Kamen Rider Aegis

[sc ikaiju]

An older gentleman, looking to be in his mid sixties, sat at a desk looking out at the night sky from the window in front of him. It was a beautiful night, barely a cloud in sight as far as he could tell. Not a thing blocking the moon or the stars.He tore his daze from the night sky to a photo of two boys he always kept on his desk. One of two young boys, well they were two young men now and he was proud of both of them.The one with the darker brown hair was his son Nathan. The other with the lighter shade was Marcus. Maybe he wasn’t the boy's biological father but there wasn't a person in the world who could convince him that Marcus wasn’t his son. Nate ended up following in his footsteps, but Marcus took his own path. Not that he gave the boy much of an option.

Leaning back he sighed while staring at the picture of the, what was he at the time again? Seven, that was it. After he pushed him away they haven’t talked. As much as that killed him on the inside he knew it was for the best. Just to keep him safe. That was what a father was supposed to do after all. Actually according to Nathan Marcus was a father now too, a little girl. Yes it was a thinly veiled attempt to get him to call Marcus. And it should have worked but he had no idea what he would say to Marcus, how would he explain why he did what he did? But damn did he want to see his Granddaughter.

Opening a drawer to his right he started rummaging through it. After a few moments of doing that he said out loud, “You going to stand there all day?” Turning his head slightly he looked at the brute of a man in rags standing in the room’s doorway. He looked determined and apprehensive at the same time. “Or are we going to do something to make the night interesting.”

Obviously the comment got under the other man’s skin but still he stayed in the doorway. “Joike now,” he growled, “but your time has come.”

“Heard it before sport,” he told the man. “And I’m still here.” He took one more glance at the picture of his boys. “And I don’t think you’re the one to do anything about it.” The man’s skin started bulging, with tentacle-like appendages bursting free. He took his hand out of the drawer gripping a highly futuristic looking gun. He brought the gun around the same time the intruder lunged at him with claws growing out of his forearms.

***

A car quickly pulled up to a house that had several identical cars and an ambulance in front of it. From the driver side door a man with dark brown hair jumped out. He started running toward the house but was quickly intercepted by a couple of men wearing special uniforms who ran in to intercept him. “Get out of my way!”, he told them.

“Nate,” one of them said. He looked at him, almost pleading with him not to say it. “You can’t do anything, not now.” Nathan stopped struggling. They still kept a grip on him to hold him back. “We got here as fast as we could but it was already too late. I’m sorry.”

He freed himself from their grasp but he stood there looking at the house. Breathing hard he suddenly turned toward one of them, “Where’s the bastard that did this?”, he demanded.

“Already gone by the time we got here.” a new voice said. He looked to the side and saw an older woman in a business suit, flanked by two guards, walk toward him. Removing her glasses she stepped close enough that she wasn’t exactly in arms reach.

“Where in the hell were the guards that were supposed to be patrolling the area?”. Nathan demanded. “Where in the hell were they?!”

“They were distracted by another sighting,” she answered. “The Cryptids drew them away. We only know about this because one of the neighbors heard gunfire and called the police. Given the address we were given the heads up.” She took a moment to clean the lenses of her glasses before putting them on. “Honestly there was no way we could have gotten here…”

“Save it,” he spat. Those around him stiffened a little, one even started backing away, just to get out of the blast zone they thought was coming. The Director surprised them all in her reaction.

“Captain, I realize you're upset over this. Anybody would be.” Clasping her hands behind her back she looked him over. “But you have to remember despite the technologies at our disposal there are still things we can not overcome.” Someone came out of the house holding a case of some sort. He opened it up to show her, but Nathan was able to see the remains of a gun on the inside. The woman arched an eyebrow at the sight, “I wasn’t aware that he had this.” Then she looked at him.

And Nathan understood why she was looking at him that way. “Dad had a lot of friends in the Organization Director,” he told her. “Any of them could have slipped it to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had it for years without you knowing.”

He probably shouldn’t have taken that much satisfaction at that rise he got out of her with that comment. But he did, the woman may be his boss but that didn’t mean he couldn’t think that she could be a major ***** at times. Most of the time, “You are probably correct Captain,” she eventually said. “Obviously a more thorough inventory needs to take place.”

“That’s going to be a nightmare,” one of her guards muttered to the other. A comment that earned a sharp look from the two of them. The man quickly shut up and looked ahead.

“What are the neighbors being told,” Nathan asked as he looked around the street they were on. More than a few houses had people looking out their windows.

“Right now,” she said. “That there was an intruder. Which is close enough to the truth to keep suspicions down.” Nathan nodded, although the cryptids had been a threat for years, careful manipulation of the press kept that information firmly secured. “We are having the police ask if anybody saw anybody leaving after hearing the gun fire.”

“Director,” her other guard said, then nodded toward the house. Both of them looked as a two man team brought a covered body out on a gurney. A body covered by a very bloody sheet. Nathan started to head over, until he felt a hand on his arm.

He looked at the Director, who looked actually sympathetic for the first time, “Don’t,” she told him, “you don’t want to remember him this way.” Normally he might have agreed with her. But this was his father, he deserved to know. He walked over, she didn’t try to stop him this time.

No one tried to stop him as he got closer. The men moving the gurney didn’t need any prompting to stop and back away. He stood there looking down for several moments just to steel himself for what was next. Still when he reached for the sheet he hesitated for a moment. Grabbing a corner he lifted it up enough so no one else could see. He almost let a sob escape at the sight of ripped up flesh. But that was his father, there was no doubt about it. He lowered the sheet and backed away. The men took this as their cue to rake the gurney and pull it to the awaiting ambulance. Nathan watched just long enough to witness them load him into the back before finally turning away.

With nothing else there for him he headed back toward his car. He heard the director give orders about securing the area and search for any clues but right then he didn’t give a damn. One of the guys who tried to stop him originally told him, “Well get the bastard Captain.” He was too numb to care.

Getting into his car he drove off. He wasn’t sure how far he had actually driven before he finally stopped. And he only did that because he was certain that he wasn’t being followed. Lowering his head to the steering wheel.He wanted to let it out right there and then. But he couldn’t, he still had to do something first. His brother and Dad might have been on the outs for years but he still deserved to know Reaching for his phone he pulled up Marcus’ number. And punched it. He sat there waiting. “Come on Marcus pick up.”

***
Dropping into a bed a light haired man just layed there. Today had been one hell of a day and he was so worn out he halfway expected to fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow But as the saying went he was too tired to even sleep. What in the hell did that even mean anyway? Still he opened his eyes as he heard the door open and watched a dark haired woman quickly come into the bedroom, ready for bed herself, and quietly closed the door behind her. “She’s finally asleep,” she said while walking over to the bed and joining him.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I love Maddie to death.. But why has she been so fussy lately?”

“That’s the price of being a parent, Marcus,” he was told. “I’m assuming it’s a family thing from your side.” He looked at her slightly confused by what she just said. “According to Nate your guy's dad said you were pretty fussy around her age too.”

“And you weren’t?”, he shot back.

“Please I was an angel at her age.” A snort from Marcus earned a quick slap to the shoulder. “I was, you can ask my mother.”

“I'm going to.” She moved the hair from his left ear slightly. To get a better look at the small scratch like marks by said ear. “Kat?”, he asked. She never paid that much attention to it.

“I have to remember to look up to see if birthmarks can be inherited,” she told him as she touched that mark slightly. “I didn’t think they could be but that mark on our daughter says otherwise. Granted Maddie’s on her shoulder and not behind her ear.”

“I’m just glad that’s all she got from me,” he told her. “It’s bad enough that I have to get blood tests everytime I go to the doctor.”

“Speaking of her office called,” she told him. “They still can’t identify it, but they can say…”

“It’s not harmful or lethal,” he finished for her. “I’ve heard it my entire life. And it hasn’t changed since that first one. It’s fucking annoying.”

“I know baby I know,” she told him then suddenly said “Listen,” as she looked at the door. Marcus strained to try and detect what she was hearing.

Before long he had to admit, “I’m not hearing anything.”

“Exactly,” she said. “This is the first time in a couple of weeks she stayed asleep after I put her down.” Both of them relax a little more hoping they could get a couple extra hours of sleep at least. But neither of them said that outloud in fear of jinxing it. Then Kat looked at him in a way he vaguely remembered.

“The last time you were in this mood she woke up before we could do anything,” he reminded her.

“Then you better hurry up,” Kat informed him and got on top of him. Marcus didn’t argue when she started kissing him.. His hands slowly worked on their own as they made their way up her sides. Then a phone started ringing. “God damn it,” she said as they tried to see whose phone it was. It was his.

Looking at his phone he sighed, “It’s Nate. You’re going to have to wait.” He rejected the call then returned his attention to Kat. They both looked at the phone as it started ringing again, “Son of a…”, he muttered before he rejected it again, if it was that important he’d check the messages later. Then it started ringing a third time. This time he answered it, “You have the worst fucking timing.”

Still on top of him Kat said loud enough to be heard, “Empathisis on fucking.” He gave her a light slap on the side of the leg, “Girlfriend abuse, help.” Marcus could see the huge grin on her face as she said that. But this wasn’t a video call/ This woman and her sense of humor. It’s why he loved her, but sometimes…


“Would you stop it,” he said through his teeth. “Look Nate, can I call you back in about ten minutes or so?”

“Ten minutes?”, Kat said with a slight pout.

“Marcus,” he thought he heard his adopted brother say.

“You’re the one who said hurry up,” he reminded her. “And it’s been a minute.”

“But ten minutes?”, she argued.

“Marcus” Nate repeated as Kat started to kiss him, completely ignoring the phone in his hand.

“”Look Nate, I’m sure this is important,” he said. “But i got a situation here that requires my full attention.”

“It better,” she told him.

“Macus” Nare's voice started to crack a bit, “he’s dead.”

“What was that?”, he said as he pushed Kat away slightly. “Who's dead?” Kat looked shocked and got off of him as he sat up and swung his legs over the side.

“Dad,” Nate said. “Marcus, he's dead.”

Lowering his head he started rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand, He was dead, that couldn’t be right. But Nathan wouldn’t joke about something like that. Like a ton of bricks it hit as the news set in. His father was dead. “How?”

After a moment Nate told him, “There was a break in, Dad was home.” He felt numb, the mm who raised him, his father in every sense of the word outside of blood, dead. “I had to let you know.”

“Thanks for telling mr,” he told him. “What do you need me to do? Anything you need man.”

“It just happened,” he had never heard Nate sound so lost in his life. “I don’t know when the funeral is going to be yet. Can you be there?”

“Just tell me when and where,” Marcus told him as the tears started to fall, “I’ll be there.”

“I’ll let you know as soon as the details are finalized.” That organization both Nate and their father worked for. Of course they ‘d have some sort of arrangement for the funeral in place. Dad was a retired employee after all with years of service put in. “I have to go, I still have calls to make…”

“I understand,” Marcus said. “Just let me know if you need anything. Nate I mean it, don’t even think twice, I'll drop everything and be right over.’

“Thank you Masrcus,” Nate said, the gratitude evident in his voice. “Good-bye.”

“Bye,” Marcus said as he lowered the phone from his ear and just sat there. Kat immediately wrapped her arms around him. She didn’t hear the entire conversation but enough of it to know exactly how bad it was.

***
Several beings walked around a cavern of some sort. Some were human looking, others were not.. Some conversing in small groups. All very aware of the one of the human looking ones on the side of the cavern, sitting on a throne made of stone. He had an air of authority and looked old enough to be the father of any of them. He wasn’t but they deferred to him as if he was. Often glancing in his direction as if they were afraid to get caught at something. He as well as several of the others were on edge, as if they were waiting on something.

“He’s returned!,” someone called out. All the groups and the man on the throne turned toward the main opening as another creature stumbled in clutching an arm. As blood seeped through his fingers. The creature's skin seemed to warp and shrink as he became less monstrous and looked more like a brutish type of man. Finally he stopped a respectful distance away from the old man on the throne.

Looking around at the crowd he held his head up high as he announced, “The Rider is dead.” There was an excited vibe among the crowd, could it be true? Could the Rider who had tormented them for so long actually be no more?

On the throne the older just lifted a hand, not even looking at the crowd, just the one who made that announcement. It took as long as the crowd to notice the gesture to start quieting down. Lowering the hand he wanted a beat before speaking, “Is it true? The Rider is dead?”

All eyes were now fully on the brute. Still holding on to his wounded limb he started smiling, obviously savoring the attention he was receiving. “I watched the life fade from his eyes as his very life essence drained from his body. He is no more.”

“And yet,” the older man said as he finally stood and stepped forward. The crowd immediately parted for him as he approached the killer of the Rider. He looked him over before fixating the gaze on the wound. Without warning he reached out and forcibly removed the hand to reveal the wound. A palm size chunk of flesh seemed to be missing from the arm. “And yet he did not go down easily from the look of things..”

“Would you expect one who has stopped us in the past to do no less? Despite his advanced human age he did put up a fight.”

“You destroyed the belt as well I assume?”Another excited vibe ran through the crowd.

“He did not have it my lord,” the brute told him, most of his bravado disappearing before their eyes as that excited vibe disappeared just as quickly. “He only had his weapon, which is now useless.”

“Weapons can be rebuilt!”, the old man quickly snapped. Although smaller than him, the brute still backed down from the rebuke. “And given what we know of humanity, and be rebuilt even deadlier than before. The notion he didn't t process the belt is disturbing. Priestess!”, he called out. From behind the throne a robe and hooded figure emerged and stood there.

Walking over toward a pedestal of sports she looked straight ahead as she said, “Yes my Lord.”

“Is the Rider truly no more?”, he asked as he returned to his throne. Reaching into a sleeve she pulled out a worn cloth bag and emptied the contents into her hand. Then she emptied the contents in a way that they spread out on top of the pedestal.

Studying how they lay she eventually said, “The man who was the Rider is dead.” That excited vibe quickly returned to the crowd. “However, the Rider is still a threat.”

Back in his throne their lord looked at her before saying, “You say the man is dead.”

Finally facing him she said, “The man is dead but the rider is still a threat. Much like the weapon, the man is easily replaceable.”

Leaning forward the lord of these creatures looked thoughtful. “This is true. A thought I should have had myself.”

“Time is still important,” the priestess announced. “We can prevail before a new Rider comes forth. But the time to act is now.”

“Are the beast you promised ready?”, he demanded. The priestess said nothing as she looked away. “That is my answer. The time may be now but we are not ready. We have been at war with the humans for decades. And they have the Rider,” he looked at the Priestess, “And we don’t have a thing to counter him with, yet.” Pointing at the brute.he said, “Heal that one. My son is still undergoing his trials. Until then our forces need a leader until then. A position deserving of someone most deserving. Of one who has killed the Rider.”

Hearing this the brute stood straighter, “You honor me my lord. I will bring the children of the Earth glory as we crush the humans beneath our feet and make them bow to your glory.” With a wave of their lord’s hand, the Priestess guided gte brute away to tend to his injury.

The old man said nothing more. The rider was dead but a new one was a possibility. Despite that potential danger he could almost taste it in the air. Their time was near, soon they would be the ones who danced undert the sun.

***
Getting out of his car Nathan looked around. The funeral parlor’s parking lot was entirely full. Just about everyone here was part of the organization. Attendance wasn’t mandatory, they just showed up. A testament to Dad and his influence over the years. Surprisingly even the Director was there, and apparently talking to some of Dad’s neighbors. Not that surprising there was no other family there outside of him, the job did keep them isolated from other family members so they weren’t that close. Especially after Mom died. Still Marcus said he would be here, maybe he couldn’t see him. Or he hadn’t arrived yet. That was alway a possibility.

“Captain,” one of the ground troops said. He knew this one, he knew things about Dad’s career, and in a completely unnerving way. “We’re all sorry for your loss sir. He was a good man.”

“Yes he was,” Nathan said as he walked past him. What he wanted to do was just shout and let all these emotions bubbling away inside him ever since it happened. But he couldn’t do that. No, he just had to make through this then find the closest bar. Just drink with these guys and hope they’re drunk enough no to remember him finally breaking down. He just had to make it through this.

“Captain Cole,” he looked up to see the director walk toward him. Neither seemed to know what to say as they looked around a bit. Finally she said, “Lovely day.”

“Yes it is,” he quickly agreed. “Thanks for coming,” he said, not really looking at her.

“Your father and I never did see eye to eye the last few years he was there,” she said. “But I did respect him.” With an all too rare wry smile she added, “There’s not a whole lot of people who would stand their ground when I went on the proverbial rampage.”

Nate coughed, He didn’t think she heard what most in the organization called her power plays on her way up the ladder to her current position. “Well I’m not going to lie and say Dad always said good things about you.”

“I hope you wouldn’t,” she told him with a slight chuckle. And that act unnerved him more than anything. “He always had more than a few choice words for me in those moments.” Both of them looked at the funeral home, neither really taking that step toward it. “How are you holding up?”

“As well as can be expected,” he told her truthfully. “Some days I hear my phone and part of me expects it to be him. Other days it’s just all too real.” His voice cracked near the end there and he mentally kicked himself for it. Not here and definitely not in front of her.

“Those other days are the worst,” she agreed, “They always are. But you just have to take it one day at a time.” She looked to the side, “Being around family helps.” Nate looked over and saw Marcus, holding Kat’s hand, as they approached the crowd. His brother nodded as they made eye contact.

“Excuse me,” he told the Director as went to meet the two of them. Weaving around various groups they made it to each other and quickly embraced. “You made it.”

“Yeah traffic was a *****,” Marcus told him as he pulled away.

“Where you live I’m not surprised. Kat thanks for coming.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said while giving him a quick peck on the cheek. Not here, he reminded himself, wait until after all this is over.

“Where’s Maddie?”, he forced out. Both of them looked like they knew better but neither pushed it.

“With my sister,” she said. “With as fussy as she’s being this didn’t seem like the right place to bring her.”

“Of course. You know Dad used to say…” And that was all it took. The wall he had built up all day just broke just mentioning him right then and there. That first sob escaped and the next thing he knew Marcus had pulled him in, and he couldn’t get it to stop.

“It’s okay buddy,” Marcus told him, “I’m right here.”

“I’m sorry,” he said as he cried on his brother’s shoulder.

“Don’t be,” Marcus said, his voice starting to crack now too. “You've been the strong one long enough, let me take over for a bit.” Nathan got himself under control after a moment. And staring at the wet mess he left on his coat. Marcus looked at it and shrugged, “Maddie left worse.”

“Marcus is her favorite target,” Kat said as she rubbed Marcus’ arm. “Looks like people are starting to head inside.” And they were, Nathan looked at his wacth, it was just about time for the services to start.

“You ready to get this over with?”, Natan asked.

“Not really,” Marcus said. “Let’s do it anyway.” The three of them entered the funeral parlor behind the crowd. Both Nate and Marcus wanted to get this over with.

***
Hours later, after the funeral, somehow a group of people ended up at Nate’s apartment.Which knowing Nathan as well as he did Marcus knew he absolutely hated. But it was to cheer him up slash keep an eye on him, so he knew it was from a good place. Marcus could tell he still hated it though.

It was a decent evening with Nate and the others telling stories about their father. Marcus joined in as well, but couldn’t really keep up with the ones who actually worked with him. Marcus found himself getting more than a little jealous after hearing how well some of these people knew his father. “You okay?”, Kat asked as she came over to the bookcase he found himself standing by, just staring at a picture of him, Nate and their father, on a fishing trip. The only evidence of that fact was the fishing poles lying on the ground in front of them.

“I’m doing alright,” he told her, “just thinking.” He picked up the picture and showed it to her. “No matter how busy he was, Dad always made the time so we could make this trip.”

“I didn’t know you guys were that good at fishing,” she said as she put her arms around him.

“We weren’t,” he said with a slight chuckle as he put the photo back. “In fact we never caught a damn thing, not even a boot. Hell, we spent half the trip looking for a restaurant to eat dinner most nights.”

“Sounds like the three of you had a blast.”

Smiling sadly he told her,” those trips were the best. Dad would just sit there and listen to Nate and me. And we told him everything, well just about everything. We both kept a couple things to ourselves, just so we wouldn’t be nailed for them after we got home.” Marcus looked around the room, suddenly realizing a rather sizable chunk of the group had already left. How long was he looking at that photo? More importantly, “Where’s Nate?”

“He started sitting on the balcony about a half hour ago,’ Kat told him. Sure enough, there he was. “Go talk to him,” she insisted with a slight push. Not that he needed the extra motivation. Going over to the door he slid it open and joined Nate out there without asking to see if it was okay or not. The offered cold beer told him everything he needed to know as he took it and sat in the chair next to him looking out over the city.

“What do you think?” Nate asked, looking at the view.

“Reminds me of the apartment we used to live in before we got the house,” Marcus said as he cracked the can open. Nate just nodded looking satisfied. “And I remember dad sitting on that balcony for hours just staring out at the city.”

“You know, when we were younger,” Nate said suddenly, “I used to have no idea why he would do that.”

Taking a drink, it wasn’t his brand but you had to be a gracious guest, he asked, “How about now?”

“Still no clue.” Both of them grinned.

“Nate,” Marcus said. “How did dad really die?”

“I told you,” he said without really looking at him.

“I’ve overheard a couple of workers at the funeral home talk about how ripped up the body apparently was.’ Nate cursed under his breath. “The one compared it to getting mauled by a mountain lion.”

Not looking at him Nate eventually said, “They weren’t supposed to open the casket.”

“The one got curious,” Marcus shot back. Now probably wasn’t the best time to bring this up. But damn it he had to know, one way or another. “Was it one of those things he used to talk about? One of those Cryptid things.”

Taking a quick glance back into his apartment he took another drink before saying, “That's how it looks.” getting closer Nate looked him right in the eyes, “Marcus, you can’t let anybody know…”

“I know the spiel,” Marcus assured him. “Who would believe me if I told anyone any way? I’m still not sure I believe it.”

“Well you just keep thinking that way Marcus,” Naye insisted. “You worry about keeping that woman in there extremely happy. Because anyone willing to put up with you is a keeper.”

“I guess that means you're the Rider now,” Marcus said, not falling for the bait to change the subject. Nate sighed in that way that usually meant he wished the subject would change.” Look, just be careful,” Marcus told, just wanting to stay on it for a bit longer. “You, Kat and Maddie are the only family I have left.“ He started to say something but Marcus kept going, “I know there’s mom side, but I haven’t heard a word from any of them after she died. So yeah, you three are all I got”

“Look bro, I have no idea idea why they didn’t even call, but it was fucking bullshit. We still existed, and they just cut us out. You know I tried calling them but nothing.”

“Damn straight it was bullshit,” Marcus quickly agreed. Damn it, he promised himself he wasn’t going to bring this up but he couldn't stop himself. “Nate, did dad ever say why he kicked me out?” As always the subject made his brother uncomfortable, but knew he was never going to get the chance to ask the man personally now. “I mean anything. It’s been over a decade and I still can’t figure out what the hell happened.”

“He never told me Marcus,” it was something Nate had said countless times before. And he wouldn’t keep him in the dark if he did know, not after this long. “Look, according to the director I’m going to get access to some of the journals he kept there.”

“Dad had journals?”

“It surprised me too,” Nate informed him.”I know it’s a longshot but maybe there’s something. As soon as I find it, I’ll tell you.”

“Please, I’m tired about being in the dArk about this. He wouldn’t even answer the phone when I was trying to call and tell him about Maddie.”

“I know bro,” Nate said. “He wouldn’t even listen to me.”

“Speaking of Maddie,” Marcus said looking at the time, “We should probably go pick her up. We didn’t exactly leave Kat’s sister with an overnight bag.” Both of them stood up and looked into the living room. “And Kat’s starting to clean your apartment.”

After seeing for himself Nate quickly went inside, “Kat you don’t have to do that.”

“Please, it’s the least I can do to help out,” she said, grabbing the dishes on the coffee table before he could stop her.

“Nate, you should come over for dinner sometime,” Msarcus said mainly to get in between them. “Get to know your niece.”

“You should,” Kat agreed fairly quickly. “We’ll get a home cooked meal into you so you’re not skin and bones.”

“He’s not skin and bones,” Marcus quickly cut in.

You be quiet,” she shot back, not missing a beat. “He’ll at least get a decent meal in, if you eat anything like your brother did before he got lucky and met me, you eat horribly.”

“Actually I got lucky after din…oof,” Kat shut him up with a quick elbow to the gut. Nate couldn’t stop smiling. “Wait till I get you home.”

“Promises, promises,” she said.

“Hey,” Nate said, “I appreciate the offer, really I do. Nut it’s not necessary. I’ll be fine.”

“It’s not about dinner,” Kat told him.. “Being around family is really important in times like these.”

“I heard something like that earlier,” Nate informed them..

“It was probably a woman,” Kat said. “We are pretty smart about these things.” Of course she shot a slightly smug look right at Marcus as she said that. “But next week, we’re definitely having dinner. No argument.”

“Yes ma’am.”, Nate said with a salute.

Looking at him Kat said, “Why don’t you ever.. You know what, I'm not going to give you an opening.”

“I’ll call you later,” he told Nate, “To find out what day is good for you. “ His eyes happened to come across that photo he was staring at earlier. Yeah that was a good idea. “We can even talk about taking another trip. “ Nate seemed to know exactly what he was talking about when he turned toward that picture. “You know, for old times sake.”

“I would actually be up for that,” Nate told him. “But let’s figure out what diners are in the area beforehand. “

“Thought that was priority one,” Marcus told him. Hugging his brother he told him, “Take care Nate, I’m just a phone call away. I wasn’t kidding when I told you I’ll drop everything. Everything but Maddie.”

“You better not drop her,” Nate warned him.

“Don’t even joke about that,” Kat told him, roughly at the same time. To Nate she gave him a hug. “You take care. Everything is going to be okay.”

“I know,” he told her.. “Marcus, Kat thanks for coming today.”

“We’re family man, where else would I be? I’ll call you later.”

“Night guys,” Nate said as they left.

“Good night Nate,” Marcus said, opening the door for Kat and they started home. Putting an arm around her shoulder he couldn’t help but look back at the door.

“He’s going to be okay,” Kat assured him. “And so are you. That trip was a good idea. You both could use the time away. I know I could do with you out of my hair for a couple of days.”

“I’m going to get a complex with comments like that.”

“”Just think of the welcome home you’ll get when you get back,” she said with a smirk.

***
“Any reports of new Cryptid activity?”, The Director said as she entered her office, There was no one in the room, just how she liked it. Running an operation like this required her to interact with people from the various departments. Some days it seemed almost constant, from the moment she walked in the door right up to the moment she exited. Even then there were days they followed her out the door. So she learned to appreciate moments like this one. Where she wasn’t immediately assaulted with reports and requests.

An electronic voice answered her question as she sat in her chair, “Not since the other night Director Miller.” That night of course being the night one of them killed Trevor Cole. The man was retired but it was still a major hit to them. .The voice continued, “They may go into hiding again. The Cryptids have been quiet these past few years.”

“That is a possibility,” she said. “But I doubt it.

“Human intuition?”, the Director looked up at a camera in the corner. How she hated dealing with A.I.s. Especially the ones who think they’re being funny in some way.

Still she smirked while saying, “Partially. But mainly I’m going by the evidence at hand. The first time they show themselves in years they kill the biggest threat to them. Or at least the person who used to be the biggest threat,”

The A.I. seemed to get her line of thinking, “So you think they’re planning a new offensive?”

“A more distinct possibility,” she said, “Why else would you kill the one person who could stop you?” Turning on her computer, she had to get the day going no matter how much she was enjoying the quiet moment, “Have the forensic report on the attack come in yet?”

“Just waiting for you to ask,” she rolled her eyes and silently waited. “We were able to identify Cryptid blood at the scene. Trevor put up a fight it seems, the team found bits of Cryptid flesh at the scene as well.”

“Given the weapon he had with him I would be surprised if he didn’t,” she said, skimming the messages on her screen. “Speaking of, Do you have any idea when that weapon left the facility?”

“Not as of yet Director Miller. So far the inventory records indicate that everything that’s supposed to be here is still here. But I will keep looking for any discrepancies, no matter how minor.”

A thought occurred to her, something the younger Cole said before the funeral. “The weapon he had, which generation was it?”

“Checking,” the A.I. said. After a few moments it responded with, “Based on what is left, it looks like a weapon designed to be used roughly twenty years ago. “If it was more intact I could give you a more exact…”

“That’s fine,” she said. If the program was correct then that weapon was in service from before they started cataloging things through the computers. Someone could have easily slipped it to Trevor at any time. And how long would it take to find out who had any sort of access to it over that time frame? It literally could have been anyone who worked here. Well not the entire time, after the A.I. came online and it took over most of those functions. That gave her a smaller window but still a large list of potential suspects. “Do you have a record of the serial numbers of that particular weapon on file?”

“I do Director Miller.”

“Give that information to security,” she said. “I want them to check each lot to make sure they’re still there.”

“I will relay your orders Director.. Is there anything else?”

She didn’t answer right away. Instead she went looking for a particular report on her computer. “Is there an update on the QScan driver?”

“Development is basically complete,” came the quick answer. She leaned back and closed her eyes, that was good, it meant they were ready for that attack she knew in her bones was coming. “However,” she opened an eye, now what? “Dr. Gordon reports that they can get the updated version of the BScan driver ready in a matter of weeks.”

“Why would we want to update the BScan when the QScan is ready to go?”, she asked as she sat up.

“I did say ‘basically complete’ in regards to the QScan driver.”

“Does it work or not?”, she snapped.

“It does, but Dr. Gordon needed to come up with work around to the issue they had been having.”

“A work around?”, she asked. She didn’t have to inquire about the issue, they been dealing with it ever since they found the plan after Doctor Gordon took over the development team. Turning the damn thing on, why was something so simple that much of a headache? “Show me.”

“At once Director. I’m accessing your computer and pulling up the file now.” On her screen the cursor moved on it’s own, pulling up her mail and messages and highlighting the correct file. Once it was up she used the touchpad to read it herself.

“A key tag?”, she said after a moment. “We’re supposed to turn it on with a key tag.”

“Everytime according to Dr. Gordon.” The Director started rubbing her temples. “It’s why he advised rushing development on the upgraded BScan driver.Hr’s already has a team in place to start.”

“Of course he does,” she mumbled. She pulled up the information on this upgraded driver, manually this time around. Reading over the information before her briefly she asked, “Will this updated driver be on par with the QScan?”

“He believes so.” Well that wasn’t a very encouraging answer. “There is no definite data on the QScan so anything would be speculation on his part.”

“Unfortunately we might not have weeks,” she said after a bit. “Tell Dr. Gordon to start development on the upgraded BScan. But the priority is still the QScan.”

“I will relay your order.”

“Good.” she said. But there was one more piece of business that needed to be done in regards to this. “I’m authorizing Captain Nathan Cole to be the operator.” That decision was made a long time ago so there was no question on who was qualified to use either driver. In her mind there was no one else more qualified to do so. However making it official now saved on the headaches later. “But don’t notify him right away,” she added. “I’m sure he’s still feeling the loss of his father. Let’s give him a little more time to grieve. Send the notification tomorrow via text message.”

“It will be sent to Captain Cole tomorrow Director.”

“Thank you,” she told the A.I. In any other circumstances she would have given the Captain more time. But like with the upgraded BScan driver that was time she wasn’t sure they had.

***
“Come out of hiding witch,” the old man said as he slumped on the throne. Outside of a few trying to act like guards he was pretty much alone in the chamber. From an alcove that was hidden from normal view the Priestess strode into view and stood by her pedestal, although this time she stood facing him. “What do you want? You don’t hover around for days unless something is on your mind.”

“Just a curiosity my lord,” she said. We have struck a major blow against the humans.” He leaned back, slowly nodding but did not interrupt otherwise. “But why wait and give them time to replace the Rider instead of striking while the advantage was ours?”

“That still bothers you?”, he said with a smirk. The Priestess stiffened at his apparent lack of worry over her concerns. He did it just to get that reaction. “Remember,I do have a history with the humans.”

“I remember, " she said sourly, “And it was just the one human.”

“Just the one,” he repeated, looking past the Priestess for the moment, thinking back to then. Snapping himself out of it he returned his attention to the being in front of him. “It still gave me a look into how the humans think. And if the rest of them are anything like she was then there already is another rider just waiting in the wings. So there was no window to strike.”

She took an uncharacteristic step toward him. He simply raised an eyebrow. That alone did not stop her, however raising his hand to hold off those guards did. She looked back at them, all now poised to interject in case she tried anything. “If I may be so bold,” she said cautiously, “then why send the one after the previous Rider?”

“Because a symbolic victory is sometimes just as important as an actual one.” He leaned forward, just a bit, but still enough to get closer to her so she could hear what he was about to say perfectly. “How did the Children of the Earth act if anyone ever mentioned the Rider?”

“With trepidation….ah,” she seemed to finally get it.

“Exactly, Now despite that trepidation, now they know the Rider can be killed. Maybe not easily, but killed just like any other living creature.Now that idea needs to weave itself into their minds, fighting against that trepidation.”

“Something that’s been ingrained into their minds for years,” she finished for him. Leaning back he smiled at her. “Any type of new idea needs time to work it’s magic. Very inspired my Lord.”

“I thought you would appreciate it,” he said. “How is the chosen warrior?”

“His wound is healing nicely,” she informed him. “In a couple of days his arm should be completely healed.” He nodded, While physically superior to humans, they also had an understanding of medicine they refused to comprehend. As advanced as they claim to be he doubted that even their vaunted doctors and technology could have healed such a wound in this short of time.

“Once that wound is fully healed is when we will attack,” he told her.

“Your chosen one is already picking out who will join him in the assault,” she informed him.

“Good,” he said, then waved her away, “Now begone. I desire to be alone in my thoughts.” Just nodding she returned to that hidden salcove. Basically alone again he slumped slightly as his mind wandered back to that time and her.

***
A case put on his desk made a scientist look up at Captain Cole. He readjusted himself in his chair. “I’m looking over the test data,” he said as he took the case and fjipped the latches to open it. Taking out the buckle and a light grey diamond shape device with the ends squared off. Hooking them to his computer he touched the black screen in the middle of the device to make ur come to life. “The data’s not looking good. What happened?”

“I’m not sure Doctor,” Cole said as he stood there. Which was weird seeing how there was a perfectly good chair just right there. These soldier types were all the same. Apparently his father was a bit looser but still a bit up tight. “It was like I was fighting against it, which doesn't make any sense.”

“Well we are still tweaking things with the driver,” he said.

“I was told the driver was ready,” Cole insisted.

“And it is. But it is new tech as well. We don’t know how it’s going to react in combat situations.” Studying the screen in front of him he felt himself frown, “Now that’s not right, not right at all.”

“What’s not right? Cole asked. When he didn’t answer right away Cole leaned on the desk and said a little louder, “Doctor Gorden. What’s not right?”

“This has to be a glitch,” he said. “But according to the data,’ he pointed at the screen, “It looks like something in the driver l was trying to change. Almost like it was reacting to you.”

“Change?”, he said as he came around the table to look at the screen himself.He Gordon didn’t see why, it’s not like he had a clue about what he was looking at. “In what way?”

“I’m not sure, the data just said there was a change while you were using it. “It looks like it went back to normal. I’m going to have to run a deeper diagnostic to find out what actually happened.” Looking up at the Captain he tried to be reassuring, “Don’t worry Captain we’ll have it up and running perfectly in no time.”

“So I won’t be needing this?”, he inquired while reaching into a pocket and retrieved a key tag, roughly the size of military dog tags, with a QR code printed on it. “Because I have to be honest here and say this feels really impractical.”

“And I agree with you,” Gordon told him. Although it did look like the good Captain didn’t look like he exactly believed him. “It’s why I was pushing for the upgraded BScan driver. We know how that tech works. There are no surprises.” Unplugging the driver he continued, “But like I said this is new tech I’m not even sure how my predecessor came up with this. And I can’t even ask him because this outfit shunted him off somewhere before I even got here.” Sighing he leaned back and rubbed his eyes, “Sorry, this job has been one headache after another as soon as I got here. I’ll keep working on the QScan, I’ll figure out what’s causing that resistance then work on ixnaying the key tag.”

“Thank you doctor,” Cole said. “Trust me, I understand about the headaches. I had my fair share myself. Mainly from the director,” he added with a wink. Gordon found himself smiling as well since the source of many of his headaches had been her as well. With a nod the Captain left.

Alone he looked at the Driver in his hands. Reaching over he hit a button on his desk. “Lucy, round everybody up, we’re doing another series of tests on the QScan.”

“I’ll let them know,” came an answer.

Studying the driver more he placed it back into the case. He should have insisted that more tests were required before the green light was given. Should have pushed harder to look at the developmental data. Because the more he understood the QScan the better he could fix things.

***
“Hey,” Marcus said as he jolted awake. It took a moment to realize his daughter was sitting on his ches slapping his chest in rapid motion for a six month old, Kat was holding her in place. “No fair,” he said as Kat picked up Maddie enough so he could sit up on the couch and took her, “I wake you up from a nap and I never hear the end of it. And that’s before Mommy gets involved.”

“She wanted to see you, didn’t you Maddie?”, Kat said while she sat next to the two of them. Their daughter's only response was to smile and gurgle. “See?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s still gas,” Marcus told her as Maddie started reaching for something. “Hey you’re too young to be going for the remote.”

“Just wait until she’s old enough to go for your wallet,” Kat said with a smirk.

“That’s going to be a long time away,” he told her. Then he looked at Maddie and in a funny voice said, “Isn’t it? Isn’t it?” She started laughing. Still keeping a happy look on his face he added, “But I’m still getting some sort of lock box for my wallet.”

“You’ll of course,” Kat said, “let me know where the key is.” When he didn’t say anything right away, in fact he kept his attention on the baby in his lap, she leaned in, “Right?”

“I’m holding a baby, you can’t touch me.” To their daughter he muttered, “You are not leaving my side.”

“She has to sleep eventually,” she gave him a small tap on the chin with a knuckle that he sold completely by swinging his head to the side. Maddie started laughing immediately at the sight.

“I almost forgot,” Kat leaned over to the other side and went into the drawer in the end table. “I found this the other day, I didn’t know you and Nate took Karate.” She showed him the picture in her hand. And it was a picture of him and Nate when they were younger in a martial arts school of some sort. How old were they when Dad took it? Nate was fifteen and he was fourteen.

“Dad was showing us some things,” he told her. “He was friends with a guy who owned a dojo who let us practice there every so often.”

“Why not just enroll the two of you in the guy’s class if he had a school?”, Kat asked.

“Who knows,” he told her. Yet another thing he wasn't going to have an answer for. Then a memory came to him, something so unusual he was surprised he forgot about it until now. “Dad was really intent that we get this one move down. A spinning back heel kick, spinning heel kick whatever it was called. He had this drill where he’d call out “lightning buzzsaw’ and we were supposed to hit the move immediately.”

“Weird,” Kat said as she put the picture back.

“It was,” he agreed. But considering Nate followed in their father’s footsteps maybe it wasn’t that unusual. Probably best to keep that bit of information to himself. It would be hard to explain the whole deal without sounding crazy. “Oh i talked to Nate, Next thursday good for you for that dinner?”

“Sounds perfect to me,” she said while playing with Maddie. “Actually Trish said she loved to watch Maddie tomorrow afternoon. We could do some shopping for it then.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Marcus said. Then he started sniffing the air and looked at Maddie. “Who’s turn is it?”

“Yours,” Kat told him without any hesitation.

“Of course you would say that.”

***
"My arm is healed completely," the brute announced. Ripping off the medicinal patch of herbs and mud that had been placed there he showed everyone that the wound was gone as he had claimed. This caused a wave of excitement in the crowd as they had been anticipating this moment for the last week. The old man who reigned over them leaned stood up from his throne to confirm it for himself. Studying the arm intently he could detect no sign of the injury. Still he looked over to the Priestess, she had administered the patch so she would know for sure.


She nodded while saying, "It is as he says my lord."

"Excellent," he said. Going over to the Priestess he said softly, "What do the fates say?*

Emptying the contents of that pouch into her hand she spilled it onto the pedestal beside her. Studying the pattern they formed intently eventually she proclaimed, "Now is the time."

He returned to his throne and looked over those assembled before him. Turning to look at a group to his right he asked, "The new tunnel?"

"We are ready to burst through," one of them answered. "The human will not see us coming." He nodded in approval, they would have been monitoring the other ways they had to the surface. An assault right in the middle of their city will catch them off guard.

"The men you decided on?"', he said to the brute.

He smiled in a sinister way. "They await your word my lord."

Sharing the smile he spoke loud enough for all of them to hear, "The word is given. Show those who live on the surface no mercy."

"Your will be done," he said. The crowd cheered and parted to let him through, a few following him out of the chamber. He leaned back in his seat, soon they will have a foothold on the surface. Then they wouldn't be able to deny their existence. After that they would bow to him like they should have been doing all along.

***
In an old utility tunnel several men were standing around waiting for another of them to catch up with them. “Yo Jerry, you get lost or something?” The man laughed at his own joke with a few of the others joining in. One of them turned on a flashlight and shined it down the tunnel “We even lit the way for ya! Jerry!” When there was no response the mood slowly changed the longer he didn’t show himself. “Jerry?”

“If this is a joke,” one of them said, “I’m kicking his ass.”

“That’s not his style,” yet another spoke up as he turned on another flashlight.

“He said he wasn’t feeling all that great,” the last of them.

“Jerry!” They started to go back in to look for him. Then just at the edge of flashlights illumination they could make out a figure standing there.

“Where the hell have you,” one of them got out right before the figure dropped to the floor. “Jerry!” They started toward their friend. They stopped when they saw how heavily he was bleeding. It looked like he was mauled by something.

“What the actual ****?” One pulled out a phone only for something to shoot out and pierced the phone through his hand

Clutching at his hand as he cried out in agony the others looked back down the tunnel. In the light a person they had never seen before come forward. Shapes in the darkness behind him indicated he wasn’t alone. . Start with then,” was all he said. Tendrel-like things burst out of his skin as he changed into something monstrous looking as claws grew out of his forearms. More strange creatures rushed forward and quickly swarmed over the group. Their screams of terror quickly died out as the leader of this group strode forward past the carnage.

***
Unaware of the massacre below Marcus and Kat walked along the street. Both of them decided that since they dropped Maddie off at her sisters that going straight to the store could wait a couple of moments. Right now they were just walking the streets just enjoying the few moments alone, as alone as you can get on a busy sidewalk, that they had. Still both of them thought about the third member of the family. Kat was the first to say something, “We really need to get a better stroller for Maddie. She is outgrowing the one we have now.”

“Can’t we enjoy her as a little baby?”, Marcus said. “I don’t want to think of her growing up just yet.”

“Then you don’t want to talk about the first time she brings a date home then?”, she teased.

Moaning at the thought Marcus went. “I think I can get Nate to help me hide the body.”

“Our baby girl’s not even a year old yet,” Kat gave him a slight shove. “And you’re already thinking murder. I better be getting in on that action.”

“Like I was going to stop you,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulders. Neither noticed as somebody ran past them. After a couple of more did so then they started to think about what was going on around them. When Kat was nearly knocked over by another Marcus yelled after him, “Watch it!” As he was making sure she was okay more people started running past them, in a hurry. “What the?”, Marcus asked as both of them looked back to see what was going on back there. Marcus was the first to see the cause as a hoard of things that look straight out of someone’s nightmare. Given who his father and brother were he knew almost immediately as soon as he saw them, muttering, “Cryptids.”

“What are those things?”, Kat asked as they started running as well.

“Just go!,” he told her as they fled. Both looked as the person next to them suddenly stopped and fell to the ground. Kat started to stop but he grabbed her arm and kept her going. “It’s too late for him!”

There wasn’t any argument as another one went down. Marcus pushed her into a side alley when another person went down. Kat looked back to see the hole in the center of her head. “Oh my god.” Dragging her further along they took a corner and only then did they stop to catch their breaths. Seeing that this was the only way in or out was both a good and bad thing given the circumstances. “oh my god they could get to Maddie,” She started off but Marcus stopped her.

“We’ll go around,” he told her, trying to remember everything his father told him to do if this ever happened. He also prayed that he wasn’t leading her to where they entered the city.. “Try to get behind them. Call Trish, tell her to barricade themselves in as best as they can.”

“Marcus what the **** is going on!?”, she demanded. Loud enough that he checked around the corner. So far nobody seemed to be coming in the alley. Unfortunately he did see some poor bastard's neck get snapped by one of them. “Marcus!” He held up a hand to quiet her. Still she pleaded with him, “Marcus?”

“I’ll explain later,” he told her.. “But now is not the time. Come on, we got to stay out of sight.” Checking the corner one more time He looked the other way just to make sure. “Come on,” he said as he took them in that direction.. “While they did so she started to call her sister to relay those instructions he took out his phone and pulled up a particular app. One he was technically not supposed to have, but Nate pulled some strings over his protest for the official record. An app that went to those working for the organization had access to. Since he wasn’t actually part of that organization he was locked out of most of it.. What he did have access to was currently on his screen, a big red button that he quickly pressed.

***
“Police reports are coming in,” the A.I. announced as Director Miller rushed down the halls. If those reports were right then they didn’t have as much time as she thought. That didn’t matter now, the Cryptids were finally on the move and theft needed to respond. “They appeared in the middle of the city not the outskirts like expected.”

“Something that shouldn’t have been that surprising,’ she said. Going to her phone she looked up the updates for herself. She stopped when something on screen caught her attention. “Which of our operatives activated an alert?”

“Currently unknown,” the A.I. answered. “There’s no ID tag on the alert.

“But the Alert…”, she paused as she recalled something. “Cole’s brother. Apparently he was useful after all. Activate all forces, it's time.”

“”Get ready to deploy as soon as we stop,” Nate commanded as everyone looked at him. All were dressed for combat standing in a garage in front of several vans, But he was afraid all of the training in the world wouldn’t prepare them for what they were about to face. Hell he heard about the threat for his entire life and he wasn’t sure if he was ready. “Do not hesitate to fire on targets. I will not stress that enough, is that understood?”

“Yes sir!”

“Captain Cole!” He look behind him to see Doctor Gordon rush over holding a briefcase as the troops jumped into the vans. Let it be ready. “Here,” he said, handing him the case. “We couldn’t do much,” damn it, “but it should work better than what it was.”

“As long as it doesn’t feel like it’s fighting against me,” he said, taking the case. Without another word the Doctor walked away and he jumped into the van. Holding it in his lap he ran his hand over the top of it. Did Dad have any second thoughts like he was having the first time he used his rider system? Did it feel like it was fighting against him as well? He and Marcus both had questions that weren’t going to get answered.

“I can’t wait to see how a Rhinoceros beetle looks as body armor,” the guy next to him said.

“Concentrate on the task at hand,” he told the man. With a nod to the driver they sped off.

***
Kat screamed as some demonic looking thing walked out in front of them near the exit of the alley.. Marcus grabbed the closest thing he could get a hold of, an old board, and swung it as hard as he could. The board shattered on impact against the creature's head. It didn’t look hurt, mostly it looked annoyed. Still he stood between this cryptid and Kat wielding what was left of the board. Damn it, they were so close to getting out of there. Suddenly a shot of some sort hit the Cryptid that drew it’s attention. Risking a look in that direction Marcus saw a lone police officer fire off a couple of more times. The moment the Cryptid headed for the cop Marcus grabbed Kat’s arm and immediately ran in the opposite direction.

There was a horrible scream a few moments later, probably from the poor bastard that took the shot at it. Still he kept them going. He only slowed at an intersection to make sure the coast was clear before turning the corner, praying that the monster didn’t see which direction they went in. That meant someone else would be killed but at least Kat would be alive a little longer.

“Come on,” he urged her forward. He kept his head on a swivel, making sure the area was still free of Cryptids but also trying to see if that button actually worked. The attack was happening in the middle of the city, not at the edges like he and Nate had been warned for as long as he could remember. That should mean that Nate and the others should be here soon. He just had to keep both of them alive until then. Try to keep them alive.

“Another notch to my name.” Marcus pulled Kat behind him as an absolute brute of a man stepped into their path. He looked around again, almost missing the tendril like appendages bursting out of his skin as he transformed into a grotesque gray skinned monster as bone like claws grew out of his forearms. Kat clutching at him they backed away from the monster.

“Kat,” he mumbled, not even risking taking his eyes off the monster, “Run.” He had to buy her time, even if it was only a couple of moments. He braced himself to charge in as soon as Kat let him go. She never did. Then several black vans pulled into the area catching all their attention. Seeing the one directly behind them open up he he immediately grabbed Kat and dove to the sidewalk, “Down!” Once there he made sure to cover her as best as he could.

“Open fire!”, Nate commanded. Kat screamed again as Rifle fire erupted. The Cryprid recoiled slightly from the barrage but it’s attention was now fully on them. Keeping Kat on the sidewalk Marcus looked up as the Cryptid kept approaching Nate and his shoulders. He watched as his brother reached back into the van and pulled out a case.

Glancing down at Kat who was watching as well, he wondered how he was going to explain this. If that case he;d what he thought it did. He lowered their heads again as more Cryptids and soldiers came into the area.

Nate popped the case open and pulled out a device. That had to be the driver their dad always talked about. Nate reached into a pocket then held it to the device, a small electronic, “Ready,” could be heard. The cryptid started rushing forward as Nate used a thumb to tap something on the device in his other hand. “Henshin!,” he shouted as he started to slap the drive against his waist. The creature got there first and swung a clawed arm at him.

“Nate!”, Marcus called out as the driver went flying out of his hands as he went down. “No!” The soldiers increased their fire even more in an attempt to stop the creature. Nate was still moving, thank God he was still moving. The Cryprid started swinging those claws, taking down man after man, laughing with demonic glee. But Nate was still moving. He needed that Driver or he was going to die. Marcus was not losing another family member so soon.

“Marcus!” Kat called out as he started running for the driver. He reached the driver and picked it up when the ground under him seemed to explode as more Cryptids emerged from underground.. Hr cleared his head as fast as he could, wiping blood out of his eyes. Then grabbing the device with that same hand. The screen seemed to react briefly but his attention was on the clawed Cryptid coming toward him. He had to toss it to Nate, even if it was the last thing he did, and it might be.

“Go ahead,” it growled. “I ended the life of one Rider.” Marcus froze, this… was the thing that murdered his father. Nate reacted to the news as well. “I’ll gladly kill another.

From where they were both Nate and Kat could see Marcus clearly. She had scrambled into a better hiding spot, or so she hoped. Still she looked at him wondering out loud, “What are you thinking?”

From where he was Nate had a very clear look at his brother’s face and knew immediately what he was thinking. “Don’t do it.

Marcus didn’t even look up as he slapped the driver to his waist. Two dark gray straps shot out and connected at his back forming a belt of some sort. Nate saw this and looked at the key tag still in his hand as his brother stood up. How was that possible? “Ready,” the belt announced again.In his other hand he brought it to the driver slotting it in diagonally, both of them having heard things from their dad they weren’t supposed to know. “Hensin!”, Marcus called out and swung both arms to the side, his hands catching the raised and lowered parts of the device and twisted them into place as they passed. The driver emitted a beam forming something that looked like a giant QR code that started to back up reward him. As it passed over him he was covered by tiny squares almost looking pixelated.

As the effect quickly faded away he was covered in a dark gray bodysuit with Black armor, with red highlights around his chest, forearms, shins and feet. With just plain black pane;s on the back of his hands. His head was covered in a black helmet with round red eyes, a silver mouthplate and some sort of flat horn like antenna on the top of it. The belt announced, “Kamen Rider,” there was a brief static sound right before a slightly deeper electronic voice went, “Aegis.”

***

”The QScan armor has been activated,” Director Miller sat back in her chair as the A.I. made the announcement. Now if he was half as good as his father maybe they’d have a chance.

“Make sure Captain Cole isn’t distracted,” she said.

“Captain Cole didn’t use the driver,”

“What?”, she said sitting a tad straighter.

“Bio readings do not match the records we have on Captain Cole. I do not know who is using it.”

***
In the underground the Priestess dropped the contents of the bag onto the pedestal. Then she froze, something that caught the attention of the Cryptid lord. “What is it? Did the new Rider show himself?”

“I… I do not know,” she said not taking her eyes off what she was looking at. She barely registered when he stormed over to see for himself. “There is something new in play. Something I don't recognize.”

***
“Aegis?”, Nate wondered out loud as he looked at one of his men. Then he looked back at his brother, what the **** was going on? Gunfire brought him back to the real problem.. “Keep them from swarming.” Not even waiting for any confirmation of that particular order he raised his rifle and started firing at any approaching Cryptid.

With a yell Marcus charged the Cryptid, letting his rage out. Driving the monster back and away from Kat and his brother. But after that, you better believe he was going to kick this bastard's ass. Something wrapped around his neck and started squeezing. He tried to free himself but that left him open as the one he was fighting to try and ram him through with one of these claws If the armor didn’t hold. Sparks started flying on contact but it held but he still doubled over from the impact. He was forced back up by the cryptid who had the grip around his neck.

“Take the bastard!” Nate said pointing at the second Cryptid. They Changed their aim and got that monster in their sights. It recoiled but kept whatever those things were coming out of it’s arm around his brother’s neck. Lowering his rifle he drew his knife, which was made out of the same metal as the armor, and ran in. The monster took a swipe at him as their father’s killer started for him before Marcus grabbed him. With a yell of his own he swung the knife cutting through tendril around his neck.

The creature screamed as Msarcus stumbled forward. The one who killed their father.grabbed him and threw him to the side. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed his arms when looked like he was going to attack him with those claws. After a brief struggle he was thrown to the ground again only for Marcus to grab his leg to keep his attention on him and not Nate. To his credit Nate quickly got out of there while still attacking the other Cryptid. He held on just long enough for the monster to get annoyed enough to reach down and throw him away.

Nate scrambled to stay out of the grip of the Cryptid he injured to free Marcus. Eventually he was able to jam the blade through the monster’s chin and into his head. As that one dropped to the ground he ran back to cover by his men. “Captain, are you all right?”

“Get me a headset!”, he said instead.

“The Director wants to talk to you,” he was informed while being handed a headset.

“She can wait,” he snapped. Putting it on he turned it to the frequency to the armor. He was speechless while he heard Marcus breathing hard and grunting in pain over the line.

“Why are you still fighting?”, the killer demanded while Marcus struggled to get back to his feet.

“You killed my dad,” he grunted while lunging at the monster, finally knocking it to the ground.Mounting him he started pounding away at it while screaming at the top of his lungs. Finally he was forced off but he tried to get on top of him again but was struck with one of those claws. That only fueled his anger as he tried it again.

“Damn it,” Nate muttered. Into the microphone by his mouth he said, “Marcus! Calm down. You’re not going to do anything fighting like that.” If he heard him it didn’t show as he kept at his reckless attack. “”Give him some breathing room!” His men looked at him. “For God sakes,” he said grabbing a rifle and pulled the trigger. That action broke them out of whatever it was as they fired on the cryptid forcing it to back up. “Marcus, listen to me, Breath, like Dad taught us to.”

That seemed to do the trick since he lowered his head and started breathing more regularly. “You want to do this then concentrate. Fighting like they do is not going to work. Keep calm and use the armor to help you.”

“Die…ach,” the Cryptid spat as he quickly found an armored hand around his throat. Marcus stared at him then punched him in the face. The Cryptid swung back and he ducked under a claw then nailed a right hook to it’s gut that doubled it over. He started punching it in the back of the head. It lashed out knocking him back to the ground. The cryptid lunged at him with a claw, he rolled out of the way. Marcus kicked out and shattered the claw. The Cryptid screamed out as it backed away.Marcus grabbed the remains of the claw and ran in jamming it in the chest. The monster hollered in pain as it tried to pull it out. Marcus ran in with another massive right that rocked it’s head back.

“Marcus,” Kar said from her hiding spot. She had never seen this side of him before. Nate was taken aback as well, not expecting how vicious he was being. Marcus kept up his assault as he continued to pound on the monster relentlessly. He looked around to witness the other Cryptids watch the now one sided fight. What was it the reports were saying? About how they reacted when they saw his father in the Rider armor?

“Bro, listen,” he told his brother. “You have to end this now. The driver on your waist, there’s a screen on it. Swipe it to the right once then tap it. Let instinct take over from there.” He heard what he said as he turned his head slightly in his direction.

“You better be right,” he grunted. Right hand on the driver’s screen and swiped it once like he was told. On that screen a QR code appeared and then he tapped it with his fingertips. The driver announced, “LIghtning Buzzsaw.” Marcus took a small step forward and used that foot as a pivot point as he quickly spun around Bringing around his other foot, an electrical wave that looked like a buzzsaw’s edge as it passed through the Cryptid. It flew back as the spin brought him back around to see it try to stand then fall back and explode. He looked around to see the other Cryptids stare at what just happened. “Anyone else want to go?”, he challenged them.

“What the hell are you thinking?”, Nate muttered as he brought his weapon to bare on the monsters. His men quickly followed suit. But they just stared at Marcus who stood his ground. Obviously tired as hell but he was standing his ground. Eventually one started to back away then the others did as well.None of them lowered their guard, even after the last one disappeared from sight.

“Did we just win?”, somebody asked.

“Captain,” somebody said to get his attention, “we’re getting reports from the other units. The Cryptids are falling back. It’s like they knew that one lost.”

“Hold that thought,” he said. He walked toward Marcus who was still in the armor, just watching where the Cryptids went. Once he was close enough Marcus finally looked at him.

Gesturing toward the belt he asked, “Do I reverse it to get this off?”” Nate nodded. Marcus took the hold of the diamond shaped device, twisted it and pulled it out of the slot. The armor pixelated a bit before falling away revealing Marcus to the rest of them. He looked at it before handing it back to him. “I got to say, given what I know about this outfit, that name was pretty interesting.”

Yeah,” Nate said absentmindedly as he looked at the driver before looking back at Marcus. He was looking around before relaxing after spotting Kat. “I’m not sure how I’m going to explain all of this.”

“You and me both,” Nate told him. The Director was going to raise hell after she found out who was using the QScan driver. Maybe he could tell her why after he figured it out for himself. Some of his men started to stop Marcus but he waved him off. He reached Kat who hugged him hard before they walked off. Nate looked back at the driver in his hands. How was Marcus able to use it?

 

[sc ikaiju]

“The Rider has been reborn,” once the raiding party returned that particular bit of news spread like a fire in a dry forest. Even overshadowing the fact that the party was short one member. That was something their ruler was keenly aware of. Mainly out of disgust as it was the one he hand picked to lead the invasion. After making some headway to break the spell the very words “The Rider'' had over his people. And that idiot died by another one, stating it all over again. If it was any of the others it could have been manageable, but no it had to be him that went and got himself killed.

Still he had to try and smother that spark before it grew into a roaring flame. Before him one of that party kneeled in front of him, eyes diverted out of respect. “Was it the same Rider as before?”

“He was different than the stories say,” he answered, still keeping his head lowered. “He seemed younger than the one who died. And his armor seemed different as well.” He looked over to the Priestess. Just like he told her, there was one already ready to take the mantle when the old one died.

“What,” he said slowly, keeping his gaze on the Priestess for a moment longer, “did this one call himself?” It was a long shot but perhaps if he could drive the point home that this wasn’t the same Rider they had been fearing.

“A voice called him Kamen Rider Aegis my lord.” The kneeling one only looked up when he heard a collective gasp from the others. When he did the hand of their lord clamped itself around his neck. Barely having any time to react he was immediately forced up into the air. Struggling to get free he looked at the furious look of their king as he held him in the air.

“What did you say?”, he demanded as the man struggled to breath in his grip.

“My lord,” the Priestess spoke, but not daring to get any closer. “He can not speak if he draws no air.” He looked at her but didn’t release the one he was choking. Finally he opened his hands and the man dropped to the floor sucking in air like it was going out of style.

“Out!”, their lord shouted as he stormed back over to his throne. As he sat his followers were already scrambling to get out of the cavern. A couple of the braver ones helped the one he was choking to his feet and out of t his sight. Before too long he was practically all alone. Except the Priestess remained, along with his guards.

“That name,” she cautiously said. “It is one of ours. It was the name….”

“I know who’s name it was,” he snarled. “If the humans think they can insult us, insult me by using that name. Then they are sorely mistaken. All they have done is strengthen my resolve to make them grovel at my feet. Leave me witch,” he demanded. Without another word she exited to her hidden alcove.

Sitting there he clutched at the stone armrests, knuckles going white. Finally his grip relaxed and he slumped into his throne. “Aegis,” he whispered. They would pay for using that name.

***
This was going to be a nightmare. Nate stood there to the side as the director and the others watched the body cam footage of the armor's debut fight. He knew this was going to happen, he was told this was going to be a regular thing going forward. Was it annoying? Hell yes, but he understood the reasoning behind it. Dad had a slight tendency to leave things out of his reports and the board wanted as complete a picture as possible after all encounters, they had people to answer too as well. Nate was fully prepared to give his perspective on those encounters. But not like this. Not even in his wildest dreams did he think it would have gone down like this. Because that wasn't him in the armor.

Once the footage was over with the lights came back on. While he and the board members stared at each other the computer A.I. decided to speak up, "On a positive note, the armor worked as predicted." There were several groans as Nate glanced up at the ceiling speaker the voice came from and rolled his eyes. "Based on your reactions that wasn't the best time to try and lighten the mood."

"Very observant," the director said before returning that frosty gaze toward him one more time. Nate stood there and took it, resisting the urge to stare back. That was a dad move and now was not the time. Finally she said, "Captain, would you please explain how your brother activated the rider system."/

He wished he knew that answer himself. But 'I don't know' wasn't going to exactly work, and she was still expecting an answer. "I used the key tag as instructed. I assume the driver was still active when he picked it up."

"Captain Cole," she said while leaning forward, "I mean how did he know how to use the driver."

He was afraid that was what she meant. "Honestly ma'am. We both knew how the previous driver worked before I signed on." Like he thought that caused a lot of hushed talking among the board.

All of them except the director of course. She just sat there staring at him from behind steepled fingers. "From your father I suppose."

"That would be correct ma'am," he replied. "Dad made sure that all of us, mom, Marcus and myself, understood exactly what was happening. We told no one of course, he always stressed that this was to be kept absolutely quiet because it could cause a panic."

"Which it did once the news stations took the feed live," one of the other board members spoke up.

"Did he teach the two of you to perform the Lightning Buzzsaw as well?", She demanded. Everything was there in the report. Nate knew at least one of his men reported that he told Marcus how to activate the finisher.

"He taught me," he told them. "Marcus only knew the move because dad didn't want him to feel left out." And dad probably figured he would have shown Marcus anyway.

"How sweet of him," she said dryly. “So why tell him ,how to perform that particular move if he already knew how to do it?””

"He knew how to execute the kick," he explained, " not how to activate the special ability the driver puts behind it. Given the situation it seemed prudent to explain how to activate it.”

One of the board members raised their hand. Actually raised their hand like they were in a classroom. “What situation was that Captain Cole?”

“As you know sir,” he said to the gentleman, “based on our observation from the previous invasion the Cryptids seem to follow a single leader in battle.”

“Which is why ,” the director cut in, “we made it a priority to identify that leader as quickly as possible and eliminate them as soon as possible.”

He nodded, “As demonstrated once he is eliminated the one he was fighting the others lost the will to continue the battle. Given how the other Cryprids were watching the fight with Marcus and the one,” he took a deep breath before continuing, "who claimed to have murdered our father, it was a natural assumption.”

“One that luckily paid off,” the director said. “While I disapprove of how the operation went, nor do I approve of you brother using the driver. You are damn lucky things turned out like they did. Not to mention that he surrendered the driver back to you without any complications.”

“Yes ma’am,” was all he could say.

“However the good doctor has yet to finish his diagnosis on the QScan driver, once that is done hopefully we’ll have some answers about those hiccups that you and your men reported. Until that report comes in, consider this meeting dismissed.”

“Yes ma’am,” he salited her and the others in the room before turning toward the door and exiting.

Once out in the hallway he went a few yards before letting out a breath, “Whew.” That could have been so much worse. But hiccup was an interesting way to destine the driver announcing a completely different name after Marcus used it, or how he was able to use it at all without that key tag they insisted was needed. The board might be anticipating that report, but Nate doubted they were anticipating it as much as he was.

***
“So how much trouble did I cause you?”, Marcus asked. He was talking to Nate over the phone. If that bastard was telling the truth then he had no problem doing what he did. But the last thing he wanted was to get his brother in hot water.

“I got a talking to,” Nate said, “but given the circumstances it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. But seriously Marcus what the hell were you thinking?”

Rubbing the back of his neck he was embarrassed as he said. “Honestly I wasn’t.” Nate snorted over the line. “When he started talking about killing dad…I didn’t realize what I was doing until after it happened.”

“You’d have to, but believe me bro I understand, I felt my blood start to boil too after he said it. How’s Kat handling all of this?”

He looked over his shoulder at the door to Maddie’s bedroom. She has been in there for a while now. “I’m not sure yet. I explained what I could, but she still looked at me like I was crazy.”

“That’s because you are crazy,” Nate told him. Despite everything that went down Marcus was grateful for the joke.

“Well I haven’t seen the guys with the funny coat that ties in the back yet. So I think I’m good.”

“Marcus,” Nate said after a bit. “When you activated the armor, did it feel weird? Like it was fighting against you or something?”

“No,” he said slowly, that was a weird thing to ask. “Things were happening so fast I didn’t really notice anything.”

“Hmm,” he heard Nate mutter. “Well either way you’re damn lucky you weren’t killed doing it.”

“Kat has mentioned that,” he said. Looking back at the door briefly he added, “Several times since we got home. You still coming over for dinner on Thursday? I mean given everything that’s happened.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world man. Like you said there’s a niece I have to get to know” Marcus smiled slightly, just at the idea of Nate interacting with a baby. He had to remember to have a camera ready. “But,” he added, “I might have to leave early.”

“Hopefully that doesn’t happen. I remember dad telling us about his run-ins with them. How much do you think they changed since then?”

“Well so far they’re acting like expected based on those reports but we’ll see. Look man I better go. I need to dive into those reports and see what dad left out or I’d forgotten. And there are a lot of reports of those battles.”

“Remember when we were in high school and thought we’d be done with homework after we got out?” Marcus chuckled and Nate joined in. “Okay Nate, I’ll let you hit the books. We’ll see you Thursday.” Ending the call he turned when he heard Kat finally come out of Maddie’s room. She sat on the couch as he told her, “Nate says hi.”

She just sat there looking at the floor. This was a new reaction coming from her, so he sat down on the other end. Finally she said, “How long have those things been around?”

“They're not sure,” he answered. “Honestly, if dad explained it I’d probably zoned it out.” Reaching out he took her hand. “Look I’d be lying if I said I wanted to tell you about those things. But I didn’t want to think about it at all unless I had to. Even if I did, would you have believed me?”

“I’m not sure if I believe it now and I saw it with my own eyes,” Kat admitted. Then she started looking a bit dubious again, “And your dad told you and Nate about them since you were kids?”

Yeah, he said leaning back, “We both knew the deal while we were still in elementary school. Other kids had to worry about the Boogeyman, we had Cryptids.” Gesturing toward their daughter’s room Marcus told her, “She’s just going to have the Boogeyman if I have any say about it.”

“If you’re expecting an argument you’re going to be disappointed.” Kat moved closer and snuggled up against him. “I honestly thought we were going to die today,” he put an arm around her and started rubbing her arm.”Honestly I knew we weren’t going to see Maddie again.”

“Hey,” he said squeezing her a little tighter, “we didn’t die, Maddie’s in her room we’re all good”

“You didn’t know that then,” she said getting out of his grip. “Marcus people were dying around us and I’m not sure how we’re still alive. Weren’t you afraid at all?”

“I was scared shitless,” he admitted. “But while he was telling us about the Cryptids, dad was showing us how to survive in case we were caught in an assault. A lot of it kicked in once I saw them.”

“Did that involve whatever the hell you were wearing?”, she asked.

“”Dad was training Nate to do all that, I was just along for the ride.” Pulling her back on Marcus held her tight. “Like I told Nate I wasn’t exactly thinking when I used the armor. But you have my word, I have no plans on using it again.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she said before giving him a quick kiss.

***
Saluting the guards at the door Nate he held his badge to a sensor on the side of it. There was a brief, almost pleasant sounding beep as his ID was verified and the door started to slide open. Walking in he looked around to see Dr. Gordon and a couple of his assistants hovering over a computer, and the QScan driver hooked up to that particular set up. One of the assistants just happened to look up and spot him, “Captain Cole.”

“Doctors,” he said in return as the others all looked up at him. Gordon in particular stepped away from whatever he was looking at to walk around to meet him. “Since no one looks panicked I’m assuming there was no major damage to the QScan driver?”

“You wouldn’t be wrong,” Gordon told him as he walked back around to the side he was originally on when Nate walked into the room. “Despite the fall you described it taking, the driver's physically fine.” Nate wouldn’t call having it knocked out of his hand a ‘fall’, but to each their own. “Gordon looked at him a little funny,” It didn't announce the name we programmed in?”

“Nope,” Nate told him. “It caught me and my guys off guard.”

“What was it again,” Gordon said as he started lightly scratching his chin, “Kamen Rider Angus?”

“Ethos,” one of the others quickly said, obviously trying to correct him. In both cases Nate had to stop himse;f from rolling his eyes. Just as obvious none of them read the report he filled.

“Kamen Rider Aegis,” he said correcting both of them, and trying really hard to remain professional and not snap at them. Angus? Really?. “It said Aegis.”

“Eh I think I prefer Angus,” Gordon said leaning back to stretch his back he added, “Or maybe I’m just hungry. Either way that’s weird. Why would it say a different name upon activation?

“I don't know,” Nate said. “When we tested it out previously it said Kamen Rider QScan every time.”

“Maybe,” the other assistant spoke up, “it was a name already programmed in. And the impact was hard enough to reset it.”

Shrugging Gordon went, “It’s as good a theory as any.” Going back to the computer he muttered, “If I had full access to the plans I’d have a better idea on what’s going on with the driver.”

“Doctor Gordon,” the one who made the suggestion said. “I started looking through the data, from before the driver was activated. There’s a strange energy spike.”

“Show me,” he said. Moving over he pointed out what he was seeing. “Now what the hell is that?

“That reset?”, the other assistant offered.Gordon started typing on the keyboard still in disbelief about what he was seeing.

“Maybe,” he waved Nate over and pointed it out. “Okay I brought up the battle data and created a quick timeline based on it. Here’s where the driver was activated,” he gestured toward an obvious spike. Then he pointed at a slightly less obvious something. It looked like a slight curve more than anything to Nate. “And here’s the anomaly. Is this when the driver hit the ground?”

“No,” Nate said slowly, trying to remember what happened in those moments. Everything was so chaotic it was hard to recall everything that happened in detail. Pointing a bit further back on the timeline he said, “It hit the street about here, and more Cryptids emerged from underground here,” Closer to that anomaly but still not the cause. “I have no idea what it could be.” Wait a moment, when did Marcus pick it up? Was it around that point?

“Maybe,” Gordon said getting his attention, “a review of the battle footage would be helpful. We can gather it and sync it up to the data to see what it is. But maybe we shou;d perform some more tests on the driver. Just to make sure that anomaly didn’t affect anything else.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Nate told him. Reaching into a pocket he pulled out the key tag he was given. Handing it back to the doctor he said, “The quicker the better. We all wants to know what’s going on. I’ll leave you to it.” Nate left the lab, he was going to take a look at the footage they had as well. Gordon was right, the answer had to be there.

***
Outside the city Marcus pulled into a sort of animal clinic, although it looked more like a ranch than anything medical based. Getting out of his car he looked around. By the horses he spotted the owner and head doctor look at him and glance at her watch. Reaching back into the car he pulled out a carrier with several coffees in it. “Considering the two of you live together,” she began to day as he walked over and handed her one of the cups, “one would assume that you two would arrive at the same time.”

“I still have five minutes before I’m considered late,” he quickly countered. “Besides, I had to make sure they got the order right. Luckily I realized they mixed it up again before I went through the door this time.”

“Get to work” she said gesturing toward the main building, “The Landrys brought in their dog again this morning. It left another mess.”

“And of course there’s nobody else who can clean it up,” he sighed. “What the hell do they feed that thing?” He walked toward the building to get ready for the day.

Taking a sip of her coffee the doctor made a very pleased noise. She walked around the vast yard looking at the various animals under her watch. Noticing another one of her workers come up she waited for him to complain about something, because he usually did. “I don’t know why you keep that guy around.”

“Ah, Marcus again,” he said out loud unintentionally. Still she felt the need to defend the man, “He’s a good worker.”

“He’’s a glorified janitor,” he countered. “Anyone can do his job.”

“Yet you don’t,” she shot back.

“That’s not the point,” was the usual argument she heard when he confronted him with a point he couldn’r dispute right away. “Most people who start at his level try to get out of it as soon as possible. But that man seems to just be happy where he is. Where’s the ambition? You have said many times that you don’t trust anybody without any personal drive. What drive does he have?”

“I have said that,” she admitted. “However unlike you I looked a little deeper into Marcus than you have since he’s been here. He has a drive, it’s subtle but it’s there.”

“Then he’s spiking you coffee then,” he said in a huff and walked away.

“”No, I decided to look past the cover,” she said to nothing but air. “For a change.” She went back toward the main building to double check with Kat on what was on the schedule for today.

“Rodger!”, a woman cried out. She and several others looked around until they saw a woman clutching at a fenced in pen. Inside the pen, besides one of the dogs that was a bit more viscous than what she usually took in was a boy cowering by the side of the cage. On the inside of the cage, cornered by that dog who was snarling at him.

“Damnit,” she cursed, dropping her coffee as she and several others ran toward the cage. “How did he get in there?”, she demanded. That fence was ten feet high there was no way the brat climbed it without being noticed by somebody.

“I don’t know,” another assistant told her. “Ma’am please let us do what we can,” he said trying to get the mother back. Still she was fighting them all the way. Before the doctor knew it someone rushed past her and started climbing the cage. It took a second to realize it was Marcus as he jumped over and landed on the other side.

“Jerimaih,” he called out, using the dog’s name. It kept growling and coming closer to the scared boy. “Hey! Over here!” he shouted. They looked on as that dog finally turned his attention to him instead of the boy. “You don’t want to bite him. He’s obviously spoiled, he’ll taste terrible.” The dog aggressively turned toward him. “Wait a minute, hold it,” Marcus ordered and put his hand up. Jeremiah stopped where he was but still growling. “You don’t have to get all angry now.” Slowly he took a small step toward the animal, stopping when those growls got louder. “Tha kid’s not the one you’re angry at. He did nothing to you.”

“Get him out,” the boy's mother pleaded with anybody who would listen to her.

“Just relax,” Marcus told the dog. With it’s attention fully on him Marcus quickly glanced at one of the workers and nodded his head at the boy. That man quickly started to climb the fence, unfortunately the noise started to draw the dog’s attention. “Hey. Hey! Keep those eyes on me,” he ordered the dog who surprisingly obeyed. “That’s right,” Marcus said, trying to watch the dog and the boy at the same time. “Nobody has to get hurt. Not me, not the kid, not you.” The person on the outside got over just enough to reach over, grab the boy and haul him out. The boy screamed, getting the dog’s full attention. “Jerimiah!”, Marcus called out, clapping his hands, anything he could do to get the dog to look his way. It did about the same time the boy was out of the cage. Marcus started to back away only turning to run for the fence himself once Jerimiah started toward him. He made it over with the dog literally at his heels as he made it over.

“Rodger,” the mother cried as she took the frightened child in her arms and started crying as well. “Thank you" she said to Marcus before shooting a nasty look toward her. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer.” Without another word she left, taking the still crying child with her.

“Sometimes I hate people,” she muttered. Then she looked over at Marcus who was sitting on the ground now still keeping an eye on the dog despite the fence between them. Then she spotted the man who had a problem with him, his mouth so open it looked like it could have touched the ground. “That’s why I keep him around,” she told him.
***
In the underground world of the Cryptids by most metrics was orderly. Mostly out of fear of the retributions by their lord for disrupting it. Normally that was. Occasionally, like with most emotional beings, tempers would flare. And with Cryptids it could get rather messy, more so when the guards got involved to break it up. When the lord got involved well there was a reason why they tried not to disturb the peace all that often.

But like with all societies there were those that were not normal. Ones who must be kept away from the rest, out of sight and hopefully out of mind. There was a huge reminder as one started to attack the ones around him.. Taller than most of the others and more muscular they quickly went down from his attack. It took several of them plus a few guards to finally subdue it and force it to the ground, making sure it’s head was over a rock. One of the guards positioned itself to the side an raised it’s weapon for a killing blow looking right at the creature’s neck.

“Hold,” that command was the only thing that kept the guard from completing the act. But he still held his weapon in position even as the one who gave the command stepped forward. The crowd that had gathered parted as their lord walked forward. The only ones not trying to show the proper respect were the ones trying to hold the wild one down.

“My lord,” one of the other guards, who were trying to form a living barrier between him and the still struggling creature, said to him. “This one escaped the pit. Your order said that any of these,” he gestured at the wild one with a tinge of disgust, “left the pit they were to be executed immediately. In case they attacked any of the rest of us.”

At that he and others looked around at their injured brethren from that very attack. The guard who spoke quickly took a step back realizing what he just said. Still their leader stepped around him to fully study the one being held down. “Priestess,” he called out. She quickly appeared from behind him, startling a few of them. “I have need of your counsel.”

“What do you wish my lord,” she said. Although like with many of the others she kept an eye on the wild one.

“The two of us have often discussed how the humans view us,” he said.

“We have,” she quickly agreed, jumping slightly as the wild one struggled harder to break free. “Ever since the one you befriended left.”

He nodded then looked back at the struggling creature. “It occurs to me that our attacks on the surface have been very similar.”

“As it has always been my lord,” she said. “The way we have always waged war pn others who are not of the Earth such as we.”

“As it has always been,” he repeated softly. “The human who was here, she took several notes about us. About how we lived and interacted with others. She… claimed that she wanted to understand us.”

“I remember,” the priestess said bitterly.

“Have you ever stopped to consider that she wasn't the only one of them to do so?”, he turned toward her.. “Their warriors for example.”

“And we them,” she shot back. The others around them looked shocked. She was one of the few who would dare talk to him like that but they were still stunned to see it.

“Exactly,” he simply said. “And yet we barely have a victory against them while they have several.” Looking back at the wild one he continued, “They have studied us well, perhaps it’s time to show them that they don’t know us as well as they believe.”

She stared at him for several moments before looking at the wild one on the ground. “You want to send this one to the surface?”, she said with some surprise.

“Why not?”, he said. “If they think they know us so well, let's show them differently. If this one somehow kills the new rider than all the better. If not, death was in the future for this one anyway.”

“It will be difficult to drag this one to the surface,” the guard interjected, which earned a sharp look that made him take a small step back. “He struggles now,” he tried to explain, “it would take a sizable force to control him until then.”

Their lord nodded silently as he considered that. Turning back toward the priestess he asked, “Can you keep him docile until we can set it loose on the surface?”

Without a word she stepped forward while reaching into a sleeve of her robe. Removing her hand she got as close as she dared to the wild one. With a quick breath she blew the substance she was holding into it’s face. The creature struggles slowed before it just layed there glassy eyed. “I believe so, but I will have to make a stronger concoction to make sure he stays in this state long enough to get him to the surface.”

“Then do it,” he commanded. “But continue perfecting that particular brew you just used. Even if this one succeeds it may be useful to send more. The key to our victory may have been in our midst the entire time.”

As he turned to leave the priestess muttered., “That woman poisoned your mind in more than one way.”

***
Nate was eating when he received the summons to head to the lab, according to that damn computer immediately. So he was already annoyed that he couldn’t finish his lunch in peace. But this probably had to do with the Driver so he tried to keep that annoyance in check. And he definitely kept it in check once he saw the director was already there. There was no way that this was going to be good. “Ma’am,” he said with a quick nod. She returned it and both of them looked at Gordon expectedly.

“Both of you are waiting for me to explain why I called you both here. And rightfully you should. As well as an answer, which at the moment I can’t provide. At least not fully.” He was getting long winded, based on what he knew of the man that usua;;y meant he really didn’t want to say what he had to say. So yeah, not good. “Bot if I had full access to the driver blueprints like I requested…..”

“Doctor,” the director said in a warning tone while crossing her arms.

Obviously the good doctor knew any leeway he had just evaporated. “Yes,” he said and took a step back toward the driver. “Well maybe you’ll both understand if you see it for yourself.” Stepping to the side and motioning toward the driver he said, “Captain if you would be so kind.”

With a small shrug he walked forward, reaching out as he passed to take the Key tag from the doctor’s hand Slipping his finger through the loop he picked up the driver with the other hand. Holding the tah to the scanner on the end he waited for the beep that indicated that it was accepted. The driver made a sound all right, but not the beep. A loud error sound came from the driver, with the director and himself being the only ones in the room who looked surprised at what was happening. Actually most of them, as Nate looked around at the room, seemed disappointed. He tried it again to the same result. “Doctor,” he said putting the driver down, “what the hell is going on??

“I’d like to know that myself,” the director pipped in. “I did not need to be here to find out that something is wrong with the driver.”

“”There is nothing wrong with the driver,” Gordon insisted. “Every diagnostic we’ve run, and we’ve been running those diagnostics non stop since we got a hold of it, says that physically that it’s perfectly fine.”

“So why didn’t the tag read?”, Nate demanded.

“We’re not sure,” he said then quickly winced back, fully expecting to get yelled at. Nate was half way expecting the director to jump down his throat himself which was why he wasn’t saying anything. “But we think it has something to do with that curve my assistant pointed out during the diagnostic.”

“I remember that,” Nate said. Turning to the director he explained, “Before the driver was activated there was a,” he looked at that assistant not recalling what she called it that very slight curve.

“Spike,” she offered.

“A spike,” he repeated. “Actually I played a hunch.” Looking up at the ceiling he said, “Computer, have you compiled the footage I asked you about.”

“Yes I have Captain Cole,” the A.I. replied. “I was going to inform you of this, but Doctor Gordon requested your and Director Miller’s presence before I was able.”

“Good,” he said. To the others he added, “I asked the computer to ccomb through all the available footage of that particular event. I’m hoping we can see what caused it.”

“I should have been kept in the loop,” the director told all of them, “but let’s see it.”

“Computer, on this screen here,” They followed Nate as he walked over to another table with a screen hooked up to the main system. “Now show us what was happening the moment the spike started.”

“At once Captain.” The screen came to life and very quickly they watched as what could be described as bodycam footage showed that very moment. While he wasn’t sure exactly who’s camera it was. That was definitely Marcus picking the driver up.

“Who the hell is that?”, the doctor asked.

Nate glanced at the director, who looked very annoyed at what she was seeing before saying, “That’s my brother.”

“He just picked it up,” the director said studying the footage intently. “That spike was caused by him just picking it up?”

“That can’t be it,” the doctor said, pushing Nate out of the way. Normally he would say something but at that moment he was just shocked that hunch of his was right. “There has to be more to it than him just picking it up. Computer, wind the footage back about thirty seconds.”

“Complying,” the A.I. said as the footage on the screen quickly went in reverse. To the point requested.

“This was right after the Cryptids started to come up from below the streets”

“What is he doing?”,” the assistant asked. Nate didn’t take his eyes off the screen so he didn’t miss what she was seeing. Right before Marcis reached for the driver he whipped his face.

“Pause the footage,” the director called out when they watched Marcus reach for the driver. “What’s on his hand?” They all looked. Even in this definition there was obviously something on his hand.

“Focus on that hand,” Gordon said. The image zoomed in and refocused itself to give them a clearer look at what was happening. “Is that blood?”

Nate tried to recall, Marcus was bleeding. The director spoke up, “That’s what it looks like to me.”

“Blood, hmmm,” Gordon went as he walked away from the group and over to the driver. Snapping his finger he quickly turned around to face them. “That might explain it. Remember after the initial test run, when I said it looked like the drive’s internals looked like it was trying to change?”
“This seems to be, “the director cut in, “another loop I should have been in.”

“Didn’t I put that in the report?”, the doctor asked his assistant. She shrugged. Nate knew the director well enough to know that wasn’t improving her mood. “I thought I did. Oh well. But if the driver reacted to his blood touching it…”

“That’s a pretty big if,” Nate said.

The doctor went on like he didn’t say anything, “Ir would explain why the driver was looking like it was changing. What a fascinating piece of technology,” he said picking it up and examining it a little more closely. “If I even suspected that blood would have been required to get the driver to function properly I would have pricked your finger a whole ago.”

“I would not say the driver is functioning properly,” the director countered. “By all reports from that first battle it isn’t.”

“It’s still functioning,” the doctor argued. “All the data we collected there’s nothing wrong with the driver. I don’t know why it announced a different name entirely, but outside of that there’s nothing wrong.”

“That may be,” the director said. “But right now we have a fully viaible, fully authorized operator,” she gestured toward him. “And at the moment he can’t even activate it. His brother got lucky the first time.”

Nate could hear them argue, but Nate’s attention was on the screen that was still showing Marcus reaching for the driver. There was another question that they weren't asking. “Director,” he spoke up. “Permission to perform a test with the QScan driver.”

She looked at him. Then she noticed what he was looking at. “Why?”

“I need to know,” he told her. “I need to know if he is the only one the driver is reacting to now or if it’s a one time thing. I mean if the driver is reacting to blood it has to dry up sooner or later.”

Scratching his head the doctor admitted, “That is a possibility. Something might have gotten scrambled when it hit the ground. It would be nice to know either way.”

The director looked at both of them then walked away exasperated. “Fine, but just for a test, to find out one way or another. But if anything happens to the driver I will hold you personally responsible, am I clear on that Captain?”

“Crystal ma’am,” he said. He hesitated before going, “And if it is the case?”

She sighed, not wanting to think about that possibility either, “Then we'll worry about it then. Doctor get the QScan ready for travel” Not even responding the doctor and his assistant quickly began packing the driver in it’s case. Nate gave her a quick salute before heading toward the dior. Nate didn’t say it out loud but he really hoped he was wrong about this.

***
After things died down the ranch pretty much got back on a somewhat regular pace. Marcus, as part of a duty he actually volunteered for closed a fence behind him, a tray of grooming tools in hand as he walked over to a horse in an enclosed field. “Hey Zeke,” he called out before he got close.The horse’s ear perked up but otherwise gave no indication that he was there. Once he was close enough he spoke a bit softer and said “Hey buddy.” A dull film over it’s eyes gave away that it couldn't see. So by speaking he gave the horse ample warning that he was there before touching it with a hand. It jumped slightly anyway. “Whoa, whoa,” he said as calmly as he could, “Just me Zeke, relax, nothing to be scared uf.” He stroked the side of it's head lightly waiting for the horse to calm down. “There you are, just little ol’ me. Nobody to be scared of.”

Once Zeke was completely calm Marcis moved down to rubbing it’s neck. “According to the Doctor you haven’t been brushed in a while. We can’t have that now can we?: Making sure he kept one hand on Zeke he put the tray down and took out the brush and began gently brushing the horse. Before long the Doctor walked up and watched them for a few moments. “Please tell me the Landry’s dog didn’t leave another mess.”

“No mess,” she said with a slight chuckle.Apparently taking the question as an invitation to step forward she lightly touched Zeke as well. “Did I ever tell you,” she began as he kept brushing Zeke, “that I personally hated it when that animal whispering became a thing.”

“I don’t think you did,” he told her.

“It wasn’t so bad when that move came out, not everybody had a horse,” ‘ she smiled while patting Zeke’s side. “Then that damn show about the dogs came out. Next thing I knew everybody and their neighbor expected me to know how to get their dog to behave. Don’t get me wrong, they did before that show just made it worse. Or worse they expected me to pull a Dolittle and just talk to them. Honestly I never thought it was feasible. Then you started working here.”

“What are you talking about?”, Marcus asked.

“Did you seriously forget what happened with Jerimah earlier?”, she asked. “I have never seen a dog that angry, and you did the dumbest thing possible by jumping right in there. And instead of ripping into you that dog was listening to you.”

“”He wasn’t…”, Marcus began.

“He started toward you and stopped when you told him to.”

“I got lucky,” was all he could say.

“I won’t argue with you there,” the Doctor said. “But you do have a way with animals. It’s a pity you never went into veterinary medicine.”

“Me and school never mixed,” was all he could say, feeling slightly embarrassed. “As soon as they tried to teach me anything I’d forget it right after.”

“Now I doubt that,” she told him.

“Okay maybe not immediately,” he admitted. “But whenever test day came around I couldn’t remember anything. And I never grew out of it."

"Maybe you should ask somebody who grew up with him." Both of them looked around to see the owner of that voice come up to them. And there was his brother in a suit and not his uniform. So nothing official then.

"Nate," Marcus went. "Dr. Vega this is my brother Nate." They quickly exchanged pleasantries as they shook hands.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," the doctor said, "and I'm sorry for your loss. Hopefully you took more time to mourn than Marcus did"

"Thank you. Unfortunately preparing for those creatures has been eating up my time lately," he said. The fact he said it at all took Marcus by surprise. For as long as he could remember the big rule was don't say anything to anybody.

"I have a kid to support," he said while still looking strangely at his brother. Then to the doctor he added, "Diapers ain't getting any cheaper."

"So I’ve heard," she said. Then she took the brush from Marcus. "I'll take care of Zeke. Since your brother came all the way out here why don't you show him around."

"Sure, come on Nate." They walked to the gate. Before they exited the corral Nate looked back.

"That horse looks like it's on it's last legs," he commented as he walked through the gate.

"It is," Marcus said as he closed the gate. "The family wanted to make sure he was comfortable before they decide to put him down. Personally I think they're hoping he goes naturally then they don't have to make that call."

"I remember dad doing the same thing with mom," Nate said while they walked the path. "I can't imagine it being any easier with that horse."

"Family is family, you don't have to be related by blood for that to be true," Marcus said. He and Nate were living proof of that. "So we're just telling people about things now?"

"It's a bit hard to keep things a secret when they pop up in the middle of the city," Nate told him. "It was the Director's call. I'm still getting used to the idea too."

"So what are you doing here?", Marcus asked. "We're a tad out of the way to stop by on your lunch break."

"Actually I have to talk to you about something," he said. And this could not be good. "I'll tell you as you show me around."

***

“Hurry before he snaps out of it.” He heard a voice but he couldn’t see it, nor could he move. Suddenly he felt his arms fall limp and heard others run off. In the darkness he slowly felt his limbs start to move and things became clearer. While they worked it still took effort to reach for his face. That’s when he felt the material in front of him. After a short grunt he was able to rip it off his head and was immediately blinded by a bright light.

Blinking a few times his eyes finally adjusted to the brightness but they still stung. Resting his head back and roaring a challenge to anything that could hear him. There was nothing. Usually just hearing the crowd he wasn’t allowed to be in usually got his blood boiling. But now surrounded by all the quiet he thought he longed for, now he was just angry. Not even sure he knew where he was going he rushed off straight ahead. There had to be something in this blindingly hated world that he could tear into.

He only slowed because of a pain in his stomach, a pain that said he was hungry. A sensation that also fueled his anger because he and the others would feel this pain for a long time, often resorting to feeding on each other. But here in all this… this nothingness, there was no food that he could recognize. Then he thought he heard a sound. Sound, no matter how hateful that it was, meant food. Walking in the direction he thought it was coming from he eventually found the source. Beasts of types he had never seen before were in some sort of open area, but even in this upperworld he recognized an enclosure when he saw one. It didn’t matter, the pain would not stop until he fed and food was right down there. He just had to identify the weaker ones and pick it off from the rest.

***
“Look Maddie, here’s daddy,” Kat said as she walked toward the two of them as they leaned against Nate’s car. Getting closer to Marcus she angled the phone in her hand so he could get a better look at the screen. And there was their daughter in the arms of her sister, looking her usual happy self. “Say hi to daddy.”

“Hi Maddie,” Marcus said. He smiled as Maddie heard his voice and looked at the phone camera on her end. “Daddy misses you.”

“Daddy did something really brave today,” Kat said as she focused the phone more on her. “Something really stupid but really brave.” When Nate looked at him Marcus held up a hand as to say he would explain later.

A voice on the other end of the phone spoke up, “It’s usually the same thing.”

“Love you too Trish,” Marcus called out. Kat was smart enough to get the phone out of range before her sister could reply.

Nate watched all of this with a bit of wonder. And was that a little jealousy in that expression. Marcus wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “You’re a lucky man bro,” he finally said.

“Don’t I know it,” he said as he watched Kat as she walked back to the building she works in. “Which makes me wonder why you’re trying to cause trouble."

“I’m not trying to cause trouble with what you have,” Nate insisted. “I told you I’m just here to test a hunch I have about the QScan driver.”

“Look I don’t,,,, wait. QScan?”, he asked. “This whole thing was supposed to be called Kamen Rider QScan?” Snorting a bit as he looked away he added, “That sounds like the type of name that outfit you’re part of would come up with.”

“Marcus,” Nate said to get him to look at him, “something might be wrong with the driver…”

He cut him off, “Then fix it.”

“We will,” Nate said with a bit of annoyance edging his voice. He stopped himself, took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Bur we can’t until we know what’s wrong with it. And I have to know if you using it was a one time thing.”

“Oh it was,”Marcus told him. “”I told Kat I wasn’t going to use it again. I gave her my word…”

“And I appreciate that,” Nate said. “I do, I really do. Marcus I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was important.”

“How is me using the driver again important?”, he demanded.

“You picked it up with your bloody hand,” he blurted out. Marcus looked down at his hand, remembering that there was some blood on it.. “Look bro, I’ll level with you. We’re not exactly sure how the driver works." Marcus looked at him. “Not exactly,” he amended. “The file and diagrams for it, they were discovered when they were trying to upgrade the BScan driver dad used.”

“Then you might want to talk to the guy who created those diagrams,” Marcus told him. “Ask him what’s going on.”

“We can’t.” Marcus went to argue but Nate quickly cur it off. “He’s retired and went off grid. We don’t know where he went.”

“And that’s why dad said that group the two of you are in was run by a bunch of Goddamn idiots.”

“Do you see me disagreeing?”, Nate asked him. “Just once that’s all I’m asking. Just to see if it’ll react to you.”

“Marcus!”, both of them looked over to see Kat run back toward them. Nate looked behind her to see if anything was going on. “Marcus,” she said forcing the phone into his face.

“What?” he asked. The first thought entering his head was something happened to Maddie.

“Trish shared this video with me,” she said. “Somebody filmed you fighting that Cryptid monster. Look.” Touching the screen the video started to play. Nate moved over to get a better look at it himself. Yeah that was him all right. But something else about the video caught his attention.

“Hold up,” he said, taking the phone and pausing the screen. Marcus ignored the looks the two of them were giving him. He quickly found it, the vid’s title. “Excuse me, I'm sorry. A Dollar Store Iron Man? Are you fucking kidding me? The amors don’t even look the same. It’s not even the same color,” Kat snatched the phone out of his hands looking annoyed as hell, “scheme?”

“Seriously?”, she demanded. “You’re on video and that’s your biggest concern? What if somebody filmed you,” she tried to find the right word, “putting that armor on?”

“Not going to happen?”, Nate spoke up.

“How in the hell do you know?”, Kat demanded.

“Because we have an A.I program…”

“You guys are still using Artie?”, Marcus interrupted, which got an annoyed look from both of them.

Nate answered him anyway, “No. Artie was a few generations ago. What’s left of that program is monitoring the entrances.””

“Man I liked Artie,” Maecus said crossing his arms. “He was cool for a computer program.”

Turning back toward Kat he went on with his original point, “We have an A.I to monitor every video feed of that battle. Since Marcus picture is on file I told it to look for his image in those vids and blur him out.”

“And you think it’s working?”, Kat asked him, not looking all that reassured or convinced.

“We have actual people watching the various feeds, even the ones on the dark web and so far it is,” Nate went on.

“So I’m guessing that’s why reporters haven’t been pounding at our door. So much for my fifteen minutes of fame,” Marcus joked. A joke that quickly earned him a punch in the arm from Nate. “Hey!”

“I’ll give you a twenty to do that again,” Kat told Nate.

“Hell I’ll do it for ten,” he told her.

Before Msrcus could say anything there was a scream. That sounded close. All of them look toward the main compound.Nate was the first to run toward the commotion they were seeing, seeing this was where they both worked Marcus and Kart soon followed.

"Oh my god!” one of the vets cried out. The three of them made their way through the crowd to get a better idea of what was going on. As soon as they did they immediately regretted it. Nate and Marcus went closer to a small dog’s mutilated body on the ground.

“Whar the ****?”, Marcus whispered as Nate got closer with one of the other vets to get a closer look.

“I don’t get it,” the vet said after turning away. “I’ve been here for a couple of years and never seen anything like this.”

“Any wild animals in the area?”, Nate asked.

“Not any that could do anything like this.”

“Hey look at that fence,” someone called out. They looked over at where she was pointing, and a broken section that you could drive a small car through was in the middle of it.

Movement from Nate drew Marcus’ attention. He was reaching for something in his jacket. The look on his face as he studied the area around that break in the fence told Marcus one thing and it wasn’t good. “Kat, we need to get everybody in the main building. Now.”

“Oh god,” she said as she figured out what he was talking about.

Nate backed away not taking his eyes off the area, “How well can you barricade the building?”

“There’s not a lot of windows,” Marcus said trying to think it over quickly. Right now he was wishing he paid more attention when dad explained exactly how to do that. “There’s a pretty heavy couch in the main lobby we can put in front of the door.”

“That’s a start,” Nate said when another scream came from another part of the compound.

***
A couple of hands looked around as they heard that same scream. "What in the hell?"' one asked. The guy next to him suddenly flew back before he could say anything. "Larry…" he got out as he turned around. He was struck speechless as a huge gargoyle looking thing sunk it's teeth into Larry's throat and ripped it out. As it chewed as it:s eyes turned toward him. The monster dropped Larry as it started toward him.

***
Nate ran as soon as he heard that scream. Marcus wasn't with him, which wasn't that surprising. He wasn't trained for this sort of thing. But hopefully he was trying to get people in the building like he told Kat. Gun drawn and in hand he slowed down when he found another mutilated carcass on the ground, some kind of duck he guessed. There wasn't:t much left of it to be certain.

Keeping a watch on the area he reached into another pocket and retrieved his phone. Glancing at it long enough to make sure he was selecting the right number, one connected to the A.I. directly, he held it to his ear. Getting a tone that they said indicated the line was picked up he waited for it to stop before speaking. "This is Captain Nathan Cole. We have possible Cryptid activity at my location. Track my signal and send a response team immediately." Keeping the line open he returned the phone back to it's holder and put both hands on his weapon. "That A.I. better be as smart as I think it is," he mumbled as he stepped past the dead animals and looked for the culprits.

But something about this wasn’t sitting right with him though. Every report he’d read about the Cryptid said they always acted in packs. If these dead and half eaten animals were them, then where in the hell are they? And why were they just going after the animals? Man if this ended up being nothing but a wild animal he was not going to hear the end of it back at HQ. Then he stopped when he spotted a couple of poor bastards on the ground. Covering the area all around him Nate made his way over to them. His first instinct was to check for a pulse, that became moot once he was close enough to see their physical state. Poor bastards indeed. And still sort of warm, this just happened.

Looking around Nate thought he spotted something that might have been a trail, it was better than nothing. And it didn’t take long for Nate to realize that it was heading back toward the main buildings. Damn it, he should have inspected it when he had the chance. He had to trust Marcus knew what to do to barricade the place. He just had to buy all of them some time.

There was some movement out of the corner of his eye. He pointed his gun that way but held off firing when he saw it was somebody cowering beside some barrels. Nate wasn’t sure if the dude worked here or not but he looked fucking terrified and Natye was fairly certain it wasn’t because of him. Noticing something on the other side of the barrels he crouched down to not get it's attention as he made his way over.

The guy didn’t even notice he was there, thank god for small favors. Taking the moment once he got close enough Nate peeked around the barrels. And there was a big ol’ Cryptid hunkered down over another dead animal just eating away. Clamping his hand around the guts mouth he struggled to keep him from moving too much and drawing the Cryptid’s attention.Finally it took using the barrel of his gun in a shushing motion to get him to stop and Nate immediately removed his hand and returned his attention back to the creature.

First thing first he had to get this bastard out of here before he did anything else. Now how the **** was he going to do that without the Cryptid noticing them. Nate quickly looked around his immediate area. And all he found was a fairly sizable rock. A bit on the nose but you had to work with what you had. Picking it up he took one more look to see where the Crtptid was looking, then chucked the rock as far as he could in the other direction. The Cryptid heard the noise when it landed and immediately looked in the direction and stalked over in that direction. Once it did Nate grabbed the guy by the arm and dragged him to his feet and toward the main part of the ranch and away from the Cryptid.

Nate kept looking back as they ran, if the Cryptid saw them then both of them were dead. So far they had been lucky but he wasn’t going to feel safe until they were inside that main building. And about twenty or so armed troopers were standing in front of it firing away.Once he realized they were on the path that led to that building Nate increased the pace.Then he stopped when Marcus and Kat came into view, waving even more people to the main building. Practically pulling the guy with him along Nate made his way over. “Why are you still out in the open?”, he demanded.

“There were more people here today than I thought,” Marcus told him.

“And there’s a lot of land,” Kat added as she gently took the guy with him and walked toward the main building. For the first time Nate got a good look at it.

“That seems like a lot of windows to me,” Nate told him.

“Dr Vega is getting as many as she can into the inner rooms,” he told him. “How many are there this time?”

“Just the one that I’ve seen.” Marcus looked at him funny after hearing that. Even he knew that was unusual. “So far it seems to be enough.”

Kat ran back, “Offices are pretty much packed and we’re starting to push people into the restrooms. Please tell me you called for backup,” she said directly to him.

“I called it in,” Nate told them both. “But even if they mobilized immediately it’s still going to take about twenty minutes to get here.” Kat lost all color in her face. Marcus looked back at the main building then back at him. “We just got to hold out twenty minutes.” He looked down at the gun in his hands. He only had the one clip. “I don’t suppose there are any weapons on site?”

“Just a shotgun that hasn’t been fired in years,” Marcus answered. “Somebody better suit up and take care of that thing.”

“My thought exactly, Kat get in there and get as much furniture moved as you can, then get deeper into the building.” Then Nate grabbed Marcus by the arm and dragged him toward the parking lot.

***
Marcus was giving Nate an ear full as he was dragged along. That soon stopped the moment both of them saw movement on the other side of the lot and quickly knelt down before it spotted them. Nate still made him follow him to the car. Fortunately he was able to park it close to the center, just a couple of rows out. Didn’t mean it didn’t feel like it was miles away though. When they finally reached it both of them peaked over the hood to see where it was at. Marcus flinched as Nate opened the passenger side door, that sounded loud as hell at that moment. As he removed a briefcase of some kind Marcus watched the Cryptid. He muttered, “You’re dumbass better not be planning on using me as bait.”

“Not exactly,” he said in return while popping the latches open. And there was the driver. While he pulled out both halves Marcus returned his attention to the Cryptid.

“Just so you know I’m running like hell as soon as you use thar.” So intent on seeing where the creature was Marcus didn’t see him turn and slapped the buckle part of the driver against his waist.” “What the ****,” he wanted to shout but didn’t, knowing the Cryptid would hear.if he said it any louder. Two straps shot out and clasped together behind his back.

All Nate said in response was, “I knew it.” He started struggling to get it off of him as Nate tried to stop him. “Marcus,” he grunted through his teeth, “It’s only reacting to you. Right now you’re the only one who can use it.” He held out the other part of the driver. “Swipe up on the screen then tap it to activate it. You know the rest.” He continued holding it out as Marcus kept staring at him. They could hear it getting closer.

“God, I hate you sometimes,” Marcus finally said as he took it from him. Nate pointed for him to go in the other direction. Marcus looked back toward the main building as he got what he meant. Nodding he walked around Nate and got behind the Cryptid. With his some he swiped up on the screen with his thumb which pulled up a QR code as he stood to his full height. With a tap of that same thumb the screen flashed briefly, an electronic voice saying, “Ready”. Holding it out in front of him he said, “Henshin!” The Cryptid heard him and turned toward him like Nate planned. Then he slotted it into the buckle and snapped it into position as he swung his arms to the side. A giant QR code formed in front of him, obscuring his vision slightly but quickly started sliding back toward him. Passing by him the Armor formed in all it;s pixelated glory before becoming solid.

“Kamen Rider Aegis,” the driver announced as he cracked his neck then ran at the Cryptid as it charged toward him.

“All right ugly, let's go!,” Marcus shouted as they got closer to each other. Then he threw a punch that caught the creature flush that knocked it’s head to the side. Not wasting any time he immediately jumped on top of the Cryptid and started pounding away at it with all he had. Then the creature got a hand through his attack and wrapped a hand around his throat and threw him off with relative ease. Before Marcus knew it the monster was on it’s feet and picked him up again and threw him away like trash.

The Cryptid started stalking him as he hurried to his feet and lunged forward. He moved to the side suddenly as the creature took the bait by continuing where it thought he was going to be. It turned around only to be met with a knee to the bridge of it’s somewhat flat nose. Marcus fully expected the beast to crumble. It didn’t, in fact it shook his head slightly then focused those eyes directly on him.

“Umm…. Nate,” Marcus was able to get out right before the Cryptid struck him in the head. Then it walked away only to pick up a small car then turn back toward him.

“****,” Nate cursed as he quickly took aim and fired his gun. Whatever effect those bullets were having was enough for it to stop and turn toward him. “Oh ****,” Nate was already diving out of the way as it started to throw the car in his direction. As it landed with a hard crash he rolled to a knee and opened fire again. He only stopped when he saw the black armored arms of the suit wrap around it’s neck trying to direct it in another direction.

“No you don’t ugly!” Marcus shouted as it tried to shake him loose. Then looking like it was picking some random direction it started running with Marcus still clinging on. “Oh ****!”

Nate watched them go then looked at his watch trying to estimate when that back up was going to arrive.Then he realized exactly where they were headed, straight toward the main building with everyone in it. “****,’ he muttered right before chasing after the two of them.

***
Marcus was holding on for dear life as the Cryptis ran through the ranch. This was not how he expected this to go. Catching a glimpse of what he thought was the main building, where they told everyone to go, he panicked and started twisting his arms around his ride ‘s massive neck. It’s headed started to move, not by a whole lot but it was enough to cause it to get unbalanced enough and crash to the ground. Again not what he originally had in mind, he was looking to choke the bastard out. But stopped it from reaching the main building so it was all good either way.

Letting go as the monster crashed he rolled to his knees and charged the Cryptid one more time. Putting all his weight and momentum behind a punch that actually seemed to rock it this time around. Marcus kept pounding on it trying to keep the thing down. “Holy ****!”, somebody cried out. Marcus turned and looked back out of instinct than anything else. He saw Dr. Vega, Kat and a couple of others try and drag one of the workers, the one who usually talked **** about him. Who was holding that shot gun that hadn't been used in years back inside.

“Stop being an fucking idiot,” he heard Kat say.

“All of you get back inside!” Marcus ordered. “Son of a *****,” he muttered right before the Cryptid reached up and wrapped it’s hand around the horn on the helmet. That was enough of a distraction to let that happen. He immediately grasped at that hand as it started swinging around, taking him off his feet. Then before he knew it he was flying through the air and crashed hard into the side of a truck they used to pull the trailer for transporting the larger animals.

As he watched the monster come closer to him a gun shot could be heard. Nate finally showed up and took aim at the Cryptid. Marcus happened to look over to see Kat looking through one of the windows, appearing very confused as he looked back and forth between him and Nate. Worry about that particular fight later he told himself as he pushed off the side of the truck and went after the Cryprid again. Even if he was properly trained to go against these things like Dad was, he wasn't going to stand a chance with this one with what he was currently wearing. As soon as he got close he lowered his shoulder and plowed straight into it’s back. The brute force approach seemed to work as it stumbled forward letting Nate to run past it.

Not seeing it’s next apparent victim the Cryptid turned around straight into a spin kick by him. While it’s back was turned Marcis lunged at it low and rammed his shoulder into the back of it’s knee. The Cryptid screamed in pain as it buckled from the blow.as it toppled over him That was an opening if he ever saw one. Quickly he touched his fingers to the screen on the driver then swiped right, pulling up a new QR code that he quickly tapped on as the Cryptid finally stood up. The belt around his waist announced, “Lightning Buzzsaw.” Marcus quickly spun around as the saw like waved that trailed his foot cut through the monster. As it fell back and exploded Nate ran up to him. Leaning over a bit he tried to get his breath back.

“Are you all right?”, Nate asked as he got close enough to put a hand on his shoulder while he checked on him.

Marcus just looked at him, “I want to punch you so bad right now.”

“Yeah, you're good,” Nate said as he patted that shoulder and looked around. Marcus pointed out a particular direction and he did the same. In the distance they saw a couple of vans race down the road and turn into the driveway that led to this place. “Now they show up,” he said. Looking at his watch he looked a tad surprised, “A little faster than I expected too.”

“Marcus!”, Both of them looked over at Kat who was staring at the two of them. Marcus on the other hand was looking past her at Vega and the others who were talking among themselves with more than one pointing directly at him. It took Kat a second to realize exactly what she just did as she looked back at them as well.

“And she was worried about me getting outed on video,” he sighed.

Nate smirked at him, “You going to point that out to her?”

“I am neither suicidal or crazy,” Marcus told him. Then he looked at the rest. “I wonder if I should just confirm it now or just go off out of sight before deactivating the driver and give it back to you. And you are taking it back,” he insisted. “Then you’re explaining all this **** to her,” he added pointing at Kat. Nate had enough sense to look worried at that particular demand.

Then he turned back toward him, “Yeah about that. Bro, we really need to talk about something.”

 

[sc ikaiju]

Wrapping a towel around his neck Marcus walked out of the bathroom. Today was going to suck so much. After that last Cryptid attack he had finally agreed to, Nate used the word talk, to this director about the driver. As far as he was concerned, and it was going to take a lot of convincing for him to change his mind, he was still going to turn down any attempt to get him to use the driver again.

Looking over into the kitchen area he found Kat making a funny face as she fed another spoonful to Maddie. Who eagerly took the offered bite and swallowed. "That's my girl," Kat said with a grin. She looked over at him and asked "Feeling better about today?"

"Not particularly," he told her as he just looked at the two of them. That was his life right there and he wasn't going to let anything ruin it. Then he noticed something about Maddie as she ate another bite, well it was more like he noticed a lack of something. Walking closer he watched them a moment longer before going, "Why is it when you feed her everything goes smoothly but when I try she ends up wearing half of it?"

Kat just sort of smirked as she fed Maddie another spoonful, "You don't know how to handle her." Before he could even think to respond Kat lean in closer to their daughter, "No he doesn't does he? No he doesn't." She said in a different way that made Maddie laugh. Still despite the scene Marcus could tell she was still a bit apprehensive about something.

“”Hey,” he said rubbing her shoulder slightly, “I’m just gonna head down there and leave.” Letting go he gave Maddis a light tickle on her shoulder before turning toward back the bedroom.

“What of Nate was right?”, she asked suddenly. She waited until he turned back around before saying, “What if you are the only one who can use it?”

“Look even if he is. If he is,” he added with a little more emphasis “The group he’s with can fix it so somebody else can use it. Believe Dad always complained about how cheap that organization is. More than likely their looking for any reason not to pour any more money into the driver to fix the problem.” She still didn’t look convinced but at least she was fighting against his argument.

She still said, “I hope you’re right,”though.

“Don’t worry. After this meeting we’ll get a couple of extra days with Maddie. Then Dr. Vega will open the clinic back up then we’ll be back to work.” After that last attack Doctor Vega decided to close it for a few days to examine the damage and contact the families of the animals killed by that thing. Marcus didn’t envy her that job. Some of those families were going to be pissed. Marcus offered to help with the clean up since that was he was paid to do after all. And yet the look on her face when she turned the offer down stuck with him. It was like she was almost apprehensive to even talk to him. In fact everyone there that day started to act a little different, or that’s how it looked to him, after it was over. Not that any one accused him of bringing the Cryptid there. Scratch that, that one asshole who tried to take it on with that old shotgun did claim he had something to do with the whole thing.

If there was one person there that Marcus wouldn’t have minded that much if they bought it that day…. Okay he was a father now, he should not be thinking like that if he wanted to be a good role model for Maddie. Still in the back of his head the thought was still there. The guy was just an ass plain and simple.

Normally that wouldn’t bother him too much. Everybody was in shock after the attack. Kat had a similar look about her after they were caught in that initial attack in the middle of the city. Maybe he was a bit affected too since he was wondering why Kat wasn’t reacting immediately about the going back to work bit. Why did it look like she was trying not to look at him? “I still got a job right?” Marcus said as a joke, or an attempt at one anyway. But still Kat wasn’t looking at him. “Kat?”

Finally she said, “You’re still employed.” Finally she looked at him, she just as quickly returned her attention to Maddie. But it was still enough to ease his mind slightly. “Doctor Vega would have told you to your face right away. You know that.”

“I know, I know,” he said as he headed for the bedroom again. “Everything just been so weird lately,” at least here she grunted in agreement. “And you not saying anything wasn’t helping.” Going into the room he added, again mainly as a joke, “The last time you were this quiet about anything you were trying to tell me we were having Maddie.”

He got exactly three steps into the room when his eyes started going wide. No fucking way. Quickly he turned back around and nearly bolted back into the living room. Kat, who was looking very annoyed at that moment, just looked at him like she was expecting this reaction. All she said was, “I’m not pregnant.”

An, “Oh,” sort of squeaked out, “okay.” removing the towel as he came closer the only other thing he could say was, "So what's bothering you so much?"

"It's that meeting," she finally admitted.

"Kat look," he began to say.

"Let me finish," she quickly said. So he sat down next to her. "I know you plan on turning down any idea tha’st going to keep you using that damn belt. But I know you. At some point it's going to get in your head that using it is going to be the best way to protect me and Maddie. I'm not going to be able to argue against that."

"Hey," he softly said. "Yes, you and Maddie are the most important people in my life, and I would do anything to protect both of you. But I can find a way to do it without using the driver."

"But you can't fight them without it."

"I can protect you two without fighting," he countered. "Granted it means grabbing the two of you and running like hell." Reluctantly she smiled at what he said. "So I have an option other than fighting. So relax."

"Hopefully it'll be that simple," she told him. Then she looked down at dirty jeans he had on. "You're not wearing those are you?"

"What's wrong with these?"

"They're filthy, go change them." Sighing with a bit of dramatic flair he got off the chair and headed back to the bedroom. After he passed the door she added, "and make sure you wear one of your nicer shirts."

"Why do I want to look nice," he called out as he started looking through those very shirts, "when I'm basically going to tell these people to **** off?"

"You are not…"

"Okay, okay," he said while putting said shirt on as he walked back in, "I'll listen to what they have to say like a proper guest. Then I'll politely tell them to **** off. Either way they're going to get the message."

“Just get some nicer pants on,” She told before turning to make sure Maddie was done eating or not. So he went to change his pants. He was going anyway. But sometimes Kat just gave him an opening and he had to go through it. It would be a crime not to at least step a foot through it. But he was going tell them to **** off, if it was going to be that exact phrasing or not was going to depend on how aggressive they were going to be. Fully changed, he walked back out . Kat looked over and nodded with approva;, “Much better.”

“And I’ll be back before you know it,” he told her.

“Uh huh,” she said, obviously not that convinced about this particular prediction on his part. “Just make sure you don’t do or say anything that gets you thrown in jail.”

“They don’t have that type of authority,” he started to say.

“They make weapons to fight actual monsters,” she said. “They will find that authority, one way or another.”

“”Nate won’t let that happen, he’ll at least give me a heads up if he thinks I’m going too far.” That seemed to ease her nerves, just a little but she did seem more relaxed than she was earlier. Turning to their daughter he got down a bit, extended the little fingers of both his hands that she eagerly grabbed on to and said, “Now you give mommy an extra hard time while I’m gone.”

“She does and you’re getting beat when you get home,” Kat told him somewhat sternly.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” he said before getting up and giving her a quick kiss. “You behave yourself.”

“Never,” she said with a slight smirk Wrapping her arms around his waist she held him close. Then she said, “You tried to think of the last time we had sex when you thought I was pregnant again, didn’t you?”

“What? No,” he quickly said. She just looked at him, one eyebrow slightly raised, a look that told him she wasn’t buying that particular answer. Kat just kept staring at him, just waiting. Eventually he lowered his head, and mumbled a “Yes.”

She kissed him on the forehead after grabbing his head, “You are such a dork. Now don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m going to be with Nate, it’s almost guaranteed.” Giving her another quick kiss before she let him loose he said, “I’ll call you once this is over. Love you.”

“We love you too,” he said as he walked out the door. Now to just get this over with and he can get all this nonsense behind him. Then his phone started vibrating, he looked at it and the message it told him about. Now he was getting confused, why was Nate waiting for him outside his apartment building?

***
Sitting on the hood of his car Nate just waited for his brother to come down. All things considered he wouldn’t say he was surprised that Marcus didn’t respond to his text. Nate kept glancing at his phone expecting to see the ‘WTF’ from him. Maybe his brother was maturing just a little. Either that or he was waiting to say it to his face. After a few more minutes Marcus finally walked through the building's main door. Not looking all that happy but still there he was. And if asked Nate would claim it was the usual sibling bond that made him say right off the bat, "Holy hell, you actually look decent."

They were brothers, brothers always gave each other a hard time.

And maybe Marcus was maturing because he didn't take the bait, he didn't even flip him off. Instead he just looked annoyed then said, "I was coming in."

"I know you were," Nate told him. Then he added, "It was the Director's call, not mine. Hop in," he said getting off his hood.

"I have a car," he reminded him.

"I know," Nate said as he opened the driver's side door. "But this way we can hang out a bit before we get there. I can give you a quick lay of the current landscape while we're driving in."

Marcus actually sighed a bit as he walked over and opened the passenger side door. Now that felt more like the brother he knew. Now if he says…. "You could have opened the door for me at least." And there it was, the brother he knew and loved.

"Next you'll be expecting me to wine and dine you," Nate said as he got in the car.

He stood there a moment before saying, " I don't know what you were expecting but I am not an easy date."

***
From the window Kat watched them pull away. Marcus said he was going to turn them down. She had no reason not to believe him. But he also said he had no plans on using that driver as he called it again and look at how that turned out. She knew that wasn't fair, that situation was out of his control. And Nate explained that he pretty much forced it on him.

Still there was this nagging feeling in the back of her mind that was there pretty much as soon as she woke up that morning. And it told her things weren't going to go like he thought. And it just got worse as she watched him get into Nate's car.

She looked back at Maddie, still in her high chair. And making a slight mess with what was left of her breakfast. She smirked, if Marcus saw that. "Daddy's going to do the right thing, right? He’s not going to do anything stupid."

The only answer she received was some happy noises from her daughter as she continued playing with her food.

Looking back out the window she sighed slightly before saying, "Yeah that's what I think too."

***
In the underneath the Cryptids gathered watched with anticipation as their lord stood and walked over to the Priestess, who was standing in her usual place by that pedestal she used to read the trinkets. With an air of authority none present would dare copy he stood next to her. Instead of the voice he usually used that carried to all in attendance he spoke in a tone that only she could hear. “What do you see? Is it time?”

She said nothing sat first, just producing the bag that contained those very trinkets and emptied into one hand. With a flick of her wrist she threw the trinkets onto the pedestal surface. He said nothing as she studied how they fell. Eventually she said, again in a voice only he could hear, “Not yet, but soon my lord.”

He nodded and turned away, giving away none of the disappointment he was feeling at her response. Also the annoyance he felt at how long it took the Priestess to respond this time around. He was certain she saw the answer right away but intentionally drew her response out. Returning to his throne he spoke louder this time, “What is the status of the new tunnels?”

“Several are close to completion my lord,” Sone who stepped forward and took a knee with a lowered head. After their initial attack into the human city above they would be watching that tunnel. The scouts he had monitoring the tunnel in case the humans dared to use it to invade their world, had reported the humans doing the same thing that they were, just watching, and waiting as they were doing at several of their exits. In response he ordered several more to be dug, each one leading to a different location to the world above. The man continued, “Two are closer to completion than the others.”

“For now concentrate on those two,” he ordered. “The time for our next offensive draws near.” While he spoke he kept the Priestess in view, just to judge her reaction to his proclamation. There was nothing negative in her reaction so far so he kept going. “Gather our forces and have them prepare for battle. We lost the element of surprise since the humans will be waiting for us. So we must do what we can to attack where they least expect us to. Go prepare.”

Without any need of another command the room emptied, all except a couple of the guards who stayed at their post. He sat there in silence. Muttering to himself, “The human’s will cower in fear of our might. The Rider be damned.”

***
As they drove down familiar streets Macus’s mind wandered back as he and Nate used to walk to their current destination when they got out of high school. Those days seemed like forever ago at times. Nate was relying to talk to him and honestly he was only half listening to what he was saying. About how things were in the organization now compared to back then. Honestly, it sounded a hell of a lot like what their dad used to say back in the day when they used to ask him about it. Then they pulled up to the gates and he sat up a little straighter. Okay those seemed to be a tad bigger than when they used to come here. “Okay those are sorta new.”

“There’s been some upgrades since back in the day,” Nate commented as he pulled up to the guard station, ID card already in hand to give to the man on duty. “Hey Tommy,” he greeted the man as he held out the card. The guard barely glanced between the photo and him before handing it back

“Welcome back Captain,” Tommy sad in return then he leaned in to get a better look at him. So far not looking that impressed at what he was seeing, “So this is?”

“His plus one?,” Marcus offered.

"Marcus Cole,” Nate quickly said. “He’s on the visitor list.” The guard who Nate swore on the way here was usually a pretty friendly guy as far as he was concerned just kept looking at Marcus before finally going back to his station and returning with a tablet in his hand. Marcus sat there really wanting to say something but was, for the moment at least, keeping quiet. The guard leaned in close to Marcus, so close he leaned back in response. The guard kept looking back and forth between looking at the screen and Marcus. It was taking so long even Nate looked like he was tempted to say something

Finally he stood straight up, said, "You are good to go Captain," and returned to his station and opened the gates. Nate pulled onto the property with the gates closing right behind them.

"I liked the old guard better," Marcus finally said. "He at least joked around with you while you waited. Is that guy always like that?"

"This is the first time I've seen him check out a visitor who wanted in," he admitted. "That was a bit weird though. I hope he doesn't do that when the usual guests show up."

"Usual guests?", Marcus inquired.

"Government types," he said. Marcus nodded his head in understanding. "And before you ask, yes they're usually as annoying as dad always made them out to be."

"Fun," he quipped as Nate parked the car. As they got out Marcus looked at the building, outside of the heavy gates and guards it looked like any other building in the city but a strange feeling of nostalgia swept over him in the moment. "Now this brings me back."

Nate just nodded before getting all serious again, "Remember, this isn't like when they used to let us hang out in the lobby after school after mom died."

"I know, I know," he said. "Super serious and all that." As they headed toward the building Marcus stuck his hands in his pockets. "I remember we always wondered what was on the other side of those doors we weren't allowed past back then." Nate said nothing, but that did get a smirk out of him. "So how disappointed were you when you finally got past them?"

It was a situation were both of them knew, even back then, that what they imagined would be nowhere close to reality. So he wasn't all that surprised at Nate's answer, "Very."

"So set my expectations low then, got it." The doors slid open automatically once they were close enough. Inside was another guard station, which definitely got one hell of a tech upgrade since he was last here. And the guard looked even less friendly than the first one. Now Marcus was wondering how those more important guests got treated.

"Captain," he said gruffly while eyeballing Marcus. Why did it look like he was just waiting for him to try something? "Your guest’s paperwork seems to be lost. It's going to take a few minutes to verify that he's supposed to be here."

"Then how did he get past the main gate?", Nate argued, obviously getting annoyed at the situation. Around then Marcus recognized what was a hand scanner. They started using an earlier model back in his junior year of high school.

"Don't touch that," the guard snapped seeing what he was looking at. To Nate he said, "You know the procedure sir, if he's not in the system then he needs the proper paperwork to get in."

"Call the director," Nate ordered. "He has a meeting with her." The guard didn't budge. A power play if either of them ever say one. Marcus almost felt sorry for the bastard for the chewing out he was going to get later. Almost. While the two of them went back and forth his eyes kept going back to the scanner. Suddenly he remembered who Nate said was watching the door now. Mostly out of spite Marcus reached out and put his hand on the scanner. The guard saw this and immediately turned to him. He said nothing, just standing there slack jawed as the indicator light went green and the gate opened for him.

From a speaker somewhere a voice spoke up. "Marcus Cole, greetings and welcome back, it has been far too long since your last visit."

A very real wave of nostalgia ran over him, even feeling himself starting to smile a bit as he said, "Thanks Artie."

"And it looks like your security clearance has been raised to level three, congratulations "

"I wouldn't get used to it Artie," Marcus said as he passed through the gate, flipping off the guard along the way. He could just feel Nate just staring at the back of his head. And knowing Nate it wasn't a good type of stare either. Well he wasn't going to be here long term, so why not go for broke. But he did ask, "Level three?"

"It's policy bro," Nate said. Trying to hide his annoyance at how he acted at the guard station. "If you want to get past those doors you have to be least have level three clearance. Now come on, before you insult somebody else.”

"But it's half the fun," he said as they passed those doors they made sound so mythical when they were younger. And he was even more disappointed than he was expecting to be, nothing but offices lined the halls as far as he could tell. Although a few more guards lining the wall looked in his direction. "Oh this is going to be a fun ass day," he muttered.

***
Walking the halls the director studied the report on her tablet on Marcus Cole arrival on site.. Given his attitude at the station she was glad the A.I. delivered the report. The computer never colored what it saw in any way. All it gave was the facts as it recorded them. Actually it was times like these she realized just how she, well maybe not dependent, but relied on them more and more. In situations like this because having a clear picture of events greatly helped in knowing how to handle the situation.

Of course getting the guard perspective on things would be helpful as well, not to mention Captain Cole’s. As thorough as the A.I.’s information can be, it did lack the human element, which could also be extremely useful. And while the guard’s report could be colored a certain way, she would be looking forward to discussing certain details with him. Details like how does paperwork that is entirely electronic gets lost somehow? Yes, that discussion should be quite pleasant, for her.

Quickly she squashed the smile coming to her face as she approached the meeting room the brothers Cole were currently inhabiting. Meetings were never fun, this one particularly less so. Hopefully they could come to an arrangement that would make both sides happy. Without any preamble she walked right in. Upon seeing her both Coles stood up, Trevor Cole raised both of them right it seemed. Although Marccus Cole appeared a bit less respectful about it. If she had to wager a guess, he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. Perhaps the one thing the two of them would agree on today. Might as well get this over with, “Gentlemen,” why did Marcus glance around the room when she said that? “Please sit,” once all of them were back in their seats after taking her chair she leaned forward a bit and looked directly at Marcus, she said, “Mister Cole. According to the Captain you already know the situation thanks to your late father so that will speed things up a bit.”

“I don’t suppose we can just jump to the part where I just give back the driver and walk out the door and you never have to see me again,” he said. Captain Cole shook his head slightly.

"Trust me Mr. Cole,” she told him, “I would love nothing more than to do just that. While you have had some success so far against the Cryptids, you are officially unauthorized to use the QScan driver. Unfortunately so far you seem to be the only person capable of using the driver.”

“I really wish people would stop saying that,” Marcus muttered. If he was aware he said it loud enough that they all heard it she didn’t know. Based on the body language he probably didn’t care that they did.

“And I want to know why,” she went on ignoring it, “hopefully on some level you do as well. With your permission we would like to collect a blood sample..”

“Just have Mr. Roboto here,” he pointed at one of the cameras in the room.

“I find that offensive,” the A.i. spoke up. She glanced up at the speaker in the ceiling, that reaction was unexpected, she should probably have someone look into that.

Marcus wasn’t impressed, “Can you see my face? Does it look like I give a ****?” To her he kept going on his original point. “ Just have whatever program you replaced Artie with look into my medical history. I’m sure you’ll find everything you need to know from that.”

“Artir?,” she asked, a bit confused. Then it hit her, “Ah yes, your little nickname for the A.I. back then. Short for Artificial as I recall.” Now it was time for the two brothers to appear confused..

“You were here back then?”, Marcus asked.

“Oh yes,” she answered. “But I was in administration so we were never officially introduced. Although word of the young man who decided that the computer needed a name was the talk of the entire building as I recall. And believe me Mr. Cole I would love to do just that. Unfortunately I doubt the results would be as accurate as the test we can perform here.”

Turning toward his brother Marcus, his eyes narrowed a bit, and he said, “You knew they were planning on sticking me didn’t you?”

“It’s the first I’m hearing of it,” the Captain quickly told him. The other Cole didn’t look convinced. Turning to her he went, “Director, is this necessary?”

“Evidence you help bring to my attention,” Marcus shot his brother another look but said nothing, “indicated that the QScan driver reacted when he touched it with a bloody hand. It seems a natural starting point. And I assure you we will go faster than you’re currently used to.”

"Because of the current A.I.,” Marcue said, obviously not that thrilled about the idea. “Fine let’s get this over with. Bring in the blood sucker.”

“Marcus,” Captain Cole muttered, rubbing his forehead.

"Get blood work as many times as I have and see how you react,” he shot back.

"Pardon me director,” the A.I. spoke up. “Since our guest gave me permission to do so, there is an oddity reported about his blood.” Maecus groaned but said nothing. He did say they could look after all. “And he isn't exaggerating about the blood work. I am finding records of blood work orders going back for years. So far a Madison Cole….”

“Hey!” Marcus shouted cutting the A.I. off. “Stay out of my daughter’s business or I’ll head down to your server room with the first hammer I can find. My daughter is normal, that’s all you assholes need to know about her.”

“My apologizes Mr. Cole,” she quickly said, seeing this meeting getting out of hand rather quickly. "Our A.I. did overstep it’s boundaries. Just because you gave permission to look in your medical history doesn’t give it the right to look at your daughter's. And I am very glad to hear that she’s healthy.” She was going to do this anyway, but maybe doing it now would help calm things down a bit. “Remove any medical information you gathered on Madison Cole from your database.”

“Removing now,” the A.I. announced. Mister Cole still didn’t look pleased, and what parent would in this situation, bur it seemed to be enough to defuse things like she hoped it would. “Shall I summon Dr. Gordon?”

“Just let him know Mr. Cole is coming to the lab,” she told the A.I.” Standing up she waited until both of them stood as swell. “Captain, if you would please show your brother the way.”

“Might as well get all I can out of that new security clearance that I can,” Mr. Cole quipped.

“This way,” Captain Cole said. And was that a hint of a sigh in that res;ponce? She watched both men leave the room. Hopefully answers would be fast coming and both Mr. Cole and herself could both get what they want out of the situation. But somehow… she was doubting it.

***
“There,” Gordon said as he removed the needle and tube from his forearm after it was filled with the dark red liquid. Marcus Cole immediately pressed down on the cotton placed there without being asked. “That wasn’t so bad now was it?”, he asked as Cole took a piece of tape from one of his assistants to hold it in place. Obviously he’d done this before.

“It was just great,” he said, heavy on the sarcasm. “Let’s do it again, I got a fresh arm that hasn’t been tapped yet.”

Putting the sample he just took on a tray next to him Gordon told him, “That won’t be necessary. We got more than we need right here.” Standing up Gordon removed the gloves he was wearing. “Thanks to the A.I. we’ll get the results back in a fraction of the time. I’d saw we’ll get the first results in under an hour.”

“You guys really need to get this set up in the local hospitals,” he said, walking over to Captain Cole.

Funny they didn’t look related in any way that he could tell. Maybe they had different biological fathers or something. “I’ll let you know when the tests are finished. Maybe our guest would like something to eat.”

“I can eat,” Marcus said.

“It’s probably about lunch time anyway,” Captain Cole said. Reaching down he put a case on the table. “This came down while you were getting ready to collect the blood sample from Marcus. Director Miller said you requested the QScan be brought down here?”

“Yes I did,” Gordon confirmed. “I wanted to run some more diagnostics on it. Figured I multitask a bit, you know, run the diagnostic while the test is going.”

“Nothing wrong with trying to be efficient,” Captain Cole said. “We’ll leave you to it. Come on bro.”

Marcus stood there, “How bad’s the food?”

“Not that nad actually," he said with a shrug. A gesture that didn’t seem to assure the other Cole all that much. “I’ve had worse, but it’s nowhere near as bad as dad made it out to be.”

“Mom always made dad’s lunch,” he said as he finally headed for the door.. Once past he could be heard saying, “I didn’t even get a lollipop.”

“A most interesting character, isn’t he Susan?”, he said with a chuckle.

“Definitely nothing like the Captain,” she agreed with a smirk.

Going over to the case he popped it open and was greeted with the visual of the QScan driver. Carefully hev pulled it out and placed it on the table. He just stared at the driver for a moment before reaching over.and picking up Cole’s blood sample. “We removed all Organic material from the driver?”, he asked looking over at his assistant.

“It’s completely clear,” she said to him. “Me and Rodger both did the sterilization and I had the computer run a level 5 diagnostic. It came up clean as a whistle.”

“Run it again,” he said. “I want to make absolutely sure any trace of Cole’s blood is no longer present in the driver.” Looking up he addressed the A.I.,”How soon can the test on Marcus Cole’s blood be done?”

“Depending on the level of testing that’s required, I estimate a minimum of an hour and a half to run the test.” He silently nodded at the answer. Technically that was around what he estimated. “However.” However? What was with the however? The answer was soon coming. “Dr. Henigan has reported the centrifuge is currently down and he doesn’t have an estimate on when it will be fixed.”

“Son of a *****,” he muttered. Without thinking he placed the vail on the table and started to walk away. It was working just this morning, what happened?

“Dr. Gordon!,” Susan called out. He turned around to see her looking at the QScan driver. His eyes went there immediately. The screen was flickering a bit. He walked toward it astonished at what he was seeing. It wasn’t activated a moment ago, he was sure of it.

Looking the scene over he noticed the vial had rolled over to it. On a hunch he picked up the vial. As soon as he did the screen went dark again. Looking over at Susan, who confirmed that she saw that too, he held up the vial just staring at the dark red liquid within. “Change of plans. I want that centrifuge fixed ASAP.”

***

“Keep digging!,” the overseer ordered while cracking a whip at those he was commanding. Ones who were too weak to be of use or those who broke the laws but not one that came with a fatal penalty. “Our lord has chosen our work as the the path into the world above.” One more crack of the whip punctuated his point. One of his workers flinched, unfortunately for that poor soul the overseer caught the reaction. Pointing at the now panicking wretch he said, “Take that one away.”

A pair of guards started forward, causing the one to panic more. He turned to his companions, who he thought were his friends. They ignored him, just kept on toiling away so they didn’t draw the overseer wraith as well. “No!” he cried out as the guards grabbed him and dragged him away, “NOOOOOOO!” A few who dared watched as he was dragged over to a couple more who placed a fair sized rock and made him kneel over it, making sure his head and neck were hanging over it. Even fewer still dared to watch, or got a sick thrill, out of him screaming out right until one of the guards brought his weapon down, The body went slack as he screamed no more.

“Pathetic,” the Overseer spat as he returned his gaze back toward the masses who were working harder now after the execution. Through the masses one of the guards placed near the front forced his way toward him. Those he knocked down scrambled to get back to their feet and return to working on the tunnel. “What is it?”, he demanded. His head turned slightly as he spotted the long, round metallic mass he was carrying

“I’m not sure,” he said as he cradled whatever it is, or was based on how it looked, in his arms, almost like he was holding a child. “The slave tore it loose further down the tunnel. Some sort of lightning killed at least one. It seemed important, Our lord should be made aware of it.” The guard held it out for him to take, at that same time a couple of more were dragging that fool that it killed. The rest of the wretches will be eating well for the foreseeable future. It was way more than they deserved. However the guard was still holding the human made thing. That guard was still alive so obviously whatever killed the bastard no longer worked. Still the overseer was extremely reluctant to take hold of it.

The metal it was made from was cool to the touch as he held out with one hand at arms length. Only giving it the quickest of glances he just as quickly dropped it to the ground. Unfortunately it didn’t break like he hoped when it hit the ground. “It is nothing of importance,” he finally decreed. The guard said nothing, but the overseer could see the disbelief in his face. “Our lord wants this tunnel to the above finished as soon as possible,” he said, with a bit more defiance then was probably necessary. He was the overseer and he was the one in charge here, not this guard. “This tunnel will be finished and not delayed to bother our lord with something that trivial,” he pointed at the device. “Make sure the work continues,” he ordered. As he stormed off further down the tunnel he missed the guard reaching down and scooping the device back up and hand it to another guard who after a brief conversation nodded once and went in the opposite direction.

***
Nate walked back into the room he’d left Marcus. He still looked as annoyed as when he was asked to go to the lab. Well, if he was being honest, he was looking even more annoyed than when he left. At least he was still in the chair and not wearing out the finish of the floor. The idea he was alone in the room was a bit confusing. Yes he had a level three clearance now but there still should have been someone in here with him.

Checking his phone for a second before putting it away then asking, “What did they need to see you for?”

Taking one of the chairs close to him Nate answered him with, “They wanted some blood from me roo.” Marcus looked rightfully confused at that, he was too when they told him. Nate just shrugged as he said, “They said something about doing a comparison or something.

Still looking a tad confused Marcus leaned forward a bit. Waving a finger around he went, “Those geniuses around here know I’m adopted right?”

“They should,” he said. “I’m fairly sure it’s not classified information,” he added with a smirk. It took a moment but Marcus started smirking back. “You been in here the entire time?”

“Where else was I going to go?”, he asked. “After you were called away the director left pretty much right after. And I’m pretty sure they don’t want me just wandering around the place.”

“We wouldn’t have lost you,” Nate assured him.

“Right,” he muttered, glancing up at the ceiling. Nate didn’t have to tell him since the A.I. program monitored security it would have kept tabs on him the entire time. Actually Nate wouldn’t have been surprised if it was doing it right now since Marcus was an unknown at the moment. Suddenly Marcus started smirking again, “Hey remember that other kid who used to be able to hang out in the lobby with us?”

“Other…? Oh yeah,” he said leaning back in his chair a bit. “I haven’t thought about that guy in ages. What was his name again?”

“I don’t know,” Marcus told him. “I remember we always called him the idiot after he got himself kicked out of here.”

“Right after he sneaked through those doors,” he pointed back in the general direction of the entrance way to this part of the building. “After being repeatedly told that we weren’t allowed that point. I also remember having to talk you out of going with him.”

“”Hold up,” Marcus cut in. “I’m the one who had to keep you from going with him.”

“That’s not how it happened,” he insisted.

“Yes it was, you thought the idiot was super cool and wanted to be his friend.”

“You have lost your mind.”

You are so lucky I can’t get access to Aerie to prove you wrong.” Then he got a look on his face. And that look usually made Nate nervous, because he had no idea where his brother’s mind would go. “Hey that guard who was giving us a hard time about me getting in. He seemed familar for some reason. You don’t think…?”

“”That it was him?, Nate finished the thought for him. “No, there’s no way. Could it?” They stared at each other for a moment before the two of them broke out in a small chuckle. That idea was just so absurd. Mauve absurd enough to be true. Nate made a mental note to check in on it, just to prove he was right about it being that ridiculous.

His phone started to vibrate. “Just a sec,” he told Marcus as he checked it. It went straight to vibrate, usually that meant the A.I. had something. Reading the screen quickly he tried to keep any reaction off his face. Since when have there been seismic sensors in the city? They weren’t near any fault lines that he was aware of.

“Something up?”, Marcus asked, almost warily.

“I’m not sure,” Nate answered him. It was the truth at least, he had no idea what this meant. But if Marcus was thinking it was Cryptid related then chances were that hunch wasn’t wrong.

The door to the room opened and the Director came through looking at a tablet. Nate had no doubt that she was looking at the same information he was. “Gentlemen, “ she said without looking up and took a seat that faced the two of them. When she did look up it was directly at Marcus. “Has Captain Cole informed you of what is going on?”

“Nothing specific,” Marcus answered. “He got some sort of alert right before you walked in.”

Adjusting himself in his seat Nate spoke up, "I actually had a question about that alert.” He glanced over at his brother out of the corner of his eye. How much should they reveal in front of him? Marcus seemed to pick up on this since he motioned to himself then at the door.

The Director apparently had a different line of thinking. “Back in the mid to late nineties there was a line of thinking that the Cryptid could attack in the middle of the city. The ones in charge at the time received permission to install sensors throughout the city to monitor for that very situation. When that didn’t happen and the Cryptid threat died down they fell into miss use.” And that question he had was just answered. Now he wondered how his brother was going to react to all of that.

“I’m guessing that they did just that not that long ago changed that,” he ended up saying. So far he seemed to be taking this seriously.

“Well they were quickly rediscovered after it happened,” the Director said putting the tablet down in front of her. “It surprised nearly everyone when the A.I. found the file. Ever since then we been working hard to get them back online. We even have plans to upgrade them, once the proper paperwork is filed and approved.”

Marcus looked over at him, “Am I the only one hearing Dad complaining that the Cryptids will have taken over by then?” Despite himself Nate snorted a bit. That was something Dad would say.

“It will take some time,” the director said with as straight a face as ever “But right now it’s just speculation.”

“Right,” he spoke up. “For all we know it could have gone on the fritz because it’s a few decades old at this point.”

“Seriously?”, Marcus asked.

“It’s part of the job bro,” he said.

“Indeed,” the director chimed in. “Part of the good Captain’s job is to consider all possibilities. Even the possibility that the issue may not be Cryptid related.” If she was going to say anything else it apparently had to wait as Dr. Gordon burst through the door with one of his assistants, who was carrying the QScan case, in tow. A flash of annoyance crossed her face but it just as quickly disappeared.. “Yes Doctor?”

“You have to see this,” he said with some degree of excitement, which seemed a tad worrying for some strange reason and he placed the QScan driver on the table so they could all see it. “Just to start off as a baseline here’s a vial of my blood,” he said producing said vail from a pocket of his lab coat. He waved it in front of the driver. All three of them leaned forward, then looked at each other. Marcus shrugged his shoulders, None of them saw anything. “Nothing right? Now watch this I have a sample of the Captain's blood.”

“He doesn’t know I’m adopted does he?”, Marcus sighed.

Gordon heard this, then deflated a bit. “Oh, well then. As you can clearly see there’s no reaction as well.” Then that excitement returned with a vengeance as he reached and pulled another vial of blood. “Now this is the sample we took from Mr. Cole here. Watch.” He brought the vial close to the driver. Marcus’ eyes just went a bit wider and the director arched an eyebrow as the screen seemed to react. “I have to do more tests and get some samples from other people but it seems to be reacting to your blood.”

“Doctor Gordon,” the Director cut in, “We were already aware of that…”

“I know, I know,” he quickly said. Reaching into another pocket he pulled out another vial. An empty one? He held out closer so each of them could see it. Marcus’ look of confusion and the director’s look of disinterest was telling the whole story. This time the doctor’s level of excitement didn’t seem to diminish. “I remembered that you had an anomaly in your blood. With the A.I.’s help I was able to separate some of it from the sample we took. Now Nate saw it, the vial wasn’t empty, not exactly. There in the bottom was the tiniest of liquid dot. So clear it almost blended in with the glass container it was in.

Marcus leaned in, eyes squinting as it took him a moment to see it as well. “So that’s what every blood test I’ve ever taken has been picking up?”

“Yes,” Doctor Gordon was almost giddy at this point. But where was he going with this? “Now I did this in the lab first just to see if my theory was correct. And it was,’ Without any further preamble he brought the vial closer to the driver. It reacted almost immediately, the screen glowing brighter than before.

“What the ****?”, Marcus muttered.

“The driver is clear of contamination?”, the director asked.

“I had the A.I. run the diagnostic twice before I tried this,” Gordon informed her. "It was clear of anything that came from Mister Cole is gone from the driver. And it’s still reacting to it.”

“Doctor,” Nate spoke up. “How is that possible?”

“And please put it in English,” Marcus added.

“”I’m not sure I could explain it in Klingon,” Gordon told them. Picketing the vial he started walking sound, just talking, “Even if I could I’m not even sure where to begin.” He only paused as he locked eyes with the Director. “Try, right. Okay best guess, and the only thing that makes any sense even though it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It’s almost, it’s almost like the driver was made with you in mind.”

“Again, What the ****?”, Marcus said.

“Bro,” Nate whispered to him, hoping he’ld calm down a bit. But Nate spoke up anyway, just in case. “Doctor Gordon, is that even possible?”

“It shouldn’t be,” he began.

“It isn’t,” the director quickly cut in, drawing all their attention. “The drives were not created for a single user. Both drivers were designed for any qualified individual could use it.”

“Both drivers?”, Marcus seemed to focus on that particular phrase.

“I know,” Gordon replied, “but based on what I’m seeing it’s the only thing that makes sense.” Nate on the other hand was keeping his attention on Marcus. He knew that look on his face, he was not happy about something. And he knew what it was. Damn it, he thought he told Marcus about the other driver.

Oblivious to this the director went on, “I know what you think you see Doctor but that simply isn’t possible.”

“Hold up,” Marcus said leaning forward in his chair. “There’s another driver? You have two drivers?" He looked at all of them looking for an answer. “Why the hell am I here?”

“Marcus…”, Nate began.

“If you have another driver you don’t need me.

“I wish that was true,’ the director told him.

Nate jumped back in before his brother could say anything, “It’s not that simple.”

“We do have another driver,” the director said. “It’s development was halted after we realized the potential of the QScan driver.”

Nate decided to take over the conversation,”I told you the QScan was an updated version of Dad’s BScan driver. The other one is an upgraded version of that. But it isn’t ready.”

“Then make it ready,” he insisted.

“We are Mister Cole,” The director said. “Once you became part of the picture I ordered development of the BScan to be fast tracked.”

"Problem solved then,” Marcus said and started to get up. “Nate can take over the Rider duties, I can get back to a normal life..”

“”It’ll be weeks before the other driver is ready for field use. Maybe months.”

Slumping back into the chair Marcus mumbled, “Of course it is.”

“Bro, believe me we wouldn’t be having this conversation if that driver was ready.”

“Perhaps a break is in order,” the director said suddenly. “Let cooler heads prevail as it were.” With that she stood up and exited the room. Doctor Gordon looked confused for a moment before following. After the assistant left as well leaving just the two of them and the QScan driver that Marcus kept staring at.

“Can I just go home now?” he asked.

***
In the underground the overseer pushed the workers even harder. They were close; he felt it in his very bones. “Stup!”, he called out. It toom several moments for the ones under him finally got the masses to stop. “Out of my way,” he ordered, pushing several of the slaves aside while he made his way through to the front. Their lord had picked his work to deliver his forces. He would see it through, no matter how many of these filth he had to sacrifice. This was his crowning moment. No one would take it from him.

At the front the ones smart enough to realize quickly moved to the sides. One who didn’t live long enough to realize his mistake as he shoved a blade through that one’s ribs and let the body fall. This was his moment and his alone.

At the front he examined the earth in front of him. There was a difference here. He could feel it and reached out and grabbed a sample, rubbing between his fingers. A close examination reveal some sort of metal coil. They were close. He was close. Waving one of the guards forward he said, “Tell our lord we are nearly ready. We await his word to bust through after he sends his army.”

“At once overseer,” he said and started to make his way through the masses. Savoring his moment of triumph. And it was his moment this tunnel will send that very army to the world above. This was his moment on no one else's.

***
“The director sent you guys some coffee,” some random person walked in carrying a tray of the dark liquid. Apparently fairly fresh too seeing how they were still steaming. “Enjoy," he said placing the tray down and exiting the room.

Marcus wasn’t seeing Nate’s reluctance to take one of the cups as a good sign. Eventually both of them reached out and took one. Taking a sip Marcus made a face.”That's not coffee. That’s just hot barely flavored water.”

“I’ve had bad before,” Nate said putting ithe cup dowm, “but I’m pretty sure actual paint thinner would taste better.” With a finger he pushed the cup a little further away.

“Pretty sure this would be a stoning offense back in the day,” Marcis told him. “At least according to dad.”

“I think it still is in parts of the world,” Nate said with a slight chuckle. Marcus was appreciating the attempt to lighten the mode a bit. He was not in the best of one after the director called for a break. It was probably the main reason why Nate hadn’t really said outside of some attempted small talk that quickly went nowhere. His brother knew exactly what kind of mood he was currently in Then his phone started vibrating again. He checked it, grimaced before glancing at him before looking at the door.

“If you gotta go get ready,” he offered.

“No,” said before looking at the phone again/.

“Not really being all that convincing man.” A panel on the wall slid open revealing a huge monitor. Marcus found himself standing up and walking a little closer to it. What he wouldn’t do to have something like this in his living room. He turned toward Nate, “Moving nights around here has to be pretty fucking cool.”

Nate stood up staring at the screen. The look on his face wasn’t exactly saying that this was a good thing. Marcus flinched a little as the screen suddenly flared to life. A lone white dot appeared. “Pardon the interruption,” the dot quickly turned into a line that moved in time with the A,I,’s voice. “But Mr. Cole, can I call you Marcus?”

“Is this thing serious?”, he asked Nate.

“This is a new one to me,” he said.

“Well.” Did that thing sound annoyed? That sounded like an annoyed tone to him. “I feel like we got off to a bad start earlier. I was hoping to be a bit more friendly.” The two of them just looked at each other equally confused at what was happening.

“Was there something you were going to tell my brother?”,Nate asked.

“Yes there was,” the A.I. said. “I’ve been analyzing the anomaly in your blood. It is truly fascinating. I’ve don’t have anything like it currently in my database. I’ve compared it to every type of sample I have access to, human, animal, Cr….”

“Back up,” Masrcus cut in. “Animal? What the actual ****?”

“I have to go with my brother on this one,” Nate piped in.

“Thanks for the back up,” he said.

“The A.I.,” they turned to see the director walk into the room, “is just being thorough. Like it was programmed to do. Admittedly it does it’s job a little too well at times.”

After an electronic cough from the overhead speakers the A.I. said, “Yes, well it is a unique mystery. I don’t run into a lot of those. With your permission, I will continue to look into it.”

“You know what,” Marcus started, “go ahead.” Nate looked at him, yeah he caught him off guard with that one. “I’ve had this thing my entire life. It would be great to finally find out what it is.”

“It will be my pleasure.”

“That’s all well and good,” the director said as she came closer, “however we do have a situation.”

“Correct,” the computer said. The line was replaced with a map of the city. “The seismic activity the old sensors were detecting, the ones still active anyway, have picked up some increased activity.”

“”The activity has grown so muc that various scientific institutes have started detecting them,” the director added “Given the increased intensity and that a line of them suddenly went offline, we feel this indicates that the Cryptids are on the move.”

“Do we know where?”, Nate asked.

“We have a general location based on where the sensors stopped functioning and how strong the vibration readings the others has been picking up,” the A.I. said. Without being asked a rather large yellow circle appeared. With the yellow color looking stronger in the middle compared to the outer edges.”My apologies given what limited information this is the best approximation I can calculate.”

“That's still a pretty big area,” Nate commented. “Is there any way to narrow the target area down?”

“Not given the current means,” was the answer. Marcus didn’t have to look at his brother to know that wasn’t the response he was looking for.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nate nod, probably to the current director. So Marcus wasn't all that surprised when Nate suddenly went, "Excuse us a moment."

"Take your time," he said. The two of them quickly left the room leaving him and the map. That and a nagging feeling he was trying to ignore ever since that spot showed on the map. Staring at that way too general location he started chewing on a knuckle. Damn it he had to be sure. Looking back at the door briefly he returned to the map. Taking a deep breath he said. "Artie if you can hear me, please let me know."

There was nothing for a moment then the current A.I. spoke. "Granted I'm not the program you want. But the one you call 'Artie' is part of my digital make up. I know everything he does. So I am aware of the connection you two shared, and I am inclined to help you any way I can."

And this felt like he was cheating on Artie in some weird way, but he was getting desperate and he had to be sure. "Can you pull up where I currently live in placement to this map?"

"Yes aI can, but you may not like it." A new location showed up. And the machine was right he didn't like it. That dot showing his apartment showed up, right inside the general area the machine was predicting.

"Thank you," he said turning away. He pulled out his phone and as quickly as he could sent Kat a message. "What are you two up to?" He didn't want to panic her, at least not yet.

"Me and Maddie are about to go out" was the reply that came a long moment later. Another one came right after, "We still need some things for dinner tonight."

Marcus's eyes immediately shot back to the map and he quickly typed, "Don't". Quickly he added. "I'll explain later. But don't go out right now." He stared at his phone waiting for a response. Damn it he should have called her directly.

Then, "Ok."

She had to be freaking out right now. But the only thing he could think to respond with was, "I call you as soon as I can. I love you."

"Love you too. Be careful."

Lowering his phone Marcus stared at the map. Something Kat said would probably pop into his head in full force. Right now it was going to be an argument on who was going to be more annoyed that she was right. Worry about that **** later Cole, he told himself. He took a few breaths then rushed out the door looking around.

"Marcus?", he heard Nate say and quickly located him and the director a bit further down the hall. Kat was going to be the most annoyed, no question about it now.

Practically running over he talked to the director directly. "Look, we have something incoming. You have two drivers and one isn't ready. And one nobody around here can use."

"Currently," she said in a snarky way.

"Right. You're into compromises right? So here's my offer. I'm currently the only person that it's responding to. So I'll be your Rider until you get the other one working. Then Nate can take over like everyone planned. Deal?"

Nate took him by the arm, "Bro, she's not…."

"Those terms are agreeable," she cut him off. Nate looked stunned. Honestly Marcus was kinda shocked himself. "We have a situation developing and we don't have any immediate options.”

Nate looked between the two of them. Not looking all that pleased slowly he nodded, “Right/ Let’s go Marcus. We need to get teams in place as soon as possible.”

“Got it,” he said, as he followed his brother down the hall.

***
In the back of one of the vans, Nate stood going over the extremely loose battle plans they had to come up with on the fly. He had sent several similar vans ahead of themr, with some type of portable seismic reader on board. Nate didn’t know how accurate or sensitive they were supposed to be but it was all they had at the moment. “Remember,” he said to the driver, “keep us loose and on the move..”

“Yes sir,” came the reply.

He nodded, “Once one of the other teams makes contact with the Cryptids get us to that location as soon as possible.”

“”Wish we had a siren to get people out of the way.”

“You and me both,” Nate told him before turning back to the rest. There wwe about six other men in her with him. And five of them were staring at Marcus who was sitting away from them, staring at the QAcan case at his feet.

Nate overheard one of his guys say, “We sure he’s not going to cut and run?” Nodding his head toward his brother Nate tried not to let his anger rise too much. Granted the guy had a point still that was his family he was insulting.

Fortunately for the one who said it somebody else said something before he did. “This is the second time he faced a Cryptid.”

Grabbing a spare flack jacket off a rack Nate walked past them saying, “The third time,” just loud enough for both of them to hear. Luckily for the first guy he knew enough to shut it.. Walking over to Marcus he waited until he finally looked up to offer it to him. “Just to be on the safe side. You know some of those things can shoot something without the hardware we carry. As he took it Nate sat next to him. “You all right?”

Marcus didn’t see anything as he put the offered jacket on and fastened it without any extra help. Another one of Dad’s lessons while they were growing up. Good thing his brother seemed to remember this lesson. Eventually he said, “I’m not trying to steal you thunder man.”

“Bro I know,” Nate assured him. “I was trying to talk you into this, remember? Don’t get upset with the A.I. but I asked what it showed you that changed your mind. I get it, believe me. If I had what you have I would have made the same offer. I’m still shocked the director went with it.” Marcus’ eyes went back to the case. “Bro we got this. Think of it this way, we both been saying that we needed to hang out more”

Finally Marcus cracked a smile, “Not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more like a bar or something.”

“Where do you think we’re celebrating after this is over,” he said, elbowing him in the arm lightly. “Just remember, hang back until we identify the one leading this one. Then you engage, got it?” Nate held out a fist.

Bumping it with the back of his Marcus went, “Got it.” It was a gesture they’ve been doing since they were kids. Basically they were saying that they had each other's back going into a situation. Nate wouldn’t admit it out loud but he always found it reassuring. "Wait until you find the bastard then get it with the souped up back heel kick."

"Back hook kick," he said correcting him. And suppressing the sigh that was threatening to come out along with it. All this time and he still didn't know the name of that particular move.

Marcus looked at him, brow fully furrowed in confusion, "Really?

"Yes."

"You're sure."

"One hundred percent."

"Then where in the hell was I getting back heel?", he asked after a moment.

"Beats me," Nate answered him. "But maybe if you didn't:t have the attention span of a gnat when people were trying to teach you stuff."

“Captain!”, the driver called back before Marcus could say anything in return.

Nate stood up and headed back toward the front, “What is it?”

“Just got a report from delta team,” he said. “They got a hit and ir’s getting stronger.””

“”Any chance it's a train of some sort?”

“Negative sir. They report that they’re not near any subway tunnels or above ground tracks.”

“Head us toward their location,” Nate told him. Turning toward someone else he said, “Have the other teams send some men toward the same area. If this isn’t them I want the rest to keep searching and I don’t want them too short handed if they run into their actually entry point.”

“Relaying the orders now,” he said..Looking back he saw the others, including Marcus, get ready for the upcoming battle. If luck was with them then they would be in position before the first one broke through. And he knew that chances were very likely that they weren’t that lucky.

***
“Break through now!”, the overseer commanded. At that order his diggers pushed through the wall into something obviously artificial. His moment of personal triumph was immediately ruined as one of the warriors pushed him aside into the wall of the very tunnel he had just created. Then he was grabbed by a couple more and forcibly dragged deeper back into the tunnel before he could mount any sort of protest.

Looking around the one who took the lead surveyed the area they entered then pointed toward a set of stairs that led into the light. “There,” His men rushed past him and made their way to the surface. As soon as the first one hit the street above he was quickly assaulted by the weapons of the humans who lived above them. The one who arrived first quickly covered up trying to protect himself. As more ran toward the light the lead warrior turned his head toward the one who now stood to his left. Looking back into the tunnel he looked back to his other man and nodded sharply once. The man returned the nod and headed back into the tunnel.

“Hold them off!”, the delta team leader shouted before leveling his assault rifle and fired off another round of bullets at the Cryptids pouring out of the underground entrance. A series of scream around them said the area wasn’t empty of civilians. “Damn it,” he muttered while firing over another burst from his rifle. Looking around quickly he just saw some of those people go down like they were shot. “Update to all forces, there are shooters in the cryptids! Repeat, shooters in the Cryptids!”

“Sarge!” A round of fire cut him off. But he did point in one particular direction. Right at some of those very people trying not to get hit from either side. This particular group seemed like they were trapped.

“Hardy, grab one of the others and get them out of here!”

“Understood! Jimmy on me.”

“Give them cover!” he ordered. The rest of his men increased their fire to try and keep the Cryptids from heading toward those trapped and the two trying to help them. “Now we gotta wait for the Captain and the others to get with that bug armor.”

***
Maddie’s crying drew Kat to her. Picking her up, she said, “It’s okay honey she softly repeating it over and over as she started walking around the room. Usually it was a guessing game as to figuring out why her daughter was crying. This time the sudden sirens was probably the culprit, as she started doing this right after, so she was probably startled/. “It’s okay, it’s just a loud noise.” A loud noise that’s going to be heard semi-regularly in the future. Kat hoped Maddie would get used to it if Maecus and Nate were right about those things showing back up. A part of her really hoped they were wrong because she really didn’t want her to get use to it.

“Attention,” the channel she had on suddenly changed to a news broadcast. And her heart dropped and held Maddie a little closer because she knew exactly what he was going to say. “An immediate stay in place order has been issued. Authorities say the mysterious creatures identified as Cryptids have attacked the city.” And there it was, just like she feared. “A counter attack by a private organization has been mounted according to sources. Everyone watching this broadcast is strongly encouraged to stay indoors in case the battle zone spreads and to stay out of the way.”

Kat softly bounced Maddie up and down the whole time and thinking back to the texts Marcus sent herself. Before long she sighed, “Daddy’s doing something stupid isn’t he?”

***
The van came to a screeching halt as the back door burst open as Nate and his men rushed out and quickly joined the conflict while two more pulled up soon after. Marcus did as he was told and hung back near the open door along with the poor guy Nate assigned to stay with him and watched the action. Marcus didn’t know the dude at all but it was obvious he wanted to jump in there and not babysit him. “****!”, Marcus cried out as something hitting the van made both of them draw back. “Shooter, definitely shooter.”

“What was your first hint?”, his babysitter spat as he looked back around the corner.

“The **** I put up with for my family,” Marcus muttered as he returned to the same spot. Just find the one in charge, he repeated to himself. Take that one out and the rest go away. “Do you see the chief yet?”

“No sign of the freak so far,” was the answer. A scream caught Marcus’ attention. Over to side a woman, hold something ducked down as whatever the cryptids were shooting hit the wall right after she ducked. That would have been a kill shot if she hadn't moved. “Civilian on the right!”, he called out at the same time Marcus ran for her. “Cole!”

Hearing his last name Nate looked back, “Marcus!”. He silently cursed what he saw before going back to holding off the Cryptids with his assault rifle. “Does he at least have the driver?” And he was afraid of the answer he was going to get.

Straying down, Marcus heard projectiles fly over his head as he made his way over to the woman. When he got there he saw that she was covering up a child, probably hers. And this just got more complicated. “Stay down,” he ordered once he finally reached the two of them. “Look at me, look at me.” Both of them looked up at him, fucking scared as hell. “”Hey there buddy,” he said to the kid before looking back up to see where the action was. So far Nate and some of the others were holding them off.

“I’m scared,” the kid said.

“So am I,” Marcus said without thinking. “But anybody would be with this going on.” Looking around again he tried to go over his options. And he also quickly realized why Nate would have been so much better at going over those options quickly. Again without thinking he started undoing the flack jacket. “Listen to me,” he said pulling it off and pointing in the opposite direction than the cryptids, “That way is safe. Put this one, it’ll give you a little more protection. There are people down there who will help you get out of here faster.”

“What about you?”, she said eyeing the jacket looking completely unsure of what was happening. And he wasn’t all that positive himself at that particular moment.

“I gotta stay here. Yeah I know” he added as he put the jacket on her. “Now stay in front of the kid!” He shoved her in the direction he pointed to to get both of them going. Then he looked back and saw the Cryptids were advancing. “Oh ****,” he muttered before making a dash for the van. Something exploded at his feet causing him to stumble and fall to the street.

“Crush the humans,” One Crytid that looked fairly devilish commanded. Several Cryptids rush forwards despite the continued gunfire.

“Think we found the chief,” he said scooting back a bit.when he seemed to zero in directly on him.

“Target located,” Nate called out as he came to the same conclusion. Without any additional commands his men started concentrating their fire on that particular Cryptid. If there was any doubt they had the right onr they were quickly squashed as more than a couple jumped in the way to protect him. Then he noticed the target was looking directly at Marcus. And he didn’t have the driver. “Hold the line!” Still firing he started backing up before turning around and running toward the van. “Give me the driver!” The man he assigned to watch his brother handed it over without any hesitation. He quickly popped it open then looked at the situation. The cryptid kept his eyes directly on his brother who was trying to crawl backwards to get away. “Marcus!”, he shouted before grabbing both parts of the driver. Both of them looked in his direction. Without warning he reared back and threw the driver.

Marcus immediately popped up and grabbed it. Slapping the buckle against his waist and it fastened itself around his waist. As Nate opened fire on the Cryptid again hoping to distract it long enough for Marcus to finish the sequence. Holding thew diamond shape in his other hand swiping the screen with his thumb before holding it out in front of him. Tapping the QR code on the screen with that same thumb the driver uttered a “Ready.” Drawing the driver back he shouted, “Henshin!” before slotting it diagonally into the buckle. Snapping it into place by moving his hands to the side.A giant QR code formed in front of him before sliding back toward him.

This time Marcus ran toward it, passing through it looking pixelated as he came through. The pixels quickly solidified into the armor as the driver said, “Kamen Rider Aegis” as he ran in and threw a punch at the Cryptid. It stumbled back and he kept up his assault. Soon it was acting like it was rocked. Other Cryptids saw this and quickly ran over to help their leader.

“Keep the area clear!”, Nate called out as they tried to cut the Calvary out of that particular fight.

“More coming out!”, somebody called over the comm line.

Nate looked past the initial charge to see just that as his Sargent announced, “I see it. I’m going to take a group to try and close it off.”

“Confirmed,” Nate said. “Be careful but close that hole.” The last thing they needed was even more Cryptids showing up to replace this batch. He looked back at Marcus who still had the apparent leader down that blitz attack he did definitely caught it off guard, this could be over before any of them knew it. Then Marcus paused and looked at something. “What in the hell?” Then the creature popped up knocking his brother back, then it swatted him around a bit before the Cryptid grabbed him and threw him across the street into an alley. Nate immediately pulled the trigger on his rifle targeting that particular Cryptid. Without an order given his men quickly followed suit. He had to get himself back under control, that was an impulse action. “Did anybody see what my brother was looking at?”

“Captain across the street, that sign.” The man next to him pointed out. He looked over and quickly spotted it. More importantly he saw the QR code one it.

“I didn’t tell him,” he muttered putting together what happened. “Joel meet me at that alley entrance.”

“Rodger,” came the reply right before one of the men backed out of his group and headed in that direction. Fifing another burst Nate went around the van and made his way there as well. Compared to Joel his approach was a bit less careful in comparison.

When both of them hit the alley opening they found his brother just sitting uo grabbing the back of his head and moaning slightly. “Marcus!”, he exclaimed as he rushed over as Joel covered the opening.

Looking in his direction Marcus waited until he knelt down before responding, “When did they bring in King Kong?”

“That wasn’t Kong,” he said. “Marcus, tha QR code. What color was it?” Marcus just looked at him. And knowing Marcus well enough he could just picture the confused look on his face. “The driver has it’s own independent A.I. system. It’s designed to locate and identify compatible codes for upgrades. What color was that code?”

“Blue,” he said, “it was blue.”

“Blue,” he repeated as he turned to look at the code. They were just concealed enough that they should be able to do this without any major interruptions. “That means a weapon, that could be useful. Joel, how far away are the Cryptids?”

“Not even looking our way,” was the answer. “The boys are holding off the rest.”

“Got it,” Nate said. Hopefully he would have time to explain this. Joel would warn him when that time ran out “Marcus listen to me very carefully. You need to use the driver and scan the code with it.”

“Remove the driver?”, he asked starting to stand. “Won’t that deactivate the armor?”

“Not if you twist it the other way.”

“The other…?”, looking down Marcus grasped the driver and twisted it down. The driver slid out easily. Marcus looked at his still armored form, “Oh.”

“Now aim the screen on the driver at the code. You’ll see a download bar in your HUD.”

“It’s doing it now,” Marcus said as he held the driver out and directed it at the sign across the street. “Damn that’s fast.”

“Once it’s done,” Nate went on, “hook the driver back into the buckle.” Nate went back to see what was going on as Marcus did just that. He only looked back long enough to see a small QR code appear in the air and Marcus started to reach for it. Once his hand went through it something started to form in his hand. Nate returned to the battle, the lead Cryptid seemed to finally start to look for his opponent “The weapons.are all gun based.”

“Uh, Nate.”, Marcus said.

“Everything is energy based so you don’t have to worry about any ricochets.”

“Nate,” Marxus said a little more urgently.

“You just point and pull the trigger,” he said, turning back around. “It’s not that,” and he saw what Marcus was gesturing at with his other hand. There was a handle but the long metal blade atop of something that looked like a square balancing on one of it’s points. Nate tried to process what he was seeing. “That’s a sword.”

“I noticed,” Marcus snapped. Marcus looked past them. Nate looked as well, that Cryptis was looking right at them. Nate and Joel immediately aimed their rifles at it. “Time to see if this thing is useful or not,” Marcus started to make his way forward.”

“Hold it,” Nate held out an arm to stop him. “Do eden you know how to use that?”

Looking at the sword for a moment he said, “I know the basics.”

“What basics could you possibly know?”

Pointing at the blade he went, “You stick the pointy end in.” Nate was stunned just long enough for Marcus to rush past him.

“No, wait! Ugh,” he lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Of all the bullheaded….

Behind him Joel tentatively tapped him on the shoulder. “You know Captain, technically he’s not.”

“Shut up,” he snapped.

“Shutting up sir,” he said with a slight chuckle.

Marcus ran right at the devilish Cryptid with that new sword firmly gripped in his hand. Once he was close enough he swung it with all he had. The Cryptid recoiled as the tip of the blade slashed against hit’s chest. A different one came at him from behind, distracting him enough for his primary opponent to punch him square in his helmeted face. Marcus fell back while the Cryprid reached out and pulled a street sign out of the pavement. Swinging it around like a staff it soon rested in the crook of it’s arm..

“Okay, that’s fancy,” Marcus said as he quickly got back up. Attacking with the sword it was quickly deflected and he was bashed in the head by a hunk of contract still attached to the other end that sent him spinning to the ground. Feeling a tight grip around his ankle he was quickly pulled away from the sword he let go of after the hit. Turning around he saw that sign coming right at his face. “****” he gasped while rolling out of the way.as it impaled into the street. Getting to his knees Marcus kicked the Cryptid in the gut as it tried to pull it’s makeshift weapon free.

Rising up he ran his shoulder into him to back him away from that weapon. It stepped back one foot before regaining it’s balance. Snapping his neck a bit Marcus went at the Ccriptid again. They traded blows while Nate and his guys and the other Cryptids fought around them. Suddenly grabbing him around the neck the Cryptid reached over and finally pulled the sign free Letting him go it swung the sign. The metal of the sign caused sparks as it smashed against the armor knocking him to the ground.

Looking past the creature Marcus spotted the sword laying on the street behind it. Seeing that the Cryptid was going to swing the sign again, ducking and rolling under the attack he ran and dove for his weapon, grabbing it and getting back to a knee he quickly brought it up to block another attack aimed directly at his head. Holding there Marcus noticed a QR code on the square hilt. Using the armor to aid in pushing the Cryptid away. Chancing a quick glance down at the driver he looked back at the code. The suit A.I. wasn’t picking up anything but it was worth a shot,the driver apparently read codes like this.

The Cryprid roared as it came at him again. Marcus ducked and swung the sword. The edge of the blade biting in deep. As it stumbled forward Marcus brought the code on the sword to the scanner on the driver. The voice from the driver announced “Unlocked,” and Marcus quickly turned to face the creature one more time. Dad told both of them growing up that unlocked meant a finishing blow

In his hand the blade ignited and was surrounded by an orange flame, catching off guard and causing him to flinch back while still holding on. “Whoa! Is it supposed to do that?”

“How the hell should I know!”, Nate called back. “I was told all the weapons were guns.”

From behind Nate his man called out, “Just raise some hell with it.”

“Looking at the Cryptid slowly turn back toward him while holding it’s wound Marcus went, “Raise some…” Looking back at the two of them he gave a thumbs up going, “I like the way you think!” Turning his attention back to the Cryptid as it stumbled toward him. Holding the sword so the blade was pointed behind him he waited until it came into range before shouting, “Hewllraiser slash!”, before swing the sword like a baseball bat slicing through the Cryptid. It stumbled back before falling back and exploding.

The other Cryptid saw this. Marcus tightened his grip on the handle on the sword as Nate and the others took position next to him. They watched as the Cryptids started back into the hole they came from. “Go after them!”, Nate ordered the others who quickly complied. Outside of the man who was in the alley with them.

“Why did you swing up?”, he asked

“Well,I said hellraiser,” he said, swinging the blade up a bit. “It didn’t make sense to swing down.

Nate groaned and pointed his man toward the others. “Make sure none of them come back out” With a quick acknowledgement of the order and hurried to catch up with the others. Looking at his brother briefly he muttered, “This is going to be a headache.”

***
The beings of the underground parted just wide enough to let the guard and the person they were dragging through. They stopped in an even wider space in front of the stone throne their ruler sat in, the priesress standing slightly behind. In the middle of this space they dropped the Overseer at their feet. Obviously outraged at this treatment he looked around shouting, “What is the meaning of …!? Wisely trailing off and letting his demand be left unsaid once he noticed the stern look on the ruler’s face. His entire posture said he would tolerate no questions or demands from anyone. “My lord,” he strained out.

Saying nothing for a moment he leaned forward just looking at the defiant stare the Overseer was daring to give him. More for show than anything else he slowly clasped his hands in front of him. Behind him the seer raised an eyebrow at this but said nothing. Eventually he said, “The humans were ready for us. As soon as the warriors emerged they were waiting. Even by the word of the history keepers this has never happened before. Do you have any insight on how that happened?”

“I don’t know,” the Overseer practically spat, which caused a murmur to spread throughout the gathered crowd. A noise both men ignored. With a slight motion of the rulers hand a guard came forward and placed a pierce of metal in front of the Overseer and returned to his position. The Overseer recognized it and quickly lost all the bravado he was displaying. With a lot more reverence than before he started, “M…My lord…”

“This was discovered while you wwe making the final push to the surface,” their lord said as he leaned back. The Overseer looked over and saw the guard who brought the device to attention and felt his blood go cold. “You dismissed it as non important.”

“You wanted the tunnel finished my lord,” as soon as he said it he knew it was a mistake. “I was just complying with your wishes.”

“The humans use things like these to help power their cities. You told them exactly where we would be.” He stood up and stroad forward with another motion the guards who brought him here hauled him to his knees as another brought in a stone and placed it in front of the Overseer. “The failure is all yours and yours alone.”

With a slight nod a guard with a bladed staff walked forward as the guards forced the Overseer down as he struggled against them.. “No! I didn’t think it was important.”

“It was not your position to think!,” he snapped. “All of our attacks must have the element of surprise. It is our only advantage.” Without warning their lord kicked the overseer in the stomach, bending him over and allowing the guards to force him over the boulder. The Overseer started whimpering for his life. “Pathetic,” their lord sneered. Making eye contact with the guard holding the weapon as he turned around. He faced the back of the room waiting until the Overseer cries stopped before walking back to the throne. “He was fortunate that I allowed him to die in my presence,” he announced as he retook his seat. “He was not worthy enough for me to witness his death. You,” he pointed at one being in particular. “You are now the new Overseer of that particular dig team. Do not make the same fatal mistake that he did. If you discover anything that you are unsure of, bring it to my attention immediately. I, and I alone, will decide if the plans should go forward or not.”

“As you command,” the newly anointed Overseer said with a bowl. Their lord sat their stewing, An almost perfect attack ruined.

“Now tell me about this weapon.”

***
“There was a sword programmed in the driver?”, Matcus asked while he was trying to get Maddie to eat her food. It had been hours since the attack and they were finally having that dinner they had planned with Nate who was watching him have his usual hard time trying to feed his daughter. And trying like hell to ignore how amused his brother was looking across the table..

“Apparently,” Nate said as Maddie moved her mouth again when Marcus tried to give her a spoonful of her dinner. “The A.I. looked into the records and found plans for for it. It was put into development around the same time the driver was. The working theory as you said it was already in the program for the driver.”

“And whatever happened when I first used it activated that particular program,” Marcus said outloud. “Come on Maddie,” he said to his daughter, still trying to get her to take a bite. “I know you can’t be full.”

“Marcus,” Kat called from the Kitchen, “can you grab those plates and get them into the kitchen.”

“Sure thing,” he said getting up. Getting his and Nate’s pilates and taking them into the kitchen. As he walked in and headed over to the sink and placed them in he looked over at Kat who was looking pleased. So she wasn’t annoyed that he and Nate were talking shop. “Dinner went pretty well.”

“Yes it did,” she readily agreed. “We should have done this sooner,” she looked at the dinner table then started grinning, “Maddie definitely seemed to fine with her Uncle.” Marcus looked as well and his jaw dropped at seeing Maddie open up and take a bite of food he was offering her.

Nate saw them and said, “I don’t know why you made it look so hard,” he loaded up the spoon again and fed her, “It seems pretty easy.”

“It usually it,” Kat agreed, nudging Mucus in the side. “For most people anyway. Nate can you help me with dessert, Marcus get Maddie cleaned up.”

My pleasure,” Nate said getting up.

“On it,” Marcus told her. After Nate got up and joined Kat in the Kitchen he sat back down in front of his daughter and just looked at her. Leaning in a bit and softly went, “Traitor.” Maddie just laughed gleefully.

“Thank for having me over,” Nate told Kat. He just happened to look back to see Marcus having an easier time cleaning Maddie up compared to feeding her. “Although honestly, I’m still not wrapping my head around Marcus being a doting father. As soon as she seems to want something he's right there.”

Kat smirked as she started spooning some ice cream into some bowls, “Maddie pretty much has him wrapped around her little finger the moment he laid eyes on her.” Looking at him a little more seriously as she handed one of the bowls she told him, “I know he’s your brother, and he’s my man. More importantly, that's Maddie’s father.”

Getting the message loud and clear Nate assured her, “I’ll make sure he’ll come home. You got my word on that.” If she didn’t believe him she didn’t show it. Handing him one of the bowls they went back to the table, where Kat took the chair next to Maddie. Marcus just took a second to take the sight in. His time as the Rider might be a short one, but this was his family. And he was going to do everything he could in that time to protect it.