Chapter 15: Rani

Owen and Morgan wasted no time idling; they immediately embarked on exploration, heading toward the nearest building, which happened to be the greenhouse. It wasn't far away, and after a brief walk, Owen led the way with Morgan and January close behind, arriving at the entrance of the greenhouse. Peering through the windows, they noted its seemingly empty interior, prompting Morgan to prepare to open the greenhouse entrance with a password written on a piece of paper retrieved by January. However, their progress came to an abrupt halt when Owen detected a peculiar disturbance behind the door that Morgan was about to open.

"Wait, Morgan, there's something—" Before Owen could finish, something large collided with the glass in front of his face, causing him to startle backward, shotgun at the ready for combat. However, what he saw made him swiftly reconsider his stance.

"Please, help us!" pleaded an elderly Black woman, her voice strained with desperation, as she knelt on the other side of the glass. She seemed to be struggling against something, one hand pressed against the glass while she banged on it with the other, her pleas for assistance growing more urgent.

"Open the door now!" Owen's voice rang out, urgency laced in his tone, as he swiftly retrieved a nullwave transmitter. Positioned in front of the greenhouse door, he gestured for it to be opened. Morgan wasted no time in heeding Owen's call, shotgun at the ready, and stood beside him. Owen activated the nullwave transmitter, tossing it into the greenhouse the moment the door opened wide enough for it to pass through.

*Voosh*

Not a moment passed before the transmitter unleashed a surge of purple energy, enveloping the area, including the previously invisible telepath. It became visibly stunned, providing Owen with a crucial opportunity. Without hesitation, he charged forward, shotgun in hand, and unloaded a barrage of shots into its large, glowing purple eye. The creature emitted a strange screech as it attempted to retreat into the air, but Morgan, closely following Owen, intervened.

Switching swiftly to his gloo gun, Morgan began to blanket the telepath in gloo, causing its ascent to slow visibly. As the layers of gloo accumulated, the telepath grew too heavy and plummeted to the ground with a resounding thud, sustaining substantial damage. Even though the hardened gloo broke upon impact, it took the telepath a considerable amount of time to rise from the ground, providing Owen and Morgan with a clear advantage. They capitalized on this opportunity, raining shells upon the weakened telepath relentlessly.

"EEEEEEEE!" After enduring half a dozen shots from both Owen and Morgan, the telepath finally succumbed, its body dissipating and leaving behind scattered remnants. Owen and Morgan exhaled deeply, their tense muscles relaxing as they surveyed the scene before them. Turning to the side, they noticed a small group of people sprawled out on the floor, and the elderly Black woman from earlier leaning against a plant basin, breathing heavily.

"Thanks, January, for incapacitating the others while we dealt with the telepath," Owen expressed, acknowledging January's contribution as he observed him dragging another unconscious person over. He had noticed January using a peculiar purple beam to shoot at the individuals who were under the telepath's control, causing them to lose consciousness. Owen speculated that January was armed with some form of nullwave beam, although he couldn't fathom why. What he did know was that, without January's intervention, the mind-controlled individuals might have attempted to detonate themselves amidst the chaos of their fight with the telepath.

"No problem, Owen. Just doing my best to follow my programming," January replied modestly, continuing to rearrange the unconscious individuals into more comfortable positions. Owen shifted his attention to the Black woman engaged in conversation with Morgan. If he remembered correctly, her name was Rani—a detail he recalled from the mission named "Save Rani," a mission that Owen found surprisingly easy to complete and, consequently, didn't remember much about.

"Hey, are you okay?" Owen inquired as he swiftly approached the conversing pair. Rani looked at him, opening her mouth to speak first.

"Who are you? Are you new? I don't remember hiring any new security. Are you some type of executive?" Rani fired off questions, slightly overwhelming Owen. However, he was saved from the barrage by Morgan, who spoke up on his behalf.

"He's a close friend of mine; don't worry about him. But you were mentioning something about everyone gathering inside cargo?" Morgan interjected, redirecting the conversation and prompting Rani to shift her focus onto answering Morgan's inquiry.

"Sarah Elazar had sent out bunch of messages to who ever would listen, thats why i was leading this bunch over their but got chased in here by a hoard of them weird phantoms, which did not stick around but what stayed was that big flying shit stain which soon found their was no cieleings on this place and came inside and began fucking with ours minds" Rani explained simply as she stretched while she inspected her pistol.

"We're planning to head that way later after we do a round around the arboretum and check what's stopping the elevator from ascending. If you all are still around, we can head over there together," Morgan explained, prompting Rani to nod in understanding.

"That's good, and don't worry about us; we should be safe for a while," Rani reassured.