Olympus

Chapter 28

"So, there's more than one Item 13 now. Is that what we're going with?" Kei asked when the group finished opening all the shipment crates and discovered that Megan's deduction was correct. All of them had containment boxes potential of being the one used to house Item 13.

But there can't be more than one Item 13, Megan thought to herself. From what she recalled of the story Dennis had told her, the ingenuity that created the weapon had died with Ernest Ruskin; and even if his supposed apprentice who created the updated version had shared it, it was unlikely he had had the time to pass it on to someone else who then went ahead to create more five years later.

Plus, if the group had had the technology to create another Item 13, why did they go through all that trouble of stealing the original one and alert Olympus to their presence then? She asked. And even more than that, why leave the weapons afterwards for us to find?

Something was obviously amiss with the new development but exactly what was, Megan couldn't say and it bothered her.

"Have you found anything to say that any of these boxes could be fake?" she asked Jay and Ricardo who had stayed upfront to study the objects while the others stood watch.

"Nothing," Ricardo answered first. "While a lot of information about Item 13 is still largely unknown, the one I do have access to here say that these containment boxes are the real deals."

"And judging from the energy levels I'm reading off them, they are active enough to be considered extremely dangerous," Jay added.

So the only thing we know for sure is that what we're seeing "may" be Item 13-like weapons, Megan concluded from their explanations and groaned. God, this is frustrating! she screamed inside her head.

"What if we open them?" Adolf suddenly suggested almost at the same time the thought occurred to Megan.

"Adolf, are you joking?" Kei scoffed. "What do you mean open them?"

"Exactly what I said," he returned, his look very serious. "I mean, we've heard a lot about the so-called weapon that is Item 13 but no one has ever been said to have seen it. If we open up the boxes, I bet we can prove if they contain real weapons or not."

That's actually a brilliant suggestion, Megan thought, but totally insane.

Which was exactly what Kei said to him. "Adolf, you have to be insane to even be considering that," she was practically in his face when she said it. "Have you forgotten Olympus was given strict instructions by UN-CADTRE never to open up Item 13? The director will never allow us flout it."

"But D. doesn't make the calls here, Kei," he returned, "Megan does."

Adolf looked at Megan and she stopped, stunned. He's defying Kei, she realized. He's defying Kei, and Dennis, and Olympus, and UN-CADTRE, and... She would have continued listing all the people the teenager was defying with his decision if she had the time and actually knew them; that was just how surprised she was.

Thing is, Adolf was never someone Megan would have pegged for a rebel; that was more Kei's personality. He was supposed to be the relaxed and unassuming one among the Supermen; content to follow orders, do his part, and then let the others squabble on the logistics.

But he's changing, she realized, evolving. All the teenagers should be actually, which in hindsight, showed the reasonability of why Dennis had chosen to hire a psychologist to be in charge of them right now instead of any other type of professional. He must have known that with the more situations they found themselves outside of their usual organized environment on Olympus, their outlook of the world would begin to change and someone had to be there to see, observe, and course-correct them as was appropriate.

But I haven't been doing that, Megan chastised herself. I have been so intent on retrieving Item 13 that I've neglected my primary assignment to the kids.

Unfortunately, that wasn't also the time to get into it as the others were now staring at her, waiting for her decision.

"Well Meg, what's it going to be?" Kei asked, one of her eyebrows quirked in challenge. "Are you ordering us to defy the director or not?"

Megan sighed. There was only one logical option to take at that moment and delaying it was just being incompetent. "Go ahead and open the containment boxes," she ordered, much to Kei's groan, "I'll inform the director of the development."

However, just as the others moved and she turned to call Dennis, her phone suddenly went dead in her hands. "What the hell?" She made a confused face.

Behind Megan too, the others came to an abrupt stop as the containment boxes suddenly began to beep.

"Everybody, take cover!" Ricardo shouted and they turned to run, but no sooner had they taken a step that the containment boxes exploded to release pulse energies so powerful that every particle seemed to blow backwards around them.

Megan didn't know at what exact moment the boxes exploded or the energy wave hit her, but she did know that one moment she was turning to run, the next she was flying through the air like a rocket launched into space.

She hit the ground side-first; the pain jarring up her awareness to see the others flying around her and the walls of the warehouse collapsing in all directions. She bounced some inches into the air after the first land and flipped twice in no particular direction before she finally hit the ground the second time; this time, first with her back, and then her head.

Stars exploded in front of Megan's eyes on impact and for a while, her vision went blurry. She rested on the ground as the cold air blew snow across her face; unable to move, or think, or do anything really for that matter.

"Targets acquired," she suddenly heard someone say and her vision cleared to see a man in a grey fur coat and thick ski goggles pointing a gun down at her with four other men, dressed the same, doing likewise to the others.

God, Megan, you should have prepared more for the trap, she chastised herself, but there was no use for that then. She had led the team into a capture by the enemies, and she didn't have the slightest idea on how to get them out of it.