Episode 9-03

“Look, would you just cheer up and enjoy yourselves?” Jarrad exclaimed, opening the driver’s door and stepping out onto the dolomite driveway. “You’ll spoil the whole week if you just mope around the entire time!”

Leonard and Daniel each emerged from the back doors of Jarrad’s car, both looking rather dejected at being separated from their partners. Exhaling loudly, Leo looked around at the serene nature enclosing their holiday house. Towering gum trees surrounded them on three sides, and the entire property sloped downwards towards a rapidly flowing creek which served as one of the block’s boundaries. The driveway snaked for about half a kilometre from the main road to the house, increasing the feel of isolation from the rest of the world.

“Man, this is a sweet place!” Bazz exclaimed, folding up his travel map and jumping enthusiastically out of the passenger door. “How’d you manage to book a fine joint like this, Jarrad?”

Jarrad shrugged. “Luck, I guess. From the sounds of it, there haven’t been too many tourists in this area lately. They seemed pretty keen to have us up here for a while.” Squeezing a button on his keyring, the car chirped as the boot popped open. “Here, give us a hand with the luggage, would you?”

Leo lifted the boot lid and looked at the contents. “You only packed slabs of beer?” he groaned in disbelief. “Where the hell are our bags?”

“I had to find the perfect balance between booze and bags,” Jarrad explained. “I think I struck the right combination. All those sleeping bags and pillows just wasted valuable slab space, anyway!”

“But… what about our clothes?” Daniel exclaimed, glaring at his friend. “And our toiletries?”

Jarrad rolled his eyes. “I’m only hearing problems, not solutions! What did I tell you two about cheering up?” Turning and walking towards the pergola at the front of the house, he tossed the keys up into the air gleefully. “I’ll open up. You guys grab two slabs each and meet me inside.”

Grinning inanely, Bryden strode up behind the irritated Leonard and Wilmo and placed an arm over each of their shoulders. “Come on, guys! This’ll be great! Growing up, I always wanted to get away with my mates to the country, get smashed and have a great time. And now I actually HAVE mates, I can finally enjoy it!”

Sighing, Daniel looked down at the six cartons of beer lying in the boot before him. “Well, I guess I can see the fun in it,” he admitted. “Maybe we’ll have a good time, after all.”

“Yeah…” Leo agreed, looking across at Daniel, then back at Bryden. “But only for your sake, Bazz.” He hoisted a slab of beer under each arm and headed towards the country homestead.

“Good enough for me!” Bryden shrugged, leaning into the boot and grabbing one of the cartons. Heaving and straining, however, he found himself unable to lift even the one slab out of the trunk. Daniel noticed his troubles and hauled the carton out for him.

“There ya go,” Wilmo smiled, grabbing another two to carry himself and leaving one in the trunk. “Jarrad left our stuff at the mansion, so the least he can do is grab his own slab of beer!”

Bazz followed Daniel into the house, entering through the back door into the kitchen. There they found Jarrad already splitting Leo’s cartons and fridging them, whilst Leo checked his mobile phone reception.

“Nothing…” Leo sighed, unable to get any signal from their location in the hills. “We’re completely cut off from everyone up here.”

“Good!” Jarrad interjected. “That way, it’s just us up here, no interruptions. And if there’s an emergency, I’m sure the Gorge tavern will let us use their phone.” He looked across at the other guys. “Trust me, after a few drinks, you guys won’t even be thinking about your ladies.”

Daniel did not look impressed. “Who said we didn’t want to think about them?”

Groaning, Jarrad slammed the fridge door, still holding a six-pack in his hand. “Look, you two are obviously brainwashed or something, but this week actually means something to me! Do you guys even realise that we have been living and working with these same chicks for almost all of our lives? It’s perfectly normal to want to get out on our own and meet new people every now and then, and these opportunities very rarely come up.”

“That’s all well and good for you, Jazz,” Leo retorted. “But not all of us need to go out and hook up with drunken hillbillies these days. Some of us are already in relationships.”

Jarrad snorted. “You and Wilmo are not in relationships! You guys have just settled for chicks that you work with. It’s just convenience, and nothing more!”

“Look, what’s so wrong with dating someone that you’re already comfortable with?” Daniel proposed. “At least it cuts out all the awkwardness as you find out what you do and don’t have in common.”

Breaking apart the cardboard six-pack, Jarrad handed a beer to each of them. “It’s just five days,” he clarified plainly. “Five days, just us guys chilling out and kicking back like we used to. At the end of that, you can both go back to your relationships, pretending like this never happened if you so choose. Just… promise me you won’t let your fun be ruined because you can’t get your minds off Kylie and Zara, okay?”

Pausing, Leonard nodded hesitantly. “All right…” he agreed.

“I guess it’s only five days, after all,” Daniel added. “It’ll be good to kick back and do nothing for a while.”

“Right!” Bryden cheered, twisting the top off of his beer, and the other three did likewise. “To sleeping in, three barbeques meals a day, and late nights at the tavern playing pool and feeding the jukebox!”

Leo, Wilmo and Jarrad all raised their beers. “Cheers!” they all responded, as their long-necks clinked together.

After they all took a drink, Jarrad looked around at the others nervously. “So… I guess we’re going to need some towels and clothes, hey?”

Episode 9-02

Bryden’s buttermilk pancakes went down a treat with the rest of the misfits. Having now eaten their fill, some sat around reading newspapers and magazines whilst the rest filled the room with the sound of their conversations.

“This Nikki Potter makes me so mad!” Anita exclaimed, ruffling her copy of the Modbury Post in annoyance. “Listen to this, ‘MiFFing In Action: Why the Freedom Fighters are Hiding From Justice’. What a joke!”

Jarrad and Wilmo halted their discussion momentarily and looked across at her. “You do realise that no one takes her column seriously, don’t you?” Daniel asked her. “Her editorials aren’t exactly going to turn the tide of public opinion against us.”

“Yeah, but what if some of the readers start looking at it through her eyes?” Anita continued. “She’s basically blaming our presence for the constant mutant attacks and infection outbreaks throughout the city.”

Sitting on the couch with Kylie, Leo turned and looked across at the dining table where the rest of them were discussing the issue. “It doesn’t matter what one person thinks of us, even if she does happen to have her voice heard in the city paper. The only opinions that matter are those of the people we protect each time we get called into action.”

Jarrad snorted noticeably. “Phht, what action? It’s been three months since Aaron left, and we haven’t taken one proactive measure to try and find him, or get the journals back, or investigate the source of the infection!” He glared across at Leo as he continued. “Instead, we’ve got Leonardo here telling us to sit tight and wait until all the pieces fall into place!”

The rest of the room fell silent for a few moments. “… Leonardo?” Bazz asked hesitantly.

“You know, like the ninja turtle?” Jarrad explained. “Leonardo always used to think he was in charge of the team, too.”

Leo glared back at Jarrad. “Like it or not, mate, Aaron chose me to step up and assume leadership in his absence. And while we don’t know exactly what the situation is, all we can really do is protect the citizens and stay on the defensive until we hear back from Tristan and Alisa. Besides, Zara and Daniel are already following up a few leads.”

“Please, call me Danatello!” Wilmo joked, but Leonard didn’t appear to appreciate his humour.

“Jarrad does have a point, though,” Zara objected, and grinned smugly. “There are eight of us here, and to me, that seems like too vast a resource to just be sitting around waiting for an emergency before we do anything.”

Chany shrugged. “Well, where are we supposed to start looking? Modbury’s such a huge city, let alone the outback and wasteland out in the country. There are a lot of places to disappear around here.”

“Well, maybe sitting around here isn’t the best course of action,” Anita chimed in, folding the newspaper and sliding it into the middle of the table. “All this time being confined here with no real purpose seems to be taking a toll on everyone, Lenny.”

Leo looked around at the rest of the freedom fighters, all nodding in agreement with Anita’s analysis. “Well then, what do you suggest we do?”

Surprisingly, it was Kylie who spoke up first. “Well, maybe some sort of holiday might be called for?” she suggested. It was only then that everyone noticed her sitting on the couch next to Leonard with her arm around his shoulder, and the feel of their curious eyes all fixated on her persuaded her to quickly slide it back around and down to her side awkwardly.

Jarrad’s eyebrows rose as he looked at the two of them, but Daniel spoke up before he could follow it any further.

“I second the idea of time off,” Wilmo agreed with Kylie. “It’s been ages since we’ve had any time to ourselves now, and I think we damn well deserve it!” He looked across at Zara, excited by the prospect of having some sort of holiday together.

“Well…” Leo contemplated, stroking his stubbled chin. “I suppose we could get away from the manor for a while. Who knows, maybe it’ll help get rid of all this ambient tension building up in everyone.”

Chantelle thought silently for a moment, before turning to Anita. “Hey, I was thinking… do you feel like coming on a road trip with me?”

“Sounds good!” Anita replied chirpily, before pausing. “Where did you have in mind?”

“Well, back when all that stuff went down with the other Chantelle,” she began. “She mentioned that I came from a town called Ferntree, and I thought it might be good for me to check out my birthplace. And while it could prove to help me find some more answers, it’s also interstate and I would appreciate the company.”

Anita looked moved by Chany’s motivations. “Honey, of course I’ll come with you!” she agreed supportively. “Just one problem, though… Road trips usually require both a car and a driver’s license, and we have neither.”

Dismayed, Chantelle sighed and looked down at the table top, before her eyes slowly crept up to meet Zara’s.

“Hang on, no way!” Daniel objected, waving his hands in disapproval. “This is our time to spend together! You can’t have her!”

Zara looked across the table at Chany and Anita, then back at Wilmo. “You know, you and I will have plenty of time to spend together when we get back…” she suggested.

“I’d ask you to come too, Daniel, but…” Chany began to explain, but trailed off.

“Don’t worry, just go,” Wilmo sighed. “Nothing wrong with you running away with my sister and girlfriend for a week, I guess.”

Jarrad leaned across and gave Daniel a hard slap on the back. “You know what that means, buddy?” he cheered. “Guys’ week! A whole week of booze, movies and games!”

Wilmo couldn’t help but let out a smile at Jarrad’s enthusiasm, and Bryden’s eyes lit up at the thought of a trip away with the guys. “When do we leave?” Bazz asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

Jarrad leaned back on his dining chair. “We can head up to the Gorge! It’s nice and isolated, and there’s a ton of places to stay.”

Kylie and Leonard, as the only two still undecided on the plans, shot each other a worried glance. “What do you reckon you’ll do, Leo?” Kylie prompted, hoping that he’d stay behind with her.

Leonard faked a sigh. “Well, someone really needs to stay here and keep an eye on things,” he pointed out.

“Nonsense!” Daniel rejected. “It’s a week of drinking, you can’t turn that down! Besides, there’s no reason we can’t keep up surveillance from up at the Gorge.”

Zara nodded. “And there’s still room in the car for you too, Kylie,” she offered. “I’m sure the fresh air and the travelling will make you feel a million times better!”

Jarrad smirked. “Y’know, unless there’s a reason why you two want to stay back here, together, alone…”

“Fine, whatever!” Kylie exclaimed, hauling herself up out of the soft couch.

Anita grinned cheerfully. “Road trip with the girlies! Woo!” Jumping to her feet, she turned to Chany and grabbed her hand. “Come on, we’d better start packing!”

Episode 9-01

Kylie stretched her arms out and arched her back as she let out a yawn. Still somewhere between her dreams and the reality of the morning, she managed to direct her feet into her slippers, and blinked several times as she tried to coerce her blurred vision to adjust to the dawning sunlight.

The fuzzy soles of her scuffs shuffled across the carpet as she blearily made for the door connecting her bedroom to the corridor. It creaked slightly as she pulled it open, and as she stepped out into the hallway, she saw Anita at the far end of the hallway turn her head at the sound.

“Hey, you’re up!” Nita called out cheerfully, jogging back along the carpet towards her. “How’re you feeling, hon?”

Adopting a faked smile, Kylie found herself rubbing the back of her neck. “Yeah, not bad. A little stiff and sore still, but I guess that’s to be expected, right?”

Anita nodded sympathetically. “Well, you had been in a coma for three months, you know,” she reminded her, deliberately stating the obvious. “It’s going to take more than a few days to get back into the swing of things. In fact, I’m surprised at the progress you’ve made since Tuesday.”

“Thanks,” Kylie blushed. “It just feels so weird to miss a big chunk of my life, just like that. I’m still struggling to get my head around it.”

Nita chuckled. “Well, you haven’t missed that much, remember. We’ve basically just been sitting around waiting for something to come up. Oh, and Jarrad’s still an ass.”

“I guess some things don’t change,” she laughed along with Anita. “Hey, is Leo around the place anywhere?”

Anita thought for a second. “I’m pretty sure I saw him out the front of the manor a little while ago. Exercising, I think. You might still be able to catch him out there.”

“Thanks, I’ll go see if I can find him!” she replied, and Anita started heading back down the corridor. “Seeya around!”

“Take it easy, Kylie,” Nita waved as she walked away.

The freedom fighter’s rooms took up the majority of the second floor of the manor, with a dining room and recreation hall at one end of the floor, and the bathrooms at the other, and each end had its own staircase connecting to the upper and lower levels. Right in the middle of the level, a balcony looked down on the mansion’s vestibule as the grand staircase rose up from the ground floor to the upper levels.

It was the grand staircase that Kylie chose to make her way down to the entrance. As she descended the old oak stairs, she ran into Zara and Daniel about halfway down the flight. Sitting on the steps, they were snuggled together as they made out and whispered sweet nothings to each other. Clearing her throat, Kylie made her presence obvious.

Startled, Wilmo sat up with a start and shifted apart from his girlfriend. “Oh, hey Monty! Good to… to see you up and about…”

Shifting her feet uncomfortably, Kylie sighed. “Yeah, thanks mate,” she replied flatly.

Adjusting her shirt, Zara climbed to her feet. “Sorry, Kylie. I was just about to leave anyway,” she apologised, looking rather embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kylie told her. “I’m just trying to find Leo, anyway.”

“He’s out the front, training with Jarrad and Chany at the moment,” Zara informed her. “I’m just heading out that way myself. Come on, I’ll go with you!”

Shrugging, Kylie didn’t have much alternative but to follow the girl down the ornate staircase, leaving Daniel sitting alone on the stairs. “Right, well… I’ll just be waiting up here then for when you get back, Z,” he called out after them, trying hard to not sound desperate.

“You know,” Kylie spoke once they reached the foot of the stairs. “Being in a coma for three months, there’s some things that I missed that I’ll never be able to get used to.”

“Me and Wilmington, right?” Zara asked, taking the words out of Kylie’s mouth as she turned to face her.

“Well… yeah,” Kylie stammered, caught off-guard by her abruptness. “I’ve known Wilmo my whole life, and while he’s a great guy and all, he’s just… well, I never would have picked him as your type.”

Shrugging, Zara didn’t seem too concerned by her evaluation. “Yeah, well, not everyone can be lumped into classes, you know. It just so happened that we were both looking for companionship at the same time. And Daniel is a pretty decent and caring person, underneath all the sarcasm and goofiness.”

Zara’s words seemed to sway Kylie’s opinion on the matter. Smiling as she pushed the door open, Kylie stepped outside onto the porch and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. Zara followed her out, and they both looked out onto the front lawn where several of the misfits were in training.

Chany was standing in front of Jarrad and Leonard, wearing a loose shirt and track pants, with a pink headband holding back her hair. As she adopted a combative stance, she clasped her hands together on her left side. A glowing ball of pink energy manifested itself between her palms, the brilliant light streaming out from between her fingers as it gained power.

“PINK DEATH!!!” she screamed, and thrust her arms forward, aimed up at the sky. The energy gathered in her hands streamed out in a massive pink wave of light, crackling with black and white electricity as it shot out in a straight line before dissipating somewhere in the atmosphere. The energy flowed out of her body through her arms for about ten seconds, before she finally exhausted her reserves. Breathless, she slumped to her knees as she tried to regain her strength. Both Jarrad and Leo ran up either side of her and helped her back up to her feet.

“Amazing…” Kylie gasped, impressed by Chantelle’s immense power. “How is that even possible?”

“It comes pretty naturally to her,” Bazz spoke, startling both her and Zara. They span around to see him leaning up against the outside wall beside the entrance, and realised they had failed to notice him as they stepped out onto the porch. “Although she is doing a pretty good job of teaching the rest of us how to harness our energy in that way.”

Kylie looked back at Bazz. “You mean, anyone can do that?”

Bazz pointed back towards the three fighters on the lawn. Jarrad and Leo each stood with their hands cupped together in front of their chests. Closing their eyes, they each struggled and strained to locate the energy reserves deep within themselves, as Chany had instructed. Eventually, a purple light began to flicker inside Jarrad’s hands as he managed to draw out the power. Channelling and shaping it, he reached back with his right arm and hurled the ball of energy forward like a grenade, which exploded on impact with the ground about fifty feet away.

Blocking out the distraction, Leo also managed to channel his inner energy out through his hands, and the yellow light lit up his body as it flickered in his hands. Flattening it into a disc, he flung his hands forward and frisbeed the energy through the air. Drained, he watched breathlessly as his energy blast sliced through the trunk of a pine tree, before curving up into the sky and dying out. The tree swayed for a moment, before toppling over sideways and hitting the lawn with a thud.

Neither of the guys’ attacks were anywhere near the level of Chantelle’s, yet both Jarrad and Leonard looked just as exhausted as their trainer. Puffing and sweating, Chany suggested they leave it there for today, and the trio started heading up towards their audience on the porch.

“That’s some nice work, guys!” Zara congratulated the two boys as they slowly pulled themselves up the concrete steps.

Jarrad smiled. “Cheers, Zara!” he chuckled, finally having caught his breath. “I think we’re finally getting the hang of this inner-power stuff.”

Kylie was still caught up on Chantelle’s display of power with her Pink Death attack. “That was amazing, Chany! How on earth did you learn how to do that?”

“Not really sure,” Chany shrugged. “The energy only used to come to me when I was angry or in danger, but now I’m starting to get some control over it. I just wish I could remember how I know how to use it like this…”

Bazz clapped his hands together as he tried to gain everyone’s attention. “I reckon it’s time for some breakfast, people!” he announced. “Who’s up for some buttermilk pancakes? I just found this fabulous recipe I’ve been dying to try out.”

The others began sounding their approval as they began to file through the entrance to the mansion’s vestibule. About to follow them in, Kylie was stopped by Leo’s hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, Kylie, wait up,” he whispered to her. “There’s something I want to show you out here.”

Kylie obliged, waiting for everyone else to pass through the doorway before turning and embracing Leonard. “Finally, some alone time!” she sighed with pleasure, resting her head on his shoulder.

Leonard smiled dreamily, running his fingers through her hair. “It’s so good to have you back,” he told her, kissing her forehead. “I thought you were going to be sleeping forever.”

“I might have been, too, if you hadn’t stuck by me the whole time. I swear, I could hear your voice in my dreams all the time, calling me back, telling me that you loved me… it was so real…”

“Maybe that was all you needed to find your way back,” Leo pondered.

“Or maybe that’s the reason I wanted to come back…” Kylie smiled dreamily, before kissing him tenderly. “So, did you actually want to show me something, or were you just trying to get me away from the rest of the gang?”

Leo’s eyes widened as if he’d just remembered something. “Oh, that’s right,” he replied, taking her hand and leading her back down the concrete steps to the gravel pathway. “Before Aaron disappeared, he instructed me to check out the dedication plaque of the mansion. It took me a while to find it at first, since the building had several wings added to it since it was first built, and it was covered up behind some plants.”

“But you found it, right?” Kylie prodded as he led her along the front of the building.

Leonard nodded, stopping at a garden bed and reaching down to part the bushes. “Right here,” he informed her, revealing the bronze plate fixed to the stone. “Check it out.”

Kylie looked at the relief of the original building design etched into the bronze, before reading the accompanying inscription aloud. “This Cast Signifies the Dedication of Braegen Manor in the City of Altola, Modbury, on the Twelfth Day of October, 1836. Misfits Aren’t Misfits Among Other Misfits.” She pondered on the words for a moment. “So, what’s the significance of this?”

Leo pointed at the bottom. “Look at the dedicators. One of them is Aaron Braegen.”

“No, that can’t be right,” Kylie rejected. “Maybe it’s one of his ancestors. Maybe out Aaron was named in his honour?”

Leo shook his head. “That’s clearly his signature engraved above it,” he pointed. “Besides, I checked the records at the time, and the Aaron Braegen mentioned in the government records never fathered any offspring. Coupled with the fact that Doc has never aged beyond twenty five in the whole time we’ve known him…”

“But that would make him about two hundred years old!” Kylie exclaimed, surprised by the volume of her own voice.

“At the very least. Who knows how long he hasn’t been aging?”

Kylie sighed as she slumped down onto the grass. “It doesn’t make any sense,” she sighed. “He told us that his master trained him in how to keep his body in prime physical condition. But living beyond two hundred years old just isn’t possible!”

Leo took a seat on the grass beside her and placed an arm around her. “I’m beginning to think there’s a lot more to Aaron than we were led to believe…”

Episode 8-08

Scouting through the corridors, Jarrad and Anita flanked each other as they descended deeper into the MiFFi mansion. As they delved further down the passages, they picked off the remaining PAIN soldiers that they stumbled across.

The muzzle of Jarrad’s rifle flashed as he took down an Elite operative approaching from a side room, and the unfortunate target slumped to the ground before he even saw where the shots came from. “Clear!” Jarrad commanded, beckoning for Anita to pass him.

“How did you get so good at this sort of stuff?” Anita asked, spying some movement at the end of the corridor. Rounding the corner, a soldier looked startled for a moment, his hands raising his weapon in a panic. Nita’s twin pistols cut him down in an instant as the energy blasts crippled his shoulders and knees, and the victim crumpled to the ground in agony.

Jarrad smirked. “All those times you think I’m mucking about on Fallout? Really, I’ve been training for this exact situation.” He jogged up ahead to the corner, scoped out the next hallway, and then moved on ahead. “Come on, we’re nearly at the infirmary.”

Anita moved briskly behind him, her eyes darting from side to side as she double-checked every room. “We’ve really crossed the line now, haven’t we?”

“How do you mean?” Jarrad replied, only half-listening to her as he pressed on ahead.

“What we’re doing now, this is different to before. These people aren’t mutants, or infected people. These are real people that we’re hurting, that we’re killing.” Pausing for a moment, she drew a deep breath. “When did all this become okay?”

Jarrad stopped in the middle of the corridor, and turned to face her. Noticing the concern evident on her face, he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Look, these people are in our home, and if we gave them the opportunity, they would shoot you dead, slit my throat, poison Wilmo’s coffee and beat Leo to death with his own severed leg. It became okay, when they decided to make it okay.” He looked deep into her welling eyes. “We’re not the bad guys here. They are.”

As they spoke, they could just make out several other voices echoing into the hallway from behind the infirmary door. Jarrad raised a finger to his lips as he grasped the door handle, quickly swinging it open, and found himself stunned by the sight before him.

“Oh, I reckon that frosted highlights would look dynamite with your cheek bones!” Bazz exclaimed to the PAIN Elite soldier, as they sat together on the edge of the bed.

Blushing, the soldier, ran his fingers through Bryden’s hair. “Aw, you bulay! Your hair is way more festive than mine! Do the curls take much work?”

“Tutto il naturale!” he bragged.

Jarrad’s eyes narrowed as he looked between the two of them in disgust. “I think I’m going to be sick!” he groaned.

“Oh, go have a crayola!” the soldier scoffed, turning up his nose to Jarrad. Anita noticed that his helmet and rifle were laying on the bench on the other side of the room, along with his radio communicator, which suddenly crackled into life with Alisa’s voice.

“Attention all agents, Operation: Animus has concluded, and a truce has been reached. All personnel are to withdraw immediately via rooftop departure. Over.”

Anita’s spirits lifted. “It’s over?” she asked hopefully. “I guess the others must’ve convinced her that someone else is at work here, too.”

Jarrad didn’t share her happiness, however. “Wait, she can’t leave yet,” he murmured to himself, turning to Anita. “She’s still got to answer for last time she attacked us!”

Before she even realised, Jarrad had pushed past her and was now back out in the hallway, sprinting for the stairs. “Hey, don’t do anything stupid!” she called out after him.

His feet slamming hard against the tiles with every stride, Jarrad rounded the corner and bolted towards the staircase. With each impact between his feet and the floor, the blast-wound in his left arm throbbed with excruciating pain. Biting through the throbbing ache, he reached the doorway and began ascending the stairs, three at a time. Reaching the ground level, he could hear the familiar sound of the Direct Action Penetrator helicopter hovering up above the roof of the building.

Jarrad ascended the next three floors in record time, and part of his mind even managed to feel proud of the achievement, as he scaled the final flight of steps and burst out onto the roof. In the sunlight, the blood-soaked bandage around his bicep, his sweating brow and grimy clothes really didn’t do him any justice.

Above him, the DAP chopper hovered at about twenty feet, and a rope ladder fell from the side hatch all the way down to the roof, where Alisa held it steady with her only remaining hand. She looked almost as if she had been waiting for Jarrad to appear before she left.

“Hold it!” Jarrad shouted, training the sights of his plasma rifle on her chest. “Truce or no truce, make a move and I will shoot you down!”

The cyclonic wind from the helicopter blades whipped her clothes and threw her hair in all directions, yet Alisa still managed to smile. “No, you won’t,” she laughed. “I know too much that you want to find out!”

Jarrad was a little taken aback by her tact, but still knew that he needed answers. “How the hell did you know my name?” he demanded. “Why do you remember me? How do you know who I am?”

Still with the smirk on her face, Alisa shook her head. “No time!” she shouted over the roar of the chopper overhead. “Maybe another day!” She gave a sharp tug on the rope ladder, and hooked her ankles around the bottom rung as the helicopter began to lift higher into the air.

“NO!” Jarrad shouted in despair. “Answer me!”

Banking sideways, the DAP chopper continued to rise as the troops inside pulled in the rope ladder. Still hanging from the hatch, Alisa gave Jarrad a final wave. “I’ll tell Dad that you said hi!”

END OF CHAPTER EIGHT

Episode 8-07

Alisa hesitantly took a seat in the study, as Leo and Daniel attempted to clean up the blood from her face. To the side, Chantelle and Zara stood next to each other, looking uneasily around the room.

“Hey, I’m… sorry about the way I acted before,” Chany began, her eyes fixating on her feet and her fingers rapping against each other nervously. “I mean, earlier, when I yelled at you… I wasn’t really angry at you.”

Zara smiled. “I know, I understand,” she replied, looking up at her. “This is a really awkward situation, with Daniel and all… but I would really like it if we could get along…”

“Me too!” Chany smiled back, catching her eye. “I didn’t know what came over me earlier, and I definitely didn’t like feeling that way about anyone.” She paused for a moment as she tried to find the right words. “I’ll try and be a better friend from now on.”

Alisa winced as Leo ran a flannel over her swollen eye, mopping up the blood. “Seriously, you guys have only minutes left to hand over the Tomes before we all get blown to hell!” she reminded them sternly. “You’re not winning any brownie points by patching up what she did, you know.”

Leo stepped back from her and tossed the bloody towel into the wastebasket. “There, that looks a lot better,” he noted, before walking over to the bar fridge beside Doc’s desk. “Do you feel like something to drink, Alisa?”

“I want you to hand over the Tomes before it’s too late,” she repeated, unimpressed with his hospitality.

Daniel shrugged. “That’s kinda difficult,” he informed her. “See, ours are gone too. Aaron traded them in order to save one of our friends.”

“Uh-huh, a likely story,” Alisa replied with disbelief evident in her tone. “Who would you have possibly traded your journals to?”

“The same man who infiltrated your building and stole your Tome,” Leo explained, opening up Aaron’s computer system and accessing the surveillance video footage, searching for that morning’s feed.

Alisa scoffed. “That’s ridiculous, he told me that he was one of you Freedom Fighters.”

“Tell me, did he seem like one of us?” Chany interrupted. “Do any of us appear to possess the powers that he used against your men?”

“Well, no…” she thought for a moment.

“And if it were us,” Leo continued. “We would hardly lead you back here to retaliate straight away, would we? This ‘Adam’ guy has played us against each other.”

Hitting a few more buttons on the touch screen, he brought the security footage up on the large plasma screen on the side wall. Chany, Zara, Daniel and Alisa all turned their attention to it as Leonard began to play the recorded feed.

MiFFi stood around in a group on the front lawns earlier that morning, facing off against Adam. Jarrad was the first to speak after the footage commenced.

“Hang on... you can’t have all of the journals,” Jarrad challenged. “Tristan took one of those Tomes, too.”

Adam flicked through the collection of books, and held up one that Jarrad and Zara recognised immediately as the one that Alisa and Tristan had beaten them to. “Don’t worry, they weren’t too much trouble,” he laughed. “They didn’t get the same opportunity that I offered you all, though. Their casualties this morning were numerous and gruesome.”

“You’re a monster!” Chantelle screamed with rage, as pink and black embers of energy leapt from her body and sparked around her.

“Hey, hey, save that anger!” Adam suggested. “I should probably tell you that PAIN are most likely on their way here to reclaim their journal right now. You see, they may have gotten the idea that you guys stole it from them.”

The footage froze as Leo closed down the video player. “Believe us now?” he asked. “He showed up here moments after he attacked your building this morning.”

Alisa sat in stunned silence for a moment, biting her lip in frustration. “I can’t believe we let ourselves be tricked like this…” she growled to herself.

“I can keep beating the shit out of you until it sinks in, if you like,” Zara offered, a scowl plastered across her face as she glared at Alisa.

Chany placed a hand on her shoulder. “Easy, Zara,” she hushed, pulling her back.

“So, what do we do from here?” Wilmo asked. “Clearly, we need to find Adam and rescue Aaron and his journals.”

“And if I don’t get my Tome back, my employer definitely won’t be pleased…” Alisa added.

Leo rose from his seat behind Aaron’s desk. “Well, it looks like we have a mutual interest in a common foe,” he informed her. “Perhaps we need to reach some sort of alliance, for the time being at least.”

Alisa pondered on that suggestion for a moment. “Such an arrangement would be beneficial to both of us,” she agreed. “With our massive network and our manpower, we’ll be much more efficient at locating wherever this ‘Adam’ has taken the journals and your friend. And you all clearly have abilities that would come in very handy in combating Adam and recovering what he has taken from us.”

“So we’re agreed then?” Chany asked from the side of the room. “Will your people help us in finding where Adam has gone?”

Alisa rose to her feet and extended a hand across the desk to Leonard, which he graciously shook. “Very well, it’s a truce,” she informed them. “Consider the MiFFi-PAIN Treaty in effect as of this moment.”

Leonard clasped his hands together in front of him. “Thankyou very much for your understanding,” he smiled. “I trust we’ll have a way to keep in contact with you?”

Alisa turned and walked towards the door. “Don’t worry, we’ll get in touch with you as soon as we discover where this son-of-a-bitch is hiding,” she promised.

As she passed Zara, she shot her a vicious glance, which Zara returned with equal ferocity, before she pushed the door open and walked out into the hallway.

Daniel sighed. “Well, that went well!” he exhaled, letting out a laugh in relief.

“It was always under control,” Leo smiled, although his words couldn’t even convince himself of that fact.

Zara looked out the stained-glass window. “I hope everyone else is okay,” she wondered for a moment.

“Jarrad and Anita will be fine, I’m sure,” Leo reassured her. “They know how to handle themselves in combat.”

Chany nodded. “And I left Bazz watching over Kylie, so…” she began, before noticing the worried expression creeping across Zara’s face. “What?”

“There were still some PAIN soldiers down on that level,” she remembered. “Alisa commanded them to check the lower levels after she took me hostage!”

Chany’s eyes shot wide open as the panic set in. “Oh crap, I should never have left them alone!” she exclaimed, running for the door.

“Zara, go with her,” Leo suggested, and she nodded in agreement. “Wilmo, let’s track down Jarrad and your sister.”

Wilmo and Leonard followed Zara out of the study, and they split up into two groups to tie up the last few loose ends from the attack on the mansion.

Episode 8-06

“Keep moving, buster. I assume you want your girlfriend breathing when this is all over.”

Alisa marched out of the west stairwell and into the corridor, still restraining Zara in a one-armed grappling hold, with her prosthetic arm cannon trained on the side of her head. Zara had given up on the hope of struggling out of her captive’s grasp, since even if she could overpower Alisa, she was still unarmed and defenceless. Behind, the two girls were tailed by three more PAIN Elite soldiers,

Ahead of them, Daniel led the pair of girls down the hallway towards Aaron’s study, his actions pretty much dictated by the irrational PAIN commander’s superior tactical position. Secretly, though, he knew that Alisa was playing into their hands. As soon as they got to the study, they could prove that they didn’t have the Tomes, and security camera footage would confirm that they had a common foe.

“How much farther?” Alisa called out as they passed several doors on either side. “You wouldn’t be so foolish as to try and trick me now, would you?”

Daniel remained silent as he continued up the corridor, his eyes fixated on the telltale double doors up ahead that would grant them entrance to the study. His ears pricked up at the faint sound of movement in the air conditioning duct above, but didn’t dare look up to see what caused it.

Zara clenched her fists, outraged and humiliated by the current situation. “I swear, you’ll be missing more than just your hand by the time this is all over,” she promised through her teeth.

“Hey, I wouldn’t promise too much yet,” Alisa smirked in reply. “Physically, we’re not yet square from our last encounter, and I haven’t decided exactly which part of you I’m going to lop off yet.”

Zara’s tone became even more menacing. “Then you’d better start with my head, because as long as I’m breathing, I’ll be tearing you to pieces.”

“Wow, you sure are feisty!” Alisa laughed, enraging Zara even further. “I can see a lot of myself in you. Maybe that’s why we keep getting drawn together like this, hey?”

Up ahead, Daniel stopped outside of the study doors. “We’re here. This is Aaron’s personal library, where he kept the journals.”

“Well, I suppose we had to reach this point eventually!” Alisa sneered, tightening her grapple on Zara and pressing the barrel of her arm cannon firmly against the side of her skull. “Are you ready for me to even the ledger?”

Daniel looked across at the two girls in horror. “Wait! We did what you wanted! No one has to get hurt!”

“Do you know where the Tomes are kept in there?” Alisa growled into Zara’s ear, and she nodded restrictedly. “In that case, I guess we don’t need your boyfriend tagging along any more, do we?”

Zara’s eyes shot wide open as Alisa raised her arm up at Wilmo. “Noooooo!” she screamed.

A twisted smile crept up the side of Alisa’s face as she trained her arm-mounted energy cannon at Daniel’s head. “You know what I live for? The look of fear in a man’s eyes as he stares into his certain death. The last look he ever gives. And I’m going to enjoy drinking up this one for a long time to come!”

The barrel of her weapon flashed as it fired three large globs of energy in quick succession, straight at Daniel. His eyes wide with horror, Wilmo only had just enough time to react to the oncoming blasts. With one hand wrapped around the Descolada orb concealed in his jacket pocket, he raised his other hand towards Alisa and summoned a blast of frost.

The sudden drop of temperature could be felt all the way down the corridor, as the three energy blasts slowed down and became encased in ice, mid-flight and just two feet from Daniel’s head.

“What the hell?” Alisa exclaimed, shocked by his power. Zara took advantage of her moment of stupor, breaking out of her grapple and connecting her elbow with Alisa’s face. The PAIN commandeer screamed as she fell backwards onto the ground, blood flowing rapidly from her nose.

Wasting no time, Zara jumped onto Alisa’s chest, pinning her to the floor between her legs, and began pummelling her face with a flurry of fists. Either side of them, the walls of the corridor were splattered with Alisa’s blood, as Zara unleashed her pent-up fury on the girl.

Looking past the girl-fight, Wilmo noticed the three PAIN Elite soldiers that had been following them raise their weapons and attempt to get a clear shot on Zara in order to save their commanding officer. Before he could even react to them, however, someone else stepped in.

All three of the PAIN soldiers pulsed with a pink energy simultaneously, before dropping to the floor, incapacitated. Behind them, Chantelle was revealed to be their attacker, her hand outstretched towards the downed fighters.

“Chany!” Daniel shouted down the corridor. “How did you-“

Chantelle raised a finger to her lips in order to silence him, before pointing up at the ceiling above Zara and Alisa. Daniel followed her gesture, looking up in time to see several tiles fall loose and a figure jump down from the ducts above.

Leo landed on all fours right next to Alisa’s pinned body. “Zara, get back!” he commanded, and she obliged, getting clear of the girl.

With a short electrical charge provided by his orb, Leonard fried the circuits in her arm cannon and disabled it instantly. “That should do the trick,” he announced, rising to his feet.

Still on the ground, it was hard to tell where Alisa’s face finished and the carpet began. Groaning from behind her mask of blood, she begrudgingly sat up, albeit in a great deal of pain. “You got lucky this time,” she snarled, looking up at Zara through the one eye that hadn’t swollen over.

“You’re just lucky they stopped me before I really got started,” Zara growled back, as Daniel ran up to her and put an arm around her in comfort.

Chantelle walked up to the group, stepping over the unconscious guards on her way. “That was a little too close,” she nodded to Leo, and he smiled in response.

A puzzled look swept over Daniel’s face. “Hey, how’d you guys know we were in trouble, anyway?”

“Bryden sensed it from downstairs,” Leo informed him. “So Chany came charging up here to try and save you two, and she ran into me on the way.”

Zara glanced across at Chany. “You couldn’t have been a few moments later, could you?” she asked sarcastically. “I wasn’t quite done with gun-arm here yet.”

Alisa spat a mouthful of blood. “You guys should realise that there are four times as many soldiers waiting to move in and destroy this place if I don’t report back to Tristan, right?”

“Don’t worry, my dear, you’ll be reporting back for sure,” Leo guaranteed, trying to put on a friendly face despite the preceding incidents. “Right now, we’re going to take you into the study here and show you that someone else is playing the two of us against each other.”

Episode 8-05

Roughly ten minutes had passed in the infirmary since Bazz and Chany had bunkered down in the infirmary. Kylie was still comatose, lying on one of the stretchers at the back of the medical bay, and completely oblivious to the destruction raging outside the building.

Every few minutes, a violent rumble would shake everything in the room as another piece of PAIN’s military hardware was destroyed at MiFFi’s hands. Of course, Chantelle and Bryden had no way of knowing which side was causing the explosions, and their thoughts turned sour with every blast.

“I can’t believe Zara ditched us like that!” Chany fumed, sitting on the steel bench lining the side of the room.

“So you keep saying…” groaned Bryden, his eyes rolling.

“Well, she can’t just bail on us and go running around doing whatever she wants! We’re supposed to work together as a group!”

“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’,” Bryden responded automatically, yawning.

“But there is an ‘I’ in ‘bitch’!” Chany snapped back, unable to contain her bubbling anger.

“Chantelle!” he exclaimed, shocked. “I’m beginning to think that there’s more fuelling your anger than just Zara…”

She stared back blankly. “What are you on about?”

“Please, everyone can tell,” Bazz explained. “You’re pissed at Daniel for turning his back on you when things got too deep. Zara just happens to be caught in the middle.”

“That’s ridiculous! Who cares what the hell Daniel does. He’s furthest from my mind, believe me.”

Bazz chuckled. “Please, you’re lying to the one person who can see straight through you. You’ve got feelings for Wilmo!”

Huffing, Chany looked away from him. “Fine, maybe I do. So what, though, right? Clearly he’s too immature to handle a real relationship with real problems, anyway, if he’s just going to turn tail and run away whenever it gets too rocky.”

“Yeah, that seems like a rational point of view on the situation,” he affirmed.

“So, what’s your problem then?”

“Well, can’t you see that maybe your rage is a little misdirected in Zara’s direction?” Bryden prodded. “Cut her a little slack, Chany. Wilmo’s the one who asked her out, after all.”

Silent, Chantelle folded her arms and scowled into her lap. “… I suppose you’re right,” she replied eventually.

Another huge explosion echoed throughout the building, rattling the benches and unsettling the dust on the doorframes. As the reverberations died down, the two of them looked around the room nervously, making sure there was no damage.

“The explosions are getting worse…” Bryden sighed, worried.

“Man, I hope everyone’s okay out there,” Chantelle added, the concern in her voice now having overtaken the anger. “Who knows what they’re up against?”

Bazz thought for a moment. “Gimme a sec, I’ll try and see if I can get a read on them.”

Closing his eyes, Bryden concentrated deeply as he tried to pick up any passing psychic waves from his team mates. Chany could see the strain on his face, realising how difficult it must be to pick up on such a fleeting energy from such a distance. His eyelids twitched and his breathing became a series of rapid, shallow gasps as he began to hone in on his power.

A series of images flashed in Bazz’s mind as he connected with some of his allies. Exploding helicopters. A frozen wall of ice. Jarrad being shot through the shoulder. A tank firing its main cannon at Anita. Alisa jumping in through a window and taking Zara hostage.

“Gaaaaargh!” Bryden exclaimed, exhaling suddenly as he dropped to his knees, his eyes shooting wide open with fear. Chany launched herself off of her bench and grasped him by the shoulders, preventing him from hitting the floor.

“Are they okay?” she prompted, steadying him. “What did you see?”

It took a few seconds for Bryden’s heart rate to settle back to normal, and his breathing became deeper and more pronounced as the air returned to his lungs. “We were… winning, but now…”

Chantelle waited for a few seconds for him to continue. “But now… what?”

She could see Bryden’s pupils shrink back to regular size as he looked her in the eyes. “Zara’s been taken hostage… by Alisa…” he finished. “Daniel’s surrendered his weapon… and she’s demanding to be taken… to the journals…”

Chany clenched her teeth and looked away. “Dammit, they’re in the building…” she sighed. “And the others? Do they know that Alisa’s got Zara and Daniel?”

Shaking his head, Bryden pulled himself up to his feet. “Nope, they’re all caught up in their own skirmishes.”

“Well then, I gotta get out there and do something!” Chany decided suddenly, heading for the door.

Bazz turned to her, confused. “Wait, what?”

“Zara and Daniel are in danger, and by the sounds of it, you and I are the only ones who know it,” she replied, determinedly. “In my books, that means I’ve got a responsibility to do something about it.”

“But… what about me?” he called out after her as she pushed through the door and strode out into the corridor.

“Just keep Kylie safe,” her voice carried back down the passage and into the infirmary.

Sighing, Bazz turned his back on the doorway and looked down on Kylie, sprawled out on the stretcher. “Why is it that the only one of you lot without any issues, happens to be in a coma?”

Behind him, a gloved hand caught the door just before it latched shut, its fingers wrapping around the edge and slowly pulling it open so as to not alert Bryden to his presence. Making absolutely no sound, a lone PAIN Elite soldier slipped through into the infirmary and raised his energy rifle, taking aim at the back of Bazz’s head.

Episode 8-04

Daniel pressed his back against the wall and peered out through the back doorway of the mansion. Before him, the gardens sprawled out in all directions, interspersed with statues, birdbaths, park benches, rose gardens and tangled together with winding gravel paths. Beyond the gardens, the vineyard stretched out towards the lake at the back of the property.

The unmistakable sound of approaching helicopters filled the air, but Daniel was unable to see where they were coming from. Looking up at the sky as the sunlight disappeared, he watched as the blue was replaced with massive black clouds, forming out of nowhere and covering the land with shadow. “This can’t be good,” he spoke to himself.

Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, Wilmo was surprised to see Zara turn the corner, armed with the energy crossbow. Jogging down the corridor towards him, she pressed herself up against the wall on the other side of the door.

“Z? What are you doing down here?” Daniel exclaimed. “I thought you were going down to the infirmary to help protect Kylie and Bazz?”

Zara shook her head. “I’m tired of sitting behind a safety barrier and letting everyone else put their lives on the line!” she explained. “When we were at dinner the other night, I realised that maybe I’m actually trying to not fit in with the rest of you. I need to be out here with you guys, fighting side by side with you, if I’m ever going to fit in properly.”

They both cringed as a massive explosion tore through the air from somewhere outside the mansion. Waiting for a moment for his hearing to return, Daniel continued. “But Zara, what’s going on up here… this is real! It’s not really the time to jump in and start fighting on the front lines all of a sudden.”

“And when is the time?” Zara demanded. “When do we ever have a safe situation in which to gain experience?” She paused as another explosion shook the foundations, this one closer and louder than before. “And besides, your little sister is out here, fighting against this huge army as well! Why aren’t you concerned about the danger she’s in?”

“Anita can handle herself on the field, I’ve got no worries about that,” Daniel affirmed.

“And so can I!” she replied forcefully. “Look, I’m not about to sit around below in some bunker, worrying about whether or not my boyfriend is okay!”

A third massive explosion roared in through the corridors, echoing down the halls as Daniel looked across at Zara with a stunned look on his face.

“Your… boyfriend?” he asked, stunned, once the noise had passed.

Zara blushed. “Well, you know… I mean, a good friend…”

She sighed with relief as the awkward moment was broken by the sound of the Direct Action Penetrator helicopter emerging over the roof of the building, its rotors sending blustering winds spiralling out from beneath it.

“Heads up, it’s about to get real!” Daniel instructed, pointing out at the troop carrier. He and Zara peered out from either side of the doorway as the helicopter descended from the sky, touching down on the far side of the vineyard. Its eleven passengers jumped out of the cabin onto the bank of the lake, before splitting up and cutting different paths into the tangled rows of the vineyard.

“They’re all armed with assault rifles,” Zara noted, squinting through the dusk at the shadowy outlines of the PAIN soldiers. “And they’ve got something else in their hands, too…”

Daniel tried to focus on the blurred figures, but with no success. “I can’t tell what they’ve got, either,” he replied. “All right, as soon as they break out into the gardens, try and snipe them off with the crossbow. Any soldiers that manage to evade your fire, I’ll pick off with the shotgun when they get close.” Zara nodded in agreement. “And if at any point they start firing on you,-“

“Quit worrying, I’ll be fine!” Zara scoffed, tracking the attackers’ movements. “Heads up, they’re nearly here!”

Two of the soldiers emerged from the vineyard and began charging across the garden from either side. Zara took aim at one of the soldiers with the crossbow, but her shot veered wildly to the right, and did nothing except notify the approaching PAIN elite that they were being watched.

“Down!” one of the soldiers screamed, and they both hit the ground flat.

Zara winced. “Sorry, my bad!” she apologised. She aimed at where she thought the soldier had dropped, but had to duck back inside the doorway as both of the soldiers opened fire on the entrance with their assault rifles.

“Damn, they’ve got us pinned!” Wilmo groaned, as the energy bullets peppered the outside of the building, chipping away at the wall. Sidling across to a nearby window, he looked out through it to see several more soldiers taking advantage of the cover fire and sprinting out of the vineyard. “Zara, try sniping out of your window!”

As if on cue, the clouds that had cast the property in darkness were parted, and bright sunlight lit up the entirety of the garden. Suddenly, the black-clad soldiers found that their cover had been lifted, as Zara smashed the window with the stock of the crossbow. Firing off a quick succession of bolts, she managed to hit the nearest of the two lying soldiers, puncturing his lung.

“Yeah!” Zara cheered, before training her sights on one of the charging elite. A moving target proved to be more of a challenge, but a rapid series of crossbow blasts tore through his legs, ripping through the muscles and tendons and causing him to topple forward onto a garden statue, impaling himself.

Daniel peered out from around the doorway and spotted a soldier nearing the building. “Zara, swap sides!” he shouted, as he swung out into the doorway. As he raised his shotgun, Zara swung behind him and ducked beneath the other window. With one powerful blast of the weapon, Daniel watched as the soldier took the full impact of the shotgun fire to the chest and suffered a massive reversal of momentum. His torso torn apart, the soldier landed heavily on his back, dead.

Zara took aim at the second PAIN fighter laying cover fire on the entrance, peppering him with a string of energy bolts until his assault rifle fell silent. “That’s another one down!” she informed Wilmo. “You’ve got another three almost at the doorway, though.”

His back firmly against the wall beside the door, Daniel swung out into the opening momentarily and fired his weapon without aiming towards the charging soldiers, but had no luck hitting them. Zara also poked her head up through the window and tried to pick off one of the approaching fighters, but her shots were rendered useless as she suddenly realised what else the soldiers were carrying.

Affixed to each of the three soldiers’ left forearms was a large, clear shield that seemed to be quite adequate at deflecting their energy fire. As they charged, they protected their faces and bodies with the energy shields, making themselves extremely hard to hit.

Daniel reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the Blizzara orb. Raising his right hand, he cast a cold chill through the air, and a thick sheet of ice formed in the doorway, sealing it frozen shut.

“That should buy us a few seconds!” Daniel called out to Zara, as the soldiers immediately commenced shooting at the ice wall, their energy fire beginning to melt it away. “What do we do now?”

Zara thought for a moment. “Snap the stock off of your shotgun!” she instructed.

“Huh?” Wilmo paused for a moment, looking down at the butt of his weapon.

“Just grip it and twist it off!” she replied, demonstrating the same on her crossbow, tossing the rest of the weapon out the way. Daniel followed suit, gripping the handle in his right hand. “Now, flick the switch on the underside.”

Wilmo watched as the stock of Zara’s crossbow emitted a long beam of light, somewhat like a sabre. “Dear Bob, that is so awesome!” he exclaimed, finding the switch on his and turning on his beam sword. “Why didn’t you tell us about these before?”

“It’s still highly experimental,” Zara replied. “I was hoping I could do some more testing before we had to use them. But, they should hold up long enough for us to cut through these guys’ shields.”

Daniel looked across at the frozen wall as the soldiers melted their way through it. “Well, no time like the present!” he shrugged, raising his beam sword in a defensive stance. One of the soldiers reared back and burst through the remnants of the ice sheet with a heavy shoulder. As soon as he entered the mansion, however, Wilmo swung the energy sword at him and sliced straight through his shield as if it were also made of ice.

The soldier looked between Zara and Daniel each holding beam swords, stunned. His expression was soon one of immense pain, however, as Zara plunged her energy sword into his chest, killing him instantly. Daniel swung his around and sliced through the next incoming soldier, dropping him to the floor. As the third tried to enter through the doorway, Zara easily cut him down before he was even a threat.

“Nicely done!” Daniel congratulated her, looking down at the felled soldiers lying lifeless on the floor. “How many does that leave now?”

“At least one,” a female voice called out behind Zara, as a figure vaulted in through the window. Her identity was unknown to Wilmo, but Zara recognised the voice immediately, spinning around to come face-to-face with Alisa Vickers.

Zara didn’t waste a moment, swinging her beam sword at Alisa, but it clashed as it connected with her right hand, sparking but not harming it.

“Uh-uh,” Alisa chuckled. “You’ve already cut that one off, remember?”

Zara took a step away as her thoughts drifted back to the incident at the library, and her last encounter with Alisa.

“How fortuitous it is, meeting you here like this,” the PAIN commander greeted. “I’ve been waiting for the day when I could pay you back for taking my hand. Looks like it’s going to be sooner than I expected!” To Zara and Wilmo’s horror, Alisa grabbed her prosthetic hand and unscrewed it from the stump of her forearm, revealing an energy cannon grafted to the end of her arm. “Of course, I still managed to find a positive from the situation.”

“This time, you’re going to lose more than your hand!” Zara promised defiantly, launching at Alisa with her beam sword. Every strike with the energy sword, however, clashed ineffectively against the steel cannon grafted to Alisa’s arm as she parried every swing. Grabbing Zara’s right hand mid-swing with her left, Alisa overpowered her grip on the beam sword, flicking it off and tossing it to the wayside.

“So feisty!” Alisa laughed, spinning Zara around and pressing the barrel of her grafted energy gun against her head as she held her tightly with her left arm. Glancing across at Wilmo, she stared him down menacingly. “If I were you, I’d drop the weapon right now,” she threatened, and Daniel found no alternative but to obey. The stock of the shotgun clattered to the ground as he took a step away from Alisa and her hostage.

“Okay, now you two are going to give me back the Tome that you stole, right now, otherwise she dies.”

Episode 8-03

Anita took cover in the mansion’s vestibule, guarding the front entrance of the building. Peering out through the doorway, she had watched as the formerly sunny weather had become swallowed with storm clouds, casting the whole suburb in deep dusk. She looked up in horror as a helicopter spiralled downwards and disappeared behind the tree line, its pilot incapacitated, before exploding in a horrendous fireball. Massive reverberations of thunder followed up the huge lightning bolt that took out a second helicopter, and a third was torn apart mid-air, its wrecked fuselage crashing inside the property.

“Holy crap!” she gasped, watching the destruction taking place right outside the manor. The roar of the explosions was soon overtaken by the unmistakable noise of weapon fire coming from the roof of the building, and her thoughts suddenly turned to Leo and Jarrad’s safety.

Another noise became audible as well, a deep and rumbling growl, slowly growing louder as its source approached the gates. As Anita watched, the cause of the violent rumblings in the weapons storage facility a few minutes earlier became apparent, as a T-80 Battle Tank rolled into view behind the fence.

If it could have done so, Anita’s jaw would have hit the ground. Before her eyes, the tank turned and easily broke through the wrought iron gates, twisting them on their hinge pins with apparent ease. From inside, the gunner swung the turret around and took aim at the entrance of the mansion as the armoured vehicle continued to lumber down the quartz-gravel driveway.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!” Anita cried, finding herself running out into the front courtyard of the manor before she even realised what she was doing.

It happened almost too quickly for her to process what was going on. She saw the billow of smoke from the end of the cannon as the shell blasted towards her and the building. She watched as the missile rocketed towards her, seemingly in slow motion, bringing with it her grievous demise. She could feel the Holy Descolada stone pulse with energy in her hands as she instinctively raised her arms and protected her face. And, oddly enough, she could hear the resulting explosion as the rocket-propelled shell blew apart on impact.

After a moment, Anita opened her eyes and lowered her arms, confused by the absence of pain following the impact. Looking around, she found herself protected by a rippling bubble of white energy, shielding her from the fiery explosion. Outside the barrier, the smoke and dust gradually blew away with the breeze, and she could see the tank once more, now stopped partway along the driveway.

The hatches of both the gunner and the driver flipped open, and two PAIN soldiers stuck their heads out in amazement, confirming what they’d just seen.

“That’s… impossible!” the gunner exclaimed in disbelief. “She should be splattered across the wall after that! How the hell did she stop it?”

The driver looked even more amazed. “Let’s see her do it twice! Hit her again!”

Nodding, the gunner disappeared back into the tank, and adjusted the turret slightly. Suddenly finding herself filled with a strange confidence, Anita clenched her fists defiantly as she squared off against the T-80. Swirls of pure white energy enveloped her knuckles as she drew deep into the amazing power flowing from the stone.

Once again, the tank fired its cannon at her. Charging towards it, she swung a glowing fist forwards towards the approaching shell, and the immense holy energy trailing from it easily deflected the rocket almost straight back towards the armoured vehicle. The driver only just managed to duck back into the hatch before the mortar exploded mere metres above.

Collecting themselves, the two soldiers looked desperately out through their scopes. “Where the devil did she disappear to?” the gunner asked frantically, unable to see her anywhere outside.

“I’ll check it out,” the driver instructed, grabbing his assault rifle and opening his hatch once more. Readying it, he pointed it around desperately as he tried to locate Anita.

Clinging to the underside of the cannon with her arms and legs, not unlike a monkey, Anita smiled. “Looking for me?” she teased.

Enraged, the elite soldier opened fire, his energy bullets spraying wild in her general direction. They proved to be ineffective against the shield of white energy that Anita summoned before her, and they deflected off in random directions. Releasing her grip with her hands and locking her legs around the barrel of the tank’s artillery, her ponytail dangled as she hung upside down and took aim with one of her pistols. One sure shot was all that was needed to knock the assault rifle out of the driver’ hands, sending it flying across onto the lawn.

A sudden whirring came from inside the tank, and Anita found herself being lifted higher into the air as the cannon aimed upwards into the sky. With a massive boom, the gunner fired a shell high into the air.

“Aaaargh!” Anita screamed, her legs releasing their grip on the gun and she hit the gravel hard. “Hot hot hot!” Looking down at her jeans, she could see holes burnt through the denim from the heat.

The driver ducked back into the tank, and the engine roared again. Anita scrambled on her back as the caterpillar tracks rolled towards her, threatening to crush her beneath the tread. Gaining enough traction beneath her feet, she rolled aside and out the way of the massive battle tank.

This time, it was the gunner’s turn to emerge from the hatch, firing at Anita with another assault rifle. She managed to defend herself with yet another light barrier, trying to draw the tank’s direction away from the manor. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as the driver steered the T-80 off of the driveway and onto the lawn towards her.

Raising the orb in her left hand up to the sky, the Holy energy parted the pitch black thunderhead above her, revealing the brilliant sunlight radiating down onto them. Basking in the warm rays beaming down onto her body, she charged up the solar energy in her hands before unleashing a massive Sun Beam cannon at the tank.

The brilliant white energy beam flared as it blasted through the air and collided with the tank. The blinding light enveloped the T-80, ripping the gunner right out of the hull and throwing him off into the distance like a piece of rubbish. The intense energy blistered the paint on the vehicle, and incinerated the caterpillar tread, before finally dissipating as Anita ran out of energy.

On the brink of exhaustion, Anita fell to her knees, amazed at what she had been able to accomplish. In front of her, the wheels of the tanks cut into the ground, unable to gain any traction on the grass now that the tracks had been broken.

This was followed by a moment of stillness as the driver slid across into the gunner’s seat inside the hull, before Anita saw the turret lower back down and take aim at her once again. Anita knew she only had a few seconds as the PAIN soldier loaded the next shell, so she jumped to her feet in a sprint, bolting straight across the lawn towards the barrel of the artillery in a race against time. In her mind, she prayed that she had enough time and strength left to pull off her plan.

Inside the tank, the elite fighter finished readying the weapon, and took aim at the girl. Nita leapt the last few steps towards the battle tank, harnessing the last of her power into a bubble of Holy energy around her. As she covered the muzzle of the cannon with her body and latched on for dear life, the driver fired the shell.

The shell barely made it partway through the barrel before it collided with Anita’s energy barrier, exploding on impact. The resulting blast tore apart the tank, ripping through the blow-out panels inside the T-80 and obliterating the remaining PAIN soldier. Anita was thrown violently from the exploding battle tank, bouncing once on the ground inside her bubble of Holy energy, before it dissipated and dumped her on the grass.

Pieces of debris from the destroyed T-80 rained down across the lawn, and the grass around the ruined shell of the tank was severely scorched from the fiery explosion. Anita picked herself up, battered and aching, and somewhat stunned by the fact that she just went head-on with a tank, and won.

Staggering back towards the entrance to the mansion, she stumbled up the steps and in through the doorway into the vestibule. Nearing the grand wooden staircase, she felt much safer to be back inside the building again. That is, until she felt the barrel of a rifle pressed against the back of her head.

“Turn around slowly,” a deep male voice commanded, and she obeyed. As she turned, she recognised the PAIN soldier as the gunner that had been thrown from the tank by her energy beam. His black jumpsuit was torn and scorched, and his face was covered in blood from a rather nasty gash to his left eyebrow.

“That was some pretty fancy work back there, little girl,” he growled menacingly, his index finger poised on the trigger of his assault rifle. “But you should have been more thorough.”

A second, more familiar male voice chimed in from the side. “And you should pick on someone your own gender!” Jarrad snarled in reply, his plasma rifle’s scope trained on the side of the PAIN elite’s head. A single pulse of energy flared from his weapon, and the soldier’s head blew apart before he even realised what was going on.

“Ewww!” Anita cried, ducking to avoid the blood splatter as the gunner’s headless body slumped to the ground.

Jarrad lowered his rifle. “You all right, Nita?” he asked, descending the last few steps of the staircase.

Anita looked visibly shaken, but still managed a smile. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “I took down a battle tank!”

Jarrad chuckled. “Nice! Me and Leo brought down a couple of choppers too. Damn fools never expected this sort of reception!”

Looking around, Anita noticed that he was alone. “Hey, where is Leo, anyway?”

“We got separated coming down from the ceiling,” he replied. “One of the helicopters managed to drop its troops on the roof, and we had to retreat. They’ve managed to get inside the mansion.” He motioned for Anita to follow him back up the staircase. “C’mon, we’d better see if we can find him.”

Episode 8-02

The drone of helicopter blades reverberated down the stairwell as Leonard and Jarrad dashed up towards the roof access. Their shoes pounded hard on every third step as they scaled the flight of stairs, and their chests heaved as they drew in deep, frantic breaths.

Trailing his team mate by a short distance, Jarrad looked up at the back of Leo’s head. “Whatever happens up there, mate, I’ve got your back!”

Leo smirked to himself. “Thanks mate, you’re a great friend!” he chuckled. “Of course, I never express it to you in ways that make the front page of the newspaper!”

“Oh, har har!” Jarrad scoffed. “I suppose everyone happened to see to Modbury Post this morning, hey?”

“I did show it to quite a few people!” Leo puffed, turning and ascending the last flight of stairs. “I mean, I know Bazz is pretty handsome, but did you have to express it in the middle of the pub?”

Jarrad scowled up at him. “The one day you actually pick up a newspaper…” he growled.

Leo shouldered through the door to the roof, and emerged out into the morning sunlight. The flat roof of the manor sprawled out in front of him, a rectangular expanse of concrete bordered with a raised brick edge of about two feet height, and dotted with large air conditioning condensers which cast long stretching shadows away from the partially risen sun.

Jarrad emerged behind him, and shaded his eyes with his hand as he squinted towards the eastern range of hills that hugged the city. He counted three Mangusta helicopters swooping over the suburbs and approaching them at a rapid pace, before noticing a fourth trailing some distance behind them. There was no doubt that all four of the heavily-armed choppers had the MiFFi manor in their sights as they sped through the air.

“Heads up, they’re coming in hard!” Leo shouted over the top of the increasing roar. In a matter of seconds, one of the battle copters was within firing distance, and its 30mm chain gun whirred to action.

Jarrad and Leonard bolted across the exposed rooftop as the stream of machine gun fire tore up the concrete behind them. Diving through the air, the rolled heavily behind the cover of one of the air conditioning units and pressed their backs to the cold steel. Instantly, they were both deafened by the noise of the chain rounds hammering into the other side of the condenser.

“We gotta take ‘em down before they get within missile range!” Jarrad yelled, as the rain of bullets halted suddenly.

“Head for the next condenser and get their attention!” Leo instructed, pointing across to the nearest aircon unit.

Jarrad nodded, before spinning around and launching into a sprint from his crouching position. Swinging his plasma rifle across his chest, he blindly fired in the general direction of the nearest chopper as he sprinted for cover. The pilot veered his chopper sideways through the air as he trained his sights on Jarrad, not even noticing the barrel of Leo’s sniper rifle aiming up over the top of the evaporator.

Waiting for exactly the right moment, Leo squeezed the trigger and the intense, focussed bullet of energy shot like lightning from the muzzle, piercing the glass of the cockpit with ease and scoring a side-on headshot to the pilot. The inside of the glass was sprayed with crimson as the first of the Mangusta choppers spiralled out of control towards the ground, the other soldiers on board unable to save themselves from their fate. The hull exploded on impact as it smashed through several trees, and the burning wreckage slammed down in the middle of a nearby park.

“Good shot!” Jarrad cheered from across the rooftop.

Leo looked up from the sights of his sniper rifle, and noticed the next two helicopters approaching together. “We’re going to need some new tricks if we’re going to beat these next ones!” he called back to his team mate.

Reaching into his pocket, Jarrad wrapped his fingers around the Shadow orb and gripped it tightly in his palm. “I’m on it!” he replied, and as he removed the stone from his pocket, he let the purplish tendrils of shadow entwine around his body. Turning his head to the sky, he raised his arms and commanded a mass of billowing storm clouds to appear as if from nowhere.

Leo couldn’t help but be amazed as the entire of the surrounding suburbs was cast into darkness at Jarrad’s dominion. Reaching into his own pocket and taking hold of the electrical orb, he raised his other arm to the sky and let loose a massive blast of electricity, turning the darkest storm clouds that he’d ever seen into a massive, deadly thunderhead.

As the cloud crackled and sparked with its intense voltage, Leo rose to his feet and took control of the massive power high above him. “THUNDARA!” he screamed, and focussed the immense current of electricity into a single, concentrated bolt of lightning.

The second Mangusta never stood a chance as it took the full brunt of the electrical discharge. Instantly, the circuits were shorted and the navigational systems fried, before a spark in the fuel tank blew the entire helicopter apart mid-air. Whatever debris remained of the ship was strewn far and wide across the suburb of Altola.

Impressed with Leo’s efforts, Jarrad stood up straight and sighted the third approaching chopper. His eyes now tinged with a cloudy purple hue, he cracked his knuckles and looked up at the clouds he had summoned. With intense concentration, he stretched his arms outward and, high above him, two long strands of hazy shadow stretched down from the storm clouds, mirroring his movements.

The long tendrils of shadow began to form fingers as the helicopter neared the rooftop. At Jarrad’s instruction, the billowing arms reached down towards the spinning rotors of the chopper, and started entwining themselves around the blades. As the motor failed and began to smoke, the soldiers on board readied their personal weapons and waited as long as possible before bailing out.

Seven of the PAIN soldiers landed heavily on the roof of MiFFi manor, as Jarrad ripped the hull of the Mangusta helicopter to pieces with the smoky tendrils of shadow. Twisted and torn, the wreckage of the chopper was left to drop from the sky onto the grounds of the mansion, the bodies of the pilot and one last unfortunate soldier crushed to death in a steel tomb.

Leonard looked across at where the bailing soldiers had landed, and picked one off with a headshot from his rifle before the agent could even pick himself back up. His associates ignored their fallen ally as they readied their energy weapons and took cover behind several other condensers.

Pocketing his orb and taking hold of his rifle once again, Jarrad had just enough time to react as one of the PAIN elite soldiers stumbled across his position. The barrel of his plasma rifle flashed repeatedly as he fired at the soldier, and the energy blasts perforated his gut in numerous places. At such close range, the plasma energy instantly disintegrated the unfortunate victim’s innards, and what remained of the soldier fell to the ground, dead.

Struggling to be very effective with his sniper rifle, Leonard was unable to get a clean shot on the covered and nimble soldiers. “Jarrad, they’ve got our number out here!” he shouted across the rooftop.

“We’d stand a better chance back in the confines of the stairwell,” Jarrad theorised. “Make a break for the door, I’ll cover you!”

Leo gave him the thumbs-up, before shouldering his weapon and bolting for the stairwell. Behind him, Jarrad rose to his feet and fired on the concealed soldiers, making his way backwards in Leonard’s footsteps. As they neared the door, they were momentarily caught off-guard as the fourth of the despatched helicopters, a Direct Action Penetrator troop-carrying chopper, roared overhead before descending at the back of the mansion’s grounds.

The distraction was all that the nearest elite soldier needed, taking aim with his pistol and firing on the retreating misfits. The energy bullet clipped Jarrad’s left bicep, ripping through the flesh before continuing clean out the other side with a spray of blood.

“GAAAARGH!” Jarrad screamed, letting his rifle fall from his hand as the shoulder strap took up the slack. Clutching at the wound with his right hand, he was too dazed to even notice Leo grab him by the shoulder and drag him the rest of the way to the stairs.

Bursting back through the door into the stairwell once again, Leonard pushed Jarrad in to safety, before jumping in behind him and slamming the door shut safely behind them. As they caught their breath, they could hear the energy fire peppering the outside of the steel door.

“You all right, mate?” Leo asked, tearing off the sleeve of his shirt and tying it tightly around Jarrad’s wounded arm. “Want Bazz to kiss it better for you?”

Jarrad glared up at his friend. “Once we’re done here, I’m coming for your blood!” he threatened, rising to his feet and raising his rifle. “Come on, let’s make these bastards pay!”