Returning 'Home'

Connor stared at the headline and his eyes moved to a photo that was underneath. It was a photo of a bunch of kids being walked to a bus, he spotted himself amongst those kids.

"I don't remember that." Connor stated. Robert came arond and looked at the article.

"Oh yeah! I remember that! It was huge in all of the Districts! An orphanage was conducting experiments on kids, they never detailed it though. It just describes that they suspected that there were several labs under the orphanage, but it was never confirmed. I think the reason they really got caught was because a kid escaped and told a Seeker. Who then conducted an investigation and found them burning bodies of dead children.... or something like that." Robert summed up the article in less detail.

"I don't remember that." Connor muttered.

"Say, why was that in your box?" Robert asked.

"I don't know." Connor replied.

"Well that vague. I wonder what the expirements were?" Robert mused.

"Let's find out." Connor began walking back towards the exit.

"That does sound more interesting, but, I can't go with ya on that. I do have to go to Thirty. I'm reserved in an opening fight for a really popular Ring. It's just the warm up fight to get the crowd goin. Hey, if you find what you're looking for before nine tonight, you should come watch." Robert explained as the two exited the vault.

"I'll do what I can, I suppose." Connor answered.

"Awesome, well, I'll be seeing ya then." Robert Bidville farewell and ran towards the Portal Center. Connor shook his head and sighed.

"That was draining." Connor stretched.

*Outskirts of District City 13*

Connor stood outside a now condemned building that once operated as an orphanage. Connor sighed and headed inside. It was eerily quiet. Dust, dirt, broken glass and debris littered the floor. The ceiling was falling and sagged in places.

Mold grew all over as well as many weeds and some moss. Connor looked in all the rooms, searching every crevice. Not a scrap of evidence could be found. He went down into the basement, where they apparantly burned bodies.

The only indication of that was the giant furnace. Connor approach it and opened it, inside was mostly ash and soot. But a white silver object caught his attention and he reached in and pulled it out.

"Portal Tech?" Connor mumbled. It was a piece of a Portable Portal. The piece was the length of Connors Forearm and slightly curved.

"These aren't easy to find." Connor delved back into the furnace, looking for more. By the time he had finish sifting through the entirety of the furnace and its pool of ash, he found all but one piece for the Portal. He was also covered in black soot and gray ash from head to thigh.

"Damn it! It's got to be hidden somewhere... Let's see, the pieces... lock them together, if the other piece is within the vicinity, it'll blink blue. I'd it's not, it'll light up red..." Connor put the Portal together. As soon as each piece was in place, a red light emmited between the two unconnected ends.

"Thankfully ancient Portal Tech came with this little detector system. I'll take this piece and put the rest in Inventory." Connor grabbed one of the end pieces and the rest were placed inches Inventory. He held the piece out and began to walk around the basement, watching the light. But it remained red.

He searched high and low and all over the orphanage. The light remained red. Connor became frustrated and stepped outside. He sat on a bench and sighed.

"If they hid all of these pieces in the furnace, where would the last one be..." Connor pondered. He took the Holoscreen out and began searching everything up about the incident. He spent an hour before reading something interesting.

'...Ashes of burned children believed to have been buried. But claims remain uninvestigated...'

"Its worth a shot. These must have been hastily hidden when authorities officially stormed the orphanage... maybe they separated them purposefully in case they were found." Connor mused and began searching the entirety of the property. As he reached the wall and began walking along it, he started to doubt it being within the zone.

Just as he was about to give up and return back to research, the light changed from red to blinking blue. Connor excited began to look for any spot within five feet of him on either side that looked like it was disturbed within the last few years, but overgrown shrubs and rose bushes made that difficult to search for.

"Rose bushes.... Rose bushes!" Connor exclaimed and went to work. He grabbed the base of the bushes and pulled them out, roots and all, and tossed them to the side. He dug for a while, and found nothing.

"Fuck!" Connor cursed. He crawled out of the hole he had made and sat, staring at the distant building. He sighed and walked over towards the bushes, roses sold for a nice price after all. As he did, he froze. There, in the roots was a blue blinking light, faintly visible. Connor set to it and tore the piece from the grasp of the roots.

"Finally! I should go back and set this up." Connor ran back towards the building, but stopped when he noticed other people walking out. Connor dropped into the tall grass and began to slowly move in a direction away from the rose bush hole. He lightly peeked up above the grass. Three men dressed in suits were walking with a facial dressed woman.

"Who is she?" Connor muttered.

"One of you go to the basement and get the pieces from the furnace. You two, go find the rose bushes." She ordered. One of the men scampered off back towards the orphangeand the other two headed towards the already dug up rose bushes. It did not take long for them to discover that either.

"The rose bushes have already been dug up!" One of the men called back. Connor further retreated until he was fully hidden in the grass.

"What! When?" The woman shouted.

"Recently, within the last ten to twenty minutes!" Came the response.

"I did not suffer eight God forsaken years, waiting for the story to fully die, just to be thwarted today. Who ever has it will be easily found with the other pieces." The woman stated, trying to calm herself down. Connor began moving towards the orphanage, planning on skirting around the side and leaving the area quickly.

Just as he reached the edge, before the grass stopped, the man that went to the basement came running out. Connor ducked back into the grass quickly. The man ran past him and was most likely on his way to tell the woman that the pieces in the furnace were gone.

Connor took that moment to burst from the grass and booked it through the building, and into the streets, where many more men were standing around. They all stared at him, just as an order to go looking for anybody covered in dirt and soot came through their radios.