Tuesday 4 September 2012

Crescent, Chapters 9, 10 and 11.

Chapter 9 - Captain Shade...


       The lights in the room faded as a projection screen unwound from the ceiling, lowering into place behind Beam.
       "So, after the business in London, Domito and McGregor have come to the conclusion that Shade has an Aquanan, someone who controls water." A picture of the Thames river appeared on the screen, except all the water was gone. "This picture was taken two months and three days ago. We believe the next target is Sudbinam and then off around the world. We've pulled you all out of missions all over the world, Void in America, Probe in France, Chameleon in Scotland and we've even had to halt training to some extent while also picking up some new hands. Our fellows around the world are getting worried, water was no where to be found in London for five weeks and if any passed through to the city in instantly vanished, no explanation so the government pointed the finger at us. Over three million died, and while London had a population of eight million and it was utterly decimated by a misused power. Now, compared to other cities like New York, Paris, Berlin and Sydney, London is tiny. If Shade does have an Aquanan, he can cut off whole harbours and even whole sections of countries, in dry places this is going to get very bad. This is going to go beyond bad and wave goodbye to catastrophic." The image changed and now they were looking at a thermal projection of a storm.
       "This is tropical storm Rachel and is fast approaching the east coast of America whilst nearing hurricane speed. If Shade does have someone who can control water we're betting this is his next target and if he gets to this, we're stuffed basically. We think it's someone young who doesn't really know what they're doing so Shade has been able to warp their mind. This just adds to the- Yes Falcon?"
       Philip had raised his hand slowly. "I know I'm gonna sound like an idiot, but do we know what this guy looks like? I mean, it would be pretty stupid to be chasing someone if we didn't know what to look for."
       Beam clicked the small remote and the image changed again, now it was a blurred picture of a man.
       His chin was rather large and slightly pointed with a white scar running from his right to left diagonally down on it, his nose was fairly upturned but quite flat, his cheekbones were high and like protruding slashes, this added to the effect that his sunken, gleaming, light grey eyes were in hollowed caves. His lips were thin but he seemed to be sneering in the picture while his hair was fairly short and gelled into place on his head.
       "This, is Captain Shade. He can control shadows and has been number one on HATE's Most Wanted list for ten years. It started out with petty crimes and then grew, he even kidnapped a member of the Royal Family but it was smoothed over. He's built up a following now of Exceptions and of normal people but this latest crime spree, it's his kind of thing." Beam said. "We also have a list of his top people in his following he calls the Chaos Army." he continued and a picture of a man Philip recognised glared out from the screen. "Quake, physically very strong but, er, challenged a bit mentally." he grinned and a slight chuckle rose from the people in the room. The picture changed again and now two women looked out. Both were fairly young but one seemed a few years older. They both had round faces with small, sharp noses. The younger one had a rather small, thin mouth and black hair while the elder one had a full mouth and dark auburn hair but they both had the same dark, shimmering blue eyes.
       "Echo," Beam gestured to the younger one "And Phantasma, the most powerful Soundsans in a century. They've been with Shade ever since he started to gather forces." Another picture now, a woman with dark pink hair and light blue eyes. The picture showed her kind face smiling and a few freckles were sprinkled on her cheeks."
       "Jinx, a dangerous telekinetic, possible psychic powers but we're not sure yet as she's a new recruit. She was a normal college student until this time last year when she suddenly showed up with Shade." The picture changed again, a man this time. His blonde hair was long and tied back in a simple pony-tail. His face was good natured and tanned, his eyes were dark and inky while the main structure of his face and his eyes suggested one of his parents were oriental in origin.
       "Another newbie, this is Shift and he an change the molecular structure of anything with a touch. Don't let him touch you, last time he changed a living thing... Bad things happened." Everyone grimaced while Philip looked at Probe, an eyebrow arched.
       "Beam's hand was a potato for three days until another shifter from New Zealand arrived and changed it back, it's a rare ability." his voice said. "It wasn't pretty when he tried to move it. Lots of blood."
       Philip grimaced too as Beam started talking again. Another picture. A woman with violet eyes and bleached-blonde hair, her face was angular and smooth while her eyes were big and her lips full. "Chase, don't be fooled by her appearance, her super speed makes her dangerous and her fighting skills just add to it. She's faithful to Shade after he some how convinced her we were plotting against her. She was our best fighter, but power made her paranoid. We lost a good person that day." Beam said, his eyes turning sad.
       "The last one we've got a name and full-ish details on is Shade's right-hand-man, Flee." The image of a young man showed. His eyes were a light grey, his black hair short and spiked and his jaw was the same as Shade's. "Like father, like son." Beam sighed. "We got a DNA sample of Flee last time we met and he's a half match to Shade. We believe powers are passed on through DNA so his mother was either a teleporter or he had teleporter blood. He's been trained all his life to hate us and he knows his power well." Beam clapped his hands once. "So that means you have to know yours too, go train. You all know your rooms and the scientists you need to track down if they're not already there." He pointed to Shimmer. "Be nice, Professor Graham hasn't been well and he's even more edgy than usual."
       Shimmer smiled. "I'm always nice, it's not my fault if he gets in the way."
       Beam narrowed his eyes while a small smile tugged at his lips. "Go on, all of you."


Chapter 10 - Part Of The Computer...


       They filed out of the room and Philip was stumped. The others went either left or right down the corridor without looking back. Pixel was six metres away when she looked back at him.
       "Nobody told you were to go, did they?" she asked, smirking slightly.
       He shook his head. "No."
       She sighed and muttered. "Someone should have told you." She placed her hands so they made a rectangle in front of her and then stretched them out. As she did, the air shimmered and turned blue then Philip was looking at Pixel trough a shimmering blue screen and two back-to-front lists. Pixel scrolled through the lists and tapped rimmed buttons on the side and after a few minutes she announced "You're with Tasha, try to keep your eyes in your head, and in Block D, corridor four, room nine E."
       He gave her a blank look as her arms fell to her sides and the screen faded.
       "Oh, right - take the corridor behind you and keep going past three crosses in the corridors, then on the fourth, take the corridor on your left, keep walking until you reach a fork and go left. Keep going until another cross and go right, then it's the third door on the left." she said.
       "What are all the rooms for?" he asked.
       She shrugged. "Just research and stuff. Most are labs with samples in that you can't enter most of the time because of tests, others are offices and training space. Then all of blocks D though E are specialised ENM rooms." she said.
       Philip blinked. "And you have all this buzzing round in your head?" he asked.
       She grinned and nodded. For this place and everywhere else ever recorded. I link to internet connections automatically and I'm constantly updating and downloading like a computer, so everything on the internet, or a computer connected to the internet, is in my head. If it's password encrypted, it only takes me a few minutes to run it through a code breaker of my choice. Nothing stays hidden from me. I can even see the streams of energy coming from everything so I can tap in, even into the mind, with limited control, because of electrical impulses. I know everything, I can even wipe people from existence on the internet or create fake lives." her grin was smug but her eyes were almost sad. Philip understood now, on a computer, she was a god, but in the physical world she had very little to protect her self.
       "I'd hate to play you in a game of trivia." he said, trying to keep the conversation light.
       She laughed. "Yeah, everyone says that, now I really have to go, I'll see you later."
       Philip tried to follow her directions but he still ended up getting lost twice and having to ask people when he saw them.
       He made it though, finally.
       He knocked and a laugh came from the other side - it was happy and light. The door opened and a woman looked out. Her face was tanned, her lips full and her blue eyes bright while her dark hair was in ringlets that bounced around her face. She was dressed simply in jeans and a T-shirt with a lab coat on top. Philip gaped slightly.
       "You don't need to knock, silly, come in." she smiled and opened the door wide. Inside was a fairly large room which was panelled in shining, white metal. There was, what looked like, a blue dentists chair with its back to him in the centre on the room with wires leading from it to the wall it was facing which had three monitoring screens, switches and a row of buttons.
       "Okay, just take a seat while I start up the ENM." she said, gesturing to the chair.
       "Um, what does ENM stand for?" he asked.
       "ENM stands for Exceptions Nerve Monitor. It just monitors your brain activity which is then sent to the Hub which devises a training sequence and simulation for you." she said, pushing a button and flicking a few switches. "Just lean back it it can start."
       Philip put his head on the headrest and three clasps gripped his head.
       "Don't worry," she said kindly. "They're just to monitor brain activity, heart beat and nerve connections. We've recently devised the theory that the energy passed through the nerves is what creates powers, the most common power is psychic which only has slightly more energy than a normal persons while an Aquanan's is very high." she explained.
       "So, where about would someone's be if they could fly?" Philip asked as beeps and wurrs started to emanate from the machine-wall in front of him.
       "An Arielsaf's would be just under an Aquanan's. It's a very rare ability and we scientists gossip, so I hear you have it." she said, turning to face him.
       "Yeah, Quake tried to kidnap me and that's how I found out."
       "Sounds like his thing. Wait, yesterday? They've got your suit fast, and it is fetching." she grinned as he blushed slightly. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Tasha Layneson." she extended her hand and he shook it, stretching as to not move his head.
       "Falcon." he said.
       "You passed the fist test, you've got to accept that name as yours. Morph failed and said his proper name. He was a bit of an idiot."
       "Was?"
       Tasha laughed again. "Good point."
       Suddenly the wall beeped. "Okay, the Hub's got your signal and the ENM has you saved to it's database." she flicked a switch, turned a dial clockwise and the clamps released. "You can get down now."
       Philip got out and rubbed his head, it felt saw. Tasha hit a green button and part of the wall on his right slid away.
       "Welcome to the Hub."


Chapter 11 - The Hub...


       Tasha lead Philip into a small alcove where the wall had been. She stood still and waited.
       Philip was just about to ask what they were waiting for when the wall dropped back into place and the small room fell with the speed of a bullet. Ten seconds later it came to a stop and Philip stumbled while Tasha gave him a sympathetic look as she remained standing.
       "You get used to it." she said. The wall lifted again and Philip felt his jaw drop. Another metal room lay beyond the opening in the wall but this one was as big as a football stadium and as high as a cathedral. 
       The others were there practising their own abilities. Closest was Kyle and he was throwing streams of fire from his hands and sheets of metal that rose from the floor before falling back again. Philip watched as a sheet of metal rose beneath Kyle and he backflipped to get away before kicking it and burning a whole where his foot had touched. He wore a metal band around his head with a yellow light on the front, now that Philip looked, they were all wearing them. A man in a white lab coat stood with what seemed to be an iPad watching Kyle. A beeping sound came from it and he smiled.
       "Well done, next sequence then." he said and tapped the pad. 
       Tasha was walking again now so Philip did too, nodding to Kyle as he passed who smiled back, mid jump over a piece of metal as a floating sphere zoomed towards him. 
       Next they passed Morph who was shifting into a large dog and attacking a man with one of the police arm wraps used in the K9 division to teach them to attack.
       Then came Shimmer who was enveloping a flashing red sphere in a pulsing, white bubble. The sphere exploded but no sound escaped the bubble. "Good." the scientist grunted. "Go again." and five more spheres floated up from the ground.
       The next section was odd at first. Sheets of metal rose from the ground and a thudding sound came from them and then a dent appeared but no one was hitting it. Then the scientist clapped and tapped his pad and the sheets disappeared as Chameleon faded into view. "Almost there, you'll get it this time." the female scientist said and Chameleon faded again as they passed.
       They passed onto dirt next and Jess shot past supported by a branch from a fast growing tree. She jumped as the tree crashed into the wall. Tasha bent under the branch and carried on so Philip followed.
       On the other side was Focus talking calmly to a man in a chair  "... I'm your friend, of course you can tell me, it'll be our secret..." while an old scientist in a blue lab coat watched.
       "That's Jeff, he has to be special." Tasha whispered.
       Then came Pixel shooting green energy at targets that rose from the floor faster than Philip could say target. An especially vicious shot made the target burst into green flames. The female scientist looked at Pixel over her iPad. "Take a breather." Pixel grinned almost sheepishly.
       Tasha stopped and went to the wall.
       "Where are the others?" Philip asked.
       "Hm? Oh, they've finished their training so they'll be helping look for the Captain or figure out the identity of the Aquanan." she said, opening a small, square panel in the wall. Inside was an iPad, a large, black button and three switches.
       "Time to train." she said and her finger was three centimetres away from the button when a blaring alarm sounded.




You lucky lucky people, three chapters in one post... Don't expect so much any more, I'm back at school now...
I promise there'll be some fighting in the nxt chapter, if not that one, the one after.

Lynxia x

4 comments:

  1. Better than awesome!!! Amazosometastic!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not awazosometastic, awazosometastical!!!!

    *slowly says word over a few times trying to pronouce it, then tries to think it in my mind without looking at it*

    *fails*

    I've changed my mind. Can we stick with totally awesome?

    And - yay, fighting!

    ReplyDelete