Days of FutureSites Past

July 14th 2020 - Downtown Halcyon

Tiago scrambles up the side of a building, his mechanical arms easily lifting his slight frame up. He looks over the city skyline with a scowl on his face as his mind flashes back to half an hour ago.

“Stupid philanthropic tech mogul my ass.”

He mutters under his breath as he pulls a radio scanner from his pocket and places an ear bud to listen in. Whiz begins to move across the rooftops in silence, his jaws clenched in frustration. Off in the distance he makes out the silhouette of Big Team Base. A frown of contemplation plays across his lips before he pulls out his phone to send Mel a text.

*Yo, you busy? I’m patrolling and could use a buddy.*

Mel's phone buzzing distracts him from the process of disassembling Tay's old spy drone in the basement workshop. He pauses to stretch before looking and immediately jumps out of his chair and heads for the elevator, whistling for Wingnut and tapping out a response as he goes.

*PLEASE. If I sit around base any longer I'm gonna start taking things apart GAIA doesn't want me taking apart. Where are you?*

Whiz had taken a seat, his legs dangling off the side of the building when his phone buzzes with the response. He checks the cross streets before responding.

*Rooftops by Main and 127th, I’ll meet you half-way*

His mind wanders back to the News story that prompted this late night outing and once again he sneers with disdain before his face falls.

“Maybe Bolt will know what I should do… well I’ll have to tell him all about it first.”

He lets out a sigh as he drops down. His mechanical arms stretch out to grip a lamp post, before vaulting him across the street. He falls into a steady rhythm as movements become rote carrying him down the street towards the base.

Bolt emerges onto the roof of Big Base, preceded by Wingnut. He activates his visor and gives Wingnut a second to map out a route before setting off across the rooftops in Whiz's direction. When he spots him, he stops and leans against an air conditioning unit to wait. Wingnut takes off and flies out to meet Whiz, landing briefly on his shoulder and running her beak through his hair before taking off again and tailing him back to meet Bolt.

"Hey, dude!" Bolt says as he approaches, pushing off the A/C unit. "What's up?"

Lost in thought it isn't until she lands on his shoulder and plays with his hair that Tiago notices Wingnut.

"Oh hey!"

He laughs as he reaches up to pat the robirb affectionately. As she takes off once more Whiz glances up and spots Bolt. He raises a hand in greeting as he is pulled up to meet him. At the question his eyes widen as he realizes he isn't ready to say yet and also didn't have an alternative reason ready.

"Oh uhh… just needed to get out of the house, you know, like stir crazy, thought it could be fun to patrol. Uh yeah."

He finishes lamely reaching up to run his hand through his hair, an awkward half smile on his face.

Bolt grimaces in sympathy. "God, yeah," he says. "There's only so much staring at a wall you can do before you start wishing for a supervillain attack just to have something to do. I'm starting to think I might need a hobby." He grins at his own joke, then stretches both arms over his head and starts bouncing on the balls of his feet. "So! Anywhere in mind you wanna go?"

Whiz chuckles nodding in agreement.

"Oh yeah a hobby would do you wonders I'm sure." He laughs before continuing. "Anyway, I was thinking of heading up towards the docks, there have been some rumors online about something happening there soon, could be worth checking out."

"My hobby was messing around with machines, but the third time I took apart the microwave in the base, GAIA sternly informed me I should stick to de-engineering things that belong to me. And I'm running out of those." He smiles sheepishly, then reorients himself in the direction of the docks.

"All right! Docks it is. Wait, do you have like a cool internet source for crime rumors?" he asks as he starts following the route Wingnut projects on his visor across the rooftops.

Whiz leaps from the rooftops trusting in his gadgets to keep him from hitting the ground. He laughs and shakes his head.

“Yeah that sounds about right, after what I did with the school computers GAIA basically told me the same thing.”

He shrugs with two sets of arms and a mischievous smile on his face. One of his mechanical arms reaches for a light post and swings him back up onto a rooftop next to Bolt. Tiago has to take two steps for every one of Mel’s so he gets quiet for a moment to catch his breath.

“No no secret source, just typical rumor mill stuff. Back before I joined the team I would use social media and stuff to kind of keep tabs on locations, several acquaintances have mentioned increased activity, could be nothing, could be something.”

"Hey, that's even cooler. You have like, an information ring." Bolt shot a wide grin at Whiz before speeding up to make a longer jump between rooftops.

When they finally made it to a building overlooking the docks, Bolt slumped against the low barrier at the edge of the roof to catch his breath. "God, this is way harder on foot than on a robot," he complained in between panting. After a minute, he straightened up and turned to actually look over the docks. "Okay, so do we have any idea what this something might be, or should we just keep an eye out for, like, anything?"

Whiz give Bolt a reassuring smile and reaches up to squeeze his shoulder.

"Don't worry we'll get Lugnut back soon enough, then you can go back to being a menace to the city's rooftops."

He laughs trying to lighten the mood after mentioning the missing robot. Having helped to build him Tiago feels a small tightening in his own stomach at the thought of the poor robot lost in time.

"There's a company called Visionics, they operate mostly out of the west coast but there have been rumors that they were going to be expanding into Halcyon. The company also happens to be a front and they often deal in black market arms dealing. I heard there was going to be a shipment of equipment for their new facilities and I wanted to check it out."

Whiz pulls out his phone to confirm his intel before continuing.

"They should have their gear in warehouse 12."

Bolt returns Whiz's smile gratefully. Lugnut's absence is a constant ache, but it helps knowing he's not alone. And if anyone understands how much he misses his robot, it's Whiz.

He hums in response to Whiz's explanation and holds out an arm for Wingnut to perch on. "Okay, illegal arms dealers, got it. Now believe me, I'm totally willing to kick in the door of this warehouse and fight some illegal arms dealers. But I'm trying this thing where I don't do illegal stuff if it's not *really* necessary, so how about I send Wingnut to find warehouse 12 and make sure there's shit going down there before we break in ourselves?"

He turns to his bird. "You got that, Wingnut? Warehouse 12, Visionics, go just… see what the deal is."

Wingnut whirred her servos in acknowledgement, then took off flying along the docks. Bolt turned back to Whiz and grinned. "And now we wait."

Whiz returns the grin momentarily before swallowing audibly. He clenches his fists to steady them, his mind racing as he tries to find the words to explain the whole story. A dark fear creeps into the pit of his stomach as all of Mel’s potential responses race through his mind.

“I really appreciate you coming out to help me on this one. I might have a bit of a bias against Visionics so it’s good to have you along tonight.”

Bolt's smile softens and he jostles Whiz's shoulder. "Yeah, of course, dude. You know I'm always there to back you up if you need it."

Whiz nods somewhat absentmindedly their lips pressed together in a firm line. "No cus like…" He lets out a groan as he wipes down his face steeling himself for what he's about to say. "You know how you've helped me before like when Bishop had that FutureSite thing? I mean you've helped me with that plenty so of course you probably do…"

Tiago trails off muttering in frustration as he thinks quietly out loud.

"Uh, yeah, I know about the FutureSite," Bolt says, cocking his head. "Is--did it come up again? Have you--"

He cuts himself off as something flashes on his visor. "Uh, hold that thought," he says, twisting to look in the direction Wingnut flew off. "Looks like she found something. Here." He unhooks the visor from his ear and offers it to Whiz. Projected on the screen is Wingnut's view from the warehouse. "Is this what you expected to find?"

Whiz lets out a sigh of relief for the interruption before looking over the projection carefully. Several crates with the Visionics logo fill the warehouse. Guards can be seen patrolling the area wearing private security uniforms with the Visionics logo emblazoned on their shoulders. The tip of Tiago’s tongue pokes out from his lips as he focuses, leaning into the projection to get a closer look. He points to a large crate tucked away to the back of the warehouse.

“Any chance she could get a better angle on this crate here?”

"Sure, just lemme…" Bolt reaches out and lays one finger on the base. He appears to zone out for a minute as he uses his powers to communicate with Wingnut over the visor's connection. The image shifts as Wingnut moves, skirting around the edge of the warehouse to avoid the guards and perching closer to the large crate. Bolt takes his hand off the visor.

"Just let me know when you've got what you need," he says. "I want her to get out before any of those guards notice some glowing eyes up in the rafters."

Whiz nods acknowledging the concern before peering closely at the image before him. He shakes his head chewing at his lip in thought.

“I’m gonna have to break in. I need a closer look,” he sighs lifting up his goggles to rub his eyes. “I get that this is maybe more than you signed off for tonight so if you want to back out now I totally get it.” Tiago settles his goggles back over his eyes and smiles over to Mel. “I promise I’ll explain what’s going one later. I just really have to take care of this right now.”

"Whoa, no, hey, you're not gonna break in there *alone*!" Bolt splutters. "Look, I trust you, dude. If you say you need to get in there and get a closer look, I believe you. And I'm not just gonna hang out here while you do something dangerous by yourself."

He takes the visor back and hooks it back over his ear, frowning slightly as he goes into business mod. "Okay, how long do you think you'll need to get a look at this thing? We might be able to get in through a window from the roof, and if we're careful we can get to the crate without alerting the guards. This time."

“I’ll need like 10 or 15 minutes tops. I just have to get into that crate to see what they’re bringing into the city.” His eyes are shifty and he clenches his fists to stop his hands from shaking. “Skylight is probably our best bet, and it looks like the guards are pretty spread out so it should be easy to get in and out without them noticing us.”

He lets out a long breath and closes his eyes to settle his nerves before walking to the edge of the rooftop to start making his way to Warehouse12. The mechanical arms draped around his shoulders begin to twitch as he activates them in preparation of jumping from the roof. Tiago turns back to Mel with a sad sincere look in his eyes.

“Thanks for trusting me.” *I hope I don’t let you down*

He jumps without waiting for the response, nervous for what comes next.

Mel follows him to the edge of the roof, frowning in concern. He starts to reach out, but Whiz takes off before he can make contact. He blows out a long breath. "Whatever's going on with you, man," he mutters to himself as he backs up to get a run up for his own jump, "I hope whatever's in that box helps."

Wingnut is waiting for them on the roof of Warehouse 12. She perches briefly on Whiz's shoulder in greeting before rejoining Bolt as he scrambles up the roof and over to the skylight.

"Okay," he says, slightly out of breath. "If you can get to the crate, Wingnut and I can keep a lookout. We'll let you know if the guards get too close, and worst comes to worst we can like, making a distraction or something." He reaches over and lays a hand on Tiago's shoulder, trying to be comforting without interrupting the mission. "Sound like a plan?"

Whiz stares intently down the skylight barely noticing Wingnuts greeting. His eyes dart across the rafters as he begins planning his route to reach the crate. Bolt’s words are almost like white noise as the sound of his own rapid heartbeat reverberates through his ears. As Mel rests a hand on his shoulder Tiago jumps in surprise, his wide eyes shooting to his friend before he manages to recognize him again and relaxes.

“Right yeah, lookout, sorry I was just thinking.” He points along the path he had chosen. “I’ll go along the top here and just drop down on it from above, my arms should be able to pry it open easily enough before pulling me back up to rendezvous with you.”

Bolt frowns, biting the inside of his cheek. Whatever's up with Whiz, it worries him, and he has the nagging feeling that letting him go into the warehouse without his head on straight is a terrible idea. If things go wrong before the box is open… can he trust that he'll leave before he gets hurt?

Well. It was a little late for doubts - there was no way he could talk Whiz into just leaving, and the alternative was letting him go in without someone watching his back. The best he could do was keep an eye out and be ready to intervene.

He squeezes Whiz's shoulder. "All right," he says. "I'll be up here if you need anything, and Wingnut'll be inside. Be careful, dude."

"Hey Careful was almost my Hero name." He laughs awkwardly before cringing slightly. "I mean yeah I'll be careful."

He lets out a quiet sigh before finangling the window open and gently lowering himself into the rafters. Whiz lands and begins his trek to the crate in the corner. His eyes laser focus in on the crate to almost the complete exclusion of everything else in his surroundings. At one point he bumps into a ceiling light fixture and has to stop it from swinging around like a gigantic spot light. He lets out a quiet breath and turns to look at Bolt holding up a small thumbs up before continuing towards the crate.

Bolt winces at the swinging light, but forces himself to return Whiz's thumbs up with an awkward smile. "This is such a bad idea," he mutters to himself under his breath. "We're gonna get arrested and Cassi is gonna murder me."

To distract himself from the thought of his sister's potential fury, he focuses on the information Wingnut is sending him. From her perch in the rafters, she sends him video of the warehouse with the guards and Whiz helpfully outlined for visibility. He watches them patrol the building, fiddling anxiously with his gloves.

Whiz reaches the crate and drops down gently on top. He pauses a moment to regain his balance before his arms get to work. The thin appendages squeeze through the gaps in the crate and begin methodically working to pull the lid away from the spikes holding it in place.

*Now what’s my plan here? If it is the FutureSite I have to destroy it, but I promised Mel that I would play it smart. He shakes his head the gentle whirring of gears the only sound to keep him company with his thoughts. Well he’s out there, worst case scenario he should be able to get away even if they catch me.*

He adjusts his position so that he can lift the top off and pulls with the full force of his mechanical arms. One of the nails makes a sharp creak as it is pulled up, Tiago winces at the sound before ducking behind the crate.

It can't be more than a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity of watching the video before something happens. Wingnut throws up a helpful alert on the screen, but Bolt's already seen it: the guard nearest the crate stopping, turning around, and approaching the crate.

"Fuck," he hisses under his breath. "Wingnut, get him out of there."

Inside the warehouse, Wingnut circles around out of sight of the guard and swoops down to land beside Whiz. She pecks him on the knee and hops backwards a few steps, looking pointedly first at him and then at the open path behind her.

Whiz hung in suspense waiting for the guard to leave, not daring to look. When the sharp pain of Wingnut’s beak bites into his knee he hisses quietly stifling a yelp.

“Ow Wingnut!” His eyes follow the direction the little robot is trying to lead him. He grimaces looking back up to the crate. “I’m so close…” He looks up to the window near where Bolt was last he saw and frowns. The seconds that pass as he makes his decision feels like an eternity. He places a small device against the crate that scurries up and into the crate from the opening he had created before he hops down carefully. He lets out a quiet sigh before following Wingnut out keping low to avoid detection.

Bolt lets out a sigh of relief as Whiz leaves the crate and follows after Wingnut just before the guard rounds the crate.

Wingnut leads Whiz on a circuitous route around the warehouse, dodging the guards' paths, back to the skylight. Bolt's anxious face peers down at them from the roof, and he offers a hand down through the open window to help him out.

As Whiz scrambles up into the rafters he glances back, his brow knitted together with his frustration, at the opened crate. Reaching the top he hops his arm stretched out to catch onto Bolt’s. His mechanical arms grab onto the skylight and help Mel to pull him up. Safely out of the warehouse he sprawls on the roof letting out a deep groan of frustration. The goggles come up onto his forehead as he pinches the bridge of his nose right between his eyes.

“Thanks you two, I probably would have gotten caught if I’d gone in alone.” He sits up with a grunt. “I was so close…” He says once more almost absent mindedly as though he doesn’t even realize he’s said it out loud.

Mel drops down on the roof beside him, blowing out a long breath. He reaches out and lightly flicks Tiago's temple. "That was close, dude. I thought we were gonna get found out for sure."

He hesitates, looking down at Tiago, before asking, "So you… you didn't see what was inside?"

Tiago scowls at the question, remembering the failure. “Yeah uh, sorry for putting you in such a crap situation and then not even getting anything out of it. I just…”

He cuts himself off looking back to Bolt with an apologetic look. “You deserve a real explanation, I’m just ashamed to talk about it.” He looks down and away, his voice going very quiet, “I made a mistake 3 years ago and everything that I have done since has been trying to make up for that.”

"Look, hey, first of all, I'd rather we not get anything than get in trouble." He nudges Tiago. "Whatever you did, dude, it's not worth getting yourself hurt over."

"You're only saying that because you don't know what I did." Tiago turns to Mel, a look of regret and fear in his eyes. "Three years ago I invented something that I thought would change the world, something that would help people live easier lives. Instead it hurt people, lots of people…" his voice trails off. Tiago stares numbly ahead before finishing the statement.

"I invented the FutureSite."

Mel lets out a long breath. "Oh." He goes quiet for a moment and bites his lip, slowly processing. He starts to nod. "Okay… Okay. That… that makes sense, actually. I mean, you obviously know a lot about time stuff, and that explains why stopping Bishop from using it is so important to you--um." He hesitates. "Stop me if you don't wanna talk about it or whatever, but… how did Bishop end up with it?"

Tiago bares his teeth in anger before he can control himself. He clenches his fist causing his knuckles to crack and slowly lets out a deep breath. When he turns back to Mel his eyes are still stormy with rage but his voice is controlled.

“When I was twelve, there was a contest sponsored by Visionics, Build a Better Tomorrow. The idea was to make inventions that could help solve some of the biggest problems in the world right now. I chose to try and fix hunger, You see I thought about the whole system, self generated power, automated maintenance, the whole you know everything. We could isolate the space around a field of crops and accelerate the time within that so that with everything working together they would be tended to and a whole season of growth could happen in the space of a week. I submitted the calculations and the designs and then I was told that I didn’t pass the early stages.”

Tiago laughs bitterly. “The email said that with current technologies it was impossible, but they appreciated my submission and looked forward to my future work. So you can imagine my surprise last year when I saw my invention on the news. It was built around a building. Whoever did it kept the people inside trapped for 12 hours. They’d scrapped all the sustainability measures I’d designed and all that was left was the FutureSite we know today, a weapon…  I keep a list of all the victims, like a penance or whatever, I dunno like if I always remember them I can honor them and maybe one day I can make it up to them…”

Mel lets out a long breath. "Damn, dude," he says. "*Damn*. That's… that's a lot. Holy shit." He hesitates, then reaches out to squeeze Tiago's shoulder. "Tiago, I… I'm really sorry. That--They had no right to do that. It's evil and fucked up and it's not your fault, dude. You were trying to help people. What they do with the FutureSite is on them."

“That’s not good enough. I did all the calculations, I designed it. Oppenheimer never launched a nuke himself but he still felt the blood on his hands.” Tiago stands stretching his arms up to the sky a series of pops quietly ringing through the night as he does.

“I’ve been looking into Visionics all this time and I think I’m getting close to finding where they keep the data, where I need to go to stop them from continuing to twist my work for these violent ends.” He turns back to Mel holding out a hand to help him up, to shake, he doesn’t really know. “I appreciate you not hating me, and I appreciate you still wanting to be my friend. This is something I’m gonna have to do though, one way or another.”

Mel takes his hand and pulls himself to his feet but doesn't let go right away. "Hey, listen," he says. "I get why you feel responsible. And I *super* get why you need to do this, but you don't have to do it alone. I want to help. If something comes up--about FutureSite, or, like, anything--let me know, okay?" He smiles and squeezes Tiago's hand, then lets go and stretches himself. "Woof. We should get off this roof, huh?"

Tiago smiles brightly and his shoulders sag with relief as some of his tension fades away. He gives a nod to agree as he feels a tight knot in his throat and doesn’t want to try and croak through it.

Bolt finishes stretching and holds out an arm for Wingnut to fly to. "Hey, you know what's better than breaking into a warehouse in the middle of the night?" he asks brightly. "Let's go get ice cream. Wingnut, lead us to ice cream."

Wingnut hops from Bolt's arm to Whiz's shoulder, runs her beak through his hair, then takes off into the night. Bolt runs after her, punching his shoulder on the way by. "C'mon!" he shouts back over his shoulder. "I'll race you!"

Tiago reaches up to his hair as Wingnut tousels it. He grins looking after the bird and as Bolt rushes by the grin breaks into a laugh. Whiz reaches up pulling the goggles down over his eyes again and steps forward to follow. His gaze is pulled back to the skylight for a moment but he shakes his head and races to catch up with Mel, “Hey no fair! Your legs are almost as long as my whole body!” He laughs again as he dives from the roof determined not to lose.