Not again!! As LoneWolf toss's his wrench at the floor out of frustration. His pet timber wolf looks up at him as the wrench hits a couple feet away from him. LoneWolf just stands there trying to figure out now how to get that rounded off bolt out. He considers cutting it off and then drilling the rest of it out. He hates stubborn nuts and bolts especially when he has been working on this antique car for the last few days. He doesn't know where that guy got this thing but, he is sure spending allot of money to fix it. He turns around to his tool box and starts looking for a special tool that he has that might work to remove the bolt. He checks the first three drawers and doesn't see it there. As he pulls the fourth drawer out he spots the handle of the tool he is looking for. It's a special tool that he made himself that has a slim jagged chain that can be tighten around the bolt head so he can get it off. He turns back around to the vehicle and attaches the tool to it. Ah!! Much better as the bolt starts to turn as the chain locks itself on to the head. He manages to loosen it enough till it gets near the end and manages to get the rest of it out with the tips of his fingers. As he is pulling the part that the bolt was holding the door bell starts ring. Now what? He walks over to the door to open it. On the other side of the door is a very young girl that looks to about ten years old. She has long straight brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes. Her face is covered in dirt and she is dress in cast off clothing.
"Sir!, Sir! Come quick!! My mother and father have been hurt!! Please sir! You have to help!!"
As the little girl looks at LoneWolf with tears in her eyes. "Ok!! Ok!! Stay right here." as LoneWolf turns quickly and runs to gets his body armor on. He grabs his gun belt and his rifle. "Better signal Winter so she can join me. She shouldn't be that far from here." As he is running out to join the little girl he presses a button on his wrist com to active the emergency signal from his hover tank. "Fine day for Floyd to visit his girl friend." He hurries back to the young girl and the two of them hop on his bike as she takes him out to where her parents are laying dead in the woods.
He carefully looks around to see what had killed them and spots laser holes in their chest. Oh!! Great. That could only mean one thing. He searches the woods for any signs of movement. Without warning a laser blast hits near him. LoneWolf immediately takes cover pushing the young girl down on the ground and protecting her with his body. A second laser blast strikes him but, is absorbed by his force shield. Dam! I have to get this girl out of here and defend myself at the same time. He rolls out of the way taking the young girl with him making sure she is always protected by his body. A third laser blast hits him and is absorbed again my his force shield but, he knows the shield isn't going to take much more. He manages to get himself and the girl behind the protection of one of the trees. A fourth blast hits the tree. He takes aim with his rifle and let the infrared targeting sensor lock on to the heat emissions from the rifle that had fired at him.
He pulls the trigger and fires one of his special design gyro- jets rounds that will lock on to the target by their heat source. Off in the distance he hears the round explodes. Two more blast hits the ground in front of him and he lets go with two more shots from his rifle. He is hoping that at least he got one of those stupid robots. He scans the area from which those blast came from. He spots four robots threw his sights and is picking some more to his left. At least seven more. Great! Really, Really reat! LoneWolf actives the remote switch on his wrist communicate and sends his location to the hover tanks fire control computer.
As the hover tank receives this information the combat computer on board arms one of it short range missile systems. As LoneWolf signals it again the hover tank fires a volley of missiles towards his direction. Off in the distance LoneWolf hears the whistling sounds of the approaching missile. He makes sure the young girl is cover up by his body. As the missiles hits he feels the explosion and the heat as they destroy four of the robots in front of him. His shields flickers several times as the impact from the missiles plays havoc with it. The tree he had been hiding behind is blown to bits and the little girl is scared to death now. As he is looking up he sees something very familiar coming threw the smoke. He recognizes the shape, his Angel of Death the one person who is a better shot with a rifle then himself. Her name is Winter a Ex-Coalition Special Forces Operative and his wife.
"Well looks like you have been having a party again and forgot to inform me." Winter sends to LoneWolf. He replies by saying " Well you know me. I like spring surprises on you darling." Winter can only imagine that silly grin of his at that statement. " As you can already see I have seven more to the left of me. I am going to try to make a run for it cause I have a child here with me so I need to get her out of harms way." As he gets ready to run.
Winter first tries scrambling their fire control and radar system by activeing the jammers built into her armor. When she see's that the jammers are messing with their fire control and radar systems she then actives the missile pods and let loose with a volley of missile's towards them. As the missile impact LoneWolf picks the girl up and starts running his butt off. Just as the explosion reach near where he is. He actives his jet pack and flies them back towards the edge of the woods where his bike is. He turns and watches the scene behind him as he hears railgun fire from Winter's armor. He stands there and holds the girl in his arms and let her cry on his shoulders. After a few minutes Winter comes flying out.
As she gets closer he can see that she took a few bad hits. Her force field is down and one of the wings on the armor is cut in half and all her missile bays are empty. He radio's Winter "Looks like I have a couple of hours of work ahead of me darling. Did you get them all?" Her response to s question "Seven Skelebots destroyed."
Winter sends " You know that with them destroy the Coalition is going to send a patrol out to investigate." as he stands there "Yep! But, I have a very special surprise for them darling." He get's on his bike and make sure the girl holds on to him as they both drive back to his shop. Once there he opens the bay doors so Winter can bring her armor in and park it next to his Super Trooper. Afterwards he shuts the doors back and goes to get out of his body armor and sees to the young girl. He whistles for Razz his pet wolf. As the wolf comes running up to him he senses the presences of Winter and runs over to her. As LoneWolf shakes his head he yells"Traitor!" at the wolf.
As Winter is getting out of her armor, she has a feeling that something is approaching her and sees out of the corner of her eye that it is Razz and let him knock her down to the ground. She grabs his upper leg area and starts wrestling with him. As she rolls over on her back he manages to wiggle free from her grip and lick's her on the face. Before she can do anything to him he jumps off of her. Razz then runs over to LoneWolf and walks beside the little girl. As the three of them walk to the back of the shop LoneWolf opens a hidden door there and takes the little girl to the living area of his shop. He then leads her to one of the spare bed rooms and sits her down on the edge of the bed. After making sure she doesn't get up he heads over to the bathroom connected to the room and gets a wet rag to wipe her face.
Winters looks at LoneWolf carrying the girl threw the door and looks amazed. "He always said that he would make a bad father, but the way he is handling that girl I think he is going to be a good father one day." She continues to smile as she finishes getting the rest of her armor off and then heads threw the same door that LoneWolf and Razz and the little girl did. She heads to the kitchen area and fixes a glass of milk for the girl and add a little something to help put her to sleep for awhile. She then walks in to the room and watches LoneWolf clean the young girl face off with the rag. "Here we are one cold glass of milk for our special guest" as Winter hands the glass to the girl and watches as the girl starts drinking some of the milk. LoneWolf walks back to the bathroom to put the rag away and then sits at the edge of the bed and pets Razz as the girl take another drink of the milk. She finishes the milk and Winter takes the glass and places it on the table next to the bed and turns around and coaches the young girl to lay down. After a while the girl starts rubbing her eyes and slowly starts falling asleep. As soon as she is asleep "Razz protect!!" as LoneWolf watches as his wolf climbs up on the bed and curls up down by the feet of the little girl. Winter and LoneWolf both walk quietly out of the room.
"She will be safe with Razz watching over her." LoneWolf tells Winter as they are heading to the kitchen to get something to drink. "Are you planning on calling Zeke and Jerodan in from their fun?" As Winter hands LoneWolf a beer from the fridge. "Yep!! Considering we are going to have trouble coming this way soon." as he takes a swig of his beer. Winter opens the can of beer she had gotten for herself and takes a drink as well.
"Are you sure you want to call Jerodan in on this?" as she looks at LoneWolf.
"Why do you say that?" replies LoneWolf.
" Well he seems to be getting himself almost kill every time we go up against some thing." Winter replies.
"True!! But, he is no different then me when I first started off and now that he has someone that cares for him, I bet that he will be a little more careful." as LoneWolf takes another drink of his beer.
"We'll see!!! If you are right." replies Winter as she turns and start walking towards the weapons locker to put her weapons away.
As LoneWolf heads back out towards the shop he wonders what brought that on from her. She doesn't normally act this way about someone they call on or work with. As he heads out the door leading to the shop he turns left and heads towards another door hidden over near the back of the shop that opens up to outside where he has his Hover Tank park next to the wall. He punches a few buttons on the key pad next to the door leading inside to the Hover Tank. As he walks in the lights turn on as life starts returning to the old girl. He walks over to the communication equipment he had built into the hover tank. He picks up the headset and types in the radio frequency that he had set on Zeke's and Jerodan's wrist radio com units.
"LoneWolf to Jerodan, come in Jerodan." "LoneWolf to Jerodan, come in Jerodan" he waits for Jerodan to answer.
Jerodan starts playfully splashing Dennis with some water and watches as the Dennis dives under the water. Jerodan knows what his's lover is up to and moves before Dennis can reach him. Dennis pops up where Jerodan use to be and wonders where that fox has gotten to now. As he is looking around he does not notices a trail of air bubbles come towards him from behind. Just as Dennis hears the breaking of the water behind him it is to late cause Jerodan pounces on him and pulls him down under the water. As Dennis is trying to free himself he manages to twist around and surprise Jerodan by slipping out of his grip and sliding between Jerodan's legs. Jerodan jump forward and starts swimming to the center of the river with Dennis following behind him. Jerodan tries to lose the Golden Retriever but, instead he is grab on his foot and pulled down under the water as Dennis ducks under the water so Jerodan does not see him. When Jerodan resurfaces he is coughing a little bit and is looking around for Dennis. He doesn't see him as he is pulled a second time under the water by his foot. Dennis pops up out of the water is laughing at Jerodan as he surfaces. The two of them continue this type of horse play for a while and then swim back towards shore to enjoy each others company.
As Jerodan is sleeping in the curve of Dennis's body Jerodan's wrist communicator cause off and Dennis hears LoneWolf voice coming from it. Dennis tries to move without waking Jerodan up. He reaches over to the pile of clothes laying behind and pulls out Jerodan' wrist unit and answer LoneWolf's call "This is Dennis what's up LoneWolf?"
LoneWolf "I need for you and Jerodan to get back here to the shop as soon as possible.." "We have a problem coming this way and I can't go over it on the radio." LoneWolf waits for Dennis's reply." No problem we are only a few hours away. "
LoneWolf "Ok!! See you when you get here." as he leans back in the chair in front of the Communication equipment he smiles at the thought of Jerodan and Dennis. One's a Mutant fox and the other is a mutant Golden Retriever. That is a weird relationship between the two of them. But who am I to tell them how to live their lives. I didn't think it was possible for dogs to turn out to be homosexuals. But what ever turns them on.
Dennis knows that Jerodan isn't going to like this much but, LoneWolf is their friend and he wouldn't interrupt them unless it was important. Dennis gently shakes Jerodan to wake him up. As the Fox sleepy eyes slowly open up he see's Dennis looking at him and smiles. "We have to go LoneWolf just sent a message asking us to come back to the shop." Jerodan as he is slowly getting up ask "Did he say what this all about?" Dennis "Nope! But, whatever it is you know he wouldn't had spoiled are day together." Jerodan "True! LoneWolf isn't like that and it was himself that had suggested that we take some time off to relax." The two of them finish putting their gear back on and head to their Hummer and start back towards the shop.
He then pushes a few buttons to set Zeke's radio frequency . "LoneWolf to Zeke, come in Zeke."
"LoneWolf to Zeke, come in Zeke." as he waits for his response.
Zeke ducks just in time as a very big black furry paw swings pass him that would have caused a really bad headache. Zeke just grins back at the Regal with one of those "nah, nah, you just missed me" looks on his big red face. Regal just smiles back at the Juicer; if the two of them were not friends and sparring partners he would wipe that smug look off his face.
Zeke darts in low and sweeps the legs out from underneath Regal. As the big wolf is falling Zeke moves in again and hits him as hard as he can. He knows that Regal won't feel it but, he still tries anyway. Regal rolls out of the way and takes the punch on the shoulder.
As he is looking back up to see where Zeke is he gets blind sided with a kick to his head several times. He protects his head with one of his massive arms and tries to grab the juicer as he comes in for another attack. But, to no luck he misses him. Zeke watches as Regal tries to get up. He knows if that wolf gets up he will not be able to do anything to so he moves in again to knock him back down on the ground again. As he is about to come in for a punch against Regal's head his wrist comm. unit starts beeping and he hears LoneWolf's voice coming out of it.
Regal's wife Colleen who is a Mutant Collie just stands by the fence with the others who had come over to see the fight that was going on. So far her husband had mange to hit Zeke at least three times and she knows that he is pulling his punches cause she has seen him go Hand-to-Hand with a couple of Coalition Skelebots and come out of it without a mark on him. She looks at Zeke and tries to figure out why any one would want to go hrew the trouble of becoming a juicer and cutting your life span down like that. She knows that her creator manage to give him something that would at least give him a few more years but, is it really worth it in the long run.
Zeke takes a look over at the fence and sees that there is a Dwarf taking bets from two Ogres and from a some type of Bionic Borg he hadn't seen before. He was hoping that someone would come and watch them cause he wants to try himself out against someone else other then Regal.
As he is about to come in for a punch against Regal's head his wrist comm. Units starts beeping and he hears LoneWolf's voice coming out of it. He raise's his hands to inform Regal that he has to stop and answers LoneWolf.
"This here's Zeke, whatcha got good buddy?"
"I need for you to get back here to the shop as soon as possible. We have trouble heading this way soon." LoneWolf sits quietly waiting for Zeke to reply.
"Well about time, this better be something I can dang well shoot at." LoneWolf smiles cause that might had been something he would had said at one time.
"It will be. Just get here as soon as you can. I have already gotten in touch with Jerodan and Dennis and they will be back here in two hours." LoneWolf replies.
"Ten-four. I got Big Black here with me, reckon he should come too?" Zeke asks.
"Sure! The more the merrier!!" LoneWolf replies back.
"OK then, we're on our way, good buddy."
Lone Wolf smiles to himself as the link goes dead. He knows that 'Big Black' is the juicer's nickname for Regal. Zeke grew up in the cypress swamps east of the great river Mississippi, so he calls himself a "good ol' boy." Zeke has his own pet names for almost everyone in the group, but LoneWolf knows he means no offense by them. The juicer calls Winter 'The Ice Queen,' Colleen 'Lassie,' and Jerodan he just calls 'Boy.' But LoneWolf, he just calls 'LoneWolf' -- apparently that name is good enough for Zeke.
Zeke walks over to Regal "Hey Big Black, we gotta go now. LoneWolf sez he's got some kinda trouble, an' natchurly he needs our help."
Regal "I wonder what he has done this time?"
Zeke: "Beats the hell outa me but, you know LoneWolf he ain't sayin anything over the radio. Ah reckon he just poked his big ol' head into another hornet's nest..."
Regal "true! Well lets get going it is going to take us at least a couple of hours to get back to the shop." as Regal starts walking over to his cyclone.
Colleen had spotted that there was something up when Zeke had given the hold signal. She had only gotten a little bit of the conversation between Zeke and LoneWolf. She looks over towards her husband and sends a telepathic message "What's up?"
Regal thinking mentally to himself "LoneWolf has sent us a message requesting that we head back to the shop."
Colleen frowns at that. She knows that something must be wrong for him to call them back and he probability called Jerodan and Dennis too. She knows that Floyd is to far away to be in time to help if it is something that needs to be take care of right away. She runs to catch up with her husband and mounts her cyclone as well. Zeke heads towards his hover cycle and takes off in the direction leading to the small village that LoneWolf's shop is located in.
LoneWolf turns and sets the headset back down on the communication equipment and heads out of the Hover Tank and back to the shop to start the repairs to Winters armor.
As he enters in the shop he sees Winter already working on her armor. He watches as she unbolt the support systems for the small wings systems that her armor has. "Better be careful dear. That's a wicked looking edge on that broken wing." As Winter carefully handles the broken wing with the assistance of a Electro-Magnet attach to it. The two of them work together for a couple of hours on her armor repairing what they can.
Several hours later Jerodan and Dennis pulls up in a rebuilt Hummer that is equipped with a Laser Cannon and two Mini-Missile launchers. As they park the vehicle in front of LoneWolf's shop the antenna that is mounted on it stops swing back and forth. Dennis is the first one out and goes around to the other door to open it for Jerodan, As the two of them walk inside the shop they see Winter putting the finishing touches on her armor. As they look for LoneWolf they see him putting away the missile cart he uses's to move the missiles he keeps store here at the shop.
"Hi!! Winter what have you done now to that thin can of yours?" as Dennis looks at her with a mocking grin. Winters replies to that is "Next time I'll leave seven Skelebots for you to handle." "Skelebots? When did you run in to them?" as Dennis watches LoneWolf come towards him. As LoneWolf comes walking up to them "Oh!! About several hours ago." Now that got Jerodan's attention. "I'll explain everything once Zeke and Regal get here until then come and give me a hand getting the remote combat units ready for deployment." As LoneWolf takes Jerodan and Dennis over to the floor lift that will take them down to the lower levels where he keeps most of his dangerous creations.
[ Rifts® is a registered trademark owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.]
By Lady Lynx (ladylynx@hotmail.com).
Copyright © 2001, Lady Lynx. All rights reserved.