The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 50: Answered Questions

"Son, are you okay?" Joshua's mom sobbed as she hugged him. "We're so sorry we dragged you into this mess." She said with tears in her eyes. "I'm very sorry."

Joshua couldn't keep the tears from falling from his eyes as his mom hugged him, even though he couldn't hug his mom with both his arms since his other arm was stuck in the power-source, he hugged his mom tightly with just one hand. Almost a month had passed ever since his mom got kidnapped, and now, meeting her again made Joshua cried for joy. The same happened to Rick, Emma, and Gladiola. It was such a reunion that the CIA men didn't bother interrupting them.

"Long time no see, Mr. Tratzky." Karl told him as he shook his hands. "I guess it's resolved, huh." He smiled.

Out of nowhere, Emma darted towards her uncle. "You traitor!" She cried as she tackled him to the ground. "You must have switched sides at the last second, but we know that you were with the mastermind and in his plans." She angrily said.

"Hold on a minute, Emma." His dad said, pulling her grip out from her uncle. "Your aunt and uncle here were on our side ever since the start. You must have figured it out by now."

"I''m so sorry about that, it seems like our masquerade went too far as it is." Karl muttered as he dusted himself off. "I mean, we tried to kidnap them plenty of times, chased them down with vehicles, and used taser on them. I'm really sorry, bro, but we have to do it, otherwise the mastermind would have suspected us."

"I know, but chasing them down with vehicles is pretty intense." Emma's dad chuckled. "Were they fast runners?"

"You bet!"

Joshua, Rick, Emma, and Gladiola just listened to their conversation, perplexed. They knew that Emma's aunt and uncle were enemies right from the start, but now that they see it, it's as if they were tricked, one way or another. "So, they were our allies all along?" Joshua asked his mom. "By the way, long time no see, dad." He plainly said, even though he was totally overjoyed in the inside.

"I'm really sorry for disappearing like that, Joshua." Mr. Russel said. "But I needed to do it to keep your and your mom out of danger. I almost lost you once, and I don't intend it to happen again. Well, forget I said anything. You won't remember it anyway."

"And yes, we are your allies right from the start." Emma's aunt interrupted. "It's just that, we have to gain the mastermind's trust in order to foil his plans. Why do you think my husband and I carry tasers with us all the time? Well, more on that later."

"Yes, we'll explain everything to you once we're out of this place." Karl said.

After a few moments, Joshua and Gladiola's hands were detached form the power source. The CIA men then took all of them to a spacious van where all of them could fit. The Head of CIA deemed it necessary that all misunderstanding between all of them should be cleared before the reporters interview them.

"I guess we're all here." Mr. Quiller commented, looking around the van. "I should probably explain everything since all of these are my fault."

"Yeah, you should be the one to explain since we're not really that good explaining." Mr. Russel grinned. "I mean, give us some technical work and fieldwork and we'll nail it, explaining is just not our thing."

All of them, except Gladiola's parents, nodded.

"Okay then." Mr. Quiller started. "It all started when the three of you got into an accident, Joshua, Emma, and Rick. I won't go to the technicalities of the accident since you forgot about them..."

"I remember it." Joshua interrupted. "I mean, I remember the DNA splicing and Gladiola crying beside me. But the events before that are still a bit cloudy. I remembered my memories from the first five years of my life in detail, but I can't remember the events that happened after the three of us got in a car." Joshua said.

"We remember it too!" Emma and Rick said. "When we saw Gladiola cry awhil ago, the memories came flooding back." Emma explained. "That's why, please explain the technicalities of everything."

"Well, then." Mr. Quiller heaved a sigh of relief. "I guess  shouldn't leave anything. You see, the three of you got into a car accident. The car you were riding on the way to school got hit by a truck and smashed it to pieces. Emma only got bruises but she lost her memories, however, you and Rick here got beaten up very badly. You were on the verge of death but as you can remember, we used DNA splicing to fix the two of you. It was the first time it was ever done to humans and we kept it off records since it was almost successful, you lost your memories in the process. But it wasn't enough for Joshua, in order to save you, we input the power of the power-source in your hand, the unlocker. But you can't handle the power of the unlocker alone. Gladiola here volunteered to help you so we implanted the half of the unlocker in her hand and then we connected your unlockers using  a special type of wireless connection."

"So, the unlocker was keeping me alive ever since?" Joshua asked. "If it was that valuable, how come I don't know anything about it until now?"

"We planned to keep it a secret from you since it's very dangerous." Joshua's mom said. "But keeping it from you posed an even greater danger. We made the wrong choice."

"Well, continuing on." Mr. Quiller said. "We didn't think of the accident as just a coincidence so we had our connections dig up every information that they could get about it. And just as we thought, it wasn't just a simple accident."

"What is it?" Emma asked.

"It was on purpose." Mr Quiller said. "Someone tried to kill all of you. We were too unguarded that time but when we found it out. We knew that we have to take drastic measures because of what happened."

"Someone tried to kill us?!" Rick exclaimed.