Like everyone else that morning, Wagner had thought today would be a great day, due to the weather and all. But as he finished dressing and was ready to go, an alarm suddenly went off sending an ear piercing sound. This type of alarm hadn’t gone off in quite some time. It meant that there was an emergency and all trained recruits were needed.

‘What’s going on?’ he thought. Then, as if on cue, Jake came running into their room.

“Wagner!” cried Jake. “I was wondering where you were?”

“What’s going on?” Wagner asked.

Jake quickly kicked off his sandals and began putting his shoes on, not bothering to put his socks on. “There’s a massacre going on right now at a small island about 20 minutes in the Northeast. The military there need Air Force backup. We need you Wagner. Major General Guile will be leading us.”

Wagner nodded and quickly put on what he needed…his old brown jacket, which had hung from his chair for days. It had been his lucky jacket every time he went on a mission like this one. It was as though his biological father’s spirit was with him.

Soon, he and Jake went into the hallway, where their hall mates began running towards where their jets were. Jake quickly locked the door before he and Wagner began following them.

They soon reached the jets. Wagner spotted Liz just getting ready to go into her jet. “Liz!” Wagner cried out.

Liz heard her name called out. She turned and saw Wagner running over to her. “Scott! What are you-”

Before she could finish, Wagner spoke, “I just want you to be careful, all right?”

A small smirk spread across Liz’s face. “And you be careful too, but I’m sure we’ll both be fine.”

They shared a long, passionate kiss before Wagner headed towards his jet. Once he was there, the aircraft crew helped him up to his jet. He put on his helmet, sat in his seat, and put his oxygen tank on over the lower half of his face. He then turned on the communicator and started up the jet.

Once he was down, he pressed a button on his communicator. “Senior Airman Wagner to Sergeant White, do you copy?”

Then, Wagner heard Cammy’s voice on the other end. “Well Wagner, you made it.”

“Yes I did. I’m just calling to say watch your back.”

“You too Wagner, and don’t do what I wouldn’t do.”

Then, Guile’s voice cut in. “Okay kids, that’s enough chatting. We’ll be heading out once all aircraft is geared and ready.”

“Roger that Major Gen.,” said Wagner.

Once all 50 aircrafts were ready, they began following Guile’s jet out into the Pacific Ocean. Wagner briefly looked down at the ocean admiring it’s beauty.

“We’ll be entering the island from the North,” came Guile’s voice through the communicator. “The enemy will be expecting us to enter through the Southwest.”

“Is it confirmed who the enemy is?” asked Debbie.

“It’s unconfirmed, unfortunately.”

Soon, silence took over except for the sounds of loud engines from the planes. Soon, they reached the island and got their guns and missiles ready, but once they drove over the island…they saw no one…

“Um,” said Jake. “Are you sure this is the place?”

“Oh my God!” cried Liz. “Behind you!”

Suddenly, their heard gunshots and missiles from behind. Some of the Air Force’s planes immediately were shot down. Wagner used a small mirror he had taped on the side to see who was shooting. He was in shock when he saw over a hundred Maroon colored jets shooting at them. He was more shocked when he saw the symbol on the side of their planes…

A golden skull with wings.

Cammy apparently had saw it too because then she cried, “Shadowlaw! Guile, it has been a trap this whole time?”

‘But why?’ Wagner thought. ‘They obviously want something from us…’

Then, his alarm went off. ‘Warning! Missile fired at aircraft! Warning!’

“Crap! I got one after me!” Wagner cried as he forced his jet to fly faster.

As Wagner was being chased down by a missile, the rest of the Air Force began firing at the Shadowlaw planes. Over half of them were taken down within 15 minutes, but there were only 25 Air Force Aircrafts left.

The young Senior Airman came up with a plan to get rid of the missile after him. He brought the nose of his plane down and began heading down to the island below. ‘Hopefully this works…’

Just seconds before the plane would hit the ground, Wagner sharply brought his plane right back up forcing the missile to crash on to the deserted island causing it to explode.

But that would turn out to be Wagner’s disadvantage. The force of the explosion immediately sent Wagner into a spin cycle. He had no other choice but to eject himself out of the plane. He brought down his goggles over his eyes, pressed a button, and was immediately eject out of the plane. Soon enough, his plane crashed into the ocean and exploded.

Wagner pulled a string and his parachute came out slowing down his fall. He was lucky the wind was blowing in a good direction because it pulled Wagner towards the island and he landed there. Once he was settled enough, he let himself fall to the ground and lightly coughed.

“Boy that was fun…” Wagner said.

“It’ll be more fun soon enough,” he suddenly heard followed by a clicking of a gun. “Put your hands where I can see them!”

Wagner followed his orders. Once he did, he stayed as still as possible.

“Stand up!” the voice commanded him. Again, Wagner did as he was told. He then got a better look at everything. He was surrounded by soldiers…in Shadowlaw uniform. For the first time in a very long time, Wagner was full of fear.

“Turn around!” the voice commanded again. Wagner did so and became face to face with a petite young woman. From his studies, he knew she was a doll by her uniform, but it was slightly different. Instead of black, it was dark green. She wore the matching cap on her head and her uniform was a mid-drift shirt, a very short skirt, and leather boots that ended at mid-thigh.

Once Wagner saw the wavy, thick blond hair, it hit him. At one time, he had seen her in one of her flashbacks.

“You,” Wagner muttered. “Who are you?”

“Agent Viper, Shadowlaw, but that’s none of your concern. You will be held hostage with the others until the Los Angeles Air Force meet our demands. Take him away!”

The other Shadowlaw soldiers came from behind him and grabbed him. Along with the others, he was taken into a submarine and were brought to an unknown location. Wagner wondered if he would ever see his loved ones again…the Guiles, Cammy, his friends…

Liz…

Once the LA Air Force lost the remaining Shadowlaw aircrafts, their returned to the base with only 19 jets out of 50, their biggest lost in months. Major General Guile met with General McCall after getting out of his place.

“I don’t know what happened-”

“I only found out right when you were attacked,” said McCall. “I received a call from the leader himself…”

“Bison?”

McCall nodded. A slight chill went up Guile’s spine before McCall continued. “They managed to capture 8 of our troops. That would mean that there were 23 lost. They are holding the eight for ransom.”

“Have they been planning this from the start?” Guile asked.

McCall slowly nodded. “They want 2 billion dollars from us if we want the 8 recruits to be free.”

“WHAT!” Guile cried out. “We don’t even have half of that!”

“I know. We will take action, but the question is, where are they located. We know already that they never stay in one place.” McCall then took out a clipboard with papers and a pen on it. “I’ll get down to it. Right now, record the missing aircrafts.”

Guile nodded and began doing one of the jobs he dreaded. He took down the numbers on the 19 planes including his own. Once that was done, he checked off the aircrafts that were missing. When he got down to the last missing jet, he looked at the name next to it;

Scott Kurt Wagner.

It was as though the entire world stopped. Tears immediately formed in Guile’s eyes as he dropped the pen and clipboard from his hands, and his body slightly shook.

“No, it can’t be, not him…” he muttered.

It was then that Liz, Cammy, Jake, and Debbie came over to Guile with a bit of worry on their faces.

“Major General,” said Liz saluting Guile, who saluted back. “Have you seen Wagner? We’re looking all over for him.”

All Guile could do was look at Liz. When she saw the tears in his eyes, it hit her. Wagner was one of the 31 perished.

“No, no…” Liz muttered covering her mouth with her hands.

“I’m sorry…” said Guile.

Debbie turned to Jake and embraced him. He tried to hold in all of his emotions as he embraced his girlfriend back. Cammy did not say anything and began running out of the area.

“Cammy!” Debbie cried, but Cammy ignored her.

Then, Guile walked over to Liz and embraced her. Immediately, Liz embraced him back and sobbed endlessly in his chest.

Inside, Guile prayed…prayed that Wagner was one of the 8 captured and not one of the 23 dead…

To Chapter Eleven