Rachel and Melly arrived at the droid boutique. They move to the house in the upper levels. Their bodyguards secured the house before going back to the lower floors. Melly made a beeline for her room. The girl was itching to join her friends on their last day of vacation.
Rachel went to Mark's room and left the new uniforms for the institute on top of his bed. After that, she changed clothes and went back to the droid workshop. Her friends would be coming today, and she wanted to prepare. As she entered, the woman found a data storage device and a note from her son.
Rachel opened the letter and read the contents. "Mom, I fixed the module problem. If you can, get a license for the program I made. With love, your favorite son." The woman cracked a smile. He was her only son.
Without missing a beat, the woman installed the software on the droids and began testing with different modules. After a while, a sound came from the building's main entrance. As she inspected the door's camera, she found her friends waving at it.
Daphne screamed at the camera. "Hey Rachel, let us in. We want to see your new digs."
Rachel smiled at their antics as she let them in. They met in the hallway, and the woman decided to start the tour of the facilities where they would be working. She began by showing them the ground workshop, the Mimi Droids, and the Warren Sweepers. They later moved to the underground facilities. The group of women toured the underground workshop, the droid design lab, and Mark's VR arcade.
The group went back to the ground floor. Yet, before they could resume the tours to the upper floors, the doorbell rang again. Rachel looked at the door's camera once more using her comm-pad. There was a group of men at the door, and among them, she recognized a face she did not want to see.
Her face showed anger and exasperation. The man at the door was none other than Doctor Parker. "What is that man doing here?"
Back at the park, Mark stood from the bench. Placing Alex behind him, he faced the three men. With a sharp tone, he addressed the figures before him."I am Mark Warren. What do you want?"
The young man looked around. There were almost no people in the area. The arrows he could see on the map function were a few, one or two white arrows. and five green arrows. Two were Steve and Livia, who were hiding in a bush nearby. The other three arrows were Alex's bodyguards, who at the moment were closing the distance between them.
The man in the middle of the three spoke again. "You need to come with us, and do not struggle. This is not a request; someone wants to talk to you."
Alex heard them. They wanted to take him away. After what happened at the entrance to The Pit, she felt powerless to help Mark. Guilt and worry filled her mind. Unable to do anything else, she hugged Mark's waist.
Nearby, inside the bush, Livia and Steve witnessed the events unfolding by the bench. A surge of anger rose in Livia. These men look like the guys from The Pit that took Mark. She resolved to face them. A kick or two will put them in their place.
Steve wanted to face them also. The loudmouth teen felt guilty for letting them take Mark the other day. However, his mind drifted towards Livia. He could not allow her to be hurt either. His eyes drifted down, looking at Livia's attire. Once again, she was wearing a skirt, and Steve was reminded of the slap he received.
With a trembling voice, he issued a reminder to the lively teen. "This time, remember that you are wearing a skirt." The loudmouth teen caressed his cheek, remembering the slap he received.
Hearing his words, Livia's cheeks flushed. The girl spoke without turning to look at Steve. "I am wearing shorts underneath." The lively teen kept moving, closing the distance between the bush and the bench.
The three men found themselves facing seven people. The favorable odds they had vanished before them. Yet the figures did not back down; in fact, they started to move forward menacingly.
One of Alex's bodyguards wielded a taser. As he fired the non-lethal weapon, he looked in amazement as the man he targeted suffered no damage. The taser had a capacity of 50,000 volts, but this person shook it up as if it were a hand buzzer.
Mark screamed at them. "They are not human, you have to use guns!"
But his warning was too late. The three men wielded strange-looking weapons that resembled handguns but not quite. Their targets were the bodyguards who guarded Alex. As they pressed the triggers of their weapons, a wave of kinetic energy was emitted. The three bodyguards were flown back, having hit the floor unconscious.
The youngman saw that they were in danger. Mark had to do something before these men hurt the people that he cared for. He moved forward, slipping out of Alex's embrace without causing her harm. He was moving so fast that his friends had barely any time to react, much less his aggressors.
Materializing the Mirmidón armor around him, the young man closed the distance to the man in the middle. With a swift motion, he grabbed the surrogate unit by the head and crushed it against the concrete.
As the surrogate to the right pointed the gun at Mark, the young man grabbed the tip of the weapon, redirecting the kinetic wave discharged by the weapon toward the surrogate on the left. A metallic sound emanated, followed by parts scattering across the area where the surrogate had fallen.
Finally, Mark grabbed the weapon from the remaining enemy and repeatedly slammed it onto its face. He did not stop until the thing had fallen, the synthetic face completely caved in. The event lasted mere seconds.
Mark looked around and saw some people recording the event with their comm-pads. He used system hacking and, with a total of 120,000 TP, erased all of the recordings before they were uploaded to the comm-grid. Even the surveillance cameras were not spared by the meticulous system's ability.
Steve, Livia, and Alex looked at the event in awe. Their minds have not yet processed the event. They were in shock. Dematerializing the armor, Mark moved to check on Alex's bodyguards. He had to scream at his friends to get a reaction. "Steve Livia, help me check them!"
The two teens reacted. They both moved to check one guard each, while Mark checked the remaining one. They were alive but unconscious. It appears that the enemy's weapons knocked them out before they hit the ground.
Steve exclaimed in confusion. "What the hell did we just see?"
Livia was equally baffled. She had an incredulous look on her face. "What was that black armor you were wearing, and where did it come from? "
Alex remained silent. Her mind went back and forth between the event and Mark's warning about his secrets. The silent teen got closer to Mark and spoke to him in her usual shy tone. "Is this because of your secrets?"
Mark contemplated for a moment. He had to give his friends an explanation. The attack forced him to reveal his hand, and it was no longer possible to keep his friends in the dark. However, he feared their reactions. How will they feel once they know the whole truth?
He looked at his friends with a heavy heart. "I know you deserve an explanation, but let's deal with this first. I promise I will tell you everything. He grabbed his comm-pad and called emergency services.
Back at the droid boutique, Bart had just arrived. After his daughter's call about Dr. Parker, he dropped everything and rushed to the scene. As the man entered the building, he walked towards the workshop. There, he found Rachel and three other women.
As he entered the room, the man announced his arrival. "Rachel, I am here. Tell me what happened. Is he still around?"
Rachel stood from the chair and rushed to meet him. "No, he left. Dad, I need you to check on Mark. That monster came to threaten us." After closing the distance, she hugged her father.
His eyes twitched a little; the man was trying to control the anger that he felt. "What did he say exactly, can yoy tell me word for word?"
Rachel reluctantly remembers the conversation. "He said there was an organization after Mark. A gathering or something, and that there is something in his blood they want. That was all I heard before my bodyguards and the security team sent his group away."
Bart's face darkens, his anger shown by the bulging veins on his forehead. "The only way that the organization could know about Mark's blood is if He told them. After all, he was the one who grabbed a sample and used it to experiment. That son of a ..."
Rachel reflexively interrupted, admonishing her father's cursing. "Dad Language."
Behind Rachel, the three women looked in awe as she conversed with her father. They had an incredulous look on their faces. Rachel's father looked more like a younger brother than a father.
Daphne fixed her Hair as Rachel spoke to the man. In a lower voice, she spoke with Reva and Tina. "Rachel told me her father was the victim of illegal experimentation. I thought she meant something horrible, but..."
Reva whispered back to her friends. "I wonder if Rachel wants a stepmother. That man looks fine."
Tina reprimanded them as she tried to suppress her own laughter. "Hush, you two, it's not a good time to horse around."
Bart was trying to control his anger as he spoke with Rachel. He decided to shift focus to relieve the pressure. The man asked about the golden-eyed girl. "And how is Melly?"
Rachel's words reassured her father, "I already checked on her. She is in her room, using her VR headset. She is completely unaware of what is going on."
After hearing that Melly was OK, Bart returned to the issue of Dr. Parker's visit. "Did Parker tell you the name of the group that is after Mark? What are their intentions?"
Rachel tried to recall the conversation. "He said something about Mark's blood being a natural priming agent or something. I was paying little attention to him. The truth is that I don't want that man near my children. "
Bart agreed with her on that point. "I understand, Little Bird. I don't want him near any of you. And where is Mark right now?"
Back at the park, Mark and his friends explained for the third time to the cops that a man in black armor came and destroyed the men who attacked them. The cops were forced to interrogate the people around. For some reason, all the surveillance equipment malfunctioned. Even the clips taken with comm-pads failed.
Mark comm-pad sounds with a call. As he looks at the caller ID, he sees that the call is from Bart. The young man answered quickly. "Hello Grandpa, I was about to call you."
Bart had a mixed tone. The young man was able to distinguish feelings of anger and worry intertwined with his words. "Mark, are you OK? Something has happened at the droid boutique. We need you to come home."
Mark was reluctant to discuss the incident over a comm-pada call. He resolved to meet his grandfather at the Droid Boutique once the cops finished their questions. "I'm sorry, Grandpa, something has happened here as well. The people from the blacksite attacked us, but a man wearing black armor saved us. Don't worry, cops are surrounding the area, and we are safe. Let's meet back at the house after we talk to the cops."
Bart understood his choice of words. Mark was letting him know that he could not talk; at the moment, there were too many people around. The best thing was to wait until they were alone. "I understand, but tell me where you are. I will go pick you up."
Mark complied with the man's request. "My friends and I are in a small park by the kiosks on the second level. The one with the fountain."