Nuclear | Edgar x Colette

The Investigation Begins

Colette POV
"But what was even more mysterious," I continued, "Was that at the basement—"

"There's a basement?" Aditi gasped. "How many hidden secrets are there below this orphanage??"

"At the basement, there was a mysterious man in a lab coat, experimenting with numerous chemicals that was literally the same colour, the same shade of green as the blinding green smoke that clouded the clearing. Coincidence? Nope, I don't think so." I finished dramatically.

"We definitely need to tell James and Edgar," Aditi nodded worriedly. "And maybe Hana."

So we sat the three of them down as I repeated my whole story, all the way from the beginning. With each passing word, they seemed more and more shocked.

"I need to investigate," Hana declared, turning to one of the other kids, "Hey, Elliott, can you help me take care of the rest of your friends for a while?"

Elliott nodded eagerly and sat on the regal chair at the front of the room, where Hana usually sat.

The five of us rushed up the stairs to the mysterious place that I had found the other day. Edgar smiled at me, and my face went nuclear, I became a bit frenzied and nearly knocked Aditi over. When she saw me waving awkwardly to Edgar, Aditi whispered, "Subtle, girl! Boys are oblivious, but not that oblivious! I want you to tell him  aa out that, not have him find out himself!"

I gulped and turned away. With his powers of invisibility, James snuck down the mysterious hallway to check for anyone. Soon, he reported that it was empty, and we hightailed it down the passage. We reached the door that I had opened the other time, and I was ready to wrench it open when Hana whispered, "Wait. If there's someone inside, they may be dangerous. How do we know if anyone's inside?"

"I can create a portal and peep in to check?" Aditi suggested.

"No, the person can see the bright blue light," I said.

"I can't sneak in, because they'll hear the door open!" James said.

"Actually, I can scan the inside with my X-Ray vision," Edgar finally told us.

"G-great! Do that!" I told him, reminding myself, This is no time to be simping, Colette, we need to find out what's going on under the orphanage.

Edgar carefully began to scan the inside and announced, "I can't detect anyone at all. Unless the person inside has no bones."

"Okay!" I placed my hand on the doorknob.

"Wait!" Hana stopped me. "We shouldn't leave trail of any sort. Aditi?"

The girl quickly opened a portal and we stepped into the giant facility nervously.

Nobody, just like Edgar had said.

We all inched our ways around the messy facility slowly, whipping out our phones to take photos of every inch of the area, slowly making our way down each level. There were several machines that had a series of scribbles on it, but it was all in Retropolis' language. And none of us could decipher that.

There wear several test tubes in numerous colours, in every shade of the spectrum. One of the machines was still on, but there were only a few odd symbols on its screen, as awl as several Retropolian words.

Finally, we reached the very bottom level. The basement. The hidden world below our orphanage.

"This is the same thing I saw last time!" I gasped, raising a gigantic vial full of green liquid, which was connected to some sort of machine that was releasing green gas into a tall container.

"This liquid, and this gas are the exact same colour as the green smoke that was in the clearing outside! From the broken pipe!" James realised.

"It is..." Aditi murmured from the other side of the room, holding a vial of a similar-coloured solution.

"Oh no," Hana stood there shaking. "Look at the marking..."

"What?" We all asked in confusion. Until I spotted it. The same circle, split into six-triangles of alternating colours, with a large dark dot in the central region.

"That? What's wrong with it? It's just some weird symbol..." I told her, unsure of what she was implying.

"No...it isn't," Hana said shakily. "It's nuclear."

Hana pointed at my shoulders, where some sort of fiery pink feathers had sprouted.

"What the hell is this?" I gasped.

She then pointed out James' fingers, which had grown into claws. Then at Aditi's legs, which were blinking in and out of sight ever so slightly. Then at Edgar, whose scarf was flapping on its own, then lastly at her own eyes, which were glowing in different colours every single second.

"It's nuclear," she repeated. "It's radioactive."