After driving for two days and bickering with one another, they finally made it to where The Traveler was located. Small town in the middle of the great plains, the perfect place to sit afar and keep an eye on the surroundings. No tall buildings or hills. No mountains. The Traveler hung above the Earth, closer than the moon, but still far enough to allow aircraft to take off and land. The light emanating from it earlier in space was not there anymore, allowing people to stare at it all they want against the bright night sky.

Malachi, Alaura, and Tanis lay down under the tall, pale green grass a little ways away from the makeshift military barricade. The government had set up a perimeter block a few miles on each side of the small town to protect The Traveler and study it. Jeeps and other types of military issued cars parked behind the barricade to reinforce it more. Spotlights rotated back and forth, shining light on the only road and a few feet of grass on each side.

Tanis huddled on one side of Alaura, calm and collected. His light brown eyes stared at the Government takeover of the wide area. He thought they could actually finish this mission, but just staring at the site made his hope go down the drain. He set his head on his crossed arms and furrowed his brow. "Maybe you can see if you have security clearance?"

Alaura scoffed and watched the site through her night-vision binoculars, "That's a terrible idea." She wasn't expecting so many soldiers, cars, or security. The site was a makeshift barricade, so it'd be simple to get in, but there seemed to be no end to the site. There's a patrol around the perimeter. Shouldn't be too tough. Hopefully...

"As if going through with this idea wasn't bad enough." Malachi peered through his sniper scope, counting how many soldiers there were. The odds of the three of them getting to the Traveler dwindled as more soldiers were accounted for. He sighed heavily and set his sniper rifle down for a moment.

Alaura and Tanis glared at Malachi; they knew the idea was terrible, but they had no other choice. If other people saw them using their powers, even if it was an accident, there would be a serious backlash. That's not something they looked forward to.

Alaura returned to her objective and focused in on one part of the barricade below. "There. They patrol around the perimeter every few minutes. We just have to run over there and jump over to safety while they are on the other side."

"What then?" Tanis' voice was steady, but on the inside, he freaked out. Worry built up in his system, twisting knots in his stomach over the thought of his condition. Running through a military base of operations seemed like it would be bad for his body. He didn't want to overwork himself, so he contemplated on sitting out.

"We find a helicopter. We can take it up to whatever this thing is and try to find an entrance. I'm sure Ms. Hotshot over here can get it up into the air," Malachi answered him in a low tone.

Alaura ignored the name he called her, but didn't disagree. She knew she could fly the helicopter. She's done it twice. Third time's a charm. She retorted, "And how do you plan on stealing one without getting noticed?"

Malachi smirked and lay on his back. He stared up at the side of The Traveler and the starry night sky, and watched the stars twinkle brightly. "We'll leave that part up to Future Us when we're in the moment."

Alaura rolled her eyes, yet she knew he was telling the truth. They had nothing. No plan. She hated that. She always went in with a plan, but this mission went against everything she's ever done in her life. She always followed laws and obeyed her superiors, but here she was, about to break those two habits. She pushed the hatred away and focused on the problem. "That's sadly the best idea we have. We can't get in from the ground. As long as we don't get shot out of the sky, we should be able to do this."

"Whoa, wait. How much is the possibility of getting shot out of the sky?" Tanis questioned, glancing over between the other two to see their expressions. Malachi still had a smirk on his face, while Alaura seemed to be calculating something in her mind. Tanis moved his thumb against the palm of his hand in a repetitive action as more worry piled on top of each other.

"Fifty-fifty," Alaura shrugged nonchalantly.

Tanis' jaw dropped for a second and his eyebrows knit together. His forehead creased and his voice wavered as he spoke, "That's the best idea we have?"

"Let's at least park the car somewhere that's not too noticeable from the road," Malachi offered and stayed low to the ground. He walked towards the car and waited for the others to follow him. Alaura sighed heavily and followed after Tanis when he got up. Malachi had the keys, and it's not like Alaura was going to let him go with Tanis. Malachi could easily overpower the poor guy and leave without them both, or take off when shit hit the fan because only he knew where the car was.

Malachi started the car and waited for the other two to get inside before starting to drive off. Alaura furrowed her eyebrows and eyed Malachi after realizing where they were headed. "Are you fucking insane?"

Malachi pushed his foot down on the gas pedal as he swerved farther into the grass area, heading straight towards the town. His hands firmly held onto the steering wheel while the car bounced a bit against the earth. Malachi grit his teeth and forced himself not to panic on the inside. This was him putting his all into a terrible plan.

He passed by a few soldiers who were on their patrol. The soldiers shot at the car as it sped off towards the town. The back windshield was shot out and Tanis ducked for cover. Alaura stayed low and Malachi didn't even flinch. When the coast was clear, Tanis yelled out, "What the hell, man?"

Malachi ignored him and sped up to over sixty miles per hour. "Switch with me," He beckoned Alaura over as he put one foot on the passenger's side. Alaura looked at him as if he were insane, but knew he wasn't joking around. She made her way around him, pushing her body to the driver's side as he slid into the passenger's side. He nodded to her before Alaura looked away.

Alaura fastened her seat belt with one hand and focused her eyes on the road. Things were about to get really bad. She pointed her finger at Malachi, who was checking the clip of his pistol. "Don't kill anyone. We're already caught for trespassing," Alaura commanded in a stern tone.

Malachi stuck the clip back into position and tried to take in every inch of the gun. He wanted to make sure of how any bullets he had, then set his feet on the dashboard in a lazy fashion. "No promises."

"Plan A is gone. What do we do now?" Tanis glanced behind them nervously, noticing the few cars on their tail. He wrung his hands and attempted to remain calm. This was all such a huge rush for him. It seemed a bit overwhelming for a moment.

Alaura's blue eyes flickered to the rearview mirror for a second before she turned left down another dark street. "Well, we either get the hell out of here, or we go to the center of this place to see if there's another way up."

"I'm up for getting out of here," Malachi put his two cents in. "I don't know about you guys, but I really want to stay a free man."

Tanis hit the back of Malachi's seat in frustration and exclaimed, "But we have to see if we can get this back to The Traveler! We didn't come all of this way for nothing. It's not like we forced you to join us."

Two jeeps rode up on either side of the car. The drivers glanced over at Alaura, then back at the street. One of them turned into her car, scraping against the metal of the doors. The drivers tried to shoot at the tires, but Malachi aimed his gun at them and waited for them to shoot first. They rolled up their bullet proof windows and waited for another opportunity.

Alaura kept the car balanced and in control. She exhaled in an effort to stay calm and slowed down enough to turn onto another street. The drivers didn't notice until a few seconds later. They angrily sped off in the same direction they were headed.

Two other cars joined the pursuit. One stayed in front of Alaura, the other on the passenger's side. Malachi shot at the drivers, but the bullets wouldn't make it through the window. He grumbled to himself and attempted to shoot the tires, causing one tire to deflate. Before he could shoot at the other one, the car rammed into the passenger's side again, aiming to injure his hand that was sticking out of the window.

Alaura spotted the two cars from earlier drifting in from a side street. She stepped on the brakes, allowing this extremely loud tire screech to pierce the air. Tanis cringed at the sound and held onto his fastened seatbelt. Malachi held onto the passenger side handlebar as Alaura pushed her back up against her seat. Their car skidded to a stop, and the four military vehicles crashed into each other. Two of them slid down the street with extreme damage. One skidded to a halt. The last one flipped a few ways away and the wheels were still rolling when it finished.

All three of them exhaled and almost cheered until a tank rolled onto the street where the cars had come from. The giant green slab moved towards them at a good pace and aimed the dangerous cannon at them. Now that they were moving away from the center of town, it probably assumed it would be okay to shoot.

Tanis' nose scrunched up in dismay. He suggested with a hint of worry in his voice, "You might want to back up."

"No shit, Sherlock." Alaura set the car in reverse and backed up onto another street. She put the car back into drive and stepped on it. The farther they could get, the better it was for them.

The tank followed, no matter how many times Alaura turned down different streets in an effort to lose it. It was slow, but steady. The tank kept on the group in their sight, so the military didn't let a few trespassers get away. It refrained from blasting them to bits to keep from damaging the town itself. Thoughtful on the government's part. Alaura still found it unsettling that they haven't called in new reinforcements. They would have been there by now.

Malachi announced quickly, "I have an idea."

"Please don't do something stupid," Alaura pleaded.

Malachi grabbed his sniper rifle, started to climb out of the window, and sat on the passenger door. "What was that, sweetheart? I can't hear you over all of the noise." He wedged one foot between the passenger seat and the door, while putting the other underneath the glove compartment area. He looked down his sniper rifle's scope and adjusted the lens. Malachi spotted a gas pipe to the side and steadied his breathing. He exhaled for a few seconds, cleared his mind, and shot at the pipe.

The whole building blew up in fiery flames, causing debris to fly everywhere in its vicinity. The building next to it followed suit; it exploded and chunks flew into the street, blocking the path. The tank stopped to avoid impact and waited until it was clear to continue.

Tanis almost jumped out of his seat in excitement. He raised his hands in sweet victory and grinned from ear-to-ear. "I can't believe you just did that!" He turned to Malachi and applauded him, "That was awesome, like, straight from the movies awesome!"

Alaura looked into the rearview mirror and her blue eyes widened in fear. She punched Malachi in the leg and almost caused him to fall out of the window. She raised her voice in concern, "What if there were people in that building? You could've killed them!"

Malachi shook his head and fell into the passenger seat. He set the sniper rifle faced down towards the floor near his feet. "There wasn't. This town closes up by eight sharp. I'm not going to kill innocent people just to get to this stupid orb in the sky."

"It's not stupid! It's amazing! This could change everything for us!" Tanis exclaimed in defense of the plan.

Alaura yelled at both of them as she kept her hands firmly on the steering wheel, "We have bigger things to worry about here!" She spotted the car barricade in front of them a ways away and tried to find another direction to turn.

This was a one way street. No alleys or side streets. She was about to step on her brakes until one of the soldiers shot the tire out, causing her to skid towards them. She stopped before she could hit anything, causing the car to jerk forward. The three stared at the soldiers in silence, as if they all knew it was over at the same time.

The soldiers put their guns up and aimed it at the trio. Alaura spotted the mags and noticed they didn't have a blue coloring to them. There wasn't stun ammunition in the magazines. Those soldiers were going to shoot at them if they wouldn't comply. "Step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air."

The three of them complied and stepped out of the vehicle, hands in the air where the soldiers could see them. All three of them glanced over at each other in defeat. They'd never get to know how they got their powers or why. If they tried to use their powers now, they'd either screw up in the biggest way, or just get themselves killed. There was no point in fighting. They stole government property, blew up two buildings, and much, much more.

Their mission was a failure.

Soldiers swarmed around the trio, guns pointed right at them. They closed in a tight circle to make sure none of them were able to escape.

Malachi traced his life up until this point. He lost someone he loved. All he did was move from one job to the next. He had to put up with douche bag bosses and murdering people. He killed people, for Christ's sake. There was so much bad karma and negativity around him that maybe it was for the best that this happened to him. It would be a wake up call to change his life for the better.

Alaura knew this would be the end of her career. She would never get to lead her fireteam into action after this screw up. She'd never see her teammates or Kai. Lydia would never speak to her again. Her heart dropped at the thought of it. What was she doing here? How could she disappoint her team? How could she put her life on the line like that? All for stupid answers. She was about to lose everything for some dumb conquest.

Tanis didn't have any fear. He wasn't worried about the consequences. It seemed like nothing mattered to him anymore. He felt this numbing sensation all across his body, and at this moment, he couldn't feel at all. He didn't have anything to lose. No one to go back to. No home. No money. He wasn't going to be alive for long, so why care?

"What is that in your pocket?" A soldier yelled to Alaura, shaking her out of her thoughts. He kept his gun aimed steadily at her as he inched closer to inspect.

She glanced down to see what he was talking about and found the pocket with the object inside glowing. It glowed a bright white light that almost blinded her. She looked at Malachi and Tanis in confusion. They returned the same expression, and all three of them simultaneously peered up at The Traveler.

A beam of the same white light washed over them, and they disappeared from the military base's sight.