The men were still stumbling over the rugged terrain as the boys slowly walked towards them.
Sure, they were nervous since they didn't know the full capacity of their Defect genes would be blocked, but they still knew how to fight comprehensively.
This is going to be a sight.
That was Johnny's thought when the other men started to gain their step holds on the rocks, fists already blazing.
The sight didn't stop the Defects from smirking at the neon wearing men, before pushing forward towards them.
. . .
Renjun sat in the living area, having a recall of information to take his mind off of the fact that the next rank was going to head out.
Johnny and Jaehyun's rank was successful, able to attack the men swiftly and effectively, despite the fact that the men had those devices.
Rank One was also able to swipe one of the devices to take back to Taeyong and Renjun, hoping that one of the two would be able to crack the code as to what it could possibly be made of, and how the counter that attack.
It was a relatively small box, that had all but one hole on the side.
Taeyong had tried to evaluate it mentally, only to be blocked himself, although not as high of intensity than at the Cliffs.
That's when the older had called Renjun to the basement, and into his laboratory.
"This is something that I need you to do, and I'm proud that I have you here with me. Renjun, this box somehow has the ability to block Defects biological powers, and we can't figure out without your help," Taeyong had told him.
He had looked at Taeyong with wide eyes.
"You're trusting me with this?" he had asked.
Taeyong just gave him a soft look.
"You're the only one I'd trust with this, Renjun," he said, "so, are you up for it?"
Renjun didn't answer right away, instead he carefully picked up one of the devices, fingers feeling the texture of the smooth box, not helping but to notice the rigid edging on the side with the hole.
Smiling lightly, with only the word interesting ringing through his mind, he turned to Taeyong, giving him a curt nod, showing that he would proceed to help the older in finding out the secrets of box.
These thoughts were now disturbing the peace that Renjun tried to create while sitting on the edge of the couch in the living room.
He dreaded the information he had managed to get from the box.
That damn box.
. . .
After accepting, all of the residents of Neo City hadn't heard anything from the other side. No more men, and no more radio traffic or raging thoughts to ring from Abigail's mind to Taeyong's.
It was the slight calm before the storm.
Taeyong had left the laboratory alone to Renjun, who kept rotating the cube in his hand, fingers feeling for anymore texture.
He only had a couple guesses as in what could be inside the box, but he had no time theories. He needed proof and a solid thesis so he could quickly come up a solution.
He checks for any seams on the box, because it was assembled, so there was a way to open it.
After finding no further evidence for finding the opening of the box, Renjun was ready to grab a hammer and just go at the box his own way.
That was until he examined the hole further, and realized that Abigail designed it to be painfully obvious, so much so that we wouldn't of been searching for it.
After finding a button at the end of the hole, the contraption opened instantly, laying itself out for him to see everything.
Renjun touched the frame, not reacting when the wires started to shock him, as he took in the information and codes that the box had tried to send.
He learned this trick whenever he had to fix some of the wirings in a database computer when Abigail had him at the Clinic.
He had shocked himself with the wire, which had left the information that the computer was trying to send to connect with the chip inside of his body, and had momentarally paralyzed him due to the sudden imputting that his body wasn't ready for.
That was how he had found out about the total underground killings of Defects, and why they were being killed. That's when he found out that Abigail had been lying to him, and the reason that he no longer trusted the woman.
He focused on the codes that continued to flow from the box's mainframe, and felt his body start to stiffen, immediately letting the codes engrave themselves into his brain, making sure he'd never forget.
He raised a stiff hand, grabbing the notebook that he had borrowed from Taeyong, and struggled to move his other for the pen that he had on the opposite side of himself, making sure he had kept a hand on the box, not trying to lose the connection.
He clenched his teeth in slight frustration and the pain that was forming in his head and body as he tried to move more.
He finally was able to reach the pen, and quickly flip the notebook to the empty pages. He had drawn out the basic design of the box and observations he had made about it, those notes taking up a couple of the empty pages.
He wanted to clutch his head with his hand as he wrote with the other but he couldn't, so he just kept putting the code he recieved onto the paper, not trying to translate it quite just yet and letting the numbers ringing in his head flow to his hand to write onto the paper.
Although it felt like he had been writing for days, he was only interrupted slightly when Taeyong and Jaehyun had come down the stairs to tell him it was dinner time.
The had come down the stairs, confused at the hunched figure that seemed to be Renjun, but the younger had the black box opened before him, a finger placed onto the metal inside, Renjun's entire body stiff.
"Renjun?" Taeyong had asked, walking slowly to Renjun's figure. The boy made to attempt to look at the older, simply writing hurriedly on the paper, eyes blank and straight ahead, entire body stiff.
He went to question the boy through their mindlinked, but Renjun spoke up, or he spoke in the softest voice.
"Don't. You'll mess up my decoding," his face wasn't facing Taeyong or Jaehyun, but they both nodded although Jaehyun didn't do anything.
"Renjun," Jaehyun paused, not sure if he'd be able to speak to the younger boy, "what are you doing?"
Renjun smiled a little, although still not looking at them, his hand still flying across the page, turning the page when he had met the end of it.
"Coding. When I was with Abigail," Taeyong cringed slightly at the name, "she had me fix a broken database computer, when one of the wires shocked me, I found out that I could read, or well in this case, recieve the codes and information that it was sending. That's how I found out the truth of the project and what was really happening to the Defects."
By the end out his explanation, Renjun had stopped writing and looked at the older men, smiling brightly at them.
The other two were stunned at the younger.
"Are you sure you aren't a Defect?"