Chapter Fourteen
Eighteen is sitting down at a table holding a light with a dim glow in Dolly’s room, he looks more exhausted than usual as he finishes up maintenance on his firearm, he does this even when the museum is dark and without power.
Dolly sits across from the table watching him work in the low light of the lamp. “You guys never cease to amaze me you know, I’d never be able to get that done so quickly while in the dark and sleep deprived.”
Eighteen looks over to her. “I’m not sleep deprived.”
Dolly sighs at the response. “I’m not stupid Chase… I know you haven’t slept once since you got here.” She looks to side, this concerns her. “Even if you are a Super Soldier you still need sleep, I don’t understand why you avoid it.”
Eighteen pushes the chair he is sitting on back as he gets up to his feet. “I think I’ve slept enough in my lifetime.”
“Sleep doesn’t work like that.”
Eighteen looks back to her. “If I go to sleep there’s a chance that he’ll come. I don’t want him to be in charge! He’s useless compared to me.”
Dolly is genuinely confused by this response. “He? Who’s he?”
Eighteen rolls his eyes while shaking his head, not wanting to explain it to her, Dolly does not pursue it further. “I’m just concerned, you haven’t been acting like yourself for a long time. I’m worried about you.”
Eighteen looks back to Dolly as he approaches her. “I act just as I always have, the person that you’re thinking of went dormant after falling to Dmitri.”
Dolly still doesn’t seem to understand, Eighteen stops in front of her lifting his arms and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her towards him and holding her close. “I want to protect you to the best of my ability. I care a lot about you.”
Dolly is both confused and surprised by this action. “Chase-”
Eighteen interrupts her before she can continue. “Eighteen… please call me Eighteen.”
“Eighteen?”
Eighteen smiles at the sound of her saying his name. “Just hearing you say it makes me happy.” He holds her tighter. “I’ve made my decision. You are going to be my girlfriend.”
Dolly pushes back from him in surprised. “Wait, what!? That’s not something you can just decide on your own!”
The discussion between the two of them stops when a faint and strange noise catches both of their attention, Eighteen hushes Dolly as he listens carefully to determine where it was coming from while Dolly tries to recognize it, it's not a sound she has heard around here before. “What’s that sound?”
Eighteen turns towards an air vent on the wall of the room, the mink arms his weapon and makes his way over to it, kneeling down and grabbing onto the vent cover and forcefully pulling it off of the wall, poking his head inside the vent and looking inside, a scream of surprise sounds when he does so.
Eighteen pulls his head back out of the vent as he looks back toward Dolly. “Fitz is in there.”
Dolly approaches the vent kneeling down next to it. “I guess that would explain the scream.”
Fitz’s voice comes from the vents. “Don’t surprise me like that!! What are you even doing in Dolly’s room! I was trying to get to her room so that I wouldn’t have to directly deal with you!”
Eighteen gives him a snarl. “What I’m doing here is none of your business, now tell me why you are sneaking into Dolly’s room through the vents!”
“It’s not what you think.”
“Answer me or you’ll regret it!”
“Dolly! Keep your stalker from killing me please.”
Dolly sighs as she watches as Fitz approaches the opening she is near. “Eighteen does have a reason for being concerned. Just what are you doing in there!?”
Fitz lets out several coughs as he crawls to the opening in the vent. “I shouldn’t have put off scheduled ventilation cleaning and maintenance for so long.” He pulls himself out of the opening entering the room, he looks over to Dolly and Eighteen while brushing the dust that had caked onto his clothing and fur. “We have a problem that me and Eve were hoping the two of you might be able to attend to.”
Dolly motions towards the door of her room. “You couldn’t have just come to my door?”
“No. I was kinda of locked up in the utility room with the vents as my only means of escape alright.” He looks over to Eighteen. “Anyways there’s a True Blood in the museum that we were hoping you and the Super Soldiers could probably somehow maybe deal with.”
Eighteen immediately speaks up. “You saw a True Blood here?”
Fitz looks back to Eighteen. “Technically I didn’t ‘see’ him. He had a cloaking device on, what I did see was everything being moved by him to barricade me and Eve in the utility room. So unless the museum has recently acquired a poltergeist I’m pretty positive that there’s a True Blood here.”
Dolly tries to take her mind off of the awkward moment that Fitz has interrupted, this an important matter that needs her full attention, she is trying to think back to what has happened at Iuana’s trials. “When we ran into the True Bloods at the trials I think it was only their vehicles that were able to cloak. The soldiers themselves were visible until they retreated to one of their machines.”
Eighteen begins to explain to Dolly, what Fitz had said not all that shocking to him. “The True Bloods have a variety of cloaking devices at their disposal. What Fitz is describing sounds like a high grade combat suit, armour built to not only protect its wearer and provide them with stealth capabilities, but enhance their physical strength as well. It’s a very state of the art and expensive piece of equipment that only high ranking members of the military are lucky enough to have.”
Dolly crosses her arms, this is not very good news for them. “So the True Blood that’s here isn’t just any soldier?”
Eighteen nods his head. “Not one that’s going to be easy to deal with, especially when we’re being shrouded in darkness like this.”
Fitz stops trying to get the dust off of his clothing as he glances over toward the two of them. “Someone should go check on Lumia to see if she’s alright.”
Dolly nods her head as she looks back to Eighteen. “One of us should go check on Lumia, the other should warn the others about the intruder.”
Eighteen shakes his head no. “We’re not splitting up, and were definitely not going to go anywhere alone. If he finds one of us on our own he’ll take us out before we even realize that he’s there.”
Fitz shudders at the thought. “It’ll be like a b-rated horror movie.”
Eighteen walks over to the door of the room, opening it and listening carefully for any noise before looking out into the hallway to see if he could spot even the slightest indication of movement. “It doesn’t look like he’s made his way up here yet, of course I can’t be certain about that.”
Dolly looks past him out into the hallway. “You’d think that he would have come up here in the time it took Fitz to make his way through the vents.”
“He probably went after Lumia first.”
Dolly is horrified to hear this. “What!?”
“A good way to weaken your enemy is to wipe out their intelligence network, in concerns to us that would without a doubt be Lumia.” He looks back towards Fitz. “I don’t think they would have killed her, if they left Domestics like Fitz and Eve alive then it’s likely they kept her alive too, Lumia is a True Blood after all.”
Eighteen steps back from the hallway closing the door once again. “There’s no telling where he is, he could even be in the hall just waiting for someone to step out there.”
Fitz crosses his arms, they need to warn their companions about the intruder to keep them from falling victim to him. “Ok then wise guy, so how do we warn them without leaving this room?”
Eighteen points the gun he is holding towards the ceiling, pulling the trigger and firing twice into the ceiling above him, the surprised screams and shocked yells of their companions raise in response to that sound. Fitz screams as he grabs onto Eighteen’s arm. “What are you doing!? You can’t just destroy the building like that! What did it ever do to you!?”
*******
Naida, Shiya and Tahki all stare towards the door of the room they are in, Naida looking back to them with a rather frightened shutter in her voice. “Was that a gunshot?”
Tahki thinks over the sound she has heard. “It sounded like a domestic military handgun.”
Shiya is concerned to hear this. “You think the domestic military is here?”
Tahki shakes her head no. “There’s no more noise, it was only two shots. We would have heard a lot more noise and gunfire if the military was here. Eighteen is with Dolly right now, and he certainly wouldn’t take only two bullets to take him down.” She narrows her gaze as she stares at the door of the room, somethings wrong. “Those bullets were fired by either Eighteen or Dolly to warn us about something.”
Naida walks over to the window of the room. “If they’re trying to warn you then it’s not longer safe here, we have to leave!” She places her hand upon the window of the room, the filly lets out a surprised scream when her hand is shocked when she does so, Naida pulls her hand back and quickly distances herself from the window. “What was that?”
Tahki seems to have caught on to the situation from this new development that Naida had discovered. “That’s a True Blood quarantine barrier. When placed on the outside of buildings it will envelop the structure in a electric barrier to keep individuals from leaving the quarantined area. It can only be deactivated from the outside.”
Naida is not happy to hear this. “We’re trapped in here with a True Blood!?”
“If Eighteen is too cautious to come to us in person to give us the warning then yes, we are.” Tahki looks the two of them over, she is well aware that the sources were a target of the True Bloods, though they are not easy to hide when it came to such sophisticated technology, she is also going to have a hard time protecting them when her arm is still broken.
Shiya steps forward, this is not a problem that will go away if they ignored it. “How many do you think there are?”
Tahki lets out a sigh, there are lots of variables involved that she does not know. “You’re not yourself Shiya, do not do something that you will regret later.”
Naida nods her head she in agreement. “I know that as the Ice Source you hate the True Bloods for trapping you within this form, as Shiya though you know that you cannot blindly lash out at your enemies.”
Shiya ignores Naida as he turns back to Tahki, he once again asks his question. “How many of them are there?”
Tahki frowns, giving him her honest answer. “We don’t know how many of them are in here, or what weapons or equipment they have on them. If they’ve gotten this far into the city though it’s safe to say that they have cloaking devices on them, so it will be very difficult even as a source. If you use your abilities excessively you will damage the building, or worse yet the military may notice and close in on our lactation. If that happens you would have succeeded in both destroy the home and criminalizing the individuals that were kind enough to take us in.”
Shiya frowns. “Yet if we do nothing we’ll all be caught or worse.” He looks over to Naida. “The True Blood’s targets are us. It is our responsibility to deal with them.”
Tahki steps before him. “And if it is my job to protect you from harm, be my opponent Wild, a Domestic or a True Blood.”
Naida speaks up, she speaks her mind before the two could get into an argument that would only end up wasting their time. “Shiya. Do you feel that your mind is still sound enough to control the source and keep it from turning Cordella into another Eden of North?”
Shiya nods his head. “I know I have lost many memories but my control has not faltered.”
“That could very well change if you are thrown into a fight. Are you sure!?”
Shiya again nods his head. “Yes.”
Naida settles with the assurance, their situation does not give her much time to prod him about it. “Very well then.” She looks over to Tahki. “True Bloods may have ways of hiding themselves but both water and snow have ways of revealing things that may be hidden. A True Blood’s footsteps can still be seen if they step within water and trails still be left in the snow, while both can show their location should rain or snow land on them.”
Tahki seems a little unsure. “I’m not sure of how fond the Cadrey family will be as that will damage their museum.”
Shiya speaks up it has already faced damage. “We’ll do what we can to keep damage to a minimum, besides Chase already put two bullets into it, at this point it’s already been damaged.”
Nadia walks ahead of them placing her hand upon the handle of the door. “Shiya, I need you to reunite with your friends, they will need you to help them so that they can find the True Bloods that may be approaching them.” She looks over to Tahki. “If there are any True Bloods in this hall I will need for you to help me attack them to keep them from stopping Shiya from getting to his companions.”
Shiya frowns at the idea. “Why are you attacking them? Why not me? I’m more powerful.”
Nadia looks back to Shiya. “Both groups will need a source with them in order to find the True Bloods. Though you may be stronger you know which room your companions might be in, so you will be able to reach them faster than me, also if what your guardian said about them having a super soldier with them is the truth then I fear that he might shoot me down on sight because he does not recognize me.” She looks back towards the door. “Besides… they did not enter this building until I did… there was no barrier before I went inside, which means that I am the one that they recognized as a Source, they may very well not know or expect you to be here, which will give us an advantage, one that will be even better for us if you had allies to aid you in your attack.”
“Fair enough.”
Tahki stares at Naida. “Then I will go with you and help you deal with the True Bloods while Shiya makes his way to the others.” She places her hand on her right arm which is still inside a cast. “I know that even in my condition I will still be able to fight to a degree, but what about you? I understand that you are a source but will you be able to fight?”
Naida nods her head. “I am stronger than most people give me credit for. I will be fine.” She opens the door making her way into the dark hallway, Tahki follows her out.
The two of them stare down either end of the hall, neither of them see anything, Nadia throws her arm forward as water floods the halls on both sides of them, the two of them stand still and listen carefully, the faint sound of footsteps hits the water , both of them turn in the direction that it has come from.
Tahki stares down the hall seeing absolutely nothing there, this is the direction of the stairwell. “I only heard one set of footprints coming from this end of the hall.” She scans the water on the floor, not seeing any shoe impressions, he is too far down the hall for her to see just yet. “We need to drive him out of the hall so that Shiya can reach the others.”
She springs forwards beginning to run down the hall, keeping her eyes on the water below her intending to locate the boot impressions of the person she intends to attack. She eventually spots the imprints she is looking for and attacks that spot, using her left hand to attack the area she knows her opponent is standingin, the figure latches onto her arm pulling her towards him and holding her tightly in place.
Levi lets out a sneer as he stares at Tahki. “How very reckless of you to try and attack someone you can’t see. Though I must congratulate you on one thing, if it were not for this water we’re standing in this fight would already be done for you.” He grabs onto Tahki’s ear with his free hand reading the number on it. “You must be the Super Soldier that little Lumia was trying to protect from us.”
Tahki hooks her leg around Levi’s tripping him and causing him to lose his balance, she then throws all her weight against him and rams him into the wall, causing him to lose his grip on her enough for her to pull back from him.
Levi reaches out to grab onto her before she can get out of his reach, this action of his is interrupted when he is hit hard in the chest, the force causes him to slide back on the wet floor, hitting the door to the stairway and sending it off of its hinges he grabs onto the iron railing of the stairs and stops himself from falling down them. He looks up to see Naida standing in the spot he has just been in, her leg is still raised from the kick she had hit him with.
Naida places her leg back on the ground, she yells loudly as more water starts to form around her, the amount grows as it rapidly flies towards the stairs, bursting past it, the force causes Levi to lose his grip on the bars he has been holding onto and washes him down the stairs with it.
Tahki looks back to Nadia having not expected that. “You were not kidding when you said you were stronger than you looked.”
Nadia begins walking towards the stairs. “I worked in the mines before becoming a Source. You had to be very strong to survive there for as long as I did.”
Tahki follows after her. “He said that is it hadn’t have been for this water that I would have lost, He must an electrical weapon on him, it’s the first thing that comes to mind as the water would carry the electric current to everyone standing in the water including him.”
The two enter the stairwell, Nadia kneels down and looks towards the iron bars that Levi had grabbed onto to stop himself from falling down the stairs, they are bent and warped. “It looks like he’s exceptionally strong too.”
Tahki examines the bars. “He must be wearing a high grade combat suit.”
Nadia begins making her way down the stairs. “Sounds like something I would run into on my television show.”
Shiya makes his way out of the room he has been taking shelter in, running over to the room that he knows Dolly to be occupying, knocking on it and speaking lowly. “It’s Shiya.”
Eighteen opens the door to meet him. “I’m guessing you and Tahki already started attacking the intruders?”
Shiya shakes his head no. “Not me, Tahki and the Water Source.”
Dolly is about to question Shiya about the Water Source but decides not to, there are more important things for them to currently deal with. “We need to find a way to get everyone safely out of here.”
Shiya looks back to her, that is the more complicated aspect to what they will be trying to do. “Not easy to do… Tahki said something about there being a barrier to keep us inside.”
Eighteen realizes what Shiya is talking about. “A quarantine barrier.” He looks to the others. “There are several ways to get past that, but only one that might be within our capabilities, and it’s the most difficult and dangerous of the options.”
Fitz lets out a sigh. “Of course, why would anything we do be easy? It only makes sense that our only option is the most dangerous one.”
Eighteen glares over at him. “A skilled computer hacker like Lumia or Sixty Six would be able to take care of that without much of a problem, as well as the barrier is easy enough to deactivate should you be able to find it on the outside. Unfortunately for us we must assume the worst has happened to Lumia, while we have no one capable of helping us on the outside. Right now the only people we can trust are currently in this building. So our best option is to hope that the True Blood that is currently in here has the controls to it, and that we can somehow get them from him.”
Fitz frowns at the option. “Our best option is to take something that an invisible man might not even have on him?”
Eighteen looks the group over. “We should be fine as long as we stay in a group. You have three military soldiers here and from what Shiya says two sources. Even in a five on five battle we would still have an advantage in power, and I doubt there are more than three here, possibly only one.”
Fitz jumps when he hears a crashing sound come the floor below them. “Oh Mr. Cadrey is not going to like this…”
Dolly lets out a gasp, she realizes from what Fitz has said that there is no doubt that this kind of noise is going to catch the attention of the museum’s owner. “He’ll wake up from all this noise! What if he comes to inspect what’s going on and gets caught in the crossfire?”
Fitz looks back to Dolly not thinking that would be anything that they had to worry about. “In situations like this he runs straight to his daughter Gracie. Mr. Cadrey loves this museum but he loves his daughters more. He’s probably already made his way to her to make sure nothing happens to her during this commotion.”
Eighteen looks over to Shiya as he heads toward the door. “Try to keep up with me.”
Shiya is insulted by the comment. “Just who do you think I am!?” He follows after him a slightly raised and angered tone in his voice. “I’m a warrior! The chieftain of my tribe and one of the six Sources!! I won’t have any trouble keeping up with you!”
Dolly and Fitz follow after the two of them, Dolly tries to ease the tension between them. “Come on you two coordinating our attacks will be crucial to this assault!”
Fitz stops for a moment next to the door of a room, knocking on it to get the attention of who is inside, this is the room that Gracie currently resides in. “Mr. Cadrey, me and the others are going to take a look at what’s going on downstairs, you take care of Gracie for me alight?”
The elder fox’s voice raises in response. “Don’t do anything reckless, Gracie would be upset to wake up and not have you around.”
Fitz sighs at the response as he gives Mr. Cadrey a lie that would ease his worry. “Don’t worry, we won’t do anything stupid.” He turns from the door joining the others.
Dolly looks toward him, Fitz does not have to accompany them. “You can stay up here if you want. You’re not capable of fighting after all.”
Fitz crosses his arms. “I’m not going to get in your way if that’s what you’re worried about. I don’t plan on doing any fighting, I’m only going to be observing.”
The group makes their way down the stairs, Eighteen is the most annoyed by his comment. “This isn’t a show.”
They reach the main floor of the museum, their feet hit a pool of water that is flooding the entire floor, Eighteen takes note of it as he moves ahead. “Try to keep yourself within a reasonable distance of something you can perch yourself on that doesn’t conduct electricity.”
Fitz frowns at the comment. “All the power in the museum is cut.”
“The power in his suit and weapons are still active. True Bloods like to use currents of electricity when it comes to discipline and control. The last thing we need is for him to find an opening where he’ll be able to take us all out at once.”
The sound of splashing footsteps alerts them, the group turning in the direction that the noise is coming from to see Tahki leap and attack an unseen figure, she hits them and throwing them to the ground, only to soon be thrown off by him, the mouse flies back and crashes into one of the displays, she winces for a moment before getting back to her feet and readies herself to attack once again.
Eighteen lifts his weapon firing at the spot the unseen True Blood would have been standing in, the water splashing as he jumps back, Eighteen continues to pull the trigger, his opponent runs across the room until he reaches a display, picking it up and hurling it at Eighteen, the mink stopping his onslaught as he and the others move out of the display’s way, the sound of glass shatters upon hitting the ground.
Eighteen dashes forward to attack, Shiya looks back to Dolly. “He doesn’t waste time.”
Dolly shakes her head no as she also dashes forward to attack as well, Shiya looks from her and over to Fitz. “You may want to find a safe place to do your observations from.”
Fitz watches as Shiya runs over to Tahki to regroup with her, the raccoon looks back to the area the True Blood is suspected to be in, Dolly and Eighteen are already engaging in combat with the unseen figure. “Alright Fitz you can do this. Just watch and wait. True Bloods are scary but they’re not as scary as Super Soldiers.”
A laughter fills the air when the punch that Dolly throws doesn’t connect to anything, the footprints within the water are no longer seen near them as Levi has retreated back to the darkness. A voice echoes throughout the large open room they are in. “Two Sources, two Super Soldiers and their two little friends. I seem to be very outnumbered.”
A gunshot fills the air, Dolly lets out a scream when she is hit in the leg, she kneels down and looking at where she has been hit, the bullet digs into her calve but does not come out the other end. Dolly uses the angle the bullet had hit her in and pointing in the direction it had come from, firing the weapon she held in hopes of hitting something, none of her bullets landing on her target. “Damn it!”
Eighteen turns back to Dolly, taking a knife from his side and kneeling down next to her, grabbing onto her leg to hold her in place, digging the knife he held into the wound to pry the bullet out, Dolly screams in pain having not expected that he would do something like that. “What are you doing!?”
Eighteen pulls the bullet from her with the blade, he then quickly throws it away from them, the bullet explodes in mid air.
Dolly stares at the small cloud of dust that hangs in the air, through the explosion was not big it still would have been enough to blow her leg off if the bullet had still been in her leg when it went off. The enemy and his weapons were new to her, she is now fighting against things she would never thought she would ever have to face.
Eighteen glances back to her, spotting the look of worry she is starting to get on her face. “It’s nothing we can’t handle Miss. Conner, don’t let it intimidate you.”
Levi’s voice echoes through the dark empty museum. “How very optimistic of you.”
Eighteen searches the area around him. “The word you’re looking for is realistic. I know my own capabilities and the weapons as I have at my disposal, and you know your capabilities and your weapons. I am well aware of how this battle will turn out.”
“Have you taken into account that you are trapped here with no way of escape?”
Shiya waves his hand across the air as snow begins to form and fall from the sky, everyone quickly scans the room so see if they could spot the snow landing up the invisible figure, this their key to finding their invisible enemy.
Eighteen continues to speak to his opponent. “We are not without our plans.”
“Really? And those are?”
Eighteen answers the question without much hesitation. “To take the controls for the barrier that surrounds the building from you.”
Dolly looks over to Eighteen, not understanding why he would blurt that out like that. “What are you doing?”
Levi answers Dolly for Eighteen. “Don’t look so upset, he’s not giving me this information to spite you. As a Super Soldier he has no choice to respond. Isn’t that right Soldier?”
Eighteen narrows his eyes. “Answering your questions is the only thing I’m obligated to do. The abilities to not follow your orders and attack you on the other hand clearly belong to me. So I am not worried.”
“You should be worried.”
Tahki speaks up to the rest of the group. “It doesn’t seem like he’s in this room.”
Nadia nods her head this being a problem. “His voice projects too well. We’re unable to pinpoint him with that.”
Fitz looks around him worriedly. “Are you sure? It’s a pretty big room… then again this museum is nothing but very big rooms.”
Eighteen looks back to the others, even though they had no idea where their opponent was there were still risks they couldn’t take when looking for him. “Stay together. He’ll gain an advantage if he splits us up.”
Shiya doesn’t seem too happy with the suggestion. “If we stay together like this he’ll find a way to trap us all at once.”
Eighteen argues back with Shiya. “If we split up we won’t stand a chance!”
“But if we stick together he’ll find a way to catch us all in one swoop!”
Fitz tries to stop the two from arguing further. “Arguing isn’t doing anything but buying that guy more time! We need to reach an agreement here!”
Dolly is concerned, their group is unable to think of or agree on a way to deal with this situation, things are going to turn out bleak for them if they don't have a plan.
Tahki speaks up, taking charge of the situation. “We spilt ourselves into two groups. That way we will still be able to look out for one another, than if one groups runs into trouble we’ll have the other to depend on.”
Dolly chimes in, that idea is certainly better than arguing. “One source and one Super Soldier to each group then.”
Tahki nods her head. “I go with Shiya.”
Eighteen speaks up soon after her. “I go with Conner.”
Nadia and Fitz look to one another, it pretty clear where they would be fitted then, Nadia goes with Dolly and Eighteen while Fitz would go with Shiya and Tahki. Nadia looks to the three she would be separating from. “Be careful.”
Fitz lets out a nervous sigh. “Please find him before we do…”
Eighteen turns away from him as he begins to move forward, Dolly and Nadia follow close behind him, Fitz looks from them and back to Tahki and Shiya, the mouse motions for them to move forward as well. “Don’t worry, we’ll get through this.”
Fitz crosses his arms as he looks around him. “I can’t believe this is happening… a True Blood here… Those guys are ruthless… even if we do manage to get away from him the whole city is probably doomed. Nothing good ever happens when one of them is around.”
Shiya looks back up to Fitz, that's not entirely true. “Not all of the True Bloods are like that… there must be some good among them.”
Fitz seems confused. “Why the heck would you think that!?”
Shiya tries to think back, he is not sure why at the moment. “I don’t know… but I’m sure it’ll comes to me, with my crystal returned my memories should come back.”
Tahki speaks up, agreeing with Fitz on this one. “The True Bloods are dangerous Shiya, you should know that better than even the two of us do.”
*******
Mort is standing in front of a Domestic questioning him on if he had seen someone fitting Naida’s description, the Domestic nods his head and points over to the museum, having seen someone that looked like that entering that building, the Captain thanks him for his cooperation before heading towards it.
He comes to a stop in front of front doors of the building, looking through the glass to see if he can see anyone inside, it's dark, almost pitch black inside Mort is unable to make out much. He places his hand upon the frame of one of the doors, giving a surprised yelp as he suddenly jumps back from the doorway, an electric shock had run through his body as soon as he had touched it.
He rubs his sore hand looking down to it to see if he has any wounds, he then looks back towards the doors when he finds that he is ok. “What was that?” He begins to search the building for some kind of an explanation, unable to find anything of interest.
He takes several steps back to look the building over, it is rather clear to him that something is wrong. What it is exactly he can't put his finger on, this electric field is not something that he knows anything about. He takes his phone from his pocket to dial Alistair’s number, though not as brilliant as Vaan when it comes to assessing things as this he might still know what this could be.
The number that Mort dials does not connect to ring, his companion's phone is not in service at the moment. The jackal brings the phone down in front of him to look at, though Alistair would turn his phone off from time to time Mort has a bad feeling about this for some reason. He looks back to the museum, even if Naida isn't inside the situation is indeed suspicious.
*******
Zack lets out a yawn as he lies down among the scraps of metal that right now fill the yard that he is in, a frustrated look is on his face as he looks up at the metal sky above him. “Searching for Teddy is frustrating when I have to abide by this stupid curfew.”
He looks over to the lights that has gone dim in an attempt to simulate night, he is unable to start his search once more until they once again light up bright to announce that it is now day time. Zack pauses for a moment realizing something, he quickly sits up and gets to his feet as he begins to make his way over to the light post. “The True Bloods must have some kind of generator to make all the power they consume.”
He stares down at the ground, the wires to everything reaching down far beneath the city. It's the perfect place to hide a power source of the same nature. “A power plant… they’re hiding him in the power plant.”
Zack begins to look around him, he is going to have to find out where the entrance to this place is , there is no doubt that the True Blood military had by now reached this conclusion as well, it not long before they searched the location if they had not done so already.
A small spark in the distance catches his attention, Zack quickly looks in the direction, the small glimpse of light has caught his eye had been in a building top of one of the neighbouring facilities, his eyes fall on something, it is not the entrance that Zack is looking for it is something that is clearly concerning him.
He squints his eyes trying to get a better look, it is hard for him to make out in the dark like this, it looks as if the area had flickered for a second, Zack has a pretty good idea of what it is that might be there, that flicker is common when a cloaking device is trying to adjust to a sudden quick change in light, flashes or sparks sometimes causing them to flicker as they try to adjust their camouflage to it. Someone was up there, and if they were wearing a cloaking device it meant that it is someone from the military.
He had been found.
Zack quickly turn away from the figure as he begins to run in the opposite direction of it, quickly making his way up the piles of junk and clearing the wall that surrounds the yard, running as fast as he can.
A female frustrated voice fills the air, an unseen figure crouched behind one of the tall mound of scraps that Zack had been by. “We were almost on him!”
Another female voice responds to her, a second figure behind the mountain of scraps that would have been on the other side of Zack. “He saw December, it’s always her they see.”
An apologetic voice sounds over the radio of the two women. “I’m sorry… I slipped and my metal leg caused sparks.”
The second woman that has spoken up begins to insult the voice on the radio. “You clumsy stupid-”
The first woman lets out a sigh as she interrupts her teammate from continuing with her insults, they have a job to do. “Not now, you can insult her when we get back to base, right now we need to catch our target before he becomes elusive again.”
Her companion begins to move, her footsteps are light and barely noticeable. “He ran in October’s direction, no way he’s getting past her. No one gets through October.”
“And if he does?”
“Come on, there’s four of us and one of him, even if we do have the klutz to work with he’s still not getting past all of us.”
