Elites Chapter III: New Empire Rising

VI

University Labs, Miami

Midnight

March 10th

It was a stormy night. Most places had shut down for the night because of the severe weather. But on the rooftop of one building, one man stood in a trenchcoat, staring at his watch. After a few moments, a black and blue silhouette climbed over the ledge. Three more followed behind it. "Doctor Floyd?" Bluestone said. The man turned around astonished by the stealth of his allies. "You really need to stop sneaking up on people like that! You scared me half to death." Ruby replied "Sneaking around is kinda what we do." Dr. Floyd responded with a simple groan. Seconds later, Bismuth climbed over. Her suit was all white, with a diagonal rainbow stripe from her left shoulder. "Another one?" Floyd asked. "Amber replied "Yup. She's gonna be helping us out for a little while." They all went inside the building to a security terminal. "For safety purposes, we must ask that you leave your weapons and masks here." Dr. Floyd said to the Elites. They all reluctantly removed their masks and pulled weapons out of each pocket in their suits. Each of them removed 5-6 weapons while Sam just stared. She didn't have any weapons to leave behind. The six of them then continued into the center area of the building. As they walked, Dr. Floyd filled them in on their analysis from the day they had Kaiser's brain unit in custody. "We're still baffled by the sort of technology that was put into this machine. Even though you have his mind, neurons are still firing inside of his brain. It's almost like he's in a trans. It's just inhuman. I will provide you with whatever tools you need to get him back up Mr. Thomas." Jay walked closer to the machine and examined its structure. "I'll need a soldering iron, a USB, Copper wires, a breadboard, and some coffee. It's gonna be a long night. No distractions please." Dr. Floyd then yelled "What are you waiting for? Everyone out!" He then turned to Jayson as he began unscrewing panels from the body "You sure this will work? You guys seem to really need this." Jay replied "Absolutely. It has to work. Now, I still need those supplies."

4am

Outside the lab, the others watched from a window peering through from the second floor. "He hasn't stopped in 3 hours." Rob said. They couldn't see much from the small window, but Jayson had been unscrewing, rewiring, and removing parts from the cylindrical body. Until finally he hit a button on the wall. All the lights began flashing red, and all signals were getting cut off. "I guess he's ready to start him up. They all walked back into the large room.

"I've actually taken the liberty of installing an inhibitor USB to his circuitry. It will stop Kaiser from transmitting signals to anyone." Nicole replied "Good call." With that, Jay slid the hard drive into the gap. Near instantly, the robot began to boot up. Lights all across the body began to turn on. And it began to speak. "What is this." Kaiser then looked up and saw familiar faces surrounding him. After a few seconds, he said "I see you managed to block my escape paths. A very wise decision on your part. Alright. What do you want from me?" Nat walks closer to the robotic body and says "Just yesterday, some of your goons attacked me and Guardian. And they succeeded in capturing him as well." Kaiser replied "How can you be so sure that they were mine? Or that I even ordered the ambush?" Sam immediately interrupted and said "Listen up you waste of mind and metal. We traced the person who kidnapped him back to you. Now we can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. I'll ask the real question: Where is Guardian?" Kaiser responded "If anything, he's probably dead already. And if he isn't, I can't tell you where." Just as he finished, the robot felt a splitting pain in its head. Seconds later, the robot stopped breathing. Kaiser's brain was choking itself. "It's getting harder to breathe isn't it Kaiser. I'll ask again. Where is Wade?" Sam was slowly choking him, but she wasn't even touching him. Robert soon realized what was happening. "Stop! You'll kill him!" Kaiser then said "What will it be Fruit Roll? Are you gonna do it, or are you gonna leave me immobilized for the rest of my life." Near instantly, Sam let go. "I knew you couldn't do it. You're no Elite. You're just an embarrassing excuse for a replacement. Though she's better off than her predecessor. It's not easy to fight us off if you're worm food right?" With that, Nat grabbed the robot and pinned it to a wall. She then pulled out a jagged dagger she snuck in. "You are messing with things you don't understand..." Kaiser then interrupted and replied "Your accomplice never let me finish my sentence. I cannot tell you where you can find your friend. However, I can take you there." Jayson replied "Right. And why would we let you roam free and take us there?" Kaiser replied "Because every second you waste, there is a lower chance that your friend is still alive. If you want to do this quickly, you will set me free. I have an algorithm that will allow me to identify former Endgame bases as well as possible active ones. You can rule out all the ones that you've already been to." Nicole interrupted and said "What makes you think that we'll play along with your sick game?" Kaiser replied "You don't have much of a choice. You are going to try to save Guardian, but you don't even know where to start. It could take you months, even years to find him. By then, you'll probably be too late. If you let me, I may not find him, but you will have a place to start, and it won't take as long. The clock is ticking. Make your move."

The team took themselves outside the building to discuss. "The inhibitor should hold out for about a week before we have to put in a new one." Jay said. Rob replied "I don't think we should trust him. What if it's a dead end? It could be a trap." Nat interrupted and said "What choice do we have. One of our own lives are on the line. Do you really expect us to stand by when one of us is in danger?" Nic then said "No offense Nat, but you have a terrible habit of putting your trust in the wrong people." Nat replied "I'm not trusting him. I'm just saying we should play along... for now. And if he tries to turn on us, we kill him." Sam intervened and said "I say we go. He has no way of contacting anyone on the outside. We can attack now while they're vulnerable, save Guardian, and save the day!" They all looked at Sam, and Rob asked. Uh, how old are you?" Sam then replied "Turned 16 last month. I'm damn well old enough." Jay said "Fine. We've got 3 hours. When we get home, grab everything you need. We leave at 8am sharp from the airfield." I'll let Dr. Floyd know that Kaiser's coming with us."

Siberia, Russia

6pm Novosibirsk Time

Colonel Barnes walked down a narrow hallway into an open area. There were cables all over the floor, and empty pods lined against the walls. In the center, there was a circular object, with Guardian strapped in the middle of it by his arms and legs. "What is the status of the prisoner?" Barnes asked. A soldier responded "We managed to wipe away his traumas, but that's not the very source of his motivation. His motivation is... a person. This current process will clear away his traumas, but it won't let us into his mind." Barnes then said "Our inside source has confirmed that the Elites are preparing to move in. We only have a few hours to disappear. So be ready." He then turned to Guardian, and pulled robotic cables from the ring, and attached them to Guardian's eyes, nose, and mouth. "This is gonna hurt a lot." The cables then began to release a fluid through the openings. Guardian writhed in pain, until he could no longer resist.

Elites Base II

7:30 am

When Kaiser arrived at the base, The Elites were loading up their jet with supplies for the long trek. Jayson came to the front and brought him inside. "You said you could find out where your friends were hiding. How do you plan to do that?" Kaiser replied "I am a living computer. I know of all former Endgame and IATO facilities. With that information, I was able to create an algorithm to identify the areas where a base would likely be." Seconds later, Kaiser plugged himself in to the holo-desk and opened up a globe on the display. Suddenly, black dots were all over it. "The black dots are all facilities." Seconds later, many of the black dots turned red. "The red dots are all the facilities that have been raided by you, MI6 or the FBI. Now when I apply the algorithm, this should be the end result." Kaiser explained. Then many blue dots popped up around the globe. And most of them turned red. However, there was one blue dot in Russia that stayed the same. "That one. We went there before, but found nothing." Jayson said. Kaiser replied "That is because you didn't know where to look." "So that's where we start our search then." Jayson said.

Everything was just about loaded up and ready when Jay brought out a large white capsule. "What's that?" Sam asked. "It's something that may be of use to us later." Jayson replied as the pod ascended into the underbelly of the aircraft. After a few minutes of fastening everything down, they were all set. Within moments, Nic was at the cockpit of the vehicle. "Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?" Sam asked. Nic replied "I don't need to know anything to fly a plane. That's what the internet is for. We just have to reach a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet and switch to autopilot." Kaiser then uploaded the coordinates into the computer console. Seconds later, they were finally off. They left the airfield at sunrise, and readied themselves for what would come.