Elites Chapter III: New Empire Rising

XXVII

San Juan, Puerto Rico
July 30th, 2018
It was late afternoon in the mountainous rainforest. It was drizzling as always in the grassy terrain. Tour buses travelled up and down the mountains. However, in one part of the vast terrain, there was more to the peaceful environment.
In the deepest parts of the forest, Bismuth was walking through the calm environment. Her white-suit with the rainbow stripe was replaced with an arctic gray suit, with a purple shoulder pad on the left side, with other bright colors surrounding the pad. A white face-mask covered her face. Her long hair, which was once blonde, was now light brown and cut short. Suddenly, she heard a rustling noise coming from the bushes. The sound of a motor, angling itself in her direction. A red dot focused itself on her chest. In an instant, she was dodging bullets. A small turret fired off rounds of airsoft pellets. Bismuth ran along the turret, dodging the bullets, only to stop when she reached the edge of a small cliff. The turret stopped as well to reload. Knowing there was no other way out, she jumped off the ledge.
Fifteen feet below, she landed in a shallow pool, with a waterfall behind her. All Bismuth could hear was the rushing rapids that pooled into the small basin. Suddenly, she felt the presence of someone else in the basin. Only seconds later, Stone lunged from behind the waterfall. Bismuth stepped off to the side, narrowly missing Stone's sneak attack. His suit was all grey as well, with a brownish-black marking on his left shoulder, and a black face mask. From above, Inferno also jumped into the pool, shooting flames down on Bismuth. She quickly fell flat, submerging herself as the flames dissipated. She then grabbed Stone's leg underwater, and knocked him down as well. Coming back up to the surface, Inferno shot more flames into the air. Bismuth grabbed one of Stone's throwing knives, and tossed it directly at Inferno. The blade embedded itself into his gauntlet. She took the opportunity and jumped about five feet into the air, locked her thighs around his neck, and flipped him onto his back. He stood up, dazed. "Not bad." Stone said. "But your forgot one." Bismuth removed the mask and asked "What do you mean? I got past Silicon's turret, and I took down both you and Inferno. That's all three." Stone replied "The turret doesn't count as a fighter." Almost instantly, Sam was blindsided by a blur. She fell backwards. "What a rush that was awesome!!!" Kane yelled. He helped Sam back onto her feet.  Stone took off his mask, he now had a bit of a moustache growing in. "I've seen a lot of growth in you these past few months. You're getting stronger, and you're getting better at anticipating an attack. But this is where your issue lies. As soon as you take down a few guys and it looks safe, you let your guard down. It just makes you a lot easier to beat. But we can still work on that."
At sunset, Robert, Samantha, Caleb, and Kane returned to the Gonzalez house where the others were waiting. Caleb walked over to Dr. Grobel's work table "How are the new suits coming Doc?" He asked calmly. Albert replied "The physical suits are done except for Hilton's. As of now I'm just working on the technical aspects." Sam walked over to the computer and hooked it into the radio. Moments later, Zariah emerged from her room after many days inside. "I found him." "Who is he?" Rob asked. "Albert, search the military databases for a Leonard Taylor." Zariah said sternly. Albert dropped his soldering iron and opened up his laptop. After only a few seconds of searching, Grobel got results. "He runs a military base on the other side of the island...last recorded activity was a missile test on...March 21st. He has an address in San Juan right on the beach." Robert then asked "We're gonna pay him a visit. How much longer until the suits are done?" Albert replied "If I rush it, tomorrow morning at the earliest." Robert said "So it's settled, tomorrow morning we head out."