Savvy, Part Five (at long last. Yeesh.)

Yes, I finally sat down and finished this. It's... long. Very long. And it was going to be even LONGER, but then I realized that I had three pages and counting and I was like O.o... never mind.

This time: We get to follow Timo as he demonstrates his ninja skillz and saves Baeli from Certain Death! Muaa. And then Baeli, being her awesome self, turns around and saves his butt right back.

Part Five: Timo
Disclaimer: Derek, Timo, Jakky, Baeli and Cricket (and the briefly mentioned front desk lady) are mine... but nothing else is.

Even though I ran all the way from my cube in Data Central, I barely made it into the Hub ahead of the lockdown sequence. By the time I got there, slightly out of breath, the doors were closing. Drat. In an unorthodox maneuver that I hadn’t had the chance to rehearse previously, I completely skipped the authorization phase and dove over the door, rolling into a crouch on the other side. Behind me, I heard the whistle and bang of the sleeper cannons firing. I ignored them and made for Baeli’s station, grinning to myself. Ha. Missed me, cannons.
Derec had miraculously beaten me there. He was already peering at Baeli’s computer screen, head cocked in confusion.
I jogged up and peered with him. “Hey, guys, find anything?”
Baeli scrunched her nose up in a frustrated scowl, fingers flying over the keys. “No. Derec was just asking me the same thing. And the answer, unfortunately, is the same.”
“Where’s Jakky?” Derec asked suddenly, twisting in his seat to look at me. “Last thing I heard, he was still in the chem lab with the Professeur. Did he get here or no?”
I conducted a quick visual scan of the Hub. Nowhere in the confusion of technicians and agents and humming machinery did I see my friend or his mentor. “Guess not. I don’t see him.”
Derec made a face. “Darn. I thought he could’ve made it. The chem lab is pretty close to here.”
“Well, I don’t see him,” I repeated. He must not have made it in. I frowned, worried. “Maybe I should go look for him.”
S.P. Onage jogged up to us, his new cadet trailing behind him. “Timo, do me a favor and keep an eye on Cricket for me. Show her the Hub. Don’t let her get into trouble.”
The cadet pouted and crossed her arms. “Trouble? Me? Since when do I get in trouble?”
I rolled my eyes at Derek behind the cadet’s back. This was not going to be fun. “Sure. Stick close to me, Cadet, and I’ll show you around.” I am definitely going to regret this.
Onage strode away, barking orders to various technicians and the more lowly agents. I got the feeling he was glad to be rid of his new cadet for a while. Blowing out a sigh, I beckoned Cricket toward Baeli’s tech station. Derek scootched his chair over so she could see the screen. Baeli ignored us all, clacking keys at a furious speed.
“Cadet, this is Derek Andy and Baeli Jones. I’m Timo,” I said. “Baeli’s our software specialist. Find anything, Bae?”
“Actually… yes,” she said slowly. Her eyes grew wide behind her glasses. “The one place I didn’t think to check…”
“Guys! G-guys!” Jakky ran up to us, puffing for breath and waving his arms. “Get under the d-desk! L-like, n-n-n-now!”
The cadet gave him a critical once-over. “Who’s the nutcase?”
“That’s Jakky.” I flapped a distracted hand in the cadet’s direction, then addressed Jakky with some concern. “What’s up? We didn’t see you and the Professeur come in. What kept you?”
Jakky’s eyes were even wider than Baeli’s. He stuffed the cadet under Baeli’s desk, stuttering, “W-we ran into the f-front desk lady on the w-way h-h-here –“
“The ceiling!” Baeli screamed. “They’re coming in through the –“
All of a sudden, the Hub exploded.
The ceiling fractured into a zillion pieces that began to fall the dozens of feet to the floor. The world shook. I was hurled onto my face. People were screaming as large chunks of ceiling came hurtling down towards us, along with a swarm of men in black jumpsuits on rappelling cables. I rolled onto my back in time to see the giant slab of concrete that was about to land on top of me.
Acting on instinct, I reached out and grabbed Baeli, who had landed near me, and hurled both of us out of the way. The debris crashed down behind us, the shockwave of its impact knocking us flat again. I lurched to my feet, Baeli’s stiff, frightened body clutched to my chest. The long row of desks, just a few feet away, was largely buried under ceiling detritus, but I staggered to it anyway and crawled under Baeli’s cubicle. Cricket was there, cowering back into the cramped space, her small face pale. I set Baeli down.
“Baeli, are you okay? Baeli!”
Her glasses were broken. A shallow cut scored one cheekbone. She wiped away the trickle of blood with a shaking hand. “I… yeah. I’m okay. Where are the others?”
Another explosion rocked the Hub as damaged electronic equipment blew. On the desk above us, the computer monitor sparked out with a startling bang. The cadet jumped and screamed, high and shrill. “I’ll be back,” I said, and ducked out into the chaos again. Immediately, I dove for the nearest pile of shattered concrete as a Nastonian in a black jumpsuit aimed a projectile weapon at me. I heard the bullet slam into the other side of the pile, and dashed towards the center of the Hub. The six-foot holographic globe that normally dominated the space was flickering precariously, sparks flying from the projectors beneath it. A hand clamped down on my arm and yanked me down beside the projector base.
“What’s going on? Where’s my cadet?” Onage demanded, crushing my upper arm in his steely grip. “Is she safe?”
“For now, sir,” I replied, trying not to wince. “She and Baeli are under Baeli’s desk. I don’t get how all these Nasties –“
Onage jerked me to the side as another bullet shattered the plastoid next to my head. Chips of it stung my face. “The roof,” Onage said briefly. The robot half of his face looked no different than normal, but his human eyebrow was hooded in a fierce scowl of… pain?
I noticed the dark bloodstain marring the leg of his pants. “Sir, you’re injured…”
“Same darned leg,” he grunted with the barest trace of humor. “Now get on back there and keep Cricket safe. Go!”
He hurled me away from him, out into the melee. Glancing over my shoulder as I dodged flying bullets and broken concrete, I saw Onage grappling with a Nastie, the two of them rolling over each other in the mess of papers and debris that blanketed the floor. I debated for a split second, then decided that Onage could handle himself. I turned back around and ran smack into a Nastonian.
The man grunted and swung the butt of his tri-mode rifle at me as he stumbled back. I ducked under the swing and knife-kicked him in the knee, then flipped out of the way as he toppled with another grunt. “You Nasties don’t have a very big vocabulary, do you?” I said, relieving him of his gun.
As I ran back to the desk, I fiddled with the Nastie weapon and set it to sleeper mode. The next Nastie that took aim at me was gonna get knocked into next week.
Baeli had gotten hold of a laptop somehow and was clacking away at it with a fury. Cricket peered over her shoulder. I slid into the space beside them, still clutching the rifle. “S.P. wanted me to come back here, so I didn’t get the chance to look for Jak and Rex. You two okay?”
“Fine, thanks,” Baeli replied, squinting through her cracked glasses at the screen. “I’m trying to get the internal sleepers online… but the password’s changing every thirty seconds… so every time I’m close to cracking it –“
“Whoa, every how many seconds?”
“Thirty. It’s security protocol.”
A spray of bullets hammered into the side of the desk. “Just a sec,” I said, and crawled out of the space.
A pair of Nasties were firing slugs into the desk frame. I nailed one with a sleeper burst from my rifle and sailed into the other feet first. He went down with me standing on his chest. The first guy snored beside him.
I was so busy feeling good about myself that I failed to notice the gun barrel poking me in the back of the head for a good five seconds. “Where is it?” demanded the Nastie standing behind me. “Tell me where it is, or I’ll shoot!”
I may have some skills, but I’m not stupid. I dropped my rifle and watched it clatter on the floor. “Where’s what?”
“The Specimen!” the guy shouted. “Where is the Specimen?”
I wondered if I was going to get any help getting this guy off me. Glancing around, I realized that the fight was as good as over. Black suits were everywhere, herding our people into groups, gesturing with rifle barrels. I was very conscious of the barrel jammed to the base of my neck as I carefully answered, “I have no clue what you’re talking about, I swear. Seriously. I’ve never heard of this Specimen thing.”
I heard a click. “Tell me where it is NOW.”
Oh, crap. Clicking is usually not good. It usually means a weapon is being cocked, or something equally frightening. I felt my shoulders tense.
The next thing I knew, there was a whistle and a bang behind me. The Nastie grunted, and the cold metal of the gun barrel fell away from my neck. I twisted around in time to see the black suit slump to the floor, unconscious. Confused, I scanned the rest of the Hub… and watched in complete disbelief as every single Nastie on the premises crumpled to the ground.
Baelie scrambled out from under her mangled desk with Cricket on her heels. The cadet punched a fist into the air. “Yeah, take that, stinking Nasties!”
Ah. That explained things. “I take it you got the internal sleepers working,” I remarked to Baeli, prodding the senseless black suit at my feet with a toe. She nodded, straight-faced, pushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes. “How’d you guess?”

*danves* Go Baeli, go Baeli, uh-huh, what now! Does she not pwn you all with her madskillz? Anyway, this is only a slight cliffie. What Specimen was that Nastie yammering about, I wonder?

Yo, Lady Arin... would you happen to know when Miss Jasper's birthday is?

Commander Kip
We're gonna need a bigger jail...
Normal is overrated!