21

Restoration Part 2

 

During the few minutes that the underground train was traveling towards its destination, Melody tugged on Luna’s cape.

“You down for some small talk?”

“I suppose? The screen on the wall shows we’re still about halfway.”

“Do you like Aurora?”

“Haven’t we made this obvious? She’s my friend. Of course I-”

“I mean romantically.”

“Huh? Well I…well…”

“Didn’t you go on a date?”

“She told you?”

“She really wanted to tell somebody.”

Luna sighed, “Of course she did… But anyways, every time I think about her in that way, I get kinda confused. All I really know is she’s special to me, and I want her to live a happy life, whether it really involves me or not.”

“And if she wants you in her life?”

“...For the sake of this discussion, let’s just say I’ll comply.”

“That’s more like it! This is way better than your ‘I must stay away from her,’ attitude.”

“You and Chloe do seem to love playing spectator to us.”

“I have no interest in getting involved with romance junk, but I love reading and watching it unfold!”

“I hope my play of a life has entertained you then. Let’s put an end to this conversation. We’re about to reach our destination.”

Luna, Melody, and Serene’s feet planted themselves on the floor as the train came to a complete stop. All of them heard footsteps behind one of the doors.

“Remember, just like we planned,” Serene whispered to Luna and Melody.

The door opened, and before the Void Guards could enter, Luna was standing in front of them with her head down.

They both pointed their rifles at her. 

“Freeze! Do not make any sudden movements!”

Luna remained still. One of the guards approached her and attempted to apprehend her. She vanished into nothingness as soon as he put his hand on her.

“That was just a clone! Be on the lookout-!”

This guard stopped his warning when he noticed two bubbles were attached to the other guard’s ears without his notice.

“What? What happened-”

A deck to the face by Serene promptly silenced his confusion.

“Hey-”

The other guard pointed his rifle at Serene, but they were also silenced by Luna, who dropped from the ceiling of the train and stomped on the guard. Both of them were knocked out before they had the chance to call for backup. 

During this quick scuffle, Melody hid behind a seat near another door.

“I hope my bubbles helped,” Melody said.

“They were crucial,” Serene replied. “Without their hearing, I could approach quickly without my footsteps being heard.”

“Great! I just wasn’t sure they could float that far without them noticing.”

“Focus, you two,” Luna interjected before throwing a large wristband one of the guards had on them to Melody. “There’s a tablet device attached to this, can you check if there’s any useful info stored here?”

“I can do just that!”

After connecting the device to her computer, Melody was able to find a basic map of the entire lab and presented it on her laptop. The entire facility was primarily one level, but it looked like a complete maze filled with various hallways connected by large square-shaped rooms. The names given to each room were very basic, such as “Lab #1,” and “Storage #2”. 

What did catch Serene and Luna’s eyes was the room listed as “Security/Monitoring.”

“That's our first priority. It’s our best chance at finding where Aurora and Chloe are, as well as disabling security,” Luna said.

“But how are we going to get past the security cameras? We’d need to go down at least two halls.”

Luna pondered what to do about this. She would’ve preferred if they could remain hidden for as long as possible. Even if their presence being known was an inevitability. 

“This may be a bit cliche…” Serene said while grabbing one of the guard’s helmets off his head, spinning it around. “But it works more often than you think.”

“That should be fine enough.”

“My other idea was this EMP bomb I brought with us, but it might do more than just disable the cameras...” Serene said calmly.

Melody rushed behind Luna at the sight of this device. Her mind must’ve run through every possible consequence that a device that could disable electronics this deep underwater would cause. 

“What!? Is she trying to kill us?”

“...We’ll save that as a last resort.”

“We will?!”

Melody, partly due to her fear of the EMP, stayed behind while Serene and Luna disguised themselves as guards and made their way to the security room. They hid both of the former guards inside the train. 

The floors and walls all had a silver, metallic finish to them, but lights surrounding the windows showed the ocean, which gave a blue tint to everything. Luna hadn’t been to an aquarium since she was seven, but this reminded her of that memory. Albeit, a much more oppressive version of that memory.

A few security cameras were placed on their path, but the two walked as inconspicuous as possible. The darkened glass of the helmets meant they didn’t have to worry about their faces being spotted. Within a short amount of time, they arrived at the automatic door leading to the security room.

There were two people in lab coats manning a large computer station with multiple monitors. They turned around in confusion at Luna and Serene’s appearance.

These two don’t exactly look like they can put up much of a fight, Luna thought. 

That didn’t stop Serene from walking right up to one of them and spraying them with a small bottle she had in her pocket. They became incredibly drowsy, which was followed by a quick chop to the neck.

Luna was taken aback at how little Serene hesitated before she began walking towards the other security member who was frightened like nothing else.

“Please wait!” they pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you ask!”

For a moment, Luna thought that they didn’t need to take them out as well.

That moment was cut short by Serene spraying that lab member too. The same fate befell them.

It was hard for Luna to say she wasn’t a little surprised, but Serene took off her helmet and looked at Luna with solemn eyes.

“We can’t take any chances. They’ll just be out for a few hours. Inform Dawn she’ll be safe to come over here.”

“R-right.”

After notifying Melody that it was safe, they saw her on the cameras as she rushed along to their destination. With this bit of downtime, Serene began a conversation with Luna.

“Believe it or not, I’m not exactly a fan of violence. I only do what I deem as necessary.”

“...Have you ever killed anyone?”

“No… I pray I never have to.”

“I’d do the same, but I’m afraid me and Aurora already have our hands dirty.”

Serene took a few seconds before speaking again. 

“I’ve thought about that story you told me. I don't think you should feel that guilty about it.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that we killed people…”

“And what would’ve happened to you and your friend if her powers didn’t activate?”

Luna wanted to argue this, but she already knew that answer. They’d have been used as lab rats before Luna would be killed on Dominic’s orders.

“You were both kids. Scared and defenseless, but you found a way to survive. Why does the burden of guilt lie on the kids who had no control of their situation?”

“…I still wish it never came to that. Killing to survive… it doesn’t feel good.”

“It shouldn’t. That’s not the kind of life I’d want you to live. I’m proud of how much you value life, but remember how meaningful yours is, and the ones you hold dear.”

Luna wanted to continue this conversation further, but Melody’s arrival caused its conclusion to arrive. She wanted to stop time and see if Serene’s words could lead to some sort of peace with this topic. It would be wonderful to live in a world where nobody had to defend themselves to such an extent from such cruel violence, but that wasn’t Luna’s world.

There was a man that has continued to cause irreparable harm to her life. Was there any hope of finding any sort of peaceful scenario? Of course, she knew there were ways to fight people and not kill them. She never had this sort of concern when fighting Katherine, but Dominic was something much different. A malicious presence that she didn’t truly know how to deal with.

With Melody now there, they began searching through the cameras to see which room held Aurora and Chloe. After a minute of searching, they discovered the feed which showed their location. The angle of the camera only showed both of them on screen. 

The sight of those two being kept in large tubes was frustrating to Luna, but she was at least glad it wasn’t anything worse. The illogical side of her wanted to sprint to Aurora without a second thought, but she knew idiocy like that wouldn’t save her.

“That room has a facial recognition lock on it,” Melody said. “It scans your face to determine if you’re allowed to enter. Disguising as a guard won’t do us any good.”

“Can you not disable it or grant us authorization?” Luna asked.

“No can do. Attempting to hack the authorization system would prolly notify other places, but there is another way to get in.” 

Melody pointed to the vent located on the ceiling. 

“A vent… It’s been a while.”

“I’ll guide you while you make your way directly above where they’re being kept.”

“Sounds good. I’ll go on ahead while you two act as my support.”

“Roger that! I’ll see what systems I can comfortably get into in the meantime.”

“I’ll watch over Dawn in case anything happens. Stay safe out there,” Serene added.

Luna shot her grappling at a spot beside the vent on the ceiling, and she zipped up to the ceiling. With her free hand, she pried open the vent and climbed inside. The cold metal quickly touched Luna’s body and caused a bit of a shiver. The lack of heat on the metal she crawled on was obvious.

She followed all of Melody’s directions whenever she encountered a branch in paths. These vents were even more claustrophobic than the house she first stole from. In all honesty, Luna never expected her infiltrations would escalate to a setting such as this. Rich houses and corporate buildings were all that she had in mind at first.

“You should now be at a vent gate above the room. Can you see anything inside?” 

“Yes,” Luna whispered. “I can see them…as well as 10 guards surrounding them.”

“What?! We can’t see them at all from this angle!”

“They all have stun batons on their hands. It’s possible they have firearms too. If I’m smart about it, I…”

“Don’t tell me you’re gonna fight them by yourself! Have you ever fought that many people at once?”

“No… not yet. Do you have any ideas?”

 Before Melody could come up with something, Luna heard the voice of the person manning the computer in the center.

“Dominic has reported that the guards at the entrance to the lab have failed to respond, and the communications to the security room have been disabled. I have been requested to activate maximum security on the two captives. Your capsules will be locked for the next dozen hours, and will activate a sleeping gas once fully locked.”

What? Maximum security?

Luna saw both Aurora and Chloe stand up and look up at the top of the capsules. A sturdy metallic barrier was slowly lowering itself around them. They’d be completely closed off from the outside world when fully lowered.

“Apologies, Dawn, but I need to act now!”

“Eclipse! Do you truly believe you can handle this?” Serene asked through her earpiece.

“For Aurora and Chloe’s sake, I have no choice but to believe as much!”

With a deep breath, Luna became as mentally prepared as possible. She placed her hands on the vent gate and forcefully pushed it open, diving down right after. All eyes in the room were on the sudden appearance of Luna as she launched her crescent boomerang at the computer in the center of the room. 

The scientist jumped back in fear and fell on the ground as electricity sparked around the machine. The barriers lowering around Aurora and Chloe came to halt before they could reach the top of their heads. 

Luna saw one of the guards pull out their walkie talkie before yelling, “The feed is out!”

Melody’s voices came out of the earpiece again. 

“If you have to expose yourself, I might as well expose my presence as a hacker to prevent back up. I also locked the door to prevent any guard from escaping to alert others.”

“Thank you, Dawn. That’ll be a great help.”

All ten guards surrounded Luna as if they were sharks circling their prey. She looked around at all of them with a fierce look in her eyes. As if to say that she’s not afraid of them. 

“Took you long enough!” This shout came from a pumped up Chloe. “Don’t let us down now!”

This enthusiasm inspired some confidence in Luna, but when she looked at Aurora, she saw nothing but worry and guilt on her face. 

Luna’s face initially softened when she saw Aurora, but raising her arm up, she pointed directly at her, switching Aurora’s worry to surprise.

Luna stared at Aurora with determination bursting through her eyes. 

“I’m gonna need all the help I can get, and that includes you, Aurora!”