Paul walks outside of New Heights with Marcia at his side. She looks at the many men split into groups. She looks at Paul shouting orders at the men and women under his command.
She rolled her eyes at his pathetic attempt to get to Joseph. She didn’t even find him that serious a threat. He hadn’t done a thing to make her think he was a threat except for the fact that he had beat Paul in a fight.
“YOU! GROUP 1! Move in!” Paul barks. The group move in on the woods. They are shot down in the shoulder by a high powered rifle. Paul grinds his teeth. “Group two!” he yells motioning them to go in.
Group two steps on a line and are blown back by plasma energy. They were irradiated with light radiation, just not enough to kill them. Paul growls under his breath and motions another group to move in. An electric beam was fired into them and they went down.
“Paul, this is pointless. They’re being taken out. Just stop.” Marcia says to him. “No. I’m going to make him lose all his ammo before I stop. I’ll keep throwing bodies until there is nothing left to shoot. KEEP MOVING IN!” Paul shouts.
The men keep moving in getting taken out buy the weapons set up. Paul motions the armored hummers to move in. They ride across the line and electric landmines blow up. The hummers fly in the air. The men jump out and the hummer blow into bits and pieces everywhere.
Paul looks up and motions the helicopters to move in. Weapons rise out of the ground and fire EMP pulses at the helicopter and they fall out of the sky. The men jump out of the helicopters as they crash then blow up.
“This is getting on my nerves. Send in the jets.” Paul said over his comm in his hand. He looks up as the jets rush over. They are shot out of the sky by the EMP pulses. The men inside eject as the jets fall straight down and explodes on the ground.
“Send in the ships.” Paul said with increasing anger looking over to the bay. The ships move forward unaware that underneath was magnetic mines. Some attached to the hull and blew up. The vessels began to sink and Paul throws the comm on the ground.
“SEND THE MISSLES! SHOOT THAT TOWN DOWN!” he screamed. He looks back and the missile launchers fire. They reach high in the air and are shot down by Gatling guns that flip out of the ground in the woods.
Paul stomps on the ground throwing a fit kind of like a temper tantrum. Marcia rolls her eyes at him. Paul then takes out a button in his pocket.
“Okay then…let’s see you outsmart me on my top secret prototype satellite laser cannon…Arlington.” Paul said speaking to himself. He presses the button.
High above the earth, a satellite decloaks. It begins to charge up energy. On each side of it, two satellites decloak. Bullets are fired through the laser cannon and it is destroyed.
Paul looks towards the town of New Heights wondering why there were no flames rising in the sky yet. He hears a loud crashing sound. He closes his eyes in annoyance. He spins towards his aft seeing his destroyed satellite.
“Come on Paul. You can’t outsmart a man with clearance possibly higher than yours. You can’t sneak up on him. He was Chang Fo’s student.” Marcia offered him as a way to quit till a better time.
“No. I WAS CHANG FO’S STUDENT. He is a nuisance tolerated by the many. I still have a trick or two under my sleeve. You, unregistered agent, go in there.” Paul commands.
The agent runs towards the woods. He is blasted to the ground. He groans at his shoulder wound. Paul motions a newbie to go. He looks at Paul scared. Paul snarls at the newbie and he runs at the woods. There is a gunshot and he looks at his leg. He tumbles over screaming.
“You three…killers, get in there and murder Joseph Arlington. The rest of you…make him run out of bullets and ammo. KEEP MOVING!” Paul orders them. The three Latin men run into the woods with no problem. The other agents of Paul keep moving forward being picked off one by one.
“You do realize that he won’t run out of ammo before you’re out of agents right?” Marcia told Paul. “I’d like to see that for myself.” Paul responded sitting down.
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Annabelle drives down a long dirt road. She looks ahead of her at the purple ’71 charger ahead. Looking out of the back window was a little girl. Annabelle smiled at the old memory of her riding with her mother where she was going.
They finally came to a parking spot. Annabelle gets out of the car.
“Here we are.” She says to them. Joseph gets out and looks at the large field before them. There were tulips everywhere. It was the middle of fall and the tulips were in full bloom. In fact…it was fairly warm where they were.
“A field of tulips this time of year?” Madison said surprised. Natalia gets out and unclothes herself. She runs into the field in her bathing suit disappearing from sight.
“Yeah. This is all my mom’s land here. I don’t know why they bloom all year long, but they do, even during the winter.” Annabelle said. “All of this land is hers? How much did it cost her?” “It’s wasn’t like it was the 2000’s when she bought it. She bought it all when she was twelve. It was…I guess $500.” Annabelle answered. “1976? How did she get ahold of that money?” “Other kids spent their money on candy, she spent her money on land. That’s the way she used to say it to me.” Annabelle told him taking off her pants and shirt. Madison was all ready to go swimming.
“Alright Jas…time to go swimming. You going in the water in those clothes?” Annabelle asked him. “No.” Joseph strips down. Annabelle then leads them all towards the edge of a cliff. Joseph looks down at the water below.
“This is what you meant by swimming?!” Joseph asked. Natalia comes flying out of the tulips roaring. He snaps his head at her. She was already distracted. She smiles and runs forward. She leaps off the cliff. Joseph tries to grab her and grabs her bottom. She is pulled up with her arms crossed.
“Are you crazy Nats! You could have died!” Joseph exclaimed. “There are no rocks at the bottom Jas. It’s completely safe.” Annabelle chuckled. “How do you know?!” “I think it’s obvious Jas. She’s been coming here forever. You think you can trust her?” Madison asked.
“I don’t know about that.” Joseph said. Natalia is placed on the ground. She looks at Joseph annoyed at his little fear.
“Me and my mom used to come out here all the time. We would race each other to the edge and jump off.
The first time I she took me here, I was scared myself. She told me that nothing would happen to me. Her…confidence, made me jump. It pushed me off and when I landed in the water, I felt like I was swallowed by something soft and cold. I opened my eyes, nothing…
I miss those days…” Annabelle said looking into space. She looks at Joseph and snaps her fingers. “Eyes up here!” Madison and she say. He shakes his head quickly. “Sorry. Hey…I’m a man. You can’t blame me. Sometimes I look.” Joseph said slapping himself on the inside. “That’s kind of creepy dude.” Madison says.
“NASTY.” Natalia says looking at him. “Oh you hush before I push you into the…” his head spun as he looked at the bottom. He could almost see the rocks.657Please respect copyright.PENANALbvBzDl3nd
“What? The ninja is afraid of a little jump?” Annabelle asks him. “I’m not afraid of the jump, I’m afraid of being busted all across the ocean for scavengers to feed upon.” Joseph answered. “Gross and get a grip Jas. Natalia isn’t afraid.” Madison said. Joseph looks and Natalia was over the edge beyond his reach.
She waved her arms in the air laughing and disappeared in the water. Madison jumps off holding her nose and disappears into the water. Joseph starts to back up. He bumps into someone shorter than he. He turns his head and she pushes him off the cliff.
She leaps off and passes him in the air landing into the water perfectly. Joseph screams all the way down into the water. He hits the water and opens his eyes. He looks around and sees not a rock under the water.
He comes out of the water. He sees Annabelle smiling in the water. Seeing her in the water seemed to make her even more pretty. He shakes that thought away returning to his snappy mode.
“Annie! I could have died! Are you out of your mind?” Joseph said a little bit lively. “What is it with you and saying Annie?” Annabelle said, “And are you dead?”
Joseph sighs and gives in. She smiles at him again. “You know…when my mom told me there were no rocks and I saw for myself, I knew I could always trust her. She had her ways but she would never lead me wrong.” She said.
“Well…you have good reason to trust her. Why are there no rocks here anyways?” “I have no idea. I want to show you all something even weirder. Come on.” Annabelle said.
She starts swimming out into the sea. Joseph grabs Natalia and puts her on his back. He and Madison then follow her towards the area they were going.
After about a 10 minute swim out, being that all of them were excellent swimmers and had a lot of Stamina in the water, they stopped. Annabelle smiles and goes under the water. Natalia releases herself from her brother and swims under also.
Joseph finally ducks his head under the water, and what he sees is one of wonder. The water was shallow in the spot they were in. In the same spot, there was a coral reef much to his amazement. He had never seen anything like it before. He wondered to himself how could there be a coral reef in the clearly colder ocean water. It soon dawned on him that the water was actually pretty warm.
They swim around for a bit before they all came up for air. Madison looks at Annabelle.
“How did you find this!” she asked her. “My mom found it. Everything I know about comes from her knowledge.” Annabelle tells her. “This is impossible. There shouldn’t be a coral reef this far up the sea.” Madison states.
“I know. She never told me why it was here. I don’t think she even knew herself.” Annabelle said, “I come out here every now and then. It’s not a place I frequent. I don’t want anyone to find out about it. They’ll only destroy it.”
“I think…” Joseph was cut off. Natalia was smiling greedily. “Think of all the money you can make….” She whispered to herself. “There’s not going to be any money making here Natalia. We want to keep the environment clean. That includes the coral reefs little girl. You can get your little scheme out of your head.” Joseph told her. “Then you pay me to shutup.” Natalia said. “Yeah. I’m not going to pay you to do the right thing little sis. I think it’s time we headed back anyhow.”
“Sure.” Annabelle said. She started swimming towards the cliffs. Joseph stops when they were about two minutes away from the man-made shoreline etched in stone. He feels like something is wrong. Then he senses danger in the neutral reality.
He grabs Natalia and dunks her under the water. He swims towards Madison to grab her but a grenade blows them away from each other. Madison sinks in the water. Joseph is barely conscious. Annabelle goes under.
Joseph glances up the cliff and sees three Latin men with machine guns in hand. They start firing at them. Joseph goes under and swims towards the sinking Madison. He grabs her, but remains underwater. He senses the bullets have stopped coming. He looks to Natalia and gives her a hand signal.657Please respect copyright.PENANAOiac6Kuam2
She swims up and Annabelle follows suit. She comes out of the water. She turns her head up towards the cliff, seeing the men reloading their weapons. She makes a break for the shoreline. Natalia sees Joseph come out of the water with Madison on his shoulder. He gives her a look, then she starts swimming as fast as she can.
The men finish returning to their shooting at the group. Joseph goes under knowing he won’t make it. He didn’t have much time to get Madison to come back. He came out of the water placing Madison behind him in case a bullet manages to hit.
Joseph makes it to the shore. Annabelle held Natalia close to her against the cliff wall. Joseph lays Madison on the smooth cliff rock shoreline. He begins CPR on her. She stays unconscious with no pulse. Joseph looks at Annabelle. She looks at him with wide eyes.
“I need to get her back to the car. I have some tools to help her.” Joseph said. “JAS! You’re bleeding!” She exclaimed. Joseph looks at his leg and sees the himself bleeding out of the gun wound.657Please respect copyright.PENANA3OC93mulj4
“Just a little wound.” He said getting up. He looks up. The men couldn’t shoot them…yet. There was a ladder etched into the cliff rock face. Joseph places his bad leg on it and leaps off it. He groans.
He takes both his staff’s out. He starts climbing the cliff side towards the top jabbing his staff into the rock with all his might. He stops for a moment as they look for him climbing. He comes out of nowhere landing on the ground softly. He spins his staff as he puts the other away.
“This can go ways….I beat the stuffing out of you, or you can walk away. Do you have any idea who I am?” Joseph told them. “You’re shot.” The leader said with a smile. “Hadn’t noticed.” Joseph said stomping his foot on the ground.
The men looked a little scared then. Joseph dashes at them. They fire their weapons , but the staff spins blocking the bullets from hitting Joseph. Joseph leaps in the air spinning like a helicopter.
He lands on them, knocking them out. He pulls back. He falls down on his butt and looks at his leg. It was paying him for that little stunt. He picks himself up using his staff as a cane. He leaps down to the bottom of the ladder and lifts Madison up. He scales the cliff side once again with his staff.
He opens the trunk of the car forcibly and gets his bag out. He pulls out two brass knuckles and puts them on. He rubs them together creating an electrical charge. He shocks Madison with them.
She shakes from the voltage. He charges them again. He places him on her chest and shocks her once again. He places them away and returns to doing CPR. He continues to administer it. He backs up looking at her scared to death.
“Don’t you give up on me now Madison. I need you to boss me around some more before you can go! Come on Maddie…I don’t want to forget you! MADISON!” Joseph screamed. He continues to administer CPR. She coughs up water and Joseph falls on his back calming himself that she was alright.
Annabelle and Natalia finally make it to him. She sees Madison gasping for her breath and Joseph lying on the ground relieved. Natalia looks at the men getting up.
“They’re getting up.” Natalia says. Joseph looks at them and gets up slowly. The men were picking up their weapons. Joseph smirks a little.
“What are you doing, they’re about to shoot us! Get them.” Annabelle said rolling behind the car. Natalia grabs Madison and tries to drag her behind the car.
“I don’t feel like passing out again…” Madison said hoarsely barely conscious of what was going on around her. Joseph still keeps still though. The men turn their weapons at him. They pull the triggers and the guns fry.
They drop the superheated weapons. Joseph gets up taking his staff out. “Pay attention to your surroundings.” Joseph said returning to the memory he bugged their guns. He then points his staff at them in finality.
“I don’t know who you are but I know why you’re here. You send your boss a message…next time you even come a mile near New Heights…there won’t be an army coming back with you. Now get out of my town.” Joseph said slamming his staff into the ground.
The men run north. Joseph looks at everyone. “Let’s get out of here before he decides to send more non-agents.” Joseph told everyone. “Your leg.” Annabelle says. “I’ll be fine. Let’s go.”
He lifts Madison and puts her in the car. Annabelle cranks it up and they leave the cliff of tulips…657Please respect copyright.PENANAzCnhCrj1HC