Fr33 Typ3

            “Incoming!”

Ka-Boom!

            I was having a grand day fighting off my enemies, who I didn’t know existed.

So far, three blocks had been destroyed and 50 cars had been flipped, crushed, or blown to bits. Some of you might be wondering why I’m in a war field blowing stuff apart and fighting for my life. If you’re not, go away or stick around, your choice. I’ll start from the beginning.

            About three weeks ago, my life had been normal. Driving around town, monitoring the electrical use of computers and other things. But that turned upside down one day. During one of my routine checks, some person in a weird outfit, a girl in pink armor with a slingshot jumped me. Fortunately, for me, I had two live wires in my hand. I got up with the wires, walked calmly up to the trooper and shocked them. I don’t know whether he died or not because I would see many more in the near future.

            “Yo, Matt!” somebody called from behind.

            “Huh?” I said confused.

            I had turned around to see someone who had weird computer problems. He was running towards me looking very nervous and scared. He kept glancing behind him as if someone were following him.

            “Matt, you’ve got to help me! I was…” he started.

            “Wait,” I said abruptly, “is this with a computer or something else?” I asked him.

            “Other, like, you need to be able to fight type other,” he said quickly.

            “Okay, who am I going to be fighting?” I asked him. I was beginning to wonder if he would jump up and rip my throat out.

            “You will find out soon enough,” boomed some unknown, well masked voice behind me.

            I turned around to see who said that but there was nobody there.

            “Okay, that was weird,” I said worried.

            “Yeah, that was,” said the man in front of me. “But, it’s not as weird as this!”

            I leaped back suddenly because the man began to morph. His eyes became blood red, his teeth grew three inches, and his fingernails became long, sharp, and green. (I don’t know why his nails went green. Maybe he was an environmentalist or tore green stuff apart. But it certainly wasn’t natural!) He stood about seven feet tall and his breath smelled like, something that isn’t from this planet. Long gray spikes grew from his back and arms. His legs became thin and black.

            “Now you know who you are fighting!” he bellowed.

            “More like what I’m fighting, you freak!” I shouted.

            “Die!”

            “Crap!”

            I dove out of the way as the freak shot his arm where I was just standing. He began to spit out some weird, acidic, foul smelling saliva at me. I rolled, jumped, ducked, and slid out of the way each time.

            “You cannot escape the wrath of the Car’ish!” the giant declared.

            “The Car’ish?” I said bewildered.

            “Yes! The Car’ish!” he shouted. He swung his arm at me once again. “That is what I am, and what I have always been. Our species has lived among you humans for centuries! We will now…”

            As he began his monologue, I walked quietly away and got some gasoline, matches, propane, gunpowder, and a sandwich. I returned to find him talking about his growth which was rather… something you don’t want to find out about. (He said something about somebody’s brain and how it tasted. Ugh.) He wasn’t looking at the ground, so that gave me enough time to run back to my apartment (what remained anyway) and find my P-90 (machine gun). I walked back to find the Car’ish now talking about some car he liked.

            “Weird,” I said to myself, “he doesn’t even know that I’m about to dump gasoline on his foot.” After I made that comment, I walked up to him as calmly as possible, (without screaming ‘Die demon!’ and dumping 10 gallons of gasoline and a lit match on him) and looked as if I found this interesting. He glanced down and saw the gasoline.

            “What’s that for?” he inquired.

            “Oh, this?” I said as innocently as I possibly could. “It’s for my… um… car that I was to give to my friend!”

            “Oh,” he said and he went back to his monologue.

            I then got close enough to him that I could place the propane tanks next to him. Next, I put the gasoline about one car length away (because there was a car there) and let a little gasoline spill out. Finally, I poured gunpowder from the gasoline all the way to another car. I lit the car on fire so it wouldn’t seem as if I had tried to dispose of the Car’ish.

            “And that is why I am here! To make sure you can’t use your bio-hacker abilities and to destroy the other known bio-hacker!” he proclaimed.

            As I had hoped, the car exploded as he finished, startling him and allowing me to pour some gasoline that I had just siphoned on his foot. The flame reached the gunpowder which lit instantly. The flame tore across the street, burning anything near it and lit the gasoline. The gas exploded, making the propane (which was unopened, and next to his foot) ignite. The Car’ish lit on fire as well. He screamed a scream so bloodcurdling, my skin felt as if it would crawl of me. The smell that was produced was terrible so I ran off so I could breath. When it had finished, the entire area was reduced to ashes.

            It was about two days after that incident, when I thought about what he said. I went to a local library and sat at a computer. I made sure no one was watching me as I tried what I thought was bio-hacking.

            What did that thing mean by “bio-hacker”? What? Can I hack without having to try hard, or is it something else?

            For the next hour I sat there trying to “bio-hack” but with no success. Later that day I was wandering about (considering my apartment was nothing more than rubble) when I decided to go to the arcade. As I entered, I felt a weird feeling that I always feel around some computers and computer systems.

            “I am unbeatable!” some guy yelled from the game he was playing.

            “Aw man! I lost again!” the guy playing him moaned.

            I walked up to see what was happening.

            “Hey, you!” the gloater called out.

            “Huh?” I responded.

            “You want to lose?” he asked.

            “Depends, what’s at stake other than my dignity?” I asked.

            “$300 and two cars, sweet ones too,” he answered.

            “Okay, you’re on!” I accepted.

            I sat down to a game of Taken. I took my controls and selected my character, a panda bear. My opponent chose a cheetah. The then battle commenced. In the first round, I was destroyed in about 20 seconds. Just before the second round started, I felt a weird tingle in my hands. As the round began, my reflexes had become faster than normal and my character was taking hits, but the damage never showed. I managed to deliver a connecting kick to the head in the game. Normally, the one kicked would fall, get up, and keep fighting. This time, the kick took out the cheetah and my health bar increased in size, about two or three times longer.

            The third round started and I suddenly found myself in the game, but I was still outside. The only thing that was odd was the fact I didn’t move. I then realized what it meant to bio-hack. I could enter the computer and look through the files, take files, and leave viruses without being detected. But the fact that I could use this skill in video games made it even better.

            The first thing that happened in the last round was me doing a move that I couldn’t normally do in reality, I did the Matrix. In reality, my challenger was becoming scared at the fact that I did the Matrix. As I came down to kick, I rewrote the programming in the game (with my bio-hacking ability) to create a cheat code that makes the opponent loses instantly, if I get knocked out or not. I then landed on the ground and won the game. Suddenly, I’m back in my body.

            “You win, here’s the money and the keys to the cars,” he said depressed.

            “Keep the cars, I’ll need the money though,” I said gratefully.

            As I left the arcade, I made a resolution. I would find the other bio-hacker and save what ever needed to be saved. What I didn’t know was what I would get into.

            Okay, it was about two weeks ago when I went to find the other bio-hacker. Personally, I thought that I was going to find some geek or something weird. I went to find a computer that I could use. I would have gone to the library, but I had this weird feeling that I would meet some weird opposition.

            I went to Brian’s apartment to use a computer and, hopefully, find the other bio-hacker. When I got to the street where he lived, I could tell something had happened. The entire area had been leveled, and the only structure standing was the car tower (which literally is a tower of cars). I began to run across the debris covered street to see if there were any survivors.

            “Help!” someone yelled.

            I stopped and looked around to see where the voice was coming from.

            “I’m under your left foot!” the voice said again.

            I looked down to see a hand and the bottom of a sneaker next to me. I bent down and began removing the debris. When I had finished, a tall, skinny person emerged next to me. He coughed a little then bent down into the hole and pulled out a laptop.

            “Thanks Matt. I thought I would die from boredom down there,” the guy next to me said.

            “Do I know you?” I asked.

            “Yeah, I’m Brian,” he said in response.

            I looked at him for a moment then I recognized him. “Oh! Sorry. You’re covered in dust and stuff.”

            “Yeah,” he said.

            “What happened here?” I asked.

            “Something called a carsh or something attacked me about ten minutes ago,” he answered.

            “A Car’ish?” I said confused.

            “Yeah, that. He said that the bio-hackers were to be destroyed and I was one of the three,” Brian said. “He also said that the first one was destroyed, and the third one is close and will be vanquished.”

            “Those exact words?” I questioned.

            “The vanquished part and close part are exact,” he stated.

            “Okay,” I started, “did it state whether the third bio-hacker was male or female?”

            “No,” Brian said flatly.

            “Okay, let’s go bio-hunting!” I declared.

            “Is that a real word?” Brian asked as we started to walk.

            “Probably not. But, hey, it sounded cool, sort of.” I said.

            “Oh, okay.”

            We had been walking for about ten minutes before anything weird happened. AS we were turning the corner, I felt a slight, yet unnaturally warm breeze blow past.

            “Did you feel that?” I asked Brian.

            “Feel what?” he asked back.

            “Nothing,” I said embarrassed, “I must be losing my mind.”

            “Wait!” a feminine voice said.

            “Who said that?” I asked nervously. “Please show yourself. If you do, I won’t open fire.” I then slowly pulled out a 9mm handgun.

            “You both know me,” the voice said calmly.

            “We do?” Brain inquired.

            “Yes, you do,” the voice said happily. “If you didn’t, I wouldn’t speak to you. I would have just terminated you.”

            At that moment, I bolted. I felt the breeze pass me, and suddenly I was on the ground.

            “Don’t leave or I’ll hurt you,” the voice said. Something then touched my face (I don’t know what it was because I was looking for my gun). There was a hum, I looked up, and there above me was Amber. The first thing I did was leap to my feet and pull out my sword (that I worked on for 6 months). The sword’s long blade was about 6 feet long, and the short blade on the other end was about one foot long. The handle was death black and in the center was a glowing, red gem (and I don’t know what kind of gem it was either. It changes color.).

            “I’m not going to fight you Matt. I know you’re looking for the other bio-hacker,” she began.

            “Do you know who it is?” I asked suddenly.

            “Yes,” she said quietly. “It’s me.”

            Both Brian and I stared at her for about 15 seconds. A loud crash was heard and all three of us turned to look. Behind us was the last of the three Car’ish that were to kill us three.

            “Har har har! You three will be destroyed by the most powerful of the three humanized Car’ish! I am…” he bellowed.
            “Eat rocket freak!” I shouted as loud as I could. (Don’t ask where I got a rocket launcher from, because I don’t know.)

            “What the…” the Car’ish began. The Car’ish didn’t finish because the rocket hit it straight in the mouth. Next, Amber got a crossbow out and began firing arrows at it. As the arrows hit, they exploded causing the Car’ish great pain. Brian pulled out a magnum and fired like a maniac at the freak. As he ran out of bullets, I jumped at it, wielding my sword, and threw the blade at its chest. Before it hit the Car’ish, it smashed me against the nearest wall. I fell to the ground in a heap of brick, insulation, and ash. The last thing I remember as I hit the ground was the familiar bloodcurdling scream of a dying Car’ish.

            “What happened?” I asked groggily. I looked around to see where I was at. I was in a hospital room with nurses and people rushing around. I thought I would be in a body cast. Instead, I had three different monitors nearby and about 20 cords hanging off me

            “Hey! Amber!” Brian whispered “He’s awake!”

            “Okay,” Amber grumbled back half asleep. “Tell him what happened.”

            “Sure,” Brian said softly.

            “Before you start,” I said weakly, “why are we in a hospital?”

            “I’ll get to that,” Brain impatiently said. “After you were knocked around like a rag doll, I shot the Car’ish with the rocket launcher you dropped. Your sword hit the Car’ish and cut it open. The rocket hit the opening and exploded into a bright red and pink ball of fire, flesh, and blood. As the Car’ish fell to its death, Amber and I ran over to where you were buried. Somebody had called law enforcement because we heard sirens approaching.

            “Both of us were trying to pull you out of the rubble, but an ambulance and a fire truck were pulling around the corner. Amber and I decided to let the fire fighters to free you then make our escape.”

            “Let me guess,” I said, “the fire fighters freed me but the ambulance took me almost instantly.”

            “Yeah,” Brian continued. “So we came with you to make sure that when you woke up and could leave, we would be gone.”

            “Well then,” I said quickly, “let’s go!”

            “But, you aren’t…” Brian started to say.

            “Looks can be deceiving, okay?” I said impatiently. “Wake Amber and let’s go!”

            “I’m awake,” Amber said. “But you are in a hospital…”

            Before she could finish, I had leapt out of the bed, ripped the cords off me and pulled the hospital gown off me. Underneath the gown, I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. My sneakers were on the whole time as well.

            “Ready?” I asked.

            “How did you…?” Brian stammered confused.

            “I’ll explain later, let’s vanish,” I said as I left the room.

            “And where do you think you’re going?” asked a female nurse who suddenly came in.

            “Uh, bathroom?” I said quickly. I then started running toward the window.

            “Uh-huh. And why are you running toward the window?” she asked with a mocking voice.

            I never responded because I had already leapt out through the window and landed on the roof. Amber and Brian quickly followed.

            “You can’t escape, you bio-hackers!” the nurse called out behind us.

            As we ran across the roof, Brian asked, “What does she mean we can’t escape?”

            As he finished those words, a loud rumbling was heard. I stopped to look and find the source of the sound. I didn’t look long because a large gun turret loomed up.

            “Uh, guys?” I yelled with a worried tone.

            “What?” Amber said with a glance. She then stopped and looked completely behind her. Brian stopped and looked to.

            “Don’t stop! Run for it!” I shouted franticly. The turret began firing blast energy behind me. (I guess that would be considered a laser.) The roof began to fly in the air and rip apart. As I passed them, Amber and Brian took off running. We didn’t get far because the roof clasped beneath us.

            As we picked ourselves painfully off the floor, I glanced around to get my bearings. We had landed next to an ambulance with the key still in the ignition.

            “Well now, this is handy,” I said to myself. To the others I said, “Guys, we have a ride.”

            Seconds later, we tore out of the garage where the vehicle was parked with Amber at the wheel.

            “Hang on guys,” she shouted.

            “What do you think I’m doing?” I shouted back.

            As we speed down the highway, I noticed (through the aid of the side mirrors) that we were being followed by cops.

            “Brian, open the window,” I commanded.

            “Why?” he asked. I held up a grenade that I had clipped to my belt (one of the many I always carry). After he opened the window, I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade out. There was a loud boom, the swerving of tires, and the sound of metal crushing against itself.

            “What was that?” Brian asked with shock.

            “Nothing,” I said calmly while glancing out of the window.

            “Right Matt,” Amber said sarcastically. “Whenever something blows up, it’s nothing right?”

            “How do you know?” I asked suddenly.

            “I’ve seen you around,” she said.

            “Around?” I asked again.

            “When, like, I’m walking down the street and you pass me, something will explode. Somebody will then run up to you ask what happened, and you say, ‘Nothing.’” Amber said.

            “Yeah, that just about sums it up,” I say nodding.

            “What happened to the cars that were behind us?” Brian asks unexpectedly.

            “They, um, they stopped to get gas and food!” I said quickly.

            “Right,” Brian said.

            “Can we stop, please?” Amber asked.

            “Sure,” Brain said. “Where should we stop at?”

            “There,” I said quickly.

            “At a hotel?” Brian asked.

            “Yeah,” I said. “If we go there, I can get us a different vehicle that won’t be tracked.”

            “Good idea,” Amber agreed. “Besides, this thing is cramped.”
            “There is the back,” Brian said.

            “Yeah, I’ll go checked that out,” I said.

            I rolled over to where I could open the door to the back of the ambulance. I crawled into the back and stood up. Before Amber could climb back, the door was shut and I was knocked around.

            “What was that?” I asked quickly.

            “Your worst…” a voice began.

            “Nightmare? I’ve had worse, whoever you are,” I said.

            “Really? Have you had a nightmare that did this?” the voice asked. Suddenly, the back door flung open and I began to slide toward the doors.

            “Why am I sliding?” I asked aloud. And why haven’t Amber or Brian come out yet?

            “Die!” the voice shouted. Moments after that was shouted, I felt a kick to my back, knocking me down on the floor. But I kept sliding toward the door.

            “Crap!” I shouted, hoping someone in the front would here me.

            “Nobody can save you now!” the voice said with a laugh. Then there was a shimmer and a body appeared.

            “You?” I asked in surprise. I could only recognize her by the weapon, which was a small, yet lethal, stun rod.

            “Yes me,” the person said. (I’m leaving you in the dark for a reason.) “Now, to watch you die!”

            “Baka,” I said before flying out of the ambulance. As I was falling to my death, I remembered that I had my high-tech grappling hooks on my wrist. I pointed toward the ambulance and fired the hooks. The magnetic part stuck to the now closed doors and yanked me forward.

            “He should be dead now,” the girl inside said. “Now I can take care of the other one.”

            “Why did I have to go back there?” I asked myself annoyed. “I could have just slid over!”

            Inside the ambulance, Brian began to wonder why I hadn’t said anything since I crawled back there.

            “What is taking him so long?” Brian asked.

            “Huh?” Amber asked confused.

            “Matt went back there about five minutes ago,” Brian said. “Why is he taking so long?”

            Before Amber could come up with an answer, I landed on the hood of the ambulance. I turned around and waved to them, then crawled over to the passenger side window. Amber opened it and I climbed back in.

            “Well that was fun!” I said quickly. “Let’s ditch this and run!”

            “Sure,” Brian agreed.

            “Why?” Amber asked.

            “If I end up on the hood,” I say with a nervous smile, “there is a good reason.”

            Brian pulled over to the side and we all climbed out. I planted some explosive on the engine and gas cap and walked off.

            “There’s a hotel over there,” I said. I was pointing to the onramp that led to a nearby street. “If we climb over the guard rail, we should be able to get to it.”

            “And how long will that take?” Amber asked impatiently.

            “About two or three minutes, easy,” I say.

            As we walked away, I pressed a button that was on my watch. An instant later, there was a massive explosion behind us.

            “Matt,” Amber started. “Why did you do that?”

            “To remove all evidence. At least, biological evidence, like sweat,” I answered.

            We kept walking until we reached the hotel. When we got in, we checked out a room and got some food.

            It was three hours before I ended up where you found me. We had been in the hotel for three days and I was bored. (Why three?) I had wondered the building so much; I could give someone the entire layout including security and such.

            “Hey, Brian!” I shouted, not that there was a need.

            “Yeah?” he called back.

            “I’m leaving for an hour or so. At, like, 9 or so, could you open the window?” I asked.

            “Uh, sure,” he said.

            “Matt, why are going through the window?” Amber asked.

            “Don’t know,” was my response.

            I opened the window and crawled out. I dropped from our room (which is on the 8^th floor) and launched my grappling hooks. As I touched the ground with my toes, I heard the sound of droning engines approaching. I dove for the nearest bush I could find to hide behind.

            I looked from behind the bush to see two hummers drive up. Following those was a stretch limousine followed by two more hummers. I could tell that whoever was in the limo was not here for a reservation. The vehicles stopped and the drive stepped out of the limo. He walked to the back to the rear door (which took about 5 to 15 minutes) and opened it. Before I could see who stepped out, thirty body guards ran out and covered the area. I decided to run off so I could finish what I was going to do.

            As I left I heard this: “Check the building. He should be dead, but then, so should I.”

            I shuddered. That only meant one thing. ‘She’ had survived. I began to run toward the highway so I could escape and so I wouldn’t be found.

            “If she finds me, I’m…,” I paused. “Wait! She doesn’t know that I’m here. If I get one of my explosives now, then I can get rid of her!”

            “Really?” a female voice said behind me.

            I turned around to see her. And ‘her’ is Suzie. She was holding a shotgun and wearing a long black dress.

            “So, uh, what’s the occasion?” I asked nervously.

            “I have a party to go to soon. I just wanted to make sure you were dead,” she responded.

            “Wouldn’t an exploding ambulance say that I’m dead?” I asked her.

            “Yeah, it would. But I still want the pleasure of killing you,” she said with an evil smile. (At lease, I thought it was evil.)

            “Why do you want to kill me?” I asked. “The pleasure of it doesn’t count.”

            “Fine,” she said slightly annoyed. She sighed and glanced up which gave me a chance to escape.

            “Well?” I asked impatiently. At the same time I was walking quietly away.

            “It goes back…” she started. Before she could even finish the sentence, there was a loud honk and a screech. She looked around, and then she jogged over to the highway.

            In the middle of the highway, there was a pile of metal, rubber, and several gallons of milk. I stood up and looked around.

            “Good thing I was wearing my protective shield!” I declared.

            Suzie looked at me in awe. I looked back at her and shrugged. She began to lift her shotgun, but before she could get it all the way up, I had thrown my grapple at the gun. I yanked it from her hand and lifted my gun.

            I was holding a P-90. It was black with a golden ammo case. There was a silencer on the barrel and a laser pointer on it as well. I aimed the weapon at her and began to walk towards her.

            She chuckled, “You think you can kill me with that?”

            “No. No I don’t,” I responded. “Although…”

            “Although what?” Suzie asked angrily.

            “I could say I threw an explosive but it was too far away to kill you but threw us away from each other,” I said thoughtfully.

            “That might work,” she agreed. “The only problem is that, we look as if we just got dressed.”

            “Two things,” I said, “don’t bring that up. And, here.” I tossed a small explosive to her. She reached out to catch it but it fell right in between us.

            “That didn’t even,” she started. Boom! The explosion knocked us about 50 feet away from each other. I got up and walked away, gripping another explosive too tightly.

            As Suzie got up, she saw another explosion and a small figure leave the ground heading her direction. She watched it as it became larger. As the object got closer, she could see that it was me doing a Superman pose. I glanced down and saluted then kept flying forward. Suzie laughed lightly then walked off.

            I had been flying for five minutes before I saw the hotel window leading to the room we were staying in. I fired my grappling hooks so I could rappel down to the room.

            As I approached the window, I noticed that it was slightly open. I stopped and listened. Inside I heard Suzie talking.

            “So,” Suzie said, “kill Matt and take Brian hostage.”

            “But what if Matt lives?” Amber asked worried. “You haven’t been able to kill him. He can’t even kill himself!”

            “True,” Suzie agreed. “Take him hostage as well then. We’ll find a use for him.”

            “Okay,” Amber said. “I’m glad I won’t be with these guys doing what they are doing for o much longer. Working with my friend and taking over the world is so much easier.”

            “Yeah,” Suzie said. “I’ll see you in the morning. Make sure that the boys are conscious.”

            “Okay!” Amber said. “Bye!”

            I hung there for a moment thinking about what I just heard. I looked at my watch and saw that I had about an hour left before I was due back. I thought about going back to the parking lot and taking out some of the guys down there, but I decided to go in early. I swung over to the window and tapped on it.

            “Huh?” amber said startled. I waved at her. “Oh,” she said relived, “it’s you.” She opened the window and I crawled in.

            “Yeah, it’s me,” I said. “Where’s Brian?”

            “Oh, he’s down stairs getting something to eat,” she said while opening a drawer. “Why?”

            “No reason,” I said nervously. “I’ll be right back.”

            “Where are you going?” she asked.

            “Down stairs!” I shouted because I was already out the door.

            “That’s weird,” Amber said quizzically, “guess I won’t be needing this then.” She put the tranquilizer gun back in the drawer.

            I ran toward the elevator and was about to push the down button, but I stopped.

            What if she’s waiting for me at the bottom? It could be a trap! Or was entering the room a trap? I was completely confused, so I decided to set up my own little trap. I pushed the down button and waited for the elevator. When the door opened, I had latched myself to the ceiling. Before I could drop down, Amber came running to the elevator. It was empty apparently, so she took it.

            Why was Matt acting so weird? Amber thought to herself. Does he know that I work with Suzie?

            The elevator doors closed and began to descend. I dropped from the ceiling and ran for the stairs. I burst through the doors and jumped over the railing and dropped. I fell all 16 flights of stairs to the floor. Before I hit the bottom, I shot my grappling hooks up to something above me. (And, if you haven’t noticed, these are my favorite, non-lethal tool.) I don’t know where it stuck because I was looking at the floor. I stopped so suddenly that I thought I dislocated my arm. I dropped all the way to the floor and cracked opened the door. I peeked out side to see if there were any guards around. There weren’t so I snuck out.

            “Someone is coming down the elevator!” Suzie snapped. I looked around to see where she was. I began to turn the corner, but I stopped and dove behind the wall. As I hit the floor, I accidentally hit a trash can.

            “Huh?” one of the guards said confused. He started to walk over but the elevator doors opened. Suzie said something in a language that I couldn’t understand. I don’t think her guards understood her either. She and Amber walked this way and they both were carrying weapons of some sort. I looked around the area to find an escape before they came.

            “Hey! Matt!” someone whispered.

            “Huh?” I asked confused.

            “Up here!” the person whispered again. I looked up to see Brian in the vents and he had removed the grill to the vent also. I stood up and leapt up into the vent. Brian closed the vent quickly after.

            “So,” I said after Amber and Suzie walked past, “why are you in here?”

            “I had left to get some food, but as I walked down the hall, I heard two explosions and felt a breeze go past me.”

            “Suzie,” I said venomously.

            “Yeah. I walked back to the room, but Amber was talking to someone,” Brain explained. “I heard that she was to capture you and me. So I ran to the nearest vent, opened it and climbed in.”

            “Good idea,” I said thoughtfully. “Come on. We have to leave.”

            “Right,” Brain said.

            “And I drive this time.”

            “You have a car?”

            “Sorta. You can fight right?”

            “Yeah. Especially with these.” Brian pulled out kun-chucks.

            “You have them rigged don’t you?”

            “You’ll see.”

            We got to the end of the vent and pushed out the grill. We jumped out and ran toward the hummers. The guards were taking a break when we snuck up on them. By the time they noticed we were here, we had hijacked the hummer and sped off.

            “What the…” one of the guards started.

            “That was too easy. We change cars in ten minutes, got it?” I said.

            “Yep,” Brian said. “But we have company.”

            I looked at my side view mirror and sighed. “If they don’t…” I stopped before I said anything else.

            “Now what?” Brian asked.

            “Here,” I said. I handed him an ion cannon with a plasmatic charge on it. Brian leaned out the window and took aim.

            “These people never show any mobile resistance,” Brain stated. He pulled the trigger and a blast of a greenish purple energy shot out of the cannon. The blast was off a little but still did damage. The limousine crumpled from the pressure that was generated from the blast, and the hummers simply exploded.

            “Nice,” I said.

            “Sw33t!” Brian exclaimed.

            “So,” I said, “j00 sp34k l337?”

            “Y34h,” he replied.

            We kept driving until we couldn’t see anything from the blast and kept driving still.

            Back at the wreck, Suzie and Amber were telling the cops what had happened. They left out who did this and what was used though.

            “Okay,” the officer said, “we’re looking for a black hummer that has two males riding inside and…” The officer didn’t finish. Amber was standing behind him holding the weapon that was seen before and smoke was coming from the tip of it.

            “He should learn when to speak when giving the authority,” Amber said with a sinister tone.

            “You’re right. Is he dead?” Suzie bent over to pick up the cop’s head.

            “No, but he won’t be working for the rest of the evening,” Amber said with a small laugh.

            Farther down the road, Brian and I traded vehicles. He was now driving a Dodge Viper and I was driving a Chrysler ME Four-Twelve. (Yes, I had connections.) These cars were tricked out. The Viper had 24 inch chrome wheels, red matte paint with an orange-yellow stripe. The ME had 24 inch chrome wheels and a burnt orange color shift paint job (Color shift – Three to five colors in the same paint job, giving the vehicle a cool reflection of light.). There were hidden weapons all over the vehicles and both had been upgraded with the best parts that 5 million dollars could buy (Yes I had cash too. Street racing does that.). As we were driving down the highway (250 to 300 mph), I spotted the ‘accident.’ I signaled to Brian (via turning signal) and spun the car around and went through the median (not that was one). We stopped about 50 feet away. Brian and I got out of our cars and pressed a button on the cars’ remotes. The Viper gave a little hum and began to transform. It went from car to tank and the doors on the tank opened up. Brain and got in and drove forward.

            My car also gave a hum and transformed. Mine went from car to battle armor. The armor was the same color as the car had been previously. On the left arm was a large rifle that fired neurotic plasmatic laser blast and on the right arm had short, sharp blades that glow a weak red. The right arm also had a hidden weapon, an exploding fist. (My fist doesn’t explode!)

.           “What’s that noise?” Suzie asked.

            “Hello!” I shouted.

            Amber and Suzie spun to see a huge tank parked on the limo, and me standing there dressed in weird looking armor. The tank had the same color scheme as the Viper and had two huge barrels. There were several smaller barrels lining the tank and rocket launchers placed on the tank as well. The tread was seven feet tall and had huge spikes protruding out from it.

            “Nice gear!” Amber said enthusiastically.

            “Please,” I asked, “don’t do anything stupid.” I raised my left arm up and pointed it at them. “We have enough fire power to take out a city from orbit.”

            “Fine,” Suzie said exasperated. “I won’t pull any crazy stunts. But, I don’t think this is crazy!” Both Suzie and Amber lunged toward me, hoping to throw me off balance.

            “Wha?” I said startled. Amber and Suzie hit me at the legs making me stumble a bit but they were in for the shock of their life. (Bad pun, yes. Do I realize that? Yes.) My armor gave both of them a jolt of 20,000 mega watts through their bodies. They should have died, but they fell off me, rolled a bit on the ground, got up, and shot at me with a pistol. My car had more surprises, like, it transformed into the car again (without killing me. I was still in it) and sped off. Following closely was Brian in his Viper.

            “They won’t get far,” Amber said confidently. “I placed tracers on them.” Amber looked at the receiver to find out that the tracers didn’t work. “What?”

            “What?” Suzie asked.

            “The signal is blocked!” Amber exclaimed.

            “Where to now Matt?” Brain asked me through the com-link in the cars.

            “Don’t know,” I said. “Looks like we are going to have a long battle before us.”

            We didn’t get more than 15 miles away before we were stopped by some weird police force. A female dressed in pink armor walked up to my car.

            “GGR license please,” she asked.

            “What?” I asked back.

            “GGR,” she said.

            “What is GGR?” I asked the person.

            “Galactic Girl Republic. Isn’t it obvious?” the female asked with a sarcastic tone.

            I didn’t find her joke funny. If I did, then I didn’t show it because her little smile disappeared from her face.

            “Sir?” she asked worriedly. “Are you alive? Do you have sense of humor?”

            I snapped at the last thing she said. I had my car transform into the armor and I started a shooting rampage. Brian joined in and used his armor. His armor was the same except his left arm had a wrist weapon that shot rockets non-stop. In less than five seconds, the entire street looked like a war had hit it. (This is where you came in.)

            “Incoming!” I shouted to Brian. Boom! The ground between us exploded to bits. I jumped up and fired my rifle, destroying most of their heavy support units. 20 seconds later, Brian and I had gained over 200 feet of ground. The opposing army eventually retreated, giving Brian and I the victory.

            “Amazing,” a girl said behind us. “Two boys and their toys make an entire army retreat. How pathetic.”

            Brian and I turned around to see Suzie sitting on a fence that hadn’t been there before the battle. I glanced to my right and saw Amber standing off to the side.

            “You two won’t last a second round against the two most powerful people in the known universe,” Suzie said.

            “Who?” I asked. “Beethoven and Bach? They had some powerful music!”

            “No you…” she stopped mid-sentence. “Just shut up and fight!”

            “Aren’t you a little dressed up for combat?” Brain asked.

            Suzie’s clothes shimmered for a second and suddenly she was in street clothes.

            “I don’t think she’s heard of me!” I shouted. I started to charge Suzie, but then the planet was turned upside down.

            “Yah!” I shouted. Amber had suddenly hit me from the side, knocking me into the road.

            “Told you we were the most powerful beings in the known universe,” Suzie gloated.

            I growled and pulled myself up off the ground and had my car transform back into the vehicle form then pull over to the side of the road.     

            “You want a fight?” I asked angrily. “You got one!”

            I charged at Suzie again, and Amber tried ramming me from the side again. This time, I rolled to the right and sent a kick to the back of Amber’s head. The blow made contact and Amber flew across the highway. Suzie leapt from her spot and was holding a machete. I dropped to the ground and Brian talked her midair.

            “I’ll take Suzie!” Brian shouted. “You take down Amber!”

            “Way ahead of you!” I shouted back. I charged Amber head on, but she dove out of the way, causing me to crash into a nearby overturned vehicle. I stood back up and spun around.

            “I think I know why you’re not making contact,” Amber said thoughtfully.

            “Yeah?” I said heavily. “What?”

            “You’re hotheaded,” she said. “You get angry easily, causing you to be reckless and clumsy.”

            When she said that, I shot forward. It happened so quickly, Amber couldn’t react. I delivered a series of quick, devastating blows that made Amber fall to the ground.

            “Still think,” I said breathlessly, “I’m clumsy and reckless?”

            “Ow…” Amber groaned. She lay on the ground and passed out. I looked over to where Brian was at to see his situation. His head was stuck in the ground, making him vulnerable.

            “I’m coming Brian!” I shouted.

            “No you’re not!” Suzie shouted back. Before I could react, Amber had leapt up and stabbed me in the back using her weapon that apparently stunned people. I fell to the floor and passed out.

            “Ugh,” I groaned. “Where am I?” I looked around to find myself on a table. I sat up and started to put a foot on the floor.

            “Stop!” a garbled voice shouted. I looked around to see where the voice came from.

            “It’s okay,” the voice said with a little more clarity. The lights flashed on blinding me and causing me to fall to the floor. When I could see again, I saw a girl standing over me. My initial reaction was to hop up, take her down and run. Instead, I sat on the floor and looked around.

            “Where am I?” I asked.

            “You’re in an underground facility,” the girl said. “My name’s Stephine. Don’t worry because I’m not going to hurt you.”

            I looked at her funny because the last person who said that knocked me unconscious. She looked at me, and then sat down in a nearby chair. I stood up.

            “Thanks,” I said sounding grateful, “but no thanks.”

            She looked at me weird this time. “You can’t leave. The doors are locked.”

            “Really?” I said with sarcasm. “I’ll have to make some new ones then.”

            She stood up abruptly. “You can’t!”

            “Why?” I asked angrily. “Is your boss going to kill you if I escape? Is the security going to report you to the GGR or whatever?”

            “The GGR?” she asked scared.

            “You’ve heard of them?” I asked calmly.

            Slowly, a smile spread across her face. “Of course. I’m one of the head leaders. You’re going to tell me where the weapons stash for your little gang.”

            “Gang?” I asked more confused than ever. “So, first you say you’re not going to hurt me, then it’s the scared of some army, then it’s ‘tell me where your weapons are’? Why do you care? I mean,” I do a laughing cough, “my little secret isn’t going to…” I stopped mid sentence.

            “Secret?” Stephanie asked interested. “I’ll keep a secret. I promise I won’t tell the others. I promise!”

            I sighed heavily. “Fine,” I said defeated. “I don’t know why I’m telling you, but here it is.” Stephanie stepped closer to me. “I plan to dominate this pathetic galaxy then the next and the next and so on and so forth.”

            She though for a moment. “How? It’s just you. You might have taken down our task force, but you can’t take down an entire army.”

            “Really?” I asked. “You just wait. I’ll do it. And when you stop me,” I chuckle manically, “it will be too late!” I then burst out laughing. I walk up to a door, still laughing, place some charges on it, step back, and destroy the door.

            “Go to the Washington Monument,” Stephanie said suddenly and quietly.

            “Huh? Why?” I ask.

            “There, you can get supplies. You’ll need them if you intend on leaving this planet,” she said.

            “Thanks,” I replied. I looked out the door and saw a long corridor. “Where can I find Brain?”

            “He’s in a different facility. Chasdon is being held by Amber,” she answered.

            “Uh… thanks,” I said. I left right after our little discussion. I found my way out and called my car. When it pulled up, I had it change into a jet. I did a preflight check, and then took off. As I flew higher, I noticed two unmanned jets flying next to me. They pulled ahead and I assumed that I was to follow. The jets took me the Washington Monument then split. I landed nearby and had my car turn into a cell phone (amazingly, it didn’t weigh two tons). I walked up to the Monument and scanned the area for traps, or enemy forces. It was about noon so there were civilians around. I walked into the Monument to find the supplies. As I entered, a tour guide approached me.

            “Sir,” he said, “is your name Matthew?”

            “Yes,” I said cautiously. “Why?”

            “The third ranking officer of the GGR called stating that you would come,” he said plainly. “Please come this way.” He pointed to a hallway that simply appeared.

            I started to walk in then stopped. The tour guide wasn’t following.

            “Um…” I started.

            “The way in and out is simple. Walk straight until you enter a large, well-lit chamber. Exit through the back hall,” he explained.

            “Okay,” I said then continued walking in.

            The guide waited until I was out of earshot and pulled out a satellite phone. “He has entered miss.”

            “Good,” the person said on the other end. “He will know the true power of the GG soon enough.”

            “W...where a…am…” Brian stammered.

            “Don’t try to talk,” someone commanded him. “You’ll alert your friend that we’re here. And you don’t want that do we?”

            Brian didn’t respond. Instead, he tried to move so e could see where he was. When he moved, he felt extreme pain going through his spine and neck.

            “Don’t move,” the person said. “You experienced severe back damage. Remember?” He thought for a moment. Suddenly he realized who was holding him captive.

            “Must… contact… Matt,” Brain said.

            “That’s impossible,” his captor said. Brian silently pressed a button on his remote that he kept with him at all times.

            While I was in the tunnel, my watch went off. I looked at it to see why it went off. I had just received two distress signals. One was from Brain, and it was further in the cave. The other one I didn’t recognize. I took out my cell phone and had it turn into my battle armor. I began to run down the tunnel to trying to trace the signal. I turned the corner to find a creature that I had never seen, or smelt (ugh) before.

            The creature was twelve feet tall and had long, blood red teeth. It had four paws with short, sharp, red claws. Its eyes were glowing a bright orange and had spikes running down its back.

            The creature reared up on its hind legs and swung at me. Its paw hit and I was sent flying across the tunnel. I hit the ground and rolled into the main cavern.

            “Man,” I groan, “that hurt.”

            “I’m sure it did,” a voice said. I glance up to see Alaini standing over me with a shotgun.

            “Don’t kill him,” another voice said. I look to where the other voice was coming from. “I want to kill him.” It was Stephanie.

            “Oh, crap,” I say quietly. I stood up and tried to run off.

            “Where are you going?” Stephanie asked. She raised a 9mm handgun and shot it. The bullet bounced off my armor and I stopped.

            “Did you just shoot me?” I asked with angrily.

            “Yeah,” Stephanie said.

            “Well, in Texas,” I say, “you can shoot the person back.”

            Within the next 53 seconds, there were massive amounts of explosions screams moos, (yes there was a cow) and crashes. (I am leaving out this part for some reasons. One, it’s graphic [with the blood and stuff], second, it would be about five more pages.)

            When the dust settled, all that could be seen was rubble and me eating a steak.

            “This is a good steak,” I mumble with my mouth full. “Okay, now to find Brian.”

            I hopped off the rubble and landed on the ground with a soft groan.

            “What the…” I said confused. I look down to see Brian, half dead, on the ground. “What are you doing?”

            All he did was groan. I looked around to find a flat piece of rock, and some displaced wheels. I put Brian on top, made two axles and placed the wheels on the rock. I wheeled Brian out of the tunnel and out of the Washington Monument.

            Brian slowly began to regain his senses and tried to sit up.

            “Ow!” he yelped suddenly.

            “Don’t move,” I told him. I found a secluded spot where I could hide him and set up a perimeter defense.

            “Can I get something to eat?” Brian asked.

            “I’ll try to get something,” I said as I looked at a laptop screen, “but I need to call in a marker or two.”

            “Okay,” Brian said. “While you do that, I’ll sit here painfully.”

            I rolled my eyes and opened up an email I just received. It read:

            Matt,

            I got your email and your coordinates. I’m coming via hummer and I have some medical supplies, food, water, and weapons. I’ll be there in about two to four minutes. You should be able to see a hummer with flames painted on the sides.

            P4|_|l

            I looked around to see a hummer driving towards us, moving at 100 mph.

            “What the…” I began. The hummer suddenly skidded to a stop and the door opened.

            “Yo!” Paul shouted. He was sitting in his hummer holding a P-90.

            “What took you so long?” I asked sarcastically.

            “Traffic,” he responded.

            “Nice,” I said. “Come on, let’s get Brian loaded up.”

            In five minutes, we were driving along the highway. I looked at the mirror to make sure we weren’t being followed. As ‘luck’ would have it, we were being followed by 10, yes 10, black hummers.

            “Do you have a shotgun with ion ammo?” I asked.

            “Yep,” he replied calmly. “Check the back of your seat.” I looked back to see an infantry of mini-weapons. I pulled out a mini-shotgun and a mini-P-90. I opened my window, pointed the shotgun at the first hummer, and fired. The hummer lit up in a ball of fire, swerved, then exploded completely.

            “Nice,” Paul said. “I’ll line you up for the next shot.” Paul maneuvered the hummer so that I could hit the next hummer. I fired and the hummer exploded and made another hummer exploded next to it.

            “Who are those guys?” Paul asked.

            “Do you know someone named Suzie?” I asked him.

            “Yeah.”

            “Those are her body guards. Also, Amber and Stephanie have several police and military working for them.”

            “What about Alaini?”

            “Her?” I shuddered. “She works for them, I know that, but that’s it.”

            “Okay,” Paul answered. As we drove down the highway, Brian sat up.

            “Don’t kill yourself Brian,” I said. Brian didn’t respond. Instead, he took out a gun and pointed it at Paul.

            “Take me to…” Brian began. Before he could finish, I stabbed him in the arm with a tranquilizer. Brian slumped back into the seat and passed out.

            “He’s been zombified,” I said.

            “Zombified?” Paul asked confused. “That’s a word?”

            “Normally, no,” I answered. “In this case, yes.”

            I looked out the window to see three hummers charging us at full speed.

            “Paul, hit the gas hard!” I ordered. Paul didn’t hesitate. When he pressed on the gas, the hummer sped up so quickly that when I stuck my hand out with a grenade in it, the grenade armed itself.

            “Holy…!” I shouted. The grenade flew behind us and went off. Paul and I glanced back and saw a fireball and hummer punch through it.

            “Not good,” Paul said.

            “My words exactly,” I said.

            “Ugh, what happened?” Brian asked.

            “You tried taking us hostage,” I said quickly. At the same time, I leaned out the window and began shooting a P-90 at the other hummer.

            “What?” Brian asked angrily. “Are you calling me a traitor?”

            “No,” Paul said. “We’re calling you zombified.”

            “That’s a word?” Brian asked.

            “Right now it is,” Paul, answered.

            “Man,” I said exhausted. “That took three rounds of ion saber bullets.”

            “Wow,” Brian said. “That must mean their hummers have been upgraded.”

            “With what though?” I asked.

            “Um… when I was being held captive, I was told the hummers had a new ion shield that was almost impossible to destroy,” Brian said.

            “Yeah, noticed,” I said annoyed. “Wait!”

            “What?” Paul and Brian said at the same time.

            “When I dropped the grenade earlier,” I said, “the hummer went up as if I struck the gas line.”

            “Oh, yeah,” Paul said. “Also, it took you three clips to destroy it as well.”

            “We need to go shopping!” I declared. Paul and Brian looked at me as if I was crazy. “Not clothes shopping, electronics shopping! And some hardware.”

            “Okay,” Paul said. “I know just where to go.” In five minutes we had purchased about $500,000 worth of HDTV’s, nails, washing machines, nail guns, wires, tires, sharp pointy things (that’s what was on the package), an entire stores security system (we might have a few phone calls soon), and a PS3.

            “Now that was a shopping spree,” I said carrying the last of the stuff we brought into a garage. “Good thing I had this old garage. We would not be able to get this stuff.”

            “Yeah,” Paul said. “Why do we need a washing machine?”

            “Are we doing laundry or something?” Brian asked.

            “No,” I said. “I’ll show you when we’re done unloading everything.”

            It was 2:30 when we finished. Paul left to get some food and Brian went with him. I sat down for five minutes before I began working. What I didn’t know was that I was being watched.

            “Why do the need a washing machine?” one person asked.

            “I don’t know,” the other person answered. “It’s not like they do laundry. They have technology so that a washing machine is just a waste.”

            “You’re right… maybe he intends on making a car with it.”

            “Yeah right.”

            “Let’s go down there and ask him.”

            “Fine.”

            I had decided to take a brake from smashing things, opening things, and pulling stuff apart. I sat down in a make shift chair (made out of some unused items) and fell asleep. I awoke suddenly when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I stood up and looked around. Paul and Brian hadn’t gotten back yet, so I thought I had gone insane.

            “You’re not insane, Matt,” one of them said.

            “I didn’t say anything,” I said back.

            “Yes you did, under your breath,” the other one said.

            “Who are you?” I asked them.

            “You know us,” one of them said. They both stepped out into the light and reveled themselves.

            “Oh, great,” I said. “Where are those two?”

            “They’ll be late,” Amber said. “They ran into some old friends.”

            “They’re late as it is,” I grumbled.

            “Anyway,” Suzie said, “we’re here because you have a lot of equipment.”

            “And we’d like to know what you were doing with all of it,” Amber finished.

            “Right,” I said. I stood up and walked over to the remains of the washing machine.

            “Really,” Suzie said, “we might even call a truce.”

            “A truce?” I asked surprised. I kneeled down and reached into the pile.

            “Yeah,” Amber agreed. “There’s only one condition.”

            “And that is?” I asked.

            “You have to help us with some stuff,” Amber said.

            “Like what?” I inquired. I stood up again but held my hands behind my back.

            “Technology, weapons, stuff you’re good at,” Amber replied.

            “You’re just making it sound good,” I said in response.

            “No really,” Suzie said. “You’re really good with that kind of stuff. I mean, we thought that the new hummers that we sent after you would stop you. You stopped it instead.”

            “Yeah, I did,” I said. “Here’s the thing that I’ve been working on though.” I took my hands from behind my back to reveal it.

            “A P-90?” Amber asked confused. “That’s it?”

            “Not really,” I replied. It’s the ammo that I’ve been engineering for the past couple of weeks.” I turned and shot at a pillar. The bullet came out as it normally would, but as when it hit the pillar, it flashed suddenly, and then exploded, disintegrating the pillar.

“Your new hummers have an ionic based armor,” I explained. “This bullet will destroy the armor and it replicates from the remains to form small rockets that shoot the same thing, only faster.”

“That’s why we want you!” Amber exclaimed. “You can make stuff like this and use it. Our scientists are idiots and can’t make a toaster into a conventional weapon.”

“Right,” I said.

“Well.” Suzie said suddenly. “Here’s your chance to prove that these work.”

Pulling towards us at high speeds were the new hummers.

“Crap,” I said. That’s all I said.

            As the hummers approached, I pointed towards them and fired. The bullets hit several different things and caused massive explosions. One hummer was hit by one of the bullets and it swerved into the closest, undamaged pillars. Just as I had explained earlier, the melted metal disappeared, and five small seeker rockets formed. They hovered idle for a few seconds then launched themselves toward the remaining hummers. Two dropped a few feet away form the hummers and exploded. The hummers swerved around trying to avoid the other rockets, but were hit none the less. As the metal melted and formed more rockets, six more hummers drove up. The rockets hovered around until the hummers were 15 feet away. The rockets began firing bullets until the hummers were completely destroyed.

            “Wow,” Suzie said surprised.

            “Yep,” I said. “The only problem with them is…”

            The rockets that formed from the hummers began to float toward each other.

            “What problem?” Amber asked.

            “Run!” I shouted. I began sprinting toward the edge of the garage. The rockets formed a large ball of black energy. Amber and Suzie sprinted behind me trying to keep up.

            “He’s faster than I thought!” Suzie exclaimed.

            “When there’s doom right behind me,” I shouted, “I’ll run a mile in two minutes!”

            We never reached the edge of the garage because the energy ball exploded. A huge blast of light, energy, and pain ran across me. I fell on the ground and passed out.

---------------------------------- ***----------------------------------------

            “Where did these hummers come from?” Paul asked angrily.

            “I don’t know!” Brian exclaimed. “Why did your hummer flip over?”

            “These hummers appeared and made me swerve!” Paul shouted back. “If I didn’t swerve, we’d be dead!” Paul fired a shotgun over his flipped hummer.

            “Why don’t you call Matt?” Brian asked irritated.

            “I can’t!” Paul shouted. A spray of rocks fell upon Brian and Paul. “There’s either a scrambler or a form of interference! I can’t dial out!”

----------------------------------- ***---------------------------------------

            “Ugh,” I groan. I opened my eyes to see what happened. From my viewpoint, there was no big difference from before the explosion. I painfully stood up and looked around. Amber was up and looking around and Suzie was still out. I looked at my hand and saw that my P-90 was still there.

            “Matt?” Amber asked. I looked up to see her kneeling in front of me.

            “Yah!” I shouted. “What?”

            “Will you please reconsider?” she asked me.

            “Why do you want me to work for you?” I asked her.

            “You’re smart and you can make a weapon from anything,” she explained.

            “That’s nice,” I said, “but you’re not going to influence me.”

            “What would it take?” Amber asked. That surprised me. I looked back at her.

            “What?” I asked shocked.

            “What would it take to make you help me?” Amber asked.

            “Wait,” I said. “Are you asking me to help you overthrow Suzie?”

            “No,” she said bluntly. “I’m asking you to help me take out some enemies that threaten the GGR.”

            “Wouldn’t that be redundant?” I asked her.

            “What do you mean?” she asked back.

            “Who are you going to eliminate?” I asked.

            “N3,” she replied

            “The L337 N1nj4 3mp1r3,” I said. “Do you know who controls it?”

            “No,” Amber said back.

            I smiled for a moment. “I won’t tell you verbally,” I said. “I’ll tell you this way.” After I said that, I disappeared.

            “No,” Amber gasped. “It can’t be…” She began to sit quietly and think.

            “Ugh,” Suzie groaned. “What happened?”

            “Matt’s the ruler of the N3,” Amber told her.

            Suzie looked at her dumbfounded. “That inconsiderate, evil, boneheaded, psycho jerk?” she shouted. “He’s smart but he’s a…” Suzie stopped short and fell down unconscious. Amber looked at her neck to pull the tranquilizer dart out of her neck.

            “He has to be the leader,” she said. The dart said N3 on the side. She pocketed the dart and sat there.

--------------------------------- ***-----------------------------------------

            I ran down the highway to the area where Paul and Brian were at. Paul glanced behind him and saw me coming.

            “Matt’s coming!” he exclaimed. At that moment, there was a huge explosion in front of me. I fell down and began to roll across the ground to avoid the hail of bullets that followed.

            “Hey guys,” I said when I reached them. “How’s it going?”

            “Not to well, I’m afraid,” Paul said.

            “What do you need?” I asked.

            “Ammo, mines, pizza,” Brian said.

            “Well,” I said,” I have the new ammo, some magazines of the new ammo, and a P-90.”

            “That’s it?” Paul asked.

            I looked in my long leather coat (which I have no idea where it came from). “Nope,” I said. “I can take these hummers out. But you’ll have to run as soon as I fire one bullet.”

            “Okay,” Brian said. I hoped up and shot a hummer in the hood. As soon as I did that, I ran. Paul and Brian were ahead of me, but I caught up with them.

            “Keep moving!” I ordered. Behind us were a huge explosion, a moo, and a loud crunch.

            “Okay,” I said breathlessly. “We should be safe.”

            “From what?” a voice said behind us. “A rabid cow?”

            Without turning around, I knew who it was. “Don’t do any cow jokes, please?”

            “Why?”

            “Because they are stupid!” I said angrily. I spun around to see Amber standing there holding a katana with an ice blue blade.

            “Hi,” she said.

            “When did you have a katana?” I asked her surprised.

            “For a while,” she answered. “I never had a ninja for an opponent.”

            “You’re a ninja?” Paul asked surprised.

            “Yes, I’m a ninja,” I said. I pulled out a sword hilt from my long leather jacket and two blades shot out. One was a long blade with a dual edge (one side shorter than the other) and an electric current going through the blade. On the other end, there was a short end with an ionic charge flowing through the blade and that end of the hilt.

            “Well then,” she said, “let’s end this little war we have.”

            “Okay,” I answered. “What’s at stake?”

            “If you win,” she explained, “you can roam the planet freely without us following you. When you lose, you have to work for us. Also, you must surrender your control of the N3.”

            After a brief moment, I answered. “Fine.” I began to spin my sword at intense speeds. Amber stood there like a statue. I attacked first (which was a mistake). Amber dodged and hit me in the back of the head with the sword hilt. She spun the sword to the blade side and tried to impale me in the arm. I rolled out of the way and her sword dug into the ground. I hopped up and pointed the short blade toward Amber. She pulled her blade out of the ground and turned toward me. I fired three ion blasts at her and she dodged two and blocked the third with her sword.

            “Wait,” I said quickly. “Your blade should have melted.”

            ‘If it were normal metal,” she said. “It’s made from a rare element found in areas I won’t tell you about. What to see?”

            “No thanks,” I answered. “And if you mean the cranium mines, then I’ve been there.”

            “You have?” Amber asked.

            “Yep!” I shouted from 500 feet away.

            “How did…” she started. Suddenly, several huge ion bolts came flying toward her. She dropped on the ground and tried to roll away. Two bolts hit the ground and caused huge explosions and craters. A few more hit the ground around her. She dove under a damaged hummer. A rain of ion bolts came falling down upon her location. She pulled out a sniper rifle and aimed at my head (or at least try) and fired. Due to the ion blast, the bullet was sucked into an ion bolt and destroyed.

            “Prepare to lose!” I shouted. I began another hail of ion blast to finish her off. I never finished because Brian shot me in the leg. “What the… what was that for?” I shouted at him.

            “Oh nothing,” he said. He was holding a 9mm handgun. “I’m just going to kill you and make your head into a trophy.”

            “Not… if… I… can… help it!” I screamed. There was a huge explosion. The heat and the wind hit me hard. I slid down the road over to where Amber was.

            “What happened?” she asked.

            “Brian is trying to kill me,” I grunted. I checked the bullet wound at the lower part of my left leg. “He’s either an assassin or a bounty hunter. Man this hurts.”

            “Don’t move,” she told me. I stopped moving and she looked at the wound. “Do you have a knife?”

            “Yeah,” I said. “On my belt.” Amber took the knife off my belt and opened it up. “What are you doing?”

            “I’m taking the bullet out,” she answered. “Shut up and don’t move.” She took her hand and put it on my mouth. I passed out a few seconds after she did that. I woke up a little later. I thought that se would have left after she took the bullet out or just kill me. I sat up and was surprised that my leg was healed completely.

            “Wow,” I said. “How did you do that?”

            “I can heal people to an extent,” she answered. “Your injury was a minor one.” She gave a thin smile and looked away.

            I looked around then stood up. I looked at the blast site to find any weapons that had been left behind. When I looked at the site, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Brian was sitting in a chair in the center of the blast.

            “Crap!” I said angrily after I dropped down.

            “What?” Amber asked.

            “Brian’s alive!” I said.

            “Oh,” she said shocked. “That’s not good.”

            “You leave,” I said. “He’s after me, and I intend on taking him out!”

            “No,” she said.

            “What?” I asked.

            “You can’t take him down alone,” she said. “I have stuff you could use.”

            “Fine,” I said. “Just don’t expect an alliance or anything.”

            “Okay,” Amber answered. She peaked over the ruble and took out a pair of binoculars.

            “And those are for?” I asked.

            “To see if he has a shield,” she said.

            “Cool,” I said. “Does he have a shield?”

            “Yep,” she answered.   “Do you have…?”

            “An em pulse?” I asked. “Yep, those ion blasts are EMP blast as well.”

            “Nice,” she said.

            I climbed out from the wall of ruble and began to advance on Brian.

            “Matt!” Amber called out from behind. I glanced back. “Here, take this.” She handed me an earpiece. “You’ll need it.” I nodded then kept going.

            As I approached the crater, I glanced down. Brian was sitting with his eyes closed. I didn’t move for several seconds. When I felt it was safe I took out the hilt and had it open silently. I charged the ion blast and aimed it.

            “Matt,” a voice said in my ear. “Don’t take to long. He is probably sitting dormant, waiting.” I remembered that there was an earpiece in my ear. “To communicate, you need to think about what you have to say. I heard you ask that.”

            “Oh, I didn’t realize that I had said anything before,” I ‘thought.’ I aimed again and fire two stealth shots at Brian. The shots hit and there was a flash and a pop. Brian opened his eyes and looked around. He also looked at were I was sitting. He looked rather confused.

            “Die!” Brian shouted. An explosion occurred where I had been standing. I was floating above him and aiming my ion cannons at his head.

            “Eat this,” I whispered. I fired a barrage of ion blasts at his head. The shots destroyed the chair and knocked him around. I landed next to him when the smoke and dust cleared. Brian lay there dead. I went back over to Amber, gave her the earpiece and began to walk away.

            “You can’t leave,” she said.

            “Why?” I asked.

            “You’re still needed,” she said. Several helicopters appeared and landed in a semi circle around us. I was trapped between a rock wall and an army. Suddenly I fell to the ground, unconscious.

            Back in the crater, Brian opened his eyes. “He will die,” he said to no one. “He will die and I will rule this planet!”