=  Rain falls in real time
       And rain fell through the night
       No dress rehearsals, this is our life
          ("Ahead by a Century"; Tragically Hip)
 

It was raining again.

Gooseman didn't like rain, not in such large quantites every single day. He had been trained to ignore unfriendly conditions while in battle, he'd seen so many different climates during his years of fighting in the borderworlds, but nothing had really prepared him for so much precipitation in one single place. He felt that there was something fundamentally wrong in having rainfall everyday without fail in a city as huge and as advanced as Alpolis.

Furthermore, Alpolis was a dark place. There were very few days in the year when natural sunlight would penetrate the clouds and the pollution to actually illuminate the lower levels of the city. Artificial light reigned supreme here.

Gooseman missed the sun.

He prided himself in his adaptability, his malleability; the knack he had for adapting to any situation and any change in his surroundings. It was a SuperTrooper hallmark, after all. But there was something cloying and oppressive about this place. He felt as though there were invisible bars around him, that there were eyes watching him even when he knew for a fact that there weren't. It was like a prison to a being who had spent more than half his life among the stars.

He'd found it unexpectedly hard to fit in here -- not that he could ever 'fit in' with humans. Still, he wondered how the inhabitants of this city could stand living like this day in and day out. Despite himself, he found that he was beginning to feel a sense of admiration for them.

He heard the creaking of the floorboards behind him, followed by a low curse. Gooseman grinned to himself and said, "Better learn to watch where you're stepping, 'Ray. A Plago in platform shoes could've walked a lot quieter than you."

"Do me a favour and die, will you, runt?"

Gooseman turned to face his fellow SuperTrooper, ignoring the other's barb. Stingray was, to his displeasure, alone. "Where's Chimera?" he demanded.

Stingray scowled like thunder. "What am I, her keeper?" he sneered, but went on to reply, "She's still hanging around the damned leisure sector."

Gooseman shook his head, irritated, but amused. He found it odd that a 'Trooper of Chimera's level of experience would actually stop to gawk and gape at the various 'recreational' activities in the leisure sector like a kid seeing the world for the first time.

Then again, he thought to himself, this is the first time any of us has ever been able to see Earth like this. Before he'd become a rogue, Gooseman had only known Earth as the planet on which he'd been created, and moulded. This was the first time any of them had ever had the opportunity to roam like this.

Darkstar entered the room, frowning. "It looks like our free time is coming to a close," she said.

"Hunters?" Gooseman asked.

She nodded. "Nagata's finally got his team ready."

Gooseman nodded. "We'll wait until Chimera gets here." He went over to her, then leaned in close. "Did you manage to get a look at our hunters?" he whispered.

She shook her head. "No, not really." She gave him a look, then added, "I think you'd be very interested in hearing about one of them in particular, though."

Puzzled, but patient, Gooseman nodded. "Now, if Chimera would be so good as to show her face, we can begin."

The words had barely left his mouth when Chimera stepped into the room. "Ask and ye shall receive, Gooseman," she said softly.

Gooseman hid a smile. He'd done right in choosing Chimera to join. She wasn't as difficult to deal with as Stingray, although even he would be hard-pressed to say that she followed his every command willingly. Still, he felt confident with his plans as long as Chimera and Darkstar were with him. He looked to each member of his group first before turning to Darkstar. "Okay, 'Star," he said. "What've you got?"

"I spoke to my friend in WolfDen," Darkstar began. "Nagata had two pairs of Hunters visit him today. The first pair came in the early morning. They were in the old man's office for a while."

"Any idea on what they talked about?"

"Besides the obvious?" she asked, smiling wryly. "No."

Gooseman felt slightly disappointed, but he'd been expecting it. "Go on."

"The two Hunters left the office, then began to set up equipment in one of the building's interviewing chambers. They've been screening WolfDen employees ever since."

"What about the other two?" Gooseman asked when Darkstar paused a moment.

"They came in the late afternoon, spoke to Nagata, downloaded some stuff from the main databanks, then left."

Chimera spoke up, "It's safe to assume that the second pair will be the ones coming after us first."

Gooseman nodded. "The interviews being done must be to flush out any more possible infiltrators among the WolfDen employees; maybe even to find out if any of them know anything about us." He looked at Darkstar. "Is there any chance of your friend being found out?"

She shook her head. "No. She's safe."

"Okay. In any case, I think we can ignore the first pair of Hunters for a while. It'll take them time to finish up their work in the WolfDen building itself."

"So that leaves us with the other jolly pair," 'Ray commented. Turning to Darkstar, he asked, "What did they look like?"

"A man and a woman," Darkstar replied. "I'm afraid I don't know much about the woman. She's about my height, average weight, and has blonde hair." She looked apologetic for a moment, then went on. "My friend couldn't really get anything else since she hadn't exactly seen the woman with her own eyes. We might be able to find out a bit more if we ask the right people, though."

Gooseman frowned. "See to it," he told her. "What about the man?"

To his surprise, Darkstar smiled. "Him, I can tell you more about. His name's Zachary Foxx. He's probably slightly smaller than you," she indicated the blond SuperTrooper, "brown hair and baby blues. From what my friend had heard, he's been around the Hunter units for quite a while."

Chimera shook her head. "Zachary Foxx...," she muttered. "The name sounds familiar."

"It should," Darkstar said. "He's the one who did the recent Olymph 'Trooper in."

The other 'Trooper frowned, then nodded slowly. "Yeah. I remember him now. I saw his face on one of the newsvids a couple of days ago."

"That's probably the only useful thing you've learnt from the idiot vid, Chimera," 'Ray sneered.

Chimera growled, but refrained from replying.

"They'll probably take a day or two to go through all the files they downloaded from WolfDen," Darkstar continued, more from a desire to distract the two older 'Troopers from arguing than anything else. "So, we have a day's grace at least."

"Chimera?" Gooseman asked softly.

She gave a last glare at Stingray, who all but ignored it, and replied. "I found out where Sawyer's staying. Get this, he's not in the WolfDen executive blocks at all."

"Where is he, then?"

"Sawyer lives in one of those old places in Sector 25; a real dump of an area."

"What?" Stingray snorted. "No swanky apartment?"

Darkstar asked, "Isn't Sector 25 one of those areas that's supposed to be scrapped and rebuilt over?"

Chimera nodded and allowed herself a smile. "I guess Sawyer's lucky that the bureaucratic procedures here take so damn long, otherwise he'd be out of a home. At any rate, it seems that he and Nagata don't quite agree on certain things, so he likes to stay as far as possible from the old man while still being able to qualify as a WolfDen exec."

"Then Gunnar's trip into WolfDen main itself was for nothing," Gooseman muttered.

"Nice call, Gooseman." Stingray snickered.

Ignoring his colleague, Gooseman turned his attention back to Chimera. "What are the conditions like in Sector 25?"

She shrugged. "There's virtually nothing there that can pose a danger to us. It's just a lot of old abandoned buildings, slums, and lots of transients. They won't bother us."

He nodded, mulling it over. "Sawyer himself?" he asked. "Tell me about him."

Chimera leaned back, her eyes drawing shut, then replied, "Idealistic, but very bitter. According to my sources, he had really believed all the good hype about the SuperTrooper program once. He'd been Nagata's golden boy some fifteen years back. Had a permanent residence in the executive blocks -- just one level below Nagata's, in fact. He hung around the old man a lot. There was talk that Nagata was planning on leaving everything to Sawyer once he kicked the bucket."

"Sounds like the perfect kind of life," Stingray commented. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Chimera admitted. "There've been a lot of rumours and speculation, but nothing concrete. What is known, however," she went on, "was that nine years ago, Sawyer suddenly vanished from all good society. They say it was a kidnapping. WolfDen got the entire enforcement subdiv to launch a search for him, but nothing turned up.

"Two weeks later, Sawyer reappeared, a little worn but otherwise unharmed. They say he was a changed man after that two week disappearance. The word around WolfDen main is that he and Nagata got into the mother of all disagreements shortly after his return. Sawyer left the executive blocks a few days after that and got himself that place in Sector 25. He's rarely seen with Nagata anymore, and he does all his work at home; he's hasn't set foot in WolfDen main ever since."

"Interesting," Darkstar muttered. "Did Sawyer ever say what happened to him during the two weeks he was gone?"

Chimera shook her head. "No. He never said a word about it."

Stingray suddenly laughed, breaking the sombre atmosphere of the room. "Well, that's just fine, ain't it?" he snickered. "Looks like our 'one hope' is nothing but useless meat!"

Gooseman frowned. "Let her finish, 'Ray."

The older SuperTrooper ignored him. "Why the hell are you so worried about Sawyer, anyway? We just need to get to Nagata and finish him. Simple!"

Gooseman, with a somewhat visible effort, reined in his own retort. "It's not so simple as that, 'Ray. We need to get to Nagata, true; but we're not going to kill him."

Stingray laughed even harder. "And you think Sawyer's going to get you to the old guy? They're barely even on speaking terms! Weren't you listening at all, runt?"

"Stingray...," Darkstar began before Gooseman cut her off.

"Let him say what he wants to say, Darkstar." He turned to Stingray and waited.

The senior 'Trooper shook his head. "I don't believe this. We have a golden opportunity to eliminate Nagata once and for all, and all you're worried about is some piddling geneticist?" He glared at Gooseman. "You actually believe that stuff you said before, about getting more life? Is that it?"

"Yes."

The casual way in which Gooseman replied only seemed to make Stingray angrier. He gritted his teeth, looking more feral by the minute. "Then you're deluded!" he shouted. "There's no way we can live any more than the time they've given us!"

"You don't know that," Gooseman said.

"Yes, I do! And so would you, if you'd only look for the answers in the right places!" Stingray retorted. "This plan of yours is stupid. Nothing but a wild goose chase," he added, not even amused at his own pun.

"And what would you have us do, 'Ray?" Gooseman asked, softly. "Kill Nagata. How? And if -- by some miracle -- we do just that, what next? Just lie down and wait to die?"

"At least that would be preferable to wasting what's left of our existences chasing after fairy tales! More life," he snorted, then turned to the others. "What about you two? Do you believe in what he says?"

"No," Chimera replied, hardly batting an eyelid. "But then I don't really know if it's true or not. If it is, then all the better. If not, well..." She shrugged casually again. "At least I'll be able to get in range to the old man and let him know just how much I appreciate him." Chimera smiled, and there was nothing remotely nice about her expression.

Stingray sneered and looked to Darkstar. "And you?"

She was silent for a long while, glancing at both Stingray and Gooseman before finally replying, "Yes. I believe him."

Stingray threw his hands up in disgust. "Go ahead, then. Follow him. You'll just wind up losing what's left of your own pathetic lives." He straightened and made his way out the door.

There was silence as the SuperTrooper's footsteps gradually faded away, muffled by the increasing distance between them.

Finally, long after Stingray had gone, Gooseman faced Chimera. "Why didn't you go with him?"

"I had no reason to follow him," she replied.

"But you don't believe in what I said," he pointed out.

"Is that supposed to be important?" she asked in return. "You have my loyalty, Gooseman; you don't need my faith."

He looked at her sadly, but nodded. "I understand." Drawing himself up, he took a deep breath and held it for a moment. "Tell me about Sawyer's work."

*****

He found Stingray two hours later, up on the roof of the old tri-D cinema. The older SuperTrooper stood boldly at the very edge of the roof, seemingly careless about the rain and the dangerous drop just in front of him.

Gooseman approached him carefully, but was unsurprised when he heard Stingray call his name.

"What do you want with me now, runt?" he asked, not even bothering to look at him.

Gooseman stood where he was, just shy of five feet from the other. If he had the inclination to, he reflected later on, he had the perfect opportunity to put Stingray away for good.

"Are you sure this is what you want, 'Ray?" he asked.

Stingray chuckled. "What are you so upset about? I'm out of your hair for good. You can go your way, I'll go mine. And you have Darkstar all to yourself now," he added a moment later.

"Stingray..."

"Tell me, Gooseman," he interrupted, "just how are you going to convince Sawyer to help you? I mean, I hardly think he's going to do it out of the kindness of his heart, after all."

"Sawyer's different, 'Ray. He's not like the others."

"Oh, and I suppose you'd know, wouldn't you?" Stingray asked snidely. "He's no different from the rest of them. You only hope that he's different."

"He practically raised me," Gooseman insisted.

"And you think that entitles you to his help?" Stingray said incredulously. He shook his head. "You're even more deluded than I thought."

They were silent for several minutes. Finally, Gooseman asked, "What are you going to do, 'Ray?"

"I'll do what I set out to do."

"Kill him."

"Yes. Do you remember what our instructors used to say?"

Gooseman nodded, though Stingray couldn't see it. "'The completion of a mission is your purpose in life. Everything else is a poor second,'" he thought aloud.

"Exactly," Stingray replied, and Gooseman was surprised to hear the faint ring of approval in his voice. "I may hate Nagata and WolfDen for making me the way I am, but, in the end, I am what I am," Stingray mused. "He'll only have himself to blame."

"You'll be a murderer," Gooseman said.

"No, I'll be their murderer. You still don't understand, do you?"

"No, I don't." He shook his head, helplessly. He didn't like this feeling at all. It went against everything that he'd been raised to feel.

He paused at the thought. All that I'd been raised to feel... All that I'd been taught to do. He looked down at himself, and thought, Whatever I am, whatever I've done, I can't excuse it all. I had no idea that I had a choice.

And quite suddenly, he began to understand. He didn't like what it meant.

Stingray nodded, even though Gooseman hadn't said a word. Smiling lightly, he began to walk away, but paused a moment. "Runt."

It took a second for Gooseman to realise that he'd spoken. "What is it?"

"For what it's worth, good luck." And with that, he vanished into the night.

* * * * *