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The Underground

It was midday and the Alesters were walking through the streets of their city again the next day messing around with their new found device.

"Hey, whose turn is it to fire the charge?" asked Ryan.

"Pretty sure it's mine." said Zack.

"No it's mine!" said Jas.

Both grabbed it at the same time from Ryan's hand.

"Jas! Zack! Stop!" yelled Ryan, helpless.

The two argued tugging at the object until Ryan pulls it backwards which caused Jas's hand to hit the button on it. The orange wave of energy pushed the three backwards as it resonated forward. Then came a harsh loud sound and bright light. After the three got their vision back, Ryan got up and dusted his jacket. When he turns to look at what happened, his jaw dropped.

"Aw crap."

The Central Bank of Anexis's internal vaults had been blown open and a minor fire started near the explosion. Blue bills of money flew in different directions as the exhaust inside the vault had activated causing the bills to fly around. A policeman was talking to a few witnesses and asked about what just happened. All of a sudden a man with a walking cane spoke up.

"It were them three!" he said pointing at the brothers. "It were them who blew up th' bank! I saw 'em"

"Dude! Run!" said Zack patting Jas's back.

"We need backup at 10th street FourSix." said the policeman while chasing Jas. "We got three kids, look around fourteen"

The three ran like they have never before, which made sense for Ryan as he had almost never run. His first steps were on his knees towards a sofa while the other two were already walking flawlessly.

They were chased through several alleys until finally they shook them and ran behind a building.

"I think we lost him." said Jas.

"See? Cart-o-crappy." said Ryan mockingly.

"What?" said Jas, confused.

"Oh, nothing. You were unconscious." said Zack.

All of a sudden they heard a voice.

"Hello!"

It was a whisper.

"Who is that?" said Ryan.

"It's me!"

"Who?"

"Me!"

"Oh you! Right!" said Ryan "Who is she?"

"She?" replied Zack.

"It "

"Guys it's me Alex!"

"Ohhhhh that Alex! The friday basketball one!" said Ryan

"That's right... How many Alex's do you know?" asked Alex.

"Well, one." said Ryan, shrugging

"Then why did you specify?" asked Alex. "Nevermind. We saw you getting chased. I owe Zack here twenty bucks so I wanted to clear the deal by helping."

"Wait, who's 'we'?" asked Jas.

"Hello!" said another voice. "I'm Sam."

"This is Sam guys. She's a close friend." said Alex.

"Cool." said Ryan. "Anyway, how are you going to help?"

"Follow us." said Sam.

The group walked around the streets for a few minutes till they came to a circular manhole-like opening on the ground.

"Hey Alex! I didn't know you were part ninja turtle!" said Ryan.

"Shut up. Now when you come back up from there, you have never heard of the place below. Especially not from us." said Alex.

She opens the manhole leading to a ladder and a tunnel. They climb down until they reach a large dark hall. A switch flicks and turns on hundreds of solar powered white lights. The light illuminates an enormous garage with various models of actual unused space-planes.

"Woah!" said Ryan, awestruck.

"Pretty cool isn't it?" asked Sam.

"It is a tinkerer's wonderland! Tools, material, large unused crap! It is perfect!" exclaimed Ryan. "What is this place?"

"It's a city wide abandoned military base." said Alex. "Sam and I hang out here sometimes. It's quiet, spacious and has a basketball court!"

"Sweet!" said Zack.

"By any chance, do all manholes lead to here?"

"Most of them. There should be one near where you live." said Alex. "Just look for one with the military insignia." said Alex pointing to the symbol on her jacket.

"Can you lead us to 126 No-"

"Rth Anexis Central?" completed Alex. "Yeah, that's our shooting range. We throw raw tomatoes as hard as we can so that they explode when it hits your window."

"Oh that's where the tomatoes came from!" said Jas.

"Wait what?"

"Zack, Ryan remember that time when I made you guys sandwiches?" asked Jas.

"Yeah... ugh. You did not." said Ryan.

Jas smiled guiltily. "Why do you think I never ate them?"

They walked around the military base and stopped at a manhole. Alex pressed a button and a ladder extended from the top.

"Well, climb on up. That's your house." said Alex.

"Also guys if you want, you can come down here whenever you want. But you have to tell us that you're down here." said Sam.

"Cool. Well, thanks!" said Zack

They opened the hatch onto the street on the surface to see that they had arrived just opposite to their house.

Over the next week they came down there several times. One time they found a large discontinued model of a space-plane called the M-216. Another time they found a half-eaten piece of metal. Yes. Eaten.

On the Saturday of that week, they finally decided to find out what the cylinder that were playing with actually was.