The Second Cycle: Chapter Two
#3 of Guardians: The Second Cycle
Guardians Awakened:
Chapter Two: Vance
Vance stood out in the rain for a few moments and looked around.
"I must be crazy." He thought to himself as he walked across the street quickly into a coffee shop. He got himself a cup and sat by a window were he could see the little shop that the supposed "Alexi Dontair" owned.
He sipped some of the coffee and idly watched the people on the sidewalks. After a second he left the table and went into the bathroom to change into some civilian clothes he had in his bag. After a few minutes he came back out looking less like a sore thumb now. He looked at his table and sighed, someone had stolen his coffee. Three minutes later feeling a little miffed he sat back down at the table with his new cup and checked to make sure the shop was still open.
He leaned back, that dragon looked a lot like Alyx; and the name Dontair... Wasn't that an alias he'd once used in a mission? After Vance had found out that the Guardian corps was a giant science experiment based on his college papers, he'd began reversing the effects on the two remaining Guardians. The rest of them had either suicided or been killed, but something had never seemed right about Alyx's death, Sain's too... but Alyx had told them she was dead over the radio. There had been nothing left to prove that he was dead after the bomb had went, well, not that there would have been, just a mile-wide crater. All of Alyx's files had become declassified after his death, and Vance had discovered before the Guardians had wiped his memory he was actually a man you could go to for a forged I.D., make things vanish for good, among other questionable activities. After Sain had went, all of the powers of the Guardians awoke, and those whose memories had been tampered were repaired, which caused Ruze's suicide. The only true Guardians left that Vance knew of were, Swanson, and Rex. Greg and Duke had been riding in an APC when an enemy jet flew over and wiped them off the face of the planet for good.
The Guardians, as horrible as it was to say was a total success for the NSP, that is, all except Sain, which was the one they had wanted most of course. Eternal life was what the NSP was after and it was becoming increasingly obvious too, what with the Darksun project, the Legends, the Guardians, and God knew what else. Vance sighed, the NSP needed to be stopped, every single one of the projects he'd heard of had an insane basis and an even more insane outcome, usually ending in the deaths of many good people. He looked down, but it would seem there were three remaining Guardians.... if that was actually Alyx across the street.
He glanced back up and leaned back against his chair and wondered if it ever stopped raining in this part of the country. Motion inside the shop caught his attention and he watched as 'Dontair' flipped the open sign over and locked the front door. Vance stood and grabbed his duffel bag, swung it over his shoulder and walked out onto the street. The dragon moved into the back of the shop and no more movement was seen. Vance sighed and stood in the rain again his fur getting plastered to his head, just as he started to go back inside a black Hummer came out of the alley next to the shop and turned into the traffic and began to move away.
Vance grinned and jumped up on his motorcycle donning his helmet and cranking it up to follow the Hummer as close as he dared. The windows were tinted, so he couldn't see into the hummer but it was definitely military grade and it had the old GC emblem on the bumper. Even though the NSP had auctioned off all of the GC's equipment it was enough for him.
. . .
Tatsukan looked in the rear view mirror every few blocks. There was a motorcycle behind them it stayed away from them but it turned whenever they did always staying the same distance away.
"Uhh, Alexi, I think we're being followed."
Alexi looked in the mirror,
"The grey motorbike?"
"Yeah."
Alexi was silent for a few moments,
"If he's still behind us when we get out of the city I'll lose him." He glanced over a Tatsukan, "Why do you think someone's following you?"
Tatsukan shifted a little,
"Well, you do know my.... profession, isn't quite legal right?"
"I figured as much, with the shady characters you had in and out of my shop."
"Well, let's just say I have many enemies."
Alexi nodded and didn't continue the conversation instead he began paying extra attention to everything around them. Escape routes, good sniping holes, choke points, police, military, people in heavy clothing, his brain processing the information faster than a blink of an eye as he became alert for danger.
Sain spoke from the back seat, "So, Sukan... Imma call you Sukan." She grinned, "Can you keep a secret then?"
"Uhh, sure?" Tatsukan turned around to look at the phoenix who seemed to flicker and go blurry around the edges. He blinked a few times and then there was a blue dragoness in the back instead of the phoenix. "What? What did you do? Alexi do you know about this?"
Sain winked at him and Alyx sighed,
"It's Alyx, Tatsukan. And yes I do, that's her true form and mine is..." He went fuzzy for a second. He gained a few inches in muscle and height and his greying muzzle turned back to its regular red and his hair lost the grey streaks now being a light purple, "This." He shrugged as Tatsukan worked his mouth up and down, "We're fugitives so to speak, so we have to disguise ourselves somehow."
Tatsukan nodded,
"I won't give your secret away." He shook his head, "You've got to teach me how to do that."
Sain laughed,
"Well first become a dragon, and then get a genetic disease that is increasingly rare."
"Oh." Tatsukan looked a little downcast.
Alyx looked back at Sain,
"Shift so you look human." He grinned at Sain reaction to that, "Imma drop you two off at my house and lose this tail. Sain, get the S-1 and meet me out at the old bunker. And Tatsukan?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember she's my mate." He looked at him from one eye as he fidgeted,
"Tell her to shift to something not human then. She's hot when she's my species."
Sain tapped Tatsukan on the shoulder in her human form,
"Just remember I can still breathe fire in this form." She grinned, her nostrils smoking.
Tatsukan gulped,
"Okay now she's hot in a literal term and not in the good way..."
Alyx laughed and managed to get out of sight of the motorcycle for a moment,
"Everyone out!"
Sain and Tatsukan jumped out and waved as Alyx stepped on the gas. The tires chirped once and then he shot off down the road. He saw the motorcycle speed up so as to keep up and he cursed. That thing could corner faster than him. Speaking of corners, he slid around a curve in the road the rear-end slipping out a little before he let go of the gas and straightened out the hummer again. He saw the gravel road and turned on to it sliding around for a moment before straightening out again. He glanced in the mirror and smiled seeing the motorbike stop. It wasn't built for off-road instances, especially not loose gravel. The rider on the bike stood up and flipped him off, making Alyx laugh.
He continued down the road for a few miles before it turned into old pavement. He actually had to drive slower on the pavement because of the potholes everywhere. He came to a small airfield with one hangar and pulled the hummer up inside of it and powered it down. Alyx stepped out of the hummer and turned around facing the two helicopters inside. It hadn't been hard to get the HH-2 from the auction, but the Huey had been more of a hassle seeing as how old it was. He chuckled as he hooked the fuel lines up to the HH and flipped the pump on.
The high pitched scream of the S-1 coming up to the airfield echoed around inside the building and Alyx stepped out to watch as Sain executed a good landing, even if it did jostle Tatsukan around a bit. Tatsukan jumped off the flying speeder bike and kissed the ground.
"If she's piloting the helicopter, Imma just walk to Norway." He gasped.
Alyx laughed,
"Yeah, she's a good pilot, but she'll scare the shit outta you if you're not careful."
Sain shrugged,
"I don't know how to fly an HH model anyway so it's cool. You're good Tatsukan."
Alyx motioned for the two of them to follow.
"Come one help me get the doors open and roll the blasted thing out."
. . .
Vance cursed and slammed the brakes on his bike on and the rear tire slid around as he brought it to a stop. He stood up and raised his middle finger high in the air,
"Fuck you Alyx! Fuck you!"
He knew it was Alyx by now, the driving style was unmistakable. The patriotic thing to do would be to report him as still alive to the government, but Alyx was hiding for a reason it seemed. Or he would have at least told him, right?
He sighed and sat back down on the bike for a moment. He heard and S-1 fly overhead and looked up. Two humans were riding it, a female piloting and a male screaming his lungs out. He chuckled and shook his head, then he stopped. Where were they going in such a hurry though? He thought for a moment, there was a tiny privately owned airfield a couple miles out into the countryside...
Vance cursed his stupidity and cranked his bike back up, there were other roads to get there, but he'd have to be quick. He revved once and roared off down the road as fast as he could without losing it.
. . .
Tatsukan heaved a sigh of relief as they finally had the HH rolled out onto the tarmac.
"That thing's heavy!" He exclaimed
Sain laughed,
"Well, duh."
Alyx merely shook his head,
"At least it has wheels; the Huey only has rails, imagine trying to move it." He laughed at Tatsukan look of horror. Before going about checking the HH over and making sure everything was in working order.
Sain sighed,
"I better go get his toolbox." She shook her head, "These HH-2's don't hold regulation settings for shit."
"Regulation settings?" Tatsukan asked, "Regulation for what?"
Sain shrugged,
"Fuel-air ratio, control zeroing, the difference in rotation between the front and rear rotors," She sighed, "These things had the worst computer systems too. I wish he'd managed to get one of the 4s instead of a 2."
"What's the difference?"
"The 4s are larger, have two main rotors, and are much better made. Better armed too usually."
Tatsukan looked back at the HH-2,
"This one's unarmed right?"
Sain laughed,
"Wrong. It's a scout, we bought it from an auction unarmed, but Alyx has a lot of his old military equipment and he manages to get his hands on whatever he wants. It has a single gatling turret on the front and two rocket pods. All of which are hidden of course. Don't' want to be unnecessarily frightening anybody now."
Tatsukan nodded.
"I see."
"Do you?" Sain asked. She shifted back to her regular self as she picked up the toolbox and took it to Alyx, "So what's not set right today eh?"
"Just the throttle zero. The rest looks good."
Sain smiled,
"Good we should be off in a couple minutes then."
She and Tatsukan went and pushed the hangar doors shut. Sain locked them and ran around the building once to check all of the doors.
"Alrighty we're set here." She glanced at Tatsukan, "You did put your stuff in the HH right?" Tatsukan nodded, "Good"
They both walked back over to the HH. Alyx jumped down from it and stowed the tool box inside the cabin.
"Alright everyone in!"
Tatsukan and Sain climbed into the helicopter Sain in the co-pilot seat, and Tatsukan behind her. Alyx stopped for a second, he heard a motorcycle. He looked off towards the west and saw the grey bike again. He cursed and jumped into the pilot seat, quickly running through the power-up sequence. He pressed down the ignition and nothing happened.
"What?" He looked around in the cabin, everything was right, nothing was missing. "What the hell!?" Sain handed him the safety belt, "Oh..." Alyx clipped the belt on and pressed the ignition key again. This time the HH hummed to life slowly building up to a high-pitched squeal.
The motorcycle was getting closer, maybe a mile out. Alyx pressed the throttle down slowly and brought the HH up a few inches before he swung the nose around to the northeast. He punched the throttle and they rose into the sky flying forward off towards Norway.
Tatsukan waved to the West,
"Later Germany! Peace-out!"
Sain laughed, "That's France dear. It's closer than you think."
"Oh." Tatsukan looked a little downcast.
. . .
Vance stopped his bike on the tarmac as the HH floated off to the east. He cursed and shook his head. He looked around at the hangar and got off his bike running over towards it. He looked at the doors, knowing Alyx there was probably more than just the simple locks and security system protecting the place. He'd come out here tomorrow with some tools. He looked back out at the HH as it got smaller and farther away,
"Where are you off to Alyx? And what the hell are you doing now?"