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Two grunts were walking down the hall when they were suddenly knocked to the ground by a blur of green. Rubbing their heads, they looked around bewildered as to what had happened. Footsteps approached as the two agents got up. They immediately flattened themselves against the wall to let pass the small stampede of… teenagers? A young girl stopped and a motorbike sprouted from her legs. She grabbed a shorter boy and pulled him behind her before zooming off after the blur. Two identical looking girls came running after.
The two grunts stared at each other with immense confusion. White Knight's voice blared over the loudspeaker as the emergency lights turned on.
"All personal, we are on lockdown. Code blue. Everyone to their stations." The two grunts rushed off.
When Six arrived at the nursery, which was a room specifically repurposed for them, he heard his son's piteous cries. Six kicked down the door of the nursery, his blades drawn. Standing over the crib stood a grunt. The nanny lay on the ground unconscious. Before the grunt even had a moment to react, several shurikens embedded themselves into his chest. The grunt staggered back. Six rammed him and unthinkingly struck with his blade. The head rolled to the floor as the body hit the ground.
"Ewww," Violeta said from the door.
"What? Lemme see, lemme see." Rafael said from behind.
"No, hermano. You'll have nightmares." Violeta pushed him back.
Six ignored them as he folded up his blades and carefully picked up his crying son.
"It's okay. I'm here now. No one's going to hurt you." He murmured while bouncing him.
"Aw, it's only a robot." Rafael said with disappointment. "I thought there'd be blood."
It was then Six realized that the decapitated grunt was sparking.
"It's a training drone." He said flatly but the expression on his face sent chills down the sibling's spine. More footsteps came as Jade and Jasmine arrived. Jasmine immediately ran to the fallen body and pulled open a panel on its back. She pulled out some wires and plugged them into her minicomputer.
"It's been reprogrammed by Zag-RS, or at least her emissary. It has her proverbial fingerprints." She stated grimly.
"Can you find out more?" Jade asked.
"No, my computer doesn't have that capacity. Violeta? Can you help?" Jasmine asked. She stepped back next to her dad to make room.
Six watched as the teen walked over to the robot and place her hands on it. As soon as the blue lines circumvented around it, the robot started smoking.
"Look out!" Jade pulled Violeta back. Everyone crouched as the body exploded. Violeta built her Smack Hands shielding everyone from the debris.
"Everyone all right?" Six asked looking around.
They responded with a chorus of affirmatives.
Jasmine looked at Violeta who was glaring at the smoking remains. "Anything?"
"All I got is that it was reprogrammed. No Zag-RS herself." Violeta said shaking her head. "But I don't know who did it."
"It has to be by someone who had authorization." Six said in a tight voice. "We have been compromised."
The children looked at each other with concern.
0o0
"How are you feeling, son?" Holiday asked feeling strange even as the words left her mouth.
"Better, thanks." Kenji sighed in relief as the fading stopped. "Ugh, that was trippy." He stood up shakily.
"I think you're going to be fine." Caesar quickly scanned him.
Angel was kneeling on a chair next on his father. "Why are you using the old health monitor? Did you make the new one explodes again?"
Caesar looked at the boy with discomfort. "Uh, no."
"Angel, leave them alone. I think you're freaking them out." Kenji told him.
"No, we're not freaked out. Just a little disconcerted." Beverly quickly corrected him.
"I can't find any tampering or any sign of Zag-RS in the system." Rex said as he took his hand from the console.
"What does that mean?" Beverly asked.
"I think it means that we have a physical menace rather than an AI one." Circe answered.
White Knight frowned from the monitor. "Put a firewall on our systems. Then I want a complete sweep of the premises. No stone goes unturned."
"Oooo, I like turning stones." Angel declared. Everyone glanced at him briefly before turning when the door slid opened.
Six walked in holding baby Kenji with the rest of the teens in tow. Holiday quickly went over to check on them.
Six glanced over at the teenaged Kenji. "You, okay?"
"Yes, sir." He noticed that Kenji stood a little straighter when he answered.
"There's no sign of Zag-RS in the system. She must be…" Rebecca started saying to Six.
"Her emissary is here and is masquerading as a person." Six finished.
"How are we going to find it?" Circe questioned.
"Well, the emissary has to be a robot, right? Why don't Uncle Rex and Violeta go check everyone?" Angel offered.
They looked at each other. Why didn't they think of that?
"That's not a bad idea, mijo." Caesar put his hand on his son's head.
"Thanks. Can I have a cookie?" Angel asked.
"First, Violeta, check everyone here." Six said.
"What?" Rex asked startled.
"The drone that attacked Kenji had to be reprogrammed by someone with authorization. That means anyone of you." Six said grimly.
Violeta looked questioningly at White Knight.
He nodded. "That's not a bad idea."
"You can start with me." Six said sticking out his hand. "So you know."
Violeta touched her uncle's hand gingerly. "He's real." She went around the room touching the adults as they held out their hands. When she touched her father, there was a spark and they both drew back their hands.
Six tensed and his blades dropped into his hands.
"No, he's dad!" Violeta quickly interceded. "It was just weird."
"Yeah." Rex agreed. "It's like my nanites was confused by yours."
Caesar scanned Violeta. "She has the Omega-1!" He exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, dad gave it to me before we left."
Caesar rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Then Omegas must be confused when they encountered each other. I would recommend you two not touch."
"Why? What would happen?" Rex asked.
"Well, I can't be sure but implosion could be a possibility." Caesar said nonchalantly.
"Ask a silly question." Rex wrinkled his nose.
"Rex and I will start at the North quadrant. Violeta and Kenji start at the South quadrant. We will meet at the Petting Zoo." Six interrupted them. "We need to find the emissary now."
"What about the rest of us?" Jade asked.
"Rebecca, stay here with Kenji. Watch him." He told her softly as he handed the baby to her. Rebecca held Kenji tight against her and nodded. "The rest of you stand guard in case Zag-RS shows up."
"You don't need all of us to stand guard." Jade protested. "I want to come with you."
"No!" Six said harshly but regretted it when her eyes teared-up. In a kinder tone, he added, "You're needed here."
"Um, I think one of us should go with you, dad." Jasmine stammered. "I mean… most likely Zag-RS would go after you and Uncle Rex."
"I'll go with you guys!" Rafael said enthusiastically.
Six and Rex looked at each other.
"That's nice of you but…I… uh… don't know how helpful…" Rex began.
"Hey, I can help." Rafael turned and blasted a chair with his sonic scream.
Circe's jaw dropped. "How… how?" She stuttered.
"I got your powers mom." Rafael smiled. "You can watch everyone here and I'll go watch dad."
"Time's wasting!" White Knight snapped. "Rafael, go with your father and Agent Six."
"Uncle Six." Rafael interrupted.
"And I'll have Agent Bobo meet you in the South Quadrant." White said ignoring him.
"Ooo Uncle Bobo? That's awesome!" Violeta squealed.
"Aww, lucky!" Rafael pouted.
"But why?" Kenji protested.
"I can't have you kids wandering unescorted around my base. You don't know this place. And since Caesar and his assistant have no combat experience…" White started explaining.
"I'm right here! I have a name!" Beverly said exasperated.
White ignored her and continued. "They should stay here. Agent Circe will provide protection along with the rest of you." He indicated to the twins.
"What can I do?" Angel spoke up.
"I don't care. Just stay out of the way." White snapped.
"Okay." Angel ducked under the table. "Is this good?"
"Fine, whatever." White said. "Why are you still here? Go!"
The two teams scrambled out. White closed the door and sealed it.
0o0
When Six and Rex walked into the communication room, the grunts stood at attention. Six briefly explained what they were there to do. The grunts nodded and held out their hands. Rex touched each person's hand. He turned to Six when he finished and shook his head. "They're all clean."
"Then let's go to the next room." Six motioned for them to leave. They went from room to room checking each person. After each room, Rex would answer the same. "They're clean."
After a few hours, they found themselves in the tower where the Petting Zoo was located.
"Well, we're done." Rex looked around. "They should be done soon, too."
Six checked the clock. "We'll give them a few more minutes. Then we'll go check on them."
During all this time, Rafael had been quiet. He now spoke. "You know dad? You're really different than when you were younger."
Rex looked at him. "Yeah? How?"
"You're not so uptight now." He replied.
"Wait, I'm uptight?" Rex asked startled.
Rafael shrugged and turned back to looking at Six who was reporting to White. Six's body stiffened and he turned to face them.
"White says he can't reach Kenji, Violeta, and Bobo." Six told them.
"Does that mean they found Zag-RS?" Rex asked alarmed.
"Or Zag-RS found them." Six stated bleakly. "Let's go."
They quickly exited to find them.
0o0
Kenji spotted Bobo right away. He looked the same in the past as he did in the future: same blue jacket, same red fez…
"Who the heck are you?" Bobo glowered at them.
Same bad attitude.
"Hi Uncle Bobo!" Violeta cried happily running to give the simian a hug.
"Whaaaa?" Bobo leapt onto the light fixture away from her.
"Oh right, you don't know. We're from the future, Rex is my dad and Six is his." Violeta stuck a thumb in Kenji's direction.
Bobo eyes narrowed. "Really? So Green Bean had some kids? That's a shock."
"Yeah." Violeta said. "We're here to stop Zag-RS from killing our parents."
"Is that so?" Bobo said carelessly. "So hows you gonna do that?"
"Well, to start we've got to see if she's pretending to be a person. I have to check to see if everyone is human." Violeta answered.
"So if you come down you can show us to the rooms we can get started." Kenji said impatiently.
"Fine, but no hugging. Bobo's not into touchy feely stuff." Bobo warned her.
"OK." Violeta said disappointed.
Bobo led them into the first room. Bobo told the grunts gruffly what Violeta was there to do. The grunts complied. Kenji watched as she touched everyone's hand.
"All real." Violeta announced.
As they went from room to room, they found nothing.
"I guess we should go meet dad and see if he found anything." Violeta sighed.
"I think we would have been informed already if they found anything." Kenji observed.
"Probably." Bobo answered. "Come on, I'll take you to the tower." He started walking down the hall.
"Wait, Bobo, the tower's this way." Violeta said grabbing the chimp. As soon as she touched him, she fell to the ground gripping her hand.
"Violeta!" Kenji quickly went to her. She was sliding away from Bobo who was glaring coldly at her.
"That's not Bobo." She said with fear. Kenji pulled Violeta up and pushed her behind him.
Bobo pulled out a blaster from his belt. "I told you no touching." He snarled.
Sorry for the lack of updates but the start of school has been very busy. I've also been lacking in motivation lately. Again I know where I want to end up and there are certain scenes I want to incorporate but connecting them is hard and I haven't had time to focus on it. As it is I have not been happy about the chapters I've been turning out. As I've said before I have a very good track record of finishing. So I'll do my best but it may be a while before the next update. As usual, thank you to 00RaiserGundam for editing my seasons. (I actually upload stories before 00RaiserGundam has a chance to look at it so any initial mistakes will be corrected later.)