Bring The Heat

52. Compound Breached (CB ARC 1)

-(JANUARY 27TH, RIGHT BEFORE THE COMPOUND BREACH)-

"Yes! And they always smell so weird..."

Cece laughed.

"Yeah, I hear ya. I gotta deal with Rebound after his training and workout... not good." she replied. Mariah screwed up her face at the idea, making Cece laugh again.

The friendly chat was suddenly interrupted by loud, blaring alarms. The two girls looked around, confused, before a massive CRASH! rang out from the hangar.

"Go get BM." Cece instructed Mariah, not breaking her gaze down the hall towards the hangar as she pointed to BM's office just next to them. Mariah rushed into the office, confused and afraid, before sticking her head back out the door.

"He's not here..."

Cece turned back to look at her, rushing to the door of his office. Shit... where was he? As the power went out, and the auxiliary lights came on, she looked back towards the hangar to see him and Wren sprinting towards the hangar. She started towards them, before...

BANG! BM was shot!

Cece ran back to the office, dragging a shocked Mariah inside.

"It's ok! He can take bullets... follow me, I know somewhere we can hide." she commanded.

Mariah was clearly shaken up, but Cece was in action mode. She'd get them both safe, and then console Mariah. And then, hopefully, find a way to everyone else...

Pushing BM's desk aside, and lifting his carpet, Cece revealed a big metal hatch in the floor.

"Woah! Don't tell me - evil lab?" Mariah joked, trying to cope with the panic of the situation.

"Well... almost."

The hatch groaned as Cece tried to lift it, straining against it's immense weight.

"Back against the door." she instructed, "I've done this before. I just need to-"

As Mariah backed against the door, Cece briefly activated her power, a sensation she had somewhat missed, and simultaneously dreaded feeling again. In the zero gravity bubble, she easily lifted the hatch, and deactivated her power to let it slam down on the floor.

"Go down... BM made it so that only he was strong enough to open it, but he either forgot to take me into account, or just trusted me enough with what's down there."

As Mariah descended a cold, metal ladder, she saw what Cece was referring to. She found herself in a large, dark room, unable to see much outside of the shaft of light coming from BM's office. Upon Cece's instruction, she flipped a bulky red switch on the side of the ladder.

The entire room lit up, not with lights, but with illumination from hundreds of monitor screens. Mariah gasped at the sight.

"It's a lab, but it's not evil. BM does work down here, and this is the log room. I know, I know, it seems bad, but I promise you, his primary focus is keeping everyone safe. His work on abilities comes second." Cece reassured, swinging the hatch shut behind them. Mariah approached one of the monitors.

'BEN MARTINEZ - ARMS RACE
24 YEARS OLD

CAN FORM METAL STRUCTURES FROM HIS MISSING ARM, BUT ONLY IF HE HAS THE RECIPE AND REQUIRED METALS FOR THEM. HE ACQUIRES THESE BY ABSORBING METAL FIRST, AND STORING IT INSIDE HIS BODY.

I'll have to do some scans to see where the metal is stored, and also how his arm absorbs and forms it. But there are more pressing matters now; I may have sent him on a mission he couldn't handle, and it's caused a lot of problems back here, and undoubtedly for him also. I hope he's doing well, and I should really be far more careful in the future.