by Anne
Disclaimer: The characters of Adam Newman, Megabyte Damon, Kevin Wilson, Ami Jackson, Jade Weston, General William Damon, Colonel Masters, Millie Damon and Caroline Damon belong to Roger Damon Price, Thames Television and Nickelodeon. So do any other names or events linked to the Tomorrow People TV series.
Max Evans, Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, Michael Guerin, Isabel Evans, Alex Whitman, Kyle Valenti, Sheriff Jim Valenti and Milton belong to Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and WB. All other concepts and events linked to Roswell also belong to them.
The characters of Joe Dawson and James Horton (who appear in name only) belong to Panzer/David, Rysher/Gaumont Television. So do the concepts of immortality, the Watchers and the Hunters.
The characters of Geoff Anderson, Gil Hawkins, Jim Beckett and Simon Trent belong to me and should not be used without permission.
"I'm telling you the best way you can help is to go home with Millie and her mom and keep an eye on them." Bill felt his patience disappearing as he repeated what he had been trying to get through to Geoff for the last ten minutes. The boy was keen to find those responsible for Millie's accident and seemed to be treating the whole situation as something out of an adventure movie.
Bill had tried explaining the danger involved but soon got the impression that what he was saying was literally going in one ear and out the other. He'd been forced to explain about the teleporting to Geoff but had managed to keep it to that for now. The boy had made it clear that he wasn't going to take no for an answer about that, after seeing it for himself, but at least for now that was all, in Bill's opinion, that Geoff needed to find out about. Hopefully the situation wouldn't arise where any other explanations would be required. 'Hopefully' being a very optimistic word at this point, given the way this mess was going.
"But General Damon, I only want to help."
"Well you can help by looking after Millie. I'd feel a lot better knowing someone was looking out for her." Bill was finding it hard keeping his voice down. In some ways this conversation was reminding him of the ones he had with Megabyte and those never seemed to come out the way he wanted either. Teenagers!
"General Damon are you ready to go?" Ami poked her head around the door of the relatives' room. "Oh sorry, Geoff, am I interrupting something?"
"Yeah I want to go with you to Roswell to find Megabyte and Adam and the General thinks I should stay here." Geoff noticed the expression on Ami's face and continued hastily. "It's okay, Ami, I saw you teleport outside and made General Damon tell me what was going on."
"It's okay, Ami. We can trust him. He overheard what we were saying outside and after seeing you teleport I had to give him some sort of explanation. I was just telling him how important it was to have someone stay with Millie in case someone comes after her again." Ami gave Bill a questioning look, a look he knew would be coming after what he'd just said. Not that he blamed her. After all it was her safety and that of her fellow Tomorrow People at risk here, not his. But coming out with 'I've only told him what he needs to hear,' wasn't going to enlist much cooperation from the kid was it?
As Ami followed his lead, Bill heaved a silent sigh of relief. He had hoped he could trust her to guess what he was doing. "Yes, Geoff, with everything going on it would be one less thing to worry about. Besides, think of how Millie would feel if you left her alone now, after what she's been through? I know if it were me I'd want you to stay."
Geoff looked at her for a couple of minutes, seemingly deep in thought. "Yeah you're probably right, Ami. Just let me know if there's anything I can do to help you guys, okay?"
Bill handed him a card with his cell phone number on. "If anything happens Geoff, anything suspicious, ring me immediately on this number. I'll send someone to back you up. Ami, give him Megabyte's phone, just in case."
Ami reached around in her pocket and retrieved the phone she'd just collected from Penny Weston. She handed it to Geoff who was staring at the card in his hand.
"Do you really think that someone might come after her again?" he asked.
"I hope not Geoff, but the person we think is behind this operation is very ruthless and I wouldn't put anything past him at this point in time."
As Geoff left the room, closing the door behind him, Bill turned to Ami as she prepared to initiate the teleport. "Okay, Ami, what's your secret? I spend ten minutes talking to the guy, trying to convince him to stay behind and you achieve it in two."
Ami smiled. "Something you haven't got, General. " she replied. "A woman's touch."
Kyle Valenti stood on the corner opposite the Crashdown, wondering how close he could get without anyone inside noticing him. That Whitman kid, Alex, had just re entered the building with his laptop under his arm. Kyle noticed that he had been looking around him nervously as he walked along the road towards the café.
Kyle had been suspicious since he had noticed Michael and Isabel coming out of the UFO centre after closing. They looked, in his opinion, very shaken. Even though Max Evans was nowhere in sight, he couldn't help but wonder if he had something to do with what ever was going down. He'd followed the two of them back to the Crashdown, telling himself that he was doing it to watch out for Liz. Even though she had made it clear that she was interested in Max now, he felt a duty to look out for her. After all he still wasn't sure that Evans would. When it boiled down to it, he really didn't trust the guy.
As he stood there trying to decide what to do next, he glanced into the alley beside the café and was surprised when he saw a flash of bright light which coalesced into two human forms standing where a moment ago there had been nothing. The young dark girl, slightly older than Kyle himself, motioned to her companion, an older man who looked about the same age as Sheriff Valenti to follow her into the café. As they approached the door it opened, so obviously someone was expecting them.
Right, thought Kyle to himself, that's it. There's something weird going on down here and Dad needs to know about it. As he headed towards the sheriff's office where his father was still working late, he wondered idly where Max Evans was. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen him for quite a while. Yes it certainly sounded as though Evans and his friends were up to something. Whatever it was Kyle hoped for their sake that they hadn't placed Liz in any danger.
"This is Ami and General Damon, Megabyte's dad." Kevin introduced the two new arrivals to the group in the Crashdown. "Ami, General this is Michael, Isabel, Liz, Maria and Alex."
Bill looked around at the group of teenagers in front of him, groaning to himself. Great, more kids to worry about. Just what he needed. The brown haired teen, Michael, was glaring at him, not even making an attempt to hide his feelings. The kid was annoyed about his arrival, that was obvious.
The shorter blonde girl, Maria, glared at Michael in a way that reminded Bill of Jade and Marmaduke. Alex put a protective arm around Isabel but the tall attractive blonde girl moved away. Liz seemed upset and very much on her own, at least if you were looking at the group from a couple point of view. Bill wondered if she was connected to Max in some way. Girlfriend perhaps?
Bill turned to ask Kevin for an explanation, but noticed that familiar glazed eye expression. One of these days the Tomorrow People were going to realise just how rude that was. As if they realised what he was thinking, which was totally possible even with the assurances Adam kept giving him that they really didn't do that sort of thing, the conversation switched to speech.
Jade grinned. "Oh yeah, Ami, there's something we haven't told you about Michael and Max yet. They're aliens."
Bill felt the sudden urge to sit down. Aliens? He echoed in his mind one of the phrases Megabyte liked to use. Yeah right.
Michael glared at her. "Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't give away our secret. I trusted you."
Jade glared back at him. "Oh chill out, Michael. Ami's a Tomorrow Person like us."
"Yeah okay, but what about him?" Michael waved his hand towards Bill, the annoyance showing through in his voice.
"Look I understand what you must be thinking, Michael, isn't it, but I'm on your side. I want to rescue the boys as badly as you do. Megabyte is my son, remember." Time to try and salvage the situation, Bill decided.
"So how do you explain the teleporting project you worked on for the SIA?" Michael glanced at Alex as he spoke.
"So that's what the two of you were talking about when Alex came back," commented Liz. "I can't believe you got him to run checks on our new friends. Max wouldn't have."
"Well Maxwell isn't here, I am." Michael's temper was starting to wear thin. "Max might be all trusting but it's not exactly helping him now is it?"
"Hey Michael…" Maria started to comment on Michael's display of utter tactlessness when Bill held up his hand and interrupted.
"Look, you guys, I can explain about the whole SIA thing if it will help. We've got to trust each other and work together or we've got no show of rescuing anyone."
"Okay then I'm listening." Michael folded his arms, settled himself back on a stool, and leant against the counter.
Bill cleared his throat, wondering how exactly he was going to put this. Michael was certainly a suspicious kid. He thought again about what Jade had said about aliens and sighed. Knowing how Masters felt about the Tomorrow People he couldn't help but worry how he would react when he found out that Max was an alien.
"It's true I worked for the Scientific Intelligence Agency," he started to explain, trying to ignore the glares Michael was still giving him. "When I found out about the existence of the Tomorrow People, and my own son was threatened, I decided that what they were doing was wrong and I left the organisation. Now I'm working for WorldEx, as your info probably has already told you." He made a mental note to increase security around his organisation's Internet files. Obviously Alex was another Megabyte, a bit too good at gaining access to classified information.
"Yeah but would you have left the SIA if Megabyte wasn't a Tomorrow Person?" Michael asked.
"What Michael is trying to say, in his own unique way," piped up Maria, "is that okay we know the TP's can trust you because you're Megabyte's dad and all. But does he know you won't give him up to the bad guys? After all he's not a Tomorrow Person, he's an alien. That puts a whole different spin on it."
"General Damon would never do anything like that!" protested Jade.
Bill smiled at her, wishing he still had that trust in people that she possessed. In some ways it was a shame that she had to grow up so fast, being a Tomorrow Person. As you got older it became a lot harder to view the world in black and white instead of the grey it actually was.
" I wouldn't do that, Michael. " Bill tried to sound reassuring to the young alien, but could see that he wasn't buying it. He decided to try another tactic, maybe something Michael could understand. "I can see you still don't trust me, and let's face it - why should you?"
"General…" Ami started to say. Bill gave her a quick smile, trying to get across the fact that he knew what he was doing. Well at least he hoped he knew what he was doing.
He continued quickly. "Let's put this into terms you can relate to. If I give you up to the authorities, how can I be sure you won't tell them about the Tomorrow People? I mean if they have concrete proof about the existence of aliens, they're just as likely to believe stories about teleporters too, aren't they?"
"In other words we have to trust each other because we have no choice. Is that what you're saying?" Michael still didn't sound very convinced.
Bill nodded. "In a nutshell, yes. What makes you think I trust you any more than you trust me?"
"I trust you, " said Isabel. "My brother's life depends on it. Don't worry about Michael, he'll help because of Max. We're not about to give away information about the Tomorrow People either, any more than they are about us."
"Okay, now we've got that out of the way, can we think about a rescue attempt here?" asked Maria. "If you're waiting for Michael to come out and thank you for coming you'll still be here next Christmas." The girl looked fed up with all the talking, and frankly Bill didn't blame her. "From what I can see this bad guy has Max and your friends holed up somewhere and has got nasty things planned for them." Maria looked around the room as she spoke, ignoring the glares coming in her direction. "I mean all this talk about trust is really nice guys, but it's not going to do much is it? What we need is a plan here."
"Maria's right," Liz broke her long silence. "I don't know about you guys but I'm trying really hard here not to think about what this Masters person might be doing to Max and the others while we're sitting here talking. If he's found some way to prevent them using their powers, who knows what else he might be going to do to them?"
As if on cue the cell phone in Bill's pocket rang. Hope that isn't Geoff already. That's all they needed at the moment.
"Damon, here." As he answered the phone his face paled. "Masters!" he exclaimed. "If you've hurt them…" Bill didn't dare finish that sentence even in his own mind. This was the thing he had dreaded ever since Megabyte had become a Tomorrow Person. Yes he'd heard Ami telling him what had happened earlier but hearing Masters voice telling him he had his son…and Adam. It only brought it home all too clearly, made it harder to pretend it wasn't real. Made it harder to pretend that everything would be okay, when really he wasn't sure it was going to be.
"Yes alright I'll be there." Bill listened to the rest of what Masters had to say and realised the man held the ace in the hole so to speak. "Yes, I know I don't have a choice, but I'm warning you Masters…Damn, he's gone." Bill sat down on one of the stools at the counter, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He took a couple of strong gulps before turning around to face the young people waiting expectantly to hear what he had to say.
"As you probably gathered, that was Colonel Masters. He says that Megabyte, Adam and Max are okay, for now. He wants to meet with me to discuss terms, and if I don't show up at the place and time he's specified he'll…" Bill's voice tailed off.
"You can't trust him, " exclaimed Kevin. "You can't seriously think that he's honestly going to let them go, can you? Masters has wanted to get his hands on the Tomorrow People for years. Now he's got Megabyte and Adam, he'll use them for whatever scheme he's brewing up. He's got a score to settle with them too, after what happened last time, and with you too, I'd imagine."
Bill nodded. "Don't you think I know that, Kevin? But what choice do I have? " He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. "Megabyte's my son. I just can't leave him and Adam in the clutches of that maniac. Or Max either for that matter. It's not the boy's fault he walked into this mess."
A new voice spoke quietly as he stepped into the room "I understand how you must be feeling, but it's not good policy to give in to kidnappers."
"Great," muttered Michael. " Just what we need. Always a cop around when you don't need one."
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