Metal H.

Chapter 1: Old Friends

Fighter was running as fast as she could when her partner, a black panther named Arrow, jumped in front of her. Fighter tried to stop, but couldn’t, and found herself flying over her friend. She landed hard, and lay paralyzed for a moment. Or, it could have been the sight of the long drop, which she might have run straight over.

Fighter got up and turned around. “Thanks Arrow,” she said, “You saved my life.” Arrow hissed, and Fighter looked up. “Aw, crud-“ she was cut off as the bandit she had been running from threw his knife at her. She ducked and yanked her bow off her back. Before the bandit could draw a second knife, she had fitted an arrow to the string and fired.

The arrow flew threw the air and grazed the bandit’s arm. It had missed, but Fighter had meant it to miss. She wanted the bandit to know what he was messing with. Besides, she didn’t like the sight of blood (or gore) very much. All of a sudden she was jolted out of la-la land by a shrill whistle. She looked up and saw the bandit running away. “Hey!” she yelled, and bolted after him.

It took Fighter about 30 seconds to catch up to the bandit. But when she was about two steps from being able to tackle him, he turned, and she saw his face. Fighter tried to stop immediately. She tripped over her own feet and landed right under her old friend. “By the gods…” she breathed. The man offered her a hand and she took it, letting him help her up. He grinned. ”Hi Fighter. Long time, no see.”

“Kratos I cannot, no will not, believe you are alive.”

He frowned “Why not?”

“I saw you fall! I saw you go of the cliff!”

“Yeah, I fell, but do you remember what we were doing that day?”

Fighter thought for a second “Ummmmm… Hiking?”

He grinned. “Yup, and if I remember correctly, I was the best. I smoked even you.”

Fighter grimaced. For some reason, Kratos always had to go back to that subject. “Yeah,” she retorted, “But that was the only thing. I creamed you in swimming, baseball, soccer, kickball, basketball, sword fighting – shall I go on?”

“The blunt reply is – owwwwwww! Quickclaw!”

Kratos fell on his back laughing, and a big gray wolf jumped on his chest to lick his face. Fighter turned just in time to dodge Arrow’s tackle. But to tell the truth, it wasn’t soon enough. Fighter fell down, then lay back and laughed.

“Well that was weird.”

Fighter and Kratos were immediately quiet. Fighter looked up to see a man with a short beard and wearing a black suit and sunglasses. He offered her a hand. Fighter ignored it, and got up on her own. To the side of her vision, she saw Kratos come up to stand beside her. All of a sudden, there was a flash, and the world went black.

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Fighter woke with a start. For a moment, she wondered where she was then she remembered what had happened, and still wondered where she was. Her hand dropped to her belt to get her flashlight, and found nothing. Apparently, her gear had been taken. Fighter looked around and discovered that she was in a cell. A pretty classic jail cell in fact. Kratos was beside her, but asleep, and in chains.

“Kratos, wake up.” muttered Fighter, nudging her childhood friend with her foot.

Kratos grunted, then turned over and fell off the bench.

“Fighter!”

“Don’t worry, Kratos, I’m right here. You fell of the bench.”

She helped him up.

“Hey, how did we get here, and why are you in chains?”

Kratos opened his mouth as if to speak, but was cut off by a yelp. Fighter looked out of the cell to see a guard running away from a black panther and an unusually large wolf. The panther pounced, and the guard went down. Fighter laughed.

“I guess Arrow and Quickclaw found a way out.” She said as Arrow trotted over with the keys jangling in her mouth. Fighter took the keys from her partner and unlocked Kratos’s cuffs and the cell door. “Let’s go”, she said darkly, “The man in the suit has some explaining to do.”

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After about an hour of wandering around, they found the man’s office. “Well, here goes nothing,” muttered Kratos as he opened the door. As soon as fighter saw the inside of the room she tried to go in and tripped over her own feet. “By the Gods,” she gasped as she was getting up. “This is Winslow Treadwell’s office!” Then Kratos ruined the moment by saying “And, who is he?” Fighter shook her head and went inside the room.

After about 10 minutes, a triumphant looking Fighter and a confused looking Kratos walked out of the room dragging an even more confused Winslow Treadwell. Behind them trotted Arrow and Quickclaw. They went back to the jail cell (it only took half an hour this time) and locked Treadwell in it for questioning.



Chapter 2: Stories Told

After they locked Treadwell in a cell, Kratos and Fighter decided to do some catching up.

“Okay, first things first,” said Kratos, “shall we tell our stories from the most recent event, or when we got separated?”

“I’d say the most recent event,” Fighter looked Kratos over. He was about six feet tall, and had a sturdy build. He had dark blue violet hair that hung to his shoulders, and red-violet eyes that were filled with secrets. There were scars on his left cheek and on the bridge of his nose. His tan shirt and pants were ragged, the pants in slightly better shape but still with holes in the knees. His hair looked like it had been cut with a knife. Fighter grimaced. “On second thought, let’s start with when we got separated”

Kratos grinned. “I’d rather do that too,”

“You’d have said that either way,” Fighter accused.

“Yup! You start.” Kratos sat down against the wall.

“Fine” Fighter went over and joined him. “After you went off the cliff, a search party was sent out. I wasn’t permitted to go, because they knew we were friends, and were afraid I’d do something that seemed stupid.

“The search team went out for hours. They came back with nothing. I didn’t believe them. That night, after lights out in the trainee’s dorms, I went out and looked. I managed to go over our entire route, but I found nothing. I gave up and went back to the training facility just in time for the first class. I worked hard. In two years I took the ordeal mission and passed. I was initiated into Silver rank, you know, Third Junior Officer rank. I was the youngest ever to be initiated.

“I worked until I reached Green rank, the highest known. It took me three years. I was fifteen. Then I was given the “Alligator Capture” mission. I had to go to an uncharted swamp in a dense jungle and capture the largest alligator I could find. That’s when I met Arrow. After I completed the mission I was promoted into the Metal headquarters, a secret facility. In it I saw things I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Winslow Treadwell was the only person I thought I could trust.

“After a month in that horrible place, I quit. But I didn’t quit by handing in a resignation. That’s impossible in Metal H. I ran away, and started doing the work I wanted. I chase people who hurt for fun, and only care about themselves.

“But Metal H. is still looking for me. I found that out a week before I met up with you,
Kratos. My guess is that they think they have to kill me because I know too much. I don’t know why, though. Whenever I try to tell someone about Metal H., I can’t. I can get as far as opening my mouth, and then no sound comes out. It seems like it’s physically impossible; almost like a spell.”

Fighter looked up at Kratos. His mouth was hanging open. Kratos picked up a hand and shut it. Fighter rolled her eyes. “I’m done, Kratos.”

Kratos shook his head and grinned. “Dang. You’ve done a lot. I guess it’s my turn.” he started to continue, but was cut off by a beep. Kratos’s head snapped up to look at Winslow Treadwell. The traitor was doing something on his phone. “Hey, gimmie that!” Kratos snarled, lunging to open the cell’s gate.

“Too late, my dear underlings,” said Treadwell, his chiseled features distorted with a sneer.

All of a sudden, Treadwell began to morph into a gorilla-bear-man-thing. His arms grew long and muscled while his hair lengthened and thickened. His jaw extended into a muzzle, complete with long fangs. A feral gleam appeared in the thing’s eyes.

“Oh no,” whispered Fighter, “He really is one of them,” Then her self-sacrifice instinct kicked in.

“Kratos don’t fight that!” Fighter called. Unfortunately, Kratos was already starting to throw a punch at the thing that used to be Treadwell. Fighter watched in dismay as Kratos’s fist came closer, closer… and disappeared.

Wha? Fighter almost panicked. What if Kratos had been wiped out of existence? She knew it was possible; she had seen it happen. Then Arrow got off something, and Fighter saw Kratos lying on the ground.

Then Fighter saw something coming down on her from the corner of her vision. Instinctively she dodged out of the way and turned her spin into a not very effective leg sweep. The leg sweep did, however make the Treadwell-thing stagger. Fighter saw her chance and darted in with an uppercut to the mutant’s jaw. It was too late, she figured, to stop. She was too far in.

All of a sudden, something odd happened. As Fighter’s fist swung up, it seemed to flash green. Then her fist contacted, and it was all over. The Treadwell-thing’s head snapped up and back, and the monster fell to the ground, out cold. Again, Fighter thought she saw a flash of green.

This is weird Fighter thought as she went to get Kratos up. What was that green? Ah, well, I was probably just hallucinating. But maybe, just maybe…


Chapter 3: Questions

Two hours and ten miles later, Fighter and Kratos were almost asleep on their feet. Quickclaw and Arrow, however, were as perky as squirrels.

As they walked out of a slightly wooded area and on to a long ledge, Fighter smiled weakly.

“Okay Kratos,” she said tiredly, “We’re almost to my place. Just fifteen minutes to go.”

“A whole fifteen?” Kratos complained, “Phooey.”

Fighter sighed, “Just tell me if the rock we’re walking on starts to stick out. It looks like a flat cone on its side.”

“Hey, why didn’t you want me to fight that thing,” Kratos asked, “If you were just going to attack it yourself?”

“I wasn’t actually planning on attacking it, bu-Hey! How do you know that?”

Kratos blinked. “Huh,” he said, confused, “I’m not sure. I just… Know.”

“Oh…” Fighter was surprised. It seemed… familiar. Maybe it had something to do
with the fact that she was able to tell Kratos about Metal H. And what was the shiny green flash? What cracked new experiments was Metal H. doing? Arrggg!

“Hey,” Kratos’s voice was gentle. “Something wrong?”

“Um-no,” Fighter responded, but she adverted her eyes. And she knew that Kratos knew she was lying.


Chapter 4: Growth?

Winslow Treadwell walked into the Boss’s office all of pleased, terrified, confused, and in pain. Pleased, because he had heavily valuable information. Terrified because… Well, let’s just say the Boss had that effect on people. Confused and in pain, because there was the oddest growth on the underside of his jaw. Treadwell didn't understand it, but he was sure it hadn't been there before his battle.

Treadwell looked up. He had reached the Boss's office. Treadwell stopped for a moment and looked himself over. In front of the Boss, You had to look perfect. The Boss did not tolerate failure. *Okay,* thought Treadwell, *Here we go,* Brown-black hair, check. Black suit, perfect. Evil gleam in blue-green eyes, definitely there. *Well,* Treadwell thought, *Because of this growth, it's been nice knowing me.* He walked into the Bosses room, dreading his fate...

"Winsolw! So good to see you!" the Boss said, a smile on his face. The Boss was a stocky man, but he was tall.

"Yesir" Treadwell said hastilly