"Mr. Secretary," said Captain Mackintosh as he strolled forward and shook the man's hand.
The Red Cherry touched down outside the rural army base nestled between two hills and surrounded by greenery. The air smelled fresh from rain. As promised, the squadron of army officials and soldiers were there to meet them. Chevie and his father Alistair were there as well.
"Hi everyone," said Chevie rather reluctantly. The SSS members ignored him.
"Captain Mackintosh," said the Secretary of Defense as he strolled forward and shook his hand. "It's been a while."
"Indeed it has."
"Now, in any normal circumstance, all of this-" He gestured to the plane and what was going on outside of it. "Would go very differently. But we all know what's at stake here and quite frankly ... none of my methods have been successful in eliminating the threat."
The Captain nodded. "Sir, I have firm faith in my men. We will handle the situation and have the President and all of our defense systems safe and sound, I can assure you of that."
The Secretary looked around at each of their faces. He frowned when his eyes rested upon those of them in superhero suits.
"What's this?"
"These are our ... special fighters," said the Captain.
Joshua immediately wanted to barf. That's a pretty loose term for it.
"They're kids, Mackintosh."
The Captain's face became harsh. "With all due respect, would I send in a bunch of kids to save our country, Mr. Secretary, if I didn't think they were prepared to fight?"
He didn't seem to have an argument for that. "Alright, well we have an escort to take you directly into the hanger. And Washington?"
"Already on it."
"Good," he nodded.
"Do we have any communication with the bunker, sir?"
"All communication is down," he said grimly. "Which means that the enemy has already infiltrated the bunker. We have very limited time."
"Is the President alive?" asked Zac loudly.
The Secretary, at this point, cleared his throat. "We know the President was inside the bunker and we do not know his condition. The enemy has not made contact."
"Captain?" came Marcus's voice from the computer. "You're gonna want to see this."
Everyone spun around as Marcus pulled up the imaging from a camera he'd managed to hack. It showed a long room with dozens of computer panels and many men inside. In the corner sat a group of men and women tied in a messy bundle. One of them was unmistakably the President, alive.
There were sighs of relief from the crowd.
"How the hell did you do that?" asked the Secretary.
Marcus shrugged. "It was cake. I just had to rewire the-"
"Good work Slater," said the Captain proudly.
"Can we speak to them?"
Marcus touched a button on the wall. He turned to the Secretary and nodded. "Go ahead."
"This is Secretary Sage of the President's cabinet." The men and women inside the bunker turned and looked around as if wondering where the voice came from. Some of them started typing madly on their computers.
"Let me try and get some of their faces up on screen," said Marcus.
The camera zoomed in on the Chinese and Korean men inside the bunker and matched their identities through facial recognition through the Red Cherry's database. At once, he found the General.
"Psi Chang," said the Secretary loudly and a short, fat man turned around with a fearless, smug smile on his face. "I wondered when you'd be causing trouble in our country again."
"It's good to see you're finally here to fight, Mr. Secretary. Are you prepared for what you're walking into?"
The Secretary pursed his lips and was obviously trying to stop himself from mouthing off to the enemy for fear they'd do something irrational and kill the President. But he couldn't stop himself.
"You bet your ass we're prepared," he snarled. "Stay where you are, we're coming to get you."
The screen went blank and the Secretary stood up. He addressed them all clearly in a loud voice.
"Our mission is simple – get in, kill as many of these sons of bitches as you can, get the President and our men out of the bunker and back to this jet. We have snipers stationed at every possible range outside the facility. If anyone comes out, they're authorized to shoot. That means that none of you are to leave the base until every last one of those fuckers is dead. Am I understood?"
There were nods and the soldiers saluted. Joshua glanced down at Imogen who was holding on to Chantal's arm, looking pale. He felt instantly guilty about taking a six-year-old into a war zone, but there wasn't an alternative option.
"Who's ready?"
Joshua flinched at the loud jeers and cries from the soldiers. He stayed with those he knew as they were led down the ramp into the daylight. There were low trees everywhere and a dirt track that snaked down the way toward the army base entrance.
Joshua didn't feel afraid for himself as they came near the doors to the hanger and the soldiers scuttled with raised guns to the entrance. He was only afraid for the younger ones, who didn't look very brave.
"Hey," he said to Ryo, Imogen, Zac, Chantal and Marcus. Zokani had taken off into the air – it was the first time he'd seen the guy fly. Koko vanished as well. Ace, Illya, Chevie and his father were waiting nearby. "You're all going to be fine," he said to the young ones.
"How do you know?" asked Imogen.
"Because," he said. "I have faith. And I promise, once this is over, you'll never have to fear Dr. Wolfe or ICE or the Agents ever again. Now, I need you all to put on your masks and pretend they're your shield. These bad guys can't kill you when you have your masks on. You all have superpowers, remember? You're heroes. And at the end of the day, who wins? Evil?"
"Nuh-uh," Imogen smiled, her yellow and black mask sticking to her face. "Good wins!"
"Exactly," he said. "Good always wins. Ready?"
They nodded.
He put his hand into the center of their huddle. The younger ones eagerly placed their hand on his. Marcus, Chantal and Zac smiled almost comically and reached in.
"For those we've lost," said Joshua. "And those we left behind."
They pressed their hands down with a determined nod and then split apart. Zac muttered "Break!" because of course, he couldn't help it. Joshua heard him turn to Marcus and say, "Wait, what am I doing again?"
Marcus rolled his eyes at him. "Try not to get killed."