I took a moment to catch my breath. When I was really, I said "Let's go. We have to get you to the transmission hub." I started down the hallway when he put a firm hand on my shoulder. "That's not the right way, Brianne. There is another secret stairwell leading further down." he said. I nodded and began walking quickly towards the stairs again. I wanted this to be over before they send boss level agents over to handle the situation on the street level. I wanted as few casualties as possible. "You're not even going to ask me why I lied to you earlier?" I challenged. I just blinked. I forgot that he was the one that gave me the false information. I did not have time for this shit. I continued walking towards the stairs. I could not see the secret entrance. "It's at the bottom." he informed me. I looked back and forth and eventually found a small circular latch. Pulling left did not work. Neither did going right. I had to pull it out and then down. A shiny set of iron stairs were revealed. We went down together. I was first. When we got to the bottom, we saw everything enveloped in a red glow. It was the hub.
All that was there was a long metal bridge. At the end, the transmission hub was waiting. We crossed the bridge and saw that Charlotte and Nolan were already plugged in, sitting against it. Colton walked over and opened the port on his chest. He pulled out a long, thin red wire. He plugged into the hub and leaned against it as well on the floor. All I could do was wait. If more enemies came, it was my job to kill them all and protect my clanmates. The bridge and stairwell were both empty. All of the chaos upstairs was working. It took them 10 minutes from the point Colton plugged in for everything to be plunged in darkness. The oppressive red aura was now gone. A few seconds later, the area was bathed in green light. I assumed it was the color for the Researcher faction. I walked over, praising them. I got no response. I looked at them and said "You alright? You won." They all could track me with their eyes. The problem was that the strain of hacking took all of their energy. They could not move a single muscle. I could not use my magic to give them energy. They were constructs. Not humanoid.
My motionless clanmates could synthesize energy from eating. That was something that I could do. Unfortunately, I did not have a habit of eating in the game. No food was in my inventory. There was still a way that I could help them. I sat on the ground in front of them. I smirked and said "Don't worry. I'll get you all out of here." I then prayed to the God of the Sky. As a paladin, I did have a connection to him. That was how I was able to heal. He had to answer me. It was also one of the spells that I got when Paul allowed me access to all of them at once. Since I was so high leveled, I got wine as well as a beef stew manifested before me. I was able to do it more than 3 times with my mana pool, but I just needed to feed them. I had to take the bowls and slide it down their throats. After that, it only took them a minute to break it all down and get the energy to stand up. "Brianne. You have to tell us. It is not possible to do the things that you do." Colton said. I shrugged and said "It's just a bit of magic. It is nothing too special." That really annoyed them. They were still a bit shaky on their feet though.
