Hidden: In the Dark

Dropped The Ball

One of the figures closes the door and jumps away as Vera drives towards them. The building explodes, flames bursting and scorching the doors. The switch was connected to a bomb on the inside, connected to a timer, giving them 30 seconds to get out of the building, Maze didn't know this but she could tell that whatever the switch was to, it couldn't have been good.

Vera almost runs them over, making them dive out of the way. She skids the car to the side as Steve opens the back door. "Get in!" Vera yells. Maze looks up startled then she looks back. "Got anything to tie them up with?" She asks with a smirk on her face.

~

They drive back to the base while Maze takes her vehicle back. They let Zip know she was found and he came at the drop of a hat. The only one absent is Rover. It wasn't too long but you can tell Zip's changed a little bit. He looks at Maze in awe as he goes in for a hug, no greetings needed. He embraces her with everything he has before turning his attention to the culprits. He sits down in his rightful spot on his computer chair and says one simple word. "Explain."

"We knew she was the one who took out Wicker but we didn't know that she had already had the Nexite. Or else we would have been better prepared." Bert leans back. "Once we figured that out, we knew she could help us." Randolf scratches at his face with his hands still bound. "But something doesn't add up, why were you there Steve? We made a brief appearance at your funeral but it seems that missed the point." 

Maze steps up to answer. "You were right about me being Michelle but my birth name is Katlyn." Steve stands up. "My sister." The two just stare blankly. "Well sh*t." They respond. "You can line the pieces up later." Steve lets Zip drive the conversation.

"So, what, are you on Wicker's side? Apparently, you knew about him and did nothing about it." Zip says with rage. "People like that needed to be killed for the safety of others, whether they use that power or someone tries to hog it all." Randolf adds a serious tone to his voice but Zip doesn't break eye contact, he still isn't convinced, after that remark, the whole situation just seems more threatening.

"Disable it." says Zip sternly. He passes their confiscated laptop over to them. They bring up a command console and type in "pin>safetypin>disable" and the inhibitor unlocks. Maze takes it off and rubs where it left a mark. "So, you're after Nexite but not going to harvest it?"

"No, ripping it out of somebody else was never an option." Randolf says. "That's just messed up." Bert adds. "Who else knows about this?" Zip asks, in fear that there could be more people out there after them. "Just us." He responds back. "That information is dangerous, you can't let anybody know about it, you should understand that with Wicker." Zip warns.

"I suppose it's time we tell you." They take a pause and look at each other. Randolf lifts his shirt revealing a ripped white patch, he begins to peel the rest off, showing a hole, it looks shriveled and bound to his rib-cage, half bloody and half bruised. "You see, I had an accident a few years ago and I wanted to try and fix it."

"Sorry to see that but Nexite doesn't fix wounds, it may help them, sure, but I know first-hand. I met the guy who made it, he even said it's not some 'cure all miracle drug'." They both look like they are surprised.

"It may not be..." Randolf responds. Steve doesn't need the rest of the sentence; He already knows what he's going to say 'But it won't hurt to try.'  That's the optimism that he can't help but appreciate. "You wanna explain what happened?" Zip says. Randolf gives an annoyed look, as if it's a bother to tell this story over and over, but ends up going with it anyway.

"I was riding my ATV, the track was slippery and it rolled over, throwing me off then running me over. It crushed a few bones which eventually got fixed and put me out cold for a while."