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.”

Insanity Chapter Thirty-Six

Insanity

Chapter Thirty-Six

~Divide and Conquer Through Cookies and Milk~

Day Thirty

Fang was stuck with Shifter crashing at his house. Alister and Shifter seemed to hit it off after the initial skepticism on Alister’s part. They managed to turn the water in the pool purple with Shifter’s knowledge in chemicals; set off a series of dangerous explosive fireworks with Alister’s experience; and nearly drive Fang to his breaking point. All of this happened in about twenty-four hours. Seven. That was way too many, Fang noted. Now six insane people running around the house, that he could handle. Heck, he probably could handle six and a half if that were possible.

But for right now, Fang on his bed in his room. He was near to pulling his hair out when the Destructive Duo, Shifter and Alister, wondered what would happen if they played the ‘Who Could Throw A Grenade The Farthest From On Top Of The Roof!’ game. That didn’t end well.

Fang sighed and looked at the clock by his side. He seemed calm enough do deal with the situation rationally now. Fang got up and walked to the door. He was about to touch the doorknob when his mind suddenly wandered.

Someone was banging on the front door.

“Open up! Tower Agents! We have reason to believe you are in position of stolen property! Open up!”

They didn’t wait for Fang or anyone to open the door. The door flew open and Agents ran into the house. Like ants, they were everywhere in a matter of seconds. They searched through every room, overturning everything they touched and throwing what they weren’t looking for on the ground.

An Agent walked up to Fang with a document, “We have the authority to search the premises.”

“Look who we found!” an Agent called.

Shifter didn’t look at all happy in between two strong looking Agents

“We found what we came for in the back!” another announced, “They are the ones who did it!”

“Fang,” the head Agent started to say.

But Fang felt a sharp pain on his forehead and the scene melted away.

Fang rubbed his forehead in pain. It had been a while since he had one of these strange visions and it had to get interrupted by a door getting slammed in his face.

“Oops,” Shadow said standing over him with his hand still on the doorknob, “My bad.”

“Don’t you know how to knock?” Fang asked.

“Why,” Shadow shrugged, “It’s just you.”

Fang rolled his eyes, “I was in the middle of something.”

“Right,” Shadow nodded but it was apparent that he didn’t believe Fang.

Fang pushed past Shadow, “Where’s Strider?”

“Don’t know,” Shadow started to walk after Fang, “Probably with his new found twin of destruction.”

“Find him and hide him somewhere no one with find him.”

“Hmm,” Shadow thought, “Does this place have a secret dungeon someplace?”

“I’m serious, Shadow,” Fang looked back at the man.

Shadow raised his hands defensively, “Okay! It wasn’t like I wasn’t going to do it!”

“Raven! Penelope!” Fang called as he walked down the hallway.

Penelope walked out of her room in her pajamas and bunny slippers. She rubbed her eyes.

“I can hear your voice through my nap! That is freaking scary! I should have your voice as my wake up alarm on my alarm clock!” she complained.

Raven walked out of her room without her cape, “You called?”

“I want you two to fly around the island in the shadowcraft a few times,” Fang said.

The girls looked at each other.

“Um,” Penelope looked confused, “okay…may I ask why?”

“No,” Fang said.

“How many times?” Raven asked.

Quickly, Fang’s mind calculated the Islands size and about how long it would take to go around once in a shadowcraft. He estimated the time it would take for the Agent’s to leave in his vision. Taking that time he just plugged in how many time the shadowcraft had to go around to accommodate the time he estimated.

“On the safe side, let’s go with seven,” Fang said.

The girls continued down the hallway and outside. All the while Penelope complained about how she just got the slippers from hacking a store website and how hard it was to get it just right and now she had to get them dirtied.

“What’s going on?” Arisa asked.

She held Blue’s hand a little tighter than usual. It was noticeable how nervous she was. Blue had the same look on his face.

“Nothing you need to be worried about,” Fang said.

Shadow walked up the stairs. Alister joined him with a suspicious look on his face.

“Now, what do you think your doin’, Fang?” Alister complained, “Tellin’ Shadow ‘ere to hide Shifter in the false wall! What’s all that about?”

“False wall?” Fang looked at Shadow.

Shadow shrugged, “In a house this big and this old and the previous owner being kind of a weird guy, there had to be a secret compartment or two somewhere.”

“He did his little shadow wall thing and found one,” Alister glared at him, “But he didn’t know how to get in. So he just pulled Shifter into the wall.”

“It isn’t like I left him there,” Shadow defended.

“At least that problem is taken care of,” Fang said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

A hard knock fell on the front door.

“Open up! Tower Agents! We have reason to believe you are in position of stolen property! Open the door!”

Fang walked down the stairs. He was determined not to have to repair the door once it was kicked down. Fang opened the door as the head Agent was about to kick down the door. The Agent, expecting a hard surface to kick, ended up kicking in midair and losing his balance. He fell into Fang to stood like a rock looking down at him.

“May I help you?” Fang asked as the man rubbed his sore head.

There were some laughs from the other Agents. The head Agent glared at them. It looked like he would have to tend to his pride more than to his injured head. He looked at Fang with anger.

“Think you’re such a big shot, huh?” the man said. The man shoved a piece of paper in Fang’s face, “This gives us permission to search the premises!”

The man looked in Fang’s face for any emotion. He smiled. There was no way the man in front of him was going to like this!

Fang just took the document and looked it over. He nodded, “It certainly does. Have a look around. If you are staying long I could get a batch of cookies in and out of the oven. They aren’t homemade unfortunately but it’s all I have for you right now. You should have called ahead of time. I could have made an early lunch.”

There were more laughs as the man just stared at Fang. Fang handed him back the paper and stepped out of the way. He told Shadow to start baking cookies and Shadow did as he was told, all the while hiding a grin on his face. Alister was less subtle.

“What a dope,” Alister said, “Does he even know who he’s dealin’ with ‘ere?”

Blue shrugged and Arisa sadly shook her head.

I guess not.

The head Agent stood in one spot as everyone else searched the house and the surrounding property. One of them came back to the man, whose face was red with pent up anger.

“What do you mean you found nothing!?” he shouted.

The poor Agent shrugged and walked away. The man glared at Fang as he walked up with a tray of warm cookies. Fang set the treat on a table while Shadow started pouring cold milk. The tired Agents were happy for the treats and ate them completely disregarding the man whose face was reader than a tomato. The man looked up at the balcony then back at Fang and Shadow. Something wasn’t right.

“There are supposed to be seven of you! Where are the other two?!” the man asked

Fang looked up all cool and collected, “Oh, you mean, Penelope and Raven? They went out for a late morning walk. They haven’t come back yet.”

“Well, we’re staying until they do!” the man shouted.

The Agents didn’t seem to have a problem with that. They ate their cookies and drank their milk in blissful happiness.

Fang wasn’t worried. He calculated that into his equation too. Any moment now the girls should be back from—

“That was so lame!” Penelope’s voice.

She walked in from the back yard and stopped short. Her eyes scanned the place that was filled with Agents. Some of them waved at her and she tentatively waved back.

There was a sigh, “What’s wrong? Did Alister and that weirdo Shifter blow up the floor or something?” Raven stepped into view and looked around. She saw Fang’s eyes glaze over, “Oops.”

“Now where have you two been!?” the man yelled, he pointed at Penelope, “You! Tell me where you walked today! Starting now!”

Penelope’s eyes grew huge, “B-b-but, I-I-I, w-w-what’s g-g-going ooooon! Faaang!” she stared to cry.

“Now look what you did,” Fang recovered from his ‘that wasn’t supposed to happen’ moment, “She doesn’t handle very well to yelling.”

The Agents glared at the man with cookies and milk in hand. Making a poor girl cry! Shame!

“I don’t care!” the man yelled, “I want my answer! Where did you walk!?!”

“Waaaa-hater-faaa-haaaaal!” Penelope wailed.

The man’s eye bows furrowed, “What did she say?”

“She said ‘waterfall’,” Raven looked at him.

“What waterfall?”

“The one in our back yard,” Raven answered, “We would have been home sooner but she found something interesting in the water and went to check it out. She fell in so we decided to just sit in the sun until she dried.”

“Fine!” the man yelled defeated, “What about Shifter! Where is he!?”

“You mean Alister’s imaginary friend?” Raven stated.

All eyes turned to Alister. Even Fang looked to see how Alister would handle this one. Alister froze for a moment but he loosened up and glared at Raven.

In a tense voice he said, “I thought I told you not to go an’ tell anyone.”

From that day on, Alister was never able to live down that he had an imaginary friend named Shifter.

Raven shrugged. Her part was over. The ball was in Alister's court now.

The man looked at Alister, “Is that so?!”

Alister took a deep breath, “Yeah, so what? People can’t have imaginary friends anymore? It isn’t my fault you know though! I was all alone in the psyche ward when I was there. The only friend I had was Shifter. He helped be keep my sanity…well, most of it anyway. Sometimes I think he’s better that any friend I’ve had in the past.”

“A likely story!” the man laughed.

“Really?” Alister pointed to his left, “‘Ee’s standin’ right there giving you goofy faces. Can’t you see ‘im?”

The man looked at the empty space beside Alister. He stuttered as he searched for something to say.

“Shifter!” Alister pretend to scold the air beside him, “We don’t give people the finger! It’s downright rude!”

Arisa hugged Blue to hide her laughter. A slight noise escaped from her laughing.

“But you can’t prove—” the man started before hearing the laughter, “What are you laughing about?!”

The spotlight was on Arisa now. She pulled away from Blue’s leg and wailed.

“I wasn’t laughing you meanie Agent!” she said as fake tears, tears that were most likely from her laughing, rolled down her face, “I was crying because Alister must have been so alone!”

She wailed and cried as Blue stooped down to comfort her. She deserved an Emmy but a hug from Blue would be enough. Fang thought it was a good time to step in.

“I think you’ve stayed long enough. You’ve caused more damage that I could ever though one man could.”

The man looked at him, “But!”

“Now if you haven’t found what you were looking for, I suggest you and your Agents leave,” Fang said.

The other Agents looked at the man with death in their eyes. This was the nicest insane bunch of suspects they have ever had the honor of searching and their squad leader ruined everything. He looked at them all. There was no way he would ever be able to make things right now. Everyone in the room seemed to have a disapproving look on their faces.

The man stuttered before giving in, “Come on! We have to tell Sage we didn’t find anything!”

The Agent’s filed out, leaving the rest of the cookies and milk on the table. Fang walked to the door. He stepped out on to the porch to watch everyone go. When the last van pulled away, Fang walked inside and slowly closed the door. He paused for a while before turning around.

A rare smile was spread across his face. He looked up at Arisa and Blue. Arisa whipped the tears from her eyes. Blue looked fairly proud of his little Arisa. Alister looked like he was about to shoot himself. He looked really pale. Raven just stood looking calm and satisfied. A tiny smile adorned her lips. Penelope’s eyes were still a little wide but not nearly as before. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. The girl looked like she needed another nap. Shadow’s shoulders were shaking as he tried to cover a laugh. His tries were unsuccessful because he burst out laughing. He laughed for a long time and was eventually joined by Arisa. Penelope started laughing slowly at first but quickly started to join the fun. Alister, despite himself, started laughing too. Raven snickered. Blue smiled widely. Fang leaned his head the door and laughed, good and long.

“And that,” he said, breathlessly, “is how you use you divide and conquer. Cookies anyone?”