Second, Iceheart resurfaces in Mega City, attacking a CorSec building and taking worthless weapons, not even going after the good stuff. Why? To attract Death Star's attention. For what reason? That was still unknown, but so far it looked like it was for the worse. Three, she kidnaps Garland's daughter. Why? To jerk with Death Star's heart. Attack the person closet to him and you hurt the person. Four, she then lures him to an unfinished CorSec building to probably lure him to a death at the hands of the SWAT team. But, she claims she is working against her will. Then his clone attacks him until he teleports away due to Jared's shooting.
Five, she leaves a clue behind with Garland and X1. Why? To lure Death Star to his old creation site. Why? To kill him at the hands of Baberlus supposedly. Of course they had to know Baberlus would fail with three of them there. So, the real reason was to keep him on his toes. Which was succeeding. Now he didn't know where to move onto from there. Unless Baberlus was the next clue. Grabbing his map, he looked over it for the next forty minutes, studying it. After another thirty minutes of pinpointing locations, he came up with it. There was one city in the entire United States called Baberlus. If that was the right way to take the clue, Iceheart would have to be there...
Standing up, Death Star walked into the kitchen where Garland was sitting, holding a cup of coffee, staring off into space, a strange glint of worriedness in his eyes. And suddenly Death Star realized he was worrying over his daughter but had been covering it up the entire time, trying to help Death Star focus on his needs. Not his. But the fact Sharlena was missing, under Death Star's own finance, had to be eating him up in the inside. "Kid, you okay?" he asked quietly. Garland jerked his hand up, accidentally letting go of the coffee. The cup crashed on the table, shattering in every which direction and splattering the table and floor. X1 rushed over to clean it up.
"Oh damn, I'm sorry X1..." Garland said.
"No big deal, the coffee tasted like shit anyway..." Death Star pointed out.
"See if I shit out coffee for you again then," X1 responded.
Death Star saw that X1 was trying to make a joke of the situation, but there was still that scene. Garland was being eaten up and was so distracted right now, since there was no action for him to vent it out on, and it was starting to show. "Anything you want to talk about, Garland?" he asked him again. Garland glanced at him.
"Nothing, DS. Just thinking. Anyway, you found any leads on Iceheart yet?" he commented, turning the subject back to Death Star's personal quest. But this time Death Star was realizing how he was dragging his own two friends into this and he didn't like it. Thanks to his search, Sharlena was in the hands of his lover. But he didn't want to press the matter with Garland, for fear it could lead to something worse.
"Yeah, I think I did. You know what the funny thing is?" he started.
"Those little lab rats that get lost in the mazes?" asked X1.
"No - well, yeah, but I'm talking about the next clue. I think Baberlus' name is the clue and I found one city in the entire United States that is named after him. I think we should head there." Garland reached down and grabbed their things and walked out the door, distracted again for the time being. "Well, lets g-o," Death Star told X1 and went down to reach the shuttle, trying to ignore the slight pain running down his side. He swore if he got blasted again before the week was out, he was going to get pissed.
She whirled around. "It pleases me to see them around, chasing phantoms I have created," she lied. "If I want to see them run around for all eternity, looking for me, then I will do so until otherwise ordered by Crucifixtion..."
The clone's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. Beside, Crucifixtion has already given you the go-ahead to bring them here to be destroyed or to be forced to join the Mavericks, as you so hope you can accomplish with Death Star."
Iceheart let her head drop slightly. She knew she was sending Death Star in circles because she was afraid to face him. It had been harder than she thought back at the construction site. So she talked Crucifixtion into letting her play this little game, seeing if she could kill him along the way. He had agreed because he needed more time getting those alien supplies in, but that was done now. He HAD given her the go ahead. "Alright, I'll send some Mavericks out to intercept them in Baberlus and bring them back here. The game's over, it's time to destroy them..." she admitted.
"That's my girl..."
Cheryl, picking up a small stone and tossing it up and down a few times, laughed forcefully as she figured out a diversion. "Nah, I'm sure he means well...somehow."
Just then, Preacher dropped out of a tree after surveying the scene. "Well, they don't know that we're here yet, so that means Wiendigo hasn't messed up. So now what?"
"Reg, did you bring the holographic projectors from the shuttle?" Cheryl asked.
Holding up three small metallic boxes, Regulus patted them. "Yeah, why did you want 'em anyway?"
"It's our diversion. We can't attack directly, or they'll find out we're Hunters. But if we use something that doesn't look like us..."
"That's good thinking, wish I'd thought of that," replied Preacher.
"I'll give you credit in the report." smiled Cheryl. Then taking a projector, Cheryl started climbing up a nearby tree. "Take the other two and place them at the West and South ends, we'll create a cross confusion."
"Roger." With that, Preacher and Regulus split up.
"Now if Wiendigo can hold up his end of this..."
Keeping against the wall, Wiendigo inched his way to the closest door and slid the card through. Being cautious, he slowly shut it, trying not to make a sound. "The janitor's closet, great..." He groaned at his misfortune. Then a low hissing caught his attention. Peering over his shoulder, he followed the trace to an air vent. Someone had just activated the air conditioning in the building. "Better then I could have expected..."
"A giant chicken? Foresterr, have you been drinking on duty again?" He responded, not believing the ridiculous claim.
"Captain, I'm afraid he's not drunk, I'm getting the same reports from other squads." One soldier confirmed from his computer post.
"Well how much have they had to drink? Are you all drunk? What the hell is wrong with you people? Giant chickens on the rampage? Mime's on the loose? A clown attacking? No, I don't believe it! Ignore it and go back to your posts!"
Just then, the clown projection ran in, pulled down the captain's pants, and ran back outside.
"...CODE BLUE DAMNIT! WE'VE GOT CLOWNS ON THE ATTACK! MIME'S ON THE LOOSE! GIANT CHICKENS ON THE RAMPAGE! GIANT CHICKENS I TELL YOU! GIANT FRIGGIN' CHICKENS!"
Crawling a ways more through the ventilation system, Wien finally came to a long drop off. Dropping down it, he braced himself with his arms and legs and carefully inched his way down. Reaching the end of it, he dropped out of the shaft with his blaster ready. He'd reached the computer mainframe. Taking out a disk, Wien grinned like a kid in Santa's workshop.
"What is it, Dominator?" asked Slash.
"It seems, if I'm not wrong, that there is a high-powered assault rifle cannon for an assault gunboat, a type of space ship, in here, neatly hidden inside with the rows of drinks. Seems that old Titus is to more than just selling drinks and minerals. Is there any type of war going on in the system we're heading to?" Dominator suggested to them.
"No, I checked that out already," Darien spoke up.
"Then perhaps the people we're selling it to sells it to another group that's warring nearby. Thus Titus wouldn't actually know where his materials were going," Slasher said.
"Yeah, I agree with nutboy there," Dakota agreed.
"That's a first..." muttered Ridge.
"Hey, hey, knock it off boys..." Crystal snapped at them.
"Alright, enough spying..." Dominator told them, glancing at the chronometer hitting 3 minutes until their destination. "Everyone to your stations!" The group split up, heading every which way. Dominator sat down in his chair, Seraphna perched on his shoulder.
"I sense...something," she said, her eyes closed.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It seems like...pirates," she hissed.
The Claw's Revenge jumped out of hyperspace, almost colliding with a space ship. The red alert went off, jerking Dominator forward in his chair. They were surrounded by three ships. "You will lower your shields and weapons and prepare for docking, Claw's Revenge. We are going to take your cargo..." came the voice.
"To your battles stations!" shouted Dominator. Slash raised the weapons to full and targeted the nearest ship, firing as Slasher flew the Claw's Revenge downward to avoid the incoming blasts. The three ships began to lock onto them, firing madly. A blast hit them at an angle the entire ship shook, rattling Dominator's teeth. Slash fired again, blowing up one of the pirates and causing another one to fly off, entering hyperspace. The remaining ship, either the bravest or the stupidest, continued it's attack. It roared by, blasting the engines. "Damn!"
The Claw's Revenge titled an angle from the damage. "I suggest firing missiles!" suggested Darien from the comm. station. Slash switched from turbo cannons to the missiles and locked onto the remaining ship, which was turning around to open fire again. Listening to the target go red he hit the button, firing it straight into the bridge of the pirate ship, blowing it up in a brilliant display of fireworks. The ship began to fall into the atmosphere of the planet below and burned to a crisp. "That could have been us..."
Dominator swallowed heavily. Now he saw why people didn't stay in business for very long with Titus Facilities. "Alright, head down to the planet below so we can drop of these crates and head back to Jarivan for repairs..." he ordered.
"Are you going to land?" asked Garland quietly from his seat.
"No, I plan on flying up here until we run out of fuel. What do you THINK?" snapped Death Star, getting fid up. On the way over here X1 defined a new experience of torture.....
"No reason to snap, DS..." Garland said quietly.
"I'm sorry, it's just that-" Death Star began when suddenly something hit the belly of the shuttle, ripping a giant hole in it. Turning around, Death Star's jaw dropped. Who was attacking them?! Grabbing the controls, he attempted to land the shuttle, which was already giving him enough trouble in air resistance when another blast hit the wing, ripping it off. "This is bad..." The shuttle began to spin out of control and crashed into one of the building, knocking down the wall, plus totally smashing the cockpit up to bits, and it continued down through the second story flood and into the living room of the building.
"Any landing that you can walk away from is a good one...but this is a little bit too much for my blood," X1 moaned as he held his head, attempting to open the door, which was jammed. Death Star unbuckled and turn to check on Garland, who was already moving to the back of the shuttle.
"Someone went to a lot of trouble to shoot us down..." Garland pointed out.
"Well, I'm not sticking around to find out who..." Death Star told them, charging his blaster and pointing it at the shuttle wall. Firing, he blew a hole in it. Stepping out into the ruins of the living room, Death Star made his way through the house to the outside world again. Glancing around, he saw no sign of their attackers.
Suddenly a leg jerked out of nowhere, hitting him in the head, sending him flying backwards into the house. Garland ran up behind him. "Death Star?!" he cried out when he spotted the attacker. "Oh, the clone..." he muttered, firing a blast at his eyes. The clone held his saber at an angle, knocking the blast back into Garland, who absorbed it. "Hah."
"Oh, I knew you could do that...it was just to distract you."
"From what?"
"That." Garland looked up, eyes widening as the ceiling collapsed on all three of them, the clone easily stepping out of the way. Reaching behind him, he pulled out a tazer type devise and pointed it at the rubble, firing. The pile lit up for a second but quickly died down. Grabbing his comm. he contacted the nearby shuttle. "I have them...come over here and help me load them." The shuttle lifted off from nearby and landed next to him. Smirking, he stepped onto it as the Mavericks inside began to dig out the bodies. "I want them all alive...for now."
"Initiated, sir..."
Tig watched the viewscreen, the single Maverick attack vessel heading this way. Tig guessed Crucifixtion couldn't afford to send more encase of a screw-up. But Tig wasn't about to let anything like that happen. I will go down in history when we manage to take over this HQ and destroy the Hunters when they return home from attacking some stupid company...And I, Tig, will become Crucifixtion's top man... he thought to himself, ideas passing through his mind.
"Uh, sir...the turbo cannons aren't firing like they are suppose too...it looks like they are heading for our hanger bay..." the technician said. Tig walked over to it and glanced at his screen.
"According to this, it's firing, officer. Maybe your ears have gone death and it IS firing..." Tig told him. The technician shook his head and dived out of his seat, knocking off the control panel and opening it.
"Found it, sir! Someone unplugged it and made it look like it was on..." the officer told him, but Tig was already charging his blaster and aimed at his head, waving him back to his seat.
"I would forget that idea, if I were you..." Tig warned. Suddenly he felt an exploding bomb of pain in the back of his head as he collapsed to his knees, shaking it uselessly trying to wonder what the hell just clubbed him. Suddenly he felt a sensation in the middle of his body, all the way through. Looking down, he saw that he was coming apart....his attacker, an older man he recognized as Arono, stood there, smirking. His body had been chopped in half!
Activating his emergency systems, a status force field inside his body began to pull it back together, but Arono was no longer paying attention. He was watching the technician finish with the control panel...outside he could hear the explosion of the Maverick ship, totally destroyed. He had failed! But I won't go out alone...the bastard will die too! he yelled in his mind, charging the blaster again and aiming at Arono's head, firing directly into it. The older man gasped in surprised, his head snapping back, bones cracking with it - Tig hoped it was the neck bones - and went back, hitting his back as his body went down, collapsing.
Tig stood up, firing a wild shot to keep the technicians off of him, and ran down the stairs leading to the Hunter Tower. No way in hell he was going to get caught by a bunch of idiots like the Hunters. He jumped off the middle section of the stairway and landed on his feet, hard, the static field keeping his too halves together jerking and causing him pain. Tig continued to run, past the hanger bay to sabotage some of the ships and to make it look like he escaped that way. Walking up to the Avenger II, the prize ship in the Hunter's operations, which was forced to be left behind due to it was recognizable on the undercover mission, he prepared to blow it up when a blast caught him in the back, flipping off the statis field and sending his body flying in half. Montana rolled behind him, a giant tank, and fired again, blowing up the body of Tig. The last of Dominator's little insurance.
"It's because of his thing with Garland..." the clone Death Star spoke up behind her. "You wouldn't know it, but I do. Trust me, he wants this kid bad. That's why he's coming out here soon to pick her up. He just has a few things to wrap up. At least he managed to send us those aliens..."
"Those things make ME nervous. But that doesn't matter. Soon, Death Star will be here, with us, and her 'daddy' will be dead, along with that annoying bucket-of-bolts X1..." Iceheart hissed. "And as for her...as soon as Crucifixtion loses interest in her, she's yours to deal with, DS. Remember that."
"I look forward to it. It's a shame I can't run into Wiendigo," the clone Death Star said with a smile, "because we have soooo much in common these days..."