Michael and Nicole had checked around the third-year class A to see if they could find any clues linking them to the person who had burnt Rodney's face but it didn't seem like there were any clues.
Nicole checked outside to see if she could find any clues and Michael had even gone inside but there really wasn't anything to find.
"Did you find anything?" Nicole asked after Michael walked out of the classroom.
"No, you?"
"Nothing," Nicole said, waving her head. "If only there was a camera set up around here, it could have captured the scene."
"Camera," Michael said as he began to look around.
He kept looking around until he had spotted his camera on the electric pole in front of the classroom.
"What are you looking for?" Nicole asked.
"What if I told you I have a camera around here?" Michael asked with a smirk on his face.
"You put a camera around here," Nicole said.
"Yeah, you can thank me later," Michael said as he grabbed her by her arm and the two got covered by white light and vanished.
The white light appeared in Michael's lair and as soon as it was gone the two could be seen standing on the spot.
"Hi, Michael, welcome Nicole," Nika said.
"What was that?" Nicole asked, looking around.
"Relax, it's just Nika," Michael said.
"Who's Nika?" Nicole asked.
"A software I built to help make things easier for me here," Michael said.
"Ok," Nicole said. "But that doesn't explain why you brought me to your lair."
"Nika."
"Yes."
"Bring up the monitors," Michael said.
"Monitors?"
Michael had made a few modifications to his lair to be able to hide the monitors and bring them up only whenever he needed to use them.
Nicole was in awe as the numerous monitors rose from the floor in their already set up form.
"You have cameras all over the academy," Nicole said as she walked up to the monitors.
"Yep."
"You know Kelvin didn't approve of this," Nicole said.
"Yeah, but he will be thanking me soon," Michael said, walking closer to her.
Nicole scanned the monitors until she found the one which was connected to the camera outside third-year class A.
"How do you play the footage from earlier today?" Nicole asked, pointing at the monitor's screen.
"Nika, play the footage from this morning on Monitor number sixty-three," Michael said.
Just like he said the footage on the monitor began to rewind until it had gotten to the point where Michael wanted it.
"Stop." He said.
The footage playing on the monitor now was the one from way earlier this morning as it showed the third-year students entering and leaving their classroom.
"Fast forward a little Nika," Michael said.
Nika did as she was told and fast-forwarded the footage a little until Michael told him to stop.
The two kept looking at the footage after the students had left expecting to see Rodney returning to the classroom and someone jumping out from the side and blasting his face with fire but that never happened.
"Fast forward a little Nika but slower this time," Michael said.
This way he didn't need to tell her to stop as he would see what he wanted whenever she got there but still they weren't able to see what they wanted to see until Nika had gotten to the point where the two had appeared in front of the classroom.
"This doesn't make any sense," Nicole said after she had watched the footage quietly.
The camera didn't cover only in front of the classroom, it also covered the road leading to it and more of its surroundings but even after carefully looking through all those places, they couldn't find anything relating to what Rodney had told them.
"Was he lying or are we doing something wrong here?" Nicole asked.
"He clearly said he had gotten close to their classroom when the fire user attacked him," Michael said.
"Do you have cameras around the arena, like in front of the gate?" Nicole asked.
"Yeah," Michael said as he began to look for the monitor linked to the camera.
It didn't take him long to find the monitor on the top left-hand side.
"Nika please rewind the footage on Monitor number nine to earlier this morning," Michael said.
Nika did as she was told until she had reached the part where students were slowly entering the arena and Michael told her to stop.
"Now slowly fast forward," Michael said.
The footage began to slowly fast forward but not fast enough for them not to be able to keep up.
"Stop," Michael said after the footage had gotten to the point where two boys had walked out of the arena.
Michael and Nicole kept watching the footage as the two boys walked towards the woods until they had walked into the woods where his camera range didn't cover.
"Do you have cameras in there too?" Nicole asked as she wanted to know why the two boys had gone into the woods.
"I don't think so," Michael said with a wave of his head. "Continue slow mode fast forward."
The image continued to slowly skip until it had gotten to the point where another person had walked out of the arena.
"Stop."
The two watched the footage closely and Michael could tell that was the boy he had seen in the clinic but he just needed to be sure.
"Pause and zoom image Nika."
Nika did as she was told and as the image of the boy enlarged on the screen, Michael could see that he was completely right.
"That's him," Nicole said.
"Remove zoom and play."
The two watched the footage as Rodney took the same route the two boys had taken and finally disappeared into the woods where Michael's camera range couldn't reach.
"But he said he went to their classroom," Michael said.
"You should have thought of putting a camera in there," Nicole said.
"If I knew something like this was going to happen maybe I would have put one in there," Michael said. "Let's just see if he came out of there with his legs."
"Nika slowly fast forward," Nicole said.
She didn't think it would work but it did as the footage began to slowly skip again until it had gotten to the point where two other boys had walked out of the arena.
"Stop," Michael said.
After watching the boys walk and observing their features, Michael had only one thought in mind.
'Why are those two heading in the same direction as him?'
He didn't need to zoom in to know who those two were.
"Isn't that green-eyed kid one of your students, the one you went to the demon planet with, Luis Miles?" Nicole asked.
"Yeah," Michael replied.
"And the other one is his friend, Dylan Hart," Nicole said.
"Yeah, I can see they are also your students."
The two watched as Luis and Dylan walked towards the woods and had finally disappeared into it where Michael's camera couldn't capture them.
"What are they going in there to do?" Nicole asked.
Michael didn't reply as he ordered Nika to fast forward, she did as she was told and slowly fast-forwarded up to the point where the first two boys had come out of the woods but the didn't head to the arena and had walked towards the academy until they were out of the camera's view.
Michael didn't tell Nika to stop until he had gotten to the part where Luis had come out of the woods.
"I thought he went in there with Dylan?" Nicole said.
The image kept skipping as Luis headed back to the arena, Michael expected to see Dylan and Rodney come out of the woods but that didn't happen and the image kept skipping until Nicole had told Nika to stop by herself.
"So we know Luis Miles and those two boys might have a hand in what happened to him and possibly Dylan Hart suffered the same fate or made his way out of the woods through another way," Nicole said.
"What do we do now?" Michael asked.
"Your cameras just gave us the lead we needed. Now, all we have to do is head to that arena, call those three into the staff department, and ask them some questions." Nicole said.
"Ok," Michael said with a nod.
"Do you have water here, I'm thirsty?" Nicole asked, looking around.
"Yeah, there's water downstairs, just tell Nika to bring up the freezer once you're there," Michael said.
"Okay," Nicole said, walking towards the elevator.
Michael watched her until she had gone down the elevator before he turned back to the monitor.
"Nika please continue fast-forwarding slowly."
The footage continued skipping once again until it had gotten to the point where Luis and Ella had met Nova at the gate.
"Stop."
He watched Luis and Nova talk for a few seconds before Nova walked inside.
He expected Luis and Ella to head towards the woods but they didn't and he was a little relieved that they didn't and just walked into the academy.
He watched them until they were out of the camera's view and just when he was about to turn away he saw Nova walk out of the arena again.
He continued watching the image until Nova had transformed into a tiny white light and zoomed off.
"Nika Rewind please." He said abruptly.
The footage was rewound up til the point when she had turned to the white light and that was when Michael ordered Nika to pause the footage.
He zoomed in on the footage to get a clearer but with the camera's view, all he could still see was a white tiny light.
"What the…..?"
****
Mass release goals...
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