Sixth floor, Winters
Davis ran out of the elevator and searched each room on the sixth floor thoroughly but he still couldn't find Penny.
He went into the only laboratory on that floor and found four beds. Wondering what they needed beds for, he left the room not thinking too much about it.
What he wanted to do the most at that time was to find Penny.
Finding no sign of Penny on the sixth floor, he sprinted down the stairs to the fifth floor agilely, showing no sign of his age as he did and stumbled upon the room where the guards in silver shirts were locked in.
Frowning at the men who were writhing and groaning on the floor, he wondered how they ended up in that state and got struck with enlightenment as he remembered what Thomas reported to him,
'...about four kids aren't on Winter's premises,'
'Four kids, four beds, sixth floor', Davis thought while snapping his slender fingers, glancing at the stairway leading back to the sixth floor.
'....actually aided in our escape....'
'Escape, alarms, groaning guards,' Davis thought further as he weighed the talents of the kids closest to him and compared them to the incidences that occurred at Winters.
"Is she with Tim and Avika? But there are four of them, so maybe Cy?", he thought out loud before tapping the nearest elevator button to head to the ground floor.
Tim and Avika were both personally trained by Jeremy who used different aliases when training them, why he did that was still a mystery to him but he was sure that it was just Jeremy's crazy sense of creativity at work.
And remembering the state of those guards, it was obvious he had passed on that fervour and craziness unto his students.
It's a good thing he didn't leave Penny and Cyrus in Jeremy's hands, he'd have less craziness to deal with daily.
As he mused about this, he got to the ground floor and stepped out of the elevator.
Ground Floor, Winters.
"Gray hoodie, long silver hair," Thomas sighed for the nth time today as he described Penny to one of the armed men.
Not many people knew who Penny was as Davis never let her interact much. Except for Davis, Jeremy, her training partners, the keepers and himself, he doubted if she knew anyone else.
Cursing Davis under his breath for putting him through so much trouble, he described Penny to another person.
Hearing Thomas describe Penny to someone, Davis hastily walked up to them and dragged Thomas away, "Location of the four kids that escaped."
"On their way to the Frozen Cave," Thomas answered as he took out his tablet and tried to match Davis's pace.
'Their favourite hideout' Davis thought.
"Why? Is Penny among them?" Thomas inquired, lifting his head from the tablet and looking around as he walked to see the situation of things when he suddenly locked eyes with Lani, another one of the protectors of Platinum Valleys, who was giving orders and directing the adults to carry the children.
And although majorly unknown because of her identity as a human, she was quite powerful.
Selected after surviving months of drilling and intense training, what really saved her spot, however, was her ability to recover almost immediately from Thomas's energy absorption.
A fit impossible to pull for a human.
He hadn't seen her since the Ice Festival and as he gave her a once over, he saw her still wearing the beige overall outfit she had on that day.
At least that was what it looked like, cause the colour could barely be made out due to the amount of dirt that covered it while carrying a child with blue eyes that were strikingly bright in the dull weather.
As Lani glanced at Thomas then at Davis, she was about to mouth some words to Thomas when her attention was called back by the child in her arms who pulled a part of her mid-length brown hair that was equally covered in dirt.
Nodding at Thomas, she retrieved her hair from the child's small hands, took a tab from the man standing next to her and waved it at Thomas while making a hand gesture, signifying that she had something to tell him.
"Sent anyone to track them down?" Davis asked instead as he navigated his way through the upset crowd.
Thomas's eyes fell on the man next to Lani before he nodded back at her, to show he understood and returned his field of vision to Davis.
Dodging a group of children running to their mothers, he tried to keep up with Davis and they both walked out of Winters and into the already tapered winds.
"Matéo, Ralph and Kiel. I sent the three of them, just in case." Thomas replied with a shrug.
He was just going to probe further on why Davis was asking about the children instead of solving the situation at Winters, when he heard Davis say, "See you at the cave, T." before disappearing from his sight.
Thomas who was left hanging with his arm pointed in the air, staring at the direction Davis disappeared to, stamped his foot while cursing and searching for a table to flip.
Not finding any, he advanced towards the Frozen Cave with hurried steps.
"If you want to go, just go on your own! Why must you drag me along with you?" he muttered under his breath as he trekked briskly, stretching his long legs as far as he could from each other, undoubtedly looking ridiculous.
He still had a lot of work to do back at Winters, especially since Davis wasn't there to handle the situation.
They still needed to check that place, he had a bad feeling that some of the guards and the majority of the people were actually locked up there and if they weren't brought out, something terrible could happen.
He knew Jeremy was already on the case without being told but he still couldn't help but worry.
The tides may turn against their favour according to the situation of that place.
As he thought about that, Thomas raised the tab in his hands and sent a message to Lani but he received a message from her right at the same time he sent his.
Thomas: 'Check the tunnels, don't go alone.'
Lani: 'I've sent Gabriel and his team to check the tunnels but Vonna is nowhere in sight.'
Lost in thought, Thomas's finger hovered over Lani's message on his tablet.
Gabriel, the man standing next to Lani back at Winters was another human who defied all odds. Albeit not as good as Lani, with his team that was almost as good as he was in the picture, he needn't worry about the tunnels, for now.
"...but Vonna...hmph, I hope it's not what I'm thinking." Thomas thought aloud.
"She better be in the tunnels, if anyone is found there that is." he pondered aloud further as he hurried towards the Frozen Cave.
He was just thinking why Davis was making him walk there when a scene suddenly flashed into his mind causing goosebumps to crawl all over his body.
"Well, either way, I'm toast. Might as well just get there faster," he said and quickened his pace.
Laboratory Director's office, Winters.
The once luminous office was now completely dark and covered with smoke that had a seductive aroma coming from the candle in the distance, which served as the only source of light in the room.
As Jeremy walked into the obscured room, wisps of the smoke circled around his outstretched legs, up his body to his broad shoulders and into his nostrils.
Breathing in the scent of the candles, he smirked, 'Looks like a steamy rendezvous was about to take place,' he thought and kept walking till a shadow came into view.
Enshrouded in the dim light was a silhouette covered with only a thin piece of clothing wrapped around a voluptuous body which was lying on the couch that Ann and Damian were sitting on some time ago. If it weren't for the little light available, Jeremy would have seen more than he should have.
He wasn't lucky enough to have the mutated vision ability like Thomas but his other senses were just as high, especially his intuition which hadn't failed him till date.
Even now as he stared at the silhouette he felt rather pleased with his acute senses.
As if detecting the presence of another, the silhouette on the couch stiffened but relaxed after few seconds before getting up from the couch and walking seductively towards the L-shaped table.
"Dev... I've been waiting, what took you so long, hmm?", she slurred coquettishly as she climbed and crawled on the table as slowly as she could in order to allow the candlelight accent her curves and entice who she thought was Dev.
Finally positioning herself on the table with both her legs spread slightly apart, she flipped her hair across her shoulders and as she felt the presence move closer towards her, she made to untie the piece of clothing on her body with a seductive smile on her face.
Stopping at about 4 feet away, Jeremy's eyes fell on the shadow that was already unveiled to show the form of a beautiful woman about to bare herself.
Putting his hands in his pants pockets, he said with a sly smile that was illuminated by the candle now right next to him, "Fancy meeting you here...Vonna."