Lukas informs me that he will be back in only a few moments so that I won't try to whack him upside his indestructible head Gravity style.
He comes around the archway with a ragged looking Monty Carlzon in tow. The minute that the woman behind me sees them, she practically launches her bruised self at them.
I raise my weapon by the muzzle prepared to hit her, but Lukas shakes his head and steps away from Carlo.
I narrow my eyes at him as she practically knocks the poor kid over as she pounces on him. He wraps his arms around her in return.
Oh... Are they-
> No. Siblings. Her father died when she was young and eventually her mother found another partner in the Revolution which produced young Monty- Sorry, Carlo.
Oh. Wait... How did you know that?
No response. I sigh, but let it go.
A longing for that kind of familial bond fills me, but only for a moment before I snap back to reality and walk over just as they separate.
"Carlo, is it possible for you to contact your bots?"
He looks at me for a moment in the darkness and it seemed like he was thinking.
"Yes. But their systems are based on me getting my commands through a specialized system based on this particular building," he responds.
I think for a second before responding:
"So you're saying that we'd have to get power back online for you to be able to control them."
Lukas cocks his head to the side a little bit, and even in the dark I can tell he is unsure with this logic, just as I was.
He nods.
"Yes you would. The system I've been working on is independent, but it's not finished yet so I cannot upgrade them. They still run on an old connection based on this building."
Lukas was still beside me while the young Revolution fighter seems bewildered.
I hold back a laugh and cough to cover it. She looks up, and squints to see me in the abyss of blackness.
"I'm not the sharpest tool in the tech department, but I do know how to act," she says.
Beside her, Carlo shifts.
I raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
Her eyes drift to the two wide-eyed soldiers bound together a few yards away.
"What are you suggesting?"
Lukas is now evaluating her. He turns to face the two soldiers and turns back towards her.
"You want to use them to get into the location of the power source," Lukas and I both blurt out.
She looks at us with a smile on her lips, seeming overly satisfied and self-confident.
"How would we get them to behave?" Carlo questions.
I grind my teeth together and it hit me:
"We could use James."
My eyes dart back to Lukas.
"Do you know where he is?"
My friend shakes his head.
"I know where he was, but now he blends in with the soldiers. Any of them could be him, and you saw the small army that came in here. By now, he's most likely identified the power source and the place of the outage as well."
"I have a solution," Carlo says as he pulls out a small item.
I narrow my eyes at him as he leaves our group and to the space of floor right between the two old sofas.
He reaches down and presses his hand to the floor, and a handle pops up.
Carlo pulls it upwards to expose an ancient-looking staircase.
That wouldn't have been helpful at all.
Lukas shoots me a look of skepticism that I can feel even in this blinding darkness.
Lukas, this doesn't feel right.
> I agree.
"Could you grab them?"
Carlo turns to Lukas as he moves down to the first step and gestures to the bound soldiers. A little smirk finds its way into my face.
> Wipe that off right now.
I almost gag on restrained laughter as he moves over to heft them onto his shoulders.
> This is serious, Alexi.
Alright, alright.
I sober up quickly after Lukas decides to kill my immaturity as we descend the stairs.
I hear a loud click as Lukas closes the door.
When we reach the bottom, I almost topple into Carlo.
He is not knocked over though because he catches my arm and apologizes for not warning me that it was the last step.
In front of me, he reaches down and picked something up off of the floor.
I hear a another click and then there is a small amount of light.
I narrow my eyes at what appears to be a cylinder of light that he is holding by a wire that acts as a handle. Carlo sets it on what looks like a wooden table and it's covered in paper.
I stare at all of the old objects in awe and curiosity.
He disappears from the little aura of light the object is giving off for a moment before returning with a thin sheet that resembles the map I had before it was taken by the Nation soldiers that took me almost three days ago.
He pulls out his little "R" patch as his sister and Lukas arrive at the table. I look back to the stair case and see that the duo sits on the last step, now with their ears plugged with weird metallic buds.
I look up and give Lukas a look beside me and he smiles innocently.
I turn back to look at what Carlo is up to. A small object is being pulled out of the patch and I watch curiously.
It is a memory card.
Those things are ancient.
He slides it into a small opening in the black slab of rubber~like material.
It suddenly displays a list of names. He uses his finger to scroll until he comes upon a familiar one: Asset 1: James Sebastian Nicholi.
The list doesn't appear to be in order of the alphabet so I curiously scan it.
Underneath James' name is Medicinal Advisor: Montoya Fairtell, Informational Supervisor: Mack Hudson Cooper, then Combat Supervisor: Samuel Jackson Donovan, then is Asst. Commander: Rodrick Lance Nicholi, and the last name is Commander: Samantha.
I stare at it. That name... Samantha. It sounds familiar.
Samantha, Samantha... Where have I heard that?
I grimace when Carlo selects James Sebastian Nicholi and a new file pops up on the flat surface.
He double-taps it and soon, the file is 3D.
There was a photo of what looks like a boy around the age of 7 beside one of James.
Carlo swipes those away, and they dissipate. Next there are paragraphs of information, which Carlo also swipes away.
A few more pages appear that he disregards and finally he gets to a page that reads "Status".
Under it reads:
•South Eastern Province Sector 3
•Building 89: P. Revolution Safe-House
•Dormitory 2
•Stationary
Lukas' hand rests on my shoulder and squeezes a little bit.
Lukas?
>Do not trust them.
Beside the bullet points there is a projection of the hallway and and room that James is in. He selects a red button in the bottom right corner of the projection, and a green "CLEAR" appears.
Carlo smiles as if he had just won the lottery.
"Well?"
He looks up at us expectantly.
~~~~~~~~~
Hey! Ik that wasn't super action-y, and I apologize. This chapter is sort of a set up for some epic scenes :) Anywho, thanks for reading!! I'm already working on the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!!♥️♥️♥️