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Click hereSame as the last one, enjoy. As always comments are welcome but try to keep it constructive.
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Before we made the last jump to the mountain the bunker was at, Fourteen pulled us all aside and told us there was a defense system in place, he didn't quite know what it was but his uncle had bragged about it, saying that people who lived out in the desert wouldn't know how to get past it, and people who did would die trying.
"You couldn't mention this before? When we were trekking across this hell of a state? It's over 100 degrees out for god's sake. Any other clues as to what it is?" One had started complaining a bit about half an hour ago when his shirt had turned yellow from sweat.
"I'm guessing it looks perfectly safe from the entrance, if that helps at all. He was a bit of a prick like that, always making subtle traps instead of outright defenses. It sounds like water, or a food source is the bait this time, 'People who do will die trying', folks who don't live in the desert wouldn't know any other way to get water besides finding a source." Fourteen clarified.
"I can't swim... I grew up in Montana, in the 1930's, learning to swim wasn't that high on my to-do list." Nine brought up.
"We'll figure something out when we get there, for now, keep moving." said Two.
-
"Hey Two, can I talk to you for a minute before we leave?" Five said as she pulled him aside.
"What's up? Did someone get hurt back at the hotel and not speak up?"
"No, but have you noticed Nine? She's a lot more talkative now, I think she's starting to adjust to modern society a bit."
"Maybe, I'll keep an eye on her, if she breaks down in a mountain she might bring the whole place down on top of us. She does seem to be talking a lot more than when we were at the facility though.
"Thank you, I don't know what everyone would do if we lost anyone else, we're already down four people after that place."
-
As the group arrived at the entrance to the bunker everyone either gasped or sighed in relief, there was a massive pool of water where it was supposed to be and everyone was hot and thirsty by this point. When the group walked up to the edge though Twelve freaked out "Something just moved down there, it looked like it was huge. Could that be the 'defense' that we were worried about?"
Fourteen walked up and sent a small pulse of electricity into the water, testing to see if anything responded. "I got nothing, no response from anything in range, Two and Six, wanna give it a go?"
Two walked up and stretched out his senses, trying to pick up intent from whatever was in the pool, "All I'm getting is hunger... I don't think we should jump in."
Six just shook her head after looking for intelligence in the water, nothing there either.
In the end we decided to have One jump in while increasing his skin density to see if anything came at him, and have Fifteen pull him out if something attacked.
"I hate being the hard to kill one, I always get used as bait!" He mumbled while striping, Nine blushed and walked behind a rock, not used to seeing shirtless men.
"I'll go talk to her" as Five walked behind the rock with Nine.
"Alright Fifteen, you ready? I'm going to get a lot heavier pretty fast, don't freak out I'll cut it back a bit if I need out quick. I can only stay under for about 40 seconds, higher density makes holding my breath a bit difficult, so after about 30 pull me back up. If you have to pull me out faster than I should be going then do it, a rough landing is better than eaten alive."
"Got it, go when you're ready."
One took a few quick breaths preparing to dive, then one large breath in and he was gone, there was no light about ten feet down, which didn't seem right, sunlight was supposed to penetrate deeper than that right? He felt something bump up against his leg and turned to see what it was, but it was gone by the time he was facing it. A few seconds later he saw them, piranhas, at least thirty of them waiting for him to get closer, Two felt his distress and told Fifteen to reel him in, she pulled a bit too hard and he went flying thirty feet into the air, leaving a large crater when he landed.
"Holy shit, not doing that again any time soon unless Fourteen shocks the living hell out of that water, there's a swarm of piranhas down there, I don't think they're normal either, felt like they were watching me, and trying to figure out if I was a threat or food." He was already dry from the heat by the time he finished explaining what had happened, "HEY NINE, I'm clothed now, you can come back out."
"That's not why I walked away, I can hear them, whatever is in the water, their hunger is too intense, can't you guys feel it? It's worse than we ever had at the facility, even after the True Gift testing. Can you really not feel them?" She was shaking with her arms wrapped around herself.
"I don't feel anything Nine, are you sure it's from the water? I was just down there and the residents are definitely hungry, and they feel intelligent almost. Have you always been able to feel animals? Hear them?" One was a bit curious, more so about why she didn't say anything before he jumped into a pool of hungry fish.
"No, just since the gift ceremony, you really can't feel it then?"
"None of us can, I think we found your True Gift, you can communicate with animals." Five was wrapping her arms around the young girl from the 20th century, "It's a big step, and an extremely useful talent, I don't know how it can be weaponized like the rest of the ones who have manifested, but it's definitely multipurpose. Can you talk to them yourself, or just hear them?"
"I've never talked back, but it feels like a two way street, so I'll try." She closed her eyes.
Six sat down beside her and took her hands in hers, trying to show her how her talent worked at first, "Focus, sense rhythm, reach out, I grab but you not."
"First time I've heard her talk, I suppose being so young she wouldn't have learned how to properly put together her sentences yet, it's kind of funny actually." Ten was grinning ear to ear, probably just happy he wasn't the only one who had a reason not to be talking now. Also probably a little jealous his own True Gift hadn't manifested yet.
"Shaddup little girl, trying to help friend." Six glared at him embarrassed.
"It's fine Six, just help Nine, he's just jealous, look Thirteen is trying not to laugh right now too, hell, Fourteen walked off and is probably laughing behind a rock right now, at Ten and you. Once we get settled in we can teach you any language you want, just let someone know and we'll see what we can do yeah?" Fifteen was trying to suppress a giggle herself, more from Six calling ten a little girl than grammar.
"I can feel them, they're responding, asking for food, wondering if we are food. They say they want the big one back, I think they mean One. We can't give them him can we? Surely we can find something else."
"I. Am. Not. Food. I'll teleport to Texas and bring them a cow if they want, will that work?"
"I'll ask... Yeah, they don't know what a cow is so I described it as 'Bigger than the big one' and that seemed to interest them. They want us to cut it before we send it down though... they can't see it clearly if it's uninjured."
"You can get coherent thoughts from them like that?" Two was curious to a fault.
"No, it's more like, charades? They send a feeling and I send an image, if it's the correct image I get a positive vibe from them, if it's the wrong one they send a negative one. Before you ask, no, I won't send them an image of us killing them all, that just feels like a bad idea, they might send a strong enough signal to knock me flat." Nine shuddered at the thought.
"Alright, One, you know where you're going and how to get back here from wherever it is?"
"Yeah, although I might need someone else to come with me and drive, Fourteen you're the most familiar with the area, feel like a road trip?"
"To get some beef? Hell yeah, but if we're going to Texas I'm gonna pick up food, anyone else want anything?" After a brief delay of everyone picking what they wanted from the nearest fast food joint from where they landed, they were off. The whole trip took about half an hour, apparently cows aren't as common as they seem in all the movies. They're also a lot heavier than we thought, One said he figured it probably weighed almost 1,800 lbs at least. Nine spoke up as soon as the poor animal showed up.
"I can't be here for when this poor thing dies, can someone knock me out? Or should I just teleport somewhere far away?" With her new power fully realized we all understood just how sensitive it probably was right now, so we told Fourteen to take her back to town and go clothes shopping for a little while.
"Why do I have to do it? I don't want to go shopping with a girl, people will talk, can someone else come with us please? Besides, I don't know women's fashion at all so someone who knows about that would be good." He was clearly uncomfortable going into stores for underwear and helping Nine try on clothes, so we sent Five with him.
"Perfect, Nine, we have to get you some better clothes, those factory made rags they gave you at the lab just won't do, probably going to want something more modest too eh? Yeah, we can do that, Ten, time for the big question, do you want to accentuate your girlish figure, or make it clear that you're a young man?" She was obviously giddy about this whole shopping thing, Two was just wondering how she intended to pay for it all.
"Um, can I come with you? I want to try them on before you buy them... " Ten was actually looking embarrassed about the question.
"Of course, I don't know how we're going to pay for it though, if only we had someone who could somehow convince the employee to look the other way for a few seconds." Obviously baiting Six.
"Yes." Six just went with it, either not noticing or not caring about the bait.
"Great, we'll be off then, let us know when they start feeding so we can get Nine back here to speak with the fish about letting us pass safely." Five had thought out the whole thing we had to give her props for dragging Ten, Six, and Nine into her little excursion, almost like she planned it all before Two even brought it up.
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"Is there a reason you dragged all the youngest members with you besides Two?" Fourteen had been trying to get information out of Five for the past half hour or so, with no luck.
"Do these jeans look better than the shorts from earlier? I feel like since we're in the desert we should all have some clothes to match, but we might end up somewhere cold so we should also get a couple sets of winter clothes too, what do you think kids?"
"I think most of these things would make the flappers feel immodest, do modern young ladies really wear such revealing garments as outerwear? My old underwear covered more. Is this supposed to be a corset?" Nine was a little bit shell-shocked again from seeing all the fashion changes over the past century or two.
"No no honey, those clothes won't fit you, here, the kids sizes are all lined up over there, see the big sign with a giraffe on it? Also, side-note, where are Ten and Six?" Five looked around on her toes.
"Ten ran off to the section you just pointed out, and I think Six is somewhere near a sign with guns on it, weapons section maybe?" Fourteen just shrugged like it wasn't his job to keep an eye on the two kids that were literally live nukes waiting to be set off.
"Could you be a dear and find Ten? I'll go find Six and make sure nobody has mysteriously killed themselves with a knife she wanted. Find some clothes for yourself and the others once you get him, form-wear for One he's too big for anything else they sell here, short sleeves or cutoff are priority, and that shirt I saw you stash under your shirt suits you, keep it." She ran off in the direction Nine pointed, leaving a speechless Fourteen behind to babysit the shocked Nine.
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"Six, could you come out, I know you're over here. Whatever it is you wanted we can probably get it for you so there's no need to go all headhunter." Five almost yelled once she had reached the sign Nine had described, Six walked out of the aisle she was in carrying an 8" knife. "Sweetie, if you want that knife I need you to stay with me ok? I'll buy it for you if you agree on at least three outfits for yourself besides the jumpsuit." Six beamed at her and nodded happily, "Alright, let's go see how the others are getting along then shall we?"
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In the end the group of strangers walked out of the building having bought a hunting knife, a large amount of varying activewear, some snow gear, and over thirty sets of everyday clothing, the clerk thought nothing of their purchases except the knife, which he reported to his boss. The general manager called the police to make them aware of it, but did not realize his call was being monitored specifically for that situation. The intelligence officer turned to wave down his boss and describe the group to him, "Sir, a group of children were spotted in the middle of Death Valley buying large amounts of clothing, three of the kids match the description of subjects Six, Nine, and Ten. The other two match with what we know about Five and Fourteen, your orders?"
"We know standard law enforcement can't handle these kids, so send in the retrieval specialists, full tactical, shoot to kill if necessary, their bodies will provide just as much research material on a slab as they would in a cell."
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Once the five of them had gotten back with the clothes, the cow had been taken care of and the fish were sated for the time being, "Nine, could you please ask the swarm if they will allow us to pass now? I would love to be somewhere with AC in the next hour or so." Two was starting to complain when they landed back at the pond.
"I'll check but it will probably take a minute or two so you all should probably look at your new gear while I do this, don't change yet though as it'll be getting wet when we're allowed through." Six pointed out. One just looked guilty as he had already started putting on one of the new shirts. Fifteen tried to stifle a laugh but it just came out as her almost choking to death. "Alright, they say we're allowed in but they don't know how to open the door, apparently the previous feeder placed his thumb in a hole and the door opened, it sounds like it injured him because the images I get are much clearer after he opened it."
Fourteen was the first to speak up, "The old man was paranoid, probably put a DNA lock on it, if I can't get in that way I'll just shock it till it opens, Nine could you please warn our friends to stay on the other side of the pool if that happens? I don't know how big it is but electricity and water don't tend to mix all that well. He liked me though so it probably won't be a problem." Nine was appalled at the thought of him accidentally killing her new friends, it was written all over her face.
"DON'T, if we need to open it we can just blast it in, set up a barrier to block the water, then repair it, I won't allow you to hurt them, they haven't done anything serious to any of us besides one, and he's already healed." She was shaking, a mix of fear and anger fraying her nerves. Five wrapped an arm around her to help calm her down a bit and glared at Fourteen for not realizing what he was saying.
"Alright alright, I won't shock it in the water, I promise, but I'm no good with barriers so someone else will have to come down with me." Fourteen looked around hopefully.
Two spoke up first, "Four would probably be the best idea, he could just freeze a block of the water, as long as none of the fish actually get caught in it at most it will make them a bit chilly until we can set up a proper wall. Would that be acceptable Nine? Setting up and maintaining a barrier is something that so far only Fifteen and Sixteen can do, and if there's a combat situation while that's going on we'll be left without one of our two most powerful members." He was calculating everything he said with the intent of not upsetting her while getting her permission to go ahead with the ice wall, she nodded and buried herself in Five's arms.
"Alrighty then," Fourteen clapped, "Are we good to go down then?" another nod "Perfect, Four, are you up for a swim? from what One said earlier it's a ways down." Four was already shirtless and barefoot, ready to go.
"Race you to the bottom, we grew up in Hawaii remember? We dove in some tidal pools that were bigger than this thing. I'm more worried about you holding your breathe long enough to open the door." Four was enjoying this a little too much for a possibly life threatening situation.
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When the two reached the base of the pool they stared in shock, it wasn't a simple door so much as a hangar bay.
*I'm going to blow it on 3, ready?*
Four nodded.
*1... 2... 3* a small 2 foot by 3 foot section of the metal wall was blown inward, followed by a few gallons of water before Four froze the hole shut.
*Let's port in, can you make the ice clear so we can see where we're going first.* Fourteen was dead serious, and starting to feel light headed.
"That was fun, for your first time diving you did pretty well Fourteen." Four was looking around at the impressive metallic room he was standing in. "I'm going back up to jump the rest in here, try and get the lights on when you recover ok?" as he faded out.
-
Four arrived above ground shortly after they opened the hole, and arrived in the middle of an argument between Ten and Six "... don't care, made fun of my talking. Am only this many years old" Six was holding up her fingers to display the number eight, "shouldn't taunt children, not adult are you." she was shaking while Fifteen tried to calm her down and get her away from Ten.
"You're just a stupid little girl who doesn't understand when to use her power, much less what the fallout of it's use is. All you do is go around and throw tantrums whenever somebody tells you no, and I'm sick of everyone catering to you, even now Fifteen and the others are more concerned about you freaking out than what we're actually saying." Ten was furious and started to fade out, Sixteen either felt him trying to leave or just has uncanny timing and woke up the same instant, stopping him from teleporting.
"Who the hell do you think you are, both of you are little kids who have no idea how the world actually works, and I for one intend to keep it that way as long as I can. Nobody should have their childhood stolen from them like most of us did, so take a walk and cool off or I'll jump your ass into the nearest prison cell and reactivate your collar, that goes for both of you, not just Ten." He said all of this with an almost flawless attempt at a serious tone and expression, but he had half a burger on his chest and still sounded half asleep. Everyone turned to him with shocked looks on their face for a second, then Four made a sound trying to suppress a giggle and all the rest started clutching their sides from laughter, Six and Ten included.
"We.. We got in... little dark though, might need his... shining personality to see." Four managed to get out in between bouts of laughter.
-
Once everyone had been transferred into the opening behind the ice wall the group got to work trying to find a light switch and other basics. "I think, yeah, this is it. LET THERE BE LIGHT" screamed One as he flipped the switch and nothing happened.
"I guess the lights aren't the only thing in this place that are a little dim. There's a button beside that switch that says master power on, press it then flip the switch." Five was saying as One grumbled something about stupid buttons. The lights flipped on and everyone was left speechless. they were in a room full of alien equipment with the same design as the platform that started this adventure, seamless construction with no visible connections.