Mission: Payback part 20 (The final Part)

I'll just post this so I can say I finished the story.

Continued from a long time ago... In a galaxy where about 10 people actually followed this story... vs. the 0 that do now...

Back in the emperor’s office, Emmy gave a loud whoop of joy. “We did it!” she cried, throwing her arms around Ryan’s neck.
Ryan gasped for air as her grip tightened around his neck. “Yeah, I guess so,” he sputtered.
“What a devastating blow to the empire, they won’t soon recover from that,” Emmy continued, gleefully.
“Emmy,” Ryan gasped. “You’re choking me.”
Emmy didn’t hear him but continued to prattle on. “Only capturing the emperor could ever top this moment. I mean, destroying an entire camp of imperial soldiers in one strike! It’s amazing!”
“Emmy!” Ryan coughed.
Emmy snapped to attention and released her hold on Ryan’s neck. “Oh, sorry Ryan,” she apologized.
Ryan breathed deeply and rubbed his neck. “It’s ok.”
Emmy looked at him questioningly. “Aren’t you excited, Ryan?”
Ryan looked up at her. “I’ll be more excited when we catch the emperor,” he replied.
Emmy’s eyes widened. “Oh! The emperor, of course!”
“Of course,” Ryan mimicked. “That’s only the reason that we’re here, the emperor, you know?”
“I’m sorry!” Emmy snapped. “I got caught up in all the drama.”
Ryan excused her memory lapse with a wave of his hand and started inspecting the desk for the button that would reopen the trapdoor that the emperor had escaped from. “You should be used to drama by now, you hang around me enough.”
Emmy shrugged, joining in his search. “You never cease to surprise.”
It was Ryan’s turn to shrug. “Could be worse, I could be boring.”
Emmy laughed. “Ha! You? Boring? Not on your life.” She paused and then added. “Although I might prefer boring once and a while.”
“Very funny,” Ryan made a face at her.
Emmy ceased her search for a moment and glanced around the room. Her gaze happened to fall upon the limp form of Sarah and she shook her head. “Sarah,” she whispered in disbelief. Emmy turned back towards Ryan. “I have so many questions to ask you when this is over.”
“Later,” Ryan replied, holding up his finger. “Once we’ve captured the emperor.”
“You sound so sure,” Emmy said, folding her arms.
“I am sure,” Ryan said matter-of-factly.
Emmy opened her mouth to reply with a witty remark but she was interrupted by the sound of helicopter blades nearby.
Ryan and Emmy both froze in place and looked at the gaping hole in the emperor’s office. “Hide!” Ryan yelled jumping underneath the enormous desk. Emmy quickly followed his lead.
The two of them huddled under the desk and listened as the sound of helicopter blades grew louder and louder.
“If that’s an Imperial helicopter full of Imperial police we’re dead,” Emmy groaned.
“Aw, we could take ‘em,” Ryan said, trying to sound optimistic.
Emmy glanced down at herself and then Ryan, motioning to their lack of weapons. “Without guns?” she questioned.
Ryan sighed. “You’re right, we’re screwed.”
An involuntary shudder shook Emmy’s body. “Well at least we know we died dealing the empire a fatal blow.”
“Technically, we’re gonna die hiding under a desk,” Ryan pointed out. “And I don’t think the blow was fatal.”
Emmy scowled at Ryan. “Party-pooper,” she grumbled.
Ryan shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
“I’m sure you have.”
Just then a familiar voice rang out. “Ryan, Emmy! You can just stay under that desk all day or you can come out and join the hunt. It’s emperor season.”
Ryan jumped. “It’s Ti--” he started to say but he stopped in mid sentence as his head crashed against the desk. “Ow!” he yelled. “Why do I always do that?”
Emmy rolled her eyes and slid out from under the desk. “Men.” Ryan followed after her, rubbing his head.
Hovering by the window was the helicopter with Jordan at the controls. In the passenger area was Tim and Jason. “Come on,” Tim called beckoning them to hop in.
Ryan and Emmy ran towards the window, or what was left of it, and leapt inside the waiting helicopter.
Tim patted them on the back and gave a hearty laugh. “So you’ve vanquished the Emperor’s sidekick?” he asked as Jordan pulled the helicopter away from the window and steered them back towards the road that lead to the front gate.
Ryan stared at him. “Seriously, man,” he said, shaking his head. “We’ve been over this, no one talks like that.”
“Sorry,” Tim apologized. “How’d you do it?”
“That, is a great story,” Ryan replied. “For another time. I’m just glad your okay.”
Tim gave Ryan a skeptic look. “You forgot all about me until I showed up outside the window, didn’t you?”
Ryan laughed sheepishly and shrugged. “Well no… Uh, yeah pretty much.”
“I hate to break up this little reunion,” Emmy interjected, putting and end to their pointless banter. “But we have an Emperor to catch.”
“She’s right,” Jason said, breaking his usual code of silence.
Ryan and Tim both nodded.
“Right,” Ryan said. “Where did he get off to? We lost him after he escaped through his trapdoor.”
“He has a trapdoor? That’s awesome!” Tim exclaimed.
“I know! It was pretty sweet,” Ryan said, grinning.
Jason ignored their comments. “We saw him go racing off in that direction,” he said, pointing ahead of where the helicopter was now flying. “We should be catching up to him momentarily.”
“All right,” Ryan said, rubbing his hands together. “Finally, a chance to strike back at the emperor himself.”
“We kind of already had a chance,” Emmy reminded him. “Like twenty minutes ago.”
“That doesn’t count,” Ryan insisted.
“Let’s just hope we can hang on to him this time,” Tim said.
“Oh don’t worry,” Ryan assured them. “He’s not going anywhere this time.”

Chris, Laz, and Kayla all stared at their feet, searching for something to say.
“Isn’t there any chance that we can still save Ryan?” Kayla asked.
Derek shook his head sadly. “No, the poison is fatal. We knew that going into this.”
Laz swallowed. “Is he dead already?”
Derek nodded. “Most likely.”
“He died doing us all a great service,” Cathy said, trying to comfort them.
“I never even got to say goodbye,” Laz choked. He paused and frowned. “Wow, that sounded so weird coming out.”
“Shouldn’t we at least check with Ryan and see what the situation is?” Chris asked Derek. “Maybe Ryan isn’t even dead yet. We all know how good he is at cheating death.”
Derek coughed and then cleared his throat before he answered. “Yes, but this is different.”
“I don’t see how,” Chris disagreed. “It would be just like him to escape unscathed.”
Derek glanced over at Cathy, who shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt,” she said. “Call him back at that number he called you with earlier.”
Derek slipped his phone from his pocket and hit the callback button.

Jason stood as close to the cockpit as he could from inside the passenger area and peered ahead, trying to spot the emperor’s getaway vehicle. “We should be coming up on him soon,” he said. Just then his phone started to ring. Irritated at the distraction, Jason snatched it from his waist and answered. “Yeah?”
“Cruise?” the voice on the other line asked. Jason grunted and tossed the phone to Ryan.
Ryan looked up just in time to snatch the phone out of the air. “What’s this for?” he yelled.
“It’s for you,” Jason explained.
Ryan brought the phone up to his ear and yelled above the roar of the rotating helicopter blades. “Yeah?”
“Cruise!” Derek’s voice rumbled from the other line. “Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” Ryan replied.
“You’re not dead?” Derek exclaimed in a shocked tone.
“You sound disappointed,” Ryan said sarcastically.
“No, no,” Derek assured him. “It’s just that--”
“Look, I don’t have a lot of time here,” Ryan said, cutting him off. “What is it that you want?”
“That missile… Was that you that did that?”
Ryan rolled his eyes and then remembered that Derek couldn’t see him. “Yeah of course it was me,” he barked. “What’d you think that the emperor had a sudden change of heart?”
“Just wondering,” Derek said, and then, “What are you doing now? It sounds like you’re in a helicopter.”
“That’s because I am,” Ryan yelled into the phone so that he could be heard. “We’ve got the emperor on the run right now, we’re trying to track him down.”
“The emperor on the run?” Derek cried. “How?”
“I’ll explain later,” Ryan told him. “I’ve really got to go now.”
“Wait Cruise,” Derek said, rushing to avoid being hung up on. “We need to know what’s going on. We can help you capture the emperor.”
“Sorry, got to go,” Ryan apologized as he flipped the phone shut. He tossed it back to Jason and pulled himself to his feet. “Have we got him yet?” Ryan asked as he walked over to where Jason was standing.
Jason’s face stretched slightly into what looked like a grin, or rather, a Jason style grin. “He’s in our sights.” Jason pointed ahead of them. Just on the horizon they could see a cloud of dust rising from the road, and beyond that dust was a red sports car. What kind of sports car they couldn’t tell, but what they definitely could tell was that the driver must be the emperor.
“That’s got to be him,” Ryan pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand. “We’ve got him right where we want him.”
Behind him Tim was already stuffing a sidearm into his pants. “Here,” Tim said, offering Ryan a weapon. “You’re going to need this.”
Ryan grasped the pistol and cocked it. “I’ve been waiting too long for this,” he muttered to himself.
Jordan pushed the helicopter as fast as it could go. It wasn’t long before the emperor’s vehicle came into view. Using expert care, Jordan lowered the helicopter until they were practically on top of the emperor’s car.
“Be careful,” Tim warned. “Remember we want the emperor alive, for now. We want to make him stop, but just make sure you don’t…”
Jordan nudged the controls a little and bumped the emperor’s car. It swerved crazily off the road and crashed into a rock flipping the car on its back.
“…flip it,” Tim finished.
“What was that you were saying?” Jordan shouted.
Tim shook his head. “Oh, never mind. Just take us down there.”
Obediently, Jordan lowered them down to the crash site. Ryan jumped off the helicopter before it had even landed, and began to stride towards the wreckage in menacing yet totally awesome form.
“Wait! Ryan!” Tim cried out after him, as he hopped out of the helicopter as well. “Don’t kill him!”
“We don’t even know if he’s still alive,” Emmy pointed out.
Jordan brought the helicopter to a complete landing and jumped out as well. “Yeah I flipped him pretty good,” he said.
Ignoring them, Ryan continued to make his way toward the vehicle. It was smashed to pieces and smoking; the glass was broken and strewn across the ground.
Ryan came to a stop directly in front of the vehicle and drew his sidearm.
“Ryan,” Emmy said. “I think he’s dead; that was quite a crash…”
She trailed off. There was a groaning sound and a hand stuck itself out of what used to be a window. Slowly, very slowly, the emperor crawled his way out of the car. He was bruised and cut and bleeding, but other than that he seemed to be perfectly fine.
Ryan released the safety on his weapon and pointed it at the emperor’s head. “You’ve reached the end of your reign, emperor.”
“Ryan, don’t!” Tim shouted. “We need him alive!”
“Why?” Ryan asked.
Tim thought about this for a second. “I don’t know… I guess we don’t really.”
“Good, because I’m going to kill him,” Ryan replied, pulling back the hammer of the gun.
The emperor closed his eyes and sank to his knees. “Go ahead, kill me Cruise. I’ve always dreamed that one day I’d be assassinated.”
“You won’t be so happy when you’re in hell,” Ryan shot back.
“Ryan, don’t do this,” Emmy pleaded, running up to his side.
“Why not?” Ryan asked.
“Because if you kill the emperor, you’ll be just like him,” Emmy said.
“What? That’s ridiculous; that doesn’t even make sense, how am I supposed to be just like him if I kill him?”
“I agree,” the emperor said with a nod. “It wouldn’t really be like me to kill myself, so I don’t really see the point.”
“No, no, no,” Emmy said in a frustrated tone. “I mean if you kill him in cold blood you’ll be just like he was.”
“So, I’ve killed plenty of people in cold blood before,” Ryan replied with a shrug.
“He’s got a point there,” said Tim, he paused as if in deep thought and then added, “Is it possible to kill someone in warm blood?”
“Oh shut up,” Emmy snapped. She turned back to Ryan, “I’m begging you Ryan, don’t do it.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryan said. “I won’t kill him in cold blood… I’ll let him do it for himself.” Ryan spun the gun in his hands around so that the he was holding onto the barrel and handed it to the emperor. “You’ve done thousands of wrong things in your life, emperor,” he said. “And now I’m giving you a chance to end it yourself.”
The emperor took the gun in his hands and stared at it. “You’re right,” he said in a dreamy voice. “I’ve done so many bad things… So what will it hurt… if I do another here?” As he said this, the emperor whirled his gun towards Ryan. But Ryan was too quick for the emperor and faster than lighting he reached for another gun that he had stuck in his pants. Ryan drew the gun and fired twice, sending a bullet through the emperor’s brain and another one through his heart.
The emperor twisted sideways and dropped the gun, falling to the ground in what seemed like slow motion, with blood flowing from his head and chest. Chunks of brain tissue and flesh and blood sprayed all over the ground until finally the emperor reached the ground with a soft thud.
After such a long struggle, their nightmare was over; the emperor was dead.
Ryan drew the gun back and grinned. “Knew he was gonna try and do that,” he said.
“So why’d you give him the gun then?” Jordan asked.
“What do you think? So I’d have an excuse to kill him without it being in cold blood, of course,” Ryan replied.
“I’m not sure it works that way…” Emmy said.
“Who cares?” Ryan said with a shrug. “What’s important is that the emperor’s finally dead.”
“We need to go tell Cathy,” Tim said.
Emmy nodded. “He’s right, we should take the body as proof as well.”
Following her suggestion, Ryan went and retrieved the emperor’s body and loaded it onto the helicopter. To his surprise, Jason was still inside.
“Were you in here the whole time?” Ryan asked.
Jason shrugged. “I could see everything fine from right here,” he mumbled.
Ryan just shook his head. “All right, let’s go!” he shouted to Jordan. Jordan nodded and after a few minutes they were off.

Cathy paced back and forth, threatening to wear a hole in the carpet. “Have they contacted us yet?” she asked for nearly the hundredth time.
Derek shook his head. “The last time I heard from them they were chasing down the emperor.
“Please Cathy, just be patient,” Chris pleaded. “I know Ryan, he’ll make it here but only in irritably last minute fashion.”
“Yeah, Ryan hasn’t failed us yet,” Laz, piped up. “Well except for that one time…” “Yeah, but that doesn’t count,” Chris said.
“Of course not.”
“I don’t care,” Cathy said. “If they don’t arrive in the next minute I’m firing every missile we have at the emperor’s army.”
“But if they have killed the emperor we may not even need to shed so much blood. I’m willing to bet that they’ll surrender if their leader is dead.” Chris said.
“Well I’m not willing to bet,” Cathy replied. “Derek, start to warm up the missiles, we’re firing in T minus two minutes.” “Cathy, we’re begging you,” Chris protested.
“No more begging,” Cathy shook her head. “Get out of my sight, I don’t want to hear any more from you.” Cathy motioned for the guards to escort Chris and Laz out of the room.
Chris and Laz were half escorted and half shoved out of the room. They stumbled outside, nearly falling to the ground as the door was slammed behind them.
“Well, now what?” Laz asked.
“I guess all we can do is go down to the hangar and wait for them to arrive,” Chris replied. They both agreed on this and rushed down towards the hangar as fast as they could, nearly running straight into Daniel and Katie.
“Whoa there,” Daniel cried. “Where are you going?”
“No time to explain, got to hurry!” Chris cried as he and Laz continued to run towards the hangar.
“No kidding,” Katie muttered.
Daniel scratched his head curiously. “Come on, let’s go see what they’re up to.” Katie shrugged and they started to jog after them.
Chris and Laz had barely made it to the hangar before they heard someone announce that a helicopter was trying to enter the hanger, claiming to have information about the emperor.
“Let them through!” Chris shouted. The officer in charge of admitting air vehicles into the hangar immediately complied and the roof opened to allow the helicopter in.
Jordan lowered the helicopter to the landing pad and Ryan, Tim, Emmy, and Jason immediately jumped out.
“We killed the emperor,” Ryan said triumphantly.
“Guys! You got to go stop Cathy hurry!” Chris shouted
“Stop her from doing what?” Ryan shouted.
“She’s going to blow up all of the Imperial army, and no doubt several innocent civilians in the meantime!”
“What?” Ryan cried.
“I said…” Chris began again, but Ryan cut him off.
“No, I heard you the first time, I was just expressing my surprise and horror in a question-like form.”
“Oh… well hurry you have to stop her,” Chris replied. “If she knows that the emperor’s dead she might not launch the missiles.
Ryan immediately sprang into action and began racing as fast as he could towards Cathy’s quarters. He sped by Daniel and Katie on his way, nearly knocking them down as he did.
“What the heck is going on?” Daniel shouted.
“Sorry, I’ll explain later,” Ryan shouted back. He continued to run, refusing to lower his sped. Finally, he reached the stairs to Cathy’s quarters and, taking the stairs two at a time, ran straight for the door.
Before he could reach the door handle, however, two strong guards grabbed him by the wrists and restrained him. “Stop, you’re not allowed in there,” barked one of the guards.
“I’m Ryan Cruise!” Ryan shouted. “I have information about the emperor!”
“Let him through!” came a muffled shout from inside the door.
The guards reluctantly released Ryan and he burst through the door. Inside were Cathy and Derek, looking at him expectantly.
“Well?” Cathy asked.
“I killed the emperor,” Ryan gasped. “Just stop the missile launch before you kill tons of innocent people.”
Cathy glanced at Derek and nodded. Derek immediately got on the phone and Ryan could barely hear him mutter something into the phone.
Cathy turned back towards Ryan. “You know I never thought I’d hear myself say this but, good work, Cruise.”
“Well thank you,” Ryan replied with a grin. “I was worried for a second that I wouldn’t…”
But a loud, earth-shaking explosion suddenly interrupted him. Ryan stumbled and nearly fell, “What the heck was that?” he yelled.
Cathy remained calm, however, giving him a smug smile. “The missiles must have hit their target.”
“But I thought, I thought you were going to…” Ryan sputtered.
“What you think will happen and what actually does happen are two very different things, Cruise,” Cathy said, maintaining her evil grin. “Now that the emperor is dead I will see to it that the role of ruler falls to me and I will have no one questioning my authority. That missile was just a good start.”
“You’re worse than the emperor,” Ryan said in horror. The words had barely left his mouth before the rest of his team burst in the room. Chris, Tim, Emmy, Kayla, Laz, Jordan and even Jason all stood in the doorway with looks of horror and surprise on their faces, except for Jason who always has the same facial expressions.
“What happened, Cathy?” Kayla asked.
“She fired the missiles,” Ryan answered for her. “She deliberately killed tons of innocent people just so she could be empress.”
“Cathy, this can’t be true! Can it?” Emmy pleaded her with her eyes to tell them that it wasn’t.
“It’s true,” Cathy admitted. “The emperor was weak, but where he failed, I will be even stronger.”
“No!” Chris cried lunging towards Cathy, but the guards were quick to restrain him.
“Take them all away!” Cathy cried.
Ryan seized Cathy’s arm. “Please don’t do this,” he begged. “You’re ruining everything we ever fought for.”
Cathy shook off his arm in disgust. “You mean everything you ever fought for. Besides, what did you think would happen?”
“We were kind of hoping we could establish a republic,” Chris replied quietly.
Cathy scoffed. “Please, a republic? That’s preposterous; besides then you wouldn’t be Imperial Mission Force, you’d be Republican Mission Force, and that’s not nearly as catchy.”
“She’s got a point there,” Laz admitted. Suddenly, a small army of guards trailed into the room. They secured each of them in handcuffs and began to drag them away.
“You won’t get away with this!” Ryan shouted.
“Oh, I think I will,” Cathy laughed. “Lock them up!” she commanded the guards.
“Cathy? What happened to you? We were friends!” Kayla shouted as the guards dragged her away.
Cathy merely turned her back on her.

Ryan, Tim, Chris, Laz, Kayla, Emmy, Jordan, and Jason all sat quietly together in their prison cell.
“Well, two whole missions later and we’re right back where we started,” Tim quipped. “Seems like an utter waste of time and space.”
“Maybe,” Emmy said. “But at least we tried.”
“And for what?” Kayla moaned. “To have our own best friend turn on us?”
“Yeah, the whole Cathy thing doesn’t make any sense,” Chris mused. “Maybe she’s another faker with a mask on.”
“Nah, this story has had way too many of those moments already,” Ryan disagreed. “I think she’s for real. I would have predicted it though.”
“Isn’t that the whole point?” Laz asked. “For the ending to be so ridiculous no one would ever believe it but at the same point it is still somewhat believable?”
“Well I don’t know about the believable part,” Tim said, “but yeah, pretty much.”
“In any event, it appears that we’re going to be stuck here for a long time.”
“Not on my watch,” a voice whispered. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skin.
“Who’s that?” Ryan hissed.
“It’s me,” said the man, pressing his face against the bars of their jail cell. “I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Derek?” Ryan exclaimed, recognizing the face.
“Yeah, come on, we’ve got to get you guys out of here.”
“But how?” Tim asked.
“I have the keys you dope,” Derek replied. He shoved the keys into the lock and turned them, and then he shoved the cell door open.
No sooner had Ryan exited the cell then he punched Derek in the face. Shocked, Derek stumbled against the wall. “This is how you thank me?” he asked, feeling his nose for blood.
“Why did you fire those missiles when she told you?” Ryan demanded.
“I had no choice,” Derek insisted. “If I hadn’t she would have killed me.”
“So?”
“Guys, guys, let’s not argue,” Jordan interjected. “Look, Derek has so kindly let us out of here, and although you may not be too happy with him at the moment, I suggest we argue about this later.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes. “Fine,” he muttered gruffly.
“Now, how do we get out of here?” Tim asked.
“Everything’s all arranged,” Derek answered. “Daniel and Katie are waiting for you with vehicle transports. I’ll lead you to them.”
“Are you coming with us?” Kayla asked.
Derek shook his head. “I’m afraid I can not, there’s too much to do here.” Without another word he lead them out of the dungeon. When they had stepped outside, they found Daniel and Katie waiting for them in unmarked vans, just as Derek had promised.
“Come on, let’s go!” Daniel shouted.
“Wait,” Emmy said, coming to a halt. “This is all way too easy.”
“Don’t worry,” Derek assured her. “The writer is just really tired of this story never really being finished and is rushing to a half-hearted conclusion.”
“Huh?”
“It’s easy because Cathy trusts me and gave me too much power,” Derek said.
Still in disbelief that they had been freed so easily, the former prisoners piled into the two vehicles.
“I must go,” Derek said. He shifted his gaze to Daniel and Katie. “Drive and don’t stop until you reach the location I gave you, take a few detours if you think someone is following you.”
Daniel and Katie both nodded.
“I’m sorry that I’ve failed you, Ryan,” Derek apologized.
Suddenly, a loud shout echoed from the dungeon.
“They discovered that we’re missing! Hit it!” Tim shouted. Daniel and Katie immediately obliged.
“I’ll hold them off!” Derek shouted.
Daniel and Katie pushed the gas as hard as they could and the vans sped out of sight, but not before Ryan glanced back to see Derek trying to fend off a dozen well armed men with only a sidearm. The result being that Derek was riddled with several bullets before he finally hit the ground.

The ride was silent for a few hours, at least in the van that contained Daniel, Ryan, Tim, Chris and Laz.
Finally, Chris spoke up. “You know this isn’t over yet, Cathy’s still going to be empress.”
Ryan gave a dark laugh. “I think I might have taken care of that.”
“What do you mean?” Tim asked.
“Just turn on the radio,” Ryan said, declining to say anymore.
Daniel obediently turned on the radio to the Imperial news channel.
“…in breaking news, brand new Empress Cathy was killed just moments ago by an explosion that seemed to emanate from the seat of her pants. Whether a bomb was planted there or if perhaps the former empress just had some rather explosive farts has yet to be determined.”
Daniel switched off the radio. “Okay, I give up. What did you do?” he asked.
Ryan smiled. “Remember our old friend, red light, green light gum?”
Everyone nodded.
“Well just so happens I slipped some in her back pocket right before the guards took us away. So when she sat down and mashed the gum together…”
“Boom,” Tim finished.
“Exactly,” Ryan said, snapping his fingers.
They all sat in silence for another few moments and then Chris broke the silence once more. “So what do we do know?”
“Well, I think it’s pretty obvious,” Daniel replied. “We should start a republic. I mean, I think everyone’s had enough of this empire stuff. Don’t you think?”
“But then there would be no IMF,” Laz protested.
“I don’t think there has been any IMF for a while,” Daniel pointed out.
“Yeah, Daniel’s right,” Tim agreed. “And you know would be perfect to run for supreme chancellor?”
“Who?” Daniel asked, expectantly.
“Chris,” Tim replied.
“Oh…” Daniel said in a disappointed voice. “Yeah, Chris would be great.”
“Really?” Chris said, surprised.
Ryan smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I think he’s right. You’d be great Chris.”
Chris smiled to himself. “But what about you guys?”
“Oh, we’re more like your dirty work kinda guys,” Ryan answered.
“Wait, you guys aren’t gonna leave me behind again, are you?” Laz asked.
“Nah, of course not,” Ryan said, winking at Tim.
“Well it’s settled then,” Tim declared, “We’re starting a revolution!”
“Shouldn’t we ask everyone in the other car about it first?” Daniel asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Nah, I’m sure they’ll be cool with it.”
“But it would be a big step to leave IMF behind forever,” Daniel said.
“Yeah, but like you pointed out, IMF’s been done fore a while now,” Chris said. “Besides, it’s only a name.”
“So that’s it,” Tim muttered to himself more than anyone. “This is the end of IMF.”


The End?

Epilogue: Years later…

Chris leaned back in his chair and sighed. This had been the first chance he’d had to relax in some time. It had been nothing but hectic from the time they had decided to overthrow the empire until the time he had been elected supreme chancellor.
The election had been lopsided, but of course, Chris was completely unaware that Ryan and Tim had gone about rigging the election make it so.
Their excuse for doing so was that the girl running against Chris was so hot that everyone would just vote for her because she looked amazing rather than for her political views, and she was leading Chris in the polls.
“Supreme Chancellor?” a voice sounded over the speakerphone. It was Emmy, Chris’ greatest ally and one of the most influential senators in the newly found senate, next to Kayla.
“Yes?” Chris replied.
“I just spoke with Tim and Ryan and they’re on their way up to see you, just thought I’d let you know.”
“Thanks Emmy.”
Moments later, Ryan and Tim burst through the door, “We heard you needed to see us?” Ryan said.
“Yes, yes, sit down please.”
Ryan and Tim obeyed.
“Where’ Laz?” Chris asked.
Tim and Ryan shrugged. “We don’t know.”

Laz woke up in bed and yawned loudly. Scratching his head sleepily he wandered out to the kitchen and poured himself some cereal. To his surprise he found a note stuck on the table. Curiously, he picked it up and read the note.
It read: “Dear Laz, sorry we didn’t wake you, you just looked so peaceful so we left on Chris’ mission without you, see you when we get back.”
Laz wrinkled up the note angrily and threw it in the garbage. “Idiots,” he muttered to himself.

“Ryan, Tim, I’m going to need a little more dirty work done, are you up to it?” Chris asked.
“Always,” Tim replied.
“Good,” Chris smiled. “You see there is a particular senator, whose name I will not will say here, but I will nonchalantly show you a picture of a senator who may or may not be him.” Chris slipped a picture towards them.
“This is Brock Hussein,” Ryan said.
“Yes it is,” Chris nodded. “Now the senator who is giving me problems has just been moved into his new home here in the capitol. I will also nonchalantly slip this address to you which may or may not be the address of that house.”
“Let me guess,” Ryan said. “You want him… taken care of.”
Chris smiled and nodded. “I trust you’re up to it?”
They both nodded. “As always,” Tim assured him.
“Good,” and with that Chris waved them out of his office.
On their way back down to the car, Tim nudged Ryan’s arm. “Do you ever get the feeling that we’re doing the same exact stuff we did before, just under a different guise.”
Ryan gave him a look. “I think that you think too much.”
Tim sighed. “Maybe… Are you ready?” He opened the passenger door to Ryan’s corvette and climbed inside.
“Yep,” Ryan nodded and got in the driver’s side.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Tim asked.
“What? Oh… yeah, right.” Ryan pulled out a very cool-looking pair of sunglasses and slipped them on. “Now I’m ready.”

And Now It’s Really the End. … Or is it?
No, yeah it really is… For now…

Mission: Payback part 19

Continued from last week...

Back in the Rebel headquarters, Cathy was pacing back and forth across the floor.
“Cathy, you’re gonna wear a hole in the carpet if you keep pacing like that,” Derek said.
“That’s highly unlikely,” Laz piped up. “Given the fact that we’re about fifteen minutes away from being blown sky high there’s no way that she would have enough time to wear a hole in any carpet.”
“Figure of speech,” Derek snapped.
“What’s going on?” Cathy asked more to herself than anyone. “We should have heard from them by now.”
“Maybe something went wrong,” Kayla suggested.
“No! We can’t afford to think like that,” Cathy shook her head violently.
“Ryan has never failed us,” Chris declared confidently.
Just then one of Cathy’s aides interrupted them. “The missile has launched, ma’am.”
Chris stared at the aide dumbly. “Until now,” he whispered.

Emmy and Ryan raced over towards the computer screen. “It’s too late!” Emmy exclaimed. “The missile has launched already.”
“Maybe we can still stop it,” Ryan said. “We have to break that code first, though. Start putting in some codes.”
Emmy started typing frantically. “It’s not world domination,” she said as the computer rejected her first try.
“No,” Ryan shook his head. “He wouldn’t use the same password twice. Try again.”
Emmy tried another password, but it too failed. She looked at Ryan and wrung her hands. “Ryan, I’m out of ideas. What do we do?”
Ryan closed his eyes and racked his brain for any ideas. Finally, he opened his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know…” then his eyes brightened. “I have it!” Ryan gxclaimed, thrusting his finger in the air just as a light bulb magically appeared over his head. Ryan looked up at the light bulb and scratched his head. “Weird… where did that come from?”
“It does that when you come up with a brilliant idea, now what is it?” Emmy explained hastily.
“Well what does a light bulb appearing over your head have to do with coming up with an idea?” Rycn asked. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s just an illustration,” Emmy snapped. “Now what’s your idea?”
“Oh right, the idea.” Ryan rushed over to the computer and typed in a password and clicked enter.
“Access granted,” the computer announced in a monotone voice.
“We’re in!” Emmy exclaimed with amazement. “What was the password?”
“Kill Cruise,” Ryan replied absentmindedly, he was already hammering away at the keyboard.
“Wait…” Emmy spoke up after watching Ryan type away at the keyboard for several seconds. “Whct are you doing?”
“Trying to stop the missile, what does it look like?” Ryan replied in an irritated tone.
Emmy’s brow wrinkled in a confused frown. “It looks like your just typing a bunch of random keys.”
“I am not!” Ryan shouted defensively. “This is a very complicated procedure,” he paused and then added, “They do it in the movies all the time.”
Emmy through up her hands and sighed. “I was afraid of that,” she moaned. Emmy thrust Ryan away from the keyboard. “Here, let me at it.” Emmy started typing away at the computer furiously.
“Hey!” Ryan complained. “I was this close!” he held his thumb less than an inch from his finger.

“Done,” Emmy declared, turning and giving Ryan a smug grin.
Ryan’s eyes narrowed in a look of bewilderment. “What the…? But you were doing the same thing I did.”
Emmy shrugged and returned her attention to the computer once more. “You must have not been hitting the right keys.”
“Ha! Not hitting the right keys my--” Ryan started to say but he was cut off by Emmy’s worried remark.
“Uh-oh, I think we have a problem.”
“What?” Ryan asked, trying to peer over Emmy’s shoulder at the computer screen.
Emmy turned back and faced the computer again. “I don’t think I can terminate the missile.”
Ryan stared at her blankly and then demanded, “Speak English, please.”
“That was English,” Emmy fired back.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Simpler English then.”
“I can’t stop this thing!” Emmy shouted in his ear. “There you get that!?”
Ryan rocked back a step, stunned. He blinked and rubbed his ear. “Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don’t have to shout I’m right here.”
“What are we going to do?” Emmy asked frantically.
Ryan pondered her question for a second, rubbing the stubble on his chin thoughtfully before replying, “can we steer it?”
Emmy paused as if trying to remember if this were possible. “I’m not sure,” she finally said.
“Well can we try?” Ryan asked.
Turning back towards the computer, Emmy scanned the screen. “It’s a good thought… but I’m not sure how we would steer it.”
Ryan pointed towards the screen. “What does that button that says ‘pop out joystick’ do?”
Emmy moved the mouse into position and clicked the button. There was a whirring sound and a square hole opened in the top of the desk. A few seconds later, a joystick rose into view and the whirring sound stopped with a metallic clicking sound.
“Oh,” Ryan said. “That makes sense…” he grabbed the joystick and shifted it around, testing it.
“What does it do?” Emmy asked.
“Steers the missile I’m hoping,” was Ryan’s answer. He jerked the joystick to the right. His effort was awarded by an alarm on the computer.
“Missile veering off course,” the computer warned.
“It’s working!” Emmy shouted joyously, clapping her hands.
“Just turn off that stupid alarm,” Ryan yelled over the loud sirens blaring from the computer.
Emmy pushed a few buttons and the alarms ceased. She turned back towards Ryan and took a deep breath, and brushed her hair off of her face. “Where are you going to divert it to?”
Ryan grinned. “I have the perfect place.”

Back at the Rebel’s temporary headquarters, Cathy paced back and forth worriedly.
“One minute, fifty-seven seconds until impact,” the Rebel computer announced. “One minute, fifty-six sec--”
“Just tell us when it gets down to thirty seconds, ok?” Cathy sncpped at the computer.
“Yes ma’am,” the computer replied evenly.
Chris and Laz were carrying on a rather nervous conversation in the corner of the room, each hoping and praying that their old friend would miraculously come through once again.
Standing somewhat closer to the anxious Cathy was Derek. He too was nervous, although you could hardly tell it. The only sign of anxiety he showed has the constant tapping of his foot, otherwise he was completely calm.
“Come on, Cruise,” Cathy hissed under her breath, continuing to pace across the room.
“Give him time, Cathy,” Derek said.
Cathy whirled around to face him. “We may not have much time left, Derek,” she pointed out.
Chris piped up from over in the corner, “Cruise has never failed us Cathy, and he won’t fail us now.”
Cathy remained silent for a moment and ran her fingers through her hair. “I certainly hope not,” she whispered.

Over in the Imperial camp’s headquarters, the Imperial general was standing in front of the computer screen with his hands folded behind his back and a confident look on his face.
One of his men walked up to him and stood by his side, waiting for orders. The general simply ignored him and kept his gaze on the computer screen in front of him.
“Thirty seconds until impact,” the computer notified them in a monotone voice.
The general turned his attention towards the soldier standing beside him. “Just a few more seconds and we will have crushed this pitiful rebellion,” he said gleefully.
The man dipped his head and smiled. “Congratulations, sir,” he replied.
The general let a grin spread across his face and chuckled. “And to think that Morris was so worried about that Ryan Cruise character that he actually left the battle scene. Ha, not that it’s much of a battle of course, but it still seems regrettable that he’ll miss the fireworks.”
“It does, sir,” the soldier replied politely.
The general opened his mouth to speak but then paused. “Do you hear that?” he asked, a bewildered frown replacing his triumphant grin.
The soldier gave a confused look in return and shook his head. “Hear what, sir?”
“That whistling noise,” the general continued. “It almost sounds like a mi--” was all managed to get out before he was cut off as a loud explosion shook the Imperial camp. The general lifted his hand to protect himself from the unseen danger but before he could move a step he, and nearly the entire Imperial camp, was engulfed in a ball of flames.

Cathy and the others heard the explosion only split seconds before they felt the slight tremor in the floor underneath them. They froze in an instant, bewildered and momentarily frightened for their lives. But when it became apparent that the explosion was nowhere near them and that they were in no immediate danger, their looks changed from bewildered and frightened, to simply bewildered.
“What was that?” Chris broke the silence by voicing the question that was on all their minds.
“I think it was a missile,” Laz suggested.
“Of course it was a missile,” Kayla snapped. “But was it our missile?”
“I wasn’t aware that we had a missile that big,” Laz retorted.
“That’s not what I meant, stupid,” Kayla shot back.
“Hey!” Laz objected. “I am not stupid… just misunderstood.”
Cathy ignored their comments and checked the computer. “According to the computer, the missile should have detonated by now.”
“I think it just did,” Chris said softly.
Realizing what Chris was implying, Kayla smiled and gave a sigh of relief. “Then that means that Ryan succeeded.”
Derek, who had remained silent since the explosion, spoke up. “He may have succeeded, but that doesn’t change the fact that, in a few minutes, Ryan Cruise will be dead thanks to us. That is if he isn’t already.”

Daniel and Katie were spending a rare moment of time together when the missile exploded. They both jumped from to their feet as the missile lit up the sky, lighting the sky for miles.
“I think that was the Imperial camp!” Katie exclaimed.
“Was that our missile?” Daniel asked, looking at Katie.
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Just then a shout burst forth from the camp. “Woohoo! You don’t mess with the Rebellion!”
Several cries echoed the anonymous shout, until the whole camp was filled with cheers.
“Does this mean we’ve won?” Katie shouted over the din.
Daniel shook his head slowly. “I don’t think anything will end this except the death of the emperor."

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 18

Continued from last week...

The giant bird moved in closer and dropped a rope from the passenger door. A man dressed in black slid down the rope and landed on the floor a few feet away.
“Chuck Morris!” Emmy gasped.
The man, who was indeed Chuck Morris, chuckled. “Guilty as charged. Looks like your feeble efforts to save your pitiful friends are over.” He raised his gun and pointed it at them.
“No!” Tim cried. He leapt from the ground and made a grab at Morris’ gun. A shot rang out and Tim flinched but that didn’t stop his charge. He seized Chuck Morris’ arm and held on for dear life. Chuck Morris tried to pry himself free but to no avail. Then with a grunt he finally flung Tim out the window. Tim screamed as he fell into the courtyard, his cries echoing through the air.
“Pesky beast,” Morris muttered. He looked down at his hand, which was now empty, and grunted.
Emmy cried out in disbelief. “Tim!” She shifted her gaze to Chuck Morris, infuriated. “Why you!” She lunged at Chuck Morris but he simply batted her aside as if she were a rage doll, smashing her into the wall. Emmy slumped to the floor, unconscious.
Chuck returned his focus to Ryan and grinned. “Looks like it’s just you and me, Cruise.”
“If all you really wanted was to be alone with me, you could have just asked,” Ryan quipped.
“You won’t be such a smart mouth when I’m finished with you, Cruise,” Chuck Morris threatened.
“Your forgetting one thing,” Ryan shot back.
Chuck hesitated. “What is that?”
“I’m the one who has a gun.” Quick as a flash, Ryan drew his sidearm from his holster and squeezed off two quick shots at Morris, his last two shots left.
Morris quickly brought his gloved hand up and stretched it out. Both the bullets smacked into Morris’ hand and crumpled on impact, falling harmlessly to the floor.
Ryan stared at him in disbelief. “I gotta get me some of those gloves,” he whispered. Then he snapped his attention back to Morris and squeezed the trigger again. But once again he was awarded only with a soft clicking noise.
“Oh,” Morris said, tauntingly. “I’m afraid you’re all out.”
Ryan threw the useless weapon to the ground. “Yes, I guess so. Tell me one thing though, before we fight until one of us is dead.”
“What is that?” Morris asked.
“Where did you purchase those gloves?” Almost before he had finished his question, Ryan leaped into the air, landed on his left foot and attempted a kick with his right.
Morris effortlessly caught his right leg in mid-kick and punched him in the face, sending him flying backwards into the desk.
Ryan shook his head and blinked his eyes rapidly. “Someone’s been eating their Wheaties,” he groaned, never losing his sarcastic nature.
Chuck Morris spit on the ground and charged at Ryan. He grabbed him by the collar and threw him onto the desk, raising his arm in an effort to slam his elbow into Ryan’s gut.
Ryan rolled off the desk, narrowly dodging Morris’ elbow, which crashed into the desk, breaking the emperor’s prized desk in two.
Chuck roared with rage and pursued Ryan, who was now crawling backward away from him. “This is ridiculous!” Ryan cried, genuinely concerned for the first time in perhaps ever.
Morris snickered. “Did you think people were joking when they said that I could kill a man with a single toothpick?”
“Well I was kind of hoping,” Ryan chuckled nervously.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Morris grunted. He picked Ryan up by the collar and threw him into the wall.
“Oof!” Ryan groaned, the wind knocked out of his lungs.
Morris rushed forward once again, seeking to plant his fist right in Ryan’s face, but Ryan moved quickly to the left and Morris’ fist left a hole in the wall instead. Trying to catch him off guard, Ryan rolled to his feet and planted a sweeping hook into Morris’ ribcage. Morris turned to Ryan and growled. He punched Ryan once again, sending him flying across the room and tumbling over a chair.
“You’ll find that I have no weak spots, Cruise,” Morris taunted.
“Every man has at least one weak spot,” Ryan replied, breathlessly. He ducked as Morris picked a chair and threw at him. Using the momentum of his dodge, Ryan rolled across the floor and kicked Morris right in the groin. Much to Ryan’s surprise, Morris didn’t even flinch, he simply growled louder.
“Strange, that usually works,” Ryan breathed as he dodged another one of Morris’ powerful punches. “Are you sure you’re a man?” he asked.
Morris’ only response was to once again send Ryan sailing across the room with one of his overpowering punches.
Ryan shook his head and struggled to get up. “Phew! That really clears up the sinuses.”
Morris ignored his comment and grabbed onto a metal handrail on the wall. With a grunt he tore the bar from its screws and wielded it in his hand.
“Now it is time for you to die, Ryan Cruise.” He swung the bar at Ryan. Ryan ducked not a second too soon, the bar passing just inches over his head. The attack had caught him off guard, however, and Ryan stumbled and fell to the ground.
Morris raised the bar over his head and slammed it down, inches from Ryan’s shoulder. Ryan rolled to his right just avoiding another crushing blow from the bar.
This only seemed to infuriate Morris even more, however, he continued to swing the bar at Ryan, harder and harder.
Ryan rolled to his feet and leapt back just in time to avoid being whacked in the ribs with Morris’ bar.
Chuck Morris continued the swing the bar almost wildly, pushing Ryan backwards towards the gaping hole in the emperor’s office.
Ryan kept backing up, looking for a way of escape; he had long since given up any hope of beating the seemingly invincible Chuck Morris in a fight. As he searched for an escape route, however, Ryan tripped and fell over backwards. Frantically, Ryan started crab-walking backwards, trying to get away. Morris was to fast, however; he leapt in front of Ryan and cut off his escape.
Ryan glanced up at Morris’ harrowing figure and swallowed nervously. “Truce?” he said weakly.
“Nice try, Cruise,” Morris snarled. He grabbed Ryan by his collar and shoved him against the wall, holding his makeshift club at arms’ length. He raised the bar above his head, preparing to bash Ryan’s head in. Before he delivered the blow, Morris peered at Ryan curiously. “Any last words from the infamous Ryan Cruise?”
“Just two,” Ryan mumbled, his head hanging from his shoulders, a seemingly beaten man.
“And what might they be?” Morris asked in a taunting tone.
Ryan set his teeth and snapped his head up, staring into Chuck Morris’ eyes. He practically spit the words onto Morris’ face: “Drop dead.”
Morris started to chuckle, but the laugh stuck in his throat. He coughed and his eyes grew wide; his breathing stopped, and the metal bar slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground. Then with a last gasp, Morris fell limp to the ground.
“Wow…” Ryan whispered, staring at Morris’ fallen corpse. “I didn’t think that would actually work…”

For those of you who are somewhat confused as to what exactly happened to Chuck Morris, the following is an explanation of his death.
Chuck Morris was a seemingly invincible character. He was as strong and invulnerable as he was famous. He killed, it seemed, at will and it also seemed as if no one could stop him. He even once famously killed a man with a toothpick. But what hit Morris just before he was able to kill Ryan Cruise was smaller than the end of a toothpick. It was a blood clot. If Morris had asked his doctor about a pill, which we cannot define in any detail due to legal reasons (other to say that it is the color green and could possibly have had something to do with blood clots) he may have been alive long enough to actually kill Cruise. But since Morris hadn’t visited a doctor in thirty years he was unable to ask about this said green pill and get a recommendation from his doctor. So remember, don’t end up like Chuck Morris, ask your doctor about the green pill today. (This message brought to you by: The green pill. Ask your doctor about it today… or just take it without asking your doctor… that works too.) *

* Should not be used if pregnant or nursing. If you’re a man, save yourself some time and don’t worry about it.
Side effects may include: Diarrhea, constipation, lack of sleep, dry mouth, restless leg syndrome, hives, sudden depletion of cash funds, swollen tongue, other various allergies, and in some rare cases, even death.

Back to the main story…

Still confused by the timely demise of Chuck Morris, Ryan stumbled away from the corpse, a dazzled look on his face. His confusion was interrupted, however, by a soft groan.
“Ryan?” someone whispered softly.
“Emmy!” Ryan exclaimed. He ran over to where Emmy was still lying after having been thrown against the wall. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Emmy said, rubbing her head softly. “I think so. What happened? With Morris I mean.”
Ryan straightened up proudly. “Well it was a hard fought battle between him and I, but I came out the better man in the end. He just couldn’t dodge that left hook of mine.”
Emmy rolled her eyes. “Forget it, Ryan. I saw the whole thing, he had you from the start.”
Ryan snapped his fingers. “Dang it! I was hoping you hadn’t seen that.”
Emmy smiled, but her smile quickly disappeared and was replaced with a look of confusion. “What did kill him though?”
Ryan shrugged. “I have no idea, I’m just gonna go with it and not ask any questions.”
Just then there was a crashing sound beside them, and a loud groan. Emmy jumped to her feet and froze. “The emperor!” she explained. “We forgot all about him!”
“Geez, how in the world could we do that?” Ryan wondered aloud. He and Emmy both rushed over to the emperor’s desk, but they were too late. The emperor was already standing by his desk, his hand hovering over yet another button.
“Yes, how could you two forget about me?” the emperor asked, wiping the blood that was trickling from his mouth. “I guess you won’t be doing that again, will you?” he slammed his hand down on the button and suddenly he sank through the floor.
Ryan raced over to where the emperor had been standing moments ago, but he had vanished. “Trap door!” Ryan slammed his hand down on the ground.
“Now what?” Emmy cried. “What do we do?”
“We have to go after him!” Ryan replied.
“What about Tim? And Jason? And Jordan?”
“We’re gonna have to trust that they’re still alive and can get out of her on their own,” Ryan said.
He stood up and started searching the emperor’s desk for the button to the trap door. “Where does he hide those buttons?” he mumbled.
The entire desk, it seemed, was covered with little buttons.
“How does he even have room to work?” Emmy said aloud.
“I think the desk is more for show,” Ryan guessed. He pushed one of the several buttons and a TV slid out from the ceiling. “That’s not it.” He pushed another one and a mirror popped out of the desk. “Nope.” Ryan started to push another button, but a loud siren that erupted from the computer rudely interrupted him.
“Missile launch,” the computer stated in a mechanical voice.
“Uh-oh,” Ryan stopped pushing buttons and faced the computer. “I think we forgot about something else too.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 17

Continued from last week... (Just out of curiousity does anyone even glance at this besides Laz and Tim? Just wondering...)

The emperor shook his head and grinned at the former IMF agents coyly. “I’m afraid you won’t be escaping this time, Cruise. Your fate is finally sealed.” He pushed yet another button on his desk and the floor that Tim, Emmy, and Ryan were standing on slowly started to slide out from under them. “You’ll find that my piranhas are anxiously waiting for you at the bottom of that hole,” the emperor gloated.
“How many freaking buttons does he have on that desk?” Ryan muttered.
“Oh crap,” Tim groaned. “This is not good.”
“Any other startling revelations?” Emmy asked sarcastically.
“Stop it, just try to find something to hang on to,” Tim ordered.
“Like what? We’re in a glass box!” Emmy exclaimed, starting to panic. They only had half as much floor to stand on now, and the space they had was slowly growing smaller.
“I’m slipping!” Emmy said, now in full panic. “I can’t hang on any more!”
“Don’t panic,” Ryan commanded her. He switched places with her so that she was standing farther away farther away from the hole. “Here, get back.”
“That’s not gonna matter much in a few minutes,” Emmy pointed out.
“I was just trying to be nice,” Ryan said.
They had hardly anything to stand on now, how they were still hanging on was beyond Tim.
“Man, oh man,” Tim groaned. “If we make it out of this I’m never doing anything adventurous again.” They could hear the piranhas in the water below them, splashing in anticipation.
“Guys,” Emmy said. “If we don’t make it, there’s something I want to tell you both.”
“Yeah?” Ryan looked over at her, still just barely hanging on.
Just then someone screamed and hurdled their body into the emperor’s and knocking him to the ground. “NO! Stop!” the person cried.
“Sarah?” Ryan exclaimed. Apparently the bullet he’d put in her shoulder had not killed her, just temporarily taken her out of the action.
Sarah slammed down on the button and the floor stopped moving.
“Sarah, I knew you’d turn around!” Ryan exclaimed.
Sarah hit another button and the glass cage disappeared back into the floor. Tim, Emmy, and Ryan tumbled to the ground, relieved that they weren’t tumbling into a pit of piranhas.
“I couldn’t let the emperor kill you,” Sarah said.
“Cause you realized that you really are good inside?” Ryan guessed.
“No,” Sarah shook her head and laughed. “Because I wanted the pleasure of doing it myself.” She brought her gun to Ryan’s head.
“I have to admit, that wasn’t he change I was hoping for,” Ryan said, never missing a beat.
“You always were a wisecrack,” Sarah said, disapprovingly. “Even to your grave.” She squeezed her finger harder on the trigger. Ryan closed his eyes and waited for his fate. There was a soft Pftt! Sound, but Ryan’s head didn’t explode; he didn’t see any white light and the angel of death didn’t greet him. In fact, nothing happened. Ryan looked up and saw why. Sarah hadn’t pulled the trigger. She couldn’t have because there was a large bullet hole in her forehead. Sarah dropped to the floor, dead.
“Who was that?” Emmy asked from behind Ryan.
“Who do you think?” came a soft, unemotional voice.
“Jason!” Emmy exclaimed.
Indeed standing by the broken window was Jason Scorn, silenced rifle in hand. He motioned for them to come to the window. “Come on I’ve got the chopper waiting, let’s go.”
Ryan started towards the window, but then suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his wrist. “Ow!”
“What is it?” Emmy asked.
“It’s a GPS chip,” Ryan said, staring at his arm. “I’d almost forgotten about it.”
“GPS chips don’t hurt,” Tim observed.
“This one’s different,” Ryan explained. “It sends a pain through my nervous system when it’s actkvated.”
“So it’s been activated?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, that’s something they’d only do in case of emergency. Derek must really be in trouble.”
“Derek? Why Derek?” Emmy questioned him.
“Because he’s the only one with the code,” Ryan replied. He turned to Jason, “I need your phone.”
Jason shook his head. “We need to get out of here, now.”
“This is urgent, just give me the phone!” Ryan ordered.
Jason stared at him for a minute, and then tossed Ryan the phone.
Ryan caught it very stylishly in midair and then hurriedly dialed Derek’s number. “This had better be good,” he muttered.

Derek stared at the screen, shocked. “What in the world is he doing there?”
“How should I know?” Cathy shrugged.
“He’s certainly kept himself busy in his absence,” Chris observed coming up behind them.
“And without me!” Laz lamented.
“What does it matter,” Kayla mumbled. “He’ll be dead soon anyways, thanks to the both of you.”
Derek flinched, but Cathy acted as if she hadn’t heard the comment.
“What do we do now?” Chris askgd.
“Wait for him to contact us,” Derek answered. Almost before the words were out of his mouth, Derek’s phone started ringing. He snatched it from his waist and glanced at the I.D. “It’s Cruise,” he announced.
“Put him on speaker,” Cathy ordered as Derek answered the phone. Derek obliged.
“Hello?” Derek shouted into the receiver.
“This is Cruise,” Ryan’s voice crackled from the phone. “What seems to be the problem?”
“Normally I’d ask what you’re doing in the emperor’s office, but that’s not important at the moment,” Cathy spoke into the phone. “The reason we contacted you is that there’s a missile headed straight for our camp.”
“And you want me to stop it, is that it?”
“Well we were hoping,” Cathy admitted.
“How would you suggest I do that? Throw a rope around it and veer it off course?”
“No, we believe that the emperor can control his missiles from his main computer. And since you’re in his office at this moment, it all works out.”
“All right, all right, I’ll do it. How do I get to this missile program on the computer?”
“Listen closely,” Cathy replied. “I’ll give you the basic rundown.”

Chuck Morris stood in the Imperial camp’s observation tower, overlooking his mighty army. “And to think this is only a fraction of the emperor’s power,” he spoke to himself. “The entire world will soon belong to the emperor.” His fantasizing was interrupted, however, by one of his henchmen.
“Sir,” one of his men tapped him on the shoulder.
“What?” Morris snapped, irritated that his daydreaming had been cut short.
“There’s been a disturbance at the emperor’s getaway palace,” the man replied.
“So? How is that my concern?”
“Sir, we believe that it’s Cruise.”
Morris looked away and scowled. “Bring me a chopper.”

“Okay,” Ryan nodded, receiving the last of Cathy’s instructions. “I’ll let you know when the missile’s launch has been cancelled.”
“Hurry,” Cathy urged from the other line. “There’s less than 15 minutes until it launches according to our source.”
Ryan snapped the phone shut and flipped it back to Jason. “We have a missile to stop before we go,” he informed him.
Jason’s squinted. “You’re pushing it…”
“Don’t I always?”
“Good point,” Emmy said already firing up the emperor’s computer. “Great,” she hissed. “There’s a password.”
“Of course there is,” Tim said, coming over beside her.
Ryan joined them. “Well, break the code.”
“This would be easier if Laz were here,” Emmy whispered. “He can do all this stuff a lot better.”
“Laz isn’t here,” Tim reminded her. “Just type in some possibilities.”
Emmy obeyed and typed in a few random numbers. She pressed enter key but the code was rejected.
“Four more tries before alarm is triggered,” the computer informed them.
“Great!” Emmy slammed the desk. “I’ll never get it in four tries!”
“Just keep trying!” Tim ordered.
She tried a couple more but they failed as well. “There’s only two more tries,” Emmy announced. “If I fail them both the whole computer will lockdown.”
“Try again,” Ryan said, absentmindedly.
Emmy tried once more, but once more her effort failed. “One more try,” she said, nervously. She started to type another code, but Ryan stopped her.
“Wait!” Ryan cried. He grabbed the keyboard and punched in a different code.
“Access granted,” the computer announced.
“You did it!” Emmy shouted, clapping her hands.
“What was the code?” Tim asked, as Ryan searched for the missile launch sequence program.
“World domination,” Ryan replied. “Aha!” he exclaimed. “Here it is! Oh great! There’s another password!”
Suddenly there was a loud explosion and Ryan, Emmy, and Tim were all thrown up against the wall. A whole section of the roof caved in on the other side of the room and Jason was knocked from his perch by the window into the courtyard below.
Ryan glanced up at the gaping hole in the emperor’s office ceiling and gasped. “Helicopter!”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 16

Continued from ages past... when Bush was still president...

Christophear and Laz looked on in amazement at the myriad of lights slowly moving in their direction.
Chris gasped. “Holy…”
“Crap,” Laz finished his sentence for him. “That’s the emperor’s army?”
Cathy, who was standing beside them watching from the rebel army’s temporary headquarters, gave a slight nod.
Laz whistled. “Their lights must outnumber ours three to one.”
“Most likely ten to one,” Chris corrected.
“Whatever! It’s hard to count lights okay, they keep moving…”
Cathy grunted. “This will be our last stand. We will forever be remembered for our courageous, seemingly hopeless struggle with the emperor’s vast armies.”
“Who cares about glory if we’re all dead?” Laz muttered.
Chris frowned. “There has to be a way to obtain glory and still be alive to enjoy it.”
“Well when you find out what way that is, be sure and let me know,” Cathy said.
Laz and Chris fell silent, contgmplating her words. Suddenly, a loud whistling noise broke through the silence. It screeched towards the rebel camp and exploded with a mighty. Rebel soldiers went flying across the camp, and they could hear several loud, blood-curdling screams.
“Missiles,” Laz gasped.
Cathy nodded. “And so it begins.”

“So…” Ryan ventured. He was still standing at gunpoint with his arms raised above his head. “How are we going to do this?” His question was directed at the emperor.
The emperor peered at him inquisitively and shook his head. “I never understood you, Cruise.”
“Neither did my mother,” Ryan interjected. “Or any of my teachers for that matter.”
The emperor rolled his eyes and continued. “Even in the face of death, you continue to wear that stupid grin as if nothing were wrong. Why?”
Ryan shrugged and started to answer but something caught his eye. Someone had moved past the window outside. Jason! It had to be! Ryan snapped his attention back to the emperor stalling for time. “I guess you’ll never know. So what’s it gonna be, emperor? Death by firing squad? No, that’s far too simple for you. How about the electric chair? No, too humane. Perhaps a good old-fashioned hanging? No, too old-fashioned. Hmm… Oh! I have it! An alligator pit!”
The emperor chuckled. “Very close my old friend, but you will not have the pleasure of alligators. No, you will die feeding my piranha collection!”
Ryan yawned. “That’s been done before, I was really hoping you would come up with something new.”
“There’s only so many ways to kill a man!” the emperor snapped.
“Well…” Ryan continued still stalling for time. “You could hang me with barbed wire.”
“Barbed wire?” the emperor said thoughtfully. “Has that been done before?”
“Not since Hitler,” Ryan replied.
“Oh Hitler! My role model, how perfect!”
“Of course you’d have to video tape it as well, and then watch it in your private theater,” Ryan added.
“Oh yes of course, guards go get my video—wait what am I saying? Darn you, Cruise! Guards, take him away and see that he has his wish, a hanging with barbed wire!”
Just as the guards started to drag Ryan out of the room, a window crashed and the room erupted in gunfire. Ryan took the opportunity of the guard’s distraction to dive to the floor and trip the two guards who had been holding him. As the two guards fell to the ground their guns clattered on the floor. Ryan reached out and grabbed the fallen sidearm to his right and kicked the other one to his left. He brought the gun in his hand up and shot two of the guards. Then he trained his gun on Sarah and squeezed the trigger. Sarah jolted backwards and slammed to the wall. She fell to the ground unconscious, clutching her shoulder where the bullet had struck her.
Across the room where the window had broken, Emmy and Tim climbed throwgh the broken shards of glass, automatic rifles in hand. Tim walked over to the emperor’s desk and slammed a button down, filling a nearby guard with bullet holes in the process. The doors to the emperor’s office slid shut and locked into place.
Tim eliminated the last of the guards in the room and then turned to the emperor. “Checkmate,” he growled.
“Checkmate?” Emmy smirked. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know,” Tim muttered, embarrassed. “I just thought it would sound kill to say. Checkmate, you know like in chess when you… Oh never mind!” Tim focused his attention back on the emperor. “In any case, we finally got you, dirt bag.”
“Congratulations,” the emperor threw up his hands, looking rather calm.
“Man, am I glad you guys are here,” Ryan spoke up, picking himself up off the floor.
“Why because you thought you were finally going to die for once?” Emmy said, half-serious.
“No, because it would have been a lot harder to get out of this mess without you two,” Ryan replied.
Emmy just rolled her eyes and pretended to gag. “Ach, help your ego is so big its choking me.”
“Very funny,” Ryan said, frowning.
“Guys!” Tim snapped. “The emperor…”
“Right, of course,” Emmy said, snapping to attention. Then she noticed Sarah, lying on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from the shoulder. “Sarah!” she exclaimed. “What happened to her?” she started to go over and assist her but Ryan grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Leave her,” he commanded. “She’s betrayed us.”
“Sarah?” Emmy gasped in disbelief. “Not Sarah! She was one of us!”
“Apparently not…” Tim muttered.
“I never did understand her,” Ryan shook his head, still in disbelief himself. He stared for a few seconds and then snapped his attention back to the emperor. “But at least now we have you,” he said.
The emperor eyed Ryan, and spoke. “Looks as if I’ve finally met my end, but if you’re going to kill me I want you to do it right.”
“What according to your fantasy?” Ryan asked, taking a step towards Emmy and Tim.
“Well yes… I would prefer to be stabbed in the back, it portrays betrayal and I’ve always known that one day I would be betrayed.”
“Sorry emperor,” Ryan said, taking a couple more steps towards his fellow agents until he was standing by them. “But your days are up, and we will be the ones to decide how they end.”
The emperor grinned and cackled. “Oh to the contrary my young friends, it is your days that are up.” Before any of them could question his comment the emperor slammed his hand down on yet another button. In the blink of an eye glass walls surrounded them and a glass ceiling was slammed into place from above.
The emperor smiled his evil smile. “Fancy, eh? Its my latest addition to my series of traps that ensure no man will ever leave this building alive unless I will it.”
Ryan raised his gun and aimed it at the glass prison that surrounded them.
“Oh, don’t bother, Cruise,” the emperor said in a taunting tone. “I’m afraid that your little glass cage is completely bullet proof. Trying to shoot your way out will only deafen you and nothing more.”
Tim reached up and tapped on the glass. “He’s not bluffing, it’s bullet proof.”
“What do we do now?” Emmy asked in despair.
Tim turned to Ryan. “Well, how do you usually get out of these jams?”
Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know, things just happen.”
“Well you better hope something does happen,” Tim replied. “And fast.”

Derrick awoke from his temporary nap with a start. The explosion had rattled the entire campground and as the newly promoted commander of the ground forces Derrick was very much in all of the action. He rolled off his cot and blinked from the bright light caused by the flames in the middle of his army’s camp.
Just then Daniel burst into his quarters. “Sir, we’ve been attacked!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Derrick roared. “Now get over there and help them put that fire out!” He grabbed the earpiece sitting beside his cot and spoke into it, “prepare to return fire!”
“Aye, aye, sir,” came the response. “Ready to fire when you are, sir.”
“Fire now! Fire!” Derrick yelled.
“Understood, sir. There is no need to yell.”
“Sorry,” Derrick mumbled. “Got caught up in the emotion.”
“Understandable, sir. You have been under a lot of stress lately…”
“Just fire the missiles! You can play doctor later.”
“Right away, sir.” Derrick felt the tremor in the ground as the missiles were launched in response.
Suddenly, a new voice crackled onto his headset. “Derrick? This is Kayla. We need you in the observation room immediately!”
“Can it wait?” Derrick asked, slightly annoyed. “I’m kind of busy right now with the new promotion and all.”
“I’m afraid it can’t,” Kayla replied. “Cathy wants you up here now, its urgent.”
“All right,” Derrick grumbled. “I’m on my way up.”
Derek made his way up to the observation room a few minutes later and burst through the door. “What is it?”
Cathy was standing by a large table with a map of the battlefield on it. There were little figurines scattered across the table, some were blue and the others red. He scanned the room, only three other people were there: Chris, Laz, and Kayla.
Derek glanced at the table. “Is that a layout of the battlefield?”
“Nah,” Laz waved him off. “It just looks professional.”
“The reason I called you here,” Cathy interjected. “Was to inform you that we have a missile crisis.”
“Well thanks a lot, ma’am but I’m afraid you’re a little late,” Derek replied somewhat irritated. “The missile already killed over a dozen of my men.”
“No, I’m not talking about that kind of a missile. I’m talking about the real thing. That missile will seem like a toy compared to this one!” Cathy had beads of sweat dripping from her nose.
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean we were going to launch a preemptive strike, but the emperor beat us to it with that last missile, and now he’s going to finish the job. If this missile hits us it will destroy the whole camp and everyone in it.”
“How did you find out about this?” Derek asked, sitting down hard.
“We have our sources inside the empire,” Cathy replied.
“What do you want from me?”
Cathy sighed. “This whole showdown thing was foolish, we should have stayed hidden in the rebel base.”
“We tried to point that out,” Kayla said. “This is not how Ryan would have--”
“I don’t want to hear how Ryan would have done it!” Cathy interrupted. She sat down and sighed again. “But we do need his help. As much as I hate to admit it, if anyone can stop that missile he can. Derek, where can we find him?”
“I wouldn’t know--”
“Oh cut the bull, Derek,” Cathy snapped. “I know has a GPS tracking chip inserted in his left arm; the emperor put it there himself for ‘emergencies’.”
“That’s not just a GPS tracking device, its poison!” Derek yelled. “The tracking device was inserted in case Cruise was ever captured or turned on us. It was so we could tell where he was and ensure that he was eliminated.”
“Yes, I know that,” Cathy replied. “Although I still can’t understand why the emperor hasn’t activated it yet.”
“That’s because he can’t, I only I know the code to activate the chip because I changed it.”
“That’s why we need your help, Derek.”
“Your asking me to sentence Cruise to death, Cathy… I can’t do that.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you!” Cathy shouted. “It may be the only way to save us.”
Kayla spoke up, her voice shaking a little. “You can’t seriously be suggesting that we--”
“Yes, I am!” Cathy was clearly desperate.
“We can’t let you do that,” Chris protested.
“Not Ryan,” Laz agreed.
“Look, its either Ryan, or all these people out there,” Cathy pointed outside towards the camp. “Its your call, Derek.”
Derek put his head in his hands, the decision torturing his mind. “Cruise is a good friend of mine,” he said, almost in defeat.
“Derek,” Kayla said worriedly. “Derek, don’t do it!”
“Ryan would have wanted it this way,” Cathy said forcibly.
Derek glared at Cathy. “Yes he would have but it is hardly up to your or I to make that call.”
“Ryan isn’t here to make the call,” Cathy shot back.
“I know,” Derek whispered.
“What’s the code, Derek?” Cathy demanded. Derek stared at her, incoherently. “What’s the code?”
“3681007,” Derek mumbled. “God forgive me,” he added.
Cathy walked over to a nearby computer and punched in the code. “You’ve don the Rebel alliance a great service,” she said.
“No,” Derek shook his head. “Ryan has.”
Kayla, Chris, and Laz just stared into space, the realization of what had just happened sinking in.
Cathy gasped from over by the computer.
Derek looked up. “What is it?”
“I don’t believe this,” Cathy whispered. “Look at this.”
Derek walked over and looked over her shoulder.
“I don’t know how he found this place but he’s in the emperor’s office at his secret fortress.”

To be continued very soon... I promise

Mission 5: Payback part 15

Okay here is the long overdue next part of Mission 5. Hopefully whoever still reads this thing will appreciate it, and maybe i'll get to the end eventually...lol

Continued... from ages ago... when IMF was still slightly relevant in our daily lives... or not... anyways...

Tim and Emmy searched the helicopter, frantically. “Sarah!” Emmy hissed.
“Look, it’s useless,” Jordan shook his head. “She’s not here.”
“Where is she then?” Tim asked.
“Where do you think?” Jordan said, pointing towards the mansion.
Tim sighed. “Oh… great.”

Ryan stood on one leg with his hand touching the ground and his rear in the air, with his other leg sticking out at an obscure angle. “You know,” Ryan grunted, trying desperately not to touch the lasers surrounding him. “This is really awkward…”
Jason, who was slightly ahead of him, just grunted in response.
“Sooo…” Ryan ventured. “What’s next after this?”
“We’ll find out when we get there.”
“Ok fine, just wondering.”
Jason made it to the top of the stairs and leaned against the wall, breathing a little heavier than usual. A few minutes later, Ryan weaved his way through the last set of lasers and sprang into the hallway. He drew his sidearm and swept the area.
“Relax,” said a woman’s voice.
Ryan and Jason both jerked in the direction of the voice, trying to find its source.
“Who said that?” Ryan asked, weapon extended.
“Don’t worry, I already took care of the guards,” said the voice.
“Who are you? And Who’s side are you on?” Ryan continued the line of questions never lowering his sidearm.
“A friend,” said the voice. Then the woman stepped out from the shadows, holding her a Beretta in her right hand.
“Sarah?” Ryan said, finally lowering his weapon.
“Come on, the emperor is in his office, we don’t have much time.”
“I thought I told you to stay put!”
“None of that matters now! Come on we need to get to the emperor.”
Sarah ran down the hall but Ryan pulled her back by the arm. “Wait? What’s going on?”
“We’ve got the emperor right where we want him, that’s what’s going on! Come on!”
“Something doesn’t smell right…” Jason spoke up.
“You put on deodorant this morning?” Ryan quipped.
“Funny, Cruise, you know what I meant.”
“Yeah, I have the same feeling,” Ryan said, glancing at Sarah.
Sarah had already reached the emperor’s office however. “Who wants the honors?” she asked.
“I’ll do it,” Ryan said, still wary. He reached for the door handle and twisted it slowly. The door opened slightly. “Here goes nothing…” Ryan opened the door the rest of the way and scanned the room. It had the same layout as the emperor’s office at the Imperial Palace. There at the other end of the room was the Imperial desk. Behind it sat a tall chair with its back turned towards them.
Ryan glanced back at Sarah, who silently urged him on. Neither she nor Ryan seemed to notice that Jason had suddenly vanished.
Giving his trademark cocky smile, Cruise advanced slowly towards the emperor’s desk sidearm extended. When he had nearly reached the desk, a soft cackling noise could be heard. Ryan frowned, trying to determine where the noise was coming from. The cackling gradually grew loader and loader, until it reached a full-blown roar of laughter.
Suddenly, the emperor’s chair spun around to reveal the emperor himself, howling with laughter.
The emperor caught his breath and wiped tears from his eyes. “Ha ha, oh my, Ryan Cruise you couldn’t have possibly thought it would be this easy, could you? And you were supposed to be this great thing. This incredible agent, descended from the great Evan Hunter himself. Perhaps I was wrong about you.”
Ryan froze and his eyes opened wide, he started to say something but then he heard the click of a gun being cocked… right next to his ear.
“I’d be much obliged if you’d hand over your weapon, Cruise, or should I call you Hunter?”
“Cruise,” Ryan replied, handing her his gun. “Tell me this is some kind of joke. Am I on Candid Camera?”
“This is no joke, Cruise,” Sarah replied, tossing Ryan’s sidearm to the emperor, who set the weapon gingerly on his desk.
“Then who are you? And why are you working for him?” He spit out the last word like it was a bad vegetable, (which is a very nasty food product in the first place even when it is “good”).
“I’m just Sarah, like I told you,” replied Sarah, mimicking his ever so confident grin.
“So… no masks? No tricks?”
“No,” the emperor answered. “That gets a little old after a while.”
Ryan nodded. “You do have a point there. It was almost getting predictable.”
Sarah smirked. “Heaven forbid.”
“Anyways…” the emperor interjected, coughing. “Back on topic, now that I have you captured, Cruise. There will be nothing to stop me from slowly picking apart the rest of IMF and that pitiful little rebellion. And once I have finished doing that, the path to world dominance will be mine!”
“Don’t you already control most of the world?” Ryan asked.
“Well yes, but I want all of it!” the emperor said, slamming his fist on the table for emphasis.
“But why?”
“Well because I, uh… Its because I… because I must have world dominance! Every knee will bow before me, I, the great Emperor!”
“Okay, that was weird,” Ryan rolled his eyes.
“This is nothing,” Sarah said. “He plans his own assassinations to.”
Ryan gave her a look. “You know I’m probably going to kill when this is over, right?”
“Not if we kill you first,” Sarah said.
“That’s never been done before, and not for lack of trying,” Ryan pointed out.
“There’s always a first,” Sarah shot back.
“Not with me there isn’t,” Ryan gave her another one of his grins.
“This won’t be the first time you’ve been wrong.”
Ryan still looked confident. “And it won’t be the last.”
“Wait…” Sarah gave him a confused look. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“That’s why I said it.”
While Sarah was still occupied with trying to decipher his remarks, Ryan took the opportunity to grab her wrist and twist the gun from her hands. She cried in pain and the gun slid from her grasp, sliding across the floor. Ryan gave her a swift uppercut to the face, knocking her to the ground. Then he performed a very stylish slide across the floor and retrieved the gun. Ryan grabbed the gun and pointed it towards the emperor, who, much to Ryan’s surprise, was still laughing.
“Very good, Cruise, very good. You did not disappoint me after all. But you didn’t really think it would be that easy did you?”
Ryan frowned then pulled the trigger. All he got in return was a soft clicking sound. Ryan laughed nervously. “Heh Heh, well I was hoping.”
“It’s over, Cruise,” the emperor said. “Put down the gun, and surrender.” The emperor glanced up, “guards, take him into custody.”
Cruise looked around him and saw a half a dozen guards, who had seemingly come from nowhere, training their weapons on him. “Where do you get all these guys? A website?” Ryan quipped.
The emperor failed to find humor in this remark, he simply ignored his comment altogether.
Over in the corner, Sarah got up slowly, rubbing her chin. “You didn’t even trust me with a loaded gun?” she snapped at the emperor.
“I don’t trust anyone, relax.”
“You trust those guards!” Sarah hissed, pointing at this body guards, who were slowly approaching Cruise.
“That’s because they’ve been thoroughly brain-washed.”
Ryan Cruise rose to his feet and placed his hands on his head. This wasn’t the first time he’d been in considerable danger, but the one question running through his mind was: Would it be the last?

to be continued when i write the next part...

Mission 5: Payback part 14

continued from the last time i decided to post...

Tim walked forlornly down the road towards the beach house, with Emmy trudging beside him. They both were drenched for a heavy rain had just begun to pour down on them and they were not dressed for the occasion.
“How’s your Scottish accent, by the way?” Emmy asked.
“Pretty good, Chris slips into a Scottish accent all the time so I’ve been around it a lot.”
“Well mine’s not so polished so you do the talking.”
“Ok, sounds good. Remember what our story is, right?”
“Yeah… why do we have to be Scottish again?”
Tim shrugged. “Well because it sounds so much more deceptive when we’re using a different accent of course.”
“Oh… that doesn’t make sense.”
Tim sighed. “Never mind, just stick with it okay?” Just then the guardhouse came into view. “There it is, remember your lines!”
Tim walked up to the gate and was immediately stopped by two guards. “Wait! You can’t go in there!”
“Well why not?” Tim asked in a slightly perturbed Scottish accent. “I was invited by the Emperor, was I not?”
The guards frowned. “We have no such appointment on the schedule.”
Tim sighed and slapped his side in frustration. “Well doesn’t that just make the day!” He turned to Emmy. “Can you believe it sweetie? First our car breaks down, then it decides to rain on us, and now this!”
“It’s unbelievable!” Emmy echoed in her own Scottish accent.
The guards were by now starting to get a little skittish and the ruckus had caused several guards to leave their posts and check out the commotion at the front gate, which was exactly what Ryan and Jason wanted.
Realizing that the plan was working, Tim continued to play out the act. “All I’m trying to do is take my fiancée to a dinner we were invited to, by the emperor I might add!”
“Sir, this is a private facility,” one of the guards said. “I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
“I will do no such thing, isn’t that right sweetie?”
Emmy stepped up behind him and grabbed his hand. “That is exactly right, we will stand here in protest!”
The guards sighed and one of them spoke into his radio. “We’re gonna need some backup at the gates, please.”
Good, Tim thought. Just what we need, this should get them through.

The distraction was working perfectly Ryan realized as they made their way towards the wall on the opposite side of the beach house. Every guard was now distracted by the diversion; this could actually work without them being shot two feet inside the walls!
Jason threw a grappling gun at Ryan. “Here, shoot this at the wall and we’ll pull ourselves up.”
Ryan and Jason both aimed their grappling guns at the wall and fired them. There was a soft clink as they hooked onto the wall. Then Ryan and Jason climbed the wall, working their way to the top.
When they reached the top, Jason whispered to Ryan. “Block the cameras with one of those pictures in your backpack.”
Ryan gave him the thumbs up and selected a picture of the same scenario that camera on the wall was trained on, only from a few hours ago. “Good to go,” Ryan whispered after he’d placed it in front of the camera.

Peter Long sighed, working security for the emperor had to be the most boring job ever, but nothing could be more boring that watching security cameras all day. Unfortunately though, that was his job. He swore that he’d die of boredom before he reached thirty. But wait! What was that! Camera 32 had just changed. It was now displaying the same area, but in daylight! That didn’t make any sense it was dark outside. Peter immediately picked up the phone to call the supervisor.

Jason peeked at the picture in front of the camera and sighed.
“What?” Ryan said.
“You put the wrong picture in front of this thing! It’s supposed to be dark not daytime!”
“Oh, whoops…” Ryan quickly changed it.

Just as Peter was dialing the number, however, the picture changed back. “Huh, there goes any excitement.” He hung up the phone and went back to drinking coffee.

Ryan and Jason dropped to the ground and quickly pulled out their backpacks. Inside each backpack was a guard’s uniform. They hurriedly pulled them on and walked casually out into the courtyard.
“Where’d you get these by the way?” Ryan asked.
“I found them,” was Jason’s simple reply.
“Well, they smell kinda funny.”
“That’s cause they’ve had a dead man in ‘em.”
“Oh… great.”

Back at the gates, Tim and Emmy were still causing a ruckus. “We wish to see the emperor this instant.” Tim demanded.
The guard sighed. “The emperor doesn’t see anyone right now.”
“He’ll see us!” Emmy insisted.
“We’re gonna have to escort them off the premises,” one of the guards said. They nodded to each other and each one grabbed one of Tim’s arms.
“No, no, don’t take me! You can’t take me! This is and outrage!” Tim cried still in a marvelous Scottish accent.
“Come back my love!” Emmy called, also giving an Oscar-worthy performance.

While all this excitement was going on, Sarah was stuck in the helicopter with Jordan, waiting for someone to check in.
“Come on, come on, it’s been too long!” Sarah said, stressing.
“Just be patient,” Jordan said. “These are my boys they’ll come through.”
Just then Ryan’s voice came over the radio. “We’re in,” he informed them.
“Copy that,” Sarah replied. Sarah sighed, “this is boring.”
“Welcome to my life,” Jordan said unsympathetically. “Course, I do get to fly.”
Sarah rolled her eyes and sighed. Then a thought came to her, why sit and wait? Why not just act? That didn’t sound like a bad idea at all…

With their guard uniforms on, Jason and Ryan easily made it past the few guards. They received only slightly curious glances, but none that warranted a call for security. It wasn’t until they reached the house that a guard approached them.
“Hey, what are you two doing here? What area are you supposed to be patrolling?”
“We’re your relief,” Ryan informed him.
“That’s impossible,” the guard shook his head. “I’m not supposed to be relieved for another hour.”
Ryan shrugged. “We thought we’d relieve you an hour early.”
“That’s not how things work here…” he paused and gave Ryan an inquisitive look. “Do I know you from somewhere?”
“No, I don’t think we’ve ever met,” Ryan stuck his hand out and the guard reached out to take it. “Ryan Cruise,” Ryan introduced himself as he grasped the guard’s hand. The guard gasped in recognition as he heard the infamous name, but before he could react Ryan clenched his hand. There was a soft zapping sound and the man fell over unconscious.
“What was that?” Jason asked.
Ryan revealed a buzzer strapped to his hand. “It was IMF’s newest gadget; I’ve been waiting forever to try this thing out. It’s kinda like those things you get your friends with you know, zap their hand when they shake yours.” He glanced at the fallen guard. “It has a little more kick though.”
“Yeah, I can see that.”
They hid the body and work their way to the side of the building. “How are we getting in?” Ryan asked.
Jason pulled out a couple of guard I.D. cards with their pictures on them. “These should get us in the first line of security.”
“And from there?”
Jason shrugged indifferently. “We’re gonna have to improvise.”
“Great… that’s my specialty.”

Jordan sat in the cockpit of the helicopter, waiting for Tim and Emmy to report back. “Things are going well,” he commented to himself.
Just then Tim and Emmy ran up to the helicopter.
Jordan turned around. “Where are the guards?”
“We parted ways a mile down the road,” Emmy informed him. She glanced around the helicopter and frowned. “Where’s Sarah?”
“What do you mean?” it was Jordan’s turn to frown. “She’s right…” he trailed off. “Uh oh.”
“What? What?” Tim demanded an explanation.
Jordan swallowed nervously. “I think we have a serious problem. Sarah’s gone.”

Jason Ryan had made it past the first line of security now without innocent. “This is too easy,” Ryan commented.
“It gets harder,” Jason warned. He pointed to the stairs, “We need to climb those to get the emperor’s office.”
Ryan started towards the stairs. “Well let’s go.”
Jason’s arm shot out and stopped Ryan from going forward. “Wait, something’s not right. Put on your infrared goggles.”
Ryan pulled the goggles out of his backpack and put them on; Jason did the same. The entire stairway was covered with an intricate web of infrared lasers.
“Wow, this is gonna be fun to climb,” Ryan shook his head.
“Let’s get started,” Jason said, stepping towards the stairway. Suddenly, there was a click beneath his feet and the tile sunk an inch into the ground.
Jason and Ryan both froze. “Don’t move,” Ryan ordered.
“I’m not moving,” Jason replied just a tad testily. “Find a way to keep this tile from popping back up.”
“What happens if it pops up?” Ryan asked as he searched for something to pry into the tile to make it stick.
“We both die.”
“You are a man of many words my friend, you know that?” Ryan said sarcastically.
“Just find something!”
“Showing emotion are we?”
“I will show plenty emotion if you don’t just shut up and find something to pry this tile into place.”
Ryan dug through his bag, searching for anything. “How about a hairpin?”
Jason glared at Ryan. “I’m gonna kill you when this is over.”
“Ok, ok, I’m sorry. What can I say? Sarah packed this bag.” He glanced around their surroundings. On a mantel across the hall sat a bust of the emperor. Ryan grinned and walked over towards it. “Would this work?”
“How heavy is it?” Jason asked.
“Heavy enough to hold that tile down,” Ryan replied, he picked it up off the mantel and grunted. “Yeah, it’s heavy.”
“Ok, let’s make the switch… carefully.” Ryan carried the bust over to Jason and slowly set it on the tile. Jason carefully slid his foot off the tile as Ryan gradually moved the bust to replace it. Finally, Jason took his foot completely off the tile and they both held their breath. The tile stayed in place and didn’t move. They both sighed. “That was close,” Ryan said.
They turned back towards the stairway. All of the sudden, the tile clicked again and pushed back up, Ryan and Jason both stopped.
Ryan closed his eyes and waited for the imminent alarm, explosion, or some other booby trap that was bound to come about as a result, but nothing happened. “Soooo… what happens now?” Ryan asked.
Jason walked over and examined the tile. “I guess it was just a defective tile.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “You know I think this will be exciting enough without any false alarms.”
Jason ignored his comment and started to weave his way up the stairs, using his infrared goggles to guide him past the lasers.
“This will be fun,” Ryan commented. “It’s too bad I don’t do gymnastics anymore.”
“You did gymnastics?” Jason asked.
“When I was like five, yeah. Didn’t you?”
Jason shook his head. “No. What did your parents make you do it?”
“Yeah, foster parents.”
“Might come in handy now.”
“Well, we only learned how to somersault, it wasn’t anything too complex.”
“Then shut up and concentrate,” Jason snapped.
“Yes sir, wonder if Tim and Emmy are still out there? That was amusing.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 13

Continued from last week...

“What do you mean, ‘you’ve been tricked’?” Jason asked, glaring at Ryan. “These are your friends, right? Don’t you recognize your own friends?”
“No, these are not our friends,” Ryan shot back. “They’re wearing masks to disguise themselves as our friends.”
“Masks?” Jason asked, bewildered.
“It’s an IMF thing,” Ryan explained.
“What is IMF?” Jason asked.
“Oh, forget it!” Ryan shook his head.
“Silence!” cried the one who was impersonating Tim. “Or I will shoot all of you!”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Ryan held his hands out then he slowly lowered them to his side. “I’m not getting my gun, I’m slowly reaching for… these.” He snatched his shades from his belt and slipped them on. “Okay, now I’m ready, do your worst.”
“You are pathetic,” the Jordan impersonator muttered.
“A lot of people have said that,” Ryan said, holding his finger in the air in a very prophetic and cool manner. “But all of them are dead now. Turns out they were more pathetic.”
“No,” Sarah, or the one who was pretending to be Sarah, spat. “You are just lucky, but you will not be this time.”
“Or they’ve just been unlucky, but I’ll let you think about that for awhile. God knows you militants don’t have the best brains in the world.”
“Ryan, we’re prisoners here, I don’t think it’s such a good idea to insult our captors,” Emmy said in a worried voice.
“So you’re stupid too,” Jason muttered.
“A lot of people have said that too,” Ryan admitted.
“Shut up!” the fake Sarah screamed. Just then, a shot rang out. Sarah clutched her neck and fell to the ground without making a sound. The other two imperial agents ducked behind the helicopter, the one that was impersonating Jordan screamed and grabbed at his leg.
“Come on, let’s go!” Ryan yelled, tugging at Emmy’s hand and pulling her away from the gunfight.
“Who is that?” Emmy yelled above the gunfire. Then suddenly, it all stopped. The echoes of gunshots faded into the woods and all was silent.
“Ryan!” someone called. “Emmy!”
“That’s Tim!” Ryan said, he started to make his way out of the brush, but Jason grabbed his arm.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, positive,” Ryan assured him. Ryan turned around and nearly ran right smack into Tim. “Hey buddy,” Ryan grinned. “Where ya been?”
Tim laughed and shook his head. “You always were the cavalier one.”
Ryan shrugged. “Yeah sure, whatever that means.”
Tim slapped him on the back. “It’s good to have you back, Cruise.” Then he turned back towards the helicopter, “guys, I found him.”
“So what’s new?” Ryan asked.
“Oh nothing, we just had to practically escape from the Rebel base to come and rescue you though.”
“Really? It was Cathy wasn’t it? I knew she never got over our little bungle at the mall.”
“That was pretty bad,” Tim pointed out.
“Well, we got away just fine, thanks to our buddy Jason Scorn here.”
“Who?”
“Jason Scorn,” Ryan repeated. “And he’s got a plan that you need to hear.”
“What plan?” Tim asked.
“One that involves getting the emperor, for good.”

After a whole round of hugs, exclamations, and heartfelt words, (which will not be recorded here mainly because it would be really boring to read them and even more so to write them) from Sarah, and Jordan, mostly Sarah, the group entered the helicopter.
“So,” Tim ventured, as they prepared to take off. “What’s the plan?”
“Well it’s really very simple,” Ryan explained. “You see we just walk in and shoot the emperor right in the face, just like that.”
Tim stared at him. “Just like that,” he repeated.
Ryan nodded. “Just like that.”
“Are you nuts?”
Ryan heaved a long sigh. “You know, people keep asking me that and I keep telling ‘em, yeah I am okay! Can we move on?”
“You seriously agree with that plan?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, what’s not to like? It’s simple and to the point. We get in, we get out, the emperor’s dead, just what we want, right?”
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Tim shook his head. “You always did have a knack for making things seem simpler than they are.”
“And you have one for making them seem harder than they really are,” Ryan pointed out. “Look, it’s a great plan, I wish I would have thought of it myself.”
“What’s to think of?” Tim shouted.
“Shhh, not so loud,” Ryan shushed him, motioning towards the others. “Jason and I don’t want them to know yet until we have you on board.”
“Jason and you, huh? You’re both crazy.”
“Yes, that we are,” Ryan grinned and clapped Jason on the shoulder, who just glared at him. “We’re like two peas in a pod, blood brothers--”
“Dumb and Dumber,” Tim interrupted.
“Well, I wasn’t gonna use that one, but you could.” Ryan laughed. “Jason’s like me without the spice, you know?”
Tim just gave him a blank look. “No, I don’t.”
“I’m more fun, duh.”
“What the heck is with you, man?” Tim asked.
“I gave him a shot of adrenaline before we left the terrorist’ den, must still be working,” Jason said. “About the plan, he’s leaving out a few important details, like how we’ll get in, and how we’ll get out.”
“I figured he was,” Tim glared at Ryan, who just shrugged.
“This adrenaline stuff’s like a caffeine high,” Ryan laughed.
“Someone shut him up,” Jason mumbled.
“Don’t worry,” Tim said. “You learn to ignore him. So tell me, what’s the plan?”
Jason cracked a small smile; the first time Tim had seen him smile since they’d first found him. “It’s good, I think you’ll like it.”

Katie was busy handing out rations and supplies to lines of soldiers when she was approached by Daniel.
“Care to give a poor soldier a few supplies?” Daniel asked.
Katie nearly dropped the water canteen she was holding. “Oh no Daniel, not you too?”
Daniel gave a grim smile. “Yes Katie, they need every man they can get out there.”
“But you’re not trained for combat, Daniel. You’re a doctor, not a soldier!”
“You’d be surprised, besides, they could use a good doctor.”
“No, I won’t let you go, Daniel,” Katie shook her head.
Daniel laughed. “Katie, I’m a man, I think I can make my own decisions.”
Katie grabbed Chris, who just happened to be walking by, by the arm. “Chris!” she cried. “Tell him he can’t go!”
Chris gave Katie a bewildered look. “Why?”
“Just do it!”
“Okay, okay,” Chris turned to Daniel. “You can’t go.”
Daniel shook his head. “I’m going anyways.”
“There you go,” Chris said, shrugging. “I can’t stop him.”
“Daniel,” Katie protested. “You can’t go!”
“Katie, I’ll be fine,” Daniel assured her.
“I don’t want to lose you,” Katie said, tears coming to her eyes.
“You won’t,” Daniel promised.
Suddenly, Laz coughed from back in the corner. “I hate to break this up guys, but you’re really starting to get on my nerves. This whole romance before going off to war thing is great and all, but… its kinda worn out.”
“I have to agree with him on that, could you guys take this somewhere else please?” Chris spoke up.
Katie frowned. “Why you guys couldn’t--”
“Katie,” Danny interrupted. “Ignore them.”
Katie smiled. “Okay, I will.”
“All right,” Laz said. “I’m gone.”
“Me too,” Chris seconded. They both got up and left Daniel and Katie to be alone, shaking their heads in disgust.
Just then Kayla came running up. “Hey guys, have you seen Ryan?”
Chris and Laz shook their heads. “I haven’t seen Ryan, Sarah, or Tim in a while,” Chris said glumly.
“Where the heck is Cruise when you need him anyways?” Laz asked no one in particular. “He would have said something funny, made Katie hopping mad and ruined the mood.”
“Yeah, I wish he was here,” Chris agreed. “I wonder where he is?”

“Where are we?” Emmy asked as she peered through a borrowed set of binoculars.
“The emperor’s secret getaway,” Jason replied, pointing at the beach house/fortress hidden behind the hill. “Top surveillance at this place, but not nearly as good as at the palace.”
“Then why is he here?” Sarah asked.
“Because it’s secret,” Jason replied stoically.
“If it’s secret, then how do you know it’s here?” Emmy questioned him.
“It’s secret to most,” Jason corrected himself. “Now please, no more questions; let’s get down to business.”
“Which is?” Sarah, who had still not been fully informed of the plan, continued to grill him.
“You girls sure do ask a lot of questions,” Jason said, shaking his head.
“Don’t all girls?” Tim muttered.
“I heard that, Tim,” Emmy shot back.
“Look here’s how it goes,” Jason said, laying out the plan. “Tim, Emmy, you guys will provide the distraction, while Ryan and I infiltrate the hideout. Jordan, you wait in the helicopter as our getaway pilot.”
“Yes sir,” Jordan saluted only half-mockingly.
“What about me?” Sarah asked.
“You, Sarah,” Ryan said, grinning, “Get to wait in the helicopter and copy.”
“Copy?” Sarah gave him a confused look.
“Yeah, you know, when we talk in the radio, we say, ‘do you copy?’ and you say, ‘I copy’ got it?”
Sarah glared at him. “No way, that’s a boring job.”
“Exactly,” Ryan clapped her on the shoulder.
“Look, if you’re trying to protect me, don’t. I want to go in there with you.”
Ryan just grinned and started walking towards the beach fortress. “Trust me, I’m not trying to protect you; I’m trying to annoy you.”
Sarah stomped her foot on the ground. “Well you’re doing a real good job of it!” Then she stormed off towards the helicopter.
“What was with that?” Tim asked, a frown on his face.
“Who knows?” Emmy replied, shrugging.
Tim walked up to Ryan and grabbed him by the shoulder, spinning him around. “You really seemed to tick off that young lady back there,” he said
“Who Sarah? Don’t worry about her,” Ryan said, shrugging him off. “She’s fine, we always fight.”
“How long have you known each other?”
Ryan sighed. “It feels like years, but probably only a few weeks, and I’ve been ‘dead’ for a long period of that time.”
“I’m not sure it was wise to isolate her like that,” Tim said.
“Look,” Ryan said, pointing his finger at Tim to emphasize his words. “You just stick to what you do best, which is killing, and let someone else play psychiatrist, okay?”


Ryan peered at the emperor’s fortress from their new position. “Man, this is gonna be one for the record books!” he whispered, handing the binoculars to Jason.
“If we can pull it off,” Jason added. Then he turned lowered the binoculars and turned to Ryan. “Before we go in, I want to warn you, I’m wanted by the C.I.A., which means now you are too.”
Ryan shrugged. “Psh, I’m wanted by everybody, what difference does it make?” There was a pause, “Why does the C.I.A. want you?” he ventured.
“I don’t know,” was Jason’s simple reply.
“You don’t know? How can you not know?”
“I can’t remember,” Jason said. “I can’t remember anything, I don’t even really know who I am.”
“Some sort of assassin probably,” Ryan guessed.
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Well duh, who else can kill like that? I can assure that you’re not a construction worker, or the C.I.A. wouldn’t be trying to kill you.” There was another long pause. “So you can’t remember anything?”
“Yeah, I just said that.” Jason replied.
This was followed by yet another awkward halt in conversation. Then Ryan spoke up again, “Okay, so just wondering, but do you ever talk in an excited voice?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your voice is always monotone, do you have any emotion?”
Jason looked at him. “No, not really.”
Ryan sighed. “So much for conversation.”
Just then they saw a flash of light in the trees a mile to their left. “There’s the signal,” Ryan said, relieved that the wait was over. “Let’s go.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 12

Sorry about the delay guys; I promise it won’t happen again, unless there’s another delay. I wrote parts of this one while I was sick and slightly feverish so… if there’s parts where sentences are repeated and stuff, you’ll know why. If there’s parts where sentences are repeated and stuff, you’ll know why. If there’s parts where sentences are repeated and stuff, you’ll know why. Lol Sorry, I couldn’t resist resist. ;)



Continued from two weeks ago...

Tim and Sarah were quickly strapping on their equipment as they explained the whole story to Jordan.
“So… they disappeared?” Jordan asked for the third time, he appeared confused and leaned against his helicopter for support.
“Yes,” Sarah snapped, stamping her foot on the landing platform. “They disappeared; they are no longer here; we don’t know where they are. Got that?”
Jordan frowned. “Yes, but it doesn’t seem very likely that Ryan would be caught off guard. He’s a professional; he knows what he’s doing.”
“Look, all we need is a ride, flyboy,” Sarah said. “Are you going to help us, or not?”
“Of course,” Jordan replied, throwing up his hands. “Anything for Ryan, you don’t have to get so testy about it.”
“I’m not testy!”
“Yes, you are,” Tim agreed. “Too testy, you’re gonna need to calm down.”
Jordan glanced behind him too see Clarence running towards them, his arms waving. “And we’re going to need to get out of here before Clarence crashes the party,” Jordan observed.
“She wouldn’t,” Sarah said in disbelief. “Forbid us to go and look for Ryan and Emmy?”
Tim glanced at Clarence, who was now frantically motioning for them to stop and come down from the platform. “She would,” he muttered.
“All right,” Jordan said, swinging himself into the cockpit. “Prepare yourselves, we’re in for a bumpy ride.” There was a closable hole in the ceiling, which Jordan had opened moments before, that was used for aircraft. This hole was slowly closing, however, which would make the take off that much more difficult.
“The opening is closing,” Tim noted.
“I see it,” Jordan barked, flipping switches and starting the lift off. “This is gonna be close.”
“How close?” Tim yelled over the roaring engine, but Jordan couldn’t hear him. He lifted the helicopter off the landing pad and they started to rise towards the ceiling.
“That hole is getting smaller,” Sarah warned.
Jordan gritted his teeth and flew straight for the hole. “Come on!” he yelled.
“We’re gonna hit,” Tim groaned.
“No we’re not!” Jordan exclaimed. He approached the hole; it was going to be close. If one of the blades so much as scraped the sides, they were done. Jordan was fully aware of this and he was sweating bullets.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. They passed through the opening and out into the open. “Yes!” Jordan cheered, with Tim and Sarah joining in.
“We made it!” Sarah screamed. Then her face turned dark. “We could have died, I can’t believe that Cathy would do that!”
“Neither can I,” Tim agreed. “But we better get out of here.” The opening clanked shut behind them.
“There’s no going back, that’s for sure,” Jordan observed.
“Take us to him, Jordan,” Tim ordered. “Take us to Cruise.”

“So where’s Emmy?” Ryan asked Jason for the second time.
“Hang on a sec, I’m gonna give you a shot of adrenaline,” Jason replied. He took out a long needle and syringe. “You’re gonna feel this,” Jason warned.
“Ha, ha, no kidding,” Ryan chuckled nervously. “Look at the size of that thi—Aaaaa!” Jason didn’t wait for him to finish, instead he stabbed him in mid-sentence.
“Whoa!” Ryan yelled, shaking his head. “This is great, I’m ready now, man! Wait, wait,” he snatched his shades from the table in the interrogation room and stuck them in his belt since it was too dark to wear them. “Now I’m ready, let’s go.”
“Come on then, Cruise,” Jason led him through a doorway. Inside was a huge brawl, with one person in the middle, holding her own.
“Heeya!” Emmy cried, kicking one of the five men in the groin who were currently attacking her. The man groaned and fell over.
Jason pulled out his pistol and shot the other four in quick succession. “Come on, let’s go.”
“I could have taken them,” Emmy protested.
“I’m sure you could have, sis,” Ryan said. “But let’s get going.”
“Who is this guy? What’s he doing here?” Emmy asked.
“I’m here for the same reason you are,” Jason replied.
“I don’t even know why we’re here,” Ryan mumbled.
“Because we all want the same thing, the death of the emperor,” Jason informed him.
“So these guys were working for the empire?”
“No, I have no idea whose side these guys are on, they just like to blow things, including themselves, up.”
“And they like to torture people, apparently,” Ryan added.
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point.”
“What is the point?” Emmy asked as they continued to make their way through the dark underground tunnels of the terrorists’ lair.
“To kill the emperor and then disappear as if we never existed.”
“Want to go over that last part again?” Ryan shouted as they ran.
“Do you really think they’ll let us live if we just go in and shoot the emperor; no, we’re gonna have to fake our deaths or something.”
“How do you know we even want to kill the emperor?” Cruise asked.
Jason Scorn stopped and turned around; he looked Ryan straight in the eyes. “Who doesn’t?” he asked.
Ryan nodded. “Good point.”
“Come on, let’s go then, I have a plan,” Jason started running again, and Ryan and Emmy quickened their paces to catch up.
“What’s the plan?” Emmy asked.
“To kill the emperor,” Jason replied matter-of-factly. “Without getting killed in the process.”

“What do you mean ‘Laz has been put in charge of supervising’?” Cathy nearly screamed into the phone.
On the other line, Clarence winced and held the phone away from his ear. “Precisely that madam,” he replied, rubbing his ear.
“How much damage has he done?” Cathy asked in a slightly calmer manner.
“Well, he hasn’t caused as much as we thought, he’s been overruled on almost everything by Christophear.”
“Thank God,” Cathy breathed.
“Hey, I heard that!” came Laz’s voice from the other line. “Where’s Ryan? I want to speak with him.”
“He’s currently unavailable,” Cathy said coldly.
“Since when? He’s always available unless…” Laz trailed off. “You sent him on a mission without me, didn’t you?”
“I did no such thing!” Cathy lied.
“Why would you do that?” Laz cried. “He never succeeds when he goes on a mission without me.”
“Laz, he doesn’t succeed when you go with him either,” Cathy muttered.
“Exactly my… wait, what’d you say?”
Cathy sighed. “Laz, just put Clarence back on will you?”
“Fine, you obviously don’t want to talk to me,” Laz shrugged and handed Clarence the phone.
Just then Chris approached Laz, “Any luck on finding Ryan?” he asked.
“Nope,” Laz shook his head. “I wonder where he is?”

“Where the heck are we anyways?” Ryan asked.
Jason Scorn simply kept walking and didn’t answer.
Ryan shrugged. “I love how talkative this guy is.”
“I dunno, I think he’s kinda cute,” Emmy said, softly enough so Jason couldn’t hear.
“Oh please, that’s just stupid,” Ryan rolled his eyes. “I mean he’s a killing machine.”
“So are you,” Emmy reminded him.
Ryan nodded. “That’s true but I’m not cute.”
Emmy nudged him. “Fine, he’s hot then.”
“That’s better,” Ryan laughed, but suddenly he halted. Ahead of them Jason dug into a crouch as well.
“What is it?” Emmy whispered, following their example.
“Helicopter,” Ryan hissed. “Get into the brush!” They all sprang for the trees and amongst the branches, hoping that the helicopter would pass, but it didn’t appear as if they would have such luck. The helicopter started to slowly descend towards their position, heading for a small clearing a few hundred yards away.
“It’s landing,” Jason said softly.
“Well I’m glad you’re here to tell us that!” Ryan snapped. “What’s next? The emperor is trying to kill us?”
“Hey! Who saved your butt back there at the terrorist’s little hideout, huh?” Jason broke his usual code of silence.
“I could have escaped without your help,” Ryan said defiantly.
“Yeah right, how?”
“I don’t know I didn’t have to! I would have thought of something though.”
“Shhh!” Emmy hushed them. “They just landed.”
A pair of boots stepped out from the helicopter, followed by another. Then the pilot himself stepped out. All three of the figures were fully decked out in combat suits and fully camouflaged. That didn’t keep Ryan from recognizing them, however.
“I know who that is!” Ryan exclaimed. “It’s Tim, and Jordan, and Sarah.”
“Who?” Jason asked.
“Friends of ours, come on,” Ryan waved him to follow and approached the helicopter.
The instant he stepped within sight, all three figures whirled around and trained their weapons on him.
“Relax guys, its me,” Ryan held up his hands and motioned for Jason and Emmy to do the same. Tim, Sarah, and Jordan did not lower their weapons, however.
“Guys, its me, come on,” Ryan chuckled nervously.
Sarah reached for her radio carefully and clicked on the transmission. “We have the fugitives in sight now, sir, awaiting your orders.”
“Oh no,” Ryan shook his head in disbelief.
Jason Scorn scowled at him. “Some friends of yours.”
“These aren’t our friends,” Ryan groaned. “We’ve been tricked.”



to be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 11

continued from two weeks ago...

As soon as he heard the scream, Tim knew that they’d been tricked. He and Sarah both looked at each other and then whirled around and started tearing pell-mell through the forest, looking for Ryan and Emmy. They kept their weapons in ready position constantly scanning the perimeter for any danger. No one could be seen, however, including Ryan and Emmy.
“They vanished,” Sarah gasped.
“It looks that way,” Tim replied, still searching for any signs of Ryan and Emmy’s whereabouts.
“I should never had left him,” Sarah groaned.
“I hardly see how you left him,” Tim disagreed. “We were on a recon mission, you and I had the eastern side of the camp and they had the west. How does that qualify as ‘leaving him’?”
“Shut up Tim,” Sarah muttered. “Just let me sulk, will you?”
Tim shrugged and sarcastically mumbled something he’d heard Ryan say a thousand times, “women.”
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked in a distressed tone.
“We have to tell Cathy about this,” Tim decided. “But first we need to get out of here.”
“We’re just going to leave him here?”
Tim sighed. “Last time I checked they’d both disappeared, which means we would be leaving ‘them’ behind not ‘him’, and yes, we are; we have not other choice.”
“I said ‘them’,” Sarah protested.
“No you didn’t,” Tim said.
“I did too.”
“Of course, of course, whatever you say.” Then he mumbled to himself again, “women.”

When the black bag was finally pulled from his face, a glaring white light instantly blinded Ryan. “Whoa there, turn the light down a little, will you?” Ryan also noticed that he was strapped into a metal chair in a very uncomfortable position and that the room had no windows.
“You will not find yourself so trivial in a minute, Mr. Cruise,” a heavily accented voice said from behind the light. He sounded Arabic but Cruise couldn’t imagine an Arab getting into the empire, the emperor had set up strict immigration laws that banned all Arabs and Mexicans from even entering the empire.
“So you’re the one that kidnapped us then, huh? Where’s Emmy, is she okay?”
“She is fine, worry about yourself.”
“I’m not too accustomed to that.”
The accented voice laughed. “You will learn quickly then.” He turned on a radio and heavy metal music started blasting from the speakers. “Are you familiar with this method of torture, Mr. Cruise?”
“Yeah that’s Slayer,” Cruise replied, never letting the boyish, cocky grin fall from his face. “Great band, love their music.”
“Aaaaa!” the interrogator slammed the radio and the music stopped. “You stupid infidels!” he yelled to someone outside the room. “I told you to get different tools for torture you stupid fools! Cruise likes loud American music with heavy metal guitars, get something else.”
“How about rap, like 65 Cent or Pee Wee Daddy?” a suggestion came from one of the ‘infidels’ outside.
“That’s some pretty sic stuff, bring it in,” Cruise replied.
“Ack! No you fools, try something else!” the interrogator yelled.
“Michael?”
“Sweet, what albums do you have?”
“Try something else!” the interrogator screamed. “Do you hate any music?” he asked Cruise.
“No, not really,” Ryan shook his head.
“What about punk?”
“Bring it on.”
“Pop?”
“Sure, whatever you got.”
Suddenly, a grin spread across the interrogator’s face. “What about… country?”
Ryan inhaled sharply. “NO! Not that, anything but that!”
“Bring in some country, men,” the triumphant interrogator bellowed. Then he turned to Ryan Cruise, “you will tell me where the Rebel base is, or you will listen to trashy American song about girl who hates cheating boyfriend over and over again.”
“Noooooooo!” Ryan yelled.

15 minutes later…

“Please,” Ryan cried. “I’ll tell you what you want to know, just don’t make me listen to this song again.”
The interrogator smiled and turned of the music. “You see that this form of torture is much more effective than say… beating you within inch of your life.”
“I’d prefer that,” Cruise admitted. Then he added. “What is it that you want?”
“I told you already you stupid agent! I want your Rebel base!”
“Why?”
“So I can blow it up, why else would I want to know?”
“But why would you want to blow it up?”
“Because…” the interrogator paused and scratched his head. “I never really thought about that,” he said more to himself than Ryan.
“How exactly would you blow it up?” Ryan pressed.
“By strapping deadly explosives to my body with adhesive tape and screaming ‘Allah Akbar!’ and then pushing red button and blowing place to smithereens.”
“Wouldn’t that blow you up too?” Ryan seemed confused by the whole thing. “Why would you want to do that?”
The Arab paused. “I never thought about that either.”
“Wouldn’t it be a lot more beneficial to you if you just planted a bomb and blew the place up from the outside?”
“I suppose, but then no one would know I did it.”
“Exactly, and you wouldn’t be dead,” Ryan pointed out.
“I suppose that’s true, but what about my virgins that I’m promised in heaven?”
Ryan grinned and looked at him. “You seriously think that Allah has that many virgins, just waiting for every man who blows himself, and several small children, to pieces? Come on, he’s probably run out by now. I mean, if it was that easy to get twenty-one gorgeous women, everyone would be doing it. Not to mention that that doesn’t seem very honorable to me, blowing up innocent people because of your own religion.”
“That’s not true,” the Arab disagreed. “There will be twenty-one virgins.”
“Maybe, but are you willing to take that chance? Besides, you don’t need to blow yourself up to get a girl. How selfish is that anyways? I thought Islam was a ‘peaceful religion’, if blowing up innocent people is ‘peaceful’ then I’d hate to see a violent religion.”
“Shut up you infidel! You defy Allah!” The interrogator screamed and smacked Cruise on the face, then he turned the music back on and left Ryan to suffer.

Cathy gave a miserable sigh and rested her head in her hands. “Are you sure that they’ve disappeared.
“Without a trace,” Tim replied with a slight nod.
“And why do I get the impression that that doesn’t bother you?” Sarah struck out, showing her frustration.
“Because I know how to keep my emotions in check, as should you,” Tim answered.
Sarah ignored him and turned towards Cathy. “We need to launch a rescue mission, immediately. They’re still out there somewhere.”
Cathy heaved another long sigh. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.”
Sarah could hardly believe her ears. “Why not?”
“Because,” Cathy paused, searching for the right words. “In technical terms, the mission was a success, we’ve identified the camp as nothing more than a decoy. Ryan and Emmy’s loss was definitely a huge setback… but there’s nothing we can do.”
“Sure there is, we can rescue them,” Sarah pleaded.
Cathy shook her head. “We can’t afford to use our troops for anything other than this attack. We strike tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun hits the sky. We need every man and woman we can get, Sarah.”
“Then we need Ryan Cruise, you know that,” Sarah pressed, not giving up.
“It would take too many of our forces to rescue him or Emmy, and I’m not sure whether he would give us the advantage we want.”
“So that’s it,” Sarah replied, disgusted. “You’re thinking tactically, is that it?”
“One has to,” Tim interjected. “But I would like to point out that your words are somewhat cold, Cathy.”
Cathy glared at him. “And I’d like to remind you that he’s partially responsible for the death of one of my dear friends.”
“And for saving your life a hundred times over,” Tim shot back.
“Ryan Cruise never sacrificed himself for anything other than his own personal gain and glory. Obviously he’s seen that we’re in an impossible situation and persuaded his sister to run into hiding with him, or perhaps even betray us.”
Sarah’s mouth fell open and she started to object, but she was cut off by a very pissed off Tim.
“Now just a minute, Cathy. Ryan has sacrificed himself a thousand times for nothing other than what he thought was right. I admit that his ways are somewhat… different, but he would never betray us, he’s our friend!”
“Dismissed,” Cathy said.
“If you don’t rescue him and Emmy, then we will,” Sarah said, arms folded.
“That would be disobeying a direct order,” Cathy informed them, daring them to do so.
“Watch us do it,” Tim said, answering the challenge.
Then they walked out the door together, disgusted at Cathy, at the empire, and themselves.
Cathy just shook her head as she watched them leave. “They don’t understand, I’m only trying to do what’s right for the Rebellion.” Then she picked up the phone on her desk. “Clarence? Yes, it’s Cathy. Yeah, listen; I want you to move the attack up. Yes, make it tonight. Yes Clarence, I’m sure, it’s now or never.” She hung up the phone and repeated her words. “Now or never.”

Ryan had been listening to the worst country song in the history of bad country songs for over an hour now, and his ears were screaming, or they would have if they’d had mouths.
The terrorist entered the room again, once again repeating his demand. “Where is the Rebel base?”
“Whom are you working for?” Ryan whispered. “The Empire?”
“Do not insult me,” the terrorist scoffed. “I wish to destroy both the Rebels and the Empire.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to destroy the Empire first, since they’re stronger?” Ryan offered. “Two smaller adversaries could much more easily take down a bigger one. Then when we’ve won we can turn on each other.”
“You suggest this?”
“Sure, it’s been done a thousand times, just look at the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.”
“You make good point, Cruise,” the terrorist stroked his beard. “But I still want to kill you.”
“That comes later,” Ryan tried, but to no avail.
“No, it comes now.” The Arab drew a knife from his belt and stepped towards Cruise. Ryan flinched and prepared for the blow. He had a feeling that he couldn’t survive a point blank knife stab into his heart, which was no doubt what the Arab intended to do.
The terrorist raised his arm and then paused. “The heart is in left ventricle, no?”
“No, it’s in the right,” Ryan lied.
“You lie.”
“Yep, you’re right.”
The terrorist paused, confused. “Wait, do you lie then, or lie now?”
“That… is a very good question.”
Just as the terrorist was about to say, ‘screw American games’ and stab Ryan in his heart, a knife blade sliced through his own heart, sticking out his chest and revealing it’s tip to Ryan.
“It’s on the left,” a man’s voice said from behind him. The terrorist groaned and dropped to the ground, dead.
The man turned off the light and removed Ryan from his torture chair.
“Who are you?” Ryan asked.
The man looked at him with a serious face. “Jason Scorn,” he replied.

to be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 10

continued from last week...

Ryan chuckled nervously. “You’re not Sarah, are you?”
“You just figured that out? You’re dumber than I thought, Cruise.”
“Well, before you kill me, do you mind telling me who you are?”
“I was sent by Chuck Morris.”
“Of course, the classic ‘lure him with a girl’ approach, did the emperor cook this one up?”
“Who cares?” the spy who was impersonating Sarah said, her finger tightening on the trigger. She started to pull back on the trigger but there was suddenly a loud crash and the spy’s eyes rolled up into her eyelids and she fell to the ground. Standing behind her was a familiar girl, holding a now broken vase.
“Sarah!” Ryan said. “Where’d you get the vase?”
“Next time you impersonate someone,” Sarah said to the unconscious body. “You should check and see if they’re still around first.”
“I don’t think she can hear you,” Ryan muttered as he bent down and handcuffed the unconscious spy.
Sarah put her hands on her hips. “Well?”
“Well, what?” Ryan asked.
“Do I get a thanks, or not?”
“Yeah, thanks for saving my life,” Ryan thanked her unenthusiastically. Then he added, “come on, we got a lot of work to do.”
Sarah rolled her eyes and followed him.

Ryan quickly informed the first two guards that he saw of the unconscious prisoner who needed to be locked up. The guards quickly picked up the spy, and carried her to her prison cell.
Still upset that yet another spy could have gotten inside the rebel base, Sarah had quite a talking-to with Clarence. “As the head of security, you’ve got to make sure that no more imperial spies can get through those gates,” she said, pointing at the front gates for affect. “We need to be running full DNA and fingerprint scans, not to mention checking for masks.”
“Of course ma’am,” Clarence agreed, not wanting to argue with an already angry woman. “We’ll make sure those changes are made as quickly as possible.”
“We should probably report this to Cathy,” Ryan said.
Sarah nodded. “Definitely, have you finished gathering together the troops and transporting supplies?”
“No,” Ryan admitted. “But they know what to do, I already laid out all the orders, they just need a supervisor.”
“Let Laz do it,” Sarah suggested.
“You’re kidding, right?” Ryan nearly laughed.
“No I’m not, we’ve got more important things to discuss right now, come on,” she jogged towards the HQ with Ryan jogging right beside her.
“What exactly are we discussing?”
“You mean besides the fact that somebody tried to impersonate a high-ranking former IMF agent and kill you?”
“Well yeah, that’s not worth having a whole meeting over, it happens all the time.” Sarah hit the button for the elevator and they waited for the doors to open
“Not all the time,” Sarah disagreed, holding the elevator door open for Ryan.
“Look, you’re new to this team, trust me, it happens all the time.”
Sarah would not budge, however, and insisted on reporting directly to Cathy. When they reached her office, Sarah burst through the door. “Someone tried to kill Ryan,” she blurted breathlessly.
Cathy looked up from the papers that she was reading and adjusted her glasses so that she could look and see who had just flown into her office without so much as knocking. “So?” she replied.
“’So’? What do you mean, ‘so’?”
“So? It happens all the time, when is someone not trying to kill Ryan?”
“I told you,” Ryan said, coming up from behind Sarah. “Let’s just go back to gathering the troops together.”
It wasn’t until then that Sarah noticed that they were not alone. “Tim, Emmy? What are you guys doing up here?”
Tim and Emmy were both sitting down in chairs opposite Cathy, as if they had been receiving orders from Cathy before being rudely interrupted.
“I was actually just about to call you two,” Cathy explained. “I have a recon mission for you.”
“A recon mission, I thought we were preparing for a preemptive strike,” Ryan mumbled to himself.
Cathy ignored his comment and continued. “I want to know exactly what the emperor has in store for us. We are planning to launch a preemptive strike against the largest military in the world, I want to know what we’re in for.”
“I’d say we’re probably in for, death, destruction, and more death,” Tim replied.
“Did you mention death?” Ryan asked sarcastically.
“Oh guys, don’t be so pessimistic,” Emmy said.
“I’m afraid they might be right,” Cathy solemnly told them. “That’s why I want to know exactly what we’re up against, so I can decide if a preemptive strike is really the best idea. Word has it that the emperor has moved his troops from the palace, to a location in the forest, closer to the rebellion.”
“So you want us to sneak into their camp and take inventory, is that it?” Ryan asked, getting to the point.
“Not exactly in those terms, no.”
“Well, that’s pretty much what it comes down to, isn’t it?”
“That’s impossible,” Tim declared. “Like you said, they’re the strongest military in the world.”
“But not all of the military is in one place,” Emmy pointed out.
“That doesn’t matter, they’re still stronger,” Tim shot back.
“Guys, guys,” Cathy interjected. “What I want to know is can you do it?”
Ryan grinned and spoke up for the group. “When do we start?”

Ryan carefully and silently made his way through the forest, keeping his silenced MP5 in a ready position. His face and arms were painted in combat green and black, and he was fully decked out in a combat suit. Beside him, Emmy crept along as well, wearing the same apparel. Tim and Sarah were in another part of the forest, working their way towards where they believed the camp might be as well.
Ryan clicked the button on the radio. “I’m not seeing anything,” he whispered.
“Okay, don’t worry, we’ll find them,” Sarah replied through radio. “Just don’t spaz out.”
“Excuse me?” Ryan frowned as he replied. “I don’t spaz out.”
“Whatever,” Sarah whispered back.
“That woman,” Ryan mumbled to himself.
“Just forget it,” Emmy hissed. “We’re on a mission, remember?”
“Yeah, next time I’ll talk to Tim,” Ryan agreed.
“You guys would make a great couple though,” Emmy speculated.
“Shut up, we fight all the time, remember?”
“Exactly,” Emmy said. Then she crouched down and motioned for silence. With her hands she pointed ahead. Ryan followed her fingers and saw what she was pointing at. It was a camp, there were guards posted around the perimeter, but not nearly enough for it to be an imperial camp.
“Isn’t it too small?” Ryan mouthed to Emmy.
Emmy just shrugged. She and Ryan crawled as close as they could to the camp without being seen. Ryan peered at the arrangements through his binoculars. There was no doubt that this camp was way too small to be the imperial base. It wasn’t even big enough to hold a small army. “It’s a decoy,” he muttered.
“No it’s not,” Emmy breathed. “It’s a trap.”
Suddenly, Ryan felt an explosion in the back of his head and he crumpled to the ground. The last thing he heard was a man laughing and Emmy screaming, then everything went black.

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 9

Continued from last week...

“You let them what?” the emperor screamed, spittle flying from his mouth.
Chuck might have flinched; it was hard to tell with the huge bandage over his face. He mumbled something in response, but his words were so muffled that the emperor couldn’t understand.
“What?” the emperor asked, making face. “I can’t understand a word you just said behind that stupid bandage.
Chuck roared and ripped the bandage from his face. His skin was puffy and bright red; burns covered the right side and his left side looked slightly scorched.
The emperor gave a look of horror and turned away. “What in the world happened to your face?”
“Ryan Cruise happened,” Chuck growled, giving a menacing look that was amplified by his highly disfigured face.
“Well, what do expect? Marching your troops into hell like that wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. Did you really think he would just sit there and watch you kill him? He’s a trained IMF agent, remember that.”
“Well maybe you trained him too well,” Chuck mumbled.
“Excuse me, are we questioning my judgment?” the emperor’s hand hovered over the same button that had sent Michael down a trap door earlier.
Chuck stared at him. “Of course not, emperor.”
“Good,” the emperor put his hands back down on the desk. “Now look, if you’re having so much trouble with Cruise,” he paused, enjoying the increasing redness in Chuck’s face. “If you’re having so much trouble with Cruise then you should just… readjust your approach to capturing him.”
“How?” Chuck asked.
“You really are all brawn aren’t you?” the emperor said, rolling his eyes. “Use some bait, to lure him in.”
Chuck nodded. “What kind of bait?”
The emperor gave an annoyed laugh. “Are you really that stupid, Chuck? Lure him with a girl, Chuck, lure him with a girl. Every last agent has fallen for that trick, even his father,” the emperor cackled. “His father fell for it to the very end.”

When Jordan landed his helicopter on the Rebel airstrip, there was quite a commotion. The first one to meet them as they landed was Derek.
“Cruise, Laz, its good to see you again guys!” he exclaimed hugging them and slapping them high fives. “And who’s this?” he asked, pointing to Tim.
“This is--” Ryan started to say, but he was interrupted by a chorus of screams coming from a crowd of girls rushing towards them.
“Tim! Ryan! Laz!” they screamed. It was Cathy, Kayla, Emmy, and Katie, of course, all rushing towards them.
“I can’t believe you’re still alive!” Kayla said. “I haven’t seen you guys in forever! Where’ve you been?”
“To hell and back, Kayla, but I’m definitely glad to be back,” Tim replied.
“Well, enough of the chit chat,” Ryan said, breaking into the excited chatter as the girls giggled and wondered at their reappearance.
Just then, crushing arms wrapped around Tim, Ryan, and Laz and squeezed them together until their lungs were nearly suffocated. It was Chris, of course. “Ryan, Tim, Laz! Buddies, how you doing? Its good to see you again!”
“Its good to see you to,” Ryan gasped.
“Yeah, how about letting go now, so we don’t die from lack of air?” Laz wheezed. Chris let go and they fell in a heap. Ryan instantly popped to his feet, pretending that never happened.
Emmy hugged Ryan. “I’m glad your back, big brother,” she grinned at him.
“Yeah, so am I,” Ryan said. He glanced around. “Where’s Sarah?” he asked.
“Right here,” someone tapped him on the shoulder. Ryan turned around, and there was Sarah standing behind him.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Sarah smiled.
Ryan just blinked. “Wait, that’s it, I’ve been gone all this time and all I get is ‘we’ve got a lot of work to do’?”
“Well we do,” Sarah defended herself.
“I was expecting something a little more… I don’t know… exciting?”
“What do you want me to do, Ryan?” Sarah frowned. “Run up and hug you and give you a big kiss?”
Ryan shrugged. “Well, that would definitely be better…”
Sarah smacked him on the head and stormed off.
“Hey, I was just kidding!” Ryan said, jogging after her.
Sarah spun around to face him. “You’re always kidding, it’s irritating!”
“My foster parents used to say that.”
“There you go again,” Sarah said, throwing up her hands.
“You’re just saying that because you’re trying to find something wrong with me,” Ryan shot back.
“Well, that’s not to hard, and why would I want to do that anyways?”
“Because you like me, admit it,” Ryan grinned.
“Me? Like You?” Sarah laughed spitefully. “You’ve got to be joking.”
This didn’t faze Ryan however, “Deep down inside, you know you’re captivated by me,” he insisted.
“You really need to bring that ego of yours down a notch, Cruise,” Sarah said shortly, and then she walked away.
Ryan shook his head. “Women,” he muttered.
“What about them?” Katie spoke up from behind him.
“Nothing,” Ryan waved her off.
“Having some personal problems with your friend there?” Katie asked, smugly.
“No, thank you very much.”
“You really think she likes you?” Katie pressed, not willing to back down.
Ryan sighed. “I’m not sure if I like her. Sometimes I just want to strangle her, and other times I want to ask her to marry me,” he paused. “Well, maybe not marry me.”
“Girls are pretty hard for guys to figure out, I’ll give you that one,” Katie admitted. “Tell you what, do you want me to try and find out how she feels about you?”
Ryan grinned. “That would be awesome, thanks. By the way, I’m really sorry about your car, we’ll scrape some money together to buy you a new one when this is all over.”
“Wait,” Katie frowned. “What about my car?”
“Oh,” Ryan tried to stop the mischievous smile from spreading across his face. “Tim didn’t tell you?”
“Ryan Cruise, what happened to my car?” Katie shouted.
“Never mind, I didn’t say anything,” Ryan started to walk away.
“Did you wreck it?”
Ryan thought for a minute. “I wouldn’t exactly put it that way.”
“What way would you put it?”
“Well, how about this? Your car’s a lot hotter now, literally.”
“You blew it up, didn’t you?”
“Not quite in those terms, but yeah, pretty much.”
“I can’t believe this!” Katie pulled her hair. “My car!”
“I can,” said Kayla, who had just walked in on their conversation. “Leave it to Ryan to bring about plenty of explosive results.” She waved for Ryan to follow her, “Cathy wants to speak to you Ryan.”
Ryan glanced back at a seething Katie. “Don’t worry I’m coming,” he said.
“TIM!!!” Katie screamed. “You’re gonna pay for this!”
Tim was talking to Emmy and Laz when he heard his sister’s scream. “Oh crap,” he groaned. “Ryan told her about the car.” Then he took off sprinting in the opposite direction, with Laz close on his heels.

Later, Ryan and the rest of his team were gathered in Cathy’s office. “…Pat claims that an imperial strike is imminent,” Cathy was saying. “The question is, whether or not to believe him.”
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Jordan spoke up. “I don’t think we can afford not to. When I was flying towards Imperial Bridge I saw quite an army being amassed near the Imperial Palace. I’m not sure what they were gathering for, but I can only guess.”
Cruise nodded. “Jordan’s right, we have to assume that the emperor’s going to strike, and possibly even consider a preemptive strike.”
Everyone in the room appeared stunned by this suggestion.
“What are you saying, Cruise?” Cathy asked.
“What I just said,” Ryan replied, casually slipping on his shades. “We strike before the empire can strike us,” he leaned back in his chair and grinned.
“Are you crazy?” Kayla blurted.
Ryan just lowered his sunglasses and raised his eyebrows.
“We’ve already established that,” Chris said, rolling his eyes.
“I think he’s right, though,” Tim spoke up.
“You do?” everyone in the room spoke at once, even Ryan.
“Yeah, a preemptive strike would have tactical surprise. Thus, catching the empire completely off-guard, perhaps enough to give us a steady victory.”
“Perhaps?” Emmy questioned. “Frankly, it doesn’t seem like anyone has any answers.”
“I’ll bet my life it will work,” Ryan challenged.
“In the end, that may be what it comes down to,” Cathy pointed out.
“Besides, you’ve bet your life before and lost,” Laz said.
“Not my life,” Ryan shot back.
“Yeah, but you lost the bet,” Laz retorted.
“All right, all right, you all have valid points,” Cathy raised her hands in order to stop an argument from forming. “Sarah, you’ve been quiet, what do you have to say?”
Sarah sighed. “I agree with Ryan,” she said.
Once again, this was received with a shocked expression from everyone in the room.
“You do know that April Fool’s was a few weeks ago, right?” Laz asked.
“Yes, Laz, I know,” Sarah said with an irritated edge in her voice, as if she were upset with herself for agreeing with Ryan. “I just think it’s actually a good, strategically surprising idea. Let’s do it.”
Just then, there was a loud beep from Cathy’s desk. Cathy hit a button and Clarence’s voice came through the intercom. “Cathy, milady? You’re going to want to see this message I’m dispatching to you.”
“Can it wait, Clarence?”
“Trust me, milady, it pertains to your meeting.”
Just then, a large screen TV lowered from the ceiling. Ryan whistled. “That’s nice,” he commented.
“The emperor’s was better, though,” Laz said.
“True, true,” Ryan nodded in agreement.
All of the sudden, the emperor himself popped onto the screen. “Greetings, you despicable rebels,” he began. “I’m sure by now that you’ve gotten wind of an imminent invasion on your pitiful rebel base. As your emperor, and since I’m such a forgiving leader, I’m giving you exactly ten minutes to get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness. Otherwise, I will be forced to wipe your poor excuse for a rebellion from the face of this earth,” the emperor paused. “Is that it? How do you turn this thing off?” then the screen went blank.
After a long silence, Cathy finally spoke up. “That does it, Cruise, gather together the troops and prepare for a preemptive strike.”
Cruise grinned. “Right away, ma’am.”

Later that evening, as Ryan was gathering together the rebel forces and giving commands, Sarah came up to him.
“Ryan,” she said in a soft, smooth voice. “How are you?”
Ryan looked surprised at her friendly tone. “Fine, and you?”
Sarah smiled. “I’m doing fine, even better now. I want to ask you something.”
“What?” Ryan asked.
“Well, let’s go somewhere private, where we can talk alone,” Sarah whispered.
Ryan grinned. “I knew you’d warm up to me.” He followed Sarah to a deserted sector of the rebel base. “What is it you wanted to ask?”
Sarah pushed him into a corner of a building. “Something important,” she said. Then she shoved him against the wall.
“What the heck is your problem, Sarah?” Ryan asked, suddenly realizing that Sarah was not acting at all like her normal self.
“You are my problem,” Sarah hissed, pressing up against him and drawing a Glock from her side and pointing it to his head. “But I’ll be sure to end that problem real quick.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 8

Continued from last week...

“Cathy!” Jordan called from his perch on top of the truck. Katie and Daniel had raced over to pick him up once he’d caught Pat. His startling news had sent them screaming back to Cathy in the truck. Jordan hopped off the truck before it had come to a complete stop when they got to where Cathy was.
Cathy stepped back, surprised. They were just hauling the fake Cathy off to jail. “We already got the imposter, Jordan,” she said. “It was one of the emperor’s spies, just like I figured.”
“We’ve got bigger problems, Cathy!” Jordan nearly shouted. “The emperor knows where we are!”
Cathy was taken aback yet again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, Pat spilled the whole thing when I took him down.”
“How do you know he’s not lying?”
“Why would he lie about a thing like that? We have to prepare anyways, what should we do?”
“We need everyone to build up defenses,” Cathy said, taking charge. “Where’s Kayla and Emmy, I could use their help organizing things. Christophear!” she shouted.
Chris suddenly appeared out of nowhere. “Yes, ma’am,” he saluted.
“I need you to raise the alarm that the rebellion is under attack, spread the word to all the troops, but don’t cause any panic, that’s the last thing we need.”
“Right away,” Chris nodded and ran down the street.
“What about Cruise and the others?” Jordan asked. “We’re gonna need all the help we can get.”
Cathy sighed. “Yes, you should probably go pick them up.”
Suddenly, Sarah came running up to Cathy. “What can I do?” she asked.
Cathy let out a long breath of air. “Pray,” she whispered.

“Well, this is bad,” said Ryan as he watched the small army march towards them.
“Don’t worry,” Laz said, bravely. “We’ve been in worse scrapes before.”
“Name one,” Ryan challenged.
Laz paused and thought for a minute. “Um… well, nothing’s really coming to mind right now, but I’m sure I’ll think of one in a minute.”
“You do that,” Ryan patted him on the back and walked over towards Tim. “What now?”
“We could just jump over the bridge right now and end it,” Tim offered.
“No,” Ryan shook his head. “Its too far down, we’ll hit the water like its solid concrete.”
“That’s why I said ‘end it right now’.”
“Well, we at least have to put up some sort of a fight,” Ryan said.
“You’re right,” Tim drove his fist into his hand. “Take cover, and gather all your weapons, men!”
“Tim, there’s three of us,” Ryan raised his eyebrows, and gave him a look. “And there is no cover, and we have about three handguns between us.”
“And that spent rocket launcher,” Laz pointed out.
“I don’t even know where that came from,” Ryan threw up his hands. “Why was there a rocket launcher in the back seat of your sister’s car?”
Tim shrugged. “My sister can get pretty serious sometimes.”
Ryan looked surprised. He glanced at the rocket launcher and then back at Tim; then he gave his trademark grin that said he was about to say something he considered incredibly funny. “So when she burns guys, she does it literally, huh.”
“I hate to break it to you, Ryan,” Tim said. “But we’re still being approached by a private army of Imperial troops and we’re probably going to die in the next five minutes, so could you try and be a little more serious?”
“Me?” Ryan gave a mock look of shock and hurt. “Never.” Suddenly, Ryan’s eyes grew bright. “Laz,” he said. “Do you still have that equipment bag, with the C4?”
Laz looked around, and saw the bag lying on the ground next to the railing on the bridge. “Incredible,” Laz said. “Its still here.”
“Great,” Ryan grinned. “Let’s rig a little surprise for the emperor’s army.”
We can only make one bomb with this thing, Ryan,” Tim pointed out. “We’re gonna need more than this.”
“Don’t worry,” Ryan held up his hands. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“Like what?” Tim asked.
Ryan grinned. “Do you have any gum, by any chance?”

One after another, in neat little rows of five, the imperial troops marched down the bridge. The soles of their feet all slapped the pavement at the same time, creating a smooth, rhythmic thundering sound every time their shoes met the ground. One of the soldiers, however, was thrown off rhythm when he stepped on a piece of gum on the bridge. He stopped to pick it off, creating a gap in the rhythm. An officer stopped and screamed, “Who’s messing up the order?” at the top of his lungs.
“Sorry sir,” the soldier replied. “But you see there’s a piece of gum stuck in my--” and then he blew up all over the place, quite literally, taking a couple other soldiers with him. All the soldiers who had felt a stick to their step frantically started pulling at their shoes. One by one, they neatly were blown away, at least all the ones that had stepped on the gum. Ryan and Tim had only had a 24-piece pack between them, so there were still plenty of soldiers left. Except for one officer, whose face had been neatly erased when a terrified soldier had accidentally flung his shoe at the officer.
With some difficulty, the remaining officers managed to restore some order, and continue the march, being careful to watch out for any gum on the road. None of them noticed the oversized backpack lying to the side of the road.

Tim glanced at Ryan, “should I do it now?” he asked. He was holding a remote with a switch on it and eagerly waiting for Ryan’s signal before he flipped the switch.
“Not yet,” Ryan held up his hand. “Wait until about half way.” He peered through his binoculars and waited. “Okay, now,” he ordered.
There was a large eruption from the backpack and about half of the small imperial army was instantly blown from the bridge. Pieces of pavement and railing went flying everywhere, sometimes landing on unaware soldiers.
“Phew,” Ryan breathed. “That should keep them away.” To his amazement, however, the soldiers kept on coming. After a few minutes, the officers had gathered together their forces and renewed their march towards the unfortunate agents on the opposite side of the bridge.
“What now?” Laz yelled.
“Well, I guess we’re screwed,” Ryan shrugged.

Chuck led his troops to within ten feet of the agents. “You three have caused me a lot of trouble,” he growled.
Ryan grinned. “Happy to be of service,” he said giving a slight bow.
“Very funny, Cruise,” Chuck snarled, not looking very amused. “But you won’t think its so funny when you’re dead.”
“Cheery fellow, isn’t he?” Ryan remarked.
Tim nodded. “He’s probably just upset by the fact that we blew up half his force without even firing a shot.”
Ryan laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“You’re outnumbered, Cruise,” Chuck declared, ignoring their comments. “There’s only three of you, and there’s over c hundred of us.”
“Aw, I’ve had worse,” Ryan waved him off.
“There’s actually about one hundred and fifty of them,” Laz reported. “No wait, I think I counted one of them twice… nope, there’s one hundred and fifty.”
“Still seen worse.”
“Well,” Chuck said. “Surrender, beg for mercy, fall on your knees, you know the drill.”
“No,” Tim shook his head. “Actually, we don’t.”
“Well then, its to the death?” Chuck looked very pleased by this. “You know I could kill you all right now, just by looking at you.”
“Then do it,” Ryan challenged.
Chuck looked thrown off by the challenge. “I, uh, I don’t want to,” he stammered.
“Why not?”
“Cause I don’t want to.”
“Its probably because you made that up,” Ryan taunted.
“That is not true!”
Just then, Ryan heard a slight humming, coming from across the horizon. From where he stood it sounded sort of similar to a humming bird, but there were no flowers here. He knew who it had to be, and he grinned from ear to ear, if that’s possible.
“All right, all right,” Ryan threw up his hands, motioning for Tim and Laz to do the same. They simply looked at him like he was crazy. “You got us, Chuck,” Ryan admitted. “Just do me one favor, can I have one last word before we go?”
Chuck rolled his eyes and sighed. “What?”
Ryan twitched his arm ever so slightly and grabbed at his sleeve. “Catch.” He flung his arm towards Chuck and a wadded up piece of gum flew towards him.
As the stunned soldiers watched the deadly piece of gum fly towards their commander, they lost concentration and paid no attention to the fugitives.
Ryan sprang towards the edge of the bridge and jumped on top of the railing, with Tim and Laz close behind.
“Are you nuts?” Tim yelled. They could hear the gum exploding and a loud scream in the background.
“Yes, I thought we’d already established that!” Ryan cried in return.
“Are we gonna do what I think we’re gonna do?” Laz screamed.
“Depends on what you’re thinking,” Ryan yelled back.
“I’m thinking we’re gonna die!”
“You’re pretty close!” Then Ryan jumped off the railing and out towards the water. His arms flailed in the air, and his ears were filled with the sound of screaming coming from him, Tim, and Laz. Below him, he saw a welcome sight, a friendly, black helicopter, with a familiar face in the cockpit. Ryan grabbed onto the side of the helicopter as he fell and hung there for a minute. Then he pulled himself into the helicopter, followed quickly by Tim and Laz.
Jordan, who was the pilot of course, turned around and faced them. He was wearing some really cool aviator sunglasses and a big smile. “Nice of you three to drop by.”
“No problem,” Tim gasped, still unsure of exactly how they had survived. “Just as long as you’re here to catch us.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 7

continued from last week...
Katie and Daniel were the only ones who were truly awed when they were ushered in through the secret gate into the Rebel base. Jordan and Cathy had each been here before, so they knew what to expect. Neither Katie nor Daniel had ever been here, however, and they were both amazed at the intricately designed underground world that had been established here.
“Wow,” was all Katie could say.
Coming to meet them at the gate was a very surprised Clarence.
“Well hello there, Clarence,” Cathy greeted him.
“Greetings my lady,” he said. “But didn’t I just see up at your office?” He appeared quite puzzled and so did Cathy.
“No, I haven’t been here for at least a month, Clarence.”
“That’s impossible, I’ve only just been talking to you, you’ve been in here for almost…” he trailed off. “Oh no.”
Cathy suddenly turned very serious. “Did you ever check her for a mask?”
“No, I never thought of that,” Clarence admitted.
“I want my office surrounded,” Cathy ordered. “Don’t let anyone escape; we have an imposter.” Clarence rushed to follow her orders, taking several Rebel agents with him.
Just then, Jordan noticed a very startled Pat watching them. “What’s he doing here?” Jordan asked.
Cathy frowned. “I don’t know.”
Noticing that they were staring at him, Pat suddenly took off down the street, a phone in hand.
“Guards!” Cathy called. “Bring me that man!” Jordan and a whole troop of Rebel guards took off after Pat, leaving Katie and Daniel behind with Cathy, bewildered.

Meanwhile, the other Cathy was frantically trying to escape from her office, but before she did so, she was going to destroy those documents. Just as the fake Cathy was about to put the documents through the shredder, a hand grabbed her arm.
“I don’t think so,” said Clarence, who was holding her arm.
“What are you doing, Clarence?” she asked, hoping to throw him off just enough to get away.
“Nice try, but that’s not going to--” Clarence started to say, but suddenly the imposter whackgd him up the side of the face and knocked him over.
“You were saying?” she taunted as she jumped over his body and towards the door. She suddenly halted, however, for standing outside the door was the real Cathy, and about thirty agents.
“Going somewhere?” the real Cathy asked, casually.

An Imperial helicopter flew over the wreckage on the Imperial Bridge, grinning as he piloted the aircraft. The tube on the side of his helicopter that had just shot a rocket only moments before was still cooling.
“Hit confirmed,” the pilot said jubilantly into his COM. “That car’s smoldering like nobody’s business. Three bodies lay on the grownd below him, all stretched out in uncomfortable positions, and none of them moving.
Suddenly, the one with the red hair popped up from the ground with a rocket launcher in his hands.
“Oh crap, where’d he get that?” the pilot groaned.
Ryan Cruise fired the rocket straight and true it whistled towards the helicopter and exploded into it with a ball of flame. “He’s fried,” Ryan commented. “Good thing I always carry this rocket launcher around with me.”
“Yeah,” Laz nodded. “You never know when you’ll almost be killed by a helicopter and need to fake your death for a short time before pulling it out and blowing it to bits.”
Tim got up from the ground and brushed himself off. “Now what?” he asked. “My sister’s car is toast…”
“Literally,” Ryan pointed out.
“She’s gonna kill me,” Tim muttered.
“Not if that doesn’t kill us first,” Ryan said, pointing ahead.
“What? What’s up there?” Tim was standing a ways behind Ryan and couldn’t really see what was going on.”
“Oh nothing much really, just an entire Imperial division,” Ryan replied sarcastically.
Tim walked up to where Ryan was. “Crap!” he exclaimed.
“That about sums it up,” Ryan agreed. He picked up his shades off the ground, which had flown away in the explosion, but, miraculously, had not been melted. He put them on, “this isn’t gonna be easy.”

At this time, Jordan was chasing Pat throughout the streets of the Rebel base. Although Pat had a head start, Jordan was a much faster runner and he soon had caught up with him. When he was close enough, Jordan ran up and tackled Pat to the ground.
“Wait,” Pat called. “Don’t kill me! I was forced to do this by my brother, you gotta believe me!”
“Right,” Jordan scoffed, dragging him up to the ground. “Like I believe that.” He glanced at Pat’s skin, which was still somewhat black. “What are pulling? A reverse Michael Jackson? How long have you been impersonating me?”
“Since you left,” Pat admitted.
“You are gonna regret that,” Jordan promised.
“I’m bugged,” Pat cried. “The emperor knows where the base is.”
This caused Jordan to pause. “What?”
“The emperor knows the location of your base, he’s planning an invasion right now.”
Jordan felt fear crawl at his chest, whatever that means. “We’re in trouble.”

Continuing with the random side plot…
Jordan and the other IMF agents weren’t the only one’s in trouble though, another former agent, by the name of Jason Scorn, was also in a tight spot. He limped constantly sometimes on his right leg and other times on the left, and kept a calm, serious face, but inside he knew he was running out of luck. Even his amazing ability to locate spies liking homing beacons and his incredible reflexes that made Spiderman look as mobile as a ninety-year-old woman could not save him now. He was about to be trapped by two ambitious young agents who had called his bluff.
Jason Scorn limped up the stairs and took a left; he was met by a couple of CIA agents. “I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he declared.
One of them pointed his gun at Jason, and suddenly, the agent was attacked by a whirlwind. At least that’s what his partner saw, before he himself was turned into a helpless sack of bones by a flurry of vicious kicks and punches, and dumped on the ground by his partner.
“Sorry,” Jason apologized. Then he vanished.

Sitting in the emperor’s office was a very nervous middle-aged man, with the heart of a child. He was wearing a black suit and a black fedora on his head. “So man, can I just Beat It, now?” he asked in a very high voice.
The emperor looked up at the strange-looking man sitting across from him. He was holding a picture of him from 1982. “Are you sure this was you back in ’82?” he asked.
“Yeah sure, of course it is,” the man replied.
“I think its time for you to take a look at The Man in the Mirror,” the emperor shook his head. “This doesn’t look anything like you. You’re black in this picture, but you’re white now. And your nose is a different shape.”
“But it is, please believe me,” the man begged. “Besides, it doesn’t matter if you’re Black or White.”
“I’m really sorry Michael,” the emperor shook his head. “The one thing I don’t understand is how you’ve survived this long. You’re aren’t Dangerous or anything, why didn’t I detect you before?”
“Because I’m Bad,” Michael said. “You’re not gonna kill me are you? You don’t Wanna Be Starting Somethin’ like that.”
“No, of course not,” the emperor shook his head. “I only have a small assignment for you, call it a little Thriller.”
“Will You Be There?” Michael asked.
The emperor shook his head, “nope. Billie Jean?” he spoke into the speaker on his desk and a young woman came in. “Do you Remember the Time you met this girl, Michael?” the emperor asked.
“Billie Jean?” Michael exclaimed nervously. “I’m really sorry baby, don’t do whatever you’re thinking, girl!”
“Where’s that Dirty Diana now?” Billie Jean asked. She turned to the emperor. “This man is responsible for conspiring against the empire, he deserves death.”
“NO!” Michael cried. “I’ll do anything! I could perform for you! You Rock My World, emperor, I would never conspire against you.”
“Goodbye,” the emperor said, shortly. He pressed a button on his desk, and Michael disappeared beneath a trap door that suddenly opened beneath his feet. “Aaaaa!” he screamed.
“What a Smooth Criminal,” the emperor commented. “But I’ve always wanted to do that.”

To be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 6

Continued from last week...

Cathy walked towards Ryan, and then suddenly, she started to take her face off as if it were a mask. It was a mask of course, but the person behind the mask shocked Tim.
“Ryan?” Tim gasped, he looked to Ryan who was standing right next to him and shook his head as if to clear it. “But, what’s going on?”
Ryan, the one who had just taken off the mask, drew his Glock and leveled it with the other Ryan’s head. “We have an imposter,” he said.
“Wait,” the other Ryan cried, holding up his hand. “It’s me, Zach.”
Ryan faltered for a second. “Show me,” he said, never dropping his gun.
The other Ryan started to pull a mask from his face, to reveal Zach. Zach took off the voice strip from his throat. “See?”
Laz gasped. “How’s that possible? We buried you.”
Zach shrugged. “How should I know, ask Cruise,” he pointed to Ryan.
Ryan laughed. “Well I have news for you,” he said.
“What?” they asked.
“I’m not really Ryan,” slowly, he removed his mask to reveal… Michelle. Now everyone was confused.
“What in the world is going on here?” Tim cried out. “Where’s the real Ryan?”
“He’s been dead ever since the beginning of Mission 4,” Michelle replied. “I killed him.”
“But you’re dead!” Laz exclaimed.
“That’s what you think,” Michelle laughed and shot Zach in the head. Zach fell over silently into Laz’s arms. Tim yelled and rushed towards Michelle, but Michelle shot him as well and he fell to the ground in front of her.
Suddenl{, Katie jumped up and started prying at her face. “This is gonna stop now, Michelle!” she cried. Then she removed her face and a voice strip, to reveal none other than… Ryan Cruise.
Even Michelle seemed shocked. “What? How?”
“I have just one thing to say,” Ryan declared.
“What?” Michelle asked, training her Glock on him.
“April Fool’s!” Ryan shouted.
(Note: the section above was purely an April Fool’s joke, thus the reason for its utter absurdity. Nothing in the previous section is to be taken seriously as it has no effect on the story whatsoever.)

Back to the Real Story…

“What?” the emperor screamed, causing Chuck Morris to flinch ever so slightly. “You let them escape, again?”
“Sir, I apologize for the incompetence of my agents, they will be dealt with--”
“No, no apologies,” the emperor got out of his chair, then remembered how much taller Chuck Morris was and thought better of it. He climbed back in his chair where he made a much more imposing figure. “I want Ryan Cruise, and Timothius, and their annoying little sidekick in body bags on my desk, now; no, I want them yesterday. Do you understand?”
“On your desk, that would stain the wood, don’t you think?” Chuck replied in a monotone voice that made it hard to determine whether he was being sarcastic or not. Only a small twitch on the side of his face gave any indication he wasn’t totally serious.
“Figure of speech, Morris, don’t play around with me!” the emperor was getting more and more distressed by the minute. “I need a massage,” he moaned.
“Good idea, sir,” Chuck Morris started to remove his black gloves and cracked his fingers.
“No, no,” the emperor held up his hand. “I’ll find someone else to do it, that’s okay.”
“As you wish,” Chuck bowed and walked out.
“Oh, and Morris?”
Chuck Morris stopped and turned back to the emperor.
“If you find that Jason Scorn fellow, or Matt Damon or whatever he calls himself, kill him too.”
Chuck Morris flipped a chopstick in the air and caught it easily. “Of course.”

“You thought I was dead, didn’t you?” Cathy said, circling around Ryan, as if she were examining him.
“Well yeah, your head blew up like a watermelon,” Tim exclaimed. Ryan and Laz had told him all about it in the car; he’d seen headshots like that before, but he’d never seen anyone come back alive from them.
“Usually, that’s fatal,” Ryan pointed out.
“Oh yeah, well usually radiation’s a killer, too,” Cathy shot back. “And so is a knife to the heart, and getting blown to pieces, and car crashes, but hey, we’re all invincible, right?”
“I didn’t think you were,” Ryan muttered.
“Well, I’m not,” Cathy said. “It was my bodyguard that was shot, her name was Attalie.” She slapped Ryan in the face.
“Ouch,” Ryan held his cheek with his hand. “What was that for?”
“For letting Attalie get shot, she was my friend. I’d slap you to, Laz, but I guess I can’t expect much more out of you.”
“Ouch,” Laz winced. “I think that was worse than the slap.”
“I don’t know,” Ryan shook his head, still touching his cheek. “She slaps pretty hard.”
“I would give my life for her,” Cathy said more to herself than anyone else.
“Well its kind of to late for that now,” Tim blurted out, earning him an elbow from Katie and a glare from Cathy.
“Well, I love the little reunion we’re having here,” Jordan spoke up. “But we really need to be going. So, everybody, get in the van,” he pointed to an unmarked van sitting in the bushes off in the distance.
“No,” Ryan said.
Jordan looked at him. “Why not?”
“You guys go ahead, Tim, Laz, and I have some unfinished business to settle with the emperor.”
“That can wait,” Jordan said. “There’s a rebellion we can go to; we can regroup there.”
“No, it cant’ wait,” Ryan disagreed. Tim and Laz hopped into Katie’s car and Ryan climbed into the driver seat.
“Hey,” Katie called out. “You can’t take my car.” She reached into her purse to check and see if her keys were still there, they weren’t.
Ryan held up her keys and let them dangle in his hands. “You shouldn’t keep your keys in the outside pocket of your purse, you know.” He put them in ignition and set the car into drive and took off.
“That, that little--”
“Rascal? Imbecile? Rat? Jerk? Idiot? Thief?” Daniel offered.
“All of them,” Katie sputtered.
Jordan just shook his head. “He’s gonna get himself killed one of these days,” he paused and then added, “And not come back to life.”

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Ryan asked. He was already doing eight-five but the car didn’t want to go any faster.
“Hey,” Tim shrugged. “It is my sister’s car.”
“Maybe the car is made so you can’t speed,” Laz suggested.
“That’s stupid,” Ryan said. They were just coming to the Imperial Bridge, which looked unusually empty.
“Geez, where is everybody?” Tim asked no one in particular. “I’ve seen this place packed full with up to five hundred cars, and now I can’t see a single soul.”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Ryan replied flippantly. “Let’s just get to the emperor; it just means that there’s less traffic, the way I see it.”
“Yeah, but you usually don’t see things very well,” Tim muttered.
“What are you talking about? I have 20/20 vision.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Suddenly, a cell phone started ringing in the car.
“That your cell phone?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Tim shook his head. “Mine was taken from me when I was captured.”
“Well, mine blew up in the car crash, so its not mine,” Ryan said.
“Not mine either,” Laz said.
Tim was digging through the car, trying to find where the ringing was coming from. “It must be Katie’s phone,” he said. “She must have left it in here.”
“Sweet, we can prank call all the people in her contacts list,” Laz shouted.
Ryan and Tim turned towards the back seat and gave him a look.
“Or not.”
Tim answered it. “Hello?”
“Hello Timothius Danaford, prepare to die,” a voice said, and then he hung up.
Tim looked at Ryan. “I really hope that was a prank caller.”
“And I really hope that’s just a normal police helicopter, minding its own businesses, but its not.” Ryan pointed to Black Hawk, flying ahead of them. All of the sudden, fire burst from the helicopter and a rocket flew towards them.
“Not again,” Laz groaned.
There was a huge explosion as the car blew to smithereens and then everything went black…

To be continued...

Note:
If there are any questions that any of the readers would like to ask the authors, please enter them in the form of a comment so they can be humorously answered either by blogspot or in another interview farce. Thank You.

MIssion 5:Payback part 5

Note from the author: Well, I thought I'd just post the link to our interview: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5972359939885256315&hl=en. Let us know what you thought of it. If you didn't get a couple of the questions don't worry. As Laz so aptly put it, "you'd have to be drunk to understand a couple of these questions..." Or you'd have to have been there... or both... anyways, hopefully we'll also have some bloopers, there was quite a few, mostly of us rambling on and then suddenly realizing we were getting very stupid. And speaking of rambling, I'll shut up now. Now to our main attraction...

Continued from last week...

Continuing the random side-plot…

Agent P closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He sat down on his chair in his office at CIA headquarters. Why had ever taken this job in the CIA? Why? Things had been good at first; all they’d had to do was catch rebel terrorist every now and then, and that had been easy. Now all of the sudden they had a myriad of rogue agents on the loose and not nearly enough man power to track them all down. The most elusive, and consequently the most wanted, of the fugitives were Ryan Cruise, Timothius Danaford, and Laz.
There was another agent on the loose, however, one who went by the name of Jason Scorn. This particular agent was especially bothersome to Agent P, because of how easily he constantly outsmarted his agents at every turn. The guy was an expert at locating disguised agents, and could pick them out of the crowd as easily as if they were wearing red targets. On top of this, he was an incredibly good fighter, and could dismantle any five guys in the entire CIA.
As he was thinking about this, Agent P’s partner, Agent U, came into his office.
“Sir, there’s a call for you,” Agent U told him.
“Tell him I’m not here,” Agent P said, rearranging the photos of Ryan, Tim, Laz, and Jason on his desk.
“I think you might want to take this, its Jason Scorn.”
Agent P scrambled up from his chair and grabbed the phone. “Agent P,” he said.
“P, I knew you would come scrambling to the phone once you knew who I was,” Jason Scorn said from the other line.
“I didn’t scramble, I… how did you know that?” Agent P asked.
“I can see you, P.”
“That’s impossible.” Agent P paused and then looked at his desk. “Who’s pictures do I have on my desk?”
“Mine, Ryan Cruise’s, Tim Danaford’s, and Laz’s,” Jason replied.
“You could have just guessed,” Agent P said skeptically.
“Okay, I can tell you what you’re wearing right now,” Jason offered.
“What?”
“A black suit, with a red and blue striped tie, and black pants.”
“You could have guessed that too.”
“Who wears a red and blue striped tie? Why would I guess that?” Jason said, in his typical non-emotional voice.
Agent P held his hand over the phone, and whispered to Agent U. “He says he cans see us right now, is that possible?”
“Well sir,” Agent U responded. “Due to the utter lack of shades or blinds on any of the windows in this entire building, I’d say it’s highly possible that anyone can see us. Seriously, they have more secrecy on the set of Indian Jones 6.”
“Blast!” Agent P cursed. He turned back to the phone, “Jason… Jason?” But there was no answer. Jason was gone. “He’s on 222nd street, set up a trap for him.”
“How do you know?” Agent U asked.
“He left us a code,” Agent P replied.
“No he didn’t, he just hung up, how’s that a code?”
“Just shut up and set up the trap!”
“So we’re just gonna go there because he left you some code? What if he’s setting up a trap?”
“That’s impossible.”
Apparently, it wasn’t, but that’s a story for another time…

Back to the main storyline…

After they had gotten over the initial shock of seeing Cathy alive and realizing Jordan was no longer with them, the IMF agents were all very eager to see what was inside the files.
“Later,” Cathy insisted. “Right now we need to prepare for our attack on the Empire. Let me show you around the facilities.”
She escorted them and all the rest of IMF throughout the rebel base, showing them all their weapons, vehicles and other military supplies. She also showed them the living quarters and other important buildings, such as hospitals, banks, and movie theaters.
“But most importantly,” Cathy said, turning to the IMF agents. “Its all underground, which means that it can’t be reached by the Empire, except in two narrow entrances. The one you came by, and another that is barely big enough for a truck to fit through. That is our main entrance, and the one you came by is sort of our ‘back door’. Pretty neat, isn’t it?”
“Amazing,” Sarah agreed. The others nodded as well.
“But that’s enough of the tour, now we need to get down to business.”
“What do you mean?” Kayla asked.
“Well, we need to find Tim, of course.” She sighed. “And I guess we better locate Ryan and Laz as well.”

“Are you sure this will work?” Katie asked, her tone indicated that she obviously wasn’t very sure herself.
“Of course I’m sure,” Ryan replied, giving his trademark grin. “When have I ever been wrong?”
Katie looked at Tim. Tim just shrugged and didn’t answer.
“You’ve been wrong lot’s of times,” Laz spoke up. “You’ve just been extremely lucky.”
“Yeah, and why should that stop now?”
“There is such a thing as pushing your luck, you know,” Daniel said.
Ryan looked at him. “Not for me there isn’t. Now just do what we rehearsed.” The knocking on the door had turned into pounding, and lots of impatient cursing.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Daniel yelled in a drunken Southern accent. He yanked open the door. “What?” he bawled.
The two Imperial agents standing at the door were obviously thrown off by his attitude. “We’re from the government and we--”
“You’ve come to take my money haven’t you?” Daniel growled. “Well take it, I don’t have any anyways so you can take all of it.”
“No sir, we’re not from Imperial Revenue Service, we’re from the Imperial Police. We wanted to ask you if you’ve seen any of these men.” The agent showed Daniel pictures of Ryan, Tim, Laz, and some other man he’d never seen.
“What are their names?” Daniel asked stupidly.
“This one here’s Ryan Cruise,” the man said, pointing to the first one. “This one’s Timothius Danaford, and this guy goes by the name, Laz. This last one has a lot of names, but word has it that he’s calling himself, Matt Damon.”
“Well, I haven’t seen any of them,” Daniel said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, you think I’m stupid?”
The agent who was acting as spokesman smiled, “No, of course not. You mind if we look inside?”
“You have a warrant?”
“No.”
“Then yes, I do mind, now get.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the agent, he stepped forward and blocked Daniel from shutting the door. “We’re gonna have to look inside.”
“No,” Daniel said firmly.
The first agent looked at his partner. “He said, ‘no’, what do we do know?”
“We still do it, of course,” the other replied.
While this whole argument had been going on, Ryan, Tim, Laz, and Katie had snuck out the back door and were circling around the house. Ryan and Tim were coming around one side, and Laz and Katie were coming around the other.
The agents were just forcing their way into the house when Tim jumped out from behind the house and shot the first agent in the head with his Beretta. The agent fell off the front steps and onto the gravel. His partner jumped and grabbed Daniel. He thrust him in front of him, using him as a body shield.
“Great,” Ryan said. “Now what? We can’t shoot him without getting Daniel.”
Tim looked frustrated. “I don’t know, maybe we can double back and catch him by surprise.”
“Do you think Laz could shoot him from behind?”
“No, that would kill Daniel too.”
“We could accept him as an unavoidable loss,” Ryan pointed out.
Tim pondered this for a minute. “No, he’s my sister’s boyfriend, she’d kill me.”
“Well, they’re technically not involved,” Ryan made a good point once again, causing Tim to pause.
Tim shook his head after a few seconds. “No, she’d blame me, and the she’d claim that I’d know they were involved all along.”
“Well that would definitely move their relationship along then, don’t you think?” Ryan asked.
“True, but then he’d be dead,” Tim fired back.
“That’s a good point,” Ryan admitted, leaving them in the same predicament.
Suddenly, a shot rang out from the trees in front of Daniel’s house. The Imperial agent sank to the floor, a large hole in his head where his ear had been. His body fell against the now bloodstained door and he slid onto the steps.
Daniel wrung his bloody hands and screamed in shock; his face had blood sprayed on it as well.
“Where did that come from?” Tim asked.
Just then, a figure jumped out from the trees, holding a sniper rifle in his hands.
“Jordan?” Ryan exclaimed. “Buddy, where’d you come from?”
Jordan-- for it was actually Jordan, for real--smiled. “You guys are hard to track. Tim, I’ve been following you since you left your sister’s house. You definitely do leave a trail though.” Jordan held up a chicken feather in his hand and grinned. “I love the ingenuity, I must say.”
Ryan grinned, and went to greet him, and then he stopped. “How do I know it’s really you?”
Jordan looked at him. “You’re an idiot.”
Ryan looked satisfied. “Okay, you’re Jordan.”
“Wait,” Katie interrupted. “That’s it, that’s all you need? Anyone can say that.”
“Okay fine,” Ryan folded his arms. “Tell me something that only you would know.”
Jordan thought about this for a second. “When we were in kindergarten, you brought a live hand grenade to class and blew up the entire class room. Nearly blew your own face off.”
“That would have been a tragedy,” Ryan said, reminiscing. “Yep, you’re Jordan,” he declared.
“We did get the rest of the week off after that, though,” Jordan recalled.
“Yeah, that was good,” Ryan agreed.
“Hello,” a voice called. “Aren’t you forgetting someone?”
“Oh right,” Jordan snapped his fingers. “I almost forgot, you’ll never believe who I found tracking you guys as well.”
“Who?” Tim asked. “Kayla?”
Jordan gave him a look. “No, are you kidding me? All those other guys have practically forgotten about you already.”
“Figures,” Tim muttered.
“Who then?” Laz asked. “Sarah?”
Everyone turned to look at him. “Why are we so eager, Laz?” Ryan asked.
“I wasn’t eager, it was just the first name that came to mind,” Laz said, defensively.
“Sure, right Laz,” Ryan nodded.
“No, it was!”
“Whatever,” Ryan shook him off.
“I’m serious!”
“Okay, okay,” Jordan held up his hands. “Let’s just bring her on out.”
“Sarah?” Laz asked, instantly clapping a hand over his mouth.
Ryan jabbed him with an elbow. “It’s okay Laz, she is pretty…” he began but he trailed off when he saw who stepped out from the trees. It was someone that he’d never even hoped to see again, someone he’d taken for dead, and someone who, by all rights, should be dead.
“Cathy?” Ryan said in disbelief.
“Hey Ryan,” Cathy said. “Long time, no see.”

To be continued... next week...

Mission 5: Payback part 4

continued from last week...

“I’m sorry about this, Daniel” Katie apologized.
Daniel nodded. “Its okay,” he said, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t.
“Great, he’s gonna hate me now,” Katie moaned softly.
“I thought he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Ryan said.
Katie jerked. “Do you always eavesdrop on people like that?”
“Yeah.”
Laz was busy talking to Daniel about how exactly he would get the bug out of Tim’s neck. “Is it painful?”
“You try slicing up your skin and see if it hurts,” Daniel replied, annoyed.
He gave Tim some sort of sedative. “This will deaden the pain, you’ll probably fall asleep soon.”
“At least its in the neck,” Ryan said. “I’ve had a tracking device inserted in a more uncomfortable place.”
“Where would that be?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Ryan mumbled.
Daniel shrugged and continued his work. “This is going to be hard,” Daniel sighed, when he located the tracking device.
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“Its inserted into his spine. If I hit the wrong nerve, he’ll be paralyzed. Are you sure you want me to do this?”
Ryan glanced at Katie. “Yes,” she said. “Do it, just be careful.”
Daniel carefully started to try and make his way towards the tracking device, but it wasn’t as easy as it looked. As he had said earlier, one wrong move and it would be all over for Tim.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside, as if a car door had slammed.
Ryan’s head jerked up, along with everybody else’s. “What was that?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know, stay here and I’ll check it out,” Ryan said.
“Wait for me!” Laz called.
They left the room, and it was just Daniel and Katie, along with the heavily sedated Tim. “They’re quite the characters,” Daniel commented, motioning towards Laz and Ryan. He pulled his tools out of Tim’s neck and wiped the sweat of his face.
“I know,” Katie nodded. “I’m so sorry about all this, it got out of hand…”
Daniel pulled down his mask that covered his face and removed his gloves. “Don’t worry,” he said, pulling her away from the table. “Its fine, I don’t mind really. It’s a good challenge.”
“I’m just so worried, that…” Katie trailed off.
“That what?” Daniel asked.
“That you won’t like me, for who I really am,” Katie finished softly. “A Rebel agent.”
“I would like you no matter who you were,” Daniel said. “Besides, I’m a Rebel agent too.”
“You are!” Katie exclaimed. “How did--? I mean, how could you? I had no idea!”
“I’m a man of surprises!” Daniel grinned. He went back to work on Tim, concentrating on the task at hand. Leaving Katie to wonder how she’d never guessed that he was a Rebel agent. He hadn’t segmed too surprised when they’d mentioned Imperial agents, now that she thought about it.
Suddenly, Ryan busted through the door. By the sound of his panting and by the look in his eyes, Katie knew that something wasn’t right. He stared at Tim’s neck and shuddered. “Man, that’s gross! How do you stand that?”
“What did you burst in here so rudely for?” Daniel growled impatiently.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan suddenly remembered and a troubled light came into his eyes. “I don’t mean to rush you, since you’re so busy, but we’ve got company, of the Imperial kind.”

Meanwhile, back in the Rebellion headquarters, the members of IMF had just received a stupendous shock. Cathy was alive, sitting right in front of their faces!
“How are you alive?” Sarah finally gasped, after gaping at Cathy for a while. “We thought you were dead.”
Cathy smiled. “So did a lot of people apparently. I guess we never told you that I had a body double.” Cathy sighed sadly. “Poor, Attilie, she met a rather bloody end, didn’t she?”
“You had a body double?” Chris was astounded.
“Ryan and Laz were pretty sure it was you,” Emmy commented thoughtfully.
“Please,” Cathy shrugged. “This is Ryan and Laz we’re talking about here. Two of the most incompetent agents in IMF.”
“Ouch, that’s pretty harsh,” Kayla said.
“They got my friend killed remember? Attilie was a friend of mine.”
“Which is why you used her as a body double?” Jordan said, dryly.
“Shut up, Pat,” Cathy snapped.
Emmy raised an eyebrow. “Have you not seen us for that long, that’s not Pat, that’s Jordan.”
“Actually,” Cathy shook her head. “That’s Pat.” She nodded at Jordan.
Jordan removed a mask from his face to reveal Patrick’s white head. The rest of his body was still black, though. Pat removed a voice changing strip from his throat and coughed.
“How’d you…” Chris asked pointing at his skin. He quickly realized that they hadn’t checked Jordan for a mask, how very stupid.
“Body paint,” Pat shrugged. “It’s gonna be real fun getting it off I’m sure.”
“But why?” Kayla asked.
“Jordan left on a rescue mission for us some time ago, right after my apparent death.” Cathy explained.
“Rescue mission for who?” Sarah asked.
“Tim, of course,” Cathy replied.
Just then, Clarence burst in the room. “Ma’am we found those documents.” He was breathing hard, and was waving a folder marked: Top Secret.
Cathy grinned. She took the documents from Clarence and excused him from the room. “These are the documents that can prove all that the emperor has been doing.”

Meanwhile…
“How many of them are there?” Katie asked, peeping out the window through the closed blinds.
Ryan smacked her hand away from the blinds. “Stop doing that, why don’t you just hang a sign outside the says: occupied? If they see you, they’ll know we’re here.” He tossed her his other sidearm. She fumbled with it and nearly dropped it. “Be careful that’s not a toy.”
“I know that!” she snapped.
“And keep your voice down.”
“I am keeping my voice down!”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am!”
“Shut up!” Tim hissed. He had just exited the operation room and was rubbing his neck; the tracking chip had been successfully removed. “Stop fighting, both of you.”
“Where’s Laz?” Ryan suddenly asked.
“In here!” Laz whispered. They followed his voice into the living room. Laz was typing away on a computer.
“This is no time to be playing on the computer, Laz,” Tim said.
“I’m not playing, I’m trying to throw those Imperial agents off their scent.”
“Don’t you mean our scent?” Ryan asked.
“Whatever, I’m sending a message to their lap top in their car. It says that we’ve been spotted in lower Jonopolis, hopefully they go for it.”
A few seconds later there was a knock on the door; apparently it hadn’t worked.
“Come on,” Ryan said. “I have an idea.”
“I thought that would work,” Laz said, still astounded that his plan hadn’t worked out. “It should have worked. It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault.”
“Shut up, Laz,” they all said in unison.

to be continued...

Coming soon...
from KWS...
An exclusive interview of Ryan Maples and Tim Danford, the writers of IMF. Hosted by Lazarus Dance. And Filmed by Chris Danford.

Mission 5: Payback part 3

continued from last week...

Sarah and the others stared in wonder at the Rebel base. There was all kinds of action going on around them. Cars and Trucks were coming in and out of the base constantly and there was a fair amount of people walking along the streets. That such a place existed underground without them ever even knowing about it was unconceivable.
The other agents had been led a different way by another guard, Thomas. The person in charge of the Rebellion had wanted to talk to them for some reason. Them meant everyone from Ryan’s team that was present, including Derek and Sarah, why them she didn’t know.
“Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” the Rebel guard, Clarence, said with a grin on his face.
“Definitely,” Sarah gasped.
Jordan turned to Derek, who was the only one who didn’t seem overwhelmed with the whole facility. “Did you know about this place?”
“Sure,” Derek shrugged. “I belong to the Rebellion. So did Evan Hunter.”
“How come we’ve never heard about it?” Chris asked.
“The emperor keeps a tight lid on any information about any rebellion. He doesn’t let the public know that anyone opposes his will. Kt would give them too many ideas.”
“Seems like a pretty successful Rebellion.” Kayla commented.
“Have you ever fought the empire?” Chris asked the question that Jordan was just about to ask.
“Of course,” Clarence replied. “Many times, we’ve even beaten him before, you just never hear about it. The emperor’s very good about that.”
“Obviously,” Sarah commented. “Because I’ve never even heard of you.”
The Rebel guard led them inside one of the larger skyscrapers and then into an elevator. He pushed the button for the top floor and they started to rise.
“Where are we going?” Jordan asked.
“To meet with the director,” the guard replied simply.
“Who’s the director?” Sarah asked.
“What does he do?” Chris added.
Clarence held up his hands. “One at a time, please. The director is the leader of the Rebellion, and he is a she. She makes all the important decisions, like how to spend our funds efficiently, who to place our troops under, and what brand of toilet paper to buy, etc.”
“Toilet paper?” Sarah asked, incredulously.
“Hey, its expensive if you don’t buy the right brand,” Clarence said, defensively. “Those things add up.”
“You still didn’t say who she was,” Kayla pointed out.
“As for who she is… well I’ll let you see for yourself.” The elevator opened and they stepped outside into the hall.
Clarence led them up to door that said: “Director of the Rebellion”, on it. He opened the door and motioned for them to enter.
It was much like the emperor’s office, only not quite as nice. There was a huge desk in the middle of the room and an office chair sat behind it. The chair’s back was turned towards them, but they could tell that someone was sitting in it.
Suddenly, the chair turned around, and the young woman sitting in the chair smiled at them. “Good to see you again, my old friends,” she said.
Everyone’s jaw dropped, except for Clarence’s. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Their voices failed them and they couldn’t voice the thousands of questions that filled their minds.
Finally, Sarah was able to form one word in her throat and she breathed it out, amazed. “Cathy?”

A short while after Ryan had ran back into the woods to go grab Laz, Katie led out a long sigh.
“What?” Tim asked.
Katie rolled her eyes. “He’s supposed to be the guy to help us escape the empire? He can’t even keep track of his agents.”
“Just trust him, he’s defeated impossible odds many time before. He’ll pull it off, you’ll see.” Then he added to himself, “I hope.”
Ryan came back out of the woods with a grumbling Laz. “You guys always forget me,” he complained. “Every mission I either get stuck in a tree, or left alone inside a building surrounded by bad guys, or hanging from the ceiling. I’m tired of it!”
“Oh quite complaining, Laz,” Ryan groaned. “We always come back to get you.”
They piled into the backseat of the car, and Katie started it back up again.
“You don’t have to worry about anymore roadblocks,” Laz spoke up. “I brought enough C4 with me to blow up the emperor’s entire garage!” He patted the backpack that he’d set beside him.
Katie cringed and gripped the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles turned white. “You brought what?”
“C4,” Laz replied, as if he’d brought a box of doughnuts. “Just don’t brake too hard.”
“Get rid of it!” Katie yelled.
“Katie, Katie,” Tim tried to calm her down. “He was just kidding.”
“About the C4?” she asked.
“No, about the braking part,” Ryan said. Then he added. “Actually, you might want to take that seriously too.”
Tim glared at Ryan, who just shrugged innocently.
“Its fine, Katie. It won’t blow up unless we want it to. Right?” He turned to Laz and Ryan.
“Right.” They both replied. “Still,” Ryan said, smiling. “I wouldn’t break too hard.”
“Let’s change the subject,” Tim said, forcefully.
“Okay then, how are you?” Ryan asked.
“Wgll, other than the fact that I’m a wanted man and the emperor has a huge price over my head for anybody that brings me back dead or alive, I’m good. How about you?”
“About the same,” Ryan agreed. “How’d you escape?”
Tim told Ryan and Laz about how the emperor had made him promise to turn his sister over to him, and how he’d been let go. Then he relayed the information that had caused their slight problem.
“You’re bugged!” Ryan cried. “They know where we are?”
“Right,” Tim nodded. “Which means I need to be debugged, fast. Katie’s taking me to her boyfriend’s, apparently he knows how to take care of this stuff.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Katie insisted.
Ryan glanced at Tim and grinned. “Must have hit a nerve there.”
“I can see where Tim gets it,” Katie mumbled.
Ryan and Tim laughed, so did Laz but he didn’t know what they were laughing at.
“So, where are we going?” Laz asked.
“We’re here,” Katie said. They looked out the window and, sure enough, they’d arrived at somebody’s residence. It was a rather isolated residence, kind of out in the countryside, which suited them just fine.
A young man stepped out; he was about Katie’s age, which affirmed Ryan and Tim’s assessment that he was her boy friend, at least in their minds. He trotted over to their car. “Katie, what a pleasant surprise!”
Tim softly mimicked his voice in a high-pitched accent, so only those in the car could hear. “What a pleasant surprise!”
Katie kicked him and climbed out of the car. “Hey Daniel, its good to see you too!” They hugged, which caused Ryan and Tim to look at each other and nod, definitely a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
“They’re on a first name basis, too,” Ryan observed.
Katie continued to shoot them all glares, and then smiled at Daniel. “This is my brother, Tim,” she pointed to Tim. Daniel greeted him and shook hands with him.
“Are these your brothers too?” Daniel asked, pointing to Ryan and Laz.
“No,” Katie answered quickly. “No, those are my brother’s friends.” She didn’t bother to say their names.
“Yes,” Ryan said sarcastically. “I’m friend number one, and he’s friend number two,” he gestured towards Laz. “Nice to meet you.”
Daniel laughed. “You’re a funny guy,” he chuckled.
Katie apparently didn’t agree. “Yes, so funny,” she said with a fake smile, and then she glared at him when Daniel wasn’t looking. Ryan just shrugged. “Their names are Ryan and Laz.”
They shook hands. “Now, down to business,” Ryan said. “We need your help with something.”
“My help? Of course, I’d be glad to help you.” Daniel seemed quite willing.
“Would you mind debugging our friend here, Tim,” Ryan jerked his thumb at Tim. Then he lowered his shades and said, “and we’d appreciate it if there were no questions asked.”
“Uh, sure,” Daniel said, bewildered. “Debug?”
“Yeah, you know, bugs,” Katie said. “They just get all over, in your clothes, your hair, your, uh…”
“In your neck,” Tim said.
“Yes, of course, in your neck,” Katie.
“What kind of bugs?” Daniel asked, still utterly confused.
“Beatles?” Katie tried.
Ryan shoved her aside, and laughed casually. “Ha, she’s such a kidder,” he glared at her, and she just shrugged. Ryan rolled his eyes and turned back to Daniel. “We need you not to ask any questions about this, understand?”
“Sure?”
“That didn’t sound like you were sure, are you sure?”
“Yeah, okay, I’m sure. What do you want?”
Ryan glanced at Tim and then turned back to Daniel again. “We want you to remove a tracking device from Tim’s neck. It’s the back of your neck, right?”
Tim nodded.
“A tracking device? But how--?”
“Uh uh, that’s a question,” Ryan wagged his finger. “Just do your magic and we promise that we’ll be out of here quickly. Hopefully before any Imperial agents show up, oops, said too much.” Ryan acted as if he had accidentally let that slip, but in reality, he hadn’t. He thought that a little motivation wouldn’t hurt the man, and as long as they had their side arms, nothing should go wrong.
“Imperial agents? Uh uh, no way, Jose.” Daniel shook his head.
“Oh come one, Daniel, where’ your adventuresome spirit?” Ryan chastised him, playing with his Glock in his right hand. “We wouldn’t want to have to force you against your will,” he casually flicked off the safety.
“What are you doing?” Katie protested. Ryan held up his hand to silence her.
“Its okay,” Daniel held up his hands. “I’ll do it.” He led them to his operation room and set Tim, facedown, on the table.
“A wise decision, Daniel,” Ryan said. “We’ll be watching, so don’t try any funny business.” He grinned. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Danny glanced at his gun and swallowed. “Sure thing, you got it.” Just try not to interrupt, I don’t want to hurt him.”
“You better not,” Ryan said, fingering his Glock again. “Accidents can happen, but they usually happen in two’s, if you get what I mean.” He winked and left the room.

to be continued...

Mission 5: Payback part 2

Continued from two weeks prior...

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere… where there lies a side plot that has nothing to do whatsoever with this entire story… Well, perhaps maybe a little…

“I told ya already, Earl,” Denise whined in a southern accent. “You let them chickens out and you’s nevah gonna get ‘em back.”
“And I told you,” Earl retorted. “Ta shut your trap, I’ll gets ‘em back.”
Suddenly, a young, red-haired man walked up to the two arguing spouses. “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” he asked.
Earl stared at him. “Can you tell where my chickens are?”
“Your chickens?” the red-haired man asked, bewildered.
“What’s your name, boy?” Denise whined.
“Jason, Jason Scorn,” the boy replied.
“You help us find our chickens, and we’s will help you find your way home. You’re lost, right?” Denise asked.
“Sort of, I guess you could say that. I don’t really know who I am.”
“You just said your name,” Earl pointed out. “What do you mean you don’t know who you are?”
“Just what I said, I think I have amnesia.”
“Well, what do you remember?” Denise questioned him.
“Nothing! That’s what amnesia means, stupid!” Jason yelled angrily.
“You don’t remember anything?” Earl seemed astonished.
“Well… I seem to remember killing people, for some reason. I’m not sure why,” Jason shrugged.
Suddenly, there was an explosion that ripped through the forest. Jason jumped back and gasped. “That must be the CIA, they’re after me!”
“Why?” Earl and Denise both called out.
“I have no idea, it has something to do with my past, which I haven’t figured out yet. See you guys later.” Jason ran off into the woods.
Earl looked back towards the explosion; smoke smothered the sky where it had once been blue. He could practically smell the fire from here. And in the sky he could see… what was that? Chicken feathers floating through the sky! Oh no!


Back to normal time…

“So, who exactly is this guy again?” Timothius asked for the thousandth time.
Katie sighed. “I told you already, a friend, one that can help us.”
“Exactly how can he help us, may I ask?” Tim was still skeptical. “I’ve been bugged, they inserted it into my spinal cord, not in my pants. It’s not that simple.”
“I know that,” Katie replied, losing her patience. “That’s why I’m taking you to him, he knows how to solve these kind of problems.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to get you all riled up, is he your boyfriend or something?” Tim asked, partly trying to make conversation and partly trying to rile her up.
“No!” she said defensively. “Of course not.”
“So he is your boyfriend,” Tim smiled.
“I just said that he wasn’t,” Katie insisted.
“Yeah, but you were a little too defensive, which means I hit a nerve.”
“How do you know?”
Tim shrugged. “Because, I’m your brother.”
“I know, but you never used to be interested in this kind of stuff, you were always so serious.”
“Well,” Tim shrugged. “When you hang around Ryan Cruise a lot, he kind of rubs off on you.”
“That’s the fifth time you’ve mention his name,” Katie pointed out. “Who is Ryan Cruise?”
“He’s another agent,” Tim explained. “I don’t think I should say much about him, though. Who knows who might be listening?”
“What does he look like?”
Tim thought about this. “Well, he has red, wavy hair, and he’s always wearing these really cool shades, and he has lots of freckles.”
“Does he have a girlfriend?” Katie asked, curious about her brother’s friend.
Tim frowned. “I don’t know… it’s complicated. I think he wants one, but its not really allowed. Romance is kind of banned in our group.”
“So, how did you guys meet?”
“A long time ago, at this one party. It was in the Bahamas, I think.”
“You were invited to a party in the Bahamas? Maybe I should become an agent.”
Tim chuckled. “We weren’t invited…” he trailed off, thinking about his first mission with Ryan Cruise. Those had been the days, when everything was black and white, and he knew exactly who the bad guy was. Everything was so confusing now.
Suddenly, Katie hit the brakes and came to a screeching halt. Timothius lurched forward and slammed his head on the dashboard.
“What the heck?” Tim exclaimed, but then he saw why Katie had stopped. A roadblock ahead of them was blocking their access. No doubt the roadblock had been set to stop them.
“Now what?” Katie asked.
“Just play it cool,” Tim said. “Maybe they don’t know what we’re planning to do yet.” He eyed the thick forests by the roadside; they would be perfect cover if they needed to make a break for it. They could be perfect for an ambush too.
An officer walked up to their car and knocked on the window; Katie rolled it down. “Excuse me, ma’am,” he said, putting his hand to his hat and raising it slightly. “I’m sorry for the holdup, but there’s a couple of criminals on the loose.”
“Oh?” Katie tried to act surprised. “Who?”
“Oh, just a couple of trouble-makers, nothing to worry about ma’am. Just keep yourself safe; it looks like you already have a nice young man here to protect you. He nodded towards Tim.
“Oh yeah, he’s my brother.”
The officer nodded. “Well, I’m sorry about this, but we’re gonna have to search your car. Don’t fret though, we’ll be done in just a sec.” He was lying through his teeth of course; he had no intention of letting the both of them go. In fact, he had direct orders from Chuck Morris to take these two into custody. Tim didn’t know this, but still, he was cautious.
“We need to get out of here,” Tim warned after the guard had walked away, back towards the roadblock.
“How?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know, look for an opening.”
Just then, the entire roadblock exploded in a giant fireball. Katie and Tim ducked down in their car as the blaze shot into the sky. The cars roared with flames as they flew through the air and came crashing back down to the ground. Tim sat back up and looked at the flaming vehicles in wonder. “There’s an opening,” he murmured.
“What in the world?” Katie shouted above the roar of the flames.
“There’s only one man in the world who would be crazy enough to blow up a roadblock,” Tim said, still staring at the wreck.
“Who?” Katie asked.
“Ryan Cruise,” Tim replied.
Sure enough, a red-haired figure emerged from the woods just then. He was sporting some sic shades and walked with the air of someone who’d just blown up an entire roadblock. He walked over towards their car and cocked a boyish grin. “Hey Tim, long time, no see.” He looked around at the site of the explosion. “What’s with all these chicken feathers?” he muttered.

After Ryan had left, his team had sort of unofficially elected Jordan as their temporary leader. Although he didn’t have the same qualifications as Ryan, he’d already shown his willingness to act, and his capable leadership. Plus, Ryan had no qualifications, so he didn’t have very big shoes to fill in that area. So when Derek led them into yet another tunnel, which he said would finally lead them to the Rebellion, they all watched to see what he would do. Jordan shrugged and looked back at them. “I guess we have no choice but to follow him.” He stepped into the tunnel after Derek, and Ryan’s, or rather Jordan’s, team followed after him along with all the rest of IMF. Suddenly, the ground sloped downward so suddenly, that it almost made a sort of drop-off. Jordan stumbled and fell, rolling down the tunnel. He rolled, and yelled, down the tunnel until he plowed into Derek and came to a stop.
“Watch that last step,” Derek muttered.
“Gee, thanks for the warning,” Jordan replied sarcastically. “I almost--”
But he didn’t get to finish. Suddenly Chris came sliding down the tunnel and plowed into them, sending them both flying. “Sorry,” Chris apologized.
Jordan got up and brushed himself off. “That’s okay.” He was in better spirits in a minute though, as he got to watch Kayla, Emmy, and Sarah all slam into each other. He and Derek laughed until they cried, doubling over from the laughter. “That was funny,” Jordan said in between laughs.
Chris just frowned. “That’s not very chivalrous, help me get them untangled.”
Jordan shrugged and bent over to help up the girls. Just then another IMF agent flew from the tunnel and smacked into Jordan, sending him flying. The girls laughed hysterically.
“Now that was funny,” Kayla laughed.
Jordan scowled and got up yet again; he didn’t bother to brush himself off this time. “Somebody’s gotta fix that step.”
“Hey there, can I help you guys with something?” a voice suddenly said.
Jordan, and the rest of the agents that where still standing, whirled around to see who had spoken, it was a Rebel guard.
Derek spoke up. “We seek refuge from the emperor.”
The guard smiled. “Well, I think we can help you with that. Its good to see you alive, Derek.”

Katie was still recovering from the shock of the roadblock exploding when Ryan had come up to the car, but she’d finally found her manners and greeted Ryan. “So you must be the Ryan Cruise that I keep hearing about,” Katie commented, smiling.
“That’s right,” Ryan nodded, and then glanced at Tim as if expecting an introduction. “And you must be…” he trailed off, looking at Tim again.
Tim started to speak but his sister cut him off. “I’m his sister, didn’t you tell him that you had a sister?” she asked turning to Tim. His silence told all.
“I should have known,” Katie said, disgusted. “You keep babbling on and on about Ryan Cruise, but you never even had the courtesy to mention me to him even once. I can see that you’re real proud of your sister.” She paused and glanced at him. “Well?”
“I’m sorry?” Tim tried apologizing. It didn’t work.
“I’m sorry?” Katie mimicked. “Well, I’m sorry too,” and she turned away from him.
“Actually,” Ryan spoke up. “He couldn’t help it. There’s a rule in IMF that you’re not allowed to talk to other agents about your family.”
“There is?” Katie faced Ryan, not sure whether to believe him.
“Yeah, of course,” Ryan lied. “Its standard procedure.”
Tim shot him a look that said, thank you.
“I’m sorry,” Katie said, sticking her hand out the passenger side window. “We haven’t been properly introduced. “I’m Katie Danaford.” They shook hands.
“Ryan Cruise,” said Ryan. “Sorry about my rather… explosive entrance, but you gotta do whatcha gotta do. The roadblock was annoying anyways, and Laz wanted to let off some steam.”
“Speaking of Laz, where is Laz?” Tim asked.
“Oh,” Ryan smacked his forehead. “I forgot all about him.”

To be continued next week...

Mission 5: Payback

IMF Studios presents...

A Ryan Maples/Tim Danford short story...

Featuring: Ryan Cruise, Timothius Danaford, and Laz, in...

Mission 5: Payback...

"All right, John, you're back on in four... three... two... one..." the camerman at ENN news counted off the seconds until John was back on the air. He pointed to him after the count of one, and John, the talking head for ENN news, began his story.
“Hi, I'm John and this is ENN news, bringing to you live, breaking news. A devastating car wreck in the sparsely populated outskirts of New Jonah appears to have left no survivors and has people searching for answers. Dan, tell us what you’re seeing there,” the news anchor for ENN turned to look at another camera, and suddenly another reporter came on the TV screen.
“Thanks John,” Dan replied, and then pointed to the crash site behind him. “Behind me you can see the flaming remains of what the police think used to be a Corvette. Police still don’t know exactly what caused the wreck, but one thing remains for sure, whoever was inside the vehicle at the time of the wreck wasn’t so lucky. Search teams are currently searching for any bodies, but haven’t yet found any. Some suggest that the bodies may have completely disintegrated in the wreckage, but experts say that is highly unlikely. I’m Dan, and I’m here with ENN news.” Dan disappeared from the TV screen and John came back on. “Thank you Dan, and we sincerely hope that no one was caught in that horrible wreck. Now, on to our main story of the night: Paris Hilton was thrown in jail again after racking up yet another DUI. Experts say that she has converted to Christianity for about the fifth time now, but no one is sure whether she’ll stay a Christian this time, or why exactly she’s famous…
Two men sat at the bar, watching the news as they drank a couple of soft drinks. “You’re darn right they haven’t found our bodies,” one of them exclaimed. “The empire must have cleaned up all those other guys we left behind.”
The second man looked at the first, “Why is Paris Hilton famous?”
The first man shrugged. “Because her parents are famous.”
“Wg should be famous,” the second man said. “Paris Hilton has nothing on us.”
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying, Laz,” said the first man. “But we’re secret agents, we can’t be famous.”
“I guess you’re right, Ryan,” said the second man, who was Laz. “So what do we do know?”
Ryan thought about this for a moment. “I’m gonna need some new shades, mine melted when the car exploded.”

Six hours earlier…

Chuck Morris’s agents searched through the wreckage of the flaming Corvette, seeking evidence of a confirmed kill.
One of the agents held up a pair of half-melted sunglasses. “Look sir, sunglasses,” he said, showing the senior agent at the crash site.
“Look sir, a penny!” another agent exclaimed.
The senior officer ignored the second agent and took the sunglasses from the first agent. “These belonged to Ryan Cruise all right,” he nodded, sure of himself.
“Wow, you’re good,” one of the agents said. “How’d you know?”
“Because I’m senior agent,” the senior agent declared, proudly.
“Are you sure it isn’t because Cruise etched his name on the side of the sunglasses?” another agent asked, pointing to the inscription on the side of the shades.
“Shut up,” the senior agent barked. “We need more than these silly shades to confirm the kill, I want bodies!”
The agents scattered around and searched for the bodies of Ryan Cruise and Laz, but they couldn’t find anything. One of the agents wandered farther away from the others. He searched through the bushes nearby, and suddenly, he spotted something. It was a wallet! He recched down to pick it up, and was suddenly knocked on the head with something hard. The agent fell over unconscious, and was grabbed by two pairs of hands and dragged into the bushes.
One by one, the agents wandered away from the group, and one by one, they were knocked out and dragged into hiding. All of the sudden, only the senior agent was left. He looked up and scanned the area, confused by the sudden lack of his agents. Then he spotted one of them, his legs were sticking out from behind a cluster of trees. The senior agent ran over to the body, and gasped when he saw that he was unconscious. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his phone and started to dial Morris’s number, when all of the sudden he felt an explosion in the back of his head and everything went black.

“Well,” Ryan said, brushing his hands off. “That takes care of them. Come on, Laz, let’s get out of here.” They climbed into one of the agent’s cars and drove off, leaving about a dozen unconscious agents behind them.

Twenty minutes later…

Chuck Morris arrived on the scene in his own car, only to discover that he was too late. He cursed his agents for being so incompetent.
One of the agents who had woken up was optimistic, though. “At least they didn’t take the car that had the doughnuts in it,” he pointed out.
Chuck reached into his shoulder holster and shot him through the head. “Anyone else want to make a smart reoark?” he asked. “Because I have to warn you, I’m not in the mood.” Nobody moved, let alone said anything. “Good,” Morris clapped his hands together. “Now, let’s move. Ryan and Laz have an appointment with the emperor, and I wouldn’t want them to miss it,” Chuck laughed evilly.

Two seconds later…

“Where exactly are we going?” Kayla asked.
Derek whirled around to face her. “I thought we’d already made that clear, away from here. The emperor knows the location of our hideout now.”
“Who leaked it to him, though? Should we really be going to the Rebellion’s hideout if we still have a mole in our ranks?” Emmy was quick to point this out.
Derek stopped, apparently he hadn’t thought about this. “How could I be so stupid?” He smacked himself on the forehead.
“So… know what?” Chris asked.
“It’s time for a mask check,” Derek replied.
“Mask check?” they all asked in wonder.
“Yeah,” Derek nodded and repeated himself. “A mask check, someone here is not who they say they are, and we’re going to find out who it is.”

Two hours, seven minutes, and thirty-two seconds later exactly…

Ryan stopped the car at a local Imperial-Mart. “Maybe we should pick up some clothes.”
Laz looked at their tattered garments. “Yeah, maybe.” They got out of the car and entered the Imperial-Mart. They paid for their purchase with a government credit car that they’d found in the senior agent’s wallet. They figured that the emperor wouldn’t mind…

Thirty three seconds later…

Two Imperial agents spotted Ryan and Laz coming out of Imperial-Mart as they were eating doughnuts at a local coffee shop. “Hey,” one of them said. “Isn’t that those two fugitives that the emperor is looking for?”
The other agent shrugged and stuffed another doughnut into his mouth. “I doubt it. Besides, its break time.”

One hour and thirty-two minutes earlier…

Derek had just finished checking the last IMF agent to see if they were wearing a mask. He sighed. “Guess none of us are wearing masks after all.” He started to turn and continue down the tunnel, when Jordan suddenly spoke up.
“Wait, we never checked you.”
Derek spun around to look at him. “What?”
Jordan folded his arms. “You’re not really Derek, are you?”

Six minutes and twenty-five seconds later…

The emperor slammed his fist down on the desk. “What do you mean, they’re not dead?”
“Exactly what I said, sir,” Chuck replied from the other side of the emperor’s desk.
“Well, don’t just stand there! Go find them!” the emperor yelled. Then he calmed himself. “And if you have trouble finding them. Just pay a visit to our friend Timothius, shouldn’t be too hard to find him. He’ll make great bait.” The emperor laughed.

Six minutes and twenty seconds earlier…

“You think I’m the mole?” Derek said, shocked.
“Why not?” Jordan shrugged. “I don’t see anyone else here that we haven’t check out thoroughly.” He paused and added. “And you have a good motive. We know that your father was killed on a mission with Evan Hunter.”
“Evan Hunter was a good friend; he was like an older brother to me,” Derek insisted. He glared at Jordan. “Where did you learn that?”
Jordan glanced at Kayla and then looked back at Derek. “I did a little research of my own,” he lied. Kayla sighed inwardly, glad that Jordan hadn’t given her away. She had been the one to show him the file on Derek.
Derek stepped forward. “Okay, fine then, check me.”
Jordan looked at the others and then at Derek. “Chris, check him,” he ordered.
Chris stepped over towards Derek and checked him, feeling the corners of his face for any sign of a mask. When he was finished he shook his head. “No mask, he’s clean.”
Derek gave them all a disappointed look.
“I’m sorry,” Jordan apologized. “Its just that, you can’t be too careful.”
“Yeah,” Derek nodded. “I guess you really can’t trust anybody.” Then he turned and continued down the tunnel that would lead them to the Rebellion.

To be continued...

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Imperial Mission, Inc. Killer Whale Studios
All rights reserved
The works on this blog including posts, comments, and pictures; may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, printing, uploading and distribution of these works via the internet or any other means without permission of Imperial Mission, Inc, or Killer Whale Studios is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. For any information the address is:Xanatosofmalta@gmail.com Or if you actually want a response: Ryanmaples@comcast.net

Mission:Betrayal part 9

...continued from last week...

Chuck Morris and his many ISS agents got out of their cars and stared at the location Emmy had led them too.
“They’re hiding in Emperorworld?” one the agents asked, referring to the amusement park that stood before them.
“No,” Morris spat on the ground. “She led us to the wrong place.”
“Didn’t you check out her directions before you followed them?” another asked.
Chuck grabbed the agent by the throat and held him up in the air. “The next time you challenge me, I’ll kill you.” He threw the agent onto the hood of the agent’s own car and then he left.

Derek and Ryan, who were watching through the security cameras at Emperorworld, which they had hacked into, laughed. “Good work, Emmy, I mean Jessica.”
“Go ahead and call me Emmy,” Emmy said. “It feels more natural.”
“Okay… sis,” Ryan grinned at the use of the word. “I’ve got a lot of teasing to make up for, you know. But now, it’s time to deal with the emperor.” He looked at Derek. “I want you to release Sarah immediately, and apologize for her treatment.” Derek nodded, not pointing out that technically, he was in command. Then Ryan walked out of the room and headed back towards where everyone else was.
“What are you doing?” Emmy asked.
“Calling in Robin,” Ryan said. “It’s time for a ride in the Batmobile. Yo Laz, it’s show time!” Ryan called.
Laz appeared out of nowhere as soon as the words left his mouth. “Where are we going?” he asked.
“The emperor wants us, so we’re going to the emperor,” Ryan replied. “Besides, somebody’s gotta show Tim some love, he’s been sitting out in the cold for too long.”
“Ryan, are you crazy!” Emmy exclaimed.
Ryan just looked at her shrugged. “You know me.”
Just then, Sarah came into the room. “Ryan, what’s happening? They’re releasing me, they said they found out who the mole was.”
“I’ve gotta go, Sarah,” Ryan explained. “They’ll debrief you on the whole thing.” He gave them all a little two-fingered salute. “I’ll be back.”
Laz copied him and declared, “and so will I.”
Derek led them down another passage and into what he called, “the secret garage.” There was a nice shiny, black Corvette sitting inside.
Ryan whistled slowly. “That is some car.”
Derek nodded in agreement. “You should see my other one, but this will take you where you want to go, with style.” He looked at Ryan. “Just what are you planning to do?”
Ryan looked right back at him and slipped on a very cool pair of shades for the first time in a while. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it all figured out.”
“Right, that’s what worries me,” Derek said nervously as Ryan and Laz climbed into the car.
“No sweat,” Laz replied cheerfully. “We’ll be back before you can say-- Whoa, Ryan slow down!” Laz yelled as Ryan took off suddenly. They shot out of the garage and into an underground tunnel beneath the hideout. After riding inside the dark tunnel for a while, they suddenly emerged from underground and turned onto the road.
“I love their driveway,” Ryan said, shaking his head in pure wonder.
“Now what?” Laz asked.
Ryan looked at him and lowered his shades in a very cool way so that his eyes were showing. “Now we take the fight to him.”

Unknown to Ryan and Laz, Chuck Morris was watching a live satellite feed on their car at that very moment. “I’ve got you,” he whispered to himself.
“Sir,” one of Chuck’s agents asked him. “Did they find the mole yet?”
Morris smiled. “No, not yet.”

Waiting, up in the trees, just ahead of Ryan and Laz’s position, was another agent, armed with and RPG. “I’m ready when you are, sir,” he said through his COM link.
“Good,” Morris’ voice said through the COM. “Wait for my order.”

Ryan sped the Corvette along the road, while Laz held onto the edge of his seat and prayed that they didn’t crash.
“Could you go any slower, possibly?” Laz asked.
“We’re gonna have to push this baby to the max if we’re gonna get to the emperor in time,” Ryan replied.
“What time? What will we be late for?” Laz shouted.
“I’m not sure yet, I just want to see how fast this thing can go,” Ryan said with a grin on his face.
Laz was just about to voice an argument when he saw a red flash among the trees. Suddenly, they saw a missile speeding towards their car. Ryan jammed on the breaks, but it wasn’t enough. Laz had just enough time to say, “Oh, crap,” before the car exploded.

“Target eliminated, sir,” the agent said picking himself off the ground as he watched the wreckage burn in the distance. He had fallen from the tree when he fired the RPG.
“Good,” Morris said through the COM. “Now go down there and check it out. I want that kill confirmed. These guys are very… evasive when it comes to death.”

The rest of Ryan’s team, and a few others besides, were watching Ryan and Laz via a live satellite feed as well. Gasps could be heard throughout the room when the car exploded.
“No!” Kayla yelled, reaching towards the screen on the wall as she watched the car go up in flames.
Derek slammed his fist on a table and let a few words fly which will not be recorded here for the sake of our readers. Jordan, Chris, and Sarah just stared in disbelief, all of them too shocked to react.
To the surprise of everyong else, Emmy didn’t appear upset. In fact, a small smile appeared across her face.
“Wait, why are you smiling, Emmy?” Kayla asked in disbelief. “Your brother and Laz just died.”
Emmy looked at her and shook her head. “They’re not dead, I can feel it.”
“What are you? A Jedi now?” Jordan exploded. “Nobody can survive a hit like that!”
“But they did survive the boathouse, and that nuclear explosion, not to mention other more minor incidents,” Sarah pointed out. “All we can do is hope.”
Chris nodded. “That’s true. Who knows? Maybe they jumped out before it hit.”

Tim relayed the whole story to his sister, the real story. How he’d been taken prisoner by the emperor and been tortured and eventually forced to come here and turn her over to the emperor. He also assured her that he had no intention of actually doing so, and that she was safe with him. Katie was shocked at first, but then she snapped into action.
“Come on,” she said. “I know a place where you can hide.”
“Where?” Timothius asked. “What place isn’t controlled by the emperor?”
Katie turned around and faced him, a gleam in her eye. “Not everybody loves the emperor, you know. There are some that oppose it.”
“Who?” Tim asked. He’d never heard of any sort of rebellion.
“The Rebellion,” Katie replied.
“Wow, that’s… kind of unoriginal. A rebellion that’s called the Rebellion,” Tim let himself smile for the first time in a while after he said that.
“Whatever,” Katie waved him off. “Just follow me, I know where they’re located.”
Tim started to follow cnd then hesitated.
“What is it?” Katie asked.
“There’s just one small problem,” Tim said. “The emperor is tracking me. He’ll know exactly where I go. If I go with you, it will lead him right to the Rebellion.”
Katie looked at him, her eyes opened wide. “That is a problem. A big problem.”

“Come on,” Derek urged the other IMF agents after the initial shock of Ryan and Laz’s apparent deaths had worn off a little. “We need to get out of here.”
“How come?” Kayla asked.
“Because,” Derek replied, “The only way they could of known where Ryan and Laz would be is if somebody told them. Which means that we haven’t found the mole yet, and that the emperor knows exactly where we are.”
“Where are we going?” Jordan asked.
“To the one place we have left,” Derek answered.
Chris followed up with another question, “Where’s that?”
“The Rebellion,” Derek answered.

Epilogue:

Two bodies lay next to the flaming wreckage of the corvette. They lay motionless in the grass, dangerously close to the flaming vehicle. Ryan’s shades had flown from his face and were somewhere near the wreckage, partially melted. His and Laz’s clothes were singed from the heat of the explosion, and there was almost no doubt that they were quite dead.
That’s what the agent holding the smoking RPG thought as he surveyed his work with an air of satisfaction. There was no way that they could have survived the explosion, even though they had managed to jump out of the car before it was hit. The explosion had been too big, and too close for any normal person to survive.
Suddenly, Ryan’s hand twitched. The agent shook his head; he must be seeing things. Then, Laz’s leg moved, ever so slightly.
They must be twitching as some people did shortly after they died, the agent assessed. He’d heard of such things, people moving long after they were dead. Once during an autopsy, a dead man had sprung into a sitting position, because he had died sitting down. This must be one of those cases.
If he wasn’t mistaken though, these two appeared to be breathing. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The fall from the tree after he’d fire his RPG could have done something to his eyesight.
He desperately hoped that the IMF agents weren’t alive, they were dangerous killers and he only had his sidearm and a spent RPG. If they escaped then he would definitely either be killed by the agents, or Chuck Morris himself.
He opened his eyes and gasped. Then he drew his sidearm and lifted it to his head. Ryan and Laz were gone.



The End?

No… it’s not. This story will be continued in Mission 5: Payback

Mission:Betrayal part 8

...continued from last week...

Timothius walked up to his sister’s front door and took a deep breath. He couldn’t believe what he was about to do. His brother would say it was stupid, Kayla would say it was stupid, heck, Ryan and Laz would say it was stupid as would everyone else he knew, especially his sister. But it was his only option. He knocked on the front door. Answering it was a very surprised Katie Danaford. “Tim, is that you? You look awful!”
“Gee thanks,” Tim had to smile. “You look real good yourself.”
Katie smiled at the playful, sarcastic insult. Her blonde hair was a mess, she was in her pajamas, and she looked like she hadn’t slept for days. “Come in, Tim. What brings you here?”
“That,” Tim said slowly, “is a long story.”

“Wait, no!” Emmy cried as Jordan dragged her down the hall. “Please, it’s not what you think!”
“Oh, its exactly what I think,” Jordan disagreed, turning back to look her in the eyes. “You were handing our butts to the emperor in a hand basket. You betrayed us.”
“I had no choice,” Emmy said softly. “He forced me to do it, please I beg you. Don’t tell the others.”
“Not a chance,” Jordan shook his head. Ryan appeared around the corner.
“There you guys are, I’ve been looking everywhere,” he began.
“I found the mole,” Jordan said, throwing Emmy at Ryan’s feet. She looked up at Ryan with a scared look on her face.
“What?” Ryan said, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“She’s the mole,” Jordan replied. “I caught her red-handed, informing the emperor of our exact location.”
Ryan looked at Emmy, a shocked look on his face. “Is that true?”
“No,” Emmy lied, shaking her head emphatically. “I would never betray you.”
Ryan looked at Emmy, and then Jordan, then back at Emmy again, as if deciding whom to believe. Finally he shook his head. “You’re lying to me, Emmy.” His voice was full of hurt. “You betrayed us, why?”
“The emperor forced me to,” Emmy insisted. “He said he’d kill my brother if I didn’t do as he said.”
“What brother?” Ryan asked, growing angry.
“He doesn’t want you to know,” Emmy shook her head.
“Know what? Who doesn’t want me to know?”
“Dad doesn’t,” Emmy replied.
Ryan scoffed at this and drew his sidearm.
“What are you doing?” Emmy asked.
“Thinking of doing something rash,” was all Ryan said. Then he pointed the gun at her. “Now you’re going to tell me exactly what you told the emperor and how he threatened you!”
Emmy started to cry and she hugged Ryan’s feet. “Please don’t, please!” she sobbed. “You don’t understand!” By now, a crowd of IMF agents had gathered, and Jordan filled them in on what was happening. Most of them were shocked, but Derek seemed almost expectant for some reason.
“Please, you don’t understand,” Emmy repeated, still crying.
“Then enlighten me,” Ryan growled, still pointing the gun at her.
Emmy wiped a few tears from her face and whispered to herself, “forgive me Dad, I had to tell him.”
“What are you talking about?” Ryan asked, still holding the gun.
Emmy looked up at Ryan. “You’re my brother,” she said simply. Ryan’s gun fell from his hand, and clattered to the ground.

The hooded figure stood at the emperor’s desk, his face concealed by his long hood. “What is thy bidding, master?” he asked.
The emperor turned around in his chair, raised it up so he could see over the desk, and looked up at the figure. “First of all, you can cut the “thy” talk, that died out centuries ago,” he paused. “But the master part is fine.” Then he turned serious, “I want you to finish them off. Thanks to young Hunter, I have their location. Now go kill them, all of them.”
“As you wish,” Morris bowed and walked out of the room.
The emperor laughed to himself. “At last, I will remove the last of the Hunters from this earth, and be free of them forever.”

Ryan continued to stare at Emmy and then turned his head towards Derek. “Is this true?”
Derek sighed and then asked everyone else to leave them for a moment. Then he took Ryan and Emmy into a small room and sat them down in a couple of chairs. He remained standing.
“What Emmy says is true,” Derek said. “Evan never actually told me your real names, but I suspected that you were his children. He hid you rather well actually, but it’s hard to hide a pregnant women, especially one that was bearing twins.”
“We’re twins!” Ryan cried. “This is too much!” Then he paused. “Wait, did you say Evan tried to hide us, as in Evan Hunter? The famous IMF agent?”
Derek and Emmy both nodded. “My name isn’t really Emmy,” Emmy said. “It’s Jessica Hunter, after our mother, Jess.”
“Sweet woman,” Derek recalled. “It’s so very sad the way the emperor murdered her. It really devastated your father.”
“I’m Evan Hunter’s son!” Ryan exclaimed, still not quite able to believe it. He looked at Emmy. “What’s my real name?”
“Jack,” Emmy replied, tears flowing down her face. “Jack Hunter.”
Ryan sat down, mulling all of this over. Then he stood up again. “This is too much like Star Wars,” he muttered, running his fingers through his hair.
“Except your Dad isn’t Darth Vader, and this isn’t the emperor’s story,” Derek was quick to point out.
“How can I believe this?” Ryan asked, ignoring Derek’s comment. “Why didn’t he tell me? How do you know, and not me?”
“Watch this,” Emmy said, pulling a small computer chip from her pocket. “It’s a message that Dad left for us before he died. I’d tell you how I got it but it’s a long story.”
Ryan took the chip and Derek pulled out a laptop and set it on the table in the room. Ryan inserted the chip into the laptop and a video of his Dad, Evan Hunter, came onto the screen.
“Hello,” his Dad said, he turned to someone off screen, “is this thing on?” He was assured that it was and he focused back on the screen. “Hey, Ryan and Emmy, this is your father, Evan Hunter. If you’re watching this video then I’m probably dead by now,” he paused and thought about this. “Wow, that felt really weird to say. Anyways, you also probably know by now that Ryan and Emmy aren’t your real names, but I’ll call you by your old names if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
“Yes it would,” Ryan mumbled.
“Okay Ryan, then that’s what I’ll do,” Evan said.
Ryan looked at Derek with a questioning look. “How’d he do that?”
Derek shrugged. “People who have been long dead and leave messages behind for their loved ones always know what you’re going to say.”
“Thanks for the input, Derek,” Evan said on the computer screen.
“Now that was kinda freaky,” Derek admitted.
“Ryan and Emmy, I just want you to know, first of all,” Evan continued. “That I loved you, and your mom loved you, more than anything in the world.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us who you were?” Ryan asked, talking more to himself than anyone else.
“Because we wanted to protect you,” Evan answered, continuing his uncanny trend of predicting what they would say. “The emperor wanted all of us dead, and he would have killed you in an instant if he knew you were born. That’s why we changed your names and sent you each to a different set of loving foster parents.”
“My parents put me in a correctional school,” Ryan muttered.
“So maybe they weren’t as loving as we would have been,” Evan admitted. “But we were under a lot of pressure and they had the best front doorsteps we could find.”
“I still don’t see why you had to do this,” Ryan said bitterly. “I went through my whole life thinking my parents didn’t understand me, and I didn’t even know who my real parents were.”
“Hey, I would have bailed you out, son. If I were still alive at the time,” Evan defended himself. Then he apologized, “I’m sorry, I failed you both.”
“It’s okay, Dad,” Emmy spoke up. She put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “You did the best you could.”
“That’s all we ever tried to do,” Evan said. “Now you two go out there and kick some serious imperial butt. Oh, and Ryan, I saw these really cool sunglasses that were half-off right before we left you at your foster parents house, so I left them with you. Do you still have them by any chance?”
“Yeah,” Ryan nodded. “My parents said they were a gift from a benevolent uncle who lived in Indonesia.”
“I’m glad you still have them,” Evan smiled. Then he shifted his gaze towards Emmy, but Derek shut the video off. “That’s all we have time for, I’m afraid,” Derek said.
“The rest was for me, anyways,” Emmy said. “I’ve already heard it.”
Ryan’s head was full of questions still. “Why did you betray us?”
“I didn’t,” Emmy replied. “The emperor found out who I was,” she explained. “He told me that if I didn’t hand all of you guys over to him that he would kill you and me as well. Of course I wasn’t going to betray you, but I needed to buy some time. So I pretended that I gave in, and that I was betraying you.”
“How can we be sure of that?” Derek asked, apparently he wasn’t filled in on everything.
“Because, you’ll see where I lead them in a moment,” Emmy smiled.

To be continued next week...

Copyright © Imperial Mission, Inc.
Killer Whale Studios

All rights reserved

The works on this blog including posts, comments, and pictures; may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, printing, uploading and distribution of these works via the internet or any other means without permission of Imperial Mission, Inc, or Killer Whale Studios is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. For any information the address is:
Xanatosofmalta@gmail.com
Or if you actually want a response: Ryanmaples@comcast.net

Mission: Betrayal part 7

Continued from last week...

Timothius stood before the emperor’s desk, struggling to stay upright.
“So,” the emperor drawled. “You decided to finally come around, eh? Good, very good.” He gave a nod towards the interrogator. “He’s good, isn’t he?”
Timothius said nothing, and continued to stare at the floor.
“Are you ready to do what you were assigned?” the emperor asked.
“Why me? Why not get someone else to do it?” Tim finally asked.
“Because,” the emperor said, leaning towards him. “I need someone she knows, someone who she trusts.”
“Who’s she?” Tim was curious now, despite his wounds.
The emperor paused and looked him in the eyes. “Your sister.”

Ryan’s eyes flew open and he catapulted out of bed, breathing hard and a Glock in hand. Instinctively, he felt his forehead. No bullet hole, it had been a dream. What a hellish dream at that. He’d come close to death before, closer than most people did, and he’d lived to tell about it. This, however, really unnerved him. More than any dream he’d ever had before. Now he thought twice about the trust he had put in Sarah, but no, it had only been a dream. He wouldn’t have stopped trusting Laz or anyone else if he’d had a dream of on of them killing him. Okay, so maybe he would…
By now, Laz was awake and was staring at him as he stood there. “You really need to get some sleep pants or something!” he groaned.
Ryan looked down to see that he was only wearing boxers. Blushing, he pulled on his jeans and a fresh shirt that someone had laid out for him.
“What’s wrong with you anyways?” Laz asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Nothing, nothing at all.”
“So…” Laz paused. “You’re telling me that you always fly out of bed every morning… with a gun in your hand.”
“Yeah,” Ryan lied, unconvincingly. “You can’t be too careful.”
Laz looked as if he’d seen through his lie, and then just shrugged. “Yeah, you got a point there.”

As the rest of the IMF agents were just waking up, someone was out in one of the halls, making a phone call. “Yes, I’m sure they’re here, just patch me through to him,” said a muffled voice. There was a pause, as the person on the line was talking, “I don’t know exactly how to get here, don’t you have some sort of tracking signal on my phone?” Another pause. “It doesn’t work here? All right, I’ll have to get you directions some other way.” The informant hung up the phone, and slipped back into the main room, acting as if nothing had ever happened.

“Guys,” Emmy called. “We got some breakfast ready!” She and Kayla were in the secret bunker’s secret kitchen, making a secret breakfast with some secret ingredients.
“All right!” was the response from the guys’ room. They all came piling out, stomachs growling.
“Eat up boys,” said Derek, who had just entered the room. “We got a long day ahead of us.”
“What are we doing?” Chris asked in between mouthfuls.
“We’re going mole hunting,” Derek declared.

Timothius gave the emperor a shocked look. “My sister!”
The emperor nodded. “She’s been raising up a lot of lies about me, saying I kill innocent people, and imprison others for no other means than my own personal good.”
Tim raised his eyebrows. “But, you do that… all the time.”
“Shut up!” the emperor snapped. “I want your sister, and I want her alive! I have something special planned for her.” He paused. “Don’t throw this opportunity away, Timothius. Join me, and together we can rule the world.”
“Somebody’s been watching Star Wars,” Tim quipped.
The emperor slammed his fist on the table. “Are you going to do it, or not?”
The interrogator slammed his fist into the palm of his hand, hoping the answer would be no. The emperor seemed to expect that it would be no, in fact, he was practically sure of it.
Then, to the surprise of them all, Tim said, “Yes, I’ll do it.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Ryan said to Derek as they were searching through a mound of files. “We’re going to find out who the mole is by searching through the personal files of all the IMF members? Why don’t we just do something useful and bust Tim out of the emperor’s dungeon?”
“Not exactly,” Derek shrugged. “But it may point is in the right direction. Whoever the mole is, he or she may have something in their past that made them want to betray us. And let’s get something straight right now, we’re not going to bust anyone out of any dungeons, yet.”
“Makes sense,” Emmy commented as she read through her own pile of documents. There were several other agents from other teams reading through the files as well, at least all the agents that had been idle.
“Isn’t this like an invasion of privacy?” Ryan asked.
Derek sighed. “Sort of.”
Ryan thought about this for a minute and then shrugged. “Cool.”
The agents started to dig through the piles, sometimes making comments about their files.
“Ha!” Ryan snickered. “This guy’s thirty and still lives with his mom.”
“What’s so bad about that?” one of the agents from another team said, defensively.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. “You look just like the guy in this file…”
“Oh yeah,” Laz said. “Beat this, this guy’s hobbies consist of getting rejected by woman and mooching off of his mom.”
“I was never rejected,” another agent cried out. “They just said that they didn’t think it was going to work.”
“That’s rejection,” Ryan pointed out.
“You guys are disgusting,” Kayla muttered as she looked through her pile. Suddenly, she paused and looked closer at the one she held in her hand. It had a short report attached to it about how his father had been on a team with Evan Hunter. His father had not made it out alive, only Evan Hunter did. “He could have a motive,” Kayla said to herself. She checked the name on the file; it was Derek’s.

After a doctor had treated his wounds, Timothius was suited up, much to the protest of the doctor, and debriefed on all the details of his mission that the emperor would disclose. Timothius was then equipped with a car and a reliable story that his sister would believe was the reason for his visit.
“Remember,” the emperor warned him. “I’ve got trackers on you, so if you try anything funny…” he let his words sink kn.
Timothius looked him in the eyes. “Don’t worry, I won’t try anything funny.” He climbed into the car and closed the door. The emperor watched as he pulled away, a smile creeping across his face.
Just then, a hooded man came and stood beside him. “Do {ou think you can trust him?”
“Of course,” the emperor smiled. “And if we can’t, we always have you around to do the clean up. Just like you did with those two Roland girls.”

Kayla started to slip Derek’s file in her pocket, when Derek suddenly grabbed her shoulder. Kayla froze, expecting him to grab the file. Instead, Derek pointed at the file he was holding. “This looks interesting,” he said. “This girl here seems to have no special agent training. The emperor just hired her, for unknown reasons. The name doesn’t look familiar though.”
Kayla just nodded and slid Derek’s file into her pocket.
“Do any of you guys know a Jessica Hunter?” Derek asked, waving the file he’d just been looking at in the air. “She’s probably not of any relation to Evan Hunter, just the same last name.”
Everybody shook his or her head. “I’ve never heard of her,” Ryan said. He turned to where Jordan had been sitting, “have you heard of a…” he trailed off. “Where’d he go?” he asked.
An agent who was not on Ryan’s team spoke up. “I saw him grab something and leave; he looked like he was in a hurry.”
Ryan shrugged. “Probably needed a bathroom break or something,” he quipped, turning towards where Emmy had been sifting through papers, but she was gone too.
“Wait, where’d Emmy go?” Ryan groaned and threw up his hands. “What is this? Hide and go seek?”
“Who’s the seeker?” Laz asked, eager to do anything except what he was doing at the moment. Then he held up his hand, “wait don’t tell me, it was just a figure of speech.”
“Actually, I was half serious,” Ryan replied. He turned towards Derek. “I’m gonna go see where they went, come on Laz,” he motioned for Laz to follow him, “let’s go see where they went off to.”

The informant was in a dark corner in the IMF hideout, talking with the emperor. “Yes, I’m sure that’s the exact location,” the informant assured him. “I found a map to this place… I’m holding it right now.”
“Okay,” the emperor said on the other end of the line. “I’m sending Morris over right now.”
“Chuck Morris?” the informant said, sounding afraid. “The same man that killed two men with nothing more than a single chopstick?”
“Don’t be silly,” the emperor lied unconvincingly. “Those are just rumors.” Then he paused and said, “good job, Jessica. You will be rewarded for your service to the empire.” Then the line went dead and Jessica, for that was the informant’s real name, hung up the phone.
Just as Jessica started to turn around and head back to the room where all the IMF agents, or at least most of them, were still sifting through papers, a hand grabbed her arm. “So its Jessica, is it?” said the man that the arm belonged to. “Whoever you really are, you’re in big trouble, Emmy.” Jordan stepped out from the shadows, still holding onto Emmy’s arm. “And when I say big, I mean big.”

To be continued next week... which would be on Tuesday... So don't ask me when the next post is... ;)

Copyright © Imperial Mission, Inc.
Killer Whale Studios

All rights reserved

The works on this blog including posts, comments, and pictures; may not be reproduced in any form without permission. The scanning, printing, uploading and distribution of these works via the internet or any other means without permission of Imperial Mission, Inc, or Killer Whale Studios is illegal and punishable by law. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. For any information the address is:
Xanatosofmalta@gmail.com
Or if you actually want a response: Ryanmaples@comcast.net

Mission: Betrayal part 6

It was several hours later that Jordan had solemnly announced that they had shaken off the emperor’s forces. They’d ditched the IMF van in a ditch, of all places, and continued on foot, looking for a new vehicle. Laz had suggested that they bury Zach’s body next to the van, and so they did. Every IMF agent said something about Zach that they’d always loved, such as, “he was a great agent,” or “he always did what needed to be done, whether it was watching the car or shooting a terrorist.” In the end though, they had to move on. None of them had any doubt as what had happened to Timothius now; they knew that the emperor had gotten to him. The question was, could they do anything to save him, or was it too late?
“Where do we go now?” Jordan asked.
“We can’t go back to the hideout,” Kayla stated a fact they all knew. The house was swarming with government agents now; someone had told the emperor about their hideout, they still weren’t sure whom. “We need to go somewhere and regroup, maybe we can organize some sort of rescue effort for Tim… if he’s not already dead.”
“I know a place,” Ryan said. Everyone looked at him; he’d been silent for a long time, which was very unlike him. “A place where IMF agents in distress have always been able to go.”
“Won’t the emperor know where it is then?” Emmy asked.
“No,” Sarah spoke up. “I know what place he’s talking about; even the emperor doesn’t know about it.”
“Evan Hunter himself used it to hide from the emperor’s right hand man, years ago,” Ryan informed them.
Everyone’s eyes widened. Evan Hunter? He was one of the greatest IMF agents that had ever lived. They all knew the story of when the emperor’s right hand man had suddenly started killing agents behind the emperor’s back. Evan Hunter had been the one to bring him down. Now they wondered if the emperor had known about it after all.
“Do you know how to find the place?” Christophear asked.
“Of course I do,” Ryan said confidently. He seemed to be growing surer of himself by the moment. “An old mentor showed it to me a long time ago.”
“A long time ago?” Laz asked. “Like when?”
“Before you joined IMF,” Ryan replied. “I was the one that vouched for you to get in, remember?”
“I could have got in myself,” Laz said, crossing his arms.
“Whatever, let’s not start fighting,” Sarah intervened. “We need to find this place.” She turned towards Ryan. “Do you know how to find it?”
Ryan threw up his hands. “Please, I’m Ryan Cruise. Of course I can find it.”

Two hours later…
“Ryan,” Laz called huffing and puffing. “Are you sure you know where this place is?” They’d been trekking through a forest for two hours now.
“Of course I do,” Ryan called back. He had been leading them throughout the forest, constantly mumbling to himself. The whole team was dirty and their clothes were ripped by now. Chris had fallen three times and the third time he’d taken out Laz and Jordan with him. To say the least, it had been an unpleasant journey.
“I told you, it’s kinda out in the boonies,” Ryan added.
“That’s gotta be the biggest understatement of the year!” Emmy replied with a little bit of irritation in her voice. (That was also a bit of an understatement; there was actually a lot of irritation in her voice.)
“We’re lost aren’t we?” Sarah asked.
“No, we are not lost,” Ryan assured her. “I know exactly where we are; we’re right here.”
Sarah sighed. “That’s helpful.”
“Hey look,” Kayla called. “Is that it?” She pointed towards an old shack off in the distance.
“Aha! That’s it!” Ryan exclaimed. They ran up towards the shack.
Emmy clapped her hands together. “I knew you would find it; I never doubted you for a second.”
When they arrived at the shack, however, they had a different impression. “That’s it?” they asked almost in unison. They all seemed rather disappointed, understandably so.
“Hey,” Ryan shrugged. “This is just the ground floor. Wait ‘till you step inside.” He paused and then added, “None of you are claustrophobic by any chance, are you?” The IMF agents crammed themselves into the shack and Ryan pressed a button on the wall. The floor slowly sunk down beneath them.
“Don’t worry, it’s an elevator,” Ryan assured them. They lowered down a ways and then stopped. A door opened in front of them, and the agents gasped at what they saw.
The hideout was like a huge bunker, complete with concrete ceilings, walls, and floors. It was lined with all of the latest equipment and gadgets. There was a huge gun rack on the west wall, and several screens mounted on the north one. Underneath the screens was a large dashboard, covered with buttons and switches. There was a cabinet on the east side that was labeled: Gadgets, and it was filled with all kinds of gadgets, of course. Hallways appeared to lead off into different areas of the hideout. At the dashboard was a single chair, which appeared to be empty. Suddenly, the chair whirled around. It revealed a man who appeared to be a seasoned agent, his hair was graying and he had a salt and pepper beard.
“Who are you?” Laz asked.
“Are you Evan Hunter?” Emmy whispered.
The man laughed. “No, of course not. Evan Hunter has long been dead. I was with him when he died actually, fine agent. As for me, I believe Ryan Cruise can tell you who I am.”
Ryan grinned as if he’d just found the largest candy store in the world and the owner had told he could have all the candy for free. “Derek! I can’t believe it’s you!” They laughed and hugged each other. Ryan turned to the others. “Guys, this is Derek, the man who taught me everything I know.”
“And everything you don’t know,” Derek added.
“Is he IMF?” Sarah asked. “He looks familiar.”
“Yeah, he is,” Ryan assured her. “But he disappeared a long time ago,” Ryan said, turning towards Derek. “What happened? The emperor said that you were killed on a mission.”
“That’s what he wanted you to think,” Derek said, solemnly. “Truth was, I had crossed him. I disobeyed one of his orders, and then I fled for my life. I’ve been hiding out for about five years now.”
Ryan and Derek filled each other in on what had happened in the last five years.
“Have the Giants won the World Series yet?” Derek asked.
“No,” Ryan shook his head. “They were in the NLCS, but they lost in the last inning of game seven.”
Derek shook his head. “Figures.”
“Um, guys?” Kayla spoke up. “Shouldn’t we be worrying about the emperor right now? And not who won the World Series.”
“Calm down sweetheart,” Derek grinned. “I’ve got that under control.”
Kayla frowned when he said sweatheart, and started to say something, but Ryan interrupted. “Don’t worry, he calls girls sweetheart sometimes. It started after he went on that mission in the South; he had to learn a fake accent for the mission and everything. Still slips back into it sometimes.”
Kayla nodded, still not that pleased at his choice of words.
“We’ve got surveillance cameras set up all over this jungle,” Derek informed them as he walked back over to the dashboard.
“Who’s we?” Sarah asked.
“IMF,” Derek replied matter-of-factly. “You didn’t think you guys were the only IMF agents, did you?”
“Of course not,” Sarah shook her head.
“She’s lying,” Ryan said, earning him a glare from Sarah.
Derek grinned, and then his face turned solemn. “Unfortunately, we still don’t know for sure why the emperor wants us all dead. He’s pretty much signed the death warrant for all of IMF. Part of what Sarah said is true, but I think there’s more to this. Until we find those documents that Cathy had, we won’t ever know.”
Everyone grew very silent at the mention of Cathy. There were even a few tears that came from some of the agents’ eyes.
“How did you know what I said, and how did you know about Cathy?” Sarah asked.
“I’ve been watching you guys,” Derek said. “I’m sorry for your losses.”
They all nodded, quietly. “We’re still not sure where Tim is, though,” Emmy said
Derek swallowed and replied, “I know where he is, in the emperor’s dungeon. Being tortured. I’m afraid I have some more bad news, though.”
“What’s that?” Jordan asked.
“We have a mole in IMF.”

There was a long dramatic pause. “A mole?” Laz asked. “Like a spy?”
“Yes,” Derek rolled his eyes. “Of course like a spy.”
“Who is it?” Kayla asked.
“That’s the problem,” Derek shook his head and sighed. “We don’t know.”
“Do you have any idea who it could be?” asked Emmy.
“Yes, I do have an idea,” Derek nodded, but he didn’t seem too happy.
“Who?” they all asked him in unison.
“I think it’s one of you,” Derek said quietly.
There was another long dramatic pause.
“Wanna run that by me again?” Ryan said, not believing his ears.
“I think it’s one of you,” Derek repeated.
“And why is that, may I ask?” Kayla spoke up.
“Yeah, what did we ever do?” Jordan agreed.
Derek gave another long sigh and began to explain. “Look, it all adds up. Cathy’s on your team, she had the info we needed and she was killed. Michelle might have been the key to get that information after Cathy’s death, and now she’s dead. Who knew their whereabouts? No one did, except for the people on your team. The empire found out your hideout, which no one except your team even knew about.”
He took a breath. “And finally, the emperor hasn’t yet found out about this place. You’re the last team to make it here. If the mole were on another IMF team, he would have already squealed by now.”
Everyone paused dramatically yet again. “Well, you got me convinced,” said Laz. “I almost believe that I’m the mole now.” He paused, “Am I?”
“You could be,” Derek insisted.
“That’s ridiculous,” Sarah said. “I can’t believe that you would accuse us of this. Especially after what’s happened to all of us.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” Derek said, seeming to agree.
“Now you’re talking,” Ryan broke his unusual silence.
“Maybe it wasn’t your team after all, Cruise,” Derek continued.
“Keep talking,” Ryan nodded, grinning.
“Maybe… it was you,” Derek pointed an accusing finger at Sarah.
“Okay, you can stop now,” Ryan mumbled.
“Think, Cruise,” Derek pleaded, walking over towards Ryan. “Think with your head for once. Where did she come from? Where was she when Cathy was killed? She was right there, you saw her. Where was she when Michelle was murdered? Who knows? Maybe she was there that night, blasting her full of holes. How can you trust her?”
“I can, and I will!” Ryan snapped.
“We can’t,” Derek held his forehead in his hands. Sarah, surprisingly enough, was silent. “We can’t afford to trust her on a whim.”
“It’s not a whim, I’d trust her with my life!” Ryan exclaimed. “I was there too, you know. How do you know I didn’t shoot Cathy? Or that Laz didn’t shoot her?”
“Hey!” Laz protested.
“Sorry Laz, just trying to make a point,” Ryan reassured him. “But don’t you see what I mean? Anyone could be the mole.”
Jordan leaned over towards Emmy. “Is it just me or has Ryan gotten way more serious over the past couple days?”
Emmy nodded and whispered back, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Derek closed his eyes. “We have to keep her under close watch, Cruise.”
“Not acceptable,” Ryan crossed his arms.
“Wait, Ryan,” Sarah interrupted before Derek could argue. “I agree.”
“What?” Ryan voiced everyone’s thoughts.
“I agree. My actions have been somewhat suspicious, and what better way to prove I’m innocent?” She walked over to Ryan and whispered in his ear. “I appreciate you trusting me, I’ll remember that.”
“You’re welcome,” Ryan whispered back. Two body guards, wearing flak vests that bore the insignia: IMF, on them, came and took her away. “Don’t hurt her!” Ryan warned.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her,” Derek assured him. “When I get back, I’ll show you guys where you can get some rest.”
“I don’t like this,” Ryan shook his head.
“Neither do I,” Kayla nodded in agreement.
“Well, I don’t know. Maybe she is the mole,” Emmy speculated.
“How could you say that Emmy?” Kayla was appalled.
“It’s a possibility,” Emmy shrugged.
Jordan looked at Ryan. “How are you holding up?”
Ryan didn’t answer right away. “I wonder if Timothius is really dead?”

Timothius awoke hours later, from a peculiar dream, after being severely tortured. He groaned as he tried to get up. “Oh, my body.”
The interrogator was still standing there when he got up. “Are you ready to give in, or should I start doing a little shoulder relocation?” He held up a drill and buzzed it a few times for effect.
“No, don’t,” Tim, begged. “I’ll do anything, please.”
“Anything the emperor asks?”
“Anything,” he repeated.
The interrogator laughed, “good.”

After a few miserable hours, Ryan had finally fallen into a restless sleep in the bed provided to him by IMF. All the other men from IMF were still in their beds, fast asleep. The girls were in a separate room. He tossed and turned, thinking about where Sarah was right now. Granted, she wasn’t really in a dungeon-- a more accurate description would be house arrest—but he still felt bad about it. As he lay there, in a fitful sleep, a dark figure wearing black clothes and a dark mask crept towards him out of the shadows. The figure crept closer and closer, until it was standing right by Ryan’s bed. It was obvious now from the figure’s long hair that it was probably a girl. She leaned over and tapped Ryan gently.
Ryan stirred and moaned. “No mom, five more minutes!”
The figure tapped him harder. This time he sprang into a sitting position, grabbing a knife from the nightstand beside him as he did so.
The woman instantly drew a gun fitted with a silencer from her holster and trained it on him. “Drop it,” she ordered. The voice was familiar, too familiar.
Ryan obeyed. “Who are you?”
She laughed. “You know, Ryan? You shouldn’t trust everybody. Especially not the pretty ones.” She tore off her mask and shook out her hair. It was Sarah!
“Sarah!” Ryan exclaimed. “Don’t! What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of an old problem.” She pointed the gun at his head and fired. Ryan sank back down to the bed, a bullet hole through his head.

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Mission: Betrayal part 5

Continued from last week...

“How long is his meeting?” Ryan asked for the hundredth time. He was sitting, impatiently, in the imperial waiting room, along with Laz and Christophear.
The emperor’s secretary, Mattie was what they called her, just glared at him. “He’ll be done when he’s done.”
Ryan leaned over towards Laz, who was reading one of the magazines in the emperor’s waiting room. “She freaks me out.”
Laz shrugged. “She’s the emperor’s secretary, what do you expect?”
Christophear laid down his copy of Imperial Times and sighed. “This is really starting to get boring.”
“You’re telling me,” Ryan rubbed his temple with his hand. He picked up one of the celebrity magazines and then threw it down in disgust. “That Hollywood actress is acting up again.”
“Which one?” Laz asked.
“You know, the one with all those drug problems,” Ryan explained, searching for the name.
Laz looked at him. “Which one?” he repeated.
“The one that went into rehab not that long ago.”
“Which one?”
“The one that--” Ryan started but he was interrupted by Mattie.
“The emperor will see you now.”
“Thank goodness,” they groaned. They trudged up the stairs and up to the Imperial office. Ryan knocked on the door.
“Come in,” the emperor’s voice commanded.
The three obeyed and stepped inside.
“Hello there boys,” the emperor greeted them. He was sitting at his desk as usual atop his chair. His stare pierced them, but it seemed to land on Christophear the most.
“I just heard the news,” the emperor said sadly. “I’m so sorry.”
“What news?” Ryan asked.
“About Michelle’s death,” Christophear reminded him.
“Oh right, of course, Michelle’s death.”
The emperor shook his head. “I know how you must feel.”
“Do you?” Christophear questioned as he sat down in one of the guest chairs.
“Well,” the emperor said, a sly look coming on his face. “I know how you must feel. You’ve betrayed your team, even though they all trusted you. You took advantage of that trust and killed a teammate, who thought she was your friend. What if you get caught? And now, your worst fear has been affirmed.”
Chris frowned, bewildered. “What?”
“Don’t ‘what?’ me, Christophear,” the emperor said. “We know who killed Michelle. The surveillance cameras got it all on tape.” The emperor pushed a button and a large screen TV came down from the ceiling.
“Whoa, where’d that come from?” Laz asked and then shook his head in admiration. “You could play some serious Halo on that thing.”
The emperor ignored his comment and grabbed a remote and started playing a video. It was Michelle’s house. He stopped the camera just as a figure entered. The figure looking up at the camera was Chris!
“Care to explain what you were doing at Michelle’s house at the night of the murder?” the emperor asked. Both Ryan and Laz looked at Chris, questioning looks on their faces.
“That’s not me!” Christophear finally burst out. “I was never at Michelle’s house last night!”
“You got an alibi?”
Chris looked down at the floor. “I was at home alone last night.”
“I didn’t think so.” The emperor called for some guards to come into the room.
“Wait,” Ryan spoke up. “You can’t just arrest him!”
“Why not?” the emperor asked.
“Because, he’s one of my guys! He wouldn’t kill Michelle. Besides, isn’t there something in the constitution that says ‘innocent until proven guilty’ or something?”
The emperor’s gaze pierced Ryan. “Not anymore. Now it’s, ‘guilty until proven innocent.’ And I don’t think our former friend Christophear here will have such luck.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Laz. “He’s still our friend.”
“Yeah, and we won’t let you take him,” Ryan declared defiantly.
The emperor sighed. “I can see you’re going to make this difficult.”
Suddenly, two steel hands grasped onto Ryan’s shoulders. “NO!” he yelled.
Ryan twisted around and elbowed the guard in the stomach and then kicked him hard into the emperor’s desk, sending papers flying. Christophear grabbed the guard behind him by the arms and threw him over his head and onto the ground. Laz wrapped his leg around the other guard’s leg and threw him down onto his face.
The three guards lay crumpled at their feet now. “Cool,” Ryan gasped. “It’s been too long since I’ve done that.” They looked up, but the emperor was gone. “Where’d he go?” Ryan pondered. But before he could say anymore, they heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Great,” Christophear groaned. “The secret police.”
The IMF agents had heard rumors of the secret police, but they’d never actually seen one of them. Probably the same was true for most of the secret police with regards to IMF. They never worked together. Few of the emperor’s secret organizations did.
“Now what?” Laz asked.
Ryan glanced around. They had no weapons. At least none that could match with the countless, top of the line weapons that the secret police were sure to have. “Out the window!” Ryan yelled.
Laz and Chris glanced at each other. “Are you crazy?” they asked.
“Yeah, why do you ask?” Ryan leapt onto the window ledge and kicked through the glass. Laz and Chris shrugged. They ran up to the window.
“Here, Ryan and Laz, take these.” Chris tossed them each a standard issue Sig Sauer P226. “Found these on the guards.” He kept one for himself.
Now, to depict this scene accurately, one has to understand the way the Imperial Palace was designed. From the top of its pointy roof, to about the second floor, it is all glass. The glass is at an incline, slowly rising up, getting steeper and steeper till it hit the top. Right now, they were at about he eighth floor.
Ryan jumped out, backwards and headfirst. He slid down the glass incline upside down, with his back to the glass. Laz and Chris followed after him, using the same technique. They could barely make out the amazed looks that they got when people saw them through the windows, whizzing by.
They were rapidly approaching the second floor. Ryan signaled to the others and then reached to his belt. He pulled out a cable with a hook on it (see Mission 2 part 4), and threw it above him. The cable slid along the glass, searching for a hold. Finally, it broke through the glass and caught onto a window ledge inside, stopping Ryan’s fall. Both Chris and Laz followed suit. They dropped onto the ledge on the second floor and yanked their cables loose.
“Now for the homestretch,” Ryan declared. The attached their cords to the ledge and bungee jumped to the ground. Waiting at the door, undoubtedly to ensure that they didn’t escape, were four guards. Ryan, Chris, and Laz, drew their weapons and took out the guards. They released themselves from their cables and ran towards the IMF van.
“Start it up, start it up!” Ryan yelled to Jordan. Jordan started up the van and Zach opened the doors, standing by with a M60 Saw.
Suddenly, bullets starting whizzing past them, the secret police were firing at them! Kayla tossed them each an automatic rifle, and they started firing back.
Ryan, Chris, and Laz hopped in the van, and Jordan took off. Just as Zach was pulling the door shut a final bullet came screaming into the van. It hit Zach right in the chest and he was knocked back into Emmy by the impact.
Zach groaned. “Oooh, it hurts!”
Ryan whirled around. “Zach! Jordan get us out of here!”
“What does it look like I’m doing!” Jordan screamed. The van roared away from the Imperial palace. “I’m gonna have to try and shake these guys. Hang on.” Jordan started weaving through traffic.”
In the back of the van, Zach’s wound was still bleeding. Chris was trying to put pressure on the wound and Emmy was keeping him elevated.
Zach moaned every time the van moved suddenly.
“Just stay with us, Zach,” Chris said. “Stay awake.”
“I, I, I, cant feel my legs,” Zach groaned. “I can’t feel my legs.”
Emmy started to sob. “He’s gonna die. Oh no, he’s gonna die.”
“No he’s not,” Chris snapped. “Pull yourself together.”
Kayla just stared at Zach in apparent shock. Laz was trying his best to help. “What can we do? Can’t we help him?” he asked.
Sarah seemed devastated herself. “It’s all my fault.”
“Why were they shooting at us?” Kayla finally said, wringing her hands. “We’re on the same side.”
Ryan turned to face her. Wearing a very serious look, probably for the first time in his life. “Not anymore, Kayla,” he declared. “Not anymore.”
Zach was growing weaker by the minute. “He’s losing too much blood!” Chris yelled.
“We can’t do anything about it,” Jordan yelled back. “Just try to hold him a little longer.
“It was an honor serving with you guys,” Zach said.
“Don’t talk like that,” Laz said, leaning over him.
“Goodbye,” Zach whispered. He started to moan again, and then his eyes closed, his breathing ceased. Zach was dead.

to be continued next week...

Mission: Betrayal part 4

... continued from part 3...

Kayla paced the floor of the IMF hideout anxiously, glancing at her watch. It was 0800 now; Michelle was late.
“I don’t like this,” Kayla said to herself.
“Don’t like what?” Ryan asked. He and all the rest of the IMF agents, including Sarah, were waiting in the IMF hideout as well.
“Michelle being late like this, it’s not like her.”
“Your right,” Ryan nodded. “What do you want to do?”
Kayla thought about this for a moment. “Why don’t we just wait a little longer? She could be caught in traffic.”
“Okay,” Ryan agreed. He flopped down on the couch next to Laz and grabbed a TV remote and flicked the power button. The huge flat screen TV on the wall lit up. “Glad we got this HD TV,” Ryan said, flipping it to the news
“You’re just gonna watch TV at a time like this?” Laz said.
“Sure,” Ryan shrugged. “Why not?”
“Okay, cool.” Laz sat back and watched the news with him.
“Are they always like this?” Sarah asked, looking at Christophear.
Christophear, who was pretending that he wasn’t watching the TV, shrugged, “Yeah, pretty much. You get used to it after a while.”
Jordan nodded his agreement, making no attempt to hide the fact that he was watching as well. “Turn it to sports,” he suggested.
“No,” Zach argued. “Let’s turn it to the gun channel.”
“Oh please, not the gun channel,” Emmy groaned, finally speaking up. She was unusually quiet this morning.
Ryan was just about to turn the channel when he stopped. There was a story about a girl who was found dead in her home on, and the picture of the house they were showing looked just like Michelle’s!
“Wait, isn’t that Michelle’s house?” Ryan asked, bewildered.
“Oh my Gosh, it is!” Kayla exclaimed as she looked at the TV. “Turn it up.”
“Will do, would you like it in surround?” Ryan replied.
“Just turn it up!” Kayla yelled. Ryan turned up the volume.
“A young woman was found dead in her house today by her next door neighbor,” the news anchor informed them. “Police are not yet revealing all the details, but it appears that a woman by the name of Michelle Roland was murdered late last night.”
There was a collective gasp among the IMF agents.
“…Police have not released any of the suspects yet, but promise that they are searching for the murderer as we speak.”
“No!” Kayla screamed. “This can’t be happening!”
“We have to do something!” Sarah pleaded Ryan. “You’re the only one that can stop this.”
Ryan was staring at the screen, still in shock from losing yet another agent. “What makes you so sure of that?”
“Because I’ve studied you Ryan Cruise. You’re unstoppable. Anybody who tries to kill you seemingly succeeds, but in the end, they lose. And it’s all because of you, Ryan. Don’t you see? You were born to stop this!”
Ryan frowned. “And I thought I was born because my parents wanted me to be. Not because I was meant to stop this supposed betrayal by the Emperor.”
“Hey, what about me?” Laz protested.
“Why you, Laz,” Sarah said, walking over to him. “You are what makes Ryan so successful. Every Superman needs his Robin, and you are his Robin.”
Ryan turned toward her and raised his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure that it’s Batman and Robin, not Superman and Robin.”
Jordan frowned as well. “His Robin? That just sounds weird.”
Sarah threw up her hands. “Sorry, I don’t read comics and I’m not that good at motivational speeches, okay. But we’ve got to do something.”
“Well I like it,” Laz said, folding his arms. “At least it’s better than, dopey sidekick.”
“Like what?” Emmy spoke up again. “What could we possibly do?”
“We can fight back! Teach the emperor who’s boss! Show him what we can do!” Sarah was starting to get dramatic now.
Ryan looked at Laz and Jordan. “That wasn’t so bad.”
Jordan shrugged. “I think she borrowed a little on that speech, though.”
Laz nodded, looking smart. “Yeah, she definitely borrowed on that one.”
Sarah slammed her fist on a nearby table, disgusted. “Don’t you guys ever take anything seriously?”
Ryan, Laz, and Jordan looked at each other, and then looked back at Sarah. “No.”
Sarah sighed and walked away towards the corner of the room.
“Uh-oh,” Ryan said. “We have an upset woman on our hands. Who wants to comfort her?”
Jordan and Laz both turned the other way.
“Oh come on, guys!” Ryan rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I’ll go.”
“Thanks,” Jordan and Laz said, simultaneously.
Ryan walked over towards Sarah. “Sarah,” he said, softly. She didn’t look up, but kept her head down, sniffing every now and then. “Hey Sarah, I tell you what. We’ll check this out, okay?”
Sarah brightened and looked up. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Ryan nodded. “Really.”
Sarah sighed happily. “Oh Ryan, you don’t know how happy this makes me feel!” She looked him in the eyes. “I can’t stand to lose another one of our IMF agents.”
“I know what you mean,” Ryan replied.
“Pack up guys, we’re going to see the emperor!” Ryan announced to the room.
“Why do we need to pack up?” Laz asked. “It’s only a few miles from here. Heck, I walked there once.”
“Figure of speech, Laz,” Ryan said in mock disapproval.
“Are all of us going?” Zach piped up.
“Yep, all of us,” Ryan said. “Even Sarah.” He looked at Sarah and she smiled at him.
“Good,” Kayla said, her grief was turning into resolve. “He better have a good answer for why Michelle is dead, or I’m gonna…” she trailed off.
Christophear nodded seriously. “This will be in the memory of Cathy and Michelle, two great agents, who never let us down when needed. They will always be remembered in our minds and they will always be with us in our hearts.”
Ryan looked at Chris. “Are you done with the sentimental speech? Good. Let’s hit the road. Everybody, to the IMF van.”
“We have a van?” Laz asked.
“We do now,” Ryan declared.
Everyone followed Ryan eagerly to the garage. The IMF agents stepped into the shiny garage. The place was spick and span. Leading Jordan to quip, “well, we know that Ryan’s never been in here for too long.”
Sitting in the middle of the garage, was the IMF van. It was Black and shiny and unmarked.
“Nice,” Sarah whistled. “It looks just like the Spider mobile.”
“Bat mobile,” Ryan corrected. He walked over to the wall where there hung a picture of some famous actor who believed in scientology or something. He removed the picture to reveal a safe inserted in the wall. He turned the dial on the safe a few times and it popped open. Everyone held his or her breath, expecting something exciting. They waited in eager anticipation; the suspense was killing them. Was it another cool gadget? Maybe some treasure that Ryan planned to share with them?
Ryan reached in the safe and pulled out what was inside; it was… the keys to the van. Everyone released his or her breath in a loud sigh, somewhat disappointed. “Who’s driving?” Ryan asked.
Jordan raised his hand. “Me.” Ryan tossed him the keys and they all hopped in.
“Shotgun,” Ryan called. Everyone climbed in the van. “Sarah, Kayla,” Ryan said, turning around to face them. “We’re gonna need some weapons if this goes south. Go over to the toolbox over there and turn it to the right. You’ll see a keypad, the password is Evan Hunter, when the door opens grab all the weapons you can carry.”
“You’re telling me the password?” Sarah asked, surprised.
“Sure,” Ryan smiled. “I trust you.”
Sarah smiled back and she and Kayla climbed out of the van.
“You really believe what she’s trying to tell us?” Jordan asked.
“No, not really,” Ryan shook his head. “That’s why I sent them out. I think Kayla’s convinced herself that the emperor’s trying to kill us. Look, Laz, Christophear, and I will go and talk things over with the emperor. I don’t want Sarah to go. You guys hold her back when we get there. If anything goes wrong, which I doubt, you’ll give us cover fire.”
“Sounds good,” Jordan said. Everyone else agreed.
“Cool,” Ryan said. “I thought that one up myself.”
Kayla and Sarah hopped in, handing everyone weapons and other equipment. Kayla started to hand Ryan his favorite rifle, but Ryan shook his head. “We’re going in unarmed.”
“Why?” Kayla said, bewildered.
“Because, they’ll take our weapons anyway.”
“He’s right,” Sarah said.
“Of course I’m right,” Ryan replied, as if surprised that anyone would ever doubt him. “I’m always right… except for when I’m wrong.”
Jordan started up the van and they drove out of the garage and towards the emperor’s palace. Little did they know what would be there to greet them.

Timothius sat, shivering in his cell, listening to the interrogator explain the emperor’s demands, wishing that he could be anywhere else.
“… So all that the emperor wants you to do,” the interrogator explained. “Is just rid the world of a few lying, unworthy people. Is that so different from what you’ve been doing all along?”
“I’ve only ever killed villains,” Timothius said defiantly. “And I’m not going to change that now.”
The interrogator smiled and held up the needle. “Then I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to try and make you.” He gave a cruel, wicked laugh. “This will be the day that you regret you were ever born.”
Tim backed away, but didn’t fail to show spirit. “I’ve had quite a few of those…”
The interrogator grabbed him and lifted him up onto the chair. Timothius tried to resist, but the chains prevented him from doing much.
“Welcome to hell,” the interrogator breathed in his ear. He stabbed the needle into Tim’s flesh, and Tim screamed in pain as he felt it hit his bone.

To be continued...

Mission: Betrayal Part 3

...continued from two weeks prior...

An hour later, the agents were all gathered in one of their own personal secret hideout. Sarah was confined to a room with insulated walls while they had their meeting. The others weren’t sure whether they could trust her or not yet.
“What’s going on?” Emmy was the first to speak up, no surprise there.
Ryan held up his hand. “Now don’t panic, we’re just being hunted down and taken out one by one; it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about? You always take things too lightly, Ryan!” Emmy shot back.
“And you take them too seriously,” Ryan retorted, an irritated frown gathering on his face.
“Well, somebody has to,” Emmy finished, folding her arms.
“Hey, hey, guys,” Laz stepped in between them. “Let’s not fight here…” Both Ryan and Emmy shot him dirty looks and he trailed off. “Never mind, go at it.” Laz swallowed nervously and stepped back.
Ryan and Emmy promptly turned to each other and started to bicker once again.
Emmy’s eyes flared. “Kayla said that you and that bumbling idiot,” she pointed to Laz, who gave a shocked, ‘who me?’ look. “Are the ones responsible for Cathy’s death.”
“No I didn’t,” Kayla protested, but neither Ryan nor Emmy paid any attention to her.
Ryan skipped the ‘who me?’ look and got right to the outraged one. “What?” he growled, looking about as serious as her ever had. “You’re trying to blame this on us?”
“Well,” Emmy said, walking towards him and laughing coldly. “If the shoe fits.”
The room fell silent. They all understood what she was doing; she was challenging his authority (and not talking about his shoe size as Laz originally thought).
“Do you wanna say that again,” Ryan said calmly. Make no mistake, he wasn’t feeling very calm at the moment; think of it more as the quiet before a storm.
“IF THE SHOE FITS,” Emmy said loudly and slowly.
“All right that’s it!” Jordan yelled. He separated them from each other and held them at arm’s length. “We have got some important things to figure out right now, first of which being how we’re gonna stay alive. Second, we need to decide whether we can trust Sarah or not. Now you two better quit the bickering or we’ll all end up dead. Please, just kiss and make up.”
“Ew, don’t kiss,” Laz protested. “That would be like, romantic.”
Jordan frowned. “Figure of speech, man.”
There was a string of silence, and Emmy and Ryan considered what Jordan, and Laz, had just ‘laid down for them’ as Jordan would say.
Ryan and Emmy looked at each other. “Aw, what the heck,” Ryan waved her off. “We’ll fight later, right now we have some strategizing to do.”
“You’re right,” Emmy nodded. “I forgive you.”
Ryan rolled his eyes and shot the other guys an, I’ll-never-understand-women look. They just nodded and shrugged in return. There was yet another awkward silence.
Michelle broke the silence. “I think she sounds all right.” She was referring to Sarah of course. “She did help you guys escape, right?”
Ryan nodded. “That’s true. She also said that she was part of IMF.”
“That doesn’t mean that she is, though,” Christophear pointed out.
Zach nodded. “I agree with Chris. We can’t just blindly accept everything she says.”
“What do you suggest,” Ryan asked.
“Well,” Zach began. “I think we should hear her out. Maybe consider what she has to say.”
“Okay, sounds good,” said Ryan. “Call Sarah in,” he ordered Chris. Chris opened the door where Sarah had been staying and let her out.
“Well, I hope you have decided to listen to me,” Sarah said, a little irritated at being locked away during their conversation.”
“We’ve decided to hear you out,” Ryan informed her.
“Thank you,” Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. “Look, what I’ve been trying to tell you guys all along is that the emperor is trying to hunt us all down and kill us.”
“But why would the emperor do that?” Emmy asked.
“Because, we know too much about him, you know how paranoid he can get about losing his power. The emperor has convinced himself that IMF is endangering his reign as emperor.”
“And how do you know this?” Ryan asked, trying to sound smart.
“Cathy.”
“Cathy?” they all asked.
“Yes, Cathy received some incriminating information about the emperor, don’t ask me how. Anyways, she learned of all kinds of crimes the emperor had committed. Like, killing journalists, executing innocent people, who just so happened to be bitter rivals, and, among other things, trying to kill us.”
“And how can you prove this?” Kayla asked.
“Well,” Sarah said weakly. “Most if it’s circumstantial; Cathy had all the real evidence.”
“And where’s this evidence?” Ryan asked.
Sarah hung her head. “I don’t know.”
“Of course,” Jordan smirked. “You really expect us to believe all this?”
“I was hoping that Cathy’s death, and Tim’s disappearance would convince you.”
“Well,” Ryan said thoughtfully, stroking his chin. “Maybe we should sleep on this. Tonight, everyone go back to their own homes and think it over. We’ll meet here tomorrow at exactly 0730.”
“Should we go back to our houses if the emperor is after us?” Michelle asked.
“No,” Sarah said. “That would be stupid.” “Yes,” Ryan contradicted. “We should go home; even if the emperor is trying to kill us, we don’t want to tip him off that we know something.”
“Good point,” Laz agreed.
“Thank you,” Ryan gave a look as if he came up with good ideas all the time.
“Where will I go?” Sarah asked.
Ryan pondered this for a minute.
“She can go home with me,” Kayla offered.
“Okay, sounds good,” Ryan nodded. “Everyone agree?”
“Everyone who agrees say, aye!” Laz shouted. “Aye!”
Everyone looked at him disdainfully.
“Okay, never mind, just say yes.”
“Yes,” everyone said. Everyone except Sarah, who still wasn’t happy about their plan.
Nobody cared at the moment though. They all departed and went to their own homes.
As they walked out the door, Emmy grasped Chris’ hand. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll figure this out.”
Chris nodded and pulled his hand away.
Emmy just coughed awkwardly and walked away.
“That was weird,” Chris muttered.

A dark figure wearing a black coat walked up to the gate near Michelle’s house. The person’s figures were mostly hidden by the dark, but it was definitely a male. He walked up to her security system and placed his thumb on a pad that came out of the wall.
“Access granted,” a computer-animated voice said.
The gate opened slowly and the man walked inside. “Welcome, Christophear Danaford,” the voice said as he walked inside.
He walked up the pathway and up to Michelle’s door. He knocked on it three times, looking up at the security camera by the door as he did.
He waited a minute as Michelle checked who it was. Suddenly, the door opened.
“Hey, Chris!” Michelle said from where she was standing in the doorway.
“Hello, Michelle,” Christophear said.
Michelle welcomed him in. They walked inside and sat down in her kitchen.
“What brings you here?” Michelle asked, curious.
“Just one thing,” Chris said, standing. Michelle turned to face him, with a coffee pot in her hand.
“What?” she asked.
He reached inside his coat, which he had never taken off, and withdrew a Colt .45. “Emperor’s business,” he said.
Michelle’s eyes opened wide. “Chris, no!”
A wicked smile spread across Chris’s face. “Yes.”
Suddenly, Michelle sprang into action. She threw the coffee pot at Chris’ face; hitting him square in the chin and spilling hot coffee all over him.
Chris screamed and howled in pain. Michelle rolled to her right and ran to where her nearest gun was hidden.
Chris had recovered quickly, however, and he snatched up his .45 and shot at Michelle three times. Michelle jerked and fell on her face.
Chris walked over to her and stood over her body. “Thought you’d get away, didn’t you?”
“You’re not really Chris, are you?” she moaned.
Chris laughed. “No, I’m not.” He or whoever it was, lifted his gun and fired a fourth shot. A scream could be heard, and then it was cut short. The birds listening outside flew frantically away, warned by some intuition give to them in all stories and movies.
The figure walked out, making sure to glance at the security camera once again, and headed back to his vehicle.

Timothius sat in his cell, cold and alone. He was shivering nonstop and muttering to himself.
“I should have seen this coming,” he muttered. “Should have seen this coming…”
Suddenly, someone burst into the room. Light came streaming in, blinding Tim for the moment. “Who are you?” he asked, blinking.
“Your worst nightmare,” said a spooky voice. The voice laughed wickedly.
Tim strained to see who it was, but several days in a dark dungeon had made him very sensitive to light, so he couldn’t see.
“I’m the interrogator,” he said.
Tim’s heart sunk. The emperor had sent the interrogator to his cell; that couldn’t be good news.
The interrogator slammed the cell door shut and turned on a light that was sitting on a small desk.
“Where’d the desk and the light come from?” Timothius asked. He was determined to show the interrogator that he wasn’t afraid.
“You have to have a light and a desk to do interrogations,” the interrogator explained.
“Why?” Tim asked.
“Well…” the interrogator pondered this for a while. “Oh, I don’t know. You just do, okay? Now let’s get this interrogation started.” He pulled out a long and thin, yet still strong, needle.
“What’s that?” Tim asked nervously.
“This,” the interrogator said, with another one of his wicked smiles. “Is a most interesting tool. Looks harmless, right? Wrong. When I stick this needle in your shoulder, I’m going to start asking you questions. If you don’t answer the way I like, then I push the needle farther. Once this baby hits the bone, it’s gonna be pretty painful. Might even knock you out.
Timothius bit his lip and closed his eyes.
“Scared, huh?” the interrogator laughed.
“No,” Tim said through gritted teeth. “And I won’t give up my friends. No matter what you do to me.”
“Well,” the interrogator smiled again, walking towards Timothius. “You won’t have to.”
Timothius looked up surprised. “What?”
“Do I have to repeat myself? You don’t have to give up your friends. The emperor already has a way to wrap those guys up, pathetic bunch. The emperor wants something different from you.”
Timothius stared at the interrogator, still not getting it. “Want to explain what that is?”
“Sure…”


To be continued next week...

Mission: Scripted

This is IMF's Christmas story that has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas. It also has nothing to do with this current mission. Merry Christmas everybody! And a happy New Year!

Timothius woke up with a groan. He couldn’t remember anything that had happened to him since he went to bed that night. Confused, he felt hard floor underneath him.
“Are you awake?” said a voice. It was Ryan Cruise.
“Yeah,” Tim nodded. He opened his eyes, but the lighting didn’t change much. Wherever they were, it sure was dark. “Where are we?”
“He must not remember anything after he was knocked out,” Ryan said to someone else.
“We’re in a dungeon,” said another voice. This one was Cathy’s.
“How’d we get here?” Tim asked groggily. He tried to remember but he couldn’t recall anything that had happened.
“We were infiltrating the Russian Embassy,” Ryan answered him. “You screwed up, though.”
“Excuse me?” Cathy exclaimed. “You were the one that knocked the mantelpiece over!”
“So? Nobody heard that.” Ryan argued.
“Then why are we here?”
Ryan shrugged. “Bad luck?”
“Guys, guys,” Tim held up his hand. “What happened to me?” His head felt like a watermelon that had been split open by a sledgehammer. (Whatever that feels like, but it looks painful.)
“Some guard knocked you on the head when you tried to resist,” Ryan explained. “You actually took about three guys out before that.” Ryan paused and reflected the moment before continuing. “They came running when you stepped on that piece of glass--”
“You mean when you knocked the mantelpiece over,” Cathy interrupted.
“Why was there a mantelpiece there in the first place? That’s what I want to know,” Ryan said, defending himself. “I mean this is an embassy, not somebody’s living room.”
“Well the point is,” Cathy ignored his comment. “We’re here and how do we get out?”
“No problem,” Ryan assured them. “I’ve got it all figured out.”
“You said that when the mantelpiece dropped,” Cathy snapped.
“What makes you think I didn’t have it all figure out then?”
“Well, maybe the fact that we’re now trapped in this dungeon!”
“That was part of the plan,” Ryan said, defiantly.
“Why are we in the Russian Embassy?” Timothius asked, still trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Ryan started to explain but then just tossed him a stack of papers that were stapled together. “Forget it, just read this.”
“What’s this?” Timothius asked.
“The script,” Ryan replied. “It tells exactly what’s going to happen and what’s already happened.”
“Hey!” Timothius exclaimed. “It starts with me waking up, and you guys standing the dungeon. This is exactly how it happened!”
“Yeah,” Ryan shrugged as if this were common knowledge. “Didn’t I already say that?”
“Yeah, but…” Tim trailed off. “This is amazing!”
“You mean you didn’t know about this?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Timothius shook his head.
“Neither did I,” Cathy admitted, taking the script from Timothius.
“Wow,” Ryan shook his head. “You guys are missing out. It has all our lines, what we’re supposed to do, everything. I stopped thinking for myself two episodes ago.”
“Incredible,” Tim shook his head. “It even has me reading the script on the script, on the script, on the script, on the script--”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t hurt yourself” Ryan said, uninterested. “The script is all knowing, we can’t do anything that isn’t in the script. Even if we think we’re doing something totally out of the box, it’s on the script.”
“So,” Cathy ventured. “Do we like, have no free will?”
“Are you kidding me?!” Ryan appeared surprised at the question. “Of course we don’t, we just do whatever the script says.”
“This is so hard to believe,” Timothius shook his head.
“You get used to it,” Ryan said.
Suddenly, the dungeon door burst open, and two men walked inside.
“Who are they?” Tim whispered.
“Check the script,” Ryan whispered back.
Tim scanned the script. “…Crazy Horse and one of his henchmen,” he read aloud. “Enter the room. The henchman had a crow bar in his hands, which he was slapping against his hands, menacingly.” They looked up to see Crazy Horse and one of his henchmen enter the room. The henchman had a crow bar in his hands, which he was slapping against his hands, menacingly.
“Weird,” Tim murmured. He continued to read, “‘shut up,’ Crazy Horse growled.”
“Shut up,” Crazy Horse growled. “We have some talking to do. Like why-”
“We were in your embassy and who knocked over the mantelpiece,” Tim interrupted, reading his own quote from the script.
“Yes…” Crazy Horse paused, looking curiously at the script in Tim’s hands. Then he caught himself. “Well? Why are you here?”
Tim shrugged. “I’m still looking for that answer myself. Oh, here it is.” Tim looked at Ryan, who looked over his shoulder at the script.
“It has me spilling the whole story in here?” Ryan said in disbelief.
“Yeah,” Tim pointed to the passage.
Ryan shrugged. “Okay, well the emperor sent us on a mission here because he was worried that you had a little too much contact with terrorists, you meaning, Russia, of course. He sent us here to try and spy on you for information about your activities.”
Crazy Horse eyed him. “And who broke the mantelpiece?”
Ryan and Cathy pointed at each other at the same time.
“You will all pay for this!” Crazy Horse screamed.
“No we won’t,” Ryan shook his head.
“What?” Crazy Horse frowned.
“We won’t pay for this,” Ryan corrected him. “We escape.”
“How do you know?” Crazy Horse was skeptical.
“Look at the script,” Timothius said, tossing him the script.
Crazy Horse scanned the script quickly. “…’They laughed at him as he fumed in rage,’ blah, blah, blah. Ah, here it is.” Crazy Horse grinned, expecting that they were wrong. “All seemed lost, just as it appeared that they would be wrong…” Crazy Horse trailed off. “What? This is ridiculous!” He threw the script down. “How is a guy supposed to make a villainous living around here if some script writer guys are writing happy endings to all these stories?”
They laughed at him as he fumed in rage.
Ryan shrugged. “Crime doesn’t pay.” Then he grinned. “I made that up myself.”
“Actually,” Tim said, picking up the script. “That was in here.”
“Shut up,” Ryan snapped.
Suddenly, Crazy Horse spun towards them. “You know what? I don’t care what that script says. I’m going to kill you anyways, because no one controls me!” He pulled a gun from his holster and cocked it. Crazy Horse pointed it at the three IMF agents, his finger tightening at the trigger.
All seemed lost, just as it appeared that they would be wrong, however, Crazy Horse’s gun clicked. Amazed, the IMF agents watched as Crazy Horse pulled the trigger again, ‘click.’ No bullets.
Crazy Horse threw the gun down in disgust. “There’s no fighting it, is there?”
Ryan shook his head. “Nope. That was in the script too.” He reached up to knock out the villain, but Tim stopped him.
“Ladies first,” Tim shook his finger.
“Thank you,” Cathy said. Then she reached over and knocked Crazy Horse on the back of the head, knocking him out cold.
The henchman fled, but Ryan shot him in the back with a silenced pistol that the henchman had dropped in his haste.
“Now what?” Cathy asked.
“The script says, ‘they snuck up behind the three guards and knocked them out. Then they dragged them into a closet and put on their uniforms.’” Tim looked up from the script. “I guess that’s what we do.”
They walked down the hall, away from the dungeon. All of the sudden, three guards appeared around the corner, with their backs turned to them. They snuck up behind the three guards and knocked them out. Then they dragged them into a closet and put on their uniforms.
Acting casually, they walked out of the embassy, and onto the street. Not until they had gotten into their car did the alarm sound.
“Did we get what we came for?” Tim asked.
“Yep,” Ryan nodded, and held up a folder. “Enough evidence to prove that Russia has been involved with several terrorist organizations.”
“How come they didn’t take it from you?” Tim asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Ask the guy who writes the script. Must have been for time constraint reasons or something.”
Ryan started up the car and they drove off. It was night by now, and they were all tired. They took turns driving until they could reach the Imperial Palace; it was a long drive. When it was Tim’s turn to rest, he lay down in the back. Slowly, he drifted into a long, deep sleep…

Timothius woke up with a start. “Aaa!” he cried.
Ryan was lying on a couch across the room from him. “What?” he asked.
“I dreamt that we were on a mission,” Tim said, still breathing hard.
“That’s ridiculous, we’re on leave, finally,” Ryan said.
“And everything was scripted,” Tim continued.
“Scripted? What do you mean?”
“Like, everything we did was on a script,” Timothius explained.
“That’s dumb. We would have, like, no free will,” Ryan frowned.
“We didn’t, everything we did, or were going to do, was on the script, and we couldn’t change it.” “That’s really dumb. Who wrote this script anyways? God or someone?”
“No,” Tim shook his head, trying to remember the authors. “It was these two guys, I can’t remember their names. They seemed familiar, though. I think that we were based after them or something.”
“So, they wrote everything that happened to us, in the dream? And they even based themselves after us?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah, if they wanted us to fly away on carpets, I imagine they could make it happen. And actually, they based us off of them.”
“Yeah right,” Ryan waved him off. Just then, a cat flew by on a flying carpet. Ryan rubbed his eyes and blinked several times. “Did that just happen?”
“Yeah,” Tim nodded. “You see what I mean?”
Ryan looked as if he were starting to believe him. “This is incredible.” Suddenly…

Timothius woke up and jumped out of bed. “That was weird!” he exclaimed.
“What was weird?” Ryan asked. Ryan was standing in the doorway, wearing civilian clothes.
“Aaa!” Tim yelled. “What are you doing here?”
“I was staying at your house, remember?” Ryan said.
“Sorry,” Tim shook his head. “It’s just, everytime I wake up and see you, I’m in another dream.”
“You really shouldn’t have so much soda before going to bed if you’re gonna scream and talk all through the night afterwards.” He added. “You must have had some dream.”
“Boy did I ever,” Tim nodded. “I dreamed that our lives were all recorded in a script and that everything happened the way it was written.”
“Some dream,” Ryan agreed that it was crazy. “Oh great,” he groaned.
“What?” Tim asked.
“That, that over there. It’s coming towards us!”
“Where? What is it?” Tim saw it too now.
Ryan shook his head in disbelief. “It’s…”

The End?

And it was all just a dream... or was it?

Mission 4: Betrayal Part 2

Ryan was watching Cathy from his perch several stories up. Laz was standing next to him, watching every suspicious person. Ryan had no idea were the sniper was hiding, but he was almost positive that there was one. He had a suspicion that it was a young brunette that he had been watching. She had been acting rather strangely and he was almost sure that she had been tailing Cathy earlier. Now she had disappeared, not a good sign.
Ryan spoke into his radio, “Just calm down, Cathy, and wait for my signal.”
“I’m trying to,” came the distressed response. “But you’re not helping.”
“She has a point there,” Laz commented.
Cathy’s voice came through again. “This is taking too long; when are you going to signal?”
“Now, go now!” Ryan yelled into the radio. Cathy burst from the bathroom and ran as fast as she could towards the door. She was almost to the door when she suddenly jerked forward and fell on her face.
Ryan and Laz whirled around to see a gun barrel being pulled out of from in between a vent in the wall a couple of stories up. Panic started to rise up in the two agent’s minds; Ryan thought of all the things he could say, what he could scream. He tried to sort all of these out in his mind and say the best one, but all that came out was, “oops.”
Laz flinched. “Ouch, headshot.”
The entire mall was going crazy by now; Cathy was lying dead on the floor, blood flowing from her head. There was no way that she would be coming back anytime soon. Ryan and Laz searched for a place to hide. They had no doubt that that sniper was coming after them now. Seeing a woman’s clothing store behind them, they ducked inside. This brought several strange glances from everyone inside, but the people quickly forgot about them when Cathy’s death became known. Everyone stampeded out of the store and drove away as fast as possible.
“Where do we go now?” Laz asked.
“Anywhere but here,” Ryan replied. They rushed out of the store and charged down the hall. They looked up to see a masked woman running with them on the floor above, or at least they assumed it was a woman because of her long hair. They stopped and started to turn around, but the woman jumped down in front of them and cut off their route.
“Wait,” she said, pulling off the mask. “I’m a friend.” She shook her head and flipped her brown hair back. Her brown eyes did indeed seem friendly, but they also seemed troubled.
“Wait,” Ryan said. “You’re that brunette that was following Cathy.”
She nodded. “That’s right, and my name’s Sarah.” A question started to form on the two agent’s lips but Sarah answered it before they could ask. “I was trying to protect Cathy from that sniper, but obviously, I couldn’t.” She led them inside a door that said employees only. “We should probably lay low for a while,” she advised. “That sniper could be looking for us.”
“How do we know that you’re not the sniper?” Laz asked.
She smiled. “You don’t.”
Laz groaned. “I hate it when people say that.” He motioned for Ryan to come with him and meet in the corner of the room.
“How do we know if we can trust her?” Laz asked.
Ryan shrugged. “Well, she is pretty.” It was true, the mysterious woman looked like she could easily win a beauty pageant if she tried.
Laz rolled his eyes. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Ryan threw up his hands. “I don’t know, I was just saying.”
“Besides,” Laz said. “Haven’t you ever noticed that all girls in any secret agent story are always good-looking? No matter if they’re good or bad. If they’re not then they’re killed off right away.”
Ryan frowned. “That’s not true.”
Just then a homely cleaning lady burst through the door. Her face was covered in zits and she had a huge scowl on her face. “What the heck are you three doing here!” she bellowed. She started to let loose a flurry of curse words at them, but she was suddenly shot in the head and she sank to the floor.
“See what I mean?” Laz said smugly.
Ryan stroked his chin. “Maybe you’ve got a point there.”
Sarah grabbed them both by the arm and dragged them out the back door. “Come on,” she said. “We don’t want to meet whoever was on the other end of that gunshot.”
They rushed out the door and onto a fire escape that was out back. They ran down the stairs as fast as possible. As they were running, bullets started flying all around them. Whoever was above them was shooting at them! Ryan looked up and tried to see who it was that was shooting at them but he could never get a good look. They dodged the bullets and sped down the stairs until they reached the ground.
“Come on,” Ryan called. “Our car is right here.” They all jumped inside Ryan’s Porsche and Ryan stepped on the gas. They peeled out of the parking lot and drove away. Once they were farther away, Ryan slowed down.
“So Sarah, I don’t believe we ever told you our names. Name’s Cruise… Ryan Cruise.” He stuck out his hand and Sarah shook it.
“Do you steal all your lines from James Bond movies, or just a mix of secret agent movies?” she asked, trying to cover her smile.
“Who me? Of course not.” Ryan acted surprised.
“I’m Laz,” Laz offered.
“Hi Laz,” Sarah said. “In case you’re wondering, I work for IMF.”
“You do?” Ryan was shocked. “So do we!”
“Really?” Sarah said. “Well at least I won’t have to explain what it is to you then. That’s always a problem.”
“Yeah, we get that a lot to,” Ryan nodded. “How come we’ve never seen you before if you work for IMF?”
“There’s more than one team that works for IMF, you know.” Sarah pointed out.
Ryan paused for a second. “There is?”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, didn’t you know that?”
Ryan coughed. “Yeah, yeah, of course I did.”
Laz spoke up again from the back, “he’s lying.”
Sarah grinned again, it seemed as if she couldn’t help but smile at Ryan. “Yeah, I guessed as much.” Then she turned serious. “Well, I used to work for IMF. My team was dismantled a few weeks ago and I’ve been on the run ever since.”
Ryan frowned. “Dismantled? What do you mean?”
Sarah made a slashing motion across her throat with her finger.
Laz flinched. “I’m sorry, we know what it feels like to lose a team member.”
Sarah frowned and folded her arms. “Not every agent. I lost every man and every woman. I’m the only one left.”
Ryan drove up to his house and parked the car. “Do you have any idea who’s behind this?” he asked.
Sarah looked at him. “I’ll give you one guess.”
Ryan thought for a minute while they got out of the car. “Space aliens?”
Sarah shook her head. “No, of course not. The emperor.”
“Why would he take out his own IMF team?” Laz asked.
Sarah lowered her voice to a whisper. “Because, we know too much.”
“Know what?” Ryan scratched his head.
Sarah gave a frustrated look. “Well you don’t have to worry about it. Because you’re obviously clueless!” She walked away and sat down on the curb.
Ryan looked at Laz and shrugged. “What’d I say?”
Laz only shrugged back. “You understand woman better than I do.”
“But I don’t understand woman at all.”
“Exactly.”
Just then, Ryan’s cell phone rang. Ryan flipped it open, “Yo.”
“Ryan,” came a woman’s voice. “This is Kayla.”
“Kayla,” Ryan said. “Just the woman I needed to talk to. We’ve got an angry girl on our hands and I don’t know what to do.”
Kayla ignored his comment. “Tim’s been captured, Ryan.”
“What? By who?” Ryan asked, shocked.
“I don’t know,” Kayla replied. “The emperor would only tell me that he was on a mission by himself and he fell into enemy hands.”
“Great,” Ryan sighed. “Two agents in one day.”
“What?” now it was Kayla’s turn to be surprised. “What’re you talking about?”
Ryan paused. “I don’t know how to say this but… Cathy’s dead.”
For a few seconds, Ryan was met with nothing but shocked silence. Then Kayla nearly exploded. “Dead? What do you mean, dead? How is that possible? You’re lying!”
Ryan held the phone from his ear. “What do I say, Laz?” he asked.
Laz shrugged. “I don’t know any better than you do.”
Kayla started to burst into tears on the other end of the line. “Look, Kayla, please don’t cry.”
Kayla sniffed. “Okay, what do you need me to do?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“Well,” Ryan thought. “Have all the agents gather here for a meeting. At least, all the agents we have left…”
Kayla started to burst into tears again. “Oops, I didn’t mean that last part Kayla. Don’t worry, Cathy won’t die in vain; we’ll find out what she knew if we die trying… that was just a figure of speech, we’re not gonna die.”

To be continued...

Mission 4: Betrayal

Timothius looked up from the note he had just read. His face wrinkled in confusion. What was going on? Well he was never the one to back down from danger; so he grabbed the handheld device.
Instantly, the device turned on and a long beam shot out and scanned his face. The beam disappeared and a green light appeared on the screen. “Identity confirmed, welcome Timothius Danaford,” the device said in a mechanic voice.
Suddenly, Cathy appeared on the screen; Tim quickly realized that she had recorded a message for him. “Hello Tim,” Cathy said. “Thank you for helping me, I really appreciate it.” She coughed and continued. “I’ve got a problem, and I don’t know how else to explain it to you so I’ll jump right in. The emperor isn’t who you think he is. He has been committing several illegal and deceptive actions behind our backs and all the other citizens of the Touch� Empire. Including executing supposed ‘criminals’ without giving them a fair trial, stealing money from the people and using it for his own personal benefits, and much more. I’ve only recently learned about this, and I don’t know if the emperor’s found out about how much I know yet. Help me Timothius, you are my only hope.” The video shut off and a mechanical voice said, “This device will self-destruct in… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” The device disintegrated into a wisp of smoke, leaving Tim sitting with a shocked expression on his face.
“I can’t believe this,” Tim said to himself. “I knew that the emperor was a little shady, but this? I guess I should have seen it coming.” He shook his head and sighed. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. If the emperor found out, then Cathy would be in danger! He had to protect her, but how?
Just then, his work phone rang. Timothius answered it, “Hello.”
“Hello, Timothius,” said a voice. It was the emperor!
“Emperor! How are you?” Tim exclaimed, trying not to sound nervous
“Fine, fine, I heard about Ryan and Laz. They ran through a house fire to save those documents, incredible. Those two are amazing,” he said somewhat blandly. Timothius frowned; was it his imagination or did the emperor actually seem disappointed?
“The reason I was calling,” he continued. “Was to see if you’re available. I have a job for you, and it only requires one man.”
“Sure,” Tim said warily. “I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you, and Tim.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t be late.”
Timothius swallowed. “I won’t,” he hung up the phone. He tried to shake the thoughts he was thinking out of his head, but he couldn’t. “There’s no way he could know what I know,” he said aloud. Somehow, though, that wasn’t very convincing. He had a feeling that the emperor had already found him and Cathy out.
He reached over and picked up his other, personal phone, the one with a scrambler on it. Quickly, he dialed Ryan Cruise’s number. Somebody had to keep an eye on Cathy. Timothius trusted and, at the same time, didn’t trust Ryan to get the job done; but he had no one else to turn to.

Ryan and Laz were hanging out at Ryan’s house, playing video games when Tim called.
Ryan grabbed his cell phone and flipped it open. “Hey Tim, what’s happening?”
“A lot of stuff,” Timothius replied, breathing nervously. “Listen Cruise, I need your help. Is Laz with you?”
“Yeah, he’s right here.”
“Good, could you keep an eye on Cathy for me, please?”
Ryan gave the phone a strange look before remembering that Tim couldn’t see him through the phone. “Keep an eye on her, why?”
“Because, I think she might be in danger.”
“From what?” Ryan asked.
“You mean from who, and I don’t think I’ll tell you that just yet.”
Ryan frowned. “Okay fine, I’ll look out for her, you don’t have to get all secretive on me.”
“Thanks,” Timothius thanked him and hung up.
“How do you like that?” Ryan said.
“What?” Laz asked. He had been intently listening in on the conversation, trying to figure out what they were saying.
“Tim wants us to ‘keep an eye on Cathy’.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan shrugged. “Oh well, I guess it couldn’t hurt. Wonder where she it now?”
Laz grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll track her. It’s my specialty.”

A few minutes later they had tracked Cathy to her location at the Imperial Mall by using her cell phone. They hopped in Ryan’s Porsche and whizzed away to the mall.
“That was too easy,” Laz commented when they had arrived. “If Cathy thinks she’s in danger, why is she at the mall?”
Ryan shrugged. “It’s a perfect place for a handoff.”
“And for a murder,” Laz pointed out.
They both nodded and agreed that they would have to keep an eye out for suspicious-looking people. They got of the car and warily made their way towards the mall entrance.
“Look at that guy,” Ryan pointed to a young teenager who was hurrying out of the mall and clutching his coat. “He looks suspicious.”
Laz shrugged. “What’s so suspicious about him?”
Suddenly a whole group of security guards ran out of the building after the teenager and tackled him. A bunch of expensive items came flying out of his jacket and fell to the floor. “Wait, NO!” the teen cried. “I bought this stuff, I swear!”
“That’s not what the security camera says,” one of the guards said, and they took him away in handcuffs.
“Okay,” Laz admitted. “So maybe you were right.”

Meanwhile, Timothius was on his way to the emperor’s palace. “I hope those two aren’t doing anything stupid.” He smacked his forehead. “What am I saying? Of course they’re doing something stupid. I just hope it works.”
He drove up to the palace, passed the normal security check and sat down in the emperor’s waiting room. After a few minutes, Timothius was called into the emperor’s office and told to sit and wait.
He looked all around, wondering where the emperor could be. There was a tall chair at the emperor’s desk that was facing the opposite direction of Timothius. Tim coughed and ventured to say, “Um, sir, are you there?” Suddenly, the chair whirled around to reveal… no one. “Uh, okay. I still can’t see you,” Timothius said, bewildered.
There was a loud sigh, and the chair started to rise. As the chair raised the emperor started to appear, he was pumping the chair up slowly so that he could see over the desk.
“There, can you see me now?”
“Much better, sir. New chair?”
The emperor gave an annoyed look. “Yes.” He cleared his throat. “The reason I called you here is because I have another mission for you, if you choose to accept it. As you know, many writers have been criticizing my way of ruling the empire. I want you to find all the writers that I have on this list and take them out.” He pushed a list over towards Timothius with a whole list of names. “This is my empire, and I won’t have anyone obstructing the peace with this libel. Make them realize that this isn’t a democracy, but a dictatorship and what I say goes.”
Timothius swallowed hard. In all his years serving the emperor, he’d never been asked to kill innocent people. While the emperor may claim that these writers weren’t innocent, Tim believed that they were and he couldn’t kill them with a clean conscience.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t do that.”
“Excuse me?” the emperor said, anger in his voice.
“I said that I can’t do that,” Timothius repeated bravely. “You said, ‘if you choose to accept,’ and I don’t accept.
The emperor gave an unhappy sigh. “That’s just for show. It sounds cool.” He glared at Timothius. “You do know what happened to the last person that refused to obey one of my assignments, don’t you?”
Timothius nodded solemnly. He had heard of the infamous secret agent, Travis, who had infuriated the emperor by refusing to obey orders. He was later thrown to a pit of sharks by the emperor himself.
“Then why are you refusing to obey?” the emperor asked.
“Because, I can’t go against my conscience. Risking my life for the empire is one thing, going against my moral beliefs is another.”
“I feared that it would come to this,” the emperor shook his head.
Suddenly, Tim felt himself being grabbed by strong hands. He looked up and saw two, strong guards above him.
“Take him to the dungeon,” the emperor commanded.
They drug him out of the emperor’s office and down into the dungeons
“Help! Somebody help me!” Timothius called. They knocked him on the head and he slumped to the floor. Then they dragged him, unconscious, towards the dungeon.

Cathy knew something had to be up when she saw Ryan at the mall, and she was doubly confirmed when she glimpsed Laz slipping into the crowd. Perhaps they were there to save her, or maybe they were working for the emperor.
She was waiting in the mall for some information about the emperor that a certain reporter was supposed to hand to her at this spot, but the report hadn’t shown yet and she was getting worried. Plus, there was a young brunette that Cathy was sure was watching her. Cathy glanced back up to where the brunette had been a second ago and noticed that she had disappeared. That could be a bad sign.
Cathy started to move, that reporter wasn’t going to show up she decided. She reached into her pocket and, to her surprise, found a two-way radio in her pocket. Curious, Cathy took the radio out of her pocket and spoke into it. “Who is this?” she asked.
“A friend,” came a familiar voice.
Cathy sighed. “It’s you, Ryan.”
“Yes, how did you know?”
Cathy rolled her eyes. “Wild guess?”
Ryan didn’t respond for a minute and then his voice came through the radio again. “Cathy, you’re in danger.”
“You can say that again.”
“Okay, Cathy, you’re in danger.”
“No that’s not what I… oh, never mind.”
“Anyways, you need to follow my directions exactly. There’s a sniper watching you at this very moment.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Instinct,” Ryan replied. “Instinct, my girl.” He paused. “Actually, I have no idea, I was just guessing.”
Normally, Cathy would have made some sort of remark, but she was worried right at the moment. “So, how do I get out of here?”
“Follow my instructions,” Ryan ordered. “Bend over like you’re tying your shoes.”
Cathy frowned. “I’m wearing flip flops.”
“Just do it, okay! They’ll lose you in the crowd.”
Cathy obeyed and bent over as if to tie her shoes.
“Now,” Ryan continued. “Crawl around like you lost something and make your way to the bathroom.”
Cathy followed his instructions and slipped inside the ladies’ bathroom. “Now what?” she asked.
“Now, wait for my signal and make a break for the door.”
Cathy started to panic. “But what if the people decide to come in here before you give the order?”
“Then you’ll probably die,” Ryan replied. “Oh, sorry, did I say that out loud?”
Cathy glowered and would have strangled him if he were within reach. “I hate you,” she growled.
“You’re not the first person to say that,” Ryan admitted.
“You are impossible!” Cathy hissed into the radio.

To be continued next week...

Mission 3 Part 8

Two random people happened to be in the valley that night, whose names were Jack and Jill. Their view of the explosion is recorded here for the readers’ benefit.
Jack and Jill lied down in the grass and watched the stars every night, little did they know that this seemingly sweet and romantic habit would bring about their ugly and horrible deaths. This is their sad, and at the same time somewhat funny, story. (Hint: if you believe that romance is something sacred and that it should be cherished, the next part might possibly offend you; so you might be advised to skip it. If you want to hear the authors make fun of love, then go ahead and read all of it.)
“Look at that star,” said Jack, holding his sweetheart, Jill’s hand. “It’s so beautiful, just like you.”
“Thank you sweetie,” Jill replied, blushing, or Jack imagined that she blushed; it was too dark to tell. “No star could be as sweet as you.” To this day no one knows what Jill meant by that, as stars do not have the ability to be sweet, anymore than you or I have the ability to fly; but they say love makes on blind, so we’ll just go with it.
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion nearby. “What was that?” Jack cried, jumping up.
Jill jumped up beside him, hugging him in fright. She wasn’t actually frightened but was pretending to be so she could cling onto Jack. Why she didn’t just cling onto Jack because she wanted to and stop pretending she was frightened is unknown.
“What’s that weird cloud in the sky?” Jack asked. “It looks like a mushroom, strange.”
“Maybe it was a meteorite,” Jill suggested. They both agreed that that was what it was and were all set to skip towards the explosion hand in hand when they were suddenly blown to pieces. Thus ending their rather explosive night, no pun intended… actually it was intended, but never mind.

Back inside the helicopters, the IMF agents also saw and heard the explosion; unlike Ryan, Laz, Jack, and Jill, though, they were too far away to be harmed. Emmy jumped and gave Kayla a scared look.
“There’s no way they made it back in time, is there?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.
Kayla shook her head sadly. “No,” she said, choking back tears. “I don’t think so.”
Timothius, who was also on the helicopter, swallowed hard and cleared his throat. “Ryan was a good agent, a darn good one. He always succeeded, no matter how much he seemed to screw things up. And Laz, well Laz was his dopey sidekick, always there to screw things up and then fix them right alongside him.”
Emmy sobbed on Kayla’s shoulder. “I can’t believe they’re gone.”
Jordan, their pilot, was also a bit shaken up. “Ryan and I went through school together,” he said, his voice cracking. “I never thought it would end like this.”
Over in the second helicopter, the other IMF agents were also mourning Ryan and Laz’s death.
“I can’t believe it,” Christophear said in shock. “I really thought they were gonna make it.”
Zach slumped downed onto the floor of the helicopter. “So did I.”
Pat sighed. “He was a good agent, good enough to fool me.”
M and Q, who were chained up inside the helicopter, were the only ones who seemed happy.
“I knew he would die eventually,” M smiled.
“Would you just shut up!” Cathy snapped. “Two men just died and you’re happy! You are a said excuse for a human being!”
“Don’t fret over them,” Michelle advised. “They won’t listen, they’re just evil.”
“Those two deserved to die anyway,” Q commented. “They were said excuses for agents, always making mistakes and smart aleck comments in serious situations. They were a couple of bumbling morons.”
Cathy angrily reached up and smacked Q across the face.
“Thank you,” Chris said.
“If she doesn’t keep quiet, I’ll do it again,” Cathy threatened. The fire in her eyes told Chris that she wasn’t joking.

A couple of days later, the whole IMF team sat in one of their own hideouts that Timothius had designed and built. Pat had left them when they reached the airport, Timothius had suggested that he come with them, but Pat disinclined.
“He wouldn’t understand,” Pat said, referring to the emperor. Timothius had to agree with that one. The emperor was not a very forgiving man.
Everyone was still broken up over Laz and Ryan’s deaths. They were watching the news at the moment to see if the explosion was to be reported.
“Here it is, quiet everyone,” Emmy shushed everyone.
“There was a nuclear explosion a couple of days ago,” the reporter informed them. “In the outskirts of , no deaths were reported as it was an unpopulated area.” The reporter paused and moved on to a different story. “Now to our main story, Britney Spears shaved her head again and has decided to donate it to the Woman’s Breast Cancer Society this time. Some experts say, however, that she would have been able to donate more hair if she had shaved her back instead…” Kayla shut off the TV.
“That’s it?” Michelle spoke for all of them.
“They didn’t even report them dead, or how they saved who knows how many lives.” Timothius shook his head.
“Some tribute to two great warriors,” Emmy agreed.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
“Who’s that?” Cathy asked.
“I don’t know,” Timothius admitted, puzzled. “I wasn’t expecting anyone, this is a secret hideout, so no one should no where it is.” He pulled his Glock out of his holster and walked towards the door. He pulled it open and on the other side were two strange men; one of them was carrying a pizza box.
“Pizza’s here!” the one carrying the pizza said, his voice sounded familiar somehow.
“I didn’t order pizza,” Timothius said. He quickly grabbed the pizza and placed it inside, however.
“Oh yeah, I forgot,” the man who was holding the pizza said. He motioned to the other guy beside him. Together, they started to tear their faces off, but, as anyone who has read any of these stories would know, they weren’t really their faces, but masks. They pulled of their masks to reveal none other than… Ryan and Laz!
Timothius stared at them for a minute, almost unable to comprehend what was before his eyes.
“Ryan and Laz!” he finally managed. The others all come rushing towards them. Ryan and Laz stepped inside and closed the door. They were immediately met with a thousand questions, hugs and even kisses. Emmy kissed both of them on the cheek and hugged them.
“I’m so glad you’re both alive!” she exclaimed, expressing everyone’s opinion.
Laz wiped her kiss of his cheek. “Oh gross, that is disgusting! Just because we almost died you don’t have to get all emotional!”
Emmy gave a mock look of hurt and surprise, “I was just glad that you two are alive.”
“But still,” Laz said, a grin spreading across his face. “A hug and now a kiss? That’s like way overboard.”
Ryan shrugged. “Who cares? We’re back, let’s party. Halo 3 anyone?”
After everyone was done welcoming them back, Ryan and Laz sank down on the couch.
“This coming back from the dead thing is a real workout,” Ryan said.
“No kidding,” Laz agreed.
“Wait,” Kayla said. “How did you guys do it?”
Ryan and Laz looked at each other and shrugged. “Should you take this one or should I?” Ryan asked.
“I’ll take it,” Laz replied. He turned towards Kayla and said, “We don’t really know; in all reality it doesn’t make any sense.”
Kayla rolled her eyes and tried to frown, but she couldn’t. “I should have known,” she laughed.
They all sat down together and started talking excitedly. It was just like you would picture a perfect ending to a story. Except not all was as it seemed. If one of the IMF agents had been watching Cathy closely, they would have noticed that she seemed a little fidgety, like she was hiding something. However, none of the IMF agents watched Cathy very closely and this went unnoticed.
“Yo,” Jordan said, suddenly hopping up. “That pizza’s getting cold. Let’s eat it.”
They all agreed to this and Timothius instantly produced a bottle of apple cider to wash it down.
“I propose a toast,” Timothius announced. “To Ryan and Laz, two agents, and dear friends, who seem to have death by the tail.”
Ryan grinned. “Yeah, Laz and I, we’ve got death’s number for sure.”
They all drank and started eating pizza, and playing Halo 3, until they were so tired that they had to go home.
By now it was dawn and the sun was just starting to come up.
Ryan went outside, beckoning Laz and Emmy to follow him. “Check out my new ride,” he said proudly. He pointed to a shiny, new Porsche, just like the old one he’d driven in . “It’s just like the other one, and most importantly, we can all ride in it.”
Emmy smiled. “That’s awesome.”
Ryan slipped on his trademark shades and gave his trademark grin. “Of course it’s awesome, it was my idea, remember?” They all laughed and the three of them hopped into the car together and rode off into the sunrise.
As they were driving, Emmy suddenly asked Ryan and Laz, “so, you two just survived almost certain death once again, what’re you gonna do next?”
Ryan and Laz looked at each other and smiled. “We’re going to Disneyland!”


Epilogue: Several months later, Timothius sat down at his desk, still running on an adrenaline high from their last mission. The last mission had been good; they hadn’t lost a single man, period. Plus, they had accomplished their goal. He sighed happily and started to clean up his desk. Suddenly, he came across a large, unmarked manila envelope with something heavy inside. Funny, he didn’t remember putting that there before. Surprised, he opened it up and shook out the contents, inside was a small handheld device, and a note from someone. Timothius picked up and read the note first. It read:

Dear Timothius,
I’m sorry to bring you into this, but you’ve always been a good friend and I didn’t know whom else to turn to. I think I’m in over my head on this one, please help me. If you don’t want any part of it, then just give the package back to me and forget you ever saw it.
Sincerely,
Cathy




The End?

A short story by Ryan Maples and Tim Danford
©2007 Maples/Danford Productions*
*A subdivision of Killer Whale Studios

Mission 3 Part 7

The woman gave a wicked grin. “We meet again IMF agents, for the last time.” She laughed evilly and added, somewhat anti-climactically, “Actually it’s M, not Q.”
“Wow,” Laz said, scowling. “That was cheesy, ‘we meet again IMF agents, for the last time, ha, ha, ha.” I mean wasn’t that in a cartoon movie or something? Surely you can do better than that.”
M scowled back. “How about this? Shut up or you die.”
Laz gulped. “Works for me.”
M tapped her foot on the floor. “So, what exactly did you do with my sister?”
Ryan shrugged. “I don’t know; what did we do with her?”
“We have her on the helicopter,” Emmy explained.
“Good, bring her to me,” M said in an evil voice. “So I can shoot her.”
“Ah, sisterly love,” Ryan replied sarcastically.
“Shut up, Cruise,” M snapped. “I’ve got something special planned for you.”
Kayla’s mouth was still wide open. She was the only one who was aware enough to be fully amazed. “Wait, how did you get here?”
M laughed, eager to tell her story. “I escaped from that pitiful jail by faking my own death.”
Ryan gave a knowing look. “I did that once,” he reminisced. “It was pretty cool, except for the fact that the other guy they put in the coffin with me was actually dead.” He shuddered.
M frowned. “Don’t interrupt! I’m trying to bask in my own self-imagined glory here!” She sighed and continued, despite the funny looks all the agents gave her after that last out burst. “So when I heard about my little twin sister’s plan to blow up the empire with the TNW’s, I knew I had to intervene… and take credit for the plan myself. I was just in the middle of doing that when you guys showed up.”
Ryan appeared to be thinking hard about something underneath the net.
M growled. “What is it, Cruise? You have a question?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, how much older are you than your sister? Like five minutes?”
M rolled her eyes and was about to comment about Ryan’s knack for saying all the wrong, and stupid, things and the wrong time when…
Pat burst through the door that the IMF agents had entered from.
“Hello there, Pat,” M said. “You’re just in time to see the whole IMF squad beg for their lives.”
“Pat, you traitor!” Ryan barked. “I knew it.” He glared at Timothius, who hung his head.
“I must say,” Pat laughed. “You all look ridiculous underneath that net.” He paused, reaching ever so slowly for his trusty Colt .45. “But not as ridiculous as you’ll look, M.” He drew his weapon and tried to get a shot off at M, but M was too quick. She shot Pat’s gun out of his hands before he could even shoot.
“Ow!” Pat groaned. The bullet had missed his hand, but the impact of it hitting the gun out of his hands still hurt him.
“I’m disappointed in you,” M clucked her tongue. “Taking sides with these pitiful agents. Too bad you guys won’t live to see what I’m going to do with these TNW’s,” she patted the suitcases next to her. “It would make your skin crawl off, literally.” She laughed her evil laugh again.
Just as all hope seemed to be lost and IMF appeared to be doomed, the two forgotten agents, Chris and Zach burst through the door that M had come through. They charged into M and sent her sprawling.
“Let’s see your skin crawl off, M,” Chris said, keeping his automatic rifle trained on her as Michelle freed the other IMF agents.
“We took care of the conductor,” Zach informed them. “The train should be coming to a halt any time now.”
“Good,” Kayla said, crawling out from underneath the net with Zach’s help. “We need to get these TNW’s out of here.” She spoke into a radio clipped to her flak vest, “Jordan, Joy, get ready to land; we’re stopping the train.”
“Roger that,” said Jordan’s voice.
“Oh crap,” Ryan exclaimed.
“What?” everyone asked.
“One of these nukes has a timer on it,” he told them.
“How much time?” Laz asked.
“Five minutes.”
“I don’t think I can disable it that fast.”
“We’ve got to get it out of here,” Kayla urged. “It will destroy everything within a one mile radius! Including us!”
Ryan grabbed the suitcase with the timer on it and started to run back the way they had come.
“What’re you doing?” Cathy asked.
“Getting rid of it,” Ryan replied. “Five minutes should be plenty of time for the Porsche to get one mile from here.”
“Don’t do it, Ryan!” Laz called. “You’ll never make it back in time!”
“Just stop whining and tell me where the closest unpopulated area is,” Ryan said, continuing to ran to the back of the train.
“Go east about two miles and you’ll reach a completely unpopulated area,” Laz informed him while trying to keep up. “Let me go with you,” he pleaded.
“Not this time,” Ryan shook his head.
“What happened to dopey sidekick?”
Ryan had reached the Porsche now and he unhooked it from the ramp and hopped in. “Not this time, Laz.”
Laz stubbornly opened the door and climbed inside. “You’re not leaving without me.”
Ryan smiled. “You’re a very stubborn, dopey sidekick.” He backed off the train, which had come to a complete stop by now, and turned east.
“Wait,” Emmy called, running up to the ramp as he backed off. “Don’t go!”
But Ryan and Laz were already off, racing to the spot where there was the least population.
“I never got to say goodbye,” Emmy sniffed.
“Its okay,” Kayla comforted her. “They’ll be back, trust me.” She watched them earnestly as they drove off. “I hope,” she added quietly
Timothius shook his head sadly. “I don’t think they can make it back in time.”
Kayla glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
“Sorry, I was just saying.”
“Try saying something encouraging then, bro,” Christophear advised, coming up from behind them with a handcuffed M in front of him.
Michelle nodded. “They’ll be okay, Emmy, you’ll see.”

Ryan drove as fast as he could to the spot where Laz told him to go. They reached it with about one minute left on the timer. Ryan tossed the TNW out of the window and turned around.
“We’re not going to make it, Ryan,” said Laz, seeming somewhat stunned.
“Well, it’s been fun Laz,” Ryan said. “And hey, we at least know what to expect. I mean, we’ve been through this before. I wonder if we’ll see any flowers this time?”
Laz nodded slowly.
Ryan raced as fast as he could back the way they’d come, but he knew it was all for nothing.
“Laz,” Ryan said.
“What?” Laz asked.
“We’re gonna die again, aren’t we?”
“Yep.”
“This could get old after awhile, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, probably.” And suddenly the nuke exploded, and their world was engulfed in darkness.

To be continued next week...

Mission 3 Part 6

Emmy followed him as close as possible in the limo while relaying directions to Ryan via their ear buds.
“You’ll never catch it,” Q taunted. “It’s scheduled to depart right about now. You’re too late.”
“Shut up,” Chris growled.
“You think you’re so tough, boy?” Q laughed.
Chris growled again and reached towards his belt, he pulled out a Tazer gun and promptly tazed her. Q slumped against the window, unconscious.
“Thank you,” Michelle said.
“No problem,” Chris replied.
“Have him turn left here,” Pat ordered. Emmy did as she was told. Soon they arrived at a train station, where the train that was loaded with TNW’s was ready to depart.
“Hurry, catch that train before it leaves!” Kayla urged, hopping out of the limo and running towards the train. Ryan and Laz were already ahead of her. The whole team charged towards the train. The ticket holder held them up, however.
“Hold on a minute!” the ticket holder exclaimed, not allowing them to pass through the gate in order to board the train. “You can’t board that train until I see some tickets.”
“But, we don’t have time!” Kayla nearly screamed. “We’re from IMF, just let us through!”
“Ha,” the ticket holder laughed. “You think that by making up some government name that you can talk me into letting you in here? Why didn’t you at least use the F.B.I. or something?”
“I hate it when this happens,” Ryan groaned. He turned to Kayla. “We don’t have time for this, I’m going after that train.”
“How? We can’t just kill the ticket holder, he’s just doing his job.”
The train was starting to leave the station now and time was running out.
Ryan grinned. “You take care of the ticket holder, nicely. I’ll see how this baby goes on the open road.” He jerked his thumb towards the Porsche.
Ryan ran over to the Porsche and hopped in.
“Wait!” Laz called. “Let me come!”
“No way,” Ryan shouted. “It’s too dangerous.”
“How’s it any dangerous than what we were going to do in the first place?”
Ryan started to answer and then stopped. “You know, I’m sure there’s a great response to that, but I can’t think of one right now.”
“So I can come?”
Ryan shook his head. “No,” and then he was off.

Meanwhile, Timothius was trying to persuade the ticket holder to let them through.
“Say,” Timothius said with a sly grin. “Do you want some gum?” he held up a piece of red and green gum.
“Sure,” the ticket holder said.
“Tim!” Kayla yelled. “Don’t!”
Tim threw up his hands. “I was just kidding!”

Ryan raced towards the train in his Porsche and hopped the tracks until he was right up next to it. The train was gathering speed now and he was having difficulty keeping up. He managed to keep pace with it though and get right up next to the back end.
“Okay,” Ryan said to himself. “Now what?” He sighed. “I should think these things through more.”
Suddenly, Ryan could hear the sound of a helicopter flying above him. No, scratch that, two helicopters. He looked up to see who they were. To Ryan’s great relief, they were both bearing the IMF insignia on the side.
“Yeah Jordan, I love you man!” Ryan exclaimed. Ryan couldn’t see who was piloting the second helicopter, but he had a hunch that it might be Joy.
The helicopter flew right above the train and someone dropped from a cable onto the top of the train, he or she instantly grabbed onto to any handhold that he or she could find so he or she would not be blown off.
Ryan squinted as hard as he could to see who it was, but he could not see who he or she was, as it was too dark. Thus we will have to continue to refer to the mystery person as he or she, as we do not yet know the gender of the person and would not want to be partial towards either side and possibly cause an unintentional and ugly battle of the sexes on our blog.
The person crawled carefully to the very back of the train and he or she motioned for Ryan to pull up behind the train.
“Hop onto the tracks, is he crazy?” Ryan cried. “Or she,” he added. Ryan shrugged. “Well, I’ve never met anyone more crazy than me, so what the heck?”
He hopped onto the track and traveled bumpily towards the train. The person, who had still not been designated male or female yet, appeared to unhook something. All of the sudden, a ramp fell down from the train, right in front of the Porsche. Sparks flew up in the air from where the ramp was rubbing against the tracks and there was a loud screeching noise.
“What’s a ramp doing on a train?” Ryan wondered aloud. He shrugged; he’d seen weirder things before. Ryan pulled up onto the ramp and the person, who was now recognizable enough to be classified as a woman, hooked the Porsche onto the back of the train so it would not fall off.
Ryan jumped out of the car and onto the very back end of the train. “Hey, thanks for the lift,” he thanked the girl standing there.
The girl looked up, revealing her face, it was Cathy. “No problem, the others are already boarding the train now, let’s go.”
They busted open the back door of the train and stepped inside. Two guards quickly met them; Ryan pistol-whipped the first one with his Glock and Cathy shot the second one.
“Nice,” Ryan commented.
“Thank you,” Cathy replied. “Come on, we need to find those TNW’s, they could be anywhere on this train.”
They went from car to car, searching for any sign of the TNW’s, but all they found were vicious guards. They quickly took care of these and continued searching. The next door they came to was already open.
“Careful,” Ryan warned. “Don’t just charge in there; they could be waiting for us.”
They snuck in carefully and ran straight into Emmy and Kayla.
“Emmy! Kayla! Am I glad to see you!” Cathy exclaimed. Ryan agreed wholeheartedly.
“Have you found the TNW’s yet?” Cathy asked.
Emmy shook her head. “Not yet, we’ve searched all the cars except this last one ahead of us,” she pointed towards the next doorway. “Timothius is setting a charge on that one right now.”
The followed her finger and saw that Timothius was planting explosives on the door in front of them. The reason they were blowing the door open, as they could now see, was because the door was made out of steel and wouldn’t budge otherwise.
Laz and Michelle were standing beside Timothius, helping him set the charges. “This has to be it,” Laz said excitedly. “All the other doors are wooden. Why else would this one be made of steel?”
“And it’s the only car we haven’t searched,” Michelle added.
Ryan counted all of them over and over again; he frowned. “Are we missing someone?”
“Chris and Zach were dropped off at the very front so they could deal with the conductor and stop the train,” Kayla explained. “I’m not sure where Pat is.”
“I knew he would run off the first chance he got,” Ryan glared at Timothius.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be back,” Timothius assured him, trying to sound more confident than he felt.
Timothius stepped back and motioned for them to do the same. They all gathered in the car behind them and shut the door. Ryan noticed that Timothius was wearing a shiny, new Rolex watch.
Ryan grinned. “I’ve been wanting to use that one.”
“All right everyone shield your ears!” Timothius commanded. He turned the dial on his watch and a couple seconds later there was a loud explosion and the door burst open.
Timothius opened the door of the car that they were in and walked slowly into the next car with his assault rifle ready. They rest of the team followed close behind him. They crept quietly through what was left of the steel door and looked around. There in front of them were five… suitcases.
“Wait,” Zach said. “These aren’t TNW’s, these are suitcases!”
“They’re small nukes,” Ryan said, with a knowing look. “That’s what the T stands for, Transportable Nuclear Weapons.”
“No,” Timothius shook his head. “It stands for Tactical Nuclear Weapons.”
Ryan folded his arms defiantly. “Well I think transportable makes more sense.”
“Well,” Emmy said. “Let’s go get them.”
“Wait,” Kayla warned, but it was too late. Emmy stepped forward towards the TNW’s and suddenly they heard a clicking sound. A net with heavy weights on the ends fell from the ceiling and trapped everyone in the room underneath it.
“She booby-trapped it!” Emmy cried.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Kayla said.
Emmy pushed out her bottom lip and gave an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”
Suddenly the door in front of them burst open and a woman stepped forward.
“Q!” they exclaimed.

To be continued next week... which means it will be posted next week... as in on Tuesday... at whatever time.

Mission 3 Part 5

Ryan frowned as if in disbelief. “M, how did you get here?” Ryan asked. “And why aren’t you dead?”
Laz, who was listening from above, gasped. “M! How did she escape?”
“I am not M,” said the woman that looked exactly like M.
Ryan looked confused. “Then, who are you?”
“Q,” the woman replied. “ M’s identical twin.”
Ryan frowned. “No kidding?”
The woman, who was Q, shook her head.
“So, you’re like M’s eviler twin?”
“Something like that,” Q nodded. “And smarter as well.”
“Humble too, eh?” Ryan quipped.
Q proved herself to be quite a bit nastier too, as she reached up and slapped Ryan across the face.
“First time you’ve been slapped by a girl?” Q taunted.
“Actually,” Ryan replied, not in the least bit flustered. “It’s not. I have to say though,” Ryan continued. “That you are the better looking twin. I mean your sister was definitely something to behold but you, girl. You have got it going on, if you know what I mean.”
Surprisingly, Q seemed somewhat flattered by this. “It seems that even nasty little secret agents like you, Cruise, have some sense of chivalry. And for that, I think I’ll keep you alive.”
“Why thank you, I really appreciate that,” Ryan said somewhat sarcastically.
Just then Laz jumped out from hiding and shot the guards standing by Ryan’s shoulders. He grabbed onto the ceiling and hung there, picking off the guards by the doorway. Ryan grabbed his Glock from his waist and trained it on Q. “Don’t move,” he warned.
Q put her hands in the air, but did not seem afraid. “You’ll never get out of here alive. There are too many guards for you two alone to overcome.”
“Oh yeah?” said a voice. “Not anymore.” Two girls came charging in, each brandishing assault rifles.
“Emmy? Kayla?” Ryan exclaimed in wonderment. “How?”
“We knew you guys couldn’t do this by yourself,” Kayla said.
“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Laz mumbled.
“It was simply impossible, even for you,” Kayla continued. “So we, or Cathy actually, convinced the emperor to send some backup. We’ve already taken out most of the guards. I’ll never know how Cathy did it, though. The emperor was so set on leaving you guys to do it by yourself.”
Ryan cuffed Q and then looked up at them questioningly. “But, how’d you get here so fast?”
They opened their mouths as if to explain and then stopped. They looked at each other and just shrugged. “We don’t know,” Emmy said.
“In all reality it doesn’t make any sense,” Kayla finished in a mocking voice.
“Ha, ha, very funny,” Ryan fake laughed.
They walked out of the room with Q in tow. Laz, who had been quietly watching the whole scene, suddenly remembered something. He was still hanging from the ceiling.
“Uh, guys,” he called. “Guys a little help, please?” The three of them just continued walking. Laz sighed. “I hate you guys.” He braced himself and then let go of the ceiling. He hit the floor with a thud. “Ow,” he groaned.
Just then Ryan poked his head in the room. “Come on, Laz. Hurry up.”
Laz just glared.

While all this was going on, Timothius was following Pat’s escort. As he went he was careful to stay out of sight and jam all the cameras before they could see him. The guards halted when they came to a steel door and one of them started to unlock it.
Timothius decided that it was time for action. He pulled out his silenced rifle and took out the guards. Thankfully, none of them ever thought to glance behind them and they were all disposed of rather easily.
“Finally,” Pat said. “I was wondering how long you would wait before taking them out.”
Timothius frowned. “Wait, you knew that I was following you?
“Of course, I’m not as stupid as these guards. Now help me out of these handcuffs.” He held up his hands.
“Why are you Q’s prisoner?” Tim asked. “You’re the bad guy.”
“I was, but I’ve had some time to think while I was in that jail. I still hate the empire, but I don’t want to blow up all those innocent people. I may have tried to kill the emperor, but never innocent citizens. When I told Q that, though, she wasn’t very happy. So she had me locked up.”
Timothius stared at him, searching for the truth. Pat met his gaze, never blinking. “Okay,” Timothius finally said. “I believe you.” He freed Pat from his chains.
“Thanks, Chris,” Pat said.
“It’s Tim, actually.”
“I mean Tim, of course,” Pat apologized.
“Don’t worry about it, come on, let’s find…” he trailed off. There in front of him was Cathy.
“Cathy?” Timothius exclaimed.
“Hey Tim,” Cathy greeted him. Then she frowned. “What’s he doing here?” she pointed at Pat.
“He’s our friend now. What’re you doing here?”
Cathy smiled. “Saving you guys, come on.” She ran off, motioning for Tim to follow.
“Wait,” Tim called. “Who said we needed saving?”
“I did,” Cathy called back.
Tim ran to catch up with her, with Pat close on his heels. “What’s going on?”
Cathy explained on the run. “I convinced the emperor to send us girls to help you out. Don’t worry; we’ve taken out most of the guards. You have the location of the TNW’s, right?”
Timothius shrugged. “I don’t know, is Ryan with you?”
Cathy shook her head. “I don’t know, the others are waiting by the car, let’s go see.”
“I know where the TNW’s are going,” Pat spoke up.
“You do?” Tim and Cathy exclaimed in unison.
“Yeah, Q told me about it before she had me imprisoned.”
They went outside and there was the whole team waiting for them. Chris and Zach were sitting there with the car still, Kayla and Emmy were talking with Ryan and Laz, and Michelle was sitting in the back of the car. Q was there too, chained to the door and glaring at them with all her might.
“I know where the TNW’s are going!” Ryan exclaimed. Then he saw Pat. “What’s he doing here?” he growled.
“Pat’s our friend now, and he knows where the TNW’s are too.”
“Our friend?” Ryan protested. “Since when?”
“Ryan’s right,” Emmy agreed. “He tried to kill us.”
“Just trust me, he’s changed,” Tim pleaded.
Ryan folded his arms and looked like he wasn’t going to give in. Then he sighed. “Oh, what the heck. If does anything dumb we’ll just shoot him.”
Pat cringed. “You better not, I know where the TNW’s are going.”
“So do I,” Ryan shot back.
“Not if you got the information from the computer, it’s wrong. Q even told me herself.”
“You’re lying!” Q spat.
“No he isn’t,” Michelle spoke up.
Everyone turned to face Michelle; she only spoke up when it was something important.
“How do you know?” Ryan asked.
“Because, I can feel it,” Michelle said, somewhat sheepishly.
“I believe her,” Chris offered. Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Ryan looked at Pat. “So you mean to tell me, that all that Laz and I went through was for nothing?”
Pat thought about it for a while. “Pretty much, yeah.”
Ryan scowled. “So where are they headed?”
“Same place, just a different route,” Pat replied. “They’re going to the airport by train. That’s our best chance to catch them. Once they’re airborne, it’ll be tough.”
Ryan nodded. “All right, everyone in,” he ordered. He jumped into the driver’s seat and everyone piled into the limo.
“I hate to leave our car behind though,” Emmy lamented.
“What car?” Ryan asked.
“The Porsche that we brought here, it was such a nice car.”
Ryan’s eyes lit up. “Emmy, you wanna take the wheel?”
“Sure, why?”
“I’m going to get that Porsche.” He turned to Laz. “Wanna come with me?”
“You want me to go with you?” Laz asked in surprise.
“Sure, I owe you one for shooting those guards. Besides, you’re my dopey sidekick, remember?”
Laz grinned. “Oh yeah.”
Moments later, Ryan and Laz pulled up alongside the limo in their Porsche, Ryan rolled down the window. “You guys ready to roll?” Ryan asked, lowering his incredibly cool-looking sunglasses.
Emmy giggled. “Ready when you are.”
“All right, let’s go, we’ve got ourselves a train to catch.” Ryan rolled up his window and peeled out of the parking garage.

To be continued next week...

Mission 3 Part 4

“Glad you’re so happy to see me,” Emmy replied sarcastically.
“No, no, it’s not that it’s just, wow did you ever scare me. What, how, why, I mean, when?”
“Don’t ask how, or why, or what, or anything else, just listen,” Emmy said.
“Okay, I’m listening,” said Tim, still in shock.
“The emperor assigned us to watch you, and give you help if you needed it, remember?” Emmy reminded him. “So he sent you with this handy dandy little device.”
“Oh yeah,” Tim said, remembering. “Why didn’t he tell me about the little device?”
“You mean he didn’t tell you? That’s funny.” Emmy shrugged. “Oh well, he just wanted to make sure everything was going according to plan.”
“Like the emperor’s plan?” Tim asked.
“Yeah, what else?”
“Well, not exactly.”
“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”
“We kind of changed the plan around, or Ryan did.”
“You mean we did,” Kayla suddenly came on screen.
“Kayla?” Timothius said, amazed.
“Yeah, it’s me. When the emperor laid out his plan, we all knew it was impossible, so me, Emmy, Cathy, and Shelly cooked up a plan to get you guys in there safely.”
Timothius nodded thoughtfully. “So, does Ryan get all his good ideas from you guys?”
Kayla thought about it for a while and then replied, “Pretty much, except for those stupidly brilliant ones.”
“Ah, I see.” Tim paused. “So why are you contacting me now?”
“Oh yeah,” Emmy smacked her forehead and laughed. “I almost forgot.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like Ryan,” Timothius interrupted.
“Yeah, I know. Anyways, we came to warn you that Q is moving the TNW’s tonight, which means—”
“That we better get going and find out where they are,” Timothius finsished.
“Exactly,” Emmy clapped her hands together. “I love it when people finish my sentences before I even say them!”
“Thanks for the information,” Tim thanked them. “Anything else?”
“Nope, by now, and good luck,” Emmy waved at Timothius through the screen. Kayla waved goodbye too, and then they disappeared and the screen became black.

Meanwhile, Ryan and Laz were crawling through the air ducts as quietly as possible, making their way to the secret room. Suddenly they bumped into a wall; there was no longer any room to go forward but there were two “tunnels” so to speak, to the left and to the right.
“Which way?” Laz asked.
“Left,” Ryan replied confidently.
“How do you know?”
“Because,” Ryan answered as they turned to their left. “I’ve got GPS.”
“Really?”
“No actually I was joking.”
“Oh,” Laz said. “I knew that.”

Timothius was peering underneath the door with another one of Ryan’s gadgets as he waited for Ryan and Laz to return. The gadget was a camera that was small enough to slip underneath the door so that Timothius could see what was happening on the other side without anyone seeing him. All of the sudden he saw a whole troop of guards marching by, and in their midst was a very familiar figure. “Pat?” Tim was of course surprised to see Pat here, but he was even more surprised to see him in chains. Being too curious to stay put, Tim decided to follow them and see where they were going.
He tapped on the handheld device, trying to turn it on. “Hello? Emmy, Kayla, where are you guys? How do turn this thing on?” He shrugged and put it back in his pocket. He went to the door and slowly pulled it open, quickly jamming all the cameras in the hallway. Then he crept out into the hall and started tailing the guards, forgetting all about the earpiece that Laz had given him, which was still sitting in the janitor’s closet.

While Tim was following Pat, Ryan and Laz were just arriving at the secret room, or rather, above it. So far they hadn’t run into any problems but now they were starting to run into some security. Laser beams blocked off the air duct leading to the grate above the secret room.
“Great,” Laz threw up his hands, or tried to, there wasn’t really enough room. “Now what?”
“Not to worry,” Ryan shook his finger. “I have a plan.” He pulled a strange-looking device out of his pack, which was still strapped to his back. “This will reroute the lasers,” he told Laz. He took the device and another one that looked just like it and clamped it onto the side where the lasers were projected. Almost instantly, they disappeared.
“Wow, that was cool,” Laz said in awe. “Great idea.”
“I know,” Ryan said, trying to be humble.
They continued until they came to the grate that was above the secret room. Laser beams blocked this to. Ryan simply repeated the process and removed the grate. He attached a cable to his flak vest and fed it through a pulley. “Here,” he handed Laz the end of the cable. “Lower me down.”
Laz obeyed and lowered Ryan down inside the room. There was a single computer in the room on top of a desk. Inside that computer was the information they needed to find the TNW’s; the only problem was that they didn’t know if they could get to it.
Laz slowly lowered Ryan down towards the computer. When he reached it, Ryan pulled himself over towards the computer and turned it on. Instantly, he was met with a prompt for a password.
“Dang,” he said, clamping a hand over his mouth as soon as the words were out of his mouth. He’d forgotten that the room had an alarm that was sound sensitive! The alarm did not go off, however, so much for state of the art. “It’s got a password lock,” Ryan whispered.
“What’d you expect?” Laz whispered back. Ryan couldn’t have heard him normally, but the earpiece enabled him to understand what Laz was saying.
“I don’t know, what do you think it is?”
“Let me have a hack at it,” Laz offered. “I was always pretty good at hacking into people’s accounts.”
“I know,” Ryan glared up at Laz. Ryan had caught Laz hacking into his computer many times before.
Laz whispered down several different passwords to try, but none of them were the right ones.
Suddenly, it hit him, literally. Deep in thought, Laz raised his head without thinking and banged it on the air duct. He shoved his hand up to his mouth to keep from crying out. Then Laz came up with a great idea. “Try this Ryan, ‘Emperor Q