(Dakotas POV)
"Easy, easy." Harris says from his chair in the control center of the robot.
"Mark, rotate torso, two degrees to the left?" Veracity said to Mark.
"On it." He responds from the balcony. "The two halves of the robot are connected."
"You are welcome." Harper announces from behind me. "Oh I'm sorry, did, did one of you have a half Jaguar, half dinosaur fly the pieces of the robot back to Bay City? I'm gonna go make sure the junctures hold. Harp, execute." He says making the x sign with his hands.
"Stop it."
"No."
"Ew."
"Never gonna be a thing."
"Sure? It kinda sounds like a thing." Harper grins.
—————
"Nice, I'm always amazed to see that power work." Harper says entering the X-deck after I used my power and put the hand of the robot back on the other arm. "You know what's cool about that fist? The Harper punch will be three times more powerful than your plasma punch.
"We are not calling it the Harper punch." I quickly said. "That sounds like the worst juice drink ever, and dud your not a member of this team."
"Because I dated your mom?" He asked.
"No, it's because your tried to destroy the world." I corrected. "Look remember the deal, use your money and your tech to upgrade the robot, I take down Traeger and then it's game on between you and me."
"Whoa! Look who got all alpha on me. Look out puberty, here come Ryan. Am I right." Harper laughed. As he deliver that cringe worthy line, I thought I heard something in the hallway behind us but didn't see anything. "I get it, I get it, but we have a problem, the control pad it's still a little glitchy, none of us can figure it out, Leo May be the only one who can fix it. So where is he?"
"No clue." I answered.
"It's cool, I'll take another look at the pad. Harp-execute." He says?
"That's not a thing." I added.
"Kinda feels like a thing." He says walking away.
"Who made that a thing?" I asked.
"I think I just made it a thing" he yelled back.
"Ryan!" Leo's voice came from my mech-link. "Is he gone?" I nodded. "Good, he can't know where I am, it's to dangerous. I've programmed Marks car to fly you here."
"Why, what's going on?" I asked.
"Ryan I'm with your birth parents, your mother is very sick, you need to get here before it's to late." He explains.
"Okay, I'm on my way." I responded.
"Wait, one more thing, would you bring Dakota with you?" He says.
"Yeah, I will, why though?" I asked in response.
"Just do it, I'll explain when you get here." He answered before hanging up. Before I headed out, I still couldn't get the feeling out of my head that something was in that hallway. Just to be safe I grabbed a taser stick. Slowly creeping down the hallway, with the taser pointed out in front of me. When I turned at the end I jumped at who was actually sitting there.
"Woah, woah it's just me." Dakota says, startled by the taser in my hand.
"Geez, Dakota what the hell, you scared me. I thought somebody broke into the robot." I said throwing the taser back behind me. "What are you doing?"
"Last time you were alone with Harper he could have killed you." She explains standing up from the floor. "I was not letting him do that again."
"Well thank you, but I'm fine." I said.
"This time." She added. "Okay but that puberty comment was hilarious."
"I wouldn't categorize it as hilarious," I continued.
"No it was." She smiled.
"what every you say, but we should go meet Leo." I said as she followed me into the elevator.
We flew off in Marks car, silent for a while, which was very unlike us, car rides with the two of us is very chaotic. I knew what was up, but I wasn't really sure the best way to bring it up, so I said that.
"So I'm not sure how to bring this up, but I haven't asked in a while how you've been sleeping." I asked.
"I'm fine." She answered. "But this is sort of why I didn't want to tell you."
"Dakota, it is literally in my job description as your boyfriend to worry about you." I explained. "And I welcome that responsibility, as I know, you do to."
"I know it is." She says. "But I'm serious, it's been getting better."
"That's good." I said relieved. "If you ever want to talk about it...."
"I know, you're always here."
—————
(Dakotas POV)
We landed in Marks car, in what felt like the middle of a forest clearing somewhere. There was nothing around, the two of us just walked threw the forest coated with snow, because we had flown so far north, as we followed the GPS that was supposed to lead us to Leo's coordinates. We stepped over a line of rocks, something that seemed oddly placed.
"Weird, I lost my signal." Ryan said the second we stepped over the rocks.
"Hi there!" Leo yelled startling both of us.
"Seriously even here!" Ryan asked.
"Yeah even out here." Leo responded with almost a proud smile on his face.
"Where is here anyway?" He asked again.
"It's home." A voice said approaching us. We both turned, and I immediately recognized him, it was Ryans biological dad.
"Randall? I mean, dad. I mean, I haven't really figured that out yet." Ryan says on his way to go hug his dad.
"It's good to see you Ryan." His dad responds smiling. Leo and I shared a glance, my face reading, 'this is adorable!'
"What?" Ryan asked looking back at me noticing my face.
"I'm sorry, this is so cute." I responded.
"And who's this?" His dad asked, very intrigued.
"Dad this is Dakota." Ryan answered.
"You look very familiar, do I know you?" His dad asked me. Ryan and I pretty much always look at each other the same way when someone says that. "What." I smiled and pulled back the corner of my coat, showing my logo on my leather jacket under my coat. "Wait your...."
"Yes, that is me." I quickly said.
"She's also my girlfriend." Ryan said slowly waiting for his dads reaction.
"Wow, okay good job son." His dad said, literally fist bumping him, which I thought was really funny. "Remember the mine?" His dad asked picking up a rock from the ground. "This ore blocks signals from the outside world. But we still have to live away from civilization. I need you to put all of your tech in that well, before you meet the others.l
"The others?" I asked as we went to do what he asked.
"Thirty of the volunteers I used in my technopathy experiments, it made them allergic to technology."
"Your experiments made people sick that's terrible." Ryan says dropping his mech-link in the bucket.
"Yeah, but not everybody, I mean, Randall's fine, and you gotta remember I was testing on a lot of people, so statistically it's um... it's still pretty bad." Leo explains, "But that's the reason I brought you out here. There's a chance we can use your technopathy to cure them."
—————
"We grow our own food here, and we're totally self sufficient." Randall explains leading us into their village.
"I hate to be a wet blanket but the food here is terrible, that's the least of our concerns though." Leo begins. "Couple weeks ago, they didn't like me because they didn't know me, then they learned I'm the reasons they're all sick."
"Now they like you less." Ryan added on.
"Hate." Leo corrected. "The word is hate."
"We're all dying Leo, we're supposed to just let that slide." One of the villagers said.
"Easy, Aaron." A woman says coming into the conversation, before turning to both of us. "So... you must be Ryan."
"This is Lincoln, she is...." Randall begins before Aaron jumps in.
"She is our leader." He finished.
"Aaron." Lincoln said again. "All I did was create this place when I realized there were others like me. You.. you are going to make it possible for us to rejoin society."
"And you think I can cure all of you?" Ryan asks, Leo nodded. "I'm going to try. But can I see my birth mother first?" No one answered but instead just exchanged glances. "What?"
Leo and Randall led us into one of the wooden cabins in the village. The one room was filled with beds like a mini infirmary. There was one person in the entire room, laying in one of the beds. I only assumed it was Ryans mother.
"She's resting now." Randall said once we entered the room. "I wish you could have met her under better circumstances. Violet has so much she wants to tell you."
"I tried to cure her but nothing I did worked." Leo explains. "Her condition just keeps deteriorating."
"What can I do to help?" Ryan asked.
"Well she's sick because her body is producing technopathic energy, which you have the ability to manipulate, so hopefully you'll be able to, absorb it out of her." Leo answered.
"So, through all of this, I'm still confused as to why I am here? Like other than emotional support." I asked.
"Well you're here because my theory, is the reason everybody is sick because they have the technopathic energy and we're not born with it, like you and Ryan were." Leo begins to explain.
"Wait you, you're a technopath to?" Randall asked.
"I used to be, but long story short, not anymore." I answered.
"But, if this procedure goes the way I want it to, I think I should be able to just reverse it on you." Leo continues. "As long as it works, when Ryan absorbs the energy out of someone, the hope also is he can put it back into you."
"That means I would regain the powers right?" I asked. Leo nodded. "Woah, thank you Leo you don't know what that means."
"Well relax we aren't even halfway there yet, we still have to see if the first part works." Leo says as Lincoln entered the room with a few people behind her.
"I'm sorry about your mother Ryan." She says. "But we don't know what this procedure will do to the patient. We should try it on someone younger, stronger less sick."
"That does make sense Ryan." Leo added.
"But..."
"This is Brandi." Lincoln says bringing a little girl, maybe 9 or 10, in front of her.
"They said you could make me feel better." She said. Ryan looked at me, we both had the same empathetic look on our face, feeling so bad for the girl. He nodded at her,
"I'm going to try."