THE MOMENT
"Aury?" Jenny stepped out of the black portal and stopped instantly. The stench of blood filled the air and the throne room was littered with corpses; human and dog-sized rabbit alike. But, none of them were moving. She wasn't immediately concerned for Aury, but she did wonder where he was. She was there as fast as she could be when he mentioned it was an emergency.
[Where are you? - Jny] she sent a Whisper to him.
[One sec. - Aury] Jenny felt his reply on her wrist moments before the heavy metal doors of the throne room smashed open. The white blur that crashed through it flew past Jenny and splatted against the stone wall like a water balloon. It left a red splotch.
"I can't figure out where these things are coming from...," Aurelio walked into the room through the broken door with his eyes on Jenny. "Can you?" he asked.
"No sweat," Jenny nodded. As she did, the motion caused a translucent blue visor to appear over her eyes. She brought her hands up to about waist height and splayed her fingers out. Then, she began wiggling her fingers, typing on a keyboard only she could see. While she did that, a cloud of white nanos coalesced in front of her. They took the shape of a large white rabbit that growled at Jenny.
"I got it," Aury said; Jenny nodded and kept typing. The beast noticed him and turned away from Jenny to focus on Aury. Its fur bristled as Aury drew closer. Aury touched the golden deckbox on his left wrist to draw a card. "oh man, overkill..," Aury mumbled as the card activated.
[Blazing Soul] a deep voice filled the air with his card name. His hands and the curly brown hair atop his head burst into flames. He was close enough to be threatening and on fire. The rabbit leaped forward at him. Aurelio rolled his eyes and held his fist straight out. The rabbit exploded into a ball of fire as soon as it touched the flame around Aurelio's hand. Then, another white cloud began to gather in front of him.
"No way....," Jenny giggled. "It's the same one!" Her fingers moved noticeably faster across the keyboard; they were practically a blur now. Aurelio could see text flying up the inside of her visor; it always impressed him how fast she could process information. He was no slouch in that department; but, Jenny was on a whole other level. The faster she typed, the slower the white cloud moved.
"Got it," she said. Her fingers slowed again, then, she stopped suddenly with one final key press. Her visor disappeared and she dropped her hands. The white cloud shrunk and compressed; then, a transparent node landed on the floor in its place. "I need a closer look," Jenny said as she knelt to pick up the node.
"What for?" Aurelio asked. His hands and hair were still alight with flame.
"I'm not even going to waste time asking who you've pissed off recently," Jenny giggled. "But this was intentional, and they're very talented; I need to dig deeper to try and find out who put it here."
"Oh, neat. Thanks!" Aury grinned. "So, now that that's settled... how's your other research going? Find anything to help fix the twins yet? Are you ready to take them back?"
"Not..not yet..," Jenny shook her head. "But, they're fine with you, right?" she asked.
"Sure," Aurelio nodded. "They're fine."
Somewhere else in a large, white marble hallway, a teenager introduced herself to two young girls.
"It's so nice to meet you, Six and 23," the teen said. "I'm Cassie. So, Ballisea told me why you're here; but, I just want to make sure. Your parents aren't going to interrupt, right? How sure are you?"
"Super sure!" Six said. She was the brown-haired twin with green eyes.
"My dad still thinks we're locked away in nodes," 23 said with a proud smile. "And, I left something to keep him distracted from us anyway."