Welcome to Gaia! ::

“I would say not liking it makes you quite a bit different than everyone else. Most don't even think about it. I was contacted way back in high school. I'm not even sure why, but someone somewhere must have seen something in me. Of course back then it was keep your head low and follow Sybil. Even after I was assigned to work in the Tower I didn't hear anything for a few years. I was starting to wonder if I had dreamed it all or if they had forgotten about me. Then one day the requests started coming in. A map of a certain area, confirming if someone had disappeared, or had been promoted, ease dropping on conversations and finally checking out the basement ...and well, you know how that ended.” She'd been following orders her whole life. If not Sybil's than her contacts. Maybe she did think for herself, but she doubted her ability to really make a decision never mind order people around. Adrian might think the resistance could simply find another leader, but she figured it would be rather difficult to replace him. Maybe that was his point about the masses treating their new leader like Sybil. “How did you dig a tunnel right into the city without it noticing?”

“That certainly sounds more exciting. You haven’t mentioned your mother.” Amelia said distractedly. They were close now, the Tower looming above them. It would be her first time in combat and she could feel her stomach tighten with each passing minute. Talking helped; it provided a distraction from what she would face in a few minutes. Likely the biggest challenge would be to keep her hallucinations under control. The doctor back at the hanger had expressed the high chance of them occurring in a stressful situation like assaulting the tower. She shifted in her chair. “I suppose surveillance drones and street camera’s don’t so much good for seeing things below ground. Still I never suspected the resistance was as large or as well-equipped as it is. I guess hopefully that means Sybil doesn’t know either.”

“Did you ever find out why she was taken?” It seemed odd to Amelia that his mother would be taken before his father was involved with the resistance. She assumed the disappearances had to do with being involved and Sybil finding out, or perhaps knowing something you shouldn't know. Had she known something, or was their another reason Sybil was taking people? Her eyes drifted over to the Tower while the others checked their gear. All she had was the baton which really didn't require any checking. “You are sure you don't trust me with a gun?” She had easily agreed with him back at the Hanger, but now she wished she had argued a little bit harder about it.

Amelia felt a stab of guilt at his comment, but something felt hinky about the whole thing. His father, her family sure, but why his mother? Maybe she had been involved in something and Adrian or his father just hadn't known. It seemed unlikely, but more likely than Sybil taking someone for no reason. They were at the building now though, so it was time to focus on the task at hand instead of worrying about Adrian's past. Without a word she slide out of the passengers seat and walked around the van to join him on the other side.

Right, because she would make it back to the van without him. If there was something that stopped Adrian and all his guns chances were she wouldn't make it much further. Still she nodded without argument. She had spent too many years hiding her internal monologue and following others despite her own opinion.. “Bottom floor. Let's just hope Sybil hasn't increased the security.” There had been none during her first trip. Those who assaulted the Tower always tried to go up, where the high level government officials worked and the president lived. However Sybil knew she had been down there and knew the resistance had her now. Hopefully it assumed they weren't stupid enough to try an attack like this. After all there really was no point to it other than proof. What if his father told Sybil about the main attack plan? There were so many things that could go wrong. Wasn't there a saying about waiting being the worst part? She needed to get a grip on herself.

Something was wrong. They should go back, call off the main assault and come up with a new plan. That had been what she wanted them to do from the very beginning though and Adrian and yet to listen to that idea, so she dutifully followed along when he said to continue with the plan. It was like Sybil was inviting them in. The question big question was had it been planning for them, or for the main group? “I don't like this.” Amelia said softly when they reached the bottom floor. With a deep breath and a white knuckle grip on the metal baton in her right hand, she opened the door to with her left and quickly stepped back in case there was something for Adrian to shoot.

Nothing. Well not nothing, but nothing to shoot at. It was a hallway leading to another door at the other end, but Amelia had never gone in that other door. This hallway contained what she wanted to show him. When she had come down here the first time the alarms started ringing seconds after she had entered the room leaving no time to see what was behind door number two, but door number one had been bad enough. Along the right side of the room were ten docking and repair stations, nine of them filled with what appeared to be the President. They looked exactly human, in fact if they had been laying down one might assume they were sleeping except they were standing eerily in the way that only a robot could. The technology to make them look so human was beyond anything she knew existed, but clearly Sybil had it. “This is what I meant by Sybil is the President. There is no human in control it's just Sybil controlling everything. I think they are in case the other one gets damaged or starts to malfunction or something....”

Amelia walked slowly down the hall. Looking at them were creepy as it looked like they could come alive at any second, but like the robots on the main floor they didn't move. “At lease I can retrieve some equipment.” She paused to whistle a five note tune. After a short pause a small spider like creature, though obviously mechanical, came scurrying out from somewhere within one of the repair stations. “Ah, there you are!” She smiled as she knelt down and the little spider crawled onto the palm of her outstretched hand. It was a smile almost like that a parent would give a child. “I was worried they would find you. Go to sleep now.” When she spoke it curled up into a black ball about the size of a golf ball, which she put in her pocket, before turning to Adrian. “It's a prototype. When the alarms started going off I didn't want them to find it, so I told it to hide and go to sleep. It's suppose to disable machines...crawl inside them and start cutting wires, but I haven't really had the chance to test it. At the time I thought maybe I could talk my way out of trouble, but not if I had this on me. Anyway this is as far as I've gotten. Ready to see what is behind door number two?”

“You want to take one with us? Unhooking it isn’t the problem, it probably weighs….” The end of her sentences was quickly forgotten as Adrian pushed open the second door. “Oh my God…” Amelia said softly. It had to be another hallucination as there was no way this could be real, only Adrian seemed just as shocked as she was. Brains. Lots of brains floating in glass boxes all connected, it looked like, to one at the center. Worse though was their missing president number ten standing in front of the collection, it’s hands laced with who Amelia could only assume was Adrian’s father.

“You came!” He said with a big grin that seemed off. “Your mother said you would come! She’s been here the entire time. She’s explained everything! We can be a family again!” His laughter made Amelia uneasy.

“I see them.” Amelia replied softly. The irony of Adrian checking with her to see if something was real wasn’t lost on her, but it didn’t seem like an appropriate time to bring it up. “What’s the plan?” Shooting up the place and destroying the brains seemed like the best option, but would they have been invited down here if destroying it would be so simple? Running might be better. A second president had disengaged from its dock and was now blocking their exit however.

The president spoke this time, all the while Adrian’s father nodded along. “I thought it was time we met personally since we have been enemies for so long. What you see before you is Sybil…is me. A collection of 247 members joined in a hive mind to decide what is best for humanity. Don’t worry; you will come to understand just as your father has. This is really what is best for the human race.”
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