Author’s Notes: This episode focused a great deal on Hawk and Tank’s relationship as well as Dread’s current project. It also brought up various questions and a few plot bunnies that didn’t exactly co-exist peacefully in a single story. In an effort to answer these questions and find a Jon/Jen slant to the episode, I’ve split the tag up into two parts. Part 1 takes place two days after the events in the episode. Part 2 takes place one week after.


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Episode 15 - And Madness Shall Reign - Part 1

Tank ingests an insanity-inducing drug hidden in the water at Cipher’s Resistance base, a site chosen by Dread for experimentation. Hawk is forced to stop Tank on his own while Jon, Pilot and Scout try to stop Dread from putting the same drug in a major water supply.


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Power Base – Night Time
Two days after the mission


There was an old saying that went through Hawk’s mind – For this I went to college?


Ah, college. Hawk remembered those days fondly. His college days were spent at the Air Force Academy, and those were some of the best times of his life. Jump school, flight training… the work was hard, the days were long, the studying was intense, but he loved it. He excelled at the academic life and passed with some of the highest marks in his class. He didn’t spend all his time being a ‘good little student’ though. No, indeed. He had his fun as well. There were the occasional off-campus parties, the all-night movie marathons, the trips to the karaoke bar to sing 1960’s tunes, but whether it was work or fun, those days taught him a great deal. He learned everything from how to parachute in the dead of night to how to fly a jet upside down, and he’d used all that he learned in some form or another fighting the war.


Unfortunately, the Academy never taught him how to deal with a drug-induced genetically enhanced human tank that could kick the crap out of him and break him like a twig. Every muscle he had was sore.


It had been a busy couple of days. First, they had to fight the biomechs in Cipher’s base, and then he had to go one-on-one against Soaron when they were making their escape – why didn’t he fly the XT instead of taking the biobird head-on? His sore muscles let him know that flying on his own was not a good idea. Later, Tank thought Hawk and Jennifer were biodreads and blasted them across the hallway, stunning them unconscious, pulling even more muscles and leaving a few more bruises. Then Jon told him to hunt down and take on a drugged Tank all by himself. Right – all he had to do was stop someone who was bigger, stronger and equipped with enough firepower to down a warlord battalion. There wasn’t a maneuver to counter that in any rulebook he’d ever studied, and it certainly wasn’t covered in any of his Academy classes. It was a good thing the drug wore off before Tank actually did break him like a twig.


Come to think of it, it had been a very busy couple of days.


He felt another twinge in his shoulder. As he reached up and rubbed the muscle, he thought he might have pulled another one. “Face it, Matt, you’re not as young as you used to be,” he told himself.


Hawk stopped outside Tank’s quarters and quietly eased the door open to check on him. The big guy was still sleeping. Of all of them, why did it have to be the one who was as strong as an ox to get drugged? If it had been anyone else, the entire twig-breaking scenario wouldn’t have been an issue. No, there would have been other problems to deal with like Scout’s skill with explosives or Jon’s uncanny tactical ability to outfox his enemies or Jennifer’s hand-to-hand fighting prowess – watching someone her size take down a soldier Tank’s size and strength with relative ease was still as impressive as it was the first time he saw her do it. Maybe Jon should have let Jennifer go after Tank?


“Yeah, right. That would never happen,” he whispered.


That would never happen…


Hawk stopped. A new thought crossed his mind, one he hadn’t truly considered. That would never happen. Matt had never doubted Jon’s command style or his ability to make on-the-spot decisions. He was good at detaching himself emotionally when he ordered people into dangerous situations. Every mission was a gamble, and they all knew the risks each time they flew out of the base. How would Jon’s behavior change if he and Jennifer became a couple? When they did? It would add an entirely new emotional level to every mission for him. Could he send someone he cared so much about into a situation where they could be killed?


Had his feelings already kept him from making the “right” decision?


So far, Hawk hadn’t detected any untoward or obvious overprotective behavior from Jon when it came to assigning missions to Jennifer. Worry, concern, unease, anxiety and apprehension – he had exhibited those behaviors when she was on a mission from time to time, but he hadn’t shown an overwhelming need to protect her by refusing to let her go. Tech City? Jon, Scout or Jennifer could have easily jacked into the web, but Jon had chosen to do it himself, but that didn’t raise any real suspicion on Hawk’s part. MedLab One? None of them wanted Jennifer going in there for obvious reasons. Any of them would have rather taken the chance, but she was the only one who could sneak in undetected and hide in plain sight. Jon’s misgivings had a foundation: a former youth leader who betrayed the Machine walking right back into one of the labs? One wrong move, and they could have lost her. Still, as always, Jon immediately assessed the situation and agreed with her that she was the only one who could get into the chem lab. The more Hawk thought about it, the more he realized that Jon wasn’t letting his emotions get in the way -- yet. He was perhaps a little more cautious when Jennifer had to sneak into a Dread base on her own, but that was all. Maybe his worries were unnecessary? Still, that didn’t mean he was going to leave Jennifer alone at a base with a drug-induced genetically enhanced human tank that could kick the crap out of her and break her like a twig. Never mind that Jon needed a pilot to fly the jumpship to the missile launch site…

Needed a pilot…


“That sneak,” Hawk whispered to himself. It was another concept Hawk hadn’t realized -- Jon was pairing up with Jennifer on more missions lately. When had that started? Hawk mentally counted back the missions they’d gone on in the last few months. It was right around the time Jon was contacted by Athena Samuels – and Hawk had just noticed that? Why hadn’t he seen that? There seemed to be a lot going on right under his nose that he wasn’t seeing. Maybe it really was time for retirement?


Perhaps meeting Athena Samuels again opened Jon’s eyes to what was right in front of him. Hawk remembered her when she was Stuart’s lab assistant. She was a nice enough young lady, intelligent, outgoing, intuitive, and she and Jon had a strong friendship. As far as Hawk knew, the relationship never ventured beyond that. When Jon met up with her after she’d been reintegrated, Hawk didn’t notice any type of behavior between them that indicated that they had anything other than a previously strong friendship.


When Jon was younger, he wasn’t prone to establishing long-term romances. There were many reasons such as there was a war going on, he had to fight, he was a primary target – the list went on and on. Somewhere, sometime, something changed. Maybe it was seeing Athena again or it was the added risks from Project New Order, but whatever it was, something had changed Jon’s outlook and had him considering something long-term. He was spending more time with Jennifer whether it was playing chess or pairing off on missions – and absolutely none of it seemed out of the ordinary or surprising. Maybe it was the most inconspicuous way to spend time together? Maybe it was the way Jon planned it? Hawk was going to have to think about that. After all, Jon’s tactical skills allowed him to formulate long term plans that worked out no matter the odds.


And that led Hawk back to Tank. Did Jon think that Hawk had the best chance of stopping him? He and Tank had a relaxed sort of friendship. They were the oldest in the group and had lived during the same times. There was a commonality in their background, and that helped forge the foundation of a special friendship. There was an equality due to age and experience that the others didn’t share, and they could talk with each other in a way that had nothing to do with rank or position. Perhaps that allowed Hawk to get through to Tank more easily, drugs notwithstanding? Maybe Jon was counting on that ability to pull Tank through his drug-induced haze and back into reality? Whatever Jon’s reasoning, it had worked. Tank was going to be fine, and Hawk was still in one piece.


Hawk took one last look inside to make certain Tank was still sleeping, then he closed the door and strolled toward the control room, walking slow enough so he wouldn’t aggravate his sore muscles. It was his shift on night watch. Although he was more of a morning person, Hawk liked night watch every now and then. The nights could be long and boring, but it gave him the quiet and solitude to think things through when confusing thoughts were running through his head. It also gave him the chance to talk with Mentor. Sometimes, that hologram seemed more like Stuart Power than a computer program. It was almost like having his friend back. Years earlier, he and Stuart worked long hours building the base, and they would pass the time away by talking about everything from the most critical subjects pertaining to the world’s survival to who was going to win that weekend’s football game. Stuart Power had a wry, subtle sense of humor that worked well with Matt’s more outgoing one – at least, before the wars started, when life was a lot more peaceful. They’d talk about anything, and it allowed their minds a temporary distraction from all the problems they faced. Speaking with Mentor about absolutely inane subjects reminded Hawk of those days.


Inanity aside, there were several questions about the latest mission that they hadn’t been able to answer yet and they were preying on Hawk’s mind. He hoped a serious conversation with Mentor could help answer them. How did Dread find Cipher’s base? How was the water drugged? Why did Dread use a resistance base for his experiment instead of some unprotected settlement? Dread was the type of person who always had a plan even if the plan didn’t make sense.


Sense. Right, Matt. Try to make sense out of someone who wants to be mentally stuffed in a robot shell. That was something Hawk hadn’t been able to figure out for fifteen years.


Jon could usually figure out what Dread was doing, but even this last mission had him baffled. It wasn’t so much what Dread was doing but why he planned it the way he did. It didn’t make sense. Dread normally destroyed resistance forces. He didn’t use them for experiments. Besides, there were countless other settlements he could have used for his experiment. Why Cipher’s personnel?


Once Cipher had recovered from the drug, Jon was planning on going back to his base to look around. Maybe Dread left some sort of clue as to why he planned the experiment the way he did. Whatever the reason, it could be important.


Hawk finally reached the control room. Good thing – he really needed to sit down. His sore muscles weren’t going to carry him much further. Scout was running a few diagnostics on certain file systems as he and Mentor talked about nothing important.


“I must disagree, Sergeant Baker,” Mentor looked down from the holographic beam, seemingly quite relaxed. “Although he was impervious to almost any weapon, practically invulnerable, his abilities were innate due to his being born on another planet. He was in no danger. The other gentleman was merely human and as fragile as any other yet he risked his life to apprehend criminals.”


“But he was just as strong,” Scout pointed out. “They even had them duke it out once, and I think it was a tie.”


Strong humans? Other planets? Hawk leaned against the console. “What are you two talking about?”


“Superheroes,” Scout answered. “Superman, Spiderman and Batman mostly.”


“Superheroes?” Hawk asked as he rolled his eyes. Did he even want to know?


“Yeah,” Scout nodded with a grin. “Tell us what you think -- Batman was a human with an incredible intellect who used all kinds of gadgets to get the bad guys, but like all humans, he was vulnerable. His suit gave him his edge. Spiderman was a human who was bit by a radioactive spider. He was strong and could make a spider web and swing all over the city, but a bullet could have stopped him. His suit wasn’t bulletproof. Superman didn’t have much to worry about because only kryptonite could hurt him even though Lex Luthor kept getting his hands on it.  Taking all that into consideration, who do you think was the toughest superhero?”


Hawk looked at Scout, glanced up at Mentor, then asked, “You two are actually arguing about which comic book superhero was the toughest?”


“Toughest, bravest, who was risking the most… yeah,” Scout answered.


Poor Mentor. He was on the other side of how many absurd conversations? Maybe he enjoyed it? Maybe it kept him from getting bored? Did holograms get bored? Hawk would have to ask him sometime.  It was a good thing there wasn’t a contest to see who could come up with the most ridiculous topics to talk about. Scout would probably win hands down. Fortunately, this was one such conversation that Hawk could join in easily. “Simple. None of them. Ordinary superheroes like the Lone Ranger were the toughest.”


“The Lone Ranger?” Scout asked, disbelieving. “He was just a guy in a mask. He wasn’t a superhero.”


“Don’t think so?” Hawk glanced up at Mentor who was smiling and nodding. Sometimes, that hologram really did seem more human than computer. “Like you said, Batman had a suit that helped deflect bullets and a car that outdistanced anything on the road plus a utility belt with every weapon he could think of. Spiderman was a little more than human. He could crawl up walls and swing through the buildings. He also had his spidey-sense warning him of danger. Superman? There wasn’t much that was a threat to him so there was nothing he had to be brave for when he faced it. Now, the Lone Ranger? Simple, ordinary man, a Texas Ranger, no armor, no utility belt, only silver bullets and a really good aim. He had his best friend Tonto and their two smart horses, Silver and Scout. He had everything to worry about but he still went out every day and fought the bad guys. He was just as vulnerable as the next person.”


Mentor nodded his head. “I agree.”


“You don’t think Superman was tougher?” Scout asked them. “And there was a horse named Scout?”


Hawk smiled. “Superman was tougher only because of his dense molecular structure. He wasn’t tough because he had to be. It came natural to him,” Hawk explained. “What brought this up anyway?”


Scout punched in a few more commands as he began a deeper diagnostic. “Well, the conversation sort of ballooned into superheroes. We started out talking about how tough Tank is and how hard it must have been for you to not get in the way of his fists. Then we started talking about what would have happened if any of the rest of us had drank the water and –”


“I was wondering about that too,” Hawk said. “Only I didn’t have any superheroes coming into the conversation. What did you two come up with?”


“That it was probably a good thing it was Tank since we know what to expect from him in a fight even though the guy’s practically unstoppable,” Scout told him. “Think about it – if it came down to a fight between any two of us, how would we pair up?”


“Not well,” Hawk knew that to be a fact. “I asked myself that earlier. All of us have different fighting skills, so what would have happened if any one of us drank that water? Or if all of us did?”


Scout leaned back in his seat and thought for a moment. “We would have killed each other. Maybe that was what Dread wanted to do with Cipher’s group.”


“Have them kill each other?” Hawk said aloud. “That could be it. Dread’s always trying to undermine the Resistance. That’d be one way to do it, but Dread had to know what his drug would do to people once they were exposed to it, right?”


“You’d think,” Scout agreed. “Any idea why the captain had you go after Tank alone?”


Hawk shrugged. “You know Jon. He has his own reasons for doing things.”


“No kidding.” Scout put another disk into Mentor and ran a secondary diagnostic. “Before I met you guys, you already had a reputation for doing some off-the-wall attacks against Dread. No one could ever figure out what the captain was going to do next. They just knew he was going to do something original.”


“Good entertainment, huh?” Hawk asked as he watched the monitor.


“Oh, yeah.” Scout shut down Mentor’s hologram while the rest of the diagnostic ran to save on processor power. “Was he always good at being sneaky?”


Hawk laughed. “You have no idea. He and Mitch would do all sorts of things when they were kids and come up with some of the most elaborate schemes to stay out of trouble. And Katie? She’d be right there with them. Me, Joanna, Stuart and Morgana had no idea how certain things were happening because they’d covered their tracks pretty well. None of us ever figured out exactly how Jon’s plans worked.”


Scout leaned forward and asked in a sneaky way, “Think he’s still covering his tracks?”


Now that sounded strange. “What do you mean?”


“I found this file hidden in a subfolder of a rarely used program.” Scout pulled up the file in question, then turned the monitor so Hawk could see it. In a whisper, Scout said, “It took a while, but I finally got Mentor to tell me what it is. He and the captain are making some books for Jennifer for her birthday. We don’t have these particular ones in our library.”


Hawk read the file. “How long has this been going on?”


“A few months,” Scout explained. “ Mentor’s recoded some books from binary into English. He used a small amount of power and placed them in this one subfolder so it wouldn’t show up when Jennifer ran her diagnostics. I’ve missed it for months during mine. The captain got the raw materials for Mentor so he can actually print and bind a book. He just hasn’t had time to do it yet.”


Hawk smiled. Jon was getting serious if he was thinking up elaborate birthday presents. “Those sneaks.”


“And we can’t tell Jennifer,” Scout told him. “They want it to be a surprise.”


A surprise. Surprises had never been part of the Dread Youth upbringing. Everything was rooted in routines and protocols and schedules. As much as her description of life in the Dread Youth was a surprise to them, it paled in comparison to Jennifer’s experiences those first few months she was with them. Everyday life had been one surprise after another for her, so it took her a while to learn to enjoy happy surprises like birthday gifts. “It’ll be easy enough for us to not say anything,” Hawk mused. “If Jon finds out we know, he’ll have us on KP for a month,” he laughed. One thing was certain; Jennifer would love to have her very own books.


Scout looked around and listened. Satisfied that no one was approaching the control room, he said in a low voice, “Hawk, let me ask you something. You know Jon better than any of us. Why hasn’t he said something to Jennifer already? It’s almost like he’s nervous, and I’ve never seen him nervous about anything. And one thing we know about the captain is he’s not shy, especially around women. He’s had girlfriends before. We’ve met a couple of them over the years. He even handled Mindsinger like a pro, but around Jennifer -- what is it about her that’s got him jumpy?”


Hawk didn’t have to consider his answer. He knew why Jon was a bit anxious. It was a reason he was well acquainted with himself. “Because it’s the first time he’s been serious about anyone special,” Hawk said in a low voice. “He had a whole string of girlfriends when he was younger, but he wasn’t serious about any of them. He was playing the same game all of us have played at some point or another, but they were just flings. He was a young man sowing some wild oats and getting it out of his system. When one of them got serious about him, he’d behave like a gentleman but he’d let them know he wasn’t looking for anything long term.”


“And all of us think he’s looking for something long term with Jennifer.” That seemed to resonate with Scout. “So she’s the first one that’s special, huh?”


“Special enough to use precious resources to make books for her birthday,” Hawk told him with a smile. “But it’s more than that. Jon didn’t want to get close to anyone after Stuart was killed. Once we had the base established and we started looking for people to be on the team, he let himself become friends with a few people, young ladies included, but most were never more than strong acquaintances. It was all a game, and they were all pretty good at playing it. Then we found Jennifer, and she doesn’t play any of those games. She grew up in the Dread Youth, so there’s no way she’d know how. She’s pretty straightforward and honest, and trust me, Jon’s never met anyone like that before her. To tell you the truth, I don’t think either one knows what the next step is – which is why we’re helping them along,” Hawk grinned at the thought. This was the first time Jon was involved in a serious relationship. He wouldn’t want to mess anything up with the first person he had real feelings for, and he wouldn’t want to do anything that would hurt her.


“It just seems out of character, if you ask me,” Scout added. “Jonathan Power, completely confused about what to do next?”


With a grin, Hawk said, “That’s nothing. You should have seen me before I got up the nerve to ask Joanna out on our first date. It took me almost a month to actually walk up to her, and then I bit my tongue and practically tripped over my own feet.”


“You?” Scout asked, incredulously. “I wouldn’t think you had any trouble getting dates.”


“She wasn’t just any lady,” Hawk reminded him. “Joanna was special. She was working on a dual PhD in geology and geophysics; she was in the top two percent of her class. She interned with a couple of the really famous scientists at the time. One was named Atwater, I think. She was already published before she got her Masters --”


“Wait,” Scout interrupted him. “Joanna was a scientist?”


Hawk nodded. “Met her at this scientific symposium. Stuart was the guest speaker, and since I had just got back after being deployed for over a year, he asked me to come along as part of the security detail.”


“And you went,” Scout concluded.


“Absolutely. The fact it was being held for two weeks in Hawaii had nothing to do with my decision,” Hawk smiled at the memory. “Anyway, every time I tried to talk to with her, I made a fool out of myself. Stuart finally took pity on me and invited her to dinner with us. Still took me a couple of weeks after we got back to the mainland to ask her out myself.”


Scout chuckled. “Come on, Hawk, seriously?”


Hawk saw that Scout didn’t believe him. “Just you wait, mister. Your time’s coming. One day, you’re going to meet someone and make a total fool of yourself trying to make a good impression.”


“I’ve met a few women in my time,” Scout countered. “Haven’t had any problems yet.”


“I didn’t either until I met Joanna.”


Scout took a deep breath, then said, “I’ve been thinking – do you have any idea how it would affect things if they did get together? It’d change things around here.”


“A little, I know,” Hawk said, a tinge of worry in his voice. “We’re a team, and it could harm that. I know that what’s happening between them isn’t casual. It’s serious. But I also know those two. The mission comes first.”


“Could the captain stay objective?” Scout asked him. “Sometimes, he gets a little overprotective about all of us, but if they got together --”


“It could be a concern,” Hawk agreed, “but let’s face it, there’s no stopping Jennifer when she wants to do something. Jon didn’t want her going into MedLab One, and Jennifer had to talk him into it. She was brilliant. She used his own logic against him. She’s just as sneaky as he is, but have you noticed that it’s usually when she has to go into Dread bases alone that he gets overprotective? Any other type of mission and he doesn’t worry nearly as much.”


Scout thought about that. His eyes widened as he made the same realization. “You’re right. I hadn’t noticed that. Why do you think it’s those missions in particular?”


Hawk shook his head. “I think she’s told him something about being in the Dread Youth that she hasn’t told the rest of us, and that something puts her in greater danger.”


“He didn’t start acting that way until recently, so whatever it is, it’s new,” Scout pointed out.


“Must be.”


“We know she can take care of herself, so do you think there’s a reason he didn’t let Jennifer deal with Tank?” the smirk on his face showed he was joking.


Hawk smiled, leaned back and crossed his arms. “An angry Tank could snap someone like a twig, but we’ve seen Jennifer beat someone Tank’s size in hand-to-hand combat. No, I think Jon just wanted her on the mission with the two of you. In case you haven’t been paying attention, he’s been pairing up with her on more missions lately.”


Scout had noticed that. “More and more,” he answered. The computer dinged. “And my diagnostic is done. Everything looks good,” Scout announced. He punched a few buttons. “That’ll hide that file Mentor and the captain are using so Jennifer won’t find it easily. And with that said, I’m going to get some sleep. You and Mentor can keep each other company.”


After Scout left, Hawk sat back and listened to the low whirring of the computers. Scout had brought up concerns that Hawk had considered as well. Things could change dramatically on the team if Jon and Jennifer became a couple. Then, if their relationship fell apart, that would destroy the team. It was a risky gamble, but there was more to Hawk’s matchmaking than he’d let on. He’d watched Jon grow up. He knew his personality and his disposition. When he realized that Jon and Jennifer were noticing each other, albeit unconsciously, he saw the real Jonathan Power again. For so long, Jon had been Captain Power, a Resistance fighter. Then, all of a sudden, “Jon” was back. The sneaky, mischievous boy who would cover his tracks when he was playful was starting to show himself. Even his words and phrases became more humorous and sarcastic at times. Every now and then, he’d see this expression on Jon’s face that reminded him of the days when he was younger and was concocting some kind of plan. Jennifer, a young woman who had to regain her humanity, had been the catalyst for the transformation.


The mature man was not nearly as standoffish as the younger man had become, and his feelings for others had matured as well. Jon was looking for a future, not a fling, and whether he knew it or not, his heart had chosen Jennifer.


What Hawk saw that what was between the two was real, and given the two young people’s backgrounds, their experiences and their situation, a little matchmaking would be necessary to put them together – and it gave him, Scout and Tank something to talk about other than baseball scores just like Vi had predicted.


Speaking of talking and knowing he had a long night ahead of him, Hawk pushed a button and Mentor appeared. “Major Masterson. What would you like to talk about?”


Hawk thought for a moment. He had so many serious questions about their recent mission, so many thoughts he’d like to discuss… then he saw Stuart’s face staring down at him with a slight grin. Aw, the heck with it. The temptation was too great. “Superheroes. Do you really think Spiderman was the toughest?”


The End





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