Written: I forget... Sometime in my senior year (1994-95).
Rex looked right and then left, running through the intersection and continuing down the corridor. He heard the footsteps behind him, they weren't closing, but Rex was surprised that they were even still there.
He was at the moment, half-Leopard, of course.
The end of the hallway ended at an elevator shaft. Rex knew that he was currently on the lowest floor so the shaft only went up.
The elves were almost on top of him. He could see their silhouettes far down the hallway he had just traveled. They opened fire. The shots rebounded off the walls, but only two hit him, impacting his left arm and leg. Rex stumbled but managed to block the pain and turn his attention back to the elevator door. He knew the wounds would heal soon enough.
The sliding elevator door had a Key-Card lock instead of buttons so he'd have to force it. He gripped the door seam and pulled. As it opened another bullet impacted his right shoulder blade, causing him to fall into the shaft. The doors then closed behind him. Rex stood and looked up. He could feel his recent wounds already starting to heal, but he couldn't see anything beyond the darkness above him in the shaft. "Has to be up there somewhere," he muttered to himself as he unhitched Scorp's Grapple Gun from his belt, aimed it, and fired.
The Grapple shot up in a puff of smoke and disappeared into the darkness. After what seemed like an eternity it hit something. It must have been the elevator because it started to rise, taking Rex with it.
He looked down at the shaft floor as it slowly disappeared beneath him. Then he looked up at the darkness above him.
"The only way to travel," he mumbled to himself.
Three minutes later Rex burst through the air-vent at the cliff's base. He crawled out, sniffed the air, and dusted himself off.
Looking back at the vent which led him out of the elevator shaft he shuddered. Rex knew he'd be back.
He had to return for Scorps, but for now he needed to get the others, so he disappeared into the forest.
It was going to be a long walk home.
"You what!" Azul was a little disturbed by the news of Scorp's capture.
Rex looked back up at her from the lazy boy. "I had to leave him or we'd both be there now, and I'm the only other one who knows where the base is."
He looked over at Hazel then back at Azul. "I'm sorry."
Rex stood up and headed for the kitchen. He needed a drink, Bad. Hazel got off the couch and followed.
He walked to the fridge and started to open the door, but Hazel's hand reached out and shut it again.
"You do of course know that Azul won't let us sleep until we free Scorps," she looked out the kitchen doorway at Azul crouched on the couch lost in thought, and turned back to Rex.
"What if he's dead?" Rex asked. That'd be a major complication in their plans, and he hated complications.
Hazel wrapped her arms around his waste, leaned her head against his chest, and closed her eyes.
"That's just a risk we'll have to take."
Rex responded to her embrace and thought about his love for Hazel. Then a thought crossed his mind Azul's love for Scorps.
He'd have to go back, but he wouldn't be alone.
Flasher looked up at the dragon and pushed a button on the control panel that displayed it's stats on the screen with it.
"That's one node I got'ta remember to stay out of."
He turned to face the rest of the CPU. He was in DarkHold's main system relaxing. This was his favorite node because it was sculpted as a large study with a computer screen on the far wall. Right now he was monitoring the signals of a special Smart Frame he was testing. It was a drone built to sleaze into systems and map them out. Right now it was wandering Fuchi Star's outer systems.
Flasher floated over to the couch in the study, laid in it, sighed, and brought up a screen in mid-air with a slight wave of his hand.
"Perimeter's secure," he muttered to himself. "It's boring around here."
The security monitor disappeared.
"Frame, Recall!" He exclaimed and the screen across the room blinked out. The 3D icon of a little cartoon puppy suddenly appeared before him, wagging it's tail with it's tongue hanging out.
Flasher smiled and looked down at it.
The puppy barked and resumed it's original position.
He looked back up and whispered it's storage command, "Go home boy."
The Frame lowered it's ears and barked again. This time disappearing.
Flasher's Cyberdeck confirmed the load so he jacked out of the system.
The castle was quiet today. Monica was in town and Flasher was basically just fool'in around, doing anything to keep from boredom.
Right now he was in the courtyard playing with the wildcats, Ginger and Snap. He was debating on whether to take them out to play in the woods. They used to love to hunt and play on their own out there when they were younger.
His thoughts were suddenly robbed from him by the vidphone. He got up to answer it, leaving the cats to play by themselves.
Flasher left the side door open since it was a nice day and if the cats wanted to come into the air-conditioning (Rex hated them in the house, but he wasn't here, now was he?). Flasher smiled.
The Vid-phone rang again.
"I'm coming, hold your horses!"
He made it to the Vid-phone on the kitchen table and pushed the recieve button. The screen asked him if he was willing to pay for a collect call from Seattle.
Flasher was puzzled, "Rex?"
Azul looked down at her watch. 12:30, the plane was due any minute now. she looked across the terminal at Hazel, who was reading a T.V. Guide she had bought earlier. Rex wasn't with them, instead he was in a hanger across the air field making arrangements to send Scorp's Malabo home by air.
The intercom announced the arrival of flight 203 from Scotland so Azul turned her attention back to the window to watch it land.
She saw the huge Boeing 894 Jumbo Jet approaching the runway and smiled. She had a friend on that plane that she hadn't seen in over a year.
Monica could feel her excitment grow as the airplane screeched on the runway. She hadn't seen Scorps or Azul since they moved back to the UCAS more than a year ago. She just wished that it was under better circumstances.
Soon the plane was docking, and the Stewardess announced that it was okay for the passengers to retrieve their carry-on luggage and start exiting.
Monica grabbed her pack, got out of her seat, and headed for the exit. Customs wouldn't be a problem, she had a nack for getting through.
And, like always, she did. Azul spotted her almost immediatly and ran up to hug her. Monica had always felt like her big sister and she had always been protective of her.
They grabbed each other and hugged. Monica could see Hazel over Azul's shoulder standing in the corner with her arms crossed, smiling.
Monica let go and took a step back so she could see all of Azul, being sure to keep her hands on her shoulders.
"How'ya doing kiddo."
"Let me get this striaght! You want me to take out a major corporation's security grid without the guard's realizing it?"
"That's basically the idea," Rex said. "I wouldn't ask that unless I knew we'd be in there too long."
Flasher looked over at the castle's security camera screens and thought for a minute before turning back to the vid-phone.
"Give me a day or two. Let me see what I can cook up, but don't go expecting any miracles."
He hung up and clicked the main computer on.
It had been Rex who had called a day ago. He was sending for Monica, mentioned something about a job and needing help through the wires (that was Rex's cheap interpretation for the Matrix). When Flasher asked what kind of job it was, Rex just said he'd explain after all the materials were ready and the team was together.
Which meant that in a couple days Flasher was going back state-side. So he'd better get started.
It was going to be a long night.
Rex perched himself on top of the Space Needle, one of Seattle's famous (and highest) restaurants. He tried to imagine himself up there in his real body.
That made him laugh. He could see himself clinging to the Needle for dear life.
He had a purpose for being here, of course.
For the past week, ever since his escape from Aztechnology's research center, he felt as if he was being watched. Rex believed that if anyone was spying on him astrally he'd be able to spot them from here.
But so far he wasn't having any luck.
He had thought of contacting an old friend. Someone with more magical ability than him who might be able to trace anybody watching him. If this feeling persisted he might end up doing that.
For the time being Rex decided to just play it safe and keep a low profile. No more jobs until the team found what happened to Scorps.
Since this was getting him nowhere he decided to just go back home, and in the blick of an eye he was back in his own body, laying on the couch with the TV on. No one else was in the apartment so he just slowly drifted off to sleep.
The night was full of bad dreams.
Flasher wasn't having the best of luck...
He had mapped all of Aztechnology's outer computer systems and the majority of the inner ones. Some were too tough to crack and he had almost lost his life in one. No matter where he looked he could not find any reference to Scorps or his personal profile (in either form).
Since Scorps was a unique creature, Aztechnology would no doubt keep his capture and any experiments a secret from the outside world. They would want to know how this Red-skinned Humanoid with the inlonged head and very sharp teeth came to be. They would want to know how to create creatures like him. Ones that they could control.
Having an armed guard the size of a normal human that could easily lift an Orc and toss him across the room would be very handy.
So if any file on him was that important then Flasher might never find it without help.
He had some friends to call on that owed the team a favor or two, but after an entire morning of Hacking he needed a nap.
Before jacking out of the Matrix Flasher quickly wrote a couple of emails asking the friends who he thought was brave enough for the job to meet him in his system after lunch. They'd work up a plan make the run sometime this afternoon.
Hopefully they'd find something.
Hazel quietly leaned over and whispered in Rex's ear, "Honey, wake-up, it's 11:00."
Rex's eye's opened and the real world rushed in. He looked around, Monica and Azul were with Hazel, they had shopping bags which probaly meant they had been up and about since eary this morning.
"What's the word babe?"
"I tried to call earlier but no one answered, I was just a little worried." She leaned over and an turned off the TV.
"Sorry, I must've over slept. I had a couple of nightmares."
"Well, I think you'll live. Wanna join us for lunch?"