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Shiloh let out a loud groan, tossing her towel aside and running her hand through her hair. She winced at the stickiness she could still feel—she had hoped her shower would have gotten all of it out—before muttering something under her breath and storming out of the locker room.
It was quiet as she entered the hallway, apparently everyone else had already left while she was in the shower. The hallway was illuminated by the pulsing LED lights on the walls, the glass underneath her feet creaking as she walked.
A faint light up ahead made her pause, coming from the Arxis room and she walked towards it, standing in the open doorway and peering in.
“Hope, what are you still doing here?”
A young woman with dark brown hair falling in curls over her shoulders whirled around in her chair, tablet pressed tightly against her chest as she stared at Shiloh with wide eyes, chest going up and down while she breathed heavily.
Upon recognizing she wasn’t dealing with a potential intruder, she carefully dropped the tablet to the console and pressed her hand against her chest as she let out a sigh of relief.
“Shiloh, you scared me!” She arched an eyebrow, taking in Shiloh’s wet hair. “I should be asking you that, were you showering?”
Shiloh scowled as she walked forward, taking the seat at the console next to Hope. “There might have been a…slight training incident.”
“Which one of your brothers did it?”
Hope immediately asked in a deadpan tone and Shiloh would have defended said brothers except Hope knew them for far too long. “Judah, slime grenade, enough said.”
A wince appeared on Hope’s face as she inclined her head before picking up the tablet resting on the console.
Shiloh stepped forward, claiming one of the seats near it and pulling it closer as she sat down. “What are you doing here? Is there a mission team coming back?”
“No,” Hope replied, barely looking up. “David noticed there were some odd fluctuations regarding the transmitters, so he asked if I could take a look at it.”
“What do you mean by fluctuations?” Shiloh frowned, peering at the screen showing several different Raelos, all flashing in red. “Woah, all of these Raelos are affected?”
“That’s the thing, on the surface the Raelos are all stable, it’s almost like something or someone is bouncing a radio signal between them, but it doesn’t stay long enough for us to track it.”
Shiloh bit her lower lip. “Is it something Mom should be told about?”
“If I don’t find the source, I’ll let her know but—”
Whatever Hope was about to say was cut off as a loud alarm began blaring, flashing red lights filling the room as both girls jumped up.
“What’s going on?!”
“I don’t know!” Hope began frantically checking the monitors and her tablet, gaze switching between the two. “The Raelos are still stable, I have no idea what—”
“Where the heck am I?!”
A voice exclaimed, causing the two to whirl around. Hope pulled Shiloh behind her despite the girl’s protest, the two of them staring at the person standing in the Arxis room.
From what Shiloh could see from her spot behind Hope, it was a boy around her age with short, curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes.
He wore a long sleeve blue and grey color-blocked sweater with blue jeans and black and white converse, blinking rapidly as he stared between the two of them.
“Uh…where am I?” He turned around, eyes wide as they slowly shifted to stare up at the arch. “What is that?”
“Wait, the Arxis isn’t on,” Shiloh realized, pointing at the Arxis with a disbelieving look. “He didn’t use it!”
“This is a secure facility, you shouldn’t have been able to come here without going through it!”
“Is that the Arxis?” He pointed, looking quite impressed. “That has to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of cool things, by the way, you didn’t say where I was?”
“This is the M.O.M headquarters,” Shiloh spoke as she took a step forward, interrupting Hope who shot her a warning look.
The boy’s expression changed to one of recognition, eyes widening just a fraction. “Seriously?”
He looked at Shiloh, seemingly finally registering who he was talking to as his eyes widened and his cheeks turned pink. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you, sorry for uh, kind of barging in here but I…oh no…”
The boy paused, blinking rapidly as he began swaying slightly on his feet. “Seriously, again?”
“Again? What do you mean again, what’s happening?”
Hope stepped forward with worry as the boy stared at her, his eyes slightly glassy before he spoke, his words slurring.
“Might want to…get me…a bed…”
That was the last thing he said before his eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Shiloh let out a tiny gasp of surprise.
“Shiloh, Hope, what’s going on?!”
Elijah Nelson, Shiloh’s older brother exclaimed as he burst through the door with an axe in hand. Shiloh’s other brothers Judah and Daniel came through the door shortly with their own weapons, followed by her sister Mary dressed in her white lab coat.
Shiloh and Hope whirled around to stare at them before Hope placed her hands on her hips and glared.
“How did it take you this long to get over here?!”
“We were on the other side of the building!” Elijah protested, slowly coming down the steps with his grip on his axe tight, wary gaze on their unconscious guest.
“And we had to make a stop at the cafeteria for cake!” Judah piped up with a wide smile as Elijah and Daniel stared at him in disbelief while Hope facepalmed.
“Who’s he?” Daniel pointed his weapon at the unconscious boy on the floor, who Mary immediately made her way over to. “Mary, don’t go near him!”
“He’s unconscious Daniel, if he didn’t wake up when Elijah came in here yelling, I doubt he will now,” Hope pointed out dryly, ignoring the glare Elijah shot her. “And unfortunately, we didn’t exactly get around to introductions before he passed out.”
“He seems fine, no visible wounds, but I’ll have to take him back to the med bay for further examination,” Mary replied, frowning. “How did he get here, the Arxis doesn’t even look like it’s been activated.”
“It wasn’t, he just sort of…appeared.” Shiloh replied, staring at the boy as her brothers shared wide-eyed looks.
“Shiloh, no one should be able to just appear, not here anyways,” Daniel’s expression looked grave, though he stepped aside to allow for Bella to get through with a stretcher following her. “If he got in here, without going through the Arxis, then we have a big problem!”
Hope sighed in agreement. “I’ll start looking at the mainframe, see if there’s been any breaches in our security.”
“You can do that after you and Shiloh head to the decontamination showers,” Mary stated, getting to her feet after she and Bella were able to get the boy on the stretcher. “We have no idea what made him faint.”
“Come on, I just finished showering because of Judah!” Shiloh protested, pointing angrily at her brother who smiled innocently, only for his eyes to widen and he raised his hand to ask a question.
“Wait, if he’s infected, shouldn’t we also get decontaminated?” Judah pointed out as he pointed between him, Elijah and Daniel who nodded, their expressions nervous.
“They were exposed to him longer, but if you are really concerned, I can always give you a shot and—”
Bella didn’t even finish her sentence before Judah turned and ran out of the Arxis room, a high scream of terror echoing in the distance. Elijah and Daniel stared after him.
“He really doesn’t like shots, does he?”
“Nope,”
“Not in the slightest.”
If Hope was being entirely honest, having to spend a half hour in a decontamination shower wasn’t the worse thing to ever happen to her in her time working at the M.O.M agency. It wasn’t even on her list of the top five or ten things.
Still, she was relieved to get out of the shower, drying her hair quickly and putting it up in a makeshift bun before exiting the shower room.
She arched an eyebrow at the sight of Elijah leaning against the wall, wearing his typical red patterned flannel jacket over top of a blue henley with slightly long sleeves.
“Have you seriously been waiting out here the whole time I was in the shower?” she questioned as mouth twitched. Elijah sputtered.
“No! I’ve only been here a few minutes…give or take.”
“Has Mary finished her examination of the patient?”
Elijah sighed, shaking his head. “This worries me, Hope, no one should be able to get into the Agency without going through the Arxis and yet this guy did.”
Hope opened her mouth to respond, unable to deny her own concerns, before her eyes widened as she recalled something.
The fluctuations David pointed out to her didn’t seem to be causing any damage to the Raelos themselves, they were never in one place for too long and were almost like radio signals…
“A teleporter.”
“What?”
Elijah’s nose scrunched up in confusion, a gesture Hope always found kind of cute, but she would never tell him that as his ego couldn’t handle it.
“David asked me to look into some fluctuations that were occurring on multiple Raelos,” Hope explained, pacing back and forth as she gestured with her hands. “The thing was, they didn’t affect the Raelos, not in any visible way, and we couldn’t tell what they were because they only lasted a few minutes and vanished.”
“Okay…” Elijah nodded slowly, before staring at her. “I think you’re trying to make a point, but I have no clue what it is.”
“What if the fluctuations were our guest teleporting from Raelo to Raelo?” Hope whirled around, mouth turning up in a slight grin. “Somehow, he managed to get caught on our signal and so he teleported here.”
Elijah’s eyes widened, covering his mouth with his hand. “But how? We’re one of the only few people who are able to do so easily, and why was he travelling to different Raelos, especially for such a short time?”
The thought came to Hope easily, and she grimaced. “Because he was trying to lose something or someone that was following him.”
A silence passed over them, tension radiating off of Elijah’s shoulders as he stared down the hallway, towards where the med bay was.
“If he is being followed—”
“David and Britney are checking our security as I speak, if anything comes up, we’ll know about it,” Hope stepped forward, placing a reassuring hand on his arm.
Elijah’s eyes were still peering at her with worry, but he relaxed slightly and placed his own hand over hers and giving it a soft squeeze.
“I hear we have an unexpected guest.”
“Mom!”
“Ma’am!”
Elijah and Hope greeted in unison, stepping away from each other and whirling around as an older woman with light blonde-brown hair falling slightly past her shoulders and light blue/white overalls approached them.
“Hope, how many times have I told you, call me Sarah or even Mom.”
Sarah Nelson still managed to be a striking woman despite the years that had passed, bright eyes like her daughter Shiloh’s shining with amusement as she looked at her son and the girl who had become so much a part of her family over the years.
“My apologies, Ma’am—Sarah,” Hope corrected herself as Sarah raised an eyebrow, elbowing Elijah hard in the side when he snickered. “I think our guest might have been travelling to different Raelos, possibly trying to escape from something or someone.”
Sarah’s expression became serious, nodding at Hope’s words. “After looking at what David showed me, I believe that might be the case as well, though we won’t be able to confirm it until he wakes up.”
“And what are we going to do in the meantime, Mom?” Elijah pressed, concern flashing across his face. “If he is running, then what happens if his pursuers track him here?”
“We’ll be fine, sweetheart, our friend managed to find a fluke in the system but he’ll be the only one.”
Sarah Nelson always had a way of looking at the positives, never showing fear even in the face of great danger. Hope had personally witnessed her dealing with troublesome Lords of Raelos with a smile always on her face.
“But what—”
“I swear, if Judah ever uses those slime grenades in a training session again, I will take that Temonium taser we got and—Mom!”
Shiloh’s angry mutterings trailed off as she left the decontamination showers, brightening at the sight of her mother and giving the woman a hug.
“I don’t want to know about the slime grenades, do I?”
“Probably not.”
“No, not at all.”
Elijah and Shiloh replied in unison, causing Sarah to chuckle, brushing a strand of Shiloh’s hair out of her face before her comm buzzed.
She stepped back, mask falling into place as she brought her wrist up to her mouth. “Status report, what’s going on?”
“Director, we have an incoming transmission from Lord Darius, he requests to speak with you urgently and is prepared to come through the Arxis.”
Hope’s eyes widened, sharing surprised looks with Shiloh and Elijah while Sarah’s expression barely changed. “Let him through, I’ll be there shortly.”
She cut off the call, turning to the others. “Well, let’s go see what Darius wants.”
With a nod, she turned on her heels and headed back towards the Arxis room. Elijah, Hope and Shiloh nearly stumbled into each other trying to keep up with her.
“What do you think Darius wants to speak with Mom about?” Elijah whispered to Shiloh, who shrugged as Hope tried to keep a straight face.
Admittedly, it didn’t sound like this was just a casual visit but at the same time, it wasn’t uncommon for the Lord to just pay random visits in order to speak with Sarah because Hope knew for a fact Darius liked Sarah, though the feelings were only one-sided.
She obviously wasn’t going to point that out in front of Elijah and Shiloh though, let alone any of the other Nelson siblings (though she suspected Mary might already know).
The Arxis room, compared to the emptiness it had before, was full of activity as several M.O.M members manned the console and barked orders at each other. Hope waved to David Nelson, another of Shiloh and Elijah’s brothers, who managed to shoot her a smile before his attention was drawn away.
Activity briefly stopped when Sarah entered, the members almost standing at attention and greeting her with a solemn respect before Sarah waved them off.
“Is everything ready?”
“Yes, the Arxis is connected, Ma’am,” A woman with dark grey, scaly skin with fins on the side of her head spoke. “Just waiting for your order.”
“Do it,” Sarah spoke in a gentle yet firm tone.
With that, the woman nodded and turned to press a couple of buttons; a faint humming sound was heard before the space within the white arch turned into a glowing gold and black portal.
Four figures came through the portal, all dressed in attire fitting of a medieval setting with dark black and grey chest plates and capes flowing behind them.
One of them was an older gentleman with light brown hair swept to the side and a matching beard, dark eyes peering at them sternly.
The man’s expression softened slightly when his gaze landed on Sarah, who smiled warmly and moved to greet him. “Sarah, it’s lovely to see you.”
“It hasn’t been that long, Darius,” She replied, tilting her head. “Somehow, I don’t think this is a social visit.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t,” His gaze shifted to the side, his eyes widening. “Shiloh, is that you? You’ve grown so much since I’ve last saw you!”
Shiloh laughed, coming to stand at her mother’s side with Elijah and Hope. “What are you here for?”
“I came here to warn you,” At those words, tension filled the room and uneasy looks were exchanged. “I’m afraid BANSHEE has been up to their old tricks.”
Hope frowned, grabbing a nearby tablet and typing on it furiously; BANSHEE was an organization M.O.M had run into on multiple occasions, causing chaos and destruction across multiple Raelos.
M.O.M had fought them multiple times and won, but no matter how many individuals or groups they took down, they always came back.
“What are they planning now?”
“We’re not sure, but it would appear they are in the process of obtaining fusion detonators,” Darius grimaced. “Whatever they’re planning, with those, it can’t be good.”
“You said they were trying to obtain the detonators, they haven’t yet?” Elijah questioned, arms crossed over his chest.
“Apparently someone stumbled upon their plan and decided to intervene,” Darius replied, sounding slightly impressed. “He managed to foil it and got the members involved arrested, plus they lost the fusion detonators they got.”
“I can’t imagine BANSHEE was very pleased about the loss of the detonators or their members getting arrested,” Shiloh pointed out wisely. Hope glanced at her, inclining her head in agreement.
“No, he unfortunately now has a bounty on his head,” Darius sighed. “They almost got him, but he managed to escape.”
Hope tilted her head, processing what Darius said and then blinked as it finally hit her. “It’s him.”
Heads turned to her as Hope glanced meaningfully at Shiloh. “The boy, he was travelling to multiple Raelos, likely to get away from BANSHEE.”
Shiloh and Sarah’s eyes widened in understanding while Elijah and Darius stared at them in confusion.
Darius shook his head, looking between the three in question. “I feel like I’ve missed something, what are you talking about?”
“We have a boy in our med bay right now, he somehow managed to get in here without using the Arxis,” Sarah raised her hand as Darius opened his mouth. “He’s been Raelo-hopping somehow, probably to get away from BANSHEE.”
“If he is who you say he is, he could very well have information about BANSHEE and what they’re planning,” Darius’s eyes sparked with interest. “You said he’s in the med bay, is he able to be questioned right now?”
At that moment Hope’s tablet beeped, a message from Mary appearing on the screen. She stared at it for a moment, briefly glancing at the words before lifting her head to meet curious gazes.
“As a matter of fact: he just woke up.”
The first thing Cyrus registered was a familiar pounding headache he tended to get after travelling to a different Raelo. It was a lot worse, probably because he travelled to multiple Raelos in a short time frame.
He really wished that would stop happening, it was kind of annoying.
Blackness greeted him, but slowly it started to fade, and he registered something bright and blue staring down at him.
He blinked, and it turned out to be a ceiling he was looking up at. With a groan he tried to sit up, only to wince and hiss as it just made his headache worse.
“Careful, you have a pretty nasty headache going on, I gave you some meds to help but I don’t know much it worked.”
The unexpected female voice made Cyrus freeze, and he finally noticed he wasn’t alone: a woman with long blonde hair and gray eyes wearing a white lab coat over white overalls smiled at him, which was a little offset by the two scowling guys next to her.
One had short blonde-brown hair and the same gray eyes as the woman, dressed in a white t-shirt with a tan short-sleeved cargo jacket over top while the other had short black hair and brown eyes, wearing a black long-sleeve henley with a matching bomber jacket over top.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you aren’t the welcoming committee.”
Cyrus finally spoke, tired of the silence as the two guys glared at him. He grabbed his head and shut his eyes as the ringing noise in his ears got louder, normally that stopped once he was settled but again, he probably overdid himself.
A gentle hand touched his shoulder and his gaze shot up with a jolt, finding himself face to face with the woman as the two guys behind her hissed at her, “Mary!”
So, her name is Mary…
“He’s lying in med bay, and the only weapon he has is a spoon,” A quick glance at the table by his bed confirmed he did, indeed, only have a spoon. “I think we’re fine, please don’t undo all of Bella’s hard work, she’ll be very cross if you do.”
Cyrus couldn’t help himself:
“How do you know I can’t use a spoon as a weapon?”
That got another reaction out of Silent Dude 1 and 2, gazes darkening as they took a step forward only to be halted by her holding out a hand.
“For future reference, while you’re injured, it’s probably a good idea not to be so snarky,” Mary offered with a twitch of her mouth. “My brothers can be a bit protective.”
“Your brothers,” Cyrus stated, glancing at them over her shoulder. “And you would be Mary.”
“Yup!” Her smile was back, and he got the feeling it came a lot easier to her than it did her two brothers. “That one’s Daniel and he’s Josiah.”
She pointed to the blonde first than the dark-haired one, who both sputtered in protest. “Mary! Why would you tell him that?!”
“Mom always tells us we need to be polite,” She turned to face them, hands on her hips and arching an eyebrow. “Or were you two just going to stand there and brood in an attempt to be intimidating?”
“No, of course not,” Daniel—it was nice to have names—began protesting as Josiah did the same, “We were—”
They stopped mid-sentence, slowly turning to face each other before their shoulders slumped and they looked back to their sister. “Okay maybe we were, but did you have to ruin our vibe?! It was working!”
“I’ve seen a lot of scary things, it wasn’t working as well as you think.”
Cyrus piped up, grinning slightly as they whirled around to glare at him. Josiah opened his mouth to speak, before being cut off by a swish.
Footsteps began getting closer to them, causing them to turn as another guy with short, dark and slightly messy hair and brown eyes came up to them followed by a woman with long dark brown hair falling in waves past her shoulder and blue eyes in a grey denim jacket over top of a burgundy long sleeve top and a girl with long brown hair and green eyes in a purple tank top.
He recognized the woman and the girl as the two he had met when he first ended up wherever here was and couldn’t help but smile a bit.
“Hey, you’re the pretty girl from before!”
The words escaped him before he could stop himself, turning beet red as did the girl while Josiah, Daniel and the messy-haired guy sputtered before glaring at him hard.
“What did you call her…?!”
Messy-haired dude asked before taking a step forward, only to be stopped by the brunette woman who grabbed his flannel jacket and yanked him back.
“Elijah, not the time…!”
She hissed and Messy-haired dude—Elijah—stared at her for a moment before huffing and scowling at him.
As he watched their interactions, bits and pieces of the conversation he had with the pretty girl—he really hoped they couldn’t read his mind—and the brunette woman before he passed out came back to him.
“So, this is the M.O.M headquarters.” Cyrus looked around, ignoring the stares.
Mary had called this place med bay, and it certainly looked the part; the bed he was on was just one of what looked like a dozen, if that, lined up in rows along the wall. There was a console pushed off in one of the corners where a woman with dark black hair was looking at something on a hologram and large lights with different colors hung above him.
It was kind of surreal to be here: he had heard plenty of stories about M.O.M, about the Angel of the Stars and the adventures they went on, the Raelos they travelled to…he was internally squeeing a bit.
Still, he was surrounded by strangers who clearly didn’t trust him, and he wasn’t going to give them any inch, so…might as well pretend he wasn’t affected (ignoring the fact he had expressed his admiration for the place right before he passed out).
“Got to admit, from the stories I heard, I thought it would be a little bit more impressive.”
“Okay that’s it, I’m—”
“Elijah, no!”
Pretty girl—god that was so embarrassing to think, but he didn’t know her name—scolded as Elijah charged forward again, shooting him a look that had him sighing and relenting. She turned to Cyrus, and he was slightly struck by the ferocity of the stare she fixed on him.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Cyrus,” he held out a hand with a genuine smile, biting the inside of his cheek.
Pretty girl tilted her head, staring at his outstretched hand and, ignoring the hisses from the guys around her, took it gently and shook. “I’m Shiloh.”
“Shiloh,” he tested the name and found that despite only knowing her for maybe an hour, the name felt right for her. “And I’ve already met Mary, plus Daniel and Josiah, and I know Messy-haired guy is Elijah, so that just leaves your friend who I met when I arrived.”
Ignoring Elijah’s bewildered mutter, the brunette woman graced him with a gentle smile.
“I’m Hope Hawthorne.”
She took a step forward, Elijah’s gaze following the movement and Cyrus tilted his head in question. He then noticed she had a tablet in her hands and his eyebrows went up further.
“We have some questions for you Cyrus, if you would be willing to answer them,” Cyrus tilted his head in inquiry before his eyes widened when she turned the tablet towards him and he was greeted with an unfortunately familiar face of a man with brown hair that fell to the nape of his neck and a rather mean stare.
He would know, since that was the guy he kind of, maybe sort of, screwed over accidently.
Mind whirling as he stared at the screen, Cyrus’s thoughts were interrupted by a swish and two more guys came running, almost sliding really, in.
One of them was quite tall, with short wavy brown hair and eyes and was dressed in a grey hoodie with a long green trench coat over top while the other had shorter brown hair concealed with an orange ballcap and an orange long-sleeve shirt with a black sleeveless puffer vest that had what looked like a carrot (?) embroidered on one side.
“Judah, did you go to the cafeteria again?”
Shiloh demanded, in a tone that sounded like she was far too used to this happening as she stared at the guy with the orange ballcap who stared at her.
“Nooo, of course not…” His eyes darted nervously around before he pointed at the tall one. “Micah made me do it!”
Micah sputtered and glared at him while Hope, somehow, ignored both of them and turned the tablet back towards her.
“You came into contact with this man, and his organization known as BANSHEE, correct?”
Cyrus remained silent, staring at bedsheets as he curled his hand. He should answer her, they were M.O.M, the good guys who went against BANSHEE.
But there was still a part of him that was hesitant, he’d been burned in the past by people he thought were good too.
“Cyrus, you’re safe here,”
Shiloh’s soft voice made him look up, flushing and slightly jerking back as he realized their faces were quite close. So did the others, if the identical glares being aimed at him were any indication.
Seriously, he’d bet anything those were her brothers because it felt like he was being glared at by a bunch of big brothers.
“She’s right,” Hope stepped forward, expression soft. “Nothing will happen to you while you’re here.”
A swish distracted them, drawing everyone’s attention towards the door as two people entered, an older guy with a beard and a stern look that was fixed on Cyrus and an older woman who looked at him with a much gentler look.
“I’m glad to see you’re up,” The woman addressed Cyrus, causing him to blink in surprise at her genuine tone. “I hope you’re feeling better, I’ve been told you have a pretty bad headache?”
“Uh, it’s not too bad, I’ve had a lot worse.”
The woman nodded, looking at the others who blinked at her innocently as she narrowed her eyes. “I do hope my children at least were polite enough to introduce themselves to you.”
Cyrus’s eyes widened as sputters and protests filled the room, before making a little fist pump. “I did guess right, you are all siblings.”
That got a giggle out of Shiloh and yup, he’s turning red again, really?
Sarah chuckled, “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Sarah Nelson, Director and Founder of the M.O.M Agency.”
“And my companion here is Lord Darius,” Sarah gestured to the brooding man beside her, who merely let out a soft grunt and crossed his arms over his chest.
“I understand you’ve had an encounter with BANSHEE?”
At that, Cyrus’s smile faded, and he nodded slowly. “Yeah, guess you could call it that.”
“What happened?”
Cyrus hesitated, but after taking in the encouraging looks he took a deep breath. “I was in the area when I stumbled across some guys going down an alley, it looked really shady so I followed them.”
“You saw two guys going down an alley and thought it would be a good idea to follow them?”
Micah questioned, staring at him in disbelief and Cyrus glared at him slightly while Shiloh and Hope slowly turned to look at him in unison.
“It’s about as stupid as some of the things you’ve done,” Hope pointed out dryly, causing Cyrus to duck his head and hide his laughter while Micah stared at her with a hurt look.
“Anyways, when I followed them, they had this briefcase that was open and I was kind of far away but I still saw the fusion detonators.”
“You know what fusion detonators are?”
Darius was the one to speak, after having been silent for pretty much the whole time and just kind of staring at him with a really serious look.
“I mean, I’ve never seen them up close but I kind of know the general look of them,” Cyrus shrugged. “And I know they’re bad news, and I imagine they weren’t going to use them for anything good so I just…decided to step in.”
“And how did you step in?”
And Cyrus was even more hesitant, because quite frankly the idea wasn’t one of his better ones, but by the eager looks he was getting they weren’t going to let it go.
“I kind of…charged at them, bit one of them on the hand and then grabbed the briefcase when they dropped it,” Stunned silence followed this as everyone gaped at him and he continued. “And then I literally ran to the first official-looking person I could find and showed them the briefcase, asking if those men were allowed to have them because they looked kind of dangerous.”
There was a pause as everyone exchanged looks before Daniel broke it by bursting into laughter, and that set everyone except for Darius, Sarah, Hope and Shiloh off as they doubled over.
“I change my previous statement, not even you could come with a plan that stupid,” Hope drawled, her mouth twitching.
“You do realize that was incredibly dangerous, right?” Shiloh pointed out, looking worried and Cyrus swallowed. “I mean, if you dropped it or they tried to attack you.”
“I literally just had enough time to react!” Cyrus protested, pointing at her. “You’re telling me you could come up with something better?”
“Certainly better than any of her brothers,” Hope muttered under her breath, causing said brothers to rapidly turn their heads towards her with offended expressions.
Sarah raised her hand before an argument broke out. “There is still one more question: how did you end up here? You were travelling to multiple Raelos, how?”
Cyrus scrunched up his nose, staring at her in confusion. “I’ve always been able to, admittedly I didn’t have much control before, but now I think of a Raelo I’ve been to previously and next thing I know, I’m there.”
“I’m sorry,” Elijah waved his hands in front of his face as whispers started filling the room. “You’re saying you can travel to Raelos, just like that? No teleporter, no Velrite doorway?”
“No—what’s a Velrite doorway?”
“Never mind,” Sarah waved a hand, forehead furrowed as she peered at him. “I’ve met very few people with a natural ability to travel Raelos, how long have you had it?”
“The first time I travelled, accidently, I was…five? Yeah, around that age?”
“You said you travelled accidentally?”
Cyrus nodded, lowering his head. “When it first developed, I couldn’t control it; it was controlled by my emotions, I think? So, I got angry, then it felt like I was being put through a blender and the next thing I know I’m standing in a desert.”
“That’s why you have a headache,” Mary realized. “The travelling, it puts a strain on your body.”
“Yeah, that part’s not the greatest,” Cyrus admitted, scratching the back of his head. “It was worse when I started, I’d always end up passing out and be out for a few days but now it’s fine, well unless I do a bunch of Raelo-hopping.”
“Where are your parents?”
Sarah asked softly, causing Cyrus to blink and stare at her before turning to glare at a spot on the wall and mutter, “Don’t know, they left me when I was five.”
He didn’t tell them part of the reason he did so much Raelo-hopping when he first discovered his power was because he was trying to find them. It didn’t last long, he gave up pretty quickly.
Sarah’s eyes narrowed and Hope’s expression became sympathetic as Elijah glanced at her worriedly before Sarah cleared her throat.
“Cyrus, why don’t you stay with us?”
Cyrus gaped at her as she continued, “Doing so much Raelo-hopping likely has left a strain on your body and you need to recover, plus BANSHEE is likely still pursuing you, even if they are weakened right now.”
“And…maybe we can learn a bit more about your power, help ease the pain it causes you.”
“You really think you can do that?” Cyrus’s voice came out in a whisper and he hated how he sounded, like he was desperate, but maybe he was. “Stop the headaches?”
“If we can monitor you during and after you travel to another Raelo, we can see the effects it has on your body and find a way to treat it,” Mary, who had been silent, spoke up. “I can’t make any promises, but we can try.”
Cyrus swallowed, lowering his gaze to stare at the bedsheets before meeting Sarah’s gaze. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
Sarah nodded, smiling softly. “But for now, you still need to rest, so I think it’s time we take our leave; Darius, I’ll escort you back to the Arxis.”
Darius nodded, inclining his head towards Cyrus. “It was nice to meet you, young Cyrus.”
Before Cyrus could say anything else, the two older adults took their leave. Cyrus blinked for a moment.
“He’s not much of a talker, is he?”
Hope let out a snort, causing Elijah to look at her with a weird look that Cyrus recalled seeing a merchant he befriended give his wife a lot.
“He’s an old friend of Mom’s,” Shiloh explained, walking over to sit at the end of his bed which had Cyrus freezing and her brothers gaping at her. “He can seem pretty intimidating, but he’s a good guy.”
“You’re just saying that because he got you that stuffed unicorn when you were six,” Daniel, after being silent for so long, pointed out causing Shiloh to glare at him and Cyrus should not find that cute, but he did.
He wasn’t going to admit it out loud, though, he’d already put his foot in his mouth once and he didn’t want to get kicked out when they agreed to help him.
“Alright, you heard Mom, the kid needs his rest,” Hope turned, arching an eyebrow and using her arms and body to push the Nelsons’ brothers out even as they protested, their voices mingling with one another:
“But I wanted to ask him about how travelling worked without a portal—!”
“—Mom won’t let me use the Arxis to go to the cat Raelo—!”
Cyrus laughed nervously at that last one, shooting Shiloh a confused look to which she just shook her head and mouthed don’t ask.
“Wait, why is Shiloh staying?!”
Elijah protested, pointing at Shiloh over his brothers’ heads as Hope had forced them to the door. Hope glanced briefly before looking back at him and stating in a deadpan voice, “Because she isn’t a nuisance, now move!”
She pushed them through the doors, looking back over her shoulder and giving Cyrus a wink before following them out the doors.
Cyrus and Shiloh stared before Cyrus broke the silence.
“Hope is kind of scary, isn’t she?”
“She knows how to handle my brothers, then again, she’s been doing it for a long time,” Shiloh smiled at him, and Cyrus returned it.
They sat in an awkward silence, Mary having left them at some point though Cyrus didn’t actually know when.
Finally, Shiloh sighed, hopping off the bed and turning back to smile at Cyrus. “I should get going, let you get some rest before Mary or Bella kick me out.”
“Yeah, or they send Hope back to get you,” Cyrus joked, pleased he got a laugh out of her.
Shiloh turned to leave, only for Cyrus to stop her by calling out, “Wait, Shiloh!”
She stopped, looking over her shoulder slightly with a questioning look as Cyrus rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s just…would you be willing to visit me? Just, this place is cool but I’ve never been here before, and I’m used to being alone but sometimes I need to talk and I think Mary might get annoyed if I just ramble, like I’m doing and—”
“Of course,” Shiloh interrupted him, mouth spreading into a smile. “I actually was planning to visit you anyways, I wanted to talk about some of the Raelos you travelled to—if you’re okay with that, I mean, after all not all of them might have been great experiences but…”
She trailed off and Cyrus nodded, managing a small grin. “I’d love to, if you tell me some of yours, I’ve heard a lot about M.O.M.”
“Deal.”
With that Shiloh left, a swish signalling her exit as Cyrus let out a soft exhale, flopping back onto his pillow and sure his cheeks were slightly pink.
“I’m an idiot…” He muttered to himself, pulling up the covers so they covered him up to his nose. “But at least I get a nice bed, kind of.”
Elijah hurried down the hallway, silently counting the steps in his head until he turned the corner and reached Hope’s office.
The young Operations Manager’s office was halfway between the Arxis room and the main communication room, cut off from the rest of the agency by two glass sliding doors with a palm scanner that Hope had set up herself in order to control who was coming and going (or more likely so she could lock out certain people if they were annoying her).
Hovering in front of the office, Elijah couldn’t help but smile gently as he stared through the glass doors at Hope peering at something on her computer, nose wrinkled in concentration.
He would never admit it to her face, because he had no desire to get smacked, but she always looked cute when she did this.
The doors slid open to greet him with a loud swish as he stepped into the office, placing his hands in his pockets and waiting.
“Hello Elijah,” Hope remarked without looking up from the screen. “What happened and who did it?”
Elijah blinked, sputtering slightly. “What—why do you assume someone did something?”
Hope finally lifted her head, arching an eyebrow and fixing him with a fierce blue stare that often had Elijah and his siblings confessing to whatever scheme or plan they were doing.
Well, joke’s on her, he was innocent…this time, at least.
“Mary said Cyrus’s asleep right now, she thinks he’ll probably be sleeping for a while.”
Hope nodded, gaze slipping back to her screen briefly. “Poor thing’s probably exhausted, I remember how bad you and Micah were when you got back from that one mission, and you only went to two Raelos.”
“Do we know how many Raelos he went to?”
Hope sighed, fingers flying across her keyboard as Elijah came around her desk to look at her screen. He realized with a blush they were standing quite close, his chin almost resting on the top of her head, and he glanced down to see if she noticed but if she did, she wasn’t giving anything away.
“Technically, he was only on each Raelo for a fraction of a second, if that,” Hope’s eyes flickered across the screen before she leaned back. “But based on the fluctuations we picked up, these are the Raelos Cyrus went to.”
Elijah leaned forward to read the screen, eyes widening as he took in all the dots. “That’s at least twenty Raelos!”
“Give or take a few,” Hope agreed, letting out a huff as Elijah stepped back, covering his hand with his mouth.
“How…” Elijah shook his head, moving to lean against Hope’s desk and normally Hope would push him off, but this time she just stared at him, waiting.
“I’ve never come across anyone who can travel to Raelos without something assisting them,” Elijah spoke, mind whirling. “Mom told me she’s heard about such people, but they’re just myths and legends, they lived a long time ago and they’re not supposed to exist anymore.”
“And Cyrus, he’s Shiloh’s age!” Elijah pushed off the desk, beginning to pace back and forth as he ran a hand through his hair. “He’s had this power since he was five, and his parents…!”
Elijah stopped himself mid-sentence, turning to face Hope with what he was sure was a fierce stare and she merely arched an eyebrow.
“How could they abandon him?” Elijah’s voice came out disgusted, because he was, extremely so. “If Shiloh, or I, or Josiah or any of us had that ability Mom would be frantic trying to find us and she’d been checking in on us, she’d be finding ways to reduce our pain—!”
“Not everyone is lucky to have a Sarah Nelson for a parent.”
Hope finally spoke in a wistful voice, getting to her feet and tilting her head slightly. Her smile was soft yet strained and Elijah swallowed, realizing that Cyrus might be striking a cord with Hope.
“I’m sorry, I…”
Hope raised her hand, cutting off the apology she didn’t need or want to hear before speaking in a calm tone. “Right now, we just focus on helping Cyrus get better, then we look into helping him with his power.”
Elijah nodded, taking a careful step forward so he was now staring down at Hope: it was easy for him to forget, giving Hope’s fierce nature, that she was a good two feet shorter than him.
“Elijah,”
Hope spoke, though it almost sounded like a question as she tilted her head back to stare at him, blue eyes piercing him.
Elijah didn’t respond initially, a hand reaching out hesitantly, and Hope sucked in a deep breath—
“Hope, the Director—uh, did I just interrupt something?”
The two of them jerked backwards, heads whirling around to where a young man was staring at them with wide, embarrassed eyes.
Elijah thought he was one of the techs who worked on the Arxis, though he didn’t recall the name—
“Leo, what’s going on?”
Right, Leo, that was his name.
“Something’s going on with the Arxis, Josiah’s already on his way to look at it but the Director wanted you to be there too.”
Hope cleared her throat, Elijah not able to miss the pinkness in her cheeks and while he knew she’d smack him, he couldn’t help but grin at her slightly, pleased with himself.
She slowly turned her head, glaring at him before turning back to Leo who was watching their exchange nervously.
“Let’s go, one of the wires might have come loose, I’ll talk to you later Eli!”
Hope called out over her shoulder before pushing past Leo. Leo and Elijah watched her leave before Leo slowly turned back to look at Elijah, raising a finger and opening his mouth before quickly closing it.
“I’m just going to—yeah.”
Leo turned and ran off after Hope, leaving Elijah standing there in Hope’s office in silence.
He let out a loud exhale, running a hand through his hair before muttering to himself:
“If Shiloh ever finds out about this, I will never live it down…”