“God it’s boring” Shair complained loudly. It had been two hours since the aircraft took off and no one had spoken for the entire time, which made flying in the Pelican II very boring. The commander and Mustafa were still fixed on the cockpit window while John and Mia slept for the most of the two hours. Harry and Daniel kept quite throughout the whole ride, maintaining their professional appearance, while Jon sat uncomfortably next to the large agitated strongman.

“Baby” the Commander muttered amusedly.

“Ha, if he hasn’t been in a fight every hour this is what happens.” John joked to technician.

“Well Jon, take some responsibility” Shair looked at Jon expectantly.

“…What?” Jon just stared back at Shair.

“You are my seat buddy, take responsibility for boring me.” Shair huffed, winning the staring competition with Jon. Jon was slightly concerned with the look he was giving Shair, but since no one questioned Shair with his logic he went along with it.

“mmmm, well Shair why don’t you tell me about the team.” Jon looked like he was really uncomfortable.

“Ohhh, I see, you mean gossip” Shair whispered leaning back and crossing his arms, grinning lightly.

“Sure, I haven’t been a part of the team long and everyone seems to be doing their own thing at HQ so why don’t you tell me?” Jon smiled imitating Shair’s actions.

“Hmmmm, alright.” Shair rubbed his chin and continued to give dirty looks to Harry. “First of all there’s Mia, she is our Medic obviously self-taught, people don’t have time to spend 7 years learning about medicine in this apocalyptic situation. She is the…girlfriend of the President. Me, John, and Commander ran into them at a gas station after the Shwitz base incident, they were the survivors of that, back then we had no idea he was the Prez, only after we came to HQ did we find out who he was. Well during our short months surviving together Mia was our Medic and…it just didn’t feel right to separate after we survived for so long…sooo here she is.”

“I, ummm,” Jon was surprised and had to struggle for the right words.

“Didn’t think the president could get a girlfriend” Shair whispered his grin getting bigger by the second. “Nah, she chose him, not the other way around. Jack may be a bit, eccentric, but he is a good man.”

“…”Jon had a look of complete shock on his face. “I, uh, didn’t know you guys were so close.”

“Hahaha, well it doesn’t really matter if we are good friends with the President. At the end of the day he’s just a human being who will die even if a Fraz gets to him unarmed.” Shair clapped Jon on the back. “Anyway, after Mia we have John. John’s our weapons expert, he used to be in the army before so when it happened he was the most reliable person to be next to. Me and John, yeah, we go way back, like before the invasion back. We used to be neighbors, yeah him and another...”

“Another?” Jon asked.

Shair leaned near Jon’s ear and whispered; “his wife”

“His-” Jon spoke a little too loud so Shair clamped his mouth shut with his hand. Luckily John was still in a half sleep state so he didn’t notice.

“We don’t talk about her. Ever!” Shair was still whispering.

“I-I see.” Jon was sweating a little despite the air craft being air conditioned.

“After we came to HQ we were provided with our pilot and plane, for missions of course. That’s how we met Mustafa. He used to be a pilot for UCCA airlines after the manifestation of the Fraz at Simmer airport. Hey Mustafa” Shair calls the pilot. The Commander was in the way so Mustafa had to stretch his neck to look around her waist to see Shair.

“Yeah” Mustafa.

“Didn’t you participate in dropping the nukes over at Simmer airport?” Shair also stretched too look around the Commander. Noticing their discomfort she moved back a bit and leaned against Mustafa’s seat from the back hiding Harry and Daniel from view.

“Oh yeah, haha, I hated that place so I even volunteered for flying the bombs over” Mustafa laughed enjoying the good memory.

“Hey Mustafa, why do you wear that black visor, How can you see in all this dark with it?” Jon asked. They were currently flying through a lot of black clouds which made it hard for even Jon to see outside.

“Hey Commander, we’re here.” Mustafa frowned as he reported to the Commander. Jon stood up to get a better look outside the window over the co-pilot seat. Looking outside one could make out a large cave in the middle of what seemed like an even larger cloud. The cave was completely dark inside but its outlines could still be seen, purple tendril-like objects twisted and merged to make a mold which was the cave.

“Where is it standing? That’s a cave, right?” Jon asked before he was pulled back down by Shair who had his hands crossed and a serious but cheerful face.

“That’s flesh, combined with plant to produce an organism that creates a never-ending supply of building material. The fortress or, cave, can be considered a whole organism in itself because those purple tendrils combined together are the roots and wood of a tree as it grows.” The Commander explained.

“And it’s this high up because its supported by large heavy clouds full of water upon which that material can float. hehe” Shair laughed a little. “So, to answer your question Jon; Mustafa here is a little blind. Those glasses that he wears enhances his sensory receptors in the eye.”

“Are you really gonna continue with that in this type of situation?” John asked. His face shocked at how Shair continued to take it easy, even though they were moving in enemy territory.

“Mustafa, how far are we from the drop zone?” Shair asked closing his eyes.

“About 30 minutes, I’m slowing down the Pelican to avoid detection.”

“See bud, it’s all good. We got plenty of time.” Shair spread his hands.

“Unbelievable” Mia said.

“Anyway, so that’s Mustafa. The newcomers over there” Shair motions past the Commanders ass at the two soldiers staring at him “the clusterf*cks, the failed products that HQ needs to get rid of.”

“Hmph. I read your file Psycho” Harry smiled with bad intentions “you, truly, live up to your reputation. Only you can come up with this type of stupid theory.”

“hmmm, first of all fuck you too. Secondly a file report written by a woman who believes that the word of the council is the same as god would tell you no truth and lastly…think about it, we get new poorer armor the hour before the mission starts. We get half the amount of supplies for an infiltration mission than we had for a scouting mission. Also, have you heard the rumors, this is our last run and no one expects us to come back from this-” Shair counted off the points on his fingers when he was interrupted.

“That why we are here-”

“No! You are here because you guys failed a test of the HQ and they want to erase you without spending any resources. So they armed you guys and sent you on a suicide mission, at least you will die killing the Fraz. Two birds with one stone.” Shair stood up and pointed a finger at them accusingly.

“That’s enough Shair. Sit down.” Commander spoke sternly but no one missed the lack of edge in her voice when she spoke to him.

*thump* “And that, Jon” Shair sat down heavily “as you have already figured out is the Commander of Team Frontline. Beware of her for she is powerful and she is scary.” Shair smirked as he crossed his arms and right leg over the other. “Onetime some poor chap flirted with her a bit too much, and got a little…grabby. Next thing you know she is judo flipping the poor sap and breaking one of his family jewels.”

“I was aware of that actually, she sent General McStiff to the infirmary for 3 days.” Jon looked down uncomfortably; every man was in the same position as him except for Shair who had a huge grin on his face.

“Yeah, yeah she did.”

“Turbulence!” Mustafa shouted just as the aircraft shook and changed directions quickly. Everyone was on edge from then on, careful and awake, all except for Shair who seemed to yawn even in a situation like this. Lightening suddenly appeared to the side of the aircraft causing it to take a hard left. Thunder could be heard rattling the window of the Pelican II, it suddenly started raining very heavily. Pellets of water came crashing down on the bullet proof glass of the Pelican deterring the view of its pilots. Jon was breathing very heavily and seemed to be about to hyperventilate any minute.

“Talk to me Jon, it helps to calm down.” Shair shouted over the thunder.

“Ssss-so, So, what about you? Care to tell me about you” Jon shouted.

“Me, there is only one thing you don’t know about me!”

“And what’s that?”

“It’s that I-”

Shair was suddenly interrupted by a large purple claw, made of similar material as the cave, puncturing into the steel wall above Jon. It tore down straight onto him with the intent to crush the poor human onto floor. Mustafa noticed the puncture into the Pelican’s frame and steered the aircraft away from the claw. But all it did was cause more damage, the claw reached Jon much faster and upon recognizing the shape of a human grabbed Jon by the waist. By steering the ship away the steel walls were pushed against the back of the claw and were torn apart due to its sheer strength, Jon, his seat and most of the wall were thrown out of the aircraft as Mustafa tried to get away from the creature.

“NOOOOO!” Shair yelled as he jumped at Jon to grab his hands which flailed around as he fell down, away from the sky. Shair was able to get a grip on one of his hands but in doing so was pulled away out the torn down wall of the Pelican. Shair noticed that he was about to be pulled out of the aircraft, so he twisted his waist to turn back and with his free hand grabbed the side of the wall hanging onto it like it was a ledge. He was hanging outside the aircraft as it flew at high speed in the enemy base, the rain fell on his body like pellets being shot from a bb gun at close range. He was hanging on, not only against the fierce wind which tried to loosen his grip, but also rain which tried to make him slip off, carrying the weight of Jon and the thing that grabbed him did not help the situation.

“Hang on, Shair.” The Commander was making her way towards him, but the turbulence and the fierce winds were already making it hard enough for her to stay her ground and not fly out of the aircraft like the other two.

Shair looked behind him to see the thing that had grabbed Jon and was now pulling them down. Lightening in the cave was able to illuminate the thing and what he saw surprised him greatly. The thing was stuck to the cave, it was as if the creature had grown out of the organic material of the cave and was a manifestation of the desire of cave to stop the intruders. The monster had crab claws, large claws, and its arms the imitation of a human’s linked to a fat body much similar to an elephant’s stomach far away attached to the wall. However its head was non-existent instead there was a large lump which seemed to be focused on the Pelican and its bottom was growing from the purple flesh-plant rocks that covered the sides of the cave gaining on towards the Pelican every second.

The shock was enough for Shair to lose his bearing for a moment, only a single second, but that was enough for him to lose his grip and plunge towards the monster. However, as soon as his arm let go another arm shot out of the plane to grab onto him. This arm in particular belonged to a female, a female whose iron grip prevented Shair from getting away from the Pelican and her.

“I told you to hang on” she reprimanded him as the thunder echoed off the walls.

“Sorry” Shair and the Commander were having a normal conversation as if there wasn’t a large monster hell bent on killing them.

“Mustafa we have to land” the Commander shouted.

“Can’t. This thing has us in the air, it looks like we are moving but the reality is that we are just stuck in midair at that creatures mercy” Mustafa shouted over the sound of rain pellets hitting the bullet proof glass “We can’t move anywhere.”

“Shair, you should just leave me” Jon shouted over the thunder. “Finish the mission”

“This was suicide from the start.” Shair shouted “And Jon, F**k you for thinking I am going to abandon a teammate. Who else knows how to operate the Fraz’s tech, huh?”

“Nobody’s dying today! Mia, John help me pull Shair and Jon up.” Upon her order the two moved to the commander’s sides and pulled her from the waist. But no matter what, no matter how much they pulled, they couldn’t budge Shair any closer. All the while the thing was pulling them closer every second. By this time even the Mark II’s had joined in, the combined power of four soldiers and one medic was … worthless.

“Stop, Stop.” Shair called for a halt “This isn’t working”

“Mustafa try moving towards the thing maybe we can surprise it and shake them off.” Commander tried for another approach.

“Katelyn” Shair shouted “You gonna have to let me go here. K, this is my stop.”

“Stop talking nonsense, you’re coming with us.” Katelyn scolded.

“We aren’t moving…and that thing is pulling on us, fast. It could get surprised but it would be ready to catch us again, and then we’re out of all options.”

“Shair you’ve gone mad, you’re making no sense.” The commander shouted at him.

“No Kate, I was already mad, completely different reasons.” Although he laughed, there was no cheer in his voice nor was he smiling. “Like I said, my stop is here. You guys go on ahead I’ll catch up to you later, trackers still work right?”

Katelyn’s head was down her hair still in perfect shape combed to the side casted a shadow over her eyes, and even now she refused to let go.

“Kate?” Shair asked worriedly. “Kate please, we haven’t much time. That thing is gaining on us-”

“Shut up! You-you come back, alright” Kate had watery eyes but she didn’t lose her stern and serious expression of a Commander.

“Hey, I’ll meet you at the next stop.” Shair said reassuringly, his voice much softer, before giving her hand a light squeeze.

She let go and he fell.

As he fell down a whisper escaped his lips, one which he didn’t want to say. It was barely audible over the thunder, but she heard it.

“~Goodbye~”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katelyn had heard what he said and immediately turned around to look out the cockpit window, ahead, hiding her face so her crew didn’t see the watery eyes and the slightly runny nose. Weaknesses bred ill-discipline. An iron clad fact that was driven into her during her few years as a business lady. Her stone appearance, strict negotiation technique, and dominating appearance is what allowed her to become one of the 7 council members.

“Get us to the drop off, quickly!” Katelyn shouted to Mustafa.

Mustafa played with the controls, his fingers moving at lightening speed until a red light flashed and he pushed it. The red light was the switch for nitro in the aircraft; the momentum of the quick boost caused everyone to fall backwards on their backs and rumps, all except the Commander for she had held onto the seat to prevent herself from falling. As the people started to get up they held onto each other or the chairs to prevent themselves from falling. One by one they started to look at the one place where they would find their answers for their predicament.

Harry and Daniel looked a little surprised at the incident that just occurred. John had adopted his signature stone face which bordered on worried and crossed his arms flexing his muscles to burn out the little anger that he felt for his losing his longtime friend, and Mia looked very worried and very agitated but did not say anything, only looked at her other stone cold friend. They didn’t question her nor did they argue, they just waited for answers whenever those would be provided, by their old friend.

They waited in silence, sniffling sounds could be heard coming from Mustafa’s seat. The Commander raised her hand and rubbed her face and then proceeded to ruffle her hair once before pushing is down backwards.

“Mustafa…stop crying.” Katelyn said gruffly.

“*Cough*…Yes ma’am.” Mustafa answered uncertainly.

The simple act of blaming someone else of grieving allowed the tension to disperse slightly, for it not only showed that she cared but also that she wanted to remain professional while on the mission. The message was clear ‘Time for grievances will be later’. Of course those that truly knew Katelyn, the woman behind the Commander’s face, didn’t care.

“He-he’s gonna be alright, right?” Mia asked uneasily “He does this all the time, disappearing for some time then coming back bloody and bandaged, but intact. Always intact, a-and he always laughs it off. It’s just like all those times, yeah?”

“Yeah Mia” John said sadly “Just like all those times.”

“Then why aren’t you smiling” Mia accused slightly angry “Be happy we’re gonna see him again.”

“Miss Mia, Shair Johani is known for his eccentric behaviors in the line of fire. Perhaps this time it is just the same, I believe that he would be able to return.” Daniel tried to comfort her.

“Please don’t lie when you are in my presence Daniel,” the Commander sternly spoke “Why don’t you tell us what you really think? What has words on the report taught you that years of travelling with the man himself haven’t taught us?”

“I mean no disrespect ma’am. I also don’t pretend to know the man himself either, we barely met” Daniel said helplessly, even though he said nothing wrong if a commanding officer says you are wrong; then you are wrong. It would breed ill-discipline “I just mean to say that…the facts are; that during battle he is prone to leave midway and pop up behind enemy lines when the fighting is almost over.”

“That ain’t true.” John sized up Daniel “The fact is that he disappears only to show up behind enemy lines and whenever he is found…he is found fighting, ripping up the flesh of the Fraz with a knife, hands or shooting them in the head blowing away their woody f**king brains. That is a fact.”

“Whatever it is that he does doesn’t matter, does it ma’am?” Harry stepped forward towards Katelyn, because his most recent adversary had just plunged into certain doom the adrenaline was messing up his judgments and causing him to step out of line “Because no matter how good you are at disappearing during battle like a coward you can’t possibly survive in the enemy base without your gun.” He pointed at the gun laying near his leg. It was the same Man-O-War that Shair was loading at the airfield. “Now we would find out if he is all that he makes himself to be, and we will see whether you really sent him to his death”. Harry was right in the Commanders face, smirking to himself like he was just promoted.

That was until the adrenaline ran dry.

The Commander is best known for her ball-busting episode, where she broke one of General Mcstiff’s family jewels. What most people remember from that day was the raw, pure, anger that she displayed. Her eyes were wide and slightly red from all the anger pointed at the Generals audacity, she was snarling at the broken down man that dared to step out of line. This wrathful face was what Harry saw, that made his blood run cold, that made him regret crossing the line, and that made him learn to never cross the woman standing in front of him ever again.

“Wai-wait” Harry tried to plead. The Commander however was not having any of that, she was angry and she needed to relieve herself. As Harry pulled his hand up she kicked him in the shin causing him to bend over slightly. Since she was already a good 3 inches taller than him when he bent down his head came down to her navel, which she took advantage of and sent a knee straight for his face.

Harry had no time to block.

*Scrunch* came the sound of Harry’s nose, that the Commander broke with her knee. Harry fell into old steps and repeated the same mistake he made with Shair, he pulled his head back to get away from the punch and so, he gave her a chance to pull back a punch for maximum power, which she sent aimed right for his jaw joint. Harry tried to block with his hand but the punch was too fast for him to block in his distorted state. The punch connected viciously.

*Thump* Harry was knocked out cold in a matter of a few seconds. Surprisingly the only one worried or surprised was Daniel, the others had relieved expression suggesting that they were rather expecting to do Harry in themselves for his rude behavior.

Daniel quickly bent down to wake Harry up. After a few pushes and a slap Harry was coming about, when he saw the woman standing above him he unconsciously flinched back.

“Do you know why he is titled as ‘Psycho’?” She asked as she turned to look out. “It’s not the fact that he disappears during battle or anything of sort. No. He is called ‘Psycho’ because every time, on every mission, no matter the situation, whenever he sees a Fraz he would disobey orders and rush into the heat, the thick of it, head first. And the bloodshed that would follow, the brutal screams of the Fraz from when he fights would cause even his best friends…to fear him. I let him go because I have faith that he will be able to get back to us, one way or another. He left his gun? So what! He’ll just have to improvise. The reason for his title ‘Psycho’ is because one can never be sure when he would snap next and if he snaps, you can be sure that it would be fearful sight to see. In our team we have a leader, a medic, a pilot, a technician and a weapons expert. So what use would Shair have? Hmm?”

The Commander turned to look at the two on the ground, she squatted down to look Harry in the eye. Harry and Daniel just looked up at her not being able to answer due to the fear they may get it wrong.

“Someone has to be the killing expert; after all he is my…best fighter.” The commander stood up again and returned to her previous place, this time placing a hand on Mustafa’s shoulder. The old pilot put an old wrinkled hand over the woman’s trembling one and whispered so softly that only she would hear.

“There, There, Katelyn. He’ll be fine. He’ll return.”