Everyone had safely made it back to military school in one piece. On the night of their arrival, there wasn’t much to do. The event had ended on a Friday evening, so by the time they had woken up again from the special gas. It was near enough already the end of the day. The students were told to head back to their rooms and unpack their belongings. There wasn’t much that they took with them so it wouldn’t take long to sort themselves out.
When returning to his room, Quinn had a sense or an unexpected feeling of being home. He never really had a place to call his. Since he was a kid, he would often move from place to place every time he went to a new school.
With no one to go back to or at a permanent base, there was never that home sweet home feeling. For the first time, he had it when he entered his room with Vorden.
It was a quick night for the boys. As soon as they finished unpacking they had gone to sleep. But Layla had a lot of work to do. From the event, she had been informed that Cia was an agent of Pure. This most likely meant that Cia also had a variety of tools that had been given to her that were hidden in the room. If they weren’t in the room then there would be somewhere else.
Thankfully, it seemed like Cia was still being looked after by the doctors for a few days before allowing her to return to her room. This would give Layla a head start of clearing everything she could find.
Upon returning to her room, she searched and searched. This time looking harder than before. When she first arrived, she had done a quick sweep, looking for cameras and microphones but found none. But she had never suspected her classmates to also be spying on her.
After a deep search and going through Cia’s belongings, there were several things found, including a communication ball. The same as Layla had. It was continually flashing blue showing that there were messages left behind.
‘Should I just destroy it and forget about everything.’ She said, looking at it.
She lifted her hand and placed it just a little over the ball. Ready to use her powers to rip it apart. But then, placed it down by her side again.
‘No, I can’t destroy it, not yet. There’s one more person I need to get out of there… Erin.’
Although Layla had now cut ties with Pure, she had sent her closest friend at the time over to their side. Perhaps at some point, the communication device would come in handy. She no longer had hers and destroyed it in haste. At the time she acted on emotion rather than thinking things through, but now she had the time to think. It would be best to keep it for now.
‘Erin, I promise I will come to get you one day.’
It was now the weekend. Students were exempt from lessons for the next two days and would start their schedule as normal for the final term. After that, there would be a short summer break for the students where they were able to go home and see their family.
Although Quinn didn’t know what he would do during that time, it was still a little far ahead for him to be thinking about it.
“So, you got anything special planned for these two days?” Vorden asked as he laid down in his bed.
“Not really, I think I might just check up on everyone to see how they’re doing, then head to the VR centre later on,” Quinn replied.
“Wait, you were serious about facing Nate in a Powerfighter match. How are you going to explain to him about the red aura and the shadow ability?”
“I won’t.” Said Quinn. “More than anything he just wants a fight. Even if he knows who I am it will be impossible to prove and it doesn’t make any sense. The only person it would make sense to is him. Besides, I have Logan. Say worst comes to worst and an investigation does take place, Logan can just say I’m not the blood evolver and state that he’s at another base. Not that I think it will come to that anyway.”
“You really depend on Logan a little too much,” Vorden said.
“Hey, don’t forget about what you all did. I think you guys owe me at least this much after going behind my back.”
“Are you trying to blackmail us, not cool man, not cool.”
The two of them started to laugh as they knew they were just having a jab at each other, and with that, Quinn decided to head off to Logan’s room. However, he hadn’t been completely truthful to Vorden, he didn’t want to check up on the others but more specifically he wanted to just check up on Logan.
A single knock was placed on the door.
“Come in,” Logan said.
And Quinn entered the room. The place this time looked a little different compared to before. The research he had done about the school’s underground dungeons had moved to this room instead.
“Hey, do you still think that information is useful?” Quinn asked. “You know, now that Peter not there anymore.”
“It’s always handy to keep data,” Logan explained. “You never know when we could use it for future events. Perhaps one day, you, me, or the others will be placed there. I hope if I get trapped there, you could use the information to try to break me free as well. So what brings you here?”
While Logan was giving his reply, Quinn continued to look around the room, but the last question had caught him slightly off guard.
“Who said I wasn’t here just to see if you were okay?” Quinn replied.
“Look, I’ve known you for a while now and there seems to be a pattern. If you come to me in the afternoon, as long as there’s not an urgent problem, then you are usually there to check up on me and see how I’m doing.”Logan explained. “But if you come in the early morning, usually it’s because you have a question or a task for me to do.”
Quinn felt a little awkward and guilty now. It was fine when checking up on someone to then ask for a favour or snoop around, but now it felt like the only reason he had come here was to ask Logan for something. Even worse, it was true and he realized it.
“Actually, I don’t have anything to ask this time or not a favour at least, I wanted to see how you were doing with that strange square device from before,” Quinn asked.
Logan, using his two small legs, pushed his feet and rolled across the room with his chair to the other side. On this side of the room, one of the computers out of the many was attached up with wires leading to the strange device. On the screen, different combinations continued to appear, and each time it would flash red it would move onto the next one.
“It’s taking a little longer than I thought,” Logan said. “But the good thing is it will definitely unlock eventually, I just have no clue when.”
“Is there any way of finding out where it goes once it’s unlocked?”
“Not really, other than going through ourselves, but who knows if we can come back. We would have to take a portable portal device with us just in case.” Logan said.
“Wait, you’re really going to go through there,” Quinn asked, worried for logan. “Well, if you can please, let me know when the machine unlocks. I don’t want you to go there by yourself, bring me along, you can think of me as your bodyguard.”
“I’m not a kid, I can do these things by myself,” Logan replied, seeming to be annoyed at Quinn’s suggestion.
“Sorry, you know I didn’t mean it like that, just I’m really interested just like you. My system was the one that told me it was made by Richard Eno, and there might be a chance this leads to his base or something. If so, maybe he would be able to help us in finding out what this system is.”
Placing his hand on his chin, Logan started to think about it. It was true that with the help of Eno, it might be a lot easier, but Logan wanted to discover things about Quinn’s system on his own. However, there was one possibility, Logan never ruled it out in the first place. Eno was a person who always seemed to be ahead of everyone else when it came to technological advances; there could even be a chance he had something to do with creating the system.
“Alright, I’ll let you know when It gets unlocked.”
With all formalities said and done, Logan got back to working on more gadgets. After the fight with the king tier and feeling a little weak. He wanted to create some new items for himself. There was always the chance more trouble could be on the way.
The next stop for Quinn was to head to the VR room. He had promised Nate he would do battle with him and he wanted to keep his word. Even if Nate wasn’t online yet, Quinn had the chance to play a couple more games.
When walking through the hallway, there was a familiar face that he didn’t expect to meet.
“Oh, Quinn. It’s been a while since me and you were able to talk.” Leo said. “Do you mind meeting me in the martial arts hall? I have some important news to tell you?”
There was no rush for Quinn to play the game. After all, there was no confirmed time, or set time the two would meet. If the two happened to be online he would send an invite. So Nate could wait for now.
“Sure, why don’t we head there together?”
During the walk to the martial arts hall, it was quite silent between the two. Quinn always found it hard to read Leo, but at the same time, he trusted him. It was a good thing he did as well, for he had helped out big time during the events with Peter. It was because of people like him, that Quinn hadn’t completely given up on hope for humanity.
The problem was at the moment. There seemed to be two bad people for every one good person he would meet.
They had eventually arrived in the marital hall and it felt large and empty without any of the students inside. The weapons were still on the wall, and it reminded Quinn of his first day here.
Leo headed to the back of the room and sat up against the back wall crossing his legs. Quinn then followed and did the same sitting opposite him.
“Quinn, I wanted to tell you something. It was a decision I have been going backwards and fourth but was always going to do at one point. I will no longer be a teacher here. I’m leaving for good.” Leo said.
*****
For MVS artwork and updates follow on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga
If you want to help support the creation of the webtoon you can at P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jsmanga
