward before continuing, “The bad news is that’s all you’re getting. You have until I get back to uncover the secrets of that iBrick, because the minute I get there I’m taking it away. And at that point you better hope you’ve memorized those files, because you won’t be seeing them again.”

He hesitated a moment, and then added, “Don’t think of this as me being nice so much as not wanting to interrupt Jon’s training. If there’s any mercy involved, it’s because you, Praxer, are lucky to have friends who are willing to follow you even when it means losing their own hides along with yours. They backed you up even though they disagreed, so any mercy comes from them, not me. Major out.”

He disconnected from them before they could reply. Praxer was almost fuming at being singled out, and Reyna saw him clenching the communicator tighter by the second. Before he could go all out, Reyna reached out slowly and took his hand.

“Come on,” she said, “Let’s go crack those files.”

Chapter 40

One more day. That was all they had left to figure out the mystery of the iBrick. One. Bricking. Day. And they had made absolutely no progress.

Axolc forced himself to calm down. This was not like him at all. He was supposed to be the one keeping team moral high, with his endless stream of wisecracks and really bad puns. He was the one who laughed in the face in adversity, not the one who went berserk over it. Now he was starting to lose control.

He sighed. He had long ago realized why he felt so frustrated. It was because if they didn’t find the files before the Major got back, then Alex’s sacrifice would have been in vain. The others didn’t know it, but Axolc and Alex had pulled some crazy stunts in their day. Hacking into the Nexus mainframe like they had seen Alex do in the last holo was a prime example of one thing they might do, and they had pulled it off before, just never that far in. Prax may have been Axolc’s best friend, but Alex was almost like a brother.

Thinking this just hardened Axolc’s resolve. They needed to find out how to access those files, and they needed to do it today. They could NOT let Alex’s sacrifice be in vain.

Reyna and Praxer were playing cards, trying to clear their minds so they could observe the problem again with a fresh look. This was a good objective but a poor way to get it, because they were both cheating and they knew it.

But they weren't using the iBrick, so Axolc picked it up and walked over to the center of their camp. He decided to approach the problem from a different angle, and tried imagining how Alex might have hidden the files. What Axolc hadn’t told the others was that he was pretty sure he knew the reason the files were near-completely cut-off. It was a method he and Alex had invented together: a password-recognition device hidden in the search engine that would take you to the files if and only if the exact password was entered in. It was a brilliant piece of subterfuge – when you knew the password. Because he didn’t, Axolc was becoming more and more frustrated by the minute. The only thing working in his favor was that the search-engine, and with it the password, was not case-sensitive.

After a while, he huffed and tossed the machine to the ground. He had tried everything he could think of. All their names, the name of their club, the number of the lottery ticket that Alex had bought on a whim and actually turned out to be a winner (which was how he found the money to buy the iBrick), everything he could think of. It was more frustrating than all the Major’s training exercises mashed together. Axolc was even finding it hard to think straight.

Then out of the blue, he felt a light go off. He quickly picked up the iBrick off the grass and keyed in his one last attempt at guessing the password. His hands had become sweaty, so he prayed that he wouldn’t slip up, or if he did that the password didn't record backspaces like some of they had made. He hit search the moment he was done, and held his breath as the results loaded. When they finally came up, Axolc threw the device back down on the ground in disgust. Yet again, nothing special had happened, just the regular search results. That was it. He was done.

When it hit the ground, the iBrick landed face-down in the dirt. This wasn’t without consequences, because it landed on a button that not only unmuted it but started playing a Bon Jovi marathon.

Rolling his eyes, Axolc picked up the device. After turning off the music, which did not suit his current mood, he looked again at the results of his last search. And then his hands froze.

He looked down at the bottom of the page. Below the first holo Alex had left them, there was a button. This was completely normal; such a button appeared whenever the search produced more than a single page of results, which was probably why it was normally labeled, “Show more results.”

Only this time it said, “Show OTHER results.”

Sensing a glimmer of hope, Axolc hit the button, and once again held his breath. He found his anticipation was justified when the device finished loading a page that made his jaw drop.

“GUYS!!!” he squealed with delight, “COME HERE!!!”

Reyna and Praxer came running, mainly because they had never heard Axolc squeal before. When they saw what Axolc saw, their jaws dropped too.

He had finally found the lost files.

---

Reyna scrolled through the files. They were quite extensive, definitely more than they could analyze in the half-day they had left. Unlike Prax, she didn’t care how Axolc had found the files; what was important was that they were found.

Praxer, however, didn’t see things this way.

Reyna shook her head. Praxer was currently interrogating Axolc, and his voice showed a certain air of suspicion that Reyna knew was usually reserved for the Major. While Reyna found his tone, particularly since it was directed at Axolc, rather unsettling, she needed to concentrate.

Thus turning her attention back at the iBrick, Reyna resumed her brief analysis of the files. The first thing she noticed was that they were all labeled “For your eyes only!” Like that would stop her.

She reached into her pocket and took out one of her special plug-in devices. She promptly inserted it in the iBrick’s USB socket and waited with mild anticipation. But to her surprise, the device came back negative on the transfer. Frowning, she pulled it out and tried another one, but it failed as well. No matter how many times she tried to transfer the files, the machine was always right; she really couldn’t transfer the files. She resigned herself to the fact that, if she wanted to have her own copies, she or someone would have to copy them out by hand, which unfortunately none of them had time to do. As she was reading the first of the files, she heard Praxer cry out.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?!!” Praxer huffed, obviously irritated by something Axolc had just told him. With a sigh, Reyna got up and walked over to them, half to hear what Praxer had learned and half to be sure her friend didn’t blow up over it.

She came to where they were just as Prax got up to leave. Seeing Reyna approach, he pointed his thumb behind him at Axolc as he walked away, as if to say, “Your turn; I’m done now.” She’d have to remember to correct Praxer’s attitude at a later date.

Reyna sat down with Axolc, and he told her what he had told Prax: the system he and Alex had invented, how he had then found the files, just a brief overview of everything. Reyna was intrigued by the notion of a password-protected search engine, but kept her comments to herself until the story was finished. When it was, she looked down at the iBrick, which she still held in her hand. It had reverted to the screensaver, and when she turned it back on it returned to the global menu. Reyna handed the device over to Axolc so he could show her how to get back to the files, and he deftly complied. As he showed her the method, Reyna wondered what would happen to the device when the Major got back. Would he take it away? Or would he just erase the files and then give it back? Maybe he would find a way to move the files…

Reyna realized that she had just missed Axolc showing her the password because she had zoned out into her thoughts. She shook her head awake, and then asked him if he could repeat the password for her. He smiled a moment, as if to say “I had a feeling you had missed that part,” before saying it again. By the time he reached the last syllable, Reyna was smiling too.

It only followed reason that, since the mission was, and therefore the files were, so too, the password must be...

Purely Hypothetical.

Chapter 41

When the Major finally got back, the first thing he did was take the iBrick. He would never let the kids know, but it wasn’t because they, or rather, Praxer, had tried to keep it a secret. In reality he was just as interested in knowing what was in the files as they were, if not more. Beside the fact that it had been a while since he had looked at any of the files from the Nexus Server Mainframe, he also had a strong feeling he knew what the files were, and if he was right he would need to see them.

While the others enthusiastically greeted Jonathon, the Major inserted the iBrick into a slot in his armor and scanned it. After giving the command through his HUD, his armor’s computer systems immediately retrieved the files and started downloading them, without describing the nature of the firewalls it was evading. Chances were he would never know what obstacles the kids had had to overcome, but he didn’t really care. What he did care about was that the time it was taking for his armor to access and download the data had already surpassed the previous record by 2.5 seconds and climbing, meaning the security must have been pretty darn good. But even this mattered only for one virtue: the kids had risen up to the challenge and overcome it. Maybe he wouldn’t even need to do some team training with them…

His armor alerted him through his HUD that the download was complete, after an elapsed time of 8.29 seconds: 3.8 seconds longer than the previous record. Impressive, he’d have to ask his young learners how security that tough was developed. Maybe he would employ it himself, if the security was that strong by virtue of one or two unique firewalls, rather than an entire system of familiar ones. With that thought in mind, he casually opened the file folder to view the downloaded files.

When he saw the files, his heart stopped.

Every theory, analysis, and even newspaper story about the Legend of Crux was in there. From stuff as mind-blowing as archaeological finds to stuff as obscure as someone mentioning the legend in an article on ancient literature, these files had everything.

The Major took a step back, mentally if not physically, and let out the breath he had not realized he had been holding. Whew. Who knew the Nexus Force had collected this much information? Certainly the Major had never dreamed that their interested extended this far.

He kept scrolling down, and then he came upon another surprise. The files on Crux ended, and in their place was everything the Nexus Force could find about HIM, from confirmed kills to disasters they could only suspect him of causing. He opened a file at random just as an example of their contents, and briefly examined some inferences written about a mobile Nexus Force space station going missing before returning to the main page. After a rough estimation on the number of files, the Major concluded that they couldn’t suspect him of even half the jobs he had performed over the years, even assuming that he actually DID everything listed in the files, and even then there would rarely be enough evidence to completely pin him down. In fact, the only thing they could really prove he did was when he had procured the faction gear years ago, and they were giving him amnesty for that.

Still, what they had was impressive; it showed that Nexus Force was either willing to bring false witness against him or that he was more careless than he thought. Thankfully, there was nothing about A.N.N.C.H. or any other secrets the Major kept buried 10 feet underground. When he returned to the Present, he had a feeling that his connection to Malorus would be the first exception. Actually, come to think of it, the way things were now, only the fact that there even existed such a connection between him and Malorus would be compromised, and even that wasn’t out just yet. He still had plenty of time to plan for what would happen when it did. The Nexus Force didn’t know nearly as much about him as they thought they did.

The Major shook his head, and then scrolled down even further, to find a third set of files. This one was on the kids, their backgrounds, training, origins, and several incidents suspected to be caused by Axolc and another trainee, “Alex.” The Major smiled as he realized that those files were organized in the same fashion as his were, just on a smaller scale.

He continued skimming the list, going through the various files on the kids. Then, when he reached the files on A.N.C., he paused. They definitely wouldn’t be terribly accurate, since Nexus Force had no idea it was really A.N.N.C.H., but it would be interesting to see what they thought was going on down there. He opened the files.

He had to admit, “A.N.C.” looked pretty legit. Everything one would expect in an “Advanced Nexus Commando” division was present. When he got to the list of training personnel, he saw names of people he knew would never have signed up if they had known. Not only that, but just about every trainer it listed really could be an “Advanced Nexus Commando” trainer, and the Major himself couldn’t think of anyone more suited for that job: Epsilon Starcracker, Brick Fury, Rene Tombcrusher, and Bronson Jarls were only the peak of the iceberg of the list. In fact, Epsilon Starcracker was second only to “Vylar” in rank. He was a Commander, and “Vylar” was a General. The file on “Vylar” said that he had occasionally been seen posing as a sergeant, since he had always had a great interest in “training the exceptional recruits personally.” Yeah right.

The Major moved on, and he was honestly impressed. A.N.C. showed no signs of its true nature, just the opposite in fact. Of course, so had the old A.N.N.C.H., but it was still interesting how they appeared to be well on their way to fulfilling the “promise of their name,” as Malorus put it. The list of credentials just went on and on, and even included Duke Exeter’s signature of approval! The Major shook his head. Maybe they really were meant to be training commandos…

Again, the Major just shook his head. As long as Malorus was involved, nothing was ever as it seems. But then, what if this really was a special operations unit at heart…? Actually, it might be possible, but then the question would be what would Malorus gain from such a thing? His own private army?

Feeling rather unnerved, the Major moved on. At the end of the file, the estimated time before A.N.C. went public was given, and after doing a quick calculation using the file’s date of creation, the Major realized that they planned to release the first wave… within 24 hours of when he and his team had left the present.

It was at times like these when the notion of coincidence was almost laughable.

After going through the files in much greater detail, the Major stopped to take a breather. Unfortunately, he had just sat down to rest when he felt someone tapping him on his shoulder. He turned to look, and saw Praxer there, looking impatient. It was then that the Major realized that the iBrick was still inserted in his gauntlet, prominently sticking up at a 90° angle to his arm.

“Yes, Praxer?” the Major asked in a tired voice, while simultaneously preparing the files on the iBrick for removal.

“Sir, when you’re done with the iBrick…” the boy seemed to be struggling for the right words, “could you… give it back? Please? It belonged to our friend.”

The Major looked into the boy’s pleading expression, and hesitated. Yes, he wanted to give in and hand it over, but did they need it? No. Did they deserve it? No. Would it distract them at the most inconvenient times? Almost certainly yes.

And yet… he really felt like they should have it. Not the files, but the rest of it. But then again…

His thoughts were interrupted by his HUD alerting him that the data removal was ready to proceed. He was about to give the order, but then he hesitated. There was one more thing he needed to know, and he would not be able to tell just by looking at the copies he made…

Realizing he had still not given an answer to Praxer, he turned back to the boy, and made up his mind. “Are you speaking for your entire team, not just you?” he asked imperatively, “Do they want it back as well?”

“…Yes,” Praxer replied, uncertain where this was leading.

“Alright then, you may have it back, BUT-” the Major leaned forward as he spoke, “-ONLY if all four of you come to me first thing tomorrow morning to ask TOGETHER. I am considering skipping team training, but I can’t do that unless I know you can operate as a team.”

“YES SIR!” Praxer replied, now reinvigorated by the Majors words. Whether this referred to him giving back the iBrick or skipping team training, the Major couldn’t tell.

“Good, you are dismissed. Oh, and one more thing,” the Major stopped Prax as he was turning to leave. “Don’t think the delay is just for the sake of punishment. In truth, I haven’t been at this thing for very long, and I find I enjoy correcting horribly inaccurate data.”

Praxer blinked, then showed fraction of a smile before he replied, “Thanks,” and turned to leave. The Major watched him as he went to go play various casino-type card games with his friends, and continued to watch just long enough to know that somehow Jonathon was winning every round. With a smile, he turned back to the iBrick.

As he stared at the device sticking out of his right gauntlet, is smile faded instantly. He cursed as he realized that, should he ever try to expose A.N.C.’s true identity, these files would not help him. The one thing that completely blew A.N.N.C.H.’s cover – the post-combat performance ratings – probably wouldn’t be officially added to the files until a year after they went public. The commandos being trained could only truly be put to the test by throwing them into battle, and then any assessments written by the field officers actually fighting alongside them would be buried underneath false ones. Malorus would almost certainly have countless manufactured reports of excellence prepared and ready to give his superiors the moment they went public. Whether or not the commandos were actually advanced, Malorus would have forged reports that blindly praised his commandos before any witnesses on the field would be able to say otherwise. Then, after all his bricking propaganda was finally sorted and filed away, the false praise would still overshadow any reports of the contrary, authentic or otherwise. The Faction Leaders, in fact any Nexus Force officials ranking higher than Malorus, would almost certainly be oblivious to what the Major had found: these kids were not commandos – they weren’t even advanced!

The Major clenched his fist, but to his surprise found it was already grasped around something. He looked down to see, without him being consciously aware, his right hand physically holding his left back so it wouldn’t follow the instinctive urge to yank the iBrick out of his armor and snap it in two. The Major was almost seething with rage, and not just because of the lies. How could anyone let this happen?! Would Duke have so readily signed his approval on the project if he had seen what Jonathon had been put through?!

The Major inhaled sharply, and tried to calm down before his dark thoughts could continue. He failed miserably. No, the extra few days had not been enough. He had made some slight progress, but still not enough to break the ice between Jonathon and reality. He was actually almost grateful for the iBrick’s sudden appearance, because without it, who knew how long he would have been in these fields, trying to get through to the boy?

The Major let out the breath with a sigh. Jon’s official training had been a failure, but that didn’t mean he was giving up yet. He had already resolved to keep on helping the boy in every way possible, while they travelled, while they explored, whenever the opportunity presented itself. Training in the Everjade Hills was over, but the journey had only just begun. He would never falter or give up as long as he had an ounce of energy left.

The Major realized that he had been brooding for over two hours. He looked back at the files on his HUD. The pop-up message was still waiting for his command to delete the original files from the iBrick’s memory. When he thought about it, he realized that it might be better in the long run for the kids to have some of the files. With that in mind, he altered the command so it would delete all the files except those regarding the Legend of Crux.

While his armor systems reconfigured the command to this need, he suddenly recalled his idea from earlier, so he did one, last, special scan on the files in the iBrick itself. The result was astounding, but something he had already accepted as possible. Although he had always suspected it, it still came to him as a surprise nonetheless. Now he knew as close as he would get to everything he would need to know for the mission, and hopefully that would suffice.

For what felt like an eternity, the Major contemplated this surprising reveal. He thought about it all throughout the afternoon. He thought about it as he watched the sun set. He thought about it while he waited for his watch. He thought about it during his watch. Even after his watch was over he still laid awake, brooding, pondering, and deliberating over it. When morning came, he had not gotten an ounce of sleep, and he still could not shake the thought from his mind.

The last scan he had performed on the files was an attempt to uncover their origins in the Nexus Server Mainframe. It had required both automated and manual deciphering, and had pushed his slicing skills to their limits. The reasoning often took the seemingly most unrelated and convoluted ways to reach their goal, and putting the reason together had pushed his mental skills to their limits as well. It had taken forever for him to find enough evidence from the data trails to safely reach conclusions, but still he managed to push his patience to its limits. In the end, he finally confirmed what he had always suspected, particularly after reading the files.

Apparently, the Nexus Force had been planning a certain mission, Codename: “Operation Grey Legend,” for a very long time.

Chapter 42

Something was bothering Axolc. Something kept nagging at him, shaking him, trying to get him to do something, but Axolc just couldn’t make out what it was. It was like someone was trying to communicate with him, through a faded dream or a far-off memory. Why couldn’t he just be left alone?!

When he felt the unknown touch try to move him again, he flung around, grabbed it by the wrist, and flipped it onto its side. Somehow doing this sharpened his awareness of the reality from whence the unknown presence had come. He heard a grunt as his senses cleared, and then suddenly the voice became slightly clearer, like a faded lens slowly coming into focus.

“…Think I’m a heavy sleeper?! Ok, that’s it! From now on YOU can have first watch, ‘cuz I am NOT going to put up with this every bricking night, GOT IT?!”

Axolc blinked. “…Praxer?”

“No, I’m your mother; it’s time to get up for school…. Gosh darnit, whodaya think it is?!”

Axolc vision finally came into focus, and he realized it really WAS Praxer, lying on the ground with anger written all over his face. As he got up and helped his friend back on his feet, Axolc’s vision became more distinct, and soon it had returned to normal. He braced himself for whatever enraged rebuke Prax would throw at him, but to his surprise Praxer just sat down. Confused, Axolc sat down next to him, still waiting for his friend to release his anger in an endless stream of criticism and disdain. Even more surprisingly, Praxer actually noticed this puzzled anticipation.

“I actually wanted to talk to you, Axolc, while everyone else is asleep.”

Axolc looked around cautiously. While everyone was in bed, that didn’t mean they were necessarily asleep. It was unlikely that Jonathon would be awake at this hour, but Reyna or the Major might very well be.... And there would be no way to tell if they were awake, because neither of them would give any indication of it whatsoever.

But when Axolc listened closely, he was pretty sure he could hear Reyna snoring. The sound came as a surprise, and not a good one at that; it sounded exactly the way it had a few weeks ago, BEFORE the Major had taught Reyna the secrets of flawless stealth. This was the first time he had heard her snore since, so either she was being careless, or she really was awake but still wanted them to think otherwise. If that was the case, it meant she was over-thinking things a bit too much. If it wasn't, it would mean that Axolc was the one over-thinking things. Neither one seemed too likely.

Axolc looked at Praxer and tapped his ear with his finger once. Praxer replied by tapping his ear twice, meaning that he was aware of the sound and had already ensured that it was nothing. Axolc relaxed an inch.

“Anyways,” Praxer whispered, “I wanted to ask you something…”

Axolc nodded silently. The silence was intentional; even if no one was awake at the moment, he didn’t want to be the one blamed for waking them up if that status changed.

“What was in the files? Praxer asked, “I never really got a chance to look at them.”

This greatly surprised Axolc. “Really? Neither did I, I thought YOU were reading them, seeing as you were the one making the whole big fuss over them and all...”

Now it was Praxer’s turn to be surprised. “I didn’t look at them because I thought YOU were reading them, seeing as you were the one who had kept us in the dark as to your little criminal partnership back home and all!”

“Well then, I guess you sure must be relieved that it actually worked: Otherwise you’d have nothing to be ungrateful for!”

Their argument continued, until Axolc realized, far too late, that their voices had gradually risen to the point that they were almost yelling. Praxer was about to shout again when Axolc shot forward and clasped his right hand over Praxer’s mouth, while simultaneously gesturing to his ear with his left. When Praxer’s eyes went wide with understanding, Axolc released his hold. Praxer took a sharp intake of breath before getting up.

“Think we woke them?” he whispered as softly as he could.

“I don’t think anyone could have slept through THAT,” Axolc replied. “Not anyone who isn’t as hard of hearing as you are of thinking anyways.”

Praxer was about to reply, when their fears were quickly confirmed. “Nope. Not that I wasn’t awake before your little circus began.”

“REYNA?! WHA-mmphfgrg,” Praxer’s shocked exclamation was cut off by Axolc’s hand as quickly as he could move it into position. Praxer slapped Axolc’s cheek in reply, leaving a bright red mark that was distinct even in the dark. It hurt like Crux, but to add insult to injury Praxer had somehow inflicted extraordinary pain without making a sound. Not having time to do a proper job on his would-be-smart-alec friend, Axolc simply leaned forward until he brought them both to the ground. Once he was securely seated upon Praxer’s chest, he turned back to Reyna, who was watching from her sleeping bag.

“Sorry about the noise. You know how rough Praxer can get sometimes.”

As she got out of bed, Reyna gave him a look which said that his teasing joke was not funny, though Axolc couldn’t see why. But he didn’t waste much time wondering what that was before getting up from his throne and moving on. “So, how long have you been awake?”

“Since a while before you were,” Reyna answered, helping Praxer up to his feet. “Long enough to hear how loud both of you were being.”

Axolc looked sheepishly back at Reyna, much to her annoyance. Axolc stood there patiently as she helped Praxer to his feet, before checking Axolc’s face. Yep, just the worried little doctor she was. As she did so, she tried to take them back to their original topic of conversation.

“I was the one reading the files. Alex did a fantastic job, they have everything.”

“Everything?” Praxer asked with his eyebrow raised as he rubbed his slouching back.

“Close to it. You, me, the legend, the Major, possibly everything related to this mission.”

Axolc had glanced at the files long enough to get that general gist, but still it was impressive. “How much do you remember?” he asked.

Reyna shrugged. “Bits and pieces from skimming a couple files. I didn’t exactly have time to commit twelve hundred thousand pages full of text to memory.”

“Then what do you remember?” Praxer pressed before Axolc could. Ooh, he did not look happy when their eyes met.

Reyna stepped in between them. “Two things: One, the Nexus Force honestly believes the legend is real, or at least to some extent; And two, the Major’s reputation is not exaggerated.”

“Darn right. Just the opposite in fact.”

Axolc turned around, already knowing that neither he nor Prax had spoken. Praxer was getting up and walking around Reyna for the same reason. Reyna just stood there, completely calm and unworried.

Before Axolc could open his mouth, Praxer spoke.

“Is listening in on our conversations going to become some sort of habit with you, sir?”

“No,” the Major answered, “It already has.”

Praxer bit his lip. Reyna looked unusually worried, for reasons Axolc still didn’t understand. What he did understand was that if he let Praxer have control of the conversation again it would be boring at best and have consequences at worst.

“Well then, let’s go find someone who can break that bad habit. Ahh, here’s one!” Axolc led Praxer forward a bit before resting an arm on his shoulder. “I can personally guarantee that this little doctor has a head for breaking such habits, or anything for that matter.” Axolc was grinning from ear to ear. “Yep, he’s got a head hard enough to break anything!”

As amused by Axolc’s jokes as usual, Praxer grabbed the arm resting on his shoulder and twisted it. Axolc let out a yelp, but Reyna rushed over before the conflict could escalate. Gosh, she seemed jittery lately. Rubbing his hurt elbow, Axolc turned back to face the Major.

The Major was not happy. “Look at you!” he exclaimed, “You’re supposed to be a TEAM!! Not bitter enemies! What has gotten into you that’s dividing you up like this?!” The gaze of the Major’s helmet passed by each of the three juveniles one by one. “As if you hadn’t been divided enough.”

At this, the kids were confused. Axolc looked at the others, and their gazes confirmed that they too had honestly no idea what the Major was talking about. This just seemed to make the Major even angrier.

“JONATHON!!!” the Major shouted at the top of his lungs, “YOU SAY YOU CARE ABOUT HIM, BUT THEN YOU KEEP EXCLUDING HIM!!!! WHY???!!!!!” The Major paused a breath, and saw the shocked expressions on the kids’ faces. “I can’t waste any more time training you, so tomorrow you better prove to me that you can act as a team, or I will have no choice but to send you back home…” The Major stopped and leaned forward before growling, “And yes, I CAN do that.”

By now Axolc’s shocked expression had turned to horror, and he really believed the Major meant what he said. He took no notice of the thunder that started clapping in the distance, nor of the painful raindrops that started to fall down on his face. He just stood there and watched in horror as the Major coldly turned around and left, without another word.

Then Reyna started to cry.

Axolc was shocked, confused, and worried, and seeing Reyna break down like this didn’t help any. He and Praxer both tried to calm her down, but this only made things worse. She shook off their gentle hands and turned to walk away. Axolc watched as she walked until she was almost out of sight, sobbing the entire the way. Almost giving into despair, Axolc turned back to look at Praxer, and saw that his friend looked even worse. This was more than either of them could bear, and they knew it.

Swallowing hard, Praxer held out his hand for Axolc. Realizing this was meant as an apology, Axolc ignored the hand, instead choosing to run forward and embrace his friend. They would have to completely make up before tomorrow, and this was the only way Axolc could think to do it. A handshake was a truce, but they needed something more than a truce.

Tomorrow morning, they would have to be the best of friends they once were.

At the moment, neither of them could bear to look each other in the eye.

Had he meant it at the time? Yes. Had he completely lost it? Another yes. Was his threat justified? No. Would he take it back if he could? Yes. Was there any way he might possibly do so? No.

Without thinking, the Major had just made a serious bluff, and now he already regretted it more than anything he’d ever done and was regretting it more by the minute. It had just slipped out. And now he had never felt more wretched in his life. He finally had to come to terms with the reality that being forced into the life he had didn’t mean he didn’t still lead it, and that being turned into a monster didn’t change the fact that he was one.

The Major hated himself. It was his fault they weren’t a team anymore. By training them individually he had first caused the rift between them, and then ridiculing them didn’t help. But what was so devastating was that, the way he had left them hanging when he left, he didn’t think they would have any hope of matching his expectations the next day.

And if they didn’t, he didn’t know what he would do. He really didn’t know if he could send them back to the present alone, but even if he could, would he? Was he really that far gone? Maybe he should stop worrying about Jonathon and worry about himself instead.

The Major stopped as he realized what he had just said, and wanted to slap himself. No, he wanted to SHOOT himself. How had he let it come to this?

The Major took one last look behind him, pleading that the kids behind him would have passed beyond his sight, as he was beyond theirs. No such luck. His helmet’s enhanced vision processors would keep them within his sight for ages, no matter how dark the night may be.

He turned away and trudged another three steps before he collapsed. He tore off his helmet and let the tears running down his face be exposed to the night. No one was there to see it, but even if someone were it wouldn’t have mattered. He just looked up into the sky as the rain poured down. Just let the raindrops fall; his tears would always outnumber them. That was why he chose to wear the helmet: to keep him and his tears hidden away from the rest of the world.

But it couldn’t hide him from the world forever.

And it could never hide him from himself.

Chapter 43

The sweat that dripped off Praxer’s skin hit the ground six feet behind him, unable to keep up with the rapid pace of its source. So far, so good. According to the tracking device in his sweat-soaked palm, he was less than 30 yards from the target and counting. Hopefully the target had not yet discovered the miniature tracking beacon Reyna had planted on him, or Praxer would be in way over his head. Not that he wasn’t already.

He lifted his eyes away from the device and continued running, gaining on the target ever-so-slowly. The target was moving fast, but not as fast as him.

As he ran he continued to check the tracker regularly, but not too regularly that anyone observing would notice any pattern. He thought he caught a glimpse of the target once or twice, but it was hard to tell in all the foliage. As he started nearing the target, he started to check the tracker more and more frequently. At this stage of the chase it would be crucial that he not let the target give him the slip. The moment he reached the 10-yard mark, he hit a button on his chestplate that then sent out a tracking signal to the rest of his team, so that they could home in on him. Yes, the Major had given him back his armor, but only due to the extreme nature of this… unique… exercise.

Praxer burst from the foliage that concealed him just as the target came into sight. ‘Gotcha!’ Praxer thought as he accelerated towards the target, not noticing that it was making no efforts to escape or resist capture in any way. The only thing Praxer could think as he met the prone target in the center of the clearing was that this was almost too eas-

A deafening explosion shook Praxer’s ears and momentarily blacked out his helmet’s HUD. Crux! Of course it was too easy!

As his helmet came back online, Praxer found himself face down in the grass 10 feet from the target. He quickly but cautiously arose from his position and recovered lost ground on the target. He had known from the moment he felt the explosion that it wouldn’t actually be the target, but it would still make sense to examine the decoy. As his vision panned over the twisted pieces of metal and slag, his Engineer HUD gave him an analysis of each piece and its possible pre-destruction uses. His vision started to blur from all the overstimulation. Nexus! After spending half his life getting used to seeing through the enhanced A.N.C. HUD, all it took was less than a month without it and he was blind again! All he could do was hope the lost experience using it would come back to him sooner than it had taken to gain it the first time.

When his HUD completed the analysis of the tiny wreckage, he gave the order for it to restore the remnants to their original composure and coordinate them to match what was calculated to be the most likely pre-destruction designs. At least, that’s what the HUD requested permission to do; Praxer had no clue exactly what that meant. As it turned out, it meant that it would reassemble whatever had just blown up in his face from the available parts, and it did so, channeling the imagination from the Engineer armor to recreate the explosives. When it was finished, Praxer was looking at a fully intact device, which even had a new coat of paint applied to match the original color scheme! He examined the machine.

Sure enough, the device was a remote-detonator, designed to hover low above the ground until its target drew near, and then explode when they came within close proximity of each other. Judging from the design of the explosive, Praxer was fortunate to have been wearing his armor when it went off, else he would have been lucky to leave the clearing with half a face. This thing packed some serious stuff!

After making sure the bomb was disabled, he recalibrated the signal so he could command it through external controls on his armor or with his HUD, hoping he would have adapted to the latter by the end of the day. He stuck the device in the utility storage built into his armor. He and his friends hadn’t been allowed to bring their bulky, all-purpose knapsacks with them; what they brought was what they got. The storage space that came built into his armor couldn’t hold nearly as much, as shown by the way it had been ½ full before he had put the mine in and 9/10ths after. Hence it was saved for emergencies in times when external storage, such as his knapsack, would be unavailable.

Finally finished with what he was doing, he found his bearings and started heading for the first rendezvous point. If he hurried, he would arrive at the scheduled time, and be able to inform his team that Plan A had failed, as they had always expected.

Unfortunately, he didn’t make it three feet before he was jerked back by a pair of hands coming around from behind. Desperately, he tried to grope around, but the attacker’s hold was adamant. Eventually he became so desperate that he tried a maneuver he had only seen work in cartoons, and thrust his soles onto the sensitive toes of his attacker’s foot.

He heard a stifled cry, and felt the attacker’s grip slacken ever so slightly. Thankfully, that was all he would need.

He suddenly drew himself in tightly, creating enough give for him to slip out of his attacker’s grasp. He somersaulted out of reach and turned to face the attacker, but to his shock, when he turned to look the attacker was gone. Confused, Praxer looked around, becoming more and more anxious as the target was nowhere in sight. By the time he noticed the shadow looming over him, it was far too late to take evasive action. But that didn’t mean he was out of options.

As the target descended upon him, Praxer unleashed a furious uppercut, knocking the target back and giving Praxer some breathing space. But he knew from experience that it wouldn’t last long, so he decided to press the advantage while he still had it. He dashed forward and kicked at the target as he tried to get up, but unfortunately the target had anticipated this, and spun around the attack with his blaster drawn. Praxer’s eyes went wide in the split second he was caught vulnerable before the target fired.

“Ow” was the first though going through Praxer’s head as he flew backwards eighteen feet. Those things pack a punch! Who needs explosives when they have simple blasters that powerful! Seriously, ONE could render a fully armored man unconscious, so it’d be a wonder what TWO could do – or what he’d ever need them for…

Praxer was only beginning to realize the truth in these thoughts as his vision started to blur and fade away…

“You call this teamwork?!” was all he heard before he blacked out.

Chapter 44

By the time the call went out, Axolc was already on the move, ready to enact Plan B. Reyna had opted to wait at the RV in case Praxer showed up late, but Axolc knew that wouldn’t be the case. Now it was Axolc’s turn, and he was not about to let it go to waste.

He paused in midstride to check his time and position. He was slightly behind schedule, so slightly in fact that he would have still been fine in any normal exercise. The problem was that this exercise wasn’t normal in any sense of the word.

He looked up and saw that he had made it to his destination. At first glance it was rather disappointing; when Reyna had told him to head for the tree marked on his map, Axolc had expected to find something a bit… bigger. Yet the tree he was supposed to scale and take cover in appeared no bigger than any of the ones around him, at least from where he was standing. But oh well.

He started to climb up as far as he thought would be safe. Oddly enough, he was the only member of his team who had absolutely no sense of distaste towards heights. Then again, maybe that came from washing the outsides of half the windows in Nexus Tower when Vylar caught him making mischief with Alex. Ahh, the good old days…

A branch snapped in his hand and he almost fell. Crux! He was getting careless. Now that he was back in the present, one glimpse at the ground was all it took to convince him that he probably needn’t go any higher. He brought himself into an upright position, checking to make sure he was stable, and surveyed the land below him.

It was then that Axolc smiled as he realized Reyna’s genius. The tree he had made his perch was actually composed of multiple trunks that somehow had fused together towards the top of the tree line. The effect was nearly invisible from the ground, but when you were in the tree itself you had domain over a good portion of land, while still being as stable as if you were on solid ground.

When he was finished mapping out the land in his head, Axolc checked his time. He had a few minutes yet, so he decided to give his natural perch a closer examination. As he surveyed the branches, he swore he caught sight of a distinct glint of metal coming from the trunk. He cautiously approached it to examine the bark more closely. This however turned out to be unnecessary, because there was a very obvious opening that showed its hollow inside. The opening was big enough for Axolc to squeeze his arm in and grab the metal thing he had seen. It only occurred to him as he was attempting to free the object from the tree’s surprisingly firm grasp how recklessly he was throwing caution to the wind. If this turned out to be a trap…

He shook his head, realizing it was too late to go back as he yanked the object all the way out of the tree and held it in front of him. When he realized what it was, he smiled. Reyna had left him with her Elite Long-Barreled Blaster, already calibrated and fully-loaded. This would make his job a whole lot easier.

And of course, he needed all the help he could get.

A rustling in the bushes below brought him back to the present. He quickly dropped down to a lower branch behind him – away from the noise – so that the main branch would provide cover. Crouched down, looking down at the undergrowth through the scope of the blaster, he waited.

Seconds became minutes. Minutes became… well, MORE minutes. (The chronometer in his HUD was the only proof he had that he hadn’t been waiting in terms of hours… yet.) Hot sweat poured down his skin, yet he did not move a muscle nor make a sound. He had to remain unseen, unheard, and completely undetected or it would mean game over.

When he thought about it, Axolc realized that this would probably be a more suitable job for Reyna than for him. Come to think about it, almost all their plans were. Suddenly, Axolc realized why. Reyna COULDN’T have been able to come up with all of those plans in the short period of time they were given to prepare. They all seemed more suitable for her because they were MEANT for her; she had them all pre-made. And that meant one of two things: either she came up with them herself at a time before the exercise, and then simply adapted them to fit the objective, or, more likely, someone had taught her those strategies.

And if the more probable one was the case, they were all in much greater danger than they thought.

Axolc brushed away his thoughts and returned his attention to the matter at hand. If he lost enough focus for even such a short amount of time, the target might take the opportunity, which was something Axolc couldn’t afford. And so, he did the one thing he had been doing for the last ten centuries-long microseconds of minutes:

He waited.

Not five minutes later, Axolc was ready to scream. Where was the target?! He couldn’t have spotted him, could he? Maybe the target knew something was up, and was trying to wait him out. It was certainly very well possible…

Axolc’s thoughts were interrupted by a tapping at his shoulder. “Shh! Not now,” he whispered behind him. The tapping resumed, and Axolc tried to wave the distracting guy away.

And then the realization of his own shortsightedness hit Axolc like a brick wall.

And then, as he turned around, so did the target.

The attack came so quickly and from such close range that Axolc didn’t have any time to react. He lost all his stability, and teetered precariously on the edge of his perch, looking down at the drop before him. It was a loooong way down. Not a distance one would generally like to jump, unless they had a parachute. Axolc did not, but that didn’t change the fact that he was losing stability by the minute.

Just as he felt like he was beginning to regain his balance, Axolc was shoved off his branch, reminding him that the fall was only half his problems, as the target was still there. This knowledge both made the drop seem like less of a big deal and the target seem like more of one, but then Axolc was falling too fast to really care. In fact, he was moving so fast that whenever he hit a branch that crossed his path it barely did anything to help break his fall. Instead it would give him cuts and bruises. The only real benefit the branches gave was that they blocked the terrifying sight of the ground, which he knew was rising up to meet him.

And then Axolc looked to his right, and saw something that blew him away. The target, after knocking him off his perch, had voluntarily jumped down with him! Now they were falling in parallel lines, although the target looked like he was exerting much more control over his downward velocity. Axolc tried to imitate the target’s pose and movements, and to his amazement it actually seemed to be working…

For the remaining five seconds before they hit the ground.

As Axolc’s vision went dark, the only thing he became aware of was the target’s disdainful voice.

“Have you forgotten EVERYTHING I taught you??!!!”

Chapter 45

Against her better judgment, as well as her recently developed stealth instincts, Reyna had to stop thinking for a spell so she could remember to breath. She had known this would happen, they had all known, but it was still pretty unbearable to see two of her closest friends go out on such impossible missions and not come back. But she still needed to GET A GRIP!!!

She gritted her teeth, and reviewed the remaining plans on the map she had hastily drawn last night. It was very fortunate she had thought to do so, because now they needed it more than ever. Their target had almost reached his destination, and once that happened, they would go from being the hunters to the hunted, and defeat would be virtually inevitable. They needed to take the target out, and they needed to do it NOW!!

Again, Reyna had to remind herself to breath. As if her sarcastic tendencies were even starting to rub off on her involuntary functions, her breaths became exasperated and elongated huffs. ARRGH!! It was official. She was losing it.

Reyna inhaled… and exhaled… slowly…. No, she was not out for the count. Not yet. First, she had a job to do, and it was now or never.

She dug through her pocket until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the device, and stared at it for what seemed like an eternity. Yes, if she were to use it, it would be cheating, but hey, all the odds were against them from the start. It wasn’t like she’d be any worse off trying to make them a little more even.

But still… it would have to be as a last resort. Yes, they had all agreed, they wouldn’t show all their cards until the endgame. This decision was only made double by the fact that they were approaching the endgame all too quickly; they honestly hadn’t expected to get picked off so easily, although now Reyna knew they should’ve seen it coming.

Reyna studied the map again. It was clear that they would be done before they could get through even half the plans they had made, so Reyna decided it was time to skip a few. Plan B was a failure… no, not any more than could reasonably be expected. They had always known it would end up being a suicide mission, just like Plan A. What mattered now was making the best attempt they could at capturing or incapacitating their target, before there were none of them left to do it.

With this in mind, she folded up the map and stood up. Once everything was ready, she reviewed the plans with Jonathon, bade him one last farewell, and disappeared into the jungle of a forest.

When she heard the target approaching, Reyna’s heart sped up. This was what she had been waiting for, why she had hung from the thicket of tree branches over the path for the last hour and a half, but still she didn’t feel like she was ready. But then again, who would?

When her target finally came into sight, her nerves had been wracked so long from waiting that she recklessly descended down to the ground from her position prematurely. Crux! Because of her mistake, the target knew she was present before he was within range. Now she had to move fast, or-

Reyna leapt to the side to avoid the rain of weapon fire that shredded up the ground where she had been less than two seconds ago, and disappeared into the thick forest growth on the side of the path. Now she was invisible again, to an extent. Invisibility was largely dependent on whoever was around not knowing you were there, and Reyna had lost that advantage. Now speed was equally as important as stealth.

She emerged from the undergrowth directly behind the target, and did not wait a fraction of a second before attacking with her dual-katanas. Unfortunately, this had very little effect on the target other than telling his fist where to find her face. With a grunt, Reyna went flying backwards, eventually crashing straight into one of the larger redwoods in the area. Her daze was short-lived, for half a second later the target had grasped her by the throat and held her up against the tree.

Reyna tried to pry the fingers from her throat, but their grip only increased, sending a wave of fatigue and panic through her body as it begged for oxygen. As Reyna’s senses started to go from the stage of panic to the stage of weary acceptance, the realization of what this meant terrified her and sent another wave of panic through her, keeping her alive but even more exhausted. She desperately tried to cling to reality as she started to slip away. Any second longer and she’d start to… she didn’t know how much longer… if she’d be able to stay… conscious….

With a mute, breathless scream, Reyna lashed out at the target with her lower body, grabbing his waist in her legs and pulling them both to the ground. This made the target’s grip slacken enough for Reyna to break free, and taste sweet air before jumping off the ground in a backflip intended to create some distance between her and the target. By the time she came out of it, however, she barely had time to jerk her head to the side to avoid being crushed by the oncoming fist of the all-too-quickly recovering target. She lurched from side to side as she dodged a relentless assault of martial arts that still surpassed her own, and tried to think up a new plan. And then she remembered her first one.

With a battle cry that sucked out all the oxygen she had just regained, Reyna unleashed a barrage of bladed projectiles towards the target. The target easily dodged the whizzing blades, which stuck harmlessly into the great redwood behind him. What the target failed to realize was that he hadn’t actually been what Reyna had aimed for, as displayed by the smile on her face.

With a grunt, Reyna yanked on a series of near-invisible strings, which were connected at the other end to each of the blades. It wasn’t until the looming shadow of the redwood fell over him that the target realized the deception.

With a mighty crash that shook the forest, Reyna brought the redwood to the ground, right on top of the target. The target couldn’t have had time to react, and was right underneath it when it landed. Reyna froze in her position, still holding the deadly wires in her hands. There was no movement.

Slowly, Reyna became aware of the sound of her own desperate breaths, as well as the fact that it was the only sound around. Was this really possible? Had she actually WON?!!

The persisting silence seemed like proof, and so with a tiny laugh of relief, she turned around.

…And almost bumped into the target.

“I’m sorry, Shin’ika,” he said, as he landed the final blow.

Chapter 46

Three down, one to go. Disappointed didn’t even begin to describe how the Major felt. Yes, the exercise was a bit harsh, but he had given them as many advantages as was plausible: a head start, time to prepare, even their faction gear, which according to his analysis was actually significantly higher-grade equipment than standard issue; it seemed A.N.C. not only had the best trainers, but the best gear as well. Not only that, but the exercise was statistically four to one in their favor. If they had attacked him together, they would’ve stood a much greater chance. Hadn’t he told them they would need to show him they could work TOGETHER?!! Wasn’t that THE POINT??!!!!

The Major needed to calm down, but he just couldn’t. Praxer’s suicidal attack had gotten him so wound up he could hardly think straight. Luckily it wasn’t affecting his effectiveness in battle to a great extent, but it sure made it bricking hard to look at the big picture.

And now Jonathon was the only one left. Why the other trainees continued to hold the boy back and take the risks for him, even after the Major had specifically told them not to, the Major would probably never understand. Well, maybe he could, but still he would pretend not to until the exercise was over.

The exercise itself was deceptively simple: the kids had to track down, target, and eliminate a very elusive prey before it got to the edge of the forest. Simple, until the true nature of the target was revealed.

They were hunting the Major.

And this time he wasn’t holding back.

The Major sighed. Yes, this may have been expecting too much of them, but from the way they were going down one by one, it was almost as if they weren’t even trying! He was playing the defense, and they were playing the offense. Right now they should have had the edge. But once he made it to the other end of the forest, their roles would switch. He had hidden a weapons cache there the night before, and most of his tactical equipment was in there: his spare faction-kit fusions, the extra attachments for his Space Marine kit (including all external weapons for it, such as his dual pistols), basically anything that could count as an offensive weapon. His other gear, such as consumables and items for trade, were back at the camp, just to keep things simple. Once the Major reached the cache, the odds would no longer be tipped in his opposition’s favor.

But his opposition was being a bunch of idiots!!

Again, the Major realized he had to relax. If getting to the cache and reversing the roles of hunter and hunted was what it would take to get through to them, so be it. They weren’t learning the easy way, so he’d have to teach them the hard way.

So, as he trekked to the end of the forest, the last thing on his mind was wondering where his fourth opponent was.

But as he emerged from the shadows that faced the weapons cache, the small sound of a drawstring being released in front of him told him that it should have been the first.

The Major ducked to the side as a volley of arrows whizzed over his head in a blur. Crux! He hadn’t bothered to conceal the cache, and now he had walked right into a trap. Jonathon had been lying in wait at the cache the whole time, and was now shooting at him with an endless stream of arrows.

For the first time in the exercise, the Major had been caught off guard.

He took cover in a thicket to the right of where he had first come out, and did a half-second systems check. Everything appeared to be okay for the time being. Jonathon’s ambush had just surprised him was all.

As he calibrated his armor more thoroughly, he noticed that his systems were starting to heat up, even though they weren’t in use. Cautiously, he sniffed the air, and peered out through the thicket. His vision was blocked by a flickering orange wall of-

Oh Nexus.

As fast as he could manage, he leapt out of the bush Jon had set ablaze, and rushed over to find less flammable cover. The arrows from Jonathon’s bow rained down twelve at a time, and his side had no defense but the speed at which he moved. As the arrows singed his back, he dived into a roll that landed him behind a large stone that would hopefully provide ample cover. In one motion, he drew each of his twin blasters and charged them one at a time. Once they were both locked and loaded, he emerged from his cover and before fired wherever he saw movement, not wasting the time it took to look for a target by its identity. By the time his vision had been able to identify Jonathon, the boy was being blown back by the impact of the attack. The boy crashed backwards into the weapons cache, causing one or two of the crates to topple over and almost explode. The Major didn’t give him any time to recover, and was on top of Jonathon before he knew what hit him. The Major tried to pin Jonathon down by grabbing his wrists, and the boy responded by thrusting forward and delivering a sharp headbutt that sent them both reeling. The Major recovered first, however, and before the boy could notch another arrow he delivered a swift roundhouse kick that brought the boy down, but more importantly loosened his grip on the bow enough to separate it from its master once and for all. Undeterred, Jonathon drew his katana, and swept it back and forth, keeping the Major at bay just out of arms reach.

With a yell, the Major grabbed a long piece of broken metal from the broken parts of the cache, and started advancing on Jonathon on with an equal weapon. Just as his makeshift staff was about to break through the boy’s defenses, Jonathon leapt back and charged forward, leaping into the air to deliver a superhuman flying kick that blew the Major back twelve feet. Before Jonathon could redouble on his opponent, however, the Major activated his jetpack, while he was still face-down in the ground. Propelled by his awkwardly-angled jetpack, the Major lurched forward horizontally rather than vertically, sending him flying right back into Jonathon with equally superhuman strength. But instead of letting the momentum carry Jonathon away, he grabbed the boy, and barrel rolled until their momentum corkscrewed and angled them into the air. This momentum, in coordination with the jetpack, carried them both straight into the sky for quite a ways… before they faltered a second too soon. Crux! The Major had not anticipated for gravity to win so quickly…

But then as he looked down at distant but fast-approaching ground, the Major realized they were more than high enough.

While his mind focused on this, it was not paying attention to Jonathon, and the boy took this distraction to the full of his advantage, breaking free of the Major’s grip. Startled, the Major repeatedly swung at the boy with his fists, but the boy maneuvered through the freefall expertly and easily dodged. This frenzy continued as they descended at terminal velocity for several seconds before Jonathon finally retaliated with an uppercut that flipped the Major over and spun him around in the air. When the Major came to his senses, Jonathon had moved in and had tightly grasped his wrists in an effort to position the Major underneath him. Realizing what the boy was trying to do, the Major pushed back, and wrestled desperately against the hold of his opponent. By that point the ground rushing up to meet them began to no longer seem distant at all, and this drove the Major’s instincts into a panic. With mere moments left before impact, the Major thrust his head into Jonathon’s, making the boy flinch just long enough for the Major to finally turn them both around, and finally succeed in repositioning himself on top of the boy-

-Three seconds before they hit the ground.

The sickening thud could be heard for miles around.

Some say it could be heard from as far as the opposite edge of the forest.

Some protest that it could be heard even farther, as far as all across the Jade Hills.

And some say, one way or another, it could be heard from across the entire planet.

The Major didn’t hear a thing.

When he finally came to his senses, the Major’s ears were ringing louder than ten thousand gongs. His head was pounding so hard, he felt sure it would explode if he tried to move, or even think! But reluctantly he did.

As he forced himself to make an attempt at standing up, he felt something underneath his sore arms, something warm…

Oh no.

Forgetting the pounding in his head, he desperately moved off the limp body underneath him and moved it into a stable position. He examined the boy, dreading every moment. If he had been the one on top and still been knocked out for who knows how long, there was no telling what state Jonathon was in.

A close examination revealed that the boy was not dead, but definitely unconscious. The Major gave a sigh of relief, before realizing what that meant in the long term.

The kids had failed the exercise.

The Major almost lost it again, but stopped himself. He didn’t have time for that right now; there was far too much work to be done.

With exhausted tears streaming down his face, the Major picked up the boy in his arms and carried him to where they needed to be. There was no delaying it now. He needed to have a serious talk with all of his trainees.

The fact that he still called them trainees only redoubled his tears.

Chapter 47

When Praxer woke up, he was in a foul mood. There were three good reasons for this:

1. ) He was crouched down on his knees, and couldn’t stand up or sit down because of how he was tied to a tree and rendered virtually immobile
2. ) While he was unconscious, the Major had taken his Engineer helmet, armor, and weapons, leaving him with nothing but the jumpsuit
3. ) The Major would not shut up

He had woken up with a splitting headache, and having the Major yell at him and his friends – on topics ranging from what the crux were they thinking, to forgetting everything he’d taught them, to missing the point of the exercise – didn’t exactly improve his mood. While his captor was preoccupied with this wild rant, Praxer checked his surroundings. The first thing he did was make sure his friends were okay. They were tied in a circle around the trunk of a rather large tree, with Axolc at his left, Reyna at his right, and presumably Jonathon behind him and out of his range of vision. They were each tied separately and faced outward from the tree, but other than their obvious lack of mobility they were all fine.

That done, Praxer scanned his surroundings. He had the front seat view of where they were, so it was his job to make sure everything was in place. They were back in the Everjade Hills, with the relocated weapons cache in front of them, and their faction gear in a small pile next to it. The Major stood between them and the cache, and was pacing back and forth while berating them for everything he could think of. Wow, guess they hadn’t needed to put up much more of a fight after all. Their so-called incompetence had gotten the Major so angry he couldn’t even think straight - or consider that it might be a bluff.

Praxer squirmed around, ignoring the furious shouts of the Major, and felt around his Assembly jumpsuit, searching for anything he could use as a weapon. Just when he was about to give up, he found something. He smiled, and reached out to his friends. He grasped Axolc’s hand and squeezed it once, and then took Reyna’s hand and squeezed it twice. As he waited for a response, he felt something change. Something was wrong. Some piece of their situation was not as it had been moments ago, when Praxer had first checked the surrounding area. And then he realized what it was.

The Major had stopped talking.

Praxer looked up, and realized his mistake. The Major stood over him, looking down through the cold, unfeeling helmet, standing in a way that clearly indicated he thought something was up. The fact that he had caught Praxer smiling was an obvious tip, so Praxer knew he had to act fast. But he still needed to wait for the right moment…

“Pray tell, WHY do you find this amusing?” the Major growled in disgust.

“Simple,” Praxer replied, “It’s because you’re two seconds away from breaking my record for longest rant of the century… One…”

Praxer’s head suddenly whipped to the side, and it took a moment for him to realize why: the Major had slapped him, moving so fast that none of them had been able to see it. One second Praxer had been looking straight forward, next he was and gazing at the ground at his left. Trying to ignore the pain, Praxer let out a wheeze, but still made it clear that it was meant to be a laugh. The Major was playing right into their hands!

“Would you like me to rephrase the question?!” the Major yelled. “HOW—CAN—YOU—FIND—YOUR—TOTALLY—INCOMPETENT—FAILURE—FUNNY??!!!!”

Praxer was about to reply, and probably get slapped again, when he felt Axolc squeeze his hand twice. Then Reyna squeezed once. Perfect, the message had passed along and now– wait, Reyna suddenly gave his hand another urgent squeeze. Inside, Praxer frowned. This was no time for second thoughts! Slowly, inconspicuously, Praxer moaned and shook his head. Thinking he had made his point, the Major stood up and turned around, intending to continue his wild rant. Praxer quickly took the opportunity to reposition his head so that it leaned in Reyna’s direction. Then he released Reyna’s hand from his and placed his on top of hers, which was not part of the secret code they had developed. Their eyes met.

Reyna rotated her hand back into Praxer’s and gave it one last squeeze. Praxer gave a silent sigh of relief, squeezed back once, and with that the plan was on. Now everyone was ready, so all they had to do was wait for the right moment…

Praxer decided that the right moment would probably mean one where he had the Major’s attention, so it was time to get it back. “Well sir,” he said, interrupting the Major’s rant while revealing a sarcastically restrained ticked-off expression on his face. “It’s not like we stood any chance. Even given our best efforts, the exercise would be nearly impossible.”

“THAT’S WHY I TRAINED YOU!!!!!” the Major erupted in rage, “TO MAKE THIS SORT OF THING POSSIBLE!!! THE PROBLEM WAS YOU DIDN’T EVEN TRY!!!!!!”

Suddenly, the Major stopped, and turned around to walk over to the weapons cache. Praxer watched as he sat down on one of the crates and put his head in his hands.

“You didn’t even work together,” he whispered, “You couldn’t just do things the easy way and work as a team, even though I specifically told you to.” He looked back up at them. “WHY?! Why must you be this way?? You’re supposed to be a TEAM, why do you keep denying this??”

At this Axolc and Reyna both gave Praxer alarmed squeezes, and Praxer responded to each with a gentle one. Their code was working surprisingly well; so far the Major still didn’t look like he had a clue what they were doing.

“Sir, we know you must be upset,” said Praxer, “But every plan we came up with had no chance of success except-”

“YOU CALL THOSE PLANS??!!!!” the Major stormed, “THOSE SUICIDAL ATTACKS WEREN’T EVEN WORTHY OF BEING CALLED DYNAMIC RISK ASSESMENT!!!! THERE WAS NO RISK ASSESMENT!!!!!”

“No sir, I am not calling our previous attacks plans,” Praxer lied, “You didn’t let me finish. I said every plan we came up with had no chance of success EXCEPT for one.”

The Major got up and stood directly in front of Praxer, looking down on him eye-to-eye, more or less, and replied, “Then, pray tell, WHAT PLAN WAS THAT??!!!!”

Praxer took a deep breath, gave one hard squeeze to both Reyna and Axolc, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he had taken all his rage, all his fury that he had built up and restrained during the conversation, and unleashed it. He stopped holding back his anger and instead merely focused it – focused and used it – so that when he opened his eyes, his muscles were pumped and his vision turned red. Then he braced himself, praying the jumpsuit and his blind rage would be enough to keep him alive, and with more spite than anyone had ever heard used in such a word, looked at the Major and spat, “THIS.”

The moment the word left Praxer’s mouth, Axolc pressed a button on the Engineer’s gauntlet. This was the button Praxer had indicated with the hand squeeze, the one he had set to immediately activate the Major’s remote-mine.

The mine was still inside Praxer’s emergency storage unit, on the back of his jumpsuit, when it went off.

Praxer felt no pain.

Rage knows no pain.

In the half-second that followed, Praxer let his rage rush through him, drive him, direct him, consume him, and empower him. Rage was his friend, his ally, his weapon, his shield, his commander, his legion, his life, and his world. Rage was his to use, to control, to expend, to replenish, and to wield. He stepped into the fires of his rage, and let them consume him until his mind and his rage had become one.

He knew nothing but rage… and a target that cried out to his rage for battle. His rage existed solely for the purpose of destroying this target. It CRAVED the destruction of its target.

The Major was the target calling for destruction.

And Praxer would oblige.

**********************************************************************************************

The force of the mine’s explosion coming from behind him not only blew a three foot indent in the side of the tree but blew Praxer forward like a cannonball, breaking through the ropes like straws and careening straight into the Major. He forcefully grabbed the Major and picked him off his feet, without any loss of acceleration. They sailed over the ground on the wings of their momentum until they hit the first thing that stood in their way, which happened to be the weapons cache. Crates toppled over, ammunition spilled everywhere, and Praxer was put just within reach of his team’s faction gear.

Before the Major could stop him, Praxer dive-grabbed Jonathon’s razor-sharp katana and flung it to his friends. Reyna caught it and sliced away Jonathon’s ropes before dealing with hers. Praxer unfortunately did not have time to watch, as he was currently preoccupied in a ruthless fistfight with the Major that demanded at least some of his attention. Yet, miraculously, Praxer seemed to be winning! With every hit the Major landed, Praxer’s rage just grew, redoubling both his strength and endurance. He could go on like this all day and only get stronger and more intimidating, and his opponent could make no such claim.

But then, as Reyna watched, Praxer started to falter. In theory, Praxer could eventually outlast the Major, if his rage maintained sufficient momentum. In practice, it would take a very, VERY long time to outlast someone as skilled as the Major. And while taking hits did make Praxer stronger, it also made it invariably harder for him to focus. Strong and impossible to outlast as he was, if Praxer lost enough focus he would lose sense of where he was again, and that would make outsmarting him an easy task for the Major. The Major knew this, and had therefore resorted to using speedy in-and-out maneuvers. At the moment, Praxer was taking a LOT of hits, and losing focus faster than he could build up rage to counter.

Seeing this, Reyna told Axolc to sit tight, and sprinted over to help. She leapt into the air with and delivered a swift airborne kick to the side of the Major’s face, briefly knocking him over. Moving quickly, Reyna reached into the pile of their gear and pulled out three of her shurikins, immediately flinging them at the last of the ropes holding Axolc down. While she did this, Praxer reached down and threw the Daredevil his Flareguns. But Reyna only got to see Axolc freed for a split second before something hard hit her in the back of the head and she went down. Her head spun, as she turned over onto her back to see Praxer in a duel with the Major again, only this time with his strength redoubled tenfold. As they brawled like giants above her, it dawned on Reyna that she was the key for controlling Praxer’s rage, and that it would be her job not to let him lose all control...

A smart smack in Praxer’s jaw from the Major reminded Reyna that there was no time to contemplate new discoveries and that they were battling for their lives. With a small cry, she kicked out with her legs and tripped the Major forward off his feet, straight into Praxer’s swinging uppercut. While the Major was stunned, Reyna grabbed the first piece of equipment she saw and tossed it to its owner. They were making good progress now.

As Reyna got to her feet, she caught sight of Jonathon. He was hiding in the branches of the tree they had just escaped, and trying silently to get her attention. Now that he had it, he pointed over at something in the pile. Reyna turned to look, and was almost knocked off her feet by the Major, who was somehow able to side-tackle her AND hold Praxer in a headlock at the same time. As the three of them rolled down the grassy hill, Reyna caught sight of Axolc, who had managed to sneak up behind them and access the pile. Reyna smiled as Axolc handed Jonathon the bow he had tried to indicate, as well as the rest of his gear, before donning his own. While Praxer engaged with the Major in another battle of fisticuffs, Reyna caught a silent glance from Axolc, and his expression told her all she needed to know about his plan: “Keep him busy.”

As Reyna got back on her feet and moved to do just that, something caught her eye , right before it landed an inch from the Major’s foot. She whirled her head just in time to see Jonathon make a “tut” expression, before he fired again, this time landing a direct hit. Reyna almost had to laugh as the Major roared and pulled the arrow from his Achilles tendon. Using this distraction, Reyna pounced on the Major, grabbing him in the very headlock he had just used on Praxer while her friend smiled and socked him in the jaw. Reyna had to smile. For a second, it looked like they were actually WINNING!!-

A sharp backwards headbutt from her captive brought her back to reality, and the fact that she had loosened her grip enough for her captive to slip free. Reyna silently reminded herself that she needed to stay on her toes; the battle wasn’t won just yet.

As she ducked and weaved around the Major’s attacks, she thought she heard a voice right before her Shinobi shoulderpads landed on the ground at her feet. She stooped to picked it up but was stopped by a swift uppercut from the Major. This attack had been strong enough to knock Reyna all the way back up the hill, but that was not what shocked her the most. What Reyna would never forget was how the Major had attacked her while at the same time he was being held in a firm headlock by Praxer; he had actually managed to lift the boy up off the ground and carry him on his back while directing his attention elsewhere.

Just as her flight came to a painful end at the top of the hill, Reyna heard someone cry “AAURGH!!!” and jolted her head up to look. It took a moment for her to make out the fresh arrow in the Major’s back, and realize Jonathon had nailed another shot on the Major. She gave him a quick thumbs-up before quickly measuring her options and deciding to go back and retrieve more of their gear, figuring Praxer and Jonathon had the Major well in hand for now. As she picked up her katanas, she was stopped by Axolc.

“Get Prax back up here, NOW!” he ordered.

“Why?” inquired Reyna.

“Just do it!!”

Reyna darted down the hill towards the fighting ones below. Axolc never snapped like that, so whatever he was planning would have to be BIG. When she reached the combatants, she didn’t bother to slow down, but used her momentum to power a brutal kick to the Major’s chest, knocking him down again. Without hesitating, she grabbed Praxer’s hand and immediately started back up the hill. She was abruptly stopped by a cable that snared her ankle and tripped her off her feet. When she looked back, she saw the Major lying on his stomach, with one finger still on the gauntlet that had fired the cable.

“Leaving so soon?” he jeered.

“I’m not one to outstay my welcome,” Reyna threw back, as she unsheathed her katanas and used one to cut the cable while swinging the other in a wide arch to keep the Major at bay. Right then she heard something clunk on the ground behind her and turned to look, which was a mistake, because it left her open to attack. The Major leapt on her and Praxer, putting a hand on each of them and doing a front flip before landing on the ground and turning to face them. But this was a bad idea on his part, because it meant Jonathon now had a clear shot.

“AAURGH!!” the Major exclaimed, as his back was pelted with numerous arrows. As he went down again, Praxer and Reyna took the opportunity to make their way up the hill back to Axolc. Axolc looked anxious and impatient but still relieved to see them.

“Hurry guys, before he gets back here!” he called. Curious, the other two followed him around the wall of crates from the cache. He led them over to the safe spot, and showed them what he had prepared. When they saw it, they smiled with him.

Axolc had taken all the movable pieces of the weapons cache and stacked them so they teetered precariously at the point at which the hill began to slope-

-Directly overlooking the Major’s position.

Without delay, the three of them began to push. It was harder than Axolc had first expected– those were some pretty heavy crates! –But when they finally managed to knock the first few off, the crates bounced down the hill willingly and without stopping. Then the remaining crates went down in quick succession.

As the Major gazed up at the approaching avalanche, Axolc smiled. He coolly drew his Flareguns, and was about to fire when he considered charging them up for dramatic effect. He decided that, yes, the more awesome the explosion the better, and charged them up as he brought the nearest crate into his sights. He swore he saw the Major tremble in realization, or at least he hoped he did, and so with a dazzling smile, he fired.

Needless to say, there was an explosion. Than another. And another. As each crate exploded, it sent flaming pieces of shrapnel in all directions, most of which hit other crates, causing them to explode and repeat the process. The chain reaction continued as the remaining crates continued rolling down the hill, each time causing bigger and bigger explosions. And then Axolc learned how perfect his timing had been: the chain reaction had begun at just the right time so that the biggest and most deafening explosion happened right as the last crates reached the Major.

The kids gaped in awe as a mushroom cloud explosion shot up from the bottom of the hill and grew until it was three times as tall as the hill itself. The sheer magnitude of it was almost enough to stun even Axolc speechless.

-Almost.

“It shouldn’t have been that big!!” Axolc protested.

Reyna glanced at Praxer. Praxer glanced at Reyna. Neither one knew why or what to expect.

And none of them expected what would happen next.

As they pondered what could have caused such a devastating explosion, the Major appeared.

He leapt out from inside the cloud, sailing out like an angry cannonball shot straight at them. He carried two bent crowbars over his head in a ready stance to bring them down on the first thing that got in his way.

As he crossed the gap separating them, time seemed to slow down to a crawl and race faster than lightning at the same time. Time passed in micro-seconds of eternities. It seemed like the Major was approaching them in slow motion, but was on top of them in the blink of an eye.

Axolc leapt to the side of the Major’s downward strike, and saw his friends do the same. He watched in horror as the Major spun around in a blur, knocking them all down one by one. But when he reached over to Axolc with a horizontal slash, Axolc leaned back on his knees and slid under the attack like it was major-league limbo, and then came up to deliver a swift front-kick to the Major. He made his opponent stumble, and used the quick respite to draw his Flareguns and let the bullets fly. He landed three rather ineffective hits before the Major recovered and started dodging the attacks with ease. Axolc started to back away, still firing, but the Major ran up, still dodging bullets as though they were moving in slow motion, and delivered a retaliatory aerial kick. Axolc fell.

But the Major had less than two seconds respite before he felt a searing pain in his back, although this time it wasn’t from an arrow. Reyna had gotten back up and was moving at him from behind. He whirled around to face her just in time to feel a sharp kick to his face. He fell backwards momentarily before coming back up with renewed vigor and tenacity. He swept left and right with his crowbars, keeping the Shinobi at a distance, when he felt another attack to his six. He swept around in a spinning frenzy, trying desperately to keep both the Shinobi and berserker Engineer at bay. He was doing a fair job of it until he saw something rush past him in a darkish blur that was too fast to discern, and felt his crowbars leave his hands like they had never been there. He gained no respite before the dark blur returned and his legs were tripped out from under him. When tried to get back up, he felt the sharp point of a katana prod him in the back. Of course. It was Jonathon.

The Major looked over his shoulder. The boy stood over of him, with his sword ready to deliver the final blow. The Major didn’t have time to react before he saw Reyna move to his left and Axolc to his right. Praxer stood in front, his weapon aimed squarely at the Major’s chest. All four of them had their weapons drawn, at a range too close for any of them to miss.

A deafening silence filled the air.

“So,” the Major finally let out, “This was your plan all along.”

Praxer shrugged. “Pretty much. Other than that part with the crates; Axolc made that up on the spot.”

The Major smiled. “Well… I certainly fell for that one, didn’t I?”

“Yes sir. You did.”

The Major paused a moment, as he was still out of breath. “Alright then. You win. Your training is now complete. Well done.”

Joyous expressions filled all the kids’ faces. Reyna beamed, Axolc whooped and pumped his fists, even Praxer gave a relaxed smile, but above all Jonathon looked the happiest. He didn’t say anything, as usual, but the Major could see the joy in the words written all over his face.

“We won.”

Chapter 48

“Hey, you awake?” asked Reyna.

Praxer turned to see Reyna approach. It was the middle of the night, but he couldn’t sleep, so he had opted to go sit down on one of the neighboring hills and gaze at the stars. They really were beautiful on such a clear night.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I couldn’t get to sleep.”

Reyna smiled. “Well, don’t get too excited. The mission’s only just begun.”

“What makes you think I’m excited about the mission?” Praxer inquired, failing to sound convincing.

Reyna smiled. “Perhaps it’s the fact that you’re awake at 2 am, you’re gazing at the stars, and you say you can’t sleep. Praxer, you can ALWAYS get to sleep, unless something’s either troubling you or getting you so excited you can’t sit still. I’m just putting two and two together; I’ve known you long enough.”

Praxer hung his head in surrender. She had a point. Insomnia was something that didn’t happen to him very often, as in, never. Actually, it had happened once before: on the night before his tenth birthday, when he would finally be allowed to choose a faction kit to specialize in. He had been so excited he had tossed and turned in bed for hours before finally getting up and doing laps in Nexus Tower just so he could vent his energy. And so much had changed since then….

But there was another thing keeping him awake, one he didn’t want Reyna to learn of, if she hadn’t already. But she was so good at seeing right through him, he wasn’t sure how he could hide it.

“He’s not all that bad,” Reyna whispered in his ear, which confirmed that, yes, there was no way he could hide anything from her.

Praxer sighed. “I don’t know…” he tried to protest but trailed off before he really could. Reyna was right: he really WAS starting to look up to the Major. The problem was, it went against everything Vylar had taught him, and that scared him. Not that he felt he was doing something wrong, just the opposite in fact. What scared him was that he was perfectly okay with completely overriding the instincts his old teacher had built in him.

“Don’t be afraid just because that’s what Vylar would be.”

Praxer turned to look her in the eye. “How are you reading my thoughts?” he casually asked her.

“Because I’ve known you long enough to know how you think,” Reyna giggled, “It’s not like we just met.”

Praxer nodded in recognition, and a silence enveloped them.

“You know…” Reyna said, pulling a device out of her pocket, “We never even had to use our secret weapon.”

“Yeah…”

“Should we deactivate it?”

Praxer lifted his eyebrows. “You’re really asking me?”

Reyna smiled. “You’re the only other one here, aren’t you?”

Praxer was about to reply, when he suddenly remembered the events of the night before, and started to look around with a wary eye. But before he could get very far, Reyna put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, we are alone. Now getting back to the matter with our little unopened present…”

Praxer sat a minute before turning to Reyna and repeating, “You really want me to decide?”

“Gosh, Praxer,” Reyna huffed, “What is it your afraid of all of a sudden? I’m ASKING you to make this decision, and that’s what being a responsible, decision-making leader REALLY means. And, like it or not, you’ll always be our leader, no matter what happens. SO BE A LEADER.”

“Is that the only reason?”

“No.”

…

“What do your instincts tell you?”

“That, whatever you decide, it will be for the better.”

The silence enveloped them again, for the longest time so far, except this time Praxer was finally thinking about the decision, not about the fact that it had been given to him.

“Alright,” he finally said, “I think we should leave it as it is, in case we ever need it again. But for Bob’s sake, please make sure the remote is turned off. We can’t have it going off in someone’s pocket, now can we?”

“Nexus forbid THAT,” Reyna replied, switching off the device, “But you’re beginning to sound more like a leader already.”

Praxer hesitated. “In a good way, or a bad way?”

“I think in a good way. Good enough that I’d follow you, anyways.”

This perked Praxer up quite a bit. As Reyna got out her device and took the batteries out, he gazed back up at the stars.

“What do you think will happen when we get back?” he asked out of the blue.

“To our own time, you mean?”

“Yeah,”

“…I haven’t the slightest clue,” Reyna said after a pause, “But whatever happens, we’ll have each other, right?”

Praxer smiled and nodded, “Right.”

Reyna smiled back, but then withdrew a bit. Praxer noticed her hesitation, and beckoned for her to say what was on her mind. She shook her head and shrugged it off like it was nothing, but Praxer knew otherwise. And he had a pretty good idea what her unspoken question had been.

Yes, they would all be together till the end.

But did that include four of them, or all five?

**********************************************************************************************

The journey to the Bone Village had been uneventful, but it hadn’t given the Major much time to think either. They needed a plan, and the Major decided that calling in a favor would be the first step. So he didn’t waste any time admiring the Tudor-England architecture of the Bone Village, which actually qualified as a sizeable town, but instead headed straight for the one who owed him that favor: Thoki.

When they reached “Uncle Thoki’s Super Shop”, the Major signaled for the kids to just hang around inside and wait until further notice. They could talk amongst themselves, browse around, or listen to his conversation, but the Major wanted to keep the talking just between him and Thoki. They could not afford to have ANY slip-ups, or the nature of their presence would be given away.

Not that it wasn’t already obvious how foreign they were.

The Major was planning on getting down to business straight away, but this changed the moment he walked in the door and gasped. It was a small shop, with all four walls visible from the entrance and only enough room for two short aisles in the middle and shelves all around, but it was what occupied the space on those shelves that was astounding. Every available inch was occupied by some weapon or another, all of which must have been salvaged, less than half of which still looked salvageable even after being thus salvaged. There were broken knives, swords with the hilts sold separately, rusted chainmail, bows with frilled bowstrings, crossbows that were missing the trigger, quivers that were less than half-filled and only carried arrows with broken shafts poorly glued back together, slings made from tattered fabric, and even a full-sized cannon loaded with foam cannonballs. And yet, none of it was bad enough to legally be proven worthless.

In addition to the fact that less than half the junk around them looked salvageable, everything had labels with various levels of absurdity, such as, “Only ONE previous owner! Get it FREE if you can guess WHO!!” or “Warranty is void if batteries removed; batteries not included” and even “Uncle Thoki’s Super Shop is not responsible for any injuries received via the use of this weapon. Yes, we mean YOU!!”

Yep. “Questionable” didn’t even begin to describe Uncle Thoki’s hardware.

After overcoming the initial shock of this first glance, and yes, all that had come from just that one glance, the Major walked over to what he assumed was the help desk. No one was manning it, but there was a curtain covering an open passageway, so he assumed the devious shopkeeper must have been backstage. The Major looked around until he found a button labeled “Press for Assistance”. After pressing it until he heard a buzz, the Major sat down in front of the counter and waited.

Not long afterwards, the curtains parted, and out stepped his diabolical little acquaintance.

“Well, hullo der, gud frends!! What can Uncle Thoki do for yus today?”

The Major smiled at the Bone behind the counter. One of these days, he would prove how fake the accent was. It was just too unnatural to NOT be faked. But for now, he had other business to attend to.

“I have two reasons to be here, one related to your business, and one to mine,” the Major stated.

Thoki nodded. “Well den, what beesnis dus yus has wid Uncle Thoki?”

The Major reached into his bag and pulled out the Dragon Helm MKIII he had brought to trade. It was time to get a sense of the local currency.

“How much would you say this is worth?” he asked the Bone.

Thoki took the MKIII in his hands and examined it, turning it over like a fascinating Rubix Cube, until he finally concluded, “Well, if yus wants to sells it, I can gives yus 1,000 standard cruxibles.”

Hmm… in the present, selling an MKIII at less than ten times that many universal-coins would almost be considered a charity. Despite the known pace of inflation, the Major had a feeling the number Thoki had just given him was more than slightly less than the actual worth of his goods.

“And how much would you resell it for?” the Major asked.

“About five times that,” came a voice from the curtained room.

Thoki turned around to face the voice, evidently a bit ticked off. “Idagget!! Yus noes yus are nots supposed to DOs that!”

The Major watched as an Exploreian Bot walked through an open archway in the wall behind the counter. “Hello there,” he said, “My name is Idagget. I’m Thoki’s assistant here at this shop.”

“Please to meet you,” the Major said, shaking the Exploreian’s hand. “Call me Major.”

“Well, Major, always double check the numbers with Thoki,” Idagget warned with a wink, “He’ll make you think black is white if he tries hard enough.”

“Oh I’m sure he could,” the Major replied, “Anyways, you were saying something about this?”

The Major held up the MKIII for Idagget to see. After brief inspection, Idagget replied, “This thing is worth 2-5,000 copper cruxibles to a collector. To an old warrior, probably ten times that, maybe more. Sorry to say it, but you chose the worst possible place to sell this.”

“IDAGGET!!!! Sumtimes I thinks yus WANTS me to have no beesnis!! Do yus job, and den peese stays OUTs!”

“Sorry boss,” Idagget said, before winking at the Major and whispering, “Don’t worry, he can’t fire me. I do almost all the heavy lifting around here and I can’t be replaced, so I can tell customers everything he doesn’t want them to know and all he can do is raise his-”

“IDAGGET!!!!!”

“Sorry boss, right away,”

Apparently Thoki raising his voice was a force to be reckoned with, as it was enough to send Idagget almost running back to the curtained room. The Major watched him as he left, greatly intrigued by the mysterious assistant. What was an Exploreian doing in Bone territory?

The management interrupted his thoughts. “Nows den, ees der anyting else Uncle Thoki can dos for yus?”

The Major shook his head back to the present. “Yes, my friends and I need a place to stay,” he replied, lowering his voice, “Somewhere quiet and out of the way, and where we can discuss things without any… unwanted audience.”

Thoki’s smile broadened until it could be seen on either side of his boney mask. “Well why didn’t yus says so?! Step rite dis way!!”

With that, Thoki walked through curtain behind the counter. The Major looked to his four companions for support, and they nodded for him to lead on. So, with a deep breath, the Major took his first step towards being a new part of this new, foreign world, and followed Thoki inside.

Place: Nexus Tower Emergency Council Room Time: Present-day Subject: Emergency Council Meeting - Overview

Begin forward transmission-->

Vanda took a deep breath outside the door to her destination. She had only been in that room a handful of times, and she knew that very few minifigures could claim to have even heard of it. It was not a place to relax or have a five-minute cup of tea. It was a place reserved for top-secret emergencies of the highest priority, and that was what they were faced with now. She gulped; Duke would blame her, she just knew it. And technically if things went wrong – no, if things got WORSE – she would legally be the one who’d have to take the blame. A foul-up of this scale was almost grounds for loosing her faction leader status…

No, Duke wouldn’t go that far… would he? Vanda had no idea. The way he had yelled at her when he had walked in on her plan… nothing could truly be certain at this point. She would have to tread carefully, or else risk Duke’s wrath. Her situation did not look good, even before taking into account the situation she had admittedly gotten them all into.

Still, who could blame her? She had always seen the world in shades of gray; she and her entire faction lived by that principal. It would only make sense that she would try to take some of the darker shades and use them for a lighter purpose; it was what she did. Still, maybe she shouldn’t have tampered with a shade so dark…

No, that was the point. The darker the shade, the greater the challenge, the greater the accomplishment. That was why she had done it. Now she knew there was no going back, and so she slid her identification card over the hidden panel in the wall and strode right in.

She found that the rest of the council was already present, meaning she was the last one to enter. The council included not only her fellow faction leaders, but also the most experienced Nexus Force veterans. On some occasions, such as this one, other people who were not on the council but closely involved with the matter at hand would be brought in as well. Today, Vanda counted two guests at the meeting, both of which she had expected to see, but only one of which she could actually say she was pleased to see.

After acknowledging their presence with a slight nod, she waved these thoughts away and sat down in her seat. “Am I late?” she asked, only a bit concerned about that.

“No more than we expected from you, Vanda,” Duke replied.

Vanda took a deep breath, and reminded herself that Duke rarely meant half the stuff he said about her or anything. He could be hardheaded, stubborn, blunt, and all to a fault as well, but this didn’t mean he didn’t have good intentions. Of course, she still needed to teach him that good intentions didn’t always excuse him, but she had more important things to worry about at the moment.

“How much did I miss?” Vanda calmly inquired, although she hardly believed she was actually late at all, let alone that anything could have happened in her absence.

“You’re just in time to hear the council’s unanimous decision for Operation Gray Legend to be TERMINATED.”

“WHAT??!!!” Vanda exclaimed, “But you have no authority to do that!! And it’s not unanimous now that I’M here now is it?!!”

Duke acknowledged Vanda’s outrage, but still replied, “The council is taking emergency action. We don’t know what’s going on, but it’s more likely than not that the operatives in question are dead.

“The PEOPLE in question you mean,” Vanda snapped back, “And how is that even possible?!” She turned to face Wenn Wuzzit, who was one of the guests at the meeting.

“…I had- I mean, I have already explained that to the council. Shall I reiterate it?” He turned to Duke, who silently nodded his permission. Vanda could see now that Duke was trying to force this decision through, even by illegally controlling the council if necessary.

Wenn Wuzzit cleared his throat, and began his speech. “Normally, when I send people back in time, my machine immediately tells me when- that is, where in time- they’ve signaled for extraction, emergency or otherwise. The machine also tells me how long they’ve been in the past, since however long the trip was, well, it’s already happened. Basically it maps out how long they’ve been in the past and when they want out.” He paused for a second. “But this time, something… different… happened. Instead of ending with the signal for extraction, their progress just… ends. I don’t know how to explain it. Normally if I see a signal for extraction, I extract them, and that’s the end of the ‘trail’ in time, but this time the trail just… stops. I’ve never seen this happen before…”

“Get to the point,” Vanda growled, “Preferably the one that tells me why you’re all deciding to abandon them.”

Wenn Wuzzit gulped, having noticed how Vanda had subconsciously moved her hands to her weapons while speaking. He did not, however, waste much time in continuing. “Well, the point is I have no idea what happened to them, but somehow something’s gone wrong. It could mean anything, but one way or another, the trail ends… without us. Somehow their journey to the past ended WITHOUT our involvement, and THAT’S what scares me. Anything could have happened, and we’d have no idea.” Seeing Vanda’s stare grow colder, Wenn Wuzzit decided to speed up a bit more. “I’ve only been able to come up with two plausible theories: Either something went wrong with their transponders, meaning they’re dead and can’t call for extraction, or they somehow found their own way back.”

“How is the second option even possible?” Vanda growled.

“We don’t believe it is, and that is the basis of our decision to terminate the operation,” Duke replied. “Since you seem to agree, I take it you understand the logic behind the council’s decision.”

Vanda realized she had just been tricked into digging herself into a hole. Okay, of all the sneaky, dirty things Duke had ever done, that was just-

“But why?” asked a lone voice. Everyone turned to look, but Vanda recognized the voice. She didn’t need to see the dragon-scar tattoo to know who had just spoken.

“Vylar, you were the one who proposed this course of action in the first place. What is the cause for this sudden change of heart?”

Vylar shrugged. “I guess my heart was never in it. I’ve just realized what it would mean for my trainees.”

This got Vanda’s attention, although she couldn’t say in a good way. It wasn’t like Vylar to have a change of heart, or any heart at all, come to think of it. However necessary he was to Gray Legend, Vanda didn’t trust him one bit. The way Vylar claimed to have changed his mind, both the action of which and the result truly being against his nature, sent off several alarms in Vanda’s head, and she eyed him with a suspicious glance.

“But even so,” Wenn Wuzzit interrupted, “If they were dead, their transponders should have sent out an emergency beacon before it happened, allowing me to extract them while they were still alive. If they really are dead, that means the machine malfunctioned, which has never happened befo-”

Vanda shot up. “Are you saying that this could all be the result of a MALFUNCTION?? In that case, I fail to see why the council has decided to act so recklessly.” She turned to face the council. “Have any of you actually thought about what doing this would mean, or have you been letting Duke do all the thinking.”

Hearing this, Duke’s face turned red. “THAT’S QUITE ENOUGH, VANDA!!!!! YOU ARE HEREBY EXCUSED FROM THIS MEETING!!!”

Vanda snorted. “Even if THAT had the council’s backing, you can’t. I have a right to speak on the council, just as we all have a right to be here, as equals.”

“Vanda…”

“Therefore I hereby declare the council’s decision to abort Operation Gray Legend null and void, under circumstances of being manipulated by an irrational council member with a personal vendetta.”

Hearing this, Duke finally lost control, actually drawing his sword and leaping at Vanda. Caught by surprise, Vanda barely managed to dodge the attack. She considered drawing her own weapons, but decided that it would mean compromising her status as the one upholding the law. As Duke rushed past her, she tripped him off his feet and knocked the weapon out of his hands.

Having temporarily incapacitated her opposition, Vanda turned back to the council. “Now… what does the council REALLY think?”

Vanda waited for a response. None came. She just looked from face to face, but none made any sound. All were staring straight at her.

“…WELL?”

Finally, Overbuild got up, and walked over to her. “Vanda…” he began, “Duke wasn’t lying. The council really did discuss the issue and decide that terminating the operation was the safest path.”

Vanda was in shock. She almost wanted to cry. But she held her composure, managing to salvage at least some of her dignity from that. “But… how…?”

Overbuild put an arm around Vanda. “I’m sorry,” he said, “But we can’t extract them the way things are, and if we send in a rescue squad now, the machine will reset and we’d only be able to extract the rescue squad, maybe not even that…”

Vanda shrugged Overbuild away and sat down with her face buried in the table. How could it have come to this…?

But there was still one thing she could do… that she needed to do.

“Okay, so we can’t send in an extract team. But what if this turns out to be nothing more than a temporary glitch, and we learn later that we could have succeeded if we had just waited? Do any of you want to risk feeling that way?”

Vanda heard mumbling all around her, and realized her plan was working. Now to press on… “Sure, it may not be the most convenient option, but either way we take some risk. So why not leave it on for a while… check it at a regular basis… and see if the problem fixes itself? Think about it. If we succeed, the rewards could change the tide of the war, and if we fail…” Vanda looked back at the ground, “Well… it’s not like we’d lose more than we’ve already lost. Let’s face it, we run almost no risk of waiting to see what happens, and if we quit now we may regret it later.”

Vanda looked at the council’s reaction as they swapped opinions left and right.

“Yarr… the lady hast a point, methinks…”

“But why waste precious resources?”

“Seriously? As if they wouldn’t be wasted anyways.”

“But wouldn’t this mean closing The Battle of Nimbus Station, for who knows how long?”

“Frankly, I’ve never understood the time-travel cause and effect of that thing. The battle already happened, and we’re still here, right?”

“But if we fail…?”

“But if we succeed…?”

Vanda continued to listen to the dialogue for the next couple of minutes, before clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention again. “Listen, I don’t know why or what is happening, but I do know that if we shut it off, we’ll be abandoning four ANC recruits, which, if I understand correctly, are all… underage.” She paused to let that sink in. “And then of course, there’s the other party involved.”

“Vanda…” Duke growled, finally getting back up, “I don’t know why you think of… HIM as an ally. From what I’ve heard, he’s anything but.”

“Really?” Vanda bantered, “Then how much HAVE you heard? At the moment, his status is completely neutral.”

Before Duke could open his mouth again, a new voice spoke up. “Well, I’ve only seen the Major once in my entire career, and believe me, he’s neutral. If he were working for us, we’d know, and if he was working for the enemy, we’d be dead. He’s an independent operative, and I’m fine with him staying just that. If we can’t get him on our side, we’d better make darn sure the other side doesn’t get him either.”

It was Epsilon Starcracker, one of the most skilled veterans in the entire Nexus Force. Vanda had heard the passion in his speech, and been utterly moved by it. “You’ve seen the Major in action?” she whispered. When he nodded, she continued, “Tell me about that some day.”

That done, she turned back to the council. She could tell, by the looks on their faces, she had almost won. In fact, she HAD won, but they just needed to make it official. She gestured to Overbuild to do the honors.

“All those in favor of continuing to monitor Operation: Gray Legend…” he said, requesting a show of hands. A large number of hands were lifted, including three of Overbuild’s.

“All those in favor of not continuing to have faith and pulling the plug on the operation,” he continued. Very few hands went up, and Vanda almost felt sorry for Duke, being the only one on his side of the room who voted for this.

“Then it is settled. Wenn Wuzzit, your standing orders are to continue monitoring the operation as you have done thus far, until we give instructions otherwise.” Overbuild had taken charge now, and was reigning the meeting in to a close with the authority of a judge. “This meeting of the Emergency Nexus Council is hereby adjourned.”

As the council members filed out, Vanda turned behind her to look at someone in the crowd. No, it was not someone she trusted. Even though the operation was at least one-third his due, she would always be watching him with a wary eye.

And it was a good thing she did, because she had seen him do something at the end of the meeting, which drew even more suspicion to himself.

Vylar, the founder of ANC, had not voted to continue the operation.

**********************************************************************************************

“Alex? Are you there?”

Alex emerged from the shadows above the Paradox facility and began his slow descent from the ceiling. He had been sitting there, hiding, waiting for this moment, as he had been instructed to in the coded message he’d received. “Yep, so what’s up?”

“Certainly not Duke’s cheeriness.”

“Meeting went that well, huh?”

“The meeting…”

“Which I have no idea when, where, why, or how it happened because I’ve never heard of any Emergency Nexus Council from anyone in my entire life. Honestly Vanda, one of these days you’ll have to learn to trust me…”

Vanda laughed. “Oh, I do trust you. Much more than quite a few people I know. Which is actually why I called you here…”

Alex spun himself right-side-up as he finally arrived at the ground. “Continue…” he said, trying to decide which interpretation of Vanda’s statement to pick.

Vanda hesitated. “Remember that favor you owe me?” Alex nodded, taking note of how Vanda was getting more hesitant the longer the conversation progressed. “Okay… I’m going to ask you to do something I would never ask anyone else, EVER. As such, once I tell you what that is, you will be obligated never to TELL anyone about this, EVER. I really shouldn’t be involving you, but there’s no one I trust enough who is as capable of doing this as you are. But that still doesn’t make it right. So if you want out, say it now.”

Alex just smiled. “Vanda, part of trusting me is knowing that I’d willing take any risk for you, whether you ask me to or not. So just get on with it.”

Still, Vanda hesitated. “Someone was acting strangely at the meeting (which you know nothing about), and I’ve been trying to keep an eye on him… but I just can’t any longer or else I’ll get caught. So…” Vanda’s voice trailed off before she could continue. Alex beckoned her to go on, and so with a nervous swallow, she continued, “I need you to keep an eye on him, and report back to me.”

Now Alex was hooked. He knew this was a bad idea, but then that was almost part of the appeal. Who could Vanda possibly need HIM to spy on that she couldn’t? She was the MASTER of spies!! Just wondering who it might be got him so excited that he almost fell over. When he couldn’t take it any longer, he finally asked the unspeakable question, “Who?”

“Your old commander. Vylar.”

Hearing his name sent chills down Alex’s spine, and he realized why Vanda had been so hesitant in asking the favor. “I’ll do it,” he finally said, “Just tell me where to start.”

“Start with trailing his movements. I want to know where he’s been, what he’s done, who he’s talked to, and anything he says or does that may seem out of place.”

“You really think he could be a spy?”

“Perhaps, but I’m more interested in seeing whether or not his training methods are legit.”

“Oh, believe me, they aren’t.”

Alex watched Vanda’s face grow pale, but since he couldn’t tell whether it was from fear or anger, he quickly decided to change the subject. “Well, I guess I’m gonna be busy for a while. But out of curiosity, why are you asking me? I mean, it makes sense for me to do it, but I know you’d do it yourself if you could, especially if not doing it yourself meant having someone else do it for you. So… what’s your story?”

Vanda’s expression became grim. “You’re right of course. I would deal with Vylar myself… but I’ll be investigating another involved party.”

“Ahh. Divide and conquer. Gotcha. So who’s your target?”

Vanda paused, and looked her friend straight in the eye.

“I need to learn more about the Major.”

---

PART III: Splitting Up

Chapter 49

“The room is secure,” Reyna called out.

The Major turned to look at her. He was sitting down on one of the couches in the living room of their temporary abode, with his map spread out on the coffee table in front of him. Thoki had given them permission to use the room on the second floor of his shop, which was a room in the sense of an apartment room: it had all the necessities of life. Bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room were all present, and the pantry was filled with enough provisions to last a week. The room itself consisted of hardwood floors and walls, which created an atmosphere of a semi-modern log cabin. The best part was that it was spacious enough for all five of them to coexist quite comfortably, as it took up pretty much the entire second floor of Thoki’s shop.

Interestingly enough, it also had all the necessities of hiding: All the windows looking down on the streets were one-way only, so you could see out but not in. There were also a couple of grates in the floor, which gave them deceptively broad views of the first floor. The multiple pieces of furniture were perfectly positioned to provide ample cover if someone tried to get in through the door, but still looked natural. The only requirement it didn’t meet was the way in and out: a single door that opened up to a cramped stairwell surrounded by walls on both sides, with only a tiny landing in front of the door. Even worse was the fact that halfway down the stairs there was another landing, which took a sharp 90° turn that was impossible to see around due to the inner walls. It would be all too easy for someone to lie in wait behind the corner, because there’d be no way of seeing them until it was too late. But other than that one fatal flaw, the room was perfect, and they wouldn’t need it for very long anyways.

Of course, the first rule in the Majors book was to never trust anything close to perfection, and this was a clear example of why. He knew there was something off about Thoki, and not just his business practices either. When he had showed them the room, he had said it was where he usually made his “beeeeeg beesnes deels.” Some of Thoki’s business had to be conducted in secret? It certainly wouldn’t surprise him.

“Major… there are no bugs, soo…”

Major shook himself awake. “Sorry, my mind is somewhere else right now. Did we check for sound?”

“Yep,” Axolc replied, “We can holler like we’re playing Aerobrick in the Red Blocks and no one will hear even if they’re two feet away from the door.”

“Thank you for that lovely image,” Praxer replied, “Please refrain from making it a reality.”

“Aww…”

“Oh, stop it you two. Like you BOTH wouldn’t love to try.”

The Major decided that, just this once, it might be better to not get involved in the conversation, especially since at the moment he was too busy concentrating on the map before him. Jonathon shared his preference and was examining the map as well.

They needed to keep their goal in mind: Intel. They were here to document the wars between the four tribes, and to prove or disprove details and theories. Now that was a pretty broad mission statement, so the Major decided that he’d narrow it down to what would be relevant to the present. He recalled the checklist he had made a while back, and decided to review it.

What the Nexus Force Needs to Know:

1. Roughly how much of the Legend of Crux is true
2. How the war between the original inhabitants began
3. What weapons were used in that war
4. Who won that war/How it ended
5. Who was descended from whom (since the legend says each faction was descended from a different tribe/people)
6. What was life like for those tribes/peoples
7. What knowledge gained in the past can help aid the fight against the Maelstrom in the present

After reviewing the list, the Major decided it was still a rather unfocused one, and would probably end up taking them a bit too out of their way. So he decided to condense the list again, just including the points that would be most helpful or most intrigued him.

What the Nexus Force Needs to Know:

1. Roughly how much of the legend is true/not true
2. What started the wars between the inhabitants of Crux
3. What ended said wars
4. Which tribes became which factions
5. Any other details that could help defeat the Maelstrom in the present

After creating this much more doable list, the Major remembered the other list he had made, the one detailing what the Nexus force did NOT need to know. However, he decided that if he reviewed that one he would only end up making it longer, so he decided to switch back to the basics: using his gut. If he came across anything the Nexus Force did not need to know, he’d know it.

Having done that, he began formulating a plan. He had almost completed it when there came a knocking at the door. He immediately went to the defensive position, and smiled as he saw the kids to do the same. Slowly, carefully, he made his way to the door and put his ear to it. If there were multiple people out there, either they were being awfully quiet, or one was doing a very good job of drowning out the others’ noise. After waiting another ten seconds, the Major carefully creaked open the door, just enough to see through. When he saw who it was, he relaxed a smidge, but still stayed on his guard. “One moment,” he called out, signaling with his hands for the kids to come out of hiding. When they looked perfectly natural once more, the Major called out, “Come in,” and opened the door for their guest.

Thoki ambled right in, carrying a tray of steaming coffee mugs. “Well, well, ees gud to sees yus has settled in alredy,” the Bone said, “Are yus comfortable in heres? Oh, Thoki hopes it eesn’t too smalls.”

“Oh no, it’s quite comfortable, thank you,” the Major replied, desperately wishing the Bone’s visit would be brief.

“Oh joys! Thoki ees so happi to sees yus likes it!! Here, Uncle Thoki bring yus sometings to drink!”

With that, the Bone put the tray he was carrying down on the coffee table, covering the map. Having finished his business, Thoki turned to leave, but before walking out the door, he turned around and said, “If der ees anytings Thoki can dos for yus, jeest let Thoki noes!”

The Major sat back down as Thoki closed the door and left. He had just about finished formulating his plan, but first he needed to distribute the drinks Thoki had left them. After carefully testing each drink for poison- no such thing as too much caution- he turned to the kids and said, “Drink up.”

Each kid took a mug, and casually sat down. The Major let them hang out for the rest of the evening until after dinner was over. Once they had sat back down in the living room after that, he decided it was time to cut to the chase.

“Ok, so our mission objective is purely reconnaissance,” he began, “We’ve been assigned to prove or disprove as much of the Legend of Crux as possible. Now, for both the interests of the Nexus Force and our own, we need to be able focus on something a little less broad…” he paused a moment so the kids could absorb the info, “So I’ve decided that we are going to focus on the wars. We are going to figure out what started the wars, how they were fought, and how they were ended.” He looked up from the map. “I’m also interested in learning more about the inhabitants themselves. Supposedly, each faction is descended from a different tribe, so one thing we’ll be doing is matching those up. However…”

He leaned forward during the pause, “I don’t think we have much time to operate here. The longer we spend here, the more likely that we’ll be discovered, or worse, that we’ll do something that will affect the timestream. I don’t want to spend more than a single week here. That will hopefully give us enough time to find out what we need, but still be short enough that we run minimum risk.” The Major paused again. “Any questions?”

“How do you plan on getting to all these places in one week?” Praxer asked, pointing to the locations the Major had marked on the map.

“Well, there’s an interesting question… Right now we are in the Bone Village down here,” the Major pointed to the southwest corner of the map, “And I’d like to spend time here, here, and here.” He continued to point to different corners of the map as he spoke. “North of our current location is the home of the Bat Lords, whom I am strangely eager to meet. Their archrivals, the Mosaic Jesters, are right in the center of the map, here. Opposite to us in the northeast corner is a lake that used to be the home of the Exploreian Bots but is now considered neutral territory. Over in the southeast is New Bot City, which, as the name implies, is the current home of the Exploreian Bots. New Bot City is also built on what used to be Jester territory before the Jesters moved to their current location. Do you follow me?”

Some of them seemed a bit unsure, so the Major decided he’d better explain things in chronological order.

“Originally, you had the Bats in the Northwest Mountains, the Bots in the Northeast Islands, the Bones in the Southwest Forest, and the Jesters in the Southeast… um, rocky area…” the Major explained, dividing the map into four regions with a pencil, “But when the wars started, the Jesters moved up to the center of the map, seizing the land around this tower,” he drew an arrow from the bottom-right quadrant to a massive structure in the center of the map. “After that, the Bots moved down and settled down where the Jesters had left behind,” he drew another arrow, this one from the top-right quadrant to the bottom-right quadrant. “And then the area they left behind became neutral territory.”

Now that the kids seemed to understand it better, the Major resumed his plan. “Now, I want to make sure we get the story from every tribe, since I have a feeling the Bats and the Jesters will have differing views on who started the wars….” He pointed to the different areas with his pencil. “So the itinerary I have in mind is this: we pay a visit to the Bat Lords, the Mosaic Jesters, New Bot City, and, if we can, the islands in neutral territory.”

He gave the kids a chance to examine the map for themselves. It was a pretty all-encompassing map, although the Major doubted that the entire planet was shown. There was a disclaimer on the back which said that it only contained the areas that were inhabited at the time of purchase, and that it was not outfitted with an Exploreian-Tech Auto-Updater. The Major took this to mean that the Exploreian Bots manufactured digital maps that automatically updated themselves when a new region was discovered. He found it somewhat amusing that one would need such a disclaimer for a map that was obviously done on paper.

It wasn’t long before his thoughts were interrupted. “So where have we been so far?” Reyna asked.

The Major took the map and examined it. Where exactly had they arrived? The continent was mostly land-based, and the terrain seemed to blur, so it was hard to tell exactly… Aha!

“Here’s where we were when we first arrived,” the Major said, pointing to a road going through an area labeled ‘The Crags’. “That was where we first met Thoki. Then the Jade Hills are just to the north of there, and are surrounded by the forest. Outside the forest on the east is the area you saw,” the Major pointed at Reyna, who shuddered in recollection, “And the forest to the west is where we did our final exercise, and where we got on the road to the Bone Village.”

Having finished, the Major gave back the map so the kids could continue examining it. After they finished, there was a brief silence before another question emerged. “So how exactly are we going to get to all these places in a single week?” Axolc inquired, “They’re not exactly down the block from each other.”

That was the big question wasn’t it? And, despite the Major’s concerns, his instincts and logic had come to only one solution. After all they’d been through, it did seem rather counterintuitive, but if it was the only way…

“We split up,” he answered, “One of you will come with me to visit the Bat Lords, while the other three take on the Mosaic Jesters. If things go smoothly, we can meet up at the islands in neutral territory, and then head down to New Bot City together.”

The Major looked around him. He didn’t like the idea of splitting up, and from what he saw on the faces in front of him, the kids seemed to agree. But it seemed like the only solution available, and… the kids were ready. Yes, he knew for a fact that they were capable of handling anything the Jesters could throw at them, or any of the tribes for that matter. That was why he had trained them, wasn’t it? Yes…they were ready for this.

Feeling he had reassured himself, the Major said, “I have complete faith in all of you, so I’m letting you decide how you want to split up. Just remember that only one of you will come with me; I don’t want our forces to be too lopsided here.” He paused to lean forward. “But it’s late, so I’ll let you sleep on the decision, but tomorrow we’ll be making our final preparations, and after that we’re moving out. The two teams will be leaving the Bone Village in opposite directions, so I’ll need to know before we can move out. The sooner you decide, the easier it will be for all of us. Understood?”

All four kids nodded their heads in perfect unison.

“Then get some rest,” the Major concluded, “You won’t last long on the field if you’re sleep deprived, even if you’re used to it… like a certain couple of night owls I know.”

They all laughed, but then the kids obeyed the Major’s command without question. After they were asleep, the Major did a little tidying up: he put his map back with the rest of his supplies, poured the leftover drinks into the sink, and left the empty tray from Thoki’s visit on the landing outside the door for him to collect.

He never realized it, but he made a mistake that very well could have cost him the mission.

He never checked the tray for bugs.

Chapter 50

“So, who do you think it should be?”

“Axolc, that’s the FIFTEENTH TIME you’ve asked that!! Give it a rest…”

The four of them were walking down the street, conversing casually with each other. They had quickly gotten bored browsing Thoki’s shop. I mean, sure, some of the things that old bone did were hilarious, but after a while, one just gets tired of looking at scam, after scam, after scam. And that was pretty much all you could find at Thoki’s shop. Items that did seem innocent enough at first glance were hard to come by, and then when you examined them more closely, even they had SCAM written all over them.

So Axolc had suggested that they decided to go for a walk to clear their minds a bit. But, despite having nothing else to do, his friends still didn’t want to get around to what they should be doing: deciding how they would split up. Axolc just wanted to get the decision out of the way, but his friends kept putting it off. It was actually a bit ironic; since he was the only one who wanted to think about the decision they needed to make and his friends would all rather have their heads in the stars, their roles had somehow been reversed.

Axolc shrugged. Sure, the idea of splitting up did not appeal to him at all, but if that was what needed to happen, then whatever. It’s not like it was the end of the world or anything, they just needed to decide who would be the best suited for following the Major’s lead.

Suddenly Reyna lifted her head and surveyed the crowd. “Don’t look now,” she whispered, “But I think we’re being followed.”

A chill ran down Axolc’s spine. Being followed? Had their presence been detected already? And if so, how?!

“There,” Reyna whispered, finally catching sight of their pursuer. “Funny, he doesn’t seem to be wearing a Bone suit… unless I’m mistaken, he’s not displaying signs of any affiliation at all.”

Axolc’s head went reeling again. No affiliation? That had to be a first… other than themselves, of course.

“Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Praxer, you fall behind and linger until he passes you, then slowly head on after us. Axolc will break right, and I’ll break left. Jonathon will keep moving forward- Jonathon?”

Reyna looked around in a panic when she realized Jonathon was nowhere in sight. Axolc looked around too, but then he caught sight of movement atop one of the buildings. He looked up through the corner of his eye, and wondered how the crux Jonathon had found the perfect sniping position so fast. After Axolc indicated Jonathon’s position to her brother, they reformulated their plan around it. They were almost ready when Axolc stole a glance behind them-

And their pursuer was gone.

Another chill went down Axolc’s spine. They had lost track of their pursuer, and now he could be anywhere.

However, it wasn’t long before he made his presence known again, this time more violently. As they passed an alley to their left, a hand shot out and grabbed Axolc, dragging him into the darkness. It all happened so fast, none of them had time to react before Axolc had been dragged into the maze of alleys. Reyna and Praxer charged after them, trying not to let them out of their sight, when suddenly the intruder stopped.

Reyna and Praxer froze in the dark alley as they saw the knife pressed to Axolc’s throat. The stranger holding him gestured for them to lower their weapons, so they did.

“That was rather fun, but now that it’s safe for us to talk…” he said, reaching up to pull back his hood, “Let’s cut to the chase.”

“Yes, let’s,” Praxer agreed, before socking him in the face.

The stranger reeled, but was back on his feet in no time. He lurched at Praxer and pinned him to the wall, but made no attempt to hurt him severely.

“I’ve come to warn you, you fools,” he said, stepping into the light. “You’re all in grave danger.”

“What’s that now? Danger?! I love danger! And- ohhhh…” Axolc had barely started his witty repartee before the intruder revealed HER face and stunned him speechless.

“What?” she demanded. “Never had a young, beautiful girl knock you around upside the head? ‘Cuz I’ll do it for free if you haven’t!!”

“Oh, they both have,” Reyna replied, pulling her scarf down to show her face, “I’ve knocked them around quite a bit.”

With that, she made like Praxer and knocked the intruder to the ground. The intruder growled, evidently getting more ticked off by the minute. “It isn’t safe here,” she continued, “At this rate, you’ll be dead within a week.”

Reyna put a foot on the intruder, preventing her from standing up. “Care to explain yourself?” she suggested, “Or would you rather get kicked around some more?”

“Forget it!! If you people are gonna be like this, then by golly I WON’T help you. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you when you end up bleeding to death in a back alley like this one!”

She tried to get up to leave but Reyna kept her foot firmly planted. “Oh, no,” she said, “I’m rather interested in what you were going to say. In fact, I’m so interested, I’ve half a mind to go GET OUR FRIEND and BRING HIM HERE so he can MEET YOU TOO!!”

Axolc was puzzled by her inflection until he saw Jonathon looking down from up above the rooftop. Ahh, so that’s what she meant. Luckily, it seemed that Jonathon had understood and was leaving in a hurry.

“Look,” the strange girl continued, “You may think you’re hidden here, but you’re wrong. Even if you DIDN’T have half of Crux looking for you, you’ve been making all the wrong friends.”

“Like you,” Reyna pointed out.

“I’M not your friend,” the girl replied, “Not yet. But perhaps that would change if you would kindly get your stinkin’ foot off me and listen to what I have to say.”

Reyna frowned and released her captive, helping her back up. The girl coughed up some dirt before saying, “Thank you. Now please, listen carefully. You do not want to stay in this town any longer than you need to, and even that might be too long.”

Reyna leaned forward a bit. “Why?”

The girl leaned back, looking a little afraid of Reyna now. “Well, first of all, you’re actually accepting hospitality from THOKI!! Are you MAD?! This isn’t a great town in terms of security, but that is by far the most idiotic foul-up I have seen in my entire life!!”

Reyna kept her composure, which, if anything, hardened. “We are quite aware of Thoki’s business practices. You get a pretty good sense of them the moment you walk into shop-”

“That’s NOT what I meant! Thoki is more than just a sleazy old bonehead you know! He’s insane!”

“Uhh, yeah, we can tell,” Axolc put in, “It’s not like he makes a very good attempt at hiding it.”

“That’s not what I- AUUURRGHH!!!” The girl gripped her forehead in frustration.

“Now hold on,” Praxer interrupted, sounding uncharacteristically calm, “First things first, who are you? What’s your name?”

“Call me Clare,” the girl answered, “Short for Clarity.”

“That’s funny. Your name doesn’t match your personality at all, in fact, that’s the first coherent thing you’ve said since we met- …OWW!!” Axolc was slapped simultaneously on either side by both girls. Note to self: don’t joke about names.

“So now…” Reyna resumed, “How did you find out about us? And do we REALLY have half the planet going after us?”

“Planet?” Clare replied, “Who said anything about the planet?”

“Didn’t you just say we have half of Crux searching for us?”

Clare blinked. “Ohh… no, I didn’t mean the entire planet! Just the Valley of Life.”

“The what, now?”

Clare rolled her eyes. “Well, this confirms what that old drunk told me. You really AREN’T from this world. Alright, I’ll have to break it down for you.”

“Please do,” Axolc encouraged, “I always prefer my information broken down into bite-size chunks. Information served in punch-bowls isn’t as easy to swallow.”

Clare turned to face Axolc. “You’ve got quite some mouth on you.”

“On the contrary, he’s being rather quiet today,” Reyna stated as-matter-of-factly.

“I am?” Axolc countered, “Oh no! What’ll this do to my reputation?!”

“You already have a reputation that doesn’t bode well,” Clare answered, “Not for you anyways.”

“Oh, don’t mind him. We could be facing Armageddon and his only complaint would be the noise.”

“Are you referring to the time when Praxer missed the Ice Cream Truck…?”

“Axolc… shut up.”

Not surprisingly, as the battle of wits continued, laughter eventually broke out.

Surprisingly, it came from Clare.

“You all…” she breathed between laughs, “You’re all a bunch of idiots… terrible, crazy idiots… what the heck is ‘Nexus Force’ anyways?”

Axolc looked at Reyna, who looked at Praxer, who looked at him. They could sense their thought’s merging: ‘Great, we’re screwed already… it seems like things just keep getting worse.’

As if on cue, as it so often was, a familiar voice came from just around the corner. Everyone turned to see its owner stroll into view, looking disappointed but amused.

“You know,” said the Major, “I was hoping we’d last at least ONE DAY before you all managed to spill the beans. Too bad we never trained for THAT.”

Chapter 51

“Sorry about all the trouble they gave you,” the Major apologized. He was sitting in an outdoor café, having a pleasant conversation with the young girl across from him. The kids were back at Thoki’s, with standing orders to stay in their rental room until further notice. It wasn’t meant as a punishment for the earlier foul-up, it just worked out that way. The Major would normally never leave them alone within two miles of Thoki, but he had made certain arrangements with Idagget earlier that morning, so he felt reassured that they were somewhat safe. He was fairly certain Thoki wouldn’t try anything while Idagget was around, and even if he did, Idagget had promised to protect them. As of this morning, the Major trusted Idagget, even though the presence of an Exploreian Bot- the most technologically advanced race- in the land of the Bone People- a place where modern technology did not exist- still perplexed him. But back to the matter at hand.

“They mean well,” the Major continued, “They’re just not the most polite elite commandos I’ve met.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Clare replied, “I am partially to blame; sometimes I forget that not everyone spends as much of their lives being followed as I do. Their reaction was predictable, and, believe me, I’ve been through worst. So anyways…”

The Major sighed. This was getting nowhere. He had a perfectly good asset in front of him, and so far all they had done was babble on and on rather than cut to the chase like they should. He needed to stop prolonging the inevitable so they could finally level with each other.

Clare caught on to his silence. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know if you’ll do the same for me.”

The Major smiled. “Alright then. First things first, what do you know about us, and how did you acquire that information?”

“I know you aren’t of this world,” Clare began, sipping her drink from the café, “and that you single-handedly repelled an entire legion of Bat warriors, led by a Bat Lord. I know you are staying at Thoki’s, and I also know, more than you do, the danger that puts you in.”

“I trust Thoki as far as I can throw him,” the Major reassured.

“How far is that?”

“Scratch that,” the Major corrected, trying to think up a more accurate analogy, “I trust him as far as I could throw that tower over there.” He pointed out to the tiny silhouette of an unbelievably tall structure in the distance, past the horizon.

Clare looked over and nodded. “Although, if you could throw that tower, I’d be grateful for every inch it moved towards entering orbit,” she said with a weak laugh, which couldn’t hide her obvious spite towards the tower.

“So…” the Major resumed, “How did you discover us?”

She sipped her drink. “Well, I was in the local tavern the other night, and this old Bat warrior was ranting on about how he was the lone survivor of an entire legion of his fellows. Something about his voice told me he wasn’t lying, so I sat down next to him and paid for his drink. He readily recounted his tale, making an effort to extensively describe you in particular. After that, I followed your trail for three days until I found you. By the way, you cover your tracks better than anyone I’ve ever seen; I never would’ve found you if I hadn’t come across your allies in the streets.”

“Ahh…” the Major sighed. “But why did you think his story was sincere? I mean, tavern gossip is almost as unreliable as Uncle Thoki’s Super Savers.”

“Not nearly,” Clare said with a laugh, “though your point is correct. The odds of hearing good intel from storytellers in taverns are close to none. But then, neither are the odds of seeing a Bat warrior there in the first place,” Clare explained, “You never see Bats in the tavern; they spend all their time in formation. Any spare time they have they spend training for war. No free time, no pubs, no getting drunk; it just doesn’t happen. So seeing a uniformed Bat warrior ranting in the tavern was a clear indicator that something was afoot.”

“Curious…” the Major responded, taking in this new information. “Let’s let you take a turn. Ask me something you want to know.”

“Alright. Now, where to begin…?” The girl leaned back in her chair, tipping it backwards as she balanced on her toes. “Ok, well obviously questions first: where do you come from if you’re not from this planet, which I’m finding more and more likely all the time.”

“Well, technically speaking, I’m the only one not from this planet… the other four are local to this area in a way…”

“What? You’re not making any sense…”

“We’re from the future.”

Clare stared for a moment before she burst out laughing, “HA! Good one!”

“I wasn’t being funny.”

The girl’s expression changed rapidly. “Wait- your serious?” As the Major slowly nodded, the girl’s jaw slowly dropped. “Holy crux…”

The Major sighed, and began telling the story. He began with the four explorers, supposedly descended from each tribe, finding the Imagination Nexus on the planet Crux after it had become legend, the accident that corrupted and mutated the Nexus into what would be later called the Maelstrom, and the explorers’ plan for countermeasures against it: the Nexus Force.

But as he told the tale, he realized his description was starting to sound… heroic… not like the crumbling bureaucracy he usually used to depict the Nexus Force. It was rather… perplexing.

As he finished off his tale with the discovery that led the Nexus Force, or rather, just Vanda, to hire him, he looked at the expression on Clare’s face. She was absolutely stunned for well after he stopped talking. Finally, she looked up at him and said:

“Wow.”

The Major nodded. “A lot to take in, isn’t it?” He leaned back. “But now it’s my turn again. Think you can summarize the beginnings of the wars between the four tribes up till today, in the next…” he checked his HUD’s chronometer, “…half-hour or so? I need to be back to my young ones soon; they’re just so lost without me.”

She laughed a weak laugh, obviously still trying to take it all in. She was obviously very distracted.

“Clare,” the Major repeated, “the wars…”

“-OH-oh!! Right, so, um… what did you want?”

The Major smiled with a roll of his eyes, and said, “Can you summarize the political- and maybe geographical- history of the tribes from the beginnings of the wars up to today?”

Clare bit her lip. “Okay… so, um… First of all, each tribe was created by a different one of the First Builders…”

“I know that, continue…”

“Well, a few millennia ago, when the First Builders left, things weren’t as they are now. You didn’t have the Bat Lords, or the Mosaic Jesters, or any of that other junk. The only distinguishing facts were where they lived and which First Builder they worshipped. Now, this was so long ago that it’s legend even to us, but somehow the unity between them was split.”

“How?”

“According to the legend, an altar dedicated to the First Builders was destroyed. No one knows what happened. It could have been from natural causes- earthquakes, hurricanes, and whatnot- but no one seemed to believe that, and the tribes blamed each other.”

“Couldn’t the altar just be rebuilt?” the Major inquired.

Clare shrugged. “There was no one left to build it. The tribes wouldn’t work together, or go anywhere near one another, until one day…” Clare looked up at the sky, “…at least, so the legend says, one day the Imagination Nexus descended from the heavens and created the Valley of Life.”

The Major was as bewildered as he was sceptic. “Are you saying we’re in the middle of a crater the Imagination Nexus created when it crashed into the planet? How does that even work? The Nexus isn’t exactly solid; it’s made of imagination. How would something with the approximate essence of light be concentrated enough to cause a visible effect upon impact, let alone impact with enough strength to generate a geographical change proportional to a valley-sized crater?!”

Clare hesitated, although probably not because of all the big words being used. “I think it’s… container… came with it. Certainly not that entire tower,” she pointed to the tower they had mentioned earlier. “But certainly the foundation could have been package with the Nexus. The legend later describes a temple housing the Nexus but doesn’t mention how it got there.”

“So let me get this straight,” the Major persisted, “You’re saying that the Imagination Nexus, which either needs a container to have shape and form or is far too big to support its own weight, descended from the heavens and created a giant crater in the center of the planet which was named ‘The Valley of Life’. Geez… the physics here are completely messed up.”

“These are the FIRST BUILDERS we’re talking about here,” Clare reminded, “For all we know, they could be omnipotent deities. In fact, the legend sorta implies that. Now, moving on…” her tone indicated that they wouldn’t dwell on that any further, “The survivors from the crash discovered that the crater caused by the Imagination Nexus was more fertile than anywhere else on the planet, tenfold.” She paused to finish off her drink, “Hence the name ‘Valley of Life’. But they also discovered that the Nexus itself possessed powers beyond imagination- or rather, as far as the imagination goes. It could do or create anything! Needless to say, it was coveted by all four nations… But that was the first time they had seen each other for over a thousand years. Their ancestors had passed on their belief that the other tribes were guilty, and so by the time this happened their bitterness towards each other was almost the only thing that could be remembered. Old wounds were opened, and it wasn’t long before full scale war for possession of the Imagination Nexus erupted.”

“And does that bring us to today?” the Major inquired.

“Not at all…” Clare continued, “If you know ANYTHING about our time, you know that there was a persistent rivalry between the Bat Lords and the Mosaic Jesters. When the wars first began, they were still known by their original names: the Elementrons and the Imaginatrixians. I’m not exactly sure how the whole ‘Bat-Jester-Bone-Bot’ thing got started, but as you can see it hasn’t died out.” She gestured to the streets around them. “The Jesters won the first war, but at a high cost. They got the Imagination Nexus, but that put all three of their neighbors against them… for a while. Once they had completely moved in with the Nexus, they began building that monstrosity visible from space,” she pointed to the tower in the distance again, “and they haven’t stopped since. They just keep using the Imagination Nexus to build the tower higher and higher and higher… with no sign of letting up….”

“I take it you don’t approve?”

“They’re using the Nexus to build its own prison! And that affects both the inside and out- can I see that map?” She pointed to the Major’s map, which he had accidentally left sticking out of his bag.

He laid the map on the table for her to see. “See the area around the tower?” she said, pointing to the area the Major knew would become Crux Prime, “That area wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for the Jester Tower. The tower is preventing light from the Nexus to escape, and where the light doesn’t touch, bad things happen….” She clearly didn’t want to go into great detail, although the Major had seen what she was referring to. “And the higher they build the tower, the larger that area gets! They’ve surrounded themselves with this ring, a world of chaotic nightmares, and are helping it to grow and expand until it covers the entire valley!”

“Do they know that they are doing this?” the Major asked, trying not to sound as troubled as he was by this news.

“If they don’t, it’s because they don’t care enough to pay attention, and if they do, well…” Clare paused as her expression grew darker, “They could just be trying to destroy their enemies. If they keep building the tower, eventually the nightmarish wasteland they have created will push the Bat Lords out of the valley, or force them to trek into the nightmare where they have no chance of survival. Thing is, they’re willing to sacrifice everyone and everything around them, just to get revenge on the Bats. It’s just… despicable.”

“Do the Bat Lords know?” the Major asked, becoming more and more anxious by the minute.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter, because there isn’t much they can do…” Clare responded, avoiding eye contact, “The only way to stop it would be to retake the Imagination Nexus, which, as far as I’m aware, has never been done. The Nexus can create its own defenses, so for practical purposes it’s impossible for whoever has it to ever lose.”

“But if the Nexus can create anything, couldn’t they just use it to create weapons that could wipe out the Bat Lords instantly?” the Major puzzled.

Clare smiled. “Yes, but they won’t. That’s the one part of the legend that holds true today. Remember how I said the Jesters won the first war?” The Major nodded as Clare continued, “Well, legend says that the Bat Lords managed to snag some tiny scrap of victory. Apparently, even though he was captured and as good as dead, a lone Bat warrior made a show of force that scared the Jesters silly… so much, in fact, that to this day the Jesters have never, ever, not even once used the Imagination Nexus to openly attack any of their neighbors.”

“Wow,” the Major replied, “How did they do it?”

“Not even I know THAT,” Clare answered, “It’s one of the Bats’ most closely guarded secrets.”

The Major was about to ask for more, when he realized the sun was setting. Crux, he had to get back to Uncle Thoki’s before it got dark, or else he’d shudder to think of what might happen, even with Idagget around. “Thank you for your time,” he said, standing up, “And thanks for the warning about Thoki. Out of curiosity, where will you go after this?”

Clare gave a mysterious smile. “Oh… I’ll probably head back to the Nimbus Islands. Business is picking up over there…”

“-Did you just say Nimbus?”

Clare blinked. “Of course. Lake Nimbia is neutral territory, so I spend a lot of my time-”

“It’s really called Lake Nimbia? And the islands are called the Nimbus Islands?”

Clare started eyeing the Major suspiciously. “Yes… why?”

“Oh, nothing,” the Major replied with a shrug, “It’s probably not important.”

Her expression said she didn’t buy it, but she still replied, “Whatever,” and shrugged the topic off. “Thanks for not killing me by the way.”

“In that sense, you owe me a life debt.”

Clare laughed. “Well then, guess I’ll be hearing about you more often?”

“Perhaps…” the Major responded, not willing to give any definite answer.

Clare nodded. “Professional to the last. Okay, I’ll stop asking questions. See you around!”

“Yeah, see you…” the Major replied as he watched the girl leave. His instincts were screaming, ‘KILL HER!!! SHE KNOOOOOWS!!!!’ but he just stood there and watched as she faded into the distance. Well, if he was going to be making friends on this trip, an unaffiliated one would provide the LEAST amount of trouble. Besides, from what he gathered, her work was shockingly similar to his own in many ways. If she was half as professional as him, they could trust her.

And now, he needed to get back to the other four “they”. He scooped up his map and put it back in his bag, this time making sure it was completely closed. His mind returned to the last part of their conversation before the goodbyes.

Before then he hadn’t decided for certain whether or not they would be visiting the supposedly neutral islands, but if they really were in the middle of “Lake Nimbia” it would certainly have to be part of their agenda.

Chapter 52

“So you still haven’t decided?”

Reyna gave a little embarrassed smile. Time was up, and yet they still hadn’t been able to decide who should go. Now the five of them were sitting around the coffee table, as they had the other night, and the Major was waiting for their answer.

“Yes…” she finally replied.

“I figured as much,” the Major replied, to everyone’s surprise. “I guess I’ll just have to ask for a volunteer now.”

Reyna looked to each of her friends, one at a time, as they did the same. At the moment, no one seemed to be raising any hands. Reyna didn’t know what to expect next.

But if she did, it would not have been what happened next.

Her brother, little Jonathon, hesitantly raised his hand. Reyna almost reeled in shock, not noticing or caring that everyone else did the same. The Major was the only one who did a good job of trying to conceal his surprise, but Reyna could tell it was still there.

But then the Major nodded knowingly, and Reyna could see the warm smile on his face even though his helmet was impenetrable. “I think that will work perfectly,” he said, “I don’t think I would have it any other way.”

Great. Now that the Major had said that, that pretty much erased any thoughts Reyna had of offering herself up instead. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the Major, in fact at this point she trusted him with her life, but… she valued her brother’s life more than anything.

But all she could do was watch as Jonathon walked across the room and sit down next to the Major. She didn’t know whether to feel angry, upset, confused, or all three. Of course feeling worried went without saying.

But all she could do was watch helplessly, until the two teams sat across from each other at the table, and started to make their plan.

After reiterating the main points of his conversation with Clare, as well as the intel she had given them, the Major paused for a moment. “Do you remember our objectives I told you last night?” he asked around.

His charges nodded. Good, they were ready.

“Well, I think we need to add one more,” he continued. “As you know, the present-day Crux System was formed when the planet we are on now exploded. Now, one of the Nexus Force’s chief goals is to bring the pieces back together, but to do that, they need to know how they original fit.” The Major paused for a breath. “And that is our new objective. As we travel across the Valley of Life, we need to use this map as our puzzle board, and mach up the puzzle pieces in the present.” He held up his map to emphasize his point. “So far I am pretty sure of just three of these: 1) the canyon where we arrived is the Forbidden Valley, 2) Jester territory is the Crux Prime area around Nexus Tower, and 3) the islands I mentioned is Nimbus Station.”

The kids took it all in, but Axolc of course was the first one to speak. “‘Is’? Don’t you mean, ‘will be’?”

The Major rolled his eyes. “Axolc, the first rule of time-travel is that your mind will explode if you try to understand its grammatical applications. “We WERE in the FUTURE”, always ends up somewhere in the present, if it ends up meaning anything at all. So I’m speaking in the present tense to keep things the simplest they can be.”

They were all too anxious to laugh. It had been a rough day, and they all knew they had some much worse days ahead of them. The Major decided to wrap things up. “Get some sleep,” he said. “We’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Oh noes!! Yus reallies wants to leeves alredy?!”

Under his helmet, the Major rolled his eyes at the little Bone. He and the kids were doing a last minute check-up on their vehicle, just to make sure everything was packed up and ready. “Yes, we really do need to be heading out,” he replied.

“Den pleeze, let Thoki helps yus! Thoki can bees your guide!! Beesnis is no gud rite nows, so Uncle Thoki can takes yus to whereever yus wants to goes!!”

This got the Major’s attention. The offer sounded suspicious, but that was made doubly so by the fact that it was actually rather tempting. But perhaps…

“Alright, Thoki,” he accepted, “Can you take me and one of my companions to the province ruled by the Bat Lords?”

“Why sures!! But why dus yus wants to sees dems?”

Not having an excuse prepared, the Major simply replied, “Because I think that’s where I’ll find some “beesnis” of my own.”

“Okays den,” the Bone said with a smile, before turning around and leaving to go prep one of his Medieval hay-carts for departure. Once he was out of sight, the Major turned to his companions.

“Why were you so quick to accept his offer?” Praxer said with a disapproving tone. “That Bone means trouble.”

The Major leaned back on their vehicle and thought a moment. It was a good question, so he thought a minute before answering, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”

“Is Thoki really an enemy?” Axolc inquired.

“Not yet,” the Major replied, “But he certainly isn’t a friend either.”

“So you want to keep an eye on him,” Reyna confirmed.

“Yes. You three can take the vehicle to your destination, while Jonathon and I will ride to ours with Thoki.”

“Well, the vehicle is packed, so does that mean we should head off?” Axolc seemed very anxious to get on with the mission.

“Not yet. We’re still waiting for- Aha, there he is!” The Major stood up straight as a cloaked figure approached them through the crowd. He beckoned his charges to come forward and meet their ally as he approached.

“Hello there Idagget,” he said.

“Hello there, Major,” Idagget replied, raising up the hood that hid his face from public eyes

The Major turned to his charges. “Alright kids, Idagget is going to help us on our mission. You’ll get to know him quite well, because he’ll be communicating with you and acting as your guide when I’m not around.”

“How will we do that?” Praxer inquired, “And how do you know we can trust him?”

“Idagget smiled. “You don’t,” he replied. “You don’t have even the slightest reason to trust me. But I don’t have any reason to trust you either, so we’re even.”

“Except you don’t have much to lose if-”

“Praxer, that’s ENOUGH!!” the Major snapped. “You’re wrong. We DO have a reason to trust him…” He turned to face the Exploriean. “…and that’s that he doesn’t trust Thoki. He works against Thoki just as much as he works for him, and I find that to be a sign of good character. In fact, working against Thoki is why he’s agreed to help us.”

The Major turned back to Praxer. “Plus, if I trust someone, that should be more than enough reason for you to trust them as well, got it?” He fixed his stare on Praxer’s face. It wasn’t the boy’s fault; this was just the sort of attitude ANNCH would try to instill in all their trainees. Of course that made it all the more important for the Major to cure him of these terrible instincts.

“…Fine,” Praxer finally replied. “Just how will we be communicating?”

“With these,” Idagget responded, pulling two handheld devices out of his cloak. Closer examination of the one he gave to Praxer showed that it was a miniature video communicator, with only the buttons necessary for turning on or off and placing calls and an LED screen. The prompt readout in his HUD revealed that, despite its small size, it could send and receive transmissions to and from opposite ends of a sizable chunk of a planet before it would encounter any interference or lag. It was also not only triple encoded, but transmitted signals on a unique wavelength, making it untraceable by even the most advanced tracing equipment. Even more astounding was that the back was built so it could be attached to his Engineer gauntlet and patched through to his HUD, and from there on to any other Nexus Force HUDs within considerable range. However, this did seem to drain the power a bit more speedily, so it would be more convenient to just use its external screen whenever possible.

Seeing Praxer’s approval, Idagget smiled. “I’ll have the other one, so we can communicate no matter where you are in the valley of life. Just try not to break it, ok? These things cost a fortune to make and I don’t have any spares.”

Praxer looked up. “This thing is amazing; I’ve never seen anything like it! I’ll personally annihilate anyone who so much as scratches the paint!”

Everyone laughed, but Reyna held back, probably wondering if he was serious or not. He was going to reassure her, but Axolc interrupted first. “Praxer, I’d appreciate it if you’d just learn to laugh at my humor rather than make me look bad with your own! And what’s so special about those 2 inches of metal anyways?”

Praxer blinked. “What, you can’t see? Your HUD isn’t telling you?”

“All my HUD is doing is telling me that it would only sell for 200 U₵ as scrap metal.”

Praxer felt his blood start to boil, and had to forcibly restrain his anger to keep himself under control. “And WHY would you EVER sell a piece of equipment like THIS on the BLACK MARKET for TWO HUNDRED COINS??!!! Can’t you see how advanced this technology is?!”

Axolc just shook his head. “Nope. All I can see is that has a really low scrap value. It’s not like my HUD gives me any technical readouts or anything like that.”

“Really? ‘Cause that’s EXACTLY what mine gives me.”

Now it was Axolc’s turn to be surprised. “You get technical readouts of technology just by looking at them?”

“Yeah,” Praxer persisted. “You don’t?”

Before Axolc could reply, the Major interrupted. “You can all discuss the benefits of your faction gear LATER. But first…” he turned to Idagget, “…let’s wrap things up here. You will provide them with any information they need, to the best of your abilities…” he turned back to Praxer and the others, “…and you will give all due respect to him and any info he gives you. Okay…?” He waited for all of his charges to nod their agreement. “Good, now let’s move out!”

With that, he tossed Axolc the keys to their ride. “As I mentioned earlier, you three will take the vehicle. Follow the road that heads south from here and it will take you to Mosaic Jester territory by nightfall.” He paused before continuing. “Meanwhile Jonathon and I will ride with Thoki north, into Bat Lord territory. Any questions?”

“Yes…” Axolc replied, in a semi-serious tone that surprised everyone present. “We keep calling this ‘the vehicle’ but I think it needs a real name. What should we call it?”

The Major pondered this. Now that WAS an interesting question. As he thought about it, he realized he didn’t really have any experience in this sort of thing. Stuff like this had never really mattered in his line of work until now.

“Something based on an animal, perhaps?” Reyna suggested. “The Tiger?”

“No, I’m thinking it’s more of a ‘Panther’ if we went in that direction,” Axolc replied. “Steel Panther, perhaps?”

“Technically it’s not made of steel in the sense of a refined iron alloy,” Praxer corrected.

“I think animals aren’t really the way to go with this one,” the Major said. “Something more closely connected to the vehicle itself would be better.”

“Maybe the ‘Emerald Chaser’?” Axolc suggested. “You know, after where we first found it.”

“That’s good,” Reyna acknowledged, “But didn’t Praxer actually find it upside-down in a creek?”

While the others continued discussing names, Praxer thought about it himself for a while. The Major was right- something based off their experiences would be way better than some random animal distinction. He tried to think of what experiences had most defined the vehicle.

“How about the ‘Sky Hunter’?” he finally said, thinking back to the vehicle’s debut. That moment when it had descended on the invading Bat warriors as if in a glide after it had soared off the peak of the hill was probably the most defining moment the vehicle had ever had, and it appeared vividly in his memory.

“Hmm… not bad,” Axolc approved. “Yeah, I like it!”

“Suits me,” Reyna agreed.

Praxer looked to the Major and then to Jonathon. One at a time, they slowly nodded their approval, although Praxer got the feeling that only they understood where he had come up with it.

“The Sky Hunter it is,” the Major confirmed. “Now are we ready?”

He got enthusiastic nods from everyone.

“Then it’s time. LET’S ROLL!!"

Mini-Interlogue 1

“Week 1: Vanda, I’ve been working on this assignment for about a week now. I’ve checked his records, searched his files, bugged the phone… pretty much everything that could dish up some evidence short of following him around on foot. And yet, after all that work, I’ve still come back empty-handed. I haven’t found a single scrap of evidence, not even a hint to anything suspicious. Everything I’ve seen and heard makes it seem like he’s a perfect little angel, or rather, I haven’t found anything that suggests the contrary. Is it really possible that a guy like him could have such a perfect record? I’ll contact you if I find anything, in addition to my regular weekly reports.”

~~First weekly report from Alex, transmitted to Vanda Darkflame via secure comlink

Chapter 53

The ride into the Bat Lords’ territory was remarkably less than comfortable. Thoki drove the Ox-cart from the front seat, while the Major and Jonathon had to sit in the back with the hay. The back was, predictably, smelly, dirty, buggy, and incapable of standing still for two seconds. Every bump, pit, or misplaced pebble they ran over was felt throughout the entire cart, and was magnified in the back due to a complete lack of seat restraints or even proper seats at all. It hadn’t helped when the terrain had become less wooded and more mountainous. Multiple times the Major was gripped in the fear that the cart would flip over, ridiculous as the notion was. He only took comfort in the fact that Thoki had graciously filled the cart with hay, rather than any of his... merchandise.

“How much farther is it?” the Major called to the front.

“Not fars, not fars!” Thoki’s voice called back. “Wee ees crozzing Ded Man’z Reevirs nows.”

The Major looked ahead, and saw that Thoki was right. They were approaching a bridge that traversed over a small river, with rapids that rushed by underneath them. When they were halfway across, something occurred to the Major.

“Why is it called ‘Dead Man’s River’?” he asked their guide.

“Well, eef yus fell eens, yus wud probablies be ded.”

“Can’t argue with that,” the Major murmured, as he sat back down. After they were off the bridge, the trail started to slope noticeably uphill. A few minutes later, there was another announcement.

“Wees are abouts to enters Ded Man’z Cave!” Thoki called out. Sure enough, about a minute later everything went dark as they entered the mouth of a rather spacious cave. They uphill slant didn’t stop when they entered, and continued on throughout the cave.

“Okay,” the Major inquired, “Why is THIS called ‘Dead Man’s Cave’?”

“Because, eef yus weres an enemy, and da Bat Lords found you een heers, dey wud pors beeeg bukkets of watters down dees slope, and yus wud slips on da roks and slide down into da Ded Man’z Reevirs, and den-”

“-We would probably be dead,” the Major finished for him. “Thanks for that lovely image.”

“No problems!”

The Major sighed, and refocused his attention on Jonathon. The boy almost seemed more silent than usual. The Major shuffled over next to him and put his arm over him.

“Hey, you alright?”

Jonathon looked up at the Major and nodded, but the Major could tell he didn’t mean it.

“It’s alright to feel scared you know,” the Major told him. The boy looked up at the Major, as if he had never been told anything like this in his life and wanted to know what the brick it meant.

“We’re about to go break down the door of the greatest army of warriors known to myth and truth,” the Major explained, “You’d have to be a fool if that didn’t scare you. It’s enough to scare ME. But there’s something you should know….” The Major turned around and crouched in front of the young boy.

“Whatever happens now, I’m here for you,” he whispered reassuringly, “So anyone or anything that tries to hurt you will have to go through me first, okay?”

Jonathon nodded again, this time a bit more calmly. To some, having the Major’s word of protection would be the most reassuring thing in the world, and for others, it would be the least. But Jonathon appeared to find it at least somewhat reassuring, and that was welcome news. Not only did it mean the boy felt somewhat safe, but it also meant he trusted the Major now more than he ever had, maybe even more than he had ever trusted anyone besides his sister. And that meant the Major was making progress.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Thoki’s voice saying they were almost through the cave, and that their destination would be in sight shortly. The Major had already started to notice trickles of light coming from up ahead when the announcement came, so he was ready for it. As they exited the cave, the Major straightened up and looked ahead, trying to see their destination. When he did, his heart skipped a beat.

There, in the middle of a small valley below them, stood a massive medieval scene, wedged between the mountains. In front there was a village twice the size of the Bone Village, and behind that was a castle rivaling the size of the mountains themselves, with a large courtyard, spiraling towers, and a keep the size of the Avant Gardens Monument- which shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given the scenery around it. From their position at the mouth of the tunnel, they could see clearly how the castle and village were in an open area in the center of a spectacular mountain range-

-Right where the Monument would be.

“So what’s the plan?” Axolc asked as they drove down the road. He had gotten bored of the silence after only a few minutes of driving, and previous conversation starters over the past hour had resulted in being scolded and told to pay attention to what he was doing. He, however, thought that the Sky Hunter practically drove itself, and required minimal attention to operate, so even as the driver he was perfectly capable of engaging with the passengers. The passengers, however, were not in the mood to engage with him.

“We go in, get the information, and get out,” Praxer sarcastically replied. “And no messing around.”

“Gosh Praxer, that’s ingenious! Why, I couldn’t think of a better plan myself! But could you be little more specific? Just a bit?”

Praxer turned to look at their mouthy driver. “You remember what we’re after, right? Knowledge. The way I see it, there is no one way to get what we’re after, so I’m thinking… maybe we should just make it up as we go. Besides, we don’t even know what we’ll find when we reach Jester territory. I vote we prepare for anything.”

“You have a valid point,” Reyna put in from the back seat. “However, we should still have a loose idea of what we’re going to do when we get there. No sense in being all dressed up with no place to go, right?”

Praxer nodded at Reyna’s logic, and thought for a moment. Then he snapped his fingers and said, “Of course!” and pulled something out of his pocket. From out of the corner of his eye, Axolc recognized it as the device Idagget had given them, and watched as Praxer turned it on.

“Hello, Idagget?” he called into the device. “Give me a run-down of how the Jesters run their society inside the tower.”

“I was wondering when you’d ask,” Idagget’s voice streamed through the communicator. “Would you like the long version, or the short?”

It was hard to tell on the communicator’s small screen, but by the looks of things, he was in an office chair and wearing a headset, and was speaking straight into whatever was sending them video feed. Even given their obscured visuals, they could still make out seventeen plus monitors and at least a dozen keyboards closely surrounding him, and there were probably several more out of the camera’s line of sight.

“Let’s shoot for medium,” Praxer replied.

“The Mosaic Jesters have a tier-based society, where the higher up you are, the higher up you live, literally. The lucky few get to live closest to the top of the tower, and as you travel down the living standard lowers and the population rises. The very highest levels of the tower are reserved for military and government officials, and the basements that used to be considered the rock bottom of society have long since been evacuated.”

“How are the levels of the tower connected?” Reyna asked.

“A system of elevators enables movement between levels; however, each citizen has an ID card, which is the only thing enabling use of the elevators beyond level three. Even after that, you can only go as far as your ID card allows you, according to your tier in society on its record.”

“How many working elevators are in the tower?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. Millions, certainly. Maybe more. But they are less common towards the top, since there isn’t as much space or need for them.”

“Any advice on how we should go in?”

“Well, the first three levels are accessible to everyone, so you should start there. But they won’t have anything you’re looking for, so if you want to get higher, you’ll have to find a way to sneak in without being noticed. Aim for the 8 or 9th levels; that’s about halfway up the tower. They are the lowest levels available for military and government access only. If you go higher than that, your chances of being caught will increase exponentially.”

“Okay…” Praxer said, taking it all in. “Are there any elevators that go straight up and down and touch every level with no interruptions?”

“Only one,” Idagget grimly replied. “And that one’s reserved for the ruler of the Jesters himself. Only he is allowed full access to the entire tower without having to switch elevators every 2-4 levels. The security protecting that shaft is as high as their security gets, even higher than any other elevator that goes that high. My advice: steer clear of it.”

Praxer considered calling that as a bluff, but decided against it. If security really was that bad, he’d be wishing he had taken Idagget’s advice real quick. “What about the Jesters themselves?”

“One word: Technology. They just love their gadgets and gizmos and whatnot. Even at the very bottom, you will see technology that makes the Bone Village seem like a gaggle of peasantries.”

“That’s hard to believe,” Praxer muttered under his breath. “Anything else we need to know?”

“Hold on, I’m tracking your position…” Idagget was furiously tapping at one of the keyboards on screen, “…There! Alright, given your current speed, you should reach the border crossing by nightfall. That will be your first challenge, and it is heavily fortified. If you cause a huge ruckus, they’ll send out an alert, and if you try to negotiate, they’ll just throw you out. So you’ll have to use more… subtle tactics.” He gave a wink. “Contact me again when you’re through, and I’ll give you a run-down on how to get inside the tower.”

Praxer nodded. “That will be all then. Prax out.”

And with that, he turned off the comlink. He turned to look at Reyna.

“What’s the plan once we’re inside the tower?” she asked pointedly.

“Well, what Idagget said about them loving technology gave me an idea,” Praxer replied. “I’m thinking that we should try to find their government’s local server, and hack into it. I’d be genuinely surprised if all the information we need isn’t in that main server. If things run smoothly, we’ll be in and out before they even know we’re there.”

His friends smiled and nodded. Now they had a plan for when they reached their destination. Easy as pie.

Of course, actually executing the plan would be much, much harder.