Iridescent: Chapter Twenty-Seven

Iridescent

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Game~

After the Fall

“You are getting on the bus,” Chaud’s voice was serious and strained.

Amber crossed her arms in front of him and scowled, “No!”

“Ouch,” Hina muttered over to the others.

Zara and the others sat at a table outside. They watched as Chaud and Amber had an intense argument. Chaud was telling his sister to go onto the bus with the others so they could be kept safe. However, Amber wasn’t having any of it. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted to help and keep an eye on her brother. The others stayed out of the sibling rivalry. It seemed obvious that they both inherited a strong will from their parents.

“You aren’t staying here,” Chaud pointed at his sister, “Once we finish up this little issue, I’ll come and get you and we’ll get off the Island.”

“Well, there is a little problem with that!” Amber stomped her foot on the found, “Because I’m not going!”

“Arrg!” Chaud groaned, “Why don’t you just listen! I’m older than you so just do what I say!”

Amber put her arms on her waist, “Oh, so you’re playing the age card now?”

“What? No!” Chaud looked at her, “Just do what I say! That is all I need you to do right now!”

“No!” Amber glared at her brother.

“Ooh,” Hina muttered, “Outright defiance! Neither side is willing to give in!”

Chaud put a hand on his forehead, “Okay, what can I do to get you to get on the bus?”

“Interesting,” Naru said, “He tries a very diplomatic negotiation. Let’s see how this turns out.”

“Nothing!” Amber yelled, “You aren’t getting me on that bus!”

“Denied!” Hina laughed. “That has to hurt his ego!”

Chaud crouched down to meet her eye to eye, “If you get on the bus, I will buy you whatever you want after all this is over for the rest of my life.”

“Bribery!” Hina exclaimed.

“Has he been forced to stoop so low?” Naru said.

Hina looked at her brother, “Are you kidding? I’m amazed that he didn’t try that first!”

“Usually he’s a lot less obvious about it,” Naru responded.

“True,” Hina agreed, “The question now is, will she accept?”

“I would,” Naru said quietly.

Hina nodded, “We all would.”

“I wouldn’t,” Zara said.

“Right,” Hina looked at her skeptically.

Amber narrowed her eyes, “I don’t want anything you offer! I am not leaving and you can’t make me!”

“She has a will of steel,” Naru stated.

“I would have done it,” Deontay said, “I could have gotten a private jet.”

“Private jet?” Hina shook her head, “On the first year I would have gone all out and asked for an awesome car!”

“I’ve always wanted one of those high-rise apartments,” Naru said.

Vicky shrugged, “I don’t really want anything. I’m happy with my apartment, my car, and am more than happy to travel commercial if I need to air travel. I’m pretty content right now. At least I was. Still. I’m very happy right now.”

Everyone looked at Vicky. She shifted awkwardly under everyone’s gaze. Kew was unsure about what was going on looked at all of her friends. Chaud and Amber continued their argument while the others continued their silent shunning. Vicky smiled sheepishly.

“I mean, I’ve always wanted a rock garden,” Vicky twiddled her thumbs, “It’s kind of expensive. Right?”

“Anyway,” Hina looked at the two siblings again.

“Fine!” Amber stormed off toward the bus, “I hate you!”

“Fine!” Chaud shouted back, “See if I care!”

Naru sighed, “It seems we missed something important.”

“Dang it!” Hina pouted, “Thanks a lot Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes!”

“Sorry,” Vicky said quietly. Kew kewed trying to defend Vicky from all the negative energy he was sensing.

Amber walked onto the bus pushing past Fang and Shadow. Fang rolled his eyes and sighed. He walked onto the bus with Shadow close behind. Shadow simply smiled and followed after Fang. The caravan started to drive away as Chaud stormed back in to the resort.

Zara got up and ran after him, “Chaud! Wait up!”

Chaud got to the door and turned around, “What!” He sighed and tried to get a handle on his anger and irritation, “Sorry, look, I’m just not in the mood to talk right now.”

Zara shrugged, “It’s alright. Just wanted to say that what you did was the right thing. She’ll understand when this all blows over.”

Chaud looked at Zara, “I know.”

Zara crossed her arms, “You still owe me that pizza.” She walked passed him into the resort, “Come on, I’m starving.”

Chaud couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

<<<>>> 

Dante yawned as he lay on the hood of a pickup truck. He put down the binoculars that he was using and stretched. Dante sighed. He then turned to look over the edge down at Ai. She sat with her arms around her legs by the front tires of the truck. Reassured that he knew where she was, he returned to his reclined position.

“So Ai,” Dante said, “how should we go about this?”

“So it’s true,” Ren said from the back of the truck, “Ai is the one who comes up with the battle plans.”

Dante looked over his shoulder, “Shut up.”

“What are they up to now?” Ai asked.

“Uh,” Dante looked into the binoculars again, “Looks like they know we’re here. They’re moving out.”

“Let me see,” Ai raised her hand for the binoculars. She brought the binoculars to her face and looked out. For a moment, Ai looked in them then handed them to Dante, “They aren’t leaving. They are just moving the civilians. Our target is still there at the resort.”

“He is?” Dante asked, “How do you know?”

“Is the girl with him?” Yin asked as she walked up, “They may keep her with the civilians to keep her out of harm’s way.”

“We don’t have to worry about that,” Ai said.

“They are keeping her at the resort?” Ren asked.

“I didn’t say that,” Ai stated.

“Then they are keeping her there,” Yin concluded.

“I never said that either,” Ai looked at the taller woman.

Yin bent down to eye level with Ai, “And what is that supposed to mean little princess?”

“Hey,” Dante looked at her out of the corner of his eye, “Leave her alone. We have more pressing matters.”

Yin looked at him, “More pressing matters? What could be more pressing than getting a hold of the girl! If this is about your bruised ego and that boy then you’ve forgotten why we were hired in the first place!”

“Hey!” Dante sat up, “I’d like to tell you Ai and I have figured things out!”

“Wonderful!” Yin said with sarcasm, “Care to share?”

“It ain’t any of your business!” Dante said, “We’ll get the girl! You just need to worry about sticking to the plan!”

“What is going on!?” Zathura walked up, hands on her hips, “You two are making enough noise to wake up the dead! Or worse give away our specific location!”

“Just a disagreement on tactics,” Yin stated.

“A tiff?!” Zathura shook her head, “You both were about ready to rip each other’s heads off!”

“How about we all calm down?” Sanya walked up. “Let’s just go over the plan that we have, okay?”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Dante and Yin reluctantly agreed. Dante looked down at Ai, “You want to start princess?”

“We need everyone to be a distraction while Dante and I go after the target,” Ai looked at Yin to see if she was going to interrupt. Though it looked like she wanted to, Yin didn’t say a word. Ai continued, “First we are at a disadvantage since we have to cross a large area with limited to no cover. They will see us before we see them and will likely go for an overwhelming assault. Just try to get to the resort as quickly as possible. Once we get there, the odds will even out. Fortunately there are only going to be about 15 people we need to fight. The civilians were moved like we predicted. Unfortunately, the ones that are left are Others and will likely use Blue Gold.”

“So we’ll have to deal with some new powers,” Ren smiled, “That sounds like a grand time.”

Ai continued, “I’m not sure how many vials they have but I assume that they have two per person. Better to overestimate than underestimate.”

“As we learned on the Panama mission,” Zathura muttered.

Dante looked at her, “I thought it was agreed we never ever talk about the mission at Panama.

“Sorry,” Zathura said quietly, “keep your trousers on.”

Ai sighed, “When we get to the resort, it is everyone’s job to keep everyone busy and distracted while Dante and I finish off the mission. Once Dante and I finish, we will give the signal. At that point, everyone retreats. We’ll meet again at the designated location three days from now. Same thing if we were to fail. Once you see the signal, scatter and regroup. For now, get some rest, we attack early tomorrow when the sun is at our backs.”

“Her highness has spoken!” Ren said over dramatically.

“And what she says goes!” Sanya smiled.

Zathura shrugged and turned around, “I wonder if Dante and Ai really come up with the plans together. I get this vibe that she makes things up on the spot.”

Yin followed her, “I happen to agree.”

“Hey!” Dante called, “It’s a joint effort! I contribute to the plans! I’m not as stupid as everyone would like to believe!”

Ai said nothing but she nodded. She stood up and brought the binoculars to her face. Ai looked out at the resort ahead of them. She stayed like that for several moments before slowly putting down the binoculars.

“I’m getting rather tired of this game,” she said to no one in particular, “I think it’s time we put it to an end. Let’s see who is going to win this little game.”

The Turn: Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Turn

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Three Points~

Two Years Before The Turn

The driver walked off a plane on an airstrip. The driver looked around with indifferent eyes. In the distance was a large facility in the middle of the jungle. There were dirt roads that weaved to and from the facility. The driver straightened out his suit and walked to a limo that was barked nearby.

Other men dressed in black opened the door for him, “Is Master Scar with you today?”

“No,” the driver smiled, “not today. He had a prior engagement.”

The man let Scar inside. The limo drove to the facility and parked. The driver and the other men stepped out and walked to the front door. They walked in to a waiting room. The receptionist looked up at them with bored-to-death eyes and sighed. She pressed a button and the back wall opened.

The group walked onto a metal ledge. Below was an enormous aircraft similar to any fictional space mother ship. People were all over it with tools in hand. The driver looked over everything briefly and smiled.

“What is your status?” the driver asked.

“Nearly complete, sir,” one of the men answered.

“Good,” the driver walked along the edge of the wall, “The New Order will be able to come into being without too much trouble it seems.”

“Very good, indeed, sir,” the men answered.

They walked down some stairs and into a room. There were several people present typing away at computers. The driver looked behind him at the others.

“Are you getting supplies all right?” he asked.

One of the men nodded and answered, “There hasn’t been any issue.”

The driver narrowed his eyes, “Then why is that phantom Tower involved in our mission?”

The man had no answer.

The driver looked at one of the computers, “I say it’s time that they learn their place,” he muttered to himself.

“What was that, sir?”

“Nothing,” the driver walked out of the room, “When do you think that the Metamor will be ready?”

“With in the month, sir,” can an answer.

The driver smiled, “I’ll report all of this to Scar. I’m glad with the—I mean—I’m sure the master will be very pleased.”

“We are glad to be able to serve the New Order.”

The driver looked at them, “Let’s hope it stays that way. I’d hate for something unfortunate to happen to any one of you. Accidents happen.”

His eyes fell on a red haired man. The driver smiled and the man shifted with unease.  The driver left the room and the others followed. As they walked something fell from above falling on the man with red hair. The others jumped out of the way. The man with red hair lay dead on the floor, a concrete block dropped on his head. The driver looked up, a silhouette of a man walking away from the edge of an industrial catwalk. The other men looked around wondering how something like that could happen. The driver shrugged it off.

“Accidents happen,” he said and walked away from the mess.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” one of the men asked.

The driver stopped and turned, “I’m the driver not the maid.”

IOIOIOIOI

Zara sighed, “So what do you plan to do?”

Chaud leaned against a wall and shrugged, “I need time to think about it.”

“Alright,” Zara was quiet for a moment.

Chaud could sense her hitting a mental wall. He filed through the archive of his mind and tried to connect the dots on how to get them out of the situation they were in. It wasn’t going to be easy outsmarting a Black team.

“Naru said something about a secret project on an island, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, so?” Zara looked annoyed.

“Well, the Tower doesn’t know anything about it right? So I say he high tail it over there before Fang and his team figure out we’re here.”

“Oh and I guess next you’ll suggest that we call the local cab company and they won’t notice,” the sarcasm in her voice was thick.

“I didn’t say I was done,” Chaud stuck out his tongue, “Besides everyone knows you can’t get to an island by cab! Seriously! I was thinking bigger.”

“Bigger?” Zara questioned.

“Yeah…like Boeing bigger.

Zara shook her head, “We’re going to fly there by air?”

“Kinda,” Chaud rubbed the back of his head, “more like try to steal it.”

IOIOIOIOI

Fang found a decent looking hotel. As usual, he had a room to himself and the others were split in two other rooms. He sat looking at the files of all the members of Zara’s team. Fang had a good grasp on each of their personalities and had almost figured out their most likely course of action. After reading several of their mission reports, he had a deep look in their tactics.

There was a knock on the door and Shadow walked in. Fang gave him barely any notice as Shadow looked over Fang’s shoulder.

“Penelope has those plans you wanted. She’s started trying to track down Chaud’s friend on the inside.”

“That’s good,” Fang stated as he closed and stacked all the folders.

“So what is our game plan?” Shadow asked, “Are we going to smoke them out? Go in guns blazing? Level the entire city? What?”

“We have to find them first,” Fang glared at him, “Then I think we’ll wait until Chaud makes his move.”

“And that move would be…” Shadow looked slightly disappointed.

“I don’t know,” Fang stated.

Shadow crossed his arms, “Are you having another panic attack like when Arisa got kidnapped? If you are, you are actually taking it very well.”

Fang pointed at the folders, “They are actually very…unpredictable. I figured the best course of action is to let them make the first move and counter them. Then we back them into a corner.”

“I don’t know,” Shadow bravely stated, “I feel like they would fight back harder in a back-against-the-wall situation.”

Fang narrowed his eyes.

“You really need to stop that,” Shadow said as he walked out, “You’re at the age when you can start to get wrinkles.”

As Shadow closed the door, Fang couldn’t shake the urge to strangle the man. Instead, however, he sighed and called Shadow back. Shadow poked his head from behind the door.

“You called?” his eyes had a mischievous sparkle in them.

Fang handed him the piles of folders, “Read through these tonight.”

Shadow looked at the stack, “All of them?”

Fang sighed with annoyance. Shadow grabbed the folders and looked down at them.

“Really, though,” Shadow fingered through a folder, “there are, like, a trillion pages here.”

“Is that a problem?” Fang looked at him, “I was under the impression that you were educated enough to read.”

Shadow shrugged, “What if I said I never made it past third grade English?”

“You’re reading it anyway,” Fang growled.

Shadow took that as his cue to leave, “Fine, fine.”

Fang walked into the bathroom as Shadow closed the room to his door. He leaned against the sink and paused a moment. Fang looked up at the mirror. His eye caught sight of a hair that was white at the root but otherwise was black. He wasn’t getting any younger and the others weren’t helping things.

At that moment there was a loud pop came from the men’s hotel room. The sprinklers turned on and the fire alarm blared. Alister was screaming that it wasn’t his fault. Fang looked up at the pouring water and wondered when he would ever catch a break.

Insanity Chapter Twenty-Seven

Insanity

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~Code Red 4-296~

Day Twenty-Three

A brown delivery truck drove up to the tower walk way. One of the guards in a business suit walked up to the van. The driver rolled down the passenger window.

“Hey, were do I put these things? There are quite a few of them,” the man’s hair was blond and his eyes were blue.

His uniform was brown like the truck; a brown hat, brown shirt and pants, even his shoes were brown. He smiled at the guard as he waited for his answer. The guard took in his appearance.

“I haven’t seen you here before,” the guard said.

“New on the job!” the man said.

“We didn’t hear about any changes in your department,” the guard looked at the others that looked like him.

They started walking over but their approach didn’t faze the young man.

“Oh yeah, I was supposed to come next week but Jim, the usual, got sick and no one else in the department could fill in so here I am,” he smiled again.

By now three other guards stood at the window. The one asking the questions looked at the others around him. He nodded and they went to the back of the van.

“If you don’t mind, we’d like to take a look,” the guard said.

“Oh, no problem! Let me get out and help,” the young man said.

The guard raised his hand to stop the man, “That won’t be necessary.”

One of the other guards opened the back. There were stacks of boxes. They were normal in size and shape. The guards stepped in and had a closer look around. When they weren’t watching the young driver rolled his eyes in annoyance. He put on that carefree smile again and looked out the window.

“There isn’t a problem is there?” he said.

The guards had one more look over before they started to exit the van. One of the guards kicked a box as he exited. A muffled ‘ow’ escaped the box. None of his other colleagues heard it but he stooped to get a closer look at the talking box.

The driver saw what had happened through his rear view mirror that looked into the back of his truck.

“Those talking dolls. They scare the crap out of me, you know,” he said playfully.

“Yeah,” the guard said, “They do.”

“Come on,” said another guard, “We have better things to do.”

The guard nodded and forgot about the talking box. The guards closed the doors and told the young smiling driver where to go.

“Suckers,” he said as he drove off.

He drove to the side of the building where it descended to an underground parking lot where the electricians and the like park. The young driver parked and stopped the car. He had made sure to park in a darkened area near the stairs. The parking lot was empty as he got out of the driver seat and walked to the back. He opened the door and kicked the talking box.

“Owwww!” it said.

“Oh, good grief! Fang do you realize how close we all were to having the Tower’s wrath on our backs!” the driver said.

There was a ripping sound from another one of the boxes. A knife poked up from the inside and cut down the center line. When it was cut, Fang stood up and stretched. He looked at the talking box and sighed.

“She can blow through a boat but a kick makes her almost cry,” he muttered.

“I almost let my guard down!” the driver said.

“It’s a good thing you didn’t, Shifter,” Fang stepped out of the box, “Where are the cameras?”

“Not to worry,” Penelope popped out of a box with her laptop, “Their having technical difficulties.”

“All right,” Fang nodded, “Everybody out!”

One by one, the Wolves stepped out of their cramped spaces and out of the van. They walked toward the stairs. Fang was about to join them.

“Hey, what about my seven-thousand?” Shifter asked.

Fang paused, “I’ll give it to you when we get back.”

“But you promised!”

“The banks can’t withdraw that much money in such short a notice,” Fang looked back, “That and consider it pay back. I don’t take kindly to people who think their smarter than me.”

He turned and walked away into the building. Shifter sighed, looked like Fang got the last laugh on this one. Defeated, he closed the truck and drove away.

In the stairwell, Penelope passed out fake ID’s. They reached the ground floor but the door was locked. Penelope pulled out a contraption and connected it. Numbers scrolled across it until it found the code and opened the door.

They casually walked into the lobby. Penelope held her laptop underneath her arm and glanced at it so often.

“Don’t we need to get back underground?” Alister asked.

“Yeah, but the only way we can do that is by going in to the center of the building then down,” Penelope muttered.

The inside of the Tower was amazing. Clear glass elevators brought you to your destination, the floors looked like they were waxed daily, each step of the stairs had the Tower logo on it and the floors reached as far up as the eye could see.

I’d hate to fall from up there.

“Yeah,” Arisa whispered.

“And to think, that isn’t even the top floor,” Penelope pushed her glasses up her nose, “Come on, I think we go this way. Try to look like we know where were going.”

They followed the girl up a flight of stairs and down a hallway. They passed rooms upon rooms almost the size of their house. The rooms were either filled with scientists bending over their microscopes or with engineers testing the newest weaponry they had just invented.

Fang was well aware of the envious comments of the others as they looked at the different technologies, uniforms and gadgets but he chose to completely ignore them. They had stopped in a hallway while Penelope tried to interpret the map she found. Apparently, there was supposed to be a door where there was actually a wall. He looked around and caught eye of a man talking with a few scientists. The man shook his head slightly as he interpreted what the scientists were saying.

“We could always just ask for directions,” Raven said, “I mean there are a billion people here and I doubt that every single one knows where they are going. We could say we’re new and don’t have a clue where we’re going.”

“And that’s why we need to find a janitor closet?” Alister shook his head, “That makes no sense. We can find it, it’s gotta be ‘round ‘ere somewhere.”

“We’re on a limited time frame,” Penelope said, “the cameras will start working any minute from now.”

“What are with men and asking for directions?” Arisa sighed.

I ask for directions.

“I know, Blue,” Arisa amended, “I mean every guy except you.”

“What about me?” Shadow asked.

“What about you?” Raven said.

Fang walked down the hallway over to the man. The man had short white blond hair. His blue eyes shined like azurites. He wore casual clothes; a white t-shirt, black jeans and open toes shoes. Around his neck was a silver necklace that held a star like pendant attached. The man looked young but Fang could tell that he was even older than Undertaker (however old he was). He smiled as the scientists as they left. His azure eyes caught sight of Fang and he turned and smiled at him.

“I haven’t seen you yet,” the man smiled, “What’s your name?”

Fang said nothing at first, “It isn’t that important, you’ll forget it later anyway. Do you know if there is a cleaning room around here?”

The man looked confused. He was slightly taller than Fang but not tall enough for one to seemingly overpower the other.

“There was a spill in one of the rooms here, a big sticky mess,” Fang lied, “That’s why we don’t bring sodas in here, right?”

The man looked like he didn’t at all believe Fang’s story. His eyes looked past Fang and to the others behind him. He looked at Fang again and smiled.

“Let’s start again,” the man said, “I’m Sage Tariq. What’s your name?”

Fang paused a little too long, “Oliver Fai.”

“Well, we’ll just have to assume that that isn’t your real name but alright I’ll play along,” the man’s eyes danced, “So what do you need, Oliver Fai?”

“Directions to the cleaning supplies,” Fang said.

Sage looked past Fang again, “Why do you need to go to the cleaning room?” he asked them.

They looked confused and Fang had to fight the urge to yell at them. The man nodded and looked at Fang again.

“So now I know that’s a lie too,” he said with a smile, “I’ll give you directions.”

“You will?” Fang asked.

“Yes, then after five minutes I’ll notify the every agent in this building to deal with you. Left, down the hallway, third door on your right. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a ray gun to inspect.”

Sage walked past Fang and the others. The others stared after him as Fang walked up.

“Come on! What are you guys waiting for? An engraved invitation?” Fang said, “Let’s go!”

He led them down the hallway toward the supply room. Penelope went in and found the wires she was looking for. Alister looked at Raven.

“This is why we men don’t ask for directions!” he yelled.

I ask for directions!

“We know Blue,” Shadow said, “We know.”

Suddenly the hallways were bathed in a red color and a woman's voice sounded over the intercom.

“Attention, we are going into lock down. Please remain where you are. Agents requested at section 45. This is code red 4-296. Thank you.”

“Penelope what did you do?!” Arisa shouted.

“I didn’t do anything!” she defended herself.

“What do you need to get done?!” Fang said.

“I needed to kill the camera’s again!”

“Then kill them and let’s get out of here!”

“But I also need to find the way to the hangers!”

“We’ll find our own way!”

With that they ran down hallway after hallway. Eventually, they reached a glass walkway that hung above several floors of the Tower. Fang looked down. This wasn’t where they were supposed to be.

“There they are!” three people stood on the walkway in front of them

“We got ‘em,” another three people said from behind them.

Fang thought. They needed to go down right? Fang brought out his gun and shot at the walkway. Their part fell through sending them falling from several stories. On the ground floor, Fang landed on his feet. Everyone else stumbled.

“You sure you’re a wolf Fang? I could swear you have some cat or panther in you somewhere,” Shadow commented.

“Shut up!” Fang said and started running deeper into the building.

Shadow looked behind him; they were starting to become surrounded with Agents.

I told you I’d hate to fall from that high.

“We know Blue,” Arisa patted his head as he carried her on his back, “We know.”

They ran after Fang. He had no idea where he was going and how to get there. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he felt his mind begin to wander.