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[i]23/05/2047, 2:04 AM
Alberquerque, New Mexico[/i]

Alex and Shirley had no idea what was coming. But then again, they were, themselves, preoccupied with the secrets of the bunker they were exploring. Unravelling the layers of enchantments and spells that their dead friend had placed upon his hidey hole out in the middle of the New Mexico desert, the Mackey siblings and agent Addison were searching high and low for something. Anything. The front door had led them down a confusing magical path that had held up to Alex's prodding and Shirley's light, and currently they were at an impasse; with Shirley one staircase above their position, Alex and Addison were deciding between a simple fork in the path, unsure of which one to take. 

Just as Alex opened his mouth, ready with his decision to move right, an alert sprung into his augmented vision, superimposed against the darkness. It was a bright red triangle with a white exclamation point within it, followed by a simple message. 

"SYSTEM INTRUSION DETECTED."

Before Alex could protest or get an order in, the text vanished, replaced by another message 

"MISSILE EN ROUTE. BIG MISSILE. 10 SECONDS. FIND COVER AND BRACE."

[color=lightblue]"Shit- Shirl get down here now!"[/color]

Unbidden, his sister was already by his side, having received the same message on her own augmented optics. Wordlessly, Alex gathered Addison and Shirley in his arms, put his back to the stairs they'd come down from, braced himself and waited.

White hot force followed immediately after. Much more than what Alex could withstand. The walking tank stumbled a few steps forward from the initial shock wave and then was sent head over heels by the ensuing wall of super-heated air and flame that rolled through immediately after; the floor he braced himself on being torn to pieces by the blast. Had his footing been more firm, he would have withstood the blast. But instead, with the two women wrapped tightly in his arms, the trio crashed and tumbled down the tunnel, engulfed in an inferno that seemed to last forever, before briefly losing consciousness.

Moments stretched into minutes. Hours maybe. But it felt like the ass end of forever when Alex awoke. The first thing he felt were his systems rebooting after the hard crash that had followed him being knocked out by the missile blast, followed by a rapidly cooling heat and pain in just about every part of his body. Alex waited a moment as he let his cybernetics and nanites restart themselves, taking in his surroundings instead. He was buried under a pile of rubble; concrete, some steel reinforcements, stone and sand. There were a myriad of sounds around him; flames flickering [i]somewhere[/i], pieces of rubble falling from the ceiling and the sound of someone groaning. A lady.

[color=lightblue]"...Shirley."[/color]

Alex wasted no time in pushing himself up off the floor. The visage would've terrified lesser men; a hulk, more machine than man, skin rippling like liquid metal, emerging from being buried by rocks and concrete as if he had been resurrected by God himself. His trench coat was ruined; pieces of fabric drifted from his shoulders to settle on the ground amidst ashes. His hat was gone, as was most of his shirt and cargo pants. The rubber soles of his boots were melted and they were just about ruined as footwear could be. But the one image that hadn't left at all was the Union Jack, still displayed loud and proud on his chest. The walking tank quickly located the source of the noise that had woken him and found Shirley's arm, poking out of another pile of rubble. Her hand was aglow with a faint blue light that stood out from the dark oranges and yellows of the ruins.

[color=lightblue]"Shirley!"[/color]

He rushed over to where his sister was, quickly pulling bigger pieces of rubble from atop the mound she was buried under to free her from her prison. A few moments later, Shirley broke free from her own burial site, coughing loudly as she cleared rocks and dirt from around her, assisted by her brother. Her attire was similarly shredded, but to a lesser degree than her twin brother, thanks in part to the cybernetics she had. At least they mostly stayed intact around her more private areas. As she caught her breath and extricated herself from her rocky prison, Alex was already on the move. His enhanced optics scanned the area, attempting to locate their other companion. But, in stark, grim contrast to Shirley's mostly uninjured state...

Alex pulled a large piece of concrete away from where he'd found Addison Reynolds using the x-ray option in his optics. The special agent was barely breathing, and the cause was apparent: unlike the Mackey siblings, whose second skin of nanites was hardened against physical damage, Addison was only human. A roaring inferno that had barely harmed the twins had severely burned agent Addison's body, not beyond saving but without medical aid close at hand, it was clear that she was not long for this world. As Alex knelt to check if she was still alive, a ragged cough escaped her lungs as the agent weakly lifted a hand to grab what was left of his collar. He leaned down close, understanding the gesture, his ear next to her burned, cracked lips as she whispered to him.

"...find...Hex's...killer...avenge...him..."

Alex closed his eyes as he felt her last breath kiss his ear and then vanish into the hot air. A shudder passed through his shoulders as his sister placed a hand atop them, a few tears rolling down her ash-stained cheeks.

[color=lightblue]"...she didn't deserve this, Shirl."[/color]

[color=lightgreen]"I know. We didn't even know. Had no time."[/color]

[color=lightblue]"Aye...still felt like I could've done something more."[/color]

[color=lightgreen]"You did all you could. We did. The least we can do is honour her dying wish, Alex."[/color]

The siblings were silent, for a time. Nothing but the flicker of dying flames and the soft patter of pebbles on concrete. Then a harsh vibration cut through the somber silence. Alex patted his belt where the pager agent Reynolds had given him was, still clipped to the front of his cargo pants, protected from the fires that had raged only moments earlier. One simple message was displayed on its small monitor:

[b][i]WHO'S LEFT[/i][/b]

Alex rose from where he was knelt by Addison's body, pager in hand. With fingers still charred by flame, he typed in a reply that he sent to everyone else. Then he sighed and reached down, gathering the fallen agent's body into his arms, before turning to find their way out of the ruined bunker.

[b][i]TOWER+BEACON ALIVE. ADDISON KIA.[/i][/b]