#amy malone

[izayoichan]

Toshi nods, holding out a hand to Yanni, chuckling when he gets handed his earplugs, putting them back in his pocket.

“It was an offer to help you up though.. But thanks.” “Ah..”

Yanni chuckled, grabbing Toshi’s hand, then picking up the now shut down device. 

“Do you really think they will understand what we're about to tell them?” “Maybe, maybe not, but they should feel it.. Especially when we talk.. I guess we can try with Amelie first?” “If she is okay with it, then yes.”

It didn’t take them too long to find their way back, and soon enough they were standing back in the library, which now looked like a a right mess compared to when they left. 

“This isn’t good.” “Nope.” “Amelie?”

There was first silence, then a sound made from one of the corners of the library, Toshi rushing over, helping Amelie from what he assumed was her hiding place. She quickly and frantically signaled for them.

“They took him.. They will…” 

She looked at them, her eyes going wide as she saw the two devices they were carrying.

“Are those?” “Yes. Shut down and taken care off.” “We need to stop them.” “Stop them?” “Yes!” “Show us the way then.”

She nodded, running through the halls with the team on her heels, until they stood outside large, decorated doors. 

“Here.” “And you want us too?” “Stop them.”

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[izayoichan]

“Okay, we can take it back with us now, I would say we take the power source back to base, perhaps it can be used for something. Let’s go find the two others.”

Toshi and Yanni had narrowed in their search, Yanni holding his hands over his ears, visibly more annoyed with the sound they could now both hear, it was not a nice sound, and he could only imagine how bad it was for those that were affected with the initial blast.. What fascinated him though was that it seemed to do something to their genes, as even generations later the effect was still there. 

“You can stay there, I’ll.. he stopped himself. I mean.. I can see it from here, I guess we just wait for the others.” “Let’s wait, pull back a bit and wait.”

Toshi nodded as they started to walk back, he could actually see Yanni wobble slightly, which told him that he was much more bothered by this sound than he let on. 

“You okay?” “Yes.” “Seriously?” “No.” “Sit down then?”

Yanni slumped down on the ground putting his hands over his ears, shaking his head. 

“If this is just a little of what sound does to them, then I understand them throwing us in jail.”

Toshi looks back, wondering if he should try, but also not wanting to touch it, break something and have it all go boom in their faces. 

“Wait, try these.”

He took out some earplugs he always had with him. As much as he loved Derek, he had a thing for snoring while they were on missions, while weirdly not when they were home. Of course he had no idea if they would do anything on this kind of sound, but it was simply the only thing he could think of. 

“I’ll get your earwax in my ears, you know this right.” “Nope, they're new for this mission.” “Ah… . “

He shakes his head and puts them into his ears, nodding, as they do help somewhat. Toshi once again looked back at the device.

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[izayoichan]

“Why say you wanted to go with me?” “Because after being stuck in jail with you, I kinda enjoy your company.” “Really?” “Yep, I’m seeing more of what Derek sees in you.”

For a second Toshi was almost sure he could see Yanni smile, but he showed it away as a trick of the light. 

“If we manage to shut them down.. Then what?” “We contact home base, explain to them the situation, and go back, see what we can do to help them adjust and explain what we did of course.” “Ah yes, the “Not becoming gods rule.”” “Indeed.”

They followed the map, spreading out a bit, as they assumed it wasn’t a perfect idea of where it was. Derek on his end though followed the map as directly as he could make out, and much like he had anticipated, they found the device where the map said. 

“So… ?” “It is very similar..” “So my ears are hurting now, anyone else?”

Both Amy and Emory nod, the closeness apparently makes even them a little sensitive to whatever it is this thing emits. 

“Can we turn it off?” “I think so, just give me a few.”

He watched the design, he wasn’t quite sure, and he knew from the other one he had stumbled across that doing it wrong would make everything worse.He turned the unit around, finding the panel he had hoped was there, then again studied what was innside. 

“Well.. either we all get a severe headache, or this is the off button.”

He looked at the others who all nodded, then he clicked the button and for a moment they all held their breath, as a slow whoosh sound told them it was shutting down, the light blue light it had emitted vanishing. 

“Phew… well then.. “

He quickly turns it again, opening the side panel, and then removes the power source, just to make sure no one turns it on by mistake.

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[izayoichan]

“Can you play that?” “Yes, I learned in the library.” “The room where one is supposed to be quiet.” “What?” “Where I come from, libraries are quiet places.”

She smiled, and Toshi was sure if she had a voice there would have been laughter.

“Come one, I’ll let you and Emory play together, and we can have our banquet or feast.”

The evening was just that, music, sounds, chatter, all the things this place had missed for centuries once again finding its place. They made arrangements before they left, about coming back, sending some people to help them rebuild, and see if some of their tech could help them make life a little easier for them. 

“Home sweet home.” “You mean tests sweet tests right?” “Oh so true Toshi, so true.”

Yanni laughed as they waved goodbye and the portal opened. Oddly this quiet adventure had broken the ice between the two, and Toshi for the first time felt like he was finding his spot in their group.

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[izayoichan]

Derek smiles, as more people come up to them, hugging them, thanking them. For most of them it wasn’t the first time they had this kind of experience, but for Toshi it was new and quite fun to see them doing something good. 

“You will stay, will you not, for a feast, a celebration?” “Please?!”

Toshi chuckled as Amelie signed the plea, while jumping up and down, the room slowly filling with more people, and they could hear and see the new retold several times. 

“I guess we could. I mean we contacted the base, they know we're fine.” “I’m all for it.. Oh, Amelie, come on.. I know what we have to do.”

Toshi winked, remembering the instruments that he had seen earlier, thinking it was just what their feast could need. And he knew Emory was good with a guitar and music, for what was maybe the biggest party in many of their lives, just felt right. 

“Music?” “Yes.”

He smiled at her as they left the others to talk with everyone, show them the device and show them the things they knew and had found, also a little where they were from and how they came to be here. 

“You know, this is all your doing?” “What?” “All of this, if you hadn’t taken the chance on talking to me, then none of this would have happened.” “I was a little scared though, but you seemed nice. Unlike the other one..” “Yanni?” “Yes.” “Well Yanni isn’t bad, he just looks a little more scary.” “He isn’t like you?” “No, he comes from another place again.” “Oh.. but the rest of you come from the same place?” “No, Derek is also from another place, but like you, we look mostly the same.” “Oh…I’m glad you came here.” “Me too.”

They entered the music room, Toshi mostly getting the guitar, noticing her looking at a flute, putting a hand on her shoulder.

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[izayoichan]

“So do we split up and see if there are two of them, or stick as one group?” “I have no idea what to do with it, even if we find a second one.. But perhaps if some go to the second location, we could bring it to the first?” “Maybe.. I am not sure what that would do if we have not shut down the first though.. “ “Okay.. so if we find it, we stay by it, see what we can make off it, and then you know if we don’t return there is a second.”

Yanni looked at them. 

“I’ll take Toshi, you three go get the one we know is there.” “Alright.” “You really want mr no touching the tech with you?” “Yeah, he just shouldn’t touch it.. Or hey, perhaps he should, and it breaks automatically?” “Haha, very funny.”

He had already managed to break a pc or two at work, so everyone had realized that Derek had not been joking when he said Toshi could break anything mechanical. 

“Okay, let’s go and see what we find. You come to us if there is no second, if there is one, we will come to you.”

They hoped that where they were would keep any followers at bay, they could only imagine that this area was somewhere they had been banned after what happened last time, so it was in many ways the safest place to go.

“And if we can’t fix it, then what?” “We leave.”

Derek noticed the look on Toshi’s face the instant he said it. 

“We leave for now, we go back, we see what we have, and we come back.. But staying here might lock us here, you know that right?” “Yeah…” “And none of us want to stay here forever, at least when we can come back, and try again, now that we know what we're up against. So if it happens that way, we can try and figure things out at home, and then come back when we have ideas.” “Okay.”

Toshi looked at Yanni who nodded, the two groups going in different directions. 

“Why me?” “What do you mean?”

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[izayoichan]

“Should I?”

He signed it, pretty sure Yanni could not hear him if he talked. 

“Hell no.” “Oh come on.. “ “Nope.. you do know people on base hide their tech stuff when you're in the room. I am honestly amazed you can have a smartphone.” “Me too really.”

He chuckled, he knew how bad he was with it, and he did actually know that people hid their laptops and such when he was in the room. He had even asked Catherine if there was something she could find, but she said there was nothing odd with him in the tests and that there was just those that didn’t get along with tech. 

“I honestly thought Derek was joking when he told us, until we saw it first hand.” “At least it comes in handy when we want something to break?” “True.”

Toshi lifted his head as he heard footsteps, ready to grab Yanni and run if it wasn’t the other group, but he soon lowered his shoulders as he saw Derek wave at him and the two others carrying one device. 

“So a second one then?” “Yes, and it’s hurting Yanni.. I mean I can feel it, but I guess he has more sensitive hearing than me.” “I’ll fix it.”

Derek nods, then walks over to the second devices, they are as expected the same, so what he wonders more about is how they ended up here in the first place. After a few minutes he had shut down and taken out the power source of the second one, handing the power-source to Amy so she could take it with the other. “So now what?” “Now I can contact the base.”

Toshi looked surprised, not sure why he hadn’t done so earlier if he could so easily do it here.

“That sound field messed up the contact really, so I haven’t been able to until now.” “Ah..” “And then we go back?” “Yep, to Amelie and her friend first, then we will have to have them with us to explain and try and help those that are there. We have no idea what sound might have done with them after living with it for decades:”

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[izayoichan]

Placing it here and keeping it secret also made sense at least to Toshi, if he had told, it would probably not have ended well. 

“But if they had this device here.. Why not try and take it with them when they went for that device?”

Derek scratches the back of his head, turning a few pages, stopping and pointing at it. 

“Ah, here, he tried, but from what I understand he tried to move it, but it shut down, he assumes some internal components might be loose, and he doesn’t dare to try and change it.”

Toshi watches the page over Derek’s shoulder, then reaches over to point at something that caught his attention. Derkek nodding, then turning towards the others. 

“It says he has a map, map of the location off the device. If we can get that, then we can… “

He was about to say more when the sudden red flashing light stole their attention. 

“I believe… we have been figured out. Amelie.. You lead them out, and here.. The map.”

He quickly hands them a piece of paper that was a very rudimentary map, but a map nonetheless. 

“I hope you can find it, and turn it off… good luck.” “Thank you.”

Toshi smiled as Amelie took hold of his hand and pulled him with her, the others following them through a hidden wall. Amelie signed for them to remember not to talk, all just nodding as they made their way through a tunnel that let them out just outside town. Toshi stopped, looking at Amelie, signing quickly. 

“Stay, we’ll go shut it off.”

At first she shakes her head, but as Toshi looks at her, she slowly sighs and then nods. Realizing that if she gets to close she would probably end up like the previous team that tried. With the map they head into the woods, using signs and not words, just in case that makes them easier to follow, trying to make as little sound as they possibly can. After a while, Derek signals for them to stop, looking at the map, then whispering in a very low voice. 

“Look.. I think not one.. But two.”

He pointed at the map, where it showed two locations, but only one had an actual icon for it, which he could only assume that it was the first one they went for.

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