Shattered

Chapter 2

Krystal was sitting down on a cold plastic composite chair inside a spartan room. The room was fairly large with silvery metal sheeted walls. It had a one-way mirror peering into the adjacent interrogation chamber where the mysterious tall armored stranger resided. Fox and the other team members were in the room with her alongside General Pepper. Since nothing had happened yet she began to rerun the incident in her mind.

She thought back to when he had put a knife to her throat. It felt like she was going to die so she had cried. He had surprisingly let her go, this was one of the things that kept bothering her. Then the most distressing thing was his attempted suicide. She had never in her life seen someone try to kill themselves. Even though she had not seen his face she could feel the sadness, anger, and despair radiating off of him. She was filled with questions that buzzed around in her mind like a swarm of katinian hornets. Where did he come from? Why did he let her go? Was he even a lylatian? And perhaps the most important question, what was that she saw in his mind?

Her mental debate was ended when she saw Bill Grey, a bull dog and long time friend of Fox, walk into the interrogation room. She observed as he started his 'interview'.

"Who are you?" Bill demanded taking a seat across from the intimidating armored figure.

The strange armored man who had been relieved of any visible weapons tore his gaze off of the table he sat in front of and looked unsettlingly through his red glowing helmet slits at Bill. "Alexander Von Jäger." The man replied in a deep voice. They took note of his foreign name.

"Alright then Alexander," Bill said "How did you get here and why?"

The man (now Alexander) took a minute to respond. Presumably to arrange his thoughts. "I don't know." He answered finally.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Bill wondered.

"I should be dead." Alexander emotionlessly replied.

This startled Bill and the other viewers, especially Krystal.

"Why?"

"I...rather not say." He refused, his concealing helmet hiding any telling facial expression he could have made.

Sensing that he can't get a read on his captive Bill had an idea. "Take of your helmet." He ordered.

"I would like to keep it on." Alexander mumbled quietly.

"I wasn't asking." Bill said darkly.

With a defeated sigh the man lifted his left arm to the back of his neck. They heard a faint clink and the helmet began to vent air in a loud hiss. They watched in fascination as the helmet slowly burst and separated into a cascade of metal plates that folded back gently and swiftly into the man's gorget to reveal an alien face.

He was definitely not a lylatian Krystal and the others concluded. He was faintly simian with a strong jaw line. He had light brown skin that lacked any age lines. (He could only be twenty five years old at most). The most distinguishing feature he had was his golden eyes. They seemed to glow softly in the dimly lit room. He only sported fur on his head. He had very short buzz cut headfur and a very thin beard. It all just screamed military.

Bill looked surprised, his muzzle was hanging open in disbelief. "What are you?"

"A human." Alexander answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the universe. "What are you?"

"A cornerian." Bill replied similarly.

"Strange." Alexander muttered to himself.

Bill tried to redirect the conversation on to the original line of questioning. "Where are you from?"