“Here, sir! He’s headed for our facility!”
The Commander looked at Portak, and before he could give his next order, Will appeared in the doorway of the command center and said.
“Gentlemen, I would imagine you’re looking for me?
***
Within minutes of his arrival, Will was escorted back to the medical wing; Pak’tow was anxiously waiting for them.
Portak had been questioning the doctor as to what had happened. The doctor did not really have much of an explanation, only theories.
“As I explained to you before we started this process, we had never tested the Infinitum enhancement procedure on a human subject before. The Infinitum must have combined with his mutant DNA and produced the results we are seeing now.”
“I wonder what other powers he has that he has not discovered yet?” Portak asked.
“I’m not sure, but we need to run some tests on him and try to find out,” the doctor replied.
Will, who had been standing quietly near a window, finally spoke up.
“I feel…so different. I can feel my body still going through changes, though not as dramatic as they were initially,” he said, referring to his increased size and muscularity, among other changes. “Things are so much more focused and clear. My vision and hearing are much more acute. My brain capacity has increased immensely. I am eager to learn what other changes have occurred to my body and mind.”
“So am I, but you need to get some rest. We will get started tomorrow morning,” the doctor said.
Portak and Will nodded in agreement. Will went to his chambers and laid down to get some rest even though he wasn’t tired.
***
The door slid open and the nurse who had winked at Will prior to the procedure entered his room. She was a gorgeous Altrusian female with the same pale gray complexion the males of her species had, with light-blue hair and charcoal gray eyes. She was slightly taller than a normal human female and had slim hips and small breasts. She was wearing a light-pink, sleeveless gown that barely came to her knees.
“Good evening,” she said in a sultry voice. “I am Tarla. The doctor sent me to check your vital signs and see how you are feeling. You gave everyone quite a shock earlier,” she said smiling. She gave Will’s shirtless body a longer stare than she had meant to and then averted her eyes.
“I’m feeling much better, thank you,” Will replied, noticing her gaze.
She went to his bedside and checked his vital signs with a small handheld monitoring device.
“Your pulse rate is slightly elevated, but your blood pressure is excellent.”
“I’m sure it’s just elevated because of that dress you’re wearing,” Will said with a smile.
Tarla smiled and blushed.
“You know, until today, I had never seen a human before. You’re an interesting species. Do all human males look like you?” she inquired, admiring his muscular chest.
“More or less. However, we come in all shapes, colors and sizes.”
“All Altrusian males are very strong, but very thin. None of them look like you.”
She inched a little closer and sat on the edge of Will’s bed.
“I’ve never touched a human before either. Would it bother you if I touched your chest?”
“Not at all.”
Tarla slowly touched Will’s chest, arms and abdomen, and let out a slight sigh at his rigid muscularity. After a few seconds, she removed her hand, stood back up and appeared a little flushed.
“I-I’ll be going now and let you get some rest,” she stated quietly.
“That’s probably a good idea,” said Will as he nodded and watched as she walked towards the door and exited. She looked at Will again over her shoulder and smiled as the door opened. Will smiled back and winked at her again.
Chapter 45
Fort Benning, Georgia
1943 A.D.
For the next few hours, Will showed his team the photographs taken by the crew member of one of the surviving bombers, and the pictures that Colonel Donovan’s source had provided of the spacecraft. A detailed map was shown of the Eyrie and where it was believed the spacecraft and the aliens were being kept. Will laid out the details of his plan for this mission as well.
At the end of the briefing, the men were still somewhat in a state of shock but were more willing to be open minded that this was not a joke. They seemed excited and terrified by the fact that they were going to be part of a mission to rescue beings from another galaxy.
“Colonel, despite what you’ve told and shown us, I’m still having a difficult time wrapping my mind around this,” admitted Hauser.
He was joined in agreement by the other members of the team as well.
“Gentlemen, trust me, I had a hard time accepting this too, at first,” said Will. If you’re having a hard time accepting this” he thought, I wonder what you would say if I told you about what had happened to me all those years ago.
“However, whether you want to believe it or not, it’s true. Obviously the president believes it as well, or we wouldn’t be here preparing for this mission.”
All of the heads of his men were nodding in acceptance of his logic.
Will looked at his watch, it was almost 11:00 p.m. “One more thing, men,” Will said cryptically, “during this mission, you are probably going to see and hear things that you will have a hard time believing. However, no matter how hard it will be for you to accept what you’re seeing, you will not question it. At the conclusion of this mission, perhaps some answers may be provided, but there’s no guarantee of this. If you cannot abide by this, or for any reason you wish to leave, you may pack your things and leave now.” Again no one volunteered to leave, so Will continued. “Fine. Now, go get some sleep. We have a long few days ahead of us, and sleep may be at a premium. We will meet for breakfast at 0500, and then get started with our training.”
“Yes, sir,” they sounded in unison, and then got up and went to their tents. Will had to take care of some last minute logistical details, and run over the plan in his mind again, along with a few contingencies.
***
Hauser and the other officers, Schechter, Brunner and Hess, had finished unpacking and stowing their gear and had stretched out on their bunks to unwind for a few minutes before going to sleep. After discussing the mission briefing for a few minutes, they began to relax.
“So, Schechter, what’s your story?” asked Hauser to find out about the men who would be accompanying him on this mission. Hauser had already told them some of his life story, and he was curious about the rest of his team.
“Nothing much to tell, Captain. I was born and raised in Iowa. My daddy was German and my momma was Irish. My granddaddy, who came over from the old country, used to tell me I had both of ‘ems bad temper. Daddy was a flyin’ ace during World War I. After the war, he started a crop dustin’ service. Taught me to fly when I was twelve.
“Too many of them Iowa farm boys didn’t like going to school with a kid named ‘Klaus’ so I changed it to ‘Chuck.’ Saved me a lot of ass whoopins growin’ up. I joined the Army Air Corps at nineteen and started flyin’ the old B-10’s with the 19th Bomb Group ‘til they started using the B-29s, which I’ve been flyin’ since. That‘s ‘bout it.”
“How about you, Brunner? I don‘t mean anything by it, but you don‘t look like a farm boy,” Hauser said smiling.
“You’re very perceptive, Captain. I hate to admit it, but you’re right. My grandparents came over from Germany before the turn of the century and settled in Texas. My grandfather was Bavarian and came from old family money. He used it to start his own oil and steel companies, and he then passed them down to my father when he got too old to run them. They made a lot of new money out of the old money. My oldest brother runs the oil business, my twin brother runs the steel business, and my younger sister married a wealthy surgeon.
“I went to law school and became a lawyer because that’s what was expected of me. I hated eve
ry fucking minute of it. After I graduated from law school, I worked as one of the corporate attorneys for the family businesses. After three miserable years of doing acquisitions and mergers, I decided to do something more meaningful, so I joined the Marine Corps. My father almost shit his pants, and he damn near disowned me. My mother had to be given a sedative for a week so she could sleep.”
“Thanks for being honest. It must have been horrible growing’ up with all of that nasty money,” said Hauser with a smirk.
“Well, it did get me laid a lot in high school and college,” said Brunner with a wicked grin.
All of them laughed at this.
“Okay, Hess. How’s about you?”
“Not much to tell really. Annapolis grad. After that I was dumb enough to volunteer to be a UDT frogman.”
“I’ve heard the term, but what’s that mean exactly and what do you guys do?” asked Brunner.
“We do a lot of different shit. We conduct beach recons, cut nets in the water, and blow up underwater obstacles before the Marines do amphibious landings. We do sub ops, and locate mines for the minesweepers. Shit like that.”
“Sounds like fun,” said Schechter.
“If you like being wet all the damn time, yeah,” replied Hess.
“Please continue,” said Hauser.
“I always liked being in and around the water. I was captain of my high school and Annapolis swim team. My father was in the Navy before me, and retired as a commander. He put me in swimming lessons when I was three.
“My grandparents came from Berlin and settled in Brooklyn. Both of ‘em were German Jews, and started a clothing store. They insisted we speak German just as well as we did English. I’m kind of like Schechter over there. The Italian and Jewish kids I grew up with didn’t like hanging’ out with some Kraut kid named ‘Heinrich’ so my parents started callin’ me ‘Henry.’”
“Geez, I never woulda guessed youse wuz from Brooklyn,” said Schechter, with a mock Brooklyn accent.
The rest of the group, including Hess, laughed at this.
“Yeah, believe me, I got a lot of shit for it from the other plebes at Annapolis, so I try to tone it down as much as I can. You think it’s bad now, you should hear me after a few beers. Fuhgitaboutit.”
This elicited a few more laughs.
“Okay, gentlemen. Let’s get some sleep. We have an early morning ahead of us,” said Hauser.
The men acknowledged this with a chorus of “yes, sir,” and then turned off the lights and went to sleep.
***
By 5:30 a.m. the next morning, Will and his men had eaten breakfast and were ready to start the day. Will started their training with calisthenics, some stretching, pushups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and a five mile run at a very brisk pace. All of his men were winded at the end of the run, except for Will. It was difficult at times for Will to run at normal human speed, especially since he could run faster than the speed of light, but he managed to do it with no problem.
Next came hand-to-hand combat training. Although each of them had previously been trained in hand-to-hand combat, Will showed them several kicks, pressure point techniques for taking out sentries quickly and quietly, how to deal with multiple attackers, and some new techniques with a combat knife and improvised weapons. At first the men were skeptical that Will could teach them more than they already knew, and a few of their faces showed that they would rather be doing something else. They also thought that although Will was big and strong looking, he probably was slow and inflexible, as he had not done much of the stretching exercises with them. They were wrong.
“When dealing with more than one attacker, you will often find they will usually still try to attack you one at a time so as not to get in each other’s way, or they are not used to fighting as a group against a common enemy. But not always. It depends on their training and skill level. Let me demonstrate some techniques for dealing with more than one attacker. Also, you must never underestimate your opponent, or overestimate your abilities.”
Will provided the group with padded grappling gloves, padded face guards, and mouth pieces, mainly so they didn’t accidentally hit his invulnerable body and break something. To make double sure of this, he donned the same gear as well. He then picked three of the larger, stronger guys, Schultz, Serrano, and Schechter, as his demonstration dummies. Although Will was one of the strongest beings in the universe, he could still control his speed and strength to a degree that he would not hurt his men during their training sessions.
Will centered himself between his attackers, who had formed a loose circle around him.
“Attack at will,” he commanded.
Schultz, who had been a golden gloves boxer in his youth and was still an excellent fighter, made the first move. He came at Will with a flurry of punches that would have knocked a normal man out if the punches had connected. However, Will was not a normal man. He blocked, parried, or side-stepped each of Schultz’s punches, much to the amazement of Schultz and the rest of his men.
Schultz then came in with a haymaker, and Will simply and lightly grabbed his fist from the outside and sent him flying back ten feet with a light twist of the same wrist. Schultz quickly recovered and came at Will again. This time, Will used the index finger of his right hand and lightly struck Schultz slightly above his sternum. Immediately Schultz fell to the ground gasping for air like a fish out of water.
Serrano, who was a hell of a street fighter growing up on the south side of Chicago, came up behind Will as he was finishing with Schultz, hoping to catch him by surprise with a sucker punch. Although it wouldn’t necessarily be the fairest thing to do, Serrano had learned at an early age that there was no such thing as a fair fight.
However, as Serrano threw the punch as hard and as fast as he could, it was almost as if Will had anticipated the move, did a roll forward just before the punch connected, and came up 180 degrees in the opposite direction to face Serrano. Serrano then stepped forward and unleashed a couple of hard front kicks to Will’s stomach and a roundhouse kick to Will’s head - none of which even came close to connecting.
Will simply blocked them as if he were swatting a slow moving fly out of the air. As Serrano tried to land his last kick to Will’s head, Will dropped and spun 360 degrees with a leg sweep, which knocked Serrano on the ground with a thud that knocked the wind out of him.
Schechter then made his move. He grabbed Will in a bear hug that would have crushed the breath out of a normal man and tried to pick him up and slam him to the ground. However, despite his best effort, he could not budge Will a quarter of an inch. Will then lightly struck Schechter in the stomach with an elbow strike, brought his right arm up behind Schechter’s head, dropped to a knee and sent Schechter flying over his shoulder, where he landed in a heap ten or twelve feet in front of Will.
Will then walked over the Schultz, who was still having problems breathing, and rubbed the area over his sternum with the palm of his hand. Immediately Schultz’s breathing returned to normal. All of the men who had tried to attack Will were breathing hard and sweating, even though it was a cool morning. Will’s breathing, however, remained unlabored. None of the men could believe how fast and smooth Will had been during the demonstration. They could also tell that Will had deliberately taken it easy on them so he wouldn’t hurt them.
“Now, are there any questions?” Will asked.
They were too shocked to raise their hands or to speak at all.
“Good. Then we will spend the next few hours working on these and other techniques. Grab a partner and let’s get started.”
For the next several hours they worked on various self-defense techniques until Will was satisfied with their progress.
***
After their self-defense workout, they ate lunch and spent the rest of the day doing land navigation, map and compass work, mainly to freshen their skills. As night fell, they continued this training to develop their night vision and on moving silently through different types of terrain.
In order to demonstrate this, Will told them the first person to find him would get five days of leave at Will’s expense to anywhere he wanted to go. Will told them he only needed a fifteen second head start. They gave him a full minute because they were so confident of their tracking skills. However, an hour later none of them was able to collect on the promised leave, as Will silently approached and “captured” each one of them. At the end of the exercise, they were shocked to see the rest of their teammates bound, gagged, and blindfolded on the floor of Will’s tent. Needless to say, they were more than a little surprised.
Later they all met in the officer’s tent.
“That big son of a bitch is unbelievable!” said Schechter.
“He’s a fuckin’ ghost I’m telling you!” intoned Serrano.
“One minute I was creeping silently through the woods, the next thing I’m bound and gagged sitting on the floor of his tent with the rest of you assholes,” explained Hauser.
“You ever notice that no matter what he does, and he’s done pretty much everything with us, he never breaks a sweat, seems to get tired, or even breathes hard?” asked Hess.
There were murmurs of “yes” and shakes of heads all around the room.
“Damn, I’m glad he’s on our side. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d sure as hell hate to meet that fucker in a dark alley,” said Becker. “I mean, when he was fightin’ you three,” he nodded to Schultz, Serrano, and Schechter, “I never saw a man move like that. And that shit he did to Schultz. I’ll bet he could have taken out all ten of us without trying hard.”
More nods of agreement.
“Well, gents,” said Hauser after a few moments of silence, “I think we need to hit the rack. Something tells me we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
This was met with a mix of “yes, sirs” and “aye, aye, Skippers.” The men then left for their tents and went to sleep.
***
As they turned in for the night, Wakefield could not get to sleep. His thoughts about the mission were keeping him awake. He wondered what the hell he had signed up for. What they were going to try and do was insane. He had always wanted some excitement in his life, which is why he stayed away from the politics his family excelled at and reveled in. But never in his wildest imagination had he ever thought he would be involved in something like this. Good Lord - aliens in a flying saucer had crash landed on Earth and he and this motley group were going to try and spring them from the Germans at some damn impregnable fortress! Insanity!
Shadow Warrior: Destiny of a Mutant Page 17