Eagle Task Force Stories:

Metamorphosis

Build 2.0 (Author’s Revised Copy)

Excerpt One: Original new version ending.

Discarded after 11Sept01

by:

Brian R. Kupfer

Theresa Smith yawns as she wakes up in the plush bed in her Club Quarters hotel room, looking southeast towards the White House two blocks away, glancing at her watch in semi-shock.

The woman known as "Angel" rises slowly, trying not to wake the slumbering form beside her as she gets out of bed and puts some clothes on.

Trying to be silent is of no use. Adam "Mayhem" Mason has spent too many years involved in clandestine operations to not be a light sleeper.

"Morning." He mumbles as he blinks the sleep out of his eyes "Heading to catch your flight?"

Theresa nods assent as she is dressing, ready to head over to Reagan National to catch a flight to Duluth for her parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary.

"Lemme throw on some clothes, and I’ll drive ya." He mumbles, "Besides, I’m supposed to meet the guys in Jersey for the game tonight, should probably get moving anyway." Adam finishes as he gets out of bed, finding his shirt, shoes, socks, and pants where they had been thrown earlier in the morning.

In another set of rooms in the hotel, Robbie "DoughBoy" Sandler and Dean "Supersonic" Nuesped are also quartered, though, at the moment, they are on the streets in Sherman, the Terror Twins’ newest toy, a modified 2001 Ford Excursion.

The Twins and Deja Vu have been in D.C. for two weeks, at the behest of a Pentagon-stationed General, hired to infiltrate and evaluate the security of the famous headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as that of Andrews Air Force Base, the White House, and the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia. The ETF intel teams have managed to infiltrate all four sites repeatedly in their first few days in the area, and have spent the last ten days writing reports and attending briefings.

More than once during the last couple of weeks, Adam has been heard to mutter comments such as "This is why I’m glad I’m not in the military" and "Damned bureaucratic bullshit" to his teams as he became fed up with the Governmental way of doing things.

Thus, around three o’clock last night, he and Theresa had breached the Pentagon and White House security perimeters and left "presents" in the ventilation systems of each building to prove their point. If nothing else, thinking about all those bureaucrats all coming down with sudden headaches and stomach cramps puts a smile on Adam’s face.

That, and watching Theresa dress both contribute to his good, if slightly drowsy, mood this afternoon.

After paying their bill and checking out of the hotel, Adam and Theresa walk to the Chevrolet Suburban that has been the Terror Twins’ primary operations center for the past few years, Lil‘ Abe.

After fighting through rush hour traffic and seeing Theresa’s TWA flight 425 off, Adam drives over to Quantico, where he meets up with Robbie, Dean, and Eveline "Leggs" Montgomery, their "smoother over", as Robbie calls her, with the muckety-mucks in DC.

Evie is the District Attorney for the nation’s capital, and helps the intel team do their jobs without stepping on too many of the wrong toes. Eveline also has ties to the ETF, and is one of the few non 137th Wing members who knows about many of their operations past and present, let alone their mere existence.

In return for her invaluable assistance, the group has invited Eveline to the playoff game at the Meadowlands, using the extra ticket left when Theresa decided to go to her parents’ anniversary celebration early instead of watching the Giants take on the Steelers with many of the other ETF members tonight. Besides Adam, Robbie, Dean, and Eveline, they would be meeting Matt Bendix, Aaron Fieldman, Ryan Wakefield, Stacy Anrak, Patrick O’Donnell, and David Samuelson, as well as Doug "Matrix" Danko and a few of his Cavalry team, Patrick "Sorcerer" Eddings, Michonne "Bronco" Koning, Sean "Slim" Wintres, Rene "Hunter" Park, Shannon "SpiderWoman" Meyers, James "Cateye" Duffers, Kelly "James Tiberius (J.T.)" Kirkland, Lee "Batman" Walter, Dave "Tower" Fox, Rebecca "Vision" Moore, and Charlie "Pheonix" Clark, who all plan to meet them at the stadium.

Adam has arrived just in time, as Robbie is finishing up a discussion with a bulldog-looking Marine Colonel, who looks unhappy about DoughBoy’s most recent finding on the base’s security. Seeing his partner pull the Suburban to a stop, Robbie motions to Dean, who heads toward the forest green Excursion he and Robbie have been using. Robbie finally gets through to the Colonel the importance of instituting the new measures he and Dean have designed for the base, then heads over toward his longtime partner and Lil’ Abe, Eveline already having walked up to the black Chevrolet.

"Ready, pard?" Adam calls over to Robbie as the big man opens the Chevy’s front passenger door.

"Yeah, we’ll rendezvous with Supersonic and HeadHunter at The Batcave in NYC, then we’ll get some grub and head over to the game."

"I cannot believe HeadHunter wants to watch the game on TV when he has the chance to see it live." Robbie comments as Adam starts to drive, after making sure that Eveline is secure in the second row of seats.

Ryan "Vyper" Wakefield, Aaron "Valder" Fieldman, Matt "ElTitoBendito" Bendix and Stacy "Immortal" Anrak float in a life raft, drifting silently in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Stacy is still unconscious, having been knocked out by the violence of the supersonic ejection.

Matt has his arm in a makeshift sling, made from a cutout of his parachute.

Ryan and Aaron, who have managed to come through the ejection unscathed, lie in the bottom of the life raft they have inflated, gasping for breath. Neither man has had to swim this much in their lives.

After inflating the life raft, when they first found each other after hitting the water, they helped Matt into it.

Then they began searching for Stacy, whom they had seen descending limply under her chute.

It had taken them nearly ten minutes, but they finally found the ETF commander, unconscious, her flight suit having inflated upon impact with the water.

The two men untangled the unconscious aviator from her parachute shrouds and swam back to the dayglo orange raft, each man hooking an arm under her shoulder and supporting her on the half-mile swim back to where Matt waited.

After gently hoisting Stacy into the raft, Aaron and Ryan assisted Matt in setting his arm before collapsing beside Anrak in the bottom of the raft, where they now lie.

For the last few minutes, the four Eagles have been drifting in the open sea, hoping someone has noticed their emergency beacon and are on the way to rescue them.

Stacy stirs in the bottom of the raft, blinking rapidly to get the salt water out of her eyes. She sits up slowly, looking around at the ocean in bewilderment, then at the three men in the oversized dayglo orange raft with her.

"Anyone feel like explaining how we got here?" She asks.

"In the beginning, four teenagers met in ROTC during their junior year....ow!" Matt tapers off from his Airplane-like commentary as Stacy punches him in his good arm.

"What our former pilot is trying to say is, we had just completed our mission over Finland, and were supersonic, heading back to the mountain, when a flight of three AMCF MiG-31s jumped us as we passed Iceland." Aaron begins.

"Through some daring piloting, ElTito over there and I managed to shake the first few missiles fired at us. One of the Foxhound pilots decided to play kamikaze, and rammed the rear end of our Lancer." Ryan comments.

"Second time I’ve been in a bomber and it’s been rammed." Aaron mumbles to Matt in an aside.

"Gotta be your magnetic personality, bro." Matt grins.

Aaron just looks at him for a moment, then rolls his eyes.

"Anyway, we lost control of the B-1 pretty quickly, went into a spinning dive. The AMCF birds quit following us, since, being out of control and trailing smoke and fire, they figured we were goners. So did we, for a moment. Somehow, though, as we spun into the clouds at 15,000 feet, Matt and Ryan managed to get us leveled out, but parts of the Foxhound had managed to sever the throttle control linkages, so we couldn’t slow down. Matt tried to gain more altitude, and suddenly we were tumbling nose over tail." Aaron tells her.

"You gave us the order to punch out, and we all rocketed into the supersonic airflow. Amazingly, all our chutes opened, though Matt smashed his arm against the fuselage on the way out, and the windstream, or maybe the separation from your seat, knocked you cold. Aaron and I found you floating about a hundred yards from where Matt splashed down, and we dragged you the half mile back to the raft." Ryan states.

"And now we’re all here....wherever here is." Matt caps off the retelling.

"It was when the chute opened," Stacy comments quietly, remembering the violent ejection, "The parachute came out, and something went wrong. I was tumbling and got caught in the drogue chute. When the main popped, the wires smashed into my flight helmet....and...then...well, then I woke up here." Stacy tells them, then looks around the life raft curiously. "By the way, where is my helmet?"

"My guess, bottom of the ocean. You weren’t wearing one when we found you." Aaron tells her.

"So, what’s our next step?" Matt asks.

"Don’t know about you, but I’m taking a nap." Ryan states.

"Basically, we wait. We’re in the middle of the North Atlantic, luckily for us, it’s summer, so we won’t freeze to death for being wet, and our homing beacon’s on. Nothing to do but wait to be rescued." Aaron comments.

"Like I said, nap." Ryan puts in.

"That, or we can try to paddle to safety." Stacy adds with a look at Ryan.

"You crazy, woman? That’s exercise. Had enough of that dragging your butt in here." Wakefield tells her.

Aaron and Matt just exchange a glance, both knowing what the other is about to say, but both deciding not to comment.

"Not a word from you two. Great, stuck in a liferaft with the Three Musketeers."

"Athos at your service, D’Artangnan." Matt quips.

"Porthos." Aaron adds.

"And Aramis." Ryan grins. "All for One, and....yeah, shutting up." Wakefield trails off as the woman called "Immortal" gives him a look that lets him know she would have no regrets about chucking all three of them overboard.

"I need a drink." She mutters to herself.

"Sir, we’ve got an emergency beacon 300 miles northeast of Newfoundland. It’s an unusual signal, though. Using U.S. frequencies, but highly encoded. We’re sending out a C-130 to overfly the site."

As the words come out of the young Ensign’s mouth, a Lockheed-built four-turboprop equipped cargo aircraft rumbles down Keflavik’s runway and lifts into the Icelandic air, banking to the south to head towards the last reported position of the emergency beacon.

"Matrix, I’ve got a lock on an emergency beacon from one of our planes, computer tells me it’s the B-1B sent to attack the Arctic AMC deployment Mavrick discovered. Looks like they’re in the North Atlantic." Marie "Cleopatra" Cordova calls over the radio to Doug "Matrix" Danko.

Doug, who has just landed the Cavalry’s MV-22 Pave Eagle on a private airstrip near a small New Jersey town just north of New York City, has flown out here to meet the Terror Twins and other Eagles to watch the playoff game, and has brought members of his Cavalry with him.

"Yeah, Cleo, I read ya. Coordinates coming through now. Wow...off Newfoundland, huh? Moving map has the beacon locked in, I’m on my way." Doug replies, after glancing at his palm pilot, as Kelly "J.T." Kirkland motions to him from the cockpit, telling him that they have the coordinates. As Doug starts to sprint towards the MV-22, its twin three-bladed rotors starting to churn the New Jersey air, Marie is speaking to him over his earpiece again.

"The Navy has just sent a C-130 Hercules into the area to take a look."

"Okay. Tell them to fly top cover until we get there, would ya. Give ‘em the old National Security schtick if they ask too many questions." Doug comments as he opens the pilot’s side cockpit door of the tilt-rotor. He barely has time to strap in before Kelly pushes the throttles to full power, and a veritable blizzard of blown snow, dust, and dirt are thrown into the air as the bug-looking hybrid leaps skyward, with Charlie "Pheonix" Clark and Lee "Batman" Walter diving into the closing cargo ramp, barely getting aboard as the tilt-rotor lifts off.

On the ground below, the other people who flew in on the Osprey variant, Patrick "Sorcerer" Eddings, Michonne "Bronco" Koning, Sean "Slim" Wintres, Rene "Hunter" Park, Rebecca "Vision" Moore, Shannon "SpiderWoman" Meyers, and James "Cateye" Duffers head for the Ford Ecoliner van the Cavalry have rented to drive to the game.

As the MV-22A heads off to find the Lancer crew, the seven Cavalry members head for the van, and East Rutherford.

Curtis "HeadHunter" Mohammed pulls the eighteen wheeler to a stop just east of the I-95/495 interchange, and shuts the 53’ rig known as Batcave down. Curtis opens the driver’s door to the Kenworth W900 cab and starts to walk the length of the eighteen wheeler.

As he walks along the deep metallic blue vehicle, he hears the distinctive rumble of Lil’ Abe’s V-10 as the Suburban starts up inside the converted NASCAR-style hauler. By the time Mohammed reaches the rear of the trailer, the loading ramp has opened and the titanium-reinforced skidplate is sitting on the ground, the large bottom-hinged door to the hauler’s rear becoming a ramp for easy drive-in access to the trailer.

At the rear of the trailer, near the top rear corner on both sides, are three four-foot high letters, painted in a flat white above a silver star, which is patterned after the Sheriff badges of the old west. The three letters spell out "BDI", and there is quite a bit of debate about what the acronym could stand for amongst the members of the ETF. The overall white color of the rear ramp, with a three-foot diameter black circle in the middle, is almost as confusing, and lead Aaron, when he first saw the Twins’ rolling headquarters, to surmise that BDI could stand for Black Dot Inc., which seems to amuse Robbie, Adam, and Curtis for some reason.

The heavily modified, and, at this point, gunmetal gray, Chevrolet Suburban backs out of the Batcave, Adam racing out of the confines of the hauler in reverse, then twisting Abe’s wheel hard to the left, inducing a one hundred and eighty-degree snap skid and simultaneously dropping the gear selector from reverse to drive. Adam jams the gas to the floor, and the big V-10 growls, the rear Firestone tires sending up a cloud of white smoke as they grab pavement and the Suburban roars away, never loosing an ounce of the momentum it has carried after launching out of the back of the hauler.

The Chevy turns around a quarter-mile away and heads back towards the Batcave and the four people waiting by the hauler, as Eveline, Robbie, and Dean have climbed out of the trailer by this time.

Adam skids the big truck to a stop beside them, and steps out of the driver’s side, his gold-tinted Oakleys flashing in the sunlight, and his grin trying to extend from ear to ear. "God that was a kick in the ass...." Mason comments to the others, "Who’s ready to hit Manhattan for some pizza?"

Without needing more encouragement, Dean, Robbie, and Eveline pile into the Suburban, and Curtis waves them off after getting promise that they’ll bring him back a personal pan pizza.

As the Chevrolet fades into the traffic heading for the Holland Tunnel, the man known as "HeadHunter" turns and walks into the hauler. As he walks past the forest-green Excursion just ahead of Abe’s front tire marks, Curtis hits the subdued switch on the left wall of the trailer, and the recessed lighting along the Batcave’s roof flickers on while the loading door swivels upwards and shuts. Once he is past the massive Ford, Curtis passes the Terror Twins’ mini-armory mounted on the left-hand wall, as well as the spare tires for the Suburban, Excusion, and the Hummer they have left at Gorilla Mountain, and the fuel bladder in its vertical holder (a steel-reinforced cage) on the right wall. The bladder is able to hold thirty gallons of gasoline for the Twins’ arsenal of vehicles.

Passing through a door built in a custom bulkhead forward of the parking area, Curtis enters what the intel operatives call "The Lounge", a carpeted area that holds two leather sofas and a loveseat in a U-shaped layout, the loveseat’s back to the door, facing a large, forty-eight inch plasma flatscreen mounted on the hauler’s forward wall. Attached to the flatscreen is a PS2 console, a home theater system and a video-conferencing hookup, with the camera mounted above the screen’s upper right corner. The Twins and Deja Vu listen to their CD collections on the PS2, as well as using it for their DVDs.

Bolted to the floor on the forward side of the sofas are two pieces of furniture that look like endtables, and a coffeetable in the middle of the U, all three of which hold CDs, DVDs, magazines, and hard and soft-cover books in adjustable storage bins behind magnetically closed opening front panels.

"Sir, we should be just about over the top of them." The Hercules’ navigator calls out as he matches their aircraft’s position with that of the emergency beacon.

Looking ahead, the pilot and co-pilot scan the ocean, looking for the tell-tale dayglow orange lift raft, which should stick out like a sore thumb against the blue ocean.

"Hang on, I’ve got them on GUARD." The flight engineer calls out as she catches a transmission on the international frequency.

"C-130, this is the castaways, we have you in sight. Bear five degrees to your left, and you’ll pass right over us in a minute." Comes a male voice over the radio.

The pilot banks the aircraft as indicated, and, within ten seconds, can see the orange dot in the ocean.

"Roger, castaways, we have you in sight. Please be advised that you have a pickup on the way, they’re requesting we circle ‘till they get here."

"Yeah, save me a parking spot down there." States Doug Danko’s voice over the radio.

"And hurry up, we don’t want to miss the game." Aaron cracks wise.

"Please, like y’all aren’t just gonna be hittin’ on cheerleaders anyway." Doug replies.

Ryan grins as he hits the speak button again.

"Roger that, Matrix, and what’s your ETA?"

"I’ll be overhead in about forty-five minutes. What’s your status?"

"Four aboard, Tito’s got a bent left wing, Immortal’s got a possible concussion. Besides that, we’re working on our tans, and you’d better be taping our shows for us." Ryan replies, hearing Doug and the circling C-130 crew laugh over the open channel.

"Working on their tans....that’s Vyper for ya." Doug comments across the cockpit to Kelly as they race over the water at wave-top level, flying at near the tilt-rotor’s top speed of 320 miles an hour, modified from the standard Osprey’s top speed of 275.

Soon, the Cavalry hybrid can see the orbiting C-130, and Doug adjusts the throttles, slowing the assault vehicle as he approaches the life raft, which is soon in sight.

Matrix puts the Pave Eagle into a hover about fifteen feet in front of the raft, settling the tilt-rotor down so that the open rear cargo ramp is mostly submerged.

Seeing this, Aaron, Ryan, and Stacy start paddling towards the MV-22, and soon are helping Matt out of the raft, as Lee Walter and Charlie Clark help them all deflate and pull the raft into the tilt rotor.

As soon as the liferaft has been stowed aboard and the four sunburned warriors are strapped into the fold-down canvas benches, Doug manipulates the Pave Eagle’s throttles and lifts the bird straight up, causing a huge spray cloud, kicked up off the water, to momentarily hide the hybrid aircraft.

Soon, the Pave Eagle is once again racing along at wavetop level, heading back towards the United States.

"Damn all this traffic." Robbie "DoughBoy" Sandler comments aloud as he sits in Lil’ Abe on the turnpike, which, at the moment, resembles a miles-long parking lot.

"What’d you expect, there’s a playoff game in an hour, of course there’s going to be a traffic jam." Adam Mason mumbles to him.

Behind them, stretched out across the second row of seats, Eveline Montgomery is sleeping, and in the rear row, Dean Nuesped is amusing himself by playing a football game on his laptop.

"Hey, Matrix, where are you?" Adam calls over Abe’s integrated radio system.

"Heading south over Jersey towards the airstrip I was gonna set down at, why?" Doug replies.

"Wouldn’t feel like giving us a lift, would ya?" Robbie puts in.

"Sure...send your GPS locator." Doug comments, then sees the glowing green blip appear on his moving map display. "Gotcha....be there in five minutes." He remarks as Kelly banks the Pave Eagle slightly to the left and heads for the Terror Twins’ position, while declaring their intentions to Newark’s ATC.

Every Cavalry, Raptor, and ETF aircraft and ground vehicle, including many of the operatives’ personal vehicles, have GPS locator beacons and receivers installed, which can be turned off at the operator’s will, and also act as an IFF network within the group.

Less than five minutes later, the large, insect-looking form of the two-tone gray camouflaged MV-22A emerges from the low, snow producing clouds, sending flurries blowing crazily in all directions as the pilot and co-pilot get their first clear view of the jam-packed turnpike.

Doug brings the large hybrid in over the Jersey turnpike, slowing to a crawl as he nears the Suburban stuck in the traffic ahead.

From the rear of the assault transport, Aaron, Ryan, Lee, and Charlie attach high-tension slings to the two centerline mounted winches in the MV-22’s belly, which they are able to access via panels in the cargo compartment flooring.

Standing on top of Lil’ Abe, Adam carefully balances himself as the rotor wash off the hovering tilt-rotor assaults his body.

Reaching up, Mason grabs the first sling as it comes within reach, and dives off the back of the Suburban, using the sling to lower himself to the ground. He then stretches the sling around the back end of the big Chevrolet, then runs around the driver’s side to the front, grabbing the second sling on his way. He maneuvers the second sling into the front wheel wells, mirroring what he did on the rear of the truck.

Adam then jumps back into the truck, waking Eveline and warning Dean to buckle in.

As soon as they start lifting into the air, Montgomery and Nuesped hastily don their seatbelts and look apprehensively out the windows as Lil’ Abe rises into the air, floating above the envious and angry motorists ensnared in the traffic jam.

Ten minutes later, the Suburban is being lowered to the ground in a vacant spot in the parking lot outside the Meadowlands, away from any obstructing light poles or power lines.

Seeing the hired security running their way, Adam exits the truck to meet them, his tickets and FBI badge at the ready.

Though Mason hasn’t been a full-time Agent since 1989, he has kept his badge current and kept contacts within the Bureau.

After about a minute of self-important preening and attempts to look official by the security guards, they agree to let Adam, Robbie, Eveline, and Dean through to go to the game, still acting as if they have the power to deny them entry.

While their arrival has been highly unusual, their credentials are impeccable, and the guards have no reason not to let them in. Therefore, the four are free to go to the game and meet the other Eagles and Cavalry members already inside.

Overhead, the MV-22 hovers as if awaiting the outcome of the discussion below.

Then, less than ten seconds after the Terror Twins are allowed to go, the tilt-rotor rapidly changes configuration and starts heading towards the south, its 20mm Vulcan cannon extending out of its right-side bay, and into the windstream as the hybrid accelerates.

Hearing the same announcement in his earphone, Adam starts to run in the same direction the MV-22 has taken.

Marie "Cleopatra" Cordova’s eyes widen as she reads the release over the AP wire. The release is from the AMCF, and takes responsibility for a suicide bombing that will occur within the hour, where mass quantities of people will be slaughtered, over seventy-five thousand, according to the statement. The five-eleven woman’s blood runs cold as she gets to the end of the statement, which describes the place of the attack as The Meadowlands in New Jersey. Almost at the same instant she finishes reading the release, one of the many ATC scanners in the room starts a description of a wayward aircraft from Kennedy, a description which Cleopatra quickly sends out over the ETF network.

"I state again, possible hijacked airliner, TWA flight 424, has just veered towards New York City after leaving JFK half an hour ago on a normal flight plan. Final destination unknown. USAF and USN are scrambling fighters, but you are the nearest assets. If you’re up to it, give them a buzz and try to determine their intentions. You are clear to fire if intentions appear hostile. Repeat, you are clear to fire." Marie Cordova’s voice calls over the headsets of the team members that are wearing them.

"Matrix understands and is scrambling on intercept course." Doug comments as he pushes the tilt-rotor’s throttles to their full thrust.

All too soon, the massive form of a 747 in the distinctive red-and-white livery of TWA can be seen on the horizon, already just past Manhattan and in a shallow dive.

"J.T. has tally-ho on bogey, past Manhattan, heading this way FAST." Kelly "James Tiberius" Kirkland calls out as Doug pivots the MV-22 to put the tilt-rotor parallel to the path of the behemoth, knowing it will overtake them momentarily.

"Trans World Flight 4-2-4, this is Marine Gunship Zero-Four, please state intention or we will be forced to open fire."

Doug turns the Pave Eagle towards roughly the same heading the 747 is taking, and increases speed to the tilt-rotor’s maximum, which is about half that of the big jumbo jet thundering down on them.

In the co-pilot’s seat, Kelly slaves the Vulcan cannon to her helmet sight, and slues the big gatling-style gun around until she, and it, are looking directly towards the onrushing airliner. On her visor, the projected neon-green pipper is centered on the onrushing jet’s nosecone.

In the back of the MV-22, Aaron, Stacy, Ryan, Matt, Lee, and Charlie have all pulled assault rifles from the small arsenal Doug always keeps onboard, and the six warriors are standing at either the open rear cargo ramp or the two parachute doors along the aircraft’s right side, two gunners per opening, Lee and Charlie on the ramp, Aaron and Stacy the second door and Ryan and Matt at the first.

Having received no response to their query from the presumably hijacked aircraft, the Pave Eagle and its passengers are now prepared to fire on the jumbo jetliner.

As soon as the white and red airliner is in range of the Vulcan, Kelly depresses the trigger on her control stick, and a stream of bullets roars out of the Vulcan, the 20mm slugs walking up the left side of the jumbo jet’s fuselage.

Two seconds later, the Boeing is in range of the six rifles in the rear of the ‘22A, and more holes appear in the front and side of the massive airliner, albeit smaller than those caused by the Vulcan.

Both left-side engines explode as the 747 screams past the Pave Eagle, doing nearly 600 miles an hour as it roars past, the left wingtip less than ten feet from the MV-22A’s spinning right rotor.

From this close of a vantage point, Aaron and Stacy can see the blood splatters on the jumbo jet’s windows, and the slumped passengers in their seats. The thought that these innocent passengers were going to die anyway does nothing to ease the souls of those firing into the passenger aircraft.

Moments after the world’s largest airliner has gone by, the MV-22 tilts up on its left wing suddenly, then flips over on its right side before turning inverted and tumbling for the ground below.

They have been caught in the massive aircraft’s wingtip vortices, and, though Kelly and Doug try every trick in the book, and a few they’ve made up on the fly, the Pave Eagle seems unable to recover.

Finally, by supreme effort of will, and no small dash of luck, Doug and Kelly manage to get the MV-22 level, and Doug swears he hears a loud "swiiish" from behind him, just before the barely righted tilt-rotor slams into the thin line of trees separating Giants stadium from the highway.

Taking the brunt of the impact on its right side, the tilt-rotor spins to the left and smashes into the ground with its left engine pylon, which rips off as the Pave Eagle continues forward in a grotesque cartwheel, finally coming to rest at a thirty degree slant on its top.

Meanwhile, Adam, Robbie, Dean, and Eveline are still in the Meadowlands parking lot, Adam about a hundred yards away from the others and running towards the onrushing TWA 747.

As the Boeing roars towards the Meadowlands, smoke billowing from its flaming left engines, Adam is sprinting at full speed directly towards it.

For a split second, as the familiar red and white livery becomes apparent, Adam thinks that this could be Theresa’s plane, as she is flying home aboard TWA. Then Adam recognizes the distinctive shape of a 747, twice the size of the 767 she has taken to Duluth.

As he runs across the parking lot, Adam sees the MV-22A go into its tumble, and, before he can think to tell the others to head that direction, sees Robbie, Dean, and Eveline jump into the Suburban and head towards the site of the now-crashed Pave Eagle.

Planting his feet shoulder-width apart, Adam Mason pulls his SigSauer P228 from its hip holster, aiming for the behemoth charging down on him. As it nears, Mason can see the bullet holes peppering the left side of the airliner, and the intel agent firmly sights the cockpit of the Boeing over the top of his outstretched pistol. The man awaits the onrushing metal giant’s approach within his gun’s range, knowing that, at best, his heroic stand will prove suicidal.

Eveline, Dean, and Robbie pile out of the Suburban as they reach the sight where the MV-22A lies crumpled on it’s side, looking like an egg crate that someone has dropped off a two-story building.

Inside, they can see movement through the shattered cockpit window as Doug tries to extricate himself from his seat, Kelly, having already unhitched from the less-crushed co-pilot’s side, trying to help him.

The three from the Suburban arrive at the cockpit and help Kelly pull Doug out of his seat, then the five of them head for the rear of the Pave Eagle, Doug limping, as he has torn a large gash in his right leg during the crash.

Peering in through the ripped-off cargo ramp, the five warriors stare into emptiness. None of the six people in the rear of the MV-22 appear to be there.

All they can see, in the back of the cargo bay, near the cockpit bulkhead, is the dayglo orange form of the life raft, which must have inflated during the crash, and explains the sound Doug and Kelly heard. The raft is wedged into the forward part of the hold, filling the front eight feet of the passenger area.

"Hey....is the ride over yet?" Matt’s muffled voice drifts from the orange mass.

"I hope so." Stacy replies, "And you can get off me now." She adds.

"Love to, but Ryan’s got me pinned." Matt comments in reply, trying to shift his weight off the ETF commander.

"Hey, who inflated this thing in the first place?" Tony asks sarcastically. "He who inflates giant orange must not bitch about positioning of seeds."

"All I could think of at the time was, this thing would make a great airbag. Probably the World’s Largest Airbag." Matt replies, the capital letters evident in his voice.

"And most uncomfortable." Stacy adds, then, speaking to the fourth person in the raft with them, "Fieldman, you find that release valve yet?" She asks the tall aviator she, an consequently Matt and Ryan, is lying on top of.

"Yep. And for the record, I HATE life rafts. I’ve got good news and bad news. I found the valve, but it’s on the other side of the raft’s wall....but I’ve got a quick fix. I have my knife....though I can’t get it out of my pocket." Aaron tells them.

"Hang on..." Stacy comments as she shifts above him, to get her hands free, "Which pocket?"

"Right hip."

"No wise comments from you boys, now." Stacy comments as she turns a little more to allow her right arm more movement, then reaches into Aaron’s front hip pocket for the black Swiss army knife he always keeps there.

"Got it." Stacy mutters, her voice sounding surprisingly loud in Aaron’s ear, until he realizes her head is right beside his.

In seconds, the four Eagles start to hear a loud "shhhhhhhpppplllllllbbbbtthhhhh" as the life raft begins to deflate from where Stacy has stabbed it.

The four friends are somewhat startled, as they ungracefully tumble out of the deflating bag, to see Doug, Kelly, Robbie, Eveline, and Dean looking at them with suppressed mirth.

"What?" Ryan asks as he clambers to his feet, as the four friends finally untangle themselves from one another, then, after looking around, he asks, "Hey, where are Batman and Pheonix?"

"They’re not in there with you?" Doug asks.

"No....just us." Stacy comments, looking around the cargo hold.

There is a long blood smear near the missing ramp.

"But I don’t think they survived." She comments with a tilt of her head.

Everyone looks to where she has indicted.

"Ouch." Doug grimaces.

Seeing the large aircraft coming directly at them, many of the Giants and Steelers fans in the parking lot are running in every direction, trying to avoid the crash they know is coming.

Only one man stands firm.

In the middle of all the chaos, the man known as Mayhem stands silently, awaiting the fate that charges straight at him.

Adam stands in the parking lot, sighting over the top of his SigSauer as the 747 bears down on him. Aiming carefully, Adam Mason empties the whole fifteen-round clip into the cockpit of the massive Boeing, shattering the windows and ripping into the pilot and co-pilot.

Both men are thrown away from the controls by the seven bullets to the chest that each receives.

The fifteenth bullet is deflected of the top of the control panel, and ricochets around inside the cockpit.

The Trans World airliner starts to climb as the downward pressure on the controls is released, and the massive aircraft levels out of its shallower aiming dive towards the stadium at thirty feet off the ground, before starting a slight right-banked climb as it nears the stadium, approaching from the eastern endzone.

Adam is lifted into the air by the aircraft’s wake and thrown almost thirty feet across the parking lot before his flight is interrupted by a maroon Cadillac Escalade.

After throwing Adam like a rag doll with its wake, the jumbo jet hits a glancing blow onto the top of the stadium, shearing off much of the right wing past the outboard turbofan as it hits Giants stadium at a rising twenty-five degree bank to the right.

Skipping off the top of the stadium, the 747, now having only one working engine, rapidly loses lift and hits the edge of the football field, obliterating the east goalpost and flattening the first five rows of seating as it comes to earth in a pancake before plowing the length of the football field, losing the rest of both wings as the jet tries to fit its whole body into a space wide enough for only the fuselage. As the left wing tumbles across the stands directly towards him, Dave Fox picks up Michonne and hurls her over the heads of the civilians behind him on his left, towards the west end of the stadium, away from the danger. The last thing Dave hears is the scream of the man next to him, Joe Duffers, as the wing slams into them after plowing through the only Cavalry members farther east, Sean Wintres and Rene Park. Dave sees a portion of the wing heading for the top of his chest, then the world tumbles around him, and Dave has a second to wonder how his body could just bounce down the stands, before everything goes black.

At the far end of the stadium, past the west endzone, the front third of the jumbo jet accordions in upon itself, as the tail, still traveling at almost 300 miles an hour, tries to pass the nose, which, through burrowing into the field for a hundred yards, has slowed down to almost sixty miles and hour. The remnants of the 747’s wings are lying in the stands on either side of the stadium.

With a groan and a final skid, the tail of the Boeing swivels and rolls as it swiftly slows down, finally breaking away from the fuselage and coming to a rest beside the smashed nose and first class upper cabin, which is well over twenty feet shorter than when it began its flight.

As the stunned crowd of thousands of football fans finally gain their senses and charge in a stampede for the exits, the hulk of the massive airliner smokes silently, the stadium filled with screaming people as they try to get out, some tripping and falling in the blood or over the bodies of the hundreds of spectators that have been killed in the giant’s destructive path. All around the stadium, fires have broken out from the debris of the aircraft’s travel.

Back in the parking lot, Adam sits up from beside the Escalade, looking around him in confusion. It takes him a moment to recognize his surroundings, and, as he does so, the reason he has been lying on the ground comes rushing back, and he stands up gingerly, looking over the smashed Cadillac towards the smoking stadium.

He winces in pain as he tries to put weight on his left leg and realizes, after a quick self-examination, that it is broken.

"Shit." Adam grumbles as he leans against the oversized SUV, wiping blood from a cut on his forehead out of his eyes. He keys his microphone, still miraculously attached to his shirt collar.

"DoughBoy, sitrep."

At the MV-22 crash site, Robbie puts his hand up to his ear.

"Hey pard, we’re at the ‘22 crash, two MIA, ElTito and Matrix wounded, everyone else shaken but okay." Robbie fills in the other Terror Twin. "You?"

"Broken left tibia at least, various cuts and bruises, I’ll live." Adam summarizes.

"Okay, we’re on our way over to ya, you and Matrix have stretcher patrol." Robbie quips as he unlocks Lil’ Abe’s doors and allows Matt, Ryan, Kelly, Aaron, Eveline, and Stacy to climb in and find themselves places to sit.

He and Dean walk around to the rear of the truck and open the clamshell doors, pulling two of the four folding stretchers from beneath the last row of seats, unfolding and setting them up in the rear cargo area, then the two men help Doug enter the rolling combat center, and close the rear doors again.

Robbie then walks to the front end of the truck and climbs into the driver’s seat as Dean opens the rear passenger door and climbs in to find a seat.

Robbie tells Abette, the voice-recognition enabled onboard computer to start the truck’s modified V-10 engine.

With a deep-throated growl, the truck roars to life, and Sandler winks at Eveline, who is in the front passenger seat. Taking a quick glance around the passengers to make sure everyone is buckled in, Robbie notices that Aaron, Stacy, and Ryan are in the rear row of seats, while Matt, Kelly, and Dean share the second row. All are ready to roll.

Robbie puts the massive truck into gear and heads across the grass towards the stadium, looking for the Escalade near which Adam says he is waiting.

After picking up Adam, the now-full Suburban heads towards the stadium to see if anyone else from the team has managed to survive the crash of the 747, calling Curtis and asking him and the Batcave to meet them at the Meadowlands as soon as possible.

Inside the stadium, on the south side of the field, near the east end 20-yard line, Patrick "Dono" O’Donnell groans as he sits up. He almost panics at first, realizing he can’t see anything, until he goes to wipe a hand in front of his eyes to clear his vision, and notes that his ballcap has fallen down to the bridge of his nose. He pushes the hat out of his eyes, and looks around, noting that there is blood on his hand where he has wiped it across his face. Great, a head wound He thinks as he looks around for his teammates.

Not seeing anyone, but noticing the scattered parts from the left wing, a large chunk of which missed him by feet, people, body parts, and sporadic fires all around him, Dono calls out to the other nine who entered the stadium with him, and, a few minutes ago, were sitting all around him.

"Guys? Anybody else okay?"

From a spot less than ten feet away, two rows closer to the field than O’Donnell, Rebecca "Vision" Moore pushes a body off her and slowly sits up, giving Dono a thumbs up as she does so, checking herself quickly for injuries. She appears to be miraculously uninjured, though thrown down two rows by Samuelson during the wing’s impact.

"Ugh. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but I’ll live." David "Warlock" Samuelson comments from just behind Dono, "and SpiderWoman is here, too, but seems to be deaf for the moment." He adds, referring to Shannon Meyers.

"I just found Cateye and Tower....or most of them. They’re not going to be going back to base." Michonne "Bronco" Koning comments as she looks down at the headless body of Dave "Tower" Fox, and the torso of James "Cateye" Duffers. It is plain from the look on Duffers’ face that he suffered before finally dying, and it is all Michonne can do to keep her lunch from making a second appearance as she looks at the two men she had been talking to moments ago, one of whom had probably saved her life at the cost of his own.

Moments later, Patrick "Sorcerer" Eddings calls out in pain as he gains consciousness, some thirty feet behind O’Donnell, having come to rest after the crazed mob had stampeded through the area, Eddings having been the farthest west of the group before being carried off by the human wave.

"Sorcerer, you all right?" the other Patrick calls out.

"Ugh...my left arm is sliced open from the shoulder to the elbow, and I think a heard of something ran me over, have at least three broken ribs and a sprained wrist, and my hole body is a big bruise." Eddings replies.

"You’ll live, ya big baby." Rebecca replies as she walks over to help Eddings up.

"I think we lost Slim and Hunter," David comments as he searches the wreckage of the 747’s left wing, sifting through the scorched and scattered bodies, and parts thereof, around it. "Plus a couple hundred other people, as well." David grimaces as he wades through the human remains in search of his friends.

"Let’s try and get together, help the survivors outta here, and find some medical attention." O’Donnell tells them, not quite a command, yet not really not one, either.

The five surviving SpecOps troops all make their way towards Dono, and Rebecca helps support him as the team fan out, remaining in visual contact, helping stunned and injured spectators out of the shattered stadium.

Robbie skids Lil’ Abe to a stop just outside the east entrance to stadium, and he, Dean, Aaron, Ryan, Eveline, Stacy, Matt and Doug pile out of the vehicle. Stacy looks at Doug and Matt, trying to convince them to stay behind, as they have only just managed to set Matt and Adam’s broken bones, and wrap their other injuries.

Adam has no choice in the matter, as he cannot walk, but Matt and Doug have been arguing their case to come along the whole ride from the crash site, short as it may have been.

Already, in the distance, the Eagles can hear emergency vehicles heading towards the stadium, and news and police helicopters can be seen on the horizon.

Not knowing what to expect, the eight move forward quickly into the eastern end of the stadium.

Soon the five warriors inside meet up with Robbie and company, and all the Eagles and Cavalry members try to calm the civilians as they lead them to the parking lot, noticing that some of them are coming from the crumpled wreckage of the aircraft’s fuselage itself. In the parking lot, the emergency crews have set up triage centers. As soon as the emergency crews are operating at full strength, and our heroes are told that their help is no longer necessary, the shadow warriors get their injured teammates checked out by one of the paramedics on sight, then head for their respective vehicles, Patrick O’Donnell and David Samuelson take Eveline towards David’s Chevrolet Avalanche, and Robbie starts to head for Abe.

By this time, Curtis and the Batcave have arrived, and the front few feet of the trailer behind the "Lounge" is turned into a rolling recovery ward, while still leaving enough space for the Excursion and Suburban to park, and be deployed if need be.

Lounging on the two ninety-inch sofas and the sixty-seven inch loveseat at the front of the hauler, Ryan, Adam, Aaron, Stacy, Dean, Kelly, Matt, and Doug sit watching CNN on the plasma screen, Adam and Doug with their injured legs on the coffee table, with Rebecca, Patrick Eddings, Shannon, and Michonne sit on the arms of the furniture, leaving the four stretches set up in front of the Excursion empty.

In the cab of the rig, Robbie sits in the passenger side, filling Curtis in on what he has missed so far.

As DoughBoy does so, HeadHunter pilots the massive blue rig down the Turnpike towards Newark International, where Marie Cordova has deployed a Raptors C-5 Galaxy to meet them, and fly them back to Gorilla Mountain. Looking in the semi’s rear view mirror, Curtis can see David’s Avalanche following them to the airport, as they have received Stacy’s permission to let Evie accompany them back to the Mountain, since, now that she has participated, however unwillingly at first, in one of their Ops, she is, at least temporarily, a partial member of the Eagles, and needs to be debriefed as such.

So, now, here we are. It’s 2003, and this story is finally in the public eye. No better time than the twentieth anniversary year of the Eagles. Also, I have found some of my old disks with other ETF stories on them, so keep your eyes open for more......

Brian R. Kupfer

08Feb03

1954hrs Eastern

Brandon, FL