The room held many different computer screens, people in uniforms watching all of them. Defected Bounty Hunters were receiving orders, captains and squad leaders assembled to get their tasks.

Oracle guessed that all of the Rogue's affairs were managed from here. Orders came from here, and the forces sent out returned to this base, or to another secret hideout to receive a new mission.

As Mirage led them through the room she heard snatches of conversation about Necron and their forces moving supplies from city to city.

They're getting ready. Thought Oracle.

As they wound their way through the command center things got quieter, and people turned to watcha s they passed. They found Basilisk at the very back, talking with several of her Commanders. Mirage respectfully waited until she was finished.

When she turned around Basilisk's iridescent green a armor shifted in the dim light. Oracle saw  a symbol on Basilisk's helmet, a snake coiled around Vargo's flag, an intricate star on a black background. The symbol of the Rogues.

"I must admit I was not expecting to see you again, Phantom." She said, her expression unreadable underneath her visor.

"It's been two years since I've last laid eyes upon you. You better be keeping the others safe." She said.

"As for your friend here," she said, motioning to Oracle, "she's made herself a reputation already."

"They're calling you Silent Shadow now." She said, turning to her.

"You must be both strong and brave to have earned that name."

Basilisk paused, looking Oracle up and down.

"I want to know your real code name."

Oracle, slightly surprised by the question, didn't answer right away.

"Oracle." She answered.

Basilisk nodded.

"Not one of my own. You defected?"

Oracle nodded.

"Welcome to our ranks." She said, holding out a hand.

Oracle shook it, and Basilisk turned to the officer beside her. She didn't seem to know who she was, or had been, or she didn't care who she had been in the past. She didn't seem afraid or uncomfortable.

She paused, receiving a holopad from one of her officers. Basilisk thanked him and looked at the information on the screen.

"What brings you here again Phantom?" She asked Mirage, not looking up from the holopad.

"Hyperion." He answered.

"Necron's activity at their core has been greater than ever before. They're getting ready to take the city and start a war."

Oracle's heart leapt. Reclaimer was going to take the city. Her city.

Basilisk nodded, coming over to them.

"I know what type of man Reclaimer is. He will take advantage of our absence from the city, take it and then he will most likely come for us here." She said, handing the holopad back to the officer and telling him a few directions before turning back to them.

"He's patient and will play the game of war well, moving his prices on the board according to how we play our side of the game.

"Reclaimer knows that Paragon won't be able to respond to their act of war until they have control of most of the main cities. By then they'll have enough strength to counter them."

Mirage nodded.

Paragon was the military force based out of Earth. They controlled the entire galaxy, splitting up wars among planets, systems and races, making sure everything was going according to plan. When a war broke out their forces came a broke up the fighting.

They helped whichever side was fighting for the right cause if it was a war between two forces on the same planet. If it was a war between systems or planets, they fought for no side, and instead aimed to break up the fighting.

They nearest Paragon base was in Elyria, a week's Hyperjump from Vargo. No one knew of the war, so Paragon hadn't been alerted yet. By the time they arrived it would be too late.

"We need to stop them before they have a chance to take Hyperion. It's vulnerable now, they chased us out of the city. Moonshine was injured, but otherwise we all made it out relatively unscathed."

"That's a shame." Said Basilisk.

"That girl is a good warrior."

Mirage nodded.

"It seems at though Reclaimer had left us with no choice." She said.

"War is now our only option of this planet shall continue to thrive. I'll have to alert everyone, have our units on standby. Your Hyperion unit is lead by Ajax, Yellowjacket and Radioactive. You will meet with them later." She said.

Basilisk gave the holopad back to the officer and turned back to Mirage.

"You two make quite the pair." She commented.

She then dismissed them and the team separated. Oracle asked Mirage where she could change out of her armor and followed his direction to the locker rooms.

She stretched her arms out and let the droid take her armor off, then took the black T-Shirt, pants and combat boots the technician gave her. Phoenix joined her as well, and the both went back out to the training grounds.

Oracle went into the building next to the outdoor training area where she found punching bags set up in the room. Phoenix came in behind her and they found that no one was occupying the room, they had it all to themselves.

Oracle chose a bag and Phoenix chose one next her. They took up a fighting stance after retrieving gloves and Oracle began to pinch the bag, letting out all of her stress and worry.

The rhythmic sound of her and Phoenix's punches filled her head, clearing it. Oracle punched the bag harder. Feeling suddenly energized Oracle threw a powerful roundhouse kick, forcing the bag backwards with the force of the kick.

Oracle turned and watched Phoenix for a little bit, watching as she too took out her stress on the bag.

"What's your story?" Asked Oracle, turning back to the bag.

"What?" Asked Phoenix, turning to her.

"I said what's your story? Where do you come from, who were your parents?"

Oracle noticed that Phoenix winced when she mentioned her parents.

"I lived in a small village called Merihi. It was outside of Hyperion, out in the forest. I was born during the aftermath of the war, when rebel groups still controlled parts of the cities. My village was forced into selling weapons to these groups to survive. It was the only way."

Phoenix turned to her bag and punched it with more vigor than before.

"Then Necron ordered my village to be killed because we were helping the rebel groups. My entire village was killed, including my parents. Only me and few others survived the attack."

Phoenix took a deep breath, her eyes full of both anger and grief.

"They took everything from me, everything that ever mattered."

"Then I met Mirage. He convinced me to join the Rogues, to fight Necron. That's how I came to be here." She said.

"He trained me, took me in. I felt like I finally had a home, a family that I truly belonged to. This team is my family."

Phoenix threw a powerful punch and then stood with her hand resting against the bag. Oracle saw tears gather in her eyes.

"That's why I want to tear Necron apart piece by piece." She said, her voice full of rage and pain.

"I want to cause them as much pain as they caused me."

Phoenix looked up at Oracle and they locked eyes. Then the younger bounty hunter looked away and resumed kicking the bag.

"What's your story?" She asked a few minutes later, her voice having steadied.

Now it was Oracle's turn to take a deep breath. She told her about her parents, how they died during the war when she was only eight, how she was found and trained.

When she got to the part about her and Mirage working together for Necron she paused.

"We went on almost all our missions together. We made a great team. Eventually we grew close, spent more time together. We got to know each other. We worked together for four years before he went missing. When he did, I no longer accepted partner missions. I felt that I couldn't trust anyone anymore after being hurt like that."

Oracle took in another deep breath.

"I channeled the pain and my anger at Mirage into my work. Bounty Hunting was all that mattered. It was my job, and I never questioned Reclaimer or the missions I was sent on. Until I met Mirage again and realized that I couldn't kill him. Everything changed that night, and now I'm here, fighting for what I believe in."

Oracle stood back from the bag, taking in several deep breaths to calm her pounding heart. Sweat glistened on her forehead and she wiped it away with her arm.

"I feel like I can't trust anyone either." Said Phoenix.

"I'm only thirteen, but I've had people turn on me."

Oracle turned to Phoenix.

"We both know what it feels like, and how wrong we were when we wouldn't trust anyone."

Phoenix nodded.

"You need others. Life is easier that way." She said.

"But trust is something that needs to be earned."

"Yes," said Oracle.

"But you need to open to accept it. We both learned that the hard way." She said.

Just then Mirage walked in, dressed in the same black uniforms they were.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked.

Oracle shook her head and he took up a place beside her. The three of them trained together for another hour or so, moving from bags to hand-to-hand combat.

Phoenix was surprisingly fast, and because of her smaller size she could dodge blows easily. It was down to Mirage and Oracle now, as Phoenix had gone to get something to eat.

Oracle circled around him and he around her, watching, waiting. Then Mirage struck. She blocked his first blow but he had her on her back in no time.

"You're a little rusty." He commented, releasing her.

Oracle got up, then swept her leg underneath Mirage, knocking him to the ground. He looked up at her front the floor, and she smiled.

"Never turn your back on an enemy." She said, leaving him to get up by himself.

As Oracle was putting away her gloves she saw Mirage come up beside her and he leaned over and snuck a quick kiss before putting his gloves back and walking out the door.

She ran up behind him and gave him stern look that quickly dissolved into a laugh as Mirage gave her a what-did-I-do? look.

"Is that going to be a regular thing?" She asked.

"Maybe." He said, grinning.

Oracle gave him a playful shove and pushed her bangs out of her face.

"See you later." She said, letting Mirage's hand slip from hers as he walked away.

Oracle walked out into the hallway, now with a mission. After meeting Basilisk she had a question, and she hoped she would get an answer.

She found her in the control room, scrolling through something on a holopad. Basilisk looked up when she entered, a smile flashing on her face.

Her helmet lay on the table, visor reflecting the light from the holopad. Her dark hair was put in a high ponytail, a few loose strands curling around her ears.

"Did you need something?" Asked, setting down the holopad.

"Yes," said Oracle, "I have a question."

Basilisk raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

"Why did you decide to name your resistance the Rogues?"

Basilisk didn't answer right away, seeming taken aback by the question.

"We started as a group of ragtag soldiers who didn't have a place after the war. There were about thirty of us give or take. Then we started getting defective bounty hunters from Necron, the very organization we sought to destroy.

"The name came then, when the rogue bounty hunters joined our ranks. When we all realized what evil empire Reclaimer was building in the shadows." She stopped then, handing the holopad off to one of her Advisers.

"But, I think beyond that, we sought to break the rules. We saw what was happening when no one else did, so we broke the established rules in order to slow the progress of the growing evil.

"We were, in the eyes of many, miscreants, criminals, scum. We were branded as dangerous rule breakers. We were rogues, so we embraced it."

"Why did you choose the symbol you did?" Asked Oracle.

"One of my first Captains gave me the idea. A snake to represent me, the founder of the resistance. Then we added the flag of Vargo to represent our home, what we fought for."

She seemed to space off for a moment before snapping out of her revelry.

"I never imagined it would grow so large but it did, and now we have enough power to face Reclaimer."

"I know we can win." Said Oracle, hoping their was truth to her words.

"I certainly hope so, or this planet is doomed to another dark time."

Suddenly from down the hallway they heard the distant thunder of an explosion. Oracle and Basilisk shared a quick look.

They were under attack.

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Hello all you wonderful readers! How do you like it so far? This was another interesting chapter write, got some backstory on Phoenix. This chapter, counting this blurb, is 2020 words long...

~~Nightfury107