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"Traci, get down!"

I squeezed the trigger firing a shot at the intruder. They blurred into motion, flattening themselves to the ground so quickly that I was surprised I could track their movement. The bullet flew harmlessly overhead and slammed into the door of my stainless steel refrigerator. I heard a series of dull thumps as the armor piercing round passed through a case of soda.

I tracked the attacker's movement and shot again. They leaped sideways, landing five feet up the wall. I anticipated the next move and unloaded a third round as my assailant dove to the ground. They were fast, very fast, and I cursed silently as my bullet missed again. Whoever this was, they knew what they were doing. I deftlyswitched the setting to three round burst, prepared to demolish my kitchen and foyer in defense of Traci and myself.

"Don't shoot Kirian!"

I lowered the weapon an inch or so, keeping my finger next to the trigger. Here was a second person today who knew my name. The figure rose and stepped into the light of the living room. It was a tall, thin, female marten wearing some sort of fur tight blue black suit. I immediately recognized her from my dreams. She was the other girl, though she had obviously cut her hair since then because it was short and worn loose.

"Damn Kirian, how can you always catch me like that? You're the only one I could never sneak up on."

Traci looked up from over the couch which she had ducked behind.

"Kirian, is that..."

The newcomer cut Traci off and glared at me.

"Well, I see you found her okay. Never thought to come looking for me did you?"

"Jessica, now's not really the time to get jealous."

I caught myself the second I had said that. How had I remembered her name? I had planned on asking who she was and what she wanted when that just sort of came out. Now it was Traci's turn to glare.

"How do you remember Jessica's name and not mine?"

"Well," Jessica replied, "When you trek halfway across the tundra with someone, you don't forget them easily."

"Neither do you if you spend eight years of middle and high school together."

"Well, it looks like he..."

"Both of you cut it out! I'm the one who can't remember anything and needs help here. Not two girls having a cat fight while the only cat present sits on the sidelines completely confused."

"Wait, he hasn't gotten his memory back yet?"

"Not entirely."

"Well, then we'd better have a talk."

I looked over Jessica's appearance now things had settled down a bit. She was wearing a thin body suit made of some material with a complicated weave pattern. It covered her legs, torso, and upper arm. She wore a belt and two holsters which strapped around her thighs. In the holsters sat two familiar looking sub machine guns.

"Did you, did you break into my shop?"

"I wouldn't call it breaking in if nothing is broken."

"I should shoot you just for that."

"C'mon on Harper, I haven't seen my baby's in five years. Give me a break. You must have felt the same way when you got your sniper rifle back."

"I felt something. It was like finding a long lost brother but I still don't understand why."

"You will when we're through talking and you've recovered."

"Wait, how did you even know that stuff was there?"

"Because I was the one who had Dr. Easterling send it. I've been working with him for a couple weeks now, ever since I recovered my memory and managed to get back into the country. You're lucky the left you here. I was shipped off the tropics, not that I'm complaining or anything."

"How do you know Dr. Trace Easterling?"

"He was the primary developer of all the weapons and technology used by the Task Force. He and Hogan were surprised to see me, but quite pleased, as I was when I heard they had been doing business with you. That made finding you considerably easier than I had ever planned."

"The Task Force, was that the unit I was in?"

"Yes. We were a special operations unit developed to work as a perfect coordinated team of killers and perform undetected operations."

Jessica took a seat at my offering. We sat in the living room talking about the time spent at The Academy and in the Special Assignments Team. I was as intrigued as Traci was considering I couldn't remember any of it. Finally we got to the part where I was shot. Traci gasped.

"Wait, I had a dream about that. What happened?"

"Well, you were covering our extraction from the mission, quite effectively I might add. Finally, you were the last one still in cover. You dashed from the rock shortly before someone landed an RPG on it. I thought the explosion had taken you out, but miraculously you appeared sprinting out of the smoke and dust. You were feet from safety when someone got of a luck shot and hit you in the leg. You were even able to kill them before going into shock. We got you back to the military hospital where they extracted three bullets from your leg, two having passed all the way through. Here, I never told you, but I stole and kept one of them."

She unclasped a silver chain around her neck and passed me the ornament. I inspected it and saw a small mangled piece of metal hanging on it. I looked closely at the misshapen piece of lead, bent from the impact with my femur. Just then, it happened again. My mind was slammed with a burst of locked memory coming free from its imprisonment. My vision began to blur from the pain.

"Kirian!"

Traci leaped forward to help me but Jessica stopped her.

"Wait. It's just the neural pathways of his brain breaking through the chemical isolator. He'll be fine once it's over."

Sure, I thought, and then the memories took over.

I was being called to attend the Academy, our squad was being formed, Jessica was introducing herself to us during squad time, we were winning the challenge, I lead the team through a mountain forest, we were assaulting a bunker, Jessica was shot in the back, a general was taking to us in a conference room, we were joining the Task Force, Teague was pinned down during a training mission, I rallied the team and we rescued him, Chris knocked me out in the sparring ring, we were being handed our new equipment by a human, Dr. Easterling, we cleared a building without killing a single defender, I shot rebel after rebel along a fortress wall, I was going into a surgery room to receive bio enhancements from Dr. Hall, we were parachuting into a guarded compound at night, the team was broken up, I kissed Jessica while we were alone in a bunker, I was skiing back after killing The Phoenix.

I snapped backwards and nearly fell over as I regained control over my consciousness. The room slowly came back into focus. Traci was by my side with a concerned look on her face. I ignored her and turned to Jessica who was still sitting in her chair, with a patient expression.

"Jessica, what did they do to us? To cause this I mean."

"Dr. Easterling believes it was a chemical meant to isolate memory pathways. They didn't account for the fact that our boosted neural response would wear through the coating so fast though."

"Boosted neural response?"

"It's what gives Kirian and I our enhanced reflexes. I believe you witnessed a bit of it earlier. If that had been any normal attacker, Kirian would have put a bullet through them before they could even twitch their ear out of the way. As it was, I reacted in time to evade the shots. Even still, that third one clipped me."

She showed where the fabric on her left shoulder had been grazed. It must have been tough stuff or else the bullet should have torn clear through it.

"Dr. Hall did this to me. I trusted her!"

In my rage, I extended my claws and slashed through the leather upholstery on the arm chair next to me.

"Technically yes. Dr. Hall was the one who physically applied the chemical, but I do not believe she is to blame in the end."

"What do you mean?" I asked calming down a bit from my flair of anger.

"Hogan and I were able to crack some secure sectors of military network and retrieve trace files from Project Task Force. You'd be interested in what we found there. I can show you once we get back to Dr. Easterling."

"I'm assuming you have a plan."

"I do, first things first, we need to make sure everyone is okay, and get them back together if we can. To do that though, we have to find them first, and unless you have the same computing resources as Dr. Easterling's secret research facility, we need to go back there."

Now Traci, who had been mostly silent for the duration of the conversation, spoke up.

"When do we go?"

"When do we go? Yes we, Kirian and I, will be leaving as soon as we run by his shop to get a few things."

"Okay then we, you me and Kirian, had better get going. I'm not going to let him die again."

I was about to say something when Jess cut back in.

"No, we don't need anyone getting in the way."

"I won't be getting in the way, I'll be helping."

"What are you going to do? Were, going to be shooting and killing, not trying to out swim them."

"Shooting and killing! I can do that."

Traci drew the gun I had hidden in the cushions of the couch and pointed it at Jessica. Now it was time to intervene. I began rolling forward to get between them.

"No, let her talk, this should be funny."

Traci cocked the weapon.

"Girl, put that down before you hurt yourself."

"Hurt myself indeed."

She looked as if she was about to pull the trigger when I shouted.

"That's enough you two! I'm tired of your bickering. Jessica, we'd better get going. Traci, you're coming with us. That's final. The next one who argues and I beet both of your asses, tie you up, throw you in the trunk, and drive you there myself. Got that? You may not like each other, but by the gods, you're going to be friends if I have to enforce it a gunpoint."

"Okay," they said in unison, both startle by my outburst.

I rolled past them. Jessica looked slightly amused and Traci's features were covered with annoyance as they turned and followed me outside. In the drive, sat a navy blue, sleek, expensive, sports car.

"Change of plans," I said with a gleam in my eye, "Jess, we're taking your car."

I the interior was strange. The car had three seats. The driver sat centered and forward with two passengers back and to either side. I lifted myself into the right side and Traci to the left. Jessica folded my chair and tossed it in the small trunk before sliding into the driver's seat. She pressed the ignition and the v-10 engine roared to life. After shutting the door, the interior was completely silent. We pulled into the road, she shifted gears and we shot off into the night the sudden burst of acceleration slamming me back into my seat. I had to get me one of these.

As we dove, Jessica turned to me and whispered.

"Where did you find this girl Kirian?"

"I heard that."

"Well, this should be a fun trip." I said exasperatedly, shaking my head at the two girls. Both in their late twenties and still acting like a couple of teenagers with a crush on the football captain.