Chapter Forty-Four: Turnaround

  Tanya managed to get cut free from the ropes that bound her to the chair. With a loud clanking sound, the chair slipped off of Tanya's back and onto the concrete floor. Tanya used a light spell to illuminate the room as she began quickly trying to cauterize Robin's wound. She then ripped a large strip from her own pants and used it to wrap around Robin's leg. Robin, however, passed out from the pain. Tanya took the knife that fell onto the floor, teeth marks embedded into the handle from Robin biting down on it so hard, and began to cut everyone free. "I can't believe that worked" Blake says as he rubs his wrists.

  "I've got to say" Holly praises, "I'm very impressed."

  "Well..." Tanya says in a low tone, "I'm not super proud of my past, but I guess it was good for something."

  "What kind of stuff did you go through to learn to do something like that?" Blake asks.

  "I'd appreciate it if you'd drop it" Tanya says as she picks Robin up from his chair. "What's done is done. Now let's work on getting out of here." Tanya carries Robin over her shoulder as they search around the room for a door. Eventually, they find a large vault like metal door in this cement room, but there was one major problem. The door couldn't be opened from the inside. "Dammit!" Tanya says. "How the hell does McNamara get in and out?"

  "Well, not magic. That's for sure" Holly says. "Which means there's a good chance there are guards waiting outside of this door that open it for him each time he wants in or out."

  "Can we blast open one of the walls and run for it?" Blake asks.

  "Two problems with that" Holly says. "If there's no windows anywhere, very few, tiny ventilation shafts on the ceiling and only one way in that's a heavy duty vault, then what do you think the odds are that this room is above ground? Chances are, we're underground right now, and blasting the walls open, if that were even possible depending on how thick the walls are, would only put us in more danger. Secondly, they have my laptop. I'm not leaving without it."

  "Screw your laptop!" Blake yells. "We can get you another one!"

  "How do you plan on tracking down our crew then?" Holly asks. Tanya and Blake were silent. "My laptop" Holly continues, "can track the remaining members of our team if they still have their cellphones with them. Now, there's a ton of security on my laptop, but it would only be a matter of time before they get past all of my security measures, if they haven't already."

  "And if that happens?" Blake asks nervously.

  "Then we're as good as dead" Holly says. "They won't need us anymore and we'll be swiftly discarded. More than that, our crew will be in danger, all of our efforts to put an end to the black skies will go to waste, and the chances of stopping both the Civil War in Omnia and stopping Ares will go down the drain faster than you can say 'whoops'. We're getting that damn laptop!"

  "Alright, then how do we get out?" Blake asks. "Only Tanya has a charm. Are we supposed to wait for McNamara to come back? Maybe get all of the guards outside of here to team up against us when only one of us can fight?"

  "Actually, waiting for McNamara might not be a bad idea" Tanya says as she thinks. "I think I have a plan."

  "Oh?" Holly asks. "Does it involve getting us out of here safely?"

  "And more" Tanya replies. "Follow my lead."

  The four of them waited in the dark for about an hour. Suddenly, the door could be heard opening, and Jacob entered the room. The four of them hid behind the door as it opened. This time, Blake carrying Robin on his shoulders. The door closed behind Jacob as he puts on his gloves with a charm carved into the palm. Jacob used a light spell to light up the room and he slowly got closer the the empty chairs. When he finally got close enough to see the chairs were empty, his heart nearly stopped in fear. He turned around, and the moment he made eye contact with her, Tanya punched Jacob in the gut with a buff spell. Jacob was sent flying over the chairs and hit the ground with a hard thud. He was concussed from hitting his head on the cement floor, but still tried to stand and fight. However, Tanya was already there to hold him against the ground. "I've got 'em!" Tanya calls out to the rest of the team.

  Holly removed Jacob's gloves and put them on her own hands. She then searched for a gun, and found a gun on Jacob's left hip, under his suit jacket. Blake brought some of the rope that was used to tie them up, and tied Jacob's hands behind his back. As Tanya picks up Jacob, Holly hands the gun to her and Tanya keeps the gun pressed against the side of Jacob's neck, angled up towards where his brain would be. "Jacob McNamara" Holly says as they apprehend him. "I'm assuming you still have those aluminum charms?"

  "Screw you" Jacob replies.

  "That's about the response I expected" Holly says as she points at her neck. "Though, I remember when I said something similar, you left your mark on my body. Maybe, I'll leave one over one of your eyes." Holly places her hand on the side of his face gently, and slowly slides her hand up the side of his face until her hand gently caressed his left eye and the left temple of his forehead. "After all, you only need one eye for what we're about to use you for." Holly then uses the gloves to summon fire and keeps her hand pressed firmly against Jacob's face as he screams in pain. After a minute or so, she removes her hand. "The siphons. Where are they?" Holly asks.

  Jacob was still hyperventilating from the pain for Tanya grew impatient, everyone's head starting to pound from the endo poisoning. "For the love of- I'll find them since you're being such a big baby!" Tanya digs in Jacob's pockets and eventually finds the aluminum charms that he previously used to slightly ease some of the effects of the poisoning.

  "One more thing" Holly says. "I'm going to need you to show me where you took my laptop."

  "Eat shit!" Jacob spits.

  Holly reaches down and hovers her hands over Jacob's pants. "The laptop, or you lose your balls" she says. "Your choice."

  Siran was extremely shocked and broken over the news of having been gone for two years, as well as Zia having gone missing. It took Siran a couple days to be ready to walk, but Demetri helped push him through it. His body was weak after being in a coma for so long, but luckily, Demetri made sure to keep his muscles massaged so they won't go limp. By the time Siran was ready to walk on his own, John Frueder was pushing him to hurry and get whatever job John has planned for him. Ignoring John's pressing on Siran, Demetri walked over and handed two phones to Siran. One was his phone he got when he and Zia first settled down in Seeira, but the other phone was Zia's. "We tried looking" Demetri says. "Believe me. I'm so sorry for you and your son. But I'm sure Zia is still out there. I know we can find her."

  Siran found it hard to open his phone or Zia's to look at it. His heart felt like it was falling apart, and he was sure he'd collapse if he opened his phone to see a picture of Zia waiting for him on the home screen. Eventually, he found the strength to open his phone. Sure enough, the home screen was just as he remembered it. A photo of Zia, with Silas in his high school uniform from when he first entered high school. Siran's sight was immediately blurred by tears forming in his eyes. However, Silas came to Siran's side to comfort him. Silas stood by his dad's side in silence, trying his best to just show that Siran wasn't alone, and that he hasn't lost everything. After a while, Siran wiped his tears and took another look at his phone. His phone displayed the date was Wednesday, November 24th 2213. Then, Siran noticed he had a message. He opened it up, and it was a message from Zia, from about three months ago. It was right after the crew all split up and went to help around the world. It read "Siran, we've all missed you and I wish you'd come back to me soon. Thing's have gotten out of hand since you've been gone and I fear the worst. But when I see you still fighting in that bed, I get this feeling that I should do the same. In case I don't have the chance to tell you this in person, I wanted to tell you one last time that I love you, and I'll always be with you in some way. Don't give up the fight, Siran."

  After Siran was able to walk and move normally again, and his strength had returned, John insisted on pushing Siran through a series of tests. "I want to make sure he's capable of fighting still" John says. "Because if he can't fulfill his role here, that'll be a major problem."

  "What are you planning on having him do?" Benjie asks in worry.

  "We need him to clear out the conflict in Omnia" John says. "With all that's going on, it makes our business... less than bearable. To have a society to undermine, there needs to be a society to begin with. You restore the country, and I'll exploit it for profit. Deal?"

  "That doesn't sound like a good thing to me" Benjie says.

  "Well, eat shit, kid" John says as he stares into Benjie's eyes. "The world ain't full of good things. If you're expecting a gang to perform good deeds, than you're hopeless. Seeing as how we allowed you to stay here under the recommendation of Don, you already owe us. Don't fuck with me and my deal, kid. This isn't negotiable. You owe us, and we will have our payment. One way or another. You're lucky enough that some of Wolfpack still acknowledges Don, but your luck ran out when you had to depend on Wolfpack for anything."

  "But that isn't fair! We're trying to help and save people's lives!" Benjie argues.

  "Life isn't fair" John says as he aggressively pokes Benjie's forehead. "Get used to it."

  "You might want to drop it" Don says as he approaches. "That's just how it is. Besides, it was to my understanding that you intended to save Omnia anyways. Well, keep in mind that not everyone who wants it saved, wants it saved for a saintly reason."

  "But..." Benjie says.

  "Son" Don says, "child, kid, young blood... whatever name reaches you best. Listen to me. Don't pry. Don't push it either. You knew it was a setup from the get-go. Leave it as a win-win for the both of you and move on. You can't win every battle."

  "And with that, we move on" John says as he grabs Siran by the back of his shirt and begins to pull him along. "It's time we put you to the test to see if you're really all you cracked up to be."

  John put Siran through many tests. He'd try to push Siran to run a track, make him shoot a target, test his strength by trying to make him punch a machine with a buff spell and it would then measure the impact of his punch. John tried lots of things. However, Siran wasn't responding to anything. He felt numb and heartbroken. Siran didn't have the least bit of strength to channel into any task aside from standing. His eyes were nearly lifeless and his face devoid of emotion. John was getting angrier and angrier by the moment about Siran's inability to comply. Eventually, Siran was dragged to a familiar scene. It was the arena Don once placed him in. However, this time, Siran wasn't surrounded by a bunch of Wolfpack members. In front of Siran, a single robot was placed. It was a Predator bot. The CH-Mk. 217. However, this one never was activated with Naris's endo. Instead, they used energy that was collected from the surrounding environment to power this thing. It turned on as John announced over an intercom "Siran, I'm getting tired of these shitty games! You either start pulling your weight, or I'm personally going to see you removed from this world. You have two choices. Fight this bot to prove your worth, or die here a pitiful death and never get in my way again."

  Siran still couldn't find the strength to stand up for himself. He was silent still, and the Predator rushed at him and punched Siran hard in the face. Siran was sent flying onto his side as he found himself dripping blood out of his mouth and nose. The robot forcefully picked Siran up by the collar of his shirt as John said "You'll never see your family again, Siran! Get up now, or you'll never be able to see your wife again!"

  Suddenly, a bunch of memories rushed to Siran's mind all at once. Some of the memories of Zia, and some of them of Inari. Suddenly, Siran remembers Inari saying "You don't have to save the whole world, you know. You just have to make a difference where it counts." Predator's metal fist meets Siran's face again, but this time, Siran didn't budge from the impact. In fact, some of the metal of the Predator's hands bent from hitting Siran's face. But other than the injuries Siran already had, he seemed perfectly fine. "I think I've finally lost it..." Siran says. The robot let's go of Siran, and Siran looks up at Predator, then up at John. "My sense of humor..." Siran adds. "I think I've finally lost it." A chill was sent down John's spine as a dark aura of endo swirls around Siran's feet. Siran looks Predator where his eyes should be, but it only meets an empty metal face. "You" he says. "You have one chance to move me. Even just a single inch. Do that, and I won't scatter your body across the entire arena."

  The robot takes a step back and starts to focus. It tries to use as much endo as it had stored for one final blow. It dashes at Siran and punches him as it also throws all of its weight as well as all the power it could summon into a single strong punch. It hits Siran in the face again, where it had hit before. However, Siran didn't budge nor move at all. Siran waits for a follow up attack, but it never came. The robot slowly reels its fist back as John stared at Siran in awe. Siran slowly took a deep breath inward, and before he could even exhale, the robot suddenly was smashed into thousands of tiny pieces, all shooting straight up into the air and raining down on the arena and the bleachers that surround it. As the flying debris cleared, Siran could be seen holding his stance from when he punched Predator just a moment ago. In the pose of an uppercut punch that hit Predator in the midsection, Siran slowly exhaled. "What the hell was that?" John asks in awe.