A pale, blue van sped through the streets of Shadow Shore. It was much brighter, as the sky was now a golden tint from the morning sun. Inside the van, Dare was driving as Montag sat next to him with Sapphire and Chance in the back. The first thing Sapphire noticed about the van was how futuristic it looked. While ordinary on the outside, it has a section of computer screens in the back for what she presumed was research and surveillance. The dashboard was even high-tech with a screen of images and code that wasn't important to her. She was amazed by the level of technology that surrounded her. She wished she just could...

She shook her hand free from her looming thoughts. "So, gentlemen, what's our go-plan?"

"Thimble," Montag said, turning around in his seat with a confident smile. "We're first going to investigate the scene for any clues. No Thone will be left unturned."

"Well, consider where we're going, there's going to be a lot of turning over stones." Dare said.

Sapphire rolled her eyes, looking over to Chance who was looking through his tablet. She slid closer, and asked, "Hey, what you got there?"

Chance must have been deep in his thoughts as he was startled by her presence, causing him to nearly drop the tablet. Sapphire let out a small giggle, before reassuring him with a pat on his shoulder. "Sorry for the scare. I just wanted to see what you're up to. It seems interesting."

Chance smiled sheepishly, not even remembering the last he felt that much embarrassed. Well, besides that time he somehow ended the van up in a swimming pool, which he still blames Montag for setting the G.P.S on autopilot wrong.

After composing himself, he gave her a toothy grin. "Oh, it's just the report from earlier, except I found something strange about it." Chance said, showing her the screen. The screen was a graphic map of the streets around The Cyber-palace. Six dots appeared on the map, each a location she knew of.

"See those dots? Each one represents a bomb attack. The thing is, if you connect the dots, it creates a pattern."

"You know where?"

Before Chance could answer that, the van came to a sudden stop, nearly jolting the two of the seats. Everyone peered through the windshield to take in a scene of complete devastation. They were quiet, too much in shock to even comment on the screen.

The street was torn apart, with burnt shells of buildings blown back, others completely reduced to rubble and smokey ashes. Officers and rescue workers were bowling around, carrying away injured civilians on strollers, some in body bags. A small crowd gathered at the yellow police tape that blocked them off from the scene, news reporters begging and screaming for an answer or interview, and presumably loved ones grieving at the sight.

"Alright, thith is it," Montag said, as he and the other two bots put on tinted sunglass, disguises to hide their pupils-less eyes. "Let's do thith, so we can get out of here fast. Don't try to make eye contact with the crowd. I think they have seen enough today."

The four stepped out of the van, breaching in the horrible smell of roasted meat that lingered in the air. A police officer was stationed at the yellow tape, and with a quick flash of their badges, they were allowed to cross over. As they entered, they noticed a large hole in the middle of the street, with a ruined shell of a car laying at the bottom. Another officer was there as well, seemingly watching in disbelief at the state of the scene.

"This must've been the spot where the explosion was detonated," Sapphire stated.

"Yep, a good spot if you want a crowd of people." Said the officer, his badge reading Puckett as he stepped closer to the group.

"Is there anything you can tell us so far?" Asked Dare.

"Well, it's kinda out there, but witnesses said that a big spider was the cause of all this."

"Spider? What big spider?" Chance said.

"I don't know, honestly. Heck, I could barely hide my laughter hearing the statements. but if you ask me, I'll write it off as a natural gas explosion."

"Natural gas?"

"From the way this place looks now, I can't see it being anything less ordinary." Suddenly, a beeping sound came from the officer's belt. The four noticed it was a small, black, square-shaped device with a red light flashing rapidly. It went silent as Puckett pressed a button on the side. "Well, gentlemen, if you excuse me, I have a case to get back to working on. Good luck on your half." The officer said, walking off.

"There'th a female here, you know," Montag yelled after.

"Montag, focus, we just have been given our first clue: a spider." Dare pointed out. "I think those witnesses' statements may be less outlandish than he thinks. We just need more information out of them."

"Well, judging by this scene, I'm pretty sure most of our witnesses are dead or in critical condition. We'll be lucky if the explosion didn't cause them brain damage." Sapphire said.

"Well, it seems that we got to do it the old fashion way," Dare equipped his heat motion sensor, his vision turning red with blotches of green dots, detecting heat. "Come on, this place has to have at least one clue."

Dare's mechanical eyes scanned the area. Usually, this kind of scene would have fractions of gunpowder or strong doses of chemicals looming about, however, he was dumbfounded when his sensor didn't pick up on the single trance of any of those things.

Dare sighed in defeat. "Well, whoever sent that spider was surely clever enough not to make sure it didn't leave anything behind. Let's see if I can pick up on anything electrical."

Dare switched modes, his vision now taking on a deep blue, like underwater texture. He scanned the area again, expecting to find nothing like before. However, his sensors began beeping rapidly as it picked up a strong signal close by. He turned in the direction of the signal, the beeping blaring as he spotted Puckett. The officer was crouched down, reaching his hand into the ground for something. Zooming in with his eyes, he could see the officer retrieve a small electric chip of some kind. It was black, with red, glowing cords running alongside it. Puckket placed the chip in his pocket, looking around to see if anyone had spotted him, not knowing his cover was already blown.

The officer moved over to a nearby alleyway, and after taking one last glached for witnesses, took off down it at full speed.

Dare shut off his scanner. "Hey, that guy's from early is getting away with a clue." He shouted to the others, posting towards the alleyway.

"Quick, let's get him," Montag said. "He couldn't have gotten far that fast."

The trio of bots ran after the officer, with Sapphire following close behind. Being an alleyway, It was crowded and overrun by garbage and debris, along with the occasional feral cat that lunged at Montag before he managed to pry it away. They couldn't see Puckett in their sights, but it didn't discourage them, knowing he couldn't have gotten too far. The four made it to the edge of the alleyway that turned off, and to their unfortunate surprise, ended at a brick wall.

Chance shook his head in confusion. "But, but, how?"

"Maybe, the guy's good at scaling?" Sapphire said, slowing down behind them, catching her breath.

"Arg! Damn it," Montag howled. "He got away with the only clue."

"Montag, he's our first suspect. The first suspect always gets away."

In anger, Montag struck his fist full force into the seemingly brick wall. While Sapphire jumped at the sudden outburst, Chance and Dare watched with stoned faces, knowing how much of a loose cannon their friend is.

Even though Montag was strong, made with the strongest steel ever made, he and everyone was surprised when his hand managed to go through the wall. With his hand on the side, Montag noticed how hollow it was. He also noticed how there wasn't any sign of damage around his hand, nonetheless a hole. Montag retrieved his hand, which lacked any damages.

He stepped back, before phasing through the wall to the other side. The rest followed after him and collectively gasped, finding themselves in another section of the alleyway that was hidden by the fake wall. On the ground, lay an egg-shaped device, with an eye in the middle, projecting a realistic image of a wall.

Dare grabbed and analyzed the small projector with his scanner. Results appeared in his vision, making this their second clue.

"Pretty high-tech," Dare said. "Probably left by that officer, whom I believe isn't one at all, to trick us. But, why?"

"What do you mean?" Sapphire asked.

"Think about it. Why did he run off with that chip, and tried to trick us with a holographic wall?"

"I don't know, but maybe he left Something behind that can lead us in the right direction. Start searching." Montag commanded.

Everyone separated and began searching around the backway. The gritty atmosphere of the place had begun settling in; It smelt of a combination of roadkill and garbage that was left out in the sun for too long, along with the still-charred scent of debris from early. Surprising, there wasn't much damage beyond a few shattered windows, so it made their search a bit easier.

However, Sapphire stood still in the center, eyeing the three, but will occasionally put out her clipboard and begin scribbling down notes.

Montag and Dare scoured through the trash bins, their scanners finding nothing of particular importance, except for a small translucent tube of rubber hanging limply over the lip of a dumpster.

"Hey, check this out," Montag said, curiously picking it up gingerly with two fingers. He held it in the air as Dare looked the piece of rubber over.

"What is it?" Dare asked.

Montag Scoffed. "Isn't it obvious? It's a balloon. You know, like at a birthday party. Watch the expert."

Montag clamps his lips around the opening of the rubber tube, neglecting the fact that it was just in a garbage bin, and began exhaling air into it. As the rubber expanded, Dare noticed some kind of liquid residing inside. Before he could point it out to Montag, the "balloon expert" begin gagging and spitting the white goo.

"Blech! Guess someone forgets to clean this out; taste salty."

Dare took the rubber away, taking a tentative whiff of the substance, nose crinkling at the stench. Performing a digital analysis presented the contents of the tube were "bodily fluids belonging to the male species". Instantly, he knew what kind. He shrieked in disgust but also chuckled at the fact that Montag had his mouth on it, before tossing it into another bin and shutting the lid.

"It's nothing." Dare said, pushing montag away. "Come on, let's see what's Chance got.

Chance took at least at what he thought was a much cleaner approach by searching alongside a graffitied wall, where a couple of old boxes were stacked up against it. Nearby, he noticed a chalk outline of a figure on the ground. He didn't think much of it, as homicide wasn't unheard of around that part until he realized the chalk figure's limbs were drawn separated from its body. Now, that was something new.

Suddenly, his attention was captured by the rustling and movement coming from the boxes. He moved closer but took soft steps to not disturb whoever. As he lifted the lid on one of the boxes, he was surprised by a cat leaping out, nearly scratching him as it landed. Chance watched as the cat ran and disappeared behind a couple of trash cans. Before turning away, letting the scared animal hide, his scanner picked up on something. He noticed a blue fabric hanging out from the lid of one of the trash cans.

"Guys, look at this!" Chance said, pointing to the trash can.

"What? You'd found a clue? You better have found a clue." Montag said.

Everyone surrounded the trash can as Montag lifted the lid, revealing a big breakthrough in their case: a police officer uniform. Its golden badge read Puckett.

"Well, this proves it," Sapphire said, lifting the suit out of the trash to examine it. "Our officer has become our top suspect."

"Sapphire, he'th the first guy. From what we learned, our first guy isn't always the culprit." Montag remarked.

"Well, in that case, he is not working alone. There must be something here that can help us," Dare said, examining the front of it for any hair or scent. His processor didn't find anything of use, so he decided to check the pockets. As he dug through the pockets, he felt something soft, and glass touched his hand. He pulled it out of the pocket and revealed it to be a black cigarette lighter. Flipping it over, he spotted red writing: The Red Thorn, it said.

"Hmm, it seems our "officer" have a particular place in mind," Dare said, showing the lighter to the other.

Can I see that?" Sapphire said. Dare handed it to her, which she took and observed. Her face beamed with delight at the recognition of the name on the side.

"Oh, I know this place," Sapphire said. "It's just downtown on Marble Park Boulevard."

"Well, it's not too early to pay a little visit," Dare said. "Sapphire, this place is completely safe, isn't it?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Sapphire reassured. "I've been to this place many times. It's pretty cool for the most part."






© All Rights Reserved