Life's Second Chance

Mission on Mars

"He was what?" Throttle found his heart beating fast against his chest. He managed to grab the agent by the collar with two hands and yelled. "WHY WOULD HE BE GUNNING FOR RAY!?" His usually cool demeanor flew out the window.

"That's... a little harder to explain..." Jake could feel the martian's knuckles trap his windpipe and he found it harder to breath-much less speak. "Can't...breath..." he gagged.

When Throttle let go he was sitting upright now, eyes fuming with rage.

Catching his breath, Jake coughed out forced breaths of air. "Man, you could've killed me!" he yelled angrily.

"Trust me! That would've been the least of your problems," Throttle retorted through gritted teeth. It was getting very difficult to keep his calm now.

"Ray had been combating the effects of the Pacer before our Mission on Mars, and word had it there was a doctor there who could remove it." Jake frowned.

"I'm listening." Throttle threatened.

Eyes narrowed sternly and seriously, "We were already given a time limit of a maximum of two to three years to remove the Pacer. When we heard of this doctor, we sent some drones to do the first recon-missions. We later found out about an ongoing war, between the Martians and the Plutarkians. Under intergalactic laws, we weren't supposed to interfere-but were running out of time and needed to find that doctor. It wasn't until a few days later that someone had tapped into our lines-Stoker was his name. He requested our help, and agreed to help us find the doctor if we sent him support and backup.

Our Mission on Mars came into play shortly afterwards. We went under cover as Mr. and Mrs. Spitfire, refugees of the Plutarkian invasion.

Ray and I were actually supposed to meet Stoker, but we ran into Lieutenant Carbine instead.

Obviously she didn't believe our story and the fact we were there to help, so we were forced to reveal who we truly were."

"That explains how she recognized Ray." Throttle commented.

J continued, "She said she had a link with the Freedom Fighters under Stoker, and that she could help us out-but we had to prove ourselves first. So she sent us off with one of the military platoons, but we got ambushed before we reached the southern boarders. Not many of us survived." Looking up at the Martian Jake added grimly, "She put us on the front lines you know, and not as mice, but as human agents. Lt. Carbine said it would display an act of trust on our part- and it also was the only way to know for sure if we could be trusted." J's face darkened. "We were discovered."

With a thoughtful sigh, Jake continued, "We broke protocol just to earn the Martians' trust, and we were repaid with a stab on the back." Jake gritted his teeth angrily, "And because we broke protocol and were discovered we were ordered pull out. The only reason they didn't nail us, was because we went there searching for a doctor to defuse the Pacer. Back then we didn't know we were dealing with fellow Agent Kaito. All we did know was that the assailant was one of ours- hence the undercover operation. So.. having us openly fight in the front lines practically handed our heads to him on a silver platter"

The Martian felt a tug on his gut. "Why did you both go so far anyway? We never asked for your help" A pang of defensiveness washed over. It almost sounded like this agent was blaming Carbine for what happened.

"Hello, we weren't doing it for you particularly. We were doing it for Ray," he corrected. "Had the Pacer detonated, our whole solar system would've been destroyed!" J retorted, "Stoker offered to help us, but we helped him first. Through his underground lines, he had heard of how we'd helped people like you before. We followed his instructions to the dot-but nothing seemed to go our way."

Throttle's frown deepend. At that time, Stoker was under the influence of the Mindbender Beam.

"But someone else was pulling the strings from the very beginning." J purposefully left out the obvious details. "Long story short, Ray and I became targets ever since that day Lt. Carbine sent us out to fight along side the army. It became too dangerous and we were supposed to pull out and relocate. Ray was against it and stayed behind with me and a few others saying we would all just lay low for a while undercover while our main party would play the part as departing decoys. It was a week after the incident when things started to calm down that Lt. Carbine called wanting to see Ray and then that was the last we ever heard of her."

Throttle's frown seemed to be tattooed on his face now. "Why would Carbine want to see Ray?"

J stood up, quite angry with the way the conversation went. "Ray could never remember..." His pause made Throttle straighten up. "Why don't you ask her yourself."