Blackout Part II

Chapter 5

"Holy..." I attempt to raise up. I'm hurting bad all over, feels like something ripped into my chest. "Shit!" I yell as I fall back down onto the medical table. "The hell am I," I say, looking around. I see some Delrath, all gathered around me. I reach for my gun, but there was nothing there.

"Black, are you ok," it was one of my men. I saw him beside one of the Delrath. Why was he with them? What had happened? This was all too confusing for me.

"Tim, where the hell am I? Why are these...things here?" I saw him laugh. Tim never laughed unless it needed to be laughed at. Like all the jokes about his ex-wife. She really needed to be laughed at. Wait...why the hell was he laughing at me? "Timmy, why in the hell are you...where are we?"

"Agent Black, you are currently at base 866. We are what you might call the Hybrid-divesion." The delrath smiled and scratched his head nervoiusly. What was this?

"What is this place, lizard?" I asked as I tried to move. The seering pain once more put me on my back. Maybe it would be best to just lay here and let them do what they wanted to do.

"Um, sir," the delrath said as it bowed its head, "we are the first...deserters of the Delrath tyrants that rule over us. We now work for you General Chamberlain, fighting for the freedom of this planet." I looked at him, puzzled. I had heard Chamberlain say once that unless Hell froze over, he wouldn't surrender, or have any thing to do with these creatures. Why did he, of all people, actually recruit these things to fight for him? This had to be a joke.

"Tell me, lizard, why is it you want to help us humans, and why do you want to fight for the freedom of this planet? The very one your people are trying to take from us?"

"We Hybrids will never, as a species, be completly free, so we hope to change the fate of earth from the fate of ourselves. We fight against our creators and for the planet for varying reasons, depending on the Hybrid." That was by far not the response I expected.

"How many are you, what are your personal strengths and weaknesses, and what are your names?" I believe I had accepted that we needed help. Something, or someone, that had insider information as to the way these delrath thought would make this war a lot easier. Maybe this was the break I was looking for.

"My name is Murdock, the other three are Giovani, Ben, and I believe you've met our Captain Tuck. I wouldn't know how many Hybrids there are now sir, but when I left, there were roughly around two thousand  of us. Personal strengths and weaknesses..." He paused. I didn't know if he was thinking, or just scared to answer. "Well I'm not exactly...physically inclined....that's why I always got beat up on the ship during military training. But I'm rather good at computers and other things. Giovani is the strongest of us, has a weakness for explosions-he can't stand it when someone calls him afraid. He's rather sensative in that aspect. Ben can't cook for his life, but he's rather skilled at artillery. Tuck is headstrong, cocky, but he is a brave leader and quick to think in a time of need, sir."

"Murdock, tell me, are there any sensitive pieces of information that would tip the war in our favor?"

"I forgot to say, I'm also the team's medic; also I sadly do not have that information. Any new battleplans that were made in the last eight months, I do not have access to."

"What about weapons? Prisioners? Anything like that."

"Well...there are the human slaves taken from Scotland at the beginging of the seige, but I'm afraid by this time their minds have all but left them. They would be now mere animals of labor. The Delraths are not kind to their slaves. I heard there was one small female that escaped having her mind taken otherwise there's no one. Useful or deadly. Captain Trask  and his handy man Quopar would be considered the most heinous creatures in the army because they are capable of everything in order to win. Useful-I'm afraid not sir."

"Well then, that really messes up my day. What about that nice ship of yours, where is she at?"

"There is one in the atmosphere. It is an Interdictor-Class frigate with a large collection of batteries and personal running it."

"What's the main battery?"

"I believe its a one thousand watt, foreward firing railcannon, sir."

"Put that in English, please."

"Its a fixed-poisition seven hundred millimeter, smoothbore cannon that fires a twenty kilogram slug at twice the speed of sound."

"Who are you?" I said as I turned to the voice. This weapon sounded deadly, and I really didn't even know what he said. 

"My name would be Ben, sir." That was a rather human name for a lizard, I mean Delrath. These men didn't seem to be as bad as I thought they would be. They were calm, collective, willing to help. Just what I needed.

"Nice to meet you, Ben."

"Wait...you're the big boss that Tuck told us to mess with!" He pulled out a water bottle and poured half the contense onto my lap. He had..balls? I guess that's what you would call it. It actually made me laugh, just seeing an alien who didn't want to kill me.

"Tuck told us that there was a new human boss guy that we could rough up! After the last one had a nervous breakdown..." I noticed him smile evilly, he kinda looked like a teenager plotting a prank on an older man. I knew that face all too well. "I've been dying to try out some of my new pranks. I can't pull most of these on Giovani though, he's scary enough as it is."

"I resent that," Giovani said as he slugged Ben on the side of the arm. I couldn't help but laugh.

I felt a small pinch on my right arm, and looked down. It was one of my men, he had a hyperdermic needle shoved deep into my arm. It was filled with a clear liquid that I couldn't identify.

"Its's just a pain killer, don't worry. You should be able to walk now," I stood up quickly and rolled my neck. It was one helluva pain killer, I didn't even bother to ask where it came from. I let out a small growl and tried to take a step. Instantly, four hand were on my chest, urging me not to go forwards.

"Be careful. You may not be able to feel some things after injection. Also, don't take anything he says seriously. I think someone kept shaking his canister as he was developing, and maybe caused some brain damage," Murdock said as he motioned towards Ben. I laughed again and their hands left me.

"Do you want help, sir," Tim asked as he put his hand on my shoulder. I nodded my head no, then he took his hand off me. My head swirrled, and I fell back, bashing it off the object behind me. The last thing I saw was everyone surrounding me, again.

 Reaper's POV:

I pulled, my robe closer to my bones as I peered from the balcony of the castle. Spirits of the dead wondered around aimlessly, looking for their bodies to reinhabit. My wolves wrapped around my legs and peered up at me, eyes glowing green. Another soul had just appeared.

I watched him as he moved through my realm. He was not dead, nor was he quite living. I could tell from his movement, his fast, rapid jerking of the head, the twitching of his eye. He looked lost, confused even, as he began to move about my domain, looking at everything.

He passed a bush of spikes and skulls, and looked at it for several seconds. He must have thought he was in a dream. My attention was drawn away from him as Destiny, Life, and Fear appeared behind me.

"Sire, why is he here," my daughter Destiny asked. She was, as her name suggests, the Spirit of Destiny. I am the Spirit of Death. But this man, Agent Black, he would know me as the Reaper.

"He is between, as was the other. Go to him, Destiny. Show him what he needs to see," she disappeared, off to tell him of what he was here for. "What others are there here, Knowledge," the eagle perched upon my robe began to whisper to me, in a language only I could understand.

"Father?"

"There are others here. Delrath and...something else. Something most defiantly alive."

"Is it another Spirit?"

"No, Fear, it is something far greater than us." I turned and walked into my castle, expecting only the worst.