A few days later, while Marcus and Maxie were setting off to Central Park afterschool, a curious classmate came out of the blue and invited the duo for a study session. Still feeling nervous and anxious about the existence of Maxie, Marcus fibbed, "Sorry Steve, but I kind of have some research to do in the park."
Baffled, his classmate Steve asked, "Research in the park?"
Marcus continued his alibi. "Yeah! And Maxie is a great help for me…"
"How about you join us?" Maxie chimed in with a sparkle in her smile. Marcus freaked out and begged her to take back her words but Steve agreed, joining the duo. The poor child sighed in disappointment and eventually went along with it. As they made their way to Central Park, Marcus whispered to Maxie, "Please Max...next time let me do the talking."
Not feeling offended, Maxie responded happily, "Okay."
Marcus kept close to Maxie as they traveled to Central Park. They made a pit stop by Steve's apartment when he mentioned something about a flash drive. This gave Marcus an idea. All of a sudden, he became eager to enter Steve's residence and dragged a confused Maxie along. When they arrived at the perimeter, they were astounded at the extravagance of the Arlington Residence: rose-colored walls, golden beams and various photos of the Arlington predecessors. As the duo made themselves at home, a stranger in a uniform came to them and asked what they would like to drink.
Confused at this, Marcus and Maxie remained quiet. Steve came over and introduced, "Guys, this is my butler Frederick."
Marcus gasped, "A butler?"
Maxie stood up and responded, as if she was reading from a script, "Butler, noun, the chief manservant of a house."
Shocked and freaked out by this, Marcus had to jump in. "Sorry about that. She's a lover of words," Marcus chuckled awkwardly as Steve ordered Frederick to get some glasses of water. They left and Maxie looked to Marcus, stating her observation. "You seem very tense. Is there a reason for this sensation?" she asked.
Marcus sighed, "It's just hard, you know. Trying to pretend that my life is all good when a voice from some random laptop turns out to be some machine-transforming freak and somehow I can transform anything if I can imagine it? Plus Rodell and his family haven't been heard from me in the longest while and we're living with a crazy cat lady! Anyways, it looks like your programming could use some work!"
"I can understand the pressures of such a lifestyle, but please keep in mind that I won't be able to stay like this forever. Someday I'm going to have to morph into something else."
"What do you mean? You have like an expiration date?"
"Mmm, somewhat. Right now, I'm running a program that allows me to maintain a human form until my system starts to burn out."
"Burn out?" Marcus gasped. He stammered, "What do I do to avoid that? I don't want to cause another blaze!"
"Insert me into a flash drive. In order to do so, you must find a source that can work with a flash drive."
Marcus thought to himself and thought out loud, "Steve's laptop...and he must have a flash drive nearby!"
"Please do make haste of this mission. My tune-out time is in less than two hours."
"Two hours? I can deal with that!" Marcus boasted confidently. He got up and searched for Steve, when Maxie reminded him of something. "He would have to know about me," she reminded.
Marcus stopped in his tracks and decided for himself whether he should let another mind like his find out what could change the world for the unknown. Should I let him know of my dilemma, or should I smooth-talk him into it? He has eyes sharper than those perfectly sharpened pencils of his! He'll definitely figure me out! Whoa...keep it cool, Marcus. I can do this...he'll probably won't believe it anyways…he thought.
"Marcus?" Steve startled him without intention. Marcus spun around with a guilty look on his face. Steve appeared in the doorway with two glasses of water in his hands. Chuckling and walking over to him, Steve joked, "What's wrong, Toussaint? It's like you've seen a ghost or something!"
Marcus chuckled awkwardly, taking a subtle glance at an anxious Maxie. Marcus took a deep breath and responded, taking the glass of water, "Um, I need your laptop for something…"
"Oh you can't use your phone?" Steve noted with a little sense of suspicion. Marcus gulped and calmed himself down. He fibbed naturally, "It's urgent and it takes a long time on the mobile version."
Steve took the bait and allowed him to his room. Before Marcus could get there, he called to Maxie, "Uh Maxie? You wanna come with?"
Maxie yawned, stretching out her arms. "I'll come in a few minutes...I'm just really exhausted," she responded, as if the plan would never process. Feeling confused by this notion, the boys proceeded to Steve's room.
They logged onto his PC and Marcus asked for a flash drive. Steve, unsure of this request, responded, "What would you need a flash drive for?"
"It's important, Steve," Marcus pleaded. "Please. I'll explain everything later."
Steve nodded with suspicion but was startled by the display on his laptop screen. It was a white screen with dancing, thin black lines. They were bending, overlapping and connecting with each other for a split second. The boys were shocked by this and what was even more shocking was that the lines seemed to scripting something. Steve, freaking out, ran out of his room.
Left alone with the "faulty" PC, Marcus ran to its aid, figuring out the problem. As he examined the screen, he read the word that lines were scribing. He realized that it was his name. "Maxie?" he asked out of shock. The lines stopped, positioned themselves in vertical parallel direction and fell back to form a face of two eyes and a moving mouth. It stared at the shocked Marcus for a few seconds and smiled, responding while it moved its mouth, "Hey there, Marcus!"
"Whoa," Marcus gasped. "This is way too freaky...how did you do that?"
"I don't know...I believe it has to do with the fact that I used to be part of a machine and any chance for a connection is liable for me to get to a laptop or a source of some sort."
Marcus thought about it to himself, whispering his discovery: "Outlets." He raised his voice to Maxie in a nonthreatening way, "Maxie, I have an idea...but I'm not so sure about it…"
"What is it?" it sounded intrigued. Marcus ran to close the door and came back, hesitantly explaining, "I'll try and move you to a flash drive and find some way to understand you. For some reason, I feel you and I possess a power that nobody could ever possibly understand, let alone us."
"I do not understand this statement you speak of."
"Just think about it," continued Marcus, finding confidence. "There's something in you that you yourself don't even see, but somehow I can. You're more than just a morphing program...you're, oh what's that word?"
"Searching for word that completes your thought," Maxie responded monotonically. Marcus chuckled, almost bursting into laughter, "That's it! That's what you are! You're the greatest thing I have ever discovered!"
"Is that so?"
"Yeah...um, are you cooled down yet? I would like to see you in person."
"Give me about a few more minutes. I've been running on that form for more than I should stand. I think it's best that you carry me in your pocket."
"Right," Marcus affirmed, quickly inserting an empty flash drive he swiped from Steve's top drawer, retrieving Maxie and placing her in his pocket. When he turned around, he was caught off-guard by Steve's frightened appearance. He was holding a shoe and shivering. Marcus, pushing his hands slightly against the air, rationalized with Steve, "Steve, everything's okay. I'll explain everything later...I just needed a few…"
Steve ignored him, walked over to the dead laptop and smacked his shoe against the wall. The impact caused some of the photos hanging on his wall to shake a bit and when he removed the shoe, a brown smudge was left behind. Steve sighed in relief and remarked, "Now that's a step forward to facing fears."
He turned to the bewildered Marcus and continued, "So what did you need?"
Marcus shook his head and stammered, "Oh yeah, I just needed your laptop for some help but…got it!" He swiped the flash drive safely as soon as the processing was complete.
"Huh," Steve thought out loud, rubbing his chin in suspicion. "How did you know where my flash drives were? And how did you find the empty one?"
Nervous as a frightened turtle, Marcus stammered, "It was in the top drawer of your desk and it felt empty, considering you had tons of them."
Marcus caught himself and wondered how he got that answer. He stammered an awkward farewell and ran off. As soon as he got to the apartment that he was staying at, he immediately noticed a marked note upon the door. He took it up and went inside. He plugged on Maxie to his new laptop and another unthinkable thing occurred: a power surge struck the laptop and soon Maxie became the laptop.
Marcus sighed, having encountered this already, and questioned, "Why do you keep doing this?"
Maxie laughed. "Well, lucky for you, you don't have to see this anymore."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Marcus glanced over and noticed a strand of smoke from the adapter. He gasped, "What did you do?"
"As of right now, I am officially a laptop with a special morphing program!"
"Whoa, so you can still be a human but you stay as a laptop? What's with the change? Why couldn't you stay in the other laptops?"
"There was no domains that I could trust but this one feels just right," Maxie responded comfortably. Marcus took a seat and chimed in, "Well, if you're comfortable, then I'm comfortable."
When he opened up the laptop, he saw the same face he had seen when he first encountered Maxie. Maxie, happy and upbeat as always, greeted, "Hello Marcus, where do we start?"
"Start?"
"Yeah, since I'm a morphing program, you can input any amount of data into my system and on command, I'll transform!"
"Really?" Marcus was still surprised at this. Then he realized the note, but he would get to it later. "So I just go and add in whatever I want?"
"Yeah, you know...like a plane, a car...definitely not a horse carriage! That's just weird, since it has no engine…"
Marcus figured it out. "Oh okay...mechanical things with a current ...gotcha! Let's see...well, I've always wanted to fly high skies and I haven't had any driving practice."
"Then let me be one!"
"Alrighty then…" Marcus proceeded to searching up what he wanted and started adding in the data that was needed for such a transformation. Nobody knew how this was gonna work but somehow it did. Weeks later, Marcus was seen carrying around a strange smartphone and remaining very quiet, especially around Steve and Rodell. The funny part was nobody saw Marcus walk on his way to school, although they did see a strange purple car driving around the corner of their school.
One day, during lunch, Rodell came over to his quiet cousin and greeted himself, acting like he wasn't suspicious at all. He noticed that Marcus was on his laptop, researching something. Strange, Rodell thought. I never seen Marcus carry around a laptop bag, let alone does his own bag hold one.
"Hey, snazzy PC," Rodell complemented, feeling awkward by Marcus's silence. He soon realized that Marcus had earplugs on and seemed to be communicating with somebody.
Who is he talking to?
He had to go find out himself. He got up and walked behind Marcus, who immediately noticed Rodell's reflection on the screen and closed it without hesitation. He remained still while Rodell understood his message. He crossed his arms and left in despair and insult. Marcus, feeling slightly hurt by his reaction, resumed his research and Maxie started, "That was kinda cold, you know."
"Whatever," Marcus muttered under his breath. He rubbed his head against his resting arm and continued, "Until we can find out what's causing these sudden blackouts, we have to remain beneath the radar."
"Alright…"
"Now these have only occurred in big corporations and they're pretty much scattered out. They last about a few seconds, enough for the people to panic, but once the system's back on, there's no damage found nor reported." As he thought about it, he said to himself, "It's like someone's controlling it but how can they if the places are so far apart and the directions don't match up with the timing?"
All of a sudden, Marcus felt some taps on his shoulder and he turned to see an older classmate. She notified him that the bell had rung about two minutes ago and he hadn't move. Marcus cursed, turned off his laptop and ran off. As he ran through the crowd, Maxie subtly transformed into the miniature cell phone that would fit nifty in his pocket. He ran as fast as he could, until he bumped into Steve who noticed his rush.
Steve greeted him, "Hello there, fellow classmate. I see that you're in a big rush."
Panting, Marcus responded, "No time for sleazy jokes. There's a situation going on and nobody's doing anything."
"Oh you mean the blackouts that's been occurring this past week? Startling, isn't it? Three big corporations losing power within a three-days span? Hey, maybe I'll bring it up in the discussion today."
"Yeah...sure…"
Their teacher finally arrived after the bell and as the class started their discussion of first-world problems with technology, Marcus was busy away at one of the computers, continuing his research with Maxie in her flash drive form. As he studied their closed patterns but vast location-disparencies, a frustrated Marcus muttered, "No...but how? Is there something I'm missing?"
Maxie responded to his frustration, "Well, you did say before that it's like someone is controlling them. What if it's not a person?"
"What?"
"Think about it. How would a person know to go from point A to Point Q if they gotta go through the whole alphabet and then race to point D? It makes no sense...unless you're a computer."
"Which you are, sort of. What are you saying? Wait...this happened over three days so the person obviously had time to race over to each location."
"Through thorough analysis and calculation, this person would have to be super psychic since these blackouts occurred at the exact same time. I'm saying, get back to reality and keep me plugged in here. Don't forget me though while I uncover some kind of truth here."
"Can I let you do that?" Marcus asked her, unsure of himself. Maxie chuckled, "Don't worry about me. Remember, we're a team, right?"
"Yeah, we are!"
He removed his earplugs and turned back to the busy classroom. He turned off the computer and went back to his seat, keeping a steady eye on Maxie as she did her thing. He noticed that Steve was keeping an eye on him. Marcus smiled awkwardly and Steve nodded slightly, still suspicious at his new friend's doing. When the bell rang, Marcus walked over to Maxie and plugged on his earplugs. It seemed like Maxie was getting somewhere, but couldn't get past something.
"That's strange...we'll see about it this afternoon," Marcus reassured, unplugging Maxie and returning her to his pocket. When he turned around, he was stopped by an overly suspicious Steve. Marcus sighed, knowing that his acquaintance deserves an explanation for all this.
They both took a seat and Marcus brought out Maxie. All Steve saw was a hand shaking as it held onto a purple flash drive. But for Marcus, it was the first time he had to reveal this to someone. Telling Steve this would mean that he had to join forces and make allies, something he was not used to doing. Marcus, after all his frustration and consideration, took a deep breath and started, "I was on my way to get some eggs one night…"
After he had told him the whole story, Steve gasped and whispered, "Wait...so that thing was that girl the whole time?"
"Well, yeah for that moment...Maxie is really um…"
All of a sudden, the flash drive spoke up. "Let me explain!"
They both shrieked and Marcus dropped it by accident. The purple flash drive glowed, changing its form to the familiar girl Marcus was seen with before: olive skin, black hair side ponytail with purple highlights, motorcycle boots up to the knees, black jeans shorts with a bright, white tank top and purple-black striped gloves that cover the forearms. Her eyes were a wicked grey and she had adorned black lipstick. Steve, admiring this figure, stood up and shook her hand. He stammered, "Hello, my name is M'teve and this is my friend Sarcus."
"Steve!" Marcus exclaimed, trying to snap him out of his daze. But Steve had his eyes locked on Maxie. Maxie laughed, "You feel smittened by me. I can sense that from your introduction."
"Wow, she can sense emotions...Marcus, how did you build her?"
Marcus facepalmed. "Do I have to explain the entire story again?"
"Hold on, Marcus," Maxie suggested. "Maybe Steve could help us with the dilemma that's been happening throughout the city."
Marcus chuckled nervously, "Yeah I guess he may have some intel."
"What's your dilemma? Wait, is it the blackout issue?" Steve asked, holding her hand with a slight daze in his voice. Maxie let go of his hand and explained, "During this week, three big corporations have reported blackouts during their executive meetings. These blackouts have lasted a few seconds and so far, we don't know if any data has been corrupted."
"Actually, some data have been corrupted. My aunt works at GeoTech and her report on some environmental issue was stolen during her presentation. She tried looking for it in her files, but it was gone, like it never existed."
"Wait a minute, what if it's a hacker?" Marcus spoke up. "But no...can it? They work with different servers, right?"
"That's where I come in to correct you, Toussaint," Steve noted, pulling out his phone. He scrolled through it and showed it to the duo. Steve pointed out, "GeoTech, Jewelers' Harbor and Samson's Savings all work with the same server. Therefore, the same firewall would be met."
"But three companies with different goals on the same line? Don't they ever hold a social or something?" Marcus muttered. Maxie smirked to Steve, "Well, you must be fun at parties."
"It's simple in my understanding," Steve said, concocting something of his own. He caught their attention and continued, "If a hacker can get into the server, we can intercept this person and find out their intentions."
"You know, I was getting that reading when I was digging into it," Maxie added in. "But I'm not sure if I possess the ability to switch between channels so easily. I mean, they are at very different locations, pretty far from each other."
Steve chuckled, "No worries. I've got a plan!"
He reached in his pocket and brought out a shiny flash drive. Both perplexed, Marcus spoke up, "But Maxie already has a flash drive."
"Bah!" Steve shouted. "Not that shoddy thing you get from the tech store! This baby is especially designed by my family. It's a prototype, you see."
"Prototype?" Maxie sounded interested. Steve explained, "This device is made to withstand certain unprotected bugs from disrupting the service. Maxie can travel between circuits while we retrieve the information we need about this hacker."
"Yeah," Marcus said, sounding excited. "But what do we do when it's over?" His anxiety started to kick in but Steve knew how to calm him down. He reassured him, "We'll give it over to the authorities anonymously and they'll take care of it. Relax, I have it figured out."
"I hope you do, Steve," Marcus responded nervously. "I hope you do."
Steve affirmed his trust in his classmate and noticed how bulky part of his bag was. "Toussaint," Steve asked. "Are you staying by your aunt?"
Marcus gasped and looked at his big, bulky bag. He searched for an alibi until Steve offered him something that no one ever bothered to ask. "Would you like a room for the night?"
Marcus's eyes lit up as he heard that question. He pointed to himself and muttered, "Me? Stay at your place? I appreciate the offer...but I gotta get going."
"Maxie is the one who's been dropping you at school right?" Steve figured out. "And that warehouse in the news? The one that went on fire? It had something to do with Maxie, right?"
Marcus sighed. Steve took a step closer and asked in a softer voice. "And you wore that shirt for three days?"
He nodded. Steve chuckled, "I have a wardrobe that you can use. My brother Alfred...I think he was about your size before he graduated school. Don't be afraid, Toussaint. I'll keep you and your secret safe under my roof."
Marcus smiled with small confidence. "Thank you, Steve. It's been a lot since this whole thing happened."
"Yeah," Steve said, looking to Maxie. He announced, "So let's get this thing started!"
Weeks had past and so far, lots of improvement had occurred on the living morphing program otherwise known as Maxie. Soon, the two young tech geeks were seen exiting a strange purple car behind a parked truck near their high school. At that moment, Maxie had enough time to transform into the flash drive, which was the safest form for the morphing AI. To everyone, nobody could care less about the geeks, but between them, they were about to embark on their first mission together. During a study hall in the library, the boys sat at different tables to maintain their cover of the plan. Steve, reading the Thesaurus for the fourteenth time, felt vibrations from his device. He checked it discreetly. It was a signal from a certain network. He dropped his pen which banged twice on the table and he sighed with such sadness. He caught a glimpse of Marcus who looked up from his Mechanics for Dummies handbook. Steve glanced to the empty outlet and Marcus blinked twice when they made eye contact. Steve made his move.
His bag was on the ground and he pretended to reach for it. He watched both ways and rolled into one of the empty aisles, grabbing the bag in the process. He rose up and walked to the back of the library near the computers. Every one of them except for the out-of-service was in use. They all had their headphones lodged on their ears and Marcus found the solace to commence his plan. He attached the purple flash drive into the slot and walked away, like nothing happened. Steve checked his device and whispered, "Yes, we're in."
Marcus placed his book back and picked up his bookbag. He walked over to Steve and whispered, "Why the out-of-service?"
"Because it's the last resort any hacker would go to. Since Maxie can morph, she can go through that dead wire like a light. That way, she can monitor exactly where the hacker is coming from."
"Ah, smart…" Marcus complimented. "Wait, Steve? You notice something?"
"What is that?"
"The three companies form some kind of triangle, right? According to the map...our school is almost dead center." Steve's eyes widened and he looked at the map on his phone. He started to mutter certain numbers and gasped out loud, "My God, you're right!"
Everyone in the library shushed them and they proceeded to the broken computer. Steve took a seat and got out his device, a tablet with a small antenna on the right side. On the left was a set of buttons with blunt commands. It was something the boys designed over the few weeks they were fixing Maxie. They hid behind one of the bookshelves while no one was looking and discussed. "For some bizarre reason, it seems like this hacker has our school surrounded," Steve observed.
Marcus remarked, "What makes them think they can get into our school? We're not a vital target!"
All of a sudden, the lights went off and the system shut down. Everyone started murmuring and Steve turned to Marcus and casually smirked, "Ya think? Come on, let's see how Maxie is."
He twisted a few knobs and some buttons and finally, after some small static appearing on the screen, Maxie's audio in words were retrieved. Steve spoke softly into the mic, "What's the lowdown?"
Marcus asked, "Are you okay?"
"Good news and bad news," the screen read. "Good news: There's no hacker but the bad news is that there's some kind of virus that seems to have a mind of its own."
"A virus?" Steve questioned. "How bad is it?"
"I can't compute the extent of it, but it's a very dangerous malware. Marcus, I think I may need your help on this."
"Why? How do you mean?" Marcus asked.
Boom!
A huge explosion erupted from the row of dead computers. Crashing and screaming could be heard and Steve shouted, "What the hell just happened?"
Maxie responded, "Marcus! Help!"
The screens started to lose signal and the bookshelf nearly fell on the boys. Luckily, they were able to get out in time. A few students crawled up to them and asked if they were okay. Hiding the device, Steve answered, "We're fine. Can you tell us what happened?"
"I was working on my essay for civics and the computers just shut down. Then, before you know it, boom! Everything just self-destructed," a girl twice their weight and triple the freckles responded with frustration. "What are you dweebs doing down here?"
Ignoring the name-calling, Marcus responded, "Doing our research. You three best get out of here. We don't want anybody hurt."
His eyes panned over to the blaze by the destroyed computers and nearly closed them at the sight of the sprinklers. He strained his eyes behind a bookshelf and saw a struggling girl trying to get up. He then realized who it was. Before jumping to his friend, He shouted, "Maxie!"
He checked for a pulse and it was still beating. Maxie looked up to the worried Marcus and muttered, "Over there…" She weakly threw her finger to the other side of the library. Looking over to the blaze, Marcus was stunned to see a familiar figure, the same one that burned down the home he was living in.
The sinister fiery beast snickered, "Hello there, Mech." She swung a frayed wire around like a lasso as her blazing orange eyes stared down at her prey. Marcus quivered, "It can't be. But I thought—"
"Thought what? That ice cold water would shoot me down? Ha, you must be so dumb!"
She caught notice of the students discreetly crawling to an escape. She put her hand to the double doors and laughed, "Where are you going? Don't you wanna see a good show? It'll be lit!"
She closed her fist and opened it out, unleashing a roar of flames towards the terrified students. They all hugged each other and a frozen Steve, who watched from behind the only standing bookshelf, shouted, "No, don't!"
The group of students hugged each other as they thought this would be their last moment together. Overheat was eager to finally have her moment to create some real damage as her flames were made to be too fast to intercept, too sharp to pierce...too precise to miss.
But...within a split second, a miracle came through and its name started with an M.
Before the flames could even touch the sapphire gem on one of the students' fingers, a huge slab of durable stone crashed across the front of the students, blocking off the flames. Everyone was baffled at the sight. How the hell did a huge slab of stone get into a library in the city?
Steve was stunned at the view and was able to capture it on his device. The students behind the defense were confused yet relieved at the sight. Maxie finally caught her breath and looked up, noticing the faintest mark of smoke on the stone wall. Wiping her eyes and observing the sight, she realized, "This is a work of a…"
She looked around for her friend who was holding onto her. She looked over to the shocked and angered Overheat. The fiery beast shouted, "Alright, who's the wiseguy killing all the fun around here?"
"Why don't you put your flames where your mouth is?" a familiar voice in a more assertive tone remarked. Overheat looked behind herself in the midst of the flames and smoke. She noticed a dark silhouette looking down at the back of the library. She chuckled, "Oh Mister Stoner, you wanna play hard? Alright, let's play hard!"
She swung her arms around and directed her flames to the one thing she shouldn't have angered in his hometown. The young boy tightened his fist, holding onto his weapon. "Prepare to perish in the flames, Mech!" Overheat shouted as her fires started to thunder his way.
Maxie and Steve both shouted, "Marcus!"
"This," he whispered. "This is for you, Uncle Leo."
Everyone in that library thought the fire has caught up with Marcus, but it was the other way around. He found his chance to protect himself from the ferocious flames. He held onto the thin, red handle of a hefty bucket and swung from his other hip from behind and punched the bottom of the bucket so it would adjust itself toward the flames.
The bucket coughed up the sand and dispelled all the fire that nearly blazed up the library. Everyone was shocked at the sight as Overheat was pummeled with the more effective retardant. She coughed and cleared the air, looking over to the panting Marcus. "Agh, screw you!" she shouted. "You'll never get the best of me, never!"
She laughed, focusing her energy as she swung her arms in circles and thrust them toward Marcus. After a few seconds, she stopped her positioning as she discovered that her flames were completely extinguished by the sprinkler system.
"What the…? No, this can't happen!" Overheat whimpered. She fell to her knees, looking down in disappointment. Marcus walked up to her with his arms crossed. When they made eye contact, Marcus sternly spoke, "I believe you have some answers for my questions."
She bit her lip and shivered out of guilt. She kept looking down, whispering to herself, "How can this be? I control the flames, but they're useless...just plain useless…"
"If you think that guilt trip is gonna work, then you must be the dumbest virus I've ever met."
She started to cry and soon a huge humming came from above. They looked up, questioning what it was. All of a sudden, a window shattered and there were two figures in cloaks with their hoods on. Overheat shrieked, covering herself. The cloaks walked up to her, staring her down. Marcus came by his companions and Steve questioned, "What's going on?"
Marcus shrugged and Maxie suggested that they hide in case they get caught. They ran behind the bookshelf and peeked through. One of the cloaks spoke robotically, "Designated Subject: Overheat. Mission: Failed. Creator is Disappointed."
"Creator?" Marcus whispered. They spotted one of the cloaks pulling a huge weapon of some sort, resembling a huge launcher with a weird design. Overheat spotted the object and pleaded for freedom. "Please just let me live! Don't tell him about what happened!" she screamed, clasping her hands together.
Maxie gasped, holding onto her chest. Marcus noticed but didn't pay much mind to it. The cloak with the gun powered his tool and a huge flash occurred, blinding the trio for a while. They looked back and couldn't find Overheat. They looked over to the broken window where the cloaks were leaving. The other cloak asked his partner, "What about the window?"
The cloak with the gun shrugged, "Meh, somebody will fix it."
They left as they hung onto a rope that dangled from the sky. As they ascended to the sky, Marcus and Steve looked out as they caught a glimpse of the helicopter the cloaks came by. The helicopter hovered up and flew to the southern part of Manhattan. After what they've just witnessed, Steve spoke, "Just what the hell was that?"
Marcus looked at the shattered pieces of the window. He looked at his hands and figured out something. He focused and thrust his left hand toward the broken window. The shattered pieces started to shake and flew up to the open pane, melting into the frame and forming the glass it always was, like nothing had happened. Steve admired his power and Marcus shrugged, "Who knows?"
They turned back and found the sound of slight knocking on the huge stone wall. Marcus walked up to it in a calm manner and gently placed his right hand on the wall. Slowly, it reverted to what it once was: three ceramic vases that seated the orchids and magnolias their librarian nurtured. He freed the students, librarian and the principal from the huge defense. The principal, crossing his hairy arms and looking suspicious, questioned, "May I see you three in my office please?"
Marcus and Steve sighed out of defeat, as well as Maxie.