The children quickly scattered through various doorways, but one of them stayed on the main hall: Roy. He didn't seem to be a very fast runner, and soon they caught up to him. Rick grabbed his arm and pulled him to a halt, ignoring the boy's attempts to break free. "Hey, easy there. We're not gonna hurt you. We jus' wanna talk, aright?"
Roy stared at them both with an expression of panicked belligerence. After a second he recognized Tanrial and his eyes widened. "Tanrial? What are you doing here? Who is this guy?"
"Roy! This is Rick, don;t worry, he won't hurt you," Tanrial relaxed slightly and motioned for Rick to let the boy go, "We need to get you and all the others out, this place is gonna blow soon."
Roy jerked away from them. "That's what Dad said you'd say! He said you'd lie to us and try to make us leave!"
A second face peered from a doorway nearby. It was Kaito. "Roy, come on! In here!" He stared at Tanrial as he spoke, seeming unsure what to think.
Rick held up his hands and knelt down, trying to look less threatening. "I know this is kinda scary, but we're tellin' the truth. We came down here to help y'all. Your dad….well, he's done some things that don't seem quite right to us, and we're here to stop him from gettin' you kids tangled up in it."
Roy glared at him. "What are you talking about? Dad's a hero! We want to help him! You're the ones that are the bad guys because you're trying to stop him!"
Tanrial sighed and knelt next to Rick, "Roy, please. You trust me, right? I would never ever lie to you, especially with something as big as this. I want to believe your dad is a good person but his actions prove otherwise. You have to listen to us. Something's already taken Mike," She gently took the boy's hand in hers and squeezed it, "I don't want to see a bunch of kids get messed up in some bad things. We'll help you, all of you kids."
Keith stepped into view at that point, his eyes narrowed. "Darian can go through walls," he said coldly. "We took Mike. And we're not going to let him go unless you promise to leave right now."
But Kaito still seemed uncertain. "What did Dad do that makes him so bad? He hasn't done anything wrong!"
Tanrial stood, "It's not what he has done, more what he will do. That machine he's making? He's trying to wipe out all pure blooded humans like Mike. He what's people like you guys to rule or whatever. Do you really want innocent people to die?" She raised an eyebrow, "The only reason we attacked was to get you guys out and somewhere safe! Come on guys that about it! People are going to die for no reason!"
(gotta go to bed, seeya tomorrow ^^)
They stared at her blankly. Then, one by one, they shook their heads and started to back away.
But at that moment, a tired, familiar voice came from behind Tanrial and Rick. "Wait, guys."
Wren stepped forward, looking resigned but confident, and briefly glanced at Tanrial, her green eyes transmitting silent gratitude. "Hey, Tanrial. They're a tough bunch, aren't they?"
(Alright, seeya ^^)
Tanrial rubbed at her face and nodded, "Yeah, you got that right. This is harder then I thought it was going to be…" She glanced at the kids before looking back to Wren.
When he saw Wren, Keith stopped mid-step and looked surprised for the first time. "Wren? What the heck are you–?"
"I've got some explaining to do, I know. But before I start, I need to show you guys something downstairs."
"There's no downstairs," one of the younger ones started to object, but Wren shook her head.
"Yes there is. You've just never been told about it before." She glanced at Tanrial and spoke to her quietly. "Listen, this is going to take me a minute. Right now, Ryker's busy trying to pack up the important stuff on the office level, but his next stop will be the lowest labs. You guys need to slow him down so I have a chance to show his lies to my siblings."
"What about Mike?" Rick asked. "We ain't leavin' without him."
Wren jerked her head at a nearby doorway, ignoring the incredulous glares of the other children. "He's in there. He might be a little spacey, but you're free to take him."
"Thank-you, we'll get on it. But be quick, I doubt we'll be able to hold him off for long," She gave Wren a small smile before turning to Rick, "Come on, let's get Mike." She said, beginning to push past a few of the children to get to the required door.
It opened easily enough, revealing a small room lined with bookshelves. Mike was slumped against the wall, staring dazedly into space. He didn't look up when they entered.
Rick bent down and went to shake his shoulder. "Mike?"
Mike's hand whipped up and he grabbed Rick's wrist, already holding a knife in his other hand. Luckily he registered who it was before attacking and paused, seeming confused. "What happened?"
Tanrial walked forward with a sigh, "Darian happened. He uh, took you threw the wall and put you here. We had a talk with the kids, they didn't believe us but luckily Wren showed up and is taking them to the lower labs," She shrugged, "That's the run down, we need to go up to the offices and distract Ryker."
Mike allowed Rick to pull him to his feet. He seemed a bit unsteady, but his eyes were clear by now. "Why?"
"So's Wren can tell her siblings what's up," Rick explained. "Plus we need to deal with him sooner or later, so we might as well now, hey?"
"Okay." Mike checked to make sure he still had his radio, then led them out of the room and down the hall. "Sorry for slowing us down like that…I shoulda seen an attack coming."
"It wasn't your fault Mike. Darian literally came threw the wall! You couldn't see that he was coming." Tanrial gave him a small smile as they walked.
Mike shrugged, looking less than comforted. "Still. It's not gonna happen again."
They had just reached the stairs when Mike's radio crackled. "Mike? You there? It's Dane."
Mike frowned. "What's up?"
"We've got the main force of soldiers beaten but there's this special-ops-kinda team that just came out to take their place, and they're good. They're only like a dozen men but we're starting to scramble up here. How's it going with you?"
Mike started to climb the stairs faster. "Slow start but we're making progress. Do everything you can, we'll be out as soon as possible. Check back with us before things get really bad, all right?"
"Gotcha."
Mike lowered the radio and sped up even more. "If they can't hold the attention of the enemy for a while longer, we'll be trapped down here. Let's hurry."
Tanrial frowned a little but sped up her face, "Careful. I get that we need to get this done quickly but you still look a little…. out of it."
Mike nodded. "I am. I'm not gonna lie to you, that whole thing….kinda spooked me. I couldn't feel or see or hear anything for a bit, and I almost started to wonder if I'd died. But I feel better now, just off-kilter, if that makes sense."
"I'd sorta forgotten we were workin' with the supernatural," Rick remarked. "It was a nice wake-up call, gotta say. We could run into anything in this place."
"True. I honestly don't know what all the kids abilities are," Tanrial scratched at her neck, "But at least you aren't dead, Mike."
Mike chuckled dryly. "That's true. Okay, this is the floor we want. Ryker should be here somewhere. Careful, he might have security with him."
"We just need to distract him for as long as we can to give Wren more time," Tanrial sighed, "That shouldn't be too hard, we just need to keep Ryker talking."
Rick straightened his cap slightly. "I haven't had the honor of meeting this guy yet. Is he nice?"
"Well….he's chatty." Mike started walking down the first carpeted hall, eyeing the doors on either side warily. "Let's head to the center and see if he's there first."
Tanrial nodded, "Wren said he was packing up the important stuff from up here so you'd think he'd be there… or I could be completely wrong…"
(off to bed, sorry)
"We'll see in a minute…" Mike started walking very quietly as they reached a large open space filled with cubicles. It was pretty dark here, and quiet as the grave. The only light came from a cracked door on the far side of the room. As they drew closer, they could hear someone moving around inside, along with the sound of papers rustling.
The three were so quiet that their breathing could be heard in the near silence. After a feeble moments of listening to whoever it was moving around, Tanrial called out, “Who’s there?”
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