September 6th, 2017

9.28 am, Naval Air Station Key West

Fire is running faster than he has ever run before. Faster, even, than 12 minutes ago when he had sped away to Blazes. Now he is sprinting back to the clinic ward holding a metal briefcase.

‘Must hurry.’ Fire thinks to himself as his feet dash down the concrete stairwell, 1 more floor.

BOOM!

‘NO!’ Fire thinks as he hears the explosion.

Flames blaze on Fire as he blows past the door into the basement floor. He rounds the bend, and bursts through the ward’s door. He is expecting the worse, but instead he is greeted with...

“Chief!” Quake shouts with a beaming smile.

There they are, his childhood friends who’ve grown into his lifelong family, all looking young again with different hair and eye colors. Except for Shade, who retains her looks but now has purple hair and eyes. Dr. Kabeer Wong stands there with a reassuring smile.

“You really are too hot to handle, Old Man.” Wave says with a laugh.

“And here we were, worrying about you.” Spectrum says.

“Mind dialling down the flames, Chief?” Aviator asks.

“Oh right!” Fire says as he extinguishes the flames on him, “Why is the room dark?”

“I turned off the lights so as to try and avoid giving away our location to the intruders.” Dr. Wong says as he points to the corpses, “But my efforts were for naught, they knew exactly where the team was and what they were supposed to look like. Fortunately, the team had undergone age regression by the time those thugs came in.”

“So Skull Reich has an insider.” Fire says as he makes his way to the light switches.

Fire turns on the light and examines the ward. Calling the room a mess would be too simple of an understatement. The floor has sparse pools of water. Guns are floating in the air. Loose material is scattered about. The beds themselves are in varying states of disarray such as one bed is dripping wet, two beds have their beddings littered about, but three beds seem normal.

“Ya know, lights off was not so bad.” Quake says as he fully sees the state of the room.

“You did most of the wrecking.” Wave says.

“Better than being a homewrecker.” Quake retorts with a shrug.

“I’m glad to see everyone is alright.” Fire says then asks, “What’s the sitrep?”

Fire has a lot of questions but right now was not the time for a debrief. 5 corpses are bleeding out on the floor although their blood is strangely contained in ice crystals around each body.

“Can you believe these twats hit the doc?” Spectrum says as he lifts the masked man he has been holding for the last 7 minutes.

“Are you alright, doc?” Fire asks, looking at Dr. Wong.

“Just because I am an old man does not mean I can not take a hit or two.” Dr. Wong says.

Fire nods then refocuses to the masked man in Spectrum’s grip. The masked man in question is thoroughly spooked speechless even without the watery gag Wave had placed on him.

“I already captured one so if he doesn’t cooperate.” Fire says as he walks to the man, “Kill him.”

“With pleasure.” Spectrum says as he loosens his grip on the masked man, “Wave.”

“On it.” Wave says as she waves her hand, removing the water gag on the man.

“Who sent you?” Fire asks.

“Heil, Skull Reich!” The masked man spits out.

“What was your mission objective?” Fire asks.

“Heil, Skull Reich!” The masked man shouts.

“That’s all the last idiots said as well.” Wave says, indicating at the corpses.

“What do I do with this bloke, Chief?” Spectrum asks, “He already knows too much.”

“Kill him.” Fire says.

Spectrum forms a blade of light in his hand then swiftly stabs the masked man through the throat. Surprisingly, blood does not splatter. Instead, it seems held in place by a forcefield.

“That was both cool and cold.” Quake says.

“He was getting boring to hold.” Spectrum shrugs as he drops the corpse like a rag doll.

“Hold on. I sense movement.” Quake says, “People are coming.”

“I can see them.” Spectrum says as his eyes focus, “It’s Director Jones and some marines.”

“You can see through the walls?” Quake asks.

“Apparently I can see along the whole electromagnetic spectrum.” Spectrum says in wonder as his eyes keep changing through the colors of the rainbow, “Most fascinating.”

“Finally living up to your name.” Quake says with a thumbs up, “Proud of ya.”

“Jones and the marines are a minute away.” Spectrum says as his eyes settle on brown.

“Any other movements?” Fire asks.

“Not as far as I can see.” Spectrum says, “But I do see where the explosion happened.”

“I’ll go and intercept Jones.” Fire says as he looks at the room, “We need to lockdown the area.”

“Just blame the mess on these dead idiots.” Quake says pointing around the dishevelled room, “Dead men tell no tales.”

“Gents, investigate that explosion.” Fire says as he heads out of the door.

“Roger that, Chief.” Quake says after Fire.

“Will you be alright?” Aviator asks, as he turns to Shade.

Then it happens. Shade morphs right in front of everyone’s very eyes. Her purple hair grows pink. Her 49-year-old face regresses to that of a 24-year-old. She opens her eyelids, revealing a dark eye on her left and white eye on her right.

“Now this is a freaky wednesday.” Quake says while shaking his head.