The Undercave [Incomplete]

Chapter 2 - It's a Secret

After unlocking her front door with her rattling key, she pushed it open. It whined as its hinges pivoted and swung it in a quadrant motion. They followed her in after she entered. "Do you remember this place?" Rachael asked her niece and nephew. "Your mum used to take you both round here all the time!" They examined the hallway. She had thousands of photos piled on top of cabinets. Her walls were patterned with unintentional marks. The only light entering the room was from the glazed window on the front door, until she opened the door into the living room. They went in after her, scanning her plump sofas and her expensive throws and puffets. Her voice came from the mantelpiece. "I've made these for you." She walked towards them handing a blue shield shaped badge to Cliff and a purple hair ribbon to Lana. They both looked up at her in confusion.
"Thanks a lot, but why did you go through so much trouble to make these instead of just buying them?" Cliff asked. She glanced at him with a smirk on her face.
"I wouldn't just make you any normal accessories!" She laughed, "They have abilities." They both suddenly looked at each other, at her, and then back down at their gifts. "That badge can turn into a shield, and that ribbon can turn into a bo-staff. Get it?" She nudged Lana with her elbow, "Bo-staff? Because it's like a bow?" Their poker faces told her that she had just wasted that pun on them. "It does have a sharp tip as well that can turn it into a spear."
"How can these turn into fully functional weapons?" Lana questioned.
She gained a more serious look on her face, as if a tsunami of flashbacks had just invaded her mind. "I was like the creator, #60282." She explained. "I didn't have the same job as him, but I worked in the same place, even though he died before I was... born. They created weapons like these and I watched the way that they made them, carefully. I have more in the basement, but these two are the only ones that I made with powers as well as the weapons."
"Wait, they can give us powers?" Cliff exclaimed excitably.
"Yes, of course! Your badge can give you ergokinesis. That's the ability to manipulate energy. And your ribbon," She said, turning her attention towards Lana, "Can give you electrokinesis. Use them wisely however, you don't want to strain your bodies. I don't know how much..." She hesitated, then shook her head quickly. "Sorry, I'm giving you more information than you should know."
"Can I just ask," Lana interrupted, "Who are 'they', that you keep talking about?"
"Oh, sorry. They're the experiments that #60282 made. They call themselves the Cuniculators. The first one that was made knew how it was made. It basically just copied its creator, but corrected the biggest mistake that he made so that it could make individual ones. It's known as 'Malum Tempus' by the others." She went over to the cabinet where the TV was and picked up a small photograph of a glistening gemstone. "The first thing I need you to do for me is to go to the cave and retrieve a quartz that looks exactly like this," She referenced to the picture, "And if you have any friends that you know that you can truly trust, let them in on it. But please don't tell your mother. Come back over at the weekend if you can, and I'll take you there." They both stood silent, but nodded. They knew just the friends who they could trust. Theo and Sheri had known them ever since pre-school, and they had known all of their secrets and never told anyone else. Besides, if they were going to do this, they wouldn't be able to work together alone, otherwise they'd just be arguing every second of it.

Cliff awoke, almost blinded by the sun rays gleaming through his blinds. Lost in a pile of bed sheets, as if he was trying to find his way out of a jungle, he managed to clamber out of his bed. He'd been staying up late the past night, thinking about all of the things that Rachael had told him and Lana. Drunk with fatigue, he staggered over to the door and walked to the bathroom. After having a shower, he felt a little more refreshed, and so he proceeded to get dressed into his school uniform and then go downstairs.
"Morning Cliffy!" His mum exclaimed, laying a kiss on his forehead. She was always the first one down, besides their step-dad, Richard, who was always at work. Their dog, Onyx, barked repeatedly, trying to get attention from his owners but failing miserably. Finally to shut him up, their mother run her hands through his thick black fur. "I've laid out some food in the dining room for you as a selection," she told Cliff, as she petted her dog.
"Thank you mum, but I could have made breakfast myself you know," he informed her, however feeling grateful for having such a kind mother. He walked into the dining room to see his 3 year old step-brother, Marcus, sitting at the table, being fed by Lana.
"Morning Cliff," she said to him, making strange faces to amuse her younger step-brother who was giggling with joy. He sat next to her and took a piece of toast from the rack. He then took a knife and spread a thick layer of butter on it, followed by a layer of strawberry jam. After it was smothered in coating, he took a bite. A couple of crumbs fell from his mouth as it entered. "In one of those moods again, are we?" she suddenly snapped, keeping her attention on Marcus.
"Trying to pick an argument with me early in the morning, are we?" he snapped back.
"Using the 'are we' ending to copy me, are we?" her attention had turned to him now.
"Well you're the one who started it," he mumbled with a mouth full of toast. She just sighed to tell him that she didn't want to start bickering. Whenever they started this, they never stopped.
After he finished his breakfast, he poured himself a small glass of apple juice, gulped it down, then headed off towards the door. "I'm going now."
"What do you mean, it's only half seven!" his sister moaned. "You can't leave without me anyway, or you'll be a traitor for life." He stared at her with a look of sarcasm as she pointed her fingers back and forth at him. "Traitor! Traitor!" She repeated over and over again, starting to sound like some sort of security alarm.
"I need to tell Sheri and Theo about you know what." He ended his sentence with a whisper so that their mum couldn't overhear and wouldn't get curious.
"So?" She replied, annoyance gripping onto her tone, "Why don't you just text them?"
"It'll be hard to explain if I'm writing it down on a text. Besides, whatever's going on, it seems quite dangerous. I want to tell them face to face so that they don't think I'm kidding with them." He began grab his bag and march off. "Bye!"
"Ugh," Lana sighed with a tang of disgust, overcoming the irritation in her voice. "Can you at least wait for me?" She quickly finished feeding Marcus his breakfast before standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulders. Her brother waited impatiently, tapping his foot at a fast tempo as his sister ran to where he was standing. "OK, let's go!"
"About time," he murmered, curving his head round his twin to look down the hallway. "Bye Mum!" After hearing her reply, he set off down the street with Lana following behind, trying to catch up with him.