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Description
[shift to Nick's PoV]

While Navy was busy preparing the Alpha for takeoff, so I decided to do a small inventory check to ensure we had all of our things. Once that was finished, and I managed to confirm we had everything, I did hear a series of beeps. I went to investigate it. Despite searching the entire engine room, I found nothing.  Whatever or not the source of the beeping is located might not be too concerning, since I know Navy's likely about to call me over to talk. He often does whenever we have been apart or if he has something important to share. Why he can't just use telepathy to contact me, I cannot say. All that matters was that we get away from here.

I walked back to Navy only to overhear him mumbling lightly. Something regarding me, I wonder?  Wheeling around to leave, Navy's voice stopped me in place...

"Did you find anything back there?" his voice was unusually gentle. It surprised me to say the least.

"Why, no, I didn't. I regret to inform you that-"

"Well, whatever, we're going after I do a fuel check, which will take a few seconds. I bet you can do this without a problem too." Navy chuckled lightly.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?"

"Just come over here for a second." Navy gestured to walk over to him. I do so after a moment's hesitation. He pointed out a small lit percent in orange text on the dashboard.

"Which says forty-three percent from here. Which means we got just about half fuel left right now. Will that get us far?"

Navy nodded. "It'll get us far enough until we can think of a plan of attack. And before you ask me, no, I don't have a map of this base or I'd suggest we'd blow it up somehow. We'll have to come back, if possible."

"Okay, then what? How do we clear our names?"

"As soon as I think of a way to clear yours... I'll tell you." Navy attempted to comfort me but it didn't work.  I helped myself into a passenger's chair next to Navy, wanting to sit with him. He must have understood me desiring his company. I spotted a screen on the dashboard that was blank and pointed it out to Navy. He didn't commit about it, but that's all right.

"Strap yourself in. This is going to be tense." Navy added as he pulled the familiar lever forward, causing a small roar to emit from the Alpha's engines. The spaceship moved forward slowly, almost how an airplane felt during takeoff. The key difference being the Alpha wasn't on a runway, and the less I think about it the happier I'll be. Navy knew what he was doing, at least I hoped he did.

"There's just one little problem." Navy looked over at me. I shrugged, not having much of a concern at first. "That little door ships use to exit the hanger bay? It's closed. So that means..."

"It basically means we're about to slam into a large steel wall unless we do something about it." I was quick to realize this. "Does the ship have any weapons?"

Navy stared down at the dashboard. "Yeah, I see one button here that is labeled as a weapon right now. Should I try it?"

I didn't have any time right now to think. "Go for it, Navy."

Navy nodded slowly before nearly punching the button. Both of us heard something moving below us, followed by a small howling. Navy looked in surprise when we saw a pair of missiles racing out swiftly in front of the Alpha, headed for a front wall we were speeding towards. Both missiles collided with the wall, causing a pair of explosions to roar out violently, followed by the sound of air venting out into space. The hanger bay was turning into a vacuum due to the void of space. All of the air being sucked out rapidly, and there seemed to be a gaping hole in the side of the wall leading outside into space, but was it large enough for the ship to fly through?

"Is the ship's hull sealed up?" I asked Navy quickly, worried for a moment.

"If it wasn't then we'd be already be subjected to the vacuum." Navy's reply was unusually calm, and I didn't like it much. "God forbid if the the glass shatters suddenly..."

"That's not funny." I growled, not wishing to hear Navy joke around right now. The Alpha suddenly passed through the hole after the engines fired at full forced. We were moving at about seventy MPH by the time we were outside. We made it. At least, I hoped we did. FC might be biding their time. I exhaled, looking back to see Hollander's space station was massive on the outside, bigger than I imagined. Navy's eyes shifted downwards outside the window, at a blue planet largely resembling Sierra. In fact, Navy thought this was Sierra, the home planet our last adventure took place at. There was only one way to find out for certain. But could we risk it?

"Either that's the real deal, or a well crafted replica." Navy hinted towards the possibilities. Neither of them were pleasant to hear. "I'd say we dock there for now. I'm not into the idea of exploring space for weeks again."

"Fair enough." I couldn't argue against that, not that I wanted to. "I suppose this is a good--"

The screen in front of us flickered on, interrupting me sharply. An image of Hollander displayed then, looking rather smug. My heart sank when I guessed Hollander might have planned this.

"Maybe in another situation you would be considered lucky... Clyde, Phalanx, but you should be smarter, thinking I'd allow you to escape with your lives. You two apparently are so foolish to think I wasn't going to notice? Man, then you deserve the little present I have in store for the Alpha. It's in the form of an EMP bomb I had my men conceal shortly before you got on board. Oh, and if you think Phalanx over there can just warp you out, think again. We disabled him from doing that hours ago via an injection. So, are you two ready? If not, that's too bad. I'll miss you...or maybe I won't. Goodbye."

Navy's eyes widened. "Is that what that beeping was!?"

We both saw a red countdown appear on the screen. Seven seconds until detonation... With no time to panic, I shot up from my seat as the counter reached zero. Navy and I then heard a deafening surge from the engine room. A few seconds later, the lights short-circuted and everything shut down. We were subjected to total darkness, with the only light sources being my electricity and Navy's "flame". Navy looked at me, scrambling for a flashlight.
I sighed. "So just a recap on what we just lost: our air, our lighting, our defenses, and any method of getting to Sierra."

"Consider this though, you still got your life. You wouldn't give that one up without a fight."

I don't know if Navy was trying to comfort me or not. "Yeah, but-"

"No, I've got an idea. Hollander's likely going to attack us right now while he thinks we're defenseless. I didn't tell you this before, you see-"

"Where's that rifle of yours?" I asked, curious when I didn't see Navy holding it.

"Oh, I dropped it. Didn't want it anyway." was Navy's rather swift reply. "Any way, I was saying--"

"Why did you drop it?" I asked knowing that was a little absurd. Navy discarding something like that so easily? It didn't seem right.

"I just did. Now will you let me finish speaking while we have air to breath!?" Navy hollered. Yeah, he was annoyed all right... I better let him finish his sentence then!

"Okay, how do you plan to get the ship up and running, Navy?"

"That's an easy one. You power the systems back up, just for a few minutes until we can enter Sierra's atmosphere, then we abandon the Alpha using an escape pod. You can overwrite EMP's, can't you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I can?" I was unsure where this was leading, or even if that was possible... but what did I have to lose? "What do you want me to do, then?"

Navy led to the engine room silently. I followed him there, figuring he would explain there. My thoughts turned to Josh for a moment since I was worried for his safety. How was he holding up against Kin if they were still fighting? I felt a small tap on my shoulder, causing me to look at Navy.

"You were drifting out there for a moment, Zeta. I need you focused on getting this repaired."

"What do you want me to do? Fire some electricity out at the generators or something?" I had to be sure I understood him correctly, otherwise he doesn't like me screwing up just one minor detail. He nodded at me slowly as he removed a fried control panel, throwing it aside. Smoke emitted from the wiring, and a few sections looked charred.

"What kind of EMP does this kind of damage!?" I gasped in surprise at the damage. "Are you sure we can fix this?"

"Follow my instructions carefully..." Navy pointed at a few wires, trying to solder them together somehow. I stood ready giving a look of determination, raising my hand slowly. Electricity faintly sparks onto it...

***

[shift to Josh]

It's been about three years since I've seen Nick or Navy, but what has changed? I sat in a small bedroom I now call my own, flipping through newspaper articles to ease my boredom. 1800 hours meant six in the evening in military time since I asked about it from a fellow soldier. Thoughts swirled around in my head, fearing for what was going to happen to me. I laid down on my bed, staring up at the ceiling when I heard a knock at the door.

"The door's unlocked." I mumbled towards the door. "What do you need?"

"I came to deliver one of your shots now."

Gently sighing, I slid off the bed and paced for the door. To be honest, I hated shots with a burning passion. Knowing it was pointless to argue I opened the door, seeing a doctor stand there holding a small syringe filled with a green liquid.

The doctor entered my room. "It would be best if I do it now instead of later. Your briefing is in a couple hours, this shall last long enough until you're out in the field. You understand?"

Oh, I understand all right. That liquid there acts as a suppressant for my body to prevent me from using pyrokenesis while I was here. Ever since I was here I had to take two shots a day. The doses last on average about twelve hours and I have to be awake for administrations. The pain doesn't last long, but it hurts like hell... they mentioned they can't give me anything to numb the pain since it might interfere with the suppressant. The doctor keeled down towards me, asking for my wrist. I did so, watching him sterilize the spot where the needle would be inserted.

"Close your eyes for a few moments, please." the doctor requested.

Shutting my eyes for a couple seconds, I felt a light jab in my wrist then an intense burning sensation. This lasts for a few moments before the sensation ends, and I felt the needle being pulled out gently. Wiping a faint amount of blood from my wrist, I winced in pain as the suppressant began to take effect... tears formed in my eyes as the pain then settled down in a few seconds.

"Thank you Josh. Until next time then." The doctor left my room.

I closed my door then, wanting to be alone for now. Just to make sure I couldn't use any fire, I attempted to charge flames into my hand. Nothing happened other than my hand giving off light steam. I cursed, sitting on my bed.

I was left to wonder one thing: did they really trust me as an equal, or was I just a pawn in all of this?

Description
[shift to Nick's PoV]

While Navy was busy preparing the Alpha for takeoff, so I decided to do a small inventory check to ensure we had all of our things. Once that was finished, and I managed to confirm we had everything, I did hear a series of beeps. I went to investigate it. Despite searching the entire engine room, I found nothing.  Whatever or not the source of the beeping is located might not be too concerning, since I know Navy's likely about to call me over to talk. He often does whenever we have been apart or if he has something important to share. Why he can't just use telepathy to contact me, I cannot say. All that matters was that we get away from here.

I walked back to Navy only to overhear him mumbling lightly. Something regarding me, I wonder?  Wheeling around to leave, Navy's voice stopped me in place...

"Did you find anything back there?" his voice was unusually gentle. It surprised me to say the least.

"Why, no, I didn't. I regret to inform you that-"

"Well, whatever, we're going after I do a fuel check, which will take a few seconds. I bet you can do this without a problem too." Navy chuckled lightly.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean by that?"

"Just come over here for a second." Navy gestured to walk over to him. I do so after a moment's hesitation. He pointed out a small lit percent in orange text on the dashboard.

"Which says forty-three percent from here. Which means we got just about half fuel left right now. Will that get us far?"

Navy nodded. "It'll get us far enough until we can think of a plan of attack. And before you ask me, no, I don't have a map of this base or I'd suggest we'd blow it up somehow. We'll have to come back, if possible."

"Okay, then what? How do we clear our names?"

"As soon as I think of a way to clear yours... I'll tell you." Navy attempted to comfort me but it didn't work.  I helped myself into a passenger's chair next to Navy, wanting to sit with him. He must have understood me desiring his company. I spotted a screen on the dashboard that was blank and pointed it out to Navy. He didn't commit about it, but that's all right.

"Strap yourself in. This is going to be tense." Navy added as he pulled the familiar lever forward, causing a small roar to emit from the Alpha's engines. The spaceship moved forward slowly, almost how an airplane felt during takeoff. The key difference being the Alpha wasn't on a runway, and the less I think about it the happier I'll be. Navy knew what he was doing, at least I hoped he did.

"There's just one little problem." Navy looked over at me. I shrugged, not having much of a concern at first. "That little door ships use to exit the hanger bay? It's closed. So that means..."

"It basically means we're about to slam into a large steel wall unless we do something about it." I was quick to realize this. "Does the ship have any weapons?"

Navy stared down at the dashboard. "Yeah, I see one button here that is labeled as a weapon right now. Should I try it?"

I didn't have any time right now to think. "Go for it, Navy."

Navy nodded slowly before nearly punching the button. Both of us heard something moving below us, followed by a small howling. Navy looked in surprise when we saw a pair of missiles racing out swiftly in front of the Alpha, headed for a front wall we were speeding towards. Both missiles collided with the wall, causing a pair of explosions to roar out violently, followed by the sound of air venting out into space. The hanger bay was turning into a vacuum due to the void of space. All of the air being sucked out rapidly, and there seemed to be a gaping hole in the side of the wall leading outside into space, but was it large enough for the ship to fly through?

"Is the ship's hull sealed up?" I asked Navy quickly, worried for a moment.

"If it wasn't then we'd be already be subjected to the vacuum." Navy's reply was unusually calm, and I didn't like it much. "God forbid if the the glass shatters suddenly..."

"That's not funny." I growled, not wishing to hear Navy joke around right now. The Alpha suddenly passed through the hole after the engines fired at full forced. We were moving at about seventy MPH by the time we were outside. We made it. At least, I hoped we did. FC might be biding their time. I exhaled, looking back to see Hollander's space station was massive on the outside, bigger than I imagined. Navy's eyes shifted downwards outside the window, at a blue planet largely resembling Sierra. In fact, Navy thought this was Sierra, the home planet our last adventure took place at. There was only one way to find out for certain. But could we risk it?

"Either that's the real deal, or a well crafted replica." Navy hinted towards the possibilities. Neither of them were pleasant to hear. "I'd say we dock there for now. I'm not into the idea of exploring space for weeks again."

"Fair enough." I couldn't argue against that, not that I wanted to. "I suppose this is a good--"

The screen in front of us flickered on, interrupting me sharply. An image of Hollander displayed then, looking rather smug. My heart sank when I guessed Hollander might have planned this.

"Maybe in another situation you would be considered lucky... Clyde, Phalanx, but you should be smarter, thinking I'd allow you to escape with your lives. You two apparently are so foolish to think I wasn't going to notice? Man, then you deserve the little present I have in store for the Alpha. It's in the form of an EMP bomb I had my men conceal shortly before you got on board. Oh, and if you think Phalanx over there can just warp you out, think again. We disabled him from doing that hours ago via an injection. So, are you two ready? If not, that's too bad. I'll miss you...or maybe I won't. Goodbye."

Navy's eyes widened. "Is that what that beeping was!?"

We both saw a red countdown appear on the screen. Seven seconds until detonation... With no time to panic, I shot up from my seat as the counter reached zero. Navy and I then heard a deafening surge from the engine room. A few seconds later, the lights short-circuted and everything shut down. We were subjected to total darkness, with the only light sources being my electricity and Navy's "flame". Navy looked at me, scrambling for a flashlight.
I sighed. "So just a recap on what we just lost: our air, our lighting, our defenses, and any method of getting to Sierra."

"Consider this though, you still got your life. You wouldn't give that one up without a fight."

I don't know if Navy was trying to comfort me or not. "Yeah, but-"

"No, I've got an idea. Hollander's likely going to attack us right now while he thinks we're defenseless. I didn't tell you this before, you see-"

"Where's that rifle of yours?" I asked, curious when I didn't see Navy holding it.

"Oh, I dropped it. Didn't want it anyway." was Navy's rather swift reply. "Any way, I was saying--"

"Why did you drop it?" I asked knowing that was a little absurd. Navy discarding something like that so easily? It didn't seem right.

"I just did. Now will you let me finish speaking while we have air to breath!?" Navy hollered. Yeah, he was annoyed all right... I better let him finish his sentence then!

"Okay, how do you plan to get the ship up and running, Navy?"

"That's an easy one. You power the systems back up, just for a few minutes until we can enter Sierra's atmosphere, then we abandon the Alpha using an escape pod. You can overwrite EMP's, can't you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I can?" I was unsure where this was leading, or even if that was possible... but what did I have to lose? "What do you want me to do, then?"

Navy led to the engine room silently. I followed him there, figuring he would explain there. My thoughts turned to Josh for a moment since I was worried for his safety. How was he holding up against Kin if they were still fighting? I felt a small tap on my shoulder, causing me to look at Navy.

"You were drifting out there for a moment, Zeta. I need you focused on getting this repaired."

"What do you want me to do? Fire some electricity out at the generators or something?" I had to be sure I understood him correctly, otherwise he doesn't like me screwing up just one minor detail. He nodded at me slowly as he removed a fried control panel, throwing it aside. Smoke emitted from the wiring, and a few sections looked charred.

"What kind of EMP does this kind of damage!?" I gasped in surprise at the damage. "Are you sure we can fix this?"

"Follow my instructions carefully..." Navy pointed at a few wires, trying to solder them together somehow. I stood ready giving a look of determination, raising my hand slowly. Electricity faintly sparks onto it...

***

[shift to Josh]

It's been about three years since I've seen Nick or Navy, but what has changed? I sat in a small bedroom I now call my own, flipping through newspaper articles to ease my boredom. 1800 hours meant six in the evening in military time since I asked about it from a fellow soldier. Thoughts swirled around in my head, fearing for what was going to happen to me. I laid down on my bed, staring up at the ceiling when I heard a knock at the door.

"The door's unlocked." I mumbled towards the door. "What do you need?"

"I came to deliver one of your shots now."

Gently sighing, I slid off the bed and paced for the door. To be honest, I hated shots with a burning passion. Knowing it was pointless to argue I opened the door, seeing a doctor stand there holding a small syringe filled with a green liquid.

The doctor entered my room. "It would be best if I do it now instead of later. Your briefing is in a couple hours, this shall last long enough until you're out in the field. You understand?"

Oh, I understand all right. That liquid there acts as a suppressant for my body to prevent me from using pyrokenesis while I was here. Ever since I was here I had to take two shots a day. The doses last on average about twelve hours and I have to be awake for administrations. The pain doesn't last long, but it hurts like hell... they mentioned they can't give me anything to numb the pain since it might interfere with the suppressant. The doctor keeled down towards me, asking for my wrist. I did so, watching him sterilize the spot where the needle would be inserted.

"Close your eyes for a few moments, please." the doctor requested.

Shutting my eyes for a couple seconds, I felt a light jab in my wrist then an intense burning sensation. This lasts for a few moments before the sensation ends, and I felt the needle being pulled out gently. Wiping a faint amount of blood from my wrist, I winced in pain as the suppressant began to take effect... tears formed in my eyes as the pain then settled down in a few seconds.

"Thank you Josh. Until next time then." The doctor left my room.

I closed my door then, wanting to be alone for now. Just to make sure I couldn't use any fire, I attempted to charge flames into my hand. Nothing happened other than my hand giving off light steam. I cursed, sitting on my bed.

I was left to wonder one thing: did they really trust me as an equal, or was I just a pawn in all of this?