Miranda:

Four hours ago

"Oi! I said, STATE YOUR BUSINESS!"

In front of us stood a small guard tower, camouflaged by beige tarps and the desert sands. Within stood a lowly guard, his rough visage complimented the annoyed expression that stood across his face. We were in the desert, a few kilometres from Misalo. Telsin had said something about us heading to an old strip mine to meet Hugo. It had been a few hours since we left the shuttle. It was dark outside, the planets and stars were in full view. Telsin had offered to carry Sal and his stuff, a stupid attempt to say 'sorry for knocking you out kiddo, hope Miranda isn't mad'

"Here. Take Sal and the gun. I'll talk to this guy." he said lowering Sal's body on the ground "Take it easy man, we're not looking to cause any trouble......"

"Like hell you aren't. Who are you guys? And how do you know about this place? Well speak up! Before I put a bullet in you." he said aiming his gun at Telsin

He didn't recognise us. Mainly because I crafted new disguises for Telsin and I just before we left. I had no time to make one for Sal, besides he always said they itch a little. Which is why he prefers a cap or a hoodie instead, I always tried to explain that it made him look a lot more suspicious but he wouldn't have it. I tended to Sal while Telsin explained to the guard why we were here.

I kneeled down and placed his head on my lap. He always looked so peaceful while he was asleep, it was almost impossible for him to be guilty of anything really. Besides being as cute as a button!

"Hey there Sal." I said

I knew he was unconscious, but I still wanted to talk to him. I gently caressed his hair, it was full of dirt. But other than that he always had kept his hair in good condition, other than it being really cruse. I moved my hand to his forehead and felt something sticky. Looking at my hand I found that it was blood that hadn't fully dried up after Telsin struck him earlier.

"Ewww." I moaned shaking it off my hand, I wasn't really a major fan of blood. But years worth of bandaging Sal and Telsin's wounds gave me a lot of new perspective on it.

"Ugh, sorry Sal. I promise I'll get you cleaned up when we get to Hugo's place."

"Miranda."

"What?" I asked

"Let's go. I radioed Hugo before we left. He'll meet us inside."

"What about the guard Telsin?" I asked

"He's quite resilient but I had a plan for this. Follow my lead....."

He swiftly lifted Sal off the ground and threw him over his shoulder, no surprise. Telsin was quite gifted in strength, served him well while we were working for E-Tech.

"Didn't I just tell you two to get out of here? Huh? Who's the kid?"

"Nobody important." I butted in

"Oh yeah. Then WHY is he out cold?" he asked

"Um......... W-Well?" I stammered

"Well what? You two are trying my patience. You show up out of nowhere and on top of that you come here. Let's face it no-one with a brain wanders into this desert. Unless they know what they're doing? What are you here for? I warn you, the next answer will determine whether I shoot you or not. So it better be good."

He was serious. I couldn't blame him, we just did show up out of nowhere knowing the location of a place no-one is supposed to know about. So yeah it would be pretty suspicious to anyone really.

"You really want to know......." Telsin said walking towards the guard with Sal

"Let's just say for your sake you want me to know, and you better explain the deal with the kid as well." the guard said

He reached for Sal's hair and grabbed it. He slowly pulled Sal's face into view....

"What are you doing Telsin?" I thought, "You can't seriously be........"

He was going to show Sal to the guard. What the hell was he thinking!? Everybody knows Sal's face, I reached into my coat where I kept my holster. I released the latch holding my gun in place. I was ready to shoot, both of them if necessary. A few paralysis rounds and they'll be history.

Telsin raised it more, then stopped. He let go and raised his hand to the guard, a slow stream of blood trickling down it.

"He's our son and he needs help. If he doesn't get medical treatment soon he'll get worse. Please we're begging you............."

The guard took a long look at Telsin's hand.

"Oh yeah! And how pray-tell did he acquire such a wound?" he asked

Telsin and I looked at each other.

"What are you planning Telsin?" I wondered

He had a straight face the whole time, finally he breathed in hard and with a sigh said.....

"You heard what happened last night on the news right? About that terrorist Sal Arterius being present on Misalo." he said

"Don't dawdle!!!!!!! I want an answer NOW!" the guard sharply replied

"It's just an honest question?"

"Fine. If it will speed this up..... Yeah........ I did. News report says there was a incident in one of the residential areas. Witnesses claim to have seen two people involved who bolted when E-Tech security forces arrived, one of them was assumed to be Arterius. But I don't see what that has to do with anything.........."

"Well we live in that area. And our son was caught in the wreckage of the billboard that collapsed. He hasn't been conscious for hours and we're scared that something bad has happened to him, and regular hospitals here are too expensive. A friend told me I could get help here. Please........."

The guard started to loosen up. His hands slowly lowering towards his hip with the weapon in tow.

"Who told you?" he asked

"Excuse me?" Telsin replied

"If you have a friend who told you how to get here, you can at least give me a name. Out here you've got to have certain 'priviledges' to give out the location of this place and not be executed on the spot. So tell me who it is and I'll see if they're meant to be killed or not. Sorry it's just the rules, we're lucky to be safe here because the arachnae worms don't commonly come past here. So we can't just give out where we live to complete strangers. I'm sure you understand."

"Telsin?" I asked, "Do we tell him?"

"Yeah. It was Hugo. Hugo Ross." he said

"I see........" he replied "Well you two check out. I'll let you in. But.........."

All of a sudden he propped the gun on the table and took aim, he was preparing to shoot Sal.

"He doesn't move an inch until I get a face! So you'd better show one or else sleeping beauty there gets a free bullet to the brain!"

"You wouldn't dare!!" I said

"Try me, bitch!"

I lashed out my gun and aimed at him.

"Like hell you will!"

"Miranda calm down." Telsin said

"Shut up Telsin."

"O-hoho. The kid's definitely dead now!!"

He was going to shoot. I had no other choice, I had to shoot him, to protect Sal. My heart began to race, I looked over to where Telsin stood, he was busy carrying Sal. Why was he so calm? Why wasn't he doing anything? He just stood there, he wasn't even protecting Sal. What was wrong with him?

"Goodbye kid............"

"NO!!"

"DUNCAN!!! Cut the crap!!! Before I place you on Arachnae Worm patrol!"

That voice was familiar.

A man walked up to the side of the guard tower. I would know that round body shape anywhere.

"Hugo!!!!" I said, my voice beaming with excitement.

"Miranda. Good to see you after so long, I would have been here sooner but I had a few difficulties, you know how it goes."

He looked over at Telsin.

"Good to see you too friend." he said walking towards Telsin.

"Yeah I guess." his response was cold

Hugo looked disappointed.

"Uh well then. Come along, my house is just inside."

"HOLD IT!!!"

The guard began to speak again, his gun still aimed at Telsin.

"You can't expect me to just let you waltz right in. We have a protocol here."

"Let me just clear this up." he looked over at the guard, "They're with me Duncan, you can let them through."

"But sir, the kid. There's been rumours of that terrorist Arterius stalking around Misalo. All of E-Tech is looking for him, what if that's........."

"I assure you, that kid, is in no way related to Arterius. You have my word." Hugo said

Finally with a defeated sigh, he replied, "Alright sir. I'll take your word for it. But if anything goes wrong sir. It's on your head."

"Agreed."

The guard waved us through and continued on his watch. Hugo gestured for us to follow him. I followed behind Telsin. Mainly because I was mad at him and also the sand got into my shoes from walking for so long.

We walked about five minutes past the guard post where we spotted an old strip mine. We had entered the main complex, a large building whose walls had all but completely crumbled and worn away. We stopped at the old main elevator entrance overlooking the mine.

"Alright," Hugo said "I'll go on ahead, I need to prep the elevator access at the bottom."

"Why isn't the elevator at the top?" I asked

"Security measure, only authorised people and specific merchants are allowed to enter and leave, and it's only on necessary goods runs. Otherwise this place is self sustainable. We can't afford anyone releasing info about this place outside. That includes you guys, that's why I asked you to knock out poor Sal over there. By the way is he doing alright?" he asked

"He'll be fine. He's a strong kid." Telsin assured

"He must be. I can't imagine all he's been through these years. But let's not talk here. We can discuss this over at my place." he said

He took a small hook out of his pocket and attached it to one of the elevator cables. Telling us he'll be back shortly.

"Wait Hugo......."

"Hm! What is it Miranda?"

"I meant to ask you. How do you know of this place anyway. You've never said anything about it. Even when we worked at E-Tech. We always assumed you lived on company property."

"Miranda my dear this is company property." he replied

"Huh?"

"Toodles."

And with that he jumped down before I could ask him anything else, Telsin remained quiet. I shifted my attention to him with a sharp glare. He still had some explaining to do. He was naturally facing the other direction, hoping that I wouldn't vent my anger on him. Eventually he looked over at me.

"I know what you're going to say." he said

"Oh really?" I asked him

"Yeah. But I had everything under contro......."

"Under control!!! Dammit Telsin he was seconds away from shooting him! And what if he did, huh? Sal would be........"

I looked away. I felt like crying, I couldn't bear the thought of losing either of them.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Telsin putting his arm around me. He had placed Sal down and proceeded to hug me, close.

"I'll never let anything happen to him, or to you. I promise. But you have to keep your emotions in check. Please, just trust me. Okay."

Being embraced by him......... It had been a while. I loved him, the both of them. I could feel his warmth, and after recent events. I guess I really was a bit on edge.

"Ok I'll forgive you this time. But only if you give me a kiss."  I whispered

We kissed for the first time in eight months. I could feel his hands move across my arms and along my back as our lips moved together. We were both stressed from all the running and protecting Sal. It had put strain on us. We slowly pulled away from the kiss.

"We haven't done that in a while." I said

"Yeah.... We haven't." he replied

Suddenly we heard the elevator cables jerk and the old winch began to pull the elevator upwards. We let each other go. No-one else knew about our relationship but us. We even had to hide it from Sal for years.

"I'll get Sal." Telsin said quickly walking over to where he had laid him down.

The old elevator creaked it's way up to the top, followed by a quick 'ding' that all elevators make. The doors slowly opened.

"Let's get a move on." he said

"Yeah, right behind you."

During the ride down. Telsin relayed the whole reason we came here in the first place........ 

"Hugo has a ship. It's bigger and better than the one we have."

"Don't you mean stole?" I asked

"Shhhh. Sal could hear you." he said

I laughed

"Hey! What's so funny?" he asked

"You are. Stupid."

I playfully punched his arm. But he just shrugged it off without a clue.

"Men." I thought

The doors opened and I saw the inside of the strip mine for the first time. A huge network of ziplines were connected everywhere. There were gardens and small production plants around. We were on the first level of the mine, there were three other levels below us. On the other two there were various houses, enough to house a small colony of people. The bottom had an arena-like structure. Did they use it for entertainment?

Hugo was right, this place was self-sustainable. A hidden 'Eden' if you will. We exited the elevator and onto the rocky mine surface to see Hugo waiting for us on the outside.

"Nice place you got here." I said

"Isn't it! Everything here is mostly my design. I do more than design weapons you know." he jeered

I looked at Telsin to see if he'd approve, but he just stared at the stars for a moment. He seemed to be looking for something.

"Hugo." he said

"What?"

"Scout ship. Twelve o'clock."

I looked up to see a scout ship hovering around the area. It circled around for a few seconds and then flew off towards Misalo.

"Shit! What if it saw us? They can track Sal remember?"  I said

"Unlikely." Hugo replied

"What gives you that assumption?" Telsin asked

"Remember project CX-4817?" he asked

"Uh lemme think. Yeah a little........ your proposal for a synthetic localised thermite shield. Said it could anything from anything provided the range is far enough, looked like a mad scientist while presenting the speech too."

"Exactly the same thing."

"But that was twenty years ago. You later whined and told us all at lunch that you couldn't perfect it."

"Nonsense! I perfected it a month later. Been using it here ever since. Where else did you think I took my leave days?"

"I always thought on a beach, trying to pick up women while wearing sunglasses and sporting a bad tan." I added

"Why would you think that?" he asked

"Because you were always hopeless at picking up women. Now that I think of it there was that situation with that new intern....... Julie I think it was........"

"Nevertheless." he butted in, "We should probably head over to my place. Keep the people unaware. It's just over here, let's go."

We walked past a few buildings. Mainly small factories making items like sugar or wool on a small scale. There were also a few freshly cultivated patches of land around.

"I keep my house on the first level so I can construct in peace. No hassles from the colonists and I get first pick at the incoming supplies." he said

As we continued to walk along the path with Hugo, the people around us began to stare intensely at us. Mainly at Sal because he was unconscious. Looking back caused them to look away and continue with their business.

I tapped on Hugo's shoulder.

"Hugo...... Um, the people are....... kinda..... staring.....?" I whispered over to him

"Oh. Ignore them. They never really see anyone else entering besides the merchants. It's a very close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else. So it's natural for them to be a little intrigued. But don't worry you're with me and you're disguised. You'll be fine." he replied

"They seem to really respect you here." Telsin added

"Well I'm the reason they're here. Almost all the people here couldn't survive the expenses of the main city. Many of them were thrown out into the desert to die. My project gave them a second chance."

"Never thought you'd be the mayor of this place. Of any place." I said

"Oh I'm not. They take care of themselves. I just work on my projects in my workshop."  Hugo replied

All of a sudden, a very young pair of twins ran up to Hugo and greeted him warmly.

"Mr. Hugo!!! Mr. Hugo!!! Are we getting new members to our home? Are we?! Are we?!" they exclaimed in glee.

"Ah, Jamie and Lyla. I see you two are doing well. Sadly no. They're only visiting for a little while. They'll be leaving soon. Sorry to disappoint you two."

"Awwww they moaned. We wanted someone new to play with. Everyone else is over at the matches. So we wanted him to play with us."

They both pointed over to Sal still hanging on Telsin's shoulder and had started to drool slightly.

"Why him?" Telsin asked

"He looks nice." the little girl replied, "But why is he asleep?"

"Is he dead?" the boy asked

"Jamie!! That's not a nice thing to say!!" Hugo complained

"I'm sorry......." he replied feeling rather upset

I smiled and knelt down to their level.

"He's just a little hurt right now. But when we get him healed up I'm sure he'll gladly play with you two. Okay?"

They both smiled in agreement.

"Okay!!!" they exclaimed

"We have a new friend!!!" the girl declared

"Let's go tell mom about it!" the boy cried on

And with that the twins hurried off to a woman in the distance who must have been their mother. Hugo apologized for the twins behavior. I told him not to worry about it. They were after all, little kids.

"Nah they're right. He is nice." Telsin weighed in

We finally stopped at a small cottage made completely of metal. It had a small porch with flowers in front and a painted door. Hugo mumbled something and began to fiddle in his pockets for a few moments. Telsin adjusted Sal alongside his shoulder. All the while I watched them. They neither looked at each other or uttered a word like they used to. They were good friends along with Sal's dad but I could see they were at ends with each other. I just didn't know why. I guess I had to find out. Hugo eventually pulled a small key out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

"Welcome to my home!" he said

We walked into a passage. It was a relatively small home. He went to the first room on the left and opened it.

"It's a guest room. You can put Sal in there. He'll be safe." Hugo said

"Sure." Telsin said

I walked along with him. It was an unfurnished room. Even the bed had nothing on it. He placed Sal down and abruptly screamed in disgust.

"Ewww. He drooled on me!!"

I couldn't help but laugh.

"It's not funny!" He interjected

"I don't know. I think it's fair revenge for the bat."

"Eugh." he complained as he wiped his hand clean and walked further down the passage to find Hugo. I stayed behind to clean Sal's head wound. I pulled a hanky from my pocket and used some spit to help clean him up. After I was sure he was safe. I left the room and closed the door. I followed the voices of Hugo and Telsin down the passage. I scanned around and saw some pictures of a child with white hair and green eyes and a mother holding her. Probably just art I guessed, I saw a light in a room to the right and a kitchen at the end of the passage. I entered the room and saw Telsin and Hugo staring at a news broadcast on a TV. The broadcast ended and Telsin turned the TV off.

"I see. So after that billboard incident he caused last night, the city's been placed on mandatory curfew." Telsin said

"Yes. They've placed their best detectives on the case and all patrols have been expanded and extended, both sky and land. So getting off-world will be difficult, but not impossible. If we take off fast enough." Hugo replied

"Can your ship make it?"

"Probably. It'll probably take an hour or two to prep it though." he said

"And the other thing?" Telsin asked

"I'll be honest. As DNA spoofer would be impossible to re-make. Even if you could recover the parts stolen from Sal, I don't possess the adequate level of biology to program it. I'm a engineer, not a doctor."

"Let me worry about that." Telsin replied

"And your whole story of him being half-epoch is just too irrational. I promised I'd help you guys out of respect to his parents. But there's just no way he couldn't have undergone a change after so long. The last transformation happened ten years ago. What do they really want him for? Anything else would make sense, research material, genetic experimentation, covering up the extraction project.................. anything else would be logical!!!"

"Trust me. He hasn't changed." I said, "And the Epoch he has....... is just a monster."

Hugo breathed in hard and let out a sigh.

"Alright. Provided you recover the parts. I'll rebuild the machine."

"Thanks Hugo." I said

"Anything for you guys." he said

"I guess that's our cue. Let's go Miranda."

"But we just got here......." I moaned

"We still have to find his stuff for the spoofer. We only have two hours until Hugo has the ship ready. I plan to leave as soon as possible. So the faster we move, the sooner we can leave." he said

"Ugh ok."

We heard the door open.

"Daaad! You home yet!" a voice spoke

"I'm over here Alice!! We have guests. Come and say hello." Hugo said

"Coming!"

"Dad????? Um, Hugo. Who's Alice?" I asked

"She's my daughter of course!" he replied

"Yo......Your.......Your WHAT!!!!!!!" I gasped

"Hi everyone." Alice said

I turned around. In front of the doorway stood a girl exactly Sal's age. She had white hair and green eyes like the little girl in the portraits, but older. She was wearing a white shirt with a panda design on the front and black knee-length shorts. She had a small nose and perfect lips. A good bust and a sizeable body. I came to a swift conclusion.

I had to keep her away from Sal at all costs. Girls would corrupt his poor, fragile mind. He only needed me.

She stared at me awkwardly for a bit. I only noticed then that my mouth had dropped open. Telsin reached out and closed it for me.

"Be careful. You'll catch flies." he grinned, "Hello Alice. It's nice to meet you, I'm Telsin and this sparkling young lady is Miranda."

"Nice to meet you. Anyways. I came to tell you I'm done with work dad." she said

"Great. I have news for you.........." 

"Can it wait? They need me over at the arena! I'm late."

And with that she ran to the kitchen, grabbed something and headed straight for the door.

"I'll be back later!!!!!" she said

The front door closed. I was still in a state of shock.

"A daughter........ wh....when....? H-how? And with you????" I stammered

"Great job Hugo. You broke her." Telsin said hanging his head while I regained my composure, "I guess that's our cue to leave."

"Damn." Hugo said, "I wanted to tell her that she has to come with, she was also supposed to stay here while I went to prepare the ship. Now who's gonna watch Sal?"

"Is there anyone else who can prepare the ship?" Telsin asked

"I guess I can send you guys. You're disguised well enough. Take this and speak to Thomas. I'll watch Sal, I can test what he's capable of."

He wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Telsin. Which Telsin stuffed in his pocket.

"Cool. We'll come back as soon as we can. Oh and I'll need your housekeys." Telsin said

"Wait, why now?" Hugo asked

"Sal will naturally want to escape when he wakes up. Have to stop that from happening. You can have as much fun with him as you want. I warn you. He's gotten a lot smarter in these last five years. He's a real hassle. Oh and could you put this somewhere safe."

He took the rifle Sal had put together and tossed it over to him.

"My my. I was wondering when you'd let me take a look at this. I saw it hanging on your shoulder ever since I met you guys and couldn't resist."

He took a few moments to examine Sal's creation.

"Obsidian class huh? These are impossible to obtain anywhere. Is it yours?" he asked

"Nope, Sal put it together using an antique rifle and an entire ship engine." Telsin said

"Really? Fascinating." Hugo mumbled while ogling the weapon.

"Yeah he's kinda like you. Likes to fiddle with anything he can get his hands on. He made this too."

Telsin reached alongside my waist and passed my gun over to Hugo.

"It looks like a custom C-12 plasma pistol." he said in disappointment

"Oh yeah. A C-12 that can fire both stun and paralysis rounds, with an attachment on the side to switch between the two. A double clip storage compartment, and a compensator that reduces more than 90% of the weapons recoil. That's a near perfect elitist weapon there."

"I see. How does he get the ammunition?" he asked

"Makes it himself when Miranda runs low. Doesn't say how?" Telsin replied

"Well the craftsmanship is a little shoddy but I could probably help him improve on it. Well you two better hurry on. I'll keep Sal company. I have some work to do so we're all prepared for launch." he said heading off into another room.

"Good idea, let's go Miranda."

"But..... But..... How?????" I kept muttering to myself

I was still half dazed and Telsin slowly led me to the door. I shouted one last statement before we left.........

"THIS ISN'T OVER HUGO!!!!!  I WILL FIND THE TRUTH HERE!!!! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR HER TO BE YOUR KID!!!!" I yelled.

"Miranda, you're gonna cause a scene. Let's go. Is it too much for you to have a little composure."

"Hurumph!" I grumbled

"Better." he said

Telsin locked the door behind us and we proceeded to begin our search for Sal's stuff.