Pacific Ocean

[Reaper]

It took about half a day before the group hit the shore, and waiting for them was a vehicle back to the train. Unloading the boat into the hummer and making their way back home. Daniel took the driver's seat as the rest piled into the hummer. The drive to the train was shorter than the trip home. Though their welcoming commity was larger than normal with Art and Griffon standing in front of the group. As Daniel pulled the vehicle to a stop weapons were raised at the group.

"Get out of the hummer," Art shouted, and in her hand she held a file.

"This isn't good," Rio mumbled under her breath. She turned to Elijha. "Fighting is only going to make it worse. Just co..." her words were cut short as the doors flew open to the hummer.

Elijha was pulled out of the hummer and thrown to the ground where as the others were treated with a slight bit more respect. Daniel Malcom and Rio were piled together with several guards watching them. Elijha on the other hand was piled ontop of by several guards trying to secure her even though she didn't fight back. In the end she was dragged to her feet.

Art walked over to Rio and glared at her for a moment. "I thought better of you," she barked.

"Elijha isn ..." her words were cut off again as Art slapped her hard across the face. Hard enough that the ring she wore cut her cheek and busted her lip.

"Enough. There is no co-operating with these things. She should have been put down at that lab. Billy should have never been hurt as badly as he was, and your bleeding heart nearly lost me an entire team."

Rio's mouth hung open for a moment. She felt the tears in her eyes, but then she realized something. "How did you find out?"

"Little sister I'm ashamed of you," Riko's voice broke out.

"No! You can't trust him . . . that's not Ri..." This time Elijha's words were cut off with a hard hit to the stomach. She hit the ground and was pulled back to her feet.

"Shut up vile creature." Riko growled.

"Art you can't trust Riko. He's not who he says he is," Rio pleaded.

"It looks to me that the three of you can't be trusted. He has told me more truth than you or the others have," she said waving the file in front of her. "Take that monster to the labs. Lock these three up . . ."

"We have no bring ma'am," one of the guards cut in.

"Secure them in the confrince room. I want guards on both doors at all times."

"Yes ma'am." With that the four were dragged back onto the train.

[Mikey]

“You really think we were almost taken out by a straight attack from a Sincell squad?” Daniel yelled out when Art said she almost lost a team because of Elijha and Rio. “You think I, ME, wouldn’t have put her down like a dog if it had been her that had stabbed us in the back?!” Daniel yelled. The sight of Riko, the fact that Art was siding with him, had him in a rage.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him back. He spun and used the momentum in a punch, knocking a man to the ground. He ignored the weapons that turned from Elijha to him and looked at Art and Riko. It seemed like almost all of the weapons were aimed at Elijha.

He looked around, knew that it wouldn’t take much for them to fire at him. He was a traitor in their eyes, and even himself wouldn’t have had much qualm killing a traitor. But… To be thought of one by the people he had worked with and loved for the last years… It was the worst feeling in the world. They were escorted away from Art and the others, Daniel staring down Riko every step.

“I’m going to cut you out of him myself.” He said as he passed. They were taking to the conference room, locked in, and Daniel paced for a minute. He let out an angry yell and punched the wall so suddenly he heard Rio jump at the noise. He stopped and looked at the only two people in the world who knew the truth, what had really happened on the island. The only two who mattered anyway.

“What now?” He asked them.

[Scorpio]

Jump Riko, tear his hair out at the roots, show off his scars, let the truth come out....possibly get gunned down when I take two steps.

Malcom went over several different plans in his head to try and expose Riko in front of the rest of the AFDS, all of them theoretically ending in disaster due to Arts current lack of patience and hair trigger temper. Instead he stayed quiet, letting one of the soldiers take his gun, other gun, two knives, sword, block of C4 and ammo. Thankfully leaving him with his PDA, the most useful of his tools provided he had enough battery life.

He was escorted with the group into the conference room and sealed in, thankfully it wasn't a real brig or prison cell, though in hindsight he wondered how they ever got by without one. He and Daniel had performed about a dozen special interrogations when they started with the team and they had to do it in any spare office or vehicle bay. For now though, he waited for everyone to calm down and start talking about planning.

"Well, you all know how I started off running with the mercenaries in Africa, how that ended similar to this. Brighter side is that this time I'm not breaking out solo. Rio, I keep a link to the AFDS servers here." He handed her the PDA. "Anything you can do before they remember to shut it down, which considering you were their best on the computers might give us a head start."

[Reaper]

Rio whiped the blood from her cheek and looked at the others. She let out a heavy sigh before taking the PDA from Malcom. She could feel her nervers falling apart at the seems. With shaky hands she started browsing through the server. "Wow," she said lightly as she flipped through items only Art and her had access to. "How did you get this kind of access," she asked lightly. After a moment she accessed the camera's. "Okay one moment," she said as she moved over to the projector. Hooking up the PDA she was able to project a better size version of the camera's.

"With this we can see where everyone is. As always Art is in her office. Looks like we have two guards at the back door and two more at the front. Then there's three at the door to my lab. She flipped the camera over to the one in her lab. Elijha stayed strapped to her chair, but unmoving. "Well that doesn't look good, but I have to say she's behaving herself." She looked back at Daniel and Malcom. "Have any ideas on how to get out of here? I'm lost on that one."

[Mikey]

Daniel continued to pace the room, trying to think for a moment. Think of how to get out of here, how to get Elijha, and then weather to tuck tail and run or try and get through to Art. Probably a lost cause, trying to reason with Art, but if they got the chance they had to try.

He stopped that and started looking around the room, looking for anything they could use to get out of here. He opened and closed drawers slightly quietly, trying to keep the sound from traveling out to the men guarding the doors. It looked like they didn’t take anything out. Why would they? Nothing stored in this room was dangerous. At least not in the conventional sense.

He came upon one thing that didn’t seem useless to him, probably here for someone who had chronic stomach problems. Antacid tablets.

“Hey Rio… Eat up.” He said, tossing her the package. “Think about it. You have a seizure, start foaming at the mouth, all that s***, who’s gonna sit there and let you die?” He said. “Anyone has another idea, I’m all ears.” He said.

[Scorpio]

"I've been forging access upgrade paperwork since I joined, none of the other techs questioned it since I put Art's signiture on it. They'd rather not question her 'orders' I guess."

He followed Daniels methods for the time being, searching the room for anything useful. Lots of stationary at least, he pocketed a few click top pens and boxes of staples for the time being, always handy for tripping circuits if necessary.

"If we're getting out of here, I'd like to do it quietly. I say we disconnect the rear car, have our run of the armory and vehicle bays before they notice and are able to turn back."

[Reaper]

"That wouldn't work," Rio pointed out. "Doctor's get one good look at me and they'll know I'm faking. We could always enduce a real one, but then I would be a hendrince afterword and we can't aford that." She walked back to the chair and sat down toto figure out something else. Rio looked around the room for a moment before picking up Malcom's PDA. She messed with a few things before unhooking the PDA. "We'll on a positive note we wont be broke," she said as she handed Malcom his PDA back. "On a bad note I don't know how much that money will last. She climbed onto the table and pulled a chair up with her. Linning it up with hatch she climbed up and opened it up. "I have to go to my room and pick up a few things. I'll meet you two back in the vehicle car." With a bit of struggle she finally climbed out of the car.

Sticking her head back in she smiled. "We can move along the roof. One thing is my lap is at the end of this train so there is a door into it. I have to go to my room and pick up a few things to help us out," she said before disappearing.

[Mikey]

Daniel looked up, a look of disbelief on his face. All his time here, he’d never known a roof access hatch was there. “Well s***…” He said to himself. “Ok, new plan. She’ll get her stuff, meet us…” He said, stopping for a moment and stepping up on the table. “Meet us at the armory!” He yelled, the wind masking any sound he made to anyone in the train. He ducked back down and looked at Malcolm. “I’ll get to the armory, get us a ride and some guns. You get Elijha.” He said. He pulled himself onto the roof of the train and started toward the last car in line before stopping and turning around.

“And close the hatch when you come out.” He said, not wanting someone to immediately catch on to where they went if they happened to come into the room. He held on for a moment, and then started to stand. He stayed on one knee for another moment, trying to get his bearings before he stood up. Again, he waited, and then started walking at a quick pace. He kept his footsteps as soft as he could, not wanting to alert someone with banging on the roof.

One he got his pace and bearings down, it only took a minute or so to get to the last car. At the edge, he got on his stomach and dug his feet into a groove at the top of the car. He inched down, stopping when he got to the window and braced himself with the hand rails outside the door. The motor pool looked empty, as it usually was. Climbing down quickly, he stayed low to avoid being seen from the opposite window and got inside. As soon as he did, he took cover behind a jeep. Peeking out to confirm if the area was indeed empty, he inched his way along the wall to the armory door. It didn’t have a window, so he’d need to get creative. And probably a bit lucky.

Pounding his fist on the door a few times, he got to the side opposite the hinges and waited. He didn’t hear footsteps, but that didn’t bother him. The room was damn near a fortress in his own right. They stored all the heavy weaponry there. He would hope it was fortified in some way. The several bolts that held the door shut and locked up tight were released and a hand appeared at the frame. Daniel grabbed it and yanked. Off balance, Frank the armorer went sprawling to the ground. Daniel reached down and quickly yanked the Glock he kept in a shoulder holster and aimed it at him.

“Hi Frank.” Daniel said, backing away to take a look inside. No one else was there.

“D… Dan. What are you doing?” Frank asked.

“Don’t worry Frank. Bad stuff happening, me and a few others need to make a quick getaway.” Daniel said. “Come on.” He said.

“So it’s true? You really did betray us all?” Frank asked.

“No. No, no, no, no! Through all of the things that will be said, remember this. We never betrayed anyone, we only ever did what we signed on to do. We killed monsters, even if it wasn’t Art’s way.” He said. Elijha wasn’t a monster, far from it. “Now, no matter what, I promise you you’ll be ok.” Daniel said, pulling Frank into the armory. The first step they took was to a locker, Daniels locker. He reached inside and pulled out a few pairs of flexible handcuffs, something he’d had in his equipment when he got here but had never needed in the field. He slipped a pair onto Frank one handed and synched them down. Tucking the Glock into his waistband, he put another on the man and synched them down as well. He had Frank sit on a bench and secured his legs as well.

“Now, I’m gonna grab a few things. Don’t worry, we’ll be even.” He said. “Looks like you’ll get that set of mine you always wanted.” Daniel said, speaking of his 1911’s that he wouldn’t be retrieving. Locking the door to the armory and unloading the Glock as a sign to Frank that he wouldn’t be harmed, Daniel grabbed a bag and started to grab a few things. Now much. The contents of his locker, Malcolm’s, Rio’s, and Riko’s. He didn’t know why he took Riko’s stuff. Maybe Rio would want it…

Beyond that, he grabbed a few M4’s, a few Glock 17’s, a couple of blocks of C4 and some detonators that he had built. To this day, most of the people on the train didn’t know the inner workings, didn’t know the way to disarm them. Sometimes, for fun, they’d attach one to an egg and try to disarm it. Usually, someone ended up covered in half cooked egg goop when the detonator made the egg explode. He attached the detonators to the C4 blocks and set them in the back as well. Might be handy, a bomb that could be ready to blow in a few seconds. Now, he needed to wait…

“All right Frank. See you around.” He said. He almost walked out and came back. He walked to Frank, took the radio on his belt and clipped it to his own. “Might come in handy.” Daniel said.

“Dan, come on, don’t do this.” He said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be seeing you around.” Daniel said. He had full intentions of coming back and setting things right.

[Scorpio]

"Okay, I'll meet you guys there, just make sure to get my sword, it's got great sentimental value."

Completly true, it was a generic mass produced sword with no markings, but it had served him well. He followed Daniel and Rio into the hatch up to the roof of the train making his way along to the hatch above the medical area.

"Hey Rio, if you get a chance, plug in my PDA to any terminal and download the 'best of the chili peppers' file, it'll find it's way around the AFDS network and delete all my blueprints. Those designs are my babies and I'd rather not lose custody in this little divorce."

He crawled down the hatch as the other two moved onto their jobs, making sure any doctors had left the room before he dropped to the floor and found Elijah, getting to work unstrapping her bonds.

"Good afternoon, Rio's bargain rescue service, I'm Malcom and I'll be the big damn hero today. You holding up enough to move?"

[Reaper]

Rio waved her hand as she continued to move up toward the housing cars. She counted down the windows to her room. Laying down on the roof she peeked into see if Riko was anywhere in site, but he wasn't. Slipping down she slipped into the open window that she was glade they always left open. She shuffled through her stuff getting her messanger bag, and one of Riko's back packs. She stuffed anything and everything she could get her hands on into the bag. The last moment before she put up her laptop she hooked Malcom's PDA up to it and downloaded the file. Finally stuffing everything into her messanger bag.

She slippped back out the window and stood on the seal. Tossing her bags onto the roof, and finally climbing out as she did. Once on the roof she grabbed the bags and took off toward the last car. When she jumped over to the kitchen car she tripped on something and hit the roof hard. Letting out a small cry she looked back to see Riko jumping on the roof. "Who are you?" she growled. "Where is my brother!?" she screamed as she backed up to grab her bags.

"What are you saying dear sister. I am your brother, Riko," he spoke with a sinister smile. As Rio took off across the roof Riko was quicker. He gripped her by the back of the hair and pulled her into him. "Time to put a stop to this little escepade," he said as he dragged her toward the last car. He pushed her down to the door, and jumped down behind her. Using his keycard he opened the door. Pushing Rio in he stopped and looked at Frank. "A lot of good you do," he barked. He pushed Rio through the second door into the motor pool. "Hey Daniel where you hiding. I want to barter with your safety."

---------------------------------------------

Elijha looked at Malcom and nodded slightly. "I am fine," she said as she stood up. "I would prefer to behave and not get the rest of you into trouble, but when you say rescue I'm gathering that you have a bit more on your hands," she said as she stretched her arms. Malcom motioned to the roof. "I see, "she said as she followed him up to the roof. As they made their way to the end she pulled him to a stop. "This is the last car right? The door is open." Jumping down to the main level she moved carefully through the door. She looked at Frank and sighed. "I am so sorry for everything," she said as she looked back to Malcom. She stopped at the second open door when she heard Riko. "That doesn't sound good."

[Mikey]

“Oh… I’m around.” Daniel’s voice called out, loud enough to echo in the large room. It was impossible to tell where he was. In reality, he had taken cover before a vehicle as soon as he heard the noise coming from the armory. He’d stayed down, and waited for more noise. He heard the yelling, Riko’s voice directed at Frank probably. And then the call to Daniel.

“Barter with MY safety? How does that work out? Seems like you don’t have a leg to stand on.” Daniel yelled out, making the echo louder. He reached into the bag and took out two magazines for the Glock’s. He gripped one of them in his teeth and the other in his left hand. He whipped it around and let it clang on the wall across the room, no doubt putting Riko’s attention on it. Daniel moved to the next car and did the same thing to the far wall, giving him time to move again, this time closer to Riko. He circled the vehicle and could see Riko’s feet underneath the hummer. Just a bit longer, he’d have the opportunity to strike.

[Reaper]

Riko growled as he gripped Rio's neck tightly. She cried out dropping the bags she was holding and tried to pry his hand away from his neck. "Do you know how long it takes for a person to suffocate?" he asked as he looked around the room. The darkness was making it harder to figure out where Daniel was let alone the noises he was making. He gripped Rio's neck even tighter causing her choke before she stopped moving. He wrapped his arm around his chest and pulled out his knife. "How much are you willing to risk for all this. All Art wants you to do is give up Elijha. Tell her the truth, and they are willing to help you and the others."

[Mikey]

“Do you know how long it will take this bullet to kill you?” Daniel’s voice chimed out, no echo this time. It was quiet, coming from only a few feet away. “It’ll enter your neck, sever your spinal cord. You’ll drop that knife, you’ll fall to the ground totally paralyzed, you’ll choke on blood and hot metal for the remainder of your short and painful life.” Daniel said, his voice slowly growing to an angry whisper. “And if you think I wont shoot Riko, think again. Your not him.” Daniel said. Killing Riko’s body was a small price to pay, they could get him another. Probably the one this prick used to occupy.

He walked foreword, letting the muzzle of the pistol touch the imposters neck before he slowly grabbed the knife and pulled it away from Rio. He grabbed Riko’s hands and pried them apart, never letting his eyes off the man’s eyes. You could tell everything from the look in someone’s eyes. He pulled Rio away and gave her a gentle push back to the armory while he secured Riko.

“To answer that.” He said, yanking the man by the hair to a car. “I’m willing to risk everything to uphold what is right. I am willing to die for the cause I follow. Are you?” He asked, popping open the back hatch of one of the vehicles and slamming the butt of the handgun against the back of Riko’s skull. He went limp, and Daniel piled him into the back of the hummer.

“Clear, time to go!” He yelled out, retrieving the duffle bag and getting to the car they were going to take. A jeep, four wheel drive, all terrain. Perfect for the desert environment they were going to be traversing very soon.

[Scorpio]

"We thought it best that we go independant for a while until Art calms down and fake Riko isn't whispering slander down her ear. Maybe take a little initiative in the meantime and do what we were hired to do with the speed that comes from not having a higher command."

He led the way to the last car and dropped down to the door, seeing Riko holding Rio as a shield.

"Damn, that's not gonna fly." Malcom swung the door open ready to charge him, stopping as Daniel leapt out and pistol whipped him unconcsious. "Well...seems you have everything handled, I'll just go disconnect the car."

He went back out the door and started working on the circuit board, pulling a few wires and switching them around so that the other cars wouldn't get any sign of what was going on, at least for a short while. Afterwards he pulled a large switch on the connector, letting the rest of the train go on ahead as their car slowed down. Malcom went back in and helped Rio up.

"You doing okay kid? Take your time, we got a five minute head start before they know they lost a car, not to mention how long it'll take before they can actually stop and go back for it." He got to looting anything he'd find useful or just interesting. "Hey Daniel, nice work on that dingbat, we taking him with?"

[Reaper]

Rio shook her head as she felt the tears in her eyes. Rubbing her throat lightly she tried to think of something to say, but in the end she couldn't think of anything. She really couldn't think straight as it was. He looked like Riko, smelled like him, and even talked like him. Yet he wasn't her brother in any way shape or form. She was the only one left in her family both her brothers dying to this awful fight, but if Elijha was right they could probably save Riko. Though that would take a lot considering that it would take a scientist working with them even thought they were against them.

She sat back down on the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. Wrapping her arms around them tightly, and pulling them into her. She laid her head down on her knees and closed her eyes. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were with her and her brothers. Just sitting in their living room watching tv as their parents sat in the kitchen talking away like there was nothing to worry about.

Elijha sighed as she looked down at Rio. She walked over to pick up the bags and tossed them into the vehicle that Daniel had picked out. "I would say leave him. More than likely they placed a tracer in him. So dealing with your team is one thing, but dealing with Sincell is a whole other ballpark and at the moment we wont have the equipment or man power to do that. Leave him here. If anything his body will be safer with your team even if they don't know the truth."

She walked over to Rio and helped her to her feet. "Lets get you into the vehicle." She walked Rio over to the vehicle and opened the door. There was a loud grinding of metal and the door to the hummer went flying off as Riko kicked it. He stepped out wielding his secondary weapon. He took aim and fired two rounds at Elijha and Rio. As Rio cried out Elijha wrapped her arms around her and used her body to shield her. She only felt one bullet hit her square in the back as the second one hit another jeep. Elijha collapsed into Rio's arms as she fell unconcious.

"Riko!" Rio screamed as she watched her brother jump one of the other cars, and made a mad dash for the armory.

Over Daniel's radio one of the communication's team member's voice came. "Armory do you read?" he kept repeating. "Armory if you can read this we are coming back. Hang tight, and use deady force if necessary."

Rio looked up at Daniel with terrified eyes as she held onto Elijha. "What do we do?"