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~Part 1: Haven, the last city of the New World~

11 days until the Sky Climb

I was peacefully spinning around on my chair, minding my own business when a file was slapped on my desk. The word "CLASSIFIED" was labeled on the front.

"Hey Summers, you misplaced this," I pointed out to my colleague, waving the folder at her. Her face twitched slightly. She was probably annoyed that I, an apprentice, was correcting her, an officer.

"No. That is yours. The Chief gave the orders for you to take on this case," She insisted, pushing the folder back to me. "It's pretty urgent, so don't screw it up," She added before leaving my cubicle.

Ugh, Stryker? You screw up one too many times and that man slams you with extra work. I'm not even in this department- My thoughts froze as I opened up the folder. Oh cores.

A classified missing persons case. I quickly figured out why I had received it when I read my brother's name on the list of missing people.

Brennen and I were on duty together just days ago. Yeah, we went a little overboard in capturing the rogue, but he had it coming the moment he body-slammed me. We got separated for the rest of the week, but he wasn't put in a dangerous area, so how did this happen? Things weren't adding up.

"Huh," I muttered to myself as I peeked over my cubicle. I didn't hear any of the usual snickering or find any evidence of this being a prank. The document had the official Power Control seal stamped on it. This was real.

I sat back down and stared at the case file, hoping my eyes were tricking me. Possibly hoping by some magic that the words would change.

How in the world did he go missing? He's a pure water core! An Officer too! I frantically scanned the file once more, picking out every relevant detail I could find. I thought the cause would have been a rouge or maybe even the uprising rebel group that had been a pain in our sides recently, but the document stated otherwise. A scuffle between Clans, that's not a surprise.

A letter slipped out from the file during my search. The orders were written out in the Chief's handwriting. Orders to report to a location in sector 9. The letter didn't say anything else other than the time I had to be there.

My bag swung on my shoulders as I finished packing. I wasn't given much time to do so. I cursed the Chief in my head as I thought about how long it would take to get there. I wouldn't even be able to see my family before I went. Overtime sucks.

I stopped by the infirmary before I went. The poor nurse was scrambling around trying to tend to the injured. Our eyes locked for a brief moment before she motioned where the melted ice packs were. The recent attacks on the power generators made it hard to keep things cool as of recently.

I made sure my sleeves were covering my wrists before refreezing the packs. I couldn't risk exposing my core glow to anyone. I shook off the incoming chill as I finished putting the last pack in the ice box. The metal gained a new coat of ice as I swiped my hand along its inner walls.

The nurse thanked me as I walked out the door. I nodded and booked it out of there before more work could be passed off to me.

It was a beautiful June afternoon, the perfect temperature as usual. The thermal cores must have been working hard to beat the heat. I shuddered knowing that I would have been in their place if not for my brother's connections.

Velcro ripped as I took off my Power Control patches. I knew I wasn't supposed to, but my safety mattered more. Who would think that rogues would target lone PC staff if given the chance? Anyone with a brain. It's common sense or at least it should be common sense. Not everyone has stupidly powerful cores!

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