We drug the man into a closet and locked the door.
We got to the stairwell’s doorway and Shift held up the keycard she had from before. Silence held out his arm and stopped her, "Wait, that guard is supposed to be guarding the gate. If you swipe the card it will raise the alarm.”
She tossed the card aside, "What then?”
“This.” He held up his phone.
“What can the phone not do?” I smiled.
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out.” He held it up to the panel. A blue light scanned the lock from the top to the bottom. Seemingly random numbers began to flash across the screen.
I looked down the hallway while the phone was doing its thing to see a man in a janitor’s uniform sweeping the floor. He whistled a catchy tune.
He stopped and looked up at me smiling. I tapped Silence on the shoulder, but when I looked back he had vanished into thin air.
“What is it?” he matched my gaze down the hall.
“Nothing.” I said.
A holographic key card, similar to the one that Shift had, appeared hovering over Silence’s phone. He grabbed it and swiped it in the reader. The lock popped and then he pushed open the door.
“Easy as that.” he said showing us into the stairwell. When the door closed and locked behind us we were left in complete darkness.
“Where is the light switch?” Chrono searched the walls blindly.
“The lights have sensors, and they cannot see us.” Silence said, "Grace, Ronnie you have the best abilities for light.”
I set my hands on fire and Ronnie forced bolts of energy to run down his arms. We started to walk down the stairs taking them slowly.
When we reached the halfway point, the door below us sprung opened and no less than a dozen Saber soldiers rushed into the room. They raised their guns and began firing in our direction.
Blackout was quick with her shield to stop the bullets.
“What the hell are these bullets made of? Each one weighs a ton.” her eyes were already starting to bleed.
I jumped from the landing and fell like a stone to the floor below. When I hit the ground, I sent out a blast of fire in all directions knocking all of the soldiers to the ground.
The door at the top opened and the soldiers began filing in following the others down the stairs. Blackout had to drop her shield. Arch and Chrono were fighting the other soldiers. Arch was blasting them with bolts of energy and Chrono was slowing the bullet down with time, knocking them out of the air.
I walked out into the hallway below, a familiar man stood at the end of the hall.
“Jolt is down here!” I yelled back through the door.
He stood with his back to a door and his arms crossed. He knew what we had come for and he was here to stop us.
“Well, well if it isn’t the misfits. Coming for the computer core? Your little telepath should mind her thoughts.” He had a mad grin plastered on his face. He stood alone at his end of the hallway.
“Just get out of the way.” I yelled.
Blackout joined us in the hallway, walking slowly, holding her head.
“Well if it isn’t our little information portal.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Oh don’t worry. You had no idea the link went both ways when the other person was aware of what you are doing.” Jolt cackled.
“You know what, this guy is mine.” Arch took a step forward in front of the group. He took off running down the hallway towards Jolt as fast as he could. He held out both of his arms and created two balls of energy.
He threw them at Jolt.
Jolt caught the energy and combined them into a single charge of energy and threw it back at Arch. He was able to side step the attack. The energy crashed into the floor and blew a large whole into the rooms below.
Jolt threw another ball of electricity at Arch who was able to grab it while he jumped through the air landing on Jolt’s face. Jolt screamed as the bolts of energy licked his face, burning deep grooves into his flesh.
Arch jumped up and took a few steps back as Jolt yelled in pain. He pushed himself up into a standing position using bolts of electricity for more leverage. Arch balled his fists waiting for the second round.
“I have to say. Your power has grown exponentially since last time.” Jolt spat blood onto the floor.
“Stop talking and fight.” Arch yelled.
They ran at each other. Bolts of energy carved scorched lines in the walls as they smashed into each other… Every punch, every kick, blasted with pure white bursts of electricity.
Arch pinned Jolt onto his stomach and held his arm behind his back, "Silence, Sear, go. I will keep him busy as long as I can!”
We ran past them, ducking the bolts of energy that were destroying the walls around us. When we got to the door, I melted it without thinking twice and pushed the door open.
Inside of the room was a round hatch. I tried to open it but it was locked, I didn’t want to damage anything below. There was a small panel on the wall beside us. Silence went to work on the lock.
Jolt and Arch were standing again, both breathing heavily. Arch attacked but Jolt was waiting for it. He placed his palm on Arch’s chest; he gathered all of his remaining energy and blasted Arch with all of it.
Arch flew across the room and smashed into the wall behind the others. A crater spread out behind him and he fell to the floor. He rolled onto his stomach and coughed.
“You are still not strong enough to beat me.” Jolt said standing over Arch’s limp body.
He held his arms up over his head, charging for one last attack. He gathered up every last bit of energy and brought it down. Blackout came between the blast and Arch with a shield. She absorbed the energy, and then funneled it into Arch.
“No! No! What are you doing?” Jolt said backing away.
Arch pushed himself up off the floor. He charged a blast and then added the power that Blackout had given him. He slammed it into Jolt’s chest.
Jolt stood frozen to the spot. His bones were glowing through his skin. He fell to the ground and smoke billowed from his body.
“I’m alright.” Arch said noticing me looking at him, "Go complete the mission.” he finished falling onto Blackout for support.
Chapter 23: The Question
“We are about to get some company!” Blackout yelled. She was helping Arch walk back to the door. He was in rough shape.
Silence grabbed my arm and turned me towards him. "The hatch is open, take the case, and get the job done.”
I turned and started to climb down the ladder into the room below. Just before I was out of view, I could see Silence kneel down and pick up three rifles from the fallen soldiers.
The climb took a good ten minutes before I found the floor below. The room inside was tiny; there was only enough room for two people max. I sat down in the single chair and set the case down on the floor beside me.
There was no keyboard or mouse, only a single screen, microphone, and camera.
“Please present for Facial Recognition Authorization.” a pleasant man’s voice said.
I thought for a moment and wasn’t sure about what to do, but it hit me. I tapped on my head set and said, "Shift.”
“Yeah.” she said after a short pause. Her voice was distorted, from the many layers of concrete the signal had to pass through.
“Could you come down here? I need your help.”
“One second.” she said. I didn’t hear any gunfire.
She slid down the ladder and landed on the floor with a soft thud. She took a breath and turned to look at me.
“Do you remember what James Scott looked like?”
“That holographic guy that was at the orphanage?” she asked her eyes closed trying to remember.