"WHAT?! What do you mean you're moving in?" "Well, when we got the jobs from Scoot," "Scott." "That's what I said. Anyways, when we got the jobs from him, we went ahead and decided to move here." "Ok, but I will warn you only once. My house, my rules. And in my house, we do what we want." "Fine by us." "Also, what are you going to do about your stuff? I can have a moving company sent." "No, no. That's not needed. We thought we would just go shopping for a day." "Do you have money?" They both smile at me with a hit of begging. I pull a credit card out of my wallet and hand it to my father. "Don't spend too much, but make yourselves comfortable. As for a room, you two can take the second bedroom upstairs. It's double the size of a standard master bedroom, and has all the commodities of my bedroom. It also has an attached bathroom. Feel free to renovate it as you see fit. As for me, it's getting late. I'm going to go help Angela with the kids and go to bed." "Good night Richie." "Night mom." I leave the guest room and walk slowly upstairs where I see Angela closing the door to James room. "I'll get the twins. You can get ready for bed." "Alright." She walks off to the bedroom. I walk into the twins room and check on them. All good. I walk out of their room, slowly closing the door before heading off to the bedroom. I put some night clothes on and climb into bed. Next to me, Angela puts down her book and looks at me. "It'll be weird with your parents living here now." "Yea, no kidding." "Well it should all be for the best." "Hopefully. Tomorrow I'll give you a rundown of the systems. But for now, I'm going to sleep." "Alright. Goodnight honey." "Night." I roll over and quickly pass out, drifting into a long and dreamless sleep. I wake up the next morning, still feeling tired. I roll over and look at the alarm clock next to me. 9:37 am. I crawl out of bed and get ready for the day. As I walk out of the closet, I can smell the smell of waffles coming from downstairs. "Oh no, I hope Dad isn't trying to cook again." I think to myself as I walk downstairs. As I walk into the kitchen, I see my mother sitting at the bar, my father checking the oven, and Angela putting the kids in their high chairs. No one notices me as I walk into the kitchen. "Morning." My mother is the first to turn and look at me. "Ah, you're finally awake." "What's going on? And why is Dad cooking?" "Because I wanted to. And, have you really forgotten what today is? Or are you playing dumb." "Nope, just a normal day in my life. At least I thought so." My father pulls a stack of waffles out of the oven and sets them down in front of me. He sticks a candle in the waffle stack and lights it. "Ok, seriously, what's happening?" This time Angela speaks up. "It's your birthday, dumbass. Did you really forget about your own birthday?" "Wait." I look at the date on my watch. February 16th, 2021. "Huh, I guess you're right." "Of course we are, now blow out the candle and eat." I look down at the stack of perfectly golden waffles and the candle shining on top. "Dad, how did you manage to not burn these?" "I enrolled in an international cooking class." We all give him a look of unimpressed doubt. "Fine, your mother helped me." "Ah, that makes more sense." I blow out the candle only to have it lite back up a few seconds later. "Trick candles. Very nice guys." I lick my fingers and put the candle out, taking it out of the waffle stack and setting it aside. "So," I say around a mouthful of waffle, "I still need to show you all how to work the computer systems." Maddox looks at me. "Not today you won't. This is your day, so do what you want with it, because I can tell you don't want to spend it doing work." "You're damn right I don't. As much as I love my job, the systems can be very complex and I don't want to spend my day explaining them. Instead, it will." Joeliene looks at me, confused. "What does that mean?" "You go to the study and turn on the computers, then use the voice codes to activate tutorial mode." "Oo, that sounds fancy." "Then what are you waiting for?" I shoo my parents off to the study and close the door. "Finally, they're gone for the day. Now you and me can have some real fun." "I like the sound of that. What did you have in mind?" "You, me, helicopter." "Helicopter?" "Helicopter. Or the dungeon." "You have a dungeon?" "Of course I have a dungeon." "Why am I not surprised?" "Because I have everything." "I can tell you something you don't have." "And what would that be?" "A mentaly stable wife." Angela says as she runs off into the living room before stopping. "Uh, one question." "Yes?" "Where is the helicopter exactly?" I sigh and smile, pointing out the back door. "That way." I walk out toward the hanger with Angela at my heels. She grabs my hand as we walk through the towering evergreen trees to the hanger. We pass by some railroad tracks. "You want to take the train?" "Nah, I like walking with you." We continue walking before the trees break up and before us stands a large hanger with an arched roof and buildings attached at either side. "How have I never seen this massive building before?" I shrug my shoulders as we walk inside. As we enter, the massive array of aircraft comes into view. The hanger itself has two stories, with smaller aircraft on the second floor and the larger aircraft on the first. "How many things do you have in here?" Asks a marveled Angela. "22. I've got everything from a Piper Cub J3 to a Boeing 747." "Wow. Now where's this helicopter?" "You want big, or small?" "Is attack an option?" "Of course it is. Although, for someone who's afraid of heights, you sure seem to be exited." "So long as you don't turn the helicopter upside down, I'll be fine." "Famous last words." Before she can respond I tow her off to the opposite end of the hanger where a Sikorsky MH-60S awaits us. I help Angela into the side door before taking my position as pilot. I open the large hangar doors and taxi the helicopter out to a helipad before revving up the engines and taking off. "What do you want to see first from the air? Pikes Peak is quite the spectical." "I want you and that ass of yours over here with me" "No sightseeing first?" "Just get over here already." I set the auto hover at 30,000 feet and get up from the pilots chair. "Now what." She walks her fingers up my chest. "You didn't really think I came all the way up here to look at mountains, did you?" "Nope, that's why I wore these today." I grab the front of my pants and rip them off like a disco movie. Underneath are pink glittery short shorts. Angela laughs. "Did you get those out of my dresser?" "Yup, and they look fabulous." "Those have got to be tight on your crotch." "Oh yea they are. But hey, no pain no gain." "And what gain are you trying to get out of those?" I shrug my shoulders. Angela smacks her forehead. "Just get over here you nuthead." I take off the shorts and put on a canvas backpack. "You really want to do it with a backpack on?" "You'll thank me." "What does tha-" "I grab her, open the door, and jump out all in one fluid motion. "RICHARD!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" "Getting kinda stiff." She slaps me. "Why did you just jump out of the helicopter?!?" "What? Do you not like skydiving nude?" "NO!" "Oh. Well no turning back now." I pull the cord and release the parachute. "I swear I'm going to kill you one of these days." "Considering that you know where all of my weapons are, that scares me." "It should." She smiles and looks at me. "I guess I better not waste the moment." She leans into me as we glide down toward the Earth far, far below. As the ground draws near, I land the chute and take off the pack. Angela looks at me with a drunken, satisfied look. "What're ya gonna do bout the copter?" "Since when are you southern?" "Since now." "Works for me I guess. The helicopter will slowly pilot itself back onto the helipad. And I need to get you back inside." I carry her, giggling, back into the house and set her on the bed. Out of nowhere, I hear a faint buzzing. Angela gets a very straight look on her face. "What was that?" "My ass." "Har har. Now seriously, what was that?" I start looking around the room. "Richard, this isn't a joke. My ass is vibrating." She gasps and puts her hands to her mouth. "What?" "Oh no. " "What is it?" I ran over to her. "What's wrong?" "It's another tracker. My parents must have placed it on me and never told me." "So who knows how many more are on you." "How are you going to get them all?" "Magnets." "What?" I hear a crash downstairs. "Shit, that was fast." "Uh, what's happening?" "Go to the bunker and grab one of your weapons. Any of them. Grab my chaingun too." She nods and runs into the bathroom. I reach under the bed and grab the 20 gauge shotgun strapped underneath before running to the balcony to see what all the crashing is about. Below, five men are searching the house. Each is carrying a large rifle. I pump the shotgun and take aim at one of the assailants. I fire and try to duck down but one of the others spots me and lands a bullet in my arm before I can duck back down. I look at the blood gushing from my arm and make a hasty escape to the bathroom, crawling into the shower and locking the door, pulling a larger, metal door over the glass one. As I lock that one, I see Angela run back up the stairs with my chaingun and her Uzi's. "OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?" She sets the weapons down and runs over to me. "I got shot. I'll be fine. I just need to wrap it up. I get up and walk over to the wall and press a few buttons, sending a tray out of the wall. On it are several different bandages and other first aid type things. I take out the bullet and dress and wrap the wound. "That door can withstand brutal punishment for only a little while. I suggest we get downstairs and take a tank to these fuckers." "Yes! I love tanks!" "Good, because you'll be driving it." I run down the stairs to the bunker, sealing the door behind Angela. We run into the tank garage and hop into an M3-Stuart. I open the roll door and Angela powers the soviet tank into the snow. "Go to the garage, we'll get into the house that way." "What about the kids, or your parents?" "In the event of a break in, the study and the kid's rooms go into lockdown. The interiors will then descend down to the bunker and a fake floor will slide into place above them. Same story with the garage. They're all perfectly safe. And we can let the cannons fly." "Aye aye captain." Angela roars the tank through the now empty garage and bursts through the other side, stopping in the living room. I look for the intruders and see them searching upstairs. I aim the turret and let off a few rounds. "I'm going to scout out upstairs. They could be hiding behind a corner." "Are you crazy? You don't have any armor on!" "I rap a fist on my chest with a hollow, metallic sound. "Yes I do." "Where did you get that?" "I always keep a spare suit in each of my tanks in case of emergency." "Richard, don't get yourself killed." "I won't." I hop out of the tank and pull the two Desert Eagles from the armor. "It's time to kill some sons of bitches." I leap from the tank and sneak upstairs. Upon entering the bedroom, I see the remains left by the tank shell. Three of the five men lay dead and scattered around the room. I find the other two in the bathroom and shoot both of them before returning to Angela. "I've put the property on lockdown for now to protect us from further attacks. As for you, we need to deactivate these trackers." I place her in the shower and push a few buttons. A large metal apparatus drops from the ceiling. "This is a massive magnet that will kill any and all trackers that may be on you. Be prepared, this can make you feel a bit dizzy."