Chapter 4: Trouble at the Sea Gate

## Synopsis

Meanwhile, at a lonely Sea Gate, horrors arise as the director is murdered in (somewhat reasonable) cold blood. Cory and a mysterious figure nearly die in a chase by the government, but manage to escape into the night, after terminating some very important documents, and knocking WS #0005 out of commision.

## Chapter 4: Trouble at the Sea Gate

The wind wooshed past as the rain hailed down on WS #005. Cory adjusted his goggles as he sat at the computer disc on the lighthouse.

The door slams open, and an older man comes in with a flashlight.

"Just another day at the office, right, Cory?" He says, shedding his heavy raincoat and turning off the flashlight.

"Right," Cory responds nonchalantly.

The man looks at Cory, amused, before walking over and slamming a heavy hand onto Cory's shoulder.

"Hey, how about a drink with your buddies?"

Cory turns his head, annoyed, and remarks, "We finish duty first, then we can go out for a drink. How many times do I have to tell you? Duty be-"

"before your day, yeah yeah," The man says, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "You gotta loosen up sometimes, Cory."

Cory sighs, "We can go. Just let me finish this."

Cory returns his focus to his computer and continues finishing the report for the day. His fingers click on his keys, and something catches his eye. Over the horizon comes a boat speeding quickly toward the security station. *That must be James.*

"I'll go greet them. Get your stuff finished. See, this is how it's supposed to work. I'm the security, and you do your work on the computer. Just hurry up, ok?" The man grunts before sliding his raincoat on and grabbing his flashlight. He looks around and shouts, "Where's my gun?"

Cory shrugs, "You don't need it to greet them, Lucas."

Lucas shrugs before opening the door.

Cory gets up from his chair as the man goes out the door before quietly following after him. He watches as the man hikes down the stairs before opening the storm door. Cory follows the man as he opens the final gauge, suddenly revealing a man in a coat, who quickly turns around, revealing a firearm.

"What the?" Lucas exclaimed before backing into the tower, turning around to see Cory standing behind him before he ran to Lucas's side.

But he didn't support him.

In a flick of a wrist, Cory unsheathed a short tanto with a vial before impaling Lucas in the middle of the chest. Lucas coughed out blood before looking into Cory's eyes with betrayal. Cory leaned into Lucas's body and filled a test tube with his blood before ripping the tanto out, causing Lucas's body to fall onto the floor. The man entered the station as Cory flicked the blade. Blood flew off the tanto, dripping on the ground, merging with the puddle of blood slowly forming under Lucas's body.

"Nice work, Fang," The man remarked, stepping over Lucas's body. "Remember to take the hand."

Cory nodded before slicing Lucas's right hand off. The man nodded back, and in a coup de grace, he shot a bullet into Lucas's head before dropping a Moon Tarot Card from the Major Arcana onto his body.

They marched up the tower before approaching the data module. The whole time, WS #005 had secretly been a database tracking all the "un-humans" traveling to C-MOON #001 through heat signature. Now Cory and the man would take that information and turn it against the government. Cory and the man walked up to the database before attempting to upload the data onto the cloud.

/Please insert blood signature\_

Cory uncapped the vial and poured a single drop of blood onto the monitor.

/processing\_

/blood accepted

/please press fingerprint to screen\_

Cory pressed Lucas's hand's finger to the screen.

/processing\_

/Accepted

Cory and the man stood there, watching the screen, as the words "please try again" emblazoned the screen.

"Why is the safe not opening?" Cory wonders.

The man sighed, "wait for it..."

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The man opened the inner pocket of his jacket, revealing a phone. He answered the call.

"Hey, uhm, are you and Cory at the tower yet?" The man on the phone says.

"Yes," Cory replies

"Just remember that if you press a cold finger on the monitor, it activates a silent alarm,"

...

"Brains?" The man next to Cory says.

"Yeah?" Brains replied

"You're fired."

"WHAT?"

Cory cursed as he angrily threw Lucas's hand to the ground.

"How many minutes do we have until law enforcement arrives?" The man asked.

"10 minutes. Wait, did you already activate the silent alarm?"

"YES, THANKS FOR THE WARNING," The man yells before hanging up.

"Oh god, what are we going to do..." Cory says. "Well, let's see. It's an electromagnetic safe."

Cory knelt in front of the safe before cutting off the cord. He grabbed the handle and pulled it, and the handle came off.

"Great," Cory exclaims. "All right, that worked horribly, well..."

"Oh!" The man says, "we could use the SILVERS to try to EMP the safe as the grenade I have here isn't strong enough! Unfortunately, we can't pull the safe's cover off then..."

"Wow, sometimes I don't know what you would do on an island with an unopened and infinite bottle of water. You'd probably turn it backward and die by dehydration," Cory remarks.

"Why do you keep using that?" The man starts, "Oh. Right. SILVERS already have magnetic pulls."

...

"Well, go take it off the tower!" Cory exclaims.

"Right, right," The man says, embarrassed, before jumping through the glass and looking up at the SILVERS. He pulled out a laser knife and quickly dashed up the SILVERS tower and cut through the SILVERS tower. 2 light punches to the sides of the tower caused both sides of SILVERS tower to fall off before the man caught the SILVERS orb and landed gently on the ground as the SILVERS tower crashed down behind him.

Meanwhile, inside the laboratory, Cory cut through the side of the walls, knocking out the walls as the man passed the SILVERS orb into the laboratory. They lept away from the laboratory, floating in the air before the man pulled out an EMP grenade and yanked out the ring before tossing it into the tower. Moments later, the SILVERS orb's gravitational force fluctuated, loosening the cover as Cory grabbed the safe and jumped out of the lighthouse while placing another remote grenade next to the SILVERS orb. They then floated to the boat before getting in. Cory quickly took the driver's seat as the other man entered the gunner's pod. As Law Enforcement entered the tower, the man pressed the trigger as the air around the SILVERS tower pulsated before the laboratory and SILVERS tower exploded, killing all the men inside and disabling their boats. Of the 4 DISCs, the first went to check on the men while other DISCS drove after them as their pods raised into the air, raining bullets down on their boat as the man turned the gunner's pod and opened fire on the DISCS. The bullets bounced off the SILVERS of the DISCS, so the man pulled a rifle from the weapon storage in the vehicle and loaded it in a shell. A shot from the weapon panged on the glass, causing a spiderweb fracture as the boat swerved. The man pulled the bolt handle back before loading an AP shell. The shell shattered the window and hit the driver, but the DISC continued driving toward them. The man loaded in a HE shell and fired at the approximate place of the armory, causing a small fire. As the men inside the DISC hurried to put the fire out, the shell detonated, throwing the DISC into the water and putting it out of the chase. The man dropped the rifle, unsheathed a katana with a deadly barbed tip, and jumped into the DISC. His heavy iron boots landed on the tempered glass before he slammed his heel into the tempered glass and shoved the barbed sword in. Taking the driver by surprise, the sword pierced through his armor and impaled the driver's chest. The driver's eyes widened before the swordsman ripped the blade out, tearing out the beating heart with the barb. He quickly tossed multiple fragmentation grenades into the boat before making the massive leap back to his ship as the DISC exploded in the distance.

Cory shook his head. "Show off. Take the wheel!"

The man laughed and grabbed the wheel as Cory jumped out of the vehicle, unsheathing both tantos. The other DISC neared their ship before both of them drove parallel to each other. The DISC’s pod opened fire on their ship as the bullets lodged themselves into their boat’s armor. As quick as a flash, Cory dashed inside the boat, slashing, piercing, and impaling the men inside the DISC as the vials inside the tanto's poisoned the men. The man heard their screams as Cory shoved them out of the vehicle. Cory pulled up the DISC next to their boat and tied them up with a rope. He hopped in and took the wheel from the man.

"And you call me a showoff?" The man remarked.

Cory smirked and laughed. "Yes."

"Well, another successful mission with you," Cory remarked

"At least call me by my name!" The man laughs.

"Why? Every mission I go on with you, something goes wrong," Cory sighs.

"What? At least I try..." The man says.

"Well, I guess you do. You're a pretty good partner," Cory says before his eyes flash, and his mouth smirks, "Lyall."

(c) Kevin and Kenny Yang 2023