After answering tons of questions about Casper, the boys left the old lady's hospital room exhausted. Joao even more than all because he hadn't slept a wink at all.
Monty had agreed to take over investigations from Joao who wasn't yet an official member. Also because of that, Joao was now in Monty's list of suspects of being a spy.
He however didn't share this with Monke given the nature of his relationship with Joao. Taiga and Monty bid adeu and left the others.
Kaine, Kira, Joao, and Monke were left at the entrance of the hospital awaiting transportation. The two executioners liked non-electrical cars but they weren't allowed on hospital grounds. After making a few call and not being able to get a car for them they started to walk to the exit of the hospital area.
"Dont you guys talk, like, at all?" Monke asked as he tried to break through from them.
"No we..."
"Give us something to talk about then you idiot." Kira interrupted Kaine and snapped jokingly at Monke whilst trying to get behind him and stop him from escaping them.
But not everybody felt or heard any form of cheerfulness in his tone and cause the air around him to get heavier.
" What, it was a joke." he said as he tried to force a smile on his face.
"Well there goes your chances at a stand up career," Monke said with a tiny smile.
Kaine giggled while Kira snarled, after finally leaving the hospital area, Kaine made another phone call and a few cars pulled up 5 minutes later.
Their first stop was a computer rental area and they checked out the oldest laptop model available. Joao dismantled it and put it back together again in about 20 minutes. For internet access they used the one at the police station and signed in as the station commander.
"Are you done yet," Monke whined.
"Do I look like a rocket scientist to you?" Joao snapped.
Monke squinted his eyes a bit and turned to leave the commander's office. Joao relaxed and sighed, "well that was quick." Joao sighed again and as the computer beeped signaling his connection to the private side of the internet.
His connection was insecure and timed, he taken out everything in the computer that might cause them to be tracked down. Even so, when the timer hit its limit, depending on what kind of information he was seeking, the web was going to squint and try to stare back at him. And if they noticed that he was a hacker, sentinels will fill their neighborhood by tonight.
However, Joao was still calm and unshaken by the threat of death floating over him. He immediately started going through deleted government files, videos to be exact. With 10 minutes let on the clock, Joao was getting tired of going through deleted public speeches.
Finally, he found a suspicious looking file labeled "SUPPRESSION". His hand froze, his whole body did, he felt warm all over and he started to sweat.
Beat by beat, the pumping of his heart got louder. It hurt just a little but enough to cause his finger into a temporary retreat.
"Now you do!"
Joao jumped and immediately pulled out a knife to attack the voice that attacked him out of nowhere. He felt his hand get crushed on the table., he looked up and saw Monke smiling at him while pining the hand with the knife down on the table.
Joao let out a sigh of relief and looked down, he felt something slip from the side of his head and quickly grabbed hold of it.
"What are these?" he said he took off the pair of glasses.
"They are glasses,"
"I know, but what I want to know is why am I wearing them."
"To make you look like a rocket scientist."
Joao sighed and put them back on, Monke walked around to join Joao and looked at the computer screen.
"What's this?" Monke said as he clicked to open the file.
A number of videos popped up on the screen, they looked colorful, all except for the first one. Monke still confused went to click on it.
"DON'T!" Joao slapped the laptop off the table and grabbed Monke's arm.
"Why did you do that? Those could've been the witches I've been looking for all this time." Monke wasn't entirely shaken, if anything he was worried about the look Joao made.
He sighed, "aren't you going to tell me why you did that?"
"We could get in trouble.,"
"You are free to leave, but I can't stop now. I've been waiting for this for a long time." Monke slipped his hand out of Joao's grip and walked over to the laptop lying on the ground.
Joao watched as he picked it up, Joao stood up and looked over Monke's shoulder. He clicked the first video and for the whole first half of the video, it was nothing but scientists talking about modifying different fruits.
Monke closed it and opened the other one, one after the other all of the videos were just scientist failing at modifying vegetables.
He stopped and took a few heavy breaths, raised his head to stare at the cealing.
"Monkey?" Joao called out but got no answer.
Monke let the laptop slip from his hands and Joao jumped over the table to catch it. He rolled over to the wall and looked up to Monke after stopping forcefully.
Monke didn't even look back and he walked out of the room,. Joao went back to his laptop and began rampaging through the keyboard, he had some time left on the counter so he was at ease. After leaving the network Joao fried every last bit of the laptop's software.
Afterward he went into the hallway and noticed that Monke was long gone, he walked for a few steps and finally found a window to lean out of. He saw that Monke was already at the car.
He took his head back into the hallway and sighed, 'I'll never catch up that way.' Without even sparing a second thought, Joao back up and bolted at the window, launching himself out of it.
Just behind him followed a female officer I what seemed like new uniforms in the area. Her eyes were burning with passion and the desire to save lives, who knew that she would get her opportunity to start fulfilling her dreams on the first day in the job.
Down by the car Monke and the other two heard glass breaking and looked up. They knew right away who it was, Kaine dashed out of the car in an attempt to go and rescue Joao but stopped in his tracks as he saw another person emerging from behind him.
She had rocket-like pieces of metal strapped around her waist and it was emitting clouds of white smoke.
Joao rotated his body midair and face her.
"OH MY GOD, WHAT!?" She exclaimed but didn't stop her rescue mission. She accelerated even more and managed to snatch Joao out of the air.
"Grid Action Force, so they are finally moving into our territory." Kaine said in a slow and tired voice.
"Guess I'll never be a male stripper then." Kira added.
Kaine chuckled. "I knew you were a pervert but ain't that a bit much?"
"Do you think these guys could be the reason why the bosses suddenly had a meeting to attend?"
"Are you suggesting that we were abandoned?"
"Maybe, I heard that these guys are relentless. They follow orders perfectly without question. Their success rate has been nothing short of a 90%"
"Are you kidding me, are they robots or something? Who in this day and age doesn't ask questions?"
'Ah, I see that the luxary of working with King is starting to kick in." KIra' s face darkened and his voice turned grim.
" What's that gotta mean?" Kaine turned around to face Kira.
"Don't you remember school? We usd to follow rules and policies without a fault, and we were still called outlaws then. Why do you think that is?"
"A load of bullshit." Kaine smiled and almost burst out laughing.
"LISA, LISA!!!" A voice, a very musical and hypnotizing voice called out.
Kaine and Kira turned their attention to the ball of smoke and it seemed like Joao was safe. They looked up and saw an angel, the two of them slowly lowered their shades.
"DAMN, she stacked!" Kaine exclaimed.
Monke looked up but unfortunately for him the smoke was in his way and the girl was too far away to see.
He snarled and shrunk into the car.
As the boys continued to admire the Grid officer's chest someone emerged from the smoke and made their way towards them.
Upon arrival she cleared her throat and got their attention.
"I didn't see you there," he paused and eyed her avoiding eye contact before putting his glasses back on.
"You guys dropped something," Lisa said while trying to avoid the compliment and googly eyes.
"Oh yeah, put him in the back with the young master." Kira said as he slid back into the car also avoiding the Grid officer's gaze.
"Him?" She exclaimed.
"Yo," Joao taunted, knowing very well his voice was also not convincing.
"Hehe, I didn't expect to find people of your kind here. How are you holding up?"
"By your neck,"
"Oh sorry," she said as she lowered Joao.