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Supreme Commander Romanov
Sparta, Vermont
1030 hours local
The meeting of the Interracial Council had taken longer then I had originally expected. Most of the delegates (with the exception
of Jeremy) didn’t believe that there where other universes in existence. In the end, I had to take them back to my home
universe (for some reason, dubbed ‘Command and Conquer’) and show them around several key areas of my universe’s
history.
The first stop was China with the ruins of Tiananmen Square, Beijing where a terrorist attack from the GLA had destroyed it,
several years ago. China now deemed it as a memorial to all those whose lives had been lost in the fight against the GLA threat.
The next stop was a tiny island in the Florida Keys where the Allies had built a Chronosphere, a mass teleportation device
that they had used to defeat the Soviet Union the first time around. Next was Alcatraz Island where Yuri had intended to launch
a Psychic mind control wave that, had he succeeded, would have turned the entire planet into mindless Yuri drones. the last
stop was the Tiber River in Italy where the meteorite carrying the Tiberium mineral had sent the entire world out of an economic
rescission, but into three new world wars. Two against the Brotherhood of Nod, the last one against a supercomputer named
CABAL.
They eventually accepted that there where other universes, and I explained the situation. There was a race of aliens, no more
then slugs, really, that where trying to destroy the Soviet Union, and take over the planet. We had the edge on them, at least
until they stole a modified Chronosphere and now they were also going to other universes. These slugs went into the brain
via the ear cannel, then flattened themselves around the brain and took control of the host. I had also told them that if
they so much as got ONE supernatural, then the entire supernatural community would fall apart in a matter of days, maybe less.
The delegates where undecided as of what to do; the Witches as well as the Shamans wanted to try and find a diplomatic approach
to get the Yeerks off Earth, and stop them from taking over other planets via peaceful channels. The half-demons and werewolves
(who had already been notified about this) wanted to defeat them through offensive means, and they both agreed that the Soviet
Union should lead the assaults. The vampires said that they didn’t really care what happened, so long as the threat
was eliminated.
In the end, I simply said: “this threat is more then likely the biggest threat that each of your races has ever faced.
I would appreciate it greatly if you could merely contact all of, or at least, some of the other members of your races, and
let them know of this threat. If they wish to support or join our cause, then they are more then welcome to do so.”
And I went back to Moscow shortly afterwards. On the ride back, I relaxed. I had been in United Nations meetings before, watching
the Russian Ambassador deal with the other nation’s ambassadors, and I was glad that it wasn’t MY headache.
Dealing with foreign nationals is a tricky, dangerous, and often frustrating process. Now I fully understood that, and I respected
the Russian Ambassador, now more then ever.
Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
Ten kilometres south of Moscow
0739 Hours Local
I woke up in A LOT of pain. Every muscle in my body was throbbing, and my right side hurt like hell. I opened my eyes and
saw that I was in a clearing in the forest. I saw something hanging out of my mouth. Wincing against the pain, I pulled it
out; a clump of golden fur, like the wolf I encountered in that frighteningly realistic dream… I sat up, and tried to
see what had happened to my side. It had what looked like a shotgun blast in it. All just like in my dream... WAS that a dream?
I started to panic. I couldn’t remember anything except that damn dream I had, but that was all it was, all it HAD to
be. I couldn’t… it was impossible! I had killed that family, and… oh god… a little girl. Whether it
was a dream or not was irrelevant now, it had seemed so realistic… I started puking, and was horrified when a chip of
bone came up. The sight of that bone fragment held my thoughts in a vice, and I couldn’t hold onto my stomach any longer,
and I continued puking for what seemed like hours, until I just had dry heaves. When it was over, I curled into a ball and
began crying.
I was there like that for a while. I can’t say exactly how long because I honestly don’t know. What I do know
was that I snapped out of it when I heard some underbrush crunch. I huddled up into a tighter ball, not wanting to even SEE
whoever it was.
“Go away, go away, go away.” I whimpered.
A hand came down on my shoulder, and I cringed.
A soft voice said: “don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.” The person started to comfort me,
and I slowly managed to pull myself together.
“I know what you’re going through, Sarah. I went through it myself, and I saw someone else go through it to. Trust
me, you’re going to get through this.” I recognized the person’s smell. It was the golden wolf, the newcomer.
I turned my head up and saw Elena crouching over me. “What are you doing here?” I asked, hating myself for how
pathetic and weak my voice sounded.
“I heard what happened, and came to investigate. I knocked you out, and I stayed with you all night.”
I broke down again, and cried. “What’s happening to me?”
“I’m sorry to say this, but there’s no other way to say it. You’re a werewolf now, just like me. I’ll
tell you more later, right now, we need to get you to Stonehaven.”
“Stonehaven? What’s that? A prison of some kind?”
She shook her head. “I’ll explain later. It’s not a good idea right now. Wait here, I’ll be back.”
She left, leaving me alone and shivering on the ground. I began crying again. I didn’t ask for this. What was happening
to me?
Elena returned a few minutes later, carrying an armload of clothing. “Sorry, but it’s the best I could find. Clothesline
pickings, you’ll get used to it soon enough.”
I put on the clothes that Elena had given me, and we walked back to Moscow. She tried to start a conversation several times
as we made our way back, but I wasn’t ready to talk about anything just yet. Once we got back, I went into the supply
center and got myself a new uniform, and we got something to eat in the mess hall.
Elena Michaels
Mess Hall, Vladimir Air Force Base
0839 Hours Local
Sarah and I went into the mess hall to get something to eat. She was still shaken up, and I knew that we would have to take
her to Stonehaven very soon. As Sarah was filling up her trey with heaps of food, I scented Bird Dog, and looked up as he
walked in. he looked terrible, and he seemed to age years in the few days since I had seen him last. I had a bad feeling
about this, but Sarah didn’t appear to notice. Once her tray was full, we sat down at an unoccupied table. Bird Dog
saw us, and came over. Why this rotten feeling? As he approached, the feeling grew worse. Then when he was only a few feet
from where we where sitting, Sarah looked up and I heard a faint, but clear “you…”
She moved so fast, I almost missed her as she jumped from the table as she smashed against Bird Dog, yelling and screaming.
“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME, YOU GODDAMN MONSTER!?” she yelled as she started to punch him. I heard a few
ribs crack as the next punch came down. Corpsman and the other people still eating rushed over, and tried to help, but Sarah’s
rage would NOT be stopped. She got up from Bird Dog long enough to grab the nearest person –A pilot, I guess- and throw
him clear across the room.
Now, alarms shrieked and now a brigade of commandos rushed in, and fired! I took cover, but the special forces where not aiming
at me, but rather something of to my left- Sarah! They were shooting Sarah! At first, I thought they where going to kill her,
but when I saw several darts hit her, I knew that they where simply sedating her.
It took at least 20 rounds to finally bring her down. When she did go down, two of the five commandos went up to her, ready
to carry her away somewhere, while the other three kept their guns fixed on her, in case she woke up.
I followed them, demanding that I would have custody of her. One of the commandos turned, and said: “Nyet. She is to
be taken immediately to the brig, and later have disciplinary measures carried out.”
“No, you don’t understand this is an extremely fragile moment for her, if you don’t give her to me right
now; you’ll have mentally destroyed this woman. Now, either you hand her over to me, or so help me, I’ll do it
myself.”
“Nyet- CTOI!!” he said as I grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The other four guys started to try and shoot
me with the tranquilizer guns, but I was too fast, and they weren’t expecting it. I managed to knock them all down in
about 30 seconds. Alarms started blaring, and I started running, carrying Sarah as she couldn’t walk just then.
As we rounded a corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. The Supreme Commander was right in my path, with a small army of troops
behind him, and did I mention they all had their guns pointed at me?
He glared at me for a moment, and then said: “Just where do you think you’re going, Cadet?”
“Look Commander, with all due respect, you need to let me do this, if not, you’ll have a half-crazed werewolf
running around your base tearing up anybody who gets in her way. Now, if you want to still have a pilot, you’ll let
me do this. If not, then you might as well kill her now.”
The troops behind him raised their weapons, but the Commander said something in Russian, and they lowered their weapons. He
said something else, and the troops left, leaving me, him, and Sarah in the hallway.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“Just a plane to New York State, and preferably one that’s got a lot of sedatives on board.”
He pulled out a radio or something and spoke in rapid-fire Russian to the person on the other end.
He nodded, evidently satisfied, put the radio back in his chest pocket, then said: “your flight will leave in ten minutes.
The plane is in hanger C, the one in the rear, and as you specified, it is stocked with sedatives.”
“Thank you, sir.” I said. I saluted, and then went for hanger C. the plane was almost entirely blood-red with
a black scorpion tail in a triangle with the edges flattened. It had no markings on it at all other then that scorpion tail
on both sides of the plane, fount and back.
I half-carried, half-dragged Sarah into the plane, shut the door, and fastened her in tightly, in a more or less comfortable
position. It wasn’t that I was afraid the pilot would jolt her around too much, but I was more worried that she’d
wake up, and start fighting the other people on board. That was something I didn’t want to experience at 30,000 feet
in the air.
A flight attendant hooked her up to the sedatives, while I called Stonehaven and let the Pack know what was going on half
a world away.
“Ladies, this is your captain speaking,” the pilot from the cockpit said as we got airborne. “We’ll
be flying at a steady altitude of 25,000 feet, at Mach two over the North Pole on our way to Syracuse Airport. We should arrive
at around 1645 hours local time, and the weather is expected to be rainy. I’ll point out things of interest en route,
in the meantime, please relax and enjoy your flight, as well as the in-flight movie.” A pause then, “oh, wait,
I just remembered, we have no in-flight movie we’re not a commercial airline, so I hope you brought a good book!”
“Elena?” Antonio answered. “What’s going on over in Russia? Is Bird Dog behaving himself?”
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling. When he was out on his run, he…” I sighed. “he bit
someone. He stopped before he killed her though.”
“Her? Did you just- oh shit, here we go again.”
“If I was there, I would have stopped him, or just killed her outright, but now…” I sighed again. “I
wasn’t around, and when I found out, it was well past just killing her.”
“Well, I’ll let Jeremy know. You better get back here pronto, though.
I looked out the window, and said: “one step ahead of you, Tonio, I’m calling from an altitude of 25,000 feet
and I’m traveling at two thousand kilometres per hour.”
“Okay then, see you and our new guest soon I suppose.”
“Right, bye,” And I hung up.
A few hours later, we landed and again, I half-carried, half-dragged Sarah out of the plane. There was a military-issue vehicle
waiting for us when we landed. It had an extremely wide stance, and it looked like it could take a beating. The driver greeted
me, and we both placed Sarah gently in the backseat.
When we were almost there, she started to wake up, but very slowly. By the time we got out, a good chunk of the sedatives
had worn off, but not completely. Her pupils were dilated until they ate up the whole iris, and she moved clumsily, and with
a trusting schoolkid expression on her face.
“Sarah, do you know where we are?” I asked, just to test her memory.
“Hong Kong?” she slurred. Okay, I thought. Maybe she’s not all the way there yet. She collapsed into my
arms a few seconds later, sound asleep again.
We went in, and I placed her on the bed in my room. I now slept with Clay more often then not, so I could stand it a few more
times.
Chapter Eight
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