A New Beginning

Chapter 4

A young boy ran through the base, opening every entry he came across - looking, to the world, like a man on a mission. This boy was no older than eleven years old, and he wore a backwards red beret on his head and a yellow turtleneck with glasses over his teal eyes. In his hand he was holding a small, blocky device that had a screen surrounded by the black boy and there were a few buttons littering the device. He held it as if it was the most valuable thing he had ever seen, and he plowed through the makeshift shelter with little thought to the various people he ran into until he found what he was looking for. Throwing aside the old multi-colored curtain that was a replacement for a proper door, he looked at the two startled faces with urgency in his gaze and seriousness in the lines of his body. One of the occupants was a girl the same age as the boy with black shoulder length hair and violet colored eyes that spelled annoyance at the abrupt entrance of her friend. She wore a fitted black t-shirt and the same grey cargo pants the boy was wearing, but instead of the red sneakers the boy wore, she donned steel-toed laced combat boots that rose halfway up her calf. The other occupant in the room was a man with green skin and white hair that's shaved on the sides of his head but long on the top and tied back into a loose ponytail, his entire form had a gentle white glow. His eyes were covered with black lenses that sat without support of a frame and he wore a black trenchcoat that was buttoned but partially covered by a grey cloak and black cargo pants with steel-toed combat boots. The ghost and the girl were surrounded with various electronics, some broken beyond repair and others half put together. They both startled when the boy barged in without warning, which made the girl glare harshly at being startled and the ghost sigh at their antics. The boy tried to speak for a second but failed as he also tried to regain his breath, finally giving up and holding up a finger to indicate he needed a second before folding nearly in half with his hands on his knees.

"Tucker, I know you updated Sherri, but now isn't the time to gush about your precious PDA." The girl said, exasperated. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen they were examining. The boy, Tucker, seemingly having calmed down enough to function, huffed in indignation at his friend's implication that he had rushed all the way here only to talk about his precious PDA.

"You and I both know that I would not have run here," he exaggerated his shiver of disgust at the idea of exercising willingly, causing the girl to roll her eyes again, "just to tell you something I could have told you later. No, I came with important news, Sam. Like it's actually really important," he responded seriously. Hearing his tone of voice, Sam and Technus turned to face the boy and Tucker took this as his cue to continue.

"I was updating Sherri's tracking systems, and you know that I put an ATL-"

"ATL?" Sam interrupted, her voice questioning. Tucker nodded his head and without a beat, he explained the terminology to his friend.

"It stands for 'Attempt to Locate,' and can also be called APB, 'All-Points Bulletin,' or a BOLO, 'Be on the Lookout.'" He said before quickly continuing as if the interruption didn't happen, "anyway, I had put an ATL in Sherri's systems when we started the search," he said giving a knowing look to the other two but not bothering to explain what search they were talking about, "Basically, it tracks the unique ecto-signature of a Halfa, the whole code was heavily encrypted just in case someone caught wind of what we were doing then at least they wouldn't be able to use the same software because with any attempt to hack it, the code would scramble and ultimately be destroyed. It was a precaution, I never expected anything to actually come of it because it seemed a little too...easy, I guess. But, I stuck with it because it didn't really do any harm and when I was updating the tracker, it pinged." The other two straightened in surprise.

"How do you know it's not Plasmius?" Technus asked. Sad realization dawned on both the kid's faces and they glanced at each other before turning to the ghost.