The elevator descended quickly, and each mber of the alphabet estimated its speed and calculated the ti and distance traveled to determine how deep in the habitat they were going. Algernon blinked as he realized they had just gone deeper than the lowest level. He looked at his siblings, who had all co to the sa conclusion. He looked at Milo, who was grinning at him, but offering no explanation.
"Milo, dear brother, how deep does this elevator go?"
"Quit a ways, to be honest. When I started this project I was using one of the excavators left over from digging the foundations of the habitat, and wanted to build a new base of operations deep in the ground. To be honest, I may have been influenced by my ti in the ga. Being deep enough no one could find was sounding better and better."
His siblings understood that logic. After their escape and supposed deaths, they hid for a long ti, terrified of being found and dragged back to captivity.
"This goes down to your secret base? How far?"
"Well, not all the way down, that's for sure. We'll get off at the top level. When we travel to the lower levels, we'll have to take the stairs or ladders.
"Top of what?"
"Why, my hastily thrown together place to hide. Rember? I didn't have a lot of ti like you five did."
Onyx's eyes got larger. "Warning! Milo has learned Sarcasm! He is more powerful than we expected."
Bork was taking deep breaths, and trying not to panic. He hated sudden situations with unknown variables. "His inevitable betrayal has co far too early."
The elevator slowed, and Milo plugged his tail into the controls. The elevator doors opened, and then a second set of heavily armored doors. Both sets were locked open by Milo. The alphabet stared into the next room, which wasn't all that exciting. A large tal kiosk behind bulletproof glass, two glass security doors giving access to the next room, and a couple of computers.
Zander raised an eyebrow. "Standard US governnt security center. They haven't changed in decades. Are you buying governnt surplus? This design is incredibly primitive and outdated."
Milo replied, "It's ex-governnt furniture and was certainly surplus, but it was in terrible shape when I got it. I had to do a lot of clean-up." He led the way past the old security station, and the others followed until Onyx looked at the floor.
"Are those bloodstains?!"
Milo scuffed his foot on them. "They bother every ti I walk past, but I haven't had the ti to sand them out. It might be easier to replace the flooring."
Bork imdiately backed away, reentering the elevator, Zander looked down at the floor, noting the stain pattern. "Lots of blood, several people died here, and those are bullet holes on the walls."
Nina didn't retreat but did stop to ask the question they were all thinking. "Milo, why are there so many bloodstains on the floor?"
"From the bodies I found. It's a complex story, but it ties in with a lot of other things. And this reminds , I need to get them out of the freezer I stored them in. They deserve a proper burial, but I don't dare notify their next of kin."
Bork was in the elevator with Algernon, trying to get it to go back up. "Dammit, your security code doesn't work here!"
Zander rolled his eyes. "Did you really think he'd give you all of his codes? Smart thinking to jam the elevator open and cut off retreat. He's just starting to monolog about all of his dastardly cris. You can't try to leave now!"
Nina walked back, grabbed Bork by the arm, and pulled him along. "Nothing to worry about. He invited us to dinner. By all of the rules of super villainry, he can't kill us until dessert is served. You're safe until then. I can sll the roast turkey, and I'm hungry. Eat now, worry about foiling Milo later."
Bork took a deep breath, "Your logic is flawless. Plus, I can sll the turkey now that you pointed it out. Let's go."
They followed Milo to yet another set of two sliding tal doors. As he heard the buzz of the electric motors and the doors slowly moved into the walls, Zander stared at them, trying to calculate their weight. He noted that the frawork for the doors was of the sa tal. "This is collapsium. I'm sure of it! That isn't possible! How did you move this? Where did you get it?"
Onyx was also looking at the doors. "You don't move collapsium this big, Zander. Not when you can see it's all one piece with the wall. I think you just don't want to confront the obvious conclusion."
All of them were staring at Milo now, Turkey forgotten. "How the hell do you have a Fusion Reactor!!!"
"Even a small one takes a year to build, with lots of heavy equipnt and a workforce of hundreds. We tried! Just gathering the raw materials tipped off three governnts and nine corporations."
"Such a big waste of Victor's money! But no regrets!"
"THINK, you fools! If he has one, we can convince him to start building a Quantum computer and then steal it from him! We should beco his minions, gain his trust, and eventually betray him."
Milo sighed. "I don't have a Fusion Reactor."
"But...the collapsium?"
He looked at all of them, one at a ti, and said, slowly. "I don't have a Fusion Reactor." Then, after a small pause,
"WE have a Fusion Reactor. Now, let's go eat dinner. Mama's waiting for us."
Five open mouths closed, and five bewildered super geniuses ekly followed their brother down a lovely hallway reminiscent of another ti, then down the stairs until they ca to the bottom floor of Independence Hall where the rest of the family was waiting for them. The alphabet froze, unsure. Ironically, they'd spent far more ti around normal people than Milo had. But always they had been in disguise as school children as they toured cities and visited interesting things. Here, they felt exposed.
Everyone but Mama and Big Butch stayed at the table. Mama took in the sight of five more children who all resembled Milo. "Call Mama, and he's Big Butch. I'm sure you all have questions, and we can take things slow or fast, whatever works for each of you. If you ever need ti alone, we understand. What can I tell you to make you more comfortable?"
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Bork looked at the people at the people seated at the tables where three roasted turkeys waited for them, "How many people live down here?"
"Oh, just what you see here, plus Rusty. You'll et him later. He's so busy with his Broadway Musical he'd be singing show tunes all through dinner if he ca to dinner."
Algernon grew imdiately interested when Broadway was ntioned; he loved going to theatres, and the alphabet owned private boxes in many cities. "He's writing music for a production? Of what? Does he need help?"
Mama smiled at him, "Rusty would love help. He's working on the music and animation. Everyone is working on the story." She pointed to two people who waved at them. "Brad and Yumi are helping him. Sothing about an ani called Lovely Angels."
Nina and Onyx raised their hands. "Volunteering!" They joined Algernon at sat down and soon a lively conversation about the production was under way. With a common topic to discuss, the three began talking quickly and asking questions while piling their plates with food.
Bork and Zander took half a step back, looked at each other, and nodded, confirming their alliance. While the Non-Aggression Protocols had kept the Ani Wars in check during the last year, they could see which way the wind was blowing, and they wanted to be prepared.
Big Butch chuckled, "Yep, they're related to Milo for sure. We've got lots of food, so take your ti and join us when you're ready, or grab so leftovers. We made extra." He and Mama walked over to the table and began eating.
Zander sat with Bork on the steps while he worked through things. Bork was quick to see all possibilities. It made him great at hacking into security systems, but when presented with lots of variables at once, he had trouble processing all the infinite futures and got overwheld. Zander was more easygoing and accepted that there were things out of his control or simply that he didn't know about. He was used to sitting with Bork until the other boy worked things out. Often, Bork saw very important possibilities and acted as an early warning system for the family. They were surprised when two of the children ca over to talk.
The older boy said, "Hi, I'm Butch, Milo's big brother. If you want, I'm your's as well. Are you all as smart as Milo?"
Zander shook his head. "It's not as simple as a yes or no question."
Butch smiled, "Yeah, that's a Milo sort of thing to say. If you want to sit, that's fine. But we could also find a corner. Min and I have been playing 'Not-So-Squishy Humans: The Revenge, ' but we need new opponents, and there are so four-person scenarios."
Bork looked up, very interested, "That ga was never released, it was full of bugs! Then, the creator was hired by another company to work on the Dune 17 ga, and the project was shelved!"
"Yeah, it was, but we heard about it and bugged Milo to buy the rights so we could try it out. Milo fixed most of the bugs, and we're writing new material for it so Claw Master can release the ga. Want to give it a go?" Min handed Bork one of the prototype Claw Master Ga Decks and he gingerly took it. Butch extended one to Zander. Milo brought plates of food over and put them near Bork and Zander, who barely noticed as the four of them started the campaign to free Earth from colossal aliens. After four failed tries and two hours later, they finally managed to get a win.
Bork ca out of the hyper-focus he'd dropped into, feeling much of his stress gone. "That ga is insanely hard! It's aweso!"
Zander agreed. "I was sweating that last encounter. It makes want to play again, but sadly, knowing the boss takes double damage from synchronized plasma rifle damage would make it too easy. If we traded away all of our loot, we could all have rapid-fire plasma casters by the end of the ga."
Butch and Min laughed, "That's why it's all random."
"Random?"
Min nodded. "The storyline has branches depending on what decisions you make, but the NPCs have differences in their personalities and dialog each ti you play. The monsters can be different things with different abilities, and the aliens all have random weaknesses that you have to figure out to beat them. Milo gets bored with gas once he's figured them out. We told him he should make a ga that changed every ti soone played it. I think he adapted so stuff from Run, Run, Ramona for Squishy Humans.
Bork looked at Zander and smiled, "I wonder if Claw Master is hiring ga developers."
Zander was wistfully thinking of all the old gas they could upgrade and rewrite. How many were languishing and in dire need of a clever upgrade. Even so of the gas the alphabet had written hadn't been played in years. "I wonder how many of the gas we made for each other we could adapt? Or cannibalize pieces from? We did a lot of stuff that sumr when we were in Denver."
Butch stood up, "Let's go find him and bribe him with that cheesecake Mama is slicing up. It's his major weakness. We hand him a piece when we want to beat him at gas."
Bork got an evil smile on his face, "And there it is! Every supervillain has a secret weakness. We just had to wait until one of Milo's minions revealed it to us."
Their plans were foiled as Milo opened up the large wooden doors that lead outside, revealing tree-lined streets, houses, and frolicking bunnies in the park. "Who would like a guided tour of DownTown before we et Rusty and visit the engineering section?
Min grabbed Bork by the hand and pulled him up. "C'mon, I'll show you Kenji's hydroponics area. We can pick so greens, and I'll introduce you to my favorite bunnies."
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