McMillan Tech Industries Research and Development Department, security camera office
Ryanne Leeson, Samantha Duncan, Randall Jeffries, and Rachel McLewis had been joined by Mycroft Brewer early in the day as they arrived at MTI HQ. They filled Mycroft in on what had happened since he had left MTI HQ early yesterday during the initial Transformation Guns crisis.
"Seems like I missed a lot." Mycroft remarked. "At least Gladys wasn't caught up in the middle of all that. Makes me glad we both got away early on."
"How is Gladys, by the way?" Ryanne asked.
"Happier than I've ever seen her." Mycroft replied. "The Babe Gun has done wonders for her."
"At least some good has come out of all this." Samantha said.
After this initial discussion, they headed to the Research and Development department. Today was not going to be a normal day, in light of yesterday's events. Instead of their normal jobs of designing the newest electric and technological tools and hoping to create new variations on phones, computers, cars, and whatever, they were here on a different mission: To figure out just what happened the night before yesterday morning. To find out just how the Transformation Guns went from being figments of their imagination to being real.
To that end, department head Doug Sallow allowed them the use of the security camera office, so they could view the security camera footage of the night in question. The security cameras were usually left on during the night and covered most of the Research and Development department: The labs, the offices, the larger storerooms, the hall where the storage lockers were located, and so on.
For a while, nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the footage they viewed. In the footage so far, the lab where most of the Transformation Guns were initially found, along with the robots and the Cargo Teleportation Chamber, was in its state prior to the appearance of any of those things. It was this room they focused the most attention on. After most of the staff had gone home, nothing seemed to happen for a while.
Then it happened. There was a brief flash of light, and suddenly the lab was a lot more technologically advanced. The Cargo Teleportation Chamber, previously another fantasy of the group, was real and in the position the group had found it yesterday morning. And the advanced worker robots now made their first appearance, roaming around the lab looking for work. A few minutes later, one of the robots came into view carrying a notebook the group recognized.
It was the notebook in which Ryanne, Samantha, Jeffries, Rachel, and Mycroft had written down their notes and illustrations on the Transformation Guns. The robots were taking turns scanning the notebook, adding all the information contained within to their memory banks. Then the robots began roaming around, bringing in parts from elsewhere, and some strange mysterious energy packs.
In the footage viewing one of the construction areas, the robots could be seen putting the various parts and the energy packs together, building what would soon become recognizable as Transformation Guns. "They're using our notes as blueprints." Rachel said aloud.
"Those robots are every bit as intelligent and sophisticated as we imagined them to be." Ryanne said, as she observed the robots in the video in amazement. The robots continued their work, creating a dozen of each Transformation Gun.
"They're far more advanced than any robots that actually existed, until now." Jeffries added.
"Where are those energy packs coming from?" Samantha asked.
"I assume they just showed up with the robots and the Chamber." Jeffries said. "But where are the robots finding them?"
Video footage from one of the larger storerooms gave them their answer. Robots were emerging from a previously unseen open hatchway in the floor, moving up a ramp with energy packs which they carried to the construction area. Other robots would descend the ramp, and then return with more energy packs. Once they had enough energy packs to power twelve of each of the many, many types of Transformation Guns, they closed the hatchway, which then blended almost seamlessly with the storeroom floor.
The group then looked at each other. The security camera footage was fascinating to watch, but the scenes they saw only raised more questions than they answered.
"So we've got a new sub-basement now?" Mycroft asked. "What's down there?"
"Maybe more energy packs, or an energy mine of some sort." Jeffries mused. "That means it's possible more Transformation Guns could be constructed. Of course, there's already billions of them all over the world now."
Still, there were questions none of them could answer. What had caused the flash of light? How had the robots, the Cargo Teleportation Chamber, and the Transformation Guns (and their power source) become real? None of it made any sense.
Samantha sighed. "Jay was hoping I'd have some answers for him today. I don't know what to tell him."
In truth, a lot of people were hoping they'd be able to solve the mystery of where the Transformation Guns came from. The acting CEO Denise Brewster, many of the Board, their own Department Head Doug Sallow, various people in the PR Department, among others, all wanted to know just what happened.
But for now, they still had no answers. Everyone at MTI, Lake Point High School, and elsewhere waiting for those answers would, for now, have to keep waiting.
