EVOLVE 19 Chaper 19: If This Were A Videogame I Wonder What Level We'd Be.

He's looking over at the still unconscious but alive Jacob who's laying on one of three beds in the room Marc, Toni and I are sharing in the accomodation we got somewhere in France not far from the mluntains.

Jacob is bound and has a power dampener collar supplied by O.R around his neck, Lerato is in the room shared by Nicole and Carla in the same state.

I gotta say clothing a naked unconscious dude is the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done in my entire life ever.

"Also why does he have to be in our room?" Adds Toni

"Because there wasn't supposed to be people we found in there. And well we're in France" I reply

"What's that supposed to mean 'we're in France'?" Asks Marc to which i shrug my shoulders

"Yeah, well I guess the both of them can be cla.s.sified under biological weapon." Says Marc, to which I agree with a brief nod.

I walk over to Jacob turning on my augmentation as I approach then pick him up with ease and carry him over to one of the plush chairs in the rooms then prop him into it.

"What are you doing?" Asks Toni

"I'm gonna wake him up, I've got questions," I say turning to face Toni with a curious thought, "can you make your telekinetic bubble sound proof?" I ask

"Yeah, I guess." He replies.

"Great, please do that around all of us." I say.

Marc walks over and stands next to me.

Toni spreads his arms and closes his eyes for a split second and then opening them.

"Okay, we're good." He says

"Marc, if you'll will please." I say stepping aside.

But Marc does nothing.

"Uhm I don't know what you want me to--" He begins creasing his eyebrows

"Oh I just thought it was implied in how i said it." I say

"No it wasn't, you gotta be clear about things." He says

"Okay I'll keep that in mind... Anyway I just mean like lightly electrocute him awake or something." I say

"See now that's clearer." Says Marc

His right hand crackles lightly before he places it on Jacob's chest and lets the electricity rip through Jacob's body, his body and chest heave upward just as his eyes snap open in a sharp gasp of breath, Marc pulls his hand back and Jacob looks around wildly and tries to move but he's bound tightly which adds to his obvious confusion.

None of say say anything by way of trying to calm him down, besides he's starting to look calmer on his own as he take in his soundings which changes his demeanor as he realises we're standing over him, he becomes almost eerily calm.

"Yeah your powers won't work, I think you're familiar with the neckpiece." Says Marc.

Jacob scowls in response.

"Look we need answers," I say, "To start off with I don't even understand why we're enemies, I mean I saved you man remember?"

He casts his eyes down for a moment then looks me dead in the eyes just as both his eyes turn black.

"The other half, she's close, yes?" He asks in a ghostly voice.

Yeah because that's not creepy at all right?

"What does that mean?" I ask whilst trying to pretend I'm not freaked out. And wondering if that collar will actually do the work.

"She is close, good." He says completely ignoring my question.

"What'd they do to you in there?" Asks Marc.

Jacob smiles a little.

"They made me better, now there's no pain, I don't die inside slowly anymore. But of course everything has a price." Says Jacob

"Which is?" I ask, his gaze shifts back to me swiftly making a shiver crawl down my spine.

"You seem a little worried," he says, "don't worry I can't do much with this around my neck. And to answer your question the price has already been paid."

Whatever they did to him has drastically changed his personality, it's like they've brought through the version of himself that pops up when he's in his necromancy death mode into a permanent state.

"What does that mean?" I ask

"You'll know soon enough." He says

"You called Lerato your other half, what does that mean?" I ask

Jacob's smile widens. "Oh that's right! You know her on a personal level of sorts, I saw you in her memories, in her head. She found it adorable how you would look at her like a drooling pup would at its favourite meal."

Saw me in her head? Sounds like some Pacific Rim s.h.i.t to me.

"You shared a mind?" Asks Toni

"Share, present not past tense." He says in a corrective voice.

"You're speaking in too many quirky ways, we straight answers or we ..... Might have to hurt you." I say with a hint of reluctance.

Jacob suddenly leans in bringing his faces inches close to mine then he slowly backs away, a blank expression is now plastered on his face.

"You don't have the stomach for it, torture I mean, none of you do." Says Jacob cast a quick glance the way of Marc and Toni

"We've killed people." Says Marc hardening his voice

"No doubt you have, accidentally and some purposefully but all in all you justify it by repeating 'they were bad guys' over and over and over again in your heads. And that bit of good and bad is matter of perspective from where I'm sitting. Now to torture someone you consider to be 'bad' that's a new line for you to cross and I say you can't do it.... I say you give into yourself and finally admit that you are in over your heads. That your little units world-wide, and yes WECA knows about 'em, just won't cut it and that you're sending people to die needlessly." Says Jacob.

Well I guess that answers one question, they do know, they just a.s.sume they can crush us with ease I guess.

"Do you know what WECA has planned? Where is Euroc Carmichael?" I ask grabbing Jacob by the collar in an attempt to express seriousness.

"No need to get testy, I never said anything about objecting to answering any of your questions." He replies

"Then answer me!" I say

"You have a piece of a plan of given to you by a guy who caught of a whiff of it but was working for an organisation that was basically a plant to give people the false hope that they were actually resisting anything when in actuality what was happening the whole time was that the world is already more than half in the hands of WECA but the governments and people don't really want to admit it, the 'war' thing is just a glorified muscle flex for WECA to show what can happen if people want a fight. And for Mr Carmichael, he'll be seeing you soon." Says Jacob

"What about our DNA, mine and Terry's and Toni's and the girls, did you always know?" Asks Marc

"Now that my friend is unexplained, the information just appeared from parts unknown." Replies Jacob shrugging his shoulders

"Why do they want the whole world domination thing?" I ask

Jacob pauses for a moment putting his best thinking face on.

"You know how in X-Men there was mutants and people and then there was Magneto and his humans are inferior thing? Think of it like that only the power roles are reversed and the moment WECA really moves up a lot of people will die, no exceptions, even if all you can do is spend spoons using the wind you'll survive but normals a whole lot of them wouldn't be so lucky." Says Jacob

But how would they kill that many people

"What's after that?" Asks Marc

"Hierarchy established, probable years of resistance by angry loved ones of loved ones murdered, chaos and chaos followed by order." Says Jacob

"I thought the reason WECA appeared was to quell the chaos that was brewing?" I ask

Jacob laughs, "Not the way I hear it, that was just a way to gain a sort of endearment to get pieces of the pie. No, no, no maaan the way I hear it WECA loves chaos it gets the owners real hard, they like chaos they can control, and what's a better way for controlled chaos than owning the world and having all the b.u.t.tons to push to set it all of. Keeps things lively, keeps people on their toes, makes people stronger. At least that's what they say, from the looks on your faces you're thinking they're a bunch of psychopaths, I agree." He says

"But how'd they have known about the event?" Asks Toni

Jacob's eyes widden as he nods wildly, "If i could snap my fingers I'd be doing it right now because that's what I asked him! And here's where its crazy, they didn't know that was gonna happen, h.e.l.l their scientists weren't even looking to predict something like that! It was an act of destiny.... They had far worse methods in mind for chaos and power, s.h.i.t that would have made people grow three heads, whatever the h.e.l.l is worse than nuclear weapons is exactly what they were working on, the chaos they had planned ohhhh man it'd have made Mad Max look like Disneyland."

Controlled chaos.... Who even thinks of that?

"Well it's been nice chatting but my other half is awake and Mr Carmichael is calling." Says Jacob with a smile.

And on cue Lerato appears behind Jacob then lays a hand on his shoulder and teleports with him before any of us can do anything.

He did say he couldn't do much, but he didn't say anything about Lerato.

"What just happened?" Exclaims Toni as Marc rushes forward and feels the empty s.p.a.ce where a second ago Jacob sat

Carla bursts through the door the next moment.

"s.h.i.t." She says realising he's gone too.

"Please tell me you got answers." She says.

To echo Toni's words, what the h.e.l.l did just happen? I thought we had them both dead to rights.

"Yeah we did. Get the others, let's meet in the restaurant downstairs for a meeting and some chow." I say.

_____________________

"That's crazy." Is the first thing Janice says after I finish explaining what Jacob said.

We're seated around in the quiet hotel restaurant, we've all eaten, Toni has us under a telekinetic bubble and I'm really hoping that's not too much strain on him or anything.

The other girls remain quiet, Marc and Toni seem too still be processing it as well. And to be honest so am I but I can't really show that.

"So basically we won but also we sort of lost?" Asks Nicole

"Not really i say we still won Because we got some much needed info which we can use to fire people up." I say.

"Yeah but can that information really be trusted?" Asks Winter

"I dunno, but it's the best we've got to run with for now." I say

"Always feels like we're a step behind." Says Carla

"We probably will be a lot of the way, we've just gotta keep going forward regardless. We're you girls able to get anything off her before she split?" I ask

"And how did she split, I thought the power dampener things were supposed to stop that?" Asks Toni

"We didn't get anything out of her," Says Carla, "for the most part she seemed seriously disoriented like someone was constantly drawing from her energy then out of nowhere she just seemed fine, although she had these black veins crawling all over her and the next second she was gone leaving behind the collar and the ropes that bound her, that's when I ran to you guys and found him gone too."

Black veins, that's new. Probably from whatever they did to her and Jacob.

"I checked the collar's integrity, it was still functional." Adds Janice.

"On our end Jacob was adamant he couldn't do anything whilst still bound and he kept callong Lerato his other half." I say

"What does that mean?" Asks Nicole with creased eyebrows

"We didn't exactly get a chance to find out." I reply

"What are you thinking?" Asks Carla, her eyes slightly narrowed as she looks at me.

"I'm thinking maybe this was a set up by Carmichael."

"Then the information is false, there is no controlled chaos plan?" Asks Winter her voice hopeful.

"No thats real, I think the intel is solid. For whatever reason he needed us to get into that place but he didn't want it to be easy. The more I think about it we were semi herded into getting into that particular lab and finding Jacob and Lerato, for whatever reason he needed them to get close to us and for that the intel had to be real." I say

"What reason could he have for going to those lengths?" Asks Marc

"I don't know. But it ain't gonna be long until we know." I say.

I need a new plan, another scheme thing and it needs to happen quickly.