Invasion 1

“Sir, what shall I call you?” Agent Crandel said. “The closest thing in English would perhaps be Wendy Whitefeather though that is not exactly correct. My name in our native language is the sound the wind makes when it blows hard and warm out of the west.” Wendy Whitefeather replied. “Very well Wendy. As I am certain you are aware, the planet earth is experiencing an invasion. We are issuing complete amnesty to anyone who has skills that might help us in this battle. Your children and the adopted one, Daniel, are better-equipped than most to battle the space ships. So far our regular air force has proven to be no help against the invaders. While they are not invincible, they are tougher than our jets and also faster. We’re lucky they do have a finite number of ships.” “What is that number?” Wendy Whitefeather asked. “We don’t know yet. We only know that you cannot cross the length of space that they have with an infinite number of ships.” Agent Crandel replied. “Have you not considered they may be drones which are being manufactured faster than we can shoot them down?” Wendy said. “I’ll be honest Wendy. We simply don’t know yet but we are going on the premise that we can match their numbers with our regular military jets but we need those with special abilities to slow them down. Put a wrench in their machinery. It is our best chance. We get heroes like your kids up there along with our extended group of volunteers and of course, those on my special team. Cobra will be leading the team. Crawdad is back and he will be there also. What we need most are flyers. As I understand it, your two flyers now have twins. Is that correct?” Wendy Whitefeather hesitated before answering. He was okay with this government man knowing there were two of Tracker and two of Daniel. What he didn’t want the man to know was how there came to be two of each of them. “Yes, that is correct.” “How is that possible Wendy?” Agent Crandel asked. He searched the man’s face looking for any sign of a lie. “Isn’t it true they both respond to their original’s name? As if they are not twins, but rather that they are doubles. You can see how incredibly important that could prove to be, since they are both flyers. Could they produce more?” “What do you know of the ability to reproduce with your team?” Wendy Whitefeather asked. “Very little. Nothing actually. That is what makes it so interesting that your children have not just reproduced, but they have somehow managed to produce another copy of themselves. Crawdad has no memory of his battle with your children. There is theory that he killed one or both of the two who are now doubled. Of course it is only theory.” “Don’t do something stupid and cost us an important key to winning this battle, testing theories.” Wendy Whitefeather said. “I’ll let you in on a secret.” Agent Crandel said, in a whispering motion, but his voice was loud and clear. “We have used Mel’s hole to create our most powerful soldiers but it seems there is a limit to what the hole will provide. Most interestingly is it will not provide us two of any super-soldier. By that I am sure you know what I mean. We cannot send down something and connect it to more than one person. Not surprisingly those who were crossed with insects came out the strongest. There’s no denying that the beetle is the strongest by size, of any creature on earth. The dragonfly has only one creature to give it competition, the hummingbird. Which is said to be faster yet it is the dragonfly which is known to hunt the hummingbird. Both are near equal in flying ability but the hummingbird is slightly faster, though not quite as agile. I don’t know how your son Tracker came about the ability to shoot fire from his hands but the other powers he gained from the fire ant are very intimidating. Super strength. A body that can withstand most anything that attacks it. I’m still amazed the Crawdad didn’t cut him in half when they fought.” Wendy Whitefeather thought to himself, ‘maybe he did’, but he replied, “Yes as a parent I am very relieved he is still with us. And by us I mean myself and his mother, and his family. Certainly not the people who were trying to kill him.” “Please Wendy. Lets put that behind us. It does nobody any good. We are on the same side for sake of survival. Do I need to say more toward that?” Agent Crandel said smugly. He was of course, not loving the fact the planet was being invaded by alien ships, but it was proving to be quite an opportunity for getting all his chickens to come in to roost: so to speak. He did his best to hide his happiness but the old Native American was proving to be a shrewd customer. In fact Agent Crandel suspected that if this were the days of the old west, the conversation he was having with the old fellow would likely have concluded with one of the two of them dead. But this wasn’t the old west. “We need to get used to being on the same side. You strike me as a wise man. Do I really need to harp on what secrets can do to a mission like this?” “I’m not keeping any secrets from you Agent but just because that is true doesn’t mean I am not going to point out the fact of why should I trust the government now, when they have never given my people a reason to trust them? Are you going to sit across from me, look me in the eye and tell me that you guys wouldn’t sell us down the drain if you thought it would get you what you want?” “No Mr Whitefeather, Wendy, I am not going to blow smoke up your dress in that manner. Truth is, I suspect that is exactly what my superiors would do if it got them what they wanted. But … as I mentioned we are fighting a common enemy. Right now we are wasting time allowing our conversation to swing so far off course.” “You mention the common enemy. Ever hear the enemy of my enemy, is my friend?” Wendy asked. Agent Crandel laughed. “Of course. But that door swings both ways. Which one of us do you want to set down and discuss settlement with when it is over?” “Fair enough Agent Crandel. So I guess our discussion is over? At least for the moment.” Wendy said. Agent Crandel gave Wendy a look that said this wasn’t over. That he knew, that Wendy knew, more than he was letting on. Things were early on however. There was no reason to spoil things before they even got shoved into the heated oven. “There is a place for you to sleep here at the headquarters Mr Whitefeather. Please make yourself at home but stay on the compound property in the areas marked for guests. If you go beyond the marked areas you will be detained and I am afraid you may not be treated very well until someone is made aware of the situation and they come and vouch for you. So it is just better to stay where you’re asked.” Wendy looked out the window of the building to see a group of what he hoped would prove to be heroes. Super, since they had abilities beyond that of ordinary men but they still had to prove they were heroes. Right now they were only volunteers. Some, like his children, given basically no other choice than to volunteer. He saw the Wasp, a man with the ability to fly and shoot stingers. Also equipped in same manner was the Hornet, The Black Wasp, The Bumble Bee, and the Yellow Jacket. Lined up with them were flyers which were not naturally armed. A laser not all that different from the light sabers used in Star Wars, were issued to the flyers without their own attack weapons. The Hummingbird, the Eagle, The falcon, and Daniel, the Dragonfly, all received the laser to help take down the saucers. When they flew by the saucers they could slice them up using the lasers. Also receiving the lasers were those who may not be flyers, but that could either jump or perhaps were like Tonka who could fly but only in short bursts. The Cricket, the Grasshopper and even a bunch of guys sporting jet packs. This group would be joined by the regular air force jets to spring a planned attack. Suddenly there was a knocking on the glass window that Wendy Whitefeather was looking out. It was Tracker. He gave a thumbs up. Then came Tracker 2. He also gave a thumbs up. The two Daniels were next. They both gave a wave. Wendy waved back. As he watched his brave young sons get ready to go off to war he thought back about the previous couple of weeks that had passed. First things went unchecked. The kids returned home without any further retaliation from the government. They had a couple of days spent watching the skies as they were infected with the small saucer shaped ships zooming across the horizon doing who knew what? Perhaps they were just getting a lay of the land, so to speak. After the initial attempt to thwart the invasion failed, the next few days were spent with the the various countries getting organized so to work as one. Meantime observations were made on a twenty-four hour basis in hopes of finding a weakness or at least an idea of what the invaders had for an agenda? While all that went on Tom Crandel was busy getting his special team ready to battle their most fearsome opponent so far. A horde of very fast ships which were capable of beating the Earth’s best. Most the time. There were claims by pilots that they saw the saucers get destroyed. The trick was you had to hit them when they were firing their weapons. Popular thinking was that the saucer ships did not have the power to have their force fields on when they were using their weapons in an offensive manner . There was one observation which might be helpful once Crandel’s team was turned loose. The saucers seemed to follow each other not unlike the way black birds were known to gather in large numbers and fly right next to each other. Sometimes those birds on the outskirts of the murmuration, did not survive. They would crash into the ground. Some theorized if enough chaos was caused among the alien murmuration, that it might be their undoing. One thing that still needed to be observed was where the mother ship, or ships, were located. A meeting was held. Team leaders included both Trackers, both Daniels, The Black Wasp, The Falcon, The Lightening Bug and Hummingbird. The two Daniels would be carrying Tonka and the Silkworm, Hummingbird would be carrying Spider. The others were not extremely strong flyers like the afore mentioned so they would be on their own. Once the initial fighting was to begin, those who were riders would jump off onto the saucers and ride them until they needed to jump off. Those requiring parachutes would be issued them so once they no longer could stay up in the fight they would have a safe way down. Team leaders Tracker, Tracker 2, Daniel and Daniel 2 had a second mission. If it became possible. Should they see a saucer that was damaged but still capable of flight, and it was headed in a direction not in line with those attacking, they were to break off the mission and follow the the saucer. A second team leader would take over in hopes that the mother ship could be located by whoever it was that followed the saucer. As the meeting continued an obvious underling came into the room and gave Agent Crandel a note. He waited for the briefing to finish about the secondary mission and then he spoke up. “Attention. Some new intel has come in. They are observing that the saucers which we originally could not figure out what their end game might be; now it is theorized they are not here to take over the planet like we worried as the worst case scenario. We now believe they are here to replenish their depleted supplies and then will be moving on. That is not viewed as much better than them being here to take over the planet because not knowing what size their ship, or ships are; we cannot gauge how much we stand to lose. I don’t have to point out that we are already short on resources which are not tainted or just flat out used up.” He continued to talk but Tracker and Tracker 2 were both starting to get out of hand. Ever since they laid eyes on The Black Wasp it had been an embarrassment of boyish ploys to get her attention. As boys are apt to do, rather than compete for her attention straight on, they instead had engaged in some personal Olympics of dumb tricks to play on each other. Neither was capable of being burned but the same could not be said of their clothes. Since it was just their hands that caught fire they usually were able to keep their pants from being burnt. If they wore short-sleeve shirts they didn’t have to worry about getting them burned. That all went out the window however when they started setting each others clothes on fire. In the middle of the meeting addressing everybody on team Crandel, not just the team leaders, Tracker 2 started smoking and it came to be that the back of his pants had caught fire. Naturally as uptight as everybody was; it made for a big laugh and stress relief for the group when they discovered the big emergency was that the guy who couldn’t be burned, had his pants on fire. Naturally Crandel took the two Trackers aside to his private office while the entire rest of the squad waited for their return. When the two Trackers returned they both apologized to the entire room but each one, separately from knowing the other was going to do it, went around the room looking everyone in the eye as they apologized, and when they got to The Black Wasp, each one winked. She had been aware of their attention since early on. Girls just know these things most of the time. Especially when it was coming from the kind of guy, or guys, that Tracker had so far proven to be. The kind that aren’t afraid to go after what they want, and that are unapologetic about it. As long as they recognized the boundary between being confident-sexy, and being arrogant and assuming, she found it very enticing. It didn’t hurt that they made her laugh. Well perhaps laugh was a strong word, but they certainly made her smile as long as nobody knew why she was smiling. Most especially not him, er, them. You just didn’t encourage this kind of guy. He didn’t need it. Even when you didn’t mind the attention. Tracker and Tracker 2, were no fool when it came to girls. True, Tracker 2 had only been in the world a short time but he was created with all of his original version’s memories etc. They were truly two of the same thing. Perhaps they didn’t read each other’s mind’s, but that wasn’t necessary. For at least the time being, they had not had enough separate experiences to have effected their thinking enough to have made their actions be any different. Tracker 2 thought that right now if they both came upon a bear, at this point in time they both would have done the same thing. They would have avoided eye contact, but if it insisted on coming at them, it was their nature to take things on head first. Both would have stood their ground, spoke loudly telling it no, and they would have looked around for a stick so if it still came at them they could poke it in the nose and say NO!. Reason being that Tracker, back before he had been cut in half, thus creating his twin, had seen a video about bears. In the video there was an old retired high school teacher. He lived up in the part of Canada where there were no phones or even roads. For whatever reasons, the old guy bought bear chow, that’s right, bear chow, and he fed the bears. Both Grizzly and Black bears came to his place. Both bears would at times be there at the same time but they seldom fought. When they did the filming a cameraman was sent out. He had quite a time staying out of trouble. The video proved it was a rough life. There were times when the bears would challenge the old man but he stood his ground. When they would come up at him he would poke them in the nose with his cane and tell them: NO! Of course how long that worked for the old guy is unknown but it at least worked for the years up to the time of the video. Tracker 2 had no illusions. He knew that either himself, or his original, or perhaps both, would not hold to that approach all their lives. Young men are brave because they feel invincible. Perhaps they are; but old men get cautious. Are they afraid because they no longer feel invincible, or because they have been around long enough now to know they are not? What was most ironic about this whole set of thoughts, was that Tracker was ninety-nine percent likely to be having the very same silly thought. The two chanced a glance in the other’s direction only to see the other looking. Both wondered if the other was having the same thoughts? Suddenly their thoughts were interrupted by what was going on in the world. The same underling returned with another message. Crandel took the message and began to read it to the room. “This is what has just come in. It turns out the saucers seem to be targeting some very out of the way places. Preliminary data suggests the more advanced countries are being the most heavily invaded. Satellites are all over the place. Experts suggest they are not being knocked out but rather are just being blocked out by whatever sort of technology the aliens are using. Perhaps it just an accident or it could be intentional. In any case we get transmissions which are random. What has become apparent is they don’t seem aggressive unless provoked. Of course our problem remains the same. We need to protect our resources. We can’t afford to have them take most the fresh water remaining. Or our precious metals, or the sand we need to make computer chips. I could go on.” Suddenly from the kitchen area of the headquarters there was a loud banging. It turned out Tonka was hungry and was searching for something to eat when he knocked a bunch of pans off a counter. “That’s okay.” Agent Crandel said. “Everybody get something to eat. Something to drink. At first light we go on the attack for a second time. This time Team Crandel will be leading the way.” The group broke up and everybody went their separate ways. Some went to get some sleep before the big attack. Others, like Tracker, Tracker 2 and the two Daniels, chose to stay awake because they knew they couldn’t sleep. Tonka and Seta joined their brothers. Then they realized there were other team leaders among them. Cobra was there, as well as Black Wasp. Humming Bird and Lightening Bug were also there. Rounding out the group was Falcon. It wasn’t just team leaders either. Cricket and Grasshopper were there along with Crawdad and some of the jet pack soldiers. They all went up to the top of the building and went out there to watch the skies. Someone brought along a boombox and booze made an appearance. Of course the smart ones stayed away from the drink but they all enjoyed listening to what might be the last music they would ever hear. At least in this world. The night was warm. The silence which comes hand in hand with darkness was interrupted periodically with the voice of someone pointing out a saucer on one of the horizons. What the aliens were doing was still a complete mystery. They almost were re mindful of an ant colony in the way the ants go about their business not bothering anything unless it presents itself as an obstacle to what the ants were trying to accomplish. Next Page

Agent Crandel Mr Whitefeather Seta aka “The Scorpion” Stinger equipped with both paralyzing venom or sticky substance that can be shot a distance Razor sharp strong claws Armored : Regenerative Tonka aka “The Beetle” Extreme strength : Regenerative : Impenetrable : limited flight Daniel Whitefeather aka “The Dragonfly” Regenerative powers Strongest, fastest, most agile flyer : Dragonflies in nature are successful in their hunt 95% Tracker aka “The Fire Ant” Shoots fire : cannot be burned : super strength Regenerative : team leader : * Unknown power yet to be discovered Tom Mayers aka “The Falcon” Strong, agile flyer : has a dive speed of over 200 mph