Chapter 25

They tell them they are off and Atlas follows Shadow's lead. They find their way to the upper class and climb up onto a tall arcitect building.

"What's there?" Atlas asks,

They look off, down at the slightly smaller building with a metal dome head.

"I'm not sure, my guess, guardian suits."

"Well, let's go mess their day up."

She smirks and pulls out a grappling hook. She fires the gun and they watch it fly, it grabs onto the buildings ledge. Shadow attaches the other end to the wall, they clip on to the cable and zip line to the dome building.

They unhook and move around to the ladder for getting to the dome. They climb down to another landing and hide behind a vent.

"One security guard." Shadow says,

He starts walking back from the edge of the building to them. They wait until he's close enough. Atlas grabs them, covers his mouth and stabs his kunai into the man's chest. The poison sinks into his chest, not that it mattered.

Shadow grabs his legs and they move him behind the vent and they walk to the door. Atlas takes a breath.

He carefully opens the door and looks in. All clear. They creep in, shutting the door softly.

"Is this...a greenhouse?" Atlas asks,

Shadow frowns, "Come on."

They sneak over to an area where the trees in the greenhouse below provide a bit more cover.

"Can your suit take gas?" she whispers,

He nods, she hangs down and drops quietly to the floor, he follows. They walk up to the trees and examine them.

"Xerthimia." Atlas mutters,

"What?"

Atlas pulls the purple trimmed kunai off his belt and shows it to her. "Poison, a very deadly one at that." he whispers,

"How fatal?"

"Few seconds if you're lucky. Not the berries, it's the leaves that are poisonous."

She looks at the tree, the jagged leaves hang, they look so welcoming. Self defense no doubt. Nature is a prick.

"If we didn't have masks, we'd be dead in a minute."

"So gas has weaker affects?"

Atlas shrugs, "Like this, yes, depends on the concentration. They'd probably use them as liquid, lace their bullets."

Chills run down their spines as the words fall from his lips. "They are preparing for an assault." She whispers,

"How'd you know?" Atlas asks,

She shakes her head, "I didn't, I thought maybe we would find more guardians. Not...poison."

"Well, what do you think? Burn these on the way out?"

"I suppose, do you have regular bullets?"

He raises an eyebrow, "What do you mean regular?"

"Non-elemental?"

He narrows his eyes, "Did I not tell you guys?"

"Tell us what?"

"It's me, not technology. I'm elemental."

She stares at him, aghast. "You did not say anything man, what the eff?!" She whispers loudly,

He holds up a surrendering hand, "Alright. Alright. Sorry, I thought I did. I made May think it was the tech to hopefully have some kind of advantage over her. Just in case."

She narrows her eyes, "Anything else?"

He thinks, "Not that I can think of. I can control poison, but it has to be contact, so I can lace stuff or poison things, fire and ice I can lace or just shoot it from my extremities."

"I hate you."

"Sorry. Nothing else, I promise. I must have only told Toni then."

He can feel her glaring at him. "No one else?"

"Nope. I don't know why I thought you knew. Sorry. But Toni knows, I told her a few days ago. Let's do this, then you can deck me after."

She sighs and shakes her head, "Fine. No more surprises, okay?"

"No more."

"Good, okay...come on."

They hurry out of their hiding place and find the door. Locked. Shadow grabs Atlas under her arm and they phase through the door together.

Atlas groans softly and stumbles. She looks at him, silently asking if he's okay. He holds up a hand. "I'm fine." he whispers,

He feels his stomach turn over, but the next second it settles. They walk down the short hall to the elevator at the end. No cameras in the hall.

"There's going to be a camera in the elevator, no stairs."

"What do you think?"

"Where would the control room be?"

"Underground maybe? Basement."

She nods, "I think so too. You said you could lace stuff?"

"What do you have in mind?"

After they finish, they take the elevator after carefully sever the camera's cable. They take it down three levels, before they get off, they push the buttons, every third floor going down.

They then hurry to the stairs from the office floor and start downward. They make it halfway down before police and security enter from the maybe the fifth or fourth floor down, given the two basement levels in the elevator, it's either the second or third floor.

They begin making their way up. "Here they come." Shadow says softly,

Atlas is already seeing them. "Let's do this."

Atlas pulls his pistol and sword, Shadow her automatic rifle. "Last resort, we'll see if I can phase past them."

Atlas groans, "Alriiiight." He whispers,

They continue down and make it to the eleventh floor, the police and guards are sweeping the fifth floor now. Atlas grabs Shadow and they phase down from the seventh floor to the first floor.

"Ugh...ooof."

"We got to go Atlas."

He nods, "Alright. I'm, ugh, good."

He stands up and they move down to the first basement level. They push open the door and sneak in. They move down a large hallway and round the corner carefully. They come to a T intersection and decide to go right, then they both round the corner and stare in shock.

The room is endless. Machines moving back and forth sparks flying everywhere. They cautiously creep closer, bright white lights hang overhead.

They hide behind giant white boxes full of machine parts. They peek over and watch.

"They're building a robot army." Atlas mutters,

In one area, fingers and hands are being attached to arms, in another, feet to legs, faces, heads, mechanical bodies.

"This is bad."

He looks at Shadow. Her chest is expanding and shrinking fast. She's panicking, with good reason.

Then run down his entire body. "Shadow?"

She looks at him, "This room is huge. What's on the floor beneath?"

She looks out at the machines and back to him. And back again, and back at Atlas.

She turns and hurries back to the stairway carefully, Atlas hurries after her. They rush into the stairway and down to the last level and through the doorway.

They come immediately to a railing, they are on a ledge, overlooking thousands of soldiers below. Metal ones.

"Oh my...."

There must be somewhere between eight and ten thousand of them. This room has to cover entire blocks on the surface, many thick pillars hold up the ceiling.

"Atlas we are so screwed."

Atlas rises to his feet in shock. "Atlas get down!" She whispers,

"I have an idea." he says crouching again,

"What?"

"I know you're here Atlas, do you like the view?" a loud speaker asks,

May.

"You got to trust me okay? We're both getting out of here and none of them are. Do you trust me Shadow?"

She looks at the soldiers, "There are two of us Atlas."

"Come out Atlas, you are surrounded in this building."

"Shadow, I need you to trust me. We can do this. This where we start fighting."

"Alright Atlas, make it fast."