I knew you were lying. I knew that I couldn't be the only one like me in this world. That man who fought Drake proved it. And could Myral...?

And who is Drake Hensley? And if he is as good of a shot as Dale says, then why didn't he kill me?

Sleep did not come to me at the relative safety of the bunker. Every time my eyes closed the sound of Drake's rifle came to mind.

"Rise and shine," Cie'loth's voice came sometime later, "Jack says you are on news," he added, then shut the door and left.

I got myself up and headed to the small room that Jack and Cie'loth ate breakfast inside of. They both sat in their usual spots, Jack with doughnuts and a cup of coffee, Cie'loth with his slab of unidentified meat. Angel was nowhere to be found, I could only hope Dale had eleased her back to her family.

"Want coffee?" Jack asked without taking his eyes off of the small television set mounted on the wall.

"Sure," I replied.

"It's on counter," Cie'loth grunted.

I silently picked up the small mug sitting next to a half empty coffee pot resting on the small counter near the table. After taking a quick sip, I realized that the coffee was quite sweet, Jack had put an incredible amount of sugar directly into the brewing pot.

"No wonder you're always so hyper," I commented while taking a seat.

"Mmhmm," he muttered, eating a doughnut.

The news on the screen then showed Dale speaking with several national news reporters.

"Strange that they didn't show it live," I commented mindlessly.

"They did, but they're re-showing because it was the middle of the night and less people watch then," Jack said quickly while taking another sip of his drink.

When the interview had ended, Jack stood and went to his surveillance center. I followed him as he sat down in a chair and rubbed his eyes, then let out a long sigh.

"You a'ight Jack?" I asked, leaning against his desk.

"Tired," he replied, "Too much caffeine, too many conspiracies, and too much sugar,"

"You should take a break, get some rest,"

"No, no, no, no. I have to help Dale with finding Drake,"

"How are you goin' to find him?"

"I don't know, but I have resources that the government doesn't, and I owe it to Dale to try to help,"

"Why do you owe Dale?"

"He-," Jack began, "Well he's done a lot for me. We go way back,"

"A'ight, don't stress yourself out too much," I said, giving him a comforting pat on his shoulder.

He looked up at me, then nodded and went back at his camera screens.

"Looks like you have a friend here to see you," he told me.

I took a quick glance at the camera feed to see Angel, standing outside of the shed entrance to the bunker.

"I need to speak to Dale anyways so I'll go ahead and get goin',"

"Yeah, later," Jack told me as he continued to monitor security.

I quietly left the bunker and met Angel outside.

"I thought I might find you here. I tried your house, but no one seemed to know where you were,"

"Not surprisin'. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, they released me back to my house. I guess they didn't the voice of a teenage girl could carry too much weight. After you disappeared yesterday, I watched the news to see if you would show up, and sure enough you did in the middle of last night,"

"Yeah. My secret's out. I'm not really lookin' forward to facin' people about it,"

"I'd hate to be in that position,"

"Better me than you," I told her, "I'm goin' to the station to see Dale, would you like to come?"

"I'd love to!"

We silently walked together towards the police station, listening to the rustling of leaves and crunch of the mostly-melted snow on the ground. The same sullen-looking receptionist whom I had seen the previous week was still on duty when we arrived.

"Are you always here?" I asked.

He looked at me blankly, then went back to reading something on his desk.

"Okay then," I said and walked down the hall to my right to Dale's office.

"Can I come in?" I asked loudly enough to be heard through the door.

"Sure it's open," Dale's voice came through as I pushed on the handle.

"You wanted to see me?" I asked, referring to his request the previous night.

"Yes, even though your public appearance was a little more...sudden than I had hoped for, it still happened. I can't officially instate you into the agency but congratulations," he told me with a grin.

"For?" I asked, somewhat confused.

"Well there is a perk to your publicity. Now that you're in the public eye, my bosses have to treat you a little better,"

"Really?" I asked somewhat skeptically.

"Yeah. Normally a new recruit would need to go through law enforcement school, but you are a special case. My superiors have looked over your preliminary evaluations and agree that you are fit to work for us. You will be granted limited access to data, office space, and F-B-I privileges,"

"Are you offering me a job?"

"In an official capacity, yes. You won't be working set hours or receiving pay, but you will have workspace here at the station. Would you like to see your office?"

"I'd love too,"

Dale quietly stood from his chair and exited the room with both Angel and I in tow as he proceeded just to the right of his office. Another heavy steel door with an elaborate security system, identical to the one on Dale's was the entry to the adjacent room. These offices stood out from all the others in the hall, which had wooden doors with simple key locks.

"Activate new security system," Dale commanded the door.

"Affirmative," the computer replied in its cold and mechanical voice.

Dale pushed the handle down and opened the door to reveal an unadulterated room, with a large dark wood desk, and an equally large office chair, and an enormous screen on the wall. I sat in the chair, and sank into it. On the desk sat a telephone with a cord going into the wall.

I gaily spun in my computer chair several times, taking in my new office space.

"Why did you request for office space for me?"

"I thought you might want a place to examine data without other people watching as well as a place to put together your own information for the investigations,"

"Thank you, I appreciate the support," I told him honestly, thinking that encounter with Drake that made my appearance public might actually be a good thing after all.

"The computer will respond to your voice and you have limited access to government files," Dale explained, "I need to make a couple of calls and I'll be back. You can play around some until then,"

"Display weather," I commanded experimentally.

"Thirty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, or three point three degrees Celsius, light snow is falling and winds are at approximately seven miles per hour, gusts up to fifteen," the computer said.

"Cool," I said to myself.

"Cool what?" the machine asked, almost rudely.

"Huh?" I began, not sure how to respond, "Disregard?"

The computer gave no reply to my statement.

A loud knock sounded on my door, then a voice spoke.

"Computer, authorize special access, Jack,"

The door unlocked with a nearly inaudible hiss. Jack then pushed it open and took a step inside.

"I didn't know you ever came out of your bunker Jack,"

"Normally I don't. But I wanted to see how you are faring in your new playing field,"

"Somehow I don't take it that this is a courtesy call,"

"No," Jack began, shutting the door behind him and beginning to pace slowly, "No, no, no. I'm here to help you,"

"Jack, first you leave your bunker, now you show concern for another human being. You're scarin' me. What is it?"

"We need to talk, but not here; too many cameras, t-too many people listening," he stuttered.

"A'ight, where then?"

"Dale wants to brief all of us, then we'll talk," he nearly whispered.

"I'll wait up for you," angel told me.

Jack and I left for Dale's investigation room plastered with newspapers. He, as well as Braxton and Myral met us there. A cloaked Cie'loth materialized several moments after the door clicked shut.

"Between Drake Hensley, The New Dawn, and the events of last night, we have a lot on our plates right now, but finally we have some hard data," Dale began to everyone present, "The Dawn is researching their weapons with alien tech,"

"Where are they getting it?"

"Crashed ships, just like yours Cie'loth. That's why I invited you here. Last night when we came back from D-C, U-S air radar detected another ship appear and and crash on the planet. And we're gonna find it before the Dawn does,"

"Another alien vessel?" Cie'loth asked, obviously intrigued.

"It just went down in the last four hours. No conformation on its location yet but we will be leaving tonight to find it before The Dawn does. The government says that they will know where it went down in the next six hours at most,"

The group left the room quietly to prepare for our trip.

"Anywhere, come on let's take a walk," Jack commanded in his paranoid manor as Cie'loth walked beside us invisibly.

Angel met us in the lobby and took up stride beside me as we came out into the parking lot. We nearly ran to keep up with Jack's quickening strides. He stopped suddenly on the far side of the parking lot beside a tall man who wore a dark suit and black sunglasses.

"Who's this?" I asked.

"It's Cie'loth," he replied.

I looked closely at him but I could not fathom Cie'loth fitting in such a small disguise.

"How?" I asked.

"Light waves bend," the human image said in Cie'loth's voice, "Cloak also bends light for disguises,"

Angel reached her finger out to poke him, yet her hand suddenly stopped some distance from his chest.

"No size change," Cie'loth told her, "Only my look,"

"I thought we might need some extra protection out in daylight now that Drake could very well be after you," Jack said hurriedly, "Now enough dallying, let's go,"

I looked at Cie'loth, who simply gestured for me to follow a now walking away Jack. Nodding, I continued.

Jack strode quickly down the sidewalk, nervously fidgeting in his usual manner. I patiently waited for him to speak as we walked. He turned without looking and went down the road into a small park.

"Drake," Jack began.

I waited for several seconds for him to continue.

"Wait for car behind us to pass," he said, just as the car sounded a blaringly loud horn.

I turned, glaring at the driver of the sports car, and instantly recognized the vehicle. The front turn signal was cracked and there was a large dent on both the front grill and the hood of the car. This was the car that had hit me, and would have likely killed me without my regenerative abilities. The driver stopped as I walked to the open window of his car.

"What?" the young man asked.

"You hit me," I said flatly.

His eyes widened slightly as if he were remembering.

"In the road. About week ago. You sped away without even checking to see if I were okay,"

He suddenly seemed to grow angry.

"And?" he asked rudely.

"And our friend," Jack began, suddenly behind me and gesturing towards Cie'loth, "Doesn't take kindly to unapologetic people,"

"What is this?" the driver asked, "I should run you all over right here!" he almost yelled, cranking his steering wheel to the side and revving the car threateningly.

Before waiting to see if he was going to go ahead and ram me or not, I had put my hands together and brought down my fist, hard, on the side of his car. Crushing just in front of the driver's seat. The vehicle very quickly stopped at my sudden show of force.

The driver's look of arrogance instantly turned to that of angry concern as he shifted into reverse and prepared to either ram or leave.

Before I could react, The massive bulk of Cie'loth stepped in front of me, decloaking and revealing his full form. With an effortless upwards swipe of his right hand the car flew over him as if the right side of it had hit a ramp. The sports car spun in a corkscrew and came to a violent crash several yards away.

The unlucky and now fearful driver tumbled out of the side of the car, he seemed relatively unhurt but much less brave after my alien companion's show of strength.

"What the hell are you people?" he yelled as he ran the other direction.

Jack let out a long sigh as Cie'loth's camouflage concealed him once again.

"I'll get someone to clean this up," Jack muttered.

I sat down at a picnic table as my jittery companion sat across from me. Cie'loth and Angel both kept their distances.

"You are in considerable danger," Jack told me, "Do you understand the implications of being hunted by Drake Hensley?" he asked.

I shook my head and didn't reply.

"It means you are special," a voice came from the street, "And maybe even important," it continued.

Jack and I both looked to see Drake striding down the road. He carried his rifle in full view as he approached. My companion and I both stood quickly.

"Tell your Ca'adraachi to stand down or I start shooting," Drake said calmly as Cie'loth was beginning to sneak up behind him.

Jack gave a small nod to the camouflaged alien.

"In a world as full of powerful people as our own, one has to be careful," Drake began, "The wrong side can mean everything. Or more precisely, the loss of everything,"

"Why are you here Drake?" Jack asked.

"I need you to know," he began, addressing me, "There is more to what is happening than you can possibly imagine. If you do not play right, you may not survive,"

"And why would you care about that?" I asked.

He gave a short chuckle.

"I do not. But I hate to leave a new player without any advice. So be warned; if you care at all for your own safety, you will stay out of my way. All of you will,"

With a final touch of his scope, Drake vanished in a brilliant purple flash, so bright that it was almost white.

"See why I don't like to leave my bunker?" Jack asked, taking his seat at the picnic table once again.

Cie'loth and Angel joined me as I sat as well.

"What did he mean?" I asked.

Jack didn't reply, he simply stared down at the wooden table.

"Jack," I said more forcefully, "What. Did. He. Mean,"

"He meant," Jack began, "He meant that we have a much larger problem than we thought,"