Wakefield, Bernard, and Nash were pinned down under heavy fire by the Imperial Special Forces. "How many  of these bastards are there?" Bernard yelled over the gunfire.

"We've got another ship coming in!" Nash yelled. "Bernard, take care of it! Wakefield. Lay down cover fire."

"On it," Bernard grunted as he hefted Natasha into a steady firing position and blew the ship out of the sky with a quick barrage from the rail gun. 

Wakefield threw a grenade taken from Bernard's satchel and lobbed it at the enemy. A huge explosion sent him flying back over the wall the men were using for cover. "Jesus Bernard, what the hell was that thing?"

"A little something I've been testing out. Explosion could have been bigger."

Wakefield surveyed the thirty foot crater that had laid waste to the incoming forces. "Yeah, that's what it needs. More bang."

About a quarter mile beneath the hatch in the tunnel leading to the Source, Steel faced the four remaining assassins, pistol and knife in hand. "Which one of you wants to go first," he said a cocky smile on his face, contradicted by the excessive amount of blood coming from his nose and mouth. As he brought his pistol up to fire an assassin threw one of their deadly blades. Steel dodged the best he could but the blade hit him in the left shoulder. The hooked weapon stuck in as Steel's arm dropped for a moment allowing the assassins time to close the gap between them and the man with a death wish. The first assassin punched the blade farther in until it hit his shoulder blade. Steel ducked another assassin's blade and tackled the assassin to the ground. He stabbed the man in the heart, his knife punching through the light armor as though it was tinfoil. The first assassin came up behind Steel and grabbed him but Steel was too fast, He threw the man over his shoulder, making the wound in his arm even larger and causing him an excessive amount of pain. The assassin had been expecting this. He recovered landing a brutal kick to Steel's jaw and moved to the door. They blew the door Steel couldn't see clearly through the smoke but he heard two gunshots ring out and could see the outline of an extremely tall woman, just short of Bernard's height standing over the bodies of assassins. One of them reached for his weapon but she kicked it away and put a knife to his throat. "How did you find her?" The assassin grabbed her hand and pushed the knife into his own throat laughing maniacally as he did so. The assassin who had dealt the most damage to Steel, recovered from the gunshot and tackled the woman to the ground as she stood stunned at the dedication these man had to their secrets. Steel shook off third blow to his head, calmly walked to the assassin, who was slowly losing the upper hand to the woman, and snapped his neck.
"I didn't need your help," the Amazon looking woman said angrily. Steel extended his arm and helped woman to her feet. She had dark blonde hair that she had put into braids and she looked livid.

"I know. That guy just really pissed me off," Steel said as he heard footsteps behind him he turned to see the man with Steel's knife in his chest running at him. A gunshot rang out and the man dropped to the ground, Steel's friends standing behind him, Wakefield's gun smoking. "You got your ass kicked down here didn't you."

"I'm still standing aren't I?" Steel asked taking the knife from the assassin's chest.

"True enough. Good job killer."

"Thanks, hotshot"

"Anytime champ."

"I swear to God I will end us all right now if you keep going." Bernard said reaching into his satchel.

"Enough," the woman said, her guns raised at the newcomers.

"Sorry, ma'am," Bernard said, removing his helmet, clearly smitten with the woman.

"You must be the men that she sent for," her voice changing into a a more relaxed, friendly voice. "You guys sure did make a mess."

"You should see what it's like up there," Wakefield said. "By the way it's Bernard's fault. All I did was steal the wrong grenade from his pouch. If he had been paying attention that would never have happened."

"Noted," she replied.

"You're an asshole," Bernard shot back to Wakefield.

"Bernard come on, you can't use that type of language in front of a lady."

"Wakefield, leave the man alone," Nash said sternly. 

"Gentleman, meet Anne."

As the smoke cleared Steel looked past the apparent Amazon standing in front of him and inside the room was a beautiful woman sitting at a table drinking what appeared to be tea, dark brown hair tied back in a bun. She looked completely unfazed at how close to death she had been. The room was filled with computer monitors showing constant feed from security cameras across the galaxy. "Wow," Steel said softly.

Anne looked up at Steel, "Hmm?"

"The, uh, computers. Wow. That's pretty incredible."

Bernard leaned in close behind Steel, "Smooth, Romeo."

Steel elbowed him hard in the gut and smiled at Anne.

"Yes they really are. By the way you're bleeding."

"What?"

"The knife sticking out of your shoulder."

"Oh, this?" he pointed to the large knife. "Don't worry about that it's fine." Steel said visibly wincing as he was reminded of the blade protruding from his left shoulder. 

"You're sure?"

Steel hesitated for a moment. "Yes."

She raised an eyebrow, "Ok, just don't get blood on my carpet."

Steel reached up for the blade lodged in his shoulder and quickly removed his hand as pain shot like lightning from the wound. Steel grunted loudly and fell against the wall. Anne turned around. "You're sure you're alright?"

"Oh, he's fine," Wakefield said yanking the knife out of the wound quickly out and slapping a piece of cloth onto it. "He's a tough son of a bitch."

"Thanks mate," Steel grunted.

"What are friends for?"

"So, Anne, is it?" Steel asked pulling himself off the wall.

"It is. And you must be Captain Max Steel."

"I am," he said, offering his blood soaked hand
"Again, blood on the rug."
"Right. That is a huge problem," Steel said withdrawing his hand and rolling his eyes.
"This is the rest of the team, Tyler Nash, Travis Wakefield, and Rob Bernard," at this he gestured to the men behind him. "Now, we're under the impression that you called us here for a reason other than tea time." He was getting paler and paler from the wound tat was pouring blood.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet all of you. This is my computer system, it was built by my father. I would tell you why I chose you, but we all have our secrets, don't we? This woman over here is Amy." She said nodding to the tall woman beside her.
 "Travis, I know what you're thinking, and yes Amy the Amazon would be a great nickname. If you want a knife wound like Max's somewhere a little less pleasant. I have been here for years I would tell you where I'm from but again, the less you know about me the less you can hurt me. It's simple logic. You have my first name and that's all you will be getting. Consider the fact that I have information on every single one of you and could take you down using a few simple strokes of the keyboard, yes, I do consider it a weapon."
"What could you possibly have on me?" Wakefield asked.
"Pink. Bunny. Slippers."
"You wouldn't."
She simply smiled an innocent smiled and turned to address Steel, "By the way Max, we have excellent medical equipment here to take out that chip in your head. Also fix that nasty wound in your shoulder. Rob, will you take Max and follow me? He should be passing out soon. That knife cut an artery."
"I feel fine," Steel replied leaning back against the wall.
"Mhmm, Rob catch him when he takes his next step."
Steel glared at Bernard with a look that dared him to follow her orders. Bernard raised his hands in a surrender.
"Stubborn as ever," Anne said under her breath. "Max, follow me and let's get you fixed up."
"You betcha beautiful," Steel slurred as he stepped forward and collapsed. Bernard caught him with one arm and slung him over his shoulder.
"Easy lady killer."
"Holy shit, did I say that out loud?" Steel asked barely coherent.
"Yes. Yes you did brother."
"He's also bleeding all over the rug. Just follow me quickly. That's never going to come out," Anne said exasperated. "Also we ran out of anesthesia so that blood loss may help out when I have to rip a chip off of his brain stem."
"Gotcha. I'll hold him while you do that."
"If I may have a say in the matter of digging around in my brain."
"No you may not."
"Ok." Steel was barely able to get these words out as his world went black.
A day later Steel lay in a hospital bed more comfortable than he had been in years. For a few moments he thought he may have died. He chuckled a little bit at the thought that after all he had gone through he died of blood loss to a nicked artery.
"Three liters of blood. How in the name of God is he still alive, much less laughing in his sleep?" Nash's voice was fuzzy as Steel came back to the waking world.
"Hey buddy," Wakefield said leaning in close to his friend.
"Get. Out. I haven't felt like this since one of my missions went wrong about 10 years ago. Three days in an Imperial prison. The escape was fun though."
Steel looked at the wound in his arm. It was already scarred. He was always amazed at what they had made his body capable of enduring.
"Lovely, it worked!" Anne exclaimed. "You won't remember everything at once but things will prompt memories to come back. Things like people you used to know, places you've been. Something will have to trigger the memories. I'm sure you'll find this out as you go along. Now about my plans for you boys."