By the time morning rolled around after the fight, the extra electricity had faded from Eric's body, leaving him aching and exhausted. He and the others rested most of the day, except Veronica, who had volunteered to help Charles and the other researchers dissect the Apex. After an underwhelming boost of energy from dinner and a text from Veronica informing them the dissection would be done any minute, Eric joined Sam and Summer in waiting outside the lab.
Sam sat on the floor scribbling in his sketchbook while Eric and Summer stood. He erased the line he'd just drawn for the tenth time and made another attempt at drawing the back of the jetchopper. Summer paced back and forth between him and the door to the lab.
Eric leaned against the wall by the lab door, letting electricity run between his fingers. Maybe they should have tried to capture the Director. Pressed him for answers.
The door finally opened. Charles stepped into the hall, followed by Beth and Veronica. Veronica pulled an elastic from her hair, letting it fall out of its ponytail.
"So?" Eric asked.
Charles sighed. "Where do I begin?"
"Do you know why it was after me?"
Sam climbed to his feet and peered around Charles into the lab. He made a disgusted face.
"Well, its biology is unlike anything we've ever seen," Charles began. "It'll be a few days before we get results on all of our analyses. Its head had some interesting organs, though. Sam, I think your suspicions were correct. It was using something similar to telekinesis to find its way around. But rather than controlling objects, it could only sense them."
"Still, that would be way more effective than sight or hearing," Sam said.
Veronica jumped in. "There was another organ that it might have used for echolocation. And its chest was interesting. Eric, remember those labs we found at SCI? This thing had lungs that looked like what we saw in that cryo tank."
"And there was another organ in its head connected to a tube," Charles said. "We...found what looked like human blood inside."
"Human blood?" Summer asked skeptically. "I don't know how any of our blood could have gotten in there. It didn't hurt any of us that badly."
"That's what I thought," Charles said. "But we tested the blood right away, and the DNA was a match for Eric."
"Me?" Eric frowned. "How did it get my blood?"
"No idea. There are a couple possibilities, I guess." Charles glanced back into the lab. "What I want to know is where the Apex was kept before it was sent after you, and who might have had a sample of your blood to give it."
"Someone at Scorpion could have done it," Eric said. "They took my blood when they kidnapped me back in Tyche Point."
"That's possible. But you were also in an intense battle at Delta Labs," Charles reminded him. "There's a chance you left enough blood at the scene for someone to get a sample. And SCI likely went back in to look."
"You think SCI has samples of our blood?" Sam asked.
"Maybe."
"I did slice my hand open at Delta." Eric glanced at his palm and remembered his fight with Ash at Scorpion. "And again at Scorpion, while I was fighting Ash. He said Apex attacked him after that. Maybe it detected my DNA on him."
Summer folded her arms and studied Eric. "But why would SCI send that monster after you?"
No one had an answer.
"There is one more thing," Charles said after a moment. "We found a small camera in its skull."
"And it was wired to a transmitter," Beth added. "Someone may have already seen the footage."
"You think this could have been...some kind of test?" Eric asked.
Once again, there were no answers.
"We'll keep looking it over and see if we can find anything else," Beth said. "And Eric, I'm going to analyze that metal you gave us later today."
It took Eric a moment to realize she was talking about the hunk of metal he'd found next to the Director's computer in the server room. "Cool. Sounds good."
"There are more things we need to discuss, obviously," Charles said. "Some of it will have to wait until we finish going through Scorpion's data. But we should discuss what you all want to do next."
"Would you all mind coming back in about half an hour?" Beth asked. "We'll have a small meeting with you, then talk to the rest of the altered tomorrow." Her hands slid into the pockets of her lab coat. "We just need to clean the lab up a bit first."
Everyone chimed in with their agreement. After exchanging quick goodbyes with Charles and Beth, Eric and the others left the lab.
"What are you all doing now?" Summer asked.
Sam shrugged. "I think I'm just going to hang out in my room until they're ready for us."
"I'm gonna go find Adam," Eric said. "He'll probably want to come to the meeting in a little bit. And we were going to try calling our mom."
The group split. While Sam headed off one way and Eric went the other—recalling that Adam had mentioned going to the gym—Summer and Veronica stayed by the lab door and continued to chat quietly.
Adam was at the gym, but he seemed to be done with his workout. He sat on one of the pieces of equipment, staring at his phone. "Hey," he said when Eric entered, not looking up.
"The Apex had a sample of my blood. Not sure where they got it, but it could have been SCI at Delta Labs," Eric told him. "It also had a camera in its forehead that might have been transmitting live."
Adam looked up, eyes wide. He set his phone down.
"That's all they know, for now." Eric sat down on a nearby bench. "We're going to meet with the Newmans again in half an hour to decide what to do next."
"That's it?" Adam asked. "No idea what the creature is or where it came from?"
"Nope."
Adam sighed. "What do you think we should do? Go back to Mom?"
Eric hesitated. "I want to, but—" He sighed. "Scorpion's building might be destroyed, but Zodiac's still out there."
"True," Adam said. "But didn't that Director guy say that Scorpion was the army? With their headquarters gone they might be forced to stop hunting us for a little while, at least."
"I hope so. But we can't give them a chance to rebuild." Eric rested his elbow on his leg, his chin on his fist. "If we're going to take down Zodiac, we have to do it now."
Adam responded with a slow nod.
"Plus, SCI's after us, too." Eric sighed. "No idea how we're going to deal with that. It's one thing to take down a small evil organization. We can't fight the government."
"Well, we could, but I doubt that would end well," Adam muttered.
"The Newmans said they're still looking into that for us, though," Eric said. He straightened up. "Hopefully they'll find a way to get SCI off our back."
They were both quiet for a long moment.
"Do you think they could maybe rebuild Tyche Point?" Adam asked. "I mean, it's not like the place was completely obliterated. There were still pieces of buildings in place."
Eric wanted to believe it was possible. But even if it were, so what? The future for the town had already been looking grim.
"I guess if the government decides it's safe, people might try rebuilding," Eric said slowly. "But it already wasn't profitable anymore. Most businesses won't go back in." Maybe someone would buy up property from people who'd lived there and do something else with it. If Mom got an offer, she'd probably sell.
But if no one wanted to buy, Eric doubted they'd be able to afford moving somewhere else. They might be stuck at Aunt Sarah's for a while.
"Where do you think Dad is?" Adam asked quietly.
Eric shrugged. "Who cares?" Whoever the guy was, Eric barely thought about him.
"I thought—I hoped maybe he'd hear what happened and reach out. Tell us what happened."
"You think he left of his own free will?" Eric asked.
"I don't know."
Eric lowered his gaze. "I'm sorry I don't remember him."
"I barely do," Adam said. "I realized the other day that I don't remember as much as I thought."
Eric let the words hang in the air for a moment before rising to his feet. "I'm gonna go hang out on the deck until the meeting."
"Okay. I'll probably see you at the lab, then," Adam said. He stood. "Is it getting any easier? The water?"
"I think so," Eric answered. He laughed a little. "Maybe one day I'll be able to swim again."
Adam managed a smile. "Hopefully."
Eric wandered out to the deck and spotted Raveena standing at the railing, staring out at the water. Between the chaos of the night before and the exhaustion that had followed, Eric hadn't had a chance to speak with her since their run-in with Ash.
He sighed, took a deep breath, and approached.
Raveena glanced his way as he reached her. "Oh, uh, hi Eric."
"Hey," he said. May as well get right to the point. "Uh, why didn't you tell us Ash was your brother sooner?"
Raveena drummed her fingers against the railing. "I was going to, but then at Delta Labs, I realized I was too scared to even let him see me. I had no idea what was going to happen. All I knew is that he still worked for Claudia after she tried to kill me. But...it's not entirely his fault."
Eric frowned. "How is it not his fault?"
"I don't really know how it works, but Claudia has a way of messing with memories," Raveena explained. "She used to use this memory-altering machine on me, but I was really good at breaking through the false memories and getting back to the real ones. I think she had to use it on me a lot because of all the testing they did of my healing abilities. She tried to make me forget that they hurt me at their labs."
"Memory-altering machine," Eric repeated, brow furrowing.
"Yeah," Raveena said. "It's how she keeps rebellious recruits in line."
That explained a lot.
"Please don't give up on Ash." Raveena met Eric's gaze with startling intensity. "Being with Scorpion, I don't know what it's done to him, but I remember him being good. He tried to stop Scorpion from isolating me from everyone else, but he was just a kid. There was only so much he could do. And we were terrified of Claudia." Her eyes flickered to the ocean. "He wouldn't be trying to hurt you if he knew what was really going on."
Eric was quiet. If they were able to free the Scorpion kids from their altered memories, what would they really be like? What would Ash be like?
Raveena sighed. "You all must hate him."
Eric responded with a slight shrug. "I mean, it's hard to feel bad for them when they're attacking me, but I get it's not their fault they were taken in by Scorpion." He followed Raveena's gaze out to the horizon. "Whatever happens with Zodiac, we'll try to save all of the altered." After a short pause, he added, "Including Ash."