Part Two “Problematic Circumstances”

Talon slowly opened his eyes. He was weary and dizzy. “What… wh-where?” He slowly turned his head and pushed himself upward to get a better look at his surroundings. He was in a metal room… with a locked door… one light… and one bed… a cell? He was in prison?

“How did I get here?!” Talon jerked to his feet and yanked at the door handle; obviously it would not open, but why not try anyway?

“Wait a second…” Nick closed his eyes and concentrated on what happened before this. “There was the… fire… then I was taken by the cops! Th-then…they were… asking me questions… and one of them drove me… drove me away… w-we… went towards the mountains… and I was… knocked out?”

“GREAT!” Talon fumed. “So I’m trapped in some milita- !...” And then an idea came to Talon. “I-… Is this Arma-9?” There were no signs of any sort inside the cell that indicated it was Arma-9. Maybe it was a simple prison, or an abandoned one even. Talon needed to investigate. But how would he do that while trapped in the room?

He checked his pockets. His phone was gone, but not the metal covering. “I guess now’s as good a time as any.” Nick slowly pulled the metal away, which was no easy task. When he had finished, inside was a finger, coated in the alien-goop. The finger had not rotted yet, most-likely because of the goop. “Okay… now what?”

Meanwhile at Kal’s house…

It was now Four-o-clock. Jesse had been to the police station, where they said that Nick was transferred, then when that did not work he went to Kal’s house. Jesse had just arrived at Kal’s house and was explaining what he saw just an hour before. “Then I came here! Any ideas?” Jesse asked stressfully.

Kal did not reply. Instead she rushed over to her computer and started typing. “What are you doing?” Jesse questioned.

“I’m going to try and track his phone.” Kal replied quickly.

“Good thinking. How long do you think that’ll take?”

“A few minutes max. And I need to concentrate.”

“Right, sorry.” Jesse stood completely still, though he looked as if he was about to burst. His best friend was in trouble, and while the police are meant to protect, Jesse got the feeling that someone was up to something shady. The stress was annoying him so much that his face almost turned red. Thankfully Kal was soon finished tracking.

“He’s in… there’s no info about this location.” Kal pointed to the screen. The dot was at what appeared to be woods, but no other information was given.

“Can you get us directions there?” Jesse suggested.

“Maybe… if I type in my home address… there!” The screen zoomed out and made a large line from the wood area straight to Kal’s house. The problem however was that going straight through meant going through buildings, and hills, which Kal and Jesse were not willing to drive or walk over.

“… Maybe you could find a nearby road and make a path to that?” Jesse suggested again. Kal looked around and eventually found a road about two miles from the dotted-location. “That’s the best we’ll get.” She said. The feline clicked on the road, and a route appeared.

“I’ll print up the directions.” Kal informed. “Can you get my keys?”

“Way ah-“ Jesse stopped as soon as Kal’s father walked up. “H-hey Mr. Siets!” He greeted nervously.

Kal’s father seemed a bit suspicious of their actions. “And what are you two up to?”

“Uh… looking for Talon’s phone.” Kal answered. “He lost hi- it, and we wanted to help find it again.”

“Alright. Well if you’re going to drive, I could take you.”

“That’s alright, Dad.” Kal pulled out the printed directions, kissed her dad on the cheek then walked out.

“Uh… bye Mr. Siets.” Jesse waved. He chased after Kal, they got the keys, then they drove off.

After around half an hour of driving in traffic, they made it to the location. Kal parked her convertible in a sand-lot, and made sure her car was alright before continuing through the woods.

“Come ON!” Jesse yelled, pausing from his run briefly.

“It’s a new car!” Kal yelled back. She gave the wheel-housing a quick check, then followed Jesse into the woods… then ran back and got her bag, and ran to Jesse again.

“Which direction?” Jesse called back. Kal paused for a moment, remembered that she left the map in the car, ran back to the car, grabbed it, ran back to Jesse, and answered plainly “East.”

“Alright.” So they went East. The turns were a bit difficult with the many trees, some of which actually blocked their path, forcing the two mobians to climb over to continue. Thankfully they did not lose their bearings as there was a compos-option on Jesse’s phone.

When they had neared what they assumed was the correct location, Jesse and Kal began to look around for anything that might give off the base’s location. As they searched, Jesse assumed it was as good a time as any to ask “Shouldn’t we tell the cops?”

To this Kal scowled and replied “Why? They’re the ones who did this! You saw them take away yourself!”

“Well… okay then shouldn’t we tell his parents?” Jesse rephrased.

“What would they d- wait! I know what they’d do.” Kal walked up a bit closer and continued to say sternly, “They’d tell us to leave it to them, then they’d tell the police to let their son go, and if that didn’t work, they’d try to go to the government, but who took Talon? The police, and I doubt if Arma-9 is involved there’s no chance the government is either. They’d take us, our families, and maybe some friends. Talon got taken because he found something, and we need to get him back.”

“… You were waiting to say that all this time, weren’t you?” Jesse guessed, backing away from the flustered female a bit.

“You better believe it, now come on!” Kal ran around the area looking behind any and every tree, while Jesse decided to stand there and look around. As he did he noticed a large hole in one of the lower parts of a specific tree. He walked over and reached through the hole. He could not fine the end. Jesse attempted to stick himself through, but he was too big.

“Hey you got a flashlight?” He called over. Kal walked up and shined her phone in the hole. About five feet down was a wooden end to the hole.

“Weird but not an entrance.” She guessed before moving on. Jesse was not convinced. He looked around till he found a rock, then he picked it up and dropped it into the hole. The rock moved through the wooden cover and out of sight. “It’s a hologram…” Jesse wondered if the tree could be moved. He crouched down then began to push it as hard as he could. He needed more pressure.

“HEY! HELP ME MOVE IT!” He strained to yell to Kal.

“Are you serio- oh fine.” Kal ran over and helped Jesse to push the tree back. Sadly they could not. “It *pant* has a hologram in the hole, making it look like it has an end.” Jesse informed. “There has to be a way into this tree.”

Jesse continued to push, but Kal gave up. Instead she began to dig near the tree, looking for any roots. When she found the roots they looked wooden, but as she pulled them out she found out that they were actually wires. “Cool.” Kal continued to pull out of the “roots” until she could not find anymore. “Alright. Move out of the way.” Kal ordered as she backed up from the tree.

“What are you going to do? Ram it?” Jesse chuckled a bit as he moved to the side.

“Yes.” Said Kal, blankly and sternly. She dashed across the ground then leaped upward and slammed her entire body-force into the tree. The impact knocked it back a bit, but not enough.

“Let me try.” Jesse took a few more steps back than Kal did, charged forward and slammed the tree to the ground, revealing a large door.

“Wow…” was Kal’s only syllable. Jesse on the other hand skipped dialogue and decided to open up the door, which was no longer locked due to its wires being pulled out.

As soon as the door was opened, a bright set of bulbs lit up below, revealing a thin elevator. “… Well come on!” Kal ordered as she jumped inside. Jesse followed and soon they were thirty stories down.

Jesse decided once again for another question while still inside the slowly falling container. “So” he began, “you think there’s gonna be a bunch of guards waiting to kill us?”

“Well…” Kal opened her bag and began to search through it.

Jesse scoffed humorously, “What, you’ve got some gun, or saw of some sort in there? Like in the-“

Kal pulled out a pencil-length metallic stick with a circular arch over it, and a sharp end from her bag. To this Jesse went “Wow… didn’t know we were in a spy movie… but seriously Where did you get that??”

“Got it from my dad’s workshop.”

“… And it does what?”

“It cuts through metal with a laser-blade.” And with that brief description, Kal began to cut a hole in the roof. Little sparks flew around, some of which hit Jesse in the face, making him go “ouch… ouch… ouc- OW!” for a while, then finally a circular hole, about four feet wide in radius was finished.

“And that accomplished…” Jesse urged, hands circling towards Kal.

“We,” She started, “get up there, THEN, when the guards, or whoever, come to inspect the elevator, we attack them.”

“… We just… attack them… And if they aren’t beaten by the Element of Surprise?”

“Well it’s not like I could have thought of everything!” Kal crossed her arms with a miffed look. “It’s not every day I end up going down secret elevators, risking my life by breaking into government bases!”

*Ding* The door opened. Two guards, wearing nothing protective aside from shoulder-straps, stood at the sides of the doors, and immediately turned around to look inside the elevator. Jesse and Kal slammed against the walls as not to be seen, even though they were obviously heard, and waited till one of the guards walked inside, gun in hand, before they simultaneously slammed into his side.

Before the guard could react, Kal yanked the gun he held from him, ducked underneath and shot a bullet at the other guard from between the first one’s legs. The bullet missed so Jesse decided to do something; this something was putting his back to the back wall of the elevator, and then charging into the first guard, causing that guard to fall on the second, and punching him repeatedly until he was unconscious and then some.

He was only stopped when Kal grabbed him by the arm and yelled “ALRIGHT! Enough! Don’t break his jaw!” She did not wait for a reply and quickly began running off. Jesse on the other hand decided to hide the guards in the elevator. Kal did not notice this though, and was soon alone.

He noticed the metallic circle that was left over from the ceiling of the elevator. “That was a waste.” He scoffed. “Still…” Jesse picked up the metal plate. It was heavy enough, and fairly dense. “Good for protecting.”

Jesse ran in the direction he assumed Kal went, having thought she was with him the entire time, and after much walking found himself inside one of the only unlocked rooms he could find. It appeared to be an office, and an occupied one at that based on the *chk-chk* sound from behind his head.

Jesse did not know how close the gun was, or the person holding it, but assumed they were both close, and decided to punch behind him at full speed. The gun fired… and the bullet was punched off of Jesse’s knuckles. A pale blue spark went off from the point of impact, and both the man who fired the gun and Jesse were stunned.

But first thing’s first *sock* *pow* *smash* and the man was knocked out. “And without the metal plate.” Jesse gleefully said to himself as he admired his bullet-deflecting fist. Jesse eventually stopped gazing at his hand and decided to look through the files in the drawers for any information.

Most of the cabinets were locked unfortunately. The ones that were not were either empty or had a bunch of random numbers that Jesse knew nothing about. “Where’s the key…” Jesse rubbed his hand around the desk, feeling for any false bottom or taped-on key. Nothing. So he checked the knocked out man, who turned out had a key in his pocket.

Jesse was able to open a bit more of the cabinets. One contained bills, one contained records of various devices that were purchased and/or built, and another contained schematics of the base. “This could be useful.” Jesse looked for the latest recorded date on the schematics, rolled it up, then ran out.

Meanwhile…

Kal was completely lost. These hallways contained nothing but office-rooms, which she was not interested in. “There has to be another elevator somewhere…” A good ten minutes later she did find an elevator, though Kal did feel a bit confused as to why she had not seen any other guards then those who found her and Jesse. “Probably all in the lower levels… where the good stuff is.”

Kal examined the elevator, and quickly noticed… a keypad. “Great!” She scoffed. “Passwords!” After giving it a good glance she did notice however that it had no enter key. “All I have to do is punch at random. It should open eventually.” And so she did.

After eight numbers were pressed, an alarm went off. “Ugh! Stupid!” Kal looked around and pulled out her personal taser in case she was attacked. She did not have to wait long, as seven armed guards appeared from previously hidden elevators. “Oh… not… good.”

Kal did not waste time surrendering, instead she quickly pressed herself to one of the walls of the hallway, then began banking herself from wall to wall as she dashed towards the guards, hoping to keep them from getting a good shot with their weapons.

*ZZZZZZZZZZZZP-PEW!* bullets knocked off the metal walls at least ten times, terrifying both the guards and Kal. She jumped up to the face of one of the guards, grabbed his head then flipped him over and used him as cover. The other guards shot at her at first, but were stopped when the wild shots hit them instead.

The guard Kal had used as a shield reached behind and grabbed, then twisted, her wrist. Kal was sent into a semi-wail semi-scream of pain from the sudden attack and fell backward, kicking the guard as she went. Thankfully he let go before completely breaking her wrist, but she would not be using it for a good hour or so.

The guard turned around and aimed his gun at Kal. She did not have time to react, and could almost feel the gunshots penetrating her heart. But then the guard turned upward, and short above her head. “What?” Kal turned around and saw Jesse holding up the metal plate as a shield while running towards the guard, deflecting the incoming bullets.

“GET DOWN!” He yelled. Kal wanted to roll her eyes seeing how she was already down on the ground, but controlled herself, partially because she was a bit preoccupied with the stinging in her arm.

The bullet began bouncing close to Kal, too close. She rolled to the side just as Jesse rammed into the guard, and held him up to the elevator door, where he began to jab him repeatedly in the stomach, then head-butt him with the metal plate till the guard eventually passed out.

Panting a bit, Jesse dropped the guard and turned to Kal. “Are you shot?”

“No… got my wrist twisted though.” She replied. Jesse helped her up, and was partially thinking it would be a good time for a romantic-attempt, but Kal did not. She walked past him, giving a brief “Thanks.” And continued to punch away at the elevator’s key-pad.

Jesse stood still for a while, tapping his foot impatiently. After a minute of *beep beep beep-beep, beep-beep* he ran out of patience. She walked over and motioned for Kal to move out of the way. She did reluctantly, then Kal picked up one of the guard’s guns and shot the key-pad.

*ding* the elevator opened. Jesse shot Kal a smirk then walked inside.

“Y’know I’m not even surprised.” Kal muttered, following. “So which floor should we start with?”

“Uh…” Jesse pulled out the schematics and looked through the titles of what each floor was classified as. Kal and he scanned through until they found one that said “Hellborn-3-Containment”

“Oh great! A third degree demon!” Kal groaned.

“Well maybe it’s the alien.” Jesse shrugged.

“And what makes you think that? It doesn’t say alien, and nothing about it sounds like how Jesse described he- it”

“Well why not check?”

“Uh, maybe because our best friend is locked up here, and we’ve got maybe three hours till our parents start worrying.” Kal scoffed. “And I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m only here for Talon, not some killer alien.”

“Wait… you’re NOT interested in saving her?”

“No I’m not interested in ‘saving’ IT! I was psyched up at first, sure, but now I’m not. We’re way over our heads. Come to think of it, if we weren’t trying to go save some alien that may or may not kill us seeing how we know NOTHING about it, Talon wouldn’t be kidnapped right now!”

“Fine! Alright.” Jesse flailed his arms a bit trying to express how he wanted the topic to end. “We’ll get Talon and get out of here!”

Kal kept silent and went back to looking through the schematics. “There.” She pointed to a line of rooms under the title “Unclassified containment.”

“Okay, floor… twelve.” Jesse pressed the button for the twelfth floor and they were off.

Meanwhile with Talon…

After about two hours of trying to escape Talon was becoming extremely agitated. Not to mention he was now extremely itchy around his scalp, which he scratched quite often regardless of the goop lingering in his fingerclaw/nails. Thankfully for him, instead of falling into insanity from boredom, he fell into sleep… from boredom. And while he would not figure this out until later, the goop which he got on his head from his fingers was now connecting with his brain. His first dream was a strange one.

As he “dreamed” he was at first simply in darkness, but eventually he began to hear a sort of panting sound… it got louder after a while and appeared to be a girl’s. It sounded stressed as if she was losing air or something. “What IS that?” He questioned.

“What?!” A female voice yelled. This shocked Talon, making him decide to keep quiet for a good minute till he thought it might be safe to speak again. “Hello?” He asked calmly.

“… Who is talking to me?” The voice asked again. Surprisingly Talon noticed that it sounded exactly like the alien-girl’s… well at least he thought it did. All she said was “hi” after all. It was not much to go on.

“Are you… the alien person who crash-landed?” Talon questioned.

“… How are you talking to me?” She replied, without answering.

“I… don’t know. Could you answer the question? I don’t know how I’m talking to you, I fell asleep and this happened.”

“… Yes I am… you’re the hedgehog I met aren’t you?”

“Uh yeah, I am… wait did you probe me or so-“

“You’ve seen too many Alien movies.”

“You know what movies are?”

“Let’s just say I’m more of a monster than an alien. Is this planet called ‘Mobius’ by any chance?”

“… Yes. How did you know that?”

“I’ll explain once I’m not getting turned back into black soup… Are you near?”

“I think so. I’m stuck in a cell though… with a finger.”

“Oh you found it.” Talon could not be sure but it almost sounded as if she chuckled a little at the end there. “Well why not use it to open the door?”

“It’s… not that type of door.” Talon debated waking up and seeing if he could use the finger to unlock the door, but that would risk losing the connection. Probably had to do with how much his brain paid attention to the connection and the real world.

“Then we’re both dead… *sigh* great. I’m finally my own self and this happens… story of my life.”

“This happens?”

“Not your problem, and not saying… mainly for suspense.”

“Are you serious?! Suspense?”

“Does it really matter? It doesn’t help to get us out. Do you have ANY idea how to get out?”

“Well… I have some friends who might be looking for me.”

“Okay…” She did not sound convinced.

“Can YOU see anything where you are to help me find you when I DO get out?”

“Uh… I’m in room… fifty-o- wow. That’s a hilarious number if I ever saw one.”

“Tick tock!”

“Right right. Area- I mean ROOM Fifty-one in… Hellborn-3-Containment.”

“What is your… uh… room like?”

“I’m in a capsule, all Shadow-like styl-“

“How do yo-“

The girl cut Talon off “And there’s a bunch of desk people around. Mr. Wolf dude is observing me like a creeper, and it’s dark. The glass seems really strong, so does the door. There’s about seven guards, all armed, and two of them in front of the door.”

“Are there any fire-hazard-sprinklers?”

“Is that really what they’re called?”

“Yes or no!?”

“Uh… Yes there are. Heh. That’s funny.”

“Okay; when I get out I’ll come find you.”

“… Why are you doing this exactly? I’m not a good person, I mean, I’m REALLY not a good person. What if I like… chopped your head off once I was free?”

Talon paused; she was right. She might very well be some psychopath. Still though, “You didn’t when we first met.”

“True.”

“Aside from that we’ll just have to see.”

“… You’re going to risk having me let loose on this planet?”

“Well how powerful are you?”

“Very.”

“And yet you still got captured?”

“M-minor setback. Well, I’m waiting Knight-in-shining-armor. And… uh… thanks…”

Talon was going to say something else but he was awoken by *EREEEEEEEEEO- EREEEEEEEEEEO* an alarm, which was followed by the door blowing open from gunfire.

Nick jerked back in surprised, and admittedly a bit of fear. He was speechless when he saw Jesse walk inside holding a large high-tech gun.

“Hey.” Jesse waved, maintaining his dramatic composure. Kal however said forget that. She dove over crushing Nick in a large hug, then immediately checked for any wounds.

“The only part hurting is are the parts your pushing.” Talon informed.

“Right, sorry.” Kal let go. “What happened?”

“I have no idea.” Talon sighed. “Guess they didn’t want us snooping.”

“… Wouldn’t that count as having an idea?” Jesse noted.

“Anyway” Kal ignored, “the guards should be here any second, we’ve gotta go now!” She yanked Nick up and dragged him out of the cell.

“But what about the alien girl?” Talon reminded.

“We’ve gotten in enough trouble!” Kal replied angrily. “And this isn’t our business! C’mon!” She kept tugging at Talon, but he stood firm.

“No,” he said sternly, “we are going after her. Besides from what I’ve seen she’s powerful, really powerful.”

“All the more reason to leave her- it-“

“HER!” Jesse overruled,

“WHATEVER!-behind!”

Both Talon and Jesse stood silent, with Jesse simply holding back a chuckle at how strange the statement sounded.

“Leave her behind! Not actu- She could kill us!” Kal fumed.

“Or get us out.” Talon noted. “Think about it, how are WE going to get out of here alive?”

“… He’s got a poi-“

“Shut it.” Kal hissed. “… Fine! We might have found where they have her-“

“Hellborn-3-Containment, right?” Talon guessed.

“Uh… y-yeah. How do you know that?”

“It’s… too complicated. We should get going. Got anything to break the capsule?”

“Well” Kal moved her sleeve a bit revealing a metallic gun-shaped watch on her arm, “I made this back at home with the goop you gave me.”

“Looks a lot bigger than what I saw him give you.” Jesse noted.

“It must reproduce or something.” Kal guessed “Anyway, it’s a one shot, but I’m hoping it fires hard enough to destroy the- wait how did you know it was a capsule? Let me guess, complicated?”

“Running time!” Jesse grabbed his friend’s arms and dashed through the hallway, with good reason. The guards had arrived and were now chasing them.

The elevator they came in opened up with guards inside, but it was their only option. They fired at the teenage mobians, but were overtaken as soon as the bullets left the mouths of the guns. One managed to graze Kal’s stomach, harming her, but it did not sink in and thankfully left no permanent damage. Regardless, she screamed.

Kicking and bashing (mostly with the metal plate), the guards were quickly taken down. “Everybody alright?” Nick asked.

“Mostly.” Kal winced as she pulled herself up. “The blood’s going to stain my clothes now. Great.”

“Clothes aren’t really that important right now, Kas!” Talon informed, pressing his temples stressfully.

“I was talking about my parents asking how that happened when we get back.”

“If we get back.” Jesse added.

“We’ll be fine.” Talon assured. “Will you be okay, Kal?”

“… Yes.” Sighed Kal.

“Good.” Jesse punched in the button for the thirtieth floor and they zoomed downward. It took about a minute to get down, which nauseated the teens.

“You have to wonder what all those other floors are for.” Jesse joked.

“Let’s hope we don’t find out.” Kal replied.

“Normally I’d disagree,” Talon said, “but it’s not like we could tell anyone if the government runs this.”

“Well… we could tell the Guardien.” Jesse suggested.

“… I doubt it. He’s probably busy already, and would probably just see us as fans to chase him, or maybe even think we’re making it up. No doubt Arma-9’ll clean up their tracks once this is over.”

The elevator doors opened up to five guards, with all their guns aimed at the team of teens. Seeing how they had gotten out of this problem twice already, Jesse started to charge them, but the lead guard kicked him back. “Don’t.” The guard growled lowly.

“Why did you kidnap our friend?” Kal hissed.

The guard ignored her. He turned away and started talking into his com-link while the other guards kept their large metal-objects pointed directly at the three mobians. “Sir we have them,” the guard spoke, “D06 is back in custody, yes. orders?... Are you su-… very well, sir.” He turned back to Talon and company. “This way.”

The guards dragged the teenagers through the hallway till they came to the room containing the alien girl. The wolf mobian, Commander Rovor, turned around to face them. “Three of you got in here. Impressive. Then again this is an old base, and well… one of you was a prisoner. D06, it’s been a long time.”

“… Which one of us are you talking about?” Jesse asked.

“The other boy.” Rovor pointed to Talon. “But now that I think about it… you must be… H02… and the girl is… S4-T3.”

“Uh no. No way is this happening!” Kal fumed.

“What?” asked Talon.

“They’ve been watching us this whole time…” She groaned. “All these years.”

“Actually we weren’t.” Rovor corrected. “However we do know quite about you. But now that that’s over, time to go back into containment. Take a good look at the capsule in front of you before you leave. You’ll be in one as well.”

Talon had forgotten about the capsule due to the dialogue. When he looked over he saw gasses still pouring into the capsule around a pile of goop. They… turned her back into goop? He looked up at the top of the capsule and noticed a somewhat thin tube holding it up.

“Kal!” He whispered. “Shoot at the very top of the capsule.”

“… Why not just the capsule?” She asked.

“It probably won’t break glass that hard, and we only have one sho-“

“IF you’re quite through scheming…” Rovor motioned for the guards to lead them out. A guard jerked Kal back, but she shoves him back and quickly drew out her watch-gun. She then aimed at the tube and fired.

The small metal bullet scraped the tube, but it did not destroy it. However when it stopped, it landed deeply in one of the sprinklers, which soon began to shoot water everywhere. The computers activated a shield over their keypads and screens, some of the screens landing on the worker’s fingers, and the entire room went into chaos.

Jesse grabbed one of the guards and used him as a hammer-like weapon against the others. Kal helped brace him and made an opening for Talon to get to the capsule. The only thing in his way… was Rovor.

Rovor was not going to allow Nick to pass. Before Talon could even attempt a jump or dash, the commander pinned him to the ground and pulled out a syringe, most-likely to put him to sleep.

“GET BACK!” Talon extended his unnatural claws even longer than normal and scraped the side of Rovor’s arm, making him loosen. Talon then rolled him over and slammed his hand on Rovor’s making the commander inject himself with the syringe. However the commander quickly yanked it out, and slashed the side of Nick’s cheek with the tip before passing out.

Talon was not tired yet, so there was time. He ran over to the capsule and lunged into it with all his strength, snapping the tube off, and making the glass container fall to the ground. It shattered.

For a moment Talon cringed, thinking the alien girl inside would instantly wake up, and destroy everything, but nothing happened. “CRUD!” He had to think fast before the syringe-fluid kicked in. He yanked the base of the capsule up, feeling a bit confused as to how he was able to do so, then scooped the goop inside it. He got as much as he could, then dashed out of the room.

After a while of running Nick saw Jesse and Kal following. They met up in the middle of the hallway only to have two giant doors slam down, closing them in. Jesse decided to do something manly, and attempted to ram one of the walls… he bounced off and landed on his back.

“Our hero.” Kal rolled her eyes.

“It worked the other times.” Jesse teased. Kal was surprised at how calm he was acting, then again she herself did not feel too scared… for some reason.

Not that anyone noticed really, but if they did they would see that the goop was beginning to spark a bit.

“Wait… Do it again!” Talon ordered as he set the container down.

“… What?” Jesse asked weakly.

“Do it again!” Talon repeatedly angrily.

“… Okay.” Jesse rammed into the wall, which again knocked him back, but when he did Talon noticed that the wall was hiding something… a security-lock, on the right side. And he knew how to open it. Without explaining, Nick pulled out the finger and pressed it to where the lock was. It sent an electrical shock at him, but he kept pressing. Eventually, the walls shut down, and moved up and out of site. Talon wondered how they would fit in the first place, but more important matters waited for him.

Every single guard in the building was around them, all armed, all ticked, and all looking for an excuse to pull the triggers. “This is getting redundant.” Jesse noted as he got back up, rubbing his poor damaged backside. “Uh… we… surrender?”

“Stop talking!” One guard ordered. For some reason this triggered something in Talon’s head. “Talking…” he murmured. He looked over at the alien-goop then his hands. “… This better work.”

Talon sat down in a sort of meditating position, closing his eyes, and concentrated on communicating with the alien girl. “C’mon… say something! DO SOMETHING!” He screamed in his head. Nothing.

Talon felt himself being dragged away but kept trying to reach the girl again. If he could get a connection she might be able to come back again. “PLEASE!” He screamed allowed. Still nothing.

All of the sudden however, Talon felt the guard drop him. His eyes flashed open and he quickly braced his fall. Looking up, he saw that all the guards were backing up, and while their faces were masked they looked a bit scared. It worked.

Talon looked behind and saw the female figure that he had met at the crash-site. She gave a slight chuckle, with her blue eyes turning into a devious yellow. “Hello boys.” She grinned.

The guards blasted away, but they could do nothing now. The only guards with the guns used to take her down the first time were knocked out in the containment room, and the guns themselves were in storage and prep rooms, which they were not near… well near enough.

The girl transformed on hand into a dome-like shield, and covered the teenagers, then with the other hand she created a giant wall, which she used to push the guards on side away, then did the same for the others. The alien-girl (Yes I know we established she’s really called an identity) looked over and saw that the attackers were beginning to break through the shield. She walked over and removed the shield, huddled the group together and said “Bye now.” Before teleporting the three teenagers outside of the base, while she stayed behind.

*WOMPH!* They landed hard on the dirt floor, with Talon getting a mouthful of dirt. “GAH!” He practically vomited the contents out, and wiped his tongue for a while till he could speak again. “SO DISGUSTING!”

“I’ve had worse.” Jesse noted as he and Kal got up. None of them said anything for a few seconds, as they were still taking in the event.

Finally Jesse began to say “So do you thi-“ *BOOM* The entire base below and in front of them, a red glowing energy shooting high into the sky. The impact was blinding and lasted for at least a minute. When it subsided, a giant crater was left in the ground.

The three allies were on the verge of passing out from the impact of the show, and the fluid was now beginning to tire Talon a bit. Still though he was alright for the moment.

Before anyone else, Nick ran down the side of the crater to the middle where he saw the alien girl crouching on the ground. He dared not get too close in case she wanted to hurt him now. But apparently she knew he was there already.

“So,” She began as she slowly got up. Her black-skin feathered up a bit till it looked like silky black fur; a pair of dark blue jeans and a dark grey hoodie grew around her body, with red flame-like collars at the ends of her hands and feet. Her feet materialized to two claws, with red ends, and long red claws. She grew short dark red hair, with semi-long bangs, and pulled her hood over. “How do I look?” She finished.

Talon… had no idea what to say. Not that he was awe-struck by how cool or uncool she looked, but more so he was simply still taking in the events. The girl noticed this, and her eyes turned into a turquoise color, which was followed by some laughter. “You okay?” She asked, humored with Talon’s reaction.

“… Y-… y-yeah…” Nick stammered, still not moving. The girl walked over in front of him, paused a bit, then gave him a large hug. He would have hugged back if he wasn’t near fainting… then he fainted.

When Talon awoke again, he was on his bed in his room. He slowly looked around, with a massive headache clambering up the sides of his skull. “Ugh…” He rubbed his head then got out of bed and opened his bedroom door. He was greeted by the alien girl, who had made herself to look like a black mobian cat, most likely to keep Talon’s parents from asking questions.

“Imma kitty!” She said with a smile, which sent Talon falling backwards in surprise. “Ups.” She pulled him up, “You okay? You guys fall a lot.”

“Yeah… it happens.” Talon sighed. “Uh… are the… others here?”

“Yeah there in your living room.” She replied before running out.

Talon took a moment to get his mind back together then slowly walked out. “Must be a Monday.” Actually it was Sunday morning, but Talon did not care.

In the living room Talon saw Jesse and Kal in the opposite mood. Jesse was staring at the alien-cat-girl with interest and a little bit of How-you-doin-look, while Kal was starring from a distance with untrusting eyes.

“Are… my parents home?” Talon asked.

“Over here!” Talon’s mom called from the kitchen. He walked over to her and was immediately consumed by a giant hug.

“Kal and Jesse said you were knocked out by the crash! Are you alright?” His mom questioned in worry.

“Yeah Mom… wait crash?” Talon looked over and saw Jesse give him the go-along-with-it-stare. “I… guess I can’t remember. What happened exactly?”

“Your friends were looking for you, and when they found you in the abandoned police car, they drove you back here.”

“Oh… right.”

“What happened with the police?!”

“I… was walking by a house, and it caught fire. I was talking to the owner a few minutes before it started about stuff like ‘Hi, how are you, that’s nice, g’bye’, but then the cops showed up and thought I had started it.”

“That’s what they told us…” His father added. “We took care of the problem, but are you sure that’s all that happened?”

“Y-yes! I was just walking around!” Talon rose his voice defensively.

“Alright…” Then his mother noticed the alien-girl, “Oh and who’s the friend?”

“Huh?” Talon realized they who they were talking about and looked over to the girl for some help.

“Oh…” the girl began, “I’m…”

“Rin.” Talon blurted out.

The girl gave him a confused stare. “Rin?”

“Rin.”

“… Okay. I’m Rin.”

“For the fourth time.” Jesse teased.

“All…. right…” Mrs. Falon blankly replied. “Are you a relative of Kal’s?”

When Kal heard this her face shot up with a deadly glare at the newly-named Rin and Talon, who both gave her a pleading stare. With a large sigh she answered “Y-… yes.” The grumbled to herself from her seat.

“Anyway my friends and I wanted to talk about something.” Talon said. “Could we go to my bedroom?”

“Eat first.” His father ordered. “It’s almost noon and you didn’t have Dinner. I’m surprised you’re not starving right now.”

Talon would have argued but when the word “starving” came into play he started feeling VERY starving. Five pancakes were consumed that day by Nick. Afterwards they went to his bedroom.

“Okay so what are we REALLY going to do about… her?” Kal asked sternly.

“Love you too.” Rin replied with purple-irritated eyes. “A little gratitude for saving your rear?”

“Fine, thanks, now What are we REALLY going to do about… her?”

“That’s simple.” Nick laid back on a chair. “She stays with you.”

“WHAT?! But- I can’t- my parents can’t-“

“You’re the only cat here, and she made herself look like a cat. I doubt my parents wouldn’t notice her changing into something else.”

“Gr… FINE! But you’re coming up with the story about how get her to stay! It’s not like parents will jus-“

Skipping to a few hours later…

“-t let… her… stay…. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!” Kal screamed after her parents easily allowed their “niece” to stay at their home for the time being.

“COUS!” Rin yelled chipperly, giving Kal a large hug.

“I’m going to dread this for the rest of my life.”

Meanwhile at the destroyed base…

Rovor was alive, just to get that out of the way. He pushed his way out of the wreckage and activated a small wrist-communicator. “Base Fifty-One is destroyed.” He spoke. “The Identity has escaped… what should I do?”

For a while there was silence, but then a voice replied “Observe and report. I doubt it was a coincidence we found all three hybrids in the same place.”

“Understood.” END OF CHAPTER ONE