Scene Six: The Search, Pacific Center

   Mark worked his way down the decks in characteristic Phoenix Force search 
pattern; flitting not quite flying through the corridors, pausing to check 
crossways, look into rooms, inspect insturmentation.
   he dropped down an access tube to Y deck, took a moment to speak into 
his bracelet. "A1 to G1, report."
   "They passed this way alright," came the grim response, "we're picking up 
the pieces."
   "Bad?" Mark asked apprehensively.
   "Nine dead so far." Keith replied, the Commander winced. Gamma Leader 
continued, "G3 and G4 haven't spotted any real attempts at sabotage yet, 
mostly incidental damages, security eyes and the like. They must have a 
very specific target in mind."
   A cold fist clenched Mark's gut. "The Chief!"
   "That's our guess." Keith agreed grimly, added almost pleadingly. "Find 
them, Commander!"
   "Don't worry, G1, they won't get past us. A1 out."

   June skimmed down the corridor towards the big monitor room on Y deck. 
Keyop wasn't with her, big suprise, the day her kid brother followed orders 
she'd drop dead from shock. She banked a corner and saw one of the ISO 
master computer's MEUs smack in the middle of the corridor, lit to greet 
it.
   "Hi Zark!" it didn't respond. She frowned, "Zark?" moved cautiously 
closer to the inert unit.
   It was a standard Mobile Extension Unit; a steel toned, bullet shaped 
meter tall body mounted on coaster footed legs with extendible manipulator 
arms. This one was dressed in a modified birdstyle; chartreuse cape lined 
in apricot orange with light purple mits on it's 'hands'. The fascia lights 
were dark.
   She spoke into her bracelet: "Zark, do you read?"
   "Yes, June, can I help you?"
   She sighed in relief, "I just found one of your extensions -" paused 
to read the ID plate, "4-Zark-7 deactivated."
   "Oh dear," Zark sounded perturbed. "the unit is not responding, odd 
it was functioning perfectly 52 seconds ago -"
   "Zark, what was your last input?" she interupted.
   "Passing a group of researchers," he replied promptly, "I advised them 
to seek shelter."
   Uh Oh. "Congratulations, Zark, I think you've found our intruders. 
A3 to A1, they're here, Commander, they just deactivated 4-Zark-7 corridor 
Y-17 moving towards the monitor room."
   "Good work, A3!" he replied. "Commander to Alpha Team, converge on 
Y deck monitor room!"
   June didn't bother to listen to the responses from the rest of the Team. 
She flitted to the monitor room entrance and cracked the auto-door for a 
peek inside. Three white coats were gathered around a console on the main 
floor. Genuine ISO researchers? Or Lucifors in disguise? Heart hammering she 
opened the door all the way and stepped inside.
   "Found something?"
   The trio spun and stared, exactly the way real staff would.
   "N-no, ma'am." the tallest of the three replied. "All clear in here." 
   If they *were* Lucifors they'd be trying to decide whether to jump her 
or try to bluff. If she could just keep them in play until one of the guys 
showed....
   "I appreciate your sense of duty," she said strolling casually closer 
along the catwalk, slipping her yoyo from its case under cover of her winged 
cape. "but you really should have gone to your shelter stations at the 
signal." handing them an out.
   "Yes, ma'am." the spokesman said quickly, "we'll go now."
   "Good."
   She held back a grin, barely. *Nice timing, Commander*
   The white coats spun to face the Eagle as he continued. "Keep your eyes 
open, report anything unusual."
   "Yessir, we will sir," the trio headed for a third door, careful not 
to pass to close to either Mark or June.
   The Commander shot her a quick, warning look then pitched his sonic 
boomerang in a carefully calculated arc just over the white coats heads.
   Two of the three flinched and cried out in suprise and alarm but the 
third spun, blurring, darkening into a sleek winged Blackhawk, hand raised 
to hurl a blade at the Commander. June's yoyo cable wrapped itself around 
his arm and his body convulsed as the pulsed charge hit him.
    The other two transmuted to their true forms and fled skimming on 
dark wings. 
The Eagle seemed to materialize out of thin air, blocking their way.
   "Sorry, end of the line."
   One started to make a break up a convenient companionway only to find 
himself confronted 
by the deceptively frail form of the Dove, bouncing her yoyo menacingly.
   "The Commander's talking to you." she scolded, cast her yoyo as Mark 
hurled his boomerang.
   The two Blackhawks somehow managed to dodge both weapons, exchanging 
places as they did so. The one facing June severed her yoyo's cable with 
a throwing blade then charged his disarmed opponent. She jumped, flipping 
head over heels right over him to land at the foot of the ramp. Before he 
could turn to re-engage her long pink aurora ribbon had wrapped itself 
around his neck and snapped it.
   Mark's opponent opened fire. The Eagle's white caped form seemed to 
disolve under the stream of charged beads but when he ceased fire there 
was no bleeding body on the deck before him. He stared, felt a tap on 
the shoulder, whirled and recoiled from a perfectly intact Eagle, close 
enough for the 'hawk to see the steely smile beneath his visor.
   "Why don't you make it easy on yourself and tell me where the rest of 
your team is?"
   "Never!" a throwing blade flashed from his hand, "Lucifor!"
   The Commander dodged it easily but both he and June were knocked flat 
when it unexpectedly exploded.
   Mark lifted his head, saw the 'hawk had vanished, punched the deck in 
frustration. 
"Damnit! A2, A5, A4, Blackhawk headed your way!" rolled over to check on 
June. "You okay?" 
   She was just pulling herself into a sitting position, holding her helmet, 
"Ooh, my head is ringing! That was a new one."
   "He's bound to run into one of the others, lets make sure he can't 
backtrack."
   "Whatever you say, Commander."

   As it happened the Blackhawk ran into Tiny, quite literally, the impact 
knocking the breath out of them both. The Owl recovered first, wrapped his 
arms around the Lucifor and squeezed.
   This 'hawk was a tough customer, even for his elite kind, Tiny felt him 
twist, looked down to see his enemy had somehow managed to extract a 
glistening poisoned blade and was just militmeters from sinking it into 
his thigh. Nothing he could do about it but squeeze harder. Tiny heard 
bones crack, then much too suddenly, the Blackhawk went limp, his 
blade 
clattering to the floor. The Owl dropped him, springing backward out of 
range in case it was a trick, saw Keyop standing over the body with a 
smug smile, tossing his rebound ball in one hand.
   Tiny straightened and grinned back: "Thanks."
   "Don't mention it." the Swallow replied.
   Mark and June appeared in the corridor behind him.
   "I see you got him." said the Commander.
   June put her hands on her hips, glared at her brother. "Keyop! where'd 
you disappear to?"
   "I *told* you I was gonna check the 'tween deck spaces." he replied 
defensively.
   Mark gave one of his 'Why do I bother?' sighs. "*I* told you to stay 
with June."
   "Yeah, but -" Keyop began, stopped when he saw Mark's eyes go past him.
   Jason emerged from a side corridor, twirling a Blackhawk helmet. 
"Got one."
   "That accounts for four." Mark frowned, looked at Tiny and Keyop. 
"What about the fifth?"
   Both shook their heads.
   Tiny: "Sorry, this one's the first I've seen."
   Keyop, shrugging: "Ditto."
   "Hell!" Jason flung the helmet aside, it rebounded off the corridor 
wall as he whirled and zoomed for the nearest access tube, the rest of 
the Team skimming behind him.
   
   Jason hurled himself into the Chief's office before the auto-door 
had finished opening - and nearly fell headlong over the black winged 
body sprawled on the floor in front of it.
   Anderson looked up from his desk communicator, eyebrows lifted questioningly.
   Jason regained his balance, met his father's suprised look with a 
shrug, fighting back a grin. "I thought you might need help." he turned 
the body with his foot, saw the Phantom dart embedded beneath the chin. 
"My mistake."
   "I appreciate the thought." Anderson smiled.
   Mark tapped Jason on the back. "Jase, you're blocking the door."
   "Oh, sorry." he moved aside letting the rest of the Team enter.
   "An opportune arrival, Commander," said the Chief, once again all 
business. "Epsilon Leader has located the control sub and made a disturbing 
discovery." he pressed a button on his desk and Marie appeared on a wall screen. 
   "There's some kind of homing beacon inside the Center." she reported 
bluntly. "That's how they located us."
   "Impossible." June insisted, "We'd have detected any unauthorized 
signal."
   "It's a passive, Juney," Dancer's silver helmet pushed itself into frame, 
crowding an irritated Marie. "no signal to detect, the sub's scanners 
are set for Silenium."
   "I get it," June nodded, "plant a detectable quantity of an element 
found nowhere on Earth, then scan for the element. No signals to be 
picked up or blocked...very clever, Mala's outdone herself."
   "Plant it how?" Mark demanded. 
   "Good question," Marie replied, shoving Dancer back out of frame, 
"afraid I don't have an answer but the Sileniums located somewhere in the 
Phoenix hanger bay."

   It took hand scanners to find it, a razor thin disk the size of a 
silver dollar, embedded in the G-4's carapace.
   "You mean it's *my* fault?" Pidge asked, hugging G6 tight under 
her chin. "I led them to us?"
   "You couldn't have known," Keith put a comforting arm around his little 
sister. "One of the crabs must have shot it into the G-4 during the fight."
   "Must've been the whole purpose of the trap," Mark agreed, leaned 
closer to study the barely visible crack, shook his head. "I wouldn't 
have seen it."
   "Neither did we," put in the Mech-Tech who'd extracted the Silenium 
wafer, "the Commander's right, ma'am, nobody could be expected to spot 
something that small unless they were looking for it."
   "Right!" Keith gave her a quick hug, "G stands for Gamma, not God, 
nobody expects us to be omniscient, so stop kicking yourself!"
   Pidge relaxed a little, G6 shifting to her usual place in the crook 
of an arm.
   "Put it down to 'shit happens'." Mark agreed. His bracelet pinged; "A1."
   "E1, we've got company Commander!"
   "Show me!" he ordered moving to the nearest wall screen.
   It lit up with an exterior view showing innumerable dark hulls materializing 
out of the wavering sea depths in a 90 degree arc around the Center.
   "Company's right!" Mark, muttered. "Stand by for orders E1. A1 to Chief -"
   "We see them, Commander!" Anderson's voice responded, "All Teams 
report to me in CinC."