Hours later, Jason awoke. Given what had occured in the last 12 hours his rest had been surprisingly quiet. The pain in his body seemed to have dulled to the point where he could move without feeling like something was going to give out.

He sat up and swung around so that he was facing Kaitlin's bed. He noticed that she was awake and looking at him.

"How long have you been awake?" he asked.

"Only about half an hour...are you all right?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I overtaxed the nanites too much during the fight. I think the better question is if you are all right."

Kaitlin didn't speak for a second. "Physically, yes...mentally, no. I mean, I got turned into a monstrosity, I attacked Tia, Monk, and Jade, and I even attacked you."

"But that wasn't your fault." Jason said. "It was a computer virus."

"But maybe it was my fault. I felt like feelings I had kept deep inside suddenly burst forth to the front of my mind, all the anger i had over having 5 years of my life stolen was suddenly unleashed, and many people paid the price for it. And I doubt you're really all right...you did put three bullets in me before passing out."

Jason realized that he was shedding a couple tears, just as she was, but he didn't really care. "You're right...I'm not ok with it. I had to fight the worst possible enemy to fight, a virus that had taken you over and was taunting me, telling me straight to my face that i didn't have what it took to make a choice that could end your life. Things were said before i went in that people weren't sure i could make that call. And in the end i didn't. I aimed only to disable you because I wouldn't be able to handle losing you. If I hadn't hesitated that fight could've been over a lot sooner..."

He looked downwards, trying to hide the tears.

Kaitlin reached over and tilted his head back up. "Jason...you don't have to hide your feelings from me. I'm glad you were able to find it in you to make a difficult choice. I was so scared during that fight. I felt so helpless watching my own body be used as a weapon against you. It's terrible, wanting to cry, scream, wanting to do something because the person you love is being killed before your eyes and you can't do anything about it. I wanted to die when i saw you get stabbed, I was so worried."

she stopped for a second to wipe the tears from her eyes as well as Jason's

"But in the end you did the right thing. I was a danger and you stopped me. But most importantly, you did it without making the choice so many others would. You chose to risk a lot by keeping me alive. You care enough about people to try to see if you can help them before you run out of options. It's a quality so few people lack today. And it's one of the reasons I love you so much."

he grinned a bit, blinking back a couple more tears. "I know, and it wasn't just me. I had a lot of faith behind me that I was going to be able to save you and defeat the virus."

Well, a lot of faith and one dissenter

he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "You should get some more rest, love. I want you to be able to make a full recovery. And if you want to tak about the anger you still hold inside over the 5 years you lost, I'll always be willing to listen. And if I can't help you, I'll find people who will."

"Ok, I'll get some rest and we can talk later...will you stay here though?"

He smiled. "Of course."

Kaitlin smiled back. She began to drift off back to sleep while Jason held onto her hand.

Sleep well, Kaitlin. Remember that no matter what anyone says about us, I do love you and I promise I'll always be there to protect you.

Jax was laying on his bed. His lower body was on the bed, at least. His torso was dangling over the edge with his hair touching the carpet. He rolled off and walked over to the door. Then he knocked.

"For the love of god, at least get me another book or something! I'm out of Vinyl Cafe!"

OOC: Collab post!

BIC:

Jade had left Monk to rest and began walking around the hospital wing. She happened upon Jason and Kaitlin's room and knocked on the door.

Jason didn't want to wake Kaitiln so he left her side to go to the door. Opening it up quietly he noticed it was Jade. "Hey," he said. "How's Monk holding up?"

"You know him. 'My body is practically indestructable' and all that. How's Kaitlin?"

"She's still going through some emotional trauma, but other than that I think she's going to be okay."

"Good..." Jade motioned for Jason to walk with her outside. "I found something interesting about the virus."

Jason stepped outside and quietly closed the door behind him. "You did? What?"

"Well, as much as I would like to be wrong about this, it was an Adam virus."

Jason blinked as his mind registered that. "What?"

"I know, I know, it's impossible. But, I looked through the coding very carefully and found the same fundamental components as the Adam virus. Also, it seemed to be tailored to Kaitlin's DNA."

Jason's brow furrowed. "Well...that's a bit disconcerting..."

"I know. I was thinking that maybe Monk and I should stick around."

"You...you don't have to. I mean, I thought you wanted to give this up."

"What's the adage? Old habits die hard?" She smirked, "well I figure that if Mastermind really isn't dead then my mission was never completed. Besides, I'd rather not sit around and do nothing when I have the skills to stop it. Monk is still on the fence, but he'll come around."

"Yeah, it's not like he's going to let you just walk into harms way," Jason smirked a bit as well

"I wanted to go on with my life, but Mastermind or whoever is impersonating him is preventing me from doing so. Naturally I'm pissed and he will be taken out." Jade smiled, "so Major General, this humble Colonel respectfully requests to join your team."

He smiled back. "You didn't have to ask, the door's always open. Permission is of course, granted."

They had made the tour of the hospital wing and were now back at Kaitlin's room, "I know she's resting, but I need to ask her some questions if she's up to it."

"I'd prefer it if you waited till she woke up again, you know, just making sure she rests enough to recover."

"Sure, whenever is best. I better go tell the big ox I'm married to that we're staying here."

He chuckled. "ok, I'll let you know when she thinks she's ready to field your questions."

Jade gave a wave and left. Jason turned and headed back to Kaitlin's room and went back to sitting by her bedside, holding onto her hand.

~Miami~

Our resident First Order Mysterioso had been wandering around Miami's outskirts for some time now, and had just found the bounty he had been looking for: a convenience store. His stomach rumbled at the thought of the foodstuffs inside, reminding himself just how far he'd pushed his body lately. But that didn't matter, since he was about to rectify said situation.

Strolling inside, he glanced at the clerk and passed a random shopper, heading straight for the freezers at the back. For the most part he drew funny looks on account of his dress, but he ignored everything and warmed up some microwaveable foods.

The clerk was busy taking customers too, and so wound up spending less time thinking about this strange hulk of a man than he thought he would. So busy in fact, that he didn't notice when he walked out of the store with all the Deli Express burgers and Hot Pockets in his hands, munching away greedily.

A customer saw though, and pointed it out. "Hey dude, that guy just totally walked right away with that shit!"

"What? That sonuva-!"

The clerk ran out from behind the counter and proceeded to chase down First Order, until he finally caught up with his happy hungry ass down the street. "Hey! HEY, DUDE! You can't do that!"

"Sure I can," he replied coolly.

"What?"

First Order then proceeded to turn around and knock the clerk out with a single punch. Turning around then, he left the clerk lying flat on his back and returned to his rendezvous point. With some good eatin's, too.

***

~CF Base~

Wraith, too, was in the medical ward, but for different reasons. He'd already paid a visit to Kaitlin and Wolf - albeit a brief one - but at the moment was hanging out in Scrya's room. She was still asleep, drugged into a deep one, which left Wraith alone to his thoughts and prayers.

Part of him wanted to ask her what had happened to her all these years, part of him wanted to feel sorry... another part felt it knew what she was going through... in fact, so many parts were tugging in different directions he like a fleshbag Stretch Armstrong. Only he couldn't talk because of the lump in his throat.

Besides... he'd already said his piece a thousand times over in the last couple days while she slept, and hadn't much else to say... so he stayed by her side and hoped for her to come out of it soon. It was about all he could do, really.

The door creaked open then, though, and in peeked Shahdee. "...Wraith?"

He looked up and choked on his words, swallowing the lump as best he could. He couldn't. "Yeah..."

She closed the door behind her while he coughed, and asked, "Is she-?"

He nodded. "She's doing fine."

Sitting up a bit in his chair, he added with a slightly less-ragged voice, "She'll be fine... I just... hate seeing her this way."

Shahdee nodded too. "I've never seen her so bad... she used to be like... unbreakable, y'know? And now she's like... so vulnerable..."

"Yeah..." Wraith said, drifting off. He stared like that for some time, but then figured he must be wierding 'Dee out and snapped to attention again. "Ahem, so, um, how's Devin?"

"Oh, he's... okay..."

Somewhere across the base Jax's laptop flashed, indicating he had a message. When opened, it showed a bigass flashing smiling face and an invitation to join a game of Halo 3, signed the Devinator.

Jax grudgingly accepted. They ironed out the match. Team Capture the Flag, five bots for each person. Jax got into the game on the blue team, and made a bee-line for the shotgun.

First round, Jax won. He'd gotten the flag, and then he'd bludgeoned "The Devinator" to death with it.

Devin proceeded to win round two... and promptly violated Jax's lower orifices with the flag.

(( Sorry, couldn't resist. ^^; ))

OOC: Ok i need to get this beyond the bizarreness apparently

BIC:

Jason had to give a status report to the joint chiefs, something he was dreading especially given the circumstances. But he was also starting to realize something more important than constantly reporting to them and obeying their orders.

"So the damage in houston..."

"That my team contained" Jason interrupted.

"Yes that your team contained," the CNO said "was caused by a virus that remnants of the First Order unleashed?"

"Yes sir that is exactly what happened."

"And in the process 3 members of your team were badly injured?"

"Yes sir that is the truth. And it has caused me to resort to some emergency measures. For starters, Ambassador LaFleur has requested to be attached to my command, not as an adjundant, but as a tertiary XO. Under the circumstances I have approved this request."

Director Stoyanovich scoffed. "You would put that...criminal..."

Jason cut him off. "She stopped not only Mastermind but this virus that the First Order unleashed on the populous. She is not a criminal she is a war hero and if you say otherwise I will prove that you are not only wrong, but that you know nothing of which you speak."

Before anybody else could say anything Jason simply said. "I now have some briefings to attend...briefings of my OWN design."

and he logged off.

Finding himself back in his room, Jason tried to figure out what the next move should be.

That first order soldier we interrogated mentioned something about Russia...Wraith mentioned First Order activity in Russia. Maybe there's a connection.

He opened communications to Jade and Wraith. "I need you two to meet me in the ready room, we need to start putting some pieces of this jigsaw puzzle of a crisis together."

Round three followed a new pattern. Jax found Devin, shotgunned him twice in the head, then guarded a bot as it grabbed the flag. The game was a good distraction for the mind-numbing boredom that was "confined to quarters."

As his sound system was cranked up, the MPs could hear. One who was being relieved of duty actually came in to watch.

Jade was busy arranging for quarters for her and Monk, knowing that he would just come along regardless, when she caught the message on her PDA. After changing her clothes and making herself look a bit more presentable, that is like her old self from when she led the Cyber Force, she walked to the briefing room. "Almost got lost on the way here, you've done some redecorating."

Jason had just finished sending out a memo to allow Jax to be released from his in-room imprisonment just as Jade came in.

"Well, it is a new base after all," he said with a slight chuckle in response to her comment. "I guess Wraith should be here shortly. In the meantime i want to get you up to speed on what we know so far. According to a Mastermind programmer we found, Mastermind couldn't possibly be back. According to a First Order soldier we interrogated, Mastermind is back but he sounds different, something that soldier's leader attributed to program damage. Speaking of, the soldier mentioned Russia as a staging base, and Wraith had a run in with a First Order elite while he was still in Russia. So I think there's a connection, but we'll have to wait till he gets here to know more."

"What's that about me?" Wraith asked, walking in the door.

Appropriately he surprised a few people.

Taken aback for a second, Jason quickly continued. "I was saying how you ran into a First Order Elite in Russia, and how that might be connected to the First Order soldier we interrogated claiming that Russia was a staging base for a major operation."

Jax had his priorities. One- Get his guns back. Two- Go to meeting. As such he walked into the meeting, flanked by two MPs. He was also putting his holster on and loading the gun as he walked into the room. There was a snap as he loaded the gun, then holstered it.

"Sir, you didn't tell the MPs to take me off guard."

He spun a chair and sat down in it, and looked at Jade. "Good day, my name is Jax. I'm the new sniper for Cyber Force. I'm assuming you must be Jade LaFleur. It's nice to finally meet you."

Wraith stepped a bit, rubbed his chin in the complete silence that followed, and then pointed with that same hand to Jax while asking Wolf, "Now, am I wrong, or wasn't this supposed to be a private meeting?"

Jason shot a frustrated but not angry glance at Jax. "Now Jax, i just released you and you showed up to a command meeting i didn't invite you to. No offense but right now since we, by which i mean the commanders can't figure out what our next move is, this is what the meeting's for. once we actually have a plan, THEN we can tell everyone else including you. So, you are dismissed. Go get some fresh air or run around or something. And yes, you're also released from having the MP's watch over you."

Jax obediently obeyed. He went over to the gym, and literally followed Wolf's orders. He got onto the track and just started running laps around it.

"So anyways," Jason said after Jax had left. "I'm tired of all this defense and this questioning. It's time we started hitting back. Wraith, what can you remember about the First Order Elite you ran into in Russia?"

Wraith shrugged. "Not much... he sticks out in a crowd, that's for sure."

Glancing around a second, he collected his thoughts and added, "He seemed to have some business with one of my contacts there, though... I'm not sure if he's associated with Sergei's assassination, or the terrorist attack in Russia, but even if he's not, I'd say it's safe enough to assume he knows people who do. He looked like one of those guys that knows... things..."

After drifting off there a bit, he looked at Jason again and added, "We should start with him. Get a 'Net search running, find out what he knows."

One of the MPs who'd been guarding him was there. Jax was just starting his third kilometer when he noticed him. The MP was still standing around in full uniform, beret and all.

"Yo!"

"Good day sir."

This threw Jax off. So, Jax decided to correct him. He slowed down to a jog, then came around to the MP.

"Don't sir me."

"Sorry, sir. Regulations require I adress you formally at all times while on base."

"Or...what? Greg or Wolf will get mad at you and excommunicate from this church of technowizardry?"

"Yes sir."

"Okay. Then, you're off duty. Why are you still in the uniform?"

"Sir, the regulations also state that all personnel must wear full uniform while on base."

Jax mulled this statement over in his mind a bit. Full uniform would mean one of two things. 1) He'd have to dig out his old army greens. 2) He would have to wear his reds. Now, say what you will about the mounties, one thing was true for sure. Tourists loved to see mounties wearing their reds. Jax was of the opinion they should charge per photo. Why? Reds were HORRIBLE to wear. Many thought they were the work of the devil himself. They were scratchy, stuffy, the collar was tight, they were way too warm, and the pants pulled unnaturally tight in the crotch. Then Jax realized he was a member of personnel. He was on base. Wolf wouldn't make him wear them...would he? A few short hours ago, he had lipped off like he had never, ever lipped off to a superior officer. Looking back, it was very, very out of line. Would Wolf punish him with the reds?

Jax turned around. Greg was there, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Jax jumped and yelped. Greg smiled wickedly.

"Hello, probie."

"Hi! Greg! Wow, didn't see you there!"

"Of course not. Come, I've been told you're a sniper. I want to see how good your eyes are."

Jax paused. "Is this going to be dangerous?"

"Exceedingly."

"Oh, okay."

At that little tale is exactly how Jax found himself in the REAL shooting range, not the pansy course that he'd been in earlier, with Greg at the other side holding three cups and six peas. The actual place threw Jax off immensely. When he'd been in the army, you handed your empty mag to a clerk the day before an exercise, or whenever you just got back from the field. In about two hours, you would return to pick up your magazines. They would be filled with bullets. If you were a sniper, they gave you one box of ammo, and that lasted you a month. You did everything yourself. The neccesity of both was rare occurence. When he joined the mounties, he had one day a month where he got to go practice shooting. There, he would have to carefully register painful amounts of detail for about two hours. Then, he would be handed a box of ammo, with the exact number of bullets in it. 24, typically. Twelve per mag. When he'd joined ERT, the snipers were treated the same. If you were on an entry team, however, there was a closet that was just stacked full of boxes of ammo. You would need to write down your name and how much you'd taken.

But here? At Cyber Force? There were buckets of it! There were just buckets of ammunition sitting around, free for anyone to use. Jax shook it off. Greg, was about to show off. What he was going to do was put two peas into each cup then do some fancy switching. Then, Jax would have to shoot the cup with all the peas in it.

Greg performed the moving of the cups. However, none of them ever left the table surface. None ever had a chance to switch peas with one another. Jax looked at the cups with a look of confusion. Then he shot all three cups, and found...no peas underneath. This confused him more. His brain really started to hurt when he realized there was something in his pocket. He checked. Six peas. Jax stared dumbfounded at this. Greg was smiling insanely. Greg actually began to laugh.

Jax clutched his head and said, "Ah! My brainmeats! You hurt my brainmeats! Do it again."

Greg smiled and shrugged. "Let's get more impressive. Watch this-" He gave a small flick of his hand and a knife appeared. With another flick of the wrist, it dissapeared. Jax had seen this trick before. "Turn your hand around, it's on the other side." Greg did. The knife was not there. In fact, it was in Greg's other hand, standing on the tip of the blade.

"Is the shooting range really the safest place to do this?"

"Believe it or not, yes."

"What?"

"People see this and say, 'That is crazy. I should not go shooting, for fear of killing him.'"

"Really?"

"Notice we're the only ones in here?"

Jax turned around. They were. It would appear the quartermaster had learned the nuances of the facility.

ooc: new chapter is up