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Shifters ch 11: Light Fuse...

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Chapter 11: Light Fuse, Run Away

Zak and Tara stand silently in the bridge, the door to the outside wide open. Both of them hold M12AARs and they have a bag full of various gagets strapped to their changing harnesses as well as a pack of weapon augmentations and ammo strapped to their legs. They wear clear green tactical glasses.

Suddenly Mary's voice announces through the com in the visors, "We're over the drop zone in five... four... three... two... one..."

Zak and Tara jump out of the door and dive towards the outline of Van Rook's compound. For a brief moment, Zak lets the rush of the air clear his head before he shakes it away and manuevers closer to Tara.

Tara carefully adjusts her posture to bring herself closer to Zak as she watches the numbers flashing across her visor. Her and Zak's visors' display their speed, altitude, the angle at which they were falling compared to the ground, and it high lights the 30x30 ft sensor blind spot on the roof of the compound.

"This is going to be interesting... Are you sure you can do this?" Zak asks his teammate.

"Positive, and if I can't, you and Doyle will get to show us your," He feels her smirk wryly, " improvising abilities... We're coming in range, grab onto me!"

Zak glides closer to her and grabs her shoulders. She pulls her arms and legs to pick up speed, and he brings himself full up against her so the air wouldn't rip them apart.

Tara shifts, flaring her wings to slow their descent. A shock of primal fear shoots through Tara when she can't pull up and fly undeterred with Zak on her back. Her instincts take over, and she tries, not to dislodge Zak from his spot on her back, but to frantically change the dangerous course that they were dropping along.

Zak realizes that Tara was going to take them off course, "Tara, it's okay! You're just supposed to slow us down, remember?"

Her griffin instincts ebb away slightly but the hold is still enough to make her forget the objective of this phase of the plan, "No! We'll both end up as bloody splatters on the ground!"

"Tara. Trust me."

With those words Tara yanks herself out of the hold of her instincts and corrects their course. Zak takes over monitering their drop, when he notices a change in their course. He runs their angle and speed through the calculator and projects it on his holographic display.

"Tara, we need to change course or we'll be going right into those sensors. If you can change our angle enough, I can pull us into the safe zone with the Claw."

"I'll try." Tara repositions her wings, sacrificing maneuverability for lift, "Rwwwaaarh!!!"

She gives one last upward heave before they pass the point were all of the flapping in the world wouldn't have made a difference. Her effort pays off and she is able to land them handstand style on the edge of the safe zone.

Zak topples off over Tara's head, and Tara continues to balance on her front claws, teetering between the safe zone and her back paws falling back into the sensors. Unable to maintain her balance, she shifts back and begins to fall towards the sensors.

Zak quickly jumps to his feet and whips the Claw at her and snags her foot. He pulls her into the safe zone.

Tara flips over onto her back from Zak's save, and she groans, "Thanks."

He helps her to her feet, "Sorry. would've done something else but you were already falling-"

"It's all good. Tell Doyle that we've landed. I'll check our equipment."

"Hey Doyle, we're in...."

------

"Mary, are you in position?"

"Ready and waiting for your signal Doyle." Mary answers.

Zak's voice crackles on the radio, "Hey Doyle, we're in. Just give us two minutes before you join us to take down the aerial defenses, place the detpacks, and offline the sensors."

"Right. Good luck mini man."

-------

Fisk, Doc, and Drew run down one hallway after another following Doyle to the squad's rendevue point. Drew was about to beat Doyle senseless and make him into a skin throw rug when she heard that Zak and Tara were somewhere else in the compound by themselves.

Flashback.... (a few minutes ago)

"They're where?!?!" Drew roars, her fire-sword in her hand and the tip of the sword keeping Doyle against the wall. He had just released her and Doc, and told her of the plan.

"Ack... I told you, they're just taking care of a few obstacles and then they'll meet up with us! Here," he hands Drew a video phone, "call him with that, but if we don't start moving, this op is going to get more difficult."

Drew lets him go and attempts to call Zak, "Zak, Zak are you there?"

*Static*

"Come on mini man, not the time to have communication silence."

Drew tries again, "Zak, Tara answer me." She looks at Doc worriedly, "I'm not getting a thing."

Doc says, "Doyle, you said something about a rendevue point. Perhaps their phone was damaged and maybe they're already there."

Flashback ends......

They skid to a halt at a large storage room. Cages, crates, and ten inactive drones line the edge of the walls, and two other doors were to the left and right of where they came in. A large elevator was on the wall opposite of them.

"Come on. They should be here already..." Doyle growls to himself.

"Now I'm worried," Drew says gripping her firesword tightly, "What if they came across Rook?"

Doyle shakes his head, "They didn't, or else we'd have heard some kind of alarm by now and those drones wouldn't be inactive."

Suddenly the sound of metal slightly sliding across metal comes from above them. They look up and see Zak and Tara jumping down through an air vent. They land one after the other with two surprisingly quiet 'thuds'.

"Zak!" Doc and Drew shout in relief, and Zak shouts, "Mom! Dad!"

He runs up to them and hugs them feircely. Fisk joins in on the hug and Zak says, "I missed you guys so much."

The adults and Fisk release him. Drew asks, "Why did you run away? You know we would've helped you understand these new powers."

Zak shakes his head, "It wasn't that, honest," He looks over to Tara, who was watching the reunion with a sad smile on her face, "Some things I needed to find alone. My fellow shifters needed me."

Doc notices Daemon's absence through out the entire op, "What happened to Daemon?"

Tara speaks up, "Turns out he was hurt worse than we thought from those two weeks with Rook. He'll be fine, but he was weak from lack of sleep and decent food so we were able to convince him to get back to his folks." She holds out her hand, "I'm sorry, my name is Tara."

Doc and Drew shake it in turn. "We've heard about you from Daemon."

"Alright now that that's settled," Doyle says, "can we get moving?"

"Oh you and the prisoners won't be going anywhere, traitor."

Rook's apprentice steps out of the elevator. They all snap their weapons up and ready for battle.

"Get out of our way lapdog, and we won't hurt you too bad." Doc warns sadistically.

"Ha! No chance." He activates the drones lining the wall.

"Take them alive," he orders. The drones weapons switch from lasers to electronic stunning weaponry and attack the group.

Doc charges the apprentice with a roar, 'I've been waiting to do this all week!' The rest of them fend off the mechanical jailers.

Doc tackles the apprentice to the ground and they grapple for dominence in the fight. The trainee kick Doc in the gut and jumps to his feet, Doc recovering quickly and following not far behind. A stray drone attacks Doc, forcing him to back away from his opponent and to defend himself.

Drew then takes over beating the crap out of Rook's apprentice, and she thinks to herself, 'This for hurting Zak, you son of a bitch!'

The drones at this base were stronger than the ones at the American base. They have stronger armor, weapons, an they were far more durable. They split Tara and Zak off from the rest of the group and force the two preteens away.

Tara mind shouts to Zak as one flanks him, "Zak on your six!"

He spins around in time to see a drone shoot a tazer at him. He drops to the ground with a groan.

Drew turns to see Zak drop and yells, "Zak!"

Using Drew's distraction, the apprentice leaps back and chucks a concussion grenade at her. It explodes and sends her back to Doyle, Doc, and Fisk.

"Stop." The drones halt their attack.

Tara freezes in place as Van Rook's apprentice aims a firearm pistol at her. He looks over to Doc, Doyle, Drew and Fisk, "Drop your weapons and slide them away. If any of you try anything," he tightens his finger around the gun's trigger ever so slightly, "the griffin girl dies."

Reluctantly the adults lay down their arms and push them across the floor. As security drones come forward to bind their hands, Doc and Drew cast their gazes toward Tara, who was still frozen in fear. They feel a pang of hurt for the girl who has been aiding Zak in his mission, and they both think something along the lines of, 'Leave her be... She doesn't deserve to die.'

In her mind, the memory of staring down a barrel of a gun replays over and over in Tara's head. She can feel her hard won self control, and emotional wall starting to crack as Rook continues to aim the weapon at her.

The adults are herded unwillingly into a cage, and once the door is locked, the apprentice growls at Tara, "You have been a thorn in my side for too long, girl. I don't care about how much Argost wants both you and that boy alive, Rook gave me the okay to kill one of you and maybe Argost'll still pay him as promised if I turn the lizard boy to him. You die now!"

Fisk growls in rage as he smashes uselessly against the bars of the cage. 'I can't let someone close to my brother die!' the Lemurian thinks to himself as he rails against the renforced prison. The others were too shocked to say a word.

In all of the confusion of the fight, everyone forgot about Zak who was back into consciousness enough to hear the trainee's rant. The last sentence and Tara's terror finally yanks him out of his stupor and onto his feet. 'Like hell she is!'

He yanks the tazer wires out of his chest. All things disappear from Zak's consciousness except for himself, Van Rook's apprentice, and Tara, his actions dedicated to getting the gun away from the apprentice. "LEAVE... HER... ALONE!" a voice that didn't fully belong to Zak tares from his throat as he decimates the distance between himself and Rook's apprentice.

The occupants of the cage and Van Rook turn their attention toward the shout and they see Zak charging at the apprentice, his eyes turned gold like his form's eyes. The man realizes that what the young Saturday was doing and turns the gun towards him to take him down.

It was deja vu for Tara, and Drew was the only other person who was registering what was happening. The two females scream, "No!"

He fires the gun, but the bullet never hits its target. A fraction of a second before the mercenary pulled the trigger, Zak had dropped down to all fours to dodge, and then with a roar that's sustained through to his wolf form, he shifts, "RRRRWWAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!!"

Zak leaps at the apprentice, clamps his jaws around the arm holding the gun, and yanks his aim away. Forgetting about his strength in this form, Zak snaps the bones in the coward's forearm in two and leaves deep teeth marks in his flesh. The trainee screams in agony clutching his arm. Fueled by his rage at what that beast of a man was going to do to Tara, Zak releases him and takes out the drones, which were just starting to react, with staggering speed. Seconds later the drones lay in crumpled heaps on the floor. Doc, Drew, Fisk and Doyle stand there with their mouths hanging open at Zak's predatory savagery.

Panicking now, the apprentice reaches unsteadily for his dropped pistol only for Zak to kick it out of his reach. He looks up at the seething preteen-turned-waheela and gasps through the pain, "You... I- I killed you..."

Zak growls and headbutts him into the elevator which closes after he slides through the door.

Finally able to move, Tara strides over to Zak's side and reaches out to touch his shoulder. Doc and Drew try to warn her that, Zak or not, the seething waheela could turn on her in this state, but they were too late. She kneels at his side and places her hand on his shoulder.

His parents hold their breaths as Zak's head snaps in her direction, but instead of attacking her, Zak leans his head into hers and whines softly.

In his head he says to her, "Are you alright?"

(In their heads)

"He never got a shot off at me Zak."

He pulls back and a grumble rises from his chest, "You know what I mean," He sits on his haunches and places his paw first over her forehead then her heart before pulling away, "Will you be okay in there though?"

Tara runs the fingers of her right hand through the fur on his neck, seeking an answer in his comforting presence. She smiles softly and says aloud, "I'll be fine."

Doyle speaks up first, "As touching as this is, we'd like to get out of here."

The two preteens look over to the caged adults, blush, chuckle nervously, and Zak shifts back. Doc and Drew share an 'aw-our-little-boy-is-growing-up' look (You know, the one that you see them do in the show!) as the to preteens separate to their tasks. Tara jogs over to collect the rescue team's weapons and Zak goes to work opening the door.

Zak studies the locking mechanism and says, "Doyle, do you still have your laser cutter?"

"Yeah." Doyle maneuvers his hands and is able to grab the cutter and toss it to Zak.

He opens the door and cuts the bindings off of their hands. As soon as her cuffs are off, Drew wraps him in a hug, "Don't ever do that again Zak!"

He only responds by hugging her back. He would usually say something along the lines of "okay mom" or "I promise". Confused, she looks at his expression and realizes that he wasn't about to make a promise that he could never keep.

Tara comes back and rearms the squad.

Minutes Later.....

The group burst out of the door leading to the outside. Doyle shouts into the radio, "Mary, now."

In seconds the airship is landed just at the edge of the football field sized platform. The side door opens and she motions for them to hurry. The group sprints toward the craft, ducking behind air duct ports along the way.

Suddenly, Tara catches movement in the corner of her eye and looks closer. There stood Van Rook to the right of them, he had a sniper in his hand, and he was ready to fire it. Tara quickly traces his line of fire.

Tara tackles Doc from her position behind him just before the bullet leaves the gun. Due to her slight form, she only was able to make him stagger forward a foot and a half, and she was able to get both herself and him out of the main path of the bullet. But not completely, so the bullet skimmed across the top of Tara's skin, leaving a diagonal cut across her back.

They fall behind a air duct. Doc is bewildered, and Tara hisses in pain too soft for him to hear. She quickly blocks off Zak in the bond, so he wouldn't know that she was wounded. Worrying about her was the last thing Zak needed to do right now.

"What was that all about?" Doc asks, failing to notice the blood now seeping through Tara's now tattered t-shirt. The rest of the group was in cover a ways off.

Tara feels Zak's probing question but she pushes him back and says through the video phone to him as well as Doc, and she gestures to Rook's position, "Sniper. Rook was about to blow your heart right out of your chest. I'm a healer, but I can't heal you that fast."

Doc nods to her gratefully, "Thanks."

Tara pulls a mirror out of her bag and uses it to peek around the corner. Rook was reloading and was watching for them. "You guys get to the airship. It's time for me to play 'Who Can Get Who First' with Rook."

"But-" Doc protests but Tara cuts him off as she puts the sniper augmentation on her rifle.

"Go! I'll cover you!" She casts him a 'You-know-I'm-right-so-do-what-I-say-damn-it!' glare.

He gives in (he's gotten the same look from Drew many times and learned to listen, even if it's another woman, or girl in Tara's case.) and sprints toward the airship with the others. Just as Van Rook was about to take a second shot, Tara's own shot hits home and makes his sniper rifle explode in his face. Tara jumps to her feet and runs for it. Zak and Fisk wait for her in the doorway and they pull her into the craft once she gets close enough.

Zak pushes the door control, "Okay we're all in! Punch it!"

"Right!" Maryy floors it and they zoom away.

Tara shoves a detonator remote at Zak and gasps through her pain and her trying to catch a breath, "Do you... want... to do... the honors?"

"Sure." He pushes the button and a huge explosion blows half of Rook's base to kingdom-come, "Now I figure we're half way even."

Exhausted and pained, Tara releases the bond block from Zak.

Doc and Drew notice his expression change sharply from a pleased smrik to a pained grimace. His expression changes again to that of anger and he gets to his feet.

"Zak, what's wrong?" they ask in unison.

He ignores them and kneels next to Tara, who was still winching in pain, "You're hurt...."


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Thanks for reading this chapter! Please review!

Also, Tara is supposed to be a tough character as a result of her past. Please tell me if I am achieving this effect properly, and if I'm not, tell me how I can make it so. Zak is fully aware (for once) of Tara's mental and emotional damage and will be helping her recover her child-like quirks that she lost after the attack. Same question as above. Please tell me if anyone was OOC

Also I know Doyle is a little serious in this chapter, but he doesn't peticularly enjoy being in Rook's compound.
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GemmaRose628's avatar
I am SO ADDICTED!!!