The
Turn
Chapter
Thirty-Five
~Beginning
of the End~
Two Years Before The
Turn
Puppetmaster
sat on top of his desk. He carved away at a round block of wood as he finished
a head of a doll. Shuppet sat still beside him. It was uneventful in the shop.
The other dolls stayed relatively still. Other than the steady ticking of a
clock somewhere in the shop, Puppetmaster’s carving was the only noise.
The purple
sphere attached to his hair flickered. His violet eyes glanced at the sphere.
He looked outside. It was a relatively nice day and yet, something felt off.
Puppetmaster placed down his work and rested his chin on his folded hands. He
closed his eyes in thought.
The door
suddenly opened and some official looking gentlemen came in. There were four
men in general. One of them, supposedly the one in charge, walked up to
Puppetmaster.
“Excuse me,”
the man said, “Have you seen or been in contact with any of these peoples? They
may or may not be traveling together.”
Puppetmaster
opened his eyes. They were darker than normal and made the man uneasy. The
dolls all seemed to sense his sudden mood change and stirred to see what had
made their master upset. Puppetmaster looked in the man’s eyes for a long
moment. The room seemed to darken and the shadows seemed to grow from the
corners of the room.
“Good
morning,” Puppetmaster stated, “Don’t they teach you manners in that Tower of
yours?”
“Er, um,
sorry, sir,” the man took a step back, “Good morning, sir.”
The dolls
leaned closer. They looked menacing as if, at the word of their master, they
would attack. Puppetmaster lowered his eyes to the paper the man was holding.
“I haven’t
seen them,” Puppetmaster looked at the man again.
The man
cleared his throat, “Are you sure? How about you take a closer look?”
Puppetmaster
smiled and snapped his fingers. The dolls on the shelves stood up. Shuppet
stood up as well.
“You know
what? How about,” Puppetmaster started, “you get out?”
Shuppet
jumped at the man. He screamed and jumped back. The other dolls followed
Shuppet’s lead and attacked. They jumped on the others. The men tried
desperately to rid themselves of the moving dolls. One of the men managed to
get out of the building and once he did the dolls stopped attacking him. They
got up from the ground, dusted themselves off and waited by the door as they
watched the man run off.
The others
followed suit and ran out of the shop. Puppetmaster sighed and pulled a string
that opened the door to let his dolls back in. He turned slightly when he heard
something to his right. He smiled when he saw Zara.
“Did that
wake you? I’m sorry about the noise. They won’t be coming back if you want to
get more sleep,” Puppetmaster said.
Zara walked
up to him and bent down to pick up Shuppet, “No, I think I’ve slept enough.
Something wrong?”
Zara noticed
Puppetmaster look out the window. He looked at her and sighed.
“Something
big is going to happen today,” he said.
“Good or
bad?” Zara asked.
Puppetmaster
shrugged, “I can’t tell. I guess one should always prepare for both.”
“Do you have
any idea where we can get some weapons?” Zara asked.
Puppetmaster
looked at her with interest, “What for?”
“I think the
‘something big’ your sensing might be the New Order finally coming to the
Island,” Zara placed Shuppet on the desk; “If we’re going to save the Island
we’re going to need weapons.”
“I’d hate to
put more on your plate but the Tower is looking for you,” Puppetmaster smiled,
“How do you intend not to get caught?”
“Once the
fighting starts I don’t think they will care very much anymore,” Zara stated.
Puppetmaster
nodded. He got down from his desk and walked over to a door just behind the
desk in the corner. When he came out, he carried a big wooden box. He placed
the box on the desk and opened it. Puppetmaster pulled out two katana from the
box and handed them to Zara.
Zara smiled
as she took them, “Where did you get these? I thought I wouldn’t ever see them
again.”
“I have my
ways,” Puppetmaster smiled.
“What else do
you have in there?” Zara tried to get a closer look.
Puppetmaster
put the lid on the box again, “Now, now, no peaking. Not until the others wake
up.”
“What if
we’re already awake?” Hina stated as she walked into the room.
She was
followed by Chaud and Vicky. Naru and Deontay brought up the rear. They all
looked like they could have used some more sleep. Even if they were a little
tired they looked ready for the task at hand. Puppetmaster looked at them all
for a moment. How did they grow up so fast? He also felt that they would grow
up even more before the whole ordeal was over.
Puppetmaster
opened the box, “Chaud, I believe you’ve been missing these.”
“Hey, my
gunblades! I missed those,” Chaud received his lost weapons.
“Hina,”
Puppetmaster handed her a pair of forearm length gloves with chains attached to
them. At the end of the chains were metal diamond pendulums, “You might have
use for these.”
Hina looked
at them, “Eh, we’ll see how it works out.”
Puppetmaster
looked at Naru, “I wasn’t able to get my hands on many of your things
unfortunately but I do have a compound bow that you might be interested in.”
Naru smiled,
“I’d be very interested.”
“Vicky, I
found you two large shuriken and a few throwing axes if you want them,”
Puppetmaster handed them to her.
“Thanks,”
Vicky turned red.
Deontay
nudged her, “Watch out, y’all! This might be the day little Vicky here just
might come out of her shell!”
“I’m sorry,
Deontay,” Puppetmaster sighed, “I wasn’t able to find those claws you were so
fond of.”
Deontay
brushed it off, “Not prob. I find I like it this way.”
“He’s a tank
by himself anyway,” Chaud stated, “If we gave him a weapon it would be unfair
for the people fighting him.”
“It’d be
considered cruel and unusual punishment,” Hina agreed.
Deontay
nodded, “It’s true. I’ve got to give them a fighting chance.”
Puppetmaster
watched the six teens interact with each other. He smiled and looked down at
Shuppet. He too seemed amused.
“Come on, we
have to get going,” Zara instructed.
“Are you sure
you can’t stay a little while longer,” Puppetmaster looked at Zara.
Zara crossed
her arms and sighed, “We can stay a few more minutes but that’s all. We really
do have a lot to get done.”
IOIOIOIOI
Sirius walked
into an elevator and waited. He leaned his back against the glass wall and
rubbed his tired eyes. Waking up at midnight was starting to take its toll. On
top of trying to relocate Zara’s team he had a myriad of other things to do.
Some of the
computers contracted a virus. The computers needed to be quarantined
immediately and disposed of before the virus got to the other electronics in
the Tower. Sirius had several papers to sign and people to talk to in order to
make sure the computers didn’t end up back into the hands of consumers.
His son,
Lynx, said that a shipment of crucial equipment hadn’t arrived when it should
have. In order to finish the new project that he had taken up he needed those
parts. Sirius’ job was to locate said shipment and yell at whomever was in
charge. Granted he could have someone else do it but he was in an overall bad
mood and yelling at someone sounded appealing at the moment.
The Tower’s
coffee intake had reached such levels that it got its own committee. Apparently
there was a spike this month that required the committee to get together to
discuss alternative beverages. He wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, Sirius
suspected his wife had something to do with it, but he found he was on the
committee. That meant that he had a meeting later on in the afternoon.
His wife had
a new line of clothing coming out at it was his duty, as it was hers when he
had public appearances, to stand by his wife’s side. Sirius’ adopted daughter,
Amber, had a recital as well. The whole family would be going and Mrs. Galaxy
wouldn’t allow him to be absent no matter how critical the situation.
On top of all
that, he had to deal with Kaiba and the New Order. Sirius’ shoulders fell as he
sighed. The elevator stopped and the doors opened.
He walked
into a large room called the Mission Room. An enormous screen hung on the wall
in the front of the room. It showed the current locations of all the Agents
they had out in the field. There were rows and rows of people sitting in front
of smaller computer screens. There were about 150 people present at one time.
Each person had a printer on their desk as well. They talked into their ear
pieces. Sirius walked forward and up the few steps to the main computer. Kaiba
sat directly ahead as he typed away. A clear blue screen displayed diagrams and
other figures. To Sirius’ right was Kiri. She too was busy typing.
To the left
was another girl. Sirius had no trouble remembering her name as she always wore
bright red outfits. She was a little hard to miss let alone forget. Her name
was Leena. She was an intern. If memory served him, she was in several of
Chaud’s classes. She scored high marks in all her classes especially anything
relating to computers. Basically what Leena was training to do was to be
another Kaiba: knowing everything about computers and critical thinking.
Sirius walked
up to Kaiba, “What did you call me up for?”
“The New
Order,” Kaiba stated. He brought up a long list, “These are the items that we
think they have been stealing over the past few years.”
Sirius
scanned the list, “It’s a lot more than I thought.”
“Yes,” Kaiba
nodded, “It’s a lot similar to the items you would need to make a space
rocket.”
“Space
rocket?” Sirius looked up from the screen for a moment. He saw a girl below
typing feverishly at the computer. She stopped suddenly and appeared to be
shaking.
“Yes,” Kaiba
continued, “I highly suggest that we make the New Order a priority since we’ve
been sleeping on the job so far.”
“Uh, huh,”
Sirius watched. The girl tentatively reached over and tapped the gentleman
sitting beside her on the shoulder. He shooed her away but she tried again,
more forceful this time. The man looked at her, annoyed.
Kaiba sighed,
“Are you listening, father? This is a rather important subject. A little more
important that the coffee meeting you have later on today.”
Sirius looked
at him, “Of course, I’m sorry. You were saying?”
Kaiba looked
at his father, “I was just saying the New Order has been collecting these
things for years. Who knows what they might be planning to use them for. Maybe
they just really want to visit the moon but that possibility has a .000001%
chance of happening and I was being generous.”
Sirius’ gaze
shifted again. Maybe it was due to how tired he was. The girl he was watching
had somehow managed to get the man’s attention. The man looked at her screen
and had gone stone still. The girl pressed a button on her desk. Kaiba looked
at his screen.
“51’s
calling,” Kaiba stated.
“I got it,”
Leena stood and walked down to the computers below.
“Are you
feeling well?” Kaiba asked.
“I’m just a
little tired, I guess,” Sirius smiled.
Kaiba
shrugged, “I haven’t slept in three days.”
Sirius looked
at him, “Try saying that when you are my age.”
“Mr. Galaxy,”
Leena said when she got back.
Sirius
turned. He saw the girl that he had been observing earlier standing beside the
girl in red. She shifted on her feet awkwardly. The girl held a Tower provided
tablet in her hands. Leena looked at the girl and nudged her.
“Well, go on
then! He hasn’t got all day!”
Sirius glanced
over at his son. Her personality reminded him of Kaiba in some ways. He looked
back at the girl.
“No, it’s
alright,” he smiled at her, “What is your name?”
“Marron,” the
girl stated.
“Well,
Marron, what did you find?” Sirius asked.
“I got a call
from a fishing boat about 100 miles off the shore to the east of the island.
They said that they saw something but the transmission was bad so I decided to
look into it,” Marron looked down at the tablet as she tapped into the main
computer.
She
continued, “I accessed a satellite that we have in orbit. You know, to try to
get an image of what they were reporting. I got this image, sir.”
Marron
flicked her finger and the image appeared on the large screen. Silence fell
over the entire room as all eyes looked up at the screen.
Sirius leaned
into Kaiba, “I think I know what they were using the materials for.”
