In the early hours of the day, I gathered all the crew members who stayed up all night to prepare for a visit to Mantodea's research department, and from what I could see when I left the office, it did not go well.

"Drax! We've been waiting for you!" One of them said while everyone else was lying shattered and tired of trying to open the metal ball. I doubted we were ready. As soon as I collected some of my equipment, they noticed me, the whole small group that remained to work recovered quickly and they all collected the equipment in all 12 arms. It was soon sorted out and the whole lab was quickly cleared and they advanced outside the building, like soldiers.

"At least you know what to do," I said as I made my way to the building as well. Qiqi looked at us outside the window and began to say:

"Thou shalt not return unanswered"

We are not!" One of them replied to her as the rest began to whisper a magic shape that made everyone hover towards the gate. As soon as we left the building, we reached the gate, but surprisingly, no one was there. Not a single guard was waiting to enter. The one who was waiting is the operator of the gate, trying to arrange something between the cables.

"Excuse me," I asked as he was surprised and began to look into his little eyes. Turns out this is a mousekin I came across earlier a few days ago while I was back with the president on our island.

"Sorry" he replied: "We're just getting ready and I'm just arranging a few things"

I think I know what he's talking about, but the rest of the group still doesn't seem to understand.

"What is the desired place?" He started straight to grab the switches that were buried inside the stacked cables.

"To Mantodea"

He straight started to dampen a few buttons and turned on the gate. The gate began to glow and at the same speed, the rest of the team entered the gate. I stayed behind for a few moments, head in the clouds before advancing quickly to the gate and closing behind me.

As soon as we got out of it, no one was standing there waiting. Instead, there stood a group of automatons trying to navigate between the cables of the other gate. What interests me is where the guards from the 2 gates have gone, but to the rest, they seem to be ignoring this fact. We started moving towards our destination, but when we entered one of the streets, the place was deserted for life.

"Did we get to the right place?" Asked one of them while another member of the group noticed a metal creature dragging something yellow towards the gate which was soon followed by an entire swarm, passing without disturbing me and my group.

"Yes, we are in the right place" he replied.

The metal creatures we call them, here they are called Biosynthezoid. I do not know the subject behind it, some crazy magical science that turns metals into life, but for me, it's not something new because of all the metal creatures I have encountered in the ruins. At the same speed, we were able to find the department, or one could say a huge building adjacent to a government building, which reminds me that it is like an office and not an entire lab. At the entrance, someone was standing there for a change when, unlike the Mantis gates, which were twice our size, all of whose arms had been replaced by metal claws, they were ready for battle. But as we approached him, he quite softened and knew immediately who we were:

"Aren't you Drax's team? He's waiting for you" and the rest put us in with no problems, while he accompanies the team to the desired place, but I'm only interested in one thing:

"Forgive me for the disturbance, but where are all the residents?"

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"Almost everyone has already moved to Demon island, by order of the administration"

"But why?"

"I'm sure to try to solve the island's fertility problem"

I was surprised by the answer he gave, but deep in one of my hearts, I know it has to do with this escape.

"Indeed" one of the group members replied: "You have always had a history with a small amount of population. Even with the number of eggs you lay in each cycle, few would always survive until adulthood"

"This is the painful truth for us," the guard replied, "and therefore it has always been important to us for every soul with us."

At that time he led us into a large and spacious room where Mantis stood who looked smaller than the guard, but still much larger than us, wearing a lab coat, arranging on a large board a few things and straight into the place, he turned to the group and began to wave them.

"You're probably Drax's team" and turned his big head in front of me: "And I guess you're Drax"

"Right" I moved away from him a little.

"My name is Zick, the assistant that Charic set up today for access to our systems"

"True, we guess your systems, your 'computer' might help us decipher the metal ball that came from the ruins" he took the ball out of one of the pockets and turned it over to him, and as soon as he saw it, he snatched from my arm and started running to one of the magnifying glasses. In different looks, while the rest of the group turned around out of curiosity, I kept them from doing anything funny, in my eyes.

"I see what you're talking about - cable holes that fit our computers. I think we have one in the warehouse."

"Good to hear!" I was moved by the fact that there was something, but Zick's gaze soon changed:

"I heard from him that you are trying to solve the problem of the missing mana currents. I hope you will succeed in your mission." He advanced on all fours towards a large door that opened to the sides automatically, returning at the same speed with the cables and connecting them quickly, as if he had done this before.

"It's easy, we just have to figure out what's going on there, right?"

"Right"

"Can you tell us what you've been up to so far about this ball?"

"Yes Yes!" The group returned from walking around and started discussing with him as everyone progressed to a huge blackboard attached to glowing jars in green.

"I chose the best computer we have," he began to explain to us, as a group of scientists who had encountered an unfamiliar technology of the past: "He laughed while everyone else, including me, got a little out of his statement."

"Anyway" Zick continued: "It will take some time for him to decipher what is there, in the meantime, let's make us tea" Everyone went along with the guard, and I was left behind to discuss with Zick something small and important:

"You know about the project they're building for them on this island" I whispered to him.

"So you know about the 'Great Escape', and I know that Charic you are trying to prevent him from understanding by finding a solution to this current problem" He knew exactly what I wanted to say

"I just want to say that we are not in favor of any of this unilateral move either. Charic's mind is too locked in to carry out the plan, and more than that, he does not reveal to us why."

"He told me you could not try to fix the currents, and I'm here to prove yes. But you seem to have accepted the reality he sees."

"Right" he sighed: "He said it was a sign of the end, and we can only survive if we succeed in doing the project. He also asked us to do one more thing - build the bomb"

"What! He's gone crazy! Not only does he want to run away from all the problems, but he also wants to make them irreparable ?!" I erupted in the madness at what was being read here

"We tried to arrest him, but he threatened that if we did not do this, he would fire us."

"It does not sound terrible"

"For you. For us, it's a verdict and an erasure of honor that you worked on for decades in a single moment."

"I do not want to be here doing justice, I here only get more questions than answers: why does the federation not stop him? And more than that, why are they trying to run away instead of solve. With all our minds, we can solve anything, but instead, throw the team And my platoon into the abyss below and try to escape from them. What are we gaining from this? Time? "

"Second chance" he advanced out of the room, looking he knew he had no answer to it, but at the same time, he knew why. I tried to relax and progressed with him.

The board began to glow from behind and began to scan something that was moving. Just trying to figure out what he's trying to say about the character standing there.