Potential at Large

By: William Westgate (Mathell, Gates)

Concept inspired by: Giuseppe Saso (Sasuke)

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Chapter 1

"Report!" yelled the large officer in the doorway.

"Report? Report what? I was told I had until Friday before I had to show any of my findings" Said Sasuke in an affirmed manner. "I've got three days left and that's not counting today!"

"That doesn't matter. I need to know what findings you have made" The officer continued.

"If I find something I'll tell you... on Friday." Sasuke continued.

"That's not good enough, you need to..."

"Enough already let the fox work" Sparky interrupted and moved towards the door. "There's nothing new now, there wasn't five minutes ago and I doubt there will be in the next five now quit bothering us."

"Are you refusing a direct order?" The officer said glaring at Sparky.

"Yes" Said Sparky mildly before slamming the door in the man's face. "Watch this clockwork" Sparky said now grinning at Sasuke as he charged the doorknob with some electrostatic energy. "Three" he started "Two... one..."

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" came a scream and a zap from the hallway. The officer had tried to open the door to get his last word in but unfortunately sprung Sparky's little trap. Both Sparky and Sasuke chuckled as they heard the officer trod off "Maybe that will buy us some privacy"

"That or a whipping but I'll live either way" Sasuke smirked. "Served him right anyhow, they said we had until Friday and with any luck we now actually have until Friday before they bother us again."

This was you're typical day for an atypical place. Sasuke was an average fox though he was large himself at 6'5. He was red furred and had black pattern on his hands, legs, and ears with silver hair and tipped tail. He was employed as a macro geneticist at a military research facility. He never often cared much for the military but he had a passion for his work that made it bearable. Though it was more than that. Some time ago he met his friend Sparky who peaked his curiosity. He was like your average Pikachu1 only with brown hair and a bit fluffier than normal but besides that he possessed the ability to grow at will. This was the result of experimentation that was done with him earlier on when he was captured and caged. Something that was done there unlocked this macro ability, which he used to escape from the labs and start over. Despite his hesitation to be studied or experimented upon he met with Sasuke who agreed to help him understand what has happened to him. This was a unique gift, not something unlocked by a simple all around drug but more of a unique talent uncovered by the experimentation Sparky had.

If Sasuke and Sparky where to find answers anywhere it was unfortunately with the military who showed an obvious interest in the whole idea and horded most any research on the subject. As civilian workers they would have access to most anything they needed and Sasuke being the master he is at macro genetic research was able to cover for Sparky and get him a job as well. To this day they've been researching and successfully kept Sparky's break through ability a secret from the military as they worked and hoped to soon unlock the mystery of this strange power.

Sasuke does most his research at the P.I.T or Print Involving Titans. The surface of the world was covered with many PITs that officially belong to meteor impacts or glacier movements. The government however, has identified some scars that resemble a giant paw print rather than a crater. Because of this it only made sense to establish the Macro Research Facility in the bottom of one of these PITs where clues were left in the area's geography and was readily available. By studying the clues, the military hoped to uncover the secretes of the giants and come up with a defensive solution to save themselves should they return. Sasuke and others like him were hired to study various artifacts thought to be fossilized bits of fur and other organic matter left behind in the PITs. They were then to conceive a viable means of destroying whatever created the PITs, possibly even find that all around drug. In any case this is what was done all day in this canyon like hole in the ground.

Several days later on Friday Sparky and Sasuke were traveling up the lift outside the MRF to leave the PIT.

"So" Sparky Began "Our officer friend Rick take your report today?"

"Yea, he was a bit hesitant though. After the doorknob he thinks anything he touches is going to bite him. I rather like him now." Sasuke smirked.

"Hah, that was a good joke. So what you put in your report?" Sparky asked.

"Nothing decisive. I said that one of the objects they recovered could be a fossilized stick from an acorn tree or an almond tree."

"It's a wonder we've kept our jobs this long" Sparky said, scratching his ear.

"Not so much, whenever they get antsy I just make a small break through. It makes everyone happy. Well everyone but Rick, if I wasn't so sure he dropped out of middle school at the age of eighteen I would say he might be on to us." Sasuke said serious despite his joke.

Sparky laughed at Rick's expense "So what was that stuff you snuck out anyway? It wouldn't be one of your unofficial breakthroughs would it?"

"Hopefully is my two week notice." Sasuke said as he pulled a vile from his pocket containing a strange purple liquid "So far we've found out that those prints were left by something very much like ourselves only with a unique genetic strand and obviously much larger. Anyway, I've found the same dormant genetics in you and almost anyone I've looked at including myself."

"How does that explain me then, and you still haven't told me what's in that vile." Sparky said with interest.

"That's because we're at the twentieth floor," Sasuke said slipping the vile back into its hiding place.

The lift stopped and the door slid open. Both Sasuke and Sparky hit the final checkpoint before going to the staff parking lot and home for the night.

MRF7 Lab 04 Date: 8/01/2032

_ _

_ The tests on samples N0793 - N0842 have come back inconclusive with the following exceptions. N0793, N0802, N0822, & N0838 tested positive for genetic materials, however further testing could not reveal the identity of the first three exceptions due too insufficient useful material. N0838 however contained enough viable material to be identified as either a fossilized almond tree branch or acorn tree branch. Further studies show that... (trails on)_

A gray wolf sits behind a desk holding Sasuke's report in hand and grunts at it before looking up at Rick who had just brought in the report.

"This is it?" The wolf said, "This is all they have after all this time of testing? All the other labs are far more thorough than this!"

"Sir, Sasuke and his assistant are highly qualified, they've made some major contributions to the project" Rick replied, the Doberman standing at attention.

"Yes but the rest of the time they hardly do anything. It's only when the job is on the line that something seems to happen at all. Also Sasuke is far to highly qualified to do such sloppy work. From what I've heard he should be able to tell me not only what kind of tree it was but the number of damn leaves it had on it every year till they day it died! He's toying with us here I'm sure of it."

"What would you be suggesting sir?" Rick asked

"He knows something more than he's telling us. I want Olin and his team from MRF1 up here to find out what he knows."

"Sir, are you sure you want Olin? His methods are somewhat... radical"

"You wouldn't be questioning my actions would you?" The Wolf said staring at Rick intently.

"... I'll have the team transferred here right away sir."

Chapter 2

It was late, or early depending on perspective. Sasuke and his friend had gotten a days rest before this Saturday when both met in the Everton forest at a cabin where they have so many times before to do their own research. There was a loud shattering crash as wood twisted and ripped to splinters, disappearing into fragments from the skyline. In its place if you're sight was good enough in this dark hour you would see a brown tuff of hair and two yellow brown ears take its place on the horizon.

"Yes I'm impressed already but do you have to do that next to a tree every time? One of these days someone's going to hear this outside and come look for it." Sasuke said at the now towering Sparky.

"That's right" Sparky said with a volume to match his size "Someone on a midnight walk ten miles into the forest would come towards the earth shattering smash noises."

It was hard to make out but Sparky knew Sasuke was either rolling his eyes or shaking his head or something below the trees. Turns out he was shaking his head while he took a device from his pocket and headed towards Sparky's oversized foot. It looked like something a doctor would use to search your ear but its handle contained an empty vial and its head a dart like tip that made a hiss as he pushed it hard against Sparky's foot. One of his colleagues commented it was a hypo spray and the name sort of stuck.

"If you flinch we're both in trouble" Sasuke said fearing the slightest tickle might get him kicked out twenty yards as the empty vial filled with a blood sample. "Alright that's about it" Sasuke finished. "Now get back down here before someone spots you"

Sparky did so and within a few moments he was back to his old size, which ironically was shorter than Sasuke. "So what was that for anyhow?" Sparky said as he rubbed his foot a bit, leaning on the shattered tree.

"I'm going to test that solution we made in the lab last week on this sample. I need to see what happens before we do anything else with it." Sasuke said walking towards the cabin.

"I wont complain about that. Last time you tried something the mini lab split in two. The fire was a good touch, I didn't see that coming" Sparky said chuckling.

"Neither did eye..." Sasuke mumbled rubbing a small patch of fur on his head that seemed shorter for some reason than the rest. "If it's all the same it's an experience I'd rather forget"

"If that's so you should find someone else to spend your time with because I'm not forgetting" Sparky continued on.

Sasuke grumbled as they both walked into the cabin. From the hypo spray Sasuke took the red vial and from his pocket he took the purple one he had taken from the lab and placed them both into a deep slot on what looked like an overly elaborate microscope.

"So what is this we're doing again? It doesn't seem like it's helping me get any closer to finding out what's happened." Sparky said from a seat in the cabin.

"Remember the genetic strand I discovered from that sample, what was it, N0249?"

"N0249?" Sparky said, "Yea but I always get that mixed up with one of the samples between 01 and the one we found yesterday. Refresh me just so I know we're thinking about the same thing."

Taking the sarcasm Sasuke began "That's the sample we found the large unidentified DNA sequence in"

"The MACRO strand you were talking about?"

"Yes" Sasuke replied " M ysterious A nd C ompelling R esizing O rganics"

"I still say you tried to hard to use that word"

"It was either that or B loating I nternal G enetics, anyway" Sasuke continued "after I found it in one of the samples recovered from the PIT I noticed the same code in just about everything, some more complex than others but in all except for the sample it was inert or just turned off so to say. Stranger still it seems to be some sort of fluke, it shouldn't be there yet we all have it for some reason like it was introduced artificially" Sasuke continued on now fiddling through the microscope hitting buttons, the machine making buzz and hiss sounds as he did. "You my friend, have the most complex MACRO strand I've seen and for some reason it isn't completely dormant."

"Alright" Sparky said without much enthusiasm as he studied the wood grain in the table. "So what does that all mean?"

"It means" Sasuke said looking up from his microscope "That we all seem to have an inert strand of genetics that I don't know how got there and it would seem to control spontaneous growth, possibly more. Also I may have just found a way to activate ten percent of that genetic strand without blowing anyone to pieces"

"Ten percent? That doesn't sound like much." Sparky said looking away from his table to Sasuke.

"Alright but did you know that you were only using about one percent when you were outside just now?"

Sparky looked like he had just heard a sharp and sudden noise when he looked on with a somewhat astonished expression. "Thought so" Sasuke said. "I'm going to get the vials from outside and run a few more tests. I'm not sure if this is exactly safe to use just yet" Sasuke said and pulled the purple vial from the machine as Sparky watched him walk out the door. A moment after he left the slide in the microscope cracked.

"The fire from last time was better" Sparky thought looking from his chair at the cracked slide.

Sasuke fiddled with the purple vial in his hand as he walked towards the outdoor table holding some of his equipment. He was certain this solution or the next would safely work on Sparky but also wondered if it would be effective on him or others as well. It didn't matter much right now and he picked up a box of glass tubes among other things. However halfway to the cabin he was compelled by reflex to grab his left arm and dropped the small box that shattered on the ground. Sasuke fell to his knees and just barely realized he had been shot in his arm and both legs. He yelled as the pain caught up with him and looked into the trees for his attacker before another two bullets found both his left and right shoulder.

It wasn't long until his attacker appeared in the tree line and walked towards him. He appeared to be a cat of some sort it was hard to tell, he carried a rifle over his shoulder and some device over his eye. He was dressed in black get up like some ops outfit hyped up by the movies a bit. "You're lucky they want you to talk otherwise I would have done more than cripple you" the cat smirked.

"Who the heck are you! What do you want and how..."

"Well aren't we the curious one" The cat interrupted with a barrel caulk "Though if you don't mind I think I'm better suited to that role being a cat and all. So if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions I'll be on my way"

Sasuke looked up and heard the cabin behind him creek, he knew immediately that Sparky had caught on to what was going on and what he was about to do then smirked himself "You are better suited to that role and you do know what they say about the curious cat?"

The cat looked up at the cabin hardly shocked but with a grin rather, watching as Sparky blew apart the walls and ceiling of the cabin as he jumped at him in full fury. The cat gave an evil grin and took two shots before diving to the side avoiding an earth-shattering stomp from Sparky's feet.

"You have no idea what you've just gotten yourself into cat" Sparky said looking down at the small figure beneath him."

"On the contrary" The cat said smirking "We know exactly what we've gotten ourselves into and I am more than enough to handle you and you're friend. My commander wouldn't even waste a glance on you two."

"Are you blind" Sparky said "I could crush you're head with my small toe and don't think that guns going to help. I use far more dangerous things to scratch my back with."

"O don't worry about the gun" Black said, taking off the aiming device from his head grinning all the while "all I'll be using is my bear hands. Heck I'll just use my toe" The cat laughed and pulled a device similar to Sasuke's hypo spray.

Before Sparky could understand the crazy threats this man was making towards him the cat had stabbed his arm with the syringe. A hiss sounded as the attached bottle emptied into his arm. From the point of the shot the cats body began to bloat and quickly his arm then the rest had already bulged and doubled in size. Sparky moved fast and stomped the cat with his foot. The cat gritted his teeth and grabbed the foot with both hands and was pushed into the ground. It was however too late, the cat was growing fast and was able to throw up Sparky's foot and he tumbled off balance. Using the moment he hooked Sparky in the jaw and knocked him to the ground. He was now the size of Sparky but yet continued to grow larger and before Sparky could get up he was near double his size, towering far above the tree line before he stopped.

With the fight Sasuke had only just notice Rick had come onto the seen. In his arm was a box containing what must have been every paper, disk and test tube that was in the building. "Rick are you behind this!" Sasuke said getting to his feet.

"No, I'd rather not have had it happen like this." Rick confessed putting down his box.

"Well its obvious you got a hold of my research, you didn't need to go this far!"

"Your research" that cat bellowed and laughed hardily. "You think you're the only specialist worth a damn between any of the MRFs? That your research was the end all be all? You are not so special my friend, with or without you're help a break thorough or two has been made all be it at a much slower pace than if you had cooperated fully"

"And now that we have the research that you rightfully owe to us we can get on with our lives" Rick said. "Come on Black, we need to get this back to the colonel"

"Hah! I don't think so Rick" Black protested "Its been a long time since Olin's let me have this much fun and I plan to take full advantage of it."

"What!" Exclaimed Rick "We have what we came for lets get moving! There's no need to continue!"

Black the cat merely laughed again at Rick's persistence and grabbed the trunk of a tree. With little strain the roots gave out from the tree and mounds of dirt were shaken loose as he lifted it high above the ground. Sparky had just gotten ready to fight again but was quickly knocked backwards from several swipes from Blacks new weapon. Knocked to the ground Sparky used every ounce of strength to keep the tree Black forced down on him from crushing his chest. Sparky clenched his teeth then yelled as he summoned a static bolt and sent it up threw the tree. The sudden electric blast blew apart the tree and shot straight into Black who yelled as he was thrown a distance back into the ground plowing aside a large chunk of forest. Charred and in pieces the tree fell to the ground as Sparky again stood up to face the behemoth near twice his size.

"Sasuke! Are you sure that new stuff you made will work" Sparky yelled at him.

"Er" Sasuke looked up then back to his hand, still holding the purple vial he had been testing earlier "Not certain enough that I'd want to risk using it"

"WILL IT WORK!?" Sparky yelled with frustration at Sasuke

Sasuke nearly dropped the bottle to shield his ears from Sparky "I... I think it will, it should work, YES!"

Sparky watched Black start to get up off the ground and stare him down, he was not at all happy and wished to share the feeling "Then use it now!" Sparky hollered

Sasuke got the vial and moved towards Sparky's oversized foot, a painful experience given his wounds and made all the worse when he couldn't find the hypo spray to administer it with. He near panicked checking his pockets, looking for it until there was a plop by his side.

"He was not ordered to kill, only to retrieve the information and so as long as we're all breaking orders," Rick said before smirking and walking off with the file box. He had just thrown the hypo spray next to Sasuke who looked on towards Rick oddly as he walked off.

"SASUKE!" Sparky bellowed.

"Er right!" Sasuke fumbled with the device and fed the purple tube into its compartment. Black had just gotten up and started moving towards them quickly. His face was barren and ready to see death as he knocked and uprooted trees moving towards Sasuke and Sparky.

"Done!" Sasuke yelled and pulled the empty hypo spray away from Sparky's foot and began to back off.

"Nothings happening..." Sparky said agitated as Black came closer towards them

"I don't understand it should work!" Sasuke said puzzled.

"Nothings happening!" Spark continued with a growing agitation. Black leaped into the air, high above the ground. He blotted out almost half the sky as he fell towards Sparky yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Sparky get out of there!" Sasuke yelling feverishly.

"NOTHINGS HAPPENING!" Sparky said and put his hands in the air to block the cat's inevitable fall to earth.

The ground cracked underneath Sparky and many nearby trees splintered deprived of room. Sparky had caught the diminutive Black as he came down and through reflex tossed the cat on far down the horizon deep into the forest. Sparky had almost spontaneously quadrupled in size, each foot pushing up large amounts of dirt and uprooting many trees so fast that it all seemed to shoot out of the ground. With a large thud Sparky fell to the ground grasping his sides as he continued to grow at an astonishing rate. Pushing more dirt and trees out of the way, destroying a good deal of the forest he had already doubled again in size and continued.

"Sparky!" Sasuke yelled at him as he witnessed the event.

"Sparky! You can control it; you've got to take control like you did before! SPARKY!"

Chapter 3

Something was rattling, bumping around hard. Sasuke looked up and saw a ceiling, a glass window and a moving scene outside it. It was incredibly bumpy, the whole place was shaking and he found himself holding onto the couch he was lying on to keep him from being thrown about so much but that was a bad idea. His arm hurt when he moved it, so did the rest of him and being thrown around in the back seat of a car didn't help much.

"Wha... Where am I?" He said trying to sit up.

"You're alive!? Wow I didn't think you were going to make it," Said the fox driving the car "I thought that whatever the hell that thing was might have killed you."

"Thing? What thing"

"That giant yellow thing next to you. You were passed out, beat to hell but I'm sure you know that much. I'm gona get you to the hospital and get the police or army or something out there to take care of that thing"

Sasuke sat up and rubbed his shoulder. He was horribly bruised were the bullets hit but having the connections a scientist has he also had some nice bullet proof clothing that stopped all but one bullet that had grazed his left shoulder. That and enough luck to keep Black from using piercing rounds or a bigger gun kept him from bleeding to death that night.

"We got to go back for Sparky" Sasuke said to the driver.

"You've got a friend out there? All right, where was he? You were the only one I saw when I came by."

"Um, actually that big yellow thing is probably Sparky"

The car stopped suddenly and took Sasuke off guard who flew against the backside of the drivers seat and fell back down discovering all new kinds of pain as he grabbed his grazed arm. "You know that thing?" The driver said shocked.

"That thing is my friend Sparky and we've got to go back to help him" Sasuke said somewhat cross.

"You can't be serious" The driver said, he looked around to the back seat and saw Sasuke and possibly the most serious expression he ever saw. "Alright you are serious. SO how do you propose we help your friend?"

Sasuke thought about it for a second. There wasn't much he could do if he just went straight back if Sparky was still in a macro state. Usually after so long he would of reverted back naturally but since this was not the case any more and Sparky may not yet be able to control his new power.

"I have a house not far from here" Sasuke said "Get me back there, I have something that should help him if I can finish it up."

"So" Said the colonel back at the Macro Research Facility 7 "After Black went feral and attacked Sasuke you were able to retrieve the research and bring it back?"

"Yes sir" said Rick "There home was also searched for any additional information but nothing relevant turned up. Should I have the house monitored?"

"Don't waste the manpower" The colonel said smugly "If Black used the experimental formula I doubt they'll be coming back to use the house." the colonel laughed and Rick merely looked on grimly.

"Sir, was it necessary to use the members of Olin's team? You knew that they would probably take it this far. Wouldn't it have been better to have detained them and had them interrogated?"

"This bad habit of questioning my orders has got to stop, that's the second time this week. It doesn't matter anyway; I don't trust him after holding back so much information, after learning of his friend's abilities and all that research. I admit I would of liked to study that assistant of his, being able to control his abilities as such, but there's to much work that goes into making a highly renowned geneticist 'disappear' and detaining a macro would have been difficult. This is much easier. So if there's nothing else your dismissed." the colonel said.

Rick turned after being dismissed and headed to the colonels office door but nearly collided with a husky who had just barged in "Sir I think you better take a look at this, turn to camera feed 12."

The colonel tapped on a control panel close to his seat and the screen in his room flickered on. All three of them turned to the screen and the colonel lost his smug expression immediately.

It was actually not a bad day out this morning. The sun was shining in a clear blue sky, it was quite and tranquil when Sparky awoke amongst a large mound of rubble. The pain was gone, it felt like waking up after a good nights sleep. He sat up and tried to stand but tumbled and fell down, smashing a new crater into the ground. It was now he realized his new size. He was far bigger than he had ever been before, the serum had worked, but what happened last night. It was all in flashes, he saw himself throwing Black deep into the horizon and extreme pain before passing out.

"Sasuke, think that stuff works though now you can tell me how I get back to normal" Sparky said to Sasuke without realizing Sasuke was miles away with a stranger. "Sasuke?"

Sparky looked around unable to find him, where was he? He tried again to stand and finally made it. He could see high above the trees; it was a completely new and amazing perspective than that before. "Where the heck are you Sasuke?!"

He remembered the fight last night, Sauske was shot several times, did they kill him? They capture him and take him away? They must of taken him to question him! It wasn't enough that they stole his research and try'd to kill him but now there going to beat him until he tells them everything. They will pay for this!

"I thought they were dead!" the colonel bellowed at Rick.

"I never said they were!" Rick shouted back, "Raise the alarm solder and activate all base defenses!" The husky saluted and ran out the door following Rick's orders.

Rick looked after him but was blind-sided across the face by the colonel and fell through a chair into the ground "This is on your head! You've been questioning my orders far too much; you must have been working with them all along. How else could they have survived against Black unless you had warned them" The base alarms now starting to go off "I bet all that research you brought me is rubbish you got from some mans trash!" Rick stood up again and wiped blood from his mouth

"Are you insane! I'm here to help find a way to protect against macros not to beat the hell out of civilians for things they may or may not know!" Rick said firmly before two guards ran in.

"Sir what's going on here!" one guard said.

"This mans a traitor who consorted with the enemy, I want him locked up" The two men grabbed Rick and escorted him out. "and tomorrow you'll be executed for treason" the colonel said to himself and walked out towards the control room.

The control room of the facility was full of activity. Not only was this facility a center of research it was a fortress of gun emplacement and defenses systems. The room was cold steel. It was dimly lit with white light and flashes from alarms. There were a dozen or so people working franticly at various terminals.

"Status" the colonel bellowed when he walked in.

"The intruder has completely destroyed the first check point" A white mouse responded from one of the many stations "he's currently attacking the barrier. At this rate it wont be long before it collapses completely."

"Bring up camera feed thirteen" the colonel said and the main monitor switched on. The checkpoint into the compound was completely demolished. It was crushed flat and it didn't seem to have done anything to slow the intruder. "Feed eight" the colonel said. The screen was brought up and there was Sparky and his massive self.

From just outside the facility Sparky was trying to breach an energy shield, with both hands he repeatedly smashed into the barrier as it flashed and repelled his attack. "God I'm glad Space Track fan worked so hard to make those things work. Contact command and advise them of our situation. Activate all defensive turrets, fire when ready. I also want MFR1 contacted, get Olin down here, I don't care if you've got to drag him by the tail I want him!"

"Sir" the mouse cried "Command has been apprised of the situation and has dispatched a squad of A-10 Thunderbolts. ETA ten minutes."

"Hah, a secret lab huh? Well I guess that makes sense if you're consulting with giants. So who are you anyway? Mad scientist with some giant friend from an experiment gone wrong?" The stranger said. They were both back on the trail they had met on. Sasuke held a small device he had now just recently finished.

"Sasuke actually and no he's not the result of an experiment gone wrong... exactly"

"Not exactly gone wrong... well what else creates huge monsters?" the stranger asked.

"... Don't worry about it now; just get me back to Sparky before he wakes up. What is your name by the way?"

"Heh, you can just call me Gates for now and what the hell happened here?" Gates stopped the car at the place Sparky was supposed to be, he was gone and a new path seemed to have been plowed over.

"Where did your friend go?" Gates said and then looked up as several loud plains flew in formation overhead.

"It's Sparky! He must of thought they had taken me when he couldn't find me. Quick we got to get going to the MRF!"

"The MR what?" Gate said puzzled.

"Just go back down the trial! I'll tell you were to go!"

Chapter 4

It was hectic inside the MRF. Between the alarms and the constant shakes from the attacks order seemed lost in the halls. Everyone tried either to get to their stations or get to safety. They all ran to make it there, courtesy being the last thing on anyone's mind. "Damn it get to your station and watch were your going before you run anyone else down!"

"Sorry captain!" the man said and quickly got up off the floor and ran down the hallway Rick was just escorted through.

"Come on sir, keep moving" one of the two escorts said.

Rick brushed off his uniform and kept moving, soon coming to the detainment center. One of the guards lowered his weapon and began pushing in a short series of numbers into a panel next to the door. "I'm sorry we have to do this Rick, but we have our orders." said the other escort.

"I understand that, I just hope you understand what I've got to do now." Rick's statement left the escort puzzled but he didn't show it, he didn't have time. Rick, with a flash of speed, struck the escort in the gut and a rapid second blow to the head knocked him down. The second guard quickly turned his gun on Rick but before he could level it Rick had ripped it from the mans hands and struck him bluntly over the head with the butt end of the gun.

"Sorry Scott" Rick said retrieving the gun and his ID badge from the unconscious escort "but I don't think I'll make it to poker night this week. Something's going on here and I intend to find out what." Another heavy crash rattled the halls, knocking out the lights before emergency lights flickered on.

"Sir!" yelled one of the men manning the control rooms monitors "The last hit shorted out a few power lines, were having trouble sustaining the barrier."

"Then go fix it!" The colonel yelled. The man nodded and began managing damage control teams from his station "Damnit where are my gun emplacements!" the colonel demanded.

"I'm sorry sir," The white mouse said "The system was stuck in diagnostic mode. It's taken some extra time to abort it but it's done now. Patriot missile activated, system has been deployed, preparing to fire."

From outside the building a honeycomb of hidden iron panels outside the barrier opened up and turrets carrying twin missile pods emerged from them. Quickly as they emerged each began firing missiles in rapid succession, at least a dozen each after Sparky but the projectiles didn't move fast enough and Sparky dodged them as easy as stepping to the side and the missiles impacted the sides of the PIT.

"First salvo fired, it was a complete miss!" the mouse yelled.

"Damnit!" the colonel swore "Spread out the firing pattern and launch another salvo. He won't be able to dodge them all this time."

"I'm going to make you pay for all of this!" Boomed Sparky after dodging the salvo and striking the barrier again double fisted. The missile system launched another salvo, this time the missiles spread out not leaving Sparky the room to move out of the way.

"What are you going to do now rat, you can't dodge them all" The Colonel said to himself grinning.

"Enough of this!" Sparky yelled, clenching his fists. With the missiles filling the air around him Sparky produced another electric attack, a three hundred sixty degree electric pulse shot from him through the air and intercepted the missiles. The missiles short-circuited and tumbled in the air, each exploding into a massive fireball filling the area with nothing but red orange flashes, light and debris. The exposed turrets were also hit, the complement of missiles still in each one detonated sending up huge plumes of fire from the dozens of missiles in each emplacement.

"Brace your selves!" one of the stations monitors yelled and no sooner than he did when everything went to hell. The electric blast impacted the facilities barrier and even though it took the brunt of the attack it wasn't enough. All exposed windows burst into the halls, every computer that wasn't shielded crashed. In essence, everything that wasn't nailed down went down and most the facility nearly shook itself to pieces.

"That's it sir, the barrier has collapsed, most systems are damaged or without power. Our patriot missile system has also been completely obliterated." Said one of the monitor operators.

"Can someone please give me a damn bit of good news!" the colonel yelled and almost as if on Q one of the communication monitors flickered on.

"This is Delta squad leader Varus Argo, what is your current situation." came a reptilian voice from the monitor.

The Colonel quickly responds, "This is Colonel Dick of MRF7, our facilities taking heavy damage, the only thing I know is working is communications."

"All right, ETA is less than a minute, you can give me the targets any time now" Varus said through the monitor.

"If you can't figure it out I'll have you shot after this is over," the colonel said before he closed the channel. "Alright, We're evacuating the station, I want everyone out of here now!"

"You sure that's a good idea sir?"

"Damnit!" the colonel began "If I told you once I've told you a thousand times, stop questioning my orders Rick! ... Rick?!"

"Damn smart ass" Varus said after he lost contact with Colonel Dick. "Alright were nearly on target. I think we'll start with a rocket strafing run. Formation Charlie five," A moment after the order three confirmations came up and Varus squad moved in on the PIT.

Sparky was hunched over inside the PIT, weakened from his last attack. "I've got to figure out how I did that..." Sparky said to himself before looking up as four Thunderbolt aircraft flew quickly over, "O you have got to be kidding me"

"O you have got to be kidding me" Varus said when he found his target. "Alright people, disengage weapon safeties! Prepare for the run!" Varus and his wingmen turned around after passing overhead and lined up to do a strafing run. "Let em have it!" he yelled as the rocket pods unloaded from each aircraft and pulled ahead on target with Sparky.

"Not again," Sparky said and dropped to the ground, effectively ducking the incoming rockets "Can any of you military people actually aim?" Sparky said but the multiple impacts on the side of the PIT wall knocked loose a great deal of rock which effectively fell and pummeled Sparky.

"Hah! Take that damned oversized fuzz ball" Varus gloated.

"All right, that's it!" Sparky yelled and pulled himself from the massive boulders. "I've had enough of this" he said picking up one of the boulder. He hurled the massive rock towards the group of planes, which quickly scattered as it flew past and smashed against the apposing wall of the PIT.

"Crap, how the hell could someone hurl boulders like damn toys?" Varus yelled, "Everybody spread out, pattern Foxtrot two, use your Vulcan cannons."

"Alright, so you're telling me that you've been working for the military to discover your friends origins but they just tried to kill you and your friend because you have some valuable research on how to create giant mutant macro things that they wanted and now after some experiment that did go wrong your friend Sparky got stuck in Macro faze while fighting off another huge cat monster and that little device you got from your lab is supposed to help turn him back but, you think after he couldn't find you he assumed you were captured or killed and went to take revenge on some military run research facility that's in a huge canyon PIT thing that is supposedly a paw print made by some macro about a million times bigger than Sparky a long time ago..."

"Yea that's pretty much it" Sasuke said plainly.

Gates looked on as he drove down the road "Yea, I don't think I'll be picking up any more strangers after this..." Sasuke grinned and closed a hatch on his little device he's been working on. "So how do you have this planned? You think I'm just going to be able to drive straight onto some military base without a problem?"

"Actually yes" Sasuke said as Gates drove up to a crushed checkpoint.

"O the joy this promises" Gates said sarcastically with grim future prospects in mind. He drove over the broken barrier and up to the parking lot. A great deal of people were coming out of a lift that traveled down the PIT's canyon like wall to the facility and more were driving off. "What the hell is going on hear?" Gate said.

"He can't stay on the defensive forever, keep pounding him!" Varus yelled and made another run at Sparky. Sparky had taken hold of two large boulders he used to block the attacks by holding them in front like a shield to take the hits and then hurled them after the attacking planes as they passed.

"Get me closer to the ledge." Sasuke told Gates.

"Closer? I'd prefer to get as far away from live ammo as I can thanks."

"Please, Just get me closer, I have to see what's going on."

Gates grumbled and reluctantly drove the car up close to the ledge and they could see the whole battle taking place in the PIT.

"This is getting us no where, this things a tank so we'll treat it like one. Prepare to fire the Maverick anti tank missiles." Varus commanded, "Fire!" Three missiles came from the squadron as they pulled up and turned. "Delta three, why didn't you fire your Maverick?"

"Leader" Delta three replied "There are civilians on the ledge!"

"What!" Varus yelled.

Sparky hurled one of the boulders towards the incoming missiles. It impacted one and the entire boulder erupted into a massive fire ball but the remaining two were still coming and Sparky used another boulder as a shield.

"Damnit why couldn't you have just walked to the ledge and looked" Gates exclaimed as he tried to pull the car away from the battle. The missiles impacted by Sparky and the whole side of the canyon erupted into a massive fire ball.

"Damn it damn it damn it!" Gates continued to yell but the ledge was weakened by the impact and the whole side gave out and collapsed underneath the car. Both Gates and Sasuke were now plummeting down the side of the PIT inside the car.

"Alright, everyone out of here now except for you Colonel, I've got a few things to talk about" Rick pointed a gun at his commander as the rest of the staff began to exit the room and evacuate the area.

"I knew you were a traitor Rick, how else could Sparky have survived unless you tipped them off." Colonel said from the other side of the room.

Walking slowly towards him gun drawn "Cut the bull, you knew Sparky would survive, you were counting on it"

"And why would you think that? My entire reason of being here, my job is to fight Macros"

"Exactly and you planned on keeping that job at any cost, even if it cost this entire facility. I found out that the military was about to cancel this research and close down the MRFs. It seemed worth funding a long time ago but with slow progress and other more effective weapons already in the arsenal what was the need for this? You're job and basically you're whole career was in jeopardy because the military thought Macro research wasn't worth anything. So to show them the true potential of Macro research you had Sparky's friend killed because you knew he would come here with a vengeance." Rick claimed as he stopped within a meter of Colonel Dick.

The Colonel chuckled at the floor and looked up with a smile "that's a damn interesting theory. Though how was I supposed to know that Sparky had the ability to become macro or that Black would kill Sasuke? Heck I ordered the whole team down here and if they had come even as a macro Sparky wouldn't have stood a chance."

"I doubt you would be so misinformed about the people you deal with. You probably knew that Sasuke was smuggling research out and had him observed a long time ago and found this all out and then put on an act that you didn't while you set this whole thing up. You knew Olin doesn't waste his time for just anything and you knew the tactics they use, shoot first ask questions later. You knew Black would go out of his way to kill both of them."

"And I suppose you have proof of this." Colonel Dick questioned.

"Actually I do, you left your office in such a hurry that not only did you forget to lock your door but you left your computer on and logged in. I didn't exactly have time to read it all, just enough to get this far but I bet a few generals might be interested in seeing this copy I made" Rick smiled and held up a CD case.

The colonel lost his grin and scowled at Rick "So what do you propose now?"

"Well I think you should come with me, I might have a few questions when I make my report like what..."

"Colonel" Rick was interrupted by Varus "We have a problem"

"Don't we all" Dick said in a low voice "What is it?"

"We've got a good few civilians in the area, a few were knocked off the cliff and nearly killed"

"Nearly? What happened" Rick demanded.

"A missile impact broke off part of that cliff. A car parked on the side fell but that Macro thing caught it before it smashed into the ground"

Rick stood dumbfounded for a moment "Continue the attack" Dick said, "Use whatever means necessary, far more will be lost if we let it go"

"What!" Rick exclaimed.

"Are you sure about that? I can't guarantee the safety of these people, I don't think I want to take that risk."

"Hold your position Delta force, I'll get back to you in a moment." Dick said with a grin. "Well seems I've got a chip to bargain with after all."

"You'd put those civilians under fire and have Sparky killed as a bargaining chip?" Rick said now scowling.

"Well that's what it is. I could call them off but I think killing that destructive Macro would save me a bit of face when you turn in that file, that is, if I still need to save face." Dick said smirking.

"And if I didn't turn this in and let you go free..."

"Well then my point would still be made and I'd keep my job, whether or not that macro lives don't matter the MRF will go on after this." With reluctance Rick took the CD from its case and tossed it over too the Colonel. "And the gun if you would?" Rick threw the gun down and the Colonel smirked. "Varus" he said as he brought the connection with Delta force back "withdraw and return to base."

"I hear ya, Delta force, were head'n home." Varus said and closed the channel.

"Well not much more to be said now so I'll be taking my leave. Thanks for the disk, I heard that last hit on the base shorted out just about every computer outside this room. This should come in handy when I get a new one." Dick smirked and walked out the room and out of view.

Rick watched him leave and almost regretted it but like he said before he was here to save civilians not the other way around "He really is a Dick" Rick said and left out the other way.

Outside Sparky sat up against the side of the PIT holding Gates car in his hand. Gates was still in the car but Sasuke had already walked out onto Sparky's palm. "I thought they killed you Sasuke"

"They nearly did, twice, but I think you got your pay back in" Sasuke looked over at the Macro Research Facility 7 and its smoldering self.

"Yep, I'm happy" Sparky said grinning, trying to keep his voice low and undamaging. "So who's that in the car?"

"Him?" Sasuke said pointing, "Gates, he was good enough to give me a lift." Gates was sitting behind the wheel, his hands fused to its surface and a grim expression on his face as he looked up at the behemoth, taking in everything that had just happened.

"Hello Gates" Sparky said grinning weakly

"He's... giant..." Gates uttered as he hid in the car.

"Good point," Sasuke said, "here Sparky, put us down would you and take this" Sasuke took out his small device and pressed a few buttons on it. He walked off Sparky's hand when he put it to the ground; Gates slowly put his car into reverse and backed off the hand, the car bumped and shifted coming off the end. "Alright" Sasuke said and threw the device onto Sparky's palm "hold that and try to shrink again." Sparky brought the device close to his face, trying to see if he could find it in his palm. He shrugged and tried again to shrink like he did earlier but this time it actually worked and Sparky began to shrink. Slowly the rocks around him grew, the canyon seemed higher and within moments he was back to his normal size.

"Impressive isn't it?" Sasuke said with a grin.

"It works" Sparky said, "that's all I care about".

"At least he's normal" Gates added as he slowly came out of the car.

"Sparky, Sasuke! Glad you made it, I wasn't sure if Black had got you." Rick yelled at Sasuke and the others as he approached them. Both of Sasuke and Sparky looked darkly at Rich, Sparky shifting his weight as if to fight. "O calm down, I just saved you're lives, twice"

"You also introduced us to Black." Sasuke told Rick.

"Something among other things we're not to fond of" Sparky added, falling back a bit from exaustion.

"Well if you want to fight that's fine with me but save it for later." Rick started "After all this I'm probably going to be held at gunpoint for treason. If I'm not I'd hand in my resignation after what that bastard Dick pulled just to keep his macro projects going but I'm sure he can figure it out by himself. Then there's your problem, every man who's ever wanted a lab rat is going to be after you two so we might as well get out of here before we're mist to much and find out what the hell is going on with this whole project"

Sasuke thought it over a moment a bit hesitant of the idea though coming around, "I suppose we could do worse than work together, at least to stop Dick though we should probably rest a couple days somewhere for Sparky's sake" Sparky exhausted and hurt from the fight was asleep, resting on the ground now nearby. "How about your place Gates?" Sasuke suggested with some hope.

"O hell no" Gates protested, "I'm done with this macro, army, hellfire stuff. Besides I wont even be home. I've finally got my vacation plans all set up for myself. I've got a large secluded sea shore property out in the middle of no where rented so I can sit back and relax and be by myself without all this insanity."

"So exactly how secluded is this place of yours?" Rick asked.

Gates looked at Rick and then the hopeful expressions of the others "O god damn it..."

Chapter 5

"For the love of god let Sasuke drive!" Rick yelled from the back seat of the car.

"No way, if Sparky hadn't left my car in that PIT then you could of just followed me while I took my car. This is the only bit of control I've had and I don't care how long it takes me to figure out all these buttons I'm going to drive us there." Gates protested from the driver's seat of Sasuke's car, which if nothing else made a rocket ship, look as slow and simple as a stick in mud.

"Left your car down there! I saved you're life and all I got out of it was a busted up hand from those missiles but you don't see me complaining!" Sparky yelled before another one of Gates random button smashing activated some booster and squeezed them all into there seats as the car seemed to jump into mok three.

"I love this car!" Gates shouted as they zoomed with insane speed down a highway, which thank divinity was devoid of traffic.

"We're going to die aren't we Sasuke?" Sparky mumbled.

"Gates, Tollbooth, TOLLBOOTH!" Sasuke yelled far too late as they smashed through the wooden barrier blowing it to pieces that skidded down the road.

"Ummm... So which button shuts that thing down?" Gates asked looking at the controls.

"That button, no that one NO NOOOO!" Sasuke hollered at Gates who had begun experimenting again. The booster flared up and wings extended from the bottom of the car that now just mocked sanity. The whole thing soared into the air and all of them screamed for their lives except Gates who was having the time of his.

"You think we should go after them?" Said one of the officers stationed at the booth.

"... I think we'll let this one ride," the other said as the jet car disappeared into the horizon.

It was hard to believe how quiet it was in the gray halls of MRF7 except for one noise. Footsteps echoed in the long, debris-ridden halls of the facility as the door to the once lively control room was pushed opened. "Well, here I am" said the man as the door shut behind him.

"About time, I was wondering if you'd ever come" Colonel Dick said from behind one of the many broken terminals. "Have you been apprised of the situation?"

"Yes Colonel, I have. The facility was attacked by a pikachu possessing macro abilities not seen before and was helped by a fox with macro technology far ahead of anything we are aware of" the figure said as it moved into the room.

"Yes, and that's not all. Rick also assisted them, he is ultimately responsible for what happened to the base and what happened to your man the previous night." Dick explained.

"Ah I see, and he is also the one who ordered a weapon diagnostic which effectively crippled your response time to the attacking pikachu? Odd seeing as he doesn't have the access or authority required for that." The figure said still walking towards the Colonel.

"That would explain it, we may have stopped this if we had gotten our weapons online sooner but he must have found a way to bypass security lockouts and run the diagnostic." Dick stated.

"Don't lie, you're not good at it Dick. I know more than you think, Rick doesn't have the skill to hack into the computers or the motive for that matter. He wouldn't encourage any sort of attack on this facility." The man said now within a meter of Dick "You on the other hand do"

"What do you mean?"

"The damage here is potentially far more devastating than it would have been if weapons were armed sooner and that pikachu fought off but when you disabled the weapons it got in and did all this damage. Your commanders were so impressed with MACRO projects potential that they're already considering to not only keeping the program running but increasing funds which means you keep your job, your research, and get to spend another day fighting Macros."

"..." Colonel Dick stared blankly on.

"So you were so busy filling your own agenda that not only did you cost me one of my men but you forgot your place. You should of captured that pikachu for study, you should of detained that fox for questioning but instead you let them destroy the base all for the sake of saving the program" Now circling around Dick.

Dick began to sweat under the pressure. "I.. I'm sorry I forgot myself but look this is what I brought you down for" Dick said, bringing out the disk he had gotten from Rick. "Everything that was on my computer is on this disk, including all the research we confiscated from Sasuke!" The man took the disk and turned it over before putting it in his pocket.

"So is that all? You did insist that I be dragged down by my tail."

"That's everything, all I have to give you." Dick said quickly.

"Well it seems you haven't failed completely"

"Thank you, with the funding restored I won't be distracted again. I'll have Sasuke and Sparky tracked down immediately and let you know when I have them" Dick said relieved. The man walked back in front of him but stopped short. He looked at the door and after a moment of thought.

"You always did good to tell me everything I needed Colonel but you should of known I can't have anyone who's own plans take precedence. You just should of known Dick" he said and pulled a pistol from his side.

"Well how was I supposed to know you only had a few minutes of jet fuel?" Gates said retrieving his luggage from the car.

"I didn't think you would activate it when you talked me in to letting you drive down here" Sasuke said frowning at a good dent in the front of the car. It had run out of jet fuel and although it landed on the road and enough gas to finish the trip it came down just right to bash a good dent into the front of the car.

"Don't cry to me, you invited yourself down here to start with and if you don't mind I'm going to go find a nice spot inside where I can pass out for a few hours." Gates said walking off with his luggage as Sasuke sighed again looking at the damage to his car.

"I suppose I'll just have to fix this later then," Sasuke said and both him and Rick retrieved the rest of the luggage before heading into the building after Gates with Sparky.

It was a large and beautiful two stories of building. With a deck to face the ocean and trees to shade it, it was the perfect place to relax especially if you enjoyed the cool breeze you find by the ocean. The building took full advantage of the view with a balcony on the second story, glass slide doors and windows everywhere so that from virtually any spot in the house you could admire the ocean if you desired. It was odd that Gates would rent such a large house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms. A game room with pool, a living room with TV, a kitchen, a dinning room, a dock with jet skies and those only being the rooms and things you could name. Gates attributed the splurging to the fact he had made some wise financial investments that paid off, which was true. The scratch lotto ticket was in hindsight a very wise investment that called for splurging.

"Where should I set up my lab?" Sasuke said as they walked in the door. Gates who had since walked in and passed out on the couch quick enough that his feet stuck off the side of it and he mumbled, "Any room I'm not sleeping in..."

It wasn't long before they all got settled in. Gates hadn't moved from the couch, quit possibly being content to stay there for the next week. Sasuke and Sparky made a lab table out of the pool table and Rick found a TV in one of the bedrooms to catch up on the news.

"So what is this thing you gave me back at MRF7 Sasuke?" Sparky asked as he watched Sasuke set up some of his equipment.

"Its something I've been working on for a while," Sasuke explained "when you get close enough its supposed to interfere with the MACRO abilities causing them to go inert again though its not all that specific in what it does. Basically the whole body will shut down which is probably why you fell asleep at the MRF if not from exhaustion. A bit more fine tuning now will fix that."

"A ranged device that can specifically shut down the MACRO genetics? Sounds like a cheap Sci-Fi thing almost" Sparky stated bringing out the device for Sasuke to work with.

"Its hardly fiction" Sasuke continued, scratching his muzzle a bit before taking the device, "it worked after all and its hardly ranged. It's got to be very close, almost touching in fact, but even then there's no grantee it will do anything. It only helps to block them, it can't do it itself."

A few hours spent tinkering with Sparky's device Sasuke found himself short a few supplies "Where are you two going?" Gates asked staring into the couch, waking up as Sasuke made his way to the door.

"Sparky and I are heading into town to find parts for the lab." Sasuke said.

"Another lab? You had a secret one at your house, another one where you worked and a third somewhere out in an abandoned cabin. Between all that and the portable lab you brought I wonder if you do anything besides work in Labs." Gates said looking up from the couch cushion.

"Does it really matter?" Sasuke asked.

Gates looked on turning the thought over in his head a moment "Get me some chips while your out, Pringles if you find them" and with that Gates rolled over onto his back and tail, planting himself on the couch while both Sasuke and Sparky left the building.

The town was an average one appropriately named Watertown and boasted nothing more than you'd expect. Several stores offered trinkets and really the only thing different between each of them was the name of the store. Watertown just seemed consistent with most things you'd find in a coastal town, that being palm trees, sandy streets and a wide verity of sea food restaurants but other than that there was the local hardware store, grocers, movie rental and among other things that ninety nine cent store everyone always likes to browse for cheap stuff they don't really need. The whole place was relatively calm with only a few others around. It had a very rare, quaint quality that seemed to be disappearing in more developed, commercialized areas. A nice spot if you want a spot just to rest