Chapter Five: Firestorm, Part Two

For the third time that day Rocco gasped for life, flying up from his resting positon and trying to find where he was. As it appeared General Washington had taken them again and he could do absolutely nothing about it again. Looking around, the general had finally gone for broke and used his massive militant budget.

Rocco’s cuffs were connected to a wall and they seemed to be ready to shock him. Most shocking was that his body was clean, and he could tell that because his suit was off of his body, but there was no oil. He was in a clean polo and a pair of pants, a civilian uniform, at least he was considered a civilian.

Looking around, Rocco didn’t see Adriano in his cell. They were at least being smart enough to separate him from his team mates; to his chagrin. He was barely touching the floor and just barely floating above it, he just could feel the cold concrete on his toes. They put loafers on his feet and he tried to connect with the floor.

He swung on the chains, starting slowly as he rocked back and forth before finding his feet touching the edge of the cell. He pushed his feet through the cold metal bars and tried to cling on; he must have passed some sort of threshold. Electricity flowed out from the walls into his chain and shocking him into letting go as he fell back to the floor.

“Ok, that’s not going to work, we need another idea; I, I need another idea.” Rocco said before correcting himself that Adriano wasn’t in the room. Knowing how this worked, Adriano was either in the cell right next to him or completely across the prison, either way it would take some work to get there.

He decided not to swing around and looked at his physical options. There would be no way until hell froze over, that he’d be able break his chains. His entire body seemed to be cleaned of oil, and he was producing no oil. The cuffs on his hands were locked tight on his wrists and if he wanted to produce more oil, he’d need them off.

He looked around and had no idea where or when in the prison he was. All he could see was metal colored wall with lights shining above him. It looked like the wall was sectioned off at certain places and could be raised, perhaps as a way of escape. Rocco looked around and pulled a bit, before it gave him another electric shock.

He had nothing, he had no fire, no oil, no suit and no Adriano, and he was afraid. He had nowhere to go and he was afraid. Shivering for himself, he tried to conserve his heat as he nothing to adjust him. Without his suit, he had no heat. The suit provided his heat and he needed to adjust to the world without it. 

Rocco pulled himself around, trying to generate motion and heat for himself. He felt something in his armpits. It felt slick and familiar, it was obviously oil. Whoever cleaned him must have missed his less touchable areas. Ignoring that fact, if he could only start a fire then he might be able to simply escape.

“Well, well, well looks who’s hung out to dry.” General Washington said as he suddenly walked into the frame of the cell. Rocco looked nervous and quickly stopped swing, instead freezing in place and hoping that it would pass. He said nothing back to Washington, hoping that he could ignore him and the general would simply walk away.   

“Playing the silent game are we, well let me say your friend is certainly not good at that game. No matter how much I whipped him, he just kept on screaming. But we’re not here to talk about that.” Washington said knowing just where that would push Rocco. He smiled almost sadistically, enjoying the pain he was causing the dragon as he shifted.

It took all of Rocco’s courage not to scream back at the general, but he continued staying still; floating above the ground silently. The dragon knew how much staying silent would push back against Washington. The act of silence so deafening would push him to the edge.      

“Well then you don’t want to talk, I guess I’ll make you talk then.” The general walked to the edge of the cell, where Rocco guessed a control panel would be located. Suddenly from the edge of the wall electricity fired out and Rocco was engulfed in pain as he was shocked. The dragon screamed out in pain and finally it was enough for the residual oil on his body to set off. His body flooded with flames, oils trapped in his skin catching and enflaming him as he was shocked. Washington smiled as he dealt with the last hope Rocco had. He turned the dial and stopped the electric blast’s Rocco turned out fine, more or less. His fireproof powers were spreading to his skin and clothes as well. 

Rocco took a few deep breaths as the fires receded and calmed himself down. He wasn’t going to let himself get tortured by this insane general. However, he couldn’t do anything about it, he now had no oil to work with, and he was really trapped this time. 

“Well then it appears I broke your spirt, so let’s just see how far it will go?” Washington said as he clicked another button on the panel. Behind him the panel slid back slowly, as if The General was going to savor the moment. Had the budget been large enough this is the point the orchestral track would start, with large trumpets blaring and drums banging but this isn’t a visual medium.

As the panel pulled back it revealed a large grey surface and a black background, which as Rocco’s eyes extended to get a better look, he quickly realized something. His heart sped up and his stomach felt sick, the barren landscape was before him and there was nothing he could do. Looking around he saw three spaceships, probably the one’s that brought him here lift off and start on their return. Their might have been no way back then.

“Well come to the moon, oh and look their I can see Baldor about to pass through the moon, how fitting. I hope you can breathe in space because once we’re done with the child; we’re leaving with the door open.” General Washington said giving Rocco the time frame he needed and a reason to escape.

“You dare take us from our planet and put us in this base. Energy Bug won’t appreciate this, he and Death Jumper are certainly coming.” Rocco taunted as he tried to see what General Washington would say to that.

“Please don’t be so pashe, we see the Outsider’s records, Zander and Rolando won’t even get close to the planet.” General Washington said as he pulled out a walkie-talkie from his pocket and clicked the buttons. “Give us that orbital test, team!”

From Baldor, barely passing behind Earth, there was a large explosion as it looked like on the rocky planet. For a few seconds there was nothing, besides another equally large explosion to fix whatever damage was done to the orbit. However quite quickly from the other side of the planet a glowing green particle quickly approached, appearing as a speck growing large and larger as it got closer.

Suddenly it changed it trajectory, and seemed to heading right for the facility on the moon. Rocco tried to shift his body and escape the bounds before the glowing ball decided to hit. However as it entered the gravity of the moon, there was an explosion. Rocco was blinded and as his vison returned for the god only knows time, a large reflective shield was shown covering the moon before disappearing.

“Force field, trust me the Apollo 18 astronauts were quite surprised when they found the ground right below their craft.” General Washington said as he smiled closing the window and leaving. He left the cell leaving Rocco hung out to dry. The dragon shook and shake tried to escape his bonds, but even he couldn’t.

The chains shackled and clanged together, making noise but even Rocco didn’t think noise would bother Washington, he was that thick and the facility was too big. Hopefully he would do something, with what looked like a body wide forcefield the other outsiders wouldn’t be able to get through without taking a ship or something.

So he relaxed his body, taking a few calming breaths as he allowed the chains to settle. He felt himself touch the ground and he let himself settle, falling into the point with least resistance. Relaxing himself he tried to think about what Washington said and if he gave any hints to help him escape.

…

“Use your fire powers, engulf the room in fire, allow it to feel what you feel!” A younger Washington said through a microphone as he commanded the younger Rocco. He was in a plain white room, with random burnable on the floor but by this time they had mostly turned into ash. However, Rocco just keep on going, producing more and more oil to cover the entire room and it showed.         

The entire room was engulfed in fire, for Rocco being fireproof allowed him to continue pushing more oil into the room, causing the fire to become more intense. The fire was so intense, every once and a while a spurt of blue fire appeared, flying up and quickly dissipating. Somehow someway Rocco pushed on spinning around and appearing like he was having a goodtime engulfed in the room.

General Washington was impressed with the child, if he wanted to he could burn down an entire forest if it he was pushed enough. He hoped that it wouldn’t be push to that, but with the enemy they were going to have to face in the future Rocco would need to know all the tactics he could possibly shove into his head.

“Rocco, attempt the dummies, see how you deal with them.” General Washington said as pressurized nitrogen was blasted into the room, cooling the room and setting out the fire. In the center of the room, two panels pulled away and two dummies appeared.

Rocco nodded and ran over, quickly grabbed the head of one of the dummies and twisting its neck, snapping the neck off and separating its body from the head. He them, jumped up using a fire blast to add height and then putting his hand on the head of the man, making sure that the nozzle was against his neck.

He began to walk around and twisted his nozzle against the neck of the man. He walked around the person, standing and almost smiling sadistically. He pushed his hand against the man’s face and then fire erupted. The dummy engulfing in fire and burning down as Rocco simply stood there waiting for commands.

…

Rocco became stronger and quicker, mastering his powers and pushing that barrier even further. He was a superhero in all rights, he deserved the mantel. He could shoot fireballs as tiny as a cockroach or as large as an airplane. He could hit within five centimeters and destroy a squadron of fifty men with a flick of his finger.

He was powerful and General Washington knew it. He said he would be the leader of some sort of group. He would be the first in a squad of the most powerful supers, one to do personal militant missions. It would involve some tactical militant operations, Assassinations, Extortions, Hostile takeovers and his favorite setting up dictatorships in civilized counties.  

And as he stood their he looked forward, down a tunnel that was at least a mile long. He put his hands down and fire started up on his hands, and out of his back, two long wings formed and a rocket engine passing out of the back. Rocco floated above the air, his ten year old self hovering as he waited for the command.

Then he heard it, he leaned forward, putting all his oil into the engine and a few drops into his hand nozzles; keeping him stable and upwards. He accelerated forward, feeling the drag of air pressure on him. He pushed forward, putting his hands forward and becoming more aerodynamic.

He was almost at the end of the tunnel and he made sure his ear plugs were in his body. And then as he approached the end, he felt the sonic boom. He wasn’t perfectly straight, in both senses of the word, but the boom pushed up on his body and he was knocked off his path.

He fell up and then he let his emergency functions take place. Two plates came off his back and black, silver wings disappeared out of his back. He spread them out and flapped them. He normally didn’t allow his wings to be used, as he was for all he knew the last dragon alive and he didn’t want to show off to the draconics either.

However, Rocco landed on the ground and knew he would have to try again and again until he figured it out and reached the hyper sonic speeds that Washington would demand. Rocco took a few deep breaths as he landed knowing that it would be a while until he’d be able to finish.

He was young, perhaps to young and yet he knew so much. How to fight and how to intimidate an opponent, how to slowly torture someone or how to snap a neck and while he would forget most of his skills perhaps out of shame, it would always be imbedded in his subconscious.

And yet somehow he went on, every day with the knowledge of what he knew and what he did. It was all still in his headcase. Two dreams and ideals fighting, one for comforting and peace, with banter; the other wanting to destroy anyone who touches those he cared about.

Somehow, someway he would be pushed to a limit when neither ideal could exist with the other and on that day something terrible would happen; one ideal would finally take over and Rocco would be complete in a way, finally able to control his destiny.

…

Back in the modern era however, Rocco’s past was the somehow still the least of his worries instead. He was chained up in a facility on the moon, with all his oil finally depleted and he wasn’t producing any more for himself. The dragon needed to escape, to be as free as a bird, in a moon like gravity.

He then did realize he was in moon gravity, and everything would have been suited to one sixth the strength it needed to be. Washington was cheap and Rocco would know that it something could be built with one sixth the material it had to, then it would.    

However, he did also realize that the air was normal pressurized. Or at least close to Earth pressure. He realized what he had to do, looking up he saw the room was at least fifty feet tall. So he stood back and relaxed, and his wings unflooded. A perception filter, injected into body, allowing them to pass through his shirt.

He then waited a few seconds, in case Washington suddenly showed up with intension of ruining that plan. But the seconds passed and Rocco decided to start his plan. He flapped up, pushing himself up with six times the force he normally could have accomplished on Earth.

In normal air with low gravity, he could pull himself up six times as fast and six times as powerful as before and as he did so, he felt the chains tension. He then held himself up for a second and gave it one last powerful flap. He felt all four chains snap and he flew up to the top of the cell, celebrating his new found freedom.  

He held himself in the air, looking around for weak points and then he found it. A vent right above his body he grabbed onto the edge, pulling it out and letting land on the floor. He pulled himself in, and folded his wings in, crawling into the vent and closing it up. He took a few breaths celebrating his new found freedom. He had a few plans he needed to put into action.

First he needed to find Adriano, and put in him a safe place, either in an escape pod or someplace he couldn’t be found or hurt by the General. Then he needed to find the child, a logical step two, as he needed to prevent whatever Washington was planning for the child, then lastly he needed to destroy the facility. The last step was pretty self-explanatory and depending on how things go the easiest part of the plan or the hardest.

Rocco crawled along the vent pushing himself along, and making god only knows types of noises under him. He wasn’t being stealthy, he was creating anticipation. He didn’t care if Washington heard him, he appeared to be one of few soldiers that was in the facility. With that previous thought in mind he carefully continued along.

He saw the light of a vent and saw it lead down into a hallway. He opened it and shifted the cover off. He hung himself out of the vent and spread his wings again. He softly landed on the ground, holding himself to the ground as he looked around. Adriano was no wear near him.

Now feeling the lack of gravity, Rocco started to run in random directions down the hallways and trying to find Adriano and avoid Washington. The hallways seemed similar, the grey walls were everywhere and they continued on forever. No matter how far he ran they seemed to continue on. He found himself in the front of the moon assembly.

There were large pieces of glass windows, showing the long and desolate moon landscape. Rocco looked out hoping he could find his suit, so he could smash the power controlling handcuffs on his hand. All he needed to do was smash them and the material that restrained his powers would escape.

He looked around the entrance was partially empty, and yet all he felt was awkward familiar feeling. He continued on forward looking around and hoping he could find Adriano. He walked forward and passed into a doorway, looking around he realized where he was.

Right before him was a large plain white room, and then he realized he had been here before, the artificial gravity must have been turned off but if it was on he’d be in the same place he was trained. Never did he once realize or care that he was trained on the moon.

He looked around and there was a large glass cylinder in the room, inside of it. He stood still, it was the child just standing there waiting for Rocco to come. The child looked lonely and afraid, frightened, still just a child on the inside, never growing up and always fighting.      

“Don’t you dare even think about breaking that glass.” Behind him General Washington appeared, speaking as he walked into the room and pushed Rocco out of the way. He placed himself between Rocco and the child, putting a barrier in the plans of the dragon.

“You could have turned out so good, but then you got all mushy and gained feelings. And yet still you don’t realize they are a weakness, they haven’t guide you and made you better. They made you considerate and weak; you could never be as powerful as your ten year old self.” General Washington said hitting all the emotional buttons, power, regression and mortality.

It was taking all Rocco did to not go up to him and punch the aging man. However, none the less Rocco continued where he was gentle just waving back and forth and allowing the general to continue his speech. He grabbed the handrail and walked down the steps approaching Washington.

“You need to give this up, he is a child not a solider to be used in a war. I realized that, he realized that. Your RAF infantry men are the only people he has killed. He is obviously only using his powers for self-defense and maybe if you’d stop chasing after him all this death and destruction could and would end.” Rocco said trying to appeal to General Washington’s sense of humanity, hopefully it would work and no one would have to die.

“And isn’t that a problem, imagine if he didn’t just use his powers for self-defense, what if he used his powers with every situation. Don’t say you don’t remember.” General Washington said as he examined that looked on Rocco’s face and realized that he didn’t. “Well you don’t, you were going to lead a team of powered people, a bad outsiders group if you will. You were to obey my will, my militant background leading.”

“The world couldn’t handle that, I know exactly what you would do. Assassinations, blackmail, extortion, death on the world and it would be your entire fault. Could you live with that, would you be able to sleep at night knowing how much you did and changed?” Rocco said trying to appeal to General Washington’s morality and hoping, really hoping that he could stop without fighting.

“No, you were supposed to be the chosen one, you were supposed to tip the balance of good and evil not fix it!” General Washington said as Rocco smiled knowing that it was now all about him. He was the reason he was here, the general needed him back to control the child.

“And once again it turns out to be all about me, how fabulous is that. Now then, I have no powers, no help on the way, and no plan and doesn’t that frighten you to bits. You’ve seen me when I am desperate, how quickly I might abandon my ideals to save people, you know that and you’re frightened little man.” Rocco said boasting himself as he waited for the general to make the first move.

Washington jumped forward, pulling his fist back and running at Rocco hoping to jump on him or punch him and knock him out or something. Rocco strafed to the side and got out of the way of punch as Washington fell on the floor and landed.

“Listen old man, I younger than you and even without my powers I am thoroughly sure I can beat you, now if you’d could please tell me where my suit is?” Rocco asked as he looked at Washington, suddenly he was grabbed from behind and stood up. Washington was grabbing him, but Washington was in front of him. Looking forward it was clear the General was a hologram.

“You want to be with you suit, I hope you can breathe in space then.” General Washington said as he quickly ran over to the edge of the glass plane. Rocco was surprised by the general’s strength until he saw mechanical attachments on the man’s body. The glass plane descended and revealed an emergency forcefield.

“No don’t do that, you will regret this. I will come back for you.” Rocco said as he saw his suit, inactivated and in a compressed form floating around as an orange cube bouncing off the surface of the moon, the gravity generation was taking away from the moon’s gravity.

“You really don’t want to this!” Rocco said shacking as he was pulled back and threw forward. Rocco took a breath full of oxygen as he passed through the forcefield and onto the lowered gravity of the moon. He floated for a few seconds as he held his breath, holding onto some of the heat from the building.

He tried to float back forwards the building, but he had no idea how to without his suit or his powers. He had no oxygen to supply himself with air or to fuel the fire. He looked around and he could see his suit, at most he would have twenty more seconds before he exploded or something.

Rocco reached out for his suit cube and tried to float towards it. He hit the ground and pushed himself up, reaching up and grabbing the cube pulling it towards him. He pulled it towards him and clicked his fingers on it, activating its biometric scanner.         

The cube started to expand, engulfing his body as it activated. He glowed with energy and The suit formed on his body the orange jumpsuit and the mechanical parts forming over his body. Heat engulfed his body, as the engine in his back burned the fuel and produced the heat. He activated his nozzles and knew he only had a few more seconds of oxygen left.

He aimed his nozzles back and fired on all cylinders, pushing with his powers and letting his mental scanners open the nozzle. He flew back towards the forcefield, looking at Washington who had a look of fear on his face. However, he wanted to play with him. He pushed forward and reentered the forcefield before The General could stabilize the forcefield and block him.

He entered the facility but he needed to work with so many things, and he decided to start first with his little human friend. He continued flying going down the hall and viewing that Washington did send everyone away from the base, he must have surely been crazy. Except in the corner of his eye, there was an escape pod, a series of two, he knew Adriano would have to go first.

The dragon flew around looking for Adriano, he had to be somewhere inside the building and hell couldn’t stop him from finding the man. He flew around the building showing superior flight control as he waved and weaved around the buildings searching each of the cells and trying to find the human.

He looked around and found what he was looking for. He stopped and landed on the ground, floating down and landing in the Earth like gravity. He saw Adriano locked in his cell and he went to the control panel, knowing he would have a minute or two until Washington appeared and decided to ruin his plans.

The chain and the wrist cuffs snapped off and the cell opened. Looking at the panel, he saw a written note. It seemed to be a code, one to override the effects of the cuffs. As the door opened, he turned entered the code into his cuffs, which had appeared over his suit.

They stopped glowing and his suit changed as it no longer ran off of stored oil and instead he was producing oil. He enjoyed the feeling of having the molecules being pumped out of his skin and flowing through his skin, it was glorifying and he loved it.

He grabbed the unconscious Adriano and put him over his body, he looked back and saw the escape pods, he could take one and Adriano could take one. He was fine with General Washington dying but what about the child? Rocco knew what the child’s motivation was and he knew he was innocent and wouldn’t hurt anyone. The dragon couldn’t let him stay here and die.

Rocco placed Adriano into the escape pod, laying his body down and buckling him into the seat. On the main computer, he selected a return to Earth and made sure the pod was broadcasting on an Outsiders only frequency, hopefully Zander could find him or a different team.

He clicked the activate button and closed the pod, it bounced out of the building and quickly a seal formed over it. The pod floated upwards over the building and quickly fired retrograde, slowing itself down and ensuring it left lunar and returned to Earth orbit.       

Suddenly there was gun shot and Rocco quickly pushed himself out of the way and looked at Washington, lucky the seal didn’t seem to break and he wasn’t sure where the gun shot hit but he was pretty sure that most of the station was pretty airtight but he didn’t want to risk it.

“Well then look here, you seem to have some problems with authority, I tell you to stand down, you go off releasing our most important person, idiot.” General Washington said looking particularly psychopathic. “You were never powerful, that forest was a fluke.”

“Oh you think that was a fluke, well then we’ll see who’s right.” Rocco had had enough of this person, he opened up his valves and oil started to spill out. At first the General thought it was stored oil, but soon enough as it spread past the general’s feet he had no idea where it was coming from.

Rocco let himself go, releasing oil and spilling out onto the floor. He was producing the oil as he went along, spreading it through the whole base and making sure that everything went well done. And then he stopped the oil was up to his ankles and he stopped, he could have kept going but he wanted to savor the moment.

“Don’t you even dare.” General Washington said as he looked at the remaining escape pod. He made a dash for it as Rocco activated his lighter. Sparks flew out and hit the oil. Even a person couldn’t run faster than fire, the oil engulfed itself in flame and while Rocco might have been spared, Washington wasn’t so lucky. His body engulfed in flames and he fell to the floor, he was dead. All the while Rocco flashed back to the first time he let go, when he first met the child.

…

“Why are we back at my home?” Rocco asked as he looked around the forest he once lived in. General Washington and a few RAF soldiers were behind him, making sure he wasn’t going to escape or let the child escape. All the while there was a feeling of anticipation, the blood running through his head, the adrenaline running through his body, everything had led up to this, this was his test, his final test.

“We’re going to test, to see if our little device makes our little friend appear, and if he does, you’re going to capture him make sure you take him alive.” General Washington said as he viewed around the forest, he was looking for the child as the large irreplaceable device was dragged out of the van.

“Ok.” Rocco said as he looked at the large device. It glowed and electricity flowed through a large magnetic coil on the top of the device, wires flowed with electricity connected to a generator. It then fired an impulse blast. Rocco was nearly knocked out by this, landing on the ground and looking as the air was tinted blue.

“The impulse is creating electromagnetic disruption; the subject will have to teleport into the area in order to prevent his death.” A scientist said as the tint disappeared, right in front of them the child appeared, floating above them and looking down on those who summoned it. Rocco stepped forward, activating his lighter and his oil, forming a tiny blast of fire as he walked forward.

“So you are the one he wants, you are but a child as well, the public would not like that idea.” Rocco said sounding dignified as he walked up to the floating child who examined him. “Either way you want me to fight a child, I might be just a boy myself but I don’t think I want to hurt him.”

“Just do it, come on we need for this to happen, this is everything, this is the last puzzle piece and it needs to be filled in.” General Washington said getting angry, this was the bad part of working with children, just like child actors they gained quite the ego and thought their ideas of moralities were correct. “Don’t hold yourself back, use all your powers.”

“Ok then, you want me to use all my powers, fine then.” Rocco said as he mental opened all of his nozzles and released all the pressure. Oil flied out and coated the ground in black. “I will not fight a child, that doesn’t want to fight.” Oil kept on flooding out, frightening Washington as he backed out of the oil, quickly pushing his team into the car and realizing he had lost control of Rocco.            

“Back in the cars you fools, drive away as fast as you can!” General Washington said as Rocco laughed out, the starting fire quickly spreading and engulfing the forest and yet two days later when the fire had ended a little child had survived, somehow someway a dragon was found with a strange suit that held oil and he was sent into a group called the Outsiders.

…

“Oh god the child.” Rocco said as he realized his mistake, he walked forward, spreading the fire and looking at the last escape pod. He realized what he had to do and he ran to the room, looking at the child in the tube. He smashed it to pieces, the fire spreading and explosions rocking the base. As soon as he got the child, the gravity generator turned off and Rocco started to float.

He had to choices, he run to the escape pod and hopefully save the child and only give him a few burns or he could hope that rescue would come and he could hold off the fires. Rocco wasn’t important, saving the child was.

He picked the child up, holding him over his shoulder and making sure he wouldn’t have to take in any of the smoke. He was right over an oxygen vent, where the components of the water vapor came out, some of the oxygen going to fueling fire and other being released. However, he wasn’t concerned with fire, he wanted to survive.

Rocco went into action, running at the fire, spreading the oil he could and taking most of the fire damage for himself. He ran forward, making sure the young child could breathe and would make it out of here, and then he heard the voice.

“Am I going to live sir?” The child asked as Rocco paused, he stopped and the child used his powers, spreading the fire and allowing them to talk. Explosions rocked the base and as Rocco stood there, he leaned down and it appeared that the base was knocked off the moon. The forcefield disappeared and quite quickly they were in orbit around the Earth and it there were more explosions, perhaps re-entry. 

“You have a 1 in a thousand chance of living, don’t even dare to think about a thousand, believe in the one, tell me the name of the boy that is going to live today!” Rocco said as he tried to show confidence in his abilities, but even as the station remained air tight, even he couldn’t control the fires for long.

“Antonio, and please sir save me?” The child said as Rocco felt a connection; he needed to get this child back to Earth no matter what stood in his way. The dragon ran forward, pushing the fires and oil away, he could see the pod and he ran at it.

It got closer and closer, the reality of them surviving increasing as Rocco got closer. And then he touched it, pulling open the hatch and quickly placing the child inside of the pod. He clicked a few buttons on the console screen, the same as he did before.

Then the pod popped out, the quick vacuum of space sucking out everything and freezing the room as the seal covered the door. The pod quickly returned to Earth and hopefully it would survive. Then as more explosions happened, Rocco decided to lay back and let life take him where it wanted too. 

Re-entry was about to happen. Fire and plasma soared from the craft as Rocco, simply put a cold shoulder on the happens. He didn’t care, so long as he saved Adriano and the child, he was fine with his life. The building slowly twisted and turned ripping itself apart.

However, even instincts can take over. Rocco gasped for air as he surfaced in the water, looking around him metal seemed to be falling in the twilight air. He looked around and saw a boat coming to him. They arrived, he flopped up like a fish and landed on the boat.

“Rocco you survived, that’s over now, is the child gone?” Zander asked as he looked at the falling metal shavings, he presumed them to be from the building, but they were black and shiny, unlike the building’s exterior or interior.

Above them, the boat was rocked by a shockwave, looking up there was a massive explosion, behind it a trail of smoke and death. Rocco’s heart sunk if it wasn’t his building or Adriano’s escape pod, there was only one pod left for it to be.

“No, this can’t be happening. Washington’s gunshot must have compromised the shielding on the craft, fire got in and destroyed the craft from the inside. No one could survive that, not even me.” Rocco said as he realized what had happened. “We need to change this, we need to go back.