Greetings,
	Well, this be the prologue to The Beginning. I would love some
feed back, no matter what it may be. I really need some constructive
criticism. Email comments to bentley4@ix.netcom.com. 






					Phantom Riders:
					The Beginning
					By. R. Bentley
					October 3, 1995-?
					Version: 000.1A


					*Chapter 3*
				*The Sacred Warriors Cometh*

	Date: August 1, 1991 A.D.
	Location: West Warwick, Rhode Island
	"To the Phantom Riders!"
	"Cheers!"
	The sound of soda glasses being clinked together filled the down
stairs of Mr. Taco. Two t.v.'s and one Keno monitor hung from different
sides of the lower floor of the Mexican Restaurant. The entire room was
filled with kids, about twenty to twenty-fiv e in all. All of them were
human expect for two aliens were all seated and preparing for their second
victory.
	The nachos came first, but so they were gone and so was their
dinner in a matter of an hour. The food as it always had been was great.
The manager was among the kids, his role reversed from being a manager to
a customer sat with the kids and celebrated.  The events that has taken
placer over the last year had been.....well somewhat strange.
	One and half years prior, most of the kids took two weeks off and
enjoyed themselves at a camp with other teenagers. They soon found
themselves in the middle of something unthinkable. A war. A war with
aliens and they were stuck in the middle. One of the
 aliens trained them to be fighters, as it was foretold on her world. They
had been chosen to be a planet's saviors. Meeting the enemy face to face
in what could have been called fate.....or a very well planned
coincidence. After a week of fighting of the
 enemy, the heroes won. The leader of the enemy a man called Burke fled,
leaving his five female alien allies in the lurch. Burke's Bimbos as Burke
allies were called were sent to the highest security facility known.
Locked in the human forms and sentence d for many years. After a long talk
with the FBI and local authorities the heroes were let go and went back to
their normal life. 
	Not for long.
	Strange happenings across the sea called to them and they
answered, this time they brought more friends. Across the corridor of
space and time to stop what appeared to be another invasion. The true
happens of what had happened were still unclear, one thi ng was clear,
with one of their own stuck down vengeance was called for. The results of
that, the destruction of Lanconia II, a military city a few miles away
from it's name sake erupted with killings and soon became nothing but a
hulk of a metal and bodi es. The first encounter of what was called a
Tendorian Huntsman and what it was capable of. In the end, Burke was
stopped and victory was once more at hand. And that victory had made their
stomachs hungry.
	"You should have seen this castle," Kurt Keaney said, taking a
large bite out of his casadia. He had already gotten his hair cut, back to
his normal crew cut, it did seem to fit his height of five eight. "Huge,
biggest one I have ever seen," he informed the few people at his table
that hadn't been on the C-130s and the C-5 transport planes when part of
the Riders team was sucked back to medieval England.
	"I knew we missed something," Debbie Issaco muttered, smiling while
she sipped her soda through a straw. "What's thing I hear about a maiden
you rescued?" The blonde asked, her brown eyes watching his face.
	"Well it's something I had to do," Kurt caught her drift, flicking
some soda at her with his straw. "Anyway she would have been charcoal
anyway if I hadn't stepped in when I did."
	Nicole Burke leaned over the table from where she was sitting,
pointing a finger at Kurt. "You nearly broke my back trying to get to her
and she has at least a hundred feet more till she was dragon chow. The
curly brunette playfully wacked him upside the
 head with the palm of her hand.
	Kurt ducked a few more hits until he started to pour hot sauce all
over her chicken. "Unless you want heart burn, ya better stop it!" The two
girls then proceeded to give him a lesson in bopping that he would never
forget.
	"So what the deal with you two?" Micheal Basile asked. Basile stood
about five eight, black hair and gray eyes and if it wasn't painfully
clear already an Italian attitude. The question was posed to the two women
at his table. The only two people in the room that were not born on Earth,
but somewhere else, a long way away. Kara Masters who was sitting in front
of Basile gave her soft Taco a nudge with fork, she took a whiff and
raised her eye brows in surprise and took a rather large bite out of it.
Basi le watched as the alien tasted her Mexican dinner, the look on her
face was priceless. Her grease covered mouth formed a smile as her taste
buds gave her the o.k. and she swallowed. The hot sauce she had ordered
with it was now taking effect. She blinked and opened her mouth.
	"Hot, wow, hot," she went for the large glass of water with ice she
had asked for and sipped quietly. "Staying for the moment," she said after
coming up for a breath of air and then sucking on the straw some more. She
was about six three, brown hair and blue gray eyes, her leather jacket
hung over her chair, a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers blessed her well
endowed body. Yes the Riders were really trying to alienate her.
	Tanya O'Hare who sat next to her watched in bemusement. The rather
tall woman looked at her casadia and enchiladas and licked her lips. Her
rather dark pink hair was not the highlight of the chatter of the
waitresses as some of them stood around and list ed to what had happened
to the kids in the last two years while others did their jobs. Her dark
blues eyes took in all that was around her, watching everything that was
happening. "Haven't been to a celebration in a while," she took a bite of
her casadia and sipped her cold drink. "We're going to be giving the Essex
a refit and leave in a few months or so," she felt like smoking too, but
knowing what the smoke would do to these humans. She took a large chug
from her frothy glass instead, no one seemed to care it was making her
eyes and hair glow in the light. "We've already got enough samples for the
Secoian Ecology and Xeno Departments. They can run some tests, see if
Secoians can live here. Considering we don't count as Secoians." She
blinked as Kara st arted to chug down the pitcher of water that had just
arrived.
	Basile nodded, making a mental note, casting a look at both of the
aliens. One of them an ancient sacred race of space travelers that has
visited many different worlds and seeded only a few. Kara Master was one
of these people, her little run in with the
 Tendors after the original Phantom Riders disappeared was still on her
mind. What they had done to her, what kind of tests did they run, why
could she bits of the future? Anyone or anything pertaining to what
happened to her, erased. People killed, recor ds burning as she woke from
the trance they had put her under. Her scrambing to the escape pod and
landing on Earth with something else on board. Something that should not
exist, could not exist, one of the things in the night you are not ment to
see.
	The other, an offspring of the other, a hybrid of many different
aliens and worlds. The hybrid was concocted into a new species. Tanya
O'Hare was the sole survivor of something that had happened before
recorded time on Earth. She died before the original s disappeared, before
Kara disappeared. She was the one who reversed the Tendor's control over
Kara. She had been the one who had trained the Terns around her to be
something that she had only heard in myth and legend on her world. A world
just like herse lf, one shrouded in mystery and time.
	Indeed you aren't, he thought.
	Two of the Riders played darts. Well one of the main Riders, the
other was part of the back up group. They both had the same jobs of sorts,
liaison to the enemy. Only one of them had a bracelet around her right
wrist the other had learned the stuff she w as supposed to know the hard
way, from Tanya and from school. The dart board was attached to the
divider that split the small game area from the rest of the nacho prep
area. Four rather large windows occupied the wall to the right of the
board, they looke d out upon the rocky hill that led down to the small
river behind Mr. Taco. To the left of the board was the bar and it's
stools, the kitchen was closed tonight with all the food coming from up
stairs. The stairs going up were right next to the bar, while
 the Asteroids game that was getting a heavy usage this evening was behind
the dart board and it's two players. 
	Siana Collyer aimed and threw one of the darts. It landed middle
five. She got into a little better position this time, right foot forward
just behind the line, left foot back, elbow straight up, look at the
target. She threw. The metal tipped dart sunk into the bulls eye for the
first time that night. She smiled and let out a soft, "yes." She threw
again and hit left of center.
	"Can't win them all."
	Siana looked left and raised her eye brows. "You get two in there
without using the bracelet." The haloed blonde stepped out of the way so
her compition could get in. She walked up to the dart board and grabbed
her three out of the board and side stepped
 left, allowing her competition a clear shot. Thunder rumbled in the
distance, a few miles away, sans lighting.
	Shannon Barske bowed slightly and stepped up to the taped line on
the carpeted floor. She took off her bracelet, laying it on the counter on
her right and aimed with her right. Her gray eyes narrowed and she let
loose with a steady stream of bull eyes, p rompting Siana to get even more
annoyed and jealous for the next half hour. The two blondes went back and
forth while Steve Cullen, Richard Baggesen and Michael King played
Asteroids behind them. A small crowd had started to form around them,
mostly eleme ntary school kids from upstairs who had come with their
parents on this rather busy Friday night.
	"So how are you and Matt doing?" Siana asked Shannon between hits
and misses.
	"Matt is seeing Jenna," Shannon said in a neutral tone, missing the
bullseye as Siana had hoped. She made a slight face and shrugged it off.
The fact that she had been hitting the bullseye with out the tacking
system helping was a good sign, she was gett ing much better as was Siana.
She pulled her darts from the board and watched Siana step up and shoot.
She progressing much faster then she had even thought, she was getting to
be an novice marksman and weapons specialist. She turned and looked at all
of her friends as they celebrated, told tall tales and basically got very
full on food that would be departing their bodies tomorrow morning anyway.
She found the cause of Siana's competition, Robert Bentley, sitting with
Basile, Kara and Tanya. She smiled a t him let herself bask in the glow
that she had gotten to him first and Siana was very jealous. She watched
as Siana nearly hit one of the waitresses, no not a good sign.
	"Maybe we should stop," she commented to herself outloud, putting
the bracelet back on. She knew what was coming next, she allowed Siana a
little time to unnerve herself from what had happened and continued with
their little game.
	Rich shook his head while the two girls re-started the game. The
six foot, brunette mechanic sat slightly hunched over so other the little
kids could see. He was only half listening to the conversation about who
was going out with who when his second to last ship nearly had a head on
with a little chunk of asteroid. He hit the red button and his little
space ship across the ancient screen and watched the asteroids get blown
away, his fingers dancing over the buttons. "Their going to kill each
other," he muttered. "Again."
	"Least it's not on the food," Cullen muttered back. "Be happy about
that."
	"So is Tim Drycor," Shannon turned around slightly, pulling all
three darts out of the bullseye. Glaring at the lithe blonde/brunette with
her cold gray eyes through her blonde locks. She was starting to remember
the good-bye kiss Siana had given Bentley
 when they had left on their first date in the many weeks after the
incident with Burke at the camp. "And if you think of going near Bentley-"
	"I get the point, I'll back off," Siana mearly smiled and started
to aim for Shannon's head......bullseye and threw. In her mind that is.
"It was worth a try."
	 "I think I'll go pay the bill, excuse me." Bentley got up, not
wanting to see the two start hurling tables at each other over him. He
gave Shannon the don't fight over me look and headed upstairs. The noise
from the people eating and waiting for tables filled the air as did the
soft echoes of thunder in the distance. He walked up onto the first floor,
took a left, paralleling the counter and stopped at the cash register.
There was a small line behind him, most of them had started to get seated
while he waited for Melinda to see him. She seated a few people and saw
him. She waved as did he and held up the bill. She nodded, walked from
where she was to the cash register.
	"You guys almost done down stairs?" She asked, her dark hair was
pulled back tonight, a few strands straying from the rest, showing how
busy it had gotten a few hours ago.
	  Bentley nodded. "Yep, figured we could pay you in advance, get all
the hassle out of the way." He slid the bill over with the money and
listened as the rumble of thunder got a little closer. "Always rains on us
when we come here," he muttered. He blew a few strands of brown hair back
over his left eyes. His hazel eyes blinked with a soft red light to them,
bearly noticeable, the bracelet was causing it. The six foot sophomore
shiver slightly, pulling the long sleeve shirt he was wearing with the
sleeve s rolled up around the t-shirt he had had tucked into his jeans..
He had left the shirt unbuttoned and even with the jeans on he was getting
cold. 
	"Your a curse," Melinda replied, breaking his train of thought. She
typed in the amount and waited. "Glad I put up my car windows."
	The soft flash of thunder cascades around the room for a second
and the rumble of thunder gets louder. A few people get up from their
tables and head for their cars to roll up their windows. The sound of
people talking dies down, as they listen to the th under outside and wait
for the rain to come. The lighting flash like a flash bulb, the light
throws shadow all over the room. People start to eat again, watching for
the lights to go out. Some people grab waitresses while they can and order
quickly too.
	The crowd of people heading outside thins out, the glass doors
quietly swish closed. Four people step into the room, they all squint as
the lighting bursts get a little brighter. Their eyes sweep the rather
large room quickly for cameras or alarm devices . Two of them put their
hands into the pockets of their trench coats and head down stairs. The
other two stand behind Bentley, a little shifty for the Friday night
crowd. Bentley turned slightly, as if registering their presence and is
derailed by Melinda 's voice about the money and school.
	His eyes looked down at the money and the plastic bag filled with
mints and such. He smiled, mentioning a few things about the concert he
and Basile planned on going too the next night. He nodded to Melinda and
turned right, the stairs in sight. Melinda' s conversation with the men
behind him is bearly heard over the load clap of thunder.
	"You'll get to us right now!" One of the two pulled out a shotgun,
pumped it and fired it down the counter full of glasses for hard drinks.
The glasses that lined the counter exploded into shards, going off in all
directions. Bentley nearly jumps a foot,
 glass shards hit him and only bounce off as the explosion pushed him into
the wall just ahead of the stairs. Lighting bursts around the room, people
turn in horror the flash of light illuminating the men's faces. A faces of
pure glee. Two waitresses down
 at the end of the counter duck, as if waiting for more shots. "We want
all the money in the cash register, lady! Now!" The other one pulls an Uzi
from it's shoulder holster and fire off a few rounds into the ceiling to
quiet the screams that erupted from
 the rest of the first floor.
	"All right, all right, just hang on," Melinda started to press the
combo into the key pad for the cash register. "It's a Friday night too,"
she murmured.
	Bentley now facing the two would be/cliché/drugged out looking for
cash gunman settle his racing thoughts and took a deep breath. 

	"So how long did the duel last?" Jennifer Abols asked Jim Reid
while they shared some of his taco. The kids that had been standing and
talking were now sitting and quietly gabbing while desert was brought out.
The topics of conversation ranged from what they were going to do next to
what teacher they were hopefully going get for their sophomore year at
Warwick Veterans Memorial High School. Since Burke hadn't shown up in
weeks and his allies were now locked up in prison, things seemed to be
getting back to normal.
	"About twenty minutes, from the throne room to the castle's
grounds," Jim tried to remember his duel with Burke in medieval England.
"He wasn't that bad."
	Shannon nibbled on some nachos and chugged on her soda while she
waited for Siana and Lisa Markian to finish their game of darts. She
watched the lighting criss cross across the sky, the thunder echoed soon
after. The rumble faded away and stayed for a m oment. She turned and
listened, eyes narrowed, ear perked up. She looked around the room and
then up. Kara seemed a little on edge too, she kept looking around.
Shannon let herself ease into her telepathic state and with that it hit
her head on.
	<....Slight problem....Shannon you here me? We've got a slight
problem!> Bentley's words sent a shiver down her spine, her back was
turned away from the stairs as the two people came down the stairs slowly.
She concentrated and closed her eyes.
	<Define problem.> She sent back.
	He told her. Her jaw dropped, eyes opened wide now. She slowly
turned, the two men were now three steps from the bottom. Only one of them
is a little more high then the other, he nearly missed a step. The flap of
his trench coat reveals some kind of larg e rifle. A million thoughts ran
through her mind and only one seems the best way.
	"Guys!"
	<We have a very large problem,> Bentley words made them all turn in
unison. The two men reached the buttom and stepped onto the floor. They
both turned, one to the left the other two the right. The one on the right
pulls out what appeared to be a sawed o ff shot gun. The other clears his
throat.
	"Now gents," he smiled at Shannon and others. "And ladies, we would
like all you money, Now!" He turned and motioned to the bar tender to take
all the money of the cash register that sat on the end of the bar top.
Most of the kids had one look on their f aces, they all took out their
wallets much to the men's surprise. The way Rich moved, said it all. He
stepped out from behind the video game and walked into the middle of the
room with the others, formed a circle around Kara and Tanya. They all left
their
 wallets and other assorted valuables onto one of the booth's tables that
lined the wall under the window.
	Both of the men looked at each other, roughly translated: This is
too easy.
	All of the kids looked at the two men, roughly translated: You
really expect to get away with this.
	This look hit home, one of the two, the one who had done the
talking seemed to recognize some one, just a faint look in the eye, the
way he moved and talked. "You all can sit down now, don't want anything
happening do we?"
	<What's the plan?> Cullen thought, he watched the gunman tell
everyone one to sit down at the table and keep their hands on the table
top on plain view. The one with the shot gun shaked his head and told
everyone to sit on the floor instead, the talked n odded and walked back
towards the bar, letting everyone lie down. Cullen could fry this guy east
but there were too many people around and the shot gun wielder looked to
be going through serious withdrawal. <Besides taking them out?>
	<I'm working on it.> Bentley replied. <Someone get Kleper on the
line, Rich take the guys out. The others can stay where they are. Total
Count is four people, two with you, two with me. Dunno what your two's
condition is but mine look pretty stable. Excu se me....be right back.>
	Shannon looked out of the corner of her eyes and saw the windows
that lined the back wall, the windows behind the gunman. She gave a quick
head count and also which person had brought their bag of tricks with
them. Her eyes dropped onto Jim and then down
 underneath his seat. His black/gray bag was there and opened too. She
threw a nacho at him and nodded at the bag and lip-synched: Hologram of
drugs and money!
	Jim caught on, after he read her lips twice and slowly slipped his
hands into the bag. The holo device dropped onto the floor with a slight
clunk. He brought his arm back to his side as the gunman passed by him, he
was looking a little more pekid now. He
 had started to pace, the sawed off shot gun going left to right, left to
right, over the kids. He nodded to his boss as he walked back upstairs to
check with the others, another robber with a rather old AK-47 came down
the stairs. Jim pulled the rather s mall metal octagon closer to himself
and activated it. He tapped in the command as fast as he could, watching
for the nervous twit to turn around. Now the only thing he had to do was
wait. 

	"That's all we have," Melinda gave him all the money. She spoke the
truth, the once full cash register was now bone dry. The brown bag that
sat between the register and the high counter was now full of money,
crumpled and new. The two waitresses under th e watchful eyes picked up
the glass shards from the floor. Melinda tapped her foot on a gray button
on the floor, one of the lights on the waitress caller blinked for a
moment then died.
	"I don't think so," the one with the shot gun pushed her out of the
way and tore open the machine.
	Bentley took a step forward, past the stairs. "Don't hurt-" He
felt the butt of the rifle in his back. A slight nudge that's all. He
stopped and tensed up for a moment. "That took long enough."
	"Well your friends down stairs seemed a little too easy, I figured
hey what the hell go back up stairs and see if I missed anything," the
leader of the group had two steps to go until he reached the first floor.
His rather large rifle in his outstretched
 arm made it to Bentley's back. "I'm sure you remember me."
	"Last year, the robbery at the party," Bentley looked over the two
in front of him. "Providence Penthouse set ablaze by crazed gunman,
children and hostages survive." They were new, so was the one down stairs.
The one with the gun to his back was the one
 he thought had died in the garage blast when the eighteen wheeler when
ka-boom.  So now he was here, and now he wants to put a few holes in you
for the switch you pulled, Bentley, cute real cute. "I'm surprised your
still walking."
	The rifle nudged him forward and to the right. Against the
counter. He heard him reach the top of the stairs, his boots squeaked on
the floor. Bentley felt him get closer, a little too close. The tip of the
rifle nudged his left ear, the hair on the back
 of his head stood on end, the rifle slid to his shoulder so it's owner
could talk. "So where is she?" He asked, the faint smell of rum on his
breath. "One of you go down stairs," he ordered and one did.
	"Who?" Bentley replied, he kept his eyes locked on the refrigerator
filled with rum and such that sat against the wall. At least he could see
him in the reflection, the counter was blocking from his shoulders down.
The rifle rose back up to his ear and B entley closed his eyes. "Careful,
all this flammable liquid and boom. I really don't think you want a
rehash-" He wasn't prepared for what happened next, the leader punched him
in the back. Bentley slammed into the edge of the counter. He nearly lost
cons ciousness right there but his brain told it's shell to stay awake.
	"Now try it again, where is she?"
	Bentley chanced a look now, he coughed and turned his head. Alex
Rush's face was what he saw, narrow, blue eyes and dirty blond hair. Alex
was about his height, around twenty six or so, ex-marine and kicked out of
the FBI for reasons unknown. He looked n o worse for ware. Bentley didn't
have time to do an ident scan. Alex pushed him further down the counter.
Alex looked over his shoulder. "We done?"
	"I know they have a safe downstairs!" The one with the Uzi goes to
join his brother downstairs. Leaving the two leaders alone upstairs with
the Friday night crowd.
	Alex leaned against the counter and looked down at Bentley. "So
where did you hide her?"
	"Who are you talking about your wife or her?" Bentley retorted.
	"You know who I'm talking about, where is she!"
	Bentley sighed. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
"Somewhere far far away. A place the stars only know about. The night only
dreams about and the day sleeps forever night. A place where warriors
begin to hunt and the hunted fall one by one."  Bentley put his elbows on
the counter and leaned. He didn't need to see Alex's face. He knew he had
loosed his grip on the rifle, charging him was not a good idea. "She was
the first," he finally said. "She's not going to be the last."
	Alex face twitched. Seeing Bentley like this was something he had
been playing out in his mind ever since that night. For a year he pictured
himself killing this snot nosed kid. He needed to do it, he wanted to do
it. He could feel the anger building up,
 it was just the little things that had set things off. She was home and
he wasn't. He wasn't there to protect her, he couldn't bear being away
from her any longer. But he didn't want to make it there and find her not
there. Since the three stupid humans were down stairs he would make sure
she was there waiting for him. "How do you know all this?" He asked.
	Bentley turned to him. Looking him straight in the eye, the Friday
night crowd were still in their seats. Some of them still with food on
forks halfway to their mouths, while others sat there and stared at the
gunman and this teenager talked like they we re old friends. Bentley
clasped his arms behind his and took a deep breath. Once that was done he
made a gesture with his hand to stay sitting and do not get up. <Whatever
you guys plan on doing, do it now. This is about to get ugly.>
	"After the explosion, after the second through fourteen floors came
down on us like hail. The cops, FBI and fire department got to the scene.
Course the place was a burning inferno. Well somehow she had made it out
either she jumped or knew you were goin g to blow yourself up. Anyway, she
was there when the cops arrived. She was there when the FBI arrived, she
was looking for you. She couldn't find you, she thought you had changed
your mind at the last second and escaped," he slowed down. Which we can
all
 tell by now, you did, somehow. "Well we survived," he smiled and held up
his right arm, the bracelet was glowing like crazy. Bentley watched Alex's
reaction to this. "They past with flying colors and guess what. She seemed
very upset when we emerged. Muc h to everyone disbelief she tried to
attack the hostages we were saving. So, I did what I was trained to, I
shot her with a stun blast. And guess what."
	Alex seemed to be caving. But the next part was going to hurt.
	"I fire off my sidearm and in one clean shot, she hit with some
kind of blast and disappears," Bentley readied himself. "The sidearm your
people were working with, to reverse the process."
	Alex's expression changed, an eye brow twitched. "....What?"
	"The sidearm you lost on the roof, the sidearm your scientists were
perfecting to reverse the curse. The one that Burke had brought about."
	Alex's eye brows were starting to knit. The line that formed his
lips started to curve down and teeth were starting to gleam in the light.
"You did that......to her?"
	Bentley held up his hands. "It wasn't my fault, I didn't even know
the thing had locked onto my body waves until it fired. It's supposed to
give a hell of a kick back right?"
	Alex's nuckles cracked as they made fists. Alex grabbed Bentley by
the neck of his t-shirt and lifted him up, feet dangling. "You sent her
back without as much as a warning."
	"I....didn't.....know," Bentley coughed, trying to pry Alex's hand
off his neck. He weased and coughed, can't get big dumb monkey to get his
hands off me. Help. "Don't blame me...." he managed to say, that's when
Alex pushed him away. Bentley landed on h is feet, bearly and got his
balance corrected. A few feet away from the doors to the upstairs kitchen
to his left.
	Alex in one swift motion brought the rifle up and fired three to
four rounds into Bentley. The loud explosion made everyone cringe and
scream. Bentley was thrown back into the air and landed on a table,
unconscious. People got onto the floor now, cursing
 and screaming. Alex fired two more shots into Bentley's body and turned,
a look on his face that was not his own..... 

	One of the three faceless gunman turned at the shooting and ran up
stairs leaving the other two in charge. One of them checked out the great
selection of alcoholic drinks while the other one paced in the other room.
"There's lots of money over there," Ra ndolf pointed to the window. The
slight sound from the holo device made Jim jump and smother the device
with his huge body, covering the lens optics for a few seconds until he
saw the ghost image on his shirt. He moved out of the way by now and was
lettin g the device do it's work. The money looked like it was really out
there. Out there, beyond the glass, a few feet from the window in the
rain.
	"Bags of it," Siana added, cringing slightly at the movement in her
direction.
	Shannon cringed too, it wasn't about the gunman. It was the pain
she felt when Bentley had been hit. His mind was silent, but something was
counting....something mechanical.
	The sawed off shot gun wielder turned and looked over his shoulder
for a quick instant. What his line of vision caught was a bag of money
outside the window, millions trillions of dollars. Jim grimaced at
Shannon's raised eye brows, he shrugged. So he's happy with money, so
what. "Holy shit," he cried and moved up to the front of the room. He
pointed the shot gun at the window and fired. The window exploded, shards
of glass flew, making his companion nearly spit out the rum and beer he
was mixing. He wal ked onto the booth's chairs, walking over the shards of
glass and into the night. He bent over to pick up the now wet money, he
didn't care it was money. He examined it, it was real. His back was to
them for two seconds and that's all it took..... 
 
Part 2: Beginning Prologue by bentley4@ix.netcom.com

	Kepler cleared his throat. He had already shut the door and dimmed
the lights. The dozen or so rookies that were seated in the room finally
got the point and settled down. Most of them were fresh from the Acedemy.
All green behind the ears and almost ready and able to do anything to see
some action. They were are cramped into a medium sized room at the Warwick
Police Station. The room only seated eight, but with standing room only,
the fire marshal would not be pleased. "I'd like to thank all of you for
coming tonight, I'm sure some of you have better things to do on a Friday
night." That got a chuckle. "What I've called you here for is something
that will be off the books and not be on your records. At least not the
ones the public sees." That silenced the room. The rumors of Kepler being
a part of a secret government task force were true? Must of started with
his disappearance or something, that's how the cadets minds ran through
while Kepler ran through his speech.
	"I know some of you have heard rumors and such, running around.
Some of them are true while some of them are complete lies. The ones that
are true are these: 1. For the last two years I have been getting promoted
faster then some other people in my department and been getting some
pretty weird cases. 2: Last year parts of my personal record was erased
from the public's knowledge. 3: And yes I have been dabbling in some
government black group dealings." He looked around. No one seemed
surprised. "I have been in put in charge by the Director of the FBI to
start a small task force to investigate strange events that may happen in
the present and future."
	One of the rookies raised his hand, in the front row. Two rows of
seats, all faced a table with a small chair. Kepler was sitting on the
table looking around for other people and picked on the rookie.
	"Yes, Baker?"
	"Why you? Ah, sir?"
	Kepler smiled. "I have been put in charge due some of my knowledge
of things the public should not know about."
	"So your kinda like Deep Throat?" Baker guessed.
	Kepler shook his head. "Deep Throat knew things about the
government Baker, I know things about space."
	"Sounds like my astronomy teacher," Gibbs muttered, from the second
row.
	"My job is to watch out of any unidentified objects or people
entering this state."
	That got a few snorts from the room. Kepler expected that, he
smiled. "Who can tell me what happened at Camp Silva, one year and half
ago?"
	A rookie raised her hand from the back. "Yes, Walters."
	"A band of terrorists after a prolonged fire fight with police and
federal agents were captured and thrown in jail, sir," the flaming red
head replied.
	"And where did this band of terrorists originate from?"
	"Unknown sir, it was believed they were the people responsible for
the attack at Providence Gardens Place a week prior."
	Kepler nodded. "Very good. I see someone has been doing their home
work. And who were they after originally?"
	Walters hesitated for a moment. "A group of teenagers, sir."
	The rookies laughter was blanketed by the clap of thunder and
flash of lighting. 

	The gunman sat out in the rain counting his money.
	The owner of Mr. Taco, stood there and watched him do it.
	"Hey T.J. there's a ton of money out here!" The gunman started to
put all his newly found money into his pockets.
	T.J., the one at the bar shook his head. "Get out of the rain you
stupid," he turned to look in that general direction, he brought up the
rum bottle to his lips. He bearly caught a glimpse of something black jump
onto the table, a few dishes and glasses

fall onto the floor, the tables moves, dips down and comes back up. The
darkness leaps out into the rain with his brother. He blinks for a moment,
picking up the his Uzi. He hadn't seen Sean either, must have gone to the
bathroom. He checks the manager's

room, where Sean went too, it's empty. He turns off the light and turns
around. He bearly hears his brother's scream against the thunder. Lighting
strobes around the room, a body is lit up outside, something very big and
very strong. It strangles somethin

g until the flailing stops. It turned and threw a rather large wet thing
back onto the floor. T.J. moved, came out around the corner and aimed his
Uzi down at the large wet thing.
	The large wet thing was his brother.
	T.J. looked up at the window, a sheet of rain flowed down where
the window used to be. The soft dripping of water taped onto the table.
T.J. squinted his eyes, he tried to get a good look at what was outside
but couldn't. He took a step forward, as he wa

s about to check things outside when something in the back of head said
don't do it. He stopped, stood there for a moment and looked around the
room. A few of the so called hostages were missing. He raised his gun and
opened his mouth, the thoughts ran to his brain to his mouth, his jaw
begins to move. He hears nothing. He moves his mouth again, nothing. He's
about to scream when he feels the neck suddenly become warm. He looked
down and saw a hand......
	T.J.'s body jerked up. His hands opened, the Uzi carelessly
dropped onto the floor. His boots left the nice carpeted floor of Mr.
Taco. His arms and legs started to flail as he was lifted off his feet.
The hand eased off on the pressure and the owner of the hand decided to
show herself. Angela Goslin's eye was the first thing T.J. saw, her other
eye was covered by hair. She had T.J in one hand and one of her sabres in
the other, she was slinging it around on one finger while she held him up.
Her bracelet glowed immensely on her wrist as well as did her eye, it
narrowed and a smile formed. "I'm going to ask you thing once," she
informed him. The sabre she had been twirling on her finger ignited, the
sound of pulsing energy passing close to his face made him flinch. "Who
sent you?"
	His watery eyes opened from all the pain he was feeling. His
contorted face somehow made a sneer. "Fuck you," he spit in her face,
which slid off as quick as it hit her. The defensive shielding's protect
commands were very finite about what to protect the wearer from, including
spit from slime balls. T.J.'s next thoughts were interrupted by crash of
thunder and lighting, the strobe effect lit something up in the window.
	It loomed out there, watching.  Red eyes sat against the wave of
rain coming into the room. It decided to come in and warm up. The sound of
breaking glass made Ange turn a little, T.J.'s legs rocked left to right
until she came to a stop. His eyes opened wide as the shadow that loomed
just outside the wave of rain stepped onto the booth's chair. Rich stepped
from the table onto the carpet. The bulky back pack he was wearing had
made scratch marks on the ceiling, two rather large vertical rectangles on
the pack opened, emitting an errie light as did his eyes. "Weapons on
stand by," he reported. The rectangles were the holding jacks for his
rather large weapons. T.J's mind started to snap.
	Angle's only visible eye narrowed and started to emit a red light.
T.J's face went from the sneer to a ghost white with mouth trembling.
"Wrong answer." She said.
	She turned towards the dart board, arm outstretched fully. T.J was
now a rag doll. "Clear!" She yelled.
	Siana pulled all the darts out of the dart board and gave a thumbs
up sign. Angle smiled at T.J. and tossed him in the direction the dart
board. She threw her sabre in the same direction.  T.J's body slammed into
against the dartboard, a second later a red tipped energy sabre sliced
into his right shoulder, another one sliced into his left and effectively
kept him a few feet off the ground. He screamed once the first had gone
in, then screamed even more when the second one had hit.
	"How dumb can you be?" Siana asked, picking up her darts and
stepped up to the line. She brought her arm back and closed one eye.
	T.J. managed to open one eye, through all the mist from his ears
he saw her. He tried to budge but with every movement the blades of energy
crackled and caused more pain. 
	"I mean, we've been in the paper and on the news for the last two
years. Where've you been?" She aimed carefully. "Don't move, this won't
hurt a bit."
	Basile looked down at the end of the room, where the rest rooms
were located. "The other one still in there?" He asked Shannon.
	Shannon nodded, she was half way to the stairs, with King and Rich
behind her. "Sean, yes he's still in there."
	Basile nodded, concentrated. His bracer beeped a few times, eyes
emitting a white light. "Not for long." 

	Sean washed his hands at the sink. His dad's AK-47 and 9
millimeter sat on the top of the trash can while he dried his hands. He
put his gloves back on, picked up the weapons, he looked himself over in
the mirror. A unshaven face stared back at him, twenty-seven, red hair
with freckles and brown eyes. His narrow face, high cheek bones and short
nose made him a looker. He nodded an approval to himself and walked out
the door, a flash of light hit him head on for a moment.
	"Damn lighting," he muttered, blinking his eyes a few times and
walked out into the waiting area of the restaurant's first floor. He
stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes and
still found the waiting area in front of him. 

The entrance to Mr. Taco behind him, the pick up counter in front of him
to his left and the stairs leading down to his right. Alex was half way
across the room, blowing someone away. With that Sean's weapons dropped
onto the floor, the sound alerted some of the waitress who weren't already
cringing from the gun fire. The expressions on their faces matched Sean's.
"How in the bloody hell?" 

	"They were after a bunch of kids?" Gylnn laughed. The black woman
shook her head. "What did they do? Steal the terrorist's little weapons?"
	"Actually they stopped them from stealing many valuable jewels and
such, foiled their plans for holding the hostages and caused the building
to explode." Walters replied. The rain had started now, it came down
softly at first but was starting to pour.
	Kepler had been setting up a slide projector after Walter's first
answer, he put the slides in and turned on the projector. The first
picture was of a group of kids huddles together for a group shot. "This is
the group of kids that Ms. Walter's is talking about. The are the same
kids who at the camp stopped the terrorists as well as the ones at the
Providence Garden Place. I know what you may be thinking, a group of kids,
they follow this kid in the center," Kepler's pen pointed to the kid in
the center. 

 "His name is Robert Bentley, age 15 when this was taken, he's about to go
on to seventeen. Sophomore at Warwick Veterans Memorial High School."
	Glynn snorted. "You mean to tell me, these kids blew away twenty
people and took out the Garden Place Building, Captain if this is your
idea of a joke-"
	Kepler advanced the slides. This time of a shot of the inferno
that used to be Providence Garden Place, he kept on advancing them. One
after the other after the other. The shot didn't move, it was a shot of
the entrance of the place, rumble, red and yellow flames of fire moved as
the slides got faster. "Notice anything different in these series of
shots?" He asked.
	Glynn squinted. She leaned forward. "What are those dark shapes in
the center?"
	"It's them," Walters replied. She had been with Kepler when he
arrived on the scene, seeing the first five minutes of her first terrorist
attack would be chiseled in her mind for years. "The larger shapes are
people huddled together, the thinner one's are one person. This is over a
five minute time period."
	Kepler advanced the slides until the black spots in the middle of
the fire and rumble became crystal clear. "Mr. Bentley is center, Mr. King
and Basile flanking on both sides." He advanced one more. "This is of the
left side, I couldn't get all of them in one frame, too spread out. Ms.
Barske and Goslin, have about twenty or so people with them, along with
Mr. Reid, Baggesen and Beacuage bringing up the rear." He advanced again.
"Right side, Ms. Snyder, Mr Randolf, Ms. Markian and Ms. King, no relation
to Mr. King. They are all bringing the survivors of that party they had up
there out in one piece. The terrorists were killed by their leader," he
advanced. "A man named Alex Rush, who at the moment is missing and
presumed dead."
	Gibbs raised his hand. "This had something to do with what they
had on their wrists right sir?" He had been part of one of Kepler's
details, doing a follow up on the group of kids. He, Walters and Kepler
had been the only ones to talk to Tanya O'Hare.
	"Mind reader," Walter retorted, nudging Gibbs.
	"Mr. Gibbs, Ms. Walters and I have worked on this case before, so
don't mind them," Kepler winked and replaced slides. "This is what he's
talking about, a bracelet on the right wrist of all of these kids.
Bracer's as some of them call them, they are not from this planet, they
were manufactured somewhere else. They have an incredible ability to defy
the laws of gravity, sight, sound and general physics. They also have an
incredible storage capacity."
	"So they can do what?" Glynn asked. "Make the person invisible?
Heal them? Hide them? What?"
	Gibbs nudged Glynn. "Thought you didn't want to be here, eh?"
	"Right on almost all counts, invisibility, cloaked, shielding
system for the wearer. As well as moving them from place to place faster
then any mode of transportation," he pulled something out of his pocket.
He held it up into the light, it was an identical bracelet to the one on
the screen. "This is what they look like in real life, I know they don't
look like much, that's the way their supposed to look like," he passed it
around to the rookies and got back to his talk. "Healing is another story
entirely, that's where these come in," he advanced to a slide of a what
appeared to be a color printer cartridge from an IBM color printer. A
small, thin gray rectangle. "This is a Recaller, something that can either
transport you from place to place or heal you no matter what the
circumstances."
	"Have you seen one in action before?" Daniels asked from the back,
he looked over the bracer and tapped it, he didn't hear the beep it made.
No one did. He passed it on to the next person and looked up at Kepler.
	Lighting strobe flashed the room and Kepler waited for everyone's
eyes to get used to the darkness. He shook his head. "Not yet," he turned
to look at the thing, something caught his eye, at the door. His eyes
moved and saw nothing, just the door. "Although I would love too...." 


	The family who had the table near the window were still petrified
when Bentley's body came crashing down on their food. The two kids and the
baby-sitter screamed as the tacos, burritos and enchiladas went flying in
all directions at once. The table collapsed underneath all the weight, the
chairs went down onto the rug as the family jerked back away from the body
and their supper. The gunman fired off another three rounds to the finish
the job.
	Alex turned, the expression on his face not his own. His moves
were very rigged as if he himself had been shot as well. When his line of
sight well upon Sean who had just dropped both of his weapons onto the
floor. His mind stopped. The look on Sean's face said it all. What the
hell am I doing up here? Alex could see the slightly glow around Sean's
body, the entrails of white energy clouds. They all led back to the rest
rooms. Sean couldn't see it, no one else could. He was still in shock that
he was somewhere else and Alex had just blown some harmless kid away. And
with that Alex sent another burst of shots into the ceiling, a lesson to
everyone else in the room. Alex controlled himself as he made it to Sean,
his rifle still smoking.
	"What are you going up here?" He hissed.
	"I was just in the bathroom, and walked out," Sean looked back
towards the rest rooms the back at the kid on the floor. The baby-sitter
covered the children's eyes as the body's blood started to mix with the
hot sauce from their nachos. "Why did you do that, you didn't have too-"
Sean didn't finish his sentence. Alex grabbed him by his color and pulled
him closer. Alex was breathing hard, he was blinking faster too, showing
his teeth much more then he did. And his voice....was that smell of fire
and brimstone?
	"He got in my way, he's the one who killed her Sean boy, he's the
one we have to kill, they're trying to stop what we started," Alex's voice
sounded like he had been raking coals. He pointed back at the kid. "He's
the one they follow, he's the one they sent after to get me. He's the one
I had to kill."
	The baby-sitter looked at the body for a moment and leaned over
slowly, she made sure the kids eyes were covered. She had to move, get
away from the body. Don't let the kids see anymore. Her eyes traveled over
the teenager's body and stopped. She squinted in the light and got a
little closer. Why was this teenager armed? Something on his belt was
blinking a soft voice was counting down from ten to zero. The something
started to buzz at zero, small blue energy tentacles started to erupt from
the small gray thing on the teenager's belt. They started to cover the
teenager's body.......
	"Oh my...." the baby-sitter didn't finisher her sentence. She
backed away from the now glowing body as it started to crackle with energy
and light. The strobe of lighting added even more shadows as they danced
around the room, thunder cresendoed. The gla sses on the tables vibrated,
as if that was the tone they wanted to hear. The soft echoes of chanting
started to float over the air, the light from the body cascaded, a
white/blue light.
	The tentacles danced over the floor, the body could be seen it was
at the epicenter. A tentacle touched one of the children, the little boy
opened his eyes for a brief moment and giggled at the tentacle. It ruffled
the boy's hair and then touched the baby-sitter, it pulsed as if speaking.
The baby-sitter nods as if understanding. The tentacle turns, in the
direction of Alex and Sean. It pulses differently now, crackling more.
Understandment.
	"Your talking crazy," Sean tried to calm down Alex down. He was
supposed to be leading this group on getting some money for the project he
was building. How could he break now. "Just slow down man, take a few deep
breaths." Sean couldn't see the light show going on behind Alex's back. He
couldn't hear the voices, the pulsing light, the vengeance. He didn't see
the rest of the people in the section near the windows cry in happiness as
what appear to be an angel awakened, most of them were still kissing the
floor from Alex's bouts of anger.
	"Hey people I thought Alex here told you to shut-" Sean looks over
Alex's shoulder and feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His
eyes open wide and his jaw slowly drops, his mind runs off the normal
track of thought. He doesn't feel himself wet himself, he does not see the
body of the teenager get up and open his eyes, he does although see the
lights go out.
	In all the confusion from getting back from England in one piece
the Riders had brought their bags and assorted goodies with that.
Including anything on their belts, legs, shoulder straps and bracers.
Bentley had forgotten to take the one recalled he had left on his belt and
put it in his bag, when he came down on the table and his brain died the
Recaller activated a ten second count down. When it hit zero, the Recaller
erupted in alien energy, it pulsed through his dying body. The body went
stiff as the energy healed his body. The tentacles served as an eyes and
ears until the body was ready for awakening. Bentley saw the family that
he had come crashing down on, he made sure the woman understood it was
going to be o.k. His eyes then swung the angle around to see Alex and he
cursed. 

	Alex was about to slap Sean when he heard a voice. A voice he
remembered, something in his mind opened and flood of memories shot
between his eyes. His head turned in that direction. In the shadows where
the stairs were, just three steps from the floor, something spoke to him.
It's eyes narrowed, something moved, it gained details, arms, legs, hands
a head. A flash of lighting made him drop Sean, the light flowed over the
darkness. The darkness swallowed the light whole, the eyes started to emit
an errie light and a white toothed smile grinned back at him. 
	"This is far from over, Alex."
	The thunder suffocated his whisper of: "Keeper."
	Bentley's eyes snapped open. Knuckles cracked when he remember
what had happened. The energy from the Recaller still pulsed over him
while he used his arms to sit up and in one sweep he was standing. The
energy danced between his hands and fingers. The baby-sitter's jaw dropped
as well as the rest of the people watching on the first floor as he stood
up. Red eyes glared at the remaining gunman, the food on his back slid off
like water off a duck's back. His sidearm had been called for when he had
been getting choked by Alex and right now it was ready for him.  Sean was
not his concern, but Alex was. 

	"They over powered T.J and Scott, god their more powerful then we
thought," Alex whispered to Sean, his eyes locked with the ones in the
darkness, they smiled at him.
	Sean had started to shake, in the complete and utter darkness the
emergency lights were bearly any use. At the far end of the room, standing
in front of the window, a six foot two shadow bared it's teeth and growled
at him, the red eyes narrowed. "What's it going to be," it asked. "The
easy way or the hard way?" His eyes turned away, then he saw more of them
near the stairs heading down. He backed away and caught movement on the
counter. He looked up and saw one, it kneeled down and hissed at him,
claws extending from it's hands.
	Sean passed out. 

	"This is far from over Alex."
	Alex didn't see Sean pass out, or more shadows in the room started
to move. Sans the lighting. He saw Bentley, in his true form, something of
the night you are not ment to see. He knew what Bentley carried as a
weapon.
	"What's it going to be Alex?" Bentley asked, taking a step forward.
"The easy way or the hard way?"
	One thought came to Alex's mind. "Fuck you!" He yelled and opened
fire.
	He missed, because Bentley dove left, tucked and rolled. The baby
sitter and co. got pulled into the kitchen by something as the window
exploded. Bentley rolled onto his feet in the smoking section, one more
section and he was at the far wall. He made good cover of the walls of the
restaurant that divided the non-smoking and the smoking section. He nodded
to people as he crawled, he made it and kissed the floor as bullets found
the mark on the walls. Alex was still a good shot in the dark, and he was
missing the people on purpose too. He kneeled and slowly looked over the
wall, catching over a brief glimpse of Alex as he dove over the counter.
Bentley seethed. "O.k. the hard way."
	Bentley slid down and sat against the wall, pulled out his sidearm
and slid the safety down. His hand froze, the weapon was much larger then
when he had last seen it, before he had gotten shot. The weapon no longer
resembled his nine millimeter the bracer gave him, it was more of an alien
design then anything, many jutting points all pointing in one direction,
towards the victim. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "Guys
you still on?" He asked, edging down to the end of the section, towards
the front of the restaurant, the windows that faced the parking lot showed
something he was very afraid of.
	The police had shown up.
	"Are you o.k.?" Shannon's voice over the bracer tac net asked.  "I
lost you there for a moment."
	Bentley nodded. He looked up over the edge once more. "I'm fine,
we've got a tad little problem here." He caught slight movement, the
bracer's energy trac sensors were going crazy. This ment one thing, either
Alex has low yield nuclear device on him or..  ..something much worse.
	Silence.
	Bentley chuckled slightly. "What you don't want to hear me out?"
He asked, managing a smile as he shivered. Jezz, he isn't even a full
blooded one and he's setting me off, he thought.
	"Two of them are down here with us, Basile sent one of them up to
you, Tanya and a few of us are on the stairs. What do you want us to do?"
King's voice asked.
	Bentley's eyes swept over the areas of the counter he could see,
he winced, closing his eyes for a moment. He tried to calm himself and
counted to ten. "I'm going to blow open the emergency exit and get as many
people out of the first floor as I can. Police are already here, what
about Kepler?"
	"He's on his way, what's going on up there?" Tanya asked.
	"Huntsman," came the reply and with that the police started to play
their spot lights over the building. 
  
	Kepler finished his slide show and turned on the lights. He opened
the door once more, letting some cool air in. "Well that's all I can tell
you for now. Basically we watch for anything out of the ordinary, while on
patrol or at home. I know I may sound crazy but Gibbs and Walters can back
me up one some of it. You can ask them all the questions you like."
	One more hand raised.
	"Yes?"
	"What is this leading to, sir?"
	Kepler packed the slides away, collected the bracer, sliding it
into his wrist. "Something big," he replied.
	"What that's it?" A few of the rookies muttered and sputtered. "You
give us all the candy and no cake?"
	Kepler shot them all a glance and then looked at Walters. "Close
the door." She did and with that the bracer started to blink, different
colors and all. He sat down in the chair and put his feet up onto the
desk. "What we are dealing with is not human. Nothing from here on in is
human except for the Riders themselves. The weapons they use come from
their bracers, we don't know from where. The weapons are to match what is
out there," he thumbed out into the storm.
	"We know for one, that what we're dealing with something that is
smart and very effective," Walters continued. "It's fast and very deadly." 

	Bentley motioned to one of the people to open the emergency door
on the wall facing him. The customer did, it opened and banged against the
outer wall. Go! Bentley lip-synched. He waved people towards the door.
They didn't even notice his eyes were glowing as he hustled some kids out
in one shot. Downstairs was the same way, most of the kids sans T.J. and
Scott ran up the small set of stairs and booked out the emergency fire
door. Bentley's trac systems picked up faint readings, elevated ozone
levels and muffled chanting. Fold Gates. He pointed more people towards
the exit, parents helped their kids down the stairs and out into the rain.
The lighting flashed, Bentley caught Basile kneeling down at the far end
of the room, on one of the plant holders built into the wall. He nodded to
Bentley and pointed in the direction of the counter.
	Bentley nodded back and shook his head, holding up the sidearm.
That was enough to keep Basile where he was. King appeared at the front of
the room, hip mounted long rifle locked down into position. The rifle
detached from his hip for better angles and he waited, on top of one of
the tables, right in front of one of the windows. The police had started
to point the lights inside the windows now. King turned only partially as
the light stopped on him then kept going.
	Almost the entire smoking section and non-smoking section were
cleared. Bentley leaned around the edge of the half wall and narrowed his
trac scanners to the counter. Energy readings off the scale and rising,
the light coming from behind the counter was not a good sign. Bentley
could hear Alex screaming in pain and agony while the de-transformation
took place. Something he was glad he couldn't see. Basile aimed his rifles
near the counter and waved more people towards the exit, while King did
the same. One of the lights was pointed at the hostages as they ran
towards the light. Basile and King centered their sights on the counter,
levels of radioactivity were starting to flux, dark chanting drifted
towards them as the last of the people got out.
	And with that the door slammed shut.
	Leaving the three Riders alone, well almost alone.
	Bentley pulled back on the gun, loaded one round into the chamber
and prayed. 

	"This is thing is tactician, a grunt and psychopath all rolled into
one," Kepler continued, thunder echoed, lighting played outside.
"ninety-nine percent of the attempts at stopping this thing have proved to
be fatal. The only thing we haven't used is th

e low yield nuclear device."
	"What no kitchen sink?" Baker asked. 

	A flash of light from the counter made Basile jump. A bone
chilling howl came next. A soft growling drifted up from the counter, the
glass in the refrigerator started to bend, distorting the reflective image
he was getting, something not very pretty. En

ergy readings fizzled out, before the trac systems could overload. The
sound of heavy breathing filled the air, even with the enhanced hearing
that they had, they could hear something breathing behind that counter. A
soft snapping of something made him le

an down a little more, sounded like claws, that rifle he shot Bentley with
was not Terran either. 
	"Oh god I think it lived," Basile whispered, his Snapp Rifles
encased his arms all the way up to his elbows. A rifle and two missile
launchers sat on top, along with the long curved cartridge holder on the
bottom. "Readings are off the scale, can't get a

ny heat, thermal or motion."
	Tanya sat against the far wall of the stairs, about five steps
until the bottom. She looked up and listened. She didn't need her sixth
sense or mind's eye to know what was going on up there. The anger from
hearing about his wife and probably mate sent hi

m over the edge, his human side didn't even he had become what was behind
the counter. "It's got be a live one, it went through the processes faster
then the ones I've seen."
	Cullen appeared in front of entrance to Mr.Taco. Firestarter
already fueled and safety off, he pulled the rifle down from the holding
clamps, a silent cord dropped down behind him, it was attached to the back
of his backpacked weapon. He could see the bl

ue flame as it glowed, hissing to life. "Front door be covered."
	"So's the kitchen," Shannon replied. She had already hustled out
the baby-sitter and co. into the wet night and told them to run towards
the police. She nibbled on a nacho from the tray next to her, most of the
fryers were still going, although she had t

urned down one or two. She didn't want that thing coming after her. She
lifted one of her rifles up and leaned it against her shoulder, the hybrid
rocket launcher/mini-gun hummed quietly while the other one layed on the
floor. "I get the feeling it's head

ed for you Bentley."
	Bentley stopped counting to twenty, trying to calm himself down.
Thank god this little gift didn't include seeing what this thing looked
like, bad enough he could feel it from about half mile away but still. He
looked at Basile, then King then over his s

houlder where Shannon was. "What ever gave you that clue?" He retorted.
	"Ange and I are waiting to de-fold behind the counter," Rich's
voice was little staticy over the net. "Just tell us when."
	Bentley heard Basile mutter something. He looked over the top of
the wall. A hand was feeling around the top of the counter, looking for
something, scaly, black and at least six inch steal claws. Bentley
swallowed, eyes wide. The claws slowly went from

one end of the counter to the other, Steve went down on one knee and aimed
the giant cigarette lighter at the hand as it moved towards him. His
finger was slowly started to depress the trigger but the hand slowly come
to a stop. A finger started to tap on

 the wooden counter and started back to the middle.

End Part 2
bentkey4@ix.netcom.com


Part 3: Beginning Prologue 
bentley4@ix.netcom.com


	"I don't think it knows where it is," King muttered. He was still
standing on the table, he sense of balance was very good, the jump jets on
the back of his pack whispered blue flames of reflex energy. The two
candycane shaped tracking sensor units that

resided on either side of King's head were opened like a flower, they were
part of the pack as well, along with a small gattling gun and missile
launcher. The gun and launcher were still off-line. The long rifle was
enough for now, the setting, range and

angle all appeared on HUD in front of his eyes, giving them an errie white
look. "It's possible for that thing to use it's hands to see right?"
	"Got me."
	Tanya's remark made all four of the heavily armed humans look at
each other with wide eyes. 

	"So what are we dealing with here?" Glynn asked. "Do we have a name
for it or what?"
	Kepler lowered his voice. Meeting all of the eyes in the room.
"It's called a Tendorian Huntsman. Average height of seven feet four
inches. Weight is unknown. Both sexes are possible and procreation is
usually called for when they find one of the opposit

e sex that is usually better then they are." 

	The huntsman growled, eyes blinking, getting used to the darkness
around it. It was on it's knees, claws and weapons pack already extended.
It looked over it's shoulder, seeing writing on the wall a flash of light
it saw zoomed in on the letting and the

memory core file in it's brain started to sift through languages. The
image it saw through it's eyes started to shift too, a soft hiss and it
started to take samples of air, finding weather or not the it's mother
ship was still in orbit and what date it w

as.
	
	"It's mind is part gray matter part mechanical. Average IQ is
unknown since every time there is a new generation their minds, their
bodies and weapons are upgraded."
	"Sounds like a car manufacturer." Daniels muttered, shivering
slightly. He pulled on his coat and stuffed his hands into the pockets.
Felt like a freezer in here, he thought.
	Kepler chuckled. "Killer cars, film at eleven."
	The drew a few laughs. Only a few. "What about the weapons you may
ask." 

	It ran through a safety check of it's weapons. The rifle that
dropped into it's hand had a few rounds missing. The ammunition tracer
picked up the missing shells a few feet away from it, still warm too. The
pike in it's pack was still in one piece along

with it's energy sabre. It checked it's armor rating, still one hundred
and ninety percent over safety, it had regenerated a full fifty percent
while it had slept. It ran checked it's memory now. 


	"So we just blow the damn thing away with everything we have
right?" Glynn asked.
	Kepler shook his head. "It all depends on what make and what model
it is, that's the bottom line."
	One eye showed it's memory, while the other continued to let it
see normally. A slight intact of air through it's breather, it's blood red
eyes narrowed at the information that came up. It had been asleep for one
thousand years, in it's stolen shuttle. I

t watched at it was opened and a familiar face came into view, it's
mentor, Solas Burke. Burke smiled and leaned over, adjusting something. He
then moved over to the right, a metal wall came into view with what
appeared to be white vapor all around. Some

thing was spoken. His vision looks right at what could only be a mirror
image of it's self. A memory sparks, hot and steady. Something it
remembers, something it loves, it's mate. They both hold hands as the
light dims on the memory.
	Nothing but blackness fills it's vision, a time index of two days,
nothing but blackness. But then something sparks, sounds of something
filter in, sounded like people. The text dictionary brings up ENGLISH in
big letters in it's own language. The vision

 clear somewhat, smoke, fire, metal shapes. It tried to focus the memory,
it all becomes clear. Somewhere outside, it's vision turns left, it bearly
catches the sky line of buildings. It turns, overlooking something, it
focuses. Vehicles of some sort stop

 at least two to four stories down from it, it looks left. A building on
fire, people stepping out of the flames. Twelve people. Twelve.
	It waits in silence, breathing a little quicker now. Something
jumps onto one of the vehicles and runs straight for the leader and with
that the whole world goes white. The light, the sound, all of it hits him
at once. Then the something is gone, it hesi

tates as a scanner rewinds and plays the footage. The something is his
mate.
	He lets out a gut renching roar of anger. It knows what happened.
His mate was sentenced. Sent back with out him. Footage zooms in on the
leader, a name appears above the frozen image: Robert Bentley.
	"Oh god I think it lived," a voice whispers.
	It whips it's head up, eyes glowing fiercely. The view it sees
gets overlapped by many different scanners coming on-line. It pin points
where the whisper came from, it picks up more voices. It pinpoints them.
Two of them set off warning bells. The others

 are label: top priority. It brings it's hand up and traces around the
obstacle that stands in front of it. 

	Bentley looked over the top of the wall. 

  	"So there isn't a normal model? Not a more popular one then the
others?" Glynn asked.
	Kepler shook his head and looked at his watch. "I'm sorry but I
have to head out, there's a little celebration I need to get too. I'm late
as it is."
	Walters grabbed her stuff along with Gibbs. "We taking one car
sir?"
	"You won't need the cars."
	Glynn's hair stood up on the back of her neck. The voice was
behind them, she turned her head and looked at the wall. Kepler blinked,
Gibb nearly pulled his weapon while Walters froze. All the eyes were on
the back wall. The lighting flashed, the strobe

effect blankets the wall with bright white light, the light reaches out
and touches all. The effect of the light is short and sweet, the light
pulls back, the darkness of the shadows shows it's face once more. The
shadows dance, along the walls, playing a

cross everyone in the room, no one is spared, no one can hide, anyone can
see. Some of the darkness remained where they are, some of them are afraid
of the light, they hide while the light shined for one brief moment. While
the other darkness stays, not a

fraid, it never hides, it only watches. On the wall, it's feet are against
the wall as well as it's back, arms crossed in front of it, the cloak it
wares drops only a half a foot, nearly reaching the book case under it.
The hood is up, gloved hands wave a

t the humans as they freeze, like a picture. It's eyes smile from within
the darkness of the hood.
	"There is much need for your assistance Kepler and your team. I'm
surprised no one has come to warn you. One of them has emerged from it's
thousand year sleep and waits to attack." The voice from within the hood
said. "At the moment it is being preoccupi

ed as it should be, no tricks, no deceptions, no wires. It begins tonight,
are you prepared?"
	Kepler shook himself from the trance he was in. He looked at the
darkness that was leaning about five feet off the ground on the back wall.
He recognized the cloak and makings on it from somewhere, the voice was
nothing he had ever heard before. Has it b

een here all the time, he thought. "I've always been prepared," he stated,
his mind surprised by the words he spoke. "I'm ready willing and able,
physically and mentally. Their course is mine, their commitment mine and
their success their own."
	The darkness lifted it's head as if nodding, he couldn't tell, it
took all his will power not to wet himself. "Then it begins," it stated,
it's arms rose up, hands reaching toward the sky, engulfed in energy. "The
die is cast, the outcome already known,

the future yours."
	And with that, the occupants in the room folded. 

 	Ident Scan: Robert Bentley.
	Highest Priority: Kill, destroy, erase.
	Those were the words the huntsman saw as it leapt up, straight up,
defying gravity. As it reached it's peak jumping point it moved back and
latched itself onto the wall. It watched as the tracer beams from
different weapons tracked it's movement from it'

s hiding place. It announced itself and it's intentions, it sent out a
challenge, the sound of breaking glass reached it's ears, bearly audible
groans echoed in the room. It looked up at the convexed ceiling and leaped
for one of the pillars in the middle

 of the room, pushing itself off that and onto the sister one until it
reached the top. It leaned against the ceiling and looked down.
	It could see the prey. It didn't need a plan, just capture and
kill. And with that it disappeared.
	"Can't see him," Basile had seen it leap up from behind the
counter. But anything after that he lost it. Was too fast, too agile, he
was still too wet behind the ears for this crap. "If anyone sees someone
matching the description of silent, black and ug

ly please send the on down to us."
	"This is was a bad idea." Bentley finally said it. He took a deep
breath and let it out. "I mean hell I'm here, I have not clue what I'm
doing. Hell I'm a sixteen year old kid trained by an alien to lead some
kids into a war. Come on kill me. I'm right h

ere, come on." He closed his eyes and concentrated. The sounds around him
vanished, his sight blocked. He could here his heart beating. 
	Basile didn't move. Rich and Ange slowly edge up over the top of
the counter and looked around. King kept his rifle aimed up at the
ceiling. Cullen listened.
	"Come one, I know you can hear me and understand. You've murdered
an entire planet with the blink of the eye and you can't kill me. Heh." He
laid his hand on the grip of the alien weapon, he felt the weapon pulse, a
question is asked. It is answered. The

 weapon falls silent, listening. The chanting begins, in his mind, the
vision slowly starts to be born. A vision of light and darkness, past and
future, he and the huntsman. 
	The tip of Shannon's rifles pushed open the kitchen doors, the
squeaks echoed quietly in the coffin.
	"Your nothing, I'm better then you can ever be. Your not the best,
you were never the best." He felt the hair on the back of neck stand up. A
breeze, slight breeze. The weapon gives him the sight, he uses it. He
gives the weapon the command, it uses it. 

The Huntsman lets out a roar and uses it, it leaps from somewhere.
Bentley's hand grasped the grip of his weapon, it's alien design merged
with the bracer with his mind and in one brief moment. The vision is
completed. His arms raise up, finger already on

 the trigger. Basile watches as the alien body comes from somewhere, out
of his line of vision. Something he missed, he clenches his teeth and
brings his trigger finger back. The rifles open fire, blue energy breams
erupt the silence, the bracer gives him

 the targeting lock. King thumbs off the safety and fires, the rifle spews
red death in front of it as the Huntsman arcs. Shannon tucks and rolls,
bringing both rifles up and sees the body of the alien light up as it is
hit from three different sides. The

 noise reverberates off the walls, the police spot lights center, trying
to find the person firing. 
	The huntsman howls in pain. It can feel it, it can hear it. It
comes down on it's prey, arms outstretched, claws waiting. Mind set in the
moment. Over all the laser fire, all the bullets hitting it's body, it
bearly makes out the two English words, words

 that mean nothing to it or anyone else. It can see into the eyes of it's
prey, a vision it fears, one that it knows too well.
	"One vision." Bentley breathes, the command is given, the weapon
obeys.
	And for that one brief millisecond of life. Kepler and his group
turn in the middle of the pouring down rain in the parking lot, all armed
to the teeth. They hear the scream, something inhuman, it pitches up and
crescendos. Then it happens. Kepler covers

 his eyes, a gut reaction. Something about the scream, something about
night, something.....
	Basile looks away. He stopped firing, sending back the rifles from
the space where they came and raises his body shields to maximum. He
closes his eyes, crossed himself and prayed. He hears what goes on, he
does not wish to see so he does not. His prayer

 is engulfed by the light.
	King watches in absolute amazement. He weapon systems stay
on-line. The bracer emits it own light, recording what is going on. The
light wave flows over him, then Cullen. Shannon is next as she shields
herself. Tanya watched as Cullen is engulfed, she lo

oked at the sight, frozen, the light gives her a wide berth. Her thoughts
express it all...... 

	The Huntsman freezes in mid slash, his rifle in mid ejection. His
mind, his heart, his whole being is stopped. It can't move, it can't
think, it feels the heat, it feels the power. The epicenter of the
explosion of energy is two inches from it's face, it

's claws around the cause of the explosion frozen. It begins to scream
when the heat wave hits it, the feeling of it's body being punched at,
slammed into. The pounding begins, the ball of energy begins to form, the
temperature of the room rose to two tho

usand degrees in a matter of a millisecond. Only a flash, like lighting it
only hurts for a moment.
	The ball of energy engulfs the Huntsman, the chanting begins as it
was foretold. And I watch as the Huntsman very body is broken, energy
tentacles erupt from the ball, bouncing off everything, feeling everything
in sight. The room's current begins to acc

elerate, napkins and paper plate begin to fly this way and that. There is
one energy clap and the windows in this place explode outward, the screams
of the Huntsman slowly become more like the chanting. It's body is cracked
and withered, the alien energy

pounds against the shell, I watch with wide eyes as this thing is raped in
front of me. The energy wants this thing bad, but why? And why hide it
with a mere child? I look down at the child, his eyes closed, teeth
clenched, finger still on the trigger. Hi

s mind radiates something I haven't seen in a life time. What are you?
	Another clap of light, the shell is broken and the wind become
gail force, chairs and tables begin to wobble in place, the shell of the
Huntsman dies as one piece is broken and night becomes day.
	Oh god the light........... 

	Concentrate.
	Feel the energy pulsing around you?
	You can control that, you have the power. Ignore it all, ignore
all the things around you. Can you feel it, I have given you the power for
a reason, you must stop the awakening. You and the others, you are the
ones. The only ones, stop the awakening the

future is yours.
	And within the millisecond, the Huntsman turns, it's shell gone,
it's true form shakes as the tentacles lap it up, it's dark eyes look
down. It sees something, something it knows. It can hear familiar sounds
and aromas. It stares at the face, the face of

 Tanya O'Hare, a hand reaches out. A voice springs from it's insides, the
vision starts to fade, familiar surroundings begin to creep in not before
it whispers: "Keeper!" And with that........ 

	Kepler blinked.
	Most of the West Warwick Police force lowered their weapons.
	Gibbs shook the ringing from his ears and took the whole scene in.
He dropped his side arm onto the wet black top, the thunder and lighting
faded as soon as it had come. The rain slowly starts to spit down on the
officers. None of them move. None of them

 want too. Only Kepler slowly walks forward to the front entrance of the
restaurant. He walks up the small steps and looks at the doors. He reached
out at the metal door handle and braced himself. He touched the handle.
His muscles tensed up, his teeth cl

enched while his gloved hand touched the handle. He let out the breath he
was holding, it was cold. He pulled open the intact glass door and stepped
through the next set of glass doors.
	He walked into the waiting area, in front of him was the cash
register, at the end of the room where windows with tables against them.
The stairs that led down were to his right of sorts, the two sections of
tables and chairs sat to his right. The window

s that lined both walls, the one looking out on the parking lot and the
far side wall were all interacted. He lowered his weapon and looked around
quickly. "Hello?" He ventured. "Anyone?" He jumped as the lights came back
on. 
	A hand dropped onto his shoulder. He whirred left and right fist
clenched, pull back and-
	"Easy Kepler."
	He stopped. Tanya stood there. She radiated a smile. "What took
you so long?"
	His shoulders drooped and bopped her. "Don't do that! I hate
that!"
	She winked and looked around, surveying the now respectable
restaurant once more. "It's over." She finally said.
	"Your positive?"
	"Completely," Tanya replied, not looking.
	Basile poked his head over the counter, looked around, eyes wide.
"Yep all clear."
	He got with a case of beer in his hands and walked around to the
other side of the counter. He nodded to Kepler. "What took you so long?"
He asked, about to open a can. Kepler scoop the case out of his hands and
put it on one of the many seats in the wai

ting area.
	"Helps if you guys could have warned me you were going to fold us
from the class room to the armory then here," he eyed the case and shook
his head. "You really think you deserve that?"
	Basile grinned and nodded. He motioned to Kepler to give it to
him, but Kepler shook his head. Basile got out some money, but Kepler
wanted more then he had. Basile went behind the counter and dragged Lisa
and Shannon out and presented them to the nice o

le police officer holding the case of beer calling Basile by name. Kepler
gave Basile a look, the watched as the two chased him around. Offering us
to the beer god indeed they ranted. King sat up from one of the booths and
looked around, watched the girls

 run around and asked if he could go home now. Rich and Cullen walked back
down stairs to resume their game while most of the patrons and staff
re-entered their place of business. A few of the customer stayed to finish
their meals. The ambulances hauled o

ff the three gunman, both ambulances carried at least two police officers.
Jim accepted Siana's challenge to a game of darts, police officers from
Kepler's group took statements from all.
	And I watched them as things somewhat got back to normal, I look
up at where the stars would be. Only a few breaks in the clouds allow me
to see anything. The vision runs through my head over and over again. I
think I'm starting to understand, what it i

s we're supposed to do. I bearly hear Tanya, Shannon and Kara come out and
join me to watch the clouds being pushed away and the stars come out. I
give Shannon a hug and cuddle with her. Tanya's eyes are one me as are
Kara's, they already know the answer. 

 But I tell it anyway.
	I turn and look at them both, hesitate for a moment then let the
cards fall. "It's started." And that's all I say. The stars shine that
night, the brightest I've ever seen. A sea of blackness a sea of stars,
where the stars are beacons and the blackness

life, when mixed they become whatever maybe. Whatever would be, whatever
will be. 

End Prologue


bentley4@ix.netcom.com








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