Chapter Two

      Falling to what would seem to be his death, Jeff watched the pavement come closer to him with each passing second. "Open Open OPEN!" he yelled. Streaks of pink laser flew past him with as much speed as he was falling. "Mother of mercy, where art thou heaven," he began, as he closed his eyes, waiting to become street pizza. He was a flash of light even though his eye lids were closed.
      Wham!
      He hit the ground, but not with the force that one would think falling off a 300-foot tall tower would bring.
      "Is he dead?" said the voice that filled his mind.
      "No, but he's bleeding. Ki’ace, Eric, get him to the Med. Bay, " said another voice, this time a voice of an old friend. He tried to move but couldn't, he couldn't even open his eyes. He lay there, feeling himself being picked up and taken to the Med. Bay.
      The Messiah Medical bay was really nothing more than a bed, with basic first aid and medical equipment. Feeling himself being laid down, then a sting in his arm, he drifted off to sleep, hoping that he was still alive.

      "You had a Guardian Hunter Killer, the time and place where they would be, and you had the hacker group and Storm cornered, and THEY STILL GOT AWAY!!!". Yelled the voice from the vid-window to the Commander of the local law enforcement.
      "These aren’t normal hackers. They got the slip on us this time, but we have an informant, and the leader is out of commission if not dead; there is no way we won't get them this next time," she replied.
      "No, you have other things to attend to. I will tell you when you can take them out, and Commander, you better take them out when I say so because you know what happens to people that don’t complete there missions." With that the window snapped shut.
      "So, how’s the Command.com doing?" asked Max jokingly as he walked into Jeff’s Room and looked down at Shanka.
      "The what?" she asked."
      "Command.com. Before Human's came to the net, Command.coms ran systems from the principal office. Not many systems call them that anymore."
      The young sprite just nodded and looked to Jeff. "Well, he seems ok, but he’s still out cold and it’s been 3 days. He should have been up by now."
      The old man known as Max looked over the machines that had been attached to Jeff to check his status. "He’s not as young as he use to be Shanka; he’s almost half my age now. It takes him longer to recover."
      "True. I forget at times I’m not the little girl that won't leave him alone. He’s what, almost 30 now? Geeze, it’s been along time, hasn't Max?"
      The Oldest of the group nodded to the youngest of the group. "He’s a fighter. He’ll be up and around in not time flat. I’ll bet my car on that, but now we need to get the others together and find out what went wrong."
      She nodded and smiled at her "older brother," stood, and left.
      "Alright boys, girls, and Anthros, what went wrong?" said Max as he sat down in the seat at the head of the table, Jeff’s seat.
      "You mean other than we almost got caught and almost got killed and almost lost Jeff? Can't think of a thing," said Eric.
      "Shut up Eric. We don't need your crap right now." Snapped Shanka.
      "What does.. Mother think about this, Max?" struggled Ki’eva to talk out loud and not in the group's minds like her sister Ki’ace.
      "We haven’t got anything from her, and since Jeff’s offline we can't contact her." All but Eric looked down and were in deep thought. Jeff was like a father to them all. He had brought them together and had taught them what they needed to know, and more than once saved each of their lives.
      "Oh please. It's not like he’s dead, and besides, we are all alive and online, so-" began Eric, when Shanka looked up with a look on her face strong enough to melt steel.
      "You jerk! Don't you care about Jeff? Because of him we are alive right now!"
      " Big whoop. We would have gotten away anyway."
      "Yeah right! I didn't see you do anything to help. As a matter of fact, as I recall you knocked me down so you could run faster!"
      " You little bitch, how dare you say that!?" Eric stood.
      Shanka stood, kicking the chair out from under her as she did. "Bitch!? .Why you- lets go right now!"
      "Think you can take me on.. Fine lets go!"
      "ENOUGH! Both of you!" boomed Max. "Look at you, fighting with each other. I’ve seen Apocalypse talk and act more refined than you two right now! " Max sighed and lowered his head. "Eric, you're on portal duty. Shanka just..go to your room"
      "My room?! Do I look like a child to you!?"
      Max looked up. "No, but your acting like one, both of you are. Now GO!" The look on the old man's face was one none had seen before.
      Eric left with a grunt, and Shanka stormed off to her room, slamming the door shut. Max slowly looked to the two sisters. Ki’ace nodded, and her and her sibling left, the older one taking the computers and the younger one heading for her room. Max placed his head in his hands and shook his head. "You would fill my shoes nicely my friend. Makes me think 'why am I leading this group?'" came a soft voice from behind the old hacker. Max raised his head, but looked straight ahead into the Command room, where Ki’ace sat in front of the computers. "Up already young one?" he said with a smile on his face.
      A figure sat down next to him and nodded. "You know me Max. Not one to stay in bed long."
      "Yeah and I’m a virus, but I think I will let you be the leader, if you don’t mind."
      Jeff nodded. " Fine with me, besides, I still follow the rule you gave me when I first became leader."
      " You lead 'till you die or we find someone better?" said the man with a smile. Jeff nodded and the two laughed.

      "Old goat thinks I’m a kid? Well fine, but I ain’t staying here!" mumbled the young sprite to herself as she rummaged thought the pile of clothes on her floor, trying to find something to wear. "Hmm this will do " she says, tossing a pair of black cargo pants on her bed, followed with a black cut-off shirt and of course, her leather jacket; never went anywhere without that. Besides, a hacker was not a hacker without her jacket and her shades, a little saying that Jeff told her when she was little. Quickly changing into her clothes, she took the icon off the table and attached it to the inside of her jacket, sitting down cross-legged on her bed.
      Sliding the windowed keyboard into her lap, she tapped into the Bases portal program. "Let’s see. Downtown is nice this time of night." Hitting a few keys, a portal opened up right next to her. Closing her laptop, she slid the small metal case into her front pocket, and checking her shades, she stepped into the portal, and with a flash of light was gone.

      A Beeping noise attracted the attention of the Zed, and she shook her head, looking back to Jeff. "You sister is bailing out again," she said with almost perfect speach. Which always amazed Jeff, since it was hard for Zeds to vocalize.
      "Again?. Well. Let's see where she is going, shall we?" he replied. The Anthro nodded her head and tapped a few keys on the keyboard. The screen changed to a map of the system and began to track the location of the portal. Slowly and surely it locked onto it and left a dot.
      "Raver’s," said Ki’ace softly as she looked back to Jeff, and with a smirk he leaned forward and extended his hand." Madam care to join me in an elegant affair?" he said with sarcasm heavy in his voice, underneath the very bad high-class accent.
      "Let me change, kind sir, and I’ll join you." She smiled and walks of to her room.
      Returning a short time later, and with the younger Zed closer behind, she'd changed from her clan's normal, traditional clothes, to something more modern and reviling.
      "I’m flattered, but I must say, we are retrieving a Sprite, not looking for a mate," replied Jeff as he looked over her new clothes, which consisted of a leather top, but short above the waist and with short T-shirt like sleeves, a pair of tight-fitting leather pants, along with her leather jacket, which was a little longer than the shirt, not by much, and shades. Now every one would either think she was a hacker or a.. Well.. Never mind what else. " And what about her?" he says looking to the younger sibling, who stood next to her sister, wearing her clan's style of clothes.
      "I’m not going to get into a fight over her coming along, since she will win one way or another."
      Sighing as he checked the clip in his pistol and returned it to the holder attached to the belt behind his lower back." Fine, just keep an eye on her will ya?"
      Ki’ace nodded, as the trio walked to the rack that held an array of hover boards. Each was taking the one of their choice, then set out, not knowing what the night would yield.

      The club was packed, the music was as loud as ever, and the band was playing music from both sides of reality; human, sprite and Anthro music was welcome here. It was one of the few clubs that was open to all people and species. The Trio of Messiah members had no problem getting in, and where soon looking for the youngest of the hackers.
      "Alright, Ki’ace, over there.. Ki’vea over there. Check back at the bar in 20, alright?" the sisters nodded and headed off. Jeff squinted even through his glasses; the neon lights of the club where everywhere and went through his shades. "Let’s see. A teenager, female, and mad. Where would I be in a club like this?" he mumbled to himself, as he made his way through the crowd. And then it hit him like a ton of bricks, well she hit him. He had made his way to the front of the stage without knowing it and she had dived right on top of him.
      "Oh. Sorry, man, I thought- Oh frag..." she murmured as she noticed the not very pleased Jeff Freeman.
      Griping his non-human sister’s arm, he dragged her out of the mosh pit of sprites, humans and Anthros. "Sneaking out is one thing, but using portals! You know they can trace those, right!?" He yelled at her, not out of anger, but because of the noise in the club. "Well...you were offline, and Max was being a total jerk," she began.
      But Jeff simply shook his head. "I thought you knew better. Now let's get going before-" He stopped dead sentence, as he looked towards the door.
      The light from the display of the inside his glasses told the young female that something was not right and looked to where he was scanning. Her own set of sunglasses came on and quickly scanned the new group that entered the club. She closely read the small text wich displayed the wire frame of a gun. "Xanbust X20’s, those aren’t your everyday gang weapons," she said to her older brother.
      "Yeah, neither are the key tools they have. I told you what would happen if you used portals!" he said to her as he placed two fingers to his mouth and whistles. Even over the music of the club, the sharp ears of the Zed heard the signal and looked to its creator, who nodded his head in the direction of danger, thus alerting the Zed to it, she grabbing a hold of her sister, pulling her away from the bar and dragging her through the crowd to the emergency exit that the others were working there way to.
      A soft beeping came the inside of the small hacker's jacket. "You got mail!" it said.
      "Crap" said Jeff as he overheard the sound.
      The people at the door removed their hands from their ear pieces and pulled out their weapons. "EVERYONE DOWN! GUARDIAN ORDERS!" they screamed, and raised their guns to the hackers.
      "DOWN!" cried Jeff, and the group hit the floor, as the first rounds of shots hit the ceiling telling the people to stop and get on the ground.
      Lying of the floor, hoping not to be detected, the group complied with the orders of the guardians who carefully looked at each person.
      The leader of the guardian group that had invaded the club stepped on the back of Ki’ace. "Not your normal Zed clothing, not to mention that your kind aren’t very social." He said to her.
      The Anthro turned her head up to the guardian and looked at the Sprite. "Never one to follow traditions," she said softly.
      "Yeah, I bet," he mumbled and removes his keytool from his belt, scanning the Zed with it, it soon giving off a beeping noise. "Up.." he said softly, as he removed his foot from her back.
      She slowly stood, turning around and looking down at the blue skinned guardian sprite.
      "Big girl. Now hands on your head."
      She complied, and he placed the keytool and the high-powered weapon onto his belt. He reached inside her jacket and quickly confirmed what his keytool had scanned, removing a small metal handle and a small pistol, placing them on the table next to the keytool and weapon. " This is a no-weapons club. You do know that, right?" he said and kept searching.
      "Not a good part of town," she replied.
      Not replying, he soon removed the small metal case and looked closely at the symbol on the cover, grinning. "And I thought you people were smarter. Hackers normally are."
      "Yeah well..." she began. With quick, lighting fast movements, she grabbed his arm twisting it, and pulling him close, she used him for a human shield as she grabbed his gun. Yanking if from it’s place on his belt, she aimed roughly at the other guardians. Pulling the trigger she fired. Two guardians, caught off guard by her action, fell to the ground, defeated without a fight, the remaining one, not even thinking, firing back, hitting her leader.
      The sprite body did little to prevent the laser from going through and into Ki’ace. Hitting the ground, with the dead guardian on top of her, she couldn’t help but let out a moan of pain. The remaining guardian slowly walked over to her and aimed her gun at the Anthro. As she was about to pulled the trigger, the low, humming sound of a gun charging up blocked out all thoughts other than the one to live. "Dodge this," came a soft male voice, then blackness. The human guardian woman now lay lifeless on the floor, her victim saved from her blast, but not from death.

      Ki’ace tail swayed gently from side to side as she rested, cradled in Jeff’s arms. Sticking to back alleys and side streets, the members of Messiah were far from the base, and at the rate they were moving, it would take at least an hour to reach home, and no one new how long the eldest Anthro had.
      Shanka shook her head as they walked back to base. "This is all my fault, I acted like a child, and now we've been ID’ed, and Ki’ace is badly injured. Man.. I feel basic."
      "No It’s not all your fault, but your actions were childish," said Jeff. She looked at her "older brother" before sighing and returning her glance to the ground.

      An hour later, the few members of Messiah reached its location. A tall pile of scrap metal, beams, old cars, and very, very old ABC’s was the covering for the Headquarters of Messiah. The 3 standing members of the hackers stood at the back door of an ABC and looked around. Tapping the symbol of some old virus, which they had found out was named Daemon, the covers slid open and brought a scanner into view. A small blue-beamed light hit Jeff in his left eye, and the door fell open, the cover returning to the closed position. Entering their home, Jeff took a look outside as the door raised up, blocking out the night sky.
      "3 days and she will be back on her feet. Lucky the body protected her enough," said Max, as he tapped a few keys on a panel, and the picture of Ki’ace closed and was replaced with her vital signs.
      "See what I mean Shanka? Guy gets himself scraped and now Ki’ace, boy... Some leader.."
      Shanka turned with a quick jerk and slugged Eric right in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. "Bastard, don’t ever say that about Jeff, and if it wasn’t for Ki’ace, we would all be dead." Her anger was unleashed now, but she didn’t care. Eric had always pushed her buttons the wrong way, and now she wasn’t going to hold back. The tall purple-skinned sprite slowly rose and balled his hand into a fist, ready to strike. He felt the cool, hard felling of metal against the back of his head.
      "Do it.. And you brains will be decorating the walls of this room," comes the voice of power from behind him. "Sector watch, now.." it said, as the gun was removed. With a grunt, the radical of the group left. " He’s a loose cannon, not one to have around in times like this," said Max.
      "Screw him, what’s the status on Ki’ace?" said Jeff, returning the pistol to it’s holster.
      "Not great, but she will live," replied Max.
      "Good. When she is up and running let me know alright? I’m going on a walk," and with the he left.
      "A walk?" Shanka looked to Max and the elder shrugged.

      The sights and sounds of the night life of system Geocai was a nice one, but to the humans, system 3521 was a free fire system, which meant little if any guardians, the ones tonight were defiantly not from around there, sent in to kill them most likely. Jeff sighed and dug his hands into his pockets, keeping his eyes lowered on the ground, he was in deep thought. He stopped and looked up at the night sky, looking closely at the faint circuitry of this system. He felt odd, like he had done this before. Jeff felt a force on his arm he looked to his side and saw a woman, about his height looking up at the sky. She was a human, long black hair, tanned skin, and had green eyes.
      "Isn’t it pretty Greg?" she asked in an almost exotic voice.
      "Excuse me?" asked Jeff as he blinked his eyes.
      "I said what are you looking at buddy?" Said not a pretty woman, but a dirty Anthro bum.
      "Wait a sec.. Where was the girl that was here?" he asked confused.
      "Ain’t no one here but me and you," he said.
      Jeff shook his head and walked off, not believing what had happened. "Man, what’s up with you?" he asked himself as he walked down the street. "With these strange dreams and now this? Man... I need some major down time..." he said to himself.
      A soft crackle soon turned into a loud Boom as the night sky lit up like the sun had risen. Everyone on the block looked up at the now huge, open portal and stood in amazement, everyone aside from Jeff who had his glasses scanning it. It collapsed as fast as it had opened leaving what seemed to be nothing, but his glasses read different. And several spotlights turning on and moving over the city confirmed it. The lights and his glasses gave way to what had come from such a huge portal: a Web-class guardian battle cruiser. Few Guardian Cruisers were meant for system searching, and a Web-class cruiser was one of them.
      "Why in the net would they need such fire power?" Then it hit him. Messiah HQ, with the entire armor it had, they would need a Plasma cannon from such a ship to crack it. Busting out in a fast sprint, soon turning into a full blown mile for mile run, Jeff ran back to base. As he did so, he tapped the frame of his glasses on the side, letting a small microphone slide from it’s place. "Call home," he said into it.
      "Can not comply. System Communication Network down, via Guardian orders. Please try your call later," it said back to him.
      "Damn.. Please...please, God, don’t let them," he began and then stopped dead in his tracks as he looked at the ship hovering over the junk pile that protected Messiah’s base. He watched and heard the large front turret moved, the large plasma cannon aiming it at the base, as it charged up. Humming with an unholy sound it fired, sending out a huge, yellow ball of super condensed plasma. It hit the base with a mighty force, sending scrap everywhere, along with a ball of fire that would make the breach of the system’s core look like a firework.
      "NOOOO!" yelled Jeff at the top of his lungs. He fell to his knees as he watched the base as well as his friends be blown to pieces.

      Jeff sat inside an all-night café on the side of town, where he could still see the cruiser hover over the now crater hole of the former base. He figured that since this place would give him good view and it was also the place the hackers would meet, it was fitting for him to remorse at the death of a war.