Abroela

Old Ties, New Places

"What?" I snap my head up, I know I must seem incompetent with all the questions I am asking. "Yes, Brother." He raises his sleeve up revealing the old burn scars from encircling his wrist. I can't process if I am more surprised that I met another Abrolea or that the heinous thing around my wrist was capable of being removed. Even my advanced intelligence cannot assist in the analyzation of the events presented to me.
We hit a hard bump, causing the cabin to shake, giving me a few seconds to process my sudden flood of stimulus, "ther-there are others?" He nods. I shake my head "I don't know your name." I say flabbergasted by how long it took me to come to that realization. "Will" he extends his hand, pulling his sleeve down. "Who are the two others?" "Jameson," the second soldier introduces himself, "Terribly grand, I know, I prefer James." He talks with an uptight accent for the sentence then returns to normal. I inquire about the driver getting two gruff scoffs in return. "Nicholas?" The name is loud and then he whispers into my ear, his warm breath tickling my ear. "Don't worry about him, he is a big softie." When he finishes he lets out a small chuckle.I hear a gruff voice from the front let put a lingering groan. "I left that name long ago, its Neal now." He finally turns around so I can see his face, long features with striking green eyes.
The tank halts and the three of us in the passenger cabin fall foreword. "Neal?" I ask, "where are we?" "HQ." he responds with a giant smile plastered across his face.
I exit the cabin, a unimpressive stone building stands before me, approximately fifteen feet high and sixty feet long. Visually unimpressive but by the looks of the men around me looks are deceiving. An old type key card is swiped across a electronic black box. A button on the side turns from red to green and I hear a number of locks disengage. Neal pushes through the door, and places his hand on my back as he leads me through the door. The immediate corridor is a storefront with dust covered shelves and toppled cans of food and other items. I cock my head, this was obviously not the headquarters, or was just a front for it, either way, I confront them," Really, where is the actual base, I know the world dominating twins don't run the international affairs from a rundown storefront." "I'll give you that," Will says sifting through a few seemingly random items on the far shelf. "Oh," I I tilt my head back slightly, I finally realize the door is has a some sort of trigger in the back shelf. "Little clique." I mock, causing a groan from James. Instead of one of the shelves moving, like I expected, the counter moves upward, revealing the top of a staircase. James gives me a knowing look. "Clique?" He mimics me in mocking tone. _____________________
The room is a wide space filled with new aged technology and black and blue computers and red wires that criss-cross around the room, a door leads to a hallway with a series of living quarters, which have locks on the inside instead of outside. Inside the assigned room is a queen sized bed with white sheets in the corner, light oak desk with a computer that has a logo that is foreign to me, and a white love seat in the corner. The last piece of furniture is a white box, with rubber seals around the door and is plugged into the nearby outlet. After being mocked by James he informs me that it is a refrigerator, he pulls the handle open, revealing the contents. I run my hand along the objects, the security of having belongings and a lock on the inside are strange and appealing.
"Hey, can I ask you a favor?" James asks. leaning against the frame. "Sure." I respond, curious of what use I am to them. "Every Abrolea has strengths, mine being electronics, but yours is chemistry." I'm sure confusion is blatant on my face, as it has been since I met them I assume. "How..," I stutter the single word out before he interrupts me and grabs my hand delicately, and raises it to my eye level. "Because I read it." My eye flicker from his eyes to the bracelet, a small faded symbol it etched into the band. He turns my hand upward and places a black object into my palm. "Just tell me when you want to talk." "What is this?" He smiles sweetly, "How about when we talk when you figure what this is." He leaves the room with that.
I fall back on to the bed and examine the object, it has rounded edges and a clasp on the thin edge, so it clasped around a object. "Oh." I say this aloud, sitting up. I lean off the bed, swing the door open, and almost fly towards the main room, where the three other men spin aound in there chairs when I skid to a stop. James stands, resting his hand on the chair. "So you figured it out.? He asks.
I smile devilishly,"Yes."