By the time I reached the ground floor of the apartment I found Max waiting for me and Shock, along with a familiar face. A young looking lady stepped forward.
"You must be Jessie. I'm Molly McGrath." She said and I realized she was the same woman from THI.
"So you're Max's mom. Nice to meet you." I said.
"Isn't she the CEO of THI? That's pretty impressive." Shock said to me and that's when I had the first shock for the day when Molly asked where Shock was. I couldn't help looking surprised and Max grinned.
"My mom's already met Steel so I wanted to introduce her to Shock." Max explained and I nodded.
"That's fine but maybe we should go somewhere less out in the open." I suggested. Heading back inside for a few minutes, Shock detached once we were inside the kitchen of my apartment.
"As Jessie pointed out I'm Shock. Her Ultralink and partner." He said as he reached out and shook Molly's hand.
"You forgot friend." I added as he returned to me.
"It's nice to meet you, Shock." Molly said and he nodded. "How long have you had your Turbo powers for?" She asked me and I shrugged.
"Roughly a week I think. The longest week of my life." I said and Molly laughed.
"Tell me about it. Being attacked by Miles Dredd and the Ultimate Elementor constantly puts a damper on things. Not to mention Jason Naught and Toxzon." Shock told them, his arms crossed against his 'chest'.
"All in a week? I have to say I'm impressed. And not long after gaining your powers too. Max told me that the Elementor's imprisoned in N-Tek after your last battle." Molly said and Shock nodded. "By the way Max also told me that you and Berto had a falling out." When I heard that I frowned at Max.
"Before you get mad at me, Molly found out from Forge. Apparently Berto's been moping about ever since you had a fight with him." Steel told me and I raised an eyebrow.
"Just for the record he was the one who used me." I responded, unwilling to show any sympathy for him.
"You can't say I didn't try." Steel said, linking with Max.
"Not to change the subject but where should we go?" Max asked and Molly smiled. As we headed out the door, Shock asked me what I should do.
"About what? Oh, you mean Berto? I really don't know." I replied and, with a shrug, Shock linked up with me again. A short while later we were sitting outside a café. As I sipped at my soda I couldn't help wondering what was going on back at N-Tek. Distracted by my own thoughts, I didn't notice my phone ring until Shock spoke up and asked me why I wasn't answering it. It wasn't until I pulled out my phone and noticed I had two missed calls and one message that I grimaced. Checking the message I discovered that Berto had left a brief message addressed to me. It read:
I have to speak to you. Meet me back at N-Tek.
With a sigh I sent a message to tell him I would see him soon. Sensing my hesitation at talking to Berto, Shock said he'd come with me as backup.
"Thank you." I told him. Surprisingly Molly already knew what was going on before I had time to think of an excuse to leave.
"He called yesterday and asked for my advice. I hope you don't mind but I thought that talking to each other might help." She said and I smiled. Saying goodbye I returned to the alleyway where the secret entrance was. The moment the car reached the inside of N-Tek, I climbed out and made my way towards Berto's lab as Shock followed. We hadn't even gotten to the door when I found Jefferson and Kat standing outside. They had worried looks on their faces and when I walked towards them, they actually looked relieved.
"I'm glad you're here." Kat said and I have to say I was a little confused.
"Just go inside and you'll understand." Jefferson told me. Not sure what was going on I stood there for a moment and Shock gave me a puzzled look.
"I wonder what's…?" Shock started to say before I was almost knocked off my feet by an explosion.
"Wrong." He finished exchanging a look with me before we rushed inside the lab. The moment we went through I couldn't see from all the smoke.
"Berto? Are you in here?" I called and was soon answered by someone coughing. Wandering around I bumped into someone covered from head to toe in soot.
"Yeah...cough...its me." Berto said, wiping the soot from his face.
"What the heck just happened?" I asked him and as the smoke cleared I found myself surrounded by what was left of C.Y.T.R.O. As I bent down to pick up the robot's head I glanced at Berto who had finished dusting himself off.
"Nothing major." He replied, taking C.Y.T.R.O's head from me and I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Excuse me but I don't call an explosion in your lab 'nothing major'." I pointed out as he set the robot's head on the table nearby.
"Fine. I was distracted and I accidently crossed the wrong wire." Berto told me, running a hand through his hair before he turned around to face me.
"Uh huh. There's something you're not telling and I want the truth. Unlike yesterday." I said and he frowned at me.
"You're never gonna let that go, are you? After you left, well, I felt guilty that I didn't tell you the whole story before you spoke to Commander Forge. So here it is: I went out with you because I wanted to, not because of Forge and his plan to get you away from N-Tek." Berto explained. Unsure if I should trust him again or not I asked Shock his opinion.
"Believe it or not I think he's telling the truth." Shock told me.
"I want to trust you but I'm not sure if I can. It's not because you never told me what Forge was planning because I know you tried to. I appreciate that and everything, I really do. What I really want is the truth about how you really feel about me." I told him and he blinked. "I can't believe I just asked that."
"I'm as surprised as you." Berto said. Placing one hand under his chin and the other on his chest he began to pace. For the longest moment of my life I watched as he walked back and forth and I have to admit that I worried what his answer would be. Thankfully I got my answer sooner than I expected. Just not how I expected it.