Invincible Earth! : Volume 1
Chapter 15: Dossier in Sight!

There was still some distance between the team of soldiers and the vault doors as they started closing.

“Dammit! Everything was perfect so far! Why did it have to mess up now?“, muttered Lance as he ran through the whole plan in his head.

In the janitor room, the team had tried again to look for any other solution. Try as they may, a better scenario than evacuation from above ground couldn’t be thought of.

After eliminating all other possibilities, they had decided on this plan. Now, the problem was to figure out a way to initiate the evacuation.

Frontal assault was out of the question. Any plan which needed the sacrifice of a team member was not one that Lance would consider.

This wasn’t just because of the strong connection Lance felt with his teammates. Each and every one in front of him had trusted him and aided him the best they could. To make a plan now to sacrifice one was not something that he would consider at this stage at all, unless there was truly no other way. Lance also had a gut feeling that the way to score the most points was to have everyone alive till the end and if possible have no casualties. He suspected that they would be teleported out the same way as they came back in, so there was no reason to think of an exit strategy. Instead of a “grab and run” tactic, they only needed the “grab”.

What would he choose if many lives were at stake and the only option to save them was to sacrifice his teammates? Lance asked himself this, but didn’t know the answer. He wanted to get stronger because he knew that strength gave the ability to take control of ones own life. To be constrained in a cage was his worst nightmare, it was why he had been so desperate on earth to replace the evidence of something beyond.

This planning part initiated in everyone a similar reasoning. What was their motive to grow stronger? Was it only to be powerful? Would they be able to make the call and commit a lesser evil for the greater good? None of them had clear answers to all of the questions. Only time and their experiences would give rise to answers that would shape their lives and futures.

Startling everyone, Darius asked, “Is an earthquake OK?“.

After the shocked looks had subsided, Darius explained that by positioning himself at a location and studying the earth and tectonic plates, he could induce an earthquake. As he was still an initiate, he needed at least 6 hours at a fixed location to generate an earthquake strong enough to cause an evacuation. Even given the time frame, this was such a shocking ability that everyone kept shooting glances at Darius throughout the planning. Imagination was truly the only limit of an Intrinsic Nature.

To Lance’s joy, this fitted in perfectly with their “grab” tactic. He immediately assigned the role of the disturbance to Darius. He instructed the janitor to take Darius to a spot where there would be no patrols before returning to his post and forgetting everything that had happened. Luckily, there was one such spot at a part where the labyrinth was being expanded. Construction was on break for today and no one would come there.

The rest of the plan was simple but very tiring for the girls. The team masqueraded themselves as the team next in shift at the ID post after hypnotizing any required personnel. They circumvented DNA tests by using the 6 hours to switch between soldiers frequently who had already been verified.

Both the girls INs were a delight to watch, but there was no need to mention why the 2 boys kept looking forward to Yu Ying’s performance. Although she used the same pose, they could never get tired of it due to the sheer allure that radiated from her in those moments. Entsy and Lance even had an unspoken agreement where Yu Ying was requested each time to hypnotize. Serious as he was due to his unknown past, even Entsy secretly looked forward to these sessions every time.

Yu Yan’s frequent performances though unconsciously rooted in them a desire to protect her. This was an unintended side effect of her IN on any companion that she would have now or later on.

Finally, they were on the home stretch. Even the dossier could be seen by Lance from his position with the words “NIKOLA TESLA” shining on them. But, they were at gun point.

All they could do was run like hell and hope the barriers would do as advertised.

…

A gunshot resounded in the air as the commanding officer opened fire seeing the non-responsiveness of the soldiers.

His aim was on the central person, who happened to be Lance.

Lance felt a slight push from behind as he immediately became enclosed in a translucent barrier of light.

The bullet ricocheted off the barrier which became invisible again soon after.

Multiple guns started firing at them as they accelerated to a breakneck speed.

Of the 6 people, 2 were soldiers that were hypnotized. Lance had told the others to protect them with their barriers in case they were needed in the vault.

Lance and Yu Yan thus each had a soldier in front of them being protected from the gunfire. Since it was only from one direction, this was possible.

Entsy, on the other hand initially ran slower than the rest. His mission was to get into the vault as soon as possible in case any situation like this arose.

After a few seconds, he could be seen zooming past the others as he entered the vault in the blink of an eye.

Lance sighed with relief as at least one of them had entered the vault. He felt a heat on his chest from the shiny ball which he had hung there using the chain. The heat had started with the first gunshot and was slowly decreasing with each bullet that the barrier blocked. This seemed to be an intuitive way to communicate the remaining capacity of the barrier.

Just as the vault closed shut, all of the team tumbled into the vault. Miraculously, they had all made it inside in that split second before the door completely closed. One by one, a “clink” sound could be heard as each barrier broke. The trusty barriers had actually saved their skins.

If they hadn’t had that running start, this would have been impossible. The distance from the ID check to the door was very little, but the door was insanely fast. Also, although the barriers blocked the bullets, the momentum was still transferred to them to some degree. Thus, it was as if each of them were kicked by a hundred people from behind at the same time.

The file that Lance had seen with the glaring words was right in front of him. He lunged forward and touched it, closing his eyes and waiting for the teleportation to take place.

After a few seconds, he could still feel the cold hard metal floor under him. The file was still in his hand and as he opened his eyes, he realized that he was still in the vault.

Lance stood up and looked around. There were many rows of shelves, and there were actually 3 files in his vision with the same words on them. He hastily touched them all but what he was waiting for didn’t happen.

“Entsy, start a high speed search. Touch each and every file with the words “NIKOLA TESLA” on it. Soldiers, keep your aim at the personnel and make sure no one moves.”

Lance added the last part as an afterthought. He had just remembered the key personnel and decided to see them before deciding if they needed additional supervision.

After walking a bit, a group of people could be seen standing ramrod straight. There was not a smidgen of worry in their eyes.

Instead, what could be seen was unbridled gloating.

Seeing this, Lance felt a tingling in his back as he started to think if he had missed anything.

“Something is very wrong about this situation.“, he thought, as the gloating started turning into outright sneers.

…

The chiefs each smiled at each other in pride while still shooting sneers at Lance and Entsy who was fervently searching through the files.

“What are you so proud about? We successfully infiltrated your high security vault and now hold you at gun point. Why do you look like you have achieved something?“, asked Lance, as he couldn’t resist the growing feeling of uneasiness in his gut.

One of the chiefs, a balding man with a slim figure and handlebar mustache, spitted at Lance’s feet.

“You will never win, filthy outsider!“, he shouted, wildly gesturing in the air.

Lance was at his wit’s end. Outsiders? What the hell was going on here?

“Just answer the question or my colleague will shoot.“, said Lance with a serious expression.

To his surprise, all of the chiefs burst out laughing at his statement.

“You are going to be dead soon anyway. What does it matter whether you shoot us or not?“, answered one of the few female chiefs after the laughter subsided.

Lance was shocked awake. This was a trap!

As he looked around, he started to notice the small holes in the walls. This was literally the perfect cage of death. With only one way in and one way out, anyone who entered could be blown to bits.

“Don’t bother trying to escape now. Any attempt to use your powers to escape will result in fire raining down on all of us. As proud servants of our nation and mother, we feel privileged to be the ones who will enable the deaths of an elite unit of outsiders.“, said the chief, seeing his desperate looks around.

Lance sighed as he realized that there was really no way out. They had done their best. Their only salvation was to replace the document, but there were rows and rows of files and the rest would only be a hindrance to Entsy.

He needed to delay the activation. Thus, he started talking.

“What makes you think we are outsiders? We are just people who are on a mission which would qualify us to protect the earth. This is all just a huge misunderstanding. You can call off the activation and we will all willingly surrender.”

“Don’t waste your breath. The minute the doors closed, a timer started at the end of which nothing will be left in this room. These 10 minutes are recorded as valuable data regarding the different powers that you outsiders have. We aren’t even the real chiefs. The whole protocol was designed to bait in elite teams who were classified as having enough power to be omega level threats. The earthquake was enough reason to label you so. The lift actually stops midway at a secret location where we were swapped in. Now, the only thing left is to take us with you.“, said the woman in a chilling voice. These were just regular soldiers who had willingly volunteered to take this duty.

Lance didn’t understand this.

“Why? Why would you be willing to give up your lives? Or are they forcing you? How can you laugh and be proud even though you know you will be dead minutes later?”

Desperation started to creep into the whole team as looks of panic started appearing on each of their faces. In a few minutes, it could all be over.