The Turn: Chapter Thirty-Six

The Turn

Chapter Thirty-Six

~Calm before the Storm~

One Year Before The Turn

The alarms sounded in the street. Zara jumped up at attention. She ran outside and stood in the street. The people out at the moment stopped and listened as well. Zara ran down the street to a nearby electronics store.

“The alarms have sounded. Please pack all your essentials and take your family and leave the city. Please don’t panic. We have received word, this is not a drill,” the news reporter looked saddened, “XYZ News will be on the air for all long as we can.”

“They’re evacuating the city,” Chaud stated behind her.

Zara turned to him, “I know and you need to stop doing that.”

Chaud shrugged, “Not my fault. I’m light on my feet.”

“Get the others,” Zara told him, “We have to get going.”

“The airship is about thirty minutes out,” Leena stated, “Is that even enough time to get people out?”

“Not nearly,” Sirius sighed, “I was hoping we could buy these folks some time.”

Kiri looked at him, “You mean—”

Sirius looked out at the group ahead, “Call back all oversea Agents now! I don’t care if they’re at their grandmother’s funeral! I want them here yesterday! The Agent’s here I want in the streets! Tell local law enforcement to get everyone out of the city!” He turned to Kaiba, “Tell your brother I’m activating Project M. Would you head there with Kiri?”

“Yes, sir,” both Kaiba and Kiri saluted and left the room.

“Leena,” Sirius looked at the girl.

“Sir,” she saluted.

Sirius motioned to the main computer, “You’re in control of the main system. Someone needs to run things and I’ve never quite gotten the hang of this computer.”

Leena smiled, “She does have a little bit of an attitude.”

Fang was in the middle of a well-deserved afternoon nap when the alarms sounded. He groand and pulled a pillow over his sensitive ears. Someone knocked at the door and he said nothing hoping that the someone, Shadow, would go away. When had that ever worked?

Shadow walked in smiling, “Hello, Fang! Don’t you hear that? It’s the end of the world.”

Come to mention it, he thought those alarms meant something. Fang looked at him from under his pillow shield.

“What does that have to do with me?” he muttered.

Shadow leaned over to the opening in Fang’s pillow protection, “I know you need a rest, especially after Penelope used Alister as a willing test subject for flame resistant clothing. I know they almost burned the house down but this is a little important, don’t you think?”

Fang looked at him, “Honestly…”

“That’s right Fang! You care about us! You wouldn’t want us to die in a fiery apocalypse! Come on, get up!”

“Actually…”

Shadow looked at him, “Fang.”

Fang sighed and groaned, “Fine.”

“That’s more like it,” Shadow smiled and left the room, “I’ll go tell the others to get ready.”

Fang got up and looked out the window. People were filling the streets and heading out of the city. The phone rang on the nightstand. Fang turned slightly and looked at the old phone. He breathed heavily. He had the feeling that they wouldn’t be evacuating like everyone else.

“Hello, Fang,” the voice on the other end said.

“Yes,” Fang stated.

Sirius began, “I see you haven’t evacuated yet.”

“I was taking a nap,” Fang muttered, “I’m going out on a limb here but you need me don’t you.”

“You have that right. Head off to the docks,” Sirius told him.

“Is it big?” Fang asked.

Sirius thought a moment, “You could say that.”

Fang shrugged, “It’ll give something for Alister to do.”

“You’ll meet a few Agents there,” Sirius hung up.

Fang put down the phone and walked down stairs. Penelope was walking down the stairs with a suitcase. Raven was right behind her asking why she only thought of packing her manga. Shadow looked over at Fang and noticed his serious composure.

“We’re not going anywhere, are we?” Shadow asked.

Fang shook his head, “We’re going to the east docks.”

Shadow shrugged, “Fine. I wish someone else would save the day every once in a while.”

There was a knock at the door that got Fang’s attention. He turned to the door and opened it. Fang raised an interested eyebrow as he looked to see who was at the door.

Chaud smiled as he stood on Fang’s doorstep, “Hope we aren’t intruding.”

Fang looked up at the others behind him. They stood on the driveway as they waited for Chaud. Zara looked particularly irritated. Fang looked back at Chaud. Coming here was defiantly his idea.

Chaud cleared his throat, “You know what? Truce. Let’s set aside out differences. Water under the bridge.”

“What do you want, kid?” Fang crossed his arms and waited.

Chaud mocked surprise, “Want? What makes you think I want something? Can’t we be friends?” Chaud paused, “But while we’re on the topic of wanting…”

Miwa hovered several feet above the floor. His blue translucent body was free from any disguise of any kind. He was surrounded by screens displaying different scenes around the Island. Miwa laid back and sighed.

All the other humanoids were already given their objectives and were sent out. Miwa hadn’t been summoned. With nothing to do and no objective to complete, Miwa quickly grew bored.

An alert appeared in front of the humanoid. Miwa narrowed his eyes and touched the small exclamation point. The image expanded and a picture of Kaiba appeared. Miwa groaned. He really didn’t like Kaiba. Miwa sat up and looked at the screen.

“I need you to come down to Lynx’s workshop,” Kaiba stated.

Miwa shrugged, “Why?”

“Because if you don’t I’ll neutralize you circuits, throw most of your being in the incinerator and use your metal pieces to make a toaster for my bread. Do we have and understanding?” Kaiba discontinued the conversation before Miwa had a chance to answer.

“Jerk,” Miwa muttered and descended to the floor.

He assumed his human appearance and walked out into the Tower. It was chaos. Well, more like an organized chaos. The Tower employees knew what to do in an emergency like they were facing now but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be quiet while people ran back and forth to get things done.

Miwa made his way to the lower levels where Lynx’s garage was located. Two large sliding doors opened into a large room. The size of the room was enormous. It was big enough to house a few large Mechs that Lynx was working on as a hobby. Several of Lynx’s works-in-progress were displayed on separate display tables. Miwa looked around and saw no sign of the odd ball.

The doors opened behind him and Kaiba walked in with Kiri close behind. Kaiba looked at Miwa briefly and continued inside.

“Lynx, where are you?” Kaiba called.

“Over here,” Lynx responded.

The three walked toward the back of the huge room. Lynx was sitting at a desk watching a stray Kew crawl around on the table. He watched the Kew’s movement carefully with his blue eyes. His short white hair was in total disarray. Somewhere in his hair was a pair of goggles for his work.

Kaiba sighed as the Kew picked up a metal gear and tried to eat it. Lynx raised a hand. He looked over his shoulder at his brother and brought a finger to his lips.

“Shh, you’ll scare it,” Lynx stated.

Kaiba cleared his throat, “We have a few more pressing issues right now.”

There was a blank expression on Lynx’s face, “What exactly is going on upstairs? Practically every robot the Tower has come to me for a weapons upgrade. Except you two,” he pointed to Kiri and Miwa.

“Do you look at your messages at all?” Kaiba asked.

“Why would I do that?” Lynx looked bewildered. He motioned around, “I have real work to do. My power saw broke a week ago so I’ve been trying alternative methods.”

“The Island is under attack,” Kiri informed him.

Lynx looked at her, “Oh. Now? Really? Are you sure?”

“He doesn’t get out much does he?” Miwa whispered to Kaiba.

“I heard that,” Lynx pointed at the humanoid.

“Father activated Project M,” Kaiba sighed, “Would you get on with this already? I really do have a lot to do at the moment.”

“Right,” Lynx sat a moment longer before getting up. He motioned for the others to follow him.

He walked up to a large computer and typed something on the keyboard.  There was a screen that requested two passwords. Lynx stepped aside and allowed Kaiba and Kiri to continue. Something started to download.

“Alright,” Lynx walked to a door and entered a code, “You can follow me.”

Miwa looked around before realizing that the odd ball was talking to him. He followed in to the room. There was a mechanical K-nine unit in the center of the room. It was connected to several wires. Miwa had heard of them. They were designed for the robots as assists if they needed to be. This one looked a little different though. It was much taller than the usual K-nine units. Its back was a little more than waist height. The tip of its segmented tail was equipped with a blade at the end of it. Its color was the usual black but other than that, it looked quite different.

“Please lay there,” Lynx requested.

Miwa looked at where he was supposed to lay. Cautiously, he did as he was told.

“Now, I would be lying if I said this wasn’t going to hurt,” Lynx looked up, “So, this is going to hurt. A lot.”

A searing pain entered the back of Miwa’s neck. Needles shot up from where he lay and started pulling out a light blue liquid from the boy humanoid. Miwa screamed and tried to get up. Metal clasps restrained him and kept him in place. He struggled against the restraints as the pain increased.

The blue fluid flowed down a tube toward the modified K-nine unit. Once the fluid entered the unit, streaks of blue light started to appear on the black exterior. Miwa grew limp as the fluid was drained from his body completely. When the remaining liquid was placed into the K-nine unit, its eyes turned blue.

“What the heck was that!?” Miwa cried. He stopped suddenly when he realized that his body was still sitting in the chair when his being was elsewhere. Miwa looked down and saw two black mechanic paws.

“You jumped the gun a little, don’t you think?” Kaiba stated as he walked in.

“Well, you did say Project M,” Lynx suddenly looked unsure of himself, “Wait, this is how we do Project M, right?”

Kiri walked over to Miwa’s new form and disconnected the wires. She then handed him a metallic cylinder. Kiri placed the cylinder under his neck and a compartment opened and fitted the cylinder in place.

“Would anyone tell me what is going on?” Miwa took a few steps back.

Kiri smiled, “The cylinder contains all the backup files for the Tower. If worse comes to worse and we need to clear the hard drives you will be the one carrying the back up.”

“What about my body!?” Miwa protested.

“It will be kept in a safe place,” Kaiba stated, “You will get it when this whole ordeal is over.”

“Safe place?” Miwa questioned.

“Even if the whole Island is flattened, your body will be safe,” Lynx smiled.

Miwa walked around, getting used to walking on four legs, “Why this form?”

“You’re carrying the entire Tower in your system right now. You’re old body wasn’t equip for combat, this one is. I heard that it’s easier to move around on four legs as well,” Kaiba turned and walked out.

“It feels so weird!” Miwa turned his head at his tail.

“You’ll get used to it,” Kiri got up and walked after Kaiba, “You need to leave the Tower now.”

Miwa looked up at her.

“When this is all over, look for us,” Kiri said before leaving.

Miwa walked up to the door and looked at Lynx, “She said I have to leave the Tower.”

“Yep,” Lynx nodded.

Miwa shuffled his feet, “Do you think you can lend me a hand and press the button on the elevator? I don’t think I have a button pressing capability.”