First Impressions

Just Another Work Day...

Lia dropped by my place and we had a quick little sex session before reporting in for assignments. Even though she's not cleared actually for most of the briefings that she hears, almost everyone here that works in the compound with us know that we're seeing each other. Actually, it came as a bit of a surprise for both of us. We never realized that I held such a high degree of power until the day that I was called to attend a top secret briefing and she accompanied me. When we went to SubLevel Twelve, the Marine Corps. major that sat at the security console looked at my ID, and then asked about her. I looked at him and smiled.

"She's with me. Any problems?"

The major didn't even look up as he made a notation in the registration logs. Then he looked at her and put a finger to his lips, handing her a badge like mine.

"Merry Christmas, kid. Don't say that I've never given you anything." He went back to watching the console monitors.

That was it. We never brought the issue up again, and nobody here makes any fuss about it. So why should we?

But that's getting away from today's event's, isn't it? Well, like I was saying, we reported in for assignments, and I also went to a few briefings on some of the more standard things you know, reports on fierbeasts, monsters, demons, routine things. And everything was going pretty well, Lia and I went out, did a little leg work, made some documentations, and even had lunch at this nice little bistro that she's turned me on to. The day was shaping up to be a very great day for the both of us, and we really hoped that it would stay like that.

But how long does anything good last?

Lia looked at me over a glass of wine as she smiled at me. I smiled back. The waiter came back with our orders, and set the trays of pasta in front of us. Picking up my fork, I was about to dig into my alfredo- right when Lia dug her fork into it, twirled it around, and smiled. I looked at her again.

"What?" She said. She was smiling so sweetly, you'd have thought she was tasting my food for me. How cute is that?

I set my fork back on the table, and quickly switched our trays. Then I picked up my fork and got set to dig in again.

Lia grabbed her fork, and this time twirled a hell of a lot of spaghetti off of the plate. I put my fork down, pushed the tray towards her, and she looked at me worried. Setting her fork down, she quietly moved her chair around to my side of the table. As we looked at each other, she put her hand on my knee. I gave a weak smile.

"Ok, what's wrong? You've never acted this way all the other times we've eaten here." She put her napkin on the table.

I sighed. "Lia, I've been thinking about a lot of things lately. Everything that's been happening between us."

She gave a small gesture that may or may not have amounted to 'So? What?' I looked at her, straight into her beautiful eyes. Not one to customarily hold back my feelings, especially about her, I decided whether I could ask her what I wanted to know without looking like a total azz in the process. Lia gave me a smile.

"Spill it, you." She directed. I paused, then let it all out.

"See it's like this: Me and you have been together for over two years now. That's enough time to pop out some kids, right? Anyway, you've had a key to my place since the sixth month that we started seeing each other. If you love being around me so much, why don't you just move in or something? It's not like we have to be secretive about our jobs or anything everybody at C.C. (Central Command) knows about us. And the guys in the R&D Department laugh at me every time I come around. They say...that I'm...whipped."

There. I'd said it. It was out in the open. Lia's response was phenomenal. Picking her napkin back up from the table, she placed it back on her lap, and looked at me. She gave me a very wonderful smile and then burst out laughing. Huh? This was something to laugh about? What part of this am I missing? And then she saw the look on my face. She was very apologetic.

"Baby...I'm sorry. I was just laughing at what you said. I mean you got to admit, a big ol' tough guy like you? Whipped? Nah. I don't think so." She grew more serious, and started concentrating on piling her plate with alfredo and spaghetti, when she said what was on her mind.

"As for the moving in with you I don't know...it's more a question of would you, instead of could you. Would you want to see me wake up every morning? Things like that often scares guys." She looked at me and surpressed a smile. I slowly reached up and placed my arm around her shoulder.

"You're worried about me seeing how you look in the morning? C'mon, that's ridiculous."

We stared at each other for a good long while, and finally, Lia broke the silence between us. As she scooped up the bread basket, she looked at me. I gave her my full attention, I could tell that she had something important to say.

"I'll make you a promise. How about that?" She picked up a breadstick and pointed it at me.

I could feel another one of her wacky adventures coming on. She was probably about to say something like: I'll move in with you if you let me go on that mission to Sumatra with you. Or maybe, I'll do it if you can get me special security privileges...you know, somewhere along those lines.

But what came out of her mouth was completely different. I was in no way prepared for such a statement.

"I promise to move in when you ask me to marry you." She smiled, and placed the breadstick on the table. I nodded. It was a fair deal, actually. It surprised me though. Here I am, a guy asking his girl to move in with him and she handled it so...nonchalantly. And was quite serious in what she said too. I nodded.

Just then, my cellphone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it said: TTW (Time to Work). Hmmm, the job's calling. Yet again. I looked at Lia, then slid out of my seat, and held out a hand towards her. She smiled and let me help her up. She took the phone from me, and flipped it open.

"Hello? What? Whoa that's a little extreme...do we have a go?" She made a silly face at me, and I kissed her on her neck. She continued talking as she placed her hand around my waist and surpressed a giggle. The waiter came over and I stopped kissing her neck long enough to ask for the check. The waiter turned around to retrieve it.

"Are you sure? That really doesn't sound like...well, damn! I'm just saying is all." The other customers were looking at us. I stopped kissing her neck, and straightened myself up. Lia opened her purse and took out her phone, flipping it open. As I looked at it, I realized that C.C. was sending the coordinates of whatever it was that we were supposed to take care of. Wait. 49th & Ellerby? Hey, that's like a block from my place. What the hell? Poking Lia in her side, I got her attention and mouthed the words "It's in my district. Let's go."

She just hung the phone up, and I'm pretty sure that whoever it was on the other end was cursing their azz off. That's Lia for you. Never let it be said that she runs away at the first sign of trouble. I threw a small wad of bills at the waiter and smiled. "Keep the change."

As we rushed out the entrance, we damn near knocked over an elderly couple who looked at us crazy when they turned and saw us. Lia smiled her sweetest smile and gave them an apology. I just nodded my head, keeping in synch with her.

"Oh! We are sooooo sorry! We're on our way to a wedding party and just found out that they pushed the time up two hours! We have got to hurry and get changed if we really want to make the party! We really didn't mean to bump into you like that!" She batted her eyelashes at the elderly lady, who smiled at us and nodded.

"Oh? Then don't mind us! Me and my husband eat here everyday. Felt like we might need a little excitement now and then." Her husband broke into a smile also. As we rushed off down the street, he called out after us: "Hadn't you two oughta take a cab? I can hail one for you!"

"Nope!" I shouted back. "We can make better time on foot! Thanks for the offer! Have a nice meal!" We were off. Besides, everyone knows that you can't change uniforms in a cab. We're not that crazy. Well, I'm not. I can't vouch for Lia.

We were running full speed down the sidewalk, and getting lots of people mad in the process. But we couldn't stop, this was an actual emergency. Lia was holding her phone and making sure that we were still following whatever it was that was causing a commotion. As I ran beside her, she checked the screen again, and threw me a side glance. "Almost there! It's not doing a lot of moving we might be able to take this down without a problem!"

We ran two more blocks, and Lia quickly broke in front of me. God, that was such a view of the back! You'd be blessed to see something like that. (And no, I'm not fixated on the girls' azz. She has a cute one, and I appreciate it.) We were in the same area as our target, so now all we had to do was find it. Rarely does any of these things come out during the day. Lia wanted to find the thing and kill it. I wanted to know what the hell its problem was. Coming out in broad daylight and tearing stuff up, doesn't that sound like sixteen year old rebellion syndrome?

We heard something roar, LOUDLY. Damn. It was going to be one of those days. Lia looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and took her by the hand. As I pulled her closer to me, I leaned closer and whispered into her ear: "May I have the pleasure of this dance?" She accepted my offer, and we rushed around the corner to do battle. But what we saw was something neither of us was expecting. A Type 8 Photonic Entity. These things are hard to kill. They put up a helluva fight, too. Seeing that just sent my day straight to hell. You wouldn't believe the paperwork that covers an event like this.

Meanwhile, this creature was having the time of its life. Roaring, reparking all the cars on the street into various buildings, smashing things, and causing all kinds of hell. As much as I would hate to interrupt anyone's fun, but did it have to do all this in my neighborhood? Lia looked over at me, pulled out her handy GXT-3 pistol and got the thing in her sights. But before she could fire, it looked in our direction and threw someone's Ford Expedition XLT right at us. I dodged it by running right, and Lia broke left.

"Sonofabitch! I swear it looks like he did that shit on purpose!" Uh-oh. Ol' boy had just pissed my sweetie off. Now he was really gonna be in for it. I saw Lia loading the pistol with some Demonite rounds. They'll go through anything. She meant serious business. Unfortunately, my baby had no idea (yet) that those rounds won't work on any Type 8 class creatures. That'd just piss HIM off! Lia finished loading the gun and signaled me. I looked at her. She mouthed something. Repeat that! You want me to do what?

She mouthed the words again. "Distract that bastard." Damn, I thought that's what she said. This really wouldn't be easy.

I stood up, and walked straight into the monsters' line of sight. As we both glared at each other, I can't figure out who was more surprised. Me for doing what Lia asked, orit, because I wasn't running. I looked at the 12 foot tall monstrosity, and lit a cigarette. Stood there. Dared the damn thing to fight me. Even blew smoke at it. It didn't budge. I smiled. Maybe insulting it would help. I flicked the cigarette away, and gave the thing a finger sign. You know the one I mean. Still, it didn't move. Then, I realized what I was doing wrong. I looked around for a sizable object. This would get his big azz moving. Hopefully. I saw the object that I needed: a huge piece of piping that must have come from one of the construction sites. Here goes nothing. As I dashed to the pipe, I shouted as loud as I could.

"LIA! BABY, I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT THOSE BULLETS WON'T WORK ON THIS THING! YOU WANNA SHOOT IT, GO AHEAD, BUT HE'S JUST GONNA DO MORE DAMAGE! WHATEVER YOU DO, MAKE IT COUNT!" Grabbing the pipe, I was running full speed at the monster when it suddenly wavered and vanished. What the hell? That was a new trick. I'd never known that they could do that. Where the heck was it? As I turned and looked to my right, all I saw was everything that had already been destroyed my our friend. Ok. So then that meant...

It was right at the moment when I turned to look left that I found myself flying through the air at great speed. The thing had just sucker punched me. The nerve of this bastard! Hitting me before I hit it? The minute I felt myself hit the ground, it only took me a few seconds to get up. I looked at the monster, and it started giving off some sort of rattling sound, like as if someone was dragging metal grates over a floor. What was he doing? The bastard was laughing at me! That's what he was doing.

"Good. I hope you got all that laughing outta system, 'cause you're 'bout to get your azz whupped. Then we'll see if you laugh at that sht." I said, as I lifted the pipe. The creature and I were charging at each other, when out of nowhere two cops showed up. They took their pistols out and started shooting. Honestly, I'll admit that they were good marksmen. Both of them. Unfortunately, they also got their lives ended before they knew what the hell happened. The monster unleashed some sort of photoplasmic energy beam that turned both of them into roasting, charred meat. Damn. That type of energy would definitely give me a charge if I got hit. The monster looked at me, and there was no mistaking the fact that it was getting ready to fire. I started to charge the thing again.

This time, there was no interruptions as I swung the pipe and delivered a clean hit to the things' face. It roared and stumbled back, blinded. It opened its mouth and wildly started firing the beam everywhere. My guess is that it was trying to hit me. What it really did was fuked up a lot of stuff. I looked around for Lia in the confusion. She was about forty feet away, and it looked like she was modifying the GTX-3. Into what, I had no idea. But as long as she stayed behind the partially demolished wall where she was hiding, she'd be okay. Until she was done, that left me to babysit our 'guest' here.

The monster was still firing beams of energy from its mouth. How much more did it have. I charged it again, going for the same effect as the first time. But this time, I miscalculated, and the thing swung around wildly. I dodged the first blast as it shot three more times in rapid succession. Jumping out of the way, I swung the pipe and got another solid hit as it connected with the monsters' side. That really brought forth a deafing roar from the creature. It started swinging and swatting the area around itself. I smiled as I looked up at it.

"Yeah it's not so fun when you're blinded, is it?" Man. This was no fun. The thing should have been fighting back. I almost felt like I was taking advantage of it. I got up from the ground and dusted myself off. The thing was still trying to protect itself by swinging wildly.

My cellphone rang in the middle of battle? How stupid was that? C.C. couldn't be calling at a time like this! What the hell did they want? I answered the phone as the thing continued to roar in the background. Clearly, I was annoyed. Wouldn't you be?

"What the fuk do you people want now?" I said. "Look I'm busy. Call back later!"

The voice on the other end screamed: "You've got incoming! Repeat: You've got INCOMING!" The line hung up or went dead, it was hard to tell.

Incoming? What the hell was they talking about? I didn't see anything...

To Be Continued...