The Crew goes on a Vacation!

Chapter 10

Iko, sat squished in between Thorne and Cress. "This restaurant is supposed to be really good. Some famous people have eaten here." Cress tried to break the silence.
"That's cool" Iko murmured. She was staring out the front window at all of the beautiful stars, they reminded her of when she was a ship and when she was taking down Levana with the rampion crew. The stars were in a vast community all over the sky.

They pulled into a small parking lot. A few other cars were there but not many. The other half of the crew pulled up. Iko followed Cress out of the car. She could sense something in Winter's eyes, something that just wasn't Winter like. Iko walked next to Winter, "are you feeling okay?" Iko asked
"I'm fine" Winter replied with a smile
Iko didn't believe her.
They walked up to a front desk that was outside, a short Hawaiian lady stood at the desk "nine?"'the lady asked and Cress nodded.
They followed the lady to a long table lit by candles that smelled of flowers. They sat outside, Iko noticed that the floor wasn't in fact gravel but glass. The floor was lit and shards of beautiful white, blue, and green glass shards shone, it looked beautiful. She felt a little alarmed but the glass didn't look pointy or threatening. Iko sat next to Cinder, on Iko's right sat Cress. A tall waiter that looked around Wolf's age filled up their glasses with water. He had short spiky hair that stood up like quills on a porcupine. Iko looked through her menu, nothing looked very appealing, maybe she could get the Teriyaki Chicken bowl?
The waiter returned 5 minutes later "Can I get you guys some appetizers?" Iko ordered some Spring Rolls.

When the waiter left Cinder called Winter into the bathroom.

In the bathroom

Cinder had noticed that Jacin's eyes changed colors, she looked it up but the results weren't anything that made sense. When Jacin turned his head she saw a small ID chip sized bump behind his ear. "Uh Winter. Have you noticed Jacin acting a little...different?" Winter nodded.
"He hasn't been acting like himself, he is too...happy. Jacin is never this sort of happy. But he claims that he's fine, but Cinder I'm worried, I'm worried about Jacin." Winter sobbed. Tears fell down her face and over her scar.
Cinder went to comfort her. "Don't worry. We'll fix him, he's going to be fine. We'll have someone remove it and I'll have Cress check the chip out." Cinder cooed. Winter finally wiped her tears, and sniffed. Cinder checked her internal timer they'd been gone for 6 minutes. They need to got back before the crew got suspicious. "No more tears?"
"No more tears." Winter replied.

Iko noticed Cinder and Winter coming back from the bathroom.
Winter's eyes looked just barely puffy, but Iko knew better than to ask what happened.
They sat down like something happened. Winter returned to looking somewhat like her usual self. Everyone seemed to be in a deep,conversation about various things. Iko was talking with Kai about the population growth and how it's affecting the economy and whatnot. Kai asked if everything was okay and Cinder nodded.
Winter engaged in a conversation about the farm with Scarlet, and Cress. Thorne and Wolf seemed to be talking about the new ships and hovers and how decent they were. Jacin seemed to be playing a game on his port screen in his own world. Cinder joined in with Iko and Kai saying that Luna's population had slightly increased since she's become queen.

In that moment Iko felt joy running through her system, she was with her favorite people having an amazing time. Iko's conversation was only interrupted two or three times for an autograph from Kai, Cinder and one young girl asked for Iko's autograph. She couldn't blame her, after the revolution Iko had become a fashion and net drama icon.

Several servers came with the crews food. Iko's Chicken Teriyaki bowl looked amazing. She started to eat when she saw something at the corner of her eye. She detected a change in Jacin's eyes, and sent a comm to Cinder
"Have you noticed something with Jacin's eyes? They just changed color."
Cinder replied within a minute "Winter and I are working on it. I'll tell you more after dinner"
Iko nodded to Cinder and began taking the mushrooms out of her dinner. Wolf had eaten his dinner within minutes. While everyone else wasn't even half way through finishing theirs, Iko noticed that everyone had a big dinner.

Almost all of them ordered a dessert called Chocolate Aloha, it was a molten lava cake and everyone loves chocolate. The cake was amazing, and she caught Cress taking a bite from Iko's.

Cinder sent Cress a comm to meet her at the big log by the sand. At about midnight. Cress attempted to sneak out, Thorns asked where she was going with a drowsy voice, "bathroom" she replied.He nodded and laid his head back down.
She slipped on some sandals and quietly opened the door. She saw Scarlet and Wolf emerging from the door next next to her. Scarlet probably couldn't sneak out due to Wolf's senses. She followed them down to the steps to go down to the beach. Winter and Cinder were already by the log. Wolf looked back to see Iko coming across the lawn, sometimes Cress wished she could have senses like that but she was sure Wolf thought the opposite.

They gathered around Cinder and Winter "Sorry to wake you all up but-"
Cinder was interrupted by Thorne coming down the steps. He mumbled something Cress couldn't hear "Thorne!" Cress was a bit irritated but was kind of relieved to have him here, Cinder didn't look like she had good news. "Doesn't matter, join in Thorne. Just don't be a loud mouth about what I'm going to say, please" He nodded.
"Good. Sorry to wake you all up but if you haven't already noticed. Jacin has been acting a little off...." Cinder announced. Cress noticed Winter take in a shuddering breath. "We think that he is being controlled by a chip. We don't know anything about the chip or how he got it. Winter and I were going to shoot him with a dart then remove the chip. But Cress, I need you to check out the chip and its information."
Cress nodded.
"Why are you telling us this if we aren't needing to be involved?" Scarlet asked.
"I wanted you guys to know what's going on and I originally wanted Scarlet to sit with a dart incase for some reason he wakes up again. "When are we doing this?" Cress chimed in.
"In 5 minutes. Anymore questions?" Cinder replied.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Good everyone except Thorne and Iko, follow me. You two can go back to sleep."
Thorne opened his mouth to argue but Wolf told him that she was safe because Scarlet and him were there.

Scarlet slowly opened the door, Jacin jumped on her and Wolf leaped into action. Wolf took Jacin off of her, Jacin had a knife in his hand and Cress noticed that Scarlet had a few cut marks bleeding threw her night shirt. Jacin struggled to get out of Wolf's grasp but fell limp when Cinder shot him with the tranquilizer dart. Scarlet took the knife out of his hand and put it in the sink. Wolf and Cinder heaved him onto the couch, Cinder handed the dart to Scarlet and took the flash light out of her finger, Cinder unsheathed her small knife. "Behind the ear, Cinder pointed to wear Scarlet needed to flash the flashlight. She saw a small ID chipped size bump, Cinder began cutting behind his ear. He started to bleed and Cinder sent Wolf for some paper towels. She lifted the chip from behind his ear and set it on a paper towel. She cleaned up the blood and sent Wolf to find some band aids. He came pack a few minutes later with a box of band aids.
He handed them to Cinder.
Cress checked her port screen 12:17
This whole thing has taken them seventeen minutes. It felt like decades.
She would be too tired to look at the chip tonight. Winter decided to stay with Jacin until he woke up but she had the tranquilizer dart incase he woke up crazy.
Cress left the condo the chip in hand but covered in a paper towel.
She quietly opened the door, Cinder following.
Cress stalked upstairs, Thorne was laying on the bed. Looking peaceful, his breathes shallow, Cress knew he was asleep. She quietly opened her dresser where she put her undergarments, and slid the chip under them. Not even Thorne would look in the drawer.
She slid back in the bed, feeling sleep taking over her.

Winter sat near Jacin, he looked like his normal self, like he wasn't just taken over by a chip then going through a minor surgery of removing it. Winter had been sitting with him for at least half an hour. She saw Jacin stir, his eyes flickering then shooting open.