by Chad Kunego
He thought back to that mission, remembering the briefing they’d gotten before they’d headed out. Back then, he’d thought his bosses were just fucking with him, some form of hazing the new guys. Mutants? Cyborgs? That was just stuff of comic books and movies. It had to be a case of soldiers fielding some new type of armor and being hyped up on some kind of combat drug. Right? Maybe even some type of combat drone. But if his superiors wanted to call them mutants and cyborgs, who was he to question them.
Shaking his head, he pushed the memory away, focusing on the still image of his face. Leaning back in his chair, he pressed the play button.
A shaky image of him talking into the camera sprang to life.
Okay, mission status. Phase two of operation slamming door to commence in T-minus 5 minutes.
The view of the camera slowly started panning around the inside of the panel van they’d secured for the mission.
For the record, my name is Sergeant Sinclair. Members of mission include myself, Corporal Tomas, Corporal Nunes, and our illustrious LT
He paused the video for a moment, looking at his friend again before hitting the play button again.
Ok, knock the shit off, this is serious. Our target is that building at the end of the block. The one with the Humvee in the parking lot. Now the plan is—
Wait LT, there’s movement in the parking lot.
Report!
Looks like one lone male LT, approximately six foot. Hard to tell from his clothing, but I’d estimate him to be around two-twenty or so.
He watched everyone crowd around, trying to see out the windshield in the enclosed space. The camera view shook around as it was jammed between his teammates so he could record What was happening. The image zoomed in as the unidentified person strode purposefully toward the Humvee. A few seconds later, several more people rushed out of the building, leveling guns at the first person.
Holy shit, what’s going on? Do we need to abort the mission LT?
Negative, we’ll just observe for now. See what happens. Tomas? Radio it in, let them know we’re holding for now until this resolves itself.
Understood sir.
From the video, Sinclair watched the first male pause before turning back toward the others. While they couldn’t make out what was said at the time, analysts had been able to determine what he’d said by reading his lips. All he said was, “stand down and get out of here. You don’t want to do this.”
Before he’d finished talking, the reports of several automatic rifles echoed down the street to them. Apparently unfazed, the first individual just seemed to shake his head sadly. What happened next defied believe.
Did you see that LT? How the hell did they miss him at such close range? Were they trained by storm troopers or something? How did HOLY—
Somehow, the first individual grabbed the massive military vehicle, picking it up and swinging it around like it was weightless. An instant later, he charged forward almost too fast to comprehend. The earth rumbled and vibrated a moment later, rocking their vehicle violently.
HOW THE HELL DID THAT GUY JUST SNATCH THAT THING UP! A hummer weighs over four ton!
Abort! Abort! Get us the hell out of here!
The sound of tires screeching accompanied the wild bouncing of the video. A moment later, the camera was recording out the back window of their vehicle. Before they’d gotten a block away, the building appeared to just disintegrate. An instant later, the ground thumped, jarring the video again as the vehicle was thrown a couple feet into the air before crashing down. The sound of tires screeching in protest could be heard a few seconds before the sound of tortured metal echoed through the interior as they slammed into the side of a parked car. Sinclair remembered the feeling of weightlessness before being slammed into the side of the van as it flipping over and landed on its roof.
The sounds of moaning and hisses of pain could be heard on the video for several minutes before the picture was jarred again, apparently from being kicked. An indistinct voice in the background could be heard calling for medical assistance. Suddenly, the camera spun around with Sinclair’s face filling the screen again.
Mission has been aborted. LT has been gravely injured. Corporeal Nunes is dead, a result of a broken neck sustained during the accident. Corporal Tomas is unconscious but alive due to his seatbelt and the airbag going off.
His image paused, coughing before gasping in pain. Pausing the video again, he relived in his mind the feelings of helplessness he’d felt at the time. Examining his image, he never realized how bloodshot his eyes were, nor how the pain of his injuries were so clearly etched across his face. It reminded him why both himself and the LT has created this off-books mission in the first place. He felt his face tighten as he started the video again.
I believe I may have a fracture in my arm, but not sure due to adrenaline. Help is on the way, but not sure if they’ll get here in time.
The view shook again before the back door of the van was opened. The camera then focused back the way they came. In the distance, a large dust cloud was slowly rolling down the street toward them. More alarming though, was the building they’d just been preparing to enter was completely gone. All that remained was a pile of rubble.
Just before the video cut out, Sinclair heard himself say something that he’d never forgotten to this day. It still made his chest tighten hearing the words again.
My god… they do exist…
He tapped a few keys on his computer, pulling up the files recently unlocked dealing with the department they were supposed to shut down that day. Clicking on it, he dragged the files and videos for Skywatch/Maelstrom over to the thumb drive before hitting the eject button. Pulling the thumb drive out, he dropped it back into the folder. Glancing over the other documents, he reviewed one outlining Newtons powers, both displayed and inferred. Another one was HellKat’s after action report for the Maelstrom base they’d destroyed shortly after teaming up with Newton. That mission had ended with the creation of a new volcano.
He now had two new reports to add to the file. One outlining the mission they’d just returned from dealing with a mutant at least on par with Newton, possibly stronger. His whereabouts were unknown. All then had on him was the name Iškur/Juan, that he appeared to be a hispanic teen, and that could control the weather well enough to create EF6 tornadoes, call down microbursts on command, and even generate red sprites powerful enough to nearly kill Newton.
The other report was from the bar fight from the other night. He reread the last entry of the bar fight report, mulling over what it said.
Newton has a strong sense of justice which leads him into acting without thought. If he had not interfered, it was unlikely anyone else would have been injured. It was also more likely that the entire event would have been easier to cover up. Instead, Newton attacked several individual exhibiting varied abilities, which he was easily able overcome and neutralize. If he had just waited until they left, he could have pursued and neutralized them without witnesses and without putting anyone else in jeopardy. Only his overwhelming level of power kept the situation from spiraling out of control.
While I believe Newton will always strive to do the right thing, I’m not sure he’ll always do the correct thing. I still believe he can be an asset to the team and to Overwatch, but not without risk. I also believe it would be a bigger risk to let him leave the organization, but I don’t believe we’d be able to stop him, even if we wanted to. Hopefully with time, his loner streak will become manageable.
Closing the folder, he stood up. Turning, he placed the folder back it its secure hiding spot before locking it away again. Satisfied, he headed toward the door, taking another sip of his now cold coffee. Looking around the office one last time, he sighed before unlocking the door. Turning out the light, he headed out, closing the door behind him. One thought kept running through his mind as he left.
Who are you Newton? Who are you really? Friend…? Or an enemy of the state, possibly the world? More importantly, can
we afford to trust you until we find out?
§§§§§§§§§§§§
The door slowly swung shut while the cloaked figure made their way stealthily toward the sleeping figure. A sound to the right caught their attention, causing them to freeze in place. Looking toward the source, they spotted a nurse starting to glance their way, but before the nurse could react, the cloaked figure raised a hand toward them.
“Sleep,” they whispered, their sonorous voice reverberating around the room slightly. The nurse’s eyes went wide a moment before rolling back in their sockets. Their head drooped forward slowly, coming to rest on their chest.
Sliding forward rapidly, the cloaked figure caught the nurse before they slumped to the floor. With some effort, they carried the unconscious body over to a nearby chair, easing them down into it. A quiet snore could be heard coming from the slumbering nurse, causing the figure to smile in satisfaction. Breathing a slight sigh of relief, the cloaked figure moved back toward the only other person in ICU.
Approaching carefully, they watched the young Russian woman sleeping, slowly recovering from her recent ordeal.
Examining her carefully from head to toe, he finally returned to her face. Hidden eyes began glowing softly from within the deep recesses of their shadowed hood. Staring intently at the sleeping patient's face, they remained motionless for several seconds. Suddenly, they stumbled backward, their hand swinging up rapidly to stifle an involuntary gasp of shock.
Moving away from the bed quickly, they spun around, hurrying out of the recovery area. An overhead light momentarily penetrated the shadow caused by the cloaked figure’s hood, revealing a neatly trimmed beard before plunging them back into darkness again.
Reaching the hallway, his pace stuttered slightly before, ducking down another hallway. Hurrying away, he touched the side of his head lightly with the fingertips of his left hand.
Master Levi paused for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts before responding.
Master Levi paused again, feeling the emotional states of the Enclave’s upper members washing over him: hope, fear, shock, and trepidation, among others. After a few minutes, one emotion slowly became dominant over all the others. Determination.
Master Levi sensed the mental nods of the other leaders.
He closed out the telepathic meeting, letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Shuddering slightly, he thought about what could happen if he wasn’t strong enough to fulfill his mission. Forcefully pushing it out of his mind, he pressed the elevator button, running through everything he needed to do in the coming days and weeks.
A ding intruded on his thoughts, reminding him of the elevator he’d summoned. Entering, he pressed a button, intent on getting back to his room to begin preparing. As the door closed, he caught himself reciting the prophecy he’d been taught as a young child and had repeated daily ever since.
They shall be reborn in thunder,
and touched by the gods.
In battle they shall be baptized,
by rain and hail.
In the approaching darkness they’ll become,
the beacon we avail.
For if they shall fail,
and the god prevail
Then all will cease,
and be torn asunder.
Author's note
Chad’s notes - (6/28/2018)
So we’ve made it to the end of another book. If you’ve made it this far, then I again want to thank you. It humbles me that someone would, with all the other things and distractions that you could due with your valuable time, choose to spend it on something I wrote. There’s no better feeling than to realize I possibly helped someone forget about their cares for a few hours or so. And to like the stories I write enough to read another one as well. You are the reason I do this.
I’d originally planned on releasing this book at the end of April/early May, but life had other plans. Our furbaby got really sick, so we had to literally force feed him for nearly two months before he started eating on his own again. After multiple vet visits and spending something north of a grand, we finally determined he was suffering from pancreatitis. While not lethal under most circumstances, it’s also not that great, either. But we got him through it. But it did impact my ability to work on the book.
But hopefully it’ll be clear sailing going forward (fingers crossed) and I’ll be able to get book 3, Kinetic Reaction, out a little bit faster. I’ve got the first draft done, so all I have to do is work on the revisions.
The next book is going to delve more into Rick’s origins, along with who Inanna, Iškur, and the others are as well. I’ve dropped hints, but hopefully it’ll be a surprise. Again, I want to thank you for reading my books and I look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached at the following email address:
[email protected]
I hope you have a wonderful day and see you next time.
P.S. If you’ve read the first book on or before 6/30/18, you’ll notice the name of the organization has changed from Stormwatch to Endpoint/Project Endpoint. The reason for the change is because of a faux pas on my part. I used to read A LOT of comics growing up and when I was in the service. One of the comics, as I was recently reminded of, was a title called Stormwatch, which is now owned by DC COMICS©. So yeah… about that. Since I’d rather not call down the vengeful wrath of very high-priced lawyers on my head, I figured it’d be in my best interest to, uh, change the name of my group to be something else. And now you know. ☺
P.P.S. If you enjoyed this book, you can help me out by letting me know you like the series and want me to continue by leaving a review. If you want to stay up to date on developments, then visit the Nibiru Rising Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/NibiruRisingSeries/
If you want to find out more of what I’m doing as a writer, or you just want to say hi, then you can catch up with me on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/ChadKunego/
And finally, if you want to visit me on the web and sign up for my newsletter, where you’ll get advanced updates on what I’m doing (I promise not to flood your inbox with junk), chances to be a beta reader, and other assorted cool stuff, you can find me on the web at:
www.ChadKunego.com
I’m always looking for chance to chat with my readers. While I might not respond to an email too quickly, I do check my inbox at least once a day and I will respond to you, just give me a day or so. And as always, thank you for joining me on Rick, Kaitlyn, and the rest of the gangs journey. Have a wonder day and I hope to hear from you soon.
In gratitude,
Chad
If you liked this book, you can leave a review on amazon @:
1. Sorry
2. My God!
3. Not hardly
4. Sit, please
5. I don’t bite
6. Sorry
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