Mission 2 Part 4

....Pat gave him a look. “You can’t save both, and Laz can’t help you, or he’ll be shot.”
“I know, but I know something you don’t.” M got up from beside him and crawled back over towards Pat.
“Just throw them,” she growled, rubbing her head. “I want to see him choose.”
“So do I,” Pat agreed. “Just one thing. What is it that you know, that we don’t?”
Ryan grinned smugly, but didn’t answer. Pat grunted in disgust. He grabbed Kayla and Emmy and threw them out the window. They crashed through the glass and started to freefall off of the tallest building in the world.
Ryan took off towards them. “It’s about Timothius,” he cried as he went by. “He isn’t dead.”
He attached a cable that was connected to his suit to the frame of the building and jumped out the window after Emmy. As he passed, M could feel something wet spray on her neck. Had he spit on her? No it didn’t feel like spit, and it smelt of perfume….
Ryan dove towards the screaming Emmy. Making his body flat as possibly and keeping a loose grip on the cable. He eventually reached Emmy, who was flailing and kicking and screaming through the air, anything to slow her descent. He grabbed her by the waist and tightened his grip on the cable. The gloves on his hands kept the rope from burning him as the came to a halt.
“Oh my gosh,” Emmy gasped. “You saved me, Tom.”
Ryan smiled. “My name isn’t Tom, it’s Ryan, Ryan Cruise.”
Emmy suddenly gasped again, remembering Kayla. “Kayla, What about Kayla?”
Ryan continued to hang there, as if waiting for someone. “Don’t worry, a friend of mine’s got that covered.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a loud engine coming up behind them. Ryan and Emmy turned to see that it was Timothius flying on a jet pack, courtesy of IMF, with Kayla in his arms.
Kayla was staring at him in awe. “Timothius?”
“It’s me, Kayla, I told you I would be back.” he nodded.
Ryan looked up at the window they had fallen from. “We should get back up there, Laz is in a tight spot.”
Timothius nodded. “Got that covered.” From behind them came the sound of a helicopter. In the cockpit was Jordan , with Justinian and Aeron looking very important.
“ Jordan !” Ryan shouted. “Am I ever glad to see you!”
“Yah,” Jordan smirked. “Looks like I saved your-”
“No time to chat,” Timothius interrupted. “Take us up to that room, Jordan. Laz is in trouble.”
Ryan reached over to Emmy and cut her ropes. Timothius did the same for Kayla. When they were free the both hugged their rescuers.
“I can’t believe you’re alive,” Kayla whispered in awe.
“Neither could we,” Ryan agreed. “ We met him in the hallway and we were sure he wasn’t really Tim, but we checked, it’s him all right.”
“Get ready guys,” Jordan shouted. “We’re almost there.”


Laz was staring out the window like the rest of them. “Well,” he said, laughing nervously as all the guards turned to him. “This is awkward. But if you don’t mind, I’ll see if they need any help.” He turned to leave but a guard stepped in front of the door.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he laughed.
Just then the door burst open and a tall, bulky man, a young girl with black hair, and another young girl with blond hair burst in, screaming at the top of their lungs.
“AAAHHH!” they yelled. And they came in blazing. Automatic rifle in hand, they blasted the first three guards before they could draw their weapons.
“Christophear, Michelle, and Cathy!” Laz shouted. “So good of you to drop by.”
“You were supposed to wait for us!” Chris growled.
“We thought we did!” Laz shouted back.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know!”
Laz dropped the last guard with his Beretta. He held up his hand as Chris pointed his gun at M and Pat.
“We need M alive.”
“Why?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know. We just do, okay.” Laz yelled.
Pat drew his gun and held it to M’s head. “Don’t take another step,” he shouted. “Or she’s a goner.”



Chris and Laz lowered their weapons.
“Now,” said Pat. “Drop your weapons, all of them.”
They started to comply, glaring at Pat.
Just then, when all hope appeared to be lost. The sound of a helicopter could be heard. three figures crashed through the window and rolled onto the floor.
“Timothius, Aeron, and Ryan!” Chris shouted.
Timothius and Ryan came up behind Pat, both pointing their guns at him and both wearing really cool sunglasses.
“Don’t move, Pat,” Timothius growled.
“Or you’re going to be very, very dead!” Added Aeron.
“You can’t shoot me,” Pat retorted. “You shoot me and it kills her. You need her.”
“Yah,” Ryan said. “Alive, but not unhurt.”
Timothius and Ryan aimed their rifles for Pat’s knees and shot them. Pat screamed and fell to the floor, dropping his pistol. As he fell though, M rolled to her right and leapt out the window.
“Great,” Timothius said, taking off his glasses. “Now we lost her.”
Ryan smiled. “No we didn’t. Put your glasses back on.”
Timothius frowned but did as Ryan said. He looked out the window to see M gliding down to the ground on a parachute, with a big yellow spot on her head. He took off the glasses and the spot disappeared.
Ryan held up the bottle of potion that he’d sprayed M with as he dove out the window. “Still got a few more surprises hidden up my sleeve,” he said as he leapt out the window and onto the waiting helicopter.
Laz shook his head in amazement. “I wish I’d have thought of that.”
“You did think of it,” Ryan called from the helicopter. “It was your idea.”
“Oh,” said Laz. “I forgot.”
“Stay here and check if there are any more guards,” Timothius ordered. “Ryan and I will go after M. don’t forget to cuff Justinian and put him in detainment.”
“Oh yeah,” Laz said. “I almost forgot about him.”
Tim leapt into the helicopter and they were off. Kayla and Emmy, who were still inside, had armed themselves. “Know how to use that thing?” Ryan asked, pointing at the MP5SD Emmy was holding.
Emmy laughed. “It’s second nature.”
Ryan grinned at looked at Timothius. “She kills me, man.”
“I bet she could,” Timothius replied, still gazing after M, who was running up to her car now.
“ Jordan ,” Tim barked. “Inform the Imperial guard that we have a fugitive, and she’s speeding away in a red sports car down Imperial Avenue .”
“Roger that,” Jordan called back.
Ryan whistled. “I wish I had a car like that.”



The helicopter was directly above the car now, which was weaving in and out of traffic.
“We can’t just shoot her,” Timothius called.
“Why not?” Aeron shouted, cocking his rifle.
“We might hit innocent civilians.”
Ryan gave him an aye-okay sign. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered.” He attached the cable on his combat suit to the winch on the helicopter and lowered himself down.
Tim and Aeron followed suit, lowering their selves from the other side of the helicopter. They continued to go down until they could almost touch the ground.
Then they pulled out their weapons and aimed for the tires. “Fire now!” Tim called. Then they unloaded their rifles into the car’s tires, bullets went spinning off into civilians on the sidewalk killing about twenty. The car went spinning and squealing off the road and into the Imperial Park , right through the fence, into and over and killing eight pedestrians. Sliding until it landed in Emperor’s Lake .
“Oops,” Ryan said.
“Come on,” Tim called. “We need her alive.”
“Does anyone won’t to explain why we need her alive?” Ryan yelled back as he detached his cable and ran towards the lake. Timothius reached the lake first and dove in, followed closely by Ryan. Kayla and Emmy had hopped out of the helicopter by now and were behind them.
Tim reached the car and punched threw the glass on the driver’s said, or what was left of the glass. Ryan had dove in too by now. Aeron grabbed M and pulled her through the window and pushed her to Ryan, who dragged her to shore.
“Is she still alive?” Kayla asked, breathing hard.
Ryan felt her pulse. “Well she’s still breathing, but she’s probably knocked out from all banging around her car did.”
Tim trudged out of the water and flopped down onto the shore. Kayla sat beside him.
“Well,” he breathed. “We did it.”
Ryan cuffed M and handed her over to the Imperial Guard that had just arrived. “Pat should be in custody too,” he said. The Imperial Guard thanked them and drove away, still shaking their heads in disbelief.
“So,” Ryan said, sitting down beside Emmy. “Now what?”

The next day the whole gang sat in the Emperor’s office, Ryan, Laz, Kayla, Tim, Aeron, Chris and even Emmy and Jordan.
“Well,” The Emperor said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a group of people that work so well together.”
“Thank you,” they said in unison.
“M and Pat are all in custody as well as any surviving henchmen. Thanks to all of you.”
“Thank you sir, I just wish we had some hard proof of what they were up to,” Timothius sighed. “To appease the public.”
“Well, you know I don’t need evidence,” The Emperor said. “What I say goes, plus we have you as witnesses.
“But you can reveal who we are,” Kayla pointed out, we’re secret agents.
“But you don’t have to worry about proof,” Emmy said.
“We don’t?” Jordan said. Speaking his first word, it was uncharacteristic for him to go too long without speaking.
“No, I recorded the whole thing.” She pulled small recorder out of her pocket “I had it strapped to my back the whole time! They never checked…”
“Genius, absolute genius,” Ryan applauded.
The Emperor nodded. “Or stupidity on M’s part, but either will work,” he took the recorder from Emmy.
“As I said, I’ve never seen a team that works together so well, or people that manage to cheat death so effectively. Cruise and Dance nearly shocked me to death when they showed up but Timothius? How’d you do it? You must be like a cat or something.”
Ryan frowned. “You mean he coughs up fur balls?”
“No,” The Emperor shook his head. “He has nine lives.”
“Well,” Timothius began. “Some things just can’t be explained.”
“That’s just another way of saying you have no idea,” Laz argued. “Come on, admit it. We did.”
The Emperor waved his hand. “Not matter, what’s important is that you’re all being promoted. I’m making you our top IMF team.”
“But,” Timothius protested. “Cruise and Dance are part of IMF, not us.”
“You are now,” replied the Emperor.
“What about Emmy?” Kayla asked. “She’s not trained for undercover work.”
“Actually,” The Emperor corrected. “She’s already part of the IMF, and she’s been working undercover for me for a year now.”
Ryan and Laz looked at each other. “You mean, she was spying on us while we were spying on her?”
“Kind of,” the Emperor replied.
“Hey,” Ryan shrugged. “Guess this means we’ll all be working together a lot.”
“There is no greater joy than to work with one’s friends,” Timothius agreed.
Ryan frowned. “You’re weird, nobody talks like that.”
Kayla smiled. “Yes but it’s a good kind of weird.”
“So,” Jordan said. “When do we go on our next mission, chasing cars and stuff is kind of cool.”
“Next time I need you, I’ll call,” The Emperor said. “Cruise will be point man, as usual, and Timothius will be second command.”
“Wait, Emperor,” Christophear raised his hand. “I have a question. Why did you want M alive?”
“Simple,” replied the Emperor. “So I could execute her properly.
“You mean we risked our lives just so you could pull the plug yourself?” Ryan asked.
“Yah,” the Emperor answered. “Do you have a problem?”
“No, just wondering.”
“Good, then you’re dismissed.”
“Wait,” Kayla said. “Where’s Cathy? And Shelly?”
The Emperor smiled. “Now what do you think I’m going to say to that?
“That’s confidential?”
“Exactly, now go, all of you, I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Timothius and Kayla sat in one of Timothius' many hideouts, enjoying a plate of cookies. Or rather, Timothius was enjoying them.
“So, how did you do it?” Kayla asked.
Tim swallowed his cookie. “Do what?”
“Come back, you know. You were…”
“Dead,” Tim finished. “I know, I can’t explain it myself. I think I kind of rose like a Phoenix from the ashes.”
Kayla gave him a weird look. “What?”
Tim felt stupid. “I was faking it?” He offered.
“I think I’ll take the phoenix one.” Kayla paused. “Timothius, or Tim, can I call you Tim?”
Timothius, or Tim, shrugged. “Of course.”
Suddenly there was a sharp knock at the door. Tim laughed awkwardly.
“I guess I better go get that,” he said. Kayla nodded.
He went to the door and turned the knob, hand on his Glock, couldn’t be too careful.
Standing on the other side of the door was familiar character; so familiar in fact, that at first Tim thought he was looking into a mirror. “Christophear?”
Chris frowned and then smacked his head as if remembering something. He grabbed his face and… well you know the drill. It revealed an entirely different face, one with red hair and freckles, and some incredibly cool sunglasses.
“Cruise,” Tim sighed. “What are you doing here?”
“I was testing out how well I could play Chris,” Ryan explained. “You look so happy to see me,” he commented, sarcastically.
“It’s not you it’s just that, if you’re here then we must be wanted by the Emperor.”
“Why do you assume that?” Ryan asked, acting offended. “Maybe I just came for a visit.”
“Did you?” Tim asked.
Ryan shook his head. “No, you’re right. The Emperor needs your help. You know the drill. Hope you have your own ride. My seats are all taken up.” He pointed to his motorcycle where Emmy was sitting, wearing some shades that looked even cooler on her than Ryan’s did.
“Where’s Laz?” Tim asked.
Ryan shrugged. “He’s walking.”

The End?

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