-PROLOGUE-

As he fed the data regarding his latest arrest into the GP 
Central Computer, Operative A heard a sound like he'd never
heard before. 

As a member of an anthropomorphic species, he was gifted with 
what some of the others on the force mistook as a kind of ESP. 
It wasn't anything supernatural, just a sharply honed set of 
instincts that had built up in his race over the natural course 
of their evolution.

For several minutes, these senses had been alerting him that 
danger was very near. He had ignored them, however. Having just 
been through a particularly nasty experience with a rather 
dangerous criminal, he had chalked it all up to post-assignment 
paranoia.

But that noise told him he'd been wrong, that he should have 
listened to his instincts. He didn't know what it was, just that 
it shouldn't have been happening. 

Then all hell broke loose...

...literally.

Well, perhaps not all of it, and perhaps not hell. But 
considering what did break loose, perhaps all hell would've been 
preferable.

Operative A hadn't known what the previous sound had been since 
he had never heard it before. But he did know that sound of a 
massive explosion, which is precisely what he heard before the 
chaos erupted around him. One of the subspace prisons had 
been...

The thought was barely finished in his mind when he quickly 
switched the computer he was at to the system analysis/back-up 
screen and tried to avert a disaster.

He keyed in his password, a slightly embarrassing (given his 
species) little passage from an Earth book called "Alice In 
Wonderland".  He had just typed in the final "t" when the room 
was filled with random surges of what could best be described as 
sideways lightning. 

He saw a shock wave, like that of a nuclear explosion. Or 
rather, he saw its effects. As it expanded, those who had been 
standing in its path simply winked out of existance.

Rage built up in him as he witness the decimation of the Galaxy 
Police. His comrades, co-workers, their families. evem their 
pets... all of them suddenly gone. The rage built until he could 
no longer contain it. And as he was violently yanked into a 
hellish abyss, it burst from him in a sudden startled scream.


-CHAPTER ONE-


They say that the fall isn't nearly as bad as the landing. That 
saying is quite true. Operative A had first-hand knowledge of 
that fact. He heard a sickening crunch as his shoulder came into 
violent contact with the corner of a building, but only had a 
milisecond to reflect on the pain as his head struck the side of 
the building, knocking him unconscious.

When he came to, kami-sama only knew how much later, he was in a 
small room. He had no idea where he was exactly, but the 
overwhelming sterility of the room and the pungent amonia odor 
suggested that it was either a hospital or a lab.

At first he thought a rescue team had been sent for him and that 
he was back at Headquarters. 

But no, he realized. No one was sending any rescue team. They 
couldn't because they were all dead. Then where was he? How had 
he... 

He was stopped in mid-thought by the sound of approaching 
footsteps. He thought of questioning whoever it was that was 
approaching, but decided against it. Whoever it had been, had 
apparently gone out of his way to isolate him and that was 
usually not a good sign.

He closed his eyes as the door swung, slowly, open. He heard the 
footsteps again, more clearly now. At least more clearly in his 
left ear. To his right ear, they were still terribly fuzzy. He 
ran a quick diagnostic of his implants. All of them seemed to be 
in working order. That meant that the ear itself had been 
damaged. Probably when he'd hit his head. Or perhaps his 'hosts' 
had damaged it somehow? He tried to compensate for the damage by 
boosting implant in that ear.The improvement was minimal, 
however, and since enhancing one implant couldn't be done 
without decreasing the energy relegated to his other implants, 
he reset it back to its original setting. 

The voices that went with the footsteps were both male. Most of 
their discussion had to do with speculations about his origins 
and some paranoid discourse about whether he was an advanced 
scout for an alien invasion fleet. 

The conversation quickly turned into a discussion about 
disection. It was an idea that Operative A did *not* find very 
appealing. He hoped they would break for lunch before beginning. 
But no such luck. 

Fortunately, not all of the needed tools were there. One of the 
two men left the room to retrieve the items that were missing.
As soon as one was out the door, he dropped his pretense at 
unconsciousness. He sprang up from the examining table he'd been 
lying on, leaping instantly into a flying sidekick that knocked 
the remaining man to the ground. His ear twitched as he heard 
the other man's footsteps. Quickly, positioned himself near the 
door so that it would hide him when it opened.

The other man walked in and saw his partner lying on the floor. 
As he rushed over to check on his condition, Operative A emerged 
from behind the door, made sure he wasn't looking, and quickly 
bolted out the room, closing the door behind him and sealing it 
behind him.


As he ran, a voice on the building's intercom alerted anyone 
else who was  there that their 'guest' had escaped and was 
probably running for the exits. It also added that given the 
structure of the exits, it was very unlikely he would escape. 
It added, however, it would be best if he were recaptured as 
soon as possible since he was a dangerous alien.

Operative A had been unconscious when they'd brought him in and
he had no idea where the exit was. After a number of wrong
turns and dead ends, he came to the end of a corridor. He raised 
his cybernetic arm and fired a series of blasts at the wall in a 
circular pattern. Then he backed up several feet and ran toward 
it, diving toward it with his cybernetic arm outstretched, 
putting all his weight, speed, and energy behind it. He felt a 
jarring pain in his injured shoulder. There was an enormous 
cracking sound and then he was falling through the air.

He realized, instantly, that he had completely forgot to check 
which floor he was on. As he fell, he pulled a small fluffy 
pompom from his sleeve and scrunched it in his hand. It 
instantly turned into a small neon pink cube. Down he 
plummetted. He twisted the cube, and a small grappling hook fell 
out the bottom. He twisted his plummetting body so that he was 
now plummetting headfirst rather than backfirst, and prayed he 
wasn't being terribly stupid.  In seconds, he caught up with the 
falling grappling hook. He tied the rope around his waist and 
fired the hook into the runner of a company helicopter. With a 
simple flicker of his IC system, he activated the grapling 
hook's retractor and allowed it to carry him up to the 
helicopter.

Standing on the runner and ducking low to avoid being 
decapitated, he punched through the glass with his cybernetic 
arm and boarded the helicopter.  The pilot turned, a stunned 
look coming over his face. The pilot reached for a gun he kept 
in a holster near his seat, but before the man could fire, 
Operative A fired a blast of his own and the pilot slumped out 
of his seat.

Operative A quickly scrambled into the recently vacated seat and 
fought to bring the helicopter, back into control.It took 
several minutes, but he finally succeeded. he sped off toward 
the mountains. As he arrived, he strapped on a parachute, let 
the helicopter pass the mountains, then turned and headed back. 
He placed the dead pilot in the pilot's chair, tied the controls 
in position, then jumped.

The 'chute opened flawlessly and he drifted down into the 
mountains. Seconds after landing, he heard the nearby explosion 
as the helicopter crashed.