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Chapter-21- Rescue and Recon

December 30, 2049 - approx. 2am local Underground City ...

Karla and Eric Loupe, and Conner Parker stopped in a courtyard with beautiful single-story buildings on either side. Grass hadn't filled the courtyard in over ten millennia but the pathway design suggested it might have once been lush and green.

The buildings on the left and right of the courtyard had rounded roofs, like miniature domes. Conner stopped walking and turned to an effigies on a wall. "You see that?"

"No time for sight seeing," said Eric.

Conner frowned. "Sorry it's just..." he trailed off.

Karla placed a hand on her husband's shoulder. "We're not sight seeing. Conner isn't the type to be distracted by something unless it's important."

Conner afforded Karla a weak smile. He stepped off the walk path and approached the small building to the right of the courtyard. The effigy that caught his attention incandesced.

"Conner, your cane." Karla pointed.

Conner reached back and pulled his cane from the holster on his back. The orichalcum rod glowed in a similar hue to the effigy on the wall. The closer he brought the rod to the wall, the brighter both became.

Conner looked back at Karla and Eric. He shrugged. "Should I?"

"This is the most cliché thing I've ever seen," Karla said. "Obviously you have some sort of lock-and-key thing going on. Just do it."

Conner frowned. He stared at the wall for a moment. Conner recognized shapes and logos in the effigy from his family coat of arms. He grew up seeing the coat of arms in his home throughout his childhood.

"Just do it, Conner. But make it quick," said Karla from over on the walk path.

Conner stared at the effigy, transfixed by the beautiful carvings, and the glowing shape of his cane. He stepped back and put his cane back into its holster. As he moved away, the glowing faded.

Karla blinked. "What? What are you doing?"

"We don't have time."

"Agreed," Eric murmured.

Conner frowned. "It has something to do with my family's history, I think. How can we have been around this long?"

"I don't know, but you should..."

Conner shook his head. "We don't have time. The longer we stand around out in the open, the more likely we are to be caught. Let's keep moving." Conner glanced over his shoulder at the small building. "I'll come back. Donnie is the priority, right?"

Karla reached over and gave Conner's bicep a gentle squeeze. "You're really growing up."

"Yeah." Conner stole one last glance back at the effigy as they walked away from the courtyard. "That was weird. Is my staff that old? Or is it something attracted to the orichalcum?"

"That glowing on the wall," said Karla, "was the same shape and size as your stick. And there's no batteries in that thing, babe. Metal doesn't just ... glow. Did it get hot? The only way metal glows is if it gets hot."

"No," said Conner. "It was cool to the touch. I don't understand..." he trailed off with a shrug. "To be honest, I don't care how it works. Your hands and arms glow, my family cane glows - although now I can understand why mom always told me it had to stay in a safe place."

Karla offered a smile. "Ironic huh?"

"What?"

"Conner, if you left it alone, it would be at the bottom of the Pacific right now. It turns out the safest place for it was on your back."

"I ... never thought of it like that."

Karla smiled again. "Well, you should."

Eric shook his head as they walked. "Maybe it's a copy of the original. You think that thing could be older than modern recorded history?"

"I don't see how it could be a copy," Parker said. "It interfaced with that carving on the wall. If it was a copy, how would the person cutting the copy of the key be able to test it? I'll never understand it, and I really don't care." Conner lifted his hands and gestured to the entirety of the subterranean city all around them. "We're miles below the Atlantic. Jesus."

"What do you mean?" Karla asked.

"All this stuff - it's beyond my comprehension. But I feel like I'm being drawn in fifty different directions at once."

Eric cut his eyes to Conner. "How so?"

"There are literally dozens of wireless connections down here. They're creating a digital web throughout the city. I can't understand the interface. Binary is ones and zeroes - but the signals down here ... they are made of something more complicated. I could learn it if I had to, but where's the motivation? We're here to destroy this place, right?"

Karla nodded. "Curiosity would get the better of me in your shoes." She looked around the area. "To be honest, I expect to find answers for my own situation."

"Situation?" asked Eric. "The glyphs on your hands and arms when you use your powers?"

"I've seen a glyph like the one on my right palm since coming down here."

Eric nodded. "You didn't say anything."

"What was the point at the time? But in languages, all languages have one thing in common - repetition. It makes everything work - languages, math, everything we notate needs repetitive properties to ... anyway, yeah, I'm rambling - sorry."

"I follow," Conner said.

Karla added, "Anyway, we now know the marks under my skin are part of the language from here. It answers one question and creates a bunch more." She held her hands up. "Like you just said, Conner, we can worry about it later. Peter or Steven should have recognized it."

Conner shrugged. "They haven't seen it in ten thousand years, right?"

"Peter told me it looks like nothing he's seen. No known language, dead or otherwise. He looked right in my face and said that. He lied for a reason. I think he was trying to hide something from me. He knew my curiosity gets the best of me and he didn't want me getting nosey."

Eric grimaced. "Those two are capable of quite a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if they were behind all of this."

Karla arched her brows and looked at her husband. "You're sounding like me. Justus is working with them closely. Between him and Charlie, they can't hide anything."

"Let's hope you're right," said Eric. "But it wouldn't surprise me if they have a way to block telepathy. It also wouldn't surprise me if they weren't the only First Age people left in the world."

Karla shook her head. "Anything is possible." She looked up. Two large heavy grey doors blocked the path. Each door was covered with beautiful carvings and decorative symbols.

Conner approached the doors and pushed on them. He used his cane and tried to pry them. "Maybe we can teleport on the other side."

"Maybe," said Karla, adding, "But I'm done fucking around." She thrust both palms forward. The doors blasted open on ancient hinges. The framework around the doors cracked.

One of the doors opened all the way, the other opened only halfway.

On the other side, more than fifteen men in futuristic looking technically-advanced armor had their weapons pointed at the trio.

"They were expecting us," Conner mused. "Let's do this."

Karla waved her hands at the group. Their weapons disappeared, but not the soldiers.

"Stop playing around," Eric said softly. "Just..."

"I can't," Karla interrupted. "I tried to teleport everyone. The guns disappeared, but the men are some how quantum locked in place."

"Technology can do that?" Conner asked.

Karla cracked her knuckles. "I thought Falcon had a power that stopped me from doing it to him."

"Maybe it was tech," said Eric. "Fine. We fight them." He drew his hands outward, creating shadows.

Bright flood lamps came on, surrounding the area. The shadows nearly disappeared. The intensity of the lights from all angles made it difficult for the shadows to exist.

Eric grumbled. "I have limited ability. I can handle one or two at a time, but not the full group."

Karla smiled. She reached into her handbag and withdrew a pair of white sunshades. "Fine by me." She set the handbag down at her feet and gathered her hair back into a ponytail. She used a scrunchie to keep it back. "Listen up, robo-douches: We evacuated everyone up top. By now, your loved ones are on the District Coast or they're in Europe."

One of the strange suited men gestured to his group. Everyone fanned out.

Conner grimaced. "I can't interface with their suits. I've never seen tech I can't hack ... wait."

Karla cut her eyes at Conner, then back to the group. "For?"

"They're using the same interface as other things around this city. It's way more than binary." He livked his lips. "Ten. I can identify ten; it isn't just ones and zeroes in this technology. Decinary. I guess we'll call it decinary."

Karla cracked her knuckles. "Stop geeking out about it. You can do that later, after we kick their tin can-cans."

Eric nodded, watching the men fan out around the trio. "Conner, you've obviously been picking up Falcon's men and their technology. This city is too old and abandoned for computers here to be in effect."

"Maybe. I don't know. It's still binary up in the other city." Conner twirled his staff. With a roll of his eyes, the young Master Thief called out to taunt the surrounding attackers "Come on, you guys! Make the first move already!"

"Hold your positions!" said one of the men in the high tech armored suits. "Do not fire unless fired upon."

Karla huffed. "We need music - something I can fight to."

Eric relaxed his stance. He stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. "I remember shortly after we met when you cleared the nightclub to music."

"Mm. Dreamy wub-wubs." Karla fluffed her hair a bit. "I haven't listened to electronica, dub step or glitch hop in a long time. I got back into metal again." She rubbed her palms together. "Hey! Robocops! What are you people waiting for?"

"Hold your position!" said the one in charge. They remained in a circle around the trio.

Conner rubbed his chin. "Are they trying to act like a prison of people in place of bars?"

Karla shrugged. Eric remained silent.

Conner sprinted towards a suited soldier at random. He used his cane and vaulted up, over one of the men.

An arm rose up and took Conner by his ankle. The soldier pulled Conner back down to the ground, keeping him within in the circle.

Conner hit the ground and rolled back to absorb the impact. He landed on all fours. He eased his weight on his right knee and rubbed furiously at his left shin. "Strong grip. You think it's the suit that gives them their advantage? Or are they super soldiers in fancy armor?"

"One way to find out." Karla approached the soldier that Conner tried to leap over a moment earlier. She rubbed her chin, looking at the man's face through his visor. "Are you like Jasper Cunningham?"

No one spoke.

Karla shrugged. "Jasper's dead. He won't be regenerating after what I did to him. Come to think of it, he didn't need a suit. So, are you guys using technology to try and be more like him?"

Karla received no reply. She ground her teeth together. "What kind of man ignores a woman who is asking him a question? God, times have changed."

Silence.

Karla smirked. "Okay. Let's see what you boys can do." She walked between two of the suited men. They put their hands outward and barred her from breeching the circle.

Karla teleported behind them.

Both soldiers turned around to face her. The one who pulled Conner down earlier reached for Karla and snatched her wrist.

All the other soldiers kept their circle to keep Eric and Conner contained.

Meanwhile, the two men that reached for Karla's wrists tried to pull her back into the circle.

Karla amped her body with telekinetic force. Her palm glowed with a muted pink glyph. The back of her palm became bright. Her wrists incandesced. Her forearms, her biceps, her shoulders and her collarbone took on a pink glow.

Both men, combined, couldn't move her.

Karla could hear one of them speaking in a muffled tone, from inside his suit. "I can't move her, sir!" A pause, then, "I'm trying, sir! She's stressing the suit!"

The succubus beamed brightly. "When a man lays a hand on a woman, she has every right to defend herself if she deems it necessary. You know that right?"

"Get back in the circle!"

"No." Karla buried her glowing left fist into the abdomen of the soldier on her the left. She pivoted on her heel and brought her left elbow into the visor plate of the soldier on the right.

The first soldier groaned and doubled over.

The second jerked his head back. His faceplate shattered like the windshield of an automobile, sagging inward where her elbow met the plate. The visor held together by some sort of mesh.

The two men rushed at her.

Karla caught the first man with her hands and brought her foot up. She launched him into the circle. The soldier flew through the air, clipping the man adjacent to him, who spun like a top.

She took the second soldier by his hand to keep him from flying off balance. Karla pivoted hard and hurled him through the air. She vanished.

Karla reappeared at the center of the circle, caught the man she threw, and powered-slammed him face first into the pavement. The helmet cracked and the shattered visor filled with blood. The helmet crushed beneath the weight of her palm.

She stood up and brought her knee into the first soldier's gut just as he got to his feet. He doubled over again. She drew her fist back and paused.

No one moved. No one spoke.

Karla grinned. "I never understood how people can wear armored face covers."

"Wh-what?" The injured soldier's eyes were wide with fear.

Her grin brightened a bit. "The average person touches their face more than fifteen times in an hour. Just like in the Middle Ages, you've gotta take off your face mask to rub your eye or scratch an itch. How do you do it?"

"What are you talking about?"

Karla rolled her eyes and shook her head. "God, never mind. I'm just curious." She took him by the throat with her other fist still cocked back. "What are you guys guarding? Aris Falcon is dead."

"No one answer her!" said one of the men.

Eric pointed to one of the men in suits. "That one, Karla. He's the one in charge."

Karla teleported away from the man at the center of the circle and appeared in front of the man pointed out by Eric. She rubbed her hands together. "This one, babe?"

"Yeah, him."

The man at the center of the circle grabbed Conner by his leg and pulled the boy to the ground.

Karla glanced over her shoulder.

Conner slinked out of the suited man's grip and used his cane to bring the man off balance. He rolled onto the man's back and brought his cane around, beneath the soldier's throat, in a chokehold.

The suited soldier was unaffected by the cane against his neck. He stood up with Conner on his back. The soldier reached back, took Conner by the shirt and flipped the boy over onto his back. He put his foot on Conner's chest.

Conner touched his cane against the man's leg and tensed. An electric charge filtered into the suit.

Several sections of the suit thickened, as if becoming armored. The patches of armor disappeared in some places and became active in others.

Conner looked up in confusion. Was the electricity causing the suit to act in such a fashion, or was the suit rapidly adapting to the charge by insulating in sections to absorb the energy?

The man reached down for Conner's throat and clenched.

Karla teleported herself adjacent to Conner and the soldier. She grasped the man's forearm and telekinetically powered her hand. She crushed the soldier's forearm, forcing him to release Conner's neck.

The soldier screamed in pain. Warning icons flashed on the man's visor. His HUD displayed colored warning messages across the skin of his face so that Karla could see the suit's reactions overtop the fear and pain in his eyes.

"Don't. Touch. Him." She brought the soldier's arm up and used his limp hand to smack himself in the visor. "Quit hitting yourself, dumbass." She did it again and repeated, "Quit hitting yourself."

"Stop!" he begged.

"Falcon is dead - who are you protecting?"

"Attack them! Now!" said the one in charge.

The large group of men closed the circle rapidly.

Karla tried to create a telekinetic blast to throw them back, but their suits absorbed the kinetic energy, only slowing them briefly.

Conner dove through the legs of one and slid across the tiled floor on his stomach. He kicked the back of the soldier's knee but he was unable to cause the man to collapse.

Karla grasped the closest man by his helmet. She felt him reach for her wrist but she overpowered his suit strength by amping up her telekinetic shell around her body.

The succubus guided the soldier into another, slamming them with incredible force.

Eric disappeared.

One of the soldiers dove through him. The attacker got to his feet and looked around. His visor became dark. Shadows filled the inside of his helmet.

The soldier brought his hands to either side of his helmet and flailed about, unable to pull it off.

The shadow, inside his helmet grew thicker, adding pressure against his face. The soldier fell to his back, kicking his legs wildly. He couldn't pry off his helmet. His movements became labored.

The soldier lost consciousness. The shadows dissipated. Eric became solid at the center of the room. A nearby soldier tried to punch him in the stomach but their fist passed through Eric's gut, leaving a wisp of shade in place over his abdomen.

Eric reached a hand towards the man's face. Having seen the other soldier die, the man cowered back, screaming, "Get away!"

Eric smiled. "No."

"Fire protocol!" someone shouted.

The man fighting Eric opened his palms and vented stored energy from his suit. The suit released a static electric spark from the fingertips, igniting vented plasma energy.

Eric disappeared before the flame could engulf him. Like before, a shadow appeared inside the man's visor, causing it to become black.

Conner ran towards the next soldier and used all of his body weight to kick the man in the face and knock him off balanced.

The soldier arched back as if performing The Limbo. He stood back up and turned around to Conner. "You stupid kid."

Conner swung his cane at the man's face, but the soldier caught it. Conner smiled and sent a full charge into the soldier's suit-clad palm.

Conner released the cane and put his foot on it. He hopped up onto the man's shoulders, using the raw muscular power of his thighs to try and break the man's neck.

The soldier reached up, took Conner by his shirt and flipped him to the floor.

Conner landed on his feet. He reached his hand for his cane still in the man's other hand. His cane came to him, pulling the soldier off balance, to the ground. Conner performed a somersault, landing both feet on the back of the man's neck but it didn't kill him.

One of the other soldiers turned to Conner and released some sort of supersonic sound from a device that Conner couldn't see.

The teenager felt disoriented. He stumbled to the ground, dizzy.

Karla threw one soldier into another. She reached her free hand up and created a telekinetic shell around Conner, pushing everything away from him, including sound waves.

Conner's head cleared. He got to his feet and reached out for his cane.

The orichalcum staff lurched up and met his palm. He blinked and turned to Karla. Everything around Conner was pushing away, including dust on the floor. A suited soldier, lying on the tiles, slid away from Conner's feet.

Karla saw the look of confusion on the boy's face. "Goober, I used my ability to repulse the sound waves that mess with your ability. You're welcome."

Conner shook his head. "No, it's not that - I just pulled my cane to me against your power. It's stronger than your telekinesis! Did you see that?!"

Karla rolled her eyes and waved her left hand.

Conner's cane ripped from his grasp. It flew through the air. The base pierced the visor of one of the soldier's helmets and impaled the attacker's face.

Electricity filtered out of the cane, causing the dead man to flail about from the charge flooding the soldier's body.

Conner grimaced. "Okay, Karla. Jesus, you made your point."

Karla jerked her left hand back, forcing the cane to rip from the man's face. The body dropped to the tiles. She teleported the cane. Blood fell to the tiles.

The cane, without the blood, appeared in front of Conner. Parker reached up and grasped it. He immediately noticed the lack of bodily fluids on the base. "How did you...?" He twirled it and turned back to Karla. "Is that why your house is always so clean? You can teleport dirt?"

"Something like that." She smiled. "I made a mess. I wasn't going to give it back to you all dirty."

A hand came down from behind Karla, striking her head from behind. The telekinetic shell around her body held, causing the man to break several bones in his hand, regardless of being within the suit. He cried out in pain from behind her.

Karla turned around and buried her foot in the man's crotch. The body launched into the air and disappeared out in the courtyard. She turned around and dusted her hands together.

Conner, taking a cue from Karla's fighting style, hurled his cane like a javelin. It pierced another soldier's visor. The man fell back, flailing wildly.

Conner held his hand out. The spear ripped back from the helmet and met his palm. "See? I can handle myself!"

"Good!" Karla vanished. She appeared behind a man that was approaching her from the left. She took the next closest man by his arm and flung him into another soldier. Both went to the floor. She took a deep breath and announced, "We rescued your families! Don't thank us all at once or anything! If you boys want to live to see them, I suggest you stop!"

The attack continued from all sides. Karla reached for the nearest soldier and ripped his visor from his face mask. "Was I not fucking clear?"

"What do you want?!" exclaimed the soldier in her grasp.

Karla narrowed her eyes and glowered. "I am here for my son. You shriveled little dick-bags and your boss ... stole my child." She lifted her right foot and stomped on the man's knee, shattering it through the suit.

The man went down with a scream.

Karla turned to a man attacking Conner. She snatched the soldier by the nape of his neck. Karla lifted her foot and stomped on the back of his knee, breaking his leg. She flung the man into another soldier, knocking that man onto his back.

Karla approached the two men on the ground and stomped on the leg of the one who was just knocked flat.

She reached for Conner's cane and flung it hard. It bowled down four more soldiers, breaking three of their legs. She approached the last one and stomped on his knee, shattering it.

After the shouting of pain concluded, Karla shouted at the top of her lungs. "Where the fuck is my little boy?! I will make all of you quadriplegics and leave you to lay there and marinate in your piss and shit, hoping someone comes to find you! But they won't! You know why?! Because I'll have broken every limb of every bastard down here until I find my son! Do you assholes want that?! You want to lay there until you starve to death?!"

Silence.

Karla looked around. "Okay. I'm frustrated now. I'm about to lose my temper. You want to see an emotional, over protective mother?! I will show you the definition of 'crazy!' You people have no problems swinging on that teenage boy, so what did you do to my child, huh?!"

Conner got to his feet. "Karla!"

Eric put his hands on Conner's shoulders and shook his head. "No. Let her vent. She sometimes gets herself worked up and this isn't something you want to ... just, no."

Karla stomped on a soldier's other knee, shattering it. She moved around to the guard's elbow. "You want to push a wheel chair? You're running out of options." She put her foot over his left elbow. "Where is my little boy?!"

"Lady, go to hell," the soldier muttered, his voice strained from pain.

Karla stomped on his left elbow. She watched the man writhe around and waited until he caught his breath. She approached his other elbow. "Last chance."

"Nothing will give me more," he panted, "pleasure than to know I prized my willpower over helping ... over helping you."

Karla stomped on his second elbow. She walked with an eerie sense of calm to the next injured soldier on the ground. "Your turn. Yelling didn't work on that guy. So I'm going to be calm with you. But I will leave you the same way if you don't help me. Where is my son?"

"Lady, I don't know of any children down here."

Karla drew in a deep breath to keep herself calm. "He's seven years old. Falcon abducted him because my boy can communicate with anything that transmits or receives wireless information."

"I've never met Falcon," said the man. "I've never met Dr. Milford, I've never met Mr. Saint Leonard. I've never met any of the people above Cunningham or Snipes."

Karla eyed the man for a moment to see if she could detect a hint of a lie. "Jasper and Wilhelm are dead. Milford quit a few months ago and came to work for my people."

The man grimaced from pain. "That explains why suit maintenance stopped. He's the one who built these suits. Please don't do to me what you did to Josh."

The man with all his limbs broken cried out in anger. "Do not use my first name!"

Karla rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Josh." She leaned down, closer to the man beneath her foot. "I'm Karla. I'm here looking for my son, Donnie. He's seven years old. I will take you out of here and help you set that leg if you help me."

"I don't know anyone! I follow orders!" he said. "I'm sorry you're looking for your child, but I don't know of _any_children down here!"

Karla glowered at the man. She stepped over him and walked to the next soldier. "Next! Okay, what do you know?"

The man held his palms out defensively. "Nothing. I'm not the leader of the group. Jerome gives the orders."

"Who is Jerome?" asked Karla, in an eerie stoic voice.

The man nodded to his left. "Not him, the one next to him."

Karla stepped over another injured man on the left, and approached the second body over. "Jerome! I'm Karla!" She put her hands on her hips and bent over at the waist. "Where's my son?"

"Go to hell," said Jerome.

Karla reached down for his left hand and put her foot on his wrist. "Tell me."

"Drop dead. You're too young to have kids anyhow, girl."

Karla sighed through her nose. With her foot firmly on Jerome's wrist, she reached for his left ring finger and grunted. Using the power of her telekinesis to amplify her strength, she ripped his left ring finger from his suit-clad hand.

Jerome screamed in pain, writhing beneath her. "GET OFF of me!"

"Shut up, you big baby." Karla teleported the finger out of the carbon-fiber mesh glove. She stared at the ring on his darkly tanned finger. She eased the ring off the detached, bloody finger and dropped it on the tiles. "You have a wife, huh?"

"I'm not telling you anything!"

Karla pinched the ring between her thumb and forefinger. "Janelle - that's what inscribed in the ring." She rotated the ring, reading inside the shank. "Derrick? Octavia? You've got your whole family carved into the shank? That's actually really sweet. But now I know how to look them up. It's a matter of time before I find them."

"You're a mother! You wouldn't kill someone's family!"

Karla narrowed her gaze. "Jerome, a desperate, scorned woman will act on emotion first and cry herself to sleep with regret long after your family is lying in a shallow, muddy ditch. You think I want to hurt you? No. I want you to help me. Then you keep your ring and I go about my business."

"The kid is here," said Jerome. "Falcon tried making the kid interact with computers of the ancients. The boy could read the information those computers transmit, but he can't interact with it, so Falcon put the kid into stasis. I don't know where, but the kid is here, not up top."

"Jerome! Shut the fuck up!" said one of the soldiers.

"Excuse me," said Karla. She turned to the nearby soldier and lifted her foot over his face.

Jerome called out to her. "Don't kill any of my men! They're my responsibility!"

Karla looked back over her shoulder. "You think they'd do the same for you?"

"I'm the team leader. It doesn't matter if they would take a bullet for me, lady. I'm not their responsibility - but they_are _mine."

"Fine. Where's Donnie?"

"I do not know. But you could check the main temple. It's a collection of buildings at the center of the canal rings. Science Division and Defense Ops are both at the top of the highest part of the city. There is a second elevator there, and all the main power comes from the ceiling at that section. That's where they would likely have a stasis pod."

Josh, the quadriplegic, cried out, "Someone kill Jerome! I'm assuming control as acting captain of the squad!"

The man closest to Jerome reached a hand out and placed his palm on Jerome's wrist.

Jerome's suit began to overload. He groaned in excruciating pain.

Karla turned to the man next to Jerome and stomped on his wrist, severing contact between their suits. However, the damage was done.

Jerome's body grew extremely hot within the suit. "Janelle..." His flesh began to vaporize from heat. The tissue liquefied and immediately began to evaporate.

Karla grimaced. "Okay. That's it." She quickly broke all the limbs of the man that killed Jerome. She walked over to Josh, and glared down at him. "How's it feel to be in command? You like the burden huh? Too bad it only lasts two minutes, huh?" She lifted her foot and kicked Josh's head clear from his body.

The head thudded against the wall. No one spoke.

Conner looked around at the gore. It was ... unsettling. He licked his lips, only to realize he was breathing heavy to keep himself calm.

Karla approached him. She gave Conner the ring. "You've got money. You find these people when we get out of here. I want your word that you will make them financially set for life. You tell them Jerome died a hero, and you give his wife this ring. You tell his wife, the last thing he said was 'Janelle' when he died. Do you understand, Conner?"

"Karla, why are you doing this?"

"Do. You. Understand?"

Conner nodded. "Yes." He pocketed the ring. "I'll find them."

Karla looked around the room. "Jerome saved your worthless lives. I'm here for my child. Falcon is already dead. Cunningham and Snipes are both dead. Enforcer Nichole Parker is dead. Your families have evacuated to the surface. This shit is over. Get your asses to the surface and get yourselves some honest-to-God vitamin D.; don't overdo it, or you'll get melanoma." She walked back through the two large broken doors towards the courtyard. "Come on Conner and Eric!"

Conner sighed in frustration and put his cane on his back. "Eric, will you talk to her or something?"

Out in the courtyard, Eric stepped over a motionless body and approached Karla. "Hey, are you okay? We'll find Donnie. You heard that man - he's in stasis. He'll be fine."

Karla shrugged and kept walking. "You saw those fancy suits. Steven made them. Those guys had floodlights and fire to fight you, Eric. They had sound attacks, speed and strength to fight Conner. The electricity in his cane didn't stop them. Steven made those suits to fight everyone's powers."

"Not yours," said Eric. "It didn't stop you."

Karla grimaced. "They were protected from being teleported, and the suits absorbed telekinetic blasts. They might not have been perfect, but Steven made them to fight all our powers. We'll have to watch each other's backs from here on out. If a few of those guys gang up on any one of us, they'll have a field day."

Conner rubbed his hip. "Just _one of them_threw me around. I've never had that problem in a fight before now."

Eric nodded with a frown. "I can only attack them one at a time, and it is time consuming. The fire attachment that came from their hands ... that was disconcerting."

Karla looked down. "See what I mean? An army of those things would be too much for our people. If they attacked in large numbers, we'd get our asses handed to us." She stopped in the middle of the courtyard and pointed to the building. "Hurry up, Conner. Make it quick, then we'll go and get Donnie."

"Karla..."

"Shut up and see what's in there before I change my mind. What if it's something that is for your family like that staff? What if it's something that you can use to help us? Just check."

Conner withdrew his staff and approached the effigy on the wall. "I appreciate it but I can't read any of the words. I'll come back later on and check it out."

Karla snatched the cane from his hand. She grimaced at the strange sensation against her palm. The succubus pushed it against the effigy, which incandesced in sympathetic response.

Conner sighed. "Okay, okay."

The door opened on a track. It appeared to become stuck in place but was far enough to access the room within.

Conner stepped in first. He glanced back at Eric. "Can you make sure nobody comes and takes the staff off the wall? It might lock us in here."

"Fine."

Karla followed him into the room. "You've got ten minutes, then we're going to get Donnie."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I cannot save my son if I'm all worked up. I won't think right. So I'm taking a ten minute distraction break to collect my thoughts and make sure my head is on right."

"Oh." Conner looked back at her for a moment. "I can understand that."

"Good." Karla held her hands out to her left and right and tensed. Her glowing palms bathed the room in soft lighting. "Do you have your phone in your pocket?"

"Yeah, but it's useless down ... Oh." Conner smiled. "Smart, Karla." He pulled is cellphone out and started taking pictures of the writing on the walls. "You think the others are going to be okay?"

"I hope so," she said with a sigh. "Reno can handle his shit if things get dicey."

Conner lowered his voice. "You still love him, don't you?"

Karla shrugged. She spoke softly so her husband, outside in the courtyard, wouldn't hear. "Conner, it's complicated. You know what Reno and I talked about before coming down here?"

"No, what?"

"The Titanic. He saw something on History Channel and we talked about it. Just ... a conversation. Nothing more."

"What was the point?"

"That's just it," she said. "There was no point. Eric and I never had that. He doesn't want to have a conversation unless there is a point, or an exchange of information. It's stupid. We can't talk just to talk. Reno and I did it naturally."

"If you're not happy with Eric..."

Karla huffed. She trailed her fingers over markings on the wall, looking to see if she recognized any the glyphs that were under her skin for ages.

"I mean it, Karla."

"That's the problem with people anymore," said Karla. "People aren't happy with their mates, so they get divorced. You know why a woman marries a man? Because she sees potential in him. Eric has potential. If it takes another few decades to mold him, then that's what I'll do. You don't junk something that's broken - you baby it and fix it. You make it yours."

Conner nodded and stopped in front of a desk at the back of the rectangular room. He sat down at the desk and ran his fingers over the trinkets on the desktop. "Tamamo threw me away."

"No she didn't." Karla sighed and approached him. She used her hands to shed light on the desktop for him. "Tammy wants a baby. She realized she can't have them, so she paired you with Tamae and stepped back to let nature take its course. If you and Tamae miss her, then talk to her when this shit is over with."

"After what she did to you?" Conner said. He glanced over his shoulder at Karla. "And me?"

"Do you love her?"

"Well, yeah."

"She's a fucking bitch. But she's also an idiot who is hiding because she feels like shit. While she deserves every bit of shame she's feeling, she's in this mess with the rest of us. Also, you love her."

"Yeah but..."

"Conner, I don't trust her anymore, but she's never raped anyone before. We shared a consciousness. She never did it before. In fact, it almost happened to her - Sekhmet saved her life and her dignity in some courtroom in the Celestial Realm. Tammy's not a rapist, she's someone who got caught up in the moment and made very bad decisions. She's got to pay penance. But she's not 'a rapist.' She doesn't rape people. She took advantage of a situation and came to realize she fucked up."

"So you're saying..." Conner paused to think of a way to word it. "Taking a pen from someone's desk one time in your whole life doesn't make you a thief. Especially if you feel bad about it afterwards. Right?"

"Something like that, yes. You can return a pen later, so that isn't a good analogy. It's more like, if you accidentally killed someone, and the only way you know how to fix it is to try and help take care of that person's wife and kids out of guilt. The situation is FUBAR no matter how you look at it."

Conner blinked and leaned close. He picked up a small trinket on the desktop and held it in the light of Karla's palm. "What is this thing?"

Karla leaned over Conner's shoulder, using her hand to illuminate the small object. "It looks like a really small cylinder. I feel like it's familiar."

"Familiar? Really?"

Karla shrugged. "I want to say I've seen a bigger version of this somewhere. The container, I mean."

"It's a container? You're sure?"

"Yeah, babe. Pretty sure. Why don't you see if you can open it? Reno found one of these and it was several times bigger. He gave it to your father."

"What was in it?"

"Nanobots."

Conner quirked his brows. "Geeze. You, too?"

"What?"

"This isn't science fiction, Karla. The smallest machines in the world are used for medical stuff, and they're not small enough to call 'nanobots.' I've never seen this canister. I think it's bullshit."

"I thought your father gifted you some of those things? What happened with that?"

"I couldn't get them to work, which is why I call bullshit." He looked down at the small container. "I wonder what is in this thing."

Karla scoffed. "Open it for yourself and see, dumbass."

"I'm_not_ a dumbass. I'm a realist."

"I'm a realist," Karla repeated in a whiney, teasing tone. "I'm a reeeealist." She smacked the back of his head. "Open it, goober."

Conner looked up at her with a glare. "Just because we shared some body juices and swapped spit does not mean you can disrespect me like that."

Karla groaned. "Oh God, whatever. You know what, I don't need your help finding my son. Thanks anyway." She turned around. "Bye."

"Wait!"

Karla sighed. She stopped in place. "What?"

"You and I ... we're water and oil. We argue a lot, but ... you may need my help. If your son is in stasis, he's in a machine. I can interface with it and tell it to shut off. Please, let me help."

Karla glared at the opening for a moment in silence. "Fine. But bring that thing. Figure out how to get it open. If it's like the bigger one, I can't wait to see your stupid face when you realize I was right." Her eyes lowered.

Karla tilted her head. There was a pedestal on the floor in front of the entrance. The design carved into the panel was similar to the Japanese Chrysanthemum icon used by the Japanese royalty.

She bent at the waist, looking down at the circle at the center of the pedestal and the carved petals around the circle. "What is this thing?"

Eric, just outside the doorway turned to face her. "What is...?"

Karla pointed at the floor. "This."

Eric shrugged. "It's a design on the floor?"

"I've seen them in some of the buildings out in the residential part of this city. I only saw them in the richest structures. You think it's something to do with stature?"

Conner came up behind Karla. "My family is rich. Maybe they always have been? Maybe you're right - it could be a status symbol."

Karla used her toe to sweep dust off the carving. At the center of the circle was a glyph she recognized. "Shit! Look!"

Eric blinked at the outburst. "What?"

"This is one of the glyphs that show up under my skin!" She stood on either side of the circle at the center of the pedestal. She framed the center circle with the glyph using her feet. "Right there. That."

No one spoke.

Karla tensed up hard. "Here. Let me show you. Watch my left forearm. When I amp up with enough energy..."

Her forearm glowed. Sure enough, the glyph on her arm matched the one on the floor.

Eric stepped back from the doorway. "Come on out. We'll investigate it later. We have to find Donovan."

Karla relaxed her body. The glowing under her skin dimmed and disappeared. She reached out through the doorway. While stepping over the lip of the doorframe, she put her hand out and touched Conner's cane, using it like a handrail.

As soon as her palm touched his cane, with one of her feet still on the pedestal, Karla vanished.

Eric looked around. He turned about twice. She was nowhere to be seen. "Karla!"

There was no reply.

Conner stepped out of the small room. "What the hell? Where did she teleport? Karla!" he called out.

Eric clenched his hand into a fist. "Karla!! This is no time for playing around!"

Conner stuffed the small canister into his supplies satchel. He stepped out of the room and took his cane from the effigy. The door slid shut into place. A puff of dust came from around the frame as it sealed back into place.

Eric clenched both of his hands into fists. "This is no time for one of her games!"

Conner drew in a deep breath and shouted, "Where did you go, Karla?!"

No response.

Eric grimaced in anger. "We'll find Donovan ourselves. There's no time to waste. Sometimes she does these things and I cannot, for the life of me, make heads or tails of her."

Conner sighed. "Calm down, man. Please. It's not my business, but you can be upset later. Let's just go find Donovan. She'll catch up with us. You saw how fast she switched moods while fighting those guys? Maybe she just had another mood swing and went without us."

"She was too distracted by the stupid carving on the floor." Eric shook his head. "She mentioned seeing another one earlier. She likely teleported back to wherever she saw it. She'll compare them. But we don't have time to fool around right now. Let's go and find Donovan. I'm not waiting for her to play her stupid games."

Conner nodded and fell into step behind Eric. "Lead the way."