Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

---12 days after The Heart destruction---

Plasma rounds ripped over our heads, some hitting the earthy ground right in front of the trench we were taking cover in, sending soil, stones and vegetation showing over us.

42: "We are running out of time!"

Sarah: "1 minute 33 seconds and counting to be precise!"

Jinx: "We're all synced up to the same fucking counter on our HUDs! Thank you very much!" She shouted in a snidey fashion over the incoming flak. Myself and Wrex glanced at each other, even with our helmeted heads and covered faces, I think we both pulled the same disapproving look at each other regarding the team's lack of coherence.

Me: "Cool it guys! We can still win this!" I tried to encourage them on.

Sarah: "Given the current circumstances I highly doubt it!"

Wrex: "The more time we argue about this the less time we have!"

Jinx: "You know what?! Fuck this!" She snatched the package I had in my hands, stood completely up and ran for it out of the trench.

Me: "Wha-?! No! Jinx wait!"

But she ignored me and carried on running on three legs, the package tucked under one arm towards the enemy bunker 

Me: "FUCK!, Fuck it! Go go go!..."

All four of us ran down the field, straight into the firing line. Wrex, 42 and Sarah could run on all fours, making them quick on their feet. This is my downfall... I am mostly Human, bipedal in design, I couldn't run on all fours like the others. Don't get me wrong, I was quick, as fast as some as of the top athletes on earth... But I can't keep up with a Dragon at full pelt, which was the equivalent speed to that of a cheetah. "...fuck!" I fired my jets, just enough to hover off of the ground but fast enough to catch the others up.

I watched as every so often, one of the plasma rounds hit each of the team, with little effect. But Jinx up ahead got hit once more, then she stumbled and fell and remained still on the ground, the same thing happened to 42 moments later before he even got to her. This left myself, Wrex, who I had just caught up with and Sarah just up ahead. She had taken a couple of hits but was still up and mobile, taking pot shots at the enemy in retaliation and quickly grabbing the package from Jinx's motionless body.

I read the timer on my HUD... 8 seconds... she could do this!...

...

No she couldn't...

She was hit again but as she fell to the floor, with the last bit of the strength and mobility she had, she flung the package at the bunker... it sailed through the air but it wasn't quite enough. I came to a stop behind where she had fallen and now used the Shard's energy to push the package further through the air. It bounced into the opening in the bunker, just as the counter reached zero and I got hit twice more by enemy fire... There was a eruption of flame from the bunker which slowed and halted just as I fell to the floor to my knees, my entire body stinging and tingling in pain, like goosebump on steroids, my armour crackling and locked up.

Suddenly the simulation ended, the map resetting to the bare arena in the hangar styled hall. My armour stopped crackling and I was able to move once more, so was Sarah in front of me.

Sarah: "Yes!" She shot up in front of me triumphantly. Wrex stepped up beside me, opening his face plates, offering a hand to help me to my feet.

Wrex: "You do realise part of the aim is to not die... Right?" He directed to Sarah who also just opened her face plates.

Sarah: "Wouldn't have been an issue if miss O.T.T. here didn't run off with a death wish!" She gestured to Jinx who stepped up along side us along with 42.

Jinx: "Oh come on! We weren't getting anywhere and time was running out! I made a decision!"

Wrex: "All of you were reckless! That was a shambles!" I looked back to him to see he was aiming that at me as well.

Me: "You can't mean me as well, surely?"

Wrex: "A little bit yeah, you ordered all of us to charge after Jinx. Mission objective or not, you jeopardised everyone on your team by sending them aimlessly to their deaths!"

Sarah: "Hey! This is not Alex's fault Wrex! If you think you know well enough, why don't you lead?!" Wrex's jaw opened, but words failed to emit from his mouth, long enough for Jinx to inteject again.

Jinx: "Oh please! What do you know? Go and play with your computers, those lifeless things are the only things that you're willing to work with."

Me: "SHUT THE FUCK UP! ALL OF YOU!..." Silence befell the group, all looking a bit stunned and shameful at my rageful outburst, "... YOU'RE ALL PATHETIC!... come on! We're meant to be a team! So far in a week all we've learnt is how to piss each other off!"

Jinx: "Oh please, why are we even bothering?! You with your powers! You could take down a whole army without breaking a sweat!"

Me: "YOU! SHUT UP AND GROW UP!...Get the fucking hint! We are meant to be working together, you know, as a TEAM! TOGETHER! Not running off or telling others to leave!" I Turned to Sarah, "...You! Learn to open up and play nice!... And you..." I turned to completely silent 42, I didn't really have much to complain about for him, "...Learn to talk more will you..." Was the only thing I could come up with and requested rather calmly and quietly. Then I turned to Wrex, "...and you... You need to decide if you want to help this team or lead it... Don't sit on the high horse, acting like you own Fury but then complain that you want no part of it!..." Jinx went to open her mouth again but I beat her to it this time, "...Not another fucking word! Any of you!... Actually, you know what? Fuck off back to your apartments!, all of you! We're done for today..." Sarah's head dropped and she  walked away like a scolded school child, Jinx's jaw still hung open but she slammed it shut, snorted and stormed off, barging past Sarah and 42 quickly followed her.

I watched all 3 of them leave hall, I felt like my blood was boiling, made worse once a hand was placed on my shoulder.

Me: "That goes for you too." I said to Wrex as calmly as I could muster.

Wrex: "But, Alex-"

Me: "Go. Wrex. And leave me alone when you get back... And I will know if you don't." I said in reference to my real body that I left in bed again. His hand left my shoulder, he inhaled deeply and strode off past me as shamelessly as he could manage without giving me a second look... Though a pang guilt hit me... These fucking hormones were playing havoc with me and causing me to be so up and down with my mood swings. Now I just shouted at my lover and sent him away with no affection what so ever. Part of me wanted to call him back, part of me wanted him to be the one to turn and make eye contact with me, for me to say that I was sorry without actually saying anything... But alas, I never saw his face before he left the room, the door closing behind him.

I sighed in depression and anger simultaneously.

'Why can't these muppets just chill?!' I thought to myself as I made my way over to the weapons bench and the console that Wrex uses to program the scenarios in. I was so pissed off with all of them... I needed to relieve some of my anger... I accessed the options on the console for to modify the variants of the arena. We had been training on Strike difficulty still, but the hardest difficulty was Executioner... No revives, so you get hit you're out. Enemies are on high alert too with itchy trigger fingers. They also didn't like to go down all that easy and there many of them... 

I selected this option, but I knew this still wouldn't be hard enough for me... So I mentally hacked the system... watched the screens spin through multiple frames and options at a time, too quick for the normal eye to read. I removed the lock-up system that freezes any armour that once you're hit, you're out, then I also removed the safeties... Now even holographic plasma could actually melt and kill... Well after all, I was only the copy, even if I did get 'killed' in here, I was still safe in the apartment. I accepted the rules, chose the enemies, Executioners AND SkyTech in this case, chose the scenario type, I just went for a simple eradicate - scenario was full of enemies, the objective was merely to wipe them out.

Finally the map, I analysed the arena in the hangar... I sniggered to myself as an idea popped into my mind... It was big place...

'Blood Gulch? Nah, little bit too big for the space. Too open as well... For them... Ahh... How about... Terminal! Yes that will fit!' I pulled the Halo 2 multiplayer map from my mind, any memory of details, actual layout and scale I downloaded from Earth's internet and fed it into this console... Yes... Even this far out, I had internet connection...

I entered the selection, leaving the console and stepping back through the doors into the area as the map built up once again using formed yellow wireframe holograms which quickly infilled with realistic colour of the grey city overtones of New Mombasa. Many a day I spent playing games of Big Team Battle and Capture The Flag with my old school mates in the game and on this map... Days when I had team mates to back me up and things weren't so serious... Now here I was, standing in front of the closed maintenance access road doors, in the middle of the road that was on this corner of the map. I ran forward and jumped up on top of the near by rock and found myself staring out across the magnificent replica, it even included the occasional monorail train that sped through on a raised level through the center of the map. The nerd in me got somewhat excited indeed, the closest thing to a real life version of the Terminal map, on my own, against a horde of enemies... Who were already firing at me from behind cover, crates, containers, vehicles, walls... What ever, and almost everywhere.

I gave an excited chuckle as I recalled my helmet, leaping from the rock which also formed part of a small cliff face toward the ground below. Quick pulse of my jets to soften my landing I sprinted towards the first container, dodging the shots, arriving at the closest side and I leapt up and cartwheeled over and down to the opposite side. The enemies, some armoured SkyTech in this instance only noticed me after I landed.

Immediately I extended one arm blade, in one swoop I wiped out the closest two, their holograms disintegrating from existence. I followed through with firing one shot of plasma at each target left behind the container with my opposite arm, two to my left, spinning on one foot, one on my right. I noticed each of them, though wearing SkyTech armour, they same armour I had reported not long after we started training. But they used the same plasma weapons that the Draconian insurrectionists used. I bent over backwards, as my sixth sense instructed me to, narrowly missed by four rounds of of plasma as they hit the container next to me, melting holes clean through it.

My head snapped to the next hiding spots, two planters, each with a tall palm tree in the center, a total of 5 enemies behind both planters and behind them was a Wraith. A mortar tank that was used by the Covenant, the main enemy in the Halo franchise, a purple wedge shaped vehicle that floated when driven which had bulky 'wings' on either side. I strongly suspect that although I uploaded this map and it's visual replication was spot on, I doubt the functionality of the vehicle actually existed, nor my holographic enemy's ability to drive it. Maybe something to try in future for more of a challenge? Nevertheless four more hid behind the 'wings', firing over them at me as well.

'You know what?, I want to practice some more Shard abilities rather than solely relying on my Human created and melee weapons.'

I thought about what I wanted to happen to them... I envisioned throwing something at them, like a grenade, my arm giving a sideways throw and although my arm glowed red and purple, nothing left it. However, it did do something... The nine SkyTech enemies were launched 20 feet up into the air with screams of fear, dropping their weapons as well. They sort of floated in slow motion as they reached the peak height of the ability, and slowly started coming back down again... Like, SUPER slowly.

'Hmmm... A lift ability... I suppose I already have a pull... Great if I want to pull an enemy from their cover. But I wonder if I can injure or kill them as well...'

I focused a gravitational pull at the center of them all, a really strong one, like a miniature black hole. The frozen floating enemies were dragged towards a deep purple, almost black, void in the middle of the group, all nine of them started compacting as they were pulled close to the centre. But I guess that the system that run them had never dealt with this sort of attack. The characters just sort of bunched up before disintegrating as they normally do. With this group dealt with, I dropped the black hole and it too faded from existence.

*Pang* *Pang*

Me: "Arrgghh!" I was knocked to my left to 1 knee. Two plasma rounds caught me, 1 in the shoulder and 1 side on to the helmet. Both heavily damaging my armour, I could feel the right side of my face glowing like I had a sun burn. I turned to the main terminal building. *Pang* another round caught me as I started getting back up and analysing the occupants in the building. I had a new attack in mind... I threw my arm in another sideways throw, this time directed at the floor, as if I was skipping a pebble, my arm glowed once more, then cascading arc shaped waves of a red pulses snapped and jumped along the floor, like ripples of the pebble making contact with water but sounding much  more violent. The waves continued into the entrance of the building, making contact with multiple enemies as they were caught in its wake. The initial strike seemed to do very little besides knocking them back, but after a second or so of stumbling they shattered before they even fell to the floor.

The arc waves didn't only hit personnel... the door frames, message boards, time screens, pillars, even the ramp at the back of the lobby that lead up to the upper level was smashed. Tiles, concrete, glass, monitors... All simultaneously smashed, exploded and collapsed, as if a bomb had detonated in front of it all.

Me: "Holy shit..." I said in astonishment at my own destructiveness as I slowly stepped into the lobby of the station, surveying my damage. I was then rained down upon by plasma, more shots colliding with my armour, causing me to growl in annoyance and pain. My HUD snapped to each point of origin, highlighting them all up high, three SkyTech on the upper section of ramp that lead to the platform, and from up in the very top of the room was a maintenance and air circulation area. Three openings, each had a SkyTech perched in it as well, lying prone, giving me as small of a target as possible.

I recalled an attack that Reikon used on me, a boomerang shaped arc, it would slice away at me as each passed me. I mentally focused on what I wanted to create and threw the red and purple glowing boomerang. It took out one of the goons on the ramp, slicing him in half and he disintegrated, so I threw two more, taking out the other two, spinning side to side as I threw them to avoid the incoming shots, then charged up a very large round of plasma and fired it up at the centre SkyTech lying prone in the air ducts. The whole air duct exploded in a show of debris and smoke and no more plasm fire left that area.

I felt a familiar painful penetration sensation causing me to gasp and yelp in pain as I stumbled forward, feeling the blade being yanked from my back, close to my right flank, near to where I was stabbed before. I looked around to see that once again I had been stabbed between the plates of armour, blood pouring from the wound and looked up to see the perpetrator. There was no one there... Only a shimmer of the air, quickly moving around me. I covered my wound and followed the shimmer with my left arm, firing rounds of plasma as I chased them, spinning on the spot. The rounds missed, impacting the stations walls and pillars, melting the metal work and exploding the concrete out. The shimmer jumped up, bounding off a pilar and straight at me, so I drew my arm blade out and aimed it straight for the shimmer.

The Executioner's momentum caused them to fall onto my blade... The cloak flickered, disappeared, then the Executioner disintegrated into holographic cubes and I lowered my arm...

Me: "Ouch..." I groaned while looking down at my flank, the wound had stopped bleeding and was glowing red and purple like my previous stab wound, I guess I could now automatically heal deep wounds too... Good.

I pushed on, taking it steady up the ramp to the platform, going easy on the injury as much as possible until it healed... Well, I had hoped to anyway... As I neared the top of the ramp I was met with an unwelcome sight... Eight SkyTech!, spread over both platforms, along with three Executioners, who were each just cloaking upon the sight of me.

Me: "Well... Alright then..." I extended my other arm blade and pushed forward into a light jog onto the platforms. Slicing at the first SkyTech that came at me, ducking and sliding along the floor under the next, slicing him as I went. I was hit by a painful concussive wave, the shock jarring through my body, sending me spinning and flipping me back along the floor before I ever had a chance to get back up. An almost entirely invisible executioner landed in front of my face, the shimmer only just visible... It reached down and grabbed me by the neck, hoisting me off the floor 'til my feet were barely touching.

I wasn't going to fuck about though... I retracted my blades, brought one fist up into where their gut should be, charged and fired. The hologram of the Executioner de-cloaked in a wave spreading out from the belly, followed by the wave of disintegrating yellow cubes. Landing back on my feet as I was dropped back to the floor, I spun and fired at whoever was next closest, that being the two SkyTech rapidly trying to flank me and an Executioner leaping up onto the walkway above me that crossed over to the other platform.

The two SkyTech instantly went down and the Executioner took the hit from my third shot as it was mid way through launching itself off the walkway at me, disintegrating as it fell towards me. I side stepped the remains as it fell to the floor, but i completely disappeared before it ever reached it. I leapt up onto the walkway above, crossing over it at speed as soon as my feet touched the deck. My attempt to make my way over to the other platform was halted by a purple streak that flew at low level, towards my ankles and with my speed carrying me forward, I didn't have time to stop.

The purple arc span and wrapped around both my ankles, causing me to trip, and fall flat on my front, smashing my lower section of my helmet and therefore jaw on the walkway. I had well and truly bitten my tongue, the strong taste of blood filled my mouth quickly. But that was the least of my worries... The Executioner that had launched the attack kicked me in the ribs, smashing me through the glass barrier at the side of the walkway and crashing down onto the monorail, bending my back at a horrible angle along with several loud cracks. I squealed in pain for a few seconds trying my utmost to pull myself up, my lower half being very unresponsive and numb. With help from my wings I managed sit up enough to realise that that track thankfully was over the platform enough to support the rest of me, but the purple band was still wrapped around my ankles.

I pulled at it, only for it to spark and resist my movement in protest. The shimmering outline of the invisible Executioner landed  a dozen feet away, the four tail blades flicking out and becoming the only thing clearly visible approaching me. I hastily pulled at the band again...

'Wait, it's Shard energy! What am I doing?!' So I tried to control the band with my mind, willing it to release... But it didn't...

'Of course... God I'm being thick...' it occurred to me that the band wasn't real Shard energy, only part of the holographic simulation! So what was the next best thing to overriding the Shard's powers in a holographically created world? Remotely hack the holographic emitters and remove the band... Basically the same thing but doing it with computers rather than magic. Within less than a second of processing this thought, the program was hacked and the band disintegrated, much like the enemies have been up until now. Not a moment to spare though, as soon as the band had gone, I made the effort to get to my feet, struggling greatly due to my back injury. The Executioner's tail missed me by an inch as I stood, impacting the concrete where my head was a moment before. It took no time or effort though to remove it's blades from the floor and swing for me horizontally instead, but I couldn't move out the way quick enough, my lower half still being unresponsive... 'had I broken my back?!'

The blades scraped over my belly armour,  actually managing to put rather large gouges into it. I stumbled as I dragged myself back against the edge of the platform, the Executioner following, stood over me and laying a fist right into front of my helmet, smashing my head back violently into the floor and jarring my back painfully again. I slumped down the edge of the platform, but even through the pain I started to panic... The monorail in front of me started to hum, there was a train coming!

I tried desparately to get my now tingling legs working, to scramble to my feet, but the Executioner knocked me back down once more with another punch. Now I remember playing this game, the monorails gave little to no warning. So I continued my slump to the floor as the Executioner drew their tail back, flared their tail blades in preparation to stab me, but the shock of me grabbing and holding their ankle tightly made them pause, just long enough for the train to pass through the station and over me, obliterating the Executioner so quick that if you had blinked you would have missed it.

I didn't make it out completely unscathed though, apparently lying down low on the floor wasn't enough... The train clipped me as it tore past, ripping me off the platform and falling the 20 foot or so to the grass area below, bouncing and crashing a few times before coming to a stop. I lay still for a few moments, groaning in pain before finally rolling over and trying to sit up, thankfully my back was already on the mend, I could feel that, despite the impact of the train probably wouldn't have helped.

Me: "Oh shit..."

A hoard of SkyTech and Excutions now descended upon me from the remaining half of the map. Hundreds poured out from the parking garage on the left side, on my 10 o'clock, and an equal number from the mechanics workshop on my 1 o'clock, all sprinting at me, some of those at the front even already firing plasma rounds at me... I couldn't take that many hits!

In Halo-esque style, I got myself into a crouched position and, just in time, formed a buble shield, though not quite like those in the game. This was purple, created by my Shard's energy, and not as well see-through, but I could see enough. I watched the rounds impact, exolode, and disperse, causing the purple energy to ripple like waves. I waited until they were all close enough before dropping my shield and standing up and extending my arm blades simultaneously,

Me: "Come on then you bastards!"

It was weird though, no sooner had I said that, some of the map, some of these enemies, random pieces, stuttered, momentarily broke down, before reforming and resuming, I didn't have time to ponder why though, the enemies were on top of me... I stabbed and swiped constantly at who ever was closest, even using my tail blades to attack who ever was behind that I could see in my minds eye... Very quickly their numbers dropped, each enemy, shattering and disintegrating into holographic cubes.

I had lost track how many I taken down, a good 50, quite possibly more. But I then had a moment of confusion... I spun and side swiped at the next nearest 3, very still, enemies. They disappeared as usual, then I looked around for who was next... It wasn't just those 3 who were still, it was all them, forming a ring around me, frozen mid charge it seemed, every so often one would seemingly break down, disintegrate, then quickly rebuild back into it's previous pose, same could be said with the map surrounding me.

'What the hell?... Have I broken the map? Was it too much for it to handle?' I questioned myself as I approached one of the frozen enemies. I stared at the face of this average looking Executioner that I could just about see through their visor, green eyes staring blankly at the place where I had previously stood, though not for long... The eyes glimmered, turned yellow, then snapped to look directly at me. I gasped and stepped back, readying my blades once more, but that wasn't the only one... All started moving, slowly... No, not moving! Changing shape! The armours all changed to my old black an red Jarvie Tech armour, in a mist of red and purple that surrounded them all, they all turned female if they weren't already, then the most creepy bit, they all chuckled in unison, a chuckle I knew all too well... Reikon's...

The closest one, the one I was analysing initially, her faceplates opened, indeed revealing Reikon's face, smiling menacingly at me.

Me: "How are you doing this? You're dead!" I asked through gritted teeth, in an angry but hurt tone, raising my blades slightly more.

Reikon: "I told you before, I will always find a way back. You just-" *Charging whine* *POW*... I didn't let her finish... I had quickly aimed my arm at her while charging my jet and fired. The round caught her square in the face, completely obliterating the top half of her body... But the rest disintegrated, like the holograms had been so far! The many versions of Reikon surrounding me continued their charge, so I continued my defensive attacks, but as sharp as my blades were, they were struggling to cut through my old and rather strong armour.

Time to upgrade...

The next Reikon I aimed for I brought the blade down in an angled swipe towards her shoulder, but now I ignited the blade, the sharp metal edges became alight with a blue, firey plasma. The blade made contact, then sliced through the armour and her with little to no resistance, like a hot knife through butter. I ignited the other blade in the same fashion and continued my slicing, but Reikon was still quick, like she had easily increased the hologram's speed by a factor of 2... I was getting overwhelmed still... They started clambering over me, grabbing me pulling me, the odd few slicing at me, others firing rounds of plasma when they got a clear shot... There were hundreds! There wasn't this many holgrams to start with!

I wasn't going to lose this...

I charged up and focused my energy, actually causing me to slow down my defensive attacks due to concentrating so much... They dragged me to the floor, piling on top of me weighing me down...

'...ah!... Just a couple more seconds!...' I strained to myself. A Reikon stopped in front of me, aimed her gauntlet at my head, the only part of me not buried under the pile of Reikons and started charging...

'...Too late, I was already charged...'

Me "Nnn-AAARRGGGGHHHH!" I unleashed the Shard's power, a crippling shockwave emanated from me, blowing off and obliterating all of the Reikon holograms, or certainly I thought all of them anyway.

I stood there panting, watching the final cubes of their existence floating around me, fading away like blossoms in the wind. Surveying the area around me the map seemed distorted, some sections flickered, trying to hold the shape they were programmed with, others just looked 'wrong', colours, shapes and/or patterns were distorted and some bits had failed entirely, revealing the training hall behind, panels buckled or missing with sparking wiring exposed. I also saw a couple of the Reikons that managed to survive the attack wave still in the parts of the hologram that were still working. I charged my gauntlet and fired at the closest, destroying her before she got up. Another charged at me with a rageful scream, she too got put down quickly via my other gauntlet jet.

Reikon: "Alex..." I spun round and targeted one that was laid against one of the many column supports for the station that I was knocked off of earlier, "...wait!" She held her hand up in a stopping motion, then beckoned me over. I don't know why I listened to her, but I did... I marched over the few dozen paces between us and back into the hologram until I was stood 6 foot from her, stopping when her face plates opened, my gauntlet still raised at her.

Reikon: "What makes you think you can win this?"

Me: " 'Win this'? What are you on about you soppy tart?! We've already won! You're dead!, Skylen is in hiding, cowering in fear, it's only a matter of time before we find him and destroy what's left of SkyTech! So I don't know how you keep occurring in my dreams or the simulations, whether you're a ghost or an echo, a memory of who you were, I don't care, but there is literally no point! So just stop it and fuck off!" She smiled at my ranting response, seemingly finding it amusing. I flicked my left arm blade out, ignited it and screamed as I chopped her head off, instantly falling silent and disintegrating into the yellow squares.

"Alex?"

I jumped and swiped at the owner of the black armour that stepped around from the pillar... The only thing was, the limb I swiped up through, was solid and landed on the floor with a thud. I gasped and stepped back when I realised the armour was actually black and purple, with open face plates and a very stunned and shocked Sarah beneath them.

Me: "Oh my god! Sarah?! I am soo sorry!" Opening and retracting back my blade and helmet, then holding the sides of my face in shock, staring at the glowing stump of her prosthetic arm, cut clean off just above the elbow. She looked at the remains,

Sarah: "Well... If you had to cut off any arm I'm glad it was that one, and I'm also glad you were only aiming for my arm."

To be honest, I was never going to admit it, but she caught me off guard, I wasn't really 'aiming' at all, I wasn't expecting any friendlies to be in here... Lesson learnt...

Me: "Yeah, but still, I am so sorry!"

Sarah: "Don't worry about it. I was making a better one anyway, I'm not far off done with it." She bent down and picked up the remains of her limb in her remaining hand.

Me: "You-... You were? When have you been doing that? HOW have you been doing that?"

Sarah: "In my lab, in the evenings, taken me days to get as far as I have."

Me: " 'Your lab'?"

Sarah: "Yeah... Did Wrex not tell you?"

Me: "N-no, he didn't-, when did This happen?"

Sarah: "About 2 days after he announced to us about us all joining the team. Do you want to come take a look? I got a couple of things I want to talk to you about anyway."

Me: "Erm yeah... Sure... I need to talk to you as well to be honest." I looked around the area, making sure there were no more Reikons around, but the map was now empty, so I remotely shut it down. The colours faded into the yellow wire frame structures, broke apart and disappeared, leaving us in this vast empty space.

Me: "What were you doing coming back in here anyway?"

Sarah: "Well, I had second thoughts, wanted to come back and talk to you, I came back in and heard a lot of commotion going on. What were you doing? And did you break the simulator?" She said looking over my shoulder.

Me: "Er, a little stress relief, maybe got too carried away, yeah."

Sarah: "Huh...okaay."

Me: "Shall we?" I gestured her to the exit, she nodded and made our way in that direction, side by side, Sarah with limb in hand still, the glowing metal now faded in dull cherry colour.

Sarah: "Oh my god, are you bleeding?!"

She demanded while nudging my arm up to get a better view.

Me: "Not any more, I'm fine, I healed it."

Sarah: "Oh... What exactly were you doing in here anyway? This wave of what looked like your energy washed over me after I heard you scream, knocked me off my feet a little."

Me: "I was..." Now, did I tell her about the many copies of Reikons?, or would she think I was insane?... "...just venting some frustration, upped the difficulty a bit."

Sarah: "I am sorry by the way, about earlier, in the training that is."

Me: "If anything I'm sorry, preggers hormones is turning my brain into mush. My emotions are all over the place, one moment I can be in a fit of rage, the next I want to ball my eyes out. I'll have to apologise to the others later as well."

Sarah: "I think in fairness, it's not just you. We're all tired, I mean, we have been going at the training business for the last 9 days straight, from sun rise to sunset... And they have long days here."

Me: "Maybe you're right... Sorry, you need to have some time off and recharge the old batteries I suppose."

Sarah: "Not all of us run on supercharged crystal-like super batteries." She turned to me with a smirk, I gave a bemused chuckle back as we made our way out of the hall.

Me: "Actually, I'll tell you what might be an idea, tomorrow evening, I don't know if you heard me mention it, Sora and myself have arranged an evening, like, a meet and greet party, kinda thing. Most of the ex-Humans will be there, the local community have been invited and the response looks good so far. Should be a pretty good turn out, maybe... yourself and a plus one would want to attend?" I hinted.

Sarah: "Yeah, I think I heard about that, but can't help but think you mean Kay?"

Me: "Yeah, I mean, you never know, you might both even find a date." I pushed her to talk about the subject as she lead us along. Kay had obviously spoken to me about it from the off, but it seems Sarah was uncomfortable about the subject and any time I ever saw them together Sarah would suddenly act as if there was nothing going on between them.

Sarah: "That's... One of the things I wanted to talk to you about... Erm... Alex?... What are your thoughts on Kay?"

Me: "What do you mean?"

Sarah: "We, I mean, you have Wrex, right? So if someone was to be interested in Kay? You wouldn't be upset. Right?"

Me: "What you're trying to ask is, do I notice that every time we depart, you head into your apartment, then as soon as our door is closed, you sneak back out and down to Kay's?"

She stopped her walk, allowing me to carrying on a few paces before coming to a stop myself to look at her horrified face with a smirk of my own.

Sarah: "How-?"

Me: "I can pretty much see through walls, if I want to."

Sarah: "That's invasion of privacy!- URGH!... Jinx and 42 share the apartment on the other side to you!"

Me: "I don't sit on the other side of their bedroom wall to watch them shag!, don't worry, not the sorta kink I'm into, thank you very much! But I'm trying to get you talking. Come on, let's keep going." I finished while taking a few more steps in the direction we were meant to be heading.

Sarah: "How far can you see through walls?"

Me: "Depends on how much is in the way and the material, the more obstructions, the less distance I can see. But it's like any normal vision, if theres nothing in the way and a wall way over there, I can start to see through it, but just not in as much detail. But you're changing the subject. You and Kay?"

Sarah: "I don't know if... I don't know if I'm gonna upset I tell you."

Me: "Pleeaassee... You know me and Kay had this talk already more than a week ago? Right?"

Sarah: "You did??"

Me: "Yeah. I'm surprised he hasn't told you about it."

Sarah: "I'm sorry Alex... He just seems so perfect... Remember I said that guys are assholes and that lesbian relationships always leave me wanting? He is perfect, woman's mind, guy's body! And I'm sorry, didn't want to go into that much detail then, I just didn't want to upset you if you still had feelings for him."

Me: "It's fine Sarah, honestly. He's loyal too, he won't leave you. Well, you know, unless he thinks you're dead, which is kinda understandable then." I chuckled at the thought of what happened between me and Kayley... Rather amusing looking back on it now, probably shouldn't be but I thought it was.

Sarah: "You find this funny? I'm shitting myself here that you found out and you find it funny??"

Me: " *Giggle* Oh Sarah... As I said, my emotions are all over the place, please don't take it in a bad way that that I'm giggling about it, I'm just in a good mood for the moment. Honestly, as I told Kay, I'm happy for both of you, as long as you're happy?"

Sarah: "Yeah... Yes. I am happy. Thank you. I er... It's good, you know? Gives me something to make sure I come back home for. But I'm more glad that you aren't upset over it. In here."

She suddenly cut in front of me down this long corridor that we had been casually strolling down in the direction of the Palace, to a doorway. She awkwardly looked down at her left hand, then the stump of her right arm, then back to her left hand, holding the remains of her limb still, before turning back to me,

Sarah: "Err... Could you...? Sorry..." She offered me her dismembered limb which I gingerly took from her. With a free hand now she placed it, open palm, against the door. A second passed before there was a clonk and she pushed the door open and gestured me to follow with side nod off her head. Even with my perfect 'better than Human' eyes, it was gloomy in here here, the room was quite dinky actually, couldn't be more than 15 foot across and 20 foot deep. The room felt even smaller still with the protruding work benches from the left and far most walls.The lighting was surprisingly poor, rather dim, made worse by cables and metallic pieces, frame work and other 'junk' hanging from hooks and rails from the ceiling that Sarah had to duck under to reach her workstation. The worktops too were cluttered with tools, small machines, pieces of armour and so on.

Me: "Good thing I'm not claustrophobic." I said as I surveyed the lack of space.

Sarah: "It was all Wrex and the requisition officers could provide for me at short notice, until something better becomes available. But it's enough for now I guess. Would love to have my garage back again though. Sorry, I'll take that back now..." She turned to me, offering out an open hand to take the severed limb back from me. I gave it to her and she merely tossed it into a pile on the desk, "...thank you... Now where did...?... Ahh..." She unhooked something from the one of the rails on the ceiling and brought it down. It looked like another arm, bare framework, no armour, but slso with no hand. The forearm seemed elongated, no... It had a barrel on the end in place of a hand!

She placed it on the workbench, before looking at her stump. A second or so passed before a hatch opened, on the outer edge, between the tricep and bicep. A low familiar hum could be heard now along with an equally familiar faint purple and red light show emanating from inside the compartment, which died out after a few seconds. She then unlatched the remains of the limb, placing it next to new limb on the workbench.

Me: "You say you had other things you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked as she started tinkering away.

Sarah: "Erm... Yeah... Alex, remember when you told me, 'No more secrets'?"

'I don't like where this is going...'

Me: "Yeeaahh...?"

Sarah: "Well... I got something else to admit, and I'm sorry it's taken this long but I really shouldn't hide it any longer incase it becomes a problem later on... Have you heard of the Night Stalker?"

(-Marty O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori and Paul Lipson)