Fourteen weeks, that's how long the crew of the Tempest Tide had been in the world before. With all things considered, they were incompetent. Lia had found that she was routinely crying herself to sleep at night. Half of the time there was spent sneaking into hotels and stealing food. She missed most of the luxuries her family allowed her to have.
"Hey Doc?"
"Yeah?"
The man named Dr. John found himself with a lump of cigarettes that had been stacked a half foot high into an ashtray. All of those moments to which lead them there replayed in Lia's mind constantly. She missed Sugar. He was a nice young man. Though, half the time he was oblivious to the world around him and blindly followed BB's orders.
"What are we going to do?"
"Well, we could wait here a little bit longer. If I'm not mistaken, that means that we have about nine hours left until the place is checked by room service. Could you believe that they don't even have key tattoos here?"
Dr. John was the only member of the Tempest Tide that had stuck around following what had happened. She thought of how BB was possibly out there in the world, finding a cure for Sugar throughout time. It was a noble thought but fickle.
"Wait, what is that sound?"
BB had used the people of the unit to find the remaining crew members of the Tempest Tide. Scott was to sneak in through the bathroom window whilst Sears was to enter however he chose. Dr. John held up his hand as he crouched and slowly walked to the bathroom to investigate. When he opened the door, he saw someone he never saw looking like that. Working fast, Scott used his psychic abilities to push him back. Lia, hearing him being pushed back, summoned her dogs of darkness. Their teeth showing to whomever was amuck.
"Why do they never expect the front door?"
Sears had to do the classic diversion of attention to get in. So, he had Scott come in first before Sears placed two bullets in each of the hell hounds' heads. They collapsed back into the shadows before he trained his gun on her. She tried to take a step back but found her arms and legs became number the further away it got from her heart which was going into overdrive.
"Don't move and I won't have to hurt you."
Sears liked using his soldier abilities but didn't like using his intelligence abilities he picked up from a well-known agency.
"Please sir, just tell me why you're here?"
Lia was trying hard not to panic but had a strange kind of feeling when she was talking to him. Like whenever her father would talk to her after he came home from work. He looked like a strawman who was hung up to look at the cows.
"Put these on."
See, BB went through a phonebook and found where D.O.W.N had been set up in New York. He knew that there had most likely been his people set up there. So, he sent a postcard to them as a way of getting them there before he could make his cross-country trip.
"What are these?"
"Handcuffs."
Sears tossed the handcuffs towards her. They were painted black so that way when he walked around at night with someone who wore them, he would have been able to make it look like he hadn't been holding them captive. She quickly put them on but gave it some slack. She remembered a bit of magic trick Sugar had shown her. How to dislocate your thumb as a way of making your hand slip through the already slacked cuffs.
"Yes sir, what about the doc?"
In the next room over, Scott was playing catch up with his dear-old pal, Dr. John. Though, the doctor that nobody in their right mind would trust with a toothache had found himself being physically repulsed by the likes of the real Scott. A man who had a broken arm in a sling. He planned on using his psychic abilities to help move himself further along the healing process but the most he could pull off in the last few weeks was a healing of his cuts and scrapes from his brush with the monster.
"Don't you recognize your old friends? Come on, it's me, Scott."
He was so scared that upon a further look at Scott; he saw his eyes were the same as his friend from not too long back. But the recognition didn't click before something also struck him, that being a backhand. He still wore his usual getup of a white overcoat whilst being dressed in a button up with jeans.
"Wait, that's you?"
"It's. That's the right way. Man do I have a story for you. You might not believe me about all the things we're going to talk about."
"Scott, why in the hell didn't you just knock?"
"I thought it would be funny. Also, I have a friend that you would love to meet. Just know, he's a little rough around the edges and smokes a lot."
The not so good doctor was confused by this and coughed up a quarter cup of blood. His ribs had been fractured and his back hurt. He was pretty sure Scott ripped a tendon in his left arm.
"Any reason in particular that you would want me to come along?"
"Right, I'm getting the gang back together and now we're going to be sending you two back to the future."
"Isn't that a movie-"
"Shhhh."
Scott put a finger up to Dr. John's lips and pulled him up by the wrist. The doctor was shocked at how strong he had become since their last interaction.
"Please sir, just tell me what you want. I'll do my best to get it for you."
Sears was leading her along the parking lot before placing her in a stolen car. She was in the front passenger seat; he closed the door and lifted his gun at her from the front of the parking lot. Scott told him that he and BB had some unfinished business and that there were two targets that needed to be put down.
"Hey, I was joking. You don't need to shoot her."
"OH, now you tell me?"
The mercenary dropped his gun and mumbled to himself as he walked to the car. When he opened the door, he was punched in the face. His nose moved upward from the center and his eyes shut halfway before his hands went on autopilot. Using his old skills, he dragged her from the car by the same arm that hit him. He was about to return fire before he stopped himself.
"Well, I was going to tell you it was a joke but you were going to go full speed ahead."
He cussed under his breath before he stomped towards the hotel room. What he intended on doing was punching Scott in the throat but instead he had found a new friend, Dr. John.
"This better not be a waste of time because I'm not going to tell you this again. If I have to do this ever again, I'm going to beat you to death."
The smile on the dictator's face left him. His eyes looked into Sears's and the realization of his seriousness didn't pass. Instead, it sat inside his soul. Almost every moment of their eye contact was a relay of all the tortures Sears committed in his time.
"Alright, no need to get all worked up."