Accidents Made Right 3: Philophobia

The Mystery Unraveled Part 1

10 years before The Split

"Alright, I'm going in! Cover me," I yelled as I unsheathed my sword.

Hearing this, Matthew ran into position and threw two yellow lightning bolts in the direction of the tower, which ricocheted around the battlefield and targeting robots that tried attacking me.

I waited a moment, then charged towards the tower. After about a minute, I reached it. So, I pulled two teleportation disks out of my belt, tossed one inside the tower's walls, then pressed the button in the middle of the other disk.

This caused me to teleport to the other disk, inside something similar to a ventilation shaft, but with wires sticking out of the walls.

Hmm. Must be a broken exit for the robots, I thought as I put the disks back in my belt.

I saw two ways I could go. One direction was up, and the other was forward and right. I moved through the tight shaft until I was directly below where I could go up, then turned my head up.

"Helmet. Scan the shaft," I said. Then, my helmet's visor turned from a light blue to a dark pink, and I now saw the path to the top, which was up.

Then, I aimed my right arm to the top, and shot a grappling hook out of the gauntlet, which then pulled me up the shaft. Once I was at the top, I swung forward, and then started moving through the shaft.

2 minutes later

I made it to an actual ventilation shaft, and then came across a grate to the right. I looked through, then to the left and right. I saw what looked like an elevator to the left, so I decided that's where I needed to go.

I unsheathed my non-broken sword, focused on activating it, and then used it to cut the grate open. As soon as the grate fell, I grabbed it, deactivated my sword and sheathed it, then fell to the hallway below.

I gently and quietly put the grate down, check the hallway to make sure nobody was around, then turned around and walked to the elevator.

Once I opened it and stepped inside, I pressed the button for the top floor, watched as the doors closed, then began thinking.

So, Steve, what's your real plan for luring Knightmare out of the tower, Hope asked, with a hint of concern in his voice.

I'll provoke him into fighting me, then try and grab him and toss him and me out the window.

The elevator rocked a little, causing me to stumble, then Pemo said Hey, is it just me, or is the elevator going a little too fast?

"Fuck," I cussed before unsheathing my sword and activating it.

I then quickly cut three fourths of the ceiling, then stepped opposite of the side I didn't cut. The ceiling then swung to the side of the elevator across from me, so I quickly jumped to the fallen ceiling, waited for the elevator to hit the top of the elevator shaft, then stabbed the ceiling with my sword after the impact caused my body to fly up.

Immediately, the elevator's cables broke, cussing it to fall to the bottom of the shaft. So, before it exploded at the bottom, I jumped to the door in front of me, unsheathed my broken sword, and stuck my non-broken sword in the door.

Then, I focused as hard as possible on activating my broken sword. After fizzling a few times, red electricity began sparking around the sword, so I impaled the door with that sword and started cutting a hole big enough that I could fit through.

Once I cut the hole, I deactivated my broken sword and sheathed it, then hopped into the hole while detaching and deactivating my non-broken sword.

The elevator finally hit the bottom of the elevator shaft, causing an explosion that could've killed me if I don't get past the door. So, now that I was safe, I stumbled to the left wall and sat down so I could rest my breath.

I really should find an alternative so I don't have to use my sword all the time, I thought while my breath got less and less heavy.

Finally, when I finished recovering, I picked up my non-sheathed sword, deactivated it, and intently stared at it.

I wonder what you two would think of me, if you could see me now.

I choked, trying to hold back a tear.

After a minute, I got up, sheathed the sword, and started walking to the left, down another hallway. One I got to a corner to the left, which lead to another metal hallway, I heard two voices, so I crouched down and hid behind the corner.

"So, what do you think of the R man's plan," one guard asked.

"I think it's amazing! The R man must really be putting them on the ropes," another guard replied enthusiastically.

Really Robert? The R man? When will you stop stroking your own oversized ego, I thought.

I grabbed my non-broken sword again, transformed it into a sniper rifle, and aimed it at the wall to my left. My visor changed to a dark blue, showing a line going from the rifle, which reflected off the wall and to the guards.

I looked to my left, holding the sniper rifle in place, and saw that the line hit both of the guards. Seeing this, I flipped a switch which activated the rifle's silencer mode, fired it, then transformed it back into a sword.

As I sheathed the sword, I got up and turned the corner, seeing both of the guards were dead.

Nice work, Steve, Hope complimented.

Yeah, I know, I responded smugly before approaching a large pair of metal doors forming a triangle at the end of the hallway.

I grabbed the teleportation disks again, and used them to teleport behind the door. After putting the disks back into my belt, I looked forward, and saw two people looking through the command room's observatory glass.

Alexander Griggs, and his brother... Rowan Griggs.