Back at the office, James returned Paul Eckleby, a notorious burglar and escape artist, to containment sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha and packed a stack of paperwork into his briefcase for the night. On his way to his personal A-T, he let his mind wander again. He thought about his parents, Bucky, and he would have thought about many other things too, but the sight of Commissioner Gordain waiting by his A-T shook him from his thoughts.
     “Good evening, Sir. Can I help you with something?”
     “Of course you can,” the graying Commissioner said with a tone that seemed somewhat humorous, “The question is will you.” He tossed James a newspaper. “I assume you know about the supposed solution to the resource crisis presented by G&G Hauling.”
     “Of course, they claim that if we get down to the bottom of the earth’s crust, more fossil fuels than we’ll know what to do with will be waiting for us.”
     “That's right, and now they’re taking a fleet of super digging machines called J.R.R.Y.s as deep as they can go without incinerating,’ said Gordain.
     “So what do you want me to do?”
     “Have a look,” he said,waving his hand at the newspaper. James Porter looked at the newspaper.. the headline said, “5 MISSING ON J.R.R.Y. ENDEAVOR." The article went on to tell that a few men claim to have seen what happened, but they were all too terrified to describe it. All J.R.R.Y. operators were, evidently, ordered to return until it is considered safe to  continue. “What the paper doesn’t say is that we interrogated a few of the witnesses, and they weren’t all ‘too terrified’ to describe what they saw. Something is down there, James, something alive.” The Commissioner let this sink in and continued, “Now, Director Comey asked me to assemble a search party to find the J.R.R.Y. crew and make sure it’s safe to continue with the digging.”
     “And you want me to be on it,” James said knowingly.
     “You’re my best man, James. However, if the witnesses are telling the truth, this mission will be extremely dangerous. I met you here, off the records, to give you a choice. If you refuse, I’ll understand, and no one will have to know about our little chat.”
     “Thank you, Commissioner. I understand. I will think about it.”
     “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, James,” he said. Commissioner Gordain walked away.

     It was Thursday, two days after his meeting with the Commissioner, and James Porter had decided to accept. He would do whatever he had to do to make sure those people were safe. Keeping people safe was, after all, the whole reason why he had accepted the job at UAGI  in the first place. He was reminded again of his mother and that fateful night when he had lost her forever. They were on their way back from the store when a dark man with a gun jumped out of the alleyway and demanded that they hand over anything of value. His mother complied after only a moment’s hesitation. They had with them only a few dollars, but he believed them when they said it was all they had. Thinking they were safe, she was hurrying across the street, when—
     “No,” he mumbled under his breath. He wouldn’t -no- he couldn’t dwell on it. Besides, he was outside Commissioner Gordain’s office, and he had an answer for him. He lifted his hand to knock and put it back down as the Commissioner opened the door to come out.
     “Ah! James! I was just coming to see you,” he said. “You have an answer, I presume?”
     “Yes, Sir. I have decided to accept,” said Porter. “When do we start?”
     “Good, good,” he said, “We start now.” Commissioner Gordain led James down a series of twists and turns, hallways and corridors, and right to a door that he had never seen in his six years of working there. “ We’ve decided that whatever is down there must be like nothing we have ever seen. Otherwise it wouldn’t be able to survive. So, we’ll have to be well prepared. This here is an ultra heat resistant environment suit. I’m afraid your usual gray suits won’t do. Hopefully this bad boy will keep us from being incinerated. And over here is our selection of highly complicated and technological weaponry. Basically,” he waved a hand at the larger and heavier of the two, "this one, the T-800,  blows things up, and that one, the ZPR 22, electrocutes things like you would not believe. There are also a couple of other useful gadgets and gizmos that I don’t have time to explain right now. Every second that passes is a second longer for those people to have to try to survive down there. This here is the rest of the team. You know Bucky. Over here is David Heffman. That’s Leroy Amberly, and he is Benjamin Rankin. No time for pleasantries, boys. I’m leading this one myself, so let’s suit up!”

“Alright men,” Commissioner Gordain said once they were finally underground. “Welcome to the world at altitude -89,000. Take a good look. We’ll split up in pairs of two. Nobody goes alone. Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity. Alright, let’s move out!” Each agent gravitated towards the person they were most comfortable with. Leroy went with Benjamin, David with Gordain, and of course James went with Bucky.

“Come on James,” Bucky said with a grin, “it will be an adventure.” James felt like he just got punched in the gut, but he managed to swallow it and follow his red and grey environment suit-clad friend towards a broken down J.R.R.Y. The landscape down there was interesting. The little light they had came from the bulbs in their helmets and the eerie glow emanating from pockets in the ground where magma was bubbling up.

“Wow, technology these days is incredible. Do you know that magma is about two thousand four hundred degrees fahrenheit? I don’t even feel uncomfortable,” James marveled in a hushed tone. They had reached the J.R.R.Y. Bucky Benson looked at James and mouthed the words one, two, three, and they jumped into the machine with weapons ready.

“Whew, all clear down here Commissioner,” Bucky called. Just then, a green light started flashing on his hip. “That’s weird,” he said as he unhooked a device James hadn’t noticed before. “Ah, it looks like this thing has picked up a signal of life… over there,” Bucky gestured out of the monstrosity of mechanics and electronics toward a darker section of the man-made cavern. “Talk about technology. I didn’t even know we had these.” Bucky started to follow the little grid display toward the dim recesses of the underground world. James didn’t go after him for a couple of seconds. Something wasn’t right. James Porter put away the short black ZPR 22 and decided to comfort himself with the bigger and heavier T-800. When he looked up, his friend was already several yards away.

“Bucky!” he whisper-screamed as he tried and failed to quickly and quietly pick his way through the rocky terrain while carrying the cumbersome firearm. “Bucky, wait up!” he tried again to get his friend’s attention. Suddenly, the little green lighted computer on his side started flashing. What he saw was not good. There was the same little mark over by where his friend was going, but he also saw a whole ring of others surrounding them and slowly moving in! “Bucky!” he said again with a new urgency. “Bucky stop!” he cried almost full voice now. He was stumbling and tripping his way towards his partner, trying desperately to get his attention. “It’s a trap!” he was yelling, “Stop!” Finally, Bucky heard him and turned around, but it was too late. He watched in horror as something reached out of the darkness and pulled his most trusted friend into the shadows, screaming. James Porter fell to his knees in shock and leaned against a stalagmite, breathing double time. “Why? Why? Why, why, why?” he kept repeating over and over again. He had failed to warn Bucky just as he had failed to warn his mother of the oncoming traffic. Just then, an earthquake shook him from his thoughts. No, the stalagmite was falling over. No, it wasn’t a stalagmite at all. It was a horn on a great creature unlike any he had ever seen before. It’s body shape was similar to that of a lion. It had four legs with four claws on each foot. The creature’s tail was similar to a lizard’s, and on its back were three large spikes that he had mistaken for stalagmites while it was lying down. Its head was quite peculiar. Its mouth lay agape, and inside he could see something akin to the pockets of magma. The eyes and nose glowed with the same intensity. And atop its head was the strange horn he had been leaning against, but the most unusual part was how the entire creature appeared to be made entirely of rock.

James Porter took a step back. As he looked around, he saw several more of these beasts closing in. Each one was at least as tall as he was. He looked frantically around for the rest of the team, but he saw no one. Bucky and he had gone too far. “Deep breath. Come on, James. Think!” he said to himself, “Think, think, think…” he muttered as an idea started to form. It wasn’t great, but maybe it would work. He checked the T-800. “Yep, still good.” He checked the ZPR 22, “Ok, here goes nothing.” Suddenly, he broke out running as fast as he could while toting the weaponry. He ran past the one nearest him and pulled the trigger of the ZPR 22. An arch of electricity as thick as his wrist shot out and knocked it off its feet. Next, he reached for the T-800 and sent a large projectile into a group to his left. The recoil nearly knocked him over, and he decided to leave it on the ground where it had fallen for the sake of speed. James Porter took off at a dead sprint toward where he had seen his team last. “Commissioner! Dave! Leroy! Anybody! We have to get out of here now!” Something grabbed him and pulled him to the ground. James desperately fired the ZPR 22 and failed to hit anything.

“Put that thing away and get in here,” Commissioner Gordain whispered urgently as he pulled James into a small, dark, half finished tunnel. There before him crouched Gordain and Dave.

“Bucky?” Dave asked with concern. James Porter shook his head. “Oh.”

“Sh sh shhh…” said Gordain, “They’re coming this way. Turn off your lights.” They turned off their lights and sat there in the dark for what seemed like an hour but was more like ten minutes before Gordain gave the all clear. Then they started to tiptoe across the rocky terrain keeping an eye out for stalagmites and those creatures roaming around. Through a very slow process of ducking and scampering they were finally in sight of the lift that brought them down, but what they saw in front of the lift made them forget all about getting to the surface as quickly as possible (at least for a little while). Standing before them was a battered and burned Bucky Benson.

“Bucky,” James said in an almost unbelieving half whisper, “How? How are you here?” At this point they all realized something even more surprising. Bucky Benson was holding a loaded gun that was pointing at them. “Bucky?”

“Bucky. Put the gun down,” David said in a shockingly calm voice.

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Bucky said. “This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. I know that you and Frank Comey were going to pull the plug on the J.R.R.Y. operation,” he said to Commissioner Gordain, “and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.”

“Bucky, this is crazy! If we stay down here, we’re all going to die. Those things are going to come back,” said James as he took a few cautious steps toward Bucky.

“Stop right there, James!” He took a deep breath and continued in a quieter, gentler tone. “If we stop digging before we find what we came for, countless people will die.”

“Bucky,” Gordain interjected, “If we keep digging, countless people will die. Is that what you want?”

“Huh,” he sob-laughed, “Do you really think I care about them? I care about my family. Remember my sister? The one you put in the hospital and FORGOT ABOUT? If the world loses power, she and countless others die.”

“We can find other fuels, Buck. She’ll be okay,” David said without much conviction.

“Where, Dave? Fossil fuels are found underground, and no other form of power can sustain the demands of the world for more than a few months. So, it’s simple. All I have to do is kill you... and save the world.” Bucky Benson pulled the trigger, but he was too late. Just as he flexed his finger, Leroy Amberly and Ben Rankin came charging and tackled him mid-shot. They wrestled the gun away from him and tied him up with some rope from their supplies.

James Porter sighed a sigh of relief. James Porter groaned a groan of pain and collapsed to the floor. His environment suit was already turning a dark red from the gunshot wound in his thigh. His head crashed against the ground, and the world went dark.

     When he woke up, James Porter was propped up in a white bed in a white room with bandages on his leg and an I.V. in his arm. “Bucky?” he called somewhat panicked, “David? Commissioner! Where am I? What’s going on?” Then two things came rushing in at once, the nurse and his memory. His breathing and his heart rate quickened, “Oh… Bucky… Why? Why…?” he groaned. He thought he might pass out again.
     “Shh… you’re okay. Everything's fine. You’re in the medical ward at the UAGI. Your friends will be here soon. Just try to rest.” The nurse said in a calming tone. He nodded his consent and she walked briskly out of the room. After a few minutes of resting on his back, David, Leroy, and Ben walked into the room.
     “Good to see that you’re still breathing Porter,” Ben said with a chuckle.
     “Gordain couldn’t make it, but he wishes you well and said that we would be able to answer anything you might want to know,” David explained. “First off, your leg is going to be fine, and you’ve only been here a day.”
     James nodded, “What about Bucky?”
     “He will be given a fair trial, but anything other than that is uncertain,” David answered.
     “Hm,” he said thoughtfully, “ Okay. And the J.R.R.Y operation?” he asked.
     “Unless something down there changes, it’s a no go,” Leroy said. “Too dangerous.”
     James sat there for a moment and thought before he said, “Well, thank you gentlemen. I hope to be working with you again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should get some rest.” James Porter closed his eyes.

     It was the third day after the whole underground incident, and he had just been cleared to return to work. When he got to his office, he found a note. It said, Welcome back. Meet me in my office. -Commissioner Gordain.
     “Hm,” James said. “Alright.” He set down his briefcase, straightened his jacket, and set out for Gordain’s office. When he arrived the door was open, and the Commissioner was waiting for him. “Miss me already?” he asked.
     Mr. Gordain chuckled and threw him a newspaper, “Take a look,” he said.

                     The End?