Year 2030, June 27th, 13:16,

The sun was shining bright over the city of Genotopia, but the eastern part of the city near the border patrol outlet was in chaos, people were running away from the huge explosion which took place at the outlet. Thick clouds of smoke filled the air of the city, blocking off the bright sunlight. Ricky and Sammy were desperate trying to figure out what happened.

Ricky made his way through the crowd, racing towards an officer, curious as to how this happened. "Officer how did this happen? Has the recon team arrived yet?"

The officer was clearly frustrated, with a mean and pissed look on his face, he yelled at Ricky,"Listen you cunts I don't fucking know what happened, I'm just here handling the crowd so fuck off!"

Ratch didn't take kindly to the Officer's uncivilised behaviour and was about to lash out before Ricky stopped him. Ricky was dumbstruck, an AI that could make irrational decisions? Who would even think of making something like that? "Chill out little guy, people are assholes all the time, don't worry about it. Getting away from the crowd should be our first priority." Ratch would nod his head in agreement.

They moved away from the crowd and Ricky laid his back against a wall, slowly sliding down into a seating position, he then turned to Ratch and asked ,"So how come you act all wholesome normally but get insanely pissed when someone's rude?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, that." Ratch giggled. "Master Agazed programmed me to have two modes, categorized as Friendly Mode and Battle Mode. Friendly mode is what you called "wholesome" and Battle mode is what you called "pissed", Battle mode only activates when someone provokes me."
Before Ricky could properly process this, Sam curiously asked, "So what now? How are we going to find Alex...if he is al-"
Cutting off Sammy, Ricky boldly declared his plan as he was reminded of their mission. "We're gonna sneak in and find Alex and if he isn't there we'll keep on searching for him. We can't lose hope! I think, no, I know he's out there somewhere."
Hearing Ricky declare something so foolish so boldly, Sammy began to utter his doubts in Ricky's plan. "Sneak in? Have you lost your mind? Do you know how tough the security will be now?"

Ricky: "Like I said, we can't lose hope, plus, I already have a couple plans."

Sammy: "Such as?"

Ricky: "We could go through the sewers and find our way in. Or we could jump from the skyway on top of the building" Ricky thought about that second option more and said, "Actually, I think we might die if we did that, but uhh we could disguise ourselves as investigators and get in."

Sammy: "How about none of that."

Ratch: "Yeah, I don't really want to die today."

Ricky: "Okay skeptics, have any ideas?"

Ricky and Sammy proceeded to discuss how they'll enter the building, meanwhile Ratch noticed someone was being a little suspicious, it was a man covered in a black robe, Ratch decided to sneak off and follow the man.

Ricky and Sammy were too caught up in their discussion to notice a man, a long blonde haired man in a tattered military uniform who approached them. "What exactly are you two doing here?" The man asked, suspicious of Ricky and Sammy.

Sammy immediately answered the man's question. "Haha uhh we were just umm, walking by, got caught up in the recent explosion y'know." Sammy nervously laughed after finishing off his sentence.

While Sammy was pausing through his speech as he was clearly thinking of words before saying it, Ricky examined the man, he noticed a few bruises which piqued his curiosity. "Shouldn't you go to the hospital?"

The man was a bit taken aback by Sammy's nervousness and Ricky's observant tendencies. "Heh it's nothing besides I'm sort of in the middle of something, and why do you both wanna get in the burning building?"

Sammy was clearly worried, he was about to whisper something to Ricky but was stopped when Ricky explained what they were doing to the man.
"We've got a friend in the recon squad that we're looking for."

The blonde man laughed. "Haha you should've told me that earlier, I'm a member of the recon squad myself. The name's Danny Tenners, pleasure to meet ya."

Ricky was taken aback by this, and instantly shot a question at the man. "You're a member of the recond squad? That means you know Alex right?"

Confused as to why that was even a question, Danny would respond. "Yes of course I know him, he's the rising star of the group, and funnily enough, I'm looking for him too."

A look of suspicion dawned Sammy's face, something about this situation just seemed a little too convenient to him.
Danny then began to explain a bit. "You see we got separated during the explosion so I want to find him too, I hope he's safe."
Rather than ask, Ricky seemingly commanded Danny, "Alright then take me in there."

Meanwhile Ratch still followed the suspicious man through the busy local market to an alleyway. The suspicious man had noticed Ratch's presence a while ago, but had decided to ignore the robot. Eventually being trailed began to irritate him. "Why are you following me, bot? Who sent you?"
Ratch was startled, not having expected the man to have realized, he took out his ratchet to defend himself just in case he needs it. "H-Hey do not move or things will go really bad for you."
A smirk dawned on the suspicious man's face, he found the robot's threat to be quite amusing. "Oh really?"

At the border patrol's gate,

A guard sternly eyed Ricky, Sammy and Danny. "Where do you think you're going? No one is allowed beyond this point."
Danny was kind of shocked as to not be recognized, regaining his composure, he answered, "We are from the border patrol, I'm Sergeant Danny Tenners. These two are here from the rescue team."
The Guard raised an eyebrow, confused and suspicious, he said, "They sure don't look like they're from the rescue team."
Danny attempted to rest the Guard's suspicion by replying with "They're off duty but given the situation they had to hurry as fast as they could."
The Guard contemplated whether or not to let them pass for a moment before finally deciding. "Hmm ok you may pass."
As they walked forward, Danny warned Ricky and Sammy, "The fire has been almost put out but be careful rubble may fall on you."
Ricky and Sammy heeded Danny's warning and simultaneously responded, "Alright sir."

They entered the collapsing building, rubble had fallen all over the place, people buried deep under dust and cement. It was a horrific scene. The hallways were empty, broken and covered in small fires. Ricky was taken aback by this scene and commented.
"I thought there would be a few survivors but the place is almost empty with a few already dead...."
Sammy began to show his doubts, "Are you sure he was in the building during the explosion because if he was then I don't think he could've survived this..."
Danny was persistent in his beliefs however. "No, I know he's alive, his life signs are still showing in my criger."

(A criger is kind of like a highly advanced armband which is usually used by the military for information, communication and shows vitals of their squad members. It's basically an all rounder armband.)

Taking in this environment, questions began to grow in Ricky's mind, he asked, "So how did this even happen? Who could have done this to the border patrol?"

Danny didn't really know how he should respond, he had a personal belief but wasn't sure if it was right to share. After thinking about it for a bit, he said, "I honestly have no idea, however I think there is a traitor among the border patrol."
This piqued Sammy's interest, leading him to ask, "A traitor? In the border patrol? And why do you think that?"
Danny answered Sammy's question, explaining further. "The new recruit at the main base, he was here this morning and was acting a bit suspicious."
Ricky instantly shot another question at him. "Suspicious? How?"
Danny was a little overwhelmed, clearing his throat he said, "Well first of all he wasn't supposed to be here at the Eastern base and second of all he was acting weird and was sneaking here and there."New recruit? That sort of reminded Sammy of Tyler, now obviously, Tyler wasn't at the Eastern base, which should have invalidated this belief in Sammy's head, unless Danny was lying. "What is this new recruit's name may I ask?"Danny tried to recall, "It was uhh.. It's on the tip of my tongue." Suddenly, Danny remembered, "Oh yeah, I think his name was Tyler."
Sammy felt as if his assumption from earlier was correct, so he asked yet another question just to confirm. "And at what time was he here?"
Danny replied,"Around 11-12 in the morning."
Sammy's suspicions were essentially confirmed, he whispered to Ricky. "See he's definitely suspicious." A small look of concern dawned Ricky's face, he simply nodded in agreement.
Ricky gulped, he had been ignoring Sammy's warnings for a while, out of denial, he would make sure to confirm this with Danny. "Are you sure it was Tyler?" to which he replied, "Yeah why?"
A smirk dawned upon Sammy's face, he felt sort of accomplished having predicted that Danny was suspicious a while ago. Ricky was about to speak but then Sammy answered Danny's question. "Tyler was with us back when we were at the central base. So mind explaining things, Sergeant Danny?"
Danny had no choice, there were no more lies for him to tell now, he looked down and slowly pulled out his gun. A white P8-P pistol with 10 mm lihen bullets

(Lihen is a new material found on asteroids in outer space which is very strong and packs a punch and can be used in various ways like bullets and armors but the resource is limited as it's only found in specific asteroids.)

Fear dawned upon Ricky and Sammy, Danny had just pulled out a gun, Ricky hadn't felt such a feeling of danger in a long time, and Sammy hadn't ever. Without remorse, Danny then said, "Well I guess nothing can be done now. Guess I'll really have to kill you here."
Danny was going to shoot when Sammy dashed and held on to his arm tightly. Sammy moved Danny's arm up, the gun was pointing upwards and Danny had already begun the motion to shoot. A shot was fired into the ceiling, which caused the rubble falling, blocking Ricky off on one side and Sammy and Danny on the other.
Ricky tried with all his might to move the rubble, but his efforts were in vain, he yelled out to Sammy. "Sammy! Are you ok?"
"Yeah but I'm currently in a tight situation! Go and get someone for help." Sammy let go of Danny's arm and ducked down, thrusting out his elbow into Danny's gut. However, rather than hurting Danny, Sammy himself was hurt, as if he had just elbowed a steel wall.
"What the fuck?! But how?! His skin's tough as metal!" Sammy exclaimed.
"You haven't figured it out yet?",Danny laughed. "Doesn't take a genius to figure out I'm a Replibot."

(A replibot is a bot which can take the shape of any person and can have the same personality of the real person, a perfect replica.)
"What?" Sammy exclaimed, confused. "But why is a replibot here and since when do they know how to fight?"
"That's not for you to worry about. If you are going to worry so much, let it be for your life!" Danny said furiously while propelling his fist forward, punching Sammy in the face, sending him off onto the rubble. Before Sammy could regain any sense of composure, Danny's gun was pointed towards him.

"For a second there, I thought we might have some kind of fight. Nevermind, it's over now!" Danny confidently smirked, about to shoot when a voice from behind him declared. "Yeah, for you!" The mysterious voice behind Danny shot him right in the head with a kyro 502 pistol loaded with electro shots. The bullet pierced through the core of the replibot sending bolts of electricity short circuiting the bot. The replibot fell on the floor, lifeless.

 Kyro 502

The man who shot the replibot was a young man in a military uniform and a robe of sorts, he had white hair and blue eyes, beside him was Ratch floating and Ricky panting.
Sammy was left in shock, he immediately asked, "Who are you?" To which Ricky replied, still panting.
"We found him Sammy, It's Alex." Alex stood there silently. This only raised more questions than it did answer for Sammy.
"But how did you find him?"
"Well I didn't find him. Ratch did." Ricky pointed towards Ratch. "He followed him, and we didn't even notice he was gone haha. They almost got in a fight but then Ratch explained everything so he came rushing here when I bumped into them.", Ricky explained.
Alex grew rather impatient, he didn't exactly want to be involved with this and asked,
"So can I leave now? I don't wanna be a part of this anymore." Ricky wasn't ready for Alex to leave yet, so he responded,
"Wait! We just found you and you're just gonna leave like this?"
"I don't even know who the hell you are."
"But we-"
Sammy looked at the two and sighed."Alright, I know this will sound insane but listen you were basically brainwashed. Believe it or not you were once friends with Ricky and...."

Sammy explained everything to Alex.

After hearing out everything Sammy said, not a single look of surprise could be seen on Alex's face. A rather strange reaction. "That is totally possible...but what happened is in the past now and now I don't want to lead a life that dangerous anymore..."
Ricky was very surprised by this reaction. "Wait so you remember?"
"No...I don't even know who you guys are?" Alex said. "It's just that I get a feeling I have experienced all that before."
"Of course you experienced all that Alex.", Ricky assured him. "How could you forget us Alex? Osa, Rami, your sister Shy and I, we all used to hang out together."
Parts of Alex's memories flashed in front of his eyes in a moment as he started getting a headache and felt dizzy, almost falling when Ricky caught him and said. "I know it'll hurt a bit at first but slowly all of your memories will be back. Remember how we used to ride our bikes to school and raced our way back from school. Remember our secret hideout, the old treehouse in your backyard." A smile found its way onto Ricky's face just thinking about it. "All the fun we had when we were kids...we had nothing to worry about, the world hadn't collapsed back then... It was a better time."
Alex's memories came back to him and he almost fainted while saying, "Ricky? Is this really you?"
Ricky replied with a smile on his face, "Yeah dude it's me. It's been ages, we have so much to talk about."
Alex, still feeling weak, stood on his feet and said. "Good to see that you're fine. You've got new friends too huh?"

Ricky, Alex, Sammy and Ratch left the building and went to Ricky's place. On their way there, Ricky walked up to Sammy, facing a bit to the side, he apologized,"Sorry."
"...Why?"
"I kinda doubted you back there when you told me that guy was suspicious, I should've listened to you. I won't doubt you again."
"You worry about the dumbest shit bro.",Sammy assured him before smiling.
Upon arrival, the apartment was still untidy, with stuff laying here and there. Alex laughed and exclaimed,
"When will you learn to keep your room clean? This is even worse than what I saw when I first went to your house."
"Well...nobody visits me so.." Before that conversation could continue, Sammy brought something more important to light.
"So Alex do you know what's going on?"

Alex remained silent because he didn't want to talk about it. Reminded of the situation, Ricky asked Alex a question. "Who did all this? You should know right?"
An irritated expression dawned upon Alex's face after having heard what Ricky said. "Look I don't really understand all of it either, all I know is that the Sylvesters are trying to infiltrate the biome and take control of it from the inside."
"The Sylvesters?" Sammy said curiously.
"Shoot, yeah I forgot, you wouldn't know about them." Alex thought of a way to explain this. "Years ago two factions started rising in popularity, The Sylvesters and The Bloodborne. No one knows the true origins of the factions but they all began rising around 10 to 12 years ago. Those horrible things which happened near the school were because of them. So after we were "brainwashed" the factions started gaining more and more followers from different parts of the world and riots took place all over the world, lots and lots of innocent people died, and the government was taken over. This was an issue and Simian Rodriguez had a plan. He had an agreement with the leaders of the factions, Simian would make a safe environment for the innocent neutral people known as Genotopia. The people of Sylvesters and Bloodbornes would have a war between themselves and the leading faction will rule the whole world including the biome. Thus the war continued between the rivals for years and the people in the biome had their memories brainwashed so that no one has any past trauma of the outbreak and thus the virus was swept under the rug as people were not let outside the biome."

Ricky: "See I was correct! But I still don't like the idea that the government erased our memories."

Sammy: "I mean what choice did he have? He couldn't have just said 'Oh yeah we're safe here until one of the factions wins the war'."

Ricky: "True...but Alex what happened to your recon team?"

Alex was reminded of something, his face turned cold and expressionless, he looked as if he was traumatized.

Ricky shook him and asked. "Hey you ok dude?"
Alex attempted to regain his composure. "Yeah sorry...my squad is well dead now...they're all dead now, not that I grew much closer to them either way but...", A cold silence filled the room, no one had any words to say nor any reactions, just despair.
Ricky decided to break the silence and asked. "What exactly happened?"

Alex explained,"The recon squad's task is to scout the outer world, keeping an eye on the actions of the two groups. So we were doing that yesterday but random explosions blew off in random places so we divided into groups and went to check the explosions. Unknown to us was the Sylvesters' plan, to catch us and get rid of us. We tried fighting back but they were outnumbered us, so we eventually got caught. They killed everyone including Danny...He helped me get away sacrificing his own life. So I ran away and thought that I might just get a new identity and start a fresh life. I never wanted this life...."

Ricky quickly comforted Alex by tapping his shoulder with a bright smile and said, "Everything's gonna be fine now don't worry."
Alex remained silent, almost in tears but he didn't want to show it so he hung his head down low. Sammy said, to Ricky, "So the reality of the world is exactly how you thought it to be huh."
"Well yeah but it probably would've been better if it wasn't true..", Ricky answered.
Sammy chuckled at Ricky's remark and asked Alex, "So what are you gonna do now?" Alex couldn't answer because he was ashamed of himself for running away but still terrified inside.

Ricky said,"We know how you must feel right now, terrified, confused, wanting to run away from everything. Trust me even I feel the same but I know what I must do so it's up to you to take the decision. I know you never wanted a life like this, you just wanted to be someone who saves lives like a doctor, you didn't change your goal you just took a different path, with this path too you can save many lives. The choice is up to you."

Alex wiped his teary eyes and shook his head and said with a smile. "I can't just let you handle things on your own, can I? You'll just mess up like old times again." Alex attempted to replicate his old self, trying to grow back into that confident and prideful state.

"I guess it's too late for me to leave either way.", said Sammy.

Ratch jumped up with a beep and said,"Voice note from master Agazed, open message?"

"Yes.",said Ricky.

Ratch played the voice note in a distorted voice. "I hope you haven't forgotten about me have you? Well I see you got your first friend back, so I might as well help you, If you need to find anyone tell me and I'll send the location to RT- well Ratch's database."

This struck Alex as odd and he asked. "What's up with the bot? I thought you were his master, who's this Agazed guy now?"

Ricky sighed and said, "Long story, I'll tell you about it later, for now just know he's someone to be trusted. Atleast.. I think he is."

Sammy changed the topic and asked, "So what are we gonna do now? Do you have any ideas who the traitor might be?"

Ricky said,"I'm not really sure but I think it might be them."

Two men were travelling in a hovercraft, one suited in white with curly hair driving the hovercraft, the other man was a little buff wearing a military uniform of the Border Patrol.

The man in the uniform asked, "So is it going according to plan?"

The man in white suit replied,"Yeah, the Sylvesters are gonna rule the world in no time, you will have an important position too.

Back in Ricky's Apartment,

Sammy: "So you really think it's them? Yeah it was definitely weird to see the owner of Holotech at the border patrol base."

Alex: "Hmm yeah that makes sense why there was a replibot in the first place."

Sammy: "So what are we going to do now?"

Ricky said with a smirk, "I have a plan but for that we need someone who's excellent in hacking and I know the perfect dude for the task."

A young man sat down on the floor with a glass of beer in his hand. He was completely alone in his huge mansion except for his housekeeper bots which stood inactive in various places of the mansion.