by Tobias Christopher and I'm Not Mister Mxypltk
"Look at all these photos," Naecken said. "Tobias running laps, Danny working out, me in the kitchen, drinking out the milk carton... How did they get these photos without us noticing?"
"Satellites?" Tobias Christopher suggested. "Special agents? Hidden cameras?"
"It's not like we can ask him," Naecken said, pointing toward Wesley Tucker, the brain-dead pilot. "This... EPS can cause major problems for all of us."
"Look," Tobias said as he read the printouts. "It's got e-mail addresses on them. Wonder if we can track them back to whoever sent this clown."
"You know, it was a bit easy that we just happened to catch this guy," Naecken said. "If this EPS is so good as to get these photos, why would they be dumb enough to let us catch one of their people?"
"Anyone hear that?" Tobias asked.
Danny Hearn looked at the flight pin on the brain-dead pilot's lapel. "Oh, my God."
Somewhere else:
Four men and a woman sat around a table inside a room with monitors all over the walls. Some of them looked tired, others looked angry, but all of them were anxious. Most of them hated each other's guts, but they were willing to put their enormous egos behind to reach what the man that had gathered them promised: revenge. And, as if that wasn't enough, power. More power than they ever imagined.
A man walked into the room. He was wearing black shoes, black pants, and a black overcoat. His face was not entirely visible.
"Another satisfying meal," the man said, walking to his chair on the head of the table. Once he was seated, he looked at the men and woman around him. "Status report?" he asked.
"Phase one is complete," Red Scorpion said.
"Any problems?" the man asked.
"Well, one of the subjects detected the plane before time and then proceeded to attack it," Blue Scorpion said. "We thought it was all lost when we saw the plane exploding."
"What happened next?"
"We were ready to start the back-up plan, when we noticed that the subject had managed to survive the explosion... and that he had even saved the pilot from it, too," Blue Scorpion continued.
"Excellent."
"It was the animal one who did this," Red Scorpion said. "He will an admirable opponent."
"I'm sure he will. Did they interrogate the pilot?"
"Yes, they did," Blue Scorpion said, "but he proved to be more resistant than we thought."
"How so?"
"Well," Blue Scorpion continued, "we thought he would spill all the info we fed him with right away... but he resisted."
"But he did talk in the end, didn't he?"
"Yes," Red Scorpion answered. "They somehow managed to break his will. He told them all the information he thought was true."
"Good. I'm satisfied," said the man, and then turned to another figure sitting at the table. "Are you satisfied too, Knell?"
"Yesss..." the reptilian Dr. Zachary Knell said. "The fuckersss in Cicciotto'sss team think Walker'sss EPSSS isss after them. I can't wait to sssee thossse two dessstroy each other." If such a thing was possible, one could almost say Knell was smiling as he said these words.
"Is everything set for the next phase?" the man asked, facing another person this time.
"EVERYTHING'S READY," K'tl answered.
"All right, then, let phase two begin."