Lost in Thought

Chapter 17

"So what do we do now?" Michelle asked, concern permeating her voice.

Before Xavier could answer, the large door at the opposite end of the room began to open. Light flooded in, temporarily blinding us, making it nearly impossible to see who had opened it. When our eyes began to focus once again, we could see the shape of several beings, light still shining brightly behind them.

One of them stepped forward, a man coming into focus. He was wearing some sort of military garb and had all the appearances of a man in charge. Though he was somewhat smaller than us, he was freakishly fit and seemed as though he could run circles around us.

"Lady and gentlemen," he said in a gravelly voice, "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that to find an empty room. But I assure you, it was not all for naught."

"Who are you?" I ask incredulously.

"Excuse me, where are my manners? My name is Ric Sapp. I am commander of the Avalaon Defense Group, charged with fighting Dessel and his Dreadnought brothers."

"Avalon Defense Group?" I say in a state of disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about? I thought it was just us fighting those monsters. Where the hell have you guys been all this time?"

"Easy, Peter," Sapp said, putting his hands up. "We have known of your group for quite some time, but not the full extent of what you knew or what you could do. We had to wait, observe, figure out just what we were dealing with before we could step forward. And when we learned of the ADM, we decided to play it patiently to see if you could lead us to it. It's a game-changing piece of tech, kid. We needed to get our hands on that before we could worry about anything else. My apologies for not making this introduction sooner. We have been working in the shadows, looking for the best way to defeat the Dreadnoughts. For the best way to free this world once and for all."

I moved forward in an attempt to punch Sapp, though I missed by a mile. A couple of his troops stepped forward, ready to hand me my ass, but Sapp put his hand up to keep them in their place.

"No," Sapp said to them. "He's fine. Besides, he's probably earned the right to punch me in the mug once or twice."

"Why the hell would you not intervene?" I shouted. "Why would you let them kill Ron? Why would you do nothing to help us?"

"Do you not listen?" Sapp asks, annoyed. "We didn't know what we had in you. What sense would it make to reveal ourselves to the Dreadnoughts over something that could potentially be a non-issue? If you were a nobody, you dying wasn't going to affect our plans and it certainly wouldn't have been worth exposing ourselves. We had to be smart about this whole thing."

"We could all very well be dead right now," I growled through gritted teeth. I was breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping as the anger coursed through me. "You wouldn't be down a Dreadnought without us."

"Well, you may be right about that," Sapp said with a hint of condescension. There seemed to be more that he wasn't saying, though I couldn't put my finger on it.

My breathing slowing, I simply stared in anger at Sapp. I wasn't sure what I could say or do at this point that would get much better of an answer out of him. At least we knew he was on our side and that we weren't alone in this fight against the genocidal marauders known as the Dreadnoughts.

"So now what?" Michelle asked. "Where do we go from here?"

"I want the three of you to join us," Sapp said. "We have an underground facility not far from here. This fight is far from over and we're going to need you. All of you. Having you on our team would go a long way. I know I'm not your favorite person right now, but you're better off with us than out on your own as you've been doing. You can only fight the Dreadnoughts for so long. Dessel got arrogant, thought he could deal with you by himself and take the ADM for the Dreadnoughts. Sion and Marsun won't be so easy to handle."