Terra Gate Chapter One The Meeting

Sigma was outside enjoying the sun silently when Rowan told him they would be here soon and to clean himself up. "Look whose talking dirtball" Sigma said opening one eye for half a second. "NOW!" Rowan snapped. "Now you're too old you need help? How sad I didn't notice you were so old dusty... I mean rusty" Sigma burst into laughter when he suddenly felt a smack.

"If I'm old and rusty how did I just smack that smart mouth?" He asked.

He hated everything about Rowan the guy nags about everything just for the sake of nagging it seemed. "You wanna die geezer?" He said ignoring the smack. Then another hit him a lot harder. Just what he waited for. "Gotcha you old fart" he yanked his hand towards him sending him flying towards Sigma, he would have 3 limbs to dodge then he would have a perfect opportunity. A foot, dodge that's one, the other foot that's two, his last limb three. "Your dead meat!" Suddenly a head rams him into a tree he was next to. "Not that easily, I knew you would strike after you figured I was defenseless and not a second sooner. A good strategy but you don't get a mission like this guardian job without skill, knowing your flaws, or always having a trick left. I might be old but you will never beat me because you let your emotions get the better of you." Rowan turned to walk away.

"Wrong you just lost" Sigma said. Before Rowan could completely turn around Sigma grabbed his arm turned his fist into a stone then punched Rowan in the spine. But suddenly he fell instead of Rowan when he noticed he missed and Rowan was a few feet out of reach and countered the same way he was going to hit.

"Like I said tricks up your sleeve. Inside NOW!" Rowan said and walked away.

He grunted pretending to be struggling to get up until Rowan was out of sight then laughed and turned to walk away when he saw two unbelievably stunning women he would die if he ended up with either. Then his logic kicked back in.

"Melissa and Sara I presume?" Sigma asked

"Yup" Melissa answered looking around for Rowan.

"He is inside assuming he knocked some obedience into me, he's not smart enough to realize I have a mind of my own and am smarter than he is. Annoying old goat." Sigma said referring to Rowan.

"I see that's good then." Melissa said.

"Yes he isn't nearby, best time of my day. Is that all your carrying? I can carry it it must be heavy." Sigma said.

"Yes but I actually meant it's good you don't like him either, he is a pig. I'm glad you have a mind of your own, it's a miracle you turned out so nice. He was the most annoying guardian picked." Melissa said as she and Sara handed their bags over and he nearly fell. He had no idea how it weighed so much or how they effortlessly carried it. It's nothing to him actually, but a lot more than he would have guessed.

Melissa went inside and made Rowan leave for now. Sigma and Sara sat on the hill, Sara noticed a sweet innocent look on his face. He was at this moment oblivious to the world. After an hour or more passed he stood up took a long deep breath and said "let's go inside I'm sure Melissa and you have questions." To which she just nodded.

As they walk inside he noticed Melissa relaxed almost as if she was waiting. They sat down next to her and she asked about him, how he felt how he grew up, where his favorite place was, his favorite movies and music. Small stuff to get to know him better, and as a sort of fairness she would respond with her answer after. Sara remained quiet which made him wonder, Melissa noticed and said "she hasn't said hers because it's the same and same answers you gave."

"Why don't you give her the grand tour I already took one to check things out." Melissa said.

He showed Sara to the bedroom and pointed to a bed. "Rowan said it would be easier for us if we spent the first month in the same room and we would probably find out why within our first two days. The house is about three times bigger than it was a week ago but apparently it's just the right size for the next month or so porky the perverted pig Rowan says. I cleared out my room feel free to use as much space as you want I'm used to not keeping many things. So I don't use very much room. The next door after this is our bathroom, but against Rowan's decision I plan to combined it to our room and replace the door to the hallway with a wall, so it would be similar to a co ed dorm really. The last door at the end of the hall is a storage room. I don't think you want to see Rowan's room unless you like naked women of questionable age."

Sara giggled which was the first noise he heard from her. He wasn't sure why she didn't talk but was determined to make her talk by the end of the night. "I'm a little thirsty you want some ice water too before we continue?" He was about to walk out of the room when Sara grabbed his sleeve to pull him in shutting the door and materialized a glass of ice water too hand to him.

"Making something from nothing?" He asked.

"Nope I can't make something I don't understand the process of its creation and function so a plane or bomb for example I can't but if I know how something is made and how it works yes I can create it from nothing. Like this drink for example" she answered putting out her hand with the glass for him to take.

He made a glass identical to hers with the exact same amount of water and ice cubes. "Same restrictions but I make duplicates mostly." He walked out and was halfway up the stairs when he saw Melissa looking his direction and noticed her eyes drawn at their glasses of ice water.

"If you two hit it off so naturally I might have some competition," Melissa laughed.

He could tell she knew the glasses of ice water weren't natural. He pointed to the only door on the right. "That's Melissa's room, The one opposite and down the hall are for any other guardians who come. The third floor has two more rooms. I was planning to move everything up there before you came but can do it tomorrow, our room will be the largest in the house."

Sara smiled and asked, "alright so should tomorrow we will be up there?"

"Yeah," Sigma said. He was about to go back downstairs when something popped in his head. "There is one more place you should know about, it's somewhere only I know about."

"Alright," she smiled.

He led her down stairs and outside to his favorite spot to rest during the day. He looked around to make sure Rowan was not in sight. He knocked on the tree a couple times, followed by a couple pounds. "I hollowed out a part of the tree, it opens by that sequence of knocks and pounds. He pointed to a palm scanner and code panel. He scanned his hand then said aloud five four zero three as he pushed them. Put your hand on the scanner and pick a four digit code.

She did as he said and saw a spot on the ground open up revealing stairs into an underground bunker of sorts. "It's a personal hiding spot I used to avoid Rowan. The main areas are all accessible by default but can be locked down if need be."

"So it functions as a panic room?"

"Basically, though I have never had to use it for that."

"I'm assuming you have a room that requires more than a palm scan and four digit pin too."

"Glad you caught onto that." He flicked on the lights and pointed to each doorway showing a nameplate for the rooms above that read. "Bathrooms, bedrooms, gym, kitchen, observation outpost two, secondary security system, panic room, virtual training facility, lower facility."

"Lower facility?"

"A section I was not done with yet, it's mostly just a giant square area for now. Anyway the panic room in the panic room, ironic to say it. It's on a completely separate network of controls that can only be accessed from inside. But once inside you control the entire island. To prevent it from any type of detecting its the only room that can't be scanned from the surface either. It's system are also pretty much all offline if nobody is in it. Same with the main areas we are in."

He walked up to the panic room. Placed his hand on the wall and stared at a spot. The wall lit up around his hand and a light scanned his eyes. A codes panel popped up again.

"Your turn, hand eyes and 10 or more characters long for a password," Sigma said.

They went in and he showed her how most of the stuff works. He checked where Rowan was and saw him inside the house so he said, "all clear."

He walked out a saw Melissa standing there waiting. "Hopefully you walked out just now knowing I was here."

"Actually I only checked for Rowan."

"Well it's good it was me here, as for why I can totally understand. I don't need to ask what is down there, considering you only checked for Rowan. I assume it is safe to," Melissa said.

"I can give you the code to enter if you want to check," Sigma offered.

"No I'm alright but thank you. By the way it's time to eat."

After dinner they went to play a game on pool on the pool table and a couple other games in the basement. Sigma got destroyed at almost everything. They went up to the roof to enjoy the night sky a little before going to sleep.