“Well, are they disposed of permanently?” the Aoran asked Ntraex.

                “Yes, Master,” Ntraex replied. “They are dead and their bodies are disposed of.”

                “You have done well, and General Kharan will be proud of you for your obedience and loyalty,” the Aoran said. “You are dismissed.”

                When the Termination Demons had gone, the Aoran turned to the chair that she always occupied in the room. “Now, down to business.”

 

                Dallas rocked back and forth on his heels, trying to be patient as Jack busied himself in the communication room, talking to someone. Dallas knew that patience was a virtue, one that he did not have, and he wondered how on earth he could have been chosen for this group. The Aoran was intelligent, and knew exactly who to pick, but he would never know why he had been picked.

                Jack opened the door nearby and stepped out. “Come on, Dallas. We’re going to test your abilities. Three days from now we’re going to attack again, and you’re going with us. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t do this, but you seem very devoted to our cause, so I’ll chance it just this once.”

                “Alright,” Dallas said.

                Jack led him to a room just down the hall. They entered.

                Dallas looked around, taking everything in. They appeared to be in a gang technology room. He grinned to himself, because he had excelled in this while in training.

                “Take a seat,” Jack told him. “The Aoran told me that you did well in this area, so we’ll start here. First we’re going to review your spy training.”

                Dallas smiled to himself again as he sat. He just knew that he would do well.

 

                “Who?” Kerry asked as she looked out the entrance. It took her awhile to make out forms moving through the trees.

                “Some strange gang hanging around this area. They make absolutely no contact with anybody as far as any of us know,” Tristan replied.

                “Then how do you know about them?” Jess inquired.

                “I have followed them around,” Tristan answered. “I’m positive that they are some kind of gang, though they have done nothing bad that I have seen.”

                “Could they be connected to the murders?” Kerry wondered.

                “Could be, but I’ve been following them for awhile and they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary. They haven’t even seen me, or if they have, they have not reacted negatively,” Tristan explained.

                The forms became clearer. Kerry noted that they were all in black pants, black hoodies and black shirts. The hoodies were pulled close around their face, making their features impossible to make out.

                “They look really dark,” she observed.

                “They are dark,” Tristan said on a matter-of-fact voice. “Who else would dress like that?”

                “Someone who wanted to be thought of as evil, but really aren’t, perhaps?” came a voice from behind them.

                The trio whirled around.

                There stood a hooded figure!

 

                “You’re my what?” Damon asked unbelievingly.

                “Your creator. Now, don’t get into a tizzy, no one believes me around here when I say that.” Jackie sighed and closed her eyes. “I won’t go into details. Now, about that those spear stabs…”

                “What in the name of Celedryl are you?” Damon asked.

                “Who’s Celedryl?” Jackie asked.

                “Where I came from. What are you?” Damon pressed.

                “A normal human-well, not normal, but I won’t expand on the subject. I’m your creator and I come from the past, and if you don’t shut up right now I won’t be able to get at that slash on your face.”

                Damon lifted his fingers and brushed his face, wincing with pain. “Funny, I didn’t notice that ‘til just now.”

                “You’d understand if you believed me when I said that I was your creator.” Jackie sighed again, picked up a damp cloth, and began to bathe his face none too gently.

                Damon winced once more. “OUCH! Take it easy!”

                “I’m not a healer. You have to be patient ‘til one comes, so hold still and take it. Good grief, you’d think a bad guy twenty six years of age would be able to take this.”

                Damon almost shot up in shock. “How do you know my age?”

                “For the umpteenth time, I’m your creator. That’s how I know.”

                “Hey, Jackie, how’s your patient?” a voice called from the front of the cave.

                “Fine, Kinalo,” Jackie called back.

                A short, slightly stout girl came from the entrance of the cave. “How on earth did he survive that?”

                “Talk to me later. Just bandage him up right now.” Jackie stood and went over to Dory. “This one still hasn’t come around.”

                “She’s a girl,” Kinalo said, grinning. “They tend to be weaker.”

                “Other girls, you mean. Not us.” Jackie smiled secretively. “I wonder what Mom and Dad would say if I told them who I was hanging out with…”

                “Don’t tell them. And why would they believe us anyway?” Kinalo asked as she knelt beside Damon and unbuckled a fanny pack from her waist.

                “Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Jackie said. “Think we should call our buddy?”

                “Which one?” Kinalo asked.

                “That one.” Jackie pointed to the tall female coming from the same direction as Kinalo had.

                Kinalo’s head whipped around. “Oh! Hi, Brynn.”

                “Hi, Kina.” Brynn walked over to Damon. “Is your patient behaving?”

                “Yes,” Kinalo replied.

                “He wasn’t behaving with me,” Jackie called over to them from her position deciding what to do with Dory.

                “Maybe he likes my looks.” Kinalo joked.

                “Yeah, right.” Jackie shot her a murderous look. “If that’s it, you’re sadly mistaken.”

                “Oh, stop before I start laughing!” Brynn ordered. “This is such a sad argument.”

                “Well, what do you expect? We’re sisters,” Kinalo said.

                “Oh no,” Damon groaned. “You’re sisters?”

                “Yes. You’re so unfortunate, poor fellow.” Jackie shook her head with mock sympathy. “But if you make us leave, you’re gonna die?”

                “And why is that?” Damon wondered.

                “For the billionth time, I’m your creator,” Jackie repeated. “That’s why, and if you ask that again I’m gonna slug you, no matter how badly hurt your face is.”

                “She’s merciless,” Damon said, turning to Kinalo as she tended to him.

                “I am too,” Kinalo said matter-of-factly.

                Damon closed his eyes. “Let me die in peace.”

                “If you really want us to…” Kinalo glanced over at Jackie and winked.

                “Fine, just don’t bother me too much.” Damon opened his eyes, closing them again as Kinalo went at a stab. “I have a question.”

                “What?”

                “Where did they stab me?”

                “Various spots. Your chest, your abdomen….” Jackie looked at Brynn. “I’d prefer not to treat him, and you shouldn’t either, Kin. He’s a boy.”

                “And now you think of this. Nice.” Kinalo straightened up. “Will we have to call him in?”

                “I think so.” Jackie pulled an odd looking device out of her pocket and went to the back of the cave.

                Dory finally started to come around, with much more noise than Damon had. “Ow! Why do I hurt so much?” she groaned, opening her eyes. She stiffened as Brynn bent over her. “Who are you?”

                “An alien in the form of a human,” Brynn said. “Now hold still so my friend can help you.”            

                Kinalo came over. “She’s finally awake.”

                “And I hurt all over,” Dory said.

                “No surprise there,” Brynn commented.

                Kinalo knelt. “Looks like you got a few in the abdomen, some more in your limbs, a couple in the shoulders…”

                “How is she feeling?” wondered Jackie as she came from the back of the cave.

                “Terrible. I think she got it worse than her boyfriend.” Kinalo grinned teasingly.

                “He’s not my boyfriend,” Dory said indignantly. “We’re just…friends.”   

                “Yep, JUST friends,” Brynn said sarcastically. She turned to Jackie. “What do you say? You’re their creator.”

                “My what?” Dory asked incredulously.

                Jackie buried her face in her hands. “I’m not going to explain. I’m not going to take any questions or arguments. Just trust me, okay?”

                Dory stared unbelievingly at her. “Alright,” she said after awhile.

                “No one believes me when I say that anyway,” Jackie said, shaking her head as she faced the back of the cave. “Garrett, is that you?”

                “It’s me,” came a reply.

                Dory turned her head as a tall male walked out of the shadows. He looked to be about seventeen, and his black hair stood straight up in a spiky hairdo. His dark blue eyes roved over the people standing or lying around.

                “Who needs me?” he asked.

                “That guy.” Brynn pointed at Damon. “He needs you very badly. Took a few spear thrusts through the abdomen. We girls are not going to do anything, so you’ll have to.”

                “I’m painful,” Garrett warned Damon as he walked over.

                “Maybe you should leave him to die, ‘cause just a minute ago, I was washing him up a little, and he hurt,” Jackie said.

                “You weren’t even trying to be gentle,” Damon protested.        

                “I knew you would need Garrett, so I was testing you to see if you passed the test, and you did…just barely,” Jackie explained.

                “Yeah, well everyone passes his tests,” Brynn said. “He’s too nice to let you die.”            

                “So I guessed,” Damon said, gritting his teeth as Garrett knelt beside him. “He looks too nice to let me.”

                “You’d be surprised,” Jackie said as she turned away. “Don’t let his character and words fool you. He’s the best guy healer I know.”

                “Jackie, let’s bring Dory to a back room,” Brynn suggested.

                Between the two of them, Jackie and Brynn managed to pick up their patient and carry her off to a back room, where they settled her on a cot and left Kinalo to tend her.

                “We should get some rations,” Jackie said.

                “Yes,” Brynn agreed.

                They hurried away.

               

                “Where-where did you come from? Who are you?” Jess asked, her hands instinctively going to the knife strapped at her side.

                “Who I am and where I came from matters not to you. I am here to inform you that you are treading on dangerous territory.” The hooded figure stood firmly, arms folded. “I would advise you to leave. Now.”

                Tristan glared at her. “And why is this cave so special to you?”

                “I am not saying. Now leave, if you value your lives.” The figure spoke in a hiss.

                “No. We need shelter.” Jess folded her arms defiantly.

                In a movement that none of them noticed, the figure reached into the hooded jacket and withdrew a long, lethal looking dagger. “I’m not joking. Leave. Now.”

                Jess drew out her knife. “Tell us first why this cave is so important to you.”

                The figure prepared to throw the knife. “If I tell you, you will not live to tell anyone else.”

                Kerry saw CJ sneaking up on the figure. He leapt at it, knocking it over.

                Tristan ran to the figure and pulled down the hood. He froze immediately.

                The girl’s face that stared back at him was glaring daggers at him.

                “A girl?” he said incredulously.

                DJ ran from the back of the cave. “Look out!” he said.

                Jess and Kerry whirled around.

                A flood of black figures swirled into the room, surrounding him.

                One, about five feet tall, stepped forward. “Harm not our leader,” it said in a voice that Kerry immediately distinguished a girl’s voice. “Or we will harm you.”

                “We mean you no harm. We just want to know why this cave is so important to you,” Jess said.

                “It is our home,” said the figure, drawing back her hood.

                Kerry stifled a gasp at seeing that she was only about eleven or twelve.

                Her head swiveled at Kerry and leveled a steady gaze at her. “You are surprised, no doubt. I do not blame you. Most would not take me for a second in command of such a group, but I am.”

                “Why are you telling this information to us so freely?” Kerry wondered.

                “Because I know I can trust you.”

                “And how do you trust us?”

                “You’ll be shocked. I know your creator.”

 

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