Radioactive: Chapter Nineteen

Radioactive

Chapter Nineteen

~Open Window~

Sorry for the extended delay, work got really crazy the last few days. -.-,

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Riu asked. She ended up coming along, not wanting to be left behind, “I mean they could just be hidin’ from us. How do you know they are headed for their home? They can’t be that stupid to—oh gross!—lead us there. I mean they would have to be pretty stupid. And by pretty stupid, I mean really, really stupid. Eww! This freakin’ sucks! There just isn’t a rank on a scale that could measure how stupid they would have to be. So overall, they couldn’t possibly be that stupid.”

“They also aren’t that stupid to not be able to hear you all the way down this tunnel,” Kaiba muttered.

Riu looked up ahead of her, “You are so paying for a new pair of shoes.”

“Just agree,” Fang sighed, “The sooner you do, the sooner she will shut up.”

Riu looked over her shoulder, “What did you say!? Just wait till I get over there!”

“Yes,” Fang stated mindlessly.

“Are you just saying that!?” Riu asked, “Because I will beat you up!”

“Yes,” Fang nodded.

“You’re getting on my nerves!” Riu shouted.

Fang shrugged, “Yes.”

“Arggh,” Riu faced forward and proceeded to ignore Fang.

Fang looked over his shoulder at Ing, “See, told you it would work.”

“Yep!” Ing clung onto Fang’s back as Fang carried the little android in his human form.

Kaiba rolled his eyes as he led the way through the tunnels underneath the city. Kiri lit up the path ahead of them. She still didn’t have full use of her right arm but it wasn’t something that would too much of a problem. Jekyll walked a few places behind the two. He was just a little more quiet than usual. Duke walked behind everyone else. He rolled his eyes as the others talked back and forth to each other.

“Shh!” Kaiba shushed as they walked forward.

Ahead of the group, a couple of mutants scurried around each other. They took a look at the coming group and ran off. Kaiba ran after them. The mutants crawled onto a tunnel. Kaiba looked inside the tunnel and slid down inside. He landed on his feet into the abandoned subway. Kaiba watched as the creatures ran down the subway toward an opened door.

Kiri followed Kaiba down the tunnel. She bumped into him unintentionally receiving a death glare from Kaiba.

“This way,” Kaiba said.

Thought the mysterious door, it was an entirely different vibe and feel. The walls, ceilings and floors were all white and well lit. There was a clean vide throughout the building. There was something else too that Kaiba couldn’t place his finger on. Together Kaiba and Kiri walked into a larger room.

“Looks like you finally made it,” Jumper leaned against a railing on a catwalk. He looked down at the two with a kind of smug expression. He didn’t seem intimidated in any way.

Kiri stepped forward but Kaiba stopped her. He looked up at Jumper, “Well, it wasn’t like you left your address lying around.”

Jumper shrugged, “I don’t have a home. I drift, body to body, home to home.”

“You never seen so far from you’re original body,” Kiri said

“There’s a saying, “Home is where your heat is.” And frankly, my heart is here. I take very good care of this body. And I’ll everything I can to protect myself.”

“I see,” Kaiba said quietly.

“That means; I’ll kill you before you can even touch me!” Jumper vanished and appeared behind Kaiba.

Kiri turned and grabbed onto Jumper with her right hand. She stepped to one side and threw him across the room. Before he could get onto his feet again, Kaiba dashed forward. Jumper was quicker though, by the time Kaiba tried to attack him Jumper had already disappeared. He appeared suddenly and started attacking Kaiba with quick and precise movements. Kaiba took several steps back and did his best to dodge and parry. The compartment in Kiri’s left arm opened and the contraption placed a sword in her hand. She grabbed the sword with both hands and tried to attack Jumper while his attention was distracted.

He saw her coming easily and ducked. Jumper’s movements were smooth and effortless, he sidestepped and pivoted behind her and grabbed Kiri’s neck. Kiri switched her grip on the sword and drove the blade behind her, trying to stab him that way. Jumper stepped to one side avoiding the attack with his grip on her neck. He pulled her down to the ground and slammed her head on a railing. Kiri’s vision temporarily went dark as she tried to recover from the blow. She slid to her feet in a daze.

With Kiri in no immediate condition to assist, Jumper focused his attention on Kaiba. He disappeared and reappeared in front of him. Kaiba jumped back, slashing with the blades in his arm. After one slash, Jumper was nowhere to be seen. Jumper’s laughter could be heard echoing around the large room. Kaiba looked around cautiously.

Jumper laughed, “Oh Kaiba, I do have to say, you are quite the person. Now, I know we haven’t known each other for long but I can just tell from personal experience with others that you are the son of a rich father aren’t you. The question is why are you here? Daddy issues? Spoiled Rich Kid Syndrome? What is it? Why do you care? These people will just end up being statistics in a few months anyway. At least this way, they matter.”

“What about you? Why do you help subject people to painful experiments?” Kaiba asked.

“Yes, but they all thank him in the end…before their mind capabilities degrade into animalistic instincts,” Jumper didn’t sound like he cared at all. “Unlike you, I don’t care. As long I get my pay I could care less.”

Kaiba looked in the direction he thought he heard the voice originate before echoing, “I doubt you would have that outlook if you were the one being tested on.”

“I doubt I would,” Jumper laughed, “But I’m not. And neither are you. So again, why do you care?”

Kaiba looked around. The direction of the voice was completely different than where he last heard it. He decided to answer in order to keep Jumper talking.

“It’s my job to care,” Kaiba said.

“Don’t give me that bull crap,” Jumper sounded annoyed. He sighed, “I guess I’ll just have to find the answer myself.”

Jumper appeared suddenly in front of Kaiba. He grabbed Kaiba’s neck. Kaiba felt a sharp pain though his head as their eyes locked. Jumper smiled and laughed as he inched his way into Kaiba’s mind. Kaiba grabbed Jumper’s wrist with his left hand in an effort to get the hand around his neck off. With his right he tried to stab Jumper with his blades but his opponent grabbed his wrist with his free hand.

“I’d ask you to stop struggling,” Jumper smiled, “but then it would be less fun stealing your body.”

“Aagh!” Kiri shouted as she used her sword in a downward attack behind Jumper.

He looked over his shoulder and disappeared. The sword hit the ground, not even grazing the body jumper. She looked around; her vision was a little glitch still from the impact. Kiri stood defensively around Kaiba, doing her duty to protect him. Jumper appeared again to her left. The compartment in her arm opened again and placed a gun in her hand. She turned quickly and unloaded the on him. Jumper somehow avoided all the bullets and teleported the short distance between them. He struck her in the face causing her to stagger back. Kiri tried to fight back but Jumper grabbed her right fist in the middle of a punch. Jumper ran past her and grabbed the back of her neck. He threw her over the edge of the railing.

“Stop interrupting you little wretch!” Jumper shouted as he tossed her over.

Kiri fell into a tub of liquid on the level below. Upon impact of the liquid, error messages appeared in Kiri’s vision. The thick liquid chemical clogged her filters as she tried desperately to get out and assist Kaiba. Slowly, she found in more and more difficult to move. She tried to call out but naturally no one heard her. Kiri dropped to the bottom of the tub with a metallic sound and lay motionless.

Jumper sighed and looked over his shoulder, “Now that we’re alone, let’s finish what we started.”

He walked over to Kaiba and lifted his head. Racked with a mind-numbing headache, Kaiba couldn’t move as he gripped his head in pain. Jumper looked into Kaiba’s eye.

His smile grew wider, “They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I can say for a fact that they defiantly are on to something.”

Kaiba felt his mind slipping the longer he looked into Jumper’s eyes. Colors started to blend and blur and it was also getting harder and harder to concentrate. He tried to look around for Kiri, at least that what he thought her name was, but she was nowhere to be seen. In his mind, faces had no names and words were starting to lose meaning. Muscled didn’t do what he wanted them to; no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t move. He couldn’t hold himself up with his own strength and depended on Jumper to hold him up. Kaiba shivered as the surrounding air felt cold all of a sudden.

“Fath—,” Kaiba muttered weakly. It couldn’t really be called a mutter really, more like a meek sound of weak resistance.

Jumper sighed, “Oh, Kaiba, just give up.”

Weak and barely functional, Kaiba collapsed. Jumper’s own body slumped over as well. For a few moments, nothing happened. Suddenly, Kaiba opened his eyes.

He sat up and stretched. When he was finished, he looked at his hands and smiled. He stood up and walked around Jumper’s body, stretching out his legs. All of a sudden he started to laugh uncontrollably.

“Oh, Kaiba,” he said out loud, “I can get used to this. You are going to make a nice fit. I didn’t find my answer though, oh well; it isn’t going to matter now.” He looked down at the second body at his feet, “What to do…what to do…”

Kaiba looked up when he heard something down the hall. He narrowed his eyes. That’s right; there were others to take care of. It would be easier in this new body. He raised his hand and partially extended the blade. Kaiba winced slightly, he wasn’t yet used to pain. He sighed. This would have to do. Besides, with their guard down, they won’t know what hit them.

~§~

“Kaiba!?” Sirius turned suddenly, knocking over his cup of coffee onto the floor.

Bridget, his new temporary private secretary, dropped the folders she was carrying onto the desk and grabbed a box of tissues. She started cleaning up the mess on the floor, avoiding the bits of glass from the mug until later.

“Are you alright, sir? You didn’t cut yourself or something did you? I’ll get this cleaned up right away!” she said as she dabbed up the coffee. She laid down a piece of tissue and started placing broken pieced of the mug onto it. When she ran out of her own stash she looked up onto the desk to reach for more.

Bridget stopped. She stood up and looked out the window where Sirius was looking. When she didn’t see anything she looked back at him, “Mr. Galaxy? Are you alright, sir?” He didn’t answer. His attention was undivided. Bridget tried again, “Sirius!”

“What?” Sirius looked at her.

“Are you alright, sir?” Bridget asked, “You weren’t responding.”

“Oh,” Sirius nodded, trying to grasp reality, “Yes, yes, I’m fine.” He looked down at the mess on the floor and stooped down to clean it up.

Bridget joined him, “If you don’t mind me asking, what was all that about?”

“Nothing, I just though I heard someone call me, that’s all,” he still seemed very out of it, “I just must be tired.”

“Sir, I can clean this up if you need to splash cold water on your face,” Bridget offered.

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” Sirius stood up and walked toward the door. He stopped a moment and turned around, “Have you ever had that feeling that someone you love is in trouble and you just can’t shake that feeling?”

Bridget sat on her legs, “I couple of times. Do you think something happened?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius said.

Bridget tried to console the worried father, “If you’d like I could give everyone in your family a call.”

“No,” Sirius shook his head, “I think I should do that myself.”

“Alright then,” Bridget nodded, “Shall I hold your calls?”

Sirius opened the door and looked over his shoulder, “Naturally, you’re the best in the business at holding a call. I’d hate to keep you from doing your job.”

Bridget saluted, “Always an honor, Mr. Galaxy, sir!”

Iridescent: Chapter Nineteen

Iridescent

Chapter Nineteen

~Reality – Part 2~

After the Fall

Direct Continuation…

Chaud was relieved when Vicky’s axe struck the shadow and made it disperse. Though it wasn’t defeated in gave Chaud enough time to roll out of the way. A bullet whizzed past his ear. He looked up and saw Ai with one of her guns in her hand. Chaud moved quickly as Zathura attacked him again. He touched the axe when it struck the ground sending a jolt of electricity through it. Zathura was jolted back. Shadow puppet disappeared.

He blocked another bullet with his gun. Ai scowled at him. For the first time, Chaud notices that Dante wasn’t beside his sister. It was then that he heard a distinct ringing. He ducked down as a blazing sword cut the air above him. Chaud pressed a button on his gun lengthening it into a type of sword. Though he wasn’t an expert in sword fighting he knew enough to keep himself alive. Besides, he thought, a claymore was a heavy and slow weapon. He would be able to avoid getting hit easily.

That was where he went wrong. Dante was very efficient with his weapon. Paired with his powers Dante’s skills were deadly. Dante swung his sword at Chaud’s head. Chaud bent back as the flaming sword swung at his head. He attacked Dante right after. Their weapons clashed together, Chaud’s sword sparked electricity while Dante’s roared with fire.

There was another gunshot and Chaud raised his second gun and aimed it at Ai. He fired two shots. The first bullet struck Ai’s bullet down in midair. The second bullet struck Ai’s weapon out of her hand. She pulled the second gun out and aimed it. Chaud pivoted around Dante keeping distance between himself and Ai’s aim.

“Vicky!” Chaud called.

She parried Ren’s symitar attack, “What!?”

“Get Amber out of here!” Chaud jumped to one side and slashed at Dante with his sword, “Get her to the desert!”

“You sure?” Vicky looked back at him for only a second, “What about you?”

“I’ll be fine!” Chaud ducked as he dodged an attack, “I’ll catch up to you later!”

Vicky threw out her hand blowing both Ren and Yin back. She extended her hand and the throwing axe that she had thrown at the shadow came back to her. Kew crawled up Sanya’s leg and jumped on to the arm she used to restrain Amber. The little creature bit her arms and hands. Sanya waved her hands around as a way fling the creature off.

Amber ran toward her brother. Vicky scooped Amber up in her arms and looked back at Chaud.

“Chaud! Catch!” Vicky threw a blue vial at him. She turned to Kew, “Come!”

Kew ceased his barrage of attacks and ran toward Vicky. He ran up Vicky’s leg and assumed his place on his shoulder. Amber screamed for her brother as the wind whirled around the girls. Vicky rose off the ground. Sanya was about to use her powers when the she-wolf growled at her.

Chaud caught the vial of Blue Gold that Vicky tossed to him. He used it knowing full well that the first vial he had taken had not worn off yet. Chaud stumbled back when a dizzy spell struck him suddenly.

Yin ran up to him. She attacked with her glaive. He dodged by bending to his left. Chaud threw out his hand. Electricity shot down his arm and struck Yin. Yin screamed as electricity flowed through her. She was blown back and slid on the ground. Yin struck a rock and was knocked unconscious.

Zathura got to her feet. She charged at Chaud and picked up her axe along the way. Chaud opened his wings and with a mighty wing beat sent electrical sparks toward her. Sharp feathers shot toward her scratching and scaring her. Zathura dropped her axe as her arms were targeted the most. She fell to her knees and tended to her wounded arms.

Lightning flashed and thunder crashed overhead. With the second injection Chaud struggled to keep his powers under control. He could feel his heart racing and struggled to breathe normally.

“What the heck are you doing kid!?” Dante called over a crash of thunder.

Chaud looked at him. He extended his arm and electricity shot toward Dante. Dante ran to one side avoiding the attack. Ai fired several shots at Chaud but he avoided them easily. Chaud looked at her and a bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Ai was only fast enough to form a force field as it crashed down. The bolts impact on the force field resulted in a blinding light. When the light subsided, Ai managed to protect herself but was knocked unconscious due to the stress of the impact on her power. Dante ran to his sister’s side.

Anger started to overwhelm Chaud, something that he had never experienced before. He hated Dante and the others that were hunting him and his sister. Chaud could feel the anger controlling him. He extended his arm and thunder rumbled overhead. Dante looked at Chaud and narrowed his eyes.

“Ren!” Dante called.

Chaud looked to his right and stepped back to look squarely at the coming threat. Ren ran passed Chaud on his left. Chaud noticed a sly smile on his face. Ren didn’t try to attack. The hair that covered his left eye parted for a moment. Ren’s left eye was closed with a horizontal scar from his eye brow to his mid cheek. Ren’s left eye opened suddenly capturing Chaud’s attention. His eye was red and black. Chaud couldn’t avert his attention.

“What’s your worst nightmare?” Ren whispered as he ran passed.

Chaud closed his eyes and looked away suddenly. When he opened his eyes again he wasn’t in the mountain crater. He sat on a chair in a dark room. An unknown light source shined down on him as he sat alone. Chaud looked around and tried to peer into the darkness.

“My you are quite the disappointment aren’t you,” a familiar voice said.

Chaud looked ahead and saw his father sitting behind a table looking at him.

“Nothing but a disappointment,” Sirius said, “Why can’t you be more like your brothers?”

“He isn’t smart enough,” Kaiba said over Chaud’s shoulder.

“He isn’t handy,” Lynx sighed as he appeared and walked passed Chaud on his right, “I doubt he could put together the contents in a Lego box let alone a rocket.”

His mother appeared in front of him, “What a shame. I wouldn’t have gone through five hours of labor for you if I had known you would be completely useless.”

“I’m not useless!” Chaud shouted.

That brought laughter from the people in the room. Their laughter echoed and filled Chaud’s ears. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the sound only seamed to grow. Chaud closed his eyes and tried to force the laughter to stop internally.

“You know, you’re right,” Zara’s voice stated. Chaud opened his eyes, “You’re not useless. You’re stupid, you’re an idiot and completely incompetent. You’re worse than useless. You have a lot of improving to do before you’re useless. You have no use.”

“No!” Chaud shouted.

Sirius put a hand on Chaud’s shoulder, “Shall we go through everything for you?”

“Speak slowly,” Miwa laughed, “We wouldn’t want him to get lost!”

Mother held out a piece of paper in front of Chaud’s face, “An ‘F’ in math—”

“Do you even know the square root of 5,839,203,490?” Kaiba asked.

“Dude! Even I know that!” Deontay shook his head.

“An ‘F’ in Language,” Mother continued.

“How do you say rock in Swahili?” Sirius asked, “To hard? How about rain in French? Can’t you do anything? How about stupid in German? Can you do that one?”

Mother smiled, “An ‘F’ in Science—”

“What is the molecular structure of water?” Naru asked, “I’ll even be nice and give you a hint. It’s H₂O stupid.”

“Stop it!” Chaud shouted, “Just stop it! Leave me alone!”

“An ‘F’ in Gym,” Mother laughed, “Who does that? Fail gym?” the smile on her face disappeared, “Only you because you are so useless!”

“And we’re only getting started,” Sirius smiled.

“No! Stop it!” Chaud gripped his head, “Stop it! STOP IT!”

“Look at him;” Zara said with disgust, “He can’t even handle a little pressure.”

“He can’t even take care of me as he should,” Amber crossed her arms, “He really us useless. A real waste of space.”

“I’m sorry,” Chaud said quietly.

Amber rolled her eyes, “There is no apology for being such a loser.”

“I’m not apologizing for that,” Chaud said.

He took a third vial out of his pocket and injected the blue liquid into his system. His body pushed itself to its furthest most limit. His arms and hands crackled with electricity. He felt every cell in his body charged and almost pulsating. He could barely hold still, his body was shaking so much. Chaud looked out at his so called family and friends. He shouted and a pulse of electricity radiated from him smashing the illusion that was being woven around him.

Chaud opened his eyes back in the reality he knew. He looked around at the scene around him.

Dante had his sister in his arms. He motioned to the others to follow him. Zathura and Sanya ran to his side. Ren picked Yin up on his back. He smiled at Chaud before following Dante.

Lightning struck around where Chaud stood. Chaud flapped his wings and took to the air. Lightning struck him but had no effect. He flew in the direction of the desert to look for Vicky and Amber. The wolf followed below on foot.

Vicky hand landed just at the foot of the mountains on the nearest sand dunes. She looked up at the dark clouds that hung over the mountains Amber cried while Vicky rocked her as they waited for Chaud to join them. Vicky stood up suddenly when she saw a bead of gold light falling from the sky like a shooting star. It struck a nearby sand dune kicking up sand. She ran toward the point of impact with Amber close behind her. The wolf approached as well.

“Amber stay there!” Vicky called as she slid down to where Chaud lay unconscious.

Amber dropped to her knees, covered her mouth and cried. The wolf walked up to her and stood behind her. Vicky looked down at Chaud. She pressed her ear against his chest. At first his heart was racing faster than she could count then suddenly it stopped.

“No, Chaud!” Vicky started pressing against his chest acting like his heart.

Amber’s breathing became uneven when she saw what Vicky was doing. She looked around hopelessly for help of any kind. Amber saw some vehicles on the horizon. She got up and waved her hands. She could already hear Chaud’s voice yelling at her that she had no way of knowing they were friend or foe but at the moment Amber was willing to take that chance.

The she-wolf perked her ears and sniffed the air. There was a familiar scent that she recognized in the air. She howled into the air. Shortly the caravan veered toward their location. Amber dropped to her knees and looked back at her brother. Tears streamed down her face as she hoped and prayed that they would be able to help.

The Turn: Chapter Nineteen

The Turn

Chapter Nineteen

~Called Out~

Two Years before the Turn

Zara stepped out of the black vehicle and started walking briskly toward the building. She wore a black business suit with a skirt and black two inch heels. Her hair recently brushed up into a bun. There was no makeup on her face except for a slight coloring of her lips. She wore a pair of glasses and a clip on ID on her coat. Her strides were long and even as her heels clicked on the walkway. She walked confidently with a clipboard in her arm.

There were quicker uneven clicks as Vicky walked slightly behind Zara to her right. She tried desperately to keep up with Zara, often almost tripping over her own feet. She wore a similar suit to Zara’s. Thick rimmed glasses donned her face and her hair was in a single ponytail.

Chaud was on Zara’s left. He wore a simple suit and dyed his hair black. In his left hand he carried a briefcase. Unlike Vicky, he wasn’t a complete mess.

Zara walked confidently up to the guards at the door. They looked confused as to her presence but they didn’t question. Zara found that if you acted like you belonged somewhere people rarely asked questions. She walked directly up to the front desk.

Hina sat at the desk. She spun in her chair as she talked to someone on the phone. Once her eyes fell on the coming threat and her entourage, she sat up hung up the phone and organized things on her desk.

“Where’s your boss?” Zara asked.

Hina rolled her eyes and picked up the phone, “Mr. Peterson, sir? The Health Inspector is here. I know they’re a week early but they’re here. Alright,” she hung up the phone, “He’ll be right with you. If you care to sit down—hey! Where are you going!? You can’t go that way!”

Zara walked away from the desk and started walking down one of the hallways that looked like a main artery. Her people followed her. People gathered at the doors of their offices to see what the commotion was all about. The elevator door at the far end of the hallway opened. A bald man walked out in a blue suit.

“Hello,” he seemed a little surprised. He held out a hand to shake hers, “You’re the Health Inspector?”

“Names Ross,” she said only giving their last names. She also did not take Peterson’s hand, “This is my assistant Vang and my partner Banks.”

“Sup,” Banks muttered on Zara’s left.

Peterson awkwardly pulled back his hand. He smiled, “We weren’t expecting you until next week.”

“Of course you weren’t,” Zara turned around and started walking back the way she came. Peterson walked quickly after the group of three, “That’s the whole reason; catch you off your guard. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that sorry excuse. ‘We weren’t expecting you until next week’. It means they have something to hide and they haven hid it yet.”

“You look a little young to be a Health Inspector,” Peterson tried to make conversation.

Another thing Zara learned was that if you acted older than you were, people tended to believe whatever age you told them you were, within reason of course, “I’m 29 and I plan to stay single, Mr. Peterson.”

“Ouch,” Banks muttered.

“Banks! Start your search down there! I’ll take this section!” Zara commanded.

Banks nodded and walked down a hallway. Mr. Peterson tried to stop him but Zara called his attention to another matter. Vang stumbled after the two taking notes on all the things that Zara saw wrong. Chaud walked down the hallway. He could feel the eyes of the employees on him. When he reached the end of the hallway, there was a stairwell. The door was code locked. Earlier Chaud had hacked into the system and found out all the codes. He typed in the code and opened the door.

Casually he made his way down a flight of stairs to an electrical box. He set down his suitcase and opened it. It carried a lot of different things; one being a pair of latex gloves. He slipped on the gloves and pulled out a bobby pin. It wasn’t the most advanced weapon but it was all he could scrounge up in less than twenty-four hours. He picked the lock and opened the electrical box. He took a moment to look at the wiring then he nodded to himself and got to work. Chaud browsed through his suit case and pulled out a small electrical device. He put an ear piece in his ear and started moving wires around.

Outside, an electric van drove up. Deontay got out of the van and walked into the building. Hina told him that one of the outdoor cameras weren’t working and he got to work. He set a ladder against the building. As he was up there, he pulled out a small satellite and attached it to the cords coming from the camera. Deontay aimed the little satellite toward the coffee shop across the street.

Across the street, Naru walked into the small coffee shop where he ordered a latte. He sat at an outside table. He brought his laptop out of the backpack on his back. Slowly, he sipped the coffee. His computer screen was blank. A white square blinked off and on in the upper left hand corner. Naru sat back in his chair and waited.

Naru noticed a man in a black suit and a wide brimmed hat walk to a phone booth. There was something strangely familiar about him. The man briefly looked over his shoulder. He picked up the receiver and dialed 911. He waited casually as the call connected.

“Hello? What is your emergency?”

The man turned his back to Naru, “There are men with guns. There are also six kids.”

“Okay? Wait? Do the kids have guns? Where are you now, sir?”

“You’ll figure it out. Oh, and don’t forget the one at the coffee shop,” the man hung up the phone and walked away.

“There we go,” Chaud muttered as he attached the device.

“Got the satellite up,” Deontay muttered as he played with the wires.

Naru sighed, “Bout time.”

“You worried, bud?” Deontay smiled.

“No,” Naru shook his head, “it’s just that this thing—”

“Makes you feel edgy?” Chaud finished his sentence, “Yeah, I’ve heard it before.”

“How’s it looking?” Deontay asked.

“Should be about seven minutes,” Chaud reported.

Naru gripped his latte, “Seven?”

“I’m working with sub-par equipment here,” Chaud defended himself, “Just keep busy for seven minutes. We’ll be fine.”

I hope, Chaud thought to himself. He couldn’t help think of the man he saw in Zara’s hotel.

The device started blinking. It made a whirr sound as it kicked into gear. Data started showing up on Naru’s computer screen. It was all in computer language but Naru could pick up excerpts here and there. He sipped his latte and sat back and let the data from the building get sent and stored into the computer. Anything electrical that happened in that building was being duplicated. While he gave off a disinterested vibe, he was always watching for any suspicious behavior.

A man pulled up in a limo. The driver got out and walked into the building. The passenger sat in the back and waited. Naru tried to get a good look at the man but couldn’t see very well through the tinted window.

The driver walked in as Zara was discussing about the conditions of the building. Mr. Peterson looked surprised at the coming man and interrupted Zara as she was speaking. Mr. Peterson looked around the shadow of a man.

“Is Mr. Scar not with you?” he asked.

The driver smiled. He shook Mr. Peterson’s hand and whispered something in the man’s ear. Zara shifted uneasily as she saw the exchange.

“We may have just been made out,” she said quietly.

The driver and Zara briefly made eye contact before the man left. When the doors closed behind him Mr. Peterson turned around. He was obviously not happy.

“So you work for the legendary Tower?” he said, hands on hips, “What a shame. I was beginning to like you.”

The guards that were scattered around the place ran at her and Vicky. Two of them ran up to the front desk toward Hina. Hina stood up, hands in the air.

“What are you doing?! I work here, you—!”

One of the guards brought out his gun and shot at her. Hina fell against her chair and to the ground. Upon seeing that, Zara reached behind her and pulled out a gun from a harness strapped to her back. She fired at two guards, wounding one in the leg and grazing the other in the arm. The injured one got his gun and fired back. Zara and Vicky jumped apart. Zara hid behind in a small inlet in the wall and Vicky dove behind the desk. Vicky quickly checked for Hina’s pulse before taking out her gun. She fired her weapon at a few guards that were coming at her.

“We’re on our own,” Zara said into her ear piece. It was code for ‘to each his own’ meaning they were now individually responsible for escaping. She had no plan B.

Deontay started to make his way down from the ladder. He collapsed it and headed for his van. The two guards at the door walked after him, guns drawn. Deontay placed the ladder in the back of the opened truck. He climbed in and closed the door behind him. The engine revved up and the van started to speed away. A police car, its sirens blaring, crashed into the truck. The guards fired at the truck as more police cars came.

Police officers got out of their car and threatened to fire. The guards placed their weapons down. A few officers turned their attention on Deontay. He groaned and raised his hands off the steering wheel.

Naru saw the ordeal in front. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small thumb drive. Naru plugged it in and started typing feverishly. When he was done, he closed the laptop and tucked it under his arm. He dumped the laptop in the garbage and popped the flash drive in his mouth.

“Hold it right there! Let me see your hands!” a female officer shouted.

Naru sighed and put his hands in the air. The female officer handcuffed him and dragged him to a police car. Officers stormed the building demanding that the guns be put down. Zara swore under her breath as she placed down her gun and kicked it away from her. Vicky looked at Zara for guidance as an officer handcuffed her but Zara didn’t look in her direction. Chaud heard the footsteps of officers coming down the stairs. An officer threw him into the side wall as they handcuffed him and pushed him up the stairs.

A block away, a limo sat and watched the goings on. The driver scowled.

“How did those Tower nobodies get on out tail this quick?” Scar complained.

“I left a few bread crumbs,” the driver muttered, “How did the police get here so fast?”

“Bread crumbs?” Scar raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said that was a bad idea.”

“I guess I just wanted to see who I was up against,” the driver pulled out and drove off.

Scar though he heard something he didn’t like, “What? What you were up against?”

The driver looked in his mirror, “Did I say that? I meant ‘we’, what were ‘we’ up against.”

Scar shrugged it off, “I guess they aren’t going to be that much trouble for the New Order.”

“I beg to differ,” the driver smiled, “I think we’ll have to be very careful here on out.”