Four men stood behind the captured and made sure a pair of hands were behind their backs, ready to ruthlessly whip the ropes and send electricity into the arrested. Ray knew this was the final obstacle, and that he and his team needed to first free the four before doing anything drastic. Next, they desperately needed a ride to wherever they were going to afterwards. That is, if they actually prevail. He was still the leader figure, and for the first time, attempted to formulate a pre-battle plan.
But Conquest had something else in mind. The "looks high-ranking" guy moved to face the Specials with a grin of satisfaction and achievement. "I am Casmir Royce, director of Conquest. I have built this organization in hopes and belief of a peaceful galaxy, ruled by only one Supreme Empire. And I will not tolerate resistance, especially since I am only about a year away from accomplishing my life purpose. So, please, my young friends, do not be deceived by this monstrosity called PROTECT and give us the Khalanium Blades. Please."
For a second, Ray actually felt the urge to just give it and be done with the whole mess, but he knocked out of it instantly. He inconspicuously tapped Sam and Carson's arm to get ready.
"I don't know, Casmir," he replied casually and calmly. "How can I trust you enough?" He was trying to stall for a bit, hoping his team would realize he was going to strike soon. The director panicked for words. "Oh, wait, the answer is I don't." And he blasted the man, but turned out ineffective.
"Fireproof suit, Ray, like it?" he didn't even flinch when shot at. That triggered it, and guns started firing from every direction possible. Ray grumbled and faced the veterans behind him. The bullets were faster and harder to avoid, and the soldiers on the guns, more experienced. He hit a few targets, but they were all around them, making their chance of getting shot as high as the Empire State Building. It was difficult, and even harder to even take a few steps towards their captured friends.
However, Ray spotted an opening in the battlefield and approached the captors without hesitation. He quickly burned an arm, then another. He sliced a hand-cannon in half with the Blades and crashed his elbow into a jaw. Pia and Quick were unguarded, and they helped without their arms. The fourth guard ran into the trees, and Ray pursued her. A second in, and he already had a bullet in his arm by someone on his right. He shouted for help, but then that earned him a blow to the head.
* * *
Sarah was paranoid to use her powers and wished she were fighting a robot, but she wasn't. She didn't want to accidentally slice off an arm or worse, brutally kill someone. So she restrained herself and instead used her lasers to scare or to break off branches, and let it distract her opponents before Sam punched away. She also tried to separate the electric ropes binding the hands together, but it wouldn't budge.
"Hold your fire!" Casmir ordered over the gunshots. It came so abruptly, all Conquest's soldiers paused immediately. She and her team stopped too, looking around in pure confusion. Were they surrendering? Then she saw Ray, dragged and held on either arm by two men, one of them a guard of the four. She gasped when she spotted the bullet in his right arm, and realized he was unconscious. The evil director snatched the Blades from the guard's hand and swelled with pride.
"Drop the weapon, now!" she commanded him. "Or you'll have a nasty mark on your face." Her friends gaped at her courage, and the surrounding fighters held their guns more tightly. "I mean it." She saw Quick and their three older teammates threatened with new guards behind them, still bound electric-wise.
Casmir laughed. "No, if you all don't surrender right now, your leader will pay for it."
Sarah froze, not knowing what to do. Ray stirred, half-conscious. And confirming her worst fears, Casmir aimed for Ray's chest, stiffly positioning the sword high above. Her legs almost moved on their own, until Quick kicked the other director's knee from behind, making him drop on one leg. PROTECT's leader then bashed his guard's chin with his head, and prepared to attack the evil director, but something stopped him.
Casmir had driven the tip of the blade into Quick.
* * *
"No!" Jane heard herself scream. Then she saw the bright blue beams slash Casmir's right cheek, and luckily he dropped down in pain, leaving the lasers to cut the treetops. Sarah still didn't withdraw, Conquest's veterans ducking and hiding. The older girl was out of control, and Jane helped by breathing into her face, forcing the eyes to shut. Together, the girls fought off the remaining soldiers, one by one. She sent waves of wind, and even trapped a small group inside a swirling circle, until they were close to losing air. She'd free them, and be greeted by rapid punches from the ninja.
She and Carson had a good pattern worked out, but it seemed more and more fighters came to fight, similar to what happened on Korpus. When a breach regarding incoming reinforcements occurred, Ray ignited his palms, and heated up the arms of the two men behind him, subsequently knocking them down. Jane felt some relief and lunged for the Blades, which the murderer had dropped. She picked it up and sliced apart four ropes, freeing Rook, Pia, and Borris, even Quick's dying body.
Jane watched in horror as the director started losing the battle of life, coughing harshly. "Jane..." he whispered. "Promise me you'll reach home safely. I'm sorry for all this I've brought you into, but the galaxy has you and your friends to thank."
Her eyes started to swell, and managed a nod. "I promise."
Jane left him, and also made a mental note to come back for the body when the battle ended. Pia looked at her with reassuring eyes and pulled out hidden two pistols from her belt. Rook and Borris followed, giving new hope to their outnumbering situation.
* * *
Sam was doing fine himself, since hurdling rocks aimed at people's legs wasn't exactly hard to do for him, but dodging the bullets was. But when incoming waves of new fighters grew fewer in number, his next move was to beat up Casmir, who was just helplessly running around, covered by his own men. Unfortunately, he had underestimated the director and failed to throw real punches at the target.
It ended up being brains versus brawn, and brawn was losing. Casmir was just too good at dodging and in hand-to-hand combat, even with the deep scar that was yet to be medically attended to. The good part was that Carson had come to help his best friend, but their opponent had found a revolver lying on the ground beside a fallen recruit. Sam punched Casmir hard, knuckles slamming into the burnt scar.
The director roared and pressed the trigger before the boy could escape, and Sam went sprawling. It hurt, but wasn't as painful as how a normal eighteen-year-old would feel it. His skin was stronger than average, hopefully able to survive a shot without immediate aid. Carson had his revenge and beat the man up with mixed styles of martial arts, procuring the revolver in the process. He aimed it at Conquest's director, fire in his eyes.
"Tell your army to stand down and surrender, or I'll shoot," he told Casmir.
The threatened man laughed again for his second intimidation that day. "Carson, you really do act fast, but you can't say the same for your thinking, can you?" Carson stood there, confused. His finger twitched, almost hitting the trigger.
"Watch out!" Sam yelled, running to cover his friend from the incoming danger while grasping his abdomen in discomfort. But he was too late, and a small grenade started beeping near them. He pushed Carson down, and saw Casmir running away before the ground beneath them shook. The explosion left his ears ringing, and scattered shards of metal dispersed.
When the dust cleared, he slowly got up, and scoured for the ninja. But Carson got up on his own, stiffening his leg in pain. Sam noticed the leg was bleeding from the explosion. He supported his friend, walking to Ray step by step, favoring the lacerated appendage.
* * *
Ray made sure the enemy was unconscious, then attended to Carson. His arm still wasn't well, and it still had a bullet stuck in his skin, but Borris gave him a temporary splint made of random cloth. Otherwise, with Rook and Pia nearby, he was still okay. He called Borris to come, and it turned out, the greatest pilot in the sector had some medical experience before he met piloting. Ray was relieved and continued eliminating his opponents. He tried looking for Casmir Royce, but the murderer wasn't in sight, and probably ran off when he knew defeat was imminent.
But the table had turned, and soon ten men all armed with long electric whips came running from the trees. And in a few minutes, the Special Elite Force had one or two deadly threads locked around their necks. It produced electricity, but was a less-painful kind of torture, or at least the torture he had read about.
And when he tried raising his hands to shoot, the man in charge of him would whip his neck, then it coiled back to constrict him once again. He learned the hard way that even moving his head slightly was intolerable. All eight of them were trapped, but at least all that was in their way to freedom was ten rough men. Anyone else had either lost the battle or were hiding.
Jane had the Khalanium Blades taken from her, and it lay on the ground like any other weapon on the post-chaotic battlefield. Ray snickered at how dumb the men were. And for that he gained another whip. But something else utterly caught his attention.
A passenger jet, similar to what they rode escaping Conquest's base but way bigger, hovered above the trees, the engines the greatest thing he'd heard that day. PROTECT had come to rescue them.
Its guns must have an excellent gunner, because every single one of Conquest's men were shot down, and the whips went loose. The ship lowered, but didn't land, since it was impossible to do so without crushing over at least ten bodies. The ramp behind descended, and Ray could see Assistant Director Kent Wilson close to falling off. The metal ramp repeatedly extended itself from underneath until the last metal plate dug into the dirt.
Kent smiled, seeing everyone still alive, though not in perfect shape. Who else came out of the jet surprised Ray. It was Agent Micah, Terah, the traitor's, partner. He hadn't seen her after getting thrown in a cell, and totally forgot her. But even so, she was alive.
Since no one volunteered to tell Kent about the deceased director, Rook brought it upon himself, as the leader, to share the grave news. Afterwards, they carried the body and the Blades up the sky-high pathway to the vessel representing long-awaited escape. Inside, medical attention was given to about everyone.
Ray was shocked himself when the doctor stated the injuries accordingly. He had been shot on the arm, Sam had been too, but in his mid-section. Carson's leg had been slightly burnt, and his ankle was bleeding. Sarah and Jane were both just badly bruised.
Ray was allowed to rest on the couch, which he found to be the best thing he'd sat on since he left home without his awareness. He thought he deserved it, though, and so did his friends. Together, they were able to settle in as allies to PROTECT, won their trust, forced away the Wash, escaped Conquest's base, survived and helped fight the dangerous battle on Korpus, passed the Tri-als, defeated an android with a set of abilities, won a major battle, successfully carried the Khalanium Blades all the way to the right hands, and, despite all the hardships, sacrifices, and permanent wounds, they bonded together and had overcome all the obstacles.
He smiled to himself as he thought these things, and how they bonded more than a year's worth of group meetings. He found a comfortable position, and without second thought, slept.
* * *
Ray stared at the brown, familiar door in which he passed through over a thousand times. He was finally home, and with Jane and Sam beside him. He was more than grateful for his two best friends to accompany him on the rough but fruitful journey. They had said their sad goodbyes to the twins, and they promised to keep in touch. They were home, and now no other intergalactic organization could change that fact.
He pushed the door open, only to find it unlocked. He heard sobbing from a few adults, and prepared himself for what would come next. And there, sitting on couches in the living room, were his parents. Fortunately, Sam and Jane's were there too, and they were comforting each other for the loss of the three teenagers. The mothers and fathers looked up at them and burst into tears. The trio greeted them with a warm hug, and soon everyone was tearful.
Ray lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling like he always did. He couldn't sleep just yet, not when he just had the most remarkable journey most people couldn't have experienced. He gazed out the window, the stars dotting the sky, as a shooting star soared over the horizon. He quickly wished he could see Carson and Sarah regularly, somehow. He didn't know what would happen in his life next, or what could happen, but he was sure of one thing.
When trouble returns, my friends will be there for me, and I will be there for them.