After the group enters the door, they see a whole new side of the convention center. In front of the group is a small laboratory. It's a circular room that has a metallic-like wall that surrounds the whole room. On the walls all around are computers and control panels of all sorts. There are chairs that are attached to the ground at each and every one of the pieces of technology on that. In the center, there is a circle of computers with five chairs and a single cylindrical pillar that raises off the ground to about four feet.
"Wow, it really does not look like much," Zack says. David stammers a bit before quickly responding with, "Y-you are so wrong." David goes in front of the group first and starts to walk around the laboratory. "Each and every one of these pieces of equipment is not even on the market yet."
"Okay, it's cool and all but please just focus on what we have to do here," Reynolds says as he heads directly towards the center of the room. "He's right, in just a few there is a protest that is going to happen. We need to get the information and get out as soon as we can," Amaya states.
"Protest?" Kai asks as he looks from Amaya to Hana. Hana smirks and says, "Yeah, they are going to be our way out after we get the info and when we get what Gene corp is doing, we can expose them for what they have been doing." Realizing that the situation was a lot more time-sensitive now, David, Kai, and Zack walk towards the center too.
Going to the center of the room, the group can easily tell at a glance that the center of the room had the best hardware in the whole laboratory. Entering within the circle of computers, Reynaldo looks at the small pillar in the middle of the circle. He asks, "What is this?" David goes right next to the pillar and puts his communicator right next to the pillar.
After a few seconds, the communicator beeps and David says, "It's holo-tech. Not only that it is the brain to the whole laboratory. If we want something we'll get it from here," David says while furrowing his brow, "Just give me a minute and I should be able to start it."
While David is doing this, Kai goes up next to Hana. Getting a closer look at Hana, Kai can't stop himself from thinking about how weird it is, that this girl he liked in high school is right in front of him again after six years. Hana turns her head and sees Kai. "It's good seeing my old teammate and TA again," Hana says then smiles. Kai cracks a smile and says, "It's good seeing you again too, Hana."
Hana turns her head back and looks back at the center. "What have you been doing since Aikea?"
"Nothing much really. I went to United Tech and graduated with my bachelor's degree in science. That's where I met David. After we both graduated, we started our own shop down in Old Salinas." He looks at Zack who is twiddling his thumbs, "We met Zack a bit later and since then we basically have been running the shop for three years since I graduated."
"How about you? Other than breaking into corporate laboratories," He grins as he says that. Hana looks back at him with a smile and Kai's grin drops a bit as he seems to be put into a daze. Hana goes and says, "Well, I went to Juilliard for a dance scholarship. After I graduated, I came to San Francisco to dance as an instructor. Don't really get paid much as just a dance instructor," She laughs as she says that. "I met Amaya at her gym, and we became friends after she became my trainer. She heard about my situation and asked her brother Rey if he could get me a job as a nurse in California Medical. That's where I've been working for the past two years." She stops and turns around to fully face Kai.
She squints her eyes at Kai and says, "You know, just because you left for college, it didn't mean you couldn't call every once in a while, you know." She looks straight into his eyes. Kai pauses to comprehend and is about to say something when a beep sound comes from the pillar and a holo-screen is projected from the Pillar. The holo-screen has two words on top.
Amaya reads, "Apex Project?" David nods his head, "That's the name of what they've been working on." Reynaldo looks at him, "Can you get the info?" David nods his head again and presses the holo-screen.
A mechanical whirring sound could be heard as the whole laboratory comes to life. A computer voice sounds out in the laboratory. "APEX PROJECT INITIATED… DIAGNOSTIC CHECK ACTIVATED… ALL SYSTEMS ONLINE." The laboratory in response, all the computers in the laboratory light up like a Christmas tree as lines of data and code run along the various screens. The metallic walls fall down like a screen and behind them is glass. Glass all around the laboratory. On the other side of the laboratory, there are just wires and another wall.
The voice sounds out again. "APEX ENERGY SOURCE LOCATED… ENERGY UNSTABLE… ACTIVATING ENERGY REFINEMENT PROTOCOL." The ceiling opens up at the center in a small hole. The pillar on the ground rises another five feet, bringing it halfway up the 20 or so feet tall ceiling. The holo-screen falls away as the center opens up and a metal orb comes out from within. At the same time, four antennas jut out from the ceiling around the circle reaching down to the height of the orb.
In a second the four prongs whir to life and a force field is set around the orb connecting to each other. After that, the orb floats up from the pillar and blue light shines out as a blue mist-like energy leaks out and gets sucked up into the hole in the sealing. When that energy leaks into the hole the group can see at the sides of their vision, the blue energy filling into the other side of the glass wall.
Amaya is the first to say, "What is that?" Zack says as he looks at Kai, "Some type of energy. Do you know what it is?" Kai shakes his head but gets closer to the pillar.
"Whatever it is, that orb is the source. At least whatever is inside it, is the source." Kai states. "Can you make anything of it?" Amaya asks David. "It's what the system calls the Apex energy source," David says as he pulls up a holo screen from his wrist. "It looks like-,"
"BOOOOOM!!!" A loud explosion can be heard from outside. The whole convention center shakes. After the shaking stops, Amaya asks loudly, "What the hell was that?" David pulls up his communicator and after a few seconds, "You have to see this." He pulls up his small holo-screen and enlarges it to the size of a small t.v.
On it, is a video of a large protest happening on the stairs of the convention center. There are a multitude of people covering the whole area around the convention center. The majority of them are wearing neon clothing that lights up in the night. On this screen, they can see that security has set up a perimeter around the whole convention center. As they are watching this screen, David enhances the screen so they can see clearly.
After doing that they can see someone wearing all black throw something at the convention center. Another loud boom could be heard but it was farther away from where they were at. The sheer amount of destruction is not lost on them as they see that the area where the explosion happened, nothing was left. There were no pieces of rubble that were thrust out in an explosion like a normal grenade would. Just absolute disintegration.
"It's a plasma grenade," Amaya says, wide-eyed in disbelief. Plasma grenades had smaller areas of effect than a grenade but the purpose of it was to leave nothing after the explosion. Whatever that plasma touched before disappearing, would just be disintegrated. Leaving nothing behind.
Zack looks at Reynaldo and the girls with widened eyes, "Are they part of the group you guys were waiting for?" "No, the people we sent the notice to do this are all wearing neon light clothing. They are the ones that would have received the actual notice of what to do. Everyone else would just be here because they heard there was a protest happening," Reynaldo says quickly as he nervously watches the footage.
On the footage, they can see the security start moving into the crowd trying to apprehend those that did it. But with the explosion, there is now utter chaos. Everyone is panicking and trying to get away now. More figures in black clothing could be seen throwing plasma grenades onto the convention center. Continuous loud explosions could be heard.
"How many are there!?" Hana asks. "Too many, this isn't just a random somebody that snuck a plasma grenade, this is a group," Kai looks at everyone and says, "We have to go." Everyone nods in agreement when they hear, "BOOOOM!!!"
Another explosion goes off but this time it is a lot closer to where they are. The blast of the explosion actually cracks the wall on the other side of the glass whereby now is filled with blue energy. Yet the group can clearly see a crack and they even see plasma dispersing into the air. Part of the plasma leaks into the crack and the blue energy, out of what seems to be a reaction begin to turn white.
"ANOMALY DETECTED… APEX REFINEMENT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED… FAILURE TO REFINE… APEX ENERGY UNSTABLE." As the system says that the group sees the white portion of apex energy start to spread and affect the rest of the energy. The group sees that as it spreads, they see that the apex energy is moving now. Flowing in a circle as it moves faster and faster. While getting brighter and brighter. The glass starts to rumble.
"WARNING… APEX ENERGY REACHING CRITICAL FAILURE… STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED." As it says that, the voice starts to go out while the whole laboratory equipment starts to spark.
"We have to get out now!" Kai says as he rushes everyone to the door. Amaya is the first to get there. When she tries to open the door, she is the first to see that part of the tech on the door has red lights. She hits the door in frustration as she turns around and says solemnly, "It won't open."