Cyborg 009 Fan Fiction ❯ "The Ballad of 0014" ❯ Chapter 1: ~First Contact~ ( Chapter 1 )

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
-George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), "Man and Superman" (1903), act I

The Ballad of 0014
by DigistarDBZ

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Chapter 1: ~ First Contact~

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The corridors of the laboratory were long and winding, but still, Joe Shimamura knew these hallways by heart. After all, now his life revolved around these hallways. Brushing back the tuft of dark brown hair that always seemed to be around one of his eyes, a twist of the wrist opened a door labeled "front office". That led him to a room that had eight other people, each of varying age and nationality, yet all wearing the same red uniform with long yellow mufflers that he was, standing before a desk.

"009," Jet Link said with a quick smirk upon his face, turning to meet Joe as he entered. "We were thinking you ran so fast to get here you ran into the distant future."

Joe smiled warmly in amusement as he walked to join the others, his fellow '00-number Cyborgs'. "I could've sworn I did," he joked. "It's been a while... I've missed you all."

"A reunion will be necessary later," the old man seated at the desk spoke, standing up as he tapped his polished wooden smoking pipe on the desk. "This situation could determine if Black Ghost is trying to re-emerge from the ashes."

"I still just don't understand," Joe said as he tried to comprehend the unthinkable thought of something as huge, as evil as the Black Ghost organization was, to be returning. "With its true leaders gone, I just don't see why anyone would continue to follow the ideals of 'speading the seeds of war'!"

"Things as large as Black Ghost was don't simply disappear," the man, 65-year-old Dr. Isaac Gilmore, said with a worried glint in his aged eyes. "With what happened at a warehouse in Italy, it doesn't surprise me to think that pockets of the organization still believe in something like that. Greed, blind ambition.. all of those things can be driving factors."

Joe winced as he remember what happened two years ago. If little 001 hadn't saved Jet and himself...

<'Don't concern yourself with those things, 009,' Joe heard the familiar small voice of Ivan Wiskey say to him telepathically. 'What happened, has happened and you can't live in the past forever.'>

"That's easy for you to say, 001," Jet replied smugly, leaning against the wall. "You're still just a baby, and I thought the past shouldn't concern someone like you." He wasn't sure, but Jet could've sworn that under that large puff of light aquamarine hair, a sour glare was shot at him.

"This is no time to exchange fighting words, 002!" Dr. Gilmore snapped. "This situation is very serious and requires everyone's full attention!"

Silence filled the room as Dr. Gilmore cleared his throat to continue.

"Now then.. this warehouse was almost forgotten by Black Ghost because almost all of its attention was drawn onto all of you, and even if they did remember, they probably didn't get the chance to open the stasis pods because of the destrution of their leaders and initial scatter of all the soldiers and scientists."

"Stasis pods?" Francoise Arnoul asked, realizing what the professor was implying. "You mean there are--"

"Other 00-number cyborgs, just like all of you." Dr. Gilmore finished for her. "Except, sadly, more than not, tests had shown them to be defects and virtually unuseable in battle."

"If that's the case, why did they store them anyway?" Pyunma asked. "If 00-number cyborgs were supposed to be the ultimate fighting machines, they would either fix them or make them Cyborg Men."

"Perhaps they didn't have time to," Dr. Gilmore replied to the young African man. "Or maybe they were waiting if the moment had come that the organization would be destroyed, that there would be survivors would rebuild the army."

Francoise's heart froze painfully as she covered her mouth. "To think that all those innocent people..." She felt Joe's hand hold her shoulder, and then turned her head to see him give her a reassuring smile.

"So, why don't we just open 'em all up and have them work with us?" Jet queried. "Then *we'd* be the ones with one giant Earth-protecting army!"

"You forget," Dr. Gilmore replied. "I told you that most of them are defects. How do you know that they're not completely useless... or worse?"

"...Oh." Jet held his head down. "Well... it's just a suggestion!"

"So what does this have to do with our new mission, professor?" Joe asked.

Dr. Gilmore closed his eyes before continuing uneasily.

"..One of them was stolen."

A few surprised gasps came from a few of the 00-number cyborgs. Dr. Gilmore sighed heavily before continuing once more.

"If you recall, the last 00-Number Cyborg that they released was number 0013."

"Yes, we remember," Joe said sadly, the memories of the battle that many years ago, and the gentle cyborg's last words about being his friend.. Joe often thought about what would've been if 0013 wasn't trying to fight against him until the very last moments. He also wondered why they stopped sending 00-number cyborgs after them after that, but then again, he began to wonder if this new mission was to find exactly that out.

"So what's next?" Great Britain inquired, giving a grin as if he was making a joke. "0014, I assume?"

"....Yes."

Britain's smug, sarcastic expression turned to a shocked and surprised one. "...Come again?"

"Yes, the one that was stolen was a prototype for 'necromancy', meaning that this one, from what I understand, was dead for some time before being brought back to life." Dr. Gilmore said as shots of the stasis pods came into view on the monitor behind him. "I was never told of gender, nationality or age, and any of its abilities were deemed 'Unknown'. So when you find number 0014, we have to find out his or her abilities, lest the ones who stole the pod find out first and use it against us."

"Then we have to hurry before they find out first," Geronimo Junior added. "If this 0014 is extremely dangerous, we would rather have him or her on our side."

"But what if that one's a defect, too?" A short, rather stout Chinese man said matter-of-factly. "If that's the case, then even the bad guys would've done it for nothing!"

"Chang Changku, you worry far too much," Albert said with a smirk as he placed his metallic right hand on the short man's head. "They wouldn't taken it if they had known that it was a defect."

"We must find that pod and bring it back here- if the people who stole it are in fact part of a Black Ghost faction, then who knows what kind of chaos could begin!"

"Right!" Joe voiced in approval. It was a strange feeling for him to be back in a feeling of action after two years- at first, it seemed so long and peaceful, but now looking back on it all, those two years actually whisked by him without even realizing it.

"I'll explain more on the way to your new ship," Dr. Gilmore said as he paced amongst the cyborgs. "I assume I told you about it when I contacted each of you?"

The ocean, at the same time calm and turbulent, suddenly came more alive than it was several moments ago as a large red metal fin rushed from under the water and slowly emerged to be only on the back of a large, bottle-and-cone-shaped red and white ship, water spraying and flowing from a myriad of directions as the ship surfaced.

It might've been her first real flight, but the "Dolphin II" was truly a sight to behold, as if she had flown many times before like her predecessor.

Inside the bridge, the nine 00-number cyborgs and professor braced as the ship rocketed into the stratosphere, at speeds that you wouldn't normally associate with a ship of her size. At this point, they had been used to riding around enough in the original Dolphin to know what it was like to ride in a ship like this. However, Dr. Gilmore had personally spent the last two years developing and contracting the building of this new model- sleeker, faster.. it was as if the Dolphin herself had been reborn from her ashes, better than ever before.

Adjusting the controls, the two pilots at the controls, Pyunma and Joe, eased the throttles and made the speed of the ship a little more bearable for its occupants, allowing them to relax in their seats and wait for their arrival in Italy.

"If we follow these coordinates, we should be there in about 45 minutes," Dr. Gilmore told them, pointing over Francoise's shoulder at the radar screen. "Hopefully this ship will do as we designed it."

"We?" Joe asked.

"Do you think I've just been sitting around for the past few years and not making some friends?" Dr. Gilmore replied with a wry smile, eliciting some smiles from the crew.

"...Then let's just hope that's not 45 minutes too late." Joe said as he turned his head back to the window, and to the controls. "All right, let's set our course to Italy. Target: Venice."

"Understood, 009." Pyunma replied as he increased the throttle once more, this time the team was more adjusted to the sub-sonic speed, and were able to comfortably wait until their destination was reached.

Still, it didn't mean that Albert was any more comfortable with his own situation. He held his head and took a deep breath, trying to clear his thoughts.

"Something troubling you, 004?" Jet asked him.

"..It's nothing." Albert replied, shaking his head. "...I'm just trying to figure out this dream I had last night."

"A dream?" Geronimo leaned over a bit in his seat. "I'm sorry for eavesdropping, but perhaps I can help. Grandfather taught me how to interpret dreams back in Arizona when I was a child."

"..It's nothing, really." Albert faked a smile and waved his still-human-looking left hand around as if to dismiss it. "I'll figure it out on my own."

Jet and Geronimo looked at each other in confusion before returning to their original positions.

Yet, he still wasn't sure if he could really figure it out by himself. He hadn't dreamt about Hilda in a nightmare like that in years... the vision of her being pulled away by those cables and being taken apart before his own eyes still wouldn't leave him...

He had dreams and flashbacks initially after he was reawakened as a cyborg, and even well after he had been reawakened with 001, 002 and 003 into the 21st century. Those seemed to fade as time went on, and yet she was never far from the back of his mind.

In fact, he always kept her engagement ring from him in a necklace around his neck, and no one ever really saw it unless he took it out of his shirt or jacket to show them. A vow to himself to wait for Hilda in heaven.

He sighed in lament. He almost broke that promise to himself two years ago during the last battle with Black Ghost.

Vena.

Somehow, Helen, Vena.. all of them, they were more than just Black Ghost experiments. Especially Vena. He felt he could see Hilda in her eyes... that in the darkest depths of his mind, that she could replace Hilda.. make him feel as if he wasn't alone on Earth- a place that he would probably stay for a long, long time. And the sight of her and her "sisters" being murdered in cold blood by Van Bohgt- their own creator and master- that was still a painful sore in his heart that still hadn't healed.

'No! I can't live in the past like this...' he demanded to himself. 'Both of them, Hilda *and* Vena.. they would want me to move on. Living in the past is what's giving me these nightmares....'

Yes, it had to be like that. It just had to be.

He wiped the thin sheen of cold sweat off his face, praying that the others wouldn't notice.

As any of them knew, the 00-Number cyborgs never wore their uniforms out in public unless they were fighting anything there. Most of the time, they hid them under their specifically-made casual attire, made in such a way that when the time arose, they could easily be pulled off to reveal the simple, but striking red and yellow uniform underneath.

Still, it was rather odd to see nine people of various nationalities walking together in San Marco Square, with only one woman causally carrying a baby on her back.

"Professor, we've arrived in San Marco Square, how far are we from the warehouse?" Joe said as he talked into a small cell phone.

"The tracking system in your phone should be able to bring back a reading of where you are in a matter of moments," Dr. Gilmore's voice said from the other end before a short pause. "....About seven blocks from a small vendor's booth. Look for a 'Novità Speciali' near the Clock Tower, and search it."

"But how will we know where to look? And if there's anyone still there?"

"I would assume no one is there, it's been abandoned since Black Ghost fell. Still, keep your guard up just in case."

"Got it." Joe pressed an "End" button and passed the information to the other eight around him. "All right, Dr. Gilmore said to look for a shack called 'Novità Speciali' seven blocks from here towards the Clock Tower. 003, can you find out if you can see it from here?"

"Of course," she replied before focusing her attention towards the large, majestic monument in the distance. Her vision started at normal focus, then zoomed in seven blocks away, as her function was programmed to do so. Scanning the area slowly, she saw many shops and people wandering with their own intentions, but still no...

"...009! I think I've found it!" She suddenly exclaimed, pointing outwards. "Follow me, I know exactly where it is!"

"Leave it to Francoise to know where something is.." Jet mused with a smug smile as he and the rest of the cyborgs followed Francoise down the street and through bustling crowds of tourists. Stopping only when Francoise did, she pointed at a sign that only hung on by three loose nails.

"If that does not say 'Novità Speciali'," Britain remarked as he and the others looked up. "Then please tell me what it does say!"

But it *does* say 'Novità Speciali'," Chang replied, only to be replied in turn with a knock to the head with a small hammer, which shifted and changed shape to become Britain's hand once more.

The Englishman rolled his eyes, putting his hands in his pockets. "Some people just don't know what 'sarcasm' is."

"Keep your eyes peeled, even if it looks abandoned, there might still be guards here." Joe told them as the nine shuffled into the small shack.

Small as it was, 'Novità Speciali' was indeed abandoned to the untrained eye. Several small items were scattered around the floor and shelves, and if anyone was still selling anything, dust and cobwebs would be in plentiful supply.

"Whoever set this up, obviously made sure no one would be the wiser about this place..." Pyunma commented as the team patted and searched the walls. "Do you suppose that whoever came here covered their tracks?"

Being the only one unable to search for anything other than clues on Francoise's back, a quick glance from Ivan located in a sea of their own footprints, one giant footprint in the dust... and definitely wasn't Geronimo's.

<'003, look at this!'>

The sound of the baby Russian boy's voice in her head caused her to whirl around and notice the footprint in the dust.

"005.. is this yours?" she asked to the large American Indian man beside her. He knelt to look at the large footprint, and compared it to his own.

"...Apparently, it's noticeably larger than my own," he commented as the others paused in their search to look. "Whoever made this was rather large."

"And there's another one!" Chang declared as he found another one, trying desperately to get up out of his knelt position beside the second large footprint before landing straight on his bottom.

Francoise narrowed her eyes as her zoom vision came into focus again. Sure enough, near the far southwest wall, the large footprints suddenly ended. Her vision then focused on a section of the wall, and with careful focus, her X-Ray vision managed to find what looked like a doorway to darkness. "...The door to the basement is back there!"

It was only a few seconds before the rest of the team had gathered beside the southwest wall, with Francoise in front and her super-sensitive ears pressed against the wall.

"....I think I hear something... something hollow..."

"Then it's down there?" Jet asked.

"I saw the doorway, but I'm not sure how to open it..." she replied, knocking the wall as she moved slowly against it. "Still, anything that sounds thinner than the wall must be the way to open it..."

"What exactly are we waiting for, anyways?" Jet said as he drew his small laser pistol. "Let's just blast the thing down!"

"No, 002!!" Albert shouted as he grabbed Jet's hand. "You can't just bust in there- what if some other person finds this place and makes a media circus about it?!"

"What does the media know about some old shack? And why do *you* care what happens?"

"You forget that there are scores of cyborgs in suspended animation down there, 002," Joe added. "If anyone finds them, they'll call authorities and if there's *any* Black Ghost factions out there, they'll find this place and unleash the whole lot on us! Busting down the door won't do them, nor us a whole lot of good!"

A small, yet very, very noticeable 'click' was sounded as Francoise's expression suddenly brightened. The wooden door slid open to reveal a large, dark stairwell, extending downward.

"..And you wanted to blow the door down, 002?" Francoise teased, winking at the young American man as his face flushed red.

"Come on, we don't have any time to waste!" Joe said urgently as he started down the fleet of stairs before pausing. "...006! We need you to light the way for us!"

"That's no problem!" Chang said smugly as he inhaled sharply, and out from his mouth he started to blow a small, but vibrantly illuminated flame. His reply was supposed to be 'follow me', but came out as 'fwuw mm!'

"Ok, is anyone going to tell me when this stairway ends?"

"Be patient, 002- I assume we'll be down soon," Geronimo replied to Jet as the nine descended the dark stairwell, only illuminated by the small flame that was being blown out of Chang Changku's mouth.

"And how do you know that? We've been walking forever!"

<'Actually about a minute and a half.'>

"Never tell me the exact time!"

Still, the length of the staircase was beginning to get on everyone's nerve endings. Even the most patient of them were starting to get the urgency of the mission sinking in. To them, it was painfully apparent that whoever designed this place made this the first barrier to the warehouse.

"003, any end to this in sight?" Joe asked.

A moment's pause switched Francoise's normal eyesight to green-tinted night vision, and zoomed downwards towards the last step... wherever it was. "...It should be any moment now, the fleet left is about... 15, I think."

"About time," Jet sighed, hoping that these last few 15 steps wouldn't take so long to get down. "I was beginning to thing this was one of those 'mystic, never-ending staircases'."

"Aw, grow up, 002!" Britain chuckled as he nudged him with his elbow.

"It's a JOKE. You of all people should know that, 007!"

Chang tried to agree about his discomfort in walking down so many steps, but the flame that he was trying to keep lit kept muffling him.

Francoise's eyes then widened as she saw exactly what was at the end of the stairwell.

"..This must be the place, all right. There's a giant vault door right at the bottom!"

"A vault door?" Joe asked. "Then.. that warehouse must be right behind the door! Hurry, we don't have too many steps left!"

"Mmph?!" Chang took that as a cue to try and hurry up, but a missed step sent the team's living lamp bouncing like a rubber ball down the last row of steps and landing with a loud metallic 'thud' into the door. The others winced at the painful-sounding thump as the fire-breathing cyborg tried to get his back out of the thick steel door.

"006!! What happened?" Joe asked as the others ran down to help him. Being the cyborg with super-fast reflexes, Joe was able to reach him in less than a second. "Are you all right?"

"Oww~!!! I think I need a chiropractor, 009!!" Chang whimpered as he flapped and waved his arms to try and get himself unstuck. "Help me!!"

"005!! We need your help!" Joe called as the rest of the team finally made it to the bottom stairwell. Geronimo cracked his knuckles before grabbing a hold of Chang and giving a sharp pull before he went flying from Geronimo's hands and face-first into the stairs.

"....Well, at least he's not stuck in the door anymore." Jet commented dryly.

"Very funny!!" Chang howled angrily, holding his nose. "I think I broke it again!!"

Joe, on the other hand, took one good look at the door and attempted to twist the vault's large valve handle. To his surprise, even with his own enhanced strength, the valve budged very little under his grasp. "...It's stuck! I don't know how they opened in it, but somehow it's designed to open only at tremendous pressure..!!"

"Allow me, 009." Geronimo said as he motioned Joe to allow him to move over and allow him access. Taking a deep breath and stretching for a moment, he then grasped the valve tightly and motioned Joe to assist. "Let's do it."

Joe nodded in approval as the two began to turn the powerfully-tight valve. Straining loudly as both of their super-human cyborg strengths was pushed hard, the valve began to move, slowly at first, but then quicker and quicker until the ironman cyborg was able to step back and allow Joe to turn the valve without the aid of his enhancements.

In a similar fashion to its previous visitors the night before, the door finally swung open and slammed against the wall with a loud noise to accompany it. The team was then greeted by the same rush of cold air that was a direct contrast to the heat of the Italian summer. Motioning for the team to draw their pistols in case of attack, Joe began to walk into the warehouse- slowly at first, but then quickening ever-so-slightly, yet still retaining the cautious edge.

"Over here!" Joe said as they started down the first row of stasis pods. The first nine were empty and, from the looks of it, were never occupied, unlike 0010 through 0013, which were visibly occupied by someone at a point in time. "I just don't believe what I'm seeing..." he then said in awe as he looked over the stasis pod that was designed to house him, running his fingers over the embossed brass plate that bore his code number and ability.

"You mean they were going to shove us in here until further use...?" Jet said as he looked his own pod over.

"And over here!" Pyunma added as the team started down past 0010's pod to the four pods that were once occupied. "Wonder how they could've stored 0011 in such a small space..."

"Well, they certainly did so for 0010 over here," Britain commented as he pointed out that there were two unoccupied visors instead of just one like the other pods. "The cold conditions in here might've done well to keep them from shorting each other out."

"Like they did when I fought them." Joe replied, trailing off as he remembered that bitter battle over two years ago.

"Joe...." Francoise started to speak, her voice laced in horror. Normally on missions, they would go under their code numbers- but if they said anything with their real names, then it was a true cause for concern.

Joe and the others turned around to look at the sight before them- rows upon rows of pods- hundreds of them, as far as the eye could see.

And each one of them had a human- or at least, someone that once was a human- inside them. As the one with the telescopic vision and x-rays embedded in her eyes, she was able to see what kinds of people were taken away from their families and homes and turned into half-machines designed for war: men and women of all ages and nationalities- the youngest that she could see were several toddlers that were probably a few years older than Ivan's host body.

"Oh, my God... Joe, it's..." She then buried her face in Joe's shoulder, not wanting to see any more. "It's so horrible... why? Why would they do this to so many innocent..?!"

"Shh... it's all right.." Joe soothed as he held Francoise close, the other cyborgs looking at all the pods in perhaps equal shock and horror. "Black Ghost will never do this to any more innocent people..." He then added darkly, "I promise, never again. Never again."

"So now what?" Britain asked as the others looked at the pods. "With all of these pods, you wonder what kind of abilities these people have!" He finished his sentence by leaning his hand against one of the pods.

"We're here for 0014," Albert reminded him. "And if I'm not mistaken, you're leaning on the empty spot where that pod used to be."

"..Oh." He made a double-take for a moment before falling over on his side. "...I hope that was my keys..." he muttered painfully atop standing plugs and pipes.

Joe and Francoise ran up to meet the others at the empty space between 0013's pod and the rest of the occupied pods in that particular row. "So that's where 0014 used to be, right?"

"If it wasn't, I'd eat my own hat if I had it immediately with me!" Britain said as he got up, pulling a pipe out of his side.

Joe nodded before taking the phone out of his pocket again. "Dr. Gilmore, you there?"

"Of course I am, otherwise you'd be in a bit of a jam!" he joked over the line. "Now, I take it you found where our lost cyborg used to be?"

"007 and 004 did, but now we're not sure what to do. Is there something here that we're supposed to look for?"

"A code against the wall." He replied matter-of-factly. "It's small, so you won't be able to see it that easily. It should look a little like a bar code mixed with a serial number."

"Small, huh?" Francoise already anticipated what Joe's request of her would be. After all, it may have been considered eavesdropping, but her microphonic ears could pick up more than one would anticipate. "003?"

"All right." She had already put her abilities to great use already today, so this time was no exception for her. She knelt near the wall, careful not to put her weight against anything sharp or painful like 007 did. (Of course, he was still pulling shards out of his side at this point)

"Do you see anything yet?" Pyunma asked as he knelt down beside her, along with Jet and Joe.

Francoise squinted her eyes. Even at her current zoom magnification, it was difficult to see- as if the code was only visible under a certain condition. "009, something's wrong, I don't seem to see anything, and I'm trying all the settings I have!"

"Don't worry, I heard her," Dr. Gilmore said over the phone, just as Joe was going to tell him what happened.. "I guess more of the current ones use infrared light in order to see them."

Francoise tensed. "But... I don't have any infrared sight! How will I be able to see it now?"

There was silence on the other end of the line as the other seven cyborgs crowded around the lot to find out what was going on.

"...Of course, why didn't I think of that before??" The cyborgs were taken aback by the professor's sudden elated outburst. "003, I know you can hear me, so please take the phone!"

Francoise was perplexed, to say the least. "Take the phone? Why?"

"Simple, you channel the wireless energy that's connecting the phone. Use your X-ray vision, and it'll give you a surge of infrared channel to allow you to see the code, so long as you hold the phone!"

"Sounds crazy," Jet commented, stroking his chin. "But it's just crazy enough to work!"

"Try it, 003- it might just be our only hope!" Joe said as he held out the cell phone to her. She was just as confused as the rest of them, but if Dr. Gilmore thought that it would work, then it had to.

"Okay... let's just hope this does work..." She took a deep breath and took the phone from Joe's hand, clutching the device in her hands as she closed her eyes.

"Is she going to be all right?" Chang asked, looking on as Francoise concentrated.

"Don't worry, the professor wouldn't do anything to harm any of us. Cell phones *do* run on bits of infrared to communicate with each other." Albert reassured him, remembering back to the time when he was learning just how those things worked.

Francoise opened her eyes quickly- as if a burst of a strange something had flung them open for her. Her normally greenish-tinted x-ray vision had been turned a brilliant burst of red, and was suddenly seeing many different codes, messages and things she wished she hadn't seen scribbled and printed against the wall- things she would've normally missed even with X-rays.

"Doctor... I see them all! There's so many... so many codes!" She said into the phone, as if in a panic. "I.. I don't know where to begin!"

"Calm down, I know this is new for you, 003, but I need you to listen closely. Codes are usually located right at the bottom where the wall meets the floor. Do you see anything there?"

Francoise leaned herself down towards what fit the description of the professor's intial description- a mix between a bar code and a serial number that you would find on computer software.

"Yes.. this one reads 1623-FSD412-7714-X... do you suppose this is the one?"

"I'll check. If you hear any beeping over the line, then it means that's our 0014."

There was a period that felt like eternal silence. Francoise gave the phone back to Joe, and immediately, the flushed red tint in her vision faded back to normal. She had to catch her breath from the overwhelming feeling of channeling infrared light into her vision.

Silence.

Silence still for several moments. Everyone continued to be on the edge, praying that this was it.

*beep*

There was a collective gasp at the sound of the beeping.

*beep*

"...I've found 0014!!"None of them ever thought that a simple beeping sound over a phone could bring so much joy. Britain grabbed the first person he could get his hands on (Which unfortunately happened to be Chang) and spun him around in a joyous circle.

"...I'd hold your celebrations if I were you," Dr. Gilmore added on an ominous note moments later. "Because wherever this pod is, it's now moving- at a speed almost that of a jet airliner!"

"What?!" Joe yelped in shock before regaining his firm grip on the phone. "Where is it going?"

"Right now, it's 1,500 miles away and heading northeast towards central Asia- it'll be over the Carpathian Mountains in less than half an hour!"

"Can we catch it?"

"If we go at maximum speed on the Dolphin II- we'd be able to catch up to it at least 15 minutes after takeoff."

"Then we don't have any of those minutes to lose!" Joe replied as he motioned everyone towards the doors. "Come on everyone, we have to get that pod!"

The team shuffled towards the door without a single hint of hesitation.

...Except for Chang.

"...You mean we have to climb those stairs now?!"

"The commercial airliner is out of range, m'lady," A cloaked and turbaned pilot, only one of ten pilots manning a wide console on the airship's bridge announced as he turned from the massive radar screen. "The mountains are going to be behind us in 5 minutes."

"Excellent. Make sure that we are continued to fly undetected back to base." The woman, the very same that was in the cyborg vault the night before, replied to the radar-manned pilot. "Need I remind you all that this stasis pod is the most valuable cargo you're ever going to carry."

"Yes, m'lady!" The pilots replied proudly in perfect unison.

The woman took a deep breath as she continued to look out the window. Everything was falling into place perfectly. It was as if nothing, not even any incompetent foot soldiers, could spoil such a triumphant moment.

"...M'lady, I've picked up something heading our way at... Mach 5..." the radar-manning pilot said in a state of surprise. "Whatever it is, it'll intercept us in 5 minutes and we won't be able to outrun it."

"What?!" The woman roared as she dashed to look at the radar screen. Sure enough, there was a large blip on the screen, closing in faster and faster. "Can't you make this piece of crap run faster?!"

"M'lady," another pilot at the controls replied nervously. "The fastest this ship can reach is under Mach 1- cargo ships like this aren't designed for speed!"

"Never tell me what is and what isn't possible on a ship!! I want to find out what this ship wants with us immediately!!"

"We're closing in fast, everyone- about 3 minutes to interception with the airship."

"008, slow the ship down to about the airship's speed- we've caught up as far as we could without crashing into it." Joe said.

"Holy hell..." Jet gaped, looking upon the sight in front of him . "What kind of ship IS this thing...?! It's gotta be bigger than hell in a handbasket!!"

It was true, the Dolphin II had to be at least two times smaller than the large, brown-painted cargo ship in front of them.

And the shocking part was that the Dolphin II was at no size to be laughed at, herself.

"What kind of things are they carrying in that thing?" Albert asked, in awe of the cargo ship's huge size. "That sort of ship could carry whole army battalions!"

"Do you suppose it's a Black Ghost ship?" Britain inquired, literally bringing his jaw up back to his mouth from the floor. (Being able to shift his shape into anything, his over-embellishing nature allowed him to make extreme expressions that no one would be able to pull off in real life.)

"I don't want to rule that out, but..." Dr. Gilmore stopped, then turned back to Francoise. "003, see if you can open a connection between us and that ship. 009, find want to find out what they want with that pod."

"Roger." Francoise replied as she worked several of the communication ports to access the cargo ship's video and audio frequency- if it had one. "009, you're on!"

"M'lady!!" A pilot at a communications panel shouted. "We're being hailed!"

"By whom? Is it that ship that's behind us?" the woman asked sharply as she went to check the communications panel.

"Yes, m'lady." He then paused in shock as he received more of the audio message through his headphones. "...They wish to discuss the cyborg stasis pod we have on our ship."

"Well, then they've been tracking us..." the woman mused aloud. "Whoever they are, they want the pod we have. Bring their message onscreen, I want to know who these people are."

"Yes, m'lady." the pilot replied as he entered several codes into the keyboard. A monitor lowered onto the window and flickered to life with a hum.

The woman's eyes widened a bit in surprise. "A young man? In that cyborg's uniform?"

"Cargo ship, this is the Dolphin 2 calling for your attention," the audio, conveying Joe's message, blared from the speakers. "You have an item, a cyborg stasis pod, that was stolen last night from Venice. We wish to investigate your ship to find this pod, then you may return on your way. Please land and prepare to be boarded for a search."

"And who are you to give me orders, young man?" The woman said sternly, raising an eyebrow.

"..I am Cyborg 009 of the Dolphin II. Please land your ship and prepare to be boarded, and we will leave you alone after our search."

'009?!' The number rang a bell with the woman- of course, now her suspicions were confirmed! This was indeed *the* 009 that...

"Well? What is your response? Land peacefully, and we will let you go on your way without confrontation."

"My answer....?" the woman said as her eyes suddenly narrowed. "OPEN FIRE!!"

Joe got his answer indeed.

The bridge of the Dolphin II rattled and shook as the first of the bullets started to be fired upon the ship from the four gattling guns at the bottom of the two wings.

"What just happened?!" Dr. Gilmore shouted as he held on to a wall bar.

"Several heavy-ammunition shells were just fired at us, and they're still going!!" Pyunma reported as he tried to climb back into his seat. "I think--" he was cut off as another round bounced off the top of the ship, sending everyone who wasn't completely secured was flung violently out of their seats.

"Well, do something about it!!" Joe shouted in reply. "I know there's something, but--" he was cut off momentarily as another hit shook the ship- this time, the blow softened as Ivan let loose a telekinetic barrier, only one lone eye glowing eerily under his puffy hair as he concentrated intensely on protecting the ship.

<'Professor, I don't know if I can hold it for very long, we'd better come up with a plan and fast!'>

Dr. Gilmore pondered for a moment, looking around to see if he could come up with an immediate plan.

"002, 005- you have to board the ship- the stasis pods are very heavy, and 005's the only one who can lift them. But we have to make sure to destroy those gun turrets before you can pull up and get him onto the ship!" He then said.

"All right! 002, 005- board the ship and get that pod- we'll concentrate on destroying those gun turrets so that you can reboard this ship when you get that pod!" Joe said, conveying the message to the two cyborgs.

"Yeah!" Jet said mischievously as he punched his fist into his hand. "Finally, I thought we were never going to get to do something fun on this mission."

"You have to take this seriously, 002," Geronimo added cautiously. "We can't let that pod be destroyed- we must know what they want with it."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't have a *little* fun doing it. C'mon, G-Junior."

"Be careful- there's a lot at stake here!" Dr. Gilmore interjected as Jet and Geronimo ran for the exit ramp. "Make sure it's not damaged in any way!"

Whether or not Jet listened with an open ear is Jet's own secret, but with a code punched into a keypad that seemed to anyone else that it was second nature to him, a sliding ramp opened before him with nothing but blue skies and mountains below. With Geronimo holding him around his waist, a bomb dive that would've certainly sent anyone else spiraling to their death didn't for Jet.

Because he didn't have twin jet-propulsion engines in both his feet for no good reason.

Flaring loudly to life in a haze of smoke and billowing fire out of his heels, Jet took to the air with Geronimo in tow- and while someone of his size was incredibly heavy, the airtime that was rewarded at Jet's incredible speed well made up for it.

"You don't suppose 001's gonna be able to shield *us* from those shells, do you?" Jet shouted over the noise of gunfire and the two ships, both behind them and in front of them.

"If I know him," Geronimo replied, probably only a bit louder than Jet because of his deep voice. "He's probably watching our every movement- it could be diminished because he's concentrating so hard on protecting the ship!!"

"Then we find a place to land and get in there!!"

"We'll guide you to the pod- don't worry, 001's got you covered!" Albert's voice said over their internal communicators. "It should be over to the top right- we'll tell you when to stop moving upward!"

"Top right, got it!" Jet replied as he moved in the said direction, only stopping when the voice in the communicator said so, the two finally found themselves before where the directions given to them by Albert and Francoise led them to where the pod should be inside the ship.

"Go above, that way we can get in easier!" Geronimo told Jet as Jet flew higher, towards what he hoped was a ceiling. Rearing his fist back with all the momentum he had, Geronimo let loose a punch that tore a hole into the top of the ship.

But while the hole was probably big enough for himself and Jet to squeeze through, he didn't want to take the chance.

"There it goes again!! This confirms that the hull near the pod storage has been breeched!" one of the pilots shouted. "That cyborg was right- we *are* being boarded by them!!"

"This complicates things more than I wish it to..." the woman growled as her clenched fist shook. "Ububu!!" She shouted into the intercom. "Take care of our 'visitors'."

With gravity back to normal, Geronimo finally let go of Jet's waist as the engines in Jet's feet finally died down to complete quiet.

"All right, we find the pod, hope the others blast out those guns, and we get out. That can't possibly be *that* hard to do."

"And we've always been proven wrong in those kind of situations, if I might remind you," Geronimo remarked bluntly.

"Ha, ha."

Crossing the next room, Geronimo forced the doors open as they were confronted with a scene that seemed to be right out of an advanced sci-fi movie.

With the pod disconnected from the warehouse, it needed a separate power source to keep its occupant frozen. That power source *had* to be a super-device in and of itself.

"Man... what kind of operation are these people running?"

"I'm not the kind of person to stay and find out." Geronimo replied as he pulled the cables and wires out of the pod, then proceeded to attempt to lift the pod up and about his shoulders.

"005, you never cease to amaze me with that," Jet remarked as in his watching Geronimo work, he failed to noticed something coming behind him.

"002!! MOVE!!"

Jet didn't know why Geronimo suddenly shouted like that, but Jet did move- and barely caught a glimpse of the giant fist that nearly connected with his head. "What the hell?!"

"I Ububu," the rumbling voice, thick and heavy with a middle-eastern accent, said with no recognizable emotion. Its owner was a hulking behemoth of a man in a traditional Arabic warrior's garb, eyeing them with soulless gray eyes. "I come to kill you now."

"What the hell is he?" Jet said as he raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"You," Ububu pointed at Geronimo, who had the pod in his arms. "Drop pod now."

"Yeah?" Jet said provokingly as he raised his fists. "Well, you'll have to get through ME first--"

He was cut off as a fist harder than any iron that Jet had ever felt suddenly crunched into his face, sending him flying off his feet and into the storage room with a loud crash and a mess to compliment it.

"Give me pod, large man. I make your death painless. You don't, I make your death VERY painful."

Geronimo's eyes narrowed. Yes, he set the pod down...

But what Ububu didn't expect was a fist that was at least as strong as his own connect with his. Geronimo strained loudly as he pushed Ububu back towards the wall, only to have a large leg corkscrew his own, sending him to the floor.

"You..." Geronimo said as he wiped a line of blood from his mouth. "You must be a cyborg as well- no normal human is ever *that* strong."

"I not care if Ububu a cyborg." Ububu said firmly as he grabbed Geronimo's arm. "I still kill you."

"I don't think you will anytime soon!" Geronimo countered as he grabbed the arm that was holding his own and sent Ububu flinging to the ground with a loud thud. Ububu roared as he charged at Geronimo, and was met with Geronimo managing to hold him back.

Jet groaned as he rose from the pile of boxes, books and wires that had covered him in his tumble. He could've sworn his vision was like a kaleidoscope as the world blinked and swirled around him.

"Ze....zero... 005...?" he murmured as he tried to stand up, fumbling for a shelf to give him support. "Oh, Jesus...! 0..05...! Hang on, I'm gonna--" he groped for support on the shelf again as his balance gave way for a moment. Rising to his feet, he knew that even through the concussion, he could definitely see that Geronimo needed help.

"Hang on.." He shakily drew his pistol and set it to a setting where he would at least be able to disable whoever was attacking Geronimo. "Come on, eyes... don't let me miss this one..."

"I crush your skull, large man!!!" Ububu roared as he pushed Geronimo to his knees. "I rip your head off neck now!!!"

A small part of the ironman cyborg was inclined to believe the behemoth that was trying to crush him, but... something out of the corner of his eye convinced him otherwise.

"I do not think you'll be crushing anything today, my friend."

"I kill you now!!! You don't say stupid things!!"

Ububu was about to eat his words as Geronimo lift Ububu up away from him just enough for the giant man to get a blinding flash of yellow straight into his eyes.

"Good shot, 002!"

Ububu roared loudly as he grabbed his eyes, thrashing wildly as his opponent managed to escape him.

"Are you all right, 002?" Geronimo asked as Jet slumped against the wall, dropping his pistol.

"Yeah.." Jet slurred as he struggled to regain his balance. "Just... just get the license plate of that truck that hit me." He ended the statement with a painful-sounding wince, then allowing Geronimo to get ahold of him to keep him standing.

"Save your strength," Geronimo said as he placed Jet against the wall. "We need to get out of here before he gets his eyesight back."

"Yeah, just get the pod an' 001'll probably do the rest."

"With pleasure," Geronimo replied as he reared his fist back, aiming it towards the window and punching a hole straight through the wall, window and all as the hallway depressurized and started to pull everything that wasn't secured somewhere out the window with great force.

"Look!! There they are!" Jet pointed at the Dolphin 2, which was pulling up towards them, apparently since they saw the large hole that was suddenly punched out. "C'mon... the sooner I get this fish-eye-lens out of my head the better...!"

"All right, 001..." Geronimo started, holding the pod tightly as Jet held onto him in turn. "Let's hope you can get us onboard.."

Taking a deep breath, he let the suction of the depressurization take them all out of the hole and into a freefall. He hoped that 001 would be able to catch them, because even if Jet wasn't half-conscious, not even his powerful jets would be able to lift the combined weight of himself and the heavy pod.

A sudden jolt and uplifting feeling from their freefall was all Geronimo and Jet needed to feel that little Ivan heard their request.

"So you actually failed me, Ububu?"

Ububu rubbed his eyes after his laser-induced tantrum, his vision reduced to a clouded, sparkling gray haze.

Still, he was barely able to make out the outline, and enraged expression of his mistress.

"...U..Ububu is very sorry, mistress..."

"Never mind that," the woman said turning on her heels and motioning Ububu to follow her. "Come, even though we've hit this little nitch in our plans, we can still adapt so we can have that cyborg."

"Mistress still hasn't told Ububu why she want cyborg so bad."

"It will all be explained in time. Right now, I want to get all available assassins and troops and tell them they have new orders."

"Professor! They've done it!"

That's all he needed to hear to finally exhale a relieved sigh. Jet and Geronimo entered the bridge, with Jet's arm around the taller cyborg's shoulder.

"Congratulations is in order," Dr. Gilmore started, looking proudly at the exhausted, but elated faces of the two cyborgs. "But first, the pod must be opened and 0014 revived." He then turned to Geronimo and Jet. "Where did you place it?"

"Medlab," Jet replied, using his chair as a support to hold him up. "Waiting for you to take a look."

"Perfect. Is 001 all right, 003?"

Francoise picked up the bassinet with the sleeping baby cyborg inside, walking towards Joe and Dr. Gilmore with a expression that seemed to imply relief. "He's worked hard today- he deserves it."

"He always does," Dr. Gilmore added. "He does far more than even I can imagine." He then motioned for the team to follow him to the medlab. "Come, we have to revive 0014 as quickly as possible."

The cyborgs watched with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation as Dr. Gilmore looked over the stasis pod, awaiting any further actions that he was to perform upon it. Already he had checked knobs, tubes and even the airtight door that held the cyborg in stasis, and now silence filled the room.

It was an uneasy silence, Dr. Gilmore only putting his hand to his bearded chin in deep thought as he looked the pod over again. The door, the half-shadowed figure of the cyborg inside, the embossed plate with the codenumber and abilities- nothing seemed to escape his eye.

"It seems that whoever attacked you had the equipment to keep this stasis pod running, as the cyborg is in perfect condition." Dr. Gilmore finally said after what felt like an eternity of silence. "003, I need your help to hook up the computer to activate the combination to the door."

Francoise stood forward and with the doctor's guidance, she hooked up several plugs and wires to the pod, and switching the computer on with a hum, several blazingly fast keystrokes courtesy of the doctor caused lines and lines filled with codes to appear on the monitor. Some of the cyborgs still looked in awe at the amazing computing prowess of their mentor, even after being under his wing for so long.

Flashing digits and letters on the screen after a seemingly endless stream of code, a semi-vocal motion of approval came from the doctor as he finally pressed "Enter".

Immediately, the door to the pod swung open like a car door, and a large, freezing cold cloud of gases and vaporized liquid shot out, filling the room and taking the team by complete surprise. What once looked stiff as a board suddenly went limp in the pod as Dr. Gilmore scrambled to free the cyborg from the clasps and bonds that held it in place.

"004! I need you to unhook the visor from the pod!"

Albert did as the doctor was told, and as he did so, he couldn't help but notice that even through the slight bagginess of the red-and-yellow uniform, this cyborg was very visibly female- just like Francoise was. The fact that the bottom of the tunic under the belt looked more like a dress than anything else also seemed to add to it. "Doctor..?"

"Yes," Dr. Gilmore started as he placed the cyborg on the medical table, holding her head up as he searched on the back of her neck for the wires that connected her to the visor/helmet. "0014 is indeed a female cyborg... but we won't know who she really is until we wake her up. 009, 008, come here and help me with this."

Joe and Pyunma were the next to come forward as Joe was handed an IV bag and injector. Dr. Gilmore finally unhooked the last wire that connected the helmet to the cyborg, and was finally able to begin lifting it from her face.

No sooner did the helmet finally come off, Albert dropped the bundle of wires he was holding.

"004?" Dr. Gilmore said in surprise as he heard the sound of the wires falling loudly to the floor. What he was met was Albert's eyes flung open wide as dish plates, his jaw hanging with shock the likes of which he hadn't seen on someone in what seemed like years. "004, what's happened?"

"Impossible..." he finally said, taking a step back to the utter befuddlement of his teammates. "Impossible, I'm dreaming..!!!"

"Heinrich?!" Joe said in shock at the immediate change in attitude from 004. "What's wrong with you?"

"It... this has to be a joke, a complete *joke*!!! It can't be her, it...it just can't be!!"

"004!! What's happened?!" Dr. Gilmore grabbed Albert by the shoulders, staring him straight in the eyes. "Who is she?? Do you know her?"

It was the same face that he could never forget, the same golden brown hair in a bubble-cut, the same fair, wonderful skin... only it was clad in a cyborg's uniform- a uniform almost exactly like his.

"004?! Answer me!! Who is she?!"

He had to swallow the lump that had suddenly developed in his throat, his eyes still fixated on the body on the table. He didn't realize how long it actually took him to finally say the words that he had been killing himself to say ever since he laid eyes on her.

"....Hilda...."

* * * *

to be continued


* * * *

Quote taken from "The Quotation Page" at http://www.quotationspage.com/

Translations:
'Novità Speciali': 'Special Novelties'; Italian

*Note* <'Speech like this' >from Ivan indicates he's speaking telepathically.