operation: absolute zero

It was a day before the drone's arrival.

The hum of old school computers filled the room. The floresent lights flickered overhead.

One kid raised his hand, he had a scar on the bridge of his nose, one he'd gotten from a fight long ago.

"Why are we even looking at old tech, sir?" his voice carried a bit of an edge, like he thought it was useless.

Dr Travis, an older man with soft eyes and silver hair, leaned back in his chair, an assortment of old tech scattered on his desk, "good question! does anyone think they know why?"

A kid in the back raised her hand she had a dark piercing gaze the contradicted her reputation, she was the stereotypical smart kid that only cared about her grade. Her head in too many books for her own good.

"We are learning about old technology so we can progress with our modern technology" she said in a bland voice.

"Correct Sarah! Well, done-" Dr Travis beamed. He grabbed a small piece of tech; one he described as a memory file. "This," he started, waving the thing in the air "is a piece i worked myself on back in the day, it has since been abandoned..." he paused.

A girl in the back nudged the boy from before.

"When do you think it was, mark?"

"I don't know... the stone age?" he stated, half-distracted.

The girl paused, staring at him with wide eyes. "How would that work-"

"Oh my god Harly, I meant it was old- not prehistoric," he rubbed his nose, the fingers brushing over his scar.

Harly nodded with a sheepish grin "right, right, I knew that-"

A voice chirped up from the far corner of the room

"That looks like something out of the matrix-" he said loud enough to earn a few chuckles from around the room.

"Close Lucas" Dr. Travis grinned, "close, but this, I tell you, is better than anything humanity has seen-"

-

"I swear to god V, GIVE IT BACK!!" Uzi stood on her tip toes waving her hand up at V, who held a batterie that was given to Uzi by ghost, ghost didn't even know why she asked for it, but he didn't ask any questions.

"Make me~" she teased, she let out a chuckle, before Uzi had made the decision to try and scale her like a tree.

It was quick and had thrown V off balance, Uzi was now on the top of V, leaning on her head with one hand and the other reaching for the battery.

V had tumbled to the floor, the battery rolling out of her hand.

They started tackling each other, eventually, Uzi was able to grab the battery and started chomping on it like a chip,

V stood up, dusting herself off, mutering stuff under her breath.

N had walked in; he had gone on a walk.

The other two had been offered to also do so but outright refused, N understood why, to an existent, he thought it might because of the unfamiliar environment, but this fact only made N want to explore more.

He had a bundle of dandelions in his hand, most of them had either fallen apart from him picking at them, or they had gotten old, no longer having their bright yellow color, now murky brown, green color.

"Oh, your back-" V snarked "having fun with the humans?"

"They aren't as bad as you think V" he handed Uzi the wilted dandelion's, the fact that they were falling apart didn't seem to matter to Uzi, she took them, the simple gesture causing her to fluster and mutter a sharp 'bite me' under her breath.

V shot a look at Uzi then turned back to N.

"Yeah, sure, you trust people too easily N"

"You said the same thing when we first met Uzi" he shot back just as fast.

V and Uzi give each other a quick glance. V just shook her head.

"Whatever you say, big brother."

-

Ghost had just left the professor's office.

He just didn't know what her true intentions were. He could sense that she had her loyalties, how she showed that is what he didn't trust.

He wasn't sure what it was about her that made him feel so uneasy, she looked like she could stab you out of nowhere but still find a good reason to justify it.

He hesitated, still standing outside her door, soap had already left, he said he was going to 'let the murder bots out for a walk' or something along the lines.

He paused.

Jude's of speech could be heard from behind the door

"Well then find out the password!" she hissed, the stark difference of her tone could make her mistaken for an entirely different person, "I'm not paying you to find dead ends, brother!" brother? Is that a code name? Is that her actual brother.

Abruptly there's a woman's voice behind him

"Ghost, my man!" V strolled towards him; she wanted something.

"Shut up...!" He ran up to her covering her mouth.

V froze, his gloved hand covering her mouth, before she eventually composed herself, she lifted her hand, and a flag popped out.

'LITERALLY SO INSANELY SUSPICIOUS.'

His gaze shifted to the flag; she waved it a few times as if to really sell the message. He rolled his eyes looking at her with annoyance, although he couldn't help but find it slightly funny.

"I'm going to uncover your mouth" ghost whispered "don't make a sound-"

A thumbs up appeared on her visor and ghost slowly lifted his hand. her flag disappeared, reforming as her hand with the flick of her wrist, with a flex of her hand, she crouched down, mimicking ghosts' stance as a few words appeared on her visor

'whatcha doin?'

He moved to the door, before he wove her over.

Her voice was a lot calmer than before "Like I said, brother, this is important" V looks at Ghost, the way she said it caught her off guard. "If I tell them where I got this from, they won't trust me! Do you understand, don't you say a WORD! Do. You. Understand."

Theres a long pause. The way she had been talking, it was almost like they had been working for a long time.

"Do you have it yet? Almost? Good. Call me when you can get it to me. You will get your payment, brother."

Brother. There it was again, ghost's eyes narrowed, as he grabbed V's arm and dragged her away. They turned a corner, and he let go of her, he turned and faced her, his glare sharp and unwavering.

"You can't say a word about this" he demanded, "if you do, you could compromise everyone, she could be dangerous, it's not worth risking, if she finds out we are on to her-"

"don't worry, ghosty, I won't tell a soul, not even a robotic one" she had a grin on her face, but he could tell she would say a word despite this.

"Good, now shoo" he waved his hand like he was dismissing a child.

In truth, the only reason he demanded this was because he felt better in control, he didn't trust V to make the right decisions.

Just as he was about to walk off, he ran into someone.

"oh, my bad- I wasn't expecting to see you here"