Chip

After the team had traded out their winnings at the Supply Core, they immediately flew back home.

Once Serenity had unlocked their door, Zak raced inside and flew down the steps of the electronics room where they kept their important data safe. To the right of the wall was a smallish Arkri-reinforced metal box with a lock on it.

He punched in the 18 digit code and the metal door swung open.

He moved Electric Pads, bags of candy, and personal treasures out of the way so that he reached the back.

In the corner of the safe lay the small microchip Abbadon had given them. He picked it up rearranged and closed the safe, then rushed back upstairs.

Everyone was already on the couch, waiting for him. Javes already had his laptop on his lap and Zak passed him the chip.

Javes took a close look at the microchip. The chip was a couple of years out of date, but still usable. It was most likely a memory chip though; what was on it, he had no clue.

He inserted the chip into its proper place in his computer and almost instantly, a video showed up on his computer. The frame the video was frozen at was of a tall person who had their back turned to the screen and head to the sky. The person looked oddly familiar to the team.

Zak grumbled. "What are you waiting for? Play the vid." He reached over Javes' shoulder and pressed play.

The video started off with the person yelling things. From how deep his voice was, they could tell he was a guy.

"Hey. HEY!" He yelled. "Moli, I swear that if you don't come back, I'll tell mom!"

A faint, girly laughter was heard, farther away.

"Try me!" The voice said, still laughing.

The boy cursed in anger then yelled, "Mom! Moli flew off with my bracelet!"

A woman's exasperated sigh was heard, followed closely by; "Moli, get back here before I send your father to come and get you! And Vera, NO CURSING!"

The boy, Vera, grumbled a bit, before yelling; "Moli, you heard her! Come back now!"

Another, higher pitched, grumble was heard. A smallish body floated downwards above the boy. She landed with thump beside him.

"Here." Moli said as she handed Vera his bracelet.

Vera snatched it away and stormed off to somewhere to the left of the screen.

Moli crossed her arms against her dark green thermal shirt and flipped her long, brown hair over her shoulder. She kicked at the ground before spotting a small baby that was crawling its way into the frame. Moli picked the baby up.

"Hey Eagle, " Moli cooed. "You want a cookie?"

Eagle drooled on her shirt.

Moli coddled Eagle. "Yay! Let's go ask Mom, ok?" Moli walked off screen with Eagle.

The video played on for a couple more seconds, the same bluish-grey sky and grey concrete floor, before finally ending.

The video disappeared from the laptops interface, instead showing a notification for 5 new videos and 2 documents.

"So," Wish said as she wrote something on her Electro-Pad. "we have the names of three new people. Vera, Moli, and Eagle."

Hede sighed loudly. "This is getting us nowhere. Instead of clearing things up, I'm even more confused."

Lucy patted his shoulder. "Well, at least we can find out who one of them is."

Javes clicked on an icon on his desktop that had the Gen A logo. The website pulled app and he logged in with password. He then clicked on a tab that said 'Roster'. The window pulled up.

He then went back to his video gallery and clicked on the video, skipping a minute ahead and zooming in.

"First off, let's look at the obvious details." Javes said. He had paused on the part where Moli gave Vera his bracelet back.

"The bracelet, instead of the black with a white stripe that we use now, is white with a black stripe." Javes said somberly. "If my memory is correct, those bracelets were used 30 years ago during the Susar Period."

Javes went back to the roster window and typed in the date 30 years ago. A list of alphabetized names of the people enlisted 30 years ago pulled up. He opened the list with names that began with 'V'.

Wish muttered. "Vax, Vdal …Vera!" Javes clicked his name.

A spreadsheet of data about Vera took over his screen including his pictures.

According to his bio, his full name was Vera Hugo Cross. He was a 47 year old man who had dark, curly hair that fell over his his equally as dark eyes. His pale face held no emotion in the picture, but according to one of the logged therapist visit's, he had seen some stuff.

Kira leaned over Javes' shoulder and scrolled down. "Apparently, he's a part of the Vulpes Clan, which is Helix's clan."

Helix shook his head. "I've never seen this guy at any of the clan meetings."

"When's the next meeting?" Hede inquired.

"Uh...don't remember."

"Well, find out, " Kira told him. "and tell us so that we can prepare."

Helix shrugged in response.

"In the mean time, everyone take a good look at this guy's face. If you any of you happen to run across him, report it to me immediately."

A collective: "Yes, ma'am."

"Javes, I want to know what league this guy belongs to and where he's stationed."

Javes nodded.

"Also, run a family background check. I want to know all of his immediate family.

Javes nodded again.

Kira nodded. "Great. Now, if I remember correctly, someone's party is coming up?"

Lucy raised her hand. "Me!" She said enthusiastically.

Serenity nodded. "Right. What would you like as a present?"

"Um," Lucy uttered. "How about a...new knife sharpener? A pink one."

"Is that it? Just a knife sharpener?" Hede asked.

Lucy sighed. "Well, I don't know. I don't want you guys to do too much."

"We don't mind, you're worth it." Wish said happily.

"Then," A holographic image appeared from Lucy's bracelet. She held out her wrist so everyone could see it. The hologram held a list with, at least, 30 items-each costing hundreds of Inx.

Everyone raised a brow at Lucy, who shrugged. "You said you didn't mind."