Night had fallen. In a ruined building, abandoned and blown out by the fiery nuclear blast, electricity crackled throughout the room. After a moment, four cold, colorful spheres suddenly appeared. The spheres resembled rotating marbles for a second before just as quickly disappearing as fast as they had appeared.
Standing in the sphere's place were four individuals, two females and two males. They were fully clothed, dressed like any other Resistance member, and two appeared to be carrying the standard plasma rifle. Without a doubt, each of them appeared like they could be a spokesperson for the IFBB. The females, slimmer than the average bodybuilder with beauty to rival any top model, and the males were akin to Mr. Olympia.
They immediately scattered around, each taking cover against a wall in opposite directions to look for any threat.
"Does anyone see anything?" A male asked.
A female peeking over the edge used her eyes to spy a distant group of survivors trekking along. Her eyes were able to distinguish that it was a trio of humans scavaging through the wreck of a building, highlighting them as blue.
"Just some humans." She said.
The other male looked over the edge and spotted five individuals snaking their way around some ruins. His eyes, like the female's, could also distinguish the humans, highlighting four of them blue. The fifth lit up in a red highlight.
"One-four, I got one." He said.
One-four, or one of four, was the designation of the other male. A Caucasian with blue eyes, crew cut, dark hair, and over six feet tall. He leaned up against the same wall as his partner to look for himself.
All of them had these weird names. Since only four of them had gone on this particular mission 'four' was the highest number any of them could go by. Two-four was a dark-colored woman with short, dark hair and eyes. Three-four was a dark-colored male. There was no hair on his head but he did have a dark soul patch as well as blue eyes. He was now sitting across One-four as he looked on with him. Four-four was the Caucasian woman who'd spotted the trio of humans. She had shoulder-length, blonde hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes.
One-four watched as the survivor hunkered down in a ditch not far from their location. "I got them," he said. "Let's move out."
All four roadie ran to a spot near the survivors. It was a mound created by the debris of the war. They picked a spot that was about a block away from the ditch, huddling together back to back to check for any threat, before normally convening.
"Four-four," One-four called, "Do you have the neural remapper?"
Four-four reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a flashlight to hand over.
"I'll go get him," One-four said. "You all wait here till I get back."
One-four took the neural remapper and left to join the survivors in the ditch moments later.
Aside from the four humans, there was something else with the familiar face of William Candy, a Terminator, T-800 on an infiltration mission. In One-four's eyes, he lit up clearly with a red highlight as the others showed a blue highlight. All of them were sitting crouched and wrapped in blankets against a wall.
"Welcome," a survivor said. "My name's Roache. We've been looking for you. Surely, your base must be nearby for you to be out here."
One-four sat next to the T-800, making himself an easy would-be target.
The T-800 looked at him suspiciously. With its own advanced eyes, it could read One-four's body heat like that of a regular human. The head however was giving off an unusual amount of heat.
One-four smiled at the T-800. "So, what's your name?'" he asked.
The T-800 didn't respond. He simply stared and then looked at Roache.
"He doesn't speak," Roache answered. "We found him yesterday while rummaging through a building." He then chuckled. "We just call him Bob."
One-four snickered. "Bob, huh," he said. "I'll tell you all what. Our base is very close, but for security concerns, I can only take you one at a time."
Roache looked at 'Bob' and the others before looking at One-four with glee and nodding.
"I'll take your silent friend first," One-four said.
Bob got ready to move out. It was part of his mission anyway and for all he knew he was about to be one step closer to completing it.
One-four led the way, leaving the survivors behind and letting Bob jump over a pile of rubble in front of them.
Bob waited for One-four's directions before moving on.
"That way," One-four pointed. "Dead ahead. I'll be right behind you."
As Bob ran, he failed to notice One-four equip the neural remapper and place it against his head. Electricity instantly coursed through his body for a moment as he came to an immediate stop.
"Come on," One-four said. "You're with us now."
Bob now knew everything he needed to know and was reprogrammed to carry out a new set of orders. He began to follow One-four without any question and joined up with the others. The large phase plasma rifle he was carrying under his clothes was now visible and resting on the ground beside him.
One-four handed the neural remapper over to Two-four, who then plugged it into another device that resembled a small tablet.
Three-four and Four-four looked at each other perplexed at Bob's presence.
"What is he doing here?" Three-four asked.
"He is not part of the mission," Four-four added.
One-four placed a hand on Bob's shoulder and smiled. "I've adjusted the plan to be more efficient. While we take care of things here, he can go on ahead of us to start construction before we arrive. Then we'll be ahead of schedule for the next one we go to."
"This is highly unusual," Four-four said. "We have never deviated from the procedure. Are you sure about this? I know you used the neural remapper on him, but he's still an inferior model."
One-four switched his gaze from his teammates to Bob. "Don't worry," he said. "Part of the mission involves finding new ways to improve it, and by sending him ahead it'll be vastly better."
Three-four turned to Four-four. "Sounds good to me." He said.
The trusty, all-in-one, tablet Two-four held hummed faintly. "Got it," she said. "The location of the TDE was in his processor. It's not too far from here. Our friend here also has Skynet's location, but I can't pick up any data waves, however, I am detecting chronotons in the area that he says the TDE is."
"How far is it?" One-four asked.
Two-four kept her eyes on the tablet. "We can make it by tomorrow night with no problem if we quad-time it. Skynet's a little farther and slightly in another direction."
One-four looked around. "Better find a car or something," he said. "Don't want anyone seeing us move that fast. Might raise suspicion and ruin everything."
"Ruin?" Four-four wondered. "Aren't you taking that chance by bringing this guy?"
One-four motioned to Bob. "Everyone," he began. "Meet Bob. Bob, everyone. Bob, you do know what our mission is and what it entails, right?"
Bob nodded.
"You also know what to do once we send you, huh?" One-four asked.
Bob again nodded.
"See," One-four said looking at his team. "The neural remapper took care of everything. He knows who we are and what to do. Once we're done here and move on, everything will be ready."
Three-four looked back over a small wall. "I think I see a truck." He said.
"Good," One-four said. "Take Four-four and go get it."
Three-four hurried over to the truck, which could certainly use a new paint job. He hopped in as Four-four entered the passenger seat.
"What do you think?" Four-four asked as Three-four leaned over to hotwire the truck.
"About what?" Three-four asked.
"Bob," Four-four replied. "This is highly unusual, don't you think? We've been on dozens of missions. I don't see why this change is necessary."
Three-four attempted to start the truck several times with no luck. He quickly popped the hood and jumped out to check the engine.
Four-four just sat and waited for several moments till Three-four came around to her side.
"Engine's shot," Three-four said. "We got to find something else." He then looked around and found a jeep not far. "Come on."
Getting into the jeep was easy and hotwiring went smoothly.
"Well," Four-four continued. "Your thoughts on the matter."
"Relax," Three-four said. "You're only voicing your concern 'cause that's one of your traits."
Four-four leered at Three-four for a moment before saying.: "And it's one of yours to back him up no matter what."
Three-four then began to drive over to pick up everyone. "That's right," he said. "He's gonna come up with something new from time to time. Two-four will work on improving it and we'll all sing kumbaya."
The rest of the team jumped in the jeep. Bob rested his rifle on the mid-support beam.
"Eyes up everyone," One-four said. "Hopefully, we won't run into any trouble. Three-four, pretend a bunch of people are around and you just stole this."
The jeep then took off at high speed in the middle of the night, with no lights, though they weren't needed as everyone had eyes that could see in the dark perfectly fine.