"This place is bigger than I remember..." Diamondback commented as he stepped up to the weapons facility. "Oh well... Now or never. Here we go!" The eight Hunters surveyed the tall building.
"Hard to believe experiments on the enhanced are going on in this place..." Maestro muttered, shuddering.
"We'll split up..." Ripple suggested. "I've tried scanning, and there's no sign of them... Me, Chris, Andrea, and Ryan'll take the direct approach... The rest of you do a patrol out here in case we screw up." The other four saluted and took off around the left corner of the building.
"No turning back..." Spirit said. "We've gotta save those three..." The three enhanced nodded silently and walked into the warehouse, all six of their eyes purple. Spirit nodded at their determination and followed them. The four teenagers stepped into the building and into a huge lobby-like area. Spirit whistled. "This place is huge..."
"You're not lyin'..." Avatar muttered telepathically. The three enhanced thought back to the memory. "The last memory we saw had the three of them headed down on an elevator in the start... I think they're in the third basement floor, being held." Diamondback and Ripple nodded in agreement and looked around.
"Perfect. I don't see any stairs, but I see elevators," Spirit groaned. "I hate elevators..."
"But we don't have a choice. Let's hit 'em," Diamondback said rather dejectedly. The four headed for the elevator, contemplating their plan to get out of the mess that seemed to happen whenever the members of the Special Unit whenever they stepped into an elevator. Reaching it, Diamondback hit the down button, and the elevator quickly opened. After everyone has boarded, Avatar hit the button for the third basement, and all four quickly readied there psychic abilities, and waited.
The elevator started moving down.
They waited.
The elevator continued.
They waited.
Bing.
They waited.
Bing. The elevator doors slid open.
They waited.
Nothing happened.
They waited.
"...Nothing's gonna happen, guys..." Diamondback spoke up, making the other three jump. "What say we get off?" The other three nodded, and they got off the elevator. Behind them, the elevator plummeted down three more floors before smashing into the bottom and exploding. "Yeesh..." The three enhanceds stepped forward, but Spirit held back.
"You sure it's such a great idea to just barge in?" she asked nervously. "This place gives me the creeps..."
"You got any better ideas!?" Diamondback snapped at his cousin, startling everyone. "Three of us are in there, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get them out!" Diamondback's speech was interrupted by oncoming footsteps. Turning, the four saw three forms walking towards them, hidden in the shadows of the hallway. "Ok... Show your faces..."
"Welcome to hell, enhanced!"
Snipe sprinted down the hallway, followed by the other seven members of his team. Behind them was a group of Mavericks whose guns were blazing energy down the hallway.
"Nice call, Paladin! Directing us right back into those Mavs we lost!" Snipe yelled, firing his rifle while he ran backwards.
"Hey, it isn't my fault! It was Grave who suggested we take that right turn!" Paladin retorted. Gravedigger nailed him across the head. "HEY!"
"Now now, boys, we don't need any fighting amongst ourselves..." Matsuoka said, also firing backwards.
"Running's getting us nowhere!" Firebrand yelled, and took the initiative. Turning around, he sprinted among the Mavericks and began hacking with his sabre. Everyone else followed suit, and within minutes the Mavericks were one large scrap pile.
"Now why didn't you think of that one earlier, Snipe?" Dias complained, getting a whack over the head from Gravedigger. "Now what the hell was that for!?" Gravedigger nailed him again. "STOP!" And again. "Would you PLEASE STOP!?" And again. Grinning, Snipe scanned for and found the missle hangar. He directed the group down another hallway, and they all walked off, except for Gravedigger and Dias. "OOOOWWW!"
And again.
As the two Special Unit members caught up with the rest, Snipe stopped, pointing at a guarded door. "It's never easy, is it... There's our target... Now keep quiet..." Nodding, everyone readied their long range weapons. "On my mark, kill the guards... One..." The weapons raised. "Two..." Energy clips clicked into place. "Three..." Eight rifles fired at the same instant, silencers muffling the shots. They were true to their marks, and the eight guards all toppled to the floor, dead. Motioning forward, Snipe started for the bay, hidden in the shadows. One by one, the others followed his lead. Reaching the gate, Snipe glanced at the console located next to the door. "Great... Locked..." He slammed his hand onto the keypad. The gate slid open. "Hmm. I'll have to remember that one..." Inside, the hangar was completely unguarded. The only things inside were the missiles, which were proven to be real by Snipe's scanner.
"This is gonna be easier than we thought! Let's plant these mines and get out of here..." Slasher suggested. Nodding, everyone took out the mines they had brought and began planting them. When all had planted all of the mines they carried, they congregated in the center of the base.
"Ok, let's get outta here..." Dias suggested. Suddenly, a plasma blast flew in and caught Dias squarely in the chest.
"Not so fast..." a voice said. Everyone turned to face it, and were greeted with the view of a Reploid that looked more like a wolf on two legs than anything else. A thin stream of smoke wafted from the cannon on his left arm. "You're not going anywhere!"
"And who's gonna stop us? You?" Slasher cracked. "Now move it, canis stupidus, so we can get outta here." Walking forward cockily, Slasher shoved the wolf out of the way and walked out of the hangar. Stunned, the Reploid turned and watched him leave. Snipe counted down from three on his fingers, and as he reached zero, the seven leaped forward at the Maverick, letting loose with their close range weapons. Only problem was, the Reploid was no longer there.
"You guys must not like the air over there," a voice from behind them cracked. "Now, prepare to die!" The wolf lunged at the group, sabre in hand.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" Snipe thrust his hand forward. The wolf stopped in midair. "Who're we fighting, anyway?"
"Oh, sorry, forgot to tell ya. The name's Luperis," the wolf responded. Snipe nodded. "Ok, continue." Luperis continued his flight through the air and slashed, nailing Snipe's katana as he parried. As Snipe attempted a counter attack, Luperis disappeared again. Only this time, he ran right into Gravedigger's shovel. With a grin, Grave swung his shovel around and caught the stunned Luperis in the back of the head. Iceman supplemented the attack, sending a wave of ice along the ground, which struck the lupine Reploid, freezing his feet to the floor.
"You know... He can't do anything... What say we leave him here for the mines?" Snipe suggested, going against his normally peaceful nature. Looking at the stunned Luperis, everyone nodded, being unusually cruel, and dashed out of the hanger.
"Arrgh!" Diamondback flew across the hallway and into the opposite wall. Although weak, he quickly got to his feet.
"How do you like that one, EarthGovian bastard?" his attacker said cockily.
"Jennifer..." Diamondback said in a low telepathic voice. We're too late... he thought. Glancing around, he saw that his friends were having problems of their own. Ripple was facing off against Erica "Shatterstar," and having a hard time. Avatar was facing off against Charlie "Skyrider," and was currently floating in the air, a result of Charlie's telekinesis. Also fighting Skyrider was Spirit, but she quickly flew across the hallway - a result of Charlie's telekinesis also - and joined her cousin.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll give it up!" Spectre smirked, and telekinetically lifted the two into the air. Combining their abilities, Diamondback and Spectre countered the lift, and blasted the brainwashed enhanced with psychokinetic energy. Spectre screamed and flew across the hallway, joining the other two enhanced. While they helped her, the EarthGovians regrouped and tried to plan a strategy.
"Ok... We can't hurt 'em..." Spirit told them.
"You really think you've gotta tell us that?" Avatar retorted. "But they've got power mind shields up! The only way we can even touch them is when they're distracted..." Diamondback seemed to suddenly think of something.
"Cover me... I'm going to try something..." he said, and motioned backwards with his head. The other three understood and nodded. Diamondback slunk off and turned a corner while Avatar, Ripple, and Spirit hid the fact that he was leaving.
Turning the corner, Diamondback broke into a jog, keeping watch for any Mavericks. At a safe distance, Diamondback activated the communicator on his wrist. Static. Come on... Work... Diamondback shook his arm around, and looked back into the communicator, and looked at a clear picture of the front "lobby" of the facility, which was sideways and swaying back and forth. "Dakota..." Diamondback hissed aloud. The picture stopped swaying, and was suddenly replaced by a clear shot of Dakota's face.
"What's up, Chris?" he said rather loudly, prompting Diamondback to shove his finger in front of his mouth. Dakota caught the hint. "So, what's up?" he said rather quietly.
"We're having a little trouble..." Diamondback said, briefly explaining the situation.
"Perfect..." Vaxoin's voice said from outside the picture. "So what're we supposed to do?"
"I've got a plan..."
"Stalling's getting you nowhere, EarthGovs!" Shatterstar yelled, as she pounded on the mind shields put up by the other enhanceds/psychic. However, they were concentrating on powering their mind shields, after they had noticed that their opponents had no other weapons. Skyrider, however, decided to get brave, and rushed the EarthGovians, enhancing a punch on Diamondback with psionic energy. Diamondback, however, stopped concentrating at the last second, grabbed Skyrider's arm, and threw him back to where he ran from.
"What the hell are you three planning!?" Spectre yelled telepathically. Diamondback simply grinned, and didn't bother replacing his mind shield. The other three also dropped their shields. "Are you getting that cocky?"
"Hey, idiots! Behind ya!" Startled, the three Maverick enhanceds turned around. Diamondback nodded to his comrades, and the three enhanceds' eyes radiated purple light. Spirit and the distractors, the rest of the team, watched in wonder as the other three enhanced gained a blank look in their eyes, and the EarthGovian enhanced seemed to gain a look of deep concentration.
Diamondback, Avatar, and Ripple appeared in an area that they had only seen one or two times in the past. Everything was solid black, except for purple ripples of light pulsing in certain places.
"We're in," Avatar said. "Now let's see if your plan works, Christopher..." Diamondback ignored the use of his full name and glanced around. Everyone else followed suit.
"There they are!" Ripple said aloud. "No wonder... Mind control!" He pointed at the three forms, which were frozen in time within nearly invisible barriers.
"Allow me," Avatar suggested. "I've got experience with these things..." Diamondback and Ripple decided not to ask as Avatar made his way to the enhanced, readying his abilities. Gaining a look of extreme concentration, Avatar cause purple waves of energy to pulsate around the barriers. The energy grew and pulsed, until it completely disappeared. The barriers remained. "I can't do it... I need some help." Avatar telepathically transferred the knowledge of how to break the mind control to Diamondback and Ripple. Nodding, the two stepped forward and concentrated their abilities along with Avatar's. The purple energy surrounding the barriers seemed to pulse beyond control, but the three determined enhanced kept increasing the power. Suddenly, and ear-splitting crash blasted from the area where the three controlled enhanced were resting, and a bright flash of light emanated from them, blinding the enhanced as they dropped their concentration and covering their eyes. As the light faded, the three were greeted with what they were shooting for; their friends were free from the barriers. Spectre was the first to rise.
"C... Chris?" she stuttered, weakened. "You got our transmissions!" She ran for the stunned teenager and threw her arms around his neck in a wild embrace. "What... what happened?"
"As far as I can tell... You were trapped in the collective somehow, and a group of Mavericks was manipulating your bodies and abilities for their own purposes..." Diamondback explained. Spectre's hands flew to her mouth.
"We didn't..." Diamondback nodded. "N... no..."
"It's ok, Jennifer..." he said, a tear falling from his eye. "It's all over now..."
Meanwhile, Shatterstar had risen, and she had given a similar greeting to Ripple.
"It's good to see you after all this time," Ripple stated simply.
"You don't know the half of it," Shatterstar replied, and the two launched into a conversation about what had just happened and old times. Skyrider was the last to rise.
"Sure, ignore the bird," he cracked. Diamondback looked at he and Avatar's best friend from high school.
"Same old Charlie," Avatar cracked. "Now, I hate to break the intimate moments for you two, but we need to get out of here..." The other five nodded, and they concentrated their abilities, disappearing from inside the collective.