Hidden: In the Dark

New Addition

A young Steve walks down a dirt path with his Game-Boy. He looks up and sees Bert talking with a few other kids, presumably the neighbors and their friends, Steve doesn't know, he's never seen them before. He approaches saying "Can you beat this for me?" He hands the Game-Boy over, Bert looks at it, seeing a Monster Truck rally game where you race other trucks. It's a familiar game that Steve has played with him before but it's difficult and save files are little to none. Bert takes a crack at it and can't win the race. He passes it over to one of the other kids he was talking to. Steve furls his eyebrows and glares at the other kid. He makes it past to the third level as all the other kids watch. He hands it back over to Steve on the pause screen. "Don't shut it off, that was hard." Steve reluctantly takes it and closes the system then flips the switch. "I can do it myself." He walks away. "What'd you do that for?" Bert says. He waves his hand and the boys carry on talking about their bikes.

In present time, Steve wakes up looking all around. He's still in the hotel/motel.

"Flashlights, as requested." Zip hands out the paralyzing dart guns to each one of the members.

Maze stops down the sidewalk, putting her hand up. Everyone looks back at her, confused. She can hear her pulse in her ears, loud like a sonar, while everyone stares at her, confused.

thump-thump

She moves her hand to her right then puts it down and starts walking in that direction. Curious, everyone follows her as she heads down an alleyway. She can feel the hair on her neck start to frizzle and her spine start to chill. Startling enough, a girl jumps out of the dark and starts attacking Maze. She defends herself from the girl's blows by raiding her arms against her.

Zip fires his gun, letting the dart puncture the girl's leg. To her surprise, she kicks high enough to keep Maze away but as a fluke to rip out the dart. She then tries to stab Maze with it. 

slash-slash

Maze uses the energy from her fingertips to create a screen, almost like a glove, trapping the dart in her energy and tossing it away from her. Unfazed, the girl starts swiping again, hands glowing with energy, just like Maze. Everyone else at this point has backed off, there's nothing they can do in a battle of powers.

Maze can't seem to see straight, it's too blurry, getting hit in the face multiple times before grabbing the girl by the wrist and pulling her closer. She puts one hand on her head and the other wrapped under her left armpit and over her right shoulder, to disable the girl from moving. "Why fight? We're not here for you." Maze says.

"There's someone who left, I'm looking to for them. They were caught." The girl lets herself sink into Maze's arm, giving up the fight. "Sorry, I could've sworn you were after me, sniffing me out like a dog." 

"No big deal, sorry it got that far."

"How long have you had yours?" 

"Since 1996...birth." The girl's eyes get wide. "You're the first!" Everyone looks taken aback. "Nobody knows your name; Nobody knows about you but we would talk about who the first might be."

"So, I guess it hasn't stayed as underground as we thought." Zip says, talking about Nexite. 

"Wrong. I get the feeling you haven't saw too many other users, have you? Where I was held, we weren't given the option."

"So, they forced you into it...or it into you...and you didn't even have anything wrong?" Maze seems concerned. "I'm just a test tube. Your sight got blurry didn't it? Yeah, I did that." She raises her head up high as if she's sarcastically proud. "How weren't you affected by my paralysis dart?" Zip asks. "I'm immune, my body rejects it, same goes for chloroform." 

"That's cool, could you take us to your testing facility?" Zip asks. "No can do, I'm also a runaway. Besides there isn't much you'd find there, nobody is left, at least that I know of. I imagine security is scrambling right now. That explains why I'm here but what about you? You're not from San Fran." She says as if it's obvious. 

"We were led here." Emmy takes it upon herself to respond. "Someone else is after Nexite, we just happen to be looking for users." Zip says, finally putting his gun away since she doesn't seem to be a threat anymore. "They didn't install a tracker, did they?" He continues. "Nah, they're not that inhumane, doesn't mean they won't try to seize me if they find me though. Seeing as we have a common goal, there's a museum here with a piece." 

"Really? How?" 

"You get Nexite installed into you, a rare unknown and valuable material, for free and you're telling me that nobody's going to rip it out and try to sell it? Where do you think they sell it to?"

"I'm a little teapot-" Steve remembers as turns his back and starts walking the other way "Work on it." He mutters under his breath before turning back.

"The facility that I stayed at keeps tabs on existing Nexite." The girl continues.

"How do you know that we're not going to try the same thing?"

"I can tell, it'd be a little too convenient, however you did find me so who knows? Plus-" She looks over at Maze. "I'm curious to find out what the first is like." Maze smiles back.

 "Seems about right, thanks for the tip. Care to join, or are you laying low?" Zip offers.

She picks up her duffel bag. "Well, I guess you guys have somewhere I can stay?" She asks with a shrug. That must also be a contributing factor to why she's getting along so easy, she doesn't have a place to stay.

"What's your name?" Maze asks graciously.

"It's Lillian." She responds, not seeming too pleased about it.

"I'm Katlyn. They call me Maze though. That's Zack, they call him Zip. That's Steve, he's my brother and that's Emmy."

"Code-names huh? Ok, what would you call me?"

"Steve, you're good at this." Maze waves off to him. He contemplates for a moment. "Remedy, you set us on the right path, didn't you?" She smiles back at him.

~

The outside of the museum looks very modern with a sleek black and white.

Steve watches Maze look up at a geometric sphere, it has lights on it that one can only assume lights up at night time. She ties her hair in a ponytail and covers it in a hat.

"Alright guys, split up in groups of two, Me and Maze, Emmy and Vera, Steve and Remedy. Any questions?" Zip says while everyone walks casually. "Alright, meet back here and let the games begin." He grabs Maze's hand and they head around the outside towards the 'East Gallery', the others stick together into the entrance.