Our Signal

"Midas!" Gian-Luca was banging on his containment room door.

The door was answered by Venus. "What do you imbeciles want?" He looked at Gian-Luca and Ian.

"Midas needs to know this immediately," he brushed past Venus.

Inside, Midas was sitting on his bed. "What's the matter?" He asked.

Ian stepped forward, "We saw Overseer Raphael during our trials today."

Midas' eyes grew wide. "Overseer Raphael? Really? It was really him?"

"Yes. He took Abel with him to the Garden, talking about something to do with a secondary ability—"

"That's bullshit," Midas interrupted. "That 'secondary ability' talk is nonsense." He held his mouth, "It's just as I'd hoped, and just as I'd read…"

Gian-Luca asked, "What do you mean it's nonsense? That's what both Overseer Jophiel and Overseer Raphael said."

"It's a cover-up. I know what they're truly planning to do to Abel. I've read docs off of Overseer Chamuel's terminal that were collaborated with Overseer Jophiel and Overseer Raphael. A soul-transfer's going down," Midas crossed his arms.

"Soul transfer?" Gian-Luca questioned.

"Yes, Abel's a vessel; a vessel for Reed Regardius' soul."

"What?" Ian was bewildered. "Didn't Reed Regardius die back in that incident?"

"He did," Midas turned around. "But his soul didn't. According to Overseer Chamuel's documents, his soul didn't pass on after his death. Knowing this, Overseer Raphael decided to develop a vessel—a new body for Reed Regardius to take up with his still-living soul."

"And that's… Abel?"

Midas nodded. "Mhm, which means Reed Regardius is soon to be reborn in Abel's body. And when that happens, he's gonna wreck havoc," Midas looked at everyone; "Remember, this is taking place in the Garden, and what important thing is found there?"

Ian spoke up, "The main control for the ability immobilizers. So you mean that your hypothetical plan to disable the ability immobilizers all this time was to have Reed Regardius destroy it?"

"Yes," Midas replied.

"But where in the Garden is the main control? How can we be sure Reed's gonna destroy that part?"

"I gained access to a lot of things off of Overseer Chamuel's terminal, and one of those things was the facility mapping. I scoped out the Garden segment, and the ability immobilizer's main control is found in the ability-inducting room. That's supposedly the room where Abel's soul transfer is going down. So if I've lined things up correctly, Abel transforms into Reed, Reed wrecks the place, and hopefully that includes the control panel for the ability immobilizers."

Gian-Luca nodded in understanding. Ian on the other hand, held his skeptical expression. "I'm expecting, and hoping, you've already got this figured out, but… if the ability immobilizers aren't disabled in the first place, how will Reed use his ability to destroy the control panel, let alone the entire place, if his ability's gonna be inhibited by the immobilizers?"

"I thought the same. But I figured out through my digging that the Garden has no ability immobilizers," Midas smiled.

"None? Really? Just like our testing chambers?"

"Exactly. The reason being that the ability immobilizers would inhibit the induction of abilities, and that very process can only occur in the Garden. Therefore the place needs to have zero immobilizers."

Midas now turned to the three in the room. "Knowing that Abel was taken to the Garden a while ago, it's likely he's currently undergoing the soul transfer. With that in mind, we're short on time, so we need to act soon," he began walking towards the room exit. "Get everyone together immediately. Our abilities will be activated soon. Once they are, we can proceed with the escape plan."

The rest in the room nodded, and followed Midas out the door.

"Veronica! Vidia!" He called down the hall.

The two came rushing out of their room, meeting the four further down the hall.

"What's up? What's happening?" Veronica curiously asked.

"Overseer Raphael showed up," Midas said.

"R-Really? So you were right!" Veronica was shocked. "That means…"

"The escape is set in place. It's only a matter of time before Abel, er… Reed, begins wrecking havoc in the Garden."

"Reed? You mean Reed Regardius? I thought he was—"

"I'll explain later," Midas sighed. "What matters now is preparing to leave. Did you disable the communication keypad in your chamber?" He asked Veronica.

"Y-Yes," she nodded.

"Did you guys?" He pointed to Ian and Gian-Luca. The two nodded.

"Okay, good. That'll delay the call-ins for Overseer Chamuel, Jophiel, and Ariel for a while once we begin our escape, giving us a head-start." Midas pointed to a speaker in the ceiling. "The only problem are those. They can communicate to the entire facility all at once, and we haven't yet disabled those."

"Isn't that bad?" Gian-Luca asked. "If those comms are still available, then couldn't Overseer Michael send his Angels after us? And even if the keypad communication's been disabled for each of our Overseer's chambers, Overseer Gabriel could still be able to alert them through the main speaker, wouldn't he?"

"Just wait," Midas was frustrated at all the questions that provoked his certainty. "There's a reason we haven't disabled the main comms yet. We're gonna be using Reed's outburst to our advantage. If word of his destruction makes its way to comms, they'll send all the Angel Units his way. It's during that time that we make our move, since the majority of the Angels will be with him, and not with us. That removes the hassle of having to face hundreds of Angels. With this distraction, we can also avoid a massive hurdle; Overseer Azrael. Since he was the one who executed Reed five months ago, there's no way he won't go back to do that again," Midas turned to everyone. "Does that make sense? Are we good?"

Everyone nodded in response. "So what's happening now?" Venus decided to ask.

Midas spoke aloud, "We can set out with our escape plan, starting with disabling communications. Our cue to go will be the announcement of Angel reinforcements sent Reed Regardius' way, in which then we'll storm communications, subdue Overseer Gabriel, and then fully disable communications ourselves. Once we've done that, we can escape with low to zero probability of having to face incoming Angel reinforcements."

As if on queue, the speaker systems began blaring an alarm throughout the facility.

"Requesting as many Angel Unit reinforcements as possible to be sent to the Garden. The Garden has been breached, subject Reed Regardius is causing destruction. Seize him before he destroys any more valuable technology in the Garden. I repeat: requesting as many Angel Unit reinforcements as possible to be sent to the Garden. Requesting immediate backup from Overseer Michael." It was Overseer Gabriel making the announcement, as usual.

"That's our signal," Midas pointed up.

Everyone then felt their bodies tense, as a rejuvenating sensation of energy flowed within them—

Their abilities had returned. The ability immobilizers seemed to be disabled.

"And that's signal number two," Midas clenched his fist.

"Now let's go after our first hit; Overseer Gabriel," he turned to everyone else; "—and earn our freedom out of this place."