Chapter 10: Runs in the family
U.S.S Oahu, Outside Adamant Facility
10:13 am
The Military forces were moping up in the facility, solidifying their victory over the Inquisition. While they were doing that, Inquisitor escaped with his soldiers and the defectors from the cult and disappeared from the battlefield entirely in his sub. Donnic, his teammates, Commander Perez, his associates, and Winter regrouped on the bridge of the Oahu with the four defectors and General August to discuss the most recent ultimatum that Inquisitor had issued to Donnic. The other matter they were discussing was the mysterious stranger's data drive that he had given to them...
" So Inquisitor threatens to rip our personal worlds apart, and a mysterious nice guy hands me a data drive, how strange can this day get?" Donnic said.
" He's only threatening us because he feels threatened himself." Winter figured.
" Back there, you said that he referred to the hybrids as "them" correct?" Andrea asked.
" My ears were working then, Andrea, he did say that." Donnic responded.
" Have you been able decipher what was on that drive, Mr. Williams?" General August said.
" Yes." Evan said, piggybacking the ship's holographic map.
" What are you doing?" Dante asked in a surprised tone.
" Showing you." He started. " It's a map of Remnant, but two different locations are highlighted on it, Robert Darnell's old estate in Atlas, and some old private investigator's office in Vale." Evan explained.
" Why are those two locations highlighted?" Desmond asked.
" They are oddly enough emitting two separate signals that seem to interlock with each other." Evan responded.
" How would a complete stranger find out about it?" Alexis asked.
" Must have come across it in his travels." Blaze figured.
" Well he's good at disappearing, none of my soldiers saw him enter or leave Adamant." August said.
" So what do we do now?" Winter asked.
" We should probably check out these leads." Dante figured.
" We could check out the Vale lead." Donnic said.
" But none of us have ever been to the city, we'd get lost in minutes." Desmond said.
" Way to be supportive Des." Donnic said.
" We won't get lost." Andrea said.
" How?" Desmond asked.
" I got a couple of friends in Vale who can show us around." Andrea said.
" Why can't we just ask Ruby to show us around?" Donnic asked.
" She can't, she's up to her chin in schoolwork." Andrea responded.
" Great, so we're stuck with your friends." Donnic said.
" Hey, would you like to know that they are friends with Ruby." Andrea pointed out.
" They can basically put in a good word for you." Evan added.
" Then we better meet quick." Donnic said in a ridiculous tone.
" We'll check out the estate if you're taking the Vale lead." Winter said.
" We're currently heading to Port Poseidon, you can catch a transport to Atlas and Vale from there." August said.
" I'll let them know to meet us at the transport hub when we arrive in Vale." Andrea said. " Oh, and Donnic?" She added.
" Yes?" Donnic asked.
" The older one is interested in girls, so you can't flirt with her." Andrea said.
" Aw, shucks." Donnic said in a sarcastic tone.
The ship arrived in Port Poseidon, the largest military controlled port in Vacuo's waters. August got them clearance for passage to each location as a reward for aiding them in the fight against the Inquisition, and each group proceeded to their destination...
Vale Transport Hub.
10:40 am
Alexis Domino and her baby sister Nephele waited at the transport hub in the city for Andrea and the others to arrive. The siblings had changed since their reunion with their mother, Nephele's combat gear had been upgraded, now she wore a medium set of armor, while Alexis had become more proficient with sword and staff combat. She had become exceptionally skilled in the use of Valthael and Angelus and Nephele used a new set of daggers called Frozen Midnight and Broken Dawn. The transport landed with a deep rumble, and Team D.E.A.D stepped off and went to the meeting place and the girls stepped out from behind the corner...
" Donnic, meet Alexis and Nephele Domino, my close friends." Andrea said.
" So you're Andrea's team captain?" Alexis said.
" The one and only." Donnic said.
" He doesn't look like much sis." Nephele said.
" If you heard some stories about how I am in a fight, you'd sing a different tone." Donnic said.
" Andrea, you didn't tell us the guy was a smartass." Alexis said.
" Language." Nephele pointed out.
" Okay, how do you two know my sister?" Evan said.
" Oh, you're the nerdy brother she told us about." Nephele said.
" What? Nerdy? I am hurt sis." Evan said.
" Nerdy is sometimes a good thing, Evan. They get all the chicks." Donnic said.
" True." Evan said.
" How did you girls meet Andrea?" Desmond asked.
" Met her when she was part of that exchange student program awhile back, she hung out with us and we got along." Alexis explained.
" Yeah, oh, how's Neo?" Andrea asked.
" She doing great, her grades in school have improved." Alexis said.
" Told you that "initiative" idea would work." Andrea said.
Donnic had a slight smirk to his face at the mentioning of "initiative", which Evan looked to his captain with a similar smirk on his face. They both understood what kind of "initiative" that Andrea had instructed Alexis to give her girlfriend...
" Anyway, what's up?" Alexis asked Andrea.
" Can you take us to this address, there's something important there that we need to find." Andrea said, handing Alexis a slip of paper with the address of the investigator's office on it.
" Ah, that's the address of Thomas King, a private investigator who died a while back." Nephele said.
" Can you take us there?" Evan asked.
" Sure, it's actually a couple of blocks away from here." Alexis said.
" Lead the way." Donnic said.
The building the Domino siblings had lead the kids to was a large apartment complex that was worn down and rugged. Windows were either busted or boarded up, and the door fell off just at the moment Desmond set his hand on the doorknob.
" Way to go, Desmond." Donnic said, which lead to Andrea punching him in the arm.
" The office is on the second floor." Alexis explained.
" Okay." Evan said.
They proceeded to the top floor and entered the worn-down and tattered office to hear a beeping sound coming from somewhere in the room. They looked in every corner of the room to see if they could find the source, and it was found when a book fell off the top shelf and hit Donnic on the head, spilling a memory core onto the floor.
" Ow!" Donnic said, rubbing his head.
" Oh relax, you didn't complain when an Ursa hit you in the face during that job in Jacinto, but now you complain when a book bonks you on the head?" Desmond said.
" Maybe it's a sign, Des." Evan figured.
" Laugh it up punks." Donnic said.
" Wait, what's that?" Andrea said, pointing to the drive.
Nephele walked over and picked up the drive, and Evan then walked over and took it from her and looked at it carefully...
" What is it?" Alexis asked.
" A memory core, for an assistant bot." Evan said.
" An assistant bot?" Donnic asked.
" Yeah, Private Investigators are always those who use them the most." Evan explained.
While they were looking over the core, Dante and his group were going to find the second piece to the puzzle...
Darnell Estate, Atlas
11:15 am
The Darnell Estate was a rundown, broken building on the plains of the Corbulo province in western Atlas, just outside Darnell's home city of Olympiad. Dante's group and Winter stood outside wondering why the signal was coming from inside the building...
" Why would a signal be coming from this dump?" Alexis Foster asked.
" There must be more to this house than meets the eye." Blaze said.
" He's got a point, there must be something inside that's emitting the signal, something that doesn't belong in the house." Dante figured.
" Xavier, care to knock?" Winter asked.
" With pleasure." Xavier said.
Xavier walked up the building's stone steps and kicked the doors open and a gust of wind blew the leaves in front of the door and dust away...
" Drafty, these old places." Xavier said.
" Let's go. I don't want to be here when the shit hits the fan." Dante pointed out.
" Good point, Grimm like to come out at night." Winter said.
They entered the main hall of the house, and looked around to see worn-down, and dusty furniture all over the place. Cobwebs covered some of the doorways to a couple of the rooms on the ground floor, so they quickly conversed a plan of action...
" All right, Xavier, Blaze, and Winter, you guys cover the floors down here, Alexis and I will look upstairs." Dante said.
" Why do you always make us both work together?" Alexis said with a slight annoyance.
" Because we're partners." Dante said in response.
" No, you're actually partners with my boyfriend, but he got reassigned after you took up that job in the North." Alexis said.
" Should we give you two some alone time? Because we adults got work to do." Winter said.
" No, it's fine." Dante said with annoyance.
Blaze and Dante proceeded upstairs while Xavier searched down stairs with Alexis and Winter. They looked around to see what they could find, and after a couple of minutes of searching, Xavier found something that was hidden in the maintenance closet.
" Found something." Xavier said.
" What'd you find?" Alexis asked as Xavier was carrying something out of the closet.
" This." Xavier said, putting down a large robot.
" A PI's Assistant robot?" Winter asked.
" What's this doing here?" Alexis said.
Dante and Blaze came downstairs after Alexis radioed to them about what Xavier found. They regrouped in the lobby and were picked up by Winter's personal airship and they flew to Vale to regroup with Donnic's team...
Beacon Academy library, Vale
12:15 pm
Both groups met up at Beacon's library to discuss what they had found with the hopes it would get them anywhere to finding out why the stranger gave them the drive. They had the robot be installed with a fresh power cell since it's original had degraded rapidly, and all they had to do next was install the memory core...
" Ok, here it goes." Evan said, inserting the memory core.
The robot began to shake uncontrollably, until it stood up and powered on...
" UNIT 4734 ONLINE, RUNNING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS, SAFETY PROTOCOLS ON, CYBERDEFENSE SUITES ACTIVE, ARMOR: PRIMED, SELF-DEFENSE WEAPONS ON, ACTIVATING PERSONALITY PROGRAM." The robot said.
" Ok." Evan said.
" Ello, everybody, my name is Wallace." The Robot said in a thick, foreign accent.
" Hello Wallace, my name is Andrea, and these are my friends." Andrea said.
" Greetings Miss, I would like most sincerely let you know of the most fantastic find in history." Wallace said.
" Why are you talking like that?" Donnic asked.
" My personality AI is programmed with that of Wallace Williby, the finest inspector in all of Remnant." Wallace said.
" Okay, why were you separated from your memory core?" Dante asked.
" Mr. King had separated me from my memory matrix to prevent our discoveries from falling into the hands of the sinister menace, Inquisitor." Wallace explained.
" What are your discoveries?" Winter asked Wallace.
" We had learned the identity of Inquisitor, or should I say William Jacob Darnell, son of Robert Darnell." Wallace said.
" Wait, what?" Everybody said.
" Inquisitor is in sure fact, Robert Darnell's son." Wallace said.
" That could explain how he knew about the hybrids." Alexis Domino said.
" We need to share this information with General Ironwood." Winter said.
" He'll be glad to know the guy who managed to bring Atlas to it's knees in fear just happens to be the son of a psychopathic scientist who has been dead for awhile." Donnic said.
" Well, if he lives long enough, James Ironwood can make sure he gets a speedy trial." Wallace said.
" Wait, what do you mean if he lives long enough?" Nephele asked.
" The poor gent is sick, sick to point where he has to wear a suit of modified power armor just to keep himself alive." Wallace said.
" What is he sick with?" Desmond asked.
" Mutation, he is sick with a mutation that was the result of an experimental cure for the infertility of the precursor hybrids. " Wallace explained.
" Precursor Hybrids? Infertility?" Donnic said.
" Must mean the Hybrids his father had created." Evan figured.
" Precisely bruv, the cure mutated some of the cells in his lungs, causing them to swell up like a sponge, causing severe respiratory issues. Poor boy was practically choking to death." Wallace explained.
" So what does the armor do for him?" Evan asked.
" Why, It has Nano-mites that are constantly suppressing the mutated cells, prolonging his life. " Wallace said.
" So now we have knowledge on our enemy." Donnic said.
" I'll contact General Ironwood to tell him what we've learned." Winter said.
Winter's scroll began to go off violently, and she answered it hoping it to be General Ironwood, but it was his assistant instead...
" Operative Schnee?" Nyssa, Ironwood's assistant, said in a worried tone.
" Nyssa? What's wrong? What?" Winter said before concluding her call.
" What's wrong, Winter?" Andrea asked.
" General Ironwood, he's been attacked." Winter said.
" What? By Who?" Dante asked.
" Brigadier General Bennett." Winter said.
Everyone was speechless at what Winter said, the traitor in the Aletian government has just shown himself...
This chapter concludes with Inquisitor's Identity revealed: that he is the son of Robert Darnell, and is being kept alive by a high-tech suit of power armor that prevents his lungs from choking to death. But it also ends with a shock as Ironwood has been attacked by Brigadier General Bennett, who has been forced to reveal that he is a traitor. The next chapter shows what happened between Ironwood and Bennett, and then the kids discover how Sanctuary looks...
WAIT AND SEE.