Herke remained right behind Rhaegah as they realized they'd been cornered. Suddenly shots were fired from what he had surmised were rifles thanks to the many hours of movie watching he'd been catching up on. A sudden burst of lightning pushed him farther back hitting the wall and with that same burst, Rhaegah himself was shunted forward too fast to register. He looked at Rhaegah planning to call out to the dragonborn who simply reached behind him grabbing a small figure and sped out of the room leaving him with the threat of the room.
With Rhaegah gone, Herke was at a loss of what to do but after seeing Rhaegah's use of his abilities he assumed the effects of Aether's crystal had worn off. He focused on channelling his mana and was shocked to see that he still couldn't feel his mana which of course meant using magic wasn't an option. "Nygel always said to not use extreme violence on the humans on earth. Without my magic I have no other options" he rushes ahead faster than any of the guards could see. Not wanting to be caught off-guard, they began shooting blindly hoping one of them would be lucky to hit.
Moving from lab equipment to furniture, Herke was moving like a creature taunting its prey with the dominating feeling of being trapped when he was the one to be trapped. The guards calmed down to follow his movements shooting at the sight of anything that moved around them. One guard in particular was so fixated on him and was watching closely following his zigzag movements without shooting even once. Suddenly the room went silent save for the blaring siren that didn't seem to be anywhere close to stopping. Turning around, the guard kicked something and on looking discovered a severed arm still gripping a rifle laying next to a fallen guard. Taking the whole room into view, a room filled with close to a dozen guards laid in pools of blood alongside severed arms but not taking their lives.
Paralyzed with fear, the soldier dropped his rifle stumbling back and bumping into Herke who had blood dripping from his bloodstained hand, a scream the only thing he could utter. "Lucky he wasn't here. This would be quite difficult for some to swallow" he stated and made his way out of the room. Stepping out, Herke was faced with a more difficult situation as the corridor was filled with soldiers all armed with tactical gear and rifles pointed at him. Unlike the dozen in the room, these numbered at least twenty. He cursed this cramped space and dropped his gauntlets signifying his defeat. Though he was confident in his capability to slaughter all of them, he couldn't risk murdering any human which would be too difficult in this situation with them of course shooting to kill. A few soldiers closed in on him taking him into custody.
"You don't understand..... I need to get in there!"
"Do that and you'll be in the same situation as your friend.....whoever that is"
"I've promised to tell you everything I know but you have to help me now or they'll kill him"
"You forget that this is a research facility. They won't kill him..... At least not immediately" Anna assured Rhaegah who still could not understand how he'd grabbed Anna instead of Herke. The repercussions of this would be severe but he chose not to think about that yet as that would require an insane level of counter plans. First, he had to get Herke
"And what's that on your arm?"
Like oil poured into fire, Rhaegah could feel the absolute explosion of his entire secret life begin to unfold. "Not important right now. Where would they take him?"
"Luckily for you, he'll be taken to my personal lab. Get changed and meet me back here asap"
Rhaegah paused considering he was now at her mercy "Remember..... Don't do anything stupid or your friend is as good as gone" she reassured him and with that he took off into the forest. Thinking about it now he never really took time to study the island and it's scenery as this forest region was new to him. Trees stood tall providing adequate cover for him as he raced towards the school grounds. "So much for not keeping your things in school huh Kaneko?"
He came to a full stop abruptly "Where is he? He should be in there somewhere. I gotta reach him somehow" he decides to call Kaneko from the school grounds automatically excusing his being on the island. He resumes his sprint boosting himself with his mana but not his lightning attribute for obvious reasons. He reaches the school building and without stopping, dashes through the halls with stealth like moves avoiding students who were still about their business. He stops under a set of stairs on the same floor his class was on, staring intently at his locker. He looked at his watch glad that he happened to be here just as the next class was about to commence.
The time struck 11:45 and with it a loud ring of the bell, and like clockwork the halls were empty as everyone headed for their classes. Certain that the coast was clear, he resumed his catlike sprint towards his locker instantly putting the combination and retrieving his spare clothes from the opened locker. Without a moment to lose he makes for the bathroom, gets changed and heads out quickly towards his locker, stuffing his Valoren gear in. He let out a sigh resting his head on the closed locker
"Ditching class I see" Rhaegah turned speedily too certain there was nobody there a second ago
"Kaneko! Don't do that" he exclaimed on seeing his always cheerful friend. Rhaegah could feel his mana reacting to the sudden shock sending minor sparks down his hand which he quickly put behind him. "Was just gonna call you" Rhaegah trailed on "Anything major happening in the facility? I've decided to join them"
"Awesome.... Cos there's some major shit going down there" Kaneko looks around making sure no one was listening "Come on..... We gotta move now" he ended and they head out of the school premises. "There was a huge explosion somewhere in the facility that they're trying to keep under wraps..... Even from the rest of us in the facility cos I've still got no idea what's going on in there" Kaneko began when they were out of the school building
"So even Kaneko isn't in on everything... That means he still has no idea about the portal, magic..... Even me" Rhaegah thought wondering how to go about telling him everything. He decided to see how far Kaneko leads him before any of that. They get to the Fundamentals Sector and to Rhaegah's surprise, Kaneko didn't stop but kept walking "Where are you going?" Rhaegah asked
"Where are YOU going?"
"Apparently not the right way" Rhaegah surrendered letting Kaneko lead the way mentally face palming at the obvious thought. "And since things are going haywire in there I'd better fill you in on a couple of things. I haven't been completely honest with you" Kaneko stated as they neared a fence. Kaneko wasn't one to keep things from him, but then neither was he until this whole Valoren phase started.
"I mentioned the magic research as a joke but it's the real deal. They're devoting their top researchers and resources into that topic. It seems they found some sort of proof or something close cos it's been crazy this past week" Rhaegah said nothing "And today it seems they found concrete proof. That explosion wasn't the cause of the uproar... There's something else in there and Anna might not let you in on it but it's best you know"
Rhaegah in that moment knew what he had to do, but how much was he willing to disclose to Kaneko? Telling him about Valoren straight up would definitely cause a bomb to go off in Kaneko's head and their current journey, whatever that was, would be irrelevant. "I'll watch out for anything subtle..... Cos even I feel like there's a whole lot more than they're telling"
The two reached a wall Rhaegah wasn't sure was needed as it was literally about 10ft long and was not connected to anything seeing as one could easily just walk around the wall making him wonder if it could even be called a wall. "This is the most impressive thing I've seen so far" Kaneko stated before producing a key card. Rhaegah simply stared in anticipation as to what he could not believe was about to happen. Kaneko felt around the wall "Always hard to find" he muttered before fitting the card into a slot so thin it was practically nonexistent.
The wall hummed to life as whirring sounds could be heard from behind it. Rhaegah didn't need to be told that something major was going on behind. He walked over to find a box structure had formed from the wall itself folding and turning to form in every sense of the word.... an elevator "That was a brick wall"
"Yep"
"But yet it-"
"Yep"
"You're saying it's always been a-"
"Yep" Kaneko was loving the look of obvious confusion on Rhaegah's face which was something anyone rarely sees. They step into the elevator and Kaneko pushed a button which read 'B-13' chuckling at the thought "Wait wasn't B-13 a movi-"
"Yep" Kaneko's chuckle turned into laughter "First time I went down there I legit met a foreign dude and a cop. What could be better than that?"
"Maybe a room full of the worlds secrets and mysteries" Anna's voice cut in stopping the doors from closing and entering the elevator "And what is HE doing here? Or have you decided to finally join our odd family?" she directed the last part to Rhaegah who was still shocked by the constantly escalating situations
"Yeah I figured I've literally got nothing better to do so why not?"
"Cos I would've had to erase your memory of this entrance"
Rhaegah chuckled suddenly thinking of the MIB franchise before looking up to face the stern look on Anna's face and then Kaneko who seemed too scared to share his humor "Hold up.... You were serious about that".
The elevator door closed and the descent began in awkward silence. The person they were just talking about simply walked in on them and since she was obviously acting as though their earlier encounter didn't happen, he decided to roll with that and not complicate things. "But now Anna knows and I still haven't told Kaneko. Shit this sucks..... I have to tell him everything when this blows over, or in fact when we're done with whatever's gonna happen down there"
"Oh and Kaneko....." Anna broke the dreaded silence "I forgot to inform you earlier, you've been granted clearance to join my team" she stated as the elevator slowed to a halt then opened "Looking forward to working with you both" she left the elevator and walked away faster than anyone would seem necessary. Rhaegah made sure to follow her movements to know where she was headed since they were to meet up.
"So you're automatically gonna be part of the inner circle on your first day? And yet I who recommended you am only just bring considered? The injustice" Kaneko laughed as they walked past a couple workers before suddenly dragging Rhaegah into a separate room "I think she's on to us. I refuse to believe she just simply appeared in that elevator by sheer coincidence. Be careful Rhae... There's all kinds of fishy in this facility"
Kaneko leads him through a number of doors turning at certain points that Rhaegah was sure any random person simply following would be absolutely lost. It was challenging for Rhaegah to keep track but he was able to perfectly recall the way back. "Through here..... We'll have a good view from here" Kaneko finally spoke on getting to a door without a tag.... The only one Rhaegah had noticed since he set foot into the facility "I'm not sure anyone remembers that this room exists" he added before opening the door and stepping in.
Rhaegah stepped in and was paralyzed with fear with what he saw. A large glass revealed what was in the very next room "It's a one-way glass. I've been using this room as my safehouse in this facility" Kaneko stated sounding proud of his secret spot. It was impossible for Rhaegah to forget that room.... That was the CRONUS Reactor room they had first appeared in. "Kaneko had a view of the reactor room the whole time?" this thought wasn't even close to the fear he felt on seeing Herke strapped to a chair in a glass chamber connected to the reactor via pipes and several cords "And of course there's the cause of the uproar. Apparently they believe he can use magic.....Sucks to be that guy" Kaneko blandly stated
"Yeah..... Sucks"