(Sofia POV)
Sofia and MacGyver crept around another corner.
They had searched everywhere, and still no sign of them.
She growled in frustration. At this rate we'll never find them.
"We need to split up." She finally said.
MacGyver looked at her like she had grown three heads. "Are you insane?" He asked in bewilderment.
Sofia rolled her eyes "You just now noticed?"
"But you said not to split up—"
"Yes, I know what I said, but we'll get them faster if we split up and search. I can handle myself, and from what I've seen, you can too."
"I just think it's better if we stick together." He reasoned.
Sofia let out an exasperated sigh "And I think it's faster if we don't. Come on Mac, we both know I'm right."
He had a conflicted look on his face, but eventually he nodded in agreement "Fine. But I'm going to need your phone first."
Sofia raised an eyebrow "Why?"
"Because. If things go south, you'll need some form of contact with me so I can save your sorry ass."
Sofia snorted "I can save my own sorry ass thank you very much." But she handed the phone to him anyway, tapping her foot impatiently before he handed it back to her.
"Good Luck." He said as he disappeared around another turn.
Sofia turned her attention back to the hall. She moved swiftly through each corridor, searching in every room for any of her targets, but none were to be found. She huffed and wondered if her brother was having any more luck than she was. This was supposed to be faster. Sofia thought to herself. She had looked everywhere at this point. They had to be here somewhere! So why didn't she see a trace of any of them?
(Cage POV)
"That's why we're going after them."
Cage pushed her shaking body off the ground "I'm coming too."
Maia snorted at her statement "I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you're in no state to be going anywhere."
Cage struggled to stand on her shaking legs, but stood up none the less "You don't understand. You have to let me come with you."
Adria turned to Maia and shrugged "You might as well let her come Maia. She's just going to follow us if we don't. And boss told us if anything happens to this one she's going to best our asses until we don't have one anymore."
Cage chuckled at Adria. The red haired girl nodded "I'm dead serious, those were her exact words."
Maia rolled her eyes "All the more reason to leave her here with the others." Maia reasoned.
Cage could tell she was beginning to grow impatient with her companion.
Cage narrowed her eyes "I'm coming with you and that's final." She said.
If Mac was in danger she wanted to be able to help make sure he came back safe.
Something seemed to snap in Maia, because the younger girl finally lost her cool "You're only going to slow us down!" Maia shouted.
"Maia—" Adria started.
"No! She could be in danger Adria! King could have her! She could be torturing her right now! We can't lose any time!" Maia cut her off.
Adria placed her hands on the panicked girl's shoulders "Maia. Listen to me. This is Sofia we're talking about. I'm sure she's just fine."
A tear slipped out of Maia's eye "But after last time Ad....what if she freezes up? What if she gets hurt? I-I wouldn't be able to live with myself-"
Adria shook her head "No. Maia. She won't freeze up. Not when she's so close to finishing this. You know she won't. Now that we've got them, King's as good as dead. It's just a matter of time until she actually is."
Maia shook her head as if it regain herself, and Cage held the assassin's gaze "I swear I won't slow you down. I want to find her too." She told them.
Maia nodded nodded and took a deep breath, calming herself. "Then we can't waste anymore time. We need to go now."
Adria put an arm around Cage "Here, you can lean against me for now until you regain yourself." Cage smiled "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." The assassin replied.
Together, the three of them started down the long corridor. As they walked in on, Cage sent a silent prayer to whatever Gods might be listening.
Please. Let him be safe...
(MacGyver POV)
MacGyver crept through the halls, silently scolding himself for actually agreeing with his sister and leaving her there to fend for herself. As much as he disliked the girl, it hadn't felt right.
He had debated turning back, but he figured that Sofia was probably right and it would be much faster to get rid of them if they went their separate ways.
But still...There could be more if them....I need something that can take out more than one at a time, and My gun isn't going to cut it.
Looking around, Mac spotted a bottle of air freshener and a lighter scattered on the floor near each other among some wire and other debris.
It seemed like someone else may have had the same idea. Without wasting any time, He picked up the materials and began to place the wires together inside the bottle, making a home made air freshener grenade.
(Jack POV)
(I told you I didn't forget about him)
Jack looked around in satisfaction at the Ophidia members being taken into custody, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy. The other two heads were still out there. This wasn't over yet.
"Welp. We got them Riley." He said, looking over his shoulder.
However, his heart stopped when he realized that Riley wasn't there.
"Riley?" He asked in a panicked voice.
"She not here." A deep voice came from his left.
Jack turned towards the sound and saw a tall lanky young man in a black jacket walking towards him. Jack tensed at the sight of the newcomer, but relaxed when he say a red bird made out of flame embroidered on his jacket. The Firebird's symbol.
"Firefly has her. Don't worry. She's safe."
Jack shook his head. "Doesn't matter. The other two are still out there. We need to find them."
The boy nodded "I agree. If anything happened to Spider...we can't lose Firefly too." "What's your name kid?" Jack asked.
"Alan." The assassin said after a moment of conflicted silence.
Jack looked him up and down "Is there anyone else with you?"
Alan looked over his shoulder "Ace!" he called.
A golden skinned boy with brown hair turned in the direction of his name.
"What's up?" He asked, jogging over.
"You up for an adventure?" Alan asked.
The other boy, Ace, had a mischievous glint in his eye "What kind of adventure are we talking here?" He asked.
Jack raised an eyebrow at them.
Alan inclined his head towards Ace and rolled his eyes "This is Marcus. Firefly's honorary younger brother. Who is currently missing by the way."
Marcus's face turned stone cold serious immediately "Cress is missing?"
Alan shrugged "She took her friend and ran off somewhere during the heat."
It seemed that Jack wasn't the only one spiraling out of control now as Marcus's deadpan expression morphed into panic.
"Alan we gotta find them! What if King or Mamba is hunting them? They fled the fight too!" Marcus pressed.
Alan sighed "Dude relax, I doubt Cress is their first concern with Spider on their tails."
Marcus's eyes widened "Sofia went after them? Alan that's even worse!"
Jack placed his hands in between the two arguing boys. "Okay, Okay, now just hold on a minute. If old Jack knows how to do anything it's track down weird techy friends and kick some ass. Alright? I'm sure that Riley and this Cress person are just fine."
That seemed to calm Marcus down at least a little bit.
"Alright, What's the plan then?"
Jack thought for a moment "How much do you boys know about cell phones?"
(Cress POV)
Cress and Riley sat back to back, both on their devices, still trying to break the system. Riley groaned in frustration "I can't seem to figure it out!"
Cress shook her head "I can't either. We need to hurry though." Staring at her screen, Cress's eyes scanned over the wording. Something wasn't right here.
"Wait...Cress, I think I've figured it out." Riley said.
Cress shifted in her friend's direction.
"Are you sure?" Riley nodded, showing her the running coding.
After a few moments of intent staring, the request to override service popped up in Riley's screen.
The two looked at each other
"Do it." Cress told her.
Riley nodded and pressed the red icon.
Almost immediately after, the red recording button in the camera away from them shut of and stopped blinking.
Riley pulled Cress into an embrace and laughed "We did it!"
Cress was a little stunned at first, but got over her moment of surprise and hugged her back. "That should at least buy Sofia and MacGyver a little more time to pull off whatever they're doing."
Riley pulled back and nodded "I hope they're safe."
(MacGyver POV)
Mac put the last wire in place. There, it's done.
He picked up the device and was about to slip it into his coat when there was click behind him.
"You may have gotten me last time, but you're not getting away now." Came a silky feminine voice.
Mac placed the device in his pocket and turned around. The girl from before, Persephone, was standing in the doorframe of the room he had ducked into, pointing a gun at his head.
MacGyver put his hands up, but never lowered his gaze. "Persephone. Put the gun down. We can work this out."
Persephone laughed "There's nothing to work out except for your funeral."
MacGyver thought hard, he needed to stall her somehow until he could figure out how to defeat her. He couldn't afford to waste his grenade. "You kill me, and Sofia will never forgive you." He said.
Persephone's face pained, but her eyes narrowed "I don't care. She's dead when King gets her anyway. It won't matter."
MacGyver took a step towards her.
"Don't move!" Persephone growled.
What would Cage do? He thought to himself. She always had some psychological trick up her sleeve. He needed to get into her head.
"You know how strong my sister is. King doesn't stand a chance. She'll make it. And then she'll kill you. If you spare me, maybe she won't."
Persephone didn't falter. "No, it won't matter. She hates me. She'll kill me either way. But even so. She broke my heart. She destroyed me. So I might as well destroy her before she kills me." She tightened her hand on the gun.
"Say goodnight."
End of Part 22