Elites Chapter III: New Empire Rising

XIII

Rio de Janeiro

4:30 Local Time

It was late afternoon when Stone and Bismuth landed in the beach city of Rio. They landed on a helicopter pad atop a building in the city. The back of the plane opened up and they stepped out in casual clothing. Both Samantha and Robert were wearing shorts, and T-shirts that resembled their regular suits. "Why land so close?" Sam asked. Rob replied "We got one of the only Vertical Takeoff Jets. We can't waste that. We were able to land exactly where we need to go instead of walking miles and miles to get where we need to go." The two walked through the door on the roof, and into the tower.

The two walked down a long hallway until they reached unit 709. "If the information Nicole gave me is right, then this is the place." Robert said, knocking on the door. The door was opened by a tall woman with dark brown hair. "Good evening Ms. Thomas. I'm a friend of your nephew's." Mrs. Thomas replied "I know who you are. Jayson and his lady friend came to visit once. Where are they anyway?" Sam answered "They had other missions. It's just us this time. We need to talk to your son." "First door on the right." Ms. Thomas replied.

The apartment was a somewhat large for just two people. Rob and Sam made their way to the door, and knocked. "Caleb! You in there?" He opened the door to see a boy sitting at a work desk. Around the room were pictures of the Ruby suit and multiple blueprints for gauntlets. The boy was wearing a suit similar to Ruby's, and goggles. He was soldering a pair of cables inside his suit. "So these are the gauntlets Nicole was telling me about." Rob said loudly. Caleb was startled by the sudden outburst, and put his tools down. "You guys can't scare me like that while I'm working!" Caleb snapped, with his voice cracking. "Sorry dude. We didn't do any damage did we?" Sam asked. "Nothing that can't be undone luckily." Caleb responded. Looking up, he saw Samantha, and was in awe of her beauty, mostly her long blonde hair. "Hey... I-I'm Caleb. Caleb Thomas." Sam couldn't help but smile. She extended her hand and spoke "I'm Samantha, but everybody calls me Sam." Rob then asked "So how exactly do these gauntlets work?" Caleb then went back over to the desk and put them on with gloves. "The way they work is that there's a tiny spark that ignites every time I arm them." He raised his arm so that they could see the miniature flame inside the slot in the gauntlet. "How it works is every time I trigger the flames, a combustible liquid or gas is sprayed onto the flame, making it much bigger and deadlier. I can demonstrate if you want." Caleb grabbed their hands and took them outside the apartment building into a park.

In the grassy area, Caleb activated the gauntlets and said "So there's an accelerometer and a gyroscope so that the flames only combust on punches." He then punched his fist through the air, and massive flames fired out from his small gauntlets. Robert and Samantha clapped at the sight. Someone had actually figured out a way to mimic Ruby's powers. "I'm not done yet. I watched this cartoon a while back, and there's this fighting style that was almost like a dance. And it was done by this firebender. I think I finally figured it out!" Robert interrupted "As much as I would love to see you try the Dancing Dragon, that's not why we're here. We came here to warn you. I have reason to believe the terror group Endgame, the ones that we've been fighting for the past two years, may know who you are and how to find you. We're going around the world to get these communicators out to everyone so we can contact each other if something happens." Sam handed him the small device, and said "You'll need this in order for us to find you if something happens. It pinpoints your exact location so we can send someone to help." Caleb replied "That's cool and all, but does it have any games on it?" Rob replied "You got Snake and Tetris on that thing." "They have what?" Caleb asked. Chuckling, Sam patted him on the back, and said "We have much to discuss."

They went back up to the roof and were ready to leave. "If something happens, push the black button to speak. If you're in danger, press the red button on the left. And you'll need a call sign." Robert said. Caleb spoke "I think I've already got one bro: Inferno." Sam replied "Cool. Until next time Inferno. I'd still love to see you try out that new routine sometime." With that, the doors closed. Caleb stood in the doorway as the aircraft powered on and bolted away.