*** PART TWO ***

SEE DISCLAIMER IN PART ONE

*Round Robin*: SECOND SEASON Part 2

* The Game's Afoot *

by Elad Haber

"But she was just here!" Hawkes shouted, pointing his gun at the floor.

"Yeah," West agreed. "We saw her too. Which means she's somewhere around here." Collectively, the eyes of Cooper Hawkes, Nathan West, Tina Pearson, William Saunders, and Jensen Micheals, went to the two doors on both sides of the corridor.

"Hawkes, West, your left. Everyone else, with me on the right," Pearson ordered. Tiny globs of sweat sat on her forehead. They all nodded and opened their respective doors. Hawkes and West entered the lab, their weapons oustretched in front of them. The lab was dark, the glowing blue light from the tables was the only illumination. Glasses, viles, and various scientific 'stuff' filled the top of the tables in a jumbled mess.

Hawkes continued between the tables, with West watching his back. They aimed their weapons at everything as they sweeped the room in a huge circle, when suddenly a dart flew straight past Hawkes and hit a glass jar, shattering it and spilling a dark purple liquid over the table. They jumped on the floor quick. Another dart hit the wall next to West. They huddled up against a table and exchanged a glance, then, in perfect unison, jumped up and began firing darts across the room. The sound of glass shattering echoed through the dark room in ten second intervals.

Suddenly, movement! They fixed on the sudden movement and fired four darts at the wall.

"Damn!" Hawkes yelled as he got up and ran into the middle of the room. West followed until they reached the center of the lab. Broken glass and liquid covered the once clean floors. They moved their weapons across the room, searching everywhere but..nothing.

From out of nowhere, a flash of light hit them. They quickly moved their hands, and guns, to protect their eyes. When they regained vision, they looked ahead to see the door to the lab closing. They quickly rushed into the corridor to find, again, nothing.

"Crap!" Hawkes screamed, his voice echoing in the empty corridor. "How'd she do that?"

West sighed and grabbed his comm. "This is West."

"Pearson here," the female voice from the comm said.

"We had her, but we lost her!" West said sympathetically. From the comm, he heard Pearson sigh.

"Damn. Oh well, there's no one here-" she said, when the sound of dart guns firing came through the comm.

Quickly, Hawkes and West dashed through the door on the other side of the hall and then into a supply room, then down another corridor to an intersection of four corridors, all going in different directions.

"Which way?" Hawkes asked through heavy breaths.

West looked down at his comm. "Pearson, ya there?!" he yelled into it.

"She got nailed," said Micheals as he and Saunders ran through a corridor towards Hawkes and West. "It was Dembicki, he came up right behind us."

"We were running after him," Saunders explained. "When he ran through here. Did you see him?"

"No," West said. "We just got here too."

"So," Hawkes said slowly. "Now what do we do?"

"You die!" came a voice from behind him and a barrage of darts hit the intersection, everyone jumped down to the floor and looked at every direction.

"There!" Micheals shouted and everyone looked to the north to see Dembicki coming out for cover behind an alcove. Hawkes, West, and Micheals fired darts at him as he turned to head back into cover, but was then hit by two darts in the back.

"Yes!" Hawkes shouted. Everyone got up. Everyone except Saunders. They looked down to see a dart in his chest.

"I'm dead," Saunders said sadly as he pulled out the dart. They all gave him small sympathetic looks and then looked down the corridor to see Dembicki throw them an angry glance.

"Alright," West said. "Looks like its just us three."

"Yeah," Hawkes said, a huge grin on his face. "Lets go find Fairbanks."

***

Like silent predators, Hawkes, West, and Micheals, continued down the corridors across the set battle parameters until they spotted a flash of hair. They followed, listening closely to the muffled footsteps until they reached a door and the footsteps stopped for a few seconds.

West motioned to Micheals, he nodded and ran off down the corridor. West and Hawkes took position in front of the door, waited five seconds, and then rushed into the Saratoga's kitchen. Inside, flourscent lights washed over the room. Pots and ovens boiled and made sizzling sounds. All crew were to leave the specified battle parameters, obviously the mess crew decided to let a few things fry while they were gone.

"Okay, Fairbanks," Hawkes yelled into the room. "Come out! We've got you surrounded!" On cue, Micheals bursted into the room from the other door, dart gun in hand.

"There!" West shouted and they all turned their outstretched weapons and fired darts at counters and pots. Then..nothing!

"Where'd she go!?" Micheals whispered frantically. Suddenly, the sound of one dart leaving a gun came from Micheals position and West and Hawkes turned to hear Micheals yell "Oh, damn!"

The door Micheals came out of opened slightly and the body of Ann Fairbanks slided out of the room. West and Hawkes both got a shot out, but they missed.

"Get her!" Micheals, leaning up against a wall, shouted. They nodded and leapt across the kitchen into yet another gray corridor. Footsteps came from their left. They ran. Through the corridor, down another path, across a room, and then finally-a dead end.

The flight deck.

Cockpit pods stood out in the empty room. Wires and plugs were flung lazily on the sleek gray surface, a soft hiss of white gas came from the front of the room.

"Remind you of something?" West whispered. Hawkes grinned.

They moved, very slowly and carefully, across the middle of the room. Their guns seeming to take a life of their own and aiming at random points in the room.

"She's here. I know it," Hawkes whispered. West nodded and then continued his sweep.

Suddenly, a dart flew from their left. Hawkes and West ducked behind cockpit pods as the dart hit the glass of the cockpit next to Hawkes. The dart hung in the center of the glass. Hawkes and West grinned and jumped up from their hiding, firing darts at the left side of the flight deck.

Hawkes stopped after firing three darts and searched the room, then, suddenly, a fist flew at him from the side. He flew down onto the ground and looked up to see Ann Fairbanks standing there, pointing her dart gun at him. She was about to fire when West jumped in from the side, pushing aside her gun hand, making the dart gun fly out on the deck. Fairbanks regained quickly and punched West square in the stomach, he wrenched but recovered and hit Fairbanks in the leg with his fist. She shrieked and hit the floor.

"Shoot her!" Hawkes yelled from the flight deck, a few feet away. Fairbanks was now crawling across the floor back behind a cockpit pod.

"Can't! No more darts!" West yelled back.

"Here!" Hawkes screamed and threw his dart gun towards West. West caught it and, in one vast arc, moved down to point at Fairbanks.

But she wasn't there. No, she was behind him. Fairbanks punched West hard in the back and he fell to the ground. She aimed her dart gun but Hawkes was up and jumped to push her away.

Anger in her eyes, Fairbanks threw a punch at Hawkes when the seemingly-always angry voice of Colonel Dembicki echoed through the flight deck.

"Thats enough!!" he shouted.

Fairbanks stopped mid-punch. "This is a training excerise, not a bar fight!" Dembicki lectured as he approached West, Hawkes, and Fairbanks.

"We're here to learn," he said. "Not hurt each other."

"Oh," West said, a fake-grin on his face. "Is that why we're using dart guns?"

"Real marines use weapons!" Dembicki snapped. "If you can't handle that, West, you know where the door is!"

"Sorry, sir!" West forced out.

Dembicki nodded and looked at Fairbanks. "As for you, Fairbanks, this isn't the end of your discipline for what you did yesterday! Come with me." She nodded and followed Dembicki out of the flight deck.

West and Hawkes stood there, bruised, phyiscally and mentally. "I'm tired," West sighed.

Hawkes didn't seem to hear, he was walking slowly out of the flight deck. "What are you doing?" West asked.

Hawkes hushed him with a gesture and motioned for him to follow. West nodded and walked, slowly, next to Hawkes. "What?" he mouthed.

Hawkes said nothing, rather, he nodded to a corridor intersection. West approached and started to hear the voice of Dembicki say "..Anything?"

West gave Hawkes a questioning glance and then turned to listen closely. "..Definte Confirmation.." Fairbanks voice said. "Wang..Alive."

West and Hawkes locked eyes and took a step closer to the bulkhead providing them with cover from the eyes of Fairbanks and Dembicki.

"Not safe here," Dembicki said. "Meet me in my room at 2100 hours."

Two seperate pairs of footsteps let out in different directions. West and Hawkes ducked back into the flight deck.

"What the hell was that?" Hawkes whispered.

"I don't know," West said. "Did you hear her say 'Wang?'"

"No, she said that?"

"Yeah, I think.." West strained, trying to remmember exact sentences but all he heard were a few random words.

Hawkes grabbed his shoulder, bringing West's attention back. "You think she knows something about Paul?"

"Maybe."

Hawkes sighed. "We've got a find a way to get into Dembicki's quarters."

"Wait!" West said quickly. "Maybe I know a way we can hear what they say without being in Dembicki's quarters."

"Yeah, how?" Hawkes asked optimstically.

"Follow me."

***

Back at the barracks, West grabbed a shirt from his locker and walked back to his bunk.

"So, its a shirt, big deal." Hawkes said, grinning.

"It's not just A shirt," West explained. "I got it in the last package my mom sent me. With it she sent me some stuff from when I was a kid."

"Like what?"

"Like this!" West said excitedly as he pulled a small microphone from the sleeve of his shirt. "When I was a kid, I use to be into a lot of spy stuff. Remember that movie Mission Impossible? I watched that movie all the time!"

"So, what does it do?"

"Easy. We get this on Fairbanks, and we can hear everything she, and anyone else around her, says. Only problem: How do we get this on Fairbanks?" West said and looked at Hawkes, who was grinning.

"Not a problem," Hawkes said maliciously as Ann Fairbanks entered the room. She gave both West and Hawkes an evil glare. They smiled back.

"So," Hawkes said to Fairbanks as she moved to her locker. "Did Dembicki chew you out?"

Fairbanks paused and turned slowly to face Hawkes. "What?" she asked.

"After what you pulled yesterday AND today, I wouldn't be surprised if the Colonel pulls you from the unit."

"THAT," Fairbanks stressed. "Would be a gift."

Hawkes and West exchanged a glance and then stood up.

"So," Hawkes said, taking two steps closer to Fairbanks. "Is this how it's going to be? You being a bitch for the rest of time, or until a Chig blows you away? Cause if you really want to leave, we can have a talk with Ross, maybe even.."

Fairbanks cut him off. "Oh yeah I forget, you two and the Commodore are so close."

"What the hell does that mean?" West asked, stepping in.

"It means," Fairbanks pressed on. "If I was Commodore Ross, I would have locked you two in a cell and flown back to Earth personally to see your asses courtmarshalled!"

Hawkes took a step closer to Fairbanks and put his arm over her. "Listen, Ann, I know you have some sort of chip on your shoulder but that doesn't mean-"

Fairbanks pushed him away. "Don't touch me, Tank!"

Hawkes smiled and retreated back to his bunk. West followed. Back on the bunks, Hawkes looked at West, and whispered "I got the microphone chip on her shoulder."

West smiled.

***

At about 2100 hours, light poured into the 58th's room as the door opened and Fairbanks slipped out. West and Hawkes, the only two marines awake, looked at each other.

West took out a small reciever from his bed and pressed a button on it. Hawkes got out of his bunk and took a seat next to West on West's bunk.

"Well?" Hawkes whispered.

"All I'm getting now is footsteps, she's probably still walking to Dembicki's quarters."

Then, from the small reciever a voice, Fairbanks', came: "It's me," it said.

The sound of a door opening and then closing came from the reciever.

"Begin," the soft, non-angry, voice of Colonel Dembicki said.

"We've gotten full confirmation from our AI friends," Fairbanks said. "Wang is alive, and they're keeping him that way."

"Why?" Dembicki asked quickly.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out!"

"Fine. And the other two?"

"We checked the crash site, but found no bodies, nothing."

"Dammit!" Dembicki shouted. In the barracks, Saunders shifted. West covered the reciever with his palm, after a few seconds, he removed his hand.

"So, nothing worked?" Dembicki's voice said over the reciever. "The 58th is still alive! Everything was for nothing!"

"No, sir!" Fairbanks said. "Wang will be dead soon. Vansen and Damphousse are either in the Chig's hands or in some ditch on Anvil. As for West and Hawkes, give me a few more days, and they'll be dead!"

"Fine, Fairbanks, but don't disappoint me again, now get the hell out of here."

The sound of a door opening and closing came through the reciever again. West pressed the button on it and put it away. Reluctantly, and silently, Hawkes and West both layed back in their respective bunks.

"Trouble?" West whispered.

"Yeah," Hawkes sighed. "Big trouble." They both tried to sleep.