Phoenix Squad Part 1

They had no idea what they had just walked into. A simple routine search they were told, nothing to serious. All of it was a lie. In ancient Greece the Scythians would sacrifice a prisoner of war to the God Ares, that's what these people were, nothing but a sacrifice to bloodshed, violence and war. Moving in strategic squad formation covering each other as they move forward, they entered the warehouse.

Taking charge of the squad was ex-SAS Staff Sergeant John Burd who led the way, next to him was his second in command ex-Navy SEAL Lacey Barnes the first and only female Navy SEAL in history. Behind them were ex-Spetsnaz Lenka Volkov, ex-707^th Special Mission Battalion Hana Sang and covering the rear was ex-Mercenary from the Army Rangers Hayden Bennett. This group has been together for a few years now and to some they are known as the best but what was ahead of them may be too much even for them.

As they moved through the entrance to the warehouse John signalled each to follow and remain in formation as they searched the building starting at the offices near the entrance, they swept them thoroughly with speed, not a trace of life was seen so they moved onto the main floor of the warehouse. Swiftly moving through the corridor leading up to the main floor John could hear some kind of muffled sound ahead so he slowed the pace and signalled the others to move with caution, Lacey knew something was up as she could see the confusion in John's eyes and she could also hear the sound however the others, could not. At the entrance to the main floor John stopped turned back to his team and crouched low so the others followed suit. In a whispered tone he spoke “There is something up ahead, I can't make out the sound so proceed with caution and move in formation Echo-7. Understood!” In unison he got his acknowledgement gripped the door handle, then cautiously entered the main floor.

Splitting off into two units John commanded the unit to the left and Lacey the unit to the right, John took Hayden as he was the most efficient after Lacey, this was formation Echo-7. They hastened around the aisles searching for anything suspicious, John stops, the sound is stronger but it still doesn't sound like any known pronunciation. Turning around to face Hayden he speaks in a hushed voice “Can you hear the sound?” Hayden looks back with confusion in his eyes and replies “What sound, I can't hear anything?” Only John can hear the sound but he knew he was not crazy as Lacey acknowledged the sound as well so he just replies “There’s something here,” then continues on.

To the right is Lacey and her unit proceeding with caution as told, each aisle they pass is the same; no signs of life or disturbance until a light appears further ahead, The closer they get the brighter it is but it flickers like a flame. Without a word they move closer and then the sound starts to become louder to Lacey but she keeps moving forward. “Ahhh!” From behind Hana drops to her knees holding her head in her hands and screams. “Ahhh it hurts, it hurts! The pain, make it stop! Please mak...” Swiftly Lacey turns grabs Hana around the mouth and holds her tight but it's too late as the light burns brighter now and the noise is even louder. They have been compromised.

On the left side John and Hayden hear the scream and now see the light, without turning to Hayden a distressed John pounces through the aisles and shouts behind “We got to regroup!” so Hayden follows. With each aisle the burning light and gibberish sound grow stronger, when suddenly another scream this time a fighters roar “Get away or I'll rip your throat out!” John understands the voice to be Volkov the behemoth Russian but he can't tell what is happening he is to far away. “Come any closer and there'll be a body bag for you!” this time it's Lacey and now John is worried, when Lacey loses it that means the trouble is titanic. With one aisle left John raises his gun to take aim and ready himself for the enemy but what he sees is nothing he could have expected. This is something he could only see in his nightmares.

Lying on the floor was Hana holding her head writhing back and forth in pain, next to her was Volkov on his knees petrified with a look of terror on his face. The behemoth being reduced to this state was a bad enough view but then there was Lacey being raised up off the ground by her throat struggling uselessly to fight against The Monster holding her. John horrified by the scene before him raises his gun aiming at The Monster's head “Put her down now!” Lacey squirms trying to release herself but this does nothing except bring her closer to losing conscious. Hayden caught up to John but he didn't look at the scene in front of him, he looked at the one thing John missed and that is the burning flame.

Hayden pats his hand on John's shoulder then points to the burning flame and whispers, “John, what is that?” The fear in Hayden's voice caught John's attention more than the words, then as he looked he saw what he missed. Something unimaginable was right in front of his eyes a burning flame that held life, well at least he thought it was a flame at first. With a more focused look he noticed what it actually was, with two outstretched wings, sharp piecing talons, emerald green eyes, a fierce beak and a size larger than an eagle all of this with feathers emanating burning flames. This was a real phoenix.

Now the fear took over John not because of the mythical creature or the monster holding Lacey or the fact that his team had broken down, the fear was caused by the black symbol embedded on the phoenix's wing. That symbol was a mark he could never forget as it's something he was marked with also. He looks at the monster holding Lacey and now he fears this monster but he still won't back down not when his unit is danger. Once again he raised his weapon to The Monster and spoke “I told you to put her down.” The Monster cackled then dropped Lacey to the ground, Hayden scurried to drag her from the reach of The Monster. The Monster had a mask covering his head it looked like pieces of skin sown together with different animal teeth. “What a coincidence that there should be a real phoenix here with the same mark as you John 'Phoenix' Burd. It seems like this was all planned. What do you think?” John not knowing what to think as no one alive should know about his mark not even Lacey. “Who are you and how do you know about the mark?”

“Well the answer is that this is all planned. It's been planned all by me. You and your squad were mean to come here all so I cou....”

“STOP THE BULLSHIT! WHO ARE YOU!” John shouting ferociously at The Monster, rage now piercing his calm exterior. “As always your very impatient Phoenix, if you wait until I'm finished then you would find out. Now where was I? Oh yea, you were all meant to come here so I could meet you.” The monster has no care for the rage John shows as he just continues on at his own pace he even moves closer to John. “Who. Are. You.” John takes one step toward The monster with each word until they stand toe-to-toe.

Lacey starts standing up but is still a bit unsteady on her feat so she leans on Hayden's shoulder for the support.  Volkov and Hana still remain in the same position, something ingrained into their depths keeping them from returning to the proper state of mind.  Hayden turns to Lacey with the look of despair in his eyes which took over Volkov, Lacey knows what happened to Volkov so she can't let that happen to Hayden.  She reaches onto her thigh pulls free her blade and jabs it straight into his shoulder.  Hayden's eyes widened and lost the despair but replaced it with pain of the piercing blade stuck in his shoulder,  “Damn that hurts, what are you doing?”  Hayden asks Lacey as he pulls the blade out of himself.

Hayden has been stabbed before so he knows the feeling of it from previous experience but that still doesn't dull the pain.  Lacey replies with a smile on her face “You were going to turn out like Volkov so I had to do something to stop that from happening.  Pain was the best choice.”  Hayden angered by what she did had no idea how to argue with her especially after seeing the state of Volkov so just wiped the blade on her vest then handed it back to her.  “This is a bad situation here, John never gets like this.  There has to be something we can do Lacey.”  A ping of guilt ran through Lacey as Hayden spoke as she knew that their strength was no where near what was needed.  “We can hope.  Hope that John can do something because Volkov was crushed without being touched and then entered that state he's in.  Then when I thought I had a chance he went from being five feet away to me being held by my throat in the air.  So whatever happens next all we can do is hope.”  Defeat was all that was seen in Lacey but she kept standing firm watching John and trying to keep the belief that he can do something but how long that would last was just ticking away.

John standing toe-to-toe with The Monster ready for a fist fight may not have been the best option as he had no knowledge of how powerful The Monster could be but the mystery of who he was overpowered any sense he had.  “Who are you under that damn mask!”  Even though John's voice was calmer and quieter it held more contempt than when he roared.  This made The Monster chuckle, then he reached up and pulled the mask from the bottom of his head to the top until it was completely removed and there he stood exposed in front of the unit.  John threw himself back falling to the ground and even then he scurried back further until his back hit something solid, his breathing was erratic, palms sweaty and he felt the room closing in.  John was experiencing a panic attack.  Never in his life has he experienced a panic attack and he has been through many different wars and seen numerous scenes that would mentally scar people for life but none of that can compare to him what he just saw.  “What's the matter John?  Don't you like what you see?  You wanted to see who I was didn't you. Bwahahaha.”  The exposed Monster was enjoying the sight of John quivering on the ground.  “Y..Y..You're dead.  I saw you die in front of my eyes.  There's no way you could be alive.”  The walls of John's mind start to unravel as The Monster standing before him is something impossible to John and nothing is impossible to John.      

He slowly gets to his feet grabbing a piece of metal so he can keep upright, he speaks again “How are you alive?  I held your dead body full of burns, holes and blood in my arms.  I even buried you”  John now more agitated as he speaks now shouts at The grinning Monster “YOU CAN NOT BE ALIVE TAG!!!”

“I am very much alive and more powerful than I could ever have imagined.  Now I'm powerful enough to make them all pay.”  Tag confused John with what he said, who could he possibly make pay.  “What are you talking about?  Make who pay Tag?”  The grin on Tag's face grew to a crooked and unearthly grimace and then he spoke with an indescribable evil in his voice.

“Everyone!”

         

The sound of his voice frightened John, this is not the Tag he once knew, this is something different. Now more steady on his feet John moved closer and challenged Tag's response. “What could you possibly have against everyone? That's crazy!” To his squad he looked brave and unwavering but he was actually scared and afraid.  His hand was closed up into a fist but not to fight it's to keep the sweat in his palm from showing and he squeezed it tight to stop the shaking. Even though he was scared like never before he still stood his ground against Tag.

Tag looked at him with disgust at the question he just asked, as if John should already know the answer. He spoke back nice and calmly, “Crazy. No John, crazy is finding out the truth and not doing anything about it!” Tag now gets more agitated and the phoenix next to him starts to burn stronger and hotter. Then he roars, “THEY SENT ME TO MY DEATH!!!” On instinct John took a step back, raised his gun up and aimed it at Tag's face. His finger was on the trigger but he hesitated to pull it as this is still the Tag he once knew. The one he treated like a brother and the one he saw die. John will soon learn he is wrong.

“Hahahaha! Hahahaha!” Tag was laughing at John. He was amused by the thought that John could hurt him with a pistol. “Now John we both know you're not going to pull the trigger. You can't shoot me.” John's finger was still on the trigger but he was still hesitant as he knew Tag was speaking the truth so he slowly lowered his gun to his side. John desperately believes the person he once knew is still in there no matter how he acts at the moment. “What happened to you Tag? We were brothers. We counted on each other and now you're here saying this was a trap so you could meet us. What is going on Tag?” Concern was written all over John's face but Tag couldn't care. He moved closer to John then erupted again, “What happened!! What happened!! YOU LEFT ME TO DIE!!! You my brother, LEFT ME TO DIE. THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED!!!” Fury raced through Tag and John could feel it. The air started to burn as the phoenix blazed ferociously however Tag was the only one there who ignored it. John started feeling that the old Tag may not be there but he still held a little ray of hope that his feeling was wrong. John's feelings were hardly ever wrong.

Volkov started to gain some motion in his body and tried to move but most of his body was still in a petrified state. Hayden knelt down next to him to try helping him up, this did not go well. When Hayden touched Volkov a shock ran through both of them. Hayden got knocked backwards and landed on his back while Volkov stayed petrified but he started to mumble. Lacey ran to help Hayden get up and there were no reactions with each other. Panicked at what she saw just happen she grabs Hayden by both shoulders not remembering the stab wound she created. This made Hayden flinch and yelp at her touch causing an immediate release of his shoulders. “I'm sorry about that. I forgot.” Lacey spoke sincerely unlike when she would usually cause him pain. Hayden laughed it off but he was in more pain than what the stab wound caused. That shock did something to him. Lacy noticed the difference in which Hayden stood but she was more focused on Volkov and what he was mumbling so she walked close to him and knelt down.

After seeing what happened to Hayden she made sure not to touch him. Instead she tries to talk to him, “Volkov what are you saying?”  Volkov turned to face Lacey still mumbling quietly but with him this close she could here him. “I've seen it. We will die. It's going to kill us. Everyone will fall at the end.” A frightened Volkov is never a good thing but a crazy, out of his mind Volkov is something thought to be impossible. Never before has Lacey seen Volkov like this, it almost makes her touch him for comfort until she remembers what happened to Hayden.  Instead she stood back up and moved near Hayden to notice he was panting and unsteady on his feet. That's when the light went out of him. Hayden dropped unconscious to the ground and Volkov followed.