Black Thunder Chapter 1 "Alright, so who is this guy again?" he asked leaning back in his chair, his feet on the dark brown desk that belonged to his father. His father raised his eyebrows at him. "His name is Joe Kingman, at the moment he is in a foster home... His patents were killed by Hideki. Luke sat up, taking his feet off the desk, his attention captured. Hideki was an assassin for the Snake, the corporation that was working against them. He was also Luke and his brothers former teacher. "Why?" Luke asked her father. His father shook his head, he picked up a manilla file folder and slapped it down on the desk. "If you had read this file like I told you to, then you would know this." he said as he leaned back in his own chair. Luke sighed and relaxed again resting his feet on the desk and tipping his head back so he was looking at the celling "Yeah, well Josh was busy last night and was not able to tell me what was in the file so, therefore, I know nothin about Joey Kringing, or whatever his name is. Where is Josh anyways, he's like 5 minutes late." As he was speaking a tired looking replica of himself walked into there fathers office. "Where have you been?" Luke asked, tipping his head back further so he was looking at his twin brother upside down. "You are almost never late, that's my job." Josh sighed and sat down in the chair next to Luke. "Sorry, I lost Cub." Luke sat up straight again, "What?! You lost him? How did you do that?" Josh held up his hands to stop Luke, "I said, I'm sorry dude. He's in my car somewhere." Luke growled and relaxed for the 3rd time. Their father looked from Josh to Luke the back again. "Are you boys good? Can I continue now?" he asked. The bits nodded. "Yeah." they said in unison. "Now, about Joe Kingman." "Right, the idiot in the foster home." Luke said looking at the celling again. Josh hit him on the shoulder, "Shut up." he said, annoyed. Their father sighed and shook his head. "Alright boys, that's enough, my turn." Luke nodded and concentrated on the celling tiles. They were off white and in a brick pattern. He knew that at one point the tiles had been pure white. 'Someone should either repaint them or clean them.' he thought. He glanced over to his left to the small window, the sun was streaming in through the window, warming his face. He closed his eyes wanting to take a nap. He took a deep breath and decided that he should listen to at least a little bit of what his father was sayings He caught the end of the conversation. "- hope you don't have to much trouble training him, I know it's your first, but I think you'll do fine." their father said smiling a little. Luke blinked. "Now, I'm sorry boys, but Ice needed me to look at something." he said standing up, " Tell me when you confront Joe" he passed between the boys and left the office leaving them with their thoughts. When Luke heard the door click shut he sat up. "Alright, two things. One, what is the real reason you are late?" "I don't want to talk about it Luke." Josh said, standing up, trying to avoid his brothers eyes. Luke grabbed his brothers wrist, knowing full well the he would not react well. Josh turned and jerked away, trying to break Luke's hold. But Luke's grip was like iron. Josh glared at him with fire in his eyes. "LET. GO." Luke glared back, a little surprised. "NO. I won't, not until you tell me what's wrong. Josh took a deep breath and Luke smiled, he knew that his brother would tell him, he could never keep things from him for long. Josh sat heavily in his chair again. "Kaylee had a miscarriage." Luke sat back in his chair and rubbed his forehead with his hand, Kaylee was Josh's wife who was pregnant, or used to be, Luke thought grimly. "Aww, Josh. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Josh shrugged. "I don't know." Luke stood up and looked at Josh "Go home." "Go home? Luke, I can't go home." Josh told him as He stood up to face him. "You have no idea what you are doing here, with this case. I know you were spacing out. Face it. You just don't listen. You have no idea what is going on. I need to be here." "I'll figure it out Josh, really. I'll read the file, or something. Things will be fine here. Just go home." "I can't." Josh replied, looking away. "Why?" he asked simply. "Because," Josh admitted, slowly and reluctantly, " If I stop, I'm not sure that I'll be able to start again. I need to keep busy, Luke. Please. I have to do something." "But right now, Josh, your family needs you. They need you at home with them." "I just can't!" Josh said finally and started to turn away, but Luke grabbed his arm again. " You need to go Josh. I'm serious. Just to. You're not the only one going through this. The rest of your family is too. They need you." Josh yanked his arm away and sighed. Luke had a feeling that Josh knew he was right. "Fine." Josh said, reluctantly. "I'll go, but if you get your self killed, don't blame me." "No worries. Of course I will." Luke replied with a weak smile. Josh walked out of the room, and Luke sat back down. 'Alright, so now I can either read the file on Joe Kingswhats-his-name, or I could go see what Ike is up to, or I could go do some servalience on Joey Do-hickey...' Luke thought to himself. 'Or I could just go home and wait for Josh." He nodded his head and stood up. 'Yep, sounds good. Time to go home' So Luke left his dads office and started down the long narrow corridor that led to the stairs. When he got to the ground level, he saw a tall, well built young man walk in. He was about 5 inches taller than Luke, he was well muscled, and had a good, strong face. His dark brown eyes seemed to go on forever. It seemed like if you looked into them for to long, you seemed to lose your self in them. But you could tell, they were eyes that had seen to much for their young age. His shaggy dark hair was a mess, as was normal. Luke couldn't even be sure that he had used a comb in the last couple months. He seemed to think that his fingers could do the job well enough. He could have been quiet handsome, had it not been for the long scar that carved itself across his left eye and down his cheek. Ice was Josh and Luke's best friend. He had been their friend for as long as anyone could remember. He was basically another brother. Ike Chole Eacho - Ice. The boys called home Ike. But everyone else called him Ice. "Hey man, how's it going?" Ike said as they approached each other. "Eh... It's going. You?" Luke replied. "Pretty good. Whatcha up to now? I heard you got a job training a new guy." "Yeah, I think I heard something about that too." "Ah. I see. You're gonna let Josh do all the hard work. Where is he anyway?" Ike asked, noticing his absence. "He's gonna take some time off." "Huh, that must mean something is wrong." "You should talk to him about it." Luke replied. "Yeah, I'll do that." Ike said. "So... Where are you headed now?" Ike asked. "Umm..." Luke said as he tried to think of an excuse for why he was leaving. "Im gonna go work out, some." he said finally. "But the gym is that way." Ike replied, pointing in the opposite direction. "Well, I know that. I just needed to go to the bathroom first. "That's the other way too." "I know." Luke replied. "So where are you going?" "Umm... Well, I have to go, cause my wife just called, some kind of emergency at home, you know." "Dude. You just said you were going to the gym." "What? No I didn't. Your hearing things, again. I told you, you need to get that checked. "Luke. Seriously?" "Anyway, yeah. I got to go. My dad needs help with something. I'll talk to you later." "But I'm going right now to meet your dad, and you just said--. Oh never mind." Ike replied, giving up. "Your probably just headed home to be lazy till Josh gets back, knowing you." "How'd you know?... I mean, what? Your crazy. I'm going to go-" "What? Go do some actual work? Like something actually productive? Yeah. I didn't think so. Whatever. Go have fun bein' lazy, I've got some real work that needs to be done." Ike said, half smiling. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see ya later." "See ya." Luke walked away, and smiled. Ike was one of only a handful of people who weren't pulled along by his all to famous string of lies and excuses that usually got him out of doing just about anything. If it had been just about anyone else, they would have believed without giving it a second thought. Luke got in his car and started to drive home, thinking about how the day had gone so far, not so great. Josh was having a rough time, they just got this new kid pushed into their lap, and they had to actually train somebody this time. It wasn't their usual job. Usually they did some servalience and then they got to take the guy out, not keep him and train him. He hopped this wasn't going to boring. He had never trained anyone before, but it didn't look like it was going to be much fun. Something caught his attention as he passed the high school and, purely on instinct, he turned around. Luke parked his car in the nearly empty parking lot behind the _______ high school and unbuckled his seat belt, but didn't open the door . He sat and watched, looking for something. He wasn't sure what, but something. He had a weird feeling that something wasn't quiet right, that he should be there for some reason, and he was waiting for that feeling to go away so that he could go home. But it didn't go away, and his instincts were rarely wrong. And the gunshot he heard seconds later, confirmed the fact. Chapter 2 "Ahh, Ice" The Boss said, standing up. He had a conserened look on his face. "Whats wrong?" Ice said as he watched the boss walk over to the wall that was to Ike's left, the wall had a panel with 12 buttons on it. Once pushed it would send a text message to a Unit. As the boss pushed one he looked to Ike. "I'm mobilizing the Alpha Unit" Ike's eyes widened, The Alpha Unit was the Boss's own Unit. A group of highly trained and dangerous men, this group of people were only used in bad situations. "The Alpha Unit sir?" The Boss nodded as he started to suit up, gathering his gear. "It's Hideki, he is striking again, but this time he is not alone, he brought his own group of men with him, and thats not all." The Boss said as he started towards the door. "Lukas is going into the school where Hideki is stricking" Ike looked at him puzzled "How do you know this sir?" The Boss smiled "Dont forget who we all are Ice, I have men watching everyone." "Even your boys?" Ike asked, a little surprised" "Nobody is perfect Ice, it would do u well to remember that." "Yes, sir." "Now let's get goin!" They arrived at the school just moments later, and as they got there they realized that they had just walked into a battlefield. Well, at least they could hear one. Eagle smiled to himself. 'leave it to one of my boys to single handedly start a war!' As they approached the school they heard the shouts and gunfire, but couldn't see anything. The building looked empty. They followed the sounds and, to their relief, the sounds led them away from the school. It sounded like they were coming from a building across the road, behind the school. Eagle sighed relief. He didn't want any minors involved. They entered the building. It looked like a bunch of offices, or something. "Fury! What is this place?" Eagle asked one of his men. "This is an insurance company." he replied. 'An insurance company? What could Hideki possibly want at an insurance company...' Eagle thought to himself. Inside the building looked very... boring. Cubicles with desks, computers, and pens, where people did the same thing, day after day, nine to five. What some people would call a 'normal' #life. Eagle was glad he wasn't part of it. They made their way up a flight of stairs, following the sounds of gunshots. And once in a while they would see a bullet hole in the wall, or a smashed window, or computer, that told them they were on the right track. They ran up a second flight of stairs and they finally got to the scene. Blade and two of the Alpha unit (the ones assigned to watch him), Arrow and Badger, were busy trying not to get shot. They couldn't see any Snake, just their bullets as they slammed into desks and walls, sending things flying everywhere. "You three,' he said, pointing, "you go with Fury, go around back, see if you can't get eyes on these guys. Sonic and the rest of you stay with me. Let's see if we can't help Blade, Arrow and Badger." Blade crouched behind an overturned desk, gun in hand, breathing hard. He watched as the wall in front of him seemed to tear itself apart, plaster flying everywhere. Bullet holes appeared in the door off to his left. He felt a shudder as the desk he was crouched against got pelted with bullets. There was chaos, everywhere. He felt bad for whoever owned this office. It looked horrible, and he could only imagine how much it was going to cost to repair all of the damages. He saw a head dart out from behind the door, and almost shot it, but then he recognized the insanely blonde hair that stood up straight, probably on it's own, that identified him as his friend. Sonic! That must mean that the Alpha unit had been mobilized! "Hey, Toehead!" Blade whispered to him. Sonic eased out from behind his hiding spot, looking around. He saw Blade and ran over to him, firing as he ran, trying to dodge bullets. He crouched down next to him. "Really? You're still calling me that? I thought you had gotten over that." Sonic said, and sighed. Blade had been calling him Toehead ever since they met, almost 7 years ago now, thanks to his blonde, almost white colored hair. "Of course I'm still calling you that. It fits. And, as you should know by now, if it fits, -" "It sticks. I know, I know." Sonic said, finishing the sentence for him and rolling his eyes. "So what took you guys so long?" Blade asked. "You're just lucky were here. What's going on here anyway? We didn't have time for an actual briefing." Sonic told his friend. "I haven't gotten a chance to find out yet, I've been too busy trying not to get shot." Blade replied as he stood up and fired a few shots across the office before crouching back down. He dumped the empty magazine out of his hand gun and replaced it with a full one from his pocket. He heard sirens. "Oh man! You have to be kidding me. Someone called the police! Well, this is going no where, fast. And we have to do something before the police get up here." Blade remarked. "Fury went around back with a few guys, hopefully we can figure out how many guys Hideki has here." "Hideki? Is he here?" Blade asked curiously. "Yeah, I thought that was the whole reason we were here." And then he knew exactly what was happening. "Oh no! How did we not see this!" "What?" Sonic asked urgently. "Hideki isn't here. This is a trap! And we walked right into it!" Blade said, frustrated. "How could I have been so stupid? I should have seen this coming a mile away!" Sonic held out his hands to stop Blade "Hold up. A trap?" Blade nodded angry, with himself. "Yes, like I said, Hideki isn't here. Just the Snake, and a whole lot of 'em" He shook his head. "How do you know?" Sonic asked, not quite understanding. "This..." Blade said motioning around the room, "It's not his style, he is more of a 'kill-you-in-your-sleep' kind of guy" "Okay... so we are lured into an insurance building....for what purpose?" Blade growled impatiently, the sirens getting closer every second. "THINK, Sonic! We are fighing the Snake. They knew where I was and decided to lure me in with gunfire, also knowing that I was alone and because I was alone Eagle would react if he heard that Hideki was attacking one of his boys and would most likely come out himself." Sonic's eyes widened as the full impact of what Blade was saying hit him. "We have-" He was cut short as Blade held up a hand. He could feel the rhythm of the fight change. He had no idea how he knew this but it had always been something that he could judge. Blade looked at Sonic. "On my mark" he then looked over at Arrow and Badger. They nodded seeing the look in his eyes. He might not be there Captain, but that didn't matter, all Captain's held the same rank, the only one who was different was The Boss but since Blade was The Boss's son every one would do what he said, unless The Boss said otherwise. Blade waited and listened to the rythem of the fight to reach the critical moment that he knew would come, when a push from either side would win the battle. He heard it, took a deep breath and stood calmly. He started walking away from the upturned table, and started shooting at certain weak points in Snake's line of defense, Blade knew that if he hit his target, and he would, Snake would buckle and the battle would be over. As he stood he felt, rather then saw, the other three men move with him covering his blind spots. Eagle was advancing towards the enemy, ten of his men behind him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement where Blade and three of his men were. He watched as Blade stood up and started to fire at precise areas, Eagle smiled, Blade was an expert when it came to situations like this. Judging when and where one needed to fire his weapon. "Cover Blade!" Eagle commanded his team. The next few minutes went by like seconds. It was loud and chaotic. Everybody trying to shoot without getting shot. Badger came up behind him, covering his blind spots. And then it happened. The Snakes line of defense had disintegrated. They were falling back. That was good, but something looked suspicious. He didn't have time to figure out what it was because he had heard the sirens too, and they worried him. If they didn't get out of here soon, he wasn't sure what they were going to do. He refused to shoot police officers, and anyone who did would be severely punished, but they couldn't get arrested. If they got arrested that would be the end of it. They would be in jail for #life. "Eagle!" he heard Blade call his name, he looked over, and then everything went blank. Chapter 3 How could he have let this happen?! He was right there. He basically saw it happen. He should have been able to stop it. Snake had captured Eagle, The Boss, and he had just let them take him. Where had Badger been? He was supposed to be covering him. How could this have happened. Blade was back at headquarters thinking about what had happened just hours ago. Snake had captured Black Thunders boss, and he had been there when it happened. And still, even now, hours later thinking back on it, it still didn't make any sense. Eagle had been there, surrounded by his own men, and somehow he still managed to get himself captured. And another thing, Eagle was The Boss, he was the most well trained, and had the most experience, of just about everyone, he wasn't about to just let some random Snake walk out the front door with him slung over his shoulder. He should have seen it coming. Why didn't he? What happened? And of all the times Josh could have been off, he was off now. Blade put his head in his hands, he was sitting, facing his fathers desk. The desk had his fathers important papers strew all about it. The chair stood imposing behind that desk, that was where his father, and his grandfather before him and his great grandfather sat as they conducted the busyness of Black Thunder. Of course they didn't do it alone, they each had their brother beside them who ran Black Thunder with them. Black Thunder was a brother-run operation after all and some day he and Josh would take over Black Thunder. He looked at the empty chair sadly, Luke remembered the day his father had taken him and his brother into this very office for the first time. He remembered it very well. They were about 7 years old, it was snowing outside as their father led them into the office. * Luke held his brothers hand tightly in his own. The place they were walking into was kinda big and scary and not to mention he didn't know his father very well. There mother had kept them away from him as much as she could for the past 4 years or so. He halted in the doorway. His brother went a few steps more till he noticed that he had stopped. "Come on" His brother said softly and kindly "it's alright" Luke nodded and walked into the white room with the framed document on the wall behind a big wooden desk. Luke started to read as his brother led him into the room. 'Black thunder is an organization founded with one goal in mind, to guard and protect the people of this country....' Luke sighed, yes, he knew that document, he had memorized it years ago, upon his fathers insistence. "Welcome to Black Thunder Headquarters boys" Their father said turning to them, opening his arms in a welcoming gesture. "Come and sit down," he said pointing to two chairs that sat opposite the big wooden desk. Luke stared at the desk, it was dark and uninviting. He squeezed his brothers hand again. He didn't want to let go, that didn't seem like a good idea to him. Every time he let go at home their mother would end up beating him. No, letting go was not a good idea, letting go would mean that he would get hurt and he didn't want that. Their father sighed and Luke's heart skipped a beat, did he do something wrong? Was their father gonna beat him now? He tried to be good but it was so hard sometimes. Their father crouched down in front of Luke and his brother. He put a hand on top of each of their heads lovingly. Luke jumped back, afraid that his father was going to hurt him, he slunk away and pulled on his brother, willing him to get away from the man that was crouched in front them, afraid he would hurt them, because that was all he knew, he didn't know what a kind, gentle touch was. His brother shook his head. "It's ok, Luke. He is a good man. He doesn't want to hurt us. It's ok." He pulled Luke back over, and held him close. "See? He doesn't want to hurt you, or me." Luke looked up and saw in their fathers eyes something he never thought he would ever see again, love, and he knew that they would be ok. But he also saw the sadness there, mixed with guilt and heartache. He could see that the man was hurting inside. Then their father suddenly looked very tired and very sad, he hung his head like he was ashamed for something that he had done. "I'm so sorry, my boys, I am so sorry" he looked up at them. "I will never hurt you, and I promise that I am doing everything I can to make sure no one ever hurts you again. I am trying to get you and your siblings away from your mother, its just taking longer then I want it to" * He shook his head, trying to bring himself out of the past. He had to focus on what to do now, in the present, to get his father, the Boss of Black Thunder, home. He didn't know how his father did it. He is in charge of Black Thunder by himself. That's not how it was supposed to be. Brothers were supposed to do it together, but his brother, Luke's uncle, wasn't around. He wasn't sure what happened to him. He was alive, somewhere. Luke wondered about him. Why wouldn't he want to do this with his brother? But now that his dad was gone, he was put in charge. How was he supposed to do this, alone? His brother wasn't here, now he is all alone, and very overwhelmed. He heard a knock on the door. "Come in." he said. The door opened and Fury walked in. "Hey kiddo. Or, should I call you 'sir' now?" Fury said with a smile. "Oh, please no." Luke replied, with a dejected look. "Well, you being all powerful and stuff now..." "Fury, really. Can't you just take over for now? I really don't know what I'm doing here. I'm way out of my depth." Luke replied. "Sorry kid. You are the the 'rightful heir' should we say? You and your brother." "Yeah, but that's the problem. Me and my brother. My brother's not here. I don't think I can do this alone. I mean, I might be able to, if I knew how to lead this many people, if I knew what I was doing. I mean, Dad always knows exactly what to do." "Luke, I think that your more capable then you think you are. Too many people have told you that you can't do anything, and showed you all your flaws, and not enough people have told you what you can do, and what you do well. The few that have are not here for you now. Your dad and your brother are both gone. But I think that if you try, you can do it. You just need to believe in yourself." "Wow.... Umm... Thanks, Fury." Luke said slowly, a little shocked. He realized that Fury was right. When he was a kid he had always been told that he wasn't worth anything, that he wouldn't amount to anything, and now, he believed it. Grown-ups didn't believe in him, so, as a result, he didn't believe in himself. Luke looked down at his hands then smiled. It was time to show all those people that they were wrong. He would do this, he would get his father back. Luke looked up again to Fury, his father's most trusted man. "Alright, since I'm the Boss now...that means you have to listen to what I have to say right?" Fury nodded slowly. "Yes that would be right sir" he said with a small smile. Luke nodded, "Good....We have a mole" Fury cocked his head "A mole sir?" Luke nodded, he got up from his seat and started to pace the room, "I think I know who it is...I mean its just a hunch, but its the only thing that makes sense...." he looked up at Fury. "I need you to gather the Alpha unit and assemble them in their briefing room" Fury chuckled. "Whats so funny?" "Look at you taking command and yet still missing the details....you are the one who assembles them now, all the units are at your fingertips.'" Fury said pointing with his thumb to the wall full of buttons. Luke glanced at it "Oh yeah...right... I knew that!" "Right. Of course you did." Fury replied. Chapter 4 Luke nodded, it made sense really, how in the world could one person single-handedly run all of Black Thunder? It was nearly impossible, for not only was there the main HQ, here in _______ _______, but at least one base in each state in the country, sometimes two depending on the size if the state, how heavily populated it was and how bad crime was. "Fury?" Luke suddenly asked coming out of his trance. "Hmm?" He said tilting his head to one side. "Why does our father run this by himself? Why isn't our uncle here with him?" Fury sighed and folded his hands in his lap, he looked at Luke for a long time not answering him, finally he spoke. "Do you know how Black Thunder was founded?" He asked. Luke nodded. "Of course I do, our great-grandfather founded it to counteract his fathers own organization, Snake, who we continue to fight to this very day. What does this have to do with our uncle?" Blade asked, confused. Fury shrugged and stood up. "Nothing really..." He hesitated staring at Luke. "I would like to tell you about your uncle, but I can't, it's not my place to tell you anything." With that he left, leaving Luke alone with his thoughts. Luke groaned and tipped back in his chair, he really needed his brother here. With the two of them they could get their father back easily. Luke had his eyes closed when the door slammed open, Luke sat up quickly, his confusion hidden deep below the blank stare he held on his face. Then he recognized who it was and he smiled. "Bout time you got here Joshua Steel." He said, pretending to scold his older twin brother. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Eagle woke, his head pounding like a bass drum. He slowly opened his eyes, a harsh white light blinded him and he closed them again. He groaned and put his hand on his head and slowly sat up. He sucked in sharply as a new pain erupted in the back of his head. He moved slower now till he was sitting up completely. Slowly, he opened his eyes again and swung his legs over the bed. He was looking at a white tiled floor, and his bare feet, they had stripped him of his socks, boots, gun, and belt. He sighed deeply as the cold floor started to make his feet numb. He took a deep breath and let his eyes drift along the floor, it was flawless except for a metal drain in the middle of the floor. He looked up to the walls, they were completely white also. He stood shakily and started to investigate his prison. It didn't take long, the room was small and the only things in it was himself, a serveilance camera, and the bed he had been laying on. After the investigation proved to him that there was no way out, he sat on the bed and faced the camera, he just stared at it knowing that eventually someone would come and investigate why he was staring at the camera. He was right, it didn't take long, only about 20 minutes, before some man opened his prison door. Isaac looked away from the camera and to the man in the doorway. "Yes?" Isaac asked as if this were his office, it threw the man off guard for a second. "Uh... Sorry.... I mean... Come with me." The last words were said with a tone of command, or at least the man, who was actually no more than a boy dressed in mans clothes, had tried to have a tone of authority. Isaac shook his head as he followed the armed boy down more white hallways till they reached a black door, a stark contrast against the white. On the door in golden letters read: Snake Boss. Eagle smirked as he was led inside. "Still using children to do your dirty work, eh Josiah?" Eagle said to the Boss of the Snake. "Good, loyal men hard to come by for you?" The man behind the desk looked up and chuckled at the words. It was a #lifeless, humorless laugh. Eagle looked into his eyes and his heart sank. He saw the pure hatred in his eyes. It almost startled him. He knew the boss of Snake wasn't too fond of him, but that look in his eyes... It was more than that... It was everything about him. Eagle sighed as he was forced into a chair across from the desk and handcuffed to the solid, wooded arm. "It doesn't look as though your men have been to loyal to you either, Isaac." The man said as he stood up and walked over to the chair and sat on the edge of the desk across from it. "Josiah, what are you-" Eagle tried to say, but was cut short by the sharp pain that set his cheek on fire. Josiah had slapped him. "I don't believe that I gave you permission to speak. Your in my territory now, Isaac. I'm the boss, you have to play by my rules. No more bossing me around, treating me like your so much better than me, like you always did." Josiah said, hatred and bitterness oozing from the words like an open wound. Isaac turned back to him, fire in his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, did that make you mad?" Josiah said in mock apology. Isaac spat at him and was rewarded with another slap. Josiah chuckled again. "Isaac Steel." he spoke the name as if it was poison. "I'm actually quite proud with this catch. Black Thunder's Boss. You know, you don't seem as amazing and mighty as your cracked up to be. I'm disappointed. You seem a little... weak, to me. You were awfully easy to catch. And your men aren't hard to turn against you either." "You'd be surprised, Josiah." Isaac told him. "No, actually, I think you would be surprised." He said and pushed a button on his desk and at that moment the door opened and a guard came in dragging a young, bleeding, bruised body behind him. "Badger." As Isaac whispered the name he understood. He had been wondering his they had captured him, why he hadn't be heard them, or sensed them, or something, but now, he understood. Badger was supposed to be watching his back, but instead he had knocked him out and delivered him to his enemy. "It's kinda sad, really." Josiah said and smirked as he looked at the boy before them. "What people will do if promised money. Money they will obviously never receive." Isaac shook his head. "What? You don't approve?" Josiah asked him. "You ruined that boys #life, if you even let him keep it." Isaac replied. "No, actually, I think he did that all by himself. He didn't have to accept my unusually generous offer." "Why do you make your business in ruining people's lives, when you could be saving them?" "Wow, Isaac. You really don't know anything do you?" "What? Josiah, tell me, what happened to you?" Isaac asked him. "Get them out of here!" Josiah yelled to the guard. "They are stinking up my office. Get them out of my sight!" "Josiah." Isaac tried again, but the man he used to be able to call a friend, he had turned his back on him. He was un-cuffed and led back down the white corridors, back into his white prison. The guard threw him in and slammed the door behind him. Isaac sat back on the bed and sighed again. 'Ok Luke, I'm ready to get out of here now.' Isaac thought to himself. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "I know, I know, I'm late right?" Josh asked his brother as he walked further into the office and shut the door behind him. "Uh, yeah. I've been waiting for you to get back ever since you left." Luke replied, still smiling. Josh looked around the room and a look of confusion crossed over his face. "Where's Dad?" He asked. Luke sighed. "You better sit down." He replied. As his brother sat down Lukas began to fill him in on everything that had happened during his absence. "Wow. I was gone for, what? 3 days? I can't leave you alone for a minute!" Josh said teasingly after Luke had got done with his 'story'. "Yeah, next time, don't." "Hey, you were the one pushing me to leave." "Yeah, well, next time clone yourself, or something. Just don't make me do all that by myself again. How are things at home anyway? You guys ok?" "We'll survive. I can tell you that. Which is more than I could say a few days ago. Anyway, back to business. It's time to reclaim our stolen father, before we don't have a father to reclaim." Chapter 5 Isaac watched as Hideki sprinted down the hallway away from them, around the corner out of sight. He started forward, to chase him, but Josh put his hand on his chest to stop him, and he knew his son was right. He had bigger battles to fight right now. He had so many questions for him, so many things he wanted, needed, explanations for, but that would just have to wait. "You're right," he sighed, "Come on. Lets get out of here." They ran down the hallway following the sounds of fighting. Gunshots, yelling, sirens blaring, there were even some lights flashing here and there. He was finding it increasingly difficult to hear himself think in all of the noise and confusion. Then, in the midst of all the mayhem he heard a shot behind him. As pain tore through his leg, the ground suddenly rushed up to meet him, and all went quiet as he slipped into unconsciousness once again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ice sighed again as he paced the conference room. He had been unable to respond to the summons he had received from Alpha unit and he was becoming increasingly impatient for them to return. It felt as though they had been gone for a long time, too long. He had been preoccupied by another assignment so someone form _______ unit had stepped in for him. At the time he had been thankful, now he wished he had dropped everything he had been doing and just went with them. "Ahh!" He cried out in anger and frustration as he pounded his fist on the conference room table. He felt like a caged tiger. His phone beeped and he pulled it out of his pocket and read the message on the small screen. HEY, I NEED YOU, NOW. MEET ME IN THE USUAL SPOT. 5 MIN. BRING YOUR CAR. - JS He shoved his phone in his pocket and ran out of the room, down the hall and made his way to his car outside, glad to finally be doing something. Even if he wasn't totally sure what it was that he was doing. He climbed into his car and started the engine. He turned into traffic ignoring the blaring horns as he cut off a car making it swerve to avoid a collision. He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. 3 minutes. He pressed a little harder on the gas going a little faster. He made his way through the traffic and turned down a dirt road heading to the spot he used to go all the time when he was a kid and even through his teenage years where he used to spend time with his best friends, Joshua and Lukas Steel.