Joe could sense that he had just lied and gave him one of those stares. But Linex ignored him.
“Here you go, oh… and Lysie you’ll be in charge of these idiots” Markson noted.
“Thanks, now… let’s move boys” Lysie nodded, addressing Linex and Joe, both of them groaned at the prospect of that.
“Oh! And wait… take this watch” Markson handed a nice-looking digital watch.
“What is it for?” Lysie asked taking the watch and examining it curiously.
“It’s your battle uniform, just press the button and bam… you’re in your uniform” Markson winked at her.
“Wow thanks then, ok now move you idiots” Lysie directed.
“Don’t order me around” Joe blurted out angrily.
“I’m in charge now” Lysie insisted sticking out her tongue at Joe. "So when I say, scram. You run"
“Stop the fighting!” Linex chimed in.
At that same moment, a shrouded figure was just atop the tallest building overlooking all the city. He was soon joined by two other companions. That stepped out of the shadows.
“Have you found them?” the shrouded figure inquired.
“Not yet, we have lost sight of them after one of them saw us” the first shadow replied.
“Well then, we have to get a move and catch them before they continue killing our people” the shrouded figure pointed out.
“Understood we will be ready before we find a perfect spot to kill them” the second shadow agreed.
Meanwhile, Linex and his friends were headed to the military base and Lysie was guiding the way with the awful drawing map made by Markson.
“Couldn’t he draw a little better? I can’t even understand this” Lysie mumbled squinting her eyes in the dim light to make out the map.
“Let me do it, maybe I can since I’m his… wow this is really messed up” Joe shook his head, the map didn't look like a map, it seemed more like sketches or scribbles.
“Maybe I can since I’m his son”, Yeah right you can’t even understand his drawings” Lysie said mockingly.
Linex glanced around and suddenly, he thought he could make out someone hiding behind the wall, he drew back quickly. “What the…? I must be seeing things now” he muttered to himself.
Lysie and Joe were having another altercation when Urilion popped out with a blast of fire. The red dragon floated flapping its wings.
“You don’t know it really? is so simple” Urilion commented.
“Who is he?" Both Lysie and Joe chorused, looking at the dragon.
“Oh, he is my guardian partner Dray” Linex informed them.
“OMG HE IS SO CUTE!” Lysie waved at the floating dragon.
Urilion only upturned his nose. “Cute? Sorry but I don’t deal with girly things”
“Wait What!” Linex prevented Lysie from confronting the dragon, he could see that her face was quite red.
“He is sometimes very sincere, just the way he is" Linex informed her.
“Are you saying he is right?” her eyes were blazing with anger.
“What! No, no… I was just saying that…” Linex trailed off short of words.
“Ha-ha! he said you’re saying she’s ugly” Joe whined, chuckling quite hard.
This only earned Joe a smack on the forehead throwing him to the ground. “He will get his, but you are easy to smack, so you better shut your mouth this time” Lysie shouted.
“Alright!" Joe agreed running his head. "Yes, ma'am"
Urilion looked around for a while and soon discovered a way to the store. “Ok now follow me” it said, using its tail as some sort of light to brighten their path.
They found a path that was between two buildings, it was very dark to see.
“Uhhh, are you sure this is the right path Dray?” Linex asked doubtfully.
“Well this is where the map is taking us” the dragon replied.
“This is nonsense we should return and ask him to draw a better map” Lysie muttered shaking her head.
“No way I’m returning” Joe disagreed, moving ahead.
“I agree with Joe” Linex concurred, joining him as they cut through the path between the two buildings.
“But… argh, fine” Lysie shrugged giving up.
“So Lys, are you afraid of the dark too?” Joe asked teasingly.
“Nah I’m not, what about you?” Lysie furthered returning the question.
“No I’m not…” his voice sounded shaky, almost as if he was trying hard not to panic.
“Sure? You seem sweaty and all, is that really true?” it was her turn to tease him now.
“No! I’m going in” Joe grunted taking quick strides into the darkness. They moved into the darkness, after a while, Linex whispered to Lysie.
“Um the path is to long tho, should I provide some light in here with my power, right?” Linex suggested. Urilion's light was only a flicker compared to what he could generate.
“Not yet, I want to see Joe get scared" Lysie insisted.
“This is no time to get some revenge on him, we have to get the drive and get back to our place quickly” Linex pointed out.
“It's just for a moment that’s all” Lysie assured him.
Then a strange sound came; almost like the hooting of an owl and Joe cringed back in utmost terror.
Linex and Lysie laughed hard at that.
“Stop laughing I didn’t get scared because of that, I’ve just got some malfunctioning in my legs” Joe lied.
“Yeah right… got ya” Lysie dropped him a wink.
Urilion had found the entrance. It was quite steep and low. “Linex!” the dragon called.
“Huh? Wait a second” They ran to meet the dragon and found a hidden store between the buildings.
“Is this the store?” Lysie asked.
“Seems so, Linex go in I’ll go into the temple” Urilion said. "I think I have done my bit"
“Thanks Dray, talk to you later” Linex replied and as usual, the dragon transformed and popped back into Linex's body.
“Alright then let’s go” Lysie urged.
They gained entry into the store.
“Hello there, may I help you?” a thin old man wearing a baseball cap asked. He had to be the cashier.
“Yeah we came to find a hard drive called H-B90 do you have it?” Linex asked anxiously.
“I’m afraid there isn’t a hard drive like that” the cashier informed them, a look of shock on his face.
“Are you serious!?” Lysie exclaimed, wide-eyed with surprise.
Joe reached over the desk and grabbed the cashier by the shirt. "Now, listen old man, if you don’t get me the hard drive I’ll punch you so hard you will have to leave this place quickly if you don’t want your boss to fire you”
The cashier took a quick glimpse of Joe’s hands and saw that it was robotic. “Are you… Markson’s son?” he asked.
Joe almost released him instantly. “… How do you know my father?”
“You idiot he probably already came here before” Lysie rolled her eyes. How stupid could Joe get.
A camera was on the top right of the store pointing at Linex and the others.
The cashier picked up the phone and held the receiver to his ear, and after several affirmations informed them. “Ok, my boss just called, and he wants you to go over here”
The cashier opened the left door of the store.
“Why should I trust you or your boss?” Joe asked suspiciously.
“Because he knows your father, you don’t need to trust me nor the boss. However, he needs to speak to you” the cashier replied almost dismissively.
Joe looked at the others and finally decided “Ok then, I’ll go but they will come along too” Joe informed and headed for the door with Linex and Lysie.
“As you wish” The cashier said.
“Wait, Joe” Linex came after him.
“So we are in an elevator” Lysie noted thoughtfully.
“Seems like it” Linex agreed.
After they got down and a dark figure was seated at a desk waiting for their arrival.
“Hello, Joe” the dark figure cooed softly.
“Who are you? And how do you know my name?” Joe asked.
“Your father told me about you, so what you came here for?” the dark figure waved a hand.
“His father told us to get a hard drive called H-b90, do you have one?” Lysie replied.
“Of course” the man agreed.
“Wow, that was easy and what is your name?” Lysie furthered.
He only smiled at that. “My name is Keven… there is one thing I must say, if Markson is trying to sneak into the military, please keep this really safe. We need information as well so when you finish, bring it back so that we can work, got that?” Keven asked.
“Got it” Linex agreed.
Getting back to the old building was easy, the cashier had shown them another route, which was faster.
Then Linex and the others made to the building. “Hey guys, how are you doing?” Linex asked as they headed back into the building.
“Did you get it?” Markson asked.
“Here you go” Lysie flipped the hard drive to him, and he caught it quite gently.
Markson nodded his head. “Finally, ok then I’ll put the drive in the computer, and everything will be perfect, I will be working this night at it”
“Are you going to sleep?” Stephen asked.
“Sleep? I won’t until I get everything set and begin the process” Markson replied.
“Well at least, he is trying his best to help me rescue Aiden, and still I wonder who that guy was I’ve saw this afternoon” Linex thought to himself.
It was almost 7:00 p.m. when Linex, Joe, Lysie and Stephen went to their various rooms to catch some sleep, while Markson began the process of hacking into the military base.
CHAPTER 16
SHADOWY BATTLE
He was having a dream, he could see that he was in some place only surrounded by many buildings and he had to go through them looking for an exit or a way to get back to the streets.
“What is this? Where am I?” he wondered as he trudged along. His sneakers slapping on the pavement of the floor.
Linex looked around and saw a light at the end of the dark tunnel and started to run for it. “I need to get there maybe I can find an exit” he whispered to himself.
Linex got into the light, but then at the top roof he found three strange people.
“Who are you and why are you following us?” Linex shouted at them.
One of them answered. His face was like a shadow. None of his features were decipherable. “Linex!” the voice called.
Linex stirred in his sleep, quite confused. That voice was Joe’s and suddenly he woke up to find that it was only a dream.
“Finally you're awake, I had to call you with your name because noobie wasn’t working, so what was that dream of yours?” Joe asked.
“Nah it was just some crazy dream about clowns” Linex grunted.
“Clowns? Are you sure?” Joe asked doubtfully.
“Yes…” Linex nodded in reply, that shadowy face was still haunting him. Who could that be, he wondered.
“Well then, now that you awake we need to wake up Lysie and head to Dad and Stephen” Joe informed.
“Alright then” he scrambled up from the mattress, stretched his body and yawned deeply.
Joe and Linex woke up Lysie and went to Markson and Stephen.
“Hello, everyone” Both Stephen and Markson announced.
“Good morning” they responded.
“So dad, how is everything going in the hacking?” Joe asked quite curious.
“Do you want to see? This is an interesting way to hack!” Markson grinned dolefully.
Joe moved closer and peeked at the compute, there was a game on. Joe shook his head. “Dad… don’t tell me you are entering the base by just playing a game”
“What? It’s the good way for scientist to hack so that we don’t get so stressed on these kind of work” Markson replied.
“Oh my God, I get it dad… and what about you Stephen, what are you doing?” Joe turned to face Stephen.
“Well I’m going in a hard moment where it might take a while because I have to make some steps until I officially enter the base” Stephen said yawning, he picked up his laptop again.
“Well that seems more professional than Markson’s” Linex chipped in.
“I’ve heard that!” Markson smiled dismissing their comments.
“Hey, we all have different ways, Linex and Joe do you want to go around the city?” Lysie offered.
“Yeah, I’m getting sick of staying here” Joe agreed. "Let's head out"
“Me too" Linex said.
Linex, Joe and Lysie went outside, they would go for walk, pending the time they got a call from either Stephen or Markson.
“Well… Lysie" Linex stated quite serious.
“Yeah Linex?” Lysie answered.
“I wanted to talk about something” Linex's quietly.
“Really? about what?” she asked, looking at him in a rather awkward manner.
“Well it’s about…” Linex trailed off.
“Hey guys” Joe interrupted the conversation jumping from a roof and landing hard on to the ground. “Hope you can do that too Linex”
“Oh… of course I can do that, wait and see” Linex replied.
“Don’t do it we can probably get spotted by the military” Lysie warned.
“Oh yeah forgot about that” Joe winked at Linex. "Got one on you though"
“Oh well, maybe another time then” Linex replied.
Lysie’s phone rang and she proceeded to pick it up. it was Stephen.
“Yeah Stephen?” Lysie answered.
“I need you guys to look over the entrance of the building quickly, I think I saw someone through the cameras that Markson put” Stephen informed them.
“Ok got it, Let’s go we need to get to the building” Lysie informed them.
“What’s going on?” Linex asked frowning.
“Someone is probably after us” Lysie postulated. "Let's get moving"
They headed towards the entrance.
“Stay alert” Lysie whispered sharply. The boys only nodded their heads in agreement.
Lysie activated her watch. The battle suit enveloped her immediately, it was a like being clad in an armor.
“Looking good in it” Linex complimented.
“Oh… sure whatevs”
“I knew you were aware of something noobie and you didn’t tell me” Joe muttered.
“Well yeah I knew of it, but I thought it wouldn’t be a problem…” Linex replied.
“If you have something hiding that it could cost our lives tell us” Joe lashed out.
Linex hung his head low. "My bad…”
“It’s alright” Joe patted him on the back.
Suddenly they look ahead in one direction and saw some people in the shadows.
“Who are you and why are you after us?” Joe asked quite boldly.
“We came to put an end to this catastrophic work you’re doing to those people” the woman replied, she was clad in a dark robe.
“People? What are you talking about?” Linex asked confused.
“Silence! You all will pay for what you have done” The woman retorted angrily.
“So no more reasons why we are picking a fight? Well then let’s fight if you can stand against us…” Joe smiled and sent a punch at the other shadow.
But it was well evaded.
“Well super-strength? This is going to be fun” Joe licked his lips.
“Indeed” the man
in the shadow agreed. A raging battle ensued.
“We don’t need to fight! Why do you need to take us down if we didn’t harm anyone?” Lysie screamed at them.
“Oh you people are such liars and for that you all will have to suffer like you all did to them!” The man in the dark room stated, glaring at Lysie angrily. She proceeded to unleash a powerful wind around them.
“Linex you take on her and make her talk a lot while I take the other!” Lysie instructed.
“Got it” Lines affirmed.
Linex unleashed his power and threw a powerful fire blast at the woman.
“So you seem strong, what do you got?” Lysie faced the second shadow.
“Well I got a drink for you" and with that, he unleashed water from his hands landing a huge attack on Lysie, but she dodged it.
“Well you’re made of water, that’s good” Linex complimented.
“So you’re made of fire? But this one is different never seen such weird colored fire, but anyways I can take that down!” she released a huge storm around Linex making him lose his balance, throwing him into the air.
“Wind Creator?” Linex asked.
"No… Storm Creator” she stopped the storm in an instant and created another wind that got down like a bullet into Linex’s back and crushed him to the ground.
“Linex!” Lysie screamed.
“Shot… I can’t let him fight this guy either which looks like we have same strength or Lysie’s opponent is water, which is worst, damn Linex I know you can get a hold on yourself” Joe shouted at him still fighting the first shadow man.
Linex stood up and ran towards the woman and unleashed the same attack at her.
“That won’t work twice” She dodged the fire blasts and recaptured Linex into the storm she recreated. “I thought you were strong, but it seems you are just a mere weakling”.
She threw Linex against the wall with her wind attacks which makes him spurt blood from his mouth.
“Hold on Linex, I’ll find a way to defeat this guy and help you!” Joe called to him; he was running at superspeed away from the first shadow man.
“I don’t need help!” Linex shouted and unleashed more power, he threw a fire shuriken to her.
“Hmph… weak” she grunted. Then she proceeded to block the attack with a wind shield, but the shuriken was strong enough, piercing through the shield and landed a scratch on her face.
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