"Ok hands up, who's got a phone." Travis said as he raised his own into the air.

Jessie raised his hand brandishing his own phone, he looked around the group surprised to see only one other person raising their hand.

"Only three maps? That isn't gonna be enough." Lucas said as he lowered his hand.

"We're just gonna have to make do until we can find more soldiers and take more." Travis said as he kicked an unconscious soldiers boot.

"Why did only three of them have maps anyways? How else are they supposed to find their way around this place? It's massive!" Toby said as his voice echoed across the walls. Jessie felt a hand clasp his shoulder and jumped to see another Toby lean against him.

"It makes no sense." The second Toby said before disappearing into a cloud of dust.

"Sorry it's involuntary." Toby said in a hushed voice.

"Huh so that's what you can do. Nevertheless, the men we took these phones are most likely high ranking soldiers, the rest must the grunts." Travis said covering his mouth and brushing away the dust.

"Not that it really matters, at they end of the day they both go down the same way. So where to next fearless leader?" Sarah asked.

They all turned towards Lucas and he slowly shook his head.

"No no I don't think I should be the one making the shots here. Why not have Travis or Jessie make the call? They are better informed about the whole situation than me?" Lucas said confused.

"You know everything we do, and no offense man but we're kids. Jessie doesn't even have his license yet." Travis said.

"I agree with Travis, besides it's your responsibility as an adult to take care of us." Rose said stepping forward.

"You guys are almost eighteen, you're practically voting age." Lucas replied.

"They want us to vote and be able to understand what a mortgage is but won't teach us, typical." Lily said with a smirk.

"Stop trying to shove off the responsibility onto the kids Luke. Just give us the order." Akita said annoyed.

Lucas hesitated and Jessie could see him struggling to come up with a valid argument.

He's scared.

What makes you say that?

It's just a hunch.

"You guys know what happened the last time I lead us into something like this. I can't have that happen on my watch again." Lucas said staring at his band mates with a sad look in his eyes.

Feeling tense Jessie scratched the back of his head. He could see Travis messing with his ring and sighed.

You can cut the tension with a knife.

What does that mean? I'm curious.

I'll tell you another time.

"Fine, whatever." Sarah said surprising Jessie. She turned towards him poking her finger into his chest.

"Smokey here can take the lead then."

"This isn't happening, I don't know the first thing about leadership." Jessie said stunned.

"Oh it's happening, now no more arguing what's next chief." She said as she crossed her arms across her chest.

I'm supposed to lead this?! I'm gonna get us all killed!

Not if you use your head, be smart with your decisions and trust your instinct. No one can fault you for that.

That's easy for you to say.

"Well?" Sarah asked.

"I-I think we should try and get more information about this place, try and see if we can find out where there keeping Mia." Jessie said nervously.

"Ok so how are we gonna do that?" Toby asked.

How are we going to do that?

"We should study our maps to see if we find anything of interest and go from there." Jessie said as he pulled his phone from his pocket. Pulling up a map from one of the many applications on the phone Jessie took a close look. He messed with the screen and was glad to see it was an interactive display, he could zoom in and see specific sections of the building along with their names.

Dread set in when he took stock of the sheer size of the building they were in.

Fifteen floors?! This is an underground skyscraper!

What is a skyscraper? It sounds formidable.

I'll go into detail later but just know that this building we're in is massive.

"Hey I think I found something." Travis said beckoning the others closer. Jessie made his way over to see Travis scrolling closer on a small section of the map.

"This section here is labeled on the map as the 'holding cells'. I'd say that's a great space for us to start." Travis said looking up towards Jessie.

"No shit that's a great place to start. See I knew he'd come in handy." Sarah said clapping Travis on the back.

"Yeah anyways, it looks like the fastest way for us to get there is to go through something they call 'The Zoo' , whatever that means." He held out his phone pointing out the path he had highlighted.

I'm getting a bad feeling about that zoo.

If you don't feel like that's the best course of action find another way.

It's the fastest path, if we want to save Mia before they start their grand scheme we have to act fast.

"Sounds good, we'll head there. For now we should tie up all these soldiers and make sure they can't go warning all their friends that we're here. The longer we can keep our presence here a secret the better." Jessie said as he walked back towards the lift.

Walking towards the truck he stepped over pieces of broken glass opening up the tarp that covered the back. He rooted around the boxes trying to find anything useful. With a smile he pulled out a box filled with a extension cords.

"This should work fine." He said as he grabbed the box. Walking back towards the group he could see Travis staring intently at the phone in his hand, he mumbled to himself as he did.

"I found some of extension cords. Grab a few and tie their hands together." Jessie said as he dropped the box onto the ground.

———————————————•

"This guy is so heavy." Travis said as he dropped a soldier onto the floor of the truck bed.

"Just be glad he's the last one." Lily said sounding exhausted.

"What's the fastest way to the zoo Travis?" Jessie asked while helping Rose down from the trucks bed.

"We can take an elevator that'll take us down five floors directly into that room. We just have to navigate a few hallways and we'll be there in five minutes." Travis said as he massaged his shoulder.

"Ok then lead the way." Jessie said moving aside for Travis to walk past.

Jumping down from the truck bed Travis walked past the group leading them past cars and trucks. Taking a look at his surroundings as they walked Jessie was surprised by how much this room looked like a parking garage.

It feels so weird to see one underground.

Are these 'parking garages' not usually underground.

No they are, I've just never seen one before. The only one is town is the one next to the shopping mall.

Is this town not a large settlement?

Not at all. I think in total this town only has about three thousand people in it.

So three thousand people isn't considered a large settlement of people? How interesting.

"Hey Jessie you there?" Lucas asked shaking his shoulder softly.

"No I'm here." Jessie said snapping back to reality.

"What are you getting lost in thought for kid, now isn't the time." Lucas asked concerned.

"Sorry about that, I was talking to L." Jessie said pointing to his head.

"L? Is that the birds name?"

"Jessie doesn't feel safe saying his name so we are just using the first letter." Lily whispered stretching her head towards them.

"Ok and what did L want?" Lucas asked putting some distance between him and Lily's outstretched head.

Travis had lead the group to a closed door and tried the knob turning it with a smile on his face. As the door opened he held open the door as everyone walked through. Passing through the door Jessie found himself in a wide corridor with thin strips of lights on the ceiling. Grey walls surrounded them as they continued on.

"I was thinking how weird it is to see an underground parking garage and he was asking me some questions about it." Jessie said. "He's actually been asking a lot of questions lately."

"About what?" Lily asked curious.

"About nearly everything, he called a skyscraper formidable."

"Well they are imposing but I don't know about formidable. Does he not know they are just tall buildings?" Toby asked suddenly chiming in.

"I don't know, he didn't know what cutting the tension with a knife meant." Jessie said rubbing the back of his neck.

"That's a pretty common saying too. It doesn't seem like he knows a lot about this world huh." Rose said.

"Well he's from this place he calls the void, from what I saw of it there wasn't much going on." Jessie replied.

"The void huh? This place is where your smoke comes from then isn't it?" Travis asked.

"There was an entire ocean made from the stuff, so yeah that's what I think."

"An entire ocean filled with power giving smoke. That sounds really dangerous." Lily said concerned.

"Hey that reminds me I never asked, how did you guys end up with powers in the first place?" Travis asked turning to face the band.

Toby nervously laughed and pointed towards himself.

"I uh got really sick with that disease that's been hitting the town hard and got everyone in the band infected. When we recovered after a nasty week of mucus and vomit we came out way stronger."

"Some more than others." Akita said quietly.

"Wait if that's the case does that mean that everyone who got sick with that infection is gonna end up like us?" Sarah asked concerned.

"Some people have died from that infection, so I wouldn't say everyone." Lily said pale in the face.

Taking a sharp turn the group fell quiet as they all took in the information.

"Wait but does that have to do with the smoke? If it was an infection that caused you to change does that mean there are two ways to become chosen?" Rose asked confused.

"Can't say for sure, but there has to be some connection." Jessie said as he spotted a metal door in front of them. He turned to face Travis as he looked up from his map. He turned to Jessie and nodded.

"Beyond this elevator is the zoo, from there we can make a beeline straight to where Mia is." Travis said pointing towards the door at the end of the hall.

"That's if she's even there." Jessie said with worry in his voice.

"She has to be, where else would they take her?" Lucas said hopeful. Jessie turned to see his smile look as unconvincing as his words.

As they reached the door Jessie looked to the side of it to see a small screen beside the door. The logo on the soldiers uniforms was displayed on screen, a man wearing a black mask stared at them waiting to see what they would do next.

"Here we go." Jessie said as he placed his hand on the screen. It buzzed aggressively shocking Jessie.

"Please place valid keycard for entry." The machine spoke as Jessie took a step back.

"Of course it needs a key. I was worried about that." Travis said as he bent down to take a look at the display.

"Did anyone pick up anything that looked like what the lady wants?" Lucas asked the group.

As the group patted their pockets Jessie checked his own feeling something in his back pocket. He pulled out what was in his pocket to find a small card similar to the cards hotels use. The same logo was displayed on one side.

"I've got one." Jessie said showing the group.

"How? I didn't find anything like that searching those other guys." Toby asked confused.

"Must be the uniform he's wearing, maybe the guy he ganked it from was high up in terms of rank around here." Sarah said as she swiped the card from Jessie's hand.

She placed it on the screen only for it to buzz once more.

"Not high enough it seems."

Great now what?

What was that card? It didn't look like one used for any games.

It's used like a key to open this door. Only we don't have one that will open it.

Why not try the card the spider gave you.

Spider? You were there for that?

I've been with you for longer than you think, I only recently had enough strength to make myself known.

Pulling out his wallet Jessie pulled out a small green card. A small blood stain covered it's previous owners face.

"Let's try this one." Jessie said as he placed it against the screen display. A small electronic beep was heard as the metal doors opened.

"Where did you get that?" Lucas said as he took a step closer to Jessie.

Brandishing his key card Jessie wiped away the blood with his sleeve. Uncovering a small photo of a smiling Michael Jessie's heart felt heavy.

"That guy we fought in the basement of the hospital gave us this right before he died." Jessie said as he stared at Michael's photo.

"The spider guy?" Toby asked as they slowly filed into the elevator.

As the metal doors closed Jessie placed the keycard back into his wallet,

"That was the first time we met Kazimir, it was also the first time we got hit with his gaze." Lily said as she rubbed her head.

"That power of his is no joke, it feels like your very soul is being split in two." Travis said as a shiver ran down his spine.

"If we're going by what Venom told us about him if any of the four of us get hit by that again, that's game over. We just become what Michael and Venom was." Rose said quietly.

"Puppets." Jessie said feeling his anxiety spike.

We can't save Mia if we end up being that monsters playthings.

"Hey don't worry about that guy, if push comes to shove we'll fight him." Toby said placing his hand on Travis' shoulder.

"He's right, we've never been hit with that gaze of his anyways so it makes more sense for us to send that creep packing." Sarah said with a smile.

"Have no fear. As long as we are with you, there is nothing to worry about." Akita said as he nudged Jessie's shoulder.

Feeling reassured Jessie let out a sigh of relief. He looked towards Akita to see him bowing his head. Confused he pulled on Toby's sleeve and nodded towards Akita liking for some explanation.

Toby smiled and clasped his hands together. He pointed upwards, bowing his own head.

He's praying?

It's very common for those who are about to see battle to pray to their god. Do you believe in God?

Not really.

Some would call you a fool for thinking that.

Do you?

No, quite the opposite actually. I find it foolish to place your faith in an idea like God, but I can't deny there are those who need their faith.

"Are you talking to L?" Rose asked pulling on Jessie's sleeve. He looked down to see her with a concerned look.

"Yeah just trying to learn more about him." Jessie said with a smile trying his best to ease her mind.

"What did you find out?"

"I don't think he's very fond of God, I'd take a guess and say religion in general doesn't really do it for him." Jessie answered placing his hand over his chest.

"Wait are we talking the Judeo-Christian God or are we talking like Zeus?" Sarah asked suddenly interested.

"Uh I don't know, I guess I just assumed he was talking about the first one." Jessie said surprised. Feeling a chill creep up his spine he shivered.

"Judeo-Christian? I don't recognize that phrase, what does it mean?" L said as he materialized on Jessie's shoulder. He stretched his black wings almost hitting Jessie in the face.

"Oh now he's here, is this really what we should be focusing on right now?" Travis asked.

"Travis aren't you at least a little interested in this bird and where he comes from?" Rose asked confused.

"Of course I am but right now I'm a little bit more interested in staying focused so we don't get blindsided by whatever is on the other side of this door." Travis replied nervously. He slowly spun the ring on his finger as he stared at L, Jessie could see him hesitating to speak again as the bird stared him down.

A small chime brought the group back to their senses as the metal doors to the elevator opened. Gasping Jessie took a step forward into the room taking in the sights and sounds.

He stared at the trees and foliage that covered the room in awe. He looked to his right to see an impossibly high cliff with a cascading waterfall so beautiful it left him stunned. Taking a step forward he felt the floor soften and looked down to see grass at his feet, bending down he placed his hand on the ground.

"It's real grass." He said amazed.

"It's an entire ecosystem under the earth. Look there's even rabbits!" Rose said excitedly. She pointed out towards the tree line and Jessie watched as a small family of rabbits stared at them.

What is all this? Why is it here?

"This is bizarre, I've never seen anything quite like this before." L said as Jessie stood back up.

"It's amazing! It's an atrium filled with a lush green forest, it even has a waterfall!" Travis said in awe.

"This place is huge, it would help if we had some recon to know where we're dealing with." Lucas said as he gestured towards L.

"L can you do me a favor and fly around, I wanna know if we're the only people around." Jessie asked as he turned towards the bird on his shoulder.

"Oh are we doing favors for one another? Then may I ask for one in return?" L asked coyly.

"I'm not saying your name." Jessie said bluntly.

"Then I shall remain on your shoulder."

"Hey you're living rent free in my head, the least you could do is help out a bit." Jessie said poking L his feathery chest.

"I suppose I could but I don't see how any of this benefits me." The bird said as he backed away from Jessie's finger.

"Hey birdbrain if Jessie dies again he won't be able to say your name now would he?" Sarah said as she walking towards the two.

"Now if we had more information about the situation we could prepare a little better, we could save you the trouble of having an empty house. Understand?" She said placing her hand on Jessie's shoulder.

Standing firmly of his shoulder L stared down Sarah his gaze unwavering. Seeing no point in continuing Sarah scoffed at the bird and walked away.

"If you aren't gonna work then you aren't gonna have a shoulder to stand on." Jessie said pulling L off his shoulder. Bending down Jessie placed him gently on the ground, he looked down at him and sighed.

"We're not asking for a lot here L just do a lap and let us know what you see. It's that easy."

L sighed and looked up towards Jessie.

"Fine, but don't think this is going to become something you can ask me for so casually. I'm not your pet and I'm not here to serve you." He said as he stretched out his wings.

"I am at the very least your equal, though given some time you might see me as more."

Flapping his small wings he ascended into the air and flew towards the tree line. Jessie watched as he slowly faded out of his line of sight.

"How big is this room anyways?" Toby asked as he nervously looked around.

"The map doesn't show any rooms above this or below this one. The closest room is the one we just came down from." Travis said as he studied the map in his hands.

"That was three floors above us." Rose said looking up.

"We should be fine if we keep going down this path. The holding cells is a straight shot from where we're standing." Travis said showing Jessie his screen.

Studying the map Jessie sighed as he stared at the distance they'd have to travel.

"Looks like we've got a hike on our hands here people. Everyone ready to head out." He cried out bringing everyone's attention to him.

The group replied with a wave of nods and thumbs up from Sarah. Smiling Jessie gestured for the others to follow him as he took the first step towards the artificial forest.

"Is everyone already over the giant forest underneath the earth, is it just me still freaking out." Toby asked as he caught up to Jessie.

"You're talking to a guy who literally came back from the dead. This isn't the weirdest thing we've seen all week."