The safe house was more or less a mixture of the little farm that the UnderBarn stayed in and the other safe house we had stayed at, unassuming country house. This one had no crop fields but was on a pretty enormous property, having a long street leading to it, everywhere mostly a combination of old pastures and eucalyptus plantations. The house itself was a fairly big one with a masonry foundation and walls but with a wooden roof.

But after the time we stayed on the road, it was an oasis and that mostly for the actual bed that it had; it was just a thin mattress on a cheap wooden frame but it made my day even more because now I could finally sleep.

We spend the night in the camping reserve, staying until late into the morning with, gratefully, no signs of the tracker. We were finally free of that blight. It had been a great stepping stone to advance m powers but at too much a cost; I had to be smarter about these things in the future.

So, being able to sleep without concerns, I slept like a rock, and my teammates left me to it. I woke up to a hot day, hotter than we’ve seen in a long time, and I felt for once totally refreshed. My mind feeling sharp again in a way that was hard to describe. It was a huge relief feeling no additional tethers or anything.

I went out of my room to go find something to eat, passing by the awake members of my team. The mood was much brighter with them as well, even spyglass seeming more relaxed.

That might be because she finally decided to quit. The missions weren’t doing her great, and I thought she stayed doing them mostly for the sense of duty. But she needed some time off. She could maybe enter an intelligence division if the dawnbreakers had something like that.

Spotlight saw me entering and came in my direction looking completely better, his grin back solidly etched on his face, “Remember that place that I wanted to show you? If you still want to go, we can go tonight.” he offered simply

I really had nothing else to do, so I accepted “Yeah, I’m free.”

“Cool” he nodded my way and turned back to talk to the rest of the team.

I tried pestering him about where we were going during the day, but he just brushed me off. What was it with wanting to be all mysterious.

I spend the rest of the day trying to relax with everyone and not dwelling on the mystery that spotlight was cooking up. I was really trying to get to know my team, entering the conversations and building up more familiarity with each of them. When not doing that, I studied my matrix, planning what kind of things I’d do when we were back in the bunker again. There was so much to experiment on.

As night approached, we all decided to make a barbecue, together with the actual house there were some other small buildings around including a place made specifically to host barbecues with a big barbecue oven, made of masonry with a chimney inserted into a wall and a long table made of solid wood, it was open from two sides maintaining the cover of a roof while still giving a good outdoor feeling.

Payback and spotlight went to the market to buy beer meat and food for our stay here. While they were out doing that, we cleaned up the place and started up a fire as there were still plenty of wood and coal at lying about at least.

We finished it fairly quickly between the three of us and after a good while, when the fire was already happily cracking in the barbecue oven, the boys came back with some good kilos of meat, sausage and farofa, couldn’t go without that one.

Payback and LED prepared the meat, and I invited myself together with Spyglass to cook up some rice, pasta and mix up some mayo potato salad to have a good commemorative dinner.

Spotlight happily cheered everyone on while already starting on the beers. “I’ll go search for something to make some noise, it the only thing missing,” he said, getting up from the couch.

“Guilty of just sitting on your ass, Spotlight?” spyglass joked

“Never, just want to hear some pagode to go with the beer.”

I had a good laugh while finishing up cutting all the potatoes. It felt nice to just spend time with everyone. It almost felt like we were just a group of friends at a summer house.

Spotlight came cheering, holding an old-style radio in his hands, grinning like he had found gold.

“This one will have only stations with good pagode, it’s their only purpose.”

“You probably only gonna find sertanejos,” LED said, a faint smile on his face.

“Yeah, that or podcasts,” Payback added.

“When was the last time you all even heard a radio, huh? There are no such things.”

“Talking like that you’re probably the one who never listened to radio.”

Spotlight plugged the radio into the power outlet, putting it on the balcony that separates the kitchen from the living room; he navigates the stations with only the static sounding around until he stumbled onto a voice talking about something; he adjusted that radio until it came into focus.

“All I’m saying is that it is indeed weird that they had that accident just after they won that case” the voice from the radio spoke sounding slightly distorted telling of how it was coming from an old radio, everyone stopped briefly to get what was being said.

“Told you there would be podcasts,” Payback said laughing as he carried the prepare meat in the spit to the outdoors oven.

“Shh, I’m curious now.” Spotlight said, fanning a hand in Payback’s direction.

“No, no, you’re listening too much to those internet conspiracy theories. What are you trying to tell me? Someone sabotaged their car, intentionally drove the truck into their car. What would be the motivation?”

“What are they talking about?” I asked, not fully understanding the context

“Don’t you remember that case? That was all the fuss during the last month or so. Last week the whole family died in a car accident.” spyglass explained to me.

Ooh, so that was what that teacher was trying to say with a tragedy. It indeed feels setup to me. I was sure the government wanted the child, as rumors were that it had a powerful power, although undisclosed.

“Oh, I see. A shame.”

“You know nowadays everything is possible Tsark,” the podcast continued as everyone kept listen but returning to their own activities. “All I am saying is that the case was a minefield. There was a powerful power that wanted the custody of that child, otherwise there wouldn’t have a battle at all.”

“Look Ingvarr, if there were people powerful enough wanting the child, they would get it was just unusual that a kid that young awakened, even more so with a power that strong.”

“You know something LED?” Spotlight asked, seeming serious. LED frowned but shook his head.

“No, not that I remember, but it’s not like I am informed of everything.”

“But that only contributes to the point, if the kid didn’t have such strong power no one would even hear about it, and a case don’t just come to the public mouth like that, someone pushed that, someone that we know the government doesn’t like”

“That I know,” LED said, pointing a knife at the radio. It was indeed us that pushed the case to the public eye. The government was trying to do it all, raising no attention.”

“You gonna talk about the dawners again, aren't you?” Tsark, I think, said in a tired voice

“Look, all I’m saying is that it’s possi-” the voice was overtaken by static again as spotlight started again to mess with the stations

“Bah, whatever I want to listen to some music,” he said, going through some other podcasts or news and even a mass prayer before finally finding some music.

“You asked and we play! Boate Azul from Joaquim e Maaaanuel...” a woman called excitedly as the song started playing:

“Doente de amor procurei remédio na vi-” The music was replaced by the loud static as Spotlight quickly changed the station.

See spotlight LED said, smiling as the sertanejo continued playing. Spotlight only shook his head as we all laughed

“The true barbecue music is coming guys, trust me” he said as he continued thought some other stations.

“Que coisa louca, eu já sabia,

Enquanto eu me arrumava”

“Yes,” Spotlight cheered, raising his beer “now it’s a real barbecue.” he let the music play, swinging side to side alone as everyone looked on amusedly.

“Alguém que vai mudar,

A sua vida inteira da noite pro dia

Tá vendo aquela lua que brilha lá no céu?

Se você me pedir eu vou buscar só pra te dar”

The meat was ready, and we nicely put the dishes on the big table. This surely was a big commemoration dinner and the mood of everyone around the table was that much higher thanks to it.

“I think we really needed something like this,” Payback said as he cut pieces out of the spit on a big wooden cutting board for everyone to take pieces as they wanted.

“Indeed,” LED said, “we passed through a lot of things in the last week. It’s good to take a bit of downtime.”

“Thats for sure,” Spotlight cheered.

“We came unprepared and paid the price for it, although the battle was the easiest part it could have been prevented, and it ended with us losing what we came here for, it was only a contact and not an official mission from headquarters so in that sense it was okay for us to fail.”

“It wasn’t okay for us to fail, though, because someone died. That’s what happens when we fail, and next time it can be one of us. And that death isn’t only on matrix shoulders, but on mine as well. I wasn’t a good leader to you all, and I intend to fix that. We need more communication and we need to know how to fight together.”

Everyone seemed more somber, the foods and drinks untouched on the table.

“We need to get back to base, and train our asses off, when the headquarters sends us on a mission again, we need to be molded from the raw ore we are now into a proper team.”

“But for now, we deserve the break, I’m sorry for bringing the mood down,” LED apologize seeming only then to notice what he had done for the mood

“No joke man, let’s leave the worries for tomorrow guys, tonight we feast until morning.” Spotlight said, raising his cup and downing it in one go

Everyone cheered. I for sure was pumped to start putting in the work. This country would not save itself after all.

“Sadly, we can’t, we need to be going tomorrow already, we leave at the break of dawn”

“Maybe not that early, chief,” Payback said, his cup empty as well already.

“Spotlights right for once. I don’t think everyone can wake up that early,” Spyglass added, shrugging.

“Fine, but we must go before midday.”

“Yes, sir” Spotlight saluted sharply, all of us joining him immediately LED shaking his head amusedly at the antics.

I was awoken abruptly by someone shaking me. I woke up almost immediately, focusing on who it was.

Spotlights’ face was hard to make out in the dark, but not impossible. There were some lights still turned on around the house.

“Still want to go?” he asked, getting up so I could exit the bed

“Of course, why? Is it dangerous?” now I was more suspicious about him not telling me about the location, but no one had seemed interested as well.

“Well, potentially, but I don’t think so.” he shrugged and I could make out his hand moving in the dark, waving it off.

“Sounds very well thought of,” I mocked

He chuckled, “Relax, it’s going to be fine. Now let’s go, I have a friend that is coming to give us a ride.”

“A friend?”

“Yeah, do I look like I don’t have those?”

“Not sensible ones at least.”

We exited the house quietly, not seeing anyone else up. We arrived at the front of the house and spotlight made for us to go farther, probably so that the car didn’t wake the others.

I followed him down the dirt road leading to the highway

“It was an excellent opportunity, that this house is close by to the place, and also good luck that a friend of mine was around.”

We stopped walking, seeing the lights of a car headlight appearing in the road, approaching us at a slow pace. The car stopped just in front of us, leaving the lights on. The door opened as a guy came out. He seemed to be alone and was smoking. He came to the front of the car’s light as he dragged on his cigarette, throwing it out and smiling through the smoke at Spotlight

“Still a walking chimney I see,” spotlight greeted animatedly as they clasped hands.

“How’ve you been doing Sneaky”

“Just fine,” he turned, mentioning me. “This here is my other friend, Matrix. Matrix, this is Ancestry.”

He approached, extending his hand for me to shake

“So, you’re the immortal one”

“Maybe, but I hope to take wait a little more to find out.”

Ancestry had hair as straight as they come. It fell in thick locks up to a good amount under his shoulders, all tinged in different colors. “Did Spotlight tell you about me?” I asked, noticing the many swords he carried on his person

Two poking from each side of his back and two more on his waist, seemed like other three in the back of his waist, that must be heavy but it had to do with his power for sure.

He nodded. “I’m guessing you are the only bald man of your team, so yeah”

“Yeah, that’s me for sure then.”

To have that many swords, his power shouldn’t be only to wild them well, one would do in that case, I looked their design over noticing how they had various differences seeming to come from all different cultures and time periods, putting that together with his name he might be able to get different enhancements from different types of swords, different fighting styles or abilities tied to the sword’s cultures or perhaps past wilder.

Like what you see? He asked, patting one of the handles.

“Oh, sorry, I got lost in thought” I apologized noticing that I had been staring, catching his eyes again, he only smiled not seeing to be offended at all.

“No problem. I understand they can be eye catchers, and Spotlight told me about your power. It makes sense that you’d be interested in them.”

it really had to do with his powers then, but yeah, what other reason would someone have to carry so many swords.

“Come on,” Spotlight called, seeing that our introductions were over. “We don’t have the entire night.”

Ancestry called for Spotlight to take it easy as he entered the car again. I followed spotlight; he entered the front while I took a seat in the back.

We drove away, passing by the highway briefly and then continuing too much more deeply into the countryside, passing by many farmsteads as the roads transformed into more suggestions than the actual road.

Finally, we entered a heavily forested area, there was no asphalt and I couldn’t see where we were going with the thick vegetation, probably couldn’t even if it was in the daylight, the car went slowly with only the sound of vegetation being crushed and the occasional noise from the forest accompanying us.

“Seriously, where even are we going” I whispered, weirded out by it all, had spotlight held a grudge and decided to bring me somewhere to kill me? I had noticed nothing off about him though, but then again, weren’t people not noticing him his whole thing.

“Relax matrix, you’re going to see it soon.”

“See what Spotlight” I asked impatiently.

“The real rot that permeates our country.”

I frowned, something to do with the government, but this far out, in the middle of nowhere, why?.

Ancestry stopped the car without us arriving anywhere. It was just dark vegetation around us.

“it’s only a bit further,” he said, and Spotlight mentioned for me to follow as both of them got out of the car.

I exited as well and followed them, my eyes straining to make out more from the dark. I could see some faint light ahead of us on the trail.

Eventually we arrived in a starkly unfamiliar area the vegetation was completely cleaned off, transitioning abruptly from forest underground to a perfectly manicured lawn. In the middle of the sudden clareira there was a fenced building.

“What am I looking at?” I asked, bewildered

“This here is one Sulphal hidden labs, it’s where they do their worst.”

“There are others like this that are more focused on maintaining people, straight to God concentration camps. This one is different. The only captives you going to find here are the ones sent to die.” Ancestry added, the two of them were much more serious now and I could feel the hate in their stare and postures.

“If There still are some alive, I’m planning to free them.” spotlight said setting his jaw, “but I’m not too hopeful.”

“What did u bring me here for? Sure I can copy your power, but otherwise I’m not much for the stealth.”

“No, I didn’t bring you to help me.” he said, shaking his head and turning to talk to me directly. “While I go inside, I wanted Ancestry to show you what they have been doing”

“Why?” I asked, not getting the whole point of it why would spotlight want to show me this and why was it so secret from the others.

“I know that you have resolve matrix, and I believe it, what I want you to see today is for your resolve not to wane, for you to not be swayed someday thinking that these people can redeem themselves.”

“Sure, but why is this secret spotlight, don’t you work with the others?”

“Of course, I do, but they don’t need to know” he put a hand on my shoulders looking directly in my eyes. “Matrix, the amount of potential you have is astounding. I cannot let the government cloud your judgement. If they sway you to their side, then there would be no hope for a revolution.'“

I frowned, was Spotlight actually higher ranked than I thought, or even LED knew?

Spotlight continued, “I want you fighting at my side. Before we talk more, let Ancestry show you, you’ll understand then.”

I nodded. I could do that much. If it was as dire as Spotlight was making it to be, I had to see it for myself. “Okay.”

I looked the laboratory over again. There were guards at the doors and huge searchlights illuminating the perimeter of the facility. It would be hard for anyone to enter, but for Spotlight, it was as easy as anywhere else.