Ch. 26

(Burners' Track)

By the time everybody put down their tools and materials it was a few minutes until dawn. The weapon, a massive triple barralled plasma-fusion electro-tank, dubbed BESSIE courtesy of Texas, was finally completed and ready to be used. The only questions were when they were going to use it, and how.

The Burners, Kaia, Claire and Jacob were discussing that very thing as Darr was subbing in for Julie in trying to see what was going on in the KaneCo database before the maintaince crew woke up for work.

Kane may have blocked Julie's hacking skills, but not everyone else's.

So as Darr was gathering information a heated debate was gathering around the table.

"I say we go ahead and attack now!" Kaia shouted. "If we wait Kane could accelerate his plans and bring that monstrosity down here!"

Mike shook his head, "No. We need to wait until the parade starts because Kane won't want his newest toy revealled without a big show."

Jacob nodded, "That's true. Abraham has always had a big ego and won't strike until all of the pomp and circumstance has finished."

Kaia looked like she was going to argue further until Jacob said something that shocked everyone there.

"But I'm gonna have to agree with Kaia on this one Mike. The sooner we take that thing down the sooner Kane be stopped."

"You mean a pre-emptive strike? Weren't you the one who's always said to wait and see?" Mike asked incredulously.

For the first time since they knew him Jacob became stern, "That was before he started threatening Julie directly! Once I saw that over-decorated headband all bets were off!"

All became silent for a moment before Claire said her peace, "But he's threatened Julie a million times before just by her being a Burner. So why are you now worked up about it?"

Everyone turned their attention to the elder man as he surveyed the people around him. He sighed before he began his tale.

"Ten years ago, shortly after Julie's mother, Rebecca James-Kane, died in her final race, Abraham discovered a secret that directly affected Julie concerning myself and decided to make a deal with me. If I left and vowed to never return he would keep her safe. If I refused he would-"

Jacob stopped for a moment then continued, "Before she passed I promised Becky I would do whatever it took to protect Julie, and with Abraham threatening her because of my secret I agreed to never go back. I could never see her, talk to her, or anything until you brought her down here two years ago today Mike."

He looked at the young man sadly and concluded, "If I went up at any time that he was gunning for the Burners it would've put Julie in even more danger."

"So that's why you stayed down here and out of any direct fights with Kane. You were trying to protect her," Mike surmised as he remember all of the times when the Burners were going to Deluxe on their missions and Jacob stayed behind.

Before anybody else could speak Darr came over to the table.

"Check this out," the young teen said as he took a spot next to his older brother.

He enlarged a schematic of the Genesis Pod and pointed at several spots along its surface.

"Julie wasn't kidding when she said this thing had a tough shield," he explained. "It has plasma vibration scensors, electronic disruption codes running along the surface and anti-fusion torch protection. And that's just the first layer! The other two are much harder to take down. That is if it doesn't regenerate first."

Dutch whistled as he saw it and passed the monitor around, "And we thought that drone factory was hard to take down. This thing makes it look like a cake walk."

"How're we going to take that down?" Chuck asked as he passed it to Claire.

Darr spoke up, "Julie said she would try to get at it through the Warpod controls."

"But we need to get her out of there before Kane puts that thing on her! What if he places that crown on her before going into the Warpod?" Mike argued.

"Which is why we need to attack first!" Kaia exclaimed as Jacob agreed.

"Weren't you listening? The Genesis Pod is practically indestructable and we've only got three shots. If we use all three in the attack and the shields aren't down we all as good as gone!" Chuck shouted.

The argument started with more vigor and would have become an all-out fist fight if not for the small beeping sound coming from Darr's comlink.

The ex-cadet opened up the screen and saw that new instructions were being given out to the personnel regarding the day's events.

"I don't think a frontal assault is going to work either guys," he said. "Kane just doubled security. He's got guards in the elevators of the Podcomplexes, more at every entrance, and his strongest RAMs lining the gates and other passages entering Motorcity. Only people wearing KaneCo gear or being carried in KaneCo transporters may go in and out of Deluxe."

"Well scratch that," Mike mumbled.

Kaia, on the otherhand, merely scoffed, "Oh please. Nothing Kane has will stop me and my tribe from going up there. That is," she sneered at Mike, "unless you've finally abandoned that useless conscience of yours and are willing to cooperate this time."

"I won't stoop to Kane's level!" he argued.

"Kane doesn't have a level anymore Mike!" Jacob spoke up. "He kidnapped and is about to brainwash his own... daughter for heaven's sake!"

Mike was not so sure what to make of that comment, or how Jacob practically choked out the word "daughter". But he had other things to worry about, like getting said daughter out of her evil father's clutches.

Suddenly Mike got an idea. It was risky, but it may just work.

"Wait a minute. Darr," he turned to the young teen, "could you repeat that last order?"

Darr repeated the last sentence a little bewildered, "Only people wearing KaneCo gear or being carried in KaneCo transporters may go in and out of Deluxe?"

He turned to the older Gordy brother, "Dutch, can you check for any KaneCo transporters?"

"Yeah, but why?" the artist asked, just as curious as his brother.

Chuck looked at his friend and saw the glint in his eyes, "Mike, you're not thinking..."

"It may be our best chance," he replied.

Kaia huffed, "What are you babbling about?"

Mike turned to her and explained, "Look, I agree that Kane needs to be dealt with once and for all, but I've learned the hard way that you can't go out there all fired up and baying for blood. That's the real bad guys job, and you and your tribe are not evil. At least not so evil that Julie would be willing to make some kind of deal with you."

Kaia eyes, all three of them, looked down for a moment and she clentched her fists.

"I can't promise I won't kill him if I see him," she finally said.

The others turned to Mike as he stated his plan, "Julie's party is in less than six hours, but if we're going to make this work we're going to need to make preparations of our own."

"What exactly are we going to do Mike?" Jacob asked.

The brunette smirked, "We're going to crash the party."

(Northside Podcomplex: Commander's Quarters)

While the Burners and their guests were making preparations Red was up early as well, making sure that his own preparations were underway.

He glossed over the list of duties Kane made for him before dismissing them altogether, checked the status of his latest project, and finally got dressed for the day.

After he had placed his armor on, Red moved to his nightstand that his helmet was sitting on and took a look at himself in the bedside mirror next to it. His burning red, demon-like eyes glanced at his shoulder and he prodded the skin under his armor, feeling with delight at how hard it was becoming.

"Perfect," he whispered. "I'm almost there."

Red looked at himself once again and smiled wickedly, "Soon I'll be rid of the ones who wronged me and will finally take my rightful place in this wretched world."

He looked at his helmet with a snarl, "And soon I'll have no more need for this."

The angry man tossed it across the bed and it hit a poster of Kane that was glaring down at him.

"Of course," he said to the portrait, "I wouldn't need any of this if you had only given me what I deserved."

Red walked around his bed slowly, as though he were circling the real Kane, and continued his monologue.

"Why wasn't it me, huh? Why was it him? What did he have that I didn't? Was it simply because he was the spoiled son of your old financers? Was that it?!"
The posture remained silent, almost mocking him in its presence. This merely increased Red's fury as he placed both hands on it, pulled it off the wall, and held it tight in his grasp. He placed it so that Kane's fierce, unloving brown eyes were staring back at him.

"Or was it because I didn't turn out the way you wanted me to? I didn't turn into the perfect soldier you wanted so you decided to give that title to an outsider, a poor little charity case that somehow escaped my fate that day. The day you all but poisoned me with that tramp's little medibots!"

Red grabbed the top of the posture, ripped it, and did the same with the other sides until only Kane's face was left.

"I went through more experiments for you, to become that super soldier that would bring Motorcity to its knees for you, but still you disregarded me and left me to rot in that filth!"

He ripped Kane's mouth and the rest of his face until only the eyes remained.

"Well, now it's my turn to disregard you. Now it's my turn to bring you to your knees. Now it's your turn to rot."

He shifted his hand so that Kane's eyes were in the palm of his hand, and let his red sparks overlap the fragment of paper.

"But don't worry, I'll take care very good care of your legacy."

The paper caught fire as Red looked to his desk where a picture was sitting in a clear frame. A flick of his wrist and the sparks died way with the flames as he approached the desk.

He picked up the picture and leered, "Oh yes. Very good care."

With a cruel chuckle Red brought the frame to his lips and kissed the picture of sixteen year old Julie Kane.

A.N.

So... I haven't received any reviews concerning the last chapter I published and I'm a little scared that you guys didn't like it.

If you didn't let me know and I'll rewrite it.

If you did let me know and I'll continue from there.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and won't forget to review.