Tunnel Rat Chapter 375 (Patreon)

The elevator descended quickly, and each member of the alphabet estimated its speed and calculated the time and distance traveled to determine how deep in the habitat they were going. Algernon blinked as he realized they had just gone deeper than the lowest level. He looked at his siblings, who had all come to the same conclusion. He looked at Milo, who was grinning at him, but offering no explanation.

"Milo, dear brother, how deep does this elevator go?"

"Quit a ways, to be honest. When I started this project I was using one of the excavators left over from digging the foundations of the habitat, and wanted to build a new base of operations deep in the ground. To be honest, I may have been influenced by my time in the game. Being deep enough no one could find me was sounding better and better."

His siblings understood that logic. After their escape and supposed deaths, they hid for a long time, terrified of being found and dragged back to captivity.

"This goes down to your secret base? How far?"

"Well, not all the way down, that's for sure. We'll get off at the top. When we travel into the lower levels we'll have to take the stairs or ladders.

"Top of what?"

"Why, my hastily thrown together place to hide. Remember? I didn't have a lot of time like you five did."

Onyx's eyes got larger, "Warning! Milo has learned Sarcasm! He is more powerful than we expected."

Bork was taking deep breaths, and trying not to panic. He hated sudden situations with unknown variables, "His inevitable betrayal has come far too early."

The elevator slowed, and Milo plugged his tail into the controls. The elevator doors opened, and then a second set of heavily armored doors. Both sets were locked open by Milo. The alphabet stared into the next room, which wasn't all that exciting. A large metal kiosk behind bulletproof glass, two glass security doors giving access to the next room, and a couple of computers.

Zander raised an eyebrow, "Standar US government security center. They haven't changed in decades. Are you buying government surplus? This design hasn't been used in decades."

Milo replied, "It's ex-government furniture and was certainly surplus, but it was in terrible shape when I got it. I had to do a lot of clean-up." He led the way past the old security station and the others followed until Onyx looked at the floor.

"Are those bloodstains?!"

Milo scuffed his foot on them. "They bother me every time I walk past, but I haven't had the time to sand them out. It might be easier to replace the flooring."

Bork immediately backed away, reentering the elevator, Zander looked down at the floor, noting the stain pattern. "Lots of blood, several people, and those are bullet holes on the walls."

Nina didn't retreat but did stop to ask the question they were all thinking. "Milo, why are there so many bloodstains on the floor?"

"From the bodies I found. Complex story, but it ties in with a lot of other things. And this reminds me, I need to get them out of the freezer I stored them in. They deserve a proper burial, but I don't dare notify their next of kin."

Bork was in the elevator with Algernon, trying to get it to go back up. "Dammit, your security code doesn't work here!"

Zander rolled his eyes, "Did you really think he'd give you all of his codes? Smart thinking to jam the elevator open and cut off retreat. He's just starting to monolog about all of his dastardly crimes, you can't try to leave now!"

Nina walked back, grabbed Bork by the arm, and pulled him along. "Nothing to worry about. He invited us to dinner. By all of the rules of super villainry, he can't kill us until dessert is served. You're safe until then. I can smell the roast turkey and I'm hungry. Eat now, worry about foiling Milo later."

Bork took a deep breath, "Your logic is flawless. Plus, I can smell the turkey now. Let's go."

They followed Milo to yet another set of two sliding metal doors. As he heard the buzz of the electric motors and the doors slowly moved into the walls, Zander stared at them trying to calculate their weight. He noted that the framework for the doors was of the same metal. "This is collapsium. I'm sure of it! That isn't possible! How did you move this? Where did you get it."

Onyx was also looking at the doors. "You don't move collapsium this big, Zander. Not when you can see it's all one piece with the wall. I think you just don't want to confront the obvious conclusion."

All of them were staring at Milo now, Turkey forgotten. "How the hell do you have a Fusion Reactor!!!"

"Even a small one takes a year to build, with lots of heavy equipment, and a workforce of hundreds. Just gathering the raw materials tipped off three governments and nine corporations."

"Such a big waste of Victor's money! But no regrets!"

"THINK, you fools! If he has one, we can convince him to start building a Quantum computer and then steal it from him! We should become his minions."

Milo sighed, "I don't have a Fusion Reactor."

"But...the collapsium?"

He looked at all of them, one at a time, and said, slowly. "I don't have a Fusion Reactor." Then after a small pause,

"WE have a Fusion Reactor. Now let's go eat dinner. Mama's waiting for us."

Five open mouths closed, and five bewildered super geniuses meekly followed their brother down a lovely hallway reminiscent of another time, then down the stairs until they came to the bottom floor of Independence Hall where the rest of the family was waiting for them. The alphabet froze, unsure. Ironically, they'd spent far more time around normal people than Milo had. But always they had been in disguise as school children as they toured cities and visited interesting things. Here, they felt exposed.

Everyone but Mama and Big Butch stayed at the table. Mama took in sight of five more children who all resembled Milo. "Call me Mama, and he's Big Butch. I'm sure you all have questions, and we can take things slow or fast, whatever works for each of you. If you ever need time alone, we understand. What can I tell you to make you more comfortable?"

Bork looked at the people at the people seated at the tables where three roasted turkeys waited for them, "How many people live down here?"

"Oh, just what you see here, plus Rusty. You'll meet him later. He's so busy with his Broadway Musical he'd be singing show tunes all through dinner if he came to dinner?"

Algernon grew immediately interested when Broadway was mentioned, he loved going to theatres, and the alphabet owned private boxes in many cities. "He's writing music for a production? Of what? Does he need help?"

Mama smiled at him, "Rusty would love help. He's working on the music and animation. Everyone is working on the story." She pointed to two people who waved at them. "Brad and Yumi are helping him. Something about an anime called Lovely Angels."

Nina and Onyx raised their hands, "Volunteering!" They joined Algernon at sat down and soon a lively conversation about the production was under way. With a common topic to discuss, the three began talking quickly and asking questions while piling their plates with food.

Bork and Zander took half a step back, looked at each other, and nodded, confirming their alliance. While the Non-Aggression Protocols had kept the Anime Wars in check during the last year, they could see which way the wind was blowing and they wanted to be prepared.

Big Butch chuckled, "Yep, they're related to Milo for sure. We've got lots of food, so take your time and join us when you're ready, or grab some leftovers. We made extra." He and Mama walked over to the table and began eating.

Zander sat with Bork on the steps while he worked through things. Bork was quick to see all possibilities. It made him great at hacking into security systems, but when presented with lots of variables at once, he had trouble processing all the infinite futures and got overwhelmed. Zander was more easygoing and accepted that there were things out of his control or simply didn't know about. He was used to sitting with Bork until the other boy worked things out. Often, Bork saw very important possibilities and acted as an early warning system for the family. They were surprised when two of the children came over to talk.

The older boy said, "Hi, I'm Butch, Milo's big brother. If you want, I'm your's as well. Are you all as smart as Milo?"

Zander shook his head, "It's not as simple as a yes or no question."

Butch smiled, "Yeah, that's a Milo sort of thing to say. If you want to sit, that's fine. But we could also find a corner. Min and I have been playing 'Not-So-Squishy Humans: The Revenge', but we need new opponents and there are some four-person scenarios."

Bork looked up, very interested, "That game was never released, it was full of bugs! Then, the creator was hired by another company to work on the Dune 17 game, and the project was shelved!"

"Yeah, it was, but we heard about it and bugged Milo to buy the rights so we could try it out. Milo fixed most of the bugs and we're writing new material for it so Claw Master can release the game. Want to give it a go?" Min handed Bork one of the prototype Claw Master Game Decks and he gingerly took it. Butch extended one to Zander. Milo brought plates of food over and put them near Bork and Zander, who barely noticed as the four of them started the campaign to free Earth from colossal aliens. Four failed tries and two hours later they finally managed to get a win.

Bork came out of the hyper-focus he'd dropped into, feeling much of his stress gone. "That game is insanely hard! It's awesome!"

Zander agreed, "I was sweating that last encounter. It makes me want to play again, but sadly, knowing the boss takes double damage from synchronized plasma rifle damage would make it too easy. If we traded away all of our loot we could all have rapid-fire plasma casters by the end of the game."

Butch and Min laughed, "That's why it's all random."

"Random?"

Min nodded, "The storyline has branches depending on what decisions you make, but the NPCs have differences in their personalities and dialog each time you play. The monsters can be different things with different abilities and the aliens all have random weaknesses that you have to figure out to beat them. Milo gets bored with games once he's figured them out. We told him he should make a game that changed every time someone played it. I think he adapted some stuff from Run, Run, Ramona for Squishy Humans.

Bork looked at Zander and smiled, "I wonder if Claw Master is hiring game developers."

Zander was wistfully thinking of all the old games they could upgrade and rewrite. How many were languishing and in dire need of a clever upgrade. Even some of the games the alphabet had written hadn't been played in years. "I wonder how many of the games we made for each other we could adapt? Or cannibalize pieces from? We did a lot of stuff that summer when we were in Denver."

Butch stood up, "Let's go find him and bribe him with that cheesecake Mama is slicing up. It's his major weakness. We hand him a piece when we want to beat him at games."

Bork got an evil smile on his face, "And there it is! Every Super Villain has a secret weakness. We just had to wait until one of Milo's minions revealed it to us."

Their plans were foiled as Milo opened up the large wooden doors that lead outside, revealing tree-lined streets, houses, and frolicking bunnies in the park. "Who would like a guided tour of DownTown before we meet Rusty and visit the engineering section?

Min grabbed Bork by the hand and pulled him up. "C'mon, I'll show you Kenji's hydroponics area. We can pick some greens and I'll introduce you to my favorite bunnies."