Results tagged “powers” from City Eternal

The next day we crossed over Lake Michigan. We turned off the jet and instead placed the ship in the water, using all of the lift system's power for propulsion instead of floating. It doubled the speed it was capable of, but it still took us half a day to cross the lake. As we came close to the opposite shore, Michael scurried down the stairs into the cabin.

"Listen to this!" he yelled, and pressed a button at the inside control pad.

A crackle and lots of static came over the speakers. Jon looked at me, and I looked back at him, shrugging our shoulders in tandem.

"All I hear is static, Mike," I said.

"Obviously! Don't you know what that means?"

"Uh, nothing?" Jon replied.

"No! You only have static where there is a signal. Up until now, the radios have been completely silent, no static. Something is broadcasting near here, and that static is the proof."

"So there is something out there…" I said amazed. "Finally, we might get answers!"

"But how will we find the origin? According to the maps, Wisconsin is rather… big," Jon pointed out.

"I'm going to set up a directional antenna array below deck. By using that, we can figure out which direction that signal is coming from. Jon, I'll need you to get us out of the lake and floating again. I want to get this antenna up before we lose the signal."

"Sure thing," Jon replied, and scurried up to the deck.

A half hour later we were finally ashore. Michael had rigged up a directional filter for the ship's antenna, and relayed directions to Jon to drive towards. Over the next hour, the signal grew stronger. Before long, we were able to actually understand what was being said. Michael had Sienna, Anna and myself sit by the speaker and try to pick up on what was being said.

"Whatever the signal is, I did some analysis. It's a looping message. Try to figure out what its saying," he told us over the intercom.

We listened intensely, trying to pick out any words we could understand. Finally, the ship went over a hill, and the signal cleared up enough to understand. I yelled at Jon and Michael to hold their positions, and we focused on the message.

"Attention all Wisconsin dome residents: due to increased military activity from the New York dome, Wisconsin has been evacuated. If you still reside inside the dome, please evacuate to the pre-assigned encampment location. The dome has been placed under automated control. Life support and power is expected to last less than two weeks. The area is dangerous, and return access to the dome has been closed off due to the continually deteriorating infrastructure. Please make sure you have everything you need, and leave immediately. This is the final warning. This message will now repeat."

"They abandoned the dome?" Sienna asked.

"City Eternal must have really hurt them if they're abandoning the dome…" I replied.

Michael and Jon came into the room, and we explained what the message said.

"If that's true, there might not be any Wisconsin left to visit. Who knows how old that message really is," Jon said.

"Well it said the dome had two weeks of power remaining. Besides, if that message is still broadcasting, there has to be something left," Michael pointed out.

"Yeah, and since we know the general area the signal is coming from, we'll be able to locate the dome a lot easier."

Michael took the helm again, as we headed towards the direction of the transmission. It was only an hour later that Michael called down to us.

"Hey, I can see it, come look!"

We all scurried up to the deck, while Michael slowed the ship down to make it safe for us. Holding carefully to the railings as the ship slowed, we looked out towards the north, where Michael was pointing.

"My God… it's a disaster…" Sienna said fearfully.

The dome was in terrible shape. Two gaping holes were visible from our perspective, and a few patches of fire and smoke could be spotted as well. Like City Eternal, the original smooth plating shell no longer existed, but much of the inner structure also looked mangled and warped.

"No wonder that transmission said it wasn't safe inside. I'm surprised it's still standing," Jon remarked.

"Remember that bad feeling I told you about, Michael? It just became a whole lot worse," I said worryingly.

As the ship crept closer, we gathered our things in preparation.

"Should we pack the weapons?" I asked.

"I wouldn't take any chances," Jon replied.

I nodded and grabbed my gear. Besides the weapons though, we packed light, intending to scavenge for food inside. Our ship's food supply was severely limited, and with the sail situation, it could take us much longer than planned to make it back, so we tried to ration as much as possible.

I stepped back out onto the deck, as the ship carefully slid up to one of the dome's entrances. It was similar to City Eternal, that much was obvious, but in a state of disrepair. Frankly, I was shocked when the control panel came to life and opened the door for Michael. We slowly stepped inside, but didn't proceed far, as Michael wanted to try and access the dome's network.

"The main server is down. All I'm seeing are some random backups for the dome's major systems, like power and water. Even the civilian information is unavailable," Michael informed us.

"So, we're on our own," Sienna said.

"Looks like it," Michael replied.

"What are we even looking for?"

"Same thing we were looking for at City Eternal: access to their server. Assuming they were both built similarly, they should both have the same core server with some valuable information."

Jon and I started walking forward a bit, until we reached an archway. Beyond was an impressive set of stairs. The stairs were in fact so impressively long that we couldn't even see the bottom.

"Is this really the entrance?" I asked, looking at Michael.

He shrugged, and we all proceeded to descendinto the depths of the dome.

"I just realized something. Remember back at City Eternal, there was that underground city? The abandoned one? Maybe this dome is the same." Jon pointed out.

"It's possible. It never made sense for City Eternal to build atop a perfectly good city, so it stands to reason that other domes wouldn't do the same." Michael replied.

Michael grabbed a flashlight from the hefty backpack he was carrying on our behalf. It revealed a large door in the darkness. We opened the door not sure what to expect, but in hindsight I don't think we could have ever prepared ourselves for what we saw.

The door opened up to reveal a city not unlike what we saw in the City Eternal underground. But for the first time we saw it open, bright and free. Much of the city looked war torn, but it still had as beauty of its own. The devastation was made more apparent by local fires, and gaping holes in the fake sky, but the fire mixed with the dim lit sky gave a sort of hue to the city that normally you'd only see in old photographs of sunsets.

"So much destruction…" I said in awe.

"I'm amazed the dome still stands in this condition," Michael replied. "Feel anyone out there, Anna?"

Anna shook her head, holding close to Sienna.

Jon stepped up to a railing in front of us. Our vantage point overlooked much of the city, as if high atop a mountain. The city itself sloped downward in from the edges, in stark contrast to the perfectly flat City Eternal main floor. This meant that our vantage point was just one of an endless number along the edges of the dome.

He looked over the railing, curiously searching for something from what I could tell.

"There's a tram down there, what do you think are the chances of it working?"

Michael walked up beside him to look as well.

"No, look, further down the line the rail is broken. Without a map of the city or access to the computer systems, we'll never find a working one."

"So we're walking the whole way?" I asked.

"It's only about five miles to the center, right? Shouldn't take us long," Sienna said.

"That isn't five miles of flat ground though. It's going to be difficult to find a path to the center," Michael explained.

Sienna stepped up to join the other two at the railing, Anna in tow.

"Maybe we should pick a spot to take a break and get our bearings then. Like a halfway point," she suggested, as she looked out across the city in front of them.

"There!" she pointed.

I decided to join the group and see what Sienna was pointing toward.

"That clearing should be a good place. Looks about halfway, and it looks like it has a good vantage point of the rest of the city as well."

"Yeah, that should work, good idea," Jon said.

Michael stepped away from the railing, heading towards the spiral stairs going down.

"Alright, enough gawking. We're not getting any younger here."

"More stairs?" Jon moaned.

"I have a feeling that's going to be a regular sight around here. At least with all the support systems down. Best start getting used to it," Michael quipped.

I silently agreed with Jonathan's sentiments, not just dreading the climb down, but the much more unsightly climb back as well. I reluctantly shuffled in behind Jon, while Sienna and Anna followed.

We were seven hours into our trip. It was two o'clock in the morning, but I couldn't sleep, so I joined Michael on the upper deck to keep him company. He seemed to appreciate it, as nights were typically a lonely time for him. I leaned on the railing, letting the wind blow through my hair. We were making good time so far, having traveled nearly a hundred miles already. If the wind continued to cooperate, we could be there in a week.

Thanks to the lift system as well as the ship's natural water faring ability, we could take a direct route over the great lakes. We hadn't reached them yet, but I was overjoyed at the thought. The ocean water near the refugee camp was treacherous to put it mildly, so I couldn't help but imagine how beautiful the calm waters of the lakes must be.

The scenery so far had been drab. We occasionally came across remnants of towns and cities. Trees too, but they were exceptionally rare. The harsh elements, dark days, and significant wind across the planet had killed and eroded any plant life, except for the occasional hardy grass or weed. All of that, while depressing, was nothing compared to seeing destroyed villages, where signs mentioning evacuation areas and bunkers littered the roads. I could only imagine the number of people who had died trying. Over the hundreds of years that had gone by, erosion had left little for us to cherish of the old world, but also served to protect us from the horrible scenes after.

"Makes you wonder what life must have been like back then, doesn't it?" Michael asked.

"Peaceful, I would imagine."

"Call me crazy, but I'm somewhat glad I was born into this post-apocalyptic Earth. Not the Earth that was."

"Why?"    

"When you're born with so little, you learn to appreciate making do with what you have. But for those who lived during the event, it must have been deeply traumatizing. Having your perfect life ripped away from you in an instant? I can't imagine living through that."

"We're not so different. When I was pulled from my family, taken into the genetic farm, I was traumatized as well," I pointed out.

"You're right… I guess we do share something with our ancestors, in that regard."

"I don't think anyone's ever asked… how did you end up in the farm?" I asked curiously.

"I was in a hospital, suffering from a severe viral infection. One night, when I was asleep, they whisked me away. At the time, the farm was little more than your typical lab. They told me they had found a cure for the virus. I don't know what they gave me, but at first, I did feel better. But as I got better, I was more aware of what was going on. I soon realized I was trapped, and I wouldn't be seeing my parents again. They convinced my parents that I had died, and that my body was being disposed of to avoid contamination. After that, well, you know the rest."

"Their choices never made sense. Why were we selected?"

"I don't think we'll ever discover the answer to that."

"What do you think we'll find out there, in Wisconsin?" I asked after a brief pause.

"Unless those records lied to us, there's probably another dome out there."

"Do you think they're friendly?"

"I don't know. You're being really inquisitive tonight, is something wrong?"

"Just a bad feeling. But it's been with me for a while now."

"What's that?"

"Ever since we made it out of the dome the last time, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was only going to get worse."

"Just relax, we're not in any danger out here. You should try to get some sleep."

"I know," I replied, but stayed where I was.

I ended up staying with Michael the whole night.

The next day greeted us with a magnificent "sunrise". The clouds seemed thin that day, almost peeling away to reveal the sun itself. Although the dark dust in the clouds dimmed out the color, it wasn't hard to imagine what it must have looked like before the event that ruined the sky. Jon was the first up that morning, still in his pajamas.

"Mornin'" he called to us with a yawn.

"Bit cold out here to be walking around in PJs, don't you think?" I reminded him.

"Meh, a little cold air in the morning wakes you up!"

"Surprised to see you up, figured you'd be the last."

"Oh, Sienna's up too, she's been doing her hair for a while now. Told her it was pointless due to all the wind up here, but she insisted. What is it with you women and your hair, anyway?"

"I guess some of us don't enjoy looking like death warmed over in the morning," I joked.

"You don't look so hot yourself there miss!"

"Oh, thanks." I said with a glare.

A week passed, of peace and quiet. I mostly kept to myself, watching the dim rolling hills and plains of stone and sand. Lake Erie turned out to be just as amazing as I imagined, with an amazing thunderstorm off in the distance crashing down on the lake. We spent our time playing cards, swapping childhood stories, and going over the possibilities for what we might see in Wisconsin.

On the first night of our second week, I was rudely awakened to the ship violently swaying. I was tossed out of the bed and onto the cold steel floor. Slowly pulling myself up, I heard warning alarms blare over the PA system. I rushed my way up to the top deck, emerging into violent rain and winds. The ship shook again, as the lift system attempted to keep the ship upright.

I didn't know a thing about how to pilot this ship in such nasty weather, so I ducked back underside to figure out what was taking the others so long. I found Jon and Sienna next to Michael, who was sitting down, eyes closed, with a cable running to the ship.

"What the hell is he doing, sleeping?" I yelled over the roar of the storm.

"Pretty much, we can't wake him up! He must've shut down his systems to charge faster." Jon replied.

"Jon, you need to get your ass up there, this storm is going to kill us if someone isn't flying this thing," I commanded.

"Okay, I'm on it," he said loudly, and scurried up to the top deck.

"Michael's the only one who knows how to get out of this storm," Sienna told me.

"Have you tried unplugging him?" I asked.

"Is that a good idea? What if it turns him off for good?"

The ship moaned loudly and tipped dangerously far on its side. We grabbed whatever was closest and held on, trying not to fall over again.

"Well it's either that or we crash and burn at the hands of Jon's piloting!" I called back to Sienna.

She sighed loudly, and grabbed the power cable. I grabbed it as well.

"On three," she said. I nodded. "One, two, THREE!"

The plug came out cleanly from his back, and we closed the door. Michael suddenly snapped awake.

"What the hell are you two doing? You could have damaged my charging circuits!"

The ship rolled violently once again, tossing Michael to the floor.

"What the hell was that?" he asked in shock.

"That would be the reason we woke you up! The weather outside is crazy! The ship apparently can't compensate, and Jon's not doing too well either." I informed him.

Michael clambered up to the top deck, and we followed reluctantly, stepping back out into the wind and rain.

"About time you woke up, Mike, I can't get the stupid sails down! The ship's sail controls are locked up, and I can't manually override it!"

Michael pushed Jon out of the way of the control panel, and he typed furiously, attempting to fix the problem. I grabbed onto the rail, trying not to fall over, and looked up at the sails. They were starting to fray at the corners from the incredible stress, threatening to tear completely. The wind changed directions without a moment's notice, and the ship couldn't align the sails fast enough.

"It's not locked up; the stress is so high on the gears that they can't move. I'm going to initiate an emergency detachment of the sails." Michael told Jon.

With that, Michael punched in the code, and the sails suddenly disengaged, disconnecting from the masts. They swooped over the deck, the mainsail just barely passing over my head, and were carried off into the storm by the wind. The ship seemed to sigh with relief, as the lift system relaxed, no longer fighting the torque placed on them by the sails.

"Everyone below deck, there's nothing left to do now but to ride this out," Michael called out.

We all hurried back under, and rushed to our rooms to change into some dry clothing. After that, we joined Anna who was sitting in the den, comforting her as she gripped the couch's arm so hard that her hands turned white.

We rode out the storm for the next few hours in the living area, the wind rocking us just enough to keep us from attempting sleep. Jon and Michael discussed the issue with the sails, while Sienna tried to comfort Anna.

"The ship's computer says the gears still aren't moving…" Michael called over to Jon from the interior controls.

"You mean it wasn't just the constant stress?"

"I think the gears are stripped, actually."

"Can I make some new ones?"

"Probably, but we can't get to them. You'd have to melt down the whole mast and internals to get to it."

"Without understanding how that stuff's pieced together, there's no way I could just melt that down and back together. This isn't good."

"I know."

I walked over to Michael, and put my hand on his shoulder.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

"Well, we're only about 100 miles away now. Without sails we have two methods of movement: the jet and the lift system. The lift system is abysmally slow, it maxes out at around 2 miles an hour over land, and it can't sustain movement for extended periods. The jet engine on the other hand maxes out around 50 miles an hour on this ship, but has limited fuel. If I optimize the jet's speed for maximum fuel efficiency, around 35 mph, we're looking at about 300 miles of range. We only had a month's worth of food to start, so even if we start back right now, we'd be cutting it really close."

"Then we keep going and hope there's a dome in Wisconsin where we can stock up and repair." I explained.

"Well, that is an option, yes…"

"No, that's what we're going to do." I demanded.

"Wait a second, I'm still captain of this ship, it's my decision!"

"That's fine, I'll go by myself then," I said, storming off towards my room.

"Oh, and how do you plan on crossing Lake Michigan?"

"I'll swim of course."

"Even with your speed, you'd die of hypothermia, or cramp up and drown before you got to the other side."

"Fine, I'll go around. It'll only take me a couple extra hours at full tilt."

"Oh for the love of… why do you want to go so bad in the first place?"

"Because they might have answers, Michael."

Michael ran his hand through his hair, obviously aggravated with my stubbornness.

"Okay, we'll keep going. It'd take you months to find it without the ship's scanning equipment, anyway."

I flew through the hallways of headquarters, finally reaching the camp side. I burst through the entrance to the stairs, and climbed as fast as I could. What floor was he on? I couldn't remember. I checked every floor starting at 100. Finally, breathlessly, I burst through the door where the culture festival had occurred. The area had changed rapidly since then; most of the decorations and booths were now gone. But the one building that mattered most still sat there. I ran up to the entrance, when I noticed it was dark inside. There was a note pinned to the frame of the entrance. I looked at it, and saw it was addressed to us, everyone who had visited that day. It read as follows:

I regret that I must leave, but I have overstayed my welcome. I hope that our talk was fruitful, and that you all find what you are looking for. If you are reading this it means you must have realized that everything I said was the truth. My intent was not to deceive. Hopefully my motivations might become clear at a later time, but for now all I can do is wish you all luck. I wish that we might meet again, but I hope that we do not.

I will leave you with one last piece of advice: do not trust your past experiences. The basis by which we live our lives now is a farce. I hope the truth will become evident in your travels. I am sorry I cannot explain further, but I pray you will understand soon enough.

Fisher

P.S.: Please keep watch over Anna.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? I ripped the note from the frame and stuffed it in my pocket. Michael needed to see this.

I sat on a bench outside the restaurant, and gave my poor legs a chance to recover. After a few minutes, I fell asleep. I was rudely awakened hours later by a phone call. It was Michael.

"Yukari, we're almost finished down here, you need to start packing. We leave in four hours."

"I found a note at Mr. Fisher's place. You need to hear what he said."

"Bring the note with you when you come down. I'll read it then."

"Okay, I will. Can't believe we're leaving so soon."

"I know, seems like we were just finally settling back into routine around here. Welcome to the RDF," he chuckled.

"See you soon," I said.

"Make it quick," he replied, hanging up.

Four hours later, I was in the docking area, baggage in hand. I saw Anna and Sienna sitting against the wall at the back of the dock. I walked over to meet them.

"Hey Yuki!" Anna greeted me, jumping up and hugging.

"Ready for your trip?" I asked.

"Yep! Mikey and Jon are getting the boat."

"Gotcha. Where's Tobias? Is he not coming?"

"No, he's going to be our contact while we're traveling, keeping track of our route and keeping a close eye on us," Sienna answered.

I pulled Anna off of me, and we sat down next to Sienna. We talked about Anna's schoolwork, Sienna's job, and the task ahead. For once I felt excited, instead of scared. We were going to travel to someplace new, somewhere no one around has gone. It was hard not to be excited.

An alert played over the PA system, announcing the docking of a ship. We looked to the docking bay door, and saw a large ship approaching.

"That's it! That's our ship!" Anna called out.

"What? That big thing? No way," I said exasperated.

"Yes it is! I can feel Mikey and Jon!"

"A little overkill, isn't it?" I asked.

"Jon practically begged the general to allow us to use it. That's all I know," Sienna replied.

"Great," I rolled my eyes.

The ship sailed in, narrowly avoiding the top of the giant gateway. It was a mammoth in comparison to the other small boats in the docking area. It featured a single TURING cannon on the rear of the ship, but also had the distinctive extended railings of all the City Eternal military ships. No doubt they were mad about missing this one. Also near the back was the second navigation pod. Besides that, the only other thing that came off the deck was the large room in the center, which I assumed led under the deck. The whole ship was a dark metallic color, but this room actually had windows. Windows were a rare sight, most ships didn't have any at all, for added protection. I immediately recognized that this ship was indeed special, even among other ships of its size.

As the landing gear took the weight of the ship, the docking bay grew quiet. I hadn't realized, but the ship's lift system was actually audible. A testament to its size and weight, for sure. A steep stairway extended from the side to the ground, and Jon peaked his head out from inside.

"Well, you guys going to just sit there or are you going to check it out?" he called.

Anna took off like a bolt. Sienna and I followed her, actually interested in this new toy of theirs. It had a majestic feel to it, something truly epic. We climbed up the steep stairs into the cabin. Inside it was far more spacious than I imagined. Pipes and machinery ran along the ceiling and various walls, but much of the cabin itself was open. The stairs led up directly into a bathroom with a shower. Beyond that was a kitchen. The oven was small but functional, and there was a large sink and a microwave as well. Cabinets lined the walls wherever they could be placed, while soft lighting gave it a surprisingly homey feel.

Immediately next to that, with an open counter separating them, was the living area, with wrap-around couch circling a low table. It had enough room to seat all of us comfortably. Past it was the stairwell, which went both up on deck, as well as below deck. The ceiling above the living area and stairwell was raised, providing space for the only windows on the ship. It let in a lot of light, and really made it feel less cramped. It was amazing how large the ship felt from the inside.

Along the opposite side of the kitchen, there was a simple pantry closet. Next to it was the navigation room. That room had many monitors and controls, and also contained the various computer devices needed to run the ship. The engine and lift systems were further below deck, but this room was still loud. Luckily it had a thick door to keep the noise out of the living area.

Michael lead us down the stairwell, to the next floor. The ceiling was lower here, to the point that Michael had to duck his head down to avoid banging his head on various pipes and cables running along it. There were five rooms total down here. Michael explained that him and Jonathan would share a bedroom, as he didn't sleep. The other three bedrooms were for us girls, which I was happy about. The final room was originally two rooms by the look of it, but were merged into one large living area, much like the one above.

Before we headed back up, Michael pointed out that the stairs continued downwards. Below the bedrooms was the engine room, where the jet engine and lift system was held. He mentioned that Anna was the only one who could actually stand upright in there, as the bottom deck was short and cramped.

Just before we headed back up, Jonathan and a couple of dock workers came down from above, carrying our luggage. I thanked them for the help, and we settled into our respective bedrooms. Once we were unpacked, Michael called from above over the intercom, informing us that we were about to get underway. I hurried out of my room up the stairs to the surface deck, and joined the others in saying goodbye to the refugee camp.

Anna waved vigorously to the crew on the ground, and we began to float out of the hangar. Michael handled the navigation this time, instead of allowing the autopilot the honors. Tobias also arrived at the last second to see us off.

"I'll be in constant contact, and monitoring your progress! You guys be careful!" he called out to us over the hum of the lift system.

"If we get lost, it's your fault!" Jonathan yelled back, laughing.

The ship emerged from the hangar, and proceeded to unroll the sails. It unfurled a magnificent main sail, which looked far larger than I thought possible. Once it had opened and grasped the wind, a headsail also began to open near the front of the ship, displaying the RDF insignia. It wasn't the first time I'd seen it, but I hadn't really paid attention to it before. The insignia featured three men placing a flag on top of some rubble. Michael walked up next to me, as I continued to look at the sail.

"That insignia came from an old photograph, from before the apocalyptic event. We're not sure when it was taken, but it was very inspirational. The RDF protects what we've built from the ashes and dust of the old world. It's fitting, don't you think?"

I nodded.

Michael walked back to the ship controls, and received final clearance for departure from the camp. The sails caught a strong gust, and the ship lurched forward out of the camp. I looked back at the camp one last time. My gut wrenched; it felt like this was the last time I'd see the camp. I could only hope I was wrong.

Weeks went by without much excitement after we made it back. Sienna was able to pull the glass shards out of my hands, and they were feeling much better now. Jonathan though, spent much of his time in and out of the hospital, recovering from his injuries. Michael was able to repair his batteries to working order. Once Michael was better, Tobias joined him in helping the RDF analyze the data we retrieved from the dome. Sienna herself was fine, of course, but she was so busy I barely had a moment to chat with her.

That left Anna, who had returned to school. She was far beyond her age in intelligence, so she was placed in the high school. It was challenging for her, which was good, because it kept her mind off of our recent mission. She enjoyed it though, and that made me happy to see. She was growing up rapidly, and I wanted her to enjoy as much of her childhood as she could.

It seemed though, that I was alone. Everyone else had a job to do. I did my best to keep tabs on everyone, and to check in on Jonathan's progress each day. I tried to help the RDF where I could, but I was just in the way. I eventually decided to head topside and do some walking, to clear my mind.

I walked out of the hangar doors, and ran out away from the hustle and bustle of the RDF's various nightly activities. Moments later I reached a rocky hill on the outskirts of the camp, and plopped down. Looking up into the ink-black sky, I imagined I was looking at the stars. It was the one thing I missed from the dome; at night, the false ceiling displayed a beautiful rendition of Earth's old night sky. I couldn't believe that at one time, hundreds of years ago, this rocky cold desert was once a great city. I'd long since forgotten the name, but the dome's name, City Eternal, was certainly a tribute to the majesty of what had been. I continued to lay there, but I wasn't able to sit still. I was restless, so much was running through my mind.

Who would have thought it would have turned out like this?

I fiddled with my new running shoes, tightening the strings. The shoes were specially designed for me. At the speeds I could run at, the average shoe couldn't withstand the impact. More importantly, it tore my feet up terribly. So I had two pairs created. The running shoes I had with me, which had less traction (if the shoes had too much traction, I couldn't slide, and trying to stop at 60 miles per hour without sliding was a painful and long endeavour) and more support were perfect for high speed. The other pair was for more parkour-style running. They had better grip, especially in the toes, where the sole contained a special no-slip grip that allowed me to travel up walls and slick surfaces much easier than I could otherwise.

I pulled myself to my feet, and took off running, full out. Without a real destination in mind, I decided to make a large loop around the outskirts of the camp. The wind whipped through my hair, and pounded my chest, as I forced myself to go as fast as I could manage. I felt like an animal that was finally released from its cage, given the opportunity to run free without restraint. It was the first time I was truly allowed to run in the open air, without be scared or angry. Just peaceful.

My sprint around the camp was short lived, it only took me about ten minutes to reach exhaustion. But when I finally collapsed to the dirt again, I felt happy, for the first time in a long time. Too tired and too uninterested in heading back, I pulled my jacket closed, and watched the dark clouds roll by once more, as I drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later, I wasn't sure just how long, my phone began to ring. It startled me awake, and I quickly pulled it from my pocket.

"Jon, what's wrong?" I said breathlessly.

"I should ask you the same! It's 3AM, where are you?"

"Outside, taking a nap."

"Outside? Are you crazy? It's dangerous to just leisure about up there!"

"Seems pretty safe to me," I replied, confused.

"Will you get your butt back inside before Michael has a heart attack? He's practically ready to form a search party for you!" Jonathan said exasperated.

"Okay, okay! I'll be down in a few minutes."

Hanging up, I let out a deep sigh. It seemed my peace had run out for the day. Still, I came away from the time feeling refreshed, and I thanked God I had the chance.

Another month passed. Jon's injuries had finally healed, and the RDF's researchers had finished analyzing the disk. Jon, Sienna, and myself were called down to meet Tobias and Michael in the war room to discuss the findings. Jon and I were official members of the RDF now, complete with our own badges, so obtaining access to the war room was uneventful. Once we arrived, Michael had us take a seat at the table, while he turned on the projector. The table already had many other officers of the RDF seated. General Ratkins walked in moments later, with Tobias and Sienna directly behind. Tobias joined Michael at the front of the room, while Ratkins and Sienna joined us at the table.

"To begin, our research team has finished their work on the data disk obtained from City Eternal. We've processed every last bit, and unfortunately, what we found was sparse. It seems we were had."

"What do you mean, 'had'? We pulled that straight from their stupid computer!" I yelled, angry at the wasted effort, the pain and suffering we endured.

"It seems that the information contained within the CARMEL system was not quite what we expected. Very little of the military's documents and data existed in the system," Michael informed us.

"Then we went in there for no reason, what a crock of shit!" Jon yelled.

"Don't get too excited. We were able to obtain one small interesting piece of information. This was pulled from their dock itinerary of the past month," Michael said, pressing a button to advance the presentation.

On the screen was an activity list for City Eternal's external docks. Anything that went in or out of the city was listed there.

"We were most interested in this section," Michael added, highlighting a small part of the log.

The log seemed to talk about various military equipment coming in through the docks.

"This record shows an incredible amount of military equipment, far more than we ever speculated existed. Not great news. However, this log also had one other bit of detail to reveal to us," Michael spoke curiously. He eliminated the rest of the log, and zoomed in on a specific area of the military equipment record.

The record said, "Wisconsin Dome".

"Wisconsin Dome? What does that mean?" an officer in the back asked.

"That record reveals the origins of the equipment coming from the docks. This equipment here came from a place called the Wisconsin Dome, possibly the location of some military exercise. The research team was puzzled by the name, so they looked into it. Wisconsin, it seems, was a name of one of the 50 states of America, this country. Wisconsin's borders are far east of here, beyond the Appalachian Divide," Tobias explained.

"We're not sure what to make of this, but the research team seems to believe, and I concur, that this Wisconsin Dome is another dome, just like City Eternal's. We've heard much speculation about the existence of other domes, but City Eternal has had plenty of time to modify historical record, so it's not surprising that they could keep this a secret."

"So what if this is another dome, what does that mean for us?" another officer asked.

"Well, it could either be another area City Eternal controls, and uses for their military. Or, more likely, it's a dome that City Eternal is fighting," Tobias replied.

"If they're fighting City Eternal, then we could use their help," Jon said.

"Right you are, which is why I want to send a ship out to investigate," General Ratkins said, as he rose from his seat. "We've been lucky so far. Based on these records, City Eternal has more than enough firepower to destroy us without a second thought. But if they are at war, then it would explain their general disinterest in our various activities. And if they are at war, we need to talk to this Wisconsin Dome, if City Eternal hasn't already obliterated it. Michael, I want you to organize a small team to travel out east and find this Wisconsin Dome. If they're friendly, organize an alliance, and if they're not, report back immediately."

"I've already started preparations, I hope to leave tonight."

"Good. Take whatever supplies and equipment you deem necessary. This could be the breakthrough we've been waiting for," General Ratkins smiled.

"Okay, everyone, meeting's over. I'll be talking to each of you later to discuss our plans. Don't go too far," Michael instructed.

I couldn't believe what I had seen. Everyone else had begun returning to their stations throughout headquarters, but I was still planted in my seat. How could another dome go unnoticed for so long? And then I was reminded of Mr. Fisher. He said something during our meeting months ago, about the possible existence of other domes. Did he know something we didn't? I had to find out.

"Michael, I'll be back in a little bit. I need to look into something," I said anxiously, and took off for the door.

Sienna then stepped forward, and handed Tobias her pistol.

"I never actually used it before, it should still be loaded…"

Tobias shrugged, and aimed the piece at the motor.

"Everyone stand back," he warned.

We all stepped back, and he began firing at the motor. He carefully aimed after each shot, trying to hit the same place every time. Finally, on the 8th shot, some of the casing of the motor flew up and off. He then picked up the remaining half of my snapped sword, and began to dig around inside of it. With a loud snap, Tobias jumped, hitting his head on the top of the ventilation shaft.

"What the heck are you doing, Tobias?" I asked mockingly.

"The stupid thing shocked me!"

"Well I guess so, it doesn't run on fairies and rainbows!" Jonathan chimed in.

Tobias scratched his head fervently where he bumped it, as the sound of the vent fan slowly waned. It seemed that the haphazard disassembly Tobias was performing had done the trick. The wind began to die down in tandem, although so gradually as to make us wonder if it would ever truly stop.

Finally the fan had nearly stopped. Tobias and I grabbed Michael's stretcher, while Jonathan hobbled his way up front.

"Don't touch those blades till they're completely stopped. They're a lot heavier and stronger than they look; they'll toss you," Tobias warned.

"No kidding," I added, remembering the sword-snapping incident.

With Sienna and Anna in the rear, we proceeded through as soon as it was safe.

Further and further we walked, shuffling along as fast as we could in the narrow chamber. Then I saw light. It wasn't too bright, which would coincide with the fact that it was now early morning, but that light might as well have been the sun itself. It welcomed me home.

I considered for a moment the idea of home, as it was a feeling I had been unfamiliar with for some time. The gender farm was no home, of that there was no doubt, but it seemed odd that I would grow attached to the refugee city so quickly. In any case, it made me happy, and I took that as proof of how my life had turned around.

We breached the dome's surface only moments later. Tobias kicked out the grate covering our escape, and led us out onto some scaffolding that ran along the outer surface of the dome. The scaffolding creaked and moaned under our stress. The rusted and windswept metal had not seen use in many decades. We carefully spread out on the platform, while Tobias consulted his notebook one last time.

"This is where we stop," he confirmed.

"Stop? Way up here? Some escape this is! How are we supposed to get down?" I demanded.

"The original plan was for Michael to call the ship in. That plan is obviously dead," Jon explained.

"And my alternative was to do a base jump with some parachutes, which is also now dead," Tobias added, looking at Jonathan.

Jon grabbed his head and looked down dejectedly.

"It's alright Jon, we know you've done all you can," Sienna consoled.

"The only other choice, then, is to climb down," Tobias said.

"From way up here? Who is going to do that?!" I asked exasperated.

"You are, of course," he replied plainly.

"Easy for you to say! We have to be over 500 feet in the air! There's no way I can do that," I cried.

"You have to! You're the only one that can reach the ship fast enough to get us out of here. If you wait for me, the military will have plenty of time to catch up!"

I looked down below us through the scaffolding. Fortunately there seemed to be numerous ladders and stairs for the next couple hundred feet, but the last few hundred were devoid of any scaffolding, leaving only various pipes and supports for footholds.

"This is insane. There's no way I can do that," I said again.

Jonathan reached out and grabbed my shoulder. I shrugged it off.

"Yukari, you can do it. This is the final stage, once we're on that ship we're home free. We're counting on you," he encouraged.

"I don't even know how to sail the ship," I explained, trying to find a way out of this nightmare.

"That's why Anna will be riding on behind you," Tobias replied.

"Oh no, no way. It's bad enough to risk my own life, I'm not risking hers as well," I insisted.

"If there was another way we'd do it! You have to take her, she's light enough that you can carry her to the ship. From there, she can fly it back and pick us up."

I kept shaking my head furiously, having run out of words to convey how I felt. Anna walked over and tugged on my now-ragged shirt.

"I trust you, Yuki. I believe in you!" she said, in such high spirits I couldn't help but smile back through my fear and anger.

She continued to look at me, until suddenly a bright flash lit up the early morning sky. We jumped, and looked at the origin of the flash. In the distance, I could just make out what seemed to be a few of our attack skids. They were engaging a couple destroyers off to the right of our field of vision.

"The RDF, they must have intercepted the ships that were being deployed to chase us down…" Jon guessed.

"If that's true, we need to get moving now! We're putting the whole camp in danger here," Tobias demanded.

He turned around to look at me intently, his eyes narrow and focused. He meant business now. I had never seen him with such a serious face as he had at this moment. I knew what it meant, I had to stop delaying. I had run out of time for nonsense.

I grabbed Anna and helped her onto my back, and we scurried down the narrow stairs without a word. I was careful not to jar her, and I chose not to employ my high movement speed until we were safely on the ground. As my eyes had promised me, it was easy travels for much of the first half of the descent. It wasn't until I finally reached the final set of scaffolding that my stomach began to churn.

I reached out from the scaffolding, and taking a deep breath, I grabbed a pipe that was nearby. Anna gripped tightly around my neck, nearly choking me. I was going to tell her to stay calm, that there was no reason to be afraid, but I remembered she could feel my fear. I did my best to calm my own self down, and it seemed to help her nerves as well.

Foot by foot we descended. I took my time, making sure that every hold was secure before moving another hand or foot. The slight curvature of the dome from this height helped, as I couldn't see the ground directly without turning around. With the fear of falling somewhat abated, we continued strong and sure.

The last 100 feet were the hardest. By this point, Anna was finding it difficult to hold onto me, so I constantly needed to stop and readjust her to keep her secure. Breaking the momentum we had built up significantly decreased the speed at which we were descending, and the time we had spent clinging to the side of the dome was taking a toll on my arms and legs. To add to the pressure, I could now see the ground through the supports and pipes, scaring me to death.

We trudged on, finally jumping the last few feet to the ground. Anna immediately let go without any prompting, and we both collapsed to the ground. After taking a minute to catch my breath, I slowly got to my feet, and helped Anna back on my shoulders. As weak as I was, we didn't have time to rest. My legs, which were already throbbing, tensed in anticipation of the additional workload I was about to ask of them.

I took off. I ran as quickly as I could. I knew it didn't matter whether I ran flat out or half speed, I was going to be dead tired either way. I decided it was best to just get there as soon as possible and get off my feet. Anna did her best to direct me to where the boat had been docked, luckily too, as I had forgotten.

It only took us about five minutes to reach the location at my top speed. The ship was docked in an old junkyard of the dome, with various ships and machinery strewn about. Although a keen eye would notice that it was in significantly better condition than the rest, it was a rather ingenious hiding place. I was also thankful that it was so close; I couldn't fathom running all the way back to camp. I would have died before I got halfway.

Anna slid off my shoulders again. Although at first I didn't think she was too heavy, it felt like I was given a new back once she was off.

"Navigation, recognize Anna Riggins!" Anna yelled at the ship.

"Navigation recognizes Anna Riggins, full controls available," the ship replied in its typical monotone voice.

"Open to ground boarding, and begin power on sequence!"

"Ship unlocked, powering on."

Once the stairs had lowered, we jumped aboard. Anna immediately ran to the controls on the deck of the ship, and pressed various buttons. The navigation responded as if she had spoken the commands anyway.

The ship lifted from the ground, and slowly turned to face the dome. She then grabbed a joystick that was on the control panel, and the engine inside roared to life. The ship jumped into action, causing my weak knees to falter and throwing me to the floor, something I was beginning to grow accustomed to.

I pulled myself back up, and looked at Anna. She seemed so serious, so unlike someone her age. It made me sad to see someone so young placed under this level of duress on a constant basis. She continued to glance off to the side of the control panel, unable to actually see over it.

"We're going to be there soon, and I'll need your help Yuki."

"My help? What do you need?"

"We're going to make the ship jump, and you need to balance it," she informed me.

It hadn't occurred to me until she mentioned jumping, that I had no idea how we were supposed to reach everyone 500 feet in the air.

"We're going to jump?" I asked, confused.

"Yep, it's our only option. We just make the boat's lift thing bounce us high in the sky. But I'm not good at doing it alone. So I need you to help me keep the boat level," she explained.

I still wasn't quite sure how the ship was going to jump, or especially how I was supposed to help keep it balanced, but we quickly arrived at the side of the dome where we had descended.

"Navigation, recognize Yukari Yamamoto, lift controls," she ordered the ship.

"Navigation recognizes Yukari Yamamoto for auxiliary lift system," it replied.

Immediately without warning, another joystick began to rise up from a recessed area of the control panel. A screen in front activated, and displayed a wireframe of the ship. I grabbed it instinctively.

"Careful, Yuki, it's very touchy. Depending on how you press it, it will tilt the boat in that direction. I need you to keep it as flat as possible, which is the green boat on the screen."

She pointed to the green wireframe. It was currently overlaid with a yellow one, which I assumed was how the ship currently laid.

"The red lines are the limits, if it hits those, the ship will roll…" she said worriedly. I didn't need to hear anymore to know that rolling was bad.

"Once we jump, the navi won't be able to keep it flat anymore, so you'll need to help it out. It'll try its best, but you'll need to keep touching it."

"Alright, Anna, I think I get it now, I'm ready," I assured her.

She nodded, and then gave the ship another order.

"Navigation, start jump sequence."

The ship began to shudder. I watched the displays on the control panel, and saw what looked to be an engine rotating downwards. Once it locked into place, I heard a high-pitched whine as the engine fired up.

"Jump system charged to maximum," the ship informed Anna.

"Hold on!" she yelled.

I grasped the panel as tightly as I could manage with my free hand, and Anna pressed a button. The ship rumbled for a moment, and then without warning, began to rise into the air. The engine roared to life, and dust blew out violently from below the ship. The higher we climbed, the faster the ship rose.

"Lift system unable to maintain automatic leveling control," the ship spoke again.

I gathered that was my cue, and I released my death grip on the panel to hold the joystick with both hands. At first it wasn't difficult, the ship only required a few taps to keep it level. But as we climbed higher, it became much more difficult. It was like trying to balance on a freestanding pole as it grew taller and taller.

In only a few seconds time, we were approaching the area where everyone was waiting for us. I risked a glance and saw Sienna waving at us. I didn't dare let go of the joystick to wave back, but I nodded, and returned to my duty.

Anna pressed another button on the ship, and the engine began to roar even louder. Despite this, however, the ship's climb now slowed greatly. Anna looked up at the gang, who were only about 50 feet away now.

"Jump on as soon as you can!" she yelled to them.

Only a couple more seconds and we were there. Jonathan tumbled onboard first, as the ship slowly passed the level where they were standing. Sienna then jumped on after, almost climbing as the ship was about 4 feet above them when it stopped ascending. She immediately turned around, and grabbed the end of Michael's stretcher. She pulled it forward to the ship, as it began to fall back to the earth. As soon as the ship fell to the point where Michael could be pushed aboard, Tobias shoved from the other end, nearly tossing Michael onboard. We continued to descend, nearly 10 feet below the scaffolding where Tobias still stood.

"Jump, Tobias!" Sienna cried.

He did just that, not risking a moment to prepare. He fell, finally reaching the deck that was close to 15 feet below him. He tumbled and rolled as he landed, but he grabbed his ankle once he stopped moving.

"Gah! I think I sprained it!" he yelled, wincing.

Anna then kicked me in the shin, and I looked at her.

"We're not on the ground yet, pay attention!" she scolded me.

I looked back at the display, and saw the boat was nearly out of alignment. I yanked the joystick, which threw everyone to the floor. Anna and I quickly got to our feet again, and we controlled the ship in its descent.

"The hardest part is the landing. Once we reach the ground, the ship will want to roll a lot! Don't let it!" Anna informed me.

The display rapidly counted down the feet as we descended. I fought back the urge to close my eyes, and held on tight. The air was roaring up the ship, as the ship itself shuddered under the stress.

Then, only a few yards from impact, Anna pressed a button, and the lift system created a deafening blast of force below. Dust and rocks billowed out in every direction, and the ship moaned. I struggled to keep on my feet, finally collapsing to my knees under the g-forces. As Anna promised, the ship bucked wildly like a bull. After a few scary moments fighting the ship to stay upright and still, the navigation computer was able to recover and take back control.

"Navigation, end jump sequence, head to camp, full throttle!" Anna ordered, with a sigh of relief.

The ship acknowledged, and the engine flared to life. We were on our way back.

I brushed myself off, taking a moment to check that I wasn't seriously wounded anywhere (well, more than I already was). Satisfied I was alright, I ran over to the others. Sienna seemed fine, as usual, though she was kneeled over Tobias's left foot, which as I suspected earlier, was sprained.

Jonathan was limping up from below the deck, pulling a cable behind him. He pushed passed me, and knelt behind Michael on the floor. Jon plugged the cable into Michael's back, and turned his systems back on. Then I heard Tobias speak behind me.

"I need to get in communication with the RDF. Anna, open authorization," he asked.

"Navigation, open recognization!" Anna called out. The system acknowledged, and Tobias asked the computer to get the first defense line on the radio.

"This is the RDF DEFLINE 1, who is this? Over."

"This is the Aeris Mk. II scout ship, Elena. We are returning from a mission inside the dome and are requesting escort as well as medical attention, over," Tobias replied.

"Understood Elena, unfortunately we're currently engaged with a few rapid deployment skids near our line and cannot spare any escort. We will however keep track of your transponder and alert the camp's medical team. What's the status of your crew? Over."

"We have four injured, including Major McCormick, over."

"Major McCormick is… err… injured? I didn't know that was possible! I'll let the team know, Elena. Anything else you need? Over."

"That's all, DEFLINE 1, we're moving as quickly as we can. We should be arriving at the camp within the next 15 minutes. Over."

"Copy that, Elena. Welcome home."

"Yukari!" Jonathan yelled, turning his head rapidly towards me. "We're going to be in some deep shit! You think you can kung-fu those guys?"

"Kung Fu? Do I look like some sort of martial artist? I'm a swordfighter!"

Jonathan grabbed the console hard, and it started to melt away. Sparks flew, and the tram seemed to cry in pain, as the steel screeched in stress. As the tram slowed, a sword began to form from the shell of the console. Jon worked quickly, resulting in a dirty and unremarkable blade, but adequate for what I needed.

Tobias drew a pistol from his trench coat, his only defense. Sienna also reached for hers, although I had doubts to whether she could bring herself to fire it. She was a strong-willed woman, but killing simply was not her way.

As we began to enter the station, Jon turned around and tossed me the sword. He then sat on the ground, taking cover behind the remains of the console. Anna sat against the wall in the back, while Sienna kneeled in front of her, with her pistol pointed at the station's arrival area. Tobias took up a similar position behind a bench in the middle of the tram, while I knelt against the rear side door waiting for us to arrive. Unfortunately we couldn't cover Michael too well, although I suspected he'd be the least of our problems.

I looked over at Anna who was clenching to Sienna's back, and asked her, "Can you tell how many of them are there?"

"Uhm… I think… sixteen?" She said.

"Oh, only sixteen?" I replied with a sarcastic tone.

The tram finally came to a stop. I peeked over the tram's wall, looking around for these soldiers. They were sitting silently, guns pointed at the tram.

"Not even a word," I thought to myself. "They have no intention of taking us alive now."

It was obvious that they were going to wait for us to make the first move, so I took the initiative. Because the tram was comprised of only half-height walls and no ceiling, I could easily jump up and out without using the door. I'd like to think I was stealthy enough to have moved unseen, but it was really a side effect of my speed.

My goal was to draw their fire away from the tram, so that they could safely get out and defend themselves. I kicked the gun out of the nearest soldier's arms, and tossed it into the tram. By this point, my movements were no longer a blur, and the others began to open fire. They didn't seem to be concerned with friendly fire, and thoroughly devastated the soldier I had just disarmed. I kept moving towards the next target, further away from the tram. Bullets zoomed past me from all angles.

I didn't have time to get fancy, so I brought my sword to bear. It was a more traditional short sword, rather than the katana I was used to. The weight was much different, so I had to be careful not to accidentally lose grip. I took down the next couple of soldiers in short form, using their bodies as shields when possible.

It was then that I heard additional gunfire, from the direction of the tram. I took a risk and glanced back, to see Jon wielding some sort of rifle. It must have been the other thing he was melting earlier. I also spotted Tobias opening fire with his pistol. I was confused as to why no one was using the rifle I had tossed them, until I saw Sienna of all people holding it.

"So much for not killing anyone," I thought to myself.

A bullet then whistled right past my abdomen. I felt a slight twinge of heat, and looked down to see the bullet had traveled through my shirt. That was enough motivation to finally stay focused at the task at hand. I didn't have time to check in on the rest of the group.

I moved towards the next soldier crouching behind a bench. Just before I reached him, another soldier popped out from behind a support column, and aimed directly at me. I dropped to the ground as fast as possible, attempting to dodge his fire, when I suddenly noticed he wasn't firing. I raised my head to see that he had dropped the weapon and was now clenching a bullet wound in the chest.

I flicked my head around to find my savior, but whoever had shot the soldier was already moving on to other targets. Taking a deep breath, I hopped back on my feet, and forcefully disarmed the man behind the bench. With him gone, the right side of the station was cleared. There was a loud call from the other side, ordering everyone to fall back to the surface. The gunfire suddenly dropped off, and the station fell quiet. My heart was beating so fast I thought that even Michael could hear it.

I absentmindedly tried to put the sword into the hip hilt, forgetting that it wasn't a proper katana. Annoyed with having nowhere to put it, I wiped the blade off as best I could, and haphazardly slipped it through my belt. Hopefully I wouldn't trip and gouge myself with it. Shirking the responsibility of helping the others off the tram, I followed the exit path of the soldiers, to make sure the area was clear.

The stairwell seemed clear. The team slowly worked themselves off the tram, and we made it over to the stairs.

"Is there seriously no elevator here?" Sienna complained.

"We can't flick Michael on yet, there's no way he'll make it all the way up from here." Jonathan informed us.

"Tobias, what does your reference manual say?" Sienna asked sarcastically.

Tobias glared at Sienna distastefully, but pulled his notebook out anyway. He grabbed a yellow bookmark hanging out of the top, and flipped to its page. Paging forward a bit, he finally found something.

"There's a service elevator about 50 yards down the track."

We turned around and walked back to the track. Although this was the last station, the tram line continued for a distance into a tunnel. There appeared to be a walkway along the side of the tunnel as well. Tobias and Sienna pushed Michael's stretcher along the grated walkway, the metal wheels rattling wildly.

The tunnel grew dark as we progressed. I was surprised just how dark it became, as the underground was barely lit itself. Finally we arrived at the service elevator. The elevator was locked by a key, which Jonathan made quick work of. Once inside, Tobias quickly covered the escape plan. The elevator went up to the 15^th floor of the surface maintenance area. After the elevator arrived, we'd need to activate Michael and run like hell. It wouldn't take the army long to figure out what we had done.

As Tobias finished up his review, I looked at Anna, who was sitting on the stretcher looking over Michael.

"He looks so peaceful; I wonder what he's thinking," Anna wondered aloud.

"He's probably worrying about us," I offered.

"He may look peaceful, but I doubt he is. Imagine being completely cut off from the world… no sight, no sound, no touch, no smell, not even taste." Jonathan explained.

"That almost sounds like… being buried alive," Sienna said worriedly.

Jon nodded in agreement. "It couldn't be pleasant."

"We're almost to the top, let's wake up Michael," Tobias said readily, as if he suddenly felt guilty for Michael's situation.

Tobias slowly and carefully rolled Michael on his side again, and pulled his shirt up. Jonathan hobbled over, and reopened the access panel. He pressed a couple of buttons, and the strange voice once again detailed the revival of Michael's robotic body.

As it continued, the elevator reached the final floor, as high as it could take us. I grabbed the back of the stretcher, while Tobias grasped the front. A hard push and a couple of thuds later, and we were out. We were once again on a grated walkway, except now we were suspended nearly 100 feet in the air. I tried not to look down.

Anna didn't take too kindly to the heights, hopping off of Michael's stretcher and hovering close to Sienna. Jon was careful not to trip or have his crutches become stuck in the grating. There was a silent sense of urgency as we moved, although it seemed there was no immediate threat. We had all seen enough action for one day.

By the time we reached the end of the walkway, coming closer to the walls of the dome, Michael had finally awakened.

"How much farther?" he asked Tobias.

"About five flights of stairs straight up," he said, pointing above us.

I followed his arm and saw, through the walkways above, many large metal tubes. There was a low hum, the hum of the ventilation fans.

Michael left the stretcher behind, and walked carefully with us.

"Think you can make it?" I asked, concerned.

"Hard to tell. Only one way to find out," he said, smiling.

"I'm glad you're not concerned," I muttered.

Michael made himself useful, and practically carried Jon up the stairs with him. Flight after flight, we kept moving. We were about halfway when Anna grabbed Sienna's arm.

"What is it, baby?" she asked.

"There's more coming, from below!"

"The stairwell," Tobias realized.

"We don't have time to stop and fight. We need to keep moving," Jon said, ushering us as much as he could with Michael holding him up.

"Jonathan!" I called from the back.

"What?"

"Couldn't you melt these stairs down? They don't seem too rigid."

"Good idea. Everyone get up here, I'll reform these stairs into a wall."

We slid past Jon, and he limped back down a few stairs. Grabbing the railings first, he proceeded to melt the stairs down into bars, like a jail. He continued to work as fast as he could, not attempting to secure the bars, just to deter the army and remove their passage (as around five stairs were suddenly missing). Once he made it up to the floor, he melted the floor up as we moved, ensuring that no one could jump or climb over.

The scaffolding and stairs seemed to moan, and I wondered if Jon had mistakenly removed some supports in the process. We didn't waste any time to find out, though, and charged onward. Jon had moved as quickly as he could, but Anna let us know they were rapidly approaching. I could actually hear them clambering up the stairs below, and many shouts for us.

As we approached the floor we were heading for, Michael suddenly let go of Jon. He grasped the handrail tightly, but kept moving.

"Michael, are you alright?"

He nodded, but was silent.

We kept moving, only one more flight to go. He slowly crept up with us, as if every step he took would cause him to fall. He was waiting for his legs to finally fail him. We were on the last steps, I could see he was struggling as much as he could. Then he stopped for the final time.

"I'm sorry," he said, and collapsed there on the stairs.

"Shit!" Jon yelled. He grabbed Michael's arm, while gesturing to Tobias to grab the other. Sienna and I realized it was going to take more than one and a half men to drag Michael up, so we went to grab his legs. We pushed and pulled as hard as we could, and little by little, we moved him up those last few stairs. Once we were on the floor, Jon struggled to make another stretcher for him.

While Jon worked, Tobias walked across the walkway towards the ventilation fan. We could hear the wind howling through. He looked up and down the round vent duct, and grabbed onto a handle. He struggled with the handle for a while, finally resorting to using his leg for leverage, he popped the door open.

Without warning, a red light flashed and an alarm blared.

"The alarm is for the filtration system being bypassed, just ignore it!" he called over.

Jonathan had just finished with the stretcher by now, and he was looking visibly worn out by the effort. He had used his powers a great deal today, and I'm sure his head was pounding. Unfortunately, Anna's visibly worried face told me we didn't have time to sit down and relax.

The new stretcher was much lower to the ground, so that we could easily roll Michael onto it. Once we managed to get him on, we took off for the vent door Tobias had opened. The alarm continued to sound, and I couldn't help but worry about what sort of trouble it would cause. We fumbled our way into the ventilation shaft, and the wind ripped us apart. I felt like I was going to fall over. Tobias led the way, carrying Anna on his back. Sienna and I pushed Michael, while Jon carefully pushed his way forward.

It wasn't a long walk before we reached the ventilation fan. The fan was massive, over 10 feet in diameter. It became harder and harder to push forward toward the fan as we approached.

"This is the last obstacle before we make it out of here! We need to shut this thing down!" Tobias yelled over the roaring motor and wind.

I felt guilty, but I looked back at Jon once more. He nodded, and we helped him up to the fan, holding him so that the force of the wind wouldn't knock him back.

He placed his hands on the motor, and concentrated deeply. He was straining and fighting the pain in his head again, and I could tell he was having difficulty. Suddenly, with a cry of pain, he let go of the motor and grasped his forehead.

"Jon, are you alright?" Sienna asked, also concerned.

He shook his head, but placed his hands back on the motor again anyway. Again he tried to melt it down, to stop the fan in any way he could manage. However, just like last time, he let go, yelling out in pain.

"I… I can't do it, it hurts too much to concentrate!" he cried.

"Sienna, isn't there something you can do?" I demanded.

"I can't do anything for the mind. It's too complex," she explained.

Left with no other option, I grabbed the generic sword Jon had made for me earlier. Drawing it from my belt, I looked around the fan for some place to stab it, possibly jamming it or breaking it. Having difficulty finding a weak spot in the motor, I took my sword and jammed it as quickly as I could in the blades.

Milliseconds later, one of the blades struck the sword, and to my surprise, snapped it cleanly in half against the supports I had jammed it against. I let the remaining half drop to the floor, and looked back at the others.

"Well, I'm out of ideas!" I yelled.

Jonathan's body crumpled to the floor on impact. I couldn't help but look at his bloodied body. As if to confirm the possibility of his death, the parachute collapsed on top of him, hiding him from view.

Then Anna said the words I had been hoping for.

"They're both still alive, I can feel them!" she cried.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Sienna grabbed Anna's hand and started running toward Jonathan.

"You two check on Michael, we'll handle Jon!" she told us.

I glanced at Tobias, we took off for Michael. Once we reached his body, Michael turned his head and looked at us. Overall he seemed rather unscathed, except for a growing puddle of a dark, smelly liquid under him.

"My… batteries… resorting to life… support only… tell… Jon…" he said faintly, before he went silent.

"That didn't sound good," Tobias said.

"You always say that," I responded.

I carefully rolled Michael onto his back, and took a look at where he was leaking. His shirt was torn up, and he seemed to be leaking from the hidden panel in his back.

"Is this battery acid?" I asked Tobias.

"It could be, I don't know."

I looked over where Jonathan had landed. Sienna was working intently on him, but I could see he was moving now.

"You stay here with Michael, in case he wakes up. I'm going to tell Jon," I said.

I bee-lined it over to Jonathan. Jonathan looked up at me, and smiled a bit, before wincing as Sienna pushed on his leg.

"Jon, Michael's hurt. He mentioned something about his batteries, and being on life support."

"Son of a bitch," was all he could say. He moved to get up, but Sienna held him down.

"Don't get excited, you can't walk with your legs like this. Let me finish!" she instructed him.

"He could be dying right now!" he responded, furious.

"You won't be much good to him if you start internally bleeding!" she replied, just as furious.

Jonathan turned his head to look straight at Sienna, and just looked deep in her eyes for a moment.

"Alright, alright! We'll help you. Just take it slow," she offered, defeated.

I wrapped his left arm around my shoulders, while Sienna did the same on the other side. We slowly lifted him up.

"Agh! Ow! Shit, shit!" he cried, obviously in pain.

"I told you! Your left tibia is shattered! Don't put any weight on that leg or you might break the fibula too!" Sienna yelled at him.

We slowly hobbled over to Michael. As we crossed the street, I started looking around. I hadn't given it much thought, but we had made a LOT of noise. It wouldn't take long for the rest of the military to locate us, as a dark cloud of smoke and flame continued to rise from the building above.

"He hasn't moved since," Tobias said, as he helped us place Jon on the ground softly.

Jonathan looked over Michael's broken and battered backside. He touched the rust-colored liquid that lay in a puddle on the street, and sniffed it.

"It's battery acid. Which means, if he's on life support, he doesn't have long to live. We need to get him on some mains power, and fast." Jonathan said sternly.

"That's good, because it looks like the world caught up with us," Tobias said, pointing to the people rushing out of a late-night restaurant down the street.

"How are we going to get out of here though? Jon's in no condition to run, and we can't carry Michael out of here!" Sienna said exasperated.

"Jon, make yourself some crutches, and make up a stretcher for Michael. I'll intercept those people and buy us some time," Tobias said.

Jon nodded, and reached beside him to begin creating some crutches out of the ground. Anna tugged at my arm as Tobias ran off to talk to the restaurant people.

"The army is coming, Yuki! They're not far!" she informed us.

It became clear that we were in for some serious trouble now. Jonathan finished his crutches and started working on the wheeled stretcher. I glanced at Tobias, who seemed to be distracting the mob of people who were being overly curious. However, just before I turned my head back, I saw someone point towards us. Tobias motioned heavily, although I couldn't hear what he was saying.

However, it was obvious that whatever he said, they didn't buy. Tobias turned around and took off towards us.

"Get moving! They saw Jon!" he yelled.

"Saw Jon?" I thought to myself. So what?

Then I looked back at him, and it dawned on me. He's forming a stretcher out of concrete with his own bare hands. Of course they're going to freak out!

Jon finished up the stretcher. Although it was barely more than a slab of metal on wheels, it was enough.

At first Sienna and I tried to pick Michael up, but he was just too heavy. I waved at Tobias to hurry up and helped Jon to his feet. Meanwhile, Anna was holding her head and trying to figure out how close the military was now.

Tobias finally made it back, although the mob of people were close behind. He grabbed Michael at the arms, I grabbed him at the legs, while Sienna wrapped her arms around his midsection. After a couple of tries, we managed to get him on top of the stretcher. Tobias grabbed the stretcher, and started pushing Michael, while reading his notebook.

"Come on, this way! We need to get underground again!" he said breathlessly.

"They're almost here!" Anna cried, pointing to the direction they were coming from.

I looked down the road to see two armored cars and police turning the bend. The mob stopped chasing, instead pointing us out to the military. If I could, I would have slapped every one of them.

We ran as fast as we could, with Tobias leading the pack. Jonathan did his best to keep up, with Sienna and Anna staying at his side. I followed behind, watching to see what the military might try.

Tobias took us to the closest underground entrance. Sienna kicked the gate open, and lo and behold, there was an elevator.

"Well isn't that convenient?" I said.

Tobias punched the button, and the doors opened immediately. Once we crammed inside, Tobias hit a button on the panel, and the doors slid shut. However, just as they closed, there was a gunshot. I heard the bullet hit the backside of the elevator.

"Aah!" Anna screamed, grabbing her right ear.

More guns fired at the elevator, making distinctive pinging sounds against the door. But it wasn't seconds later we began moving down.

Sienna pushed me to the side and looked at Anna's ear. She was trying to do her best not to cry, but it was obvious that she wanted to. Sienna pulled Anna's hands away from her ear, and surveyed the hit. It was bleeding, but it seemed to have only nicked her earlobe. Sienna placed her hands on the ear, and not moments later the ear completely healed.

"It's okay, you're fine now," Sienna reassured her.

"Thank you, Sienna," Anna said, sniffling.

"Well, now you can brag to your friends that you've taken a bullet!" Jon remarked.

Sienna slapped him in the back of the head.

"Ow, okay, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood!"

It didn't take long before we reached the bottom. The doors slid open, and we rushed out. Tobias once again took the lead, and we ran down this open walkway. It was rather unnerving, as we were still hundreds of feet above the bottom of the underground city. The floor was comprised of a frosted glass, but it did little to reduce the feeling of vertigo. I instinctively reached for my wakizashi for reassurance, only to remember that it was gone.

Dim signs above us seemed to indicate another tram station was up ahead, but I couldn't see it. Tobias had pulled out a lighter and was reading his notebook again, while Sienna took over pushing Michael. I looked at Jon, who was visibly in pain and tired.

"You know Jon, you could probably sit on the stretcher if you want," I offered.

He just shook his head and kept hobbling along.

We hurried along as fast as we could manage, constantly checking for any sign of the military. After about a quarter mile of walking, we came upon the tram. Tobias stopped and turned around to face us. He closed his notebook, and raised his lighter up to his face, which wore a rather grim look.

"We have a choice to make. Michael needs power. This tram station has power, so we can connect him here. But if we stay here, there is a good chance that the military will catch up to us. The other option is to take the tram now, and hope Michael's life support holds out until we arrive at the other end."

There was a moment of silence while we looked at each other in the glow of the lighter. None of us wanted to make the decision. It took a while, but Jonathan soon spoke up.

"I think… that if he was able to talk to us, he'd tell us to keep going."

Tobias nodded, "I agree. While we might be taking a greater risk to his life, we put everyone in danger by remaining where we are."

I didn't like the idea at all, and I was about to protest, when Anna walked over to Michael and began to feel his forehead.

"He's… scared. Alone… I feel trapped, and cold. It's… a terrible feeling," She said softly.

"We can't leave him like this. I'd never be able to forgive myself if he died while we were trying to run away." I insisted.

Sienna grabbed my hand as she stood next to me.

"I'm with Yukari. He's in this condition because he tried to save us. He kept that helicopter flying. The least we can do is to make sure he lives to see the outside again!" Sienna added.

The men looked at each other and sighed. Tobias grabbed the stretcher and took us to what seemed to be an old ticket window. He left the stretcher there, while him and Jonathan went around. A few moments later, Tobias's head popped up from behind the ticket counter, with a wire in hand. Jonathan hobbled back around, and grabbed the wire from Tobias.

"The voltage is low, but it should be enough to get him online," Jon said while reforming the wire.

Once he was finished, he flipped open Michael's back, and inserted the wire. Tobias jumped over the counter and helped Jon roll Michael onto his side.

Suddenly there was a flashing light, and then a beep. A few seconds later, an unfamiliar computerized voice emanated from Michael's mouth.

"POST CHECK COMPLETE. Initiating full spectrum diagnostic. Core system is functioning. Power system is critically damaged. Motor and balance system is damaged. Adaptive electronics are functioning. Sensual input is functioning. Life support system is functional. Diagnostic complete, attempting repairs to motor and balance. Motor and balance system is operational but at reduced functionality. Attempting repairs to power system. Primary and secondary power systems are critically damaged. Combined power capacity reduced to 7%. Life support power system is operational but at reduced functionality. Power capacity reduced to 13%. Rerouting all available power to life support. Bootup complete, passing system control to organic interface."

Everything went silent again, but then I began to see his eyes fluttering.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" he spoke, in a whisper.

"Michael, we're all here," Sienna said, holding his hand.

"I can't see… almost all of my power is being redirected to recharge the life support battery." He explained.

"It's okay, we're alright. We made it out okay. We're in the underground, by another tram station. We were worried you might die!" Sienna told him.

"Not… quite. I still had another 472 seconds left!" he said, chuckling.

Michael may have found his previous situation to be funny but I didn't. I glared at Jon and Tobias, making sure that they knew damn well that if Sienna and I hadn't stood up for him, he wouldn't have made it.

"Michael, we can't stay here for long. The military isn't far from here. How much time will it take for you to recover so that we can jump on that tram?" Tobias said worriedly.

"Five minutes will give me about an hour on life support. The battery is damaged, so waiting any longer is pointless."

"An hour should give us just enough time to get out of the dome. I hope." Tobias calculated.

We had Anna take a seat and concentrate on detecting the military. Tobias managed to find the light switches for the terminal, and we were greeted with our first illuminated view of the underground city proper. It was readily apparent the state of disarray the underground city had been left in. Towering buildings rose deep from within the earth, crumbling and crisscrossed with cables. Numerous platforms were hanging between the buildings, acting as walkways.

It seemed as if the original inhabitants built the city higher and higher, while leaving the deeper recesses to degrade. It was not difficult to make out that the upper portions of the city were in much better condition. However, even with that distinction, it was difficult to believe that this used to be City Eternal, a clean and prosperous city as the one just above our heads. I could make out small encampments on the platforms, with empty cots, pots and pans. Trash littered the walkways, and pieces of buildings lay strewn across them.

There were also a few faint signs of life down here. Bugs of all types thrived in the musky environment, but oddly enough, I had spotted two hawks already. Rats could be seen scattering about in the distance, avoiding the light. Even more surprising was the discovery of lights below. While we had seen them last time, I didn't actually see anyone down there. I could make out one person now, who seemed to be keeping a close eye on us. I guess that the sudden illumination of the terminal was like a shining star in this artificial cave.

As we waited for Michael to recharge, Sienna attempted to better heal Jon's wounds. She managed to piece together his shattered leg, but without proper medical equipment it was still fragile. Tobias and Michael spent the time planning our escape.

Michael was able to tap into the CARMEL network and find us a new way out. It was decided that even attempting to go back the way we came would be suicide. Instead we would take a higher route. Once we arrive at the end of the tram line, we would need to climb up many stairs and ladders, until we reached the ventilation shafts. Then we would need to somehow stop one of the fans and follow the shaft, through the particulate filter, and breach the dome's shell to finally escape outside.

Of course, all that planning seemed solid enough, but there was one logical flaw that the two of them were apparently unaware of.

"And how exactly do you plan on climbing those stairs and ladders? We're certainly not capable of pulling you up all of that." I pointed out.

"Well, I can make it with some crutches, but as for Michael…"

"I'll have to walk up," he said.

"Uhm, forgive my ignorance, but how do you plan on doing that?"

"My batteries have about 3% charge. If Jon powers me up when we reach the stairs, I can wring out the last bit of power and walk up." He explained.

"That plan couldn't possibly fail!" I said sarcastically.

"Well if you come up with any better ideas you let me know."

I was attempting humor with the remark, but I was really masking my fear. His plan was incredibly risky, and if it fails, we could be in serious trouble. None of us were prepared to leave Michael behind in the event something happened to him, and yet this plan could leave us with no choice.

"Are we ready to go?" Tobias said, nervously.

I walked over to Anna. She was deep in concentration, trying to keep track of the army above. I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"They're getting closer. I'm having trouble keeping track of them. They split up into two groups."

I glanced back at Tobias, who nodded.

"Let's get the hell out of here, then," Tobias called to everyone.

Michael powered down, and Jonathan propped himself onto his crutches. He seemed to be in less pain after Sienna worked on him some more. Tobias and I wheeled Michael onto the tram, while Anna and Sienna turned off the lights. Jonathan flicked a few switches on the tram's dashboard, and the tram came to life. Sienna and Anna came scurrying back, and jumped on, as Jonathan moved us out of the station.

Once again we were moving, at a great speed. The tram whipped between outcroppings from the ceiling, and the tops of buildings below. We passed by station after station, even some inside of buildings. As the stations sped by, I could sometimes make out evidence of recent activity, but not a soul around. I was somewhat comforted by that fact. I'd had enough surprises for one day.

As before, it took us a few minutes to travel. Anna seemed to have given up tracking the military, and was nestled close to Sienna at the back of the tram. Sienna seemed to be experiencing another headache, a result of all the healing she had done. Jon and Tobias were going over the route in Tobias's notebook. I was most concerned about Michael, who laid as still as a statue on the stretcher.

All those fears and concerns disappeared, however, as we approached the final station.

"The station, it's lit up!" I yelled to Jon, trying to be heard over the rushing wind.

"Yeah, I can see that, thanks Miss Obvious!" he yelled back. "Anna?"

Anna looked up, and nodded fervently. "It's those soldiers!"

"Turn the tram around! Find another way out!" Sienna called from the back.

Jonathan carefully hobbled over to the dashboard, and pressed a few keys. He then slammed his palm on the screen in anger.

"They've locked us out! There's nothing I can do!"

I kept fussing with the sword as much as I could, trying to break the window.

Then unexpectedly there was a massive explosion above me. I looked up and saw a fireball rising into the air off of the roof I had just jumped from. As I watched the explosion, I saw what looked like rotor blades falling from the sky. I realized then that the helicopter those soldiers arrived in had just exploded.

I didn't need much time to figure out why it exploded, as I was greeted second later to the call of my name from the other helicopter that had been bearing down toward me. I turned my head around to look at the helicopter, and saw something I never expected: Sienna waving her hands at me.

Afraid to really let a hand off the sword to wave back, I just nodded vigorously and smiled back at her. It was then I saw what looked to be Tobias and Michael in the pilot and co-pilot's chair, respectively. They lowered the helicopter below me a few feet, and moved as close to the building as they could manage.

I then turned my body around to face the helicopter, placed my legs on the building behind me, and kicked off, leaving the wakizashi behind. I hit the deck of the helicopter with my legs dangling off the edge. Sienna and Jon grabbed my arms and pulled me inside, and we shut the door. The helicopter then tilted dramatically forward and we took off down the street and slowly moved above the buildings.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Anna cried, hugging me tightly at the waist.

I winced, as my back had seen better days, but smiled and ran my hand through her hair. I looked over at Jon, who smiled back at me.

"Are you okay? Did you get hurt anywhere?" Sienna asked.

I showed her my left hand which was still bleeding, and told her about my backside.

She carefully pulled the glove off my left hand, and placed her hand over the wound. Already the pain was subsiding, but then she stopped.

"There's glass inside. I can't close the wound like that, it'll get infected. It's going to hurt for a while until we get back to the camp and get that shard removed. I did stop the bleeding, however." she informed me.

She handed my bloodied glove to Jonathan who proceeded to fix the tear and remove the blood. She then had me spin around so she could look at my back. She lifted up the back of my shirt and began to feel around it.

I spied Jonathan taking particular interest in this, which immediately pissed me off.

"Keep staring Jon and the next thing you'll see is the pavement below, pervert!"

"What! All I can see is your back, I'm not looking!"

"If you aren't looking then how do you know that?"

He shut right up and continued to work on my glove. Sienna finally placed her hands on my lower back, where most of the pain was situated.

"It's just a few bruises near your spine. I can take care of that."

Once again the pain was alleviated. I could feel the warmth emanating from her hands, slowly dissipating the bruises. It was a wonderful feeling, comparable to having an incredible massage. I wanted that feeling to last, but only a few short seconds later she was done and pulling my shirt back down.

"Well, your back should be fine, but try to avoid using that left hand as much as possible," Sienna told me.

Jonathan tapped me on the shoulder, and I spun around to face him and Sienna. He returned my glove, all clean and repaired.

"I added some padding to the palm to lessen the impact on the wound."

I quickly got over his actions before and thanked him. I pulled the glove back on, wincing as it slid over the palm area, but once it was on it felt fine.

Now that my immediate health issues were taken care of, I turned my attention to where we were and what we were doing.

"So how the hell did you guys make it out, much less steal a helicopter?" I asked.

"It's a long story, I'll fill you in when we get back to the camp," Michael replied.

Without warning Michael yanked the joystick and the helicopter rolled drastically to the left. I fell over, Sienna and Anna shrieked, and Jonathan had to grab the wall to stabilize himself. Before I could ask what the hell he was doing, I saw a rocket zip past our right side.

"Hold on!" Tobias yelled, pressing a couple buttons on the dash. The helicopter rapidly lost altitude, dropping back down among the buildings.

"Are you crazy? We're going to crash flying like this!" Jonathan yelled back.

"They can't fire rockets at us when we're near the buildings, they wouldn't risk the casualties," Tobias explained.

Even so, I felt we were in even more danger now. Tobias navigated the helicopter through the city streets, while Michael kept tabs on our pursuers. I had no idea where we were going, or what the plan was once we reached our destination, all I could think about was my stomach as we were tossed and turned to dodge gunfire.

"We've got to do something about that damn helicopter, we're not going to get away at this rate," Tobias said to Michael anxiously.

"There is one rocket left. If we're quick, and lucky, we can ambush them around a corner and get a shot off." Michael suggested.

"Okay everybody, strap yourselves in tight, this is going to get ugly!" Tobias called back to us.

Of course Tobias failed to notice the fact that the seats in the back did not have straps, but I held on tight regardless. Anna sat in-between Sienna and I, and we did our best to hold her in her seat. Jonathan seemed preoccupied with making something, although I couldn't tell what.

Once we went around the bend, Michael and Tobias slammed hard on the rudder pedal, and the helicopter did an abrupt about-face. They pushed forward on the stick, cancelling out on the backward momentum and Tobias held us in place. Michael flicked a couple switches on the dash and rested his finger over another button.

Finally our pursuers came barreling around the corner, and Michael pressed the button. I heard a loud wooshing sound, and then saw a rocket from our left side fly out straight for the other helicopter. The rocket impacted the side of the helicopter, and the entire thing exploded in front of our eyes. Our helicopter rocked from the shockwave, and then there was the sound of something colliding with something behind us.

Suddenly alarms were blaring within the cockpit of the helicopter, and it began to shudder violently.

"Shit! A piece of debris pierced our fuel tank!" Tobias cried.

"Jonathan, parachutes! We need parachutes!" Michael yelled.

Jonathan frantically pulled out the emergency parachutes. However, there were only two! Jon tossed one to me and one to Sienna. Tobias unstrapped himself from the pilot's seat, and helped us get them on.

"Sienna, you and Anna go first," Jonathan ordered. He opened the door and Sienna reluctantly jumped out, with Anna attached in her arms.

I walked up to the door next, while Jonathan quickly went to work on the seats, apparently forming them into new parachutes for the rest of them.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" I asked worried.

"Don't have time to worry about that. Go!" he demanded.

The helicopter shuddered again, and began to lose altitude.

"You better hurry up! It's running on fumes now, I can't hold her steady much longer!" Michael yelled from the cockpit.

"You need to get your ass back here too!" Jonathan said.

"Not until everyone else is off, I can't let the helicopter lose control!"

I finally worked up the nerve, and jumped. As soon as I was clear of the helicopter, I pulled the cord, and the parachute thankfully opened. While I floated, I looked down and spotted Sienna and Anna safely touching down on the sidewalk below.

I continued to float, only a couple hundred feet above the ground now. I then noticed that I was rapidly approaching a building. I didn't realize until that moment that I had no idea how to control my descent. I grabbed the cords for the parachute, tugging left and right, panicking. Finally I yanked hard on the left cord, and I veered to the left, but it was not in time. I braced for impact, and my right shoulder slammed into the building, cracking the glass.

Pain rushed down my arm. My shoulder was on fire, and I clenched my teeth tightly. I couldn't move my right arm; it felt almost completely dead, except for the searing pain. After a few more dreadful seconds of hell, I finally landed, tumbling to the concrete. I yelled out to Sienna for help, who came rushing over to me.

"Your shoulder, it's dislocated," she informed me, able to see what had happened before she even began to examine me.

She then grabbed my shoulder, and with one swift movement, popped it back into place, without so much as a warning. I screamed aloud as the pain grew even more intense, before subsiding somewhat. She then rolled up my sleeve, and placed her hands on my arm, moving them up and down.

"Mmm, you've got a couple torn ligaments in the elbow also, and a fractured bone. I should be able to take care of this."

She went to work, and my arm immediately felt better. As she worked her magic, I looked up, expecting to see Michael and Jonathan coming down. At this point Tobias landed about a half block down the road from us. He disconnected his crudely fashioned parachute courtesy of Jon, and came over towards us. Jonathan was about halfway down himself, and Michael had just jumped. The helicopter was spinning out of control now, and swung wildly towards a building across the street.

It then impacted the building, and unexpectedly exploded. The explosion caught Michael, trashing his parachute. He began to plummet. At the same time, a portion of a rotor blade flew out past the explosion, catching part of Jonathan's parachute.

I screamed again, the second time that day. Sienna had felt the explosion, and upon hearing me scream, looked up.

"Oh God!" she cried.

Jonathan's parachute held together, but with a part of it flapping in the wind. He began to descend much more rapidly. Michael was not so lucky. He fell right past Michael, and only seconds later hit the sidewalk across the street, with a thunderous boom. I sat there for a moment, holding onto Sienna. I waited, stared intently at Michael, where he had landed. But he wasn't moving.

"That didn't sound good…" Tobias said. I certainly didn't need to have him tell me to know that, though.

Horrible thoughts began to run through my mind. Even a machine couldn't survive a fall like that, could it? As I got up to run over to Michael, I remembered Jonathan, and looked back up. The helicopter's shell had lodged itself inside the building, so there was no threat of it crashing on us. Jonathan himself was doing his best to try and slow his descent, but he was still falling dangerously fast. He was near the ground now.

"He's coming down too fast!" I yelled at Sienna.

"There's nothing we can do, just hope for the best," she said nervously. Tobias put his hand on my left shoulder, and looked up with us.

At that moment, he collided with the ground.

"There has to be brakes, how else would it stop?" Jon said nervously.

"No, I'm serious! There's no stop, no brakes, nothing!" Michael said furiously.

Jonathan and Michael went into a panic, which in turn put the rest of us in a panic. They combed through the control panel as fast and carefully as they could, looking for any reason why the brakes wouldn't be working.

"If we can't stop we'll have to jump off," Tobias said.

"Are you crazy?" I replied. "Look at the speed we're going at!"

"It's better than reaching the end of the rail and crashing into a wall!"

At this point we all broke out into an argument over the best way to deal with this increasingly dangerous situation. I wasn't sure myself how long we had until we reached the end of the rail, but I did know we were rapidly approaching our destination. For a moment I thought I heard Anna say something, but I ignored it, continuing to argue with Jon about how idiotic he must be to forget something so important. But then she yelled louder and there was no mistake.

"HEY!" she screamed.

We all fell silent for a second and looked at her.

"Can't we just put the tram in reverse?"

Jon and Michael looked at each other for a moment before it dawned on them. They both turned around and poked a few things on the control panel before the tram lurched again and began to slow down.

"You mean to tell me neither of you thought of something so simple?!" Sienna exclaimed, her hands at her hips. The two just hung their heads in shame.

I unzipped my hoodie and threw it off. It wasn't any warmer out, but I was sweating terribly. Up ahead I could see the next platform, which I assumed was our destination. There didn't appear to be an open stairwell to this one, however. Instead was just a small staircase which leads up to a large outcropping on the surface ceiling. My legs were already sighing in relief. I was not looking forward to climbing all those stairs back to the surface.

"Alright everyone, up ahead is our stop. We'll be heading up those stairs about two floors and once inside that building, we'll be very close to the CARMEL. From here on out there is a strong chance we'll be encountering security systems so be careful and keep your eyes on me in case I stumble upon something." Tobias laid out for us.

The arrival was hardly as smooth and quiet as Tobias had originally hoped for, with the tram jumping and rocking viciously the last couple hundred feet. When it did finally come to a rest, we all stepped off, and I took the time to stretch out again after being tossed around like a ragdoll.

"That was scary!" Anna said.

"Without a doubt, Anna." I agreed, glaring at Jonathan.

Once we were all composed, we headed up the stairs, Tobias once again taking the leader position. He continued to refer to his notebook. Once we reached the surface building, he looked at some signs on the wall and held the notebook up next to them.

Tobias then ushered us to follow. We climbed another couple flights of stairs until he put his hand up to stop us.

He then approached a grate on the wall. He indicated for Jon to come forward.

"Can you get this grate out of here, without triggering the pressure alarm behind it?" he asked.

"I can try," Jonathan offered.

He stepped forward and once again placed his hands on the grate. Slowly but carefully he melted the grate to a pile of molten steel. He was careful to leave the frame of the grate intact, so as not to trigger the alarm. He then reached inside, and also melted two large metal bars that were obstructing the path.

"That should do it."

Tobias thanked Jon and told him to take the front position, in case there were any other obstructions inside that would need to be taken care of.

Following Jon, Tobias said "Once we're inside we need to be silent. While they don't use audio sensors this deep inside the compound, there is staff inside at all hours. We can't risk them discovering us."

This was the most nerve-wracking part of the journey thus far. We no longer had plausible deniability to protect us from any curious police officers. If we were discovered now, we'd be forced to fight, and it was a long way back home.

For some reason I was stuck with taking up the rear this time. At this point I was glad I had worn my climbing gloves. The vent was ice cold, and although the gloves were open fingered, it was nice to be able to use the palms of my hands without freezing solid.

We climbed through the vent for at least ten straight minutes, taking various zigzagging paths that had me lost almost immediately. Tobias was continuing to follow his notebook, and nudged Jon to take a right turn here, and a left turn there. I was growing evermore curious to where that notebook came from and how he managed to scrounge up all this information, but now was hardly the time to be asking such questions.

Just when I was really wondering if this vent ever did end, we all stopped. I tried to look ahead to see what was going on, but Sienna's ridiculously flowery skirt was blocking my path. Don't ask me why her skirt jumped out at me so, it was just so … loud that I couldn't possibly ignore it.

Anyway, we started moving again, and finally I noticed that we had reached the end, as everyone began to climb out. The vent terminated under the floor of the CARMEL's datacenter, so Jonathan had disassembled the grate slowly rather than making an obvious melted gap. After we all had climbed out of the ventilation system, Tobias had us gather in a close huddle.

"Okay, this is it. Michael is going to break into the CARMEL's systems. Our job will be to give him as much time as he needs to get the data. You all know what you have to do. Just keep quiet and be on the watch for anything suspicious." Tobias said.

We nodded, and Michael rushed off to the main computer terminal in the room. He immediately went to work, his hands becoming a blur on the keyboard as they coaxed the computer into giving him what he wanted.

Anna took a seat and concentrated on locating the presence of others inside the datacenter.

"There are fourteen people around us. None of them seem to know we're here." She said, confirming our successful infiltration of the datacenter.

"Good work, Anna, now let us know if any of them get close to this room," I said. Sienna and I then took a seat at the far entrance to the room. Jonathan and Tobias sat at the other door.

Michael kept us informed on how he was doing, but it was obvious that this was going to take some time. I knew the longer we stayed here the better the possibility of us being discovered, so I was desperately trying not to chew my nails.

Sienna glanced at me, and held my hand.

"It's alright, Yukari, they're not going to catch us. We'll make it out of here just fine." she said trying to calm my nerves.

"No, it's okay, I'm not worried," I lied.

After a few close calls, and nearly an hour of waiting, Michael finally gave us a soft cry of victory.

"I've got it!" he said excitedly, holding up a disk case.

He then tossed it to me for safekeeping. I put it in the messenger bag I was carrying. It was understood that I had the best chance of escaping the city if something happened, and the data was too valuable to lose.

We all had gathered around the vent where we had entered at this point, and I was more than happy to get the hell out of there. But then, without warning, Anna suddenly cried out, "They're coming!"

"What? How many?" Tobias asked.

"…at least twenty!"

"How close?"

"Really close!" she cried.

"We need to get out of here, no-" I started to say when there was a loud bang at one of the doors.

Not seconds later they surrounded us, weapons raised. It was the military, special forces. I looked at Tobias, waiting for the signal. Luckily we had planned for this situation. I was to take off with the data, while the others fought their way out. This way their forces would be split between trying to recover the data and to capture us.

"You are all under arrest for breaking and entering into a government facility, and for stealing top secret government data." The commander informed us.

A couple men then moved forward to handcuff us, when Tobias coughed, giving me the signal.

I gripped the messenger bag tightly, and took off as fast as I could over the rack of servers next to me. Tobias was correct, they wouldn't dare shoot in this room for fear of damaging CARMEL.

"What the hell? You two, with me, we're following her. The rest of you, cuff these guys and take them back to HQ." I heard the commander yell from behind me.

I burst through the door they came from, and started the brutal climb up the stairs. Finally I reached the surface level, and ran outside. Bad idea. Outside were three squads waiting for me. I dashed back inside, dodging gunfire that destroyed the glass windows and the door. I headed for the stairs again, planning to head for the roof, when I heard the elevator doors chime. Inside were the three from below.

Since I wasn't able to make it to the stairs themselves, I ran full out toward the wall, and ran up the wall. I only had a short distance to build up speed, so I just barely was able to jump off and reach the second level railing. I pulled myself up and over, and the men below began firing again, while running up the stairs.

They didn't have a chance now. I sprinted across the lobby's second floor to the other side where the stairs resumed, and climbed as fast as I could. Skipping four or five stairs at a time, and bouncing off the walls at each turn, I made it up the thirty six floors to the top, bursting through the door there to reach the roof.

I took a moment to look around, and found a good path to get out of there. Once again I ran full tilt, this time toward a neighboring building. Jumping off at the edge, I grabbed the fire escape on the side of the neighboring building. I heard the sound of a helicopter nearby, so I decided to go down a flight on the fire escape and break into the building through a window.

It was an empty office full of cubicles. I didn't bother to take in the scenery, and took off toward the other side of the building. With our cover blown, I had no reason to avoid using weapons, so I pulled out my pistol and fired at the window ahead. As the glass shattered, I threw myself out of it toward the building across the street.

Not having any time to regret my decision, I feverishly pulled the trigger at the oncoming glass wall approaching me. The glass shattered, and I landed in a roll inside the building. Doing my best to ignore the glass shards embedded in my backside, I kept running. At this point I had no clue as to where I was running to, but I had to do my best to keep my momentum up and lose that helicopter.

I took a right turn in this building, and shot out more glass. Leaping through, I then realized the building on the other side was not one of the newer buildings, instead featuring the older concrete design. With no way to simply blast my way through, I braced myself for impact with the wall.

I slammed into the wall, and couldn't avoid bouncing off of it. As I fell, I twisted myself around as quickly as possible, and managed to grab a ledge on the building with my fingertips. I wasn't able to hold on, but it gave me enough leverage to swing my legs back in and break through the window below.

After narrowly avoiding a fall, I shook the glass off of me and took a second to catch my breath and look for the helicopter. I could still hear it but I couldn't find it in the sky. I decided to the next building over, which looked to be at least a hundred stories tall. A new construction, it featured the new mirror glass design, rather than the old concrete.

I kicked out the window facing the building, and took a few steps back. And then a few more. And a few more. I did not want to miss this jump. When I felt satisfied I could get the necessary speed, I took off. Jumping through the window, I noticed that over the course of the past few jumps, I had lost a lot of altitude. I was only about five stories above the ground now.

This wasn't the best time to be making such observations, however, as I was flying through the air toward the oncoming building. I pulled out my pistol, fired off the last couple shots in the clip, and watched the glass slowly fall away. It was at this point as I fell toward the imploding window that I may have misjudged. Inside, it was suddenly apparent that I was about to fall into an open lobby, not an office floor. This was not going to be a good landing.

In an effort to not become a splat upon the marble floor inside the lobby, I grabbed the bottom edge of the broken glass window, dropping the empty pistol. A large piece of broken glass cut its way through my left hand, causing me to scream in pain and let go, while my right hand held on and left me hanging on the inside of this lobby, three stories above the ground.

Below was a security officer already on the radio, and I could see the lights from police and military coming down the street. I let go of the edge of the window, and slid partway down the glass wall, before kicking off and doing a roll. The security officer let go of his radio and pointed his gun at me.

"Put your hands in the air!" he ordered.

"Yeah right," I thought to myself. "Like I'm hanging around here to get captured."

I jumped into action, drawing the only sword I was able to carry without being too bulky, my wakizashi. He fired a couple shots at me, but I was already moving too fast for him to make contact. I cut his outstretched arm, causing him to drop the gun, and kneed him in the gut. He crumpled to the floor in pain. Satisfied, I took off for the elevators. No way in hell I was about to run up the hundred or so floors this building stood at.

Even though the elevator was one of those turbo lifts that rapidly brought people to the top of the building, the ride still felt like an eternity. Once I reached the top floor the elevator serviced, I ran out and climbed the stairs. Only two more floors up and I made it to the roof. I kicked the door open, only to be greeted by the sight of a helicopter and the commander from before stepping out.

"Drop the weapon, Yukari! We know who you are now!" He yelled over the sound of the helicopter engine. "You have nowhere to run, we have the entire building surrounded!"

I took a moment to consider my options. I doubt I could make it back down the building the way I came, the place was probably swimming with soldiers and policemen. Taking on the commander and a squad of soldiers onboard the helicopter was beyond even my superhuman ability.

I decided to drop my sword.

"Good, now show us the disk," the commander demanded.

I pulled out the disk case from my messenger bag and showed it to him. He slowly approached me and took it from my hand. Once he put it in his suit pocket and was about to bring out the handcuffs, I kicked him square in the chest, and grabbed my sword. I took off to the left as fast as I could toward the downward slanting part of the roof. He ran after me, the squad right behind him. I jumped over the edge and began to slide down the inclined glass roofing.

The commander reached the edge of the flat roof, and yelled down at me laughing, "You forgot your disk, Yukari!" He waved the disk case above his head as if to mock me.

As I slid down the roof with increasing speed, I pulled the disk out of my messenger bag that I had cleverly taken out of its case. I waved it above my head, and looked back at the commander with a grin.

His face went immediately from a victorious one to an angry one, and he ordered the squad to fire at me. The glass started shattering all around me, as I swerved left and right as best I could. The end of the incline was rapidly approaching, so I slipped the disk back in the messenger bag, and braced myself for a big jump.

As soon as I hit the ledge I pushed off the building towards the one across the street. It hit me as I was flying through the air that I had to be insane. I was diving from a rooftop, running blind, and nearly a thousand feet in the air. One false move and I was done for. It also occurred to me that I did a lot of thinking in midair for some reason and that if I didn't want to die I should probably keep my mind on where the hell I was headed.

But in hindsight it probably wouldn't have mattered in this case. As I was falling down across the street, I noticed the building across from me was the new glass type. Without my pistol to blast out the window I couldn't jump in. My only other option was to use my wakizashi and hope that it punctures the glass.

I put the sword in front of me, with both hands on the hilt, and braced for impact. I collided with the building, and thankfully the force was great enough for the sword to puncture the glass, but it did not shatter like I thought it would have. Instead the sword lodged itself in the glass, and I nearly lost my grip on the sword.

Once the shock of the collision faded, I looked around for any possible ledges to grab onto, but the wall was flat, all glass. I tried to move the sword in and out, attempting to make the glass open up so I could break my way in. Also no luck. Then I heard a dreaded sound of a helicopter. I looked down the road, and sure enough, it was barreling towards me.

"I have to get out of here before that helicopter reaches me, or I am a goner," I said to myself.

The dome drew ever closer. I zipped up my hoodie, and took one last look at the direction of the camp. I could just barely make out the glow of lights in the sky. Looking off to the left, I could see the trashlands, aptly named for being the dumping site for the city. It was hard to believe that this very ship came out of there. After diverting my eyes from that eyesore, I once again found myself staring at the dome.

My gut was wrenching terribly. Just the thought of going back there was making me ill. But if this information we retrieve could give us the upper hand, I had to try. There was no sense hiding; sooner or later they would be after us.

Then the moment finally arrived. We reached the dome. Alongside the boat, there was a massive gate, one of the many disposal gates. Michael came up from the cabin, followed by the rest of the group. He walked over to a small panel on the guardrail adjacent to the dome, and pressed a button. The rail lowered, and a platform extended over towards the gate. Michael took the initiative and walked across to the gate.

"Everyone ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go," Jonathan replied for everyone.

We walked across the platform in single file. Michael took one last look at us, as if to silently acknowledge that there was no going back now. He then touched his forehead for a moment, and the ship began to retract its platform and sail away to its preprogrammed destination.

Michael then began to study the gate. He looked up and down and all over.

"Something wrong?" Sienna asked.

"Well this is odd… I thought there was an access panel here." Michael said quizzically.

"You mean you're not sure we can even get inside? We did all that planning and preparation and we can't even get in the door?" Jonathan snidely replied.

"I was just through here last week, the panel should be right… here!" Tobias said, slapping a panel on the wall.

"If that's true, then let's see what's behind that panel," Jonathan suggested.

Tobias backed away from the metal panel on the wall, and let Jonathan approach. Jonathan then placed his hand on the panel, and it began to glow white hot. Seconds later, a hole appeared in the panel, revealing an access panel.

After Jonathan finished with creating the hole, Michael walked up to it and looked inside.

"Jon, you idiot! You melted the access panel! I can't do anything with it now!"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," I said exasperated.

"Fine, I'll just melt the entire bloody gate down, how's that sound?" Jonathan said agitated.

"No! No, don't do that. Not unless you want the entire city after us." Tobias cautioned.

"So what the hell are we going to do now?" Michael asked, eying Sienna and myself.

"Don't look at us; you guys were the one that planned this operation, you think of something!" I said defensively. I wasn't about to be blamed for their fuck up.

"Why can't Michael just use the access panel's wires?" Anna suddenly suggested.

Jonathan, Tobias, and Michael then looked at each-other with such a priceless dumbfounded look that I'll never forget it.

"You… you think you could do that?" Tobias asked Michael.

"I guess so… I mean, I've never tried it, but in theory…"

Jonathan reached in through the hole and carefully pulled out the remains of the access panel. He flipped it over and disconnected a cable from the back of the unit.

"Looks like a typical etherwire cable, you have a connector for this don't you?"

Michael nodded and reached under his shirt behind his back. He pressed something, and a panel opened. Jonathan took the cable and attached it to him.

"Ugh, that's disturbing on so many levels," I said, cringing.

We all stood there for a few moments as Michael worked his magic. He seemed to be concentrating rather deeply about what he was doing.

"What the hell? Tobias, I thought you said this area was going to be empty!" Michael said unexpectedly.

"I did! Is there someone inside?"

"There are two maintenance guys inside according to access logs. I'm trying to find them on surveillance."

I looked over at Jonathan. Sienna put her hand on Anna's shoulder and held her close.

"They're three floors above. We need to get in now or we're going to miss our window." Michael said.

"We're waiting on you!" I reminded him.

As if to shut me up, the gate lurched into action. While the entrance slowly widened, I took a peek inside. Inside was a dank dark hallway, and it smelled of fuel and trash. Certainly fitting of a disposal gate.

We waited for Michael to detach himself from the wall, and we stepped inside. He pressed a few buttons on the gate's access panel, and the gate slowly closed behind us.

"I'm never going to get the smell out of my clothes," Sienna complained, shaking her blouse and holding her nose.

I didn't notice from the outside, but there was the sound of machinery off in the distance. Although it was nearly pitch black now, I could see some lights at the end of the hallway. Tobias took the lead and we slowly followed. As we drew closer to the lights, I noticed that the area ahead seemed to be a sortation center for the trash.

"Someone… no… many people… are coming here!" Anna suddenly yelled.

We turned around to look at Anna, who had one hand in Sienna's, while the other was holding her forehead.

"The men are looking for us, I think… they're confused but determined…"

"We need to hide then, and fast," Tobias warned.

Jonathan suddenly ran ahead and pressed his hands against a wall.

"Jon, what are you doing?" Michael asked.

"There's a vent here. I'm going to open up the wall so we can hide inside, and seal the wall back up behind us."

"That… that will work," Tobias accepted, caught off-guard by the idea. "Here I thought we'd have to run like hell."

Jonathan concentrated on making an alcove in the wall for us to hide in. Anna continued to monitor the mysterious men. Michael tried to jack into the area's security system to look them up. Tobias stood behind Jonathan, apparently amazed at his handiwork. Sienna knelt down next to Anna and was talking with her about the men. I felt left out, and just stood around looking like a dork.

"I've found them on the security cameras. We don't have much time, Jon."

Jonathan simply nodded, not breaking his concentration on the wall. I walked over and stood beside Tobias, watching Jonathan form the inner room behind the wall. At this point, he climbed inside the newly formed hole, and created the small alcove where we would be waiting.

"Jon… you need to hurry," Sienna said. "Anna said that the men seem to have noticed our presence here."

"Alright, it's done, but it's going to be really cramped. Everyone inside!"

Jonathan ushered all of us inside, with him being the last to go in, to seal off the entrance. Slowly the small alcove grew darker and darker. We all kept readjusting, trying to find a comfortable position inside. Anna was the only one lucky enough to have enough space to sit down, while the rest of us were forced to stand or lean on whoever was closest.

Not a moment too soon, Jonathan sealed off the entrance, and we heard the sound of footsteps.

"Sir, we're picking up some strong heat readings down this corridor."

"Trace it to the source, and don't you dare lose them!"

"Yes sir!"

The footsteps grew louder, and it was now evident that there were a significant number of soldiers in the hallway. In the pitch black of the alcove I couldn't see the others' faces, but I had a feeling they were just as uneasy as I was.

"What the hell?" One of the voices outside exclaimed.

"What's wrong, Sergeant?" Another replied.

"The heat readings just stop here. There's no trace of where they went."

"Damn it! We're not going to lose them. I want a full search of the area conducted. Leave nothing unchecked. I don't care if it takes us all night, you hear? You know how concerned the General has been about the break-ins recently."

"Y-yes sir! You heard the man, split up and tear this place apart!"

The sound of footsteps scattered, and we all let out a small sigh of relief.

"Everyone just keep quiet, we're not in the clear yet," Michael said softly.

We kept still and silent for what seemed like an eternity. I do know it was at least a couple hours. My knees were on fire, and it was becoming incredibly stuffy inside. Michael kept us informed on how their ridiculous search was going, and finally gave Jonathan the signal to break us out of this prison.

Once the hole was large enough, we practically spilled out of it. We all immediately crashed to the ground, except for Michael who chuckled at our misfortune.

"Ha ha very funny, Michael," Sienna said snidely.

"What? It's not often I get to flaunt my metal knees!" He said laughing.

After we composed ourselves and were able to stand again, Tobias led us down the corridor and out of the sortation center. It was well into night time now, so the streets were clear of people. The city was much like I had remembered it from years ago. Although this was the industrial district, which surrounded the outer edges of the city, there were a few restaurants sprinkled around, as well as a hospital. The streets were spotless, with bleached white concrete. Cars were rare in City Eternal. Most people either employed the use of the public transit systems or rode around on motor scooters, and because of this most streets featured large walkways.

The buildings were new construction as well. It was easy to tell when a building was new at a glance. The new buildings all used new metal and glass construction, giving them a clean, open look. Older buildings, such as the hospital, used the bleached concrete like that of the streets, which was much cheaper and more plentiful to produce at the time.

Although there were a lot of factories and plants in the industrial district, it was nearly indistinguishable from the inner city skyscrapers. The government focused heavily on the look and feel of the city. They passed numerous laws governing the design and construction of various districts, to ensure that regardless of their purpose, they would all have a unified theme, of City Eternal.

I had to admit, being back inside the dome, and seeing the clean city streets, gave me a feeling of being home. The nostalgia quickly waned though. Putting my hands in the hoodie's pocket, I continued to follow Tobias.

We managed to make it the requisite five or six blocks without being noticed, before Tobias brought us to the old underground entrance. Jonathan stepped up to the rusty, reinforced steel door, and melted away the locks. Michael then shoved the door open, exposing us to a dark stairwell. There wasn't a single light in the stairwell, and I couldn't see the bottom.

Tobias reached into his pocket and retrieved a flashlight.

"Ready for some urban-style spelunking?" he asked.

"As long as it doesn't smell," Sienna replied staunchly.

"Can't make any promises," Tobias said with a grin.

With Tobias once again leading the group, we traveled down the stairwell. Jonathan brought up the rear, stopping to seal the door up again after we were all inside. Once the door was closed, we stepped down the stairwell a few floors. The stairs didn't loop around like typical stairwells did; they simply went down in one line. After a short while the walls ended, leaving only railings and the stairs themselves. For a moment I thought I could see some spots of light in the distance, but I thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. Certainly this underground area couldn't be that vast.

Tobias then stopped us on the stairwell and briefly shut off the flashlight.

"Let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you'll see why I mentioned spelunking," he instructed us.

Michael, who obviously didn't need any time to adjust his mechanical eyes, was the first to comment. "It's… incredible. I had no idea this was all under the city."

After a minute of standing there, my eyes finally adjusted to the dark, and I could make out what Michael was referring to. The reason I couldn't see the stairwell is because it was so amazingly long. Traveling down for what I guessed was at least 50 or 60 floors, the stairwell was dropping us right into the center of a massive underground city.

"Welcome to the old City Eternal," Tobias said.

It was an amazing sight. We were only seeing a glimpse of the top of this underground city, and already the scale was massive. The buildings seemed to go straight to the center of the Earth. I could spot the tram system we were heading for on a platform off to the side of the stairs below. It was only one of many such systems connecting the buildings, all suspended hundreds, if not thousands of feet above the ground.

"There's not much we know about this old city. What we do know is this old city was scrapped in favor of the new one built above. We're not sure why the government chose to rebuild directly on top of these remains of the old city, but we believe it might have something to do with the lack of resources. Rebuilding on top of the old city saved a great deal of work creating a new dome, and there was already a reliable water supply.

We think that this is where the first refugees hid. However, it became far too dangerous to live down here. Buildings are in disrepair, and are constantly falling apart. Food is scarce, meaning they were forced to travel to the surface city regularly. The last real activity down here was when the refugees were forced out by the government after they caught on. Many thousands were left outside to fend for themselves, leaving us with the refugee camp as you know it today. An interesting factoid: our impressive power system was stolen from this very city. The government came down one day to retrieve it, and it was no longer there. The bastards went ballistic once they figured that out." Tobias explained.

As we continued to walk down the stairs, I couldn't help but look around. Above was a sky of metal, much unlike the holographic sky projection the surface city used. Immense beams and poles stretched from the ground and the sides to suspend the new city above the old. I couldn't imagine the engineering required to hold such incredible weight spread over such a large area.

Although the city was mostly dead, there were a few areas that still had light, areas that seemed to be relics of the construction of the new city. I really hadn't imagined things. The place was cold and damp, and with the sight of steel everywhere, it certainly felt like a cave. But those lights calmed my nerves, reminding me that regardless how lifeless this old city may seem, there was still a connection to the "real world".

Finally, after scaling down the stairs for what seemed like an eternity, we reached the platform for the tram system. The tram sat upon a large single rail, and featured two open-air cars. We each grabbed a seat as Jonathan and Michael went to work on trying to get the ancient thing running.

"The rail system should have power according to the reports Tobias gave us. It's just a matter of getting this thing up and moving." Jonathan told Michael.

Michael fussed around with the control panel for a few moments, obviously confused and frustrated. Then suddenly the tram lurched to life… for a second, and then went silent again.

"The blasted lift engine won't come start!" Michael yelled to Jonathan who had stepped off the tram and was looking under the front car.

"This engine is rated for 12 amps, what are the rails supplying?" Jonathan asked.

"8 amps, just like all the power systems up on the surface." Michael replied.

"Figures. It'll run on that, but it's going to take more than 8 to get it started."

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" I asked snidely.

"Shut up and sit down Yukari, last thing we need is some of your lip." Jon replied annoyed. I laughed.

After doing some strange electrical rigging with capacitors or something that I didn't really understand, Michael was ready to give it another try. Jon jumped back onboard the first tram car.

"That should do it, charge the capacitors and try it now."

Michael pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and the tram car lurched again, but this time remained floating just slightly over the rail.

"Alright, we're up! Time to get moving. Next stop, the CARMEL datacenter!"

The tram jumped a couple times, obviously stiff from decades of disrepair. But to the credit of her original engineer, the thing did move smoothly once it was up to speed.

"It'll take us about 10 minutes to reach the platform where the datacenter is. Just sit back and enjoy the view." Michael informed us, like a true tour guide.

I was more than happy to take the time to give my legs a break. Anna looked to be enjoying herself, as she kneeled on the bench in the back and looked down at the expanse below us. Her hair was whipping strongly around her head and she had to constantly push it out of her eyes and mouth.

Sienna was a bit smarter about it, though, and was allowing her hair to flutter behind her in the breeze. She closed her eyes and seemed to just try and find some peace in the rather hectic day so far. I only wished I was able to relax as she was.

For whatever reason, Jon and Michael were bickering over something pointless about the tram, while Tobias was looking over his notepad. I never really paid attention to it before, but I seemed to remember Tobias checking his notepad regularly. The leather-bound notebook had seen better days, as it was faded and falling apart in places. It didn't seem to bother him however, as he continued to write in it.

As I wondered about what Tobias could be writing, he looked up and closed the notebook.

"Michael, we're almost there, try slowing the tram down gradually so we don't make too much noise. I don't want to trip any alarms when we arrive."

Michael nodded, seemingly happy to finally break away from Jon's endless debating. He walked up the control panel, and pressed a couple buttons.

"Uhm, are we even slowing down? You don't have to be that gradual." Tobias remarked.

"Jon!" Michael yelled abruptly.

"What?!" he replied.

"We don't have any brakes!"

Over the course of the following days, Jonathan and I acquainted ourselves with our new home. Sienna took me shopping, of course, and I made amends as best I could with Jonathan. More importantly, however, we were educated on the new RDF espionage mission that we would be partaking in. There was a lot to learn, and unfortunately time was running out.

On the following Sunday afternoon, we arrived at headquarters to go over the mission plan one last time. Tobias was there, this time. He had been conducting his own espionage on City Eternal prior to the mission. Tobias was unique on our team, in that he was the only one without an ability. However, this did not limit his usefulness. Tobias was one of only a few members of the RDF that had retained possession of an active citizen ID card. As far as City Eternal knew, Tobias was an ordinary man living out an ordinary life as a baker. His identity would be key to the team getting inside, without being noticed.

"Alright, so let's go over this one more time," Michael said, pulling up a presentation on the mission plan.

Tobias walked over to the screen and pointed at the RDF's fourth defense line, the top of the camp.

"This is where we will depart. We have the 'Aeris Mk II' prepared to take us to the dome. Once we arrive, the ship will navigate to a preselected hiding spot in the trashlands." Tobias instructed.

"After we arrive, we will break in through this disposal system. According to Tobias's latest report this disposal system should be inactive for maintenance. Since we will be arriving during the night on a Sunday, the area should be rather bare." Michael continued.

"Unfortunately, breaking into the dome is probably the easiest part of the plan. From there, we will need to quickly locate the old tram system in the lower levels of the dome. If we're lucky, the system will have power, and we can ride it to the inner city district. If we're not, we'll have to walk along the line. In either case, we need to follow this tram line. I have discovered that, according to the schematics I was able to dig up, that this line should run directly past the maintenance shafts for the CARMEL (Computer Aided Residential/Metropolitan Electronic Library). The library system is where we'll be able to gather our information." Tobias explained.

"The CARMEL is more than the citizen information network, it is also used by the military for all of their records. Of course, getting to that information takes a bit more than a citizen ID card. Using the maintenance shaft, we should be able to access the system directly, which with my computer expertise, should allow us to obtain the information we need." Michael said.

At this point the General stepped up to the screen.

"And this is where we predict it will become the most difficult. Regardless of Michael's abilities, we're sure it will not take them long to discover that their system has been breached. You'll need to escape from there as quickly as possible. We can't plan for all the contingencies here, however I highly recommend you avoid taking the tram path back, unless it's powered up and operational. Tobias should be able to assist you all in making a quick escape." the General informed us.

"Once we make it out of the dome, Michael can wirelessly signal the ship to return. After that, we'll be in the clear." Tobias said.

"My only worry is, what if we are split up?" I asked.

"I've designated this location," Michael said, pointing at the map on the screen. "It should work to our advantage. It's a restaurant located on the outskirts of the inner city district. Lots of people who won't ask questions. If you get separated, try and find your way there."

"Now, remember each of your assignments on this mission. Anna, your ability will be vital. You need to keep your senses open so that you can warn the others if someone is coming. Stealth is the key." The General instructed.

"Yukari, you'll need to work closely with Anna. If necessary, you'll need to silence anyone who might notice us, before they have a chance to alert the military." Tobias said.

"Michael's job is rather obvious. You will be responsible for breaking into the various security systems that the city employs." The General said.

"Right, and I should be able to obtain a more detailed map of the area once we're inside." Michael added.

"Sienna, your job will be a support role. You and Anna should stay out of any conflicts that are going on. After all, if you are hurt, you can't help the others." Tobias pointed out.

"Jonathan, you're going to be my right hand man. If there's something blocking our path, I'm going to count on you to clear the way. You'll also be the weapons expert, although I hope it does not come to that." Michael said nervously.

"Finally, Tobias, being the most experienced member of the team, will be leading the way. You all will need to listen carefully to what he tells you to do. He knows his way around the city, and he's been an excellent spy of ours for many years. Don't get him killed." The General said with a smirk.

"Yes, please, don't," Tobias added. "I like being amongst the living."

"Beyond that, I believe we've covered the essentials. Working with Tobias and Michael this week we've tried to ensure there will be no surprises, but there is limited information available. Obviously this mission hopes to change that. You are to embark at 2100 hours tonight. I recommend you all head up to the 'Aeris' now, and prepare. We will be establishing full radio silence once you undock."

I nodded to the General, and looked at Michael. He grabbed a few papers from the table, and led us to the elevator. We were pretty silent up to this point, but Anna looked rather nervous.

"Anna, it's not too late to back out. We can handle this ourselves." I assured her.

"No, you guys need me with you, I can do it. I know you all want to protect me, but I don't want to be protected. I want to help."

"Even so," I explained. "There's no reason you can't stay here."

Anna shook her head and stood up tall. She was determined to go, although it did not calm my nerves. I still didn't think she belonged on this mission, but no matter how many times I brought it up, I was always shot down.

Finally we reached the top floor, and exited the elevator. Tobias led us down a couple halls until we reached a doorway to the outside. Once outside, I noticed we were still under some cover, of a large open-air hangar.

"Oh wow!" Jonathan said suddenly. "These are some serious ships! I didn't know we had this sort of fleet available."

"These are our prized possessions; the finest ships captured from the dome's military," Tobias explained. "We will be taking the smaller one down at the end."

Tobias pointed to a ship that resembled the one I had boarded the day I escaped the dome. However, I could tell it was thinner and had a larger mast.

"The Aeris Mk II is a Dasher-class recon boat. She's not armed, but she is the fastest ship in our fleet on sails. She's equipped with numerous sensor arrays and communications systems that make her an excellent stealth boat. She can run quietly, and she will keep us out of sight." Michael said.

"The boat you all arrived on was the Aeris Mk I. She's the same class, but she hasn't undergone any of the performance renovations like the Mk II has." Tobias added.

I wasn't too particularly interested in the details, but Jonathan seemed to be hanging on to every word, as was his nature.

"That explains the thinner profile of the Mk II then," Jonathan replied.

Tobias nodded.

After we finished gawking at the impressive display of firepower, Michael handed the papers he grabbed earlier to the facilities manager.

"Ah, so you're the special ops team. We're just finishing up the fueling procedure." The manager said. "I will need those with boat licenses to place their right hand here and speak your name into the microphone.

The manager gestured to a scanning device on the table, and the microphone.

"We use biometric and voice authorization on the Aeris Mk II. In order to access the navigation system or central computer it will need to be authorized by one of those methods."

Michael, Tobias, Jonathan (who had managed to get his license only the day before), and Anna stepped up to the scanner, and followed the manager's directions. Once they were all processed, he ushered us over to the Aeris.

Pressing his hand on the hull of the ship, the hatchway opened and a small stairway extended.

"Welcome aboard the Aeris!" The manager said, gesturing us inside.

Michael, being the tallest of the troupe, climbed onboard. He then offered his hand to Sienna, helping her on. I picked up Anna, and Michael took her and placed her on the stairs. Then I grabbed his hand and lifted myself onto the staircase myself. Tobias and Jonathan followed. I could tell Jonathan was rather upset about being the last onboard, and he kept urging us to move faster.

After we climbed the stairs, we found ourselves in a hallway that seemed to run from the front to the rear of the ship, with another staircase at the ends presumably leading to the deck. I was rather surprised at the size of the ship on the inside. Although it was narrow, it was quite long. There were 3 bunks, a small kitchen and dining area (which I would later be corrected on as being a "galley and mess"), and what I assumed was the navigation controls.

Michael shuffled his way past us to the front and lead us through the hallway to the stairs in the rear of the ship. He then climbed the stairs, and opened the hatch to the deck. Once we made it up the stairs and out onto the deck, I took a deep breath. I wasn't one for close quarters.

Jonathan gleefully pushed past us now that there was enough space to do so. He noticed the various controls at the rear.

"What are those controls for?" I asked Tobias, who was now standing next to me.

"Those are the manual navigation controls for the boat, should the navigation system lose power or the computer goes on the fritz. They're pretty difficult to use."

Unlike Jonathan, I didn't have my boat license yet. Jonathan was able to simply take the test, but I needed to take some classes first. Up until now I didn't really have a reason to do so, since Sienna and I were the only ones who didn't have a license. My mind began to change over the time I was on the deck. I could feel the wind that was ripping through the hangar, and it gave me a feeling of freedom I hadn't felt in a long time.

"How come this one doesn't have a TURING cannon? The Mk I did!" Jonathan asked, obviously distressed.

"Our TURING cannons are in short supply, and since this is a special ops stealth mission, the need for armament is almost nil." Michael told Jonathan plainly.

Jonathan was disappointed, but the disappointment was short lived. He continued to bug Michael and Tobias about the various changes on the boat. I was growing tired of hearing his overenthusiastic attitude, so I walked over to the controls.

"How do you open the sail?" I asked.

"Here, I'll do it for you," Tobias offered. "Navigation, deploy the headsail and mainsail."

Suddenly to my surprise, a computer male voice responded.

"Deploying headsail and mainsail in stationary alignment."

Not so suddenly but still throwing me off-guard, a pole slowly extended from the mast. It sat about three feet above my head and extended out over the side of the boat.

"I never get tired of watching those telescoping booms," Jonathan said.

While the boom finished extending, I saw two sails beginning to unfurl from the main mast. A cable extended out across the front edge of the deck, pulling out what I assumed was the headsail. At the same time the mainsail opened up, the bottom corner being pulled along a track in the boom. It was certainly a feat of engineering; I hadn't seen anything like it. In 30 seconds flat, I was now looking at two amazing, large sails.

"Headsail and mainsail deployed in stationary alignment," the computer said, acknowledging the completion.

"Oh, that's amazing! They didn't just duplicate the sail plan of the Mk I, they added a headsail to make it a sloop!" Jonathan said excitedly.

"This isn't the full deployment either. It can deploy a second jig, a gaff, and a gaff topsail if necessary. This is what makes her one of the fastest sailing ships we have." Tobias said. "There is a downside, however. In case you didn't notice, this ship is only meant for a crew of three. Since we're only making a short trip to the dome and back, we won't need to make use of the facilities. This is why we're taking the Aeris out today anyway, instead of one of our larger vessels."

Tobias, Michael and Jonathan continued to discuss the various nuances of the ship's design, as Sienna approached me.

"Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" She asked.

"Not really," I admitted.

"How about you, Anna? You've been awfully quiet." Sienna asked.

"They're using a bunch of nautical words, and are talking about the kind of ship this is, I think," She answered shyly.

"So you're about as much in the dark as we are."

She nodded.

As the boys continued to discuss their new toy, my mind drifted to the impending operation. It seemed as though everything was happening so fast. I could barely keep up, I felt like I was constantly being dragged along. I just felt that we were rushing things, and I worried that we might not be prepared for what was in store.

Over the next hour inside, Michael detailed how we'd be approaching the dome and what to do in an emergency. The maintenance crew finished refueling the Aeris, and it came time for us to depart. For the occasion, we re-emerged from below deck.

"Navigation, authorize Michael McCormick," he requested of the computer.

"Michael McCormick authorized for the navigation system."

"Navigation, align sails for departure and plot course for City Eternal."

"Initiating sail alignment, course plotted. Winds from the east-southeast at 12 knots. Weather, fair."

The boom began to rotate along the mast, swinging the mainsail out to catch the wind. The headsail seemed to retract somewhat, as the cable moved along a track on the front of the ship.

"Navigation, proceed with unmooring and departure procedures."

"Powering up lift system," the computer responded.

A humming sound began to emanate from the bottom of the ship. Suddenly, the ship lurched and rose off the ground. At the same time, the ship began to slowly crawl forward out of the hangar.

"Lift system stabilized, retracting landing gear. Communicating intention to depart to traffic control. Traffic control acknowledges and authorizes departure. Landing gear retracted and secured."

I took a deep breath and waved goodbye to the maintenance crew below as we emerged from the hangar. As we moved further away from the hangar towards the camp's exit, everything grew dark. The sky was pitch black, not a star, nor the moon was visible. Only the lights of the Aeris and the scattered spotlights inside the camp offered illumination.

Only minutes later we reached the edge of the camp, and moved out into the open. With the camp behind us, we were shrouded in darkness. The only things visible were the random stations of the first and second defense lines, and of course, the dome of City Eternal looming off in the distance.

I took another deep breath. There was no turning back now. I looked over and realized that I had accidentally been squeezing Anna's hand rather hard.

"Oh, sorry Anna," I apologized.

"It's okay, I'm nervous too," she replied.

I had forgotten that she could feel our emotions. She must have been terrified. Then again, I think we all were, in our own way. Tobias, oddly enough, was probably the least concerned, despite having no abilities whatsoever to protect him. He had the experience, and an established identity in the dome. I'm not sure how I felt about that, but I knew he was on our side, and that was good enough for now.

Michael announced over the intercom that they were going to shut down the lights and begin radio silence, as the dome drew ever closer. The others went back below deck, but I remained up top. As the ship's lights turned off, I leaned against the railing along the rear of the ship, and closed my eyes. I took the band out of my hair, letting it fly loose. The wind was cold that night, and it whipped right through me. But I remained there anyway, enjoying the peace and quiet before the storm.

We talked for quite a while about the change, and what it meant for me. Sienna promised to do her best to teach me how to be more feminine. I promised to do my best, although I admittedly still was uncomfortable wearing the basics, much less being dressy and cute. I wasn't sure if it was because I simply hadn't had the chance, from living inside the genetic farm all that time, or if my male mindset was still holding me.

I was just starting to regain composure when I heard the door to Jonathan's bedroom open. Out he stepped, eyes squinted shut, as he stretched and yawned.

"Yaaahh… oh, hey Sienna, and g'mornin' Yuki." Jonathan said, rubbing his eyes.

"You! Out! Now!" Sienna suddenly yelled.

"Woh, hey, wha-"

"No talking, get out!" She interrupted.

"Uhm, okay? I guess I'll grab some breakfast at the cafeteria…" Jonathan said, puzzled.

"You do that," Sienna replied.

Jonathan grabbed a robe, threw on some slippers, and left the apartment.

"You know, Sienna, that wasn't necessary," I explained.

"We're not finished talking. I was thinking, maybe you shouldn't be staying here in the same apartment as Jonathan." She asked.

"I… well… I never really gave it a thought. We've been through so much together already as it is…" I replied.

"Yes, and you can't even so much as hold his hand. Don't you see the contradiction in that?" She pointed out.

"It's not like we're sleeping in the same bed or even the same room!" I cried.

"Yukari, listen. You're still seeing this from a guy's perspective. You've made it pretty clear that you see Jonathan as merely a friend. You see him more as a buddy, one of the guys, but you're not a guy anymore. Frankly, I'm not all that surprised he acted as he did, you're giving off incredibly mixed signals." She explained, thoroughly.

"Mixed signals? I'm not giving off any signals!" I said exasperated.

"So you don't find him attractive at all," She stated.

"Well, I mean, he's a nice guy and all, but I am a-"

"-A what, Yukari? A guy?"

I was caught off-guard by that, and sat still.

"I am not saying you should be looking for a relationship. You have plenty of time to decide on that. But you need to keep in mind that although you may feel, and even act masculine at times, you are a woman now. That is how people see you." She said.

After all this time I would've thought it would've hit me, but it hadn't. Whether I felt like a girl or not, everyone else saw me as one. I needed to be more aware of how others felt.

"What Jonathan did, was a mistake. But it was an honest one. He didn't know your feelings, because you hide them so much. Talk to him, explain how you feel, that you enjoy his friendship, but that is all you can offer right now. He is a nice guy, as you said. He'll understand." She explained.

"Alright, I guess I can do that," I replied, defeated.

"You do agree, right? I think he deserves at least a little bit of an explanation."

"I'll explain my feelings, but right now, my gender crisis is a secret, okay?" I clarified.

"I won't tell a soul," she assured me. "So, what's for breakfast?"

"I don't know, but Jonathan better bring back something good or he's sleeping outside tonight," I replied jokingly.

We both laughed.

"You know what? How about I help you put on something nice today. And maybe we can go shopping as well, for some better outfits." Sienna offered.

I accepted her offer readily, if for any reason then because it sounded normal, and that was something I really needed. Normality. I had to savor the usual, the typical, for I knew there wouldn't be many chances to do so.

"Excuse me folks, but we're not open yet," a middle-aged man behind the cooking area said.

"Actually, we're just here to talk to Mr. Fisher." Anna replied.

"Fisher? You're looking at him." The man replied.

"Uhm, are you the only Fisher? I thought that Mr. Fisher was an old man," Anna ask confused.

"Nope, definitely the only Fisher," He said.

"Alright, Mr. Fisher. Are you familiar with a doctor named Sienna?" I asked.

"Sienna? Sure! Oh… you're the ones she was talking about! I'm so sorry, my mind forgets things easily nowadays." He said.

Mr. Fisher walked out from behind the cooking area and shook our hands.

"Pleasure to meet you all! I've heard a lot of things, all good I assure you! Haha!" he said, casually. "So, what brings you to my restaurant today?"

Jonathan and I looked at Anna. To be truthful, it never dawned on me to ask Anna why we came here.

"Well, Sienna thought it would be a good idea for us to learn about the history of the dome and us. She said you were the best person to ask." Anna informed him.

"Did she now? Well, I'm not sure whether I should be honored or insulted! But I guess I'll ignore that for now, for old time's sake."

I wondered just what kind of old times Sienna and Mr. Fisher could have had, since she only escaped to the camp a year earlier. I didn't bother to ask right then, though.

"Well, if you want to hear the story of City Eternal, you might as well take a seat," He said, directing us to the stools in front of the cooking area.

As we sat down, Jonathan spoke up and asked, "So why does Sienna consider you to be so knowledgeable in the history of the dome?"

"Well, I guess that's a good place to start. I have an intimate knowledge of the history of City Eternal because I was there from its conception."

"That's impossible, the dome was built over three hundred years ago!" Jonathan exclaimed.

"Quiet! Are you going to listen to my story or are you going to psychoanalyze it?" Mr. Fisher replied, annoyed.

Jonathan apologized, and Mr. Fisher continued with his story.

"I used to be a scientist working at the US fission reactor plant. I wasn't high up in the ranks, but it paid the bills and the work wasn't too hard. Anyway, one day, I had just finished my shift. I was in the chamberlock, which was an airtight secure checkpoint between the inside of the plant and the outside. While they were performing the usual checkout procedure, there was a loud explosion and numerous alarms sounded off."

"You were there at the beginning of the reactor failure?" I asked, amazed.

"Yes," he replied. "After a few minutes, I heard an announcement that the emergency egress hatches had been opened. Unfortunately for me, there were no hatches in the chamberlock. I was trapped. Minutes continued to pass, and I could hear the sound of the uncontrolled fission reaction eating away at the infrastructure of the plant. There were a few more loud explosions, and finally a part of the chamberlock gave way, allowing me to escape."

"I ran my ass off to the parking lot. There was hardly a soul in sight, everyone had already taken off. I looked back for a moment, feeling the immense heat of the reaction. That's when the reaction finally hit the fuel deposits at the bottom of the plant. Those idiots could have prevented such rapid destruction if they had followed the emergency guidelines. Those fuel deposits were supposed to be neutralized in case of a reactor failure. Instead, in the heat of the moment, they were left alone. As I was running, I heard a rumbling. Rather, I felt a rumbling, deep in my chest. It shook me right to the core, and made it hard to think. I looked back again, to see the color of the reaction change rapidly. I knew then it had hit the fuel deposits. In the next instant, I was hit by a massive shockwave of air from the rapid increase of heat."

"I'm not sure how, but I woke up a few hours later, miles away from the plant. I was lying on my back, all my clothes burned off, but my body was in perfect condition. The radiation from the fusion reactor had given me eternal life. That, my friends, is how I can tell you this story better than anyone else," Mr. Fisher said, with a shallow smile on his face.

"Eternal life? That's impossible!" I said in disbelief.

"Impossible? Aren't you the one with superhuman speed?" he replied with a wink.

"I, uh, right," I shut up quick.

"Anyway, after the explosion, the country was a mess. And that wasn't all. The other reactors similarly exploded over the next couple months. The uncontrollable reactions continued to grow, causing incredible devastation to the world, not just to the ground near it, but to the air, and the weather patterns. The sky slowly blackened with soot from everything burning. Temperatures dropped dramatically."

"So what did they do?" Anna asked.

"At first we thought the reactions would burn themselves out. But it became obvious that they no longer needed the fuel deposits to sustain themselves; they had become self-sustaining. The massive size of the reaction had enough surface area to draw material to burn right from its surroundings. The governments, what was left of them, formed a pact to destroy all the reactions with an experimental nuclear detonation." He explained.

"Nuclear detonations? How in the world would that solve anything?" Jonathan questioned.

"It was a bit ironic, looking back. The one thing we all were sure would result in our eventual extinction would come to be the last hope for our survival. Unfortunately, this last ditch effort was not without its own side effects. What would happen is the explosives would separate the reactions from the earth, which would remove the reactions' fuel supply. It took a lot of nuclear explosives to pull it off, but they were able to finally starve the reactions. By that time, however, most of the planet was a wasteland. What wasn't irradiated by the reactions or nuclear detonations was frozen solid from the cold."

"So that's when they built the dome…"

"Yes. And it wasn't a smooth political process either. Despite the fact that most countries were reduced to populations smaller than some individual US states, they all believed they deserved the right to the remaining world resources to build the new dome shelter. Months of bickering and more lost lives finally resulted in New York City being the prime location. Not because they agreed, but because it was the only place left on the planet that was hospitable enough to build such a structure. Their bickering had dwindled their options down to only one city. New York City, like most of the planet, was also frozen over, but it had the most building material that could be recycled, it was close to the ocean, and it wasn't too irradiated yet," Mr. Fisher explained solemnly.

"What? Politicians arguing even at the cost of human lives? Color me surprised!" I said sarcastically.

"So then the dome was built. But there's only one government now. What happened after the dome was built?" Jonathan asked.

"Hold on, there. That's a whole 'nother story. Let's leave it at that for now. There's something else I need to talk to you and Yukari about."

"And Anna?" I said, curious.

"Just you two. She can listen in but it concerns your future here at the camp, and the resistance." Mr. Fisher said ominously.

Jonathan and I nodded, and I rubbed Anna's shoulder.

"You want to go out and play some of the festival games?" I asked Anna.

"No thanks, I wanna listen."

"Alright then, it's settled. Before I start, could I interest any of you in some Monjayaki?" He said with a grin.

A couple hours later, I was unfortunately awakened by the alarm. I dragged myself out of bed, and took off the hospital gown I'd been wearing. I took a long shower, but was disturbed by a loud banging at the bathroom door.

"Hey Yukari, will you stop wasting all the damn hot water?! I need to get a shower too!" Jonathan yelled from behind the door.

"Bug off, Jon, women always take long showers!" I called back.

"Like you'd know any—"

"Finish that sentence and I will tear you limb from limb!" I interrupted.

Just for that, I stayed in the shower just a little longer than I would have. After getting out and throwing my hair back into a ponytail (I wasn't one for fashion, alright?), I rummaged through the closet to find something decent for me to wear. The choices were slim, so I just grabbed a long skirt and t-shirt, and threw it on.

Jonathan finished cleaning up himself only minutes later, and emerged from his room and met me in the living room. I looked at the clock.

"Oh… shit. We're late!" I yelled at Jonathan.

"How the hell are we so damn late?" Jonathan yelled back, as he nearly knocked the door off its hinges.

We ran down the hall, following the sketchy map I had made earlier. We reached one of the public elevators, but it was taking an eternity to move. I started pacing around, hoping we'd make it to the headquarters on time. After a few moments of pacing, I noticed a stairwell.

"Jonathan, jump on my back."

"Do what? Why?" he asked.

"Will you just do it and stop asking stupid questions?!" I demanded.

Jonathan climbed up on my back, piggy-back style, and I took off down the stairwell. There were a few people in the stairwell, and I could tell they were a bit freaked out to see a girl carrying a guy down the stairs at over 40 miles an hour. I was going so fast down the stairs, my feet spent more time on the walls (to change direction) than they did on the floor.

However, even though we were going that fast down the stairs, it still took a good few minutes to reach the bottom, where the rebellion headquarters entrance was.

"Alright alright get off me, you're killing my back!" I told Jonathan, while elbowing him in the gut.

Jonathan climbed off of me, and just stood there, as if a bit overwhelmed.

"What? You act like you've never seen me run fast before." I asked.

"Huh? Oh… sorry… you just scared the living crap out of me!"

"Not my fault you're such a baby," I pointed out.

"You could at least tell me when you're going to do that next time," He said.

"Don't worry about that, there won't be a next time," I said. "You weigh a ton!"

Suddenly, I realized that we were standing in front of a desk, with a guy just standing there, at a loss for words for the conversation taking place before him.

"Can I… help you?" he finally asked.

"We're here to meet Michael," Jonathan replied.

"Michael? We have a lot of Michaels. What is his last name?" the clerk asked snidely.

"His last name? Hell, I don't know his last name. Do you?" Jonathan said, turning to me.

"I never asked him!" I said.

"That's brilliant, Yukari. How long have you known him? And you still don't know his name?" he pointed out.

"Hey, what about you? You're not exactly a stranger either!" I defended.

While we continued to bicker, the metal gate behind the clerk opened. Michael stepped out, looking at us and shaking his head.

"It's McCormick. Michael McCormick. I figured this was going to happen, I'm glad I came down," Michael said.

The clerk spun around in his seat to look at Michael.

"Oh, you! Sorry, Michael, I didn't know they were your guests. They were a little, unusual."

"That's fine, Tony. They've always been unusual," Michael replied with a smirk.

I stared daggers at Michael, and then walked around the desk. Jonathan followed. Michael motioned for us to continue through the gate.

"So what is this meeting about?" I asked, as we walked down the long dark hallway.

"I'm going to show you two what the rebellion is really about. What we do, what we have, how we work. I'm also hoping that you two will join the special team I am working on. There's a lot to talk about, so I'll start off with the basics." Michael said.

I nodded.

"The rebellion is mostly comprised of a defense force. We have five lines of defense. The first line, the observation line, exists primarily to keep an eye on City Eternal and what they are doing. They're the ones that give us advance warning of attacks, and give us as much intelligence as we can gather. This line is rather fuzzy, it moves as intelligence changes.

The second line, the hold line, is our primary defense infrastructure. This is where most of our units are posted, and most of our turrets. It's their job to keep anything the first line discovers from becoming a threat to the refugee camp. This line circles about 10 miles from the outer limits of the camp.

The third line, the fall back line, is our secondary defense infrastructure. Many of our provisions are held there, with our support personnel. They keep the second line stocked, and also maintain a place to fall back to if the second line falls. This line circles the outer borders of the camp.

The fourth line, the last defense line, is as the name implies. It's our last real line of defense from attack. This line is actually the top three floors of the refugee camp; the only floors above ground.

The fifth line, is the lockdown line. This line is located on the fourth, fifth, and technically this bottom floor. It is a massive titanium gate. If City Eternal were to push us back to the fifth line, the gates would be sealed shut, effectively cutting us off from the world above. It also cuts us off from the rebellion headquarters, since they could enter from that location also. The metal gate you walked through earlier is part of the massive titanium gate."

After taking all this in from Michael, I came to understand just how serious they took the defense of the camp. Just like everything else I had seen so far, this too showed me that the refugee camp was not merely a camp, but a new, living city.

"That's insane! Has City Eternal really attacked that much to warrant such a thorough defense?" Jonathan asked.

"That is one of the things I could not mention earlier. This is classified. We have something that City Eternal wants. A five-phase fusion reactor." Michael said quietly.

"Don't they already have fusion technology?" I asked.

"They do, but it's limited. Our reactor would effectively solve any power problems they would have for the foreseeable future."

"So why don't we give it to them? Then surely they'd leave the camp alone," Jonathan said.

"No, the exact opposite. If we give them the reactor, they'll have no further use for us. They will nuke the camp until it is nothing but slag. City Eternal knows they made a mistake in allowing the exiled to live outside the dome. The only reason we're safe is because we have that bargaining chip," Michael replied.

After a good few minutes of discussion, we'd finally reached the end of the long walkway. We jumped on an elevator, and it took us up quite a way. The elevator didn't specify how far up, but judging from how long we were inside, I'd say we were close to the surface.

When the doors opened, I was welcomed with the sound of people talking and computers beeping. Tactical displays covered the walls, and people were moving around at a frantic pace. On the largest display, I recognized a diagram of City Eternal.

"Welcome to headquarters," Michael said.

"Took them long enough," Michael said almost casually. "How many are there, Anna?"

"I, I think there's… there's four people." She replied.

"Four people. That means either two attack skids or one really understaffed destroyer. As long as it's not the latter, we should be alright," Michael said.

His remark about the size of the forces didn't do anything to settle my stomach, however. I headed to the door.

"Hold up Yukari, I'm coming out with you. Anna, take the wheel. Take us towards the first defense line outpost. Looks like we won't make it to base," Michael said.

"She can navigate this thing?" I asked.

"Yes, I can." She said in an annoyed tone.

I stepped outside. Jonathan and Michael followed. I looked around at the horizon, in the direction of the city dome, but I couldn't see the dome or any war ship.

"Jonathan, there's a converted TURING cannon in the back of the ship. The AI is damaged so you'll have to aim and fire it manually. That's all this boat has in terms of weapons," Michael instructed.

Jonathan nodded, and headed to the back of the boat to warm up the cannon. I turned to Michael. He was looking intently at the horizon, and then finally turned to look at me.

"Well, crap," He said abruptly.

"What's wrong now?" I asked uneasily.

"Seems it was the latter. We've got a damn destroyer bearing in on us."

"We… do? How do you know?"

"Mechanical eyes, remember?" he said, tapping his temple.

"Oh, right."

Jonathan sprinted back over to the wheelhouse door, opened it, and told Anna to do something. I couldn't quite make it out what he said. Moments later, however, the sails of the ship began to retract themselves. Jonathan walked back over, while fumbling with something on his arm.

"You're going to want to hold onto something," Michael told me bluntly.

Not seconds later the ship suddenly lurched forward, increasing speed rapidly. The force of the acceleration threw me flat on my rear.

"Damn it Michael, would you mind giving me at least a little more warning next time?"

"Sorry! We're going to need all the speed we can get now. There's no way we can take on a destroyer ourselves, even if it is understaffed. It'll burn a hell of a lot of our fuel, but I think living is more important at the moment,"

I grabbed Michael's now-outstretched hand and pulled myself off the cold steel deck. I brushed myself off and took another glance around. In-between repeated efforts to keep my hair out of my eyes as the ship raced, I began to see this destroyer Michael had been talking about. It was obvious that despite our intense speed, it was catching up with us, and quick. I looked at Michael again, and I could tell by his expression that he was well aware of this.

"They're catching up," I said cautiously.

He remained silent. After a few moments, he lifted his right arm. The underside of his forearm popped open, revealing a long cylindrical tube.

"Is that…"

"A gun? Sort of. It's a high caliber rifle chamber. The genetic farm put all sorts of crap like this in me. Not often I get a chance to actually use it though."

"So you think we're going to have to fight them?"

"No, I'm thinking we're going to get shot all to hell before we even get a chance to do that. But just in case we don't, I'm getting ready."

All this talk of imminent destruction was not helping my stomach, so I decided to get far away from Michael before he managed to talk me to death. I figured I'd check on Jonathan, in hopes that maybe he had a solution.

"Jonathan, do you think—"

"This cannon isn't going to do anything to that destroyer, if that's what you were going to ask."

"What the hell is it with everyone interrupting me today?" I asked angrily.

"I guess you're just predictable," Jonathan replied.

"Fine, fine. Whatever. Then do you have a solution? I'd prefer not to get killed just hours after escaping."

"I wish I did, Yukari. That thing has a massive engine on it, an artillery cannon and four weapon turrets, thick armor, and four highly trained soldiers. We're screwed, for lack of a better word," Jonathan said plainly.

"You know what? Fine! You all give up and prepare for death. I, however, am going to do something about the damn situation."

Before Jonathan could even say a word, I ran over to the side of the deck, flipped over on the other side of the rail, and lowered myself as much as possible. I looked at the oncoming terrain, estimated the speed we were traveling at, and I jumped off.

Okay, so it wasn't the brightest move I'd ever made. What was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to stay on that boat and become a sitting duck.

I hit the ground with my hands first. I tucked my feet down and threw myself into a controlled roll, taking most of the impacts on my hands and feet. After rolling for a good hundred feet, I sat up and examined myself. I had a lot of cuts and bruises, but I managed to avoid breaking anything.

I looked over to the oncoming destroyer. It was going to reach me in a matter of seconds! I didn't have any time to sit and recover. So I took a deep breath and stood up.

Unfortunately, getting on the ground was the easy part. Now I had to figure out how I was going to get on the destroyer. I started running in the direction the destroyer was traveling. The ship came closer and closer. Then, it was time to let loose.

I picked up speed, running faster and faster until I matched speed with the destroyer that was now alongside me. I looked up and down the side of the ship in hopes of finding a ladder or something to grab onto. Finally I noticed a hatch near the aft side of the ship. I grabbed it, and swung myself up. I opened the hatch, and climbed inside.

At the genetic farm, I gained the ability to move at tremendous speeds. It wears me out quick, but it's effective. There's other consequences also, as there always is with anything the genetic farm does to us, but we were still learning the extent of our abilities.

Inside the destroyer, I ran down the multiple hallways until I finally found the wheelhouse. I burst in, to the surprise of the captain navigating it. He reached for his pistol, but I had already drawn my wakizashi and had it against his throat.

"How did you… who the hell are you?!" he asked furiously.

"I don't think you're in any position to ask questions," I answered.

"So, what do you want? You gonna kill me?"

"I might. If you don't do exactly what I say, that is."

"Please, a girl like you giving me orders? Go ahead, kill me."

That did it. There was one thing I couldn't stand, and that was being underestimated because of my gender. I grabbed him by the collar, smashed his head into the wheel, grabbed his hand, and slammed it down on a console. I then took my wakizashi and thrust it right through his hand, into the console.

He screamed in pain, of course. He tried to grab the sword to pull it out, but I wouldn't let him. After he settled down somewhat, I asked him again.

"Will you do exactly what I say, now?"

"Yes! God yes! Oh God it hurts!" he cried.

"Good," I replied casually, as I pulled the wakizashi from his hand. "Now, turn this ship around."

"I can't do that!" he said frustrated.

Not the answer I was looking for. I began to move my wakizashi towards his hand again.

"Wait, wait! Okay! I'll turn it around. But the military, they'll just send someone else!"

"That's fine."

"If I go back again empty handed, they'll kill me!" he cried.

"Again?"

"Yes! I was the one who chased after you escapees last year! They told me if I don't kill you all this time, they'd kill me!"

I was shocked and speechless. This was the same patrol responsible for killing Scott last year! It was then I did something I didn't think I was capable of.

I took my wakizashi and thrust it into his chest. I pulled it out, and immediately left the room to find the others. I found one manning the main gun. I didn't even give him a chance to turn around. I drew my katana and cut him deep in the stomach in one fast movement. Not bothering to clean or sheath the blade, I ran out onto the deck, where I found another man who was apparently aware of what was going on.

"You murderous scum! You won't leave this ship alive!" he yelled from across the deck.

He aimed his rifle at me. Unfortunately for him, by the time he'd started to pull the trigger, I was already slicing at his right forearm. As the rifle dropped from his hands, I kicked him square in the gut and he tumbled off the side of the deck.

As the guy fell, I heard a gunshot. I reacted on instinct, twisting my body sideways and diving to the ground. The bullet still caught me in the left shoulder, but it hardly phased me in my adrenaline-driven rage. I caught myself with my right hand on the deck, and dove at the final soldier who had shot at me. We collided and tumbled over some machinery on the deck. He tried to aim his rifle at me, but I moved faster and thrust my katana down with my right hand. The katana entered his upper chest area. The man stopped moving.

I sat there for a moment, my hand still gripping the handle of the katana tightly. All of the sudden, the emotions held back came flooding out. The pain of being shot, the loss of my friend, and the fact that I had actually taken the lives of four people. I just cried, and cried.

I don't remember how long I sat there, but I finally heard what sounded like Jonathan's voice. I raised my head and turned around in the direction of the voice. Our boat was there, sailing next to destroyer. Jonathan was waving and calling out.

"Yukari, you crazy bitch! Hurry up and get on, we can't match speed with this thing for much longer!" Jonathan yelled.

I finally snapped out of my haze, and pulled my katana from the fallen soldier. I ran over to the starboard side of the destroyer, and jumped over, careful not to jar my injured shoulder any further. As soon as I was on the deck of the boat, the boat decelerated and turned sharply starboard. Once again I fell flat on my ass.

"Oh, sorry again Yukari, I meant to warn you about that," Michael said.

"What the hell did you do, Yukari?" Jonathan asked.

"I… I…they're dead," I managed to tell him.

"That's enough, she's injured, let's get her inside. We can talk about it later," Michael said.

As Jonathan helped me into the wheelhouse, I heard a loud explosion from the port side. I glanced over, and saw the ship had sailed right over a cliff.

"…How close was I to—"

"You don't want to know," Michael said.

I was going to make another snide remark about everyone interrupting me, but I felt dizzy, and passed out.

"I can't believe we made it to the gate!"

That was my good friend Jonathan, a "down to earth" kind of guy.

"Calm down, this is the hardest part, remember?" I reminded him.

"Yeah, but once we're through this gate, we're free!"

He was right, of course. While there was a certain level of uneasiness about venturing into the unknown, it did free us from that Hell we escaped from. That… genetic farm. The "Center for Human Advancement" they called it. What a joke. They weren't evolving the human race, they were mutilating it. We were a perfect example of that.

"Yukari, the code isn't working," he said, uneasy.

"Well, that's to be expected. Who knows how old that code is. You'll have to melt it down."

"Oh, right, that won't be suspicious," He rolled his eyes sarcastically.

"Just do it. I want to get out of here as soon as possible," I said, glancing around nervously.

He placed his hands on the gate, and the hard steel began to glow red hot. Slowly, the gate began to melt down. It had to be over a foot thick, and seeing something as dense and strong as steel melt like butter was a sight to behold. It created a strange large mound of steel, but it served our purpose, leaving a hole where the gate used to be. This was a part of his ability. He could decompose and create any non-living thing, provided he knew how to make it.

"That's it, Yukari. We're breathing open air now!" he exclaimed.

I was happy to see my skin wasn't bubbling up, and I wasn't passing out from radiation. The rumors were true after all; the outside really wasn't dangerous anymore.

"Alright, let's go find Michael. I'm sure we set off enough alarms to call in the entire army."

"Michael… You think he's gonna be here?" Jonathan questioned.

"He said if he made it out alive he'd be here. So he'll be here." I replied.

Michael was another former resident of the genetic farm. He attempted an escape a year ago, with two others: Sienna and Scott. We had decided before the escape attempt to meet here, today, outside Eternal Gate 31. Of course, the guards at the genetics farm told us they'd been killed, but we weren't going to believe that.

Keeping in mind the looming threat of more guards, we scurried out the melted gate. It was then we saw the sailboat. Not a water-faring boat mind you, but one that sails on air. We stood at the lip of the port, while the boat suddenly thrust into motion.

"I hope that's Michael sailing that thing," Jonathan remarked.

"You and me both," I replied.

A moment later the sailboat drifted sideways into the port, hitting it with a loud clang. A few tense seconds passed, as we stood awaiting the revelation of the captain of this small boat.

"You're 3 hours, 4 minutes and 27 seconds late, Yukari," a voice called out.

I knew who it was instantly. The smartass remark, the mathematical accuracy, and the slightly odd vocals were like heaven to my ears. It was him. Michael, as mentioned earlier, was another subject to the testing done at the "Center for Human Advancement." He was one of the first people subjected to the new DNA modifications. However, the scientists failed miserably with him. Slowly his body began to fail, despite the amazing abilities he was demonstrating. Of course, rather than to toss him out like a piece of trash, they decided something even better, even more sinister.

Michael's power was his insane reaction time. It was almost as if he was moving on a completely different time scale than us. Thus, the scientists thought up a perfect use for such an ability. They created a robotic shell, and interfaced his brain with it. From what I heard, it was incredibly painful, and took months of work and training.

Somehow, though, Michael survived, and his brain learned to interface with the computer inside his new robotic body. With his incredible reaction times, he was able to "keep up" with the speed of the computer inside him, granting him the ability to continue life, although behind the eyes of a robot. They developed a skin for the body which looks absolutely human and lifelike, so that he would fit in with his surroundings. Make no mistake, Michael was now a cyborg, but his memories, thoughts, and soul live on.

"Shut your mechanical pie hole Michael. You know damn well how long it takes to walk that distance," Jonathan yelled.

Michael stepped out of the cabin area and waved. We jumped onto the ship, and ran over to meet him.

"It's been a long time…" I said tearfully.

"Yeah, it has. But you made it!" he replied with a grin.

"Where's Scott and Sienna?" Jonathan asked. "I don't see them in the cabin."

"Sienna stayed back at the refugee center," He said quietly.

"And Scott?" I pressed.

"He… didn't make it out. Sienna worked on him for quite a while, but after being shot during the escape, he didn't have a chance. It's devastated her." He said solemnly.

"Damn it! Those government bastards!" Jonathan ranted.

"Look, we've got to get out of here ourselves, Michael. We didn't exactly leave undetected." I warned.

"Right, let's move then."

"By the way, Michael?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"You said refugee camp… there's a whole camp of refugees out there?"

"You have no idea. Come on inside, I'll tell you everything I've learned over the past year."

We ventured back inside. Michael took the wheel, and then began to tell us about the refugee camp, and the rebellion. He told us how the impoverished and sick were thrown out of the dome city, secretly, by the government. It was covered up to make it look as if the city was simply a wonderful place to life. After all, there was not a single homeless, sick, or disabled person to be found in the city. These people did not give up, however. They set up a new life outside the dome, living off whatever could be scavenged from the dome's trash.

"There's also something… rather, someone else I wish to tell you about." Michael said.

"Someone else?" I replied.

"Anna! You can come in now!" Michael called, in the direction of the rear of the cabin.

A door opened up, and out stepped a young girl. She had a sweet face, and a ragged, but warm dress. She bowed, and stepped up to the table where we were sitting.

"Hello!" she said cheerfully.

"She's another subject of the genetic farm. Scott found her on the way out of place, and grabbed her. He gave his life to save her. Sienna and I have looked after her since." Michael said quietly.

"I see! Well hello to you, Anna! My name is Yukari, and this is my good friend Jonathan. How old are you?" I asked.

"Just turned 10!" she said, still beaming.

"Wow! So, since she was… does she have any… you know?" I stuttered.

"Abilities? Indeed she does. She's a gifted child, raised under the wing of her father, Senator Riggins. While impressive, her genetic ability is… strange."

"I can read minds!" She exclaimed.

"What?!" I said amazed.

"Well, not exactly. She can feel the presence of those around her, and can feel their emotions. She's also pretty good at telling when you're lying or not." Michael corrected.

"I'll have to watch my words then," I said with a smirk.

It was then that Jonathan, who'd been sitting quietly for the past few minutes, decided to speak up again.

"So Scott saved Anna from the genetic farm. However, didn't you mention that she was the daughter of Senator Riggins?" he questioned.

"Yes, I did," Michael replied. "It seems even the senators aren't truly aware of what goes on in the deepest levels of the military."

"That's a bit disturbing. Still, wouldn't they go after a senator's daughter?"

"You've no idea. Anna, why don't you step outside for a second, see if anyone is out there?" Michael suggested.

Anna's face suddenly became far less cheerful, more depressed. She knew Michael was going to talk about something sad, she could feel it. She slowly walked to the door, however, and stepped outside.

"They came after us, without a doubt," Michael explained."The Senator himself came in an assault ship after us. The government wanted to just kill us, erasing any evidence that we exist. The Senator, when he discovered their goal, turned his ship upon the rest of the military vehicles chasing us. A battle ensued. He established communications with us, as we fled. He told us that he suspected the government was doing something to his daughter, but he didn't want to believe it. He was deeply saddened that he couldn't keep her safe. He asked us to take her to the camp, and to raise her as our own. The communication cut out at that point, and there was a loud explosion far off, in the direction of the battle. He gave his life to get Sienna, myself, and of course Anna the time to escape. I've many misgivings with the government, but Senator Riggins taught me something."

"What's that?" Jonathan asked, taking the bait.

"He taught me to remember who our enemies truly are; not the people, not the government itself, but the ones in the shadows," Michael answered.

Michael began to explain the refugee's defense force, when Anna suddenly clambered inside.

"It's them! The military! They're coming!" Anna cried.