I'd never much been a fan of Monday, primarily because it meant the weekend was over and I would have to wait another four days before I was guaranteed more time on Fallout 4. One of the great things about Project Venom was that there was an Xbox One in the rec area that was open to us all day once we had finished training. I was putting a lot more time into my settlement on Spectacle Island, though admittedly, the game had taken over my life in the recent days.

The next morning after training, the others had gone off somewhere while I went to the rec area to put some more time on Fallout, when I found the entire building was locked, also, very conveniently, Carlos was there waiting for me.

"Can't get in?", he asked smugly.

"What the hell is this?", I asked.

"Morningstar said your playing too much Xbox", Carlos laughed, "you need to get more air."

"Oh fuck off", I said, "your not my mother."

"No", he said, "I'm your CO, go spend time with your girl, that's an order Ace."

I sighed, "yes sir."

With that, I started back for the barracks and entered. I changed out of my practice uniform into a sleeveless, white spandex shirt, grabbed my Lucky Charm and hung it around my neck. I also changed out my pants for a pair of lightweight, tan shorts and my boots for a pair of sneakers. I grabbed a coke and my Window's phone from the room as well as my sunglasses and went looking for my friends. I found Nina, Mercury and the others on the giant rock that we used to sun ourselves, or the one that I thought looked like it had been brought in. Mercury and the guys were dressed pretty much normally, short sleeves and shorts, while Nina and the girls seemed just to be wearing modest swim suits, which as far as I was concerned, was sure Nina was wearing because she wanted to see me squirm. When I got to the rock, I found Nina sitting on the highest point, Mercury right below her with no shirt on and a Pepsi in his hands with Trace laying next to him. Jayden and Arnett were sitting with their backs to the sun, while Rylar had finally come around for Leanna, the two of them were laying on the edge of the rock with their legs dangling over the edge. Jayden and Arnett were together as well. That left Mako and Riley by themselves.

"Well what have we got here?", I asked climbing up the rock.

"Everyone rubbing their girlfriends in my face", Riley said.

'Hey what about me?", Mako asked, "I don't have a girl either."

"I doubt were the only ones who will ever come to the project", Mercury said sitting up, "I'm sure there will be more girls in the future."

"Oh shut the hell up Captain Obvious", Mako said.

"Hey", I said sitting next to Nina, 'watch the language."

"I hear you swearing all the time", Arnett said.

"I'm an adult", I said, "though having said that it's really not appropriate when I do it, so it definitely ain't for you."

"You sound like my Mom bro", Mercury said with a smile plastered all over his muzzle.

"Shut up twit", I smirked as I took a sip of coke, "why you guys even out here on this rock?"

Mercury smiled at me and then reached down the side of the boulder hauling up a duffle bag that smelled of matte paint and gun oil.

"What you got in there?", I asked as he reached into the bag and pulled out a Barrett .50 cal, a gun that had just recently come into the Venom arsenal, we'd been training on it for the past four days now. How in the hell Mercury had managed to convince Morningstar to allow us to target shoot with it was beyond me...well...no, never mind.

"How the fuck you get your paws on that?", Nina asked.

"I asked nicely", Mercury smiled, "you forget, Morningstar's my Dad."

"Right", Riley said, "that means you have leadership privilege."

"Oh shut up now Riley", I said, "Please just shut up before I have to make a video about why your wrong."

"seesh", Riley said, "what did I say?"

"You said something that reminded him of something stupid", Nina smiled, "remember the gold platted Ferrari?"

"SHUT IT!", I said, "I'M TRIGGERED!"

"Sure you are Ace", Mercury laughed, 'now are we gonna shoot the Barrett or what?"

"Where's the target?", I asked.

"1 ¼ inch thick piece of steel about 600 yards straight out", Mercury said pointing to the mountain in front of us, "miss and your out, last one standing wins respect, and glory."

"Hmmm", I said, "these prizes sound cheap. As the king, I already own respect and glory."

"Glorify", Nina laughed.

"Respectify", Mako grinned.

"Hmm, but not a TV."

"I'm not giving you my TV", Mercury said, "that is mine that I brought from my house when I joined."

I shook my head, "fine, let's shoot the Barrett, whose up first?"

"Me", Mako said stepping forward. He pulled a magazine out of the duffle bag and started loading it while Mercury set up a small nest to shoot from. Mako loaded the magazine into the Barrett and then worked the massive bolt, which he needed both hands to do.

"God that thing is heavy", Mako said taking aim. There was a bit of a pause before he sent the two ounce slug down range, pinging it off the much harder steel.

"Direct hit", Mako smiled.

"I'm up next", Arnett said jumping over to the rifle. She wasted no time putting it on target and flinging the round downrange, hitting just above where Mako did.

"Damn sister", I laughed, "that was a good shot."

"The spirits helped me", She smiled.

"My turn", Nina said sliding down from my side to the rifle. She took a bit longer to aim, but once she was on target down range the round went, pinging smack in the middle of the target. Is it wrong for me to say how turned on I was by that?

"That was hot", I smiled.

"Of course it was", she smiled, "Daddy didn't raise to helpless bitch."

I laughed, "Why would you say that? It makes me think you think we didn't know that was a given."

"Good point", She laughed as Riley slid over to the gun. It seemed as though he didn't bother actually aiming and just sent the round downrange for the hell of it because he missed.

"Riley's out", I said.

He shrugged, "I'm tired of shooting this gun for accuracy, it takes the fun out of it."

"Half the fun is lining up the perfect shot", Jayden said.

"ooh", Trace laughed, "the sniper gonna take a shot."

"Step aside boys and girls", Jayden said, "and let a real sniper show you how to shoot the big toys."

We should have made Jayden shoot last. He pulled out a pen and paper and a wind speed measuring device and did all kinds of crazy math before spending about a half hour lining up the shot, but damn did it pay off. When he sent that round downrange, perfect bullseye.

"You should have gone last if your gonna do that every time", I said, "I'm up."

I slid off my perch on the rock and put the Barrett to my shoulder. It was as heavy as I remember the first .50 cal I handled back home being. I couldn't help but think about worrying about braking the display case at that gun store when I was trying to get a grip on that rifle. I pulled back the giant bolt to clear the last round and dropped the magazine out. Mercury handed me a fresh one and I stuck it up into the magazine well, pulling back the oversized bolt and letting it slam forward, loading the round into the chamber. I looked through the big scope over the glowing white sand covered landscape, searching for the piece of steel. I soon found a bright orange and black colored target with a few holes in it. I lined the scope up with the middle of the cross hair and sent the round downrange. You'd think that .50 cal would brake your shoulder on the first shot, but I find the recoil to be a "hollow" recoil, like what I get with the M14 and the M1 Garand. There's a lot of it, but it's not a solid punch as most of it seems to concentrate in the edges of the shoulder stock., making it "hollow." I watched through the scope as the round went straight through Jayden's hole.

"Put one through the hole", Rylar laughed, "I'm up."

I backed away from the rifle and Rylar stepped up. We threw round after round down range through the big Barrett. One by one, Trace, Rylar, Mako, Arnett, Jayden, Leanna and Nina struck out, Leaving me and Mercury, who missed his last shot.

"I can win this right here", I said loading a fresh round into the chamber.

"We'll see", Jayden said.

I put the Barrett on the target and let the round downrange, smacking the outer sides of the target, "I win", I laughed, 'were is my respect and glory?"

"ah ha", mercury laughed sarcastically, "can I get you a sandwich your majesty?"

"Yehs", I said, 'I'll have a BLT, hold the L, oooohhh, this is some of your trashy talk yes? Well I too can talk of the smack."

Mercury and most of the little kids started laughing.

"I get that reference", Nina laughed.

'What reference?", Carlos asked walking up, "kids, come on, we need you in the situation ro....why the fuck are you all dressed like that?"

"Like what?", mercury asked as he packed up the Barrett.

"Just wearing Spandex?", Carlos asked.

"Cause it's light and we don't sweat through it", Arnett said.

"And it drives our boyfriends crazy", Leanna smiled.

Carlos laughed, "I'll bet it does, come on kids, I'll have David put up the Barrett."

We piled off the rock and followed Carlos into the situation room. It was a large, Minecraft like oak wood room with a large, varnished pine table in the middle with a glass inset. The other broad members were gathered around the table, everyone was dressed looking like they had rushed here in a hurry.

"What's going on?", I asked as we sat down, "this looks like it was rushed."

"It was", Sam said, "we've made a breakthrough on the mercs we thought you needed to hear Ace, since your pretty much in charge of the field operations."

"Lay it on me Sam", I said.

"We've heard from an anonymous tip that Blackriver has been practicing for something big in the middle east", Sam continued, "told me not to ask him what on the phone, but he said we needed to send people over there as soon as possible, but not before we retrieve someone."

"Retrieve who?", Rylar asked.

Morningstar slid us a folder, "Professor David Green", he said, "works as a biology teacher over at San Francisco university."

"So why we need him?", I asked.

"The man is a savant when it comes to DNA", Sam said, "in 2008 he successfully cloned a rat with full intelligence, then he disappeared for about 10 months and now that he's back, his students report that his lessons just seem, neutered."

"Neutered how?", Leanna asked.

"There not in depth at all", Sam said, "I recently attended one of his lectures..Kids, I gotta say, even with my hand in the serum that changed you, I was told over and over that I would be taken off my feet by this man's understanding of how DNA works."

"From the tone of your voice I'm guessing it didn't end too well", I sighed.

Sam shook his head and Rebecca, another, more quiet broad member took over, "not really, it was fine the first ten minutes, but after that it got so repetitive a lot of people left."

"Hmm, the man has an impressive track record, 15+ years research into a cancer treatment that goes into production this December, 26 years in the field of cloning, DNA scissors and defective gene repair", I said, "as cool as he seems, why are we going to get him?"

"We think those ten months he was gone was because he was working on something for Blackriver", Morningstar said.

"Okay", I said, "why does it have to be Blackriver? Why not an off the books CDC project? Maybe something for WHO?"

"The reason we think it was Blackriver was that the company started coming into the light almost the same day Professor Green returned", Sam said, "my source told me that the sooner we retrieve him, the better."

"Hmm", I said, 'what else did your source say?"

"The collage is in the grip of an SJW protest", Rebecca said, "I imagine that they might try to throw you out, and that any PMC's in the group might take notice and try to take you out. The best thing to do is act like you belong there and only go sneaking around if you have to, so to that end I had fake school ID's made so you can get in without too much question. Once your inside, just locate a school map and go from there."

"Hmm", I said, "seems easy enough, so what are the hard bits?"

"Well it's without a doubt an overnight trip", Morningstar said, "8 hours there and back, so you won't swing it in one day. There are also likely to be Mercs in the group looking for him as well, so take Short Barrel rifles and your sidearms. Make sure the batteries on your emitters are charged as well. Also, take four people with you, who ever you take is up to you."

"Hmm", I said, "Since we'll be using the emitters, I think Riley and Arnett will fit in the back of the Civic, Mercury can ride shotgun."

"What about me?", Nina asked teasingly.

'I need you here in case something else comes up", I said.

Nina smiled, "you sure? Or are you just afraid that you'll get into trouble with me and then have to explain to our parents when they get here in a few days?"

I looked at Morningstar, who was smiling.

"Is there something you forgot to tell me?", I asked.

"I told everyone their parents were coming to visit after practice this morning", he laughed, "if you had been at the rock and not worried about Fallout 4 you'd know that."

I sank back in my chair, "your a prick Alex."

Morningstar laughed, "I'll take it as a compliment, dismissed kids, Ace you should leave early tomorrow morning if you wanna get ahead of the traffic."

"Noted", I said as we stood up and left.

The others went to the barracks while I went to the hangar to put the backseats back in the Civic. There wasn't all that much to do, since I had left the mounts intact. I unbolted the front seats, unbolted the roll cage, put the backseats in, then put everything back together and the entire process took about ten or fifteen minutes. Once I was done, I went to the armory and grabbed one of the Short Barrel Rifles that had been modified to run pistol loads so they could use their native round at full power. The one that I grabbed was an SOSBR, or Stealth Operation Short Barrel Rifle, patterned after the AR-15. I simply slapped an Aimpoint on it and stuck it in a bag with my DE. I grabbed some ammunition and, flashbangs and teargas, just incase and tossed it into the bag before locking it in my box and heading back to the barracks.