Journey to the Past

Summary: When Axel gets a lead on the mystery that surrounds his Father's disappearance, he stops at nothing. But with Jo-Lan playing up and a new sinister enemy on the loose, will he discover the truth? Or will the truth forever escape him?

Disclaimer: This is a Fan-fiction story of the cartoon; A.T.O.M (Alpha Teens on Machines), and is in no way affiliated with the actual series. All Characters and other materials related to the show that are used are not intended to infringe on any Copyrights. Elemental-Zer0 takes sole responsibility for any mistakes or offence that may be taken but truly not meant.

However, this story plot and all Characters not affiliated with the show are Copyright © 2010 to Elemental-Zer0.

Warnings: Welcome to the Zero Express line where action and adventure await. Step inside and take a seat as we journey to a place where the words may be harmful, the mysteries are hazardous and the potato chips just plain suck – sorry not a lot we can do, they're from our sponsor.

So keep your arms, legs, sunglasses, umbrellas, grannies and children inside and hold on to your hats! It's gonna be a bumpy ride! Yeeehaaaaaa!

A/N: Yeah, I took down the other story as I've reworked it completely. I had a minor plot change and that warranted a whole rework of everything I'd written so far for Past Recurrences. Also I changed the Title too as it was only a working title. Sorry if this confuses anyone.

Let me know what you think, but no flames please. If you have any criticism to make please do it politely otherwise I shall ignore your words. (It's happened before, I'm sorry to say, and I hadn't even posted any chapters…)

Prologue:

Time was of the essence. Agent Alexander Paine knew it was going to be a close call. The bomb had been set by the best so of course the call would be close. Damn that man, how dare he betray them like this? And where the hell was Manning? He should have been out by now! The building was going to blow up any minute now and the guy still hadn't shown up. Curse that man. The countdown wasn't going to slow down like in the movies. He had to get out now or it'll be too late.

"Manning where are you!" He yelled into his radio, a feeling of fear spiked down his spine. "Get out of there now!" Where was the annoying twerp? His fist squeezed tighter around the small metal radio, his fear giving way to his uneven temper.

A crackle of static answered him first.

"Al…" Paine's eyes widened in shock. 'Holy shit! Is that Manning?' But he sounded so… so weak. What the hell happened to him?

"Manning? That you?" He cried, wary of the time this was all taking. But then Paine realised it was over for his friend; there was no way that Manning would be able to escape the fast coming blast in the state he sounded in.

"Go Al, get the chopper outta here. I won't make it in time." Paine closed his eyes. Gods he sounded awful. This whole situation just down right sucked. How could the government let an unknown hero die like this? They had a lot to answer for. The chopper began to lift up, they were moving away, circling round to watch the fireworks which would start any second now.

"Manning…" It was a plea, a warning… a desperate apology. And it was all Paine could say to let his feeling be known.

"I know old friend… Just promise me one thing." Paine looked up then, looked through the windows, trying to find his friend's face for the last time.

"Anything." He thought he found it.

"Promise me you'll look after him. Make sure he never gets involved in any of this." But before he could affirm his promise, the countdown beeped twice. And the top floors of the sixty four story building exploded with a cracking detonation.

And Paine could only watch, knowing his last true friend was still inside.

A heart wrenching scream left his lungs

"Manning!"

It was then that his mind clicked. This was all their fault; their ex-partner and their employer… even the Government had a hand in all this!

The traitors!

Paine decided then, that he was going to make them pay… big time!

"I'll get you, you sons of bitches!" He growled, still clutching the now silent radio.

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

A cacophony of alarms suddenly deafened the group inside the chopper. Paine quickly tried to cover his ears but the sound still permeated.

"What's that?" He yelled at the pilot who struggled with the controls a little before responding.

"The navigation system has crashed, something's scrambling the controls. We're going down! Get a pack on! Jump!" What? Who could-? Paine suddenly narrowed his eyes. He knew who had the brains and resources to create a technology that could do this. He truned to the group and nodded; they'd abandon ship for now, re group at the specified place and plan their attack from there.

"Jump! You know where to regroup!" They wasted no time in following that order. Strapping on parachutes and jumping into the smoke and chaos that was rapidly approaching them. Paine strapped himself to a parachute before helping the pilot make his escape, then jumped himself into the smothering smoke.

It took all his skill to avoid the falling rubble and navigate himself safely through the smoke. What he didn't expect was another explosion from behind. He cried out in shock and confusion as he suddenly pitched forward. A wall of flames reached out to greet him.

The heat was unbearable, searing his skin like hot oil in a pan. He screamed as he fell the rest of the way down… right into an inflatable cushion; the ones designed for fire victims to jump on to from a building when all other exits had been sealed off. His sight blurred for a second before the face of the first traitor came into view. He glared.

"Mr Alexander Paine; we've been looking for you." He said; a slight hoarseness to his voice. Too many cigarettes'll do that to a guy, Paine thought. "You are hereby under arrest for the deaths of several innocents." What? This was insane! Paine shot up from his position only to be pushed back down as several police officers tackled him to the floor. His burns screamed their protest at the harsh treatment, they were outwardly bleeding and seeping but the officers holding him down didn't seem to care. He growled; he was a goddamned Government Agent! Of course he'd killed people, but they were far from innocent! The only people he'd killed were criminals and mad men bent on taking over the world! What was this traitor planning! "And I believe you just killed our only witness." The bastard continued. Paine had had enough bullshit.

"What the fuck, you bastard? You setting me up!" He all but screamed at the man. "Where's your evidence you fucked up retard?" There was no evidence, Paine was sure. He'd done only what his commanding officer had told him, all the mission statements had had all the approval tags, the system was faultless! He had nothing to hide.

"I don't need evidence. I have a witness's account." The hoarse man said, waving an audio tape just in front of Paine's eyes. "He caught you red handed." Paine growled again.

"Those ops were legitimate! You signed them yourself!" And that's when it hit him. He had been set up; he'd been set to take the fall before the whole operation had even started! The bastard!

"I didn't sign anything… But Manning knew that. He knew everything; he even picked you to take the fall, said you'd understand." The traitor grinned at Paine's shocked face. Manning knew? That didn't make any sense… unless... grrr they'd planned to take it all along!

"You double crossing son of a bitch!" He screamed. Screw Manning's last request! How dare he ask such a thing when he was in on it the whole time?

"Take him away." Paine's temper flew through the figurative roof.

"I'll get you, you asshole! I'll! Geeeet! Youuuu!"