Mars's POV
I can hear footsteps behind me, but I don't look back. I feel terrible about yelling at Woods but I'm so frustrated.
"Mars, wait!" I hear Sky call out. I slow down a bit but keep walking. I don't know where I'm going, but I can't go back to Blue Base right now. I get to a bench outside of Red Base and sit down. The two catch up to me and sit beside me.
"Are you okay Mars? What happened back there?" Alex asked, looking at me. I shift in my seat.
"Woods and I just got into a fight, he's treating me like a child. He doesn't want me to get myself into the project. He's afraid I might do something stupid to protect everyone, he's not wrong, but I don't want him worrying about me so much," I express, sighing. The other two nod.
"Yeah, why don't we go look at our files, figure out what to do next, and then head back to Blue Base?" Sky suggested, trying to get my mind off the fight.
"Sure, we can do that," I say standing up, the other two follow and we all head into Red Base.
Sky's POV
We all walked into Red Base. I decided to keep our files in here for a little bit so that we can all look at them alone. I walk over and hand each person their files.
"Mars, what does yours say?" I asked, looking over their shoulder.
"Name/nickname: Mars Demars, Age: 17, Gender: Nonbinary, Pronouns: They/He, Height: 5'7, Sexuality: Gay, Additional information: Similar personality to Woods and is a very smart kid. They are the youngest out of the group. Mars tends not to share such information with the team and keeps quiet. They don't show their emotions much either. Mars would do anything to help their friends, even if that means putting their life at risk," Mars recites, starting at the file.
"Oh wow, so they have everything," Alex says walking over to us.
"There is, even more, I didn't read, pages of stuff, and they have a lot of information, like my deadname, on here as well," Mars replies, not taking their eyes off the paper.
"Sky, you wanna go next?" Alex asks, holding his folder to his chest.
"Sure, why not?" I reply, opening my folder "Name: Skyler Colbalt, Nickname: Colbalt, Age: 20, Gender: Female, Height: 5'2, Sexuality: Bisexual, Additional information: Sky is Benjamin Colbalt's niece, she used to work at Syntec before it shut down. She still has her lab coat with burn marks of evidence. She carries an old teddy bear around everywhere, she has a scar on her face and it's from [REDACTED] and she needs a hearing aid from old Syntec," I said, stuttering out the last words.
"You... You used to work at Syntec?" Alex asked, looking at me.
"Why didn't you tell us? Does Matt know?" Mars asks, stepping away from me.
"Matt knows, I was an intern, and I thought it was safer for you not to know, I should've said something sooner," I say, sitting on the couch.
"It's okay, I shouldn't have gotten defensive. Alex, why don't you read off yours?" Mars says, sitting next to me.
"Name: Alex Fekete, Age: 19, Gender: Male, Pronouns: He/Him, Height: 6'5, Additional Information: Gets excited quickly, also serious. Ends up working at Spellbound. Recently turned 19, also recently graduated high school. Is taking filmmaking classes," Alex reads. He then sits across from Mars and I.
Alex's POV
I sit down across Mars and Sky, wondering what to do next.
"Should we call back Deb now? We've got all of our Subject files." I say, getting up.
"Yeah, we should. Do you wanna talk to her, Alex?" Sky asks, also standing up.
"Sure, come on Mars." I say, motioning for them to get up.
"Alright, let's go talk to Deb again," Mars says, getting up.
We all head back to Blue Base in order to talk to Deb again. "Hey, Matt, can we get the phone to talk to Deb again?" I ask, hoping to confront her about all this.
"Sure, take it." Matt replies, handing over the phone.
I dial Deb's number and let it ring. Someone picks up.
"State your name." An unknown voice asks.
"What? Who are you?" I say, and the entire team looks at me, confused.
"My name is Gary Reynolds." The unknown voice reveals itself.
"Who? I've never heard of you." I say, confused. The team looks even more confused now.
"You must be Matthias, then, are you not?" He says.
"No, my name is Alex." I say, wondering where Deb is.
"Well then, Alex. Give me the information you have from Syntec, and I won't shut Spellbound down." Gary says, acting if he has control over us.
"Why? I don't trust you. Why would we give information to someone who randomly picked up Deb's phone? Where is she, even?" I ask, demanding answers.
"Deborah is deceased. Give me the information, and then there's no further reason to harass all 8 of you." Gary says, as if he knows lots about us.
"Who killed her? You? Listen man, I'm not giving you a fucking thing until you answer MY questions!" I say yelling into the phone.
He hangs up. I look at the team, and they're as confused as I am.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"Gary picked up the phone. He told me Deb is dead, and he'll shut down Spellbound if we don't give him all of the information that we have on Syntec. And he knew that there were 8 of us." I say, knowing it's a hard pill to swallow.
We all sat in silence for a few minutes until I broke the silence.
"What are we gonna do?" I ask, wondering what our next course of action is.