The stun from the plasma gun left Yelena a little weaker than normal. No doubt it was from the lack of rest she had over the last few weeks. Nothing like broken rest or none at all to drain a persons strength and stamina. Still, the shape shifter was no rookie to taking advantage of situations and as Toril took on his Wraith persona, literally, knocking down the soldiers and her as well, her instincts kicked in and she shook the cobwebs out of her head and reacted.

While she was prone on the floor, she was still able to use her feet and the first thing she did was lash out with her booted foot connecting with the chin of the soldier on the floor closest to her. Blood flew from the corner of his mouth as his head snapped back and his eyes rolled up in his head.

Using her gymnast training, Yelena quickly flipped to her feet and tugged at the zip tie that held her hands secure behind her back. The zip tie was a little thicker than usual and with her strength not at its peak, she wasn’t able to give the proper time she needed to break out of them. Of course it didn’t help that the Captain was quickly recovering from Toril’s sudden wind blast and scrambling for his side arm.

Using all the strength she could muster, she lunged at the Captain and hit him with the force of a defensive line backer for the New York Giants. The force of her hit threw him back and they tumbled out the door of the lake house, rolling off the porch and down onto the ground.

Realizing she’d just exposed herself to all the others, she quickly morphed into the Captain and pulled her hands apart with the every last ounce of her strength. Both she and the Captain staggered to their feet at the same time and as the soldiers that had loaded Cassius up in the Humvee drew their weapons, they didn’t know who to shoot.

The Captain, totally confused, yelled at his soldiers.

“What are you waiting for? FIRE!”

Yelena, having heard the Captain’s voice, mimicked it perfectly, as she pointed at the Captain.

“Not me, soldier! HIM!”

The Captain snapped his head over to look at…himself.

“What the hell?”

Both soldiers kept moving their guns back and forth from the Captain to the Captain. Both totally confused at who to shoot. Again he looked over at the soldiers knowing there was only one way to prove he was the real deal.

“RED HAT!”

Yelena didn’t have a chance. The soldiers fired their plasma guns at her hitting her full force. Screaming as the blast hit her, her entire body stiffened in an involuntary reaction to the jolts circulating through her system. Finally her body dropped like limp rag and she lay motionless on the ground.

She wasn’t completely out of it and again it was all Yelena could do to hold the illusion of being normal. Like before, blue, scale like skin flickered into view only to disappear. The only thing that she couldn’t hide now was the metallic gold of her eyes. As the soldiers roughly drew her to her feet and zip tied her hands once more behind her back, they took the time to zip tie her ankles as well.

Voices echoed in her ears and as Yelena fought to force her eyelids open, she couldn’t clearly make out everything she was seeing. She didn’t dare lose consciousness all together. That was far too dangerous. She would end up back in Siberia at the hands of her torturers again and that was something she would never let happen. She’d die first. Her lips moved as she kept repeating a barely audible whisper in Russian.

“ Please, God. I can’t go back there. Just let me die now.”

Hearing Morgan's comment about the need for some sunglasses, Tim said "Morgan, ya just hang on ta yur dollars, fur now. Ifin' ya take a look thar in tha glove box I think thar might be a pair of them thar Wayfarers, like them movie stars use ta ware." Morgan opened the glove box a took out a pair of 1970's Foster Grant Wayfarers and put them on. After a few minutes Tim saw her slump a bit in the seat her head resting on the window. .......... He heard her taling in he sleep and then felt the tip of her Bowie knife on the side of his throat.

"Now Miss Morgan ifin' ya poke that thar toad sticker in my throat, I am just limble to crash this car and we are both be in a world of hurt." he said calmly as he slowly brought his hand up and pushed the knife away. "Ain't nobody gonna hurt ya Miss Morgan, so ya just relax. I ain't about ta let no hurt come ta ya. So what ya say ya put that Arkansas toothpick away?"

"Well now Miss Morgan, them thar nightmares can git ta ya. I knowd cause I have em too, ever'once an awhile. Ya just 'member that I ain't gonna hurt ya and I sure as hell ain't gonna let anybody else. I don' know who Cassie is or was, but I reckon ya will tell me when ya got a mind ta. Ifin' ya ever wants ta talk 'bout it I'm a right good listener. But fur now what say we gits us some grub." Tim said calmly as he pulled the Mustang down and alley up behind "Charlie's Grub Shack", turned off the motor, unfatened his saftey harness and climbed out of the car. Just as an crust old man, in a dingy white apron on, that could have been Walter Brennen's brother stepped out of the back door with a sawed off shot gun in his hand.
"Well I'll be damned and sent ta hell." the old man said "Ain't you a sight fur sore eyes, I done figured they done had ya locked up and threw away the key by now, you old mangy coyote."

Tim smiled and said "Well they ain't shut ya down yet I seed. Charlie cin I get 'bout four of them thar Buffalo Burgers, a mess of them bens and fries ta go. We're in a bit of a hurry, an it might be best ifin' I ain't seen in yur joit right now."

"We ?" Charlie started to say but stopped. "You bet ya pardner, ya jus' wait right thar." He started to walk back inside and stopped..... I heared tell 'bout some hombre they be callin' "The Vigalante" , been shootin' gang bangers in the balls, knees and ankles. I don' suppose ya knowd anythin' bout that would ya?"

"Nope Charlie I sure wouldn' ..... but ifin' I heared anythin' I'll let ya know." Tim said

Charlie went inside and came back out shortly with four small paper bags, a stack of paper napkins and some plastic spoons and forks and the sawed off shot gun under his arm. He handed them to Tim. Tim handed them to Morgan and reached for his wallet.

Charlie looked at him and said "Ya never could lie very well Cowboy, now ya jus' git yur sorry ass outta New York City, ya can pay me when ya seed me agin. Ifin' I was you I'd stay offin' the freeway and stick ta the back roads. I heared them Governmt agents and them R.A.I.D. bastards are looking under every rock and scrub brush fur that vigilante." Charlie handed Tim the sawed off shotgun. "I gots 'nother one, ya might be needin this. Now ya go on an' git." Charlie then turned and walked back inside, shutting the steel door.

Tim , laid the shot gun in the back seat, climbed in, shut the door, fastened his sftey harness and strated the car. "Don't wait on me Miss Morgan, dig right on in. Afta I gits us headed down the street hand me one of them thar burgers, will ya?" ( in one of the bags were several boxes of 12 gauge shot gun shells, the rest contained the food.) Tim then back up turned the car around and slowly drove out of the alley and down the street.

"Ya eats all an' anythin' ya wants Morgan." Tim noticed her wairy glance at the shot gun. "I reckon I best tell ya sumthin'. I ain't no criminal, but I am somewhat of an outlaw. Ya ever heard of the 'RIGGS ACT'?" Tim asked

"Yep, I was an undercover cop har in NYC fur a while then aftar they figured out I had "special" abilities they suspended me. So I pardnered up with a few others like me but with different talents. Well when the govnmt decided we was doin' more good than they could and wouldn' go on the take they comes up with The Riggs Act and started huntin' us down. Some they thru in the slammer and others they deported and sum they just plain kilt."

Tim's face showed the saddness of lost friends and brothers in arms.

"Well sum of us went underground an' I moved back ta Dallas, thanks ta some friends on NYPD my files kinda got misplaced. So I went ta work fur Dallas PD as an undercover cop. Well ta make a long tale short. A friend calls one day and tells me of another parder who died under strange circumstances. So I comes back to NYC fur the funeral and all hell broke loose. A buch of bikers hired by one of thye bad guys tried ta kill us all. Thar was a shootout and I lost most of the rest of my friends, semptin' fur a few. We gots split up an I'm tryin to get back ta them." Tim looked at Morgan "The government is tryin ta stop us from doing some good by getting rid of the bad guys. ....... Guess thar ain't much profit in not havin' crime."

"Well now Morgan, I don' think the feds have made the connection yet 'tween me and the 'Vigilante' , so long as we keep ar' heads down, I reckon evertin' be alright. Just thought ya shuld know. In case ya want ta take off on yur own, but I sure would like ya ta hang 'round." he said "I figgur we cin hep each other out."

Dressed in an undershirt and his dress pants, Henkel was sitting in front of the TV, leaning back in his chair when, Jameson entered through the door of the motel room with a twinky in his mouth and a chocolate milk in his hand. Looking back at his partner he commented, "I don't know how you can eat that crap and still get to sleep."



"Helps me think." Jameson replied as he closed the door and flopped down on his bed.

"Think? Shit, when I sleep, I sleep. I close the door on all this crap." Added Henkel.

"Yeah, but —"

"Hold on second." Henkel interjected, "Take a look at this."

Jameson rolled to the other side of his bed to get better view of the TV and saw that Henkel was watching the late breaking news, 'news as it unfolds'.

The caption of the report read, "Another Vigilante in New York. Another crime or about time?", then it cut to the scene at the Battery Tunnel, and showed video of the charred remains of the assault vehicle and the wreckage of Jameson's car.

"...Police and FBI gathered to investigate the remains of a vehicle that was involved in a high speed pursuit earlier this evening, the chase finally ending with an explosion in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel." Commented the reporter, then they cut to a video of Prospect Heights. "It was only hours later, after the incident at the tunnel that police in front of this diner were alerted to a shooting that involved two men who were both currently on parole. Then just an hour ago, we were alerted to another incident on Bergen Street where three members of the Diablos gang where shot and sent to hospital. Is there a connection? We have learned that all three incidents are being investigated by the same FBI agents. We have been unable to receive any comment from them, but sources tell us that they are calling the vigilante, 'The Wrangler'..."

Henkel threw his hands up in surrender. "Can you believe this shit!" Then he spun around and gave Jameson an accusing stare. "You didn't talk to anyone did you?"

Jameson looked appalled. "You think I would compromise our investigation by talking to a reporter?"

"If she had a nice ass." Retorted Henkel.

"That happened one time. Once! And I paid for that one. Why do you always have to bring that up?" Defended Jameson.

Henkel shook his head and turned his back on Jameson who kept on nagging at him for an apology.



As Yelena threw her heel into the chin of the closest Marine, Toril turned to face his opponents after blasting the Captain's plasma rifle away from his grasp.

The bigger Marine sprang toward him like a cat while the other leapt for his weapon and Toril had to think fast. With all of his strength he drove his knee upward toward his attacker's lowered head, an attack that the well trained soldier had anticipated but Wraith knew that the big man would have been confident enough to attempt to block his powerful leg. The Marine greatly under estimated his opponent's strength and Toril's knee broke through his block and caught him square in the face. A shock of pain ran through Toril's leg where the man's chin pressed into his knee and Marine was knocked off his feet. While the Marine topped backward, suspended in the air, Toril spun, throwing the hardest back kick he could muster. His foot caught the man square in the chest, knocking him back and directly into the other Marine who was diving for his weapon.

In the split second Toril turned and threw out his kick he had turned and could see Yelena and the Captain flying out the door of the cabin with the fourth free Marine in pursuit. The other that had sustained a devastating kick from the shape-shifter remained on the floor, shaking his head in attempt to fight off unconsciousness.

His eyes turning forward with his rotation, Wraith saw the other Marine deftly pass under his larger comrade, scoop up his rifle and roll into a crouched firing stance. His momentum pulling him forward, Wraith had little choice but to dematerialize and follow the larger unconscious soldier as he soared out the window and into the branches of an evergreen tree. The other Marine fired a series of rapid pulses toward him and in an instant several white tongues of electricity licked the air around Wraith's non-coporeal form, one bolt striking him in the arm and another grazing his leg.

Disrupted by the electro-magnetic bursts, Toril became solid once more and landed heavily atop the Marine he had kicked out of the window. Rolling to his feet, grimacing in pain and holding his left shoulder, he hardly had time to catch his breath before the Marine flew out of the window and slammed his combat boot dead center into Toril's chest. Weakened and his meta-abilities depleted for the moment, Wraith couldn't use his flying ability to lessen the impact of his fall or flip himself right side and so he crashed into a fallen tree the force of which breaking through the old wood.

The Marine shot of a stunning plasma burst at the fallen super-hero but struck only the old log as Wraith managed to roll behind the dead tree. He knew he didn't have much time before reinforcements arrived so he had to deal with the soldier quickly, but that was proving to be more difficult than he had planned for. Possibly even ten years ago, he might have been able generate more meta-power, but despite his training age had robbed him of that extra natural endurance that would have allowed him to make that extra vortex or wind blast.

Toril could feel his strength of his meta-powers returning but before he could scrounge up the energy to rid himself of the Marine, a small grenade landed beside him, forcing the meta-human to leap to the side as it exploded into a bright flash. It was only a flash grenade but it flushed Toril out and directly into the path of his opponent who had him dead bang. The Marine squeezed the trigger and Toril closed his eyes but nothing happened. Dead battery! Without a moments hesitation, Toril engaged the man in hand to hand once more, overwhelming him with sheer strength and speed until he connected with low kick and capitalized with a devastating upper cut that knocked the Marine out cold.

Pain still ripped through Toril's arm but it wasn't slowing him down, much and quickly he rounded the cabin to where Cassius had parked the ambulance. Unfortunately the Marine that had been fighting to remain conscious after Yelena's kick had managed to pull himself to his feet and leaning out a window laid down another series of rapid pulse bursts at Toril. He was able to make behind the ambulance and from there he could see Cassius being loaded into one of the humvees and two soldiers were carrying the unconscious body of Yelena!

"Damn!" Toril cursed under his breath.

The soldier that had just fired on, Toril came running out to the front of the cabin and informed the others of what happened. The Captain still rubbing his granite jaw after tangling with Yelena began barking orders and immediately five men sprang into action and began to close on the ambulance from both sides of the cabin.

The Captain had remained behind with the smaller soldier called Chaos to guard the prisoners while the others slowly scouted around the cabin for the meta-human known as Wraith. Chaos kept his weapon trained on Yelena and Cassius and all the while the Captain stood with his back to the humvee, he head low as if watching something.

Toril approached silently, drifting on the wind to disguise any sign of his presence. Fortunately a breeze was blowing toward the humvee but as he drew nearer he would have little choice but use kinetic force to move and in the black of the night his faint glowing aura would attract a watchful eye. He drew closer, hovering just a meter before the Captain who oddly enough had his eyes downward, concentrating on some device in his hand. Toril did not have the time to inspect the device in the Captain's hands, but if would have the former super-heroe would have seen that it was tracking device designed to locate very minute traces of electro-magnetism of the type that Wraith used to move while in his wind form. Even as Wraith produced an aura for a split second before materializing and throwing a powerful fist toward the Captain's jaw, the Marine had known where he was a few seconds prior and had plenty of time to react to the sneak attack. Not suspecting that his strike would be countered so effectively, Toril was completely over extended when the Captain sided stepped, leaving himself completely open for a crushing hay-maker. The Captain drove his fist across Toril's jaw and the force of the blow knocked him to the ground, but he was far from down and done playing the peaceful hero. If the Marines wanted a fight, he would give them one. Even as the Captain brought down his fist to finish him off, Wraith focused his powers round his body, stirring the air about him, first blinding the Marine with dirt that was thrown in his face then as the vortex increased the Captain was caught into it and thrown over the humvee.

In moments a small twister had formed around Toril, spinning with such velocity that the humvee began to rock and slide, almost causing Chaos to lose his footing, but he made sure he kept his weapon on the prisoners. The other soldiers closed in on Wraith and fired their plasma rifles, but the rapidly spinning particles in the funnel acted as shield, dispersing the blasts, illuminating the twister against the night sky. Toril's eyes burned a bright blue and his face was full of rage as he threw a jet of wind at one of the Marines, carrying the man high into the air and throwing him beyond the cabin falling to his death.

"Shoot to kill!" Ordered the Captain as he pulled himself up off the ground, leaning on the hood of humvee.

The soldiers quickly switched over to their standard weapons but Toril stood his ground. He knew the twister would only divert a few of their rounds, but he had drawn first blood and was willing to pay for his actions. Pulling upon every last ounce of his strength, Toril channeled all of his power into the vortex, and the soldiers were forced to hit the ground as they were pelted with sand and dirt thrown by a powerful gust.

Cassius could feel the air pressure changing rapidly and felt his ears pop. The humvee began shake and high winds bucked the frame, pushing it through the sand and closer to the water. The Marine called Chaos, at one point was thrown aside and the Captain was forced to retreat down the beach.

The Marines pitted in and half blinded from the blowing sands began to fire their weapons toward the twister. Another Marine was struck by high powered jet of air, spinning him through the air several times. He landed hard and didn't move and the barrage of gun fire continued, closing in on their target until their weapons were torn from their hands and scattered to the winds.

The night did not obscure his specialized vision and though Toril could not make sense out of what happened to the rifles of the Marines he thought only to take advantage of the situation. His strength waning, Wraith prepared for one last assault when there was a bright flash of light and the entire area was bathed in electricity. Toril's form was a dark image in the midst of a white field, then as all became dark once more the winds faded and the large man collapsed to the ground and did not move.


The last thing Cassius remembered was Toril being tossed into the back of the humvee then he and Yelena were administered a sedative and all went black. He awoke with a pounding head ache laying on a cot in a cell no bigger than his bathroom, in fact with a toilet in the corner and a sink crammed next to it, he considered that maybe it was his bathroom. There were no windows, a solid steel door at one end, and the only other openings were two tiny vents on each wall near the opaque ceiling that shed a soft white glow. Through the vent to his left while facing the door, Cassius could hear the deep familiar voice of Toril.

"Yelena. Cassius. Are you there?"

Prior to Cassius' revival, Yelena had been blind folded and taken from her cell by two men dressed in military uniforms. They walked her down a long corridor, at times nearly dragging her as it was difficult to keep up with their pace since her legs were shackled and her hands bound close together. After about twenty paces or so they paused at a doorway and Yelena could hear the sound of a scanning device, then the sound of two doors sliding apart. They took a few steps then turned right down a another long corridor until she heard a door open where she was taken inside and thrust down into a chair. Yelena could hear the guards leave and close the door behind them, then silence. She could feel a table in front of her but could hear nothing else in the room so without further hesitation she removed her blind fold.

She was sitting midway at the longer side of a large black table. In front of her was a styrofoam cup and a plastic pitcher of water. There seemed to be one light in the plain windowless room and it was directly over the middle of the table where she noticed there was another chair on the opposite side. A few minutes later a man entered the room, his features hidden the shadows. He was a wearing a brown coloured military uniform and was carrying in his hand a file folder. Yelena took note that though the man appeared to be in his late fifties there was an air about him that made him seem much older. His slow walk to the table was deliberate, almost a saunter, and she could tell that he was studying her as he crossed the room then he pulled out the chair and sat down. He took off his hat and placed it beside him on the table, next to the folder he had been carrying. As his face came into the light, the first thing that she noticed was the scar over his right eye that had disfigured his once handsome face, then as she peeled back the years and filled in the lines of his features she recognized who he was.

"Aleksandr?"

The man smiled fondly at the memories generated by the mention of the alias. "Hello, Yelena. It has been a long time." Vacily said to her in perfect Russian.