Pond Household

1:05 AM

            Jake awoke groggily, taking time to recollect himself. All of that had happened so long ago, and yet he remembered it as though it was yesterday. He had been sworn to secrecy, sure, but after that, it was amazing times, running around with Will on missions and undergoing training outside of his school hours; after the Fall, those days became significantly more difficult and tight-stretched.  Jake sighed deeply, rubbed his eyes, and looked up, to see the bedraggled face of Vicky looming over him, fully armored up, sans helmet. Jake pushed himself up into a sitting position, groaning softly.

            “What’s going on? Anything exciting happen?” Vicky shook her head gently, her sleep- tangled hair forming a veil in front of her face.

 “Silent as the grave. Although thankfully, not as active as that case in Arlington. Remember that?” Jake grinned wearily, and shook his head ruefully.

“In the middle of that scuffle, Will and Lex had their leader by his-”

            “Jake, Vick,” Will muttered from his bunk. “Enough.  Now you two get on watch, before I have to get up from this cot.”

“Beard,” Jake finished lamely, before forcing himself out from his warm shell of blankets, and sat up fully. He pulled the blankets off of his legs, and re-secured his leg-plates, tugging on each strap to test it for tightness. He leaned over and rustled around in the darkness by the couch for his armor-vest, before “finding” it by scraping his knuckles against a slightly-chipped (sharply so) armor plate.

            Jake got to his feet as he slipped on his armor-vest, its strangely-comforting weight settling on his shoulders, and he zipped up the side-panel, snugly securing it to his body. Finally, like in a coronation ceremony of old, he slipped his helmet onto his head gingerly, the neck seal hissing gently as the helmet locked into place. At first, everything was dark and nothing seemed to happen, but when Jake gave the rear aeration vent a smack, the cooling fans within the helmet kicked into gear with a stuttering hum, and a few moments later, the low-light vision filter flickered into life, filling his vision with a dim blue glow. Jake smiled gleefully within his helmet; no matter how many times he used his helmet tech, he could never get used to the view behind the visor at night. Jake nodded at Vicky, as she slipped on her helmet as well, and the two of them walked off into the darkness of the Pond household.

            When they reached the foot of the staircase, Vicky padded into the kitchen to take up her watch-post observing the back yard, while Jake carefully made his way through the family room, past the slumbering bodies on the futon, and into the “library”. He smiled softly as he closed the door quietly behind him, and looked around the room, letting the smell of old paper and book-binding glue wash over him through his helmet’s filters. The walls were lined with bookshelves that touched the ceiling, and many of the shelves were packed tight with books of all sizes and subjects. Pale beams of moonlight glinted in from between the thick curtains shrouding the great bay window overlooking the front lawn. The moonlight settled like a spotlight upon a large, Edwardian-esque overstuffed armchair, the sort that you could imagine yourself drowning in while reading an entrancing book. Instead of pulling one of his favorite older authors off the shelves, Jake simply opened the curtains a bit wider, scooted the chair out of the moonlight, and settled down into the chair with a squoosh as the chair’s padding enveloped him.

            To a casual observer, it looked like Jake simply had dozed off in his suit, tucked away in the shadows to avoid being disturbed by the moonlight, or unwanted trivial duties. While he may have been stock-still, aside from his chest-plates gently rising and falling with his breathing, Jake’s eyes were restless behind the visor, scanning over the front yard. First they’d hover up close, on the front steps, taking care not to focus on any one object (so his peripheral vision could pick up any and all movement), then out far off, at the end of the driveway. Back down to the center of the lawn, and then out to the roughly-crafted stone wall surrounding the Pond home, where- were it not for months of training, and immense self-control hammered in by Will, Jake would have leaped from his chair. Where there was nothing to be seen on the wall, there was a hunched, bulky silhouette mixed in with the wall’s low, sloping shadow on the lawn; a shadow with nothing to make it.

            Carefully, so as not to attract unwanted attention, Jake reached up in his shadowy solace and clicked on the inter-helmet comm. system, keeping his eyes locked on the misplaced shadow. With luck, Will still had on his earpiece. Otherwise, it would be an awful long wait until the next shift.

            “Chief? We’ve got another bogey. Two o’clock. Immediate backup requested.” Five minutes later, Will slipped into the room, fully suited up for a fight, or at least for giving someone a good kicking for daring to wake him up. He carefully slid his way around the beam of moonlight, keeping to the darkness, and moving only when the shadows from the trees outside conveniently moved, until he made his way to Jake’s seat.

            “This had better be good,” Will grumbled, but beneath his tone of general disapproval, Jake could pick out tones of anticipation and eagerness in his voice. “Now, where is this beastie?”

            “About four finger-spans from the driveway,” Jake replied, keeping his focus on the second shadow. Will nodded, and moments later stiffened where he stood, as he locked onto his target. If his helmet was off, Jake was pretty sure that he would have been grinning evilly.

            “Switch to IR filter. And try not to freak.”

Jake paused at this, but flicked on his IR filter over his low-light, and waited a few moments for the residual glare to die down. When his vision was clear, he looked back at the spot where the shadow appeared to come from, to find that the wall was no longer unoccupied. Were it not for Will standing right there, Jake would have probably frozen up, and gotten himself spotted. As it was, he couldn’t stop himself from muttering “God have mercy, what the frak is that thing?”

            There, in the infrared spectrum, was a monstrous, fiery, human-shaped being, hunched over on the wall. Its raggedy wings were folded on its back like sets of shredded hand fans. Its massive muscles rippled ominously in the flames. It was clad in a scorched leather kilt, and its forearms were covered in heavy-looking metal vambraces, engraved with glowing, intertwined symbols. Clutched in its meaty fist was a massive, rusted blade, its jagged edge scintillating in the fire’s light. Its face was masked behind an oversized, half-melted Guardian helmet, the paint scraped away to rusted bare metal, but its beady eyes could still be seen from behind the cracked eye-slots, glowing like twin supernovas. Its eyes locked onto the two, and one eye dimmed briefly, almost like a wink, before it spread his wings wide, and lit off with a crack, leaving the Pond’s front yard as empty as it had earlier appeared. Silence fell; at least, until Jake broke it, still frozen stock-still.

            “Chief… that was him, wasn’t it?” Will nodded almost imperceptibly, still keeping an eye on the front yard.

            “The poor wee bugger… back at Stormhaven, he still had flesh on…” Jake winced, barely able to think about what happened to him.

            “We’re going to have to move pretty quickly after this, aren’t we?”

            “Aye mate, that we are. If we’re lucky, he’ll be back by mid-morning. And he certainly wouldn’t be alone.” Will got to his feet, and clapped his hand onto Jake’s shoulder briefly. “Now, I’m going out back to check on Vick, see if she’s seen anything. If anything else big shows up, give a holler, alright?” Jake nodded, and Will disappeared back into the shadows of the Pond household as quickly as he had come. This was going to be a long night.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

            The next morning, Jake sat up from his make-shift bed with a groan, rubbing his eyes blearily as he took in his surroundings. Will was passed out in a reclining chair, still in full armor, but his helmet was on the floor by his feet, and a patchwork quilt was draped over his legs. Icarus the cat was curled up in a contented ball on Will’s lap, sound asleep. Stretched out in the entry-way was Vicky, cradling her Tesla-pike like a teddy-bear. And there, up against the couch with a gentle smile of angelic bliss, was Lexie, curled up under a faded fleece blanket.

            Jake reached down and ruffled her hair affectionately, evoking a muffled grunt of contentment. He slid off the couch, taking care not to trample Lexie, and slipped through the tangle of outstretched legs and misplaced weapons, and stumbled into the kitchen, catching his balance against the kitchen table. Mrs. Pond was settled at the end of the table, cradling a steaming coffee mug in her hands.

            “Late night out on the prowl then?” Jake nodded mutely, and took a seat shakily.

            “Just a few spottings, but nothing too critical, ma’am. They mostly stood outside the boundaries.” He paused, and got to his feet expectantly. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

            “If you could take care of the dishwasher, please, that would be great, thanks.” Jake nodded and padded over to the gently blinking dishwasher and pulled it open, unleashing a billowing cloud of hot steam. Once it cleared, he pulled out a handful of uncomfortably hot mugs from the night before, and began stacking them carefully in a nearby drawer. Silence, aside from the clinking of cups and plates being put away, fell into place, until Mrs. Pond spoke again.

            “Mostly?” Jake winced, and put away the last cup before closing the cabinet door, and braced himself for the coming reaction.

            “Yes ma’am. One… may have sat on the wall and kept watch, but then it left. Flew off, I might say.” From the kitchen table came a clatter of a mug dropping to the table, and a suppressed hiss of pain. Moments later, Mrs. Pond appeared from around the fridge, bearing a fresh coffee stain on her bathrobe, and her face pale, her eyes wide with horror.

            “Flew off? You mean you saw Samson?” Jake paused, and nodded briefly.

            “Yes ma’am. The only way we spotted him was on our Infrared filter, and even then, only because we saw his shadow. With our luck, he’ll be back here soon. And he’ll have a few Wraith legions as company. At best.” Mrs. Pond staggered, and reached out to the counter for support, seeming to age fifty years in just a few moments.

            “How soon?”

            “Noon, at best. If Will’s plan is to come into play, there will be a window of about half an hour between when our rides get here, and when Samson and company will get here. So if we-”

            “Everything alright here?” Will said, from right behind Jake. Jake resisted the urge to flinch in surprise.

            “Yes Will, everything’s fine. Just updating her on the situation.” Mrs. Pond carefully straightened herself, and looked up at Will dead in the eyes.

            “Captain. Will. What will become of my family? Our home? We’ve lived here ever since the Fall, and have defended our land here from the beginning. What will become of it all?” Will leaned up against a cabinet and closed his eyes briefly, before looking down at her grimly.

            “Ma’am, the way things are rolling, you and your family will have to evacuate back to Stormhaven. This neighborhood is far too isolated to defend yourselves from a full frontal assault for long. If what happened at the Edson estate is any sign, this place would be overrun in hours. The enemy is moving.” Will paused, and rearranged the quilt draped around his shoulders like a cloak. “If any of this is to come to pass, we’ll have to get out of here fast. What time do you will Jenny be up?”

            “What’s going on?” Will’s face barely flickered as he turned to see Jenny standing there, a quizzical expression on her face. A single bare foot tentatively touched the cold tile floor, before she stepped forward, her eyes flipping between Jake and Will like they were predatory beasts, waiting to strike. “Who’s Samson? Why do you fear him so badly? I mean,” Jenny continued sheepishly, “you guys have faced a lot worse… right?”

            Will sighed, and shuffled back into the living room. “Briefing in ten minutes. Be ready,” he grumbled, and slipped around the corner. Jake shrugged, and smiled apologetically.

            “Don’t be put off by him too badly. He’s just… worried, that’s all.” Jenny arched a single eyebrow disbelievingly, but Jake carefully wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her to the kitchen table, and pulled out a chair for her. “In a bit, you’ll find what you’re craving for. But be warned. It won’t be pretty.”